Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

Not that most live-action adaptions of anime/manga series ever turn out all that well, but after seeing the trailer for the Princess Jellyfish movie, I'm hella confused as to how they are going to make Kuranosuke's character work, since the point is that his voice sounds effeminate enough that when he's cross-dressing you can mistake him for a woman, while the actor who's portraying him in this film's voice sounds much too deep for that to be believable. Everyone else looks fine though. I am a big fan of the series, so I guess I could check it out if and see for myself it ever gets subbed. I'm also reminded that there was a film for Silver Spoon made earlier this year, and since I could easily see that working in live-action, I should get around to checking that out too.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, you know how I do a weekly recap of all the manga I've read each week, and how I haven't done last week's yet? Yeah...I kinda got too busy, and at this point I've already read the new chapters of most of those series and it's almost the end of this week anyway....so yeah, that'll just have to be a miss. I will do this week's recap tomorrow, though, for sure.

But, for what it's worth, this is how I'd rank last week's chapters:

1. Princess Jellyfish - 9.5/10
2. A Silent Voice - 9/10
3. Vinland Saga - 9/10
4. Shokugeki no Soma - 9/10
5. Fuuka - 9/10
6. Detective Conan - 9/10
7. The Seven Deadly Sins - 8/10
8. One-Punch Man - 8/10
9. Magi - 8/10
10. One Piece - 8/10
11. Toriko - 8/10
12. Peephole - 8/10
13. Space Brothers - 8/10
14. Joshi Kausei - 8/10
15. GTO: Paradise Lost - 7/10
16. Naruto - 3/10
17. Bleach - 1/10

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Looks like that was a pretty decent week for you. Only the expectedly bad series were shit.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yeah, it was a really good week. Of course, even if all the other series had been mediocre, it was a week with Princess Jellyfish, Vinland Saga, AND A Silent Voice, which are always fucking amazing, so I probably would have still said it was a good week either way. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, as I predicted, Karasuno is up against Seijoh again for their rematch. The problem I have with this is that the outcome is WAY too predictable. They lost their first game against them by just a little bit during a tiebreaker, so they are naturally going to win this time. How can I say this with such certainty? Because this is the last time that any of the 3rd years can play, thus if they lose this game, the make-up of both their's and Seijoh's team would change, thus crippling their rivalry since the make-up of the teams would be very different after that point. Since Karasuno is the team of our main characters, normal shounen sports logic deems that they will win. I feel bad, because on the one hand, this manga is really good at making such a seemingly simple sport seem entertaining WITHOUT relying on over the top power-ups like Prince of Tennis or Kuroko no Basket. On the other hand, no matter how good the actual content of the game is, it's really hard to make me give a shit if I already know the outcome (and before anyone says anything, manga like Ashita no Joe and Slam Dunk are among the exceptions). I'd give major props to the mangaka if he had the balls to go against expectations,mbut I just don't see it happening, since the whole set-up of this match flat-out wouldn't make any sense from a story-telling point of view unless Karasuno was destined to win it.

Honestly, though, the anime is definitely better than the manga in adapting these predictable situations. It's all about good execution and good direction which makes an alright shounen sports series seem greater than it really is, so I'll definitely be checking out season 2 of the anime, even though I already know hoe it will all go down.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I actually tried picking up Naruto where I left off....Oh god, why!?

I swear to god, this is the hardest time I've ever had just trying to force myself to keep reading a work of fiction. I have literally read some textbooks that are more interesting than what I'm reading here. It's so convoluted and incredibly stupid to the point of being a chore to follow. That's why I stopped reading in the first place. Reading this manga actively feels like I'm forcing myself to undergo mental displeasure. I know people often say this stuff as an exaggerating way to say something is bad, but I'm being dead serious here.

To put things in perspective, take a bad movie like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It's unquestionably bad, but if I was locked in a room for a couple of hours and had nothing to do but either watch that DVD or silently keep to my own thoughts for 2-hours, I'd pop in the movie and kill some time. If you put me in the same situation but had my choice be that or to specifically read 2-hours worth of Naruto chapters from any point in this Shinobi War arc, I'd literally find it easier to just do nothing. That's how bad this is.

How can anyone like this stuff, legitimately? How can people defend this? Why is this manga still so undeservedly popular even when it's this unreadably bad? Did Jacob T. Paschal seriously praise this very material that I'm specifically reading right now, yet insult Mereum's character development from Hunter X Hunter? How the fuck....? What? What!? How the fuck can anyone find this shit to even be tolerable!?

Remember how much I've been harping on Oda for One Piece over the past few years? Well I take it back. Naruto has literally managed to sink so low, that it manages to make Oda's weaker story-telling look relatively well put-together. That's how low the bar has been set with this. I am utterly appalled. No wonder I stopped reading this shit.

And in case you're wondering, I'm specifically at the part where Black Zetsu takes over Obito's body after he was weakened, and Madara claims "Haha! I was planning to do that the whole time! You guys just played right into my master plan!" And this is of course several times after he had the exact same reaction when someone seemingly foiled his plans. BULL! FUCKING! SHIT! Kishimoto just pulled that out of his ass and he knows it. In fact he pulls each new chapter out of his ass. Every single chapter is either some "OMG! I didn't see that coming! What a twist!" revelatory chapter that of course was made up on the spot, or it's about how everyone now loves Naruto and practically want to suck his dick because he's the "hero" that they all used to be such ass-holes to because they are Kishimoto characters, and thus completely unlikable. That's literally all this is. It's back and forth between plot twists and metaphorical oral sex with Naruto. Well, fuck this shit! Kishimoto can go suck his own dick!

And thus ends my rant, for now, complete with explicit content and all. But I'm really not exaggerating. I find this manga to be "disgustingly" bad, not in an offensive way, but literally in an "it's written SO BADLY" way.

[Nel_Annette]

You... you didn't even reach the worst part if Madara's still standing. Read deeper, my friend. Deeper into the gaping maw of madness. It somehow reaches even further levels of "That is absolute bullshit! How is that even a thing?!"

The only thing Kishimoto is relatively good at is tying back certain themes, but the stuff he pulled in this final arc was balls to the walls horse dick. Pick a villain. Use that villain. Don't have a bunch of random people keep one-upping each other with "but I'm the REAL bad guy!", don't bring back a bunch of people who already died just so they can use their bullshit powers to win the fight, and don't suddenly usher in a bunch of prophecy/reincarnation crap that suddenly deifies Naruto.

I've said it before in this thread and I'll say it again: I think it's absolutely amazing (in the worst possible way) that the two motherfuckers who initiated this big war are somehow considered good guys, or redeemable by the end of the fight. They're replaced by new big bads twice, and by the end of the war they started, are on the good guys' side. Ridiculous. They should have been the big bads of the whole thing.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Well, E-K, didn't I warn you this series had gotten even shitter since when you dropped it? Think of how you could have spent that time finally starting Vinland Saga or something? To contrast, whereas you have now wasted precious hours of your life today by reading a terrible manga like Naruto, I spent mine catching up to an amazing manga, Billy Bat. I think we both know which one of us better spent their time.  You would have been better off heeding my warning, if not just going back to earlier in this thread and simply reading through all my thoughts I wrote for each chapter that came out this year and see the ever spiraling decline of the series into total bullshit in a less time-wasting way. But since you've come this far, I suppose you may as well venture deeper and see the absolute worst the series has to offer...

In all seriousness, though, fuck Naruto. How anyone can still give it any respect whatsoever after all the bullshit of the last three years, in particular the shit that happened in the last six months especially, is absolutely mind-boggling to me. The saddest part of it is that because it's been so big a series and so entrenched in popular culture, it will likely be remembered. But I sure as hell hope in a decade from now it's not considered as some sort of a "classic," because boy howdy, this shit isn't even just mediocre, it's just bad. Maybe not the worst there is or anything, but still bad. I will be so, so happy when this series finally ends.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yes, Cartoon X. You were right. You were so, so right. And yet....I can't stop. Now that I know it gets even worse....I just kind of have to see it to believe it.

You... you didn't even reach the worst part if Madara's still standing. Read deeper, my friend. Deeper into the gaping maw of madness. It somehow reaches even further levels of "That is absolute bullshit! How is that even a thing?!"

It's funny, because had this arc ended years ago like it should have, I'd probably just think of Naruto as a mediocre shounen, on the whole. It's amazing how one single terrible story-line can be so bad that it retroactively destroys any and all positive qualities and sense of integrity that a series ever had.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yep, it's awful. I'm glad I stopped when I did. Same with Bleach.

Now lets get some good shonen out there to replace this with posthaste.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I doubt that we'll see any good battle-shonen become nearly as popular internationally as Naruto did for a considerable amount of time, if ever again. Attack on Titan, of course, defied all odds and became an unrivaled massive commercial hit everywhere, but a hit like that is lightning in a bottle. Shame it isn't really "good," though.

But imo, fuck battle-shonen. Let some non-action series get uber popular for a change.

[LumRanmaYasha]

This reminds me I really should get around to reading Battle Angel Alita, sometime.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I remember a friend loaned me the first few volumes of BAA back in high school. At the time, I was really snobby and couldn't get into the more creatively cartoony art style, but I'd probably appreciate more if I tried reading it today.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I read some more Naruto today. Honestly, I've always had a problem with this manga's use of flashbacks. No wonder so many people have made fun of it. Some fans have defended it by saying that it adds depth to the characters. First off, lots of manga have flash backs, but there's a difference between the ones that use them effectively and the ones that just use them as padding. For instance, did we really need a flash back for Gai, who by all accounts has been a relatively minor character in the grand scheme of the series, so late into the final arc? And furthermore, it's the same goddamn backstory as EVERY FUCKING CHARACTER in this manga. I swear to god, whether it's a hero or a villain, it ALWAYS follows this specific formula:

-Character is either looked down on and mistreated by others, or feels emotionally distant from people just because, or starts our super happy and then quickly experiences a tragic incident which puts them in one of the other two circumstances

-Character initially hates the world but has that one person who "understands" them and looks out for them, and acts as their mentor, until that character either tragically dies, leaves them for some reason, or turns on them

-Character then goes through a period of anger and resentment towards whatever fucked them over and then meets someone else who either guides them into being a better person or a complete villain

A lot of these back-stories also rely heavily on every other character being completely 1-dimensional dicks who's only purpose is to make the life of the POV character of that flashback to be as miserable as possible. Seriously, how many flashbacks in this manga can you find that completely (or even just mostly) manage to defy that formula? At best I can only think of very few that only follow parts of it, but literally every flashback in the entire series has a majority of those elements. So in essence, it's the same story over and over again. Maybe that's the point that Kishimoto is trying to make, that regardless of their status, nobody has an easy past and everyone has motivations for what they do (though I seriously doubt that he's that clever). While that'd be great in and of itself, he does a terrible job of truly differentiating these characters enough to make them individually interesting. They just seem to be reacting to the plot that's unfolding, rather than unfolding the plot themselves through their own actions and character development.

And of course, even without reading further ahead yet, I can already tell you that Gai isn't going to save the day, or even stop the main villain. Partly because I know that who I'm looking at isn't even the REAL main villain yet, but even stopping the "fake" main villain will probably go to a more important character. Kishimoto has cursed himself with his own story-telling tropes because there is absolutely no sense of tension or unpredictability in any of these encounters. The only things that are unpredictable are the completely idiotic twists that he pulls out of his ass. At least the earlier arcs of Naruto had a mostly consistent flow to them, but this arc is a fucking mess. It's literally just a combination of pointless fights, pointless flashbacks, and pointless false climaxes because every time you think it's done, a new big evil threat is revealed.

The worse part is that I still have over 25 chapters left to go....

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm tempted to make a blog after the series is over where I go over it from the beginning and pick apart everything that went wrong and is wrong with it. Of course, that would require me to actually re-read the series, which is something I'd really rather not do, so...I'll see how I feel about that idea when the series is actually over and done.