Well Spoken/Despondent

May 22

[video]

May 21

It’s another new minisode over at Friendship! Effort! Victory!, and it’s the last of my extended looks at the works of Ryu Fujisaki, with me taking a gander at the weird sci-fi flop that was WaqWaq, something that played with battle manga conventions, story compression and… uh… Religion a bunch. I like it, and it’s a nice short series at 4 volumes, but it being so short does mean it’s a failure, so join me on my journey into the reasons why that’s the case. And for those keeping count, there are now only THREE FEV shows until the first series is over, and all that groovy planned stuff about audience participation and stuff comes into play, so keep them peeled!

It’s another new minisode over at Friendship! Effort! Victory!, and it’s the last of my extended looks at the works of Ryu Fujisaki, with me taking a gander at the weird sci-fi flop that was WaqWaq, something that played with battle manga conventions, story compression and… uh… Religion a bunch. I like it, and it’s a nice short series at 4 volumes, but it being so short does mean it’s a failure, so join me on my journey into the reasons why that’s the case.

And for those keeping count, there are now only THREE FEV shows until the first series is over, and all that groovy planned stuff about audience participation and stuff comes into play, so keep them peeled!

May 15

[video]

May 11

Hey Shonen Jump fans! You may have heard about the assistant system used in most manga productions in Japan, and wondered who’s worked for whom. As such, here’s my (incomplete) translation, featuring such famed creators as Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin), Yoshio Sawai (BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo) and even relative newcomers like Hiroshi Shiibashi (Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan) KTR, the person who created the original version of this chart, has painstakingly researched all of this, and it shows in how ridiculously huge it is. Expect a V3 with all the names filled in soon, but I figured now the lion’s share is handled you might all enjoy seeing the in-progress version. So… TA-DA! EDIT: BIGGER VERSION, for those who want it

Hey Shonen Jump fans! You may have heard about the assistant system used in most manga productions in Japan, and wondered who’s worked for whom. As such, here’s my (incomplete) translation, featuring such famed creators as Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Nobuhiro Watsuki (Rurouni Kenshin), Yoshio Sawai (BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo) and even relative newcomers like Hiroshi Shiibashi (Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan)

KTR, the person who created the original version of this chart, has painstakingly researched all of this, and it shows in how ridiculously huge it is. Expect a V3 with all the names filled in soon, but I figured now the lion’s share is handled you might all enjoy seeing the in-progress version. So… TA-DA!

EDIT: BIGGER VERSION, for those who want it

(Source: thedespondent)

May 03

[video]

May 02

[video]

[video]

[video]

It’s week two of daily updates over at Friendship! Effort! Victory! AND the countdown to the end of series one, AND the third episode in my Ryu Fujisaki season as I talk about Hoshin Engi, a manga based on a book based on actual history. It’s… Complicated. I also talk a little about Soul Hunter, the anime of the manga based on the book based on actual history, in a rare case of remembering to mention the adaptations! It’s a May Day miracle! Expect some bonus posts featuring clips of the anime, kanzenban covers and the like to come later on. Get this tumblr going again and stuff. (also the iTunes feed is broken. Trying to fix it. Sorry)

It’s week two of daily updates over at Friendship! Effort! Victory! AND the countdown to the end of series one, AND the third episode in my Ryu Fujisaki season as I talk about Hoshin Engi, a manga based on a book based on actual history. It’s… Complicated.

I also talk a little about Soul Hunter, the anime of the manga based on the book based on actual history, in a rare case of remembering to mention the adaptations! It’s a May Day miracle!

Expect some bonus posts featuring clips of the anime, kanzenban covers and the like to come later on. Get this tumblr going again and stuff.

(also the iTunes feed is broken. Trying to fix it. Sorry)

Apr 23

F!E!V! Bonus Ramble: Hideo Shinkai

In which Maxy B explains Hideo Shinkai, author of the soon-to-be serialised title Soul Catcher(s), Weekly Shonen Jump’s mid-00s attempt to revive football comics, and names a couple of pornographers working for Weekly Shonen Jump

  1. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    So Medaka Box ends this saturday. Sad face. Plus side: Hideo Shinkai (Light Wing, assistant to jjba author hirohiko araki) is coming back
    AN HOUR AGO
  2. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    If you never read Light Wing ( why should you have?) it was a tidy if not slight footie comic from when Jump were desperate for a footie hit
    AN HOUR AGO
  3. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    Jump serialised it, Meister and Shonen Shikku in a row, and not one of them hung about. Jump just couldn’t revive football post-Whistle
    AN HOUR AGO
  4. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    Surprisingly the first of that trio of authors to return was the creator of Shonen Shikku, the lesser of the three.
    AN HOUR AGO
  5. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    that author is now the writer of Jump’s smash hit Shokugeki no Soma, drawn by Shun Saeki, the former pornographer Tosh
    AN HOUR AGO
  6. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    So what I’m saying is I hope Hideo succeeds, but maybe he too needs a pornographer to draw for him
    AN HOUR AGO
  7. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    Not that pornographers are rare in Jump. Akira Akatsuki, artist of the soon-concluding Medaka Box comes from porn, for example
    AN HOUR AGO
  8. Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard@Maxy_Barnard
    Maxy Barnard: porn and football comics trivia
    AN HOUR AGO
Final bit about Hideo Shinkai’s return: This is the cover from the one-shot version of his new series ‘Soul Catchers’ pic.twitter.com/Ht59UvhTMv
Et voila, an explanation of a bit of Weekly Shonen Jump history, ripped from twitter, and relevant to the upcoming debut of Soul Catcher(s) by Hideo Shinkai. Might do more of these sorts of rambles as time passes, give little bits of meaningless trivia to entertain people inbetween F!E!V! episodes.