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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Moon Child




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Joined: 19 Jun 2012
Posts: 83
PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 2:40 pm Reply with quote
Cool! I was hoping you would write about this. I was impressed by the comfortable combination of bishies and horror imagery in the art style, and as a male, I wasn't too disturbed by the shota vibes because they took a more humorous approach to it rather than a fetishistic one. It was depressing how the end basically said that spoiler[in our world, the prophecy wasn't fulfilled], but I still loved the manga. Definitely want to read her other works. And thankfully the American release volumes are pretty cheap compared to some other OOP old school shojo releases. I read the series through my library (where the volumes were in such perfect condition that I have to assume I was the first person to read them), but it's definitely on my To Buy list.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7358
PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:01 pm Reply with quote
I don't know why, but Moon Child simply wasn't for me. I think way too many plot twists came too close together for me to be able to swallow them all. I wasn't terribly invested in most of the characters either (though I do recall liking Rita). And through the twists, I sometimes found the story hard to follow. So I kind of ended my read of it scratching my head, wondering what exactly, if anything, I got out of it. And I didn't find the romance shojo-cracktastic so much as oddly confusing, so that didn't quite work for me either.

But I have seen the anime adaptation of Himitsu: Top Secret and really enjoyed it and except for "grandma", I do like her art a lot, so I'm not counting her out yet and Kaguyahime sounds really interesting and I'd love to see it over here (buuuut, being a 27 volume 90s scifi shojo does pose problems to it coming out over here ever). I think I also read a couple of her one-shots, which were ok, so I'd give her a chance if more came over.
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musouka



Joined: 09 Sep 2003
Posts: 718
PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:23 pm Reply with quote
My favorite Shimizu manga will probably always be her "Jack and Elena" series, which is about two robots grappling with immortality and love.

Jack starts out a robot that doesn't even know he's a robot. Elena (technically genderless, but identifies as and is referred to with male pronouns) fell in love with his human master and tries to commit suicide every year on the anniversary of his death. Their paths cross when Jack sees one of these suicide attempts and tries to help, only for Elena to realize that Jack's face was based on his old owner's...

(Now that I think about it, I believe one of the extra side stories in Moon Child is a Jack and Elena short about them watching a horror movie.)

I'm still sort of surprised Moon Child was published here. As the article goes into, there's a lot of sort of messed up stuff going on past the lovely artwork. Shimizu has some of the most gorgeous art in the business, but her stories always deal with some pretty dark stuff, even when it's treading lightly. (One of the Jack solo stories is about cannibalism, for example.)
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2498
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:58 pm Reply with quote
WHAT?! This is actually licensed?! Wow! I can't believe I didn't know this until just now! And what a surprise, it's in stock on Amazon and Half.com! (I'd love to buy them but my mom doesn't want me buying more books with her credit card for now. I spent too much on Pokemon Special and some textbooks for school) Anyway, I read a couple chapters of this online, but I haven't found time to read more of it because of school. To be honest, I never understood the premise until now. Thanks for clearing it up, because now it makes me want to read it even more! But I need to prioritize and focus more on school, because it's seriously driving me up the wall. I wonder if my school's library can get it in stock?
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Joe Carpenter



Joined: 29 Oct 2011
Posts: 503
PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2013 7:18 pm Reply with quote
You can't-a have-a de Mango!
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Apashi





PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:03 pm Reply with quote
Oh my gosh! This is so weird, I just read the 1st volume I got at a used bookstore recently. Did not expect to see a review of something so random. 0.o
I'm going to be honest, I disliked the manga. I didn't hate it, the art is wonderful and it had good shoujo vibes, but I very much disliked it. I'm only keeping it because "Moon Child" is also the title of one of my favorite songs (King Crimson anyone? =P). I thought there was way too much going on to follow right off the bat. There were like 4 different important story lines! And they were so random. One is a guy working to make ends meet as a pro ballerina (what? xD) and another has aliens in a distant galaxy. And then there are psychic moon people? Who kind of all look like little boys? And mermaids that migrate through space? By the time the freaky grandma showed up I think my head was ready to explode. Not only was it too much to take in, it was just too weird!
But anyway, that's just my opinion. I didn't realize it was 13 volumes. For some reason I thought it was only 2. Maybe it evens out later. Hm.
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Graceful Nanami



Joined: 24 Aug 2011
Posts: 303
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Oct 06, 2013 5:50 am Reply with quote
Ah, Moon Child. I read you so long ago. You're so strange and beautiful and messy. It really has a lot of different flavors to it but not everyone will like the taste. MC also really requires the reader to use their brain, too.

Shimizu is a genius but MC is kind of all over the place and is definitely a love it or hate it manga. I love it but it isn't as memorable as some of her other works which I wish CMX had gotten to as well before they fizzled out. I miss you CMX. You brought over some of the best of the old and i thank you for that.
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