Iwahara Yuuji series
OK, so I've read Chikyu Misaki v1 now.
I momentarily thought it neat seeing a series with so many female characters playing off each other. But it bothers me that it's using the trope of having several of them fall for the male obake-child. It's not a harem manga, not yet anyway, but the protagonist, her best friend, & one apparent antagonist are all kind of crushing on the squirt after five chapters. Or rather he's imprinted on the protagonist & the other two are crushing on him. And of course the protagonist also has to deal with her new pet/little brother, so it's not just a crush thing; reality impinges. That leaves one female character that's not attached to him nor that impressed so far (but then she has a boyfriend, much to the protagonist's chagrin).
I like it. The lake monster is cute, so far the bespectacled friend is only a little annoying, & I appreciate the sense of a built setting & a story that knows where it's going. I also note that as someone closer in age to the main character's father, I may be rooting for him to get together with his girlfriend more than one is supposed to. (But I may change my mind on that.)
I'm going to continue with this. I hope it doesn't end up putting me off lake monsters.
This is really different from the other Iwahara series I'm reading, King of Thorn. I was looking for comparisons, but they're just very different series.
I mean, technically, King of Thorn has a female protagonist p.o.v. character, but the male characters (Americans no less) have actually done a lot of the work so far, to the point I'm identifying more with them. It's an ensemble, with quite a team. So far we've seen bits with Marco & Tim alone against monsters. At the end of volume two, they're mostly split up.
And maybe therein is a similarity.
In Chikyu Misaki, we get to see bits away from the main core cast, things with other characters that we don't see. Some of this ties back to the weird child; one scene shows him playing with the little brothers of one of the main characters. Some of it is setting up future conflict. And some of it is due to it being a series where a lot is coincidentally going on.
So, lots of characters, & shifting points of view, rather than really focusing on one protagonist.
Both series play with the image of a young woman taking care of a small boy. Obviously Tim is not Neo, but they are both fair-haired I think.
And of course they both have ambiguously amphibious aquatic dragon/dinosaur things.
So there are similarities.
Also, at this point, I think these are both stories that knew where they were going from the beginning. I'm not as sure this is true of King of Thorn, but at this point it feels like it--probably because there's so much visible world-building & backstory in Chikyu Misaki.
But Chikyu Misaki is funny & means to be. A romp, I think. King of Thorn is an action story with deeply detailed violent action scenes. I like both, but they're not the same genre.
I momentarily thought it neat seeing a series with so many female characters playing off each other. But it bothers me that it's using the trope of having several of them fall for the male obake-child. It's not a harem manga, not yet anyway, but the protagonist, her best friend, & one apparent antagonist are all kind of crushing on the squirt after five chapters. Or rather he's imprinted on the protagonist & the other two are crushing on him. And of course the protagonist also has to deal with her new pet/little brother, so it's not just a crush thing; reality impinges. That leaves one female character that's not attached to him nor that impressed so far (but then she has a boyfriend, much to the protagonist's chagrin).
I like it. The lake monster is cute, so far the bespectacled friend is only a little annoying, & I appreciate the sense of a built setting & a story that knows where it's going. I also note that as someone closer in age to the main character's father, I may be rooting for him to get together with his girlfriend more than one is supposed to. (But I may change my mind on that.)
I'm going to continue with this. I hope it doesn't end up putting me off lake monsters.
This is really different from the other Iwahara series I'm reading, King of Thorn. I was looking for comparisons, but they're just very different series.
I mean, technically, King of Thorn has a female protagonist p.o.v. character, but the male characters (Americans no less) have actually done a lot of the work so far, to the point I'm identifying more with them. It's an ensemble, with quite a team. So far we've seen bits with Marco & Tim alone against monsters. At the end of volume two, they're mostly split up.
And maybe therein is a similarity.
In Chikyu Misaki, we get to see bits away from the main core cast, things with other characters that we don't see. Some of this ties back to the weird child; one scene shows him playing with the little brothers of one of the main characters. Some of it is setting up future conflict. And some of it is due to it being a series where a lot is coincidentally going on.
So, lots of characters, & shifting points of view, rather than really focusing on one protagonist.
Both series play with the image of a young woman taking care of a small boy. Obviously Tim is not Neo, but they are both fair-haired I think.
And of course they both have ambiguously amphibious aquatic dragon/dinosaur things.
So there are similarities.
Also, at this point, I think these are both stories that knew where they were going from the beginning. I'm not as sure this is true of King of Thorn, but at this point it feels like it--probably because there's so much visible world-building & backstory in Chikyu Misaki.
But Chikyu Misaki is funny & means to be. A romp, I think. King of Thorn is an action story with deeply detailed violent action scenes. I like both, but they're not the same genre.