Resurrection
This series has an amazing way of taking what should be dark, (highly) disturbing themes and covering them in shoujo gloss to make it all more palatable. It really makes me wonder what a josei/seinen manga about clones would be like (do you know of any?). In my mind… there’s no end to how dark and deep the theme could get…
Merikuron no Namida v01 c02 [DL @ Mega or MF]
Merikuron no Namida v01 c03 [DL @ Mega or MF]
…and maybe I should have clarified: Love is a huge theme in this manga. But, it’s not a romance where you have characters falling in love. Rather, it’s various kinds of love as motivation to make the clones.
Also, I want to thank Kiseki and ayase for tackling the all-important pre-cleaning step for us <3
Thank you so very very much <3
Thanks for the chapters! (And for the clarification on the role of clones here; I was considering not reading if they were all going to be used as lovers or something ^_^)
As for stories that deal with the issue of cloning in a serious fashion, there’s the 1st oneshot in Kakutoshi no Yume, 3rd story in Kaibutsu Ouji (BL, but not brainless like most of them), Mikake no Nijuusei (a comedy, but fairly deep – though not as much as the previous two), Spiral – Suiri no Kizuna (shounen but not childish), and the last oneshot in Shuuseki Kairo no Himawari.
There are actually more manga that deal with “manufactured humans” and the cruelty of being created solely as sex toys/slaves/someone’s wife or kid/killing machine while still being self-aware than there are stories about clones. I wonder why… Human cloning too complicated, maybe? (But then why on earth are there so many stories about time travel? More messed up than clones, if you ask me)
Wait… Spiral is about clones? O.o I had no idea. I remember trying the anime out way (way) back when, and getting turned off by what seemed like a “mystery of the week, let’s talk about it” feel. Not a huge fan of “talk it out” mysteries. Also terrible production values 😉 Maybe I’ll give the manga a try… though the shounen artwork is unappealing to me… urgh >.>;
Agreed, clones don’t seem to pop up much. You see reincarnations who look identical and (sometimes) inherit their former life’s memories fairly often, though. Now that I think of it, you’re right about manufactured humans… I’ve seen countless “little girl is a war machine” manga. Well, their covers; the whole theme seems loli to me, so I avoid it. Now if it were about “just another soldier” in an army of manufactured soldiers becoming self-aware, that could be amazing.
And the whole “time skip” theme is crazy. Random event happens and “tadaa!” you’re 200 years in the past! Wild guess, but I think there might be a romanticized view of feudal Japan going on, and tossing modern day people into that time period gives you a lot of material no matter what the genre.
As for Meri, the actual plot (as opposed to him just making a clone for a random person) starts in c5. I’d say read until c5, and if you’re not interested by then, go ahead and toss it aside. I know it’s very shoujo, and not for everyone. We’re going to start releasing Aoi Uroko in a few weeks, which I’m sure is more your style 🙂
I have no idea what the Spiral anime is like. I loved the manga, and it has a continuous plot that ties the mysteries-of-the-week together. Yes, cloning is major theme. But there is indeed a lot of talking, since it’s a detective story.
As for the “little girl war machine” theme… Yeah, you see it only in shounen and seinen, and honestly there’s way too much sympathising with the girls despite the fact that they are, in effect, serial killers. For example, I’m currently struggling to finish Gunslinger Girl, which is lauded as a masterpiece. I guess I didn’t really consider that most of the people who say as much are guys, and that in the absence of the “Love cute little girls just because they’re cute little girls!” feeling, I’d be left high and dry ^_^ It’s weird, though. Do most women sympathise with a ruthless killer just because it’s a nice-looking boy? I don’t, but I’m weird, so maybe other girls do.
I actually like the idea behind time travel stories, but they’re never really done that well. Makes sense, though, ‘cos apparently even physicists find time confusing.
The thing is, I actually do like non-romantic/romance-there-but-not-the-focus shoujo a lot. They’re just so sweet and innocent and are excellent stress-busters. But romantic shoujo, eh…
…I think they cap nested replies at 3. So replying above~
I think the whole “little kid killer” thing can have a lot of sympathetic themes: Are they forced into it? Were they raised that it’s normal, and are slowly realizing it’s wrong? Are they former killers now fighting for redemption? But if they’re just robot-like, or ignorant and being manipulated by adults, that wouldn’t be interesting to me. Also depends on whether it’s shallow and all about “little girl with guns!” or if it’s actually psychological and dealing with all the issues…
Though I haven’t actually read any manga in that genre… at least, not any good enough for me to remember. I don’t remember seeing even one about a little boy killer, but I haven’t exactly been looking.
Time travel has always been a plot gimmick — I’ve never read a manga where it’s taken seriously. But again, I don’t read much OTL