I'm a comic book fan.I'm a good one.I don't nitpick.I read what I enjoy and I enjoy what I read.I have a voracious appetite for it and am always on the hunt for new things to dig into.This unending search has led me to discover some fantastic stuff, such as The Walking Dead. It has also led me to some not-so-great books.I hate to name names, but let's just say that War Of The Undead won't be getting too many recommendations from me.Meh.Whatever.
It is this willingness to try new, non-superhero books that led me to manga.I've always eyed manga, as it is always seemingly eating away the shelf space that "regular" graphic novels in the bookstores used to occupy.I never actually bought one though because the art is such a turnoff to me.I'll read the back cover and the premise of the story will seem really sweet, but then I see the squat, superdeformed characters on the front with their huge eyes and spiky hair and the book goes right back on the shelf.Even the mature ones look like kiddie books to me.
Anyway, one day I was at the bookstore looking for a new thing to read and I was realizing that there was nothing I wanted to read in the graphic novel section. So, once more, I ventured over to the next rack and started thumbing through the manga.I eventually settled on a Vampire Hunter D book.I had watched the anime and really enjoyed it so I figured that I could get into this.
It was my first experience reading manga in its proper form, that is to say in its right-to-left, back-to-front set-up.My first read-through was a disaster.It's surprisingly hard to read through a book backwards after 35 years of doing it the regular way.Lots to unlearn.I realized that any opinion formed during that reading would be misinformed, so I tried again.The second time through I had a much easier time and somewhat enjoyed the story.The art was minimally offensive to me, though it did become something of a jumbled mess of lines during the action scenes.I often had to check the action sequences four or five times to figure out exactly what happenned.As for the story itself...It was OK.I like vampires and the story didn't have too much down time.
It was good enough though for me to want to give manga another try.I started researching genres I enjoy and found titles to watch for.When I would go to the bookstores though, none of the titles I was looking for would be there.I have a slight aversion to ordering things online, because I don't want to wait for them.These two factors were going to make my manga search a bit more difficult than I had hoped for.
Eventually, I decided that I was going to do what I do with music and , to an extent, with comics:I was just going to take a chance on something that seemed like it MIGHT be interesting.I settled on a book called Wolf's Rain, which is based on a anime that I've never seen.It seemed cool.It had wolves disguising themselves as humans and the art wasn't too kiddyish.I bought both volumes so I could take in the whole story.
I opened volume one up, ready to love every page.It started well too.Wolves had been though to be extinct for nearly 200 years.As it turned out, there were still some left, and they had some sort of supernatural powers which had enabled them to assume a human guise.A group of four of these secret wolves formed together to look for "paradise", which was some sort of sanctuary for wolves.Then the story detoured into anime weirdville.
Between video games, cartoons, and toys I've consumed a lot of Japanese culture( understanding that a portion of this is an americanized version).That said, there are certain recurring elements that have always bothered me.Why are a majority of the protagonists teenagers?What's with the focus on magic crystals and other similar shit?Why does it seem like there always a meek, fragile woman, hiding great power or potential, who needs to be guarded?She always dies too(way to go with the protecting), but her death brings with it great hope and often even touches the villains heart.And who's that irritating 8-year old who always seems to be tagging along?
Getting off of my tangent and back to the book, anime cliches once more reared their ugly head and ruined a story with great potential.I would have loved the book if it was just about a pack of wolves, braving a hostile world that thinks them extinct and searching for a sanctuary where they can be with their own kind and at peace.Instead we're introduced to some "flower maiden" crap.She is, you guessed it, a damsel-in-distress with special powers.And...wait for it... she dies at the end!!!!UUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!Pointless bullshit.I mourn my lost $20.
I'm not totally giving up on manga, but I'm also not going to just buy any book off the shelf anymore.I want a mature title, with grown-up characters.It can be comedy, action, horror, whatever.I don't want to read a zombie book only to find out that the only way to stop the zombies is to get the ghost princess to the crystal castle.I don't want to read Naruto either.
Suggestions???
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3 comments:
I like Chobits, but it's not very action-packed or hero-filled.
And, I have a similar-esque problem when I write in Hebrew. It's a right-to-left language, but my problem isn't with the reading and writing Hebrew. It's reading and writing English afterwards, because my stubborn brain continues to go right-to-left and confuses me. It's especially a problem when I write, although I usually catch it after a few words.
I'm just the opposite.The right-to-left thing is toughest for me, especially with the word balloons.I can't tell you how many times I read the same two pages a few times before realizing it because I did go right to left and then back to the right page.
The reading right to left gets easier. Now whenever I pick up a book I always open it up the wrong way. '^_^ (Well, this could also be partially due to the fact that Hebrew is my first language...but my point is that at first, almost everyone has to read and reread the books two or three times to get what's going on. As you read more manga you grow more accustomed to the reversed format.)
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