meganbmoore: (attack of the backlog)
[personal profile] meganbmoore
Anyone have any opinions on the following manga/manhwa?

Alichino
Aque
Arcana
Demon Ororon
Fantamir
Jyu-Oh-Sei
Nabi
Planet Ladder
Rure
Vassalord
V.B. Rose

(I'm pretty sure I've seen several posted on recently, actually, I just can't remember where.)

Date: 2008-10-11 07:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] swanjun.livejournal.com
I haven't read any of them personally, but I think Jyu-Oh-Sei looks really neat. There's not a lot of sci-fi shoujo around! It was originally 5 or so volumes in Japan but has been condensed into 3 for US release. I was gonna wait 'til the 3rd one comes out in April and then marathon them all. Manga Recon did talk about it here (http://www.popcultureshock.com/manga/index.php/reviews/manga-reviews/manga-minis-92908/).

Date: 2008-10-11 08:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] anenko.livejournal.com
Demon Ororon - I read the first volume a couple years back. I wasn't fond of the typsetting (the font was difficult to read, and I believe they made some very obvious spelling mistakes). The art took some getting used to, but wasn't bad. The story was darker than I expected, and I ended the first volume knowing that I wasn't up for gore and an unhappy ending.

Again, this was at least two years ago, so my opinion isn't 100% certain.

Date: 2008-10-11 08:05 pm (UTC)
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)
From: [identity profile] estara.livejournal.com
Aqua is the two volume prelude to Aria, from what I read the mangaka switched publishers and wasn't allowed to take the name along. If you like Aria, you'll like Akari's first days as an undine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_the_Animation

Date: 2008-10-11 08:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] clytemnaestra.livejournal.com
I've read Vassalord Vol 1 - Vol 2 comes out sometime in November, I believe. I liked it - but then again, I'm a huge sucker for anything Vampire-related and anything by Nanae Chrono...

Date: 2008-10-11 08:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_calex_/
Well, I've read 4 volumes of Arcana, the first volume of Fantamir and Nabi. I enjoyed them, but to be honest, it didn't really stick to me. Arcana had an interesting enough premise, I suppose but others have been done better. Fantamir I really liked. However, I could only find the first volume. What I've read of it, though, was enjoyable. I liked the female protagonist, the premise of the story was just implausible enough to be amusing without making you roll your eyes and sigh. It's a fun read.

Date: 2008-10-11 08:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mekosuchinae.livejournal.com
I looooove Demon Ororon, but it is hella flawed, thanks largely to a surfeit of Idiot Plot (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotPlot) in the final act. The final volume is a confusing and rambling mess of fumbled subplots, nonsensical revelations, and last minute retcons, which is a shame considering the promise of the first two volumes. (Edited this sentence upon reflection, for as much as I enjoy Demon Ororon, it's never really what I would term narratively strong.)

I do recommend the first volume as a lovely, bittersweet slice of life story and volume two for the crazy and the truly awesome horror, but if you decide to read the full series, know that things get a lot nastier in the second volume. The rest of the series is downhill, tonally; the first volume is the happiest it gets. Narrative breakdown starts in about halfway through the third volume, I think? I need to get crackin' on that reread.

On the plus side, the two main lady characters are pretty awesome!

I have heard good things about Planet Ladder and Vassalord, but I have read neither! Sorry.

Date: 2008-10-11 08:33 pm (UTC)
the_rck: (Default)
From: [personal profile] the_rck
Alichino is incomplete. It's very pretty and very angsty, and I couldn't follow the story at all. (Some of that is that there was a year between my reading of v.1 and my reading of the rest of what's out.) I think there were vampires or a reasonable facsimile thereof, and there was some sort of super special person who either could stop them or was the ultimate tasty treat or both. I really couldn't tell.

I liked Aqua. It's definitely a slice of life. There's no urgent plot. There's also no romance.

I read v.1 of Arcana many months ago. I just looked at my book logging entry for it. The art freaked me out a bit. The characters' heads were all weirdly shaped. I kept getting distracted by wondering how they had room for anything in there. The first volume didn't give enough character or plot for me to have a strong opinion about the series. I'd pick up the second volume if I found it cheap, but I wouldn't look hard for it. There's a kid (I can't remember whether male or female) who can talk to animals. There's a magic artifact that the kid has to transport and a warrior who's supposed to protect it.

Planet Ladder is on my list of Yuletide fandoms every year. I love it. The first volume starts slowly and, from what I've read online, has some translation issues. The last volume suffers from the fact that the story really needed at least one more volume to wrap up properly. The heroine has her moments of being wimpy and passive, particularly in the first volume, but becomes more assertive later. The entire story has some serious moments of WTF crackiness that make it more fun.

Date: 2008-10-11 09:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cavechan.livejournal.com
The Jyu-Oh-Sei anime was kick-ass. I'm sure the manga is 1000000x better.

Date: 2008-10-11 09:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicnoire.livejournal.com
Alichino is very pretty and has a nice feel/atmosphere to it but as [livejournal.com profile] therck noted, it's unfinished and will likely never be completed. The mangaka broke her hand and the magazine it was published in went defunct, I think?

Date: 2008-10-11 09:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Well, at least she didn't finish a chapter on a major cliffhanger, turn it in, then go "oh, by the way, I'm tired of this manga business, so that's the last chapter."

Date: 2008-10-11 09:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
There was a secret about that in fandomsecrets the other day. I was like "Uhm...yeah...she's not on break, she just ditched it. Also, Tsuzuki and Hisoka need about a century of therapy each before they should even think about getting together."

Date: 2008-10-12 09:11 am (UTC)
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)
From: [identity profile] estara.livejournal.com
Could you tell me which manga you're referring to, there. The names of the characters sound familiar, but I'm not sure.

Date: 2008-10-12 02:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Yami no Mitsuie(sp?)/Descendants of Darkness.

Date: 2008-10-11 09:27 pm (UTC)
snarp: small cute androgynous android crossing arms and looking very serious (Default)
From: [personal profile] snarp
Alichino - Extremely pretty, but I couldn't tell what was going on and didn't care about any of the characters.

Demon Ororon - It's been a couple years since I read this, so I'm fuzzy on what it was actually about, but I remember it as being unrelievedly dark - apparently it's hard growing up in hell! People get dismembered. Who would have thought. Sort of Angel Sanctuary without all the stuff that made Angel Sanctuary compelling.

Date: 2008-10-11 10:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] artillie.livejournal.com
I remember reading the first volume or two of Planet Ladder a few years ago and being thoroughly unimpressed. I don't remember why, though, and the fact that I can't even remember what it's about is probably why it didn't impress me. I think maybe it reminded me a tiny bit of MKR, but in an uninteresting way.

The Demon Ororon, however, I loved and wished was more than four volumes. It's so sad. The art takes some getting used to and the story is a touch convoluted, but it was so gooooood. Plus, size!kink.

Date: 2008-10-11 10:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] maxineofarc.livejournal.com
The only one I've read is Alichino. It's really only of note if you're into crazy fashion designs; my first thought upon starting to read was that everybody in it looks exactly like a Super Dollfie. The story only gets interesting right around volume 3, and there is no volume 4, since the magazine it was being published in folded.

Date: 2008-10-11 11:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ostia.livejournal.com
Vassalord is like fanservice with a side helping of story, but it's an alright read as long as you know that's all you'll be getting.

Jyu-Oh-Sei I've heard some really good things about but haven't actually started reading myself.

Demon Ororon.. well, there's no point in adding in anything else, as everyone else has pretty much said it.

Date: 2008-10-11 11:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crystal-hoser.livejournal.com
Alichino is hella confusing but very pretty and what you can understand is pretty neat.

I liked Aqua quite a bit but definitely do read Aria afterwards to get the complete story. It's a great series to relax with!

I loved Planet Ladder for a few volumes, but after that the plot goes completely downhill and gets really messy. Still, it's worth checking out, just don't feel the need to stick with it when it gets dull.

Date: 2008-10-12 01:38 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com
I have reviews of some of these.

Planet Ladder: Shoujo fantasy awesomeness; cool female characters and a giant robot chicken. The plot is confusing; ignore it.

Alichino: Beautiful art. Boring story.

Aqua: Sweet, mellow, relaxing. All the major characters are female (but not kick-ass, they're gondoliers.)

Demon Ororon: Strong start, dissolves into incoherent action.

Rure: Stong start, dissolves into cliched action.

Vassalord: Deliberately hilarious and over-the-top series about gay cyborg vampires ad their caped Dobermann.

V.B. Rose. I adapted this. Sweet shoujo about a girl working in a wedding boutique. Very standard but like I said, sweet.

Date: 2008-10-12 01:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Important question about V.B. Rose: does it have 23 year old men deliberately deceiving and messing with the emotions of 17 year old girls so they can manipulate them into don't what they want? (Err...in a completely non-sexual, non-physically harming way.) Because that happened in the other manga of the mangaka's I'read, and has me on the fence about reading more. (Though the fact that I do currently plan to eventually read more instead of my screeching and throwing it when it happened is probably a good indication of how much Iliked the rest.)

Date: 2008-10-12 06:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com
Not really. It has a romance between a teenage girl and a man who's maybe twenty?

Date: 2008-10-12 07:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Yeah, that's fine. It wasn't the age difference that bothered me *waves towards Skip-Beat, Samurai Deeper Kyo and Rurouni Kenshin collections* but the fact that he clearly used her youth against her to get what he wanted. And it was essentially a minor thing with no lasting harm, but it really highlighted the power imbalance, which isn't helped by his being a 20-something guy aggressively pursuing a high schooler.

Date: 2008-10-13 09:24 pm (UTC)
ext_12512: Hinoe from Natsume Yuujinchou, elegant and smirky (Default)
From: [identity profile] smillaraaq.livejournal.com
Vassalord: Deliberately hilarious and over-the-top series about gay cyborg vampires ad their caped Dobermann.

Gay cyborg vampires WHO ARE AGENTS OF THE VATICAN, working against the shadowy, nefarious forces of THE UNITARIAN CHURCH!!!1!.

Also, the ecclesiastically-caped Doberman is also a cyborg. (I don't know if he's also gay and/or a vampire. He does have a pet kitty of his own, however.)

It is, in otherwords, v. cracky. I don't know if it would quite be your thing, mind you, since despite the high crack levels I think a lot of its appeal rests on how much you enjoy sexy, snarky vampires and constant BL-ish tease, and female characters, while definitely present, are secondary to the boys and seem pretty likely to stay that way.

Still, you gotta love anything that involves author's notes like this:

I love sexy Master-types!!
I love cool glasses!!
I love seductive older men and inexperienced young ones!!
I love America!!
I love Christianity!!
I love vampires!!
I love traveling!!
I love B-movies!!
... So basically, I threw in everything I like and somehow a comic came out.


Truth in advertising, right there.

Date: 2008-10-13 10:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
It does sound cracktastic. I suspect, though, that I'll read more of the mangaka's Peacemaker first.

Date: 2008-10-12 02:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lotuseyes.livejournal.com
Aqua is pretty art (that's all I know about it since I don't enjoy 'slice of life' manga too often. what do you mean there's no crack!ship? doesn't every manga have a ship that is forbidden in at least half of the universe?)

Planet Ladder...I enjoy it. I re-read it every so often and it was one of the first non-Sailor Moon mangas I enjoyed. Its confusing, especially after the first...hmmm I think 4 volumes when the production schedule just became...very very slow. It took YEARS for the last book to come out (though I don't know if that was American in origin or Japanese) and is confusing. Some of it is very straight forward, but the overall plot is rather confusing (not in a CLAMP you know some resolution will be had eventually sort of way though). Its fun and there is a robot chicken, limbs falling off inexplicably and a brooding possibly emotionally frozen guy with sword skillz, mysterious (and often tragic) past and red hair. I can't ask for more.

Date: 2008-10-12 07:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
I actually read the first volume or two of Aria when it came out from the other piblisher (who then stopped putting it out) and seem to recall it being vaguely shoujo-ai-ish.

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