GRE and more manga

Goal for GRE:
95 percentile
verbal 670, quantitative 800

10 weeks to go! My diagnostic exam was decent, so if I could get 100 points higher in both sections I can hit 95%. In times like this I suppose I should be grateful that my education prepared me for standardized testing and academic writing. And if I sound like a pundit or venture into incursions of sedulous semantics for the next 10 weeks, forgive me for my propitiatory efforts for school ingression.

Anyway. Manga updates and news.

Goong translation is now up to vol13.

Chocholatelova pointed me to Fullmetal Alchemist and now I'm engrossed. Although the beginning chs were childishly exaggerated, the story quickly plunges into the main storyline and is now deep in political intrigue. While FMA isn't quite magic realism or even pretend to present complex character development, its storytelling is strong. Now go read it in online viewer or download it, and come back to discuss it with me!
(The image is from Transmute.)

I also read Kimi no Kakera on readmanga.com, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the author was male. It just had such a quality of CLAMP ephemeral sensibilities and sketchy, imprecise inklines that is more common in female mangaka. The art enhances the story--it has a simple premise, a simple approach to narration, and yet by viewing the story through the eyes of children in a world that has turned upside down, it's strangely mature. However, until the Cinderella plight of Icoro and the innocence of Shiro came together at the end ch5, little more than Shin Takahashi's artwork motivated me to keep reading. But it really is wonderful art.