[Spoilers!]
Yumi’s Cells can just be a goofy series and still be better than a lot of comics but the creator, Dong-Gun Lee, really goes above and beyond my expectations.
The art has improved over the seasons, the story is still going strong over 200 chapters later. I’m almost insulted it isn’t printed in a magazine. It’s so much fun, so consistently good, I’m at a loss for words. Now, I can add one more thing to love about Yumi’s Cells, it handled a break-up very well.
One Thing I must say before jumpin’ in:
1. Watch Slayers Next, the second season of The Slayers TV series. Subbed or dubbed, doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about the first season, you can always go back. Major spoilers from the last two episodes are coming. This is your only warning!
Let’s talk about the Lord of Nightmares.
The Golden Demon Lord, L-sama, the Sea of Chaos, she has many names. In the fantasy world of Slayers, the Lord of Nightmares sits at the top, above humans, above dragons—demons, Gods, she is a creature in a class by herself. I’m talking next-level cosmic stuff here. So, why do I think the Lord of Nightmares is awesome? It’s not like omniscient beings are rare in fiction. The answer to that lies with what she is as well as her interactions with others.
Being a fictional world, the Lord of Nightmares fits quite comfortably within the Slayers lore. In fact, the magic and overall hierarchy of world building in Slayers is some of the best I’ve ever seen. I encourage anyone interested in magical fantasy to check out Inverse.org and read up on the detailed word of Slayers.
No.
I love you One Piece, but over and over you prove killing characters is as rare as a Bleach chapter with a background. Pagaya, Pell, Brownbeard, Jack the Drought are some of the manga’s characters who should be dead. And, look, I’m not death hungry. I don’t read One Piece for a body count. Luffy isn’t becoming Frank Castle anytime soon (though Luffy drawn as The Punisher would be cool). But, the situation characters survive in One Piece is ridiculous at times.
But, Oven looked like he was about to slice Pound’s head off?
But, Oda gave Pound the perfect send-off?
Yeah, I agree. But, does that mean he’s dead? Comic book death rules are in effect. Meaning, unless there’s a body, he ain’t dead. And that still holds true for Pedro. Until I see a body neither one is dead, only injured. A pack of bandages away from a full recovery.
So, I’m putting my entire bitcoin fortune on Pound surviving and using my winnings to by a pack of gum. Oh, hell, make it two.
Side note: We finally saw a glance of Big Mom’s husband cycle. Apparently, she gets pregnant, keeping hubby around until the baby’s born then he’s unceremoniously kicked to the curb. Not even enough time to hold the child. Big Mom is cold.
Over the past few chapters we’ve seen the League of Villains do some serious leveling up with Mr. Hype Baddie, Giantomachia, plus an unknown number of new recruits joining and acquiring Overhaul’s anti-quirk bullets and serum. Basically, Shigaraki has everything he needs for another A-level scheme, but like with most ingredients, he’ll need time to prepare. So, I hope you enjoyed seeing the league because barring minor check-ins, I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of them in the foreseeable future.
But we must have balance.
We touched on it a bit with Class A learning super moves, now is the time to see more of that and maybe some other improved skills while Team Facepalm gets ready for the next round to pain. With Provisional License: Part Deux, Bakugou and Todoroki will get their level-up along with Inasa Yoarashi.
But, we need more than that. I’m guessing that inter-school training Ms. Joke proposed will happen soon after, leveling up Class A even more. A maybe, just maybe, we’ll even get another small arc after that. An All Might origin flashback would be nice.
The fact is the League of Villains 3.0 is coming and right now they have the brains, brawn, and tools to cause mega damage. If Class A doesn’t step up, the villains will leave them in the dust. Or, considering Shigaraki, turn them into dust.
Great art. Great story. So, why aren’t more people reading Dr. Stone?
Maybe it’s the first few chapters.
Dr. Stone is about two high school kids frozen in stone, along with every human on Earth, for thousands of years. They escape and wish to bring back humanity, but an evil high schooler wants to restart humanity without adults or technology.
Now, my problems with the first chapters are Taiju and the manga’s slow start. Dr. Stone started off seemingly as another end of the world story where uber powerful high schoolers fight to survive. That’s part of the story, but there’s a lot more going on. Sticking with the series, you learn that it’s not a battle shounen but a comedy/adventure shounen with science!
Once the story is focused on Senku, the genius high school boy, things get good. He’s the more interesting of the two, a guy wanting to build a world of science using whatever and whoever he can. Senku is the keystone of Dr. Stone. Once he takes the spotlight, the story is off and running.
Did I mention the art is fantastic? Well, it is. Easily one of, if not, THE best drawn manga currently running in Shounen Jump. The comedy starts slow in the series too, plots focusing on the seriousness of the situation with flashes of humor here and there. Again, once Senku gets the full spotlight, the comedy comes busting in. You’ll learn science and you’ll laugh while doing it. A win-win in my book.
Give Dr. Stone a chance. If the first chapter doesn’t do it for you, skip ahead three or four chapters and see if you like it then. If you’re still petrified with boredom, read the latest two chapters and call me in the morning. You’ll feel much better.
No one cares if you liked that song before it was cool.
Why do some people seem to think it’s cool to mention they liked a now popular song before it was featured in a movie, TV show or anime? As if that now popular song makes them popular by association, giving them fifteen minutes of fame.
Sorry, but the song was always good, just unknown. It happens. There’re lots of songs on this watery world with more being made every year, every day even! Mainstreamers don’t have access to or aren’t willing to work finding lesser known songs or music artists, instead being force fed by large music companies or relaying on word of mouth from friends or associates.
Worse, are the original fans of a song or artists who don’t like when “their” song goes mainstream. WHAT? How do fans of an anime or other form of media liking a song you love devalues that particular song? Did the artist write it specifically for you? Did the songwriter tweet she/he only wants people who bought all the band’s albums to enjoy it? Saying the obvious is frowned at times but I think our society may have reached a point where this should be stated as default:
Unless the singer or band has a problem with their song going mainstream, stop complaining. If your happiness is based on being one of a few hundred or thousand who know about a song, that’s your problem.
Nothing wrong with loving a song, or a movie, or anything that doesn’t hurt others, but please, please, please stop basing your self-worth on things you love. Love it, enjoy it, share it, and be happy. Save all that outrage for the countless horrible things happening in the world you somehow forgot existed. Remember, you can always blast that underground remix while protesting injustice in the streets.
Welp, the Eri Arc is officially over, well, not “officially” (Support the official release!), and it pains me to say my honeymoon period with My Hero Academia is over.
Not to say the series is going down the toilet. While not a huge fan of the wrap-up, the overall arc was good. Red Riot, Suneater, Lemillion, Toga, Rappa, Shigaraki and Twice all deserve praise. Even Eri found the courage to help save herself in the end, quite the millstone for a kid pretty much at the end of her rope. I look forward to re-reading all the parts I liked. But, there was a HUGE hiccup I want to address.
Why didn’t the female heroes get more chances to shine? I was so excited when Uravity and Froppy were coming along to the yazkuza stronghold. I really thought those two would get to showoff a new attack or have a character defining fight. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. No one-on-one fight equal the their male counterparts, no cool new attacks, nothing but basic hero roles any nameless grunt could do.
I don’t hear a lot of talk about Buffy’s comic book continuation of the TV series. A shame because it’s still great. Yeah, it has its rough patches like the TV show, but overall it’s just as entertaining. Guess the stigma of reading comics turns most people off. That, and I’m sure there’re fans who do even know the comic seasons exist. Well, now you know. Read it!
Sidenote: Season eight wasn’t bad, despite what others may say. It has flaws, including my most hated Big Bad in both the comics and television series, but it had a hell of a strong start. Not crazy about the last third but the other two-thirds more than makeup for it. Very ambitious. Ran too long, in my opinion, but, still a season worthy of Buffy. On to season eleven.
Okay, six episodes in and I’m officially onboard.
Not to say the previous five were bad, they were all varying degrees of enjoyable (least favorite is Beagle Birthday) but I’m ready to put the nostalgia glasses away and watch Ducktales 2017 as a fan of this version, not of the 80’s cartoon.
Not that criticizing the old series is hard, I love the old series but there were many episodes I didn’t like, but at its core, speaking as someone who never read the comics, OG Ducktales at its best was about adventuring with Scrooge McDuck and the rest of the main cast. That’s why the first episodes are so memorable to me. The Golden Suns arc was what I wanted Ducktales to be all the time–adventure with some comedy, mystery and character development mixed in.
Hitoshi Shinso, the only student in the U.A. General Department given any type of development. Interesting, considering it was said students in Heroics and General can be moved into either department based on their performance. That little piece of information got me thinking.
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