OCH Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 New Books for 2022 First up: Part 5 of JoJo's Bizarre adventure. Volume 3 arrived today.. So I should probably start reading them now. Secondly, another work from the author of the previously discussed Fire Punch series. It took a while for these initial volumes to restock. The last of them arrived today. Considerably thinner books than JoJo's. But I see this series at least goes on for more than Fire Punch's eight volumes. Six books should keep me busy for a while. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted February 2, 2022 Author Share Posted February 2, 2022 Chainsaw Man Vol.1-3 🤔 Fire Punch, I read a while ago now. It was a battle manga. But it was also a bleak and post-apocalyptic one. Its ending even posing big existential questions. This, isn't that... We have our titular hero - Denji. Basically a loser. From the series name alone, hyper-violence is as expected. Now stop me if you've heard this before: We are introduced to a world of Devils, fiends and those officially sanctioned to hunt them. The dynamic between our initial protagonist group, as well as the scenarios they are presented in, are VERY One Punch Man/Tokyo Ghoul. After finishing volume 2, I was left with no other conclusion. After Vol. 3 however, the tone shifts considerably and I actually became invested in the series. I'll grab another couple volumes and see if this shift sticks. Otherwise, if the tone reverts back to being OPM-like, I'll drop the series. 7/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted February 20, 2022 Author Share Posted February 20, 2022 Meanwhile, the next volume of Junji Ito arrived. From the synopsis, this is a collection of his early works and it shows. Not necessarily in a bad way, but he hadn't perfected his signature style yet. The first couple stories show how early they are as even the art is a little less refined. The stories within do run the gamut though. From weird to clever, to disturbing, to bleak as hell. I was certainly entertained throughout by this one. 8/10 Spoiler And to all, a good night... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 Finally started! As the preorder for volume 4 arrived late last week. It was finally motivation enough for me to start reading JoJo Part 5 - Golden Wind. This is already quite different. The main protagonist isn't even a JoJo (technicalities aside). Giorno Giovanna. So GioGio, maybe? The plot is fresh from the offset. The Stands continue to be more and more creative. Yet with next to zero musical knowledge. The references to each of their names still go straight over my head. There is no big antagonist yet. Just a goal to be reached. Thankfully the slice of life stuff seems to be been ditched, too. Which is a plus. I'm intrigued. 8/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted June 11, 2022 Author Share Posted June 11, 2022 I've been doing some reading... JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind Over the last couple weeks, I decided to start reading JoJo Part 5. Which turned into binging all four current volumes. Because, this is shaping up to be the best part of JoJo since Part 2. Far removed from the disjointed mess of Part 3 and the sedate 'Slice of Life' angle of Part 4. The story hits the ground running and hasn't really stopped. Weirdly enough the "JoJo" (GioGio) isn't really written as the main protagonist here. That instead falls to Bruno Bucciarati. He and most of the others have really solid characterisation. The exception (and weak link) for me so far, being Narancia. His solo chapter while being fun, didn't help to endear him to me either. Set in Italy, this soon develops into a really intriguing Mafia story. The creativity on display with the Stands in these chapters is very impressive. Methods and abilities I wouldn't have even thought of, captivate each chapter. There are several naming conventions in this (like the music based Stand names) that I haven't really picked up on. But so far Araki has turned what amounts to an escort mission, into four (and counting) very engaging volumes. 9/10 (each) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted June 25, 2022 Share Posted June 25, 2022 Maf is right, JoJo is actually very good. This is my latest weeb purchase Vagabond, volumes 1-3 and 7-9. I took a look online at the prices for the big book that gives you 4-6, it's a cool 100 GBP on ebay (not including P&P), so I'm in no rush to start this until some of these volumes get reprinted. I already paid an obscene sum to get one of the more difficult to obtain Berserk collections right when Miura died and I haven't quite cast aside the shame of that yet (and the fucking pages fell out of it as well) I can't give a summary of what it is or anything, but what I heard is it's a fictional account of a real life samurai who was really well known and is based off of this novel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musashi_(novel) It is a good thing that it is based off a novel, because the mangaka who made it basically burnt himself out from the industry and will probably never complete it. So again, no rush but what I heard and saw of it seemed interesting First I need to actually finish Berserk tho, the new post-Miura volume that just came out has given me the motivation now I think cause it looks like it will be moving quite fast (comparatively speaking) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 I read Musashi's Five Rings an eternity ago when I was still very strongly into the entire feudal Japan era. It was simultaneously confusing and enlightening and I kept wondering just how much of it got lost in translation, in addition to it being written by a non-author in a very different time and space, which would already have made it difficult reading it in its native language. Anyway, it's off-topic here, but it's a short book so not a big time commitment if someone's interested in finding out more about the man behind the myth. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 Nah it's not off topic, I'm interested anyway. I can't afford to buy the other installments yet so at some point I'll probably grab that as well Unless someone wants to make a bid in my name for the 2nd volume on ebay. It's only 50 Sterling so far, it's really not that much really, for a good cause and all edit i see that that book is actually written by the man himself, which is even more interesting than the novel I was thinking about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted June 29, 2022 Author Share Posted June 29, 2022 I've always wanted to read The Water Margin. That's a bit more than fifty quid though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 The latest from Junji Ito - The Liminal Zone Four stories in this hardcover. Two are really good, one is strange and the last, I admit it I didn't really get the central premise? It's shorter (and more recent circa 2021) than most of the prior collections. But not a dud in sight. 8/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted September 25, 2022 Author Share Posted September 25, 2022 So the newest JoJo volume of Part 5 arrived this week. I'm about halfway through and I'm starting to notice the disparity. By that I mean, the naming convention. Characters and Stands with song/band names. The disparity that is only dawning on me now, is that some of these are changed due to licensing reasons. There is a new chapter I've just started reading, featuring a Stand called "Emperor Crimson". Phonetically, this didn't sound right to me. So I googled it (name only). The correct name being King Crimson. This sent me down a rabbit hole looking at the earlier chapters and "localised" names. Quite eye opening... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted October 12, 2022 Author Share Posted October 12, 2022 Okay, so as I might have already mentioned. I am enjoying this new JoJo quite a bit. It hit the ground running a lot faster than Chapter 4 and the disjointed mess of Chapter 3. This volume seemed a bit odd, to the previous ones. Fugo, one of the main cast up until this point, as far as I can tell has left the story??? This was very weird. Certainly not who I would have picked to leave the story at this time (looking at you, Narancia) but I guess that's that. The second part I didn't really care for is King Emperor Crimson. More specifically what the Stand does. To me, it reads as DIO's The World, again. Given how creative the Stands have been in this Chapter alone. Repetition is a bit disappointing. I'm still enjoying this and Bruno continues to be the most interesting character (and Stand) in this. Hope the next part picks up again. 7.5/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted October 24, 2022 Author Share Posted October 24, 2022 So I bought this ...a while ago. At the same time, or shortly after I bought book one. Probably. I forgot about it and, as I'm currently out of things to read, decided to give it a go. I had a bookmark in there. Hadn't gone further than five pages, so it wasn't an effort to start again. I only vaguely remembered the first book. That ultimately didn't matter. This, was quite the easy to follow page turner. At 420 pages, I finished it in three days. Word of mouth got me to take a punt with the first volume. Now I've read the second. I'm definitely eager to read more. 9.5/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted November 7, 2022 Author Share Posted November 7, 2022 Finally... There has been a bit of a gap, between this volume and the last. Upon reading it, I struggled to remember what was actually going on. Specifically because the narrative follows several individual teams. In general terms, the Monster Association Arc IS STILL GOING! The problem with this volume was that I also read it in about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, there is no immediate preorder for Volume 25 on the horizon😞 However, on the plus side. This volume was both really good and I think is the second to last/final chapter of this overlong arc. There is an ominous hint in Saitama's c-plot. That might either be an allusion to why he is so powerful? Or that a potentially series altering twist is imminent. The last plot thread still hanging aside from that is the fate of the Hero Hunter. As you might recall, the plot this arc started with, who knows how long ago now???🙄 Vol. 24 gets 8/10 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimboxy Posted November 8, 2022 Share Posted November 8, 2022 No spoilers obvs, but I thought the culmination to the arc was *chefs kiss* I really enjoyed it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted November 9, 2022 Author Share Posted November 9, 2022 20 hours ago, Jimbo Xiii said: No spoilers obvs, but I thought the culmination to the arc was *chefs kiss* I really enjoyed it I enjoyed this volume a lot. I'm really hoping that was it though. If this goes on for another five volumes... I don't know if I can keep reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted November 9, 2022 Author Share Posted November 9, 2022 Meanwhile... Arrived today😁 (so thin...😔) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted November 9, 2022 Share Posted November 9, 2022 Is this the English version? I had it on preorder but it says November 22 on Amazon. I'm going to guess that the deluxe 14 will come out whenever they have enough new stuff for 42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted November 9, 2022 Author Share Posted November 9, 2022 3 minutes ago, one-armed dwarf said: Is this the English version? Yep. That's the same date Forbidden Planet said. Then I got a dispatch on Monday🤷♂️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted November 20, 2022 Author Share Posted November 20, 2022 Berserk Volume 41 Sigh I took my time, reading this. To savour, I suppose? But also because in recent times I've gotten too used to reading One Punch Man, JoJo etc and forgot how densely written Berserk was/is. Anyway, this volume is brilliant. Miura was really setting up a lot of world building in these chapters. You got Griffith's long term plan for his kingdom. More background on Skull Knight, the nature of the Berserk Armour and of course, that final twist. Which if you've been following the series and not been spoiled by it, to paraphrase Jimbo, chef's kiss! It manages to portray the bleak and bittersweet tone of Berserk and crank it up a notch. Even without his passing, this volume would have a gotten a really high mark. But with the loss of Miura, it carries a lot of extra impact. 10/10 Spoiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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