Manga Mavericks

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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. 

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.

[Daikun]

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?

[LumRanmaYasha]

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!

[LumRanmaYasha]

New podcasts are out! In our latest @ Movies we discuss My Life as a Zucchini and 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! 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)! 

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! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Thanks for having me on, it was a lot of fun!

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

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!" - 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" - 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" - In honor of the 15th anniversary of its english-language release, we discuss Akira Toriyama's Sand Land!

EP. 67: "Stealth Symphony" - Colton and Maxy discuss Rhyogo Narita's short-lived Shonen Jump series!

EP. 68: "There's a Manga For That!" - Colton and Bomber discuss Anime NYC and the exciting announcements made that weekend!

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!" - 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)" - 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" - 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 - 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"
@ Movies #23: "No Game No Life Zero"
@ Movies #24: "Mirai"
@ Movies #25: Pokemon: I Choose You!
@ Movies #26: "Yu-Gi-Oh! The Pyramid of Light"
@ Movies #27: "Spider-Man: Homecoming"
@ Movies #28: "Thor: Ragnarok"
@ Movies #29: "Captain Underpants"
@ Movies #30: Wonder Woman
@ 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! 

And here are a few reviews I've written recently as well!

Pokemon: The Power of Us
Mirai
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! 

Speaking of, our latest podcast survey is up! 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! 

[LumRanmaYasha]

There's only one day left to take our annual podcast survey!

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!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

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! 

[LumRanmaYasha]

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! 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Let's start off with the big news - WE'VE LAUNCHED A PATREON!! 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, 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! - We discuss our favorite manga of last year!
74: Go Broly, Go Go! - We review Dragon Ball Super: Broly!
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! - We discuss the results of our annual podcast survey and our plans for the podcast this year!
77: Princess Jellyfish[/u] - 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!! - Ashely of the Shojo & Tell podcast joins us to discuss one of the best shojo romance manga of all time (in our opinion)!
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 - 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! - We discuss two of the most recent Shonen Jump simulpubs!
82: You Only Meet Toriyama Once - 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 - 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 - We discuss two very recent but already very popular new simulpubs added to Manga Plus!
85: We Never Learn Q&A 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 - 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) - 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
33: Oscars 2019 Predictions!!
34: The Best Movies of 2018!
35: Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel ii: lost butterfly
36: The Ghibli Conspiracy
37: Howl's Moving Castle

Reviews:

Dragon Ball Super: Broly
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission
Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel ii: lost butterfly
Fruits Basket (2019) Episodes 1 & 2

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! Another really awesome moment doing the podcast that I never would've expected but really made my day recently. 

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!

[Foggle]

That's awesome! I hope you end up seeing the huge success you deserve on your Patreon. I will likely add a pledge soon.

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.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Thank you so much Foggle! Your generosity means the world to me, and we really appreciate it! 

And of course, you're my go-to guest for when we do an Excel Saga podcast!  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.