We're going for a second week of the new blog changes! Do you like them? Dislike them? I dunno but you can certainly tell me in the comments! As mentioned int he last entry here the "features" section will feature (heh) the non core series, news bits, and color pages. For the editorial which will come (hopefully sooner than last week) later, I'll do the write ups for my opinions on the series I read regularly. Got it? Good. Let's go.
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This week features Detective Conan on the cover, with his...rival? Funny enough that's not exactly wrong since Heiji is a rival of sorts I suppose. According to him, he could catch Kaito Kid easily, but Conan seems less than convinced. Meanwhile Xeno also is featured on the cover for a mystery one-two-punch, as well as switch and Komi.
Okachi.fr has the TOC for the issue up if you want to have an idea of where your favorite series placed. Saike being dead last two weeks in a row hurts, but since it's likely the series is heading toward it's ending anyway I guess I can just suck it up for now...still, ouch. I've also heard in the grapevine that Shinobi no and K.O.I are both heading toward their conclusions, and the former basically confirms that this issue. I haven't heard anything about K.O.I but it's likely that this is the case considering it's sales and TOC position. As for Chrono Magia well, according to the TOC above, the series is off of hiatus --because they've just decided to end it. It makes sense with what I heard about the single volume out being sold as the only one, but now we have confirmation. I can assume it's a combination of the series not being well recieved and Fujiko Dosei's sickness, but that's sad all around considereing she's a talented artist who really didn't get a fair shake. I certainly hope she'll be back with something better soon. And now for this week's question and responses:
This week's question from Gyouzawa noshiwa in kanagawa asks about what artists have in their fridges (or don't have.)
Atsushi (Switch) Namikiri: Lifeguard (This is a Energy Drink.)
Gosho (Detective Conan) Aoyama: Oolong Tea, afternoon tea (I'm teatally insane, lol) (So Aoyama is making an awful pun. Oolong tea is "Oolong cha" and "Mucha" is "Too much". Sorry if my joke is a tea too far.)
Kyouichi (Xeno) Nanatsuki: Barley Tea is indispensable.
Syun (008) Matsuena: I have stuff like Eye medicine and camera film in there.
Kagiji (Maoujo) Kumanomata: Ice packs.
Ryou (Hatsukoi) Minenaimi: Canned Beer, Sweet Potato Shochu.
Hiroshi (5 minutes) Fukuda: Milk is essential!
Nekoguchi (Megumi): Zero Calorie Soda, and mineral water I gotta have these before a bath.
Takuya(Major 2nd) Mitsuda: Tofuu.
Aiko (Maiko) Koyama: Miso, first and then seaweed.
Kazuhiro (Souboutei) Fujita: Flavored water, hehehe. Flavored water sure is good...
Kenjiro (Tonikaku) Hata: Eggs and Miso and soup stock are normally in my fridge.
Hikaru (Aozakura) Nikaido: Coconut Juice!
Motoyuki (Be Blues) Tanaka: Lately I've just been keeping a day's worth of veggie juice..
Tomohito (Komi) Oda: Purified Tap water.
Hidenori (Marry Grave) Yamaji: Lemon Tea
Norihiro (Aridane) Yagi: All sorts of Beer!
Takuya (Memesis) Yagyuu: Wilkinson Mineral water and Red Bull I bought on Amazon!
Tamaki (K.O.I) Wakaki: Red Bull Shots.
Michiteru (Daiku) Kusaba: Dried Plums.
Mizuki (Evans) Kuriyama: I seem to have an endless supply of little soy sauce bags...
Takashi (Zettai) Shiina: Chuuru (A kind of Cat food.)
Rokurou (Shinobi) Ogaki: Hmph what are you planning asking me that....water?
Tsubasa (Saike) Fukuchi: Meiji's R-1 Drink Type. Thanks to that I haven't caught any colds!
Satsuki (Youkai) Satou: Electricity.
Yuuji (Hitoribocchi) Yokoyama: Fresh things (Lately small eggplant.)
Seems throwing back a cold one is the favorite thing of many artists here. Though what's with that answer Ogaki, hahah..
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As with last week, the color pages for the chapter will appear here while the writeup will appear in the "editorial". It is weird to me that a series will be advertised as getting "lead color pages" but upon release will essentially just get a center color with a extra few color pages to lead in. It's not really upsetting to me or anything, just kind of weird. As for the page itself, seeing the characters in color lends a certain weight to them that B&W just doesn't quite get across, though for the most part the color schemes of these characters isn't too surprising other than it seems Ayla's hair/eyes have changed dramatically from what they were in chapter one for whatever reason.
The stakes rise in Conan this week as Kid has staked out his target and made a disguise! Meanwhile Heiji is really hoping that he'll be able to make the moves on Kazuha (which seems to be dulling his senses, since he doesn't even notice that she's been "replaced".) Meanwhile the jewel itself seems to have multiplied?? Not only that but Kid has left a note saying he's already taken his mark! With only two more chapters left in this mini-arc, I gotta wonder how Aoyama is going to wrap all of this up. Mostly, I'm wondering if Heiji will get his happy ending in all of this or with Aoyama string him (and by extension all of us) for a ride for a bit longer? Right now Kid's got everyone eating out of his hands, so it's anyone's guess as to how this will go down, and no lie it's really exciting this way.
Even when the princess isn't running the show, she sort of is in Maoujo, hah. This was supposed to be a festival for the monsters, and she's more or less turned it into a pageant. Hoping to stop her at her own game, the Demon king and his cronies disguise themselves and...well, get dragged into the festivities against their will, hah. Not only that but Harpy who wasn't even entered into the pageant ends up taking the prize...somehow, which the princess then takes for herself. Even when she isn't the center of attention she really just takes over the show doesn't she? Next week is the last one for this particular arc, which is a bit surprising since this seemed pretty resolved this week.
Hmm, I'm sort of surprised there's no release date for switch's first volume despite there being enough for two at this point. I guess maybe they're planning a simultaneous release of both? That's cool and all --and it did work for Magi, but a much more recent example comes to mind --Daiku, and how that didn't fare as well. It does get me wondering about the inherent benefits of having two volumes out at once compared to doing things normally, but I'll trust the folks at Shogakukan know what they're doing. As for switch itself, Namikiri's art is still a joy to behold though the color page is a tiny bit of a let down. The one leading into the chapter is a bit better, but with such awesome artwork I would have expected much more out of Namikiri's chance to dazzle with color. That aside, the game against the upperclassmen is entering it's second half as advertised on the aforementioned page, and if Raimu's expression on the final page is anything to go by, he's not daunted. I can understand Namikiri wanting to slow things down a bit here since it's pretty clear these characters will play a big part in the series tapestry so I'm all for spending a bit more time with them. Namikiri has said himself he's kind of planning the series as he goes along which gives me a reason to temper my expectations, but so far switch hasn't let me down on the occasions I eye it for the blog which is really more than I could ask for.
Conflict really is what makes the world go round --especially in shounen manga. Not to say that Fukuda's suspense epic hasn't been great so far, but Yamato and Yuuto getting heated just as the fight against the Buddha do the same, has elevated this chapter a bit higher than the last few. Maybe it wasn't the best time for it, but Yuuto straight up says to his brother that without his trump card --the ability to time travel that he's essentially useless. In a way it's a weird kind of....encouragement? Yamato is ready to jump into the fray to help everyone as the Buddha make short work of them, but if he were to die without being able to time leap, then they really would be screwed. Yuuto decides to head into battle in his place, which suggests his death flag is waving mightily...and that Yamato's turn to use his ability to time travel may indeed be coming soon as there doesn't seem to be any way out for the characters now. Tempers and battles are running crazy in this manga and I'm down for the drama as weird as it is for me to admit this.
It feels like a while since Ariadne has been in the blog, and I apologize for that! I've said that this series is at it's best when it's about exploration, but world building-via-fighting seems to be something else it might be pretty good at if this chapter is any indication! More over I don't think I've praised Yagi enough for making his characters genuinely fun to watch. Rashil and Rulu getting the sacred tome that reveals the secrets of the Ruusa people and both realizing they can't actually read was the funniest part of this chapter --especially Rulu's revelation that she could read at one point but was too busy being the queen of the forest to keep up her lessons. Then of course there's Rashil who tries to comfort her by revealing proudly that he can't read either. Though on the serious note of things, it seems they've at least been able to figure out a means to stop the being of pure light that has been a pain to fight. Sadly the chapter ends right when things are getting good, but the three way battle between light, dark, and the heroes in between has been great to read even if I haven't had a chance to talk about it in the blog a whole lot. I think I'm actually excited about Ariadne again thanks to Yagi getting a better grip of what he wants to do and it feels real good.
I'm not sure I'll do this often, but considering the rumors of it's inherent demise, I figured I should at least check in with the King of Idols. Mahoro has lost his voice and it's been about two weeks since he's last been able to sing. Although there's nothing mentioned in this chapter in regard to the series coming to an end (Shinobi no which will be covered in the editorial piece does straight up mention the climax coming soon, and the chapter is pretty unmistakable in how fast it proceeds through events), it certainly does feel like a "finale" scenario --the hero is in a pinch, the goal they set out for (in this case to find mom) has been dangled in front of them, and a cause (but does being in love really make it impossible for an idol to sing? I kind of like the metaphor to real life this has, though.) has been identified. There's also only one more day until rehearsal, but as I said above I like that the series is playing around with this real world idea that "true love" is the enemy to idols. If I'm to be honest I don't think it'll really do anything poignant with the idea, but Wakaki not holding back in that regard is intriguing. I do think in the end we'll get something happy and not exactly trend setting out of this however, but I can appreciate the effort.
And that's it for the features of issue #41! Next week 5 minutes gets a center color page --likely to commemorate it's first volume being released --Tonikaku Cawaii takes the cover (though it doesn't appear to be getting a color page.) while Marry Grave and Maiko-san will be getting the color treatment. I'm hoping to have the editoral part out before the weekend, so please stay tuned for that. Until then stay golden, people!
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