Falling into Nothing
You pick it up and start reading…for some time. There is that familiar feeling again, deja vu, to the 10th power. I’ve read this before. Here is one case.
The tale begins on a stormy Saturday, mostly occupied by the capitalistic ritual of purchasing amenities which aren’t sorely required. After the sights and sounds of the mall I came home exhausted, bereft of strength and will, looking for an engaging story to pique my interest. The ensuing internet search for “good dark manga” on google yielded to me a few titles that seemed interesting. One that stood out among these was Hatsukanezumi no Jikan, otherwise known as The Hour of the Mice.
“They” told me it was an interesting manga, about some children, enclosed in some type of Orwellian pharmaceutical experimentation facility. The outstanding premise plus the unique art style made me want to read it…goes to show online people are not to be trusted. I mean, a person with a rationally functioning head on his/her should would not possibly want to even consider laying eyes on the content of Mr. Kei Toume’s work.
You are not sure? Me either. I’m not sure I want to read this, another case of amnesia plagued children. Honestly, the two archetypes in this model seem to be overdone. I mean, I’ve seen manga with children in them, they were interesting the first time I read it. Quite a few titles rely on amnesia as a focal point, using bouts of forgetfulness to advance the plot line. What makes the writer think it will be better to combine the two stereotypes in order to create a mashed scenario? Even worse, the writer does not forget to dutifully include the shy childhood friend, cool older guy, and the serious friend with glasses, into this perpetually growing, infinitely torpid Smörgåsbord of a plot. It’s just plain ridiculous.
Seriously, what the fuck. I’ve seen these fools my whole fucking life.
Hello, shy girl, where have I seen you before? I remember, in 80% of manga I read.
So mysterious, stern…..and arousing? Nope, you were cool the first 30 times.
Of course, the friend with the glasses is the serious guy, the conformist. Heh, what do glasses say about character?
In short, you waste an hour watching characters run around like unknowing rats in a experiment. (Surprise, surprise?)
It is times like these I think about giving up on manga. Is there anything new? Is there anything that I won’t start drooling while reading? Yeah Naruto was great the first 100 chapters. Too many sucky eroge manga adaptations to shift through in this world. Ahah–arg, pirates, for 300 something chapters? You know you see the same guys in everything someone says is new. Is this the fucking end? Is manga going to turn out like Adam Sandler movies, same archetypes with a twist?
Ah, even though one might feel bored sometimes and vent some crazy stuff, they can find themselves wrong. Yeah, actually, even though I bashed on Hatsukanezumi no Jikan, it kept me reading. Maybe I was crazy that day. I heard Naruto’s been pumping out better stuff lately. Maybe I should read it again. It is good to take a break and step back so you don’t overload your brain. This is what I did recently and newer series are fresher to me now. There was plenty of manga on the web list that I didn’t touch. Maybe there are better things out there, and we just need to look for them.
Some Darker Manga
(Why is their art so weird?)
- Koroshiya Ichi
- MPD Psycho
- Freesia
- Jiraishin
- Berserk
- Jiatsu Circle
- Psychometer Eiji
- Homunculus
Anyone want to share some good titles?
Wait… did you just DISS One Piece?