owlmoose: (Default)
KJ ([personal profile] owlmoose) wrote2006-08-09 07:13 am
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Friends are dangerous

I have read comic books for years, since college at least, but I always resisted manga. I think it's largely that I've never been into anime, and I didn't get very far in the one manga I tried to read (Nausicaa).

I forget what [livejournal.com profile] hinikuish and I were talking about, but the subject came up, and she started talking up various series. When she describe the premise of Death Note, I realized that if it were a book, or a Western-style comic, I'd be all over it. The next thing I know, I'm in a bookstore, perusing the manga section, and walking out with the first three books of that series along with X/1999. And the day after that, I'm itching to get my hands on more. Can I resist further addiction? We will see. This is a potentially dangerous habit! At least both series are finite.

I've read the first five X/1999 books and the first two books of Death Note. X/1999 is a fairly straightforward world-in-peril story that I am mostly enjoying for the characters. The hero/anti-hero angle interests me, and many of the side characters are lovable, intriguing, or both. So far it's being painted as a simplistic "good versus evil" situation, but there has to be more to it than that. Any minute now, I'm expecting the scene where the "bad guys" reveal their true motives and they turn out to be not so bad after all. Still, it is a fun ride.

Death Note is something else again. Wow! Fantastically complex. Light fascinates me even though I can have no sympathy whatsoever. As soon as he turned down the trade of more power for less life, and gave his need to rule over the "utopia" he was creating as a reason, I was done with him. But I am still utterly drawn into his story. The battle of wits he's conducting with L. is really well done. So far Light seems to continually be one step ahead but that can't last. At some point L. is going to have to checkmate him. Isn't he? I mean, Light can't win. Can he?

[identity profile] bottle-of-shine.livejournal.com 2006-08-09 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
You did exactly what I did with manga. I was all like *snub* and would read books without pictures but whatever, the last few weeks I have been reading a manga that I have to keep tissues on hand for--something I rarely have to do with books anymore.

Ho ho ho, hit me up if you wanna talk about Death Note. *loves on it* Also, rec time in our future. :O

[identity profile] owlmoose.livejournal.com 2006-08-10 06:39 am (UTC)(link)
Also, rec time in our future.

Like I said, friends are dangerous. ;) Yes. We'll talk.

I just started Death Note Book 4. Damn!

[identity profile] bottle-of-shine.livejournal.com 2006-08-13 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, my recs are not as interesting as Death Note. In fact, one of them is romance/comedy and the other, well, we won't talk about it. >.>

Ho ho ho, Death Note fan. xD