Anime/Manga/Light Novel Thread

gingermilk · 2022-11-07T01:10:36+00:00

HELLO WEEBS. This is a general thread for discussing anime/manga/light novel related stuff. What are you consuming right now? What is your favorite? Any recommendations?

praskova

Aero I have it in my readlist somewhere. Somewhere really deep among many other mangas lol. Will get there eventually (very unlikely unless get some motivation or mad interest out of the blue to read it)

HowlerMcgee

Recently, I finished an interesting manga by the name of "Gyakusatsu Happiendo", known in english as Massacre Happy End.

It's about a guy stuck in a time loop, and in order to save his sister whos surgery is in a month he must kill one person everyday in order to get to the next day.

I've always had a bit of a taste for loop fiction, whether it's re;zero, steinsgate, groundhogs day, edge of tomorrow, through the flash, etc. Seeing characters stuck in a situation where every action regardless of how meaningful it is will get reverted back to zero at the end of the day always makes for interesting character study.

In happyend, you have this character who is struggling with his on morality, trying at first to only kill people he deems evil, but slowly he is forced to wonder what "evil" means and what he's willing to do in order to open the doors to time, and on top of this he's being hunted by a detective who would make L blush, as he is willing to do some immoral things just to catch him.

Not a bad read if you want a dark thriller type story.
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Somnolence

I've never really been much of one for manga, or even anime to be honest. I bought and read all of Berserk and Blame! physical, but that's pretty much it.

On a whim I bought "The Horizon", a manhwa, at an airport and was pretty blown away by it. It's a very well done, extremely harsh tale on the nature of peace and violence - following two war orphans who have decided that, with civilization collapsed, and nothing left to lose, they're going to just walk down a highway towards an endless horizon. It's stark and striking, visually, and shares an element of 'narrative minimalism' with Blame, almost becoming poetry at times. Very emotional, highly recommended.

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That sorta got me on a trend and lately I read through all of "Mosquito War", which is a bit of a tonally bizarre webtoon about every mosquito on earth having suddenly transformed into monsters, and how that's led humanity to the verge of annihilation. It's a comedy. It's a romance story. It's got a ton of action, it's very serious, a bit melodramatic, full of big lofty ideas, and brimming with heart and soul.

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(Full resolution)

Best part about these two? They're both very short. You could read them both in a day if you wanted.

Now I'm reading something called "I am the Grim Reaper", which is a bit more sissy in that RWBY shounen shoujo young adult kinda way, but so far so good.

HowlerMcgee
This sounds great. I'll poke my nose into it a bit.

Aero

Somnolence I'm gonna try reading mosquito war

[unknown] just finished mosquito war. Didn't really like it. Cool premise, awesome art and use of color, but the plot kinda petered out super early. Honestly as far back as them leaving base for a single mission. Ending was very fire punch-esque, but honestly I'm not a fan of that. Also wasn't a fan of old man x young girl ship or that they just seem to turn people back and forth from squito mode at will. In general I'm not a fan of these corruption tropes, the same thing happening in dorohedoro with nikaido turning into a devil.

Will probably go reread toriko again

Somnolence

Aero
Well you gave it a shot and that's all I can hope for.
Definitely know what you mean about the plot running out of steam, feels like we sorta skip a lot of the second act in favor of a more drawn out climax. To the degree that I think they say "this is going to be the final battle" at like the 2/3rds point- chapter wise. Definitely some fast and loose rules in the fiction too, and I don't mean the premise around DNA or with power levels.
I've heard a lot about Fire Punch and if you say they have a similar ending, maybe that's another I should add to the list.

Aero

Somnolence fire punch is literary equivalent of acid + dmt + ecstasy + ketamine + another hallucinogen blended together, shaken with rubbing alcohol and lit on fire (with a salted rim). It's an experience. Even though I didn't super like it, I'm glad I read it just to experience the mindbreak

Somnolence

HowlerMcgee
I've now finished it! That Japanese -> Russian -> English translation can be pretty rough, but it's a great story still.
It really does feel like a sequel to Death Note at times. What with the mundane world with a mystical premise, cat-and-mouse plot with the super detective, and of course a ruleset that keeps the story twisting and turning in interesting ways. Like Death Note though, the ending is pretty rushed and it seems like it needs to invent new rules to actually close out the story. It's also kinda crazy how motivations can do complete 180s in the span of a single page, sometimes twice or even three times in a row, just to speed things along. A narrative "get-there-itis" I suppose. I get it's about as stressful as a situation can be, but a bit of time to breathe might have helped a bit.

yukarihinata

Started reading Heroine? Saint? No, I'm and All-Works Maid (And Proud Of It), Shield Hero, and That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime. I have been trying to get into more Light Novels, but always seem to go back to the Isekai stuff.

They are nice "turn your brain off" books

Aero

Luv the turn my brain off category of culture. Idc if sophists turn their snooty noses at the category. I just wanna unwind, not think

yukarihinata

Aero agreed. I find it funny that when I was younger I wanted to only watch and read things that were perceived as "deep and philosophical." Now that I actually know what those deep shows are trying to say, I just prefer to watch mindless garbage. Its called "entertainment" for a reason.

Somnolence

Aero
Ended up just biting the bullet and reading the last 40 chapters of Fire Punch today, which I've had simmering for the last month or two. Can definitely see why you would maybe "enjoy but not like" either it or Mosquito War, especially with regards to the endings.

What I'll say about Fire Punch is that is has a really, really, ugly first few chapters. Not artistically, but thematically. I think of myself as having a pretty strong stomach for fiction, there isn't really a lot that bothers me; but Fire Punch has fucking problems man. Starting off small, everyone talks like they're on fucking drugs, or at a Grade 2 level. Nobody can get three coherent sentences out, and this does has an effect after a while. I guess it illustrates the lack of education and degeneracy of the world, but is it ever hard to read. Nevermind the fact that characters are introduced, seem very important, and then just die a half dozen chapters later - how is it possible for a manga to have dementia?
And then the fact it's is fucking obsessed with child rape. Like, obsessed, way beyond The Author's Thinly Veiled Fetish. I think it's discussed, averted, or partially illustrated like 9 times in the first 10 chapters (it didn't happen in Chapter 1 because the shota's sister wanted to have consensual incest with him - don't worry about it). Then of course it's confirmed once (perhaps twice) more towards the end. Jesus christ.

Of course though, it also has that 'heart' quality. It's definitely a manga that wants to be about something: identity, dogmatism, the nature of hope and suffering... I just wish it was a bit more coherent on its way to making its point.

Aero

Somnolence Now you see what I mean...

It's a fuckin RIDE

MQ

Currently reading the Ghost in the shell 2 manga atm. I have read Ghost in the shell and Ghost in the shell 1.5. Then I reread it again. The manga has some footnotes that can be really helpful in understanding the technology and also understanding some of the philosophical concepts talked about. However they can be a lot in some chapters and disrupt the flow. So it's better read them separately. There are some chapters that's essentially just explain some of the tech in the GITS universe. It can be a bit hard to follow sometimes, but it's alright. I also am interested in seeing the new ghost in the shell anime being release on 7th of July this year. From the looks of the trailer, it looks like it will be more accurate to the manga.

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