The following is a follow up to my Weekly Manga Recap thoughts on Full Metal Alchemist—particular the ending and my thoughts that not enough happened during the initial invasion. I post this to clear confusion, and to admit to some mistakes. Also to make my stance on character death hopefully a lot clearer. Be warned that the following will contain spoilers for Full Metal Alchemist, along with small spoilers for One Piece and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Character death is an important part of story telling across all mediums. It’s a sure fire way to grab the reader’s attention, for better or worse, and is a great tool to use during the conclusion of a story. A death has impact and adds weight to a situation. To use some common manga examples, would Marineford had meant anything if Whitebeard hadn’t died and symbolically set an end to the last generation? In contrast what are we to take from the Fake Kakura Town arc in Bleach when at the end of the story only the evil characters suffered any losses? Doesn’t that just prove that in the end the greatest threat not only against the Soul Society but even reality ever faced was completely ineffectual? A character death is a very important factor to me for a lot of reasons. The emotions they can draw can truly define a story, again for better or worse. I apologize for the spoilers below (and possibly above), but to make my point I need to reference some actual examples of death in character.
A death is not as simple as “Character A dies”. The length, emotion, circumstances, and cause are all keys in determining if a death was justified or not. I read a lot of manga, and I’ve seen death abused for the right and wrong reasons, so let me identify some of the more severe examples I’ve seen. I don’t like it when characters are simply killed for no purpose. A series like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure both abuses and subverts this in liberal fashion. A character death like Kakyion who died after having his final technique destroyed by Dio served two purposes: the first was to show Dio was a threat—one that couldn’t be stopped and one that was a legitimate threat to the entire cast. The second was to show his commitment to his friends and that even as death was taking him, his last act on this earth was to help his friends figure out the power behind Dio’s stand.
Then let’s look just one fight earlier against Vanilla Ice (just roll with it) the Stand, Cream, killed Abdul and Iggy. Their deaths served little point other than to draw some character development out of Polnareff, but did both of them have to die to show that Cream was dangerous? I don’t think so, and personally I wish the two had survived the fight as their deaths, while noble (or at least in Iggy’s case) felt largely unnecessary. Now let’s compare this to Part 4 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure where death was decisively avoided. In total only a couple of characters died through the course of the story, and I enjoyed that. It meant that when death did happen, it mattered, and in some cases drew a lot of emotion out of me when I believed a character had finally met their maker.
Let’s return to Full Metal Alchemist as it’s the crux of this situation. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the manga-ka treated the gravity of the situation through 90% of the story. Nina was murdered and I felt legitimate sadness. Hughes died and while I didn’t really feel like we knew him, it still was sad (though I still feel like we should have had more time to really know him). Gluttony is another example. His death drew regret out of me. I couldn’t help but feel that Gluttony was an innocent victim in the story. Sure he was a serial killer, but unlike Barry the Chopper, he didn’t choose his life. He was created to eat and he did just that. It’s like making a dog with a bladder control problem, then shooting it when it takes a piss on the rug. You really can’t help but feel that wasn’t totally his fault. Even though he was a villain I felt bad that Gluttony died—to contrast I wanted to fucking toast Kimblee dying as that piece of shit didn’t deserve the slightly redeeming death he got. He was a horrid monster.
Of course death isn’t the only emotion that you can draw from this story. I felt deep sorrow when Havoc found himself paralyzed. There we have a soldier stricken down in the line of fire, but he has to endure living believing he is useless to his comrades who must carry on the war without him. He believes he’s failed them, and this development was quite strong. In another example Lan Fan sliced her arm off to fool Wrath and keep them off their trail. That noble sacrifice endeared her character to me and I began to enjoy her character for that reason. These are all sacrifices meant to show that this is a conflict that requires them. Yes, the point of many stories today is to create a world without sacrifices, but a story that plays itself straight is one that is hopelessly idealistic. FMA was not that. It proved time and time again that sacrifices (sins) are made and that redemption comes not from forgiveness but rather from tolerance and progress. That’s a good message, and eventually the point comes around that they won’t be able to stop the entire central army without a fight (rather they won’t be able to kill the Homunculi without a fight). Once that starts the story again becomes fantastic. Mustang faces a sacrifice he didn’t deserve, Scar and Wrath have a bloody fight between two unnamed warriors, and the entire county faces extinction at the hands of a mad homunculi. This is all very tense and interesting. This is what I enjoy from a story. A story without tension or suspense becomes banal and predictable. Until Wrath showed up in Central, this is what the final arc was boiling down to. Once he did, the story got better, but until he did I found myself bored to tears and really wondering what happened to the serious nature of the story. That feeling, like the feeling of a character’s death, stayed with me. I felt like the manga lost what made me enjoy it, and when it came back I enjoyed the series again, but I won’t forget how I felt for those few chapters.
I’ll admit that the way I felt skewered my enjoyment of the ending, and I’ll admit I didn’t give the ending the thought and reasoning it deserved. I was overly ignorant to the message the ending tried to convey, and for someone trying to finish up and gather my thoughts on a very long manga to prepare to discuss it that weekend, I failed to give it the appropriate attention. I’ll admit that and confess that was probably rather unprofessional of me. I will ensure that doesn’t happen again. Still, I want to defend that I’m not unjustified in the way I saw the ending. I still maintain the story took a lot of missteps towards the end of the series. I still maintain the story included too many characters and made many of the human villains out to be irredeemable fuck wits only serviceable to be a feast for the otherwise ineffectual puppet army.
I don’t want to say anyone commenting on my video was wrong—quite the opposite; I was the one who was wrong. However I want people to know my stance on character death and understand that I enjoy rich characterization and conclusion rather than “die die die”. Maybe this was an extremely long winded and ineffectual way to do it, but gagoosh—it’s there. I hope to improve my analysis of series as time goes on and maybe in time I’ll reread the ending and do a follow up with a clearer head. Until then, I apologize for the confusion and for being overly hasty in my judgment. Also, why does Bleach have to come back? I was kinda getting used to not reading it.
Until next time, Namaste!
Showing posts with label Manga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manga. Show all posts
Monday, October 25, 2010
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Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Bleach Chapter 416 Rave
Early this week I mentioned how the most recent chapter of Bleach was good, and to my amazement I was pretty much alone in that thought. After the trashing I’ve been giving Bleach for the past few weeks I figure people just assumed I’d be harsh on the newest chapter, however I must state that I’m not going to lie when I find a chapter honestly decent. The newest chapter of Bleach is good! It’s not great, and the quality of it pales in comparison to even average chapters of other, better manga, but still it was not a bad chapter. Why? Because this is the first time in a while that I hated Aizen… for the right reasons.
For months now Aizen has become the malignant tumor of Bleach; irremovable and doomed to kill the story. I hated what he did because he was a terrible villain. His actions weren’t evil, just over powered. I felt nothing regarding him smashing the cast into pieces just to prove his strength, and Bleach’s inability to truly sell someone as dying makes caring about their supposed demise impossible. I don’t believe the Soul Society will be killed, and thus I don’t care much when it appears they’ve been killed. Aizen failed, for months, to make me hate him for his actions and not just his existence. I hate that he’s an overpowered asshole who buries the cast to boost his already maxed ego. However this week, for one chapter, I hated him for his actions and not who he is.
Killing Gin (or presumably killing him) was the first action Aizen has done since striking down Tousen that legitimately pissed me off at him. I wanted him to get beat then, and I want him to be beaten now. Gin wasn’t the best character, and it’s tough feeling too bad for the same dude that tortured Rukia before her execution, but you do get the feeling that Gin was trying to accomplish something noble. His good-bye to Matsumoto was sweet, and I must note that Kubo actually has very intriguing side characters. The relationships between characters like Matsumoto and Gin or Komamura and Tousen are far more interesting and well developed than characters like Kenpachi or Ichigio.
Aizen did made it savage right off the bat by ripping Gin’s arm clean off, and moments like this strike me. Granted arm removal in Bleach has become somewhat of a trope, but this instant reminded me of the rather vicious scene where Matsumoto lost half of her chest from the attack of the chimera. The resolution to that was bullshit, and I imagine I’ll be displeased with the end result to all of this too, but as of now I remain optimistic and honest when I say that Aizen ripping of Gin’s arm and then cutting him down was pretty intense and intriguing. Follow that up with Ichigo appearing, and for once I’m excited about Bleach. Ichigo appearing means less of the bullshit burying, and we will, fingers crossed, finally see the asshole dead once and for all.
Look, I don’t think Bleach will get good. I think Ichigo v Aizen will be long, boring, and overall very unfulfilling. That doesn’t mean I won’t say I enjoyed this chapter. It was a nice change of pace to actually feel sorry for the guy getting cut down by Aizen instead of just saying “OH COME ON! AGAIN!?” Gin being more than a wild killer has been hinted at for ages, so I’m glad the payoff was something I could get emotionally attached to. Drink it in fans, and get your hate ready. Rollo T liked Bleach this week.
For months now Aizen has become the malignant tumor of Bleach; irremovable and doomed to kill the story. I hated what he did because he was a terrible villain. His actions weren’t evil, just over powered. I felt nothing regarding him smashing the cast into pieces just to prove his strength, and Bleach’s inability to truly sell someone as dying makes caring about their supposed demise impossible. I don’t believe the Soul Society will be killed, and thus I don’t care much when it appears they’ve been killed. Aizen failed, for months, to make me hate him for his actions and not just his existence. I hate that he’s an overpowered asshole who buries the cast to boost his already maxed ego. However this week, for one chapter, I hated him for his actions and not who he is.
Killing Gin (or presumably killing him) was the first action Aizen has done since striking down Tousen that legitimately pissed me off at him. I wanted him to get beat then, and I want him to be beaten now. Gin wasn’t the best character, and it’s tough feeling too bad for the same dude that tortured Rukia before her execution, but you do get the feeling that Gin was trying to accomplish something noble. His good-bye to Matsumoto was sweet, and I must note that Kubo actually has very intriguing side characters. The relationships between characters like Matsumoto and Gin or Komamura and Tousen are far more interesting and well developed than characters like Kenpachi or Ichigio.
Aizen did made it savage right off the bat by ripping Gin’s arm clean off, and moments like this strike me. Granted arm removal in Bleach has become somewhat of a trope, but this instant reminded me of the rather vicious scene where Matsumoto lost half of her chest from the attack of the chimera. The resolution to that was bullshit, and I imagine I’ll be displeased with the end result to all of this too, but as of now I remain optimistic and honest when I say that Aizen ripping of Gin’s arm and then cutting him down was pretty intense and intriguing. Follow that up with Ichigo appearing, and for once I’m excited about Bleach. Ichigo appearing means less of the bullshit burying, and we will, fingers crossed, finally see the asshole dead once and for all.
Look, I don’t think Bleach will get good. I think Ichigo v Aizen will be long, boring, and overall very unfulfilling. That doesn’t mean I won’t say I enjoyed this chapter. It was a nice change of pace to actually feel sorry for the guy getting cut down by Aizen instead of just saying “OH COME ON! AGAIN!?” Gin being more than a wild killer has been hinted at for ages, so I’m glad the payoff was something I could get emotionally attached to. Drink it in fans, and get your hate ready. Rollo T liked Bleach this week.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Weekly Manga Update: August 17th, 2010
Hey everyone, sorry I’ve been quiet regarding manga for a bit. My plan since the first recap was to do the next episode in video. Well the first time I recorded it was the day my internet died, so the chapters were dated by the time I got back online. I then tried recording regarding this week’s manga, but when I did my recording I realized ten minutes in that my camera ran out of power, and since then I just haven’t sat down to refilm it. Instead I’ll make this upcoming week the first time I’ll try the review in my new video format (it’s just a vlog nothing special). However I still want to get out my thoughts regarding the last week in manga, so why not do it again, but in written form?
Something else I decided was not to talk about each individual manga, but more so the interesting ones. The really bad ones, the really good ones, or the ones simply worth noting as discussing each manga could take awhile. So this week I wanted to talk about Bakuman, SWOT, Beelzebub, Naruto, and Bleach. Let’s get into it.
Bakuman 96 – Originally this chapter panned out to be rather boring as it was one of the chapters talking about rankings and votes. This chapter would have been a very decisive “meh” were it not for a double paged spread towards the end. One thing I love about Bakuman is reading a lot of the suggestions they make regarding manga, and seeing how it comes off in the actual story. For example a recent chapter had the characters discussing “tones” in a manga and how using a lighter tone helps out the story, and I think a lot of people really thought that was silly. However look back to early Bakuman, and you can see the series had a lot of darker tones to it, and it really had a distinctive Deathnote feel. Now Bakuman has its own style and it’s due in part to the tones. I love that stuff, and the two page spread utilized another tool they were talking about with dynamic paneling.
The two page spread was great in both story and art. Storywise it was Hattori admitting that he believes Mashiro and Takagi are finally surpassing him and have the talent to beat Eiji, and art wise the way the pages were structured justified this epic moment using two pages. Seriously, the art is amazing, and you just need to remember what they said just a few chapters ago about using panels to create something dynamic. The two-page spread was, in all likelihood, one of my favorite spreads ever. Loved it. Good chapter.
SWOT 6 – When I first read SWOT I read its One-Shot thinking it was the first chapter, and I thought the story sucked. The One-Shot was not very good and it felt like a quick in and out story for Jump. Reading the real first chapter and the five following chapters, I have to say that SWOT still seems stereotypical, but it’s a lot more interesting. Manabizaki is a really fun character who thankfully breaks the snobby elitist savant student stereotype that plagues manga nowadays. While he is smart and does look down on others, he’s far from calm, cool, or collected and in fact he’s probably more erratic than most of the people he looks down on. Most characters of his type would sit back and just say “jeez it’s tough being so much smarter than everybody else”. This guy hurls desks across the room when he can’t find a pencil. I love it.
Plus his fighting style and dream changed from the one shot to the syndicated story. In the one shot he wants to work for NASA and he knows how to fight using that cliché method they always have smart people use where they can predict how an opponent will move because they’re so effing smart. They changed that in the series in that he wants to build a UFO instead, and he learned to fight so that he can combat aliens. It’s silly, but it should be silly! I like the wacky stupid answer way more than the generic yawn-fest one. Still, the manga has faults. It’s predictable to the extreme. While this isn’t bad, it keeps some parts from being as enjoyable as the author intended. The moment I saw the long haired, sword wielding delinquent who only wants to fight “strong opponents” I knew he’d end up an ally of the group. Also the main female lead, Haruno (I believe) has been relatively boring. She hasn’t done much of anything despite the fact she’s supposed to be one of the strongest students in the school. There’s a reason why she doesn’t fight, but having her do something would be nice as so far she hasn’t left nearly the same impression the rest of the cast has.
I can’t recommend this title yet as I still am not sold on the product. Still, it has potential, and I’m content to give the series 20 or so chapters to see how it goes. Perhaps I’ll do a follow up on the series then and let you know if you should check it out… barring it’s still running.
Beelzebub 72 – More people need to read this manga. Please, if you read this manga please say if you do in the comments because it feels like way too many people are forsaking this title. It’s great. I’m trying to get Y Ruler of Time to read it so he can do a review on it like Toriko and Bakuman (which I helped convince him to read thank you very much). It’s a great series full of fun characters, interesting action, and side splitting humor. READ IT!
Anyway, this week initially got me quaking in my boots as it felt like Kundiea admitting her feelings was a big sign the manga was ending. Thankfully a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter ensures that’s not the case, so in the end it was just a really good chapter. I love Kundiea as a character, and she might even be my favorite female character in manga right now. I really like what the author is doing with her, and yet again the chapter has a moment that made me bust out laughing. I’ll simply say it again. If you don’t read Beelzebub, you need to give it a try. Trust me that it becomes an absolutely hysterical manga.
Naruto 505 – For the past few years Naruto has been the red headed stepchild of Jump. Everyone hated it, and for good reason: it sucked. Recently the series hasn’t been bad. They’ve removed Sasuke from the equation, and gave us fan-favorite Killer Bee. Then with a flashback we got some more emotional Naruto which is always better than plot progression Naruto. This was all well and good, but this week actually was a pretty good chapter. Might Gai shows up, so Kishimoto continues to pile on the fan-favorites. I tell you, if Shino and Shikamaru somehow show up next week, fans will die.
Anyway it was a strong chapter where the humor actually worked and the characters did interesting stuff. I’m glad Kisame’s stupid hiding tactic got exposed, and his chances of surviving are almost impossible. Not a fan of the new power up though. In fact it kinda bothers me that Naruto gets yet another new form right after getting Sage Mode. Seriously, how many costume powerups will this guy go through, when they all look lame? Still, as far as Naruto goes this was a great chapter. Hope this trend continues! (I know it won’t)
Bleach 415 – Fuck Bleach. Can I go home?
Fine, I’ll elaborate on why Bleach is the worst manga running right now, and Aizen is a heavy contender for worst villain of all time. I seriously can’t stand this guy. For months now this man has made a living off killing the cast in Bleach (in wrestling terms. We all know no one dies in Bleach). He has killed the majority of the Soul Society. He killed the Vizards. He’s buried Ichigo, Isshin, Urahara, and Yoroichi. He’s killed his own Arrancar, made it clear he was better than them all, and even killed Tousen. Then he hits Kakura Town, and we have to see that his very presence brings humans quivering to their knees and likely causes them to evacuate their bowels just form being in his god awful overpowered bullshit presence. GOD DAMNIT I HATE AIZEN!
Okay, so surprise surprise, Gin unleashes a super attack, and Aizen lives! Not only does he live, but he comes back as a freaking butterfly man. I don’t know why but he does. Oh, and if I complained about Naruto changing costumes, I can’t let this ass go free. In the past two months this ass has gone through three separate wardrobe changes. He was a cocoon, then he was Fabio, and now he’s a butterfly. These costume changes are so unnecessary and exist solely to be art porn for Kubo whose sole fetish in life is just to try stupidly elaborate costumes. So back to the point, Aizen wasn’t killed, and instead strikes down Gin adding yet another person to his burial list. I’m desperately trying to think if there’s anyone left in the cast that Aizen hasn’t buried yet that he still could, and all I can come up with is the Huece Mundo crew (as if seeing Aizen one shot Zaraki is something we all want to see). Either way, I’m fucking tired of this. I am beyond fucking tired of Kubo doing this constant fucking plot twist. Someone unleashes their ultimate attack, but Aizen is fine. Time after time he’s been fine. I GET IT. AIZEN IS FUCKING OMNIPOTENT. STOP REHASHING THIS SAME POINT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TITE KUBO!!!!
Aizen has killed Bleach and everything good about it. I’ve stopped caring because while I know Ichigo will leave his super special awesome training and kill Aizen somehow, it won’t be satisfying. I say that because the guy has beaten everybody. Imagine if in boxing a World Champion destroyed every opponent he fought. No, he doesn’t just beat them, he annihilates them. He finishes fights without a single blow, and every fight ends with a knock out in the first round. Let’s just say you knew ahead of time that a boxer he fought early in his career was going to learn one new punch, and would beat him. How would that be satifiying? How could someone learn one move strong enough to beat a guy who has defeated everyone else without taking a punch? Simply put: it won’t. There won’t be any logical satisfaction to this battle. I know that Aizen will lose, but it won’t make sense. No one can logically beat Aizen as he’s essentially God. This stupid fucking story built this guy to be unstoppable, and now he is, but for the sake of the story he has to be stopped. When Ichigo wins we’ll all feel a sigh of relief that the greatest problem in Bleach is now dead, but we’ll all feel empty inside because it’s a hollow victory only given to us because the hero needs to beat the villain.
I’m beyond tired of Bleach’s terrible plot line. I’m tired of the stupid Bankai abilities. I’m tired of the unnecessary addition of so many characters. But most of all I’m tired of Aizen. Please. Somebody. Anybody. Kill this man.
Something else I decided was not to talk about each individual manga, but more so the interesting ones. The really bad ones, the really good ones, or the ones simply worth noting as discussing each manga could take awhile. So this week I wanted to talk about Bakuman, SWOT, Beelzebub, Naruto, and Bleach. Let’s get into it.
Bakuman 96 – Originally this chapter panned out to be rather boring as it was one of the chapters talking about rankings and votes. This chapter would have been a very decisive “meh” were it not for a double paged spread towards the end. One thing I love about Bakuman is reading a lot of the suggestions they make regarding manga, and seeing how it comes off in the actual story. For example a recent chapter had the characters discussing “tones” in a manga and how using a lighter tone helps out the story, and I think a lot of people really thought that was silly. However look back to early Bakuman, and you can see the series had a lot of darker tones to it, and it really had a distinctive Deathnote feel. Now Bakuman has its own style and it’s due in part to the tones. I love that stuff, and the two page spread utilized another tool they were talking about with dynamic paneling.
The two page spread was great in both story and art. Storywise it was Hattori admitting that he believes Mashiro and Takagi are finally surpassing him and have the talent to beat Eiji, and art wise the way the pages were structured justified this epic moment using two pages. Seriously, the art is amazing, and you just need to remember what they said just a few chapters ago about using panels to create something dynamic. The two-page spread was, in all likelihood, one of my favorite spreads ever. Loved it. Good chapter.
SWOT 6 – When I first read SWOT I read its One-Shot thinking it was the first chapter, and I thought the story sucked. The One-Shot was not very good and it felt like a quick in and out story for Jump. Reading the real first chapter and the five following chapters, I have to say that SWOT still seems stereotypical, but it’s a lot more interesting. Manabizaki is a really fun character who thankfully breaks the snobby elitist savant student stereotype that plagues manga nowadays. While he is smart and does look down on others, he’s far from calm, cool, or collected and in fact he’s probably more erratic than most of the people he looks down on. Most characters of his type would sit back and just say “jeez it’s tough being so much smarter than everybody else”. This guy hurls desks across the room when he can’t find a pencil. I love it.
Plus his fighting style and dream changed from the one shot to the syndicated story. In the one shot he wants to work for NASA and he knows how to fight using that cliché method they always have smart people use where they can predict how an opponent will move because they’re so effing smart. They changed that in the series in that he wants to build a UFO instead, and he learned to fight so that he can combat aliens. It’s silly, but it should be silly! I like the wacky stupid answer way more than the generic yawn-fest one. Still, the manga has faults. It’s predictable to the extreme. While this isn’t bad, it keeps some parts from being as enjoyable as the author intended. The moment I saw the long haired, sword wielding delinquent who only wants to fight “strong opponents” I knew he’d end up an ally of the group. Also the main female lead, Haruno (I believe) has been relatively boring. She hasn’t done much of anything despite the fact she’s supposed to be one of the strongest students in the school. There’s a reason why she doesn’t fight, but having her do something would be nice as so far she hasn’t left nearly the same impression the rest of the cast has.
I can’t recommend this title yet as I still am not sold on the product. Still, it has potential, and I’m content to give the series 20 or so chapters to see how it goes. Perhaps I’ll do a follow up on the series then and let you know if you should check it out… barring it’s still running.
Beelzebub 72 – More people need to read this manga. Please, if you read this manga please say if you do in the comments because it feels like way too many people are forsaking this title. It’s great. I’m trying to get Y Ruler of Time to read it so he can do a review on it like Toriko and Bakuman (which I helped convince him to read thank you very much). It’s a great series full of fun characters, interesting action, and side splitting humor. READ IT!
Anyway, this week initially got me quaking in my boots as it felt like Kundiea admitting her feelings was a big sign the manga was ending. Thankfully a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter ensures that’s not the case, so in the end it was just a really good chapter. I love Kundiea as a character, and she might even be my favorite female character in manga right now. I really like what the author is doing with her, and yet again the chapter has a moment that made me bust out laughing. I’ll simply say it again. If you don’t read Beelzebub, you need to give it a try. Trust me that it becomes an absolutely hysterical manga.
Naruto 505 – For the past few years Naruto has been the red headed stepchild of Jump. Everyone hated it, and for good reason: it sucked. Recently the series hasn’t been bad. They’ve removed Sasuke from the equation, and gave us fan-favorite Killer Bee. Then with a flashback we got some more emotional Naruto which is always better than plot progression Naruto. This was all well and good, but this week actually was a pretty good chapter. Might Gai shows up, so Kishimoto continues to pile on the fan-favorites. I tell you, if Shino and Shikamaru somehow show up next week, fans will die.
Anyway it was a strong chapter where the humor actually worked and the characters did interesting stuff. I’m glad Kisame’s stupid hiding tactic got exposed, and his chances of surviving are almost impossible. Not a fan of the new power up though. In fact it kinda bothers me that Naruto gets yet another new form right after getting Sage Mode. Seriously, how many costume powerups will this guy go through, when they all look lame? Still, as far as Naruto goes this was a great chapter. Hope this trend continues! (I know it won’t)
Bleach 415 – Fuck Bleach. Can I go home?
Fine, I’ll elaborate on why Bleach is the worst manga running right now, and Aizen is a heavy contender for worst villain of all time. I seriously can’t stand this guy. For months now this man has made a living off killing the cast in Bleach (in wrestling terms. We all know no one dies in Bleach). He has killed the majority of the Soul Society. He killed the Vizards. He’s buried Ichigo, Isshin, Urahara, and Yoroichi. He’s killed his own Arrancar, made it clear he was better than them all, and even killed Tousen. Then he hits Kakura Town, and we have to see that his very presence brings humans quivering to their knees and likely causes them to evacuate their bowels just form being in his god awful overpowered bullshit presence. GOD DAMNIT I HATE AIZEN!
Okay, so surprise surprise, Gin unleashes a super attack, and Aizen lives! Not only does he live, but he comes back as a freaking butterfly man. I don’t know why but he does. Oh, and if I complained about Naruto changing costumes, I can’t let this ass go free. In the past two months this ass has gone through three separate wardrobe changes. He was a cocoon, then he was Fabio, and now he’s a butterfly. These costume changes are so unnecessary and exist solely to be art porn for Kubo whose sole fetish in life is just to try stupidly elaborate costumes. So back to the point, Aizen wasn’t killed, and instead strikes down Gin adding yet another person to his burial list. I’m desperately trying to think if there’s anyone left in the cast that Aizen hasn’t buried yet that he still could, and all I can come up with is the Huece Mundo crew (as if seeing Aizen one shot Zaraki is something we all want to see). Either way, I’m fucking tired of this. I am beyond fucking tired of Kubo doing this constant fucking plot twist. Someone unleashes their ultimate attack, but Aizen is fine. Time after time he’s been fine. I GET IT. AIZEN IS FUCKING OMNIPOTENT. STOP REHASHING THIS SAME POINT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TITE KUBO!!!!
Aizen has killed Bleach and everything good about it. I’ve stopped caring because while I know Ichigo will leave his super special awesome training and kill Aizen somehow, it won’t be satisfying. I say that because the guy has beaten everybody. Imagine if in boxing a World Champion destroyed every opponent he fought. No, he doesn’t just beat them, he annihilates them. He finishes fights without a single blow, and every fight ends with a knock out in the first round. Let’s just say you knew ahead of time that a boxer he fought early in his career was going to learn one new punch, and would beat him. How would that be satifiying? How could someone learn one move strong enough to beat a guy who has defeated everyone else without taking a punch? Simply put: it won’t. There won’t be any logical satisfaction to this battle. I know that Aizen will lose, but it won’t make sense. No one can logically beat Aizen as he’s essentially God. This stupid fucking story built this guy to be unstoppable, and now he is, but for the sake of the story he has to be stopped. When Ichigo wins we’ll all feel a sigh of relief that the greatest problem in Bleach is now dead, but we’ll all feel empty inside because it’s a hollow victory only given to us because the hero needs to beat the villain.
I’m beyond tired of Bleach’s terrible plot line. I’m tired of the stupid Bankai abilities. I’m tired of the unnecessary addition of so many characters. But most of all I’m tired of Aizen. Please. Somebody. Anybody. Kill this man.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Weekly Manga Update: July 27, 2010
Hey guys, going to try something new with my blog. I want to try a weekly blog in addition to my spontaneous stuff, so I can try to make this a site people check regularly. Then maybe I can spruce it up with some designs or something. Anyway, I wanted to try something weekly, and a few fans suggested a weekly manga recap. I had thought about doing the same, so I’m going to give it a try, so please, if you have any feedback let me know.
Now if I do this as a series I want to shoot for releasing it on Monday/Tuesday so I can get all the new chapters in before the week refreshes, so one chapter per week, but since this is the first of the series I figure I’ll explain a bit about where the series have been going to give you my overall impression. So let’s begin.
One Piece Chapter 593 – After the great war ended the story slowed down, but this was for the better. We got the really good Luffy/Ace flashback, and after that ended I was ready to get back to the story, and thank the gods we’re back to the Straw Hats. It’s been tough to manage the past year or so without any Straw Hats beyond Luffy. Just their brief chapter focuses have been golden like Sanji denying his bounty poster and Franky blowing up the lab. I remembered almost instantly why I loved these characters so, though I am curious how they’ll all get together. I mean Robin, Nami, Chopper, and maybe Sanji just need to travel there, but Zoro still has to pass the baboons, Brooke’s a hostage, Usopp has to figure out a way off the island, and Franky is in a whole heap of trouble. I wonder if we’ll get small mini arcs for these characters, but somehow I doubt it.
Still 593 was a great multi-focus chapter. We got some hints at things to come like Crocodile going to the New World, and images of Dragon (who’s design I’m really starting to dig), but the cliff hanger is what really intrigues me. Buggy gets a message from the government directly, so does this mean Buggy is going to be offered a job as a Warlord? Makes sense considering the Warlords are down four members. Blackbeard, Moria, and Jinbei are gone, plus Hancock’s alliance has to be questioned. Also what’s with Kuma meeting Shaky? Is he truly all gone? Anyway, this was a good chapter of One Piece. Not great, but we’re still accepting the aftermath of the big war and slowly pulling together for the next arc.
Bleach Chapter 413 – I’m really bored of Bleach. This Aizen all out war arc just needs to die, and die freaking hard. I’m tired of Aizen and his constant burying of the cast. I get it: Aizen is unbeatable. I don’t need to see this dude completely destroy the entire freaking cast. See the problem with Aizen is that he’s too strong. At this point Aizen had managed to defeat the majority of the captains from the Soul Society, and he did it without exerting himself. He then took the supreme, ultimate, super special attacks from Isshin, Urahara, and Yorichi, and walked it off. He’s effectively crushed every possible threat, and continues to belittle what remains of the cast every chance he can. What this means to me, is that Aizen is, simply put, unbeatable. He didn’t just beat the Soul Society, he fucking crushed them. He defeated them so handedly that not even his clothes have a scar to prove he was in a real battle. What could possibly beat him at this point? I’m not just going to accept that Ichigo will obtain some new power that will suddenly surpass Aizen. That’s just ridiculous. Even considering Ichigo’s skill, it’s generally assumed that he was on par or weaker than most of the Soul Society captains at his current level, so one power bonus shouldn’t put him on a level that the combined might of the Soul Society couldn’t beat.
As for Chapter 413 itself, it was another throwaway chapter. I’ve forgotten much of what happened behind the slight hint that Gin will betray Aizen. So Aizen will kill Gin? Yeah, like Aizen totally needs that push. Bleach is in a complete garbage low point right now. If you don’t believe me, then ask yourself why this battle started, and see how long it takes you to remember it.
Naruto Chapter 503 – Naruto’s recent chapters have all been about this massive flashback regarding how the Kyubi came to be in Naruto and the history of his parents, and I’ll be honest, it hasn’t been too bad. Beyond the extremely awkward chapter where Naruto talked about how bangable his mom was, this has been relatively good, or at least, it hasn’t been wall bangingly bad. The only problem I have is that the suspense is low since this is a flashback that we all know about. The minor details are a mystery, but we know that the fourth hokage died to put the Nine-Tailes inside baby Naruto. The rest is just explanation. It’s not bad mind you, just no very suspenseful. More interesting however is that Naruto is now about to become in control of the Demon Fox, and that’s something I can get on board with. Say what you will about Naruto, but it’s not fucking around with its plot points. Itachi v Sasuke is long in the books, Orochimaru is dead and gone (for the most part), and now Naruto is overcoming the last weakness he has. Either this means Naruto is coming to an end, or some new plot elements will need to be introduced, but still I really dig progress. Not a bad chapter at all.
Beelzebub Chapter 70 – For all those who don’t read Beelzebub, I really suggest you do because this is quickly becoming one of my favorite manga. Few titles manage to make me laugh as hard as Beelzebub does on such a consistent basis, and the mangka knows how to tell an interesting story without making it feel overly serious. For those curious, it’s the story of Oga, a delinquent who recently comes in contact with the new demon prince of Hell, Beelzebub. Beelzebub is attaching himself to Oga and granting him part of his power, but the catch is that Beelzebub is a mere infant. So far the manga has mostly been about Oga beating up other delinquents, though they did make a quick appearance in the Demon World for a moment if I recall. The cast is hilarious, and Oga himself breaks the typical shonen mold. You hear delinquent and think “oh great, another misunderstood bully”, but Oga is actually a pretty big douche. He’s just so funny and straightforward that you can’t help but love him.
The recent chapter was another great one. I’m curious to see how they turn this volleyball match into a real epic encounter, but more so I have to note that I nearly pissed myself laughing at the last panel. Oga superkicking the ball, and immediately everyone calls foul on it. Again, it’s shonen awesome, but unlike series like Prince of Tennis, they don’t try to make it serious. I love Beelzebub, and I recommend you give it a try.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn Chapter 299 – Reborn is a strange title for me. At points I hate it. It can become such overwhelming shonen stereotypical slop that I want to drop it, and I come rather close to doing so, and yet sometimes the manga shows an amazing amount of depth and maturity that reminds me why I read it. For every time I see the series try to force animal companions and motorcycles on us, I’m reminded of a chapter that left me speechless. One of the more recent ones came after Yamato was attacked and put in intensive care. The next chapter was dedicated to the ramifications of this, and how Tsuna has to make a decision on the inheritance ceremony. Even though he wants nothing more than to run away from his duties, he decides to undergo the ceremony so that the rest of his friends don’t become targets. Following that we get the revelation that the Shimon family were the villains all along (cue deadpan surprise), and Enma manages to curbstomp the guardians single-handedly. This is why I love Reborn. I love manga where a villain will absolutely demolish the main heroes so that I can root for them to succeed. These chapters have made the Shimon family a threat, and I’m curious to see how they win. Really quite excellent chapters… with the exception of Julie kidnapping Chrome. Don’t get me wrong, I like that he took a guardian. It’s so vile, and really places weight on Tsuna’s training since now another guardian’s life depends on him, but it’s the fact it was Chrome that bothers me. The girl is already on the short end of the stick as far as being a guardian. She’s accomplished almost nothing on her own, and her abilities (beyond being retarded) really aren’t that intimidating. If anyone was going to benefit from massive training it was going to be her, but instead she’s going to be a damsel in distress for everyone to save. Also Julie kidnapped her for date… he does realize she’s thirteen right? Kinda creepy…
Anyway the recent chapter actually really sucked. The Vongola rings were destroyed, and this means that basically our heroes have no weapons to battle Shimon with. This is pretty tense, but then out of the blue some random fucker appears who just happens to have a way to not only repair the rings, but make them stronger. This is silly in and of itself, but it’s the random dude that bothers me more. I mean essentially he just appears with a solution to their problem. I’m going to call him Dues Ex Fail from now on because he really brought down the tension in this arc. Still, obligatory training chapters await, so hopefully they don’t decide they need jetpacks, lightsabers, and children’s card games to beat their opponent. Amano is really bad at that stuff.
Toriko Chapter 103 – So after the epic battle in Ice Hell, Toriko healed up and we’re now on the start of a new hunt for the H20 Salad. I really don’t like salads (clearly), but this arc will likely get me started on craving lettuce. The big thing to note this chapter was that Toriko tried to ask Komamatsu to be his cook, but for some reason this is a question on the same level of asking a highschool date to go steady with you, because Toriko stumbles over his words and eventually just dodges the question. So weird, and with oddly sexual undertones, but still Toriko is about to start something epic, so no complaints.
Bakuman Chapter 95 – I love Bakuman, and the series really never dips too far in quality for me. The current arc where PCP tries to beat Natural + and Crow has been interesting, but I like the subtle stuff, like showing how Eiji has the ability to tell a story without any dialogue, and how their one assistants new manga is basically Pheonix Wright. I’m loving the storyline so far, and curious to see next chapter. Overall, a very fine chapter.
Fairy Tail Chapter 194 – I hate Fairy Tail, I really do. I can’t explain why I honestly read it anymore. I hate most of the cast. Erza will always be one of my most hated manga characters. Wendy is a disturbing amount of bland loli I don’t want. Natsu is Luffy but without the excitement, and Gazelle is a pale imitation of Vegeta. Hell, the dude basically is Vegeta, but I still dig his fighting style, so I’ll tolerate it. Anyway, this other world arc has been more obnoxious than anything else, but it should be almost over. The recent chapter put an end to one of the blandest villains in history. Seriously, did that King even have a name? I guess he was the big bad of this arc, but I honestly don’t know. If it means this arc is over then I am all over it, but there’s still an over the top poorly paced “emotional” moment that Hiro needs to do like when he ripped off One Piece after the Luxus arc, or when Wendy’s guild just spontaneously died. Fairy Tail eats. This newest chapter wasn’t god awful, but it’s still lacking.
So everyone, that’s been the last week in manga. I’ll try to condense my thoughts next week since this is more of a test than anything. If you enjoyed reading this, please leave a comment below with any suggestions you might have for next week. Until then, Namaste!
Now if I do this as a series I want to shoot for releasing it on Monday/Tuesday so I can get all the new chapters in before the week refreshes, so one chapter per week, but since this is the first of the series I figure I’ll explain a bit about where the series have been going to give you my overall impression. So let’s begin.
One Piece Chapter 593 – After the great war ended the story slowed down, but this was for the better. We got the really good Luffy/Ace flashback, and after that ended I was ready to get back to the story, and thank the gods we’re back to the Straw Hats. It’s been tough to manage the past year or so without any Straw Hats beyond Luffy. Just their brief chapter focuses have been golden like Sanji denying his bounty poster and Franky blowing up the lab. I remembered almost instantly why I loved these characters so, though I am curious how they’ll all get together. I mean Robin, Nami, Chopper, and maybe Sanji just need to travel there, but Zoro still has to pass the baboons, Brooke’s a hostage, Usopp has to figure out a way off the island, and Franky is in a whole heap of trouble. I wonder if we’ll get small mini arcs for these characters, but somehow I doubt it.
Still 593 was a great multi-focus chapter. We got some hints at things to come like Crocodile going to the New World, and images of Dragon (who’s design I’m really starting to dig), but the cliff hanger is what really intrigues me. Buggy gets a message from the government directly, so does this mean Buggy is going to be offered a job as a Warlord? Makes sense considering the Warlords are down four members. Blackbeard, Moria, and Jinbei are gone, plus Hancock’s alliance has to be questioned. Also what’s with Kuma meeting Shaky? Is he truly all gone? Anyway, this was a good chapter of One Piece. Not great, but we’re still accepting the aftermath of the big war and slowly pulling together for the next arc.
Bleach Chapter 413 – I’m really bored of Bleach. This Aizen all out war arc just needs to die, and die freaking hard. I’m tired of Aizen and his constant burying of the cast. I get it: Aizen is unbeatable. I don’t need to see this dude completely destroy the entire freaking cast. See the problem with Aizen is that he’s too strong. At this point Aizen had managed to defeat the majority of the captains from the Soul Society, and he did it without exerting himself. He then took the supreme, ultimate, super special attacks from Isshin, Urahara, and Yorichi, and walked it off. He’s effectively crushed every possible threat, and continues to belittle what remains of the cast every chance he can. What this means to me, is that Aizen is, simply put, unbeatable. He didn’t just beat the Soul Society, he fucking crushed them. He defeated them so handedly that not even his clothes have a scar to prove he was in a real battle. What could possibly beat him at this point? I’m not just going to accept that Ichigo will obtain some new power that will suddenly surpass Aizen. That’s just ridiculous. Even considering Ichigo’s skill, it’s generally assumed that he was on par or weaker than most of the Soul Society captains at his current level, so one power bonus shouldn’t put him on a level that the combined might of the Soul Society couldn’t beat.
As for Chapter 413 itself, it was another throwaway chapter. I’ve forgotten much of what happened behind the slight hint that Gin will betray Aizen. So Aizen will kill Gin? Yeah, like Aizen totally needs that push. Bleach is in a complete garbage low point right now. If you don’t believe me, then ask yourself why this battle started, and see how long it takes you to remember it.
Naruto Chapter 503 – Naruto’s recent chapters have all been about this massive flashback regarding how the Kyubi came to be in Naruto and the history of his parents, and I’ll be honest, it hasn’t been too bad. Beyond the extremely awkward chapter where Naruto talked about how bangable his mom was, this has been relatively good, or at least, it hasn’t been wall bangingly bad. The only problem I have is that the suspense is low since this is a flashback that we all know about. The minor details are a mystery, but we know that the fourth hokage died to put the Nine-Tailes inside baby Naruto. The rest is just explanation. It’s not bad mind you, just no very suspenseful. More interesting however is that Naruto is now about to become in control of the Demon Fox, and that’s something I can get on board with. Say what you will about Naruto, but it’s not fucking around with its plot points. Itachi v Sasuke is long in the books, Orochimaru is dead and gone (for the most part), and now Naruto is overcoming the last weakness he has. Either this means Naruto is coming to an end, or some new plot elements will need to be introduced, but still I really dig progress. Not a bad chapter at all.
Beelzebub Chapter 70 – For all those who don’t read Beelzebub, I really suggest you do because this is quickly becoming one of my favorite manga. Few titles manage to make me laugh as hard as Beelzebub does on such a consistent basis, and the mangka knows how to tell an interesting story without making it feel overly serious. For those curious, it’s the story of Oga, a delinquent who recently comes in contact with the new demon prince of Hell, Beelzebub. Beelzebub is attaching himself to Oga and granting him part of his power, but the catch is that Beelzebub is a mere infant. So far the manga has mostly been about Oga beating up other delinquents, though they did make a quick appearance in the Demon World for a moment if I recall. The cast is hilarious, and Oga himself breaks the typical shonen mold. You hear delinquent and think “oh great, another misunderstood bully”, but Oga is actually a pretty big douche. He’s just so funny and straightforward that you can’t help but love him.
The recent chapter was another great one. I’m curious to see how they turn this volleyball match into a real epic encounter, but more so I have to note that I nearly pissed myself laughing at the last panel. Oga superkicking the ball, and immediately everyone calls foul on it. Again, it’s shonen awesome, but unlike series like Prince of Tennis, they don’t try to make it serious. I love Beelzebub, and I recommend you give it a try.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn Chapter 299 – Reborn is a strange title for me. At points I hate it. It can become such overwhelming shonen stereotypical slop that I want to drop it, and I come rather close to doing so, and yet sometimes the manga shows an amazing amount of depth and maturity that reminds me why I read it. For every time I see the series try to force animal companions and motorcycles on us, I’m reminded of a chapter that left me speechless. One of the more recent ones came after Yamato was attacked and put in intensive care. The next chapter was dedicated to the ramifications of this, and how Tsuna has to make a decision on the inheritance ceremony. Even though he wants nothing more than to run away from his duties, he decides to undergo the ceremony so that the rest of his friends don’t become targets. Following that we get the revelation that the Shimon family were the villains all along (cue deadpan surprise), and Enma manages to curbstomp the guardians single-handedly. This is why I love Reborn. I love manga where a villain will absolutely demolish the main heroes so that I can root for them to succeed. These chapters have made the Shimon family a threat, and I’m curious to see how they win. Really quite excellent chapters… with the exception of Julie kidnapping Chrome. Don’t get me wrong, I like that he took a guardian. It’s so vile, and really places weight on Tsuna’s training since now another guardian’s life depends on him, but it’s the fact it was Chrome that bothers me. The girl is already on the short end of the stick as far as being a guardian. She’s accomplished almost nothing on her own, and her abilities (beyond being retarded) really aren’t that intimidating. If anyone was going to benefit from massive training it was going to be her, but instead she’s going to be a damsel in distress for everyone to save. Also Julie kidnapped her for date… he does realize she’s thirteen right? Kinda creepy…
Anyway the recent chapter actually really sucked. The Vongola rings were destroyed, and this means that basically our heroes have no weapons to battle Shimon with. This is pretty tense, but then out of the blue some random fucker appears who just happens to have a way to not only repair the rings, but make them stronger. This is silly in and of itself, but it’s the random dude that bothers me more. I mean essentially he just appears with a solution to their problem. I’m going to call him Dues Ex Fail from now on because he really brought down the tension in this arc. Still, obligatory training chapters await, so hopefully they don’t decide they need jetpacks, lightsabers, and children’s card games to beat their opponent. Amano is really bad at that stuff.
Toriko Chapter 103 – So after the epic battle in Ice Hell, Toriko healed up and we’re now on the start of a new hunt for the H20 Salad. I really don’t like salads (clearly), but this arc will likely get me started on craving lettuce. The big thing to note this chapter was that Toriko tried to ask Komamatsu to be his cook, but for some reason this is a question on the same level of asking a highschool date to go steady with you, because Toriko stumbles over his words and eventually just dodges the question. So weird, and with oddly sexual undertones, but still Toriko is about to start something epic, so no complaints.
Bakuman Chapter 95 – I love Bakuman, and the series really never dips too far in quality for me. The current arc where PCP tries to beat Natural + and Crow has been interesting, but I like the subtle stuff, like showing how Eiji has the ability to tell a story without any dialogue, and how their one assistants new manga is basically Pheonix Wright. I’m loving the storyline so far, and curious to see next chapter. Overall, a very fine chapter.
Fairy Tail Chapter 194 – I hate Fairy Tail, I really do. I can’t explain why I honestly read it anymore. I hate most of the cast. Erza will always be one of my most hated manga characters. Wendy is a disturbing amount of bland loli I don’t want. Natsu is Luffy but without the excitement, and Gazelle is a pale imitation of Vegeta. Hell, the dude basically is Vegeta, but I still dig his fighting style, so I’ll tolerate it. Anyway, this other world arc has been more obnoxious than anything else, but it should be almost over. The recent chapter put an end to one of the blandest villains in history. Seriously, did that King even have a name? I guess he was the big bad of this arc, but I honestly don’t know. If it means this arc is over then I am all over it, but there’s still an over the top poorly paced “emotional” moment that Hiro needs to do like when he ripped off One Piece after the Luxus arc, or when Wendy’s guild just spontaneously died. Fairy Tail eats. This newest chapter wasn’t god awful, but it’s still lacking.
So everyone, that’s been the last week in manga. I’ll try to condense my thoughts next week since this is more of a test than anything. If you enjoyed reading this, please leave a comment below with any suggestions you might have for next week. Until then, Namaste!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
War Against Scanlations: The Aftermath
It’s the end of an era you could say. Today is the first day in the countdown to the end of OneManga.com. Visit the website and you’ll get a message regarding the site removing its scans starting next week. Expect Jump titles to be the first to go, and what remains (if anything) to be a shriveled husk that barely resembles the former site. It’s the major victory that manga companies were looking for when they announced they would team up to shut down scanlation hosting websites. I’ve been relatively quiet, at least publicly, regarding my feelings on the topic, but I figure people might be curious, or hell maybe I just want to rant.
The “War Against Scanlations” as I’ve dubbed this event can be called a success if you want. The two biggest sites, MangaFox and OneManga are shutting down and removing their big name titles. OneManga seems to suggest that it will be removing most if not all titles, and MangaFox is only good for your obscure shojo romance titles. You know, stuff no one reads anyway.
I jest, but this was the intended goal of this manga coalition. They wanted to shut down OneManga and MangaFox specifically, and they’ve now succeeded. A slew of manga sites are still up, but none of them have the library and popularity of OneManga, so Mission Accomplished right? I don’t know if you can really call this a success. In fact I don’t really know what a victory for the manga companies really is. What they’ve done is essentially remove the ease of getting manga for free online, but only temporarily, and only in the most obvious way. I can still think of about five different sites that I could visit for manga, and I’m positive there are a dozen others out there. Granted they won’t have the same library as OneManga and MangaFox, or the same ease of navigation, but I can visit them for most of the same stuff. In addition if I really need my fix I can still always visit the scanlation websites themselves. To my knowledge the scanlators themselves haven’t been targeting meaning you can always directly download the newest chapters right from the source.
But we all know this don’t we? Napster was shut down but that didn’t stop music pirating. Do any of us really believe that we won’t be able to get manga on the internet any more? No. This is the internet, and getting stuff for free is a way of life here. So is it still Mission Accomplished? Is shutting down One Manga an accomplishment when five or six other sites lie in wait to become the new premiere site for reading manga? Yes and no.
On one hand this is victory in name only. In the end unless this increases the sales of English manga then you can’t say you “won” anything. You take down the big name manga site and people will be confused. Make things harder to find, and some of the lazier people will stop trying, but not trying and buying English manga are two very different things. In the end the thing that matters the most is sales, and whether or not this does anything.
Let me come out and say that yes I read scanlated manga, as though it weren’t obvious. I love reading series online, but that doesn’t mean I only see manga as a free source. I support the official release, and when I say I support it I do. I own 26 volumes of One Piece, around 20 volumes of Bleach, 5 volumes of Air Gear, 12 volumes of Beet, 13 volumes of GetBackers, the entire Deathnote series, the first few volumes of 20th Century Boys and Pluto, and other assorted volumes of a wide range of series. I’m also friends with another manga reader who owns hundreds of manga that collectively total into the thousands who shares his manga with me. I don’t read manga and not support the source. That’s a very horrid thing to do, but you might notice my collection is incomplete. I have 26 volumes of One Piece, but the American release is well into the 50s (I want to say 54 but I might be wrong). 54 volumes? I’m barely half way there, but I’m slowly adding more to my collection. I say slowly because manga is an expensive hobby to have. A very expensive hobby.
Four years ago manga was cheaper to buy, and came out slower. A Shonen Jump title cost about $8 a volume and came out every three or so months. Now volumes come out about every month or so and cost $10 a piece. I won’t complain about manga coming out faster because now it makes following the English release an actual viable option at least for popular Jump titles, but the price increase hits hard. I don’t want to bore you all with math, but I want to emphasis just how expensive this is as a hobby. Let’s say One Piece is at 54 volumes. That’s 28 additional volumes I need to purchase at $10 a pop, so $280 before taxes. Now One Piece isn’t the only Jump series I follow, and ideally I’d love to own the entire Eyeshield 21 series as well. Currently there are 33 volumes of the series out, and four more to come before the series closes, so that’s another $330, so with two Jump series that’s about $610. I also want to catch up on 20th Century Boys and Pluto. Now there are 11 volumes of 20th Century Boys out and 8 volumes of Pluto. A volume of each of those series costs about $13, so that’s about $273. So for those four series I would be looking at $883 or about $936 after taxes. That’s to catch up just on the series I’ve already read and want to support. I honestly don’t know if I make that much disposable income in a year, so you can see the problem.
In addition that’s only if I purchase those series. I’ve already read 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Eyeshield 21 thanks to OneManga, and I’m caught up with One Piece. What if I wanted to try a new series? Manga, like all mediums, should be about expanding your horizons, but I’ve already established that manga is a very expensive hobby. How often is someone really going to be willing to spend $30 or $40 dollars to see if they’ll enjoy a manga? See, it’s often impossible to judge the quality of a manga just by its first volume, and often many manga require twenty or thirty chapters before they really sell you on the plot. Heck, most manga make it about twenty chapters before they’re canceled, so there’s always the risk in buying into a series that will just get canceled before you know it. What I’m trying to say is that the smaller series are really going to be hurt here. Back when I only read manga in their English release I purchased Flame of Recca as I wanted to try something new. I purchased eight volumes of the series before I recognized it for the no-thrills, wasted potential, crap-shack of a plot that it was. I kept having hope that it would get better, and it didn’t. I spent $80 on the series, and that was when I was a teenager so almost all of my income was disposable. Now I’m in my early twenties working a job to pay my rent and take care of my mother, and spending hundreds on a series I may not enjoy is just not a risk I’m willing to take.
Now I’m not complaining about having to buy manga. That’s a fact of life, and it’s not the only expensive hobby out there. In addition no one is saying I have to buy those manga all at once, and spreading those series over years can make the total go down drastically. After all, it’s a collectible just like many other medium. However my problem lies in the smaller series. The fact of the matter is, that these series are just too expensive to risk, and there’s no way to really curb that beyond having a friend buy it first assuming they’re in a better financial situation. I can’t wait six months to buy this manga used, or wait til it comes out on DVD to rent it for a buck. A manga is about $10 today, and it’ll be about $10 four years from now… maybe more considering how the economy goes.
Now I have a ton of series I would love to purchase if they see an American release like Liar Game, Steel Ball Run, Break Blade, Zippy Ziggy, and Beezlebub, but I only know I enjoy those series because I’ve read a good majority of them through scanlation sites. In addition even though the big name manga sites are gone, is there any doubt in your mind that by next Saturday you’ll be able to find the newest editions of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach? The big series will never disappear. There are entire communities built around those titles, so it’s impossible to think they can ever be lost. However the smaller series without established fanbases? Those are the ones people will stop reading. Those are the ones that’ll be forgotten, and that really sucks.
I’m not complaining because I hate spending money. I can find reviews, or take a risk on a new manga if I really want to, but in the end the series that really suffer from this are those small series. People won’t take a risk on them, and now some of the best series out there will be completely ignored. Many might never see a conclusion in their English release. Heck, Zatch Bell was only a volume or so away from completion before the company pulled the plug on the series, so without finding and reading the scans online how would anyone finish the series? Or what about a series like Double Arts? It was a Shonen Jump title that got canceled after 21 chapters. There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that it’ll ever see an English release, so what happens to a story like that? And what about the American Shonen Jump? In Japan a series gets exposure in Jump so that its popularity can be established. American Jump doesn’t feature any chapters of Toriko or Bakuman, so what about them? They have to solely rely on fans who already know about the series.
I worry about the medium. Manga is a great medium and some of my favorite stories ever are told in it. This “War Against Scanlations” will ultimately hut the medium if nothing is done. Now I’m not an idiot. I understand 100% that these companies are losing money because of scanlations, and they have every right to want people to purchase their stuff. I agree with this. That’s why I support the manga I really love. However I fear for the medium. There are hundreds upon hundreds of manga series out there all ranging the spectrum from good to bad, but manga doesn’t have the same support that other mediums have. It’s a lot easier to pick out a potentially great movie or video game than it is to pick a hidden gem of a manga. And that’s if said manga even gets translated.
However I want to play the role of the optimist. I want to say that in the end our community will thrive and become stronger than ever. Maybe more companies will be put forward to review series and volumes. Maybe an entire new system will be implemented to help give previews to smaller series. Maybe companies will start to use cheaper paper or find new ways to cut the price of manga. Maybe manga publishers will utilize a method of viewing translated versions of the most recent Japanese chapters on their websites, or a way to digitally distribute manga that can help curb the expensive cost of producing physical volumes. Maybe, just maybe this will all be for the better, and if so I hope I can be a part of it, because I don’t think I could stand watching the manga industry fail.
The “War Against Scanlations” as I’ve dubbed this event can be called a success if you want. The two biggest sites, MangaFox and OneManga are shutting down and removing their big name titles. OneManga seems to suggest that it will be removing most if not all titles, and MangaFox is only good for your obscure shojo romance titles. You know, stuff no one reads anyway.
I jest, but this was the intended goal of this manga coalition. They wanted to shut down OneManga and MangaFox specifically, and they’ve now succeeded. A slew of manga sites are still up, but none of them have the library and popularity of OneManga, so Mission Accomplished right? I don’t know if you can really call this a success. In fact I don’t really know what a victory for the manga companies really is. What they’ve done is essentially remove the ease of getting manga for free online, but only temporarily, and only in the most obvious way. I can still think of about five different sites that I could visit for manga, and I’m positive there are a dozen others out there. Granted they won’t have the same library as OneManga and MangaFox, or the same ease of navigation, but I can visit them for most of the same stuff. In addition if I really need my fix I can still always visit the scanlation websites themselves. To my knowledge the scanlators themselves haven’t been targeting meaning you can always directly download the newest chapters right from the source.
But we all know this don’t we? Napster was shut down but that didn’t stop music pirating. Do any of us really believe that we won’t be able to get manga on the internet any more? No. This is the internet, and getting stuff for free is a way of life here. So is it still Mission Accomplished? Is shutting down One Manga an accomplishment when five or six other sites lie in wait to become the new premiere site for reading manga? Yes and no.
On one hand this is victory in name only. In the end unless this increases the sales of English manga then you can’t say you “won” anything. You take down the big name manga site and people will be confused. Make things harder to find, and some of the lazier people will stop trying, but not trying and buying English manga are two very different things. In the end the thing that matters the most is sales, and whether or not this does anything.
Let me come out and say that yes I read scanlated manga, as though it weren’t obvious. I love reading series online, but that doesn’t mean I only see manga as a free source. I support the official release, and when I say I support it I do. I own 26 volumes of One Piece, around 20 volumes of Bleach, 5 volumes of Air Gear, 12 volumes of Beet, 13 volumes of GetBackers, the entire Deathnote series, the first few volumes of 20th Century Boys and Pluto, and other assorted volumes of a wide range of series. I’m also friends with another manga reader who owns hundreds of manga that collectively total into the thousands who shares his manga with me. I don’t read manga and not support the source. That’s a very horrid thing to do, but you might notice my collection is incomplete. I have 26 volumes of One Piece, but the American release is well into the 50s (I want to say 54 but I might be wrong). 54 volumes? I’m barely half way there, but I’m slowly adding more to my collection. I say slowly because manga is an expensive hobby to have. A very expensive hobby.
Four years ago manga was cheaper to buy, and came out slower. A Shonen Jump title cost about $8 a volume and came out every three or so months. Now volumes come out about every month or so and cost $10 a piece. I won’t complain about manga coming out faster because now it makes following the English release an actual viable option at least for popular Jump titles, but the price increase hits hard. I don’t want to bore you all with math, but I want to emphasis just how expensive this is as a hobby. Let’s say One Piece is at 54 volumes. That’s 28 additional volumes I need to purchase at $10 a pop, so $280 before taxes. Now One Piece isn’t the only Jump series I follow, and ideally I’d love to own the entire Eyeshield 21 series as well. Currently there are 33 volumes of the series out, and four more to come before the series closes, so that’s another $330, so with two Jump series that’s about $610. I also want to catch up on 20th Century Boys and Pluto. Now there are 11 volumes of 20th Century Boys out and 8 volumes of Pluto. A volume of each of those series costs about $13, so that’s about $273. So for those four series I would be looking at $883 or about $936 after taxes. That’s to catch up just on the series I’ve already read and want to support. I honestly don’t know if I make that much disposable income in a year, so you can see the problem.
In addition that’s only if I purchase those series. I’ve already read 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Eyeshield 21 thanks to OneManga, and I’m caught up with One Piece. What if I wanted to try a new series? Manga, like all mediums, should be about expanding your horizons, but I’ve already established that manga is a very expensive hobby. How often is someone really going to be willing to spend $30 or $40 dollars to see if they’ll enjoy a manga? See, it’s often impossible to judge the quality of a manga just by its first volume, and often many manga require twenty or thirty chapters before they really sell you on the plot. Heck, most manga make it about twenty chapters before they’re canceled, so there’s always the risk in buying into a series that will just get canceled before you know it. What I’m trying to say is that the smaller series are really going to be hurt here. Back when I only read manga in their English release I purchased Flame of Recca as I wanted to try something new. I purchased eight volumes of the series before I recognized it for the no-thrills, wasted potential, crap-shack of a plot that it was. I kept having hope that it would get better, and it didn’t. I spent $80 on the series, and that was when I was a teenager so almost all of my income was disposable. Now I’m in my early twenties working a job to pay my rent and take care of my mother, and spending hundreds on a series I may not enjoy is just not a risk I’m willing to take.
Now I’m not complaining about having to buy manga. That’s a fact of life, and it’s not the only expensive hobby out there. In addition no one is saying I have to buy those manga all at once, and spreading those series over years can make the total go down drastically. After all, it’s a collectible just like many other medium. However my problem lies in the smaller series. The fact of the matter is, that these series are just too expensive to risk, and there’s no way to really curb that beyond having a friend buy it first assuming they’re in a better financial situation. I can’t wait six months to buy this manga used, or wait til it comes out on DVD to rent it for a buck. A manga is about $10 today, and it’ll be about $10 four years from now… maybe more considering how the economy goes.
Now I have a ton of series I would love to purchase if they see an American release like Liar Game, Steel Ball Run, Break Blade, Zippy Ziggy, and Beezlebub, but I only know I enjoy those series because I’ve read a good majority of them through scanlation sites. In addition even though the big name manga sites are gone, is there any doubt in your mind that by next Saturday you’ll be able to find the newest editions of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach? The big series will never disappear. There are entire communities built around those titles, so it’s impossible to think they can ever be lost. However the smaller series without established fanbases? Those are the ones people will stop reading. Those are the ones that’ll be forgotten, and that really sucks.
I’m not complaining because I hate spending money. I can find reviews, or take a risk on a new manga if I really want to, but in the end the series that really suffer from this are those small series. People won’t take a risk on them, and now some of the best series out there will be completely ignored. Many might never see a conclusion in their English release. Heck, Zatch Bell was only a volume or so away from completion before the company pulled the plug on the series, so without finding and reading the scans online how would anyone finish the series? Or what about a series like Double Arts? It was a Shonen Jump title that got canceled after 21 chapters. There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that it’ll ever see an English release, so what happens to a story like that? And what about the American Shonen Jump? In Japan a series gets exposure in Jump so that its popularity can be established. American Jump doesn’t feature any chapters of Toriko or Bakuman, so what about them? They have to solely rely on fans who already know about the series.
I worry about the medium. Manga is a great medium and some of my favorite stories ever are told in it. This “War Against Scanlations” will ultimately hut the medium if nothing is done. Now I’m not an idiot. I understand 100% that these companies are losing money because of scanlations, and they have every right to want people to purchase their stuff. I agree with this. That’s why I support the manga I really love. However I fear for the medium. There are hundreds upon hundreds of manga series out there all ranging the spectrum from good to bad, but manga doesn’t have the same support that other mediums have. It’s a lot easier to pick out a potentially great movie or video game than it is to pick a hidden gem of a manga. And that’s if said manga even gets translated.
However I want to play the role of the optimist. I want to say that in the end our community will thrive and become stronger than ever. Maybe more companies will be put forward to review series and volumes. Maybe an entire new system will be implemented to help give previews to smaller series. Maybe companies will start to use cheaper paper or find new ways to cut the price of manga. Maybe manga publishers will utilize a method of viewing translated versions of the most recent Japanese chapters on their websites, or a way to digitally distribute manga that can help curb the expensive cost of producing physical volumes. Maybe, just maybe this will all be for the better, and if so I hope I can be a part of it, because I don’t think I could stand watching the manga industry fail.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
One Piece Chapter 589 Rave
I complain about a lot of manga. Everyone knows my hatred of Air Gear, and my distaste for Fairy Tail is starting to become more obvious. Following these you’d assume I dislike manga, or that the medium is chock full of garbage, but that’s not the case. The only reason I harp on titles like Air Gear and Naruto is because there are so many better titles to compare them to. I want to give proper notice to these stories—in fact I want them to garner much more attention that any of the shitty series. So I will take note to really discuss some of the better stories and chapters out there when they come around, and this whole idea is spurred on by the most recent chapter of One Piece: Chapter 589, Sabo’s Ocean.
I love One Piece, and to discuss why I love it in every minute detail would take days. Instead, I’ll just say that One Piece always blows me away with its storytelling. Normally the battle shonen scene is pretty tame in terms of telling a good story, but One Piece never falls into that stereotype, and in fact it’s almost single-handedly changing that negative connotation. The latest chapter of One Piece has served as a full circle in Luffy’s personality, but a change that’s been in the making for years. A common complaint haters state is that Luffy is too stupid. Well, for starters Luffy isn’t stupid, he’s simple, but people dislike that his character simply shrugs off angst. It’s easy to say “well Luffy hasn’t had it so bad in comparison to other shonen heroes”, to justify his lackadaisical nature, but Luffy’s two flashbacks show his life wasn’t “easy”. Sure he didn’t watch his mother get devoured by a demon or his father murdered by an evil king as per the standard with bad anime heroes nowadays, but he did watch his idol have his arm ripped off in an incident that was entirely his fault. That’s pretty heavy stuff, but One Piece has never been a series to let a character mop around. If they do, then someone comes by and kicks them in the bottom, and we’re left with the important lesson that can be summed up in just a few words “this too shall pass”.
Even characters like Chopper, Robin, Nami, and Franky who had some really terrible, heart-wrenching pasts are still gleefully optimistic characters. We see them in their moments of weakness, but these are brief moments that highlight the struggle without dwelling on it. For every character who displays a healthy amount of angst, there are two or three more than dwell on how shitty everything is and are just overall depressing characters. One Piece subverts this by rarely letting characters get depressing, and instead keeps the characters upbeat and fun so that when things do get serious you know that “shit got real”. That’s why Chapter 589 is so important. For 500 + chapters we’ve seen Luffy as a very optimistic, wide eyed adventurer who rarely let the gravity of a situation affect him. The changes to his personality mostly involve going from goofy to serious when a villain crosses his moral event horizon, and until recently I can’t recall a time where Luffy got really “angsty”. That’s what makes this character development so powerful.
We see Luffy, our affable hero, down on his knees, crying about how weak he is. This came after watching his friends become split up and sent away one after another, and then watching his brother get killed. Again, it’s the fact that until these points, Luffy has never shown this kind of emotion before that makes it so meaningful. If Luffy always whined about wanting to be stronger than this chapter’s weight would be miniscule at best, but since we’ve always seen Luffy as this confident, good-natured hero, seeing him broken into a sobbing, broken mess is much more moving. The final page of 589 carries so much weight with only a few lines of dialogue show casing Oda’s skill as both an author, and as a storyteller.
Plus the foreshadowing! My God how much better could Fairy Tail be if Mashima Hiro knew how to foreshadow like Oda? So much in recent chapters has been alluded to for years. The faces on Ace’s hat, the crossed out “S” on Ace’s tattoo, and even the seemingly throw away “I’ll never die” panels at the end of Chapter 574 now carry so much more weight now that we know what they mean in context. Plus I absolutely love the little cameo with Zoro. Pretty much unnecessary, but awesome in the same respect.
I loved this chapter, and the wait until next week is going to murder me. More than that, I’m really looking forward to seeing how Oda gets Luffy back on track. For most mangaka I’d worry, but Oda has proven time and time again that my faith is well-placed in him. For those naysayers out there that ignore One Piece for being too goofy or having a bizarre art-style, I just want to say that you guys are missing out on the best shonen manga series ever. I feel absolutely no bias when I make that claim, and Chapter 589 of the series is perfect proof why I feel that way.
I love One Piece, and to discuss why I love it in every minute detail would take days. Instead, I’ll just say that One Piece always blows me away with its storytelling. Normally the battle shonen scene is pretty tame in terms of telling a good story, but One Piece never falls into that stereotype, and in fact it’s almost single-handedly changing that negative connotation. The latest chapter of One Piece has served as a full circle in Luffy’s personality, but a change that’s been in the making for years. A common complaint haters state is that Luffy is too stupid. Well, for starters Luffy isn’t stupid, he’s simple, but people dislike that his character simply shrugs off angst. It’s easy to say “well Luffy hasn’t had it so bad in comparison to other shonen heroes”, to justify his lackadaisical nature, but Luffy’s two flashbacks show his life wasn’t “easy”. Sure he didn’t watch his mother get devoured by a demon or his father murdered by an evil king as per the standard with bad anime heroes nowadays, but he did watch his idol have his arm ripped off in an incident that was entirely his fault. That’s pretty heavy stuff, but One Piece has never been a series to let a character mop around. If they do, then someone comes by and kicks them in the bottom, and we’re left with the important lesson that can be summed up in just a few words “this too shall pass”.
Even characters like Chopper, Robin, Nami, and Franky who had some really terrible, heart-wrenching pasts are still gleefully optimistic characters. We see them in their moments of weakness, but these are brief moments that highlight the struggle without dwelling on it. For every character who displays a healthy amount of angst, there are two or three more than dwell on how shitty everything is and are just overall depressing characters. One Piece subverts this by rarely letting characters get depressing, and instead keeps the characters upbeat and fun so that when things do get serious you know that “shit got real”. That’s why Chapter 589 is so important. For 500 + chapters we’ve seen Luffy as a very optimistic, wide eyed adventurer who rarely let the gravity of a situation affect him. The changes to his personality mostly involve going from goofy to serious when a villain crosses his moral event horizon, and until recently I can’t recall a time where Luffy got really “angsty”. That’s what makes this character development so powerful.
We see Luffy, our affable hero, down on his knees, crying about how weak he is. This came after watching his friends become split up and sent away one after another, and then watching his brother get killed. Again, it’s the fact that until these points, Luffy has never shown this kind of emotion before that makes it so meaningful. If Luffy always whined about wanting to be stronger than this chapter’s weight would be miniscule at best, but since we’ve always seen Luffy as this confident, good-natured hero, seeing him broken into a sobbing, broken mess is much more moving. The final page of 589 carries so much weight with only a few lines of dialogue show casing Oda’s skill as both an author, and as a storyteller.
Plus the foreshadowing! My God how much better could Fairy Tail be if Mashima Hiro knew how to foreshadow like Oda? So much in recent chapters has been alluded to for years. The faces on Ace’s hat, the crossed out “S” on Ace’s tattoo, and even the seemingly throw away “I’ll never die” panels at the end of Chapter 574 now carry so much more weight now that we know what they mean in context. Plus I absolutely love the little cameo with Zoro. Pretty much unnecessary, but awesome in the same respect.
I loved this chapter, and the wait until next week is going to murder me. More than that, I’m really looking forward to seeing how Oda gets Luffy back on track. For most mangaka I’d worry, but Oda has proven time and time again that my faith is well-placed in him. For those naysayers out there that ignore One Piece for being too goofy or having a bizarre art-style, I just want to say that you guys are missing out on the best shonen manga series ever. I feel absolutely no bias when I make that claim, and Chapter 589 of the series is perfect proof why I feel that way.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Fairy Tail Chapter 187 Rant
Ugh, someone really needs to teach Mashima Hiro how to write a good twist. I’m referring to the recent chapter of Fairy Tail (Chapter 187), and the absolute abysmal quality of the chapter due to a poor twist, a ridiculous ass pull, and a rather disturbing implication brought on solely for fan service.
The plot twist I speak of related to Erza. Due to the current arc taking place in… Otherworld (I forget the actual name, but I’ve also stopped caring so, works out) everyone here has an awkward counterpart. In most situations it’s just a flip in personality (Lucy is brave and outgoing while Natsu is a ridiculous coward) but for Erza, her counterpart is a member of the enemy and her goal is to hunt down Fairy Tail. When Earthland Erza meets up with Otherworld Erza, the two fight, but the content, and winner of the fight is left as a mystery. Then at the end of Chapter 186 we see Otherworld Erza find and capture Gray and Natsu. Or we’re supposed to believe it’s Otherworld Erza, but anyone with a brain should have been able to instantly recognize this plot twist as soon as it happened.
Since the Tower of Paradise Arc (which was where they story took its iconic nose dive in quality) Erza hasn’t lost. The closest we get was her getting knocked out against the Oracion Seis, but she was outnumbered and distracted by her allies. Oh, and she sorta decided to fight in a jungle thong. I question the logic in being an “Armor Knight” if your armor amounts to a leopard skin bikini. Bet she really wished she had armor on her arm didn’t she? Anyway, that fight can’t really count since Erza wasn’t in a position to win, and she never actually lost. We saw later that pitting her one on one with any of the other guild members would have been a victory, and again confirms that Erza can never lose to anything ever. So knowing this, how could anyone in their right mind honestly believe that Earthland Erza would lose off-screen? It was obvious that it was just Earthland Erza Ex-Quipped into Otherworld Erza’s outfit, and this was the old “hey guys I found the prisoners oh wait psyche I was totally your enemy all along” trick.
Again, no one with a brain was fooled by this, so why bother? Well Hiro really believe he’s a great story teller. He tries to pull emotion out of his audience, but most of the time it’s rather abrupt and poorly handled like the infamous Fantasia Finger Point (ripped straight off from One Piece) and the Wendy’s Guild Good-bye. Hiro does everything with a rather abrupt haste to it that you never have time to dwell on it. Had Hiro used misdirection and a few chapters of suspense to get us to believe that Earthland Erza was actually defeated then I might have doubted the twist. Without it, I’m just ending one chapter saying “that’s Earthland Erza” then starting the next chapter saying “I was fucking right”. Surprise surprise it turned out that it was Earthland Erza all along (shocker) and they are going to try their awesome plan of firing the McGuffin Magic Chain Cannon Thing into the Magic Crystal Friend Island thing. Unfortunately they can’t use the controls correctly, and the original plan of swinging the Magic Crystal Friend Island thing into the Floating Island of Magic Cats begins. No, I’m not insane.
Furthermore, Otherworld Erza arrives to finish the fight! What a twis—hey wait, what the hell is she wearing?! Holy crap, she’s not wearing anything! Sure, she wasn’t wearing much before, but she did have a bra, gloves, boots, and those towel things that people wear as skirts except there’s nothing on the sides, but now she’s wearing just a thong and a cloak to cover her top. This implies one of two things. Either (A) Earthland Erza defeated Otherworld Erza, and after the battle nearly completely stripped her, or (B) during their fight Earthland Erza destroyed all of Otherworld Erza’s clothes.
Now (A) doesn’t make sense because Erza’s magic is designed to let her wear whatever armor she wants. We’ve seen her use it for bullshit fanservice purposes before (bunny girl, gothic Lolita, pajamas, etc.), so she shouldn’t need to strip anyone, and that also implies she knocked Otherworld Erza the fuck out. But (B) isn’t much better. That implies that throughout the fight Earthland Erza managed to slash off this woman’s gloves, boots, skirt, and bra. I mean I’m not a woman, and I don’t do a lot of swordplay, but I figure it’s strange to approach a battle trying to cleave your opponent’s bra off.
Well anyway, it seems like our heroes are trapped when suddenly, help arrives in the form of… a dragon? Wait, what? I forgot something right? I clearly forgot when they said that people from this world can call upon dragons because I refuse to believe Fairy Tail would pull something as stupid as this. This is the very definition of an ass pull. You can’t just say “oh yeah, I’m best friends with the dragons. Let’s go!” You especially can’t do that in Fairy Tail considering how important dragons are to the overall plot. Seriously, it’s like when James Bond was strapped to that metal sheet with the laser beam coming towards him, and instead of freeing himself with ingenuity or clever thinking, his pet lion just smashed into the room and destroyed the machine. Yeah the problem’s solved but it leaves a pretty big question like: “why the fuck does he have a pet lion, and why has no one mentioned this before?!”
Really, someone please tell me they mentioned this before because I really don’t want to suffer brain damage by slamming my face into my monitor. Anyway, Otherworld Erza demands her troops follow and then… cuts her hair? Why? I know you could say she’s doing it to ensure no one mistakes her for Earthland Erza again, but that Erza is currently riding on top of a dragon in plain sight after just performing that trick. I really don’t think she’s in the position to start deceiving people, and even if she were, what’s to stop the other Erza from just cutting her hair? Really, the only reason for this is to appeal to the short hair fetish, but jeez, didn’t we do the exact same thing a few chapters ago when Otherworld Lucy cut her hair so that people could tell her apart from Earthland Lucy (aside from the fact Otherworld Lucy dresses like a dominatrix)? Seriously, why is up with Hiro constantly shoving his fetishes into his story?
I mean throughout this arc alone Lucy has been locked barefoot in stock, then went through a fetish costume marathon, then fought an entire battle in nothing but a bikini (I think she’s still in the bikini too), and 10 year old Lucy was chained up an tortured (but it’s shonen, so it’s the kinky torture, and not the mental torture that never leaves you). Plus this is the same manga that had a guitarist, who turns women into his sex slaves and then orders them to go strip other women, and had Evergreen demand Erza get naked and prostrate herself before her. The amount of bondage in this manga is through the roof (drinking game worthy honestly), so why does Hiro feel the need to include even more fetish fuel? I’m honestly shocked we haven’t seen more furries and gender bending, but I guess those aren’t his thing.
Well anyway, the chapter ends with Natsu and crew riding the Mystical WTF Dragon over towards the Magic Crystal Friend Island thing in the hope of saving their friends, but good God what a shitty chapter. The Erza twist covers nearly the first half of the chapter, and again, it was a stupid twist that no one believed for even a moment. Then you have the weird implications that Erza enjoys stripping herself, and then the ridiculous ass pull that random little girl in this world just happens to have a dragon on her side. Again, please tell me they mentioned this before and I forgot, because I can’t wrap my head around it otherwise.
Fairy Tail has recently been put in my bad manga category with Bleach, Air Gear, and the rest, but I remain optimistic that the series can improve. I think Mashima Hiro does actually possess the ability to tell an engaging story, and I have hope that by the time this is all over, I’ll be able to enjoy the story of Fairy Tail again.
And if not I can take solace in the fact that One Piece, Toriko, Bakuman, and Beezlebub still kick ass.
The plot twist I speak of related to Erza. Due to the current arc taking place in… Otherworld (I forget the actual name, but I’ve also stopped caring so, works out) everyone here has an awkward counterpart. In most situations it’s just a flip in personality (Lucy is brave and outgoing while Natsu is a ridiculous coward) but for Erza, her counterpart is a member of the enemy and her goal is to hunt down Fairy Tail. When Earthland Erza meets up with Otherworld Erza, the two fight, but the content, and winner of the fight is left as a mystery. Then at the end of Chapter 186 we see Otherworld Erza find and capture Gray and Natsu. Or we’re supposed to believe it’s Otherworld Erza, but anyone with a brain should have been able to instantly recognize this plot twist as soon as it happened.
Since the Tower of Paradise Arc (which was where they story took its iconic nose dive in quality) Erza hasn’t lost. The closest we get was her getting knocked out against the Oracion Seis, but she was outnumbered and distracted by her allies. Oh, and she sorta decided to fight in a jungle thong. I question the logic in being an “Armor Knight” if your armor amounts to a leopard skin bikini. Bet she really wished she had armor on her arm didn’t she? Anyway, that fight can’t really count since Erza wasn’t in a position to win, and she never actually lost. We saw later that pitting her one on one with any of the other guild members would have been a victory, and again confirms that Erza can never lose to anything ever. So knowing this, how could anyone in their right mind honestly believe that Earthland Erza would lose off-screen? It was obvious that it was just Earthland Erza Ex-Quipped into Otherworld Erza’s outfit, and this was the old “hey guys I found the prisoners oh wait psyche I was totally your enemy all along” trick.
Again, no one with a brain was fooled by this, so why bother? Well Hiro really believe he’s a great story teller. He tries to pull emotion out of his audience, but most of the time it’s rather abrupt and poorly handled like the infamous Fantasia Finger Point (ripped straight off from One Piece) and the Wendy’s Guild Good-bye. Hiro does everything with a rather abrupt haste to it that you never have time to dwell on it. Had Hiro used misdirection and a few chapters of suspense to get us to believe that Earthland Erza was actually defeated then I might have doubted the twist. Without it, I’m just ending one chapter saying “that’s Earthland Erza” then starting the next chapter saying “I was fucking right”. Surprise surprise it turned out that it was Earthland Erza all along (shocker) and they are going to try their awesome plan of firing the McGuffin Magic Chain Cannon Thing into the Magic Crystal Friend Island thing. Unfortunately they can’t use the controls correctly, and the original plan of swinging the Magic Crystal Friend Island thing into the Floating Island of Magic Cats begins. No, I’m not insane.
Furthermore, Otherworld Erza arrives to finish the fight! What a twis—hey wait, what the hell is she wearing?! Holy crap, she’s not wearing anything! Sure, she wasn’t wearing much before, but she did have a bra, gloves, boots, and those towel things that people wear as skirts except there’s nothing on the sides, but now she’s wearing just a thong and a cloak to cover her top. This implies one of two things. Either (A) Earthland Erza defeated Otherworld Erza, and after the battle nearly completely stripped her, or (B) during their fight Earthland Erza destroyed all of Otherworld Erza’s clothes.
Now (A) doesn’t make sense because Erza’s magic is designed to let her wear whatever armor she wants. We’ve seen her use it for bullshit fanservice purposes before (bunny girl, gothic Lolita, pajamas, etc.), so she shouldn’t need to strip anyone, and that also implies she knocked Otherworld Erza the fuck out. But (B) isn’t much better. That implies that throughout the fight Earthland Erza managed to slash off this woman’s gloves, boots, skirt, and bra. I mean I’m not a woman, and I don’t do a lot of swordplay, but I figure it’s strange to approach a battle trying to cleave your opponent’s bra off.
Well anyway, it seems like our heroes are trapped when suddenly, help arrives in the form of… a dragon? Wait, what? I forgot something right? I clearly forgot when they said that people from this world can call upon dragons because I refuse to believe Fairy Tail would pull something as stupid as this. This is the very definition of an ass pull. You can’t just say “oh yeah, I’m best friends with the dragons. Let’s go!” You especially can’t do that in Fairy Tail considering how important dragons are to the overall plot. Seriously, it’s like when James Bond was strapped to that metal sheet with the laser beam coming towards him, and instead of freeing himself with ingenuity or clever thinking, his pet lion just smashed into the room and destroyed the machine. Yeah the problem’s solved but it leaves a pretty big question like: “why the fuck does he have a pet lion, and why has no one mentioned this before?!”
Really, someone please tell me they mentioned this before because I really don’t want to suffer brain damage by slamming my face into my monitor. Anyway, Otherworld Erza demands her troops follow and then… cuts her hair? Why? I know you could say she’s doing it to ensure no one mistakes her for Earthland Erza again, but that Erza is currently riding on top of a dragon in plain sight after just performing that trick. I really don’t think she’s in the position to start deceiving people, and even if she were, what’s to stop the other Erza from just cutting her hair? Really, the only reason for this is to appeal to the short hair fetish, but jeez, didn’t we do the exact same thing a few chapters ago when Otherworld Lucy cut her hair so that people could tell her apart from Earthland Lucy (aside from the fact Otherworld Lucy dresses like a dominatrix)? Seriously, why is up with Hiro constantly shoving his fetishes into his story?
I mean throughout this arc alone Lucy has been locked barefoot in stock, then went through a fetish costume marathon, then fought an entire battle in nothing but a bikini (I think she’s still in the bikini too), and 10 year old Lucy was chained up an tortured (but it’s shonen, so it’s the kinky torture, and not the mental torture that never leaves you). Plus this is the same manga that had a guitarist, who turns women into his sex slaves and then orders them to go strip other women, and had Evergreen demand Erza get naked and prostrate herself before her. The amount of bondage in this manga is through the roof (drinking game worthy honestly), so why does Hiro feel the need to include even more fetish fuel? I’m honestly shocked we haven’t seen more furries and gender bending, but I guess those aren’t his thing.
Well anyway, the chapter ends with Natsu and crew riding the Mystical WTF Dragon over towards the Magic Crystal Friend Island thing in the hope of saving their friends, but good God what a shitty chapter. The Erza twist covers nearly the first half of the chapter, and again, it was a stupid twist that no one believed for even a moment. Then you have the weird implications that Erza enjoys stripping herself, and then the ridiculous ass pull that random little girl in this world just happens to have a dragon on her side. Again, please tell me they mentioned this before and I forgot, because I can’t wrap my head around it otherwise.
Fairy Tail has recently been put in my bad manga category with Bleach, Air Gear, and the rest, but I remain optimistic that the series can improve. I think Mashima Hiro does actually possess the ability to tell an engaging story, and I have hope that by the time this is all over, I’ll be able to enjoy the story of Fairy Tail again.
And if not I can take solace in the fact that One Piece, Toriko, Bakuman, and Beezlebub still kick ass.
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