Hotel – Ch.05: The fifth and for as far as I know last chapter of Hotel is only 16 pages long, and unlike the other chapters seems just like a place in which Boichi wanted to tell a short joke (comprising the first two pages) and draw some really pretty images (the other fourteen pages). The latter in particular are done in full-color and they are stuffed with eye candy. The storyline itself is nothing noteworthy, but it definitely looks nice.
Coelacanth – Ch.04-05: These two chapters form the middle part of Coelacanth (unless the manga is still on-going). The two main murder mysteries are now introduced, and these chapters mostly consisted out of character-development and hints that link the two together, albeit quite subtly. The author likes to weave contrasts together: the two seemingly unrelated murders, combining mystery with romance, involving both teenagers and adults. And then there is that sheep.
Shingeki no Kyojin – Ch.06-07: Holy crap this is intense. However, while reading these two chapters, there was something that bugged me: this series is about total despair, and then there is a character like Mikasa. Level-headed, the top of her class, and just about the only one who can consistently kill giants without putting in effort. She was too perfect and needed flaws, which thankfully sowed up at the end of chapter 7, followed by one heck of a plot twist that shows that things haven’t even begun yet.
A Lollipop or a Bullet – Ch.07-08: These two chapters continued this series’ streak of amazing chapters. Seriously, this is some haunting look on child abuse and neglect and I’m really quite shocked at the events here. And the great thing is that this wasn’t because of some plot twist, but rather because of the things we learned about the characters: realizing the terrible situations they’re in and how they’re trying to sustain themselves and trying to cope with it. Oh my god please tell me that the rest of this manga can be found translated somewhere.
There’s even a bigger plot-twist to come very soon in Shingeki no Kyojin.
Lollipop or Bullet turns into an even more depressing story from here. My heart shattered at the 2nd to last volume.
psgels, do you speak german, than you could just buy the 2 volumes
http://www.amazon.de/lollypop-bullet-02-Iqura-Sugimoto/dp/3770471717/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346571777&sr=8-1
Another really depressing manga is Arigatou by Yamamoto Naoki, also some black humor here and there but overall this was quite tragic, I for one could not finish it.
As for A Lollipop or a Bullet, according to mangaupdates, chapter 8 is the last one to be released in english, and it was quite a long time ago.
Hi Psgels, no time long not posting in your blog, but I am still following it. I kinda miss out when you started on blogging manga, so I don’t know why you post 4-6 different manga review on 1 post. Would it be possible instead if you blog 4 to 6 chapters of the same manga?
Since artstyle is a huge factor in manga, I feel this would make people easier to distinguish the different artstyle of each manga, and make it easier for people to search for that manga.
Kalandra: I might do that in the future. The big reason why I’m blogging a few chapters at a time is because I’m totally new to manga, and I want to be able to check out a large variety of series, in order to be able to figure out what my taste is. Committing myself to just one series right from the start did not seem like a good idea, and that’s also why I’m currently covering relatively short manga.
Hello Psgels, as a member of Tranquil Spring Scanlations (albeit a minor member), I’m happy to see that you’ve picked up A Lollipop or a Bullet. Unfortunately I’m sorry to say that at the present most of our members are busy with their own lives and scanlating has been put on the back burners. To give you a little update (since I know myself how frustrating waiting for a much-awaited chapter can be), all of A Lollipop or a Bullet’s chapters have been translated; in fact, I translated the last two myself quite a while ago. And as far as I know, proofreading and translation checking have been done up to chapter 11. However since I really only work with the scripts, I’m not sure how far along the cleaning/editing/typesetting of any of the chapters are.
Psgels, given that Kamisama hajimemashita is getting an anime next season, I think a good suggestion for the manga experiment would be her collection of recently translated oneshots hoshi ni naru hi.
Another good set of one shots would be the stuff by Nannan Kiriko, I would also recommend Love my life, Pieta and double house for short works. Hope that helps.
*Her meaning the suzuki Julietta who wrote Kamisama
Good news: The final volume of Lollipop and a Bullet has finally been scanlated, so the whole series is fully translated. Too bad Psgels isn’t here anymore. I bet he’d be absolutely delighted with this news.
Goddammit, I am not a crying man but the very mention of lollipop and a bullet creates flashbacks to it, how could the author of Gosick of all things manage to write something this good,actually read it years ago on your recommendation firechick, out of thanks/revenge for mentioning it I recommend Ai-ren to you.
Funny you mention Ai-Ren, because I actually did read and review it on my LiveJournal account here: https://joyousmenma93.livejournal.com/280252.html I don’t exactly have a high opinion of it, though. Sorry! I ought to read Lollipop and a Bullet some time, especially now that it’s finally fully scanlated.
(On that note, SOMEBODY out there should scanlate the rest of Mimia Hime! That’s a manga that needs more love!)
That is a fair, perfect length and reasonable review and even though I do agree with it being a bit confusing, I think I was able to look passed that a bit more.
And I definitely agree that the sexual aspects were functional rather than useless.
Reading mimia-hime after ai-ren was very different…I liked it, but I’m definately more into darker and more tragic stories.
*it as in the manga.