I find myself dropping in attention from a lot of manga when they go on for a long stretch like Furuba did. I think I actually like the Akita and Ren related things (probably for Shigure related reason :)) but the thing about Momiji, oy!
This is actually making me slightly irritated with Shigure, because it's bordering on crossing from "seriously messed up" to "taking out angst and frustration on others."
My problem isn't the length (I prefer manga to just get to the point and tell the story, but, well, I am a shounen fan...) but with the fact that it tends to turn into a neverending angstfest towards the end.
The Momiji thing...I mean, what's with that? There were "hello, serious angst looming!" hints in the last volume, but come on! They acted more like siblings before this. Kids in a playground. Mutual platonic adoration society. Did Takaya just realize she broke the shoujo rule that at least one other male must be in love with the heroine so there can be a confrontation? (Why I hate love triangles: They send the message that, for a couple to be happy, someone else must be unhappy. Also why I dislike fanon-created love triangles.)
Shigure's one of those characters, the darker he seems, the more I love him :D
Heh, I've almost entirely given up on shounen apart from FMA and TRC (not sure if that one counts), they just got me too annoyed.
I tend to eat angst as if it was nutella, but I agree the mix of comedy with angst works better (in general and in Furuba both), especially because it makes the angst too real. Have too much angst and it becomes melodramatic, so we become disconnect from the characters and don't particularly care apart from a "angst, lol" way. Which was a very lengthy way for me to say that too much angst is wangsty.
It's not even there long enough to be a love triangle! I don't know what it is ;_;
I like some love triangles and hate others, it really depends of the handling.
Some love triangles are well done, but most are just inserted because it's easy angst. And yeah, it wasn't really there long enough to be anything but "huh?"
When the angst is deserved (and 95% in FB is) or there for total crack I'm a total angstbunny. but when it's there just to have angst, I have no tolerance for it.
TRC is supposed to be shounen, but I think that it was just a ploy and it has long since given up any pretenses of being anything other than gothic shoujo crack.
Shigure has gotten away with a lot of things that would normally make me swear off a character.
gothic shoujo crack IN SPACEIN DISGUISE! which makes it awesome. Well crackful at least :)
Oh boy, Shigure doesn't even come close. I think lately I've found myself loving so many horrendously immoral characters that I've given up on any pretence of morality about. I think Cnaiur was the tipping point.
Angst for angst's sake, yeah, good point.
I think what I like in love triangles is when it's set up well enough and you've got a feeling of a three way relationship. Not three way love, necessarily, but of the way each character's relationship with the second character colour their relationship with the third. If that makes any sense.
Clamp's love triangles work for me for exactly the reason's you lay out. If the point is romance, they usually (at least in my admittedly limited reading) lay it out. If the point is the relationship, it tends to go all ways.
Cnaiur's a character in R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing trilogy of epic fantasy, which is a great work yet one I wouldn't rec to everyone due to its extreme grittiness and antipathic characters. I've seen Cnaiur described as "gay Conan with the intellect of Ender Wiggins", which is fitting - he's also a mass murderer and rapist. And my favourite character from that series. Which, yeah *flails*
Good point about Clamp, they really usually do it well.
I find myself dropping in attention from a lot of manga when they go on for a long stretch like Furuba did. I think I actually like the Akita and Ren related things (probably for Shigure related reason :)) but the thing about Momiji, oy!
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My problem isn't the length (I prefer manga to just get to the point and tell the story, but, well, I am a shounen fan...) but with the fact that it tends to turn into a neverending angstfest towards the end.
The Momiji thing...I mean, what's with that? There were "hello, serious angst looming!" hints in the last volume, but come on! They acted more like siblings before this. Kids in a playground. Mutual platonic adoration society. Did Takaya just realize she broke the shoujo rule that at least one other male must be in love with the heroine so there can be a confrontation? (Why I hate love triangles: They send the message that, for a couple to be happy, someone else must be unhappy. Also why I dislike fanon-created love triangles.)
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Heh, I've almost entirely given up on shounen apart from FMA and TRC (not sure if that one counts), they just got me too annoyed.
I tend to eat angst as if it was nutella, but I agree the mix of comedy with angst works better (in general and in Furuba both), especially because it makes the angst too real. Have too much angst and it becomes melodramatic, so we become disconnect from the characters and don't particularly care apart from a "angst, lol" way. Which was a very lengthy way for me to say that too much angst is wangsty.
It's not even there long enough to be a love triangle! I don't know what it is ;_;
I like some love triangles and hate others, it really depends of the handling.
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When the angst is deserved (and 95% in FB is) or there for total crack I'm a total angstbunny. but when it's there just to have angst, I have no tolerance for it.
TRC is supposed to be shounen, but I think that it was just a ploy and it has long since given up any pretenses of being anything other than gothic shoujo crack.
Shigure has gotten away with a lot of things that would normally make me swear off a character.
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Oh boy, Shigure doesn't even come close. I think lately I've found myself loving so many horrendously immoral characters that I've given up on any pretence of morality about. I think Cnaiur was the tipping point.
Angst for angst's sake, yeah, good point.
I think what I like in love triangles is when it's set up well enough and you've got a feeling of a three way relationship. Not three way love, necessarily, but of the way each character's relationship with the second character colour their relationship with the third. If that makes any sense.
Reply
Clamp's love triangles work for me for exactly the reason's you lay out. If the point is romance, they usually (at least in my admittedly limited reading) lay it out. If the point is the relationship, it tends to go all ways.
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Good point about Clamp, they really usually do it well.
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