Bastard!!, Sgt. Frog, Beet the Vandel Buster, Hunter X Hunter

[Johnny]

These are a few titles that have, for one reason or another, caught my eye recently and was wondering if they're worth getting.

To be honest, it was the artwork that attracted me to Bastard!! and I haven't really read up on the story /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

Sgt. Frog is something that's been on my radar for a while now. What is the humour like?

Beet and Hunter x Hunter are 2 of the only SJ titles I've not read and they both look kinda cool. Worth it for a fan of the SJ thang?

Thanks /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

[Miss Amii]

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johnny said:


To be honest, it was the artwork that attracted me to Bastard!! and I haven't really read up on the story /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

Thanks /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

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Well, Bastard!! (don't you just love that title?) is the only one I've read. Anyway, I used to be willing to shell out for those expensive trade-sized books that came out every 6 months, but I totally lost interest in it by the time the series went to the small, cheaper second editions. Anyway, like most Shonen Jump material it the story in Bastard!! just became too repetitive. The plot is like this, evil yet handsome badass sorcerer lives in the body of idiot boy. The idiot boy lives in kingdom under attack by evil army of darkness. Evil army of darkness has many generals that sorcerer must fight. There's more to it than that, but you get the picture. The real treat in Bastard!! is how the Hagiwara makes all the typical fantasy cliches just so overblown and silly and writes snarky notes in the margins.
I reccomend Bastard!! if you have a tolerance for repetive shonen fighting stuff.

[meryl]

With Bastard!! You also need a tolerance for over-the-top fan service. Normally, it would get on my nerves but it's so over the top and they show as much or more fan service of Dark Schneider as they do of the girls, so I don't mind. That said, I really like Hunter X Hunter. Gon and Killua bring out my maternal side. They're just such great characters.

[Dicrel Seijin]

I'm another that would recommend Bastard!! but with some caveats.... Yes, the artwork is gorgeous and it gets better as it goes along (Arshes Nei /images/graemlins/shy00000.gif).

It is very much in the shounen mold in that it is repetitive in that Dark Schneider (DS) has to face off against enemy after enemy. The one thing that made it different from other shounen was that DS was <span style='color:#dddddd;background:#dddddd'>pretty much all powerful to begin with, he doesn't actually level up so to speak</span>. There are no must-need-to-train-to-get-stronger-to-defeat-the-next-enemy sequences.

You must also be prepared for a lot of heavy metal references: people, places, magic spells, and deities.

And to elaborate, the author has an... acquired sense of humor. It is rather odd....

All in all, it is not a bad title to pick up if you want a hour to laugh or roll your eyes at the main character (he, not Daffy Duck, really does have an ego the size of Cleveland).

[pianocello]

I'll throw in a vote for Sgt. Frog.
Reasons:
(1)Lovable characters.
(2)Humor and great parodies.
(3)Shoujoai.
(4)Strong reread value.

Feel free to ask if you would like me to elaborate.

[Ingraman]

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Kousaka Makoto said:
I'm another that would recommend Bastard!! but with some caveats.... Yes, the artwork is gorgeous and it gets better as it goes along (Arshes Nei /images/graemlins/shy00000.gif).

[...]

You must also be prepared for a lot of heavy metal references: people, places, magic spells, and deities.

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Do keep in mind that with volume 8, almost all of the heavy metal references have been deleted from the translation. Well, they're still there, but the romanizations used are no longer the correct ones, so you'll have to read between the lines. It's now "Meta-Rikana" rather than "Metallicana", "Aian-Meide" rather than "Iron Maiden", and countless others.

I haven't read Seargent Frog but the concept reminds me vaguely of Invader Zim. Which can only be a good thing.

The only title from the OP that I collect is Hunter X Hunter. It's hard to say how good it is since SJ titles aren't super consistant in quality. So far (v1-4) I'd say it's pretty good- interesting enough to make for quick reads despite my usual slow reading style but not fantastic. There's a lot of cliffhangers and stuff that keep you at the edge of your seat. Still, after all that it's a fairly stereotypical shonen title.

[Gonfreaks]

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piano_cello_conducting said:
I'll throw in a vote for Sgt. Frog.
Reasons:
(1)Lovable characters.
(2)Humor and great parodies.
(3)Shoujoai.
(4)Strong reread value.

Feel free to ask if you would like me to elaborate.

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I agree with every one of those points. Each volume is extremely enjoyable, and I usually find myself rereading each volume a couple times because I love it so much.

[jecca-neko]

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piano_cello_conducting said:
I'll throw in a vote for Sgt. Frog.
Reasons:
(1)Lovable characters.
(2)Humor and great parodies.
(3)Shoujoai.
(4)Strong reread value.

Feel free to ask if you would like me to elaborate.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with all of this. It's by the creator of Arcade Gamer Fubuki so if you liked that, Sgt Frog is along the same vein (a little less fanservice but makes up with it with better humor IMO).

Scenario (volume 1): Keroro tells Lady Moa, the "Lord of Destruction", to destroy Earth.

Fuyuki: Sargeant!! Think about what you're doing! If you destroy the Earth, you'll be destroying all of Bandai's model factories too. Does "no more Gundam models" mean anything to you...?
Keroro: *appaled look* Lady Moa - stop! Stop! No go, no go! Operation: Destruction of Earth has been aborted!

/images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif