#esp with the release of volume 5 manga

[dailyfatefigures]

Do you mind explaining what evillous is? It looks like miku, rin and len to me? is it just a vocaloid song that they were given unique identities in?

evillious (or the evillious chronicles but that's too much for me to be bothered to type out again and again) is a massive multimedia franchise made by the vocaloid producer mothy!

the vocaloids basically serve as actors in it which is why most characters look a lot like their corresponding voicebanks.... but also the close resemblance the characters can be 50/50 like on one hand you have michaela who looks JUST like miku but on the other hand you have ma who's a luka but looks.. nothing like a luka (tbf that is bc of bodyswapping but also like . come on . the girl she bodyswapped with was also a luka) and then there's characters like bruno who, despite being p fucking important, doesn't have a vocaloid at all

^^ michaela, ma, and bruno

but also i think the reason riliane, allen and michaela look so much like their vocaloids in those figures is bc they're meant as 'rin in this one song', 'len in this one song' and 'miku in this one song' and not 'riliane lucifen d'autriche, a character who has 5 light novels, a bunch of manga volumes, and too many songs to count that are all primarily about her' etc etc (i'm not calculating allen and michaela's appearances or the amount of manga volumes riliane is in you could not pay me to (actually you could and i know the exact price but no one's going to)). also the evillious characters all have p defined facial features that get ironed out when they get converted into generic anime figure style.

^^ maybe my perception is warped as an evillious fan but i do not ever see ichika's illustrations of riliane and think 'that's kagamine rin'

in regards to what evillious actually is though, it's also known as story of evil and the seven deadly sins series, and if you're into vocaloid (esp if you've been into vocaloid for any decent amount of time) whether you know it or not, you are very, very familiar with at least a little bit of evillious. and by that i mean you've heard daughter of evil at least once, and also probably servant of evil, the tailor of enbizaka, the lunacy of duke venomania and judgement of corruption. the story basically follows this world known as the third period from its creation to its destruction (and a bit before and after). the seven deadly sins series makes up the bulk of evillious and follows seven people at different times and locations throughout this world's history and those around them as they get possessed by the seven deadly sins and uhm . well it should be p obvious that nothing good comes of that. story of evil is a colloqiual name given to the pride arc bc daughter of evil, servant of evil and regret message were the first songs mothy released that were explicitly meant to be tied together upon release (he likes to drop a song and then be like 'teehee this was part of the evillious canon all along' years later) and the evillious name wouldn't come around til much later.

if you want to actually get into evillious, you really have to go by release order or you will get very confused very quickly (gasp! the guy who likes fate enough to run a daily blog based around it for over a year has strong opinions on that age old issue of watch order (not the right phrase bc i am a fate anime adaptation hater til the day i die and the evillious anime never actually got made but. you know what i mean)!) mainly bc of the sheer amount of body swapping and reincarnation that goes on and the scifi fantasy concepts that get explained when they first appear and then never again. the songs all have translated pvs up on youtube (a lot of pvs are fanmade and may have aged poorly w noncanon visuals so don't fully let your guard down) and most if not all written materials have tls by @/pricechecktranslations here on tumblr. obligatory warning for a lot of incest and also everyone fucking dying goes here, there are more cws that should be attached to it but we'd be here literally for fucking ever if i were to list all of them bc it's huge and every bad thing happens at least once but those are the two big ones that happen in most if not all arcs.

[hjemne]

Ilsa, I’ve seen you posting a lot of Trigun and well I’m intrigued by it, to say the least. But just for giggles, would you try to convince me why should I watch it? 😆🤚🏻

AHHHHH!

I didn't think Trigun was going to worm its way into my brain so much but here we are. There is so much to love about it and I adore so many of the characters for a billion different ways. The character type of someone who is made into a killing machine and then is slowly convinced to accept love and forgiveness is my favourite and is all over trigun. So many characters see themselves as monstrous but choose to do what they see as right for the sake of / with the help of their friends. There are moments of silliness and of tragedy, all with an incredibly interesting setting which slowly gets revealed.

Because of the recent release of Trigun Stampede, the community is really active rn (esp on Tumblr!) and it's really cool to see so many incredible fanarts, comics, fanfics and discussions being made. It's very fun to be part of a very active fandom, but also one that is 25 years old and has fanworks that are older than I am.

I really love it, and I would recommend it, but unfortunately I also have some caveats which I gotta mention.

What you gotta know before getting into Trigun is that there are 4 different canon versions and each one has its problems. I wish I could recommend X version as the definitive and best, but that just doesn't exist which is very annoying.

1) Trigun Maximum: the manga

Good: incredible nuances to characters like Wolfwood, Knives, Livio/Razlo. Vashwood subtext is off the charts and their dynamic is incredibly fascinating and central. This is the most detailed and complex story of Trigun and has lots of themes, characters and plot points that don't exist in other versions. Has elements of sexism and sexual violence, but (imo) to show how shitty the world is, rather than to revel in the misogyny. The tone is tragic, with equal mix of hope and pain.

Bad: the female characters of Meryl and Milly get massively sidelined in comparison to their depictions elsewhere. It's a very long manga and has (imo) pacing issues that limit the impact of emotional moments. The art style is beautiful, but notoriously difficult to follow, especially in the many long fight scenes (particularly bad in volume 5). There's lots of disagreement about 'correct' translations and it can be hard to tell which character is doing/saying/thinking what at points which can make it confusing and frustrating to read at times.

Overall: 7/10, I would recommend but maybe not as your first bit of exposure to Trugun

2) 1998 anime Trigun

Good: the silliest of Triguns with some great voice acting. The friendships between Vash, Milly, Meryl and Wolfwood are very sweet and engaging (although it would have been nice to see more of the four of them together). It's a fun overview of the Trigun story and has a very entertaining mix of comedy and serious emotional moments. Lots of hijinks and lots of fights. Milly and Meryl are core characters and get time to shine (it is impossible not to love Milly). This is personal preference but the animation style is kinda goofy in the way it changes styles to exaggerate characters' feelings which I love. The first 12 ISH episodes are very Saturday morning cartoon vibes without being too inane and childish.

Bad: because it only had the first couple of volumes of the manga to adapt from, the mid-season tone shift and later fights feel rushed, a little confusing and ultimately lead to a less satisfying conclusion than in trimax. The misogyny is noticeable, especially in the first couple of episodes, though is limited to a couple of comments in some episodes and doesn't (I think) make it unwatchable. The antagonists are rushed through and it's hard to work out who the 'main' villain is. Tone change is quite abrupt. Wolfwood is a less developed character with a less intense (back)story, Livio/Razlo doesn't exist at all etc

Overall: 7/10, this is what I'd recommend you start with. It has pacing issues and uncomfortable sexist comments, but I think they're outweighed by the strengths of the main casts relationships and the pure entertainment value of it. Not the most satisfying ending, but they were constrained so :/

3) Badlands Rumble (film)

Good: animation is SO crisp. Wolfwood is at maximum chest exposure and actually his character is pretty interesting here. Milly and Meryl are back, but in limited roles. Some interesting world building and Vash and Wolfwood go thru their divorce arc TM which is dumb and funny and angsty.

Bad: Wolfwood is far too pale. The first half an hour is made almost unwatchable by the decision to make sexism and sexual harrassement a way to pad out the runtime. Vash is such a creep it just makes for uncomfortable watching.

4/10 don't watch if you're not already invested, and honestly do yourself a favour by watching the opening scene, then skipping to the 30 min ish mark and watch knowing that Vash has some very tough dried meat in his front coat pocket.

4) Trigun Stampede anime

Good: really cool 3D animation and music. Has Wolfwood's manga backstory and some manga characters like Livio and Crimsonnail, but with very different characterisations. I really liked the episode looking at the childhood of two orphans and how their love for each other was manipulated against them both. Much bigger focus on Knives than the original and more elaboration of his motivations and plans. Zazie is SO much better here than in the original anime. No uncomfortable sexism yay!

Bad: I... don't like tristamp very much. The characters are watered down from their manga versions and Knives is just kinda evil because he was en evil child, rather than the much more nuanced version in trimax. Milly doesn't exist (yet) and they added in a new character Roberto whose role in the story is (or at least was to me) obvious if you know the basics of the hero's journey structure. Everyone has been twinkified and Wolfwood doesn't even have his tits out smh. Vash just comes across as having less agency and his motivations feel weak. I really just dont like a lot of the character decision here BUT to be fair, that's because I'm comparing them to the manga. But also, a main plot point is someone taking over his brother's body so that his sisters can get pregnant and it definitely still feels weird in context. The focus on the two brothers makes other dynamics a little weaker, and has led to a lot of incest-y fandom things which is ehh.

5.5/10 there are some things it does very well and it's very popular for a reason but I personally think the characterisations are disappointing. It's trying to strike a weird balance between being its own, new thing and also nostalgia for original elements, leading to some questionable pacing and plot choices. It doesn't even have Midvalley the Hornfreak.

I would love to be able to talk about Trigun with you and be passionate about the elements of it I love, but also I don't want to recommend it without giving you a fair picture of the parts I'm more critical about. I genuinely love the world building and characters, which are expressed best in the less accessible form of the manga but are also found in the animes. What I'd recommend is watching the original anime first, but also you might need to give it the benefit of the doubt for the first couple episodes which is where the dodgy 90s sexism is most obvious. I'd be super interested in hearing your thoughts and reactions to it if you did watch it, and also please bear in mind that my complaints about tristamp are personal and there are many who love that version so don't take my negativity as fact.

[saviorsbookcafe]

ohhhhhh my god its been so long since ive like. been here.

first things first is i have updated my info page for all details on getting the manga/light novels etc. to be updated properly but also wow. tumblr killed my page so it took me forever to figure out how to make it work (hint: it had javascript in it) so it unfortunately no longer has my neat askbox included feature but alas.. what can you do (i just added a link at the bottom)

volume 5 of the manga came out recently (does a month ago count as recent?) with a very very neato pamphlet bonus if you can get it (digital is also available) which includes a colored! comic of tsukina and ill post-volume 5 storyline very cute highly recommend (link on that info page)

but anyways due to the above and also getting caught up in trying to make myself a little timeline of where all the events in this series take place (super productive day i am very into excel) i ended up not getting like any actual work done on the next chapter except realizing its a cool 21 pages that i am like only 7 pages into i was Really hoping it was short or like not 21 pages

i know its been like. forever. looking at the published date on the light novel its been like 2 years since it was released and i am pretty sure its been a year and a half (maybe the full 2) since i started translating this light novel and obviously it has been very inconsistent.. but i do truly want to finish this translation if you can believe it lol so bear with me.. i am gonna try to work on more of chapter 9 tomorrow and maybe i can at least get some progress done.. and for tonight im gonna.. look at my asks! after years of waiting lol although i think this post will mostly sum up how things have been

[no-psi-nan]

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. / 斉木楠雄のΨ難 / Saiki Kusuo no PSI-nan

Having godly psychic powers actually sucks ass, and Saiki Kusuo would do anything to trade in his ESP for a normal life as a high-schooler.

Instead, he's stuck hiding his abilities from everyone while trying to avoid getting caught up in the antics of his insane classmates and lunatic family!

In this fast-paced slice-of-life comedy series, meet spectacular new Blorbos, such as:

a disaster emo kid who thinks he's a secret superhero when Saiki is literally right there,

a girl so beautiful and perfect that she has an entire army of simps, and

the absolute worst monk in history who should be in jail for 5000 years!

Saiki Kusuo, the protagonist:

has a whole laundry list of psychic powers

can solo Goku

is canonically trans, ace, and a queer ally

is 100% fucking done with everything

Where to Watch the Anime:

Netflix has the complete collection, including an exclusive bonus set of 6 episodes called "The Disastrous Life of Saiki K: Reawakened", so it's the most highly recommended viewing source!

The show is complete with 56 episodes total!

Best Anime Watch Order:

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 1

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 2

Reawakened Episodes 1-5

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 3 (Conclusion Special)

Reawakened Episode 6

Where to read the manga:

Since the manga was unfortunately never released outside of Japan, the best place to read the Saiki K manga is the excellent scanlation on Mangadex.

However, if you can read Japanese, please consider supporting the official release and buying the manga!

Where to read the light novels:

The two volumes of "Extra Stories of Psychics" were never released outside of Japan, but you can read the translation here:

Enjoy, and come brainrot with the rest of us Saiki K fans on Tumblr!

[hanijunk]

Alright boys, girls, and nonbinary folks of the world. It’s 5:36am (1/30 when I first started) as I decide to give up on my attempt to continue to focus on learning statistics, avoid studying for my two upcoming midterms, and put off my two actual essays for two different classes.

Instead we’re going into a dive about ✨ KazuFuuma ✨ . Is this me telling you you gotta ship it? No of course not, you’re entitled to your own ships! You don’t really gotta care about it as a ship. But I do want people to recognize it’s THERE canonically, and how disregarding it is extremely unfair to Kazuki as a character particularly. Also, I’m working on the assumption anyone clicking this at least knows the bare bones about what KazuFuuma (ex. You know they are a ship of Kazuki/Fuuma from Dolce, you know they are childhood friends, you know who Dolce is, you know about Honeyworks, etc.) I’ll be making references to specific things, but I won’t always go into heavy detail. Might just hope you know it or take my word for what it is, and go into analyzing it. Some I’ll put direct references to find, but some I’ll trust you can find it yourself. If you somehow read this MAMMOTH and want reference to a specific thing mentioned, hmu I can help you find it!!

Also I hate tumblr formatting sm if you legit wanna read this 7 page essay but hate tumblr format lmk I'll add it as a google doc link instead too. anYWHO

Before actually getting into the meat of things lemme preface some stuff.

Again it’s like almost 6am so this will be disorganized and very train of thought (and likely long due to the fact when I fly by the seat of my pants I’m known to get unnecessarily extensive). It’s definitely gonna be in large part why it’s important to recognize as a romantic relationship foundation and what about it shapes Kazuki’s character in particular. Maybe a bit of how it’s been built up and its general focus and implications. Dunno yet. We’ll see LMAOO

I say f*ck. Not a lot, just a handful of times. This ain’t something scholarly this is for my own enjoyment so if you don’t like that might not wanna read. And it’s not like spitefully I just curse a lot if you haven’t...read my tags before lol

Again this is through the lens of a Kazuki stan. Of COURSE I’m going to have some level of bias, but if anything that bias may help more than hurt because that means I become FIXATED and think a lot about Kazuki. Which plays into establishing just how important it is that Kazufuuma’s relationship is recognized, especially in a romantic light at this point. Lmfao. 

I’ll have a few more prefaces about the actual content below but to keep this from getting too long if you wanna read come below the cut owo

I have extremely limited knowledge of Japanese just taking a few classes in highschool (so like 3 yrs ago) and live in America. This means a lot of my knowledge is gathered through the english translations of the super duper incredible and lovely people in the Honeyworks fandom who provide translations (delaix and takanenene esp have provided so much for me being able to understand Dolce) and my own limited Japanese paired with Google Translate for things that remain untranslated.

This only will be drawing on information I have come in contact with and have access to and making assumptions based on that, most (if not all) of which is in the public domain. So things like the Dolce Manga Volumes released via Animate, exclusive 4komas, and Light Novels are out of my area for the most part (apart from again snippets of translations thanks to this fandom’s godlike and generous translators).

I will not be drawing on anything from the first Dolce album with the exception of Nade Nade. From a meta standpoint, I consider those songs as songs made as performance media as opposed to character explorations. Nade Nade is the exception because (1) it was released a whole year before the album and (2) you can tell it’s explicitly an exploration of Fuuma and Kazuki’s interpersonal relationship even if it’s in a slightly more performance based context than the songs that came out with the Dolce LNs. Easiest parallel I can make to show this is if you held Non-Fantasy, Yume Fanfare, and Samishigariya up against each other, you could tell the difference in intended audience and intended purpose the same way the Dolce 1st album, Nade Nade, and the songs of the LNs do respectively. Even if there is some basis to ground Kazufuuma, for the purposes of this essay I’ll be acting under the assumption the 1st album falls under the Non-Fantasy equivalent category.

THAT WAS A LOT OF PREFACING CONSIDERING LIKE 2 PPL WILL PROBABLY READ IT I just have a tendency to anytime I do anything analytical lay down ground acknowledgements for myself to work on just...cuz it makes me feel less guilty for any accidental misinformation even if I’m writing towards my future self to read lolll IM SORRY WITHOUT FURTHER TO DO HERE’S THE BRAIN DUMP

First let’s go ahead and establish why it needs to be recognized as an important relationship. Again, I’m a Kazuki stan. He’s my favorite character not only of Dolce but also of the entire Honeyworks series, and as much as I love him for reasons outside the ship, whether you like it or not Kazufuuma is an essential aspect of his character and narrative. Of course there’s the fact that him and Fuuma are childhood friends, so that’s going to in part define their characters and interactions with each other and those around them. They’re both going to be relevant to one another and important to one another’s stories to an even greater extent than the rest of the members of Dolce. But on Kazuki’s side at least, it’s an EXTREME amount. A running plotpoint in Dolce Diary is the sheer amount of dedication Kazuki has to Fuuma and how much his thoughts and decisions are influenced by Fuuma, whether it be how he feels happiest spending time with Fuuma, how he decided to get his piercing to represent he wanted to protect Fuuma, how he doesn’t want to dislike food so he can eat what Fuuma dislikes, etc. Not to mention running jokes about his borderline overprotectiveness and downright possessiveness of Fuuma, how proud he is when Fuuma gets praised, or that one 4koma that literally explicitly states he can read Fuuma’s mind when he thinks motherfucking ‘dirty thoughts’ about his childhood friend (Fuuma). I still don’t know what the fuck to make of that last bit. Genuinely. Or the fact it’s a fucking running joke. As in it’s not a one off. It’s been brought up multiple times. Kazuki what the fuck. 

That’s not to say that he doesn’t have character outside of Fuuma or he doesn’t interact with people other than Fuuma. He’s great friends with Sara, Girisha, and Kippei and is shown time and time again to have fun interactions with all of them, generally acting as the best support friend for every member of the group, not Fuuma alone. For instance how he helps Kippei with his self confidence issues or stays over at Sara’s to protect him from a cockroach (which he fails at lol). Nor is that to say all his interactions involving Fuuma focus solely on his devotion to Fuuma, especially in instances where the manga focuses on Dolce as a group dynamic (though even in that setting there are times where jokes about his devotion are thrown in). He’s kind, he’s stupid, he’s friendly, he’s an amazing character in his own right, and I love him for all those reasons. But that doesn’t change the fact a major part of his character and his character interactions are rooted in Fuuma, and arguably some of his most interesting, eccentric, and notable behaviors and traits revolve around Fuuma (again the mind reading for example).

Hell let’s take it one step further. If you look at the character bios of the Dolce members, you get everyone’s motives for being an idol and interests. Of them, Kazuki is the only one to have another character mentioned directly, not to mention that supporting Fuuma is explicitly stated to be his primary motive as to why he became an idol. Not even Fuuma’s sister is mentioned, though two arguments can be made for this. The first would be that Fuuma’s backstory about wanting to fulfill his dream for himself and his sister was decided later to explain Fuuma’s choice to crossdress though it can be argued it was intentionally done to leave it as a reveal at a later date, to which I would argue I don’t think this backstory was a choice in post. While Fuuma’s dedicated Dolce Diary extra exploring that backstory was released a little less than a year after Dolce was revealed, the preview to set up Fuuma’s backstory was actually the first thing released after the character bios on the Dolce Official Twitter page if you exclude a drawing of Dolce from Yamako. The second argument could be that information about his sister was intentionally withheld to set up the reveal when Fuuma’s extra released to explore it. However, going by that logic (which I do agree with), that would also mean that Fuuma’s inclusion and importance in Kazuki’s character bio also set up his dedicated extra, which I don’t think would be incorrect to assume considering what his actual extra turned out being.

Which brings me to the thing that makes it inexplicable to write off the romantic implications behind Kazufuuma: Kazuki’s dedicated Dolce Diary extra, Suki. I shipped Kazufuuma before even knowing of Suki, sure. But the fact that Suki even exists is a shock to me and drove into me the fact that Kazufuuma wasn’t just my own projection. Again, it’s not a surprise that Fuuma shapes Kazuki’s life. They’re childhood friends, of course they’re going to be important to each other. But this extra explicitly brought Kazuki’s feelings towards Fuuma under a direct spotlight. At first I was thinking oh, this extra was just to acknowledge the fact that Kazuki and Fuuma’s relationship can have romantic implications, but the end of it the conclusion that we got was that it didn’t matter what type of “like” he felt for Fuuma. Originally, I thought it wasn’t anything more than saying there are all types of like, and it doesn’t always need to be explicitly defined, but I appreciated the fact they were aware that they were writing Kazuki in a way that conveyed romantic implications. 

Then I thought about it because, again, I love Kazuki of course I’m going to think about his character extra, and realized...that’s not how these character extras have worked. There are only three character extras out as far as I know and have read: Fuuma, Kippei, and Kazuki. If we look at Fuuma and Kippei’s, each extra had a conclusion, sure, but they didn’t have a resolution. Rather, they were simply setting up explicitly what each character’s primary character arc and conflict were. Fuuma’s extra brought attention to the fact that he’s particularly a crossdressing idol by exploring the motives behind it. His choice to be a crossdressing idol is constantly under fire both by himself and the world around him. He’s not immune to those who consider his crossdressing strange, and a part of his story is both finding people who accept his decision to crossdress and to succeed for himself as a crossdressing idol. It’s an essential part of how we understand and define him as a character and it’s a central part of how he interacts with the world around him. For Kippei, it lays the severity of his insecurity under the spotlight and his journey and motives for improving himself. Again, this isn’t something isolated and resolved in the extra; his extreme insecurity and negativity is constantly affecting how he interacts with practically everyone from his fellow Dolce members to his fans despite the fact in all honesty? He’s fucking insanely talented in his own right, his own brother mentioning how smart he is and how he has amazing reflexes. For Kippei, his negativity is an essential part of how we understand and define him and central to how he interacts with the world as much as Fuuma’s decision to crossdress is to him.

Which brings us back to Kazuki, of course. In his dedicated extra, in the chapter that’s supposed to explore and establish and bring attention to an essential part of his character, the aspect of himself under investigation is how he feels about Fuuma. It’s not just how he behaves around Fuuma, it’s explicitly an exploration of his feelings, on top of the fact it’s explicitly an exploration about whether or not he likes Fuuma r o m a n t i c a l l y. Literally the conflict is spurred on by someone outright asking “Do you like him?” and having to clarify “I mean romantically.” What they decided to focus on for Kazuki’s character and emphasize and establish is that Kazuki’s like towards Fuuma toes the line between friendship and romance. His ambiguous feelings towards Fuuma (if we leave them inconclusive as Suki did) are just like Fuuma’s crossdressing and Kippei’s insecurity in the sense the weight of whatever those feelings may be are seen in how he interacts with the world around him and influences his behaviors. It would be another story if they introduced the potential and shut it down all within the extra, because then his central conflict would to me be less directly open to romantic potential and more simply about how his arc was meant to explore the dynamic of the behavior of an extremely dedicated best friend. The fact that he may be romantically attracted to Fuuma or may be only platonically dedicated to Fuuma is instead something that looms over Kazuki in the same way Fuuma’s decision to crossdress constantly looms over him. It’s what Dolce wanted to point to and say this is Kazuki’s central character conflict and central arc: exploring what type of feelings he has towards Fuuma. 

Sure, it can be argued that there’s only three Dolce Diary character extras, there’s not enough to be sure about that being the purpose of the extras unless we get the other two’s extras. First, at this point I honestly don’t know if or when they’re going to release an extra revolving around Sara and Girisha just because not only has it been over a year and a half since the latest Dolce Diary Character Extra (Kazuki’s) was released despite the gap between the first and latest Dolce Diary Character Extra (Fuuma’s and Kazuki’s) were within a year of release but also because the Dolce 4komas and comics they’ve been posting to Twitter have decreased (last one being over half a year ago) potentially due to them deciding to focus on releasing Dolce manga content through the purchasable volumes instead. (This is not particularly related to the Kazufuuma argument, just wanted to put out there my two cents on what Sara and Girisha’s extra/focal arc would be. Based on a large part of the Dolce Diary in conjuncture with Can’t an Idol Fall in Love, I’d argue Sara’s would be his journey to regain his passion for performing, and if it’s not that I’d say it’d be coming out of his self-imposed isolation and opening up to people again. As for Girisha, I have less of a concrete idea but I’m assuming it’d be something pertaining to how people often misconceive him whether it be in tandem with his determination, his optimism and sociability, or his stupidity/ability to ignore those misconceptions and work past them. But Girisha is treated like the comedic relief 90% of the time so I’m not entirely sure, but his primary conflict is definitely rooted in misconceptions of him being his roadblock imo. #MoreGirishaContentPlz) That being said, I personally feel like the three are already enough evidence, especially considering it would be honestly even more cruel for Kazuki’s character-centric extra to be focusing on something that wasn’t essential to his character and character arc, anyway. And though it’s not explicitly stated that these chapters are extras exploring a central character, you can kind of tell based on how they are (to my knowledge) the only Dolce Diary updates with cover/title cards each which include their focal character front and center. So working off that fact, the Kazuki-centric chapter established that a pillar to his narrative was his feelings towards Fuuma and that those feelings are still open to romantic potential. 

But if you follow me, this is why up until Can’t an Idol Fall in Love With Another Idol’s release, I was terrified of them writing that off. I would have been ok if it was just an arc that was given attention then continued to actively work in the background, as all the character arcs have been over all of Dolce’s content. The fact that they might be giving Fuuma a love interest and giving Fuuma a love arc while Kazuki’s feelings were still up in the air and were still the primary highlighted narrative for him would have been fucking scuffed. To me, it would be like… why would they make him so Fuuma-centric to the point that even his dedicated chapter was not just focused on Fuuma but focused on the ambiguity and potential of him having romantic feelings for Fuuma, yet reduce him to being Fuuma's designated right-hand man. Don’t get me wrong, friendships are just as important as romantic relationships. But again, rather than conclude Kazuki’s answer in Suki to be that his feelings were of friendship, they left it open ended and allow audience members to be actively aware that Kazuki’s feelings towards Fuuma still had potential to be romantically coded. It would just be so weird to quickly close off that narrative by giving Fuuma a love interest as opposed to letting Kazuki conclude it himself. It would be fucking beyond frustrating for me, at least Eventually, I kept trying to drive my hopes that they would explore Kazuki’s narrative at all down to the ground because it was a Fuuma-centric novel; maybe if anything they’d explore those feelings in his own novel after the fact. But then they kept having little drops here and there of Kazuki being even the slightest bit relevant and I’d go back to questioning “Are??? They??? Is this on purpose??? Do they know what they’re doing or are they just doing this because Kazuki’s just so important to Fuuma as his best friend that he’s there as his right-hand I genuinely can’t tell???” And um. Welp.

Safe to say Can’t An Idol Fall in Love sold me on the fact that they know what they’re doing LOL. And to anyone who thinks that Kazuki’s feelings can still be read as ambiguous in CAIFILWAI as opposed to explicitly romantic - whether it be due to a fear they may pull the “I like him as a friend” card or due to the disbelief that they have an explicit mlm main character in the Honeyworks series - I’d like to cover any bases that may make you think this way. If you think it’s just Kazuki acting like a protective friend, why do you think he calls Yui a rival? If you’ve only seen the MV and think it’s ambiguous or can be taken as the "likfe" for friend, then does that mean you think Yui’s feelings toward Fuuma are also ambiguous or as a friend? With the way Yui responds, she is trying to rival Kazuki’s feelings towards Fuuma. She and Kazuki recognize whatever feeling it is that they hold towards Fuuma, both of their feelings are the same type. I don’t think most people would argue that Yui’s confession about Fuuma was one of pure respect and friendship. Plus, if anything I’d argue of the three characters in the MV, Fuuma is the one whose feelings are left the most ambiguous despite him being the central character. It’s heavily implied that he may be forming feelings for Yui, but nowhere is it established either in the song or in the MV, especially if you compare it to Kazuki and Yui’s declarations or if you compare it to Sara’s feelings for Uru in Can’t An Idol Fall in Love. Fuuma’s romantic narrative here is trying to figure out how he feels for Yui, while for Kazuki and Yui they’ve established a rivalry because they both have mutually established they like Fuuma romantically.

If the MV isn’t enough for you and Suki isn’t enough for you for...some reason…??? You can check out the snippets of the light novel which the wonderful takanenene translated: one which revisits the conflict set up in Suki and one that covers the confession scene in the MV in more detail. If the fact that the conflict set up in Suki (aka the lurking feeling of not knowing if all he felt for Fuuma was only platonic or more than platonic) was specifically reestablished in the LN for anyone who didn’t keep up with Dolce Diary didn’t tip you off that it was something important, his behavior in the confession scene as depicted by the LN definitely should have. He’s possessive about his spot by Fuuma’s side. He doesn’t want that spot to be taken by anyone else. Even if he knows that they can help Fuuma, he wants it to be him. And this line: “Kazuki then trails off his words, quietly saying ‘That’s why…’ and then gave Yui a slightly painful smile, his cheeks turning red,” before he declares Yui a rival and states he likes Fuuma. If you can tell me you read that line and are still on the fence about Kazuki’s “like” towards Fuuma being romantic, please message me and I will see how I can get through to you. Like it wasn’t even just a romantically coded confession. It’s just a romantic confession. That “like” is romantic. And I’m so proud that he’s not only come to understand for himself how he feels, but that he’s confident enough to ask the person he sees as a romantic rival to speak in private and not only clarify her feelings for Fuuma but before she can even do that firmly establishes that he loves Fuuma with conviction. Kazuki my boy I’m so proud of you. *sniffs*

And that’s it for establishing Kazufuuma as at least canonically one-sidedly canon and why there’s not only no reason to deny it but also why denying it is a fucking disrespectful move towards Kazuki. He’s a character, sure, but that doesn’t change the fact you shouldn’t write off his struggle to come to be convicted enough to say it out loud. This has been something weighing on him at least a year, if not more (all I know is it started when both he and Fuuma were in some year in middle school). And as a character in a piece of media, I’ve been saying this the entire time, but brushing it off as non-romantic is literally chucking a fucking pillar of his character’s story into the gutter. And to those who may be saying Kazuki’s confession came out of nowhere and is pandering reread this entire fucking essay again I dare you to do it and tell me to my face it’s pandering. Again. Writing off the buildup as pandering is disrespectful to him, disrespectful to his character and narrative, and disrespectful to the wonderful people who have been creating Dolce so diligently and have crafted this narrative for us. Saying his “supposed feelings” and “ambiguous confession” is pandering is like saying Fuuma’s crossdressing is pandering which. If you say either of those I will find you and I will shank you in the fucking gut. Even if you’re not fully into Dolce, recognize these characters are actually very well developed and executed amazingly, as per every Honeyworks character that has come to exist. I don’t blame you if you weren’t aware of the weight of Kazufuuma, but now that you read this I hope you are. That’s mainly what I needed to get out there, but as follows will be me more exploring how Kazufuuma has been built up and generally waving my hand off at where it may be going. If you want you can dip, thanks for reading up to here because I know I repeated a lot because it’s just. So important to drill into your head and has been something I’ve been hung up about constantly. LOL

As for where exactly they’re taking it from this point on, I honestly don’t know. In all honesty, I didn’t even expect them to take it the direction they did. But honestly, I think the direction they went with it is really interesting and better than I could have imagined, in my opinion at least. Honeyworks never ceases to amaze me with their storytelling and narrative choices, and I don’t think there’s any that stand out to me as being severely questionable that they haven’t reapproached at some point down the line. And, again, I think they’re treating this with a lot of care and deserved respect. So I’m just gonna be gushing about how smart they set it up and how smart they’ve been executing it and maybe my own hopes on the direction it could go.

Whether they make Kazufuuma reciprocated I have no real clue or bearings, but to me my gut reaction is they will. Of course, I’m biased, but again if you trace things all the way back to 2018 and step through Dolce’s content and growth from there, I’d say even if they didn’t know if they could execute it like this and see it to fruition, I’d argue that Kazufuuma has been at least heavily implied since the beginning as a relationship they wanted to explore from both sides of the relationship. Obviously I brought up Kazuki’s character bio already, but if you look at the *goes to count* 5th Dolce Diary update already has a joke jabbing at the fact that Kazuki is technically Fuuma’s type (and the way Kippei and Kazuki excitedly react is so cute). The fifth update. And as stated before there are tons of Kazufuuma moments in Dolce Diary, whether it’s played for comedic effect or played straight (and this is post Suki but oh my god I’ve said it before I’ll say it again get yourself someone who looks at you the way Kazuki looks at Fuuma oh my jesus). But song-wise, I mentioned the one Dolce album song I would bring up is Nade Nade and this is where it comes! 

Not only is Nade Nade specifically focused on Kazuki and Fuuma’s relationship as opposed to the whole of Dolce despite being the first song, it included the setup/preview of the Fuuma-centric extra prior to the full release of the Fuuma-centric extra itself and was released early as fuck. Literally between the 6th and 7th update to Dolce Diary. Sure, it could be to isolate them as a duo for marketing purposes (they’re very often the two promoted idols together if the whole of the group aren’t included), but the way it’s established as a perspective song as opposed to a general idol duet is what fascinates me. Anyone who didn’t know about Dolce prior and only followed Honeyworks for music would be first introduced to these characters through this song alone, and maybe this is where my Kazufuuma bias comes from but I was one of those people LOL. I thought it was just a cute one-off relationship that they had set up for the purpose of a song and that it was an implied friends-to-lovers story that would never get a conclusion. Also I mistakenly thought Fuuma was a girl oop-. In the full context of Dolce, this song in part helped establish Fuuma and Kazuki more solidly as a unique duo out of all of Dolce, but it also specifically explored through Fuuma’s eyes just how much Fuuma recognizes and appreciates the unwavering support Kazuki gives him to follow his dreams as he wishes. For Fuuma, he loves Kazuki too, though whether it holds any romantic potential in the same way Kazuki loves him has never been explored to nearly the same extent. But Fuuma appreciates how Kazuki’s remained by his side and does everything he can to support him, so Nade Nade explores how his way of expressing his love and thankfulness to Kazuki is by never saying that he needs Kazuki by his side. He’s glad Kazuki’s always been there for him, and his reciprocation takes on the form of being ready to unwaveringly support Kazuki and not ask for more than he already has, even if it meant Kazuki would be leaving his side, despite the fact that he really does wish they could remain together forever just as Kazuki does. The one point he lets himself say something vaguely close to always wanting to stay together, he gets a surprised expression out of Kazuki and says an ambiguous “suki dayo.” Of course, this it much less romantically coded than what we get from Kazuki in Suki and CAIFILWAI, but there is an interesting emphasis put on it nonetheless. Keep in mind, this is all established through the song, which released long before not only Fuuma’s character-centric extra released but also Kazuki’s character-centric extra released, so there is at least a substantial setup for Fuuma’s feelings towards Kazuki’s being strong as well and possibly grow to be reciprocated one day.

I think for me the most fascinating part about Nade Nade is how they tied it back around to Can’t An Idol Fall In Love with Another Idol. Again, without remembering Nade Nade, I still thought CAIFILWAI was brilliantly explored and executed, even if some people would have preferred no love triangle. But honestly, revisiting Nade Nade makes me trust even more the direction they’re taking with this. Whether or not they make Kazufuuma canon mutually (which. Even if they for some inexplicable reason didn’t I’m going down with this ship.), I’m sure they’re putting a lot of thought into the story, because the last bit of Nade Nade directly parallels the misunderstanding that arose from Fuuma mishearing the Kazuki and Yui. Fuuma is resolved to support Kazuki in any area he’s given the chance, and that explicitly includes if Kazuki had some girl he liked, which is what he assumes is going on. The fact that they tied this back around in the form of a misunderstanding was really really smart and Honeyworks is always so good at parallels and references back to their older songs, but for some reason I didn’t expect this. I don’t know how to say why, but the fact that the song that started it all, kicked off both Dolce and Kazufuuma, was directly referenced both visually in the MV with a cameo at the start and narratively despite the central dynamic being predominantly explored in this story in particular was that of Fuuma and another potential love interest and involves said potential love interest for some reason makes me think that (sorry Yui) this is all planned out for Kazufuuma in the grand scheme of things. That being said, I don’t know if me thinking it was planned all along is just me with shipper goggles, but the idea it’s come full circle nearly 3 years later is not shipper goggles and a very very well done parallel in my opinion, whether this trajectory was their plan for Kazufuuma from the beginning or not. Just wanted to gush about that some more. 

There’s more I could go into especially if I went into specific details about interactions or specific implications established in Honeyworks' Dolce content about different characters that would be fascinating to explore in relation to and under the lens of Kazufuuma, but I think this is uh...plenty long enough. Plus, I doubt you'll stop seeing Kazufuuma posts from me so those ideas will probably just be miniposts or somethin.

Back to the overarching point of this segment, idk what they’ll do with this story in the end, but do I think Kazufuuma will canon? I’m used to looking at ships that aren’t explicitly apparent with a sliver of skepticism, but all things considered (as I stated before) yeah. I don’t see reason why they wouldn’t now that they’ve explicitly identified there is a romantic dimension to it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like to me, the setup isn’t something that would be written off as unrequited? And this doesn’t have to play into why I don’t think it will canon, my personal opinion on the Fuuyui relationship (again albeit through the lens of a hard Kazufuuma shipper lmao) has it’s own merits and is really cute, I find it cute in the way I found Koyuhina cute. I personally never really shipped Koyuhina, and especially since they slipped Kotarou into Ima Suki Ni Naru I was more curious about who this kid was and how he played into things I didn’t really see Koyuhina as something that would come to fruition. Similarly, there’s more importance in the overall sense on Kazuki than there is Yui (considering he’s one of the 5 original and focal members of this generation of idols, this would be natural), as well as the fact there’s just way more foundation and exploration in Fuuma and Kazuki’s relationship than there is Fuuma and Yui. As for how much of a balance there is inside the LN itself, the fact that they seem to have spent a substantial amount relaying the foundation of Fuuma and Kazuki’s relationship and re-exploring it (at least in Kazuki’s perspective) at all on top of how much content there is covering their relationship prior to the LN ever since Dolce’s origin just feels like that relationship holds more weight. Pretty much Kazufuuma feels more established as a priority in general. The way I personally hope Fuuyui plays out is whether they wind up holding mutual feelings or not or whether Fuuma doesn’t feel that way towards Yui is they get a relationship akin to Kotarou and Arisa. Albeit, Kotarou and Arisa never viewed each other in a romantic light, but they had mutual respect and solidarity. That’s the type of friendship I hope comes out of Fuyui. And considering there hasn’t been a break-up in any Honeyworks’ canon relationships (nor do I expect there to be… they’re all perfect for each other LMAO) it would actually be interesting if Fuuyui get together but don’t endgame and Kazufuuma is established as the inseparable endgame after some realization or another, though I don’t expect them to go that route nor do I know if that’d be the best way to go about it anyway. Also final point, Honeyworks seems to have a thing for childhood friends trope anyway soooooo owo All in all, don’t know where they’re taking it, just excited to see where it goes. 

TL;DR of this *counts* 7 page essay, stan Kazufuuma. Not gonna proof this. Maybe I’ll edit and repost but yall are getting a confusing clusterfuck of ramblings over 2-3 hr periods of me writing across 3 different days at around 5am each day. Uh. If you got this far like and subscribe and-- jk plz reply to this mammoth anywhere you see fit or tell me if you have stuffs to add or counter or whatnot I like hearing people talk about Kazufuuma ;w; I am Kazuki and Kazufuuma brainrot can you tell after reading this? No? Lemme just remind you I’m K--

[doedipus]

I finally finished moyashimon

it’s honestly one of my favorite anime/manga that I’ve read in a long, long time. there are definitely some aspects of the work that frustrate me, but it’s not quite enough to sour the work as a whole in my eyes. if you’re in the mood for a really chill slice of life series with a lot of well-developed and respectfully portrayed female and queer characters, definitely give it a shot.

first of all, to anyone who’s only seen the anime adaptation, definitely, definitely, definitely look into the manga. some of the best parts in the series happen after the anime ends, esp. the craft beer adventure in volume 8 and american road trip in volume 10. plus, if you’re like me and are mostly drawn to the work because of kei, her involvement in the story only starts ramping up immediately after the anime ends, and she’s essentially the main character of the last 3 volumes. Plus, ishikawa and his team have a lot of fun with the medium that doesn’t always translate into animation.

All in all, picking up the manga is 100% worth your time if you’re even vaguely intrigued by the premise

more detailed thoughts and a handful of good reaction images under the break

I think overall the beer, france, and america arcs are the high points of the series.

The beer arc sticks out to me mostly because of stuff happening in real life during the time I was reading it. Basically, some of my friends talked me into taking a beer tasting class at uni with them. I’d never really liked beer very much beforehand, but it turns out I was just drinking the wrong kinds of beer. I’ll put my life on the line for a good IPA now that I know what that even is.

The beer section of moyashimon has mutou go through a similar process- she starts out by going on a huge tirade about how craft beer sucks and it’s only appealing to pretentious weirdos, and then over the course of the volume, they go over what different kinds of beer are like, how they’re made, etc. It ended up giving me a good idea of what to look out for in the beer class, and it was fun being able to compare what I was sampling to what the fermentation lab crew talked about.

There’s also a pretty cute gender-affirming moment for kei in there, where the gang gives her a women’s costume for the faux oktoberfest celebration the book culminates in. it’s a small plot point, but I liked it a lot.

The france and america arcs are pretty similar and I like them for basically the same reasons. Essentially it boils down to them tying really dynamic plotlines in with the usual culinary intrigue. There’s a real sense of tension to what’s happening in the story, and the food stuff is more directly related to what’s happening in the story than it usually is. In a lot of the other plotlines, the writers have a tendency to frontload all the technical stuff into one or two extended dialogue scenes, which can be kind of hard to get through in comparison

I also found ishikawa’s assessment of american food pretty fun to read through, and a lot of his comments make me want to try out some western restaurants in japan if I ever end up going there. For instance, he has the characters talk a lot about how burgers and stuff are much sweeter than they’re used to them being in japan, and it’d be neat to have a point of comparison for that.

Also the america arc is where kei and marie probably do gay things, which I am very down for

ultimately, I think upwards of 90% of people who stumble upon this series now, 5 years after the last chapter and last episode were released, are here specifically for kei. she’s the strong bad to sawaki’s homestar: you might not know it yet, but she’s the reason you’re here. if you’re impatient and wanna speedrun straight to the part where she transitions/goes full time/whatever, it’s halfway through volume 4 of the manga and episode 10 of the first season of anime. there’s a lot of fun plotlines that happen before that point that really deserve attention on their own merit, though.

I’m a big fan of kei’s characterization. she’s possibly my favorite trans (or trans-adjacent josou danshi, post-colonialism ho!) character I can think of, and certainly the best I’ve seen written by a cis author. being manga, there’s some dumb missteps that happen, but they seem to be mostly a result of the creators not knowing better rather than them just putting her in to gawk at like a lot of other creative teams tend to do. plus, I think a lot of it boils down to localization error. for instance, the scanslation I read consistently has characters and margin notes refer to her as “he,” but like, japanese doesn’t really use gendered language the way english does, so it’s more representative of the scan team’s biases than the writers’.

One of the things I really like about Kei’s depiction is that the author doesn’t try to make excuses for her behavior. There’s no throwaway line in her backstory about how her parents saw three crows and a capybara on the way home from the hospital and decided to raise her as a girl. She’s clearly attracted to Sawaki, but that’s never framed as her primary motive for transition. She just flatly explains that she thought about it real hard and decided that this was best for her. To me, that’s a much more compelling narrative than one where it’s something either foisted upon the character or something they just sort of haphazardly stumble into.

Another thing that sticks out to me about Kei is that she exists in a series that doesn’t construct its cast as a harem around a singular main character or the reader, which gives her much more room for personal motivations and interests. Like, even though I love Luka from steins;gate to pieces, she and the rest of the female cast in that series really only exist in order to be Okabe’s, and by extension, the viewers’ romantic interests. This ends up sort of limiting their ability for character growth because at the end of the day, they all have to remain available and receptive to Okabe’s advances. As a result, Luka can never really call Okabe out for mistreating her because the writers won’t risk making her route or subplot unappealing. The same goes for plenty of other series trans characters find themselves in, and it shows. So many of them are either smug tricksters there to tease viewers or utterly submissive waifs, and often lack development beyond what’s necessary to get otaku motors running.

Since Moyashimon doesn’t use that kind of restrictive casting structure, the author is able to untie Kei’s sense of self-worth from how Sawaki feels about her and allow the romance subplot to take a back seat while the cast works on their various projects. As a result, she ends up being more independent than most other trans characters and her self-confidence is more genuine. She’s designed from the ground up to be a more complete character, and it makes her inclusion in the main story as well as her subplot with Sawaki feel organic.

on the other hand, as punlich​ pointed out in their post, the series does take a couple passes at introducing characters that seem to be designed with the intent of giving the reader an outlet to vent their sexual frustration around kei, particularly marie and madoka. the former is frequently referenced within the work as being a cis palette swap of kei, and madoka is another of itsuki’s proteges who begins insisting that she’s going to marry sawaki shortly after she’s introduced and receives little characterization beyond that. Marie ends up being a strong character in her own right, but the work probably would’ve been better off if they’d given her basically any other design.

at least in my reading of the work, neither is really taken seriously as a preferable alternative pairing to kei/sawaki, since marie ends up being more into kei than sawaki in the end, and madoka just makes sawaki uncomfortable more often than not. it’s a clear step up from works like steins;gate, re:zero, blend-s, or oregairu, where the trans or GNC character is the one who’s never taken seriously to the point of being a joke inclusion more than anything. still, it’s irritating that the creators would feel the need to include that sort of character, given how they’re usually pretty good about not harem-izing their cast.

uh, and speaking of that, fuck most of volume 11. the central plotline for that section is that the school holds a beauty pageant for the cast, which is, uh, wildly out of character for the series to say the least. it’s to the point where I’m inclined to suspect some form of executive meddling. like maybe they were gonna get dropped due to lack of readership and the brass told the creative team to do a dumb fanservice arc or something. they talk in a sidebar about how they changed editors around the start of this arc, so I have a hunch that has something to do with it?  I guess only they would know, though. it’s not like I can read any interviews or anything lol.

there’s still good content in there, and like I mentioned earlier, it’s when kei starts to really dominate a lot of the screen time, which is a big plus. it’s just dumb and out of place.

I also kind of found the conclusion to kei and sawaki’s “will they, won’t they” subplot really unfulfilling. namely, there really isn’t a conclusion to it at all. at the end, it’s clear that kei’s finally become comfortable with her attraction to sawaki, but sawaki is still kinda hesitant about going anywhere serious with someone he’s been friends with since forever. and like, I can get that, it’s sort of a natural aspect of where that arc would have to go, it’s just a frustrating note to end on. it seems likely that they would get together in the future, at least. (and that’s why you should read my fanfics!)

One thing I really liked about the ending section is sawaki comes up with some proactive uses for his superpower. for most of the series, it’s just a vehicle for ishikawa to exposit about his fascination with microbiology and fermented cuisine, which works great with the lower-key tone the series went for. still, the ways he uses it at the end are pretty clever, and it would’ve been neat to see him go on to use it in other ways. It’s frustrating that one of the uses he comes up with involves doing mouth-to-mouth with madoka, however.

I kind of get the feeling that the series got cut short because a lot of plot threads get addressed and tied up really quickly and sloppily in the last four or five chapters, while a ton of others just sit there. idk if it was a popularity thing, or if ishikawa decided to go all-in on maria the virgin witch, or some other factor, but I guess that’s kind of the nature of serial fiction. it just goes on as long as the creators and publishers are engaged with it, and then it’s over and they all move onto something else.

I’m being pretty hard on the ending portions of the series, but honestly pretty much everything not directly related to the beauty pageant or madoka is really solid. I’m just laying it all out there so nobody gets caught off-guard by the jankiness more than anything.

For one reason or another, moyashimon really struck a chord with me, and it’s kind of hard to put into words why. A big part of it is that kei is a character that I feel a sort of kinship with, which is a rare occurrence as a trans person. She feels like a real person that I’d meet through a message board or discord lobby. The rest of the cast has shades of that as well- the students feel like people I could have met in school, and itsuki harkens back to aspects of professors I’ve had, from his weird sense of humor to his rather alarming past working for the military. It’s easy for me to subconsciously insert myself into their fictional friend group. I guess it’s kind of like how people tend to engage with redlettermedia or ensemble let’s play channels like game grumps or super best friends play. Reading about the gang’s antics confers a sense of belonging that I’m perpetually starving for.

Another aspect of it is that it’s just fun to indulge in someone else’s hyperfixations for a while. It’s why sci-fi authors like heinlein and crichton are so influential, and why internet personalities like cgp grey or jon bois are so engaging: they’re really adept at articulating how utterly captivating some concept or ideology is to them at the moment. Somewhere between most and all of what ishikawa has to say about food and microbiology goes directly over my head, but the passion he has for those topics is readily apparent in every jargon-infested, chart-saturated debate he has his characters get into, and I love it. In that sidebar he goes on about his relationship to his editors, he mentions that the top boy editor chewed him out a couple times for basically trying to sneak a textbook into the magazine. It ends up being compelling based on passion alone, even if I only really internalized a fifth of what he actually had to say.

Is moyashimon for you? Ultimately I don’t think it’s really for anyone besides ishikawa himself. But if you’re at all like me, chances are you’ll fall in love with this bizarre and charming edutainment series anyway. If any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you, I can’t recommend checking it out highly enough.

[herotheshiro]

ok so the eng translation of the last ch of kekkon shite kudasai got released today and i /think/ that was the BL i mentioned in my prev post that i wanted to write abt... idr if i’ve posted about this manga before but sadly it still has nothing on tumblr for me to reblog

it was a cute manga for the most part ! not a huge fan of abo and age gaps as y’all know but the instant they implied that the two had previously been in a relationship before and character B had actually had a child by A all unknowingly to A at the end of the first ch, i was fucking sold. not a huge fan of the developments in ch 5 esp when A said in the final ch that if he had seen the kid’s face he would’ve known immediately that the kid was his which was like ... hmm. also the translator’s note at the end where they were like ‘lol i feel like the ending was rushed’ and now that i’ve read the translations i’m like ‘yeah kind of ...’ i feel like it could’ve been elongated into one more CHAPTER but not like 2 entire volumes as the translator suggested

ALSO... i think i did mention this before, but when i read the raws, the last panel having kairi in formal clothing made me be like ‘nice’ esp after kairi’s note abt how he’d never look good in it when he first met A... and then the translation revealing that actually the last few dialogue lines of the manga were also related to that notion w ‘oh as i thought, those clothes suit you character A’ ‘they look good on you too’ made me LOSE IT!!!!! i’m so happy the author ended the manga w those lines. 

[recentanimenews]

Mob Psycho 100 III Reveals October 2022 Premiere in New Teaser Trailer

  In celebration of Mob’s birthday and following multiple teases, the official Twitter account for the Mob Psycho 100 TV anime announced today that the upcoming third season of the series will premiere this October, alongside releasing a brand new teaser trailer giving us all a taste of what's to come in Mob's future.

    The staff and cast from the first two seasons return for Mob Psycho 100 season three. Season one and two director Yuzuru Tachikawa has been promoted to Executive Director while Takahiro Hasui — who was the episode director on episode 6 of season 2 and directed episodes of Sk8 the Infinity — will be in the director’s chair for season 3.

  Additional staff and cast include:

  Series Coordinator - Hiroshi Seko

Character Design - Yoshimichi Kameda

Sound Director - Kazuhiro Wakabayashi

Music - Kenji Kawai

Animation Production - BONES

  RELATED: Mob Psycho 100 TV Anime Reveals 3rd Season in Teaser Trailer and Visual

  Setsuo Ito as Shigeru “MOB” Kageyama 

Takahiro Sakurai as Arataka Reigen

Akio Otsuka as Ekubo

Miyu Irino as Ritsu Kageyama

Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Teruki Hanazawa

  The official Twitter account also shared an adorable birthday illustration of Mob on his birthday celebrating it with everyone:

    改めまして… ㊗5月12日は、モブ君 (cv. #伊藤節生 さん) の お誕生日???? 超能力に頼らず成長し続ける姿に尊敬の念を禁じえません‼（続） ✨Happy Birthday to the best boy, Shigeo Kageyama aka MOB????(cont.)#モブサイコ100 #mobpsycho100#影山茂夫生誕祭2022 pic.twitter.com/QU803wm7wt

— モブサイコ100 (@mobpsycho_anime) May 12, 2022

    Mob Psycho 100, drawn and written by One Punch Man creator ONE, ran on Ura Sunday’s website from 2012 to 2017, with 16 volumes released in Japan. Dark Horse Comics releases the manga for English-speaking audiences. The first two seasons of the anime aired in 2016 and 2019 respectively, with both seasons and the OVA of Mob Psycho 100 available to stream here on Crunchyroll. The series is described as such:

  Kageyama Shigeo, a.k.a. "Mob," is a boy who has trouble expressing himself, but who happens to be a powerful esper. Mob is determined to live a normal life and keeps his ESP suppressed, but when his emotions surge to a level of 100%, something terrible happens to him! As he's surrounded by false espers, evil spirits, and mysterious organizations, what will Mob think? What choices will he make? The anime based on the original story by ONE, the idol of the webcomic world and creator of One-Punch Man, is coming your way with animation by leading animation studio Bones!

  Source: Mob Psycho 100 on Twitter

  ----

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram. 

By: Daryl Harding

[flowisk]

Series I want to own: Oofuri S2 Pluto (2-8) HxH (99 and 2011, but esp 2011) HxH manga Ghost Hound MP100 MP100 manga Shimanami Tasogare RGU Hourou Musuko (manga) Bokura no Hentai (manga) Uchouten Kazoku Megalo Box Breaking Bad (s2-5) Animaniacs (v3-4) Baccano LN (v2-onward) What Did You Eat Yesterday (v3-onward) Series I Own: Baccano! Baccano LN (v1) (gift) NGE  Oofuri S1 Hetalia S1 Death Note manga (gift) some One Piece (random vol, sale) Breaking Bad (s1) Pluto (volume 1) Animaniacs  (v1-2) What Did You Eat Yesterday (v1-v2) Darkwing Duck (v1) (though v3 isnt even set to get a release so who gives a shit fuck disney)

[recentanimenews]

Mob Psycho 100's Twitter Account Teases Something For Mob's Birthday on May 12

  With the third season of the Mob Psycho 100 TV anime already confirmed, it has been a hot minute since we got any details on the upcoming series. But, all that might change on May 12, a.k.a. Mob's birthday, as the official Twitter account for the TV anime teased to "make sure to check out this twitter account on the day" along with an illustration of the characters we love. We wonder what that something might be?!

    5月12日はモブ君のお誕生日???? いよいよ今日を含めてあと7日… もうしばらくお待ちください‼ MOB’s birthday is on May 12 which is just in a week's time???? Make sure to check out this twitter account on the day...#モブサイコ100　#mobpsycho100 pic.twitter.com/9O9Ui2IBdi

— モブサイコ100 (@mobpsycho_anime) May 6, 2022

    The staff and cast from the first two seasons return for Mob Psycho 100 season three, though season one and two director Yuzuru Tachikawa has been promoted to Executive Director while Takahiro Hasui, who was the episode director on episode 6 of season 2, and directed episodes of Sk8 the Infinity, will be fulfilling the director's role on season 3.

  RELATED: Mob Psycho 100 TV Anime Reveals 3rd Season in Teaser Trailer and Visual

  Mob Psycho 100, which was drawn by One Punch Man creator ONE, ran on Ura Sunday’s website from 2012 to 2017, with 16 volumes collectively released in Japan. Dark Horse Comics has translated the manga for English-speaking audiences. The first two seasons of the anime aired in 2016 and 2019 respectively, with both seasons and the OVA of Mob Psycho 100 available to stream here on Crunchyroll. The series is described as such:

  Kageyama Shigeo, a.k.a. "Mob," is a boy who has trouble expressing himself, but who happens to be a powerful esper. Mob is determined to live a normal life and keeps his ESP suppressed, but when his emotions surge to a level of 100%, something terrible happens to him! As he's surrounded by false espers, evil spirits, and mysterious organizations, what will Mob think? What choices will he make? The anime based on the original story by ONE, the idol of the webcomic world and creator of One-Punch Man, is coming your way with animation by leading animation studio Bones!

  Source: Mob Psycho 100 on Twitter

  ----

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram. 

By: Daryl Harding

[recentanimenews]

Monthly Manga Review Index: May 2017

Spring house cleaning alert! In an effort to make the Monthly Manga Review Index more useful, I’ve reduced the number of categories from four to three. Those categories track closely with the original format: From the Top lists the first volumes of new and ongoing series; Ongoing Series focuses on later volumes of current titles, and From the Vault lists older series that are complete, unfinished but suspended, or out-of-print. Digital-only titles — once a separate category — are now flagged with an asterisk (*). I’ve also created a permalink for all installments of the Monthly Manga Review Index, making it easier for readers to find titles of interest. Last but not least, I added four websites to the blogroll this month: All-Comic, Anime Ushi, Manga Maniac Cafe, and SKJAM! Reviews.

Here at The Manga Critic, I posted reviews of The Emperor and I, a gag manga about a family who adopts a penguin; Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, a drama about an ex-con who’s trying to reinvent himself as a rakugo artist; and Delicious in Dungeon, a series about a quartet of adventurers who slash, fight, and cook their way through a subterranean world of monsters and man-eating plants.

REVIEW OF THE MONTH

Khursten Santos, manga scholar and hostess of Otaku Champloo, recently posted a hilarious, detailed review of Welcome to the Ballroom. I’d been on the fence about reading this series, but Khursten’s ecstatic descriptions of the dancing sequences convinced me to give it a try. “Seeing these dancers made me appreciate the power of lines and how they express movement,” she explains. “The weight of a line that flicks to a wisp illustrates a movement so rhythmic that it’s almost animated in these panels. A turn transforms into this complex movement that twists the dancer’s body.”

By the way, if you’re following Khursten on Twitter, be sure to extend your congratulations; Khurtsen just submitted her doctoral thesis! The subject: why fujoshi love Shonen Jump. Now that’s a dissertation I’d like to read!

FROM THE TOP: FIRST VOLUMES (PRINT)

Aoharu x Machinegun, Vol. 1 (Allen Kesinger, No Flying No Tights)

Behind the Scenes!!, Vols. 1-3 (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Bloom Into You, Vol. 1 (Siddarth Gupta, All-Comic)

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Vol. 1 (Faith Orcino, Anime Ushi)

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Vol. 1 (Nick Smith, ICv2)

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Vol. 1 (Robert Prentice, Three If By Space)

Cells at Work!, Vol. 1 (Ken H., Sequential Ink)

Days, Vols. 1-2 (Michelle Smith, Soliloquy in Blue)*

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 1 (Jordan Richards, AiPT!)

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 1 (Keith Hendricks, NerdSpan)

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Vol. 1 (David Brooke, AiPT!)

Dragon Ball Super!, Vol. 1 (J. Caleb Mozzocco, Good Comics for Kids)

Dragon Ball Super!, Vol. 1 (Nick Smith, ICv2)

Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 1 (Demelza, Anime UK News)

Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 1 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Dreamin’ Sun, Vol. 1 (Michelle Smith, Soliloquy in Blue)

Erased, Vol. 1 (Eric Cline, AiPT!)

Erased, Vol. 1 (Faith Orcino, Anime Ushi)

Fire Force, Vol. 1 (Ken H., Sequential Ink)

Flying Witch, Vol. 1 (Alexis Puga, BentoByte)

Flying Witch, Vol. 1 (J. Caleb Mozzocco, Good Comics for Kids)

Flying Witch, Vol. 1 (Michael, Taykobon)

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vols. 1-2 (Michelle Smith, Soliloquy in Blue)*

Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Deluxe Edition (Ollie Barder, Forbes)

Giant Killing, Vol. 1 (Cain Walter, The Fandom Post)*

Giant Killing, Vol. 1 (Matt, Taykobon)*

Girls’ Last Tour, Vol. 1 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Girls’ Last Tour, Vol. 1 (Keith Hendricks, NerdSpan)

Gleam, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)*

Hana & Hina Afterschool, Vol. 1 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)

Hatsune Miku: Acute (Alyssa Vaughn, NerdSpan)

Hatsune Miku: Bad • End • Night, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (Ken H., Sequential Ink)

Immortal Hounds, Vol. 1 (Julie, Manga Maniac Cafe)

Kitaro: The Great Tanuki War (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Love at Fourteen, Vol. 1 (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Vols. 1-2 (Siddarth Gupta, All-Comic)

Mobile Suit Gundham Thunderbolt, Vol. 1 (Siddharth Gupta, All-Comic)

Murcielago, Vol. 1 (Faith Orcino, Anime Ushi)

Murcielago, Vols. 1-2 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Faith Orcino, Anime Ushi)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Johanna Draper Carlson, Comics Worth Reading)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Charles Pulliam-Moore, io9)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (EL, Just Love: Queer Book Reviews)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Ken H., Sequential Ink)

My Brother’s Husband, Vol. 1 (Michelle Smith, Soliloquy in Blue)

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness (Erica Friedman, Okazu)

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Legend of the Piko Piko Middle School Students, Vol. 1 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Peach Heaven, Vol. 1 (Anna N., The Manga Report)*

Peach Heaven, Vol. 1 (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)*

Revolutionary Girl Utena: Complete Deluxe Box Set (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Revolutionary Girl Utena: Complete Deluxe Box Set (Erica Friedman, Okazu)

Smokin’ Parade, Vol. 1 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Smokin’ Parade, Vol. 1 (Justin Stroman, The OASG)

Species Domain, Vol. 1 (Faith Orcino, Anime Ushi)

Sword Art Online: Progressive, Vols. 1-4 (Nic Willcox, No Flying No Tights)

Toppu GP, Vol. 1 (Faith Orcino, Anime Ushi)

The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 1 (Helen, The OASG)

Witchcraft Works, Vol. 1 (Julie, Manga Maniac Cafe)

ONGOING SERIES

7th Garden, Vol. 4 (Kate O’Neil, The Fandom Post)

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 6 (Helen, The OASG)

The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vol. 6 (Jordan, Taykobon)

APOSIMZ, Chapter 3 (Chris Beveridge, The Fandom Post)*

Attack on Titan, Vol. 21 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Blame: Master Edition, Vol. 2 (Patrick Moore, BentoByte)

Blame: Master Edition, Vol. 3 (Patrick Moore, BentoByte)

Cage of Eden, Vol. 21 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Case Closed, Vol. 61 (Siddarth Gupta, All-Comic)

A Centaur’s Life, Vol. 11 (Siddarth Gupta, All-Comic)

Chihayafuru, Vol. 2 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)*

Clockwork Planet, Vol. 2 (David Brooke, AiPT!)

Complex Age, Vols. 3-4 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Erased, Vol. 2 (Eric Cline, AiPT!)

Everyone’s Getting Married, Vol. 5 (Anna N., The Manga Report)

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Vol. 18 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

Gangsta: Cursed, Vol. 2 (Kate O’Neil, The Fandom Post)

The Girl From the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 2 (Sarah, Anime UK News)

Happiness, Vol. 4 (Jordan Richards, AiPT!)

Interviews with Monster Girls, Vol. 4 (David Brooke, AiPT!)

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Vol. 3 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Kamisama Kiss (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Master Keaton, Vol. 10 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun, Vol. 7 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

Murcielago, Vol. 2 (Erica Friedman, Okazu)

My Hero Academia, Vol. 8 (Nick Creamer, Anime News Network)

My Love Story!!, Vol. 12 (Anna N., The Manga Report)

One Piece, Vols. 28-30 (Renay Williams, B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog)

One Piece, Vols. 31-33 (Renay Williams, B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog)

One Piece, Vols. 34-36 (Renay Williams, B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog)

One Piece, Vol. 82 (Sean Gaffney, A Case Suitable for Treatment)

One-Punch Man, Vol. 11 (Keith Hendricks, NerdSpan)

Platinum End, Vol. 2 (Anna N., The Manga Report)

Platinum End, Vol. 2 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)

Platinum End, Vol. 2 (Robert Prentice, Three If By Space)

Prison School, Vol. 6 (Justin, The OASG)

Tokyo ESP, Vol. 7 (Richard Gutierrez, The Fandom Post)

Umineko: When They Cry, Vol. 8 (Kate O’Neil, The Fandom Post)

UQ Holder!, Vol. 9 (Nick Creamer, Anime News Network)

Vagabond, Vol. 2 (SKJAM, SKJAM! Reviews)

Void’s Enigmatic Mansion, Vol. 5 (Rebecca Silverman, Anime News Network)

The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 2 (Anna N., The Manga Report)

Welcome to the Ballroom, Vol. 4 (Matt, Taykobon)

Welcome to the Ballroom, Vol. 5 (Matt, Taykobon)

FROM THE VAULT

Battle Angel Alita (Toussaint Egan, Paste Magazine)

Berserk (Charlotte Arielle, Anime Ushi)

Bound Beauty (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Dawn of the Arcana (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

The Devil Within (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

The Earl and the Fairy (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

FukuFuku Kitten Tales, Vol. 1 (David Arul, star2)

Grand Guignol Orchestra (Megan R. The Manga Test Drive)

Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Juline (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Kitchen Princess, Vol. 1 (Sakura Eries, The Fandom Post)

Kodacha (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Life (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Nana (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Shugo Chara! (Megan R. The Manga Test Drive)

A Silent Voice, Vols. 1-7 (Michelle Smith, Soliloquy in Blue)

Stepping on Roses (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Two Flowers for the Dragon (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

Yukarism (Megan R., The Manga Test Drive)

* Denotes a digital-only release

By: Katherine Dacey

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Do you still have the final page scan of the P3 manga? The link in the old post is dead.

Could you please post the pages you skipped in Persona 3 Chapter 47 part 5?

Ok so, by the time I saw the first ask (which I remember not being able to respond to for whatever reason, I think I didn’t have my comp on me cause I was away and I don’t like responding on mobile), I was already searching for the pages because I noticed it was deleted....and....sadly....the P3 manga isn’t backed up on my googledrive (I should fix that sjfd;af orz). (and I dunno how it got deleted). I did try wayback but the quality was much lower. By the time I could respond to say I was looking I got the 2nd ask. Ngl wasn’t happy about the 2nd ask, felt a little cold and impatient and it rubbed me the wrong way. I don’t think that was the intent, and I know it’s hard to read tone of voice over text (esp if it’s just matter of fact), but nonetheless it didn’t put me in a happy mood (but I also felt bad that you wanted them and I couldn’t find them and I wanted to respond only if I could get my hands on it, and both feelings are the reason I didn’t end up responding to the 2nd ask). I had also given up on finding the missing pages and resigned myself to having to debind my last volume (which I wasn’t going to do till I got a replacement vol, which would be awhile cause I was trying to save money and put aside money for certain releases and didn’t have wiggle room). 

But then lo and freaking behold, my final night before my move (btw I’m moving 8U), I find the physical missing pages. Not the whole chapter, just the missing pages ironically. lakjsdfkljaf;af They are a bit folded up (most likely from what happened when I moved outta my college dorm, where most if not all the P3 manga was debinded in). I have them scanned in, I’mma see if I can clean it up a bit before I repost them. But if you are still here anon, I have them. Sorry for taking so long, I was trying tho. orz

Btw it also came to my attention that tumblr deleted a first part of an Ultimax chapter, that is backed up tho (and I think I might have that physical copy too), but I’ll work on getting it back up as well. Might be a few days (or tomorrow, if I’m at a hotel that is). 

[recentanimenews]

My Week in Manga: February 27-March 5, 2017

My News and Reviews

Last week at Experiments in Manga the winner of the Tokyo ESP manga giveaway was announced. The post also includes a list of some of the manga available in English about psychics and/or espers. That was it for the blog, but as I previously mentioned, I had an all-day job interview last week which took up a fair amount of my time and attentions. Well, it turns out that they liked me, and I liked them, so it looks like I’ll be starting in a new position at a different library in May. It’s both very exciting and very nerve-wracking, but I think (hope!) it’s a good move for me. My day job will still have absolutely nothing to do with manga, though.

Elsewhere online last week there was ICv2’s annual Manga Week. A number of interesting manga-focused articles and interviews were posted, including a mention of some of Vertical Comics’ most recent licensing announcements: Arakawa Under the Bridge by Hikari Nakamura (the one I’m most excited for), Gundam Wing: The Glory of Losers by Tomofumi Ogasawara, Helvetica Standard by Keiichi Arawi, and Voices of a Distant Star by Makoto Shinkai and Mizu Sahara (technically a rescue as the manga was originally published in English by TokyoPop back in the day). Kodansha Comics recently made some announcements at ECCC. In addition to adding even more fantastic series to its digital initiative, Kodansha Comics is working on a Ghost in the Shell anthology similar to the Attack on Titan Anthology released last year. Should be interesting!

Quick Takes

Anonymous Noise, Volume 1 by Ryoko Fukuyama. I will pretty much give any manga a try if it’s even tangentially related to music, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that I would be interested in Anonymous Noise. The series follows Nino Arisugawa (called Alice, by some) who loves to sing. Expressing herself through music is an important part of who she is, but perhaps more importantly it’s how she connects to the people who mean the most to her. First there was Momo, Nino’s close childhood friend with a proclivity for making bad puns, and then there was Yuzu, who helped soothe Nino’s heartbreak with his own music when Momo’s family unexpectedly moves away. But after developing feelings for Nino, Yuzu suddenly disappears from her life, too. Fast forward a few years and the three of them are attending the same high school, although initially they don’t realize it. Most of the first volume feels like a prologue more than anything else, so I’m curious to see the direction the story proper will take from here. In addition to music, it seems that unrequited love will also be a major theme of Anonymous Noise. Complicated feelings of love, longing, loss, and loneliness set the tone for the series.

Big Kids by Michael DeForge. Due to my interest in alternative and independent comics, I’ve been aware of DeForge’s work for quite some time. However, I’ve never actually read any of DeForge’s comics until picking up Big Kids. To be honest, I think I was probably a little intimidated since DeForge is such a highly acclaimed and well-regarded artist. I recently came across Big Kids on display at my local comic book shop where flipped through a few pages before putting it back. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it and so ultimately brought a copy home with me. The small volume’s bright yellow cover burned itself onto my retinas, and it’s content has burned itself onto my soul. I’ve read through the comic several times now and I still can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t know that I completely understand everything about it, but Big Kids is a work that is both surreal, verging on abstract, and powerful. In part, the comic about growing up. After being dumped by his boyfriend, Adam wakes up one day to discover that he has become a tree. The world itself is still the same, it’s just that Adam now views it from a vastly different perspective. But while being a tree has its benefits, there’s also a sense of sadness and loss associated with it.

Haikyu!!, Volumes 6-9 by Haruichi Furudate. Out of all of the sports manga currently being released in print in English, Haikyu!! is definitely one of my favorites. Admittedly, I was a little worried that as the series entered its first tournament arc and became more focused on the games themselves I would lose some of my enthusiasm (I’m not especially interested in volleyball), but my fears appear to have been mostly unfounded. Occasionally Haikyu!! will get a little bogged down in the particulars of volleyball, but this is usually completely offset by the series’ incredibly engaging characters. I’m immensely enjoying seeing them grow and evolve not just as players, but as people. I absolutely love the manga’s approach to and emphasis on teamwork. Some of the characters are prodigies, but it is made very clear that a single person cannot win on their own. Often it’s the unassuming, “ordinary” players who dramatically shift the course and tone of a game. Everyone has their own talents and abilities and everyone has an important role to play. Haikyu!! may be a series about volleyball, but its themes and message are much more universal than that. The manga has great positivity and energy which makes it fun to read, too.

By: Ash Brown