Random manga chatter

[Arakawa]

I recommend (as I always do), the Improved version of Naruto.

http://soulriders.net/brian/fanfic/motivation/

Sure, it has less pictures, but it also involves a genuinely more consistent ninja cast.

Recently got around to enjoying that one; took a long time to get enough context (from reading other fanfiction) to grasp the significant divergence points (such as the whole thing with

Spoiler: ShowHide

Iruka's death

). Well worth recommending to anyone with cursory familiarity of the original cast. Lacking even that basic level of familiarity doomed my first read-through, though...

I ask about the original manga because it's something of a shame to be reading all this cool Naruto fanfiction and not make an attempt to tackle... at least a sane proportion of the original work.

[Dracos]

Immediately after the Pain Invasion arc. No Sasuke. Impressive fight. Naruto finally growing into The Hero.

Everything after that is varying degrees of bullshit.

I'd say the lead in for that is one of the better parts. Also after it the best character is gone so definitely a fair quit point.

[Dracos]

That's fair but do keep in mind that the original work is a haphazard poorly planned mess.  Many of the common Genin were actually retcon'd in around the chuunin arc as I understand it.  Also it is built around grudges with konoha usually for things done by decrepit old men decades ago.

[Brian]

...I really need to write that, "Yes, but do you hate Konoha?" fanspamfic.

[Dracos]

Pretty much every illustrated story I am reading either has the good guys losing/injured/crippled  ... or becoming the bad guys.

Well, I guess One Piece isn't doing that and Hajime and Mafia Youkai just isn't updating, but still.  For american webcomics its almost total :(  If they have a story, good guys are not doing good.

Some of them are even combining it.  Good guy injured, other good  guy turned temporarily evil! @_@

[thepanda]

Oh, Bleach. *smdh*

[thepanda]

You know what? I can't even be mad at Bleach anymore. At this point it has gotten so bad it looped back around to hilarious.

[Merc]

Ippo's made it to 1000 chapters. Damn long for a manga!

Volg's fight is pretty good considering some of the fights the manga has been having. Still disappointing that it's not Ippo getting a good fight, but I like Volg and hopefully this fight serves as the start of a comeback with Ippo starting to get motivated again (as well as Sendo).

[Dracos]

Agreed.  It almost looks like a boxing manga again.  I hope it's the lead in for Ippo challenges the world.  The setup is all there.

[Grahf]

Chapter 22 of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha is out.

Hero is a boss, perhaps even the big boss. That is all that needs to be said.

[Dracos]

Hero would fit right in with the Gurren Lagann crew.

What is a Hero but someone who does the impossible?

[Grahf]

And now for something completely different:

Koe no Katachi

This one has apparently been being talked about a lot lately. It's a one-shot, but it's been slated to be serialized.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Basically, it's the story of a deaf girl, Nishimiya Shouko, who transfers into a class. Despite trying her best to fit in she's eventually ostracized and bullied by most of the other student,in particular a boy,  Ishida Shouya. When things come to a head though, Shouya finds himself turned into a scapegoat for the entire class, the teacher included. I've already given away a lot, so I won't speak more of the rest. At least not here.

Spoiler: ShowHide

It is a topic that's been discussed in the format before, but this was still a more frank look at bullying than I believe a lot of people are used to. Nishimiya is pretty much the only truly innocent person in the story, since Shouya was one of those doing the bullying as well. Granted, everyone else is pretty much even worse than that because they ostracize him and seemingly convince themselves that he was the only one ever doing anything wrong, when they were either agreeing with what he was doing at the time or doing nothing to stop it either way.

It was a well written story but I can't help but wonder why it's going to be serialized now. I don't really see a point with them recovering the events depicted. It would be interesting to see them pick it up from the point that Shouko and Shouya meet again and he starts trying to make amends. It's not like there still couldn't be potential problems, such as what happens if/when other people from that class enter into the equation and perhaps assume that he's out for some sort of revenge against her, or something like that. I'm not sure how much can really be made of that though.

[Dracos]

Drifters updated recently.  Recent work by the Hellsing artist I believe.

Anyhow, it's kinda neat.  Take generic fantasy world, and various superpowers tossing people from different time-periods into it and seeing how they modified the world.  It's crude, violent and pretty amusing.  On one hand, it's gone very little on the overall plot.

On the other, well, the heroes have rescued two races and are building an army, having had lots of scattered violent encounters.

[sarsaparilla]

Koe no Katachi

It is reasonably well drawn, and it is commendable to choose such a topic for a serious treatment. However, I cannot help feeling that the work is still erring too far on the idealistic side both in the description of the causes and dynamics of the situation, and in largely glossing over the adverse and possibly very damaging consequences.

But, it is always a positive thing if it makes people talk about the issue.

[Brian]

I hadn't read it until you commented on it.  It was very interesting, but I think one of the issues was just the amount of space it had to work with ... so the story does end up feeling in some ways contrived or idealistic because certain motives cannot be adequately explored.

If you look at the story as a pilot, to launch a new series (it is getting serialized, evidently), then I think it's a promising topic.  As it is, we got a character study with some elements of social commentary; I think if it's given more space, it might better address some topics.  I'm a sucker for happy (or at least, happier) endings, so I look forward to seeing the whole work.