I'm not, in general, a big fan of tortured characters or melodrama, and the sort of angst that tips over into what's known as wangst. there's just something about that sort of over-the-top character treatment that pings my secondhand embarrassment for them and makes me wince.
Well... sort of. In novels, I cannot stand it. Nothing makes me want to throw a book against a wall faster. And in comics, it comes across as forced drama in a blind push for sales, so while I find it slightly more forgivable, I still don't condone it.
But in manga... let's just say I'm a lot more forgiving. As always there may be spoilers below the cut.
I'm not sure what it is. The medium isn't all that different from comics, and the storytelling tropes and rules are more or less the same across all three. But in manga, character actions which would make me angry or at least uncomfortable instead elicit giggles. I get a weird sort of pleasure out of reading them.
Oh, don't get me wrong, it still reads as somewhat dreadful writing. But in the right circumstances, it amuses me utterly. A sort of so bad it's good mentality.
Lately I've been reading the Cain saga by Kaori Yuki, who hits this particular guilty pleasure of mine better than any other author I've ever encountered. Angel Sanctuary and Grand Guignol Orchestra both have places of prominence on my manga shelves.
Every chapter of the Cain Saga so far as been rife with blood and death and murder, always over some twisted backstory and deranged mind. I think it's part of it, that focus on the gothic sensibilities, that allows the angst to be amusing to me rather than irritating.
Or maybe there's a part of me that always loved this sort of thing and only allows it to come out in certain very pretty places. :)
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