Forum - View topicRIGHT TURN ONLY!! - Afterschool Hetalia
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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Yay for Basara! Luckily, I have the entire set, because it's almost completely out of print. Though the art style is really alienating, it's truly an epic experience!
Here's another review to further convince more people to check it out! 
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glitteringloke
 Posts: 160 |
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out of print and terribly expensive. i've been searching for it for WEEKS where i don't have to spend 200 bucks on vol. 20 D: |
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Jaymie
Posts: 915 |
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I saw some of the later volumes on sale, so I blind bought them just because I heard it was so bloody rare.
As a testament to that, it's literally impossible to find the first volume, let alone the other ones. Why does Viz have to do this to us? They could at least release a Vizbig edition so we don't have to worry about forking over two thousand dollars just to read the entire thing. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Oh heck yeah Basara! A shoujo series that knows romance cannot be the central plot without the results being a contrived series of obstacles between the main couple (I'm looking at you, Hana Yori Dango). It is epic, which means it does slow down a little in one section as Sarasa is running around all over Japan organizing her allies for their final battle, but it recovers nicely for a very big and emotional finish. The author also gets major points from me for doing research on the often-unacknowledged diversity in Japan; her notes are a great read.
Thank heavens for libraries through which I read the whole thing. Okay, well, most of it, I never did read the two volumes worth of back stories and side stories, and I probably should. Interesting note on how awesome my library was where I lived during grad school: it has Basara volumes 1-4, then I got the rest via interlibrary loan from Arizona. When I lived in Iowa. Anyway, what a dismal bunch of new releases. Nothing horrible, nothing particularly great. No review of 20th Century Boys 12, which I guess I expected since Carlo seems to be an Urasawa fan. 12 is a BIG turning point in the series. |
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sepherest
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I'm jumping on the Basara train as well! It's one of my favorite manga series and I was lucky to pick it up by chance at a used books store that had volumes 1-19, from a recommendation by another manga reader there. I later found the rest at a comic shop (and if I remember they still have all the volumes I didn't snag, so if anyone decides to stop by Sarge's comic shop in CT be sure to look out for them).
It's such a cool series, and all the characters are very interesting, even the villains. I also liked that while there are a lot of characters they continue to appear in and out from different story arcs, and even with all the battles whenever a person gets injured it's actually portrayed pretty realistically - A character with a broken leg is out of commission until he gets crutches after a couple months, and one man who is burned extensively doesn't appear for a number of volumes because he's recuperating. The main complaint against seems to be the artwork though. It does get pretty messy but overall I think it's totally worth looking over. |
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Psycho_Despair
Posts: 376 Location: East of Eden |
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This week I bought the last viz volume of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, funny thing is that I don't have the other volumes, hahahaha.
I went to Barnes & Noble just to look around and then I saw it and I had to pick it up or I won't see it for a long time. Sooooo, I guess viz won't license part 1,2 or 4 of Jojo's. This is truly painful (-_-) Oh yeah I forgot, great reviews Carlo! After hearing about Basara, I now feel like buying BAOH! Wait I don't get it, why won't viz reprint these old licenses into VIZBIG edition it would be a great treat for all of us, huh. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Basara sounds great. I find the art very hard to follow, though (I'm at volume 4). But I heard that the story is worth it, so I'll keep trying to read it. Thank you, library!
My 2011 manga wishes: Apothecarius Argentum gets a license rescue, and Del Rey/Kodansha finishes the print run of Alive: The Final Evolution. Is that too much to ask? |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2678 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Here's a good example of where the anime & manga industries differ. Manga rarely gets re-released over here, and a big reason is more than likely the simple fact that there's no real way to reduce the cost of those books. If a manga was roughly 2000 pages in its original print, a re-print will still be roughly 2000 pages, and it will cost even more if it's done VIZBIG style, where the books themselves are larger than the usual. If a title didn't do well the first time, then why use up even more money re-printing it when the original print didn't do well? In something like the anime industry its easier and cheaper to reprint DVDs later on, give it a new cover, and re-release it. In the manga industry it just ends up costing more money. When it comes to manga it's better to buy it as it comes out, because if it doesn't sell well it won't get any easier to buy it later on. |
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rinmackie
 Posts: 1040 Location: in a van! down by the river! |
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I remember seeing Basara but I didn't find the artwork appealing so I don't think I could get into it.
Lord Geo:Sounds like going digital could solve that reprint problem. |
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Youkai Warrior
 Posts: 505 Location: Sarayashiki |
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I've been wondering about this myself. I've noticed Viz hasn't released any more VIZBIGs. I'm getting the impression that they were too much money to make, as they were bigger than the original volumes and had great paper quality. Viz just released 2-in-1s of Death Note, and they aren't anything like the VIZBIGs. I mean, Viz could have done a VIZBIG edition of them, but they didn't, which makes me think it's simply too much money to make VIZBIGs. I just deal with it. |
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Wiesteria
Posts: 141 |
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It's such a shame that Basara went so unnoticed when it was first released in the US. I didn't get into it until a year ago and I pretty much sacrificed an arm and a leg to collect the volumes, but they were oh so worth it.
I supposed since Basara didn't do so well, there isn't much chance for 7 Seeds to get picked up? IMO, 7 Seeds is even more epic than Basara is and that's really saying something. I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I would love to get Basara, but Viz seems to like ignoring the pleas of fans to either run more copies of volumes 19 and 20 or to just republish it in Big Edition (but Hot Gimmick *shakes fist* gets the Big treatment, life is just so unfair)
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Thanks for the reality check on reprinting manga. *Sigh* as someone who can barly afford to buy any manga, it's hard to hear that some really awesome classics will go out of print, be expunged from the libraries when they get "old" or tattered, and never be read.
I'm really glad that NYC's libraries are recording that the top 4 checked-out YA titles are manga! Now, how do we get those kids to pick up "Please Save My Earth,""Basara," and "Planetes" before they fade into obscurity entirely? How can you convince teens that their are manga besides the "top three" Shonen Jump titles that can rock their world? I want to give YA librarians a crash course in manga appreciation and recommendation! (There are some really good ones out there, like Robin Brenner, and if you ever get a chance to visit the main branch of the Brookline, MA library system, you'll see what a difference an informed librarian makes. Their manga (and anime) selection is...wow! It's like a con, but everything is free!)
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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There's a shop near me selling most of Basara for £2 each including 20... Shame I have no money to buy it D:
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jennye
 Posts: 21 |
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Basara sounds like something I could definitely go for. *adds it to her to-read list* I love a good epic with depth and real plot and character development. And I've stuck with a number of series that were hard on my eyes but so worth it for the story and characters (Trigun!), so I'm totally willing to give it a try. My library system is pretty awesome, but I just checked and we don't own it, and since it's out of print, we can't buy it. Interlibrary loan is the best thing since sliced bread...or electric kettles...or chocolate-covered espresso beans!
That's awesome! Ours is getting there.... *daydreams about bottomless budgets and endless shelf space* I wonder if I would pass out from over-exposure to cute if I read Chi's Sweet Home? Might have to risk it. I've only read the first volume of Afterschool Charisma (I'm on hold at the library for the next one) and found the concept intriguing. Hopefully, it won't lose that for more than a hiccough here and there as the series goes along. *crosses fingers* |
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