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shiny happy manga!
Jun. 28th, 2007 08:55 pmJust wanted to share a couple of manga I've fallen in love with. No damn clue if they are licensed or being scanlated, sorry. :P Hopefully they are, because they are both very enjoyable.
No Color by Natsume Isaku is about neighbors serious student Sakamoto and easy-going but driven part-timer Iida. Sakamoto is often irritated with the noisy Iida as he tries to study, but he is even more inconvenienced when Iida moves in with him after Iida's room explodes and has to be renovated...Aaand things just kind of go from there. XD;
The manga is not very original, but terribly delightful. It helps that the artist illustrated Junjou Island, a novel I adore, and it kind of has a similar dopey feel (if not quite as retarded). There's a bit of breaking out of the mold of parental expectations, learning to be honest with what you really want, some misunderstanding, and a lot of sweetness. The art is very clean and attractive. There are a couple of very pretty panels, and the way their first time happens is pretty damn hilarious.
( some panels )
Kiss Blue by Kinoshita Keiko is even more predictible and cliched, but instead of being yet another ho-hum been-there-done-that manga it was a shining example of when superb execution trumps hackneyed storylines and characterizations. Tomosaka and Noda are college students. They were friends from...at least junior high? In any case, Tomosaka is a serious, low-key, nice guy. Noda is also mostly a nice guy, just one of those that have two or three girlfriends at one time. A certain incident makes Tomosaka realize that...He's in love with Noda!! The requisite suppression and denial and suffering follow, leading to the most annoying cliched development that can happen in these situations...That instead of annoying me actually made me feel really bad and sad for the characters. The beauty of this manga, for me, was the mood. It feels slightly reserved, a tad bit detached, but with flashes of the underlying fierce emotion allowed out in tightly controlled phrases expressing Tomosaka's feelings.
As this is only the first book, I have no idea how the story is resolved. The second book, Kiss Blue II, comes out next week. Hopefully I'll have it in my greedy little hands soon after, but in some ways I don't feel an absolutely burning need to read it. I'm worried that the end will be predictable yet lame or suprising but retarded...And I like the uncertainty at the end of the first volume. Even if the end sucks, the first book is so strong I'd reccomend it (with a warning not to read the second volume!) to people who don't need closure to enjoy a well-told story of that type.
( a nothing scene )
No Color by Natsume Isaku is about neighbors serious student Sakamoto and easy-going but driven part-timer Iida. Sakamoto is often irritated with the noisy Iida as he tries to study, but he is even more inconvenienced when Iida moves in with him after Iida's room explodes and has to be renovated...Aaand things just kind of go from there. XD; The manga is not very original, but terribly delightful. It helps that the artist illustrated Junjou Island, a novel I adore, and it kind of has a similar dopey feel (if not quite as retarded). There's a bit of breaking out of the mold of parental expectations, learning to be honest with what you really want, some misunderstanding, and a lot of sweetness. The art is very clean and attractive. There are a couple of very pretty panels, and the way their first time happens is pretty damn hilarious.
( some panels )
Kiss Blue by Kinoshita Keiko is even more predictible and cliched, but instead of being yet another ho-hum been-there-done-that manga it was a shining example of when superb execution trumps hackneyed storylines and characterizations. Tomosaka and Noda are college students. They were friends from...at least junior high? In any case, Tomosaka is a serious, low-key, nice guy. Noda is also mostly a nice guy, just one of those that have two or three girlfriends at one time. A certain incident makes Tomosaka realize that...He's in love with Noda!! The requisite suppression and denial and suffering follow, leading to the most annoying cliched development that can happen in these situations...That instead of annoying me actually made me feel really bad and sad for the characters. The beauty of this manga, for me, was the mood. It feels slightly reserved, a tad bit detached, but with flashes of the underlying fierce emotion allowed out in tightly controlled phrases expressing Tomosaka's feelings.As this is only the first book, I have no idea how the story is resolved. The second book, Kiss Blue II, comes out next week. Hopefully I'll have it in my greedy little hands soon after, but in some ways I don't feel an absolutely burning need to read it. I'm worried that the end will be predictable yet lame or suprising but retarded...And I like the uncertainty at the end of the first volume. Even if the end sucks, the first book is so strong I'd reccomend it (with a warning not to read the second volume!) to people who don't need closure to enjoy a well-told story of that type.
( a nothing scene )
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