telophase: (Mark - ossu! // art:  telophase)
telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2007-11-15 03:18 pm

(no subject)

So I have a Borders coupon and I know the closest Borders has both Samurai Deeper Kyo 25 and Fruits Basket 18. My lunchtime plans were foreordained.

And as I'm scanning the shelves for anything new, I see this manga I've never seen before. It's called Hikkatsu! Strike a Blow to Vivify, and has a picture of a fierce-looking shounen-style teenage boy in a fierce martial-artsy pose. The back reads:
In Earth's distant future, geomagnetic abnormalities make every day a struggle to survive. The human race faces its greatest threat -- not from aliens, meteors or global warming, but ordinary every day appliances! With even the most basic of machines going haywire, one man holds the hope of Earth in his hands: karate student Shota, who can beat any appliance into submission with his Repair Blow technique!
And so I open it up and read a few pages, because who wouldn't?

It starts with a scene from Shota's childhood, where he's in a karate class and gets yelled at by his master for using karate for fighting. Yeah, I know. He's supposed to use it only to make other people's lives better. While most shounen heroes solve this problem by making people's lives better through fighting people who want to make people's lives worse, Shota is inspired while walking home when he sees a man make a TV work by bashing the top of it.

Fast-forward to the present. The machine apocalypse has come and gone. Tokyo is a sort of technological wasteland, with sand drifting in between the skyscrapers. A public-address system warns the populace that a static charge is coming and to get into shelters. A young woman with a bird on her head pays no attention, because a vending machine is holding her ramen hostage. A quick flashback show us that she was RAISED BY PIGEONS, and has left the nest to find the love of her life and raise a family, along with the small amount of money, washers, and other shiny things that the PIGEONS WHO RAISED HER collected for her as a farewell gift, a large portion of which (200 yen) the evil vending machine has just eaten.

Shota is walking by, sees her and her plight, and destroys the evil vending machine with one mighty blow! The girl, who was RAISED BY PIGEONS, falls instantly in love!

Yeah. They had me at RAISED BY PIGEONS. (I see now that there's a note on the back explaining the manga is by the same mangaka who did Those Who Hunt Elves, which probably explains a lot.)

AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY I READ MANGA.

[Poll #1089351]


[livejournal.com profile] rachelmanija, I sort of think you should have a T-shirt with a picture of Shota's sensei screaming HOW MANY TIMES MUST I TELL YOU NOT TO USE KARATE FOR FIGHTING?!
oyceter: You are watching anime. Caution! (anime is crack)

[personal profile] oyceter 2007-11-15 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Every time I think manga cannot surprise me any more, it does! I heart it so much!

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm going to go around screaming RAISED BY PIGEONS at random times today.

[identity profile] doinkies.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Raised by pigeons, eh?

This manga is either A: really really good, in that doinky-B-movie way where it's so bad it's good, or B: really really doinky. :P
chomiji: Crazed Oda Nobunaga from SDK, with the caption Manga saved my sanity! (manga sanity)

[personal profile] chomiji 2007-11-15 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)


Hee ... that's what I did yesterday and today. Borders in Silver Spring didn't have SDK (although they did have Furuba), and the little comics shop down the street from them had it but had not unpacked it yet, and couldn't be bothered to open the box for me even though I was standing there with my wallet in my hot little hands!!!



If their proximity to Borders puts them out of business, they will have no one to blame but themselves.



So I got it at the White Flint Borders today instead.


chomiji: Cartoon of chomiji in the style of the Powerpuff Girls (Yuya-say what?)

[personal profile] chomiji 2007-11-15 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)


... yeah, but we know that's just your excuse!


[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, yeah. XD

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm hoping it's so bad it's good.

[identity profile] rachelmanija.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I must have this manga! The T-shirt too!!!

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Ai-yi-yi! And then I'm sure they'll put out some sort of ad thing for fans complaining about the Big Box Stores and how you don't get personalized service from them.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
If I remember, I'll scan that panel in tonight. The sensei is disturbingly reminiscent of Ichigo's dad. Only not quite so crazy-making in the eyeballs.
oyceter: teruterubouzu default icon (Default)

[personal profile] oyceter 2007-11-15 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I think that's a perfectly reasonable response.

I mean, really! RAISED BY PIGEONS!

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I kind of want to collar random people walking down the halls of the library, shove this book into their face, and scream RAISED BY PIGEONS! Because EVERYONE MUST KNOW OF THIS!

[identity profile] badnoodles.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 09:52 pm (UTC)(link)
This sounds like so much awesome that I (who have never read manga before in my life) need to investigate. And probably purchase.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
This is why I buy so much manga, because just occasionally you find THE GOOD CRACK.

[identity profile] madspark.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
"You have head pigeons - go to the nurse."

From the animated Zim....
chomiji: Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach in his Hollow form, with the caption Surprise! (ichigo hollow-surprise!)

[personal profile] chomiji 2007-11-15 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)


(The Young Lady was deeply disturbed by the idea that I find Ichigo's father rather hot ... .)



[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
(I don't blame her! XD Not that I have any room to be speaking...)

[identity profile] heyoka.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
RAISED BY WHAT?

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 10:59 pm (UTC)(link)
RAISED BY PIGEONS!
ext_3743: (Chaos (Dejana_Talis))

[identity profile] umadoshi.livejournal.com 2007-11-15 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
...pigeons. *_* Oh, manga. *g*

[identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com 2007-11-16 12:44 am (UTC)(link)
It is because the Young Lady is young yet. Give her time. (Read Vol 21 today and was reminded of this fact of hotness.)

[identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com 2007-11-16 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
Do you have any idea what it was like reading your posts in reverse as I worked my way back through the f-list, the anticipation building to know anything beyond "glorious amazing amounts of ccccccccrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaacccccccccckkkkkkkkkkk!!!!"

*must find*

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-16 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Haaaa!

I just scanned several pages from it - expect PROOF of this glorious crack in half an hour or so!
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2007-11-16 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Raised by pigeons is pretty good. Not as awesometastic as raised by penguins, which I hold out hopes of seeing, but pretty good.

---L.

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-16 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
There is much manga out there. I suspect that one day it will happen, even if it's by the million-monkeys-on-typewriters effect.
ext_6385: (Default)

RAISED BY PIGEONS!!!!!

[identity profile] shewhohashope.livejournal.com 2007-11-16 11:05 am (UTC)(link)
That's all I have to say.

Re: RAISED BY PIGEONS!!!!!

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2007-11-16 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Often, I think that's all there is to say.
larryhammer: floral print origami penguin, facing left (Default)

[personal profile] larryhammer 2007-11-16 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
If we can get reincarnated as a penguin, surely raised by penguins is not far behind.

---L.