![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_moonRumiko Takahashi seems to be a bit of a workaholic. She barely finished Inu-Yasha before starting a new long-running shonen series. This one, Rin-ne is near simultaneously published in the US and Japan. Always good.
It's unfortunately clear from pretty much chapter one that she's rehashing a lot of the same stuff. Especially the Ranma 1/2 paralells are unavoidable, seeing as both series deal with wacky hijinks in a school setting. But, Rin-ne has some good things going for it. For one, while the man character, Rokudo Rinne is unskilled around people and has to fight ghosts, he's not as damn cocky as most other Takahashi males. He's dirt poor and actually grateful when he gets something - the few times the rules of the afterworld lets him accept it, that is.
Mamiya Sakura, the female lead, is the coolest thing in this story so far. She's so damn calm and phlegmatic, especially in book one. In book two, she doesn't get more hot-headed, but less panels are devoted to her "o rly? well if you say so" reactions to ghosts and monsters. This while her friends are "YAAAAAAAH GHOSTS!!!"
We also met "the Ryoga" in this volume. He's got bat wings, a temper and more money than Rinne. Hope he reappears, she often writes very funny antagonists. And he introduces himself by describing the kanjis in his name (Masato). Is that really seen as "cool and bad boy" in Japan? Because it feels a bit dorky to me, heh
I wonder why they didn't translate the whole title into english? Kyokai no Rinne ~ "Rinne of the Boundaries" (or Rin-ne of the Boundaries if they'd like that better) sounds like a pretty cool name for a ghost hunting series if I may say so myself. Other than that, the translation doesn't disturb me at all. Also, the footnotes are very good. It tells which page and panel it refers to, and this manga actually prints out the page number almost all the time, and they contain interesting information. I knew about half of it and the rest not at all, but all was entertaining to read.
Yeees.
Also, I've read the latest volume of Pluto. It's so incredibly good - touching, beautiful, great science-fiction and the plot has many interesting twists and turns leading up to the climax. But so much has happened already that I can't spoil and in this volume. What to say? God, they're so beautiful, several of the characters. So beautiful and yet, even their innocence is flawed.
It made me cry at the subway and it's... You just have to read it. If you like manga, science-fiction or thrillers. It's not perfect (what is?) but so many things hit the right note in this series.
It's moved past 20th Century Boys for me, mostly because in that one the plot is getting so convoluted and there's been so many time skips that I have a hard time keeping track of who is who. I want to re-read it when I have a big chunk collected and then I'll keep a notepad next to me....
Last but not least, I bought the ♪ Hetalia One Coin ♪ figures today. They are utterly adorable. Here's someone's review of them - since I can't take pictures, look there.
*reads the review*
Wait, WHAT? You can swap the heads? Ohohohoho...
It's unfortunately clear from pretty much chapter one that she's rehashing a lot of the same stuff. Especially the Ranma 1/2 paralells are unavoidable, seeing as both series deal with wacky hijinks in a school setting. But, Rin-ne has some good things going for it. For one, while the man character, Rokudo Rinne is unskilled around people and has to fight ghosts, he's not as damn cocky as most other Takahashi males. He's dirt poor and actually grateful when he gets something - the few times the rules of the afterworld lets him accept it, that is.
Mamiya Sakura, the female lead, is the coolest thing in this story so far. She's so damn calm and phlegmatic, especially in book one. In book two, she doesn't get more hot-headed, but less panels are devoted to her "o rly? well if you say so" reactions to ghosts and monsters. This while her friends are "YAAAAAAAH GHOSTS!!!"
We also met "the Ryoga" in this volume. He's got bat wings, a temper and more money than Rinne. Hope he reappears, she often writes very funny antagonists. And he introduces himself by describing the kanjis in his name (Masato). Is that really seen as "cool and bad boy" in Japan? Because it feels a bit dorky to me, heh
I wonder why they didn't translate the whole title into english? Kyokai no Rinne ~ "Rinne of the Boundaries" (or Rin-ne of the Boundaries if they'd like that better) sounds like a pretty cool name for a ghost hunting series if I may say so myself. Other than that, the translation doesn't disturb me at all. Also, the footnotes are very good. It tells which page and panel it refers to, and this manga actually prints out the page number almost all the time, and they contain interesting information. I knew about half of it and the rest not at all, but all was entertaining to read.
Yeees.
Also, I've read the latest volume of Pluto. It's so incredibly good - touching, beautiful, great science-fiction and the plot has many interesting twists and turns leading up to the climax. But so much has happened already that I can't spoil and in this volume. What to say? God, they're so beautiful, several of the characters. So beautiful and yet, even their innocence is flawed.
It made me cry at the subway and it's... You just have to read it. If you like manga, science-fiction or thrillers. It's not perfect (what is?) but so many things hit the right note in this series.
It's moved past 20th Century Boys for me, mostly because in that one the plot is getting so convoluted and there's been so many time skips that I have a hard time keeping track of who is who. I want to re-read it when I have a big chunk collected and then I'll keep a notepad next to me....
Last but not least, I bought the ♪ Hetalia One Coin ♪ figures today. They are utterly adorable. Here's someone's review of them - since I can't take pictures, look there.
*reads the review*
Wait, WHAT? You can swap the heads? Ohohohoho...
