Mercer’s Mange&Anime blog

  This week I read manga Bakuman. It is not like other battle shonen manga I normally read but it does not lack of any passion that any other shonen manga has. After I start reading the manga, I just can't stop till I get almost half way though it. I have seen the first season of Bakuman's anime many years ago, but reading the manga this time gave me a different impression than before.   First I got more in love with the translated chinese title of Bakuman-- Dream Eaters. The characters are a group of people that feed on their dreams. They use all the power they have to achieve their dreams. All their passion has been put in their dreams. Even Moritaka has an "engagement" with Miho, her importance is way under the importance of their manga. The artist used most chapters to talk about how the character fight with the realistic brutal Japanese manga industry.   Then as a creator now, I can under stand better on how bad they want to get their work out there and how ...

会長はメイド様！ Kaichō wa Meido- sama !    Kaicho wa Meido-sama is such a classic shojou manga. I have seen the anime version of it a few times when I was in high-school. And this time I finally get to read the original manga.     Even though Takumi is such a classic "powerful" male-lead character, he would not make you feel annoyed by being able to do anything. I just find him handsome and cute when thinking about Misaki. And Misaki is a strong, persevering, and hard-working person who keeps pushing herself forward. She even became a thought diplomat at the end of the manga. She does not only have a cute charming face outside, she also has a independent, self-love, disapproval spirit inside. No one is just the foil of the other person, they learn and grow together along the path of their life.     One thing I really liked in the manga is that it shows the progress of how Misaki falls in love but not like many other romance manga- it just happens....

My Little Monster となりの怪物くん     This week, for romance manga, I read My Little Monster. And it has the magic that many romance manga have-- to make people want to fall in love. "It would be great if one day Haru can meet a person that can make you feel happy by just being next to them." All t hat characters in this manga are kind of "weird", but their encounter created a  harmonious love story. Shizuku has a cold personality and clear goals, thinking that she clearly understands how to live,.But in fact, she only suppresses her emotional needs, so that she will not express herself when facing the feelings from others. Haru born with a good-looking face, smart brain. But he lacks love from an early age. When he grows up, he has always lived in an insecure environment, hungering for a little love from others and treating it as all. N atsume is a cute girl with the small appetite. She is super sweet and lovely, and understands other people. She can be called t...

  Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a serial comic created by Hayao Miyazaki. He directed this as a animated film in 1984. I have seen the film when I was little. This world that  Miyazaki created was such a shock for me. The setting with a mixture of medieval and WWII technology combined  world after the destruction of a super high tech civilization effected me deeply. All the ideas I think of and create now always some part of bionic WWII technology. And his love with insects delivered to me clearly. The design and animation of the insects was so vivid, I was so convinced that those creatures actually exist and living in some other world. I think it is good to watch the film first and then read the manga. The manga dived deeper in humanity than the film. In the manga, Miyazaki kept talking about the question of "Facing a world with problems, should we destroy it and rebuild it or should we fix it back to how it use to be?" But in the film it just kind of be...

  In this series of manga, Masahiko shows stories of people that have not had much experience in romantic relationships meeting their love. This is very different from Tezuka's manga. It is more related to people's life at the time than the world created by pure imagination. And you can clearly tell this was made for adults around age of 20 to 30 years old to read. The relationships and emotions was really specific for those people at the age are facing. And very specific for the society of Japan at the time.   At that time, Japan, especially Tokyo has developed in an extraordinary speed. Many young people were more open and wants to chase for the love of their life. And like always, there are people were too shy to confess their feelings and do some bold moves to chase their love. And this series of short manga were created between the meeting of open young people and shy people. 

    Phoenix is a series of manga created by 手塚治虫(Osamu Tezuka). The 12 volumes of this manga talk about bird of fire with the power of immortality witnesses the change of human beings and  universe. Unfortunately, Tezuka left the world before he can finish the last volume of the series. What's amazing about the Phoenix is  the stories goes though time and space.  There are human, god, buddhas, monsters, beasts, machines, animals and plants. Tezuka explored the driving force of life, not only for the Japanese nation, but also for the entire human race. Grand and deep thinking.  In the first volume Dawn, the people and animals did everything to survive after being trapped in the cave.  The jackals were digging in the caves in order to survive.  And the people tripped in the cave would feed the dead children to the jackals and eat the dead jackals to survive. And they ask their children to get married to each other i...