364 – Manga in Motion 49 – Perfect Blue

364 – Manga in Motion 49 – Perfect Blue

Night 2 of October Extravaganza has us looking at Satoshi Kon’s directorial debut with the psychological thriller Perfect Blue! We also have a spoiler-filled discussion on BEASTARS volume 14 and dakazu talks about the ending of Kunihachibu and Shintaro Kago’s Choudouryoku Mouko Daishuurai!!!

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275 – 2019 Year End News & Manga Review

275 – 2019 Year End News & Manga Review

Welcome to the final episode of Manga Machinations for 2019! Seamus is back, which means all the hosts are ready to discuss all the news stories from this year before sharing their personal top 3 manga, honorable mentions, and worst manga of the year!!!

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Kunihachibu

Kunihachibu

A manga where a middle school girl is randomly picked to be the next “kunihachi” and must spend a year being ignored by everyone in Japan.

I’ve ranted about this on a recent episode.

This is the worst manga I have ever read in recent memory.

I cannot being to explain this premise because IT MAKES NO SENSE!

There is no logic behind this law that gets enforced by the Japanese prime minister. It’s supposed to end bullying in Japan by making everyone experience what it’s like to be a bully or something? But how the hell are you ending bullying when you arrest anyone who acknowledges the “kunihachi”? IT MAKES NO SENSE!

After this girl is chosen, she must be ignored by her classmates, teachers, random strangers, etc. Her family has to act like she doesn’t exist and locks her out of her home. She can’t buy anything because she must be ignored. When a man refuses to run her over with his car he’s arrested and jailed. She even gets bullied by her former classmates for trying to attend school. Yes, you read that right. THE LAW THAT’S SUPPOSED TO END BULLYING CREATES BULLIES!

This manga seems like it only exists to make a masochistic narrative about putting a girl through terrible atrocities like some kind of torture porn. That shit makes my skin crawl and makes me sick to my stomach. And remember, IT STILL MAKES NO SENSE!!!

Absolute trash.

~dakazu

270 – One Shot 25 – The Ghost and the Lady

270 – One Shot 25 – The Ghost and the Lady

On this episode Morgana loves the wholesome Nicola Traveling Around the Demons’ World while dakazu reads Nagata Kabi’s newest book and absolutely hates the illogical Kunihachibu. We also discuss updates to piracy litigation and Japanese censorship laws. Finally, we dive into Kazuhiro Fujita’s historical ghost story about the Man in Grey and Florence Nightingale in The Ghost and the Lady!!!

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