#dandadan manga spoilers

[monkey-network]

God they suck (affectionately said)

[dandy-space-cowboy]

[jollyart]

[farolitosp]

Infodumping about Momo and Fuuko (Dandadan / Undead Unluck). Best female shonen leads in the current SJ

As a battle shonen fan it was very frustrating seeing the female characters done dirty or not being the main lead of their stories (because who are we kidding, even FMA with their awesome female characters they're secondary ones). The last manga I read with it was The Promised Neverland, but that's not a typical "battle shonen" and has more fantasy elements. I mean battle, fighting with fists and power scales.

So I started two Shonen jump mangas that has all the things I were looking for!

But! The first chapters are as bad as they say. The girls get sexualized and harassed like every other manga out there.

My surprise was that this only last less than 10 chapters. After that, it's a different kind of story. It's like the first bait to make readers interested in the female cast with boobs and underwear (I know this might be not everyone, but how else it justifies having these sexual situations at the first episodes and then abandon the idea?)

These stories, overall all the things in the beginning, are not only fully respectful with the girls but also they make the best character out of them. I Have a theory that the authors put these sexual situations in the first chapters by orders and not because they want to, they really are committed to make them awesome.

And by that I mean:

- Fuuko and Momo act like real girls.

Momo is a normal teenager with a bad reputation and that makes her take her badass attitude towards anyone that wants to be her friend, but deep down she's a very kind and good person. If she were a stereotype she would be the "tomboy who doesn't know how to be femenine" and guess what? SHES VERY FEMENINE, she only isn't a submissive girl. She's brave and doesn't behave, but she's capable of love and making friends. Like the extrovert that likes to befriend the introverts. Momo doesn't need to separate her femenine side with her battle side, even Okarun has to do some exercise to reach her power level.

Momo also loooves to tease Okarun and she's the funniest character of the manga.

Fuuko, on the other hand, has very low self esteem because of her powers (that's why she acts like an stereotype of shy girl that gets harassed). She's shy, scared about everything and apparently hates physical contact. But that's the thing, before her Unluck powers she was a very touchy person, her love language is hugging and kissing her loved ones. She's traumatized after killing her parents with her Unluck. But after meeting someone who doesn't die with that she actually starts to touch EVERYONE she likes. She has the courage deep inside her, and only needed a small acclimation and knowing her abilities to start to flourish, making her the one that's in control of her body.

- "Girls vs girls? Not in my story"

These are fighting mangas. And with a lot of female characters I was afraid that they were the lady in distress or fighting other villain girls (like bnha, for example). My surprise is that they fight not only male villains, but some male villains are actually scared of them and respect them. It's so liberating when authors are not afraid of making the girls punching and receiving punches and bleed.

- They're the real main characters

It may seems, in shonen, once they start with two mc the "real" mc is the man, at the end of the story. In both cases of Dandadan and Undead Unluck it's quite the opposite. While Dandadan still maintains Okarun and Momo at the same level the story is present through Momo's life, we don't know almost anything about Okarun. And in Undead Unluck case Andy and Fuuko start as a couple, but when they get separated Fuuko shines by herself. She even has her own arc right now while Andy is missing, and oh boy she delivers excellent!

We can see both stories without the male mc, but not without their female leads

- They're not the only girls in the story

GIRLS HAVING GIRL FRIENDS IN SHONEN BATTLE MANGA, WHILE THOSE SECONDARY CHARACTERS ARE WELL WRITTEN AS WELL.

- The straight romance is kinda peak actually

Who wouldn't know that in order to make a m/f shonen ship is to making good female characters that actually enjoy being with the male character? And the romance it's not only something by the side, it's almost essential to the manga itself. They make you want to see more romance and interactions between the two.

- Respect and admiration

Both, Momo and Fuuko, receive respect of all the other characters. And mainly, they're admired by the male mc and love interest. Okarun and Andy don't joke about it, they genuinely adore them and wants to be like them.

Anyway if you're looking for some good female lead Shonen manga, while still being epic and entertaining, give both stories a chance!

[kleepo]

⚠️Spoiler warning for Dandadan ⚠️

Vamola is my wife I love her so much. 🥺💖

[insmouthlookingass]

Can we please talk about this goof ball? this absolute cringefest of a character? Because I adore him, I just cannot contain my glee when i see him, this is one of the most characters of all time.

He just wants to be usefull, wants to belong, and is so overjoyed by the idea that he's needed that he doesn't even hesitate before the idea that his (so called) friends are fighting world thretening aliens before hurling himself head first into danger. Fuck, as far as he knows he's he only awnser to his friends problems.

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

a dandadan x chainsaw man doujinshi about grief

formatting's a little weird because of the tumblr image limit. read left to right.

[solrin]

Also there's no way the Serpoians don't talk like Ignignokt from Aqua Teen Hunger Force

[mypersonalsandbox]

Dandadan (ダンダダン)

[myamiamiaouuuuu]

DANDADAN - Chapter 94

It is not a spoiler that Grandma Santa is BADASS. And in this chapter ✨her missing✨ is felt !! The biggest alien attack is coming soon and Ken-さん is in a coma, still.

Meanwhile, Momo-さん & Jiji-さん are in a love dove mood... 🤡 Jiji-さん, you're unfair. Poor four eyes ((side note, Grandma who is calling him like that please 👁️👁️👄👁️👁️)). JUSTICE FOR MY LITTLE BOY OKAYYY.

Then, it is a calm chapter which have for aim to develop the characters (notably the "relationship" huhu), the BIGGEST thing is yet to come !

See you on February 27th ! To be continue...

February 22th, Wednesday

[dav1thy]

out of context dan dadan to get more people to read dan dadan

[dandy-space-cowboy]

[rudycomics]

Rudy Recs: Witch Watch (and its bittersweet love story)

I've written in the past before about some of the things I've been reading in shonen jump, You and I are Polar Opposites as an example, and the current generation of manga in their lineup right now has some interesting stuff going on. Somehow, Witch Watch is not one of the manga I hear other people talking about as often as the others and I think that's a real shame!

Kenta Shinohara has 2 award winning manga under his belt and even though his concepts don't have this really intense fantastical hook and his art isn't clamoring for attention in the ways things like Chainsaw Man or Dandadan do, I think Witch Watch has incredible range. It's part romance, part slapstick comedy/gag manga, and part shonen battle manga all together, bouncing back and forth between these different styles each chapter.

I always felt like it was just really solidly put together and consistently entertaining (except for when the story focuses on some side characters writing fan doujinshi which bores me to DEATH), but the thing that made me feel like I needed to write about it was the way the series handles the romance between the two main characters, Nico, the witch given a prophesized control over every type of magic, and Morihito, her childhood friend and chosen protector because he happens to be one of the last Ogres in the world.

I'm going to be talking spoilers for things that happened in recent chapters, so be warned!

I will put a warning when I get to it, but I like writing about these things because I personally think getting someone to gush about specific instances of well executed craft gets me more interested in checking out new things than anything else.

The basic setup to their romance is that Nico has a crush on Morihito (which she calls Moi and I'll use this nickname for convenience) and she begins living with him as her mother received a prophecy that some evil force will try to use Nico and her unnatural powers for evil purposes that will ultimately bring her harm in the process. Moi is chosen to be Nico's familiar to protect her from whatever this vague danger may end up being, but we see their personalities clash right away. She's very aware of him and he seems very stone-walled and closed off, despite their being some sort of connection between them from childhood.

The two get into a lot of wacky situations as Nico attends school and continuously uses her powers to try to help classmates with their personal troubles and they make some new friends along the way with their own special powers. The household of just the two of them grows into a house of 4 boys and Nico, with two other girls making frequent appearances. We learn about all these characters and their quirks and see how they are all invested in helping Nico try to form a relationship with Moi. It's not until a good handful of chapters later that we learn that in typical Nico fashion, she had somehow ended up putting a curse on Moi when they were children that locked Moi into being "best friends forever" with Nico, essentially kneecapping any romantic growth from sprouting from Moi.

It's not that important to what I wanted to talk about, but I do think this is such a fun story device because it completely fits in line with everything we've learned about Nico and what every wacky situation stems from in this series: Nico somehow uses her magic in ways that challenge the intuitive way the powers would seem to work and creating unintended effects on top of what the power is supposed to do. Nico's bond with Moi ever since they were children has also become the reason that nothing will ever happen between them.

EXCEPT... All of their new friends have sussed the situation out and form a plan to break through the curse and free Moi to accept the feelings that are actually blocked off inside his heart that they all know are there. They even have this fun visual metaphor of a heart with a valve leaking romantic feelings that gets repeated all through this arc.

They try some things to get Moi to over flow with feelings faster than the curse can repress them which is fun but ultimately fruitless, only for Moi to accidentally being able to listen in to Nico tell everyone that she loves him because of all his flaws that are center to his insecurities that make him close up. It's a beautiful moment that caps it off with using that visual metaphor again to really push emotion to the reader and I thought this was so effective!

From here on, I think what I want to talk about is spoilery enough that I should put a marker here for people that don't want to see anymore before reading:

**SPOILER WARNING!!**

The two both have feelings for each other at this point and Moi wants to confess to Nico now, but tragedy strikes as the big bad makes his move to attack Nico and friends which ends up costing Moi his life as he gets shot in the chest with a gun. Nico uses her powers to heal him at the cost of something of her own and what she ends up giving up is her time, which includes her memories, and turns back into a 5 year old.

The group find out that Nico can be restored to her natural state by collecting these magic butterflies that escaped from her body during her spell, and here is where I think this series does something that really grabbed me.

I read a LOT of manga. Like, scouring for new stuff to read every day. Comics are my primary source of entertainment and I read a LOT of romance stories. One of the things that I feel like authors have to consider when writing compelling romance is how to get readers to connect with characters enough to also want to see those characters get into a relationship. In general, I think a lot of this connection buildup happens AFTER characters get together and you have to just get accept the weak initial romantic beginning (like Galaxy Next Door for example), OR the story spends its whole lifetime creating their bonds slowly and ends right as they get together which annoys me, personally (hoping this one doesn't do that, but we will have to see).

What I think Witch Watch does here is so striking and unique; Nico and the gang put in so much effort in between their escapades to get these two characters together so that they can be happy. Right when things lock into place, it all comes to a halt and resets, but what doesn't get reset is the readers' understanding and connections to these characters. We're already invested in Nico and Moi and we get a second chance to see these characters form a loving connection in a really unique way that feels unpredictable as Nico slowly regains her age and memories back. It's got a bittersweet tone to it as Moi doesn't get to express his love in the way that he wants to, but we get to see such a complex form of love develop as he takes the role of a caretaker for little Nico. Love is more than romance or attraction and getting a chance to put that trope away for a bit to do something different is so refreshing. It really builds out something so much more complete and more befitting of a seinen maybe, rather than a shonen with fight scenes and mythical characters.

This current arc is the beginning of part 2 of Witch Watch, with the big bad leaving the group alone because Nico is useless to him as a child with no control over magic. We know this peace will come to an end when Nico is restored to her proper age, but we get to see the characters all get up to their silly antics again with child Nico in the mix now. It's a really cool shakeup that adds new life to the slapstick comedy bits that make up most of the story, putting the action in the back seat again for now. This is the most recent chapter at the time of me writing this (chapter 133), and seeing Moi's perspective as the point of view in contrast to Nico's experiences so far is really gripping to me. This final page of the chapter is what did it for me:

It hurts, but it's love. The pain is temporary, all for the goal of being together when it's all over, with a connection deeper than anything that they would have formed otherwise.

Please go give Witch Watch a read! It's really fun!!

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Season 2 Ramble 2 - "romance" lol ver. 2

Greetings greetings greetings and welcome to another episode of MM..MANGA, the podcast about getting more people into more manga.

Not completely surprised but very thankful I held out doing the podcast long enough to do a part 2 of something. The format is a little different this time, instead of ordering my reads this month from awww to w-t-f??? I made 3 distinct categories of romance and give my top 3 reads of each

Before getting into all that though I thought I should give a light follow up on some titles I mentioned last episode:

I finished killer in love, fucked up all the way but with a surprisingly flat ending,, realistic ig but i thought they'd keep the drama going to the end idk idk

Caught up with bakemonogatari, art never off point as you would expect from the artist Oh! Great looking at their work on things like air gear and death note.  The story continues to increasingly excel despite the seemingly repetitive nature of relationships, people just go off and save themselves yk? definitely have to continue the anime since it's ahead. 

Caught up with insomniacs after school, not that much progression but still the cutest thing ever, very very aesthetic and my top cutesy romance read last year and I still highly recommend it. 

Finished Wake Up Deadman, finally, not worth it, not gonna lie that manhwa had a special little place in my heart that I can't rationalize rn but it's over, can't believe it went out that bad.. 

Caught up on boy's abyss which is still fucked up all the way round but still pretty up there if you're in for some good ol emotional drama and trauma,, can't believe it keeps getting more fucked tho tbh… 

Caught up with dandadan, still ridiculous, sort of feels like brain off stunting with the art but things are moving along so I'll continue to stay tuned… 

Anyways getting to the actual lists

Top 3

category 1 - that's fucked up dude:

#3 - I love you so I kill you by Sousou Sakakibara on story and Majuro Kaname on art (complete with 35 chapters)

The premise is that there's some disease going around that makes you want to kill the object of your desire.

Honestly I had seen a few panels of it floating around and was really excited to get to this one plus seeing the more fringe faces of love tends to be enlightening but it was kind of just a well drawn disappointment. 

The progression was pretty erratic, characters didn't really feel rooted in anything and a little bit of a spoiler here but they ended up getting supernatural powers which was like… why?? The premise was already set for a great psychological thriller which doesn't need any supernatural elements as alluring as they may be.

Anyways as you can tell by the name it's definitely fucked up, even if it ended up just being an edgelord jerk off the art was still a decent plus. Also it's pretty short so if you kinda just wanna see gore or people with powers doing the occasional neat thing and so on then forget what I said n go check it out. 

#2 Believers by Naoki Yamamoto (complete with 22 chapters)

Here the story follows three cult members, two men and one woman, who live on a small deserted island somewhere near Japan. They have devoted themselves to the "Deserted lsland Program" assigned to them by their superiors so they can throw off the corrupt influence of modern society and "purify" themselves. But as time passes two of the members begin to give into human desire..

Nothing too earth shattering, just a good ol' classic descent into madness but that's usually a nice treat anyway you slice it.

22 chapters so it's really short but it's paced really well for what they had and even expecting madness it still threw me a few times like really??? sure that's technically a course of action one could take but really??? 

#1 Dead Tube by Kitakawa Touta and Yamaguchi Mikoto (ongoing 86 chapters)

As part of the film club, the MC is asked by the main heroine to videotape her non stop for the next 48 hours. It's a simple enough task and she's pretty so he agrees. Her activities start off pretty mellow but at the end of the two days she murders someone on camera. As the days pass and the girl walks free, our mc confronts her about how this is possible and why she did it in the first place?

Enter dead tube, a video sharing site where the top views get millions in payout no matter what but those with the lowest views are punished by being made to pay for the fees and crimes of other video makers.

Grain of salt here, I'm only at chapter 28 but it's definitely fucked up, started fucked up and has only gotten increasingly fucked up the more I read but it was engaging, if not really on the survival game type beat but a little more on the mystery like why did bro get roped in, why is she making these videos? will they ever relax? etc

Fair warning again, pretty brutal from the get go and I'd suggest putting away any sensibilities you may have before reading this.

category 2 - isn't this just soft core porn?:

#3 how heavy are the dumbbells you lift? by Yabako Sandrovich on art and Maam on art (ongoing with 179 chapters)

Very simple story, the main character wants to lose weight to look cute so she checks out a local gym and it turns out they have a hot trainer so she sticks around.

This is the same guy who does the story for the kengan series which he even references a few times so I can't help but think this piece is just to blow off steam. But in any case I've only read 29 chapters so far so huge grain of salt with whatever I'm saying.

So far it's been a pretty standard episodic gag but the dash of ecchi is the reason it's on this list. These basically come every episode in the form of serious informative workout guides that end up in "steamy" pinup type illustrations. 

As I said, I've only read 29 chapters, but so far those chapters have been pretty enjoyable, Usually get a good laugh every chapter, actually helpful workout tips and all it's just that as a standard gag manga I guess I feel like I already have a pretty good idea of what to expect and there were so many other more engaging reads in sight so I didn't read that much of it this month but it's definitely something to keep up with.

#2 Tales of the Corporate Slave Succubus by Gentsuki (23 chapters)

This one was pretty funny. Our heroine is a succubus tasked with finding men every day, taking control of their dreams and stealing their vitality, and in return, fulfill any desires they have, no matter how perverted they are. As the succubi population rate decreases our heroine finds herself more and more overworked in order to reach her rising quota. One day, she meets an exhausted corporate wage slave and she's surprised at what he asks for.

I'll leave what he asks for as a surprise, it's only 23 chapters so not much I can say just it's a succubus and romance so… yh… I will say the story is a bit cute tho… 

#1 please go home akutsu san by Taichi Nagaoka (ongoing 133 chapters, read all of them)

Another simple story, though definitively cuter than the other two. It was so cute I kind of wanted to include it in the next category but i had to be fr.

Anyways basically the mc is a live alone high school student who has his home taken over by a delinquent gyaru girl looking for a place to crash after school.

Over time they develop feelings but due to how their relationship started, she teasing him and he trying to get her out of his room, neither can be honest. 

Each chapter is pretty short and since the whole thing is pretty episodic so it all flies by and never overstays its welcome or take itself too seriously, especially as it's an ecchi… always weird to me when ecchi tries to be serious like be fr… 

honourable mentions: 67% inertia and gyaru stuff in general… 

category 3

awww:

#3 Tsurezure Biyori by Kei Hamuro (72 chapters)

On the first day of highschool, the main character finds herself awestruck by the beautiful transfer student, who also happens to be a returning childhood friend.

Very short. Very sweet. 

Not much time passes in story so them just focusing on the main cast, and characterizing them as much as they did was neat, but I think that has more to do with the simplicity of the characters and really the entire story than any above average writing or anything..

That said, a simple thing is no more or less difficult to execute than any other thing so I do respect that they pulled it off and mad props for their execution of what felt like a consistent warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Side note, The main cast really felt like a nod to Yotsuba's creator Kiyohiko Azuma, for their work on another manga of his called azumanga daioh,, there wasn't really any shortage of cute stuff read this month but I think that may have given it the edge to actually make it in this list idk idk

#2 Nisekoi by Naoshi Komi (240 chapters)

Nisekoi is one of those manga that have sort of always floated in the periphery. It's been a long time coming, I tried last year but the main character's hair clip reminded me of serial experiments lain and I blacked out,, I wasn't ready then,, old Twitter pal of mine had also been recommending it for a while actually,, I'm sorry it took so long but thank you.

The story goes that to prevent a gang war from bubbling over onto innocent civilians, the heirs of both gangs are persuaded by their fathers to pretend to date through highschool for the next three years…

From the jump you can tell there's a lot to work with and a lot of directions they could go. What I was really thankful for throughout was that the whole "oh no the gang's gonna find out and start fighting what do we do now???" scenario didn't get ground into dust. like I was really scared of that being some infinitei loop gag and I'm just so glad it wasn't. 

It's one of those very cutesy romances so the bits can be limited like guys come on how long can someone blush before you get a clue yk but it was kept interesting through a staggered introduction of the main cast who each brought new flavour and nuance to the story.

Now you may be thinking… wait a minute… this sounds like you're trying to sell me a harem… are you trying to sell me a harem? Let me tell you. I honestly thought it was just gonna be a simple love triangle, maybe with a few quadrangle quandaries for the laughs and was honestly surprised that it turned into some sort of harem looking thing. Again I was thankful that the usual "oh no we seem to have fallen into a provocative position" bit that usually accompanies harems was far out of sight. Hence it's on the awwww list. 

Of course there were some repetition of gags and a few things I would be a little stern in calling erotic here and there but the story direction and quality was really driven by steady build up of the characters through their interactions with each other and their world over time.

Very solid. pretty cute. pretty comical. never really appreciated the diversity a well done harem could bring to a story before now so there's that.. they really made use of the passage of time in showing how their identities and bonds developed throughout their entire highschool lives…  Consistently great art and the whole thing really just oozed ideal high school love drama vibes… to be clear I say that as an observer seeing as I don't really think there's any such thing as an ideal high school love drama 

#1 Hi Score Girl by Rensuke Oshikiri (70 chapters)

The story really begins when the mc, a bit of an outcast, encounters the heroine top student in an arcade, who then proceeds to easily kick his ass.

I'll start by saying the art isn't anything special, maybe even below average, and if I look within in myself that might even be the reason it took me so long to get around to it, but in the end I did and I'm really really glad I did.

The story is set in the early 90s and progresses along with the rise of arcade games that was happening at the time. We see the main hero and heroine duke it out through a number of games and tech advancements, their bond deepening through their mutual love for gaming.

Definitely a slow burn as the mc doesn't really see himself or others in a romantic sense. Like his sexual and romantic orientation is literally just gamer™ and the heroine is what Google says is a dandere,, meaning too shy to talk, like think early days Hinata from Naruto. The payoff is all the more sweet though as they grow closer despite themselves.

Great cast, really great dialogue, pretty dope aesthetic with the games and everything. A story that didn't take itself too seriously in a way that gave the feeling that the author was well aware of its position as a fictional piece of work and so more effectively used the tool of fiction through the medium of manga in a way that I don't think would be possible without that awarenesses. 

I really loved how well they integrated games, as in they weren't just some to the side thing the characters did from time to time, it was clear to see from early out how important games were to the main character and to the story on a whole.

I really didn't expect to love it as much as I did, like it almost feels like one of those definitive before and after reads. Maybe it was the amount of impact in the short amount of chapters but in any case it was definitely the best read this month overall hands down. 

honourable mentions:  you and I are complete opposites, the guy she was interested in wasn't a guy at all and a story about smoking at the back of a supermarket

(I have to say some of these were probably cuter than the ones I actually listed but definitely not better and all incomplete in any case so I am less inclined to list them but they were honestly just too cute not to mention)

that's it for stuff this month, not gonna get too into old stuff this episode but to note the top 1 reads for each category before this month.

that's fucked up dude: Flowers of evil been a long time champ but I have to mention drifting net cafe by the same mangaka which I read last year. Gave it a good little run for its money. You wouldn't hear it mentioned in the last episode tho because I read it after the episode was put out. but yeah.

isn't this just soft core porn?: my balls definitely.

awww: good ending

Grateful for the new reads as always this month, really hope you can find something you like and thanks for listening, there's a little bit of a ramble after this but if you're heading out now, all the best until next time. 

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (09/04/23)

big thing this time is going through all of jigokuraku and lemme tell you it's GOOD, also the new manga from the shokugeki duo also starting next week gonna try to include at least 1 screenshot/panel from each thing to make it a bit more visually pleasing, so extra spoiler warning I guess, tho I'll try not to make it too spoilery lol

Anime

Mashle Ep1

not really much to say to be honest, it was a serviceable episode, I like the colours and the name cards they introduced, but other than that it didn't really do anything with chap 1. tho mashle gets way better later when it becomes a battle manga with a bit of deadpan comedy on the side, instead of just a paradoy of the magic school trope so we'll see how it goes then

Jigokuraku Ep2

good ep, only adapted chap2 and I was expecting 2 and 3 but oh well, at least they did justice to the gabimaru beach scene

Manga

Jigokuraku Ch12 - 128

man where do I even start, my "real" rating for it is 8 but this is what I actually gave it cause I had a blast reading it

it's everything I want from a battle series like this: - a colourful cast of characters that make you want to root for them - a concrete power system that is easy to understand but flexible enough to where it doesn't hinder the action - good art and easy to follow action scenes the story's important too but I ain't reading battle manga for that, tho even then the story wasn't bad, it was like a 7 but everything else elevates it which is where the 8 I said comes from, however I rate things for my own enjoyment and I loved it was actually debating between 9 or 10 but I liked the ending so yeah shame ayashimon didn't survive (tho from the start it wasn't as good as jigokuraku) but looking forward to Kaku's next work

Tenmaku Cinema Ch1

the new series from the shokugeki duo is here! and the ghost is a...guy?? what the hell. I guess it's my fault for making assumptions from that one tiny pic we had of it but still anyway, it was actually pretty good, I don't feel it was as impactful as shokugeki's debut, but it was pretty good, the art is better than ever since saeki has had years to refine it and the story is seems interesting enough, here's hoping it does well in ratings and doesn't get axed too soon, jp readers got some questionable taste

Dandadan Ch100

well...okarun didn't show but something equally big happened monka

Show-ha Shoten! Ch17

good chad, been a long time coming but our mcs finally lost, tho it served as a good wake up call and they got some nice advice from it too

Saihate Quartet Ch8

Twink Spotted

Pension Life Vampire Ch2

cute chap, the ending was very good

Choujin X Ch36

damn it's been like what? 2 months since the last chap? god damn had been wondering what the hell ishida was cooking but it was a good chap actually, 60 pages but it didn't feel that long, cool to see how much stronger azuma and ely are, tho more curious about tokio but he only showed up at the cliffhanger

Tokyo Underworld Ch36

well they took care of that faster than expected, tho rip to that guy probably

Ichigoki's Under Control!! Ch18

bad chap, with ginka ending this week, this should end the next one..

Ginka & Gluna Ch29 (Finale)

well it's over. ending was p weak, the series' strong suit was always the art, especially the big landscape shots it liked to do but everything else was p weak, the concept of giving up memories to increase your power was very cool, and would've been better if the series was able to have gone on for longer, but even doing that the villain wasn't defeated? and just sorta ran away? and was never brought up again which is extremely lame. anyway for the author's first serialization it wasn't bad, but has a lot of room for improvement in the future, like better story structure and characters

The Ichinose Family's Deadly Sins Ch20

feels like a repeat of some few chaps ago which is lame, should only have a couple more chaps left tho

Fabricant 100 Ch17

it actually had a p cool spread today, and the introduction of powers with concrete rules is good, tho I still say it's too late and I didn't say last week but introducing 2 new female characters (seen below) isn't gonna help with ratings either

Witch Watch Ch104

nice little chap, the new girl was cute

Cipher Academy Ch19

good chap again, and it placed better in rankings too, maybe we'll have another miraculous medaka recovery for nisio yet

Blue Box Ch96

a xmas chap when it's 29ºC out is p funny but anyway great chap especially the ending oh my gooooooooood

Mashle Ch151

very cool chap with the secondary protags getting to shine for once, mashle should be back next chap so we getting closer and closer to the end now

Sakamoto Days Ch114

another nice chap, and moving the plot along too, tho I loved this one bit which had nothing to do with that

Undead Unluck Ch154

good chap as usual, not much else to say

The Elusive Samurai Ch105

it was nice seeing the fruit of our protags' upgrades but takauji is more terrifying than ever

Akane-banashi Ch57

very good chap as usual, it was cool to see the growth of the seyiuu girl, idr if I said it last week here but I don't think akane is gonna win this and get a spot in the 4 people show, it's been a while since she's suffered a big loss but we will see

Ayakashi Triangle Ch126

nice chap, looks like I was right about the reason why the baddies did what they did to matsuri, now let's see if mei does the right thing

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

02/18/2024 – 02/24/2024

Sunday

Week 2 of missing Cipher Academy. Yes I’m going to do this for at least a year.

Girl Meets Rock is fine.

Undead Unluck is pretty good, it’ll be interesting to see how the group gets out of this one. Loved the parallel between the Gods searching for the Greatest Life while Fuuko and Andy search for the Greatest Death.

Oshi no Ko is fairly intense, but I appreciate the creators still including comedic moments; I guess they don’t want the story to get too harrowing. But Hikaru and his relationship with Ai is really fascinating, as the two of them bond over being perpetual actors/liars in order to hide their pain.

Dandadan fine. At least Momo and Zuma have a fun dynamic.

I guess Chainsaw Man’s been demoted to Manga Sundays rather than Tuesdays when it comes out, as I don’t really get spoilers for it anymore. It does feel a bit hard to see where Part 2 is going after Part 1 was just strength after strength, but I’ll still keep the faith.

One Piece good. As always, I feel like I don’t know enough to be able to say much about it.

Finally watched the second Kizumonogatari movie, Nekketsu. I loved the distinct Monogatari atmosphere, the action scenes were beautiful and fluid and odd, and lowkey this movie series has me kind of shipping Araragi and Hanekawa… I know Senjougahara’s his true love and all, but the vibe of two people sharing a unique experience is unmatched. Also that wheat field where they talked was absolutely gorgeous and extremely up my alley.

A new chapter of Yuria-sensei! It’s fun that she and Riku once shared a hobby, and it hammers home just how much Goro had a type lol

I’ve fallen off of reading non-Shounen Jump manga extremely hard, and I can’t pretend that some part of that isn’t because of this Week in Review thing lol It’s just a bit boring when I read a single chapter and have no thoughts on it but I have to log it here anyway, so I’ve been putting off reading a lot of series I follow. But also, it’s true that I feel like when I binge-read a manga, get caught up, and then have to survive off infrequent releases, everything I read just gets deleted from my memory and I spend the next few months confused with every new chapter – I want to strive to wait until a manga’s finished before reading it now, unless it’s something I know I would really like.

With that out of the way, Shiroyama to Mita-san ended recently, so it’s time for me to catch back up with this endearingly strange couple. As a whole, it’s fairly one-note, with the same dry sense of humor throughout all of its gags, but the premise itself is engaging enough on its own and there’s moments of sincerity scattered throughout that keep it a fun read.

Monday

Ah

Tuesday

Oh no

Wednesday

Okay I had some errands to run today and then I just passed out

Thursday

Okay!!! This week was a bit of a crapshoot but I’ll never miss DunMesh Thursdays. Today’s meal was (instant) ramen, and I wish I had some shrimp or fish tofu to put in it, but we used all of those for the fried rice the other day (and I don’t like eggs in ramen…I don’t like how it makes the broth all gloopy). We get a cute flashback scene to the origin of Falin and Marcille’s friendship, and a further examination of the themes of the show – that being the delicate balance that all ecosystems must maintain in order to thrive, and the folly of humans who try to enact their own visions on it without understanding its structure or how they themselves fit into it. The fight afterwards was also fun and dynamic, with a cute gag to end off the episode.

Also read the latest chapter of Takatora-kun, but there’s not much for me to say about it. I’m interested in this new adult character who looks just like Takatora but with glasses, but I’m more curious about the pharmaceutical advancements that he seems to hint at.

Friday

Busy again today…couldn’t even watch Drag Race before passing out in bed lol

Saturday

Alright, it’s Drag Race time, but I’ve been kind of dreading it since I heard that Nymphia doesn’t do well and Snatch Game is such an all-or-nothing sort of challenge to watch anyway (in the sense that on the rare occasions where there’s a genuinely stand-out performance, it’s a blast to watch, but usually it’s middling at best and absolutely agonizing). The reading challenge at the top of the episode didn’t bolster my confidence too much, and I had to skip the Snatch Game entirely because the second-hand embarrassment made me want to die. Once again, I don’t give a shit about Plane Jane’s storyline this season, but they’re definitely pushing her as a frontrunner and finalist so we’re going to have to contend with her for a while yet. (Currently, my prediction is that the final four will be Nymphia, Sapphira, Plasma, and Plane Jane.) The runway was super cute, though – I loved how everyone had a different approach, and the theme lent itself to interesting runway walks and a lot of fun interactions with the judges. Sapphira and Nymphia were the highlights for me, but it was fun seeing Plasma weaponize her BFA again. I’ve never been happier to see the judges’ favouritism allowing Nymphia to be safe, and I think it lent itself to a bittersweet and meaningful lip sync. Xunami and Morphine dancing together and singing to each other really embodied the song and heightened the emotions.

Undead Unluck…I’ve been nervously anticipating this arc because I love Anno Un, and I’m happy to report that his voice actor does not disappoint. Yumi Uchiyama really handily plays off both his cuteness and his coolness, and sets him apart as the enigmatic character that he is. The cold open had some great animation, with Sean’s bloodied silhouette and eye being a particular highlight. I hope this is a sign of better animation to come when the Autumn fight actually starts in earnest, and that this will be the last episode where they have to cut corners as the cour reaches its end. But before that, CANADA MENTION!!!!!!!!! This absolutely blew my mind when I first read it, and it’s so special to see it in animation – I love that they got the seawall and the weird seahorse head looking shape of the peninsula, and the poutine was so cute. I love how Anno unsettles Andy and Fuuko, and his G-Liner ability is cool to see animated…but of course, the elephant in the room is the CG again. And once again, I can’t really fault them, and they did hand draw the spiders when they got executed by the guillotine, but I wish they could’ve done something more to integrate the models into the look of the show better. But again, I have my fingers crossed that the finale run will be more stable. The main Autumn UMA is done well so far, with that light bit of body horror with the poor guy’s head and the mechanical movements of Autumn’s eyes. And then Anno and Juiz’s conversation had a fun terseness to it, as two characters who know more about the world than most other characters but with opposing philosophies and approaches. I wish they didn’t have that long flashback scene in the middle of the episode, because the episode could’ve ended with Fuuko diving into Andy’s past and been stronger for it, I think. But regardless, I’m once again nervously anticipating the next Undead Unluck episode.