| This manga is the epitome of bad writing and amazing art. The art is unique. There are not many mangaka that make a character look this attractive. However, that's where the compliments stop. This manga is simply ecchi fodder mixed in with harem. This manga would have been perfect if it didn't manage to make you lose a few IQ points because of the awfully convoluted plot. I can't believe this manga managed to run for 15 volumes because of the lame side stories. The mangaka is well known for his harem manga like I''s and others. I don't doubt at all that he became popular because of his ecchi drawings, which aren't at short supply in any of his manga. Video Girl Ai is brainless artbook of amazing illustrations. It's too bad that the mangaka doesn't know how to write a good romance story and keeps using the generic harem. If the side stories were removed and the story only focused on the two main characters, then this would have been a very feel good light hearted romance manga. 5/10 Average (-5 for lame, convoluted plot with plenty of deus ex machina moments) Recommendation: If you enjoyed this manga, make sure you check out Kimagure Orange Road, Maison Ikkoku and Ichigo 100%. |
arimakenshinMay 4, 2010 11:26 AM
| If VGA is a perfect example of good art/perversion AND bad writing, then how would you describe pornographic manga; titles offering near to nothing but sex? You complain about everything to such an extent that it's an impossibility to take you seriously. VGA is far from perfect; I'll admit that, and I'm not going to sit here and say the story is ground-breaking, but to suggest it's close to being worthless is a stretch too far when the story is quite touching and most certainly gripped me. No-one sane would read through all 15 volumes of VGA, rate it 5/10, and then go on to read I''s; rating that 3/10. Methinks you aren't using the rating system too well, and are awful at picking what to read based on your... tastes. I thought the section of the story covered by the OVA, where a love square got started, was excellent. Three of the four characters got some quality development time, and that made the romantic frustrations that followed very easy to get involved with as a reader. Yota was made to look pathetic but, at the same time, showed enough qualities to make him endearing. The way he always put others needs above his own and, selflessly, supported Momei as she tried to get together with Takahashi made him a very sympathetic character. Ai was easy to like right from the get-go because of her tomboyish, playful personality, but - much like in the case of Yota - the way she ignored her own feelings and supported Yota without hesitation made her a character I had no issue rooting for. And Momei, though quite selfish because of how she ignorantly abused Yota's feelings for her, was easy to like for a number of reasons, the main of which being how hard she battled to win the affections of the man she loved, in spite of his cold attitude. Only Takashi I struggled to like, and that's mainly because he was never clear about his intentions; always being shown acting without the logic behind his actions getting explained. The other three characters each often had their thought processes explained from their own perspectives, but Takashi didn't, presumably due to him lacking importance compared to the other three characters--his role becoming less and less important as the series progressed. I did start to like him towards the end, his more caring side getting time, and that's why it disappointed me that he didn't end up together with Moemi--Takashi having said he'd started to care for her and Moemi always having loved him. I only started having problems deriving enjoyment out of the series when Ai's memory got erased. I felt it was weak for memory loss to be used as a plot device that allowed Katsura to extend the story. And my feelings of unease about the situation only intensified after Nobuko randomly got thrown into the story. It's always the way in these type of stories, but it's always frustrating when, after a lifelong loser FINALLY gets one girl interested in him, at least one JUST HAPPENS to pop-up out of nowhere. In the case of VGA, Nobuko apparently fell in love with Yota back in junior high... and decided she'd make him hers at high school. Honestly, I just wanted her character out of the way, my reasoning behind very straight-forward: she had zero chance of ending up with Yota. I recall reading a review by one guy; the guy in question suggesting that I''s is predictable while VGA isn't, and that's complete bullshit. It was always going to come down to a straight choice between Ai and Moemi - the title character and the dream girl - and Ai was always going to win because A) the series was titled after her and B) she was the first girl to get close to Yota after he started developing a sexual interest in females. It was clear as day to me that Nobuko was going to enter the picture for a bit around the middle, forcing the progression to grind to a halt as Yota pondered over his feelings for her, and then bugger off, never (well, very rarely, anyway!) to be seen again. Her character reminded me of a far less attractive, far less fun version of Izumi from I''s. What made her character worse was the way her hair kept getting shorter and shorter, the more she appeared. I know Katsura has a fetish for short-haired girls, but seriously: she looked more like a boy by the time she'd finished cutting! (I have a similar complaint about Moemi, too--Katsura cutting her sexy looking hair, putting her in a boy's uniform and, basically, turning the most sext character in VGA into a boy. (DAMN HIS WEIRD FETISH!!!) But, as lady luck would have it, after the story had stalled for a bit, it got going again, and most of what came after was executed very well indeed. Ai's memory loss became a critical plot point, allowing Yota to get romantically involved with Moemi, and I think Katsura handled the relationship of Yota and Moemi excellently, on the whole. It's said that once you reach your goal you lose interest in what you were striving so hard for once, in the past, and that's exactly what happened when Yota finally got together with the girl of his dreams. Only after spending lots of time with Moemi and far less time with Ai did Yota finally realize that his feelings for Ai transcended the feelings of infatuation he held for Moemi, and it made perfect sense. Sure, Katsura obviously had Yota discover his feelings for Ai the long and hard way in order to extend the length of his work, but he did a good job of masking that towards the end. My only issue with the Ai/Moemi part of the story was when Yota denied being in love with Ai; him suggesting he'd never longed for her. I'm unsure if his line was translated poorly, but as it stands, what Yota said made little sense when, previously, he'd been shown hunting for Ai out of desperation, even though he had Moemi. He even rejected the advances of Moemi because of Ai. The line was just very odd when, later, I just knew he'd go back on what he said, inexplicably... Moving on from the above confusion, I'd say the main plus point of the series is how Yota changed, bit by bit, as the story progressed and he became more experienced with the opposite gender. To start with, he was pretty much totally gutless, but he ended up reaching a point where he was able to confess his feelings and, without warning, make a moves on Moemi, as well as Ai. That impressed me because, in MANY romantic comedies, the leads never makes any progress; remaining pathetic... yet still winning the affections of the women they love. It pleased me that this wasn't the case with VGA... though it did irk me at times how insensitive Yota acted as he jumped from one girl to the next. With all the plus points out of the way, I'd say the biggest flaw VGA has is its sci-fi elements. Thankfully anything relating to the video girl side remained in the background, the human drama always being number one in Katsura's mind (or #2, right behind panties), but what was shown wasn't great. The purpose of the video girls came down to bearded/trench coat wearing people wanting to show that love is wrong, and the villain of the piece was your typical, 100% evil, one-dimensional baddie intent on showing that hatred surpasses love, or something. In a nutshell, it was only there to increase the increasingly dramatic love life of Yota, and though it did succeed in doing so, the lack of substance and silliness of it all did slightly detract from my overall enjoyment. ...So, all in all, though there were a few pacing issues and whatnot that annoyed me, I got a lot out of reading the series. I'm unsure if I prefer I''s more, though. I''s had none of the sci-fi nonsense and never, ever pretended to be unpredictable; the main love rival for Iori going out of the picture halfway through the story. I was also able to like Ichi, the lead of I''s, more than Yota because, in spite of remaining gutless throughout, he was far easier to relate to due to the story ONLY being told from his perspective. I'm pretty sure Katsura made the decision to only tell the story from the perspective of the lead for this reason. Katsura is now Godly to me, and I'm SO glad I picked up the I''s OVA set on a whim from SecondSpin; it introducing me to his work. I now own 30 volumes of his work, and I don't regret it: I got panties, truly sexy female characters and my favourite genre--not a bad deal, if I do say so myself! |
AironicallyHumanMay 10, 2010 4:22 AM
| I believe I owe you a fair reply and a counterpoint to your well written analysis. However, I do not think I can do it justice because I have a very simply answer to the fundamental difference to the degree to how much we enjoyed the manga series. I dislike the harem genre. It's not because I dislike love triangles or polygons. It is because of the constant portrayal of a male character so naive that it would break my naivety-analyzer-9000. There is a very big, obvious line between naivety and stupidity and the mangaka managed to do that with the male lead in Video Girl Ai. The indecisiveness is the classic hallmark of anime series. From western harems such as Archie's Comics to the most familiar, popular titles like Clannad and Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, the male lead is always indecisive and too stupid. The general path that he takes is the typical "white knight" route in which the stupid, naive character thinks that he can protect every girl he likes or whomever likes him. When I read manga, I start enjoying serious when I can put myself in the male lead's shoes and be lost in an immersive world hence why I called this manga masturbation fodder. This manga, to me, ended up nothing more than a showcase of gorgeous girls with 2d personalities. I wish someone would write a real harem with intelligent girls with an intelligent male lead instead of this simplistic crush polygon. My second problem with this manga is the length. Harem manga usually are long series rife with plot twists that I start to get so tired of how predictable it is that I start getting and/or lose interest. 15 volumes asks a lot of the reader. 15 volumes with around 200 to 250 pages each requires at least 3 hours to read from cover to cover. This undertaking forces the mangaka to make fresh material. However, Masakzu Katsura did not provide fresh material. Instead, he reused the same plot twists and added an incredibly, absurd deus ex machina moment to save the manga from failure half way through the manga. I would have given this manga an 8 becuase of how adorable Ai was and how much I enjoyed just reading anything with her involved but the EXTREME indecisiveness of Youta, the stereotypical, unnecessary playboy friend he has who catches the rebound of whomever Youta does not like and the overuse of plot twists makes me believe that I should give a 6. Recalibrated score: 6/10 (Good read but highly flawed, convoluted story) I strongly recommend the OVA. I enjoyed it much more because of the fantastic quality of the animation. Seeing Ai animated and acting so adorable (I believe moe is the term) convinced me to give it a 7. I''s is a completely different manga. That manga actually made me feel sick because of how lame the whole plot is. Boy has a crush on a gravure idol and gets played around? Give me a break. |
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