You have been warned - It's time to fangirl!
I managed to pick up 3 of UMSFL's so-called *eerie music* Lost Chapters (henceforth TLC) and so far...I like what I see. Very much. Truly, madly and deeply.
OK, M2K, try to fangirl sensibly... right...
The first thing I was (somewhat) pleased to note about The Lost Chapters was that nothing untoward happened in way of the art (although I STILL like issue 2's renditions better than the rest...). There was no sudden proportion change, no sudden, unnecessary angles here and there. I think Kurihara may have settled into a permanent style, finally ^_^! His depiction of [spoiler]Ultraman's 'return' (yes, he returns!)[/spoiler] was clean lines, goodness and sweetness and light. Pity it's too darn big for an LJ avatar (although I did flick a few smaller shots from other places.) There was also a screentoned panel of Ultraman Powered that completely floored me with its clarity and effect.As for the Most Evil Entity that has something to do with this...go on, look into that gaping maw with its three rows of small, sharp teeth, gaze at that double-page spread of the evil, hideous, decaying face and tell me you aren't at least a tiny bit impressed. ;)
Speaking of characters...they seem out to thwart my ficcing efforts *steam*. If you take, for instance, Saiyuki, you can go through a few chapters and pick out a certain speech pattern used by each of the four bishounen, and that establishes their character and bearing, etc. The same is vaguely true of Ultra Ninja Manual, although I have the tendency in ficcing to make them all way too nice. It helps that in the comic some of them have very unique speech characteristics (chibiTaro's dragging of the 'su' in desu, Ace's 1st person pronoun 'asshi' and his 'de yansu' instead of 'desu', Dyna's 1.p.p. 'sessha' etc.). In Super Fighter Legend, alas, I can discern a 'pronoun pattern' but not quite a speech pattern per se. The only thing I can quite pin down is perhaps Ultraman's clipping of the negative verb ending, but that's occasional only @__________@
...Ah well, at least you know everybody here speaks fairly politely.
If you've seen the last couple of issues of UMSFL and their Powered parodies, you may well dread his appearance in TLC. (yes! He appears! Get over it!) Dear reader, I grasp you around your cyber shoulders now and tell you this. UMSFL manga Powered kicks ass, and metric tonnes of it besides. It appears that our dear Ultran has gone into training, for in the manga, the mysterious Ultran is master of the Powered School, a class of karate that emphasises mental strength and training and overlooks any physical limits. He's drawn pretty nicely too, complete with armour. Cloth, shoulder shield, Timer shield, nothing fancy. They even gave his eyes a light tone to suggest the blue, which was nice. As for his fighting, he's pretty much a pacifist but hey, he did defeat four monsters with just a touch of his hand--with that single touch he exerted a great amount of Hyper Energy upon them, so a few minutes after the first delicate touch, down they go like a ton of bricks just hit them! For all his smooth, non-wasteful movement and calm, collected moves, however, in the semi-final he pounces like a tiger onto Masked Knight -- apparently another Ultran, no, not Meros ([spoiler]It's Great, under *cough* possession[/spoiler]) and beat the living snot out of him! And he FANGED! Multiple times! O___o Heavens, Powered, what did the guy ever DO to you?!
...And oh goodness, these three chapters contain humour enough to sustain me one whole week. Suuuuuch as this gem. Prior to the qualifying battle royale...
Powered: I would like to ask you to move aside (because they're ganging up on Taro)
Tyrant: And if I refuse?
(Powered takes up a battle pose. They all move back in readiness to battle. His hands glow as he brings them together, and theeeeennnnn...*tense atmosphere*)
Powered: *bowing with hands joined in front of face* Please.
Monsters: ''O O'' ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Honestly, Powered takes pacifism to a new and hilarious level.
Perhaps one bit that made me vaguely uncomfortable was when character A superglomped character B, making subject X think of subject Y(aoi...). It didn't help when chara B said some very WRONG things in the mind of a fangirl. Subject X has been reading too many Saiyuki fictions to remember exactly how pure the bond of friendship and brotherhood was between A and B. *closes Saiyuki fandom off for a while to appreciate UMSFL* (But honestly, was that superglomp really necessary?!)
Pertaining to the first spoiler above: Ultraman returned, and under disguise, because he was given 'mission orders' by King to seek out and destroy a 'daemon of space'. He '(could) not even say' who it was or who was behind it, for if his suspicions are correct, then it could be the most evil badass who ever existed. I think I know who it is, but--OI! Even I'm not telling! ;)
There. I'm done.
More UM LJ-avatars coming up, and as soon as I can get them, some shiny Gojyo ones, too.
OK, M2K, try to fangirl sensibly... right...
The first thing I was (somewhat) pleased to note about The Lost Chapters was that nothing untoward happened in way of the art (although I STILL like issue 2's renditions better than the rest...). There was no sudden proportion change, no sudden, unnecessary angles here and there. I think Kurihara may have settled into a permanent style, finally ^_^! His depiction of [spoiler]Ultraman's 'return' (yes, he returns!)[/spoiler] was clean lines, goodness and sweetness and light. Pity it's too darn big for an LJ avatar (although I did flick a few smaller shots from other places.) There was also a screentoned panel of Ultraman Powered that completely floored me with its clarity and effect.As for the Most Evil Entity that has something to do with this...go on, look into that gaping maw with its three rows of small, sharp teeth, gaze at that double-page spread of the evil, hideous, decaying face and tell me you aren't at least a tiny bit impressed. ;)
Speaking of characters...they seem out to thwart my ficcing efforts *steam*. If you take, for instance, Saiyuki, you can go through a few chapters and pick out a certain speech pattern used by each of the four bishounen, and that establishes their character and bearing, etc. The same is vaguely true of Ultra Ninja Manual, although I have the tendency in ficcing to make them all way too nice. It helps that in the comic some of them have very unique speech characteristics (chibiTaro's dragging of the 'su' in desu, Ace's 1st person pronoun 'asshi' and his 'de yansu' instead of 'desu', Dyna's 1.p.p. 'sessha' etc.). In Super Fighter Legend, alas, I can discern a 'pronoun pattern' but not quite a speech pattern per se. The only thing I can quite pin down is perhaps Ultraman's clipping of the negative verb ending, but that's occasional only @__________@
...Ah well, at least you know everybody here speaks fairly politely.
If you've seen the last couple of issues of UMSFL and their Powered parodies, you may well dread his appearance in TLC. (yes! He appears! Get over it!) Dear reader, I grasp you around your cyber shoulders now and tell you this. UMSFL manga Powered kicks ass, and metric tonnes of it besides. It appears that our dear Ultran has gone into training, for in the manga, the mysterious Ultran is master of the Powered School, a class of karate that emphasises mental strength and training and overlooks any physical limits. He's drawn pretty nicely too, complete with armour. Cloth, shoulder shield, Timer shield, nothing fancy. They even gave his eyes a light tone to suggest the blue, which was nice. As for his fighting, he's pretty much a pacifist but hey, he did defeat four monsters with just a touch of his hand--with that single touch he exerted a great amount of Hyper Energy upon them, so a few minutes after the first delicate touch, down they go like a ton of bricks just hit them! For all his smooth, non-wasteful movement and calm, collected moves, however, in the semi-final he pounces like a tiger onto Masked Knight -- apparently another Ultran, no, not Meros ([spoiler]It's Great, under *cough* possession[/spoiler]) and beat the living snot out of him! And he FANGED! Multiple times! O___o Heavens, Powered, what did the guy ever DO to you?!
...And oh goodness, these three chapters contain humour enough to sustain me one whole week. Suuuuuch as this gem. Prior to the qualifying battle royale...
Powered: I would like to ask you to move aside (because they're ganging up on Taro)
Tyrant: And if I refuse?
(Powered takes up a battle pose. They all move back in readiness to battle. His hands glow as he brings them together, and theeeeennnnn...*tense atmosphere*)
Powered: *bowing with hands joined in front of face* Please.
Monsters: ''O O'' ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
Honestly, Powered takes pacifism to a new and hilarious level.
Perhaps one bit that made me vaguely uncomfortable was when character A superglomped character B, making subject X think of subject Y(aoi...). It didn't help when chara B said some very WRONG things in the mind of a fangirl. Subject X has been reading too many Saiyuki fictions to remember exactly how pure the bond of friendship and brotherhood was between A and B. *closes Saiyuki fandom off for a while to appreciate UMSFL* (But honestly, was that superglomp really necessary?!)
Pertaining to the first spoiler above: Ultraman returned, and under disguise, because he was given 'mission orders' by King to seek out and destroy a 'daemon of space'. He '(could) not even say' who it was or who was behind it, for if his suspicions are correct, then it could be the most evil badass who ever existed. I think I know who it is, but--OI! Even I'm not telling! ;)
There. I'm done.
More UM LJ-avatars coming up, and as soon as I can get them, some shiny Gojyo ones, too.