Library
So I made something seperate from the media log page idk
Book and podcast and music type of area page
Manga, anime, and games will remain in media notes
Library is more on the cuff like the media log it’ll be for books that are more long form and as I finish them or get to like a midpoint or something
This isn't going to be a notes dump thing like the old media log either though, I need to figure out what exactly I'm doing with this spot before I do anything drastic.
Currently Reading: City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)
Current Plans: Archie Sonic Comics, Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, IDW Collection
Transformers Windblade comics Collection(from 2018, read in October)
As a person who has barely any knowledge of transformers outside of a few animated episodes of gen 1 and maybe like, some of animated, this is kind of like walking straight into an entirely different den where I am nodding my head like “ahh, I kind of get it” (doesn’t get it).
Girl transformers are in fact real, they have lore to them, and the comics go way more in depth to like the whole “they are aliens from a cyber robot planet” but maybe that’s been like all the Transformers comics. It’s kind of like slightly jarring to see stuff like devastator be played 100% seriously with the other cybertronians needing to combine to handle him and it’s got actual stakes while meanwhile watching g1 there was an episode where everyone was just like making fun of the constructicons and megatron stepped on starscream’s hand and called him stupid and they were the same episode I think. The main transformer Windblade is connected to like this supercomputer and they made starscream like. The president. There’s a lot of stuff I’d probably understand a lot more if I didn’t just randomly hop onto a comic. I am like uncovering and learning a vast and intricate lore for a bunch of alien robot vehicles. Fascinating. There are dinosaurs (I knew about that) but there are also tigers.
Kind of reminds me of like Archie sonic with all the shifting artists between cover stories (note: I need to read more comics that aren’t just Archie or Sunday strips)
I’ll probably try and figure out a reading order or like a “best of” collection.
2024 (Prior to Making this Page)
Sept Grab Bag
Link’s awakening manga (the other one)
Legally distinct chain chomp…
If I had a nickel for every piece of media that revolves around destroying the premise of the media in order to awaken a person from their slumber I would have a few nickels but if link’s awakening was made like in a current decade they’d definitely make the windfish more fourth wall breaking
Drawn to Life 2 has like this exact premise so clearly the dream game is a prevalent thing
Since the game was remade for the switch and echoes of wisdom uses the same art style I hope they do the same for oracles and make it all shiny and give the third game too but not like in terms of “releasing three of the exact same game” just make it a bundle thing.
Isekai omotenashi Gohan
I like cooking manga and the Isekai thing is kinda just like now they use magic ingredients and stuff
Kinda funny they accidentally transported the whole house
The whole priestess doing the main quest could be a story onto itself, but this is more about the person that stays behind…
These types of manga always want me to eat a lot of different types of food…too bad I have no cooking skills.
The extended cast being like the dog and fairy queen are nice when they pop in infrequently.
And the twist of the chosen one is like a 50-50 chance depending on the story, which I seem to have predicted.
The conflict of “will they go home or not” is also one. Normally that’s not there, huh, they’re usually just stuck.
The rest of it is within the web novel itself.
I’ve been looking into other works by the author artist combo but it seems like it’s not really what I’m looking for, I kinda wanted more cooking stuff. There’s the one on the haunted bookstore, but that translation seems dead in the water.
Theres a lot of old collages of manga I used to read on my pillowfort mostly based on recommends and like the top rated ones on mangadex, I might reread them and give like notes and thoughts.
Usually if they’re brain dead I read through them just fine because like I’m not here to go with full literary analysis, but there’s some that have plot points I kinda am iffy on— mostly the ones with romantic pursuits when it turns out the person still has their entire memory from their past life. It’s one of those ones where it’s a logistics nightmare if they bring it up. The other one is the slave trade thing but that’s because it normally sucks because the Isekai guy just purchases his girlfriend from the trade and it’s never brought up about how much it sucks. Like if you have one in your story it better be about how the protagonist is going to destroy it, eh? I’d rather have that.
I don’t think I’m talking about every single manga I’ve ever read or will read here tbh
Maybe I’ll get back into reading the going home club one but like, when I read manga, it’s kinda just like a pastime instead of huge analysis
Maybe I oughta get back into just reading like a book through Serialreader or something
Ponkotsu Ponko
A housekeeping robot! An old man!
When I think of robots, the old me would’ve went “Megaman” but the new me these days also goes “Astro boy!”
They are both old! It’s slice of life!
It’s like a story where like you’re gonna feel bad if the old man or robot die but like the robot has a totally different philosophy on life of “I want to be useful til the very end “
The melancholy of growing old and seeing everything around you change…
And how there are different robots with different perspectives
I could have done without the one guy who was a robot perv though, I can’t stand that thing.
And the one thing with the teru teru bozu was so out of left field even though there’s no relation.
The countryside stayed the same but then we had cyber robot Neo Tokyo. I feel like I wouldn’t enjoy that much either.
It’s a story where you laugh and then think “it’s gonna be sad when it’s over, right”
But the adventure continues, actually!
When you think of robots and the apocalypse and manga, I tend to go with girl’s last tour and “our lives after the apocalypse.” Maybe that one segment in spirit circle. Usually a lot of the after the world end things I’ve seen have a lot of greenery growing over abandoned places.
That’s called solar punk in one way, but maybe it’s a lot deeper than that.
Spe September (pokemon adventures)
Covered on cohost as like my last big site project. This will be like the new format going forwards for media log notes.
DPP, HGSS, BW
Pros
+ Interesting character dynamics for all three groups and emphasis on friendships both good and bad
+ What plasma does is more in depth in terms of like the psychological effect for Unova
+ Art manages to be humorous in terms of what came before, probably the most I’ve laughed at reaction images
Cons
- Manzai is kind of difficult to translate because it’s so pun reliant and Pokémon names are translated differently for every language and its also difficult to find funny in any way
- Major villain returns and is not killed instantly on the spot
- Sird got away with everything and exits the plot on a cliffhanger
Neutral
= Story for BW is not 100% game accurate
= Difficulty telling who main character is for DPP since the trio is emphasized as a trio
= Not enough time truly spent between Gold and Togebo in terms of relationship before Gold’s realization
BW2, ORAS, SM
Pros
+ Black got out of the Light stone
+ Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship got more depth
Cons
- Arcs are so short in length that there’s not enough time to properly develop characters in a way that feels natural instead of for the sake of plot
- Subsequently a lot of things feel rushed to the point that even if the character did something frustrating it gets forgiven within a few panels
- Some character’s talents within a few arcs need you to really suspend your disbelief even by this manga’s standards
- Additional game makes the later half of the SM arc kind of a mess to read through since USUM stuff is abruptly added in
Neutral
= Remake character development is kind of all over the place compared to earlier ones
= Not enough time in story to properly go into how characters would react completely to certain things outside of a few panels compared to like having multiple chapters that would go in depth to characters
= Other pokedex holders appear but Yellow hasn’t been seen within any of the arcs since the appearance in Emerald and the writing doesn’t give a good reason as to why or why not
I also read the online club ranger mangas but they’re so short that they don’t even have enough to have me evaluate them in this way.
Madoka and Gurren (Back to Back)
Madoka Manga
Not the rerelease edition
Hanokage
Homura failed the speedrun again, wipe the save
Reading this after watching rebellion and like how Homura was entirely desperate with trying to tell Madoka the same speech she had in episode 1 really makes this hit different
Manga kyubey really does have the mascot aspect down way more because of having actual emotions and visible pupils and I think that’s edited for the rerelease but then you look at actual kyubey and go “I want to kick this thing down a flight of stairs” post reveal
You kinda get it more on a rewatch/reread that like Mami is doing this because she has nothing else to live for, Sayaka was too short sighted and wanted an easy solution but then she never actually confessed, Kyoko was like the one who was most likely to get out of the situation since she was the most solo one, and Homura was doomed from the start to keep looping and how Kyubey specifically picked out vulnerable girls to make wishes from because they’d make the like least effective wishes and therefore become witches a lot faster
Making a wish for someone else’s sake and then watching as that person completely ignores you… Sayaka probably made the worst one out of the quartet.
Charlotte/Bebe’s wish was for cheesecake with her dying mom, right
Like that’s the worst one in terms of “that was really short sighted”
I think the mobile game added a lot more to it but like the game’s been dead everywhere but Japan and I don’t want to pull up a video while I’m taking notes
Madoka wants to be mostly useful which I feel like is a trend for protagonists who feel like they’re completely average and yeah, before the time loops like the most you could say about her is that she was average and nice and kind which pretty much made her doomed by the narrative when Homura decided “I will literally put myself into the Sisyphean torture time loop because you were nice to me” and accidentally made her the most important person in the timelines
Homura also definitely has seen Mami get like completely killed based on other spinoff stuff and/or the PSP game which I think got translated but idk I’m not doing that
Kinda funny how they were marketed as a quartet when like the only time they’ve effectively teamed up was in homura’s past time loops or the movie where they were trapped in an illusion
I feel like this one coming out like simultaneously as the anime released had some interesting side effects interpretation wise like kyubey’s eye color switch up where it’s like “yeah of course he’d look more evil to say what he’s doing is like, evil” while in the anime it’s like that’s just his job to fulfill his quota, he doesn’t see anything actively wrong with what he’s doing because he just happened to pick the most exploitable thing to use ( treating human beings and their feelings like livestock is obviously wrong though)
Saying A Walpurgis night like it’s multiple things when i think it’s like a collection of witches rather than being a single person
Like I’d know.
Manga homura putting on twin tails is not the look
Take em off
You know it’s kinda crazy how Homura admitting to kyubey about witches and stuff inadvertently caused rebellion to happen
There’s a lot of other ones like Orioko and like Kazumi and Jeanne D’arc but I’m not reading those
Oriko looks like a Touhou boss
The anthology manga pretty much is like a time capsule of “when the only thing to work with is the source material and none of the spinoff stuff…” everyone’s different art styles is a throwback.
The different story
Mami centric
It starts off a year ago with Mami meeting some older magical girls… wonder if they survived.
Magical girl friendship
Kyoko’s had a sad tale for her father just giving up entirely
It’s a moralistic sort of thing right
Most magical girls have the philosophy of
‘Let people be attacked so we can get energy’. Dreadful setup pre law of cycles.
In this timeline Sayaka tells the truth!
No she didnt.
Mami just wants people to stay with her since she has no one and nothing but her life as a magical girl
She’s considered a veteran but the life expectancy of magical girls is probably like 3 years max
What was her PSP witch
Like a candle i think?
Majuu hen/Wraith Arc
There’s always gonna be something to fill out the slot where witches once were in the cycle of the world
The nature of a time loop means that the same points will come up over and over again so Homura basically trapped everyone else in their own problems too like Sayaka’s constant romantic failings
Oh, so this is the point of like the in between of “what happened between the ending of Madoka and the start of rebellion”
Did homura’s insistence on explaining the plot of PMMM to have a grip on reality really unintentionally screw up everything
So the wraiths stole her shield and I think the plot is that like there was a witch in Homura’s shield from my memories
It seems like it’s playing out the same.
Her power changed from “time travel” to “memory manipulation”
Was her wish to like remember Madoka or something
You see, since the wraiths took homura’s power and feelings, they kinda screwed everything up because homura’s power is like absurdly powerful
Homura is the shield protecting Madoka. If Madoka doesnt exist, its a contradiction.
The chains of like cosmic confluence and casualty.
Time travel.
Wait, wraith Madoka warned Homura that “emotional energy could overturn the universe” and she literally did just that in rebellion
To be honest, Homura’s wish is for someone who doesn’t exist, so therefore it’s impossible for her to exist as is because by definition she’s a blank slate.
Wild card!
Also if you look closely at the part where homura is breaking madoka’s barrier her hand is turning into a claw
Quite concerning.
I should get back to reading sleepless domain…
I have the problem of starting a thing and then dropping it and then forgetting where I was
Where was I with Gurren again
Oh yeah
His death
Manga first!
Different pacing because the manga breaks up episodes into scenes and chapters but like it doesn’t have the rapid paced animation and what not so it’s feeling a lot different already
I love how there’s an anti Kamina signal like “he is NOT allowed”
Believe in Kamina because Kamina believes in you
Thank you Kamina
The world of GL is so fascinating because like eventually humanity’s curiosity would have led them to start going up so this was inevitable
None of them can read
They smash through reason and logic, yeah!
They will make a path with their own hands
Believe in you that believes in you
Thank you kamina
Kamina is basically like the Mami of the series in which it’s like he was the guy and now it is up to Simon to become the guy
The manga adaption doesnt have the music but like I’m imagining the music coming back to me, that’s the power of a show that’s fundamentally all in when you can remember their voices and stuff
Nia cute
Nia cute.
He was bluffing but Simon was a real bro
Simon locked in!
Yeah who do you think you are!!
I’m ME!
He built different he talk different he walk different his goggles immaculate
In japan, short haircuts are associated with heartbreak for women. I guess this is more of a metaphorical kind.
The indomitable human spirit!
7 years later
They created the government, and that was enough to trigger the anti spiral to try killing them all (hyperbolic)
Moon’s haunted
What?
Revs up the Gurren Lagaan: moon’s haunted.
Viral’s a real bro
What would you do in this situation
Intervene
He tore a hole in space and threw it through the space time continuum
Power levels in GL basically went from “yeah” to “holy cow”
Despair leads to less spiral energy but hope leads to more
And GL is hope maximum
Quantum universe theory!
Nah man, fighting spirit.
Row row fight the power.
His sunglasses also transformed
Gurren Lagaan is ultimately about “screw multidimensional feats, just hit it harder.”
The anti spiral also starts getting hyped up by the battle which is an “oopsie!” Because basically, they blew up the universe
Gurren Lagaan: Spiral Boy
This is a what if kind of scenario
Actually, it’s kind of more off walls of a “Simon without Kamina meets Nia” situation
Instead of being underground, they’re already above ground
You see, it’s actually an anti spiral simulation
There’s not really much to say on this one since it’s only 5 chapters.
Maybe watching Madoka and Gurren back to back wasn’t the best idea but like it was a really crazy roulette of like feelings and emotions and things.
Zelda Manga
Ive never played a Zelda in my life, closest I had was watching YouTubers play them.
I did read a few mangas and watch a playthrough or two...
Four swords, majora’s mask, uhhh, oracles. I should probably play at least one in my life, for the gamer points. (Knowing me I’m just gonna reread the mangas.)
Ngl it’s just a series I’ve heard of and seen but never had any major intense desire to play.
Anyways guess what I did, I just reread a bunch of mangas and added some new ones. This was like from end of August to September so I'll put it in september.
Oracles
The art style’s pretty nice for like all of them and they’re mostly one volume reads
Link is so cute in seasons he just has a little baby bird with him
The whole thing about Zelda being a reincarnation cycle is pretty funny though because like link and Zelda are like destined partners and then Ganon is also there like “hey guys”
Link doesn’t want to serve the monarchy, he’s chill AF. He goes on his journey to figure out what he wants to do, but it’s also funny how he calls the triforce the “triangle punk.”
There’s not really many manga adaptions that work with an in game silent protagonist now that I think about it because Pokespe Red is a yapper. I guess it’s just for the sake of narrative convenience to ignore that.
Does oracle of seasons count as an Isekai
I feel like that word has lost all meaning
Unfortunately this is one of those things I’ve also noticed in manga but when a character is tan they just default to white sometimes
There’s a lot to think about when you need to condense like an entire game into a single volume in a story, huh…
Like the way Link gets his items and meets his like animal friends where it would probably be like 2 text boxes in the game
The bird chick Piyoko is probably nonexistent too
And Maple joined too and I’m pretty sure in the game she was just like a random encounter
It’s like he’s making an RPG party
It was alright.
Oracle of Ages
They had a supercut of oracle of seasons just in case you didn’t buy it
I’m always thinking about how they had a secret password system for the two games to connect and how there was supposed to be a third game for the green one like pokemon but it never happened
Nayru said “I can see everything” which is kind of terrifying, do you remember like Percy Jackson when they had that terrifying snake lady who spoke in riddles and prophecies
Hiiii Ralph
Time travel!
The art contrast between link and his ancestor is INSANE
When you collab with your friend who has a totally different art style
So the whole tower was built for that one pirate captain who is already dead and a skeleton
Ohhh it’s just like Mr. Bones… (sega Saturn)
Sir Raven the GOAT
This one’s a bit more I guess… rushed feeling because it’s like the plot points are going by chapter like a speedrun of Veran going “yoink” whenever she needs to. I know it’s like that in the game too tbh but like no one is questioning the behavior switch at all.
Link gained not only a time traveling horse but altered history to feature himself in it
I looked and it’s the same artist for nearly all the Zelda manga? Impressive.
Himekawa Akira.
Ocarina of Time
They are so mean to him… what is link though, he’s clearly not a fairy forest kid
He’s a hylian.
Aight.
I like how link got to meet Zelda in this one and he didn’t have to do that annoying stealth quest
They straight up skipped the adult link portion entirely though they put it in a single panel and then immediately said “we’re going to majora’s mask now.”
Actually I was wrong. I switched to the wrong tab and started reading majora’s mask instead. The art style was the same and I really said “kinda crazy they skipped that” without any extra thought
Majora’s Mask
Time travel.
Do you think this would have more of an emotional impact if you had played majora’s mask
Yeah probably
The masks are dead people
What about majora
Idk
They did not have the crying moon detail here
Those two and the power of hope wins again
Nah it’s cuz fierce deity link locked in
Ocarina of time continued
Zelda said “link WILL kill you” and you know what, he did
Link has a ponytail for his hat?!
(Does anyone remember that one interview where it’s like during twilight princess they were like we need to get rid of the hat because its too big so people keep asking what’s under the hat lol)
Why did ganondorf have the evil organ
He just did
He lost 7 years of this life for the mission and then when he was done he was turned back into a kid and now he’s an adult stuck with a childhood he never had and his innocence was lost
Skull kid
Hi skull kid!
Link to the Past (akira)
There’s another Zelda manga artist making adaptions so now I gotta specify
He just wanted to pick apples with his uncle.
He just keeps getting reincarnated into a sad cycle except for the wind waker universe where that kid said “DIE” and killed ganon
Link to the past (Ataru)
He had to see his uncle die again
zelda tried to kill link immediately she had zero hesitation
Zelda's various fits compared to links one tunic
in this world there is a secret technique to turn into a crystal
why would this be needed
plot convinience
will this new oc guy betray link, keep reading to find out
the answer is... he waited 600 years in the dark world trying to leave and revive his parents and then he didn't get to leave
sad
power of friendship go
might be the best thing to do it cuz i'll always pop off whenever it happens
the authors love giving link his own new ancestor guy who isn't link
ocarina of time 3d one shot
this guy draws link really good
hand on let me google something
she?!
two?
dang these two women draw link really good
Minish Cap
(Absolutely absurd setup when I went to an IRL library
I flipped over a book and it was a Zelda manga
Also I demolished an entire thing of butter chicken
That was $12 dollars in food truck size and I ate like nearly half of it by myself in one go
Crazy work)
The picori are cute
All of this art style is cute
What about Vaati
What about him
The concept of little Guys living in the big world is a good concept
Oh to be a mouse floating away using a dandelion to pick up yourself up in the wind
That’s cool (tm)
Four Swords
Imagine being one guy and then there’s four of you.
Horror.
I mean Kirby and the amazing mirror has the exact same premise
They even have the master sword in that one too
I feel like there’s a subsection of the Zelda fandom that really liked this one because I’ve seen like all of these links at one point on tumblr
0 times 4 is still zero. Not a single brain cell to be found. Maybe on purple.
Purple is the brain cell confirmed.
I like how the four links have distinct eye styles since obviously you couldn’t see the color in black and white
Zelda has never been damselled as much as I think she’s actually super powerful and that’s why the villains get her first is the impression that I’m getting
Like Zelda is saying stuff like “you’re going to beg for mercy, not me” to Shadow link and I’m like “aight”
No need for those two to do all this
I have never seen a link be more oomf/scrimblo core than the crying one
The shadow was the hero as well ooohhhhhhh because he is a link
When the villain moves past his assigned role to do what he was meant to do the whole time
Shadow link sits around on the internet in the omake/4 koma
Damn… he’s just like me
Skyward Sword
Aw, link didn’t ascend to heaven
He always gets a bunch of companions that never return and aren’t part of the cycle whatsoever
Phantom Hourglass
There is NO wind waker adaption
There is NO spirit tracks adaption either
Think PH and ST were ones with touch screen integration from what little I remember about them and you had to like drag link instead of just using the up down screen
This is reminding me that I never finished pirate’s curse…
Fairies are weird. Sometimes they’re actual fairies, sometimes they’re just balls of light.
Linebeck is a good man if not a coward. Link is like a little cat in this art style.
Reading these has kinda given me the thought of “ the Zelda games would probably be great RPGs but they’re more like dungeon crawlers” and simultaneously going “it’s kinda weird that Nintendo has no notable in house period typical RPG franchise that’s still long running of like four guys in a row”
You think of Nintendo and RPGs and chances are first thoughts are like xenoblade, fire emblem, and pokemon.
Is xenoblade the closest they have to a modern 4 guys rpg?
Dragon quest and final fantasy started on Nintendo but moved to PlayStation after the 64
SMT and Persona are Atlus
The MOTHER series has been dormant for nearly 20 years outside of rereleases and Winter 2014 is never coming.
Advance wars and codename steam are fire emblem likes. SRPGs.
What about fossil fighters? Oh yeah that’s one too.
Dragalia lost was shot in the back as soon as they started losing cash, doesn’t help the first director made a side comment at FGO which is basically akin to angering a giant smacked them like a bug, I don’t think the game ever recovered from that
Miitopia is pretty close to the 4 guys in a row type of thing, tomodachi life for the switch when
There’s always gotta be something like how paper Mario and Mario and Luigi are like RPGs but they have action commands, I’m glad they brought back Mario RPGs like Super Mario RPG and TTYD and that new M and L game after everyone was convinced we’d never get a new one after alphadream went bankrupt
Mario and Rabbids is another branch but like
Golden Sun could be created if Camelot wasn’t stuck in Mario sports mines
And even then this list still isn’t like fully Nintendo in house, like a lot of these franchises are owned by sub companies of Nintendo and like TPCi owns majority of pokemon and Nintendo just happens to be the publisher
TBR (to be read)
link's awakening : Ataru
Twilight Princess
August Manga Selection
The holy grail of Eris
Nodding my head wisely and sagely. girlboss villainesses .
An average plain type of girl tries to solve the murder conspiracy of the villainess who is also a ghost.
I see you, Aizawa Chan!
Forbidden ghost lovers? Horror? The author’s art style clearly being influenced by sailor moon? I have no clue how I got here but I’m gonna keep going with it.
The one within the villaness
Nodding my head wisely and sagely. Girlboss villainesses. Really is kind of bizzare how much the otome visual novel genre is centric to these types of stories but here it’s basically executed in that the heroine type was so
empty headed that she didn’t even balance out the aspect of the RPG part of the game because she was too busy looking at the boys.
Megami Tensei Persona manga (reread): it’s an adaption of persona 1 in a manga format!
Oh man I really did just wholesale reuse this entire concept of the DVA system for one of my own stories, like 100% ripping it off lmao, gonna be funny as hell to rewrite that one though
I like Maki
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Manga:
Please look at this loser shadow narukami
Sho Minazuki I like him I want him in a 3D game to just show up
I’ve been in the persona lore pits for almost like 5 years now and I still haven’t actually finished a persona game. Local earthbound fan over here excited to play the game for the first time ahhh beat
Ghost Sweeper Mikami (Watching/Reading)
ghost sweeper mikami: manga and animated episodes (through the toei youtube). I mostly did more manga hence why it's in the library.
Sometimes you just get random anime episodes in your recommends like what happened with me and the entire lucky Star in English dub thing
what if there was a woman who could banish ghosts but she wanted more money and what if the ghosts were causing real estate issues
now that's a premise
the execution of japanese exorcisms but in modern day is a timeless sort of thing
It’s scenario to scenario
these are the kind of media where I'm like "man, get the cowardly teenager out of here, he's gooning too hard" because the common trope of average teenage young boy hanging out and being a little perv is a tired trope. It is a little funny seeing him be a simp and be comedically punished for it. His goon levels are immeasurable.
She really robbed a bank with ghosts
She is what we would call… the modern day girlboss. You go get that money.
The fan translation has other manga advertising it… I remember when that was a thing for KH2… that’s no longer a thing for later scans. Feels like in in a manga multiverse, why is Sasuke here now for an ad.
A vampire is fighting a clown.
Official companies having their shows up like Toei with Ghost Sweeper and the nozomi entertainment selection is pretty good for cheapstakes like me
I'll probably check out nozomi next
Add in these dates later
Read through Makeine: too many losing heroines
The tried and true trope of girls hanging out.
Also there is a guy.
Re: Hero Acadamy
Re: Hero Academia
I’m picking BNHA/MHA back up. I was one of those people who dropped it after a while and griped about how it went into a direction i wasn’t as interested in (miscorrectly assumed that AFO was going to be washed up has been after the big fight with the LOV being side villains as there would be more villains like the yakuza guy) but I did get a lot of twitter second hand spoilers so it pretty much like i forcibly saw the manga. I liked Kaminari, I wish he got his cool sword. I still remember people thinking he was the traitor.
I might also watch the anime, depends on how much I get in
I’m restarting from ch1 and wow, a lot of those kind of stories I’ve seen really did take CH1’s characterization and run with it even though the author said he regretted writing Bakugou ever like that.
He’s a big fish in a small pond and basically treated like an angry chihuahua or mayhaps a Pomeranian by the rest of the cast.
Ever watch my hero academia abridged? They made tape guy into the president there.
Theres a lot to say about how borderline dystopian the hero world is with arresting and probably a lot of money quotas being a major reason, plus how people with certain quirks get labeled as villains, and how quirkless people are seen as a minority and something “other” (it doesnt help that there’s only like two examples in the series of quirkless people being Midorya and Melissa) and how support tools were never considered until later on as an option and how something like helping people without need for monetary gain was basically thought of as illegal.
Looking at the side thing of hero cameos and its like horikoshi really liked comics, we’ve got kamen rider and ultraman and devilman and spiderman and wolverine and Superman all in one panel
At one point, mt lady’s power was supposed to be gravity girl’s… it’s kind of weird how that trio of friends with Iida and Midorya got totally shoved aside for bakugan and todoroki
Horikoshi’s great at making background design types
Ch 1 really did have the set up of “bakugan gets praised and meanwhile Midorya gets scolded” but it’s not like I saw you hero types doing anything…. Interesting.
Reading the manga is giving me a much different pace than watching the show.
The entire world should probably not be held on the pillars of one guy threatening to punch other people and I’m doing that gripe thing again.
Okay, let me see how much I can read instead of every single note of weird dissonance, going to enter “brain turning off mode”, let me see how that goes and I’ll be back.
Mario…
I don’t remember a thing about the big flesh wing guy, I think some people in 1A were just made because Hori wanted to draw cool designs and you know what, good for him.
I will also read vigilantes.
Volume 2
Praying for Mineta’s downfall
Do you remember when Mineta got mistranslated and people thought he was bisexual for like a whole week
I don’t remember Todoroki’s first costume, that’s so uggo
Is bakugo like green/rival?
No, totally different circumstances in my mind, they are nothing alike to me.
Bakugo really was praised by the public for his quirk and gained a massive ego for it as a child. Blue did not have the same amount of praise from anyone and his ego kind of just developed. Like a fungus. Also, he was 11.
The profile says he has low slung pants. Blue would never.
Mineta really is just staring the entire time like his eyes have not MOVED from the spot
I never would’ve noticed that if i didn’t know about his schemes
1A really does immediately start clowning on Bakugo, lmao
Yo, horikoshi is so good at drawing hands he made a villain just out of hands
Ive always thought the serial escalation with the league of villains was a bit much
Like it’s only volume 2 and the super major antagonists are revealed?
It’s kind of like how in volume 2 of RWBY there’s that huge scene with the breach where everything gets completely blown away by the senior team but then in volume 3 its treated as a failure…
Oh well, least the fights look super cool.
Volume 3
See? Super cool fight. Who didn’t love “you say run” when it first came out?
The medium of a pen makes all might pretty different art style wise… he got some thick ink…
Phrasing.
Already, a sports festival.. this is the part where i started questioning the premise a long time ago especially when Shinsou showed up because like how do you account for people who have exceptional powers and just… dont become heroes. What if your superpower doesn’t involve blowing up giant robots. How did the guy who talks to animals even get into 1A. Why advertise yourself in a sports tournament where everyone is eyeing you. Hero celebrity culture was a weird premise to me.
Like the fact that the Olympics basically got replaced by watching teenagers fight each other… this is greatly hypocritical of me because I just watched through the chunin exams like a year ago.
Stonks.
There’s a whole stocks spinoff out there.
There’s like 40 designs of characters and I can safely say I only vaguely recall like 5 of them who are like from 1B outside of Shinsou. Who the fig is number 22, plain ass...
If I get through maybe like 3 to 4 volumes I can knock out the series within like 2 weeks like I did with sailor moon that one time
Late July
Read through Make your art no matter what
I thought it would be more of a motivation tool but it ended up being a list of things people have revolving around their art in a professional sense rather than my hobby based thing. I should probably just suck it up and just start drawing again or revamp my goal list so I stop meandering and complaining about not writing or drawing instead of actually just writing and drawing. I mean, I am still looking for templates to host my writing here instead of being like “directory of my writing that takes you off the site!"
Based on my one MZDS reading,
I've been looking into reading translated novels but so far the only thing I've gotten to is WuxiaWorld and I don't like how it follows the webtoons/tapas model of "pay me to read more." Not gonna remember to re-login to read, bud.
Where do I start with this though, I’d love for like a beginner book to the genre because a lot of them reference something that in bot sure I know yet like, a base story that the rest follow.
Summer of Pokespe Readings (2024)
Some context: I had already read the previous arcs from RGB Y and GSC in a twitter thread where I was like "wow, Mato's art is nice" and "it's crazy how much kusaka was able to do while gluing together so many plot elements based on stuff he had before..." and you know, I feel like it's pretty good,
but simultaneously, I think maybe a big part of why I read the later arcs less is because they need more buildup like, you can't just drop into the frlg arc without reading every other arc or you end up a bit lost as to why some parts of the story feel different compared to earlier stuff.
The funniest out of context things I can think of in between the arcs is the concept of Red and Deoxys being brothers and /or Red is a father and Deoxys is the son and the time there was a villain wearing super armor and then Gold spent legitimate money to make an exact fake of the costume and wear it at the same time as the villain.
New Edited Edition
The notes I had here kind of sucked so I moved them back to the section they belonged (the cohost recreation) so you don’t have to look at my incredibly lengthy text dumps at least for one thing I have.
Let’s call this a proper summary spot now!
FRLG, RS, E
Pros
+ Remakes revisit the characters that weren’t seen/weren’t fully gone in depth from other arcs
+ Battle frontier arc is interesting as it’s the first one for pokespe to properly execute in game mechanics
+ Battles continue to be high speed scenarios where characters skills and pokemon skills are executed and utilized in fresh ways
+ Actual depth felt onto how powerful certain pokemon are like the kyogre groudon clash
+Interesting arc welding and references to other media types (FRLG borrows from Mewtwo movies, Phantom Kyogre is similar to Phantom Groudon)
+ NPCs continue to have important emphasis placed on them in the world and become elevated
+ Interesting premises for characters are brought up
Cons
-Sird is never followed up in a meaningful way post Emerald arc
-Sevii island people’s character development is an extreme swerve from hating the cast to immediately praising them once they save the day
Neutral
== More emphasis on human relationships within the arcs
= Emerald as a character is divisive
= Character development for remakes is hit or miss
= Endings may feel contrived
= Questionable character execution and personalities
=Yamamoto’s art moves from the MATO art style
= More emphasis on making it so they’re not standalone by using Sird (see above)
Misc.
Read through the free Digimon comics that were just released
Anthologies are pretty nice, right?
read through the entirety of Pokémon festival of champions again and it’s still peak of Pokémon fan related content reading.
(Unfortunately it's a bit of a hard opening to get through since the new prologue involves Red getting brutally beaten up and
I understand that probably would get a lot of people to not want to read that)
Manga Moment!
I have an issue where i read through books and manga based on recommendations and then proceed to have zero formative opinion on them because I see a cool thing and go “wow, cool thing!” And proceed to black out from the rest of the narrative and translations. I should stop doing that. Retiring the manga section because it’s mostly just me speedrunning Isekai that get cut short because they’re web novel ads and I dont want to do that.
the missing one was “our lives after the apocalypse.”
Chobits: I read the entire manga in a single night, and then i basically forgot it all. CLAMP is kind of weird with the amount of student teacher relationships they have and this one also has it. Like what I do recall is “why did they give robot people free will if it would just lead to those kinds of problems” and “why did they make a robot child’s power button THERE of all places” and the general feeling of witnessing a train wreck in real time kept me going. Understandably this is one of those things I can never recommend to anyone ever.
I had started up the little prince and I had notes, but never continued it. Then I ended up with pride and prejudice in audiobook format and got pretty far, but then I somehow got bored of it so I just returned the book. So nothing really in terms of my note taking…. Guess I gotta be in the mood to read more.
Unico, Volume 1. I didn’t find two, but I did watch the pilot. Is the underlying theme of these Tezuka mangas just that something bad/sad always happens to the protagonist? Same thing happened with the few Astro boy episodes I watched from like, most iterations minus the movie. TBH I forgot.
The pilot movie I did watch was radically different from the actual manga chapters it was based on because like, the chapter with the cat and demon were seperate and there also wasnt a vampire demon thing so seeing it was more of a sharp turn from an adaptation to the directors just doing their own thing with it.
Umineko Manga: this crap’s crazy! How is she doing all of this.
I’m gonna read an episode per day like I was supposed to with death note, (and possibly check out the VN if I can.)
Manga March+ Bonus
I had no clue where to put this damn thing due to how many weird things were in it. Like, where do I put fancontent? Idk.
Sometime in March I was concerned bout my shoulders and neck from playing so many games in the gamer position so I went into playing no pokemon games and instead I immediately got into reading Pokemon content including a bunch of manga outside of Special. This will probably be moved to the journal.
If anything my neck has gotten worse...
Sun and Moon: Horizon
There was a manga before horizons came out that was supposed to promote sun and moon and it’s just called Horizon which makes it probably hard to talk about. It’s a story about a guy and his dog (rockruff), barely focused on actual plot and just full of little OCs and whatever. Pokemon Horizon would’ve been one of those mid forgettable tie in manga to me if they did not add in the rival to be a little weirdo with powers and I am a big fan of Pokemon trainers who are little weirdos with powers, it’s why I enjoy Pokespe so much. It was made to promote sun and moon except for the fact that they obviously did not receive anything about the plot so they immediately made up their own thing. It's quite egregious with the designs of some characters but I've noticed that a lot of fanart for characters that are tan just defaults to white for some bizarre reason.
Diamond and Pearl Adventure (Volumes 1-6)
Diamond and pearl adventure I had such a hard time finding this one again but it’s a read that goes for having high energy and making the Lucas equivalent a guy who lived like a pokemon like Tarzan and what not. Also has another rival that I like, but maybe that’s just because I like antagonistic rivals.
It kind of sucks that the site I used to read manga has been dead forever. Where would I read the golden boys? I kinda need that one to incorporate into Stay Golden's plot... thing...
Dengeki Pikachu (Viz)
a fascinating take on the anime adaption for that point in terms of lore and only lore, the it's actually insane how much the artist got away with because uh.. yikes... There's a lot of stuff that was obviously left out for the target audience but I think it's take on worldbuilding for the anime is interesting. There was some serious gooning going on in there though, the censors had to go all out and understandable, I wouldn’t want to see any of that either!
Pocket Monsters (Clefairy Manga), whatever I could find translated
so the funny thing about generation 1 supplementary material is that nobody had any clue how pokemon's direction would pivot so you end up with absolutely incredible things like how unhinged pocket monsters is or the sheer fact they hired a doujinshi artist for the electric tale of pikachu.
i have never seen such incredibly off model pokemon in my life. they're fascinating. i understand why this was never localized either, there's no way they could properly censor this at all with all the ball jokes it would be impossible, it would never fly in any other country outside of the select ones it was brought to.
"it's that jackass clefairy" is a line I definitely need to use at some point. The wildest thing about this is that this is the only manga that has ever been officially referenced because it shows up in the anime in the movie episode in the gen 3 anime. The other wild thing is that it gives Red and Green actual names and implies the color thing is a nickname. The other more weird thing is that it makes the Firered redesign of Red a separate character, a trend I haven't seen in nearly over a decade now! Kind of fascinating how there was one period where it was Fire, Leaf, and Green/Blue was the exact same except for the internal data calling him Terry and the only one who managed to keep their name out of that whole thing was Leaf.
zensho/ unabridged/ the complete story (completed)
it's a straightfoward adaption of Gen 1 RGB except it uses satoshi and shigeru as the main names and its weird to see a red like ash even if that's not the case and just a case of canon divergence not setting in. there has not been a manga adaption that hasn't had a non verbal red yet. total coincidence that this one is a canon backing source on what happened to the gen 1 rival's parents in which the theory was that they died. also has a sabrina that isn't completely evil and more of a pacifist which is never seen with her much in early adaptions (special had her be a rocket member, the anime... did a lot. ETOP had her try to fight black fog, that's the giant haunter or whatever.)
reading all of these back to back has given me the confidence that I can write anything I want in the pokemon universe and it'll make sense somehow
Varied Selection of Creepypastas (Pokemon Centric.)
Crack open a can of monster and open up a youtube page to yuriofwind with bit crushed lavender town playing in the background... ah... memories...
Something in my brain obviously stopped working because I started reading a bunch of pokemon creepypastas. Most pulled from an old forum site, a few I listened to audio readings, and a few I went to the wikis for. There were many ideas but I could tell majority of them were written by teenagers. Turn off your brain while reading and you'll enjoy yourself more.
The fundamentals of a Pokepasta without a fourth wall and as an in universe story interest me more than “ the cartridge bled at me and Red said my IP address out loud.” That’s never happened in the ones I selectively read though. Like the one with the meganium clone was good (by the standards) but that’s because the plot just revolved around the player not liking their weird creation and wanting to be rid of it much to its dismay.
I’ve noticed that there’s barely any popular ones past gen 2 and that feels like primarily because of lavender town and mt. Silver ending up as the most focused on weird locations solely because of a follow the leader mentality. Lost Silver was one of the big ones pre FNF boom. Actually, it still manages to be one of the big ones. But I feel like it's also become too separate from it's position almost a decade ago, like no one associates him with BEN or the other guys because they didn't reenter the culture because you know, creepypasta's are fundamentally weird. I understand why no one in the greater pokemon fandom likes them because they immediately go "oh that's gore, that's gore of my comfort character." Also no one's ever gonna match my exact level of being like "oh crap, there's themes" because everyone who is now involved is too busy drawing human characters, where are the monsters. Where is the existential tragedy and dread.
Missingno being the big bad in a few of these is also funny in hindsight because of the failed run where I tried to use it and it completely sucked so I rerolled the save. I wonder if that makes me one of those people that dodged a proverbial bullet.
Wrath of the Titan was great* though, even though that one wasn’t even a creepypasta and read like a serial drama about a flying evil shiny snorlax that could KILL pokemon. CloudMk3 you’ll live on forever in my mind.
*By the standards of Pokemon Creepypasta but this one clipped into being a Pokémon story that was more of a commentary on shiny breeding .
I feel like they can be a bit better when they're audio readings because people either make it super serious or just go "this is so stupid" which elevate the story in totally different ways.
Like if they read it dramatically then you take it seriously, if they're reading it on a skype call and laughing the entire
time then you're gonna think of it and think "this is so stupid its great "