What Manga are you reading?

[the_wolfs_howl]

D.Gray Man vol.16-Zombie's huh? This is interesting X3

Wow, are we reading the same part? Cool!

D.Gray-man chapters 162-165 - The end of the zombie side story (which turns out not to have any bearing on the story proper, as I expected, but does have some really nice moments with Komui), and the start of a new phase of the Order. I loooooooove the new location! So beautiful 8D

[Vii]

Akagami no Shirayukihime 39 - Izanaaaa~

[MangaRocks!]

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime chapter 39: Finally, a new chapter! SPOILER: Highlight text to read: And yep, guess this arc is just about done then. Also, I like how much nicer Izana has become now that he knows that Shirayuki is truly trustworthy.

Gin no Saji, a.k.a. Silver Spoon, chapter 71: LOL, the cover of the chapter was hilarious. (Actually, almost the entire chapter was hilarious. )

Kamisama Hajimemashita, a.k.a. Kamisama Kiss, chapter 94: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ah, finally -- nice confession on both sides! And it looks like this arc might be starting to head towards its close soon. But I'm still wondering how Nanami is going to save Tomoe in the present...

Karneval chapter 57: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ah... yeah, I actually kinda figured that, unfortunately. Poor thing's just a kid, though... Also, I wonder if what the other Karoku said was the truth-- somehow it doesn't seem like that could really be *all* there is to it, so I'll be looking for some more explanation on that in the future. Next up, though: saving the people in the town!

And Dawn Of The Arcana vol. 9: Well, this is getting more and more serious... SPOILER: Highlight text to read: "Ruthlessness," indeed. As for the rest of the volume: It should be interesting to find out what Loki meant about Nakaba's fate; it appears that Caesar will most likely have to stage a takeover to live; and one of the good princes of Lithuanel will probably not survive...

[SierraLea]

Current Bookshelf
Tsubasa; those with wings volume 1. It's by the author of Fruits Basket, but really reminds me of Dragon Knights.
The Prince of Tennis 40-42. I just haven't returned these yet. I did like the Pinacle of Perfection, though.
Fruits Basket 21-22. THey didn't have the last volume at my library, but they had the really exciting one!
Eyeshield 21 6-9. I seriously love this one. Sena is of course my favorite, but I'm liking the "Demon" more and more.
The Earl and the Fairy. 1-4 Not sure what to make of this one just yet.
Chibi Vampire 1-2. This one looks like it'll be super cute! I can't wait until he finds out!

[the_wolfs_howl]

Silver Spoon chapter 71 - Nice to see the romance progressing a little bit. Maybe Knowing Arakawa-san, it will probably be very slow and understated - which is perfectly fine with me.

D.Gray-man chapters 166-170 - I did not see that coming. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Cross Marian is dead?! Of course, I have a feeling he'll end up returning eventually, if only because he's suddenly mysteriously missing. I'm also glad to finally get a bit more information on "the 14th", though the flashback was hopelessly confusing because I couldn't tell who the characters were at all. Oh well.

[Kaori]

Kana v. 1-4 (complete). This is a seinen manga that started out with an interesting premise about a group of half-human-half-demons who want to create a utopia where humans and demons can live in peace but are using highly unscrupulous means towards that end. However, it has one of the worst cop-out excuses for an ending that I have ever seen due to the fact that it introduces a ton of plot elements and unexplained things and then doesn’t resolve or explain a single one of them except the romance subplot. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: There’s no explanation of why Kana is called Babylon, what the connection is between her and ancient Babylon, why the Seven Heads (villains) need her, what Solomon’s Ring is, or what the Tower of Babylon is that the Seven Heads are building. And at the end of the manga Abe (male lead) just watches Kana (female lead) and Rou get into this weird-looking airship to go off somewhere, we don’t really know why, and decides to stay behind until they come back. That’s it. The reader isn’t given any indication of what Kana and Rou are going to go do, and we don’t see any of their journey, we just see them reappear again at the end and apparently everything’s okay. This isn’t even a complete list of all the loose ends. Also, I had this feeling as I read that the artwork was actually getting worse as the series progressed, and a look back at the early chapters confirmed that. One of the main characters is a wolf, and while it’s clear from the beginning that the mangaka didn’t really know how to draw wolves, the drawings of that character just got more and more obviously lazy as the manga neared its ending. Impressively bad for a manga that started out seeming like it might be something worth reading.

Galaxy Express 999 v. 13 had a couple of very sobering tales at the beginning followed by just the usual crash landings, exploding planets, and kidnappings of the main characters.

Galaxy Express 999 v. 14 is the volume in which Tetsurou reaches his destination and is supposed to get a mechanical body. This is also the volume in which we find out some really weird stuff about Maetel’s family background. I was surprised because I thought that SPOILER: Highlight text to read: the events on this planet would take a long time to relate, maybe several volumes but instead SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Tetsurou escaped being put into a mechanical body, left the planet and met back up with the other characters, and witnessed the sudden death of the planet he had just left, all within the same volume. Seemed anticlimactic, but we’ll see where the series goes in the last seven volumes. (Eventually—I’m going to take a bit of a break from this series for now.)

[mysngoeshere56]

Bakuman, volume 7.

[SierraLea]

Blue Exorcist 1-3. Rin really reminds me of a younger version of Wolverine, X-Men. The third volume ended on a total cliffhanger so I've been on tenderhooks all weekend because I couldn't get the next chapter. Don't Do That!

[wildpurplechild]

Black Butlervol 2-8
I've really been getting into this series as of late. I can't wait to find out what the conclusion is to the circus ark.

Alice in the Country of Hearts: My Fanatic Rabbit vol 1
I really liked the orginal series, but so far this one is just so-so. The main plot involves SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Alice paired with Elliot the March Hare, which I think is kind of odd. Also, the artist is different, so that takes some getting used to.

[uc pseudonym]

Medaka Box is over. Did anyone out there still reading?

I'm still not sure how I felt about this. It's possible I read too much into things that were just throw-away jokes, but I wish it had actually taken the meta aspects somewhere. Sometimes it felt like the author wanted to explore interesting ideas, other parts were really slapped together lowest common denominator bits. And I think the ending was going for sentimental, but at least for me it hadn't earned that level of emotion. The epilogue was a little better, but dumped a lot of information when it could have implied. The only thing I particularly liked was the fact that the terms of the final duel make the fight itself completely pointless - I'm not sure if it was intentional, but that's a good match for the series as a whole.

[KazeShiki]

Medaka Box was never meant to be taken seriously at any point. There is nothing to read into. This is Nisio Isin we're talking about; the entire manga was just a giant troll. It started off as a parody of SoL then a parody of battle shounen. After that, he got bored enough to actually make a couple good characters and played around with them while continuing to pull arcs out of nowhere. Half the questionable material is a result of him literally not caring and the other half is just his trademark stuff. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Anshin'in's entire 4th wall breaking character and arc is something he loves to do. The meta was there because he likes to mess with meta, not because he had any intention to make it important to the plot. Killing her off was only a matter of time because he always does that to popular characters and then hinting that she "might" still live in the very last chapter is a purposeful tease with no real meaning. Everything about styles is there because he loves wordplay like no other.

The ending did not aim to be anything other than a final troll. He's probably laughing at every person thinking about its meaning because that's just how he is, but hey, he's really good at it. I still marvel (with rage) at how ingenious his Koimonogatari troll was. It wouldn't be that far off to say he wrote Medaka Box because he had some fun ideas that he didn't know where else to pun.

[uc pseudonym]

This is why I should pay more attention to fandoms. If I'd known about the author's reputation I'd probably have stopped reading a long time ago, but I tend to give too much benefit of the doubt. If this was actually just trolling, then... I guess I just think the series was thoroughly half-assed. It doesn't even really parody, just kind of points at tropes and goes "Hey, those are tropes." But given that the series lasted this long and lots of people found it funny, I should probably just admit that I'm not even close to his target audience and move on.

After that, he got bored enough to actually make a couple good characters and played around with them while continuing to pull arcs out of nowhere.

Which are the ones you consider good characters? I'd guess Anshin-in and Kumagawa off-hand. I found the Anshin'in generally entertaining to read but I do not get Kumagawa's popularity at all - he disappointed me pretty much constantly after his first appearance.

[KazeShiki]

It was definitely half-assed. Honestly, people aware of his reputation find it worse than others simply because we know he was wasting time on this manga that wasn't very good. Nothing wrong with disliking it; I'm just pointing out this is a rare case where the mangaka actually had no intention of writing a well done story in the first place.

Anshin'in was my favorite by far. Kumagawa I found entertaining at times, less so than others, but still better than the rest of the cast. As for why he's so popular, I guess it can be summed up as his attitude and reaction to events coupled with the running joke of him being an eternal loser. The thing with Nisio Isin is he always focuses on dialogue, so many of his characters end up having their own speaking "style" (it's more apparent in Japanese and is why Kumagawa's lines were always bracketed). So level of like/dislike of them is pretty much dependent on whether you enjoy what/how they talk as opposed to what they do.

[MangaRocks!]

Gin no Saji, a.k.a. Silver Spoon, chapter 72: LOL (as usual).

Kamisama Hajimemashita, a.k.a. Kamisama Kiss, chapter 95: Things are really starting to connect now. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Like the hairpin, and (finally!) the fallen god-- who, interestingly, appears to have not fallen yet at that point in time...

Karneval chapter 58 + Sheep's Side Story #2: Yikes. I knew it was going to be quite a fight, but now it looks like it's going to be difficult for the Circus members to even keep *any* of the townspeople in one piece, no less themselves... (Oh, and as for the second Sheep Story: ...That is all. )

And Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun chapter 40: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Well, that ending was trying to be ominous, but I have absolutely no doubts that they'll work it out. Oh, and I liked the little special afterwards about Haru and Yamaken when they were young.

[the_wolfs_howl]

D.Gray-man chapters 171-174 - More complications with Leverrier and Cross! And the present predicament with the "phantom thief" (which only makes me think of Psyren from FMA <_<) is quite fun. I have my suspicions about the real culprit....

[DecooPunk]

Yotsuba&! Volume 2
The part when Yotsuba shows a frog to Ena and Miura (did I spell that right?) comes wearing a bullseye on her head was so crazy funny XD

Yotsuba is totally a alien.

[mysngoeshere56]

Finally getting around to reading D.N.Angel, volume 10. Oh, how my love for this manga is coming back after so many months of being too busy to read a lot!

[SierraLea]

It's official. Denki Daisy is my favorite girl's manga. It beats the heck out of Fruits Basket.

[Vii]

^ Where are you in it? (It's one of my favorites as well. :3)

[mysngoeshere56]

Been reading the first volume of Dark Horse's Cardcaptor Sakura omnibus. I'm so incredibly glad they've brought back CLAMP titles.

[MangaRocks!]

Gin no Saji, a.k.a. Silver Spoon, chapter 73: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Oh dear... I'm starting to wonder what Hachiken's mom ever saw in that guy, LOL. It was nice to see the results of Hachiken's character growth so far here, though, in that he actually tried to talk with and understand his dad, and stood up for himself a bit against him, too.


Pandora Hearts chapter 83: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Man, the feels in the first part of this chapter... the expression on my face as I was reading it was alternating between sadness and a smile, over and over. And Reim was such a sweetheart. But then my expression turned to interest at the revelation of what Duke Barma actually did to catch Sharon and Break (which was a bit of a surprise); and then finally to laughing disbelief at the cliffhanger directly in the middle of a very important sentence that the chapter left off on! Mochizuki-sensei has actually done that once or twice before-- hence my being able to laugh at it here, even while I'm desperate to read the rest, LOL-- but, honestly, I don't really mind. This series is just too darn good!!


Taiyou no Ie chapter 19: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: *snicker*-- self-control... Anyway, it's nice to see that Mao's step-mom is (finally) trying to work things out, but I have a feeling that's not going to last long...


Arisa vol. 10: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ah, so Kudo was still alive. Not sure I'm entirely buying the backstory/reasoning for the characters' actions that was given here; however, if I conclude that both Kudo and Midori are insane-- which, in fact, was already quite obvious-- and that Arisa (who apparently was indeed innocent of the worst of it, at least before her attempted suicide) has some sort of Stockholm syndrome or something (...well, that, or she is intending to stop Midori by herself; but somehow that seems unlikely), I guess it works. Anyway, it should be interesting to see how Tsubasa and company are going to save Arisa and stop Midori now that she's with him again.


And Kimi ni Todoke vol. 16: LOL, Sawako's dad. Also, some interesting things going on with SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ayane, here-- it's been clear for quite a while that she has some issues, but it seems they run a bit deeper than I thought. I hope (well, actually, expect-- but it should be nice to see how ) Kento can reach her.

[GeneD]

I spend a couple of nights not sleeping enough and speeding through Attack on Titan instead.
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: I've gone from assuming humanity it totally screwed and everyone is going to die sooner or later, to assuming that everyone is a secret titan and still probably going to die.

Also some of the titans have quite childlike features and I spend a really mind-warping morning surrounded by kids and babies today.

[mysngoeshere56]

The first volume of Mobile Suit Gundam Seed. Found a volume laying around in my house so I figured I'd give it a try.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Silver Spoon chapter 73 - Wow, that was harsh. I can see why Hachiken isn't terribly fond of his family. Hopefully he'll get the affirmation he deserves eventually.

D.Gray-man chapters 175-179 - I don't really like how the story has suddenly veered away from the main plot to pursue yet another secondary character...but oh well.

[skreyola]

I bought volume 6 of FMA tonight, intending to put it at the end of my reading queue, but I ended up reading the whole thing tonight, instead.

[SierraLea]

My current bookshelf is
Tsubasa, THose with Wings 3. This series had a good ending, but escalated way too fast. We go from them roaming the country to all that intense stuff in less than one chapter. This looked like one of those series where the magazine is cutting a story so the author had to finish it up fast.
Negima! 12-17. This one had such big gaps between what books I was able to get that I'm going to drop it. THe storyline wasn't even that good.
Eyeshield 21 15-16. This one keeps getting better! But now I'm on tenderhooks because the last volume ended in a major cliffhanger!
Dengeki Daisy 3-6. I already said this was my official favorite. I love the art in it too, especially Kurosaki.
Chibi Vampire 5. Investigation pending. An interesting concept, though.
Boys over Flowers 4-5. If not for the art, this would be a runner up for favorite, and the anime's even worse that way. I do like the storyline, and especially like Tsukasa. What can I say? I find guys like him to be so sweet and genuine.

[GeneD]

Catching up on Silver Spoon. Clearly the way to get me to read a manga is get the anime of it to come out.

[MangaRocks!]

YES! Kimi to Boku. chapter 21 has finally been released! And LOL, it was so funny and cute (as it should be ).

[SierraLea]

I am currently reading Kare Kano. It was great untill the end of volume 6. Did they seriously have to ruin it like that? It was so pure and endearing before that.

[MangaRocks!]

Gin no Saji, a.k.a. Silver Spoon, chapters 74-75: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: These two chapters were pretty cute. Hachiken's mother is actually quite nice (and supportive, once she's interested), unlike his father. Also, it was neat to see the teachers acknowledge Hachiken's influence on the others and how the way that he sees things stirs up interesting discussion (though what that particular conversation devolved into right afterwards was pretty amusing ). Nice ending to that chapter, too.

Liselotte to Majo no Mori chapter 9: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: LOL-- especially at the stuff with the cake at the end. Yikes, though, on that cliffhanger...

Karneval chapters 59-60 + extra: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Ah, interesting. So, if I'm reading it correctly, the thing with Yogi's 'allergy' appears to actually be two separate beings/consciousnesses in one body, then, as opposed to just a deeply split personality like it looked like the first time. Whatever the case, though, *this* Yogi is quite ruthless, and in fact seems to really enjoy fighting (as opposed to the other, 'usual' Yogi, who only fights if he has to and doesn't enjoy it one bit). Him taking down all those post-animals throughout the town-- nearly single-handedly, and with apparent ease-- was pretty impressive, too. And as for the extra stuff at the end-- LOL! Looking forward to the next chapter!
Kimi to Boku. chapter 22 + extra: Awww. This series = adorable!

Millennium Snow, a.k.a. Sennen no Yuki, chapter 13: Ah. Well, that was sweet enough, I suppose, though still pretty fluffy. SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Still wondering who the new character is...

Taiyou no Ie chapter 20 + extra: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Heh, I knew it. I mean, it was obvious-- how could Daiki not like her? Unfortunately for him, I'm pretty sure it's not happening , but his character amuses me, so at least this will mean that we'll see more of him. Also, it's nice that the other guy finally got a clue (well, actually eavesdropped, LOL, but it counts ) about Mao, too, so that should be over with now. (I do hope he eventually gets with Mao's friend, though, because she likes him so much. ) Oh, and the little extra was cute.

Bakuman. vol. 19: Oh my gosh, that was fantastic! (I mean, it always is, of course , but I just couldn't help mentioning it again. ) SPOILER: Highlight text to read: And I was so proud of Miho at the end.
Oh, and I also re-read Yuka Fujiwara's Hug! one shot again just for the fun of it, because I needed a nice little dose of cute, and it's adorable.