ST&RS 31
I can’t get over how their first reaction is, “HOW DO THEY KNOW SHIRAFUNE’S NAME?!?!” and not, “WHOSE SKIN ARE YOU WEARING!?!?”
Then again, even now we can’t understand other animals’ communication (maybe rats, but they’re the exception), so maybe it is a big achievement to a civilization that can create magical wasp tornadoes and TELEPATHICALLY CONTROL MIKURA’S VOICE.
I also like how the alien has a Japanese name and how its graphemes, by similarity, are phonemic and thus Japanese. This is conclusive proof that the Japanese are ACTUALLY ALIENS. They even look the same!
tl;dr: actually all of the alien’s limbs are highly sensitive penii
P.S. plot twist: the aliens are actually malevolent galactic pornographers, the true aliens who sent the kids THE POWER OF THE GALAXY was actually former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, who remains alive on the moon even into 2034.
Soumoe of the Beer Halberd 6
I can’t tell whether this is mocking traditional shounen tests or what because why the hell do you need a test to enter a dormi-oh right she’s insane. and moe. the simpsons moe.
Having him enter a student dorm is about the laziest way to introduce more quirky characters (cause everybody else is normal/rich and rich people aren’t fun to be around) ever. The only thing worse is if some autismal savant came into the picture and trust me that was baaaaaaaaaaaddd. d d d. d.
It’s also a convenient way to shape Megumi into becoming a childhood-friend-type, but she should have friends after three years in middle school, compared to Souma, whom nobody likes. Or licks.
if god is omnipresent then
god’s tongue
is watching
YOU
P.S. I didn’t need to see that pirate picture at the end. Nor the granny flashback. At least the metaphor was a flashback and not… what it usually is ._.
P.P.S. There was relatively less fanservice here than before. I guess the shower scene was supposed to be humorous at first but now, I really don’t understand why anybody would add one except because it’s such an ingrained anime icon. It’s really just pervasive and customary toilet humour.
P.P.P.S. Souma is secretly a GT Robo. his only energy source is the souls of dead squids. when he bleeds he bleeds black ink
ST&RS 30
What a way to start off the new year! The symbolism behind rewriting a ST&RS post for New Year’s is that at O-New, the new year’s going to bring upon us the same fate as ST&RS: a slow, painful death from neglect, disinterest, and creative stagnation!
Here’s a picture of Shirafune farting.
Souma of the Food Odyssey 5
Souma is the most badass generic shounen protagonist of all time. His name really fits his stoned nature because souma sounds like soma sounds like somn- and that’s what somnifacient somnolent somnambulists do—sleep, drugs, and smoke weed every day.
seriously in every single frame he is stoned like in Brave New Soma. ten bucks says he doesn’t even know how to cook—he’s doing it all in his sleep. AND HE NEVER WOKE UP
This is how you make a protagonist. He’s not ordinary at all. Nobody can relate to his experiences. But his lower-class background appeals to everybody, and instead of being some untouchable moral model on a pedestal he’s arrogant as hell. WHICH MAKES HIM BADASS.
He’ll probably outgrow his hubris as he goes on ~an odyssey~ of food akin to Toriko’s adventures i-no
P.S. his catchphrase translation makes it really lame. no scratch that the entire translation is really lame. but that only makes the story funnier—it wasn’t much!
Steins;Gate: Boukan no Rebellion 16
The timeline is still really strange in Steins;Gate. How can Rintarou get the IBN5100 if he’s already met Suzuha? Think about it:
Iimeline 1:
1975: nothing happens
2010a: Rintarou doesn’t have the IBN5100
2010b: nothing happens
2012: SERN takes over world
2038: Suzuha goes to 2010b, creating Timeline 2
20XX: world at peace
Timeline 2:
1975: nothing happens
2010a: Rintarou doesn’t have the IBN5100
2010b: Suzuha goes to 1975, creating Timeline 3
2012: SERN takes over world
2038: Suzuha goes to 2010b, creating Timeline 4 (which is the same as Timeline 2)
Timeline 3:
1975: Suzuha gets the IBN5100
2010a: Rintarou has the IBN5100
2010b: nothing happens
2012: nothing happens
2038: nothing happens
20XX: world is free
The key point is that when Suzuha goes back to the past in 2010b and in 2038, her two travels make two different timelines. The line that would lead to their success is created when she travels back to 1975. There’s no reason why her travel back to 2010b takes her to the same timeline. Then again, a story about Timeline 3 would be as boring as watching paint grow on a grassy wall, so it’s forgiven.
P.S. What is Reading Steiner? If anybody stuck their memories in the time machine, they would be able to retain their memories through world lines—because it’s not their bodies travelling through time, it’s the information. If, say, Mayuri used the time machine to implant Rintarou’s future memories into herself, she’d not only travel through time, but would inherit a different identity! That would’ve been an interesting device for, say, Kokoro Connect…
Souma of the Asian Halberd 4
Ah, competition. It’s funny because this school really isn’t about learning—just like universities. If people didn’t need degrees to get a good job, would any non-academics go to university? It’s all about the prestige of graduating—and the fewer people who graduate from your institute there are, the more prestigious their status becomes.
also it’s the only way to write a shounen manga so
Steins;Gate: Boukan no Rebellion 15
The greatest part of Steins;Gate was its climax, when Rintarou did all sorts of crazy shit and it all connected back to the beginning like some bizarre circular argument typical of time-bending tales.
The greatest part of Boukan no Rebellion is its climax, when Daru did all sorts of crazy shit and it all connected back to… things.
What I’m going at is, Boukan no Rebellion focuses on Suzuha and so her most emotional moment was finding her father. Mayuri’s train of logic was executed well and there was no dearth of cheesy/teary goodbyes, so I guess it was a good scene.
That is, IF THE ART WEREN’T SO *~QUALITY~*
Souma of the LEBEIAN Halberd 3
The fanservice is pretty creative, but Koizumi’s epic mahjong hands are more grandiose and less metaphorical. Really, all you get with Souma’s metaphors is the taster’s feelings, whereas Koizumi’s metaphors are anything he wants. Siberian bullet trains. American freedom bombings. WWII operation re-enactments. The pope, being tempted by a metaphor of ADOLF HITLER AS THE DEVIL INCARNATE.
Nevertheless, Souma’s food explanations are better, namely because Koizumi has dogs to do with food. Better than Toriko’s, though, cause the food is actually real. Reminds me of Addicted to Curry’s actual curry recipes; I guess the writer has to be an actual good chef. Maybe he went to chefing school or something to learn how to chef, or maybe he chefs a chief chefing consultant to chef that everychef’s alchef.
I hope not everybody in the academy’s as spoiled as Nikaidou, though I also hope he reappears if only to randomly shout ‘LEBEIAN’ at important intersections. goddamn lebeians and their UNNATURAL behaviour. they should practice lebeiancy in private, not in the eyes and ears of innocent schoolechildrian. i don’t know what i’m saying but mitt romney opposes homo milk and I drink homo milk every single day
P.S. Erina is mean. tasukete erina
ST&RS 29
TWIST ENDING: I’m not saying it was aliens, but ALIENS
This cliffhanger is like a double-crossing cheat begging for one more chance after casting aside all your wishes, hopes, dreams, and desires, crying, “Just wait! You have to see this!” at the feet of its disgusted yet poisoned patrons—poisoned by the sin of curiosity, overwhelming all logic and reason by wonder at this final twist of twists, turn of turns:
just how moe will this alien be
P.S. For those who aren’t reading ST&RS: you’re missing nothing. It’s a manga about some teenagers who want to go into space. Originally, I thought there’d be tons of cool futuristic hard science space training and drama but instead, TIMESKIP TIMESKIP. Can’t blame the author for drawing a space manga for Jump of all magazines… of course it was cut. Actually wait no BLAME THE AUTHOR WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA
Souma of the PLEBEIAN HALBERD 2
IS THIS HYOUGE MONO REDUX
let’s see:
food porn – check
actual porn – check
awesome faces – check
PLEBEIANS – check
typical generic sexist shounen bakuman protagonist-incentive-object – not quite, she’s a tsundere ojou-sama too, and that takes a lot more creativity tha-
wait a minute hyouge mono didn’t have that
BY ALL COUNTS SOUMA OF THE PLEBEIAN HALBERD IS THE BETTER STORY
P.S. doesn’t beat legend of koizumi in terms of ‘faces teleported to outlandish situations’
P.P.S. ‘god’s tongue’ sounds like a really bad nickname only eroge artists would conjure
ST&RS 28
TWIST ENDING: WORLD ENDS DECEMBER TWENTY-FIRST,
no no no no no no no I wrote ten mouretsu pirates posts on this
in no gravity
hair does not flow down
also the ship can’t possibly be spinning because everybody’s floating
I THOUGHT YOU WERE A SCIENCE, ST&RS
YOUR SOLE SOUL-REDEEMING TRAIT HAS DISAPPEA-hey look moe heads
ST&RS 27
itt: fanservice in my moe manga?! *grumble grumble*
re: gravity
the enemy’s gate is down
also there IS NO GRAVITY IN SPACE WHY DOES THEIR HAIR GRAVIT-right, centrifugal ‘force’
Gangsta 18
No images today. This is purely a promotional message.
Read Gangsta. It’s a good manga. Trust me.
The general plot: in the past, the government drugged soldiers to win a war. Their progeny suffered from genetic anomalies that increased their strength at the cost of severe birth defects and short lifespans. Four crime families semi-peacefully coexist in Ergastulum, a ghetto for the mutants’ quarantine. However, a series of mysterious massacres of mutants threaten to re-ignite the anti-mutant sentiment in the city, and chaos looms near…
That’s it. After 18 chapters, I finally understand just what is happening.
It’s going to be awesome.
ST&RS 26
TWIST ENDING: NEURONS REPRESENT UNIVERSE, ENTIRE MACROVERSE EXISTS IN MAHO
itt: 7 month timeskip. THE RACE TO CONCLUDE BEFORE THE AXE AT 39 BEGINS~
P.S. what is characterization ??????
Gangsta 17
Now, I love the scanlators (Easy Going Scans) for scanlating this manga because it’s so bloody awesome, but they really are easy going when you see things like this…
Then again, there’s hardly any competition on the manga scene, compared to the autismal levels of fagsubbing, so… quality is based on dedication to the source, not to the legions of adoring imbeciles fans.
The main selling point of Gangsta isn’t in ‘its unique world, where swords and bullets clash!’ (face it, that’s not very unique at all). Gangsta’s strength lies in its characters; each of them has unique motivations, backstories, and relationships. Most importantly, these all change throughout time, especially between Worrick and Nicolas during the flashbacks. How they befriend each other at the end is still unknown…
I’m not even sure if Worrick’s eye really is gone. Maybe he’ll pull a Kenpachi on us and reveal that his eyes have magical abilities that allow him to memorize everything it doesn’t see. Wait a minute…
Another cool thing about Gangsta are that the protagonists are grown men, like in Fate/Zero, except with less stupid motivations. They’re mature. They don’t angst around about the past; they move on, and when their past comes to haunt them back, it’s because holy shit these are really traumatic stuff that’s happening.
The only thing bad are the boob jokes, cause she’s a prostitute and yeah. Dark and edgy.
Gangsta 16
AHHHHHH HIS DAD IS DED
It’s starting to get confusing now. I would write the plot out for you guys but nobody’s reading this and I don’t understand it myself; even marathoning 4 chapters (ok, that’s not a marathon) hasn’t helped. There’s that great Black Lagoon/Roanapur feel again with the four heads actually meeting, so all we can do is pray that the big bad of this arc isn’t some contrived rape survivor again… (not that I remember Black Lagoon having any of those)
ST&RS 25
TWIST ENDING: MAHO AND AMACHI IMPREGNATED WITH ASTRAL ENERGIES. LITERALLY.
OK, so NilaiTP got a direct JP -> Eng translator, so the grammar isn’t as egregious. Would’ve been interesting to DUWANG that but they’re a decent group, so I won’t. Instead, have some diabetes
ST&RS doesn’t bother explaining all this deus ex cause ~aliens~
~aliens~ do whatever
~aliens~
want
go away logic >:(
P.S. since amachi’s harnessing the power of PEOPLE’S HOPES AND DREAMS via email do I get the power of flare from blog comments. if I read books will I be like patchy and royal flare things/people/~aliens~
P.P.S. if your answer to any of the above questions was ‘no’ your a horibowl humen bean
ST&RS 24
Mad props to NilaiTP, an Indonesian group that double-translates JP -> INDO -> ENG, for continuing with ST&RS after Clockwork Lies dropped it nine months ago (presumably either because copyright or because they realized it’d be axed). NilaiTP’s releasing the chapters weekly now, and I reasonably expect them to scanlate until the end in chapter 39.
So, knowing that I owe to you guys my ability to process this manga, the following images aren’t meant to insult your editor’s abilities. They’re just the easiest images to use.
Did I mention that ST&RS is getting axed? Yeah, they’re ending it in chapter 39. ‘Twas only a matter of time…
Gangsta 15
Once there were two little boys sitting in a mansion. The first one says, “Pass the soap!” The second on says, “So moe, radio.”
It’s a pun because there are radios in the flashback and they are moe.
Gangsta’s storytelling is always awesome. If this became an anime (and as long as it’s not cancelled, I’m sure of it), the production company would only need to follow the original chapters’ scripts to a tee. Even the narration, which some people so vehemently despise, is rendered beautifully—by talking of the past during the present action, we see the consequences of history. The cruel irony of Nicolas’s blade as it cuts into peaceful demonstraters (ok, Gangsta, this is getting a bit far) juxtaposed onto Worrick cutting his steak (this is a metaphor, take notes) is… cruel irony. Furthermore, it’d be tasteless to have music playing during bloody flashbacks, and silence renders it too disturbing. A voiceover solves all of that, adds backstory, and allows unimportant yet character/setting-defining action to take place.
Rape isn’t a backstory. This is how you develop a character’s growths and motivations.
Furthermore, the constant switches between the (relatively) placid present to the not-so-halcyon past keep us wanting more flashbacks without forgetting where we actually are. Until the last chapter, the flashbacks weren’t necessarily chronological either. It’s like playing a mystery game, piecing the clues together one at a time, slowly understanding more and more of a story’s sociopolitical context.
Horizon’s extravagant flashiness isn’t world-building. This is how you build a world.
Steins;Gate: Boukan no Rebellion 14
I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE ABOUT SUZUHA
Not Suzuha and Rintarou, not Suzuha and Kayano, but about SUZUHA’S MAGICAL ADVENTURES IN STONED HIPPIE DISCOLAND (a.k.a. the 70s). Maybe 70s Japan had fewer hippies, but the Zeitgeist is still there. IT’S THE FEELING THAT COUNTS
AND THE AUTHORS ABSOLUTELY SQUANDERED IT
Gone is the golden age of anime. Gone is the explosion of the Japanese auto industry. Gone is the unprecedented Japanese growth that pushed them into becoming the second-largest economy in the world.
What do we get as compensation? Backstory (read: rape)!
Because a free world means oppression! An oppressed world means freedom! If you oppress all the people who would oppress people, then nobody will oppress anybody! Except yourself! The joys of doublethink are myriad.
To be fair, Kayano’s arguments are pretty damn solid. Even Suzuha could only ignore the debate and focus on saving Nae. That’s why, y’know, people want world peace. And freedom. Steins;Gate provides a false dichotomy in which we must choose between the two—it’s pretty thought-provoking, but it’s nothing people haven’t done before. I’ll bet 70% of fictional dystopic utopias have an oppressed but peaceful society.
The whole rape insanity doesn’t really add anything except degrade Kayano as a character. Her ‘only believing in peace because mental breakdown’ shtick fallaciously destroys her arguments in our eyes, and we end up rooting for Suzuha to liberate the world. And disco.
Except not disco CAUSE THEY’RE NOT GOING TO THE SEVENTIES christ dig a rock
Ore no Kouhai ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai 11
This Sena girl is fucking retarded.
In this chapter: QUALITY ART.
Stay tuned for an exciting announcement tonight from me, and another exciting announcement sometime later from somebody else, whenever he decides to excitedly announce it.
tl;dr: filler posts
Gangsta 14
In this post, we will talk about: the Aniblog Tourney, the Antiblog Tourney, the Ant-Blog Tourney, the Aniblog Tore-Knee, the Aniblog Tour (NE), An Eye Blog Tourney, An Eyeball Tourney, and other related concepts. Also: Gangsta.
Ore no Kouhai ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai 10
Is Kyousuke blushing? Is he recovering from the scars of battle… or puberty? Is his acne untreatable? Are my mspaint-editing skills absurdly bad? Tune in on the next episode of ‘this post where I talk about nothing because this chapter talks about nothing’ on the only blog with posts that talk about nothing, O-New~!
Ore no Kouhai ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai 9
This is the sound effect I make when I realize NOTHING HAPPENED THIS CHAPTER. AT ALL.
P.S. The art seems nice at first but all this white space, pointless dramatic speech bubbles, constant changing of nose sizes… sigh.
P.P.S. inb4 ‘lol you can’t say their art sucks because you can’t even draw!’. I say inb4 because nobody’s going to read this post, and for good reason
O-New 