Hey guys, do you recall that just a short while ago, i was ranting about how i couldn't find Ramune (ラムネ) anywhere in Singapore now? Well, guess what, i've been asking cashiers and store assistants at Japanese minimarts, and one store assistant finally gave me an answer. Apparently, Ramune has been banned by the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore ("AVA") because of the marble in the bottle!!! OMFG!!!
Well, i tried to confirm this fact by checking out AVA's website, but i couldn't find anything in that 10 minutes of research that could be regarded as a banned food list or any news on Ramune.
Argh...what's wrong with Ramune??? I don't see how the marble can hurt anyone, since there's no way that marble can somehow get out of the bottle and choke someone. *Gaah* what's going to happen to my Ramune bottle collection now??? Is it going to become stagnant??? Most importantly, i like the taste of the Ramune drink! Luckily, the Japanese mart with the knowledgeable salesperson (it's located in Millennia Walk, btw) sold this drink called "Ramu Bottle", which is essentially the Ramune fizzy drink in a normal bottle. I found Ramu Bottle so amusing because it even has a picture of the original Ramune bottle on its label! XD However, i couldn't find the other Ramune flavours, which sucks. So besides Ramu Bottle, the only Japanese drinks in Singapore right now are overly-sweet fruit drinks and freakin' Calpis. Sigh.
Oh, and i must say that i experienced an uncomfortable disquiet when i found out that Ramune was not sold in Singapore anymore because of the AVA food ban. Because it really seemed to me that there was insufficient publication to inform people of the Ramune ban. The drink simply vanished off the shelves one day. Obviously there wasn't any public discussion for a product as unimportant to Singapore as this, and according to my knowledge of the law, judicial review is open (likely only to the Ramune company and those who stock up and sell the item, not to us normal people who lack
locus standi) but unlikely to change anything. So there was that feeling of helplessness as well.
Anyway, i've been reading manga ever since exams ended (well, then again i was reading manga even before exams ended, although i banned myself from them 2 weeks before the exams). When it comes to manga, i realise that i'm quite an action-seinen fan, given how Vagabond and Berserk are among my favourite manga. So, this holiday season, i started off by reading three action-seinen manga. Fortunately, the experience with all three manga have been extremely positive. So positive, in fact, that i'll write about all three of them here.
The first manga i started reading post-exams was Gantz, and i must say...this manga is seriously a work of art. I've read about 265 chapters and i was just completely blown away. The emotions and characters are just so real, the fight scenes are exhilarating, and the mystery is deeply intriguing. No one is spared from the axe of death (meaning he/she dies and is axed from the manga) - not even the main characters. Every bad guy invokes an "oh shit they're all gonna die!" from me, and the fights get more and more epic as time passes, such that my "oh shit they're all gonna die!" gets louder and louder.
But what really sucks me in is how the protagonist develops throughout the manga, both physically and emotionally. The whole combination made for the most addictive reading i've ever had, and i have read quite a lot of manga and watched quite a lot of anime in my lifetime.
Then again, something happened recently (chapter 220 to be exact...or should I say chapter 237 instead..?) to make Gantz go a little bit downhill. But Gantz is still (at the moment) my favourite manga of all time, and i'm confident that the author will eventually find some way to correct the serious anomaly that occurred in chapter 220 (why the f*ck did he pick that choice??? I can rant out 3 reasons now why he shouldn't have done that but they'd all be spoiler-filled) and make things better again.
Another manga i started reading is called Holyland. Simple premise, i'd say, but the whole relationship between gang fighting and fighting strength is explored here pretty well. It's also very realistic in that sense i suppose. In fact, i think this is the most realistic fighting manga i've ever seen - for both character development and fighting techniques. The author even pauses every now and then to explain things in documentary style. Forget Kenichi; if you're a true martial arts manga fan, you'll want to be reading Holyland.
The next manga i started reading is called Akumetsu. I've read about 40 chapters, and i have to say that the manga is also a work of art. When an amateur reviewer said that Akumetsu was, to him, what Death Note was supposed to be, he was absolutely correct, in my opinion. Akumetsu is similar to Death Note in certain ways - a high schooler receives power of a sort and tries to change society through extremist ways.
But here the similarity ends. To me, Akumetsu is just so much more (and here's when i start putting Death Note down...SPOILERS WARNING!). While Death Note deals with whether all people who commit serious crimes should just be killed, Akumetsu deals with whether the bureaucrats who created Japan's insane national debt should be punished at all, and how the rotten banking and administrative system could be changed. Which i think is a much deeper and more controversial topic. While Death Note eventually descends into this detective nonsense where people are trying to find out Kira's identity using oh-so-genius methods and Kira manages to avoid discovery using his own oh-so-genius methods and a huge dose of luck, Akumetsu deals more thoroughly with the controversies and the main character's mission to change the system. While the implications of Kira's actions are quickly dealt with and brushed aside, the effect of Akumetsu's actions on Japan is probably the main focus of the manga (while Death Note just keeps shouting "power corrupts!" over and over again).
Akumetsu is also a smarter manga compared to Death Note. Death Note has geniuses for sure, but the manga itself is not genius because of that (although i'll give the author props for his cool idea about killing people using a book). i think it's quite plausible for the author to have come up with the detectives' new attacks and Lights's counters to them by spending a good few days of planning and then compressing all that thinking into an instant. Also, if the author wanted to, he could have easily made L and Light get perfect scores on all their tests and add basketball and soccer skills to their already extraordinary national level tennis abilities - and there, geniuses are created without much genius required. Meanwhile, the genius and daring of the author of Akumetsu HIMSELF is demonstrated in the premise of his manga and in his delivery.
That being said, i haven't read too far into Akumetsu, so you never know whether things will change (for better or worse) as i read further. Still, i like how real Akumetsu is. Sure, the people at the top are extraordinary scumbags, but at least there aren't extraordinary geniuses in there. Like, how the heck do you get a secret organisation which harbours orphans who just so happen to be the "biggest geniuses" in Japan (i don't agree that they are, btw...the author once said that Near was the smartest character in Death Note "because he cheats"...how is that genius? Everyone cheats in the real world!) and who just so happen to have so many other skills (like being great in school and great at tennis...how is that realistic)? How would you even find those orphans? Why is the main character the equal of these geniuses...why did Death Note have to depict a fight between geniuses in the first place? In Akumetsu, there are no such geniuses, just the main character with his powers (at least for now...and the main character was ordinary before he had those powers too). So there is no fanservice either. No Amane Misa, an idol, just Nagasawa Shina, an ordinary highschool girl - which is so much better in my opinion. No tennis match between the two genius rivals either - oh man, that scene was just puke-worthy.
Actually, there's only one celebrity-worthy person in Akumetsu so far (Akumetsu himself), while there are so many celebrity characters in Death Note (Light, L, Misa, Ryuk, Mello, Near, Rem). I guess that's why Death Note was so much more commercial and successful, manga-wise and franchise-wise. Ohwell. BTW, i'd compare Akumetsu to Code Geass too, but i haven't got the time and i haven't watched season 2 yet.
Whew, that last review was extra long...i think it's because i dislike how Death Note is so popular and how people say Death Note is so intelligent, when there are much better manga out there! It's just like Suzumiya Haruhi - i just love putting down anime/manga that i think is overrated. Heck, i like putting down Friends too. Granted, the first few seasons were great, but the later few seasons had humour that was basically just fanservice. Quite a lot of American sitcoms are like that, unfortunately. So commercialised, so money-sucking, and so distasteful, in my opinion. Anyway, it's time for me to get back to slacking...ahahaha!
