Fairy Tail – Overall Most Well Rounded Endless Shonen Show

The cover of the first volume of Fairy Tail(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bleach, Naruto, Gintama, One Piece, Fairy Tail – long-running shonen shows that have drawn many thousands of viewers, they are based on long-running manga that is still running, we’re talking over a decade. There’s a lot of money in these shows, and as such they keep them running though often there is no real content to show – so things get paced poorly (see my post on Naruto), and they add a lot of original content that’s usually a lot poorer than the original content (called “Filler”). But it keeps going on, because we enjoy watching those shows.

A month ago I’ve began watching Fairy Tail, and over two and  a half weeks I’ve watched all of it (minus the filler episodes), aside from how silly the first episode was – which actually filled me with concern that I won’t like the show, it was just too silly and random – I’ve really enjoyed this show. I am sure that it might not be the favourite show of anyone, but I still think that out of the shows above, it’s the most well rounded one, and might be the best as well.

(This is a Things I Like post, it’s not a review, but more a discussion of the show and of ideas that have risen in my mind as I’ve watched it. I expect no spoilers in this post.)

Naruto’s Intelligence; Anime vs. Manga.

I usually prefer watching or reading a show in the original form it was released, book, manga, anime, whatever. The new creation can be valid and good on its own, but for the definitive take on the story, one should look at the original.

In anime and manga, this is quite important. We all know how some shows begin serialization before the original story is finished, and thus have to not only change things, but make up a lot of it as they go along (Fullmetal Alchemist), or that they descend into more and more “Filler episodes” of original and usually subpar material (such as Naruto and Bleach). But sometimes they go beyond.

The infamous "Shadow Clone Technique" in action. Overkill!

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August Purchases

So, time to speak of what I purchased, pre-ordered and/or received during August, eh?

RPGs:

•  Bloodstained Stars Limited edition pre-order plus patch arrive in mail.

Miniatures:

• Formula P3 Basic painting techniques DVD arrives in mail.
• No Quarter magazine #25 arrives.
• No Quarter magazine #26 ordered at 15% discount.
• Dingy plastic colour-mixing palette purchased.
• Odor-less turpentine for varnish removal purchased.
• Flesh and Armor washes from P3 ordered. Badab Black and Devlun Mud washes from Citadel ordered. 15% discount.

Books:

• Eisenhorn omnibus arrives.
• Wheel of Time book 8: The Path of Daggers, purchased (not like I could finish book 7 and continue onward otherwise, y’know?).
• Dengeki Hime magazine with Komaki Aika figure arrives (not really a book, but..)
• About $80′s worth of Philosophy books and articles (Kant, Hobbes, Rousseau, etc.) purchased.

Figures:

• Neliel tu Oderschvanck figure by Banpresto arrives.
• Evangelion XXnano figures of Sachiel and Lilith (mini-Rei!) , arrive from Bluedrakon.
• Ymir from Queen’s Blade 1/7 by Griffon arrive from Bluedrakon.
• Shuraki Trinity Box 5 - Rize (1/8) by Good Smile Company arrives, along with Drama CD and art booklet. Spectacular (technically I only got it away from the hands of the customs on September 1st).

Others:

• Gave the comic store old comics for $95 in credit.
• Hyuga Hinata enamel key-chain, for the cute factor.

Conclusion: Month ended with me having some money in the bank. Submitted a resume today somewhere.

[Humor] Zabuza and the Rare Ingredient!

Zabuza, whose last name is apparently Momochi, which no one but Narutards knows, was the first real antagonist in Naruto. And he was AWESOME! And so, this post is dedicated to Zabuza, who traveled with Haku, the super-trap (Naruto picked flowers with him, thinking it was a girl).

Here I will cover this ultra-rare figure of him, and the rare dust, dust as you’ve never seen in a figure review before!

Zabuza, looking badass

This post is intended in humor, read it as such (including the “Narutards” reference), also, I got the links page up and mostly running, it’s only 70% populated, I’ll get the rest done between now and the weekend, thank you.

[TIL] Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; Definitive Shonen

Spoilers ahead.

Gurren Lagann, which is actually called “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann”, is an embodiment of the shonen genre, in anime form.

Shonen series are series aimed at boys, many of them are combat/adventure heavy, series such as Bleach and Naruto. The protagonists are usually teens, who overcome their enemies, and like in Poke’Mon‘s 5th episode (I have one heck of a memory, I know), the protagonist often loses, and then through sheer guts and determination (bloody-cussedness) trains or just comes back and wins.

In Naruto Shippuuden, there’s a bit of a ridiculous moment where Team Guy faces their clones, they get kicked, and then win just because they decide to be stronger than they were yesterday… rather than just switch who they’re fighting or try new techniques. It was a serious “WTF?!” moment to me.

In Gurren Lagann, there are actually three phases to the series. It begins with the Kamina and Simon’s home community underground, and then quickly goes on war. They wage a war on the beast-men and their mecha who keep them down (both underground and stopping them from reproducing). They fight and fight and fight, and after episode 8 there’s a slight change in the atmosphere, though the fights continue.

Then in the second half of the series, which many people like less, what was revealed in part at the end of the first half is explored. We find out that beings which can reproduce have something called “Spiral Energy”, and the reason Simon wins is because he wants to win strongly enough, and using his inherent spiral energy, well, he wins.

So the second half of the series is in the future, several years after the first half ends, with our characters leading either quiet lives or leading the new and freed humanity, political machinations, and then they go into space to fight the “Anti-Spirals”. Right now it becomes much more about how the “Will to win” translates into “Winning”. And this to me makes Gurren Lagann not only a series, but commentary on the shonen genre; the “I win because I want it more than you” is given context and reasoning inside the series, and while many think it is flimsy, it is better than it happening without context. In a way, this is a context to all those series.

I loved the series, and would give it 4.5 stars out of 5. I was really surprised at some point, the one where the series switches tone in its first half. I was like, “No way!”, and it was emotional and good.