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krpalmerReading through a volume of manga, that ever-recurring thought of what next to post about here (even if I’m only talking to myself) started coming to mind. By itself, the volume might not have offered enough to build a post around. Adding something about the next volume picked up off my to-be-read stack (not as high as it’s been at times, but not “dangerously low” either) did seem a change, though. For a few moments I even thought about titling the post “Manga This Week,” but wound up wondering about “being stuck with a precedent.” That I’d managed to comment on previous instalments in both series, however, offered a way out there.
I’ve read a number of volumes of Arpeggio of Blue Steel since the last time I commented on it, but things might not have changed a lot since then with the latest volume bringing “the sunk cost fallacy” to mind. The stealthy submarines that had driven “seeking to strike back on a shoestring against the overwhelming force of enigmatic World War II warships and their peculiar cute-anime-women ‘mental models’” were still trying to finish the mission that had been playing out since the start of the series, but a vast number of “mental models” were doing peculiar things in a variety of places to a different sort of enigmatic effect, and there was a certain amount of “you are immensely important, because... you’re the main character” tossed in too. I did wind up getting attached to anime through a story or two where “the antagonists” weren’t just “bad guys” to be blown up in the end (or at least forever brushed back in a “nobody ever dies in a cartoon” way), but I do have to admit stories where everyone’s become just about reasonable may have to work harder to stay interesting.
As for moving on to Harukana Receive, though, I was ready to see this providing an up note. The manga’s story in translation has at last reached past where the anime left off, and it so happened this first bit of new story somewhat reprised how things had started, with the main duo of teenaged beach volleyball players Haruka and Kanata running into the team who’d started them playing. Having supposed there would be a “destined final confrontation,” this “you’ve improved, but not enough” meeting with Narumi and Ayasa seemed a step along the way and a way to bring back characters who might have been stuck offstage for quite a while otherwise. I’m at least conscious of the slashy readings imposed on the two-person beach volleyball teams (even if the team from overseas of Claire and Emily is two sisters), and the fifth member of the high school club Akari might be on her own path to winding up with a partner. As for a different draw of the series (and the one I have to admit to focusing on more), the artwork does seem to have improved since the rough early days of the manga, although there are still some peculiarities to it, including a strange sense of “straight lines” to hips. I’d noticed back in the anime how many flat-chested girls are in the series, but here I did start wondering about the more well-endowed characters all having the same ample cleavage. Then, I managed to remember seeing one character in this volume who’s sort of in between.
I’ve read a number of volumes of Arpeggio of Blue Steel since the last time I commented on it, but things might not have changed a lot since then with the latest volume bringing “the sunk cost fallacy” to mind. The stealthy submarines that had driven “seeking to strike back on a shoestring against the overwhelming force of enigmatic World War II warships and their peculiar cute-anime-women ‘mental models’” were still trying to finish the mission that had been playing out since the start of the series, but a vast number of “mental models” were doing peculiar things in a variety of places to a different sort of enigmatic effect, and there was a certain amount of “you are immensely important, because... you’re the main character” tossed in too. I did wind up getting attached to anime through a story or two where “the antagonists” weren’t just “bad guys” to be blown up in the end (or at least forever brushed back in a “nobody ever dies in a cartoon” way), but I do have to admit stories where everyone’s become just about reasonable may have to work harder to stay interesting.
As for moving on to Harukana Receive, though, I was ready to see this providing an up note. The manga’s story in translation has at last reached past where the anime left off, and it so happened this first bit of new story somewhat reprised how things had started, with the main duo of teenaged beach volleyball players Haruka and Kanata running into the team who’d started them playing. Having supposed there would be a “destined final confrontation,” this “you’ve improved, but not enough” meeting with Narumi and Ayasa seemed a step along the way and a way to bring back characters who might have been stuck offstage for quite a while otherwise. I’m at least conscious of the slashy readings imposed on the two-person beach volleyball teams (even if the team from overseas of Claire and Emily is two sisters), and the fifth member of the high school club Akari might be on her own path to winding up with a partner. As for a different draw of the series (and the one I have to admit to focusing on more), the artwork does seem to have improved since the rough early days of the manga, although there are still some peculiarities to it, including a strange sense of “straight lines” to hips. I’d noticed back in the anime how many flat-chested girls are in the series, but here I did start wondering about the more well-endowed characters all having the same ample cleavage. Then, I managed to remember seeing one character in this volume who’s sort of in between.