While episode 4 renders in the background for mobile viewing, I find I has a dearth of information about Kimi ni Todoke at my disposal.  The first volume of the manga reached my door today, and it extends well beyond the broadcast stories so far.  I also have easy access to scanlations, which would take me all the way up to the current point where the manga went on hiatus.  And the anime is coming fast and furious.

Same stuff, different medium

Here’s my problem – even from the back cover snippet of the US manga, I know what’s coming soon in the anime.  Sawako is going to attract the ire of a rival, and we’re right back into what I call “combat” for shoujo manga.  I know the hero will come out on top, but I’d rather see people getting stabbed in the back with an actual knife than the emotional knives at use here.  But for this show, I have the opportunity to peak into the future, and find out how this ends.  Will it be a triumphant showdown with the tormentors?  A devious plan to trick the tricksters?  How low will they take Sawako before she fights her way back?  These are all things I could find out right now, at the price of the emotional impact that makes one watch or read this kind of story.  The degree of emotion is where I have been burned before.  If the rise from the depths doesn’t match the lows suffered, I’m left disappointed and angry (KimiKiss).  If the return is strong and powerful, I’ll feel elated and excited (Toradora).  It’s a crap shoot, and I have loaded dice.  Should I throw them?

I want to bring two recent mangas together in one review, since I feel they have some kinship.  The first is Usagi Drop.  Here is my back of the book summary.

Daikichi returns home to attend his grandfathers funeral, only to discover a young girl hanging around the house.  This shy urchin is introduced as the 5 year old daughter of his grandfather!  When the family argues about who should take responsibility for Rin, single working stiff Daikichi make a snap decision that he will take Rin home with him since no one else seems capable of seeing her as a person.  But is he ready to be a father overnight?

The second is Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie, or Little House with the Orange Roof.  Again, quick synopsis, this one ripped off a web page since I can’t be bothered to look up everyones name right now:

A man comes home one day to have his wife give him divorce papers. A woman comes home to her apartment one day to find a woman she doesn’t know wrapped in a towel coming out of the shower. They both get conned by the same real estate conman on the same house, a 4LDK. So now the man, his two sons, the woman, and her two daughters live in the same house.

(LDK=Living room, Dining room, Kitchen, a common style of house in Japan.  And now you know!)

Side by side, the similarities are not obvious.  But then, if they were, I wouldn’t have to blog about it, huh?

(more…)

I have been avoiding scanlations because they are very obviously copyright violations.  Which is odd, since it’s hard to tell why I download fansubs with little moral trepidation yet scanlations are off limits.  I think I see manga as a more collectible format, so the excitement of buying that next volume is more appealing to buying the next DVD, and much more affordable, so “PIRACY BAD” became the excuse.  But I discovered a really thorough clearinghouse for scanlations while searching for a translation of the latest Hayate manga I bought in Japanese (don’t ask why, it was cheap and I thought it would be cool to own).  This made me realize that, just like the difference between fansubs and Cartoon Network is immense, the difference between scanlations and Tokyopop is just as wide.  I literally spent three weeks reading History’s Strongest Diciple Kenichi, which is up to chapter 333.  This quick and dirty access to content makes any moral argument that scanlations are piracy crumble to my inner otaku.

So what do I get for the price of my soul?  I can check out manga that has continued where the anime left off, like Kannagi:

Or bizzare new series like Kamen Teacher or Mysterious Girlfriend X:

I also learned more generas of manga, some I don’t mind admitting (like Manhua) and some I’d rather not admit (like Seinen…oh, wait).  I don’t think I’m up for reviewing scanlations just yet, as I tend to simply devour whatever is available rather than reading volume by volume.  But expect more squeels of glee as I’m able to say “I love that manga!” the next time one gets adapted as an anime.