We don't mate like beasts in heat

I was planning to write about seinen comics but I think I have to revise some more before writing down about such heavy stuff.

For now I can give you my brief overview on yaoi and yuri stuff. Please feel free to skip this post if you do not like gay stuff, I know that tolerance is a must nowadays but not in the privacy of ones home and computer.

Yuri (girlxgirl) and yaoi (boyxboy) comics are directed mostly towards women. There's no equality rights on this market. Actually, thats no wonder as there is a big lack of good comics for women.

There are tons of yaoi mangas around. What I mostly find troublesome is their basic and shallow plot and the fact that most likely on the last seven pages of a chapter main characters land in bed and .... The stories are full of relationships like step siblings and old school mates discovering their mutual feelings, cliche dramas and even through I'm not gay I know it can't work this way.

The ones that do work and I think are very good are Love mode and Ze Yuki Shimizu, Love Pistols by Tarako Kotobuki. The stories make good use of the applied structure, plot revolves around main character wwhich introduce reader to side stories. This way it is easier to keep the interest and it doesn't become to eye-blinding lovely-lovely.

Good author to look at is also Takashima Kazusa, her Wild rock is somewhat a classic now. Her drawing are better than the story sometimes. Another classic is Boys next door from Kaori Yuuki. For a school life I would say Kawaii hito (Konno Keiko) is good, at least there are no overwhelmingly dramatic monologues. 

I didn't read another classic Zetsuai so no comments here.

From all of this I like Mirai no kioku and Kaze no yukue (by Kunieda Saika). This is just a perfect everyday life comedy. And it is perfect. There are no exaggerations and no illogical twists. Anyway one of better love stories I read so far in manga.

yuri next time...

Major style revolutions

Sometimes series run for number of volumes and artists style begun to change. Only when you compare first and last chapters you can see the big gap.

Underneath are some examples which I chose. I think Oh!Great made a big leap forward

Slam dunk (vol 1) and late Vagabond (around vol.28) - Inoue Takehiko

Tenjou tenge vol 1 and vol 19 (I think) - Oh! Great

X vol 1 and vol 19 - Clamp

Girls that traveled throught time and space

In manga's there are some common themes. Ie. there is this girl that is summoned to another dimension, time, place, whatever to save it. It re appears over and over, it is most like the very popular story base for fantasy shoujo (counting out magic girls stuff). Some series, firstly semi-historical Red River, author Chie Shinohara, -  I stopped somewhere along 5th volume. It's nice but maybe I'm too old for this stuff. It's very shoujo, ie. takes long,long for first true lawfull kiss etc.  It's good just not my type. A bit similar is Fushigi Yuugi by Watase Yuu. I read it when I was 15 with red face 'coz it was sooo romantic. Here also the main character is some sort of gods priestess, in red river it less supernatural (that is she didn't have any power). Magic Knight Rayearth from Clamp are just cute, see just drawings and you'll know (I have a soft spot for Clamp). And some of same themes are the The Twelve Kingdoms and The Vision of Escaflowne.

personal

I have been reading manga for last 13 years. I started with the Sailor Moon, one of first comic books published in my country. It took me more than 3 days to read it (I was seven, maybe eight).  My first anime was Captain Tsubasa when I was 4.

I have dyslexia, I'm not good at writing. But I will write so I can justify reading 30 volumes per week or so.