yet another insomniac manga dump
1. Detective Conan: whoohoo!!! New Nagano case. And a surprisingly brutal one* at that, with heavy police involvement (looks to be an internal affairs sort of case) and Gosho teasing the RUM plotline** as a bonus. (I adooooooore the Nagano trio. They are my absolute favorite recurring side characters in the series [and not just because their cases are always the historically themed ones :P]. And the non-romantic police-centric cases*** tend to feature Gosho's best writing.) Haven't been this excited about a new Conan case in a long while! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
* Seriously, it has been a while since the last really nasty murders in this series (though another one of the recent cases was pretty dark -- the scriptwriter one).
** Hard to believe Bourbon was just resolved earlier this year (and we actually got a lot of backstory drips this year -- feels like forever ago!), but I'm beyond glad that Gosho doesn't seem to plan on dragging out the RUM arc the way he dragged out Bourbon. (Although Bourbon arc also introduced one of my favorite new plot-relevant characters.) At least for now? And maybe Bourbon just felt so long because the solution to the main mystery seemed obvious fairly early on? (checking stats rn, Vermouth covered almost 200 chapters [~4 years -- best arc though, with a LOT of plot movement], Kir took a bit over 120 [~2.5 years], aaaand yep not my imagination, Bourbon took about 275 chapters to resolve [more than 5 years])
*** Cases with the Nagano duo/trio have all been winners for me so far (their two long introductory cases in particular, Fuurinkazan and Red Wall); that old epic Osaka case was great; the more recent "Wataru brothers" case was great; Megure's past was great (though not as "serious" as the others); scarred serial killer case was good though imo not as strong as the others. Although best by far has got to remain the old serial bomber case.
(Someday when this crazy series is complete I totally plan on making a "best cases" guide. And even that will no doubt be as long/longer than plenty of other series, LOL)
2. Liar Game: yeah yeah I'll eat my hat, I was totally wrong. I'm actually kind of annoyed, not because I was wrong but because wow, how anticlimactic, did we all really need to see 3-4 pointless chapters in a row on this? This doesn't come anywhere close to the resolutions of the previous arcs. And evidently from comments I'm not the only one feeling this way.
(Well no, I don't think my theory is completely debunked just yet, because the standstill option still exists [and is in fact easier now to enact, both mathematically speaking as I kindasorta touched on in my earlier post, as well as psychologically]. And again from comments I'm not the only one this option has occurred to. Even so, overall something just feels lacking about the way this is playing out. I held off on posting about this last week because I was expecting this week's chapter to have more development. But MEH.)
3. My Hero Academia: I'm still reading this for some reason. I guess partly because the fan translator is REALLY good. Muchos respect for translators who go above and beyond. As for the rest -- I admit I do really like the character designs and the overall art style. My anti-superhero bias -- can't do nuttin bout that. The plot -- meh. I get the feeling this is a series that really needs to be an ensemble story. So far, that's how it's shaping up. However, I don't have faith in this mangaka yet to be able to juggle this many characters. School stories are a lot harder to write than it seems, tbh, especially with such an ambitious cast size right from the start.
(Absolutely can be pulled off though -- see: Assassination Classroom -- but in the case of AssClass that's in part due to the setup, the anti-villain protagonist, and the nature of the primary "hero" figure. Otherwise most series don't really go beyond a core group of 3-9ish, and as Naruto demonstrated, even 9 is kinda pushing it in most cases.)
tl;dr objectively speaking this is good so far I guess. Still doesn't grab me personally, but it's interesting to study, especially if it ends up really taking off -- but even if it ends up fizzling out as the latest fad. I have to admit that 90% of my interest in the series has to do with the current state of the industry though, and which direction the action shounen market is going to head in next.
4. Speaking of AssClass (I refuse to not abbreviate like this): Matsui may approach serious topics with a really bizarre, over-the-top perspective sometimes, but that's precisely what makes him so entertaining as a writer. Current arc can be read as a satire/commentary on helicopter parenting (arguably a running theme through the whole series though), and ouch, it's pretty damn incisive. In context, it's a pretty stunning piece of characterization (explains A LOT about one of the main recurring characters whom I shall not identify any further, and said character's coping mechanisms). Out of context it's a pitch perfect depiction of narcissistic personality disorder and how horrifyingly poisonous it can be.
5. One Piece: ZORO. <3
(And oh god Baby 5. XD)
comments at the original Dreamwidth post
* Seriously, it has been a while since the last really nasty murders in this series (though another one of the recent cases was pretty dark -- the scriptwriter one).
** Hard to believe Bourbon was just resolved earlier this year (and we actually got a lot of backstory drips this year -- feels like forever ago!), but I'm beyond glad that Gosho doesn't seem to plan on dragging out the RUM arc the way he dragged out Bourbon. (Although Bourbon arc also introduced one of my favorite new plot-relevant characters.) At least for now? And maybe Bourbon just felt so long because the solution to the main mystery seemed obvious fairly early on? (checking stats rn, Vermouth covered almost 200 chapters [~4 years -- best arc though, with a LOT of plot movement], Kir took a bit over 120 [~2.5 years], aaaand yep not my imagination, Bourbon took about 275 chapters to resolve [more than 5 years])
*** Cases with the Nagano duo/trio have all been winners for me so far (their two long introductory cases in particular, Fuurinkazan and Red Wall); that old epic Osaka case was great; the more recent "Wataru brothers" case was great; Megure's past was great (though not as "serious" as the others); scarred serial killer case was good though imo not as strong as the others. Although best by far has got to remain the old serial bomber case.
(Someday when this crazy series is complete I totally plan on making a "best cases" guide. And even that will no doubt be as long/longer than plenty of other series, LOL)
2. Liar Game: yeah yeah I'll eat my hat, I was totally wrong. I'm actually kind of annoyed, not because I was wrong but because wow, how anticlimactic, did we all really need to see 3-4 pointless chapters in a row on this? This doesn't come anywhere close to the resolutions of the previous arcs. And evidently from comments I'm not the only one feeling this way.
(Well no, I don't think my theory is completely debunked just yet, because the standstill option still exists [and is in fact easier now to enact, both mathematically speaking as I kindasorta touched on in my earlier post, as well as psychologically]. And again from comments I'm not the only one this option has occurred to. Even so, overall something just feels lacking about the way this is playing out. I held off on posting about this last week because I was expecting this week's chapter to have more development. But MEH.)
3. My Hero Academia: I'm still reading this for some reason. I guess partly because the fan translator is REALLY good. Muchos respect for translators who go above and beyond. As for the rest -- I admit I do really like the character designs and the overall art style. My anti-superhero bias -- can't do nuttin bout that. The plot -- meh. I get the feeling this is a series that really needs to be an ensemble story. So far, that's how it's shaping up. However, I don't have faith in this mangaka yet to be able to juggle this many characters. School stories are a lot harder to write than it seems, tbh, especially with such an ambitious cast size right from the start.
(Absolutely can be pulled off though -- see: Assassination Classroom -- but in the case of AssClass that's in part due to the setup, the anti-villain protagonist, and the nature of the primary "hero" figure. Otherwise most series don't really go beyond a core group of 3-9ish, and as Naruto demonstrated, even 9 is kinda pushing it in most cases.)
tl;dr objectively speaking this is good so far I guess. Still doesn't grab me personally, but it's interesting to study, especially if it ends up really taking off -- but even if it ends up fizzling out as the latest fad. I have to admit that 90% of my interest in the series has to do with the current state of the industry though, and which direction the action shounen market is going to head in next.
4. Speaking of AssClass (I refuse to not abbreviate like this): Matsui may approach serious topics with a really bizarre, over-the-top perspective sometimes, but that's precisely what makes him so entertaining as a writer. Current arc can be read as a satire/commentary on helicopter parenting (arguably a running theme through the whole series though), and ouch, it's pretty damn incisive. In context, it's a pretty stunning piece of characterization (explains A LOT about one of the main recurring characters whom I shall not identify any further, and said character's coping mechanisms). Out of context it's a pitch perfect depiction of narcissistic personality disorder and how horrifyingly poisonous it can be.
5. One Piece: ZORO. <3
(And oh god Baby 5. XD)
comments at the original Dreamwidth post