D.Greyman, Bleach, and related Manga/Anime musings
cut for those without any interest in this topic
The more anime I see and manga I read, the more patterns emerge. Of course, this is inevitable, but I sometimes wish to regain that innocence I had during my first viewing of Bleach, when everything was new and exciting, and I could discover character types and different plot lines than I had hitherto been used to.
Now that I`ve been inculcated with lots more anime and manga, things are different. For example, D.Greyman. If this was the first shounen manga I`d read, I would have been more impressed with it. As it is, I keep seeing parallels to other, better (IMHO) manga. Even now, I don`t like reading manga as much as many other people seem to. I like to watch anime better, perhaps because I can`t envision movement very well in action manga. Anyway, back to D.Greyman. The main characters have several "releases" of their power, leading me to think of Bleach (with Shikai and Bankai). Allen Walker`s form in D.Greyman is...just weird. He has one arm of Buggy the clown, the hair of Hitsugaya, and the other arm of a three pronged fork. He also has this masquerade mask on his back which I won`t even comment on. When the hero of Bleach (Ichigo) is revealed in his "bankai" form, I audibly gasped, it was so cool. Not so much with this. At least make your hero`s powers cool, otherwise, no matter how much of a great character he is, I won`t want to see him fighting in such a lame outfit. Perhaps this is akin to the bright colored spandex in X-men. I just don`t like it.
Also, on the nature of villains: villains must ones you love to hate, but also (in a small corner of your heart) enjoy watching. Otherwise, you`re just vaugely annoyed when they pop up, and try to be fiendish. In D.Greyman, the villain is a fat, wide grinned, somewhat foppish guy. You don`t really like him, you don`t really hate him, he`s just...there. One reason why Lord of the Rings is so great is because you are so scared of the villain. He`s mysterious: you can`t quite figure out what he`s going to do yet, and he`s even formless (so even more mysterious). But if the villain is too familiar, or not scary enough, or too sympathetic, they don`t ballance out the main character
Another thing I`ve analyzed is my favorite characters. They tend to be the cool, aloof-so-slightly-arrogant, reserved, sometimes emotionless characters: Yuu (D.Greyman), Byakuya (Bleach), Hitsugaya (Bleach) [except when teased about his height], Gaara (Naruto), L (Death Note) Lelouch (Code Geass), Yojiru (Bakumatsu), Jin (Samurai Champloo), Roy (Fullmetal Alchemist), Hibari (Reborn)...I could go on. They`re very hot and make the fangirl in me squee (just noticed all of them except Gaara/Hitsugaya have dark hair...interesting). On the flip side, I would never, if they were real people, consider liking them. I would worship their looks from a distance, and maybe even be friends with some of them (because who wouldn`t want to have a battle of wits with L), but that would be all. Instead, I`ve realised any character in these stories I`d like if they were real would be the friendly, outgoing, cute, center-of-attention characters: the heros. If Ichigo lived in real life, I`d be in love with him. If someone with the personality of Luffy came along (but with a bit more common sense, since I don`t have much), I`d be the happiest person alive (because I`d never stop laughing). If Tamaki was a salesman who came to my door, I`d buy everything he sold. If either Gintoki or Okita appeared before me, I`d adore them. As much as I hate Naruto, if a guy with his magnetic, charismatic personality came along (and again had more sense/wit than Naruto), I`d totally go for them. It`s true that these are some of my favorite characters too, but they are in an entirely different category than the "cool, reserved" character type. Maybe I`d like them because, deep down, I know I`m a "supporting" character. I`m no Hinato or Inoue (perhaps I`m more of a Rukia or a Kagura when it comes to arguing, although not in being a main character), but I feel that if I were in a grand, sweeping story, I would stay mostly in the shadows, unobserved. Perhaps in one story I would get the hero, but in most I would be the pitiful, unrequited love. hehe. I know there was more of what I was thinking about...but I can`t remember now.
The more anime I see and manga I read, the more patterns emerge. Of course, this is inevitable, but I sometimes wish to regain that innocence I had during my first viewing of Bleach, when everything was new and exciting, and I could discover character types and different plot lines than I had hitherto been used to.
Now that I`ve been inculcated with lots more anime and manga, things are different. For example, D.Greyman. If this was the first shounen manga I`d read, I would have been more impressed with it. As it is, I keep seeing parallels to other, better (IMHO) manga. Even now, I don`t like reading manga as much as many other people seem to. I like to watch anime better, perhaps because I can`t envision movement very well in action manga. Anyway, back to D.Greyman. The main characters have several "releases" of their power, leading me to think of Bleach (with Shikai and Bankai). Allen Walker`s form in D.Greyman is...just weird. He has one arm of Buggy the clown, the hair of Hitsugaya, and the other arm of a three pronged fork. He also has this masquerade mask on his back which I won`t even comment on. When the hero of Bleach (Ichigo) is revealed in his "bankai" form, I audibly gasped, it was so cool. Not so much with this. At least make your hero`s powers cool, otherwise, no matter how much of a great character he is, I won`t want to see him fighting in such a lame outfit. Perhaps this is akin to the bright colored spandex in X-men. I just don`t like it.
Also, on the nature of villains: villains must ones you love to hate, but also (in a small corner of your heart) enjoy watching. Otherwise, you`re just vaugely annoyed when they pop up, and try to be fiendish. In D.Greyman, the villain is a fat, wide grinned, somewhat foppish guy. You don`t really like him, you don`t really hate him, he`s just...there. One reason why Lord of the Rings is so great is because you are so scared of the villain. He`s mysterious: you can`t quite figure out what he`s going to do yet, and he`s even formless (so even more mysterious). But if the villain is too familiar, or not scary enough, or too sympathetic, they don`t ballance out the main character
Another thing I`ve analyzed is my favorite characters. They tend to be the cool, aloof-so-slightly-arrogant, reserved, sometimes emotionless characters: Yuu (D.Greyman), Byakuya (Bleach), Hitsugaya (Bleach) [except when teased about his height], Gaara (Naruto), L (Death Note) Lelouch (Code Geass), Yojiru (Bakumatsu), Jin (Samurai Champloo), Roy (Fullmetal Alchemist), Hibari (Reborn)...I could go on. They`re very hot and make the fangirl in me squee (just noticed all of them except Gaara/Hitsugaya have dark hair...interesting). On the flip side, I would never, if they were real people, consider liking them. I would worship their looks from a distance, and maybe even be friends with some of them (because who wouldn`t want to have a battle of wits with L), but that would be all. Instead, I`ve realised any character in these stories I`d like if they were real would be the friendly, outgoing, cute, center-of-attention characters: the heros. If Ichigo lived in real life, I`d be in love with him. If someone with the personality of Luffy came along (but with a bit more common sense, since I don`t have much), I`d be the happiest person alive (because I`d never stop laughing). If Tamaki was a salesman who came to my door, I`d buy everything he sold. If either Gintoki or Okita appeared before me, I`d adore them. As much as I hate Naruto, if a guy with his magnetic, charismatic personality came along (and again had more sense/wit than Naruto), I`d totally go for them. It`s true that these are some of my favorite characters too, but they are in an entirely different category than the "cool, reserved" character type. Maybe I`d like them because, deep down, I know I`m a "supporting" character. I`m no Hinato or Inoue (perhaps I`m more of a Rukia or a Kagura when it comes to arguing, although not in being a main character), but I feel that if I were in a grand, sweeping story, I would stay mostly in the shadows, unobserved. Perhaps in one story I would get the hero, but in most I would be the pitiful, unrequited love. hehe. I know there was more of what I was thinking about...but I can`t remember now.