9 replies to this topic

[Comadrin]

This has to be one of my favorite manga of all time. If anyone doesn't like the plot, they probably would not like Kenji Miyazawa's works either. This manga has at least three different styles of art in it, and the story is one that I find mind-blowing. There is romance, side-splitting humor, and pathos of a style I have only seen in a Miyazaki film production. I find it to be an addicting and engrossing read, and wonder why it is as neglected as it is.

I'm a caucasian manga reader, and would go to Hiroshima and Nagasaki if I could be in Japan. As a former US Marine, I know why we fought against Japan, but I also know that the Japanese populace was as guilty of the rape of Nanking as the people of Kansas were guilty of the fire bombing of Dresden and Tokyo.

This manga has comedy, pathos, romance, supernatural, and it ties them all together seamlessly; Pretty incredible. The German girl, in love with a Japanese soldier, who has lost his leg. Arashi, who returns to the battlefield, again and again, just to save a certain person. She doesn't know if it's the right thing to do, but she can't stop trying to save people. Damnit, is it wrong to try to save someone you know is going to die? Yet she keeps coming back, time and again.  What the hell is wrong with trying to save the innocents.

This is a manga that is smacking us up side the head, Japanese or American. I love it, and love the characters. As a gaijin, it makes me laugh, cry, and feel for all of our characters. It's Great!!!

Edited by Comadrin, 10 March 2016 - 01:32 AM.

[Purple Library Guy]

I'm really liking it too. Somehow today I'm not in as articulate a mood as usual, so I find it hard to sum up . . . there's a lot of subtlety and complexity here, but also a fair amount of simple direct appeal, and I'm not feeling up to describing it all. But yeah, very nice manga.

[Comadrin]

I get the impression from chapter 20 that we are about to find out more about the "master" of the coffee shop. She is definitely quite a character. I also loved the way that Yayoi blew away the yakuza, that was hilarious. Looking forward to the next installment!

[Comadrin]

Amazing couple of chapters. This manga really defies description and genre, as it seems to have a little bit of everything in it. After seeing Yayoi's strength against the yakuza, I guess it wouldn't be that surprising that Kanoko is capable of making someone as massive as Hideo fly through the air, either.

[Comadrin]

Reading the latest chapters posted, 22-26, I was really impressed with the development of Arashi's character.  I always liked her happy-go-lucky personality and her caring character, but her talks with Kaja and Jun really showed a mature and thoughtful side of her.  Kobayashi-sensei has done a really great job in creating an extremely complex character in Arashi.  The more chapters I read of the manga, the more I like it.

[hisui火水]

Wow, now I feel like I have to give it a try. After the HUGE fiasco that was School Rumble (I read it all!), I had lost all hope on the mangaka. Natsu no Arashi then had as few as 1 or 2 chapters translated, so I didn't even have a clear impression of it.

 

Put on my future reads. I'm piling heaps of manga to read and still catch up, so when I'm done I'll be back.

[Purple Library Guy]

This is the same person?!  Yeah, School Rumble--it had some hilarious moments, but taken as a whole it was a mess.  It was like the mangaka created all these exaggerated characters with motivations at complete cross purposes (OK, yes, that was part of the joke) and then lost control of them all.  I didn't actually read the whole thing, but that's the impression I've gotten from what I did read, watch, and hear about.

This has hints of that.  For instance, I notice the kid who started as the male lead has sort of drifted into the background, unable to really hold his own against some of the colorful people who have come in since.  But the people at least notice each other and to varying extents care, there isn't this sort of near-solipsistic monomania that pushed the School Rumble characters to sort of slide past each other.  Hopefully the whole thing won't melt down.

Edited by Purple Library Guy, 15 May 2014 - 11:16 PM.

[Comadrin]

I hope it won't melt down also.  I never really got into School Rumble, but from what I read of it, this seems to be a totally different kind of story, and far more serious in most respects.  I got really hooked on it after the original chapters were posted by the first scanlator, and have enjoyed it more and more as time went on.  

[texasrenger]

well i only remember that there are a anime of this manga and they are very different.

[Comadrin]

I never watched the anime, but I love the manga.  It really resonates with me on a story-telling level and draws me into its' world in a way many manga and written works don't.  I've also learned a great deal by tracking down historical references mentioned here, like the filmmaker Mizoguchi Kenji and Professor Richard Heise (kind of a German Lafcadio Hearn).  All in all, this is probably my favorite work since I started reading manga.  I'm definitely happy that SRF is still scanlating this.