Finding characters you can relate to is part of the fun of fiction. Over the years, I’ve found a fair many that I could connect to, but exceedingly few have spoken to the core of my very being in the same way as Laios Touden.
Laios lives in a fantasy world filled with magic and the supernatural, where he has the unusual hobby of eating monsters, but there are layers to that passion. Sure, he wants to know the best ways to cook the beasts that populate the dungeon, but he’s not like his travel companion Senshi, who wants to find the peak of labyrinth cooking. Instead, what drives Laios is culinary discovery and exploration. More important than figuring out what tastes best is the desire to taste flavors he’s never come across before, and to eat things that might not even be considered edible to most others. If I were in his shoes, I would be the same way. He and I share a similar philosophy: “You don’t know how it’ll taste until you actually eat it.”
And if Laios were just a goofy, relatable guy, that would be enough. But there’s a depth to his silly charm. He’s basically never lost his childhood curiosity, and his enthusiasm is both infectious and a positive force on everyone who gets to know him. I could only hope to be so lucky to do the same for the people I know.
BEST FEMALE CHARACTER
Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End)
Over the past fifteen years, it’s often felt like anime has been lacking more traditional fantasy series. Then in comes Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End to show that something more classical-feeling still has a place. It feels refreshingly new yet orthodox, and central to that success is the protagonist herself.
Frieren is an elf mage who has basically already accomplished her biggest quest ever, and is now on a journey to retrace her old steps, indulge in her hobby of collecting obscure and delightfully frivolous spells, and help guide a new generation of adventurers. Her long years mean she has lived experience of things lost to time to most, yet she neither puts stock in the old or the new just because. To her, everything is a valuable learning experience. In a way, she reminds me of a previous Best Character of the Year, Yang Wen-Li from Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
There’s something that I think sums Frieren (and by extension the themes of the series) very well: How the character Serie sees her. To most, Frieren is like a walking myth and impossibly powerful, but Serie is actually even older and stronger. In her eyes, the younger elf has squandered her years and is well below her magical potential—like someone with 30 years of experience in a foreign language only being as fluent as someone who’s been studying for 20. However, Frieren sees value in pursuing things at the pace you want for the things you value, and it’s a lesson I constantly try to take to heart.
BEST ROBOT BRO
Bravern (Bang Brave Bang Bravern)
There is possibly no character who flips his entire world on its head more thoroughly than Bravern. When you first enter the story of Bang Brave Bang Bravern, you think it’s this gritty, relatively realistic mecha story. Colors are dark and subdued. Then, when a fearsome enemy attacks that overwhelms conventional human militaries, in comes a mysterious and bright-red super robot reminiscent of 90s Yuusha anime with little need for an indoor voice, but he literally plays his own fiery, trumpet-filled theme song!
Bravern is not just a fun character—he’s a representative of a style of giant robot and giant heroics lost to time. And he’s the massive unit you want by your side, whether for the bro friendship or the bromance. Or, you know.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Laios and Frieren have a lot in common. They’re both protagonists of fantasy series that have garnered incredible acclaim among fans and critics alike. The two are so popular that you might well accuse me of making the most boring and obvious choices. Yet, while it’s often said that “popular doesn’t mean good,” that doesn’t mean popular things are automatically bad either. With Delicious in Dungeon and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End alike, you have titles that show how you don’t have to appeal to the lowest common denominator to garner love on a wider scale.
But more important than all that stuff is this: If they met, Laios and Frieren would probably end up being incredible friends for each other. Their sense of wonder at amazement at things others overlook would probably get them talking for hours to each other. The two represent not just styles of fantasy fiction that aren’t as game/isekai-coded, but also approaches to heroes who don’t prioritize power or progress.
And as for Bravern, well, he’d probably be good chums with them too, don’t you think?
If there was ever any sign that I’ve become a serious fan of VTubers, it would have to be the fact that I went to the Fantôme Thief’s Revenge concert in Atlanta, Georgia.
When this joint event between Dokibird and Mint Fantôme was first announced, I felt conflicted about whether to even go. On the one hand, I had decided to support Doki in ways I hadn’t back when she was Selen Tatsuki. Mint, for her part, is a charismatic performer whose friendship with Doki goes back to their previous incarnations in VTubing. On the other hand, this was pretty bad timing, being right before the holidays. Moreover, the concerts I had attended previously were either attached or adjacent to other things I was already doing, like conventions. Anime Weekend Atlanta was the same weekend, but I simply couldn’t stay too long.
But between the lack of an official streaming option and the reveal that one of the special guests was none other than Dooby (another big name who made the decision to go independent), I made my decision to go. I had a focused mission: Fly to Atlanta, go see Doki and Mint, sleep, go home. (Also, eat some fried chicken and Bojangles.) I never thought I’d do something like this, but here I am, and it was totally worthwhile.
Entering the Venue
Upon first arriving in the area of the concert, I saw a large line outside that gave me a bit of deja vu from Breaking Dimensions. While waiting in line is never fun, I did enjoy seeing all the eager fans. There were the Doki and Mint supporters, of course, and Dooby’s reputation precedes her, but I even saw some who were clearly there for the other guests—PiaPiUFO, Phoebe, and Juna Unagi.
After finally getting into the concert site, the Tabernacle, I was faced with a second line—this time for merch. Unfortunately, the penlights sold out before I could make it to the front, but I bought a few other things instead, including a holographic ticket that isn’t going to be sold online. Also, I thought there was a chance I might not get my hands on a concert penlight, so I brought a backup with me, just in case. From there, I made my way up to the balcony. To my surprise, a good number of seats were available despite the fact that the tickets for them were unreserved, so I got to have an amazing and unobstructed view. After a half-hour delay (due to the sheer number of people trying to buy merch), things kicked off with the opening acts.
The Opening Acts
I had little prior experience with PiaPi, Juna, or Phoebe. At the very most, I’d seen Phoebe on guest lists at conventions here and there. Knowing the lineup, I actually spent a bit of time in the days prior and on the plane getting to know their music. While I got the sense that they were all decent performers, I wasn’t prepared for how much more impressive they were at the concert. PiaPi did a great job building up hype and using her 2D model to its fullest, and she just sounded great. I’m glad I finally got to hear Phoebe in action, who was solid all around, and I enjoyed her cover of “Snow Halation.” Juna’s sultry voice and presentation worked well, though I’m not quite the audience for a parody song that describes gay sex and waterworks in extremely fine detail.
Each of them sang three or four songs, and were almost half the entire concert. I think Doki and Mint granting so much time to the other VTubers is very representative of them and their desire to create events that celebrate others. PiaPi has the smallest following out of all of them, and she’s seeing a significant bump in subscribers. While waiting in line before the concert, I happened to spot two PiaPi supporters (known as Pickles) dressed in themed happi.
It was then time for the main acts, and the screen transitioned to Dokibird—except she wasn’t singing or dancing, but was instead indulging in her latest gaming obsession: Marvel Rivals. The audience spent seven minutes watching her play as Luna Snow while Mint was telling her to wrap it up. If there’s anything that a more corporate VTuber event wouldn’t be able to do, it’s probably silliness like this.
The Main Attraction
Finally, on a stage decorated with their fan mascots waving penlights, Doki and Mint warped in, fully 3D and amidst raucous applause. I can’t say enough about how beautiful their models were. It was as if the original 2D designs had been brought to life, and to make them look that good both when still and in motion was no easy feat. Mint’s concert model wasn’t her official one, but the quality was still very nice. Dokibird’s is her official one, and she even hired for it a highly regarded artist in KarakuriPower (who’s done work for hololive).
I didn’t recognize a lot of the songs, and I even thought their first act was an original number when it was actually a cover with the words “Doki” and “Mint” swapped in. Regardless, I enjoyed the sheer variety of musical choices. Doki acknowledges that she’s nowhere near as good a singer or dancer as Mint, and so her individual performances tended towards meme picks, like “Xue Mao Jiao”, the Doraemon opening, and the Five Nights at Freddy’s theme. Even if she admitted to flubbing some choreography, I think she succeeded in bringing the fans along for the ride. Hopefully next time, she can do a Cantonese song too.
Mint loves idols and idol culture with all her heart, so she tended in that direction. Her performance of “New Romantic Sailors” was a personal highlight. Not only is it one of the best Love Live! Songs, period, but I actually got to see it performed live at Anime NYC a few years ago. While she delivered in spades on the “Minto-chan Laser Beeeaaaam!” (playing off “Riko-chan Laser Beam” from the original performer), I also appreciated seeing her substituting her name for all three Guilty Kiss singers in the lead-up to the yell. However, in between the idol stuff, she threw in a cover of “Break Stuff’ by nu metal band Limp Bizkit, which has become an anthem of sorts for Mint. The ghost maid is such a solid entertainer.
The Ultimate Callback
One of the biggest moments of Fantôme Thief’s Revenge snuck up on the entire audience. A duet began with Mint sitting at a table with a cup in hand. Doki walked over, also holding a cup, and then she sang the words that brought some of the loudest cheers of the evening: “Someday, we’ll have our last conversation…and drink our last cup of coffee.”
The significance of lilypichu’s “Last Cup of Coffee” to Doki and her fanbase cannot be understated. For her original supporters in her earliest days of VTubing, this was like Doki’s gift to them shortly before her original graduation. For those who discovered her as Selen, her cover music video was supposed to be her Christmas present to us, but its removal is what started the chain of events that led to her tumultuous firing and subsequent revival as Dokibid. And now here she was, almost a year later, singing it once again, as if to show that she dictates what the song means to her and her fans.
Much of Dokibird’s return since February has seen her reclaim aspects of her identity, such as her fan name (Dragoons), her appearance (a design by the same artist used for Selen), and her subscriber count (800,000+). This song was one of the last pieces of the puzzle. In later streams, Doki and Mint revealed that the decision to have this in the concert was Mint’s idea, and that it was to make “Last Cup of Coffee” a happy memory for the Dragoons.
Dooby and a New Age of VTubing?
What actually brought the loudest yells of the concert was the awaited appearance of the final guest.
As the stage screen transitioned to a red curtain backdrop, “Sugar Song and Bitter Step,” the ending theme to the anime Blood Blockade Battlefront, began. Mimicking the ending video, Doki appeared in a spotlight, followed seconds later by Mintl. This left an open spot in the middle, where a little train car suddenly appeared, signaling a warp-in by Dooby in all her train-conducting Jerboa glory. The audience erupted and I did my best to add to the excitement. This song was also a popular karaoke choice for Dooby in her previous identity, so it felt extra special to her fans who have been supporting her these past five years. Seeing them all dance and kick and just have a good time is one of my fondest memories from this concert.
I think the crowd reaction wasn’t simply because Dooby is a beloved Vtuber. Just as important was how these were three of the biggest names in English VTubing, now all working as indies. It was as if a new era had arrived.
Bringing It Home
The “final” song of the evening was emblematic of the general irreverence of the concert as a whole: “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island. PiaPi, Phoebe, and Juna all joined in, still using their 2D models. The comedic nature of the song had the whole audience bopping along, and I think the fact that Doki and Mint brought the opening guests in for this performance once again speaks to their general interest in using their platform to bring attention to lesser known talents. It was an attitude that benefited their previous company, and it’s heartwarming to see them follow through on their desire to help others out. The encore was “shake it!” by Vocaloid composer emon. I didn’t know it myself, but in hindsight, having it end with a Hatsune Miku song is about as appropriate as it gets for a VTuber concert.
Closing Thoughts
While there was no official stream of Fantôme Thief’s Revenge, the two made it okay to record the concert. Later, I learned that there was a handcam stream on Twitter that had over 50,000 concurrent viewers. Days later, a full version was also uploaded to Youtube:
So why did I write all this up despite it being freely accessible to everyone? Because I think it’s important to still have these memories put into words for posterity. Also, I think there are some things that don’t easily come across even with a video,
In terms of criticisms, I don’t have many. I wish I could have gotten a penlight. Some of the reserved seating (which I wasn’t a part of) forced that part of the audience to view things at an awkward angle because of the screen. Not only was the timing of the concert inconvenient because it was so close to the holidays, but it also overlapped The VTuber Awards which had a halftime performance), as well as hololive EN’s musical, “The Broken Promise.”
I’m happy I ended up going to “Fantôme Thief’s Revenge.” It was both Dokibird and Mint’s first true 3D concert as their current selves using their updated designs, and I cherish the fact that I could be part of it. Getting to see Dooby make her concert debut was also a treat, as was being better introduced to Piapi UFO, Phoebe, and Juna Unagi. It was an experience that rewarded my fandoms and helped me discover new possibilities. And while I hardly talked to any other fans, I could at least appreciate their mutual enthusiasm and energy.
Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master stands out as an anime that deftly combines different genres together to make a smart, compelling adaptation of the novel series.
Yamauchi, the world of Yatagarasu,resembles Heian-era Japan, but all the people have the ability to turn into large three-legged ravens—because they actually are ravens. Yukiya, the son of a leader from the North (one of four areas alongside the West, East, and South), gets into trouble that winds up with him working for the Imperial Prince. But despite its pristine outer image, the imperial court is center stage for the different factions to jockey for power, and clandestine actions are not uncommon.
The series is a mix of fantasy, court intrigue, character drama, and detective fiction, where the Prince is the primary investigator and Yukiya is his somewhat reluctant assistant. With all these different elements at play, it would be very easy to have the work fall apart, but Yatagarasu successfully weaves it all together. The world-building is continuously intriguing, the mysteries are elaborate and well-structured, and the twists and revelations are genuinely surprising while still connecting logically. Even the seemingly arbitrary decisions about the setting play into the greater story. The greater cast is great as well, whether it’s potential brides for the Prince showing that they’re more than passive damsels or enemies with unseen sides.
The anime gets through its initial major story and ends in the middle of the next one, so it doesn’t wrap up neatly. Nevertheless, I think it’s a great series that can draw viewers deep into its world if they can handle the court complexities.
Video essayist F.D Signifier has made various videos about what he calls edgelord movies—media featuring cool lone-wolf heroes—and the way they interact with the portion of their fanbase that consist of a male, mostly white viewers drawn to their depiction of masculinity. Fight Club, The Matrix, Joker, and even something like Attack on Titan all count towards this. They’re fascinating watches, and well worth checking out.
At the end of his most recent video (see above), he comes to a striking conclusion: Attempts to address edgelords through edgelord media are probably in vain because there will always be a part of that audience who will just remember the badass stuff and ignore (or not even notice) the criticism. To make an edgelord movie, you need edgelord moments, and that is what a particular type will gravitate towards. If you make violence look cool, that’s what some people will remember above all else.
I can definitely see where F.D Signifier is coming from. But despite my sense that he might very well be right, I’m going to toss in my suggestion for an edgelord title that I think is the most likely to reach that audience and drive its criticisms home: Chainsaw Man.
Fujimoto Tatsuki’s manga Chainsaw Man centers around Denji, a destitute boy who does menial tasks for gangsters and dreams of 1) losing his virginity 2) eating bread with jam. Through an odd confluence of events, he gains the power of the Chainsaw Devil and becomes Chainsaw Man, with a chainsaw for a head and chainsaws on his arms…and also he can just make chainsaws come out of his body. The series is crass and ultra violent, and Denji acts as this powerful hero who breaks all the rules.
Except, where other edgelord fiction might leave any revealing commentary about its protagonist to the end (Fight Club, Attack on Titan), or couch its transgressive politics in imagery and metaphor (The Matrix), Chainsaw Man constantly juxtaposes the “sigma male” qualities of Denji with his own pathetic nature. Rarely does a badass scene or arc take place that isn’t immediately cut at the knees while the series questions that badassery in the first place. While it’s still possible to ignore Denji’s sadder qualities, Chainsaw Man really throws it in the audience’s face over and over again. There are even times where Denji himself explicitly expresses frustration over how shallow he can be, and how he often wishes he wasn’t that way.
I don’t have any empirical evidence that Chainsaw Man has reached anyone in the manner I’ve described. In fact, I often see the opposite, as parts of the Chainsaw Man fandom concentrate on refracted pieces instead of the whole: the brutal violence, the character Makima’s domme aesthetic, general wackiness, etc. But while at least a chunk of that audience might never learn, the series itself continuously pulls apart its own power fantasy only to put it back together and then tear it up again in a continuous cycle. It never relents, and I think that persistence could pay off.
Delusional Monthly Magazine feels like a show that, by all rights, shouldn’t exist.
When I was first getting into anime, one of the selling points was simply the way it contrasted with American cartoons. Instead of cartoony mascot characters, it had cool-looking humans and fantasy races. Instead of silly stories that resolved more or less in one episode, anime featured ongoing epic storylines. And instead of incompetent antagonists, you could see villains who took lives and struck terror in their victims. While this is not an accurate description of anime as a whole, it was definitely a common sentiment at the time.
But Delusional Monthly Magazine is like an anime homage to 80s–90s American cartoons, the kind of thing you’d see on a weekday afternoon or Saturday morning. If you put it next to He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, some version of Scooby-Doo, Bionic Six, Mummies Alive, Road Rovers, or any number of shows that typically get reviewed by Secret Galaxy, it would hardly look out of place. And I don’t even mean that the show is reminiscent of these series at their best, like when they have magnificently animated openings. Rather, Delusional Monthly Magazine often calls to mind the sillier episodes where the budget wasn’t so hot.
Warning: Spoilers for the entire series.
In the world of the show, the eponymous Delusional Monthly Magazine is a periodical dedicated to exploring the occult, and its entire staff consists of a bunch of weirdos. Their newest recruit is Goro, a researcher who’s obsessed with the long lost continent of Mo (not Mu), and who sets them on a path to discovering relics that may be clues to finding the Mo Continent. They have to compete with the mysterious White Pegasus corporation, who’s also looking for Mo relics called MOParts (a play on OOPArts), but when one relic comes into contact with Taro, the girl-starved perpetual slacker on the team, he transforms into a massive tiger man straight out of Thundercats. Not long after, allies and enemies alike discover the ability to turn into these “Motarian” beastmen, and they clash in varied and often ridiculous ways.
When I say ridiculous, what I mean is that the plots are straight-up Shredder-and-Krang affairs. They even have two Motarian beast goons not unlike Bebop and Rocksteady, albeit with more effeminate features. The bad guys set up a fake cruise ship dating service to steal the MOParts. The good guys try to deal with an actor possessed by a relic that makes him ruin every performance he’s in, and Taro in tiger form does a doubles’ figure skating routine. One of the characters, a 10-year-old with healing powers, turns out to have been a bull-form Motarian prince. A sudden dog show that’s more of a dog triathlon includes a dance section, where the crew’s weirdly anthropomorphic shaggy dog (and not in the furry sense like with Taro) busts a move. Also, the dog is actually a reincarnated Motarian human bard, and there are some mild BL elements too.
Given all the above, it’s as if Delusional Monthly Magazine is a Japanese animation that embodies all the qualities that anime was supposed to stand in contrast to. Is that good? Is that bad? It almost doesn’t matter because the mere fact that we have a show like this to watch is like a miracle in and of itself. I constantly found myself questioning how any of this could be real.
Even the climax of the series itself feels like the way a long-running and episodic TV cartoon or a 90s anime that got popular in the West would do a season finale. The mostly frivolous stories make way for a very sudden and dramatic double-triple twist. First, we discover the quiet boss lady who owns the magazine was once a scientific prodigy who was ostracized for declaring that the Mo continent was real, and that she is actually a reincarnated Motarian. Second, she was very close friends with the leader of White Pegasus, who was also a scientist. Third, she’s actually the villain of the series, and wants to revive the Mo continent to use its doomsday weapon to wipe out humanity. The heroes win the day, and the show gets to provide some basic closure that works both as an ending (should it not be renewed,) and leaves open the possibility of continuing.
Delusional Monthly Magazine has a very intentional retro feel, to the extent that the show itself makes a joke about how its episode titles are reminiscent of the dramatic and sometimes spoilerific episodes titles of older anime. But it’s one thing to call back to a previous era, and another to structure your entire show in a way that not only leaps back in time but reaches across the ocean to capture the attitude of a certain era of American animation. In anime fandom, we throw words like “weeaboo” around to describe people obsessed with Japanese culture, and this feels like the other side of the coin.
The creator of Delusional Monthly Magazine, Umatani Ichigo, is credited with just one other work: a property called Remote ☆ Host, which seems to be about rival host clubs that broadcast remotely? I’m not entirely sure and would be interested in knowing more about it. The reason I looked this up is because I was hoping to get some insight into whatever mind brought this to fruition. I couldn’t find any answers, and I don’t know how much the director and writer played a part in making such a bizarre work. Whatever the reason, we have an anime that defies expectations.
To say I’m disappointed in the direction the world is going is an understatement. But this is the position we find ourselves in, and I hope that we can fight for and support marginalized communities who risk having their human dignity (if not their lives) taken away. I vacillate between hope and despair, but I want to believe that I and others can both endure what’s to come and take action to make things better where we can.
I sometimes wonder if I should be more out front, if only to counter the caustic image of anime fans that has entrenched itself on social media. There are a lot of willfully ignorant people out there who want to present anime and manga (and by extension Japan) as this purely conservative (if not outright fascistic) wonderland, and I just hate the fact that “anime profile image” has become synonymous with “rank asshole.” Maybe it’s too little, too late, but still.
As a reminder, if you’re supporting me on Patreon, you’ll save by not subscribing on iOS. The fees are not small, and I hope you don’t get cheated out of your money.
The one-two lunch of Sakamata Chloe and Ceres Fauna leaving hololive brings a lot of thoughts to mind. I want to write about them both, but I’m not sure exactly what I want to say, or how to say it.
I want to preface this month’s Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights acknowledging the recent exodus of Twitter users. There’s always a chance that the site might go under, which would make a lot of these posts hard/impossible to read. While it would make sense to take screenshots, a lot of Japanese artists are not comfortable with that, so I’ve been using quotes all this time to avoid any potential issues (and also to save time).
My compromise has been that I try to make my tweet summaries useful to read even if the tweets themselves disappear. Hopefully it’s enough.
Kio really likes the new Ranma ½ anime. It’s not a total copy of the original manga, but it captures what makes the series interesting.
He recalls how Ranma came out after Takahashi Rumiko had achieved her “perfect form” from working on Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku, and that Ranma was good from the start.
Kio decided to start re-reading the manga Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn because the series ended. He remarks that the satisfaction he gets from reading manga is amazing.
The author of Pandora in the Crimson Shell, Rikdo Koshi (of Excel Saga fame) thanks Kio, and talks about how he was inspired by the cosplay in Kio’s work. Kio says he’s the grateful one because he got to read Rikdo’s work.
Kio’s art is included in a illustration collection to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the manga magazine Rakuen: Le Paradis. It will be on sale at Comitia 150.
Kio went to VOTOMS Model Exhibition 2024. To him, nothing beats seeing this stuff in full three dimensions, and he particularly admired the work of modeler Aihara Yoshiyuki.
Kio had to do a factory reset on his PC last month, but when he tried to re-download his saved assets for Clip Studio Paint, it didn’t work for some reason.
For the Rakuen artbook, Kio went back to using analog tools after 17 years away from them. This is why he was looking for his old supplies back in September.
The Part 2 DVD for the Vietnam special of How Do You Like Wednesday? Kio did not originally watch this as it aired, but because this was seen as the final HDYLW special at the time, watching it now brought tears to his eyes.
When he was little, Kio used to draw overhead diagrams of his own model hobby shop that included all the Gunpla he wanted but couldn’t buy. He would then pretend that his Kinnikuman and kaiju erasers were customers for his shop.
Kio elaborates on his childhood dream of owning a model hobby shop in his art book interview. He then calls the tweet an advertisement that happened naturally.
A part of me can’t believe that I got to watch an all-new Kinnikuman anime in 2024.
While I didn’t really get into the series until the late 2000s, I became engrossed in the eclectic mix of ultra violence, slapstick silliness, surprisingly compelling characters, and sheer unpredictability, all couched in the aesthetics of pro wrestling and heroics. When the original manga started up again in the 2010s after concluding pretty definitively three decades ago, I entertained the thought of reading the new volumes, but I put the idea off with the intent to get around to it eventually. Having an anime adaptation come out worked out in my favor.
So here we have Kinnikuman: Perfect Origin Arc, which takes place shortly after the end of the original series, where Kinnikuman defeated his rivals for the throne of Planet Kinniku. In this new universe, members of one of the three main factions, the Perfect Choujin have emerged to stop a peace treaty on Earth between their side and the Justice Choujin and Devil Choujin. More powerful than the previous Perfect Choujin that Kinnikuman and his allies had previously faced, they’re eager to prove their superiority in the ring. With most of the strongest Justice Choujin severely injured from previous bouts and Kinnikuman himself attending to his kingly duties, the Perfect Choujin have a seemingly overwhelming edge.
Kinnikuman is actually a very influential Shounen Jump series, to the extent that many of the things it popularized are now part of the fabric of battle manga. It predates Fist of the North Star, JoJo, and Dragon Ball, while being the series to put tournament arcs on the map. It features a silly hero with a heart of gold who continually turns fierce enemies into loyal allies. It literally has characters talking about Friendship Power as an actual source of strength, and it’s such a big deal that the Perfect Origin Arc opening theme (by the band FLOW) has lyrics that go “Friendship Power! Super Muscle!” But as much as its influential tropes are taken for granted nowadays, that doesn’t necessarily mean Kinnikuman is eclipsed by its many descendants. It actually doesn’t matter how many shounen works you’ve experienced over the years; nothing actually prepares you for the Calvinball-esque nature of Kinnikuman.
For example, something that is incredibly hard to tell is whether a character is meant to be a serious winner or a comic relief jobber, not least of which is because sometimes you have comic relief winners and serious jobbers. Is that muscular dalmatian man a bigger threat than that giant baby? Who can know? Regardless of wins and losses, it can be rather surprising who the most compelling characters are.
The battle logic is equally ridiculous and unpredictable. If you’re accustomed to the outwitting/out powering one-upmanship of other Jump titles, Kinnikuman has a more raw version that will twist itself into any and every shape. Logic is a game of improv, and it manifests in supremely goofy yet dramatically engaging storytelling.
Getting into Kinnikuman this late isn’t really an issue like jumping into a much later arc of One Piece might be. However, that’s simply because starting from the beginning wouldn’t make much of a difference. In fact, it might be even worse because the emphasis on pro wrestling wasn’t even there from the start. Instead, viewers can suicide dive right into a world where the 80s never really left, where one wrestler is a giant cassette player, and Spinning Toeholds are the most awesome thing ever. And if you want to see the actual Muscle Buster, watching the Perfect Origin Arc is the easiest way to do so.
Look Back is a one-shot manga by Fujimoto Tatsuki, author of Chainsaw Man. It’s an excellent work about a young girl driven by a love of drawing and petty jealousy, and it was recently adapted into a beautiful film that does the source material justice. I’d rather not spoil Look Back, so I highly recommend anyone go check it out, but I also think it’s a very accessible work that can help those who are skeptical towards or hesitant to look at Chainsaw Man in understanding Fujimoto as a creator.
I find Chainsaw Man to be one of the best things to come out of manga in the past five or so years, but I understand well that its reputation and image can be off-putting. Between the less-than-noble hero, the gore, and the amount of fans who want to call Makima “Mommy,” Chainsaw Man can appear on the surface to be rather paper-thin and rely too much on gratuitous violence and sex appeal.
But Look Back is about as far removed from that kind of content as you can get, and consequently makes it crystal clear that Fujimoto is a very capable and compelling storyteller. While Chainsaw Man is indeed generally grotesque in a variety of ways, it doesn’t use those things to cover up other deficiencies. What both works have in common is interesting characters with a lot of actual mottled grayness and depth to the their shallowness (and vice versa), as well as the continuous upheaval of expectations. It’s just that Look Back is something of a cleaner package that feels more down-to-Earth.
So if you’re someone who’s felt like Chainsaw Man isn’t for you, you might very well be right. But even if you are, I think Look Back can help to clear up some of the misconceptions about Fujimoto’s work in general, and can provide a path to appreciating the author’s violent mega-hit as well.
I haven’t forgotten what the world was like four years ago. I’d long been hesitant to talk about anything political on Ogiue Maniax, but the importance of the US election in the face of a pandemic that killed a previously unfathomable amount of people made me address it more directly. When the dust cleared, I thought (or perhaps hoped) that at least one of the monsters we had to deal with would be gone for good, but I was apparently too naive. So here we are again.
I hope everyone can vote if they are able to. I won’t say who to vote for (though my leanings are probably obvious), and I know that voting is a drop in the bucket in terms of effective political engagement, but I truly think this is a crucial election that will determine so much of the future. Let’s do away with the fearmongers who want to scapegoat various groups while they pick the pockets of their supporters.
In other news, I need to mention the fact that Patreon is changing the way it bills supporters due to Apple shenanigans. Whereas I used to bill everyone at the start of the month, now it depends on when you started subscribing.
So thank you to my supporters on Patreon. I still have no idea what this will look like next month!
OGIUE MANIAX 