#JUST FOR HER TO PROBABLY TALK FOR 5 PANELS AND DISSAPPEAR

[tiffaluvr]

as much as I love Percy u don't get the frustration I keep feeling whenever I see the Ulyssa chapter is still that far.

[notthatiwilleverwriteit]

Hi! I really loooove your analysis, I think it helps me enjoy the manhua better and gives me something to think about . So, I wanted to ask you about Zhanyi, this middle school plot is in the past and in the firsts panels xixi is violent, when he used to be soft. I think maybe he's guarded, since the dissappearence of jian yi he was probably hurt and lonely. What do you think about their relationship in the future? Are they going to be okay? I would really like your thoughts on this.

Good morning, dear nightia-san!

“I really loooove your analysis, I think it helps me enjoy the manhua better and gives me something to think about .”

I’m very glad and humbled to hear that. Thank you! It’s also a two-way street. People asking these questions give me something to think about and help me find new aspects in the comic as well. Overall, I think comparing notes is always desirable and valuable in fandoms, so I’m glad I have managed to contribute to that.

“in the firsts panels xixi is violent, when he used to be soft. I think maybe he’s guarded, since the dissappearence of jian yi he was probably hurt and lonely.”

For the purpose of this question, I will be using Mangago as a source when referencing chapters and their numbers. People use different sites and apps to read 19 Days but I think Mangago is the best and easiest to find all the chapters compared to other places.

It’s a bit unclear to me what do you mean by “first panels”. I don’t know if you were aware, but 19 Days debuted as a one shot (ch. 1) in a compilation publication called 19天. It featured 19 different artists including OldXian, and that’s where the title came from. For some reason, 19 Days also became the title of OX’s comic later on.

Do you mean that one shot as the first panels? Personally, I wouldn’t really count them as the beginning of the comic we’re reading these days. It was published years ago (according to Google, in 2013) and was originally meant as a one shot. To expect those exact versions of the characters to have much to do with the ones of the present day could be reaching too much.

Overall, it’s difficult to say anything concrete about the earliest chapters. A lot of them were respective illustrations or short gag chapters with only a couple of panels without much of an overarching plot. I would say the story officially begins in ch. 22 but even then the story is often interrupted by gag chapters that don’t have anything to do with the actual story. I actually think you could take the beginning even later than that, to ch. 43 in which Jian Yi shows up at Zhan Zheng Xi’s door beaten up and a bit later ZZX tells us how JY disappeared in high school.

Whatever your take happens to be, I think one thing is clear: continuity hasn’t really been 19 Days’ strongest suit from the beginning because of its nature as a publication. I think that’s very important to keep in mind when going back to the early chapters and trying to build overarching character development. You risk reading too much into things if you’re expecting all the details to be connected.

About the violence in general, though, I don’t think it’s that much different from what has always been typical to ZZX’s character, the Zhanyi dynamics and slapstick-type of humor of the comic. I guess it used to be a touch more “graphic” in the early chapters (ch. 1, 4-5, 9-13, 23-24, 29, 30-31, and 34):

However, I never saw those as ZZX being angry because JY left him and he was lonely, worried, and hurt. I get that feeling but personally think holding that kind of “grudge” or being guarded wouldn’t be typical to ZZX. He would be angry but that would be because of relief and because he had been so scared (ch. 198):

After that, he would go back to protecting JY even more fiercely and become closer to him.

The physical violence of the early chapters is very much comic relief in my eyes. Not to mention, many of those chapters were meant as little gags and not connected to the overall story. Even ZZX kicking JY in the very first chapter I don’t see from the perspective you suggested but mere humor very typical to 19 Days’ style.

“What do you think about their relationship in the future? Are they going to be okay?”

In short, I think they will be perfectly fine in the future. The kidnap will be a hiccup, but it’s obvious it won’t last forever and they will get over it.

I mean, let’s not forget we’re not completely in the dark about it. Not only the early chapters (prior to ch. 51) we have also gotten future-related specials and official illustrations just like with Tianshan. And ZZX and JY seem to be doing just fine in those. In fact, it seems ZZX keeps getting more and more comfortable with their new kind of relationship in the future (ch. 224 and 271):

Also, again, as you might notice those future-related chapters are quite different from the ones we got when the comic was just starting out. If I had to draw conclusions about their future, I would much rather base them on those two chapters more recent ones (and the hot springs specials) than the first chapters when I doubt the comic had as clear of a direction as it has these days. The only thing I would probably take from the early chapters is that JY spends a lot of time at ZZX’s place and he’s working hard to catch up to him. And if the early illustrations are anything to go by, their physical interaction is charged in a different way than just best friends.

As to having something in general to say about future Zhanyi… it’s a bit difficult. As a couple, they don’t tickle my headcanon bone quite the same way Tianshan does. But let’s see if I’ll get any nibbles:

JY is pretty much one of the students ZZX hangs out with. The only difference is, he’s in high school but he doesn’t spend time with his classmates.

JY’s classmates are jealous and envious that JY can go drinking and be around university students. And knowing JY, he can’t help but brag about it a little.

For once, JY is the cool kid in his class. He’s older and (I can’t believe I’m saying this) also more mature. He likes to give a lot of advice that he thinks the rascal youngsters need.

The girls in ZZX’s class adore JY, and it kind of bothers ZZX. He prays the day never comes when JY catches him being annoyed by it because he would definitely take advantage of it.

JY likes that to other people it looks like he and ZZX are living together. He’s in no rush to correct them, either.

ZZX still hasn’t initiated a kiss or much of the affection between them. He knows JY wants them to be more intimate but he’s not ready yet. Sometimes he feels bad for making JY wait, especially when he gets that look of rejection on his face.

JY doesn’t mind they’re making such slow progress. I mean, he minds but it’s also okay. He can feel secure and in peace because he knows ZZX loves him back. It’s not unrequited anymore, and he can be honest about his feelings.

Still, sometimes he pushes too much and too fast and he always feels bad about it afterwards. The last thing he wants is for ZZX to be disgusted by JY’s affections. At the same time, though, he’s still scared of that very thing and kind of wants to push ZZX to find out and not stress about it anymore. He knows ZZX loves him back, but still…

Does JY still have to deal with the underworld, Qiu and He Cheng? What about his father and mother? I have no idea.

Sometimes JY has nightmares, and they freak ZZX out a lot. Sometimes JY cries and talks in his sleep but ZZX can never make out what he’s saying.

ZZX is scared that the kidnapping and whatever happened during that time has caused JY traumas. Because sometimes he freaks out about things that didn’t use to bother him (loud sudden noises or waking up in the bed alone). JY’s story about how he spent the years being apart changes a little each time he talks about it.

Whenever JY is late from meeting up with him, ZZX gets a mini panic attack.

JY’s mother is abroad, and JY misses her a lot. She sends postcards and they’re always from different places. ZZX dreads the day when she says JY has to come with her.

I hope my answer gives you some food for thought. Thank you for your question!

[stray-tori]

The Promised Neverland: An adaption with a different approach

Some infos before I start:

I am anime only. I have read the manga alongside the anime until (including) episode 5, then I stopped because I wanted to stick with the anime's experience.

Anime deserve to be judged as stand-alone works. When compared to the original source, an anime can be bad (FMA because it doesn't follow the manga's plot) but the anime itself can still be good or even better.

I am biased. I saw the anime first. You are most likely biased as well. There's nothing wrong with being biased.

Opinions can't be wrong. Let’s just respect them ^__^ 

Things I've constantly seen being critized about TPN's anime all seem to belong to the same motivation: Being more grounded in reality and distrust. The things I'd group in this "explanation" are:

No Inner Monologues/Thoughts

No flashbacks

No Thoughts

Okay, so this one is the first one I noticed this trend on. In case you didn't know: TPN basically scratches all inner thoughts or has the characters say them out loud instead. Why? I think I know: Trust.

I'll abuse Ray as an example for this: I didn't trust Ray after and during Episode 5. Can you really blame me? LOOK AT HIM:

The anime overdid it, even if it's mainly because movement emphasizes his  gestures. I was inclined to trust Ray but after THAT I wasn't so sure anymore. He SAYS he did it for them. But who can tell if he says the truth? The only place people are honest is in their head. But we can't see in his head. It's not very likely, but it could still be that he lies to Norman. We can't know for sure. But the thing is, when I read the manga content of episode 5, it's really clear where Ray stands, because he thinks it very clearly.

You might say “It was obvious Ray thought this way” but you can always say that afterwards. Fact is, it planted doubt in my head and therefore it could have been both. And the Anime presumably makes this change to make instances like this more extreme and suspenseful. We can only judge Ray (and everyone else for that matter) on how they can judge each other: on what they say and what they do. Not what they think.

Think about it, the anime REALLY tries to put us in the character's shoes: There are all these weird perspective shots around weird corners and angels, it feels like someone is watching them, at all times. We feel anxious about it. Just as they probably do about being found out. These shots are also mostly when they do something in secret or talk about the plan directly. 

They can't know what the others think. They can't see in their head. Neither can we in the anime. We mistrust everyone as much as they could, if they wanted to. 

And I don't wanna say that it's better that way. It makes everyone a blackbox, which makes it harder to have easily understandable characters and harder to know what they are plotting in their heads. It doesn't feel like we know them very well, because we don't really do. MHA is the best example of me enjoying simple characters a lot more. I have trouble understanding very complex characters, so I'm the last person to be against inner thoughts but I think not having them is an interesting choice here.

And lastly: The flashbacks. Some people have said the anime is cutting content (which from what I've seen I've only noticed in instances that weren't too important to me or where important information was conveyed differently, for example: Mama playing chess with the trio. It was in the manga, I saw it and it wasn't in the anime, but in EP1 they said that they never were able to beat Mama at chess. Information covered, also it's less in your face). 

Listen, there's no way they CAN'T cut content. They have to press like 40 chapters into 12 episodes. That's a lot. I won't deny it. A few more episodes wouldn't have hurt this adaptation. But honestly I'd rather have a somewhat closed arc than a random cut somewhere in the middle. So far I don't feel like we've missed stuff that was integral to the story, but I also don't know if some of the stuff was foreshadowing something.

But I think this also ties in with making us feel more like the characters: Flashbacks don't happen in Real Life. If I talk to someone and they tell me about something I wasn't present at, I won't just start to see it. I can visualize it, but that's it. AND If you see somehting, you're more inclined to believe it. That’s why TV News work better. That’s why when you see a dead person on photos it’s more impactful than reading “Someone died”. In that way, it makes us distrust the statements/stories more because we have no reason to believe it actually happened.

I think this approach is amazing and it works on me. I stopped reading the manga because it confirmed/denied (don’t wanna give it away) my doubts about Ray. I felt like this wasn't the way I wanted to experience this story.

BUT. there's a problem. It's tonally interesting and makes for a much more suspenseful experience imo (something else the anime really likes to emphasize: suspense) BUT it creates problems when there's important information in these flashbacks or inner thoughts that can't naturally be converted to be conveyed differently. And that's how Krone becomes stupid; screaming out her plans for everyone in the house to hear.

Yes, it's annoying. But these changes are too consistent between each other, all adding suspense and distrust and somewhat putting us in the character's shoes, to not be intentional. I don't think this is shortening things or trying to ruin the manga. It's a different way to experience a story and I enjoy it a lot personally.

It also makes this somewhat unusual shonen even less shonen-y.

The Composition

This kind of ties in which the last one, but it's a smaller thing. Some shots of the manga have been changed or made less "visually interesting" in the manga, which I think it another part of trying to be more grounded and have less extreme moments animation-wise that takes you out of the usually pretty normal and dare i say somewhat "boring" shots. It's creating a different visual style with the 3D models and pans indoors, etc.

I really can't argue much here, I think this is mostly due to medium, though I won't deny this was probably an active change/choice by someone rather than adapting to a different medium. I like both styles, it's just in different mediums and plays to a different atmosphere.

Small thing but I wanna talk about it: The Nightmare (EP5)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh boi. This exploded in my social bubble. If you don't know: Norman "hugged" (more like grabbed their faces) both Ray and Emma in the manga and the anime... yeah, made it about Emma.

I'm biased. I like them together so I screamed internally.

But it never bothered me, even after I knew. And at this point, I really like Ray (EP7 really sold me on him), and I'm still not upset about it. And I think I know why: I didn't trust Ray as described above.

But Norman does, somewhat. And I get that.

But he just got told that he'd have to essentially choose between Emma and Ray. And I think even without inner thoughts it's obvious that he wants to choose Emma in this thing, he wants to believe in her optimism. But if he "chooses Emma", she could die because of it despite wanting the best for her. I think this is what the dream wants to emphasize (since it seems to imply he did choose to not lie to Emma, since Ray says something about “I told you”), while the manga seems to go for the dilemma of wanting them both to be happy and for it to work out, but it won’t if he won’t decide. That he can’t have it both ways.

I won't deny it depicts Norman as someone who only cares about Emma and that's wrong and misleading. 

But honestly? I just saw Ray laugh and look like a psycho, and I don't trust him. Having Norman hug him in the dream would tonally contrast that. And since the anime (probably intentionally) made Ray less trustworthy, it would be weird to see it directly afterwards. 

Not to mention the scene alltogether changed a lot from the manga to the anime so to say they just changed this one thing for the sake of it would be wrong. For example the anime leads into the dream while it comes out of nowhere in the manga (another thing where the anime builds on suspense where the manga builds on surprise), also Ray doesn’t even fall down in the first place (so Norman doesn’t just leave Ray on the ground, actually Ray even dissappears in the wide shot) and so Norman doesn’t try to carry/drag him and Ray is also a little more creepy and guilt-tripping than in the manga (at least it felt that way to me). 

They actively chose to do this, obviously and they could have chosen to not do it, and I do agree it would have been important to reestablish the bond between Norman and Ray after that conversation and portraying Ray as creepy AGAIN isn’t helping trusting him. But at the same time I didn't think "huh, guess he doesn't care about Ray and everyone else", I thought "welp, there are some complications with Ray right now so it makes sense".

Plus, don't kill me, but I think the manga panel looks awkward. He essentially grabs their faces, it seems more DESPERATE which is fine emotion to have in that situation but it doesn't feel very careful and loving for the lack of a better word.

In the anime he really touches her carefully (that sounds so wrong save my soul pls), and I can’t even say it's better, it's different and I want to believe it was because of the contrast and the meaning it could have as well as symbolizing a different mindset about having to choose between them.

Or the one responsible for storyboards / directing really just likes Noremma WHO KNOWS.

But at the same time, in episode 1 they changed the way back to the house. Tbh there they toned down the ship, Emma isn't clinging to him and seemingly searching for physical support. Don't get me wrong, I was like "I was robbed of this moment" BUT I prefer the anime’s way of doing that. I like the moment, but I think for the overall tone and characters it's better the way the anime did it. I can't say the same with as much confidence for the Nightmare scene but I don't believe it was to emphasize Noremma or remove Ray actively. I think it was a choice to be able to animate it more easily, to portray the dilemma within the dream and to have more tonal consistence.

And that's really what I have to say. The anime does things differently and I prefer it. I'm biased, yes. 

And yes I get it I’d be frustrated too when anime leave out stuff I like (Noragami cough) but I don't feel like TPN did anything to lessen the experience, and if they did end up doing so, I believe it was in an attempt to do a different approach.

Even after having watched the Noragami Anime first, I mostly prefer the manga of Noragami in terms of plot and build-up, but I don't feel the same for TPN. 

I pretty much think they [the anime and the manga] are on equal footing but with different strengths and the anime deviating at times. But I won’t know my final opinion on this until the anime ends (I don’t want it to thoooo) and I have read the s1-content of the manga.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

if you excuse me I will prepare to be executed now.