I mentioned it in my latest Jump review, but a couple of months ago I started a new manga discussion podcast hosted by the comics site All-Comic.com called
Manga Mavericks (http://all-comic.com/category/manga/manga-podcasts/manga-mavericks/). The show is run by myself and Colton Solem, host of
Life Lessons: The Gintama Mangacast (https://gintalifelessons.wordpress.com/)(and co-host of many (https://onepodcastprevails.wordpress.com/) other (https://heavenlykings.wordpress.com/) podcasts (http://anime3000.com/manga-corner/)...), and basically every two weeks we discuss the latest manga-related news and comment on series we've been reading recently. The goal of the podcast is to ostensibly discuss "various aspects of the manga experience," but like most podcasts we often go off-tangent and make silly jokes a lot. We've been trying to steer the series to be more focused on the discussion topics, and focus a little more on critical reflection of the industry and medium.
In our latest episode, for instance, we discuss bad manga-inspired comics, such as
Circuit Breaker and
Diesel. (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-6-diesel-not-crash/) While I wish I had made myself an outline of the points I wanted to address instead of just rambling into them like I did, topics like these are what I'm hoping to make the show more about going forward. While there are some improvements I want to make with our banter and the editing, I feel like we keep getting a little bit better with each episode and I have fun planning and recording them.
Here is a list of the episodes we've made so far. I'll update this post with future episodes after they come out as well:
2016:
Spoiler
Episode #1: "Meet the Manga Mavericks!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-1-meet-manga-mavericks/)
Episode #2: "We Still Don't Have a Catchphrase" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-2-still-dont-catchphrase/)
Episode #3: "I Hate It!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-3-hate/)
Episode #4: "Good For You, Seven Seas!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-4-good-seven-seas/)
Episode #5: "Colton Loves Yu-Gi-Oh! More Than His Family" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-5-colton-loves-yu-gi-oh-family/)
Episode #6: "Diesel Is Not Crash" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-6-diesel-not-crash/)
Episode #7: "Today Crunchyroll, Tomorrow the World!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-7-today-crunchyroll-tomorrow-world/)
Episode #8: "Meet the Fast Food Fanatics!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-8-meet-fast-food-fanatics/)
Episode #9: "It's Your Favorite Character Dressed in Drag (And That's the Joke)!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-9-favorite-character-dressed-drag-thats-joke/)
Episode #10: "Gotta Read 'Em All!" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-10-gotta-read-em/)
Episode #11: "We Finally Read Tokyo Ghoul" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-11-finally-read-tokyo-ghoul/)
Episode #12: "Anime Expo Happened..." (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-12-anime-expo-happened/)
Episode #13: "Happy Accidents" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-13-happy-accidents/)
Episode #14: "Equal Rights for All Comics! (#EFAC)" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-14-equal-rights-comics-efac/)
Episode #15: "Some Things Never Die (Like Pokemon)" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-15-things-never-die-like-pokemon/)
Episode #16: "You Can Never Have Enough South Park References" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-16-can-never-enough-south-park-references/)
Episode #17: "We Need to Read More Shoujo Manga (And Kochikame)" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-17-need-read-shoujo-manga-kochikame/)
Episode #18: "Mangaka Spotlight: Yusei Matsui (feat. Bomber D Rufi)" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-18-mangaka-spotlight-yusei-matsui-feat-bomber-d-rufi/)
Episode #19: "I'll Get Around To It...Someday" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-19-ill-get-around-someday/)
Episode #20: "Casey's Horrible Halloween Horror Hour" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-20-caseys-horrible-halloween-horror-hour/)
Episode #21: "Ajin: Demi-Human" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-21-ajin-demi-human/)
Episode #22: "Our Best of Manga 2016" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-22-best-manga-2016/)
2017:
Episode #23: "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-23-bizarre-jojos-adventure/)
Episode #24: "The State of Shonen Jump" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-24-state-shonen-jump/)
Episode #25: "To Your Eternity" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-25-eternity/)
Episode #26: "Sunday! Sunday! Shonen Sunday!" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-26-sunday-sunday-shonen-sunday/)
Episode #27: "Black Clover" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-27-black-clover-feat-annaliese-christman/)
Episode #28: "My Hero Academia" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-28-hero-academia-feat-doctor/)
Episode #29: "One Piece Has A Lot of Copies In Print" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-29-one-piece-lot-copies-print/)
Manga Fights:
2016:
Spoiler
Episode #1: "Yusei Matsui (feat. Bomber D Ruffi) (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-fights-ep-1-yusei-matsui-feat-bomber-d-rufi/)
Episode #2: "InuYasha (feat. Josh Dunham) (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-fights-ep-2-inuyasha-feat-josh-dunham/)
Episode #3: "Toriko (feat. Maxy Barnard) (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-fights-ep-3-toriko-feat-maxy-barnard/)
Episode #4: "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" (feat. Maxy Barnard & VLordGTZ)" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-fights-ep-04-jojos-bizarre-adventure-feat-maxy-barnard/)
Specials:
"20 Years of InuYasha: A Retrospective" (http://all-comic.com/2016/20-years-inuyasha-retrospective/)
"Hi-Fi Cluster: Too Beautiful To Live" (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-21-5-hi-fi-cluster-beautiful-live/)
"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Q&A Extravaganza" (http://all-comic.com/2017/jojos-bizarre-adventure-qa-extravaganza/)
"Survey Results Special!" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-24-5-survey-results-special/)
Also, here are some episodes of
Life Lessons that I was a guest on. These episodes cover the Umibozu arc in the
Gintama manga, and in a way are sort of pilot episodes for
Manga Mavericks:
Episode #42 - "An Alien, Inside of an Alien, Inside of a Robot, etc. (Umibozu Arc Pt. 1)" (https://gintalifelessons.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/episode-42-an-alien-inside-of-an-alien-inside-of-a-robot-etc-umibozu-arc-pt-1/)
Episode #43 - "Spanking the Meat (Umibozu Arc Pt. 2)" (https://gintalifelessons.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/episode-43-spanking-the-meat-umibou-arc-part-2/)
Episode #44 - "It's All About Me! Kagura! (Umibozu Arc Pt. 3)" (https://gintalifelessons.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/episode-44-its-all-about-me-kagura/)
We also upload our podcast to our youtube channel! (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfjDthICgaUaAuCiuE-08cg/featured)
Congrats on the podcast! Looks like I have some listening to do.
Cool! I'll try to listen to some of these soon.
Feel free to invite me on if you ever do an episode about Excel Saga. ;)
So, CX's top 3 manga are Ashita no Joe, Urusei Yatsura, and Maison Ikkoku. I think we all saw that coming. :awesome:
If you were to do an episode on sports manga, that might be cool. There's a lot of interesting stuff to go through there. Ashita no Joe, Ring ni Kakero, Captain Tsubasa, Slam Dunk, Hajime no Ippo, Major, Initial D, Cross Game, and so on . . . there's quite a lot.
Or one on Shonen Sunday. Looking back on it, I'm actually surprised at how many great series ran in here and how varied they are. It's actually a bit of a shame how far in popularity it's fallen even with Kazuhiro Fujita starting a new series recently.
Awesome! I love to see passionate discussions about manga and anime, many of which I myself admire. I'll check out your stuff a little later on.
I'm a bit envious because I've always wanted to do discussions or video reviews detailing my thoughts on various comics, movies, shows, and video games that I love. Unfortunately, my current living conditions pretty much prohibit me from doing any activities that risk making too much noise (and I'd be embarrassed to have people overhear me). Perhaps that can change if and when I move into my own place later this year (which is fairly likely if everything works out). I eventually plan on starting my own YouTube channel if things work out that way.
Thanks, guys. :)
Quote from: Foggle on April 07, 2016, 05:23:24 PM
Feel free to invite me on if you ever do an episode about Excel Saga. ;)
Absolutley! :joy: :e_hail:
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on April 07, 2016, 06:23:25 PM
If you were to do an episode on sports manga, that might be cool. There's a lot of interesting stuff to go through there. Ashita no Joe, Ring ni Kakero, Captain Tsubasa, Slam Dunk, Hajime no Ippo, Major, Initial D, Cross Game, and so on . . . there's quite a lot.
Or one on Shonen Sunday. Looking back on it, I'm actually surprised at how many great series ran in here and how varied they are. It's actually a bit of a shame how far in popularity it's fallen even with Kazuhiro Fujita starting a new series recently.
Those are definitely topics we plan to do at some point. The sports genre is so diverse that we can probably do the genre as a whole and also make additional episodes to specifically tackle manga based on individual sports like baseball, boxing, etc. And Shonen Sunday is definitely something I want to devote an episode to, especially since it's so overshadowed by Jump, though we both might have to do some more reading first to properly address all of the most significant series from various points in the magazine's history.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on April 07, 2016, 08:18:25 PM
I'm a bit envious because I've always wanted to do discussions or video reviews detailing my thoughts on various comics, movies, shows, and video games that I love. Unfortunately, my current living conditions pretty much prohibit me from doing any activities that risk making too much noise (and I'd be embarrassed to have people overhear me). Perhaps that can change if and when I move into my own place later this year (which is fairly likely if everything works out). I eventually plan on starting my own YouTube channel if things work out that way.
That'd be awesome! :thumbup: Hopefully you can get your channel started after you move out. I'd also love to bring you on as a guest for an Ashita no Joe and/or Yoshihiro Togashi episode(s) when you (and my co-host) are able to do them. ;)
Way to crash the mode, Diesel. I'm definitely going to have to listen to that one. :D Congrats on the podcast :)
If you ever did an AnJ or Togashi-related episode and didn't invite me on-board, I'm pretty sure that I'd be obligated to find out where you live and kill you. :>
I just listened to the first episode. You guys are actually better at staying focused with your discussions than a lot of other podcasts that I've listened to. At least all of your talk related to manga in some way.
I was also cracking up so hard during the bit where you were talking about Ashita no Joe being your favorite manga. Not because it sounded silly, but because I literally felt like I was sitting in the room with you as you were trying your hardest to sell the series despite its age in a reasonable amount of time. I was practically thinking of the exact same things to say about the manga as the same time that you were actually speaking them. :joy:
On the subject of podcasts, I have always wanted to do one for anime and manga that is similarly modeled after my favorite podcast show right now, "Movie Fights!" I love how it combines focused and genuine discussions with the sensibilities of a game show. I'd love to get into heated (but still friendly) debates on different manga/anime related topics regarding various series/movies.
Thanks! I'm glad to hear we aren't rambling or going off-topic too much. :sweat:
I was worried I wasn't saying enough to really explain why AnJ was so great, so I'm glad to hear I did okay by it in the time I had. But that's also why we need to devote a full episode to it sometime. :D
I've actually been toying with the idea to try an anime/manga version of Movie Fights! as a recurring segment on the show. It's just a matter of preparing and getting the logistics of it right. Hopefully we can try it sometime later this year.
New episode! This week we talk about Kadokawa's partnerships with Crunchyroll and Yen Press, who our favorite manga publishers are, and more. (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-7-today-crunchyroll-tomorrow-world/)
Good stuff. You're getting better with each episode.
My favorite manga company would have to be Viz. They get the best stuff more often than not and, depending on the series, their early stuff dates a lot better than, say, Tokyopop's stuff does. Also, most of the manga I own is released by them, so that also contributes.
New episode! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-9-favorite-character-dressed-drag-thats-joke/) This one is extra long since we missed a week. We discuss Takuan and Batsu's Daily Demon Diary, what makes a good gag spinoff comedy, and Keiji Nakazawa's letter to President Obama, among other things.
Cool, I'll be sure to listen tomorrow.
I'm quite enjoying this series.
Thanks! Glad to hear people are enjoying the show. :)
Here's a question for you guys. When Nisekoi and Toriko end (or Bleach does), what would you each like to see replace them in the North American version?
These are the series running in Jump that would probably fill their places:
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Blade of Demon Destruction
Samon the Summoner
Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
Takuan and Batsu's Daily Demon Diary
Mononofu
I imagine Yuna has no chance since they skipped the Jump Start.
It might be an interesting topic to see what you guys might want, or not want to see at all.
Hey, CX, out of curiosity are you guys ever planning to do any episodes dedicated to certain mangaka (such as Tezuka, Takehiko, Urasawa, Togashi, etc.)? I'd love to listen to something like that.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on June 02, 2016, 07:31:57 PM
Here's a question for you guys. When Nisekoi and Toriko end (or Bleach does), what would you each like to see replace them in the North American version?
These are the series running in Jump that would probably fill their places:
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Blade of Demon Destruction
Samon the Summoner
Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club
Takuan and Batsu's Daily Demon Diary
Mononofu
I imagine Yuna has no chance since they skipped the Jump Start.
It might be an interesting topic to see what you guys might want, or not want to see at all.
Thanks for the question! :) That's going to be pretty timely considering that one of those is bound to be replaced before the end of the summer...
Personally, I'm expecting
Haikyuu to be the first replacement series. The series has been an established and popular anime over here for a while, and Viz is really pushing it's volume releases hard, so they clearly have a lot of confidence in it. And while they'll be starting 200+ chapters in, they've added series to Jump despite a gap in english available content before (
Nisekoi,
Food Wars, and
My Hero Academia all come to mind), so I don't see that dissuading them.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on June 02, 2016, 10:56:44 PM
Hey, CX, out of curiosity are you guys ever planning to do any episodes dedicated to certain mangaka (such as Tezuka, Takehiko, Urasawa, Togashi, etc.)? I'd love to listen to something like that.
We have plans for that! We're still trying to schedule things out so we can do more topic-focused episodes this summer, and I definitely want to do a mangaka-specific one soon. For our first mangaka-specific episode, we'll probably try and do someone whose work we're both already very well versed in, so I imagine Toriyama, Togashi, Ohba & Obata, or Junji Ito would probably be first up. Though, I really want to spotlight lesser known/underappreciated mangaka like Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Shigeru Mizuki, and Kyoko Okazaki, among others, at some point as well.
Good point about Haikyuu!! Though I guess I didn't think about it since AC was also licensed by Viz and was never run in the magazine, but Haikyuu!! is in a much different situation since sports series don't traditionally sell well and they might try to get as many people interested in it as possible.
But that's also one of them! There's still two other potential additions if all three series are done by the end of 2016. Though I doubt Bleach will be over by then, it's still clearly rounding the bend toward the ending.
In AC's case I think Viz didn't add it because they felt they already had enough series on their plate each week and didn't have the time and resources to add it to the regular lineup. If something had ended in Jump while it was still running, they probably would have put it in, but that opportunity didn't come.
It's going to be interesting to see how the english Jump's lineup will change with so many long running and popular series coming to an end soon. It's really anyone's guess what they'll decide to put in, since they all could be justified. Colton and I should have a good discussion about it for sure.
Episode 10! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-10-gotta-read-em/)This week we discuss the Oricon Top Selling Manga and Light Novels lists for the first half of 2016, Seven Seas' newest licenses, and the upcoming Jump Giga magazine's debut lineup. Plus, we make some announcements for future episodes of the show!
Good answers to the questions! Haikyuu and Kimetsu no Yaiba are probably the most likely choices, I'd agree. Though I do agree that I could see Straighten Up licensed eventually, but I don't see it in the magazine at this point.
I look forward to your Matsui episode when you get to it.
Thanks! I'm looking forward to doing the Matsui episode too. He's a very eclectic storyteller and artist, and should be a lot of fun to discuss. :)
We finally read Tokyo Ghoul (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-11-finally-read-tokyo-ghoul/)...
So what was the Nisekoi rant like?
If it doesn't end soon, it will be canceled. It's sales are not there and it's been ranking last in Jump with Toriko almost consistently. It's bad enough Bleach has been given so many chances, but at least it still sells.
We plan to make the rant available in some form over the weekend. I'm the one doing most of the ranting, if that gives you any clue about the content. :D
Nisekoi is clearly ending soon, though. Komi's wrapped up every loose end. All that's left is for Raku to declare his choice.
I listened to part of your Tokyo Ghoul episode. I liked the bit where you guys went over Nobuhiro Watsuki's works. I pretty much agree with everything you said about him as a mangaka. I'm really hoping for his next work to tap into that source of magic which he had when he worked on Rurouni Kenshin.
I haven't actually read Tokyo Ghoul, but based on what I heard about it from the podcast (and from my impressions based on previews), it doesn't really seem like my cup of tea. The grimdark action and/or horror style manga rarely ever work for me. Parasyte was certainly good and one of the few exceptions, but I've kind of been burned out on Attack on Titan, and I'm not sure if I'd feel any differently about Tokyo Ghoul.
I saw a handful of the show, and it had a few interesting ideas muddled by questionable writing and an ending that went absolutely nowhere.
It was a good idea picking a specific topic to talk about. It made the second half more cohesive. I wouldn't mind hearing more like that.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on July 04, 2016, 11:38:39 AM
I haven't actually read Tokyo Ghoul, but based on what I heard about it from the podcast (and from my impressions based on previews), it doesn't really seem like my cup of tea. The grimdark action and/or horror style manga rarely ever work for me. Parasyte was certainly good and one of the few exceptions, but I've kind of been burned out on Attack on Titan, and I'm not sure if I'd feel any differently about Tokyo Ghoul.
Yeah, if you didn't care for the gratuitous violence and unnecessarily over-the-top parts of
Attack on Titan,
Tokyo Ghoul probably won't be your thing. Though, I do find it has some interesting character developments and some good ideas explored in it that made it worth finally trying it.
Quote from: Dr. Insomniac on July 04, 2016, 11:41:26 AM
I saw a handful of the show, and it had a few interesting ideas muddled by questionable writing and an ending that went absolutely nowhere.
Pretty much, though it's worth pointing out that the second season of the anime deviates heavily from the manga and becomes it's own thing, and the second half of the manga itself is significantly better written on the whole.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on July 04, 2016, 05:10:25 PM
It was a good idea picking a specific topic to talk about. It made the second half more cohesive. I wouldn't mind hearing more like that.
We're definitely trying to focus on discussion topics more going forward. We still want to cover news of course - that's the podcast's M.O. - but there's many other aspects of the manga industry, series, and creators that we want to address in the show going forward.
I'd actually like to hear you both talk about Rurouni Kenshin a bit more. You both mentioned it was one of your favorite series, so it would be cool to hear you both talk about why that is. Favorite arc? Favorite character? Moment? Villain? And as a bonus question: Do you think Watsuki will ever be able to top it?
Great question! Good timing too, since we were just about to record our next episode. :D
You know, despite being a podcast show exclusively about manga, the recent announcement of the DBS manga being licensed would also be a good opportunity to sneak in a couple of minutes worth of discussion on your thoughts on the current anime as well.
That is unless you already covered the announcement in the last episode and I just happened to miss it.
Though, on that subject, I am surprised at just how much people freaked out at Toyotaro for changing how some of the events of the Champa arc played out in the manga. While I question what the point of the manga is if the anime was already destined to move far ahead of it, I do feel like people should cut the guy put in charge of the manga a little break. I mean, he kind of has to change things up at least a little so that readers who already saw the anime and know what happens (as in, probably 100% of the people reading the manga) won't get bored reading something that's exactly the same as what they just saw.
However, this also brings up the interesting idea that I've seen others pitch: wouldn't it be more interesting if the manga just diverged completely in its own direction and tried to tackle story-lines, concepts, and ideas that the anime couldn't possibly cover with its set-up? Call it an alternate dimension if you want, but that would be an interesting way to get something fresh and new, and would give the manga a better justification to exist.
Funny you should mention that, because we actually discussed Super in the new episode we recorded today, which should be out next week. ;)
I would definitely be down for the Super manga doing it's own thing. I think it would be interesting to see two different takes of the storyline evolving from the same origin point, and it would give people more of an incentive to read it now that it's behind the anime again.
Just had a look over and the next episode (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-12-anime-expo-happened/) is up.
Excellent Kenshin discussion. You basically summed up why it's my favorite shonen manga, and one of my favorite of all time.
I always thought the end of Shishio was that he was so poisoned with darkness, that falling into Hell Itself was still not enough to realize he was on the wrong path. He killed Yumi because he loved killing more than he loved the woman who loved him. He was off the deep end. The flipside is that his goal was to drag the world into Hell anyway. So, in a way, he won at the end.
Every character in Kenshin is just so fully developed that you could probably talk about all of them for hours.
Thanks! As you could tell, I got pretty passionate while discussing it. :sweat:
Shishio was incorrigible, so dead-set in his ways and beliefs that there was no way he'd ever be able to change the way Kenshin did. But what he represented - the resistance to change and mankind's desire for war and bloodshed - could be denied but never destroyed, so in a sense he lost the battle but not the war. And as an opportunist, death wasn't going to stop his ambitions, so taking over hell was a pretty logical next step for him when you think about it. :D
As far as Yumi goes, I think they both mutually loved each other, but just like the rest of the Juppongatana Shishio saw her as a tool he could use and sacrifice when needed, and Yumi herself lived for Shishio's sake and died satisfied that she could be of use to him. In a sense, it was inevitable that Shishio was going to sacrifice Yumi at some point down the line and they both knew that; that's just how their relationship was. I really grew a better understanding of their relationship, and Shishio as a character, after reading those backstory chapters Watsuki published a few years back.
I just bought the first Vizbig, so I'll probably be re-reading it again. It's been so long.
Speaking of classics, the final Perfect Edition of Monster is out next week. Next time you record an episode, you might want to mention it's all out now. It really is a one of the best series Viz has ever put out here.
By the way, it is funny that you asserted that most mangaka's best series is their first one and you used Rumiko Takahashi and Akira Toriyama as examples. My favorite of theirs is Maison Ikkoku and Dragon Ball, neither of which is their first and are both regularly regarded as classics. And then there's Urasawa whose best series were nowhere near his first.
I think Watsuki has another classic in him. I just don't think he's tried for it yet. Gun Blaze West, in his own words, he literally put no thought into, Buso Renkin was more tribute than original series, and Embalming needed better editing and focus. I think if he buckles down and focuses, he could easily put out a series to match Kenshin.
Well, I mentioned them because my favorite works of Takahashi and Toriyama are their first works, Urusei Yatsura and Dr. Slump respectively. But "best" probably wasn't the right word to use, since there are plenty of mangaka whose best works are their later material. Rather, I feel that most mangaka's first works generally tend to be their most personal and creative, showing the most of their personality and what really interests the mangaka most as a writer and artist.
Watsuki's clearly not short of ideas and interests, and has plenty of talent in him to create another great series. It's hitting that sweet spot in creating and writing a fresh concept that he's really invested in and can develop organically like he did with Kenshin that's been his real challenge, but I'm hoping he'll find that balance this time around.
New episode! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-13-happy-accidents/) This week we run down a bunch of (mostly) Shonen Jump-related news with our first ever special guest! :joy:
I don't think I've ever disagreed with a guest more, honestly.
The industry is different now. There is no change of "mentality" Jump can make to change with it. All they can do is run a series, hope it's a hit, and keep running it. There's nothing else they can do, and nothing else they should do. I'm not sure why this discussion needed to go on and on like this.
And all this started because of MHA. I dunno, he sounds like because MHA didn't knock his socks off in four volumes that there must be some kind of reason for it beyond his tastes. No dude, you just don't care for it. That made it even more obvious when you guys tried to ask him if he read the Stain arc and he ignored the question. He isn't interested in it even if it gets good.
He compares how rich Naruto is to the 4 volumes of MHA that he read and saying the latter hasn't shown anything yet. That might be fair from an enjoyment perspective, but not when you're trying to argue overall series quality. MHA is the best written thing Jump has had in years. It has great character development, excellent pacing, and intricate plotting. If you don't like any of that, fine. But don't try to act like the series is "missing" some intangible quality that Naruto had when Kishimoto's writing fell off a cliff before the time jump and never really recovered.
This might be overblown, but I'm a bit sick of the random criticism that MHA gets that frequently has nothing to do with writing, art, or ANYTHING the actual writer of the series is doing. Then you roll that in with Naruto and Bleach praise and I can't help but tilt my head.
But I do agree that they should be laxer on new serializations and allow series to grow fanbases. The last few years showed a far more ruthless Jump than it had been for a while, cutting almost everything that had come out incredibly fast. But recently, since certain series have been naturally ending, there hasn't been much in the way of cancellations. And I think it will be a loss when one of these new series gets canceled as it basically wiped Mononofu out of the magazine just for the possibility that it could have been more popular. Mononofu had potential to be a quiet hit. I agree, they shouldn't do that so much.
None of that has anything to do with My Hero Academia's quality, though.
Jump Giga is an experimental magazine. There's all kinds of weird stuff in there. There's nothing odd about a MHA spin-off being thrown in there, too. It has nothing to do with brand, but a random stab at approaching a potential audience toward the magazine. If it doesn't succeed, then whatever. I don't think Jump is expecting a huge hit out of it. They're just brand building. This whole discussion kind of makes no sense.
On a whole other subject, I'm glad Sunday's attempt at re-branding has been working out. Fujita's new series had a really solid start, making it high onto the charts, and the online initiative is a really great idea that can only expand their reach.
Sunday used to have a specific brand of more adventure oriented series which began to get lost around the time of the mid-'00s when they began to run harem and Jump-like series instead. Magi was the first series in a while to capture that spirit, and Silver Spoon did the same for slice of life, which explains their popularity. I could never see either of those in Jump or Magazine. Arata might have been there if its editor didn't mess with it so much. They needed to change the way they operated, and I'm glad they have.
I hope it gives them the success they deserve.
As for the Jump Starts, I want to believe in Red Sprite since I liked the art and action so much, but the story in the one-shot was kinda boring and generic. Which is kind of how I feel about the Promised Neverland. Good artist, but the story concept does nothing for me. As for the third series . . . well, no comment.
Then there's Bleach.
Yeah.
My friend used to be a Bleach mega-fan. He introduced it to me and I enjoyed what I read of it. Until Hueco Mundo. Then he fell out of it. I popped in every now and then to see if it ever got better, but it never did. Then it got to the Fullbring arc which was basically Kubo trying to be Togashi, and it utterly failed on every front. The only reason I'm reading it now is because I'm subscribed to Jump. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't even bother with it.
I don't think there is a manga with more missed potential that fell apart so hard than Bleach. Naruto is up there, but Bleach still takes the cake since it literally threw away a whole cast of characters with potential and never did anything with them.
Then he goes and spends over 200 chapters on the final arc while still managing to make the ending feel rushed.
Sorry, I can't blame an editor change for what happened to Bleach. He's still responsible for what happened to the series. He knew what was successful and what people liked in the first few arcs and threw it all aside. If he didn't have the sense to realize what he was doing, then, well, he was never a good writer in the first place. Toriyama might have stumbled with the Cell arc, but did he stumble for nearly a decade? Let's put the blame where it belongs here. At some point he would have been able to turn it around. He never did. Not once. At some point, he has to take the blame for his own work.
What a downer. Down on MHA, Watsuki, and everything else, but finds a way to defend Bleach of all things. This was your strangest podcast yet. :>
And Takei did Stray Cat Samurai which is apparently pretty good. A better example would have been to use the writer of Prince of Tennis.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on July 29, 2016, 07:54:41 PM
And all this started because of MHA. I dunno, he sounds like because MHA didn't knock his socks off in four volumes that there must be some kind of reason for it beyond his tastes. No dude, you just don't care for it. That made it even more obvious when you guys tried to ask him if he read the Stain arc and he ignored the question. He isn't interested in it even if it gets good.
I think you have the wrong idea about Josh. I was surprised to hear he was so ambivalent about the series, because he absolutely LOVED the first volume. Josh and Colton did a special episode of The Manga Corner last October on MHA and OPM (http://anime3000.com/one-punch-man-hero-academia-manga-corner/) and he was very passionate about it and praised it very highly back then. He's only been reading it as the english volumes have been released (and to my knowledge he plans to keep reading it), so he wouldn't have gotten to anything past the Sports Festival yet. And to be fair, I know a few people who didn't care for and weren't really sold on MHA until after that arc.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on July 29, 2016, 07:54:41 PM
Sorry, I can't blame an editor change for what happened to Bleach. He's still responsible for what happened to the series. He knew what was successful and what people liked in the first few arcs and threw it all aside. If he didn't have the sense to realize what he was doing, then, well, he was never a good writer in the first place. Toriyama might have stumbled with the Cell arc, but did he stumble for nearly a decade? Let's put the blame where it belongs here. At some point he would have been able to turn it around. He never did. Not once. At some point, he has to take the blame for his own work.
Kubo is ultimately accountable for the quality of his series. I don't think he's a naturally good writer. In re-reading early
Bleach, however, I've noticed a lot of inklings of the problems that would plague the series later on (extraneous detours, long fights, cartoonishly sadistic villains, inconsistencies with the series' lore, etc.) were present in the earlier material, but didn't detract from the good elements of the story to a distracting degree and drag it down like they would after Hueco Mundo. As we've seen with Toriyama, a good editor can really bring out the best in a mangaka and help focus the direction of the story, and I think Kubo's first editor played a large part in helping Kubo craft his story in those first few years. I think it's worth speculating how
Bleach could've been salvaged if Kubo's second editor was more strict and accountable, and didn't just let him have free reign and do whatever he wanted.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on July 29, 2016, 07:54:41 PM
And Takei did Stray Cat Samurai which is apparently pretty good. A better example would have been to use the writer of Prince of Tennis.
While I personally enjoy what I've read of Ultimo, it definitely suffers from some strange pacing at times and the fact that Stan Lee gave Takei a really mediocre concept to work with. It's certainly not as solid a work as Shaman King, but it's not outright bad either. I also hear that it gets much better once the time-travel plot-lines are introduced.
Stan Lee's been full of mediocre ideas over the last two decades. Though I haven't read Ultimo, I would have to imagine that any quality from it would have to be from Takei.
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on July 29, 2016, 10:51:13 PM
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on July 29, 2016, 07:54:41 PM
And all this started because of MHA. I dunno, he sounds like because MHA didn't knock his socks off in four volumes that there must be some kind of reason for it beyond his tastes. No dude, you just don't care for it. That made it even more obvious when you guys tried to ask him if he read the Stain arc and he ignored the question. He isn't interested in it even if it gets good.
I think you have the wrong idea about Josh. I was surprised to hear he was so ambivalent about the series, because he absolutely LOVED the first volume. Josh and Colton did a special episode of The Manga Corner last October on MHA and OPM (http://anime3000.com/one-punch-man-hero-academia-manga-corner/) and he was very passionate about it and praised it very highly back then. He's only been reading it as the english volumes have been released (and to my knowledge he plans to keep reading it), so he wouldn't have gotten to anything past the Sports Festival yet. And to be fair, I know a few people who didn't care for and weren't really sold on MHA until after that arc.
It's possible I have the wrong idea, but I can only judge on my first impression. He was a bit of a downer on most everything. And to be honest, that tangent went on
way too long.
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on July 29, 2016, 10:51:13 PMQuote from: Spark Of Spirit on July 29, 2016, 07:54:41 PM
Sorry, I can't blame an editor change for what happened to Bleach. He's still responsible for what happened to the series. He knew what was successful and what people liked in the first few arcs and threw it all aside. If he didn't have the sense to realize what he was doing, then, well, he was never a good writer in the first place. Toriyama might have stumbled with the Cell arc, but did he stumble for nearly a decade? Let's put the blame where it belongs here. At some point he would have been able to turn it around. He never did. Not once. At some point, he has to take the blame for his own work.
Kubo is ultimately accountable for the quality of his series. I don't think he's a naturally good writer. In re-reading early Bleach, however, I've noticed a lot of inklings of the problems that would plague the series later on (extraneous detours, long fights, cartoonishly sadistic villains, inconsistencies with the series' lore, etc.) were present in the earlier material, but didn't detract from the good elements of the story to a distracting degree and drag it down like they would after Hueco Mundo. As we've seen with Toriyama, a good editor can really bring out the best in a mangaka and help focus the direction of the story, and I think Kubo's first editor played a large part in helping Kubo craft his story in those first few years. I think it's worth speculating how Bleach could've been salvaged if Kubo's second editor was more strict and accountable, and didn't just let him have free reign and do whatever he wanted.
I'm of the opinion that it probably would have succumbed to his vices eventually. But yeah, it probably would have hung together a bit longer. The fact is that he turned out to not be a Toriyama, Inoue, Oda, or even a Kishimoto. It was doomed to fall apart sooner or later.
I just keep thinking of Bakuman and the editor Miura. His advice on Business Boy Kenichi was bad and lead to it getting canceled, but Takahama was ultimately responsible for not ignoring him and doing the right thing anyway. Heck, Ashirogi created a whole series based around his tastes and almost got themselves locked into mediocrity because of it. While Miura was bad at his job, they still took the blame when they asked it to be canceled.
The whole situation is a real shame, honestly. I'm not sure what Kubo is going to do when he finally wraps this up. He might have a problem selling audiences on whatever he does next.
While I like and respect Josh, you shouldn't take his criticisms of shonen manga too seriously. He can be pretty picky and harsh sometimes. I mean, he hates Buso Renkin and Black Clover despite having only read their first chapters. :sweat:
#EFAC (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-14-equal-rights-comics-efac/)
Both Love Rush and Red Sprite had one-shots in Jump NEXT! a while back. I read them both despite being untranslated.
Love Rush was part-romantic comedy, and part-ecchi. It was considerably better than E-Robot, though that isn't saying much. With Yuna in the magazine now, I would imagine a change in focus is necessary for this series. Yuna is quickly becoming the TLR of modern Jump, and I don't see two ecchi series standing out. He should try making it more romcom and less ecchi and going for a different feel.
Red Sprite was about a boy soldier in a war against robots. I liked this one, but didn't consider it a stand-out. The action was pretty good, and the art was better than Iron Knight. The world had a sort of Bionic Commando, and '80s action movie and older shonen vibe. However, the actual story was extremely by the numbers. If he can fix that glaring weakness, then we should be in for a treat.
Both series have potential, though I wonder how long they can last in the current climate of the magazine. Other than Takuan & Batsu, and Toriko and Gintama nearing the end, there are no weak links right now.
As for Genshiken, the second season isn't even close to the first. None of the new characters are as in depth as the ones from the first season, and nothing happens at all. It's hard to believe that this was written by the same person as the first. I dropped it a long time ago.
Also, my suggestion for a great manga to get into that is rather inexpensive would by Psyren. It's a healthy 16 volumes long. I find it has more of a Shonen Sunday feel for a Jump series.
I do have a question you two might feel like answering.
There have been several bubbles of popularity in the North American manga market. Because these pockets have come at different times, there are many different manga series that have missed the boat in being licensed. For instance, Ushio & Tora missed its window to be released back in the 90s and as a result there is no North American fanbase for Kazuhiro Fujita's works. Sket Dance missed its best chance to be licensed at its popularity peak several years back and it looks unlikely to get licensed now. On the other hand, there are series like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure that are getting a new opportunity thanks to recent anime series.
My question is, do you feel there are any manga series that have essentially missed the boat in being licensed? Are there series you think should have been licensed but now have virtually no chance? Whether its classics like Fist of the North Star or City Hunter, or just surprising passes like Medaka Box or Beezlebub, what great series in your mind missed their chance at being officially brought over?
*Note: I'm not talking about series that were brought over and simply didn't sell and got canceled like ReBorn! or Gintama, but series that never got the chance in the first place.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on August 12, 2016, 12:40:07 PM
Both Love Rush and Red Sprite had one-shots in Jump NEXT! a while back. I read them both despite being untranslated.
Love Rush was part-romantic comedy, and part-ecchi. It was considerably better than E-Robot, though that isn't saying much. With Yuna in the magazine now, I would imagine a change in focus is necessary for this series. Yuna is quickly becoming the TLR of modern Jump, and I don't see two ecchi series standing out. He should try making it more romcom and less ecchi and going for a different feel.
Both series have potential, though I wonder how long they can last in the current climate of the magazine. Other than Takuan & Batsu, and Toriko and Gintama nearing the end, there are no weak links right now.
I skimmed through the Love Rush one-shot. I'm hoping there's a bit more to the premise than being
Monster Musume-light. It'll need something else if it wants to compete with
Yuna as the resident rom-com/harem series in Jump.
Even when
Toriko and
Gintama end, there's still going to be a lot of turnover when it comes to new series. There's a lot of decently successful series in Jump right now. I'm just hoping that
Straighten Up! and
Kimetsu no Yaiba can hold on and keep a stable place in the ranks until they get anime, and
Promised Neverland finds it's audience immediately to survive through the next round of cancellations.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on August 12, 2016, 12:40:07 PM
As for Genshiken, the second season isn't even close to the first. None of the new characters are as in depth as the ones from the first season, and nothing happens at all. It's hard to believe that this was written by the same person as the first. I dropped it a long time ago.
That's a shame. The first
Genshiken was such a good time, it's disappointing to hear it fell off the rails like that.
Thanks for the question! It should be a good one to discuss next time.
New episode! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-15-things-never-die-like-pokemon/) Featuring thoughts on Astra Lost in Space, the final chapter of Bleach and it's live-action movie announcement, as well as a discussion about when it's right to buy used manga and much, much more!
Good discussion on the used books topic. I buy new when I'm collecting new series, but for things out of print I have no choice but to buy used. And there are people that have smaller budgets for entertainment who have little choice but to buy used. The Gantz author's argument makes sense, but there's not really anything that can be done about it as a whole. If it wasn't for the used market, I wouldn't be able to collect things like Flame of Recca now.
City Hunter and Fist of the North Star both got licensed, you're right. They didn't make it to the end, but at least Fist of the North Star got a lot further than City Hunter did. I probably should have used better examples than those. :sweat:
Neuro, Sket Dance, and Adachi's works were good choices. Adachi's works are entirely Shogakukan, which means it's Viz or nothing to get his stuff over here. The only reason we got Fujita's short ghost series released here is because Kodansha originally released it. Adachi, unfortunately, is pretty much only Shogakukan. Unless there's a big boost in his popularity here, I'm not sure if it'll change.
Everyone already knows what my choice would be, so no need to bring it up again. ;D
Good episode!
Thanks! It was fun to debate on a discussion topic, even though it was only a small chunk of the episode. I'm planning for us to do these more regularly in the future. :)
And yeah, Viz is the only licensor who can publish Adachi's stuff, which is why it's a shame they haven't touched most of them. At least we got Cross Game, but I wish it did better so they'd have considered bringing over his past works as well. But I guess Adachi's art is too old-school and his stories too quiet for some. Maybe the anime adaptions of his works would have a better chance, but since Cross Game never got beyond streaming over here, I'm very skeptical that we'll ever see more of his stuff released legally in any form over here in the west.
Btw, I talked with Colton yesterday, and we're planning for our episode on Yusei Matsui to come one the same day as his panel in NYCC. We have a lot of fun stuff planned for that episode that's going to be different from how we normally do the show, which I'm really excited for. ;D Though I really gotta finish reading Neuro first. :sweat:
On this week's Manga Mavericks, VlordGTZ subs in for Colton as we talk about a bunch of news and Goo's worst Manga-to-Anime fails and worst Shonen Jump heroines lists. (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-16-can-never-enough-south-park-references/) We also make a bunch of South Park references.
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on September 08, 2016, 03:26:24 PM
On this week's Manga Mavericks, VlordGTZ subs in for Colton as we talk about a bunch of news and Goo's worst Manga-to-Anime fails and worst Shonen Jump heroines lists. (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-16-can-never-enough-south-park-references/) We also make a bunch of South Park references.
Hey! That last one was an Aliens reference (even if South Park did have Cartmen reference it).
Cartman referencing that line as a running gag in "Cat Orgy" is one of my favorite Cartman moments to the point I associate it with South Park more than Aliens itself. So I was referencing the reference. Call it reference-ception. ;)
When it comes to MHA, there are two types of complaints. The first being that it's a Naruto clone (usually by Bleach fans), and the second that it's generic (usually from Bleach fans), both of which are usually said by people who haven't read much manga. MHA haters are a strange bunch.
I've never been able to get into series like AgK. They never stop feeling forced. Edgelord series have always rubbed me wrong.
Dragon Ball is the biggest fail anime? Really? Over Toriko, Tokyo Ghoul, Flame of Recca, or Naruto? I find that hard to believe. GTO and FMA are hard to swallow, too. The animation in GTO isn't strong, but it still works really well. FMA is just more Brotherhood butt-hurt. They couldn't adapt the full series in the old anime because it wasn't done yet. Get over it already.
Parasyte probably would have benefited if it came out after Ushio & Tora and such where keeping the original character designs was permitted. Though there isn't much you can do about the truncated content unless it was given more episodes.
The second list I just don't get. Teruhashi is one of the funniest characters in Saiki. Sakura is alarmingly low, as is Misa. Kagura is one of the best characters in Gintama, and that says something considering how many good characters there are in the series. Erina can be annoying, but she is well-developed since the beginning. Chitoge is hilariously hated by Nisekoi fans, so there's no surprise that she's up here.
But then there's #1. What the heck.
Ochaco Uraraka? Over Sakura, Misa, or Orihime? She's been starting to get some development recently, she has a good attitude, and she always livens up scenes she's in. Horikoshi has changed every character from the beginning, and she's no different. Honestly, she shouldn't even be on the list.
But then, the top 20 includes characters from World Trigger, Psyren, Sket Dance, One Piece, and Rurouni Kenshin, and doesn't even have a single Bleach character. So a heavy dose of salt is needed.
Good podcast. If Colton can't make it in the future, I wouldn't mind Vlord returning. He had good presence.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 08, 2016, 06:05:12 PM
Good podcast. If Colton can't make it in the future, I wouldn't mind Vlord returning. He had good presence.
Colton might be in a little.....accident in the near future. :sly:
I have my problems with the Dragon Ball anime, but it has many good points. I have many more problems with DBZ, but it's far from being one of the worst anime adaptations ever. How the hell is World Trigger not on this list?
And GTO is a great adaptation. Who the fuck did they even poll for this list? Other than the fact that it only covers half of the manga (which tons of 90's anime are guilty of) and makes up its own ending (which is fine for the show), it's really well done for what it covers.
Episode #17 is out, in which we run down a Top 10 Shojo Manga to recommend to men list and are embarrassed at only having read one and a half of them. (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-17-need-read-shoujo-manga-kochikame/)
The three Jump starts are probably the strongest there has been for a while, but who knows if they'll last?
Promised Neverland has been a slower read, still shonen, but much different than you'd expect. I just hope readers' attention holds.
I think there is a very easy way to make Love Rush! great. They don't even have to change much what the series already does.
A) Make the first arc about the princess helping the main couple get together despite her own feelings. You could get a lot of mileage out of that.
B) Make the second arc about her having to go away, or get in trouble back home, and making the main couple (and some friends) go and help and/or rescue her. This would put every relationship to the test and give a bit of an adventure vibe to add to the romance.
C) This in turn would make the final confrontation have more impact if he would choose to stay with his childhood friend, or have a change of heart, by the ending.
To me, that would make it a much better series that deals with relationships while still making it different enough to stand out.
Red Sprite has airship battles. I'm kind of at a loss as what to suggest to improve it. Slowing down the pace a bit is about all I can think about, but I think that's going to happen anyway. The first three chapters pretty much introduced and summed up the world, characters, plot, and premise, concisely, so at this point the story starts properly and should have more breathing room. I hope it does well, because it's a lot of fun to read.
Volume 5 of MHA is where the series takes off. It's been nothing but great since then. Every arc gets better and better. I would hope sales only continue to improve after this volume.
The Sports Festival arc is considerably better in volume form. It's a quick read that way, and you get the character moments faster. As for its weaknesses, as I posted before, there's a note in volume 5 about the arc where Horikoshi admits it was a learning experience for him as it spun out of control from what he originally intended. He clearly learned a lot since each arc since then has been really tight and packed in.
You misspelled Akimoto's name as Akimbo in the description. :D But I concur with Colton. Giving best-of volumes to Kochikame like they did for Golgo 13 would be nice. The series deserves some sort of release over here.
Shojo was stuck in a rut like shonen was a few years back with the generic hyper-formulaic stuff. But there have always been some good shojo to recommend to guys. Most of the list is some of the better stuff. I'm not that big on romantic comedies (or romantic dramas), so if I enjoy them, they have to be done really well. My Love Story and Honey & Clover are two of the best. The Honey & Clover anime was written by Yousuke Kuroda, so you know its worth watching.
I collect very few series, but Flame of Recca is going to be a pain to get all of. It's not only out of print, but some copies are just not in good condition. It's my own fault for waiting so long to collect it. Still, I can only imagine how difficult it can be for longer series than that.
Very good episode. I look forward hearing what you guys will be talking about in the Matsui episode.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 22, 2016, 03:11:22 PM
The three Jump starts are probably the strongest there has been for a while, but who knows if they'll last?
Promised Neverland has been a slower read, still shonen, but much different than you'd expect. I just hope readers' attention holds.
I think there is a very easy way to make Love Rush! great. They don't even have to change much what the series already does.
A) Make the first arc about the princess helping the main couple get together despite her own feelings. You could get a lot of mileage out of that.
B) Make the second arc about her having to go away, or get in trouble back home, and making the main couple (and some friends) go and help and/or rescue her. This would put every relationship to the test and give a bit of an adventure vibe to add to the romance.
C) This in turn would make the final confrontation have more impact if he would choose to stay with his childhood friend, or have a change of heart, by the ending.
To me, that would make it a much better series that deals with relationships while still making it different enough to stand out.
Red Sprite has airship battles. I'm kind of at a loss as what to suggest to improve it. Slowing down the pace a bit is about all I can think about, but I think that's going to happen anyway. The first three chapters pretty much introduced and summed up the world, characters, plot, and premise, concisely, so at this point the story starts properly and should have more breathing room. I hope it does well, because it's a lot of fun to read.
I actually don't feel the
Promised Neverland is all that slow, considering that the characters and the readers learn substantial new information about the world and their situation in every chapter. There isn't "action," maybe, but it's more of a psychological survival series than it is a battle manga, so I think the consistent teases and bits of new information and intrigue in the story work well in it's case. It stands out so much from the rest of the lineup that I'd like to hope that it'll keep it's audience engaged in the mysteries for as long as the series runs.
I'm hoping
Love Rush does at least that first option you mention. It would make it a different, more interesting type of romance series than the usual. The first two chapters were subversive enough that it could find a place in Jump if it continues to play with the cliches and tropes of the romantic comedy/harem dramas, which is what I would like to see. We'll see.
I liked how
Red Sprite told a pretty satisfying short story just within the first three chapters, while still leaving you excited for the story to come. So many Jump Starts in the past were either just getting going or introducing a conflict in their third chapter that didn't give you a complete sense of what the series would be capable of and would frustrate you if NA Jump didn't pick it up. I don't know if the mangaka consciously structured the first three chapters to work well as a story on their own, but as a Jump Start the series definitely impressed on how it quickly and clearly established it's characters and storyline. I like the pacing of it so far, and since Jump series tend to gain more traction when they have standout, interesting moments happen in almost every chapter (as opposed to, say, using the early chapters on episodic storylines or comedic buffers between storylines), it seems like something that should catch on.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 22, 2016, 03:11:22 PM
Volume 5 of MHA is where the series takes off. It's been nothing but great since then. Every arc gets better and better. I would hope sales only continue to improve after this volume.
The Sports Festival arc is considerably better in volume form. It's a quick read that way, and you get the character moments faster. As for its weaknesses, as I posted before, there's a note in volume 5 about the arc where Horikoshi admits it was a learning experience for him as it spun out of control from what he originally intended. He clearly learned a lot since each arc since then has been really tight and packed in.
You misspelled Akimoto's name as Akimbo in the description. :D But I concur with Colton. Giving best-of volumes to Kochikame like they did for Golgo 13 would be nice. The series deserves some sort of release over here.
Yeah, volume 5 of MHA is a revelation as to what the series is capable of, and it's great that it's been selling so well. I think it'll bode well for future volumes and MHAs popularity in the west..
The misspelling of Akimoto's name in the Podcast Breakdown was a stupid auto-correct thing that I missed before the episode was posted. :sweat: I'll edit it when I get the chance.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on September 22, 2016, 03:11:22 PM
Shojo was stuck in a rut like shonen was a few years back with the generic hyper-formulaic stuff. But there have always been some good shojo to recommend to guys. Most of the list is some of the better stuff. I'm not that big on romantic comedies (or romantic dramas), so if I enjoy them, they have to be done really well. My Love Story and Honey & Clover are two of the best. The Honey & Clover anime was written by Yousuke Kuroda, so you know its worth watching.
I collect very few series, but Flame of Recca is going to be a pain to get all of. It's not only out of print, but some copies are just not in good condition. It's my own fault for waiting so long to collect it. Still, I can only imagine how difficult it can be for longer series than that.
Very good episode. I look forward hearing what you guys will be talking about in the Matsui episode.
I think I'll give the
Honey & Clover anime a shot then, since I'd trust just about any adaptation written by Kuroda. But really all the stuff on that list are series I've been meaning to read for forever. I've grown to like well-done romance stories, so there's a lot I'm willing to try if I hear good things about them. Shojo is more than romance stories, of course. I've been meaning to get into stuff like Yumi Tamura's works for forever, for instance. On that note,
Ceres has been a nice read so far as a revisionist fairy tale that explores and deconstructs sexuality, love, and gender politics. There's a surprising amount of mature themes in the series and it's clear Watase had things she wanted to say about relationships and young women's perceptions of them, which is nice subtext to have alongside it's psychic powers/supernatural conspiracy narrative.
Flame of Recca is at least all available digitally from Viz, so it's easily readable unless you really want to have the books on your shelves. There's plenty of older stuff that isn't as fortunate, but I'm hoping Viz will expand their digital catalog and dig up some of their other catalog stuff one of these days.
Thanks for the comments! I'm really looking forward to doing the Matsui episode. It's gonna be a really fun one! ;D
We just spent over 7 hours recording our Yusei Matsui episode. We'll be releasing it in two parts, but rest assured, we had an amazing discussion. This is my favorite episode of the show we've done yet! ;D
Our Yusei Matsui discussion is out just in time for his appearance at NYCC! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-18-mangaka-spotlight-yusei-matsui-feat-bomber-d-rufi/) That's right, no news this week - we dedicate all our time to the discussion. We're joined by special guest Bomber D Rufi, translator of the Gintama manga, as we dive into a two-hour long retrospective of his works and career. We had a blast talking about them and we hope you guys have just as much fun listening!
But we're not done talking about Matsui just yet! We have another special episode that should be out over the weekend that'll be a lot of fun, especially if you're a fan of a certain movie debate show, so stay tuned. ;)
Unfortunately I'll have to sit the Gintama discussion out since I don't want to spoil myself on anything. I'm currently on episode 17 of the anime and have a long way to go before I catch up with the series. In fact, I won't be surprised to see the manga finish before I actually even finish what the anime covers, since apparently it could very likely end before the year is over, from what I hear.
There's no Gintama discussion in this episode. :P Bomber translates the manga, but the reason we brought him on for this episode because he had a storied history with Yusei Matsui's series, having translated both his one-shots, part of Neuro, and almost doing Assassination Classroom as well before another scan group stole his thunder. :D
If anyone does want to hear Bomber's thoughts on Gintama, he recently appeared on Life Lessons (https://gintalifelessons.wordpress.com/2016/08/13/episode-48-the-heart-of-mahjongg/) and Just a Gintama Podcast (https://gintamapodcast.com/2016/09/06/episode-102-plausible-deniability-bomber-d-rufi/). I especially recommend the latter because he provides a lot of interesting insight into the process of scanlation and how it works on it.
Either way, hope you enjoy Gintama! It's quite the ride.
If you're watching Gintama, I highly recommend watching the best material, then doubling back and watching the stuff you missed later. That was how I managed to catch up when the last season was airing and then still had stuff to watch when it ended. It also takes far less time when you don't have to sit through some of the more boring stuff.
Hopefully I'll get to listen to it tonight. But if not, then tomorrow for sure.
I disagree on on the point that anything in Gintama is boring. ;)
But yeah, if you're more interested in it for the story than the comedy, I made a list of essential story arcs/character development episodes a while back you can follow if you want to catch up faster. (http://animationrevelation.com/forum/index.php?topic=1363.msg99614#msg99614) Though I will say that Gintama is one of the funniest anime ever made and that list doesn't include some of it's funniest episodes, so you'd be missing out on some good stuff by skiping eps. :humhumhum:
A while back, we discussed how cool it would be to do a Movie Fights-style show on anime and manga based topics. Well, I'm proud to unveil to unveil the inaugural episode of our new monthly podcast, Manga Fights! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-fights-ep-1-yusei-matsui-feat-bomber-d-rufi/)Or as I'm apparently contractually obligated to call it, All-Comic Presents: Manga Mavericks Presents: Manga Fights (Sponsored By Geoff Martin Art Sales)!
In the same vein as Movie Fights, Manga Fights pits passionate manga fans against each other debating it out over several topics both intriguing and insane! In our premiere episode, we continue off our Yusei Matsui discussion with Colton and Bomber debating out several Matsui-related topics in the Debate Round, and the winner facing off against me in the speed round. Since this was the first time we did this, rest assured, a lot of things didn't go quite as expected and hilarity very much ensued!
Our next Manga Fight will be centered on InuYasha to commemorate it's 20th anniversary. We'll be recording the episode later this month and plan to release it on Sunday, November 13th. If you guys want to suggest any InuYaha-related debate topics for us to duke it out over on the show, or even any other topics, series, or mangaka you want us to center an episode on, comment or PM-me here or send an e-mail to mangamavericks@gmail.com. Also, if you want to appear as a guest on a future Manga Fights episode, PM me and I'll see when we can have you on!
Hope you guys enjoy this new show! It's definitely my favorite podcast that we've recorded so far and I'm really looking forward to doing more of these.
It would be interesting to hear a few-minutes-worth of yours and Colton's thoughts on the Dragon Ball Room tidbit from Shueisha and what that means for the future of the franchise on the next episode that you guys record, since it's news related to a manga-publishing company, and thus fits in line with the usual subject matter of this podcast.
Just a suggestion.
Oh we're definitely going to talk about it. Good thing I checked the thread since we're actually just about to record. :D
Looking forward to hearing your guys thoughts on it! ;D
Episode 19 is out! It's another long one considering we haven't talked about news in a month, and there was a lot to get through, but we still spend plenty of time giving our thoughts on Amalgam of Distortion, New York Comic Con, and Dragon Ball Room! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-19-ill-get-around-someday/)
Glad you had so much fun (and got so much material) from the con.
I think there are only a few mangaka that I would go out of my way to a con to see a panel in person or get a signing. Nightow, Urasawa, Fujita, Togashi, Horikoshi, and Toriyama, would be at the top of the list. I would see others, some I would really like to see in person almost as much, but I would drop everything to be able to see those six in particular.
Amalgam was alright. I need to see more before I can fully judge it. But if Red Sprite doesn't last then I hope Viz picks Kimetsu no Yaiba instead. It's clearly sticking around, sales and rankings are increasing, and it's well liked. Amalgam is alright, but there's no indication yet that it'll stick around.
I was surprised to see Black Clover so high since it is so new. But I agree that the hate behind it is beyond strange. It's a Naruto rip-off? Naruto wasn't exactly all that original, guys. Other than the set up in chapter 1, the series has pretty much been doing its own thing. To call it one of the worst manga currently running? It's not even the worst thing in the magazine it's running in. On the other hand, I expect it to shoot up in sales (I expect the same for MHA) when an anime is released and aired on TV. So the hate will probably only increase. I just like the fact that it's a fantasy series without blatant video game trappings and is not Fairy Tail.
Nice to see Berserk selling. But I would sure like Dark Horse to continue releasing Blood Blockade Battlefront like they said they were going to. Sales can only increase now.
I kind of wish Watsuki would let go of Kenshin and start on something completely new again. Sure his last three series weren't great, but they did have potential. I still have faith he can make something great again.
The Dragon Ball Room doesn't really affect me. I'm a big fan, especially of the first sixteen volumes, and I also really like the first half of the "Z" stuff, but I'm not exactly craving more. But I can also ignore it and shrug off whatever they make like I did with GT. I still have the original stuff to go back to when I want to. I would be more interested in Toriyama making a new monthly or quarterly series, honestly. He would clearly have carte blanche like Akimoto does and could do anything he wanted with it. I know he won't because he isn't interested, but it would still be exciting.
I said it before but I wish they would push their other legacy properties hard too. Why aren't Fist of the North Star, Ring ni Kakero, Dr. Slump, Ginga, Kimagure Orange Road, Bastard!, Rokudenashi Blues/Rookies, Yu Yu Hakusho, Slam Dunk, or City Hunter, pushed nearly as hard despite how huge they were and how much they did for Jump? New anime, live action shows, or spin-off manga would make a lot of sense for these. They still push Kinnikuman, Captain Tsubasa, JoJo, Saint Seiya, and Cobra, but there are other series that can be given more.
But it isn't just Shueisha. Shogakukan and Kodansha should do the same with their legacy titles. It is a way to keep their brand alive while still pursuing new properties and keeping old material selling and in print. The Ushio & Tora anime was a great example of that. There's really no loss here.
Another great podcast.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 21, 2016, 01:04:09 PM
Nice to see Berserk selling. But I would sure like Dark Horse to continue releasing Blood Blockade Battlefront like they said they were going to. Sales can only increase now.
I think what's probably taking Dark Horse so long with releasing more
BBB is the fact that it's a Shueisha title and Dark Horse doesn't deal with them often. In retrospect, I kind of wish Viz had gotten the license to the series since they would have been able to release it more consistently like other Jump SQ19 titles such as
Ultimo.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 21, 2016, 01:04:09 PM
I said it before but I wish they would push their other legacy properties hard too. Why aren't Fist of the North Star, Ring ni Kakero, Dr. Slump, Ginga, Kimagure Orange Road, Bastard!, Rokudenashi Blues/Rookies, Yu Yu Hakusho, Slam Dunk, or City Hunter, pushed nearly as hard despite how huge they were and how much they did for Jump? New anime, live action shows, or spin-off manga would make a lot of sense for these. They still push Kinnikuman, Captain Tsubasa, JoJo, Saint Seiya, and Cobra, but there are other series that can be given more.
Bastard! is an especially strange one to not do anything with, since it's pretty much the HxH among Shueisha's seinen titles (in that it's constantly on hiatus but still has crazy high merchandise sales). You'd think that they'd try to adapt the manga beyond a 6-episode OVA series.
That was a good discussion on Dragon Ball Room. I agree with most of what you guys covered, though I would personally like to point out that for anyone not keeping up with the multimedia stuff (video games, other merchandise, etc.) we actually had nearly a decade of no new Dragon Ball content officially released in the United States since the anime (including GT) had finished airing by 2005, and the manga was fully released around the same time, give or take a year or two, and then we didn't get Battle of Gods until 2014, a year after it aired in Japan. So I'd personally say that we had a pretty sizable chunk of time with a big break from Dragon Ball.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 21, 2016, 01:04:09 PM
Glad you had so much fun (and got so much material) from the con.
I think there are only a few mangaka that I would go out of my way to a con to see a panel in person or get a signing. Nightow, Urasawa, Fujita, Togashi, Horikoshi, and Toriyama, would be at the top of the list. I would see others, some I would really like to see in person almost as much, but I would drop everything to be able to see those six in particular.
I probably wouldn't ever traverse the country to go to a Con or signing, because there's too many financial and logistical complications to consider, but if it's nearby and I have the opportunity I'll always jump at the chance. I'm glad I live in NYC and was able to go to NYCC this year so I could attend Matsui's events.
QuoteAmalgam was alright. I need to see more before I can fully judge it. But if Red Sprite doesn't last then I hope Viz picks Kimetsu no Yaiba instead. It's clearly sticking around, sales and rankings are increasing, and it's well liked. Amalgam is alright, but there's no indication yet that it'll stick around.
I would prefer KnY being added to the lineup for sure. But I think
Amalgam has promise so far, so if it picks up and a spot opens, I wouldn't mind it joining the lineup.
Quote
I was surprised to see Black Clover so high since it is so new. But I agree that the hate behind it is beyond strange. It's a Naruto rip-off? Naruto wasn't exactly all that original, guys. Other than the set up in chapter 1, the series has pretty much been doing its own thing. To call it one of the worst manga currently running? It's not even the worst thing in the magazine it's running in. On the other hand, I expect it to shoot up in sales (I expect the same for MHA) when an anime is released and aired on TV. So the hate will probably only increase. I just like the fact that it's a fantasy series without blatant video game trappings and is not Fairy Tail.
I have had problems with
Black Clover through it's run, but I really think the hatred it gets in certain communities is baffling and undeserved. At the same time, I find it kind of interesting why
Black Clover of all series is getting this kind of backlash from the western community when previous and arguably worse series in it's vein have never received the same kind of vitriol. I really want to do a frank and honest discussion on
Black Clover as a series on the podcast sometime and get to the root of why it's getting so much criticism from people and why I think a lot of that is unfair. Actually, If Josh loses our
InuYasha Manga Fight I was thinking of making him read all of
Black Clover as a penalty and then try and get Colton caught up so we can do a legitimate discussion of it on the show. That, or I was planning to reach out to a certain person who I know really loves the series to come on and talk about why they love it. But that's probably something we won't do until next year, maybe around the series' 100th chapter.
Quote
The Dragon Ball Room doesn't really affect me. I'm a big fan, especially of the first sixteen volumes, and I also really like the first half of the "Z" stuff, but I'm not exactly craving more. But I can also ignore it and shrug off whatever they make like I did with GT. I still have the original stuff to go back to when I want to. I would be more interested in Toriyama making a new monthly or quarterly series, honestly. He would clearly have carte blanche like Akimoto does and could do anything he wanted with it. I know he won't because he isn't interested, but it would still be exciting.
Toriyama did announce he was planning to make a new manga with Masakazu Katsura earlier this year, but we really haven't heard anything about it in a while so I don't know if they're still doing it.
QuoteI said it before but I wish they would push their other legacy properties hard too. Why aren't Fist of the North Star, Ring ni Kakero, Dr. Slump, Ginga, Kimagure Orange Road, Bastard!, Rokudenashi Blues/Rookies, Yu Yu Hakusho, Slam Dunk, or City Hunter, pushed nearly as hard despite how huge they were and how much they did for Jump? New anime, live action shows, or spin-off manga would make a lot of sense for these. They still push Kinnikuman, Captain Tsubasa, JoJo, Saint Seiya, and Cobra, but there are other series that can be given more.
But it isn't just Shueisha. Shogakukan and Kodansha should do the same with their legacy titles. It is a way to keep their brand alive while still pursuing new properties and keeping old material selling and in print. The Ushio & Tora anime was a great example of that. There's really no loss here.
FOTNS has a bunch of spin-off series that still run that get anime adaptions every now and then, and
City Hunter at least got an OVA last year for it's 30th anniversary and has a new live-action film coming out...in China. But yeah, I think there are a lot of classic Jump, Sunday, and Magazine titles that could be revitalized or kept relevant in the public eye with new manga or anime content. But I think we'll see more revivals of classic properties in coming years thanks to the success of new anime adaptions of JoJo's and U&T as well as re-inventions like
Mr. Osomatsu and the like.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 22, 2016, 01:36:50 PM
That was a good discussion on Dragon Ball Room. I agree with most of what you guys covered, though I would personally like to point out that for anyone not keeping up with the multimedia stuff (video games, other merchandise, etc.) we actually had nearly a decade of no new Dragon Ball content officially released in the United States since the anime (including GT) had finished airing by 2005, and the manga was fully released around the same time, give or take a year or two, and then we didn't get Battle of Gods until 2014, a year after it aired in Japan. So I'd personally say that we had a pretty sizable chunk of time with a big break from Dragon Ball.
Well, I suppose that depends on your definitions of new content and availability. Viz finished the manga and FUNi finished off the films in 2006, but we got Kai in 2010, and I consider that new content since it was and has always been promoted and treated by licensors and the fan community as a whole as a separate show and, like in Japan, attracted a new generation of fans to the franchise from it's airings on Nicktoons and Toonzai. Not to mention that even if something isn't legally licensed, the western fanbase still seeks out and consumes any new content that comes out in Japan. So even though stuff like "Son Goku and His Friends Return" wasn't legally released over here, it was still fansubbed and watched by fans, new content that savvy people could seek out. But even if we're only talking about the casual fans who only keep up with legal releases of stuff, the longest gap we've had for new DB anime content in the U.S. is still really only 2007-2009. Western fans have never really had to wait that long to see something new out of
Dragon Ball compared to japanese fans, who didn't have any new anime or manga content from the series for twelve years between 1996-2008, unless you count that three-episode arc of the 1997
Dr. Slump anime remake that retold the crossover from the RRA arc.
We'll be recording our InuYasha Manga Fight with Josh Dunham tonight at 7pm EST. If you guys have any suggestions for debate topics or questions about the series you want us to discuss on the show, make sure to let us know!
How would you (either of you) have made suggestions to tighten the pacing? It remains the #1 issue with the series that even fans will admit to.
Thanks for the question! Glad I checked before we started recording. :)
We're recording the next Manga Mavericks today at 2pm EST with special guest Casey "MinovskyArticle" (https://twitter.com/minovskyarticle), a comics connoisseur who's best known on twitter for live-blogging a complete read-through of One Piece from beginning to present in the span of one month. However, we're bringing him on the show as a fan of horror manga in particular, and we'll discuss with him his picks for the best horror manga out there to read this Halloween season. If you guys have any horror manga related questions for us or Casey to answer on the show, post them here!
Also, though we've recorded the Manga Fight, I felt that I still had more to say about InuYasha, so Vlord and I will be recording a bonus special retrospective on the series this friday where we'll each list our top 10 favorite moments from the series as well as reflect upon it's legacy. If you guys have any more InuYasha-related questions for us, we'd love to answer them!
Unfortunately I'm not well-versed in either horror manga or Inu-Yasha, so I won't really be able to come up with much to say, here.
I do plan on reading more works from Junji Ito in the future, though, and eventually I will one day read the works of Rumiko Takahashi, but I won't get to Inu-Yasha until after I read R1/2, MI, and UY.
Oh, I would have asked about Black Museum and Kazuhiro Fujita since it just came out.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on October 30, 2016, 11:31:41 AM
Unfortunately I'm not well-versed in either horror manga or Inu-Yasha, so I won't really be able to come up with much to say, here.
I do plan on reading more works from Junji Ito in the future, though, and eventually I will one day read the works of Rumiko Takahashi, but I won't get to Inu-Yasha until after I read R1/2, MI, and UY.
Well, do make sure to listen to our episode with Casey then, because in addition to going over Junji Ito's body of work he makes some very good horror recommendations that I think would be up a lot of people's alley on here. He's really a big fan and incredibly knowledgeable on horror as a genre across several mediums, including literature and film, so I think his tastes and recommendations when it comes to horror manga are particularly refined and valuable.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on October 30, 2016, 05:39:04 PM
Oh, I would have asked about Black Museum and Kazuhiro Fujita since it just came out.
Man, I wish you had mentioned that to us before we recorded because we never ended up bringing Fujita or BM up! We're sure to have Casey on the show again in the future though, so I'll see if Fujita's manga is something he'd be interested in discussing down the line.
Our horror manga special is finally out! What, Halloween was a week ago you say? Silly friends, we saved this episode for the real scariest day of the year... (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-20-caseys-horrible-halloween-horror-hour/)
Your signature leaves me speechless in all the right ways.
Thanks! It's one of my favorites I've made so far. ;D
I can see why! I can't stop looking at it.
Our InuYasha 20th anniversary retrospective (http://all-comic.com/2016/20-years-inuyasha-retrospective/) and our InuYasha Manga Fight with Josh Dunham are up! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-fights-ep-2-inuyasha-feat-josh-dunham/)
In our InuYasha retrospective, VlordGTZ and I run down the history of the series from it's conception, development, and history in North America, answer some Q&As asked by fans on Reddit, and run down our top 10 favorite moments from the series!
In our InuYasha Manga Fight, Josh and I debate on a variety of InuYasha-related topics, including what was the most pointless plot detour, how we'd pitch the series as a live-action film, whether we prefer the manga or the anime, and of course, who InuYasha should have really ended up with...
Enjoy! ;D
New episode! This week we spend a good hour discussing our new favorite manga, Ajin: Demi-Human, a series that contemplates on unique existential and moral questions and also happens to be a fucking badass action series. (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-21-ajin-demi-human/) Other topics of discussion include the RWBY manga, Love Rush's cancellation, whether we'd actually recommend watching/reading Keijo!!!!!!!!, and a whole lot more!
Our next regular episode will be out on December 7th, and we'll be joined by special guest Maxy Barnard, host of the excellent Shonen Jump-centric podcast Friendship! Effort! Victory! (https://friendshipeffortvictory.wordpress.com/) We'll be discussing the state of Shonen Jump as of 2016, as well as Toriko in light of it's recent conclusion, and we're also planning to record a Manga Fight on the series with Maxy that should come out on December 14th. If you have any questions or debate topics for us about Shonen Jump or Toriko you'd like to see us discuss with Maxy on the show, post them in this thread or e-mail them to us at mangamavericks@gmail.com!
In other news, the show now has both official twitter (https://twitter.com/manga_mavericks) and tumblr (http://mangamavericks.tumblr.com/) accounts, so definitely make sure to follow us on those sites if you want to get regular updates from us about new episodes or are future plans for the show!
Reminder that we're recording our overview of the state of Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016 and our Toriko retrospective and Manga Fight this sunday! If you guys have any questions to ask or topics you'd like us to cover on those or any recent newsbits, feel free to post them in this thread or e-mail them to us at mangamavericks@gmail.com!
I'd just generally like to hear what you guys thought were the best and worst new series that Jump started running this year.
Thanks for the question Spark! :)
We're about to record in half an hour, but if any of you guys manage to post your questions in this thread or e-mail them to us before 12pm EST, then we'll still be able to answer them, so don't delay!
Ho boy, that was our longest and best episode yet! Expect it to come out later this week around thursday or friday, maybe even split into two part because of how long it is.
I would like to listen more to your Manga Fights episodes, but unfortunately they have all been about series that I still need to get around to or simply haven't seen enough of, so far. :sweat:
It'd be neat if you did one discussing multiple general topics that involved the choice of more than one series as well as the series exclusive ones that you've done so far. Perhaps you could even get topic ideas from the people who email you questions. Just a suggestion on my part, of course. Obviously the podcast is about more than that, and I enjoy listening to you guys and your input and opinions on manga. I just feel that your manga debate episodes could potentially attract more listeners if some of them didn't only focus in a single series at a time, not that I don't see the appeal of those as well.
Doing different topics in an episode is a direction I want to steer Manga Fights in the future, but doing them based on a specific series has just ended up worked out timing and motivation-wise more so far. I do want to shake that up in the future though and have been thinking of ways we could start handling them differently next year.
I've actually wanted to get topic ideas from our listeners and we keep asking people to send us questions and ideas they want us to do. Problem is no one has sent us any suggestions so far. :P But we actually got a lot of Q&As to answer for our recent episode and a couple of the questions asked could've made good debate topics, so one thing we might do in the future is answer the questions through Manga Fights debates instead of conventionally on Manga Mavericks. Of course, that'll only work provided enough people send us enough topics for us to keep doing an episode once a month. :sweat:
Our Toriko Manga Fight is up! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-fights-ep-3-toriko-feat-maxy-barnard/) We debate who the best character was (spoiler: it's Midora), whether the series really diminished in quality after the timeskip, if Jesse Eisenburg would make a good Toriko, and a whole bunch more! Plus we answer a whole lot of Toriko Q&As! It's one of my favorite podcasts we've done yet! ;D
The final Manga Mavericks of the year is up! And to celebrate the year of 2016 in manga, we go over some of our favorite things that happened in manga this year, from news stories to new series, to our favorite chapters and moments in manga this year! (http://all-comic.com/2016/manga-mavericks-ep-22-best-manga-2016/) And of course, we've got a ton of news to go over too! ;)
Spoiler
QuoteOur Best of Manga 2016:
Podcast Breakdown:
00:25 – What's In Store This Week
News:
8:30 – NYT Best Selling Manga List: Week of Dec 4th-10th
11:20 – Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Manga Will Be Offered on Free Comic Book Day
13:40 – Oricon's Top Selling Manga in Japan By Series in 2016 List
27:50 – Princess Jellyfish and Kitaro make Amazon's Top Graphic Novels of 2016 List
29:10 – One-Punch Man ranks 13th on Diamond's Top 300 GNs of November List
32:10 – One-Punch Man Has Sold 11.11 Million Copies
33:15 – Yen Press' Newest Licenses
36:00 – Comixology adds Yen Press manga
38:20 – Viz licenses The Children Nowadays
40:55 – Kodansha USA licenses Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
45:55 – Kodansha USA to Publish Akira 30th Anniversary Artbook
46:45 – Kodansha USA Resumes Publication of Animal Land
48:35 – Black Lagoon Resumes in Spring
49:00 – Keitaro Takahashi's New Manga
50:35 – Tsutomu Nihei's New manga
52:25 – Yuu Watase's New Manga
53:45 – Kenjirou Hata Plans New Manga
55:00 – Yamcha is the Hero in New 3-Chapter Dragon Ball Spinoff
1:01:25 – Nobuhiro Watsuki Continues Rurouni Kenshin with Hokkaido arc
1:04:45 – Viz's Weekly Shonen Jump to run Yu-Gi-Oh! Transcend Game and Rurouni Kenshin Side Story: Ex-Con Ashitaro
1:07:30 – The Seven Deadly Sins is on Temporary Hiatus
1:08:05 – World Trigger is on Indefinite Hiatus
1:09:35 – One Piece Will Enter the Wano arc in 2017
1:14:30 – Boruto Anime Coming in April 2017
1:15:45 – Kodansha USA Launches New Attack on Titan App
Our Best of Manga 2016:
1:18:00 – Best Manga News Stories of 2016
1:21:40 – Best New North American Manga Licenses of 2016
1:25:40 – Best Manga Characters of 2016
1:36:55 – Best Manga Villains of 2016
1:44:45 – Best Manga Fights of 2016
1:57:40 – Best Currently-Running Manga of 2016
2:07:00 – Best New Manga of 2016
2:09:30 – Best Manga Chapters of 2016
2:22:30 – Best Manga Series Finales of 2016
2:29:00 – Best Manga Moments of 2016
2:38:15 – Manga We Promise To Read in 2017
Q&As:
2:49:45 – Q&A: "Are There Series With Questionable Content We Find Worth Reading?"
2:59:00 – Q&A: "Why did No One Mention Everyone vs. Acacia in the Toriko Manga Fight?"
3:01:45 – Q&A: "Best and Worst New Shonen Jump Series of 2016?"
3:07:30 – Wrap-Up
We've also got our next Manga Fight planned, and it's going to be a doozy! We're covering
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure to celebrate the manga's 30th anniversary. We'll be recording it next friday with Maxy Barnard and VlordGTZ, who will square off in our first ever Manga Fight between two guests! As always, send us your questions and topic suggestions for the episode and we'll incorporate them into the show!
Finally, we have a year-end poll set up to get feedback for our first year of the show! We'd really appreciate it if you guys took it and gave us some feedback and suggestions to help us continue improving the show next year. (http://www.polljunkie.com/poll/kdeikw/manga-mavericks-1st-annual-year-end-survey) Thanks for listening and supporting us this year and I hope you guys continue to look forward to and enjoy what we have in store in the next. ;D
Yikes that's long! I'll have to give it a listen tomorrow.
In the meantime, I filled out the survey.
I'm taking the poll now! Cheers to Manga Mavericks continued success!!
Thanks you guys! Your feedback is much appreciated. ;D
Kodansha is unbelievably slow with releases. The rate they're going with Animal Land I wonder if they'll ever get to Vector Ball. We're still waiting for Billy Bat to be announced and Urasawa is a good seller here.
I'm very interested in the Hokkaido arc. It feels like the type of arc that could only work if Kenshin wasn't the central character, and therefore wouldn't work in the main series. But characters like Sojiro, Saito, Sanosuke, and Ashitaro, feel like they could carry an arc on their own, and they were featured prominently in the promo art. I'm definitely eager to see where this goes.
Ashihara, despite his health, had a really good year for World Trigger. Sales went up after the anime ended, the rankings improved, he got a source book, the story finally made strides to end the Rank Wars, and he finally got a #1 chapter ranking. I only hope his health improves so that he can enjoy his success. World Trigger really clawed its way up in popularity and deserves what it has.
Black Museum volume 1 has a good start, gets boring and repetitive in the middle chapters, but becomes awesome once the villain shows up. I'm glad it was licensed because it gets really great in the back half. There's also a special thanks to Nobuhiro Watsuki, which is pretty cool. I really hope this release leads to more of his stuff to get released. In the back they specifically mention Ushio & Tora, Karakuri Circus, and Souboutei Must Die, in his previous works which hopefully means they are they most likely to be licensed.
My character of the year is going to be Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia. While Midoriya is my favorite character in the series, Bakugo's development this year was off the charts. This is the level of depth you never see characters of his type ever get aside from older characters like Tora from Ushio & Tora. The angry rival character fell into a hard cliche, and Horikoshi deserves major credit for superseding it. Erina from Food Wars is a great pick. She has grown a lot over the last year. All Might is also an excellent choice.
Best villain would go to All For One. We still don't know much about him, but the menace this guy exudes is intense, and his battle with All Might was one of the best in the series. Isabella from Promised Neverland is another good pick. She's still got a lot of secrets to her as well.
Best fight goes to World Trigger. Which one? All of them. Ashihara was on fire this year. If I had to pick one it would be the one that finally gave him a #1 ranking, the battle between Tamakoma-2 squad, Ikoma squad, and Oji squad, was excellent. That fight in Black Clover was great because I really enjoy team battles, and outside of World Trigger and MHA, you don't see characters teaming up much in action series these days. Tabata seems to agree because he's done it again in the recent forest of witches battle.
Best currently running manga is My Hero Academia. Anybody who knows me saw this coming. It somehow only gets better and better as it goes, and this year was a great one for it. I would also include the Midoriya Vs. Bakugo chapters as the best of the year. Although the All Might battle, and chapters involving the Muscular encounter are up there, too. MHA had an excellent year.
Best new series would be Promised Neverland followed by Kimetsu no Yaiba. PN has maintained a sense of mystery and intrigue while building its cast of characters tremendously well. And it's only run for 20 chapters so far. KnY was a breath of fresh air in the action manga genre. Jump's current battle manga line up is the best it has been in a long time, and KnY's old school Kurumada-like sensibilities clashes well against the other series. It might be higher if I read more, but from the dozen chapters I've read I've enjoyed it a great deal. Viz really needs to run this in Jump. It's doing better and better in Japan, and NA needs new series, so it really needs to be picked up. I didn't know Togashi was a fan, but that's pretty cool.
Best series finale would probably be Toriko. I'm not much of a fan of the series, but since nothing I really liked ended this year, I'll give it to this one for having a satisfying conclusion, even to someone like me who had no idea what was going on.
Best moments? Well, I mentioned most of them above, but another great one was the Ray reveal in Promised Neverland. It made him a much more interesting and dynamic character, and made him my favorite character so far.
Series I'm going to read next year is a bit difficult since I don't really read scans anymore and I don't know what will be licensed, but I'm pretty sure I'll read at least some of the Ushio & Tora manga whether it is licensed or not, and finish off my Flame of Recca manga collection. My Jump subscription runs until mid-2019, so I don't really have to worry about that. I might otherwise read some old Sunday series since it's been so long, but I can't narrow any titles other than Karakuri Circus and Kyo Kara Ore Wa!! which I've really dug of what I've seen. And no, no one is translating Souboutei. I can only hope the Ushio & Tora dub will air on Toonami and give Fujita the boost he needs to get it officially released here. Or maybe Viz will finally simulpub some Sunday series. Would be nice since Shogakukan owns them and all.
Very good episode. Here's to another year for you guys.
As for JoJo, I have two questions. What Stands would characters like Caesar or Jonathan have had if Stands existed back in Part 1 and 2? And are there any characters you thought were underused in any Part, or characters you thought Araki could have done more with?
QuoteKodansha is unbelievably slow with releases. The rate they're going with Animal Land I wonder if they'll ever get to Vector Ball. We're still waiting for Billy Bat to be announced and Urasawa is a good seller here.
I can understand that
Animal Land probably isn't a strong seller, but it's so frustrating there's been a two-year gap between the release of volumes since the series concluded in Japan years ago. I'm glad they didn't drop it, but I really wish they hadn't make us wait so long for no real reason with so little left to publish.
QuoteMy character of the year is going to be Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia. While Midoriya is my favorite character in the series, Bakugo's development this year was off the charts. This is the level of depth you never see characters of his type ever get aside from older characters like Tora from Ushio & Tora. The angry rival character fell into a hard cliche, and Horikoshi deserves major credit for superseding it. Erina from Food Wars is a great pick. She has grown a lot over the last year. All Might is also an excellent choice.
Bakugo had one of the strongest character arcs in any manga this year for sure. I'm really excited to see where his character goes now that he's had this big breakthrough in his relationship with All Might and Midoriya.
QuoteBest villain would go to All For One. We still don't know much about him, but the menace this guy exudes is intense, and his battle with All Might was one of the best in the series. Isabella from Promised Neverland is another good pick. She's still got a lot of secrets to her as well.
I was considering All For One, as he's definitely made a big impression for how little he's appeared so far. One of my favorite chapters of MHA this year was the conversation between him and All Might in the prison. I'm becoming really excited whenever he shows up and am really interested in seeing how he'll figure into future events.
QuoteBest fight goes to World Trigger. Which one? All of them. Ashihara was on fire this year. If I had to pick one it would be the one that finally gave him a #1 ranking, the battle between Tamakoma-2 squad, Ikoma squad, and Oji squad, was excellent. That fight in Black Clover was great because I really enjoy team battles, and outside of World Trigger and MHA, you don't see characters teaming up much in action series these days. Tabata seems to agree because he's done it again in the recent forest of witches battle.
WT had some awesome battles this year, that's for sure. One of my runner-ups I was thinking of mentioning was the fight with Kakizaki and Katori squads. I was really into all the tactics Tamakoma employed in that match as well as what was going on with the opposing teams and their stories as well.
QuoteBest currently running manga is My Hero Academia. Anybody who knows me saw this coming. It somehow only gets better and better as it goes, and this year was a great one for it. I would also include the Midoriya Vs. Bakugo chapters as the best of the year. Although the All Might battle, and chapters involving the Muscular encounter are up there, too. MHA had an excellent year.
The series really went to another level this year. There were so many chapters from this year that really stood out, making it hard to choose which was the very best, though I think my favorites were probably #76, #93, and the chapter All Might and All For One talked in the prison (don't remember the chapter number on the top of my head).
QuoteBest new series would be Promised Neverland followed by Kimetsu no Yaiba. PN has maintained a sense of mystery and intrigue while building its cast of characters tremendously well. And it's only run for 20 chapters so far. KnY was a breath of fresh air in the action manga genre. Jump's current battle manga line up is the best it has been in a long time, and KnY's old school Kurumada-like sensibilities clashes well against the other series. It might be higher if I read more, but from the dozen chapters I've read I've enjoyed it a great deal. Viz really needs to run this in Jump. It's doing better and better in Japan, and NA needs new series, so it really needs to be picked up. I didn't know Togashi was a fan, but that's pretty cool.
With KnY being so successful and endorsed by respected mangaka like Togashi, I have to imagine Viz will at least license the series for volume releases soon if not for serialization in their Jump. Considering that they need slots to fill, though, they really ought to take another look at it and add it in. It's only a year young, so it shouldn't be too hard for most new readers to pick up on, but it'll get harder the longer they wait to add it.
QuoteBest series finale would probably be Toriko. I'm not much of a fan of the series, but since nothing I really liked ended this year, I'll give it to this one for having a satisfying conclusion, even to someone like me who had no idea what was going on.
What, you don't like
Billy Bat? :>
In all seriousness, I think the fact that even non-fans got something out of the
Toriko finale and found it satisfying really speaks to how strong it really was. It's one of my new all-time favorite endings to a manga series, alongside
Billy Bat's.
QuoteBest moments? Well, I mentioned most of them above, but another great one was the Ray reveal in Promised Neverland. It made him a much more interesting and dynamic character, and made him my favorite character so far.
That was a real game-changer, and has added a great new dynamic where Emma and Norman have to outwit their own ally to save the rest of their friends too. Ray is also my favorite character in the series right now, and I'm really interested in seeing how his role in the series changes as they inch forward to the escape.
QuoteVery good episode. Here's to another year for you guys.
Thank you for all the comments and support you've given us this past year! Doing the show has been a lot of fun and I'm glad people have really been responding to it. I'm really excited for what we have planned for next year, so hopefully we'll just continue to grow and get better with the more shows we do. ;D
Starting with the new year tomorrow I'm taking a break from the internet for a bit (I'm still doing the podcast of course), so I probably won't be around here for a while. So, just to let you guys know, here's what we have in store for January.
This Friday we're going to be recording our JoJo's Manga Fight and retrospective, but we'll also be releasing the first episode of a new sub-podcast, Movie Mavericks, a discussion show where we basically talk about movies. In the first episode Vlord and I talk about our favorite movies of 2016 and the movies we're looking forward to in 2017. This will be an irregularly scheduled podcast, but we'll definitely do episodes around big comic and anime related movies, so expect episodes on One Piece: Film Gold, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, and The Lego Batman Movie in the near future.
We'll be releasing the JoJo's retrospective episode on Friday, January 13th, with the Manga Fight following on Friday, January 20th. Then, for our last show of January to be released on Friday, January 27th, we're going to be doing another mangaka retrospective! We'll be doing a retrospective on Takehiko Inoue and his career in celebration of his 50th birthday, covering his career and series from the beginning to present. We'll be joined by previous guest MinovskyArticle, who's also a big Inoue fan. I'm really excited to do this episode and since I know you guys are huge Inoue fans as well I hope you'll really enjoy it too.
After that we don't have anything definite scheduled, but in the coming months you can expect episodes on Toonami in time for it's 20th anniversary, Black Clover around it's 100th chapter, and Great Teacher Onizuka around it's 25th anniversary in May. Manga Fights will be on hold after the JoJo's one until the summer, but we have some big plans for them later this year, and I'll probably be back by then to let you guys know definitely what those are.
So keep an eye out on the show in the coming months! We have lots of episodes we're planning that we're really excited about, and have gotten great suggestions from our survey so far and hope to get more as people keep filling that out. Thank you guys so much for your support, comments, and criticism of Manga Mavericks and Manga Fights this year, and I hope you enjoy what we have coming in the next. So until I talk with you guys again, I wish you a Happy New Year! :e_hail: :el_hail:
I forgot about Billy Bat, but I also haven't read it since it started.
Happy New Year!
Since LRY is still on his hiatus, I thought that I might as well link the episodes that came out this month (especially since I'm in all of them):
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Manga Retrospective (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-23-bizarre-jojos-adventure/)
JoJo's Manga Fight (Maxy Bernard vs. VLordGTZ) (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-fights-ep-04-jojos-bizarre-adventure-feat-maxy-barnard/)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Q&A Discussion (http://all-comic.com/2017/jojos-bizarre-adventure-qa-extravaganza/)
Additionally, the first episode of Movie Mavericks came out a few weeks ago. (http://all-comic.com/2017/movie-mavericks-1-favorite-movies-2016/) We recently recorded an episode covering One Piece Film: Gold with Colton, as well as an episode about our thoughts on Sailor Moon R: The Movie: The Promise of the Rose and Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions. Look forward to those in the near future!
Can you guys provide an image of the JoJolion dog you talked about? I'm really curious to see this thing.
Quote from: Daikun on January 31, 2017, 09:59:48 PM
Can you guys provide an image of the JoJolion dog you talked about? I'm really curious to see this thing.
It's this one:
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F6kSxXKK.png&hash=d075498bfa468af37af26551eeebed339fb82f01)
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FVsQAKcO.png&hash=7562949b399917fc5bf306ed403e7e95115e49ae)
Episode 2 of Movie Mavericks is now out! (http://all-comic.com/2017/movie-mavericks-2-one-piece-film-gold/) In this episode, LumRanmaYasha, Colton, and I talk about the recent US screening of One Piece Film: Gold.
I just saw the recent episode.
What do you mean we hate everything? No, we hate you!
But seriously, I have a friend who likes Beelzebub, but I really don't. It's always been a divisive series. There's something about the way Tamura writes action that completely falls flat for me, and his comedy doesn't even make me crack a smile. Even the one shot his new series is based on really did nothing for me. The new series might surprise me (and it's almost certainly getting added to NA Jump) but I'm not anticipating it all that much.
Your assessment of Food Wars is pretty dead on. Not much actually happened last year outside of Erina's development and Soma's match with Hayama. But the problem with the latter was the fact that most people thought it was much too obvious what the result would be from the get go. Thankfully, ever since the end of the match the series has been back doing what it does best. The rankings shooting back up apparently reflect that.
Of the newest licenses, I'm most eager for Dragon Half. I never thought that would ever get licensed. Seven Seas doesn't usually license anything I care about, but they knocked it out of the park this time. I was very impressed. Hopefully they get more old Dragon Magazine stuff in the future.
Now for the discussion:
As for the future of Jump, that comparison of Bleach to Kimetsu no Yaiba feels like backhanded compliment until you think about it for a bit. Bleach didn't really start off with a bang in popularity, it slowly grew from the quality of the early stories and snowballed into being a huge deal around the time Soul Society hit. Kimetsu no Yaiba started slow with only a few (like me) really enjoying it until around the time the Drum House arc hit. It's been getting a lot of attention on social media recently, too. We're lucky it started when it did, since it might not have gotten the push had it been serialized in more competitive years than 2016 when everything was ending.
While Jump's 2016 could be considered a letdown, we did get Promised Neverland and Kimetsu no Yaiba out of it, which are two of the best series in the magazine. And Yuna is a high seller, too. Compare this to 2013, where the only series that lasted was World Trigger (which is on hiatus) and it seems far better in retrospect.
The six new series is indicative of one of two things. Either they are disappointed with what has been running recently, or they really believe in these new series. Now, the latter doesn't mean much when stuff like Lady Justice and Erobot get put out there, but the fact that three are from established talent of high selling properties Jump has had in the past probably leans more to the former. I'm sure its about sales primarily.
Straighten Up ended primarily because the sales were stagnant. Every time a new volume came out it sold about 17,000-18,000 and didn't budge. It wasn't growing despite Jump giving it many chances, and there's no anime for it. So they probably told the author and he planned his ending out already.
Hinomaru Zumou is almost certainly ending this year for the same reason. Sales have been flat, despite it being really well liked, and it doesn't look like it'll get an anime either. The story has apparently been heading to an obvious conclusion for a while, so I doubt anyone will be upset when it ends. It's been running about as long as MHA, too: almost three years. That's about average for a successful series.
Gintama is almost done, and I'm fairly certain Samon will not live out this year. As for the new series, I don't know what will live, but I'm fairly confident the three new series by the vets will last through the year if only for Jump hoping for lightning to strike.
To be honest, Samon is the series I get the least. It sells barely any better than Straighten Up, its ranks have been rather middling for a long time, and its been given a lot of chances. There's no buzz around it, and the initial pop it got from fans has faded away. I'm sort of surprised Straighten Up ended first since at least that would have the whole dance trend thing to get popularity off of. All Samon has is one throwaway comment from back when it started that the director of School Rumble, Gintama, and Sakamoto, wanted to make an anime of it. If that's all that's keeping it alive, well, that's pretty silly.
The other bottom four: Amalgam of Distortion, Spring Weapon No. 1, Ole Golazo, and Demon's Plan, if they're not canceled here will not live out the year. I only feel sorry for Golazo. It really doesn't deserve the Buddy Strike and Tokyo Wonder Boys treatment like this. If anything, they could move it to Jump+ and give it a shot. Word of mouth has been good, and it would be a shame to lose out on a series that never had a chance to do anything to improve.
Nothing else I see being canceled unless there's a sudden dip in quality or popularity.
Kimetsu no Yaiba survived as long as it has based on good rankings, but the sales for the first volume were really low. It was around the time of volume 3 that it started to turn around with even higher rankings and second printings on the first two volumes. Now its being talked about by Yoshihiro Togashi and the creator of Takagi (that prank series) and being spread about more. I see 2017 as Kimetsu's blow up year. It's only a shame Viz didn't jump in.
Promised Neverland had a pretty good debut and good rankings. The first volume did about the same as Kimetsu is currently doing, but volume 2 launched to even better sales. Like Kimetsu, I expect 2017 to be the year it reaches critical mass.
Yuna still gets surprisingly good sales and ranks decently. Unless either drop off, I expect this to remain the principle romance manga in Jump. There's always one and, unfortunately for We Never Learn, will probably remain that way.
Now for more established series:
One Piece will be canceled due to lack of sales and Oda giving up. :awesome: Right. He already has 2017 planned out as going through about three different arcs. It's not going anywhere. Business as usual.
Haikyu is on fire right now. I expect season 4 of the anime by year's end. It's not going anywhere. Like One Piece I expect it to do business as usual.
My Hero Academia should have a big boost from the anime (even more if its split cour) and the OVAs its currently getting. It's also really popular overseas. If anything, especially entering a new arc, I expect it to climb higher.
Food Wars has been bouncing back. 2016 saw a bit of a dip in sales and popularity, but its been reversing that trend since 2017 started. I'm still under the impression that the series only has about two big arcs left (I still consider the current team battle part of the current arc) but I do think it will continue into 2018. Its also Jump's fourth highest consistent seller. Unless it continues falling, I expect it to stay.
World Trigger is a hard one to pin down. You could use the hiatus against it, but that wouldn't wash as it has been on hiatus before. Before it went on hiatus its last chapter ranking was at #1 (for the first time ever) and it's one of the few series where sales increased after the anime ended. It will certainly go on, but will it change magazines to a more monthly schedule? That's the question. I honestly don't know.
Black Clover is in its make or break year. It's getting an anime from Pierrot which will probably have tons of filler and run 50 episodes at the least, which will give it a lot of momentum. Tabata needs to take advantage and make this the best year of the manga so far. If he doesn't then the anime can only go so far. And when it ends, so might Black Clover. We'll see, but I think 2017 will be its most important year so far.
Saiki K. is in an interesting position. It has a second season coming (probably when the Gintama anime ends) which means it is safe for a while, but the anime really raised awareness of the series worldwide. Sales have been steady, but they are poised to break out again if the second season is even better. This is why I'm kind of hoping the second season moves away from shorts (given that I don't think there are enough chapters) and tries to thread them together like older comedy anime did. It could be the kick in the pants it needs to really hit critical mass popularity. And I also want to say that I'm utterly surprised Funimation not only licensed this, but dubbed it as well. That really helped give it attention in NA. Also, Jerry Jewell is Saiki and Chuck Huber is his dad. How can you not enjoy that?
So yeah, Jump is in an interesting spot for 2017. I can't wait to see exactly what will happen with each of these series.
Oh, and not related to Jump, I hope this is the year Souboutei Must Be Destroyed beaks out. It's selling really well, but absolutely no one is talking about it. Even it can keep up its quality and score some attention somehow, that can only improve its chances to get licensed and hopefully get an anime. Fujita deserves at least that much.
Good podcast again. Can't wait to hear you guys talk survey results!
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
Saiki K. is in an interesting position. It has a second season coming (probably when the Gintama anime ends) which means it is safe for a while, but the anime really raised awareness of the series worldwide. Sales have been steady, but they are poised to break out again if the second season is even better. This is why I'm kind of hoping the second season moves away from shorts (given that I don't think there are enough chapters) and tries to thread them together like older comedy anime did. It could be the kick in the pants it needs to really hit critical mass popularity. And I also want to say that I'm utterly surprised Funimation not only licensed this, but dubbed it as well. That really helped give it attention in NA. Also, Jerry Jewell is Saiki and Chuck Huber is his dad. How can you not enjoy that?
Season 1 adapted up to around chapter 123, though they skipped a few chapters and had some filler shorts. The manga currently has 230 chapters, so there should be enough material by the time the anime comes out. While it would be interesting to see J.C Staff/EGG Firm attempt a threaded narrative, I doubt it will happen since Season 2 will probably have the same release format as the previous season (shorts on weekday mornings with the compilation eps in a late-night slot each week).
I was surprised when Funimation announced that they were going to dub Saiki, but I'm really glad that they did. The show really benefits from a dub due to the how fast-paced the dialogue is, and I love Jerry Jewell's performance as Saiki. I'm happy that the series has been so well received over here. I remember when the anime initially came out, a lot of people were very lukewarm to it but then it gained a large audience over time. On MAL alone, it shot up from a 6.0 to an 8.5 in average rating. I really wish Viz would release the manga (at least digitally) over here, but considering the track record for gag manga in the US, I doubt it will happen. :'(
Looks like they put up their survey results (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-24-5-survey-results-special/) podcast.
I think most of my votes were the majority but it's hard to remember. Wow, you totally got me. The gerbil comment was me. :>
Josh was a good guest even if I disagreed with him a bunch. Disagreement is good since it allows you to reflect on your opinions. I look forward to him returning.
Love Rush was alright. I wasn't a fan of the harem elements, and I thought the side characters were boring, but when they focused on the main three characters it was enjoyable. To address the elephant in the room, I'm pretty sure Yuna is the reason it didn't make it since it siphoned off many of the votes it would have gotten. I'm pretty sure that's why We Never Learn won't make it.
But I see you guys are going to be doing an episode on Weekly Shonen Sunday soon. There's a lot of stuff to cover. There are the works of Rumiko Takahashi, Kazuhiro Fujita, Mitsuru Adachi, Gosho Aoyama, Hiroyuki Nishimori, Takashi Shiina, Takuya Mitsuda, Nobuyuki Anzai, and Yellow Tanabe, and bigger series like Magi, Cyborg 009, or Silver Spoon. Then there are other weird stories like Zatch Bell, Arata, Yakitate Japan's general oddness, and the fact that the official Patlabor manga ran in it.
Also an interesting topic could be why Sunday has dropped so many reader compared to Jump and Shonen Magazine over the years. Looking at the talent above makes it hard to understand why.
And I guess you can tackle why Keijo!!! is even a thing, why it got an anime, and how it has managed to avoid cancellation for so long despite having absolutely no success. That should be an odd conversation.
Randomly stopping back into the forums to unwind. Thanks for the comments on our recent episodes!
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
I just saw the recent episode.
What do you mean we hate everything? No, we hate you!
:shit: :D
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
As for the future of Jump, that comparison of Bleach to Kimetsu no Yaiba feels like backhanded compliment until you think about it for a bit. Bleach didn't really start off with a bang in popularity, it slowly grew from the quality of the early stories and snowballed into being a huge deal around the time Soul Society hit. Kimetsu no Yaiba started slow with only a few (like me) really enjoying it until around the time the Drum House arc hit. It's been getting a lot of attention on social media recently, too. We're lucky it started when it did, since it might not have gotten the push had it been serialized in more competitive years than 2016 when everything was ending.
Yeah in retrospect it was good that KnY came out so early last year than towards the end where there would've been more new series to compete with. Only downside was that it meant we didn't have a chance to get it added to the NA Jump, but hopefully that will change as it grows in popularity.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
While Jump's 2016 could be considered a letdown, we did get Promised Neverland and Kimetsu no Yaiba out of it, which are two of the best series in the magazine. And Yuna is a high seller, too. Compare this to 2013, where the only series that lasted was World Trigger (which is on hiatus) and it seems far better in retrospect.
The six new series is indicative of one of two things. Either they are disappointed with what has been running recently, or they really believe in these new series. Now, the latter doesn't mean much when stuff like Lady Justice and Erobot get put out there, but the fact that three are from established talent of high selling properties Jump has had in the past probably leans more to the former. I'm sure its about sales primarily.
It really is quite remarkable to get three fairly successful series out of a year, considering Jump didn't really have any to come out of 2015. It seems like they're throwing a lot of variety into this current batch of new series, and they're all so different enough from both each other and the rest of the current lineup that it'll be curious to see what sticks.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
Hinomaru Zumou is almost certainly ending this year for the same reason. Sales have been flat, despite it being really well liked, and it doesn't look like it'll get an anime either. The story has apparently been heading to an obvious conclusion for a while, so I doubt anyone will be upset when it ends. It's been running about as long as MHA, too: almost three years. That's about average for a successful series.
It's a shame, but at least like SU it seems like it'll reach a natural conclusion that will feel satisfying. A three-year run is quite respectable, I can't complain too much.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
To be honest, Samon is the series I get the least. It sells barely any better than Straighten Up, its ranks have been rather middling for a long time, and its been given a lot of chances. There's no buzz around it, and the initial pop it got from fans has faded away. I'm sort of surprised Straighten Up ended first since at least that would have the whole dance trend thing to get popularity off of. All Samon has is one throwaway comment from back when it started that the director of School Rumble, Gintama, and Sakamoto, wanted to make an anime of it. If that's all that's keeping it alive, well, that's pretty silly.
Jump is generally pretty lenient with comedy series when it comes to rankings and sales. I can totally see just the prospect and interest of a potential anime being just enough for them to want to keep it around until it happens unless they have no other choice but to can it.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
The other bottom four: Amalgam of Distortion, Spring Weapon No. 1, Ole Golazo, and Demon's Plan, if they're not canceled here will not live out the year. I only feel sorry for Golazo. It really doesn't deserve the Buddy Strike and Tokyo Wonder Boys treatment like this. If anything, they could move it to Jump+ and give it a shot. Word of mouth has been good, and it would be a shame to lose out on a series that never had a chance to do anything to improve.
Yeah, you've pretty much hit them all out of the park, though SW01 hasn't ended quite yet. Hoping Robot X Laserbeam does well since it would be nice to have another sports manga success in Jump. It's been much too long.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
World Trigger is a hard one to pin down. You could use the hiatus against it, but that wouldn't wash as it has been on hiatus before. Before it went on hiatus its last chapter ranking was at #1 (for the first time ever) and it's one of the few series where sales increased after the anime ended. It will certainly go on, but will it change magazines to a more monthly schedule? That's the question. I honestly don't know.
There's been rumors circulating recently that volume 18 is being listed as the "final volume." Hopefully that doesn't prove to be the case, but the longer WT stays on hiatus the more I become concerned about Ashihara's well-being. More than the series itself returning, I hope he's okay. He's a talented mangaka and it would be a shame to see him out of commission when his career was only just really starting to take off.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
Black Clover is in its make or break year. It's getting an anime from Pierrot which will probably have tons of filler and run 50 episodes at the least, which will give it a lot of momentum. Tabata needs to take advantage and make this the best year of the manga so far. If he doesn't then the anime can only go so far. And when it ends, so might Black Clover. We'll see, but I think 2017 will be its most important year so far.
I don't imagine the anime turning out well, nor the critical reception being great for it, at least in the western fandom. It'll probably help the series sales a bit over in Japan though, which is really all that matters. I don't think it's in any danger. It's been consistently popular from day one and only seems to be picking up more steam, so I can see it going on for a while yet.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 13, 2017, 01:03:08 PM
Saiki K. is in an interesting position. It has a second season coming (probably when the Gintama anime ends) which means it is safe for a while, but the anime really raised awareness of the series worldwide. Sales have been steady, but they are poised to break out again if the second season is even better. This is why I'm kind of hoping the second season moves away from shorts (given that I don't think there are enough chapters) and tries to thread them together like older comedy anime did. It could be the kick in the pants it needs to really hit critical mass popularity. And I also want to say that I'm utterly surprised Funimation not only licensed this, but dubbed it as well. That really helped give it attention in NA. Also, Jerry Jewell is Saiki and Chuck Huber is his dad. How can you not enjoy that?
The dub is such a joy. Jerry Jewell is amazing as Saiki and the rest of the cast and script are so on-point. I'm really glad that Funi's simuldubbing system helps shows like Saiki get licensed and dubbed when they might not otherwise. The series' increase in visibility and popularity in the U.S. is very satisfying too. Whether or not the second season is more shorts or 22-minute episodes, getting more Saiki anime can only be a good thing imo.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 16, 2017, 10:43:31 PM
I think most of my votes were the majority but it's hard to remember. Wow, you totally got me. The gerbil comment was me. :>
I knew it was you! You'll be happy to know that I've actually drawn it.
(https://68.media.tumblr.com/6fefcfc4576e63ec034ac037c4207a50/tumblr_olrlxrEvG41vuqfe7o1_500.png)
Yes. This is a thing now. He will be appearing in titlecards and thumbnails in the future. Though probably redesigned a fair bit (I want to draw him wearing Gintoki's clothes and a backpack fill of old dilapidated GTO volumes spilling out of it.) :D
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 16, 2017, 10:43:31 PM
Josh was a good guest even if I disagreed with him a bunch. Disagreement is good since it allows you to reflect on your opinions. I look forward to him returning.
That's good to hear. Cause, Josh Dunham VS. The World, man. I'm going to make that Manga Fight happen this year. ;)
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on February 16, 2017, 10:43:31 PM
But I see you guys are going to be doing an episode on Weekly Shonen Sunday soon. There's a lot of stuff to cover. There are the works of Rumiko Takahashi, Kazuhiro Fujita, Mitsuru Adachi, Gosho Aoyama, Hiroyuki Nishimori, Takashi Shiina, Takuya Mitsuda, Nobuyuki Anzai, and Yellow Tanabe, and bigger series like Magi, Cyborg 009, or Silver Spoon. Then there are other weird stories like Zatch Bell, Arata, Yakitate Japan's general oddness, and the fact that the official Patlabor manga ran in it.
Also an interesting topic could be why Sunday has dropped so many reader compared to Jump and Shonen Magazine over the years. Looking at the talent above makes it hard to understand why.
And I guess you can tackle why Keijo!!! is even a thing, why it got an anime, and how it has managed to avoid cancellation for so long despite having absolutely no success. That should be an odd conversation.
Great suggestions! We will be covering as many of those mangaka and series as possible, though the main focus will probably be on modern Shonen Sunday and it's current lineup since that's what Bomber is most familiar with. He definitely has answers for you on the Keijo conundrum, so that'll be a fun conversation for sure. :D
Colton Jr! I can't believe you actually made that. :D
But, yeah, as you can imagine I'm definitely interested in more Shonen Sunday discussion. It has so much potential, so many classics, and yet it is nearly invisible over here and by far the least popular of the big 3 in Japan. I still hold hope that it can regain its footing. Some of the series currently running certainly have the potential for big success.
I found this. Thought you might enjoy it:
(https://animationrevelation.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fic.pics.livejournal.com%2Fsunlon%2F43974423%2F2408%2F2408_1000.jpg&hash=db7d550697e63244018f18c7b4850f7429bc02f9)
EDIT: Bigger version here:
Spoiler
(https://i.redd.it/iyhupbkp8zhy.jpg)
I've seen that floating around on twitter. It's pretty interesting to see how long most of the Jump series in the last few years have lasted. The only year which didn't produce a single bonafide success since 2010 was 2010 itself, and 2012 was where most of the most successful titles in the last few years and are still running in the magazine came out. Every other year has produced at least one or two successful series, but the takeaway is that it's statistically slim for a new Jump series to actually get off the ground and last more than a year, much less be considered genuinely successful. It'll be interesting to see which of the recent batch of Jump Starts will have staying power in Jump, if any.
The Shonen Sunday episode ended up being over four hours long and we still didn't get to cover everything we wanted to talk about. Definitely a subject we're going to have to come back to again in the future. :sweat:
Imagine if you guys were still doing the NYT top 10.
Can't wait to hear it!
Thanks! In the meantime, the new Movie Mavericks is out! Vlord and I share our thoughts on Sailor Moon: The Promise of the Rose and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions! (http://all-comic.com/2017/movie-mavericks-3-sailor-moon-r-promise-rose-yu-gi-oh-dark-side-dimensions/) Or, as it should've been called Kaiba-Oh! The Daft Seto of Duel-mensions. Because Kaiba is by far the best thing about it. Seriously, watch the movie for his scenes alone.
The next Manga Mavericks should be out on Sunday (which is appropriate, considering), but in the meantime there's another episode of Movie Mavericks (http://all-comic.com/2017/movie-mavericks-4-red-turtle-ghost-shell-1995/) to listen to! In which VLord bemoans Zootopia winning the Oscar and rants about why the new GITS movie will be terrible. :D
I hope the new Ghost In The Shell is horrible. Fuck that movie.
That was an excellent discussion on Weekly Shonen Sunday! You covered a wide range of subjects.
I liked how all three of you had enthusiasm for Souboutei. It's really good, it's selling really well, and yet no one is translating it. As much as I would appreciate Bomber doing it, it's kind of a shame that he would even have to. Kazuhiro Fujita should be far more well known here and yet he isn't.
But I think that's a case Sunday is suffering from in general. I guess the fact that it doesn't have an identity is part of the problem, but I think you pulled out what its strength is during your discussion. It excels at a slice of life feel and a more lax pace. Even Ushio & Tora back in the day had a lot of slice of life chapters. Flame of Recca had the same. In my opinion, you go to Shonen for action, Magazine for sports, and Sunday for romance (in the other older definition, not necessarily romance series) and Sunday lost a lot of that identity since the 90s. The new editor is doing a great job bringing that feel back judging on the newer series you discussed.
I think this lack of focus is distilled in the entire existence of Keijo to begin with. I saw the sales Bomber was talking about. Keijo sells abysmally, it's critically panned, and yet it lasted 15 volumes and got an anime. But then, why didn't Be Blues get an anime or the same push? It has been around longer, has excellent sales (that are hitting a ceiling), and is critically well-liked. And yet at 25 volumes, it has no anime. Then there's the plummeting popularity of Hayate the Combat Butler-- a series that should have wrapped up years ago. Whoever was in charge of Sunday before the current editor clearly missed many opportunities.
I'm glad to see so many of the older series he mentioned are ending. Zettai Karen Children is incredibly long in the tooth for a story that should have wrapped up ages ago and has such a large drop in sales. Mushibugyo was never actually popular and really lasted too long.
Then there were their business practices which chased away Raiku, discouraged Watase, and sent Anzai away from Shonen as a whole for over half a decade. From what you talked about, Adachi might have had the same issues with his last series. They're obviously better now seeing as they courted older talent, and even capitalized on Dagashi Kashi right out of the gate, and finally put out an online edition of their magazine, but they still have a ways to go to regain the ground they've lost since the '90s. But I'm more hopeful, especially hearing about those newer series.
Saike sounds really interesting. Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies and I really enjoy stories like it, but combining it with JoJo style craziness? Now that sounds like something that should be getting more buzz. Especially considering it's by the guy who wrote Law of Ueki. Glad to see that the sale have been wildly improving with each volume. Hopefully it'll get to the point where it gets an anime. This is the type of series that would really benefit from one.
Also, Sunday has always had a strange relationship with anime. It took until 2015 for Kazuhiro Fujita to actually get a series despite having worked with Sunday for 25 years at the point. Flame of Recca's anime was weak and a hatchet job. And as mentioned, Be Blues still not getting one is baffling. Outside of Takahashi, Sunday has dropped the ball on just about all their popular series and authors with anime. I hope with Dagashi Kashi that they've learned to strike while the iron is hot.
Now if Souboutei doesn't get an anime in the future then I'll really wonder if they've learned anything. It's already their sixth best selling series.
As for my favorites, well, it's pretty obvious. But Kyo Kara Ore Wa! (Today it's my Turn!) is pretty hysterical and easily one of their best series. Such a shame it never got a proper anime either, though the OVA is great.
So if the episode was over four hours long what did you cut? I can just imagine.
Thanks! This may have been my favorite episode of ours to date and I'm glad we were able to talk about as many things about Sunday as we did. I really wanted to talk more about some of it's classic series though so hopefully we'll do a follow-up episode one of these days. Certainly there'll be episodes about certain Sunday manga and authors in the future, particularly Fukuchi and
Saike Once Again because Bomber is so passionate about it.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 13, 2017, 01:14:30 PM
I liked how all three of you had enthusiasm for Souboutei. It's really good, it's selling really well, and yet no one is translating it. As much as I would appreciate Bomber doing it, it's kind of a shame that he would even have to. Kazuhiro Fujita should be far more well known here and yet he isn't.
It's criminal a series as interesting and crazy as
Soubotei isn't even being scanlated yet, much less not have an official translation. I seriously hope Bomber does it once
Gintama is done or Viz finally looks Fujita's way and decides to license it and U&T.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 13, 2017, 01:14:30 PM
But I think that's a case Sunday is suffering from in general. I guess the fact that it doesn't have an identity is part of the problem, but I think you pulled out what its strength is during your discussion. It excels at a slice of life feel and a more lax pace. Even Ushio & Tora back in the day had a lot of slice of life chapters. Flame of Recca had the same. In my opinion, you go to Shonen for action, Magazine for sports, and Sunday for romance (in the other older definition, not necessarily romance series) and Sunday lost a lot of that identity since the 90s. The new editor is doing a great job bringing that feel back judging on the newer series you discussed.
I think this lack of focus is distilled in the entire existence of Keijo to begin with. I saw the sales Bomber was talking about. Keijo sells abysmally, it's critically panned, and yet it lasted 15 volumes and got an anime. But then, why didn't Be Blues get an anime or the same push? It has been around longer, has excellent sales (that are hitting a ceiling), and is critically well-liked. And yet at 25 volumes, it has no anime. Then there's the plummeting popularity of Hayate the Combat Butler-- a series that should have wrapped up years ago. Whoever was in charge of Sunday before the current editor clearly missed many opportunities.
I'm glad to see so many of the older series he mentioned are ending. Zettai Karen Children is incredibly long in the tooth for a story that should have wrapped up ages ago and has such a large drop in sales. Mushibugyo was never actually popular and really lasted too long.
Then there were their business practices which chased away Raiku, discouraged Watase, and sent Anzai away from Shonen as a whole for over half a decade. From what you talked about, Adachi might have had the same issues with his last series. They're obviously better now seeing as they courted older talent, and even capitalized on Dagashi Kashi right out of the gate, and finally put out an online edition of their magazine, but they still have a ways to go to regain the ground they've lost since the '90s. But I'm more hopeful, especially hearing about those newer series.
Sunday's definitely going in a much better direction. There are a lot of series that I'm excited to read about and see recapped in Bomber's blog, and with so many old series ending and new series on the horizon I think the overall lineup of the magazine is only going to get stronger. I'm hoping Sunday is finally going to reinvent itself, and if not reclaim it's identity as the "romantic" Shonen magazine then carve out a new niche for itself so that people will have an idea of what it means to be a Shonen Sunday series like they do with Shonen Jump.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 13, 2017, 01:14:30 PM
Saike sounds really interesting. Groundhog Day is one of my favorite movies and I really enjoy stories like it, but combining it with JoJo style craziness? Now that sounds like something that should be getting more buzz. Especially considering it's by the guy who wrote Law of Ueki. Glad to see that the sale have been wildly improving with each volume. Hopefully it'll get to the point where it gets an anime. This is the type of series that would really benefit from one.
I really do like what I've read of Saike so far.
Groundhog Day is also one of my favorite movies and I really like time-travel/re-set stuff in general, but the execution of Saike feels fresh and personal in a way I haven't seen in a while. The first volume is a great self-contained character piece that does well in exploring the kind of depressed, self-depreciating character Saike is and the idea of what you could do if you had the ability to do something over again. Like I said on the podcast, I'm probably going to catch up with the scanlations soon since I'm so into it, and check out Fukuchi's other works since Bomber praises him so highly and they all sound really up my alley.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 13, 2017, 01:14:30 PM
Also, Sunday has always had a strange relationship with anime. It took until 2015 for Kazuhiro Fujita to actually get a series despite having worked with Sunday for 25 years at the point. Flame of Recca's anime was weak and a hatchet job. And as mentioned, Be Blues still not getting one is baffling. Outside of Takahashi, Sunday has dropped the ball on just about all their popular series and authors with anime. I hope with Dagashi Kashi that they've learned to strike while the iron is hot.
Now if Souboutei doesn't get an anime in the future then I'll really wonder if they've learned anything. It's already their sixth best selling series.
When you think about it, Sunday has only really put effort into getting Takahashi and Adachi series good long-running anime, especially back in the day when those authors had megahits, and neglected a lot of series that could have been big if they had gotten anime and more exposure. I really want to see a lot of the current lineup animated someday, so I'm hoping they jump on them when they get the chance. And hey, if Days can get an anime after running in Magazine for over 8 years, then Be Blues should still have a chance too if Sunday jumps on the opportunity to give it one.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 13, 2017, 01:14:30 PM
As for my favorites, well, it's pretty obvious. But Kyo Kara Ore Wa! (Today it's my Turn!) is pretty hysterical and easily one of their best series. Such a shame it never got a proper anime either, though the OVA is great.
I've seen you and Dr. E-K talk about KKOW before and it sounds really up my alley. I hope to give it a read and the OVAs a watch one of these days.
Everyone knows what my favorites are, especially considering my username, which is why I didn't bother talking about them on the podcast, lol. I think the only one that I haven't talked about much that would be in my top 10 is
Blazing Transfer Student which is one of the best and most hilarious over-the-top parody of shonen tropes imaginable and I loved it. I really need to read more of Shimamoto's works at some point, especially
Blue Blazes.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on March 13, 2017, 01:14:30 PM
So if the episode was over four hours long what did you cut? I can just imagine.
I edited this episode, and I actually didn't cut out
any of our discussion points! If you can't tell what I edited out then that means I must've done my job well. ;)
Though, I don't know if you listened past the wrap-up, but at the end of the episode I actually included a five-minute blooper reel of some hilarious comments that were made (mostly by Colton) as the episode became longer and went over the four hour mark. They're pretty funny. :D
Slipped my mind that we haven't mentioned this yet, but our next episode will be a retrospective/review of Black Clover to commemorate it passing 100 chapters and it's 2 year anniversary and upcoming anime. Our guest will include Maxy, who you should all know by now, and Annaliese Christman, the official letterer of the manga for Viz, and our first ever guest on the show who works in the manga industry! Annaliese has also met Tabata-sensei himself, and established the Unofficial Osamu Fanclub, a World Trigger fanclub (of which I am the proud 55th member) that has sent care packages to Daisuke Ashihara. We are very excited to have her on the show, and since it's a unique opportunity to have a guest who works in the english manga industry on the show, I wanted to make sure we get some good questions for her to answer next week. If you guys have any questions about Black Clover, World Trigger, or the process of simulpublishing Shonen Jump manga, give us some questions to answer on the show before Sunday!
Well, an obvious question (if she knows) is if Ashihara is recovering okay.
This might seem like an odd question, but I was wondering if Ashihara knew about the amount of characters he would introduce in the story ahead of time or if they came to him naturally as the story went along. He just seems to have a knack with introducing characters that are so very different and yet fit the plot perfectly.
As for Black Clover, is Tabata aware at how well-liked Yami is? It feels like everyone likes Yami. So many people, including non-fans, like him a great deal.
That's all I got right now.
Thanks for the questions! :)
We saw Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, so we were obligated to podcast about it on Movie Mavericks. (http://all-comic.com/2017/movie-mavericks-5-sword-art-online-ordinal-scale/)
I laughed so hard at this. :lol:
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Our Black Clover discussion with Annaliese Christman is out! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-27-black-clover-feat-annaliese-christman/). We talk about what working as a letterer for Viz entails, debate Asta's qualities as a protagonist, gush about how cool Yami is, and gang up on Colton until he embraces Black Clover with all his heart and soul. No matter how heard he tried to resist, just like Asta, Maxy, Annaliese and I never gave up! Hence why this episode is alternatively titled "Dr. Stockholm, Or: How I Learned To Stop Hating and Love Black Clover." :D
But we're not done talking about Shonen Jump manga yet! On our next episode we'll be discussing My Hero Academia with Doctor from the Ass Backwards Anime Podcast! (http://www.ssaapodcast.com/) Make sure to leave us some questions or topics to discuss on that show as well!
Also, Manga Fights will be making it's comeback next month, and we want your guys' input on what we should fight about! My Hero Academia, or Pokemon? Vote in our twitter poll (https://twitter.com/manga_mavericks/status/845067577542037506) or leave a comment in this thread!
The answer is My Hero Academia.
As for topic/question ideas I've got a few.
-Do you think there is a traitor? If you do, who is it?
-Is Dabi Todoroki's brother?
-What was Horikoshi getting at with the Nomu "hint" in volume 7? (In case you haven't seen it, Horikoshi showed a picture of one of Bakugo and Midoriya's childhood friends as a hint as to where the Nomu's come from)
-Who is going to be the one to kill All Might?
-Where is Midoriya's dad?
-Are there any heroes you feel have the potential to become villains or vice versa?
-Will Deku ever reach 100%?
-Other than One For All/All For One, what is the coolest quirk?
-What kind of quirks would you like to see?
-What role do you think Stain could play in the series from here on in?
-Which character should have more appearances?
-Best villain?
-Best hero?
-Do you find the series "generic" or "bland" or are the haters trying too hard?
-Are there any things you think the series could improve on in the future?
As you can see, I am a fan of MHA.
I'd be fine with either, but I'd also edge towards MHA since I'm only really familiar with the first two generations of Pokémon and would be interested to listen to a Manga Fights episode regarding a series that I'm actually up to date with.
I'll post some of my own questions and topic ideas a bit later.
Pretty good discussion on Black Clover.
I think you all nailed the reason it is as popular as it is. It's not that it is incredibly innovative or different but that it does pretty much do what shonen is supposed to do and it does it well. There's nothing unpredictable here and a lot of it is tropes, but it's very genuine and not like Tabata's trying to cash-in on it. It's not my favorite thing to read every week, but it doesn't disappoint and frequently adds some fun to weeks when most series might have down time.
However, I do agree with Colton on chapter 1. I don't think it was awful, but I don't think it did enough in establishing the characters or the world. Especially since a lot of what happens here isn't prominent in the story most of the time. It gets better past that. This is a series that really does get better as it goes.
I like the character designs. I like that the fantasy and magic doesn't have the problem of feeling video gamey like most modern fantasy manga and anime. I like the art. I like the action. I like the comedy. It does a lot well.
It's easy to see why it's popular. It does a lot of things right. I actually feel a lot of people are too harsh on it for sometimes silly reasons. It's not very original and won't light the manga world ablaze, but it does what it does very well. I would honestly say that it does much better than Naruto did post-Sasuke retrieval arc. The series is a good time.
The only thing I can fault Black Clover for is on two fronts.
The first issue is that Asta wins almost every fight on his own most of the time and it almost feels like he's OP a lot of the time. He doesn't need to lose more, but his victories would feel better if he struggled more to attain them. At the same time, I like that the pacing for fights is otherwise good.
My other problem is that the series is WAY too fast. The fights are paced really well, but everything between them doesn't usually have enough time to build. Tabata feels like he's rushing from moment to moment, like that invasion arc near the beginning of the series. He introduced a bunch of characters with info-dumps in 1 chapter then spent about 4 chapters with boring fights that ended lamely by having the Wizard King show up and save him which sort of ruined the point of the arc in general. Now he improved a lot since then, but I would like to see more pausing in the story for character moments and world-building. The side chapters are usually really fun and Tabata is really good with comedy that it's a shame that he do them more.
But yeah, it's a good series.
I never thought of that relation between BC and MHA before. It's an example of how execution is everything. If it wasn't brought up I never would have made the connection. MHA and BC are really different in execution to the point that they are wholly different. But I do agree that Asta really should struggle and learn more in regards to his sword.
Well it's good to know Ashihara is alive at least. I hope he's recovering fine. There's just been no information at all on the status of his health and, unlike other writers and artists, we knew he had health problems for a while now so it is a bit disconcerting to have radio silence on him for so long. Hopefully he'll get better soon.
It's hard to be excited for the Black Clover anime, but this is one series I think slower pacing and filler would help. Adding in the light novel would help. Of course it's still Pierrot, but I can hope for a decent adaption at least.
Great show again.
Glad you enjoyed our Black Clover discussion! I can see your point that the first chapter wasn't quite enough to sell the characters and world, but I still felt what it did was compelling and enjoyable when I first read it. BC doesn't do anything new that other series haven't done, but it's done well and is fun to read and it's simplicity is part of why I think it's so popular with younger readers in Japan. I do think Asta's anti-magic swords are too OP and I'm always worried that his fights will be resolved too easily, but I think the last few battles he's been in, particularly that against Vetto, was enough of a struggle to still buy into the tension and make the payoff satisfying. I don't think the pacing is too fast for the most part. I mean, the most recent arc took around 6 months to finish. But I do think there should be more adventure over action in the arcs, since a lot of them almost immediately get into the fighting. The world is pretty interesting so I'd like for Tabata to let us spend more time in a new location before jumping right into the fights. The MHA/BC similarities we discussed are certainly interesting. Perhaps warrants more conversation in the next podcast or an editorial.
I think it's pretty much decided we'll be doing MHA as our next Manga Fight considering that the twitter poll is clocking in at 12 votes for MHA to 0 votes for Pokemon. :D Thanks for the comments and MHA questions/debate topics Spark!
The MHA episode is out! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-28-hero-academia-feat-doctor/) Thanks again Spark for your questions! Hope you guys enjoy this, and remember, we're recording out Manga Fight on MHA later this month on Sunday, April 23rd, so send in any additional questions or topic suggestions before then!
Listened to part of your MHA discussion on my headphones during my lunch break. Good stuff so far. I appreciate that Doctor, despite not being that into the series, doesn't simply just wave away all of its brilliant little touches and even comments about improvements that it makes over time, rather than just referring to the whole thing as generic shonen tropes like most critics of the series tend to do.
It is a generic shonen in concept, but is an incredibly well done one in execution with a bit more nuance to it than what some people tend to give it credit for.
As for some potential Manga Fights quickly, I have a few ideas, though obviously feel free to ignore them if none of them suit either your's or Colton's fancy:
-What with the popularity of superhero team-up movies and shows such as The Avengers, The Defenders, Justice League, the CW DC-verse and so on, pitch a 4-person team of any four heroes (students or pros) with a unique name for their team and why they would work well together.
-Should Vigilante ever canonically crossover with MHA in a major story-line for either series, or is it better for it to remain a strictly complementary spin-off with the occasional cameo?
-If All Might had never met Midoriya, which UA student would be most deserving of inheriting All For One, and why?
-If you could pick any quirk from the series thus far to have as your own, which one would you pick and why?
-Midoriya and All Might aside; which MHA hero would be the most interesting to follow in their own comic-book style solo series?
Very nice discussion. Interesting hearing a point of view from someone who doesn't really care that much for the series.
The main appeal of MHA has always been the merging of Western superhero comics with Eastern shonen manga. There's really nothing else like it and I think that's where the originality comes in. It also helps that it's extremely well written and drawn. As someone who grew up with superhero comics before losing interest in them for a lot of reasons, MHA is the first series in a while to capture the spark of what makes old comics so appealing while adding its own flavor. He manages to hit all the right marks of Golden and Silver Age comics without all the squickiness of post-Bronze Age material. Horikoshi has found a niche that a lot of us didn't know what we wanted.
Midoriya is a great main character. He is a good kid with a good head on his shoulders, and he is constantly striving to improve. Also, the most important point is that unlike most shonen protagonists, his goal is actually very endearing. He wants to be a hero to save people. It's completely unselfish and it makes you want to root for him. I can't think of a recent main character in a shonen manga as strong as he is.
I don't think the All For One fight should have happened earlier. It's been heavily hinted that Shinsou from the Sports Festival and Stain from the Field Training arc will be playing a role in the future. Without their set up, they wouldn't be half as interesting as they are now. I'm really eager to see what will happen when they return.
Personally, I thought the first chapter was incredible. But it was the Field Training arc that sealed the deal of me sticking around. The combination of the character development of Midoriya, Ida, and Todoroki, combined with an incredible fight filled with high stakes against a scary villain like Stain really showed everything that made this series great. Horikoshi came such a long way in such a short time that I couldn't help but become a fan.
I think Uraraka's attraction to Midoriya is a good bit of development for her because it puts up a contrast. Does she admire his heroism and think of him as an inspiration, or does she actually like him on a deeper level? Maybe it's both. We know that Midoriya likes her a lot but given that he is no longer shy around girls it's hard to tell exactly what he really thinks. As far as potential romantic subplots go, it's pretty interesting. I expect this will get solved in the current arc on some level, but I think it's being done really well. It's a bit of an insult to compare her to Sakura, who never really was a good character to begin with. It's only a shame that some fans really seem to not like her.
My top ten characters are such:
1. Izuku Midoriya
2. All Might
3. Katsuki Bakugo
4. Shoto Todoroki
5. Ochako Uraraka
6. Tenya Ida
7. Stain
8. Eijiro Kirishima
9. Gran Torino
10. Denki Kaminari
I will agree that Mineta is more annoying than anything. But apparently there are people who really find him funny. Hopefully his plummet in the popularity polls (he dropped from 17th to 35th!) will either cause Horikoshi to do more with him or dial him down. There have been just so many characters added to the series that completely outclass him.
The story is transitioning into the next era. I think it's possible that by the end of this arc or the next that the world could be a very different place. Remember, the chapter All Might lost his powers was called "End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End" which is fairly telling. I would say we're probably about a third to a quarter through the series right now. It really depends on what Horikoshi is planning on doing.
I prefer the slower pacing of the anime. Horikoshi jam packs his chapters full of information, usually requiring me to read them twice or so, and the anime lets everything flow at a natural pace. The only thing I ask is to cut back on the flashbacks in future episodes. It was understandable for the first episode of the new season but it is really unneeded. Making the the anime different enough from the manga was the right choice.
When it comes to traitors, I do find the Kaminari theory plausible, but I'd need more evidence to be convinced. Realistically, it would have to be someone who has not been in much peril when facing off against the villains. It would have to be someone the villains have not tried to kill one on one since there would be no point playacting. That would include Midoriya (obviously), Bakugo, Ida, Todoroki, Best Jeanist, Mt. Lady, Gang Orca, All Might, Aizawa, Kirishima, Yaoyarozu, and Gran Torino, as characters that are clearly not working for the villains. Whoever is the traitor I have no idea.
The whole thing with Dabi was the fact that he has a fire quirk, refuses to use his real name, is covered in burns, and really hates the hero society. Endeavor is a crappy dad and it would make sense to have someone like Todoroki who went on the wrong path. Who knows. Nonetheless, we know nothing about him so it's not like the theory holds much water yet.
I've been reading manga and watching anime since Dragon Ball and reading comics since then and I've never had a problem getting into MHA. I saw it exactly for what it is. You have to look beyond the surface to enjoy most things for what they are. MHA is really good because it achieves exactly what it sets out to do and manages to surpass it at times. When I was talking about haters, I didn't mean people who had issues with the series. I meant the shonen fans who worship Naruto and Bleach but never actually offer criticisms about what the series does wrong.
As for a series defining arc, I think Doctor hit it well. We probably won't know until after its animated, but I do think the All Might Vs. All For One fight is going to be the one catalyst for the fanbase to explode. That said, I think the current arc is going to lead into something really big in the manga. When All Might actually dies I feel it will really change things on an even greater scale than his retirement. This arc has death written all over it.
If you want some Manga Fight topics I can probably scrounge some up.
Quirk free-for-all between all year one students: Who wins?
Would a crossover between One Punch Man and MHA work well?
Would a time skip work in a series like this?
If Todoroki and Bakugo had fought for real in the Sports Festival who would have won?
Which color page is the greatest?
Again, good job. It was a fun listen.
Glad you guys enjoyed it! I was worried at first that Doctor was going to dismiss the series' merits, so I'm glad he ended up reading more of it than he originally planned and coming to appreciate it so we could have a more thorough discussion, and he certainly brought a fresh perspective as someone who likes but is not overly enthusiastic about the series.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on April 07, 2017, 03:26:01 PM
Midoriya is a great main character. He is a good kid with a good head on his shoulders, and he is constantly striving to improve. Also, the most important point is that unlike most shonen protagonists, his goal is actually very endearing. He wants to be a hero to save people. It's completely unselfish and it makes you want to root for him. I can't think of a recent main character in a shonen manga as strong as he is.
I think Midoriya's altruistic nature definitely sets him a part from other protagonists. Where other shonen protagonists seek self-improvement or a status, Midoriya just wants to help people. With the exception of Emma of TPN whose goal is simply to save her friends, there's really not another protagonist in Jump whose motivations are so selfless.
Quote
I don't think the All For One fight should have happened earlier. It's been heavily hinted that Shinsou from the Sports Festival and Stain from the Field Training arc will be playing a role in the future. Without their set up, they wouldn't be half as interesting as they are now. I'm really eager to see what will happen when they return.
Same. I'm really wondering what role Shinso is going to play in future events in particular. He's been built up for a while now.
Quote
Personally, I thought the first chapter was incredible. But it was the Field Training arc that sealed the deal of me sticking around. The combination of the character development of Midoriya, Ida, and Todoroki, combined with an incredible fight filled with high stakes against a scary villain like Stain really showed everything that made this series great. Horikoshi came such a long way in such a short time that I couldn't help but become a fan.
Agreed. That's really where MHA came into it's own for me. It was an amazing experience reading and writing about that arc as it happened.
Quote
I think Uraraka's attraction to Midoriya is a good bit of development for her because it puts up a contrast. Does she admire his heroism and think of him as an inspiration, or does she actually like him on a deeper level? Maybe it's both. We know that Midoriya likes her a lot but given that he is no longer shy around girls it's hard to tell exactly what he really thinks. As far as potential romantic subplots go, it's pretty interesting. I expect this will get solved in the current arc on some level, but I think it's being done really well. It's a bit of an insult to compare her to Sakura, who never really was a good character to begin with. It's only a shame that some fans really seem to not like her.
Uraraka definitely has better character motivation that Sakura whose defining goal was to get with Sausuke. She genuinely wants to be a hero and help her family financially, and admires Midoriya's heroism more than simply crushing on him. She has potential and I'm interested in her character development, and am glad to see she'll be involved in the current arc.
Quote
My top ten characters are such:
1. Izuku Midoriya
2. All Might
3. Katsuki Bakugo
4. Shoto Todoroki
5. Ochako Uraraka
6. Tenya Ida
7. Stain
8. Eijiro Kirishima
9. Gran Torino
10. Denki Kaminari
Good list! Mine would probably be:
1. All Might
2. Midoriya
3. Todoroki
4. Ida
5. Bakugo
6. Stain
7. Shigaraki
8. Yaoyorozu
9. Uraraka
10. Gran Torino
Quote
I will agree that Mineta is more annoying than anything. But apparently there are people who really find him funny. Hopefully his plummet in the popularity polls (he dropped from 17th to 35th!) will either cause Horikoshi to do more with him or dial him down. There have been just so many characters added to the series that completely outclass him.
I hope Horikoshi finds something else to do with him besides his perverted shtick. He has a pretty fun power so it would a shame to see him completely fade into the background, but his jokes are becoming uncomfortable at this point.
Quote
The story is transitioning into the next era. I think it's possible that by the end of this arc or the next that the world could be a very different place. Remember, the chapter All Might lost his powers was called "End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End" which is fairly telling. I would say we're probably about a third to a quarter through the series right now. It really depends on what Horikoshi is planning on doing.
I think the power dynamics in the world of MHA are definitely going to change. I think it's cool we're simultaneously seeing the end of All Might's story alongside the beginning of Midoriya's, the end of one era and the beginning of a new one.
Quote
I prefer the slower pacing of the anime. Horikoshi jam packs his chapters full of information, usually requiring me to read them twice or so, and the anime lets everything flow at a natural pace. The only thing I ask is to cut back on the flashbacks in future episodes. It was understandable for the first episode of the new season but it is really unneeded. Making the the anime different enough from the manga was the right choice.
The use of flashbacks for padding is really my only real complaint with the anime. I'm hoping they find a better balance in terms of pacing as this season goes on.
Quote
The whole thing with Dabi was the fact that he has a fire quirk, refuses to use his real name, is covered in burns, and really hates the hero society. Endeavor is a crappy dad and it would make sense to have someone like Todoroki who went on the wrong path. Who knows. Nonetheless, we know nothing about him so it's not like the theory holds much water yet.
Oh yeah, I see the connection now. Maybe he could be Endeavor's illegitimate son or from a previous marriage of his. Otherwise I'd imagine Todoroki would know if he had a brother and would've recognized him.
Thanks for the Manga Fights topic suggestions guys! Those are some really good ones! :thumbup:
I think the theory with Dabi is that he was from a previous marriage with another fire quirk user. It failed and that's why he set about building up Todoroki as someone with both fire and ice. Another suspicious encounter was when Gran Torino assaulted the league and revealed all their real names... except Dabi who was already knocked out. There's definitely something up with him. Again, it's plausible, but there's not enough information yet.
And as for the anime, I seem to be in the minority, but I like the second OP way more than the first. I dunno, I just didn't care for the song much. The visuals were well done but the music didn't feel like a good fit. I think this OP and the two EDs hit the MHA vibe a lot closer to what I imagined.
I like the second OP, but I think I like the first OP more between the two. I actually quite like the song, and the way it ends with "THE DAY HAS COME" while showing Midoriya punch like All Might is a great clincher. But I really do like the second OP's motif of all the characters stretching and preparing before they fight in the sports festival.
Another potential MF topic question: Also, in the spirit of superheroes and crossovers, being that Horikoshi clearly takes a lot of influence from American comic books, what Western superhero would it be most fun to see interact with the characters of the MHA Universe? (Obviously in a hypothetical scenario in which they find themselves warped into MHA's reality).
New Manga Mavericks is up! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-29-one-piece-lot-copies-print/) A shorter, back-to-basics episode where we just cover the news and a few polls. Tomorrow we're recording the MHA Manga Fight, so if you guys have any more questions/topic suggestions for us, make sure to send them to us before tomorrow morning. Also, we're doing our GTO episode in two weeks, so if you have any questions/topics you want to see discussed for that send them as well.
Where does Deku rank among any of your favorite superheroes? Do any of y'all find him to be relatable?
Man, my voice is hoarse from recording so many podcasts this weekend. :gonk:
Anyhoo, we recorded the Manga Fight this morning! We got so many MHA questions that we decided to just record an MHA Q&A special a la our JoJo's Q&A special, which should come out on May 19th. The Manga Fight itself will be out this friday. There were some really good discussions on there, so I think you guys will really enjoy it!
Get well soon!
We're recording our Great Teacher Onizuka retrospective tomorrow morning at 11am CST! As always, send us any questions you want us to answer of the show!
As for the MHA Manga Fight, I'm hoping to finish editing it this weekend and post it by monday. It's worth the wait!
Our My Hero Academia Manga Fight is out!! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-fights-ep-05-hero-academia/) Doctor rejoins us to debate Jeff Ruberg, mobile developer for Viz Media! The arguments get so heated that at one point Colton and I actually get into a spirited debate over how to judge one of the matches! :D
Our GTO episode is out! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-30-great-teacher-onizuka-feat-nick-rowe/) We talk about the series in depth, including a lenghty discussion of the manga's second half and the sequels, as well as fun tidbits about Tokyopop's promotion of the series back in the day and how filthy rich Tohru Fujisawa is nowadays.
Congrats on being one of the few people with their head on their shoulders over this Keijo thing. It didn't exist in a vacuum. It was a series Shogakukan left in their magazine and promoted for three years despite having no gain from doing so. If it was in Jump it would have been canceled in a few months and nobody would have protested it. The whole thing is silly.
Angel Heart is a non-canon sequel to City Hunter and is far more serious in tone than that one. Although, like everything Hojo has done, it doesn't really have any presence here. I still keep hoping someone will take a risk and give City Hunter a proper release again since unlike FOTNS the original release was fumbled. Doesn't even have to be the whole series since it's episodic. I've just really liked what I've read.
I'd like to be more excited for more light novels getting released over here, but nobody is touching the older stuff I'd actually really like to read.
I'll check out the rest later.
There's been a lot of bullshit in the last few weeks that's been pushing me over the edge to start making youtube vids, this Keijo thing being one of them. The question shouldn't be why Keijo was cancelled. That much is obvious. The question should be why it was never successful in the first place and how it managed to continue for as long as it did.
I think I'd appreciate Angel Heart more if I read City Hunter, which I need to do sometime. It seems up my alley.
Hope you enjoy our GTO discussion and the MHA Manga Fight when you're able to listen to them!
I listened to most of the MHA manga fight. I have a few speedround questions to still listen to, but overall it was a good set of debates, especially that fourth question about who should get their own solo series. Whoever submitted that question is clearly a genius, and probably quite handsome and popular as well. :humhumhum:
I do really like Jeff's idea of Tokoyami's shadow bring the traitor. I never would have thought if it, and while it's probably not going to be true in the actual manga, his logic surprisingly makes a lot of sense.
Glad you enjoyed the Manga Fight! And I agree, your question led to a great debate! Thanks! :)
Good GTO discussion. Yes, the manga does begin to become long in the tooth, but as a whole I think it's a great series.
The MHA Manga Fight was as entertaining as always. It was nice hearing people who have different views on heroes and villains, as well as the series itself. The great thing about MHA is how it gets heroes and villains right on so many different levels. I expect a lot of new people commenting on this subject when Stain shows up in the anime. Of the two I think Jeff's arguments were the more solid, even if I didn't always agree with them, but they both played off each other well. Also, if Doctor wants an Aizawa series, he's actually appeared in the Vigilante spin-off on his day off when he gets pulled into work.
The traitor could be anyone, but I do think it's likely to be a student in some way. It would have to be someone who went up against the League of Villains and wasn't put at as much risk as everyone else. The reason I say this is because if they were traitors, they certainly wouldn't be put in situations where they're lives would be put at risk. Even less likely would be one on one confrontations where they were almost directly killed. This means it isn't Midoriya, Bakugo, Ida, Todoroki, Tsuyu, Shoji, Kirishima, Yaoyarozu, Kendo, and Tetsutetsu. For teachers, it isn't the Principal (his interior monologue disproves him), All Might, Aizawa, or Blood King, for much the same reasons. Most likely characters to me would be Hagakure or Kaminari at this point. But there just isn't enough info to know.
Good discussion. If you ever do a Manga Fight over YYH or HxH, you need to have Dr. Ensatsu-ken on. That would be great.
Unrelated, but apparently Yonezu Kenshi wrote Peace Sign after reading the MHA manga. I wondered why the song fit so well with the series, and now I know why it was chosen for the OP.
Glad you enjoyed them! Jeff and Doctor were both on again for the MHA Q&A special we recorded that should come out next week, and we discussed the traitor question again on there, and came up with some pretty interesting ideas about who it could be. I think you'll enjoy it!
And naturally, if we were ever to do a Yoshihiro Togashi-related Manga Fight, Dr. E-K is my go-to contestant. When we do it I'll have to pit him against VLord so we can find out who is truly the biggest Togashi fan. ;)
Our MHA Q&A special is up! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-31-hero-academia-qa-extravaganza/) Thanks again to everyone who sent us questions!
Very enjoyable podcast.
That list of best Jump artists was pretty good... except for the fact that Horikoshi was completely missing. He's a better artist than Amano, Kishimoto, and the gorilla, and he does it on a weekly basis without the quality dipping even a little.
Yes, I started reading MHA after reading your After the Jump series in AR. You made it sound very interesting, and sure enough it was. At the time I was still burnt out on the manga and anime industry and MHA was exactly what I was looking for at the time. Thankfully I got into it right when the series was hitting its stride and it hasn't let me down since.
We released not just one, but TWO podcasts over the last weekend!
The first is a regular Manga Mavericks, in which we discuss the first volume of the Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu manga and compare the differences between it and the anime. (http://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HTjdFTRs)
The second is the first part of a retrospective on the Pokemon Adventures manga (http://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HwQ4Lmn4), where I'm joined once again by Annaliese who letters the english volumes of the series for Viz, and my friend Jonathan who's just a big Pokefan. In this first installment we cover how we got into Pokemon, how we discovered the manga, and the publication history of the series up until this point.
Enjoy!
So, what's been going on with All-Comic lately?
I'm glad you have another way of listening to the podcast.
All-Comic was doing a site revamp and updating to a new server. The site is back up now. (http://all-comic.com/)
New episode is out! In this episode we discuss Delicious in Dungeon, a manga that among other things answers the question every fantasy lover wants to know: "what does a slime monster taste like?" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-33-delicious-dungeon/) I also wrote a review for the first volume for All-Comic (http://all-comic.com/2017/delicious-dungeon-volume-1/) so you can read that as a compliment to the podcast as well!
Oh, and I made an anti-piracy rap video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orirltouEXQ) That's a thing.
We covered Welcome to the Ballroom on the most recent Manga Mavericks in preparation for the anime adaptation coming out this week. (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-34-welcome-ballroom/) Get the low-down on what it's like before you check the anime out!
Also, I've been doing a lot of reviews for All-Comic these past few months, so I thought I'd link them here if anyone's interested in reading them:
Anonymous Noise Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/anonymous-noise-volume-1/)
Attack on Titan Anthology (http://all-comic.com/2017/attack-on-titan-anthology/)
Bloom Into You Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/bloom-volume-1/)
Case Closed Volume 61 (http://all-comic.com/2017/case-closed-volume-61/)
A Centaur's Life Volume 11 (http://all-comic.com/2017/centaurs-life-volume-11/)
Cross Account Chapter 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/cross-account-1/)
Delicious in Dungeon Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/delicious-dungeon-volume-1/)
I Am A Hero Omnibus 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/hero-omnibus-1/)
Interviews with Monster Girls Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/interviews-monster-girls-volume-1/)
Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid Volumes 1-2 (http://all-comic.com/2017/miss-kobayashis-dragon-maid-volumes-1-2/)
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/mobile-suit-gundam-thunderbolt-volume-1/)
Pokemon Adventures: Black 2 & White 2 Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/pokemon-adventures-black-2-white-2-volume-1/)
Shudan! Chapter 1 (http://all-comic.com/2017/shudan-1/)
Shudan! Chapter 2 (http://all-comic.com/2017/shudan-2/)
New episode! This week we talked about My Brother's Husband & My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness, two great LGBT-related comics that have had resounding critical and commercial success and we really resonated with. (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-35-anime-expo-lgbt-manga/)We also talk about the recent Jump Starts, Shudan! and Cross Account, and cover all the licensing news from Anime Expo among other stories. It's no wonder this ended up being the longest episode we've done in a while!
Also, we'll be recording a One Piece retrospective this sunday to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary. We'll be joined by Sam Leach, who is a contributor to the One Piece Podcast and writes weekly reviews of the anime for Anime News Network. If you guys have any One Piece-related topics or suggestions you'd like us to discuss, let us know!
Roughly how much longer do you think the series will run before Oda finally concludes it? Will it be sticking around for a 30th anniversary, or do you believe it will wrap up before that?
With the upcoming Wanokuni arc potentially being the biggest event in the series since the Summit War at Marineford, is anyone expecting any major character deaths (sans flash-backs, of course) to go down, similar to what happened with Ace and Whitebeard?
Of all of the ongoing reocurring characters, stories, and mysteries, that have persisted in One Piece throughout its two-decade long run, which as of yet unresolved plot thread do you most want to see unfold.
Favorite Straw Hat Pirate.
Favorite Villain.
Favorite Fight.
Favorite Story Arc.
Least Favorite Story Arc.
I may come up with more questions later.
Look who decides to cover Delicious in Dungeon. (http://channelawesome.com/delicious-in-dungeon-ch-1-at4w) :>
Two new podcasts came out this weekend! The first is the long-awaited second half of our Pokemon Adventures retrospective with Annaliese Christman, letterer of the series for Viz Media, and my friend Jonathan. (http://all-comic.com/2017/story-pokemon-adventures-pokespe-retrospective-02/) The second is our One Piece retrospective with One Piece Podcast contributor and ANN reviewer Sam Leach. (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-36-one-piece-feat-sam-leach/) Thank you again for you questions, Dr. E-k, which led to some great discussions! Both podcasts were a lot of fun to record and I'm really proud of how they turned out!
On our next episode we'll be discussing Sket Dance to commemorate it's 10th anniversary, so if you guys have any questions you want us to answer about it or Kenta Shinohara's other series Astra Lost in Space, please share them!
New episode! This week we take a look at the manga of what's apparently the most popular anime of this season, Kakegurui. (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-37-kakegurui/) I know I said we were going to do Sket Dance this week, but that's been delayed another month. Please still send us any questions you want us to answer about it though!
But on our next episode we'll be covering Death Note to coincide with the release of the Netflix live-action film. It's been a long time since I've read it, and VLord will be joining us as a first-time reader of the series, so it'll be interesting to see how it holds up. We also plan to record an @Movies podcast on the Netflix film when it comes out as well. If you guys have any Death Note-related topics or suggestions you'd like us to discuss, let us know!
Reminder that tomorrow we're recording our Death Note retrospective! Feel free to send us any questions you want us to discuss on the show by posting them in this thread!
On the same day you announced this podcast, Wisecrack did a video on the philosophical quandaries of Death Note.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y5QZ77-WYw
I think this video could help with your topic discussion.
Also, what are your thoughts on the upcoming Netflix movie?
Our Death Note retrospective is out! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-38-death-note/) We talk about how the series holds up after ten years and what it's greatest strengths are. Trust me when I say it's a way more entertaining way to spend two hours than watching the Netflix film is. ;)
Our friend Buggy also recently did a phenomenal podcast about Death Note (https://baguburagu.wordpress.com/2017/08/24/spiral-radio-episode-2-death-note/), taking a documentary-style approach to determine what legacy Death Note has left after ten years and whether it's still relevant in the modern anime landscape. It's one of the best podcasts I've heard all year and I absolutely recommend it as a complement to our own podcast.
We'll of course be recording a podcast about the Netflix Death Note film tonight, and we're recording another podcast tomorrow weighing in on the anime/manga piracy debate. We'll be joined by Maxy Barnard and Buggy for the latter, as they have strong but polar attitudes towards the subject. If you guys have any questions or topics you'd like to see us bring up in regards to both these topics, let us know!
We'll be recording about the Netflix Death Note film in about an hour, so if you have any questions or topics you want us to discuss, get them in quick!
Does anyone else hate Misa?
Favorite things about the Near arc and whatever the hell the arc is called when L and Light are chained together?
Does anyone else think that Naomi Misora should have had a much bigger role is the series?
What's the dumbest thing Light has ever done in the series?
What's the dumbest thing L has ever done in the series?
Thanks for the questions GSF! We answered them on the podcast, which should be out by friday. :)
Totally rockin'!
After a six month hiatus, Manga Mavericks @ Movies is finally back! As previously mentioned, we followed up our Death Note discussion by talking about Netflix's live-action film adaptation and why it turned out so bad (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-movies-6-netflixs-death-note/).
We didn't know what we should review for the show this week, so we introduced a new irregular gimmick of the show - The Wheel of Manga! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-39-wheel/)
Due to personal reasons, Colton is taking a break from podcasting and Manga Mavericks has been put on hiatus for a while. That doesn't mean I'm not still doing podcasts though! There's been TWO new Manga Mavericks @ Movies, one about Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagilostro (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-movies-7-lupin-third-castle-cagliostro/) and one about Marvel's Inhumans (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-movies-8-marvels-inhumans/). We also reviewed the Juni Taisen: Zodiac War manga, which Viz is simulpublishing. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x3S2z5LN50) All of these were a lot of fun to record, the Inhumans podcast in particular being a blast thanks to our Jack Kirby-loving friend Jonathan going on a long rant about how Marvel is ruining his creations and shitting on their legacy. :D
Tomorrow we're recording a podcast about the Black Clover anime with Annaliese and Maxy! We'll be recording it around 10am CDT, so this is kinda late notice, but I'd love it if you guys could give us any questions or comments about the anime or the series in general you'd like us to address on the show. :)
I hope Colton is ok. Ohhhh, The Castle of Cagilostro :SHOCK:
Is All-Comic okay? :whuh:
For the past few episodes, I haven't been able to use their player AT ALL. I've had to Google your show just to find your latest episodes on other sites so it can work properly.
I've tried this on multiple browsers, so it doesn't appear to be a browser problem.
Quote from: Daikun on October 09, 2017, 05:47:53 AM
Is All-Comic okay? :whuh:
For the past few episodes, I haven't been able to use their player AT ALL. I've had to Google your show just to find your latest episodes on other sites so it can work properly.
I've tried this on multiple browsers, so it doesn't appear to be a browser problem.
I think it's a problem with the audio player that All-Comic uses (Hipcast). Even the old episodes don't seem to be playing anymore, which is strange.
Quote from: VLordGTZ on October 09, 2017, 07:44:26 PM
Quote from: Daikun on October 09, 2017, 05:47:53 AM
Is All-Comic okay? :whuh:
For the past few episodes, I haven't been able to use their player AT ALL. I've had to Google your show just to find your latest episodes on other sites so it can work properly.
I've tried this on multiple browsers, so it doesn't appear to be a browser problem.
I think it's a problem with the audio player that All-Comic uses (Hipcast). Even the old episodes don't seem to be playing anymore, which is strange.
We've tried contacting Hipcast several times these last few weeks but they keeping insisting the audio files just take a long time to load. I've repeatedly tested it out and no, they won't load no matter how long I wait. And now not only is Hipcast not loading the audio files, they aren't even letting me publish through them. The Hipcast account is linked to our iTunes and is how the show gets uploaded on there. I'm getting really sick of all of these problems, so we might end up switching services if they don't fix this. :srs:
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on October 23, 2017, 12:06:12 AMWe've tried contacting Hipcast several times these last few weeks but they keeping insisting the audio files just take a long time to load. I've repeatedly tested it out and no, they won't load no matter how long I wait. And now not only is Hipcast not loading the audio files, they aren't even letting me publish through them. The Hipcast account is linked to our iTunes and is how the show gets uploaded on there. I'm getting really sick of all of these problems, so we might end up switching services if they don't fix this. :srs:
Player FM is playing your podcast well. This is what I've been using when Hipcast wasn't working. Maybe give that a try?
https://player.fm/series/manga-mavericks
Hey guys, we'll be recording our Best of Manga in 2017 podcast later tonight! Share with us your favorite moments in manga this year, as well as send us questions for us to answer on the show!
The show's been on a bit of a hiatus because we've both been busy recently, but we're coming back strong with big plans for the show in 2018. We're going to be doing a lot of Shonen Jump related podcasts and projects to celebrate it's 50th anniversary, and I might be contacting some of you guys about those with more details sometime soon. ;) Definitely keep tabs on the podcast in 2018 - I think it's going to be a big year for us.
Here are some of our recent podcasts that I haven't posted here yet:
@ Movies #9: "The Ancient Magus's Bride & Lupin III: The Blood Spray of Goemon Ishikawa" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-movies-9-ancient-maguss-bride-lupin-iii-blood-spray-goemon-ishikawa/) - We talked about Crunchyroll's theatrical screening of the first three episodes of Ancient Magus's Bride and Takeshi Koike's latest Lupin flick.
@ Movies #10: "Your Name & A Silent Voice" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-movies-10-name-silent-voice/) - Talking about the biggest anime films of 2016.
@ Movies #11: "Samurai Jack" (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-movies-11-samurai-jack/) - We discussed both the theatrical screening of the first three episodes as well as the entirety of season 5.
@ Movies Special: "Justice League" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3G7y6-1UkQ&t=12139s) - A livestream we did for our 100th subscriber special! We talked about Justice League and a bunch of other bullshit for three hours. Jonathan had so much vitriol for this movie and it was amazing. A pretty hilarious time all around!
Also, our Hipcast embeds are working again, so the podcasts should play on All-Comic without problem now!
Some spoilers in my post.
Favorite moments were Kirishima and Fatgum taking down Rappa, Mirio saving Eri, and Midoriya going 100% against Overhaul. It was a great year for MHA. Kimetsu no Yaiba had Rengoku's death and the intense battle still currently going on right now. Some people said Promised Neverland has been drifting since they escaped, but I have enjoyed everything from meeting Sonju and Mujika to the mystery man and up to the current predicament. Those would be my favorite three of the year.
As for hopes for next year, I'm hoping Ashihara recovers and World Trigger makes a return. It sold very well this year despite having no new material. People are waiting, and I hope he is able to continue.
Thanks for the comments Spark! We've finished recording the episode and plan to release it on December 29th. It was a great discussion highlighting a lot of great moments in manga this year and I'm very happy with how it turned out. :e_wink:
Our Best of Manga 2017 podcast is live! (http://all-comic.com/2017/manga-mavericks-ep-40-best-manga-2017/) We discuss our favorite series, characters, and moments in manga this year alongside a ton of other accolades! It's a long show to make up for our hiatus these past few months, but it's a fun one, and we can't wait to get back into the swing of things in 2018! First on the docket - that long overdue Sket Dance retrospective! Look forward to it!
We've also put up our annual Year-End Survey! (https://s.surveyplanet.com/BypjKwmXM) We'd really appreciate it if you guys could fill it out and provide some feedback on how to continue improving the show next year! The survey will be up through the end of January, so please fill it out if you're interested!
I'll be sure to check out that episode as well as try and fill out that survey sometime this weekend.
I have to admit, I have been way out of the loop in both manga and anime for a while, now. I keep up with plenty of Shonen Jump titles, and I have never stopped reading manga, but this year was pretty slim for me when it came to manga in general. Part of this was due to burnout (more-so anime than manga, though, as I've barely touched any anime series this year aside from the usual fare that I was already following). However, another part of this was also due to wanting to expand my horizons somewhat to read more Western comic books along with actual novels. Even more than that, though, my full-time work schedule has left me very mentally exhausted in the evenings. I used to be able to down several volumes of a manga in just one sitting with ease, and I could do that for several nights in a row, even if I was relatively busy on those days, as I never really slept all that much. But lately my eyes seem to get tired after just reading a few chapters, and these days I tend to go to bed early so that I can get up on time for work and then the cycle repeats in the evening when I try to read but just end up getting tired after a little bit of time.
It's an odd dilemma because it's not a health problem or a time-related problem, but all the same I sort of want to be able to read more than I do. It's just the way that my body is functioning now given my normal daily routine. I do also spend at least an hour each evening getting some exercise and have started trying to actually cook for myself a bit more often as opposed to just eating junky frozen dinners, so all that considered, I do consume more time on those things than on spending it on entertainment.
To not go off on too much of a tangent, though, I don't tend to get too tired when watching movies or playing video games, even after doing all of those things. But when it comes to trying to read, that just seems to be where my body wants to cut out after a certain point, making my progress very limited these days. That said, weekends or long breaks, I seem to be able to return to my old self and read a lot more in one sitting, so I suppose it's just the way that I've got to deal with things for now, at least until I manage to get a new job and move back to New Jersey where most of my family is.
At any rate, I do intend to get back into reading more manga in 2018, besides just shonen series. Aside from series that I read weekly or that I collect as the individual volumes release, I tend to follow two manga at a time. Right now it's Blade of the Immortal and Nausicaa, so after I finish any one of those given series I'll move onto the next. It's better to do it that way than to try and juggle reading several different manga at once and completely lose track of what's going on in almost all of them due to confusion.
I've already got manga material pre-ordered for next year in Dragon Half and Kimetsu no Yaiba and am planning on getting in on 20th Century Boys re-release as well as the Space Battleship Yamato omnibus. There's already a lot on my plate and the year hasn't even started yet.
Also putting in on how several series I'm following are in good places and things are looking up. 2018 is gonna be a good year for manga and it hasn't even started yet.
EDIT: Sorry, didn't know you weren't caught up on Kimetsu no Yaiba!
The original Mazinger Z manga is really, really good. I can't believe it still hasn't been licensed when Cutie Honey and Devil Man were. It's my favorite Go Nagai series and it's one of the most important mecha series and yet no one has picked it up. Here's hoping with the movie out next month Seven Seas might get it. With their push for classic manga, and tons of Go Nagai licenses, I hope that is one of their pick ups. After that I think the only other big Nagai series are the two sequels to Mazinger Z (Great Mazinger and Grendizer) and Getter Robo's original manga.
Here's hoping for more classic manga releases for 2018.
Good show. Glad to have you guys back.
Thanks for the comments! :)
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 29, 2017, 10:39:24 PM
I'll be sure to check out that episode as well as try and fill out that survey sometime this weekend.
I have to admit, I have been way out of the loop in both manga and anime for a while, now. I keep up with plenty of Shonen Jump titles, and I have never stopped reading manga, but this year was pretty slim for me when it came to manga in general. Part of this was due to burnout (more-so anime than manga, though, as I've barely touched any anime series this year aside from the usual fare that I was already following). However, another part of this was also due to wanting to expand my horizons somewhat to read more Western comic books along with actual novels. Even more than that, though, my full-time work schedule has left me very mentally exhausted in the evenings. I used to be able to down several volumes of a manga in just one sitting with ease, and I could do that for several nights in a row, even if I was relatively busy on those days, as I never really slept all that much. But lately my eyes seem to get tired after just reading a few chapters, and these days I tend to go to bed early so that I can get up on time for work and then the cycle repeats in the evening when I try to read but just end up getting tired after a little bit of time.
At any rate, I do intend to get back into reading more manga in 2018, besides just shonen series. Aside from series that I read weekly or that I collect as the individual volumes release, I tend to follow two manga at a time. Right now it's Blade of the Immortal and Nausicaa, so after I finish any one of those given series I'll move onto the next. It's better to do it that way than to try and juggle reading several different manga at once and completely lose track of what's going on in almost all of them due to confusion.
I hear that. By virtue of doing the podcast I read a lot of manga, but I still wasn't able to get around to a lot of stuff I planned to, and fell behind on most of the non-Shonen Jump manga that I was keeping up with. Reading stuff is difficult when you're tired and sleepy since reading is a more active effort than simply watching something, especially if a series is really text-dense. Just a consequence of working a full-time job on top of school and having other priorities. I usually try to read just one or two things at a time as well, so it takes me longer to finish series than it used to.
Speaking of
Blade of the Immortal, I binge-read the manga last month after seeing the live-action film, and I really loved it. That was definitely one of those series that I consumed as fast as I could because I found it so engrossing - I finished it within two weeks of starting it. It has some really excellent dynamics between its characters and I love the different factions they form during the story, and Anotsu and Kagimura are fantastic villains. It's not that complex, but it's a really good revenge story with a satisfying and poignant ending, to say nothing about how excellent the character development and fights are throughout.
Hope you enjoy
Nausicaa! It's definitely a classic, and thematically richer and more complete story than the film version much like the
Akira manga is. VLord actually got me the hardcover box set for Christmas and it's an absolutely beautiful release. Definitely want to re-read it when I get the chance.
Quote from: Spark Of Spirit on December 29, 2017, 11:38:46 PM
I've already got manga material pre-ordered for next year in Dragon Half and Kimetsu no Yaiba and am planning on getting in on 20th Century Boys re-release as well as the Space Battleship Yamato omnibus. There's already a lot on my plate and the year hasn't even started yet.
Also putting in on how several series I'm following are in good places and things are looking up. 2018 is gonna be a good year for manga and it hasn't even started yet.
EDIT: Sorry, didn't know you weren't caught up on Kimetsu no Yaiba!
The original Mazinger Z manga is really, really good. I can't believe it still hasn't been licensed when Cutie Honey and Devil Man were. It's my favorite Go Nagai series and it's one of the most important mecha series and yet no one has picked it up. Here's hoping with the movie out next month Seven Seas might get it. With their push for classic manga, and tons of Go Nagai licenses, I hope that is one of their pick ups. After that I think the only other big Nagai series are the two sequels to Mazinger Z (Great Mazinger and Grendizer) and Getter Robo's original manga.
Here's hoping for more classic manga releases for 2018.
Good show. Glad to have you guys back.
No worries, I don't mind spoilers. Especially since I don't know any of the context. :D
With Seven Seas' track record I wouldn't doubt they'll license
Mazinger Z sooner or later. 2018 really is going to be a fantastic year for manga being released in North America. So many great classics and new series are going to be released next year, and I just worry about being able to keep up with and read them all. :sweat:
And thanks! We're glad to be back! We have a lot of plans for the show next year, and I think it's going to be a good year for both manga and our podcast. ;D
I'm about half-way through BOI myself, only because I had to take a break from reading it when I caught up with the physical releases of the omnibi and then finally decided to just read the rest digitally when I got tired of waiting. I'll probably end up finishing the rest over the next few weeks, though. Anotsu Kagehisa is easily one of the most well-written manga villains that I've come across in quite a while. A perfect example of how to portray a morally complex individual, especially given his interactions with Rin. It'd be easy enough to have an evil antagonist, yet Anotsu has clear motivations for what he does and while terrible in many respects, he also has an honor code that makes him far less awful than many other characters which are encountered throughout the series.
It's also a treat to see Samura improve as a writer as the series progresses. The early volumes are a bit all over the place and poorly plotted in retrospect, but he improves immensely by the time that Rin first splits up with Manji. In general I just find it very compelling to see a writer start out with many flaws but steadily work past them as they gain more and more experience, much like some of my favorite mangaka such as Yoshihiro Togashi with Yu Yu Hakusho or Inoue Takehiko throughout his entire career. That's also what I've been experiencing when reading through Frank Miller's Daredevil run as well as Mark Waid's Flash run.
Anyways, as a samurai manga BOI is a great read so far. I wouldn't quite put it up on par with Vagabond or Lone Wolf and Cub, myself, but it's entirely possible that I could by the time that I finish it.
As for Nausicaa, I haven't actually seen the film version yet, believe it or not. I have the Blu-ray for it, but won't be popping it in until after I finish the manga. The manga is excellent from a writing standpoint, but if I had just one criticism so far, it's with Miyazaki's artwork. The backgrounds and character designs themselves are beautiful, but he has a tendency to try and cram too much detail into fairly compact panels, and you can just tell that he's envisioning these more like storyboards for a film as opposed to manga panels that need to flow together. By no means does it hurt my enjoyment of the material, though. It's just something that sort of stuck out to me.
Sorry for the long absence! :sweat:
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 30, 2017, 02:31:49 PM
I'm about half-way through BOI myself, only because I had to take a break from reading it when I caught up with the physical releases of the omnibi and then finally decided to just read the rest digitally when I got tired of waiting. I'll probably end up finishing the rest over the next few weeks, though. Anotsu Kagehisa is easily one of the most well-written manga villains that I've come across in quite a while. A perfect example of how to portray a morally complex individual, especially given his interactions with Rin. It'd be easy enough to have an evil antagonist, yet Anotsu has clear motivations for what he does and while terrible in many respects, he also has an honor code that makes him far less awful than many other characters which are encountered throughout the series.
That's what I really love about the major villains in this series. Both the Itto Ryou and the Rokki-dan are both full of complex characters who do despicable things but are still recognizably human. The most purely evil villain is probably Shira, but even towards the end we see some of his vulnerabilities that humanize him, even though he's a monster to the end.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 30, 2017, 02:31:49 PM
It's also a treat to see Samura improve as a writer as the series progresses. The early volumes are a bit all over the place and poorly plotted in retrospect, but he improves immensely by the time that Rin first splits up with Manji. In general I just find it very compelling to see a writer start out with many flaws but steadily work past them as they gain more and more experience, much like some of my favorite mangaka such as Yoshihiro Togashi with Yu Yu Hakusho or Inoue Takehiko throughout his entire career. That's also what I've been experiencing when reading through Frank Miller's Daredevil run as well as Mark Waid's Flash run.
Definitely. It's always a treat to read a series that gets better and better as it goes on. The final arc might be my favorite because of how it juggles three factions of characters which fluctuate between being protagonists and antagonists depending on the circumstances. You really understand where every character is coming from, making the final battle and inevitable demise of certain characters incredibly bittersweet.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 30, 2017, 02:31:49 PM
Anyways, as a samurai manga BOI is a great read so far. I wouldn't quite put it up on par with Vagabond or Lone Wolf and Cub, myself, but it's entirely possible that I could by the time that I finish it.
I'd definitely put it up there myself. I think all three rival each other very closely in quality.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on December 30, 2017, 02:31:49 PM
As for Nausicaa, I haven't actually seen the film version yet, believe it or not. I have the Blu-ray for it, but won't be popping it in until after I finish the manga. The manga is excellent from a writing standpoint, but if I had just one criticism so far, it's with Miyazaki's artwork. The backgrounds and character designs themselves are beautiful, but he has a tendency to try and cram too much detail into fairly compact panels, and you can just tell that he's envisioning these more like storyboards for a film as opposed to manga panels that need to flow together. By no means does it hurt my enjoyment of the material, though. It's just something that sort of stuck out to me.
Interesting! I'm curious to see your thoughts on the film after you finish the manga, since most people experience them the other way around. I agree that Miyazaki's backgrounds are often too detailed to the point of clutter, and one of the film's strengths is being able to delineate background and foreground and use color to make things read better than they sometimes do in Miyazaki's black-and-white manga. But the art is really beautiful, and his sequential storytelling is top notch as well.
Our Sket Dance retrospective is finally out! We spend over two hours discussing its characters, humor, and just about everything that makes the series so special and one of our all-time favorite manga! (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-41-sket-dance/)
But we're not done discussing Kenta Shinohara's mangagraphy! We'll be following up our Sket Dance discussion up next week with our series review of Astra Lost in Space! If you've listened to our "Best of Manga in 2017" podcast or taken a look at our Twitter feeds, then you know Astra was one of our favorite manga to read last year.
Joining us to talk about the series will be a very special guest – Marlene First, editor of Astra Lost in Space for Viz Media! (https://twitter.com/Michi_ichi?lang=en) We're excited to discuss Astra with Marlene and go over everything that makes this series and Kenta Shinohara so astra-ordinary! If you have any questions or topics concerning Astra Lost in Space that you'd like us to discuss on the show, we'd love for you to share them! Marlene also edits several other series, including the Dragon Ball Super manga, Robot x Laserbeam, Haikyu!, Kuroko's Basketball, and the new Jump Start! Bozebeats, so you can definitely ask questions about those series as well! We'll be recording tonight around 9pm EST, so please ask while you can!
We've finished recording our Astra podcast and it was a lot of fun! We ended up talking for over four and a half hours, so we'll be splitting our discussion with Marlene into two parts. The first part will be our interview with her about what its like to be a Shonen Jump editor, and that will come out on January 26th. The second part will be our Astra retrospective and that will come out on February 2nd. Look forward to listening to them!
I've been doing lots with the podcast and All-Comic recently!
We posted two podcasts in February. The first was appropriately enough our interview with Marlene First (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-42-getting-know-marlene-first/), the editor for Astra Lost in Space, Haikyuu, Robot x Laserbeam, Dragon Ball Super, Juni Taisen, and a ton of other series for Viz Media. Marlene has had a fascinating career and we had a really insightful interview about what working at Viz is like, what manga editing entails, and some of the challenges balancing being an industry professional and interacting with anime fandom.
Our second podcast was a crossover with both the Just a Gintama Podcast and Life Lessons: The Gintama MangaCast, where we discussed the live-action Gintama movie. (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-12-gintama-live-action-movie/) The discussion was incredibly fun, but what I really love most about the podcast is the intro I made for it at the beginning. I think those first ten minutes are some of the funniest stuff we've done on the podcast yet. :D I also wrote a review of the movie for All-Comic where I went into my thoughts on the movie in a bit more detail. (http://all-comic.com/2018/gintama/)
I've actually been writing a lot more reviews for All-Comic lately! My review of Astra Lost in Space Volume 1 (http://all-comic.com/2018/astra-lost-space-volume-1/), in particular, got a lot of attention, earning me a reweet and a follow on Twitter from Viz Media themselves!
(https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t35.0-12/27536840_1015186231952767_259048630_o.jpg?oh=f9e8c8a5b57d9a4bf854a505edb76b9f&oe=5A9B8F0D)
Shortly afterward I also received a press pass from Viz to see the Mazinger Z: Infinity movie in theatres, which I also wrote a review for. (http://all-comic.com/2018/mazinger-z-infinity/) I enjoyed it a lot despite not having much familiarity with the franchise beforehand, and it definitely made me want to check out the original.
I also enjoyed Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection a whole lot so I wrote a review of that as well. (http://all-comic.com/2018/magical-girl-lyrical-nanoha-reflection/) This review didn't get as much attention as the Astra review but it was still noticed by Eleven Arts and they started following me on Twitter afterward as well!
Finally, I had so much to say about how the Dragon Ball Super manga is handling the Tournament of Power that I decided to start writing reviews of new chapters, starting with chapter 33! (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-super-33/)With how different the manga is from the anime I'm really excited to see how Toyotaro is going to handle this arc and how he might improve upon some of its weaknesses, since he's been developing many subplots and characters better already.
That's it for February! This month we'll finally be releasing our Astra Lost in Space podcast, which we had to do a bit of rerecording for because of some audio issues on my end. We'll also have our Survey results podcast up soon, as well as a huge news recap for everything that's happened since our last news episode. On the @ Movies side, VLord and I will be recording Our Best Movies of 2017 & Oscars podcast tonight, and that should hopefully be ready to be released on Sunday (hopefully a few hours before the Oscars start). I also have a lot of projects in mind for the Youtube channel and hope to start being more active with it after taking an unintended break from it this past month. All in all, things are going strong for the podcast and I'm really excited about the projects we'll be doing this month as well!
Haven't posted updates on the podcast on the forum in a while, so here's a rundown of all the new episodes we've released since March!
Manga Mavericks:
EP. 43: "Astra Lost in Space" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-43-astra-lost-in-space/) - We're joined by Shonen Jump & Astra Lost in Space's editor, Marlene First, to gush and rave about Kenta Shinohara's sci-fi adventure manga.
EP. 44: "Survey Results 2018" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-44-survey-results-2018/) - The results of our 2017 survey! We got a lot of good statistics and feedback from it, and had a good time looking back at how well the podcast did last year.
EP. 45: "The Big News Roundup!" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-45-the-big-news-roundup/) - An insanely long and thorough roundup of all the news from early 2018. There was so much news it took us two recording sessions to cover it!
EP. 46: "Takamagahara" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-46-takamagahara/) - I take a week off to focus on school, so Colton invites Bomber to discuss the news and Maxy to discuss the short-lived Jump series Takamagahara.
EP. 47: "Jujutsu Kaisen, Noah's Notes, & Ziga" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-47-jujutsu-kaisen-noahs-notes-ziga-more/) - We discuss the recent trio of Spring Jump Starts, in which I totally call that Jujutsu Kaisen would be one with the most chance of success, and lo and behold. 8-)
EP. 48: "World Trigger" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-48-world-trigger/) - We're joined by World Trigger's letterer Annaliese Christman and Stammer Stream host Wensleydale Cheddar to discuss Daisuke Ashihara's unique sci-fi shonen battle manga (that we desperately hope returns from its hiatus one of these days).
EP. 48.5: "World Trigger Q&A Extravaganza" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-48-5-world-trigger-qa-extravaganza/) - Following up on our World Trigger discussion, we answer an hour's worth of Q&As about the series!
EP. 49: "Devilman" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-49-devilman/) - Josh Dunham from Wave Motion Canon joins us to discuss Go Nagai's classic manga and how it fits in context to the rest of his mangagraphy.
EP. 50: "Assassination Classroom" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-50-assassination-classroom/) - In honor of the manga's recently completed english release, Kiirobon joins us for an extended discussion of Assassination Classroom, delving deep into its characters and themes!
EP. 51: "Momiji no Kisetsu & Invade You" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-51-momiji-no-kisetsu-invade-you/) - Maxy joins us to discuss the two short-lived Summer Jump Starts, the shogi-focused Momiji and the alien ecchi rom-com Invade You!.
EP. 52: "Eden's Zero" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-52-edens-zero/) - We discuss the first chapter of Hiro Mashima's new series, Eden's Zero.
EP. 53: "Sleepy Princess in the Shonen Sunday" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-53-sleepy-princess-in-the-shonen-sunday/) - Bomber, Maxy, and VLord join us to discuss the first Shonen Sunday series Viz has licensed and published in a long time, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle.
EP. 54: "Summer Con Craziness" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-54-summer-con-craziness/) - We discuss a bunch of mid-summer news, particularly the news out of Anime Expo and San Diego Comic Con.
EP. 55: "Seiji Tanaka & Alice & Taiyo" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-55-seiji-tanaka-alice-and-taiyo/) - We discuss two more summer Jump Starts, the time-travel comedy Seiji Tanaka and the slice-of-life singing manga Alice & Taiyo! We also discuss Tite Kubo's new one-shot, Burn the Witch, and the One Piece and Food Wars! crossover, Shokugeki no Sanji.
EP. 56: "Hot" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-56-hot-akira-amano/) - We discuss Akira Amano's latest one-shot, Hot!
EP. 57: "Bakuman" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-57-bakuman/) - We're joined by Sam Leach from Anime News Network and the One Piece Podcast and Nick Rowe from All-Comic.com to discuss how well Bakuman holds up 10 years later, if its insights into the industry are still relevant (or ever were), and what lessons we can still takeaway from it.
EP. 58: "Sexism in the Manga Industry, Momoko Sakura, and High Guardian Spice" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-58-sexism-in-the-manga-industry-momoko-sakura-and-high-guardian-spice/) - We discuss some depressing news stories, including reports of sexual harrassment and discrimination in the manga industry, the death of Chibi Maruko mangaka Momoko Sakura, and the High Guardian Spice "controversy."
EP. 59: "The Now Named Nameless Man" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-59-the-now-named-nameless-man/) - We discuss The Promised Neverland's latest popularity poll, alongside a few other noteworthy news stories.
EP. 60: "Not Another News Episode!" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-60-not-another-news-episode/) - In perhaps our shortest episode to date, we discuss the most recent news, including MHA's smashing box-office success and some exciting new licenses!
Manga Mavericks @ Movies:
@ Movies #13: "Oscars 2018 Thoughts" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-13-oscars-2018-thoughts/) - VLord and I recap this year's Oscars and who we thought deserved to win each category, spending a particularly long time talking about the short film and documentary categories, which tend to be unfairly under-discussed.
@ Movies 14: "Ghost in the Shell (2017) & Power Rangers" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-14-ghost-in-the-shell-power-rangers/) - Finally getting around to a backlog of podcasts recorded over a year ago! This episode pairs two controversial adaptions of beloved japanese franchises, with our opinions differing on which was the more successful venture.
@ Movies 15: "Tokyo Ghoul & IT (2017)" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-15-tokyo-ghoul-it-2017/) - In this episode we take a look at two horror adaptations, the live-action Tokyo Ghoul film and the IT remake!
@ Movies 16: "Blade Runner 2049 & Blade of the Immortal" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-16-blade-runner-2049-blade-of-the-immortal/) - We take a look at two films by acclaimed directors living up to the legacy of established franchise that happen to both have "Blade" in their titles.
@ Movies 17: "Baby Driver & Logan Lucky" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-17-baby-driver-logan-lucky/) - We talk about two stylish 2017 films about well-meaning guys driven to a life of crime to help the ones they love.
@ Movies 18: "Dunkirk, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, & Victoria & Abdul" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-18-dunkirk-kingsman-the-golden-circle-and-victoria-abdul/) - We discuss a bunch of 2017 movies that all feature british characters, some better than others.
Also, here are a few reviews I've written since March as well:
Dragon Ball Super chapter 34 (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-super-34/)
Dragon Ball Super chapter 35 (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-super-35/)
Dragon Ball Super chapter 36 (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-super-36/)
Dragon Ball Super chapter 37 (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-super-37/)
Dragon Ball Super chapter 38 (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-super-38/)
Sailor Moon R & S: The Movies (http://all-comic.com/2018/sailor-moon-r-s-the-movies/)
Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie (http://all-comic.com/2018/sailor-moon-supers-the-movie-amis-first-love/)
That should about catch us up! Really looking forward to some podcast projects we have coming down the pipe, so keep your eyes and ears open for them!
New episode is out! This week we discuss the two latest Jump Starts, Teenage Renaissance David and I'm From Japan! (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-61-teenage-renaissance-david-im-from-japan/) Both of these gag comedies debuted in the same issue but have distinct senses of humor from one another. Did either of them tickle our funny bones, or was their sense of humor so Japanese they left us as stoic as statues? Listen and find out!
We're recording our next podcast tonight, and it's going to be a retrospective of the YU YU HAKUSHO manga! For the occasion, we've got a bevy of special guests, including Vlord, Josh Dunham from Wave Motion Cannon, and most special of all, Animation Revelation's very own Dr. Ensatsu-ken! I'm excited we'll finally have E-K on to talk Togashi as we promised years ago. ;D
Leave us some YYH questions, comments, discussion topics, for us to discuss on the show! We'll be recording at 9pm CDT tonight, but probably won't get to questions until around 11 or so, so there's still plenty to time to send them to us! As always, post them in this thread or e-mail them to mangamavericks@gmail.com. I'm really looking forward to our discussion! ^^
Should be fun. Can't wait to join in. :thumbup:
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on October 21, 2018, 01:31:28 PM
We're recording our next podcast tonight, and it's going to be a retrospective of the YU YU HAKUSHO manga! For the occasion, we've got a bevy of special guests, including Vlord, Josh Dunham from Wave Motion Cannon, and most special of all, Animation Revelation's very own Dr. Ensatsu-ken! I'm excited we'll finally have E-K on to talk Togashi as we promised years ago. ;D
Leave us some YYH questions, comments, discussion topics, for us to discuss on the show! We'll be recording at 9pm CDT tonight, but probably won't get to questions until around 11 or so, so there's still plenty to time to send them to us! As always, post them in this thread or e-mail them to mangamavericks@gmail.com. I'm really looking forward to our discussion! ^^
Last-minute update on the podcast! Unfortunately, because of scheduling conflicts, we're recording the podcast next Sunday (10/28) at 7pm instead of tonight. The good news is that means you guys have an extra week to ask us questions for the show, so no excuses! :thumbup:
Since I plan to be on the episode (unless something comes up for me), I suppose these are more of suggestions of points we could possible hit on for the topic discussion:
Favorites- Character (both main, supporting, and villain), Story Arc, Fight
General thoughts on Togashi as a writer and artist
How each of us originally got into the show (I guess that would exclude Colton, though, since I recall him saying in earlier podcasts that he hadn't read or watched it, so I'm assuming that this is his first time going through the series)
What makes the series stand out to each of us individually
Possible a few thoughts on what we would like to see in the new OVA
Granted, based on listening to a few of your previous podcasts, I have a feeling that we'd probably hit on most of those points naturally anyways, but I just thought it'd be worth listing out as well to see what you think.
All great talking points! I'd planned to structure our discussion to address pretty much all of those, so we're in sync in thought here. :thumbup:
Colton has actually watched the anime in recent years, but this'll be his first time reading through the manga. I'm definitely curious on his thoughts as someone who only got into it recently and not during its heyday in the U.S. back in the mid-00's like most of us.
Here's a question for the podcast: Do you think YYH deserves an updated anime adaptation like Hunter x Hunter, or is it fine as is?
Thanks for the question Daikun!
We're recording the Yu Yu Hakusho podcast TONIGHT at 7pm CST, so if anyone else still wants to submit some questions there's still plenty of time to do so!
New podcasts are out! In our latest @ Movies we discuss My Life as a Zucchini and Mune: Guardian of the Moon (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-20-my-life-as-a-zucchini-mune-guardian-of-the-moon/), two of the most unique french animated films from the past couple, which were both given theatrical releases in the U.S. last year. We discuss what makes them so artistically inventive and emotionally poignant, and why they stack up against the best animated films of the decade!
That's not the end of our movie discussions, because in our latest Manga Mavericks we discuss My Hero Academia: Two Heroes alongside the All Might tie-in comic with Maxy Barnard! (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-63-my-hero-academia-two-heroes-all-might-rising/) We discuss how MHA translates to the big screen and whether the film lived up to its cinematic ambitions, and Maxy is bewildered by our luxurious american theater concessions (especially our giant soft pretzels)! :D
In terms of upcoming podcasts, the YYH pod we recorded with Dr. E-K turned out really great and should be out in two weeks or so. We actually got so many Q&As that we're recording a special YYH Q&A podcast this sunday at 7pm CDT! So if you still have a Yu Yu Hakusho question you want to ask us, you've still got until Sunday to submit them! The homework never ends! ;)
Thanks for having me on, it was a lot of fun! :thumbup:
I'll be there for the Q&A of course, so long as nothing gets in the way of my plans last minute. That may also be the perfect opportunity to say a few things that completely slipped my mind the first time we were doing the podcast, but overall I'm really happy with the discussion points that we hit on. It was a really gratifying experience to be able to actually talk about an anime show that I love in some form other than text for a change. None of my friends are really into anime or manga, and while my older brother is a fan, I don't really get to see him that often so we only ever really talk during family gatherings at holiday time. In general it's just a great way to take my mind off of the stresses of everyday life for a few hours.
Anyways, it was great to get everyone else's insight on the manga and anime, and despite how long I've been a fan, I was actually humbled enough to learn a few new things through talking with you guys, especially from Josh, so that was definitely an interesting experience. ;)
Glad to hear you had as much fun as I did! I love doing the podcast because it lets me have in-depth discussions with other passionate anime/manga fans, which I don't often get the chance to do in my daily life. I learn a lot from it too, which makes me appreciate what I love all the more. :)
Josh is always a great guest on the show because he has such a wealth of knowledge. He really brings in a lot of insightful points and historical context to every discussion we're in, and he's great at improvisational comedy too, especially when he's drunk! Wonder if he'll get as smashed during the Q&A episode as he was the other night. :D
Haven't posted updates on the podcast on the forum in a while, so here's a rundown of all the new episodes we've released since November!
Manga Mavericks:
EP. 64: "Haruhi Solves Math!" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-64-haruhi-solves-math/)- A news episode in which we discuss the end of FUNimation and Crunchyroll partnership and Haruhi fans solving a 25-year old mathematical conundrum!
EP. 65: "We Support Kohsuke" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-65-we-support-kohske/) - Another news episode in which we discuss Gangsta mangaka Kohsuke's anti-piracy tweets and have a conversation about manga piracy in general.
EP. 66: "Sand Land" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-66-sand-land/) - In honor of the 15th anniversary of its english-language release, we discuss Akira Toriyama's Sand Land!
EP. 67: "Stealth Symphony" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-67-stealth-symphony/) - Colton and Maxy discuss Rhyogo Narita's short-lived Shonen Jump series!
EP. 68: "There's a Manga For That!" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-68-theres-a-manga-for-that/) - Colton and Bomber discuss Anime NYC and the exciting announcements made that weekend!
EP. 69: "*Nice* (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-69-nice/)" - An unusual episode in which we take all our off-topic tangents from our Spider-Man: Homecoming podcast with Vix and repackage them as one meme-filled podcast of madness that is truly worthy of being our 69th episode.
EP. 70: "If You Can Buy a McDouble, You Can Support Shonen Jump!" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-70-if-you-can-buy-a-mcdouble-you-can-support-shonen-jump/) - We discuss the new Shonen Jump relaunch as well as new series Chainsaw Man and RWBY: The Official Manga!
EP. 71: "Jumping Into a New Era (Shonen Jump Retrospective)" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-ep-71-jumping-into-a-new-era-shonen-jump-retrospective/) - Our massive five-hour retrospective of Weekly Shonen Jump to celebrate its 50th anniversary! We interview some of our previous guests like Maxy Barnard, Sam Leach, Doctor, and Jeff Ruberg about their experiences and opinions on Shonen Jump, and reflect upon what Shonen Jump means to us!
EP. 72: "Jumping Into 2019" (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-72-jumping-into-2019/) - We discuss our first impressions of the new Shonen Jump site and app, and discuss new series Ne0;lation and Chainsaw Man!
& Anime #02: "Dragon Ball Super (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-anime-02-dragon-ball-super/) - Our long-awaited Dragon Ball Super retrospective we recorded with Sam Leach from the One Piece Podcast and Chris Larios from Weekly Manga Recap! We discuss everything we enjoyed about the series and some stuff we didn't care for, always gushing about how much we love Dragon Ball and what it means to us!
Manga Mavericks @ Movies:
@ Movies #22: "Black Butler: Book of the Circus & Fairy Tail: Dragon Cry" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-22-black-butler-book-of-the-atlantic-fairy-tail-dragon-cry/)
@ Movies #23: "No Game No Life Zero" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-23-no-game-no-life-zero/)
@ Movies #24: "Mirai" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-24-mirai/)
@ Movies #25: Pokemon: I Choose You! (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-25-pokemon-i-choose-you/)
@ Movies #26: "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Pyramid of Light" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-26-yu-gi-oh-the-pyramid-of-light/)
@ Movies #27: "Spider-Man: Homecoming" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-27-spider-man-homecoming/)
@ Movies #28: "Thor: Ragnarok" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-28-thor-ragnarok/)
@ Movies #29: "Captain Underpants" (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-29-captain-underpants/)
@ Movies #30: Wonder Woman (http://all-comic.com/2018/manga-mavericks-movies-30-wonder-woman/)
@ Movies #31: "The Best Movies of 2017!" (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-31-the-best-movies-of-2017/)
...And with "The Best Movies of 2017" I've finally finished releasing all the @ Movies episodes we recorded in 2017! Which means you can look forward to new, fresh reviews of recent movies going forward this year! :thumbup:
And here are a few reviews I've written recently as well!
Pokemon: The Power of Us (http://all-comic.com/2018/pokemon-the-power-of-us/)
Mirai (http://all-comic.com/2018/mirai/)
Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha (http://all-comic.com/2018/dragon-ball-that-time-i-got-reincarnated-as-yamcha/)
That should about catch you guys up for our podcasts in 2018! Here's hoping 2019 will be an even better year for us! ;D
Speaking of, our latest podcast survey is up! (https://s.surveyplanet.com/AI8JNU_RZ) We'd really appreciate it if you guys could fill us out and give us some feedback on the show! This year we have also questions where we ask you guys what manga you want us to discuss on the show this year, including sections devoted to covering Weekly Shonen Sunday and Weekly Shonen Magazine in honor of their 60th anniversaries! So let us know what you want us to read and podcast about! :shakeshakeshake:
There's only one day left to take our annual podcast survey! (https://s.surveyplanet.com/AI8JNU_RZ)
This year we're covering manga on the show based on polls in our survey where you can vote for your top five favorite manga in five different categories: Weekly Shonen Sunday, Weekly Shonen Magazine, Shojo/Josei, Shonen/Seinin and Discussion Topics! We'll be covering the top three most voted for series in each category on the show this year, so if you haven't yet, take the survey and vote for your favorites!
I listened to your podcast where you discussed the Broly movie. It'd be great to hear more of your and Colton's thoughts on it and the future of the franchise if you ever get to do a Movie Mavericks on it.
It looks like we had pretty similar views on the movie overall, and I especially like how you also noticed that it also treated Goku's character a lot more respectfully than Super did. For me, it did a lot to revitalize my interest in the series after the (IMO) lackluster Tournament of Power arc. The manga's current direction also has me cautiously interested in what's to come.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on February 02, 2019, 07:53:46 PM
I listened to your podcast where you discussed the Broly movie. It'd be great to hear more of your and Colton's thoughts on it and the future of the franchise if you ever get to do a Movie Mavericks on it.
It looks like we had pretty similar views on the movie overall, and I especially like how you also noticed that it also treated Goku's character a lot more respectfully than Super did. For me, it did a lot to revitalize my interest in the series after the (IMO) lackluster Tournament of Power arc. The manga's current direction also has me cautiously interested in what's to come.
Thanks Dr. E-K! I actually recorded a
Dragon Ball Super: Broly podcast on Manga Mavericks @ Movies a few weeks ago that should come out soon! It's just as long and jam-packed as our previous DBS podcast and I think it'll be a fun listen! :)
To celebrate Viz's recent re-release of the manga, we're recording a Urusei Yatsura podcast tonight at 11pm CST with Andrew Yoshimura, another UY megafan like myself who I plan to start a UY podcast with in the near future! We'd love if you guys left us any UY-related questions, comments, and discussion topics for us to chat about on the show tonight! :e_hail:
Let's start off with the big news -
WE'VE LAUNCHED A PATREON!! (https://www.patreon.com/mangamavericks) We're hoping this will help us cover the costs of making the shows, which does add up in terms of hosting and material costs. So far we've succeded in raising enough to cover our monthly Hipcast hosting costs, and we're close to paying off our SJ subscriptions too! We've got a lot of tiers available, but the main one is the $5 tier (https://www.patreon.com/mangamavericks/posts?tag=patron%20bonus%20pod), which gives patrons access to a monthly Patreon-exclusive podcast. Last month's was the long-awaited return of Manga Fights with the long-lost MONSTER GIRLS episode, and this month we're doing
That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha! If you'd like to help the show and get access to some bonus stuff while doing so, your patronage would be greatly appreciated!
With that said, here's a catch-up on all our podcasts since the beginning of the year!
Manga Mavericks:73: The Best Manga of 2018! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-73-best-of-manga-2018/) - We discuss our favorite manga of last year!
74: Go Broly, Go Go! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-74-go-broly-go-go/) - We review
Dragon Ball Super: Broly!
75: Booty Bat (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-75-booty-bat/) - We interview our friend Aidan about the Naoki Urasawa Exhibit in Los Angeles, and getting to meet Naoki Urasawa himself!
76: Survey Results 2019! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-76-survey-results-2019/) - We discuss the results of our annual podcast survey and our plans for the podcast this year!
77: Princess Jellyfish[/u] (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-77-princess-jellyfish/%5Bu) - We interview Morgana Santili, former manager of Boston's Comicopia, and discuss one of my favorite manga, Akiko Higashimura's
Princess Jellyfish!
78: My Love Story!! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-78-my-love-story/) - Ashely of the Shojo & Tell (https://shojoandtell.simplecast.com/) podcast joins us to discuss one of the best shojo romance manga of all time (in our opinion)!
79: Shaman King (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-79-shaman-king/) - Maxy joins us to discuss one of the best and most spiritually-focused Shonen Jump manga of all time!
80: The State of Shonen Jump 2019 (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-80-the-state-of-shonen-jump-2019/) - Maxy and Patrick from the Super Sentai podcast join us to discuss the changes to Shonen Jump's simulpub services, including Viz's retooled Shonen Jump app and Shueshia's Manga Plus app!
81: The Last Saiyuki & Yui Kamio Lets Loose! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-81-the-last-saiyuki-yui-kamio-lets-loose/) - We discuss two of the most recent Shonen Jump simulpubs!
82: You Only Meet Toriyama Once (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-82-you-only-meet-toriyama-once-jason-thompson/) - This podcast may the best we've ever done and is up there with meeting Yusei Matsui as the greatest moment I've had as a fan manga. We interviewed Jason Thompson - the first editor of the North American Shonen Jump! We discuss the history of the North American manga industry's early days and learn a ton of behind the scenes info on how Shonen Jump was spread overseas!
83: We Never Learn (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-83-we-never-learn/) - Our podcasting friends Buggy and Hovin joins us to gush about what may very well be the best harem manga ever published in Shonen Jump!
84: Heart Gear & Spy x Family (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-84-heart-gear-spy-x-family/) - We discuss two very recent but already very popular new simulpubs added to Manga Plus!
85: We Never Learn Q&A Extravaganza!! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-85-we-never-learn-qa-extravaganza/)- We had so many WNL questions we had to devote a whole podcast to answering them!
86: 100 Years of Yuri with Erica Freidman (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-86-100-years-of-yuri-with-erica-friedman/) - I interviewed Erica Friedman, yuri historian and tastemaker, about the history of the yuri genre in honor of its 100th anniversary!
87: Ghost Hog (w/Joey Weiser) (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-87-ghost-hog-w-joey-weiser/) - We interviewed Joey Weiser, author of the award-winning
Mermin series, about his new book
Ghost Hog and his manga and japanese culture influences!
Manga Mavericks @ Movies:32: Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-32-hunter-x-hunter-the-last-mission/)
33: Oscars 2019 Predictions!! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-33-oscars-2019-predictions/)
34: The Best Movies of 2018! (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-34-the-best-movies-of-2018/)
35: Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel ii: lost butterfly (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-35-fate-stay-night-heavens-feel-ii-lost-butterfly/)
36: The Ghibli Conspiracy (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-36-the-ghibli-conspiracy/)
37: Howl's Moving Castle (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-movies-37-howls-moving-castle/)
Reviews:
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (http://all-comic.com/2019/dragon-ball-super-broly/)I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (http://all-comic.com/2019/i-want-to-eat-your-pancreas/)
Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission (http://all-comic.com/2019/hunter-x-hunter-the-last-mission/)
Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel ii: lost butterfly (http://all-comic.com/2019/fate-stay-night-heavens-feel-ii-lost-butterfly/)
Fruits Basket (2019) Episodes 1 & 2 (http://all-comic.com/2019/fruits-basket-2019-episodes-1-2-premiere/)
Also - the thumbnail I drew for our
Heart Gear &
Spy x Family episode was noticed and liked by the editor of both series in Japan, Shihei Rin! (https://twitter.com/sniperking323/status/1120740914878611462) Another really awesome moment doing the podcast that I never would've expected but really made my day recently. ;D
(https://66.media.tumblr.com/f329de209d561c46cafef25aee463236/tumblr_pqdtslXk2a1vln4vko1_540.jpg)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D42r6zFXsAEBdvD.jpg)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D42r6y-WAAYqcv6.jpg)
We've got an exciting summer ahead with lots of podcasts I'm looking forward to doing and think you'll all really enjoy listening to! As you can tell, we've been conducting a ton of awesome interviews recently, and we've got plenty more to come! We've already recorded a 3.5 hour long interview with David Brothers, editor of
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure,
We Never Learn, & more for Viz Media, which I'm hoping to have up within the next week!
This weekend we're interviewing
TWO awesome people - both translators! Tonight at
9pm CDT we're interviewing
Caleb Cook, translator for
My Hero Academia,
Dr. Stone,
Dragon Ball Super and tons more for Viz, and on Sunday at 2pm CDT we're interviewing
Dr. Mari Morimoto, a veternarian and manga industry veteran who's been in the business for over two decades, and is the translator of tons of series like
InuYasha and
Naruto! If you guys have any questions you'd like us to ask Caleb or Mari, send them our way and we'll answer them on the show!
That's awesome! :) I hope you end up seeing the huge success you deserve on your Patreon. I will likely add a pledge soon. :im_nabeshin:
If you're ever looking for a guest of no real importance who likes to talk a lot about his favorite things (say, a certain classic manga series no one cares about), I'd love to join you for an episode. .3.
Thank you so much Foggle! Your generosity means the world to me, and we really appreciate it! :e_hail: :el_hail:
And of course, you're my go-to guest for when we do an Excel Saga podcast! :e_wink: I really want to re-read the series sometime soon and talk about it. I'd also love to have you on if we ever cover the Full Metal Panic! novels, which I'd really like to do as the first light novel series we talk about on the show.
Also, I really need to figure out a good time for us to record a Yu Yu Hakusho or Yoshihiro Togashi podcast/Manga Fight with you, Dr. E-k. I still feel bad that the YYH podcast we recorded last year ended up having hiccups and couldn't be saved. Hopefully we'll schedule it sometime soon and then you and VLord can have a rematch to decide who is truly the biggest Yoshihiro Togashi fanboy. ;)
Oh, goodie, I can probably actually prepare this time with a full re-read. :sweat:
Also, I'm the resident FMP light-novel expert, thank you very much. :bleh:
In all seriousness, though, I need to collect the official releases and give that series a re-read. I am glad that we got a few more volumes adapted in the anime, but am also bummed out that it still couldn't cover the whole story.
I'd also like to see Foggle on one of these episodes. I feel that would bring about a number of interesting conversations.
No reason we can't have you both on for FMP! ;)
I'm also sad that the new anime didn't finish covering the whole story. It seemed there wasn't a whole lot of buzz around it in general. They really waited too long to continue it.
Also, Lum, while I'm sure you'll do a Movie Mavericks on it, I'm curious what your thoughts were on Detective Pikachu, since I know that you were really looking forward to that movie.
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on May 18, 2019, 12:35:06 AM
Thank you so much Foggle! Your generosity means the world to me, and we really appreciate it! :e_hail: :el_hail:
No problem, my friend. Happy to help! :D
QuoteAnd of course, you're my go-to guest for when we do an Excel Saga podcast! :e_wink: I really want to re-read the series sometime soon and talk about it. I'd also love to have you on if we ever cover the Full Metal Panic! novels, which I'd really like to do as the first light novel series we talk about on the show.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 18, 2019, 11:46:40 AM
Oh, goodie, I can probably actually prepare this time with a full re-read. :sweat:
Also, I'm the resident FMP light-novel expert, thank you very much. :bleh:
In all seriousness, though, I need to collect the official releases and give that series a re-read. I am glad that we got a few more volumes adapted in the anime, but am also bummed out that it still couldn't cover the whole story.
I'd also like to see Foggle on one of these episodes. I feel that would bring about a number of interesting conversations.
I also very much need to re-read Excel Saga and FMP! But yes, I would love to be on those episodes with y'all. :e_hail:
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 18, 2019, 05:55:09 PM
Also, Lum, while I'm sure you'll do a Movie Mavericks on it, I'm curious what your thoughts were on Detective Pikachu, since I know that you were really looking forward to that movie.
I really liked it! I think it's a miracle it worked at all, but they've successfully shown that they can make
Pokemon work in live-action and tell stories in that world. The plot wasn't the most impressive, but its heart was in the right place and I enjoyed the characters pretty well. I'm excited to see them make more! I'll definitely be recording an @ Movies and maybe write a review of it sometime this weekend, after I get a chance to see it a second time (I had too much work going on the weekend I first saw it to do it then).
Quote from: Foggle on May 18, 2019, 10:42:51 PM
Quote from: LumRanmaYasha on May 18, 2019, 12:35:06 AM
Thank you so much Foggle! Your generosity means the world to me, and we really appreciate it! :e_hail: :el_hail:
No problem, my friend. Happy to help! :D
QuoteAnd of course, you're my go-to guest for when we do an Excel Saga podcast! :e_wink: I really want to re-read the series sometime soon and talk about it. I'd also love to have you on if we ever cover the Full Metal Panic! novels, which I'd really like to do as the first light novel series we talk about on the show.
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 18, 2019, 11:46:40 AM
Oh, goodie, I can probably actually prepare this time with a full re-read. :sweat:
Also, I'm the resident FMP light-novel expert, thank you very much. :bleh:
In all seriousness, though, I need to collect the official releases and give that series a re-read. I am glad that we got a few more volumes adapted in the anime, but am also bummed out that it still couldn't cover the whole story.
I'd also like to see Foggle on one of these episodes. I feel that would bring about a number of interesting conversations.
I also very much need to re-read Excel Saga and FMP! But yes, I would love to be on those episodes with y'all. :e_hail:
:swoon::thumbup:
Some new podcasts of ours came out this weekend! First up, we interviewed Dr. Mari Morimoto, (http://all-comic.com/2019/manga-mavericks-ep-88-dr-mari-morimoto-interview/) a verteran translator in the manga industry for over 25 years as well as a professional veterinarian! She's been the translator of many big series over the years, including Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, and Naruto! We talked to her about her experiences in the industry, and she shares several awesome anecdotes about how the process of manga translation has changed since the 90s and insights into how several translation choices were made! Plus, she reveals some info about Udon's upcoming release of Rose of Versailles and all the hard work that's gone into the translation of the manga!
And for our Patrons, we've released our long-awaited That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha podcast! (https://www.patreon.com/posts/27287268) Maxy and Bomber joined us to discuss the history of this short but sweet Dragon Ball parody, which is a sincere love letter to the series that gives its most mistreated character some welcome time to shine! This was a ton of fun to record and available exclusively on our Patreon (at least for now)!
Hey everyone! Long time no post. I need to update this thread with all the stuff we've been doing in the last couple months when I get the chance, and finally continue The Great Animated Episode thread, among other things. But I wanted to post today because we're recording a podcast tomorrow that's been a long time coming and think a lot of you guys'd be keen to listen to.
To celebrate Dragon Ball's 35th anniversary earlier this year, we're recording a retrospective on the manga with Joey Weiser, a comics artist we interviewed earlier this year who is best known for the Mermin series and who did The Daily Dragon Ball Project (https://dailydragonball.tumblr.com/) a few years ago, and our friend Sakaki, who actually read through the manga for the first time for this podcast! We're excited to discuss the series with both a veteran fan and a newbie and dig into what makes Toriyama's original manga so special after all these years!
We'd love to get any questions or topics you have for us to discuss on the show! We'll be recording at 10am CDT tomorrow, so get your questions in here or by e-mailing them to us at mangamavericks [at] gmail.com!
Always good to see you around here, Lum! Hope you had a happy holiday season! :joy:
My questions would be pretty basic so I'm sure you'd cover some of them by default anyways, but here are some general points it would be nice to see you guys cover if it works out:
Favorite arc- Pretty self-explanatory but it would be nice to hear what other people find to be their favorite aspect of the series by highlighting what story-line worked the best for them.
Favorite character, fight, etc.- Pretty much the same deal as above.
Thoughts on the shifts in tone and Toriyama's writing style evolving through the various phases of the manga each time he changed editors.
Dragon Ball gets criticized a lot for being long and overly drawn out with it's fights, but one thing I noticed when reading the manga is that it's not really all that much more drawn out than many other battle shonen manga, if at all, with only a few real exceptions. Do you guys feel that criticism is really deserved or is it more of an issue with the anime that became synonymous with the series as a whole?
Also, in general, maybe give some brief thoughts on the anime vs. the manga and which version does certain things better or worse than the other. Maybe also briefly touch on the English dub(s)/soundtracks and how it affected your individual perceptions of the series initially.
And lastly it might be nice to highlight some of the genuinely strong points of the series. Obviously this is all up to you guys' personal preference, but I've always felt that the modern anime and manga community are a bit overly harsh in their assessment of the series as a whole. Obviously we all eventually evolve our tastes over time and realize how flawed of a series Dragon Ball is, but I also think that upon re-reading the manga, it still has many strong points that make it worth reading, especially the early arcs, and I also see a lot of value in how different it was from other battle shonen manga of it's time, to the point of influencing big changes in the genre, which gets taken for granted a lot these days, IMO.
When is your All-Comic page going to be fixed? It hasn't been working for at least a month and I've had to use different RSS feeds to get new episodes of your show.
Thanks for the questions Dr. E-k! We actually recorded so long that we're going to have to answer fan questions in a follow-up podcast, but we touched on a few of your topics in the main discussion itself! ^^
Quote from: Daikun on December 28, 2019, 08:25:23 PM
When is your All-Comic page going to be fixed? It hasn't been working for at least a month and I've had to use different RSS feeds to get new episodes of your show.
Thanks for letting me know - I let the webmaster of the site know so hopefully they can fix the issue with the page. In the meantime, you can find the podcasts on All-Comic through this link: http://all-comic.com/category/manga/manga-podcasts/manga-mavericks/ (http://all-comic.com/category/manga/manga-podcasts/manga-mavericks/)
So, I doubt that this will get answered since Lum rarely ever comes on here anymore, but I was wondering if you guys were planning to do a KnY episode now that the series has officially wrapped up. I'd consider it to be a personal favorite of mine from the past few years of WSJ, and probably one of the most popular series to have come out from the 2010's as far as any Shonen series goes. I would definitely like to hear what you guys' think about it in general.
We'll definitely do one in the future! I'm a big fan of the series too and would love to cover it on the show, especially now that it's over and Viz has made all of it available in the Shonen Jump vault. :thumbup:
But in the meantime, our very own VLord actually started up a Demon Slayer podcast (http://toonamifaithful.com/demonslayerpodcast/) last fall and covered the entirety of the anime as it broadcast on Toonami as well as the last 30-ish chapters of the manga! I've been on a few (http://toonamifaithful.com/demonslayerpodcast/2020/04/23/episode-m19-marion-predicted-everything/) episodes (http://toonamifaithful.com/demonslayerpodcast/2020/05/08/episode-25-beautiful-butterfly-girls/) myself, and it's a really great show with fantastic conversations on the series. VLord has even interviewed actors from the dub of Demon Slayer like Brook Chalmers (who plays Urokodaki) (http://toonamifaithful.com/demonslayerpodcast/2019/12/19/exclusive-1-brook-chalmers-interview/) and Bryce Papenbrook (who plays Inosuke). (http://toonamifaithful.com/demonslayerpodcast/2020/05/13/exclusive-2-interview-with-bryce-papenbrook/)
Sorry for being so absent on here - I've mainly been spending my online social time on places like Twitter and Discord, but I'll try to check in here more often again (and maybe resume the Greatest Animated Episode tournament too). :sweat:
Btw, our Dragon Ball (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-118-dragon-ball/) podcasts (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-119-dragon-ball-qa-extravaganza/) are out! Thanks again for the questions Dr. E-K, we got some great discussion out of them! :e_hail:
Here's some other podcasts we've done recently that I'd also like to highlight!
Our interview with On Takahashi, CEO of Irodori Comics (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-110-doujinshi-for-everybody-on-takahashi/)
Our Yu-Gi-Oh! retrospective with editor Jason Thompson! (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-113-yu-gi-oh/)
A Conversation We Had About Problematic Media (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-115-i-have-a-problem-with-problematic-media/)
Urusei Yatsura manga retrospective with Dawn from the Anime Nostalgia podcast! (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-117-urusei-yatsura/)
Lum Squad episode 2, where we discuss the Urusei Yatsura anime! (http://all-comic.com/2020/lum-squad-02-lum-the-animated-series/)
@ Movies on Alita: Battle Angel (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-movies-alita-battle-angel-patreon-peek/)
@ Movies on Captain Marvel (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-movies-captain-marvel-patreon-peek/)
@ Movies on Tokyo Godfathers (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-movies-41-tokyo-godfathers/)
@ Movies on MHA: Heroes Rising (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-movies-42-my-hero-academia-heroes-rising/)
@ Movies on Dragon Ball Super: Broly (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-movies-dragon-ball-super-broly-patreon-peek/)
Plus, we got to check out Loren Bouchard's new show Central Park a few weeks before it drops on AppleTV and did a special podcast review of that as well! (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-on-tv-01-central-park/)
We've got a lot of great podcasts plans for this summer, so there's a lot more to look forward to! ;D
Yo, we're recording a Food Wars! retrospective tomorrow on Manga Mavericks (https://twitter.com/manga_mavericks/status/1309885445153722368), and I wanted to reach out to you guys here since we've had many debates and discussions on the series in these forums. ;)
We'll be joined by mangatuber Aisha/MommaLuvsManga, Kate Sanchez the founder of the But Why Tho? website and podcast network, and professional chef Jonah Bacon-Lefkowitz (https://www.instagram.com/jonah_snow/) who currently runs a takeaway tea shop in Toronto (https://www.instagram.com/afternoontea_to/). My cohost Colton and Aisha will have just finished reading the series fo the first time through by the time we record tomorrow, while Kate finished the series through the volume releases earlier this year!
We'll be recording tomorrow at 3pm CT, so if you have any questions for us, we'd be happy to serve!
Always good to see you drop in from time to time, Lum.
I admittedly haven't kept up too much with current manga these days due to kind of having my attention dragged in various different directions simultaneously, including novels, classic films, video games, and Western comic books, among other things, but I still do find time to read manga titles that interest me, and I've been eagerly eyeing those Urusei Yatsura releases to finally jump into that series.
I can't think of too many questions besides the obvious ones for Food Wars, but here are two:
1. Regardless of anyone's overall thoughts on the series, it's genuinely agreed upon by the majority of readers that the series took a pretty steep decline in quality after the conclusion of the Central arc (I'd personally argue that it was well before that point, but that's besides the point). What do you feel that Y?to Tsukuda could have done differently to avoid the pitfalls that the story fell into in that final arc?
2. What would you consider to be Y?to Tsukuda's greatest strengths and weaknesses as a writer based on this series?
Thanks for the questions Dr. E-K! Glad to see you're planning to check out UY, hope you enjoy it! :e_hail:
We just finished recording, and we ended up getting so many questions from different platforms that we decided to answer them in a separate Q&A special we'll record on the 11th, so if anyone has any more for us you'll have a few more weeks to submit them! :e_wink:
So I'm only really familiar with the franchise through its Toonami run, which means this may be an out of step question, but I do wonder how you feel about the school's outlandish, one mistake and you're out mentality. Does that seem closer to the Japanese experience, or is it an element that raises questionability about the series?
Just my personal take on your question, Avaitor:
I wouldn't read too much into it. SnS clearly takes place in a fairly exaggerated version of reality, so it purposely makes the school setting super high-stakes to elevate dramatic tension. I'd argue this can backfire at times when you consider the obvious plot armor of some characters, but either way I don't see it as a strict reflection of actual Japanese school life.
Fair. It's pretty clearly not a reflection of any kind of reality, lol
So, Manga Mavericks is approaching it's 5th anniversary this month! I can't believe I've been doing this podcast for 5 years - my life has changed considerably in the past half-decade but this has been the one constant, that has opened so many doors and helped me meet so many people, many of whom I'm now honored to call friends.
We're also approaching our 150th episode, so we're commemorating both occasions together! Per our annual tradition, we're doing another podcast survey, (https://s.surveyplanet.com/uwgeMjcMq) but this one encompasses the show's entire history from our beginning to the present! So if you want to let us know what your favorite episodes, guests, and moments have been on the show, sharing your thoughts in the survey would be a great way to help us celebrate it! We're also running a giveaway in which all survey-takers will be entered for a chance to win a free manga volume of their choosing from our catalog, which includes newer titles like Hi Score Girl to classics like Video Girl Ai! The survey runs through the 24th, so there's plenty of time to enter in for a chance to win!
And seriously, thank you all for listening to, supporting, and engaging with our show over the past half-decade. It's been a great joy to hear people respond positively to it and see it grow in the way it is, and I'm really excited about its future and the years ahead. :e_hail:
Here are a few podcast highlights I want to share since I posted here last that may interest folks here if they've missed them:
MM127: Cross Manage (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-127-cross-manage/) - Discussion of the short-lived but fondly remembered Shonen Jump lacrosse manga by KAITO, Cross Manage.
MM128: Blue Flag (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-128-blue-flag/) - Discussion of KAITO's more successful follow-up, Blue Flag, a romantic drama that questions and criticizes gendered stereotypes, romcom tropes, and explores the struggle of understanding yourself and being seen for who you are.
MM131: Kaiju No. 8 and the Simulpub Process (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-131-kaiju-no-8-and-the-simulpub-process/) - Interview with the localization team simulpubbing the new Jump+ megahit Kaiju No. 8 and the teamwork and turnaround time that goes into simulpubs.
MM137: Mujirushi (http://all-comic.com/2020/manga-mavericks-ep-137-mujirushi/) - Discussion of Naoki Urasawa's Louvre collaboration manga starting Osomatsu-san's Iyami.
MM145: Burn the Witch (http://all-comic.com/2021/manga-mavericks-ep-145-burn-the-witch/) - Discussion of Tite Kubo's new series Burn the Witch with its official localization team.
The Food Wars podcasts we recorded are slated to come out in March because of our backlog, but thank you guys again for your questions! We got a lot of great conversation out of them and think you'll really enjoy the podcasts when they're out! We've got a lot of plans to cover a lot of great topics and series this year, and I'm really excited for them! :e_wink:
Quote from: Dr. Ensatsu-ken on May 17, 2020, 03:02:01 PM
So, I doubt that this will get answered since Lum rarely ever comes on here anymore, but I was wondering if you guys were planning to do a KnY episode now that the series has officially wrapped up. I'd consider it to be a personal favorite of mine from the past few years of WSJ, and probably one of the most popular series to have come out from the 2010's as far as any Shonen series goes. I would definitely like to hear what you guys' think about it in general.
The time has come! :shakeshakeshake:
We're recording our
Demon Slayer manga retrospective this Sunday at 11:00am CT! We'll be recording with our good friends, the hosts of the Demon Slayer Podcast (https://toonamifaithful.com/demonslayerpodcast/), which includes our very own VLordGTZ as well as our good friends Sakaki and Marion! We'll be discussing our thoughts on the manga after rereading it in its entirety nearly a year after it finished, with my cohost Colton having read the series for the first time for the show!
If you guys have any
Demon Slayer questions or topics you'd like us to discuss, feel free to post them here or e-mail us at mangamavericks@gmail.com and we'll be happy to answer them! :e_hail: :el_hail:
So, YouTube's algorithm recommended me a video from The Omnibus Collector (https://www.youtube.com/user/mrhatnclogs/videos) who poses an interesting question about Shonen Jump. I think it could make an interesting topic for a future episode of your podcast.
Is Shonen Jump Cancelling Too Many Manga? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSFdnvdFMoQ)
Oh yeah, I check out that video and really appreciated how thorough his research was and his charts! It is interesting that even though the amount of series being canceled per year has been fairly consistent in the past decade or so, the average amount of chapters given to new series before their cancellation has actually increased compared to the magazine's earlier years. Definitely debunks a lot of people's criticisms that Jump is cancelling more series too early these days; for as many series that end only after a dozen or so chapters, there are plenty that almost last a year before they are let go. I'll definitely give the video a shout-out in a future episode and we'll probably have a discussion on the topic on this years Jump retrospective and/or Best of Manga podcast.
Important update for #LumSquad!
https://twitter.com/sugoilite/status/1476904120858542082
I'm really excited about the new UY anime! We've already recorded a special Lum Squad episode discussing our thoughts and reactions to the news that I plan to post next week!
Was just thinking about this and was kind of curious on what your thoughts were on some of the current Weekly Shonen Jump series. Since the years that some of the big mainstays have ended like Naruto, Bleach, Gintama, and so on, we have essentially entired into a new era of WSJ for the past half-decade or so, and while I'm not nearly knowledgeable about the publication's extensive history to make any real comparisons, I have to say that I have been loving a lot of the diversity that's on offer in the types of series coming out of the magazine. Of course, I have always been a fan of good Shonen series, and I think it always bugged me when people would give various well-written series shit just because they associated anything shonen-related with low quality. It's kind of nice to see that perception in general changing (though that stigma is still very existent) over the past 5+ years with all of the quality series coming out, many of them not even being traditionally battle-oriented. Granted, there were always tons of great non-battle manga in the publication, but the difference is that now we are seeing more getting officially translated into English than we used to, thus giving them more exposure. Even the traditional battle-type manga have come a long way in improving and innovating on the tropes of the genre, though.
There are still quite a few series that I need to catch up with, which is nearly impossible given how busy my current schedule is, but I've loved most of what I've read that's been ongoing. I had a real soft spot for Neru: Way of the Martial Artist even though it wasn't anything too original. It had an old-school sort of martial arts vibe to it that just clicked with me, but from what I can tell most people were lukewarm to it at best and many didn't particularly care for it. I was still a bit bummed to see it go, but I understand that's the nature of the business. Out of the current crop of series, though, the action/comedy hybrids are consistently pretty great for me. I particularly love Mashle, Sakamoto Days, and Spy X Family. I have also been enjoying The Elusive Samurai quite a bit (I'm only 10 chapters in, though), and it makes me want to give Assassination Classroom another try after I catch up with this series.
Also, off-topic but still technically Shonen Jump related. but with more information coming about the new Dragon Ball Super movie and how it is having The Red Ribbon army be the primary antagonists, I was wondering what your thoughts were. To be perfectly honest, I was actually not very interested in this movie at first. I was not and am still not sold on the CG animation style, and I originally was just expecting something kind of standard that felt like a filler plot, but the more that's revealed about the movie, the more intrigued I honestly am. Like, the idea that two of the core villains are not direct fighters but rather act as foils for the heroes by outsmarting them feels much in line with what you would expect from the classic Red Ribbon army story arc (and as you know, it's my all time favorite Dragon Ball arc), and having Gohan essentially be the protagonist of this movie over Goku (if the rumors are to be believed) is also something that I would fully support (as much as I enjoy Goku). Also, the incorporation of many classic non-Dragon Ball Toriyama elements in this movie's general design and approach to humor (based mostly on interviews and behind the scenes rumors and such) is also a plus for me. It helps that I have been reading through Akira Toriyama's Manga Theater and have really been reminded of how much I appreciate his comedic sensibilities outside of Dragon Ball.
Anyways, hope everything is going well with you, Lum, and was just curious to see what your opinions were on some of this stuff since we haven't caught up in a while.
The trailer for the new UY anime is out.
https://twitter.com/catsuka/status/1527227326433529858