Forum - View topicREVIEW: My Bad! GN
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KENZICHI
 Posts: 1118 |
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The cover looks so cute! But ohhhh did your summary turn me off lol. I don't think there'll be a chance I'll pick this up unless it's just to joke around w/ my friends at the book store.
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poonk
 Posts: 1490 Location: In the Library with Philip |
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So does the fact that this has a review now mean that my copy will be arriving soon?
 Actually, I like Rize Shinba's (sadly incomplete) Mister Mistress series which is why I preordered this blind. I wonder if this is an earlier work of hers, or maybe it's just a matter of different tastes artwise (or both). Guess I'll have to just wait and see.
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Wow.
I just finished this one today & found it much more entertaining. Perhaps the reviewer was in a really bad mood. This is BL. BL rarely RARELY is reality-based. Many times the premise is as thin as rice paper. Situation comedies have been based on more solid ground. There are romantic stories about pretty things. Really, so many people insist yaoi is just hentai, but the guys are not really reduced to "XXX-dumpsters" or mindless eye-crossing as they discover how much they enjoy sex. I get a tad uncomfortable with the small amount of demeaning talk ("You're so dirty"-sort of stuff) that does make it into yaoi but it never really gets too demeaning because in the world of BL fantasy, bishonen are pretty things to be appreciated. This one doesn't get explicit as I recall. My Bad is fun fluff. Not as fun as Mr. Mistress, but enjoyable if you just want to read a story here & there. (Been working on it for a week or 2 actually reading a story, then another book which is why I really can't remember if the first stories were explicit). I really liked the political sons story. The mailman one was different & not anywhere as creepy as that housewife who tried to have her way with Edward in Edward Scissorhands you have to admit. Same goes for the chopsticks bit. Because the boy is so young, I didn't even see it as bad as Happosai running thru town stealing underwear. (Come on. Happosai's what-100? He's funny, but really creepy if you think about it). Do we want to get into Master Roshi & Bulma? He's like 500, isn't he? She was 15 or 16? I mean, hell, isn't it a rule for all shonen shows that last more than a season & have a mixed cast to include a panty thief? There sure seem to have been many. I have fond memories of the day when the geek hero falling face-first intp the D-cups of the girl he is residing with though they aren't a couple (yet) was the norm for jiggle My Bad is not for someone looking for something solid. This is something to read, smile, & move on. |
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PrettyKitty$$$$$
 Posts: 119 |
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That's fine. But some of us are looking for something solid. I like BL, but if you read a lot of the stuff, you tend to lose patience for the more cliche elements. I've found anthologies in particular are really prone to relying on them since there isn't enough pages to actually develop a story. For me in particular, I get tired of disposable entertainment. I don't want to read, smile, and move on. I want something that will stick with me and I will remember later. As for Rize Shinba, I liked Mister Mistress. I thought it was quite funny and definitely memorable. Intriguing Secrets was just Ok. I haven't read My Girlfriends a Geek. But, based on this review, I know I'd also be disappointed with My Bad. |
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CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Yeah, I've come across some of you on the net which is why I phrased it the way I did.
So far I've managed to have whatever's been released by the American companies. I assume that means I read a lot of yaoi. I just never needed to justify my hobby. I read to relax. Est Em is interesting, yes, but I doubt I could just read stuff like that all the time. I see it as art (in fact, I have over 100 artbooks-Minekura, Yamane, Kyo Kara Maoh, etc). If it makes me smile, makes me "ahh" at a nicely drawn panel, or makes me think about the story, I'm cool with it. I like Tateno's art, but I really have never found her stories all that complex or even really creative. Don't care. Not what I want out of her.
See, I never got into that "Comic books as literature" mentality. They're still as much art as story for me. I've always found the standard literature we all grow up reading (books, plays, essays) provide far more food for thought. Just finished Intriguing Secrets also. Enjoyed that. My Bad feels like those one shot stories the magazines put in to fill out each volume. I find the stuff I leave in my book bag the longest often turn out to be better than the stuff I read as soon as I get it. (I've often finished a book only to wonder why I carried it around for a month before reading). But I really can't say out of the 1000 or so volumes of yaoi I possess that all that many can compare with mainstream titles. They're a niche of a niche, but if I were to name my top 10 best reads, I doubt any would be yaoi. I buy it because it consistantly delivers a smile or a appreciative art "ah". It lacks the female characters that drive me crazy. |
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PrettyKitty$$$$$
Posts: 119 |
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That's not where I'm coming from at all. I don't think something has to have a deep meaning or be literature with a capital L to be worthwhile. What I'm looking for is something well developed and memorable, doesn't have to be meaningful, just entertaining. For example, School Rumble is a silly high school romantic comedy, not deep entertainment by any means, and even though it's been years since I've seen it, I still remember the plot and all the characters, including their names. On the other hand, if I've read something and forgotten the plot and characters scarecly an hour after I've finished reading it, that's a bad sign. That's where a lot of these anthologies fall for me and why I've been disappointed with so many of them. |
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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PrettyKitty, don't lay all the blame on just BL cliches, some of these are the pitfalls of any romance one-shots. I read way more het ones, and many do start to blend together; I think to myself, "Didn't I read this exact same scenario just the other day?"
if intense romance requires good character development (which I believe it does), it's very difficult to do that in what's basically a short story format. True, some are able to do it and they're awesome. But as Lissa implied with her discussion of the final story, sometimes the best route is to not take yourself too seriously, acknowledge that your story is ridiculous, but wink at the audience and encourage them to just go with it. |
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VEGANDARAE
Posts: 57 |
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and I doubt there ever will exist a BL/shounen-ai/yaoi that could EVER be considered solid/good read. All of them are just unrealistic fantasies only good for girls to masturbate to.
It doesn't surprise me anymore in this day and age. |
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CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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Realistically, considering the industry, it's miraculous there are any really incredible reads out there. Overall manga is there to make money & on a great level a lot of it is supposed to be just mindless entertainment not unlike our TV shows. Any given season the gems shine amid all the dross filling the airwaves to fill the space between commercials. Manga is usually written to sell magazines filled with ads that make the publisher money. I've always heard the average person reading manga in Japan sees it as pretty disposable-like reading the morning paper on the subway into work everyday. Otaku are supposed to be seen as somewhat unusual-freaks or defective. It's not the Trekkie image here.
BL in particular as a shojo genre can run to fluff. Since I want to laugh after 8 hrs of work, that's what I prefer to read. Look at the light Harlequin Romance novels have held in the past-dreck shoveled out for eagar romance novel fans to inhale & move on to the next. I have heard jokes about there only being 6 different Harlequin plots. |
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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That's not right. Most manga magazines - including the big ones - are published with the expectation that they'll not do much better than break even (and some even sell at a loss for years at a time). The anthology mags are, essentially, advertising for the collected volumes and it's those collected volumes that make the real money. |
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CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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The ads still help cover expenses.
It's the same for our TV. The companies look to the syndication &/or the dvd sales to make money because not every show makes money when aired on tv. Same for movies. Point is, most manga isn't written to be high art. It's a product to make money. |
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