WEEKLY SERIALIZATION STARTS NOW !!!!!!!!!!!! shun-nii its your time to shine !!! also i feel super bad for the girl omg….. imagine thinking so much about your hs crush meanwhile hes loving it up with his future girlfriend…. i kinda ship her and shun tho
im ngl i was soooooo ready to give it to akane but god damn it !!! kaisei tugged on my heart strings… i really really love this face off because its such a free for all with no restrictions against a character that is truly akane’s equal both in skill and background + i love the contrast of the rakugo styles that they use in this arc
out of all akane’s competition i really enjoyed kaisei’s rendition of the god of death because it’s such a one of a kind unique storytelling that’s sourced directly from his life and emotions…no other character could change the ending the way that he did because no character went through the very same things that kaisei did
so even if akane wins its satisfying because its from the fruits of her labor (beginning of the story + timeskip) or if kaisei wins its satisfying because he told a story in a way that was never told before and cant merely be recreated by akane because what makes the story so good isnt reliant on just mere technique but life experience and character growth that akane must also go through on her own
tldr: i loved it !!!!
god, just seeing that there’s a new chapter after reading last week’s drove me insane one of the most emotional chapters yet and i can’t believe how much iruma has grown
as someone who tends to dabble in sports anime/manga and whose favorite work of all time is haikyuu, ao ashi is such a breath of fresh air !!! as someone who isn’t as well-versed in sports i loved how ao ashi was able to make such compelling matches and comparisons while really delving into the youth system. i haven’t even known that such a system existed until recently !!! even as someone who’s not super into sports, there’s always going to be athletes that we intuitively know (messi, ronaldo, yuzuru hanyu, to name a few…) but i’ve never really thought about the pathways for people to become such legends before !!! unlike haikyuu that focuses on the experiences of high schoolers trying to pursue such an intense endeavor, i think ao ashi’s strength is being able to really convey the stakes and challenges of wanting to become a professional. whenever i hear of kids my age becoming pros (alysa liu, oliver bearman, alex aela and the like) i begin to question myself and compare my life to theirs. in actuality, i don’t think that theyre even that comparable !!! if even a quarter of ao ashi conveys what actual young athletes have to go through then the real pros in our world must be going through so much more than that. i’m so lucky that there’s a whole world of sports for me to explore and as a spectator, i can’t wait to cheer these athletes on !!! thank you so much ao ashi !!!
while fujimoto is far from my favorite mangaka, i do appreciate how his works always try to explore a greater narrative theme rather than just trying to deliver a coherent storyline. yes, it’s weird and yes, it’s disgusting but you can’t accuse fujimoto of not swinging. fire punch, like chainsaw man, tends to be incredibly nihilistic. the world is in an eternal winter by an ice witch that was never really real. the cold that erodes the earth turns everyone crazy — so much so that they can justify anything for the sake of survival. whether that’s eating human flesh, killing others, or using others to heat up the world again, fire punch tries to show the variety of ways human morality deteriorates when faced with the absurd. because, yes, an eternal winter is one of the most bizarre things a human being can encounter when used to a world of warmth. but it also highlights our own trivial and petty motivations — the ice witch (forgot their name) and togata both wish to survive just to watch movies. agni only wants to be with luna again. san only wishes to worship his god — even in the face of the absurd, the human spirit tends to be itself: ordinary and childish. there are many times when agni is ultimately abandoned by those he loves through increasingly disturbing ways, yet all of them tell him to live even when it only leads to more suffering. this is when fujimoto’s philosophy comes through: while living is certainly painful and there is often no reason why WE get to be chosen to live at all, we bear both the gift and punishment of seeing another day. agni, no matter hen he did good or bad, continued to live because his time simply hasn’t come yet. i think that fire punch also tries to grapple with the process of mythologizing and how people also tend to see only what they want to see. there are many times where we see agni through the eyes of others — the protagonist, god, the fire punch, etc etc. fictionalizing such a human character can only go so far. the people who tried immortalizing agni never end up understanding him (san) and the people who wanted him to follow a narrative ultimately missed out on the simpleness of his character (togata). in the end, agni also ends up not understanding himself anymore after being seen through the perspective of many outsiders who push their ideal towards him. there’s so many things to say about fire punch and it’s not even my fave but i do appreciate it for what it tries to be
coincidentally read this as i a professor’s words from casual conversation resonated with me, “what is being a mother, if not caring for others?” and i feel like this story encapsulates that concept so wholly. humans are social creatures, we cannot live alone and we cannot survive without the care of others. so it only makes sense that mori’s moms is everyone who took care of him along the way — yes, the story communicates how it takes a village to raise a child but also, on a more fundamental level, that what it takes to be a parent, a mom, isn’t blood relations or anything fancy. all it takes is the urge to care for a child. you don’t have to be perfect at it, as seen by the clumsy ways ryder and miria try to give mori a home, you really do just have to try. i think that at a time when children’s needs are being ignored more than ever (the sexual exploitation of children around the world, man-made famines, wars, genocides, just to name a few) that this story couldn’t have come out at a more appropriate time. this story reminds me and challenges me to be more compassionate and empathetic towards children, especially when they have yet to wield an adult’s tool of speech and articulation yet. my hope is that children never have to feel loss or loneliness, which is reflected quite heavily in this work
beautifully said!
it started getting in page one couldnt read the chapter and i kept hearing sniffling noises… anyways best chapter yet
blurry i mean… it was so blurry i couldnt even type blurry