"Love is essentially a pretty creepy thing"

I came across this review of Yun Kouga's Crown of Love (a series that is actually coming out more frequently than Loveless and is actually finished), and I have to say I agree with Melinda's view.

"What this series ultimately succeeds at pointing out is that love is essentially a pretty creepy thing. And though I’m not sure that’s a philosophy I’d personally want to live by, it’s not exactly wrong, either. Despite its obvious emotional focus, this is a series that analyzes itself and its characters constantly, from the inside out. The fact that its conclusions are disturbing is pretty much undeniable. They’re also uncomfortably (and remarkably) true. :)

"This kind of psychologically-heavy romance won’t be for everyone, but despite the fact that it’s one of the least romantic romances I’ve ever read, it’s definitely for me. Normally, I’d spend a lot of my time with a series analyzing its characters and their personal motivations. Kouga does it for me, and in a surprisingly organic way. What more could I possibly ask?"

- Melinda Beasi

The thing about Yun Kouga, a thing I like, is that she makes people uncomfortable in ways they don't expect.  Loveless, Crown of Love, Earthian, and Gestalt are all creepy in their own special ways.  They don't start exactly where you expect, and they don't really end like you expect, either.  She has this knack for making readers squirm.  I wish I could describe how it works, but I really can't.

Since Melinda already said all that great stuff about Crown of Love, how about Loveless?  There are some really creepy and obvious places Ms. Kouga could have gone with this set-up, and many people think she goes there.  However, she really leaves that up to certain readers' imaginations (I mean, they're going to imagine it anyway) and instead focuses on the different bonds between people and the hold that "love" has over all different sorts of people.  She creates these agonizingly uncomfortable situations and relationships and these horribly broken, conflicted, and sometimes inscrutable characters and then turns the everybody loose to try to figure out how to stay sane.  It's brilliant at times.

Sure, you may be turned off it when you hear squeeing fangirls letting their imaginations run rampant (what they think is in there really isn't).  What is in there is definitely thought-provoking (if you can avoid falling into the trap of getting freaked out or imagining things that aren't really happening).  It will also make you really uncomfortable. 

If you aren't afraid to do some hard thinking and make emotional investments in emotionally damaged characters, it may be as fascinating for you as it is for me.  I'm almost okay with the fact that it may never be finished because unless the ending is brilliant, I'm fine with what I have to think over so far.  (I feel bad enough for these characters as things are . . .)

So when is the next volume coming out, anyway?

Five reasons I like Hunter x Hunter as an author

If you kind of like HxH but you hate the way anime always drags stuff out (30 episodes = about 38 chapters+ some original material), and you love to read, I'd recommend that you give the manga a chance.  Here are five reasons why I like it.

Short-term plotting (grabbing my interest)

From the beginning, we have a main character who has a short-term goal: be allowed to take the Hunter exam, pass the Hunter exam, and get a Hunter license.  He meets other people with the same short-term goal.  Action, mayhem, and brutality ensue.  I am invested in this short-term goal and am willing to stick with the manga long enough to see it through.

Long-term plotting (character development in trickles, getting me more invested in what might happen after the short-term goal is accomplished)

We meet each character and slowly get to know more about what makes them tick (in Hisoka's case, I'm guessing blood made of evil).  Our first impressions are changed as we spend time with people under pressure, and the relationships get a little deeper as people get more invested in each other's success.  So Leorio likes money and wants to be a doctor; why?  Kurapika wants impossible revenge.  How?  Killua was raised by assassins, but he kind of wants to try hanging out like a normal kid and having fun and making a friend and stuff and maybe kind of redeeming his soul even if he doesn't think about it like that because he's twelve.  Gon's dad?  Keep reading.  Killua's family?  Yeah, keep going.  Finding out what it means to really be a Hunter?  Yep, the exam isn't over yet.

Close adherence to source material

Countless times, there is a great manga, and then they make it into an anime, and you watch it and don't like it because things you liked from the manga seem to be missing for no discernable reason, replaced by repetitive romantic comedy or pointless quests or five minute fights that last five hours.  Not so in HxH.  It's actually kind of scary how closely they adhere to the source material.  I don't understand why people don't do it more often.  I mean, the dialogue is already written, the fight is already choreographed.  People liked it a lot.  Use the stuff!  What a great way to cut corners without ticking off viewers or the creator.

Decent original material

Wow.  It was a shocker to me, but, in the second collection Viz put out, there was another round added to the Hunter exam, and it was pretty good.  Not only were several characters given a bit more time to develop, but the group dynamic really grew (which made the part where they resumed the original story line and killed off a bunch of the people even more harsh).  And two very unexpected people saved the day in a really natural way.  If I hadn't known it was an anime-original arc, I wouldn't have known; it was that organic.  See, it can happen.

No crappy moral of the story inserted for the edification of younger viewers

We do learn about how friendship can be a good thing, but it's in the context of a lot of fighting to the death.  Yep, brutality, sometimes ambiguous motives and morals, murder, violence, more violence, and some stuff about friendship and trust and self-discovery and stuff.  I mean, even if your friend up and kills someone for no really good reason, that doesn't mean you should give up on the poor, little sociopath.  He really was manipulated/provoked, and you shouldn't hold it against him.  That's kind of the moral of the story where it left off with collection II.  There's so much violence, but what upsets Gon the most is that the sociopath in question's brother took him apart psychologically and reduced him to the killer he was trying so hard not to be and then didn't even feel bad about it.  Definitely not After-School Special territory.

Of course, I'm invested in this show from my manga reading, and I really hope it sells well enough that we at least get to see through the Auction and Greed Island (and maybe even, you know, until Gon and his dad meet up), so I may not be completely objective (hahaha), but I really get a kick out of this creation in both forms and hope that more people check it out and enjoy it like I do.

Don't fear the old school; love the old school.  Some day, the stuff you love will also seem horribly outdated and aesthetically awful and will need love, too.  Appreciating older stuff now is kind of like paying the love forward.  Or something.



Is there an older anime/manga you really wish people appreciated as much as you do?  Give it a little hug by sharing it with us, please.