Lemma Soft Forums

Just thought I'd share a few quality OEL (Original English Language) Manga that I've gotten my hands on recently.

Miki Falls by Mark Crilley - if any of you are Akiko fans (I havent read that yet but heard many good things) then you probably already have this. If not, then check it out - it's well done shoujo (I'd think) but what really gets to me are (a) the paneling skills of Crilley and (b) one of the most original high-concept "mysterious secret of the main love interest" that I've seen in a long, long time. Now there's a plot hook that would have made ample VN material...

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=110937

My Dead Girlfriend by Eric Wright - the art (by the OC ghost artist) can be hit or miss, but I liked it, and the dialogue struck an authentic tone, and its generally just a fun tale.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=77204

Pantheon High - Paul Benjamin and Steven Cumming - I really like the art style, and I've always been a mythology freak. Creative blending of modernity and mythology will win me over any time. And its very fitting they made Lokispawn be of ambiguous gender

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=81863

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Thanks for the kind words about Miki Falls! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I really appreciate you spreading the word!

Mark

@_@ Didn't expect a reply from the author himself (I'll assume its the real Mark) - but don't mention it! The work deserves the praise


And hey, now that you've found us here, maybe you should think about making a Ren'Py visual novel too. That'd be great on all fronts ^_^

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Thanks for the reply Nafai!

I confess I have no idea what a Ren'Py visual novel is! in any case I'm probably too busy to do anything but finish Miki Falls at the moment. Thanks again for telling folks about Miki, it's great to know manga enthusiasts won't necessarily turn their noses up at a newcomer like me...

mark

So, after seeing this thread on the forums, I picked up a copy of Miki falls. I just got through reading it, and I have to say I really dug it.

This is a hard book to promote. I think that if I told you the premise of the series, you'd go, "wow, that's cool." At the same time, the point of the first book is getting to the big reveal, so if I just came out and told you it would ruin the book. (About half of it. The other half is the growing relationship between the main characters.)

Crilley has an interesting art style, one that isn't the standard manga style. That's not a bad thing... Miki looks a lot more Japanese than your average manga heroine, for example. It looks like the book was drawn in grayscale, rather than black and white, so you wind up getting these interesting variations in color.

If there's a downside to this book, it's in the production of the physical book itself. Printing presses can't really print gray, they can print black and white. To fake gray, they print little black dots of different sizes. From what I understand, the size of these dots is based on the type of paper you're printing on, and maybe the process used... anyway, in this case, they're too large, and so some of the fine detail of the lines is lost.

(If you have any manga with color pages that were printed in black-and-white, you'll sort of know the effect I'm talking about.)

Of course, if they used better paper/process, the book would cost more, and would probably go in the comics section rather than the manga section. The real world is an annoyingly complicated place, at times.

Anyway, I think Miki Falls is worth it, especially at the $7.99 price point. I'll be picking the next volume up when it comes out in a month...

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face in marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming" - Theodore Roosevelt

Thanks for the positive review, Tom! Yes, it is pretty frustrating that I can't tell people the concept behind the series; like you said it's the one thing that'll make people interested, but then telling them about it is like giving away the ending to The 6th Sense...

Thanks, btw, for recognising it as the premise of the series. A number of reviewers have treated it as some kind of bizarre twist ending that I came up with on the fly!

Yeah, the paper quality is a bit of a let down. All these pages look so much nicer on my computer screen! For my next project I'm going to do something much less greytone-dependent.

Thanks again for the suport, Tom. I greatly appreciate it!

Mark

If we're recommending OEL Manga, I have to mention Dramacon. It's an awesome romantic comedy set in an anime convention.

I also have to recommend Looking for the Sun (Amazon / online), by SunKitten, whose art has adorned my two games, and who was recently named one of the UK Rising Stars of Manga

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Author of Elven Relations (IntRenAiMo 2007), When I Rule The World (NaNoRenO 2005), Cloud Fairy (Cute Light & Fluffy, 2009), the TileEngine and UnitEngine (LSF@5), and the fantasy novel Ultimate Dream (NaNoWriMo 2006 onwards).
In development (progress slow but ongoing):
Elven Relations 2: Mermaid Liaisons: Story 96% done, script 75% done, character art 95% done, event CGs 60% done, backgrounds 50% done, customisation 0% done; demo available