@“Syzygy”#p43307 I'm loving these insights into the manga industry, by the way. Thank you.
@“KingNothing”#p43293 yes I thought it was remarkably good and powerful/ A++ for me….
@“Syzygy”#p44388 Golgo 13 has got to be one of the five most influential manga of all time, in terms of the impact it had on the industry as a whole. What a remarkable achievement.
Hi folks–I mentioned One Piece in my introduction and thought I'd mosey over here. Just started Thriller Bark the other day right on October 1st, not at all on purpose. Echoing earlier compliments to Water Seven, the arc just before TB.
I work at a comic shop and know all too well how important preorders are to stores and publishers alike, so here are a couple of books on the way that I'm pretty excited about:
LUPIN THE 3RD GREATEST HEISTS CLASSIC MANGA HC: A greatest hits compilation volume out of Seven Seas that I'm really psyched for. I have a little, but not a ton, of experience watching Lupin III anime, but no experience with the manga. I have limited space and time, so books like these that can give me a solid sampler of something so beloved and long-running is welcome. Seven Seas usually does great work with presentation and printing, too, so I think this is gonna be great. I've been admiring Monkey Punch's art from afar for too long.
GUYABANO HOLIDAY: The second English release by panpanya, a creator I really fell for with their prior book, AN INVITATION FROM A CRAB, which was a series of strange, funny, a little sad, and great-looking short stories mostly following around a protagonist who seems isolated from the world in a way that really resonated with me (they just talked about this book on Mangasplaining, which I see was mentioned earlier in this thread. It made me so glad that Chip Zdarsky "got" the book, I think it's really special). This new book seems to be about investigating the guyabano fruit in the Philippines, so probably some kind of bizarre travelogue, given panpanya's prior book.
AKIRA TORIYAMA MANGA THEATER HC: Another compilation, but of Toriyama's non-Dr. Slump/Dragon Ball short story stuff, including Dragon Boy, the proto-Dragon Ball pilot chapter. I'm also still neck-deep into Dragon Quest XI right now, so I'm all ready to look at more Toriyama designs and such.
I just realized that I‘m reading Battle Angel Alita for the first time. They have the big beautiful deluxe volumes at the library and I’ve been reading a chapter or so at bed time. I‘m not a visual art or a comic connoisseur so I am not sure how it stacks up against others in its field. I’ve really enjoyed the art, and the writing, and the world building. The world building itself is pretty interesting to me in that the whole first volume they have resisted showing the floating world above that everyone wants to get to. I kinda hope that holds out for a really long time as a lot of these seem to get to the impossible place too quickly or before it ends.
I don‘t read Japanese and other than a scan translation or whatever, I’m just not at interested in seeking out the older copies. I‘m happy with the quality of the product that I’m getting now.
I agree with your positive impression on the action sequences and the book is very obviously influential throughout media. The composition of the art and the whole "broken warrior manic pixie dream cyborg" is something that reads cliche to us in 2021. I'm old enough to know that 30 years ago that wasn't the case.
I'm on what I feel is the second arc now. It opens with Alita being a roller derby gladiator. I don't know if I think that's as interesting as the last arc's setup with the spine theif (which was very well framed and foreshadowed!), but I'm enjoying my time with it quite a bit.
I'll check out the OVA!
@“yeso”#p43311 Checking back in now, I just passed the 90 chapter mark and this has easily jumped on the Mount Rushmore of my favorite works of non-battle manga. It's beautiful, crushing, saccharine and hilarious, among many other things. This is like the “Boyhood” of manga, though that could be a weird comparison.
Fred Burke, who did English adaptation of Battle Angel Alita, was my supervisor in a dotcom company eons ago heh heh. I used to see him with copies of Alita chapters with direct English translation and him doing English adaptation. He‘s responsible for changing her name from Gally to Alita. I guess he took some shit for that so he was super moved when Gally sees another version of her in a dream or something and she’s called Alita in Japanese original. Appropriately the names are flipped in English adaptation. I didn‘t ask but the impression I got was that JP side didn’t acknowledged the name change to him until that chapter came out.
As for Alita manga, the first series is great but I dropped Last Order once it turned into fighting tournament..... The first series had pretty satisfying ending to me anyway.
Thought I should give a quick update on my ONE PIECE progress:
I'm most of the way through the Skypiea arc now, and I'm consistently impressed with Oda's ability to insert little plot details which seem like inconsequential throwaways until dozens (sometimes hundreds) of chapters later, where the payoff is invariably rewarding. To me, the most mind-blowing example of this is the first mention of Jinbe coming in like chapter 90 or something. There's just so much content packed into the dialog! You kind of have to pay attention to everything.
These characters just live inside my head (rent free, I guess, which is fine) now. They are fleshed-out and three-dimensional, despite acting very much like cartoon characters much of the time (to varying degrees). I think about them all the time, and already feel as though I know them very well. I enjoy thinking about their different dynamics, and am impressed with the way each individual member of the Straw Hats has a singular personal relationship with every other member. I am also pleasantly surprised by how much I'm falling in love with Robin as a character. Her power is fascinating in its potential, and her quiet confidence while wandering through the city of gold is a welcome and intriguing change of pace from the non-stop action.
Luffy! What an incredibly good character. How can he possibly balance hilarious idiocy and inspiring heroism so well? It doesn't feel like it should be possible. He's quickly becoming one of my favourite fictional characters of all time.
The stakes just keep getting bigger. Already there are pirates, the marines, the world government, gods, and multiple different societies involved. Plus Ace is out there somewhere, doing whatever it is he does. (His tattoo! A~~S~~
My only complaint (and it's a mild one) is that the action scenes are sometimes hard to decipher visually.
There's just so, so much to love in this series. Wishing I hadn't waited this long to get into it, but glad I finally have.
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@“whatsarobot”#p47926 Jinbe
My boyfriend.........
@“Syzygy”#p47930 This is exciting news.
With this kind of storytelling, yes, it's easy to go back and pick up dangling plot threads, because literally anything can happen, often at random. Oda's ability to "foreshadow brilliantly" is a result of throwing _everything_ he can at the wall, and later deciding what will stick, but gosh it's consistently fun to experience.
Can't wait to see how >!chapter one gets referenced later!<. I'm still hoping >!Luffy will pay that bartender lady back, like he promised to!<.
ONE PIECE again. Okay the arrival on Long Ring Long Land and the old man who'd been walking around on stilts for ten years was a laugh out loud moment for me.
I’m reading the Long Ring Long Land / Davy Back Fight arc and thinking, hmm, this definitely seems like the worst ONE PIECE arc so far… So I Google it, and sure enough, it seems to be the consensus Worst Arc.
Hard to resist the urge to just skim it. Luckily it’s short.
I‘ve always been real interested in JoJo. I saw the weird art and the title and was like "yeah that’s for me"
Finally got around to reading the first arc. Good stuff.
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@“whatsarobot”#p48776 I’m reading the Long Ring Long Land / Davy Back Fight arc and thinking, hmm, this definitely seems like the worst ONE PIECE arc so far… So I Google it, and sure enough, it seems to be the consensus Worst Arc.
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Hard to resist the urge to just skim it. Luckily it’s short.
23 days ago but w/e!
I remember watching the anime and getting to this part and thinking "this is pretty good for a filler arc."
I dunno, I didn't hate it! It's stupid and kinda inconsequential but it doesn't feel like it overstays its welcome. Long Ring Long Land is a fantastic sequence of phonemes.
@“Gaagaagiins”#p51057 lol I also thought “pretty good for a filler arc!” I did enjoy it tho. Never read that part of the manga specifically.
@“DavidNoo”#p51060 I‘m sure we can’t be alone, it has this manic unhinged filler energy. Like, you just sit back and think, who are these freaks??
@“Gaagaagiins”#p51068
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you just sit back and think, who are these freaks??
This is essentially the entire experience of reading ONE PIECE, at all times.
I'll say this: the Davy Back Fight arc finished _much_ stronger than it started. The fight between Afro Luffy and Foxy was really enjoyable.
Update: I'm now halfway through Enies Lobby, and I can feel the stakes raising significantly. Just started the flashback to Robin's childhood, and I'm enjoying this pattern Oda has established, where we find out the consequences of actions that took place far in the past, and only once we're nearly at the climax of that story beat does he reveal what transpired so long ago.
Robin rules more the more I find out about her, by the way.
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@“whatsarobot”#p51069 Update: I’m now halfway through Enies Lobby, and I can feel the stakes raising significantly. Just started the flashback to Robin’s childhood, and I’m enjoying this pattern Oda has established, where we find out the consequences of actions that took place far in the past, and only once we’re nearly at the climax of that story beat does he reveal what transpired so long ago.
I hope that you continue to like it, because a major flashback sequence establishing the deeper events and stakes at play in any given story arc eventually becomes all but a guaranteed exercise for a major arc. It's just a matter of when. That's not a criticism, either. They're like minor arcs within major arcs, substantial and essential feeling. I think my favourite ones feel like the long climbing section before the craziest part of a rollercoaster, they give you a break from the tension only to start building it slowly again too, and then 'cause when you snap back to the present it's just as things are about to go fuckin' wild. Maybe one of my favourite things to point to when thinking about how well written _One Piece_ can be, somehow an extended flashback sequence ends up making the ongoing story feel refreshing to come back to. That takes narrative writing chops!
@“Gaagaagiins”#p51071 I totally agree! I've already noticed it happening with just about every major arc so far, so I fully anticipated that the trend would continue.
I can't remember which arc it was off the top of my head, but one of these extended flashbacks began just when Luffy was landing a punch in a dude's face, and went on for several chapters. Then, the story resumed mid-punch, and the villain was sent flying, and it all just flowed so naturally!