Manga First Impressions - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Welcome back!

The manga we have today is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

My friends are huge Zelda fans. I would like to be -- I've played a moderate amount of Link's Awakening for the Switch, A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS, and Breath of the Wild, but I haven't completed any of them and I'm terrible a video games. It's not that I didn't like them, but I get frustrated with singleplayer games if they're too challenging and I find my attention wandering... I just generally prefer reading. 

However, I still really like the world of Hyrule and the characters inhabiting it, so I figured maybe I'd give it a chance in a medium I really enjoy and like to collect. 

And... well...

It's actually not bad! 

I expected it to be really mediocre. And I'm not gonna say it's flawless or anything like that (I also won't pretend to know anything about the story of the game). But I wasn't bored at all while reading it, which is a huge compliment for virtually anything. 

The story is very straightforward -- as the back of the book puts it, "An evil menace is trying to find Midna, princess of the Twilight Realm, and the fragments of the Shadow Crystal to gain the power to rule over the Twilight Realm and the World of Light." This leads to a "call to adventure," as I'd put it, at the end of the volume; throwing our hero Link back into a fight he admits he'd previously run away from to protect the people of his village. Oh, and he also turns into a wolf. 

But the most shocking thing about this manga is that LINK TALKS!

And it actually has very enjoyable art -- 

There's a rule among some manga collectors known as the "Rule of Three," which is to say that a new series gets three volumes to impress you. Sometimes I give a series far more than three even if I think it's not that great, and other times I'm unfair and give a series only one. This time, I plan on at least picking up volume two, and seeing what we can get from there.

The setup was generic, but that doesn't make it bad. Starting Link off in a village where he's got rooted attachments is perfectly fine motivations for the hero of an action story, and my friends say that Twilight Princess is a good pick for making into a manga.

Just look at that! What a great page. 

I hope the rest of the series is just as engaging as volume one. Until next time!

Manga First Impressions - Penguindrum

Hey, it's ya boy, back with another Manga First Impressions. This time we got Penguindrum, which is the manga adaptation of a light novel with the same name.

At first glance, this looks like a Shoujo. It also reads like a Shoujo. However, it was actually published in a Seinen magazine. That doesn't say much about it's content though, and I'm gonna be real with you chief, this wasn't for me. 

The story is as such -- one day, terminally ill Himari is taken to the zoo by her two brothers, and discovers a penguin hat. When she puts it on, she becomes a magical girl that, in all likelihood, isn't even her, but some kind of alien creature that has allowed her to continue living... if her brothers can obtain the "penguindrum." And of course, they're sent a package of frozen penguins that eventually thaw out and start helping them with daily chores.

That's about it. 

This first volume is mostly nonsensical. The scenes flip flop at random, the characters end up in weird places, all of it seems to meander around amidst a directionless premise. I think this is entirely intentional too; but the flowery art, flat characters and lackluster setup all combine in making me not give a single shit about where the story might be headed. I don't intend to read any more, and I'm sorry this post is so short and bad -- but I have a challenge to fulfill this month in writing about the manga I read, so I'm gonna do it even when I don't want to. 

That's all for now.

Manga First Impression - Mieruko-Chan (SPOILERS!)

Welcome to the first Manga First Impression post! This one is about Mieruko-Chan, a horror-comedy slice of life (weird mix, right???) about a girl named Miko who can see horrific, supernatural entities -- but pretends she doesn't. 

I think this manga has a great premise right off the bat. 

You see, manga is a very broad medium. There's a famous statistic that they use more paper to print manga than they do to make toilet paper in Japan, and this is actually true (mostly because they use bidets, but I digress). There's a manga that fulfills every niche market that exists, and I'd be willing to bet we don't get even a fifth of it over in the west.

To further expand on this point, manga is broad not only in subject matter, but often in format as well (maybe I'm not picking the best way of describing this, but let me try). What I mean by that, is that there's many different kinds of story formats -- we have long-running narrative titles, four panel titles (that are typically comedies told in a only four different frames), and episodic titles that play off of one core idea. While I can't say I've read many manga of the latter two categories, good examples of them would be Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, and Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. These titles don't have a significant amount of plot progression; they just have a core idea (high school girl bullies an upperclassman she likes / captured princess is very sleepy, and wreaks havoc with her sleepiness, respectively) and each chapter is an "episode" with that idea. There's still a general timeline, but it's not that important. 

Mieruko-Chan is one of those manga. Miko, one day, is just capable of seeing weird, spectral monsters. She realizes that if she doesn't react, they won't be capable of interacting with her... so she never acts like she can see them. 

I love the juxtaposition of the generic, typical manga style and the frighteningly grotesque detail of the monsters. And it uses them for more than just horror, but humor too.

You see -- laughing is often a reaction to shock. That's why a lot of humor is made around being abrupt, or pertain to taboo or offensive ideas. Culturally, our first instinct when shocked by such humor is to laugh, and it's deeply rooted alongside the same idea of danger in our primal lizard brains. That's also why horror can be so scary... because while we may have evolved into very intelligent creatures, there are parts of our brains that aren't good at dealing with modern concepts. I'd be willing to say all media attempts to play into these animal emotions somehow, and Mieruko-Chan used the humor/horror dichotomy in a very charming and unique way.

I found myself chuckling as I read the volume. I liked Miko, because she showed courage despite the absurd situations she was in; grabbing a phone out of a locker with a creepo hanging out on the top shelf beside it, a weird arm monster crawling out of her friend's school desk, and so on. It lends itself well to good horror imagery, and great comedic response. As I was reading, I expected every chapter to be more of the same; and I didn't have a problem with it. I'd purchased a shorter than average book knowing full well what would be inside, so I had no other expectations. 

That's exactly why a part of the manga that happens near the middle caught me so off guard. It was honestly like a punch in the chest, and I don't want to spoil it -- but it had me thinking... is Mieruko-Chan gonna stay one of those episodic titles? Or will it get a little deeper? 

My question was further compounded when I'd finished it, and read the scene at the end of the book that was more like a punch in the face than one in the chest. It may have entirely to do with my expectations, but I can certainly say that it's earned my interest in volume two. 

I really recommend this!!

Happy New Year! And what's with the name change?

 

 

Happy New Year! And why, you ask, did I change my blog name? 

Because I felt like it. 

In reality, I changed the name because I thought the idea of "Books on a Shelf" was catchier and more fitting than a longer title like "Armed with a Pen and some Dice." That title was indicative of my role as a Dungeon Master, and that still holds true. I still want to write about Dungeons and Dragons at some point, too. But I feel like this is just a better fit for my content. Unfortunately someone took the domain name "Books on a Shelf," which would be okay IF THEY ACTUALLY POSTED STUFF. 

I digress.

I hope 2021 is a brighter year for us all. Let's make the most of it!