#Weekly Analysis

[marketwizards]

An In-Depth Analysis of Bitcoin's Potential Direction for the Week of January 27–31, 2025

Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency, finds itself at a pivotal juncture as it navigates through the critical week of January 27–31, 2025. With a mix of bullish momentum, technical uncertainties, and macroeconomic influences at play, traders and investors are closely watching key levels to anticipate the cryptocurrency's next move. This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the factors influencing Bitcoin's potential direction for the week, grounded in technical, on-chain, and market sentiment indicators.

Technical Resistance and Support Levels

Bitcoin's price action this week will revolve around several well-defined technical zones that could either catalyze a rally or trigger a deeper correction. The immediate resistance lies at $105,000, a critical psychological barrier that aligns with historical patterns of heightened trader activity. A sustained breakout above this level could ignite a rally toward $120,000, especially if institutional buying intensifies.

On the downside, Bitcoin faces support zones at $100,000 and $94,665. These levels have acted as safety nets during recent price volatility. Should Bitcoin fail to hold above $100,000, selling pressure could accelerate, testing the $92,000–$95,000 range. A breach below these supports may open the door for a deeper correction to $87,000, in line with Elliott Wave analysis.

Mixed On-Chain and Technical Signals

Bitcoin's technical and on-chain indicators paint a complex picture of the market's sentiment and momentum. On the bullish side, moving averages and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at 66.33 indicate ongoing buying momentum. The RSI's proximity to the overbought zone suggests that while there may be short-term corrections, the broader bullish trend remains intact. Similarly, the Stochastic Oscillator, despite being in the overbought zone, signals potential upward continuation before a more substantial reversal.

Conversely, there are cautionary signs. CryptoQuant's Bitcoin Cycle Indicators (IBCI) point to a "distribution phase," which has historically coincided with market peaks. This raises the risk of a near-term pullback. Elliott Wave analysts from LiteFinance predict a possible decline to $89,107, citing corrective wave patterns, further emphasizing the need for vigilance.

Market Sentiment and Liquidation Events

Market sentiment remains volatile, as reflected in over $36 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours. The balanced ratio of long and short positions underscores trader uncertainty about Bitcoin's short-term trajectory. However, on-chain metrics provide a glimmer of hope. The Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio for short-term holders, currently at 0.96, suggests Bitcoin is undervalued. This could fuel accumulation among investors, potentially stabilizing prices.

Macro and Institutional Catalysts

Institutional involvement continues to play a decisive role in Bitcoin's price dynamics. Significant inflows into Bitcoin ETFs, such as the $475 million recorded in a single day, highlight growing institutional interest. Additionally, the influx of stablecoin deposits into exchanges signals preparation for potential buy orders, which could provide a buffer against downside pressure.

Seasonal trends, including the Spring Festival effect, have historically been bullish for Bitcoin as retail participation surges during this period. If this trend holds, it may contribute to upward momentum, counteracting bearish signals from technical and on-chain analyses.

Recent Price Action and Key Levels

Bitcoin experienced a sharp sell-off on January 27, briefly dropping below $100,000 for the first time in weeks. Currently, the price is testing the 50-day EMA and the 50% Fibonacci retracement level around $95,000, which historically act as strong support levels. A successful rebound from these levels could reignite bullish momentum, targeting $105,000 and beyond.

Conversely, a failure to hold these supports may trigger a more significant downturn, aligning with Elliott Wave forecasts and distribution phase warnings.

Predicted Direction for the Week

Bitcoin's performance this week is likely to be characterized by short-term volatility, as it oscillates between key support and resistance levels. Several scenarios could unfold:

Bullish Case: A rebound from $95,000–$100,000 could validate upward targets of $105,000 and potentially $120,000, driven by institutional demand and retail participation.

Bearish Case: A breakdown below $95,000 may lead to a retest of $87,000, in line with corrective patterns predicted by Elliott Wave analysis.

Neutral Scenario: Prolonged consolidation within the $95,000–$105,000 range may dominate if neither buyers nor sellers gain decisive control.

Key Levels to Watch

SupportResistance $95,000 (50-day EMA) $105,000 (immediate) $92,000–$94,665 $112,605 (bullish breakout) $87,000 (long-term) $120,000 (psychological)

Conclusion

Bitcoin's direction for the week of January 27–31, 2025, hinges on its ability to navigate critical technical levels amid conflicting signals. While the broader bullish trend appears intact, supported by institutional demand and seasonal factors, bearish warnings from on-chain metrics and technical analyses warrant caution. Traders should prepare for heightened volatility and closely monitor the $95,000–$105,000 range as decisive price thresholds.

By balancing risk and opportunity, market participants can capitalize on potential breakouts while safeguarding against downside risks. Ultimately, Bitcoin's performance this week will reflect the interplay of technical signals, market sentiment, and macroeconomic forces, setting the stage for its next major move.

[ophthalmotropy]

There aren't enough fucking hours in the day to get real good at chess, violin, piano, singing, crosswords, film photography, contemporary dance, literary analysis, writing, film criticism, historical analysis, political commentary, tennis, Latin, French, German, Italian, identification of invertebrates, programming, cooking, musical composition, watercolour painting, philosophy, stage acting, fencing, psychoanalysis, and sickoposting online.

[somewhereincairparavel]

my favourite character exchange of all time between the hoo gang will always be this particular line from jason to nico in house of hades.

“Nico, you do choose how to live your life. You want to trust somebody? Maybe take a risk that I'm really your friend and I'll accept you. It's better than hiding”

jason doesn't say something like 'i'll make sure to prove myself to you' or 'i'll do everything I can to make sure I earn your trust' because they are empty words. especially considering that this was before jason knew about nico's past, he can't exactly do anything to make nico trust him, apart from offering support, because in the end, it was nico's choice whether to trust him or not.

yeah, some people might think jason was being 'cold' and 'shallow' for saying this, but jason genuinely MEANT well. he told nico that he's WILLING to be his friend even before he knew nico's past. this was before jason knew an OUNCE of nico's backstory. he gave some slightly harsh but brotherly advice to him.

jason didn't deliver any false promise to nico that everyone will love him no matter what and that everyone will always be kind to him in camp half blood (this strangely parallels w percy deliberately choosing to NOT promise nico that he'll keep bianca safe because percy knew that death is a possibility and didn't want to make any fake promises just because nico is a kid, percy tried his hardest to be honest with nico, that certainly caused problems of course, but we can see the pattern between how percy and jason both hated fake promises.)

also, in boo, will says “Oh, please. Nobody at Camp Half-Blood ever pushed you away. You have friends or at least, people who would like to be your friend. You pushed yourself away. If you'd get your head out of that brooding cloud of yours for once”

i know I've seen alot of people use this excerpt as consensus of saying that will is super 'tone deaf' and 'insensitive'. but can you guys see the pattern here? will came off a lot more agressive bc of his romantic feelings, but we can see how will, jason and percy were sort of 'reality checks' that nico NEEDED. he had an inferiority and victim complex (which is very justifiable and valid considering how much trauma he faced, on the contrary i thought nico was being considerably calm with everything he's been through and deserved to yell way more. I quite related to nico a lot when it comes to the personality sometimes so jason's words definitely struck a nerve for me) but nico was always drawn to honesty.

nico had some of his earlier memories washed away by the river lethe to 'protect' him from more trauma, and nico was so attached to bianca that the thought of her leaving for the hunters of artemis felt like a personal betrayal. he was made to beleive that he and his sister were safe in camp half blood, and combining that w the whole lethe thing and hades generally trying to protect the di angelo family from the gods, you can see how much nico needed honesty and not coddling. because coddling and sheltering ruined his life and took away his light.

jason saying that nico needed to take risks as it comes with the package of love and friendship, and overall giving him authenticity, telling him that heartbreak and family can coexist, causes nico to be drawn to him and genuinely have him an eye opener.

jason knew what it was like to be held with fake promises his whole life, and even mentions it as a reason as to why he made sure he kept the promises he made. because he would never turn out to be like his two faces mother beryl.

I'll always believe that jason played a huge part in nico's overall character, and his death even more so.

[ichigokeks]

A new interesting thing that the subtitles won't tell you

Arashi doesn't just call Rei an idiot, he adds two markers of politness to it. The prefix o- and the suffix -san, which basically means he politely calls him Mr. Idiot

Obviously you wouldn't say that normally and it sounds a bit like mockery at first but it actually conveys the soft teasing with the strong implication that Arashi finds Rei cute very well.

[wolvertooth]

thinking about sabretooth war bringing up the point that logan was a lot more accepting of himself back in the early team x days, more whole(duh), which is why vic thought was more genuine then

i think as more n more parts of him slowly started being taken away, the more logan just starting seeing a lot of himself as traits. as pieces. pieces that he tried to recreate from (lack of) memory, becoming an imitation of himself as a concept

then, not having the full nor accurate picture, starting getting self hatred hardcore. for a guy that wasnt even fully real.

which is also the same to how he views sabretooth. just negative traits, rather than the full guy underneath. tbf, afterwards he mostly only gets exposure to vic in nonpersonal situations(like only seeing someone while at work), so its not like he gets much chance anyway

and, under the hypothetical of vic still liking logan, its a lot like -> 'how tf do u claim to like the Real me. i dont even like the Real me. i dont even know the Real me. im supposed to be changing n improving on the Real me, ur not supposed to love that as it is'

but i also kinda like the idea that vics memory isnt perfect either. hes got a feeling of the old logan that he remembers, but doesnt know enough context to put it to words. the feeling of familarity n comfort. which he mistakes as just being towards their savage animal sides...as a reflection of being stuck on only viewing himself as such. after so many years of being told its all hes good for, all he is. when really it was more of a connection based on their humanity despite their mutations, the familiarity of someone viewing life in the same way, and not just in the bad ways

[yo-ye]

Personally I think it would be more exciting having episodic weekly releases for season five. No spoilers and the anticipation will have more people discussing the possibilities of what’s to happen next. I don’t know, I’m really terrible at putting my thoughts into actual words, sorry 😞. I would also be happy to hear your side of this why it will be good too or why you do not want it!

[can-of-w0rmz]

One of the things that piss me off the absolute most about popular academic Frankenstein analysis is the “Victor Frankenstein is sexist” take. Like I know I’ve spoken about this quite a lot before but god damn it’s like people just look at the text and see, “(I) looked upon Elizabeth as mine—mine to protect, love, and cherish. All praises bestowed on her I received as made to a possession of my own.”, and they just immediately go, “Oh! Oh! Sexism! Misogyny! Victor Frankenstein is a sexist! Why does he want to create the perfect man, huh? *gasp* is it because he thinks women are inferior?”

When if those people pulled their heads out of their asses for five minutes and read the rest of that paragraph, “On the evening previous to her being brought to my home, my mother had said playfully, “I have a pretty present for my Victor—tomorrow he shall have it.” And when, on the morrow, she presented Elizabeth to me as her promised gift, I, with childish seriousness, interpreted her words literally and looked upon Elizabeth as mine (…)” along with the fact that Victor explicitly says he was “about five years old”, they’d maybe consider, “huh, maybe it’s very fucked up of a mother to give her to her son as a gift and spent her entire life basically shipping these two adopted siblings together until, on her death bed, she says, “my firmest hopes of future happiness were placed on the prospect of your union. This expectation will now be the consolation of your father.” Wow, maybe that’s kind of fucked up. Maybe painting, again, a five year old, who was honesty for all intents and purposes pretty much just manipulated into thinking it was his duty to marry his adopted sister out of respect for his dead mother’s last wishes who died when he was seventeen, as a wife-beating woman hater who reanimated the dead to spite half the human population, is very very fucked up!”

Like I can’t stress this enough – both Elizabeth and Victor are victims here. Of course as the story goes on a bit and Victor is a grown adult man who’s still avoiding his feelings and fucking off across the continent with his buddy pal best friend every five minutes instead of facing his mistakes and emotions, yeah, he is honestly more or less to blame for Elizabeth’s death, but that isn’t misogyny. Avoidance of everything is like one of his integral character flaws.

And I mean if you thought the 1831 republication had some creepy undertones, look at the bloody original 1818 version.

“(My uncle) request(ed) my father (…) take charge of the infant Elizabeth, the only child of his deceased sister. “It is my wish,” he said, “that you should consider her as your own daughter, and educate her thus.”’

So just explicit incest, basically. And again, if you thought Victor’s mother was a bit creepy and pushy in the republication,

“I have often heard my mother say, that she was at that time the most beautiful child she had ever seen, and shewed signs even then of a gentle and affectionate disposition. These indications, and a desire to bind as closely as possible the ties of domestic love, determined my mother to consider Elizabeth as my future wife; a design which she never found reason to repent.”

“………A desire to bind as closely as possible the ties of domestic love?” My brother in Christ you were groomed. Fun fact, I read the 1818 version first and read that in the middle of form class and sat for a good five minutes staring flabbergasted at what the fuck I was reading.

So no, dear God no, nowhere in the text does it imply Victor Frankenstein hates women. I mean honestly it’s kind of shown in the way he talks about the Creature’s Bride that he doesn’t view women as objects and does, in fact, view them as people.

“He had sworn to quit the neighbourhood of man and hide himself in deserts, but she had not; and she, who in all probability was to become a thinking and reasoning animal, might refuse to comply with a compact made before her creation.”

My guy basically says “well what are we expecting her to do here, immediately marry you just because she was told to?”

(Just a fun little comparison I noticed there – not to turn the conversation back to my whole “does Victor is gay” theory but I think it is interesting that Victor thinks that, that he does go “well she can’t just be expected to marry someone just because she was told to!” and then suggests to himself that she would probably rather “turn with disgust from him to the superior beauty of man” – interesting, Victor. Like Clerval’s “form so divinely wrought, and beaming with beauty”? Interesting as well that after Victor comes to that conclusion and destroys the Bride, the Creature immediately then kills Henry and only then does Victor finally go “well. I finally have to marry Elizabeth.” Feeling disheartened by sparing her your predicament only to be thrust even deeper into your own, are we?)

But yeah. “Victor Frankenstein is a full-blown women-hating misogynist” takes really piss me off. Another case of “oooh yes let’s cherry pick the text scouring it for anything we can possibly use to turn things back around to the same few analysis points we’ll reuse over and over instead of possibly considering that just because a text is written by a woman doesn’t mean that it’s a massive rant on the patriarchy disguised as a science fiction novel.”

Maybe that’s kind of sexist itself. Maybe women can just write kick-ass gothic horror sometimes. And maybe just because a work definitely has undertones about sexism and misogyny (like, fair enough, a lot of Elizabeth’s character definitely does) that doesn’t mean that the male protagonist wants to kill all women! And surprise surprise as well, works can comment on misogyny and patriarchy and acknowledge that women are treated badly in society and have been in differing ways for hundreds of years, without going “all men are inherently evil and fuck them all”. Bit of a side rant that I won’t go all into here, but just worth mentioning that after seeing this over and over again in media and analysis of media over and over again, hey, misandry won’t fix misogyny. It just makes everything considerably stupidly worse. –your friendly neighbourhood bisexual

[lunarflux]

Jace's conversation with Rhaenyra almost reminded me of a conversation some kids have with their parents. It's almost like being told your entire life that you're special and then being humbled later on in life. It's like, finally, some random action proved you right - there are others who are better. I am not as special as my parent continuously told me.

Should Rhaenyra have told Jace that Harwin was his real father even if, deep down, he already knew? Probably, even if there was a risk to be taken by doing so. This was the big "maybe" that hung over Jace's head throughout his entire life. He fought over this "maybe." He was heckled over this "maybe." This "maybe" was a factor in the childhood fight with Aemond, and now, he's being faced with exactly how heavy this "maybe" actually is.

Rhaenyra did tell him when he initially asked as a child that he was still her child, but that's not what this means to him. Now, he has to consider that he could easily have been one of the commonfolk. I don't want to think that Jace looks down on them, but there was a fine line separating him from them and that was the conviction of his mother and grandfather that he was indeed the son of Laenor. While he doesn't seem to be ashamed of being Harwin's son, the pride of his lineage is blurred because of the rise of the discarded.

[woodbrook-wanderer]

Bits + Bits: Plush Husbands

CW mentions sex dolls, racism, and shows examples of taxidermy corpses

Cat's out of the bag. Melody Davis has a plush version of her deceased husband on her bed. Tragic.

Well, it isn't all that different from sleeping with extra pillows, or a plush toy, or a body pillow with your fictional wife, would it?

I'm seeing people in the fandom misread the issue, so to make it clear: "Frank" is literally a stuffed animal being made of felt and wool.

He is a likeness; Sam would know.

Disregarding the theory that the BTTWNS universe of anthropomorphic furries is simply a product of Samantha's ego and fondness for bears, doing this would be legal whether or not Melody actually kept the body and preserved it as Frank died due to natural reasons and is an animal (or are there laws against this!? we may never know...). However in furry society which functions similarly to our own, and having a plush version of your dead husband IS worrisome and generally creepy. It's not a great look either when there's a murderer running amok in town.

Although sex dolls have been available to the public since the 1920s, there is little account on male sex dolls made specifically for women. Plus, even though 1986 is years past the sexual liberation, it would still be considered taboo to own one as a woman even if it is of your husband. Woodbrook appears to be a fairly conservative community after all.

In real life, it is illegal globally to taxidermy a human being. Attempts have been made to preserve a body for scientific study, decoration, or to serve as remembrance similar to what Melody did to Frank. Efforts were made to preserve human skin in its entirety in the 1800s to study skin color and structure or test for pathologies and tattoos. There are not a lot of cases stuffed human skin because of how difficult it would be to preserve the flesh in its entirety or retain its features such as complexity. A famous failed attempt at taxidermizing a human being was Jeremy Bentham's wish to become an Auto-Icon. The founder of Utilitarianism wrote in his will that he would want his body be preserved from head to toe. However, a mistake was made in the process of desiccation, butchering the project in its entirety. All that's left is his "preserved" head. You could visit his skeleton and clothes at the University College Of London.

Would that partial fulfillment of his will make him satisfied if he saw it today? haha.

The people who were chosen as taxidermy subjects were unfortunately often Black, people of color, had unconventional appearances to put on display as "odd curiosities". One such example is Angelo Soliman, an African-Austrian slave who was forced out of present day Cameroon to serve under a Messinian household. He had gotten an education and was baptized under the name Angelo then later "gifted" to the Prince of Liechtenstein. He's well known for being the Father of Pure Masonic Thought, joining True Harmony Masonic lodge alongside the likes of Mozart and Haydn.

Despite belonging to High Society Austria, he was under constant scrutiny for his ancestry and racial features during and after his lifetime. His body was acquired by Emperor Franz II for the Imperial-Royal Court Cabinet of Natural History. He was skinned and his body was stuffed, donning him in a stereotypical garb of an "African savage". Soliman's body remained on display until a fire ravaged the royal museum. A plaster of his face was made shortly after his death for a similar purpose.

In 2014, The Marin Funeral Home in Puerto Rico offered grieving families a unique wake experience where their dead could attend their own funerals. These wakes were like parties, celebrating the loved one's life by surrounding them with their favorite items, food, dressing them in their favorite clothes, etc. which was considered past the conventional limits of a traditional funeral home.

These were made possible through the process of extreme embalming. Embalming was a process used to prepare a body for burial or cremation by draining out the corpse's blood, injecting it with preservatives, and adding special cosmetics to enhance its appearance. Extreme Embalming is even more labor intensive as it not only needs to preserve it internally, but to wash and repair the skin to perfection, styling or re-applying hair, and even adding prosthetics or even resin to pose the body. The goal of these extreme embalming was to show how the person lived. They would often be made to pose doing something they loved or holding an item that represented their lifestyle or profession.

Perhaps to Frank or to Melody, this would have meant spending the rest of their lives close to each other even in death somehow.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Gachi-Bachi: A Tale of Two Roads to Success (A Discussion)

Back again with another think piece on this blog. And while the last two came from an inspiration of topics that I had floating around in my head for awhile, this one came about from me scrolling on twitter (I'm not calling it X) recently and noticing the in real time evolution of two of the arguably biggest battle shonen releases of the 2020s. That would be Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi.

However, this isn't gonna be a simple compare and contrast of the series as works of fiction as I personally feel each one has different qualities that really distinguish them from each other in a way that doing a comparison wouldn't be too interesting. Rather what intrigues me is how they are a fascinating study in how series become big so to speak and despite the overlap in fans, there's actually some pretty key differences in their success stories that highlight greater things in the manga industry in particular. So let's ask ourselves: how did we get here, what role has fanbases played in it, what role has their respective magazines played in this, and just how truly successful are these series?

Background and Rise

Now for those who are just not initiated, I'll briefly explain the premise of these two series.

Gachiakuta by Kei Urana is a series set in a dark fantasy world where an orphan named Rudo is banished to the trash filled abyss after being framed for the murder of his adoptive father. In the Abyss Rudo discovers he has the power to use his magic gloves to turn objects into weapons, which he uses as a member of the Cleaners. He fights trash monsters and criminals in a journey to get back home and take revenge on the one who framed him.

Kagurabachi by Takeru Hokazono is an urban fantasy series set in contemporary Japan that deal with Chihiro, the son of a mystical blacksmith who had forged six magic swords. Chihiro's father is killed by a group of magical mobsters and his swords taken from him. Chihiro, armed with a secret seventh magic sword, will cut a blood path through Japan's criminal underbelly and take revenge on those responsible for his father's death.

I know Im grossly summarizing both works because I'm focusing not on the series themselves but rather the things surrounding each of them. So if you wish to know more, please check them out yourselves and see if you enjoy them. And just for transparency's sake, I have made multiple posts on this blog about Gachiakuta so I think its safe to say I enjoy it quite a bit. While my relationship with Kagurabachi is not that intimate as I actually don't read much Weekly Shonen Jump anymore, I did at least read the first volume just so I can say, I totally see why this got a following. Also just for clarity as I know the internet can flatten time in many instances, I want to point out that while I'd call these series contemporary, its worth noting that they're not exactly same time rising stars. Kagurabachi came out this year, in 2024, while Gachiakuta came out in 2022. A whooping two year lead. Hot did Kagurabachi get so hot? How?

Well if you're familiar with Kagurabachi in even a tertiary form you probably remember this meme.

This was a piece of promo art used by Jump along with a brief summary of the series before it was publishized. Now for a little context, at this time, two of Shonen Jump's biggest action staple series, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, were in their twilight stages. And at the time the shonen jump magazine had an interesting assortment of genres probably more than the last two decades. However, while One Piece would still be evergreen and their were action series such as Sakamoto Days and Undead Unluck, there was a hunger for a new battle series. And not just a new battle series, a long term investment battle series.

So when the news came down that WSJ would be releasing a "urban fantasy revenge sword battle series" with an accompanying art that definitely would fit alongside the heroes of the 2000s like Ichigo Kurosaki or Death the Kid, there was a reasonable excitement. Course there was also a bit of an over enthusiasm. Now like I said in my 2000s anime nostalgia post, I don't think this definitively means anything deep that there are just people who got into anime around the 2000s who just enjoy that types of series they were introduced to and were excited for more of that. However, over enthusiasm on the internet, is always prime material for ribbing.

So a lot of people on Ani/manga twitter saw slews of people posting this, and I mean this with no disrespect, kinda bored looking guy drawing his sword and being excited for a series that hadn't come out. This lead to of course memes. Lots of memes.

That this was the best jump manga of all time before a single chapter came out. It even lead to a bunch of people redrawing this promo image several times with different characters each with the same kind of expression. Now of course, this did ignore the fact that there was at least a translated one-shot released by Hokazono that people could at least check out to see if they enjoy his work. As well as the fact this kinda happens everytime there's a new jump rotation. Its just kinda in fan nature to get hyped for something even if all they have is a simple description. But lots of memes tend to flatten out context.

And so it seemed like that was that, the set up for the ultimate punchline. People had some genuine excitement, a bunch of guys on twitter made a mountain of ironic excitement, and now all the series had to come out and not live up to that hype. But then Kagurabachi did come out and the chapter was good. Sure it wasn't change your life spectacular or anything, but for a first chapter of a brand new series, it did exactly what it needed to do: Clearly introduce the stakes of the world, who the main character is, what their motivation is, mixing in some action set pieces, and leaving a little room for intrigue to watch the series grow. It hit the emotional points it wanted and hit the action beats it wanted. The end. That wasn't bad at all. Quite the opposite.

So here we are, left with what was essentially a free marketing campaign for people who probably expected it to get the shonen jump axe like a lot of new action series tended to get and instead they got something pretty okay. If there was ever a group of people vindicated it was those guys excited for Kagurabachi for the start.

Yes I know, meme popularity can be dumb or annoying. And some super fans and hype beasts who want to be there on the ground floor can be kinda cringe, but there is no doubt this was one of the most successful social media campaigns ever for a series that actually was managing to justify it. And for the next few weeks it would keep going and irony was almost completely replaced with sincerity.

The fact this was actually getting Shueisha's social media to acknowledge twitter hashtags and release a promotional trailer for it in English was such a first. Even if you don't like Kagurabachi or are indifferent to it, there is no denying this was unique.

But I've spent all this time reminiscing about Kagurabachi's social media rise. What about Gachiakuta hmm?

Well Gachiakuta was a series made by Kei Urana who had served as an assistant to Atsushi Okubo on the Weekly Shonen Magazine series, Fire Force. Fire Force itself is an odd beast we don't have the time to fully get into, but it was pretty popular for a non jump series and featured Okubo, a creator who has possibly one of the most devout fanbases ever, striking it big with many people's formative anime, Soul Eater. Urana herself was a massive fan of the series and if you've read Gachiakuta you can see the inspiration. However, when it was time for Fire Force to come to a close, WSM had announced that a new series by Okubo's assistant would be starting just before its end. And people were excited right? Well not exactly. Cause you had to be looking in the right places to even notice this announcement.

At the time, WSM series were mostly readable on Azuki. However, there seemed to be a weirdly non commutable relationship with Azuki and WSM's publisher Kodansha. As such it was kinda a gamble if a new WSM series would even show up on Azuki let alone simelpubbed. So it seemed like whatever Gachiakuta was would be Japan exclusive. But as if by miracle, the translation group, Pair of 2+ came in and dropped an English version of the chapter on release. The first chapter of Gachiakuta was pretty strong though mostly for Urana's incredibly striking artstyle. Made even better by the fact that the world of Gachiakuta was a fantasy world. And not fantasy in the way a stereotypical isekai is borrowing from romanticized European fantasy. But rather this sorta grudge world that was capable of having what looked like modern convinces, but there was things like a mysterious trash pit, a bunch of soldiers who dressed in ostentatious uniforms and a ginormous and intimidating trash creature.

I know it might seem kinda like a broken record now, but a big thing in the 2010s era of action manga and anime was a move towards more grounded and contemporary setting with stories. Juxtaposing supernatural or spectacular elements with the modern day Japan structure and order. Plenty of series were popular with this such as My Hero, Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, hell even Demon Slayer does the same though set in a turn of the century version of Japan. These certainly have an appeal and obviously they're not going anywhere, but there was a growing perception that fantasy worlds in manga were kinda fading. We weren't really getting a bunch of One Pieces. Were were getting stuff closer to Bleach. So of course, deny someone something long enough and they become enthusiastic for the tiniest taste of it.

So with all this, how was Gachiakuta's first few weeks. Well outside of some territory nods and the obvious "This manga is trash" jokes. It kinda stayed low key. With people relying on scan groups to handle it, there was really no guarantee of consistent momentum. Sometimes it'd take two weeks to get a chapter out in English while the Spanish versions were available. sometimes another scan group may come in a drop a chapter, making it harder to find the series in one place. However, all of this really did end up benefitting Gachiakuta. Because when you remove convenience you end up creating your strongest soldiers. If you were actively looking for Gachiakuta and not just waiting for an app update, that meant you were committed. And committed people had to use word of mouth to get this out there. If there was a moment of big promotion it would be when AniTuber Gigguk's Trash Taste podcast had well know Vtuber (Full disclaimer I know almost nothing about Vtubers or Hololive. I'm sorry in advance if I'm not going into greater detail on their significance) Mori Calliope discuss the Next Manga award winners and give Gachiakuta a shout out.

So, we had Bachibros and the twitter take over, while we had Gachibros and their slowly growing cult classic. Both methods ended up creating some real die hard fans, but the visibility and promotion of both series is very different. And ties into...

How Each Series Respective Company Has Handled Them

So before I start this section, I know I've made social media a big reference point for the success of these series. I want to make it clear that social media popularity isn't a full story. Something may be popular on twitter or YouTube but not necessarily be successful. I think social media can be a good barometer of the actual interest of a series, but not its end all be all for its results. And I think no series really knew this better than Hunters Guild: Red Hood.

For those unaware, Hunters Guild: Red Hood was a series that released in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2021 and was a big darling with Animanga twitter. Its art style, its premise on western fairytales, going for a more traditional dark fable vibe, and of course attractive characters. It was easily the series a bunch of people were calling the next big thing. And then it flopped. It was regularly last place in the popularity polls and its Japanese volume sales were really unimpressive. So it got axed by Jump.

To say this caused an outrage with people would be an understatement. This caused a trend of people really trying to find "the answer." Try and make this seemingly senseless action make sense. Well tragically if you are a manga industry watcher like me you know that this isn't actually all that unique.

For a lot of non Japanese fans, particularly Americans, we never had the accessibility of the Shonen Jump app or the Manga+ app in the 2000s-2010s. If you wanted manga, you were using MangaStream and MangaPanda which had focused on basically the biggest series in the industry. While countless series that have run in jump and other magazines have just been ended after 20 chapters. But that information wasn't available to us in real time the way it is now.

If you're around my age range and know about the shonen jump ranking system, you were probably introduced to the concept through the series Bakuman, manga about manga that was really the first popularized look at how the sausage was made in the Shuiesha offices. A big thing that was a point of tension was the rankings. If a series fell low consistently in the ranks of readership surveys filled up by the ones who purchased a copy of shonen jump and submitted it, then it would be cancelled by jump. Now its important to remember, Bakuman was a dramatized recreation of how Shueisha operated. Things were exaggerated in the name of making an entertaining and tension filled series. In reality, the ranking system is important, however the editorial department of Jump weights multiple factors when making this judgement: what is in the magazine at the time? Is something ending so we can risk having this run longer? Is there a new batch we want to role out soon so we need to free up space? How are the volume sales doing? And has this carved out a viable niche for itself?

While yes its a good rule of thumb to say something in last place is generally in danger for not maintaining interest to keep it around, its not a simple yes no.

Thanks to Shueisha's Shonen Jump App we now get everything as it comes out. We get the future best and the future failures and there really isn't a way to control it. So to see Red Hood a series with some very vocal fans, it was always at the whims of Japanese customers who seemed neither interested in voting for it over other series in the magazine or purchasing its volumes as they came out. It is a hard pill for people to swallow, to have something that they like, that they want to be invested in and tell its story to be cut short.

But I would say that in this day and age while it is hard to witness this, the benefits of the SJ app are phenomenal. The SJ app is a convent subscription service at a reasonable price that offers the first chapter of a series free as well as the latest three chapters free. So even if you want to not subscribe you can still keep up on an official platform. And Manga+ being similar and not region locked. Thanks to this any new series debuting in Shonen will have the eyes of the world audience on it. When there is a new batch of manga that enter the series, it feels like an event. It really is a high risk high reward situation-you run in WSJ and you have the opportunity for everyone even beyond Japan see your work simultaneously, however you will still have to fight and maintain interest and hype for your series on a weekly basis.

As previously stated, Kagurabachi absolutely benefitted from this. And while yes some it was ironic, the fact that the promise of a new battle series was going to be on everyone's screens and have the biggest reach to find an audience is good. Now of course, we have to remember that WSJ still doesn't let non Japanese voters participate in polls, so while you can find a foreign audience it might not be what gets people excited in Japan (Although there have been instances of foreign fans purchasing Japanese volumes). Well jump may have gone an extra mile with this one. Kagurabachi would actually really early into its run cycle be given a recommendation by Gege Akutani author of Jujutsu Kaisen.

Now for those who actually don't know, in Japan, some manga are printed and packaged with a recommendation band that acts as an extra form of promotion. Siting a famous or well liked author giving a series a recommendation and a little image of the series they worked and sometimes a quote.

Obviously getting an on the cover cosign is a bit more prestigious than say, going to your Barnes and Noble and an employee has written why you may enjoy this series. And not just any mangaka, Kagurabachi was getting props from one the biggest mangaka in the magazine with a pretty ravenous fanbase. But for me a big thing that got my attention that showed how much jump was investing was the previously mention Kagurabachi PV trailer. A simple YouTube animation to get people to check out the work, plenty of series get this. But Kagurabachi's was the first to have it in English. A Japanese company acknowledging the server of the global audience is huge and I'd say this already seemed like it was hyped up enough, but then you have an editor of Jump+ openly acknowledging the "#BachiFlex" in an official statement. There's no doubt there is a fanbase and Jump is absolutely aware of that fact. And of course you can't forget those color pages.

So that's how Kagurabachi was doing, how was Gachiakuta doing? Well first we need to talk about Weekly Shonen Magazine and get something out of the way, they do not have a ranking system like shonen jump. Weekly Shonen Magazine actually seems to operate more along the lines of volume sales. waiting for a manga to hit print and see that actual tangible interest of the people who buy it. Because of this, you can see that WSM has actually a much lower turn over rate than WSJ. And that when there is a new series its usually only one or two at a time in a year. So if the series hinges on sales, it should love having a massive reach?

Well sadly, WSM and Kodansha have been pretty poor when dealing with the global market. I mentioned earlier its relationship with Azuki getting official scans out but there was also the deals it had made with Crunchyroll to have a reader for their work. Both services were not the best received, so wouldn't it be nice if Kodansha had a web service like Jump? A simeulpub on the international market. Well enter K Manga and possibly one of the biggest fumbles ever.

I mentioned before that the SJ app was made with the mind as a subscription service, this was done with awareness of what western audience were willing to financially invest in. Well, Kodansha instead responded with a resigned version of their Magazine Pocket app that included a frankly confusing points and ticket system with just straight up micro-transactions. If you're keyed into the Webtoon scene you probably know this type of weird gamification of a service is done in Asia.

Im sure you've heard the famous quote about how piracy is a service problem and not a pricing problem. People would be perfectly happy to spend money on an official release if the way to access it was ultra convenient. And making Americans learn things like 24 hour tickets, and daily prizes, and just having you pay for each individual chapter. Its just really cumbersome and I'd rather get back to reading scans instead. Also to add some insult to injury it is region locked so even if you wanted to purchase this in countries like Europe, you can't.

I will at least say some positives, I think K manga has a much wider range of series available than the SJ or Manga+ apps. As it takes from Kodansha's many different manga magazines like Weekly Shonen Magazine, Weekly Young Magazine, Monthly Afternoon, Monthly Morning, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine, and Magazine Pocket originals. And Gachiakuta was part of the first few titles at launch and it was some good promotion as later that Fall, Kodansha USA would release the English print copies. But promotion through an app a lot of people weren't really happy with.

Speaking of the print side wasn't doing so hot either. As this may be a surprise to some, WSJ is rare in the fact that it makes manga a real center focus of why you should purchase the magazine, meanwhile many other mags use covergirls.

Look Im not gonna say Shueisha doesn't do this, their Weekly Young Jump covers are really raunchier than this with their cover girls. But yeah not exactly the most bright thing for a series when its being paired against glamor girls and quite literally pushed into a corner.

But it wasn't all bad as Urana would actually end up promoting the series through other means. As mentioned before, a pretty popular Vtuber had already devoted time to promote it of her own free will, Urana herself would even be commissioned to draw cover art for them. Urana would do the same for Jpop band cvlte. We'd even have Kodansha ambassador and professional skateboarder Yuto Horigome have Urana in for a session to talk about art and just recently, British rock band Bring Me The Horizon was promoting the series.

Now its my opinion that no series deserves success or deserves failure. It needs to stand on it own merits and the ones interested will come to it. However, I do find it interesting how Kodansha as a company has chosen to promote their work. Even when its going harder (especially post anime announcement) it feels weirdly word of mouth. Getting all these guys from different subgeneres to talk about it while internationally having such a mixed roll out. But maybe that close inter-personality is what makes the Gachiakuta rise story more unique. Sure it doesn't have the same all eyes on me as Kagurabachi has gotten, but in a way its kinda made this more intimate whether once again cultivating fans who are really really faithful to Gachiakuta's success. This comes to a head in the 101st chapter of Gachiakuta with a color page, Urana thanks her friends in it fitting several graffiti names of people who have supported her and the studio that will be making this a reality.

And hey, while I've definitely been critical of Kodansha, there's no denying that, but hey they agreed to give this series an anime so that must mean its a success. Right?

Success?

So I've been mostly talking about aspects of Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi's more social and industrial significance. How they became popular and how they're been treated by their respective companies. But what about results? Why bore you all with all this hot air when I can just give you cold hard facts? Well by sales-yeah Kagurabachi is a hit. Like there's no other interpretation. It is a hit. It debuted at number 4 on the manga sales chart, by two volume on the market it had hit 100K copies in circulation, and is receiving reprint after reprint.

Also this is a bit tacked on because this happened while I was editing, Kagurabachi just overwhelming won the Next Manga Awards print category. By a huge margin and being the second highest number of votes submitted for a series after Oshi no Ko. Like I don't really have much to say but like... Congrats to Takeru Hokazono. Like there's not denying this is a hit. Like I read the acceptance tweet, he knows. He knows people have been gasing him up as "the next big thing" like. I have nothing else to say this is a success.

The Kagurabachi train is a rolling and knowing how hotly people are anticipating it to fill the shoes of success like MHA or JJK, its showing the results to back up those expectations. In fact, this has actually been one of the few times I've seen a lot of anticipation for a series that doesn't have and anime and that anime is probably off for quite a bit. As of the time I'm writing this Kagurabachi sits at 46 chapters.

As for Gachiakuta this was actually the most surprising for me to actually see the Japanese sales figures.

So for all the anticipation its final result is... okay. Like yeah these sales are fine. There's no way it be in danger of being cancelled and like any business would look at this and say its steady. But that's kinda all it it, steady. I always kinda hate talking about sales that are kinda just doing okay. Cause no one ever wants to be told that its not exceeding expectations, but there's no like rubbernecker cratering that can be entertaining. Its doing just fine. And that's really all there is for a series that's manga only for now.

Obviously the anime is announced. Its coming and it will likely get a boost in audiences interested in it (Know if it doesn't get stuck on like Disney+ or Amazon), but that's kinda why I wanted to get this blog post out before hand. Cause I wanted to compare these series as manga. Now of course you have to remember these sales charts are accounting for Japanese sales on debut. So its likely that there is longer tails than we know of for each series. However, its kinda funny seeing Gachiakuta's figures and remember how it won a Next Manga Award in the category of "Global Special Prize." So its not too much of a stretch to say in Japan Gachiakuta is still pretty punk and underground and the value is definitely in that global market. Though I have to have a bit of laugh now a how much that's been a pretty hit or miss effort.

So Gachiakuta is a success story, but its that sort of "A first party Nintendo switch game sold over a million units" type of success. That's good, but its not like making those Mario numbers.

Conclusion

So I'm sure you're asking what was the point of all of this? Why did you spend so much time of comparing the rises of two shonen action series that outside of probably their hardcore cheering section don't really think about their success stories?

Well to me, I'm of the belief that the ultimate goal for a mangaka (And really any creative professional) at the end of the day is to be able to tell their story, entertain people, and make a comfortable living while doing so. The end goal may be the same for many, but the paths to how we get there can vary greatly. If you made it there by blockbuster success or by underground hit. And the fact that those paths can be so varied by factors ranging from independent social media movements and the actions of making a piece of media even available for an audience you want to reach.

When writing this piece, I really got the sense of just how much bigger manga in particular is effecting the more broader ani/manga subgenre. Its not just that thing where only the best of the best we're getting English translation posted on scan sites, we've reached a point where now a global audience can have a series in their reach. Yet their reach varies.

We still don't have the chance to submit surveys in jump and we still don't have physical volumes of manga printed around the same time so we can take into account global sales, but we can hashtag. We can share these on live streams. We can have our own grassroots efforts that are actually having something resembling an effects on the choices of Japan. All of this change in practically a decade.

Will Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi go onto to be pillers of the anime and manga community? Mmm maybe. Their fans are super passionate and the great thing about fans is even though they can be loud, they are the ones helping make new fans. They're the ones making the fan art and fan fictions and reddit posts. For all we know when they get anime they'll pop off harder than before. Or maybe they'll get a bunch of normies who don't get or like them and will tell you how its secretly never good.

Still its interesting to see how despite these two series having so much of the same ground, both of their roads were so different. And that maybe you can't control how things will turn out in the world of social media and corporate management. Sometimes all you can do is your best and stand on your own merits and the people will find you.

Whether they run for 200 chapters each or 700 chapters each or anything down the middle. Gachiakuta and Kagurabachi, here's to you're accomplishments now and here's to many more successful years down your respective roads.

Anyway folks that's my time. I hope you enjoyed this think piece. If you do please drop a like or reblog. It'll really tell me if you're interested in seeing more content like this. And maybe I can share more and more about this industry that I'm passionate about.

[fumifooms]

Hi I’m currently reading through a bunch of your posts, specifically the Laios based ones since he’s my favorite and I wanted to say the ones I’ve read (The Succubus and Marcile’s smile so far as well as some Laios/Lycion ones) are amazingly written and I love how in depth you go and the manga panels you use as examples, the observations you’ve made as well are some things I’ve never even thought to consider and they’re incredible,

Anyways, I just wanted to say how incredible your writing is and thank you for making such wonderful posts that I’ll continue to read, I also hope to make some Laios and Lycion art because it’s such a rare pair that I love, but regardless have a wonderful day!

Glad to hear it! 😊 I’ve already rewritten the Laios’ succubus analysis once but it’s still one of those analyses old enough that I don’t like anymore and find badly written ironically… I’ve been wanting to make separate posts rephrasing and reframing some things about the topic, summarizing to be way shorter concise and whatnot… The succubi in Dunmeshi and what they say about everyone is one of my favorite topics and I talk about it even privately so frequently that I can’t help but reword things over and over again and always finding new imo slightly better ways to put things… It is a bit of a problem though because I try to keep repeating myself on my different tumblr analyses to a minimum but then there are the topics that I’ll just happily go on a spiel over anytime lol. But yeah right now I’m sort of waiting for the anime to get to that chapter before preparing the wips on it for posting lmao I did condense and explain my favorite complete reading of Laios’ succubus into a summary I’m satisfied with recently, in an 11 tweets thread, link for those curious~

Super looking forward to the laicion omg 🥺 I should share some of my fic wips one of these days, me and a friend lucky-fydraws have been talking about a modern au for a while where they both attend furcons hehe. If I start talking about it now i’ll be here forever though

I can slip in a laicion art wip though hehe… Spoilers for end of manga

I post my art over at @fuumiku though, you might have seen my laicion comic on there Thank you again for the nice words!!! They make my day better :) and make me more motivated haha

[saranilssonbooks]

There is this Moby-Dick theory popping up now and then concerning the possibility of Ahab beating his wife and kid up.

Allow me a bit of Dick canon analysis.

It does seem the whole marriage and family thing was love based - especially if we dare to believe Captain Peleg fan boying in The Ship - but I am fully convinced that during his last shore stay he was difficult at best, abusive at worst (same chapter, same fan boy but in a less starry eyed state).

However, in making up theories, it is worth remembering that according to what Ahab eventually discloses to Starbuck, every day at least his son ventures up to his look out spot in hope of seeing the Pequod returning.

(My dream is to be recognized as a Moby-Dick knower, but I nurture a growing suspicion that I'm heading in the direction of notorious Ahab apologist. 😩)

[burningvelvet]

Forever mourning the fact that most editions of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall are based on the edited 1854 Hodgson text and not the original 1848 Newby text (accessible via Internet Archive) and therefore most editions leave out the majority of the iconic 28th chapter. Aside from the opening letter of the novel, this is the other most important alteration of the text, and the other biggest section of the text to be omitted.

I believe the full original chapter gives us some of the best insight into Arthur’s thoughts as well as his relationship with Helen before it totally imploded. We can see her trying to bargain and rationalize her feelings for both Arthurs. Helen later says that the only reason she leaves Arthur is in order to protect their son, and in a way, this moment from the original chapter 28 is the catalyst of this decision, as no where else in the novel does Arthur blatantly explain his lack of paternal feeling. The last lines are especially brutal:

"If you were less selfish yourself, Arthur, you would not regard it in that light."

"Possibly not, love; but so it is; there's no help for it."

But the chapter isn’t only brutal. The crux of it is that it shows how at this point, Helen is still able to rationalize her feelings and her decision to remain with her abuser. She has not totally come to hate him yet. She still believes that his “jokes” are truly jokes, and he still cares enough to placate her into believing so. In a way, his awkwardness with their child is almost comical, but as the moment continues, it becomes more apparent that he’s exhibiting the traditional paternal behavior now known as “weaponized incompetence.” He isn’t a good father because he simply doesn’t want to be. He isn’t a good person because he doesn’t want to be. It is his own self-belief, it is his own self-will which guides him on this path.

This is why Helen’s belief in universal salvation, a huge theme of the novel, is so powerful. When Arthur is on his death bed and pleads with Helen: “Pray for me, Helen!” she replies, “I do pray for you, every hour and every minute, Arthur; but you must pray for yourself." We cannot save other people. She began her diary by declaring several times that she would “save him,” as we see in the following statement:

“I have such confidence in him, aunt, notwithstanding all you say, that I would willingly risk my happiness for the chance of securing his. I will leave better men to those who only consider their own advantage. If he has done amiss, I shall consider my life well spent in saving him from the consequences of his early errors, and striving to recall him to the path of virtue. God grant me success!"

But by the time she decides to leave Arthur, and perhaps more than ever on his death bed, she realizes one of the most important lessons in life there is to learn. We cannot save anyone but ourselves. To a lesser extent, we may also save our children when they are young, as she does by steering her young child away from his father and onto a healthier path in life. But eventually, they must learn to save themselves. In Anne’s discourse, saving one’s self entails a quite literal Christian salvation granted by God. However, I believe that many secular, humanist readings can be drawn from this rhetoric, even despite the implications of Arthur’s lack of faith (if not blatant atheism) contributing to his infectious degradation and death.

[thisshitisridiculous]

actually i hate watching a show where the actors and writers have articles every week about what's going to happen, like what do you mean ever take involves some quote from someone where they literally can't tell you what's going on because that's a spoiler, just watch the show, the show will tell you everything you need to know

[zabchan]

YALL THE ANIMATION ON THIS PAGEEEE

moana swoops in on the ocean wave (is she controlling it or is the ocean just being playful?) SHE IS SURFING ON HER OAR LIKE A GODDAMN BADASS even does a sweet board spinny thing before nailing the landing.

kicks up her oar like a surfboard then strikes a pose. what a legend.

maui comes in bounding afterwards, trying to pull down some background for them to stand in.

(bonus fanservice)

"yesss, got it, moana, check this!"

"wait its stuck-"

"ugh, typical-" as moana springs into action

LOOK AT HIS CUTE POUTY FACE I CANT

moana climbing maui, living the dream picking up where he left off

PARKOUR

oh shiz its moving-

BAM

maui, like me, is stunned at moana's awesomeness.

TO BE CONTINUED

[fangirlinglikeabus]

the infant profligate: Emily and Anne Brontë were both interested in the skin-deep character of 'civilization'. Wuthering Heights is also a fable of culture and degradation, in which a controlled experiment in conditioning is carried out. As Heathcliff says to Hareton, '"Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it' (Ch. 17). Hareton, like 'the infant profligate in Wildfell Hall, loves the man who has taught him to curse and is reclaimed when 'petticoat government' (in the form of the second Cathy) supervenes.

-Stevie Davies, note to p.351 of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall