Blade if the Immortal revisions

Samurais, assassins, violence, and exactly the manga I’ve been avoiding for years. It’s not that I don’t like the subject matter, rather, it’s the opposite; I always knew if I started reading it, I would be unable to stop until I read it all. And that’s exactly what happened. For two weeks, the bare minimum of class work was done, and Blade of the Immortal was always open in my computer. And it was almost worth it. Almost, because, you see, the series isn’t complete yet. The story of Rin’s revenge is not complete. And that’s mildly frustrating.

Speaking of mildly frustrating, the main character, Rin is very frustrating when she is first introduced. I understand that she wants to avenge her parents and all, and don’t get me wrong, I would probably do the same thing, but she can’t fight. She only has one attack that only would work once depending on the amount of daggers/kunai/needles she has hidden on her person. For a good long while I couldn’t stand her. And then she broke down, going on about how pathetic she was, and how she knew she was going to die. It added dimension to her character, like she was willing to die if it meant meeting her goal. But then, what would be the point of it all? But she wasn’t completely blinded by her goal; she was willing to let a man of the Itto-ryu live because he was taking care of his son, and she didn’t want the little boy to suffer as she did. As it ends up the man attacks her, and the boy lives on with hate and rage towards Manji. She also meets the leader of the Itto-ryu alone multiple times, and yet she understands that she is incapable of killing him. It saves us a few pointless battles for read through, and it shows that Rin wants to be able to kill him with her own hands in an honorable fight. Though it seems like if that time were to ever occur, she would lose.

Manji is a very interesting fellow. He’s known as the killer of a thousand men (before be became immortal), yet he has a soft side. He only kills “bad” men in order to atone for what happened to his sister, because it was all his fault and he knows it. That is also what ties him to Rin; she looks just like his older sister, and he feels the need to help her. When Rin address him about training to make her stronger, he doesn’t sugar coat the fact that she is pathetic and all the training she had done before was pretty much useless because she wasn’t fighting anyone. Manji though, honestly cares for people. A prime example is when Manji held captive under the palace for immortality experiments. The first man to be made immortal becomes the closet thing to a friend for Manji while they both are imprisoned. But when the man is needlessly sacrificed, Manji becomes enraged. And even as he escapes, he mentions how terrible a thing they did to the first patient. He though shares some of the same moral values as the Itto-ryu despite them being his “enemy”. And ironically enough, the Mugai-Ryu who he teams up with to defeat the Itto-ryu, has less in common with him and his values.

The Mugai-ryu, or the Assassins guild, is a group of very interesting individuals saved from death row. The members range from Hyakurin, who murdered her husband after he killed her 2 children, Shinriji, for theft, to Shira, the extremely sadistic and disgusting nasty fucker. Honestly, the members of the Mugai-ryu aren’t bad people, they just did what they needed to in order to get by. Shira is the exception. He is terrible. I’ve read many comic books, a lot of manga, and manwah, in all different genres ranging from shojo to shounen, yuri to yaoi, hentai to children’s comics. But never have I ever been so revolted by one character as I have been by Shira. And honestly, that’s saying a lot. He severs his victims legs so they can’t run away, then depending on their gender he either slowly kills them, or he cuts them up as he rapes them. I can’t wait until he dies. On the other hand, I really hope Hyakurin and Giichi stay together. He’s very sweet and caring and would function as a good stabilizing feature for Hyakurin after all that has happened to the poor girl.

As I wikipedia’d the sword schools, I landed a page about historical sword schools. And I was noticing that I recognized far too many of the names. I really need to layoff the samurai manga…

WebComics

I’ll be very upfront about this: I do not much care for the technological, nor it for me. If I find something I like, I will buy it to therefore support the artist. And I’m terrible at keeping up with web comics, or comics in general if I’m reading them online. They lost their tactile quality and it’s only appealing to one sense, and it’s losing my interest to one of my many other books on that shelf to the right.

So, needless to say the web comics listed bellow are those I can remember. Or have bookmarked and remember them. Or just found them among the bookmarks for times past.

MegaTokyo: http://megatokyo.com/ : This can be labeled the first webcomic I’ve ever read. And its been over 3 years at least since I’ve bothered to open the web page. Needless to say, I have no idea whats currently going on in the story, but it started out fun and very interesting. Two gamer friends hop on a plan to Japan, and broke and are trying to live life and get enough money to buy a plane ticket home. And then the romance started, and then it just dragged on. And I stopped reading. The art style is very simplistic, very anime, and over all cute.

Happiness and Cyanide: http://www.explosm.net/comics/1876/ : Its art style is very simplistic. People are reduced to basic shapes, and the images are flat. But the content is hilarious. Sometimes is violent and gory. Others its very politically incorrect. And then some are about relationships. They are always one page long, though the format varies.

Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/ : They parody video games. The two main guys are entertaining, and hilarious and rather likable. They incorporate everyday life with videogame discussions, and video games with even more videgames. Often they point out very blatant “issues” with video games.

xkcd: http://xkcd.com/ : As its title says, it’s a web comic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

I.D. Fracture: http://idfracture.deviantart.com/ : The art style changes and improves as the story progresses and the artist gets better. It recently went from ink and toned and very “anime” to just the pencil sketches and a more mature manga style. The characters are very likable, each has their own story, personality and problems. Though it hasn’t updated in a long while, I’m addicted to it, and have reread it so many times.

Khaos Komix: http://www.khaoskomix.com/home.html : This comic has been redone multiple times, with each one dealing with the same characters just in a different way and situation. In the current version, and the sole one I’ve read, the story has been broken down into smaller segments, each told by a different character. It explores their relationship with their lover, themselves, and then their friends, which leads you on to the next story.

Brink: http://paperfangs.com/brink/ : I was reading this religiously for some time. The art style is very sketchy, done on the computer for the most part. I haven’t read it in a while… It deals with the main characters “insanity” and that of those he meets. It’s nowhere near as deep as it sounds. And that disappointed me. But it’s good enough.

Two Rooks: http://two-rooks.com/ : This comic is tied with ID Fracture for my most favorite on this list. The art is reminiscent of the film noir style, but uses limited color and gets a very strong impact. The story line is very complex and sometimes confusing, yet is still very beautiful. The characters are distinctly different from one another, in both personality and looks. And the entire website leads itself to the story. And I’m completely in love with the main character and well almost the entire cast.

Fables:Legends in Exile and Kingdom Come

Fables: Legends in Exile vol.1

The idea of fairy tales and their characters living in a modern day city is something I automatically fell on live with, which means I’m very biased towards it. The idea of the stories that have persisted through time and in a way are very much apart of our lives as they are today as they were when they were just folk tales before the brothers Grimm bound them in a book being brought together again by a new medium makes me very happy.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed when the individual stories were overlapped. “Rose Red and Snow White” is very different from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. Even though the names are the same, Snow White as a person is different in the stories. And it’s wrong to combine them as one. And then Jack suffers a similar issue. There’s “Jack and the Beanstalk” Jack and “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…” Jack and its hinted that he’s one and the same person. And then there’s Bluebeard. Written by Charles Perrault, it doesn’t quite settle with all the Grimm fairy tales. But I doubt many others would be bothered by the discontinuity (nor be aware of it), because as a character, he fits the story quite well.

Prince Charming was another who suffered from the naming issue, but I love how it turned out. Most princes are referred to as “Prince Charming” and so like the others, he absorbed all the stories that go with the name, and thus making him a lovely man slut that so many of the princess characters hate. And it’s perfect.

And on the subject of princesses, they also had been transformed from their weak selves into strong women. Snow White for instance, works directly for King Cole, the leader of their organization, and basically runs all of Fabletown. It shows how the role of woman has changed through time and how they would be living in the modern world placed in that role.

Here’s a comic book reviews on Fables, it’s interesting. http://www.popmatters.com/comics/fables-legends-in-exile.shtml

Kingdom Come

First things first: it is illustrated beautifully. Everything is fully rendered and detailed to an extreme level. That being said, I couldn’t force myself to finish reading it. I saw no appeal in it.

When Wesley said he was the Sandman, my mind automatically went to King of Dreams Morpheous, and I was confused. Until they showed the older superhero Sandman, then it made sense. It bugged me, but I understand that there are Sandman fans, and they are probably disappointed with the Sandman I’m head over heals for, so I accepted Wesley as a decent super hero. And then they caught us up to speed with the current state of the Super Heroes. And I almost died laughing. Superman wimps out and runs into hiding, and Wonder Woman is just plain useless. Flash, the Green Lantern and a few others section off the world and protect theirs respectively. And then there’s Batman. He has robot bats that kick crime ass out of Gotham City. Oh the irony! The only super heroes I care for (Flash and Batman for the most part) don’t turn into pansies.

And there’s Americommando. Never heard of him, but his stand on foreign policy is just like many peoples’ and the governments currently. It’s a nice touch how the author can input the character to mock the current situation and not many would find it to be an attack nor a commentary on the current government and have people think nothing of it.

Many things left me rather confused. Why was there a giant penny in the Bat Cave? I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. And I absolutely love how Bruce Wayne verbally abuses Superman. But I was pissed the moment Lex Luther showed up as the main villain. He cannot be the sole source of all that’s evil in the world. He isn’t the only corrupting force, plotting a hostile take over. And then Wayne joins him. What. The. Hell.

I then placed the book back on the shelf and walked away. The art couldn’t save the story. And I’m no Superman fan.

http://superdickery.com/

King of Dreams, Sandman

Sandman.

I honestly had absolutely no interest in American comics until Sandman, they were all just muscle and they had no appeal. But while at Borders Books, in the bargain section, there was an art book. I flipped through it, some styles of the comic appealed to me while I found others to be quite revolting. But then I started reading about the characters and I found them enchanting. Morpheus just was so human despite being the King of Dreams. Death was so sad and yet so happy all at once. And they way all seven of the siblings interacted was so natural, so human, and so like my mothers family. Whenever they gathered together, there was bound to be a fight, much like real siblings. And so I was hooked on the series before I even picked up its actual comic.

But then, it was one of those comics I wanted to actually read in order, and to actually buy. Well, I caved this year and started reading it, with volume 2 from the library. The recap from the last volume was told by Destiny, the oldest of the Endless. And it seemed so very fitting for

his role, it is also I nice way to establish characters. And then the chapter opens up to a very 80’s Dream moping and feeding pigeons. Then an equally 80’s Death shows up to cheer up her younger brother. Death is upbeat, peppy and all around adorable. Through the course of their conversation, she ends up quoting Mary Poppins, and then eventually ends up chucking bread at her brother in rage. It’s hilarious. I mean, Death is usually portrayed as dark, old, and creepy, while this she is the exact opposite and totally punk and very caring. But who really expects Death to chuck a hunk of bread at anyone, much less the King of all Dreaming. Its obvious that they’re close as siblings and that Death is really concerned with her brothers well being.

The art style if the first chapter of that volume is very clean. Th

e characters look appealing, friendly and… strong? I don’t know how to explain it, but I just like it. Though I really dislike how the drawing style is different chapter to chapter. I know that they had a lot of different artists, and that the comic focused more on story and characters than the drawings, but I found the radical changes in style to be very distracting. And then I found myself liking certain chapters only for the art, and forgetting the story. Very rarely was I able to ignore the art in lieu for the story.