This month's Manga PSA, and more (!)
After School Nightmare may have a bog-standard Sad Shoujo cover, but it is disturbingly awesome. At least the first volume is; all "I've only read the first volume" caveats apply.
Capsule: Utena (you're really fighting against yourself!) + Silent Hill (disembodied strangling hands and people with no faces!) + a dash of Battle Royale (classmate on classmate torture!). Oo~ooh.
However, I'm not entirely sure whether the series is misogynist or its narrator is. Ichijo blames literally everything that goes wrong in his life on the Female Influence and internal-monologues things along the lines of "I wanted to be brave and strong and noble, like a man." Whew. I see you're up to your usual, Japanese culture. However, given that the theme of the series is Big Whopping Issues, that may just be part of Ichijo's Big Whopping Issue. The rest of it is written well enough that I will give it the benefit of the doubt.
I read about this series a while back on some manga review sites, but resisted because I wasn't sure whether the reviewers' tastes were anything like mine. I'm in that holding pattern with Sand Chronicles right now. So, if anyone's read it, I'd love to hear about it. :)
I also came across Saiyuki Reload book 9, which I didn't think existed. Heh. I thought it'd gone into limbo after book 8. So that was a nice surprise. This volume ends on a less random note than 8, at least. It at least feels like it would've come to a conclusion of sorts, or at least a climax.
For today's random note, Heroes continues to annoy me by giving Sylar a kick-ass late-'70s early-'80s soundtrack. This week, they reminded me how much I love "The Chain," and that I never did buy a copy of it. Damn you all! Besides, there's no way in hell that that character is my age, let alone older than me. Come on now. Nobody in SF/fantasy is older than 25 but younger than ancient. ;)
I kind of feel like that show is making stuff up at random at this point, but it's more entertaining in an unhinged, random way than it has been lately. I do love to hate the Sylar Fanboy. His face doesn't get kicked enough. As is common with his "I am sooooo badass, look at me" kind.
For today's toast update, last Friday I finally got to witness the Apostasy Dinner, i.e. the first Friday of Lent at Green Forest - a restaurant that serves infinite quantities of ridiculously good roasted meat, one bite at a time. Super fun. Thanks to scholarinexile and pghkitten for inviting us. ^_^
Capsule: Utena (you're really fighting against yourself!) + Silent Hill (disembodied strangling hands and people with no faces!) + a dash of Battle Royale (classmate on classmate torture!). Oo~ooh.
However, I'm not entirely sure whether the series is misogynist or its narrator is. Ichijo blames literally everything that goes wrong in his life on the Female Influence and internal-monologues things along the lines of "I wanted to be brave and strong and noble, like a man." Whew. I see you're up to your usual, Japanese culture. However, given that the theme of the series is Big Whopping Issues, that may just be part of Ichijo's Big Whopping Issue. The rest of it is written well enough that I will give it the benefit of the doubt.
I read about this series a while back on some manga review sites, but resisted because I wasn't sure whether the reviewers' tastes were anything like mine. I'm in that holding pattern with Sand Chronicles right now. So, if anyone's read it, I'd love to hear about it. :)
I also came across Saiyuki Reload book 9, which I didn't think existed. Heh. I thought it'd gone into limbo after book 8. So that was a nice surprise. This volume ends on a less random note than 8, at least. It at least feels like it would've come to a conclusion of sorts, or at least a climax.
For today's random note, Heroes continues to annoy me by giving Sylar a kick-ass late-'70s early-'80s soundtrack. This week, they reminded me how much I love "The Chain," and that I never did buy a copy of it. Damn you all! Besides, there's no way in hell that that character is my age, let alone older than me. Come on now. Nobody in SF/fantasy is older than 25 but younger than ancient. ;)
I kind of feel like that show is making stuff up at random at this point, but it's more entertaining in an unhinged, random way than it has been lately. I do love to hate the Sylar Fanboy. His face doesn't get kicked enough. As is common with his "I am sooooo badass, look at me" kind.
For today's toast update, last Friday I finally got to witness the Apostasy Dinner, i.e. the first Friday of Lent at Green Forest - a restaurant that serves infinite quantities of ridiculously good roasted meat, one bite at a time. Super fun. Thanks to scholarinexile and pghkitten for inviting us. ^_^