It’s been a hot minute since I was blogging here, huh?

What’s happened since you were last here?

Now basically everyone is at the point of the year where they’re all going to school and whatnot, I finally have some time back to myself. This is a good thing, I think, because I set a lot of things aside to curb the sheer craziness that is the server I keep talking about (including…some stuff I should get a hustle on with). That said, the next big server thing will be the 2nd DRB voting halfway results on October 16th 2021, so my job is not done yet.

I’ve been using some of my reclaimed time to chip away at my spreadsheet and other backlog, plus comment on other bloggers’ posts every so often.

So, in no particular order (plus a mild spoiler alert for the Rokuhoudou and Mugen Train sections):

Look Back

Part of what pulled me back to blogging after these months away was commenting on Scott’s post on this.

It kind of saddens me that the one time I could have made it big on ANN, and indeed the time Scott made it big on ANN, was…the one time I happened to get my own butt away from the blogging system that’s been so kind to me for the past 9 years or so. However, I don’t do this for the money – that’s what my translation degree is for (as much as I suck at the fundamental skills of that, haha) – and I’d rather someone who’s serious about writing take the spot from me. To be fair, I can also see why ANN took him on – Scott’s niche is fairly rare, plus his writing has gotten much better over the years I’ve been around it. Those English classes and writing internships really did the trick!

I think this manga one shot made me aware that Fujimoto is not just That Chainsaw Man Guy. In fact, he was also the creator of a different series I’ve been eyeing for some time, Fire Punch.

I’ll take basically any one shot thrown my way because one shots can sometimes be really different to an author’s usual work (like this case) and, while they can feel constrained by their page count, they’re easily consumable.

As for the content itself, I thought it was clever how the manga essentially went back in time and wrote its own alternate universes, in a way that was very much up to the reader’s interpretation. It’s very much a love letter to those that love manga and its creation process, even though not everyone actually creates said manga. I read the one shot before it was edited, but part of it was clearly inspired by the Kyoto Animation arson attack. Makes one wonder exactly how autobiographical the entire thing is (although it’s not nice to pry into anyone else’s lives…)

Dandadan

This manga’s kinda new, so who knows if my hiatus curse will strike it again…?

It’s a bit horny – I mean, when you have aliens that steal schlongs, you kinda gotta deal with it – but that’s outweighed by the cool battle scenes, collision of aliens vs. ghosts and the power of a Turbo Granny + another granny who’s far too young-looking for her own good…okay, you get the picture. Its amount of sheer crazy (including that nonsensical title…especially that nonsensical title…) outweighs the bad.

If you’re worried about fanservice, it’s actually fairly equal opportunity – although “Okarun” (whose real name is a plot point) is made naked by whatever forces he fights against quite a bit and he also gets his…uh, family jewels…stolen in the shape of two spheres, Shiratori and Momo, the two main girls of the series, also get similar treatment (although…uh…the aliens want to impregnate Momo for her esper abilities *nervous sweats*).

Basically, if you can get your head around Jigokuraku, you’re ready to take on Dandadan.

Candy Flurry/Ame no Furu

Another unique series with an ostensible equal footing between a male and a female lead. This series started in Shonen Jump a while back but got the axe while I was elsewhere. I think it’s because the characters were always rather plain (Misaki, in particular, is comically characterised in this way) that it did.

While we’re at it, there are only so many ways you can slice the idea of “sweets as weapons”, including stretching the idea a bit to the use of exploding popcorn.

Sidenote: The title is a pun. Ame ga furu = “rain falls” but ame can refer to candy with different kanji. Thus, if you put both meanings together, it suggesting it’s raining lollies, which is indeed what happened in the story.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori

This manga’s still being its usual laidback self, but the second-to-most recent chapter – chapter 71 – was about Tokitaka getting his first smartphone (because during the festival mini-arc, he was relying on his flip phone). It was kinda cute to see him get all obsessed with taking pictures of stuff…and then abandon it for a photography camera at the end.

Bubble

This one shot is only available via Magazine Pocket in Japanese, so I’ll keep my thoughts short. This diving manga had the privilege of sucking me in with its detailed art. I would like to see more from the mangaka, but they haven’t done much.

Kimetsu no Yaiba: Mugen Ressha-hen

I know this movie blew up almost everywhere it was screened…I give it a resounding meh anyway.

It took me 3 days to finish (because I took a break on the first day and didn’t come back to it until 2 days later). I guess it also didn’t help my sublicensor got eaten by Funimation, so I had to contend with controls I couldn’t read around (I know the sublicensing system means I have to wait longer, but please, just give me my old watching interface back!), plus the entire cave adventure and “Nezuko and Zenitsu go on a date” segments were basically what made me take a break in the first place. Those segments also killed my interest for Enmu, who was quite a let down with the CGI blob tentacle form and the monologuing, and only slogging to get to the battle scenes got me back.

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Welp, it’s clear I got my zeal for blogging back again – this post is over 1000 words long! (I was gonna split it into two, but then realised all my anime thoughts are (mostly) going into the end of season posts I’m writing…) Obviously, I read and consumed more than this, so you can ask me about other stuff on my list too.