random thoughts about random things

I was talking to Martin (no link, sorry, he’s a shifty bastard!) last night, the topics many and varied. We briefly touched upon The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (which is an awesome anime by the way, just the kind of ending I was hoping for, the sap that I am), and made alot of jokes about fruits in a basket. I think, I might be imagining it. In any case, I took the time to look at all the mangas that I’d read through the last three weeks. Last night it was 27. Today it’s 28. There’s this minor part of me that insists on being ridiculously proud for being such a retardedly fast reader. If it wasn’t for this other voice screaming that that’s lame, I’d be running around feeling pretty good about it.

That’s not the point either, enough bragging! Crapdamnit. The point is that I’ve read alot of good mangas lately. Fruits Basket was too long. Hunter X Hunter is fun, a bit of a run of the mill, but still fun.

Claymore
So I thought I’d mention some of the awesome ones, and I’ll start with Claymore. Seriously, this one’s fun. Awesome chicks wielding swords, even a dual-wielding chick, with a demon inside them that gives them badass abilities so they can run around the world killing off mean demons that apparently eats humans. Sometimes the demons kill the humans for fun, playing with the food kind of thing.

We start out following the Claymore Clare (that’s win!), the lowest ranked Claymore among them all (the reason is explained later) on her trek throughout the lands laying waste to the nasty beings for cold hard cash. The manga rule-book always states that any protagonist needs a side-kick (wait, that’s not just mangas, is it ^^’ ), lo and behold, there is a boy that starts following her around, and of course she eventually takes him in after the compulsory declining followed by demands. Actually, in this case he just offered his cooking skills, and stuff like that. (I’d cook for her!)

I could keep on presenting this manga as any kind of generic slice ‘a bread, but I won’t. The manga’s able to tell a pretty convincing story, leaning heavily on a similar story-telling of Berserk, which also happens to be a favoured manga of mine. The similarities with Berserk doesn’t stop there. Big swords, magical and overpowering creatures that devour humans, sinister scheming, and eventually a party of allies alone against the world. I’m not entirely sure what’s not to like about it yet. I could be in the honey-moon phase of it’s discovery still (after two and a half weeks or so?), but that doesn’t make the manga less fun. Clare’s interesting. The abilities are interesting. The mindsets of the people we encounter are interesting, and for once the death of a character actually makes the story even more powerful from the onset. The survivors remind you that it’s a bloody world, that it’s expected, and all you can do is make sure their deaths aren’t in vain.

The drawings are neat and tidy, there’s not a hint of laziness that I can tell, and the scenery presented is always enough to wholly convince. As hinted, the characters are amazing. I love each and every one of them, with the possible exception of a boy in the story. They’re all creepy, cool or whatever. They’re simply well done, even the individual powers manage to come across as interesting, or awesome, take your pick. I choose both.

It’s not on the level of One Piece where the mix of hilarious and dead serious pushes it into another dimension. No, Claymore’s like Berserk, a manga that manages to stay pretty dead serious all the way, without turning broody and dark, melancholic and tiring. I’m usually not good at reading those kinds of mangas, but Claymore did it. That’s win!
/Claymore

I just thought of a series I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned here yet! FLCL! Holy crap, if you like crazy series, this is a must see. Miss this, and you’re a dork!

And now I’m too tired to write. I’m getting in-co-herited. Or something like that. Atleast I can’t be arsed to keep on writing. So many mangas, so tired fingers.

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