everybody fly higher
since i've been going through my collection of manga, i thought i might as well do a series of recs/favorites. and since i've been mostly re-reading/ranting about BL manga. well.
basso/ono natsume
series: kuma to interi ; amato amaro ; saraiya goyou ; not simple
idk why but the first time i saw basso's work i basically fell in love orz. her artwork is amazing - loose and rough, but carries an incredible amount of emotion/pull. even though there isn't a ton of obvious detailing, she still manages to show off all their quirks and twist, the different facets of their personalities.
it works well with her stories, which tend to have less emphasis on plot and more emphasis on the characters themselves. this is sometims a problem in some of her seinen works (ristorante paradiso/gente, where the romance, while important, sometimes feels sort of. tacked on) but sometimes actually helps with her BL stories, especially the oneshots. a good portion of them involve 'developing relationships', but the stories about those relationships are always different because the people involved are. well. different. :D? yeah idk
she does kind of suffer from having almost too distinct an art style and too much involvement with the 'verse she's developed, so much that a lot of her works feel really, really similar in terms of atmosphere, etc but IRREGARDLESS she is still one of my fav. :3
suzuki tsuta
series: handwhich ; akanai tobira ; sangen toari no tooi hito ; konoyo ibun
okay I WILL NOT LIE i started reading suzuki tsuta because her artwork is really pretty. like, really, really pretty. also, the covers for her first two works - handwhich and akanai tobira - have very clean slick designing, which is pretty distinct for BL manga which tends to sometimes be a little. cartoonish. and flowery. and tacky. T T
but beyond just shallow omg pretty wai wai wai, her stories are actually. really good. she's got a good sense of humor and pacing, and her characters are, i think, perfect for the sort of happi endo style stories she tends to tell - enough to give the character dimension without getting too mired in their issues and neuroses and shit. it means she can give them some kind of disturbing character traits, can make them be kind of. douche-baggy, but still make then endearing to the reader? which is impressive.
plus, she's generally good at avoiding the ~twu luv~ trap that a lot of fluffy shounen-ai sometimes falls into. she also does a lot of work that takes a cliche and sort of. twists it. but that occasionally comes off a little more heavy handed than i would like. although i guess some of it's related to the magazine/publisher she's working with (or it seems like it, as far as her endnotes say).
whatever i still love pretty much everything she's ever written to bits. cough.
yoneda kou
series: ore ni koi shite dousunda ; don't stay gold ; doushitemo furetakunai
despite the fact that i've read almost, like, all of yoneda kou's work but sometimes i look back and wonder why i like her so much. her art is solid but she suffers from only really being able to draw, like, three facial structures. :|
on the other hand, i really like the way she handles the genre she tends to draw in, which is the police-yakuza-samurai set. she actually makes her men, well, manly. they cuss, they drink, they chain smoke, they womanize, they throw childish insults at each other, they shoot and kill, etc etc etc. the only series that doesn't have the above is doushitemo, but, to me, it basically feels like a 'find and replace' of one of her yamamoto and hibari doujinshi. :/
I DUNNO yoneda kou operates in a very odd space for me but i still end up like. reading everything she writes. and usually keeping up with until the end. yes.
fujiyama hyouta
series: akutai wa toiki to mazariau ; dear green ; 1k apartment no koi
i read a lot of hyouta back during junior/senior year of highschool; right now i'm only really keeping up with dear green, but it's also pretty much the only series of hers that's still being scanslated so. eh. her stories are very day-in-the-life esque - she tends to be more interested in how people in a relationship interact with each other than in trying to actually depict love/romance etc etc etc. this is especially obvious in her oneshots - a lot of them are a) established relationship or b) unconfirmed + not!love love.
the artwork for her earlier series tended towards slightly awkward looking, although she's improved a lot. (her hands! are really gorgeous now! aaaaa). her series are really comforting to read (at least for me), so i've been re-reading her works so often nowadays. orz.
natsume isaku
series: doushiyoumo nai karedo ; tight rope
natsume isaku doesn't have a lot of works out, and of them only doushiyoumo is really worth talking about but it is like. one of my favorite stories, hands down. her art is incredibly ordinary looking, but she handles all her characters' movements and expressions incredibly well. again, like a lot of the series/mangaka i read, the emphasis is more on the nature of their relationship rather than how it starts. this does create some awkwardness in the flow at first - the first chapter of both her works read like she was trying too hard to stuff all the necessary exposition in, even if it didn't toally fit. on the other hand, once everything gets up to pace, the story continues at a nice, steady clip that holds you interest without becoming overwhelming.
she does pull out a lot of the old cliches and archetypes, but frames it all in such an entertaining way that i forgive her. ;~; i just wish she'd put out more works aaaaa yes.
other mangaka:
naona bohra - basically the head general of the 'middle aged uke' army. i loved, loved her during highschool, but her current works have been pretty subpar. :/
nakamura asumiko - her works are interesting, tend towards creepy and a little over the top re: angst/violence/drama. her art is very, very distinct, and i go through periods of absolutely loving it and hating it.
kusama sakae - i like her characters and art, but her paneling and dialogue can be incredibly confusing/awkward to read at points (although, for dialogue, it might just be translation issues)
fumi yoshinaga - probably *the* lady to talk about re: border between seinen + BL. i love her works but they can be mental exhausting to read (for some reason...)
augh super long post which took forever to write. T T
blahblah next time i will probably be doing seinen manga BECAUSE MY LIFE IS SAD LIKE THAT. shutup. >|
g'night.
basso/ono natsume
series: kuma to interi ; amato amaro ; saraiya goyou ; not simple
idk why but the first time i saw basso's work i basically fell in love orz. her artwork is amazing - loose and rough, but carries an incredible amount of emotion/pull. even though there isn't a ton of obvious detailing, she still manages to show off all their quirks and twist, the different facets of their personalities.
it works well with her stories, which tend to have less emphasis on plot and more emphasis on the characters themselves. this is sometims a problem in some of her seinen works (ristorante paradiso/gente, where the romance, while important, sometimes feels sort of. tacked on) but sometimes actually helps with her BL stories, especially the oneshots. a good portion of them involve 'developing relationships', but the stories about those relationships are always different because the people involved are. well. different. :D? yeah idk
she does kind of suffer from having almost too distinct an art style and too much involvement with the 'verse she's developed, so much that a lot of her works feel really, really similar in terms of atmosphere, etc but IRREGARDLESS she is still one of my fav. :3
suzuki tsuta
series: handwhich ; akanai tobira ; sangen toari no tooi hito ; konoyo ibun
okay I WILL NOT LIE i started reading suzuki tsuta because her artwork is really pretty. like, really, really pretty. also, the covers for her first two works - handwhich and akanai tobira - have very clean slick designing, which is pretty distinct for BL manga which tends to sometimes be a little. cartoonish. and flowery. and tacky. T T
but beyond just shallow omg pretty wai wai wai, her stories are actually. really good. she's got a good sense of humor and pacing, and her characters are, i think, perfect for the sort of happi endo style stories she tends to tell - enough to give the character dimension without getting too mired in their issues and neuroses and shit. it means she can give them some kind of disturbing character traits, can make them be kind of. douche-baggy, but still make then endearing to the reader? which is impressive.
plus, she's generally good at avoiding the ~twu luv~ trap that a lot of fluffy shounen-ai sometimes falls into. she also does a lot of work that takes a cliche and sort of. twists it. but that occasionally comes off a little more heavy handed than i would like. although i guess some of it's related to the magazine/publisher she's working with (or it seems like it, as far as her endnotes say).
whatever i still love pretty much everything she's ever written to bits. cough.
yoneda kou
series: ore ni koi shite dousunda ; don't stay gold ; doushitemo furetakunai
despite the fact that i've read almost, like, all of yoneda kou's work but sometimes i look back and wonder why i like her so much. her art is solid but she suffers from only really being able to draw, like, three facial structures. :|
on the other hand, i really like the way she handles the genre she tends to draw in, which is the police-yakuza-samurai set. she actually makes her men, well, manly. they cuss, they drink, they chain smoke, they womanize, they throw childish insults at each other, they shoot and kill, etc etc etc. the only series that doesn't have the above is doushitemo, but, to me, it basically feels like a 'find and replace' of one of her yamamoto and hibari doujinshi. :/
I DUNNO yoneda kou operates in a very odd space for me but i still end up like. reading everything she writes. and usually keeping up with until the end. yes.
fujiyama hyouta
series: akutai wa toiki to mazariau ; dear green ; 1k apartment no koi
i read a lot of hyouta back during junior/senior year of highschool; right now i'm only really keeping up with dear green, but it's also pretty much the only series of hers that's still being scanslated so. eh. her stories are very day-in-the-life esque - she tends to be more interested in how people in a relationship interact with each other than in trying to actually depict love/romance etc etc etc. this is especially obvious in her oneshots - a lot of them are a) established relationship or b) unconfirmed + not!love love.
the artwork for her earlier series tended towards slightly awkward looking, although she's improved a lot. (her hands! are really gorgeous now! aaaaa). her series are really comforting to read (at least for me), so i've been re-reading her works so often nowadays. orz.
natsume isaku
series: doushiyoumo nai karedo ; tight rope
natsume isaku doesn't have a lot of works out, and of them only doushiyoumo is really worth talking about but it is like. one of my favorite stories, hands down. her art is incredibly ordinary looking, but she handles all her characters' movements and expressions incredibly well. again, like a lot of the series/mangaka i read, the emphasis is more on the nature of their relationship rather than how it starts. this does create some awkwardness in the flow at first - the first chapter of both her works read like she was trying too hard to stuff all the necessary exposition in, even if it didn't toally fit. on the other hand, once everything gets up to pace, the story continues at a nice, steady clip that holds you interest without becoming overwhelming.
she does pull out a lot of the old cliches and archetypes, but frames it all in such an entertaining way that i forgive her. ;~; i just wish she'd put out more works aaaaa yes.
other mangaka:
naona bohra - basically the head general of the 'middle aged uke' army. i loved, loved her during highschool, but her current works have been pretty subpar. :/
nakamura asumiko - her works are interesting, tend towards creepy and a little over the top re: angst/violence/drama. her art is very, very distinct, and i go through periods of absolutely loving it and hating it.
kusama sakae - i like her characters and art, but her paneling and dialogue can be incredibly confusing/awkward to read at points (although, for dialogue, it might just be translation issues)
fumi yoshinaga - probably *the* lady to talk about re: border between seinen + BL. i love her works but they can be mental exhausting to read (for some reason...)
augh super long post which took forever to write. T T
blahblah next time i will probably be doing seinen manga BECAUSE MY LIFE IS SAD LIKE THAT. shutup. >|
g'night.