We Appreciate Manga

001: A Silent Voice vol. 1

A suicidal schoolboy seeks forgiveness from the deaf girl he bullied. Skip synopsis to the mash and potatos @ 10.24

Theme Music: 'Electro Hype' by Liam Bradbury Podcast created by Jim Fitton and Steven Gorton

Published by Kodansha. The poignant ‘A Silent Voice’ has been adapted into an animated movie in 2016 and is currently available on Netflix as of 2019. Its author, Yoshitoki Oima has been nominated for awards, including the 2016 Eisner Award and the 19th Tezuka Award.

https://natalie.mu/comic/news/139236

The movie itself has received critical success; it has achieved a 94% fresh approval on the Rotten Tomatoes website. You can watch Chris Stuckmann’s review of it on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnm3Q-b6Xyw

It’s one of few manga that includes a deaf/hard of hearing character with characters using sign language. Because of this we hope, once funding is adequate, to get our podcasts transcribed in the future. So please subscribe and support the podcast if you wish to make that a reality.

The Manga is available on Comixology.

https://www.comixology.com/A-Silent-Voice-Vol-1/digital-comic/271628

The story is about a young schoolboy, Shoya, who experiences guilt after he torments a deaf schoolgirl, Shoko Nishimiya. His first taste of becoming a lonely pariah causes him to stress about the future and now he seeks forgiveness from the same girl he tormented.

Thematically, the manga tackles the subjects of alienation, miscommunication and bullying. Why do people bully? And more importantly what are the consequences of being bullied? James believes it’s a repulsion to a desperation, an overwhelming need to seek companionship and approval that we tend to admonish. Other times it a hierarchy, an exercise of dominance. Steven believes it can stem from fear. We tend to bully those who we do not understand, and we fear what we don’t understand. James also talks about what it means to be both a twin and to also be bullied. We’ll be continuing to read and talk about all 7 of the volumes in the following weeks.

For those who don’t understand the “Hoichi the earless” reference. (The nickname given to Shoko Nishimiya) Here’s a video that better explains it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDX6urz-h08

Also, hair loss has been linked to stress, don’t be like Shoya, take it easy and unwind, at least once a day.

"Hair Replacement Guide" 1 April 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. 11 June 2019

Now that the first-generation arcs of Pokémon Adventures are over, James and Will talk about the all action finale. The brilliance of getting us to root for girls in what many consider to be a shonen manga. And we even talk about the Mewtwo versus Lance fight and Pikachu and friends versus Lance! Perhaps there is a bit too many people fighting Lance in this volume but overall, we get a satisfying conclusion. Skip plot summary @ 9:55

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122: Pokémon Adventures vol. 7

Chapters 79 'Airing Out Aerodactyl' and 90 'The Legend'

Art by Mato

English Translation by Kaori Inoue

Lettering and touch up by Annaliese Christman

Yellow's journey to reunite Pika the Pikachu with the Pokémon trainer Red finally comes to an end, but not before a climactic battle on a remote Island with the Elite Four.

Lorelei cuts the arm of Green only to find it was a trick Ditto in disguise, her real arm, being hidden in her jacket. The Ditto confines and arrests Lorelei and her Pokémon Jynx. Sabrina is not too happy to find that was she handicapped and partnered to a secret ditto throughout the fight, but it worked non the less. One down, three to go.

Agatha's haunter is tricked into attacking the severed body of an Arbok, which can still move even without its head. Blue can counter attack it, in turn Agatha flees as it was the last of her Pokémon. That is two down and two to go.

And Bruce, no longer influenced by Agatha's spell accepts defeat from Red graciously. Afterwards Red seeks out Pika once Bill tells him that Pika is on the island with Yellow. Now Lance is the last one left standing.

Blaine uses Mewtwo to fight Lance but having a psychic link with Mewtwo means he becomes unconscuous during the fight. Mewtwo is also unique as a pokémon since they become weaker with every passing second once out of the master ball and their culture tank. Because of this Mewtwo is not able to defeat Lance and instead retreats it's special master ball not only to protect its own life but the life of Blaine aswell. This leaves Yellow to a showdown within the heart of an active volcano, where she learns that Lance has the same powers as her. Lance also learns of Yellow too by reading Pika's mind. Both Yellow and Lance are from Viridian Forest as is their Pokémon and both have the same powers to heal and read the thoughts of Pokémon.

From Learning how Mewtwo fought previously, Yellow uses Pika's surf move to lure Lance to the lava and generate a whirlpool to trap him. Once Lance is gone, she is helped by her Pokémon and exits the mouth of the volcano. But the recess from battle is short as Lance rises from the volcano with a bubble shield formed by his Gyrados. Yellow gets her hand broken by the Gyrados' bubble beam attack, which is invisible in the bright light of the sun. However Yellow retaliates by having her caterpie form a string net, her Omanyte wets the net and and her Raticate uses it to sense any bubbles that hit it. Pika charges the wet net with ellectricity, making sure to counter attack Lance and trapping him inside it. Once Yellow senses an opening she has her Doduo attack Lance. Sadly, Doduo and the rest of her Pokémon are not strong enough to defeat Lance's. It is at this point another Viridian Pokémon user arrives to assist. Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, but in doing so he loses his gym badge to Lance. With Lance having all badges his master plan is active and the island becomes the altar to which it will summon a legendary dragon Pokémon. One that Lance plans to capture and use to conquer the world. In Lance's eagerness he does not realise how weak and worn out from battle his Pokémon are. In the end the powers that he summons becomes a double edged sword for Lance. Yellow's Pokémon have evolved and so she makes her last stand.

Topics:

· The climax and battles of the Yellow arc.

· Giving context as to why Yellow Caballero is revealed to be a girl later in the manga.

· How too many twists can spoil the drama if they zig zag back and forth between similar scenes, often a common flaw in shonen battle manga.

· Giovanni and his son.

References and Trivia:

· Although Lugia looks like a dragon it is in fact the highest Pokémon on the hierarchy of the Legendary bird Pokémon. It is a flying and psychic type. Lugia is also original to the second Pokémon movie (Pokémon 2000) having made their first appearance in that movie. Lugia’s place in the wider franchise came as a surprise to writer and creator Takeshi Shudo, according to this ‘Did You Know Gaming’ video, and Dr. Lava’s blog.

· Arbok’s body being able to move without its head is a real-life phenomenon seen with ...

EXPLICIT CONTENT! Inspired by today’s manga, Will talks to Steven about his own personal ordeal with depression and suicidal ideation. They speak about their own relationship troubles. As well as how easy it is for people to become dependent on that which is not healthy for them. All in all, ‘Welcome to the NHK’ shows us that manga can deal with real, dark and murky issues albeit easily digestible when it is done with a humorous tone. Skip synopsis @ 4:19

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109: Welcome to the NHK vol. 2

Chapters 6 to 10 ‘Welcome to the Moratorium’ and ‘Welcome to the Heaven’

Story by Tatsuhiko Takimoto

Art by Kendi Oiwa

English Translation by Katherine Schilling and Zachary Rau

Lettering by Star Print Brokers

Tatsuhiro Sato is a 22-year-old university drop out and hikikomori who believes in conspiracy theories and has been a social shut-in for 2 years. One day a religious woman with a leaflet knocks on his door accompanied by a Mysterious young girl called Misaki Nakahara who eventually helps him from becoming a social shut-in as they do weekly therapy meetings. Sato’s neighbour is an incel and old acquaintance named Kaoru Yamazaki who happens to be a raging otaku and a computer programmer. These two people will help Satou on his journey to change himself. Satou is being distracted on the game project he is making as he fantasizes about Misaki being in a porno. Kaoru helps him snap out of it by saying how women will cause them trouble. Kaoru talks about his past lost love and how a girl broke his heart only for his female classmate to call him saying she Is free to see the fire-works festival that night. Kaoru (like a “simp”) runs to her. Misaki knocks on Satou’s window and invites him to the festival too. The fire-works festival brings back memories for both Satou and his old school friend Kashiwa-san who happens to call him and come to his apartment the following night. They drink heavily and Satou invites Kashiwa San for a vacation, misinterpreting and assuming something else, Kashiwa San thinks Satou Is talking about the offline group meeting that is planned for the summer so she decides to take him. Unfortunately for Satou this is a meeting of suicidal people who plan to kill themselves once they spend some time on a private island owned by one of the suicide pact members. Misaki who has secretly bugged Sato’s apartment over hears of the offline meeting. Misaki becomes visibly scared once she realises what is going on and goes to Kaoru for help to find and stop Satou. During this time Misaki tells her feelings for Sato to Kaoru and that she wants to be an angel to help him. Eventually the suicide pact members change their mind and find reasons to live but this makes Satou become suicidal. Satou tries to kill himself but manages to knock himself out, he wakes up with Kawashi telling him he is safe and they are all going home. Satou returns home and meets with Misaki.

Topics:

First love and bad luck in relationships

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Chasing girls

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Suicide pacts

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Depression

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Drug dependency

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Will gets Steven to read one of his fave mangas, a story that revolves around the lives of several young adults all living in or around the city of Tokyo. Many different lifestyles are shown but most of the time the story focuses on the concept of being a hikikomori (a reclusive individual who withdraws from society) and chooses to surround themselves in the comfort of all that is anime and otaku. Most of the characters experience intense feelings of depression and loneliness. You better believe this one is for adults only. Skip synopsis @ 3:47

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108: Welcome to the NHK vol. 1

Chapters 1 to 5

Story by Tatsuhiko Takimoto

Art by Kenji Oiwa

Tatsuhiro Sato is a 22-year-old university drop out and hikikomori who believes in conspiracy theories and has been a social shut-in for 2 years. When a religious woman with a leaflet knocks on his door accompanied by a Mysterious young girl called Misaki Nakahara.

Sato eventually goes for a job interview where he bumps into Misaki again and eventually Misaki choses Sato to help her with a personal social project for the purpose to stop him from being a hikikomori social shut in, she does this by having regular meetings and counselling sessions with Sato. Sato’s neighbour is annoyingly playing anime music, Sato has enough and breaks into his neighbour’s apartment to berate him only to find out to his surprise his neighbour is an old college acquaintance Kaoru Yamazaki who is now an otaku.

During a project meeting and counselling session Sato lies to Misaki that he is a game programmer, to keep up with the lie he seeks the help of Kaoru and so they decide to make an erotic “Ero” dating simulator style videogame as Kaoru mentors him in the ways of otaku degeneracy. During his game research Sato goes shopping and an old high school friend named Hitomi Kashiwa spots him, they briefly have a conversation about drugs, social anxiety and being Hikikomori. Hitomi wishes to Sato again as she says farewell to him for now.

Kaoru gives Sato some illegal and dangerous research to the point Kaoru becomes addicted to porn and is digressing into a pervert by taking pictures of cute school girls. Misaki comes out of nowhere and this snaps Sato out of it.

Sato then gets a phone call from his mom, he lies to her about his job and a girlfriend, thus Sato seeks the help of Misaki and they decide to play the role of a couple, this gives them a chance to get to know each other.

References:

· Hikikomori

Is the Japanese word for post-graduates who become socially reclusive shut-ins, like NEET (not employed, in education or training) or Hermits, the widespread growth of such people has become a worldwide phenomenon but has been for the most part well documented in Japan. It is possibly a response, albeit one in the form of a silent protest, to the stress and pressures of youth entering a society that lacks employment security or is extremely competitive when it comes to the workplace.

· Moe and Lolita culture

Has a large presence throughout ‘Welcome to the NHK’. Although the etymology behind the word “moe” is a slang word from the 90’s that defines the aesthetic of a lot of Heisei era anime, to the point that it is often referred to by non-Japanese as “anime style” The idea behind it is to make characters as adorable and cute as aesthetically possible, so to appeal to emotions of love, care and sometimes to illicit a sort of parasocial relationship or paraphillia. This often results in characters or people looking younger than their supposed age and all anime itself to be mistaken for being aimed at and consumed by children. Basically a moe character is a young woman, “adorably cute, just a bit sexually appealing, and self-conscious but not yet cynical”. With maid-cafés being a prime example and manifestation of this. A genre of (or extension of this aesthetic) is the controversial Lolicon which depicts budding romances between children, even being sexual in nature. The consumption of such media being psychologically harmful is debatable and certainly illegal in parts of the world.

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Gravure Models (Idols)

Not to be confused with the word “Rotogravure”, these are swimsuit and underwear models, basically magazine glamour idols, softcore pornography. Regardless of what Will says, Gravure idols are not in any form sexualized children, although the sentiment around idolising schoolgirls and pornographic content about schoolgirls is a great concern within Japan, which l...

Is this the final episode of ‘We Appreciate Manga’? I guess we will have to see... Either way James has an announcement to make but first we give a quick review of Godzilla minus one and talk about side chapters of Petshop of Horrors. Skip chapter summaries @ 15:01

Intro music courtesy of Liam Bradbury

Outro music courtesy of Rifti Beats - Youtube

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136: Petshop of Horrors: Flowers and Detective

By Akino Matsuri

Translation by Tomoharu Iwo and James Lucas Jones

Lettering by Nunu Ngien

In the additional chapters, young Chris Orcot treks out into the labyrinthine back rooms of the petshop to find out Q-Chan’s human form. Unlike the rest of the Pets in Count D’s shop, who appear as human to Chris, Q-Chan only appears as a Wolperdinger, a horned rabbit like creature with wings. As Chris explores the hidden rooms, he meets a grim looking figure who obliges him but unfortunately for Chris, the remedy he acquires has no such desired effect on Q-Chan.

Another chapter shows a Totetsu (a mixed goat and tiger creature) by the name of T-Chan. T-Chan is looking down in the dumps before Leon finds out that it is because he is in love with one of D’s new pets. Leon and the gang help him pluck up the courage but because of T-Chan’s proclivity to eat the one he loves it results in T-Chan being rejected. It becomes a bonding experience for both Leon and T-chan.

The Flowers and detective chapters feature the police detective Leon Orcot, D does not trust Leon enough to take care of pets so he gifts him a gatolatto plant. The plant grows well thanks to Leon’s appreciation and care but eventually Leon is wounded from a gunshot and is hospitalized. On his miraculous recovery he asks D to water his plant for him, only to be told that the flower has already bloomed and withered to death in his place. Was it really the plant that saved Leon? D has given people stranger things.

Part two, has D playing matchmaker only for Leon to interfere and end up winning the affection of beautiful creatures. What Leon does not realise is that he is being used to pollinate women. Like a honey bee!

Part three includes a strange kimono arriving at the pet shop. With the Kimono’s colour representing Sakura (cherry blossom) but being made from the blood of insects. And in the last chapter that we speak of today, we see Chris sent on an errand but D and Leon spy on him using cameras and disguises, very much like the Reality TV show ‘Old Enough!’ (a.k.a. its literal translation ‘My First Errand’) Afterwards they spend the night gazing at the full moon and D tells Chris of the rabbit in the moon, and the princess whose kingdom has become extinct. Chris tells D that maybe the rabbit princess is still on the moon and is just hiding.

Topics:

· Thoughts on Godzilla Minus One and Hollywood.

· Pareidolia, do you see a rabbit, a woman, or a man when you look at the moon?

· The future of the We Appreciate Manga Podcast.

Historical, scientific, and cultural references:

· The cherry blossom looking dye in one story is often used as a food colouring can trigger allergies, look for anything labelled carminic acid, carmine or cochineal on red coloured foods.

· Unlike the west Chinese and Asians countries tend to say there is a rabbit in the moon, not a man in the moon. Some when they look at a full moon, say the image is a silhouette of a rabbit hunched over and is mixing herbs, creating an elixir for immortality. (Personally, I like to think that its churning butter but some Japanese may say it is pounding rice cake mixture - J) Depending on the sun’s position and your position on the earth if you were to Look at the dark spots of the moon you will find that the sea of fertility and the sea of nectar are the tips of its ears.

Osamu Tezuka retells the origin story in the first volume of his 1972-1983 manga ‘Buddha’ where an old man asks three animals to help him find food. One of the three animals then dives into fire and gives its life so that the old man does not starve. Because of its sacrifice it is then honoured by the God Indra and immortalised by having its image drawn on the moon.

· Chang’e the Chinese moon goddess is a figure that dates to Zhou Dynasty,

and having had poems written about her during the Tang Dynasty.

· The rabbit princess or moon princess also has sim...