A couple days break from the intensity of Jon Sable, and this is about as different from Mr. Grell's series as I could possibly get. I've been slowly but surely discovering Rumiko Takahashi's work, though I definitely could jump right in given the proliferation and popularity of her Inu Yasha and Ranma 1/2. I'm preferring reading the less-well known series, especially her creepy Mermaid stories, so I can get an idea of what her writing is like without the pomp and circumstance of a popular comic. That said, coming in at what appears to be the very end of the Lum series of comics, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. There was a vampire, and a bat, and an alien lady in tiger print, and the ubiquitous hapless male lead who everyone loves for some reason, but who seems completely incapable of taking care of himself, or developing relationships.
Actually, something I'm finding about a lot of the manga and anime I'm consuming these days is that it's often the female-identifying characters who are the pursuers when it comes to romantic relationships, which is really very different from the primary motivating factors in a lot of North American media. I wonder why that is, given that the picture painted for us of the culture is one of demure women who don't pursue a man/partner. As I've noted in my other readings of Ms. Takahashi's work, my knowledge of the culture and the medium is very limited, so my readings really can only come from the comics to which I'm exposed. That said, my limited understanding aside, Ms. Takahashi's work is frickin' weird and I love it. She has a nice handle on taking similar weirdnesses (mostly supernatural ones) and applying very different atmospheres to them, so that the vampire in this comic is comedic relief, but the flesh-hungry characters in the Mermaid books are terrifying. All with very similar aesthetic choices with regard to the artwork.
More to follow.
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