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I think it might really be a good idea to make this a general Kengo Hanazawa thread, though keep it focused mainly on I Am A Hero as that one has by far the most wide-ranging appeal. Because I'm twenty chapters into Boys on the Run and holy poo poo. He does "pathetic manchild" so ridiculously well, and Shiho puts it best with "GA HA HA HA HA HA HA! HOLY poo poo, THIS GUY!" After I finish BotR I'll whip up some summaries for it and Ressentiment. So he's done those three series plus two one-shot collections, right? So he basically hit it out of the park with all three major series he's made. Which is pretty loving incredible. Ressentiment may have some flaws with pacing near the end and the sheer grotesqueness of how everybody looked in the real world in it(I'm cool with absurd exaggerations, but this was basically an entire series of MAD Magazine caricatures, which gets exhausting), but otherwise it was a pretty unnerving-but-hilarious take on the future of entertainment. Boys on the Run so far seems like a great romantic comedy, but I read a summary saying it becomes a boxing series or something, weird. Oh well, I've enjoyed two of his series, so I'm sure I'll enjoy the other 67 chapters of this one as well!
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Sep 4, 2013 09:49
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Thanks for the info on the rock-paper-scissors thing. Boys on the Run is magnificent, I love it just as much as I love I am a Hero. I like this guy's characters more than most other series'; the average-to-loser range yields the best if done right. As far as the summary of it goes, the "boxing series" thing is misleading, it kinda gives you the image of a "Hajime no Ippo" deal, but it's nothing like that. The boxing element is more of a way of setting up characters to meet and becomes a background element; it's not an action-packed storyline revolving around boxing itself. Boys on the Run will crush you when you least expect it.
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Sep 4, 2013 16:03
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How far has Boys on the Run been scanned? I read it a few years ago and caught up to the translations pretty quickly, is it finished yet?
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Sep 4, 2013 18:25
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It's translated up to volume 8, two volumes to go.
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Sep 4, 2013 18:52
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Translation stopped for a couple months but daniel.au is back at it again! Breaks in translation are harsh when the series has been steady for a while, man. Like when the last volume of Ciguatera was put off for a year even though the dudes had it all ready to go, just not uploaded...
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Sep 4, 2013 19:37
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Boys on the Run has (chapter 75-80) easily the best heroic intervention I've ever seen. Oh my god. Jumping off the roof of a three story building in nothing but his undies and his jacket tied around his neck, landing on top of the van where his girlfriend's about to be raped by four gang members, and then losing control of his bowels when he lands and smashes in the roof so that the sunroof, which caves in and covers his girlfriend, deflects the poo poo spray all over the gangsters, and then his girlfriend breaks free as they panic and vomit because they've got poo poo in their eyes and mouths, and the pair team up to beat the gently caress out of them. Oh my god. Seriously one of the greatest climactic moments I've read in a manga in a long, long time. Holy poo poo. edit: Boys on the Run chapters 80-87: I can tooootally see where Aoyama is coming from when he says Chiharu can be crazy(though he is still a 100% grade-A world-class scumbag who it's really hard to feel sorry for). She's totally twisting the story to make herself look good while throwing Tanishi under the bus, and glossing over stuff he did for her. Granted, he's not blameless either and did a lot of weird or hosed up stuff, but like, saying that him going to her apartment when she was sick was him being creepy and not him being misled by Shiho was gross. I'm glad she's not some perfect angel either, everyone's got some dirty business, ugly part to them, or have made terribly foolish decisions in this. Boys on the Run so far is really good. 87 chapters done so far, and it's a 10-volume completed series, and the guy who's done most of the translations(and a seriously top-notch job at that, even doing the sound effects in-frame at a near-professional level) has said, just two days ago on twitter, that he's finished translating a chapter of it. A couple weeks ago said he was definitely going to finish the full series. So if you've enjoyed BOTR, show the man your support! 
Captain Invictus fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Sep 5, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 04:59
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This is sort of like a Japanese version of The Walking Dead in a few ways, I'm really enjoying it. Something I'm wondering is, why did Hideo's schizophrenic episodes just seem to stop after the zombies appeared? Like I know he had that one panic attack in the forest, but it seems like it was very deliberately written to show that his schizophrenia disappears when the zombies come.
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Sep 5, 2013 07:13
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miscellaneous14 posted:This is sort of like a Japanese version of The Walking Dead in a few ways, I'm really enjoying it. Third Volume: During his episode in the forest, doesn't he say something along the lines of "What im experiencing now is a hell of a lot scarier than you", speaking to his delusions?
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Sep 5, 2013 08:00
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Captain Invictus posted:Boys on the Run has (chapter 75-80) easily the best heroic intervention I've ever seen. Oh my god. Jumping off the roof of a three story building in nothing but his undies and his jacket tied around his neck, landing on top of the van where his girlfriend's about to be raped by four gang members, and then losing control of his bowels when he lands and smashes in the roof so that the sunroof, which caves in and covers his girlfriend, deflects the poo poo spray all over the gangsters, and then his girlfriend breaks free as they panic and vomit because they've got poo poo in their eyes and mouths, and the pair team up to beat the gently caress out of them. Yes. That was absolutely glorious. It was one of those moments where, if it were Great Teacher Onizuka, that awesome symphonic music would kick in. And even then Tanishi still gets hosed up in the process, he doesn't suddenly become invincible. Everything about that scene was perfect. I also loved Tanishi and Chiharu's beer garden date, something about it was just so...endearing? I dunno.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:25
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Boys on the Run might be the most emotionally scalding manga I've read. It's not like it's super sad or depressing, it just makes me want to scream with almost every other chapter. It's great.
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Sep 5, 2013 21:03
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Meme Emulator posted:Third Volume: During his episode in the forest, doesn't he say something along the lines of "What im experiencing now is a hell of a lot scarier than you", speaking to his delusions? Yeah he's still experiencing those, but I mean with his imaginary friend suddenly disappearing when the zombie attacks started. I can't remember if there was an established reason for that.
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Sep 5, 2013 21:46
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Hideo seems to only have hallucinations when he is alone, and he hasn't been alone since he met Hiromi in the woods. He did have a vivid nightmare while on top of the roof, but he hasn't seen visions in the real world for a while now.
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Sep 5, 2013 21:51
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Spoilers from Volume 12: So everyone that gets like grazed but not bitten really so far becomes a zombie/human hybrid that sees the world in a warped way but what about Takeshi? I'm really confused what sets those that are bitten apart from the ones that still can semi-function.
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Sep 6, 2013 16:50
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Diabetic posted:Spoilers from Volume 12: I thought they implied that they have some sort of innate immunity to it? I remember Yabu (is that the girl's name that Hideo's with now?) mentioned something about how Hiromi might be the savior of humanity or something.
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Sep 6, 2013 17:02
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Ytlaya posted:I thought they implied that they have some sort of innate immunity to it? I remember Yabu (is that the girl's name that Hideo's with now?) mentioned something about how Hiromi might be the savior of humanity or something. True, but it's also shown that those people then proceed to have a VERY different view of the world.
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Sep 6, 2013 17:03
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Diabetic posted:True, but it's also shown that those people then proceed to have a VERY different view of the world. I don't think Hiromi had that weird of an outlook on the world. She seemed like a normal high schooler. She had a boyfriend, had friends, got bullied, and liked music. If she has a weird outlook or something I must have missed it.
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Sep 6, 2013 17:22
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coreycoryecorey posted:I don't think Hiromi had that weird of an outlook on the world. She seemed like a normal high schooler. She had a boyfriend, had friends, got bullied, and liked music. If she has a weird outlook or something I must have missed it. As a Kurusu she sees people as weird stuffed animals, and also seems to think she is inside her house sometimes. Sorry for all the spoiler tags, but don't wanna ruin any bodies fun.
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Sep 6, 2013 17:24
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Diabetic posted:As a Kurusu she sees people as weird stuffed animals, and also seems to think she is inside her house sometimes. I am pretty sure the only reason she was seeing that stuff was because the infection was eating away at her brain. We never got a view of the world through her eyes before she turned, so maybe she did think she was in some crazy fantasy world, but I don't think so.
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Sep 6, 2013 17:30
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coreycoryecorey posted:I am pretty sure the only reason she was seeing that stuff was because the infection was eating away at her brain. We never got a view of the world through her eyes before she turned, so maybe she did think she was in some crazy fantasy world, but I don't think so. Oh dear God didn't think about that. 
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Sep 6, 2013 17:38
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Just finished what's available online, and it's been great. I look forward to the return to Hideo's arc, which I find more interesting than the High School Adventure arc. At least with Takeshi's character we learn a little more about what it means to be "kurusu." Like it's been said earlier, it looks like a partial immunity to the cause of zombieitis, allowing slightly more coherent thought though it all seems to lead to more violent behavior. What's with the hair growth though?
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Sep 8, 2013 03:24
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Alright, since the OP says to drop everything and read the first volume before anything else, I'll go ahead and do that. Let's see how it is... ---  Yeah, do what Invictus said. If you haven't read the manga yet drop what you are doing. Click the link. And don't stop reading until you finish the first volume. Don't you dare mouse over my spoiler before then. Spoilers for the end of Volume 1: Totally called the fuckin' zombie apocalypse. 
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Sep 8, 2013 04:31
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Chapter 11: Jesus Christ. God drat it, holy poo poo. Jesus, gently caress. That is creepy and scary. Chapter 12: And the next chapter is worse.. That is so sad and awful, even though all these characters are stupid and lovely people. The art is really good. The people are really ugly (realistically). Edit: This is way better than I thought it would be. I can't stop reading. The_Frag_Man fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Sep 8, 2013 |
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Sep 8, 2013 09:22
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Volume 11: Iii-ronyyyy~ Volume 12: What's the deal with zombies being able to hold coherent conversations all of a sudden? Outside of Kurusu, I mean. Like those two ladies in the bathroom. Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Sep 8, 2013 |
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Sep 8, 2013 15:37
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Pollyanna posted:Volume 12:
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Sep 8, 2013 21:02
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All these spoiler tags are making it awkward to hold a discussion about the whole thing, however I understand the need for them. This whole thing reminds me of Stephen King's novel Cell, which had the "zombies" slowly evolve from mindless, animalistic monsters to psychic terrors. Not entirely the same thing, I understand, but the parallel is there. I'm looking forward to learning more, but I'm curious as to the whole "kurusu" arc; the children/young adults behind it, are they going to be just another cult?
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Sep 8, 2013 22:27
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Just finished volume 12 and some of the raws that were translated into chinese and I am disappointed we are not going directly back Hideo and crew.
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Sep 9, 2013 11:26
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Anyone interested in a translation from (barely broken) french into english where applicable (ch 144)?
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Sep 9, 2013 19:18
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sunburnedcrow posted:Just finished volume 12 and some of the raws that were translated into chinese and I am disappointed we are not going directly back Hideo and crew. It should only be for about the first quarter of vol 13. It was because the author got invited to France to talk about his work at some conference/convention thing and took the opportunity to gather reference materials while there. The release pacing of the series (I think it's like 1 chpt ever 2 week is pretty breakneck so the occasionally there's gonna be some filler or a couple of drops in quality (reusing parts of certain panels.) The story has been back to Hideo, Oda, & Hiromi for a couple of months now and their trip to Hakone to find some ammo and hot springs. Nothing big has happened yet, but I expect something surprises there so he can end Vol 13 on a cliffhanger. Also the whole thing about the term zombfag: Yeah, the term comes from a portmanteau of zombie and a way of writing out the term "dokyun," which happens to be DQN. If you google the term dokyun, you'll get some ideas about its meaning. There's a whole wiki entry in Japanese about its origin and uses. It's like stupid or dumb, and often gets associated with dumbass crass behavior, but these days it's more common internet slang than channer type specific language. The TL at the time picked zombfag as an approximation to capture a channer type word that wouldn't sound completely ridiculous when combined with zombie, but the fact that the English portmanteau is one with a strong word that has other questionable and different nuances always bugs me a little. It was not foreseen at that point in time that it would be so commonly used in the world of the story. It was the same with the initial naming of Kurusu. For the sake of consistency and the fact that it's really hard to come up with a term that would flow just as well when read, the word hasn't/probably won't be changed. *Shrug*
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Sep 10, 2013 01:14
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Volume 7: Why'd they have to shoot hiromi in the brain? With the crossbow arrow I mean. edit: can someone explain What was happening with the manga editor side story? I didn't even understand a bit of what was going on there. The_Frag_Man fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 12:15
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The_Frag_Man posted:Volume 7: Why'd they have to shoot hiromi in the brain? With the crossbow arrow I mean. That sidestory basically goes like this: The editor who rejected Hideo's manuscript was going on a vacation to Taiwan that week. He took a co-worker with him, who he was having an affair with. They go out and about in town, and his coworker girl gets bit. The next day, they go sightseeing in the next town over. A super creepy guy who drives like a psychopath takes them there, and they vow to never drive with him again. However, at dinner, the girl turns into a zed, and attacks him. He barely escapes, and we assume he made it out uninfected. He pays the psycho driver 10 times his normal price to get him back to his hotel. The Editor starts keeping vigorous notes about everything that's been happening, but it is revealed his girlfriend had bit him during sex before she turned, and he becomes a zed too. The main point of this sidestory is to show 1) The zombie problem is global, 2) You can transmit the infection before you turn, and 3) Comeuppance for that editor being a prick in every aspect of his life. It is also a bit of a prequel to how zombies carry on their daily tasks as they always did, because he was still journaling for a while after he zombified. But that's something we already know from about 10 different other places in the manga.
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Sep 11, 2013 14:16
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gnome7 posted:That sidestory basically goes like this: Japan, or as they show in 28 Days Later, England would be the best spot for a zombie epidemic to break out. They are both island nations that could be easily blockaded in the event of a horrible zombie plague. Showing that the infestation is occurring on the mainland is a pretty important detail, it really drives home that Everything is hosed. 28 Days Later suggested that the virus never left the shores of Great Britian but I think the sequels said "gently caress that, we gotta go deeper!" and made it world wide. I never saw 28 weeks later, though, so I cant say anything about it. The end of the original movie, with all the zombies starving after a month seemed to suggest a happy ending. Meme Emulator fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 20:12
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Captain Invictus posted:Speaking of which! One of my absolute favorite parts of this series is that a lot of people who aren't infected are shut-ins. Especially if "zombfag" is an accurate translation, it makes perfect sense that the people using that term are loving Channers. OF COURSE they wouldn't get infected, because they never go outside, and OF COURSE they would follow the cult of Kurusu because "this is their chance to make an impact!" Probably one of my favorite aspects of it, really. A couple of stray observations after reading the whole thing: 1. I love that zqn is never explicitly defined because, google it dumbass :3 2. By far the most devastating moment of the series was immediately after setting Hiromi up as a main character, they infect her and then cut to her being used as a human weapon. And then she doesn't want to fight 
snucks fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 20:50
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Meme Emulator posted:28 Days Later suggested that the virus never left the shores of Great Britian but I think the sequels said "gently caress that, we gotta go deeper!" and made it world wide. I never saw 28 weeks later, though, so I cant say anything about it. The end of the original movie, with all the zombies starving after a month seemed to suggest a happy ending.
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Sep 11, 2013 21:02
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Just started reading this. First volume was ok. It was kinda boring, but it had decent character development and good build up. Then I read volume 2.Then loving zombies happened. As someone from the US I'm kinda burnt out on zombies, but this still manages to make it pretty interesting. The story in this case isn't the usual "How will they survive?", it's "When will Hideo figure out he's trapped in the zombie appocalypse?"
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Sep 16, 2013 04:15
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First volume is specifically one huge fakeout. While it does have a bunch of hints pointing to the zombie thing such as the bite reports, tons of people wearing masks like it's SARS 2.0, and the woman who was hit by the taxi(which could also be written off as another delusion), it mostly portrays things as a slice of life with a schizophrenic as the main character up until around the point that Tetsuko gets the bite marks. Then it rapidly starts going downhill, tub-girl( ), manager bleeding a ton and smiling about it, ending with Tetsuko going full blown Sadako and showing she's not just a hallucination by smashing open the door.I'd go so far as to say the first volume of IAAH is my favorite first volume of any manga. Not only is it pretty funny and mysterious on its own, but it goes in interesting directions before throwing all of it right out the window.
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Sep 16, 2013 04:25
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I remember I Am a Hero being recommended in one of the various Oyasumi Punpun threads as "a manga about having emotions in the modern world." So when the stealth zombie apocalypse happens it was enough to get me even more hooked. Fun fact: Tekko's ex-boyfriend, the ace mangaka Nakata, is Oyasumi Punpun's author.
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Sep 16, 2013 13:10
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0 rows returned posted:Fun fact: Tekko's ex-boyfriend, the ace mangaka Nakata, is Oyasumi Punpun's author. It seems like they are good friends, since after Inio Asano revealed he is transgender Kengo Hanazawa twitted that he would do him after the sex reassignment surgery. Which Asano replied to, "That made me hard". Also, I just noticed Kengo looks a lot like the main character, down to the glasses. Maybe it's sort of a self insert there.  
nerdz fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 14:36
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"Carlsen Manga"? Hahaha, is this translated in Germany? I'm pretty sure Carlsen is a German publisher. edit: It is. And the age restriction is 16 years. 
HenryEx fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 19:59
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Vol 4 I was kinda iffy about the protagonist at first, but I love how unique of a character he is for a zombie apocalypse story. It's starting to feel more and more like The Waking Dead: Japan Edition, but with some interesting differences. e: And I really hope Hiromi's here to stay. As a human, I mean. ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 21:45
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nerdz posted:It seems like they are good friends, since after Inio Asano revealed he is transgender Kengo Hanazawa twitted that he would do him after the sex reassignment surgery. Which Asano replied to, "That made me hard". Are there any pictures of Hanazawa/Hideo in the same pose? You could totally made a .gif that fades between the two and caption it "I am a hero." for like the sweetest avatar on these here forums.
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Sep 16, 2013 22:24
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