#Psyren manga

[wizardelf]

read the psyren manga over the weekend. so so derivative of bleach even down to the styling of pen strokes lol. it makes me wonder if the mangaka worked as an assistant for kubo but haven't looked it up. but i still enjoyed it for a very shonen-y shonen with smt style time travel. too bad it got canceled right around the conclusion. it deserves an anime adaption revival to give it its proper ending.

[blushingguy]

Psyren

[aspiring-holistic-otaku]

Season 2 Ramble#6 - Just Jump In! ver.2

This month’s episode is about Shueisha publishing company's JUMP magazine line. you can use the link above or check the link in my bio to listen on other platforms 🍻

first some bare bones Jump basics:

What is JUMP? - JUMP is a magazine line with hella content for hella demographics and for the record they're not all comics, shueisha is actually a pretty diverse publishing company

Today though, we'll only be looking at two of their products. the Weekly Shonen Jump(WSJ) magazine, in print since 1968 with a main target audience of young boys, shonen literally being japanese for young boy, as well as their SHONEN JUMP+ app, which first launched in 2014 and has a main target audience of older adolescent lads.. The original + app is in Japanese as far as I understand but they released a follow up in 2019 simply called MANGA+.. also even though they have "main" target audiences they both have works that try to appeal to wider demographics + things sometimes move between lines or even appear on both at the same time.

This month I purposefully read manga from different time periods which gave rise to one mini section and three main sections which i’ll describe as I get to them

NOW JUMPING RIGHT IN!

New Manga Read This Month

mini section

Was this axed? Why was this axed?:

top 1

Magu chan: god of destruction(Kei Kamiki, 2020, 78 chapters)

this story follows the main heroine ruru after she finds and accidently unseals the now weakened god of destruction mag MENUek. not the best art or really the deepest characters but it's a gag manga. actually didn't think I'd enjoy this at all but it's pretty funny, got a lot of genuine hearty laughs pretty much every chapter... (pretty decent run at 78 chapters but after I finished I couldn't believe it got axed, definitely would've liked more but ironically it probably got axed because of folks like me...)

honourable mentions:

hell warden higuma, ginka & gluna, neolation

Ok so "main" sections now, starting with

Way Way Back (1960s - 1980s):

top 1

Mazinger Z (Gou Nagai,1972, 33 chapters)[Devilman Crybaby]

The story here is our mc, KOUji KAbuto, has a genius grandad who built the most powerful robot ever, Mazinger Z, but he dies in a sudden devastating earthquake before he can teach him how to use it. The only thing he's able to tell him before he passes is that with the robot comes power and with that power comes a choice, to be a god that saves humanity or a devil that destroys the earth.

Right off the bat the art wasn’t anything great or even particularly good but with really old stuff, especially things aimed at children, I think simpler art styles are to be expected. I did really like the robot designs tho, nothing too slick or fancy but they had an old quaint vibe like awww look at what grandpa drew…

The characters weren’t much either, as I said stupid simple story, giant robots doing cool giant robot stuff, so most of what would be the story of most characters was already in their designs like you see the main character and know they're the main character because he has that cool spiky cyborg 009 hairstyle etc.

not much more to say, kinda funny, surprisingly bloody given my perception of the time period and what I thought their perception of media was, especially media intended for kids.. but yh,, the whole manga can be summed up with giant robots have always been pretty cool… grain of salt though for those who plan to check it out, yes I thought it an enjoyable read but it was really only my top 1 because I could pretty much only find two things to read from this time period as the older manga are almost impossible to find on the internet.

honourable mention:

Dr.Slump (Akira Toriyama , 1980, 236 chapters)

Wasn't That Just The Other Day? (1990s - 2010s):

top 1

Bakuman(Oh! Great, 2008, 176 chapters)

Actually not my first time trying this, started back in hs but stopped for reasons I can't recall, I only remember thinking it was excellent which makes it all the more confusing but in any case I started over from the jump and I'm really glad I did.

This is a manga about making manga. I'm telling you man these Japanese dudes will make a manga about anything. trust.. Anyways the story here follows two main characters Mashiro and Takagi, and starts with them about to enter highschool. Takagi is the smartest in school since day one, expected to excel in life, and Mashiro has nothing. no goals or ambitions. he's just trying to come to terms with the mundane normalcy of life and society's expectations of what that should looks like. one day Mashiro leaves a book at school and Takagi, who unbeknownst to anyone is an aspiring writer, finds it full of amazing art and begs him to team up and make manga… Will they make it? and what exactly does it take to make it anyways? what even is "it"? (find out next time on read the manga and see!!)

Two things initially pulled me all those years ago, one, was a morbid curiosity, like I just couldn't fathom a manga about making manga being good in an entertaining way. like yh it's probably mad educational and it was, but as much as you can learn from any media the main reason I'm reading manga is to be entertained. two, oh! great did death note and again I just couldn't fathom the jump from mystery thriller about police vs death gods to this but man did they pull it off in style

First thing first the art was phenomenal as those familiar with oh! great works would expect. and I have to be clear, when I say oh! great does great art I mean Takeshi Obata does great art. oh! great is a duo between him and Tsugumi Ooba who did an equally good job on the story. like he basically showed us how the proverbial sausage is made without making us disinterested in the sausage. It actually instilled such a deeper appreciation for the process that I feel like all manga I read after this will be that much more enriching. especially shonen as the different creators in story debate and create what they think the genre should look like.

Great cast of characters, funny, serious, rivals, people you hated, people you loved, great sub plots that had them all interacting in a nice dynamic way, like it didn't feel like the two mcs were the cause and effect of everything. Great pacing as well as we get to see their journey from just trying something in highschool to getting their foot in the door in later years and so on. didn't feel rushed or dragged, it was nice to see a lot of the little ups and downs of life instead of just a cycle between highlights and rock bottoms.

I have to give fair warning and say it's pretty text heavy. even for something that's not kick and punch cause most of the time they're plotting out some manga or something but Obata really does a great job here making good use of panels and even speech bubble placement so it never really feels crowded unless it's meant to illustrate something like an argument or so. it also helped that despite his usual pretty realistic art style, he allowed characters to be toony when needed to lighten the mood or heighten some expression in just the right way

Honestly it's still so crazy that they pulled it off and pulled it off so well. I think ultimately it was the humanity of it that really tied everything together,, like yh they're manga artist but they're human first, and it's their human experiences that in the end feed into the art.

Talked a lot on this one.. that's why it was top 1 ig.. as usual I don't think I can speak enough to why exactly it's so great but yh… definitely highly recommend even if only out of morbid curiosity like you're thinking,, no way a manga about making manga is good. it is.

honourable mentions:

level e (Yoshihiro Togashi, 1995, 16 chapters),

Cowa!(Akira Toriyama, 1997, 14 chapters)

Hoshin Engi (...lol not that honourable ig)

...also just want to squeeze in that I actually tried bobobobo and wow… my brain may never recover…

What's Up Today? (2010s - present)

top 1

Astra Lost in Space (Kenta Shinohara on story & art, 2016, 53 chapters)

9 kids are brought to a nearby planet for a routine unsupervised camping trip as part of their highschool graduation. The future is wild. As plot convenience would have it, something goes wrong and they end up stranded in space. A rough enough situation on its own, but to make matters worse, the group finds signs that what happened was no accident and that the perpetrator is still among them..

Honestly a simple setup and premise, literally Lost but in space… not that I've actually watched lost but yh. anyways for as simple as the plot is the entire story wrapped up in 53 chapters anyways and they honestly squeezed every drop out of it that they could. What really stood out to me was how balanced it all felt.

As in the premise of being intentionally stranded is by no means unique but I feel like a lot of the media I've consumed around that tend to lean into one aspect more than others, like it becomes mostly about the mystery trying to find "whodunnit", or the focus becomes the sense of adventure, exploring the unknown and all that oor,, how it goes more commonly, in my experience at least, is a portrayal of the harshness of survival in the physical or mental sense.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that btw, the premise of being lost is used in many genres and it's up to the author to decide how much they want to lean into any genre. for example drifting net cafe, suicide island and dragon head are some lost horror type beats I've read, enjoyed and would definitely recommend.

In any case as I was saying about Astra lost in space, cause that's what I should be talking about here… is I loved how balanced it all was. Yes they're stranded and have to survive but it's not so overbearing that we can't take in the adventure of the unknown and yes we're seeing all these cool sights and different hypothetical evolutionary paths in space but also let's all be aware that one of us is probably plotting a murder yk? what tied this all up were the characters themselves like they felt really natural, yh a lot was going on but they're still just kids and they were sent out for a camping trip in the first place so come hell or high water they were gonna have some amount of fun or die trying. not that everyone was always on the same page and they didn't have disagreements and drama and so on but their individual quirks and character traits converged and diverged masterfully for a beautiful dynamic between the cast amongst themselves, and between the cast and their environment.

great cast and direction as I said, pretty standard art, nothing too crazy but it did what it needed to do, I also liked the little 4 panel bonus comics they did every now and then as well, all in all a pretty great read with some pretty neat twists I won't even allude to for fear of spoilers, especially for how short it was but yh, astra lost in space top 1 new read this month…

honourable mentions:

Akane Banashi(Yuuki SUEnaga doing the story & Takamasa Moue on art, 2022, ongoing 71 chapters)

'Tis time for "torture" princess ( Robinson haruhara on story and hirakei on art, 2019, ongoing 196 chapters)

Sakamoto Days(Yuuto Suzuki , 2020, ongoing 128 chapters),

ok now we're heading into

Manga Read Before This Month

(here I'll give less detail cause I would have mentioned a few of these repeatedly before + I want more of the shine on newer stuff tbh)

mini section

Was this axed? Why was this axed?:

top 1

Psyren(Toshiaki lwashiro, 2007, 151 chapters)

people are going missing and a secret society called psyren seems to be responsible. won't go farther than that but will say it's held up as one of the best shonen works I've ever read since the first time I read it in like 9 or 10th grade. still in disbelief that it was canceled cause you can barely tell when you read it. it's only after I finished it and was looking into some things I realised.

honourable mentions:

ayashimon, phantom seer, black torch

main sections

way way back (1960s - 80s):

top 1

Dragon Ball(Akira Toriyama, 520 chapters,1984)

don't think I need to say much here but I mention the sandwich of technique in the episode.

honourable mentions:

JJBA part1-3, Saint Seiya, city hunter

wasn't that just the other day (1990s - 2010s)

top 1

Rookies(Morita Masanori, 1998, 233 chapters)

delinquent baseball, real heartwarming story, great art cast and pacing, masanori really takes the cake when it comes to the delinquent aesthetic but yh… was my #2 in s1 ramble 12 & #3 in s1 ramble 1

honourable mentions:

eyeshield 21, slam dunk, Yu yu hakusho

what's up today? (2010s - present)

chainsaw man (tatsuki fujimoto, 2018, 137 ongoing)

look at the title lol

honourable mentions

fire punch, Tokyo ghoul series, My hero academia

other folks to check out on twitter:

https://twitter.com/KushiKuritikaru?t=2Tn-79ub0XyUqWM3XgEFWA&s=09

https://twitter.com/manga_crash?t=FzKQrpvb_rFwxHIe13Sqbw&s=09

then as usual I do a little part 2 where I ramble a bit 😅

thanks for reading so far, hope there's something that caught your fancy 🍻🍻🍻

[tisorridalamor]

Better late than never!

As promised, I am here to discuss my thoughts on Goodnight Punpun and Psyren, the first and second place manga that won my "What manga that I know nothing about should I get from the library" poll. I'm still not very far into either, just a few volumes cause I got distracted by catching up with some other things, but I am enjoying both so far!

As another note, I've realized I really, really enjoy reading physical manga! There's something about being able to hold the book in your hands that makes me appreciate the art and story more. Idk, I read a lot of digital manga (often because there literally isn't an English or physical version), so it feels special. Highly recommend getting something random from your local library so you can feel some kind of way like this too!

TLDR: sometimes it's fun to read something totally new! I plan on finishing both of these series and can't wait to get back to them after I've finished my current diversions :)

Psyren

Psyren is a pretty typical feeling Shonen with fun characters and a neat mystery/setting. While you've probably seen a lot of its elements before, they come together here in a really satisfying way! Volume 3 in particular got me absolutely hooked, and I've been really enjoying seeing the world come together and the stakes get higher.

For a quick summary, Ageha Yoshina is a typical rowdy teen who gets tangled up the urban legend of "Psyren," a world connected to Earth that only accepts a chosen few, when an old friend goes missing.

Both Psyren and Goodnight Punpun are from the mid/late 2000s, and Psyren in particular feels nostalgic to me. I love the use of flip phones and payphones, and the rumors surrounding "Psyren" is like something born out of internet culture from that time period.

My favorite character so far is the punk psychic classical piano star who acts as the main characters' mentor figure. She's great, and honestly it's hard competition because all of the characters are super likable. The flow of the story is fun as well - I like narratives where characters have to balance another world / another life with the one they currently have and I feel like there's a lot of potential to see Ageha deal with "school life" alongside fighting for his life in Psyren.

Psyren is a super easy read, and it's blend of familiar tropes with 2000s nostalgia makes it feel strangely fresh. The Earth of Psyren has a lot "fear" about the current state of the world, from climate change to the economy, so it feels relevant to today as well. I can already see Ageha starting to care about things outside himself and I watch him grow further! If anything from the above sounds like fun, I recommend giving Psyren a read (at least through volume 3 please VOLUME 3 IS REALLY GOOD!)

Goodnight Punpun

So right off the bat, Goodnight Punpun is not what I expected and it's a bit difficult to describe. It follows Punpun, a young boy whose family all looks like little bird creatures as he goes through the trials and tribulations of childhood. He goes to school, he has crushes, he hangs out with his friends. He can talk to god (the giant floating head of the author shown above). Yknow, normal kid stuff.

However Goodnight Punpun is absolutely not written kids. It's about kids and adolescence and growing up, but it doesn't hide any harsh realities - abuse, divorce, addiction, puberty, sexuality, religion, and more. These topics aren't fully understood by the kids but are very clear to the intended adult audience.

Honestly I was a little put off at first. The art, while extremely detailed and often beautiful, is sometimes quite ugly as the creator likes to draw most adults like caricatures. The story felt disjointed, the sense of humor is hit or miss, and the overall tone could be described as an "acquired taste."

But as I neared the end of the first volume, the pieces felt like they were really coming together. The little moments between the kids, the honesty of childhood crushes, the glimpses into character's lives at home, and the struggles the adults are facing really do add up into something... And the slight dip into "thriller" territory didn't hurt either!

My library only had the first 2 volumes, so while looking for places to read online I found that this series is actually quite well known and it has (or at one point had) a proper following. Near the end of volume 2 or 3, there's actually a bit of a skip in time, so I assume each "arc" of the manga will cover a different important time in Punpun's adolescence and maybe even teen years. If you want to give Goodnight Punpun a try, I highly recommend at least reading through volume one unless you are really put off by some of the subject matter.

As the first volume said on the back, "Punpun is a normal kid. He wants his crush to like him back, he wants to win a Nobel Prize, he wants to grow up, he wants to watch some porn. That's what he wants, but what does he get?" Well I want to see what happens to him and his classmates, and I really hope it's good things, but it'll probably be a mix of good, bad, and weird.

[theotakufiles]

Psyren Manga

Psyren is a gripping sci-fi manga series that follows the thrilling adventures of Ageha Yoshina, a high school student who discovers an enigmatic phone card called "Psyren." Little does Ageha know that dialing the number on this mysterious card will transport him and his friends to a dangerous parallel world.

In this new realm known as Psyren, they are thrown into deadly battles against terrifying creatures and hostile adversaries. They quickly learn that surviving in Psyren requires mastering psychic powers called "PSI" abilities, which grant them incredible strength and unique capabilities.

As Ageha delves deeper into Psyren's secrets, he unravels a dark conspiracy surrounding this otherworldly dimension. Alongside fellow intrigued participants, including the enigmatic Amamiya and Kageyama with their own hidden agendas, Ageha must uncover the truth behind Psyren while trying to find a way back home.

With each adventure, our heroes encounter stronger foes and face intense psychological challenges. From navigating treacherous labyrinths filled with mind-bending puzzles to battling formidable opponents seeking ultimate power, they must tap into their inner strengths and forge alliances to survive. The fate of both worlds hangs in the balance as they uncover shocking revelations about Psyren's origins and its connection to their reality.

Prepare for an exhilarating journey that takes you through mind-bending twists, action-packed battles, unexpected allies, and spine-chilling discoveries in Psyren—an enthralling saga where survival hinges on unlocking one's true potential in a world of mysteries beyond imagination.

Please show your support for the incredibly talented manga author of 'Psyren Manga' by purchasing a copy of this fantastic series at gekimanga.com. By taking action and owning this captivating manga, you not only immerse yourself in an extraordinary world but also contribute directly to the success and inspiration of the brilliant artist behind it. Don't miss out on this opportunity to be part of something truly special; grab your copy now at gekimanga.com!

[dykergang]

Ladies and gentlemen......... Him

(aka completely out of context Kabuto Kirisaki panels from Psyren bc there are no pics of this man online and its been driving me insane for like a decade)

[jagzii]

"I know I usually write about films and TV shows on Fridays, but I have to be honest. Sometimes I don’t watch things in time to write anything, or, conversely, I watch stuff I feel no desire to write about. That being the case, I decided there was really only one appropriate course of action... make a list recommending the stories I have been consuming this week instead. Which, in this case, are mostly manga and webtoons."

Read the rest here:

[cravingmoremangacaps]

[telos-100]

Collage - Shonen Jump, September 2011

[miscellaneoustenten]

Kyle looking like a Kingdom Hearts character

[humanoidtyphoons]

hm. underwhelming, is how i’d describe the last 14 chapters but the final one tbh. it didn’t tank, it didn’t self-implode, i just… the direction it went felt disappointing. like, it’s fine ig, but… i wouldn’t call it either good or bad, tbh.

-final chapter was dead cute tho. don’t really care about ageha being in a coma, but everyone cheering for him to wake up in the future was so sweet. and i liked ageha and sakurako together and rescuing 07. it was a nice final chapter tbh!

-mithra was maybe the main problem, i think? making her the final bad guy and causing former main villain miroku to team up with ageha was… uh. not the move for me, tbh. ageha going “i won’t forget that you killed a lot of people!!!” was. uh. missed the mark, tbh. but basically i didn’t like that she didn’t feel relevant until the final chapters. like i wish she was more interesting/introduced sooner and making plays before taking centre stage as the final villain and turning on miroku, and he on her.

-i would have more sibling moments with miroku and 07 tbh? the 10 years future him stopped caring about his twin sister, meanwhile the 1 year future still cared, and while that can be understandable progression of “you’re either with me or against me”, i just… idk. not sure i quite vibed with… making him more heroic? wanting to make the psionic humans the superior race at the eleventh hour tbh? sacrificing himself in one future?

-which is a shame bc i quite enjoyed him for most of the story’s run where he’s the main villain bent on destruction. he looked hot, so i’m glad that never changed tbh.

-i so wish his minions had more time to shine tbh!!! design wise, i thought they were fun and cool looking, but i wanted more of them and dig into them a bit more… and while there was some spotlight… i think there needed to be more tbh. but this might fall at odds with the pacing tbh.

-grana was so cool. it… almost seemed like he had a thing going on with miroku tbh? at times? idk he was neat tho.

-shiner was the other one i liked a lot too!

-tbh i got sad that both oboro and hiryu split from the main party. and i think that the story never quite recovered from that, imo. again, the pacing was pretty quick—not rushed tbh—but i wish more time could have been spent with oboro and hiryu (with tatsuo and kasukabe) as both did their separate paths tbh.

-not that i liked oboro/ageha, bc not especially, but i think i’m sad that the story sort of … dropped that clinginess?

-absolutely wanted more body horror with oboro tbh. since he kept on merging with monsters oh my gosh!!

-ageha’s confession to sakurako about how he loved her when they were kids, then somewhere along the way he forgot, but then he fell for her all over again was soooo sweet!

-lmao i loved sakurako’s alternate personality, abyss. kinda liked the merging and how she was more openly affectionate towards ageha (bc she’s the repressed side of sakurako).

-kabuto stole my heart tho! he evaded death so many times! even when the mangaka intended to kill him off! he lived to the very end!!

-little bit fond of vigo & mari, ngl. def. platonic for them, but i enjoyed how kindness goes a long way to one so yandere.

-loved seeing the kids’ future selves. they were just sweet!

-love that shinonome and haruhiko stuck around bc their sister was saved

-found matsuri/kagetora v. cute and i’m glad they ended up together

-loved that the future kept changing.

-the cast was likeable enough, tbh, which was the main draw tbh. were these characters original? no, but they were fine and i enjoyed them.

for a good chunk, i really would rate it 8/10, bc it’s fun and paced pretty steadily and breezy to read. but then the party splits up, and idk, the momentum changes and just… its still good but i’m less into it, and then the final 15 chapters… are anticlimactic to me.

so: i rated it originally as a 7/10, and honestly: yeah it’s still a 7/10. i probably will forget about the ending again bc it just… petered off imo. don’t exactly hate it, but i can’t say i’m happy with it either. but overall i don’t regret rereading it tbh.

[vforvalensa]

I've been rereading Psyren, a shonen jump sci-fi mystery manga I had liked a lot as a kid, and I've been fixated on this bizarre survey the protag has to answer in the first chapter as he's trying to uncover the weird conspiracy. The questions are so weird and immediately evocative, it's a really good set up for a sci-fi mystery.

[himetsuri]

ugly rat's nest of uranas in my brain

[derekscorner]

Four stories that everyone should see.

Three of these are recents for me but by hell if Psyren isnt a long standing love of mine A shame it never for animated.

[watsondcsj]

Today's Chores, Homework, and Fortnite comic book recommendation is Psyren by Toshiaki Iwashiro

[chloethetransartist]

What are your inspos? :V

As a trans artist, my inspirations have been Kayla, Brooke, Bubble, and Eris. But as an artist (as well as a storyteller), my biggest inspiration of all is Toshiaki Iwashiro. He made a manga named Psyren a very long time ago that I picked up on a whim because my middle school had the first volume. It changed my life, quite literally. It isn't the best, objectively speaking, but it's an underground gem as far as I'm concerned. Easily the most important story I could have ever read at that time