this cat! it is not a cheesecake!

Something I didn't know existed! A Blade of the Immortal novel, coming to these shores in November! (Theoretically. Knowing Dark Horse and their attention to pub dates it could be a while longer.)

Blade Of The Immortal: Legend Of The Sword Demon (Novel)

Got the next book of Blade of the Immortal, Badger Hole, today. Read it immediately. Short review: No Manji. Rin starts kicking ass and taking names, but no Manji. There has not been enough Manji kicking ass in recent books and that is getting tedious.

This was SUPPOSED to be a short answer to chomiji's question below, originally asked here, but it turned into a huge, rambling essay looking at a particular type of character and why I like that type, so I'm posting it in a new entry. Hopefully it'll spur some discussion. :D my current default icon is so appropriate right now.

chomiji: Why do people like Gin, anyway? He gives me the creeps ... always has, even before we found out what he was really like.

Good question - especially because he hits a whole lot of my narrative hot buttons. :D So I've been trying to work out, exactly, what it is about him* that I like. ( Read more... )

rilina's been discovering Blade of the Immortal and since she's been reading them from the library, she can't refer back to them to piece the various strands of plot together. I figure you two are the most well-read in BotI of my friendslist. :D
WARNING to anyone contemplating clicking on this link: there are spoilers for the ENTIRE SERIES of Blade of the Immortal through volume 14 here at rilina's post.

OK, I couldn't stand it any longer. I went into Photoshop and rearranged the panels on the second BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL example to see what I THINK (emphasis on that THINK!) the original panels looked like. [ edit ] There's confirmation in the comments that I got them right. I r so smrt!

( And lookit what showed up! )



Index to the Series

And Part 4 of my three-part series (why am I feeling like Douglas Adams here?) analyzing manga. Starting in on action scenes here, because I'm working on laying out an action scene myself and I need all the help I can get.

Again with the image warning for slow modems. And another warning this time: I'm using Hiroaki Samura's BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL here. It's violent. It's got some gore, with people getting limbs lopped off and such, but part of the point of the story is to take the samurai ethos that we're all familiar with and point out: hey! For every honorable, strict, controlled, proper heroic samurai following bushido out there, there's a million nasty, loutish, violent sons-of-bitches. But the story, while dark and violent, has humor to leaven it, and delves into some pretty interesting philosophical questions on the nature of honor, what the point of martial arts really is, and how far people will go to achieve their desires. For the type of story that it is, the violence is justified, I think.

Plus, the art's stunning and Manji is a badass.

There is also language. There's a big FUCK in one of the panels, so if I just offended you, you might as well go back to the FRUITS BASKET essays and do your best not to think about how the characters who turn into animals when hugged by the opposite sex engender children.

(Oh, please. Don't tell me you weren't wondering about that.)


( Onwards and upwards! )




Index to the Series