Namely, what does a 21 year old girl boggled down with uni studies and part time work do in her spare time? Especially one who is more of a physical introvert than anything?
Well.... answer to that is,
I read manga
Gaming aside, reading manga is and has always been my favourite past time. People used to think manga is nothing more than the Japanese version of a kids comic or like a picture story book. That may be true to some extent, namely it has pictures yes, and lots of it. But it goes beyond and to me it is a novel, a work of art, a good manga will keep you hooked on for hours and the characters will intrigue you so much, some people become infatuated with them.
There is always something super admirable about people who can not only write a good story book, but to also draw it out and have you see it as though it was moving in front of you like a live show or something. The facial expressions, the movement of the characters the places they image and actually have it shown to the audience in pictures, everything is imho awe-inspiring. When I was younger I used to dream about being a manga artist, writing my own stories and creating awesome adventures! Or even voice acting so I can play out a character. I guess the older I got and the less time I had, this little dream is pushed down on my priorities pyramid lol
Aside from the story and pictures, manga art or simply Japanese cartoon artwork used to be my sole obsession and was such a huge part of me. I used to spend my high school lunch times gathering up my friends and we'd sit at some quiet spot and just draw to our hearts content, I was super lucky to have friends which were very supportive of me and my weird obsession and would join in because they wanted to enjoy it with me.
I live in Australia and during my highschool years, yes Anime and manga were already known world wide, but people weren't too obsessed on it, unlike in America where the craze really caught on there early. People knew of Dragon ball Z and Sailor Moon, which I remember waking up at 6am every morning to catch Cheese TV to watch it cos we didn't have cable haha
I live in Australia and during my highschool years, yes Anime and manga were already known world wide, but people weren't too obsessed on it, unlike in America where the craze really caught on there early. People knew of Dragon ball Z and Sailor Moon, which I remember waking up at 6am every morning to catch Cheese TV to watch it cos we didn't have cable haha
I can go on and on about how I found out about manga and anime and all the Japanese stuff, but what I really wanted to do was to write on the current obscure or not so popular mangas out there that I read religiously every week.
Not to be confused with Kingdom Hearts which is a console game, this manga/anime/story is a Japanese adaptation on the Warring States Period of Ancient China around 475-221 BC (kingdom wiki 2013). This is before the time of Qing Shi Huang (秦始皇帝) during his younger years prior to him unifing China into, well.. 中國 (Zhong Guo aka China).
秦始皇 (Qing Shi Huang) was China's first emperor and was the one who built the great wall among many things.
I am a huge fan of the ancient worlds and of history so anything to do with it intrigues me already haha
Kingdom follows the story of two war orphans Xin (Shin-depending on translations) and Piao whom were orphaned during the war and lived the life as slaves of a small lords household. They both dreamt of becoming great generals of the heavens (top generals of China) and wished to have their name craved into history, to do so the two best friends practised their sword martial arts every day to become stronger.
Little will they know that a chance encounter with the newly crowned prince will change their lives entirely.
Do not be fooled by its art work as my bf told me he was put off by the manga because the artwork is a bit odd, and therefore his missed out on this wonderful story, I mean yes the artwork might not be super pleasing to the eye, but there is that saying "don't judge a book by its cover" what this story entails overcomes all the oddness of its artwork.
I love how Yasuhisa Hara (the author/artist) is able to create a historical manga but still leave it entertaining enough for someone like me to read it and enjoy it. I have read lots of historical mangas or the Chinese Man Hua which although yes its accurate or has amazing art work, it bores me to death with their lengthy character dialogues and super lengthy explanations, Kingdom however manages to balance it out really nicely and on top of it, for the first time in a long time, I absolutely adore the main character!! I will end up actually cheering and laughing out loud when things go right for Xin (Shin) or like when the baddies end up doing/saying stupid things. This manga is super engaging and leaves you wanting more.
The actual raws of the manga (original Japanese, untranslated version) has been available online for the longest time, it is only recently people started to translate it and only recently (maybe 4-5 months ago) was I introduced to it through one my of 'random manga readings whilst I wait for naruto updates'
To all the translators out there, please please please update this one! I'm such a hardcore fan right out of it lol
I can go on and on about this one manga, but I must move on to introduce another....
This one is a Korean Webtoon (like a blog, but it is the artist's blog where they upload their manhwa 'korean comic strip' for people to read)
webtoons are also very lengthy as in, one page might be as long as like 10 pages so translators actually have to cut the one page into 10 smaller pages for readers to read.
It is about a young boy Song Jae-gu who has to take care of his younger siblings by himself due to his mother abandoning them after their dads death and due to such he developed weird phobias on and of woman, borderline hatred towards them, that was until he enrolled into a very prestigious high school. The only reason he got in was because they wanted to go from being an all girls school to co-ed and they offered a spot for any male who wanted to try it out, so long as his grades are decent everything is paid for. The thing about the school is that it isnt just some typical girls high school, but it is a school for martial arts fighting, all styles any style from Chinese styled kung fu to boxing, all the girls in the school aim to excel in any fighting sports and some do like one of the main female protagonist called Queen (best in everything and is filthy rich).
The author tried to make Queen more likeable by making her like a socially awkward person but I honestly still cant seem to like her, mainly because she has everything, regardless of what 'hardships' she seems to go through, a character whom has the riches, the good family support, excelling in everything and is uber popular, I really cant bring myself to liking those characters lol call it tall poppy syndrome or whatever but yeh although I have nothing against people who are rich or happy or successful, just in mangas its like bleh I know I know your life is perfect, now move on please lol
The story mainly has 4 main characters, the boy and then 3 girls. The story line is very similar to any Japanese female mangas like high school setting with the daily school struggles and like the main character normally be friends the hot people and like life gets better etc but in this manga, the roles are reversed lol
here you have a shy timid male whose unsure of himself and his place in the world where bullying was a normal occurrence for him to be thrown into something completely abnormal and made to change with the help of 3 of the most popular and confident girls you can find, like these girls dont back down, if guys think they can take these girls on because they are girls then lmao fun things happen xD
As you can see by the amount of stuff Im writing I am thoroughly loving this manhwa/manga/man hua (however you wanna say it, it all means comic in the end in English lol)
Great mix of action and romance and I love Choi Dal Dal !!!
She's so adorable but crazy at the same time xD I have a love for weird wacky characters and not to mention she's a shortie and I am short, and short people gotta stick together, even if it is a character, right?
I should move on or else this'll never end lol
Ive recently found a little gem called ...
It is centred on a clever genius by the name of Frost, he hasn't revealed his full name yet (from the chapter I am up to) and we might never know as the author said even they dont know yet lol so yar its a mystery. What he is good at is what Sherlock Holmes would say "the art of deduction" but rather than solve mystery cases of murder or foul play, Dr.Frost uses a technique similar to that to find out what is wrong with his patients and then treat them. He is a psychology counsellor I think would be a good term for him, as he is a psychologist but he doesn't just explain or study it but rather treats patients and learn from that.
As baka-updates (a manga site) refers to:
"We trust professionals with our money. We also trust professionals with our bodies. We even trust them with the most meticulous tasks, like decorating our homes and educating our children. Even marriage decisions. We could trust professionals with so many things. However, what about our minds?
The story of a genius psychologist, Dr. Fros"
Added the drawings are absolutely beautiful and it is all in color! I love how Koreans draw their manhwas (mangas) their style is so fookn pretty and semi realistic and like if I were a cartoon character, I wanna look like a Korean manhwa character lol
To put it into perspective, think of Blade and Soul the game, and image those pictures. You cant? Okies hows about this...
To finish this entry off (without wanting to fill everyones mind up with too much manga introductions)
I have to add in here,
I love how most of the characters have Yi in their names which is similar to my name (but all of them are guys...so I guess its cool but also weird I guess)
I really do love all the historical stuff, real or made up so this manga really caught my eye and I am waiting impatiently like I always do for the next chapter. Added I love all their costumes, looks amazingly nice and I do adore the current Emperor, which is the son of the evil murderer lady but still, his a red head and his hot. lolol
I really envisioned making an entry filled with lots of manga and like write up small summaries of them for you guys to read but I guess when I talk, I talk alot so I ended up blabbering on alot =/ I will end this entry here and continue with my manga talk next time!
Lastly just because manga is seemingly for kiddies because of all the drawings does not mean we need to dumb down to just reading all the popular mainstream stuff, there are a whole abundance of stories out there for us to discover and it is so much fun discovering it so have fun whilst you go on and uncover mangas of your own liking!
If not feel free to just read my blog <3
Take care and until next time
xoxo M3
The author tried to make Queen more likeable by making her like a socially awkward person but I honestly still cant seem to like her, mainly because she has everything, regardless of what 'hardships' she seems to go through, a character whom has the riches, the good family support, excelling in everything and is uber popular, I really cant bring myself to liking those characters lol call it tall poppy syndrome or whatever but yeh although I have nothing against people who are rich or happy or successful, just in mangas its like bleh I know I know your life is perfect, now move on please lol
The story mainly has 4 main characters, the boy and then 3 girls. The story line is very similar to any Japanese female mangas like high school setting with the daily school struggles and like the main character normally be friends the hot people and like life gets better etc but in this manga, the roles are reversed lol
here you have a shy timid male whose unsure of himself and his place in the world where bullying was a normal occurrence for him to be thrown into something completely abnormal and made to change with the help of 3 of the most popular and confident girls you can find, like these girls dont back down, if guys think they can take these girls on because they are girls then lmao fun things happen xD
As you can see by the amount of stuff Im writing I am thoroughly loving this manhwa/manga/man hua (however you wanna say it, it all means comic in the end in English lol)
Great mix of action and romance and I love Choi Dal Dal !!!
She's so adorable but crazy at the same time xD I have a love for weird wacky characters and not to mention she's a shortie and I am short, and short people gotta stick together, even if it is a character, right?
I should move on or else this'll never end lol
Ive recently found a little gem called ...
It is centred on a clever genius by the name of Frost, he hasn't revealed his full name yet (from the chapter I am up to) and we might never know as the author said even they dont know yet lol so yar its a mystery. What he is good at is what Sherlock Holmes would say "the art of deduction" but rather than solve mystery cases of murder or foul play, Dr.Frost uses a technique similar to that to find out what is wrong with his patients and then treat them. He is a psychology counsellor I think would be a good term for him, as he is a psychologist but he doesn't just explain or study it but rather treats patients and learn from that.
As baka-updates (a manga site) refers to:
"We trust professionals with our money. We also trust professionals with our bodies. We even trust them with the most meticulous tasks, like decorating our homes and educating our children. Even marriage decisions. We could trust professionals with so many things. However, what about our minds?
The story of a genius psychologist, Dr. Fros"
I am a sucker for clever manga's like ones which aren't always just fantasy and made up stuff, but things which go beyond the surface and makes you think, understand and then learn. If you watch "Lie to Me" then you will love this manga.
It is similar in the sense that it is about psychology, except where one shows all what psychology can do (lie to me), the other (Dr.Frost) shows us how its done and why.
Like I said I am a sucker for all the clever intelligent stuff, namely because I myself aren't always or if ever, the brightest thing in terms for worldly knowledge, so I want to learn and absorb all the information through anything possible. Mangas like naruto or gundam or any really mainstream ones are entertaining yes, but you get tired of it because there is nothing to learn from (except from all the overly blown issues of friendship and love and stuff), so I tend to escape those and balance it out with mangas like these.
Added the drawings are absolutely beautiful and it is all in color! I love how Koreans draw their manhwas (mangas) their style is so fookn pretty and semi realistic and like if I were a cartoon character, I wanna look like a Korean manhwa character lol
To put it into perspective, think of Blade and Soul the game, and image those pictures. You cant? Okies hows about this...
 |
| Ignore the overly enlarged bewbs, the game was developed by boys what can we expect? lol |
To finish this entry off (without wanting to fill everyones mind up with too much manga introductions)
I have to add in here,
Not to be confused with "Twelfth Night" which is a comedy work by William Shakespeare, Twelve Night centres around the crowned prince of a state in Korea whose mother, the Empress was murdered one faithful night by none other than the calculating concubine of the late King. By wanting to have her own son, to the throne, she ended up having half the court officials plan out a huge castle fire which is used as a mask for the assassination of the queen and her son. Chaos and betrayal that night led to the young prince and his loyal retainer to sneak out of the palace at the order of his mother to hide in the red light district of the city.
Red light district aka the brothels aka the prostitution or "pleasure" quarters, where they meet a gisaeng or geisha in Japanese, which basically is a higher class prostitute/adult entertainer, who was once betrothed to a male official of the court who was loyal to the Queen.
Years have since passed and the concubine succeeded in getting her son onto the throne, but whilst all is seemingly good, behind the scenes the crowned prince is getting ready for his revenge and to take back what is rightfully his as the Crimson Moon huehuehue
Years have since passed and the concubine succeeded in getting her son onto the throne, but whilst all is seemingly good, behind the scenes the crowned prince is getting ready for his revenge and to take back what is rightfully his as the Crimson Moon huehuehue
 |
| from left: Nabi, Yi Wan(or Wein, cant really see), Yi Hwi, Dan Ah, and Yi Jeok |
I love how most of the characters have Yi in their names which is similar to my name (but all of them are guys...so I guess its cool but also weird I guess)
I really do love all the historical stuff, real or made up so this manga really caught my eye and I am waiting impatiently like I always do for the next chapter. Added I love all their costumes, looks amazingly nice and I do adore the current Emperor, which is the son of the evil murderer lady but still, his a red head and his hot. lolol
I really envisioned making an entry filled with lots of manga and like write up small summaries of them for you guys to read but I guess when I talk, I talk alot so I ended up blabbering on alot =/ I will end this entry here and continue with my manga talk next time!
Lastly just because manga is seemingly for kiddies because of all the drawings does not mean we need to dumb down to just reading all the popular mainstream stuff, there are a whole abundance of stories out there for us to discover and it is so much fun discovering it so have fun whilst you go on and uncover mangas of your own liking!
If not feel free to just read my blog <3
Take care and until next time
xoxo M3
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