Category: Comics

Manga Reco: Love So Life

Manga Reco: Love So Life

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

Yeah, yeah. It’s been two days after I said I would write frequently. And now I’m running away from it by telling this sort of thing? Oh no no. This is the manga review I’ve been planning for long. I had just forgotten about this heart warming manga by Kouichi Kaede. A recent release of it’s chapter revived all the memories.

So this manga follows the story of an orphan high school girl, Shiharu who suddenly gets involved with two cute twins and their guardian, Sei (I hope this is the right name but since the children call the guy by this name I’ll write this only). The twins Aoi and Akane have already lost their mother and their father left them with his younger brother Sei and ran away. Sei, a TV presenter by profession, is a handsome unmarried guy who, initially faces a lot of difficulty maintaining the balance between the new members in his life and his job but ultimately develops necessary love and affection for them to be able to handle his now messed up life. On the other hand, the unfriendly twins find solace in Shiharu’s care for them at the day care centre and Shiharu lands up daily babysitting job for the children. Now she is helping the babies to learn things to stand up in the society and she is growing with them too. Also, she is developing feelings for Sei. From romance point of view, this manga is still in development stage even after 62 chapters but the love element between Sei and Shiharu has been introduced much later (although in such scenarios, it is kind of obvious that they will fall in love with each other in the end).

There are many other involvements including the twins’ grandparents on their mother side who want to take care of them and are quite persisting in this regard even after Sei’s refusal. There is one another guy who likes Shiharu and their neighbor. Everyone is invloved with babies one way or other and they become the reason for their relationships with each other. All in all, it is a good manga and I’m soo looking forward to it’s anime if it is made anytime.

Still not convinced? This will give you A waaayyy big reason to read it –

images (1) images love-so-life-1599056 love-so-life-1929495

 

These swiggly wiggly little twins are soooo freaking adorable. I first read the manga just because I saw them.

Read here – http://www.mangahere.com/manga/love_so_life/

Enjoy!

Webtoon Recommendation: The friendly winter

Webtoon Recommendation: The friendly winter

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

One of the best webtoons I have ever read is “The Friendly Winter”.

A heart touching story by Mr. Lee Jun, it is about a girl who is 19 years old but has a body of and a 17 year old boy who has a mind of that of small children. The basic plot is about how their fateful meeting totally changes their lives.

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Han Da Jeong is a 19 year old girl with a rare body growth disorder. Her mother left her and her father; and married someone else. Her father is a worker who finds it difficult to make two ends meet. Then, in her neighbourhood lives a guy of same age as Da Jeong whom she is in love with, but has to pose as 9 year old girl in front of him because of her body. In a mall, she meets a panicked Min Seong  who is lost and helps him find his mother. Thus a new friendship forms and they start running into each other often. They feel comfortable and share their own worries and problems with each other. More characters are introduced as the webtoon progresses including Da Jeong’s mother and her beloved oppa’s girlfriend who happens to be her step sister from her mother’s second marriage.

This webtoon not only shows the difficulties in such people’s lives and their immediate family but also others’ attitude towards them. They are misunderstood quite often and have to face consequences for the things they have never done. This one is especially full of emotions and may make you cry too, sometimes. The best part is, you can actually feel their helplessness and are able to fully sympathize with the main characters.

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Highly recommended, even if you are just starting with webtoons. Awesome artwork and just 64 and some extra chapters. (Extra chapters are especially fun…… coz of Lee Jun’s avatar and the way he tells you things with just three or four apt expressions in the whole chapter) Here is the link – Mangahere (This won’t be in long strip format)

SCS Scantalations (From original scantalators, though this one doesn’t need scanning, but oh well….. and you can find raw too, if interested. And I haven’t seen how it looks, so can’t comment about format)

Enjoy!

Manga Reco: Hira Hira (ひらひら)

Manga Reco: Hira Hira (ひらひら)

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

This brilliant work by Ame Arare  is an awesome collection of four stories related to “Geishas” (courtesans).

Hira hira

Hira hira itself depicts the waving sound of handkerchiefs, flags, paper etc. in Japanese. It is also associated with frilly and lacy things related to girls.

All the stories are basically historical tragedies, set in Edo period. The first story called “Strings of previous existence” tells the story of  a girl Akane who falls in love with Tadaaki, servant of a feudal lord who is frequent guest of her. What does she do to charm him when he doesn’t show any emotion towards her?

Second story, “Dream mirror”, deals with a girl Miyuki, who leaves her house for her sick younger sister Yukie. Her family is not well enough to continue Yukie’s medical treatment. So she becomes a courtesan to earn easy money. But what happens when she receives a letter saying Yukie is getting married when she doesn’t find herself in a condition to show herself to everyone?

Third story, “Jade’s bird” is about Hisui, a girl who has been raised by Shinza Emon, a person of great authority and post. Hisui grows up to become a courtesan under his supervision and falls in love with him. But Shinza gets engaged to daughter of some feudal lord. Does he realize his feelings towards Hisui?

In the fourth and the last story, “Flower Lantern”, Hotaru is someone who doesn’t get many customers. One of her frequent customers is Shigezou, a flower seller. Hotaru snaps after an ex-customer of her, insults her in  front of younger ones. How does Shigezou help her? Is he really coming for her or is there some other reason?

Find out here: http://www.mangahere.com/manga/hira_hira/

In terms of art i’ll give this manga 4.5/5, stories 4/5 and emotions 5/5. This manga shows you that these girls are not just selling their body for fun. They may have circumstances which compel them to do such work just like present world. People have to do something to fill their stomachs, sometimes unbelievable. You and me are in far better off place than many others. And it teaches that they have emotions too. They are human beings after all (I’m writing this particular sentence, a lot lately….. Obviously, some people are being treated like animals, some worse than that and some, who don’t even deserve it, are being treated as Gods. No one is being seen as human being…..that brings me to the question…. what is a human being…….. but this is becoming too philosophical……… no offense to anyone!)

Oh well, this was my first manga review and I chose tragedy for that, I don’t know why. But oh well!

New form of comics: Webtoons

New form of comics: Webtoons

by eastasianlover ♥ 11 Comments

Have you ever read a webtoon? Of course you must have! You haven’t? You are definitely missing a lot! A lot!

Webtoons from Korea are becoming very popular these days. They are very easily accessible and are free of cost. And since they consist of colorful pictures, they are more appealing to the audiences. The effects sometimes are awesome. They go in a long panel, not pagewise. This, in many situations, helps to have more continuity in the chapter and provides more impact and weight in delivering the right emotion.

Orange Marmalade

Some of the authors talk about how they make them through their webtoon itself. In one of them which I finished recently, The Friendly Winter, there was a chapter in which author told that he had used his own clicked photos as the base for backgrounds. That included his neighborhood buildings, shopping malls, streets etc. We can very well assume we are seeing a different kind of South Korea (real may be?) through those pictures.

The freelance translator community for webtoons is ever increasing too. There are a lot of groups and translators working on them like people on webtoonlive.com (at least they don’t need scanlations, that’s why the translation and all is economical too!)

And the plots! All of the stories I have read till now are fresh and out of this world. Be it ‘The Friendly Winter’ or ‘Nineteen Twenty one’. There is a vast variety of genres too, just like manga. Each one seems to give some message also. There are a lot of famous movies from South Korea which are adaptations of various webtoons. The examples include Apartment and Hello Schoolgirl by Kang Pul and Secretly Greatly released in 2010. Flower Boy Next Door, the K-drama starring Park Shin Hye and Yoon Shi Yoon, is also inspired from a webtoon called “I Steal Peeks At Him Every Day”. It also has elements related to webtoon making. You can easily see the characters in the drama (I have just watched the drama, not read the webtoon) using photoshop to draw the characters.

The Friendly Winter

Webtoons are replacing the expensive Manhwa and Manga making. Both the forms of comics have seen a fall in sales in the recent years. The international craze for these is not going down since a lot of material is available online free of cost. But the home business is facing losses. And this is encouraging more people to take up this new introduction in the market. I am not saying manga reading is inferior or something. It has its own charm. It is a lot of hardwork. (Watch or read Bakuman and you’ll find out!) But seeing the trend, webtoons and similar forms may take over the other two in terms of popularity and fandom, in the coming years.

In the end I will say, the webtoons are totally changing the meaning and essence of comics making and reading. You try too. You easily find them on manga sites or see here: http://www.webtoonlive.com/