#go check out undead Unluck

[yusakiiiii]

The Crossover really was something. Here’s one of my favourite interactions. What’s yours?

Scott: I hate the gays!

*Joe Hills begins shooting Scott*

Scott: Joe I can say that! Joe I am gay!

Joe Hills: Okay, so not everybody has that context. My viewers don’t know that. I don’t know that.

Scott: I am very gay which is why I’ve said that Joe.

Joe Hills: That is a valuable bit of context to provide

Scott: I’m aggressively homosexual. I’m very aggressively homosexual Joe I thought everyone knew. It’s kinda my brand.

Joe Hills: There’s a lot of inter-audience cross pollination right now.

Scott: I did appreciate the aggressive nature you took right away though, that was a good ally.

Joe Hills: I do what I can.

Scott: I thought Joe when I said I’m gonna say the one slur I can you’d have picked up.

Oli: Did you say a slur?

Scott: No I didn’t. I said when Jimmy was copying me I was tempted to do it and then I said “I hate the gays” and then Joe decided to shoot me cos he didn’t realise I was gay. Even though I’m aggressively homosexual.

Joe Hills: I don’t have time to know every gay person!

If you want to watch this properly. Go to the 2:40:00 mark in this video: https://www.youtube.com/live/2heYeEOTqrw?si=a1urB22nQZZPq_tk

[gavindna]

I love school so much but I got into undead unluck over break so now school is cockblocking me from talking about it all day and also from devoting all of my brain power to it

[formulaorange]

2023 Fall Anime

This is honestly a loaded season full of new shows based on relatively new manga. Lots to look forward to

Spy x Family - Season 2 One of the most fun SJ series that have come out in a while. Season 1 was killer, high hopes for season 2.

Goblin Slayer 2 I didn't realize they were even making a second season. This was such a killer series. I'm really hoping they don't fall into the many mid-tier fantasy tropes out there in anime right now. I thought the appeal of the show was really Goblin Slayer himself and less about the lackeys along the way. So we'll see how it goes.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End This is definitely one of my highly anticipated series. It's about an elf who was part of the Hero's party and her life after he dies. (Since elves live longer) Definitely a darker take on fantasy but has some really solid fantasy and adventure vibes.

Rising of the Shield Hero - Season 3 Season 2 was pretty disappointing and slow. While this looks like it'll be more fast paced, it does look like a tournament arc of sorts. I know some aren't a fan of that kind of arc, but honestly I think it's exactly what this series needs to pick things up again. We'll see.

The Faraway Paladin - Season 2 This was legitimately one of my favourite fantasy series. I thought it was really well written and didn't rush things like other series. I'm looking forward to this season.

Sequels/Continuations: Eminence in Shadow - Season 2 killer series with an anti-hero main character. Definitely worth checking out. After-School Hanako-Kun Hanako-kun spin off Dr. Stone Season 3 - Part 2 One of the best novel concept series with nothing else in it's genre to compare to. Definitely didn't drop the ball on the recent seasons and still worth watching. Dead Mount Death Play - Part 2 One that I didn't particularly enjoy, but has a decent sized manga following. Tokyo Revengers - Tenjiku Arc The continuation of the series. Might be just me but it feels like the series fell off after the first season. The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent - Season 2 A more mature take on fantasy isekai that just started to get into romance at the end of last season. A solid combo of shoujo genres. The Ancient Magus' Bride - Season 2 Part 2 One that I haven't had a change to check out yet but have only heard good things about. Hypnosismic - Season 2 a weirdly addictive musical/rap series. Unique characters and honestly solid rap battles. One I'll be enjoying. -- Related - Paradox Live - Music battle with what looks to be the same style of animation and solid character design. Definitely worth looking at if you're a fan of Hypmic. The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse A sequel of SDS. Looks like it could be a fun watch for the fans of the series. New:

Shangri La Frontier A new manga fantasy series. This may be a horrible way to describe but it is what it is - a new age SAO- full dive fantasy game. A gamer who only plays shit games, gets into a new massively popular MMORPG and is op. One that I'm excited for because it ticks all the fantasy game boxes I like.

Undead Unluck A relatively new manga series that gained a lot of traction in the last year or two. A gory action comedy that's super chaotic and a lot of fun.

Shy Brand new hero manga series about a shy girl and her anxieties and struggles going into the hero world who grows and gains confidence as she becomes a better hero.

Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions This is a manga series that I have kept forgetting the name of so never got a chance to read but all the covers for the manga look phenomenal. Likely the anime doesn't do him justice but it is what it is. Essentially sherlock in anime form. A PI with issues and the wholesome police detective work together to solve crime. Other New Series: Green - Fantasy Pink - Romance Red - Action Purple - Drama The Kingdoms of Ruins A world where witches were hunted down by humans as science surpassed magic. A kid who was raised by a witch swears revenge on mankind. This honestly looks solid. The animations are very cool looking and the mc seems to be an anti-hero. Will be looking at this one. Under Ninja A well known manga series about modern ninjas. Definitely a unique series for this season. The Apothecary Diaries A historical medical mystery show. I've heard the name before and I've also only heard good things. Will be worth a watch. A Girl & Her Guard Dog The granddaughter of a crime syndicate goes to highschool out of town and the current young boss lies his way into the same school. Would be cute romance if it weren't for the fact she's 15 and he's 26.. Butareba - The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig What the title says. A girl finds him and the story goes from there. I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness The usual light novel title. Honestly, doesn't seem as yikes as I initially thought, might just be harmless breaking the rules kinda thing. Could be fun, also a Capybara that strikes fear into people's hearts. My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer Looks like a wholesome series where an adventurer finds a baby, raises it and she becomes so strong she's busy working all the time. Just a cute father daughter relationship in a fantasy setting about her wanting to come take time to see him but being caught up in OP fantasy battles. Ragna Crimson Dragons vs Humanity - a human and a dragon team up to destroy all the dragons. Action fantasy series. Berserk of Gluttony I honestly added this because I thought it was hilarious. Looks like a combo of knock offs - the Gluttony skill from Tensura (reincarnated as a slime) and the mc being called Fate with the main girl who looks exactly like Sabre. I'll be skipping but its' here so you know.

[fostersffff]

I've finally caught up to both of the out-of-context spoilers I saw in Undead Unluck, and this turned out so much funnier than I thought it would.

To explain, the first spoiler I saw was this page:

And- having only read the first chapter of Undead Unluck at that time- I went "what in the goddamn fuck is happening?" I got a teensy bit more context and learned there was a time loop component to the series, and filed it under "man I really gotta check this out some time". Critically, Fuuko has long hair again here.

The next spoiler I saw was this one:

Again- not having read any more than the very first chapter of Undead Unluck- I just assumed "oh wow, Andy proposes to Fuuko and... some other girl!" Because Yoshifumi Totsuka does have a tendency towards sameface, and especially considering the face Rip is making, I just assumed this was Andy, Fuuko, and... some third girl. Which was confusing, but surely it would make sense eventually.

So then once I actually started reading and watching (six months or so after seeing this out-of-context), and got to Gina, I went "Oh! that third girl must have been Gina! But didn't the third girl have dark hair?"

And then Gina died and I was like "Oh, well... maybe... in the next loop?"

And then Latla showed up and I was like "That... looks like the third girl, I think, but... how the fuck would that make sense? Why would Andy propose to Fuuko and her?"

And then they get into Juiz's backstory and how similar she is to Fuuko and I was like "OH! Ok, maybe in the next loop Juiz is Fuuko's age and Andy and Victor have done a spirit unification thing... but I could swear that third girl had dark hair!"

It literally wasn't until the bit where Rip, Latla, and Leila go to the beach where I finally fucking realized what I read.

[tokiro07]

Toki Reads Shonen Jump 2025, Issue #1

One Piece: The Straw Hats reunite and we get our first glimpse of Elbaf in it entirety, along with an ominous warning about staying too long. I can't help but feel that the crew reunited a little too quickly, I imagine there's some plotpoint still to come out of that

HxH: Morena and Borksen make out with tongue off-screen, convincing Borksen to join the Heil-ly. This is probably some kinda 4D chess move, but the idea that she had a lesbian awakening is a lot more compelling to me

Yozakura: Asa informs Taiyo that his plan of shooting himself in the heart is going to prove fatal, and Asa's presence is the only thing sustaining him; Taiyo responds by punching him. I'm honestly not worried about Taiyo at all; I'd bet money that Kyoichiro's True Blooming is going to be what saves him

Undead Unluck: Fuuko realizes that the final Sacred Treasure, The Heart, has to be accessible based on Luna's usual tricks; thanks to a hint from Sean, Fuuko deduces that it's her own literal heart and asks Andy to rip it out. To be honest, when she said "a Negator that dies easily" I thought for sure she meant Unhealthy, but this is a lot more impactful

Roboco: Roboco manifests the ability to summon the Negator font from Undead Unluck and accidentally squanders all of her screentime using it to make gags. Without any sense of bias, this is easily the best chapter in the series

Sakamoto: Tenkyu asks Shin if he's tired of being nice and if he wants to just go apeshit; Torres appears from seemingly nowhere to ask Atari for help with gambling on horses. Tenkyu's accusation that Shin is no different from him is fairly standard, but Shin's begrudging agreement is going to live in my head for a while

EluSam: The stresses of war and age catch up with Sadamune as the battle becomes more desperate; Sadamune and Tokiyuki accidentally meet up and decide to share a drink. I often wonder if familiarity with Japanese history would deepen my appreciation for this story or if seeing how much it deviates would irritate me, cus I get the feeling Tokiyuki and Sadamune never actually interacted at all

Witch Watch: Kuon hears Hibana's backstory and decides to become her white knight. I assume Hibana is the one who gives Kuon his scar, and I kind of hope she survives this flashback to give him more angst later

Blue Box: Chinatsu's dad approves of her and Taiki's relationship and introspects on how he's been shirking his responsibilities as a parent. "A child is simply doing what they can within their own world" feels like it might be the thesis statement of the series

Akane: Shiguma overhears that Kiroku is risking expulsion by allowing him and Issho to perform, but Kiroku rebuts that expelling his students would betray his art. The idea of taking the mistakes of your past and turning them into a better future is lovely, and I think a lesson that may need to be redirected towards Issho

Kill Blue: The contests for the bonuses begin; the Home-Ec Club wins a roast off, but loses at Fornite, leaving them with an eating contest for Noren's least favorite food. A funny chapter, but I'm still not sold on the stakes; aside from pride, what fate will befall the Home-Ec Club if they fail?

Nue: Gakuro lops off Rido's hands and Rido's domain begins to collapse; as Gakuro drowns in the ensuing flood, Fujino saves him and uses his inability to hear her as an excuse to confess. For how little context I remember of it, the way Fujino's conflict is portrayed is pretty compelling, and I'm glad to see her being honest with her feelings; now do the same for Kazusa and MAKE THIS POLY

Kagurabachi: Samura seemingly kills Chihiro then goes to meet with the Hishaku to exposit on his motivations; his contract with them acts as a check and balance for the harm they can potentially cause with the Enchanted Blades. That definitely makes his plan seem less stupid, but they're definitely going to find a workaround; that one shot of the owl eyes in the sky was the sickest goddamn thing I've seen in a while

Chojo: Copbot seems to drop dead and the cast plays Among Us. Not much to say aside from it being a pretty solid gag

Astro Royale: The cast defeats Himuro with some solid combos, and Kinpa kisses Hibaru to save him from drowning. Wasn't there a whole thing about them being bad at combos? I guess it shows growth, even if they didn't have an inciting moment for it

Kiyoshi: Kiyoshi wakes up in the hospital and gets exposition on the Black Parade, learning that he might still be able to save the people sacrificed to summon Asuta Roth; Sakaki brings everyone to a hot springs. Now that a more concrete goal has been established, I anticipate that I'll start to feel a lot more invested going forward

Hima-Ten: Tenichi sees Himari rejecting a confession and accidentally says some smooth words that get her to start considering her own feelings; he also learns about the lucky lip balm and anticipates whether Honoka will be wearing it at their stargazing. Please let Himari start actually liking him outright so we can actually start analyzing the love triangle(s)

Ichi: Monigold exposits on Togeice's past and reputation, building her up as a lot more capable than her bad sense of direction gave the impression of, though her grand displays of power still prove less fitting for this challenge than Ichi's hunting skills. "She's next in line to lead Mantinel" is an AWFUL flag to raise so early for both Monigold AND Togeice, one of them is DEFINITELY dying sooner or later

Shinobi: Aoi's chauffeur, Mimizuku, is revealed to a ninja and her caretaker; despite playing a role, Mimizuku genuinely cares for Aoi and is glad that a change in management has given her the opportunity to live happily. The revelation that the current operator is actually a sudden replacement for a previous one is pretty suspicious, though perhaps it's only for the sake of the plot...?

Hakutaku: Mizuki calls out Zenji for assuming their late brother was unhappy with his life, causing Zenji to reevaluate his priorities and join as the team's programmer. "If the adults aren't cool, no one will ever want to grow up into one" resonated with me, but it's a line that feels like it's meant to wrap up a theme that wasn't actually being explored

Syd Craft: On a train to a play, Syd runs into Souffle and a con artist that she's captured; the con artist escapes, and Syd deduces that she's disguised as Souffle; Syd and Souffle go to the play together. The idea that Syd thinks Souffle hates his guts when really she's just overly competitive makes for a cute dynamic; can't wait for Souffle and Elio to start interacting

Ruri Dragon: Ruri's horns become Mood Horns, and she gives a rousing speech to kick off the sports festival. Any chapter where we learn a little more about Ruri's dragon traits is a good one for me, but this was also just an all around sweet chapter

This week's top 3:

Undead Unluck, obviously, this twist is literally heart-wrenching

Nue's Exorcist for actually making forward progress in what I think might be the first chapter I've actively enjoyed from this series

Syd Craft for continuing to endear me to its cast and concept so strongly

Honorable mentions go to Roboco for the Undead Unluck reference, Kagurabachi for its instantly iconic panel, and Shinobi Undercover for having such a sweet and endearing parental figure

It feels a little odd that I'm three-for-three on voting for Syd and I haven't voted for Ichi in quite some time...it's not that Ichi isn't grabbing me or compelling me, it's just...not wowing me, I guess? I wonder if writing for both UU and Ichi is skewing my perspective on Ichi's story progression and presentation...

[ben-talks-art]

12. Action Manga recommendations!

This is something that I'm kinda shocked it took me this long to start doing... Let's try talking about some of my favorite mangas from different genres and why I like them and maybe who could like them too.

I'm gonna try to split them up into what element I think stands out the most from each to make it easier to talk about them.

I'm will at least try to bring attention to some obscure series... But I make no promises. This will mostly just be me talking about the stuff I like, and hopefully one of them will end up being something new to someone.

Nice drama recommendations

These are the series that usually involves a lot of characters talking and debating over the morality of the plot. They usually have people asking things like "are we right? are we wrong? Why? Who's the real enemy? What are we fighting for?" and so on.

First, we have Radiant, a series about a magical world of mages and monsters with a main character that's kind of a middle ground between the two and is trying to seek this place called "radiant" which apparently is where all the monsters come from so he can find out why they are being sent to this world and possibly find a way to stop them from causing chaos to the people.

It's written by a French author and you can tell, the dialogue in this is phenomenal. I would highly recommend checking this out just to see the way these people talk with each other, it feels so natural and everyone is so charming. They all have amazing interactions.

Peach Boy Riverside is about a girl that receives a power that allows her to kill demons with little to no effort while also giving her a dangerous thirst for killing them. The problem is... The girl as well as plenty of other characters are actually friends with many of the demons so she has to constantly keep this power under control, on top of that, the boy she has a crush on also has that power and he just despises demons, so she keeps finding herself caught in the middle of everyone's anger and trying to find a solution that doesn't rely on just killing everything, even though her own power really wants to. It's really interesting.

Claymore is about this woman who works as a professional monster killer. She, as well as many other killers, go from place to place and get hired with the task to eliminate some creature that's attacking all the people, and once they're done, they just move to the next place.

What's cool about Claymore is that all the monsters used to be regular people, so a lot of time is dedicated to the heroes and the villains trying to understand each other and thus adding more layers to their fights. It basically go from the usual good vs evil to two individuals who just happen to be stuck in opposite situations and have to face one another. And some of the backstories for tons of the antagonists are just so freaking interesting. Everyone here feels like the main character of their own story. This is a really solid 10/10 cast of characters.

Crazy action recommendations

These are the series where the authors just enjoy going bonkers with the fights.

Dandandan is about a girl that likes ghosts that has psychic powers and a boy that likes aliens that is possessed by a spirit. The idea is that this mixes supernatural threats with sci-fi threats, and they do it in a very fun way. Sometimes the antagonist will be a giant ghost that likes to dance, another times it will be a boxing alien crab. This series knows how silly its premise is, and its just loving every second of it.

Undead Unluck is about a girl that can curse anyone that touches her with a lot of misery and a guy that can't die. They put 2+2 together and decide to team up as he's the only one that can survive her and she's the only one that can make him feel alive.

The fun of this series is that everyone has very specific powers based on tons of specific rules, so a lot of the fights rely on characters playing 4D chess with the rules of their weird powers to overcome their opponent, and this sounds like it would get tiresome as if every fight was like some sort of homework, but they manage to keep the action going at all times and getting you up to speed to what everyone can do and how they can exploit what they can do. The ways they use the guy's ability to not die in particular are absurdly creative, doing things like turning his blood into swords and bullets or using it as a lightning rod for the girl's bad luck. Fun stuff!

Zatch Bell is one of my favorites. It's basically a pokemon/digimon setting where kids get paired with some sort of teammate and fight other kids and their teammates, but in this case, the teammates are little children and they fight using books of spells.

Each child has dozens of spells in their books that are a variation of their base power. For example, Zatch himself has lighting powers, so one spell is like a blast of electricity, another is like an electric shield, another one can magnetize the enemy, and so on.

You never what new spell will be used and how it will be used, which makes each fight feel fresh and unique. And the fact that these are kids teaming up with children allow for them to create deeper relationships and thus make you care more about seeing them get out okay from the fight.

Wholesome recommendations

These are for the people who just want to enjoy nice likable people having sweet wholesome moments.

Ottoman is about a guy and his wife who both get fused with an alien and get tasked with fighting other dangerous aliens to keep the world safe, but the nice twist is that the dude's alien is powered by affection, so in order to get stronger during fights he needs to remember all the things he loves about his wife. It's so freaking silly but at the same time so adorable.

The wrong way of using healing magic is one of those isekai stories where three kids go to another world and one of them gets the role of being a healer, except he doesn't use the healing just to help people, he uses it to make his fatigue go away so he can work on his body muscle and reflexes. And what's even better is that because he keeps healing his opponents everyone eventually ends up befriending him. This one is just a really likable read.

(Oh God, I can never remember this one's name...) A Breakthrough Came Out by Forbidden Master and Disciple, is about a boy who instead of being a hero tasked with facing the demon lord, is actually the son of the hero who defeated the demon lord, and thus has a lot of insecurities because he has trouble living up to his father's name. But that all changes when the ghost of the demon lord starts haunting him and they make a deal where he will train the boy if he promises to show him the world (it turns out that the demon lord was stuck in a basement for years with nobody to talk to... poor guy...)

The bond between the boy and the demon lord is honestly very sweet. You can tell they respect each other and want to make the other proud while also proving their full potential to all of those that looked down on them. One being looked down for not being as great as the hero, and the other for having been killed by the hero. It's a great premise.

Edgelord Recommendations

Okay, this is for those who want to inject some "hardcoreness" into their blood.

Ragna Crimson is about a guy that sends all his powers into the past after he realizes there is no way to save the future from the threat of the dragons. Once he succeeds in contacting his younger self, he also advises him to meet up with Crimson, one of the smartest dragons of the world who also happens to hate dragons.

Together, with Crimson's brains and Ragna's powers they just travel the world beating the hell out of tons of dragons with some freaking metal artwork. Some of these fights go way harder than they need to and it always feel so damn epic. The person drawing these action scenes is just giving their 120%, to the point where sometimes I just want to ask them to chill a little (as an artist, you kinda start to feel sorry for other artists when you realize how much work they put on every page).

Here's another name I can never remember... Gachiakuta is a garbage manga, and by that I mean, everyone fights using garbage.

We're operating with Ghost Rider rules where each character can pick up something that was thrown out that holds some sort of special bond to them and turn it into an absurd weapon.

It has all the usual cool edgelord tropes. The main character was betrayed by his people, thrown out like trash, had his loved one killed, decided to dedicate his life to revenge and making them pay, while also teaming up with other people that were also thrown out like trash who each have their own angsty backstory, all while fighting giant trash monsters (because why not?), and also trying his best to keep this rage inside of him from going out of control.

You just know Sasuke and Shadow, the hedgehog are just looking at this from somewhere and going "That's our boy!"

Just like Ragna, the artwork here is insane. Everyone here has such a badass design that makes it look like they're ready to throw down with anyone at any moment.

Finally, we have Rebuild World, a series set in a dystopian future where a young boy is found by a psychopathic A.I. who wants to turn him into a super amazing warrior so he can enter some... Place and get some... Thing... that she wants him to get.

This series feels like the kind of story that could happen in the background of the anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The atmosphere of this setting feels very similar to Edgerunners.

This future just feels like it's waiting to tear the main lead apart. The people want to kill him, the monsters want to kill him, the robots want to kill him... Everyone and everything wants to kill him. And the only way for him to survive is to listen to his A.I. (his very, VERY horny A.I., because of course...) and learn how to use the people around him in order to secure his safety. If you like dark sci-fi futures with lots of gun fighting, you're gonna love this.

----- ----- ----

And these are my action manga recommendations. Hopefully, you end up finding at least one that got your interest and turns out to be to your liking!

Give some of them a chance and find out!

[taybatwo2]

MacFarlene Toys Multiverse: “The Question”

I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but I have started collecting action figures. At first I was only collecting the Neca Gargoyles line, then specific characters from Hasbro’s Star Wars Vintage Collection, then I had to have a few from their Black Series, and then I saw Marvel Legends She-Hulk in stores and I JUST HAD TO buy her, and I preordered Undead Unluck’s Andy and Fuuko action figures…yeah, so anyways I’m in deep.

Yesterday evening, I was checking Walmart’s action figure section, and saw my FAVORITE character from the Justice League Unlimited series: “The Question.”

I grabbed him up without a second thought (I had never bought anything made by McFarlane toy’s before). I unceremoniously opened him up right when I got home and started playing and posing him. Of course I had to google if I could get a Huntress to go along with him and what other people thought of this figure.

I couldn’t find any other in box reviews! And lo and BEHOLD….he’s rare?!?! People are reselling him for HOW MUCH on eBay?????

I could not believe my luck in finding him! And at MY little dinky Walmart?!?

Okay, story time over. How about an actual overview of the guy in Question? Ha!

-all under the cut-

Here’s what’s left of his box (I swear I usually don’t dig into them like this, but I didn’t have any scissors on me at the time).

Here is the little “platinum sticker” that I completely missed the first time around (apparently they are randomly put in cases and sent out and may only be about 3,000 of them….? But that could be incorrect).

Here is the barcode.

And the back.

Now for his accessories.

He comes with a stand that has one peg for the holes in his foot (that works pretty darn well),

and this bio card

aaaaand the back of it. Dang, that is a lot to take in.

He stands: 7” tall and is pretty weighty. Let’s look at his articulation:

His head can look

up and down,

left and right, with a little bit of tilt.

I really like the dark shading they did to his upper face. His hat is not removable. 

This is how far up his shoulders will go up and how far out. There is no butterfly joint.

His elbows have a double joint and have hinge/pinned joints (I don’t know if this is the correct terminology, I’m still new to this collecting community). There is a pivot joint right under the shoulder ball joint (shown here in his left arm).

He has one hand that looks perfect for tipping his hat, or onto part of his coat, or a gun….which he did not come with (is this common for DC figures?).

Or maybe peaking over a tub of ice cream to check if there ARE more than 31 flavors. 

His other hand is squarely for punching people or politely knocking on doors maybe.

Or a faux super hero pose.

They don’t have a ton of motion. 

His left hand (while well sculpted) has almost less mobility. They both can swivel all the way around.

He has a little bit of crunch movement in his torso. 

He also can tip his torso side to side.

And twist all the way around. His pelvis is pretty rubbery too.

How far he can kick up and back.

He can’t really rotate his legs out (his right leg) or in (his right leg).

He has double jointed knees, and they are also hinged/pinned joints.

Almost done with this post, but ran out of photo room. See my reblog for the full review!

[eyefocusing]

while I've only read up to pollack's run + the gerard way run & the other recent run

i feel like despite doom patrol pretty clearly following from one author to the next (except byrne...) each version is basically is its own thing and isn't NECESSARY to read the next run. Very interesting to me

personally i do enjoy Morrison's run but just like every Morrison thing it has their very big writing flaws in it

... i feel like I was going to bring something else up either related to Morrison in general or Morrison's doom patrol but i forgot what. hmm maybe Tempest and Dorothy being from Kupperburg's run but it wasn't necessary to read for Morrison's run? hmmm oh well

speaking of doom patrol; Xombi was inspired by the original run. and Xombi like most milestone titles is great

as for other manga; I think the only ones I've been reading that I haven't mentioned that I've been reading are Yotsuba, Sakamoto Days, Undead Unluck, and Frieren

saw some cool fanart of some of the manga characters, so I'm thinking of reading dandandan after I get caught up on loser ranger (i think that's what caused me to start reading undead unluck - fanart of fuuko, chihiro Rokuhira, and foot soldier d that was like this other more recent fanart I saw of frieren, Sakamoto, and dandandan protag.)

I think Sakamoto days was either because of john wick and/or spy x family. Frieren was because I saw a lot of yearning frieren fanart

anyways my personal least favorite doom patrol runs are kupperburg and the most recent one (haven't read byrne's... and tbh I don't plan to). They feel too normal

i think that's it

oh yeah i get what you mean about each run kinda being its own thing. for better or worse ive always found it interesting with longer running titles or teams when a new writer makes it their own, its just neat to see what people do with whats been established and how they mix it up. thats one of my favorite things about comics in general (of course its also one of the more annoying things about comics, esp nowadays when you get the feeling writers arent really lookin into a series/character/teams history before doin their own thing but. i digress)

i keep feeling like i should check out frieren but it hasnt piqued my interest enough to actually get me to open it. im sure once i actually do ill read through it all in a couple days, but uuuughhh.... im lazy.....

[buhbuhlmao]

Dozed off and almost didn’t finish this in time

Day 4: As @tokiro07 and others have made their picks between either Ghost or Spring (honestly good picks since they both developed the MCs into new heights), *Check notes*, um, Master Rules probably will have their arcs later, Move maybe, there could even be a revelation afterwards that the gods were UMAs all along.

Anyways, I’m gonna post about my favorite “one-off” UMA: Loop 100’s Galaxy.

Following the relatively quick capture of Spoil and wiping out a rather impractical town on some pillars that is Longing while battling Vic, our main cast go to tally quest results and yada yada, Apocalypse barfs out this celestial-looking muscular thing that travels so quickly Juiz need to order Move to keep track of where it’s going.

Before all of this, the only major UMAs we’ve seen were Clothy ( who is more of a comedic relief) and Spoil, who is rather unindicative of what UU has in store in terms of weirdness. Like, being the concepts of clothing and spoiling have so many different interpretable variations that they could be, in Dragonball terms, either a “god” could be someone like Beerus (actual god of destruction) or Kami from the OG Dragonball (who can’t even travel across planets without preparations).

UMA Galaxy’s entrance put this grand universal image of what other UMAs might be capable of onto the reader. A big bang followed by basically a universe’s worth of galaxies in a place where other stars never existed before is kinda mind-blowing when I first read the manga.

This one chapter used to prompt @tokiro07 to make the time loop theory for UU, and showcased just how crazy the quest-related concept-type UMAs could get. When I read to this pary of UU, I legit wondered how the Union would overcome this cosmic scaled being who basically just created the observable universe in seconds. And I think the answer that is “They won’t and can’t, the Juniors of Galaxy are what directly threaten the Union and said Juniors get repelled.” painted a bleak and kinda funny picture of the Roundtable quest system. Galaxy is legit the first insurmountable on-screen opponent in Undead Unluck, and that kind of antagonist doesn’t really show up again all the way until Seal(whose fight for me is pretty dissapointing due to requiring Andy to be uncharacteristically dumb) and the gods (by the way am I the only one who thinks Sun on their first appearance kind of look like UMA Galaxy?)

In loop 101 Galaxy became a Master Rule and technically the main instigator of the Unfeel arc. Their involvement was honestly a bit dissapointing since it was just another generic alien fight as opposed to some crazy cosmos phenomena during the Phil rescue.

Also to my knowledge, if there will ever be a “reminicense arc” of sort where stars are gone from the sky to mirror early loop 100, either the gods or Negator Ungalaxy (Ungalactic?) will be needed due to Master Rules still having their creation existing after they are killed. That is probably just me taking copium since there are way fewer Negators and UMAs.

[sasaranurude]

Okay I am going to go through the upcoming fall anime RIGHT NOW and see what looks interesting, because there's a completely absurd amount of anime coming around now and I need to be prepared. Could they not have pushed a handful of these back to summer which had all of like, one good anime? Come on man. ANYWAYS:

Hypmic season 2: obviously I am watching every episode of this. My mom also wants to watch every episode of this

Paradox Live the animation: I haven't followed paralive up to now beyond enjoying the music, but I am genuinely curious what's up with those characters (I think about checking out the drama tracks all the time but just haven't had the time/impulse yet) so I'll check this one out for sure

Sousou no Frieren: I remember when the trailer dropped there was a fair amount of hype, so I'll try this one out

Spy x Family season 2: I might watch this one with my mom. I can't remember if she finished season 1, though. ...I just asked her: we only watched a little, but she'd be up for more. So... maybe. (But she said that if it's either-or, she'd rather watch hypmic.)

Undead Unluck: I did start this manga, but my interest petered out after a few chapters. I'll still give the anime a few episodes. Honestly, seeing it get an anime makes me want to give the manga another try, because I can't actually remember why I stopped reading.

Kamonohashi Ron no Kindan Suiri: only hearing about this for the first time now browsing MAL. I like mystery, I'll give it a try.

I'm in Love With the Villainess: I read the first volume of the manga and... didn't hate it. I'll give the anime a try.

Disgraced noble lady naughtiness blablablabla: yeah sure man I'm always up for trying the new fantasy romcom shoujo of the season (even if I know I won't last more than two episodes)

Overtake!: wait is this one BL about racing? Fuck yeah sure sounds great. I love the character designs. WAIT AND IT'S TROYCA? FUCK YEAH MAN!!!!! ABSOLUTELY WATCHING THIS

Yuzuki-san chi no yonkyoudai: in "if I see good posts about this one I'll watch it" tier.

Migi to Dali: I only ever read a few chapters of the manga for this one, but it was fascinating, so I'll be checking out the anime mainly to see if it captures the same vibe.

Atarashii joushi wa do tennen: workplace comedy is fun, I'll give it an episode.

Bullbuster: gets an episode just for the title alone

Kawagoe Boys Sing: mal doesn't even have a synopsis. The character designs are cute. Yeah I'll watch an episode

And at this point I'm just hoping that a good chunk of these suck just so thatim not keeping up with 13 series airing weekly episodes oh my god. But also. High hopes for many of these!!!!!!

EDIT: oh my god i forgot tgcf. @zeeloniy will almost certainly be making me watch this

[strawsoldier]

Winter 2024 Anime-Round Up

New year, new anime folks. Though unfortunately, this is one of the weaker anime seasons. Thankfully, Spring season is much stronger (for better and for worse). So without further ado

Anime of the Season: The Apothecary Diaries (Second Cour)

Best Opening: Bling-Bang-Bang-Born (Mashle 2nd Season)

Best Ending: Anytime Anywhere (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

Drops: Bucchigiri & Metallic Rouge

Plan to Watch at a later date: Undead Unluck, The Dangers In My Heart, Ninja Kamui

Completed:

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - (9.5/10)

Not much I can say about this show that hasn't been said already. Probably the only instance of an anime premiere being over 2 hours and my only thought after was "I want more". I was planning to read the manga but if there's ever a sequel with the same staff, I'd rather be an anime-only. I love Bocchi but I'm praying that Saitou stays on this.

Ubel >>>>

Blue Exorcist: Shimane Illuminati Saga - (5/10)

I'm tired of complaining about Aniplex's handling of my favorite manga. I'm just tired...

The Apothecary Diaries - (10/10)

my fucking god what a good anime this. A beautiful series that was blessed with a fantastic adaption. Maomao is a strong contender for my favorite MC of all time. Episode #04 was the highlight of the show and a strong contender for Episode of the Year. SEASON 2 CONFIRMED BABY!!!!!

Mashle: Second Season - (7/10)

Mashle is back and still as dumb as ever. But it seems to have found it's groove and still remains very enjoyable. Also that OP >>>>

Solo Leveling - (8/10)

Webtoon have not had the greatest luck getting good adaptions. They've either been really bad or just downright forgettable (sometimes both). Solo-Leveling wasn't the case though. Yeah the story and characters are about as thin as paper, BUT HOT DAMN THOSE FIGHT SCENES SLAPPED!!!! Fans of this series have no shame in saying that all this series has going for it is it's fights, and the team at A-1 heard it loud and clear. Shame all the production couldn't go into S3 of Blue exorcist (last complaint, I promise)

We will be seated for Season Two.

The Witch and The Beast - (7/10)

Sitting along side Blue Exorcist S3 (I lied) for "I wish you were better" is The Witch and The Beast. A last minute addition to my seasonal solely due to how appealing the character designs were. The story and fights were pretty cool but the animation could not keep up and most the show looked extremely janky. May have to check out the manga for this one.

[malaquill]

Tagged by: @maybeimawhale

Tag nine people to get to know better

Three ships: The Going Merry, the Thousand Sunny, and -- kidding. Any time someone asks me this I forget everything I'm into but I am very fond of Lae'zel / Shadowheart lately, and some OC ships.

First ever ship: I don't remember? It might've been Zack / Cloud actually and that was mostly based on ship art because I didn't have a way of actually interacting with FF7 for years

Last song: I think it might have been From a Place of Love by Mili? I really haven't forgiven Project Moon but the moment this song plays is so insane that I was trying to find it again --

Last Movie: I haven't actually watched a movie in a few weeks - I think it might've still been Train to Busan actually ...

Currently reading: Listening to the audiobook of The Final Empire and losing my mind over how good it is. There's thought! There's emotionally resonant scenes! My friends who got into this stuff before me are amused by my suffering (that's a joke).

Currently watching: Pluto (need to finish, I've got one ep left), Paradox Live, and Undead Unluck. Planning to start the Scott Pilgrim anime soon, and there's some KDramas I've been wanting to check out, too.

Currently consuming: Black coffee...

Currently craving: Salt and vinegar or just like, anything with a really strong flavor honestly. People who are aware of the Hell Ramen Incident DO NOT interact--

Tagging: If you see this, you're tagged! Good luck!! ll

I like games like this but I hope no one's like "aw man, this guy's just spamming random stuff instead of posting art, why am I even here?" help -- still alive, still on hiatus.

[formulaorange]

2024 Winter Anime

It's here! It's finally here!!! Solo Leveling comes out this season! There's definitely a few others to keep an eye out for but this is the star of the winter season:

Solo Leveling One of my most anticipated series. I'm caught up on the english light novels (8 volumes) and I'm honestly so invested in this story. In a way it gives the same impact as One Punch Man but if the story progressed a little faster toward fame and growth in his power. Easily the best of the season. Noteworthy On Going Shows: Frieren - Episodes 17-28 One of the most mesmerizing and well paced fantasies I've seen. Also one of my 10/10s of all time. Worth looking into if you remotely like fantasy. Shangri La Frontier - Episodes 14-25 Another fantasy game series that honestly just looks like it's a fun game. Explores a lot of game mechanics within this full-dive VR type game that almost puts SAO to shame. Fun action, fantasy and fun for game lovers. Apothecary Diaries - Episodes 13-24 My current favourite drama/romance/medical mystery series. The characters are simple but the show highlights the different dynamics and almost feels like an enemies to lovers plot. New Seasons:

Blue Exorcist - Season 3 This is one of the og shows I watched growing up. It's a mythology school themed show that I loved. It's been 13 years since season 1 aired and I'm stoked to see it come back. It's being done by a different studio since A-1 is busy with solo leveling, so I'm not sure if it'll hit the same but I'll still check it out at least for the nostalgia.

Mashle - Season 2 The funniest anime I've seen in a while. Man muscle brains his way through magic school and the whole show is a meme of harry potter and other magic series. Truly entertaining. Can't wait for this season

Delicious In Dungeon This is a series I've wanted to pick up the manga for for a while. It's about dealing with food and hunger when these adventurers are deep in a dungeon and learn to start cooking and eating what they can find down there. Funny concept but honestly looks like a lot of fun.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer I read this manga and light novel so long ago. (Literal years - link to my manga thoughts and summary). I'm looking forward to the adaptation. I think nowadays this kind of story doesn't catch nearly as much attention as it did a few years ago. An adventurer dies in a dungeon and is reborn as an undead who can evolve as he kills other monsters and he deals with trying to fit in with the human realm again and evolving. I'm still looking forward to it after keeping an ear our for so long!

Mr. Villain's Day Off I recently heard about this series and thought it was such a cute concept. Us with all our villain complexes with enjoy this one. Will likely be a background show for me as there won't be a huge plot, regardless, still fun to watch. Burn the Witch - #0.8 - 30 min Special I think this won't be as exciting now that Bleach has come back and we aren't as depraved of Tite Kubo's work but I really enjoyed the original short series. Hoping for more of this world in the future. Sequels: Classroom of the Elite - Season 3 Tsukimichi - Season 2 (Link to review of season 1) The Dangers in My Heart - Season 2 More Continuations: Undead Unluck Ragna Crimson After going through 20+ shows every season, many with sub-par animations and the same fantasy twists, I've become real picky about which series are even worth trying to watch these days. Here are the ones that deserve at least 2 episodes in order: A Sign of Affection - Gets a special spot since it's incredibly rare to see disability representation in anime and it looks like it's done quite well- A romance between a guy and a deaf girl. Looks super sweet Bucchigiri?! - I honestly can't say this looks appealing to me personally but I've hear the name before and well it's MAPPA. (Give em a break) 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess - looks well animated and just a fun watch Metallic Rouge - The sci-fi series for this season. I'm not sure I have it in me to watch something heavy like this this season but it looks decent. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic The Witch and the Beast - Here for manga readers - lowkey looks like the manga will be much better and this might be a skip for me. Hokkaido Gyaru's are super Adorable (Ecchi) ALSO - Big reminder: Haikyu!! and Demon Slayer have their movies coming out this season as well (both theatrical releases so keep an eye out!!!) Demon Slayer: To the Hashira Training - Feb 2nd 2024 Haikyu!! - The Dumpster Battle - Feb 16th 2024

[dropintomanga]

Off to Anime NYC 2023

It's that time of year again. Off to another Anime NYC this weekend.

Unfortunately, I'm going through some stuff physically, so I probably will not be attending everything I want to see and WILL NOT be attending evening panels despite there being some good stuff happening.

Things I will check out are:

Friday, November 17, 2023

2:30pm - VIZ Media Panel (note: I've been reading Undead Unluck and enjoying the hell of out it. I'm happy Yoshifumi Tozuka will be coming.)

4:30pm - Autism in the Anime Fan Community

Saturday, November 18, 2023

2:00pm - Yen Press Panel

3:15pm - Dark Horse Manga

5:15pm - The Ancient Magus' Bride Live Drawing with Kore Yamazaki (might skip this one)

Sunday, November 19, 2023

12:30pm - The Ancient Magus' Bride Talk Session (this might be more my cup of tea than the drawing because it's Kore Yamazaki and her editor)

1:30pm - Star Fruit Books - New Licenses

Oh yeah, I'm cosplaying as Ada Wong from Resident Evil 4 (2023). I loved Separate Ways and the game is my 2023 Game of the Year.

I might be hanging around the Riichi Nomi mahjong gaming area in Hall 3E as well and checking out various things that catch my eye.

If any of you are going to the convention, I hope you guys have fun! I'm not sure we'll meet up, but enjoy the experience!

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.182 thoughts

[Might as Well be Sittin' on the Sun]

(Contents: slight Fuuko analysis, power-scaling, speculation)

Okay, so maybe we won't be learning the Master Rules' names any time soon, but to be fair, I did kind of see that coming. After all, this was so clearly meant to be a parallel to the introduction to the Union in ch.8 and 9, and back then, we only learned three out of eight names (Tatiana, Billy and Nico), so it only seems fair that we only learn one new name here (Luck, in this case)

Speaking of parallels, Fuuko's dual rapid-firing to mirror Andy's Finger Bullets was sick, and I hope just a sample of the kind of things Fuuko can do as a gunner. Still waiting to see what the revolver Artifact's ability is, or its name for that matter!! Considering that we're introducing the (presumably) final team of antagonists and Fuuko has made it clear that the team isn't currently up to snuff to take them on, she's definitely going to need some kind of upgrade, and giving her a secondary ability seems like a great way to do that

Also, absolutely insane that Sick is the weakest of the Master Rules, and apparently by a wide margin given how everyone else was picking on him. Poor guy, falling asleep and slumping both forward and back because he's literally and permanently cut in half. That's kind of like what I end up doing while writing these posts late at night

Master Rule I questions Fuuko's motives, and we get to see another great, if subtle, Fuuko face: with a gentle smile and absolutely dead eyes, Fuuko claims that it would have been convenient for her if her bullets had reached the Master Rules, as they would have taken them all out instantly (I guess the 60-year range was one that Fuuko was really attached to, cus even 44 didn't actually kill UMA Heat). That look is simply unsettling, as I think it's the only time that Fuuko has ever said anything about intending to kill anyone or anything. She definitely isn't enjoying it, it's simply a matter-of-fact statement, but she also knows that it would mean an end to their struggles, so while it would be unfortunate in its own way, it would be the objectively best outcome

M.R. I immediately learns to appreciate Fuuko's best charm point, the fact that she's an actual lunatic behind her cute face, and offers one piece of information. Fuuko, of course, chooses to learn Andy's location, fearing the worst since he could only send a clone. We then learn that for hundreds of millions of years, Andy has been chilling on the surface of the sun, using his soul to trap the Master Rules inside

God damn, Tozuka, you told us that Victor was alone billions of years waiting for Juiz and then you said "well Andy's gotta do something more impressive!" Well you succeeded, sir, sitting in place on a ball of plasma that should completely atomize you for millions of years is definitely more intense than hanging around and fighting dinosaurs, or at least a more striking snapshot

I don't imagine I was alone in thinking that Andy and Ruin have been playing cat and mouse for the last 2 billion years, but the fact that at some point Andy found his way to the god damn SUN and just decided to park it really speaks to his willpower and commitment. I wonder if he checked out for it like Victor said he did when the Earth was just uninhabitable magma. I get the feeling that he didn't, since he was able to consciously launch a clone down to Earth, so...yeah, confirmed, I guess, Andy's been present the whole however many millions of years he's been there

Oh, and let's not forget the distance. 92 million miles, eight light minutes away, and Andy was able to accurately fire one of his fingers down to Iseult Hospital in France in the middle of the Sick fight. I don't know if his soul gives him some kind of clairvoyance like how Fuuko saw everything that happened to Andy while she was dead, but no matter how you look at it, that's some firing power!!! Sure, he's got infinite fuel by regenerating his blood repeatedly, but he's still gotta travel nearly 100 million miles with enough force to escape the gravitational pull of the GOD DAMN SUN!!! If Google is to be believed, Andy's finger bullet had to have been moving over a 1.38 million miles an hour just to reach escape velocity, though if he reached Earth in a matter of minutes, then I guess that's a pretty low bar to clear, huh?

I'm moving on from this topic, but I want it to be clear that aside from perhaps any given movement from Sun, this may well be the grandest display of power that we've ever seen in this series, and it's a surprisingly subtle one. No wonder Andy could only maintain the clone for a minute: the finger bullet was probably already around for at least ten. Hell, it definitely explains why this was "spreading his soul too thin"

Now that we've seen all of the Master Rules close-up, now I'm willing to speculate on what their identities might be

As with most people, I'm decently confident that 1 is Death, but with 2 "[reeking] of blood and guts" and being close to Luck, fans have taken to the possibility that 2 is Death to parallel with Andy and Fuuko's relationship. @your-zipper-is-down suggested that 1 might be Life or Humanity, which would definitely be interesting; for Death to be a Rule, that all living things must die, then logically there must be a preceding Rule that living things exist at all. That said, the existence of humanity might be independent of the Rules, but we'll find out sooner or later

If 2 isn't Death, then the most likely reason that she's so smelly is that she might be Pain, as alluded to by Ruin about 80 chapters ago. I think that would fit her religious visual theme pretty well, as self-flagellation and other forms of deliberate pain are commonly associated with religion. I'm also curious if those lizard-eye decals on her habit are actually her real eyes since she never seems to open the ones on her face

3 is Sex, I don't think anyone disagrees with that

We've established that 4 is Luck, which I imagine is because aside from Death, Luck is the concept most heavily associated with bringing death in the series (4 being a symbol of death). The real fun thing, though, is that Luck has a bandage on her right cheek, whereas Fuuko has one on her left! Does the bandage itself hold any significance? Does it simply serve as a visual indicator that she's Fuuko's opposite, or is there a deeper metaphysical connection between them that forces them to act as mirrors to each other? Unrelated, I imagine that Luck's halo is meant to represent the Wheel of Fortune, and likely plays into how she uses her powers

5 has a knight theme, and my best guess for that is either that it has something to do with defense/survival, like UMA Guard to represent survival instincts, or UMA Justice

6 is War. Guy looks like he uses napalm face wash, that's War.

I originally guessed that 7 would be Luck since he looks like a gambler, but now that we know this isn't the case, I'm assuming that the pocketwatch indicates that he's UMA Time. I've seen it suggested that he's UMA Past, but I really doubt that Juiz, a septuagenarian Nico and Phil were able to capture a Master Rule by themselves when Fuuko's Union couldn't beat number 10. Just doesn't seem right to me

8's design is really interesting, as she seems to be wearing a crown shaped like a ruined tower. This immediately makes me (and others like @bubhbuhlmao) think of the Tower of Babel, suggesting that she may be UMA Language, but again, could the Nico of Loop 100 really kill a Master Rule by himself? It's possible, but I don't buy it. She could be Knowledge, though that seems pretty similar to Information, so I don't know if Tozuka would want that much of an overlap. Intelligence? Wisdom? We'll see. However, given that she's wearing ruins, I do think it would be interesting if she's UMA Ruin and God just had really bad naming sense when creating our boy Unruin Ruin

9 is almost definitely Animal or Beast or something like that, but I stand by the extremely funny possibility that he's the real Clothes and Clothy is his Junior. That idea absolutely kills me

I do wonder if the Master Rule fights are going to be individual arcs like the Seasons or if it's going to be a team vs. team match like Union vs. Under, but either way, the introduction of a whole team of Master Rules definitely gives the impression that the end isn't as close as I thought. We still have a few more recruits to get, Ruin and Seal are definitely still going to be a problem, we have to clear the ten Master Rules, and only then can we fight Sun, and for all we know we still might have to fight Luna

In other words, I'm starting to think fouryearsandananime might have been a conservative estimate

[dianagpeppermintnightmare]

I'm not gonna disagree with the validity of some of these points, but I still feel the need to make some of my own.

So, "shonen", of course, is merely a demographic. It isn't a genre. When people outside of Japan use "shonen", they're often just using it as shorthand for what's an actual genre: battle manga. Shonen encompasses a great deal of genres, from sports manga, romance manga, slice of life manga, and gag manga, and even those can blend together. It still amuses me a bit that smaller slice of life gag series like Nichijou or Azumanga Daioh are both shonen and nobody seems to notice. Even a yuri manga like Bloom Into You is shonen, and was published in the same magazine as Azumanga Daioh.

It should also be noted that the vast majority of battle shonen that takes off outside Japan are the ones published by Weekly Shonen Jump, which has a particular brand and image. When people harp about alleged clichés in battle shonen (regardless of whether these clichés are actually that prevalent or if they're just going solely off Dragon Ball and Naruto), it's usually the tropes frequently utilized in these particular mangas. Which, to be honest, reflects a very narrow view? It's like simplifying American comic books to just Marvel. I'd also argue that some of them don't get enough credit for their female casts (I'd point to Gintama and Black Clover as good examples), but overall...well, splitting mangas by gendered demographics naturally leads to the aforementioned issues with female representation.

Dandadan is an example of a shonen that exists outside of the Weekly Shonen Jump bubble. It's published on Jump+, which has a looser guideline for what fits the image. It could never have been published in Weekly Shonen Jump. And I think that's a big reason why people are touting it as being this big shakeup, because it's from a different publication (still by Shueisha, sure) with more room for experimentation. There's still only a limited amount of Jump+ series that have been big hits, which is partly down to it being relatively newer. It could be a good sign for the future if Jump+ keeps having hits with this level of good writing and representation.

But seriously, don't limit yourselves with the shonen manga you read. There's still a couple with genuinely good female characters, some even protagonists! I'm gonna list a few for people to check out:

1. Undead Unluck. Great romance, great action, genuinely insane plot twists, very well-characterized female cast who all get moments to develop, and Fuuko Izumo is genuinely one of the best shonen protagonists out there. 10/10 character development. There's definitely some iffy stuff early on, but hey, same with Dandadan. And if you like romance, Undead Unluck does it VERY well.

2. Akane-banashi. So imagine a sports manga, except it's not about sports, it's about rakugo. That's this series. Incredibly engaging, Akane is a fun MC, and then you delve into deeper themes about the power of art and storytelling and you start crying.

3. Magilumiere Co. LTD. More proof that locking anime adaptations of good manga to Hulu and Prime is bullshit. A Jump+ series about magical girls as an actual business for responding to monster attacks, the main protagonist is a newbie to the world of adulting and job hunting before becoming part of a small magical girl startup. The only manga I've read where "privatizing the magic industry" is an actual plot point. And yes, there is commentary on aspects of capitalism and how valuing profit over people is bad.

And those are just the ones I'm reading. That's without going into Kindergarten Wars or Shy, both series with their own cult followings and female MC's. Or hell, Frieren got super popular, and some people don't seem to realize it's published in Weekly Shonen Sunday.

So, in short...yes, Dandadan bucks a lot of clichés associated with the most popular battle shonen, but it's still speaking from a limited point of view. There IS more variety out there, you just have to look. Don't just focus on the stuff that gets the big social media reactions from the anime adaptations, focus on the smaller cult hits too.

Ways I can think of that “DanDaDan” differs from other shonen series:

* Female MC is as important as male MC

* Canon romance gets consistent development through the series. I think that’s part of the reason why the MC ships with the rivals (Aira, Jiji) aren’t as popular with the fandom for once. The main ship is actually getting good development, so the fanbase doesn’t have to make up headcanons to fill in the space.

* Flips the found family trope on its head by having the main group despise new people whenever they show up and they even actively try to kick them out. The new people only end up staying because they keep lingering around to the point that the main group just gives up and lets them stay.

* The rivals aren’t emo or angst-ridden. Aira is a delusional tryhard popular girl while Jiji is a himbo drama queen. I’d even go as far to say that the MCs are the ones who are emo and angst-ridden.

* Supporting cast is more than just important, they become integral to the story. I’d say that the further you read into DanDaDan, the more it becomes an ensemble cast where everyone is a protagonist in their own right.

* World-building is all over the place, but in a good way. Most other shonen are pretty consistent with what kind of world their characters live in. MHA is superhero-based, Naruto is ninjas and magic, Bleach is spirits, and so on. DanDaDan feels like the author just throws whatever cool shit they can think of into the story. That’s actually the reason why I wrote in a different post that DanDaDan reminds me more of Marvel/DC than any other shonen series, it manages to capture the catch-all insanity of those comics.

* Doesn’t rely on hidden power-ups. The main characters either have to outsmart the villains or they have to train to get better with the powers they already have.

* The pervert comic relief guy is actually endearing for once. Not because of his pervert tendencies, but because he’s so oblivious to how socially inept he is that it’s kind of funny. This is gonna sound strange, but he sorta reminds me of Thor in Thor Ragnarok. Full of himself and oblivious to how dumb he can be. He’s Thor without the good looks lol.

* Flips the “nerdy outcast loser somehow gets a harem” trope. Instead of making Okarun cooler than how he actually is, the story emphasizes that the women who fall for Okarun are as weird as him. Momo is a weird outcast, Aira has main character syndrome, Vamola doesn’t understand how to human because she’s literally not one, Rin thought Okarun was a vampire (and wanted him to be).

* Flips the “elderly figure in charge of the teenagers” trope. I don’t really get motherly figure vibes from Seiko Ayase, I get more “cool wine aunt who is stuck with her niece” vibes. In fact, there was the arc where Okarun showed up to her in spirit mode to get her help with fighting off the alien invasion and Seiko’s response was, “Well, I’m not in the area and I have other shit to do, so you kids figure it out.”

* The series takes the piss out of the trope of mystical/magical items that the group acquired to get their powers. I mean…the main mystical MacGuffin in the series are Okarun’s balls.

* Okarun was about to go into an “I’m weak / I wish I was stronger / I want to get stronger for my friends” breakdown, but Turbo Granny told him to shut up and keep fighting.

* Not afraid to put the “cool girl” in as many funny situations as possible. Off the top of my head, the series built up Momo as this cool, tough girl who doesn’t take shit from anyone…then several chapters later, Okarun found out she got a job at a maid cafe.

(Feel free to add to the list!)