Forum - View topicRIGHT TURN ONLY!! - We Come to The End
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zensunni
 Posts: 1294 |
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So sad to see RTO come to an end. I have found so many great manga thanks to these capsule reviews that don't take nearly as much time to read as a full review and are grouped together so nicely. I will miss the column. I hope ANN replaces it with something similar...
I heartily agree with the assessment of Whispered Words Vol. 2. It may be my favorite part of the manga, with the scene where Ushio "breaks", as Rebecca so aptly worded it, is one of the finest scenes in manga that I have seen/read. (Not quite to the level of the end of the chapter "Heart of a Bride" from volume 2 of A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori, but a very good visual depiction of the emotions of the character that allows the story to transcend the text.) The realistic approach to homosexuality in this manga is really striking. Having several friends and family members who are LGBT, (mostly L and B) I love to read stories that don't use yuri for titillation and delve into the real emotional and societal issues of the characters. I can't wait for the final volume of the series. I will probably re-read this one over and over as years go by. |
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aisuru113
Posts: 19 |
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Afterschool Charisma sounds like someone lifted the idea of Clone High but without the late 90s/early 2000's filter.
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Oh, man, I'm so upset that RTO!! is over! I have so many thoughts, let me see if I can organize them here...
Firstly, thank you to Rebecca and Carlo for writing this column and reviewing so many great (and less than great) volumes of manga over the years. I've always admired the fortitude of the critics who can read and review half a dozen titles (including omnibus volumes) every other week. On losing a manga column specifically, I'm disappointed as a long time site user and forum participant. I may watch more anime than I read manga (partially because my visual impairment makes it hard for me to read text), but I really enjoy manga more. This website is definitely anime-focused, though, and it doesn't seem to have a whole lot of places to discuss manga on a regular basis. I prefer multiple capsule reviews to occasional full length ones, and it's especially important with manga as their are so many volumes, and they ebb and flow in quality over the course of a series. Would it be possible to get another column for manga capsule reviews, maybe split amoung multiple critics to lessen the burden? Or maybe mini reviews of a few volumes of longer running series (like a review of Fairy Tail 30-32, or One Piece 1000-1,000,000  ), or organize multiple reviews by genre/demographic-- a couple of shoujo one week, shonen the next? And of course, I hope to see reviews of the growing number of digital stuff. In any case, I dearly hope you guys are considering a new regular manga feature and not just more individual volume reviews. Thank you.
As for this final column's individual reviews--I'm really interested in Whispered Words now! I started Afterschool Charisma years ago (remember when Viz digitally simulpubbed Ikki series?) and rediscovered it recently. The last few volumes have been so well done, gripping, suspenseful and well characterized. I thought it was a one volume a year series, so I'm stoked that volume 10 came out so soon after volume 9. I'm concerned about its sudden ending in Japan, though. I hope the author was able to tie up all the lose ends. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2654 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Thanks, everyone. I'll miss writing RTO, but as Zac said, I'll still be writing regular manga reviews for ANN. I am not averse to joining Goodreads if people are interested, though.
Cyclone1993, you can get Dragon Half in Spanish. If it's even half as funny and bizarre as the anime, it'll be worth it! |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Very sad to see this go, it's one of the two columns I actually read and I really don't agree that it had run its course, since Rebecca brought a lot of new stuff to it that was really great, IMO.
Hopefully there is something manga-related in the works, because if I had to choose between anime and manga, manga would probably win out. |
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taster of pork
 Posts: 596 Location: My House |
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It'll be a real shame to see this column go. I've learned about some great manga because of it.
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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Well, I'll express my appreciation for RTO too. I've enjoyed reading the column for a long time as bite-sized reviews are better sometimes. The Digital Spotlight in particular was a nice feature. So few people seem to pay attention to the large amount of manga available legally in digital format.
I hope there are some interesting new columns coming next year. I'll definitely look forward to the full-length manga reviews as I always do at least. 
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thecritter
Posts: 69 Location: Northwest GA |
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Hardly. It was sarcasm born of disgust with yet another favorite feature of mine that's bitten the dust.
No argument there. You can't stay static or you get left behind. And whatever you do, someone is going to question your judgment. It comes with the territory.
I'm thankful to them also. This has been one of the bright spots on ANN. It would be nice to know why it was "very clearly at the end of its run", though. From the outside, it seemed like an excellent, viable column, but there's often too much going on that we outsiders don't have a clue about. There have been many excellent changes over the past year or two, and some that I consider questionable at best. Even with changes I disike, I still think this is the premiere site in the industry, and there's nothing out there that comes even close. |
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scarletrhodelia
 Posts: 34 Location: Pittsburgh, PA |
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I can see why this column is coming to a close. For one thing, the title. I swear every time I'd click on it - or sometimes wouldn't - because I'd forgotten what it covered (is this the game column, or something about road racing?) then go, "Oh, it's the manga column." What does "Right Turn Only!!" even mean? Nevermind, it doesn't matter now.
Then the format itself. I never quite got the purpose of a volume-by-volume review. Most people are either going to read a series or not. I really like the way you are doing the reviews of the new anime series, and combining first impressions after a certain number of episodes. That would work well for manga, when you can still jump into a series at four to six volumes in without getting too far behind. The recommendations of "buy", "borrow", or "skip" didn't make sense to me. Most people aren't going to skip a volume of a series they've been reading, unless it's episodic. I think that those of you who live in major cities are a bit myopic about availability. The recommendation to 'borrow' is meaningless when you live in places where most libraries don't have any manga much less that one particular volume of that not-so-mainstream series. Unless 'borrow' is code for 'read the scanlation'. I suspect that like myself, those who are avid manga readers didn't rely on this column for new titles. I seldom saw anything even in the Undiscovered Gems that I didn't know about yet wanted to read. The titles covered here, known as The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese and The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice, have long been considered must-reads for fujoshi. So good call on closing the column, I look forward to more relevant and useful ones. Thank you Rebecca Silverman, I do enjoy your writing and enthusiasm for manga, and look forward to continuing to read your reviews. Edit several hours later... Wait, I think I just got it - turn the page to the right. Is that it? My head hurts. |
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YotaruVegeta
 Posts: 1061 Location: New York |
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I still don't get the art of From the New World. Is it so hard to sell the story that they turn the females into busty fan-fodder? I watched the anime, and it doesn't look a bit like that show.
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TsunaReborn!
 Posts: 4713 Location: Cheltenham UK |
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Parts of it are still there but it seems that they cut parts of the story just to trow in fan service. I was expecting much more from it but you can't win them all. At least it has a small number of volumes and has a cracking anime series.
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