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Reading Peacemaker Kurogane has led me to identify a certain genre of manga, a certain way of writing.

First, You make a whole series full of great people and pretty art.

Then, you kill them one by one.

Or you change their fates (e.g. make them poor, kill their families, paralyze them or make them sick, make them die for someone else, etc.) and fuck things up. The moral is that War is Bad: when big things happen, cute little people that the fans love have to snatch their happiness and peace whenever they can. THEN THEY DIE.

This rant began with PMK but started in earnest when I read this month's Hagaren, in which ANOTHER perfectly good male is thrown right out the window. So much for THAT.

( A small, incredibly concentrated chunk of spoilers for Hagaren and PMK )

It's worth noting, however, that with Hagaren, it is suggested that the entire world is going to be rainbows and sunshine at the end, especially for the Elric kids. With PMK it looks like everyone except Tatsu and/or Tetsu is at risk of dying because samurai have that reputation for dying in a hurry.

More manga. The villain in Jinki Extend, as far as I can tell by looking over the first volume, is a crazy motherfucker rapist. I'm worried it's too romanticized but the art is JUST RIGHT. I'm just going to have to wait on that one. Sugar Sugar Rune is still wonderful and fun and full of classic shoujo manga nonsense.

( L2 rant, this is getting long (THERE ARE SPOILERS ABOVE BE CAREFUL) )