art by yuuya kawada
The next issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, due out on the 27th of May, is a little bit special. It features the sophomore serial from the creative team of Yuuya Kawada and Kenta Komiyama, who debuted in Jump some three years ago Kikai Banashi Hanasaka Ikkyu. But it’s not the fact that they’re returning that makes this special. No, rather it’s because of the sort of series they’re doing. The comic in question is called Smoky B.B., and is the first baseball comic Weekly Shonen Jump has had since Over Time, way back in 2006. Seven years might not sound like a long time to you and me, but this drought in good ol’ bat, ball and base action is notable as the longest period Weekly Shonen Jump has gone without such a title, putting a certain weight and importance on Smoky B.B. bringing one of Japan’s favourite pastimes back to its most popular anthology.
To help you grasp quite how important this is, I’m going to go over a few of the more notable examples of the sport from Jump’s past, and perhaps look at why baseball has been so absent of late. Hopefully by the end of this little bonus bit you’ll be as tense as I am about the return of the sport next week.
The last Ryu Fujisaki episode! FOR NOW.
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What is Friendship! Effort! Victory!? - It’s a podcast about the manga and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump, with an eye towards accessibility and soothing camp tones.
What is this episode about? - It’s about WaqWaq, the last work of Ryu Fujisaki for Weekly Shonen Jump, and a delightfully weird failure, telling a tale of a desolate world and sci-fi battles, using a difficult religious concept as it goes along. It’s a whole thing! I talk about what was good about it, and why it probably failed despite these brilliant things.
What’s going on? - NOT daily episodes! Yeah, screwed that second batch up. Three more episodes left after this, and they’ll be out when they’re out, which should be before the month is out.
No, I mean about the iTunes feed. What’s going on? – Figured out the problem, should be fixed now, the last ton of episodes should update onto it as soon as the feed notices.
Where are the show notes? – In the future, where we red-bloods are GODS!
-Want to buy WaqWaq? Well, it should be available anywhere good comics are sold, but failing that there’s always Amazon (UK) (US) for the english editions and also Amazon (JP) for the Japanese bunkoban editions.
-Want to know more about WaqWaq? Buy it. But also there’s a wikipedia page that gives you the basic stuff you’d want to know. There’s also a pretty okay one about Ryu Fujisaki himself.
-What is the Amesha Spenta? Well, it’s a complicated religious thing that I was too lazy to explain, despite being a pretty good Religious Studies student back in the day. So here’s a wiki page that also explains it.
-You can learn more about Weekly Shonen Jump over at the wiki page for it, which is almost slightly reliable.
-Are you in the US/CA? Go support the digital version of Weekly Shonen Jumpreleased by Viz Media.
-Want Shonen Jump manga in english, digitally? Are you in US/CA? VizManga dot com. Every time.
-Friendship! Effort! Victory!’s on iTunes, where subscriptions and reviews are always most welcome. THE FEED IS FIXED (I think)
-You can find me on Twitter @Maxy_Barnard where I usually just swear and be wrong about stuff
-You can also find me on Tumblr over at The Despondent, where there’s an irregular supply of things relevant to mine and your interests
-You can also e-mail me at maxy dot barnard at gmail dot com if you’d like.
-As always the music used in this episode is from Jump Ultimate Stars. The intro is [INTO PLANET] and the outro, appropriately is ‘Loser’
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What is Friendship! Effort! Victory!? - It’s a podcast about the manga and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump, with an eye towards accessibility and soothing camp tones.
What is this episode about? - It’s about Hoshin Engi, the wacky fantasy story based on a chinese literary epic, which in turn is based upon an insane bit of chines history! I mostly just tell you about that, and talk about the weirdness that is the ending. There’s a lot of ground covered, but far too much left unturned this episode, so whilst I’m still super proud of myself, this is definitely in the “redux box” I keep telling you all about. It’s just such a dense topic!
What’s going on? - Daily episodes(again, maybe)! Yes, I’m *trying* to get these last five episodes out in rapid time so I can finish out series one and star work on series two. Not that they’re rushed, just that I’m trying to get them out to you as fast as humanly possible!
No, I mean about the iTunes feed. What’s going on? – Oh. Oh no. Yeah, that’s broken. I’m doing what I can to resolve the issue, but in the meantime you’ll just have to be patient and download the episodes from the site. Apologies to all those who prefer the feed.
Where are the show notes? – I had them killed and turned into hamburgers!
-Want to know more about Hoshin Engi? Wikipedia has you covered for the basics, but this angelfire website sure does have a lot of information on it beyond the norm.
-Want to buy Hoshin Engi in english? Why not head over to Amazon (UK) (US) and get your mitts around it all there.
-Want to buy Hoshin Engi in the fancy Japanese kanzenban editions? Give Amazon Japan a try.
-Want to buy the anime version of Hoshin Engi, Soul Hunter? Amazon (UK) (US) is your friend for that, too. God, I should work for them, plugging them this dang much.
-You can learn more about Weekly Shonen Jump over at the wiki page for it, which is almost slightly reliable.
-Are you in the US/CA? Go support the digital version of Weekly Shonen Jump released by Viz Media.
-Want Shonen Jump manga in english, digitally? Are you in US/CA? VizManga dot com. Every time.
-Friendship! Effort! Victory!’s on iTunes, where subscriptions and reviews are always most welcome. THE FEED IS STILL BROKEN
-You can find me on Twitter @Maxy_Barnard where I usually just swear and be wrong about stuff
-You can also find me on Tumblr over at The Despondent, where there’s an irregular supply of things relevant to mine and your interests
-You can also e-mail me at maxy dot barnard at gmail dot com if you’d like.
-As always the music used in this episode is from Jump Ultimate Stars. The intro is [INTO PLANET] and the outro, appropriately is ‘Loser’
Time to talk more one-shots in this peek at two short story collections!
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What is Friendship! Effort! Victory!? - It’s a podcast about the manga and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump, with an eye towards accessibility and soothing camp tones.
What is this episode about? - It’s about Ryu Fujisaki, creator of popular titles Hoshin Engi, Waq Waq and Shiki, and his short stories contained in the collections Worlds and Dramatic Irony. Worlds is work from his student days, and suffers as a result, but Dramatic Irony is a much more diverse and noteworthy collection. Either way, both are entirely worth hearing about, so jump on in.
What’s going on for the next two weeks? – Daily episodes! Yes, to catch up after the recent hiatus, I’m updating every day, or as close to every day as I can. It’s a bit of a challenge, but hopefully this horrific gimmick will please my patient audience. I’m taking weekends off, but by and large there should be 4-5 shows each week until the series is wrapped up. EXCITING.
Where are the show notes? – I got nothing. They’re down here.
-Want to read either Worlds of Dramatic Irony? You can get them used from Amazon Japan, or find at least some of the stories in the current collection known as Celestial Globe
-Want to know more about Ryu Fujisaki? Check out his wikipedia page.
-You can learn more about Weekly Shonen Jump over at the wiki page for it, which is almost slightly reliable.
-Friendship! Effort! Victory!’s on iTunes, where subscriptions and reviews are always most welcome.
-You can find me on Twitter @Maxy_Barnard where I usually just swear and be wrong about stuff
-You can also find me on Tumblr over at The Despondent, where there’s an irregular supply of things relevant to mine and your interests
-You can also e-mail me at maxy dot barnard at gmail dot com if you’d like.
-As always the music used in this episode is from Jump Ultimate Stars. The intro is [INTO PLANET] and the outro, appropriately is ‘Loser’
A whole minisode about a single anus gag? (Anus gag? There’s a pretty image)
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What is Friendship! Effort! Victory!? - It’s a podcast about the manga and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump, with an eye towards accessibility and soothing camp tones.
What is a minisode? – It’s a smaller episode, that discards all the inner workings and analysis stuff to just talk about a manga for what it is, be it good, bad, ugly, funny, heartbreaking and such. The minisodes exist to alternate weeks with the full episodes to give me a chance to work on those longer, more involved pieces without losing any momentum that weekly episodes would otherwise give it. Of course that’s the idea, but nowadays they’re just as long and I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.
What is this episode about? – It’s about Ryu Fujisaki’s Sakuratetsu Taiwahen (or Tetsu Sakura’s Dialogues if you’re feeling fancy), an utterly madcap experiment gag title from the early 00s that didn’t do well by any measure of the word, but is totally worth paying attention to as an unusual gem in Weekly Shonen Jump’s history.
What’s going on this week? – Daily episodes! Yes, to catch up after the recent hiatus, I’m updating every day, or as close to every day as I can, until we’re ready for the last episode or two of the series. It’s a bit of a challenge, but hopefully this horrific gimmick will please my patient audience.
Where are the show notes? - I… I don’t have a gag for this one. In a tiny anus? In a house that everyone wants? I dunno.
-Do you want to buy Sakuratetsu Taiwahen? Well, you can purchase it from Amazon Japan, in either separate volumes (from sellers) or from the snazzy bunkoban edition (that one with the big red circle with the number 2 on it). Or you can get it from Kinokuniya if they operate in your area (search for サクラテツ対話篇)
-You can learn more about Weekly Shonen Jump over at the wiki page for it, which is almost slightly reliable.
-Friendship! Effort! Victory!’s on iTunes, where subscriptions and reviews are always most welcome.
-You can find me on Twitter @Maxy_Barnard where I usually just swear and be wrong about stuff
-You can also find me on Tumblr over at The Despondent, where there’s an irregular supply of things relevant to mine and your interests
-You can also e-mail me at maxy dot barnard at gmail dot com if you’d like.
-As always the music used in this episode is from Jump Ultimate Stars. The intro is [INTO PLANET] and the outro, appropriately is ‘Loser’
Another manga with a weird name!
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What is Friendship! Effort! Victory!? - It’s a podcast about the manga and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump, with an eye towards accessibility and soothing camp tones.
What is this episode about? - It’s about ST&RS, the aspirational space manga, a title that tried to prove you can take your time and maintain your story in the cut-throat world of Weekly Shonen Jump, something it both succeeded AND failed at, confusingly. I also finally talk about how the polls work, and why long-form storylines are such a rarity in new Weekly Shonen Jump titles.
What’s going on this week? – Daily episodes! Yes, to catch up after the recent hiatus, I’m updating every day, or as close to every day as I can, until we’re ready for the last episode or two of the series. It’s a bit of a challenge, but hopefully this horrific gimmick will please my patient audience.
Where are the show notes? – The show notes are in space, they just don’t want us to escape!
-Want to buy ST&RS? Well, you can buy it in its original Japanese from places such as Amazon Japan or Kinokuniya (US) (Taiwan) (Australia) (Thailand) (Malaysia) (Singapore) (Japan), if they operate in your country. Just search for ST&RS, because Kinokuniya seems to struggle with permalinks.
-Want to know more about ST&RS? Check out the Wikipedia page for it, which covers the basics of the comic pretty well.
-The perspective on that volume 1 cover
-Other spacebound comics that are worth checking out: Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran (US) and the impeccable Twin Spica by Kou Yaginuma (US).
-You can learn more about Weekly Shonen Jump over at the wiki page for it, which is almost slightly reliable.
-Friendship! Effort! Victory!’s on iTunes, where subscriptions and reviews are always most welcome.
-You can find me on Twitter @Maxy_Barnard where I usually just swear and be wrong about stuff
-You can also find me on Tumblr over at The Despondent, where there’s an irregular supply of things relevant to mine and your interests
-You can also e-mail me at maxy dot barnard at gmail dot com if you’d like.
-As always the music used in this episode is from Jump Ultimate Stars. The intro is [INTO PLANET] and the outro, appropriately is ‘Loser’
Kagijin isn’t very good. Listen to me say this over and over at some length!
DOWNLOAD HERE
What is Friendship! Effort! Victory!? - It’s a podcast about the manga and inner workings of Weekly Shonen Jump, with an eye towards accessibility and soothing camp tones.
What is a minisode? – It’s a smaller episode, that discards all the inner workings and analysis stuff to just talk about a manga for what it is, be it good, bad, ugly, funny, heartbreaking and such. The minisodes exist to alternate weeks with the full episodes to give me a chance to work on those longer, more involved pieces without losing any momentum that weekly episodes would otherwise give it. Of course that’s the idea, but nowadays they’re just as long and I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore.
What is this episode about? – It’s about Yasuki Tanaka’s sophomore serialisation Kagijin, a decidedly lacking tale about keys and misery and stuff, with only a great idea about perspective and a tanned girl to give it any positive features. This will not be a positive show.
Why were you on hiatus so long? – I was travelling across the world and was unable to write and record, and when I got back to the UK some three weeks ago I immediately came down ill, destroying my voice temporarily and pushing this special week of daily updates back an extra week. So forgive the wait and this initial patch of rustyness.
Where are the show notes? - Well, I’ll just stick this key in my arm and… Here we go!
-Want to buy Kagijin? Then you’re mad. But it is in fact IN STOCK over at Amazon Japan, which is a rarity for this podcast, so I suppose you could go get it, huh.
-You can learn more about Weekly Shonen Jump over at the wiki page for it, which is almost slightly reliable.
-Friendship! Effort! Victory!’s on iTunes, where subscriptions and reviews are always most welcome.
-You can find me on Twitter @Maxy_Barnard where I usually just swear and be wrong about stuff
-You can also find me on Tumblr over at The Despondent, where there’s a Schedule of upcoming episodes & an irregular supply of things relevant to mine and your interests
-You can also e-mail me at maxy dot barnard at gmail dot com if you’d like.
-As always the music used in this episode is from Jump Ultimate Stars. The intro is [INTO PLANET] and the outro, appropriately is ‘Loser’
