Forum - View topicREVIEW: Absolute Boyfriend GN 1
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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A friend showed me some scanlations of the first chapters of this a while back. It was okay, and amusing, but it really is just your typical shoujo fare. It'd be nice sometime to see something shoujo that manages to really get beyond the genre cliches, if not actually comparing to shounen manga for sheer variety...
By the way, you missed the 'y' in "Ayashi no Ceres". |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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I'm a big Yuu Watase fan, but this is probably my least favorite of her series. The series is alright, but nowhere near Ayashi no Ceres (my personal favorite of Watase's series) or Fushigi Yuugi.
Yuu Watse is one of my favorite manga-ka, but I agree that she needs a new lead character design. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15585 |
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Yeah, I know. Me defending any shoujo title would give people on here heart attacks, but here goes.
How is she shallow? Because she wants some romance in her life?
I think you're confusing Riiko for her "friends".
That's the point. It's a role-reversal.
Because the women in harem anime/manga never get jealous enough to beat up people.  Anyway, Night's a machine who can't think clearly, because he's still learning.
I'm guessing they haven't sued, because they're still embarassed about Chobits. 
Since you consider it a juvenile fantasy, I'm not sure why you expected the characters to be deep.
I think Soshi cares too much about Riiko to ruin the friendship. I'd imagine him finding someone else by the end of the story. Anyway, first you're trashing Riiko for being "shallow", and now you're trashing Watase for setting up a potential scenario where Riiko does the "right" thing and goes for Soshi. Obviously, she's not as dense as you claim. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15585 |
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I don't love it, but I enjoy it for what it is. There are far crappier titles than AB. Like that Goth manga.
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jgreen
 Posts: 1325 Location: St. Louis, MO |
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I'm with Gatsu, I actually like "Absolute Boyfriend." I'd say it's second behind "Nana" as best title in "Shojo Beat". I wouldn't give it an A, but probably a solid B or B+.
And Watase's art has gotten a lot sharper and stronger since the early days of "Fushigi Yuugi". I don't think it's as obvious in "Absolute Boyfriend", but I was surprised by how different "Imadoki" looked. Which was created first, incidentally...."Imadoki" or "AB"? |
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hanachan01
 Posts: 504 |
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Ok, I'm not a huge Yuu Watase fan, but I did love Alice 19th, and Fushigi Yugi up to vol. 9 (spoiler[Why did they have to kill Nuriko?! I love him....yes, the drag queen.] So? I love Nuriko!), and I hope to check out Ayashi no Ceres. However, Absolute Boyfriend reminds me a lot of something I read a few months ago by Clamp....yes, Chobits.
Yuu Watase to me is the shojo manga equivelent to Rumiko Takahashi. They both can draw, and most of the time, the ideas for their stories are unique. However, after the first volume or two, the story becomes very repetitive and boring. Also, they tend to borrow character designs and personalities from their other manga (If you pay attetion, Ranma and Akane and InuYasha and Kagome's relationships and charcterization are the same. Also, I agree that all of Watase's leads after FuYu look like Tamahome). And I'm for the idea of Clamp suing Watase. As it's been said, AB is Chobits with gender-reversal. And it's less ecchi. [edit - spoiler tags added -b] |
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Jadress
 Posts: 807 Location: Seattle. It purdy and nerdy! |
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Uhh, Hanachan, you better stick some spoiler tags over your post on the double!! That could really ruin the story for someone.
Anyway, I suppose I'm a bit of a shameless Watase fan, since Fushigi Yuugi was one of my gateway drug anime, and favorite series. I liked Ceres too, but haven't finished reading it yet. Her art style has gotten a lot cleaner and more refined over the years, but it's true that her character designs still lack a lot of variety. Despite that, I really love her art style.. the characters just look very appealing to me, but it would be nice to get some new faces in there. I've been looking forward to reading AB, even if it's just shameless girl-porn. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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She's shallow because she only goes after really hot guys. The manga actually goes out of its way to establish her character this way. That is what most people call 'shallow'. The fact that this role-reversal (or that shonen harem romance heroines punch out the lead males all the time) is done "on purpose" does not make it OK to rely on so many cliches. "Oh, it's a GIRL instead of a GUY!" is not clever, new or interesting. It's just a lame gimmick. I didn't expect Absolute Boyfriend to be a juvenile fantasy, but it was. I do expect shojo characters to have more than one dimension. The genre thrives on character development. Read Nana for an example of what shojo CAN be. Absolute Boyfriend is a great example of what shojo is when the author doesn't try very hard and simply relies on stale cliches. |
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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Wasn't particualry impressed with AB also, and I usually like Watase's stuff. The art does deserve higher than a C though.
...which is actually the opposite route many titles seem to take, as I can't count how many titles I've read with nothing but one dimentional characters and melodrama. Nana has melodrama (sometimes too much), but it backs it up with good characters and writing. |
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Rah-Rah
Posts: 93 Location: Atlanta,GA |
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 . I just think that you were expecting too much out of this title, because, like most shoujo, it is just female escapesit fantasy .
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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Go read it ASAP. It is, in my opinion, Watase's best work. The last volume (14) was just released.
Which is why I didn't expect much from this title.
I'd say 90%, perhaps more, of shoujo heroines are like this. Anime and manga heroes/heroines will never be average or ugly (unless the art is just bad) because average and ugly doesn't sell. When is the last time you saw an intentionally average or ugly main character in TV or movies? |
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ashram12
Posts: 86 |
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I have only read the first chapter of AB when I bought an issue of Shoujo Beat. I'm a bit too old for shojo manga now, and I'm kinda bummed I didn't have that much manga selection when I was a teen. I didn't care much for the story, and I kept on wondering what a more perverted mangaka could have done with the premise. Come to think of it, it's a great doujinshi premise.
But anyway, I read the review and thought it raised certain issues that I had also noticed. First of all I love Fushigi Yugi, I was a big Hotohori and Nakago fan girl. But I haven't been enthralled with any other work by Watase (and was really disappointed by Ayashi no Ceres). One of the biggest problems I have with a lot of her work after Fushigi Yugi is that the characters all looked derivatives of Fushigi Yugi characters. I don't know whether she does it on purpose or whether she's not a good enough artist to draw different looking characters. But then again, I think a lot of shojo mangaka have that problem. CLAMP recycles pretty often the "looks like a little girl but is actually a woman" character. My personal take on it is that most of these mangakas haven't taken enough drawing lessons and rely on the same old formulas that have served them well before instead of trying something different. Let's be honest, a lot of manga is formulaic, not just story-wise but also the art (with the big eyed characters). If you get the formula down, you get your manga published. And the sad thing is you don't need to be talented artist to get the formula. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15585 |
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Zac:
Except for CLAMP, most shojo manga has "really hot guys". (TM) Most of the time they're prettier than the girls. Hell, no nerd who looked like Soshi in real life would ever have trouble finding chicks. But except for Night, even Soshi looks better than the guys she ends up with, so I don't think she's in it for the looks alone. She's just lonely, and looking for whoever's available.
Why is it lame to observe objectification from a female point of view?
I'd probably take the hint with the title.
Then read Paradise Kiss, and see what shojo shouldn't be. If you want to talk shallow, how about a series where a girl gives up school to become a model? |
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fangirl
Posts: 7 |
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I have to admit: I was pretty disapointed with this title. I guess I expected more than I should have, but there are titles much worse than Absolute Boyfriend out there, so I guess this story isn't so bad if you look at it that way. I do agree that Watase's character designs have got to change, though.
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VespaChick
 Posts: 15 |
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And the Fushigi Yuugi characters look derivitive of Shishunki Miman Okotowari and so on. I think going into a Watase comic it's best to assume the characters are all going to look the same, at least then you'll end up being pleasantly surprised if they don't instead of dissapointed when they do. Everyone in any given Takahashi work looks the same too, even characters in the same series just switch hairstyles to become a new character, so at least Watase isn't the only mangaka guilty of this. |
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