|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Griffith
グリフィス
Administrator
Of the Abyss
Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 6711
View Profile
WWW
|
 |
« Reply #29 on: March 24, 2010, 09:15:44 PM » |
|
Well, after my last post I plowed all the way through 5 before going to bed, then wrapped it up early this morning. I was going to update my progress after getting through the first few episodes, since I liked what I saw, but then I ended up just reading them all and forgetting any comments I had for the early episodes. I don't see what was particularly amazing about 7 though, it hit that level pretty early on for me. You should've been saying that a long time ago, Wally.  Anyway, I just finished catching all the way up, which I don't regret, since it left me with goosebumps.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Griffith
グリフィス
Administrator
Of the Abyss
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 6711
View Profile
WWW
|
|
« Reply #31 on: March 25, 2010, 03:46:03 AM » |
|
I just got really into 7 because it's a payoff after volumes of buildup. It's their first big game, and several plot lines begin to converge within the game. Also, the characters have begun to be comfortable around each other, which is nice after all the initial awkwardness. Yeah, maybe reading it practically in one sitting gave me a different perspective, but I didn't see the overall plot as a priority. A natural progression is there of course, but it was more a sum of various individual, and sometimes loosely connected, parts than the point. To juxtapose it with Vagabond, which will go off on tangents but will ultimately return to and serve the main goal, Real seems more like a series of tangents by Inoue (sometimes to the point of interrupting himself), from which main goals have developed. It certainly seems to be the case in the episodes beyond volume 7, and not an unwelcome development. I don't know though, I literally read it through one time in the last 24 hours, so you tell me if I sound like it. This is technically just a first impression.  It's also the first volume where I realized that Nomiya is very similar, in both personality and looks, to Takuan. Yeah, I liked him early on, and if anyone's looking for Musashi and Kojiro, look no further than Togawa and Takahashi.   My favorite Nomiya/Takuan moment: "Don't kid yourself! You're not a loser because you can't walk... you were already one to begin with!!" |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Walter
賢者
Administrator
Of the Abyss
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 9980
View Profile
WWW
|
|
« Reply #32 on: March 25, 2010, 01:21:40 PM » |
|
Hmm, well yeah it's been a bit different for me, since I'm kind of pioneering the series. It was uncharted waters for me as I was reading it. I wasn't sure how much of a payoff it would have. As I've told you before, and you know well by now, REAL is pretty depressing stuff, especially in the way Inoue tends to focus on the low points of these characters so intensely.
By volume 7 though, I could see where he was taking it, and it's a good place.
I'll have to look up my own favorite Nomiya moments, because there are many. But he's easily my favorite character, and stars in the best moments for me personally.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Griffith
グリフィス
Administrator
Of the Abyss
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 6711
View Profile
WWW
|
|
« Reply #33 on: March 25, 2010, 01:49:00 PM » |
|
I guess I was more optimistic reading it, because I had some pretty good vibes even in the first volume with their ups and downs, and I assumed things would more or less work out. I might have been fooling myself to a degree, just assuming everything would eventually come up roses. Like when Takahashi was hit by the truck, first thought was that was a little extreme karma for the high school jerk, and second, "oh, I guess he's joining the team." Yeah, not quite so easy. =) Of course, I was moving from one thing to the next immediately, so there wasn't any particular moment or downer I was left to dwell on, until now of course, and as it turns out, it was an extremely positive epiphany I'd been anticipating for a long time.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Griffith
グリフィス
Administrator
Of the Abyss
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 6711
View Profile
WWW
|
|
« Reply #35 on: March 25, 2010, 02:39:25 PM » |
|
I had actually started to doubt the series for a while, and now I'm left wondering why I had doubted it.  I can imagine it seeming unfocused and frustrating if one were to read it over the course of years. I mean, that struck me reading it in a matter of hours, it just wasn't a bad thing in that time frame. Regarding the spoiler you posted above, I think that's what we're supposed to think, but yeah he's got a long way to go. And I'm fairly sure his character is one of the main reasons Inoue wrote this: as a no-holds-barred way to enlighten the public with all the things paraplegics go through, in addition to their physical disabilities. Yeah, I really enjoy all his scenes, and actually, if there's a character I resent a little, it's Nomiya because he can walk and is sort of a traditional able-bodied main character. Though he's very effective in the ensemble, it made me think, "Did we still really need that for this story to work?" I know, my recognition of, and prejudice against, him being different is all kinds of ironic. We're all human. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Author
