Poor Echo. Servant to that cruel (yet sexy)bastard Vincent Nightray. She carries out her orders without complaint, but is still capable of thinking for herself and acting on her own impulses.


What else?

-Quick with the knife hidden up her sleeve. Invokes emotion in readers despite being emotionless herself.
-Harboring a split personality, she also has a different form that I will not name, for fear of spoiling it for you.

 

I think (and hope) Echo has a vital role to play in Pandora Hearts as the story plays out. A dual-natured character like hers could provide some crucial plot twists, and indeed, already has.

Alice from Pandora Hearts…what the heck is she really? She says she’s a “chain” born in the Abyss. She spends part of her time as a giant black rabbit that kills with a big scythe. (Spoiler alert: Supposedly she was human “before she died,” (WTF?) and there was also a girl named Alice (the same girl?) who was trapped in a tower for all or most of her life. She supposedly has a twin…but is it really a twin or does she just have a split personality?)

 

( Read more and see the pics... )

 ...that there seem to be few manga showing Japanese-looking people? Take Nabari No Ou as an example. This story is supposed to take place in modern Japan. Most of characters even have Japanese names. But many of them have blond(e) hair and non-Asian features. 

I suppose the logical explanation is that in a black and white story, it would be really hard to tell the characters apart if they all had the classic Asian features, with dark hair and eyes. This also explains why it is common in manga for characters to have facial scars, special makeup, an eye patch, or some wacky hair color or 'do.

I certainly hope it is simply this, and not some sort of racism against one's own race that leads Japanese mangaka to largely avoid showing Japanese faces in their manga. I know that sort of racism from my own experience. As a teen I caught myself considering buying some sort of color-correcting foundation, which would supposedly make my olive skin look less green and more...neutral...like some sort of northern european ideal that so many people feel compelled to strive for.

Dear God, let us all love ourselves as we are.

Angst-ridden Tobari of Nabari No Ou is a middle-school English teacher who also happens to be a ninja in his spare time. He has vowed to protect his student, Miharu Rokujou, from the dangers of using the Shinra Bansho secret ninja art. But just what is he really protecting? He’s a man with a secret; possibly a whole raft of secrets, that he absolutely doesn’t want to reveal to anyone.

( Read more and see the pics, you know you want to... )

 

Gilbert Nightray of Pandora Hearts is everything you expect from stereotypical Sexy, except for his true personality, which belies the façade he projects. “Useless” and unable to act on his desires in the vast majority of situations, he does manage to come through when it really matters.

 

In this picture from Jun Mochizuki’s art book Pandora Hearts: Odds and Ends, we see Gil lying down with his shirt open, hand in his hair (another headache, Gil?) and a feminine gloved hand on his tie. We have to wonder who that hand belongs to, because it seems to me that Gil only has eyes for Oz (am I the only one who wonders why his wallet chain is on the left side and not the right? Don't know what I'm talking about? Cue hanky code). Meanwhile, the symbol of Raven is scattered about the floor as black feathers.

 

( Read more and see more pics... )

 

Hanabusa Seki might be a minor character in Nabari No Ou, but she is one of my sentimental favorites. First of all, she’s forty years old (just two years younger than me) and she knits (just like me!

 

Hanabusa is one of the few characters in the story who has nothing to do with the hidden (nabari) ninja world. She accepts people at face value, and with a sweet smile, tries to get them to do right by each other. Quick with a hug and an offering of food, she’s the closest thing to a mother figure that poor, sad Yoite might ever see.

( Read more and see the pictures... )

If you’ve read the first couple of volumes of 07-Ghost, you know that there are these bishops that figure prominently in the story. My personal favorite of the bishops is loli-shota Labrador (aka Iluysha). Now most people might think “sexy loli-shota” is an oxymoron, but I’m here to tell you that a man who fights with flowers is seriously smexy in my book.

This image is from episode 16 of the anime, which I highly recommend watching. It doesn’t stray from the manga in a crazy way just to wrap up the season, unlike some anime that will remain unnamed.

 

 

( Read more... )

I don’t normally go for those villain types, but Vincent Nightray of Pandora Hearts has it goin’ on.

 

Let’s look at this picture, from Jun Mochizuki’s art book Pandora Hearts: Odds and Ends. Compare how Vincent is holding his hand out, with how Jack Vessalius (featured here recently) holds his hand out. Jack is saying “come hither” while Vincent is saying “I put a spell on you, sucka.” By his look and his pose, you know Vincent is going to try to mess with you. Maybe he’ll cut your freakin’ head off like he did that stuffed pink bunny rabbit you see at his feet. But you know he’ll do it with a smile, ‘cause that’s the kind of guy he is.

 

 

( Read more, and see Vincent cry... )

 

Can cartoon men really be sexy?

You bet they can. And not just to teenage girls, but also to middle aged whack jobs like me.

Besides this is manga (Japanese comics) we’re talking about. Erase from your mind all images of Homer Simpson and Hagar the Horrible. We’re heading for bishonen-land. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

I only speak one language: English

I'm 42 years old. It is unlikely that I'd ever get good at a second language at this stage in my life, unless I lived in a country where I was forced to speak that second language all the time.

That said, all the manga I am following is in Japanese and all of the stories are ongoing. Each month, a new chapter comes out in Japan. I rely on providers of scans and translations to keep up with the story.

Mind you, I have bought all available volumes in English...but there aren't many.

• Nabari No Ou has 4 volumes out in English; compare that with 13 volumes in Japanese
• Pandora Hearts and Black Butler have 2 volumes out in English, and at least 10 volumes out in Japanese
• 07 Ghost has 3 volumes out in English, and their publisher went belly-up, so there is no hope of more English volumes any times soon

I understand that three of the four manga I am following are licensed, and therefore the publishers of the English language versions of these manga do not want scanlations to be shared around the web. But when the English language story is years behind the Japanese story, and a new volume in English only comes out once every 3-5 months, can they really blame us for wanting to see the scanlations? How else can we keep up with the story and share our thoughts on forums and whatnot? If we are not up to date, the forums are full of spoilers.

I have spent considerable time tracking down raws, translations and scanlations, and figuring out which Twitter, LJ and other forum sites I need to watch for news.

Last night my husband came in and saw me with a printed translation in my hand while perusing a Japanese raw scan on my laptop screen. 

"You're obsessed," he said.

You bet I am.