HI GUYS! It's Friday! Fridays are now officially manga nerd day!

Group Manga Read Through

This is pretty simple:

1. Every Friday I'll post a thread for a chapter of the manga. I'll post it on my mornings whenever possible, so it should be up by the time Friday starts for everyone in America etc.

2. Read the chapter. You can read any version you like - mixx, kodanasha, scanlation of choice, in English or Japanese or something else entirely.

3. Post your thoughts! Post your thoughts about other people's thoughts! Post your favourite panel or something that you think looks really weird!

4. Bonus: compare versions!




VOLUME 1, ACT 1: Usagi - Sailor Moon


Here we are! Right at the beginning! Little does she know, etc etc!

Have at, guys.

OK, so I'm reading through v.1 for the second time for this! I read it for the first time with the Kodanasha release, but that's gone back to the library now, so I'm doing this with reference to Miss Dream's scanlations.


First: I keep being struck by how funny I find the manga. It really surprised me, because the humour in the anime feels a lot more hit-and-miss for me - pretty often it doesn't really work, or doesn't work completely. But the visual humour and overblown silliness in the manga cracks. me. up. The whole sequence where Usagi falls over Luna and then gets jumped on by her, for example. Hee!


Second: OH MAN Mamoru, just hangin' in my tux on the street. WITH SUNGLASSES. TUX AND SUNGLASSES. It's like he couldn't decide if he wanted to go for upper class prat or blues brothers and was like, hell, LET'S DO BOTH. He just needs a hat. Someone get that man a hat.



PFFFT. TOTALLY INCONSPICUOUS.


Third: Fascinated by the differences in the costume and transformation from the anime. And I am kind of in love with the ridiculousness of the goggles! Which she can see people in danger in! FTW!


And finally: Usagi and her final D:-face at the end of the chapter. O NOES NOT JUST A DREAM. Aaaaaw. Otherwise this doesn't feel like it's all that different from the anime, though I like the atmosphere of it more, I think.

I'm also interested to see how the manga's style is going to change as it progresses, since I get the feeling there are a bunch of details here that are probably going to shift around and fall away?


P.S.





P.P.S.



Usagi you are too funny.

(Kodansha translation)

I am loving the color pages. Usagi looks so cute on the title page (even though I can see her butt. *Giggle*).

(Reference to 1st page). Does she really take the time before going to bed to put that many pink ribbons in her hair? Usagi's hair is beautiful, but I would never have the time to take care of that much hair. Washing and brushing must take forever.

(Reference to page . The look on Luna's face is priceless when Usagi kisses her! I love that her tail frizzed up, too.

It is so sad that Naru (and Motkoi) got the short end of the stick as the manga progresses. Not only does she lose her best friend, Usagi, but she becomes the target for the first few seasons. Naru was supposed to be Usagi's best friend. Forgotten Friends by Dejana Talis makes me want to slap Mamoru and Usagi upside the head each time I read it for ditching their best friends.

Lol! It is ridiculous for Mamoru to be wearing a tuxedo in the middle of the day, but he does looks handsome when wearing it. The tuxedo looks better than that awful green jacket, black shirt, and slacks combination he always wears in the anime. Does he have multiples of that outfit in his closet or something?

Yeah, a whole bunch of little details do seem to fall away as the manga progresses. For one, the senshi get some really nifty accessories that are only used once or twice.

Luna is seriously hilarious. It gets so much better with manga because of more detailed expressions and all that, I think.

Aagh Anime!Mamoru's fashion sense, someone take it out and shoot it. Yeah, I guess anything is better than that!

Kodansha version-

Luna actually has hair, she doesn't look like a naked cat. Sometimes I always wondered if her and Artie where Sphynx and not just domesetic house cats. They never have hair.

I also like how they reworded a few things from the Mixx translation, its a bit easier to read. I also love the colored pictures in the beginning though the Japanese version has a bit more to it. I will get pics of that when I can.

Siren wrote:

I also like how they reworded a few things from the Mixx translation, its a bit easier to read. I also love the colored pictures in the beginning though the Japanese version has a bit more to it. I will get pics of that when I can.

This, so much. I know I'm not the only one who could do without the Wizard of Oz and Schwartzenegger references! XD

Anyway... I've read Act 1 so many times, it's not even funny. Great chapter, I love the differences from the anime, particularly the bit with the goggles. They just made a lot more sense.

Quote :

Lol! It is ridiculous for Mamoru to be wearing a tuxedo in the middle of
the day, but he does looks handsome when wearing it. The tuxedo looks
better than that awful green jacket, black shirt, and slacks combination
he always wears in the anime. Does he have multiples of that outfit in
his closet or something?

That is so true!!! I never understood why he was wearing a tuxedo during the day time.

I never understood why Sailor Moon had that mask/goggles. I get the purpose it helps her sees where the the monster is, but she just takes them off. If you're going to have them wear them!

I love Sailor Moon's broach in the manga over the anime. It's so pretty!! The same goes for her tiara.

I think Usagi had the goggles because at the beginning of the series, Sailor Moon was like a sequel to Sailor V and they probably dropped the goggles when it started to become its own independent series. I personally liked Usagi's goggles because it helped hide her secret identity better. In the anime, she never wore any goggles and she looked just like she did in her civilian form so it never really made much sense why no one recognized her.

I so wish Usagi used that outfit-changing pen more often as the series progressed. It was really neat and very helpful.