An epic review, current in progress but if you have anything to say about it chip in here.

I want to thank you guys for the review. I felt a little bad to ask since I know what a monster it has become. :P It is interesting and helpful to have feedback from people who read the story this was rather than the page-by-page feedback of my wonderful little handful of regulars or my personal perspective as a creator offer down in details and with a mind clouded by future plot.

I hope you didn't suffer too much through the beginning.^^; It wasn't originally meant for public eyes but rather rough storyboards for a nonexistent anime parody starring my friends. After I was pressured into uploading it (and with encouragement from the DD community), the intent changed – and I got carried away.

I have no debate or disagreement with the review, but it did give interesting insight. As a creator, I feel a boring drag when working on the “slow parts.” It didn't occur to me that stepping back, the big picture is a “roller coaster.” I think I see the comic as episodic, like my favorite murder mystery shows and crime dramas. If you watch a marathon, it dawns on you how ludicrous it is that everywhere the protagonist goes (cafe, city bus, vacation), a body shows up. If you get that sense from my writing, although it breaks realism, I can't help but feel somewhat accomplished. Heh.

Anyway, thank you so much for plodding through and for the very creative and insightful presentation.

Gunwallace takes most of the credit for that, all I really did was type up some notes. A few of the criticisms are ones you can level at almost any adventure based serial. Any real person who went through all that would be traumatised.

True. I was watching episode 500-something of my favorite show. One of the regulars found a body and screamed. I said, “How many bodies has she seen? Shouldn't she be used to it by now?”

As i said in the review. Used Books is a testament to your persistance and self-improvement. The plot twists were wild, and the coincidences are multi-layered, but it was also the way the characters reacted to near constant life-or-death moments that got to me. It was often so casual. “You were almost killed today?” “Yeah, want some pizza?” “Sure.” Having said that, there are some wonderful touching moments of insecurity and pathos in there as well. And you so deserved that user profile thing, btw.

If it was early on, I wasn't writing very seriously (still doing the anime parody stuff). If later, it could have been the hiding emotions thing (especially from Seiko) or denial/shock. – If it wasn't any of those things, it was just bad writing, and I have no excuse. XD I'll try to avoid any lapses in character in the future and thank you for the critique.

Some of the coincidences are just laziness, imo, but some things had more purpose behind them and only appear to be coincidence out of context. (Like Conrad's appearence, as later explained.) Oh, and I have been criticized for the “last minute rescue” motif. ^_^; Been trying to break that mold some. The thing with Raidon and the truck was just because I thought it would be amusing. So, um, guilty as charged.

I think I am getting better at writing. It might not be as obvious as the art, but I have tried catching myself on lazy plotting and on clarity with the clues and hints to things so they don't appear out of the blue.


Thanks so much for the encouraging words too. :) Knowing my strengths and weaknesses is a good thing.