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telophase ([personal profile] telophase) wrote2006-07-19 01:25 pm
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Quick review: Otogi Zoshi

A couple of weeks back I picked up Otogi Zoshi, a manga made from an OVA apparently, when I made a manga run to the store. It's set in Heian Japan, and features a feisty younger daughter[TM] who chafes against the restrictions of her social position and who idolizes her brother. Her brother is a military commander-type person and was sent to raze a village that harbored bandits. The few survivors of the village naturally have a grudge. One day the girl sneaks out and follows her brother, and starts a chain of events that theoretically lead to plot, but I'm not sure because I was so bored by all of it. None of the characters really stand out as unique, and none of them are interesting. I picked it up because: hey! Heian Japan!, but that's not interesting enough to carry the story. The art is inconsistent - some parts of it I really like, such as profiles, but the mangaka is incredibly inconsistent when it comes to things like head sizes, which can be seriously small, and it bugs me. I may flip through book 2 when it arrives on shelves to see if anything interesting happens or any of the characters gain personality beyond the broadly stereotyped, but for now: not recommended.

(I suppose I could use the new Vox account to post book reviews: you can easily post images of books from Amazon.com there.)

P.S. Watch this blog. I may have something to tell you in 24 hours or so. XD
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Re: PS

[identity profile] telophase.livejournal.com 2006-07-19 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. I bounced hard off of 12 Kingdoms, because I'm a character person, and I disliked every. single. character. in it. I saw the first 3 or so episodes, then decided life wasn't long enough to watch the rest on the off chance that it might get better.

[identity profile] magicnoire.livejournal.com 2006-07-19 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, the first arc (the Heian era) of Otogi Zoshi does have the stronger characterization of the entire series. I don't think it's quite as strong in the second arc (the Tokyo era), but your mileage may vary.

FWIW, I did like 12 Kingdoms but it's not quite the same as Otogi Zoshi. I thought the arc of 12K had more plot than Otogi Zoshi's very, very standard and very, very unsurprising plotline in those first 13 eps. It's just the closest comparison I can think of. It's no Saiyuki or Naruto anyway.
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