Reading Collective Reading of Samidare and the Biscuit Hammer by Satoshi Mizukami

[k-dom]

I think ukimix said there will be an english publisher soon.

 

[thatguy3331]

Yo, sorry I haven't been here in a while but I'm afraid I'm going to have to drop out. Simply put, my internet conection has been severly limited so I can't really spend as much time as I would like to re-read everything as well as some other RL things going on.I'll probably be stalking this thread though since it's nice to see people talk about this series, and I hope you guys continue to enjoy reading it!

Sucks I'm going to have a wait for so long to buy the manga though...oh well.

 

[ukimix]

Vol 2 and the whole story is really great. I just reread it yesterday. Let me share you I’m still touched by Hangetsu’s words: “An adult laughs and has fun for the sake of making the children envious of being grown”. You know, I’m father of two lovely children (2 and 5 years old). I have friends that say: “I don’t want to be father/mother, this world is horrible to bring some more kids”
It’s a sad thought and it’s sad that some people think that way, even if it’s a respectable thought. And I say to myself: “I disagree with it. I have to disagree. To be a good father you have to believe; you have to trust that it’s possible to be happy in this world; otherwise I’ll do it wrong”. And let me tell you I’m a good father, I love my children and I’m a very very good babysitter. I spend time with them and I’m truly happy with them…

But this line just caught my off guard (Thanks again conn-man for calling my attention over it). I mean, Hangetsu knows much more than what I knew about the whole stuff. Because his words mean: “To be a good father, it’s not enough to believe that happiness is possible for the children, you have to go further, you have to be happy at least in some of the things you do in your life (not in all of them).” I mean, you never can cheat on your children. It’s not possible. Always they know, they feel how you feel in your heart; they always feel the most inner feelings and important feelings you have about life. If you are a dissatisfied adult, your kids won’t grow being envious of being adult, or at least they won’t got that desire of watching at what you do/are. The desire could come from another place, but not from you.

But even worse, the desire could simple not come from anywhere. I mean your kids could grow thinking that being an adult is boring or nothing special at all. And sure being a child is fantastic, and being young too. But I think the youngsters of our times overestimate youngness in comparison to how much they want to become adults. I think it’s not their fault, but only that they are the preys of our consumer society that with its economical system and its marketing and advertising strategies blind their eyes and washes their brains focusing too much in their youth. And sure Hangetsu is not the hero of our contemporary consumer society… simply because there are much more youngster than adults in the world and it’s should be easy to make more money selling to the youngsters than selling to the adults.

I mean do our youngster be adults? Do they really want to be adults? On my view, they associate adultness to responsibility, work, more work and more responsibility.. Well I wonder too much nowadays about it. And this volume 2 was such a great find to me… I keep thinking about it.

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The first time I read vol 2 I missed 90% of the content, (I agree with k-dom that page with Hisame trying to laugh and crying is really special). Among many other things, I didn’t even realize that Hangetsu died doing the same heroic act his dog did. He lived as a happy adult (reading good manga and dating nice women), and died as a superhero... Lovely Hangetsu!!

 

[conn-man]

Great thoughts ukimix. I have no kids of my own but like you I have found the message compelling enough to try and pass down the same thoughts to my younger sibling, cousins and friends. Heck, I even believe that the thoughts carried by Hangetsu can be useful in talking to elder adults who may struggle with maintaining a positive influence. That thought actually takes me to another character I have been itching to talk about, Nagumo the horse knight.

Right off the bat Nagumo takes the mantle as leader/organizer of the knights. I love his big sense of responsibility and fearlessness as he refers to the knights as "bullets that will lay down their lives protecting the earth". I'll jump forward a bit to the part were we find out that Nagumo has a ex-wife, son and is unemployed. This revelation creates an awkward mood as even the supernatural being that Noi is realizes the difficulty of Nagumos situation. I really liked Nagumos back story were he first meets Dance and we find out he was a detective and had a clairvoyant partner, Hitawari. I'd also like to note that the comedy between Nagumo and Hitawari is quiet and dry but incredibly funny.

Anyway in the flashback Nagumo is shown to have given up on 'justice' and he sees that maintaining the law comes first even if the law is wrong. This takes me back to my point about helping adults who have lost faith in their positive influence. Nagumo has faith in justice in his heart as we see him tell his son about his old justice themed hero, Inkoman. Like ukimix said in his post, society as it is can wear people down and dampen their faith in positive feelings as did happen to Nagumo, but to me it seemed that seeing Hitawaris display of justice and with the appearence of Dance, Nagumo sees protecting the earth as a grand second chance to be an 'ally of justice' even though he continues to be modest and describe it as getting his hands dirty, his passion is clearly shown.

I think Nagumo was the perfect character to step in and guide the knights. He may not be the same influential, teacher type that Hangetsu was but he certainly has positive paternal qualities that the group of kids that make up most of the knights needed.

 

[k-dom]

Ok it seems the holidays and everybody busy made a little mess of the collective readings.
conn-man if you don't mind, I would really like to see your comments about volume 4 and 5.
vFor me, Volume 4 was really philosophical too. It was quite strange to have all the knights appear suddenly in volume 3 (generally you have to wait for an arc to end before someone new joins. But once again it helps Mizukami shows his writing skills. Volume 4 is dedicated to the discovery of all this weird team. And it is quite full of surprises.
Chapter about Yayoi makes her character very touching. Her wish was really beautiful. And we have an intriguing character with her sword professor. How is a related with the plot when he doesn't seem to be a knight ?
Not much to say about Nagumo one
Tarou and Hanako one is interesting because it switches the traditional place of the boy and the girl. It also gives more light to the link between the animals and their knights. Hanako seems to have a dark past, I guess we will know more later.
Hyou one was probably the most surprising. To see him chitchat with the evil boss like that. And his appearance is so unorthodox especially compared to his ambitions.
It is certainly on purpose that Akitani chapters follow Hyou one. Akitani had what Hyou wishes for. It's quite sad that they couldn't meet each others.

---------- Post added at 05:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:16 PM ----------

Oh and it seems like you don't have the scan of the back covers so since it's christmas, here are the one of volume 5...

 

[conn-man]

I was on a vacation for 10 days and was surprised to see no posts. Any chance we could pick up the reading at whatever volume we decide? Maybe vol 5?

 

[Sakakibara Eitaro]

I read it in one go and must say I like the development but thought it was a bit rushed in the end. It has a lot of fun moments and sad ones too. It was amazing how he made the main villain end, one of the best endings, but I think he shoud have made the last golen more troublesome. I don't know....
Any way, it was a good series and worth the time reading it.

 

[ashher]

its really what a shounen should be like. wonderful

 

[Kaiten]

its really what a shounen should be like. wonderful

Seinen, not shounen. Samidare is serialized in Young King Ours, a seinen magazine. Hellsing was also serialized in Young King Ours.