Changes are in the air for the blog. Though no worries, I'll still be covering the magazine every week! Though I've decided that perhaps I could be doing this in a way that's more efficient for you all and me. Curious? Interested? Read on below.
First off let's take a gander at the cover --Yui Oguri is representing AKB 48 while the series getting color pages --Tonikaku, Undine, and Maiko-san are all surrounding her. Of course it isn't Sunday without some sort of Conan representation, so although Zero isn't getting any color pages or anything in particular, he's hanging out here too. Though biasedly my favorite thing is seeing my favorite gal of all RYOKO making her steadfast return! I'll talk about her more in the Editorial section, but I'm overjoyed to have her back.
Now before we go to TOC, I'd like to announce a new frontier for the blog --twitter! That's right, I've decided to open up an official twitter for "Weekly Shounen Sunday edition" which you can find here! Or if that doesn't work for any reason you can just look up @wsstalkback on twitter! Due to this, after issue #09 the features section will no longer be featured on the blog --rather, I'll talk about features, news, and other things on the twitter account. The TOC translation will be moved to the editorial section, and the editorial will still feature old favorites with any manga series that I feel need to be expanded on. It's my hope that this will make the blog a bit easier to read and more fun for me to write. Hope this change won't be too jarring to anyone as I make the transition!
All right, back to the fun stuff --this week's TOC! This question asks "Is there something that no matter what you do you can't do alone?"
Maiko-san chi no makanai-san (Aiko Koyama): I always need additional help to turn on the portable stove since I'm unable to do it on my own.
RYOKO (Kaito Mitsuhashi): The readers people who have sent their overwhelming well wishes and support have deeply touched me. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.
Ano Natsu 1959 (Ashibi Fukui): I can't go to trendy shops on my own.
Maojo de Oyasumi (Kagiji Kumanomata): Haunted houses. I can never go into one more than once!!
Souboutei Kowasubeshi (Kazuhiro Fujita): I like going to movies and being able to share my thoughts with someone. That's way more fun!
Undine ha Kyou mo Koi wo Suru ka? (Shinya Misu): Drive on the highway. You need some real skills behind the wheel for that.
Detective Conan: Zero's Tea time (Takahiro Arai): I really tried thinking hard about this and really I'd say drawing and reading manga.
Amano Megumi ha Suki darake! (Nekoguchi): Drawing a weekly serialized manga!! Everyone --my assistants, my editor...I'm overwhelmingly indebted to you!
Tonikaku Cawaii (Kenjiro Hata): Stuff like going to Disney land or drawing my storyboards...
Be Blues (Motoyuki Tanaka): Conversations.
Fire Rabbit!! (Aya Hirakawa): Fixing machinery.
Gopun go no Sekai (Hiroshi Fukuda): Drawing manga! Without my assistants, the editors and the readers I couldn't draw.
Tantei Xeno to Nanatsu Satsujin misshitsu (Kyouichi Nanatsuki): "Detective Xeno" I'd be lost without Sugiyama-sensei!!
Imouto Rireki (Kei Nishimura): Bending forward exercises. My body gets too stiff and I can't seem to move around much.
Komi-san ha komyusho desu (Tomohito Oda): Communication!! And oh, traveling, I guess?
Aozakura Bouei Daigakkou Monogatari (Hikaru Nikaido): Connecting to the internet.
Touken Ranbu: The movie (Rokurou Ogaki): Touken Ranbu: The movie is now open in theaters! The manga version will continue in the volumes so by all means check it out!
Kimi wa 008 (Syun Matsuena): Conversations, maybe?
Memesis (Takuya Yagyu): Going out any time after 2am and fried foods.
Hatsukoi Zombie (Ryou Minenami): Basically everything.
Hoankan Evans No Uso ~Dead or Love~ (Mizuki Kuriyama): Going into expensive looking restaurants.
Chrono Magia: Infinity Gear (Homura Kawamoto): "Chrono Magia" spoilers.
Sokyuu no Ariadne (Norihiro Yagi): It's a high hurdle to do Yakiniku and karaoke.
Zettai Karen Children (Takashi Shiina): "People can't live on their own" is what they said in "Gundam".
switch (Atsushi Namikiri): Video games.
Youkai Giga (Satsuki Satou): Live.
Tokaichi Hitoribocchi Nouen (Yuuji Yokoyama): Going out to drink alone despite really wanting to.
Gotta say it's nice to see some of these answers reflect how important the reader/artist/staff relationship is to making manga. Though I feel like I relate most to Fujita, Oda (not that one) and Fukui. Though people taking it literally and responding with things that you actually can't do alone was a great joke too.
This week's sunday gal is Yui Oguri from Akb 48. She was born December 26th 2001 in Tokyo and is a regular member of something known as AKBINGO! She's also featured in a beauty product commercial, and is on twitter and instagram. It doesn't seem as if there's anything in particular she's in that Sunday is advertising --guess they just wanted to have her back in, and I can see why. She's quite cute!
It's been approximately two years since it began serialization and to celebrate, Maiko-san grabs a lead color page! I know I don't talk about the series much due to it being pretty much caught up (from as far as I know) scanslation wise, but that is by no means a slight on the series. It's still as beautiful and calming as always, and honestly I'd say worth a read if you want to get a good idea of what kind of manga can only run in shounen sunday!
I'm not sure how Koyama does it, but she makes a series that has no agency in it at all feel...not exciting, but valid. Like, Even this chapter which is just an outing for a side character (Kiyo the protagonist only appears in three panels!) though his objective is to eventually meet up with her. They just barely miss each other, and that's really the most drama that this chapter has yet...I don't feel put off by it. Aiko Koyama has an excellent command of her artwork and what the story is supposed to be about, so the series doesn't feel like it's trying to prove anything or vy for the right to be in the magazine. Maybe it's those things that allow it to feel more genuine? Either way I'm glad to see the series make it to it's second year in the style I've come to expect from it and here's hope to more successes in the future.
Okay, I'll admit it. Ano Natsu 1959 has managed to grow on me quite a bit with just this third chapter. Interestingly the editorial department has labeled this a "Sci-Fi/Baseball" manga, which might lend itself well to have things are being paced so far. I mean are they considering the fact that Natsu time traveled to be the sci-fi element? And if so is that all that's needed for a series to be sci-fi in absence of any other elements that would make it so? Maybe I'm thinking about this too much, in fact I'm sure I am. Either way this chapter was a lot of fun --mainly because it sort of shook off one element of the time traveling tropes --Natsu right away says he doesn't belong here, and doesn't really try to fit in per se. Of course no one really believes him, but it's the effort that counts. Plus it helps that the younger version of his grandfather is infectiously endearing. He immediately thinks that Natsu is his lost little brother, and is overjoyed that he's back.
And it's the fact that he --and the cast of this manga are so endearing (and I guess as a personal bias, that they haven't actually played baseball yet) that chapter three was such a treat for me. Also it helps that Natsu's a bit of an idiot, hah. He figures if lighting is what sent him here in the first place, then he just needs to summon it again to get back home. As you can see in the page directly above, that has very dangerous and obvious consequences.
Natsu's poised to just sulk but another freak accident leaves him in a bad place --until his Grandpa comes in to save the day. This manga's got just a bit of crazy in it, and I like that too. Like, I could see this being another genre completely and it'd still work. I like a lot that Fukui isn't just "rounding the bases" so to speak. There really is more to this than just "playing baseball" and I think that's what's grabbing me so far.
And then with stuff like this I can tell that Fukui is having an absolute blast with this. Of course even I with my known disinterest in sports manga have liked Major 2nd for example when they're off the field, so it's hard to tell how much of this is genuine. They're gonna have to play baseball eventually, and at that point my mettle will really be tested. For now at least, I can say that I'm interested in seeing where this will go, and thus will be paying closer attention to it than I initially thought now that the obligatory chapters are done.
Since it has a color page it gets another appearance on the blog. I don't---well I do make the rules, but I think it works out for Undine's favor since this week's chapter(s) were more to my liking than the first batch. Like I think we can get a slightly better idea of what kind of series this is aside from it's initial chapters from this. True it is the romantic misunderstanding series, and for the most part doesn't do anything unique with that premise --though it does help that I really do think both of these characters --Aqurea and Asha do like each other in a odd sort of puppy-love-ish way, so we don't have the "growing pains" part of the romance manga that can be a drag. No what really makes this work is that the setting and the side character (Fuyu) are utilized exceptionally well. Like it's a weird thing where they are looking out for the goddess's well being but are also thoroughly out for themselves. It's kind of refreshing in a weird way, hah. The first of the two chapters has an actual battle plan where Asha has to say that Aqurea is cute in order to get the water works running, except he's far too embarrassed to say it because he's beginning to like her. So he tries practicing on a picture but in his frustration says it out loud.
Again it's just really taking the setting, characters, and good old comedic timing in equal strides and coming up with something that's not quite new, but not a re-tread either. Though things do get a teensie bit complicated.
In the visage of Hami (again bear with me on the name.) Who was an old friend of Asha and from all looks of things might like him slightly, maybe. Again Misu takes what we know and plays on it --at high speed. That's the other thing that gets Undine a bit of a pass when compared to it's contemporaries. This would probably be a whole arc in another magazine/series, but Misu is playing speed chess and doesn't have time to wait for us to have expectations.
It also helps that Misu's artwork is so endearingly old fashioned. It's still pretty modern by manga standards, but the way pages are laid out and effects are used really do evoke this sense of 90's or early 2000's manga. Though yes, upon seeing just how much Asha cares about Aqurea, Hami's not sure whether to cheer them on or not? All she can tell is that their relationship is extremely complex, and quite frankly that's what makes it fun. Aqurea wants to turn him down, but she's slowly falling for him, and Asha just wants to keep his town hydrated but his feelings are beginning to turn too. I really do think the series has what it takes to become a hit in Sunday if Misu keeps playing to the series's strengths as has been seen so far.
This week's Zero is about ramen and reunions. Why for the first time (I think?) Conan actually showed up in the spinoff! I mean it's just the back of his head, but he's there! Though yes essentially Zero visits a ramen shop frequented by the characters in the main canon and that's pretty much it this week. It's kind of nice to see so many of the characters we kind of know and love in one place, but yeah, Zero's definitely a series that is meant for one subset of fans (and maybe another one that's not Conan related, but I digress), and they don't have any reason to change that with the way it's been selling. I'll keep it in the blog because it's Conan and basically the flagship of the magazine but man if it isn't hard to think of things to say each week.
It's been a little bit since we've had marital bliss in the blog. Though maybe the premiere wedded couple in Sunday might have hit a rough patch? Nah, I'm kidding. It's a normal part of any relationship I think? I really have no experience to draw upon, in all honesty. Where getting one's mate to pay attention to them becomes a little bit challenging. For Tsukasa's efforts she really does try hard to get Nasa to look at her, even dressing up as a Cat-girl maid (Wow that's a lot of cute anime tropes in one place), to get his attention, and it kind of works. Really he was just into this quiz program and despite having his cute wife dressed up like this he still managed to get the question right --though he admits later she's so cute cosplaying that he thought he'd die. Sometimes it's the little things that matter in a relationship....I think. Still the series is just cute, so it's living up to it's name.
Getting a color spread and an advertisement with Ranma (the Ranma!) bodes well for RYOKO's future though I still worry about it since it has happened before that a Sunday series returns just to conclude. Having two volumes out on the same day (Feb 18th) also doesn't dissuade me from this notion, but for now I'm choosing to believe in hope over experience. RYOKO will get full coverage in the editorial pages due out later, but I can say this much --she's back, and hungry for victory.
So probably not surprisingly, Touken Ranbu's story will continue in the volumes, and it's likely because to continue this plot would mean spoiling the movie which is out in theaters as we speak. I almost feel like I shouldn't talk too much about this for that very reason, so just have some pretty artwork, and the last page revealing that there's a plot to assassinate Nobunaga Oda (yes that one) in the works. This really was a work meant for an audience already familiar with the series, though I have to wonder if it wouldn't have just been better to run it after the movie was out, or even just kind of have a side story to get people who aren't familiar with the franchise into it? This --while I understand is just a means to get hype going feels like it was, and excuse me for saying this --a waste. Though who am I to say since I don't know anything about this work? Either way if you want more Ogaki or Touken you'll have to buy the two volumes coming soon.
And that's it for the features section! There's only one more like it next week, and then we'll be taking this section to twitter. For our last features section we'll have a color page for Aozakura, and a visit from Fujiminosuke Yorozuya's manga running in Sunday Webry: Jyoukyou Koala. This issue (#9) will also feature the last chapter of Memesis, so the editorial section will shrink just a bit more, sadly...but with RYOKO's return we at least get to eat well for a while --maybe. Thank you for joining in on this penultimate features section and I'll see you for the last next week, and the editorial soon! Take care!!
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