Clarks, Mainichi Seiten!, Honey and Clover, SD
Saw the Clarks with apintrix in NYC last Friday. If the object was to pick a semi-decent band we could see cheaply + whose fans would not be younger than us, we succeeded.
Also met up with fiendery and picked up Silver Diamond, Mainichi Seiten! at Kino. Whoever rewrote the SD translation did a fantastic job -- it reads really naturally.* Mainichi Seiten, on the other hand....XD;; It's bad enough that this manga is adapted from a novel and is full of significant pauses and unspoken thoughts. Combine that with an overly-literal translation, and it's not always clear WHAT, exactly, is being implied when the characters exchange Meaningful Looks.
One thing I really like about this series though, and which isn't ENTIRELY destroyed by the mediocre translation, is the way the characters will go off on these marathon slapstick sessions - exaggerated accusations and childish squabbles - and you assume it's comic license, until someone says something really cutting and the whole thing comes crashing down. At that point what seemed normal, like a literary/manga convention, suddenly becomes heartbreaking, because now you are being invited to evaluate the characters' actions in light of the way real people behave.
Also read Honey and Clover volumes 1-4. So far so great. XD Mayama's my favorite, I think. Something about the way he looks like he should be popular and successful - and he is successful - and yet he is still so needy, it's ridiculous.
*But the adaption would be perfect if the notes explaining the untranslatable puns were on the same page and not stuck at the back.
Also met up with fiendery and picked up Silver Diamond, Mainichi Seiten! at Kino. Whoever rewrote the SD translation did a fantastic job -- it reads really naturally.* Mainichi Seiten, on the other hand....XD;; It's bad enough that this manga is adapted from a novel and is full of significant pauses and unspoken thoughts. Combine that with an overly-literal translation, and it's not always clear WHAT, exactly, is being implied when the characters exchange Meaningful Looks.
One thing I really like about this series though, and which isn't ENTIRELY destroyed by the mediocre translation, is the way the characters will go off on these marathon slapstick sessions - exaggerated accusations and childish squabbles - and you assume it's comic license, until someone says something really cutting and the whole thing comes crashing down. At that point what seemed normal, like a literary/manga convention, suddenly becomes heartbreaking, because now you are being invited to evaluate the characters' actions in light of the way real people behave.
Also read Honey and Clover volumes 1-4. So far so great. XD Mayama's my favorite, I think. Something about the way he looks like he should be popular and successful - and he is successful - and yet he is still so needy, it's ridiculous.
*But the adaption would be perfect if the notes explaining the untranslatable puns were on the same page and not stuck at the back.