Sakura of DOOM

Go read this.

I speak as someone who is not generally a fan of most OEL manga out there, and as someone who was pretty wary about the premise of the series. I mean... the series has love triangles in it, and I still loved it.

Christie has just written a manga with her artist boyfriend Derek, and they're off to try and sell it at Yatta Con, along with a few friends. It's Chriss' first con, and it's a whole new world. And then, she bumps into a guy in sunglasses and a long flappy coat of angst (Matt), and the fun begins.

Volume 2 takes place a year after Chriss' first Yatta Con, and she's now back as a con veteran (sort of), with some friends in tow.

Even though rachelmanija has been reccing this to me for a good year and a half now, I just never got around to reading it until now. This is partly because despite Rachel's many assurances, I didn't want to read some cutesy thing on cons with a billion in-jokes and other things on anime fan culture.

Then I was reading Off*Beat yesterday night, except it had a lot of the things that generally turn me off OEL manga: too many panels per page, way too much text on a page, and an aesthetic and storyline that felt more indie comics instead of shoujo manga. For some reason, I flipped to the back and found a small excerpt from Dramacon. I read it, laughed out loud, and then rushed to get my copy of vol. 1 and devoured the entire thing.

This is, by the way, at around 3 in the morning.

( The art )

( The characters )

( The story )

( Race and gender )

In conclusion: I really loved this. I was so delighted with vol. 1 that I ran to Borders today to buy vol. 2, and now I am irritated that I cannot read vol. 3 right this second because it hasn't been published yet.

Even if you don't think it's your thing, just try reading the first few pages in a bookstore or online to see if it grabs you -- reading these two volumes made me so happy that I want to make other people read too!

ETA: Also, Chriss literally clocks someone in vol. 1!! yes i am twelve