Hipster Hotline: Chichi Kogusa

Here’s a good one you probably never heard of. Chichi Kogusa hits you in the heart but thankfully doesn’t get melodramatic.

Chichi Kogusa is the story of Torakichi, a traveling medicine seller forced to take care for his young son, Shirou, after his wife dies.

First things first, the art is good. Really good! It’s not hyper realistic or anything like that but it’s well drawn and expressive and…cute. It fits the tone of the story perfectly. I can’t get over how much I love the art.

Back to the story, Chichi Kogusa deals with the struggle of a working father connecting with a son he barely got to know due to his job. We see father and son slowly grow closer while both still dealing with the lost of their wife and mother respectively. An emotional tale but hopeful at the same time.

Hipster Hotline: Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro

 

When you think shonen, what comes to mind? Young protagonist. Spiky hair. Loud. Fighter.  Training to be the best. A female love interest?

Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro doesn’t have any of that. Well, it has bits of certain parts but not how you expect.

Neuro Nōgami is a powerful demon who feeds on mysteries. After solving all Demon World’s mysteries, he goes to Earth, a blue and green KFC full of mysteries waiting to be found, solved, and consumed. It’s basically, Supernatural Detective Conan but funnier and had an ending we’ll live long enough to read.

Neuro, wanting to keep a low profile, offers a high school girl, Yako Katsuragi, an offer to solve her father’s murder in exchange of being the “leader” of his detective agency. Their relationship is the cornerstone of the series. Completely messed up but eventually the two develop a mutual respect for each other. Let me say, Yako is one of my favorite female shonen characters. She’s not there to be a love interest or sex symbol. She’s her own funny, developed character who could’ve easily been a boy if the mangaka desired. This is as much her story as Neuro’s. 

2D News: Disney Buys Weekly Shōnen Jump

Disney’s interest in a potential My Hero Academia/Marvel Superheroes crossover resulted in a deal buying both Weekly Shōnen Jump and Weekly Young Jump magazines from Shueisha Inc. for 17 billion dollars. Insiders call it Disney’s first step in assuring the superhero craze remains popular on every continent on Earth in the foreseeable future.

Meet the Geek: Inagaki Riichiro (Dr. Stone)

Welcome. I recently sat down with Dr. Stone author, Inagaki Riichiro, to discuss certain developments in the popular science manga.

 

Thank you for sitting with me today, Inagaki-sensei.
A pleasure.

Let’s dive into it. Incest. Your manga did not shy away inferring the village Senku visits was created solely due to incest.
Yes. I felt it is the logical conclusion of this particular situation.

Well, at least Senku’s not related to them. Does that mean Senku will end up marrying someone from the village? Kohaku, maybe?
Who knows? *laughs*

Why didn’t the astronauts implement a system where each male/female couple had a child to spread out the gene pool?
Fun. If you can’t have fun after the apocalypse, what’s the point in living?

Buy Eri a Nintendo Switch (My Hero Academia 170)

It’s the fastest way to make a child smile. Well, there’s family/friendly affection but in the age of technology its all about materialism. Yay?

Anyway, what I really want to discuss is what Aizawa said. “They” are trying to find a home for Eri. And I think we all know where this is going.
….No, not an orphanage.
…………..Nope. Not living with Aizawa, but getting warmer.
………………….What? The Thousand Sunny? You know what, I’ll just say it.

Eri’s moving into UA’s dorm.

Whatcha Gonna Do, Sanji? (One Piece 894)

A lot happened this chapter, but I want to focus on Sanji.

Well, let’s talk about Jinbe and Nami’s chemistry first. Those two are amazing together, the perfect duo handling any seafaring troubles awaiting the Strawhats in the future. Oh, damn! Imagine Jinbe and Nami AND Franky! Double damn! Jinbe, Nami, Franky AND Usopp taking point on the Gaon Cannon. Wowser!

So, poor Sanji has to somehow Mr. Prince a way to save a soon to be out of commission Luffy from Oven and the rest of Big Mom’s children. By the laws of shonen, since Sanji and Oven battled before they’ll have a fight. That leaves the rest of Big Mom’s kids on Cacao Island and the fleet. What will happen?

I think the key will be Pudding. She’s the minister of that island and probably knows how to get around without being spotted. Maybe there’s something on the island that can help Sanji only she knows about. Her intel will be important.

Can’t forget the Sun Pirates. This will be a good time for them to show or maybe they hang back until the very end. Either way, don’t count them out yet.

Germa 66, remember them? Strong fighters. They can use this opportunity to break even with Sanji by saving him and the Strawhats. With a guy like Snack and some other strong looking Charlotte fighters looking to lay the snackdown (punny) it makes sense to me. Plus, Reiju is a woman and we all know Oda don’t like women seriously fighting men. *sigh*

Yeah, we still have a lot to go after Luffy VS Katakuri. Sit back, relax, and don’t let the Snake Man punch you in the sack.

 

Side note: Didn’t expect seeing Snack. His head still smashed in because of Urouge is a nice touch, ha!

Dr. Incest (Dr. Stone)

What the heck?

I knew Byakuya and the rest of the astronauts would be the origin of the village but the manga didn’t even try to allude to possible meetings with other possible un-stoned people or somehow another person or group surviving. Nope. Just one big incest party. And, guess what? You’re not invited. Well, unless you’re related, of course.

Look, I’m not taking a moral high ground here (My browser history can back me up.). If you’re consenting adults, go nuts, but I have a problem from a genetic perspective. At the bare bones minimum, some kind of breeding system would’ve been nice, scattering the genes as far as possible early on. Nah, screw that! Let’s have 1 on 1 marriages!

Really, the only thing I can take away from the past two chapters is them getting to work immediately having kids. And even that’s problematic because they all died relatively (Heh!) young.

I guess at some point the bad inbred genes got fazed out. Survival of the fittest and all that jazz. Talk about a tease, though. Forget Senku, I wanna see what that village in the past went through. F-for research purposes, of course. Yep. *coughcough*

Sashay Away (Hunter X Hunter 373)

Hunter X Hunter is so on and off again, I stopped bothering to re-read chapters from previous breaks. But, it doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy it. Face it, we all know reading Hunter X Hunter is like going to the opera, just telling people you do it makes you look cultured. They assume you’ve been doing it for years and understand the details but will never question your knowledge in fear of looking like an ignoramus who only argues on Reddit and gets their news exclusively from political memes.

Now that it’s back, I’ve decided to do a live reaction blog post™. Why? Because I’m hip to the current jive and even a reaction hater like me must get my feet wet. Plus, “live reaction blog post” sounds cool. Let’s begin…

[Insert Over-the-top hype face here]

Page 1
A woman and man talking. My new OTP! What’s up with her hair? A gun? That’s so hype!

Page 2
Don’t kill your waifu! I’m not worried. Shonen manga taught me only ugly girls who do the ho ho ho! laugh die.

Page 3
Drop dead gorgeous! Or…
Shot through the heart
And you’re to blame
Darlin’, you give guards a bad name

Yumi’s Cells Handles Break-up Better Than Most Manga

[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.

Slayers’ Lord of Nightmares, Best Omnipotent Being Ever

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.