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Dec 2, 2022
Chainsaw Man is one of the few mangas that’s a big success before the release of anime serie. There is a graphic violence and an acid humor more intense than Weekly Shonen Jump’s classic stories, showing a protagonist, Denji, that is not in an epic adventure pursuit of an objective, but living in a cold world when he must to live in an alienating work relationship. This is the soul of the manga. Denji’s trajectory during the story is all about the work and power relationship that exist in this reality. First, the young boy must pay the millionaire debt of him dead father to
...
Yakuza, practically without the right to eat and live in a comfortable house and, after, being “salved” by Makima to work in the tiring and deplorable demon hunter routine, organized by a hierarchy system of control.
Even the new situation of Denji is one thousand times better than when he was an orphan boy without home and food (that his only friend was Pochita, the demon dog with a chainsaw on the snout), we know, in the end of first part of manga, this is a lie created by Makima to control and have possession of him. The fact Denji has “free” food and “free home” while he works as demon hunter is used to hide his condition of practically slave. Makima says in chapter 81 she give Denji a “younger sister as Power” and an “older brother as Aki” to destroy it and stole his happiness (as it was a possession object) and she would continue to do it if Denji would have a wife or a son. This concept of use a benefice of any good thing to mask a prison or a slave condition is a form to represent the work relationship of capitalism, when the salary of the worker and the fewer things that is possible to buy or consume with it is not proportional of the miserable condition of the work. This analysis, even seeming to be pedantic, can shows all the dynamic and symbols presents on Chainsaw Man. The manga comic doesn’t show demon hunters like a mystical hero that will save humanity against a natural enemy like the police patrols of Shingeki no Kyojin, for example (even this fact was true in the universe of manga). Be a demon hunter in Chainsaw Man world is more about work in a profession that has the same problems and the same consequences of any normal profession of real world than be a super-hero. They wear suit and tie like as officer and not military uniform even they use all time physical and brutal force (like a police officer or an army soldier), constructing a “job aesthetic”. In the chapter Kishibe and Himeno went to cemetery visit the dead hunters, when she says him was drinking too much, he answer the drink is a form to bear the routine, that it’s necessary to have a addiction to survive in this profession. Demon hunter profession is a boring and alienating job like any other in capitalism.
One of the basis of Chainsaw Man was the construction of idea like an unequal relation, when a side of a contract has more benefices than the other (and any similarity with capitalism is only a coincidence). The contract between demon and hunter is the main example of this: even the demon gives to human a nice super power, it only have utilities during the job routine of the hunter, besides it’s not ensures the their survival in a battle while the demon has the right to consume infinitely some part of their body (an eye, a piece of skin, an arm, etc.). In conclusion, the individual is all time submitted of a superior force, something bigger than it (a fear, a negative feeling, a passion, a hierarchy, or somebody in a high position) that has power and control. It can be discussed of many forms and through a infinity examples inside Chainsaw Man events (like Kobeni’s job on cafe that she must to do that ridicule dance to the clients, representing the worst and most humiliating side of late capitalism) but nothing of this is better than all the things that the figure of Makima represents. She is not only other psychopath or manipulator characters like Light Yagami (Death Note) or some sociopath serial killer of Netflix series: her evil and cruel personality is more worked and constructed like a type of superpower, a supernatural ability or pure witchcraft than a social ability with extroversion and good talk. She is so powerful that she occupies a position of omnipresence on Denji’s life: For him, Makima is a love and sexual interest (she is a young and beautiful woman) but, in the same time, a figure of master, theater or sensei, when she learn Denji many lessons both about love/relationships and life in the public safety or information about demons, and (it can be a few strange and bizarre) a mother figure, someone that Denji feels is protecting him, someone he accept to be a “domestic little dog”. When Makima kills cruelly Power in front of him, she reveals all her demoniac and malignant side: first, she says the relation between Denji and Pochita is not a promess between two friends, but a contract between human and demon, after she says all the happiness on Denji’s life was a manipulation created by Makima, that was made to be normal to him and, later, to be destroyed. She, simply, argument this actions saying “he must to redeem from sins”, and reveals the true behind that door: the fact his father not kill himself, but was murdered by Denji in self defense. In the end of this part, Makima appeared in front of the kid version of Denji, not only big and powerful near him, but showing her evil and manipulator personality (the transition of the beautiful young girl to the beast of control).
The comportment of Denji, as we can see in his trajectory, was the main responsible of the most cases of manipulation that he was victim. However, this is very clear not only when we talk about work relationship or hierarchy system of control, but in the own personal life, main in the field of love and sexuality. One of the things that was very obviously to us about the protagonist is his obsession to sex. He wants to lost his virginity and have a girlfriend of any form in the same way that he want to have food and home. That’s the way that Chainsaw Man used to show us that Denji is an authentic teenager and that his dreams is a teenager dreams, since this is a shounen manga. The sexuality of Denji is more like any other anime protagonist like Naruto or Asta than the archetype of “old-man weighed sensei” like Jiraya or Master Roshi. I like to talk his obsession to sex is a form to introduce him in the group of public safety demon hunters, a form to socialize with people. After all, the only reason Denji does anything (talk to people, work as demon hunter or even do everything Makima ordered) is increase the chances to have sex. He only can been introduced in the context of demon hunter group because of a uncontrolled sexual biological impulse, that is a type of reaffirmation that Denji is a character teenager in a manga comic that target audience is young boys like him.
The big question about Denji sexuality and him desire to have sex is all of this only results in a big disillusion, the moment that he knows that touch breasts and have sex with girls is not the paradise in earth that he thoughts. One of the Makima tactics to manipulate him is control his perception about sex and girls, when she says “the pleasure has sense when there’s attraction and when you know the other person”. The most important merit of this part is the possibility to dialogue with the same target audience of manga that have the same questions to think. It’s interesting that all expectative that Denji have in the moments when he almost have sex was “passed” to the reader because, after all, we thinks in this moments Denji finally will have sex, but it’s not happen because of a unwanted and unexpected event. The expectative that we have, thinking everything will be transformed in a hentai scene, is broken when all of it results in the maturation of protagonist (like in arc when he knows Reze and the parts when the friendship with Power was developing).
When we analyze Chainsaw Man, discuss about its graphic violence, the acid humor and, mainly, the symbology of blood in the manga comic is so important than talk about the characters and their feelings. First, as opposed to most of fictional works about monsters, demons and other fantastic creatures, Chainsaw Man doesn’t want to bring philosophical discussions as like what means be or not be human (for example the opposition between humans and titans in Shingeki no Kyojin or humans and ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul); here, the demons is constructed because of the human fear of some types of things, mainly objects like pistols, guns, chainsaws and swords or ideas, conceptions and emotions like darkness, despair, sadness, madness, manipulations, etc. Demons is not a supernatural creatures that’s a opposition of humanity, but a type of human “creation” based in our feelings and thinking. All of this it’s very interesting because how much more demons were violent, satanic and demoniacs (both in physical appearance and brutal violence), more humans will feel the same fear that will feed the demons. Chainsaw Man has a interesting topic about violence when we talk about the symboly that blood has in comic. We can say the blood is the central energy of the universe, the main reason this world exist and the thing that turn possible all the powers and fights happens. In the same way that ki is the energy of Dragon Ball universe, chakra in Naruto and nen in Hunter x Hunter, blood is latent energy of Chainsaw Man, the main force of the characters. The violence is so important here that there’s not a abstract and metaphysical energy in this universe, but only the materialist power of human (or animal/demon) blood.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 25, 2022
Beastars, anime serie uploaded in 2020 by Netflix, has a theme that, a few years later, almost was popularizared in Zootopia (2016), by Disney: a society formed by carnivores and herbivores of many differents species in harmony (or not). However, the anime serie producted with digital animation by Orange studio has not a children's target audience like a Disney or Pixar movie: it's a work that has graphic and suggestive violence talking about the fights and conflites between differents groups with personal interests through the "us versus them" speech, and this polarization made negative consequences in carnivores and herbivores: the first group have to fight
...
against the discrimination for always being seen as "naturally aggressive and violent", while the herbivores has a constant feeilings of pain and apreension in front of any carnivore animal. This division creates a segregation system in rooms, clubs and even in friendships. The polarization between carnovires and herbivores are very contradictory in Cherryton school because this conflictes happens in same time the authorities has speench that value ideals as harmony, diplomacy, union, peace, equality and fraternity between species, and all of this is represented in red deer Louis, the main leadership figure of Cherryton college (and the most propince to be the next "beastars". All of the situattion becomes worse with Tem death and the protagonist Legoshi, the gray wolf, need to solucionate the mystery of the murder while control him "wild nature" that can destroy your relationship with Haru, the white rabbit, and the rest of society that have, even implicitly, a speech of criminalization of carnivores and their nature.
Throught Legoshi, we can see the indivue fight against a dark and negative side of him nature to don't kill him friendly and positive side (the personalities searched by the protagonist and by all of the society). However, not only an approach about how we can deal with yourself, Beastars is a work talking about how we can deal with the others or with the "strange" and "different" (even this concepts are more social constructions than nature). The two main relationships between carnivore and herbivore are Riz and Tem and Legoshi e Haru, and both cases has semelhance in the form of how this relations are constructed. There is a mix of carnivore instincts (natural) and feelings of affection (social) as friendship (Riz and Tem) and romance (Legoshi e Haru). Riz and Legoshi "use" their wild instincts to to connect with Tem and Haru, respectively, but the anime makes it obvious that the way the two use these instincts is completely different. While Legoshi constructed the affection to Haru to substitute and soften him wild side, Riz believe the carnivore instinct and the affection to Tem is the same things, arguing that devouring the friend was, in fact, a “proof of friendship” for him.
In contrast to Legoshi and Riz where the manner that both deal with the "other" and the "different" is directly and completely about deal with yourself, this process. in the perspective of a herbivore animal like Louis, is totally diffrent. When Louis becomes the leader of Shishi-Gumi, the red deer, the main symbol of diplomacy, union and respect, loved by everyone, became involved with a group of individuals who represent the complete opposite of these virtues, mainly the aggressiveness, savagery and violence of hungries lions (It can be seen that, in anime society, it is common to link the image of the herbivore with civility and pacifism, and that of the carnivore, with force, violence and barbarity). With the lions of criminal organization, Louis was "forced" to adopt some group customs and behaviors that go against his herbivore instincts, such as digesting meat, for example, to keep him position of respect and leadership in Shishi-Gumi (the public image is very important to the character in both Cherryton Collegon and Shishi-Gumi Organization). In this way, the form who carnovires (Riz and Legoshi) and herbovires (Louis) have to lead not only shows what each one have to abandon to live with someone who is different, but also what is requirement of each in that universe, where the carnivores have to abandon the taste for meat and the strong physique to live with herbivores and where herbivores need to be agressive and violence to live with carnivores (including, Louis killed and do violents actions to reach Shishi-Gumi leadership).
The Beastars society value harmony and union between species in constrast of the "savagery" and "barbarism" of carnivore animals throught the repression of the nature and it substitution to the social, where the individue have to "destroy" all of its instincts to be shaped and subordinated to a social order (and, obviously, the carnivores animals are the msot affected by this). Even the anime serie shows that this obssession to harmony end up affecting, in one way or another, individuals who do not want or do not fit into the pre-established models related to their species, like as Legoshi, that is a wolf, trying to be a friendly person and Haru, that is a rabbit, trying to be a strong person, the works fails when don't apresentate any "institution" or "elite" that have interests (political, social or economic) in that ideology like in real life. In the biggest political regimes of the history (democratics or dictatorial governments), every type of construction of society that has ideals like "beauty", "cult", "stronge" and "pure" as models always have a social control or combat of opposing individuals, groups or ideals as the main objective, that are presented as opposites to these ideals, in the ideia if you are opposing to the a governemnet or regime status quo, you are the opposite of beauty, the intelligence, the nacionalism or the God's will. When Beastars society value this ideals without any elite or spreench that try to reforce the ideology, the work create the ideia this construction can be made and destroyed individually with individual initiatives or merits of the individuals themselves, which is nothing more than a somewhat simplistic view of reality. It's can be seen in Louis trajectory when he becomes Shishi-Gumi leader.
The anime has great merits in many areas, mainly in tecnic creation: the work uses CGI animation (Computer Generated Imagery) made by Orange studio (almost knowed because of this technique) and, in the opposte of anime series like Berserk and Ajin that, even very popular, was extremely criticized because of the low quality of their computer animations, Beastars uses it in a way that brings a new look to this technique from both the public and critics (most likely because Beastars' CGI is mixed with traditional hand-crafted 2D animation, which seems to trick the eyes into confusing what is computer and what is hand drawing). Other great merit of Netflix anime serie is the competent in showing a mature and complex story over time, bringing violence and suggestive sex scenes without the need to "pay as an adult", as some current teen series (including Netflix's) do, which clog the screen of the drug viewer, explicit violence and drugs in an empty way. Beastars' violence isn't simply played out on screen: it occurs progressively as the story progresses, most notably involving the unraveling of Tem's murder. This violence, in pass of time, becomes emocional meaning for some characters, for example Riz arguing that devouring the friend was a “proof of friendship” for him and Legoshi seeing the fight training made with Gohin, the panda, both an opportunity to fight the Tem's murder and protect Haru. In others moments of the anime, the violence, not more graphic, is apresentaded suggestively thought carnivores characters costumes and behaviors, like the game where you compete who has the strongest jaw, proving who is more aggressive or who has more virility. In a fictional work when practically everything is about fights, conflites and indivues being threats against each other, the presence of visual elements as blood, body scratches and carnivorous animals showing teeth and proving their manhood has a big simbolic value in the story, but Beastars don't apresentate this elements like as a empty form or don't let its story be only this.
The violence is too part of the stereotypes and predetermined concepts that one society create about carnivores and herbivores, but Legoshi and Haru are trying to superate this stereotypes. Legoshi, a carnivore animal and a gray wolf, seen as naturally violent, are trying to be friendly while Haru, a herbivore animal and a white rabbit, seen as delicate and helpless, wants to become a stronger and braver person. The union between two oppostes characters both in personality and physical appearance (he is a virgin and she is sexually promiscuous and active), is a strong element in shounens animes used to symbolize friendship and rivalry like Naruto and Sasuke (Naruto e Naruto Shippuden), Goku and Vegeta (Dragon Ball) e Gon e Killua (Hunter x Hunter). However, unlike these characters, the relation between Legoshi and Haru has elements and approaches more deep and even "dark" comparing with this classics characters, even Beastars is a shounen anime too. This is precisely what the work based on the manga by Paru Itagaki, serialized by the Oragne studio and distributed worldwide by Netflix, speaks so much: contrasts and overcoming paradigms, through the intense conflict between wild and civilized, natural and social, aggressive and gentle, as characters they kill, die and wear out, sometimes uselessly, banally and in vain, in this conflict.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Oct 21, 2021
Bakuman, the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and draw by Takeshi Obata, the same creator of Death Note, has the metalanguage as the central idea, in other words, the mangá talking about mangá, the cinema talking about cinema, the language talking about language. The main discussion that can been about this (and the positivest too) is it's not resume only in a autoavaliation like art work, with discussions about composition and narrative like citations in mangá, but a autoavaliation like media product in a big mass cultural industry (japonese editorial market, in this case), that work in a hierarquic and hard system positions and
...
excessive quality control in all work maded. The metalanguage in Bakuman, knowing the anime serie has mangá like main theme and central approach, is caracterizated by the legacy of the biggest classics of Weekly Shounen Jump, magazine where Ohba and Obata work and other famous mangás like Naruto, One Piece and Slum Dunk was published. It's clear the Mashiro love for Ashita no Joe and Takagi for Dragon Ball, that is artistic and personal inspiration for the pair. They, working hard to produze a work that comes to the first places in Shonen Jack classifications, the ficticial magazine of the anime, search inspirations not only in the mangás, but in games, books, movies too, like when Takagi read and watch many thriller movies and books to create "Detective Trap". It's shows japaneses mangás has many influencies in other media products, main american movies of Hollywood and Walt Disney animations, and its metalanguage can be used and interpretate not only in mangas, but in all types of art.
In same time that Bakuman metalanguage shows the influencys both in own work and in characters development, it has many problems in add something to the manga creation process. It, basically, take the same clichês already worked in many classics Jump battle shounen mangás and repete all of this in Bakuman. If in the beginnig of story Ashirogi Muto was creating works like "Money and Inteligence", a which, constantly, were pointed out as differentiators compared to what is normally published in Shounen Jack (something that happen with Death Note in Shounen Jump too), the own mangá, in its development, is transformed less in a "Money and Inteligence" to be more a generic battle shounen that Shounen Jump normally publish, where Mashiro and Takagi has the same posture and behavior of any other shounen protagonist like Naruto, Luffy or Midoroya, with empty and repetitive speeches like meritocracy, "power of friendship", "fight for your dream", individualism, non-sense rivalities, family and romance as motivations, etc. The main problem of this approach in Bakuman is not the fact all of this is cliches and ready-made formulas, but the fact Bakuman was showed as something different of all this, like a work with a mission of "show to readers how is made the stories that everybody loves and what is the process behind this", but Bakuman fail with this "mission".
The story of Ashirogi Muto in mangaka career is a overcoming story with difficulties and changellens, and one of this many changellens don't only frightens PCP and Reversi creators, but editors and other artistas as Fukuda and Hatorri, which is the authoritarianism of magazine superior positions, that follows the instructions of the command of publishing company and keep all the status quo. Bakuman, however, contains a certain fear of making direct and explicit criticisms of the Japanese publishing market, trying to be the most neutral possible about it to don't displease who pain their payment, that is the biggest and most important Japan mangá magazine. It was just this fear to be subversvive that Bakuman didn't make any development to be a different mangá, transforming in a Weekly Shounen Jump generic work. To not be unfair to anime serie and say it didn't any development about it, some episodies and moments shows actors revolting against some actions and decisions of Shounen Jack magazine, like Fukuda and him group with Ashirogi and Nakai to opposite the participation of Koogy in the concourse, like when Niizuma, Fukuda, Nakai, Hiramaru, Aoki and others protest against the interruption of Detective Trap while Mashiro was in hospital, like when Ashirogi want to create a work with their preferences, when Niizuma want to finish Crow and many other examples. But all of this cases all these examples are just brief manifestations with short-term consequences, as this, at no time, changed anything in the structure and organization of the magazine. Niizuma finish Crow, but he must to produce Zombie Gun with the same requirements. Ashirogi Muto created the manga style that want, but must to made stories and characters that editor require. The "Fukuda team" to overcome with its works the mediocre work of Koogy, but nothing prevents the magazine from doing the same thing again in the future with another subcelebrity. All of this are behaviors that showed as "revolucionary" does not affect the status quo of Shounen Jack at all. The mangakas characters, in all anime serie, uttering slogans and cute little speeches such as “change Jack”, “make unorthodox fight manga” and “defending the authors' position vis-à-vis the magazine/publisher”, attributed to Fukuda, Ashirogi and Hattori, respectively, but which almost cause consequences serious and irreversible to itself, as in the arc where Ashirogi Muto was almost expelled from the magazine.
The scenare and context of mangá takes turn between profissional life of artists in mangaka career and their personal lifes with friends, boy/girlfriends and, mainly, as society members. Bakuman fail in show the anguish and tiredness of artistas in rotine (romantizaded every time), but it's very competent to show their personal lifes as Japaneses young adults. The main motivation of characters in mangaka career is the idead mangás are a way out of the monotonous, depressive, and boring lives imposed by conventional society careers as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or someone who works daily in an office. Mashiro and Takagi, for example, has in beginning a dream of life besides college study or office work. Kanai-san feels like a failure without social or love life and see mangas like the only end for this. Hiramaruhe bets on mangaka's career as an alternative to his tiring and conventional work, even if his new routine as an artist is not very different from that (this disillusionment of the character is precisely the main comic relief of the work). All this examples has the idea of mangá as hope to a "better life", even the own serie shows mangaka life so stressing than any other job and Japanese editorial market is so perverse and authoritary than any other industry, but it, obvious, can't be showed explicity.
Any critic that Bakuman cound make to Japanese industry mangás (basicly it object of analysis) is totally destructed by ready-made formulas that only likes this industry and stupidies romatizations of any problem (of health, personal, psychologial, etc) of mangakas. One of the main examples of this (and possibly one of the most absurd) is how the obssesion of Niizuma Eiji for mangás is retrated like "genius trait" and, main, self effort, something saw as childish and sickly to any person in real life. Bakuman is a great experience to who wants explore varying a little visual elements and sets already wearily seen in samurai, vampire and demon stories in isekais and shounens, but not also want the approach to be different from what is put in the mainstream. It has a original and excellent idea, but thrown away when it story ins't also good. Bakuman born with the "mission" of explain manga industry, but the result is the same of a making-off movie: marketing, propaganda and absence of taking a critical position on the studied object.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 21, 2021
Bakuman, the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and draw by Takeshi Obata, the same creator of Death Note, has the metalanguage as the central idea, in other words, the mangá talking about mangá, the cinema talking about cinema, the language talking about language. The main discussion that can been about this (and the positivest too) is it's not resume only in a autoavaliation like art work, with discussions about composition and narrative like citations in mangá, but a autoavaliation like media product in a big mass cultural industry (japonese editorial market, in this case), that work in a hierarquic and hard system positions and
...
excessive quality control in all work maded. The metalanguage in Bakuman, knowing the anime serie has mangá like main theme and central approach, is caracterizated by the legacy of the biggest classics of Weekly Shounen Jump, magazine where Ohba and Obata work and other famous mangás like Naruto, One Piece and Slum Dunk was published. It's clear the Mashiro love for Ashita no Joe and Takagi for Dragon Ball, that is artistic and personal inspiration for the pair. They, working hard to produze a work that comes to the first places in Shonen Jack classifications, the ficticial magazine of the anime, search inspirations not only in the mangás, but in games, books, movies too, like when Takagi read and watch many thriller movies and books to create "Detective Trap". It's shows japaneses mangás has many influencies in other media products, main american movies of Hollywood and Walt Disney animations, and its metalanguage can be used and interpretate not only in mangas, but in all types of art.
In same time that Bakuman metalanguage shows the influencys both in own work and in characters development, it has many problems in add something to the manga creation process. It, basically, take the same clichês already worked in many classics Jump battle shounen mangás and repete all of this in Bakuman. If in the beginnig of story Ashirogi Muto was creating works like "Money and Inteligence", a which, constantly, were pointed out as differentiators compared to what is normally published in Shounen Jack (something that happen with Death Note in Shounen Jump too), the own mangá, in its development, is transformed less in a "Money and Inteligence" to be more a generic battle shounen that Shounen Jump normally publish, where Mashiro and Takagi has the same posture and behavior of any other shounen protagonist like Naruto, Luffy or Midoroya, with empty and repetitive speeches like meritocracy, "power of friendship", "fight for your dream", individualism, non-sense rivalities, family and romance as motivations, etc. The main problem of this approach in Bakuman is not the fact all of this is cliches and ready-made formulas, but the fact Bakuman was showed as something different of all this, like a work with a mission of "show to readers how is made the stories that everybody loves and what is the process behind this", but Bakuman fail with this "mission".
The story of Ashirogi Muto in mangaka career is a overcoming story with difficulties and changellens, and one of this many changellens don't only frightens PCP and Reversi creators, but editors and other artistas as Fukuda and Hatorri, which is the authoritarianism of magazine superior positions, that follows the instructions of the command of publishing company and keep all the status quo. Bakuman, however, contains a certain fear of making direct and explicit criticisms of the Japanese publishing market, trying to be the most neutral possible about it to don't displease who pain their payment, that is the biggest and most important Japan mangá magazine. It was just this fear to be subversvive that Bakuman didn't make any development to be a different mangá, transforming in a Weekly Shounen Jump generic work. To not be unfair to anime serie and say it didn't any development about it, some episodies and moments shows actors revolting against some actions and decisions of Shounen Jack magazine, like Fukuda and him group with Ashirogi and Nakai to opposite the participation of Koogy in the concourse, like when Niizuma, Fukuda, Nakai, Hiramaru, Aoki and others protest against the interruption of Detective Trap while Mashiro was in hospital, like when Ashirogi want to create a work with their preferences, when Niizuma want to finish Crow and many other examples. But all of this cases all these examples are just brief manifestations with short-term consequences, as this, at no time, changed anything in the structure and organization of the magazine. Niizuma finish Crow, but he must to produce Zombie Gun with the same requirements. Ashirogi Muto created the manga style that want, but must to made stories and characters that editor require. The "Fukuda team" to overcome with its works the mediocre work of Koogy, but nothing prevents the magazine from doing the same thing again in the future with another subcelebrity. All of this are behaviors that showed as "revolucionary" does not affect the status quo of Shounen Jack at all. The mangakas characters, in all anime serie, uttering slogans and cute little speeches such as “change Jack”, “make unorthodox fight manga” and “defending the authors' position vis-à-vis the magazine/publisher”, attributed to Fukuda, Ashirogi and Hattori, respectively, but which almost cause consequences serious and irreversible to itself, as in the arc where Ashirogi Muto was almost expelled from the magazine.
The scenare and context of mangá takes turn between profissional life of artists in mangaka career and their personal lifes with friends, boy/girlfriends and, mainly, as society members. Bakuman fail in show the anguish and tiredness of artistas in rotine (romantizaded every time), but it's very competent to show their personal lifes as Japaneses young adults. The main motivation of characters in mangaka career is the idead mangás are a way out of the monotonous, depressive, and boring lives imposed by conventional society careers as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or someone who works daily in an office. Mashiro and Takagi, for example, has in beginning a dream of life besides college study or office work. Kanai-san feels like a failure without social or love life and see mangas like the only end for this. Hiramaruhe bets on mangaka's career as an alternative to his tiring and conventional work, even if his new routine as an artist is not very different from that (this disillusionment of the character is precisely the main comic relief of the work). All this examples has the idea of mangá as hope to a "better life", even the own serie shows mangaka life so stressing than any other job and Japanese editorial market is so perverse and authoritary than any other industry, but it, obvious, can't be showed explicity.
Any critic that Bakuman cound make to Japanese industry mangás (basicly it object of analysis) is totally destructed by ready-made formulas that only likes this industry and stupidies romatizations of any problem (of health, personal, psychologial, etc) of mangakas. One of the main examples of this (and possibly one of the most absurd) is how the obssesion of Niizuma Eiji for mangás is retrated like "genius trait" and, main, self effort, something saw as childish and sickly to any person in real life. Bakuman is a great experience to who wants explore varying a little visual elements and sets already wearily seen in samurai, vampire and demon stories in isekais and shounens, but not also want the approach to be different from what is put in the mainstream. It has a original and excellent idea, but thrown away when it story ins't also good. Bakuman born with the "mission" of explain manga industry, but the result is the same of a making-off movie: marketing, propaganda and absence of taking a critical position on the studied object.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Oct 21, 2021
Bakuman, the manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and draw by Takeshi Obata, the same creator of Death Note, has the metalanguage as the central idea, in other words, the mangá talking about mangá, the cinema talking about cinema, the language talking about language. The main discussion that can been about this (and the positivest too) is it's not resume only in a autoavaliation like art work, with discussions about composition and narrative like citations in mangá, but a autoavaliation like media product in a big mass cultural industry (japonese editorial market, in this case), that work in a hierarquic and hard system positions and
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excessive quality control in all work maded. The metalanguage in Bakuman, knowing the anime serie has mangá like main theme and central approach, is caracterizated by the legacy of the biggest classics of Weekly Shounen Jump, magazine where Ohba and Obata work and other famous mangás like Naruto, One Piece and Slum Dunk was published. It's clear the Mashiro love for Ashita no Joe and Takagi for Dragon Ball, that is artistic and personal inspiration for the pair. They, working hard to produze a work that comes to the first places in Shonen Jack classifications, the ficticial magazine of the anime, search inspirations not only in the mangás, but in games, books, movies too, like when Takagi read and watch many thriller movies and books to create "Detective Trap". It's shows japaneses mangás has many influencies in other media products, main american movies of Hollywood and Walt Disney animations, and its metalanguage can be used and interpretate not only in mangas, but in all types of art.
In same time that Bakuman metalanguage shows the influencys both in own work and in characters development, it has many problems in add something to the manga creation process. It, basically, take the same clichês already worked in many classics Jump battle shounen mangás and repete all of this in Bakuman. If in the beginnig of story Ashirogi Muto was creating works like "Money and Inteligence", a which, constantly, were pointed out as differentiators compared to what is normally published in Shounen Jack (something that happen with Death Note in Shounen Jump too), the own mangá, in its development, is transformed less in a "Money and Inteligence" to be more a generic battle shounen that Shounen Jump normally publish, where Mashiro and Takagi has the same posture and behavior of any other shounen protagonist like Naruto, Luffy or Midoroya, with empty and repetitive speeches like meritocracy, "power of friendship", "fight for your dream", individualism, non-sense rivalities, family and romance as motivations, etc. The main problem of this approach in Bakuman is not the fact all of this is cliches and ready-made formulas, but the fact Bakuman was showed as something different of all this, like a work with a mission of "show to readers how is made the stories that everybody loves and what is the process behind this", but Bakuman fail with this "mission".
The story of Ashirogi Muto in mangaka career is a overcoming story with difficulties and changellens, and one of this many changellens don't only frightens PCP and Reversi creators, but editors and other artistas as Fukuda and Hatorri, which is the authoritarianism of magazine superior positions, that follows the instructions of the command of publishing company and keep all the status quo. Bakuman, however, contains a certain fear of making direct and explicit criticisms of the Japanese publishing market, trying to be the most neutral possible about it to don't displease who pain their payment, that is the biggest and most important Japan mangá magazine. It was just this fear to be subversvive that Bakuman didn't make any development to be a different mangá, transforming in a Weekly Shounen Jump generic work. To not be unfair to anime serie and say it didn't any development about it, some episodies and moments shows actors revolting against some actions and decisions of Shounen Jack magazine, like Fukuda and him group with Ashirogi and Nakai to opposite the participation of Koogy in the concourse, like when Niizuma, Fukuda, Nakai, Hiramaru, Aoki and others protest against the interruption of Detective Trap while Mashiro was in hospital, like when Ashirogi want to create a work with their preferences, when Niizuma want to finish Crow and many other examples. But all of this cases all these examples are just brief manifestations with short-term consequences, as this, at no time, changed anything in the structure and organization of the magazine. Niizuma finish Crow, but he must to produce Zombie Gun with the same requirements. Ashirogi Muto created the manga style that want, but must to made stories and characters that editor require. The "Fukuda team" to overcome with its works the mediocre work of Koogy, but nothing prevents the magazine from doing the same thing again in the future with another subcelebrity. All of this are behaviors that showed as "revolucionary" does not affect the status quo of Shounen Jack at all. The mangakas characters, in all anime serie, uttering slogans and cute little speeches such as “change Jack”, “make unorthodox fight manga” and “defending the authors' position vis-à-vis the magazine/publisher”, attributed to Fukuda, Ashirogi and Hattori, respectively, but which almost cause consequences serious and irreversible to itself, as in the arc where Ashirogi Muto was almost expelled from the magazine.
The scenare and context of mangá takes turn between profissional life of artists in mangaka career and their personal lifes with friends, boy/girlfriends and, mainly, as society members. Bakuman fail in show the anguish and tiredness of artistas in rotine (romantizaded every time), but it's very competent to show their personal lifes as Japaneses young adults. The main motivation of characters in mangaka career is the idead mangás are a way out of the monotonous, depressive, and boring lives imposed by conventional society careers as a lawyer, doctor, teacher, or someone who works daily in an office. Mashiro and Takagi, for example, has in beginning a dream of life besides college study or office work. Kanai-san feels like a failure without social or love life and see mangas like the only end for this. Hiramaruhe bets on mangaka's career as an alternative to his tiring and conventional work, even if his new routine as an artist is not very different from that (this disillusionment of the character is precisely the main comic relief of the work). All this examples has the idea of mangá as hope to a "better life", even the own serie shows mangaka life so stressing than any other job and Japanese editorial market is so perverse and authoritary than any other industry, but it, obvious, can't be showed explicity.
Any critic that Bakuman cound make to Japanese industry mangás (basicly it object of analysis) is totally destructed by ready-made formulas that only likes this industry and stupidies romatizations of any problem (of health, personal, psychologial, etc) of mangakas. One of the main examples of this (and possibly one of the most absurd) is how the obssesion of Niizuma Eiji for mangás is retrated like "genius trait" and, main, self effort, something saw as childish and sickly to any person in real life. Bakuman is a great experience to who wants explore varying a little visual elements and sets already wearily seen in samurai, vampire and demon stories in isekais and shounens, but not also want the approach to be different from what is put in the mainstream. It has a original and excellent idea, but thrown away when it story ins't also good. Bakuman born with the "mission" of explain manga industry, but the result is the same of a making-off movie: marketing, propaganda and absence of taking a critical position on the studied object.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 27, 2020
In 2017, the year when Kuzu No Honkai was relanced, I watched this anime in first time and, now, in 2020, I watched in second time. Now, I can see qualities and deffects of the work because of personal maturity that I don't had in past. I can define what is real and irreal in Kuzu no Honkai.
The anime is a critic about the contemporanies relationships, with all its rot and its emotionla emptiness, in the manner that the viewer see the imorality and egoist of the characters, and in the middle of that, the mainly anime
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theme is sexuality, relationships and love. All the pervesion that Hanabi lives increases your doubts about such fears. Characters like Akane, who uses the interesting of Hanabi by Kanai to inflate her ego and her psicotapy, and Mugi, who uses a virgin and inexperient girl to conquer his objective, even Hanabi do the same, but it's not in same proportion because Mugi hava emotional maturity for possible consequences, something who Hanabi, probably, doesn't have, and this agreement is worse when it banalize the sex and human relationships.
Hanabi is the character who most hurt her self in the story. She has questions and aswers about sexuality and relationships in a toxic and immoral social environment. It's not meanig Hanabi it's a holy and pure person in a bad and evil world, because this is a puritany opinion, but it's clean the moral difference between her and Mugi when both is loved by Sanae and Akane, in this order. While Hanabi accepted rejection, Mugi surrenders to Akane even though he knows her bad personality. One detail about how is hard to Hanabi address these issues is the ausence of adult figures like parents/family in anime. The teenager is anole is this issues. The ausence of adultos is not only in Kuzu No honkai but in the most of Slice of Life and/or teen colegial life. In this type of genre, the adults is not a character that is showed in totality (or is not showed), even characters like teachers or parents. It's different than ocidental TV series/teen soup operas where teenagers/teacher have more participarion in story (even, something, they are showed like "a bad evil while teenagers is like a saint who must to 'purificated' their parents and theacher"). It can be explained by the hectic routine of Japanese adults in a country where the workload is very high.
Akane, the mainly antagonist in anime, has, in a psicological aspect, a instantanea mudance when the teacher has relationship with Kanai. In same way, the construction of personality non-espontanea, like as personality of people is a lot of caricatures. The Akane's evil side don't have a logical explication like a event in past, for example. It's like the only ration to the existence of Akane is represent
a typical stereotypic representating a psicopaty characters (something like "yandere"). This problem about the personality of Akane is like the way that Kanai is showed in anime: like as a excellent teacher without deffects who everyone love, and his function is "purificate" Akane.
Kuzo No Honkai is about sexuality and relationships in a contemporâne obsessive world. The characters is so extreme and strange, mainly Akane and Moca, that, if the objetive of the anime it's represent a human deffect with a exaggeration, its objetive was accomplished. It's like show machism with a incel/misogine that kill womans (Tarantino's Death Proof style). In the end, Hanabi and mugi questions aren't gone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 1, 2020
Natsunagu! is not good, but is not bad too. Is an anime in the media, but not in the negative meaning, it's a work that is maded more to relax in afternoon then see a long (or not) narrative. This serie was maded by Kumamoto Prefecture, in the extreme south of Japan, where have a earthquake in 2016, and has a amateur animaton, nay, a simple animation that is not the same of bad animation. The serie was maded by Kumamonto Prefecture to promove the city after the earthquake. It's possible found an excessive valorization of the local ambient,
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scenery and landscape present in composition of the city, in stores and streets, but the scenary and the lanscape of Kumamoto is not only in places, but in the local people too, in their actions, situations, emotions, like in the pictures of Natsuna and Itsuki in the on-line game.
All of this to show the beauty of Kumamoto, and the way to do it was thought colors, even if half off due to amateur animation, and open plans like and a low presence of detail plans / more closed. However, it's not meaning the characters is less important than scenary and the anime is only a romantic landscape picture; the characters are part of this picture, like they are the own scenary, and it's the objetive of the serie: show the humanity and simplicity of people. The simplicity of people in Kumamoto is a contrast comparing with busy and cosmopolitan life in tokyo, where Natsuna lives.
Implicity, Natsunagu! is a critic of individualist and frenetic life of urban citys. Natsuna, the girl who has little physical contact with her friends and her best friend is a person in a online game, go to another world with a different reality that she doesn't live in Tokyo. It's a little experience to get out of the frenetic world that we live.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 1, 2020
Spirited Away is, of course, a big experience to evertyone who wants to know the process between chidhood and adulthood/amadureciment. The film express this theme thought Chihiro, the main agent of this process, who doesnt have the perspective of the adult age, like a psychology book about chilhood, but the movie shows the consequences of this transition thought the own children.
Chihiro is showed in the beginning like a spoiled girl that all time is complaining about everything and everybody. She complain about the fact her are going to other city and about
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the fact her flower are dying (this is her responsability). In this first half of movie, Chihiro is, basically, a girl who have fight with whole the world about little things. With the happening of the story, when this parents are transformate in pigs and the region of restaurants started to be invades by ghost and sobrenatural criatures, the world had the effort to challenge Chihiro to get out of this situation, and this is one of the mensages of the movie: The world is a place that is indiferent or againt you.
To survive, Chihiro need to work in this sobrenatural society, a society that have a big obssession for gold. In this little information, is possible to compare with the capitalist real world about work and greed, for example Yubaba, the society's leader who's appear in movie like a authoritarian person. Yubaba, who's represent the boss, the politic and all of people who's only see money, shows her insanity when she "take" Chihiro's name, removing some letters in kanji (japanese
writing) e transforme it in "Sen". The name "Chihiro" is formated by "thousand" and "search" kanjis, representing the person who's is big, numerally, but "Sen", name
imposted by Yubaba, is formated only by "thousand" kanji, transforming Chihiro in a number. However, the most interesting about Yubaba is, not necessary, she is
retrated like a bad character even have some characteristics of ocidental animations villains, like Disney. In some moments, she helps the people in some hard works in
the bathroom, like in the "stink spirit"(Kawa no Kami)'s incident, when she motivate Chihiro/Sen to serve the customer. An antagonist building that isn't totally bad
distance of cliches animation and transforme Yubaba in a more humanizate character.
When it's know all dificulties that fight in this journey, important to her ripening that isn't "opost to chilhood" in any moment, many elements appear in movie,
main in the second half, represent the memorie and the nostalgia of chilhood not valorized by Chihiro in the benning. The hair tie gived by Zeniba (Yubaba's sister)
and stitched by No-Face (Bandai-Gaeru) is one of this elements. This Tie, that according to Zeniba can protect Chihiro of all bad things, transforme the material
object, liked to polit in the capitalist world, in a emotional object, when, in this topic, express the emotional value of the things and not only the finantial value
is part of individual ripening.
Spirited Away is one of the best Hayao Miyazaki's movies. Chihiro is not a passive agent that only see the world happen in your life, that is the form to
represent the childhood in many times, but a ative agent who can build new thing in the world and suffers the consequences of his actions because the child is part of
the world too. Like say the song of the brazilian poet and composer Arnaldo Antunes: "Everybody was child yet, Einstein, Freud and Plato too/Hitler, Bush and Saddam Hussei/Who have money and who doesn't have".
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Feb 10, 2020
A story that, in beginning, is very relaxing and, in the same time, mild dramatic content. It's my first impression that I have about Koisuru Asteroid. Storys that talk about characters united by same thing like a hobbie of a familiar event, likes as Kimi No Na Wa, always attract me, and was that happen with this anime. The art color are, impressionaly, vivid and bright and are extremaçy rare on anime series art tecnics, because this type of art is more used in anime movies. If you watch Koisuru Asteroid in a dark room, you
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can have headache due of bright and vivid colores.
We know the work is about two childrens in a camp that do a promisses of "found his own star" and after found each other on college. Therefore, exist a manner in artistic production to reproduce fells like nostalgia, tranquily and chilbourhood when it mix the vivid colores of animation with the light and childlike traits of the characters. In other words, they try to pass the anime mensage in animation. The characters are adolescents but they are similiar to childrens due draws style that, in mangá, is used to make kids, like short stature and small breasts (in girls). Koisuru Asteroid doesn't show adolescence like studyin, fun, sex or other themes that are showed with stereotype in ocidental culture industry (mainly in romantic comedies of Hollywood), but like as a continuation of chilhood dreams and ambitions.
However, in same time the anime art surprised me, the story and the pessoal and intelectual development of characters was very bad. The geoscience club is a group of stereotypes of anime characters (the protagonist so cheerful and positive that it sounds something unnatural and irritating like mira is impossible to found her on real life, or, if she can be founded, she will be very irritant). However, the worst thing about Koisuru Asteroid is the way that the story is happened: In some episodes, the characters prefer only talk about astronomy or geology than participate in the screenplay). Koisuru Asteroid is similiar to an scientific educative cartoons for children. I was very unhappy because of an anime that have a nice art but with a bad story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 3, 2020
In the benning of winter season 2020, Pet, like as In/Spectre, ID:Invades and Natsunagu!, is one of the animes that I like to watch again in the future. Obviously others animes like Darwin's Game (influenced by Mirai Nikki) are great, but, in my opinion, not much animes has the same originally than Pet. One thing that like I found excellent is it opening, sung by Toru Kitakima, of band Ling Tosite Sigure, the same band that sing "Unravel" Tokyo Ghoul opening that always have partication in animes psicological themes. The opening express the subconscious thought color mix
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with cool colores and negative colors (The fisrt type represent the psicological angustiation of characters and the second represent the confusion of the world thought characters vision), and the way that the colores are exposed in the
opening represents the subjetive, deep, psicodelical and psicological world of mind. When I saw this opening in first time, I remember 2001: A space Odissey movie when the astronaut David Bowman, after almost die on HAL 9000 attack, finds himself on a journey on misdt of time and space, psicological space that has likeness with the memories manipulation in anime.
Pet didn't have the same formate than other isekais animes because the manipulation power of the characters is used by real motives that existe in real life, like criminality, not any competition games like the most magic games animes. I'm not criticising isekai anime, also because I like works as Sword Art Online and No Game No Life, but the anime market is full of this genre that is prohibited on japeneses light novel events due to its huge amount produced. Pet, when address the memorie manipulation power whitout shonen protagonists or a type of highlight of the characters that have determined power (characters that is superior than other people due their super power), abandoned a lot of cliches presents in a lot of magic animes (Of course, we have to remember that Pet is a seinen anime, and due of this, its theme is maded to a adult or young adult public).
The idea of people who can transforme all of a situation with a memorie manipulation power is very scary, principally in the cases of keiji and Inui who completely changed their personality. Like as showed in anime, the world of memorie is a place that the fisic laws are completaly inexistent, and the matter, as like the memories, is manipulated, when, for example, Hiroki turns into fish or Tsukasa decrease in size, and the representation of subconscious like an omnipotencios state express how the human mind is abstrate and infinite. The subconciencious pertubation is a requirement to all psicológical games.
I don't know how would be the next animes in this year, but, probaly, Pet will be in the best 2020 animes list. Only the time, however, will tell us.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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