Running with books
Jul. 4th, 2009 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grimorieI have a few series lined up for watching and reading. Ashes to Ashes continues to give me joy but the *ahem*-ing is slow. I'm also practicing sketching which I am also pants at and I feel like my attempt at graphic design are so stale. So basically work = not so good.
Basara by Yumi Tamura
I'm very amazed at this series, its a shoujo but with so many epic elements that you forget sometimes.
I discontinued watching the anime after an episode since I couldn't get behind the voices and started acquiring the manga instead and I read it all in one sitting, yes, all 25+ volumes. You can imagine how Zombie like I was the following morning.
If it isn't for the art you wouldn't think this was a shoujo (manga aimed at young girls). According to wikipedia Basara is looked at as a very Shakesperan story.
Basara starts in a post-apocalyptic Japan ruled over by a tyrant who divided Japan into four kingdoms under his sons. In this era two children of prophecy are born -- One of them being Sarasa, the child of destiny who will lead his people to freedom and at the other end is the Red King.
The Red King raids Sarasa's village a second time and manages to capture and kill Sarasa, everyone in the village loses hope until Sarasa's twin sister, Tatara takes up the mantle and pretends to be Sarasa. What follows is an epic tale of how Tatara as Sarasa becomes both symbol and leader of the revolution, gaining allies wherever she could gain it.
And then of course, there's the complication of Tatara (as herself) falling in love with Shuri. Shuri, who is in reality, the Red King. Yeah, complicated. But I love how its believable that they don't know about their true identities and how, the moment they discover the truth it breaks not just Tatara but Shuri as well.
Basara is filled to the brim with fantastic characters and even one of the characters I came to love has a fantastic arc from being a manipulative bastard to someone who gets redeemed into something more. I love that Basara makes it a point to show that war is nasty and has consequences for every one.
Ageha (one of the most awesome character ever in a manga filled with awesome, fantastic characters) really tries to drive in the point that Tatara should think about what she plans to do after the war and makes her see that the people she's fighting are also very human.
I love Shuri despite changing his change isn't necessarily done for the cliched 'Power of Love' it happened through the course of the series as he journeys across Japan and witnesses a lot of the indignities the people are made to suffer because of his family and then traveling to Okinawa and realize there is another way of doing things. I love that even though he has a tragic past I don't feel like the mangaka woobified Shuri. He doesn't regret any of his choices or actions he did as the Red King because at that time he thought he was in the right.
I wish more writers took a page from Shuri here and this kind of mind set is actually what I'm trying to achieve in the post-Avatar Azula story I'm trying to write.
Also, I'm very amazed at how the mangaka was able to pull a happy ending for this story. A believable happy ending at that!
I think Shuri/Tatara is enemies turned lovers done right. I also love the side stories, I love the backstory about the four failed revolutionary leaders (and again with a fantastic female character), and how in the 'happy ever after' it isn't really a happy ever after. The aftermath of a revolution is still hard work and getting together won't exactly be smooth sailing.
It's a wonder that Yumi Tamura isn't as popular. Although, I admit, her art is something that needs getting used to.
reviews:
meganbmoore Basara tags
--
Nana by Ai Yawaza
I... I don't know the words to describe this story at its simplest Nana is the story of two girls sharing the same name: Nana Komatsu and Nana Osaki who meet aboard a train on their way to Tokyo and days later become roommates and from that day forth their lives become intertwined.
Nana K is a naive, optimistic girl from a small town who has a bad habit of falling in love and she's so puppy like Nana O. nicknames her 'Hachi'; Nana O. is a jaded and cynical punk rocker determined to make it big in Tokyo. Amazingly enough, they do get along on the first go.
Amazing because in almost all manga I've read the significant friendships always start with a fight before the gradual softening, even Kyoko and Moko fell into this pattern, not so with Nana. Despite or because of their differences the two Nanas get along swimmingly and eventually come to rely on each other a great deal. But what makes this series so fantastic is that not only are the Nanas' friendship central to the series but because it has an amazing cast of characters.
I thinkumadoshi (via rilina) describes the series better:
Currently I stopped at volume 13 not because it started to suck but because it's so good. Yawaza excels in making her characters and their relationships so human and adult and... they keep messing up in ways that's both frustrating and understandable because they are human. There are no super powers here, no last minute saves. Things happen and the characters make a choice and could never take it back and this hurts because most of the wrong things they decide on springs from well meaning intentions.
Yawaza doesn't sugar coat and doesn't make a person less wrong or less of a jerk but she could make motives understandable. Plus, mistakes happen and sometimes relationships falter and break.
It hurts seeing the characters keep breaking against each other and I know it'll keep on happening and I... just had to stop for a moment and take a breath.
It's not without comedic moments, I'd have bailed long ago if its just a steady stream of pathos but there are light hearted moments it breaks the tension. And gives the reader and the characters time to breathe and catch-up, of course the next scenes would also be something that'll break your heart.
The two Nanas' relationship straggle the divide of friendship and the romantic. They're love for each other isn't exactly romantic but it's certainly more intense than friendship. Actually, a lot of characters in the series comment on the Nanas relationship and as one reader remarked, a lot of problems will be solved if the Nanas would just get together. I agree to an extent but I think... it would just make what they have too shallow, at least at the moment of my reading.
There's a melancholy about the series and a feel whenever I read it that I equate to movies like Juno and Garden State. Actually, in a way, Nana reminds me of Sports Night, the first season (since I've yet to venture into the second) and how as the seasons winds down the characters keep on crashing into each other and they just barely hold on. And yet, its a comedy!
(I have to re-watch SN again, perhaps I'm remembering this wrong.)
Reviews:
rilina's tags here
oyceter's tags here
--
Slayers: Knight of the Aqua Lord by Hajime Kanzaka
I recently read an interview with the creator of Naruto, Masahi Kishimoto, I understood before this that he has trouble understanding female characters. I didn't realize to how big of an extent until I read the interview.
I don't understand why he can't relate to his female creations as characters. Female writers can write from a male POV (both in fandom and professionally) and vice versa. And if it's a cultural thing I'll only have to point to Norihiro Yagi, creator of the fantastic Claymore series and to Hajime Kanzaka. Particularly Kanzaka who has been writing Lina Inverse since the 90s.
Lina Inverse is a great character, a heroine who depends on her wits, skill and absolute belief in herself. She's pragmatic and very genre savvy, she loves food and money and could be counted on to save the world a dozen times over (and then, its quite possible she'll bill you for that). She's also a savvy merchant as she'll tell you herself.
And after reading one light novel I like her even better.
So, it's no surprise I love Knight of the Aqua Lord too. KoAL is an alternate version of season 3, which, I admit I like better than the one that aired (only we don't get to see Xellos and Filia) but Kanzaka introduces us to a wonderful set of characters, their quirks and a cracking good adventure.
Lyos has really grown on me the last couple of chapters mainly because he toned down on his bullheaded behavior and stopped acting like a blustering shounen hero. It amuses me that every time Lyos acts like that he gets his butt kicked hard and Lina treats him like the little brother she never had.
Shizuri continues to be fantastic and funny. She's not Zel but she provides her own brand of quirk to the group. I especially love the times she uses her illusions to tease Lina.
The plot of the story also advances very quickly and I love the bigger world KoAL presents with the mythology and the introduction of other Mazoku generals/priests than Xellos. I love Kanzaka's worldbuilding.
Also, Kanzaka's Lina Inverse while still boisterous and fun loving is very much like Revo/Evo-R!Lina who internalizes everything without being angsty about it (or should I say its the other way around?).
Kanzaka also does well in the Lina/Gourry front. They're very much partners and yet you can see they're something more (only they're too stubborn/oblivious to notice).
Reading KoAL makes me appreciatesavvyliterate's Search for the Darkstar story a whole lot more especially now I know the characters she included in her story.
--
My brother watched Terminator: Salvation and liked it and then I introduced him to The Sarah Connor Chronicles and fell absolutely in love with the series. He's now raging at the cancellation and waxing poetic about Summer Glau's Cameron. It's kind of cute.
Basara by Yumi Tamura
I'm very amazed at this series, its a shoujo but with so many epic elements that you forget sometimes.
I discontinued watching the anime after an episode since I couldn't get behind the voices and started acquiring the manga instead and I read it all in one sitting, yes, all 25+ volumes. You can imagine how Zombie like I was the following morning.
If it isn't for the art you wouldn't think this was a shoujo (manga aimed at young girls). According to wikipedia Basara is looked at as a very Shakesperan story.
Basara starts in a post-apocalyptic Japan ruled over by a tyrant who divided Japan into four kingdoms under his sons. In this era two children of prophecy are born -- One of them being Sarasa, the child of destiny who will lead his people to freedom and at the other end is the Red King.
The Red King raids Sarasa's village a second time and manages to capture and kill Sarasa, everyone in the village loses hope until Sarasa's twin sister, Tatara takes up the mantle and pretends to be Sarasa. What follows is an epic tale of how Tatara as Sarasa becomes both symbol and leader of the revolution, gaining allies wherever she could gain it.
And then of course, there's the complication of Tatara (as herself) falling in love with Shuri. Shuri, who is in reality, the Red King. Yeah, complicated. But I love how its believable that they don't know about their true identities and how, the moment they discover the truth it breaks not just Tatara but Shuri as well.
Basara is filled to the brim with fantastic characters and even one of the characters I came to love has a fantastic arc from being a manipulative bastard to someone who gets redeemed into something more. I love that Basara makes it a point to show that war is nasty and has consequences for every one.
Ageha (one of the most awesome character ever in a manga filled with awesome, fantastic characters) really tries to drive in the point that Tatara should think about what she plans to do after the war and makes her see that the people she's fighting are also very human.
I love Shuri despite changing his change isn't necessarily done for the cliched 'Power of Love' it happened through the course of the series as he journeys across Japan and witnesses a lot of the indignities the people are made to suffer because of his family and then traveling to Okinawa and realize there is another way of doing things. I love that even though he has a tragic past I don't feel like the mangaka woobified Shuri. He doesn't regret any of his choices or actions he did as the Red King because at that time he thought he was in the right.
I wish more writers took a page from Shuri here and this kind of mind set is actually what I'm trying to achieve in the post-Avatar Azula story I'm trying to write.
Also, I'm very amazed at how the mangaka was able to pull a happy ending for this story. A believable happy ending at that!
I think Shuri/Tatara is enemies turned lovers done right. I also love the side stories, I love the backstory about the four failed revolutionary leaders (and again with a fantastic female character), and how in the 'happy ever after' it isn't really a happy ever after. The aftermath of a revolution is still hard work and getting together won't exactly be smooth sailing.
It's a wonder that Yumi Tamura isn't as popular. Although, I admit, her art is something that needs getting used to.
reviews:
meganbmoore Basara tags --
Nana by Ai Yawaza
I... I don't know the words to describe this story at its simplest Nana is the story of two girls sharing the same name: Nana Komatsu and Nana Osaki who meet aboard a train on their way to Tokyo and days later become roommates and from that day forth their lives become intertwined.
Nana K is a naive, optimistic girl from a small town who has a bad habit of falling in love and she's so puppy like Nana O. nicknames her 'Hachi'; Nana O. is a jaded and cynical punk rocker determined to make it big in Tokyo. Amazingly enough, they do get along on the first go.
Amazing because in almost all manga I've read the significant friendships always start with a fight before the gradual softening, even Kyoko and Moko fell into this pattern, not so with Nana. Despite or because of their differences the two Nanas get along swimmingly and eventually come to rely on each other a great deal. But what makes this series so fantastic is that not only are the Nanas' friendship central to the series but because it has an amazing cast of characters.
I think
umadoshi (via rilina) describes the series better: IMO, the real power of this story is in its handling of relationships--centered on Nana and Hachi's friendship then extending past them into the lives of all the people they know. The series starts off introducing the two girls, bringing them together into this unlikely but intense relationship that everything else springs from or revolves around. And then it all falls apart, so slowly, and it's no one's "fault"--both girls could have done things differently, or communicated better, and the most heartbreaking thing is that they both know it and still aren't able to stop this friendship they both value more than anything from crumbling around them. It's painfully clear all along that neither of them ever stops loving the other and wanting to be together again, to recreate that brief idyllic period in their lives. A lot of the other relationships are handled in the same way, and most of them ring true for me in the same way.
[snip]
The whole thing is, on some level, a love story to the relationships (romantic and otherwise) that people can't hold together, that they can't maintain or ever let go of; it's about the people who shape lives through their absence and the memory of their presence and the hope of recapturing the way things used to be. So I watch these characters struggling and fighting and screwing up and manipulating each other desperately, for the most part with good intentions and real, messed up love, and it just keeps sucking me in.
Currently I stopped at volume 13 not because it started to suck but because it's so good. Yawaza excels in making her characters and their relationships so human and adult and... they keep messing up in ways that's both frustrating and understandable because they are human. There are no super powers here, no last minute saves. Things happen and the characters make a choice and could never take it back and this hurts because most of the wrong things they decide on springs from well meaning intentions.
Yawaza doesn't sugar coat and doesn't make a person less wrong or less of a jerk but she could make motives understandable. Plus, mistakes happen and sometimes relationships falter and break.
It hurts seeing the characters keep breaking against each other and I know it'll keep on happening and I... just had to stop for a moment and take a breath.
It's not without comedic moments, I'd have bailed long ago if its just a steady stream of pathos but there are light hearted moments it breaks the tension. And gives the reader and the characters time to breathe and catch-up, of course the next scenes would also be something that'll break your heart.
The two Nanas' relationship straggle the divide of friendship and the romantic. They're love for each other isn't exactly romantic but it's certainly more intense than friendship. Actually, a lot of characters in the series comment on the Nanas relationship and as one reader remarked, a lot of problems will be solved if the Nanas would just get together. I agree to an extent but I think... it would just make what they have too shallow, at least at the moment of my reading.
There's a melancholy about the series and a feel whenever I read it that I equate to movies like Juno and Garden State. Actually, in a way, Nana reminds me of Sports Night, the first season (since I've yet to venture into the second) and how as the seasons winds down the characters keep on crashing into each other and they just barely hold on. And yet, its a comedy!
(I have to re-watch SN again, perhaps I'm remembering this wrong.)
Reviews:
rilina's tags hereoyceter's tags here--
Slayers: Knight of the Aqua Lord by Hajime Kanzaka
I recently read an interview with the creator of Naruto, Masahi Kishimoto, I understood before this that he has trouble understanding female characters. I didn't realize to how big of an extent until I read the interview.
I don't understand why he can't relate to his female creations as characters. Female writers can write from a male POV (both in fandom and professionally) and vice versa. And if it's a cultural thing I'll only have to point to Norihiro Yagi, creator of the fantastic Claymore series and to Hajime Kanzaka. Particularly Kanzaka who has been writing Lina Inverse since the 90s.
Lina Inverse is a great character, a heroine who depends on her wits, skill and absolute belief in herself. She's pragmatic and very genre savvy, she loves food and money and could be counted on to save the world a dozen times over (and then, its quite possible she'll bill you for that). She's also a savvy merchant as she'll tell you herself.
And after reading one light novel I like her even better.
So, it's no surprise I love Knight of the Aqua Lord too. KoAL is an alternate version of season 3, which, I admit I like better than the one that aired (only we don't get to see Xellos and Filia) but Kanzaka introduces us to a wonderful set of characters, their quirks and a cracking good adventure.
Lyos has really grown on me the last couple of chapters mainly because he toned down on his bullheaded behavior and stopped acting like a blustering shounen hero. It amuses me that every time Lyos acts like that he gets his butt kicked hard and Lina treats him like the little brother she never had.
Shizuri continues to be fantastic and funny. She's not Zel but she provides her own brand of quirk to the group. I especially love the times she uses her illusions to tease Lina.
The plot of the story also advances very quickly and I love the bigger world KoAL presents with the mythology and the introduction of other Mazoku generals/priests than Xellos. I love Kanzaka's worldbuilding.
Also, Kanzaka's Lina Inverse while still boisterous and fun loving is very much like Revo/Evo-R!Lina who internalizes everything without being angsty about it (or should I say its the other way around?).
Kanzaka also does well in the Lina/Gourry front. They're very much partners and yet you can see they're something more (only they're too stubborn/oblivious to notice).
Reading KoAL makes me appreciate
savvyliterate's Search for the Darkstar story a whole lot more especially now I know the characters she included in her story. --
My brother watched Terminator: Salvation and liked it and then I introduced him to The Sarah Connor Chronicles and fell absolutely in love with the series. He's now raging at the cancellation and waxing poetic about Summer Glau's Cameron. It's kind of cute.
