"Rex Fabula" Chapter 11

We're still trucking along slowly on this series.  Chapter 12 should be released on Friday or Saturday. In this chapter we see Homare unknowingly making friends.  Haha! Homare is so stubborn, but he's making some really good friends.

I'm not feeling very talkative tonight. I've got a pile to stuff waiting to be finished, and it's making me twitchy because I want to get done, so I can move on to the supernatural stuff.

And now onto the release!

Oneshot: "Fugitto Amor" by Shiina Dai

So... the recent oneshots and series from The Hana to Yume (Hakusensha) have been opening my eyes to what an age gap love story can be. They don't have to be about manipulation or older men chasing after teenagers or little girls, or the inverse.  Rather age gap stories can be pure and sweet and about deeper connections than sex.  This is a simple and amazing love story. What's more amazing is that something that was only 14 pages long brought me to tears and reminded me of all the wonderful things love can be.

I don't know if you'll be as affected as I was, but I hope your enjoy this short oneshot.

What I Read This Week: "Wolfsmund" Volume 1

Initial Impressions: This is upsetting me. There's no heart or morality in this manga. This is just a snuff manga. There's no need for me to read past the first chapter.

Breakdown --
Artwork: A -- It's nice and clean. The action, violence, and emotions are very well expressed. Obviously my disgust wouldn't be so palpable if the artwork wasn't so effective.

Presentation: A -- The cover is artwork is nice and give an accurate representation of what's inside. The translation reads smoothly.

Story:  No-rating -- I do not feel I can give a fair review of the story because this type of story offends me. For what it is, it's well written, but the utter objectivity bothers me.

Overall:  A for everything except the story. The artwork is "lovely" and the translation reads smoothly and natural.  I cannot rate the story fairly because it disgusts me. If you are a tenderhearted person like me who needs "heart" and meaning in a story, avoid this. If you like abject violence, meaningless death, and stories about psychopaths, then this is the snuff manga for you.

Welcome to Crimson Flower!

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I'm sorry for the abrupt change.  Omari's Sister has always been a joke between me and my brother.  The joke has run on for far too long and... apparently there's something going on with an Omari on some reality television show that's causing occasional namespace collisions.  Omari asked me to change the name, so in keeping with his wishes, we are now "Crimson Flower".  I was thinking "Crimson Lily" after Sakaya from "Ojousama no Untenshu" because I've always liked that image, but that sounds like a name for a yuri-manga group, so I generalized to "flower".  My husband hates the name, but I don't care because  Crimson Flowers are PRETTY!!!!!  Feel free to send banners to inaugurate the name change! (width: 1250-px)

What I Finished Reading This Week: "Utsubora"

Title: Utsubora -- The Story of a Novelist
Artist/Author: Asumino Nakamura
ISBN:  978-1935654766
Purchase: Amazon/ BN

My Initial Impressions: FAIL

Whut?

 

 

Whut, whut?!!!

Oh crap... another crappy Vertical translation. For $15, I expect some editing. If I wanted to read crap like this, I'd read a free scanlation. What's bad is that the first error I pointed out is CRUCIAL to story. Anyhow, busted English is scattered throughout this comic. My suspicion is that the translator is a non-native English speaker who refused to use an editor. To hell with your pride, translator. This is a business, and if you want to be taken seriously and sell books, use an editor to check and correct your English.

Removing the palm from my face... oh crap, not another Vertical josei with ugly artwork. What gives with choosing UGLY josei?  Okay, putting aside the craptacular artwork, this is an interesting read until the WTF ending, which I suspect I didn't understand because of craptastic translation. Anyhow, I think got the general point of the story, and I enjoyed it. I'll look for the Japanese original at the BookOff so I can read this without the messed up translation. Perhaps I'll be able to figure out the end in Japanese.

Breakdown --
Artwork: C -- It's ugly, but functional. I can tell the characters apart, I can read their expressions, and I can figure out what's being drawn. This is purely my preference, because as you all know, I like "Teh Pretteh".

Presentation: D -- The book is big, so it's easy to read, and the paperback makes it a tome that can be managed while relaxing or while at the gym.  However the botched translation/adaptation fatally wounds the presentation.

Story: A -- It's an interesting mystery that hooked me at the first page.  The pacing is good and I had a hard time putting this down.  I want to read this in Japanese so I can understand the story more. I think I understand what the story was supposed to be, but I want to be sure.

Overall: B+ ... BUT if you can read Japanese, read the original Japanese instead. To everyone else, please consider whether you want to support crappy translations. It's a really good story and I don't want to harm Ms. Nakamura, but I'm torn about paying good money for a poor quality product.