manga-la

I've been ploughing through some manga recently - mainly over the Easter weekend because I took several volumes with me to read.

I read the latest volume of Ichigo 100% (or Strawberry 100% if you prefer), number 8. Ichicgo 100% is a pretty generic manga. I've actually done a review of it at trismugistus.com . My summary of it there is pretty much how I still feel about it. The main protagonist's inability to decide which girl to pursue is very annoying, but then if it wasn't for that it wouldn't be jam-packed with fan-service either, I guess.

I read the first volume of Black God (or Kurokami). I have to say I'm distinctly un-impressed - it's so generic as to be boring. Girl with Super powers. Big fights. Really annoying, arrogant, un-likeable protagonist. He's fawned on by his childhood friend, who's totally hot. Super-powered girl is 'bound' to him.

Also, people talk a hell of lot for an action manga and while the artwork is nice enough, it's nothing special. Bizarrely, the bonus chapter is actually way better than the main story.

I'm considering just dropping it - I could sell the 1st volume on e-bay and be done with it. I mean it's still an ongoing series, so if I was to collect it it could last for years, which I really don't fancy.

I'll give it another read and decide from there, I think.

Another new manga that I did start and like a lot is Claymore. I can't honestly say I'm that familiar with Berserk, but I'm reliably informed they're similar. Certainly the roughly-medieval setting is very similar and it's all about swordplay and monsters.

Claymore is very brutal - people are chopped up without a second thought and the blood really flies. But the clever thing about it is that it's really an exploration of the character of the Claymore's themselves. They're women who have undergone a sort of surgery to become half-human half-monster and they then hunt the real monsters. What Claymore explores then is the humanity (or otherwise) of these girls and how they're treated by real humans and the monsters.

The artwork is a little odd - some strange proportions and strange figure deformations, but it does seem to improve in later volumes where I've flicked through. It's also very fast-paced and so easy to read - there are big chunks of pages with no dialogue at all. That's not a criticism, by the way. Blame is one of the best manga ever and features entire volumes with next-to no talking.

I'm definitely going to be keeping up with Claymore.

What else have I read?

There was the latest volume of Battle Angel Alita: Last Orders.

The artist, Yukito Kishiro, is one of the best manga artists ever. The action sequences in Alita (and it's an action manga) are so perfectly realised, every page is like a master-class. Sometimes the story goes a bit wonky - he has a tendency to dive off on a tangent that can last several volumes.

These are generally of good quality, but it makes things confusing when you come back to the main story. You have to refresh yourself with what's gone on. Also, because of the big gap between this and the original, it can be confusing remembering who they're referring to sometimes.

It's always an entertaining read though - especially given that Kishiro drops in a lot of very black humour.

I've also relatively recently read the latest volumes of Rosario+Vampire (they seem to be pumping the volumes out for this in very short order), Princess Resurrection, Ikkitousen and Black Lagoon. I've not much to really say about them that I haven't said before either here or in trismugistus.com reviews.

The last thing of note is therefore that I've started Full Metal Alchemist. I've got to say, so far it's not what I was expecting.

So that you're aware, I've never seen any of the anime. I know it's extremely popular, but I've just never really got around to it - I believe it's one of those shows with 50-odd episodes, and that never really helps for me.

However, what I have seen are a lot of scans and wallpapers for the series and they predominantly depict it as being quite serious. Now that could obviously be a false impression since I've never watched it, but the point is the manga isn't like that at all.

So far, the manga is more like a gag-manga than a serious action manga or thriller. It's odd - I mean it's not bad, just not what I was expecting.