Well Spoken/Despondent

It’s time for a new FEATURE over at the Friendship!...

Thu, 23 May 2013 09:08:08 +1200

It’s time for a new FEATURE over at the Friendship! Effort! Victory! website with the debut of FEV, Written Down, which is a semi-regular series of articles where I deal with the history and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump in ways I can’t normally manage in the podcast.

In this instance I’ve been so inspired by the return of baseball to the anthology in this coming monday’s debut of Smoky B.B. that I’ve decided to do a short series of posts about the history of Japan’s favourite sport (sorry Sumo, you just have to settle for being the *actual* national sport instead), looking at the most important titles to be about the good ol’ bat and ball and bases.

This first article focuses on the first decade and a bit of Weekly Shonen Jump, giving little explanations of Father’s Soul, Astro Kyudan, Play Ball, 1.2 no Ahho, and Susume!! Pirates, all great successes in their own rights that solidified the importance of the sport in the anthology. It’s a bit loose (turns out its hard to research decades old material that isn’t in your mother language), but there’s plenty of interesting stuff to learn about, so give it a look!

It’s the tankobon covers for WaqWaq, the subject of the...

Wed, 22 May 2013 06:10:10 +1200

It’s the tankobon covers for WaqWaq, the subject of the latest episode of Friendship! Effort! Victory!

I’m a big fan of these, and the job Viz did with their version was suitably true to the original covers, changing as little as possible. Ryu Fujisaki does great colour work, and… I mean… Just look at them. First one aside these are all stone-cold killers, and I only exclude that because it doesn’t do anything as groovy with the backgrounds as the others.

And look at those spines. Ooh, look at ‘em!

It’s another new minisode over at Friendship! Effort!...

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:22:00 +1200

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!

Friendship! Effort! Victory! is back for another episode later...

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:42:39 +1200

Friendship! Effort! Victory! is back for another episode later today, and as such it seems a good time to reveal the new batch of test banners for the revamped website coming up for the start of series two. Series used this time were Masanori Morita’s Beshari Gurashi (the students at the mic), Soji Yamakawa & Noboru Kawasaki’s Wilderness Boy Isamu (The Cowboy), and Tatsuya Egawa’s Magical Taruruuto-kun (the little fairy kid).

The idea this time round was to remove the troublesome borders of the last test set, but retain the idea of using the title characters of each series as the banner for the week that title’s spotlighted on the show. To make that a bit clearer I also opted to include the title for that series in the design

Another crucial element was to have a less troubled font (I opted this time out for Toon Town Industrial), and to fit the Jump Pirate into the mix. This totalled up to three distinct elements to play with on the banner and to try and fit together in a clean, consistent fashion.

As such, here are my three size/layout takes on the banner:

The first three banners here are the widescreen take, being the same size as the current banner on the website. These… Didn’t really work too well, save perhaps the Beshari Gurashi one, but even that has an awkward amount of dead space on the top left. I’m not averse to such things, but it seems less intentionally empty and more like I just couldn’t fill the space. If there’s anything in the favour of these ones, it’s that the Jump Pirate doesn’t feel as overbearing as in the following attempts
I only did one of these with Taruruuto-kun as an attempt at a mid-point between the extremes, and to see if moving the series title to the top left would solve the dead space issue. Ultimately I feel like this paid off, with the empty area in the middle being a good focal point to take in the whole banner. I don’t know if it could work with all titles, and I still need to reduce the Jump Pirate a little, and perhaps to make the title logo a bit more readable.
The tiny ones feel a bit more like forum signatures, and suffer for it. That said, the Wilderness Boy Isamu one fits together extraordinarily well to me, even if it feels like its missing that little spark to make it more than just… a black and white image.

That’s a problem, actually. I’m making these all black and white and with basic elements, to preserve both my sanity and the art assets involved, but… It doesn’t really pop like that, does it. Would something like colour background/lineart or a bit of a pop-art motif work out better?

As always I’m just shooting off ideas, so feel free to give me any feedback, whatever it may be either here on tumblr (I have an askbox) or on twitter

Hey Shonen Jump fans! You may have heard about the assistant...

Sat, 11 May 2013 04:01:00 +1200

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

Finally, a Weekly Shonen Jump cover gallery, featuring a variety...

Fri, 03 May 2013 01:32:42 +1200

Finally, a Weekly Shonen Jump cover gallery, featuring a variety of appearances for Ryu Fujisaki’s Hoshin Engi, the subject of yesterday’s Friendship! Effort! Victory!

My favourite? The one with Taikobo and Otenkun side by side.

But yeah, that’s it for Hoshin Engi stuff (I think?). Expect WaqWaq material once that episode is up.

Hoshin Engi Kanzenban Covers pt.2 Continued from the last post,...

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:41:00 +1200

Hoshin Engi Kanzenban Covers pt.2

Continued from the last post, here’s the other half of these gorgeous beauties, taken from the kanzenban volumes of Hoshin Engi, subject of yesterday’s Friendship! Effort! Victory!

Hoshin Engi Kanzenban Covers pt. 1 Kanzenban editions of manga...

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:36:51 +1200

Hoshin Engi Kanzenban Covers pt. 1

Kanzenban editions of manga are fancy, oversized volumes that recollect a series in high quality with colour pages intact and fancy new covers. This is for Hoshin Engi, the subject of yesterday’s Friendship! Effort! Victory!, and two thoughts come to mind.

They’re interconnected!
They’re absolutely flippin’ gorgeous

It’s the Opening and Ending for Soul Hunter, the anime...

Thu, 02 May 2013 20:54:58 +1200

It’s the Opening and Ending for Soul Hunter, the anime adaptation of Hoshin Engi, the subject of the latest episode of Friendship! Effort! Victory!

I expect some of you are probably nostalgic right about now.

It’s week two of daily updates over at Friendship! Effort!...

Thu, 02 May 2013 03:28:29 +1200

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)

F!E!V! Bonus Ramble: Hideo Shinkai

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:46:35 +1200

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

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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
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
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE
Maxy Barnard @Maxy_Barnard

Maxy Barnard: porn and football comics trivia

AN HOUR AGO
REPLY RETWEET FAVORITE

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.

I sent you a question (maybe a silly question??) long ago and I'm not sure if you ever received it. Is it tumblr?? It was around Valentines Day.

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:18:12 +1200

i’m not sure. i answer everything either publically r privately, so if it was asked you should have gotten an answer. Do you remember what it was?

Playing with more banner lay-outs for Friendship! Effort!...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:50:27 +1200

Playing with more banner lay-outs for Friendship! Effort! Victory!, after going cold on the initial concept. Current idea is to have a single, black and white image, featuring a key character from any given Weekly Shonen Jump title, and to use dead space and small text to keep it from getting too busy. In the first version I included the jump pirate in the corner because why not.

I’m a fair bit fonder of this type of banner (you can see how I’ve previously used this bit of design in the banner to this very tumblr), but it also feels a bit… “my first forum signature”. Must consult with others on how to improve upon this initial step.

demonizedeyes: thedespondent: Day 4 of (almost) daily...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 00:35:45 +1200

demonizedeyes:

thedespondent:

Day 4 of (almost) daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and it’s a special episode running down nine of Ryu Fujisaki’s one-shots contained within the collections Worlds and Dramatic Irony, including an incredibly bizarre remake of Hoshin Engi.

This is the last of week one’s daily episodes, with a Vlog coming up over the weekend and the Hoshin Engi episode kicking off week two on the Monday. Thanks for all your support so far, and I hope you keep enjoying this comeback!

I liked your analysis (Never even heard of Fujisaki at all), and I liked your sober look at the very cynical early stories.

But having listened to most of your podcasts over the week (your first one appears to have disappeared, however), I have to tell you now. The only reason I bothered with your podcast at all is because of the specific topic of Shonen Jump as Shonen Jump. What really hurts you is the fact that all I’m doing is listening to you talk to air.

It’s nicely written and structured, I like the topics, you’ve surprised me with how sober your opinions are (though I don’t always agree), but you need to have conversation with SOMEONE to really have this podcast be engrossing.

I’m basically hearing an audio review, not a podcast. When you’ve got a heavy dose of opinion like this, you need to bounce it off of one or more people.

Good luck with the podcast. As I said before, I love the topic, and I’m slowly but surely discovering Jump one shots, series, and authors that I never would have known of otherwise, and I thank you for that.

An absolutely fantastic and well-constructed response. Thanks for the kind words and sincere feedback.

The whole issue of it just being me has been brought up before, and solving it has been a major headache. I don’t know enough people in the UK (where I currently live) who have enough of an interest in Weekly Shonen Jump to join in, and time-zones make organising others joining in on a regular basis a tad difficult.

I have taken it on board enough to be testing the waters of a… I guess a stop-gap solution? In between series one (ending this week) and series two (starting tentatively in June) I’m trying to bring people on for a chunk (like 10-15 minutes, ideally, which’d be almost half of an average episode) of each episode to have a real discussion about the chosen series. If they work out, then the plan is for it to be a regular part of the show. And if they flounder? Well, I’ll just have to keep trying to find ways to solve the issue, like searching for a permanent co-host. Either way, the dry solo format of F!E!V! can’t continue if I want to make something proper out of this. It even drives *me* to distraction.

So yes, thanks again for the feedback and the excuse to talk about how I’m trying to improve the show. Oh and it’s awesome to not always agree with me, I’m a raging ball of bias with a lot of this stuff.

Day 4 of (almost) daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 01:06:54 +1200

Day 4 of (almost) daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and it’s a special episode running down nine of Ryu Fujisaki’s one-shots contained within the collections Worlds and Dramatic Irony, including an incredibly bizarre remake of Hoshin Engi.

This is the last of week one’s daily episodes, with a Vlog coming up over the weekend and the Hoshin Engi episode kicking off week two on the Monday. Thanks for all your support so far, and I hope you keep enjoying this comeback!

It’s the original volume covers to Sakuratetsu Taiwahen,...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:12:00 +1200

It’s the original volume covers to Sakuratetsu Taiwahen, the subject of last night’s Friendship! Effort! Victory! episode.

For reasons I’ve never been able to peg, Ryu Fujisaki has always been better at cover and colour art than he is at interior art. I think it’s something to do with these great palette choices.

There’s also a current snazzy bunkoban volume available containing both of these volumes in one, but that’s neither here nor there.

Day 3 of daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and it’s time...

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:37:35 +1200

Day 3 of daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and it’s time for the start of a series of shows about Ryu Fujisaki, kicking off with his utterly madcap and difficult to categorise gag sci-fi title Sakuratetsu Taiwahen (or Tetsu Sakura’s Dialogues if you’re feeling fancy).

It’s mostly me trying to get a grip on what I’m even talking about, but if you’ve ever been curious about Fujisaki and his surreal creations for Weekly Shonen Jump, this right here? Totally the place to start.

And come back tomorrow when I talk about his short story collections Worlds and Dramatic Irony! They’re… Also really weird. A pattern might be forming here…

Day 2 of daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and we’ve got...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 08:32:50 +1200

Day 2 of daily Friendship! Effort! Victory! and we’ve got Masaru Miyokawa and Ryosuke Takeuchi’s ST&RS, the utterly perfect cult series from 2011 that may not have made it big with Jump’s audience, but holds a very, *very* special place in my heart.

I also talk about the Weekly Shonen Jump ranking system, telling you about how most of what you’ve heard is wrong. It’s the most confident I’ve been in the quality of the show since the Kinnikuman episode, so come on over and give it a listen, and maybe even tell your friends!

Friendship! Effort! Victory! is finally back with new episodes...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:14:11 +1200

Friendship! Effort! Victory! is finally back with new episodes after its extended hiatus. We’re easing in gentle with Yasuki Tanaka’s Kagijin, a truly forgettable battle series from 2009 that I have little to say about and that no-one should care about in the slightest.

When’s the next episode? TOMORROW

What is it going to be? ST&RS

Friendship! Effort! Victory! delay

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:50:12 +1200

due to unforeseen illness and the loss of my voice, the return of FEV is now April 15th.
It will still be on daily episodes from there on out, and I thank all listeners for ther continued patience over this interminable hiatus