Show Notes:
• You can reach us at Twitter @shonenflopcast or email us shonenflop@gmail.com
• Help keep the show running by joining the Shonen Flop Patreon at patreon.com/shonenflop. Get perks like early access to episodes; picking series for us to cover; and exclusive episodes on manga like Undead Unluck, Magu-chan: God of Destruction, and Cypher Academy.
• Become a member of our community by joining our Discord. You can hang out with us, submit your questions or six word summaries! Find it at https://discord.com/invite/4hC3SqRw8r
• Get Shonen Flop merch, including this episode’s cover art, on a shirt, mug, print, or whatever else might catch your eye https://www.teepublic.com/stores/shonen-flop?ref_id=22733
• Want to be a guest? You can ask to be on a future episode at bit.ly/shonen_flop_guest
Credits:
• Manga by Hojo, Tsukasa
• Shonen Flop is hosted by David Weinberger and Jordan Forbes
• Additional editing assistance by Dylan Krider you can find his podcast, Anime Out of Context at animeoutofcontext.com
• Assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research done by Tucker Whatley and MaxyBee
[00:00:00] Welcome to Shonen Flop Chibi, First impressions mini episode where we talk about the first chapter of the series we'll be covering in depth next week with our guest Mars Girl, aka Kalen Saucedo. Oh yeah. Oh my god, our first Channel Awesome alum. I was more of a program amazing kind of guy, but I can still respect the Channel Awesome, you know. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, I'm Jordan, and with me today as usual is my co-host David. Say hi David.
[00:00:28] Yeah, it's kind of hard to say hi David I'm really itchy. Really David, do you have some kind of... Rash. Rash? Oh, with two exclamation points. Yeah. Oh, man. And then Jordan, you want to tell the audience a little bit about what the series is. Yeah, so this is Rash with two exclamation points by uh Hojo Tsukasa who is most famous for City Hunter, Yeah. Which I have not read but I kind of, I've been meaning to. Yeah, me too.
[00:00:55] I was like reading this and I was like, I know this guy definitely either, like this guy definitely did something famous. Well, oh yeah. And also it's like while I was reading it I was like, this reminds me of like Chameleon Jail. And lo and behold, he was the mentor of the guy who made Chameleon Jail. Oh, yeah, that's not a surprise. Not at all. But yeah, City Hunter, if you're not aware, is extremely famous manga that I've heard many people say is absolutely phenomenal. I've been meaning to read it, but I have not. So I guess people would be like, oh, City Hunter.
[00:01:24] I mean like, oh, that manga by the guy who made Rash? And they'll be like, what the fuck are you talking about? Yeah. But this is Rash, which ran from September 27th, 94 to January 31st, 95, 16 chapters, two volumes. Getting a fucking plot summary for this first chapter. Let's do it. Let's scratch that itch. Yeah. Damn it. Yeah. It's a hot summer day and there's a prison bus on its way home when the prisoners inside of it notice a beautiful woman driving next to them.
[00:01:52] Meanwhile, at the prison, the doctor, an old lady, is retiring and her replacement is going to be her granddaughter, which is totally not fucking nepotism. But yeah, everyone kind of seems vaguely afraid of her granddaughter. But, you know, just put a pin in that. Meanwhile, the woman in the car notices that the driver of the prison bus is sweating profusely shortly before he has a heart attack.
[00:02:16] The bus crashes and the prisoners take it over, throwing the overseeing officer out of the bus and into the woman who was just trying to get into the bus because David, apparently she's a doctor. Popcorn David. The bus turns around, smashing into the doctor's car and she and the officer get back in her car and chase after. The bad guys throw an uncooperative prisoner out of the bus while speeding and the doctor grabs him and stitches up his head while driving at the same time. God damn. Because women have to do it all. Yeah, you know. The chase ends with the bus careening off a cliff.
[00:02:47] She goes in, knocks the bad guy out and uses a car battery to restart the heart of the driver, which is fucking insane. Turns out her name is Yuki and she is the new prison doctor, which is like, what was the fucking point of this manga if that wasn't the case? Right? Can you imagine? I don't even know. Like, what's the art term for if you literally had a prologue that was completely, that's like a Tim and Eric thing, right? What? Where? Where it's like this entire scene has nothing to do with the rest of the manga. I guess Pop Team Epic did that. Are you familiar with Pop Team Epic? I wonder if Anime Out of Context has done an episode on Pop Team Epic.
[00:03:16] Oh, I hope they did. Pop Team Epic was featured on Anime Out of Context episode 192. I'm confused by what you're saying. I'm saying, so imagine if this entire scene was setting it up and then she wasn't the new prison doctor. So you're saying it's just like, oh shit, no way? No, I'm saying like, it was a complete waste of your time on purpose. To even hide the fact that she was the prison doctor? Yeah. Well, it was that, but I'm also imagine like the like comedic style where this entire turn of events was completely irrelevant for the rest of the manga.
[00:03:46] Yeah. Like in just like an absurd, like in an absurdist way. Yeah. Like she does all this and then she's just like, all right, I'll see you guys. And then a completely different woman shows up and she's the doctor. And then the series is just about her. This random other person. That would be amazing. Yeah. That's what I mean. Like I could see like Pop Team Epic kind of did that. Yeah. Samurai Deadpool also kind of did that. Oh, I'm not familiar with Samurai Deadpool. So the creative team after the first, I guess, season for lack of a better term ended, they're like, we're going to make a new original series.
[00:04:15] And then this is spoiler, but whatever. It's like 20 pages into the first chapter. Deadpool just comes up and kills the main character. And then it resumes Deadpool Samurai by running him over with a bus. I think that's cute. Yeah, it's cool. Anyway, Dr. Yuki fixes everyone up proceeds to spend the rest of the day and night trying to push her new destroyed car to her grandma's house. What were your first impressions, Jordan? Despite us now knowing how we could have made this a greatest series. I mean, this art is incredible. Like you knew this guy had to be a proto draw like this. Holy shit.
[00:04:43] This is fantastic artwork. Like really good. Yeah. It's like almost not manga art, but like it has a little bit of that manga art flair. Yeah. Where like it's still unmistakably manga, but it is like a lot more realistic than like most other manga that like we've covered. Definitely. I have to be honest, something like wasn't working with me about this. And I do think this is in our case where the artist spent way too much time in the art to really think about the writing as we've seen a few other times. Yeah.
[00:05:12] And something just felt like very disconnected and I don't know. But I again, I do love the art. I also love how I feel like they draw her sexy, but not sexualized. Does that make sense? No. Yeah. She is drawn like a realistic, sexy woman. She is dressed like how people in real life would actually dress. Yes. But also she is just a hot lady. Yes. There are physically attractive people in the real world as Jordan and I both know because we own mirrors. Hey. It's our curse the bear. And I use my mirror to look at my girlfriend. Yes.
[00:05:42] Oh, me too. But not your girlfriend. My wife. I was going to say what the fuck. I don't even know. Jordan, tell me something you thought about this series. No, I thought it was fun. I thought this chapter was like pretty fun. It went pretty fast. I mean, it didn't blow my mind, but it was like, okay, well, an issue with how this chapter is set up is that. Like it doesn't really tell me how the rest of the series is going to go because presumably it's going to be set in the prison. You know, like this didn't set up like any kind of status quo for me, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
[00:06:10] It's just like I know that the rest of the series is most likely not going to be about her engaging in high speed car chases with a bus. Yeah, that's why maybe I like when wasn't really sucked into this. It's like I don't really know what the series is actually supposed to be about. Yeah. And I feel like in that way, it means this first chapters failed. Yeah. And there are these moments where people are like, oh, no, you keys back. She's going to cause trouble. And it's like, well, we haven't really seen why yet.
[00:06:37] I mean, like because pretty much all she did was like save multiple people's lives with her doctoring skills. So yeah. So so like Dr. Prisoner, is she going to be like kind of like MacGyver doctor, which actually that sounds pretty cool. Maybe the cover art should be MacGyver. MacGyver. There you go, Jordan. I'll leave it to you. It's your I feel house parody is like the low hanging fruit. Yeah, I was gonna say house parodies low hanging fruit. I don't know. Can we do that? What's the autism doctor show that has him like crying and the doctor, the good doctor of like the Chad guy.
[00:07:07] Maybe there's a little bitchy character that I can draw and she's just drawn us the Chad face again. I mean, there's that old man, the little old man to read a few. It's not very long series so we can read a few more chapters. But OK, we have a we have some ideas. Yeah. Yeah. I just think this chapter wasted like 10 pages being like, who could the new? Doctor be it wasn't even like being coy. It was legit me like thinking that I genuinely feel like this chapter made it think the audience wasn't sure who the new doctor was supposed to be. Right. I just feel like it brought that topic away too many times and not just be like a dramatic irony with characters.
[00:07:36] I mean, obviously, it felt obvious who they were talking about. I don't know if it was really trying hard to hide it. I don't know. It was so blatant that it didn't even factor in that they failed to hide it. It was just like, yeah, no shit. Like it didn't even factor in as something that I should judge in that sense. That is fair. But also, maybe I was just distracted by the beautiful art. That's why we don't record in person. I have that same issue. A.
[00:08:03] Also, do prisoner events really not restrain their prisoners more besides just handcuffs? I don't know. That just seemed like they're not even like locked strapped into a seat or something. So I don't know. First of all, also, like you could tell for many reasons this was definitely not an American prison bus. There are many reasons why this would not work. It just makes sense. There's not there wasn't even like a gate divider between the prisoners and the bus driver. Yeah. Even in Japan, I can't imagine that being the case.
[00:08:28] Also, it's like, is that what prisoners wear in Japan? Because they look kind of nice for prison jumpsuits. Yeah, it's what happens when you actually want to. Well, actually, I can't speak the Japanese prison session from what I've heard is probably pretty rough. I mean, look, all I know is that if Jojo part six is based on what Iraqi thinks American prisons are like based on Japanese prisons, they're a little more free form than American prisons actually.
[00:08:56] It's funny. I actually said, what if a rocky broke house was my last note about this series? Which honestly, if that's the direction take, I would definitely read 100 more chapters of this. Oh, my God. But Jordan, would you read our 10 chapters of this? I would. I just nothing really made me say I want to keep reading this. I don't know why. Maybe if I read City Hunter, but I was just like, again, there's nothing. I literally do not know where the series is going after this. Again, nothing mind blowing here. I wouldn't describe this as great, but I had a good enough time reading this.
[00:09:24] And like, I'm down to see more well drawn art. And like, I'm interested to see what happens, you know, at least for 10 more chapters. Yeah, I feel that. And so, Jordan, I think there's going to be some City Hunter connection that I will have zero idea, but the wonderful Maxie B will probably point out for us. Yeah, there's going to be a super awkward sexual assault scene bonus points if it victim blames because this is still made in 1995. Mm hmm. And she was inspired to be a doctor to try and save a sick friend. Mm hmm. Again, there's not a lot of plot to go.
[00:09:53] I think that the old guy used to be a famous criminal, but he turned a new leaf in his old age. A smooth criminal. There's going to be a prisoner who's gay and it's going to be really homophobic. Like, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I do. And I think that at one point there's going to be an outbreak of some kind of disease in the jail and she has to work to figure out the cure. Maybe it'll cause a rash. Maybe that is what's called rash. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They weren't like he's got road rash.
[00:10:22] Why the fuck is this series called rash? I guess because it's serious and it's a and it's a medical condition. I guess that's not bad, to be honest. She's very rash in her. Yeah. Decision making. And speaking of clever words, what was your power word? Speedy because this went quick and there was a speedy car chase and it reminded me of the movie Speed. Fair. Mine is malpractice because I didn't. I don't know. I just did not like this chapter. Hey, you know, I try my best. All right. But you know what's not malpractice Jordan is getting questions from our wonderful community.
[00:10:51] Big shout out to those who dropped their question in Discord as a heads up. We get prior to those who haven't had a question answered in a long time or brand new to asking questions. First from Ozzy Rat, what are two things everyone should try at least once? Shit. Pooping and peeing Jordan says. Yeah, there you go. Do you have a real answer, Jordan? Do you? Yeah. I think everyone should at least try leaving the country at least once. Even if it's just go to Canada. They always say that the cure for I read the clever way, but essentially like it's much harder to be racist if you travel places. And I think that's really true.
[00:11:18] I also think people should try putting their broccoli in their macaroni and cheese because broccoli is by far the best vegetable to be covered in cheese. I think that everyone should at least try to learn a musical instrument at least once. I had a feeling you would say that. Yeah. Maybe because I teach guitar. Jordan, why don't you plug your organic way to plug your guitar teaching service right now? Yeah. I teach guitar. That's my plug. And what's your next one? Everyone should try soup. Okay. Next from 2Wolfwood.
[00:11:46] If a flop manga got a live action adaption, which manga by an unsuccessful mangaka would you adapt? Double Taisa. Double Taisa would be really fun. I actually think that ITELC could be a very interesting cop procedural. Oh, I like that. Yeah. I think it's just silly enough I could have seen it be like a CW show. Okay. Thursday nights is horny cop. That's the localized name. Yeah, it's horny cop. Even though its name is already in English, Jordan. Why is it called ITELC again? I forget. C might stand for crime.
[00:12:14] I think it was some ridiculous thing. I just don't remember. Who knows? From Weeboobsash, if you were asked to choose a character from a failed manga to be the face of a product, who would you choose? One product is soft drinks and the other product is a chain store. I mean, it's pretty clear we're going to pick Candy Flurry for a makeup line. Yeah. Candy Flurry would be great. Actually, I could see BT being the for a soft drink. He is just a kid. Hmm. Who would be the face of a chain store? Um, a chain store.
[00:12:42] You get the guy from Super Smartphone working for Verizon. You could have the Metallica Matulica guy be the face of like a J or whatever the fucking, you know, jewelry stores. Like a crystal. Yeah. He could be the face of like one of those hippie crystal shops. Yeah. Well, champagne. The character's a champagne. Very obvious because it was an ad for champagne. Service Wars. Oh, Fabricate 100 for facelifts. You could have one. You could actually, yeah, you could have the main character. Like a plastic surgery chain store. Yeah.
[00:13:12] Well, yeah. Or like a, or like a, like a Botox clinic. Okay. Are there many Botox chains? Probably. There are a number of Botox chains in the Salt Lake area, including some that have membership plans since it is not a permanent fix as well as it can also be used as a treatment for migraines. Okay. This is Jordan's flu episode. Uh, for the record, Jordan is very under the weather. I'm recovering from a migraine. He's being very, he's being very bad one. All right. Leave me alone from ZZ digital. Hey, I'm running to the store. Do you guys want anything?
[00:13:41] Uh, it sounds like Jordan needs some headache medicine. Yeah. Give me some excedrin and. Excedrin. Yeah. Rachel pronounce excedrin. Excedrin. Yeah. I feel like I'm right. Okay. I'll take your word on it. Yeah. I'm right. Yeah. I'll take a gateway from Lord Anubis. I think they added every question so far to their consideration list, but don't quote me on that. Oops. Too fucking bad, buddy. Too fucking bad. And finally from funky green overdrive. Given that you've read so many mid battle manga over the years, if you had a chance to make a battle manga, what would you change?
[00:14:09] In other words, how can you improve the average battle shown in? So I still actually, I think we talked about this, but I liked the idea. Um, what was it? What was the vampire one? Which showed not chojinax killing me. No change she X. Oh, no. Yeah. Where what if it was a manga that was like a deconstruction of battle manga in that it was about their life after they failed the like one time shot exam art. Yeah. And they have to kind of pick up the pieces and figure out what the fuck they do now. Yeah. I think that'd be fun. Also, it would be great to have a strong supporting female cast, if not a female main character. I mean, here's the thing.
[00:14:39] I agree. But if you're just using the same formula with different characters, you're not really talking about the formula. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I think all manga would be better if it wrote women better, more female characters written better. Absolutely. But like in terms of like things that you could change. Well, for one thing, David, I think they could just do better. Just just do better writing better plot. How do we make it better? Just make it better. Okay. Okay. How about that? Sounds good. How about that? Pull in. You know what? You know what?
[00:15:09] Pull in different influences. Okay. You don't have to just rip off Naruto. Rip off something that people aren't expecting you to rip off. Not enough people rip off one piece. Like rip off fucking fucking how I met your mother. Okay. I don't know how you figure it out. Okay. I'm not writing the battle manga. You are. Okay. The mother, when, when the mother dies, she got reincarnated into a battle series. The winner of this tournament will find out who their mother was. Yeah.
[00:15:37] Was it Krista Maloney or whatever her name is? If only your true mother would win this tournament. I hate you. Anyway, but I do love you. So Jordan, thank you for editing the chibi and making the cover art. Thank you for everything that you do on the show, David. Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing. You can find his podcast, anime out of context at anime out of context.com and go check out their show. Jordan and I were just on talking about how much Rem hates Don to Don. And that's right. Yes. He really did. Thanks to Tucker and Maxi B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research.
[00:16:05] You can find us on blue sky slash X at shown and flop tumblr shown a dash flop and our website shown and flop.com run Spotify, Apple music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast. Come join the shown and flop discord. It's open to everyone. Come hang off us. Talk about in the games, whatever else is on your mind. We even have a manga book club and movie nights. Finally, to enter show notes are on our site shown flop.com. And I want to just give a heads up. We are actually taking a break from the patron. We know that times are really rough for people economically. We didn't want to feel people were really feeling pressure or bears if they had to get rid of it. So we're pausing it. You're still welcome to sign up for about five bucks and get the entire backlog.
[00:16:34] And hopefully when the economy is in a better state, we'll definitely revisit and start making some great exclusive content again. Yeah. Thank you for all your support so far, you know, and we really appreciate everyone who supported us so far. Absolutely. But we're still going to keep going at it. We still love the show, but we know it's a hard time for a lot of people. And we want to try and not be a stressor in people's lives. Yeah. All right. And then Jordan, anything else you want to add in? Check out Mission Ignition, my podcast that you can find on the internet that I can find on the internet. And you can too. I'm not well right now.
[00:17:03] Thank you so much for listening. Tune in next Monday for our full episode on Rash featuring Mars Girl. Yeah. This has been Jordan. This has been David. And you've been listening to the show and a flop. David say bye. Bye.