Basara 11
Posted: March 1, 2009 Filed under: Basara 9 Comments »Okay, I’m on a serious Basara kick. I just sat down and read five volumes in a row. I don’t get to enjoy series like this very much since I normally buy everything as it comes out. Reading this all at once is fantastic since I don’t have to worry about cliffhangers. I only have to worry about my tendency to flip ahead to find out how important plot threads resolve themselves. I need to stop this.
Anyway. I really liked the portrayal of the North as this hostile, mystic place. Setting the scene with a boat strewn with blood and animal carcasses, devoid of its passengers was a great way to kick things off. I also liked the weird obstacle course-test trail that Tatara and company had to go through to even get into the country. It was sort of unexpected, and I love that all these areas have such distinctive personalities, so to speak.
One of the best scenes in the series so far is where Tatara and company were fleeing the mythical creatures, with the ally back on the ship describing his nightmarish trial in the country to reinforce everything that was happening. Then Tatara just… stopped it by talking sense into everyone. It was fantastic. Her character is always very female, so I often forget that she’s the leader of this huge rebellion and is tougher than most people.
The prison scenes… yeah. Ageha has it rough, and his devotion is quite touching, as is his nonchalance about everything that’s happened. I do like the way the prison is organized with its four leaders and their maps, though, and I like that one of the generals looks so much like Shuri. Makes you wonder what King Ukon must look like, with genes strong enough that two cousins look identical.
I also got a kick out of Nachi’s rescue mission. He’s just awesome every time he appears.
And that bonus story in the back of the volume. It screams “Please pay no attention to the fact we just revealed who this person’s identity is! It’s totally NOT who we just said! Ignore us!”
“Okay, I’m on a serious Basara kick. I just sat down and read five volumes in a row. I don’t get to enjoy series like this very much since I normally buy everything as it comes out.”
This is how I read stuff all the time. I like having four or five volumes to chew on before starting a series. I also like waiting about a year before I catch up so I have a good chunk (though for stories on slow schedules, this is not such a big chunk after all). This does bias me towards stuff which has been available in English longer, and all other things being equal, I will go for the manga which is complete in English before the one which is still running.
I am glad I am not one of the Japanese readers who only got a chapter a month. Some of the chapters have really strong cliffhangers.
[...] Baby (Manga Maniac Cafe) Deb Aoki on vols. 1 and 2 of Astral Project (About.com) Connie on vols. 11, 12, and 13 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga) Thea on vol. 1 of Death Note (The Book Smugglers) Ana [...]
Yeah, I was looking at some of those nasty cliffhangers while I was going through the past several volumes. The books themselves very rarely end on a really, REALLY bad note, but the places where some of those chapters leave off make me laugh sometimes. I wish I could remember which one it was that made me pause and think about the horrible things I would have done to the magazine had I been faced with that particular cliffhanger.
I do occasionally read things in huge chunks… series that I’m not all that excited about reading but I find myself collecting anyway are usually either read in chunks or saved up and read all together, like Angel Sanctuary or Hana-Kimi. It’s rare I get to read a series from beginning to end at my own pace that I like as much as Basara, though. I ought to try it more often, and I’ve got a few more standing by here, like the rest of Banana Fish and Red River up to the second to last volume. I did recently enjoy Let Dai from beginning to end too, and that’s probably one of my all-time favorites.
I have some Let Dai on the way. It’s very hard to say ‘no’ to getting 4 volumes for $2.50 each with free shipping when it is such a critically acclaimed work.
Red River is actually one of those stories which I think might work a little better in smaller doses. Considering how many cliffhangers there are, it would be nice to spend some time actually hanging on some. I did go through about fifteen volumes over four days, so it is perfectly enjoyable as a marathon too. It’s not as rich of a story as Basara, so to read it immediately after Basara might be a little unfair. But between the cliffhangers, the girly fantasy (in fact I think Red River is more of a girly fantasy than Basara) and all of the historical trivia, I’m pretty happy with it.
I’ll probably go back to Banana Fish after Basara. I’m thinking I might just wait until July for the last of Red River before I go through that one. I’ve waited this long, so I might as well hold off a few more months.
And Let Dai is probably worth getting in any form for whatever price, though $2.50 a volume is a real steal. It’s got a slow beginning (I was extremely put off by the first few volumes), but it’s just so romantic. There are very few series I would admit got to me as much as Let Dai, but it did what it did quite well. And Let Dai had a lot working against it before it won me over too, not the least of which is its massive and repetitive soliloquies that were sometimes translated a little awkwardly.
July is when volume 25 is going to be released. Red River is 28 volumes long. I estimate it won’t be over until next January.
25 comes out in July? I have a copy of it here already, I usually don’t get things more than a couple weeks early. I was thinking 26 came out in July, but I didn’t know it was 28 volumes long. That’s a little disappointing, since now I’m not sure whether to wait or not. I probably will, now that I’ve got my heart set on reading it all at once.
Wow, these reply threads can get really squeezed.
I am mistaken, Volume 26 does indeed come out in July. Volume 27 will probably come out in October, and Volume 28 in January, so the second part of what I said is still accurate.
Yeah, I need to change this so that it doesn’t thread them so tightly. I don’t really see them since I do all the replies from the dashboard, but… they’re pretty cramped.