Hinohara becomes more resolved in his mission now that he knows he is the rightful wielder of the powerful Hayagami called "Tsukuyo." However, Kannagi comes after Hinohara, intent on taking Tsukuyo for himself!
Yuu Watase (渡瀬悠宇) is a Japanese shoujo manga-ka. She is known for her works Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, Ceres: The Celestial Legend, Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend. She likes all music, except heavy metal and old traditional music.
She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" ("An Intrusion in Pajamas"), Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series. Because of her frequent use of beautiful male characters in her works, she is widely regarded in circles[which?] as a bishōnen manga artist.[citation needed] In October 2008, Watase began her first shōnen serialization, Arata: The Legend in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Her name is romanized as "Yû Watase" in earlier printings of Viz Media's publications of Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, and Ceres, The Celestial Legend, while in Viz Media's Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend her name is romanized as "Yuu Watase". In Chuang Yi's English-language versions of Fushigi Yugi (spelled without a macron or circumflex), her name is romanized as "Yu Watase".
Meh. It was all right. I love Yuu Watase, but this is just a mediocre series by her, in my opinion. I don't really remember a lot of what happened in this one. It's fine. I'll continue on with the series.
Even this early, Arata is starting to show some of Watase's hallmarks, including melodrama and characters that don't quite land for me. I do rather like how Earth Arata displays characteristics that would be associated more with a fantasy heroine than a hero, like compassion and an inclination to talk things out rather than baring his fists.
Fantasyland Arata's arc is more like you'd expect from a shonen manga. F. Arata is both willing and able to solve problems with his fists, and steps in to save people who are pretty obviously weaker than he is. This chafes at rich kid Kadowaki, who'd really prefer that Arata took his bullying like a bullying victim should, but who instead is saved by Arata when he comes across a knife attacker in Shibuya. His resentment continues to fester, and is priming itself to explode.
I'll have to be reconciled to the idea that Watase's never going to be a favorite. I've read at least twenty volumes of hers, with much the same rather tepid response. I'm willing to read the rest of these before putting them in the used bookstore box, rather than the other way around, so that's something. There could be a turnaround somewhere between here and volume 24, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for that, especially considering the potential for very similar and repetitive scenarios in E. Arata's part of the story.
Volume four has more about the Arata in Japan than any other volume thus far. We learn a little more about the difficult life of Kadowaki but he continues to be an annoying and evil person.
Back in Amawkuni, the gang visits a very interesting new island- The Island of Children- and I really enjoyed learning about the sho at that island. Kannagi continues to show that he might not be as bad as he seems. The the love between Hinohara and Kotoha continues to grow and I am VERY excited for these two to get together. I don't normally get too interested in seeing the love interests get together but these two are just so cute and I can't handle how much I want them to get together.
As with the previous volumes, the artwork is beautiful. There are more early sketches after the main story and more words from Yuu Watase.
~3.5/5 So, in this volume, we get more of Hinohara. Him, Kanate, and Kotoha are traveling around together still. And he has a little moment with Kotoha, while she's mostly undressed and he's blushing, and she tells him that she wants to keep going with him. He agrees, and he's starting to have feelings for her, but he's sure that she only has feelings for the other Arata and so doesn't want to pursue the relationship. He even talks to Arata, who tells him that he only sees her as a sister. Then Kannagi shows up and him and Hinohara fight some, and there's a fire. And then Kannagi starts having flashbacks or whatever, and we see what the grave stone (or whatever) is that he keeps visiting. It belongs to Emisu, a girl that he cared for and that died. He's scarred from it, and that's apparently what he's been fighting for and why he wants his Hayagami back as bad as he does. But hopefully there's another reason for why he killed the Princess? Because that doesn't explain it. Kannagi is hurt, and not trying to fight Hinohara for his Hayagami (at the moment), so he gets invited to travel with them. They're making their way, on foot, to find Akachi, and more Sho and Zokusho on their way. They find a trail of islands, and get attacked by a monster on their way, until they get to a closed off village, which they find is full of children (who are all just adorable). They discover that there are only children on the island... (Read the rest here: http://geekyreading.blogspot.com/2012... )
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
It's rather interesting to be able to read a Watase Yuu series as it comes out. Well, comes out in English anyway. But I have to say I don't like it as much as Fushigi Yuugi. They hardly even compare.
I get confused by this pretty easily. And just when I've got my mind wrapped around all the terms and magic and whatnot, the volume ends, and I'm stuck waiting another couple months for the next one.
When I repeat the process.
So it'll be nice when it ends and I can read them all together at once.
Basic premise is a guy has swapped places with a guy in another (fantasy) world and the two have to try to pretend to be each other, in this world they totally don't understand.
The one in the fantasy world is going around having adventures and encounters in a rather episodic sort of way. And I did like the one at the end of this one.
This series continues to be fantabulous. When will it end? I hate series that are too short, but I also hate it when they go on forever... I think the longest manga series I ever finished was Hana-Kimi. Either that or Fruits Basket. Which one's longer...? Now I'm just rambling about things not even related to Arata... Although I do like the bits about Hinohara in the "old" world, my favourite parts are with Arata in the modern world. I love people who are out of place going to modern schools. Or even just being in modern times and having to live a "normal" life in general. Like in Thor. Or Kamisama Kiss. If you know of other manga that has a plot similar to this, please tell me.
Watase is back in "morally excusable" territory -- are these people bad because they're intrinsically evil, or are they just bad because of circumstances?
This volume especially feels like an RPG, with the new addition to their party and the exploration of a new territory where they have to conquer the area boss before moving on. But then again, this is shonen manga and I think they all follow that formula anyway.
The revelation of as the Sho is also Watase at her emotionally manipulative best. I predicted something like that was happening, but whoa, knowing it doesn't diminish the emotional impact of that scene.
Arata is still trapped in our world. He saves the bully and only gets further persecution from the idiot. He also finds out about his replacement getting smoochy with his best friend/servant and things are kind of unresolved in that area. Kannagi chases after him whilst he proves to be the brave one again. They are stuck on an island of children with no grown ups for a while who take them on as parents. It is revealed that it was a boy all along who was a Sho that had lost his twin sister. His drawings made the other children come along, so that she would have playmates.
It's been a while so I don't remember all the side characters, but this is a fun adventure story. I could do without all the "accidental" nude shots of the girl in the traveling company, but they are all very vague at least. The characters are likable, although they don't have much depth yet. I'm hoping we spend more time on the Arata in Japan soon, I find the bully plotline more interesting than the video-game like fantasy quest.
Ma quanto mi sta piacendo questo manga! Magia, azione, amore, duelli, misteri, mondi esotici e ovviamente i classici ragazzi della Watase, uno più figo dell'altro. E più sono cattivi, più sono fighi. Non entro in dettaglio per non fare spoiler, ma in questo 4° volume si scopre qualcosa sul passato di uno dei cattivi e io mi ritrovo con gli occhi a cuoricino. Peccato che non ho tutti i volumi ma li sto recuperando un po' alla volta, perché altrimenti me li leggerei tutti d'un fiato.
Oh look, the "bad guy" has a tragic past story. Oh wait, he is no longer the main bad guy as someone cooler has come on the scene & displaced him of that title. Well, might as well have him join the party then! But then our party reaches new lands, and finds an island/village of children and OMG here come the waterworks! "Failed Grown-Ups" might be my favorite new Watase creation yet
This is a good idea for a series, seriously, it's good. But I keep wishing there was more in this about the human world of Arata, I just find it so much funnier and interesting as apposed to the magical world of Arata.