"I never was really wild about action movies. It's not that the fighting and violence bother me, but generally a lot of innocent bystanders get killed in those stories, right? That doesn't bother me either. That's what actually happens in those situations, right? So it wouldn't make any sense to try to pretend otherwise. (47) But the audience never cares about the innocents who get killed even though it's a huge deal if any of the main characters die. As far as I'm concerned, the death of the heroes isn't any more tragic than the death of a bunch of nobodies. Sure, it's a fictional world. But they're living people, too. Why should their lives matter less? If the hero makes it to the end with the girl he met along the way, it's considered a happy ending. If the hero dies, it's a tragedy. I don't get it. To me, if even one bystander dies, it's a sad movie. The only difference between all those sad movie is whether the fictional hero is sad about the bystanders' deaths. Most of the time, he isn't. How can the heroes in the movies be so cheerful at the end? How can the audience call that a happy ending?" 49I cry so many tears reading this series . . .
b The Clockwork Sky 1: Too small! Wanted more than this tiny introductory chunk. Fun art because it's Madeleine Rosca, messy and rushed setup because of the small page count, generally interesting setting in a sociopolitically restless steampunk world. Good times.
b Loveless 10:
Kio is rescued. And he's also suddenly a real player instead of a spectator, which is a surprising and promising development. Ritsuka has some transfer students in his class (the Zeroes), causing no small amount of trouble for his poor, innocent teacher. Another pair approaches Ritsuka to propose an alliance against Seimei. There's also a totally random Gundam 00 crossover, which made me laugh.b Nabari No Ou 7:
This arc wraps up with a death and some secrets being revealed. Plots are continued and foiled, alliances are made and broken, tough moral questions are bludgeoned, and there is a lot of passion and conviction behind even the most questionable of actions. Miharu now very firmly cares, and that only makes things harder. Oh, and they also get another scroll. Good stuff.b Othello 5: I still really wish this series had been allowed to be longer and do all the things it promised to do early on. This volume is past the halfway point, and Nana is starting to get an idea that Yaya exists, partly because of Yaya's continuing rivalry with the evil and obnoxious Hano-chan.
Oh, Whistle, I really like you. I wasn't very serious about or good at soccer, which may be why I like manga about it. 100% fewer foot, ankle, and shin injuries for me! Lots of action and strategy, and friendship, and teamwork. So nice.
I may be torturing myself because I don't know that this series was ever finished here or in Japan. And it's so darn full of mysteriousness that I find it a shame I may never be able to find out how it ends or what's going on behind the scenes and the mysteriousness. It's a fun ride while it lasts, anyway. And we get to see Hime go to town and understand more about her relationships with various folks in the town. 
This is the kind of sci-fi I cut my teeth on, only bleaker. I really like this kind of internal quandry, talky sci-fi that kind of kicks me in the head and makes me think about it later. It's a book of short stories again (more or less), and it can get tiring when read in large quantities. It's also not something I read right before I go to bed. Please, Viz, please publish the last collection. Pretty please? I kind of need to know what happens after the anime and this book.
What price/cost revenge, Jean and Jose? And what will you do if/once you get it? What was it that Jean lost that made him the single-minded, moral sinkhole we all love to hate. Flashbacks. Sacrifices. Justice. Holy cow. We're coming to the end, everything is converging, and I foresee a lot of people having to make important philosophical decisions under extreme stress. I also foresee a lot of people dying horribly and a need for many tissues. Is the next set the end? Because my heart can't take much more of this . . .
Oh, our crazy anthropomorphic, fried-chicken loving cactus may have made the ultimate sacrifice, but that doesn't guarantee a happy ever after for the characters who remain. The characters stayed true to themselves, so I was pleased even as I wanted to kick some of them in the head. The happy ending was earned, and a bonus story shows that some of the other characters may be in for happy endings of their own. Except for the cactus. I cried about the cactus.
Dark Horse, sometimes you really baffle me with the things that you publish. I mean, I'm a big fan of Hagi, and I was pretty curious about what he was doing when Saya slept, but this book didn't really add anything new to his character. Good thing he's a pretty good character anyway. 
This was really a lot of fun for the part of me that likes Sherlock Holmes mysteries and people bucking the class system. He was a street urchin who rose through the ranks to become a famous lawyer and then gave it up to become her butler. She's a woman of noble-birth with a penchant for writing mystery stories and solving real-life mysteries when she can get the chance. They both have ways of obtaining information to help solve cases that the other lacks. He loves her; she still sees him as an annoying childhood friend. It's all rather gruesome (the murder mystery) and delightful (the character interactions).
3-4: More bad things happen; some things are made clearer; other things are obscured. Character revelations are made, and they are more than a little horrifying. It reminds me a bit of the anime Strain where by the end I was pretty sure I sided with the folks who just wanted to blow all of humanity away. I am not totally on the side of the poor, beleaguered, butt-kicking non-humans, but I completely understand where their boss is coming from. Good thing Sakura is made of stern shojo stuff.
9-11: Oh, 13th Boy, you are nearly over, and it has been a ride. I would hate your heroine in real life and find her generally unsympathetic, yet you keep me reading. Mysteries are revealed, choices will have to be made; it's a romance, but how can there possibly be a really happy ending?! I hope to find out.
Things were certainly going okay there for a while, which is always a nice change of pace, but, well, you knew it couldn't last, and you were probably hoping it would be over soon, but the webs are converging, the relationship is still hilarious and chaste, and there is danger lurking. Next volume, please? Pardon me while I go try to get that song out of my head . . .
1-3: Wow, um, this is really bad. Like, painfully bad. It's incoherent, the art is all over the place, and the plot is, well, obviously not the most important thing. It has lots of atmosphere and terrible things happen and there is horror imagery that's just shivery gross. Maybe why the audience skews younger and more sensational-craving. I would categorize it as not as dark or polished as Kaori Yuki's stuff. I remember it getting "better," but since I'm randomly missing volume 10, I should wait until I stumble across that really cheap somewhere before I binge. Not like it's finished anyway, so I have lots of other things I could read first.
More fighting spirit as two boys struggle to create the ultimate manga so one of them can marry the girl of his dreams. Random guest appearance by Arakawa Under the Bridge's bridge . . . 
Hmmmm. So Ciel is not above suspicion by his monarch in the manga version, either. I would give the anime credit for knowing this except I think the first season with its ridiculous queen plot was over before we hit this bit in the manga. Well, we meet some new characters (one of them should be familiar to fans of mystery novels) and have a little traditional murder mystery Sebastian-style. As they say, it's a bloody good time . . .
I'm going to love this series a lot. Vengeance, power under control, sibling conflict, so much shonen goodness slightly twisted! Too bad I started reading it, and it's early in its ongoing serialization. Silly me!
Trilogy: This was a lot of fun despite its ridiculous specialized terminology (keep a bookmark handy on the glossary page, folks). This was a neat trilogy of novels set in a fun YA scifi world. The narrator was quite a bit of fun but different enough from the current familiar protagonist types of narrators found in Haruhi and Book Girl, for instance. This kid has quite a bit of spunk and grit, and he handles himself pretty well overall. His relationship with the other main character is very well-balanced. I'm really pleased with it and glad Tokyopop took the risk of publishing it all those years ago. I couldn't remember if I'd ever finished watching the anime version (still can't, so it's time for a re-watch), but quite a bit of this was familiar, so maybe I did watch the whole anime.
More angst! More sad backstory! And a twist so unsurprising the author was actually shocked that so many of her readers didn't see it coming. (I saw it coming; that should tell you how obvious it was.) This series takes me a long time to read because there's a lot to savor in the artwork and the tragedy of it all. I was ready to be really impressed at one point when I thought some foreshadowing came true in a big way with an actual character death, but no dice. There's always next volume.
Y'know, I can see why this series irritates some people. There are gut-wrenching serious bits, but then they're surrounded by fluff that just seems crappy in comparison. However, without the fluff, this series would likely bog down in horror. Also, Queen Victoria = random + awesome.
Okay. Nothing like Trigun. Awesome anyway. Kind of kooky and sometimes confusing with lots of mystery, the occasional emotional gut punch, and instances of super-gory violence, this volume has me hooked. Sign me up for the next one.
6-8: Thank you, Barnes and Noble and ST, for letting me marathon these over Christmas. They were delicious. ST made the comment that she was glad the explanation was long and complicated and serious because she was ready to be really ticked off if all this drama and trauma were the result of the usual silly shojo miscommunication/misunderstanding. No fear of that. I also like how everyone makes it clear that they are only relating their side of things. Next volume is the resolution of it all. I would like to trust this unconventional series to end with a satisfying and not-illegal bang, er, conclusion. Don't let me down, Daisy.
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