Sunday, March 26, 2006

Manga roundup!
Hello, everyone. I'm doing fine- just got some manga ^_^ They had a sale at our bookstore (buy two get one free). Which is a good one for manga.

I tried xxxHolic, which is by CLAMP, one of my favorite authors (group of authors, actually). If you've ever read anything by CLAMP, chances are you'll see plenty of familiar things in xxxHolic, especially is you've read or seen Cardcaptor Sakura. Characters and items also make appearances from Magic Knight Rayearth and Legal Drug, as well as other series that I can't remember right off hand. The characters are hilarious- the mysterious, drunken space-time witch Yuko, who openly admits that this isn't her real name, and the excitable, clueless Watanuki-kun who now works for her. With fun wordplay (such as the helpers Moro and Maru, whose full names mean "to expose oneself in public") and thought-provoking takes on reality and life in general, it's definitely a series worth reading.

I also bought Legal Drug (another CLAMP series) out of curiousity after it was metioned in xxxHolic. The store only had volumes 2 and 3 (but I do have volume 1 on order), but it didn't interfere too much with my understanding of 2 and 3. As far as I can tell, the story goes like this: Rikuo, who works/lives at a pharmacy, finds a random guy (Kazahaya) unconcious outside and carries him back home. Kakei, the store owner, agrees to let Kazahaya stay if he works as well. Both boys have psychic powers, of sorts, and Kakei routinely sends the boys on extra errands that take advantage of these 'talents'. There are mysterious backstories for both main characters. Both seem to have lost someone important to them, and the store owner seems to have some secrets as well. Just so youknow, everything I've seen has said that Legal Drug is not meant to be shounen-ai. I don't know if I agree. CLAMP stepped over their usual borders this time, I think, and even if the two main characters don't have feelings for each other, their boss and Saiga (I don't really know who Saiga is or what he has to do with anything) do. However, I think the story is good enough that even people who don't care for shounen-ai would enjoy it. Now, the ANTI-shounen-ai people might be a different story...

Well, I think I'm gonna go fanart. Questionable orientations or not, the characters are pretty cute ^___^
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