In this time of semester [tomorrow’s midterm test], I am quite hesitantly write this down. I need to write these since I think mangas are great. I only got this opinion recently. OK first great manga I ever read is of course Dragon Ball [I kinda forgot who wrote it, Toriyama? Akira Toriyama?], along with Chin Mi from Kungfu Boy and Chin Mi from Break Shot and Dora Emon and Nobita and bunch of other Japanese comics. But these recently I found what I think turned out to be the other side of Japs comics. I don’t really know what terms should I use [Japanese terms of course], so I use them freely [or I didn’t use them at all?].
The mangas I read these days are One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. It has a really great story, an intense one if I may say. The story about a boy whose dreams is to be the greatest pirate in the world by finding the One Piece Treasure. A boy whose thoughts are very simple yet he struggled very hard to defend his dreams and his friends’. Loaded with characters that are fun yet miraculous, One Piece is crowned as the best manga since Dragon Ball. Another one I just found exciting is Shaman King by Hiroyuki Takei. The story a boy whose dream is to be the Shaman King. A ruler of shaman [psychic if I may say, a person who connects the real world with the spirit world] world who can bring anything to the world with the help of the Great Spirit. A hilarious and quite a deep story, with abundant amount of awesome characters and spells too. This boy too have a simple mind, he wants to be Shaman King so he can practice a carefree life, life where everyone get to be happy. And the last one is Beck by Harold Sakuishi. A story about a boy [again] who experiences music life definitely not easy yet colorful through an indie band called Beck.
Those stories have something in common. The leading role is a boy, not an adult man. And they have dream and struggle for it. They struggle no matter what and that’s the main story that keeps the mangas exciting and wondrous at the same time. And also in those stories, friends are having important role in achieving the dream. Hey, call me melancholic but I did touched by those stories.
The honorary award goes to Harukana Machi-E by Jiro Taniguchi. It tells about an adult who accidentally take the train to his home town and mysteriously experiences [again] his early life as a boy he used to be. Can he change his past to fix his present life? It’s a wonderful and touching story that will remind you what you have right now is precious.
This entry I dedicated to sawamura15 who took me through this side of comics as a wonderful world to escape, yet this world gently bring me back to this harsh real world [kyahaha, reality does bite].