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.
Ten wo Iru
A manga about a young samurai during the edo period of Japan who dreams to win the Dosha-archery competition.
Really enjoying this new series in Big Comic Spirits. I applaud Yumie Nishiogi for his writing that introduces a real historical sports event that I knew nothing about. Ryosuke Tobimatsu’s art is also impressive with both character details and scenery.
A historical sports manga and it’s good to boot. What’s not to like?
~dakazu
I am a Hero in Ibaraki
A spin-off series of I am a Hero that follows a boy and his dog surviving against the ZQN outbreak.
This was just OK. I thought Kazuya Fujisawa was able to capture the horror of the Kengo Hanazawa’s zombies pretty well but the story wasn’t really anything special. It follows the boy who’s become a target of bullying from his childhood friends. As the ZQN start to attack it’s revealed that the bullies were all being bullied themselves but that just seemed like a pretty rote outcome.
If you’re a fan of I am a Hero you should check out 8 Tales of the ZQN instead.
~dakazu
Crocodile Baron
A food manga about a gentleman crocodile and his rabbit apprentice traveling around and eating food.
We discussed this manga on a previous podcast.
Man, this series is very strange but enjoyable. It’s a mix of comedy, drama, and food and if that sounds like a weird mix to you then you’d be right. But somehow it still manages to be interesting.
There’s just something charming about a dapper crocodile going around spouting Wikipedia levels of knowledge on food and then being overcome by his feral instincts that puts a smile on your face.
A different manga for sure and something you should check out for yourself. Available from Kodansha Comics.
~dakazu
Stalker Koui ga Barete Jinsei Shuuryou Otoko
A manga about a man with a hobby of stalking women who is blackmailed into helping a girl with her stalker.
I think regardless of the quality of this manga the subject matter is just awful. And yes, they do present that stalking is a terrible thing to do and the main character is a scumbag but making a story about utilizing stalking skills for good? I would believe it more if the book didn’t rely on a good amount of fan service.
In comparison Stalker Jokers does a much better job with it’s premise of a group of stalker hunters. It presents a similar themes in a crime drama without turning off the reader with a stalker protagonist.
~dakazu
Sugar
Sugar
A manga about a young man who discovers his natural talent for boxing and his journey to become a professional boxer.
I really, really like this manga. It might be my favorite Hideki Arai book and the reason I got into Arai in the first place.
At it’s core it’s a sports manga but Arai fills it to the brim with a complete cast of wild characters that get into some very adult situations. It gives it a completely different feel than something like Hajime no Ippo. At the center is the protagonist Rin Ishikawa.
Rin is a fascinating individual. He takes life in stride and is constantly joking around without taking things too seriously. The story follows him as he slowly begins to change his perspective about fighting and by the end he’s completely morphed into a literal dynamo inside the ring. On the way he stumbles and ends up in crazy situations but that just makes his journey that much greater.
~dakazu
Gamblers Parade
A manga about a high school girl who gets wrapped up in deadly gambling games with her teacher who hates gamblers.
This series is still fairly new in the Weekly Shonen Magazine lineup but I don’t think it’s going to any real popularity. I like Atsushi Nakayama’s Uratarou but I feel like he’s crazy art loses the edge it had in his seinen series. Also the gambling battles aren’t very interesting which is crucial to this genre.
Not sure why Nakayama chose to do this project. Hopefully it’ll get better but I wouldn’t care if it ended and he moved on to something else instead.
~dakazu
244 – Manga in Motion 37 – Tekkonkinkreet
We follow up our last episode by checking out the 2006 anime film adaptation of Tekkonkinkreet! We compare the anime to Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga and talk about why it looks like so much like a Masaaki Yuasa film!
Continue readingSoukyuu no Ariadne
A manga about a boy who meets a runaway princess and joins her on a journey to travel and see the world.
This is a new series by Norihiro Yagi who is best known for his shonen battle series Claymore. I’m a fan of Claymore despite all it’s problems and was looking forward to seeing him try something different. Unfortunately this one has been a pretty standard shonen adventure series that doesn’t really do anything unique. It’s almost like a movie that was focus tested and had all the jagged edges removed for more mass-appeal.
Maybe things will change later but I’ve dropped this series for now.
~dakazu
Murder Incarnation
A manga about a mysterious girl who offers people a chance to revive someone if they kill three people.
We’ve discussed this on an episode.
This series is very strange. Not because of it’s story or anything but because of the process in which Shinji Inamitsu drew it.
The entire series was created through CG artwork. While that’s not abnormal for modern manga artists, it’s very obvious that Inamitsu took 3D models and posed them in different positions to create each panel. It makes this manga actually looks like a Playstation 3 game cutscene or something.
I know Inamitsu is capable of drawing in a traditional style because of his current series Seishokuki. I would really like to find out why he decided to use this process to do his art for this book.
Currently available in English on Crunchyroll.
~dakazu