[Review] Manga: Toaru Kaguku no Railgun
I'm going to review the Railgun manga. Since I plan on reviewing the anime as well, I'll just focus on the art and such for this.
Fuyukawa Motoi's artwork is great. It's got a wonderful style that seems to mix old and new styles of anime/manga together. Some of the drawings look like something from an early 2000s Gainax anime(like FLCL only less silly) and I wish that the anime could have been done by said studio, in a similar style to Gurren Lagann. Well, kinda. If they had it wouldn't have been directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and a lot of the stuff I really liked that they added probably wouldn't have been added. Or maybe it would have, knowing Gainax... oh, wait, the guys who did TTGL are Trigger now, never mind.
The revamped character designs are great as well. I definitely prefer Motoi's versions to J.C. Staff's and certainly to Kiyotaka Haimura's. The art not only improved over time(comparing one of the early action scenes to the Encounter with Accelerator, the latter is freakin' amazing), but it also shifts into a more detailed form when the tone shifts as well. For example, the scene in which Kuroko fights the thug leader known as "Trick" changes from it's normal style to a more detailed and epic look when it shows a close up of her telling him he's screwed, which makes her look kinda like Asuka from eva I think.
Not to mention, action scenes and anything meant to be intense is better than scenes that are less so. That isn't to say the rest of the time it's bad, it's very good. In fact, the feel and atmosphere the art creates fits perfectly and matches it's "usually lighthearted by serious when shit hits the fan" nature.
It's very enjoyable and detailed. My only problem is that sometimes the backgrounds are very bare. The characters and important objects are very detailed but the backgrounds are not. Sometimes they are left blank even with maybe a few pieces here and there.
All in all it's really good. I give the art 4/5 for being great but having boring backgrounds a lot of the time. I give the manga itself however, a 5/5 and an urge to go buy that shit if you can and read the scanlations if you can't.
EDIT: In retrospect, the backgrounds aren't all that bad compared to other things in it's genre. I'm looking at you Bleach... and hell, probably you too Naruto, but the last time I looked at any pages of that was... uh, I forget, it was a long time ago. It's on about the same level as something like Tegami Bachi which often has very nice detailed backgrounds... but sometimes leaves things blank or with just speed-line things when the focus is on the characters. I'll still give it a 4/5 because I guess my manga art standards are just high or something.
Or maybe it's because this scene is so damn blank, when the anime version of it is just so... beautiful. Go compare it, it's got all this beautiful sunlight and the sky is dyed a purpley colour and wispy clouds! Why didn't you draw a cityscape and some wispy clouds at least Fuyukawa? I mean, that was a fairly important scene man!
No, I won't let it go!
Fuyukawa Motoi's artwork is great. It's got a wonderful style that seems to mix old and new styles of anime/manga together. Some of the drawings look like something from an early 2000s Gainax anime(like FLCL only less silly) and I wish that the anime could have been done by said studio, in a similar style to Gurren Lagann. Well, kinda. If they had it wouldn't have been directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai and a lot of the stuff I really liked that they added probably wouldn't have been added. Or maybe it would have, knowing Gainax... oh, wait, the guys who did TTGL are Trigger now, never mind.
The revamped character designs are great as well. I definitely prefer Motoi's versions to J.C. Staff's and certainly to Kiyotaka Haimura's. The art not only improved over time(comparing one of the early action scenes to the Encounter with Accelerator, the latter is freakin' amazing), but it also shifts into a more detailed form when the tone shifts as well. For example, the scene in which Kuroko fights the thug leader known as "Trick" changes from it's normal style to a more detailed and epic look when it shows a close up of her telling him he's screwed, which makes her look kinda like Asuka from eva I think.
Not to mention, action scenes and anything meant to be intense is better than scenes that are less so. That isn't to say the rest of the time it's bad, it's very good. In fact, the feel and atmosphere the art creates fits perfectly and matches it's "usually lighthearted by serious when shit hits the fan" nature.
It's very enjoyable and detailed. My only problem is that sometimes the backgrounds are very bare. The characters and important objects are very detailed but the backgrounds are not. Sometimes they are left blank even with maybe a few pieces here and there.
All in all it's really good. I give the art 4/5 for being great but having boring backgrounds a lot of the time. I give the manga itself however, a 5/5 and an urge to go buy that shit if you can and read the scanlations if you can't.
EDIT: In retrospect, the backgrounds aren't all that bad compared to other things in it's genre. I'm looking at you Bleach... and hell, probably you too Naruto, but the last time I looked at any pages of that was... uh, I forget, it was a long time ago. It's on about the same level as something like Tegami Bachi which often has very nice detailed backgrounds... but sometimes leaves things blank or with just speed-line things when the focus is on the characters. I'll still give it a 4/5 because I guess my manga art standards are just high or something.
Or maybe it's because this scene is so damn blank, when the anime version of it is just so... beautiful. Go compare it, it's got all this beautiful sunlight and the sky is dyed a purpley colour and wispy clouds! Why didn't you draw a cityscape and some wispy clouds at least Fuyukawa? I mean, that was a fairly important scene man!
No, I won't let it go!
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Ey watchu think mang?