Chapel Orahamm's Blog, page 27
May 31, 2021
June 2021 Review Schedule
1: Video Game Tuesday – Assassin’s Creed Origins | Egypt2: Love Story Manga Wednesday – Seifuku no Vampire Lord3: Mobile Game Review Thursday – Immortal Heart4: Anime Cinema Friday – Bungou Stray Dogs5: Book Review Saturday – Tea with the Black Dragon | R.A. MacAvoy6: Sunday Afternoon Movie Review – Inception7: Manga Cafe Monday – I am the Sorcerer King8: Video Game Tuesday – Fallout New Vegas9: Love Story Manga Wednesday – Sabishisugite Lesbian Fuzoku Ni10: Mobile Game Review Thursday – First Love Story11: Anime Cinema Friday – Dorohedoro12: Book Review Saturday – Running with the Wolves | J.E. Reed13: Sunday Afternoon Movie Review – Kingdom of Heaven14: Manga Cafe Monday – Tower of God15: Video Game Tuesday – Skyrim16: Love Story Manga Wednesday – Dekoboko Majo no Oyako Jijou17: Mobile Game Review Thursday – Dangerous Fellows18: Anime Cinema Friday – Blue Seed19: Book Review Saturday – Dead Heads: A Dead Detective | Ross Young20: Sunday Afternoon Movie Review – Dune21: Manga Cafe Monday – Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint22: Video Game Tuesday – Slime Rancher23: Love Story Manga Wednesday – Lily Love24: Mobile Game Review Thursday – A3!25: Anime Cinema Friday – Trigun26: Book Review Saturday – Death Magick | Ryan Z. Dawson27: Sunday Afternoon Movie Review – Soldier28: Manga Cafe Monday – Vinland Saga29: Video Game Tuesday – Astroneers30: Love Story Manga Wednesday – Her Shim Cheong
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May 24, 2021
Manga Cafe Monday: The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor
First note: The art style is different from the cover.
Second note: it’s a full color scrolling manwha.
Third note: this is a video game story, but they guy isn’t locked into it. He still has a regular life. Which is a bit different from the standard trapped in a video game or reincarnated in a different world vibe.
With those out of the way, let’s begin.
The first say, five chapters are a set up for explaining the character is poor, has led a rather despondent life, sacrificed a lot for his family, you know, backstory. It drags a bit, only because I got into thinking it was going to have a similar graphic style to Solo Leveling. I was trying to find a replacement to binge because I enjoyed that one so much.
The first season of this manwa has an…interesting? art style. After having tried to make a webcoming of my own, I noticed this was a developmental series for the creator. Someone not completely proficient with the software and still learning. The faces are very much all exactly the same. However, color, gradient, and texture do improve as the story goes on. Once the second season hits, I don’t know if the artist took a hiatus for a time or got someone else to do panels for them or what, but that style changes drastically. It goes from kind of a hand done feel to polished standard studio work, like what you get out of Solo Leveling. So, the first couple chapters of season 2 are you getting used to the new art style.
What can I say about the story? It’s pretty standard. Guy needs money. Somehow playing a game makes money. So, he max levels his character in order to sell it because that worked for him in the past. You get to go through his adventures as he maxes this character. I haven’t seen anything really revolutionary in it. He got lobed a job title he didn’t really want. Then he became a jack of all trades type character as a way to make more money, but that’s apparently either a “trash character” as they put it int he translation or, from what I understand, not a normal character because he can do a lot of things well.
Essentially, he can put a lot of time in on the game, where as most other people can’t, so he’s able to do insane stuff in the game because of it.
Is it worth a read. Yes. Is it top priority, no. I’m glad I found it though. It has a comfortable pacing and storyline. There aren’t many uncomfortable emotion scenes (rom-com, etc.) so it feels like it would fit a large audience. Blood, guts, and dark elements are almost non existent in this one. Really, I think the only blood section has to deal with him defeating a castle of vampires and them going all neck sucky in maybe two panels? So, I’d say it doesn’t need much in the way of content warnings.
Are there ways of improving the story? Not really. It’s solid. Most of the plot holes resolve rather nicely and in a timely manner. Most of the side characters feel like side characters. You don’t learn a great amount of emotional character development from them, because they are not the point of the story. A couple times through the story, the MC is faced with quest options that a regular player would respond in a regular way, and instead he either accepts or declines those, which then turned into a different type of quest. That little element came across as new and different to me.
A good portion of the story is the character taking after the story. Some of the points are the story taking after the character. What I mean by that is the character makes a lot of decisions for himself and proceeds with his plans with his own to hands. Then, every once in a while, he gets lobbed an undeniable quest that he is railroaded into taking, so the story happens to him in that way. Even when presented with that, he puts his own spin on the task to improve the outcome.
It’s an enjoyable read with the ability to step away from it or binge the thing. I had a hard time stepping away from Solo Leveling, so if you’re in a busy season, like university or something, this one you can set down when you need to actually get studying done. A few other manga and manwha I’ve read are super hard to put down and are better left to summer breaks and such.
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May 19, 2021
Lovestory Manga Wednesday: Murcielago
Alright.
I couldn’t get into it.
It’s very popular and has quite a few series to it. I just couldn’t do it. The art style lost me, and the primary character. The author honestly did a good job for setting her up and keeping her character. They didn’t make her into the shining wallflower or the belle of the ball. She murders and looks like it.
That’s where I have to go: this was a me thing. Not the fault of the author. The panels ran smoothly enough. Most of the action sequences lined up like they should. The backgrounds were rendered well.
I just could not click with the leading pair of characters. For the most part, I like weird characters. In a way, the style reminded me of Deadman Wonderland when I first opened up the manga, so I hoped it would go somewhere in that direction. That might have been where things went wrong for me. I had expectations that weren’t quite what the manga itself needed in me coming into the story.
I don’t know who to suggest this one to. It does have rather blatant mature content and gets into some nit and grit for those who might be a bit gore shy, if that helps.
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May 18, 2021
Book Review: The Stars May Rise and Fall | Estella Mirai
First impression here after getting through some other book reviews up to this point: It is such a clean read. What I mean by that is this thing has been combed through with a substantive edit and proofread that has done the job.
I find myself, these days, checking what page I’m on, what chapter I’m in, how far I’ve gotten through a book when doing reviews. I’m looking for some relief, knowing that I’ll get to the end. This one just reads. I got to chapter 4 before having to be interrupted to make an appointment. I didn’t notice the pages moving.
It’s not that it’s full on action packed and fast paced. Enough information is provided to inform the reader and keep the pace moving from event to event while developing the characters.
Some things feel questionable early on. Coming from an American perspective, going over to someone’s house that you don’t know and who won’t be completely up front about who they are and what they do just spells out a recipe for serial killer. Where as, maybe it’s not such an iffy concept in Japan. That was my one main hang up with the premise of the story, but once I did the whole “go with it, suspend disbelief” the flow of the book moved.
That’s the thing. Books, storylines are supposed to flow. Maybe not from one location to the next, but from one scene to the next it should be a smooth movement. In a way, The Stars May Rise and Fall was like paired dancing and the author leads beautifully.
I did read through The Phantom of the Opera, the original before approaching this book. I had never really gotten into TPO. It just never quite sang to me to break into why it was so popular. The presentation for this book takes the base concept up to the modern world and really plays to a modern audience.
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Manga Cafe Monday: Poison Dragon: The Legend of Asura
I’ve been looking for a manwha to stand on the same stage as Solo Leveling since I binged that one and am now stuck to bi monthly release cycles. The ever present woahs of finding a really good manwha or manga and reading everything available in one sitting.
This one did the same thing. I binged it all the way up to the release cycle. Give it. All of it. Now.
The art style doesn’t quite keep up with SL, but the topic and the vengeance is on-freaking-point. I appreciate the color choices and the background work. The pacing is a bit rough right at the start, sort of like kicking the clutch a couple times to turn over, but doesn’t take much to get into it.
The character’s plight and subsequent revenge is built to make the reader sympathize and it is done in a rather dramatic method. You get past what broke him and can be 100% behind his methodologies. You want to see more. You want the corruption to be leveled to the ground.
I will say, having some of the “techniques” translated into English does make the impact of some of the actions a bit underwhelming. That one is an issue in translation though, and not the content of the story and art. Not everyone minds that. Just a heads up for those who love high stakes action and there’s all these martial arts techniques that come out and it sounds…less strong for the translation.
Poison Dragon is going to be in the: if you can handle watching torture, and want a dynamic hero, this will do the trick.
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May 17, 2021
Technical Difficulties
Heads up.
I’m noticing my posts are having technical difficulties. I’m going to cancel out the rest of May’s schedule for the moment and fiddle with settings. I’m coming back, just not sure what is going on.
Sorry about all this.
May 16, 2021
May 15, 2021
Book Review: The Dragonbone Chair | Tad Williams
I could see this appealing to ambitious teenagers looking for a thick book to read. One that thoroughly world builds, has an awkward main character that doesn’t fit in, a world of ambition. Yes, this would do the trick quite nicely.
It’s not that I didn’t like it. Nor that I could not relate to it. There was a modest usage of crutch words reminiscent of the time it was written. In some scenes the structure pulled me out and I was a third row back from the stage. In some, the frame shoved in close and the world opened up around me and I was in the scene.
I found that I could not read large chunks of the book at a time because of the development of the MC. Poor thing, has to have some form of neurodivergent tendency. Highly forgetful, lost to bouts of fantasy and whimsy, some social alienation, does not always understand why he is in trouble, though everyone else does. I connected to the character, and in a way, that made me more uncomfortable than if I had not seen myself in him. This is primarily because of the various punishments implemented upon him in hopes of training him to do better. Those methods don’t work. The author and the MC both know that.
I like where this story is going. It is immersive when I’m not staring at the word seemed for the hundredth time. I have found, I must back away from editing other people’s works for a few hours before picking up a book to review for content or else my editor mode is still on. If it is on, then I can’t appreciate the story and am instead analyzing sentence structure and the logic of the story at that small frame level.
This one I would give a go ahead for people interested in fantasy books and wanting to read something a bit thicker. The only part that grated a little more than repeated crutch words (seemed, just, very only) was a heavy handed referencing of religion in a Catholic tone sense. I appreciate it’s incorporation for making the time frame in the fantasy world work. However; for me on a personal bases, I don’t care too much for a book that I have to question if it’s an allegory to Pilgrim’s Progress.
If you want a comparison of what this book was in movies and TV, I would say it worked out rather well as a more in depth dive of Disney’s The Sword in the Stone in terms of setting and a socially awkward youth who’s primary function is to clean the castle.
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May 14, 2021
Anime Cinema Friday: Demon Slayer
Buy Me SushiAffiliate Link DisclosureThis one speaks for itself. Well, it doesn’t. Some people aren’t into monster movies, ayakashi, yokai, etc, so probably would like to know more.
The art in the anime follows the same style in the manga. The color though. Talk color here. It is fantastic. The manga really needs color. The heavy lines and geometric shaping is very style specific to this series and it just sings when color is added.
The characters come off like most shonen anime. So, the seller is the graphics. Think Naruto, Black Clover, Haikyuu without the annoying screaming as a main character. More like the main character from Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon.
The movie after the anime was apparently one of the highest grossing anime released in theater in Japan ever. That should probably tell you how popular it is.
I enjoyed it. I’ll probably rewatch it again in a few years. It isn’t my personal most favorite could watch it again next week anime, but it’s in the “yeah, it’s good enough to watch again.”
If you can’t handle spiders though…might rethink going to deep into the series.
