Manga Review: Darker Than Black,and also a little shigoto update
The month of Work Hell has yet to start. I'm waiting for three scripts: Naruto chapter 525, Natsume 11, and Saikun 5. Naruto I'm not too worried about, as this chapter is a talkie with limited sound effects. Nothing more difficult than a yellow page. Whew! The two previous chapters are done and waiting for corrections. Natsume 11 I'm not worried about either. Shoujo Editor 2 has said the deadline can be adjusted when I can finally begin lettering. I also know we're in a good place pipeline-wise with Natsume. I might have to rush the vol a little bit, but not enough to make me fret over it. *knocks on wood*. Natsume 10 is also done. Saiun 5 is a big question mark. I don't know if the deadline will be adjusted to give me 4 weeks to letter it or not. I guess I'll found out before too much longer!
All of which means at the moment, I only have script for Skip 27, as Skip 26 is--yes--done. I've been lettering difficult pages only, to get them out of the way. I'll probably start lettering the chapter title pages in Natsume 11 today. I don't need script for those, there's nothing to translate on Natsume title pages but the logo and "chapter N", which I can do easily. :B
Now, that manga I wanted to talk about, as mentioned in my previous post! It's "Darker than Black", with art by Nokiya and story by Okamura Tensai--written specifically for the anime. This book is a fat omnibus of just under 400 pages, the entire manga. I bought it on a whim a while back because I had a juicy coupon for Borders and the store didn't have any of the pricier manga volumes on my wishlist. I knew the anime was quite popular, thus I bought it.
I normally avoid manga based on anime, as it's never as good as the original. If I had known DtB fit this discription, I wouldn't have bought to book, and I'd have missed out!! Interestingly, Wiki tells me the DtB manga is sort-of based on the anime. The characters and setting are true, but the manga has an original storyline centered around an original female character interacting with certain members of the anime cast. (Also this manga is the first one, according to Wiki. There's a 2nd all-new DtB manga that has not been licensed, and is likely shounen.)
I find this quite humorous. The manga is basically sanctioned fanfic, and even starts a female OC! Haha!! To be fair, I don't know if the mangaka, Nokiya, wrote the manga story her(?)self with approval from the series original writer, or if she was given the story and "only" provided the art. Whatever. *waves hand* What I want to talk about IS the art!
Nokiya-sensei's page layouts are amazing. Every page is different, and she is particularly skilled at balancing nicely outlined panels with blank space between them, outlined panels with no space between, no panel borders at all, and overlapping panel-spanning character art to tie everything together. I am envious of her skills! Her action scenes are fast-paced without being confusing, and that is something to be really admired. I also think she's found a great trade-off between scenery backgrounds, effects backgrounds, and blank backgrounds.
The only complaint I have about her skills is rather small: when her characters cry, they cry oceans. That's some serious waterworks! *laughs*
I do wish she used a different pen name than just "Nokiya", as that will make goolging her troublesome, but I'm definitely going to seek out her other works.
Something else I really liked about this manga was a happy accident. This book was fortunate to earn color pages in the English release, and in the middle of the vol some regular black and white pages ended up printed on the glossy for-color paper instead of the regular b/w paper. And wow! The b/w pages look AMAZING! So sharp and clear on that pretty paper!! *eyes shine* I must remember this when it comes time to hard-copy my own works. *drools over the pretty b/w pages some more*
I suggest anyone interested in comicking art check out the Darker Than Black omnibus next time you're at the bookstore! I'd love to hear what you think about the layouts. Me, I'm going to study Nokiya-sensei's style and try to improve my own skills! X3