Thursday 2 January 2014

ADDICTED TO THIS MANGA RIGHT NOW: Psyren - Toshiaki Iwashiro

How do I put this?

I wrote a VERY LONG review for this manga I am obsessed with, took me about 5 hours straight, but to my dismay Blogger malfunctioned and I lost it all. I was so upset (and pissed at myself) that I didn't have the heart to rewrite at the time, so I made it a draft and tried again. Hence, a New Year's post ten days late. I will be adding as I go along, no time to write it all up now at once now. Sorry.
__________________________________________

Hey heyyyy! Still here? Great. Excellent. c: Welcome to '14.

Am I still here? O_O
Well thank fuck for that too.



As I said before, all blogs will be updated today;
Alter Ego Writer, Image Archive, Pink Sovereign, DVTJ, and BGF.

But unfortunately, the other 4 blogs took so long that I missed 'today' but 30 mins, and it is now the 2nd of January =( I'm sad. I didn't achieve my goal.

=(

That's actually made me very very sad. I hate not sticking to my word. What a failure. (e_e) I'm gonna have to try not to be gloomy now.

Don't be stupid. There's gonna be spoilers, okay?




On this blog, I'm starting the new year by focussing on something that made/makes me really happy. I don't think I focussed on that enough last year, and yes sometimes it couldn't be helped, but that's even more reason to minimise the chance of that happening again.

BASICALLY


I'm addicted to this series, now for too many reasons to name. To mimic the review I wrote on Amazon, I was interested up until Volume 8 which, for me, COMPLETELY SWITCHED UP THE GAME. Since then I have been hungryyyyy for it. I bought 9-13 and made myself read each volume slowly, and with a long time between them, because Psyren 14 isn't actually out yet. It's released this month (Hooraay, it's January!) and 15 is in March or May =S I remember it was an 'M' month. I also remember that it's TOO FAR AWAY (e_e)

I accidentally on purpose read one volume too many because 11 ended on too much of a cliffhanger for me to bear, so I read 12 too. It's just too good.

Ageha, Miroku and Granar!!!
Story

I love how as the story goes on, it progresses so much that when I remember how the story started, it always stuns me. It is a really great story. It's a shonen (boys) manga, so it's got a lot of action but a fair share of romance, mystery, sci-fi and fantasy in there too. The action is drawn really really well, just like in my favourite manga ever, and unlike King Of Hell, which had an excellent story but.... *sigh* it was just too messy. Psyren takes it to whole new levels by introducing more and more powerful characters, and also alternate timelines as well. I'm telling you, I am so hooked.


World

I like the world of Psyren, which turns out to be dystopian Japan. I dunno why I'm so drawn to this dystopia stuff! Or maybe it's just so popular that I can't escape it (e_e) It's well drawn, and geneally speaking, believable. Well. Until the meteor... *sigh*


Characters


Maaan.



I had a really hard time telling which one Kabuto was!

Pre V8 Top Ten Favourite Characters

1. Oboro :D
2. Shiner =3
3. Ageha
4. Amamiya
5. Hiryu
6. Frederika
7. Shao
8. Matsuri-sensei
9. Kagetora
10. Kyle


[1] Oboro is my FAVOURITEEE character from Volumes 1-7. He has this curiosity and confidence that allows him to do things that others wouldn't dare, and that makes him a bit frightening. There's this bit in one of the early volumes where he's slacking off his training, and when Mitsuri-sensei and Kagetora calls him up, he uses Enhance Psy so impressively that everybody is just stunned. As Kagetora is really fast and skilled at fighting, it was like *drop-jaw* to see Oboro snatch his glasses off his FACE. Dude, I LOVE that bit.



[2] Shiner is in many ways like Oboro. I love how he's so powerful and has such a messed up sense of morality, yet he's always smiling and cheerfully laughing. It's really creepy, but that's why I lub him :D (I also thought he was a girl at first. lol.) [3, 4, 5] Ageha, Sakurako and Hiryu are the main characters, so they have to go in. I do love them, and they carefully avoided being sterotypes, which is good ^_^

Freddy! <3 font="">

[6] Frederika is such a spoilt brat, but because she's a child it's somehow very charming. She's a bossy boots but because she's never vindictive, it's so cuteee. I love Shao [7] because he's incredibly intuitive for a child and that makes his power even more fascinating. I love the bit where he watches Ageha leave the very first time and says, "A starry sky". I adored that bit. He's always so quiet and reserved and that made him seem so wise, even though he's so small!

I liked Mitsuri [8] because she had that punky badass way about her that was really cool. Though it's quite unclear what sort of Psy she's supposed to have... okay, maybe I wasn't paying attention XD Kagetora [9] was just awesome. A gangster with Psy?! Now we're talkin'! The fact that he's a yakuza made him really interesting, I think. Finally, [10] KYLE! God he's so cute! It was so sweet how quickly he bonded with Ageha.


Elmore Wood gang Pre-Volume 8


Volume 8 (and technically onwards (okay, 8-10, I'm up to V10 now. (Okay, I lied. V12. =] )))

1. SHAO, OH MY GODDD!
1. SHAO. I CANNOT GET OVER SHAO. HE NEEDS A DOUBLE MENTION.
1. Such a badass! (Kinda like when Link is put in Hypersleep in TLoZ: Ocarina Of Time and wakes up an adult. He was badass too.)


Awww, lookaddim when he woz a kid! Aww


He is my FAVOURITE character without a shadow of a doubt. When Shao grows up, he become incredibly adept at Psy and I just can't even begin to imagine how much strength and knowledge he's amassed over those years. I was GUTTED because Volume 8 gave a taste of what he could do, but I wanted to see so much moreee!! =( Also he ends up having a crush on O_O Mari! It's so cute! (And also totally unexpected.)

*phew* Okay here's the rest of the list.

2. Shiner
3. Granar
4. Kyle
5. Oboro
6. Van
7. Kagetora
8. Ageha
9. Amamiya/Avis
10. Tatsuo


I still love Shiner [2]. [3] Granar I became quite obsessed with after Volume 11, when he faces off Miroku Amagi. In all honesty I was interested from the moment I found out he was Star Commander 1, because I knew he had to be freaking powerful. But in the earlier volumes we didn't really see him at all. Volume 11 goes AAAAAALL OUT! The two most powerful Psy users in the manga so far in a battle. It was just toooo good.
(I've seen it spelt Grana as well, which really confuses me, but I don't much care. Prefer Granar.)

Kyle [4] is bigger, better and badder than he was as a kid. He still has some of the playfulness, but some of it is replaced by a determination that makes him more serious. His Psy has improved like crazy. Oboro [5] isn't actually seen much in these volumes after he gets transported by Shiner, but he still deserves to be on the list!

Grown up Kyle!

[6] Van I ADORE. Because he has such big blue eyes, he still has a lot of his childlike look. He's a lot less shy now and talks a lot more, so we can see that his nature is actually quite adoring and friendly, which I just love. There's this mini-series in the filler pages of Volume 9 called A Day In The Life Of Van which I couldn't get enough of. I laughed SO much. I couldn't not put him on the list!


Grown up Van =]

[7] Kagetora is even more determined than before. It's cool how the fighting sequences show off his unexpected strengths in Psy. The fact that he has a strong moral compass (sometimes lol)makes him even more interesting. [8] Even though Ageha is lower on the list this time, I actually like him a LOT more. Like, ten times more. (It's just because everybody's getting so goooood!!!) He's developing his Melzez Door in new and exciting ways that nobody would have thought of. The fact that he's continually getting stronger makes him such a great protagonist.

[9] Amamiya ends up with an alter ego that comes about from her locking away her horrors and hurt from playing this intensely brutal game Psyren. I like that she has an extra added subplot for her character, making her even more interesting. But how Abyss Amamiya actually manifests is anyone's guess. *shrug* I have to assume its only able to do that because of her Psy. I like how when "Avis" uses Sakurako Amamiya's mindjack Insanity Scythe, it becomes a lot more twisted and lethal looking. I DON'T get why Avis is essentially black and Amamiya is white. It's very bizarre! In anime and manga, I'm used to alter ego's being evident from hair colour or eye colour change, not skin colour change (lol). I suppose as it's black and white, they had to think of something!! I dunno. They could've just changed her hair or whatever.


Amamiya, and Abyss Amamaiya

Finallyy, Tatsuo [10]. I dunno why I like him more now than I did before, I just do. I just really like his character. I really can't explain myself more than that!!!



Almost Made The 'Post Vol 8' List

Nemesis Q's creator aka No. 7: although she is a total bitch, I hate her and love her at the same time. But hate her first. She's apathetic, but not in the intriguing way like Miharu - in the fucking aggravating way. But I still want to see more of her.... is that wrong?! >=(
Miroku Amagi aka No. 6: When he was pretending to be the Inui guy's brother, I was drooling to know more about him when it was realised that he had an ulterior motive. But when he dropped the facade, he became your standard run-of-the-mill villian, with evil laugh and all. I was drooling again when you saw the flashback of his child self (Volume 11), when he was Number 6 and had no name. Seeing his past was really cool. But Volume 12 didn't give us much else and I don't think there is much else to him. So, he didn't make the list.
Mr Usui: This is the fake cop who tried to kill Nemesis Q's creator, Number 7. Without him, we wouldn't know who she is! *nod encouragingly* Mr Usui is... deliciously evilll. I do hate his guts. He's so mean. But amist all this chaos of the Who's Right and Who's Wrong, I suppose it was nice to have a character where we can go, OKAY, HE'S A BAD GUY. I'm allowed to hate his guts.


Number 6 as a kid, before he was Miroku Amagi =] SO CUTE!!


Powers

Definitely some X-men going on here. =D

Being in Psyren unlocks a special Psionic power conveniently called 'Psy'. There are 3 types of Psy; Blast, Enhance, and Trance. At first, I thought it was gonna be the old; 'There's three categories but somehow the protagonist fist into an unknown fourth', but actually it developed into something a lot more incredible which is why I ended up loving the series so much.

The characters develop their particular Psy into a special, unique type of power that they often call a 'program'. This allows a huge array of powers in the manga even thought they all come from three overlying categories. If that wasn't enough, they can develop these programs or even combine them to make different forms. It is truly amazing.

These are my favourites.

1. Granar's 'Dying Sun' or 'Sun Fall' - bends light in order to disintegrate matter
No surprises. He's No. 01, we expect him to be the most powerful!

2. Miroku's 'Tree Of Sephiroth: Geruvah' - tree of light which destroys what it pierces through. Mostly. LOL.
Visually, this ability looks amazing. It is also very powerful and Miroku has already developed lots of different programs for it.

3. Ageha's 'Melzez Door' - absorbs all surrounding Psy and destroys anything it touches.
As the lead character, it was an interesting choice to give him a power he couldn't control. As he continues to grow and develop programs for it (lance, discs, vortex) it makes following Ageha's journey really fun.

ALSO
4. Shao 'Ying-Yang Shinra' (isn't it 'yin'?) or 'Shinra Bansho' - Negates another Psy user's power
5. Ran's 'Trick Room' - two large cubes appear in different places, what's inside one box can be transferred to the other. Basically, teleportation.
6. Shiner 'Hexagonal Transfer System' - a different form of teleportation. A hexagon appears on the ground and removes whatever is inside to another location.




Yah, I don't get...

- Why Matsuri has a catsuit that has her cleavage hanging out. I suppose she has the same zipper problem as Catwoman.
- How the timeline things works out with Number 7 aka Nemesis Q's creator. So is she sending them to her 'game' psyren is the present or in the future? How does she manipulate the phones, and how does she manipulate the cards and the points on them? Is she INFINITELY POWERFUL???
- Why people have developed Psy in the present if you can only get Psy by being exposed to the atmosphere in Psyren aka. Future Japan. Unless I'm mistaken.





Will write more later, I am EXHAUSTED right now!




Me.

P.S. Sorry for typos.
I really should care more about them XD