#121 Hakutaku, Why Did the Author Make This?! ft Youtuber Monitor Comics

[00:00:13] 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. Next week we'll be covering Cyber Blue if you'd like to read along with us. Be sure to join the discussion in our discord and submit your six word summary. Finally to the discord in our episode description in our website shonenflop.com. But this week we're talking about Hakutaku and we are joined by Monitor Comics. Hello. Yo. Thank you so much for joining us and a big thank you to Portalman on our discord for suggesting we reach out to you for being a guest. Monitor though, do you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself? Yeah, so I am an art YouTuber and an independent

[00:00:42] comic slash manga artist. I've had a few works published in the past won a few awards. Um, yeah, I'm most active on Twitter these days. The website formerly formerly formerly known as Twitter now currently known as X. But yeah, if you are interested in creating your own comics manga or webtoons, please check out my YouTube channel at monitor comics for educational tutorials how to videos and live commentary about what's going on in the industry. Hell yeah, what would you say is like the biggest lesson you've learned so far this year when it comes to creating your own craft? This is such a cliche.

[00:01:12] Cheesy one. Um, trust your own gut. Yeah. And what I mean by that is when you're working with editors, you know, they have ideas of things that should be happening. Like example in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, he had a plan to end it like right after the Frieza saga, but it was so popular. The editor was like, all right, now we got to do the Android saga and the cell games and all that. And like other series have had similar situations like Death Note, but editors, they have an idea of a story, you have an idea of a story and the fans have an idea of a story. And so if you're creating comics and manga and you're independent, then I just say,

[00:01:42] do what you want to read, be your biggest fan and create the series that you want to see. Hell yeah. Create the series you want to see in the world. I'm a musician as well as an artist myself. And, um, yeah, I'm just going to toot my own horn, David. I heard that. No, I was thinking of that spider in where it's like, I'm something of an artist myself. I'm something of an artist myself. I used to, when I was writing songs, like try and cut it down to the most efficient song possible where it's like, ah, we just do verse, chorus, verse, we're done, you know? But then it kind of got to the point where like my song sounded

[00:02:12] scared of themselves. And it is kind of like what you're saying where like, well, if you don't even like or believe in your art, then why the fuck should the listener, the reader care? So it's like, yeah, you got to be your own fan. You got to like show that you have confidence in what you're creating. Yeah. And I think we actually have a comic creator section in our discord. And I think that's a really awesome lesson for our listeners to take away when they're discussing and refining their own works in the server. Yeah, for sure. But on that note of work that maybe needed some patching up.

[00:02:42] Why don't we start actually talking about this series? Jordan, take it away. Yeah. So this is Hakutaku. The title is apparently written as white table, but it's a homophone for the Hakutaku. Hakutaku translates to the Hakutaku. And that's what it's all about. A yokai originating from Chinese myth that is associated with knowledge and good luck. It was written by Koki Ishikawa, notably an assistant for, oh, hey, we were just talking about this.

[00:03:10] Yuki Tabata on Black Clover or as he's more famous for Hungry Joker, which, oh, that's an interesting power system. You should check out monitor. God, yeah. Science. It tries to make like scientific relics have like superpowers. So like the main character eats the apple that fell on Isaac Newton. He gets gravity powers. Yeah. And it's not very good.

[00:03:36] Jordan, by the way, mentioned the power because that was the topic of our warmup audio was talking about monitor with some power systems since they did a really great video on how to design good power systems. Yeah. We explained the concept of hentai commons power to him. Yeah. Listener, check out our Patreon if you'd like to know about hentai commons powers. And so, Jordan, what else has this offer done? Nothing. But they have previously produced a variety of one shots. So I guess this is just this is the only serialized series they've done.

[00:04:07] But this series, Hakutaku, ran from September 22nd, 2024 to February 2nd, 2025. That's right. This just got canceled. This series was meant to be a replacement for fucking jujutsu kaisen. Yeah. Little series. Little series called jujutsu kaisen. Have you heard of it, monitor? I actually haven't. I should probably look into it after this video. It's okay. You know, it's like the real ones know about that. You know, it's a little bit of a deep cut. Yeah. Not as popular as hentai commons. No, exactly.

[00:04:35] The series that replaced Hakutaku will, I mean, nothing has replaced it yet. Nothing will replace it. Nothing will ever replace this series. There's a hole in my heart and nothing can fill it. But apparently, according to Maxi B, three series just ended, but only two have begun. But those two series that started were Ichi the Witch, which seems to be doing pretty well, and Shinobi Undercover, which David thinks we're going to cover on the show someday. Oh, no. Absolutely. I read five chapters of it and I was like, I've seen everything this manga can do.

[00:05:04] Hakutaku, though, well, it's a member of the U19 Club with 18 chapters. Cheers. And then let's get into a very merciful plot summary for Jordan in this episode. Yeah. Hakuma is being bullied by the class rap and his posse into doing stuff for them. Because he's neurodivergent, though, he has convinced himself it's all a game. One day, however, he runs into Noto, a weird girl living a goblin mode lifestyle who never shows up for school. She enlists him to make a game for their programming class to show the bullies who are pushing the whole project onto him.

[00:05:32] Everyone loves their game, causing Hakuma to have a brain gasm. Next, Noto uses her mysterious, vast connections to make an AR game where you take pictures with dogs for a local electronics store owner. Hakuma brain gasms. Popcorn Jordan. The two then decide to go to a game jam where they meet Seo, a genius programmer, and the two of them make a really annoying version of Tetris with barn animals. Hakuma brain gasms. They try to make Seo a permanent member of their team, but he swore off games after they

[00:06:01] killed his brother by making him get hit by a car. He was only at the game jam as a favor to the guy who ran it. Noto and Hikuma use Seo's little sister to guilt him into helping them make another AR game that turns the world into Minecraft. Hikuma brain gasms. This brings Seo on board finally. Noto tells him that their ultimate goal is now to win game of the year at the game awards. Popcorn David. Their next step is then to get their AR game into the Gaming Expo Pixel Summit, which they'll

[00:06:29] attempt to do by impressing Hideo Kojima, aka Nakamba Akamani. Noto and... Sure. Sure. I just want to say SEO. He's got good search engine optimization. Confront the producer and programmer while Hakuma runs into Kojima in the bathroom. Kojima, surrounded by forest animals as usual, gives Hakuma some philosophical advice, while Noto and Seo are turned down in an encouraging way, with Seo getting a business card. Noto then calls the other two over to discover that she set up a whole office for them using equipment from the electronics store.

[00:06:57] Noto says they're launching a counterattack and wants them to play a successful indie game called Route 6. She says they failed because she was too focused on owning noobs, Keck, to really make this the best game they could. Next time now, they're gonna gather a team together and make it to Kamiket 2025 when they'll really get famous. Good luck, I guess, because that's the end of the fucking series. End of the series. Also, Noto asks Hakuma to make a cute girl. That was the secret all along. That was the secret.

[00:07:24] If they had only had cute girls in the AR. We were so close to getting the trans arc of this where he discovers he was the cute girl all along. Oh man, Blue Period's a great series. Anyway, Monder, do you mind telling us about the main character of the series? So yeah, Dai Dai Hikuma is the main character of the series? Yeah, that sounds right. Sounds right enough to me. Described as a wimpy game design boy and a nice guy trademarked. He has no friends, just gamings. Yeah, it's true.

[00:07:54] In his spare time, he makes games out of everything, even just like everyday activities. And he gamifies everything to the point that you can't even tell that he's getting bullied or people are treating him poorly. I posted on Blue Sky, I think it's that. I always love that Onion article where it's like, local man doesn't know if he is part of the gang or being bullied. Yeah, pretty much. That's the series in one picture. I just love how you actually can see in real time over the series, his body slowly decaying as he gets more and more committed to this.

[00:08:23] Like the offer gave him bigger bags under his eyes and he just like falls asleep in the middle of a park. Also, like when somebody plays a game he designs, it really seems to make him, I really can't describe it as anything other than brain gasm. They call it like neural overload, but it's just like that's what it is. Yeah, it's really weird. Yeah, he's just such a strange character and he's really more of like an accessory to the next character. But do you guys have anything else to say about him? It really comes off like his fetish is game design.

[00:08:52] Like it's strange. And beyond that, he doesn't really have any other characterization. No, there's no characterization for any of these characters. Oh, it's true. And then, George, do you want to tell us about Goblin Mode, the Goblin Mode Girl of the Year? Raika Nodo. Yeah, she basically just stays in her room all day making games and is apparently both bad and good at them. Yeah. And she's the idea guy. I would say that Dai Dai is the idea guy. She's the producer. She makes the game.

[00:09:22] Also, I wrote Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but it's more like Manic Pixel Dream Girl. Hey! Yay! But yeah, it's like she's kind of the driving force. Yeah. Her issue is that she makes all these games, but none of them are fun. But Hikuma, you know, he knows how to make things fun. Yeah. Maner, what did you think of her? I thought it was so interesting, like all the connections that she had, mostly because she said she's never made fun games before. And also she's been to like the game jam like seven times in the past.

[00:09:51] She knew college students from gaming with them and like adults. And it just confused me that this girl can have so many connections and so much respect. And yet, apparently she just cannot make a single fun game in her life. She kind of reminds me of what's his name from Eishield 21, the quarterback where he just has all these crazy ass connections. Yeah. Where he's just like, oh, yeah, yeah. I'm like, you know, I'm best friends with like the president of like this tech company. Yeah, they're going to sponsor us. No problem. Yeah, I do see that.

[00:10:17] They're both kind of the driving forces and they're a little there's like a sinisterness there, except while he's like actually shooting people with machine guns. She's just kind of less interesting, trashy. Like I just still can't believe they explicitly say she's a girl rotter in this series. And then I'll get to the last characters. NG SEO. SEO. Sorry, I fucking marketing. I do too. No, I see it. I see. Yeah, he's a programming whiz kid. Dumb, smart guy to him.

[00:10:43] And then essentially half the manga is about him, despite him not being a very important character. His big brother was killed by video game. Thanks, Jack Thompson. Oh, that that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. There's your obscure reference. There we go. No, it's like, oh, my brother wanted to make games and then he got a job making games. But like he had to do other stuff and like he was so tired from doing all of it. He didn't look both ways when he was crossing the street. He got hit by a car. That genuinely seems to be his backstory.

[00:11:11] And he's like, and now I can't make games because they killed my brother. It's so stupid. And then Mondra, was there anything you'd like to tell? Yeah, I think we're leaving out the most important part that you can get him to do whatever you want him to do. As long as you mentioned a cute girl is involved. Yeah. Well, we already said he's a teenager, I think. Yeah. Everyone is like 16 years old or so. Yeah. Except for that one college dude who left after the game jam.

[00:11:34] I also do really like how he was like one of the smartest guys at like his old middle school. So he determined, hey, if I go to a dumb high school, then I'll be smarter than everybody. And they'll like worship me. But he went to a dumb high school and it's turned and it turns out that nobody at the dumb high school even gives a fuck if you're smart because they're a dumb high school. Yeah. I think, though, on the note of girl failure, why don't we get into manga failure and talk

[00:12:04] about the things we did not like about this series? I just want to start because I feel like ultimately this series, as I talked about the Chibi, I don't understand why the author made this series because he doesn't seem knowledgeable or cared about the topic of his manga. But this isn't really a topic you would make a manga about if all you're trying to do is make money from making a manga. I just don't get why that this series had this execution. It's a niche topic, right? Yeah, I think that he is genuinely interested. I just don't think he's as knowledgeable as he needs to be.

[00:12:33] Like this series just felt so boring for so much of it. Yeah. And like AR, it's like, who gives a shit? Who cares about AR? Like, do you care about AR monitors? Is that like? Yeah. So this part was actually interesting because when I think of AR, I'm thinking about like Pokemon Go and how that literally took the world by storm. So I think that's where it came from. Personally, I don't think AR is going to beat a triple A game. So I think if I were making this kind of series, I would have preferred they went like, we're going to make the best indie game ever.

[00:13:02] That's not like AR, you know, like an actual triple A title by accident or something. There's a platform in where it could have gone. We can discuss how this series could have been rebuilt from scratch. You have actually been interesting. Here's the thing. I said, I don't care about AR. That's not entirely true. I had this one experience where like I got to try on an AR headset and then like you put it on, you look around, it's like, whoa, there's like a giant 3D like heart beating in the middle of the room. You can look all around. This is like the coolest thing ever, but it's way less cool when you're just looking at a

[00:13:31] phone screen, like exponentially less cool. Yeah. I've had to make an AR game in college, actually. Did you study game design? No, I did not. I was in a museum studies class. One of the aspects of it was to make museums fun for younger people. I felt like this chapter was made for me because we had to go meet with the like coding department and they kind of just made it happen. Like I was, I was on the art side of it, but like I, we had our own SEO man,

[00:13:57] SEO in the computer room and we had to make this AR thing to like digitize like some of the paintings in there, some of the sculptures. So kids could use their phone and take a picture of it and get information on it. So it kind of bring up like a Wikipedia article in front of them or something like that, that would like, so it's, and you can make like scavenger hunts out of it. And, um, I thought it was like nostalgic in that sense, but yeah, overall, I don't think it's exciting for the average viewer. It's also, it seems extremely unreasonable. The scale of the game, that's like the second game they made. Yeah. It went from like a 2D platformer to a full on AR game where they

[00:14:27] scanned assets and created hundreds of 3D models in like five days. Yeah. And they just said it like nothing. They were like, you just drew 300 models in one day. And he's like on the, on the bench, like exhausted. It's physically impossible to scale the game they made. It's so funny. It's like, it's almost like a stamina assist. Like the power system is stamina based where it's like stamina. Yeah. That was really hard and difficult for kids to do. That's why he's tired. What? You know, it's like, oh, I see. He was able to do it. That's why he's tired. That's the, that's the toll it takes.

[00:14:56] I believe it now. That's because otherwise he wouldn't be tired. He got about eight months worth of work done in five days, but he's really tired. Yeah. It really took it out of him. You know, it's a real, uh, give and take, you know, equal, uh, equal effort, you know? Yeah. It's also how did the girl rotter have like super great soft skills when she's clearly like a shut in? Like how did she have complete mastery of the business side when it looks like Jordan at first thought she was like a ghost cause she doesn't interact with people.

[00:15:21] She should be somebody where like when she's talking to them, they should be like, you smell kind of weird. That's the vibe I get from her. She shouldn't be somebody who like, yeah, I'm all together now. I am now super charismatic and I am all dressed up looking like a professional business woman. She just takes it for a shower in like six months. She clocks the train. That's the point. Yeah. I really liked that line. The one professional said where he's like, she wanted you to think she was a college student.

[00:15:51] That's why she talked this way and dressed this way. And I was like, this girl sits in her room all day. Doesn't she? Yeah. Yeah. It's like fucking literally like that damn bitch. You live like this meme is her room. Like, holy shit. They just straight up showed a girl rot room. I feel like the roles should be reversed between Hikuma and, uh, Noto. I agree. That would have been really cool. Also, we need more women in STEM. Also. Yeah. I just want to say really quick. I think they should have went the Akane Banashi route where I think some shounen series are

[00:16:19] scared to have a woman protagonist in these kinds of stories. Yeah. Yeah. I would have preferred if the main character in this faded out of existence and his whole role went into Noto. Yeah. Where she was the one making the game and doing all this. I think maybe Dai Dai could have been like a POV character, like helping Noto, you know, because like it does kind of be like, well, so she can't come up with fun games and she can't program like Seyo can. She can handle the business side. Why the fuck is she here? Like, she shouldn't be able to do the business side.

[00:16:48] That doesn't make any fucking sense for her character. We see her making like a bunch of games already. Like, do they all suck? Who's programming them? Oh, but she's really good at the sound effects. He said. Yeah. What the fuck was that? Because that's what you know that usually your marketer handles your sound effects. Yeah. All of a sudden she's like, well, I'll handle the sound effects. Like what? And then the guy was like, I mean, these are all obviously stock sound effects. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. He does shit on her expert. So it's like, what is she doing here? Yeah.

[00:17:18] I know we shouldn't hurt her a lot, but I do want to talk overall. The plot is so insanely disjointed. And this is like a series that has an extremely, very easily defined scaling mechanism to the scope. Like they can just follow any fucking video game tutorials, like six month program. It just have made that the first year of this series. Mm hmm. It's just like you go from like fucking a really simple like platformer and you move up and then like year two, you're doing like your first 3D game or some shit and you show him progressing. It's just like this plot. They spent what?

[00:17:46] Eight chapters on the backstory of SEO and recruiting him when he already had an opportunity to just join the team. Yeah. I really love when they're building the Tetris thing, by the way, because first of all, it's like he's like, oh, I already had a template that I made. And then the author is trying to impart some kind of game information to the viewer, the reader. And say it was basically just showing Hikuma how variables work. And if you make this go up, there's more lag. Make this go down. There's less lag.

[00:18:15] And then Hikuma is like, whoa, it's so fun. Even just turning the blocks is so satisfying. But my favorite part of that is like when Nodo is like, what if we make them all barn animals? There's no rule that says they can't be barn animals and then we'll turn it on its side. Like the first three pages, I was like, oh, this is cool. They're going to show you like challenges and you can think about when he's like, what rule would you add to soccer to make it more interesting? And then they just completely abandoned any sense of actual solving problems like game makers

[00:18:44] toolkit style problems, which is what I thought the point of the series was going to be. Part of me wonders if they were just worried that they were going to get axed. Like, I don't know any of the like weekly rankings of how it was doing. I was doing exceptionally poorly to not even make it to 19 chapters. I could tell that the author is desperate because back when I used to work with like a publisher, they always used to tell us you only get to think like three or five chapters in advance, but you have like the whole story kind of planned out. This person honestly was probably just like, I need to get a hit after hit chapter. So I think that's why they're moving so fast with the progression. Like we're going for game of the year.

[00:19:14] We're going to make this game jam. We're going to like, they bit off a lot more than they could show. I think. I will say there was so little confidence in this series that on the Shonen Flop Discord, someone did a poll. It was like a character battle, like popularity poll between a character from like 32 Shonen Flop series. And they included this series because they were so confident it was going to get canceled and we were going to cover it. And this was like a month ago before it was cancellation was announced. I read the first chapter of this series when it came out.

[00:19:44] And even I was like, oh, we're going to cover this on the show. I could just tell because it's just so uninteresting. Yeah. And the chapters also don't help. Like half the chapter is pointless dialogue where it's like on page 10 and I'm like, nothing actually has happened in this chapter so far, you know? And I'm not learning anything interesting. Like I'm not being shown anything that like I could actually use. They could have taken inspiration from Dr. Stone how they did it. Yeah.

[00:20:11] They had a consultant here except their consultant only makes AR games. Really? So yeah, that's what they're you'll see in Maxi B. That makes sense. I think the number one canary in the coal mine showing that this offer did not give a fuck about the subject matter or tried to actually show it is they at no point discuss game engines when it comes to game development. They don't say what a game like what a game engine does or how you pick which engine you use. They said that they had a programming consultant who I think only existed to write dummy code

[00:20:41] for them to show and prove that SEO is actually coding. Yeah. And then monitor. Did you have any other negatives that we haven't touched upon? I think you kind of mentioned it with like the conversation. I felt like there was a lot of like dialogue in a lot of these bubbles. Right. Like especially with Shonen. It's usually like less heavy on the words but it just felt like there was they were yapping when they didn't have to be yapping. Right. I'm like, bro. I don't fucking give a shit about your dead brother. Like, holy fuck. Stop talking about him.

[00:21:09] I also want to point out that they are so hard on a 16 year old who's made an AR game. There is no fucking planet where any professional will be like, this is not impressive that a fucking high school student made this game. Like, holy shit. You would be shitting your pants if three 16 year olds came to you and said we made a fully working prototype of the scale. Oh, my entertaining older brother had such a disappointing death. That line. There's something so funny about that. He had. He died of video games. He was so disappointing.

[00:21:38] And it literally took his seven year old sister, however old she was, to be like, our brother had fun making those games. And that like blew his mind. Yeah. He was like, what? Like what? People can get satisfaction out of making things. Imagine if there was just, she wrote video games and fun and she made like a diagram and circled the overlap. And he's like, I never thought of such a thing. Oh, God. Speaking of fun, there were some problems about this series. So let's get into it. So monitor, I know in our chat, you seem to have enjoyed the series a little bit more than we did.

[00:22:08] What are some things that stood out to you that you enjoyed about the series? So, yeah, I think when a lot of people think of Shonen Jump, they're thinking about the battle shown and stuff. Yeah. And I'm more of a fan of Slice of Life or like things like this, where it's like a little bit different than the standard battle show. So that already made it stand out for me a little bit. Second, I thought the artwork actually wasn't that bad. Like character design wise. I agree. I thought that one, I don't even know if he's a rival or not. The guy who was basically Kojima. I thought he had a really cool design. I thought Nodo was drawn really cool with like her edgier art style. Yeah.

[00:22:37] Just overall, I like the like look of it. And I also really liked the idea they had to progress it where it's like, all right, we start off doing a little game to make the class like me. And then the next like scale up is, all right, now we're going to do this like game jam and we're going to get like these other people to like it. And maybe there's one girl who's a little bit of professional to notice us. And then it's like now we're thinking game of the year. So there was like a lot of like milestones. I thought they're like, oh, this kind of like could be cool to go towards. But I think the execution fell flat on that.

[00:23:02] I think it is so funny that when we're talking about the program, about like the progression, we've talked about it a few times, how it's like, oh, they do the bully thing in the first chapter and then they do the game jam. No, then they do an AR so that little kids can take pictures of dogs. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody gives a fuck about that. So yeah. Anyway, this is the positives. I'm sorry. Yeah. I mean, it's just this is such a fun topic for our manga. Yeah. But please do continue. I feel like you're about to have another point. Yeah, I was thinking about that dog one.

[00:23:32] I think that natural progression was just like, it's like, yeah, it's from like the school to like the community to like more professionals to actual professionals to like the world. Like, you know, it had a good idea. I also think the author had a good sense of what needed to happen. Like I mentioned, when I work with the publisher, like they tell you like you need story beats that you have to hit. So I think this author knew there has to be character development with like this bully. Like in the very beginning, we established that he made his life kind of hell a little bit, even though he didn't know it. I can even talk about that later about changes because I think he should have known it. Yeah.

[00:24:01] And then like at the end, we get that little resolution a little bit where he tells him like keep going on or keep trying or whatever. I thought that like would have been like effective if we had more time with the characters and learn more about them. Even Seiyo's backstory. I wish like that wasn't the bulk of it before it got canceled, because I think we would have got a bunch more arcs after that before we like got to the next character or whatever. So like I enjoyed like Seiyo's backstory of him like joining the team officially. I do think it was dragged out and they already had a reason for him to join after the game gym. But like I like that idea of like, OK, each character is going to get a tragic backstory.

[00:24:31] So maybe later we get the main character's backstory or Nodo's backstory. I like I saw potential in it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. We're definitely going to have a very robust where it could have gone. I do also think there was one cool instance on the know the art where they were standing on a board and it made them look like chess pieces, which have you guys seen Game Night? Framing and scenes that are made to look like the games they play during Game Night.

[00:25:00] Like there's literally a scene where they like trapped in a room and they stack things and like they had played Jenga or there's things where they look like Clue or whatever. I haven't seen the movie in a while, but there's a ton of scenes where they actually essentially are playing like the scene is framed like the game they were playing at Game Night, which is a really cool detail. Maybe that's my recommendation for this. Amy Adams is probably the funniest line in that movie for her. Fuck not. Rachel McAdams has the funniest line in that movie. I kind of like the scene where they had the desks and like all the objects like piled up. Yeah. And like all the kids were standing on top of it because like it was showing like the kids are getting into it.

[00:25:29] Like there was cool like directional and like compositional choices there. I was like a little confused though, because it's like, wait, are those actual chairs that they actually just piled them? Yeah, I don't know. They said they threw them and like they were like causing like mayhem in the room or something. Well, it seemed like they were standing on it. Those were physical. You're like, yeah, we just casually created hard light projections. Yeah. Like what? But it's also like, did they just do that? Just because it's like, oh, we're throwing things around in this game.

[00:25:58] Let's do it in real life, too. Like what? If this game is causing kids to do that, then there's like, guys, you have like a problem. There were also some cool ideas that werewolf in the train game actually sounded quite interesting. And I think honestly had more thought than any game that the actual main characters were working on. Like they had a really interesting creative element for why the werewolf plays every stop, you get a chance to try and kick someone off. And then there's different power. So I was like, wait, why wasn't this applied to other like the actual games the characters were making? Like the main characters were making.

[00:26:27] I thought it was funny how like when they show her, they show her this barnyard game they developed. And then like there was some very confusing power scaling system around like deceiving the other player. But in a way that where it was like, oh, that's cool. And she was like, what? Deception in a way that makes the other person have more fun. I've lost completely. I'm only in this to make money. I'm only in this to make the other people miserable. So stupid.

[00:26:55] Honestly, though, I'm like, I'm thinking about like deception games that I've been playing recently. Like have you played like Lockdown Protocol or Among Us or Goose Goose Duck games like that? They're all basically werewolf games. But I feel like that kind of made sense in that context with her saying that, because when you get killed in like one of those games, you're kind of just spectating for the rest of the game. You're like, I'm kind of just sitting here now. That's fair. And you're basically like removed from the game. Like you can't play anymore. You got to wait 10 minutes till everybody else is done. So I thought that was like an interesting sentiment about like the deceit where it's like, oh, people can have fun with this.

[00:27:24] And it's not just like game over after you're dead. Well, that's what I mean is like those were what I thought the series was going to do where it's like, oh, man, we made a game. And then people like, well, I can't do anything for five minutes after I die. Well, now we got to think about it from a game design perspective. I think this might just come down to their consultant, right? It was just the A.I. or A.R. specialist when maybe they should have gotten an actual game person that did something else in a different genre. Fucking get Hideo Kojima to open the consultant on the series. Dude, what if, man? He's like, wait a minute.

[00:27:52] Nobody grabs another person's crotch in this game. What the fuck? I don't see any pants pissing. You haven't had any characters with the last name man that describes them. Also, I've loved this a lot. I thought it was a really great touch where they talk about how important it is to be professional and being things like respecting people's times and getting meeting your deadlines is a really big deal in this industry. And I'm glad they at least mentioned that because that gets you so far more so than any individual skill or talent you might have.

[00:28:19] Yeah, no, I mean, her presentation of the game is what gets that producer guy to be like, OK, yeah, I'll listen to you. And he was like, wow, you did your whole presentation in a minute like you promised. Yeah, because like in business school, they would do that where they had a timer and your grade if so, it'd be like you had two and a half minutes. And if you went over by more than 15 seconds, you would be docked like five points off your final grade because they were like you when they say you have two minutes to present, you have two minutes. Even like the idea of like the elevator pitch or like comics or TV or animation or whatever.

[00:28:48] It's like you got to imagine you're on that elevator with the producer and you got like literally like a minute to like give them everything you got to tell them and then get out. That's how Kingdom Hearts got made. Yeah. And they did it good. All right. All right. On the topic of fun games, let's get into where it could have gone. I think this is a very meaty topic. Jordan, would you mind kicking us off? What are some things you would revise about the series? Well, for one thing, I would have had to make more interesting games. I don't know. Like, let's just make a better series. Make better games in your game making series.

[00:29:15] I would have liked to know more about Hikuma. You know, we know nothing again. Like, you know, as I've mentioned many times, why is he the focus? I don't know. I know less about him than I know about Seyo or Noto. Yeah. And yeah, it doesn't go far enough into like the game design philosophy. I feel there's a lot of interesting things that you can talk about in terms of that. And they do it a little bit, but like not enough. Exactly.

[00:29:43] And I think I really love that point where I think Akane Banashi is a great framework for these kind of series, especially having a female programming protagonist would have been really cool. I think this would have been a very fun edutainment series, you know, like maybe they team up with Unity or Epic or Godot and actually be like, OK, let's walk through that first six months of making your first game, but in like a really fun format. Yeah. And actually teaching you about this shit. And even if it wasn't a big company, like I know there's this recent manga that I've been enjoying, the Magic the Gathering manga. Oh, I was thinking about that. Destroy All Humans is great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:13] I love that author. Do you play Magic? No, I don't. But I'm still interested in it because I like the author who did it. So I think like even if it's something like that, where it's like it could have been a smaller game studio or like a more indie studio, like just working with them to help show all the different aspects of making it. And I think variety would have helped here where it's like, you know how like some people are specializing in like horror games or puzzle games, but like for this like manga entertainment education, whatever, I think it could have been like, all right, this arcs about puzzle games. This arcs about horror games.

[00:30:39] This arcs about like RPG maker or like AR game or like just like take everyone through like the different sides of like game design. Yeah. It's just there's so many facets, so many topics. And it's just like, I do think that having someone handle the business side, like they could have shifted it from her trying to make deals to being project management, which is a much more immediately relevant skill. I thought they were setting the teacher up for that. They gave him so much screen time in the first chapter where he smokes and takes his breaks. I thought he was going to be like the mentor character where he's like, you kids are good

[00:31:07] at making games, but I'll teach you how the business works or like the marketing. I would have got rid of the main character completely and gave his role to Noto or I would have had him play like a role like Kion from Harui's Izumiya. If you've seen that, where he literally is, he's literally just the point of view character like you mentioned earlier, where he's like complimenting Harui and helping her get her thing done. But Harui is basically the main character. Right. Or what if they made this magical or something? Magical girl programmers. Yeah. We're making the game, but like the game is like real life. Like it's almost like a...

[00:31:35] Like some sort of augmented reality. Well, that's how Yu-Gi-Oh! made it interesting in the beginning. That's what I was just thinking about. That's what I was trying to say. Like where they have like, yeah. I had my notes like this should have been like Yu-Gi-Oh! World. Yeah. Like something where you can use like sci-fi technology or like magic to make the games more interesting. Because like the thing is, we're not playing the games. We're reading about what it's like to play the games. It makes it a lot more difficult than just, oh man, I designed this game.

[00:32:04] Wouldn't this game idea be fun? It's like, I don't know. Show me something that makes me think it's fun. Have you watched the series Keep Your Hands Off Aizaken? If you look at the notes, that was going to be one of my recommendations for this series. Yeah. So what I really liked about that one is that like it's set more in real life about animation. But whenever they were doing the animation, it got really surrealistic and abstract. And they like literally went inside of the animation. And I thought like this could have had an element like that. Yeah.

[00:32:32] When he starts describing like his idea, you can see like it visualizing. And then when they see like the structural elements and think like it could start like visually like glitch out in the parts where it's like, wait, this mechanic doesn't make sense or is it possible and stuff like that. Again, all these issues because they just the offer did not want to talk about game design in his game design series. Yeah. I don't know if it's not wanting to. Maybe he just couldn't. Then he shouldn't have made it. Yeah, probably not. Yeah. He had a consultant too. They just I don't know what was the story behind getting someone who probably should not have been the consultant.

[00:33:02] I was going to say that's my other suggestion. Get a better consultant. Because like Food Wars, like they didn't know a ton about cooking. So they had a consultant or Dr. Stone. They had some science, but obviously they needed someone to make sure their science actually made sense, which they got. And I really like that idea of the sci fi element you mentioned, because even like the AR game, that will make more sense. Like they did like project all that stuff into the world or things like that to make it happen. So that the way they did it made it very confusing. What was AR? Yeah. Yeah. Like the tales. But, you know, that could have played into it in some way.

[00:33:31] Like, you see, you could do a lot more interesting stuff that way, but they didn't. And also like, you know, the way that the selection committee acted reminded me of the criticism of Time Paradox Ghostwriter, which, you know, me and David love. Monitor, are you familiar with that series? I've heard of it. I haven't read it. Well, the main character works really hard on like these manga series and he takes it to the editor of Jump, who's like, nah, this won't catch on. You see like for this, that, the other reason.

[00:33:57] And somebody, I forget who pointed out, it's like, dude, if he can make a whole comic in like a week or something, he's getting a job. Yeah. He'd just absolutely be a workhorse artist. But it's also like Shonen Jump acts like, oh man, we have the highest quality. And it's like, we've done this show long enough to know, no, you fucking don't. And like these game design companies, it's the same way. It's like the way they act, that would imply that there aren't shitty games. Like when he's like, oh, this game will never be finished.

[00:34:27] And it's like, whoa, it would be wild if a game company put out a game that is never finished. Yeah. It's like not like that happens all the fucking time. What are you talking about? These are like students who came together and put, and like you said, David, they're way too fucking hard on them. Like, what are you talking about? I mean, Pokemon Go, we mentioned that earlier as an example of AR. That game was absolutely not finished when it came out. Yeah. And that had the full power of hundreds of millions of dollars.

[00:34:57] Yes. That game was fucking broken. That game also didn't have AR that advanced. Like for instance, I don't think they had object recognition, at least at the start of the game. Oh yeah. I mean, that's the other thing. Like, man, that is some advanced ass AR. They're going around everywhere and drawing physical objects that they see. You're looking for the exact matches on an asset store and shit. And it's like just this absurd amount of work. It's like, yeah, you probably wouldn't be able to get that done with three people.

[00:35:25] I mean, unless they never sleep and work really fast and get tired, I guess. Yeah. If you don't sleep for three days, you can get eight months worth of work done. All right. Fuck it. Let's just get into miscellaneous thoughts. How's that done, guys? So monitor, are there any thoughts you haven't had a chance to say yet? I think it ended too soon. I think this is one of those series that needed a little bit more. See, my thing is, when I was reading it, after the first three chapters, I probably wouldn't have continued it. But just because I read all 18 chapters, I was like, I feel like I didn't give it enough time to really spread its wings.

[00:35:55] I don't know if there's anything else that I'd have to say that I haven't already said. No, that's fair. So I had a few little notes. One was in the second chapter, the point of the game is they talk about the teacher wanting to smoke. Isn't that like explicitly calling out the teacher doing something that should be getting him fired? Like if another teacher sees the game, aren't they going to be like, hey, what's why did the kids make a game about how you keep hiding that you take smoke breaks? You know, like they're just calling it out on something that can get him fired. Yeah. Also, what the fuck is truancy like in Japan?

[00:36:25] Three minutes late and you're expelled. No, but it's like apparently not. Apparently you could just not go to school for months on end and nobody cares. Wasn't she vaguely sick or something? I don't know. Didn't she coincidentally get better like that one time she met him? Yeah. That's why Jordan thought she was a ghost. That would have imagined if she was actually a ghost. That's the thing. Like I thought I thought that like it could have been like a like an almost like Tyler Durden type thing.

[00:36:53] Like that would have been more interesting than what happened. Could have been more like Ratatouille where he had the ghost of Gusteau that was just in his head giving him advice about cooking. Oh, my God. I also love the college student just disappears from the series after making one game with him. Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. He was like, I need to take her down a leg and then he just never appears again. Well, he is also like 19 and he probably doesn't want to hang out with a bunch of 16 year old.

[00:37:22] She reaches out to an AI programmer and somebody who works in marketing for like a big candy production company for like a big candy company for their second game to get like freebies and shit. And it's like, yeah, it's like, how does she get all these all these fucking connections? I do also want to say, honestly, the part of the series that was like the most compelling

[00:37:46] to me was at the end when they were talking to these designers and creators and stuff. And I think that that comes back to something that we see a lot in Shonen Jump kind of, which is when artists talk about what it's like to create art, they are knowledgeable. This guy, this artist, this the author doesn't know much about game design, but he knows what it's like to create things and care about them. And you can tell because when he was talking about make what you want to make and stuff

[00:38:15] that seemed to have more heart in it than anything else in the series. Yeah. I also really like that scene in the beginning where the one kid came out and he was like, when are you going to make your next game? And the one like the main character got emotional because I feel like anyone who creates anything has had that happen at least once, hopefully. Yeah. For me, it was in like elementary school where I was literally just drawing comic books and like my notebook paper. And then there was this one kid who was who took an interest in it. And I always, I always like refer to him when I talk about him as like my first editor because he was like, can I read what you drew?

[00:38:44] And I was like, oh yeah, okay, I guess. And then like he read it and he was like, this is actually really good. Like, are you going to make more of it? And then like that, that like, that's like a, like a 10 year old or whatever that like blows your mind that you're like, oh my God, someone actually likes what I just did. And so that like motivates you. Like next week I'll bring more for him to read her. Like I'll make something bigger or better and then see if he likes it. And then I like that. That was just a really like cool moment. I thought that he nailed that. Yeah. That one fan is like important for people who get into this kind of stuff. Like it really keep them going and get them going. Shout out to our OG Shonen Flop fans. Yeah.

[00:39:13] People who've been here since Zipman. That's me. Me too. Whoa, that's crazy. Oh my God. Shout out to us. Unironically, people say be your biggest fan. So like if you have no fans, then you died, you know? So like. And then along with our ideas, the wonderful Maxi B has some miscellaneous thoughts that I'm going to share now. So some identifiable consoles on the first page include the Nintendo Switch, the GameCube, N64, Steam Deck. Shout out to all my Steam Deck homies going through dev training right now.

[00:39:39] PlayStation, PS2, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 5 truly shows how poor the market share is for the Xbox in Japan. It's true. The consultant credit goes to people that were VR and yeah, a bunch of people that don't really seem to make interesting games, which explains a lot. I see exit eight here, though. Exit eight was very good. Oh, really? Wait, but they did the VR ports of it. Oh, they didn't make it from scratch. They did the VR stuff.

[00:40:07] Maybe they should have got the guy who did exit eight as a consultant. Yeah. So Maxi B wonders if the specialization in non-traditional games is why the manga characters keep making AR games instead of making anything interesting. Wait, exit eight. Weren't they talking about a game called Route 6? Yeah, they were. That's a good point. Then you have Egress 7. Yeah. But yeah. And then from Chapter 10, Enroll KK also consults. They appear to also make AR apps. So I don't know how they couldn't find like a real indie developer to help with this.

[00:40:36] They could have gone on Newgrounds and like emailed someone. Anybody? Yeah. And then the FPS Noto and her acquaintances are Predator rank is, of course, Apex Legends, which I think Lava's War also had Apex Legends. So I guess it's really big in Japan. Yeah, I think it is. The Game of Year Award eluded in Chapter 6 is the Dorito Pope himself. Jordan and I did not know Jeff Knightley was going to show up in this series when we made the cover for it. So that was just very, very good timing for us. Jeff Keighley, right? Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. The Canadian. The Dorito Pope.

[00:41:06] And Tucker has knowledge that the Pixel Summit is a reference to Japanese event Bit Summit. So that is just not. That is just Maxi B nodding in agreement. And the final chapter actually had a minor edit post-release in English. Originally, Noto ended a sentence with Keck. Now it ends with LOL. This change was presumably made to avoid associations with members of Gamergate and as such the gross culture wars surrounding video games at any given moment. Or maybe they didn't want to thank Noto played World of Warcraft. Who can say? I would also like to say it doesn't say LOL like LOL. It says LOL like LAWL. I would just like to.

[00:41:37] I feel like. I haven't seen that in forever. I wanted to add in here. They didn't mention anything about Comiket, but I could speak on that since that's more like on the manga side of things. Oh yeah, go for it. So yeah, Comiket is basically like Comic-Con or Anime NYC or anything like that that we have here over in Japan. Specifically, it's for like doujin artists or people who do like fan comics. But a bunch of people also do like original stuff. So like a bunch of small mangaka will go there. Some like established mangaka will go there. And basically the fans go in, they buy merch, they buy the comics to support people.

[00:42:05] I haven't personally heard of people doing gaming stuff there. So I was kind of confused why that was like the end destination where they're like, our goal is Comiket to sell their thing. It's almost like the author doesn't have a good craft of this industry. Yeah, there's like Design Festa, which might have made more sense where like more people go to for different things. But yeah, I was like Comiket, that was literally just comic market. Why are we going there? I think they do. Maybe they're making an anime game. Maybe they're making a light novel mix. I don't know. Or an Aroge. I don't know. So good. But I do know where we are going and that is into the final verdict. So let's get into that.

[00:42:34] All right, let's start it with our six short summaries from the community. Tucker says no one cares about augmented reality. Correct. No, I'm just kidding. Maxi B, beta version release as a full product. Are real? It's game over, man. Game over. Or Paladin, because gaming killed my brother, okay? Ball said augmented reality game. Yeah, right. Blah, muh, muh. Game dev doesn't work that way. Chicken Warlord said rated N for no one. CT3LA says interesting idea ahead. Beware lacking research. Dackerson, I'd rather play Tito Cement Factory.

[00:43:01] Diego, 1% completion manga cancellation successful speedrun. Shout out to all the speedrun references. Dude Roxen, not the most enjoyable cancellation speedrun. Funky Green, game development manga. Sans game development. Sans? Sans Undertale. Sans Undertale. Gene Shalit, manga lies about own concept crashes. Gray Potter, this game's not even worth pirating. Isekai Sensei, it's really not in the game. Kinocha, I wasn't familiar with your game. Captain Clueless, game was rigged from the start. Lord Anubis, if it's not fun, why bother?

[00:43:30] Portal Man, tutorial unclear, glitching through the wall. Riley, how Hakitaku went wrong. Jason Schreier. S-Bubby, well, it lasted longer than Concord. Fuck, it didn't. Spike, game development? Skipped a game over. T-Wolfwood, even mods wouldn't fix this game. Thor's, Jeff Keighley isn't returning my calls, sad face. Unlinking Duck, the idea guy, got a manga. Watchtower, Hakitaku Shonen Flop episode speedrun any percent. Zylon, Jack Thompson approves of this cancellation.

[00:43:59] And Ulyssian, frame one touch of death combo. God, that's a good lineup. Pretty good. Monitor, how about you? What was your six-word summary? I wrote, should have made the AAA game. I like it. And Jordan, how about you? Trash Girl helps boy have braingasms. And then mine was Unity and Snow dropping this Unreal series. Why did they not mention game development? Fuck, I don't know. Anyway, does anyone not think the series is a certified flop? Alrighty then.

[00:44:28] So Monitor, what would you say someone should check out instead of reading the series? Um, I personally recommend things like Bakuman, Comic Party, Blue Period. Those are more just a line of the art side of things about creating. But in the game side of things, I recommend new game, gamers, or bottom tier character Tomozaki. I love it. Jordan, on anime out of context, Sean was like, I bet David reads Blue Period. And I was like, yeah, you fucking did it. And I was like, you know, I feel so seen when he said that in the episode. But yeah, and then Jordan, what's your record?

[00:44:57] I've said many times that when you're consuming fiction about creating fiction, the best way to show that is with food. So I would suggest The Bear. That's about making. Jordan's favorite anime. It's a great anime, David. It's a really good anime, okay? If only there was a popular anime about making food. I know. And there's a Food Wars element to The Bear. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe.

[00:45:27] Much Better, which is about a super smart programmer and someone who handles the business side, but they actually do their homework. And guess who wrote it? Are you familiar with the series monitor? I'm not. It's by the writer of Dr. Stone. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. So if you want this topic done competently, you can read Trillionaire Game. And then, as he said, keep your hands up. Isaac Kinn is also a fantastic series. Or go do a Godot tutorial and you can make your own video game. It's going to be my next recommendation. The Game Engine Godot. We were waiting for it. Oh, we should have seen Godot's sponsor this episode.

[00:45:57] Oh, well. So, Jordan, I would say this is on the inoffensive part of the certified flop list. Would you agree? Yeah. This isn't heinous. Yeah. Let's get into a wrap up. All right. Monitor, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so excited to have had you on the show. Do you mind telling the audience where they can get more of you in their life? Yeah, you can check me out on YouTube or on Twitter at Monitor Comics. I create comic stuff over there. Also, educational tutorials on YouTube if you're interested in creating your own stories. And I also give commentary about the industry and series like this.

[00:46:26] So you so this doesn't happen to you. Exactly. I love it. I also want to say we actually have our first ever sponsor on the show. So if you want to support the show and get the best prices on manga at Manga Mart, go check out Manga Mart dot com slash shown and flop. Manga Mart is a family owned store offering 20 percent off manga with free shipping over a hundred dollars. So it really helps us a lot if you use that referral in the show notes. Whoa. And props to Jordan for making the opening anything being a great co-host and helping with editing. Thank you, David, for all the work that you do on the show. No problem.

[00:46:56] Props to Murlisle for the awesome cover art. Find her online at Lyle Murr and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor. Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing. You can find his podcast to anime out of context at anime out of context dot com. Thanks to Tucker and Maxi B for their research. Thanks to Kalal for being our social media manager. Find us on Twitter at Shonenflopcast, Tumblr Shonen-Flop and our website Shonenflop.com. Or on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast. If you want more Jordan and David in your life, check out every Friday at the Chainsaw Minute. Find it at csm.libson.com where we talk about every week's chapter of Chainsaw Man.

[00:47:25] You can find it there or wherever you get the Shonenflop podcast. And as I plugged before, join the Shonenflop Discord. We got movie nights. We got book clubs. Talk about your own manga work. Talk about video games. It's a great old time. Got like 600 people in it. You find it in the show notes. Or on our site, Shonenflop.com. And if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going, subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com slash Shonenflop. Along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out, you'll also get access to monthly bonus episodes, including the Shonen drop where Jordan and I look back at the previous month's episode and open the mystery box. Jordan, in the month of February, what are we dropping for our patrons?

[00:47:54] Well, David, in February, we are finishing up Hentai Common. Yeah. With Diego of Scoob and Shag. Aha. Jinx, you owe me a soda. Monder, have you ever heard of Monder comic? Or fuck, Monder comic. Have you ever heard of Scoob and Shag? Have you ever heard of Scoob and Shag? No, what is that? It's essentially kind of Joe just was our adventure of Hanna-Barbera characters. So it's kind of like a patroness Scoob has like a stand. It's really cool. It definitely really, it's probably one of the series that best is like everyone has

[00:48:24] one power, but does the absolute maximum potential of their abilities in like a really cool way. So you can read the whole thing about probably an afternoon. It's not very long. It's still ongoing, but I absolutely adored the series. And we actually invited him on because I loved his webcomic so much. That's awesome. It's great. For the mystery box, we are going through and deciding the Shonen Flop Major Arcana. God, yeah, that was a fun one. And if that's not enough, other perks include picking a manga for us to cover in a main episode.

[00:48:51] Episodes up to a week in advance and behind the scenes content like warmup audio or our recording notes. I also want to read off some of our wonderful patrons. All right, starting with our Dolphin Death tier, I want to give a big shout out to my wonderful wife, Rachel. I'm excited to have some fun with Valentine's Day with her. Let me rephrase that. We're starting with our Dolphin Death tier. Starting with our Dolphin Death tier. Sorry. Starting with our Dolphin Death tier, I just want to say I love you, Rachel, and I'm excited to spend Valentine's Day with you. Moving on down to the Ravioli tier where you get weekly photos of my adorable dog Ravioli.

[00:49:18] I convinced Rachel late at night it was a blizzard and I said we got to walk her. Ravioli is part Burmese Mountain Dog and she had the time of her life being a little goblin in the snow. We have Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Lady T, Matt, Scarlet, T, Tiffany, and Trevor Shackner. Moving on down to the King of the Force, we have 090Z, Bandit Stu, Brad, follow AOC on Blue Sky, Ivan, Jacob, Justin, Kirby. Okay, wait, wait. It's A-O-O-C to be clear, but also follow AOC. Yeah.

[00:49:44] Ivan, Jacob, Justin, Kirby, Marty, Riley, Sarah, and Tommy Boy. And a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our Beast children. Jordan, anything you want to toss in? Check out Mission Ignition. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let's get in the sign off. Thank you so much for joining us. Tune in next Monday as we give our first thoughts on Cyber Blue, the prequel to Blue Period. This has been David. This has been Jordan. This has been Monitor. And you've been listening to Shown and Flop. Keep on flopping, floppers! Yeah!