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[Spoiler Warning]

I read Vagabond to see what all the fuss is about. It's a very fast read. There are huge image panels and barely anything happening per chapter, which flows well if you're reading straight through but hellish if you're waiting chapter by chapter. The art is simply gorgeous - probably the best I've ever seen in a manga - but stands in stark contrast to the lack of actual story... sort of like special effects in a movie.

The "story" appears to be the warrior's drive to be the best, err, I mean "invincible under the sun." This results in such battles as the infamous ... "lets duel next year when our dojo isn't on fire" incident, the exhilarating stare down with Aang from Avatar, and the riveting stand off with the sleeping guy. It got a bit more interesting after Musashi killed enough people for their friends to start caring about it and gaining motives other than perfecting their skills, thus inspiring a semblance of sympathy and emotional investment in battle outcomes... but this didn't last long.

Over 50 chapters of spoon-fed philosophizing ensued. Triggered not by a sincere, voluntary revelation, mind you, but by circumstances that physically prevented the character from pursuing the goals he otherwise would continue chasing after. Over time the endless conversations and bouts of schizophrenia just glazed over in their repetitiveness for me.

Many of the characters also clung to highly romanticized notions of "honor" which made their motives/actions unrelatable and at times unrealistic. Sometimes they even got confused over conflicting honor codes and nearly sabotaged what their goal was in the first place. Other times they switched gears from a genuine emotional reaction to some intellectualized bushido ideal so quickly that I wanted to slap them. There was much facepalming on my end over this.

The 70-man battle should've been exciting, but it instead served as a perfect example of action over substance. Chapter after chapter of countless sword swings and I didn't care about any of these people. I love action, I truly do, but action only has meaning for me when there's something more at stake than just fighting stronger guys later. That's why my favorite fight, and the highlight of the series, was the twig battle between Sasaki and Musashi. It's sad when a twig battle is more exciting than a 70 man bloodbath.

This is perhaps the most original, trippiest, creepiest, and imaginative thing I've ever read.

The world is very well thought-out. It is primarily divided into the Hole, a place populated by humans, and the Magic Users' world, populated by human-looking beings with extraordinar[ily weird] abilities. These abilities range from your standard healers, to devastating mushroom attacks, and everything in between. The humans and the magic users don't like each other.

The plot is a lot harder to describe. I mean, saying "well it's about an amnesiac guy with a lizard head named Kaiman who wants his real face back so he's biting people faces so that the ... guy inside his mouth can identify the person who may have did this to him" doesn't really cut it. There's A LOT more to it than that, but you have no idea what's going on until volume 7+, when it gets much darker and the real story of Kaiman's memories and identity starts coming together.

That's okay, though, because the series is very entertaining throughout with its hyperviolence and dark humor, and you really do need such a long introduction to get used to this world and its, err, "colorful" cast of characters. That's not to say that the first few volumes are irrelevant for plot progression. Pieces of the plot are sprinkled everywhere but you might not realize it at first. To fully appreciate this it's best to go back once you know all that you will later on, which makes for a lot of re-read value!

/Where else can you find the phrase "The Boss is no longer a pie!!"? XD

Do you like pretty guys? Do you like to watch them horribly mutilate themselves and each other? Then this is the manga for you!

Lost Canvas is a prequel to the original Saint Seiya manga, and if you know anything about the original Saint Seiya series, then you pretty much know the entire plot and outcome of Lost Canvas. How do I put this delicately... stay away if you can't handle characters dying! The death toll is hiiiiiiiigh!! Aside from that, I think the brainstorming session for Lost Canvas went something like this:

Person A: so what should we make this about?
Person B: well, people really seem ... to like watching the Gold Saints fight.
Person C: yeah!!

And so Lost Canvas was born! I'd say about 90% of it is nonstop fighting. Relentless, brutal fighting, mainly among the Gold Saints. Now, this is pure Heaven for me, but if you like some plot to go with your action, you might be disappointed. There is a plot, of course, but it's so straightforward it may as well be negligible. You basically get dropped in the middle of a Holy War and plot progression takes place through battles between the Specters of Hades and the Saints of Athena. Beautifully bloody fun!!

The art of Lost Canvas is much, much prettier than the original Saint Seiya manga. Tenma and Sasha are also a lot less annoying than Seiya and Saori. There's several Gold Saints that are more fleshed out in Lost Canvas, but there's also Gold Saints that are more fleshed out in the original, so it's kinda a draw there. But overall, I'd say character development is better in the original. Lost Canvas doesn't quite have the stable, balanced team dynamic that existed between Seiya, Shiryu, Hyoga, Shun, and Ikki in the original.

I never expected to like Pandora Hearts. I hate the Victorian era, get easily bored by mysteries, and am typically annoyed by fluffy cuteness. I much prefer violence, blood, and deep, dark storylines. And yet, I love Pandora Hearts to pieces!! I think I experience it from a different angle than many other PH fans, so I want to offer my perspective.

I love all the characters here. Really, I've never loved so many characters so much before. They all have very colorful personalities, representing most of the standard animanga archetypes but elaborating on each in unique ways. I connect with all of them very strongly. ... There's lots of great chemistry between the characters, ranging from laugh-out-loud funny to depressingly-dark. I love the full spectrum of emotion here. But characters alone do not a good series make.

The plot is incredible. It is complex, but not to the point of confusion. The whole thing so far is about unraveling what happened during a tragedy 100 years ago in order to prevent it from happening again. As such, most of the plot takes place in the past, and is revealed through pieces of characters' memories. Herein lies my favorite philosophical obsession with this series. I love how PH addresses the fact that partial memory is a very dangerous thing. The characters get their memories back gradually, and in very fragmented form. They don't know the whole story, and their assumptions about what happened and about who they are given the limited information they have affects self-image, personality, and actions, even if the assumption they made isn't true.

How do people deal with the idea that there's more to them than the life they know, or that they're essentially more than one person? What if everybody around them expects them to be somebody else? How does this shape their perception of identity? What if you don't remember enough? What if you forgot that you wanted to forget? And what do you do when you remember too much? Or what if the past that made you who you are completely changed? These are the kinds of questions addressed in Pandora Hearts.

There is much re-read value in this series. Many things happen before they are explained, or before a character remembers its significance, so you pick up on a lot of things you missed on your 2nd (or 3rd or 10th) read through.

When Rin seeks revenge for the murder/rape of her family by the Itto-Ryu (a rival sword school), she hires Manji, an immortal swordsman, to help her. But things aren't quite that simple. The more Rin sees how her revenge affects the lives of others, and the more she gets to know her enemies, the harder it becomes for her to justify her goals. I think the story's greatest strength is character development, completely blurring the line between "good" and "evil." Seriously. Nearly all the characters are so sympathetic that you end up with nobody to root for or against. It's enough to drive one crazy!

Aside ... from that the manga has plenty of political intrigue, moral quandaries, drama and, of course, lots and lots of action. Some of the bloodiest fight scenes I've ever seen, and this is coming from someone who reads Berserk! Manji being immortal doesn't make him invincible in battle, on the contrary, it means he goes through a hell lot more punishment than the average fighter. And, on top of that, the artwork is just plain gorgeous.

I can't praise this series enough. It will spoil you for anything else you'll read in the future because nothing will be able to compare to it. The plot couldn't be more epic, the emotions couldn't run stronger, the art couldn't be more awe-inspiring (particularly in later volumes), and I guarantee that Berserk will traumatize you for life - in a good way! There are no flat characters here, and you can look at the story from any one of their perspectives to learn something new and valuable about the Berserk world. There's rape and violence galore, but this manga isn't just about Guts kicking ... ass, it actually has deep philosophical themes woven throughout which I take great pleasure in exploring.

One thing I do want to add is that the manga does not start at the chronological beginning. I strongly recommend that if you want to avoid major spoilers and get the most emotional impact from the story, you start reading at VOLUME 3 PAGE 169 ("Golden Age, Chapter 1"). This is the chronological beginning of Berserk. It is an ~11-volume flashback that frames the rest of the story. In the middle of volume 14 there is a "2 years later..." time skip. When you reach the "2 years later.." mark, this is when you go back and read volumes 1 through 3 completely, then continue with 14.

One Thousand and One Nights is unlike any other manga (or manhwa) you'll ever read. Not only is it set in the ancient Near East (a highly unusual location for a manga), but it also has stories within stories. A friend unfamiliar with the Sheherazade storytelling plot format asked me why they couldn't just skip the stories and get on with the main plot. I told them, "well then it wouldn't be 1001 Nights!" The stories ARE the plot, and I can't stress this enough. Both plot progression and character development take place through the stories. And what beautiful stories they are, ranging from folk ... tales from around the world, to revisionist history, to one that the author made up himself. I know it sounds corny, but to me, it's like stepping into a beautiful dream!

The relationship between Shahryar and Sehara flowers in a very gradual, natural progression. It's very satisfying to watch it grow from homicidal distrust to real devotion. They are stark contrasts to each other - with Shahryar being passionate and impulsive, while Sehara is serene and wise - and so complement the other perfectly. It might be a bit formulaic, but it's a formula that works, and is done well. On top of that, the art in this series is absolutely gorgeous - some of the most beautiful I've seen! - so there's plenty of eye candy to stare at.

This is a very addicting series that flies by really fast. I so wish there was more of it, but I guess I'll just have to get my 1001 Nights fix by re-reading it over and over, lol. The re-reading value is pretty high, too. While the plot is straightforward enough, the symbolism in the stories gives it many layers, and it's fun drawing more and more connections between the characters/themes in the stories and the characters/situations in the overall plot. It celebrates the power of storytelling to transform ourselves and the world.

The novel is written by Hiroaki Samura himself, but it is written by Junichi Ohsako, which makes it basically glorified fanfiction.

This is like an alternate timeline of the first few volumes with a new character thrown in, namely the rabid mutant "sword demon" who's killing the Itto-Ryu. Out of familiar characters, the novel has Manji & Rin (duh), Taito, Anotsu, Makie, Shira and the other Mugai-ryu. At the end, several Itto-Ryu teamed up against one guy, which is breaking the Itto-Ryu code but, to be fair, it was a crazed rabid mutant thing. The really bizarre thing for me about the English translation was that ... there are no real paragraph. Each sentence is its own paragraph. Doesn't take too long to get used to that, and it makes for a fast, fun read though it lacks the depth of any story arc in the manga.