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Another of Junji Ito's classics, the sci-fi masterwork Remina tells the chilling tale of a …
Kinda exhausting to read when every other sentence is hysterical screaming punctuated with a choice of:
1. !
2. ?!
3. !!
I was giggling from absurdity-fatigue by the time I got to the part where the population of the world was flying through the air with pitchforks and axes. A mildly entertaining and mildly gory time was had by all?
In this final LUCIFER volume, the war in Heaven reaches its universe-shaking conclusion, as the …
For the whole series: ambitious, often startling, with breathtaking scope and sometimes gorgeous poignancy, but it was so damn straight & white. Even the devil only fucks women? And God has to present himself as an old white dude (not to mention the whiteness of pretty much all of the important characters)? In a story that’s literally about the entirety of creation, I would’ve liked to see more organic diversity of... everything. There’s also as much sexual violence and breasting boobily as you’d expect from male creators.
It was an intriguing combination of nostalgia and eeriness. The occasional flashes of wrongness that break up the really sweet return to early-xxxHolic-style stories made for a much greater sense of momentum than the previous volume. There was a lot of emphasis on the series' primary theme of the consequences of one's choices, which provided a satisfying continuation to the stunted ending of the original series. It was especially vindicating that Watanuki's decision to cloister himself in the shop to wait for Yuko was implied to be stagnation and uncertainty rather than a real choice.
I particularly liked the three coins story. It was classic xxxHolic: humans unwittingly manifesting curses/supernatural forces through the strength of their own desires and expectations.
One of the long-standing messages of xxxHolic is that destiny's whims will tie your fate to those of others and thereafter, how you decide to live your life may cause …
It was an intriguing combination of nostalgia and eeriness. The occasional flashes of wrongness that break up the really sweet return to early-xxxHolic-style stories made for a much greater sense of momentum than the previous volume. There was a lot of emphasis on the series' primary theme of the consequences of one's choices, which provided a satisfying continuation to the stunted ending of the original series. It was especially vindicating that Watanuki's decision to cloister himself in the shop to wait for Yuko was implied to be stagnation and uncertainty rather than a real choice.
I particularly liked the three coins story. It was classic xxxHolic: humans unwittingly manifesting curses/supernatural forces through the strength of their own desires and expectations.
One of the long-standing messages of xxxHolic is that destiny's whims will tie your fate to those of others and thereafter, how you decide to live your life may cause great distress to those who care about you, but it is still your right to choose that path. It was acutely painful to see how Yuko, Doumeki and Himawari acted as Watanuki's guardians, wanting desperately for him to move on and return to the world of the living, but nevertheless accepting whatever choice he makes and protecting him as he carries out those choices.
It provided quite a lot of information, but I would have preferred a biography that didn't include parts written from Dean's perspective that attempted to convey Dean's thoughts to the reader—or at least what Tosches believed Dean thought. These sections tended to have an irritating abundance of death metaphors (like bad fanfic making a desperate attempt to be philosophical). The author also comes across as gratingly racist and sexist, freely using the n-word and never referring to women as anything but "broads"—not to mention this delightful little piece of imagery (one of many similar examples): "If the world was now a tired wife, he could still sense in rare breaths now and then the luscious bitch he once had so delicious seduced." Dean's triumphs are constantly phrased in terms of the metaphor of a woman ("bitch," "broad") that he has dominated. Overall, it was rather thematically contradictory for Tosches to …
It provided quite a lot of information, but I would have preferred a biography that didn't include parts written from Dean's perspective that attempted to convey Dean's thoughts to the reader—or at least what Tosches believed Dean thought. These sections tended to have an irritating abundance of death metaphors (like bad fanfic making a desperate attempt to be philosophical). The author also comes across as gratingly racist and sexist, freely using the n-word and never referring to women as anything but "broads"—not to mention this delightful little piece of imagery (one of many similar examples): "If the world was now a tired wife, he could still sense in rare breaths now and then the luscious bitch he once had so delicious seduced." Dean's triumphs are constantly phrased in terms of the metaphor of a woman ("bitch," "broad") that he has dominated. Overall, it was rather thematically contradictory for Tosches to explore Dean's psyche in third-person when quotes from those who knew Dean emphasize how impossible it was to figure out what he was really thinking.
