Forum - View topicWhat are you reading right now? Why?
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crosswithyou
Posts: 2895 Location: California |
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I am now through 6 volumes of Barakamon. Good stuff. It's nice to see how Handa and the villagers' relationships have grown. Naru is as adorable as ever.
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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My library had Terra Formars v1 in pretty early for them (and in stock! How strange!) So yeah, rented that. Debating if I will buy it or not, that was, in a word, utterly bizarre. First off, I like insects, but those who do not will find this incredibly squeamish for them to read on so many levels. I, of course, didn't even read a plot synopsis before going in. So yeah, good things bugs don't bother me in the least and I adored them when I was a kid, any book on insects made me damn happy! But volume 2 appears that it's going to start a new plot line because spoiler[almost everyone dies in volume 1, like Battle Royale on steroids.]. Actually, reading the book description on Right Stuf, it's going to start 20 years after the first volume.
But yeah, weird premise, really really weird. But for insect lovers, that part was really damn awesome. |
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Surrender Artist
Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I have always liked arthropods, if you include spiders while excluding bees or wasps, but had disregarded Terra Formars because it looked like it would be 'NON-STOP ACKSHUN!' with ridiculous, perhaps contrived superpowers that wouldn't be interesting or fun enough for me to wink past the 'science', especially not at length. I wondering how well it does with characterization and other things outside of the oddity and shock of its contents that might hook me for the long term. Do you have any comment on it being, as Zac Bertschy described it during the ANNCast Live at Anime Expo 2014, "the most racist thing ever?" I believe that the allegation comes from the evolved cockroaches bearing an unfortunate resemblance to caricatures of blacks, but I have to concede that such a resemblance hadn't even occurred to me until I read somebody mention it. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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^Yeah, that whole racist thing didn't really occur to me until it was mentioned either and I squinted my eyes. First off, they're like, 4 feet taller than humans. No human is that tall. Second, I think attention was made to have their "skin" look rather roach like. To me, that did not look like human skin, but more like in FMA whenever Greed made super hard skin.
Really though, I'd like to hear an opinion from the group that is supposed to be offended by this. Is there really any point in being offended on someone else's behalf when they themselves aren't offended? I hate it when people do that so so much. |
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One-Eye
Posts: 2265 |
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But isn't it potentially racist on more than one level though? I mean there is the whole lets go to another continent (world) and enslave/wipeout the indigenous population thing going on there. And the characters seem to be all ok with that idea. Is it just being overlooked by readers because the population is based on roaches, so therefore its ok to hate them and kill them? And yea, the life forms unfortunately look visually like caricatures of people of African ancestry. So I can definitely understand Zac going there and calling it racist. I mean it makes me pause and wonder about where the mangaka is coming from. Is he aware of it? Is it unintentional or does it reflect something of his character (unconscious or not)? Maybe its too soon to tell yet? I wasn't offended by it at the same degree as Zac seemed to be on the podcast (and it was a very short off-hand remark), but I am a little troubled by what I read.
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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But here's the thing, the kids that went to that planet were under the impression that they were exterminating your normal looking cockroaches. They had no idea they had evolved and I recall that their first reaction wasn't to attack. The main dude went over and said "Hi" even. They were taken by surprise, but they were attacked first, and then it was an all out fight. The characters themselves didn't really go to the planet for the intent purpose of wiping out a race of humanoids. I think hating them after you came in peace and were all like "Hey, we had no clue you guys were here, this is awkward...", only to get your neck bent is justified. Yes, spoiler[the higher ups knew] and that makes them horrible human beings. But horrible human beings do exist, I don't see the point in pretending racism isn't real. But while I personally don't think the manga is horrifically racist, I'm not about to get offended or... anti-offended I guess? without some sort of input from the group it's supposedly offending. Wether they are or are not offended, it's not up to me to be offended on their behalf. I do think the implied skin tone is an issue here though, I doubt anyone would blink twice if they were green or purple or blue or something. I think they're making an anime of it, so they should definitely be careful on the skin tone. Of course, there's really not a whole lot of black people in Japan to offend in the first place, so it's probably not high up on their mind. Still, if that anime came over here, I wouldn't be shocked if they went Mr. Popo on it. |
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One-Eye
Posts: 2265 |
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Ok there's a couple things here, so I'll first tackle this one. spoiler[The higher ups knew] and so what was the response to spoiler[the first crew getting annihilated besides sending a second crew]? In this case being attacked first means that you don't try to figure out why you are being attacked (perhaps like certain species of insects they are very territorial?). It means you don't try to figure out a way to communicate with them, it means you don't try to study them from a distance (spoiler[they have the tech to make modifications to humans, but spy satellites are out?]) like a scientist might do, it means you ignore that they are perhaps an intelligent species maybe with their own culture (spoiler[they used clubs so they are tool using, displayed organization and even used human weapons]). No, instead you go there to kill them and clear the land of an indigenous population for the purpose of taking it from them? Smells like colonialism. Meanwhile, its all kind of shedding manly tears and shaking your fist as to how these life forms shouldn't underestimate humans? I think that this could be interpreted as a kind of a justification for genocide going on there based on hatred and differences between species. Now to be fair, like I said previously it maybe a little early to get a complete picture here. Maybe these prejudices/racist/species hating is the author's point? This might be a story with racist qualities or it might be a story about racism. It would be interesting if its the later and disappointing if its the former.
Ok, there's more than one thing going on with what you said here. First, let me be clear that I'm not telling you how you should feel or that you are wrong in any way with your reaction to the manga. As I said above I think its still a little early to tell. I think there are some people out there that get offended as you put it for others and usually they get offended by everything as well which can be a little much. And I don't think you should be offended just because they are, especially if you don't see it as offensive or are not sure if it is. However, I think that's a separate thing from whether racism is wrong and whether we should be troubled by it even if its towards another group or even a fictitious group...like these bugs? I mean even if we leave out that some designs could be interpreted as looking like caricatures of a group of people the manga is still showing an attempt to kill a group of living creatures in order to take some land and it seems to be justifying it.
I totally agree and I think that the skin tone and design of the bugs is problematic and may send us looking for racism and interpreting things that way when perhaps it wasn't the intention. I don't know the mangaka and maybe he's actually a real peace loving dude. On the other hand maybe not. There's also overt racism and implied racism/prejudice. The second one can be a tricky thing. It would be an interesting to ask Zac to stop by and share his opinions since his comment is what started these posts. As far as the manga goes my initial impression is that it wants to be like Gantz. How that will turn out I don't know. Its still early, we will see where this is going. |
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Surrender Artist
Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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In a roundabout way, that's all making Terra Formars more interesting to me than it might otherwise have been, although I think I'll demure at reading it unless something that really catches my curiosity comes out of it. So many other things in the queue...
Look ma! I spelled queue correctly without autocorrect or nothin'. Seriously, that damned word, it looks like something a lazy hack fantasy writer would name an 'exotic' love interest's parrot.
Heh, heh, oh my. Don't be worried by any means. I just wanted to make sure that I'd taken notice of your interest. I probably would've written something regardless. Besides, I need reasons to do things other than creep around the subscriber forums. |
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thebeats42
Posts: 43 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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Kimi no Sei.
I was looking for a manga that's like Koe no Katachi and someone recommended this manga. |
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crosswithyou
Posts: 2895 Location: California |
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Read Ace of Diamond vol.1, Shingeki no Kyojin - Kuinaki Sentaku vol.2, and just started Haikyuu! vol.12.
One of the Ace of Diamond mobile websites put up the first 7 volumes for free until the end of the month so I have to read all of those by then. Kuinaki Sentaku ended as I expected with spoiler[Levi's two companions dying.] Looking forward to the upcoming OADs. I wonder if they will be using the Aria style or Isayama's. I guess they should be going with Aria's though. Am through the first two chapters of the latest volume of Haikyuu!. Take chan looked so cool during his little motivation speech at the beginning of the match and we're seeing the results of Karasuno's training. |
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Arishok
Posts: 1 |
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Reading The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer.
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lys
Posts: 1014 Location: mitten-state |
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I hope you'll also pick it up in November when SevenSeas releases the v1-2 omnibus in English :) |
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crosswithyou
Posts: 2895 Location: California |
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Finished Haikyuu! vol.12 and am through 4 volumes of Ace of Diamond.
Man, I really want to buy the Ace of Diamond manga but it's already over 30 volumes long. No space. T___T |
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emototoro
Posts: 2 |
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Toukyou kushu while waiting for other manga to get released.But It has been very boring recently especially since the politics was mix in
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Lain'sHairline
Posts: 158 Location: Dallas, TX |
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Ao No Exorcist is one because it's great and it's anime didn't do it justice.
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