The Fable: The Second Contact

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Japanese: ザ・ファブル The second contact

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Type: Manga

Volumes: 9

Chapters: 86

Status: Finished

Published: Jul 19, 2021 to Jul 10, 2023

Genre: Comedy

Theme: Organized Crime

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Magazine (Weekly)

Authors: Minami, Katsuhisa (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.96¹ (scored by 2,705 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #834²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3097

Members: 6,983

Favorites: 45

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7.96

Ranked #834Popularity #3097Members 6,983

MangaYoung Magazine (Weekly)Minami, Katsuhisa (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /9

Chapters: /86

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Synopsis

The story is set about one year after the ending to The Fable. Akira and Youko are forced to abort their latest mission due to the Covid-19 pandemic and return to Osaka to continue their quiet life as regular civilians, but the peace is not to last.

(Source: MU)

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Background

The Fable: The Second Contact was published digitally as an English simulpub through K Manga.

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Characters

Satou, Akira

Main

Satou, Youko

Supporting

Ebihara, Takeshi

Supporting

Shimizu, Misaki

Supporting

Yuukari, Shinobu

Supporting

Kuroshio, Ryou

Supporting

Reviews

Jun 19, 2024

fragcoid

Recommended

If you're a fan of The Fable Part 1, this is a must-read. It seamlessly picks up the story and reunites all the amazing characters from the first part. Personally, I consider Part 1 a masterpiece, unmatched in its medium. I was thrilled to discover that Part 2 was nearly complete when I began reading it.

The Second Contact offers more of the same charm, which is not a bad thing at all. The gang reunites at the start, diving into hilarious encounters through their new rent-an-uncle endeavor. Additionally, some plot points from Part 1 that were only hinted at are explored further, which is a ...

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Dec 1, 2022

CactusWren

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (27/86 eps)

Spoiler

The good thing about The Second Contact is that it captures the same absurdist humor as the previous manga. It's great to see the same beloved characters again and expound on more hilarious scenarios with them. The introduction into the 2nd series feels weak but is still in line with the flavor of The Fable and throws the readers directly into the Covid society setting.

Minor Spoilers below:

My only gripe with this follow up is that it seems to retcon the finale of the prequel and is taking the plot in a different direction. The previous storyline was about the humanization of the main character ...

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Sep 27, 2024

typewritermonkey

Not Recommended

The first [The Fable] manga went on far longer than it should have; this sequel should have never materialized. The author, Katsuhisa, was already prone to using his characters as mouthpieces to rant about his political opinions. Giving him a sequel as a platform to rant about COVID-19, and Japan's response to it, made him insufferable. So many of the early chapters revolve around COVID's impact, and people opining about it, that he even lampshades it by making one of his characters tell another to shut up about COVID. It didn't even matter, because once he got it out of his system, COVID was forgotten ... in-universe.

The longer the original prequel went, the more of a one-man-army Akira became, the more Youko jobbed, and the more fantastical the plot became. Second Contract fixes none of these issues and gives you whiplash by suddenly accelerating in this same direction after making a big deal of having the characters retire for good at the end of part one. So it's a one last job angle, for realsies this time. Promise. Problem is, there's only so many ways you can draw Akira going super saiyan with a flurry of strikes, while maintaining a veil of realism. If you're going to drag Akira out of retirement, give him a challenge he can't solve with his fists. But nope, it's nothing you haven't seen before. Youko's treatment is worse. Not only does her character get used as hostage fodder once again, while still insisting she's high up on the power ranking, she also bares it all in a gratuitous full page nude spread to show the man she falls for how serious she is. Like come on, it was so out of place. And lastly, by the end of Second Contract, mind control was literally fair game. Enough said.

What made the early chapters of the first Fable stand out, was how grounded it was. It could be interesting without action, with just some low level yakuza intrigues and creeps. Action that did occur was limited and small-scale enough for the little mind games to be appreciated. It was low-stakes, funny, and different. The realistic facial shading was unique (even more so in the first few chapters) and paired well with the plot.

Somewhere around the wheelchair girl arc though, things changed. Higher level conflict became normalized. It went from mano a mano, to team versus team, and eventually entire clan versus clan, fighting small wars. The point of a retired assassin premise is that it's more interesting than a regular assassin story, so rule one should be: don't escalate it back into one! But a sequel will as a sequel does, and turned it into something fantastical and formulaic like Die Hard, just begging for more live action adaptations.

Second Contract's 80 chapters is one giant conflict between Akira's group and a rival assassin org. The extended arcs of Part One were bad enough, but a whole sequel spent on build up and hyping up one villain when you know how it's going to go down takes the cake. It's just not worth sidelining the prequel characters and giving up the more episodic nature, if you're not going to change things up for the better. Even the gags get recycled and predictable. For authors with limited repetoires, less is more. In an ideal world, The Fable ends before 100 chapters.

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Poll: The Fable: The Second Contact Chapter 86 Discussion ryzxgum - Mar 15	7 replies	by Kuroidensha »» Jun 29, 1:33 AM
Poll: The Fable: The Second Contact Chapter 15 Discussion 2KD-FTV - Apr 19, 2023	2 replies	by E-Satie »» Apr 11, 12:20 PM
Poll: The Fable: The Second Contact Chapter 67 Discussion Kuma - Sep 20, 2023	2 replies	by Sergel »» Jan 3, 12:52 PM
Poll: The Fable: The Second Contact Chapter 53 Discussion AkaiWaZ - Aug 29, 2023	0 replies	by AkaiWaZ »» Aug 29, 2023 11:16 AM
Poll: The Fable: The Second Contact Chapter 38 Discussion AkaiWaZ - Aug 28, 2023	0 replies	by AkaiWaZ »» Aug 28, 2023 12:55 AM

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