tempestuously | (no subject)

It occurs to me that by now people should understand that if you make one page to accommodate many many many people, people are going to get left behind. As the saying goes, you snooze you lose. It makes me pouty and wish there were ways to fix the system so that these things don't blow up in half the people's faces. Seriously, to the victors go the spoils.

So I'm trying to figure out what I want for Christmas and I'm only getting one of these since I consider them the same thing, and I only remotely care because there are some characters who look interesting. I admit I am one of those types who gets easily irritated if something gets more attention than others so I'm already off-put about both these series. But not enough to turn me off the eye candy.

-Reborn
-Air Gear

Which one should it be? Also note, I'm not going to track down scanlations. I don't care that much.

ETA: GRAHAM YOU KEEP NOT BEING ON AIM. I'M CHECKING. NOW REPLY WITH WHAT YOU WANT FOR CHRISTMAS SO I CAN SEND IT INSTA-MAIL.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay so! You might know this already, but Reborn has about 60 chapters of day-in-the-life random gag manga crack before it gets shounen, so. If you like something that at least pretends to have a plot, you might want to skip the first few volumes, if you decide to go with that! Air Gear starts out shounen and is very fanservicey, but if you're going to read one from the beginning, you might want to go with that, if lots of boobs and panty shot type things don't bother you! ...though. I have no idea on your tastes at all, so feel free to ignore the anon!

I'm one chapter behind the Air Gear Japanese raws but have only read the first five volumes of Reborn, so I'm sort of limited and lopsided here. As far as initial enjoyment goes, though, I found Reborn a lot more entertaining! Air Gear is pretty hardcore fan-servicey, which was... actually a turn-off for me. XD First five volumes of Reborn were pretty light and breezy, whereas Air Gear, though starting off as pretty traditional shounen fare, feels darker/heavier to me in general.

But Air Gear absolutely owned me from volume 9 onwards -- which, yeah, is a good distance in, but it's been keeping it up pretty well since then, given that I think we're in what would be about volume 20 now. What kept me reading until then was just solid (though not extraordinary by any means) shounen entertainment with a darker tone than what I was used to -- i.e. some good ol' Naruto/Prince of Tennis/[insert standard shounen series here] "I WILL REMAIN TRUE TO MYSELF AND GAIN STRENGTH THROUGH THE POWER OF TEAMWORK hoshit how are we going to defeat this new enemy!?!?!" Spirit, except, y'know, not aimed at 12-year olds. After that, it was the plot that had me hooked. (And a bit further after that, the characters.)

So... I can only really provide a view on one side here, and I don't know all of your preferences, so! But I will say that I spent a good amount of my time reading Air Gear thinking to myself "...why the hell do people like this thing so much," but then, it took a turn and got me hooked in a way that I now enjoy the entire series more than I did when I first started reading it.

Not much to add here as I don't know Air Gear, but Reborn must look stupid to a Code Geass fan, eg. Realms although she does almost ship one character the way she ships Lelouch, which is something. The first seven books (background info) will probably squick you and the hero is your typical shoujo manga heroine with not strong enough character to keep the whole cast together. The saving grace is the visuals and one or two side characters. I guess it's pick your poison? =D

That said, I'm sorry for my Reborn-related spamming XD.