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krpalmerThe bookcases where I now stack the volumes of manga I've bought and read are almost full. There could yet be space elsewhere in my place to knock together a few more bookcases and start filling them too, but I know this just puts off the problem. Even as I remember that with the way new series keep coming out that I read with interest I don't have much opportunity to return to old series and try to grapple with the thought of getting rid of, one way or another, at least some old manga I might not have wound up quite as enthused about even at the time, I've been contemplating whether any of the series I'm now reading I might be able to stop without too many regrets.
As I started reading the second volume (a "two-in-one" release over here) of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, I did wonder a bit whether this was a series I could contemplate saying goodbye to. There was really nothing wrong with it, to be certain. Love might be hard for its main characters Narumi and Hirotaka, but they were out of university (which always stands out by itself to me when it comes to manga and anime) and holding down jobs that didn't seem to be about making more of the "modern visual culture" they take such interest in. However, when their acquaintances Hanako and Taro also turned out to be a "fan couple," all of a sudden the story seemed to amount to "four people holding comedic discussions about their obsessions, but while neatly sealed off from the rest of the world," which somehow didn't seem that gripping for me but did leave me pondering that seemingly common problem of "when the story you're actually taking in doesn't match up with your first suppositions..." Towards the end of that second volume, though, I did start taking some interest in how Hirotaka's amusingly clueless little brother Naoya (the closest the main characters come to having to deal with "ordinary people") was taking an innocent interest in someone with a few hidden difficulties of their own, and how the very end set up a cliffhanger that might move things forward there.
Even if that meant I might yet buy the third volume when it comes out, though, one of the volumes I read soon afterwards was the last in its series. A few years ago, the anime Akame ga Kill had managed to catch my attention with its first episode, then grab hold of it a few episodes later. It was just anachronistic and over-the-top to not be a "generic fantasy," and it had definitely found a way to keep from seeming just "how do the protagonists safely escape this fix?" Before it was over, I'd heard the manga it had been adapted from had also been licensed; as the anime came to its last episodes, though, people started noticing it had an "original ending" and concluding this obviously made it inferior to however the manga ended. I'll admit I didn't buy the home video release of the anime, much less start watching it again; I was, however, working my way through the manga. It did take a while before I got to content I hadn't already experienced, and I did start sorting out a character or two was escaping the fate slapped on them in the last episodes of the anime. In the very last volume, though, I did start thinking some things reminded me of elements of the anime's conclusion; whether the anime's crew had been given a few ideas or the manga's creators had collected a few ideas I can only guess. I wouldn't say this final commonality diminished the story, even if it might end up one more of those stories I just remember having taken in without ever quite getting back to and the manga takes up space in my crowded bookcases.
As I started reading the second volume (a "two-in-one" release over here) of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, I did wonder a bit whether this was a series I could contemplate saying goodbye to. There was really nothing wrong with it, to be certain. Love might be hard for its main characters Narumi and Hirotaka, but they were out of university (which always stands out by itself to me when it comes to manga and anime) and holding down jobs that didn't seem to be about making more of the "modern visual culture" they take such interest in. However, when their acquaintances Hanako and Taro also turned out to be a "fan couple," all of a sudden the story seemed to amount to "four people holding comedic discussions about their obsessions, but while neatly sealed off from the rest of the world," which somehow didn't seem that gripping for me but did leave me pondering that seemingly common problem of "when the story you're actually taking in doesn't match up with your first suppositions..." Towards the end of that second volume, though, I did start taking some interest in how Hirotaka's amusingly clueless little brother Naoya (the closest the main characters come to having to deal with "ordinary people") was taking an innocent interest in someone with a few hidden difficulties of their own, and how the very end set up a cliffhanger that might move things forward there.
Even if that meant I might yet buy the third volume when it comes out, though, one of the volumes I read soon afterwards was the last in its series. A few years ago, the anime Akame ga Kill had managed to catch my attention with its first episode, then grab hold of it a few episodes later. It was just anachronistic and over-the-top to not be a "generic fantasy," and it had definitely found a way to keep from seeming just "how do the protagonists safely escape this fix?" Before it was over, I'd heard the manga it had been adapted from had also been licensed; as the anime came to its last episodes, though, people started noticing it had an "original ending" and concluding this obviously made it inferior to however the manga ended. I'll admit I didn't buy the home video release of the anime, much less start watching it again; I was, however, working my way through the manga. It did take a while before I got to content I hadn't already experienced, and I did start sorting out a character or two was escaping the fate slapped on them in the last episodes of the anime. In the very last volume, though, I did start thinking some things reminded me of elements of the anime's conclusion; whether the anime's crew had been given a few ideas or the manga's creators had collected a few ideas I can only guess. I wouldn't say this final commonality diminished the story, even if it might end up one more of those stories I just remember having taken in without ever quite getting back to and the manga takes up space in my crowded bookcases.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-19 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-20 01:26 am (UTC)(I also noticed in the manga, although I didn't get around to saying it before, that Taro, presented as "the least extreme fan of the four," seems to show the greatest interest in anime as opposed to drawing doujinshi, playing video games, and cosplay.)