Manga frenzy

This may sound unbelievable, but I'm hooked onto Japanese comics (or what you know as manga)!!! I bring them to work, read them on the bus and train and even in the toilet!!! Err...sometimes while walking too. I'm into the Kenshin series, which, translated into Mandarin is Lang4 Ke4 Jian4 Xin1.

It's about this 28-year-old Japanese samurai called Jian4 Xin1 who used to be an assassin working for the previous Japanese government. He looks too petite to be the brilliant swordsman he is, but he fights a mean battle when he needs to. He decides to atone for his sins by not killing any more, so he yields a sword that has its sharp blade on the opposite edge instead. During his travels, he meets a 17-year-old pretty lass who practises Tao gungfu (of cos sparks fly), a 10-year-old boy who used to be a thief and a 20-something hooligan who loves to pick fights on the street. All become excellent friends and of cos, support each other through all the terrible battles that come Jian4 Xin1's way.

At 2am this morning, I finished reading the bulk of book number 17, which chronicles the end of this very powerful enemy who wanted to take over Japan. Jian4 Xin1 nearly dies taking him on, that's why the fights were sooooo exciting!!! Like you don't know what's gonna happen in the end, what new martial arts skills each one will pull out etc... This enemy is drawn as a mummified creature because he was burnt alive by the former Japanese government after it realised it didn't need him anymore as an assassin. Because of the horrible fire that he survived, his body contains a huge amount of heat that he has not been able to expel through perspiring. So in the end, he kinda self-destructs cos he exceeded the amount of time he could exert himself through fighting Jian4 Xin1.

Ah well, that's just ONLY A BIT of what the entire series is about. My brother bought the books in 1994, can you believe it??? And I'm just reading them now. It's incredible, I just can't put down the books. Every time I come to the end of a major adventure, a new one starts. I now understand why my mum used to scream at my brother in the past for getting addicted to comics. If there's one good thing that has come out of my current obsession, it's that my Chinese has improved. Yay, I guess?

Oh, and I think reading the comics beats watching the anime, though I haven't caught the TV series yet. The author has this way of drawing each scene such that it keeps you hooked. I don't know how to explain man... :)