(Rerun) #97 What the Hell is a Flesh Bomb? Saint Muscle Ft. Cartoonist KC Green

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, this is David. Shonen Flop is taking the month of January off, especially as David's going to be in Japan. Please enjoy our rerun of episode of the year, Saint Muscle featuring the legendary KC Green. We'll be back February 3rd with our first thoughts on Chameleon Jail.

[00:00:24] This episode is brought to you ad-free thanks to all of our wonderful patrons. You can get tons of exclusive content and help us keep the show going by joining at patreon.com slash shonenflop. And 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 Chagichah. I don't even fuck I don't know how to say that. Chagichah? Like, I don't know. Chagichemesh?

[00:00:44] Yes, the first Hebrew- actually, no, we've read Jewish manga here before. Be sure to join the discussion in our Discord and submit your six word summary. Find a link to Discord in our episode description and on our website shonenflop.com. But we're not here to talk about that. This week we are talking about Saint Muscle and we are joined by the legendary KC Green. Oh my god. Hi. Me, KC. Hey! KC, thank you so much for joining us. Do you mind telling the audience a little bit about yourself?

[00:01:08] Sure. My name's KC Green. I'm a cartoonist. Probably know me best through the gun show comic I did where this is fine, the meme this is fine was spawned, anime club, graveyard quest. Dick Butt? Well, Dick Butt was from Horribleville, so. Ah. But I, you know, a lot of my stuff became memes. Check out knowyourmeme.com. But yeah, I'm a cartoonist and I'm also on Skulltenders right now, the D&D podcast. I'm excited for having the whole Skulltenders on our show. That's true. Yeah. Like you got Jess coming up later.

[00:01:37] Yeah. So I'm very excited. So it's a great podcast. I've really enjoyed listening to it. Yeah, I really like it too. It's really good. So KC, I guess what would you say is like one comic if you had to pick is the one that you're like most proud of even like regardless of impact, like even if it didn't become a meme. I feel like after I said that I'm like that's a much harder question I should have started with.

[00:01:56] That is a tough question because I'm a prolific, was a prolific guy. I mean, at my height, I had like three or four comics I was working on, whether I was writing back with my friend Anthony Clark for redoing Pinocchio. I really like how that eventually came out, but I think I got to give it up for He is a Good Boy. Ooh. It was a comic I did right after Good Gun Show and it was just a kind of something I was really interested in doing and then put my nose to the grindstone and rolled it out at like three and a half years.

[00:02:26] And yeah, I was very happy with that. All that said and done with it. That's awesome. I don't know that one off the top of my head. I'm definitely going to check it out, though. I read like. About the acorn, a little cringed acorn. Hmm. Yeah, I don't think I've read that. I've read the graveyard book, which I thought was excellent. I should say, KC, we covered a we covered a manga called Hard Boiled Cop and Dolphin and the amount of the amount of times I called it Cool Frog and Dolphin. Oh, my God. Cool Cop and Dolphin. Hard Boiled Cop and Dolphin. I'm going to look that up later. It's pretty good.

[00:02:55] We covered it on the show. It's about a cop who moves to an island and his partner is a dolphin man and then they solve crime together. And the dolphin dad also is a single father to a human child and is just a really, really good dad. It's a dolphin man, not really just a dolphin hanging around with him. It's a whole thing. I'll check it out later. Yeah. As much as we'd like to, we're not covering a hard boiled cop and dolphin today. I almost called it Cool Frog and Dolphin again. This is Saint Muscle.

[00:03:23] Sorry, just whenever you say Saint Muscle, I go Saint Saint Muscle. Just think about the fucking ultimate muscle theme song. Oh, me too. Don't worry. By the way, everybody, I'm recovering from COVID. If I sound weird, that's why. Anyway, this was written by Tsutomu Miyazaki, whose other works include about 20 plus novels, apparently mostly sci-fi and was apparently involved in the first ever sci-fi doujin. Damn.

[00:03:51] But his manga works include an adaptation of the failed tokusatsu pilot Hyoman slash Jaguar Man from 1967 to 68 in Shonen Jump Gut. Well, in Weekly Shonen Magazine, I think that's different from Shonen Jump. And seven chapters of Golgo 13, which I haven't read, but I know is like one of the most legendary and long running manga of all time.

[00:04:16] Yeah, but I read a volume of Golgo where he had a hand in the Princess Di murder. What? Yeah, and then like the rest of the volume was like the other stories in the volume was about him taking a shot from space at like a very specific target or whatever. Because like he's the most famous hitman in the world. That's what Golgo 13 is about. If he helped kill Princess Di, then like, I think. I don't think his target was Di. His target was someone that Di was with.

[00:04:43] But like it happened at the same time she like had that car crash. And so it's just very obfuscated alternate reality kind of writing, you know. I just mean, if that's possible, then I don't think JFK is off the table. This reminds me, I was like reading. There was like a Billy and Mandy web comic back in the day. And it was like Mandy was part of planning 9-11, I think. She got the powers of Grimm and then did 9-11. Yes! Jesus Christ.

[00:05:10] But apparently this guy also wrote a lot of biographical manga based on guys named Sonata Yukimura. These are people I'm not familiar with except for Oda Nobunaga. I'm relatively familiar with Nobunaga because he's an anime. I am sorry. I do not know Japanese history that has not appeared in manga.

[00:05:29] But apparently because of the niche nature of his work and the fact that before like the 2000s, very little manga and Japanese media got translated and brought over to America. It's really hard to find information on his work. Max CB was like this was not an easy research. Yeah. It's weird to think like not only him, but others are probably just lost to like the, you know, annals of Japanese history. That's just like they just did this and that's that, you know,

[00:05:58] Bu Ronson, the guy who wrote a Fist of the North Star had like a whole series that you just can't find. Really? You cannot find the translation. I think the same with Miura who did Berserk. Like you just can't find them. Those two manga, by the way, kind of relevant to Saint Mussel. Yeah, a little bit, I think. It's interesting, though. This was actually translated like three or four years ago because some dude read it and he's like, whoa, this looks awesome. And then just hate someone to fully translate it. Thank God. Yeah, I found a dude on Reddit.

[00:06:26] I love the translation notes of like just like too much personal information about this and that with the translator, which feels very early 2000s online, which is just like, sorry, everyone. A little busy. Yeah. Hey, you know, it's like a lot of these translations we found out are done by people in Indonesia. So it's just kind of like, you know what, man? As long as we can read it and have an idea about what it is, I'm just grateful. Yeah. God bless him for doing the work. Yeah, seriously.

[00:06:53] The artist we have more information on. His name is Masami Fukushima. He was an assistant for Mori Masaki, who directed Barefoot Gen's film version and like 40 or so other manga series. But notable people this guy had as an assistant is notably Kosaku Onakubo, who did the Pokemon manga. Yeah. Which one?

[00:07:18] That's the one before they realized that Pikachu was the mascot and they were trying to push Clefairy. Oh. So Ash has a Clefairy in that manga. Oh, yeah. But this isn't the one by the porn guy, right? No. I can picture the Clefairy in my head where it's got like big eyes. He's like, I'm about to say something funny. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, it took up the Pikachu role. Like in the anime, they basically just swap Clefairy for Pikachu. It's kind of interesting.

[00:07:45] But this guy's other works include Gladiators, Stars of Rome, 76 to 77. Three volumes with the writer Iki Kajiwara of Ashita no Joe. Very famous boxing manga. And this guy also did Prince Shotoku, 1977 to 78. 17 chapters and was written by Kai Takizawa. Maxi B.

[00:08:11] He also has a note about the author, which is he's notable for two things. One is his influence over creators like Tetsuo Hara, Hirohiko Aaraki and Kisuke Itagaki, who are all enamored with the insane musculature and mythology of. So this was part of a movement called Flesh Bomb, which if you read this manga, you can tell why. Yeah.

[00:08:35] I've read some Fist of the North Star and Jojo, but this is the most flesh bomb thing I've ever seen. Yes, the main character we'll get into is just naked for like half the manga and just like walking around totally beefy and jacked. And there's all these huge guys throughout it and they're all naked. The other thing he's famous for is basically quitting manga.

[00:09:01] He quit Prince Shotoku in the middle of it and just quit manga for like 10 years in 1980 and then quit again in 1990 for seven years. But he's back now. He's making manga again. Is any bit getting translated over here? I don't think so. It'd be interesting to see where he's at now with his art compared to like this one, St. Muscle. Yeah, I feel like this is like an art style that you probably as you get older can't maintain because of just the sheer amount of work to try repaint.

[00:09:31] I'm sure it was insane. But on the flip side, it's also like I wonder what his anatomy looks like now, because like if you read Kanikuman, which is a manga that I can't imagine wasn't influenced by this. Like Kanikuman almost feels a parody of this exact kind of manga. The art in the old days was like the musculature and anatomy was very like rudimentary. But if you read this stuff now, it's like super high quality shit like the artist. So I'd be interested in seeing what he's doing now. But we're not talking about that stuff.

[00:10:01] We're talking about St. Muscle. This is definitely the oldest thing we've read on this show. Well, Maxi P even says roughly July 1976 to December 1976. God damn. Wow. Pre Fist of the North Star, pre Berserk, pre Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, pre Kanikuman, pre all of this. The series that replaced this was called Football Hawk from 1977 to 79.

[00:10:28] Maxi B notes, yes, American football because Maxi B is British. So that is notable. 30 years before the football where I guess it's just a Finnish topic now, American football manga, because I don't know if you've ever read Eyeshield 21. That's the only other one I can think of is like Eyeshield. It's a solved genre because you can't make a better football, American football manga than Eyeshield 21. Yeah. That was done by the One Punch artist, right? Yes.

[00:10:55] The artist of One Punch Man and the author of Dr. Stone. Oh. I didn't realize Dr. Stone guy was a part of that. That's why in one of the panels they taught, you actually see some of the people from Eyeshield 21 make a cameo appearance in it. But yeah, Flesh Bomb, apparently it calls itself like the Flesh Bomb masterpiece. Saint Muscle went for six chapters, originally published as 22 weekly chapters. This is weird. Each chapter is split up into like three plus parts. Like honestly, I think one of them split up into 10 parts.

[00:11:25] They're pretty beefy. Ironic. But yeah, this was republished as three volumes and then republished again as one volume. So this is clearly a cult classic where it did not last long, but people want this manga. This is not forgotten. Yeah. Well, it's like a dude just was like, hell yeah, this needs to be translated and just paid someone out of pocket to do it. And thank you. Because as you'll see, this was an experience. Not a golden experience. So that'd be a very different manga.

[00:11:51] And why don't we hear what's happening in this Flesh Bomb experience as we get into the plot summary? This is one of the more difficult plot summaries I had to write. A ripped naked dude with no dick wakes up with amnesia, not knowing who he is. Or where his dick. Or where his dick is. He goes off in search of other human beings. Wandering through the desert, he arrives at a castle filled with quote unquote sculptures of human heads and meets a huge grotesque king who feeds him.

[00:12:21] The king shows the naked dude a statue that he already had of actually him, the naked dude. It was very strange. I'm just imagining though it was an anatomy correct and you see him just like suddenly rip the dick off the statue. But he then demands that his servant, the only other human being in the place. And by the way, everyone up to this point in the manga has been naked. I need you to know this. This is important.

[00:12:45] He then demands that his servant, the only other human in the place, become a human carving just like all the other heads. The servant refuses and is killed. The king then ties naked dude. Despite the fact that everybody's been naked, I'm just going to call him that because he doesn't have a name at this point. He ties him to the statue saying that he is going to steal his beauty. Since the king himself is just so dang ugly. Naked dude breaks free, defeats the king, tears down the statue, which brings the whole castle down.

[00:13:15] Naked dude then leaves to wander the desert some more when he sees a bunch more naked people running for their lives. Apparently, it's a marathon to pull the population of the nearby city with the old and young competing to see who gets to drink from the spring of life. And everyone who fails dies. Naked dude infiltrates the city to find that the spring of life is the nation's prime export, granting eternal rejuvenation.

[00:13:39] However, he rips the cloaks off the higher ups to reveal that they are in fact old and gross and that the spring of life doesn't give you long life. It just restores your strength. This was very confusing. I did not understand what they meant by this. Was he like these guys are 150 or was that like was he saying they should be or like I was I was very confused because like if they're 150, clearly something is happening. I don't know. But the naked dude destroys the spring, which submerges the castle.

[00:14:09] The people, glad they don't have to do the death marathons anymore, decide to move on and rebuild somewhere else. He did destroy the entire castle when that happened. He did. He destroyed the whole place. Could have lived there. I think they were just like we're done. This place is too much trauma here, I guess. Yeah, bad vibes. I get it. Yeah. It's interesting. This is like the one event actually continues throughout this manga that like people talk about. Oh, yeah, yeah. They mentioned the human castle a couple times later.

[00:14:39] And I'm just like, first of all, how did you learn about that? Yeah, I'm not surprised that this story got around. Popcorn David. Naked dude wanders the desert for a little longer before winding up in the kingdom of the giant king where he meets the giant king who is both giant and a king. I also my internal name for the protagonist. I just want to call him John protagonist because he doesn't have a name. Well, he sort of does. Towards the end. I know he's sort of the same muscle. Yeah, I don't. I just wanted to say that would stick, but I guess not. They become close friends and work on building up Tower of Babel.

[00:15:09] Jordan has cited a painting which he actually used as his recommendation in our Teenage Renaissance David episode. I did, but also so I cited the Tower of Babel by Peter Bruegel, who's a Dutch master. And if you compare the paintings, this dude straight up just drew the painting. It is like a one-to-one copy. Like I sent the page to my to actually the wife of my painting teacher, my old painting teacher, and she was just like, is that the Tower of Babel?

[00:15:39] It's interesting because I know the Japanese and Dutch have a lot of cultural overlap. Really? Yeah, well, the Dutch were the only European country that Japan ever interacted with when they were shut down. That was what I think Dojima was literally the only point where you can interact with Dutch people. And they were the only ones that were allowed to access that island. I didn't know that. Yeah, they're working on the Tower of Babel until suddenly some rebels appear to dispose the king, calling him a dictator, which he honestly definitely is. He absolutely is. But he's nice.

[00:16:09] It's true. It's revealed that the leader of the rebellion is his sister who was accidentally killed, ending the fighting. The giant king, however, decides to execute the defeated rebels, which horrifies the naked dude who demands he stop. Giant king says he's going to fight him to the death first. Naked dude wins, but can't bring himself to kill him. So giant king fights back, but can't bring himself to kill the naked dude. So he surrenders and lets the rebels go. The people call the naked dude St. Muscle title drop, and he's exiled because there's a scene where he flexes so hard. People are just completely amazed by his muscles. It's really good. St.

[00:16:38] Muscle wanders in the frozen tundra, which is so cold he has to wear clothes. And this was the chapter we accidentally read for the chibi section. Yeah. So, listener, if you listen to the chibi episode, we are talking about this chapter because the place that we read this did a really bad job of labeling what the first chapter was. In that it called this chapter one, which it also says on the manga because it's chapter one of the third volume. Yeah, it is volume three, 1.1. It's confusing.

[00:17:08] We fucked up. So does actually still feel like a chapter one. Yeah, so he's attacked by a bear, but is saved by an old man with one arm who takes him home where two troved teenagers total naked with him to raise his. That was the weirdest thing in this whole manga to me. Yeah, that is. I don't think modern Shonen Jump would allow that. Yeah, it's a popcorn case. The old man goes cat may have on a monstrous sperm whale who killed all his friends and died. So St. Muscle takes over and finishes the job for wandering away again, which is true.

[00:17:37] They just do like a whole separate plot of Moby Dick. Yeah, one chapter. Next, St. Muscle winds up at a slave encampment. A lot of slaves in this one where slaves are being brutally executed for the crime of falling in love with each other. Believe that chapter is called Slave Hell. Yes. Two slaves declare their love for each other and are sentenced to the doll execution. I take it back. This was the most fucked up part. This was the weirdest thing. Yeah, I took it back. I forgot all about it.

[00:18:03] He was sentenced to doll execution where they're dressed up as a sheep and a pig and dragged through the dirt until they die. Yes, you read that right. They're both dressed up as sheeps and pigs and like weird, uncomfortable, like just whatever, like the way it looks like clothing. And then they're just dragged around by a horse until they're dead. This is definitely some sort of fetish the author had.

[00:18:25] So many fucking questions about who is the dude who's making hundreds of these because they get destroyed every time they execute someone. So they have to make these from scratch every time they execute someone. Yeah. And they look well made. Yeah, very well done. This was the most brutal chapter because like even before that you had the other slave that the other guy just fucking knocked his head into spaghetti with. Yeah. This is like easily like the most berserky chapter. Yeah, it really gets grosser at this point.

[00:18:54] St. Muscle fights and defeats the executioner to free them. But the director, the main bad guy of this chapter, refuses holding the lovers hostage. However, the girl throws her neck onto the director's sword, starting a slave revolt, which kills him. Oh, no. I was very confused why she did that, but apparently it worked. She wanted to sacrifice herself to be of use because she was being like held hostage. She's like, I will never be held hostage and then just sacrifices herself.

[00:19:21] Well, she is a woman in a manga, so she was like, I guess I better kill myself. A slave in a manga? They hadn't invented fully flesh female characters in Shonen Jump. Not yet. Until like 10 years ago. Yeah. But oh, no, what's that? A giant army has appeared to seemingly take them back, but it's actually the Giant King. It's everything's fine. Phew! St. Muscle and Giant King reunite briefly as Giant King's horse rushes to lick St. Muscle like a dog.

[00:19:47] Several pages of this horse freaking out and like really liking St. Muscle. Yes. That was like, what's happening now? This horse is just really enamored by God on Earth. Who wouldn't be? No. Giant King says the Dark King is coming to take over the land, which he mentioned in the last chapter. So, you know, so we have something to go off of. There's always there's a there's a worse king, you know, for like one and a half chapters. This manga seems like it's going to turn into Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Like it's not there yet.

[00:20:15] But like, yeah, there's like, wait, there's a Dark Lord now. Yeah. You may think the Giant King is a dictator, but there's actually a worse king than him. The giant or king? A giant bigger king. Yeah. There's always a bigger king. Yeah. So the Dark King is coming to take over the land. So St. Muscle leave and St. Muscle. He climbs a mountain, but the horse wants to follow him. The horse who loved him earlier. The St. Muscle picks up the horse and climbs over the mountain. But what an ending.

[00:20:42] And then the manga ends with like with like this brief like write up from the author who's like, youths, keep on trying. Keep on going. And I just saluted when I read that, you know, like, hell yeah. Yeah. I mean, at the very least, when these things get canceled, they're like they're given a chance to just be like, wrap it up because you're done. You know, sometimes. Nowadays, you get a heads up. It could have literally been where he started this chapter and his editor like two days before it finishes like, oh, this is the last chapter, by the way.

[00:21:12] Casey, do you mind telling us about the protagonist of the series, Mr. St. Muscle himself? Well, I think he's an angel on Earth. I think that was going to be the reveal because he literally just wakes up in a little paradise, you know, naked nude. They don't show his hog, but it's like it's always kind of shaded out. I kind of feel that the area is shaded out. Let me say that. So I wonder if he even has one, you know, because all those slaves who were running in that revolt were like, you know, they were nude. They were obviously nude. You could see it. They were dying.

[00:21:42] You could see the saggy titties. I don't know if we could say titties on this show. You can say titties. OK, he's I think he's like an angel or something sent by, you know, that's my that's my interpretation. I completely agree. I mean, he is called St. Muscle, so I don't think they're very subtle about the religious implications of him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's sort of a Jesus figure in a lot of ways. Kind of like Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star is true. But he at least, you know, where Kenshiro comes from.

[00:22:07] He's always got some bad guy, some guy who also has a fist of the South Star, you know, East Star or whatever. This one doesn't feel apocalyptic at all. Just feels like, you know, biblical. It feels very biblical in the way it's done. Yes. Yeah. And he just feels like this standard by the book lawful good protagonist who's doing the right thing because he has to because he's the protagonist. At no point do you actually ever see any real character development or any depth to why he's doing the things he's doing. Yeah. He gets a horse. That's true. And the horse is just as muscular as he is. Mm hmm.

[00:22:37] Not good at climbing. The horse is not good at climbing. There's like a couple of panels of the horse just failing to climb that were kind of ridiculous. I should have put the horse in the section. Oh, God. Do we have more to say about this dude or should we talk about Giant King? He is naked. Yeah, he is. But he gets clothes. I bet his editor was like, you have to make him start wearing clothes. Yeah, he was just like, oh, because he hangs out with people who are wearing clothes and it just makes it more obvious. Like when he when he reaches the Giant King's like area, everyone is like normal wearing

[00:23:06] clothes in like a Roman kind of way, you know, I guess. But except him and no one really calls him out on it. Yeah, I think we should get into maybe the only other character. So Jordan, why don't you tell us about Giant King, who I always wrote in all caps because he's giant. Two things you got to know about him. He is giant and he is a king and his name is Giant King. He is only referred to as Giant King. That's literally his name, apparently. Like that's not a title. It's just his first and last name.

[00:23:36] His sister's name is like Tiffany Giant King or something. Yeah. So this guy is a dictator who the manga presents is a really nice guy. He's kind of like the God Emperor of Mankind from Warhammer. Compared to the other people he meet, Giant King's not the worst. That's true. He's not the worst. I like how David put here murders a lot of people sad face because that is how the manga treats it where it's like, yeah, man, that kind of sucks. He's killing all those people. Yeah. You know what?

[00:24:06] Same muscle. Put a stop to that. Yeah. And he did. And he did. I think the Giant King is like awful, you know, death to all kings or whatever you want to say about, you know, aristocracy. But like, I don't know. He's a more, he's a compelling character at the Giant King because he also reminds me of, I don't know, his vibe is very Alice the Goon from the Popeye show. Yeah. The old comics, the old comics where he went to like, they see the sea hag and shit like that. I don't know if you guys know Popeye's is old manga from America.

[00:24:34] It used to be called Thimble Theater, but then the editors asked him to change it. One of the classic manga. If it's not from Japan, it's actually called Sparkling Comics. All right. Speaking of my failed joke, why I failed? Because I don't think there's any more depth to these characters than this. What do you even say about the Giant King? He's giant and he's a king. I don't know. And he respects St. Muscle. He kind of loves St. Muscle. When he meets St. Muscle, he's like, finally, I found my right wing man. Yeah.

[00:25:02] My beautiful conservative man. And he never seems that strong, St. Muscle. I'm sorry to bring it back to St. Muscle. Because Giant King gives everyone these iron balls and the kids are like playing with him. He's like, whoa, these are really heavy. Like, aren't you supposed to be like super strong? Why are you struggling to lift this? He doesn't seem super strong until literally like the last chapter. Yeah, he did pick up a horse. He did carry a horse. He does do the damn job, but he always seems like he's completely out of his depth at first. Yeah.

[00:25:28] He gets like hit in the chest with like a giant steel rod and it just bounces off his pecs. But this is all in the last chapter. Like, I feel like the last chapter was the author just going like, ah, fuck. Okay. Okay. I think I have an idea about what this comic is now. That's what Fist of the North Star did right. Like, Kentaro was already ready to like, you know, you're already dead. All that shit. I feel like we should migrate into YFM now that we're criticizing the series.

[00:25:54] So, yeah, as you talk about this, this plot is complete nonsense. There are no characters really in this manga. It's trying to be episodic, but it's just missing any consistency to anything going on. Yeah. Interestingly here, the chapter with the giant king weirdly gave me Takeki Ryusei vibes. You thought that? Because I actually wrote that as well as one of my miscellaneous thoughts. KC, Takeki Ryusei is written by the author of Fist of the North Star in the 90s.

[00:26:23] But basically, the plot of that is like the first three or so chapters are like this cool biker dude and he's like fighting against the Yakuza. And then after that, it turns into this whole thing where he meets this guy who is building up his ideal society. And he's like, man, I got to follow this guy. This guy rules. Like the way that this guy, the Saint Muscle talks about like Giant King is just so reminiscent of that to me, except this guy eventually realizes, wait, I got to stop Giant King briefly.

[00:26:51] He's like that, which doesn't happen to Takeki Ryusei. But that chapter in Saint Muscle where he is like just fawning over Giant King is kind of boring. Yeah. I mean, slog is a good way of putting it. And then KC, what did you think, though? Are some of the issues with this series? I mean, you're right. It doesn't have any cohesion, even for something so simple as a man fighting other men, you know? I don't even know if that's what this manga was about, though. Like, I don't. Exactly. Like, at least with Fist of the North Star, you know, you know, Kentaro is going somewhere,

[00:27:20] you know, he's always writing that wrong. And there's a lot of wrongs to write. Yeah. In the world of Mad Max, which is literally what the world of Fist of the North Star is, a lot of wrongs to write. Yeah. When I started reading more manga more often, like One Piece and Dragon Ball and stuff like that, it occurred to me that a lot of it is dudes just making shit up and having fun with it. Oh, yeah. And that is fine because it can work. It can work. Look at Dragon Ball. Look at One Piece. Look at a lot of stuff.

[00:27:46] This one obviously was kind of the same, but it just felt like a lot of interesting ideas with nothing super, like I keep saying, cohesive to keep it. You know, there's a lot of stuff that like that's a fun that's a fun thing to play with a man alone just fighting demons, but to balance. And I guess it never quite did it. Or if it got a chance to keep going, it might have found some kind of like good, you know, ratio of who he was and who he fought. But maybe he wasn't as cool. Maybe that's also why.

[00:28:15] I mean, same muscle as he wasn't as cool. He's not as cool as Kentaro. He's not as cool as fucking Berserk. Guts. Guts. Sorry. How could I forget guts? He kind of is a dork, like kind of a nerd. Yeah. He's a dork with no dork. Under why it failed, I do want to say David lists so much ass. I don't think that's a failing of this manga. That's the funniest part of the book is when you see that spread. That fucking double page spread of just his ass. And it literally is a spread of his butt. It's amazing.

[00:28:44] Have you guys ever brought up like the Hetaume kind of art thing in manga where it just means Hetaume just means bad good? No, I don't think we have. No. Tell us about it. It's not really this type of stuff, but it is kind of related to outsider art where it's like people who aren't traditionally trained still drawing and like they're not obstructed by rules of art that like we're like any artist is like, you know, always thinking about in the back of their head because that's how they're taught. Yeah.

[00:29:09] One, the guy who writes One Punch and draws and writes Mob Psycho 100. That's a good example of Hetaume art that is more palatable because he's actually getting better as you can see in Mob Psycho 100. It's kind of like how Attack on Titan, the author won an award where they said we normally this art quality was so bad. We need to highlight that as part of the award you received because your writing was so good. Hetaume is more like on purpose bad. Oh, interesting. There is a childlike wonder and interesting to it.

[00:29:38] There's an old Japanese famous Japanese manga collection called Garo is kind of in the same type of Shonen Jump where it's just a bunch of like indie artists doing like weird, gross stuff. I'd love to check that out. But like, no, I get what you're saying where it's like it's not actually bad art. It's just this is the style and the style goes against what we would traditionally consider quote unquote good art. Yes, I see some Hetaume in this, but I also feel like that's not very on purpose.

[00:30:07] Maybe, maybe I really don't know. It's so strange because like we're going to get into what it did well. The backgrounds are gorgeous in this month. Yeah. Actually, should we just migrate to that? Because the last thing I just wanted to say was like, I think one of the reasons why the plot really struggles is also because he just recycles the exact same plot line every single chapter besides like the whale fight. And it doesn't feel like he does. So he doesn't really challenge himself to like innovate with this series or like evolve as a writer because it's all about corrupt rulers. Yeah.

[00:30:34] And there's always two star cross lovers who die or live. Yes. Yeah. The married couple, the married couple with the Moby Dick, the two people who got doll executed, you know, I thought they were the same fucking characters, to be quite honest. They were basically. Well, one of them did not live. True. True. Also, I will say the two slaves who got murdered first seem to be the only people of color in the whole manga. Yeah. That one guy's. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was so strange.

[00:31:03] His head exploded. God damn. All right. And now I am exploding to talk about what it did well. So why don't we get into that? All right. So Jordan, though, I also exploded whenever I think about you. So why don't you tell us about what you thought the series did well? So this art kind of rules. Like it's so strange. It's such a weird stylistic decision, but it's also it also feels so unique.

[00:31:29] And he really properly gets across like like the physicality of these characters, even if it doesn't make perfect anatomical sense, I suppose. Yeah, I always like how he over rendered the bodies and then the muscles and stuff. And the face was like lineless, beautiful, white, like just compared to all the lines on the bodies that he would draw. Like the face is just shining like a star on top of this huge, muscly, over rendered body. Insane eyebrows.

[00:31:57] Like you can see where Kenshiro got his eyebrows. Very Golgo 13 in a way, too, because like that's his most Golgo's the biggest trait is he has got like famously big eyebrows. I feel like huge eyebrows were like a sign of masculinity in Japan at this point. I mean, I think they straight up made fun of it in F in Fully Cooly. Oh, absolutely. Oh, yeah. The fucking seaweed eyebrows. Yeah. God. Also, this violence is brutal in such like a fun, like a rocky style way over here.

[00:32:26] Like this is absolutely over the top ridiculous. But it's like just it just is so crunchy and fun to look at this violence. Yeah. I mean, at some point, that type of violence is just like slapstick, you know, it's just really gross slapstick. And that's how I see it a lot. And like, yeah, Fist of the North Star. Yeah. I know that's always been like what Brendan Small of Metalocalypse has said. It's just it's just slapstick. Yeah. No, I mean, this is also kind of one of the most interesting manga we've read on here, I think, like just in terms of its place in history.

[00:32:56] Yeah. They don't make manga like they used to. And it's interesting how so many classic manga like Fist of the North Star, Jojo Merserk all have DNA originating from if not this series, the other works by this author or the art works by this artist. I would have thought the opposite way. And I even said so in our in our Discord chat. But I was just like, wow, what a what a weird little god particle this manga is. Yeah. Yeah. To bring out like, you know, Fist of the North Star, Berserk, something else, everything else we're talking about. I even saw a little bit of Kazo Umezu, the guy who does drifting classroom and like it faces.

[00:33:27] Interesting. The way he would draw like the younger protagonist faces, the kid we're supposed to be sad for, you know, felt very drifting classroom way. And I know that's kind of old. I don't know if it predates this or not, but it's just one of those things. It's like the zeitgeist is so interesting to see it affect other manga. Well, one of the issues with the fact like old manga doesn't get translated. One of the issues with that is that it's hard to tell where the firsts were. This may be the first instance of a lot of these these things. But like, I don't know. But it is really interesting.

[00:33:57] Like the Berserk aspect of this manga where it's just there's brutality on like their depictions of war in this manga in a way that reminded me a lot of Berserk, which, you know, if something reminds you of Berserk, you're doing a pretty good job, I think. And it was just so interesting. Like this manga had kind of a grand scale sometimes. And then does anyone have any other things that they liked about the series?

[00:34:21] Some of the architecture and like the shots were just incredible. Like the castle with human heads was like really striking. That's a that's a strong opener because a little bit and just being like, what is this guy opening up in the Garden of Eden? And then he comes across like the meat castle, the meat mansion, as it's written on here. Feels straight from Berserk, that scene. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very. I was just like, oh, OK, where is this going to go?

[00:34:49] Not very far, but it was still very interesting, very striking. Yeah. That gross king of the castle definitely reminded me of like, what are they called? Like the honestly, the first quote unquote boss that guts fights. I know. Yeah. I know what you mean. Yeah. God. Oh, God. I can't believe Dark Souls technically originates to this series through Berserk. Yeah. You can draw that line. Hell yeah. What an era. And then before we get into where it could have gone, I just wanted to, for the sake of our chibi, I told Jordan, I think there'll be at least

[00:35:18] three times where I'm going to go, fuck yeah, while I'm reading this manga. So I have piled every scene that I said, fuck yeah, while reading this. If you two will allow me to read through this list. All right. So at times I went, fuck yeah, where yeah, the meat mansion. Yeah. The giant naked goblin guy kicking bulls and shit. That bear handshake, pushing that iron to save those kids. Fighting armies, the giant king's armies. A saint muscle versus a giant king. Fists of fists. Yeah. So hard the whole crowd loves him. A man's fight versus the whale. Rules of nature.

[00:35:49] Rules of nature. Dylan, play the six seconds of that song we can get away with. Yeah. Knocking back spikes, making a dude explode and carrying a fucking horse. So I am definitely getting my point on that chibi guess. I kind of feel like in many ways, the final chapter was the strongest. Yeah, it just sucks that it had to be like that. Like if he had a horse to begin with, that would have been interesting. Oh yeah. And the horse was a character. Yeah. I love the idea that like he never rides the horse. He always carries the horse. God, that's how he trains.

[00:36:19] That feels very like Dudley Do-Right or something. Very fun. Like a funny running joke they could always have. Like he has a horse, but he never rides it. All right. Let's get into where it could have gone. But Casey, as the most talented and actual comic creator here, are there any things that you feel like you would have done to have revised the series? Yeah, Casey, how would you write this month? This manga? I got to know. I mean, like there's really nothing to it. Like we kept bringing up Berserk and A Fist of the North Star and other things because like that's exactly what they did.

[00:36:49] They took that very simple idea where it's like a man, the strongest man you can is kind of like Kung Fu, you know, that old sitcom or not sitcom, but that old sitcom. It was not a sitcom. It was a show basically about a man just going from town to town, writing wrongs, solving problems. That is not a hard thing to have fun with. But it's also means like it could go anywhere, you know, if you wanted to, you could have them, you could have them like, you know, fight the giant king and it could be like a series long like struggle because they are friends.

[00:37:17] And he's like, I don't trust what the giant king's doing anymore. And they bring a lot of pathos with that. But, you know, it's a very broad thing, you know, the what this is. And it could have been anything. And that's kind of what is so interesting about it. But because like if you want to see what it could have become, just read Fist and the North Star, you know? Yeah. Or Berserk. Berserk definitely does its own thing after a while, like all that stuff. But it has that it has that seed of where of where it came from.

[00:37:44] And he's like Muro was so much more interested in the character of Guts and everything like that. There's a hopeful quality in Saint Muscle that just does not exist in Berserk. True. This is the most hopeful type of like disgusting manga I've read of this type, you know? Yeah. When I say disgusting, I mean like how brutal it can get. And that's definitely where Berserk or Fist sort of falter. I don't think Fist is hopeless, but it definitely like Kentaro is much more of a silent, cool protagonist.

[00:38:13] Whereas, as we said earlier, fucking Saint Muscle is kind of a dork, you know? And that works maybe if you're Luffy, you know, or Naruto or whatever, or Goku. But it didn't really work for a big muscly guy. Maybe it worked for Jojo a little bit. Maybe one of the other Jojos. I haven't read all of Jojo, so I can't say too much. I think that Saint Muscle does kind of remind me of Joseph. The first Joe. Wait, was the first one Jonathan? Yes, the British Jonathan. The most memorable Jojo.

[00:38:41] Even that changed because like he was he was a like, why is Dio doing this? Knows and loves Stardust Crusaders better now, you know? He was a complete dickhead as a kid. By the way, have you ever heard of Cool Shock BT? No. That is Araki's first manga. And if you read it, it's just six year old Dio doing magic tricks and fighting Nazis and shit. It's fucking weird. Nazi pedophiles. I would like to clarify.

[00:39:10] It has the greatest ending where it's told by his psych telling us stories. And he's like, this is the last story I'm allowed to tell you about. And it's such like a great meta narrative of why this series got canceled. Yeah, no, that's pretty good compared to just like, you're canceled. Bye. I feel like let's just move into miscellaneous thoughts because I was going to ask you guys how you would publish this in modern Shonen Jump. I'm going to think it's impossible to have retunned the series about destroying the point of it. Just wouldn't work in modern Shonen Jump. Yeah. You don't really see that anymore. That type of stuff.

[00:39:37] I mean, Berserk's still around for the grace of God and people just wanting to milk that franchise a little more after he's dead. Quite impressive. It's going on despite the author dying. Yeah. Have you read recent Berserk, by the way? I have no idea how it is. I heard it's pretty good. I have the last volume Mira did, you know, 41, I think. I'm glad that they took the time to actually talk to each other about it. Like it wasn't a quick like, yes, we're going to continue. It was like a year of like waiting or something to be like, this sucks, but let's try. Yeah.

[00:40:05] So I'm willing to give them a try, but I have not read any of the newer ones. I'm actually in like in the middle of a reread. And the dude who's finishing it was like his like best friend. Kind of like if Oda died and Tagashi finished one piece for him. So it's not like just some random dude they hired. I feel like it's more likely that Tagashi would die. Yeah. It's big ass shoes to fill, but like it's a, you know, I'm willing to try. And I'm willing to try to talk about some miscellaneous thoughts. So let's get into that. So how about that double panel ass shot? So funny.

[00:40:33] God, the double panel ass shot. Like a literal spread. Yeah. Part of my six word summary. God, so funny. Oh my God. It's, it's amazing. Like listener, we're not exaggerating. There's a full two page spread where each page has one ass cheek. He's almost goat seeing you. No butthole though. No butthole. No, he's not spreading anything, but. No, that's true. He's an angel. He has no butthole. He has no wiener. There really is like a biblical quality to this series though. Yeah.

[00:41:02] Like when he destroys the castle and like sends all those people out on a march, it gave me like really big 40 days, 40 nights, like Hebrews walking through the desert vibes. You know what I mean? Biblical. Like literally the Tower of Babel shows up. So it's not literally stated it's the Tower of Babel, but again, it's based directly on the painting of the Tower of Babel. So it probably is. One other thing to connect it there is he directly references Egypt. I was going to bring that up. Yeah.

[00:41:29] Cause he had some weird, that's like a real Iraqi moment with it. Yeah. Where it was like, wait, Egypt exists. Is this our world? What the fuck is going on? Yeah. This could be just biblical times earth or he just made a fucking, uh, you know, what's it called when you reference something outside of time? I don't know. It reminds me of, I was listening to the Lord of the Rings audio book and there's a, they talk about Egypt there too. Really? No. Cause the whole thing is supposed to be written by from Frodo's perspective.

[00:41:55] And when Gandalf summons the dragon in the beginning, it's like a dragon flew around with the power of a freight train. And it's like, what, how do you, how do you know what that is? How does Frodo know what a freight train is? Right? That's my point. It's like in Pokemon when they reference real world countries. Anachronistic, I think is the word I was thinking of. Anachronistic. Oh yeah, that's a good, um, but yeah. Oh, and so for some context, it's mentioned because he talks about how apparently pyramids have like a structural weight point he makes use of.

[00:42:23] And that's just some like shit that a rock is like, hell yeah. That fun fact to use. I feel like that's not true. Oh, the pyramid. I was going to say a Rocky would absolutely cite structural design of pyramids. Yes. I'm thinking about the pyramid thing and I'm like, where? The top? Pyramid is kind of the most stable structure you can build. I don't know. I don't know where that would be. Got one brick from the bottom. It all comes coming down. It's a master brick and it just falls apart.

[00:42:52] The master brick. I have another miscellaneous thought. Um, Jordan, I've realized this is anti-A-Gravity Boys. Casey, have you heard of A-Gravity Boys? No. This absurdist space manga we read where the author knew his manga was ending and he just turns into a parody where it's about all of them having magical penises and all the penises have different elemental types. So there's 10. You have to master your penis element. Cool. Yeah. It's just, it is the most absurd thing we had ever read.

[00:43:18] You know how in, in Bleach, like Ichigo's Zanpakuto has like this familiar, like this cool dude in like sunglasses and stuff. All the main characters have that for their penises. It's kind of amazing. Figure out how to talk to their penis. Yeah. Maxie B brings up the exact line that I was thinking throughout this whole thing, which is Peter Venkman from Ghostbusters saying, yes, it's true. This man has no dick. I truly believe that. I think he's just, he's like, he's Alan Rickman from Dogma down there. I'm as anatomically impaired as a kendo.

[00:43:49] Yes, literally. No, yeah. He probably is an angel. And then speaking of Maxie B, let me just list off some of their miscellaneous thoughts. If you want to learn more about Masami Fukushima's work, it's covered in Takeo Udum, blah, blah, blah, maga zombie. And it's partially Takeo Udugawa, by the way. Yeah, maga zombie. And it's partially available to read on the Commie Press website. We write about flesh bomb stuff. And Saint Musso was promoted heavily ahead of its release in Weekly Shonen Magazine, including

[00:44:16] it, as we talked about, the infamous double page spread of our heroes bare ass. So that was, he knew this would be his really big chapter to make sure that was the one with the double page spread. That's the part where it's like, okay, he's having fun with it and like poking fun at you, the reader, you know, for, you know, it's a shonen jump. It's a boy magazine. So here is fucking, you know, here's some, here's some guy's ass. If that's what you want, you know? Sadly, though, the effort was for nothing as despite the aggressive marketing team,

[00:44:43] boys simply did not want to read about a massive dickless man roaming through minifos to mifos every week. And despite running as Weekly Chapters, most manga grouped chapters into larger arcs when collected in volumes at the time, which is why it looks like six chapters. For another example, Football Classic Captain Tsubasa ran for 356 chapters, but was only 114 merch stories when it came out. Also interesting. Remember I said Maxi B's British? They said Football Classic. It's soccer. Just so you know. Yeah.

[00:45:10] And then the editor of cult parody and structural series, Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga, Osama Sato, is often depicted as literally the giant king from this series, just with a slightly different hair. That's great. I have that book, Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga. It's such a good book. And I'm going to have to read it again to go back and see the giant king stuff. You're going to be doing like pointing me and be like, wait a second, I know that guy. Yeah. No, yeah. Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga is very good. Oh, then we'll have to check that out. I've heard that mentioned before, too.

[00:45:39] This isn't the first time I've heard someone say that. I believe one of the artists or both of the same guys ended up doing the Nintendo Power Mario comic. Oh, that's cool. That went for like 12 months. And that one is also one of my childhood favorites. You know what I'm talking about? Do you remember that one? It was very well done. I know what you're talking about, but I've not read it. It's just called Super Mario Adventures. I'll have to check that out. Oh, yeah. And then shall we move on to final verdict? All right. Let's kick things off with the six word summary from the community. We have from Tucker.

[00:46:09] But God, look at that vascularity. It's even funnier. Because he's from Texas. Maxi B. Meaty men slapping meat times infinity. 090C says Gar taken to its logical extreme. I have not heard that word in a long time. I remember Gar. Oh, man. That's that's an old word. I was thinking about that because I was just last month they re-released Gar and Logon. So I was watching that. You want to explain Gar and like very briefly, David? It's the Kino of masculine.

[00:46:36] It's just you're as you're, you know, you're just a man's man. G Gundam. Yeah. G Gundam is one of the most Gar series of all time. From Oropaladin, a fascinatingly grotesque work of art. Chicken Warlord breaking anatomical boundaries is big as flack. Dude rocks. Protag quite literally has no balls. Gray Potter says even the dog has massive massles. Or is this hentai? Terrible muscle hentai? Not really. Isekai sensei says mutant muscle men make me manic. Last of the red row says a buff incomprehensible waste of time. That is their opinion.

[00:47:06] Lord Anubis says they have muscles on their muscles. It's true. Portal man. Praise the patron saint of muscles. Redblade. Naked muscle messiah defeats ugly bastards. Resident Warhammer nerd. Sorry, got distracted by the muscles. Riley. A big through line here. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Riley, the muscular shall inherit the earth. I'm waiting for that. That's why I go to the gym every day. Hey. Spubby says this is your brain on protein. Or alternatively, okay, imagine Jojo but even gayer. Spike. Palm cake. Looking like snacks.

[00:47:37] Spook says these nuts. Wait, where are they? And alternatively, most muscly muscle manga to flex. T. Wolfwood says nobody's heads match their naked bodies. It's true. And from Watchtower, fisting of the North Star Saints. Gross. God. All right. And then my six word summary, as I alluded to, was really knows how to spread them. Yep. And then Jordan, how about you? Big, powerful, beautiful muscles of God. Every episode, Casey, Jordan talks about himself in his six word summary. And then Casey, what was yours?

[00:48:07] Big muscular man goes to church. Muscle church. I actually, this reminds me of my D&D character, Jim Musclebutt, who was a muscle cleric. Because he realized that, you know, you get stronger enough by working up on, by recovering. So he would just constantly heal himself so he could just train 24-7. So I had a cleric that had 18 strength. Pain and gain. He's not enough. Yeah. He gave himself steroids. Exactly. All right. And so finally, flop or not. This is, this is tough.

[00:48:35] I kind of feel like this isn't a flop just because I think Bulls should just read this for the experience of it. It is not a good manga, but it's a quick read. It's not a difficult read. It's just, just read it to experience it. And that's why I feel like I want to say it is a flop, but I still think you should read. Kind of with David where it's like, how do you even rate this one? Like say it's a flop or not is like almost wait. It's like asking me to say if Holy Mountain by Alejandro Yodorowsky is like a good or a bad movie. I mean, I love that movie.

[00:49:03] So I think it's actually good, but it's like it is totally like surrealist. So like I, I don't know on the normal scale. I guess it's a flop, but like, yeah, it's just, it's an experience. You really should read it. It's so interesting. And see, this is why I brought up the Hetouma stuff, which is like, it's good, bad. It helps you as, as a artist and maybe an appreciator of that stuff to maybe stop thinking good or bad as the only thing that things can be, you know? Yeah.

[00:49:30] Because I would, because my, my thing is saying is it pretty much where you guys are. Yeah. It's, it is a flop. It technically flop. Um, but it is a, it is, like I said, a weird little God particle that you can see a lot of other, uh, manga that did it better, I guess you could say in certain ways. And for that, I think it is, it is worth remembering and I'm glad that it is here. You know, I'm glad we are able to read it, uh, you know, through the translation that we found. Oh yeah. Flop, but like totally worth it. If you give a shit about, you know, manga, berserk, that kind of history of comics. Yeah.

[00:50:00] I completely agree. You got to read this. It's just crazy. This is so important to manga that you really should just read it. There is both nothing like this and many things like this. It's very interesting. Read it is what I would say. Yeah. All right. So, uh, I think this is just not even for discussion if this is the best or worst thing. This is in its own category. Yeah. We're going to create a St. Muscle tier when we do our ranking list, I bet. Like, yeah, again, saying it's good or bad is just like. Not the point. Not the point. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:50:30] I always want to say the term Dottest, but I don't feel that's appropriate for this, but I don't, I don't really know what the best way to describe it. Hete Uma. Oh yeah, that's right. Hete Uma is. Or the flesh bomb stuff. Cause like we kind of went over it and talked about it, but the fact that it's called Nikudan or Gekiga, I think is what that one article you linked said about that. I think it's interesting that there was a movement around this type of thing that feels in a similar nature of what Hete Uma was. It's just interesting. Yeah.

[00:51:26] Yeah. No, come, come check out our podcast, Skulltenders. It's about three people in the afterlife saving, stopping necromancy. I play a big owl named doo-doo. Yes. Doo-doo is great. The doo-doo you do. And you can find that at skulltenders.com or patreon.com slash skulltenders. Just look for Skulltenders. We're, we're trying to, we're doing our best. We're putting our best foot forward. Everyone, me, Cohen, Amber, and Jess and Seth are a music friend. Hell yeah. I'm going to go listen to Skulltenders right after this.

[00:51:56] A lot of my stuff is still online too. You can go to kcgreen.com. That is awesome. And then props to Jordan for making the opening and ending theme, being co-host and helping with the editing. Oh, thank you so much, David. You, you do so much on this podcast and you put it together. Thank you so much, baby. I love you. No problem. Sorry, I was a little out of it. Rachel's actually got the flu. So I've been sleeping on the couch for the last three days. We're all sick on this podcast. I actually feel fine. I'm coming off of my COVID.

[00:52:24] Like I had a rebound thing, which is weird. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's fun. I saw like, I just had like a small, like a mild cold really. So just the mini COVID. Yeah, I'm taking Pax Lovid. Fun fact, everybody. When you take Pax Lovid, it gives you this permanent bitter aftertaste until you stop taking it. Doesn't last forever. Doesn't last forever. It's 24 seven until you stop taking it. Yeah. Let me say that's how I got I took it as well.

[00:52:52] But I still got like a like my rebound. Like it did go away, but then it came back in a very, very mild way. So just be careful. I also want to say Pax Lovid definitely sounds like a D&D character name. That'll be my next guy. He'll be a shitty sorcerer. He's a bitter mate. Loved. Private eye. All right. I also want to give props to Murr Lyle for the awesome cover art. You can 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 anime out of context at anime out of context dot com.

[00:53:22] Thanks to Tucker and Maxi B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, other miscellaneous research. Find us on Twitter at Shonen Flopcast, Tumblr Shonen dash flop. Our website Shonenflop dot com. We're also on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast. And come join the Shonen Flop Discord. Hang out with us. Talk about anime games or whatever. It's been a good time. You can find a link to it in show notes or on our site. And if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going, consider subscribing to our Patreon. Wouldn't be able to keep the show running without their support. You get a ton of awesome perks. Jordan, what are we dropping in the month of March?

[00:53:51] We are covering Ichidoze's Family Sins featuring Crimson Rogue. It's going to be great. Yeah. Check it out. We're going to record that after this. Yeah, it is. So Casey, for context, as a manga where an entire family have all lost their memories and they're trying to figure out what the fuck happened. Is that recent? That sounds recent. It got canceled like six months ago. So yeah, it's relatively recent. Oh, OK. I feel like I remember seeing that on the jump site and being like, OK. And then just I don't pay attention to most things on there.

[00:54:20] It's not worth your time. It's it's a thing. I'm reading Dan to Dan. Hell yeah. Dan to Dan. Speaking of also, I forgot to plug High School Family. I think you might actually enjoy that series. It's a it's a gag manga that is about a high school student whose entire family, his mom, dad, his younger sister and his cat all enroll in high school with him. Wait, that's also on Shonado. So I think if you want to read like a really good gag manga, I love it. But we're not. Anyway, back to things I love. I also want to read some of our wonderful patrons. Oh, wait.

[00:54:49] Way to nest that in turn discussion. We have Glormac. Her breasts like a stormy ocean. Her pointy nipples were like hypodermics washed upon the shores. And Rachel, my wonderful wife. She is recovering from the flu. I love her. So moving on down to the ravioli tier where you get weekly pictures of my goblin dog ravioli. I realize I'm making a goblin deck in Magic of the Gathering. So I'm actually going to go make some ravioli goblin tokens for that. We have Chris, Eva, Lady T, Matt, T, and Trevor Schechner. Moving on down to King of the Forest.

[00:55:18] We have 090Z, Bandit Stew. My girlfriend. Bling, Bang, Bang. Chad Mason, Jacob Andrew Galloway, Kirby Munt, Marty, Max Baker, Riley, Sarah Hydra, T. Wolflet, and Tommy Boy. I also want to give a big thank you to our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our Beast children. Thank you all so much for supporting our show. Yes. Thank you so much. I love you all. You're all my children. Yes. And you can find us at patreon.com slash shonenflop. And Jordan, anything you want to toss in, man? Yeah. Check out Mission Ignition.

[00:55:44] Casey, have you ever heard of a show called Vampires that is V-A and as in Nancy? Yes, I have. You have? I used to do like a Saturday morning like cartoon watch along and someone brought up vampires and I put it on. That was just fucking pickled pink by every like just the first episode. But I was like, what the fuck is this show? I have a whole podcast covering that show. Oh, good Lord. Gary Oldman might be in it. Maybe.

[00:56:11] I didn't get that far in the show, but like just episode one was like, wow, this is a whole bunch. So, you know, that hippie guy, he is listed as Van Helsing as himself. Yeah. Who is that? There was one Wikipedia edit years ago saying it was Gary Oldman and I'm clinging to that. Well, let's find Gary Oldman and ask him. Oh, my God. But that that show is fucking insane. I'm so glad you're the first person who knows what that is. Holy shit. All on YouTube.

[00:56:41] Shall we get into sign off? Yes. Thank you so much for joining us. Tune in next Monday as we give our first thoughts on Changda. This has been David. This has been Jordan. This has been Casey. And you've been listening to Shonen Flop. David, say it. And by say it, I mean Chagacha. And you're also supposed to say keep on flopping, floppers. God damn it. Ah, I'm sick. Give me a fucking break. Keep on flopping, floppers. All right. Yeah. Bye. All right. Give me a fucking break, floppers. God, what a mess this episode is.