423 – Chainsaw Man part 4

423 – Chainsaw Man part 4

Order is up for our final Retrospective episode on Chainsaw Man! We’re joined by Darfox’s friend Amber to discuss the end of the Public Safety Arc with volumes 10 and 11! Amber also talks about her manga and anime origins, as well as her love for Case ClosedFruits Basket, and more!!!

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384 – One Shot 49 – Danza

384 – One Shot 49 – Danza

This week Darfox finally finishes Ride Your Wave while dakazu reads the end of Fire Force and does extra reading with Ristorante ParadisoACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department P.S, and Coppers! Then we review Natsume Ono’s short story collection Danza!!!

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Fire Force

Fire Force

A manga about a world destroyed by a great disaster and the survivors live in fear of spontaneous human combustion that transform them into flaming demons known as Infernals. The story follows Shinra Kusakabe, a new recruit of the Fire Force: fire fighters who specialized in pyrokinesis to battle and extinguish Infernals.

I’ve never read Atsushi Ohkubo‘s previous hit series Soul Eater so I didn’t have any expectation for this series when it started in Weekly Shonen Magazine. I was really surprised how great Ohkubo’s art was, especially his stylish action scenes. The world of Fire Force is also super engaging with lots of mysteries about the great disaster that decimated the lands. It’s got great characters with lots of personality.

However the character Tamaki is extremely problematic. Her character quirk is that her clothes keep falling off, making her a walking epitome of “lucky fanservice”. While she has her own agency and strong pyrokinesis powers, every appearance is accompanied with nudity. I find it extremely off putting that female characters in shonen are usually reduced to these kinds of representations. We’ve talked about this on the podcast as well but whether it’s for popularity sake or it’s mandated by the editors, many shonen action series seem to be stuck in an endless cycle of including fan service characters and I honestly wish it would stop.

I enjoy Fire Force a lot but it also really reinforced my issues with shonen manga in general. It’s available from Kodansha Comics.

~dakazu

258 – State of Shonen 1 – We Never Learn

258 – State of Shonen 1 – We Never Learn

When Seamus is away, shonen will save the day! Morgana is back as an official member of the hosts this episode so we discuss the current arcs and happenings of our favorite shonen manga series, such as We Never LearnBlack CloverFire Force, and more!!!

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