Yeah, another manga post. You're ratherstuck with them unti I get distracted.
Buso Renkin vol 1: Well, It's no "Rurouni Kenshin"(nor is it the Yahiko book I now so desperately crave) but it'll do. If you tossed Bleach and Kenshin and Fullmetal Alchemist into a blender, you'd probably end up with this. It follows Bleach's theme of an overly serious, superpowered female warrior giving powers to a normal boy for his protection, then training him to fight monsters, but uses Alchemy instead of spiritual powers. Watsuki pretty much describes Kazuki as Misao if she were a modern teenaged boy(as opposed to a 19th century teenaged girl) and it's pretty accurate and works surprisingly well(fortunately, Tokiko is NOT Aoshi if he were a modern teenaged girl..I adore Aoshi, but...yeah...she's more a young Kenshin if he were a modern teenaged girl) But...ahm....they aren't ripoffs, but based on out of creator fondness. Anyway, I'm not immediately engrossed like I was with Kenshin(or ES, see below) but I quite liked.
ES: Eternal Sabbath vol 1: I got this one primarily because it's by Fuyumi Soryo, creator of "Mars." However, if I'd noticed it anyway, I probably would have checked it out anyway, out of curiosity. First of all, Soryo's art has come a long, long ways since Mars...I didn't dislike it, but it was kinda like the art in "Basara" where it was more "there" than an incentive to read it or something to have to get past to enjoy(read: not bad but nothing special) While the art is still a tad more effeminate than it should be for this story, it's quite good. It's basically about a boy, Ryousuke, who was cooked up in a lap(actually, I shouldn't say "boy" as he's at least 20 or 21) who escaped(naturally) and has the ability to hack into people's brains, as he describes it. I thought this was Soryo trying to be clever about telepathy at first, but that really is a good description...he can't read minds, but he can break in and override things(such as requiring him to pay for clothes and a hotel room) or rewire things(such as making people think he's someone he isn't) He can also place some pretty nasty "viruses" in there in the form of extremely realistic hypnotic illusions. He, incidentally, is one of the two protagonists. He's not malicious, just detached, though he does get curious. The other protagonist is Mine, a scientist(young enough to be Roysuke's eventual love interest, naturally...probably 23-25) who is one of the few people who's brains Ryousuke can't hack in to, just plant a few surface illusions in. Naturally,they're quite curious about each other and don't ge on well(actually, he gets on with her well enough, but he completely rubs her the wrong way, at least half deliberately) Mine, incidentally, talks like I do, just about different things. She goes to an Omiai and a comment gets her going on about brain psychology to lion infanticide to carp procreation and they actually all lead into each other, leading to blank, uncomprehending stares. I get the same look when I do the same thing, only about language, books, history and mythology. Anyway, I quite liked thisone, and am definately in for the long haul, barring extreme future suckage and clear evidence that Soryo doesn't know where she's going with the plot.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Land of Sand: Manga based novel, as opposed to manga, but hey...This was a rather fun side story involving Ed and Al arriving in a town where there are two guys claiming to be the Elric brothers doing good works. Ed...does not react well(Ed is Ed) I rather like Russell and Fletcher and wouldn't mind seeing them in the regular series. Fletcher is basically Al with a regular body, and they do much bonding over their big brothers unreasonableness and hangups. Russell is basically Ed, only taller and with the "I'm hald cyborg and a I stuffed my kid brother's soul in a great big hinking suit of armor after his body was destroyed and I'm so short that not only is my brother twice my height, but my almost-girlfriend is a head taller than me, too. Oh, and I have mother dead/father abandonment issues, too." The story itself was good...about what you'd expect from a well done non-canon sidetrip that can fit back into the main story. There's also a 40~ page bonus story featuring Roy's underlings(this, naturally, does not include Riza, who is no one's underling, not even Roy's) being scared of a theoretical ghost on base ad roping him into investigating it with them. This story proves who REALLY rules that unit, and it's not Roy. One day...one day Riza, Roy will recognize the extreme awesomeness that is you.
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