Kaoru Mori's art in volume 1 of Emma (booklog) is so unobtrusive but so charming that I had the terrible urge to take it appear and see how it worked. I can't pretend to have found anything startling, but a few naive comments (and spoilers, though as they're only for volume 1, they aren't really serious) are behind the cut.
( 870 KB of images )
It's been a year since I did volume 8? That's really not so good. But at last, here it is. And now that I've finished the art posts, I've written up the series for the booklog too.
Spoilers behind the cut, of course. Spoil me for Reload and die.
I've got the day off, how about some Saiyuki art commentary? No theme this time, just a mis-mash of things that caught my eye.
Spoilers for volume 8 of Saiyuki, and possibly volume 9 as well; please don't spoil me for Reload. About 250 KB of images behind the cut.
( Saiyuki's art, volume 8. Beer cans, closeups, chains, and dolls. )
Up to volume 7 of Saiyuki, and this time I'm going to focus on characterization, because I noticed a few things about body language that brought the topic to mind, and because I don't want to repeat myself. (There are two page-layout items below the cut, but only two.)
Spoilers, of course, for volume 7. Still haven't read Reload, so no spoilers please; have read Gaiden (hence the gratuitous icon), but a lack of spoilers for that would also be appreciated.
( Saiyuki's art, volume 7. About 300 KB of images behind the cut. )
I've posted a longish booklog entry on volume 1 of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, talking about it in comparison with the anime. As I said there, "The art here strikes me as clean and with slightly more delicate, less detailed lines than Saiyuki. The panel layout is mostly straightforward and linear. . . . I only found a couple of additional things to say about this art."
Two things, specifically, both below the cut. 129 KB of images, spoilers for the first two chapters, but nothing major. Spoilers for further volumes of the manga, or of any anime episodes but the corresponding ones here (1, 2, 5, 9) are not welcome.
( Fullmetal Alchemist volume 1 art commentary )
Like I said, not a lot. I did look, honest. Since this is easily available as scans, anyone have comments on things I overlooked?
Mostly fight scenes this time; see also ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
telophase's post on combat. I have to say that though I'm confused about some of the sequences below the cut, they aren't anywhere near as eye-crossing to me as the Naruto pages telophase uses; I think Minekura's lines tend to be more linear and more well-defined, and she uses even less in the way of backgrounds during fight scenes.
Spoilers for volume 6 of Saiyuki, of course, though not as bad as the past couple of volumes. I broke down and read the scanlations of Gaiden, but let's try and keep the comments free of spoilers for it (not that I expect it in response to this post); and I haven't read Reload yet, so if you spoil me for it, I will kill you with my brain.
( Saiyuki's art, volume 6. About 325 KB of images behind the cut. )
More commentary on Saiyuki's art, volume 5 this time.
A reminder: coffee_and_ink analyzed six pages from the opening of this volume in three posts: one, two, three.
Also, can anyone out there come up with a reference for the flower symbolism? I've been spotting repeated flowers, but I have no idea what they are or what they mean, and I really, really, really don't want to find myself making a series-wide index of all the flowers and the situations they're used in, because this series has eaten enough of my life already. Please?
Still haven't read Gaiden or Reload, still will kill you with my brain if you spoil me for them.
On to the discussion.
( Saiyuki's art, volume 5. About 170 KB of images behind the cut. )
A lot of what I said in the last post still applies here: wide use of varied tones, the occasional fading out of foregrounds (4.19.62, when Sanzo is watching two characters talk and getting suspicious), use of bleeds or borderless panels, and generally-improving depictions of characters. (There are a bunch of great comments in the prior post, which I highly recommend.) I'm going to talk here about four things: one really complex page; two really simple and forceful pages; some parallel page structures; and a couple examples of recurring images.
Still major spoilers for volume four (and a small spoiler for volume seven); and still don't spoil me for Gaiden or Reload.
( Saiyuki's art, volume 4. About 335 KB of images behind the cut. )
I was going to have an "art" section in the whopping big Saiyuki post, but decided to break that out into multiple posts so that I could inline the images without killing people's connections. No deep thoughts here, just stuff I noticed in re-reading volumes 1-3, from an incredibly newbie perspective. Spoilers, naturally, particularly for volume 3. Also, I'm trying not to repeat things said by coffee_and_ink's three posts on Saiyuki, or telophase's Manga Analysis series post, or snowyheart's grid structure post, because they said it better and more helpfully.
Finally, I haven't read Reload or Gaiden yet. Do not spoil me for those volumes, or I will kill you with my brain.
( Saiyuki's art, volumes 1-3. About 315 KB of images behind the cut. )
9:58: okay, I'm done having better ideas about the images and formatting and such. Sorry if anyone was reading during the edits.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timeasmymeasure
