Diversions

[farla]

So I've been reading Battle Royale online. I've read a couple of books in the stores when some sick nice person had already removed the plastic wrap (because I'm too much of a wuss to do so myself), and in a nutshell, it's not something I wanted lying around or rereading. But it's actually good/interesting storywise, so I want to read it that first time.

Unfortunately, I'm having downloading issues and can't torrent it. Instead I'm reading it off a site that lets you read page by page. This is a bit time consuming. Now, that's okay for something like, say, Chobits, where if you spend an extra minute or two on the page, well, I really should pay more attention to small artistic details.

Unfortunately, Battle Royale is not the sort of thing you want to be starting at. There are a very large number of pages that are best read with a glance and a very fast turning of a page. Even if the start of a page is fine, there's no way of know that the rest of it is not some graphic violence. (The author seems to particularly enjoy rendering eyes popping out)

...yeah, I'm starting to think it might not be great for my peace of mind.

Moving on because I feel like it, I'm not really sure what to make of reviews of PR, besides that I'm going to have to reupload Ch1 with a far more explicit author's note. Like don't post spoilers for later chapters because not everyone's read it before and things like that. I've decided to be happy that a number of readers don't seem to have a clear memory of the story, given that I feel better with them not remembering my screwups. Warlorn-chan seems to have decided he wins if he can just be insane enough, so his reviews have been a wonder of...I'm not really sure. I don't think even Orwell foresaw that there'd be a need for a word describing whatever though process lies behind 'having already read the story, complaining about something that's addressed in the next chapter'.

On the brighter side, it looks like it'll be more editable than I was thinking. There's a lot of changes in the way things are portrayed at the start and the end, so editing the early chapters to bring them more in line with later ones should work out okay. Hopefully.

Comments

[wintersheir]

Hehe, someone lent me the first few books of the manga... pretty crazy, I love how everyone is 14 and looks 25, or whatever it is. I liked the book best, I think--less gratuitous panty shots and kids looking and acting more like kids.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Personally, I actually do like how half the class looks overage, if only because the author seems to only be able to draw people as eight and twenty five, and watching twenty-five year olds get their heads blown off is somewhat less messed up than watching cartoonishly drawn, chubby faced eight year olds get their heads blown off. (Incidentally, ANATOMY DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT. EVER.)

I'd like to read the novel, as I've heard it's better (as well as not suffering from Tokyopop's it's a reality TV show, really! With, uh, completely invisible cameras. And a command center that doesn't watch the cameras. No, really. We wouldn't stupidly attempt to rewrite the dialogue ignoring the fact that the pictures stay the same! thing.) but novels don't have a massive lobby of semi-insane fans who dedicate themselves to making it accessible to ever-growing numbers of people. Who, I might add, I totally support.

[wintersheir]

Personally, I actually do like how half the class looks overage, if only because the author seems to only be able to draw people as eight and twenty five, and watching twenty-five year olds get their heads blown off is somewhat less messed up than watching cartoonishly drawn, chubby faced eight year olds get their heads blown off. (Incidentally, ANATOMY DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT. EVER.)

Urgh. Good point. I have a pretty strong tolerance for violence, but the part where that kid got his face blown in half by the crazy organizer guy before the game even started, that made me go "...nnngh" a bit.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, I'd like believe that the artist's not just doing gore for the sake of gore, and is trying to emphasize the psychological trauma, but...nothing works like that. Guns do not work like that. Bodies do not work like that. Bone does not work like that. Cyanide does not work like that. Water does not work like that.

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...always did wanna read Battle Royale. Never did - mostly because of the plastic wrap reason.
Would you reccomend it?

[farla.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend reading it, as you can here (http://www.mangavolume.com/battle-royale/chapter-1/). It's an interesting idea. But I wouldn't exactly recommend buying it unless you're okay with what's inside. A lot of the plastic-wrapped books are tame, but this one shouldn't even be plastic wrapped. It should be behind the counter and require identification to view.

(Of course, compared to the comic book I unwittingly got out of the library...People sometimes look at manga and say the Japanese are messed up, but they're still got a long way to go to reach us.)

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

but this one shouldn't even be plastic wrapped
And then they tell supermarkets to reduce packaging. Makes me wonder how much plastic newsagents and bookshops use - unnecassary plastic.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Oh, there are layers upon layers of packaging consumers never see in the shipping process alone.

(But would it kill people to try to use recyclable plastics?)

[myrgourrza.livejournal.com]

Apparently.
Or perhaps the majority of the population are masochists who don't mind the approaching end of the world.
Or maybe God just hates us.