Halfway through this episode, I got the feeling that this was going to be the last semblance of a lull episode in the show before it ran down climax alley. And it did a good job, at both being a lull episode and fooling me into thinking not much else was going to happen in the b-plots. Boy, was eye ever wrong there.
In our ongoing maximum freestyle segment, Drew and Sam tackle one of the most zeitgeisty anime movies of the eighties, the nuclear-high-energy Project A-ko.
The Manga Olympics for Bloggers has officially begun! You can read all the articles, including some very interesting ones by our competition, and place your votes here: http://mangaweekend.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/manga-olympics-for-bloggers-poll-round-1part-1/
Our articles are on the voting page, or you can check them all out below:
Shojo/Josei: The Best at [More Than] Romance
Shonen/Seinen: Shonen Manga and Redefining Manliness
Shonen/Seinen: Shonen Manga Up and Comers Part 1
This post represents the second of three entries our blog is submitting to the Manga Olympics for Bloggers. Voting begins on June 16th, so just enjoy the article for now. Or check out our illustrious competition.
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Maybe it’s because I have fewer female anime/manga fan friends than male ones, but there’s no demographic of manga I see misconstrued more often than shojo. The idea that it’s synonymous with sparkly, tween-appeal school-life romance seems to show up at least once a week in conversations I have. Fortunately, there’s one very easy way to dispel this misconception; look at some of the shojo manga that actually exist.
This show really does love to depend on new character introductions to provide a weekly hook. At first I was doubtful as to whether or not it was really feasible for a small-world type of show with only a few characters shown in the opening/on the boxart to maintain this approach for a full 13 episodes. This week was going to be critical, since every character from the opening had finally been introduced. So the makers this show faced a choice; if they didn’t want to lose their momentum, skim the bottom of the barrel or start building deeper relationships around the current cast.
Or do both at the same time, what do I know?
So Hibito got right back to Earth, greeted the crowd, then collapsed onto a hospital bed due to gravity fatigue. Not much to say about the scenes where Hibito was readjusting to Earth’s gravity. It’s a real part of what astronauts go through, so of course Space Brothers handles it realistically. The writer was fun enough to approach it from a few different angles, the best of which was of course ultra-heavy Apo.
That bit does make one feel sorry for those with German Sheperds
I typically haven’t been interested in the battles this show has had. And this episode wasn’t really an exception. Still, it was more enjoyable than previous ones because it toyed with my expectations a bit more.
A few months ago, just before the spring 2013 season started, we did a rather odd preview of the shows coming out that season, one involving fake money and real bragging rights. To find out who won (and thus who makes the odds for our upcoming summer 2013 preview) read on!
Takako Shimura’s Wandering Son is a fantastically tasteful and insightful work whose main character is a boy who wants to become a girl (Shuuichi Nitori). Wandering Son and Takako Shimura’s other works (most notably Aoi Hana) stand out in a landscape of anime and manga featuring LGBT characters for making said characters something more than a running gags or sexual fantasies. And also for being great manga that explore personal growth on a long-term basis.* For example, Wandering Son started out with the main characters in fourth grade, followed the characters through middle school and high school, and, as of this chapter, moved on to the beginning of the Nitori’s career. Typical of Takako Shimura, this stitch was accomplished with both the finesse of a tailor and the speed of a sewing machine.
This post represents the first of three entries our blog is submitting to the Manga Olympics for Bloggers. Voting begins in a few days on June 16th, so just enjoy the article for now. Or check out our illustrious competition.
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Shonen manga, as literally defined, are manga marketed towards young boys. There are several implications of this definition, but I’m going to zero in on one in particular for the moment. Because shonen manga is popular with and being marketed towards younger boys, it must to some degree adhere to their notions of manliness, but still holds a unique opportunity to redefine what they see as cool, manly traits to aspire to. Let’s dive right in and take a look at some of the many shonen manga that subtly teach kids life lessons.
Animetics 