On Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 05:07:20AM +0800, sl wrote:
> hi all:
> I just saw the latest afternoon issue images by Sylvain (thanks!) and can't
> help feeling that in the last few years, the manga has sorta "grown up".
> 
> Ever since Keiichi left university, the issues and various arcs explored are
> no longer the comedy and regular type as we've been accustomed to the
> earlier books. E.g. as compared to other mangas such as Love Hina, or even
> Fujishima's earlier YUA; AMS in recent years does seemed to take on a more
> mature slant.

Well, I'm not sure I see this as an entirely bad thing.

Series that don't allow their characters to grow and change can get stuck
at a point where they run out of plotlines, and when the manga does
end, it may be an unsatisfactory ending.

I'd compare Ranma 1/2, which had an episodic plotline, a vague sense of
time, and an unresolved ending, with Maison Ikkoku, which had a 
progressive plotline, a fairly consistent sense of time, and
a satisfying ending. Both by the same author, though for different
manga markets (MI ran in "Big Comic Spirits", as I recall, aimed at an
older audience than "Shounen Sunday".)

I've been thinking that it looked like AMS was being eased into
an orderly ending.  I'd hoped for a while that the AMS manga would
include a wedding, but I'd expected that would be the likely end
of the story: not because there was no more story to tell but,
because it would represent a big enough change that "Afternoon"
wouldn't want to run the story for the same market. But I'd
be happy to be surprised, by a story that had a wedding and kept
going. 

I wonder also of this reflects the dynamic of weekly vs monthly
manga series.

-- 
    Albert Lunde          Albert-Lunde@northwestern.edu (new address)
                          Albert-Lunde@nwu.edu (old address)