People Hit Each Other With Swords

Trained warriors getting hacked to pieces. It is Wednesday already?

If you’ve been around my blog for any real length of time, you probably know that I don’t discuss every manga chapter that comes out. Part of this is due to the time it would require to discuss absolutely everything, but mostly it’s because not every chapter contains something that I can discuss. My posts would get boring quickly if I tried to go over every little nuance of a scene that’s been stretched over several chapters. I admit there are times where I don’t blog about events I should *coughKenichicough* but mostly I find that quite often, there’s just nothing to say. What I’d like to talk about, though, is what happens at the peak of this phenomenon. What do you do with a series where there’s never anything to talk about?

Gamaran is quite possibly the simplest manga I’ve ever read. 90% of the chapters can be summarized as “People hit each other with swords.” There are smaller things that I suppose I could talk about, like the bloodshed or the ridiculous double-sword this enemy has (he combines two katanas into one in mid-battle, in a series where giant swords already exist). But the urge to discuss it never came primarily because most topics I could use had been in plenty of chapters before and would be in many more later on.

The way I usually decide what posts to write is that there are usually topics I’ve had in my head for some time, and particular chapters give me the chance to write about them. This can be important topics, like storyline theories or fanservice, or just casual observations, like how a particular character has changed. When I read through chapters of Gamaran, I find it very difficult to come up with anything. I know there are things that change from time to time, but as much as I want to discuss it from time to time, there has never been a topic that really interested me. I’m not trying to mock Gamaran as a series, since it is an entertaining read, but there’s only so much you can say about a manga like this.

This isn’t the only kind of series I’ve had this issue with, either. I wanted to do a Dengeki Daisy post for a while, but the series is so far removed from what I normally discuss that I don’t know what to say when a chapter comes out. Of course if there were actually consistent updates, it might be easier, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m sure there are other bloggers with problems like this, and since so many people do episodic reviews, I suppose they know ways to get around the boring parts. Until I find a better way to go about these chapters, the only winning move is not to blog them.

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A few things I’d like to quickly say, while I’m here. First, I am still writing the Negima finale post. It’s primarily meant to look over the series as a whole, so don’t expect the epic RAAAAAGE some people have let out. Second, I’m still working on video reviews, but I’m doing it a bit differently right now. I think that with my current school schedule, I’ll soon have to stop writing the reviews until the end of April (normal posts will be unaffected!). So my current plan is to write several reviews in advance before then. I’ve got Squid Girl and Psyren partially written, and I’ll try for one more so I have enough till school is out. It’s currently looking like Toriko, but we’ll see.