Fence
Ratings68
Average rating4.1
The storyline of these just get better and better and I am enjoying everything in this world
A cute follow-up! God I love Nicholas and Seiji, their dynamic is hilarious. Most of these issues take place over the same 24 hours. They do a great job at making fencing thrilling, though I do wish we get some more character development. This series hints at a gay romance, but we only get little scenes here and there with our main guys. I want more!!
I loved this one! The tryouts are killing me, I'm rooting for everyone... it's hard!
I love these characters and the art style is so freaking cute.
Also, the slow burn is REAL.
Love how Nicholas interacts with Seiji, it cracks me up.
This is where the story (and the art) started going downhill. We continue with the matches between the boys for the position at the school's fencing team and this is the volume where the matches become more plot-device-y and it becomes really hard to grasp the actual skill of individual characters. This gets a lot worse in volume 3, though.
I also don't like the behavior of certain characters and the decisions that they make. Not because I disagree with those decisions, but because they seem kinda silly. For example, and this is a SPOILER
Seiji loses against Aiden and goes to the bathroom to sulk. He's the best fencer in the school, so a loss like this is not easy for him to handle emotionally. Once he enters the bathroom, the coach doesn't let anyone else get it. Anyone except for Nicolas, that is. I get it - she was protective of Seiji, but why let Nicolas in? For all SHE knows - they're rivals and Nicolas will tease Seiji just as much as all the other guys would. It's almost as if she knows that Seiji/Nicolas is the endgame relationship of this comic...
END SPOILER.
I also “like” how people in the audience seems to be able to read the fencers minds. When character A is fencing character B, but is thinking about fencing character C, there's always someone who notices that “it's like Nicolas is fencing a bigger opponent somehow.” It wouldn't be so annoying if it hadn't happened again in volume three...
Not all matches are completely baseless, though. Even though it is surprising how many boys end up with a tie (14-14), there were two matches the outcomes of which were sort of justified. I say “sort of”, because I'm not fully buying it, but I guess this still falls within the limits of my suspension of disbelief.
Now for the art. Sure, there's stuff that has been there since volume one.
Like the fact that the main entrance to the training hall leads to background that looks like a painting.
A lot of the faces (even in close-ups!) just look like this:
It's not just the faces - their bodies keep shrinking, too! Basically, it seems that the artist just turns them into chibis whenever she's tight on time.
There is one thing that I like about volume two - that Harward and Aiden's friendship is shown a bit more. Even though i hate Aiden with my very being (because he's a walking cliche - he's not a person!), his friendship with Harward gives him at least a little depth.
Fence est une série de comics scénarisée par C.S. Pacat et illustrée par Johannna The Mad. Elle se déroule dans l'univers de l'escrime, un sport que j'ai rarement vu que ce soit dans les bandes dessinées ou dans les dessins animés inspirés de mangas. Elle met en scène des adolescents américains qui veulent tous intégrer l'équipe d'escrime de leur lycée.
Le deuxième album regroupe les numéros 5 à 8 des comics. Il reprend le récit où il s'était arrêté à la fin du premier album : les sélections pour l'équipe d'escrime du lycée battent leur plein et des favoris commencent à se distinguer.
Seiji commence à impressionner sérieusement ses camarades, qui n'apprécient pourtant pas son arrogance et son côté solitaire. Quant à Nicholas, il continue à se battre pour prouver sa valeur et se montrer digne d'intégrer l'équipe. Des personnages secondaires du premier album gagnent également en épaisseur dans ce deuxième album, comme Aiden, le play-boy dont la nonchalance cache un réel talent d'escrimeur, ou Harvard, le capitaine historique de l'équipe, désormais menacé par le talent de Seiji.
Le récit ne présent presque aucune surprise, il semble cousu de fil blanc, mais c'est tout de même plaisant à suivre. Il y a toujours des allusions plus ou moins appuyées à l'homosexualité de certains personnages, ou en tout cas un sous-texte plus ou moins évident. Quant aux dessins, ils sont toujours aussi réussis, dans un style mi-comics mi-manga que j'apprécie particulièrement.
J'ai dévoré les deux albums en trois jours et je dois maintenant attendre le mois de juillet, me semble-t-il, pour la parution du troisième tome qui compilera les quatre numéros suivants de la série. J'ai hâte !
Still loving this series and the moments of humor. The characters are truly fantastic and have grabbed part of my heart. This is a series one can't help but to binge.
This was a solid 3.5 stars. If I didn't love this genre of sports in the medium of comics/manga/anime so much and haven't seen the vast majority of the plot and similar character development before, I might have given this a higher rating. But this is a very common storyline and I have to deduct some points for originality and creativity. I'm glad this is centered around fencing which is a particular sport I haven't read or watched before so I'm learning while enjoying the story. I will continue with the series for the sole entertainment value but I know I could predict a lot of the characters' decisions because I have seen or read about most of their archetypes before and this isn't a new spin on any of them.
I could not resist this one when it came up available on Hoopla. My current read is a bogging me down, and this was the perfect refreshing read. The art is genuinely fantastic and I???m really invested in the story. I would say that I wish more plot was happening but that doesn???t stop my enjoyment.