girly ninja manga!
Spent a lovely night at Schuler's, my reward to myself for (finally) getting some work done on the Guitar book (maybe a chapter or two's worth of illustrations, but it was exhausting! I'd had some sort of mental block against doing ANY of it for a while now but I think I'm getting past that. as the deadline draws dangerously near, of course). Among other, mostly non-manga purchases (shocking!!) I bought Shinobi Life and special-ordered my Hidaka fix for this month (juuuust in case they don't get copies as normal stock, and so that I can maybe get the books a couple days early? please??)
Shinobi Life is fun. I read it first as a scanlation, so it makes me a little sad that tonight's read wasn't a first-time read, but on the other hand I don't know if I would have bought it if I hadn't already read and enjoyed it. But it was still a lot of fun to read. I love the comical expressions Conami-sensei draws-they're more cartoony than typical-manga-chibi-humour. The translation/adaptation was good, too-I noticed Kagetora's speech is subtly (not jarringly) old-fashioned compared to Beni's. And... to go on singing praises, I like the cover design too. Tokyopop's got some nice graphic design work going on, whatever other problems they may have. Their covers make me want to pick up the book and read it, even for series I wouldn't otherwise be interested in. I also like that they have a consistent-but-specific-to-the-series thing going on with the decorative spines of their books (compared to Viz-ShojoBeat, which uses the same border around all their covers, or Del Rey and CMX with little to no graphic designing beyond the title fonts (CMX really needs help with this. I love the series they pick up, but their covers just make me cringe. A lot of yellow and/or bright green and it is UGLY UGLY UGLY!!)) Pink sakura blossoms and with ninja throwing stars suit this series perfectly! (as does the summary heading on the back-"Ninjas + Romance = Absolute Perfect Manga!" Hahaha, I'm such a girl.)
Oh, another nice thing. The first sidebar suggested reading the manga when you sit back to take a break-exactly what I was ready to do tonight after drawing mullets all day. Conami-sensei even recommended Darjeeling tea while reading, so I made myself a cup and sipped and read and it was delightful. I think more manga should come with beverage suggestions :D
Shinobi Life is fun. I read it first as a scanlation, so it makes me a little sad that tonight's read wasn't a first-time read, but on the other hand I don't know if I would have bought it if I hadn't already read and enjoyed it. But it was still a lot of fun to read. I love the comical expressions Conami-sensei draws-they're more cartoony than typical-manga-chibi-humour. The translation/adaptation was good, too-I noticed Kagetora's speech is subtly (not jarringly) old-fashioned compared to Beni's. And... to go on singing praises, I like the cover design too. Tokyopop's got some nice graphic design work going on, whatever other problems they may have. Their covers make me want to pick up the book and read it, even for series I wouldn't otherwise be interested in. I also like that they have a consistent-but-specific-to-the-series thing going on with the decorative spines of their books (compared to Viz-ShojoBeat, which uses the same border around all their covers, or Del Rey and CMX with little to no graphic designing beyond the title fonts (CMX really needs help with this. I love the series they pick up, but their covers just make me cringe. A lot of yellow and/or bright green and it is UGLY UGLY UGLY!!)) Pink sakura blossoms and with ninja throwing stars suit this series perfectly! (as does the summary heading on the back-"Ninjas + Romance = Absolute Perfect Manga!" Hahaha, I'm such a girl.)
Oh, another nice thing. The first sidebar suggested reading the manga when you sit back to take a break-exactly what I was ready to do tonight after drawing mullets all day. Conami-sensei even recommended Darjeeling tea while reading, so I made myself a cup and sipped and read and it was delightful. I think more manga should come with beverage suggestions :D