Well, this is it. I think I'm finally going to break down and buy a comics bundle. I've read the Attack on Titan stuff and maybe some of the Parasyte and Battle Angel Alita stuff, so it's not an entirely new-to-me bundle, but I definitely don't own any of it already.
The ones I'm interested in:
The iffy ones:
While reading that, I stumbled across news that Vertical will be trying out something new: light novel audiobooks. They're starting with Kizumonogatari (read by Erik Kimerer, Keith Silverstein, and Cristina Vee) and Attack on Titan: The Harsh Mistress of the City (read by Keith Silverstein and Erica Lindbeck). I'm adopting a "wait and see" attitude. I'm unfamiliar with the narrators, and Keith Silverstein was the only one who came up in my Audible searches.
This was a sick and disturbing manga and I am not going to read this one further.
Kasane is a highly disturbing young girl, and while I can imagine that she became this way because of people and how they react to her looks, I still think this is a bit too far to go for someone. I was truly getting sick in my stomach while reading this manga. Kasane will do anything to get what she wants. Stealing someone's face? Drugging them to do so? Threatening them with a knife? Seriously, wth. It was just disturbing.
The first parts I didn't feel much sadness for her victim (might sound cruel, but really, that bully was just horrendous), but I felt super sad during the second part with the second victim. The poor girl just tried her best to be friends with Kasane and this is her reward? This is what Kasane does? She doesn't care about friendship or caring about people? I just wanted to smack Kasane on the head for doing all this to someone who truly cares about her and doesn't care about her looks.
I also feel that the way Kasane was drawn was too far, too much and too silly. I can imagine that one would make her slightly ugly, as otherwise why would she use the lipstick? But, this much? No, sorry. I didn't like it.
I have no clue if Kasane was ever nice, or if she always had this personality. Again, I can imagine that she broke and got evil. Bullying is a bad thing and it will break the victims, but I feel Kasane would have been evil even without that.
I didn't like Kasane's mom. It is one reason why I don't want to read it further, I just don't want to know what Kasane's mom really was. There are enough hints and they hint to things I don't want to see drawn out.
The art was so-so. It is not really a style I like, it reminded me a lot of the old shoujo manga.
All in all, I wouldn't recommend this manga. The covers are delightful and pretty, but that is really it.
Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/
Most of Volume 8 wraps up the Deathbusters arc. Hotaru's body has been taken over by Mistress 9 who starts to awaken Master Pharaoh 90 to take over the planet. Chibi-Usa and the Inner Scouts are incapacitated. It's not looking too good.
Hotaru does manage to fight off Mistress 9 and restore the other scouts and with the help of Super Sailor Moon, is awakened as Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Silence and protector of Saturn, the planet of ruin. Sailor Saturn also has my favorite character design:
If there is a competition for who is the most powerful guardian, Sailor Saturn would definitely be a contender due to her ability to destroy worlds. As a result, she isn't awoken often. She even comments:
"It seems I will forever remain the uninvited guest, hm?"
Saturn does also point out that she serves as the Guardian of destruction and death, only to bring about rebirth. After redirecting her powers to stop the oncoming destruction and save Earth, she knows that it will also lead to her death. Super Sailor Moon does manage to tap into some of her powers and help bring about the rebirth of Hotaru, who is taken away to be raised by the outer scouts.
The last chapter starts off the fourth arc, the Dead Moon Circus which arrives during a rare total solar eclipse. For whatever reason, even though this season was broadcast in the US, I at most only saw a few parts of it. I know a few details, but otherwise am going into this blind. I'm excited and have enjoyed what I read so far.
Also, in case you do like Sailor Moon and haven't heard, they just started airing a remake of the series which can be seen worldwide and will air one episode every 1st and 3rd Saturday a month. The first episode, which follows the first chapter of the manga, premired July 5th and is free to watch on the websites niconico, crunchyroll, and hulu. I'm not sold on the new transformation, but I love the opening and art style. It looks like they'll be sticking straight to the manga and the 26 episodes we've been promised will take us until the end of the second arc of the manga.
Volume 7 continues the Deathbuster Arc which started last book. Sailor Pluto makes her return after showing up briefly at the end of the last volume. We don't really get an explanation as to how she is back, other than I guess to help the rest of the outers.
The outers (Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune) explain that they are on the planet to stop the Deathbusters from destroying the planet and that the inner scouts can't help them. They each have a talisman which when the three are brought together will summon the scout from the "taboo" planet, Sailor Saturn, the Guardian of Silence who can destroy the world. They plan to eliminate her human host, who they identified as Chibi-Usa's new friend Hotaru before she awakens as a scout. The last time she woke up was at the end of the Silver Millennium and she heralded its downfall.
In the meantime, the talismans come together for a better purpose to create the Holy Grail which Usagi can use to transform into "Super Sailor Moon". That part of the storyline was adapted into the anime, although many other parts were either changed or ignored. I was rewatching a few episodes and found it interesting to see how differently everything happened.
The last chapter of this volume is a nice lead up to the final chapter(s). Hotaru's father is part of the Deathbusters and had used his daughter as a vessel for the alien Mistress 9. The Deathbusters had stolen Chibi-Usa's silver crystal which has awakened Mistress 9 who will use it to awaken Master Pharoh 90 who will theoretically try to destroy the planet.
I know basically what will happen, but unfortunately I never got to see the anime episodes because my cousin, who was supposed to tape them for me since I wasn't home, forgot until over halfway through the episode.
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