My favourite manga

Posted on June 29, 2008
Filed Under manga recs |

## means “loved to bits OMG!”
# stands for “liked.”
[] means “rather liked,” on the brink between “liked” and “not my thing.”

If you want to see what yaoi manga I liked, look here.

Manga are sorted by title

MANGA: Antique Bakery (Seiyou Kottou Yougashiten) (2000) #
Mangaka: Yoshinaga Fumi
Genre: Comedy Josei Shounen Ai Slice of Life
Scanlated by: 7:11AM, Beautiful Soup
Status: 4 Volumes (Complete), licensed
Found: recced to me by klynie1 here
Summary: From DMP: A high school crush, a world-class pastry chef, a former middle-weight boxing champion…and a whole lot of cake!
Ono has come a long way since the agonizing day in high school when he confessed his love to handsome Tachibana. Now, some 14 years later Ono, a world-class pastry chef and gay playboy has it all. No man can resist Ono’s charms (or his cooking skills!) but he has just found a new position under a man named Tachibana. Can this be the only man who resisted his charms, and if so, will the man who once snubbed the “magically gay” Ono get his just desserts? And how in the heck did a former middleweight boxing champion wind up as Ono’s cake boy? The series won the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.

ANIME: Antique Bakery []
Directed by Yoshiaki Okumura
Status: Complete, 12 episodes, 30 minutes each
Summary: Antique Bakery is a small bakery that’s run by four handsome men. Tachibana, the owner. Chikage, who was send by Tachibana’s family to watch over his childhood friend. Ono, the “demonically charming” gay master pastry chef. And Kanda, a former boxer and Ono’s apprentice.
DL: all episodes can be found in this post by neko_myka. Episodes 4 and 5 are a bit broken (you can watch about 70% but then it freezes). You can find all the episodes (not broken) at GalAnime.
More about this mangaka can be found in fumi_yoshinaga lj comm. DJs can be found here.

My notes: MANGA this is a VERY DANGEROUS MANGA! It will make you want to eat all sorts of cakes and desserts right away; it can make you go out in search of them! Don’t read it if you are hungry ‘cos you will drool. Also be careful if you tend to put on weight easily or are a suggestible reader. It’s guaranteed to make you pack on a couple more kilos. Even I went and ate a bar of chocolate which happens, like, never. I don’t eat desserts unless they are fruity ‘cos I don’t like sweet things, I only like fruit. But I’m afraid that I’ll be dreaming of cakes tonight.

Also, this manga is a soap. At first, it seems as if it consisted of separate episodes, united only by location and the cast of characters, i.e. Tachibana and his pastry shop. But Yoshinaga Fumi is a bit slier as a storyteller, so past and current events take turn and connect into a bigger picture, with a detective/mystery subplot in the background. The story still remains a soap in and of itself. Which I usually dislike, even strongly, but really enjoyed here. If you look at the genre line above, you’ll see it defined as Shounen Ai but I wouldn’t really call it this. The manga isn’t focused on the love of a gay couple nor does it feature any sex.

Another thing to keep in mind is that this mangaka’s style is an acquired taste. At first it looks almost ugly (what’s with their drill-like eyes and rather peculiar faces); it’s for sure different. So let yourself get used to it ‘cos Yoshinaga Fumi tells an entertaining story. Although she, too, suffers from the terrible yaoi drawing illness called same-face-itus. It takes some effort to learn to tell characters one from another.

I liked all the four main characters. Each of them is lovely and interesting in his own way, especially Tachibana, the owner of the shop who doesn’t like sweets (he has his reasons!) and doesn’t understand anything in cakes. He is really just a big softie behind his grumpy appearance :) But I liked Chikage best. He appears in vol. 2 and is hilarious. He’s slow on the uptake (not to call him a simpleton) and extremely clumsy (think Tonks!); he’s very tall but always forgets it and bangs his head on the door frame. And he’s naive and sweet like a puppy.

Ch 5 vol 1 features one of the most amusing makeovers I’ve seen. The gags at the beginning are also amusing. The shop owner observes a new customer, then makes a detailed description of their life and habits a la Sherlock Holmes. Too bad for him he’s no Sherlock at all. I think vol. 2 is more interesting (and funnier) than vol 1. And on the whole, this is the sort of story that grows on you. By vol. 3 I liked it, and had to read vol. 4 alternately looking at the raws and the file with translation because I wanted to read it no matter what. There are some SPAG errors in the scans but not so many as to make reading unpleasant. Very enjoyable, as for me.

ANIME Now I’ve watched the anime and want to rec it too.

As usual, I didn’t like it at first :D One thing I did like was that it was done in an interesting way, combining real backgrounds with animation. What I didn’t like was that the characters resembled those of the manga only somewhat, in profile more than full-face. I lol at myself ‘cos I remember how I hated Yoshinaga Fumi’s character faces at first and now look how attached to them I have become! But come to think of it, this is the first time I came across an anime where I found the difference in drawing from the manga source visibly noticeable. Ono looks the most like himself, as for me, and Tachibana the least. And Chikage is Chikage whatever you do with him :P

I don’t know how well this anime works if one watches it with ‘fresh’ eyes, meaning if somebody who hasn’t read the manga watches it. So if you are one of those and you give it a go, please share your impressions with me. It seems to me that in comparison to the manga, the anime brings forth the comical side and the detective subplot while losing some fine nuances of characterisation. But maybe I found the detective subplot clearer here ‘cos I had to read vol. 4 of the manga alternately looking at raws and reading the translation in an MSWord file :) On the whole though, I think the anime is pretty adequate to the manga. I enjoyed it, especially, yes, Chikage whom I loved as much here. He’s so awwsome. All things considered, watching this anime was a pleasant experience. It’s neither too plotty and dramatic nor too light and comical but has elements of it all. Neither too long nor too short so it works well as a light-ish distraction for a couple of evenings. Lovely!

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Death Note []
Author: Ohba Tsugumi/Asami Yuuko. Artist: Obata Takeshi
Scanlated by: Aku Tenshi, Binktopia, Ice-Master Scanlations, KEFI, OrangeTangerine, Shannaro, The Ones Who Never Lie, Toriyama’s World, We, The Fans, mD-xD, pedobears, gto0o
Status: (12 Volumes + Volume 13: How to Read - Complete), licensed
Genre: Adventure Mystery Psychological Shounen Supernatural
Found: via Amanuensis; bought 10 vols in a tiny shop in Haarlem, Netherlands, and the rest in Antwerp
Summary: Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects–and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and now Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But when criminals begin dropping dead, the authorities send the legendary detective L to track down the killer. With L hot on his heels, will Light lose sight of his noble goal…or his life?
Read here

My notes: This is a story of love that could have been but wasn’t. When I first opened this manga, I didn’t believe I would like it. I didn’t like the drawing. I thought it was very professional but adhering to the tastes of late-teen majority and not to my tastes in general. But since I’d bought all the volumes, I decided to give it a go. And it blew me away. Totally and completely.

It’s possibly the plottiest thing I’ve read. I don’t like playing chess (although I did when I was a child), but I’d compare it to chess, only lightning-fast. The two young geniuses play various, highly complex combinations that change and turn like a kaleidoscope, fluidly shifting and dragging you with them. It’s a manga impossible to put away. You keep OMGing and WHOAing. I felt torn between the desire to gobble it up as fast as possible and stretch the pleasure. So for the first half of the manga, the way to work and home became my favourite part of the day ‘cos I decided to read it only on the train. Yep, it wasn’t the wisest decision ‘cos yep, I missed my stop.

But then it went sour, for me. You see, I’m a fan of a finite narrative structure, so to say: beginning-development-climax-end. There’s another one, that of a soap or ongoing TV series. Say, like this: there’s a big family with complicated relationships. Mary and John are in love but fighting, and Suzy left for a long trip (’cos the actress is busy in another project, but that’s off topic), and CC is in coma (because the actor’s contract hasn’t been renewed, but that’s also OT), and Mary and John keep fighting but that’s becoming boring, so the creators need ‘new blood’. So - bang! - a long-lost sister comes, who turns out to have been living in captivity, seized at a tender age by a really bad twin brother of CC who had left home to join a gang when he had been a teenager. In other words, add a new villain. Add another hero … deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum.

Let an old villain train/pass his powers to/clone/whatever a new one; let the hero find a companion/pass his sword/blaster/fatherly advice/whatever to the new one; let a lost relative/friend/love appear. Then do it again. This way, your story becomes potentially endless. This way, your plot gemmates. You can end it at any stage of gemmating or let it linger depending on the popularity of your product. It’s not inherently good or bad. It’s just another structure. But I hate it. It rubs me against the fur.

This is why, when DN changed the type of story in the middle, I nearly stopped reading. Not because of [spoiler, see below] in vol. 7 but because I felt that it started looking as if the writer introduced more new characters because s/he didn’t quite know what to do with the old ones and the admittedly elaborate plots s/he entangled them in.

Now for the real spoilers, highlight to read:

I can’t say the killing of L made me terribly sad. But it did make the manga lose any sort of personal touch that it had had — which hadn’t been many, as for me. ‘Cos both L and Light are rather sociophobic/sociopatic to begin with, and their relationships with the people around are nothing but utilitarian. This is, on the whole, a manga where it’s very hard to identify with the characters: they are either, let’s put it mildly, not very humane and treat people as things (massmurderer Light, reclusive and ruthless L, a young criminal Mello or a hyper-infantile Near — who turns out the most humane of them; a psyho actress Miso or robotic Takada and Mikami) or are boring or not very bright (Soichiro Yagami who’s a good man but old and boring; Matsuda who’s stupid — but he’s my favourite character in this manga. On a tangent, don’t Matsuda and Ide make a good couple? :D). So removing one character from the pair of opposites the readers got to like best by vol. 7 and introducing two new ones who require a couple more volumes to get used to, as for me, was a serious mistake, not to mention that it broke the pacing.

Also, one Kira vs one detective genius was ok. Two Kira, since the second one appears very soon, vs one L were fine. But as soon as L is killed off, I couldn’t see the rest as anything but arbitrary. If there can be M and N, why not P and O? Or L1/2? Well, ok, the author managed to pull out of this hole by making Near deliver the explanation of why N+M are cooler than L. But I had to read for five volumes to get there. The same is true for the other side: if there appear more Shinigami, new Death Notes, and a new Kira, why not another one? Or three more? In the end, I can’t see why it had to be 12 volumes and not 18 or 34. Or 9. In other words, the middle part bored and annoyed me.

IMO, the story does pick up by vol.9 or so when it becomes personal again and — surprisingly — settles back into the finite structure, and by vol 11, it again becomes truly engaging. But still the reason I persevered through the third quarter and finished it was to see how exactly the ending would be done. I liked the final confrontation and the very final pages but didn’t like what happened in between. Spoiler ahead, highlight to read:

The way Light dies, well, I didn’t find it particularly unbelievable but I didn’t find it believable either. He was coolly walking the plank for so long that his total and very melodramatic loss of nerve seemed a bit OOC.

A couple more words about the drawing. As I said, it looks very professional but rather generic I don’t know. It’s clean and really well-done, but as I said in comments on LJ, it reminds me of Mercedes Benz while I want a horse. It’s also very dense: a lot of visual information is pushed into every panel (except blank black pages) but little of it is vital information. The panel structure isn’t very varied. They are all rectangles, and the two tricks the artist uses are close-ups and remote view from above. I don’t think it’s a drawback though. If the visual side were more varied, with this kind of ueber-fast and complex plot, it would be too hard to read, I think. This also makes it a ’starter’s set’ manga, something that an inexperienced western reader could use to begin getting familiar with manga in general because the narrative element dominates over the visual clues.

The thing I hated was how feet are drawn, of course :) I don’t mean only L’s awful monkey feet (really, feet aren’t sorta-arthritic-hands!) but the feet of other characters too.

And also concerning drawing: when there were about 10 pages without speech bubbles in vol. 10 — to convey the passage of two weeks — it completely threw me. I thought I got a defective book :)

As a conclusion, it was for sure a very entertaining and engrossing reading but not involving on any other level than plot/suspense.

ETA: but where the manga didn’t succeed, the live-action films did. I watched both Death Note and Death Note: the Last Name (careful, articles may contain spoilers). I liked them. They are long and very different from the manga. I liked the cast. So many beautiful girls. Although it’s silly to compare such different media, I liked the drawn!Light better. Well, same about the drawn!L. But I also liked this creepy eyebrowless film version. I finally was able to connect to the story emotionally here as I was unable to while reading manga. Let me just say that what didn’t make me cry in the manga, here sure did. It’s so quiet; he’s alone. I cried like a baby. Also, showing the event of such magnitude through details: hands, chocolate — that really punched me hard.

I also liked the endgame in the films better, in what concerns Light’s character (see spoilers above). But what I absolutely loved were Shinigami. They are so wonderful!

The films worked for me where the manga didn’t, and where the manga did, I liked it a lot. So I got the whole from two different sides :)

See also comments on LJ: some very interesting discussion points from Amanuensis among others.

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Eroica Yori Ai wo Komete (From Eroica With Love) (from 1976 till now) ##
Mangaka: Aoike Yasuko
Scanlation group: Pink Panzer; an anonymous group scanlated the first 19 volumes. The first ten volumes have been published in English.
Genre: Action Adventure Comedy
Status: 34 Volumes (Ongoing); scanlation up to Vol. 21 (part 1 of of story 17)
Found: in a talk with Parlophone about old skool manga
Summary: What happens when a gay art thief and a conservative NATO officer cross paths? Disaster, of course. Dorian is an aristocrat, a thief and a hedonist; Klaus is a duty-driven espionage agent with no patience for fools. Follow them as they chase each other across the globe — from Britain to Baghdad, from Alaska to Alexandria, from Moscow to Madrid. Spectacular locations and non-stop adventures await!
Download: Vol. 1-19 with a nice detailed guide including notes on scan quality (locked for members); vol. 20-21 (locked). More covers (and first 13 vols) here
Prequel/spinoff: Der Freischütz (The Freeshooter; Madan no shashu)
Status: 1 volume (Complete).
Summary: A hardboiled espionage action story featuring Major Eberbach. Can he elude the pursuit of the genius assassin from the KGB? More detailed summary by missparaphilia here.
Other related and side stories: Z, Plus Ultra (artbook), Nanatsu no umi nanatsu no sora and its prequel, Eru Arukon - Taka (a step to the past, about Man in Purple)

Related things: lj comm castlegloria (Eroica fanfiction); schlosseberbach (everything Eroica); Eroicafans.org. There’s fandom! I might dip my toes in it. I haven’t decided yet. Am awfully tempted.

My notes: I loved this manga to bits and tiny little pieces! I’ve had SO MUCH FUN with it. Best Male Friend who had to observe me reading it in the evenings on our trip now must be sure I’m a complete loony, if he hasn’t thought so before. Because I clapped hands, squealed, laughed, and talked to my laptop.

It’s awfully trashy, as trashy as only comics about superheroes and Cold War times can be but yeah, lots and lots of fun. I can’t tell you how many times I burst out laughing or grinned in delight. Each time I finished a story from the series, I thought, “I liked this one best!” And then thought the same when I read the next one. The genre is spy action/adventure and humour. Truth be told, I don’t like reading about spies almost as much as I dislike reading Sci-Fi. Not my thing at all. But this one is so light and captivating, and in the end, so amusing and enjoyable that I succumbed almost at once.

Character facial expressions aren’t Aoike Yasuko’s forte, nor is anatomy. Plot is. Spies and secret agents of every country: KGB, NATO Intelligence, CIA and FBI, MI6 (SIS), Interpol, etc, etc and also local police of where the action takes place and local criminals are all competing with each other or fighting each other. Characters travel all over the world. Character names are awfully trashy too; that first seemed too bad to me but later made me laugh and welcome them (Misha the Cub as the KGB boss, Comrade Dostoevsky, Comrade Gorky, Comrade Karinka, lol). The settings are European (mostly) but there are lots of Japanese sayings or references, and that creates a fantastic multi-cultural kaleidoscope. If it’s skewed, it’s fun nevertheless. One thing I find surprising is that among all the agents and forces, there’s not a mention of Stasi. You’d think that Iron Klaus of Bonn would mostly deal with them. But back to what I started with, this manga is incredibly plotty. Feels like a real rollercoaster sometimes. What amazes me most is that the mangaka always ties all her ends by the end of a story. Wowsome.

Both main characters are very attractive. Supporting characters are wonderful too, especially Mr James, Eroica’s extremely stingy accountant (although I don’t like how he’s developed in the last scanlated stories). I love-love-love Iron Klaus (Major Eberbach). I can’t even believe how much myself. Almost like Snape. But then again, he’s a Snape-like character, only with much better hygiene. He’s very rude and loves to shout; he expresses his negative opinion on people and actions without hesitation. He’s a prude and neat freak and superhero all the way but unexpectedly, there’s something in him that calls for your sympathy and makes you want to hug him, even with the risk for your life such a gesture would pose — when he broods or when something does manage to stun him (Eroica usually :D). IMHO, his character isn’t as logical as Eroica’s: it’s rather contradictory, if you start thinking about it seriously. But in the mosaic-like nature of this character perhaps lies a lot of his appeal. He’s intelligent, resourceful, quick-witted, and observant but at the same time not aesthetically developed in any way (despite being a rich aristocrat by birth) and rather naive in some things, or maybe infantile. But why am I looking for that much psychological credibility in a character who smokes like a chimney but is able to run fast for miles without losing his breath? He’s incredibly cool (superhero, remember?) but his quirks and idiosyncrasies make him humane. And precious. If to speak of the way he’s drawn, I melt when I see his haircut. Melt and squee :) So I understand why Eroica never gives up. Eroica himself is also an absolutely charming character: extravagant, flamboyant, childlike in his wish to have all the pretty that he likes, devious yet kind. And more logical in and of himself, as a character. Speaking of the drawing again, the characters don’t age as the years pass: not only is Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach the Eternal Major, he’s an ageless Klaus: he’s the same in 1990 as he was in 1977, and so is Eroica.

On the whole, I’ve read manga where the drawing looked more professional but was it more enticing? No, no, it wasn’t. At the beginning, I looked at the covers and thought, “OMG, what awful jaws!” By the end I though, “Oh my, such lovely chins, gimme more!” I thought it many times while reading Eroica that that was an error and that was badly drawn but overall I was completely charmed. The mangaka draws one face for her main characters, as too many do, but it seems she’s aware of it: see story 10 and on. In any case, the drawing changes to the better visibly from the first volumes to the middle of the manga. It looks as if the mangaka didn’t find her style and touch at once. I like the later style better of course, and objectively speaking, it’s more elaborate and sure.

Another thing I liked very much about this manga is that it’s like a contemporary history lesson. Well, only for those who remembers the news hot topics from the years when the volumes were drawn ‘cos the lessons are comical and so of course warped. War Iran vs Iraq, Moscow Olympics 1980, Perestroika and Glasnost, the uniting of the two Germanies, they all pass before your eyes. Fashions! OMG sunglasses! Hair styles OMG! :) Breathe and drink history, or ‘History Lite’, if you will :)

Speaking of structure, the manga consists of stories that have the same cast of characters and that you could read separately. Comparing it to other manga that have ‘big plot’ and ’small plots’, I wouldn’t say it has a big plot that unifies all stories. I mean, if you start with story 15, I don’t think you’ll find it incomprehensible. But I still recommend reading it from beginning to … well, to the current [scanlated] volume. Because while the big plot barely goes anywhere, the characters form various kinds of relationships, and it’s interesting to trace those. Story 1 is really just a warm-up for the later series (but please don’t let it scare you off). There are main characters you won’t meet after story 2, so reading vol. 1 is a bit bewildering ‘cos it barely touches what the summary speaks about. But that story picks up later, and goes on for many volumes.

Side stories are fun, especially the one that shows the disastrous party that is referred to in The Laughing Cardinals. Other side stories tell us quite a bit about Lord Eroica’s and Iron Klaus’s past. General advice: don’t skip side stories, especially the later ones. They either show a lot of important things or you simply would want more Eroica by then :)

The prequel, Der Freischütz, is darker than the main series. If From Eroica with Love is a humorous look at a spy’s life (and so, adventures), Der Freischütz is about its dangers and ruthlessness. Makes one understand Major’s paranoia better. Spoiler, highlight to read: only in Der Freischütz can we see the death of a character. In Eroica, things get smashed, buildings destroyed, there are fisticuffs, people get injured occasionally, but nobody dies. In Der Freischütz, even Major kills.[/end spoiler]

I posted this rec on my LJ under the yaoi tag but it’s not yaoi at all. Spoiler white on white, highlight to read (mind, a REAL spoiler, for the whole series, so think twice): honestly, it’s not even BL for real. Very soon in the series, Eroica falls in love with Iron Klaus aka Major Eberbach. Major, if anything, is asexual. He despises the ‘homo stuff’ but there’s no woman to make his blood run faster either. If anything, he’s a devoted husband to his work. So their relationship consists of endless one-sided flirting and passes and also one-sided shouting and attempts to sterilise plates, door handles, etc not to catch homo virus. I would hate UST of such proportions in another manga. But somehow it’s not annoying here. Maybe because Eroica enjoys chase much better than gain. Or maybe because if Iron Klaus didn’t break into a cold sweat at the thought of somebody touching him (unless it’s a fight), he won’t be Iron Klaus anymore. Be it as it may, the UST too happens to be very enjoyable in this manga.[/end spoiler]

Btw, I would like to request a spoiler for the last 10 volumes, if somebody has read them raw (since the question is spoilery too, it’s also white on white): does their relationship progress in any way, as in, the Major begins to feel something beyond annoyance about Eroica or does it stay the same? I doublt it, but… And does the mangaka age her characters?[/end spoiler]

A couple of notes on the translation of volumes 1-19: it seems to be done by a person (persons) whose first language is Japanese, so the English often sounds stilted. There weren’t errors that threw me out, just strange word choices and expressions. Well, and of course the translation of proper nouns can be very imprecise, say, Ljublanka in story 11: I couldn’t figure out what it was until I saw the note that it was where the KGB headquarters were located. Turns out to be Lubyanka. Don’t know whose error it is, mangaka’s or translator’s. And can’t say it really matters. Ljublanka or Lubyanka, or Russian names that can’t exist, it’s still fun and charming in its own way. My special thanks to Pink Panzer guys for picking up the scanlation in the first place, but also for keeping to the spirit of the translation (’cos by the middle of the story, I loved it) and for the good scans.

My favourite story is Emperor Waltz (a huge one, volumes 16, 17, 18 & 19), and favourite scene is Iron Klaus performing a Tyrolean dance. Who could resist?! A couple of pictures to entice: click here.

I spent almost three weeks with this manga, and now that I’ve reached the end of the scanlated stuff, I don’t know how to be without! As a conclusion, heartily and highly recommended. From pj with love :)

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Fullmetal Alchemist (FMA) (Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Hagaren)) (2001)
Manga: ##
Mangaka: Arakawa Hiromu
Status: 21 Volumes (ongoing), licensed (17 volumes released by Viz), scanlation ongoing (up to ch. 88 (vol.21))
Scanlated by: lots of groups, full list at the link above
Genre: Action Adventure Drama Shounen Supernatural
Found: Manga recced to me by a RL friend with the following words: “Даже не стимпанк, а альтернативный мир 1910-20 годов, с алхимией и проч. Много приключений, но при этом убедительная сюжетная линия, которая не сводится к тому, чтобы давать персонажам возможность устраивать регулярные поединки (чем грешат многие другие серии). Тонна симпатичнейших персонажей, в осн. мужеска пола. В целом, мой хороший приятель подсел на мангу именно после FM.” (”It’s not even steampunk per se but an alternative world of the 1910-1920s with alchemy and such. Lots of adventures but besides that, it has a solid plot-line that doesn’t boil down to just giving the characters an opportunity to have regular combats (the drawback of many other manga). There’s a lot of attractive characters, mostly male. A friend of mine got into manga thanks to FMA.”
Summary: From Viz: In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his brother and himself… the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.
Anime: #
Directed by: Seiji Mizushima. Starts at Vol 1, Ch. 1, deviates from manga plot at Vol 7. Consists of 51 24-minute episodes.
Found the anime via gossymer’s rec.
AnimeNews summary: After losing their mother, Alphonse and Edward Elric attempt to bring her back using the forbidden science of human alchemy. However, alchemy operates on the theory of equivalent trade, and breaking the human alchemy taboo carries a heavy price. Ed loses his leg, and Al loses his body. Ed is able to seal Al’s soul inside of a huge suit of armour, at the cost of his arm. Years later, Ed (now with two mechanical limbs) and Al (still trapped in the armour) leave their childhood home, each brother concerned with the other’s happiness. Ed, who has a natural talent and skill for alchemy, becomes nationally certified and is soon known everywhere as the “Fullmetal Alchemist.” Their true objective is to search for any information on the fabled Philosopher’s Stone, hoping it will allow them to regain their old bodies. All of their hopes rest with this mythical stone, which may not even exist at all. However, the brothers soon learn that they are not the only ones after the powerful stone.
List of characters, list of anime episodes (both contain spoilers). Animated film sequel: Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa. There are also novels and drama CDs; you can read about them through the Wiki articles linked above.

My notes: the rec of the anime goes first, then the manga rec because this was the order I got acquainted with them. A few bits are going to be repetitive because these two reviews were posted on LJ separately with a nearly two-month break, so please bear with me. It’s a bit repetitive, not much :)

ANIME (September 14, 2008)

I’m going to speak of the anime (and sequel) ‘cos this is the version I picked to get familiar with. I’m not going to read the manga until later, firstly because it’s ongoing and I hate WIPs, and secondly because I know how different the manga and the anime are and I’m afraid it would create a terrible mess in my head. Although this very difference is what tempts me most so I guess I will read it, as soon as some time has passed. I want to try it at least for the sake of Scar and his different fate :)

When I began watching the anime, it reminded me of Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers (only bloody and scary) because every episode is a somewhat finished story where the boys finish this or that quest, even though there’s a ‘big story’ that ties them together. I like it better though when it’s one continuous story divided into parts, say, like in Death Note. So I didn’t think I’d like FMA at first. But by the middle it becomes more of that second kind of story, and by then you know enough character background for the story to become really captivating. By about episode 25, I liked it an awful lot. Am definitely keeping it and am going to watch it again.

One of the most pleasant things in this anime for me is that you can’t easily guess if a new character you just meet will turn out a good guy, a bad guy, or a good guy who will turn bad, or a bad guy who’ll reform. Lies and deception is this story’s second (and third) names. That makes it very interesting to follow. Many surprises await you. The story is really captivating, the further the better.

The abundance of plot doesn’t mean the lack of character development, not at all. Ed, Al, Winry grow a lot as the story goes on, and so do some of the adult characters too, such as Roy Mustang or even Scar. The Elric brothers have to mature fast. In their quest to find the stone, they join the military in the country ruled by junta and torn by civil wars. They have to repeatedly see death and crime, to fight all sorts of villains and opportunists. They get help from unexpected sources but sometimes are betrayed by the those they trust. Their quest and service often ask them to make choices that would be hard even for adults and for sacrifices no-one should make. They persevere. Both brothers are really wonderful. Al is simply a good guy, kind and compassionate even though he’s a suit of armour. Edward has one hell of a temper but his heart is in the right place. There are lots of other likeable characters and interesting ones.

Another thing I liked a lot was everything to do with mechanics and alchemy: artificial limbs, the suit of armour movements (OMG I love to watch Al walk from behind!), the fact that alchemists have their specialisation and that state alchemists are given names according to what they do. I simply loved that all.

I didn’t like the sequel, Conqueror of Shamballa because it’s largely set in our world. I liked the hints of it in the TV series and I would be very happy if it stayed like that. I just don’t particularly like it when a fantasy universe sprouts into other worlds, especially when one of them is ours. I prefer it to be closed-up and separate. But the film was pretty interesting to watch.

If to think of the quality of animation (how much drawing goes into each scene, how detailed it is, etc.), this anime is among the best I’ve seen. Not Miyazaki of course but really good :) So it was a pleasant experience. Heartily recommended!

MANGA (November 7, 2008)

Love, love, LOVELOVELOVE!!!

I loved the anime, yes. But I loved the manga much more. I loved it to bits! It’s competing with Eroica (see above) for my affections.

If you watched the anime, please give a chance to the manga. It’s soooo different. Actually, I don’t know another canon where two canon sources were as different as here. Like, very different plot, different sets of characters (there are those that appear only in the anime and those that are manga-only), and a considerable part of the characters that act in both the manga and the anime have completely different roles and connotations.

I first encountered FMA about a year ago. I read the summary, looked at the stills from the anime, and thought, “Meh.” Orphaned kids, alchemy, yadda-yadda. How boring. Saw it once (HP), saw it many times. Gosh, why do I always do it?? I did it with almost all the things I love: Rammstein? Yep. Found them ridiculous at first. HP? Sure. Was looking askance at the people who kept going on and on about magic and wands and stuff. I should have learned by now to never ever say “Meh” about things without actually trying them first! I’m happy that the recs by Alex and Gossymer persuaded me to give it a go. I’ve lived in the FMA world for the past two months, and now I check every day if ch. 89 has been published already.

There’s so much to love about this manga! Firstly, of course, characters. The Elric brothers are amazing and very easy to fall in love with. I’d even say, impossible not to fall in love with. Edward, the older one, is hot-headed (especially when somebody calls him short, which he is) and rather pig-headed. If he decided something, neither mountains nor seas in his way will stop him. Something else might though. He values human life, so if his goal asks him to step over people, then he’ll reconsider the value of the goal. His brother’s approval or disapproval weighs a lot in his decisions, too. He’s a terrific fighter, for his age and stature. But his younger brother Al, whose soul is confined to a suit of armour, is probably an even better fighter: not only because he never tires and doesn’t need food or sleep but also because he’s more level-headed than Edward. He’s also very kind. Not that Ed isn’t. He just doesn’t like his kindness to be noticed. Al, on the other hand, is never embarrassed to love kittens, to thank people, or to ask for a peaceful solution. Ed is a young genius who became a state alchemist at the age of 12; both his skill and talent aren’t inconsiderable. When he researches, he tends to forget to sleep or eat, while normally he eats for two. Not that it helps him grow :) Al is quite talented as an alchemist too but he seems to be content to lurk in his brother’s shadow. The bond and love between the brothers are simply beautiful. Orphans from a young age who have survived things not every adult encountered in their whole life, they live for each other, they are each other’s family and home, past and future. Oh, of course they have their share of fights. Excepting everything that puts them beyond ordinary, they are normal boys.

The Elric brothers believe that alchemy exists to help people. That comes into conflict with Edward’s job when he becomes a state alchemist, a dog of the military, to get access to the best research materials the country has to offer. On the way to reach their goal of returning their lost bodies and body parts, Ed and Al meet lots and lots of other characters: good guys, really bad guys, and quite a few ambiguous ones. Not knowing how a new character you see will turn out keeps you on tenterhooks. That, and the plot.

Unlike the anime that has a few filler episodes, the manga never loses its drive, as for me. The plot is complex, with flashbacks and several plot-lines centred on various key characters. It only grows in complexity as the story goes on and the Elric brothers and other main characters (and we with them) learn more about what’s really going on, but it never becomes messy. Things begin small. We learn the basics of how alchemy works and what is what in this world. Gradually, they become bigger. We learn the price of errors, bits of bloody history, civil unrests, wars. Then we meet people from outside: outside the country and outcasts lurking on the edges of this world. Our knowledge of alchemy and history becomes deeper, and the complexity of the story grows on par with it. Presently, the story is clearly heading to the climax. Yes, I realise that depending on how detailed it is, it could take two volumes but could also easily fill ten. My guess would be about five more volumes to go. If you are wary of WIPs, give it a try anyway, will you? I hate WIPs but I don’t regret for a moment that I began reading this manga.

Back to the characters, my second favourite of the protagonists is, of course, the Flame Alchemist Roy Mustang, bless his scheming heart. He has a reputation of being quite the ladies’ man which his nets of female ‘helpers’ prove and upset at the same time. I also can’t help loving Major Alex Louis Armstrong, the Strong Arm Alchemist: a mountain of muscle but gentle soul, and much more observant than he lets on.

From the antagonists, my favourite one is Scar. In fact, he’s one of my favourite characters ever. A semi-religious, semi-patriotic fanatic, he sets out to avenge his people. He has a drastically different role and fate in the manga than in the anime. As the story goes on, he also learns a lot, like the protagonists, and I can’t in good conscience call him an antagonist when there are much scarier and dangerous things plotting and acting in the manga. We also can see Scar’s human side more in the manga, especially later on. (But he looks more glamorous in the anime :D)

There are many, many more characters to love in this manga, I have to agree with my friend who recced FMA to me, because Arakawa Hiromu made them live and breathe. They have biographies, amusing quirks, individuality. They are interesting and hard not to love. Besides, I love the look of most of them.

This smoothly leads me to speak of what I like best in the drawing ;) That would be facial expressions. I think Arakawa Hiromu is terrific at conveying emotions. When they are exaggerated or comical, they are hilarious. But she’s good with serious stuff too. Because really, she manages to make it clear as water when the suit of armour!Al is sulking or terrified, when he wears a grave expression or is mischievous. Spoiler for the last volumes ahead, highlight if you want to read it: when Lin Yao and Greed share a body and fight for its control, it’s usually clear by the facial expression who’s in control at the moment. Which I liked a lot! I also absolutely love everything to do with how the suit of armour or auto-mail are drawn.

All in all, it’s a compelling, even addictive story, wonderfully told and drawn. Highly and heartily recommended!

Bonuses

My favourite tracks from the FMA OST (composed by Oshima Michiru), the introduction of the characters via the anime screencaps, a few manga pages (from vol. 1 and 3) so that you could see a sample of page layouts, characters, and drawing style; an FMA meme: 16 questions about FMA and me, answered — all these can be found here in my LJ. See also my reviews and recs of 80 FMA doujinshi that I’ve read, my recs of FMA fanfics.

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Pet Shop of Horrors ##
Mangaka: Akino Matsuri
Scanlated by: Eternal Sleep
Status: 10 volumes, licensed; sequel, Shin Pet Shop of Horrors, licensed, ongoing
Genre: Comedy Fantasy Horror Josei Mystery Supernatural
Summary: From Tokyopop: A smoke-filled alley in Chinatown harbors Count D’s Pet Shop. The pets sold here aren’t your everyday variety and the Count prides himself on selling Love and Dreams in the form of magical creatures that come with an exclusive contract. But buyers beware. If the contract is broken the Count cannot be held accountable for whatever may happen. A fascinating and macabre look into the very soul of human nature.
More covers in my LJ

My notes: I love this manga. It was the first manga that I read beginning to end and enjoyed. You’ve probably read manga where the drawing technique was more elaborate or unique. You’ve possibly read manga with a much more solid, tight storyline. I find though that it doesn’t really matter. A story doesn’t have to be perfect to be utterly enticing. And Pet Shop of Horrors (further PSOH) is. So. Freaking. Charming.

Or maybe you are like I was: rather spooked with or uninterested in manga-style drawing (which, as it turns out at a closer look, isn’t one style at all). I think PSOH can be a good place to start getting acquainted with manga. Because it’s eclectic and has elements that may appeal to different kinds of readers: horror/supernatural, mystery, crime/action, humour, morality tale, and then there are animals and very attractive main characters.

I began with the PSOH anime (available on YouTube). It consists of only four episodes (Daughter (from Vol 1.3, rabbit), Delicious (Vol 2.3(7), Mermaid), Despair (Vol 1.2, Medusa), and Dual (Vol 5.1, Kiri). People say that Count D’s voice in Japanese is better but I really liked his English voice (I watched the English version).

I admit that by the end of episode one I was thoroughly creeped out. It still stands out in my mind as one of the creepiest episodes in the series, but to see it first, without any idea what I was getting into? Was a shock. But I was intrigued too: how come that animals are also people? I mean, how? And what’s this Count D’s agenda? He didn’t seem evil, but the consequences of his business transaction were quite horrible. So I watched on. And by the end of episode four was absolutely, madly in love with him. So of course I rushed to find the manga. It’s not difficult to find; I think it might be sold where you live, and if not and if Amazon isn’t an option for you, it can be found on the net almost in any big place that trades manga.

There are ten volumes of the original PSOH manga, and three more of Shin Pet Shop of Horrors, the sequel that features different main characters. The premise is as follows. In LA Chinatown, there’s a Pet Shop. Quoting from the book: “Its proprietor, an enigmatic figure known only as Count D, beckons through his doors the injured and the scarred, introducing them to creatures friendly and bizarre. […] Detective Leon Orcot [..] has traced a series of seemingly unrelated crimes to Count D and his Pet Shop of Horrors. A steadfast skeptic, Leon dismisses as trickery the inexplicable events he witnesses.”

It begins as spooky; the morals are a bit annoying and repetitive, and detective Leon Orcot seems to be little more than a hot-tempered dunderhead. But it’s still intriguing. So you read on. And it becomes less creepy, or at least much more varied. The dunderhead turns out to be not that bad. You begin to see the logic (or a logic) of Count D’s actions. Then, gradually, the big story becomes a focus rather than those short ones of which it consists. Leon and Count D develop a sort of friendship that is actually 3/5 flirting and 2/5 shouting at each other. Enter Chris, a six-year-old third main character. You learn more and more about Leon, his past, and his life; in the end you learn a lot about Count D too (in Vol 10 in particular). You learn to treasure the drawing: D’s expressions, comic relief scenes, outfits, animals. So when it ends, you turn to fanfiction as the only painkiller available — ‘cos it ended, and the very fact is devastating.

On the way it so happens that the two main characters and antagonists have a real potential. It’s easy to develop a crush on Count D. He’s enigmatic, mysterious, aloof, and the further the more appealing. But whom I really love is Leon. He’s an ordinary guy to umpteenth degree, but he’s so good it’s impossible not to fall for him. Leon hides strength of character and integrity under his rude and messy outlook. He’s like Harry: often clueless but true and good. By the end of the first series, my heart was so totally his that I couldn’t completely get into Shin Pet Shop. You’ll see why when you get there. Chris is plain wonderful. And animals? Awesome. T-chan in particular, but you won’t meet him until the middle of the series. So, love it is :)

I want to say thank you again to iibnf for the anime and to RexLuscus whose enthusiasm made me try it and who’s been a wonderful guide.

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They were Eleven (11-nin iru! ; Juuichi nin Iru) (1975) #
Mangaka: Hagio Moto
Genre: Drama Gender Bender Mystery Sci-fi Shoujo
Status: licensed, oneshot, part of Four Shoujo Stories
Warning: pretty bad scan quality; reads left to right!
Found: via Parlophone’s recommendation
Summary: The elite Cosmo Academy attracts applicants from every stellar nation in the galaxy. One young hopeful is Tadatos Lane, an orphan esper from Terra. The final stage of the academy’s entrance exam is a perilous mission simulation aboard an actual derelict starship. The applicants depart for the ships in groups of ten, but when Tada’s crew arrives on the Esperanza, they are horrified to discover that they now number eleven. As the test progresses, things go awry and the atmosphere grows increasingly tense. The crew members begin to suspect sabotage, and Tada appears to be the likely culprit.
Read here.

My notes: there are several obstacles to overcome but if you do, this is a really captivating, wonderful story! Those obstacles are: a) the quality of the scan: it’s a simple scan of the licensed English version, not cleaned at all; b) it reads left to right. I got terribly confused at the beginning and kept trying to read every other page in the wrong order. Then there are my personal misgivings: Sci-Fi is, arguably, my least favourite genre. “Space ship” for me is like “watersports” for some :) It doesn’t mean that I won’t enjoy a Sci-Fi story. It means that I’m extremely reluctant to read it. Parlophone told me how nice this story was and gave me the link to go read it. I went there, saw the bad scans and wrinkled my nose in displeasure. I decided to save all the pages to my computer to read at my leisure, using my keyboard for navigation, and got hooked while doing it!

The summary above is sufficient, so I want only to share my thoughts. I think this manga is a good example of coherent storytelling. You’ll say “well, duh” but really, how many truly coherent manga I’ve read recently? Not many. Add to this that They were Eleven has a wonderful balance of humour, suspense, and angst, a fine balance between plot and character development, and you’ll get a fine manga to read. The drawing is old-fashioned, but then it’s a more than 30-year-old work! But the style overall is very pleasant, as for me. Give it a try!

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Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (The Record of the Yokohama Shopping Trip) (1995) ##
By: Ashinano Hitoshi
Scanlation Groups: MangaProject, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Manga Scanlations, s.ADTRW
Status: 14 Volumes (Complete)
Genre: Drama Sci-fi Seinen Slice of Life
Found: recced by a RL friend with the words, “My all-time favourite. For me, this is an indisputable and incredible masterpiece — and I try not to say such words lightly. This is ’slice of life’ at its best and most complete, with some elements of sci-fi but they don’t matter much. Critically acclaimed, too.”
Summary: [From MangaProject]: This is the story of Alpha Hasseno, an Alpha 7 M2 series robot. Left by her owner, she appears and acts fully human while running a small coffee shop named Cafe Alpha. It is a light-hearted story about the people Alpha comes into contact with behind the backdrop of a futuristic country-side in Japan. As we meet Alpha, she makes a shopping trip to Yokohama.
A really nice review and DL.

My notes: This manga is pretty amazing but it doesn’t get through to you at once. It’s like a bud that you have to wait to grow. It’s worth it though. You’ll see a most unusual, beautiful flower if you are patient. I first thought it would be [] in my ratings, then it became # and in the end, I can’t express my love for it in anything other than ##. Now to convert my impressions into words.

This is a story where absolutely nothing happens for 14 volumes. This is a post-apocalyptic world. We don’t know what exactly has happened but the end result is: the world as we know it is dying. The sea level is coming up; the human civilisation is getting swallowed by the rising waters and grasses. The humankind is radically reduced in numbers already and keeps dying out before our eyes as the manga goes on. An android called Alpha keeps a coffee shop running way out of the way in the country in Japan. She has a customer every couple of days, which days she considers very busy. The customer is usually an old man who keeps a fuel filling column miles from Alpha’s or his grandson. The manga goes like this: Alpha takes her scooter and rides to some ruins to see the view from there. Alpha brews a pot of coffee. Alpha sits on the porch and gazes at the scenery around. Alpha drives to a city (which by that point looks like a village) for coffee beans. Another android delivers a parcel. A man with a flying fish wanders by.

The title underlines this non-eventfulness of the manga. It’s not that Alpha goes on a shopping trip where this or that adventure happens. It’s, on the contrary, just one small event in a row of the similar insignificant ones. I repeat: nothing happens in this manga, at all. There’s no plot. It’s just a gallery of the small things of which the small lives that are passing away with the world consist and which Alpha is watching and sometimes recording with her camera. There are no villains. No bad characters of any kind. No drama. This manga is the opposite of plotty. But it’s the definition of charming.

It’s so beautiful! By the middle of it, you begin cherishing those empty landscapes, roads being broken and taken over by grasses, abandoned houses, and more roads with nobody around for miles. It’s beautiful and lovely and full of quiet sorrow; not a tragedy but a gentle, loving goodbye. There’s also a hint of yuri, a very light one and as non-eventful as the rest of the manga. You can see a few pages from the manga in my LJ post here.

As a conclusion, highly recommended as one of the most charming and atmospheric things I’ve ever read!

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  this is pj's fannish place made with the goal to be a sort of public library of (or a gateway to) fanfiction. I read mostly slash, I love sex and various kinks, so if you are underage and somehow wormed your way here past net nannies and warnings, please surf responsibly and go somewhere else when you are asked to!

  
  
  

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