Max

If you have one specifically?

I had a question. Do you have an art thread?

Well hi there what's up:smile:

Yeah, harems and ecchi annoy me. They tend to be comedies, and they're almost never funny. A lot of the jokes are tired or are very contrived. A good romance manga isn't hard to make. A lot of these romance artists are just not very good storytellers. Either that, or they were forced to make romances while they'd rather make something else. I don't know the exact reasons for the lack of quality story-telling other than that works with these cliches go over well with fans, so that shows what I know.

From what I've seen, a romance really works if you have the couple have truly meaningful conversations. Show them being there for each other and proving their mutual respect and loyalty as friends first. After that, allow them to confess without any of the nonsense that usually happens, such as the cat catching their tongue, or ridiculously contrived interruptions or mystifying misunderstandings. All that stuff can ruin an otherwise good series. Kimi ni Todoke is a great example of a great manga turned terrible by having awesome build-up to a pay-off that took forever to happen due to misunderstandings, interruptions and a bunch of other nonsense. By the time the confession did happen, it wasn't worth it.

Shounen and seinen manga usually do romance a lot better than things like shoujo, and it's for a pretty simple reason, too. Shounen are usually adventure mangas with a focus on action. The romance is delegated to a side-plot, so it's refreshing whenever it comes up. It's hard for it to get stale if it's cleverly parsed out in small intervals over the course of the series, and this works to the benefit of the author as shounen manga is usually long as hell. When a manga focuses entirely on romance, it's really easy to fall into the same cliches and subplots in order to pad out length. There are some really good romance works, though, like Clannad and Kare Kano. I actually think Clannad is the best romance manga/anime because it largely avoids a lot of those boring and tired cliches.

Beck is pretty sick. I remember listening to Odelay as a kid and just being amazed. I think my favorite Beck record is probably Mutations, with Sea Change and Midnite Vultures being my other top favorites.

Bakuman actually got me into manga. I've only recently started getting back into it after a long absence from it. I don't know why, but I've been heavy into romance manga lately. I think I've read every single one in existence. I also think I know every single cliche that could possibly appear in a romance manga lol. Bakuman's approach to romance is pretty interesting, too. Pretty tongue-and-cheek, but clearly out of love for romance stories and not a hatred for them.

Of that, I can agree. It's so great to see their friendship develop over the course of the series. At the beginning, they're fairly cordial, as they're both relatively nice guys; but to see them progressively form a sort of brotherly bond: it's absolutely heartwarming.

He really is an interesting songwriter. His third album, The Colour In Anything, just came out this year. It's one of my highlights of the year. I'm a huge music person. I'm constantly on the hunt for new stuff, so I invariably end up finding some really interesting work.

I honestly have a hard time choosing whether I like Mashiro or Takagi better, they are definitely both really well written and likable characters. I think what makes it harder to choose is that literally one does not work without the other, they are a great team.

And wow, that track was really interesting. I'm going to listen to a few more, because it was very distict (which I dig).

I really enjoyed Bakuman, too. I still need to finish it, but from what I remember, I loved the two lead characters a lot, especially the blonde one who wrote the stories. My avatar is James Blake, an electronic producer from the UK. He's also a trained pianist. Here's a track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJZ13SyRXhU

Bakuman is awesome. Great choice.

Ooh, nice! I haven't read Bakuman yet, but I recall hearing good things about it!

Nice!

Hey, Max! Psst, I'm here to remind you of your role playing duties and my, you've been ignoring them as of late. This can not do for all of us that has some stories to be told!

*drags you to your chair which I promptly push you down gently then turns you around, facing the computer and push you toward it* Now it's time for work, work, work!!!

And no, you cannot escape from me! >

I think it just makes sense, really. No reason to not respect others' ships. But yeah, the folks over at that old Bleach forum I used to go to were pretty stuck up their own butts and had a very distorted view on the series. And yeah, I totally get you on that! I'm a bit of a romantic at heart myself too!

Awesome! I've been a part of other forums for a long time too, but KHI is the one I've been at the longest!

lol Nah, I'd never do that! My main creed is "ship and let ship." So long as someone's respectful of what I ship and why I have my reasons for shipping something, I think it's only fair I do the same for them. I try my best not to get too carried away by folks who aren't respectful, but yeah... It does feel good to have some vindication after previously dealing with several years' worth of being called "delusional," "idiotic," "crazy" and "blind" (among many other things) from some very unsavory people back in the Bleach community.

It's nice to meet you, Max! Been a part of KHI since 2009, having gone through various different names over the years. lmao

Hey man, we've never talked before, but I do want to say that I'm sorry that your ship didn't pan out in the end for Bleach. I'm really reeling in this victory due to some old stuff that happened elsewhere on the internet at a far less classy forum, but I wanted to let you know that you have my sincere sympathies.

I'm Theart, btw! It's nice to meet you!

I just realized your profile pic is a cover of Bakuman. I literally just purchased the first volume to the manga since the story sounded interesting and it's from the same writer of Death note. I approve.

We must fix this problem immediately! Hi Max! How's everything going for you?

It's alright, I guess. It pays my bills and that's all I can really ask for. It sucks that I gotta drive 30-40 minutes to get there.

Yeah, I get in those kind of moods too. Especially if I just got an album. I have favorite albums of the bands I listen to. As for all time, it's kinda hard to decide. I love My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album because it helped me get through a loss. Plus, I love rock operas. Ozzy Osbourne's Tribute was one of if not the first CD I bought when I started working my first job at KFC. Kiss' Destroyer was one of the band's first album I got. And Kiss is the first band I went to a concert for when Sonic Boom came out. I love Green Day's American Idiot. But who doesn't? I actually went to the Broadway version of it when it was touring a couple of years ago.

I'm late in doing so, but congratulations on your mod-ship.

Hey there, thanks for the welcome! Don't worry about it, I still appreciate it lots.