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Ashen Phoenix
Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2953
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 12:35 pm
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Nice to know VK is worth sticking with - I was toying with selling my copies of the early volumes and dropping the series - and that Gangsta is holding strong despite its minor hiccups and flaws.
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prime_pm
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2375
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 12:51 pm
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Been enjoying Wolfsmund, a favorite of mine. I just wished they used some more authentic medieval dialogue in its translation. Or at least make them sound German or Swedish. Like Scheiße or Herr.
I'm German, so this gets to me especially.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2659
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 1:52 pm
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prime_pm, I agree, that'd be great - at times the dialogue feels too modern for my taste, especially given the period detail in the art. Still a great series, though!
Ashen Phoenix, I actually did drop VK for a while, before I started writing for ANN. This volume (and the previous one) made me glad I picked it back up, though. I think my biggest problem with the middle was that Yuki herself seemed so much less than she had been at the start, and now I feel like she's returning to character.
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El-ahrairah
Joined: 09 May 2013
Posts: 21
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 9:00 pm
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I didn’t really like Vampire Knight #18 very much, I thought it was lame. In fact, I thought the entire finale third of the story was worse then what had come before.
I LOVED Vampire Knight, I still love it. It was my favorite manga for five years, but the ending left me feeling pretty cold. The way it all fell apart at the end was just awful to watch. I can’t even read the early (and still much beloved) parts of the manga anymore, knowing how it all ends. Just looking at the books, even just thinking about reading them makes me feel sick to my stomach.
It’s my favorite manga in the whole world, and I can’t even read it anymore.
Yuki going back to her previous look and characterization was apt, since as the entire story seemingly fell into a time warp. The story felt like it was going backwards; it was as if every meaningful gain (both character and plot wise) had been lost by the end. Hino spent 19 volumes building a big, complex, dark and beautiful world, and then she threw in all out the window.
And no, it has nothing to do with shipping. I was fond of Yuki/Zero and Yuki/Kaname, although it didn’t really feel as if the story had wrapped up either pairing very well.
Wow, look at that rant. I guess I’ve been bottling up my feelings about this manga for awhile now, huh.
No Way! He’s My Husband? My life, Ten years Later- sound good and has a really bad title. I wish it wasn’t so, but it’s getting hard to find consensual smut.
Sometimes I wonder if it’ll get to the point where fully consensual sex in manga will get so rare that it’ll become a fetish and then they’ll start making manga to pander to people who are Into That Sort Of Thing. Actually, I’m not sure I’d mind that much, consensual fetish manga sounds a lot better then what we’re getting nowadays.
Anyways I really need to be in the right mood to read that kind of manga. *Ahem*
Also, when first I saw the cover art for Chronicles of the Grim Peddler, I thought it was a weirdly subdued cover for an Alice in the Country of etc. Heh.
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rinmackie
Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 9:39 pm
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I have to admit my feelings about VK are mixed. The beginning was very promising but in the end, the potential was wasted. Even though my ship won, I was a Zero/Yuuki fan, the victory seemed hollow, since it was blatantly obvious that the other guy was still number one in her heart but she got the other one because he was no longer available.
Because of that, I don't feel that Yuuki really evolved as a character. Also, it seemed obvious to me that the ending was rushed; there were a lot of plot holes, as well. The bonus chapter tries to fill them in but it was a letdown for me since I was hoping to see Yuuki and Zero having a good life together but instead we were constantly reminded of who Yuuki really loved and that the guy she got was to her, a consolation prize.
But Vampire Knight is still better that Twilight in my opinion, however it could have been much better. Overall, it's a good story but that ending was just so disappointing.
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tuxedocat
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 10:06 pm
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Ah. So Vampire Knight ended. hmmm.
I remember dropping the series because it just (1)seemed like it was meandering, and (2)the fandom surrounding the various "ships" were downright venomous.
Doesn't sound like either side got what they wanted. Maybe the mangaka was (wisely) afraid of her fans.
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Jaymie
Joined: 18 Jun 2009
Posts: 915
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 10:07 pm
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I didn't read VK for the ships, and I personally thought the ending was absolutely beautiful. The story fell apart a bit during the last arc, but Hino did a good job of salvaging the core parts and making the story mean something in the end. The whole redemption, second-chance aspect of Kaname's story was tear-jerking. He gave up on himself, but Yuki saw the good in him and sacrificed herself to save him. I think a lot of people were displeased with the ending because they were biased against Kaname to begin with tbh.
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sugarwater
Joined: 01 Sep 2012
Posts: 48
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 10:46 pm
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tuxedocat: I think you got the phrasing right, VK really did meander. It ended up stumbling to a conclusion, but by then so much of it had been lost to volume after volume of subplot mediocrity and dipping characterization.
Re GANGSTA. review: I'm not really sure how you can spell a character's name incorrectly throughout an entire review when it's placed directly below a blurb with the correct spelling. Also do all Latin words sound like intestinal diseases to the reviewer, or is it just "eragastulum" that has that honor?
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belvadeer
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Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 10:47 pm
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Wow, only one volume of Grim Peddler was ever translated to English? That is disappointing. It sounds interesting. I hope this fate doesn't befall the Dorothy of Oz manhwa, whose fifth volume has yet to surface in Korea.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2659
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 7:05 am
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Actually, VK has one more volume to go. This is the second to last.
sugarwater wrote: |
Also do all Latin words sound like intestinal diseases to the reviewer, or is it just "eragastulum" that has that honor? |
Just that one, although I am also not fond of the word "haruspex."
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marie-antoinette
Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 8:25 am
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I haven't read vol 18 yet but I definitely agree that the series found its legs again in the last volume or two. It's not quite as good as the beginning but it's still very enjoyable and one of my all-time favourite series.
I actually did spoil myself and read about the ending when it was first published in Japan, so I know what's going to happen, but I am excited to see how exactly it does happen.
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katscradle
Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
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Posted: Thu May 08, 2014 3:14 pm
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Gold Pollen was one of my favourite purchases last year. It was another reason I was sad PictureBox stopped publishing. It would have been a treat to see other artists get the deluxe treatment for the Masters of Alternative Manga series.
And I have read Gold Pollen a couple of times again since buying it...lol.
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