Steins;Gate: Boukan no Rebellion 9

I don’t know.

On one hand, Boukan no Rebellion really feels like it should be read after watching Steins;Gate. Otherwise, you wouldn’t understand the whole drama around Suzuha, you wouldn’t understand the bond between Rintarou and Mayuri, you wouldn’t understand the pain and torture Rintarou went through after Mayuri died fifty thousand million times.

On the other hand, Boukan no Rebellion really feels like it should be read before watching Steins;Gate. Otherwise, all the mystery around Suzuha is already spoiled, all the suspense around Mayuri’s death is unsuspenseful, and all the drama around her dad is wasted.

My conclusion?

Read and watch them simultaneously. Send a D-Mail to your past self to tell them to do that. Oh, and tell your past self to tell me to do that too, will ya (although then, the me who’s writing this post presumably dies. forever. not even in a well off the coast of finland…)?

Of course, this hardly works, because at chapter 9 of this manga we’ve already smashed our way through 15 episodes of anime. Really, there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to experience a series; there are only different ways. And no matter which way you choose, remember – you’ve only got one chance for a first impression. Unless you find some way to erase your memory and experience it anew. But then, you can’t compare the two experiences, since you, uh, just erased your memory. So I guess there’s no point worrying about it. As Rintarou once wisely said, “NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT FUCKING ALPACAMAN SHUT THE FUCKING WELL UP MAFUCKINGYURI YOU’RE A FUCKING RETARD FUCK-BITCH ALPACAMAN IS AN FUCKING ALPACA AND A FUCKING MAN AND HE IS FUCKING FAKE NOBODY FUCKING CARES ABOUT FUCKING HIM.” Grievous condolences to Alpacaman, who will never have anyone fuck him. :'(

Now, it’s time for FUN FACTS with MUSHY and…

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Here’s our my fun fact of the day! Each of the chapter titles of Boukan no Rebellion are in GERMAN! This is relevant!

We now continue to your regularly scheduled manga post. Which isn’t really regularly scheduled since chapter 10 of this manga is already out, and yet, I’m only posting about chapter 9.

The art in this manga is just horrible. Seriously, the artist does not know how to draw NORMAL men who do NOT have muscles the size of, uh, muscles. Normal men don’t have GIANT PLATES of MUSCLE on their chest, their arms aren’t BULGING with muscles, their thighs don’t look like TREE TRUNKS. Normal men are skinny and weak and feeble and stupid and wait, I think I’m talking about myself again… anyways, NORMAL MEN DON’T LOOK LIKE THAT. People who spend their entire lives sitting on a chair talking about science while being considerably underfed doubly don’t look like that! P.S. Fat people are just FAT, they don’t have muscles, they have FAT.

Maybe the shading style would’ve been nice for dramatic scenes, but… nope. Mayuri’s death was completely botched in this manga. No matter how much shading the mangaka shades into the shade, their faces are just far too derpy. Yet, art isn’t the entire picture, and the plot was still of Steins;Gate quality. I’ll try not to let the art influence my opinions too badly, but when you have art like this that actually does interfere with your enjoyment of the manga…

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