ebullience

ramblings of someone in society

Double Arts (END) September 7, 2008

Filed under: Double Arts, Manga Related — ebulliencejj @ 11:12 pm
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So a wonderfully fresh and creative manga comes to an end.

ZOMG WTF ASKDSJFOIJENECOMPRENDSPAS* (continues incoherent speech for half an hour)

Weekly Shounen Jump, I hate you T_T.

So I’ve been reading Weekly Jump titles for years now and I can tell that some of the its more longer running titles actually have an end in sight, specially Naruto with its recent tying up of some plot holes and killing off major characters. Boy, was I glad when Double Arts showed up. Not only was the art awesome to look at but it was a great read and I looked forward to it every week just like I looked foward to Naruto, Bleach, D.Gray-man and Katekyo Hitman Reborn. You can pretty much tell that based on the way the story was being played out that the mangaka had planned it to be a longer running series.

GOSH DARN YOU PICKY JAPANESE WEEKLY JUMP READERS AND YOUR INCOHERENT RATINGS. Mind you, I don’t GET IT AT ALL. Double Arts is quite popular with the English readers based on what I’ve seen so far. What’s not to like? It has this crazy fight style that practically looks like ballroom dancing, the main male character’s hair is absolutely crazy, the chibi’s are so cute that you can just squish them to bits, and there’s actually a good, un-cliche storyline.

The way the ending was written, it was absolutely obvious that the author had not planned the early end either. The fight was tied up and then BAM! The main couple’s relationship was solidified as a last minute save for the fanbase and then goodbye Double Arts. All in all, rushed. Can’t blame them though. The plot was made for a longer running story, ending it so prematurely just screamed “to hell with trying to save it.” Still, I’m glad to see how Kili viewed Elraine. Though I would have prefered to see that more down the road. From what I could tell in the last few pages, I guess they did survive? Or perhaps they’re still in the middle of their adventure. I’m really clinging to the fact Elraine said, “Perhaps I’ll continue writing this story again,” or something along those lines.

I dare say that I do like Double Arts far better than Bakuman. Ughhh, but I guess the Double Arts story just wasn’t fitting in with the bloodlust and fighting extravaganza that the other Jump titles had to offer. Probably because it was less focused on the actual fights and more on the story’s goal (which may or may not involve defeating a super badass boss…well we’ll never know now). I say just switch to another magazine! I don’t even care if its a monthly one, I just want my Double Arts back. This was like a perfectly bad ending to the first school week. Didn’t even see it coming. I had alarm bells ringing as soon as Elraine closed the book. The series had so much potential! Darn it, I’m so buying this here in North America when its licensed.

Again, I say, “Je ne comprends pas.”

 

Bakuman in English August 20, 2008

Filed under: Manga Related, bakuman — ebulliencejj @ 4:05 am
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Yes, yes it seems that the Japanese anime/manga industry has been reaching out more to its fans here in the West.

The Jumpland website, which has been hosting several popular manga online in Japanese has recently added Bakuman, except unlike the other titles, it is made available in FOUR different languages: English, French, German and Japanese. You’ll need to download an application to view the manga which only works on Windows XP and Vista. Awesome eh?  I wonder what will happen to the groups that has this title as their project? XD

 

An “Explosive” (Re)appearance! August 5, 2008

Filed under: Manga Related, bakuman — ebulliencejj @ 6:30 am
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Gosh darn it, why am I always late for these sort of things? Okay so apparently the ever famous Obata Takeshi will team up with the acclaimed writer Ohba Tsugumi once again to produce another manga, entitled “Bakuman” set to be released on August 8/9 (COUNTING DOWN NOW. Date is always spiffy when it comes to comparing NA time to JAPAN time @_@). It’s been described as “explosive” (explosive in Japanese is bakuhatsu) Since the announcement, people have been questioning if it will be on par with Death Note (I suppose in terms of how popular it will grow). Since this is for the makers of Death Note, there will be a lot of critism ready to fire back and lots of comparisons made with their previous work. Ahhhh I can just see how some people will be disappointed:

“OH MY GAWD!!! MANGA FROM OBATA AND OHBA!!!! KYAAAA <3 *reads*…… WHERE THE HELL IS MY L/LIGHT??!!!”

Ahahaha well some people will probably approach this thinking the duo will continue the story of Death Note (or completely redo the story so that L lives on as many would wish). But yeah, a lot of people will be waiting in anticipation for it and a large majority of them will have expectations. As for me, I’m just glad Obata’s working on something else. I’m a total fan of his art. Well I loved the Death Note storyline as well, so I’m interested to see what else Ohba will come up with.

image from きる on pixiv

EDIT: Made a mistake. It seems that Bakuman was released this week on the Aug 9 release