(no subject)
{...I think I'm listening to Jeff Buckley for the first time. Is this possible? I know the name like it's important...}
So I've been falling for Shoujo Rom-Com (that may sound like a redundancy, but bear with me) lately.
Another instance of me succumbing to a love that brands me for an Uber-Nerd. I'm not complaining...it's more of a self-amused cataloguing at this point.
...fantasy, Ender's Game, poetry, costumes, anime, an emo band, Enya, chant, shoujo, old book smell, Pixar kid movies...
One closed-series comic I've really enjoyed and just finished is not a rom-com, but a drama-dy. Kinda.
If you are at all likely to read a comic, I'd like to recommend crossroad to you, for it's characters.
Generally, especially the comedy-intense manga, there are characters with wild attributes that help move scenes along. The crack-tastic element of Japanese comics often springs out of this as much as the plot-bunnies.
This one you can tell is less of a straight-up comedy because the characters are all more subtle. All angst-ridden, but functional. And all likely to make unexpected moves in the love-triangle, family-by-choice set-ups going around.
Anyone else with anything to say about this? It has it's bimiyou~ (sketch) aspects, which tends to drive the plot more than any real action, but that's the point. In fact, you read on for the characters, which isn't an overplayed strength of series' of any kind.
In pacing, I think that the writer got to the end before she finished the 7 volumes she'd planned. This means the last volume is a tying-up resolution. I don't know if this is usual, since comics do not see fit to resolve very often. >,< Anyway, I think she should have kept The Kiss for the last one. Withheld passion was kind of the whole theme, so it feels like it consummated too soon, and since it doesn't go explicit about anything else, the rest is a little flat.
No, I didn't spoil anything for you, really. Until you get to the 6th volume, in which case, it won't be much of one anyway...
Okay, stats on my other current affairs:
Vampire Knight: another example of a non-Rom-Com (it's a little bit horror, above the usual manga love of the creep-tastic.) At Vol. 2.
Vampires at boarding school, blah, blah, blah. The heavy association of blood-taking and sex is kind of an interesting tension here, but my heart just isn't in it...
Tail of the Moon: this is also interesting in that the heroine sets out to have babies with the hero on the 3rd page, but in a naïve and horrifyingly awkward way. I would like it better if Ninja Master Boy wasn't so beautiful... At Vol. 2
Skip-Beat: !!!
Okay, this is famous with good reason. (I always forget that this can happen, and am always ashamed of my snobbery when I discover I've been avoiding a potential favorite.)
It's a bit weird at first, and not in a good way, with out-of-nowhere spirit powers in the heroine rising from her wrath...in total contrast with her normal personality. This mind-bending facet kind of abates (though not going away) as the other plots develop. And let me say, this showcases all the classic elements of manga with all the strength they have, rather than the weaknesses.
They knew each other as children!
He's actually his father!
They both are incapable of love!
But it feels organic to the comic, since it never takes itself too seriously. The angst and emotives are off-set by real moments, or at least wacko humor.
I've read every chapter in scanlation, and earnestly hope to have money someday and use it to buy the Japanese originals...or at least the most recent ones. ^_^