The Neo-Pangaea BookWorm's Digest #2 (02/07/2024) (Spoiler Free)

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Hi guys! It's been some time since my first post about various books I've read. Today I'll be taking some time to talk about 3 more books I've read since then: Dragon Ball #1 by Akira Toriyama, Naruto #1 by Masashi Kishimoto and Underkill by Leonard Chang.

Once again, like the other post, I'll try to keep things as spoiler free as possible. I'll try to briefly highlight whatever important bits I can on the stories while also talking about other aspects that I liked about them, such as their writing styles, artwork, etc.

Now, let's get started!

Dragon Ball #1 by Akira Toriyama

I believe it was around the same time that news of Akira Toriyama's death came out that I decided to renew my library card. While I was never a big fan of DB, I did enjoy watching any iteration of it that was shown on cable. I was a very casual fan that just watched it when it was on and that was it. So when I saw that the complete box set for the OG Dragon Ball series was available to read, I decided that now was a good time to check it out.

I really enjoyed my time with it! The writing is fun, silly and well-paced, and the characters are fun and lovable! The artwork is gorgeous too! It's very easy to diffenciate everything in black and white, and the fight scenes are dynamic and full of energy and movement! It inspires me alot just by looking at it! The book does an awesome job at combining badass action and comedy to create a fun adventure story involving Asian folklore.

I was surprised by how horny it was too (in a good way)! The scenes with Master Roshi and Bulma are pretty funny imo, and watching Yamcha fumble the bag constantly due to his shyness around girls is always entertaining. Was especially surprised too to see a little lolicon in here too with ChiChi (and shotacon too I guess, with some scenes of Son Goku). I love ChiChi lol, she's adorable!

I currently have Vol.2 and I'm really enjoying that too, but I'll talk about that in another post. For now, let's move on to the next book!

Naruto #1 by Masashi Kishimoto

Like DB, this was another classic anime/manga I slept on as a kid. I was always more of an Inuyasha, Mew Mew Power, Lucky Star and Hamtaro girl. For years it has been considered to be one of the "Big 3" in anime/manga alongside DB and One Piece, so I decided to check it out too, and I'm glad I did!

This book, like DB, BANGS. Like, damn. My boy Naruto impressed me.

The artwork is detailed, beautiful, dynamic and lively, especially in those fun action scenes. I've seen some people critize Kishimoto's art style, generally saying that it wasn't nearly as good as the artstyles for DB or One Piece, and I firmly disagree. The artwork is very well made and stands tall with the other two in the Big 3 just fine. Naruto himself is a very compelling character who is very easy to love and feel for during his struggles to become a great ninja/the next Hokage. And personally, as someone who was a very shy, introverted and dorky kid who was honestly much more interest in playing games, I related quite a bit with Naruto's struggles with getting a good education.

However, there is one critique I would personally like to give as a female reader, and that would be that Sakura isn't as well written as the guys (Sasuke and Naruto in particular). Early on in a certain chapter, we as readers are introduced to the main trio, her, Naruto and Sasuke, and get a small glimpse into their motivations for becoming ninjas. Naruto and Sasuke's motivations are well established, but not so much Sakura's, as all she says is that she loves Sasuke and hates Naruto. That's really it. However, I did like those silly, cute "Inner Sakura" moments she had as they gave her a silly, funny, dorky side to her character. Then again, it;s only the first chapter, so I'll give her some time to develop, as despite my issues with how she was written here, I do like her!

Now that I got the two mangas out of the way, let's finish off with....

Underkill by Leonard Chang.

Ho. Ly. SHIT. BRO. Where do I begin?

So after I finished Chase, I was in the mood to read more crime stories, so I decided to pick this one up. I was drawn to the cover, with mainly had UNDERKILL in bold, black letters and an illustration of a burning red car. I knew from the sleek presentation alone that this book was gonna be fire (pun intended).

Naruto and DB are very popular series, so I didn't feel the need to briefly explain what those stories were about as they were already well known for decades. But I've never heard about Underkill until I stumbled across it by pure chance, so it deserves a brief introduction IMO.

Underkill is a dark crime/mystery/action novel about Korean American investigator Allen Choice, who takes on a case which quickly turns into a very personal journey as he is required to team up with his journalist girlfriend, Linda Maldonado, to discover the true details of the suspicious death of her brother, Hector, who was reported to have died in a burning car.

This book is dark, serious, very intimate and heart-felt. Allen and Linda are incredibly well-written characters who are impossible to not root for. Their chemistry is amazing, regardless of when they're fighting with eachother or having these small, intimate moments of geniune love for eachother in an attempt to rekindle their dying relationship. Linda's family is well written too, and it's so hard not to worry about them or feel bad for them, as they are wrapped up in a much larger, dangerous and serious situation than expected when they just wanted to understand why their struggling family member died like that.

I don't want to spoil this story too much. If you can, try to get your hands on a copy or PDF somewhere and give it a shot. That's all I'm gonna say. If you like crime stories, you've gonna love Underkill.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish this one on time! I had a month to complete it, but due to having some important matters to attend to regarding school work at university, I just didn't to read it as much as I would have liked. I did get pretty far, though! Maybe I might just pirate some PDF of it so I could finish it? Idk, but wow, it was awesome.

So that's for this second entry of The Neo-Pangaea BookWorm's Digest! Next time, I will be talking about "Shawshank Redemption" By Stephen King, "Chainsaw Man #4" by Tatsuki Fujimoto and "Moon Knight (2011-2012 run)" by Bendis & Maleev. Bye for now!