(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

 rightstuf.com's current sale is 33% of CMX comics, 40% off if you're in their club thingie.  I highly approve of this, as I've been waiting for that and a Go!Comi sale (which I don't think they'll ever have...another few weeks and i'll have to concede defeat and pay a bit more for a few things at Amazon...)

Has anyone read The Empty Empire, From Eroica With Love (I'm positive someone recced it to me...smillaraaq?) Key to the Kingdom, or Musashi Number Nine?

Comments

[mscongeniality.livejournal.com]

Sorry, my only CMX titles are Emma and Land of the Blindfolded.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

LotB I should revisit. I suspect i'll like Emma more in anime form.

[the_rck]

I tried From Eroica with Love, about a volume and a half's worth, and didn't care for it. The characters didn't appeal to me, too stereotyped, campy and silly. I know people who disagree with me quite strongly and adore the series, but I can't recommend it.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I'll try to check out a bit of Eroica before getting the first volume.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I recommend Moon Child, Land of the Blindfolded, and The Empty Empire. Warning: all recs based only on early volumes.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

How on earth did I miss Moon Child while browsing the list?

Land of the Blindfolded is one of several series I read some of in college, but lost track of because...uhm...college. I should check it out again.

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

From Eroica With Love is insane 1970s shoujo spy crack; shaenon featured it (http://shaenon.livejournal.com/14312.html) as part of the Overlooked Manga Festival. It is, as therck says, quite silly and over-the-top--the sort of thing that you either love or just find pretty meh and possibly off-putting. (Also, there was a point where the author took a hiatus from the series and then returned ten years later; after that the art shifted to a style that's much less appealing.)

I...think I still have my copies of the old, old PDF scanlations, if you want to preview a few chapters.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmm...I might want to do that. It was recced for me as being a caper with none of the things about shounen-ai/yaoi that annoy me.

[hello-scorpling.livejournal.com]

Lmao I've read Eroica, and I thought it was hilarious. The commentor above is right; it's often stereotypical and SO CHEESY, but it has some really funny moments, now and then unintentionally, and it doesn't take itself too seriously all the time.

Also, there are men in flowery pyjamas. Who faint in the arms of their rescuer. It's...so funny.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Cheese can be good.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I have not read, but have heard good things about:

I Hate You More Than Anyone
Penguin Revolution
The Young Magician
Tower of the Future
Oyayubehime Infinity

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Eroica is definitely crackalicious and cheesy. It's definitely old school 1970s shoujo.

[snarp]

From Eroica With Love is funny, but for whatever reason didn't really grab me, at least within the first two or three volumes (I forget how many I read). It's sort of the BL version of Lupin, if you've read that. I do appreciate the careful 70s-ness of the translation.

Musashi #9 = kinda stupid. The protagonist should guarantee that I like it, but the writing's so terrible and the art's so stiff that I didn't go further than the first volume.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Doesn't live up to the badass assassin girl promise, then?

*sulks*

[snarp]

Oh, and if you're in the market for magical girl shoujo crack by someone apparently suffering from a head injury, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne has you covered. The plot is that the reincarnation of Joan of Arc is an art thief (for God), but the reincarnation of Sinbad is after her. It actually makes even less sense than that.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am a raving Eroica fangirl (dating back to before there were even official English publications), so you've probably heard me nattering on and on about it.

It is pure cracktastic camp of a high order, and while the BL elements are so blatant they aren't really subtext but text, there is no real angst or action: it's much more about playing the endless unrequited pursuit for laughs, and making fun of what were already becoming established tropes by the mid-to-late-70s, so I think it's perfectly readable even for a non-yaoi fangirl.

On the downside: the art is very, very dated. If you have trouble with 70s-shojo stylization where everybody has legs ten miles long and flowing hair and random decorative flowers everywhere, that will probably bug you. (It does get somewhat less florid and slightly more realistic after Aoike-sensei's hiatus, although a lot of longtime fans aren't totally enthralled with the art change.)

Also, the first volume is particularly weak -- it starts out focusing on a trio of plucky superpowered teens who are utterly uninteresting, and some Lupin III-ish hijinks involving a bumbling Japanese police inspector; it doesn't start to pick up steam until Dorian and his recurring foil, Iron Klaus, arrive on the scene. Fortunately, the teens are gone for good by the second book, and I think the police inspector fades from view around much the same time.

I would suggest giving it at least until Volume 3 to make a fair judgement of it -- by #3 it's pretty much hit the espionage-and-crime-caper-with-rampant-innuendo mode that it will stick to throughout the rest of its run, and if you're still bouncing off by the time you get to Insh'allah and Hallelujah Express, it's probably not for you.

foolsandmadmen has the decades-old low-rez scanlations of the earlier volumes that pretty much kept the English fandom going for years, and thepinkpanzer is doing really nice scanlations of the newer stuff. You'll need to join the comms to get to the downloads.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm less thrown by less-great art than some are. I think it's years of conditioning from comic books when you suddenly have good art replaced with a bad guest artist.

BTW, (on acompletely unrelated note) I haven't had a chance to go through the website for the bracelet(I haven't been on the internet computer full time at work in a while, and it's one of many websites that loads slowly on this computer) but the silver color, normal length chain and the purple and blue stones are best.

[no1-antielitist.livejournal.com]

I've heard good things about Eroica, but I haven't tried it yet. I'm probably picking up the rest of Emma (which I strongly recommend), so I might snag the first volume just to get up to free shipping.

Also, the ridiculously!girly part of my brain is embarrassingly intrigued by The Devil Does Exist. *hangs head*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Uhm...I kind of hate the leads in the Taiwanese adaptation of Devil, and kimming the manga a while back didn't help...

[swanjun.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet read Key to the Kindgom (as is often my wont), but I've seen it praised in various places and am collecting the volumes. I've heard good things about Empty Empire, too. I kind of link them together in my mind because each is a 6-7 volume fantasy series with a plot about a ruler/leader of some kind.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I am prone to enormous manga backlogs that I nmever get to myself.

[anenko.livejournal.com]

Someone else mentioned Penguin Revolution. I love it to pieces. It's fluff, and has a "the Japanese entertainment industry sure is *cracky*" premise, but it's *adorable.* I love the heroine. She's unflappable, and a real tough cookie. She reminds me a bit of Haruhi (of Ouran), actaully.

Musashi Number Nine is. . . not *horrible,* which is the best I can say for it. I love kickass and crossdressing heroines, but Musashi failed to capture my interest. The story is episodic and repetitive, and I found it laughable how the "top secret organization" is mentioned by a new character in each and every chapter--and they all say (nearly) the exact same thing. I have a mini review up at Good Reads (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/838586.Musashi_9_Volume_1).

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Teru Teru x Shounen is one we discussed recently. Don't know if you'll like it, but I adore both it and the heroine.

Eroica is brilliant, especially if you have an appreciation for 70's shoujo manga. You'll probably dislike Klaus, though, and that makes me ;_;

Moon Child is wonderful. Check out Oyayubihime Infinity too. Hmmm, Cipher is amazing, and I loved Musashi, but it might be stronger if you have a background in the mangaka's other work and how she likes to play around with the concept of love and gender and "untouchable beings/people".

Really, you can't go wrong with CMX's shoujo. All of them are unique, and some are downright classic.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Is Klaus the (as described to me) homophobic ultra-manly one Our Hero is in love with?

I remembered Teru Teru x Shounen and planned to get it already, actually.

CMX seems to be pretty picky and diverse in its selectons, but also to get a fair chunk of lesser known stuff. I suspect I'll be getting a fair chunk of Vol 1s (Hmm...I'm reminded now that I was curious about Apothecariusc Argentum a while back.)

if you buy from gocomi themselves

[calledinvain.livejournal.com]

you get free shipping, if that helps?