the used book rack, it was seductive...and manga...

[meganbmoore]

As I am ALL ALONE at work again today, and thus working the closing shift, I had free time between lunch with the parents and coming to work and ended up going to Hastings, where the used books rack seduced me into buying the following:

Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear*
Ombria in Shadows by Patricia McKillip
Melusine by Sarah Monette*
Seimaden Vol 1 by Higuri You**

*I swear these have been recced to me, but I can't remember who by.

**This involves a man who became a demon to save his true love, only to have her die anyway, and has been sitting around waiting for her to be reborn ever since, and has to win her back now that she has been.  Not quite my usual fare, but then, neither is Cantarella.

Meanwhile, has anyone read/does anyone read the following(all of which caught my eye while I was looking for a couple manga that weren't there):

Air Gear(it sounds fun, but A) same person as Tenjho Tenge, and just glancing through the first volume of that set off the wrong alarms, B) the rivals clubs/gangs thing has gotten rather old, to me)

GinTama (aliens invade Earth and put the samurai out of work, so they take up odd jobs?  Could be amazingly awesome, or amazingly wrong...)

Kurogane(half metal samurai boy out for revenge with a talking sword.  See above.)

Also, no one wants to explain Tsubasa Vol 16 to me?

Upside to being alone?  Aside from the fact that I'm getting used to it, I don't have to worry about anyone looking at my Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service manga and giving me weird looks.)

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I know I've mentioned both Bear and Monette to you, but not for either of those books. (Monette was for Peter Wimsey lit-crit posts, Bear for steampunk fic, Bear and Monette working together for that wacky telepathic dire wolves with gay Vikings magical-animal-companion-deconstruction).

Gintama

[calledinvain.livejournal.com]

sounds exactly like something I would like (and reminds me of Cowboy Bebop for some odd reason) but I haven't yet tried it.

I actually have read air gear - and well....boy gets into territory fight with roller skating thugs, goes back to the house he shares with three attractive sisters, they all happen to be sekrit ninja roller skaters, he gets a pair of tricked out roller skates...wackiness ensues.

I keep on waiting for something to happen - because I'm an art geek, and I do like the artwork, but storywise, it's not terribly compelling (I only base this on the first three volumes I own), and ultimately, story is more important.

D'oh, forgot to add

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I've read a few chapters of GinTama -- it seemed fairly cute, but wasn't really a big enough taste for me to make a definite judgement as to awesomeness level.

[sanada.livejournal.com]

I love Gintama - a lot of the humor (puns, homages to other manga, historical references and Japanese pop culture jokes) doesn't translate well, but the one volume I've seen of the English adaptation was pretty good. But then again, it's being released by VIZ... and VIZ translations tend to suck. (When Tokyopop translators come across a passage they don't immediately understand, they usually make something up that may or may not capture the original intent of the text. When Viz translators come across a sticky line, they either don't bother to translate it at all and just leave it in romanised Japanese, or they do a totally literal translation without bothering to explain what it's supposed to mean.) But it's a cracky series, and if not for translation fears I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Hmm, I was a translator for Air Gear scanlations for a while. I like it for the gorgeous art (awesome poses, stylish panel layouts and funky street fashion) and the capable execution of the standard shounen formula. After a while you can just tune the boobs out because the author provides plenty of fanservice in the form of hot guys too... Despite the relentless barrage of boobies, most of the female characters are fun and more than capable of holding their own against the boys. So it's an average series with nice art. I got kind of bored of translating it, though, because the plot is so much fluff.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I like the Air Gear anime quite a bit. I've got the first volume of the manga and didn't think it was too bad. Typical shounen hero and what not, but the girls were pretty bad ass and some of the peripheral characters are fun.

[fa3ryg1rl.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if I told you about Blood and Iron but I did greatly enjoy it. There is another one Whiskey and Water (I didn't get a chance to read this one yet) in the series that is out as well as two more coming out by the summer called Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Melusine was probably me. I know I've blogged about it before and how the distinct alternating first person POVs are awesome and how it subverts many traditional fantasy tropes.

Air Gear is less wacko than Tenjou Tenge, simply because it's really just a simpler story but you can still tell that Oh!Great cannot write worth a damn.