Let’s Get Visual: Action Edition

Every day I’m reminded as I browse the manga blogosphere just how much I have to learn about reading and criticizing manga. So, last month, Michelle Smith and I launched a new feature, Let’s Get Visual, where we let our weaknesses show with a view towards growing as critics.

In comments to last month’s column, David Brothers asked if we might talk about more action-oriented scenes the next time around. Since Michelle and I aim to please, we decided to give it a go! The result? Let’s Get Visual: Annnnnd Action!

With Akimi Yoshida’s Banana Fish on the brain (for obvious reasons) I chose a few pages from volume eight of that series, while Michelle picked a sequence from Tsutomu Nihei’s BLAME!

Before you head on over let me remind you that we’re genuinely looking to improve our comprehension of and ability to analyze the visual aspects of manga, so if you know a lot more than we do (and I know many of you do), please teach us! We’d prefer a gentle touch, but we’ll take what we can get! Also, if you have particular requests, as David did, you can see we reward those who indulge us with comments.

So check out our brand new Let’s Get Visual and let us know how we’re doing!