Wow, I have really no idea where this manga is going but every volume something new and exciting happens. The action is great and the humor is awesome. Although, I gotta say, some panels and dialogue are just CHEESY as hell, but a good cheesy. I just busted up laughing when Uryu shouted "I hate Soul Reapers," at Rukia's brother and the other soul reaper. The first time he said it, it was like over the top badassery pushed to the point of cheese but still cool. The second, it's really no longer silly, it's just badass. It's no longer an introduction and we pretty much knew it was coming and Kubo gives us what we want. I hope he says it more. I really, really like where the manga is going currently. Making Strawberry work for his Soul Reaper powers adds much more depth to his character and a quality of honesty that was lacking when he was just feeding off Rukia for his original awakening as a S.R. and furthermore, his transformations each time. I'm assuming he'll be able to change at will now, or perhaps he'll have to create a gigan to inhabit while at school. Giving Orihime and Chad powers was a huge suprise and it's friggin' sweet. I can see a sort of "Z Senshi" forming, or "Strawberry Senshi" rather... This little training montage forming is highly reminicent of the down time between budokais in Dragonball. It's sweet. And, whoa... Rukia's brother, what a hard ass. I'm looking forward to more.
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WHOA! This manga surprised the hell out of me! Damn, it's so good! I picked up an issue of Shonen Jump because I was interested to see how far ahead of the Naruto graphic novels it was in Naruto. But, it also had a 50 page preview of Deathnote. So, I figured since I wasn't actually going to read the Naruto or One Piece cause it they were actually pretty far ahead of where I was, I should at least get some reading out of it. I read it and it was decent, a nice intro story with an intriguing plot device, the Death Note. A few weeks later, I ran out of Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist to buy, so along with some Bleach, I picked the first volume of Deathnote up. Thank god I did, it is easily one of my favorites now that I will follow faithfully as the volumes come out. The author is so clever! It's a Shonen Jump "Advanced" title. I'm guessing what that means is that it's for older, perhaps more literary readers or something. Regardless, each chapter has you begging for the next and instead of chapters like "Luffy beats on Buggy some more," you get "Light sets up an elaborate plan and executes it and the plot of the story is nicely advanced from the previous chapter." That's what I'm really impressed with. The writing is top notch; Light is supposed to be an A+++ student and he's been written believably so. The art is fairly different than any other manga I've read as well, much more lifelike and less cartoony. "Advanced?" Yes, sir... Very much so.
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I'm up to Volume 4 now and I have to say, this manga has not dissappointed. It's been a great blend of drama, action, humor and humanity. I love the added joke material at the end of each novel. I'm just caught up in the story. Makes me wonder how long this story will go on and where the author will take it. It could go anywhere. Will the boys ever get their bodies back? Where is their father? Lots of unanswered questions and unexplored areas of this universe and I think that's what drives this book and I think it's done quite well. Looking forward to more, just wish they volumes would come out faster!
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So yeah, I finished volume 3 one night and the next day, first thing, I went out and bought 4, 5, 6 and 7... That's all that was available! I blew through those quite fast as well. There are like 30 some volumes released in Japan and I think 8 JUST came out this week... Damn... I'm too anal to download the fantranslations... But, yeah... The action and characters and humor are just top-notch. If you're a manga reader, you probably know all you want to know about Naruto, whether it's a little or a lot. If not, check this series out.
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The end of Volume 2 left me a little pissed... It seemed like half the volume was just this drawn out fight with Buggy and it was boring. Boring as hell... So I didn't buy Volume 3 for the longest time. Adding to the lame fight was the fact that all my local shops only had Volumes 6 and 7 so the option never presented itself. Anyways, I finally picked up Volume 3 and it was a lot better. Buggy was taken care of quickly and the following stories were entertaining and fun. I'm excited to go farther but for now, the score drops a bit because Buggy was just boring as hell and so were his minions...
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