New Manga Mondays Meme!
I've been doing Manga Mondays every week since I started my blog 2 years ago. It started out as a personal feature, but I've turned it into a meme in the past few months. There are quite a few people who do Manga Mondays. I don't claim that I own or created the idea of Manga Mondays - it's an obvious choice given the alliteration. I think a meme would be a good way for everyone to publicize their own Manga Mondays and get a little more publicity.
The linky will be below my review.
Old Friend Manga Series: Becoming Attached to New Series
I was planning on posting my review of Skip Beat volume 4 today. I finished it Sunday morning. When I finished Volume 4, I immediately wanted to start Volume 5. This was the first volume of the series where I felt so
into the plot, that I was overcome with excitement to read the next volume.
This led me to think about the adjustment time to other manga series. Most series have taken three or four volumes for me to get into. There have been a few that I loved right away and some that I knew from the first volume that I didn't want to continue, but mostly I form slow attachments to manga series.
Getting into a good manga series feels like getting into a friendship. When you first meet a friend, you enjoy spending time with her, but it's often work developing a relationship. Sure, there are those with whom you form such strong, immediate attachments that you're dishing out life-long secrets within an hour. But mostly, a new friendship takes time. Going out to lunch with a new friend doesn't have the same, comfortable feeling as meeting up with an old buddy. At some point, your "new" friend becomes an "old" friend. There's no invisible barrier between you, neither of you feel the need to maintain a face. Your relationship is easy, happy, and fun.
Volume 4 of Skip Beat was when the series turned into an old friend. I feel comfortable with the characters, the plot, the artwork, and the writing style. It no longer feels like work reading the series. Starting Volume 5 feels like meeting up with a long-time pal to chat.
I have more trouble getting into manga series than I do books. Usually I can tell within the first 50 pages of a book whether I'll enjoy it. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 volumes of a manga series to decide whether I'll like it. Why the difference? There are several reasons, I think.
First is the cultural difference. I know more about Japanese customs and culture than many people, since I've been there and my husband lived there for several years. But the Japanese are, in many subtle and not so subtle ways, very different from Americans. The ways they interact can be jarring. As can references to things like popular TV shows, Buddhist sayings, traditional proverbs. Side references to these things make total sense to the Japanese, but are confusing to an American. I've also found that Japanese characters often start out more closed than American characters. It's like they're shy or mistrusting of a reader until they know the reader is going to stick around. Finally, each other has her own style of drawing and of writing. Some series are dialogue heavy and some rely more on the drawings to convey emotion and plot. Sometimes the characters and names look or sound very alike and it's easy to get confused. Just like with any new friend, once you get used to their way of talking or their sense of style, it becomes more pleasant to spend time with them.
Have any of you noticed a similarly slow adjustment to manga series? Do you agree with my developing friendship analogy? Do any other comparisons come to your mind?
Sign up for the Manga Mondays Meme!
