DIAF, Bakuman.
So, I've been thinking about manga again recently while I'm slowly catching up on stuff and I started wondering... you know, how many manga series have I ever actually finished? Most of the ones I read are either still ongoing or oneshots or I lost interest before they finally fucking ended.
I started trying to make a list of the manga I've finished (to count, I think there needs to be at least five volumes--so Merupuri is close, but not quite, since it only has four volumes) and I could only come up with:
MONSTER, Hanakimi, Dragonball Z (well, I didn't read the first half of Dragonball, but I'm counting them as separate), Love Mode, Cardcaptor Sakura, and KareKano. I'm not sure if Saiyuki counts, since RELOAD is technically a separate series, but it continues RIGHT where the first series left off.
Am I the only one who's read a boatload of manga but has a pitifully small finished list?
I also read the first five chapters of Bakuman, since it's the new manga out by Ohba and Obata and, hell, I'm easy for anything WJ. I'd heard a lot of mixed reviews about this one, some people just rave about it and other people loathe it.
I... I tried to be really open-minded about it and tried not to be uptight about it, but... I think I'm leaning towards the latter side of things. So, if you loved it, you probably don't want to read this.
Bakuman chapters 01-05: It certainly is a very pretty manga, the art is just as hot ass as Death Note and I spent the whole first chapter being vaguely interested in the characters and kind of really interested in the meta aspect. I love meta, I love the whole idea of a WJ manga being about two young guys wanting to be mangaka, that kind of thing was totally in my area of interest.
And it's not bad on that particular front.
The characters aren't bad, we have:
- Masahiro, the artist half of the duo, our main character, kind of apathetic but finding his dream
- Takagi, the guy with the best grades in the class but really wants to be a mangaka, so he convinces Masahiro to do the art, kind of a spaz and I liked him at first
- Azuki, the pretty girl in class who gets decent grades and is the designated love interest for Masahiro
Where Bakuman fell apart for me, though, was in the second/third chapter when Takagi was discussing why Masahiro liked Azuki, why Takagi thought she was the smartest in the class. She didn't get the best grades, but she didn't have to study hard to get where she was and she knew that being too smart wasn't nearly as cute, that she put more effort into being feminine and graceful. Unlike another girl in their class, who's good looking, but gets the best grades in the class and knows it, she's really proud of it, so she's not cute at all to him. (And she does have a snobby look on her face when she's looking into a compact mirror to touch her hair up notepad?, but. Idk, I was kind of blinded by the searing irritation at that point.)
I... what? Getting good grades and being proud of that makes you an uncute girl? ....what?
Then, when Masahiro has to talk to his parents about having decided that this is what he wants to do, he talks to his mom first. If he can get her to agree, then she'll go talk to the dad. But because Masahiro's uncle was a mangaka who died from overworking himself after his only one hit gag manga was over and he couldn't get another manga published, they're kind of against it.
His mom says no way in hell. Masahiro, later that night, thinks he's going to do it anyway, even if they disown him, but his mom knocks on the door and says his dad said it was okay, which she's obviously not pleased about. "Let him do it," she repeats with a sigh. "Men have dreams that women can't understand.", which is what his dad said.
..............*icily* all right then.
Not to mention the whole marriage subplot makes sense from Masahiro's side (his uncle loved a girl--SHOCKINGLY, who turned out to be Azuki's mom, and I'd be surprised if there was anyone who didn't see that coming from a mile away--who he wanted to marry, but felt he couldn't ask her until he'd gotten successful enough, so she fell in love with someone else in the meantime, thus Masahiro accidentally spits out the proposal to Azuki because he feels like its fate), but why the hell did Azuki agree to it? She's never even talked to this boy before! He has a dream (to be a mangaka) that's somewhat similar to hers (to be a voice actor), but... that's it? Seriously, what the hell.
And then, to make things even better, Azuki and Masahiro have declared that they're not going to date, they're not even going to TALK to each other until they're both successful and this, as Takagi waxees on about, makes their love SO SUPER AWESOME.
What.
No.
Maybe if the rest of the manga had been better set up, I might have stuck with it anyway. I get that it's a cultural difference and I try not to get too worked up over something I'm not going to be able to change and doesn't do me any good, either. It's manga, big deal. And I don't actually actively hate Bakuman and I get that a lot of this is probably personal preference on Takagi and Masahiro's parts.
But that doesn't mean I have to read it or like it. Especially when the only really good thing going for this story is the art, honestly. Well, that and I would have shipped Takagi/Masahiro, because they're kind of really gay at each other.
I'm not sure if I'll keep reading or not, but I suspect not. I don't want to bitch about it every week and, dude, there are actual good manga I could be reading!
I started trying to make a list of the manga I've finished (to count, I think there needs to be at least five volumes--so Merupuri is close, but not quite, since it only has four volumes) and I could only come up with:
MONSTER, Hanakimi, Dragonball Z (well, I didn't read the first half of Dragonball, but I'm counting them as separate), Love Mode, Cardcaptor Sakura, and KareKano. I'm not sure if Saiyuki counts, since RELOAD is technically a separate series, but it continues RIGHT where the first series left off.
Am I the only one who's read a boatload of manga but has a pitifully small finished list?
I also read the first five chapters of Bakuman, since it's the new manga out by Ohba and Obata and, hell, I'm easy for anything WJ. I'd heard a lot of mixed reviews about this one, some people just rave about it and other people loathe it.
I... I tried to be really open-minded about it and tried not to be uptight about it, but... I think I'm leaning towards the latter side of things. So, if you loved it, you probably don't want to read this.
Bakuman chapters 01-05: It certainly is a very pretty manga, the art is just as hot ass as Death Note and I spent the whole first chapter being vaguely interested in the characters and kind of really interested in the meta aspect. I love meta, I love the whole idea of a WJ manga being about two young guys wanting to be mangaka, that kind of thing was totally in my area of interest.
And it's not bad on that particular front.
The characters aren't bad, we have:
- Masahiro, the artist half of the duo, our main character, kind of apathetic but finding his dream
- Takagi, the guy with the best grades in the class but really wants to be a mangaka, so he convinces Masahiro to do the art, kind of a spaz and I liked him at first
- Azuki, the pretty girl in class who gets decent grades and is the designated love interest for Masahiro
Where Bakuman fell apart for me, though, was in the second/third chapter when Takagi was discussing why Masahiro liked Azuki, why Takagi thought she was the smartest in the class. She didn't get the best grades, but she didn't have to study hard to get where she was and she knew that being too smart wasn't nearly as cute, that she put more effort into being feminine and graceful. Unlike another girl in their class, who's good looking, but gets the best grades in the class and knows it, she's really proud of it, so she's not cute at all to him. (And she does have a snobby look on her face when she's looking into a compact mirror to touch her hair up notepad?, but. Idk, I was kind of blinded by the searing irritation at that point.)
I... what? Getting good grades and being proud of that makes you an uncute girl? ....what?
Then, when Masahiro has to talk to his parents about having decided that this is what he wants to do, he talks to his mom first. If he can get her to agree, then she'll go talk to the dad. But because Masahiro's uncle was a mangaka who died from overworking himself after his only one hit gag manga was over and he couldn't get another manga published, they're kind of against it.
His mom says no way in hell. Masahiro, later that night, thinks he's going to do it anyway, even if they disown him, but his mom knocks on the door and says his dad said it was okay, which she's obviously not pleased about. "Let him do it," she repeats with a sigh. "Men have dreams that women can't understand.", which is what his dad said.
..............*icily* all right then.
Not to mention the whole marriage subplot makes sense from Masahiro's side (his uncle loved a girl--SHOCKINGLY, who turned out to be Azuki's mom, and I'd be surprised if there was anyone who didn't see that coming from a mile away--who he wanted to marry, but felt he couldn't ask her until he'd gotten successful enough, so she fell in love with someone else in the meantime, thus Masahiro accidentally spits out the proposal to Azuki because he feels like its fate), but why the hell did Azuki agree to it? She's never even talked to this boy before! He has a dream (to be a mangaka) that's somewhat similar to hers (to be a voice actor), but... that's it? Seriously, what the hell.
And then, to make things even better, Azuki and Masahiro have declared that they're not going to date, they're not even going to TALK to each other until they're both successful and this, as Takagi waxees on about, makes their love SO SUPER AWESOME.
What.
No.
Maybe if the rest of the manga had been better set up, I might have stuck with it anyway. I get that it's a cultural difference and I try not to get too worked up over something I'm not going to be able to change and doesn't do me any good, either. It's manga, big deal. And I don't actually actively hate Bakuman and I get that a lot of this is probably personal preference on Takagi and Masahiro's parts.
But that doesn't mean I have to read it or like it. Especially when the only really good thing going for this story is the art, honestly. Well, that and I would have shipped Takagi/Masahiro, because they're kind of really gay at each other.
I'm not sure if I'll keep reading or not, but I suspect not. I don't want to bitch about it every week and, dude, there are actual good manga I could be reading!