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

[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.