Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

Yup, a Rin-ne anime has been confirmed and is coming next spring. Not surprised, and it's about time. I wonder how long they plan to make it? I think using a two-cours model is preferable than making it a long-runner. The bigger question, though, is who'll be doing it? What I would really love is for it to go to a good team and studio that really fleshes out and expands on it's strengths as a comedy and does a good job exploiting the solid characters and their interactions, like the Ranma anime did at times. A straight adaption would just be kind of boring, especially because the source material is only somewhat amusing at best as it is. I really think making it a more wacky slapstick comedy akin to Ranma, or even better, Urusei Yatsura, would make it more entertaining to watch. In any case, I'll keep tabs on it. It's a Rumiko Takahashi series, after all. Even though Rin-ne is easily my least favorite work of hers, there's still a fair bit of enjoyment I get from it, and I do think a good anime adaption could prove to be a very fun watch if done right.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've also been keeping up with My Hero Academy for the past couple of weeks. I didn't mention anything about it because I wanted to read enough chapters to formulate a solid opinion on it first. I think it's safe to say that it's a good manga, now, or at least so far. I like how it seems to pay tribute to American style superheroes, both mocking and celebrating them, while also making for a great comedy that you could only see done in Japan, and specifically in manga form. I couldn't invision an anime capturing the raw, hyper energy of this manga, just like how Dr. Slump works far better as a manga than as an anime.

If I had just one gripe so far, and it's a minor one at that, it's how wildly inconsistent the character designs are, so far. That said, it's really early on in the manga, so that's to be expected since the artist is still experimenting with designs for the characters, but I swear that he can never keep the main character at a specific and consistent height. In some panels he's a total shrimp, and in others it's like he grew twice his original height. Even for a comedy manga such as this one, it's really jarring to make such a transition.

Overall, though, it's the best currently running comedy manga that I've come across so far.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I don't think Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academy is meant to purely be a comedy series. At least, not any more than, say, One Piece is meant to be. I'd consider it an action-comedy, as of now, with leanings towards becoming a more serious story as it goes forward. The core story seems very character driven and has been emphasizing the emotional growth of Midoriya, so far. With the set-up and the way things are structured I'm pretty sure it's meant to become a more serious manga in the future. In a sense, I would compare it to One-Punch Man (another manga about superheroes, though seinin), which is a series where many events and actions are played for comedy, but as it continued forward showed more signs of developing a more character focused, and somewhat serious story. In fact, I also find it comparable to Assassination Classroom as well, which started out like it would be a sort of episodic comedy, but as it continued developed an overarching story with many serious elements and interesting character development. These series never dropped the comedy element of them, of course, but at the same time they are no longer defined simply by those elements. What the direction this series will go, of course, remains to be seen, but right now I feel it will lean towards being an action series as it goes on, especially considering the mangaka's previous work, Barrage, was similar in tone, and though short lived, showed to evolve as such during in it's short run.

As far as my favorite currently running "comedy" manga goes, mine is easily Princess Jellyfish, which is my favorite currently running manga period, followed by Silver Spoon.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't think Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academy is meant to purely be a comedy series. At least, not any more than, say, One Piece is meant to be. I'd consider it an action-comedy, as of now, with leanings towards becoming a more serious story as it goes forward.

You spent a whole lot of energy writing all of that when you could've just left it at this.

And yes, I'm not an idiot, it's a battle manga waiting to happen, but I'm primarily reflecting on the first 8 chapters, which are undeniably more focused on comedy than serious genuine moments, of which there have been plenty, but even many of those are presented in a comedic, over the top tone so far.

But seriously, do I really need to put a disclaimer at the end of every post addressing how it's "not exactly" fitting the exact wording that I'm using to describe it and that I'm aware of that to avoid getting the "well actually" responses from you for every other post that I make? Because you have a habit of doing this pretty much all of the time.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Rin-ne confirmed to be a 2-cours, 25 episode anime! Brain's Base is doing it! Great! They're really suited to the kind of sweet but also wacky comedy series like Rin-ne are, and the animation should be really solid! What's even better, Michiko Yokote will be in charge of the scripts. She has had experience working on Rumiko Takahashi anime adaptions before with Ranma 1/2, and wrote the script for Urusei Yatsura OVA 12 - "The Obstacle Course Swim Race," my FAVORITE episode of the Urusei Yatsura anime!  Wow, this is actually sounding like it could be really, really enjoyable adaption! Especially if they play up the wackiness like was done in Ranma and that aforementioned UY OVA. Yeah, so I'm actually rather excited for this now, and I'm looking forward to it. I think this really could have the potential to be a really great show, especially if they can remove some of the weaker bits of the original manga and replace it with more of the good-old fashioned Takahashi-style craziness.

[LumRanmaYasha]

New promo for the Shokugeki no Soma anime!

Dang, I must say, they've done a fine job making that food look as sexy delicious as it does in the manga. The aesthetics of the show, as well as the bits of animation shown here, is in general pretty great looking. The seiyuu doing Soma also sounds fine in the role, from what was heard here. This definitely is looking like it'll turn out to be a really good adaption, at least from a production standpoint. I'm hoping we see another trailer with more animation and featuring some of the other characters sometime soon.

[LumRanmaYasha]

A Silent Voice is getting an anime.

Yes.

YES.

A thousand times, YES! It certainly deserves one, and to be seen by a wider variety of people. I think it speaks volumes that this manga, which is only a little over 60 chapters long and just finishing this week, and had been in serialization only for a little over a year, and was never one of the most popular series in the magazine it ran in (in Japan, at least), still has had the popularity and support in order to get an anime version of it made. I'm so happy for it. It's an incredible manga, and in the right hands, I'm sure it will be an equally incredible anime.

So, I now I've got Stardust Crusaders season 2, Durarara!!x2, the Fate/Stay Night: Heaven's Feel movie, Soma, Lupin blue jacket, Rin-ne, AND A Silent Voice to look forward to next year? I gotta say, 2015 is looking like it's going to be a great year of anime. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

I read the final chapter of A Silent Voice.

I almost cried.

Beautiful ending. Amazing manga. The best I've ever kept up with. One of the best I've ever read period. I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss it so, so much.

I really hope the mangaka comes out with a new work of equal quality, if not greater (if that's even possible), soon. She's a fantastic storyteller, and god knows I want more of what she's got to tell.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I also enjoyed it. Best manga I've read all year.

(And in case you're wondering, I caught up to it over the past 2 weeks).

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm glad to see you enjoyed it. 

On the subject, it looks like the mangaka, Oima, while haven't decided anything definite yet, wants her next work to be a sci-fi fantasy. While I have would loved to see another "slice-of-life" from her, I'm all for it. It'll be interesting to see her apply the skills she's demonstrated in ASV to a whole different genre, and it could turn out fantastic. I'm definitely keeping an eye and ear out for whenever her next work begins serialization (hopefully it's soon!).

[LumRanmaYasha]

In less exciting (aka not at all exciting) news, Kishimoto says he'll begin his next non-Naruto work after next summer. I mean, at least he isn't going to beat his hit series into the ground like certain other mangaka (cough, Konomi, cough), but yeah, after the shit that was the last few years of Naruto, I don't have any expectations for it either. I will probably check it out for the sake of it, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Oh what the?...Kodansha has delayed the release of Vinland Saga volume 6. Before they had it listed to come out on January 6th, but now the date is TBD.

Ack, that sucks. Not that I don't understand. Their releases have basically combined two of the japanese volumes into one, and there are only 14 volumes of VS so far, so after the next two books they won't have anything to release for a long time. I hope they don't delay this back too far, though. Still, this is not nearly as ridiculous to me as Dark Horse delaying the release of the Astro Boy omnibuses and briefly listing a release date of 2027 for some reason. I swear to god they better figure that shit out early next year... .

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Honestly, Oima could do a battle Shonen for all I care, and she'd still probably be able to make it so character-driven and nuanced that it manages to deconstruct the genre and put most other modern series in the genre to shame. My point being that, I think she just has the talent to write well in the first place, so whatever genre she does, I'm sure that she can pull it off extremely well.

As for A Silent Voice, I really do like how this manga never took the easy way out of any situation. It could've easily turned into a generic and uninspired PSA, but much like another excellent slice of life manga, REAL, it's just so much smarter than that. Probably best of all is that it doesn't portray any single character as 1-dimensional. Just because someone is a bully doesn't mean that they are pure evil. It's also very realistic and never over the top with how it portrays the bullying. I can say that with certainty as a former victim of bullying, myself. That said, this manga really is about more than just that, and as a general coming of age story, it's among the best that I've seen.

This is also one of the very few manga that I'd have to struggle to find anything wrong with. I'm not saying that it's perfect, because to me there is no such thing, but I would REALLY have to go out of my way to try and find something wrong with it or that I don't like about it.

On a much more minor note, there is one little touch toward the end of the manga that I really appreciate. It's at the film festival where they get judged super harshly. First of all, whether intentional or not, I'll admit to laughing at that scene at how absurdly over the top the judge went in terms of insulting everyone involved with the film, and then how everyone was angry about it but also came to the conclusion that, in the end....yeah, it did kind of suck for how cheaply and quickly slapped together it was. That just really got a chuckle out of me. But more than that, it would've been so easy to have them make it far in the film contest as just a way to lighten up the mood toward the end of the manga. However, I hate it when series portray some other field as not that big of a deal and show someone excelling at it when they weren't even serious enough about it to begin with. This scene showed how harsh that field is, but still managed to lighten up the mood for me with how comical all of the character reactions were to it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, Weekly Manga Recap did their Naruto retrospective, talking about what they thought worked about their series and what didn't, and I found a lot of the points they made to be very valid, especially when it comes to what brought the series down over time (i.e. the overt focus on the rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, not making use of secondary characters well, undermining the teamwork dynamic established at the beginning of the series, brushing off the idea of a harsh reality to the ninja world previously set up, not following through on set-up character arcs or plot threads, etc.). It's really a good listen from people who have been keeping up with the series for a long time and talking about it for their podcast weekly over the past 4 years. If you are looking for them to completely tear into and bash every single thing wrong with it, you'll be disappointed, because they take a more unbiased, "objective" approach to evaluating it, but all the same these guys have never hold back how much they hate certain parts of this series or harshly criticizing it's flaws before or now either. The conclusion they reach is basically that Naruto is a really frustrating read overall, but it's not necessarily a bad manga. They think the first part, the pre-timeskip part, is solid enough to check out that they would recommend it to someone who had never read the series before, but beyond that, they would leave it up to people's discretion because it's all downhill from there. Which, I feel is a fair stance to take on the series as a whole.

As for myself, I've always been someone who's opinion on a series is affected by how it stacks up overall, with a lot of emphasis on it's later parts and ending if it's a story-driven series. When a series has a really bad ending or final stretch it can really break a series for me and sour my impression on the parts I used to enjoy about it. I've mentioned how I just can't say I like KnB because of how utterly frustrating and disappointing the second half of it was. And to use a non-anime/manga example, even a show I really used to love, How I Met Your Mother, was really destroyed in mind after that finale, and while unlike other stuff I've mentioned here so much of that series entertained me that I just can't ignore how much I enjoyed it before, all the same, I cannot rekindle the same passion for it I once had either at all. As such, with something like Naruto, where so much of the series in it's second half was really terrible to me, though not necessarily to the point where I got infuriated like with Bleach, Fairy Tail, and even parts of KnB, but all the same really bad parts and moments, I just can't even look at the good parts about it and say I'm very fond of them at all. But, I have decided that doesn't mean there is necessarily nothing to offer anyone in the series, at least for someone just getting into manga. Last week I had this whole debate with E-K about whether KnB is worth somebody's time or not, and thinking on it, I think I was wrong in my position. I still don't think of it as a "good" manga, by any means, but if someone did want to read it, there is really no harm in checking it out and seeing if it appeals to you. It's never offensive at any point, at the very least. And so, while I'd definitely call it a worse manga overall, Naruto is the same way. You might as well read part of it and see if you like it or not. In any case, you might as well have an opinion on it, since it's one of the most popular and influential anime/manga series ever now. So, I actually do agree with the WMR guys' stance on recommending it, because it's basically a "might as well/no harm done" kind of thing.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In any case, the WMR guys' retrospective reminded me I was planning to do one myself earlier, recounting how I got into the series, why I liked it, and how my opinions on it changed over the years, but then totally forgot about it. Even though it's been two weeks since the ending, I guess it's better late than never to do one now. I'll see how much I feel like writing about it in a very loose stream of consciousness sort of way, at the very least.

Well, so, where to start? I guess at the beginning of when I even became aware of Naruto's existence. I remember Cartoon Network was doing this summer preview special they aired at certain points on Memorial day in 2005. They highlighted all the shows, movies, etc. that would premiere on the network later that summer and early in the fall. There were segments focusing on certain blocks. Fridays had one, Miguzi had one, and of course, Toonami had one.

I had only gotten into anime - well, not even anime. I still didn't even know the term, much less distinguish between them and other animated series. I was more getting open into watching more action series. I have mentioned this time and again before but when I was a kid I was thoroughly uninterested in action series, but had a few exceptions over the years, and when I finally got into Dragon Ball through the final episodes of GT earlier in 2005 I became obsessed with that series and everything related to it. This got me to actually pay attention to Toonami, which I never cared about before beyond watching reruns of Batman Beyond, Hamtaro, and The Powerpuff Girls and then later Megas XLR, Samurai Jack, and Teen Titans (as you can see, there were some exceptions to my anti-action series bias). Getting into Toonami exposed me to other series that piqued my curiosity and I felt like trying out to see if I could find anything else as appealing to me as Dragon Ball. Yu Yu Hakusho left before I really could watch more than the last half of one episode (it was the fourth episode, fyi), but it was replaced by Zatch Bell! which I immediately became a fan of because of it's balancing of comedic and serious moments and the strong dynamic between it's too leads. One Piece replaced GT in May and I was skeptical of it but after watching the first two episodes I enjoyed them, and checked them out for a few weeks later before I sort of just fell out of it for a while until the fall. But in any case, through Toonami, I was finding action series that challenged my preconceptions of what action series were; not just stories about superheroes and the like but also could be very diverse adventure stories with lots of comedy, which appealed to me.

So by the time May came around I was already watching most of the block week to week. Hence, when I saw the Toonami segment of the promo, I was really excited, because they were hyping up new shows coming to the block that seemed really interesting to me and stuff that appealed to my sensibilities. One of these, and the one I was most excited for, was Bobobo. I saw the clips, heard the description, and I was sold instantly. It was going to be an irreverent and bizarre parody of action shows (now I recognize it was parodying battle-shonen specifically, but again, didn't know any of these distinctions back then), and I was going to love it. And then the second of the new shows that had me interested was Naruto. Mainly because it was about ninjas, and that seemed like it could be interesting, because the only show I had seen about ninjas before was TMNT 2003, which I didn't personally care for at the time, but this series seemed like it was going to take a more serious approach to things. That said, unlike Bobobo where I was dying waiting to hear about when it would premiere, I kind of forgot about Naruto until, like, the week before it was going to premiere, and I saw the promo and was like "oh yeah, THAT" and then immediately after was like "but where's BOBOBO dang it?!?"

Still, I was definitely really interested in checking it out. I hadn't really expanded my horizons, so to say, since may so the only non-superhero action cartoons I was watching were DBZ reruns (and loads and loads of videos and manga volumes I repeatedly checked out from libraries), Zatch, and OP, and I wasn't even paying attention to the latter much yet, so this was definitely something I thought would be well worth seeing. As it turned out, though, there was a neighborhood potluck that weekend, and though we didn't go, I was still tasked with bringing something to it and so I had to rush and do that, and stay at the party for a certain period of time until people were done with the dish (I think we contributed a potato salad, not quite 100% on that though). So, I actually didn't get a chance to watch the very first episode when it premiered. I did, however, catch the second. I remember sitting on the bed in the guest room, eating slices of a Costco-bought frozen pizza, watching that episode and enjoying it quite a bit. I liked Naruto's spunk and in that particular episode I liked Konahamaru's story and how Naruto helped him out. At that time, Naruto seemed like a very likable but rebellious character, which contrasted with the carefree attitudes of the main characters in the anime I had been watching up until that point, Goku, Zatch, and Luffy, and so seemed a bit refreshing as a result. So I had a good first impression of the series from the onset. I was like "this was a good show!" and "I'm going to enjoy this!" Ah ha ha, how little I knew of what was to come, but that would still be a few years down the line.

I watched the next episode the week after, liked it and the dynamics between the characters established. I didn't find the toilet humor very appealing but it was nice seeing a main character who could be poked fun of, since I hadn't seen that before, but still be sympathetic. I didn't know what to think of the other characters yet, but they seemed interesting. Sasuke seemed most so because of the fact he seemed to recognize that though Naruto was a goofball he had suffered through a lot of hardships and did not write him off or disrespect his efforts to become recognized or make friends, and there was hint to more depth to his character. Sakura struck me as someone who might grow to care about and respect Naruto over time, but I always really disliked her obsession with Sasuke in early episodes, and how she just seemed to be a token female character with no real ambition or purpose. I would sort of change my mind on her in the spring, but in the long run and looking back on things, yeah, I don't think she ever evolved out of that. In fact, neither Sasuke or Sakura ever became very good characters or really matured in any significant, meaningful way. We give Naruto a lot of flack for being kind of annoying, and while the series never had him evolve out of his idealism, he's certainly wasn't an idiot or impulsive after the timeskip like he was at the beginning of the series. He actually did mature in the way he carried himself if not his ideology, and while I don't like the character I do respect that aspect of his growth. I cannot say the same for Sasuke and Sakura. For every step forward their character development took, they always seemed to take yet another step back as well.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's keep it linear here! Okay, now, I didn't actually watch the following two episodes featuring Kakashi's introduction. My family went to a lot of parties with friends on weekends back in those days, so I did usually miss out on Toonami a lot of weeks, though I tried recording stuff most of the time, though I didn't always watch them. I did see those episode a bit later. Cartoon Network had already started rerunning the series pretty early into it's run, two episodes around noon on Sundays, so those episodes reran in...I want to say January, so I saw them then. Kakashi seemed interesting; though seemingly aloof and nonchalant about things he was a character who has personally experienced a lot of hardships and seen many of his friends die, and his lesson was to teach Team 7 that they were a team and they need to be committed to each other, but also that there is a harsh reality to the ninja world, and they will have to face tough decisions, and they will see friends die. Now, this ended up being bullshit as it turned out, but like RolloT said in the WMR podcast, this harsh tone was interesting and really characterized early Naruto. Sure, the characters wore bright colored attire and there was a lot of humor, but many aspects, such as how Zabuza became a ninja, by having to kill all of his fellow students when he was just a child in a death match, and how his experiences ended up effecting the way he operated, Haku's cruel backstory as a victim of prejudice and his own father turning on him and killing his mother and trying to kill him out of fear for his abilities, Gaara's similar backstory about how he was ostracized like Naruto as a child for being Shukaku's jinchuriki and how his father eventually tried to have him killed by the hands of his own uncle who up until that point was the only other person who loved him, but then revealed he always held a grudge against him for being responsible for the death of his sister this whole time and how that turned him into a cold, bitter, violent person, you know, all of that really reinforced that the way of the ninja was harsh and cruel, and this world was harsh and cruel, and the characters would have to fight against a lot of prejudice, hardships, and see much death and bloodshed as they matured into capable adult shinobi. Obviously, that didn't last after the timeskip, but that element of the series was really appealing to it early on.

In any case, though, I think I watched the first few episodes of the Zabuza arc but then fell out of the series sometime late October/November, at least after the first fight they had with him and the introduction of Haku. I caught the New Years Eve marathon later, though, so I saw the episode where Naruto let the nine-tails' power influence him and defeat Haku, and then Haku's sacrifice to allow Zabuza to try and get a fatal blow on Kakashi. Overall, though, I missed most of the arc in the first airing and am pretty sure I only saw all of it when the series started airing weekdays at 9pm later that summer. I believe it was that summer, at least. I remember eating char-grilled fried shrimp, fries, and rice while watching the episode with Haku's backstory and I'm sure that was the summer where we had that "phase" where we rotated home-made fried food into our dinner rotations. Not necessarily relevant, but those are fond memories, you know. I also remember my mom watching the first episode of the series with us when they first started airing it on weekdays at the 9pm timeslot and saying "hey, that was pretty good" and then she watched episodes of it with us a few times after that. My parents don't like cartoons much, my mom in particular only liked Looney Tunes, but she liked Naruto and that was the only anime my mom ever liked and in general one of the only cartoons I watched as a kid that she liked at all period, next to only Justice League and The Simpsons Movie  (and the movie ONLY), I believe. Odd.

I keep digressing, it seems. Okay, to get back on track, in February came the Chunin Exams. I was up on it from the get-go and this was the point where I started to watch every Naruto episode week after week and try not to miss a single episode. I think this is where the series started to pick up for me, largely because of the set-up. I liked the new characters and the emphasis that Team 7 would need to work as a team in order to succeed here, as well as the fact that their rivals are by and large more skilled and resourceful than they were, and that they were at a disadvantage because they were still a young team, compared to others, which had already been in training for more than a year. I also liked the first round, the written test, and how it was a matter of strategy, trying to weed information out from rivals who did have the answers, and was a test for cunning, resourcefulness, and dedication. The Forest of Death basically tested your survival skills, and if you died, you died. That's the harsh reality of being a ninja and you just had to deal with that. In that portion of the series Orochimaru was introduced and Kabuto was expanded upon as an important character, his connection with Orochimaru highlighting him as an antagonist, but possibly not totally loyal to him as well (which ended up being resolved shitty in the Sasuke and Sai arc, but, whatever). Orochimaru was great at the start. He was creepy, sinister, dangerous and deadly, and had strong connections to other characters and a force to be reckoned with and taken seriously, a dark shadow looming over the remainder of the exams. I liked that. His first appearance also forced Sasuke out of his comfort zone. It made him afraid and lose his composure. Which led to what I think might be one of the most powerful moments in the series - where Naruto steps in and takes charge in the fight, makes a reference to what Sasuke said before to him in the Zabuza arc when he was the one who froze up and didn't fight back, and basically gets his ass handed to him by Orochimaru, forcing Sasuke to step in and try to fend him off by himself, ultimately failing but impressing Orochimaru and deciding to use him as a pawn, marking him with the curse seal, which would manipulate and effect Sasuke's volatile emotional state in later portions of the arc.

So there was great development for Sasuke here, but what about Sakura? In the aftermath of the conflict both Naruto and Sasuke were out cold and when Dosu and the Sound ninja team came to kill them she was put in a dangerous situation. Rock Lee came to help her, but then he was beaten the shit out of, and then eventually Sakura had to make a decision, go out of her comfort zone, and start to rely on herself and take charge in order to survive and protect her teammates. I LOVED this moment. Sakura always seemed like she would be this useless female tag along character, but here she was showing growth as a character, making it seem like she would really try and fight on par with Naruto and Sasuke for the sake of her friends and teammates, and the connection and backstory she had with Ino was explored here and the way other characters were incorporated into this conflict but the focus still remained on her growth as a character really impressed me. I think this was the moment that really got me more invested in Naruto beyond the casual interest and enjoyment I had in it before.

One thing that really sums up how cool this series seemed at this time was the long promo Toonami ran for it at the time, to promote the "second season" of the show (what they were calling the episodes that premiered in March 2006 onwards). That shit was hype. It still is hype. Even though I no longer enjoy or like the series, this promo still stands among my favorite all time Toonami promos.