Sunday, November 30, 2014

Holiday Reviews & Giveaway!

Well, this year I'm shaking up the format a little.  Instead of 12 reviews, this year I'm doing one per day, 25 reviews in total.  Think of this like a manga review advent calendar - each day, instead of revealing a little toy or chocolate, I will reveal a new review of a new series from 2014.  Befitting this change in format, I'm also changing the giveaway prize.  Instead of a selection of books, I'm giving away a $25 gift certificate to RightStuf!!



What hasn't changed is how to enter the giveaway.  To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment below talking about the best manga series you read in 2014 before the end of Christmas Day.  New or old, short or long, it's doesn't matter - as long as it was new to you, it counts here.  The winner will be then chosen at random from the comments.  As such, don't be shy!  Let your voice be heard and maybe you'll be the one with $25 to spend on some manga of your own.

12 comments:

  1. Vinland Saga!
    Shout about this series at every corner if I could... the art is fantastic, the research behind it must of been a massive undertaking, the story takes its sweet time to get places and just when you think "oh god what can happen... after this..." it suddenly does what appears to be 180 shift (and then just keeps gettin better!)

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    1. I agree utterly. As a history nerd with a fondness for Viking history, Vinland Saga hits a sweet spot I never knew I had. It's a terrible shame that it's apparently selling so poorly for Kodansha, because people don't know what they're missing.

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    2. uhhh... poor Kodansha pimped out the first book as much as they could, and it's double-volumes in hardcover with color pages too...

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    3. I know. You just have to keep up the good fight and letting people know about it. Never underestimate the value of good word-of-mouth.

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  2. Definitely "Silent Voice" on Crunchyroll! It was really unique and totally sucked me in. I'm so glad it's getting a print edition soon.

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    1. Oh, I've heard such good things about that one. Odds are good that print edition will be featured here about this time next year.

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  3. My favorite manga series of 2014 is Gangsta. It has an engrossing, unique story and interesting characters. The dynamic between the main characters is also fascinating, and many of the characters are likeable. Although the art style is different from what I've seen in other manga, I ended up really liking it. Overall, it's a great series.

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  4. Ooooh, I've actually read a lot of good manga this year thanks to my libraries, this is hard! I'm torn between Gundam: The Origin which I just started reading and I'm enjoying way more than I should as a complete Gundam neophyte and Paradise Kiss which I finally had a chance to read all the way through. I was amazed at how much better I liked ParaKiss than Nana and the way that Yazawa portrayed all of the relationships, something about those just felt right and I'm gonna be sure to pick up the Vertical editions when I can!

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    1. That is a tough choice. I have ParaKiss & my fiancée's brother (the biggest Gundam fan I know) gets the manga as it comes out and lets me get first dibs on reading them. They're both really good but in very different ways.

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  5. The best manga I read so far this year is From Far Away, published by Viz. It's criminally underrated since it's the best "modern day young girl transported to another world" ever. It has everything: fantasy, romance, drama, comedy, and political world building. Perfectly paced in fourteen volumes with a fantastic ending and epilogue.

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    1. I've heard nothing but good things about this series, and I could get my hands on the first volume I'd gladly review it. Sadly, this is one of those older Viz series that's not likely to see a reprint anytime soon.

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  6. I read a lot of manga this year, from long running shounen titles (Tegami Bachi, One Piece), to a lot of the weird Advant-garde stuff that Picture Box put out befofe it went under, much of which I enjoyed to one degree or another, but my favorite probably has to come down to one of two. The more obvious highlight is Vinland Saga, which is beautiful and intense and has all the boats and ice and violence you would want out of a Viking manga. (I should really get around to reading volume 2 soon...) The other, more guilty pleasure-ish highlight is Mysterious Girlfriend X, partially because I find the leads weird, weird relationship kinda sweet and partially because the whole thing's so preverse I'm kinda amazed it not only exists, but is still running. I'd certainly say Vinland is the better of the two overall, what with its scope and ambitioin, but they're definetly my two favorites.

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