#118 Shadow Clone Vampires; Jiangshi X ft Manga Information Manga Alerts

[00:00:12] Welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop where we talk about manga and Shonen Jump that didn't make it big. I'm David. I'm Jordan. And next week we're not covering a new manga because Jordan what are we doing next week? The floppies! Airhorn, airhorn, airhorn. It's like the Oscars but better. Yes with more flop. Yeah. But that's the slope. Anyway this week we are talking about Jiangshi X and we are joined by our guest Manga Alerts and also a big thank you to Spelby for recommending you as a guest. Manga Alerts do you mind telling everyone a little bit about yourself?

[00:00:42] Sure. And first I want to thank Spelby for recommending me to come on board. I have listened to you guys a little bit beforehand so it's very big honor to join y'all here today.

[00:00:50] And you still came on the show.

[00:00:51] Yeah. Yeah. Hi, my name is Manga Alerts or Raphael. Pretty much well known on Twitter for covering lots of manga deals and manga steals. So I'm super excited to join you guys today talking about this lovely manga that we got here.

[00:01:03] Deals and steals.

[00:01:04] Deals and steals. That's right.

[00:01:05] Whoa.

[00:01:05] I saw you're doing daily giveaways. So I have to ask what is the most alarming alert you've ever given?

[00:01:11] Where like not even you could believe it.

[00:01:13] Probably when Crunchyroll and Right Stuff were merging together. I got that from a leak from a publisher.

[00:01:21] Can't say who it is but uh yeah they didn't like me after that.

[00:01:24] I thought you were gonna say something like the Kennedy assassination.

[00:01:27] Just like some huge political story.

[00:01:30] The Trump indictment.

[00:01:32] Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:33] Just imagine her like guys this one this one's kind of a big deal.

[00:01:37] My favorite anime is the Zapruder film actually.

[00:01:40] Yeah.

[00:01:41] I don't get it either. Anyway.

[00:01:42] That's a classic.

[00:01:43] Do you not know what the Zapruder film is?

[00:01:45] No.

[00:01:45] That's the film that shows Kennedy getting shot anyway.

[00:01:48] Well let's get into the manga details and not talk about the Kennedy assassination anymore.

[00:01:52] Which I didn't think I'd ever have to say on this podcast.

[00:01:54] Christ.

[00:01:55] So we're not talking about the Kennedy assassination right now as much as I would love to.

[00:01:58] We're instead talking about Jiangshi X.

[00:02:01] Or as Tucker says the Japanese translation of this manga I suppose is Kyonshi.

[00:02:07] Which is uh the name of the specific kind of Chinese vampire that this is referencing.

[00:02:15] If any of you guys played Darkstalkers.

[00:02:17] You remember that one zombie girl who had like the long giant hands and.

[00:02:22] And she swings and stuff right?

[00:02:24] She swings her hands and she's got like a fancy hat with a piece of paper over it.

[00:02:29] That's a Jiangshi.

[00:02:30] Yes.

[00:02:30] It's actually Chinese for Hop Dracula.

[00:02:33] Fun fact.

[00:02:34] I see.

[00:02:34] Oh okay.

[00:02:35] What about a hip-hop Dracula?

[00:02:37] Oh those are uh lyrical hippopotamuses.

[00:02:39] Their lyrics are bottomless.

[00:02:41] I get the reference.

[00:02:42] Much like our facts.

[00:02:43] Yeah.

[00:02:43] But this was written by Norahiko Kuratsono.

[00:02:47] Notable people that this person was an assistant for is Hiroyuki Kikuta on Horizon.

[00:02:53] Which David is a rugby series.

[00:02:55] Now we have a little bit of experience with rugby series.

[00:02:58] Well one of them.

[00:03:00] Beast children.

[00:03:01] But also this guy was an assistant for Kasutoshi Kawaii on Monkey Turn.

[00:03:06] And Kei Kawano on Yuto.

[00:03:09] Which is about speed skating.

[00:03:10] And it was written by the guy who wrote Hikaru no Go.

[00:03:13] And uh he worked on a couple other things.

[00:03:16] And as an assistant he had Yoichiro Tenabe of Oshite.

[00:03:21] Oh shit.

[00:03:22] Furudao Wanda-san.

[00:03:23] And this guy's other works though.

[00:03:25] He's got like a few things.

[00:03:26] He's got like a like a he's been working pretty uh consistently.

[00:03:30] I've never heard this kind of commentary from Jordan before on this list before.

[00:03:34] But it's truly new territory.

[00:03:35] Yeah I don't know.

[00:03:36] I'm struggling today.

[00:03:37] This guy's other works include Magic, Headler, Roma, Hocus Pocus.

[00:03:41] Two volumes.

[00:03:42] From something called Comic Flapper.

[00:03:44] Rin Mishima doesn't believe it.

[00:03:46] I don't believe it either.

[00:03:47] He really can't escape the Naruto.

[00:03:49] He really can't.

[00:03:50] Voyage au centre de la terra.

[00:03:53] Which oh that's Voyage the Center of the Earth.

[00:03:55] Okay.

[00:03:56] Fucking whatever.

[00:03:57] Something called Automaton.

[00:03:58] And Liebear dash heterogeneous criminal investigation unit dash.

[00:04:04] That went from 2019 to 2020.

[00:04:06] And that was in Line Manga.

[00:04:08] And currently he's working on Across the Moon River.

[00:04:11] Which uh is a little bit over one volume.

[00:04:13] It's in manga one slash Ura Sundae.

[00:04:16] Which apparently follows a bunch of teens as they get caught up in a science fiction adventure

[00:04:19] involving government conspiracy and also the moon.

[00:04:23] The moon.

[00:04:23] The moon.

[00:04:24] You love to see it.

[00:04:25] But we're not talking about any of that shit right now.

[00:04:27] We're talking about Jiangxi X.

[00:04:29] Which ran from January 23rd, 2023 to February 19th.

[00:04:32] 2024.

[00:04:34] 35 fucking chapters in four volumes.

[00:04:37] Oh man.

[00:04:37] And what a...

[00:04:38] At least these 35 chapters went by pretty fast.

[00:04:41] They were pretty fast.

[00:04:42] I'm not gonna lie.

[00:04:43] Alright.

[00:04:43] Let's get to it.

[00:04:44] Alright.

[00:04:44] Let's get this out of the way.

[00:04:46] Jiangxi are Chinese vampires.

[00:04:48] They have numbers on their head which rank their power level.

[00:04:51] And the strong ones are sealed with strips of paper on their foreheads.

[00:04:54] They often wear fancy hats.

[00:04:56] Anyway, Xiao Hu is trained to be a Daoxi.

[00:04:58] A guy who fights at Shangxi with his buddies Xiao Yun and Zhu Li.

[00:05:02] I think that's how you pronounce that right?

[00:05:04] I was just kind of saying it like Zhu Li.

[00:05:06] Like Zhu Li basically.

[00:05:08] Listen.

[00:05:08] Our pronunciations are kind of like jazz where it's really about the syllables you don't say.

[00:05:12] We struggle enough with Japanese pronunciations and we struggle with that every week.

[00:05:17] And now we gotta do Chinese pronunciations.

[00:05:19] It's kind of harder.

[00:05:20] Yeah.

[00:05:21] So I'll just say Zhu Li.

[00:05:23] Xiao Hu is the strong one whose adoptive dad, Long Hu, is the leader or dad Aoshi.

[00:05:28] Long Hu saved him when he was a little kid when his parents died.

[00:05:32] So he got a sick scar that reminded him to feel hatred every morning.

[00:05:35] Wait a minute.

[00:05:36] That's not fucking Kurabashi.

[00:05:39] Wait a minute.

[00:05:40] Wait.

[00:05:42] Hey, I think I've seen this somewhere before.

[00:05:44] Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:05:45] I got it confused with the greatest manga ever, Kagura Bachi.

[00:05:47] Yes.

[00:05:48] Kino Abashi, as I like to call it.

[00:05:50] Yes.

[00:05:51] Also, different from Kagura Bachi, instead of fish, he's got a kitty.

[00:05:54] Yeah, he does.

[00:05:55] Zhu Li is a nerd with glasses and Xiao Yun is Naruto.

[00:05:58] Yeah.

[00:05:59] Yeah.

[00:05:59] Yeah.

[00:06:00] It's their last day of training and they gotta fight a level 2 Zhang Shi.

[00:06:03] But oh no.

[00:06:04] Xiao Yun's arm gets hurt and the other two decide to help him leave, which would make them fail.

[00:06:08] But as it turns out, that was the true exam all along.

[00:06:12] So they all pass.

[00:06:13] Who could have seen that coming?

[00:06:15] Whoa.

[00:06:16] It's, you know, it goes against every trope that I've seen.

[00:06:19] Who would have thought?

[00:06:20] Who would have thought?

[00:06:21] Popcorn Jordan.

[00:06:23] Soon, however, their village is under attack by a group of evil Daoshi called the Wu Dao

[00:06:28] Ju Dao.

[00:06:29] Oh no.

[00:06:30] And they planted a stick that seals everyone's spirit energy.

[00:06:35] Bummer, dude.

[00:06:35] Long Hu dies and the three kids manage to escape with Lady Juxian Juana.

[00:06:42] Look, this one's hard.

[00:06:43] The bad guys want her because she can unseal the Shayli who are the super powerful Changshi.

[00:06:50] They travel through the desert to find the Bagua Daoshi, aka the strongest Daoshi.

[00:06:56] Xiao Yun breaks his arm and they tell him to go home, which he doesn't want to do because

[00:07:00] his little sister...

[00:07:01] It's kind of like he's a horse that's broken his leg and they're like, well, we're gonna

[00:07:04] have to put you down, bud.

[00:07:05] Kinda, yeah.

[00:07:06] Oh god.

[00:07:07] He doesn't want to go home because his little sister is paralyzed and he wants to find like,

[00:07:13] I don't know, the elixir of life or something to heal her, like the fucking philosopher's

[00:07:17] stone or some shit.

[00:07:18] So Lady, I guess it's Chiu Xian, heals him?

[00:07:21] After Xiao Hu defeats a level four Daoshi using a piece of paper his dad gave him imbued with

[00:07:27] the spirit energy.

[00:07:28] They're saved by the Bagua Doshi so they can have a training arc where they all get

[00:07:33] stands.

[00:07:34] A time skip happens and now it's Jiangxi X Shippuden.

[00:07:38] Popcorn David.

[00:07:40] Battle tendency.

[00:07:41] Yeah.

[00:07:41] They all decide to take back their village where the bad guys have been unsealing the super

[00:07:45] powerful Jiangxi.

[00:07:46] Everyone is impressed how the three kids have become strong.

[00:07:48] Zhu Li uses his smarts to fuse with his stand and kill bad guys.

[00:07:52] And Xiao Yun finally gets his arm chopped off to kill a bad guy.

[00:07:54] Xiao Xu's stand is actually the white tiger from Chinese mythology that gains power by

[00:07:59] eating Xiao Hu's lifespan.

[00:08:00] He fights against a bad guy who unsealed an ultra powerful Shay Li.

[00:08:04] Xiao Hu gives most of his lifespan to become a cool tiger guy, but it's not enough.

[00:08:07] He starts to give the rest of it when, oh my god, it's his dad with a steel chair.

[00:08:12] I guess he hasn't seen him in a long Hu time.

[00:08:16] Who wasn't really dead the whole time, so he beats up the bad guy who is now fused with

[00:08:20] the Shay Li and then Lady Zhu Tan seals him away.

[00:08:22] Then some time passes and they gotta go on a trip, restore Zhu Hu's lifespan, and do

[00:08:26] something important at a mountain.

[00:08:27] And also, Xiao Yun has a cool sword arm now.

[00:08:30] Yeah.

[00:08:31] Yeah.

[00:08:31] Wow.

[00:08:32] Whoa.

[00:08:32] You know what, David?

[00:08:33] You did a pretty good job pronouncing those names.

[00:08:35] I gotta give it to you.

[00:08:37] Yeah.

[00:08:37] I was really ready to just say proper noun one, proper noun two, proper noun three, but

[00:08:42] I did it.

[00:08:42] Maybe I could speak Chinese better than Japanese.

[00:08:44] Maybe.

[00:08:45] Maybe.

[00:08:46] So anyway, Mongo Lutz, you want to tell us about the main character of the series?

[00:08:49] Sure.

[00:08:49] Xiao Hu is definitely our monk in training, our lead of monk in training.

[00:08:54] Yeah.

[00:08:54] He has a cute little cat as well, too.

[00:08:56] Did we ever get a name for the cat?

[00:08:57] I don't remember.

[00:08:58] Yeah, it's like Hei Hu.

[00:08:59] I think it's-

[00:08:59] Mr. Whiskers.

[00:09:00] Hei Hu.

[00:09:00] Okay.

[00:09:01] Mr. Whiskers.

[00:09:02] Yeah.

[00:09:02] Yeah.

[00:09:02] It's-

[00:09:03] I think Hei Hu translates to Mr. Whiskers, so-

[00:09:06] Yeah.

[00:09:06] Yeah.

[00:09:07] Yeah.

[00:09:08] He's actually like a tiny tiger.

[00:09:10] He's cute.

[00:09:10] I like him.

[00:09:11] Yeah.

[00:09:12] I liked him.

[00:09:13] I think he was one of the good parts of the series.

[00:09:19] Yeah, sort of.

[00:09:20] It's- I mean, he's the dad-oushy.

[00:09:23] That's right.

[00:09:24] So clever.

[00:09:25] So clever!

[00:09:25] And speaking of clever, he takes his dad's final hormone as well, too.

[00:09:30] Yes.

[00:09:31] Yeah, he's fucking-

[00:09:32] Did I write that?

[00:09:33] Yeah, I did.

[00:09:34] Yeah.

[00:09:34] Well, it just sounds like something you would have written.

[00:09:36] Because he's like, hey, I'm dying.

[00:09:37] But here's the rest of my energy in this, like, napkin.

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:41] Which comes up once, I think, in the remainder of the series.

[00:09:43] Yeah, I think it happens one time.

[00:09:45] Like, it wasn't really that important except one time.

[00:09:48] I mean, that's a description of the series.

[00:09:51] Yeah.

[00:09:52] Also, I mean, there are stands in this manga.

[00:09:55] Yes, there are.

[00:09:56] So it's a little- a little bit past Hamon, David.

[00:09:59] And they're fighting vampires!

[00:10:00] They're fighting vampires!

[00:10:02] Jeez, we were- we were calling this a Naruto ripoff.

[00:10:04] Maybe it's a Jojo ripoff.

[00:10:05] Wait, this was Jojo the whole time?

[00:10:07] Always has been.

[00:10:08] It was me, Dio.

[00:10:10] Wait, that's gonna be my six-word summary.

[00:10:11] I gotta write that down.

[00:10:12] It was me, Dio.

[00:10:13] Yeah, the whole time.

[00:10:15] You thought you were reading a Naruto ripoff, but it was me, Dio!

[00:10:19] All right, let's get into the next character.

[00:10:21] Jordan, why don't you tell us about the hothead?

[00:10:23] Oh, Naruto.

[00:10:24] No, it's Chow Yun.

[00:10:25] So, I think that the biggest thing that sets this apart from other manga is that it made the

[00:10:31] Naruto character the supporting character instead of the main character.

[00:10:35] Because he acts just like Naruto.

[00:10:36] He's a dumbass hothead who, like, nobody believes in.

[00:10:40] And people are always making him do goofy shit.

[00:10:42] Also, like, I'm sorry for making fun of him because his little sister has a tragic backstory.

[00:10:48] Which I don't think they ever deal with that backstory.

[00:10:50] Can I just say, it fucking bugs me how, like, her sister got paralyzed and she's like,

[00:10:55] oh, it's okay, you know?

[00:10:57] I like it when you carry me around and you tell me stories.

[00:11:01] And it's like, no, what the fuck?

[00:11:03] You're, like, six years old.

[00:11:04] You're fine with that?

[00:11:06] What?

[00:11:06] Yeah, no, that caught me off guard, too, when I was reading that part.

[00:11:09] I'm like, I don't think that would be the reaction of someone whose leg would be paralyzed

[00:11:15] by that, you know?

[00:11:16] Like, a little kid's, you know?

[00:11:18] Like, it'd be one thing if, like, his mom got paralyzed and she was trying to put on a

[00:11:23] brave face for, like, her son or something.

[00:11:25] Right.

[00:11:25] But this is, like, an eight-year-old who, like, used to love to run around and then suddenly

[00:11:30] she's unable to do that.

[00:11:32] And she's just like, I'm a saint.

[00:11:34] Hi, nothing hurts me.

[00:11:36] Yeah.

[00:11:37] Because I have you, big brother.

[00:11:39] I'm pretty sure that Lady Jatant or whatever could fix it.

[00:11:43] Yeah.

[00:11:43] It's so funny.

[00:11:45] Yeah.

[00:11:46] So Chow Yun breaks his arm, right?

[00:11:48] His arm got broken, yeah.

[00:11:50] His arm got fucked up.

[00:11:51] And she's just like, oh, I could heal it.

[00:11:54] But, like, one time I accidentally, I meant to heal a guy's leg and it actually made it

[00:11:59] fall off.

[00:12:00] And he's just like, okay, well, most of the time you did it, it worked.

[00:12:04] Heal my fucking arm.

[00:12:05] And you already knew this was never going to happen where she had a catastrophic failure

[00:12:08] on a main character.

[00:12:09] Yeah.

[00:12:10] I kind of wish that the arm fell off.

[00:12:12] I have to give him some credit in that he actually got his arm chopped off.

[00:12:16] But that was right when the manga was over, basically.

[00:12:19] Yeah.

[00:12:20] So stupid.

[00:12:21] And then I'll talk about Julie.

[00:12:23] He's a quiet one.

[00:12:23] He has glasses, so you know he's smart.

[00:12:27] And I don't think the series gave him a backstory.

[00:12:29] Who the fuck is this kid?

[00:12:31] No.

[00:12:31] No.

[00:12:31] I had to go back and reread it to see if they ever gave him, like, a reason why.

[00:12:36] But no, they didn't.

[00:12:37] All you got was just he likes to read.

[00:12:40] They never bothered to care about this kid.

[00:12:42] No.

[00:12:42] And he just likes to sneak into the library, like, one time and that's it.

[00:12:46] Huge glow up with the time skip, though.

[00:12:48] Yeah?

[00:12:48] Yes.

[00:12:49] Yes.

[00:12:49] Yes.

[00:12:50] Puberty was nice to him.

[00:12:51] Yeah.

[00:12:52] He has a little bit of, like, survivor guilt because he was like, oh, I figured out

[00:12:55] they're invading, like, right before it mattered.

[00:12:57] They all do, though.

[00:12:58] But there wasn't really a time for him not to have just told anyone about it anyway.

[00:13:02] What you're telling me is that the smart one was stupid.

[00:13:04] It's almost like the author probably wasn't that smart.

[00:13:07] Yeah.

[00:13:07] He's a nothing character.

[00:13:09] They're all nothing characters.

[00:13:10] But Manga Alert, do you mind wrapping this up by telling us about the lady of the princess?

[00:13:15] I guess she's not a princess.

[00:13:17] Yeah.

[00:13:18] Uh, lady.

[00:13:18] The girl.

[00:13:19] Yeah.

[00:13:19] The girl.

[00:13:20] Jutan Juannu, who, when looking at it, sure.

[00:13:24] Sure.

[00:13:24] Was really in doubt for some reason.

[00:13:26] She had big boobs.

[00:13:27] All the women in this manga had tig old biddies.

[00:13:30] I don't know what to tell you.

[00:13:31] Yeah.

[00:13:31] I was just like, why are her biddies so tiggy?

[00:13:33] Yeah.

[00:13:34] Like, I liked the one outfit where it had her face covered.

[00:13:38] I thought that looked pretty cool.

[00:13:39] Which, by the way, all the outfits on all the characters look cool.

[00:13:42] But then once the mask came off, it was just like, oh, okay.

[00:13:46] All right.

[00:13:46] It was just like, okay.

[00:13:48] And like, I felt like it was supposed to be some kind of reveal and it just wasn't.

[00:13:53] Right.

[00:13:53] Like.

[00:13:53] Yeah.

[00:13:54] And it's so convenient.

[00:13:55] She has healing powers.

[00:13:56] Yes.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:57] Whoa.

[00:13:58] A girl having healing powers is like.

[00:14:01] Who would have saw that coming?

[00:14:02] Oh no.

[00:14:04] That's fucking insane.

[00:14:07] What?

[00:14:08] Crazy.

[00:14:09] Oh God.

[00:14:09] Yeah.

[00:14:10] She's nothing.

[00:14:10] She's not a character, basically.

[00:14:12] Yeah.

[00:14:13] Like, if I remember right, the story said she was some like reincarnate of some deity.

[00:14:18] Right?

[00:14:19] She's the Dalai Lama.

[00:14:20] Yeah.

[00:14:20] That's what she is.

[00:14:21] She's the fucking Dalai Lama.

[00:14:23] Yeah.

[00:14:24] But I think we do need to start talking about this monk.

[00:14:26] Yes.

[00:14:27] So we can talk about how nothing it is.

[00:14:28] So let's get into why it failed.

[00:14:29] Yeah.

[00:14:29] So as we talked about, this is basically Naruto.

[00:14:31] I actually think though, beyond that, one of the worst things about the series is how

[00:14:35] vast the vocabulary.

[00:14:37] Oh God.

[00:14:38] Everything needs its own special term, along with every character having weird names because

[00:14:42] it's Chinese.

[00:14:43] It's like my Dalai is charging my Chao Shi to.

[00:14:48] If I hear you say my Dalai can't really be this cute.

[00:14:50] Right.

[00:14:51] Half this manga is not translated.

[00:14:53] Just full stop.

[00:14:54] Half of it is in Chinese.

[00:14:55] Was it like, I'm pretty sure you guys might have known this, but do we know what the

[00:15:00] localization process for this one was?

[00:15:02] Do we know?

[00:15:03] Tucker actually has some notes we'll discuss later where he thought the translation process

[00:15:07] was really weird.

[00:15:08] Okay.

[00:15:09] Like on one hand, I understand where it's like, oh, well, this isn't in Japanese, so

[00:15:14] I won't translate it because, you know, it's supposed to be a different language or something.

[00:15:18] But like, I don't know.

[00:15:19] It's kind of a problem.

[00:15:21] Right.

[00:15:22] Yeah.

[00:15:22] So many text bubbles are incomprehensible.

[00:15:24] It's just really hard to follow sometimes because I'm like, what?

[00:15:28] Who's this?

[00:15:29] Is this a character?

[00:15:31] And then even the characters are like, boring.

[00:15:33] Every bad guy in this series is unquestionably evil.

[00:15:36] Yeah.

[00:15:36] How did this come out like current year and you have irredeemably evil bad guys, but not

[00:15:41] in like a fun way, you know?

[00:15:43] Like the irredeemable bad guy part is used as an excuse to not tell us anything about them

[00:15:48] because it's just like, well, you know, they're evil.

[00:15:50] So it's like, whatever.

[00:15:51] Yes.

[00:15:51] And I do think that leads me into like my biggest issue with this, which is most of the manga

[00:15:57] they're fighting the Jiangxi and the Jiangxi are not characters.

[00:16:00] No, it's more like a monster of the week to be horrible.

[00:16:03] I think it was what it had a lot of breaks.

[00:16:05] Right.

[00:16:05] Remember the release schedule?

[00:16:07] Yeah.

[00:16:07] Yeah.

[00:16:07] At first I thought the designs were kind of cool, but I realized it's like the fact that

[00:16:10] you can't tell the level of the vampire by just looking at it.

[00:16:14] You need to see a giant number in on its head.

[00:16:16] It kind of shows that they weren't very well designed.

[00:16:18] And I think he's tried to set up rules that he didn't really follow.

[00:16:21] No, it's true because like, I feel like Bleach does it pretty well where like the freakier

[00:16:27] a hollow looks, the more powerful it probably is.

[00:16:29] But here it's just like, oh, these two look the same.

[00:16:32] Just that one has a higher number on its forehead.

[00:16:34] Right.

[00:16:35] Listing the rank on their forehead is such a stupid idea.

[00:16:39] Like why?

[00:16:40] Right.

[00:16:41] And then Michael Lurtz, is there anything we haven't said yet that you feel are like

[00:16:44] issues you had with the series?

[00:16:46] That first chapter.

[00:16:47] Let's be honest.

[00:16:47] Like, come on.

[00:16:48] Yeah.

[00:16:49] What a bad first chapter.

[00:16:50] That first chapter.

[00:16:51] Originally, when I first read it, I was like, this is your quote unquote exam arc.

[00:16:56] OK, all right.

[00:16:57] I'm done with this.

[00:16:57] And then it wasn't until I was invited here where I'm like, OK, all right, let's give

[00:17:01] this a second shot.

[00:17:02] But still, that first chapter was just come on.

[00:17:04] Really?

[00:17:05] Like, that was really the test?

[00:17:07] Yeah, that was so stupid.

[00:17:09] The test is that there wasn't a test, which again, I don't understand how they had zero

[00:17:12] idea that this is going to happen because they meet plenty of other Jiangxi.

[00:17:16] Wait, fuck.

[00:17:17] What are they called?

[00:17:18] Jiangxi or the vampires?

[00:17:19] What the hell are they called?

[00:17:19] Well, the Daoshi, the Daoshi.

[00:17:21] Yeah, they meet tons of Daoshi.

[00:17:22] Why would they think that every like it's almost impossible to pass this test?

[00:17:26] Right.

[00:17:27] They literally are in the village.

[00:17:28] So they're going to see a squad go and then all three of them come back and get promoted.

[00:17:31] Like in comparison to like really quick Demon Slayer.

[00:17:34] Right.

[00:17:34] Tanjo didn't see the other Slayers ever.

[00:17:37] Like he only saw them like later on, which made sense here.

[00:17:41] As you said, it's like you see him all walking around the village.

[00:17:44] So like it just didn't make sense.

[00:17:47] Starting it in the middle of an exam arc was a problem.

[00:17:50] They have a fucking training arc and then a time skip like 20 chapters into the series.

[00:17:55] I could not believe it.

[00:17:57] Like this shit was it wasn't just Naruto.

[00:17:59] It was speed running Naruto.

[00:18:01] Like rushing as fast as it could.

[00:18:03] It was Naruto running.

[00:18:04] It was like, why don't you just start the fucking manga after the time skip then?

[00:18:08] They could have made the invasion in the first chapter.

[00:18:10] I think so, too.

[00:18:12] And I think I mean, this is my I don't know if this is what actually happened, but I think

[00:18:15] my theory is the author got that, hey, your stuff is getting axed.

[00:18:19] It's time to wrap it up around the time skip or either before the time skip or something.

[00:18:24] And that's why that was put in there.

[00:18:27] Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

[00:18:28] We actually have confirmation this time that the manga could knew at least four chapters

[00:18:32] early.

[00:18:33] Oh, yeah.

[00:18:34] He did say it's wrapping up in one of the chapters.

[00:18:36] Yeah.

[00:18:37] Yeah.

[00:18:37] He just straight up said, hey, Chang-Chi X is ending in four chapters.

[00:18:41] So, OK, I hope you stick around.

[00:18:44] So, yeah, that's that's like the first time I think we've got actual confirmation of like,

[00:18:49] you know, we can guess you can you can often tell when you're reading a manga and it's like,

[00:18:53] oh, he knows it's ending.

[00:18:54] Right.

[00:18:54] This is the first time where the author was just like, hey, yeah, this is ending.

[00:18:57] It was also just like there was no world building or consistent.

[00:19:00] Did we ever really figure out the motivation of the villains are?

[00:19:03] No, they just want power.

[00:19:04] That's it.

[00:19:04] They want the big bad vampires to to to be destroy the world.

[00:19:10] I think it was something like, oh, the whole world needs to be basked in light.

[00:19:15] And the dad was like, no, you need both light and dark to have peace and harmony.

[00:19:20] And that's why we can't have free health care.

[00:19:23] Yeah.

[00:19:23] Yeah.

[00:19:24] Fucking centrist shit.

[00:19:26] Yeah.

[00:19:27] Yeah.

[00:19:27] But yeah, it's like it's just everything is so lame.

[00:19:30] There's no world building.

[00:19:30] We don't even know what society because they do have one cool line.

[00:19:33] And really like the like a village can take down one of the like a level one.

[00:19:36] And I'm like, that's really cool.

[00:19:37] Let's see the repercussions of that.

[00:19:39] And then it never fucking matters.

[00:19:40] You never actually see a normal person actually doing anything useful in the series.

[00:19:44] Do you notice how few of the characters I mentioned in the plot summary?

[00:19:48] Yeah.

[00:19:48] Yeah, exactly.

[00:19:49] Like none of them do anything.

[00:19:51] Like I didn't realize how bad this manga was until I wrote the plot summary and just

[00:19:56] realize how little of it actually mattered.

[00:19:59] Yeah.

[00:19:59] Like very little actually happens in this manga.

[00:20:02] I think like what Xiao Yun's like mentor or whatever, all they made them do was just

[00:20:08] get hot water for his hot tub and then that's it.

[00:20:11] Yeah.

[00:20:11] But they didn't even show it.

[00:20:13] They showed like him running down the steps, I think like once.

[00:20:16] But that was it.

[00:20:17] That was like a thing before the time skip, I think.

[00:20:20] And then Julie had like a exam.

[00:20:21] He had like a year of independent study and then an exam, but they just skipped that entire

[00:20:25] part of his training and it just shows that he passed it.

[00:20:29] Right.

[00:20:29] And then like what Xiao Hu's whole training arc was, oh, you're going to fight these wood

[00:20:34] spirits for for for a lot.

[00:20:37] Two years.

[00:20:38] For like a long time.

[00:20:39] And you're going to fight a hundred in a day.

[00:20:42] And it's just like not interesting.

[00:20:44] Like Xiao Yun's that is a task that like Jirai would have given Naruto or something like that.

[00:20:50] Yeah.

[00:20:50] That is the closest thing to a semi interesting task.

[00:20:53] And we didn't see it at all.

[00:20:55] And they don't even show like him learning something about it, right?

[00:20:58] Yeah.

[00:20:59] No.

[00:20:59] It's just like implied that doing that made him stronger.

[00:21:02] He didn't have like a revelation.

[00:21:04] It was just like carrying this stuff means you're stronger and tenacious.

[00:21:07] And it's like how?

[00:21:08] I also want to talk about the use of flashbacks in this series, because I think the author thinks,

[00:21:12] oh, if I have a bunch of flashbacks, that makes it seem like my writing is really in

[00:21:15] depth.

[00:21:15] But then it brings up really interesting dilemmas.

[00:21:18] I think it's Chow Yun had a motivational flashback being motivated by the guy who betrayed

[00:21:22] the entire village.

[00:21:24] Yeah.

[00:21:25] And I was like, really?

[00:21:27] Like, you're still considering advice from this guy in the heat of the moment?

[00:21:31] Yeah.

[00:21:32] And the thing is that that could be interesting if it was explored.

[00:21:36] It could be like, man, that betrayal really fucked me up because I really looked up to

[00:21:40] this guy or something.

[00:21:41] Yeah, right.

[00:21:42] But no.

[00:21:42] No, they don't do that.

[00:21:44] I mean, nothing has consequences.

[00:21:45] They have a magical healing lady with them.

[00:21:47] Yeah.

[00:21:47] Yeah.

[00:21:48] Right.

[00:21:48] Also, I fucking hate the whole thing where it's like, oh, he paid his lifespan unless

[00:21:54] it's Chainsaw Man, which does it perfectly.

[00:21:56] And it's a perfect decision there.

[00:21:58] Right.

[00:21:59] Or One Piece.

[00:22:00] Or One Piece or Death Note.

[00:22:02] But it's also just like that's such an abstract idea where it's like, oh, I'll just give up

[00:22:07] my lifespan, which is like it's going to happen like five years later.

[00:22:11] You know, you're still not going to see it.

[00:22:13] Yeah.

[00:22:13] We're never going to see the repercussions.

[00:22:15] No.

[00:22:15] Right.

[00:22:16] And that kind of goes into what I was going to bring up earlier was that this whole manga

[00:22:20] in like from start to finish, there was practically no consequence or no stakes, period.

[00:22:26] Because at the end, it all worked out no matter what.

[00:22:28] Yeah.

[00:22:28] Can you believe a vampire series had no stakes?

[00:22:31] Oh, that's a good one.

[00:22:33] Let me write that one down too.

[00:22:35] Do you guys have any other negatives or showing in the positives?

[00:22:37] Um.

[00:22:38] Yeah.

[00:22:39] Um.

[00:22:39] Oh, right.

[00:22:39] Also, all the main fights are between two humans and no one ever seriously has like a super

[00:22:44] serious fighting out against the Dracula.

[00:22:45] So what was the fucking point of the vampires?

[00:22:48] What was the fucking point of the vampire?

[00:22:51] So the healer person could have a thing to heal.

[00:22:54] Ta-da.

[00:22:55] Yeah.

[00:22:56] I love how God, what the fuck is his name?

[00:22:58] Zhao.

[00:22:58] Zhao.

[00:22:59] Is that the main character?

[00:23:00] Zhao Xu?

[00:23:00] Zhao Hu?

[00:23:01] Yeah.

[00:23:01] I love how Zhao Hu just randomly.

[00:23:03] John Hu.

[00:23:04] John Hughes randomly had PTSD for three panels.

[00:23:08] They did try that.

[00:23:10] Yeah.

[00:23:10] Well, Julie also had that.

[00:23:12] Yeah.

[00:23:12] But, um, John Hughes, which is what I'm going to call him now.

[00:23:15] He went into the dark cave and a girl down.

[00:23:18] She walked in there and was like, yo, you okay?

[00:23:20] And he's like, I'm having PTSD flashbacks right now.

[00:23:24] She's like, well, I'll give you rice.

[00:23:25] It's all better now.

[00:23:26] There you go.

[00:23:27] Thanks.

[00:23:27] I'm cured.

[00:23:28] And then he made a tiger friend who totally wasn't a ripoff of the fox spirit.

[00:23:32] Yeah.

[00:23:33] Yeah.

[00:23:34] Oh, that's true.

[00:23:35] That's true.

[00:23:36] Yeah.

[00:23:36] Where he also gains tiger like stripes on his face.

[00:23:40] Yeah.

[00:23:41] Which, what is it?

[00:23:42] Did they really?

[00:23:42] And I liked your note here too.

[00:23:44] Did they really establish the power system at all in this whole series?

[00:23:48] No?

[00:23:48] No.

[00:23:49] Because it turns into like stands midway through.

[00:23:51] Yeah.

[00:23:52] Yeah.

[00:23:52] Oh, speaking of stands makes me think of Jojo, which is something good.

[00:23:54] So why don't we get into what it did well?

[00:23:56] Yeah.

[00:23:56] But before we get into that, if you've been enjoying the show, we'd really appreciate

[00:23:59] if you subscribe to the show and flopped YouTube.

[00:24:01] We're trying to hit our goal of 1500 YouTube subs.

[00:24:03] And if we hit it, do a special bonus episode on the Bill King epilogue.

[00:24:06] I think we only need about 120 more.

[00:24:08] So if you haven't subbed yet, go sub now.

[00:24:09] If you're already subbed, thank you so much.

[00:24:11] So, Manga Alerts, what is something you actually enjoyed about the series?

[00:24:14] Okay.

[00:24:14] So the take on Chinese culture, I felt like was really done well here.

[00:24:20] Yeah.

[00:24:20] Despite the names, despite everything else, I felt like you can tell this author took

[00:24:25] the time to do the research, to get the clothing right, to get the architecture right,

[00:24:29] to get at least the names right, and at least some of the names of the powers and abilities

[00:24:34] accurate to its source material.

[00:24:36] Mm-hmm.

[00:24:37] I do agree with that.

[00:24:38] Like, I think the art was probably the strongest part about this series.

[00:24:42] Oh, completely agree.

[00:24:43] The design was cool a lot of the time.

[00:24:46] Like, I do.

[00:24:47] I think he did a really good job with some of the Jiangxi's designs.

[00:24:51] Then you have ones like the one that had giant boobs for some reason.

[00:24:53] Oh, God.

[00:24:54] Yeah.

[00:24:54] That was the only female Jiangxi in the entire series.

[00:24:57] Yeah.

[00:24:57] Remember the stand that just had big boobs?

[00:25:00] Yeah.

[00:25:00] Do you actually see boobies in this?

[00:25:02] Yeah.

[00:25:03] You see nipples, but part of like a stand.

[00:25:05] So I guess that's how Jump allowed it.

[00:25:07] It's like classic art can get away from it.

[00:25:09] I had to double check.

[00:25:10] Did you guys know if that one was like referenced by like an actual like Jiangxi, or was that

[00:25:16] just something that the author made up?

[00:25:18] Oh, I have no idea.

[00:25:19] I have zero idea.

[00:25:20] The only one I know that is from actual Chinese mythology is Baihu the White Tiger, because

[00:25:24] that's in Digimon.

[00:25:26] Right.

[00:25:27] Yeah.

[00:25:27] It's one of the four Japanese guardians or Chinese guardians.

[00:25:31] Yeah.

[00:25:31] What is it?

[00:25:32] It's the dragon, the bird, the white tiger, and the turtle.

[00:25:35] Michael Jordan.

[00:25:36] Yes.

[00:25:37] The bull.

[00:25:37] Yeah.

[00:25:38] There you go.

[00:25:38] There we go.

[00:25:40] Anyway, it's not actually the bull.

[00:25:41] That'd be really clever.

[00:25:42] No, he's actually the wizard.

[00:25:43] Yes, the wizard.

[00:25:44] The 30 year old virgin.

[00:25:46] Anyway.

[00:25:46] Yeah.

[00:25:47] So I mean, just the fact that Chinese culture being celebrated in such a way is so rare

[00:25:50] in manga.

[00:25:51] Yeah.

[00:25:51] You know?

[00:25:52] Yeah.

[00:25:52] So I have to applaud it for that.

[00:25:54] Yeah, I agree.

[00:25:56] It was cool to see like, oh, this isn't the typical culture that we see.

[00:26:01] I don't know.

[00:26:01] No, I would agree with you on that because oftentimes you get like when you get a manga,

[00:26:06] you think, okay, so it's going to be based in Japan with Japanese values.

[00:26:11] That's its main source material and everything.

[00:26:13] So having to see something that's completely different, I thought was a good starting point.

[00:26:18] But again, it didn't really live up to where it started.

[00:26:21] Also, this series went by fast.

[00:26:23] Oh, I've read this whole thing in like two hours.

[00:26:26] Yeah.

[00:26:27] It's admirable.

[00:26:28] You know, it's it's not easy to do that.

[00:26:30] Like we read so many manga here that are much shorter, but take so much longer to get

[00:26:35] through just because they they just feel so slow.

[00:26:39] Yeah.

[00:26:39] Yeah.

[00:26:40] I also think the art.

[00:26:41] Yeah.

[00:26:41] As we talked, it was fine.

[00:26:42] There were some cool splash pages like the one with the candles and chapter three looked

[00:26:45] really sick.

[00:26:46] Yeah.

[00:26:47] I think that the fight scenes looked cool.

[00:26:49] Yeah.

[00:26:49] I feel like the author relied on them too much because it feels like whenever he was

[00:26:54] like kind of struggling, he was like, oh, she showed up.

[00:26:56] We're going back to the fight scenes.

[00:26:57] Let's do it.

[00:26:58] Yeah.

[00:26:58] But like, I understand why he felt that way because like his fight scenes are cool.

[00:27:02] Yeah.

[00:27:02] I also think there was like an unexpected color page where his dad died.

[00:27:06] I think.

[00:27:06] Yo, yo, that was pretty sick.

[00:27:08] Yeah, that was completely unexpected.

[00:27:10] All of a sudden, like, you know, the whole thing is it's manga.

[00:27:13] It's black and white.

[00:27:14] And then his dad gets stabbed and there's red blood.

[00:27:16] And I don't think I've ever seen that in a manga where it's just like.

[00:27:19] Well, it's the magic of being a digital.

[00:27:21] So One Punch Man has had some mid chapter color pages, too.

[00:27:25] I feel like the author went up to Jump's editors and hey, is there any reason like we

[00:27:29] can't have color?

[00:27:30] And they're like, I guess not.

[00:27:33] Maxi B.A. has told me that it has happened once or twice, I think, in the printed magazine,

[00:27:37] but obviously it's very hard to set up.

[00:27:39] Yeah.

[00:27:39] Right.

[00:27:40] It's definitely a very novel thing to see that.

[00:27:43] It was cool.

[00:27:44] It took me off guard.

[00:27:44] I also think that that page where he got stabbed, the composition was strong.

[00:27:49] I think it was a really good page.

[00:27:52] Good job, author.

[00:27:53] Nice work.

[00:27:53] Also, necromancy was cool.

[00:27:54] I like how they were like, oh, well, we can't make vampires, but we can control them.

[00:27:58] And I was like, OK, fair enough.

[00:27:59] That seems like a novel idea for the nerd.

[00:28:01] Right.

[00:28:02] Yeah, I agree.

[00:28:03] We're really stretching to say nice things about this, aren't we?

[00:28:06] OK, I was going to say we're forgetting one good thing that it did.

[00:28:08] Well, the cat, the cat was pretty cool.

[00:28:10] Right.

[00:28:10] I thought the cat design was nice.

[00:28:12] And then towards the very end, we got a ripoff.

[00:28:14] I mean, you know, the final formation, his final power up.

[00:28:18] So that looked pretty cool.

[00:28:20] Where he like fused with the white tiger.

[00:28:22] Right.

[00:28:23] Yeah.

[00:28:24] Spirit.

[00:28:24] Yeah.

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:25] I feel like it's almost a rule where it's like if you have ripoff Jojo stands, the main

[00:28:31] character is going to fuse with them.

[00:28:32] Yeah.

[00:28:33] That's just something that happens.

[00:28:34] It's just what you have to do.

[00:28:36] Yeah.

[00:28:36] I always had a cool idea for like a stand user that like couldn't walk and has to have their

[00:28:40] stand carry them the whole time.

[00:28:42] OK.

[00:28:43] Araki, call me.

[00:28:43] Araki.

[00:28:44] Yeah.

[00:28:44] Jordan's like, yeah, it's actually it sounds like a fun idea.

[00:28:47] Araki, hire this man.

[00:28:48] Yep.

[00:28:49] All right.

[00:28:49] But on the topic of ideas of changing things, why don't we get into where it could have gone?

[00:28:53] Mongo Alerts, by the way, we're not going too fast to your sections for you, are we?

[00:28:56] Oh, you're good.

[00:28:56] Those alerts won't post themselves.

[00:28:59] OK.

[00:29:01] Jordan, where would you have gone for this series?

[00:29:03] First of all, do not start it at the chapter you started on.

[00:29:06] This motherfucker had one of the longest first chapters.

[00:29:10] It was like 100 pages, like 93 fucking pages and still managed to have nothing happen in

[00:29:17] that chapter.

[00:29:18] Amazing.

[00:29:19] There is absolutely no excuse that he couldn't have had the bad guys attack the village in

[00:29:25] the first chapter.

[00:29:26] There is no reason why he couldn't have done that.

[00:29:29] Yeah.

[00:29:30] Yeah.

[00:29:30] I think that would have been a great setup.

[00:29:32] Like they passed their exam.

[00:29:33] They've got their first real mission of guard or second mission.

[00:29:35] Their first mission was stupid, but their second one of guarding the tombs with the

[00:29:38] vampires.

[00:29:39] That's like a cool way you can tell us about the world.

[00:29:41] It feels like the manga doesn't start until like chapter four.

[00:29:45] Yeah.

[00:29:45] Because there's no hook at the end of chapter one.

[00:29:49] It's just like, don't you want to see where these kids go and do the Daoshi thing?

[00:29:52] And I'm like, not really.

[00:29:53] I don't really care about these kids.

[00:29:54] One of them's a fucking Nepo baby.

[00:29:56] Yeah.

[00:29:56] And the other shitty Naruto, the other one's a nerd.

[00:29:59] I don't really care.

[00:30:00] Yeah.

[00:30:00] And then kind of to build off of that, I've kind of feel like we needed more backstory from

[00:30:05] especially Julie, period.

[00:30:07] You know, we don't really know anything at all, period.

[00:30:11] It's just, oh, here's a Xiaohu and then maybe a little bit of Xiaoyang, but then nothing

[00:30:16] on Julie, you know?

[00:30:18] He's nothing.

[00:30:19] And the author thought he was nothing as well.

[00:30:21] The author didn't give a shit about Julie either.

[00:30:23] Right.

[00:30:24] Yeah.

[00:30:25] But he has glasses.

[00:30:26] The other two are like, oh, we're going to train our bodies.

[00:30:29] And then Julie, it's just like, hey, read a bunch of books.

[00:30:33] And he's like, yeah, you got it, dad.

[00:30:35] I mean, yeah, we talked about this in the chibi, but I still think the coolest thing

[00:30:39] if they hadn't skipped a chapter three is have them fail the exam.

[00:30:42] And this is like a deconstruction of Exorcist manga.

[00:30:45] You know, they're still trying to do the right thing, but they are completely abandoned by

[00:30:48] the Exorcist system.

[00:30:49] And just let's see that.

[00:30:51] Yes.

[00:30:51] Say in the first chapter, average people fight these monsters.

[00:30:54] Let's team up with the average folk and do what they can.

[00:30:56] Yeah.

[00:30:57] What if like leaving the exam actually was a failure?

[00:31:01] And so they they had.

[00:31:02] Yeah, they had to like sneak out of the village and be like Ronin or something or like vigilantes

[00:31:08] who go from like town to town and shit.

[00:31:10] And they're unsanctioned and not allowed to practice.

[00:31:13] And they're going to get sued for malpractice.

[00:31:16] And fighting a Dracula without a license.

[00:31:18] Impersonating a Dalji.

[00:31:19] But like, seriously, like that's something that's some conflict.

[00:31:23] Right.

[00:31:23] Yeah, I think per the discord, there isn't really a good deconstruction of this trope

[00:31:27] yet.

[00:31:28] And this could happen.

[00:31:29] David, I think you mentioned in the chat that like this manga had so many chances to

[00:31:33] be interesting and ignored all of them.

[00:31:36] And I agree with that.

[00:31:37] Like, yeah, I also agree with that, too, because again, kind of going back to what we talked

[00:31:42] about on what we didn't like, there was just no stakes, period at all.

[00:31:45] I felt like at those moments where it had the opportunity to provide us with, you know,

[00:31:50] a stake to kill these vampires.

[00:31:52] But anyways, you know, something that would keep the reader engaged in our little trio,

[00:31:57] you know, our little team seven trio of vampire hunters, you know?

[00:32:02] Yeah.

[00:32:02] Can I just say the author thought he was so fucking clever having Chow Yun constantly get

[00:32:08] his arm hurt because he's like, this is foreshadowing, baby.

[00:32:12] I'm going to have his arm get cut off, you see?

[00:32:14] And then I'm going to be a literary genius.

[00:32:17] Yes.

[00:32:17] Because people are going to look back and be like, what?

[00:32:20] That was back in chapter one.

[00:32:23] How did you do that?

[00:32:24] Oda over here.

[00:32:26] God damn.

[00:32:26] Yeah.

[00:32:28] R.A.P.

[00:32:29] Chow Yun's arm, dude.

[00:32:30] Like that, that arm.

[00:32:31] Yeah.

[00:32:32] They got a sword arm.

[00:32:33] I do like how they're like, yo, we could we might be able to heal your arm, Chow Yun.

[00:32:37] And he's like, nah, I got this cool sword arm.

[00:32:40] I don't want my arm back.

[00:32:41] I also think since I think the author isn't very good, I think this is accidental.

[00:32:45] But there was a cool element where they use nature elements to fight the Draculas, which

[00:32:49] were manmade.

[00:32:49] I think they don't really explain it, but it sounds like all the Dracula.

[00:32:52] It's like a fabricant where there's a horde of monsters to decide deals with, but they

[00:32:55] were all made individually by someone at some point.

[00:32:57] Yeah.

[00:32:58] Yeah, they were.

[00:32:58] They were made by a bad guy.

[00:33:00] Where did the Draculas come from?

[00:33:02] Since they say they don't know how to make him anymore.

[00:33:03] They were made by a powerful bad guy who was very strong and evil.

[00:33:07] Yes.

[00:33:08] But he was also one of theirs.

[00:33:10] Yeah, it's just so I think that would have been cool to talk about like being resourceful

[00:33:14] and using the natural environment to fight these manmade monstrosities.

[00:33:18] Yeah.

[00:33:18] Yeah.

[00:33:19] And if they're manmade, why were some so much stronger than that?

[00:33:22] Also, why did they swap the teacher character?

[00:33:24] Because he's the traitor.

[00:33:26] I get it.

[00:33:26] But then they instantly replace him with a character that could have just been that same

[00:33:29] guy from the start.

[00:33:30] Yeah.

[00:33:30] You mean they replaced him with shitty Kakashi?

[00:33:32] Yeah.

[00:33:33] Yeah.

[00:33:33] Well, they had no he was shitty Kakashi who got replaced by some bearded guy or stubble

[00:33:37] guy.

[00:33:37] No, I'm talking about the stubble guy was shitty Kakashi.

[00:33:40] Well, our guy literally hit his eye.

[00:33:42] Yeah.

[00:33:42] Yeah.

[00:33:43] But the guy they swapped him with was character wise.

[00:33:46] They're both Kakashis.

[00:33:47] Yeah.

[00:33:48] I didn't even notice that the traitor was that guy.

[00:33:50] Yeah.

[00:33:51] Hey, at least that did one thing right.

[00:33:52] We didn't see it coming.

[00:33:53] You never see it coming.

[00:33:56] All right.

[00:33:56] Do you have any other thoughts of where it could have gone?

[00:33:58] No.

[00:33:59] Man, I don't.

[00:34:00] I kind of just feel like make Naruto the main fucking character.

[00:34:03] Fuck this Shaoyun.

[00:34:05] Wait, what the fuck?

[00:34:06] Jordan wants it more like Naruto.

[00:34:08] Look, it worked for a reason.

[00:34:09] I guess fair enough.

[00:34:10] Like, look, regardless, it's pretty clear.

[00:34:13] That character ended up being the closest to semi interesting.

[00:34:17] Like the guy we followed was fucking perfect Nepo baby.

[00:34:20] Yeah.

[00:34:21] What if it was about him beating the Nepo baby allegations?

[00:34:24] Yeah.

[00:34:24] Yeah.

[00:34:24] It was like, like we followed Sasuke if Sasuke was nice.

[00:34:28] That's so lame.

[00:34:30] It's very lame.

[00:34:31] You know what isn't lame though?

[00:34:32] It's miscellaneous thoughts.

[00:34:33] So let's get into that.

[00:34:34] Let's go for it.

[00:34:35] So Muggler, what are some thoughts you feel like you haven't had a chance to say yet?

[00:34:38] I guess we let's talk about the elephant in the room or I guess the boobs in the room.

[00:34:42] That last, that, that last.

[00:34:44] Yeah.

[00:34:44] I was going to say.

[00:34:46] That last, whatever that thing was.

[00:34:48] I don't like, I thought it was some sort of like cultural reference.

[00:34:51] It's like, oh, maybe it could have been something like in like Chinese mythology that I didn't

[00:34:55] know about, but I'm just like.

[00:34:56] The boob Dracula.

[00:34:57] The ancient Chinese mythology saying that they're talking about titties.

[00:35:03] Confucius say, wow, look at those honkers.

[00:35:05] Oh God.

[00:35:06] Yeah.

[00:35:06] Like you said, it just felt like less of a nice representation of cultural history,

[00:35:11] but more so like an excuse to draw boobs without being censored.

[00:35:14] A hundred percent.

[00:35:15] They're just like straight up titties in this manga, like nips and everything.

[00:35:20] Honkers even.

[00:35:21] Honkers.

[00:35:22] I mean, I've seen a bunch of anime and manga where it's just like, here's the boobs.

[00:35:25] Oh, but we erased the titties.

[00:35:28] I mean, we erased the nipples.

[00:35:29] No, you get nipples in this manga.

[00:35:31] It's crazy.

[00:35:32] Hey, I didn't know we were still in the positive section.

[00:35:34] Hey.

[00:35:36] No, it was just pretty shocking.

[00:35:38] Yeah.

[00:35:39] Yeah.

[00:35:39] Hey, you know.

[00:35:40] I also know that they call it za paper is like what pacifies them.

[00:35:44] But what if it was spelled ZA and this was said in Italy and they just pacify the vampires

[00:35:49] with pizza?

[00:35:50] Better manga.

[00:35:52] That would be.

[00:35:53] Yeah.

[00:35:54] Now that's what would happen if Araki wrote this.

[00:35:56] Mago Alerts is like, that's one of the ideas of all time.

[00:35:58] Greatest idea of all time.

[00:36:00] Copyright it.

[00:36:01] Copyright it.

[00:36:01] Yeah.

[00:36:02] Araki, call me.

[00:36:03] I know you love Italians.

[00:36:04] Is Italy a Jojo reference?

[00:36:06] Yes.

[00:36:07] Yes.

[00:36:07] Oh God.

[00:36:08] Um, I don't know.

[00:36:10] Have we said everything?

[00:36:11] I mean, do this dance do anything though?

[00:36:13] At the end of it, like I looked at it and I'm like, yeah, outside of it looking cool.

[00:36:17] Did they really do anything instead of just looking cool?

[00:36:20] I had a note.

[00:36:20] I was like, do these stands do anything?

[00:36:22] Cause it kind of remind me of Beyblade spirits that I think also didn't do anything besides

[00:36:26] just stand around looking cool.

[00:36:27] How dare you, David?

[00:36:28] They made the Beyblade spin faster or something, man.

[00:36:32] I love Beyblade where it's like, yeah, my Beyblade is going to go through a maze now.

[00:36:37] And like, I'm going to make my Beyblade jump onto your Beyblade.

[00:36:41] Yeah.

[00:36:42] Oh God.

[00:36:43] It's Kino.

[00:36:44] It's Kino, Jordan.

[00:36:44] Yeah, it's Kino.

[00:36:46] Lastly, why is wood and wind owned by one of the, I don't know what, I don't know what

[00:36:51] they call it on the pillar equivalent.

[00:36:53] Um, the Chinese elements are different.

[00:36:57] But why did one guy have two elements?

[00:36:59] Oh, I didn't notice that.

[00:37:00] Yeah.

[00:37:00] He has both wind and wood.

[00:37:03] Well, cause obviously he plays woodwind instruments.

[00:37:06] Okay.

[00:37:07] All right.

[00:37:08] Yeah, David.

[00:37:09] That was a bad joke.

[00:37:11] That one was bad.

[00:37:13] From Tucker though, a note about the official English translation.

[00:37:15] The way character names, place names, attack names, and all the remaining proper nouns

[00:37:18] appearing in this manga are presented is significantly different than in the Japanese text versus the

[00:37:23] official Viz English translation.

[00:37:25] In Japanese, names and terms are presented in kanji, the character set adapted by Japanese

[00:37:29] from China in ancient times.

[00:37:30] Japanese readers of the series read these names using modern Japanese readings for the kanji.

[00:37:34] However, in the English version, these kanji characters are instead interpreted as their

[00:37:38] native Chinese, most likely standard Mandarin equivalent written out in Romanized Chinese

[00:37:42] pronunciation.

[00:37:43] These different interpretations of the same symbols make pretty much everything sound very

[00:37:47] different depending on which version you're reading.

[00:37:48] It also means there is no single correct answer for how one should refer to just about anything in this series.

[00:37:54] You know, we wouldn't want the community to be weirdly fractured, right?

[00:37:57] Jesus Christ.

[00:37:57] So what I'm getting from that though is that they actually did translate the names in Japanese.

[00:38:03] It sounds like they actually found someone who spoke Chinese to do it.

[00:38:06] Yeah, that's what it sounds like, which I guess it's props to whoever did that because I'm pretty

[00:38:10] sure that must have been a challenge and a half to like, you know, having to get those to be correct,

[00:38:15] but also having to translate Japanese as well too, to localize everything into a sentence to make it make sense.

[00:38:22] Yeah, I can't imagine this series was not remotely worth that level of effort.

[00:38:25] I think that this is like an interesting problem because like, I don't think that you do this by

[00:38:30] translating every single instance of Chinese into English, but at the same time, you got to do it

[00:38:37] with some of the stuff because this is hard to get through.

[00:38:40] Yeah.

[00:38:40] Yeah.

[00:38:41] And then finally though, some thoughts from Maxi B. They said they don't have much.

[00:38:44] They just wanted to emphasize this as a Naruto clone, but I do want to note that the author has

[00:38:48] been in the industry for over 20 years between assistants work in their own series.

[00:38:52] They haven't had any real hits, which is pretty sad, but Journey to the Son of the Earth manga

[00:38:57] is pretty good though.

[00:38:58] According to Maxi B.

[00:39:00] So anyway, let's get into the final verdict.

[00:39:02] Yeah.

[00:39:02] Yep.

[00:39:03] From Tucker, translate it into English, not Mandarin.

[00:39:05] Chicken Warlord, emotional sakes make me hopping meh.

[00:39:08] Deckerson, Exorcist, patent expired, got generic version.

[00:39:11] Ooh, that's pretty good.

[00:39:12] Diego, Exorcist manga localized entirely within Jump.

[00:39:15] Ha, I get it.

[00:39:16] Ha.

[00:39:18] Ha.

[00:39:18] Magalurts, how do you feel about Steam Hams?

[00:39:19] Ugh.

[00:39:22] Okay.

[00:39:24] Dude Rocks would rather count rice before rereading, and that's a good reference to

[00:39:28] the OCD that vampires have.

[00:39:30] If you guys don't know about that, if you spill rice, they have to count it.

[00:39:33] Oh, I know about it, David.

[00:39:34] Yeah.

[00:39:34] That's why the count from Sesame Street is the count.

[00:39:38] Yeah, exactly.

[00:39:39] Funky Green says, complaint 117.

[00:39:41] What about order 66?

[00:39:43] Gene Shellett says, hop, don't walk to the bookstore.

[00:39:46] I'm going to have to disagree because I should not encourage anyone to read this.

[00:39:49] Captain Clueless, juniors, exorcised Jiangxi extremely just extraordinarily.

[00:39:53] Lord Anubis, oops, all Exorcist manga for Jump.

[00:39:55] Luffy, made to show off character designs.

[00:39:57] Portal Man, oh great, another goddamn Exorcist manga.

[00:40:00] Resident Warhammer nerd, mistook it for Chojin X instead, and I'm sure you're not the only

[00:40:04] one.

[00:40:04] Spubby, liked it and better as Jiangxi Twitter.

[00:40:07] Nice.

[00:40:08] That's good.

[00:40:08] Scott, stale, straightforward fantasy with no twists.

[00:40:11] Spike, this Jiangxi should have stayed dead.

[00:40:13] Two Wolfwood, the most painfully generic Exorcist manga.

[00:40:16] Tai, manifest spirits, manifest a good story.

[00:40:18] Watchtower, even Exorcist manga gets Chinese bootlegs.

[00:40:21] Oh god.

[00:40:22] Damn.

[00:40:23] Zylon, what if Naruto were the zombies?

[00:40:25] And Ulyssean, Jiangxi exercised itself from the magazine.

[00:40:29] And then Manga Alerts, what was yours?

[00:40:30] The vampire demon slayer gone bad.

[00:40:33] Nice.

[00:40:34] I like it.

[00:40:35] How about you, Jordan?

[00:40:35] The translator had an easy time.

[00:40:37] The translator didn't translate half the fucking manga.

[00:40:41] Yeah.

[00:40:41] Or actually, it was an extremely difficult thing because they had to re-translate from

[00:40:45] scratch.

[00:40:46] True.

[00:40:48] Oh god.

[00:40:49] So actually, they probably had a terrible time translating this.

[00:40:52] Oh god.

[00:40:52] Right?

[00:40:53] Yeah.

[00:40:53] Don't feel so smart now, do you, buddy?

[00:40:56] Regardless, I feel bad for him.

[00:40:58] Yeah, me too.

[00:40:58] So I had to, I made jokes about already, this was Jojo the whole time in a vampire series

[00:41:03] without any stakes.

[00:41:04] And the one I brought to the table beforehand was, this series is a piece of Zhang shit.

[00:41:08] Nice.

[00:41:09] I had a hold for applause after I said that one.

[00:41:11] I hope you get it.

[00:41:12] Oh, fuck.

[00:41:14] Anyway, does anyone not think this is a certified flop?

[00:41:17] Nah.

[00:41:17] No.

[00:41:18] Okay.

[00:41:18] So manga alerts.

[00:41:19] I don't know how much you know about manga, but are there any series you recommend someone

[00:41:23] read instead of this?

[00:41:25] Yes.

[00:41:25] So, again, what's really unique about this is that it took something from a different

[00:41:31] cultural thing that's not Japanese and presented it.

[00:41:33] If you're looking for something that does a really good job exploring different cultures,

[00:41:38] right?

[00:41:38] And creating a really cool story and unique power system, I'm going to shout out Undead

[00:41:43] Unlock.

[00:41:44] I'm telling you, Undead Unlock has one of the most diverse cast, period.

[00:41:48] Has one of the most interesting cultural references, period.

[00:41:52] And listen, if you want something that's going to take you to different places all around the

[00:41:56] world, read Undead Unlock.

[00:41:57] I respect that.

[00:41:59] Jordan and I are actually going to do a Patreon content on that next month or the month after.

[00:42:03] Yeah.

[00:42:03] Oh, okay.

[00:42:04] So it was interesting to read a Japanese author's take on Chinese culture.

[00:42:10] But what about a Chinese creator's take on Japanese culture?

[00:42:15] That's right, everybody.

[00:42:15] I'm suggesting Super Infra Man, also known as Chinese Superman, but it's actually Chinese

[00:42:22] Ultraman.

[00:42:23] It fucking rules.

[00:42:25] It's a Chinese attempt at like a Japanese tokusatsu movie.

[00:42:29] And it has the best terrible costumes, like extremely ridiculous special effects.

[00:42:36] Roger Ebert, actually, when it came out, he gave it a 2.5 out of 5.

[00:42:40] And then years later said, you know what?

[00:42:42] Two months haven't gone by since I watched it that I haven't thought about Super Infra

[00:42:46] Man.

[00:42:46] So I'm making it a 3.5 out of 5.

[00:42:49] The funny was out of 4.

[00:42:51] There you go.

[00:42:52] Even better.

[00:42:53] I can respect that.

[00:42:54] My reference, I didn't realize everyone was going to do Chinese inspired stuff, which

[00:42:58] makes sense.

[00:42:58] So off the dome, go watch Jackie Chan Adventures.

[00:43:02] Yeah.

[00:43:05] My other is Centuria.

[00:43:07] I don't know if you guys have heard of that manga.

[00:43:08] Yes, I have.

[00:43:09] It's running on Jump Plus right now, I think.

[00:43:11] Yes, it is.

[00:43:12] I actually sang that at karaoke yesterday.

[00:43:14] Oh, nice.

[00:43:15] I didn't really remember those lyrics are not appropriate for a six year old to be in the

[00:43:18] room and whoops.

[00:43:18] Anyway, yes, the Centuria is really good.

[00:43:21] It's about a bunch of slaves that get sacrificed off a ship and then they all kind of merge their

[00:43:25] power with a stowaway.

[00:43:27] And it's by one of Fujimoto's assistants.

[00:43:28] And it has, if you like, strong, muscular women.

[00:43:31] It's got that too.

[00:43:32] Oh, yeah.

[00:43:33] All right.

[00:43:34] Yeah.

[00:43:34] And so, Jordan, is this the worst thing we've ever read?

[00:43:36] No, no, not at all.

[00:43:37] No.

[00:43:38] It's an upper end of Certified Fluffs.

[00:43:40] Yeah.

[00:43:41] Got it.

[00:43:41] Manga Alerts, we read barely anything this year that wasn't terrible.

[00:43:44] This was probably one of the worst years we've ever had on the show.

[00:43:47] Yeah.

[00:43:47] We read green, green, greens.

[00:43:49] That was good.

[00:43:50] Can you name another series that unambiguously you thought was good?

[00:43:53] No, not really.

[00:43:54] I mean, I mean, like there were a couple that I liked, but they didn't really like, I don't

[00:43:59] know if I'd say they were great.

[00:44:00] Right.

[00:44:01] Yeah.

[00:44:01] Not a great year for quality.

[00:44:03] From looking at your guys' past discography.

[00:44:06] I mean, yeah.

[00:44:07] It's like, this one's not like terrible, but it's definitely like on the bad end of the...

[00:44:13] It's not Build King.

[00:44:15] It's not SWAT.

[00:44:16] Right.

[00:44:17] Yeah.

[00:44:17] Which Jordan and I are going to cover again in six months.

[00:44:20] Because Dark Mage is not a manga.

[00:44:23] Yeah.

[00:44:23] Whoops.

[00:44:23] We read a monwa one time by accident.

[00:44:26] Oh.

[00:44:27] Yeah.

[00:44:27] Happens to the best of us.

[00:44:28] All right.

[00:44:29] Anyway, let's get into the wrap up.

[00:44:31] Manga Alerts, thank you so much for joining us.

[00:44:33] Do you mind telling the audience where they can get more of you in their lives?

[00:44:36] Yes.

[00:44:36] Thank you.

[00:44:37] Again, thank you both of you.

[00:44:38] And thank you to everyone who suggested me to come on board here.

[00:44:41] I really enjoy the show.

[00:44:42] Really enjoy the guys' energy.

[00:44:44] Really liked it a lot.

[00:44:45] Hell yeah.

[00:44:46] Oh man.

[00:44:46] I'm so glad to hear that.

[00:44:47] Of course.

[00:44:48] You guys can follow me at Manga Alerts on Twitter, Blue Sky, Instagram, Threads, all those

[00:44:53] lovely places.

[00:44:53] And then if you're also looking for something where we take a look behind the scenes of

[00:44:57] how stuff gets localized in English, I also run a podcast with my good friend Winter over

[00:45:02] at Behind the Manga.

[00:45:03] We recently did an episode on Dragon and Chameleon.

[00:45:06] So if that's something you're interested in.

[00:45:08] Dude, I love Dragon.

[00:45:09] We covered a Malcolm of Distortion if you haven't checked that out at all.

[00:45:13] I think I have seen that.

[00:45:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:45:16] Yeah.

[00:45:17] That's something that you guys are interested in.

[00:45:18] Check us out there.

[00:45:19] And again, thank you guys so much for bringing me on board.

[00:45:22] Oh man.

[00:45:22] I'm so glad and I'm glad that we didn't have your nemesis anime alerts on first.

[00:45:26] Nope.

[00:45:27] Fuck that guy, right?

[00:45:28] Yeah, fuck that guy.

[00:45:29] I hear he cheats at checkers.

[00:45:32] Damn.

[00:45:33] I hear he cheats at Connect Four.

[00:45:35] Oh God.

[00:45:36] Speaking of props to Jordan for making the opening ending theme, being a great co-host and helping

[00:45:40] with editing.

[00:45:41] Thank you, David, for all the hard work that you do on the show.

[00:45:43] Props to Murlisle for the awesome cover art.

[00:45:45] Find her online at Lyle Murr and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor.

[00:45:48] Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing.

[00:45:49] You can find his podcast, Anime Out of Context, at animeoutofcontext.com.

[00:45:53] Thanks to Tucker and Maxi B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, other miscellaneous

[00:45:57] research.

[00:45:57] Thanks to Kalala for being our social media manager.

[00:46:00] Find us on Twitter at ShonenFlopCast, Tumblr, Shonen-Flop, and our website, ShonenFlop.com.

[00:46:04] We're also on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcasts.

[00:46:07] If you want more weekly David and Jordan content, you can find us every Friday on the Chainsaw

[00:46:11] Minute, where we talk about the latest chapter of Chainsaw Man.

[00:46:13] Find it at csm.lipson.com or wherever else you listen to ShonenFlop.

[00:46:17] Come join the ShonenFlop Discord.

[00:46:18] It's open to everyone, patron or not.

[00:46:20] Hang out with us and talk about anime, games, whatever else is on your mind.

[00:46:23] We even have a manga book club and movie nights.

[00:46:25] Find a link to it in the show notes or on our site, ShonenFlop.com.

[00:46:27] If you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going, subscribe to our Patreon

[00:46:30] at patreon.com slash ShonenFlop.

[00:46:32] Along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out, you also get access to monthly bonus

[00:46:36] episodes, including the Shonen Drop, where Jordan and I look back at the previous month's

[00:46:39] episode and open the mystery box.

[00:46:41] Jordan, what was our bonus episode for the month of December and what's contained in the

[00:46:45] mystery box?

[00:46:46] Well, David, we read volume one of Hentai Kamen.

[00:46:49] Hell yeah.

[00:46:51] Featuring Shen from Shen Comics.

[00:46:53] Manga Alerts.

[00:46:54] Are you familiar with Hentai Kamen?

[00:46:57] I am not, but I will definitely add it to my TBR.

[00:47:01] It is a manga about a guy who puts panties over his head and turns into a superhero.

[00:47:08] And gets superpowers from it.

[00:47:09] Yes.

[00:47:10] Okay.

[00:47:10] All right.

[00:47:10] And we read that with Shen.

[00:47:12] And for our mystery box, well, if you had to teach a class on manga, what would you include?

[00:47:18] Hell yeah.

[00:47:19] Yeah.

[00:47:20] All right.

[00:47:20] And then if that's not enough, other perks include picking a manga for us to cover on

[00:47:23] a main episode, episodes up to a week in advance, and behind the scenes content like

[00:47:27] warmup audio or recording notes.

[00:47:28] I also want to read off some of our wonderful patrons.

[00:47:30] Starting with our dolphin dads, Glornak and Rachel, my wonderful wife.

[00:47:34] She just had her family over and I treated them all to some delicious chicken.

[00:47:39] Nice.

[00:47:39] Forgot for a moment what I bought.

[00:47:41] Anyway, moving on down to the ravioli tier where you get weekly pictures of my adorable

[00:47:45] puppuccino ravioli.

[00:47:46] She was so excited to see me that she couldn't sleep all night.

[00:47:49] We have Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Lady T, Matt, Scarlett, T, Tiffany, and Trevor.

[00:47:55] Moving on down to King of the Forest, we have 090Z, Bandit Stoof, my girlfriend, Brad,

[00:47:59] Chad, Ivan, Jacob, Justin, Kariland, Marty, Riley, Sarah, T, Wolfwood, and Tommy Boy.

[00:48:03] And a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our bee children.

[00:48:07] Yes.

[00:48:07] I love you all very much.

[00:48:08] Anything you want to toss in there, Jordan?

[00:48:10] Mission Ignition.

[00:48:10] Listen to Mission Ignition.

[00:48:11] Hell yeah.

[00:48:13] Sounds good to me.

[00:48:14] All right.

[00:48:14] Well, let's get into sign-offs.

[00:48:16] Thank you so much for joining us.

[00:48:17] Tune in next Monday for The Floppies.

[00:48:20] Woo!

[00:48:20] This has been David.

[00:48:21] This has been Jordan.

[00:48:22] This has been Mongo Alerts.

[00:48:23] And you've been listening to Shonen Flop.

[00:48:25] Keep on flopping floppers.

[00:48:26] Yeah!