Consuming much fictional entertainment
Wow. The week off just disappeared on me.
Stuff I have been doing:
Replaying FF12 - attempting to get all and sundry. I have forgotten how awesome it is to feel the satisfaction of racking up 10+ hours of game play in two days. The experience has been amazingly satisfying so far.
Read manga. So much manga - beyond the yaoi and random oneshots, I have read Area no Kishi, Giant Killing and Real. Yes, all three are sports managa, my love for this genera is immeasurable.
Real by Takehiko Inoue - Wow. Just wow. One of the most intense and real depiction of disability in fiction I have ever encountered. It is just so gorgeous and amazing, and I was bawling my eyes out in anger and frustration and damn pride for these characters. It is confrontational, inspirational and at times absolutely gut-wrenching, but it is probably one of the best fictional work I have read in a long time. Just guys, this series is utterly amazing, and if you only have time to read one manga series this month/year, read this.
This is what wiki says about the plot of the series:
The story revolves around three teenagers: Nomiya Tomomi, a high school dropout, Togawa Kiyoharu, an ex-sprinter who now plays wheelchair basketball and Takahashi Hisanobu, a popular leader of the high school's basketball team who now finds himself a paraplegic after an accident.
Real features a cast of characters who find themselves being marginalized by society, but are all united by one common feature: a desire to play basketball, with no place to play it in. Nomiya, being a high school dropout, has no future in his life. Togawa, being a difficult personality, finds himself constantly feuding with his own teammates. Takahashi, once a popular team leader, now finds himself being unable to move from the chest down.
Real also deals with the reality of physical disabilities, and the psychological inferiority that the characters struggle against. The characters break through their own psychological barriers bit by bit.
While basketball is a large part of Real, a larger emphasis is placed on character development-- Takehiko Inoue is just as interested in exploring the past of the characters, their inner world, and their attempts to achieve something in life as he is in looking at the sport of wheelchair basketball.
Just READ this series.
Giant Killing - PEOPLE, where is the scans for this? Only three volumes translated so far. I need more of this like I need air. I really don’t want to have to break out my Chinese-to-English dictionary in an attempt to read the manga in a language that I can at least get by. But man, so addictive, so crack worthy, I am interested and I want more.
AnK - I was not expecting the gut punch within the first volume. Gods, my fricking heart. It is a series that I will probably keep on following, but aside for the heart wrencher at the beginning, it has been surprisingly, um, light. Like, yes, there is, of course, the addictive aspect of this series, it is shounen sports, for christsake, of course it is addictive. But it is something I can read and leave.
Oh, I also watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. It was fun! I find myself pretty much incapable of having deeper thoughts about the new Doctor beyond - !!! Awesome! Cool! Yay! Nooooo! More! WAAAAAA! SATISFACTION. I don’t feel too fannish about it, but I would definitely watch it.
And one more thing - I finished watching the new season of Dexter. Well, shit. OK, so, it was good, but, well, I felt kind of, um, let down after the previous seasons. I mean, gods, who the hell can compare to the Trinity Killer?
Stuff I have been doing:
Replaying FF12 - attempting to get all and sundry. I have forgotten how awesome it is to feel the satisfaction of racking up 10+ hours of game play in two days. The experience has been amazingly satisfying so far.
Read manga. So much manga - beyond the yaoi and random oneshots, I have read Area no Kishi, Giant Killing and Real. Yes, all three are sports managa, my love for this genera is immeasurable.
Real by Takehiko Inoue - Wow. Just wow. One of the most intense and real depiction of disability in fiction I have ever encountered. It is just so gorgeous and amazing, and I was bawling my eyes out in anger and frustration and damn pride for these characters. It is confrontational, inspirational and at times absolutely gut-wrenching, but it is probably one of the best fictional work I have read in a long time. Just guys, this series is utterly amazing, and if you only have time to read one manga series this month/year, read this.
This is what wiki says about the plot of the series:
The story revolves around three teenagers: Nomiya Tomomi, a high school dropout, Togawa Kiyoharu, an ex-sprinter who now plays wheelchair basketball and Takahashi Hisanobu, a popular leader of the high school's basketball team who now finds himself a paraplegic after an accident.
Real features a cast of characters who find themselves being marginalized by society, but are all united by one common feature: a desire to play basketball, with no place to play it in. Nomiya, being a high school dropout, has no future in his life. Togawa, being a difficult personality, finds himself constantly feuding with his own teammates. Takahashi, once a popular team leader, now finds himself being unable to move from the chest down.
Real also deals with the reality of physical disabilities, and the psychological inferiority that the characters struggle against. The characters break through their own psychological barriers bit by bit.
While basketball is a large part of Real, a larger emphasis is placed on character development-- Takehiko Inoue is just as interested in exploring the past of the characters, their inner world, and their attempts to achieve something in life as he is in looking at the sport of wheelchair basketball.
Just READ this series.
Giant Killing - PEOPLE, where is the scans for this? Only three volumes translated so far. I need more of this like I need air. I really don’t want to have to break out my Chinese-to-English dictionary in an attempt to read the manga in a language that I can at least get by. But man, so addictive, so crack worthy, I am interested and I want more.
AnK - I was not expecting the gut punch within the first volume. Gods, my fricking heart. It is a series that I will probably keep on following, but aside for the heart wrencher at the beginning, it has been surprisingly, um, light. Like, yes, there is, of course, the addictive aspect of this series, it is shounen sports, for christsake, of course it is addictive. But it is something I can read and leave.
Oh, I also watched the Doctor Who Christmas special. It was fun! I find myself pretty much incapable of having deeper thoughts about the new Doctor beyond - !!! Awesome! Cool! Yay! Nooooo! More! WAAAAAA! SATISFACTION. I don’t feel too fannish about it, but I would definitely watch it.
And one more thing - I finished watching the new season of Dexter. Well, shit. OK, so, it was good, but, well, I felt kind of, um, let down after the previous seasons. I mean, gods, who the hell can compare to the Trinity Killer?