I am one of the people who (usually) can't like a manga if the art does not appeal (Hanadan is the only exception and I think only because (a) I knew the story from other mediums first and (b) the art does get nice later). It's the same as not being able to like a book, no matter the story, if the writing style is horrible or a movie if the acting is no good...
Yup. I can understand it to a degree, it's just completely alien to me. Too many good things out there to skip them because the pictures aren't pretty enough for me. (In contrast, I can't get past bad prose unless it's something to mock, like cassie Edwards.)
I'd say the Hanadan anime is reasonable: it follows the manga storylines almost exactly, and it genuinely gets what makes the characters tick. And the voice cast is very good. On the minus side, it slows down the story a great deal (the manga storyline has a huge amount of energy) and presses the angst button a lot more than it should. Plus I've always thought the choice of delicate classical music and wispy pastel tones a really odd choice for HYD. Overall, it's worth a try; it won't be to everyone's taste, but then neither is the manga.
It's just extremely rare that the art is bad enough for me to let it affect me. Off the top of my head, just Rob Liefeld and Skottie young for US comics, and Getbackers for manga.
In all honesty, I think she wrote herself into a corner with Yuki. At the beginning, there was the Yuki/Yohru/Kyo triangle, and Yuki being the one all the others cousins adored and got strength from. By the time the series reached the teens, though, he was very much a third wheel in Kyo/Tohru, and it was also obvious that, while there may be a romantic undertone to his feelings for Tohru, they aren't at the core, romantic. In addition, Tohru had, by then, long since taken over the role of giving the Sohmas strength and acceptance, and much more convincingly. (In all honesty, none of the cousins' adoration for Yuki ever made any sense to me. It almost seemed like they just thought he was great because he was the rat
( ... )
Greg Land(and a lot of the currently popular artists) draws pages that, at a glance, are stunning, but when you look closer, you realize there's 1 main picture meant to catch your eye, usually unnaturally posed if its a person(and in land's case, usually obviously copied) and other pictures as filler. It's there to be pretty and make you stare at one piece of the page, not tell the story. Even really, really good artists like Steve Epting, though, seem to be falling prey to that. (But he remains and excellent storyteller, and more than passes all the other requirements, so i'm not really complaining.)
BTW, Land, IMO, is a terrible artist. It was seeing some of his OA back in the CrossGen days and realizing that he barely bothered to draw more than the figured and seeing all the spaces where he lightboxed things in, as well as one hideously lightboxed panel in Sojourn that made me really start paying attention to art beyond whether or not it was pretty.
I pay attention to both writing and art when I read, but one's got to be pretty bad for me to reject a comic if the other's good. I tend to put a bit more emphasis on writing than art, because I am prejudiced and think writing's better for narrative than art...but I'm not sure I should, because I'm just now beginning to understand just how much a skillful artist can prop up iffy writing; what I often sum up as "good art; bad writing" is art that COULD do a better job of pairing with iffy writing, if the artist was...well, a better narrative artist.
What I am often looking for, and which does not require either writing or art to be brilliant, but usually does not happen if either one is awful, is the nifty fusion purpose in art and writing that makes a comic worth telling as a comic and not in another medium.
Yeah, that's why I put a lot more emphasis on visual STORYTELLING than in how pretty the pictures are. It's graphic storytelling, not slapping down pretty pictures to go with words average linework with great flow is much better to me than randomly assorted pretty pictures.
I had an artist friend who tended to fixate on the art, and reject comics she thought had bad art out of hand. She did kinda get it, though: the final item on her checklist for comic book art was always, "Does it support the story?" I still use that as a guidepost today, and I will cut a book slack if everything's only so-so, but it's got that synergy thing going on.
I'd second this motion! While I like pretty artwork as much as the next person, I'm willing to put up with quite a lot of iffyness if the procession of panels and placement of art on a page is telling a good story. Actually, three of my very favourite manga start out with fairly ugly artwork, but they tell one hell of a story. I'm thinking of Basara here among other things, Megan; I remember finding that artwork almost off-putting at the beginning, but the story was just that compelling that I had to keep reading.
Momiji is growing up very nicely ... and it's not like I'm usually into little blond boys ... .
Yes. Ayame/Mine is most definitely canon! And although it's very amusing to imagine what their, um, domestic bliss must be like, I do think that the pictures of Ayame resting his forehead on Mine's shoulder while he confesses what an awful boor he's been - just his forehead, because that's as close as he can get to falling into her arms - is one of the saddest things in the series. Ayame is usually completely un-self-pitying and bouyant, and to see him so much adrift is really unsettling and miserable.
In fact, between that and the scene with Kyo and Tohru with the laundry, this has some of the most moving visuals yet.
The pictures do get confusing - her simple, streamlined style makes differentiating people very tough.
I am so very bored with Yuki's part of the story. I know you think I'm a total slashing machine, meganb-san, but I really do think it would have been so much more interesting if Yuki and Kakeru had been of an
( ... )
I think you have yourself painted in your head as more of a slash machine than you are in my head. Honestly, I almost never think of it unless you bring it up. (The exceptions are a few times when I'm reading something and there's a slash pairing and I think "Cho might like them," pretty much
( ... )
I know Kakeru's function is to be Yuki's sounding board, but he actually has at least as much character development as Kagura or Ritsu! She brought them together gradually enough that we got a lot of him before Yuki started confiding in him.
Yes, there are 23 tankoubon volumes, so we've only got 4 left. Vol. 20 ships July 1, according to Amazon.
The character summary information on Wikipedia (gee, we know how accurate that is ... ) implies that a relationship continues between Hana and Kazuma. And yes, Katsuma was Kyoko's teacher, although he was a student-teacher at the time. That's part of why I'm cross about it - imbalance of power in a sexual relationship is an ethical squick for me. When I do find it hot, I hate myself for it. Although Takaya does depict it with great tenderness ... I got all squishy when Katsuma was calling her "Miss No-Eyebrows."
Uo and Kureno - maybe. He has been very sheltered - from everything but Akito. But Kazuma has been running the dojo and serving as a martial arts instructor and Kyo's
( ... )
Considering what I've read on wiki for anime and manga, it's entirely possible that's based on "Hana joked about it that one time, and they were talking and smiling in the epilogue, so they're totally getting married." If needed, I can accept a mutual interest a few years down the road(and based purely on their personalities, I think I can see how they'd be compatible), but at this point, the idea makes my eyebrows reach my hairline. Uo/Kazuma I have an easier time with, though I freely admit that my desire for him to be rescued-physically and emotionally-from Akito may color my views
( ... )
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BTW, Land, IMO, is a terrible artist. It was seeing some of his OA back in the CrossGen days and realizing that he barely bothered to draw more than the figured and seeing all the spaces where he lightboxed things in, as well as one hideously lightboxed panel in Sojourn that made me really start paying attention to art beyond whether or not it was pretty.
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What I am often looking for, and which does not require either writing or art to be brilliant, but usually does not happen if either one is awful, is the nifty fusion purpose in art and writing that makes a comic worth telling as a comic and not in another medium.
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average linework with great flow is much better to me than randomly assorted pretty pictures.
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Momiji is growing up very nicely ... and it's not like I'm usually into little blond boys ... .
Yes. Ayame/Mine is most definitely canon! And although it's very amusing to imagine what their, um, domestic bliss must be like, I do think that the pictures of Ayame resting his forehead on Mine's shoulder while he confesses what an awful boor he's been - just his forehead, because that's as close as he can get to falling into her arms - is one of the saddest things in the series. Ayame is usually completely un-self-pitying and bouyant, and to see him so much adrift is really unsettling and miserable.
In fact, between that and the scene with Kyo and Tohru with the laundry, this has some of the most moving visuals yet.
The pictures do get confusing - her simple, streamlined style makes differentiating people very tough.
I am so very bored with Yuki's part of the story. I know you think I'm a total slashing machine, meganb-san, but I really do think it would have been so much more interesting if Yuki and Kakeru had been of an ( ... )
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I know Kakeru's function is to be Yuki's sounding board, but he actually has at least as much character development as Kagura or Ritsu! She brought them together gradually enough that we got a lot of him before Yuki started confiding in him.
Yes, there are 23 tankoubon volumes, so we've only got 4 left. Vol. 20 ships July 1, according to Amazon.
The character summary information on Wikipedia (gee, we know how accurate that is ... ) implies that a relationship continues between Hana and Kazuma. And yes, Katsuma was Kyoko's teacher, although he was a student-teacher at the time. That's part of why I'm cross about it - imbalance of power in a sexual relationship is an ethical squick for me. When I do find it hot, I hate myself for it. Although Takaya does depict it with great tenderness ... I got all squishy when Katsuma was calling her "Miss No-Eyebrows."
Uo and Kureno - maybe. He has been very sheltered - from everything but Akito. But Kazuma has been running the dojo and serving as a martial arts instructor and Kyo's ( ... )
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