Category Archives: manga

Why It’s So Hard for Shounen Battle Manga to End on a High Note

Posted on by

The author of One Piece, Oda Eiichiro, once stated that he always wanted to make a manga series where the ending is the most exciting part. Right now, it looks like his flagship series could very well be heading in that direction. However, when I thought about whether this is possible, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that the graveyard of shounen manga is strewn with series that failed to hit that goal—if they even had a chance at all.

So many shounen manga, particularly popular battle manga, usually peak well before the end. While taste is subjective, I think it’s a common opinion across various titles. In Kinnikuman, the tournament to determine the king of Planet Kinniku is actually pretty good, but it kind of pales compared to the Akuma Daishogun arc. Fist of the North Star peters out after Kenshiro’s climactic clash with Raoh. Naruto and Bleach have many possibilities as to the best arc, but it’s definitely not their finales. L in Death Note is remembered far more fondly than other rivals. Even with Oda’s beloved Dragon Ball, Majin Buu is not usually the villain people would regard as the best or most memorable.

That’s not to say it’s impossible. Two answers I received when I asked on Twitter were anything by Fujita Kazuhiro (Ushio & Tora, Karakuri Circus) and Yu-Gi-Oh! Funnily enough, these two examples also came up in a private conversation I had on the same subject. Nevertheless, the odds are not in One Piece’s favor.

The reason for this hurdle is pretty simple, I think: Most successful shounen series end up getting somewhat zombified, as they’re expected to keep going for as long as they’re popular in the hopes of bringing in more readers. No matter how creative manga authors might be, or how well they can plan, it just gets increasingly difficult to run on all cylinders. On top of that, even if an author has a brilliant ending in mind, they might still get canceled early, or their attempts to force a finale are ignored. Toriyama, for example, clearly tried to finish Dragon Ball in the Freeza and then the Cell arcs, only for the manga to keep going.

One big X-Factor is that Oda is on another level in terms of long-term planning. His signature series is basically an armory full of Chekhov’s guns situated next to a clothing store dedicated to alternating shoe drops. If anyone can pull it off, it’s surely him, but when your manga has been going on for almost 30 years (!!!), that is a whole lot of anticipation to live up to. Good luck, man.

So…Can you think of any shounen battle manga that was at its best and most exciting by the end?

Reminiscing About Right Stuf in Its Final Days

Posted on by

In August 2022, the online anime and manga store Right Stuf was sold to the massive anime streaming and licensing company Crunchyroll. Now, Right Stuf has announced that it will cease to exist and its contents will be integrated into the Crunchyroll Store as of October 10. With that comes what I (and apparently many others) believe is the end of an era. I haven’t felt quite this way since Geocities closed.

I first learned about Right Stuf Anime around 2005 or 2006, and have been a frequent customer ever since my first order: Eureka Seven DVD Volume 1. At a time when I didn’t have much disposable income, the sales they had on the regular were a great way to get more for less. Those sales were often based around a single anime or manga publisher, so it also became a practical method for familiarizing oneself with what a particular company had to offer. Although my memory is hazy, they might very well have been the first site I bought anime online from (It was either them or Deep Discount DVD).

Right Stuf didn’t always necessarily offer the absolute best deals. For example, in the time it existed, Amazon grew into an even bigger juggernaut of online retail. It wasn’t uncommon for items on Amazon to be better priced, but I stuck almost entirely to purchasing on Right Stuf because the company showed a lot of care for its products in so many ways. You almost never had to worry about damaged packaging, and they even went out of their way to eliminate the use of plastic and make it more environmentally sustainable. If you bought an item the day before it was part of a sale, you could email them and request the order be revised. And at the end of the day, the sales were still really good. 

Not everything was rainbows, of course. I once had a package go missing and had to jump through a ton of hoops—including filing a police report—but the positives outstripped the negatives by a country mile.

Another strength was that the company always maintained something of an old school feel. A lot of the American anime culture over the past 15 years or so has been to incorporate more and more aspects of general geek fandom/media, and while those things are great, they can often overshadow the anime and manga aspects. The fact that Right Stuf was still dedicated primarily to Japanese pop culture after all these years (while still incorporating that more general fandom) was something I really appreciated. 

I’m definitely concerned that without the Right Stuf brand and the weight of the customer expectations its fans expected, the savings just won’t be the same. I’ve looked at the Crunchyroll Store, and while I won’t knock them for providing merch in an easily accessible fashion, I never once thought of buying from there as long as Right Stuf existed. And even though I’m in a far different place in life compared to 2006, I know that’s not the case for everyone—especially younger anime fans (at least those who care about physical media) who’ve had to deal with things like a terrible economy wrought by a once-in-a-generation life-changing pandemic. And I just don’t expect the Crunchyroll Store to provide that more personal touch Right Stuf had.

Crunchyroll could surprise me. They could maintain a lot of what Right Stuf did, well, right. But the fact that they’re even shelving the Right Stuf name does not bode well in my view. I might give them a chance, but a chance is all they get. With Right Stuf, what I had was trust and faith.

Thumbs Up to the Fall Lineup: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for October 2023

Posted on by

The start of October means a new anime season, and there’s a lot of new shows I’m looking forward to. My main concern is having enough time for all of them. We’ve got manga adaptations I’m looking forward to like Shy, MF Ghost, Under Ninja, Migi and Dali, and Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer in Orange. Then there’s not one but two rap/hip hop battle shows in Hypnosis Mic season 2 and Paradox Live. And then Otona no Precure, the first sequel to feature past Precures as adults! For those who might be feeling tired of isekai, I think this season is gonna be one to remember—and even if you love isekai a ton, there’s still plenty to go around.

Thank you to my October Patreon subscribers below!

General:

Ko Ransom

Diogo Prado

Alex

Dsy

Sue Hopkins fans:

Serxeid

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

Blog highlights from September:

Gattai Girls 14: “Sakura Wars” and Shinguji Sakura

Continuing my series of reviews of mecha heroine anime.

Boy Meets Girl Meets Tick-Throw Spinning Piledriver: Hi Score Girl

My complete review of one of the best nerd romances ever.

Hololive’s ReGLOSS Features Refreshingly Simple Character Designs

A new generation of Japanese Hololive members brings some designs that buck the trend

Kio Shimoku

There was a Genshiken pop-up store event in Japan!

Closing

COVID’s on the rise again. I hope everyone can stay safe.

Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights September 2023

Posted on by

This month, Kio Shimoku posted more Genshiken art, and we saw the opening of Genshiken pop-up shops across Japan! Yes, there’s even Ogiue merch!

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1696728488282341650

Kio had a good deal of trouble finding this Engage SR3 model kit from The Five Star Stories, but then managed to order and receive it.

Having trouble with a turtle in Elden Ring.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1698687746179743979

More pages from Sister Wars, Kio’s genderbending The Phantom Menace parody. With that, Chapter 1 is done.

Kio kind of wings it with the color, but thinks that the work wouldn’t be that different even in B&W. Kio likes the color palette in Star Wars in general.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1698694889549234527

Amidala-kun.

Kio also uploaded Sister Wars Chapter 1 to Pixiv.

Kio went to an Azuma Kiyohiko Yotsuba&! exhibit at the Tokiwa-sou museum.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1699087210186944944

Kio is especially flabbergasted by how Azuma managed to do this panel.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1699625830425706766
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1699642897694679188

Kio mentions that this Jedi is not to be confused with this girl from Kio’s 18+ doujinshi. However, he realizes that he might have certain preferences when the characters he came up with in 2010 and 2022 are so similar.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1699655295377830142

Ogiue and Ohno might technically fall under this category too. Kio includes an old drawing of Ohno cosplaying Leina from Queen’s Blade and asking Ogiue to cosplay as Leina’s little sister Elina. This is a voice actor joke because the original Ohno (Kawasumi Ayako) voiced Leina and the original Ogiue (Mizuhashi Kaori) voiced Elina.

After seeing a weather report that the temperature is going to be 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) after a typhoon, Kio is reminded of a line about becoming accustomed to torture.

It’s in the nature of manga artists to want to make efficiently beautiful manuscripts. The shorter, the better.

Kio got through 70 pages of his eromanga manuscript, but then wasn’t sure of a certain part and ultimately decided to put in twice as much effort and drew the whole thing.

In response to the passing of Terasawa Buichi (author of Space Adventure Cobra), Kio describes Cobra as an accumulated mass of sense. (That sense seems to mean like an artistic/aesthetic/creative sense.)

Kio buys a doujinshi by manga artist Kusada, who released it at the originals doujin event Comitia.

Kio took a lot at the author Shima Tokio’s 18+ doujinshi, and was not only surprised at a development that happens in the middle, but that Shima would have the time to draw this on top of working on a serialized manga.

Kio purchased a doujinshi by the artist Kusada called Sister vs. Chupacabra. He likes how there’s tsukkomi after tsukkomi in it.

Kio is thanked by the author Ichihara Hikari Z for preordering their manga, Seishun Libido Yama.

Kio opened Twitter for the first time in a while. He couldn’t keep up with the timeline, so he’s decided to give up and go to bed.

Kio read a comic drawn by Nagata Reiji, a person who left being a surgeon to become a manga artist, about that very experience. Nagata was apparently also serialized in Afternoon, and Kio decided to buy one of his manga.

Kio has been meaning to tweet about the Genshiken pop-up shop at all TSUTAYA stores (that began on September 22nd) but kept forgetting to do so. (Check out the replies as well for lots of Kio thanking very excited fans.)

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1704163351985852834
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1704350103547654613

High-resolution art of the school swimsuit Ogiue on the limited edition Volume 6 of Genshiken. [If you’re wondering if I own it, the answer is yes.]

Kio retweeted Koume Keito’s art for Wandjina in Fate/Grand Order. (Koume was the artist on the Kujibiki Unbalance manga.)

A tweet about the start of the Genshiken pop-up shop event, with Kio retweeting and responding to various photos taken by fans of the displays, including those lamenting items being sold out.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1705092678302806477

Kio’s own purchases from the pop-up shop. He got a full Madarame set.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1705493690565984672

The title page art for Genshiken Volume 6. (I seriously love this image.)

Something about starting from Nidaime/Second Generation (I’ll admit that this is a bit vague, and I’m not sure I fully understand this).

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1705778521698918704

Some Genshiken Nidaime art from the 2012 Afternoon calendar.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1707310235319496970

Sue from the title page of Genshiken Volume 7.

Boy Meets Girl Meets Tick-Throw Spinning Piledriver: Hi Score Girl

Posted on by

I’m happy and grateful that the full Hi Score Girl manga series by Otoi Rekomaru is out in English. It’s one of those manga where, once upon a time, a US release would have been a pipe dream. A nostalgic nerd love story premised around Street Fighter II and the 90s Japan arcade scene? As significant as that era was in Japanese gaming history, it’s a niche among niches. And yet, here we are.

I first discovered the series eight years ago, and was immediately won over by two things. First, there was the eccentric nature of its main duo: the obnoxiously loud gamer kid Haruo and his friend/rival/love interest, the reticent and rampaging Akira. They initially meet at an arcade and feud over a Guile vs. Zangief matchup, and though they never stop butting heads, it’s silly and sweet how they essentially communicate through gaming. That’s not metaphorical either; Akira pretty much never talks. Second, the portrayal of the 90s games and the way Haruo based his very outlook on life on them could have only come from a genuine place. Otherwise, jokes like “messing up the secret select code for Akuma” and “Akira having sympathy for big grappler characters because she feels bad about how little they get chosen” wouldn’t land so well.

The characters age over the course of the 11 volumes, going from elementary to high school and growing alongside the rapid developments in gaming technology. Their transition into adulthood is concurrent with continuous upgrades to Street Fighter II, the advent of 3D fighting games like Virtua Fighter, and so on. A nice narrative device to be sure, but it’s actually surprising seeing how much Haruo actually matures as he comes to understand responsibility in his own way. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but his convictions are real.

Hi Score Girl reminds me a lot of one of my all-time favorites, 81 Diver. The art is similarly rough, and the core relationship is as much a rivalry as it is a love story (if not moreso). That’s actually pretty rare in manga focused on het romance, and is usually the domain of fujoshi-adjacent works. But it’s convincing here because of how Otoi portrays the genuine desire for connection, and the way that gap is bridged through gaming. Sure, the premise of a boy meeting an ultra rich mega gamer girl is unrealistic in many ways, but the portrayal makes me want to believe in their love.

In addition to the authenticity of the passion for fighting games, I think what ultimately makes Hi Score Girl work is that while Haruo kind of exists primarily in his gaming-obsessed mental space, the life lessons he draws from games are ultimately his own. He’s a guy with an imaginary friend who gives him pep talks and acts as his conscience, and that friend is often just Guile. Haruo and Akira imbue greater meaning into games, and the games reciprocate by providing them the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the comfort of friendship, and the joy of love.

Pros of Con Reporting: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for September 2023

Posted on by

I don’t know if it’s the record heat waves or just the sheer amount of things going in life, but the summer has felt incredibly long. But now that it’s the final stretch, I’m sure I’ll be missing it soon enough.

During this time, I also managed to watch both Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider, so expect some reviews of those sooner than later. In the meantime, I’d also like to mourn the loss of gfycat, which provided many a useful moving record for both mirth and study. I didn’t use the site much for Ogiue Maniax, but I have been updating a few posts here and there.

September Patreon subscribers! Thank you to the following—

General:

Ko Ransom

Diogo Prado

Alex

Dsy

Sue Hopkins fans:

Serxeid

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

Blog highlights from August:

Tomoyo…The Time Has Come to Demonstrate Our Power: Otakon 2023

My full review of Otakon 2023, including links to interviews.

The Haachama Experiment

A birthday celebration of the Worldwide Strongest Idol as she continues to recover from her illness.

The Advent of Pitch Accent: Pronouncing FuwaMoco’s Names Correctly

A post about the new Hololive dog twins and their preferred name pronunciations.

Kio Shimoku

Kio mostly talks about Elden Ring, but also, check out that high-resolution Ogiue art!

Closing

I watched the Hololive Summer 2023 concert, and it was a blast. There were some issues with the viewing platform that ended up with the entire Day 1 concert being streamed for free on Youtube for the next month, and I’m thankful for that because it meant being able to easily watch Holotori strut their stuff over and over. The fact that Day 2 has holoX’s performance of their new song, “Labyrinthine Labyrinth,” as part of the free preview makes me feel like I won a small lottery again. I also highly recommend checking out the last song in the Day 2 preview, especially those who love 80s anime.

And now Hololive Myth 3rd Anniversary is coming up! It’s amazing to reflect on how much time has passed, and how directly it’s tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. No, I will never forget about that.

Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights August 2023

Posted on by

This month, ​​Kio mostly talks about Elden Ring. But we also get to see a high-quality version of one of the best covers he ever drew (no bias from me, clearly).

Kio thinks the Crucible Knight’s tail in Elden Ring is cute.

After 77 hours, Kio finally got through Limgrave.

Two new web chapters of Spotted Flower.

Even after 100 hours, Kio is having trouble in Elden Ring. In many places, he feels that he would never have been able to figure things out without strategy guides. (Forgive me for not translating this in greater detail.)

Kio keeps seeing figures and illustrations from Elden Ring but for the most part has no idea who anyone is, seeing as he’s only played 16% of the game.

Reflecting on his time with a much older FromSoftware game, King’s Field II, Kio recalls his experience. Despite the fact that it wasn’t really “open world,” finding out how one area of the game connects to another was very exciting.

King’s Field III was like a road trip movie, in a good way. He got discouraged because of the Shadow Tower, and couldn’t finish it, though.

Kio doesn’t remember the reveal about the main character and lead female character in King’s Field III.

Kio declares his interim report on Elden Ring over for now.

Someone recreated the bouncing-boobs Ohno mini bust that came with a volume of Monthly Afternoon back in the day.

Kio makes a reference to the game Great Adventure: The Miracle of Saint Elmos: “This is awful.”

Kio has been playing Elden Ring offline, which may have impacted his enjoyment of the game.

He really enjoyed the anime adaptation of Toriyama Akira’s Sand Land. He likes how it brings back a Dr. Slump feel.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1694729675803897987

Visiting the AKIRA cel and animation gallery.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1694984523736653864

Some modeling magazine purchases alongside Armored Core 6.

There was a remix of AKIRA music playing at the gallery, and Kio wondered where it came from. Turns out that it was new arrangements done for the gallery. Kio wants a CD of it.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1695447270777651434
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1695641211636482466

High-quality version of the cover to Genshiken Volume 6, as well as just the art of Ogiue. Needless to say, I love this cover and volume to death. Also check the thread to see lots of people posting their copies (and variations).

Breathing Room: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for August 2023

Posted on by

After the whirlwind that was July, I’m genuinely glad that things are slowing down for me. That said, I’ll be writing and posting my review of Otakon 2023 (as well as three guest interviews), so while I physically won’t be doing a lot, I’m still gonna have to hunker down and do some serious blogging.

Hopefully, you’ll all enjoy what I have to offer.

Thanks to all my Patreon subscribers. I hope you’re doing okay in this weather.

General:

Ko Ransom

Diogo Prado

Alex

Dsy

Sue Hopkins fans:

Serxeid

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

Blog highlights from July:

Gattai Girls 13: “Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury” and Suletta Mercury

A full review of The Witch from Mercury and the first Gattai Girls in many months.

I Was There: Hololive EN Connect the World

My firsthand experience at Hololive English’s debut live concert. Spoilers: It was rad.

New Yuusha Robot Announced: Brave Universe Sworgrader

A new Brave series! Who knew?!

Kio Shimoku

Kio talks about movies and stuff.

Apartment 507

My review of the Rokudo’s Bad Girls anime.

Closing

I stopped putting my little messages at the end of my posts asking people to check out my Patreon, thinking that it was probably annoying people more than anything. Would readers mind if I included it again?

Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights July 2023

Posted on by

Kio watched a bunch of movies this month.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1675729678353698817

Kio attended a live screening of the newest How Do You Like Wednesday?, which included people from the cast. It was a fun and unusual experience. He did not attend in Ikebukuro.

https://twitter.com/hecky_mitsuo/status/1576190793223933952

The raunchy gag manga Enomoto had an anime announced last year, and Kio only found out about it this past month.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1676983471712112642

Kio made this Ohno samurai drawing as the basis for a paper relief sculpture. One fan of his showed off their version.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1677669769447903233
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1677673296173887488

Kio made these Madarame drawings as part of a special collaboration with the series Love-yan, which features a protagonist who resembles Madarame. Kio also vaguely denies knowing about the Rocking Spark attack from Ultraman and how similar it looks to Madarame’s pose.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1677962715552448513
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1660946124340092930
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1677965174068895745

16 more finished pages of Sister Wars, Kio’s Star Wars parody.

Kio recalls how tough it was to live on the top floor (6th) of a building because of how hot it got in the summer. He tells fellow manga creator Kusada to take care of himself amid some very high temperatures.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1678662967506923526
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1678684842538704897

Bikini drawings of Ohno and Saki for an old Afternoon calendar.

Kio remarks that the new Miyazaki film, The Boy and the Heron (aka How Do You Live?) Is a whopping 124 minutes long.

https://twitter.com/KEUMAYA/status/1679401237845012480

The first tweet states that really good artists can draw Image B, where the frame is mostly taken up by the left leg. Kio says that he tries to draw B but can only really do A.

Kio is going to see the Chinese animated film I Am What I Am, and then The Boy and the Heron. He’s also been exhausted by having so much.

Kio reacts to a Genshiken fan’s shrine, saying that the fan has posters even Kio doesn’t.

Kio missed his chance to see Akira in 4K.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1680094283934892032
https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/1683028503070113795

Kio advertising a 50% off sale on his erotic doujinshi, It’s All Your Fault, Sensei.

Kio watched The Pope’s Exorcist and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny on the same day, and being in the theater for so long chilled his body.

Kio has played Elden Ring for over 50 hours and is over Level 50, but only just reached Limgrave.

He can’t get the timing for rolling and such down, and while he played King’s Field, he hasn’t played later FromSoftware games aside from Shadow Tower and Dark Souls.

Kio put his unused winter futon back into vacuum-sealed storage.

New Yuusha Robot Announced: Brave Universe Sworgrader

Posted on by

This past week, the Gaogaigar 25th Anniversary Exhibition in Japan featured a surprise announcement: A new entry in the Brave Series has been greenlit! Brave Universe Sworgrader is heading our way, albeit with a caveat. Unlike all its anime-based predecessors, it will debut as a web manga.

Sworgrader isn’t totally alone in regards to not coming out the gate as an anime. The sequel to Gaogaigar Final, King of Kings: Gaogaigar vs. Betterman, started off as a web novel series before being adapted into a manga. Other old anime have also received novel-only nostalgic sequels, such as Raijin-oh and even the magical girl title Ojamajo Doremi. One major difference is that Sworgrader is wholly original, though the teaser art and the whole “Brave Universe” thing seems to imply that the previous Brave Robots will somehow be involved—even the shelved sequel that only ever got a spotlight in video games, Baan Gaan.

I do feel a mix of joy and sorrow in all this: It’s great to see Brave franchise make something of a comeback, but also a shame to know how diminished it is compared to its heyday. I suspect that something like a 90s throwback robot toy franchise isn’t going to attract the massive kids market that was tuning into Exkaiser and such thirty years ago (otherwise this would at least be a mobile game). It’ll mostly be banking on the adults who had grown up with the old shows, and merch will probably be premium figures and model kits, as opposed to children’s toys. 

That all said, it’s worth pointing out that despite likely having more “Big Friend” appeal than anything else, the main characters are clearly cut from the traditional Brave cloth: They’re kid heroes through and through. So many retro-style series prefer to have characters who are at least in their late teens in order to be more relatable to that older audience, but I kind of admire the creators of Sworgrader for trying to be faithful to the Brave spirit. Gaogaigar really hit its stride once the shackles of toy advertisement were loosened, and Sworgrader is potentially going to be like that from Day One.

In addition to overseeing the entire project, Gaogaigar director Yonetani Yoshitomo is also the lyricist on the main theme for Sworgrader; something he’s had experience doing thanks to Gaogaigar and Betterman. In fact, similar to Sworgrader, Gaogaigar vs. Betterman has “opening” and “ending” themes despite there being no anime. The theme will be sung by Tamaki Nami, who got her debut in anime singing the fourth and final Gundam SEED opening, “Believe.” All this takes me back to my very first time in Japan in 2005: a year when Gaogaigar: Grand Glorious Gathering was on TV, and I could hear Tamaki’s SEED openings while in the supermarket.

And while I believe a Sworgrader anime will have some trouble coming to fruition, not all hope is lost: One of the credits on the project is Aono Yuka (Shinkalion Z, Brave Beats) as “Animation Character Designer” as distinct from “Character Designer” Tsunashima Shirou, the artist of the Jinki franchise (talk about another throwback). Similarly, there are separate credits for “Mechanical Design” (Ookawara Kunio, Miyauchi Toshinao) and “Animation Mechanical Design” (Mutaguchi Hiroki) Maybe we’ll see some cool shorts, at the very least?

Whatever form Sworgrader takes, I look forward to seeing its arrival. I will neither automatically love it or hate it, but I do hope it brings joy and excitement to all.