Manga review – Demon Diary

I’m very picky about the art in the manga I read. I don’t like it too simple and I don’t like it cluttered so that nothing makes sense. If I can’t “read” the art easily, if it doesn’t enhance the story, there’s no way I can get into the text.

Demon Diary has brilliant art, although it had it’s own trials while being written.

The artist changed after the first book. The original artist was a college student who didn’t have time to work on it. I think it came as a shock to the author who was excited to have the book released and now it looked like it might fall apart if the publisher couldn’t find another artist. Fortunately, they found a great artist and the art didn’t suffer from the change. In fact, if one wasn’t aware of the fact that the artist changed, it might not be noticeable at all. The clothes and setting are all beautifully done.

As for the story, I was a little disappointed in the third volume when the story took a different turn than I was expecting. It flowed very well into this new story, but I still want the other story. I’m so determined to some day write a version of Demon Diary as I wanted to see it. That’s the great thing about writing. If a story goes on another tangent, then the writer reading the story can pick up the story line that interests them and make it their own. Sammy Hagar once said that he wrote songs because when he was listening to other people’s songs he thought they were singing one thing but the lyrics turned out to be something else, so he “stole” what he thought it was originally and put it into his songs.

My favorite character is Eclipse. Not only is he cool, but I think I can identify with his plight to raise up this new demon lord right. It’s a mother thing, I’m sure. The parts where Raenef tries so hard to be a demon lord, but is just too pure of heart to be evil, are hilarious.

In the end, the story takes a couple strange turns, but leaves the reader wanting more. Oh, so much more could be written about this story.

If you’re wondering if Angel Diary (also by the same author and artist) is related to Demon Diaries, I have to sadly say, “No.” I was really hoping the two were related, but they aren’t. Again, something I’ll have to add to my own list to write someday.

I’m finding it much harder to get into Angel Diary, mostly because of my own disappointment I believe. Someday I’ll give it a fair shake and start reading it over. But for now, I’m enjoying Eclipse way too much.

Manga Stories – Rurouni Kenshin

A few years ago, my son and I were sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for his appointment. While he felt horrible, I was secretly glad to get a few more minutes in to read Rurouni Kenshin. I think I was on volume 13 or so. My son asked if he could see my book even though he hadn’t started reading the series yet. Humoring him, I handed it to him. He flipped to the end of the book and announced, “Aren’t you going to be sad when Kenshin leaves?”

What!?!! I snatched the book back from him. No! Kenshin couldn’t leave!

That’s the way the story was going. I had feeling it was going to happen, so I knew but I was in denial. I flipped to the end to see what my son had seen in one little flash: Kenshin walking away. And in that moment, I felt devastated. The rest of the volume just wasn’t the same after that.

If you’re wondering what this “manga” is, let me just give a short description. It’s a thick comic book (usually compiled of several “chapters”) started in Japan. As such, the book reads from right page to left page, opposite of what Americans are use to. There are also Korean comic books that look similar but read from left to right. We’ve also come to know them under the umbrella term “graphic novel.”

Rurouni Kenshin was the first manga that I’d encountered with both great art and a multi-layered character. They weren’t just two-dimensional representations though the lines on the page said otherwise. I fell in love with the characters and their stories. As such, I devoured all 28 volumes as quickly as I could. Yes, even though my son had thrown a spoiler in, I kept reading – I just had to know what happened to these characters. At one point, I was even crying over the story line. Isn’t that what great writing is about? Involving the reader deeply enough to make an emotional investment in the story?

The author, Nobuhiro Watsuki, also had little “interruptions” in the story to tell you about his life. Since I’m someone who loves to see how other artists work, this was a wonderful insight for me. I loved these clips and felt like I got to know Watsuki personally. It was like a little blog in the story. This is what inspired me to put my own “end notes” in my chapters for the printed versions of Sacred Knight and Weblinks.

And the artwork, have I mentioned the artwork? Not only are the colored prints included the volumes beautiful, but I learned a lot from Watsuki’s raw sketches included at the beginning of some of the chapters. And I used the building to work on perspective exercises.

I had a heck of a time convincing my boys (who were the ones that got me hooked on the Yu-gi-oh manga) to read Rurouni Kenshin, but once they did, they were reading it as quickly as I was. It’s still a manga we all treasure — spoilers and all.