As usual, I want to add impressions on manga I've been catching up or following recently before introducing the manga titles I've just discovered.
The ninth chapter of Blood Lad is finally out and:
Ohmygods.... I'm already pretty hooked to this... and the introduction of the twisted brotherly "love" just made me more addicted to it!!! Last page was a freakin' cliffhanger though... I can't wait to know who that new girl is... and for the brothers to meet again already!
[ Sapphire Pyro's Manga Discoveries ]
From Left to Right: Yukarism > Messiah - Seiiki Ishuu > Coppelion
Favoritism: Yukarism >> > Coppelion > Messiah - Seiiki Ishuu
Writing style for first impressions of manga discoveries shall be different from other posts. For this type of entry, I'll be splitting myself into two persona:
(1) Sapphire - the girlie, considerate, and nice one;
(2) Pyro - the boyish, cynical, and mean one.
(1) Sapphire - the girlie, considerate, and nice one;
(2) Pyro - the boyish, cynical, and mean one.
A meltdown of a nuclear power plant caused a catastrophe in Tokyo. 20 years later, a resuce team assigns 3 "girls" to search for survivors on that place.
3 Hearts (LIKE)Sapphire: Oh, this manga will have its anime adaptation aired on Fall 2011!
Pyro: We'd better check it out then. The title's sounds cool enough for me.
*reads*
Pyro: This is pretty good! It's amazing and chilling at the same time that there's a manga about the aftermath of a nuclear plant disaster during the times when there are currently radiation issues in Japan.
Sapphire: Indeed.... but....
Pyro: It's very interesting, and it's written very well. It has a great cast too. It annoys me that the main characters are in school uniforms though (Oh come on, they're acting as secret agents anywayz, do their uniforms in missions have to be in school uniforms as well?) but so far I'm pleased with the characterization of these girls.Their extraordinary abilities are so varied.
Sapphire: Yeah... but....
Pyro: It makes us wonder that if such a disaster were to happen, are the creators of the plant to blame when they're just answering to the consumer demand? Is it cruel to manipulate genes for the sake of creating "puppets' that can save/preserve humanity? What's right and more ethical? Oh, it's pretty rich on nature versus science themes too. And I was pretty intrigued when an artificial human says that science is her mother (not mother nature).
Sapphire: But... *sniff*
Pyro: It's also cool that this series is also sharing some radioactivity and other chemistry lessons. Well, we can't verify the accuracy since it's not our expertise, but still, it had been educational. And----
Sapphire: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Pyro: What the hell... What's wrong, you freakin' crybaby?!
Sapphire: There are so many chemistry terms!!!! We hate chemistry! I don't understand anything!!! Waaaaaaahhh!!!!
Pyro: Ahaha, fine. Even though it's pretty impressive, I don't think we'll be able to enjoy it much. I doubt we'll follow its anime adaptation weekly, but we'll definitely be watching it.
A group called "SAKURA" assigns its members to secret missions. If a member fails on his mission, only his partner aka MESSIAH can help him.
2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)Sapphire: A group finally picked this up! We had been really really interested in this one so I'm happy~
Pyro: We're suckers for stories with religious references, so this manga's title was so IRRESISTIBLE! Let's check it out!
*reads*
Sapphire: It did have potential. There's nothing wrong on this cliche on organization of assassins, but....
Pyro: WHUT....
Sapphire: Ahahaha... yeah, too bad this turned out to be pretty disappointing ^^;
Pyro: The prologue chapter's useless. The story flow's a mess. The comedy's so off; I think the mangaka shouldn't have attempted to make it funny... since it's so UNFUNNY. Even the attempt on shounen-ai undertones seem lame. The characters give me headaches... (except for the spirit girl, she's pretty intriguing... and she's the ONLY interesting character there, even if she's confusing.)
Sapphire: Well, the bishies still look cute though. Especially the Haku guy... he seems to be our type... if only.... he has more... personality.
Pyro: So what if they're bishies? Majority of them are either ghey or unappealing anywayz. I don't expect to see awesome action moves from this manga either... probably they're just gonna look as pathetic as how the Goulart Knights anime drew them. Ugh.
Sapphire: But we can't drop this manga.... at least not yet.
Pyro: WHY???? Skrew its bishies!!! I don't wanna torture ourselves, Sapphire!!! This series is CRAP!!!
Sapphire: I know but.... it's because of.... THIS
Pyro: Oh my gods....
Sapphire: Their appearances and possible relationship (right now they're just partners, but eventually they could be best friends) remind us so much of Teito and Mikage from 07-Ghost.
Pyro: Damn it....
Sapphire: Our nostalgia for those two is apparently very powerful.
Pyro: DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!!
Main character is a reincarnation from someone in the Edo period. When he interacts to someone "familiar" to him, he suddenly started returning to the past as a....
4 Hearts (ADORATION)Sapphire: I remember that we first saw this untranslated... but didn't like it very much.
Pyro: The colored spread made me think of smut. And the woman in kimono seemed to be a whore, and there's this girl that's constantly blushing, so I doubted that we're going to appreciate this at all.
Sapphire: But you know that OS doesn't do smut, right? And sometimes we only get to appreciate manga if we understand what's going on.
Pyro: Yeah, that's why now that it's out in English, we should check it out already.
*reads*
Sapphire: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!
Pyro: *surprised* Me too (of course). I didn't expect it to be this interesting and entertaining O_O
Sapphire: It's kinda like Bokura no Kiseki, right? The leading guy here just happened to be some high class prostitute in his past life, while in BnK the leading dude was a princess that can do sorcery!
Pyro: Speaking of main characters, characterization's okay but at times it's quite a mess. Even if someone is knowledgeable of what's going on in a certain time period, if the person's not really A Writer.... there's no way he/she could write novels that could be considered as masterpieces. Moreover, Yukari's kinda out of character when he goes to the past (way more hyper than his present self, I don't think his being unfamiliar to female clothing is reason enough). And the appearance of the present version of the Hitaha girl is just too much of a coincidence.
Sapphire: Oh who cares about the minor flaws! This series is so funny and exciting. I love the intense rivalry between his past's fanboys, and the mystery behind the death of Yukari's past self~
Pyro: This had really nice twists. I was pleased that the "evil dude" turns out to be the most protective (even abusable) to the heroine; while the "nice dude" seems to have a malicious and dangerous side on him too (though the way he held the dagger to kill the assassin was kinda ghey)
Sapphire: I don't think this is an action series so don't trouble yourself on those little things.
Pyro: Geez, fine.
Sapphire: There's something else that we should be worrying about it....
Pyro: Ah, you meant scenes like this?
Sapphire: AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! *looks around* Phew, we're safe.
Pyro: Don't worry, this is shoujo. Even if it's about a whore, it won't go.... beyond.
Sapphire: I know, I know. But momz almost saw that part and you know that she can misinterpret things! She might think we're reading pr0nz.
Pyro:But we do read pr0nz, this just happened to be NOT one of them, haha!I get it. We'll make sure she isn't around when reading this.
Sapphire: Alright xD
