Umino Chica - Honey and Clover, vol. 01-03 (Chi. trans.)

Heh, and you all thought you wouldn't have to read me babbling on even more about Honey and Clover when I finished watching the anime.

But no! I managed to get my hands on some of the manga in Chinese while I was in Taiwan, and I have been laboriously making my way through them.

The plot so far has been nearly identical, with the exception of the meat-guy story actually being in vol. 1 instead of being in one of the anime specials. For anyone who doesn't know, the series is about five art students sort of getting through college, getting jobs, worrying about what they're going to do with the rest of their lives. It's a lovely, quiet little series, and it reminds me a great deal of Nana, which is high praise indeed.

Also, I am totally biased because the anime is one of my favorite things ever. I finished watching it a couple of months ago, and I have already rewatched bits of it, and I've actually rewatched certain episodes at least five times. And this doesn't count my pimping it out to others.

Anyway, it took me a while to warm up to the manga, just because I love the voicework and the animation and the music of the anime so much. But the anime gets pretty much all of its brilliant moments right from the manga and just adds voicework and animation and music; aka, the core of why I love the series is right there in the manga. The art's very sketchy and loose, unlike most manga art that I tend to like, which runs toward clean and strong lines (think xxxHolic and Saiyuki and Nana). But I really like it, and it works with the story.

I'd be raving about this more, except I've seen the anime, which I've already raved about plenty, for nearly the same reasons. So I will just say that the manga is just like the anime, I still love all the characters, and this series makes me so very, very happy.

Urasawa Naoki - 20th Century Boys, vol. 01-03

Most people (me included) have been reading Urasawa's Monster, which is a good series on serial killers and what makes people monsters and what keeps them from being monsters. I like Monsters a lot; I think it's a well-written, solid series.

But so far, I absolutely adore 20th Century Boys.

rilina has already pointed out that this series seems to be comprised of all of Urasawa's cool bits. So far, I'd say his cool bits are: rock and roll, secret societies, cults, world domination, childhood games, memories and the importance thereof, laser guns, mysterious prophecies and prophets, and killer viruses. And I'm sure even more are going to pop up as the series goes along. In other words, this is crack on the level of Yuki Kaori, only influenced by sci-fi pulps and Godzilla movies instead of Gothic insanity.

I love it! It is awesome! It is totally insane!

Anyway, plot summary: Kenji, once a boy with a secret base and a teen with an electric guitar and rock-and-roll dreams, has now settled into adult life, runs a convenience store chain and takes care of his sister's baby Kanna, as no one knows who Kanna's father is or where Kiriko (his sister) went. But a virus that drains all the blood out of human bodies has appeared, several of Kenji's childhood friends have disappeared or died under mysterious circumstances, a cult run by a man who only calls himself "Friend" seems to be intent on world domination and monster robots, and everything seems to be connected to the stories that Kenji and his friends used to make up in their secret base.

This hits a giant button of mine; namely, the stories we tell each other as kids, the games we play, and how important they are. Also, there's a homeless man whom everyone calls "God," a book of prophecies, a giant hovering bomb-like thing with a creepy clown smile, and insane cultists. I'm very much looking forward to what Urasawa throws in next.