245 – Guest Gaiden 4 – Blue Flag with John from Manga Log Podcast

We’re happy to have the host of Manga Log join us this week! John is here to tell us about his fandom origins, why he decided to launch his own manga podcast, and discuss his favorite digital series, Blue Flag!!!

Listen to the Manga Log Podcast and follow John on twitter.

You can read Blue Flag for free on MANGA Plus.

Stream the episode above or [Direct Download]

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If you have any thoughts on the episode, manga suggestions, or anything else please comment below!

Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 – Intro Song: “the WORLD” by Nightmare from Death Note, Opening, Introductions, Listening to podcasts at 1.5+ speeds
• 00:01:19 – John explains his goals for the Manga Log Podcast
• 00:03:23 – Learning about John’s origins in anime/manga fandom
• 00:06:57 – John would reenact fights from Naruto with his friends and participate in Naruto role-play forums
• 00:09:04 – Death Note became the gateway into more mature anime/manga for John
• 00:11:07 – John started reading the Naruto manga to bypass the anime filler arcs
• 00:13:03 – The Manga Machinations Goodnight Punpun retrospective helped inspire John to start his own podcast
• 00:21:27 – Darfox goes on a tangent about the upcoming Hideo Kojima game Death Stranding
• 00:22:31 – Listener Questions: We share some of our favorite and least favorite manga like Goodnight Punpun, Platinum End, Eden Zero, Trigun, Devil Ecstasy, Monster and Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto
• 00:38:24 – Upcoming Retrospective on Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Updates on our RSS feed
• 00:40:35 – Whatchu Been Reading: Transition Song: Dragon Ball Z OST “Prologue”, John is enjoying Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man so Darfox warns him about some taboo topics in Fire Punch
• 00:42:56 – John is really enjoying the mix of fantasy cooking and character stories of Drifting Dragons
• 00:45:21 – Howl’s Moving Castle,and KonoSuba, A Song of Ice and Fire, are some of the books John is reading
• 00:46:36 – dakazu learned that there are 2 other spin-offs of Cells at Work! called Hatarakanai Saibou and Hataraku Saikin
• 00:51:09 – News: The June schedule for anime on Netflix includes March comes in like a Lion and A Silent Voice
• 00:54:30 – Next Episode Preview and Rundown: Triple Dip where we read the first volume of three different manga, including: In/Spectre by Chashiba Katase, Yona of the Dawn by Mizuho Kusanagi, and Hibiki: Shousetsuka ni Naru Houhou by Mitsuharu Yanamoto
• 00:56:23 – Main Segment Guest Gaiden: Blue Flag, “Catch up, latency” by Union Square Garden from Run with the Wind, John joins us on a “SPOILER* filled discussion about this romance manga by KAITO available on MANGA Plus 
• 00:58:00 – We discuss the complex web of relationships all the characters have with each other
• 01:00:20 – dakazu points out the translation in chapter 5 which totally changes the context and reveal of Touma’s feelings
• 01:01:52 – John and dakazu praises the subtle storytelling told through the character’s dynamic facial expressions
• 01:03:19 – Seamus didn’t read past volume 1 because he’s done with love triangle stories
• 01:05:51 – John thought a certain character died during the dramatic events of the baseball tournament arc
• 01:08:53 – We are impressed with the deeper characterization of the evil rival girl Mami
• 01:12:19 – Darfox sees the comfort zones of characters are challenged both intellectually and personally
• 01:13:28 – dakazu breaks down the most current chapters about Touma’s secret being revealed
• 01:15:52 – We discuss the events of from the most recent chapter
• 01:17:25 – Darfox thinks Kensuke is problematic and toxic
• 01:20:48 – John appreciates that despite their problems, the characters are representative of teenagers
• 01:23:11 – Darfox thinks the manga needs to clarify it’s thoughts on these opposing viewpoints made by Shingo
• 01:25:03 – Seamus would be interested in reading again if the series tries to do something different than the typical redemption arc for a character like Kensuke
• 01:26:48 – The cliffhanger makes the wait for the newest chapter torture for dakazu and John
• 01:27:40 – We share some predictions and where we want the story to go from here
• 01:30:10 – dakazu shares how Blue Flag exists within the same universe as Kaito’s other works Cross Manage and Buddy Strike
• 01:32:43 – Next Week’s Topic: Blue Flag by Kaito with John from Manga Log Podcast, Social Media Rundown, Sign Off Song: “wish men” by sunbrain from Beet the Vandel Buster