Category: Manga Pulse

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There’s probably a point where some poor bastard mangaka was sitting at their desk and trying desperately to think up a story for a deadline. “Gee, if only something would fall from the sky and knock my ass out so I have an excuse my editor will accept.” At that point, a coconut was conveniently dropped by a passing pair of pigeons some nut had tied together with string and bean them.

After the coma wore off they penned the story Suashi no Meteorite, which Tim reviews. In it, the main character comes home to find their house demolished by a wild meteor. Not only has his house been destroyed but his neighbors apparently have all taken bucket loads of tranquilizers because no one bothered to call the authorities in the interim. It turns out that the meteor contained a god which he summoned by wishing on a passing star. Hilarity then ensues.

Weltall then delves into a manwha titled Familyman. It’s a very dull slice of life comic where the titular family man works in a factory, sends money back to his wife and kids and suffers massive facial trauma due to lack of sleep. Scarred for life and unable to find work, he finds refuge in dressing up as an in-universe superhero and engaging in shenanigans.

Weltall: Familyman – Read it Now
Not in the USA
Tim the Enchanter: Suashi no Meteorite – Read it Now
Not in the USA

Music

Intro

Outro

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Sometimes life is just full of surprises. Like a train that manifests and runs you off the road when you start singing Ironic by Alanis Morisette. Other times it can be fairly predictable. Like when Tim digs into his list of requests to find a manga to review. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 319: Girl Crime”

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There is a special breed of nerd that doesn’t pop up in the usual places. Their crack is not teasers of the latest Marvel movie or screenshots of the potential bomb being built by DC. Theirs are spec sheets and exploded views in maintenance manuals and fiddly arguments on lone message boards with other engineer minded folks.

Apparently one of them was hybridized with an anime fan and grew up to be a mangaka. That’s the only explanation for how we got Upotte!!. In the tradition of anthropomorphication mangas, a la Hetalia, it features girls who are firearms going to school. It demonstrates a large amount of firearm knowledge on the part of the author by having the girls play shooting games among each other. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 318: Enchanter Up”

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Doujinshi is something of a dirty word in manga. In the, for lack of a better term, Western market, doujinshi is often thought of as adult or hentai. While a fair amount of them do seem to be focused on pairing off characters for a little bit of naked fun times, the word is actually a bit more broad than that. It encompasses smaller, self published works that are not considered canon.

In that vein, Tim followed through a request to review a Doujinshi, Evangelion RE-Take. For Eva fans it may very well be an excruciating attempt to rewrite the story. However, if you found the ending frustrating and wanted to punch every copy from then in out in the hopes that the creator could feel it in their balls, it’s a welcome read. A fair warning, there are a couple of scenes of Shinji and Asuka doing what horny teens do when their parents are gone for the weekend, just in case you plan on reading this where people can shoulder surf. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 317: Hitting a Wall”

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As always, we’ve come around to manga reviews. By some serendipitous happenstance, Tim managed to review a request that was received to Weltall’s inbox a few days earlier. Sure, it might have been mentioned once or twice before but we can pretend that it was meant to be.

Tim tackles Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure by reading the first two volumes. It chronicles the appearance of Dio who attempts to usurp the Joestar family fortune from Jojo. This is, in fact, the plot of the story and not something we made up to mock it. We won’t spoil the plot but the foreigner turns out to be the bad guy and fights Jojo to what might not be his death. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 316: OMG”

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.hack was incredibly dull and pretentious. This naturally means there are about thirty five sequels that have come out through the years. It never fails to ask the question, can we make dull people playing a dull game interesting? To be fair, we could never get past the early espisodes/volumes. A lot of mangas centered on MMOs also seem to explore in the same vein. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 315: Log Master”

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If there’s one thing that Weltall and Tim are, it’s timely. Their discussion of the latest polio vaccine was the forerunner of talk before the large newspapers dared touch it. The first people to discuss the steam engines and its ramification upon the empire? Tim and Weltall; weeks before the telegraph carried the story across the Atlantic. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 314: Hot Flags”

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The ground of manga does not run red with the life blood of eviscerated works this week. Tim reviews Tokage no Ou where a boy with the ability to change his eye color finds out just how useless a power that is when confronted with people who can double jump and cut guns in half with their mind. This is a manga that goes on about pacing and Tim loves himself some pacing so you won’t be surprised at the rating.

Weltall tackles Red Storm which shares part of the name with a Tom Clancy novel(and game from 1988). Unfortunately, it does not show how ‘Murica can defeat the USSR through good ol’ fashioned ‘Murican gumption, grit and folksy sayings. Fortunately it does offer amusing training montages, desert landscapes and an ego big enough to make Wetall take notice.

With those spent the emails generate a lot of pointless conversation this week. So a big thanks to the folks that sent in chatter generation. Without that, how else would we have started trying to decide which actors would belong on our dream Quidditch team and what position they would play? Continue reading “Manga Pulse 313: Toking Storm”

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Comic Con news and discussions dominate a large amount the podcast. Most of it focused on Denver Comic Con where we solicit aid from the audience to guide us during our time there. So in case you’re reading this and have something you want us to do, say a specific interview you’d like us to try and get, feel free to email into us.

Meanwhile Tim reviews a mouthful of Japanese he(probably) butchers. Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka. Yes, that was all one title and it doesn’t make up for its absolutely mediocre story. Power levels, generic monsters, various mythological figures and a harem that goes no where serve as a sleep aid.

Meanwhile Weltall tackles a Manwha, Hive. While it has a relatively small amount of chapters available, it manages to make quite an impression. As Weltall summed it up best, “it’s like a zombie apocalypse without the zomebies”. Instead there are giant wasps everywhere which is the stuff of nightmares for all the spheksophobics out there. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 312: Hive Mind”

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Another recommendation for Tim this episode as he tackles 12 Beast. Unlike when he fell through that portal to an alternate, ancient Greece where legends lived, he isn’t tackling an actual dozen beasts. Instead he reviews a harem Manga that attempts to fulfill a number of beast girl fetishes. Does he hate it or merely loathe it? You may be surprised when you listen.

Weltall reviews The Dragon Next Door and complains about the music he plays late at night. And then he talks about the Manwha of the same title. Wacky adventures with a next door neighbor who happens to be a mystical creature? Surely, this will be new and original. If nothing else it manages to escape the sitcom laugh track which is comedy poison.

After reading a lone email-thank you solitary listener!-we dredge up an old tradition of mocking Craigslist ads. Under guidance from our live listeners, who always enjoy input on our recordings, we read through some hapless crazies looking for love. Be terrified by the lonely folks in Inland Empire, California and Houston, Texas. Continue reading “Manga Pulse 311: 12 Dragons”