manga: From Eroica With Love Vol 3-4

[meganbmoore]

I think a single volume of this takes about twice as long to read as any other manga I’ve read. And I’m including some pretty wordy mangas there. I wonder if it’s like US comics, where most of them get consistently less wordy as time goes by.

Still a very fun spy spoof manga about a flamboyant (sometimes sadistic) thief and the super serious German spy who’s the reluctant object of his affections. Reluctant enough that I regularly worry Klaus will have a heart attack. I find it funny that I was talking to smillaraaqabout how he’d kill anyone who tried to sneak sugar into his coffe, and then about 20 pages later (after getting booted from MSN…) Klaus was trapped watching someone put ten sugar cubes in their own coffee.

While I suspect the train adventures in “Hallelujah Express” and Dorian’s…uhm…“bath assault” are the fandom’s favorite parts of these volumes, mine was in “In’shallah” when Klaus was outraged that Dorian sold his gun for a fraction of its worth, and then they stole each other’s vehicles and were so incensed that they broke down that they were too busy calling each other’s enemies to think to call for help.

And then there were “Borgias” in Rome! And Dorian unable to grab “Lucretia” because of her girl bits!

And I love that even in Dorian’s fairy tale dream, Klaus hates and rejects him.

James still annoys me, but I enjoy his regular near heart attacks. I find Agent G somewhat charming, though, and like Agent Z and Klaus’s concerns over Dorian corrupting him, too. Though I’m not overly thrilled that Dorian does business with a guy who sells child prostitutes, or that he “reserves” one years in advance. I suppose it suits, though.
 

Comments

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Nah, I think my single favorite moment was when Klaus kicked Dorian out the back to the plane before he could even finish his catch phrase. Then again, I'm not sure I really "ship" those two along traditional lines, so that might be a part of it. (I also like the bit where Klaus can't figure out "which nun" Dorian is)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Klaus's total and absolute asexuality would make shipping in the traditional sense a bit difficult.

I read these volumes a week or so ago, but I'm still laughing over Dorian not being able to stop Lucretia because he can't touch her feminine parts.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Well, most people think he's a bit of a closet case--understandable, considering his reactions half the time--but I'm perfectly happy with the dynamic they have now. I don't believe that having two characters with tension progress a relationship always "spoils" things, but in this case, I think it would limit the options of the series. And what's funny about Klaus threatening to kill Dorian becomes much, much less so if they're in a relationship. (And change his anal-retentive ways and he's just not Klaus)

If you liked that bit, just wait until a few volumes down the line~

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

It's like Remington Steele vs Moonlighting. People think later seasons of RS weren't as good as the earliest seasons, but they still think it stayed good throughout it's run, with mixed opinions about the 5th season. The series also stopped as soon as Laura and Remington irrevocably got together. Most people think Moonlighting "jumped the shark" when Maddie and David got together. In both cases, the primary motivating factor was the wit (different kinds, but stil...) and the will they/won't they. The dynamic here is similar, but with a less obvious "they will...someday" ultimate outcome.

Whether or not moving things forward with a pairing "spoils" it really depends on the pairings themselves. High School Debut would have gotten old fast if it hadn't gotten Haruna and Yoh fairly quickly, whereas Skip-Beat will probably lose steam shortly after Kyoko and Ren figure things out, if they ever do. Then there's things like Basara, where they're arguably "together" from early in the series, but separated a lot.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Well, I think part of the underlying thing with Dorian and Klaus (and I've gotten some flack for this) is "they can't". It's pretty obvious that Dorian only wants what he can't have, and the reason Dorian has stuck with Klaus for so long is because he's the ultimate "can't have". If Klaus actually gave in, Klaus's iron pride will have been compromised, and what makes him so appealing to Dorian would be gone. Dorian would eventually lose interest, like he did with Caesar. So the outcome would not be happy, and I find it really hard to ship relationships that I can't see working out to a reasonably happy ending for everyone involved.

And, yes, it really depends if the couple is the destination or the journey. I've been rereading my favorite manga romance ever--Galboy--and Akira and her boyfriend marry very early in the series 40+ volume run, and the rest of the series is about them experiencing the ups and downs of being in love and living together.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Though I’m not overly thrilled that Dorian does business with a guy who sells child prostitutes, or that he “reserves” one years in advance.

I parsed that "reservation" as being more about Dorian not wanting to hurt Haloun's feelings -- other than Klaus, the pattern he's shown with other objects-of-attraction (Caesar, a ballet dancer in later volumes that haven't been translated yet, etc.) has tended towards boyishly-youthful-and-pretty-but-definitely-legal sorts in their late teens and early twenties. (Mostly blonds, too, which makes Klaus's fears of Dorian corrupting Z, who's much closer to Dorian's usual type, all the funnier...) Between an angsty bit of Dorian's own backstory, and his negative reactions at being offered the underage boys, I think it's pretty reasonable to assume that he disapproves of the whole thing, although his scruples aren't strong enough to keep him from dealing with the pimp in the first place. Still, he *is* a fairly high-level criminal, and a fairly self-absorbed and manipulative sort, so it's not like he's a classic hero showing a unexpected glitch in ethics there; Dorian's ethics are fairly questionable to begin with, and even when he ends up working on the side of the angels it's typically more for his own pleasure and amusement (or even profit) rather than any particular desire to do good for its own sake.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not unexpected, just not something I really wanted to see dwelled on.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

It's one of the odd little quirks of the series as a whole, really -- you've got hard-boiled spies, ruthless terrorists, child traffickers, etc. all running about, yet for all of the threats of death and/or serious bodily harm, the tone generally stays light and for the most part nobody even gets seriously hurt. But if you look at the side series focusing on Z and Klaus, they're deadly serious and violent, with a fairly high body count! (I've joked about it before, but it's almost enough to make you think one of the reasons Klaus is so cranky all the time is that he's used to living in a fairly dark, deadly serious John Le Carre sort of Cold War spy-thriller universe, and Dorian keeps getting him mixed up in stuff that's more suited for the worlds of Austin Powers or Get Smart or the Pink Panther...)

[animeshon.livejournal.com]

Sounds cute :D I shall have to add it to my wishlist!