KUIS-ENG30114 discussion

1) You need to write a review of one of the manga books you have read so far. While writing this book review you need to include 10 vocabulary words from what we have studied so far. The ten words need to be used in a correct sense. It is due before midnight on 10/15.

2) You need to comment on at least one other person’s review.

InuYasha: Family Matters
I think Inuyasha has perfect constitution although it is a classic action manga.
Every arcs have rising action by battle of Inuyasha against specters. Inuyasha is often in a pinch, but in climax, he defeat enemies. Also, Inuyasha’s interesting part I thought is the gag scene in falling action. At the end, there is always cliffhanger which makes me to read next episode.
And more, my favorite thing in Inuyasha is unique characters. For instance, Inuyasha applies to three dimensional character. The reason is that he hates Kagome who is one of the protagonist firstly, but he became a kindness to her with each passing episode.
In addition, there are not any simplistic character even enemies. Jaken is one of the original enemy, he looks ugly but has a lovable character.

Bakuman is a manga that two junior high school students, Mashiro Moritaka and Akito Takagi are going to create an manga. In the chapter one, they were not friends, but just a classmate. Moritaka wanted to be a manga artist when he was a child. He likes to draw pictures because of his uncle. His uncle, Nobuhiro Mashiro was a famous manga artist, but he passed away. Because of this heavy happening, Moritaka stop drawing pictures. However, Akito changes his minds by soliciting him to create a manga together.
I like this manga because of the characterization. The author is good at expressing the character’s feelings. All the characters show their emotions openly. That’s made the characters become more attractive to the readers. In this manga, the antagonist is the rival of the protagonist. Usually, protagonist is a bad person in the stories, but in here he is a good rival. He motivated the protagonist to work more hard. They constantly challenge each other. The secondary characters also have a strong impact. For example, Miho Azuki is the cutest character in this manga, but she isn’t a weak girl like some others mangas. She is a very tenacious person who never gives up on life and ver romantic. Her best friend, Kaya Miyoshi is also a strong girl. She is talented in sports, specially in karate, so boys is afraid of her strong punch. Akito always get a punch from her. As you see, they aren’t simplistic like sub characters.
On the other hand, the story is very simple. Moritaka and Akito will try to create a manga to serialize in Jump magazine and if it became animated they will use Miho’s voices for the heroine. That’s their dreams. The readers can image the resolution of this manga. However, they have many interesting cliffhangers. The most interesting cliffhanger that I read has in the volume three. The story ended when Moritaka and Akito decided to create a detective manga, but they didn’t tell each other about it, so both of them are badly mistaken. Although, the readers know it, so they wanted to read on. I look forward to reading the last climax. I hope that it defies my imagination.

The setting of “BLEACH” is modern and at “Karakura-cho”, a fictional town in Tokyo. Genre is battle, fantasy and school life. The protagonist is Ichigo, a high school student who can see ghosts. The story starts from the secondary character Rukia, the soul reaper appears to the town. One of the work of the soul reaper it to fight and vaporize “Hollow”, the bad ghosts which is antagonist. In chapter 1, after Ichigo came back home and had some argument with his father in living room, he went to his own room and suddenly Rukia appeared in his room from nowhere. Ichigo kicked her because he thought she is a thief, and Rukia got surprised of Ichigo that he can see and touch her. Because Ichigo’s father can’t see Rukia and she introduced herself as a soul reaper Ichigo noticed that she is invisible to the others. Then something strange has happened in his house. His family got injured somehow. And Ichigo found out that it was an attack by a hollow. It is a rising action so far. After that, Ichigo run towards the hollow with a baseball bat and hit the enemy but it didn’t work at all. And through Rukia’s explanation Ichigo noticed that the hollow appeared to his house to get Ichigo’s special and strong power which means to kill him. So he tried fight with it one to one, however Ichigo is just a human and can’t do anything with it. As a result, Rukia got terrible damage to save Ichigo. To save everybody Rukia chose Ichigo to become a soul reaper and fight with that power. Ichigo agreed and Rukia stabbed her “Zanpakutou”, a sword that a soul reaper uses, to Ichigo to give him some of her own power. And Ichigo became a soul reaper, which is a climax. Falling action is the battle scene of Ichigo, the soul reaper against the hollow. And while they are fighting Rukia, used to be a soul reaper but now she doesn’t have any power of it at all because Ichigo took most of her power, was wondering how Ichigo is that strong. And as you can guess, finally Ichigo beats the hollow at the end of this chapter. This is a resolution but also it is a kind of cliffhanger as well. Because, readers also wonder “Why is Ichigo that strong or special?” or “Is he gonna be a soul reaper and not human anymore?” and so on. This type of ending makes readers want to read more. So it is also a cliffhanger. In addition, in this story there are more unique characters appear later on. Some of them are kind allies and some of them are mighty and brutal enemies. This story is so exciting and also touching.

The ONE PIECE is so attractive story because the story and character are good. There is rising action and conflict on each episode and it means you are always exciting!
Luffy is optimistic but very strong and he always causes something accidents and it get a cliffhanger and them. So, we want to read it more and more!
Now, what I am reading story is arc western blue. There’re appears some secoundary character and sub character.
First, secoundary characters is Zoro. He is a crew of Mugiwara pirates and he fight with three swords. Nami is secondary characters. She is not a crew of Mugiwara pirates yet but She have a serious past in her mind.
In addition, protagonist is Luffy. He ate rubber of the fruits of devil and captain of Mugiwara pirates.
Furthermore, sub character is a mayor of a village and a dog and so on. They are relatable because they intended to defend their village from buggy. Their struggle figure move my heart.
Finally, antagonist is Buggy in this episode. He also ate the fruits of devil. He tried to explore the village but Luffys stopped it.
I think author’s characterization is awesome because most character have a serious past and passion even if the character is antagonist. It makes me impressive.
In this episode, the sub character, the dog, defected the house from Buggy because his owner didn’t go back the home. He did not know the owner has already died. He is just waiting his owner...How stalwart he is! I can feel it from trait. His figure impressed me. So, I am crazy about ONE PIECE.

Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol. 1
I read this manga “Tsubasa” by CLAMP. I love other CLAMP’s mangas, too. CLAMP’s mangas always have very beautiful arts and attractive characters. In this manga there are 2 main characters and some secondary characters. The both sides of character have deep characteristics. Everyone has beautiful art without any exceptions. The most interesting point of this manga is to has crossover with other CLAM’s manga. For example, the main characters, Syaoran and Sakura will go to parallel world, but this is the world of xxxHOLIC, one manga of CLAMP, and one of the main characters helps Syaoran and Sakura to take them to another world. This is very attractive point that another manga doesn’t have.
There are 2 main characters, Syaoran and Sakura, many secondary characters, most important secondaries are Kurogane and Fai, and many sub characters. Syaoran is the protagonist and tries to help Sakura. There is no clear antagonist in volume 1. Setting of time is Modern, but place changes frequently.
About plot of this manga, Sakura lost her memories because of accident, so Syaoran tries to help her with in a way that trip to any parallel world. Syaoran’s trait is courage and kind. Sakura is kind of a caricature character. But 2 of secondary characters, Kurogane and Fai are Flawed characters.

Karina wrote: "Bakuman is a manga that two junior high school students, Mashiro Moritaka and Akito Takagi are going to create an manga. In the chapter one, they were not friends, but just a classmate. Moritaka wa..."

I also like the story that both of Mashiro and Akito are writing detective manga in all innocence. We can know the great relationship between them.

I have read Nodame Cantabile it makes me fun. Especially, I like Nodame (Megumi Noda)'s action. It is strange but it might be good for communication to do action. This manga is girls manga but people of all ages can read this manga and get interested in this manga. This is because this manga has some unique characters and the reader of this manga wanna know the future of love romance about Nodame.
While I told the response of the manga, I think this manga has some interesting characters, the exposition and the setting of the manga. The exposition of Nodame Cantabile is Girls manga and manga of music. Settings of Nodame Cantabile are in modern at Momogaoka College of Music Graduate Studies. The protagonist of this manga has two characters. The first protagonist is Chiaki Shinichi. He is a three-dimensional character, complex and a flawed person. The second protagonist is Megumi Noda. She is also a three-dimensional character. Arcs of this manga are almost flat but rising action, falling action climax will come. If you are interested, I recommend you to read this manga.

Karina wrote: "Bakuman"
I heard Bakuman is interesting but I have never read this manga. However, Because of you, I want to read this manga and to know ending.

Yuya wrote: "Takuma wrote: "InuYasha: Family Matters
I think Inuyasha has perfect constitution although it is a classic action manga.
Every arcs have rising action by battle of Inuyasha against sp..."

I think Sazaesan is very interesting because there is no antagonist unlike common work. In addition, this genre is tend to be boring for us because it doesn’t have the conflict. This genre is complex by some way..

Asuka wrote: "Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol. 1
I read this manga “Tsubasa” by CLAMP. I love other CLAMP’s mangas, too. CLAMP’s mangas always have very beautiful arts and attractive characters. ..."

I love beautiful arts, so I really became interested in “Tsubasa” by CLAMP. Also, the story is very attractive for me. I have never read a manga that has crossover with other manga. This made me feel so excited!!! When I finished reading “ Bakuman” ,
I want to read “Tsubasa”

Yuya wrote: "I have read “Sazae-san”. The setting of this manga is Showa era. In this story, every character can be a protagonist and antagonist because this manga is a collection of 4 frames cartoon. In this v..."

I laughed at “she never learned from her mistakes”. I agree with that Sazae is a flat character, but totally I like her and her families.

I read Doraemon volume 5 and this book consists of 15 plots. Each plot is different situation, but turn and conclusion is similar, so it’s boring. Most of plot is that at first Nobita is in trouble and Doraemon help him with his tools. The climax isn’t always happy and sometimes there is not a resolution. It’s interesting to finish with a conflict because it’s comedy.
All characters have characteristic traits, so I can understand what happens next. In particular, Nobita is protagonista, but he is flat character and so lazy. In my opinion there is not three dimensional character in this manga. The characterization is very simple, so it’s easy to understand their feelings and ideas.
All stories are so funny, but this isn’t a cliffhanger and I wouldn’t like to read so next volume. This book is written in English and Japanese, so I recommend this mange to study English or Japanese.

I have read Hikaru no Go.
The setting of this manga is in a modern Tokyo, one boy who were not related to Go was obsessed with a spirit of a great person of the past that was Go player of Heian era. And then the boy started to play Go for spirit’s purpose.
The protagonist is Hikaru. He is active and honest boy. He is kind of the three dimensional character. And the name of spirit is Sai. He always wants to play Go and considerate to Hikaru. He is one of the original character. Because he is spirit and talktive person. The antagonist is Akira. He is a genius of Go, but when he played against Hikaru, he was beaten. Because Hikaru played according to Sai’s instructions. Since then Akira decided to beat Hikaru. And in this manga there are many secondary characters because Hikaru plays Go against many unique persons.
In this manga, conflict part and climax are so amazing. Hikaru is a amateur of Go and is considered to be weak by other people in conflict part. But contrary to expectation, he wins completely in the end. And there is good cliffhanger in every episode that makes me to read next episode. If you would like to, please read it.

Misato wrote: "The ONE PIECE is so attractive story because the story and character are good. There is rising action and conflict on each episode and it means you are always exciting!
Luffy is optimistic but ve..."

I like ONE PIECE too, so I agree with you. Luffy is a cliffhanger in this manga. Moreover, there are so many characters in this manga, but all of them are enthralling.

Yuya wrote: "I have read “Sazae-san”. The setting of this manga is Showa era. In this story, every character can be a protagonist and antagonist because this manga is a collection of 4 frames cartoon. In this v..."
In manga, Tara-chan is so violent and uses a offensive language? I can’t imagine it. I only have imagination that he is innocent. I became interested in this manga thanks to you.

I read "SLAM DUNK". I like this manga because story is simple and clear. This story goes mainly at modern high school. Genre is sports. It is setting of SLAM DUNK. Sakuragi Hanamichi is a protagonist of this story. He is a high school student. One day, he fell in love with Hiroko. She like basketball. Sakuragi is very tall, so she invited join to the basketball team him. It is a rising action. And Kaede Rukawa, he is a Sakuragi’s teammate but they are rival so I think he is a antagonist. The climax of this story is a battle with Sakuragi and the secondary characters, Takenori. He is Haruko’s older brother and captain of basketball team. And falling action of this story is a scene of captain admits he join to the team. Sakuragi won the battle and was allowed to join as a result of his efforts to be recognized by the captain. Sakuragi’s character is simplistic and flawed, but he grow through the story. So I want to read next volume.

Takuma wrote: "I have read Nodame Cantabile it makes me fun. Especially, I like Nodame (Megumi Noda)'s action. It is strange but it might be good for communication to do action. This manga is girls manga but peop..."

I have heard of the name but I’ve never read it, so I want to read this manga next time. This review was helpful for me.

Aoi wrote: "I read Doraemon volume 5 and this book consists of 15 plots. Each plot is different situation, but turn and conclusion is similar, so it’s boring. Most of plot is that at first Nobita is in trouble..."
I agree with your review. The basic story of each chapter doesn’t change a lot in Doraemon, so it makes readers get bored easily. However, the characters use simple vocabularies or phrases, so it’s good for the people, who just started studying languages to start with.

I have read BAKUMAN 4. There are protagonist and antagonist. Mainly, protagonist are MASHIRO MORITAKA and SHOJIN TAKAGI, who are the authors of BAKUMAN. Beginning os this volume, they conflicts about whether they keep writing together or not because they are high school student. Antagonist are other authors of that. One of antagonist is EIJI NIZUMA. He is original because he is always noisy, but when it comes to time to write manga, he always writes unique manga. They are always competitions with reputations of their manga. Secondary characters is KAYA MIYOSHI. KAYA helps protagonist at home(workplace). Sub character is MIHO AZUKI. MASHIRO and AZUKI are a friend. He is loving MIHO. Sometimes she send a message to him. The message from her cheers him. Setting is that place is at Tokyo and time is modern. Moreover, there are some plots in this manga because they want to get awards.
Finally, I like this manga because the author writes characterizations of each character at detail. In addition, I like their traits so I am eager you to recommend this series.

Takuma wrote: "InuYasha: Family Matters
I read this in class. However, the story finished on the way like falling action. I feel it is not good but I want to read the next story.

Karina wrote: "Asuka wrote: "Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol. 1
I read this manga “Tsubasa” by CLAMP. I love other CLAMP’s mangas, too. CLAMP’s mangas always have very beautiful arts and attractiv..."

You should! Tsubasa is really good! It crosses over to almost all of the other Clamp stories.

Karina wrote: "Bakuman is a manga that two junior high school students, Mashiro Moritaka and Akito Takagi are going to create an manga. In the chapter one, they were not friends, but just a classmate. Moritaka wa..."
I really want to read! Characters are important point to read. I especially like cute character.

There are 5 characters in the Lupin the third. Protagonist is Lupin the third. Antagonist is Inspector Zenigata. Secondary characters are Goemon, Jigen and Fujiko.Exposition is very easy. Lupin is a pro thief and Jigen is his buddy and Goemon is not always his buddy but Goemon often helps his job. Inspector Zenigata is a great policeman and he wants to arrest Lupin. Fujikio is mysterious, smart and sexy women. She is sometimes Lupin’s friend and sometimes his enemy. The setting is that story is in the modern world like Europe or America and the genre is crime action. In this book, there are many short stories but their plot is almost same. The rising action is that big mysteries or troubles happen so they try to solve and in the climax, they fight with an strong man. The resolution is that they can solve or win. Stories have thrill. Lupin and his friends are criminal but they have something special. I like their way to live.

I read “DEATH NOTE”, it’s the serialization work of the weekly Shonen Jump. The art works is drawn by Takeshi Obata and the plot is made by Tsugumi Ohba. The genre is a suspense.
The setting is modern Japan. Death Note is a notebook of the god of death, the person who is written his name in the notebook and he shall die.
The protagonist is Light Yagami, his traits are very clever and a good-looking. He was a high school student in exposition and rising action parts, and he entered in a university in later. I think he is included in three dimensional characters.He is “Kira”. Kira is named after killer by some people who please the death of evil.
The antagonist is L, his traits are also smart and a sweet tooth. He is a great detective and he is requested to resolve the Kira case from INTERPOL. He does strange pose when he sits on a chair. I think he is a caricature and original character.
Secondly characters are Ryuk, Misa Amane. Ryuk is the god of the death, and he is an original owner of the Death Note. He loves apples. His looking is simplistic. Misa is the second Kira, and she is an idol who is a enthusiastic follower of Kira.
One day, Light got it accidentally. He tried to write a hooligan’s name, then the man really died and he was surprised the effect of Death Note. He met Ryuk, the god of death after that, and knew the reason why he dropped the note in human world. He was bored in the world of the god of the death and tried to watch the human who got the Death Note and what he does. Light killed some criminals at first. He decided to be “The god of the new world” by using the Death Note. However the suspicious death of the criminals are problems in INTERPOL. They requested L as the last resolution. Light and L conflict psychological battles and brain wars.Death Note, Vol. 1: BoredomTsugumi Ohba

I think “Nodame cantabile” is a very interesting manga, because this manga is drawn about classic music in earnest very much, and it has very cute and funny episodes. The protagonist is Nodame and Chiaki. The antagonist is nothing on the whole. Nodame is a three dimensional character. At first, she wanted to be a teacher of preschool, but while she run after a Chiaki, she faced to the piano properly and grow up to play the piano. Her trait is that she has a talent of piano because her hand is big, she loves Chiaki, and she is said pervert by Chiaki. Chiaki is a flawed character, because he has big talent of music, but he can’t take a plane and ship, so he can’t go abroad, although he has a master in Vienna, so he has a negative place. And he is swung around by the person of the circumference. The secondary characters are Mine, Masumi, teacher Harisen and etc, and there are many sub characters.
They are almost flat character, but they have a distinctive character, and they are very interesting. This manga is serialization, so every arc is cliffhanger, and I want to read next arc. I recommend you to read “Nodame cantabile”.

Misato wrote: "The ONE PIECE is so attractive story because the story and character are good. There is rising action and conflict on each episode and it means you are always exciting!
Luffy is optimistic but ve..."

Although I have read the One peace, I think so that One peace is rising action every time, so I am crazy about One peace too! I want to read One peace again!

I read “Gintama”. The setting of this manga is Edo era so people are wearing kimono. However there are some interesting characters. For example, alien, robot and kappa.
If I rate this manga, I rate 3.5 stars because it makes me laugh always.
Gintoki Sakata, Kagura and Shinpachi Shimura are protagonists. Gintoki is a hero of this story but he is so funny and crazy guy. A girl, Kagura is the most powerful warrior race in the universe. Shinpachi is hybrid of flat and simplistic character. He is the only person who is normal.
Shinsengumi is antagonist and secondly character because sometimes they try to catch Yorozuya members, Gintoki, Kagura and Shinpachi but sometimes help them.
I thought this manga doesn’t have the rising action because suddenly they do something stupid so I can’t expect when the climax will come.