Manga: "Lone Wolf & Cub" Vol. 1
Feb. 4th, 2009 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timepiececlockI'm 130 pages into LW&C, which is about halfway. It's on my bathroom shelf-- about every other time I go in there to sit down, I read a few pages. I can say with total candor that this is the only graphic novel I've owned, borrowed, or read that was demoted to toilet reading status.
I bought volume 1 at Comic Con 2008, and still haven't finished it. I heard so much about it--that it was exciting storytelling, that it was more original and a million times better than Blade of the Immortal. Lots of hype.
Guys, I've read fourteen volumes of Blade of the Immortal (a unrelentingly bloody and misogynistic ronin story in its own sphere) which makes it one of less than 8 manga titles I've read more than ten volumes for. I can't even get up the interest to finish one volume of LW&C. It's so unbelievably boring. I get that it's old and should be read by a different standard, but if I can watch 70s episodes of Lupin III and not be bored, then being old doesn't excuse crappy writing. Every three pages the exact same thing happens over again. I can't tell you how irritating it is to have a god-mode character this extreme. He never gets injured, nor does his child. His plans always work and he's always thought things out far ahead of his enemies--who are uniformly weak, cowardly, stupid, or unskilled in his presence despite being fearless tyrants to everyone else. Even the art is just alright---nothing to write home about.
I can't even get up the energy to be mad at the manga for sucking, because I'm just too disinterested. Maybe it gets better three volumes from now. But if it hasn't gotten my attention after 130 pages, that's just too bad.
I bought volume 1 at Comic Con 2008, and still haven't finished it. I heard so much about it--that it was exciting storytelling, that it was more original and a million times better than Blade of the Immortal. Lots of hype.
Guys, I've read fourteen volumes of Blade of the Immortal (a unrelentingly bloody and misogynistic ronin story in its own sphere) which makes it one of less than 8 manga titles I've read more than ten volumes for. I can't even get up the interest to finish one volume of LW&C. It's so unbelievably boring. I get that it's old and should be read by a different standard, but if I can watch 70s episodes of Lupin III and not be bored, then being old doesn't excuse crappy writing. Every three pages the exact same thing happens over again. I can't tell you how irritating it is to have a god-mode character this extreme. He never gets injured, nor does his child. His plans always work and he's always thought things out far ahead of his enemies--who are uniformly weak, cowardly, stupid, or unskilled in his presence despite being fearless tyrants to everyone else. Even the art is just alright---nothing to write home about.
I can't even get up the energy to be mad at the manga for sucking, because I'm just too disinterested. Maybe it gets better three volumes from now. But if it hasn't gotten my attention after 130 pages, that's just too bad.
