Manga Notes: Harukana Receive 1-2
Nov. 10th, 2018 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerWith "I like the way it looks" a simple explanation (at least at first glance) for why I've stayed interested in anime and manga for so long, there's some significance to a belief I've developed that when looking at manga series and the anime adapted from them, the manga will have better-looking character artwork. Colour, motion, and sound in all forms do add something to the experience for me, but most often if I start reading a manga before hearing it's to be turned into anime I'll stick with that version in print, and if I do start with the anime I'll keep from looking at the manga until its adaptation is over and I have to continue the story in a new media, so as to "not diminish that first experience while I'm having it."
Having admitted a big part of why I took interest in the beach volleyball anime Harukana Receive was "beach volleyball seems a better excuse than many to have its young female characters in swimsuits" (although I wouldn't say that wound up the only reason I kept watching it), knowing the manga it had been based on was starting to be published over here in synchronicity with the "simulcasts" stuck in my mind. When the first volume didn't show up in the local bookstore right when I was expecting it to, I made a special order; however, once I had the volume I put it aside to wait until the anime was finished. As I waited, though, I happened to see a review of the manga on Anime News Network, and then one in Otaku USA magazine, that both criticized the manga's art and suggested the anime looked better in this case.
I had the volume in any case, and I did want to form my own opinions, so not that long after I'd finished my "quarterly review" of anime watched I opened up the manga. It didn't take long at all until I was thinking something did seem awkward about the art; perhaps one specific thing I could say was that even the well-endowed sparkplug character Haruka could look "scrawny" somehow. After also noting how the manga didn't include her cousin Kanata's grandmother and pet turtle, though, I hit on one moment where I couldn't just write off the manga as "the first draft of something I'd already seen," a little scene where Haruka tells Kanata "you don't like being short, but I don't like being tall." Too, the art did seem to improve just a bit as the chapters progressed, with some in-between pages that could have been drawn last looking a bit better.
Having waited so long to read the first volume, it wouldn't be long until the second volume arrived. I still wound up making a special order for the second volume at the bookstore, but as I started reading it I was willing now to suppose the art was improving, even if the anime didn't seem threatened by it yet. Along the way, too, I did think all of a sudden that the moments that had followed a sudden singular combination of "regular tidbits about beach volleyball" and "unusual raunchiness for the series" made a sense that had escaped me seeing it subtitled in the anime. I am aware some people jump on any hint of failings in (official) translation, but I'm also willing to understand why I hadn't got things the first time around. It could be a few more volumes until the manga picks up where the anime left off, at which point I'll have to see how well the beach volleyball action works in print alone for me, but my opinions in general do seem to be improving.
Having admitted a big part of why I took interest in the beach volleyball anime Harukana Receive was "beach volleyball seems a better excuse than many to have its young female characters in swimsuits" (although I wouldn't say that wound up the only reason I kept watching it), knowing the manga it had been based on was starting to be published over here in synchronicity with the "simulcasts" stuck in my mind. When the first volume didn't show up in the local bookstore right when I was expecting it to, I made a special order; however, once I had the volume I put it aside to wait until the anime was finished. As I waited, though, I happened to see a review of the manga on Anime News Network, and then one in Otaku USA magazine, that both criticized the manga's art and suggested the anime looked better in this case.
I had the volume in any case, and I did want to form my own opinions, so not that long after I'd finished my "quarterly review" of anime watched I opened up the manga. It didn't take long at all until I was thinking something did seem awkward about the art; perhaps one specific thing I could say was that even the well-endowed sparkplug character Haruka could look "scrawny" somehow. After also noting how the manga didn't include her cousin Kanata's grandmother and pet turtle, though, I hit on one moment where I couldn't just write off the manga as "the first draft of something I'd already seen," a little scene where Haruka tells Kanata "you don't like being short, but I don't like being tall." Too, the art did seem to improve just a bit as the chapters progressed, with some in-between pages that could have been drawn last looking a bit better.
Having waited so long to read the first volume, it wouldn't be long until the second volume arrived. I still wound up making a special order for the second volume at the bookstore, but as I started reading it I was willing now to suppose the art was improving, even if the anime didn't seem threatened by it yet. Along the way, too, I did think all of a sudden that the moments that had followed a sudden singular combination of "regular tidbits about beach volleyball" and "unusual raunchiness for the series" made a sense that had escaped me seeing it subtitled in the anime. I am aware some people jump on any hint of failings in (official) translation, but I'm also willing to understand why I hadn't got things the first time around. It could be a few more volumes until the manga picks up where the anime left off, at which point I'll have to see how well the beach volleyball action works in print alone for me, but my opinions in general do seem to be improving.