Review: BNHA, volume 1
Feb. 5th, 2023 02:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
x_los- I waited months in my library’s hold queue to read the first volume of this manga. When I finally got it, I found that my iPad was too old for Libby to even deign to download thereon. Computers proper are not allowed to interact with Libby at all, for secret reasons. I was thus only able to access this comic on my phone, and only in a landscape orientation (so sideways—the panel wasn’t even upright), with finger-pinch zoom and great swathes of black space on both sides. I have no idea what this interface design was meant to do, but it completely failed to meet my needs as a user. I wanted to support my library and legitimately access this item (in part because I wanted to read an official copy with a vaguely-decent translation), but it was literally illegible. I had to wait until I happened to get a new iPad after mine broke and then renew my hold to engage with this.
- For manga, Libby asks you to swipe left to access the next page rather than right. My sister in Weeb, that is simply not necessary. Konichiwhat the fuck is this? You can have your original panel order, but pagination no longer affects layout in a material way: you certainly don’t need to design an entirely new turn UI just for manga, throwing regular users off! You truly can just stop!
- I know Shonen Jump is a major publication, but the production quality of even early BNHA as collected in this serialisation really surprises me. There are good shadows, fabric details, and lots of well-realised background characters. The architecture particularly shines, especially in the wider city-scape shots. All of that has to take time, and thus money. This looks significantly better than a lot of manga I’ve seen (excepting titles that are specifically Arty). The production team here may well be using sophisticated tools I’m not familiar with to help create these textures et al semi-automatically, but even so, the effect is impressive.
- Bakugo wears his backpack in a dumb way, like a backwards purse. Nil points. (I think this might actually be a fairly standard way to wear a Japanese school bag, but Jade says that while the bag is immensely efficient in terms of carrying capacity, this way of wearing it is too uncomfortable to practicably sustain.)
- It’s very interesting to see the mangaka’s notes at this early stage, when he had fairly loose, developing ideas about the plot and story-world.
- I guess this review sort of presumes familiarity with the anime. I think the issue is that the baseline thoughts I have about the story would be best elucidated in relation to the manga, my first and core exposure to the title.
- For manga, Libby asks you to swipe left to access the next page rather than right. My sister in Weeb, that is simply not necessary. Konichiwhat the fuck is this? You can have your original panel order, but pagination no longer affects layout in a material way: you certainly don’t need to design an entirely new turn UI just for manga, throwing regular users off! You truly can just stop!
- I know Shonen Jump is a major publication, but the production quality of even early BNHA as collected in this serialisation really surprises me. There are good shadows, fabric details, and lots of well-realised background characters. The architecture particularly shines, especially in the wider city-scape shots. All of that has to take time, and thus money. This looks significantly better than a lot of manga I’ve seen (excepting titles that are specifically Arty). The production team here may well be using sophisticated tools I’m not familiar with to help create these textures et al semi-automatically, but even so, the effect is impressive.
- Bakugo wears his backpack in a dumb way, like a backwards purse. Nil points. (I think this might actually be a fairly standard way to wear a Japanese school bag, but Jade says that while the bag is immensely efficient in terms of carrying capacity, this way of wearing it is too uncomfortable to practicably sustain.)
- It’s very interesting to see the mangaka’s notes at this early stage, when he had fairly loose, developing ideas about the plot and story-world.
- I guess this review sort of presumes familiarity with the anime. I think the issue is that the baseline thoughts I have about the story would be best elucidated in relation to the manga, my first and core exposure to the title.
