I just finished volume 8, and I am in mourning. Not just for character X, whose death has been bumming me out every time I think of it all day (poor character X!!!!), but for the fact that I will NEVER FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS.
Seriously, I'm going to go cry some more about the demise of CMX, the company who published this fine series with its slightly amateurish art and its startling ability to casually go where no manga I've read has gone before. Euthanasia, abortion, slavery, prostitution: is this really a shojo manga (nothing at all like Banana Fish)?
And two characters finally got to walk a bit holding hands, and then political chaos breaks out! And this totally unexpected cliffhanger with a zillion converging loose ends leaves you wanting more NOW, and you can't have it because you are a good, law-abiding citizen (seriously contemplating breaking copyright law to find out what happens because you can't buy what happens next). A sad, aborted "ending" for another fine series that deserved a full run.
Go read it now before even what we have is out of print. Oh, my poor character X! This sucks for us all!
Showing posts with label intrigue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intrigue. Show all posts
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Why I love Zipang
Who doesn't love a good historical drama disguised as a science fiction piece?
Zipang is a tense, thrilling, moving action-drama about a Japanese Navy Self-Defense Force ship that suddenly finds itself 60 years in the past the day before the Battle of Midway. Oh, yeah!
It's really a bit of a niche piece because it helps to have a decent understanding of the JSDF mentality and the nonfiction sensibilities of the Japanese regarding war. (That might sound dead-boring, but it's so not.) It's done well enough that you can pick things up as you go if you're sensitive to context. It would also help to have some understanding of military history, specifically of Japan's place in WWII, but I think a lot of that is also provided through context. Anyway, the interactions between the past and the present are intriguing and fascinating, and I really want to hit this one guy . . .
. . . But I'll never get the chance because it just stops at the end of the first story arc from the manga which is untranslated and shall remain so forever. Argggghhh!
But it's a great ride up until then. The show really goes into some great territory about how to live in a time when no one else shares your values. They're committed to saving lives, and they know when and where lives will be lost, but they can't risk changing history, or something bad might happen (such as Japan winning) . . . Thought-provoking and really well done.
Zipang is a tense, thrilling, moving action-drama about a Japanese Navy Self-Defense Force ship that suddenly finds itself 60 years in the past the day before the Battle of Midway. Oh, yeah!
It's really a bit of a niche piece because it helps to have a decent understanding of the JSDF mentality and the nonfiction sensibilities of the Japanese regarding war. (That might sound dead-boring, but it's so not.) It's done well enough that you can pick things up as you go if you're sensitive to context. It would also help to have some understanding of military history, specifically of Japan's place in WWII, but I think a lot of that is also provided through context. Anyway, the interactions between the past and the present are intriguing and fascinating, and I really want to hit this one guy . . .
. . . But I'll never get the chance because it just stops at the end of the first story arc from the manga which is untranslated and shall remain so forever. Argggghhh!
But it's a great ride up until then. The show really goes into some great territory about how to live in a time when no one else shares your values. They're committed to saving lives, and they know when and where lives will be lost, but they can't risk changing history, or something bad might happen (such as Japan winning) . . . Thought-provoking and really well done.
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