Currently Running Manga Discussion

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, has anybody else checked out the first chapter of Takeshi Obata's newest manga, Gakkyu Hotei? It's not a collaboration with Tsumugi Ohba, but with a different writer, but even so, I found it very enjoyable. Almost feels like what PCP would have been if it was a real manga.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It seems pretty interesting. I'll certainly try to keep up with it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I mean, it's not like I didn't expect this kinda thing was coming, but still...

[LumRanmaYasha]

Welp, lot's of manga-related news happened since I've been gone:

First off, the A Silent Voice anime has been confirmed to be a film, not a tv series. Part of me is definitely disappointed by this news, but at the same time, I think it can make a very good film and the animation quality/production quality should be great. Some people think they should only cover the "childhood arc" of the series, and I do think that doing the entire thing in one film might be asking for too much, while that specific section of the story could still lend itself to a powerful and well-done film and self-contained story. Or it could be an epilogue of sorts to the manga. I hope we'll learn more about what the film will be about soon.

I suppose the second biggest news is that the Assassination Classroom anime has been licensed by FUNimation. While this ensures it will at least get a good dub, I still have no confidence that the anime will be a good adaption, and so it's hard for me to get excited. Though, I have to wonder who they'll get to voice Korosensei...

Gakkyu Houtei has been officially added to Viz's Weekly Shonen Jump. Like there was any doubt that it would. Also another incentive to get my Weekly Shonen Jump subscription as soon as possible. Still, I do hope someone scans Ageha, since that seemed like an amusing sports-comedy series that will have a good future in the magazine.

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction is on hiatus until spring. Dang, and right when I started reading and got caught up to it too! Well, no choice but to wait, I suppose.

The "Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire" arc of Pokemon Adventures has been confirmed. Now that Viz is up to date with releasing the series, the first volume of it should be out in the U.S. sometime next year. I still need to get around to reading the original "Ruby and Sapphire" arc (and beyond that) myself.

Hideo Yamamoto has a new manga, Hikari-Man. I liked Ichi the Killer and have heard good things about Homunculus, so I'm definitely keen on reading the series once the scans start coming out.

Viz has re-licensed Sgt. Frog and will republish it digitally. There's no word that they will publish beyond what Tokyopop originally released, which is a but of a shame. While I'm not as big into the series as I was once upon a time, it's a fun manga, and it's nice to see it rescued in some capacity.

A new Yu-Gi-Oh! movie is coming out in 2016, taking place after the end of the original series and staring Yugi and Kaiba. Nostalgia! 2016 will be the 20th anniversary of the franchise, so this is a good way to celebrate it. Yu-Gi-Oh! movies aren't known for exactly being good, though, so I don't have any expectations for it, but, y'know, it's neat in a nostalgic respect.

The World Trigger anime has been confirmed to be 50 episodes. I bet it's going to end up being a long-runner, though. Great, just what we need: Toei fucking up another anime adaption of a good Shonen Jump manga and stretching shit out with abysmal pacing and production values for years and years. I feel bad for the series' fans.

Finally, Akiko Higashimura is going to cameo in the Princess Jellyfish film. Not much to say about this, but it's a neat tidbit.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm actually really on board with A Silent Voice being adapted as a film, if done right. That makes 2 anime movies that I'm super excited for next year, the other being The Boy and the Beast.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Shokugeki no Soma anime confirmed for the Spring.

[LumRanmaYasha]

So, I've been gone for a while, which means I haven't done one of my weekly manga recaps for about a month. I do still plan to do a write-up for all the chapters this last month, though, but because of the quantity of series that have been updated that will be a LONG one and I have some other things I have to take care of these next few days, so I'll need to wait a bit until I find some time to do that.

One thing I've been thinking about doing for a bit, though, was doing various Top lists near the end of the year to look back at the top moments/chapters/pages/series of this year. And then I thought, "that seems like too much," so I was like "nah." But then I remembered that all these anime blogger people do this 12 Days of Anime thing at the end of the year where they look back at their favorite or most memorable anime-related moments of the year, and so I thought about it again, and said "ya know what, I should do one of them things too!" Yeah Yeah I know I ain't in time to end it on Christmas or whatever, but fuck it, imma gonna do my shit dammit. So I decided that I should still do a Top Manga of the Year list, but figured that doing individual ones for moments and chapters would crossover too much, so I just merged those together. What I'm basically saying is, if you caught the gist among my babble, is that I'm going to be doing a Twelve Days of Manga thing where I count down my top twelve favorite manga chapters/moments of the year, and then on the first day of the new year I'll end things off by posting up my Top 10 Manga of the Year list. S'aright? S'aright.

Now, there were a lot of great chapters released this year, from a lot of great series this year. There was no way I could list them all. However, I decided not to be lame and tie shit and whatnot. I'm really just one chapter a day (there might be one cheat at the end, though). Obviously, though, this wouldn't be all that interesting if I had, like, 10 A Silent Voice chapters take up the bulk of the list (and I could have, too, since that series was effin' incredible), so I also decided to limit my picks to just one chapter per series, which would allow for a more diverse selection and also let me highlight a lot more series/moments that I liked this year!

So without further ado, let's begin!

Twelve Days of Manga: The Top Manga Chapters of 2014



#12: Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches chapter #116 - "No One Asked You!!"

Yamada-kun...wow, what a surprise! I've known of the series for a while now, saw how it's the most popular title of Crunchyroll's ever-expanding manga selection, even above Attack on Titan of all series on there, but I hesitated to dive into it. The reason? Well, I let myself into the bad habit of judging things by the cover. I enjoy a good anime/manga comedy and all, but from the description and early reviews I saw Yamada-kun seemed like it was just some episodic, go-nowhere romantic comedy manga that's a dime a dozen these days like Nisekoi, and while those aren't inherently bad I've already read and watched a lot of the best of that crop, and another tepid attempt didn't seem interesting enough to me, which pushed the series a ways back on my priority list. However, when A Silent Voice ended, I was down a weekly Crunchyroll manga. And so, I figured, even if I wasn't going to get a great read out of it I might as well gather a opinion and find something at least amusing to keep up with until Oima's next manga comes along.

But holy shit did this series far, far, far, FAR surpass my expectations.

Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is a hilarious and well-written comedy with a great story and fantastic, lovable characters that chucks all the typical mundane cliches of it's genre out the window in favor of something far more interesting and a whole lot of fun to read. It takes full advantage of it's concept and does really interesting things with it and moves it's story along at a quick pace without any bullshit filler. Not to mention the romance aspects are wonderfully handled. The relationship between the two central leads, Yamada and Shiraishi, was well developed and no stupid misunderstandings or some bullshit ever impeded the progression of things, which allowed the characters to acknowledge their feelings for each other and start dating 90 chapters into the series (which is probably like a third into how long this series will ultimately end up being), and then we see them try to work through having a relationship and balancing it with other priorities. Oh my god THANK YOU! Why can't more manga fucking do that, seriously?

Last year was probably a better year for Yamada-kun because that was when it concluded the storyline that had been running since the beginning of the series, and my oh my that arc was effin' fantastic. When I started reading this series within about 20 chapters I got hooked and started to marathon it in chunks over the weekend, and when I got to the "7th Witch arc," though it was in the dead of night and I really should've gone to bed, I found I could not stop reading it and just had to read the entire thing in one go. Honestly, the way things ended in that arc, the series could've ended there. In fact, when I got to the end of that arc, I was confused why it didn't. I didn't see how it could continue after that point. I mean, they found all 7 witches and did the ceremony, which was the point of the series, and Yamada and Shiraishi got together. What more could you do? Well, there were some unresolved plot elements, but more than that, the mangaka found new, interesting things to do with the series. Sure, introducing 7 new witches with different powers is kinda the obvious thing to do, but if it was only that the series would just feel tired and repetitive. Nah, it's what the series has been doing with the characters, how it's using the new rules and situations to put them into situations that will make them grow, the direction of the story and the interesting turns it's taking, and all that alongside the great as ever humor and character interactions has made this series continue to be an exciting blast to read. Suffice to say, that, alongside Assassination Classroom, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches has become the manga I look forward to reading the most every week.

Now, all that should explain how I feel about the series, but why have I chose this particular chapter of this series to represent it on this Top Manga chapter list? There were a lot of really good chapters from this series this year, after all. Well, like I said before, I appreciate how the mangaka handles both the humor and the relationships between the characters in this series, as well as her creative use of the Witch powers to create interesting situations. Chapter #116 of Yamada-kun does a good job of highlighting these qualities and make it one of the most memorable moments I've read in manga this year.

It doesn't hurt that the focus of the chapter is on my favorite character in the series, Nene Odagiri. In the "7th Witch" arc Odagiri finally recognized that she has feelings for Yamada, but also knew that Yamada was in love with Shiraishi and those feelings were mutual, but in spite of that tried everything in her power to help him restore Shiraishi's erased memories and absolve the current Witches' powers and set things right for everyone. However, even though Yamada and Shiraishi are dating now, Odagiri still can't just let go of her feelings for him, something shown in short comedic bursts and in their interactions up until chapter #115. In that chapter, Odagiri decides to help relieve Yamada of some of his work on the Student Council's retreat by switching bodies with him, which leads into some wonderfully funny shenanigans. At the end of the chapter, however, she receives a call from Shiraishi, who is coming over to spend some time with Yamada. That leads us to this chapter. Unable to find Yamada and switch bodies back with him, Odagiri ends up having to cover for him in his absence. Despite herself, she volunteers to walk her back to her room and does her best to impress and please her like Yamada would. She doesn't even understand why she's going out of her way to do this, but feels as if she's reacting to seeing a side of Shiraishi she has never noticed before.

Though nothing has been stated outright in the manga, the implicit idea in this scene actually has to do with the new nature of the body-switching powers. While the other former powers had been notably modified or changed outright, the body switching power seemed to be the same. This chapter reveals otherwise. We see here that the new effect of the body-switching power is the ability to empathize with the feelings of the person you've switched with. In this case, Odagiri is responding to Shiraishi the same way Yamada would because she's experiencing the same feelings Yamada has towards her. This is reinforced in the subsequent chapter when Yamada, in Odagiri's body, shows complicated feelings towards Ushio and jealousy towards seeing Shiriashi and Odagiri in his body hugging. This is a really interesting twist on the powers that should be further explored some point down the line, and in the point of this chapter, it allows Odagiri to see and understand how Yamada really feels towards Shiraishi and why he likes her.

All of this is fascinating enough, but it's the climax of this chapter that really got me giddy the first time I read it. Shiraishi, of course, knew that Odagiri was in Yamada's body the whole time, and just went along with it because she found it adorable that she was trying to be all cool and smug and stuff (to Odagiri's embarrassment), only stopping and letting her know when she tried to hug her, since the only person she wants to hold her in that way is the real Yamada. Odagiri asks her why she's calm, since Yamada has kissed another girl even though she's his boyfriend, but Shiraishi, level-headed as always, tells her she doesn't mind because for one thing Yamada's job in the Student Council and ability to copy the witch powers requires him to kiss other people and test out the powers, and so he belongs to everyone, but even so, that doesn't bother her, because she knows that she likes him the most. Of course, this annoys Odagiri, and she retorts in response that she likes Yamada too, and while she can now see why Yamada likes her, she isn't going to give up on him. And so she directly challenges Shiraishi to her face and tells her that she better watch her back because she will take Yamada from her one day.

I've never been much into romantic relationships/plots in anime and manga outside a few certain series that handle them right, and this series is one of those time and time again. I loved this moment. Odagiri directly challenges Shiraishi here and makes her feelings for Yamada and her aims clear. Immediately after she was like "oh shit, why did I say that," but this outburst has now created a definite tension between the two. Shiraishi has never been much for showing her emotions and saying what she really feels, but to Odagiri she did state that she believed that she was the one who loved Yamada most and genuinely believed that. Odagiri's retort visibly surprises me and puts her into an uncomfortable spot, because it shakes up her faith in her relationship, and it does cause her to worry. While it hasn't been touched upon yet, Shiraishi has been distancing herself from Yamada a lot in recent chapters, and that is likely because she's become much more worried about her relationship and how to best express her feelings, since she is much more quiet and passive about these things than the bold Odagiri. While we haven't seen a follow up moment between these two, mostly because they keep avoiding each other, there's a certain rivalry that's developed between them and is going to have to come into play and blow up sooner rather than later, especially since Yamada and Odagiri have become closer the more Shiraishi has distanced herself from him. Which makes it a really cool moment that really pushes these two characters forward in an interesting direction, and moves this subplot that could have just been relegated to some occasional gag now and then much more important.

And it basically sums up what I like about this series. It doesn't stall with these plots or keep the characters that matter underdeveloped or without anything to do for too long. It keeps the story interesting, keeps giving the characters likable and purposeful, and keeps the balance between it's humorous and dramatic moments strong and well executed. It's well written and incredibly humorous, the story and characters develop at a good rate, and it's really surprised me with how consistently good it's become on a chapter to chapter basis. I wish I got into this series sooner than I did, since I would have had a lot of great times keeping up with these chapters week to week, but I'm glad to be caught up with it now, and am looking forward to seeing more good things from it in 2015.

And on a tangent, Odagiri is 'effin hilarious. I like Shiraishi and Yamada as a couple, but dang, she actually makes me root for her with all her silly schemes and bold confidence and dedication even in the most ridiculous of circumstances, unaware (or unworried) of how much of a fool she might be making of herself in the process. Consider the chapter where she tries to sex herself up and get Yamada to notice her at one point by literally shoving her ass in his face during a reconnaissance mission an honorable mention for this list.

Welp, that's my #12 favorite chapter of the year. Check in tomorrow for #11! (and subsequent days for #10-1!)

[LumRanmaYasha]

The Naruto Shippuden anime is starting a new arc in January? What the fuck? Are they making a filler arc? Are they Dragon Ball GT-ing this shit? Goddammit, it's not like I don't expect their to be spinoff anime in the future and stuff, but jeezus, don't put a fucking filler arc toward the end of your series when the source manga is fucking over. Pierrot must really want to milk their cash cow as long as they possible can.

[LumRanmaYasha]

In better news, Gintama is getting a new tv anime in the Spring! Awesome! Damn, this spring season keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Also, a new promo for the Shokugeki no Soma anime has come out. Suffice to say I am now very confident this is going to be a good adaption. 

In less good news, Billy Bat is on hiatus until April. Dang it, Urasawa, again? Well, I guess it's just another thing in April I'll have to look forward to.

[LumRanmaYasha]

America is getting J Stars Victory Vs.

The novelty of playing as Killua and yo-yoing the shit out of Toguro...or Kenshiro ya-ta-tahing Johnathan Joestar...or Korosensei and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo duking it out in an epic battle of tentacles and nosehairs....HECK YEAH! 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Great news, though this is probably more appropriate to post in the video game board.

Either way, as a PS4 exclusive, I probably won't her the chance to play it for quite a long time.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Meh, it was manga-related. I thought it was fitting enough to post it here as much as any other thread. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

Twelve Days of Manga: The Top Manga Chapters of 2014



#11: The Rising of the Shield Hero chapter #8: "The Words I Wanted to Hear"

I'm not a fan of all these series where a teenage boy enters some virtual game world or some shit and gets really powerful and skilled and whatnot to combat some evil thing that's preventing people from leaving the game. Even beyond SAO, stuff like .Hack never appealed to me, and though I'm willing to try out some other series I've heard good things about like Log Horizon in the future, I generally haven't been impressed with series of this ilk. This one has, though. I saw it quickly gained popularity in just a few short chapters, and always interested in jumping on the next hot manga, I decided to look into it, and found a pleasant surprise. The Rising of the Shield Hero starts out with the familiar premise of a group of young teenagers trapped in a sort of game world, and is very self-aware about how tired and overused that premise is. What it does to twist the set-up on it's head is have it's main character not only be incredibly weak and unable to fight in a traditional way and win battles, but also have him be a true underdog, hated, scorned, and outcast because of preconceive notions of the uselessness of The Shield Hero as well as being framed for a serious crime he did not commit, earning the ire of his would-be colleges and those he's supposed to protect, but unable to escape and forced to remain and help fight for people who absolutely hate him.

It's an interesting concept that is supported by the characterization of main character, Naofumi. He didn't ask to be brought into the game world, nor did he ask to become a hero, and he's treated disdainfully the minute he arrives because of his status as The Shield Hero, which is by nature a defensive occupation and useless in offense. The one person who seems to support him and become his ally turns out to be using him for her own ambitions and frames him for a horrible crime, and because no one had any respect for him in the first place no one believes he didn't do it. This messes him up and makes him bitter towards the world, mistrustful of peopel, and fearful of coming in contact with other women. But because he can't go home until the ordeal he's in is over, he decides to just cooperate since he doesn't want to die if possible and he just wants to get things over with. Because no one will ally with him and he can't fight with anything else but a shield as per the rules of the world, he purchases a demi-human as a slave, Raphtalia, and trains her to fight. Though he keeps a hardened, bitter demeanor, Naofumi doesn't become a spiteful, rude person who does ridiculously mean things to people to get back at them. He generally tries to avoid confrontations with people who mock and pick on him, and when they use force he just responds by throwing weak demons he attached to his body on them to scare them off. With Raphtalia, though he initially sees her as just a weapon and means to an end, his genuinely good nature ends up showing in the way he treats her; feeding her properly, consoling her when she is suffering from trauma, looking out for her health, noticing what she likes and treating her, putting her life before his own in a life-or-death situation, generally treating her like an equal and friend, all that good stuff. Raphtalia of course notices this about him and comes to care for him, and the two develop a mutual bond of trust in each other.

However, word gets out that Naofumi owns a slave, and this pisses off one of the other heroes. He doesn't know the actual situation, and when Raphtalia protests, he doesn't even bother to listen to her, because in his (and everybody's minds), Naofumi doesn't have deserve the benefit of the doubt with his alleged history of wrongdoings. Naofumi is forced to duel with the guy (who'll I'll just call Lance from here on because I don't remember his actual name but he's called the Hero of the Lance, so...) over Raphtalia; if he wins he gets to keep her, but if Lance wins she'll be free. Naofumi does his best in a really creative use of his strengths and Lance's weaknesses as a fighter, but ultimately foul play from the bitch who once betrayed him, Marti, (who's now on Lance's side), costs him the battle.

And that's where this chapter comes in. Naofumi of course protests that there was interference, but though there seems to be a discomfort among the crowd, no one speaks out. So Naofumi fumes in anger and loathing, his warped mind jumping to the idea that this has all been a conspiracy to make a fool out of him engineered by Marti to make it so that Lance goes down in history as a noble hero who defeated the scum hero who enslaved a poor young slave girl, and make him out to be the bad guy in recorded history.

Now, if the series had gone down in that direction, that would have been kinda dumb and made everyone out to look like dickheads for no good reason. Thankfully, this series is better written than that. When Raphtalia's curse is broken, the first thing she does is slap Lance guy for bullying Naofumi and telling him that he always treated her right and she was happy to be by his side, and then asks him the question of whether he would do the same as him if he met a poor young slave. Of course Lance guy says yes, but then Raphtalia tells him in an awesome line "then you should have a slave who isn't me by your side."

This scene is cool because finally Naofumi's detractors are called out for their shit and it pays off on the genuine kindness and good character we've seen from Naofumi and towards Raphtalia and the development of their relationship. But that's just the start. The best part is the sequence that follows. Raphtalia goes to comfort Naofumi, but he pushes her away. His experiences have made him traumatized, so much so that he fears the touch of a woman. Raphtalia knows what he was accused of, but also knows that there is no way he could have been capable of such a thing, because she has seen what kind of person he is first hand. Naofumi is still afraid; afraid to get close to and trust people. He sits crouched in a corner, shirking away from Raphtalia's touch. And then she reaches him. She hugs him, holds her close, and tells him he's right; "he didn't do it," and he has someone who knows that and believes in him right by her side. And at that moment, he is able to finally see things as they are, and he sees Raphtalia who she really is. All this time he still saw her as the young timid girl he first met her as; now he see's how she's become, how she's grown. In fact, this is the first time he really sees her for who she is, and realizes how she was always by her side. That all this time, he had an ally, and a friend.

Just like how Naofumi's eyes have been opened, and he sees the world in a new, less "out-to-get-him" light for the first time, so does the reader. If this series really had gone down the "everybody-is-a-douche-for-no-reason" route I wouldn't be so favorable towards it. Luckily, this series seems better than that. There is good cause for the way people have been acting. People did see the interference. They did know that Lance didn't win fairly. But they couldn't really do anything...after all, the interferer was the king's own daughter, and no one there, who are mostly nobles whose privileges are administered by the king, would dare to cross him and shame the princess. But the other two heroes don't hesitate speak out and point this out, and Lance guy, who was completely unaware of this, is just as baffled by it. Even the king seems disgusted at his daughter for the mess. At one point Lance guy tries to justify he was still in the right overall, since he's sure that Raphtalia is just brainwashed or something, but the two heroes just look at him with disdain and question how he could think that scene - Naofumi embracing Raphtalia, tears flowing out in gratitude and happiness, could possibly be twisted into such a claim.

There are many reasons that I approve of in this chapter. The handling of the aftermath. The payoff of Naofumi and Raphtalia's relationship and her character arc up to this point. The breaking of Naofumi's warped view of the world and his delusions. People finally calling out the unfairness and supporting Naofumi because he in the right in this situation. Developing the world and some of these other characters into something more believable and three-dimensional. When I saw this series was popular, and the claims were that they really got behind the idea of this guy making his best dealing with a shitty world out to get him, I was skeptical. People being one-dimensionally evil and mean to the hero for the sake of drama and creating some kind of dark, angsty tone would be stupid and lame, and I know that lots of people gravitate to such kind of dark, depressing series with angsty heroes trying to fight against the world hailing it with all sorts of praise, even if the actual writing is nonsensical and the messages forced and detracted by an overdose of grimness and mean-spiritedness. This chapter alleviated my fears of that and showed me that this series was going in a promising direction. It was not going to be a series with an angsty dark hero who gets a lot of shit for no reason. It was going to be about a guy trying to restore a reputation that was once sullied, and continue to do what's right despite what some people might think of him. A story about overcoming adversity and finding kindred spirits who believe and trust in you, and will stand by your side when no one else will. Now THAT is a story I can get behind.

But above all else, this chapter makes this list because of something pretty simple. For all the shit Naofumi has been through, for everything that has gone wrong for him, for all that people believed and said about him, there was still one person who cared. He still had a friend, one who will always be there for him in his time of need, just as he was for her. In that one moment of recognition from those who once thought ill of him that there is a genuine bond between these two. In the end of a master-slave relationship built out of fear and the beginning of a partnership built on trust. All of this and more, combined with powerful images and a heartwarming moment. Yes, this chapter makes my list for the true, unfettered satisfaction it elicits. And to get such a powerful feeling from a series only 8 chapters in? Now that makes a memorable moment, and a memorable manga, if I've ever heard one. I don't expect much from light-novel based series (been burned too many times), but I'm hoping for more good things from this series. And somehow, I have a good feeling that it'll deliver.

Well, so long as it's seemingly budding harem elements are kept slim, that is...^^, 

[LumRanmaYasha]

...And shit, I just realized that I'm just barely late. 

Ah well, I'll just have to make sure today's entry is one time. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Meh, it was manga-related. I thought it was fitting enough to post it here as much as any other thread. 

It's a video game, though. And at that it's not even all about currently running manga.

It's no different from how the Batman Arkham games are discussed on that board rather than on this one or the one for animated series.