Week in Manga: If only Reira had a friend like Sena
Cut for spoilers, but no big revelations except for NANA.
Fairy Tail 84: Despite being in preparation for a major battle, I say Fairy Tail's on a calm point. It'll still take some time for Erza to meet Jeral/Gerard/whatever they spell it as, and that's what they main thing about the arc is. Natsu win big points for his cat imitations though. (Kitty tears FTW! Nya~) And I wonder what's the deal with Jubia/Lluvia's name. I probably need to download the RAW to see if it's a romaji issue or she really has two names.
Bleach -104: Wee widdle Shuuhei, you are fanservice even as a child. Do something, Shuuhei. I'm glad that Kensei affirms that Hisagi Shuuhei is a strong name, though, as that's the impression I get too from chirachira's name translation. Excellent name as a soldier (though, does it mean he's not cut it to be a leader?). In any case, Shuuhei either is really good at evading Aizen or not good enough to attract him. Kira and Momo got manipulated, Renji was at least considered, but even as Tousen's vice captain he's an outsider to the plan.
The jury's still out on the identity of the culprit of the disappearing souls incident, with the prime suspect being Aizen (with Gin), but I want it to be Urahara and Mayuri. Please, Kubo-sensei, write someone to call out Urahara on his morally ambiguous deeds. He's gotten the free pass for too long. If black is evil and white is good, then Urahara hasn't been painted black enough all this time--even Ichigo forgave him easily! And Isshin, no reactions towards what happened to his teenage son!
Gintama 210: Still on the roll with little stories, now we get a glimpse of the world of high-class courtesans. Shinpachi gets mocked for being a virgin again XD And then he and Kagura went disguised as geisha. Still, since this is Gintama, is Hinowa Dayuu really Seita's mom? Dun dun dun...
The anime's more interesting right now.
Or hunting for raw/trans to use for indie-scanlating to fill the big gap between 51 and 190.
One Piece 498: An introduction chapter for a bunch of expensive pirates who'll later prove to be friends or foes. None of them interest me at first sight. :/ I'm more interested in Shakky, the beautiful obahan who would get along well with dr. Kureha (or maybe try to kill each other with words), and who Luffy's grandpa probably used to have the hots for. The buildup for Rayleigh seems like the buildup for Franky, but a new Strawhat seems too soon.
It's cute to see that Caimie most probably has a big crush on Hacchan. :3
...and Zoro would probably wander to the most dangerous place possible at this rate. Grove 1 is very close with the Marine HQ.
Eyeshield 21 279: I, a girl, am crying manly tears for this chapter. Great, great story. And what's making it even more poignant is that Honjou-san isn't even mean-spirited in his raising Taka as a superskilled athlete, nor is he Monta's mentor in reality.
The "killing your idol" theme in shounen sometimes come up, like Sanosuke-Anji in Rurouni Kenshin, or Mikagami-Meguri Kyouza in Flame of Recca, but it more often than not involves the "idol" being actual villains, or acting villainy as a means to test the protagonist. But in the situation of Honjou-san and Monta, nobody is deliberately being a villain to anybody.
Monta one-sidedly decides to make Honjou-san his raison d'etre just based on one bit of childhood memory. Honjou himself trained Taka, but doesn't seem like Kid's dad who drives him to be number 1. Honjou and Taka just look like some normal father and son who's enjoying their game and just happens to be very good at it. While Monta feels like he's being offered as sacrificial lamb, Honjou didn't really do that. He didn't falsely lead Monta into anything. But as Monta, it's natural to be awed by the small kindness that Honjou gave. And that's one of the things that has driven Monta to be what he is today, so in that sense, Honjou has become Monta's mentor, and then unknowingly breaks Monta's heart by nurturing the existence of Taka.
But Sena is a wonderful friend that everyone needs. A friend who would do something for your sake, not knowing whether you would throw all his hard work (LOL at Watt giving his glove to a RANDOM JAPANESE TOURIST what is the chance of that succeeding?) at his face for being worthless or accept it, but do it anyway.
NANA 74: Still a raw but I just had to comment because YEAH! I CALLED THAT. Ichinose Ren, you are officially welcomed to the cast. And I officially love you for defending your Papa from that bullying Uncle Naoki (whose survival instinct is EPIC-level if he not only managed to escape the inescapable web of sorrow his friends are tangled in, but got married and had a daughter that he cutely dotes on). Agree with brightredglow that there's no way Ren is not Hachi's child, whoever the biological father may be.
Reira is miserable and I'm sad for her. She's something many girls would love to be: beautiful, has a great voice, rich & famous at one point of time and maybe right now she's still able to live off her savings and songwriting royalty. But she was trapped the moment she fell in love for Takumi, which is damn tragic because it happened so early in her life. If she has more friends, maybe she'd be more able to stand on her own? But perhaps, it was because of the admired qualities she has that it is difficult for her to make friends.
What would it be if Reira had a friend like Sena?
And on another note, what would it be had Yasu, not Naoki, been Trapnest's drummer? melanierain wrote that Yasu and Takumi together can take over the world, and they probably really can.
Fairy Tail 84: Despite being in preparation for a major battle, I say Fairy Tail's on a calm point. It'll still take some time for Erza to meet Jeral/Gerard/whatever they spell it as, and that's what they main thing about the arc is. Natsu win big points for his cat imitations though. (Kitty tears FTW! Nya~) And I wonder what's the deal with Jubia/Lluvia's name. I probably need to download the RAW to see if it's a romaji issue or she really has two names.
Bleach -104: Wee widdle Shuuhei, you are fanservice even as a child. Do something, Shuuhei. I'm glad that Kensei affirms that Hisagi Shuuhei is a strong name, though, as that's the impression I get too from chirachira's name translation. Excellent name as a soldier (though, does it mean he's not cut it to be a leader?). In any case, Shuuhei either is really good at evading Aizen or not good enough to attract him. Kira and Momo got manipulated, Renji was at least considered, but even as Tousen's vice captain he's an outsider to the plan.
The jury's still out on the identity of the culprit of the disappearing souls incident, with the prime suspect being Aizen (with Gin), but I want it to be Urahara and Mayuri. Please, Kubo-sensei, write someone to call out Urahara on his morally ambiguous deeds. He's gotten the free pass for too long. If black is evil and white is good, then Urahara hasn't been painted black enough all this time--even Ichigo forgave him easily! And Isshin, no reactions towards what happened to his teenage son!
Gintama 210: Still on the roll with little stories, now we get a glimpse of the world of high-class courtesans. Shinpachi gets mocked for being a virgin again XD And then he and Kagura went disguised as geisha. Still, since this is Gintama, is Hinowa Dayuu really Seita's mom? Dun dun dun...
The anime's more interesting right now.
Or hunting for raw/trans to use for indie-scanlating to fill the big gap between 51 and 190.
One Piece 498: An introduction chapter for a bunch of expensive pirates who'll later prove to be friends or foes. None of them interest me at first sight. :/ I'm more interested in Shakky, the beautiful obahan who would get along well with dr. Kureha (or maybe try to kill each other with words), and who Luffy's grandpa probably used to have the hots for. The buildup for Rayleigh seems like the buildup for Franky, but a new Strawhat seems too soon.
It's cute to see that Caimie most probably has a big crush on Hacchan. :3
...and Zoro would probably wander to the most dangerous place possible at this rate. Grove 1 is very close with the Marine HQ.
Eyeshield 21 279: I, a girl, am crying manly tears for this chapter. Great, great story. And what's making it even more poignant is that Honjou-san isn't even mean-spirited in his raising Taka as a superskilled athlete, nor is he Monta's mentor in reality.
The "killing your idol" theme in shounen sometimes come up, like Sanosuke-Anji in Rurouni Kenshin, or Mikagami-Meguri Kyouza in Flame of Recca, but it more often than not involves the "idol" being actual villains, or acting villainy as a means to test the protagonist. But in the situation of Honjou-san and Monta, nobody is deliberately being a villain to anybody.
Monta one-sidedly decides to make Honjou-san his raison d'etre just based on one bit of childhood memory. Honjou himself trained Taka, but doesn't seem like Kid's dad who drives him to be number 1. Honjou and Taka just look like some normal father and son who's enjoying their game and just happens to be very good at it. While Monta feels like he's being offered as sacrificial lamb, Honjou didn't really do that. He didn't falsely lead Monta into anything. But as Monta, it's natural to be awed by the small kindness that Honjou gave. And that's one of the things that has driven Monta to be what he is today, so in that sense, Honjou has become Monta's mentor, and then unknowingly breaks Monta's heart by nurturing the existence of Taka.
But Sena is a wonderful friend that everyone needs. A friend who would do something for your sake, not knowing whether you would throw all his hard work (LOL at Watt giving his glove to a RANDOM JAPANESE TOURIST what is the chance of that succeeding?) at his face for being worthless or accept it, but do it anyway.
NANA 74: Still a raw but I just had to comment because YEAH! I CALLED THAT. Ichinose Ren, you are officially welcomed to the cast. And I officially love you for defending your Papa from that bullying Uncle Naoki (whose survival instinct is EPIC-level if he not only managed to escape the inescapable web of sorrow his friends are tangled in, but got married and had a daughter that he cutely dotes on). Agree with brightredglow that there's no way Ren is not Hachi's child, whoever the biological father may be.
Reira is miserable and I'm sad for her. She's something many girls would love to be: beautiful, has a great voice, rich & famous at one point of time and maybe right now she's still able to live off her savings and songwriting royalty. But she was trapped the moment she fell in love for Takumi, which is damn tragic because it happened so early in her life. If she has more friends, maybe she'd be more able to stand on her own? But perhaps, it was because of the admired qualities she has that it is difficult for her to make friends.
What would it be if Reira had a friend like Sena?
And on another note, what would it be had Yasu, not Naoki, been Trapnest's drummer? melanierain wrote that Yasu and Takumi together can take over the world, and they probably really can.