Tamura Yumi - Basara, vol. 01-03

[oyceter]

In post-apocalyptic Japan, Sarasa is the twin sister of Tatara, the prophesied "child of destiny" who is supposed to restore the country and rescue it from the tyrannical ruler. Sadly, he dies. To keep up her people's spirits, Sarasa disguises herself as Tatara.

Along the way, she meets a cute guy named Shuri. Shuri knows she's a girl. Unfortunately, Shuri is also the dread Red King, one of the sons of aforementioned tyrannical ruler. Shuri doesn't know Sarasa is Tatara; Sarasa doesn't know Shuri is the Red King. Angst ensues.

So far, I don't have much of an impression, as the plot has just started to get going. So far, there have been pretty men in masks, cross-dressing, decapitated heads, and pirates. The art is very eighties, but I am hoping the story will end up dragging me in.

Reserving judgment until I read more.

Comments

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

There's an event in Vol 4 that starts the dramatically upwards spiral to awesomeness that evens our around vol 6 or 8.

ETA: Also, I don't know if the art gets better or you just get used to it, but I actually like it at this point.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I don't think the art changes at all; her current series looks the same. That's just her style.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah. I just got used to it, then.

What else has she done? I've read the bit of other stuff of her's that's been licensed, but it isn't much, and I haven't heard of anything else.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

She did a short series called Chicago that was released in the US, another short one (also like 2 vols, IIRC) called Box-kei, and now she's doing another long-running post-apocalyptic story called 7 Seeds, which is awesome, awesome, awesome. I think I love it even more than Basara. Hopefully it will be translated someday, because more people need to be exposed to its awesomeness. :D

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

i've read Chicago and wish it had been longer.

Is 7 Seeds at least being scanslated? Please say it is. If it is half as awesome as Basara becomes, I will be giddy.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I read it in Japanese, so I have no idea. Looking around for it certainly wouldn't hurt; it seems like everything is scanlated these days. There's more info on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Seeds), though the page was made by someone who speaks neither Japanese nor English fluently... XD I went in once and tried to make some parts more coherent, but didn't have the patience to do much.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

that does sound interesting. i'll have to try to find it. (Though I can attest that NOT everything is being scanslated these days, as a lot of he things I want scans of, I can't find)

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

7 Seeds is awesome in a different way than Basara, and is scanlated.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yes! Thank you. Bless you.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I think Boku-Tachi are scanlating it. Questions like these are easily answered here: http://www.mangaupdates.com/releases.html

[larryhammer]

As they say, 7 Seeds is scanlated, and it is indeed awesome. It's like the shoujo version of King of Thorns, only without the stupids.

---L.

[oyceter]

Cool, looking forward to it!

[sho-sunaga.livejournal.com]

Ah! Basara is one of my all time favorite manga. The only reason why I started to buy Bessatsu Comic monthly at that time.... Yes the drawings could be annoying but the story is long, plotted really well and you can except a very satisfying ending. I cannot spoil it for you so I won't get into specifics but I actually came to tears at one point. When you finish reading, please let me know who turns out to be your favorite character... Mine is the Blue King. It took a while to get there, though!

[oyceter]

Oh good! I am looking forward to a lot more plottiness coming in there.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

I really like Basara, although it's one of those odd series that I enjoyed very much as I read each new volume and then didn't think much about until the next installment came out. That said, I don't remember how many volumes it took to grab me, since I can't remember how many I bought at once. Maybe five or six.

[oyceter]

Huh, ok, thanks. I read the first three really fast, and then stalled out a little in the middle of the fourth. But then, that's probably more due to my own flightiness than the series.

[redrose3125.livejournal.com]

Basara is what got me into manga and anime.

I am waiting for all 27 books to be out (2 more to go!) then I will restart at the first one, and read straight through.

[oyceter]

Cool, looking forward to the rest!