Now this is the kind of interior design I can do.

The summer of 2008 was a bit more interesting than the previous seasons I’ve been through recently. Namely in that I watched a decent number, alright maybe just 1 or 2 more. Pretty much a typical summer for me then, I sort of wish I watched more though.

I could begin with something that actually has plot elements and isn’t just a reward for blowing tons of cash on an overpriced DVD, but I’m not. So instead there’s the Kanokon DVD specials, which are divided into 2 parts. Stylized gravure-style segments and fanservice segments which serve as slice-of-life inserts into the series. They really aren’t good, nor are they meant to be, but at least there’s some intellectual honesty there.

Sekirei is never going to win any awards for its quality, but I would say it isn’t encouraging. With nearly every female character seemingly having the same body type, it probably saves quite a bit of money. There’s a misogynistic story, which makes me wonder about the type of people who buy this stuff and the implication of a 2nd season, that just makes me depressed, amongst other issues. There was also the inexplicable uncensored episode in the middle, but what better way to hide the vast emptiness than that.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is at times an innocent love story between two indecisive high school students with different backgrounds, at other times it is pure self-indulgence designed to give security to those who watch this. It would have been nice if some of the side characters were a bit more realistic rather than simple maid tropes or otherwise because the story is fine as it is.

The third season of Zero no Tsukaima took nearly all my reserves of patience and endurance to finish. Perhaps it just shows that a good first season can inspire futile hope in all future efforts. If they put as much effort into putting together a story that wasn’t an afterthought like it is here as they do into making the fanservice look fantastic, then this could have been a classic. That seems to be a theme this decade.

At first, the idea of making Clannad OVAs with specific character endings struck me as thinly-veiled exploitation of fans of the series. So I went into watching this fairly low expectations. This was the Tomoyo chapter which I thought did a pretty good job of making sense with respect to the original series. Tomoyo and Tomoya struggle with their newly confirmed relationship here, and struggle more against perception from outsiders than anything they have done. That it comes down to Tomoya having to disappear for a while while Tomoyo continues her charmed high school life is sort of a shame, but entirely predictable. At least it sort of works out in the end.

The OVA third season of School Rumble takes a different approach to continuity. It almost entirely demands that the viewer had read the manga chapters from the end of the 2nd season to the start of this OVA, otherwise it is just a collage of completely unrelated scenes. With that said, I still can’t say I even enjoyed this. If it was supposed to wrap things up nicely, it really didn’t do a very good job. It just came off as more of a non-committal ending like it was being forced to be done.

Detroit Metal City wraps things up for today. As a comedic take on fandom and the music industry, it does an excellent job. The short length of the series probably helps it as well since some of the repeated jokes were starting to wear thin toward the end. The parts of Negishi’s life outside of DMC were not as good, but I can accept them as a necessary evil. I also think that the format of the series would actually work for a lot of comedy series if it were used more often.

Highlights from Unseen or Unfinished Items

Slayers Revolution seemed peculiar for the fact that it was resurrected over 10 years after the last installment of the franchise. It also confirmed that I have absolutely no taste for fantasy for the most part from the few episodes I did watch. Telepathy Shoujo Ran had a pretty good OP, but the formula which was something like Scooby-Doo with psychics was never going to hold my interest. Koihime†Musou was called the most accurate portrayal of Romance of the Three Kingdoms by someone on Twitter. Strike Witches holds my record for quickest drop (under 3 minutes). Natsume Yuujinchou is apparently in some sort of modern classic standing now.

Recently our company BlastAsia Inc. moved into a more professional office space located at the 35th Floor, Orient Square Bldg, Emerald Ave, Ortigas. In view of the change of environment that improved work life for employees (well, it works for me :p), I decided to share to you guys alittle about BAI culture.

BlastAsia has its own unique culture that could be summarized as a “work-hard-play-hard” type. Blasters have their own unique way of dealing with the daily stress that we get from our work.  This attitude is evident even  in the most basic part of the office: the desk. This is practically where most of us spend the majority of the day working (or not :p) so most of us have their own way of decorating our desks. I went around for a little while to see what things people have on their work spaces.

So here are some of the things that I managed to photograph in the BlastSuites area (unfortunately I had little time to go around):

Scale Model Kits – Gundams, Transformers, Cars, Bikes, etc. One even has a custom painted Perfect Grade Gundam that costs more than 10k php! Too bad I forgot to take a photo.

Eli's Bike

Ken's OverFlag

Ken's Gundam 00

Figures / Action Figures – Detroit Metal City, Final Fantasy, Iron Man. One even has a whole table full of World of Warcraft action Figures.

My Johannes Krauser II Action Figure (riding my Husky :p)

Mickey's Zack and Cloud Action Figures

Mickey's FF8 Action Figures

Ramil's Iron Man

Stuffed Toys – Stuff toys all around, there’s even a giant bear holding little bear. =))

TJ's Mickey and Minnie Mouse

A lot more stuff could  be found on other teams desks but I decided to cover just my team. Bwahaha.

Well that’s it for now. I’ll be sharing more about BAI culture in my future posts.

Good night and God bless!

Krauser-san ascende das profundezas do inferno para oferecer Satsugai à banda Jihatsu!

D.Gray Man – Road Kamelot

*This show was dropped at 41

So D.Gray Man was dropped because it was all pretty much bullshit. All fillers apparently. Too bad too, because it had such promise to be a great show. I hear that the manga is really good, and I don’t doubt that, but I’m far to lazy to actually read it. However, the anime did have some sick characters, the best of them belongnig to the Noah clan. And the best of these being, of course, Road (Rhode?). She’s awesome, and here’s why:

• Her skin color is actually gray….I wonder if she can still get a cab?
• HORIZONTAL STRIPED SOCKS (or whatever those are)! YES!
• Purple hair! Helloooo, she’s gotta be in my top coolest looking characters list!

But enough about looks, she’ s awesome because she’s got that something about her, sort of an arrogance. Arrogance is awesome, especially when your dressed in high, horizantal striped socks and have purple hair and gray skin. She almost reminds me of Franken Fran with those marks on her forehead, which just adds to how cool she looks. Oh, and she likes candy. Oh, and despite her looks, she’s actually one of the oldest clan members. If you read this wikipedia page about her, you can see even more reasons why she’s one of the coolest characters ever. Sadism? Fucking awesome. Too bad Wikipedia is always sometimes wrong.

Deathnote – Light Yagami

Okay, so the way that he kills people isn’t really “bad ass.” I might even say that it probably doesn’t even feel like you’re really killing someone when all you do is write down their name and picture their face. But, God damn it, Light has got to be the best tactician in anime. Lelouch couldn’t even put up with the likes of Light. I mean, Light planned….well, I don’t want to say exactly. But the longer that the show carried on without a BAM moment, the bigger the BAM moment was when it came. And it was mainly all Light (L was cool too, in fact it took me a while to decided between Light and L..but Light got the better of L in the end, soo).

Light can almost never be outsmarted (until the inevitable end….and a kid beat him? Really? That kid was like….13 years old.)

Denpa Teki na Kanojo – Ochibana

Here’s a character who could be one of my favorites, if she wasn’t just in one OVA episode (two more are slated to come out, however). Personally, I love the hair, I love the weirdness, and if you’re ever getting beat to death by a delusional girl with a bat, she’ll somehow come get you and rescue you. She’s almost the perfect female character.

Detroit Metal City – Soichi Negishi/Johannes Krauser II

Is there anything better than an alter ego/skitso/etc? Nope. Not much. I almost thought about picking the President, because whenever she talks it’s just fucking hilarious. But come on…really?

Negishi is a pussy. Krauser kicks ass. Put them both together and you’ve got a character that sometimes loses his mind, and calls the girl he likes a pig whore, and that he’s going to rape her. Then he makes up some excuse, and she believes him. Negishi kind of sucks, but without him, Krauser would only be a little bit kick-ass awesome. I don’t know if you noticed, but Krauser raped a tower.

D.N. Angel – Emiko Niwa

I’m going to summerize this choice with one sentence:

She encourages her son to steal.

What more can you ask for?

Dragonball – Goku

I mean, come on, Goku wins in this series hands down. You can’t really go wrong with a kid who’s pretty much oblivious to everything around him, including how unnatural his own strength is, and kicks ass all over the place. He’s just fucking awesome. And he’s got a tail. You know, I used to want a tail at one point in my life, just to see what it feels like.

Dragonball Z – Vegeta

See that picture? I shouldn’t have to explain why Vegeta is the best character in DBZ. He’s fucking awesome. He’s a bad ass Sayain with a sick ass voice (dubbed version). He’s also evil (until they make a mistake and make him a good guy). He kicks ass and is the shit. Easily my favorite character in DBZ, and one of my favorite characters ever.

Dragonball GT – Goku/Vegeta Fusion

Yea. I’ll let that video be the explanation. Also, on farther inspection, I need to rewatch this show because I really can only remember bits and pieces.

]]> http://slightlybiasedmanga.com/2009/11/05/detroit-metal-city-3/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:13:19 +0000 Connie http://slightlybiasedmanga.com/2009/11/05/detroit-metal-city-3/

Kiminori Wakasugi – Viz – 2009 – 8+ volumes

It’s amusing to see that Amazon Japan suggests that people who bought the 8th volume of Detroit Metal City also bought Saint Young Men, Black Lagoon, and What Did You Eat Yesterday?  Those four series have very little to do with one another.

I am ashamed to admit that, given the choice between this and Ooku 2, I read this first.  I mean, it’s close between the two, and Ooku is the better series.  But nothing makes me laugh like Detroit Metal City.  Absolutely nothing.

This volume emphasizes the fact that it’s no accident or mere coincidence that Negishi pulls off amazing “metal” feats while dressed as Krauser.  He is just innately talented.  He’s gifted by the Gods of music to be more metal than anyone else on the planet.  My favorite chapter, hands down, is when he’s in a cafe with the other members of the band after a show and the three run into some unruly fans.  It falls to Wada, the bassist, to calm them down while dressed as Jagi.  Apparently Wada doesn’t have a “metal” bone in his body, because the entire chapter is Negishi trying to set up cool stuff for Wada to say and Wada blowing it.  The chapter ultimately ends with Negishi pretending to be raped by a baffled Wada, who thinks to himself that Negishi truly is “metal.”  This chapter isn’t just hilarious, but also shows us just how insane Negishi is compared to a regular person, even within the logic of the series and the band members themselves.

I also like that only the most petty things set Negishi off on “metal” rages.  The above scenario was triggered when he threatened to kill Camus, the drummer, while dressed as Krauser since Camus had failed to return a video game.  One of his bizarre public scenes in another chapter happens to his friend in Tetrapot Melon Tea, the boy he disgraced last volume, when he thinks the boy is getting too close to his (not really) girlfriend Aikawa.  He disgraces someone else later for being Aikawa’s ex-boyfriend.

The petty revenge trips are part of what make this series genius, but the other part is that everyone takes Krauser so seriously.  Everything that Krauser says and does is taken as gospel by fans of DMC.  When Krauser does something awesome like order Tiger Brains at a bar, there are stands selling Tiger Brains at a festival they are playing at later.  Negishi’s little brother gets his hair mushroom cut in an attempt to follow Krauser’s advice and get a “public indecency” cut, but Negishi is displeased that he has dyed it flesh-colored and wants a throbbing vein tattoed on his face to make his entire head look like a penis.

The jokes are simple, but their absurdity, combined with the fact everyone takes them so seriously are what make them so funny.  It’s very, very profane, and in pretty poor taste, but that’s also part of its charm.  I can’t help but like it for dancing all over the corpse of good taste with such glee, rather than the sarcasm that usually makes such humor fall flat.

This volume does have a plot.  Kenny Ill Dark is sponsoring a metal festival among the most hardcore metal bands, including all bands that did not accept Krauser as the new King of Metal.  This contest doesn’t happen until the very end of the volume, but carries over into the next volume, with promises of some very sinister competition ahead.  Predictably, all the legs of the current competition are won in very silly ways that have nothing at all to do with metal.

Me?  I’m excited about the scatolo-metal band that looks to be appearing next volume.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.

The actor Matsuyama Kenichi plays the lead role in the movie ‘カムイ外伝 / Kamui Gaiden’ currently being shown in theaters nationwide.
Just the other day Matsuyama appeared onstage at a movie theater to thank the fans for making the film a big hit.
In the four weeks after it had premiered it attracted a total of 850,000 people and raked in a hefty 1 billion yen (roughly 10 million dollars).

The director Sai Yoichi announced that the movie will be screened at the Dubai International Film Festival in December and at the International Film Festival Rotterdam next year in January.

Last year Matsuyama had participated in the Toronto International Film Festival for becoming the main character in the film ‘デトロイト・メタル・シティ / Detroit Metal City’. “Foreign movie fans reacted in many different ways towards each scene. It almost seemed as if they were enjoying the movie as one single group.” He was looking forward to seeing how the audience will like the new film.

Source: mjp

Boa noite Net-mans hj estou aqui para trazer o cap 1 do DMC! Aproveitem.

DMC – Faixa 1:  Mediafire 4shared

Bom como eu tinha dito bem no começo do fansub! Eu iria trazer os mangás traduzidos pelo uchu scanlator para o hacchi fansub e é o que eu estarei fazendo! Vou fazer 1 lançamento por semana!

Ai está o lançamento do 1º mangá da serie … semana que vem tem mais ^^

DMC – O Nascimento do DMC : Mediafire 4shared

Main Title_Detroit Metal City
Official Title_デトロイト・メタル・シティ
Short_demc, demeci, DMC
Type_OVA, 12 episodes
Year_08.08.2008
Categories_Band, Comedy, Music, Parody, Seinen, Violence
Main creators_Wakasugi Kiminori, Nagahama Hiroshi, Shimamura Hidekazu, Yamamoto Harukichi, Studio 4C
Resources_Official page, ANN, AnimeNFO, Allcinema, AniDB

Info_

Based on the seinen manga by Wakasugi Kiminori serialised in Young Animal.Souichi Negishi is a shy young man who came from the rural Ota Prefecture to Tokyo for college and wished to become a kindergarten teacher. However, for some reason he became the singer and songwriter of a metal band named “Detroit Metal City,” with a stage name “Johannes Krauser II.” Whenever he wears the heavy makeup, Negishi becomes a completely different person, shouting the most vulgar profanities beyond anyone’s imagination. With the popularity of DMC increases, Negishi starts worrying his double personalities can have negative effects on his (romantic) life off stage.

Download_

Detroit Metal City – 01 – PV Sick Murderer – [Triad](b2ef214e).mkv

Detroit Metal City -02 – Real Legend Satan – [Triad](7250138d).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 03 – Pig Drug – [Triad](7bffb858).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 04 – Frustration Good Song – [Triad](04245a7f).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 05 – Masochist Family – [Triad](fcec055f).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 06 – Punk.1 Punk.2 – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](9bdba077).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 07 – Tower Confession – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](24961cee).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 08 – Promise Alternation – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](8ac5262e).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 09 – Cinema.1 Cinema.2 – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](f0ddfead).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 10 – Fake Detroit-Moe-City – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](4f320469).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 11 – Hip Hop.1 Hip Hop.2 – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](7fccc6d3).mkv
Detroit Metal City – 12 – Emperor.1 Emperor.2 – [Huzzah & Scum-Scans](3e38b4a9).mkv

(part III here in case you missed it)

Ok, so this was sent to me in April but I didn’t spot it until now.

I don’t know squat about manga but the clip below was sufficiently weird for me to dig around and find out what the hell all the screaming is about.

Of course it was about a t.v. series.

What’s cool about the series is that the main character, Soichi Negishiis, is a well-trained musician and, according to the synopsis, he’s an all round pretty nice dude.

Unfortunately, poor Soichi had zero success as a regular pop musician so he sold out, took on a fake persona and became the lead singer of a hardcore death metal band. Oh the irony. And not a bad twist.

I think I’m going to go out as Soichi for Halloween this year and when people ask if I’m a vampire I’ll tell them that I’m going to rape their parents (just to clarify my bold costume choice, you understand).

Which will likely result in my arrest.

Which will result in me calling one of you to read this blog post as my defense (apparently the internet is getting all judicialized like – check that WTF story out here).

Anyway, here’s a subtitled goodness clip of “Detroit Metal City” with thanks to Elyne Quan (bonus points for a ball gag – no, I don’t mean from Elyne):

I was going to write a first impressions post, but then I discovered that I had already finished the entire anime, so here is a review. What should I write about this?

I think that the above picture sums up my feelings of this show, which I was reminded into watching by Baka-Raptor (who also reminded me or convinced me into watching Touch, The Rapeman, and more).

Do I really need to review? This anime is full of awesome in pretty much every category. I mean, it’s full of rape, hilarity, rape, Engrish swearing,  more hilarity, more rape, and even rape. Even Tokyo Tower can’t withstand the epic rape that she gets.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that all images might not be suitable for work.

And I mentioned awesome hilarious Engrish (I fucking LOVE Engrish):

The President just adds the F-word on to the end of any sentence. In fact, the F-word plays a key part in this show.

In all honesty, this is probably the funniest fucking show that I’ve ever seen (except Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, which will never be replaced). If you haven’t seen DMC, then you’re a fuck.

Premise: This fucking huge ass pussy of a kid, named Negishi, moved to Tokyo in hopes of being in a Swedish Pop Group or some gay kind of music group like that. Instead, he somehow became the lead singer in a death metal band called Detroit Metal City, where his name is Johannes Krauser II and he sings about rape, murder, and all that good fun stuff. Krauser is pretty much the opposite of Negishi, and is fucking awesome as opposed to being a little bitch.

What makes this anime awesome is that anything that Krauser does, whether on purpose or by accident, is somehow turned into something bad ass and awesome by all of the fans. You know what, fuck this review, you should watch the show and make your own assumptions.

FINAL GRADE = 5^^

After being raped ten times in one second by Krauser, Bill decided, "Why fight it?"

EDIT: The manga isn’t bad either:

This is fucking hilarious to me.

Back again to talk about the stuff I bought in the past week.  First up is manga and then DVDs.  There’s a lot of variety in this week’s DVD collection in terms of genre and demographic.  I’m just random like that.

Shonen Jump November 2009- On time with yet another Naruto cover.  This month’s issue contains the usual and a preview of Yu-Gi-Oh! R (surprisingly worse than GX).

Yen Plus October 2009-  For a magazine that supposedly ships the first week each month, it’s unacceptable receiving this on the last day of the month, ripped and bent no less.  I’m just letting you know Yen Plus has a shit ton of problems with their subscription service.  Subscribers constantly complain of receiving their issues weeks after bookstores if at all.  I’ll probably be canceling my subscription by the end of the year.

Detroit Metal City vol. 2- Krauser II saves this week’s pick-ups.  Nothing like 200 pages of rape jokes and heavy metal.  Unfortunately, no tattoos in this volume.

Battle For Terra- This was one of those movies I wanted to see in theatres but never got around to.  I believe it was even in 3D.  So I picked this up when I saw it at Borders for 10 bucks. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s supposed to be a reverse invasion film, with the humans taking over an alien planet.

Ghost Hound: Collection 1- I knew nothing about this before, except that it’s from the creator of Ghost in the Shell and the 20th anniversary project from Production I.G. Pretty big names there, and a big price tag.  This set retails for $60 (half season sets from Sentai Filmworks are usually $40).  But I watched the first disc last night and it’s really good.  Very spooky.  Thanks you Right Stuf for sending this a month before release date.

See Dick Run- Kel Mitchell in a new movie?  Sold.  I grew up on Kenan & Kel and I’ve been dying to see Kel in something new for years.  Kel stars as Dick, a playa who lost his manhood after a night with a succubus.  He has to find his manhood within 24 hours or it’s gone forever.  So he sets out with his best friend to question his top 5 one-night-stands to see who put the hex on him.  This movie is so low-budget, but it adds to the hilarity. It’s not the best script, but it’s so good to see Kel in the movies again.

The Wizard of Oz- Believe it or not, The Wizard of Oz was my favorite film as a kid.  I used to watch it everyday.  Since I missed out on the past 2 or 3 DVD releases of this movie, I decided to pick up this new edition.  Still one of the best films of all time.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Special Edition- I’m a big fan of Batman.  Superman not so much.  But I still wanted to check out this team-up film, adapted from the graphic novel.

That’s all for now.  Right Stuf finally has their Viz Media sale up, so I’m going to put in 2 or 3 orders in the following week.  Viz simply has the most series that I’m collecting and I’m behind on a few.  Unfortunately, the sale is only good for manga.  I guess I’ll have to order Hunter x Hunter Collection 4 and the 20th Century Boys movies some other time.

Dear J-

Continuing on the literary theme, I know I’ve talked about Walter Mitty before, the man of a thousand secret lives lived large to escape the doldrums of every day reality. Would he, given the chance to change his course, choose to become a secret agent, or would he stay the course and instead continue to climb the mountains of his mind? I suspect that he’d really rather remain quietly in some corner of Thurber’s mind, but, once revealed, would find some way to sneak back into the shadows again.

I’m also a big fan of scanlations (folks who scan comics in foreign languages, translate them, then edit the English text into the bubbles); the price is right, the pace is better than actual comics are capable of (when you don’t have to print and store on dead trees, distribution logistics are no longer a problem), and as part of the whole comics elitism thing, the more obscure the comic, the better it must be. Somewhere out there is a comic with only one reader; clearly, it is too good for you and I. Sometimes they make it to licensing deals with physical publishers — it’s interesting to compare the two different translation styles; you’d think that the professional publishers would be better, but not always — and the scanlations dry up.

Detroit Metal City showed up on the shelves a few months ago, picked up by Viz; the lead character, Negishi, is a Walter Mitty-type who’s filled with self-loathing at his own secret identity — the frontman for a death metal band with a rabid following. Yet the more he lets his inner demons out, the closer his off-stage persona comes to his on-stage performer. Unlike Walter, Negishi’s treading a path that will lead to reconciling the two sides; we need to have some blend of the unbridled imagination with the controlled, sober judgment in our lives. I need to remember that most days; we’ll burst without finding an outlet.

Mike

Novas mp3 de Detroit Metal City no AniManiaClub! Confira!

Kamui Den (La leyenda de Kamui), el mítico manga de Sanpei Shirato, está de vuelta por partida doble: por una parte, el manga original, con 45 años a sus espaldas desde que comenzara su andadura en la alternativa revista Garo, regresa con un spin-off que servirá, según advierte su autor, de antesala al tercer gran arco argumental del manga; y por otro lado, los cines japoneses aguardan el estreno de la película inspirada en el manga del conocido ninja Kamui el 19 de septiembre protagonizado por Kenichi Matsuyama (L en Death Note, Krauser II en Detroit Metal City).

Sanpei Shirato es uno de los pioneros del manga gekiga, especializado en las historias de samuráis y ninjas, como es el caso de Sasuke o la que nos ocupa, la propia Kamui Den, que tras más de 45 años atesora más de una veintena de tomos. El segundo principal arco argumental concluyó en 2000 y ahora, tras 9 años de ausencia regresa con un spin-off de 3 episodios, Kamui Gaiden Saikai (Reunión), centrado en Ikona, la amiga de la infancia de Kamui, en la revista Big Comic de Shogakukan. En España Kamui Den fue publicado parcialmente por Planeta deAgostini como uno de su primeros lanzamientos a partir de la edición norteamericana retocada por Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo) y el anime inspirado en la obra llegó a Sudamérica e Italia entre otros países como Kamui el ninja desertor.

Via: Misión Tokyo

Kiminori Wakasugi – Viz – 2009 – 7+ volumes
WARNING: I can’t talk about this series without swearing and being vulgar.  I just can’t.  Be advised.

I mentioned this elsewhere, but we recently had a feature at Manga Recon about the best manga from the first half of 2009.  Part of me cried for choosing this and taking Real off my list, but the other part of me loves to laugh and secretly wants to be able to use lines like “What the fuck did you do to my clit boner-inducing lines?!” in everyday discourse.

The laughs are cheap here.  The jokes are either terrible or based entirely on shouting profanity and sexual innuendo.  But when you are as energetic and sincere about the profanity as Detroit Metal City, it ceases to be groan-inducing and is instead hilarious.  The terrible jokes are things like… I don’t know, Negishi worrying about whether his makeup is on straight, the crowd saying Krauser’s face is warped because the moon is partially covered, and the Negishi silently thinking that his makeup must look weird.  I love Negishi’s moderate reactions like that, especially when the situation is insane as some of the ones in this volume.

There continues to be… not really an overarching plot, though several things happen in this volume.  Early chapters are devoted to schooling a punk band called “Kintama Girls” that have been badmouthing DMC, somewhere in the middle of the volume DMC puts out an album and promotes it, and towards the end they do battle with a rapper named Kiva (hilariously explained as “Ghostface Ninja,” because he’s a ninja, not a killah).  In between, there are more of the insane one-shots that somehow top the ones from the last volume.  Many are about his ladyfriend Aikawa, who should have stopped talking to him a long time ago but hasn’t.  I laughed until I cried while reading one where randomly muttered phrases send fans gathering at Tokyo Tower and Negishi shows up to try and disperse the crowd and winds up making Tokyo Tower cum.  I read it and still don’t know how that works, but I loved every single panel in that chapter.  Nothing went to waste. I also laughed really hard at the results of a poor DMC fan’s surgery, and how it inspired the 11-rapes-in-one-second Satsugai song, which really did cause Krauser to cut his tongue.

Another charming detail is in the bizarrely rough art.  It’s kind of crude, but the details are where it counts.  Facial expressions in particular are great.  Krauser’s facial expressions always make me laugh since his face is already pretty funny, but I was tearing up towards the end as he was staring in disbelief at Kiva and his horrible rhymes.  Actually, the entire story with Kiva the rapper was just magical.

This and Strawberry-chan are the funniest gag manga I’ve ever read.  I can’t help but laugh at crude, terrible junior high humor.  Especially when it’s done oh so right.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.

I started this blog eighteen months ago, and last night my blog reached 100,000 hits!

The first month I started this blog (2008 March), it got only about 20 hits a day…but the number steadily climbed.

These days my blog gets between 700 – 850 hits a day. At that rate, it’ll get another 100,000 by next January.

My blog's monthly stats for 2008 March - 2009 August

Sometimes I’m surprised by the search engine terms that people have used to find my blog.

Such as:

• IKEA logo (I have a post about IKEA in Japan. And their logo is on the page. Click here).
• McDonalds logo (It’s on this post).
• Gene Simmons (He’s the bassist in the rock band KISS. I have a number of KISS-related posts. This post shows his photo and a video of him performing a song written exclusively for a Japanese movie).
• Detroit Metal City (This is the Japanese movie that Gene Simmons cameos in).
• Death Note (I have this post).
• Rock And Roll Over (I did two interviews with the artist of that KISS album cover. Here and here).
• Godzilla (Maybe this post will interest you).
• Octopus (I have a post about octopi with too many legs. It’s here).
• John Lennon shot (I wrote a post about it on the 28th anniversary of that tragedy).

How did you find my blog? With a search engine? What were you searching when you found it? Did you find, on my blog, what you were looking for?

And, if you have a blog, what search engine terms do people use to commonly find your blog?