Gateway;Pages Deluoode! (Manga Club)

[capstasher]

Oh, also a brief note. Volume one has been a scanlation, but further volumes are the official Tokyopop translations. I have all of them in print, so I have been reading the Tokyopop version, which is a bit drier than the fan translation. I do wish Tokyopop wasn't so adverse to Translator Notes, as they are quite sweet to have, and add a degree of sovl to it. Either way, all this is to say we will all be reading the same translation from this volume onwards. I apologise ahead of time if the translation is not as good or faithful as the one for volume one.

[glass]

Finals week is over so I finally had the time to sit down and read through the first volume of ComiPa. I'm vaguely familiar with Leaf's works/style/influence on the medium but had yet to directly interact with any one of their works myself before now. It's already been thoroughly noted here, but this definitely feels like a proto-Genshiken in terms of its general premises and vibes. You have characters that fill similar roles to the main Genshiken cast members here, but there is definitely a greater focus on the variety of distinct "heroines" that you presumably can pursue relationships with in the original game. Compare this to Genshiken, which is primarily focused on a male-centric group wherein each member embodies one or several aspects of otaku culture (though the ladies become the majority of the group over time). As far as both ComiPa and Genshiken's protagonists are concerned, they have a lot to learn about otaku culture, and slowly learn all about it directly from their interactions with the wacky club members/doujinka that they befriend.

That's not to mention all of the pop culture references that have already been screenshotted in the thread thus far, another trait shared with Genshiken and other meta otaku works. I'd be remiss to not shout out Chop Chop Master Onion (Tamanegi-sensei) from PaRappa the Rapper.

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Out of all of the heroines, I'm looking forward to learning more about Eimi Ohba the most. She's feisty and has green hair, which I find to be rather endearing if my avatar didn't make it obvious. (I actually do like redheads even more if you can believe it, but not when they disapprove of my hobbies *cough* Mizuki *cough*). But being honest, I don't think I actively dislike any one of the girls and am looking forward to seeing their storylines develop in future volumes.

Also, Taishi is pretty consistently funny. I like his Vash the Stampede glasses and That Guy From Gundam Wing That Inspired Yang From Street Fighter But I Forget His Name hair. We all need a "supportive best friend character from a dating sim" in our lives.

[Maypews]

Sorry guys, slipped my mind to read today. I'll try to do it tomorrow and get a report done. I think this thread needs to be periodically bumped so that it doesn't slip your memory so easily, but I'm not entirely sure how we could do it.

[glass]

I read the last volume over the weekend, but I also work over the weekend and crashed out and fell asleep before writing something on time myself :/

I'll try to come up with something substantial to say later, but in the meantime: comparing the pages from the unofficial scanlation to the official Tokyopop translation back to back on some of the chapters was incredibly interesting. Nothing super-duper totally different (I think Tokypop forced in some more swearing and slightly dated lingo?), but it's interesting to note how the same dialogue can be phrased in subtly different ways and convey different information.

[Maypews]

Finished up volumes 2 and 3. In volume 2 we are introduced to another new character, Subaru, who is great at martial arts, has a strong sense of justice and unfortunately... lacks in manga drawing skills.

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A nefarious organisation you say?

Kazuki covering for the Printer Girl is also sweet character moment, even if it ends up harming his manga ambitions. The meat of this volume begins to rear it's ugly head about half way through the 2nd volume. The story ends up taking a rather unexpected turn Volume 2, from the usual antics to... a terroristic bomb threat?!

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Yeah so, this guy with a silly mask shows up and stupidly announces his name to everyone. Apparently he feels spurned by the Comipa committee.. turns out he was an idiot who failed to follow basic procedure when submitting his works, who'd have thunk it? So of course the only rational response to this is to try to blow the entire joint up! Volume 2 ends on a somewhat brutal cliffhanger, so I am almost glad that I waited and did both volumes at once.

We eventually end up getting some pretty cool action sequences. The action paneling is actually a lot better than it has any right to be, it's very easy to follow but remains highly detailed and vivid. I'm definitely impressed with this shounen-ass combat sequence and almost hope that we get to see more. Honestly the art in this entire manga is excellent even outside of action sequences, that's one thing I've been very pleasantly surprised by while reading.

The back side of volume 3 begins to focus more on cosplay, as Mizuki is sort of forced into doing one. This section goes into a lot of cool detail about cosplaying and what it is and the ethos behind it. That's one thing about the fandom that I've never fully understood, so this has proved rather educational for me. Some choice panels below.

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(this is banner-worthy)

The end result is Kazuki in a Cardcaptor Sakura cosplay! Cardcaptor Kazu is so very cute it makes your heart melt... ahhh me. Alright, this concludes my report for the time being. Apologies if this is brief, as I had to put together a bit quickly and also having to take photos of my reader can be a bit of a pain sometimes.

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[glass]

Sorry for the super-late reply. We have a new kitten at home and it's taken residence in my room as well as most of my free time for the past few days, and this completely slipped my mind until now.

Volume three was another fun one! The conclusion to the terrorist plotline that started at the end of the previous volume was pretty good--all the action was very nicely drawn and choreographed--but I really liked the cosplaying story arc that filled the back half of this volume. Reiko being a very obvious Kyo Kusanagi (from The King of Fighters) fangirl was really fun to see as a big fighting game fan, and historically accurate as well!

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Kyo had a crazy amount of fangirls in the late 90s, many of whom were also into Kyo x Iori (the main rival character) yaoi doujinshi which is reflected in the story as well. In The King of Fighters 2000, one of the selectable bonus assists is Cosplayer Kyoko, who is literally just a Kyo fangirl dressed up in his original outfit.

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They have referenced this on occasion even somewhat recently. In SNK Gals' Fighters and later in SNK Heroines, a set of games that exclusively feature female fighters, Iori first appears as the secret final boss in a girls' uniform and then gets genderbent (and put into a Cosplayer Kyoko outfit).

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At the end of the volume, you can see a bunch of different cosplays, mostly of fighting game characters. From left to right, they would appear to be: seifuku uniform (I'm not 100% sure who she specifically is :/), Iori Yagami (The King of Fighters), Sakura (Cardcaptor Sakura), Kyo and Kyo again, Sophitia/Valkyrie (SoulCalibur/Valkyrie no Densetsu), and Nakoruru (Samurai Shodown).

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[capstasher]

Apologies for lack of updates! Will drop my reports (hopefully) tomorrow (But I promise I've been reading them on time). Volume 5 is now up on ACOW.
(I had to scan that by hand, I hope you guys will overlook that it's a little rough around the edges )

Also that being said, it's time for everyone to suggest the next manga we'll read, as volume 5 is the LAST volume of Comic Party. Submissions from last time will be included, but if anyone wants to join for the next series and suggest a manga of their own, now its the time! Also as part of this, I'd like to ask, how did you guys feel about the structure of this? Do you have any suggestions for the future of Gateway;Pages? Is 5 volumes a good max length, or are you open to increasing the possible number of volumes? Are you happy with one volume per week, or would you like to do more (or less)? Let me know! Poll goes up probably around the end of Tuesday/start of Wednesday, to give us some time to discuss. Let me know your thoughts, and enjoy the last volume of Comipa!

[capstasher]

Oh yeah, poll is up guys. Forgot it doesn't bump the thread!

[glass]

At this rate, I'll be combining my writeups for volumes 4 and 5 in one post over the weekend to get it all done at once. Just wanted to bump the thread again to see if anyone might be interested in joining us on our next series (currently being polled) starting this next week!

[capstasher]

WE NEED A TIEBREAKER VOTE! @Blond you MUST read manga.