Get Fanatik about Manga
Konnichiwa Minna, we continue our journey into Japanese hobbies and this month we find out about everything manga. We look at a samurai’s view on manga and visit the manga museum with him, we also look at some cooking manga and we revisit some of the best anime of 2018. Our anime challenge this month is something that can be described as a slime isekai and we rock out with two AMVs. We are YOUR source of monthly anime and Japanese news. Itadakimasu!!
Japanese and Anime News
ARMS declared bankruptcy
Arms Corporation, Ltd. Knoens simply as ARMS was a Japanese animation studio which has been involved in the production, animation, or Japanese distribution of a substantial number of releases, active from 1996 to 2020. ARMS is known for their fan-service-filled anime such as Elfen Lied, Ikki Tousen and the Queen’s Blade series. It is also known for its anime erotica (Hentai) titles. Founded in 1996 it declared for bankruptcy on July 22, 2020.
ASMR Squirtle-Style
Listening to the ocean can be relaxing and there are various ASMR and meditation videos on YouTube featuring the sounds of the sea. The Official Pokemon YouTube channel is taking it to a new level, Squirtle-Style. In a new video on their channel, you can listen to the waves or watch the meditative ASMR video of Squirtle chillaxing at the beach, and he is joined by two other Pokemon as guests on the video.
We shear the gentle crashing of waves against the shore and every once in a while we hear the shuffling footsteps of everyone’s favourite water-type starter as he walk or run on the beach. We see Squirtle chase a Wingull on the beach, or floating on his back on the ocean, drifting leisurely and there is more but, wait it is better for you to see for yourself, so why not chill and watch the video for a moment… relax…
Burn The Witch
Fanatiks of Tite Kubo’s Bleach anime will be happy to know that this year’s fall anime season will include the series Burn The Witch. The series follows two witches named Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole, working for the western branch of Soul Society—called “Wing Bind”—in an alternate version of London, Reverse London. As hardened Bleach fanatiks will remember, soul society is the organization that the shinigami (soul reapers) are part off. These witches are not here to deal with hollows, like the soul reapers, instead they are tasked with maintaining and protecting dragons that only they can see.
Here’s the official synopsis of Burn the Witch:
“Historically 72% of all the deaths in London are related to dragons, fantastical beings invisible to the majority of the people.
While unknown to most, some people have been standing up to these dragons.
Only inhabitants of Reverse London who live in the hidden “reverse” side of London can see the dragons. Even then, only a selected few become qualified enough as witches or wizards to make direct contact with them.
The protagonists of the story are witch duo Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole. They are protection agents for Wing Bind (WB), an organization for dragon conservation and management. Their mission is to protect and manage the dragons within London on behalf of the people.”
The series will be directed by Tatsuro Kawano, (Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress), Yuina Yamada (Anima Yell!) plays Noel and Asami Tano (Toriko) plays Ninny.
Splinter Cell Anime Project
The award-winning game saga Splinter Cell is going to be adapted into an anime. Derek Kolstad, writer of the John Wick trilogy is penning the script.as well as the series’ executive producer. It is rumoured that the series is already planned to be two seasons long, each with 16 episodes. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell’s first game installment was released in 2002 and has been followed by six sequels as well as inspired a series of novels.
The game follows former US Navy SEAL Sam Fisher, especially recruited to do missions for the Third Echelon of the NSA (National Security Agency). Keep watching this space as we find out more about the anime series!
Hobbies of Japan: Manga
Anime is not manga, manga is not anime. Yet, some people get confused with the terms. Anime is the Japanese word for animation and in Japan that can mean anything from The Powerpuff Girls to One Piece, outside of Japan, anime fanatiks only specifically use the term anime for animation that are from Asian countries. Manga are Japanese comics and it is a booming industry and the passion of many. Since manga is read the Japanese way, you read them from right to left. To make them more cost effective, manga is drawn in black and white with colour covers, but there are full coloured manga too. Most manga are serialized in manga magazines. Manga can be for all ages. You get erotic (Hentai) manga, manga that are catered for specific genders like romance for the ladies and manga for teens and pre-teens.
If a manga is popular enough it may be animated after or during its run. Examples of anime that are adapted from manga are Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and Attack on Titan. There are manga that were never adapted into anime, such as the manga Goth, which became a live-action movie instead. based on any manga. Manga is a big deal in Japan, there is even a manga museum called the Kyoto International Manga Museum.
A Manga lesson by the Last Samurai
Top selling Manga in Japan (2008 – 2018)
Word of the Month: Mangaka
Our word for the month is mangaka, it is the Japanese word for manga artist. Most mangaka study at an art college or take apprenticeship under another artist before entering the industry as a primary artist, rarely an artist may break into the industry direct before being an artist’s assistant such as Sailor Moon mangaka Naoko Takeuchi who won a contest sponsored by Kodansha.
It is interesting that the -ka suffix in the word mangaka implies a level of expertise and traditional authorship. This work mangaka does not apply to a writer creating a story which is handed over to a manga artist for drawing. The correct term for such a comic writer is gensakusha.
"Recipe of the month" Cooking Mangas to get your taste buds in an uproar.
Instead of our usual recipe of the month we bring you some yummy cooking manga you might want to sink your teeth into, and no, Shokugeki no Soma is deliberately not on the list so that other titles get a chance to shine.
Toriko
If you know the anime One Piece you may know of Toriko. Star of his own anime and manga named Toriko, he appeared in two crossovers with One Piece, once even with Goku from Dragon Ball Z. He is a Gourmet Hunter, very skilled and very renowned in his world. He is one of the ‘Four Heavenly Kings’ and is nicknamed ‘The Glutton due to his titanic appetite (a food serving for 500 people can only get him one-tenth full!). He is often joined by Chef Komatsu (One of the 100 top chefs in the world), as well as his pet-slash-adoptive-son Terry Cloth the Battle Wolf (which makes Toriko the only person in the world to successfully tame a Battle Wolf).
Toriko (Manga)
Toriko (Anime)
Yakitate!! Japan
Kazuma Azuma, a boy on his quest to create “Ja-pan”, a national bread for Japan itself. He goes to Tokyo to expand his horizons at the bread-making chain Pantasia; where the story continues with Azuma’s exploits with his other coworkers.
Azuma possesses the legendary hands of the Sun which means his hands are warmer than normal human hand temperature, which allow the dough to ferment faster. This gives him some advantage at the beginning of the series, but his sense of innovation is his real talent which make him shine as a baker.
Bambino!
A Fukuoka college student, Shogo Ban, just love cooking. He works as a part-time cook at a restaurant where he discover that the cooking business isn’t as easy as he thought. The manga chronicles Ban’s struggles as he tries to keep up with his co-workers, his hectic workload as well as his issues outside the kitchen such as his relationship with his girlfriend Eri, who he left behind…
Addicted to Curry
Young school girl, Sonezaki Yui encounters a half dead man in the middle of a road and throws food a him, to help him survive, then runs away. When she returns to her home/ curry restaurant, but is followed by the man who happens to know her father. Initially Yui gets frightened, thinking the man is goiWg to kill her for throwing food at him, but then finds out her father knows him. When the man, Koeji finds out that her father’s restaurant is going out of business he decides to team up with Yui to try and save the restaurant.
Hell's Kitchen
High School student Satoru is in a dilemma, he is being trained by Dogma, the Earl of Poor Eating, a demon from hell, into being the perfect chef. The dilemma is that at the end of his training certain death awaits him, since Dogma promised to eat his soul. How will Satoru cope knowing his life now has an expiriy date?
Best of 2018 Anime
The year 2018 was an addictive year of anime with many titles we could not stop watching. Love it or hate it, Goblin Slayer had the whole global community talking,as well as the ‘slime isekai’ Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime). Darling in the FranXX had everybody glued to the screen and Violet Evergarden touched our hearts. Our top five for 2018 are:
Goblin Slayer
Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken
How NOT to summon a demon lord
Darling in the FranXX
Violet Evergarden
There were many great titles that were difficult to choose for the top five positions, here they are as recommendations. If you haven’t seen these anime, they are worth to look into, and you might become ‘fanatikal’ about them.
Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-San (Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san)
September Anime Challenge - That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
Our challenge this month is That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (Japanese: Tensei Shitara Suraimu Datta Ken). The series is based on the light novel series written by Fuse, and illustrated by Mitz Vah, which was serialized online between 2013 and 2016 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shosetsuka Ni Naro. It consists of sixteen volumes. A manga adaptation was published by Kodansha then three manga spin-offs appeared in different manga magazines such as Micro Magazine. In 2018 the anime, which is our challenge this month premiered, adapted by Eight Bit. A second season was supposed to premiere in October 2020, but due to COVID-19 throwing a spanner in the work it will only premiere is April 2021.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is not your normal fantasy isekai. It tells the story of Satoru Mikami, a thirty seven year old mundane man in a dead end job that dies after a robbery gone badly. He gets a second chance in life by being reincarnated as, we kid you not, a low-level slime in a fantasy world. (Some people really have weird karma!). He has to deal with his new oozing existence by being a monster, and like a rock thrown into a pond, his life will cause ripples that will change that fantasy world forever.
Birthday of the Month – Sir Crocodile
Bad guys have birthdays too and our One Piece villain birthday this month is Sir Crocodile, who celebrates his spawning day on September 5th. Crocodile’s debut was in Chapter 126 of the One Piece Manga and Episode 76 of the anime. If you are familiar with this fiend you will know that he is the former president of the mysterious crime syndicate Baroque Works, a group of underworld bounty hunters, and he was the main villain of the Alabasta Saga Arc in One Piece. He was the first of Luffy’s enemies that defeated him completely; in fact, Crocodile is one of a few enemies that defeated Luffy twice. He used to be one of the Shichibukai but was stripped of that title because of his attempt to take control of the desert kingdom Alabasta. The world government, for that crime, imprisoned him but thanks to Luffy he escaped from the prison Impel Down and went to Marineford to participate in the war.
Crocodile’s ability to become, generate and manipulate sand is due to the fact that he ate the Logia Devil Fruit, Suna Suna no Mi. He mastered his abilities to perfection and can turn into sand in an instant when attacked. His ability gives him the power to create huge sandstorms, making bladed weapons out of the sand and to create quicksand. He can suck all the moisture out of any living or non-living object by touching them with his right hand, it is an ability that can allow him to utterly destroy his surroundings, literally give them death by dehydration.
Our villain shares his birthday month with Hatake Kakashi (Naruto) on the 15th and Asuna (Sword Art Online) on the 30th.
AMV of The Month
We share two AMVs based on two anime from 2018. This month we have an AMV featuring Killing Bites. The music used was Animal I have Become by Three Days Grace and we have an AMV featuring How Not to Summon a Demon Lord and the music used was Bangin The Drum (Dum Di Di Dey) (Taylor Coco Mix) by DJ Rihanna Snake
Killing Bites
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
Anime Meetup
Please join and keep an eye on the announcements in the Discord channel for more information on the upcoming anime day.