(I have split this manga series into two posts, because of some weird Wordpress bug. Click here to go to the previous entry that contains Volume 1-9)

* * * * *

SALAD DAYS

Author/Mangaka: Shinobu Inokuma

Genre: Drama, Romance, Slice of Life

Plot Summary: Love is something that is fresh… like salads. Days when people experience love are days that will never be forgotten… These precious memories are “salad days”.

Salad Days is a large collection of short stories about people and their first love, or finding new love. Although almost all of them are unrelated some characters in previous stories reappear as a support character or as a main character if the author chooses to write more stories about the character.

Volumes: 18

Review: Despite this being mostly a romance manga series, I liked it a lot. The slice-of-life aspect of the series is very interesting and somewhat realistic, and the art is very good. I like the fact that not all stories contain the proverbial “happy ending” that we have come to expect in drama/romance manga, and the fact that all the characters seem to be interconnected by locale and/or history makes it very consistent and very enjoyable, since there is already a backstory to most of the characters when they recur in other stories.

Since this is a collection of short stories, almost all of them are self-contained, except for a few characters whose storie are ongoing. Again, I like that some of the stories don’t have the predictable happy conclusion, but they are not depressing, either. The underlying theme in this series is hope. I rarely recommend works based on romance and drama, but this series is one of my favorites in that genre, and is highly recommended for those who like slice-of-life, romance manga.

(Click on the manga image below to download them, or check this list)

Volume 10	Volume 11	Volume 12
Volume 13	Volume 14	Volume 15
Volume 16	Volume 17	Volume 18

How to open and read the manga:

• First make sure that you have CDisplay Comic Reader installed. To download CDisplay, click here. Follow the instructions on how to download and install CDisplay Comic Reader.
• Download the desired manga by clicking on its manga cover or link above. Remember the location where you saved the downloaded manga.
• You can start reading the manga using two ways:
  - Right click on the manga file, and choose Open With, and then click on Choose Program (if the CDisplay application isn’t one of the choices). Scroll down either the Recommended Programs or Other Programs and locate CDisplay (or it can say Sequential Image Display”), and choose it. Your manga will automatically show up and you can start reading.
  - You can start the CDisplay application (which will bring up a blank white screen). Right click anywhere, and choose Load Files (or L). Navigate to where you saved the downloaded manga, choose it, then click Open. Your manga will now show up and you can start reading.

Some of the common hotkeys for CDisplay:
- Pg Up (previous page)
- Pg Down or Spacebar (next page)
- Ctrl L (next volume/chapter; if the manga you’re reading has reached the end, and you already have the next volumes already downloaded)
- Ctrl K (previous volume/chapter)
- Shift P (choose a page to jump to using the page meter)
- C (brings up the Configuration Options, for advanced configuration)
- Arrow Keys (scrolls the manga left/right/up/down if it’s oversized)

IMPORTANT: Since this is manga (Japanese comics), it is read from RIGHT TO LEFT.

ENJOY!

Technorati: days, inokuma, Manga and Manhwa, romance, salad, shinobu, slice of life

(I have split this manga series into two posts, because of some weird Wordpress bug. Click here to go to the next entry that contains Volume 10-18)

* * * * *

SALAD DAYS

Author/Mangaka: Shinobu Inokuma

Genre: Drama, Romance, Slice of Life

Plot Summary: Love is something that is fresh… like salads. Days when people experience love are days that will never be forgotten… These precious memories are “salad days”.

Salad Days is a large collection of short stories about people and their first love, or finding new love. Although almost all of them are unrelated some characters in previous stories reappear as a support character or as a main character if the author chooses to write more stories about the character.

Volumes: 18

Review: Despite this being mostly a romance manga series, I liked it a lot.  The slice-of-life aspect of the series is very interesting and somewhat realistic, and the art is very good.  I like the fact that not all stories contain the proverbial “happy ending” that we have come to expect in drama/romance manga, and the fact that all the characters seem to be interconnected by locale and/or history makes it very consistent and very enjoyable, since there is already a backstory to most of the characters when they recur in other stories.

Since this is a collection of short stories, almost all of them are self-contained, except for a few characters whose storie are ongoing.  Again, I like that some of the stories don’t have the predictable happy conclusion, but they are not depressing, either.  The underlying theme in this series is hope.  I rarely recommend works based on romance and drama, but this series is one of my favorites in that genre, and is highly recommended for those who like slice-of-life, romance manga.

(Click on the manga image below to download them, or check this list)

Volume 1	Volume 2	Volume 3
Volume 4	Volume 5	Volume 6
Volume 7	Volume 8	Volume 9

How to open and read the manga:

• First make sure that you have CDisplay Comic Reader installed. To download CDisplay, click here. Follow the instructions on how to download and install CDisplay Comic Reader.
• Download the desired manga by clicking on its manga cover or link above.  Remember the location where you saved the downloaded manga.
• You can start reading the manga using two ways:
  - Right click on the manga file, and choose Open With, and then click on Choose Program (if the CDisplay application isn’t one of the choices). Scroll down either the Recommended Programs or Other Programs and locate CDisplay (or it can say Sequential Image Display”), and choose it. Your manga will automatically show up and you can start reading.
  OR
  - You can start the CDisplay application (which will bring up a blank white screen). Right click anywhere, and choose Load Files (or L). Navigate to where you saved the downloaded manga, choose it, then click Open. Your manga will now show up and you can start reading.

Some of the common hotkeys for CDisplay:
- Pg Up (previous page)
- Pg Down or Spacebar (next page)
- Ctrl L (next volume/chapter; if the manga you’re reading has reached the end, and you already have the next volumes already downloaded)
- Ctrl K (previous volume/chapter)
- Shift P (choose a page to jump to using the page meter)
- C (brings up the Configuration Options, for advanced configuration)
- Arrow Keys (scrolls the manga left/right/up/down if it’s oversized)

IMPORTANT: Since this is manga (Japanese comics), it is read from RIGHT TO LEFT.

ENJOY!

Technorati: days, inokuma, Manga and Manhwa, romance, salad, shinobu, slice of life

And no, I’m not talking about the Tagalog word for mango, either… manga is Japanese comics, those little books you find in most bookstores that have bubblegum colors on their covers, have Japanese titles, and reads from right to left (so if you’re one of those people who normally browses a book starting with the end to see what happens, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with manga, coz you will be logically starting from the beginning).

Anyway, just making it known that I will be posting reviews and download links to some scanlated manga very shortly…  Scanlated pretty much means “scanned and translated.”  As you know, manga are originally written in Japanese, and unless you were born Japanese or took up a very involved course in reading Japanese text (kanji, hiragana, katakana, etc), I’m pretty sure you won’t understand what the hell those cute drawings are saying.  So many independent online groups who have decent knowledge in Japanese have started the practice of scanning the original manga, and then translating the Japanese kanji into text we other folks can actually read.  These are called “scanlation groups” and they have been very instrumental in bringing Japanese “comics” to not just North America, but other parts of the world.  The same thing applies to other foreign-language comics like manhwa in Korean, etc…

Anyway, I will be posting some manga series here that I really liked, and I will make them available for download.  Now, you’re probably asking if I will be breaching some copyrights or intellectual property here, or promoting piracy by allowing commercial comics be available for download… Well, think again – most of what I’ll be putting here has not been released in the United States, or even licensed by any of the companies that are distributing translated manga.  In fact, most of them will probably never be available in the United States, and that’s a crying shame, really…  While series like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece or Death Note get widespread distribution, some little-known gems by manga legends like Mitsuru Adachi are nowhere to be seen.

Hence, I will be posting some series here, ones that I like personally… maybe you’ll like it too, who knows  If you are interested in downloading and reading the manga, make sure you download and install CDisplay.  It’ll allow you to read the manga even if they are zipped up.  You can download CDisplay here.

So anyway, that’s it for now… stay tuned

Technorati: cdisplay, download, Manga and Manhwa, scanlation