Manga Mavericks

[LumRanmaYasha]

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. The show is run by myself and Colton Solem, host of Life Lessons: The Gintama Mangacast (and co-host of many other podcasts...), 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. 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!"
Episode #2: "We Still Don't Have a Catchphrase"
Episode #3: "I Hate It!"
Episode #4: "Good For You, Seven Seas!"
Episode #5: "Colton Loves Yu-Gi-Oh! More Than His Family"
Episode #6: "Diesel Is Not Crash"
Episode #7: "Today Crunchyroll, Tomorrow the World!"
Episode #8: "Meet the Fast Food Fanatics!"
Episode #9: "It's Your Favorite Character Dressed in Drag (And That's the Joke)!"
Episode #10: "Gotta Read 'Em All!"
Episode #11: "We Finally Read Tokyo Ghoul"
Episode #12: "Anime Expo Happened..."
Episode #13: "Happy Accidents"
Episode #14: "Equal Rights for All Comics! (#EFAC)"
Episode #15: "Some Things Never Die (Like Pokemon)"
Episode #16: "You Can Never Have Enough South Park References"
Episode #17: "We Need to Read More Shoujo Manga (And Kochikame)"
Episode #18: "Mangaka Spotlight: Yusei Matsui (feat. Bomber D Rufi)"
Episode #19: "I'll Get Around To It...Someday"
Episode #20: "Casey's Horrible Halloween Horror Hour"
Episode #21: "Ajin: Demi-Human"
Episode #22: "Our Best of Manga 2016"

[close]

2017:

Episode #23: "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure"
Episode #24: "The State of Shonen Jump"
Episode #25: "To Your Eternity"
Episode #26: "Sunday! Sunday! Shonen Sunday!"
Episode #27: "Black Clover"
Episode #28: "My Hero Academia"
Episode #29: "One Piece Has A Lot of Copies In Print"

Manga Fights:

2016:

Spoiler

Episode #1: "Yusei Matsui (feat. Bomber D Ruffi)
Episode #2: "InuYasha (feat. Josh Dunham)
Episode #3: "Toriko (feat. Maxy Barnard)
Episode #4: "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" (feat. Maxy Barnard & VLordGTZ)"

[close]

Specials:

"20 Years of InuYasha: A Retrospective"
"Hi-Fi Cluster: Too Beautiful To Live"
"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Q&A Extravaganza"
"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)"
Episode #43 - "Spanking the Meat (Umibozu Arc Pt. 2)"
Episode #44 - "It's All About Me! Kagura! (Umibozu Arc Pt. 3)"

We also upload our podcast to our youtube channel!

[Spark Of Spirit]

Congrats on the podcast! Looks like I have some listening to do.

[Foggle]

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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So, CX's top 3 manga are Ashita no Joe, Urusei Yatsura, and Maison Ikkoku. I think we all saw that coming. 

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.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Thanks, guys. 

Feel free to invite me on if you ever do an episode about Excel Saga.

Absolutley!   

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.

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! 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. 

[gunswordfist]

Way to crash the mode, Diesel. I'm definitely going to have to listen to that one. Congrats on the podcast 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Thanks! I'm glad to hear we aren't rambling or going off-topic too much. 

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.

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

New episode! This week we talk about Kadokawa's partnerships with Crunchyroll and Yen Press, who our favorite manga publishers are, and more.

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

New episode! 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.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Cool, I'll be sure to listen tomorrow.

I'm quite enjoying this series.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Thanks! Glad to hear people are enjoying the show. 

[Spark Of Spirit]

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.