Brief Review of DMP's Viewfinder vol 1
Bottom Line: It's completely uncensored and the translation is outstanding.
Details behind the cut.
You know the story. Yamane-sensei wrote a oneshot about a naive news photographer named Takaba and the sexy sexy sexy head of Tokyo's underworld, Asami. They clash and the sparks fly, and pretty much set fire to the book LOL. That made people want more, so she tried another in which the exceedingly handsome and glorious Feilong comes along later to complete the main cast. Sadly, those two pieces plus another short but sweet oneshot are all we get of their story in this first book, but it's really worth buying.
You guys know I helped with editing the translation of the novelization of the first chapter of VF. I became intimately acquainted with the dialogue and how it should be translated. The translator DMP used nailed it. And it's not just accurate, it flows so it makes sense. Those little areas that in the past had you scratching your head and wondering wtf just happened? They all make sense now. There's a place or two in the oneshots where the translation feels a little tame compared to what we're used to, but there hasn't been any meaning added or removed. It's just a question of flavor. Sound effects are all translated as well (and some are pretty darned funny XD).
About the book itself: There's no dust jacket, but it's of comparable quality to the original Japanese tankoubon, which I compared it to page by page. We get the color insert, yay! The book includes all the stories and sensei's freetalk from the 2007 Libre edition. This is an exact translation of that version. The paper quality isn't quite that of the Japanese tankoubon, but it's better than BeBeautiful (and standard manga like Viz for that matter). It's basically the same paper as other June manga, but it's the size of the Japanese book.
About the graphics: they're all intact. All. No inserted cones of light and missing fluids. I checked in detail (a messy job but someone had to do it. XDDD)
So that's about it. It's an excellent version and if you're a fan I recommend buying it. If you're not a fan, uh, well, go away. Kidding. This is sexually explicit, quite graphic, with BDSM and Asami is trying to teach Takaba a harsh lesson about what happens in the dark world Asami lives in. It's not easy reading, and rape is involved. But if you read carefully, and pay attention to the details, especially of the graphics and not just the dialogue as western readers are wont to do, I think you'll be surprised at the hints of change and attraction and what's to come, as well as some flavors to the relationship a light reading would miss.
Of course my grade for the story is 10/10. I don't even pretend to be partial. The grade for the book: 9.5.
I need to go check the graphics again...
Details behind the cut.
You know the story. Yamane-sensei wrote a oneshot about a naive news photographer named Takaba and the sexy sexy sexy head of Tokyo's underworld, Asami. They clash and the sparks fly, and pretty much set fire to the book LOL. That made people want more, so she tried another in which the exceedingly handsome and glorious Feilong comes along later to complete the main cast. Sadly, those two pieces plus another short but sweet oneshot are all we get of their story in this first book, but it's really worth buying.
You guys know I helped with editing the translation of the novelization of the first chapter of VF. I became intimately acquainted with the dialogue and how it should be translated. The translator DMP used nailed it. And it's not just accurate, it flows so it makes sense. Those little areas that in the past had you scratching your head and wondering wtf just happened? They all make sense now. There's a place or two in the oneshots where the translation feels a little tame compared to what we're used to, but there hasn't been any meaning added or removed. It's just a question of flavor. Sound effects are all translated as well (and some are pretty darned funny XD).
About the book itself: There's no dust jacket, but it's of comparable quality to the original Japanese tankoubon, which I compared it to page by page. We get the color insert, yay! The book includes all the stories and sensei's freetalk from the 2007 Libre edition. This is an exact translation of that version. The paper quality isn't quite that of the Japanese tankoubon, but it's better than BeBeautiful (and standard manga like Viz for that matter). It's basically the same paper as other June manga, but it's the size of the Japanese book.
About the graphics: they're all intact. All. No inserted cones of light and missing fluids. I checked in detail (a messy job but someone had to do it. XDDD)
So that's about it. It's an excellent version and if you're a fan I recommend buying it. If you're not a fan, uh, well, go away. Kidding. This is sexually explicit, quite graphic, with BDSM and Asami is trying to teach Takaba a harsh lesson about what happens in the dark world Asami lives in. It's not easy reading, and rape is involved. But if you read carefully, and pay attention to the details, especially of the graphics and not just the dialogue as western readers are wont to do, I think you'll be surprised at the hints of change and attraction and what's to come, as well as some flavors to the relationship a light reading would miss.
Of course my grade for the story is 10/10. I don't even pretend to be partial. The grade for the book: 9.5.
I need to go check the graphics again...