Revolutions always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions. - Terry Pratchett

Bishops move diagonally. That’s why they often turn up where the kings don’t expect them to be. - Terry Pratchett

It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone’s fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I’m one of Us. I must be. I’ve certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things. - Terry Pratchett

LO! AND BEHOLD! FOR I FOUND IT! That which would bring me back on track!

I’ll talk about the manga I found later, for now I want to mention a manga I really enjoyed despite it’s incredibly lame-seeming potential.

Omamori Himari

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This manga could be your average manga with all the average jokes and all the average averages. Potentially so boring and cliché that it’s amazing the author even bothered getting around to pick up a pencil. You know, I’m glad he did, because despite looking poor on the outside, it’s a very enjoyable manga. I mean, for gods sake, the author’s mostly known for hentai! Some might find that a promising premise, but me, I was hesitant.

It’s about a cat, a swordsmaster, a girl, a demon, alot of ecchi. That’s all in one by the way. A demon cat-girl that’s supposed to guard a young man from demons until he comes of age and his power awakens inside him. It’s basically an echhi harem manga with fighting and magics and demons. The guy’s supposed to be a demon-slayer, but he’s a nice kid that doesn’t want unnecessary killing, the result being that he gathers alot of demons around him. Demonesses rather.

Inevitably I’ll end up mentioning the ecchi quite alot, because that’s what is supposed to be one of the major complaints, bonuses and debated points of content in this manga. You know, I don’t know if I’m extremely hard to faze or something, but I just couldn’t see how this content is supposed to be anything special. Sure, it’s funny how the author adds up a bunch of scenes and pages where there’s suggestive content (sorry for the stupid lingo, but I’m trying to be seriously funny), but I don’t see how this is supposed to spark any outrage unless you’re either fanatic , 9 years old, or dumb. There’s just too much half-nudity, or outright nudity, and highly suggestive pictures and text, I forgot videos, out there in this world that this merely ends up being funny.

I’m not from Japan so I can’t comment on how they look at things, I’ll cross my fingers that Ingar’ll throw in an enlightening comment here about it, but nose-bleeds and/or anything remotely close to red, be it from a blush or blood seems far-fetched. That’s of course my point of view, I’m perfectly aware there are people in this world that things a woman in lingerie is sickening, I just can’t connect to that point of view.

I love the harem-jokes, the ecchi-jokes, and so on, it’s strangely enjoyable. I might be biased because I haven’t read a whole lot of ecchi-manga, but even so it’s strangely refreshing, and it definitely works for me. Strangely alot of things, but boiled down to as simple an evaluation as possible I would say that I found it fun, a lot of fun. No over the top ecchi, no over the top retardo humour, no over the top anything, except for fun.

I should probably mention the art too, because it’s one of the things that really struck me. It’s quality, solid quality that looks like it has a mangaka that likes what he’s doing, and he intends to do it well. I would hazard to say that it’s one of those mangas worth checking out because it’s got great and clean drawings, you know, as an example for alot of others to follow.

Actually, writing about Omamori Himari is really hard. It’s one of those mangas that didn’t dazzle me with boob-shots, it hasn’t made me go ‘oooooh’ and ‘aaaaah’ with preposterous and powerful showdowns yet either, and it’s certainly not given me one of those over the top laughter moments at all. What I found when I had read it was that I really enjoyed it for the above reasons. Easy to read, enjoyable, fun, and entertaining - it doesn’t have to do more than that for me to like it.

I’ll comment on the story when it’s managed to develop a little, for now it’s entirely unremarkable, but the characters in are fabulous. Of course, I’m biased since I’m a guy, and I really like harem-mangas.
/Omamori Himari

Really, what’s so special about “suggestive” drawings of the kind you find in Omamori Himari? It’s not like it’s hardcore “Debbie Does Dallas” or “La Blue Girl”. It’s funny, atleast in the beginning when it’s not all that usual. I saw several comments on this manga, that it was “a bit close to being over the top”, things like that. I mean, I see worse when I pass the TV and I see a commercial cross the screen, noone starts going “OMG” about that.

On the other hand my manga-reading has slowed down considerably. Less time, less mangas to dive into, and far harder to find the shifty buggers. I’ll be really happy when I can read updated manga atleast 5 times a day, maybe. We’ll see, I don’t know what that point really is, but I welcome it. For now it’s about 1 times a day, if even that. More like 0.5 to be more exact. Manga-dudes and dudettes are slow!

At some point I’ll have to write about Naruto by the way, and compare it to One Piece. There’s so much to say about it! … but I’ll refrain from starting here. I want to keep something for the next post.

That is all.

It really is.

Now sod off and watch it.

… lolcats are so win … *breathes and wipes a tear*

… and this one …!

see more crazy cat pics

Unless you’re one of these losers with absolutely no sense of humour you should go check it out. Here’s the latest one that made me almost spill my coffee, which they frequently do…