Manga Mavericks

If Love Me For Who I Am’s non-binary maid is reporting for duty, then our non-binary host is recording a podcast about it! That’s right, we’re reviewing the first volume of a newly released series on the show this time! We haven’t spotlighted a lot of new releases recently, but we had to make an exception for this exceptional manga exploring gender and the LGBTQ community in Japan in a way we’ve rarely seen. Joining us to discuss the series is someone who’s basically become its ambassador on MangaTwitter, Ashley Hakker from Anime Herald! Ashley helps us dig into each of the series’ fantastic cast of characters, core themes, and beautiful artwork, exploring what makes it such a sweet, one-of-a-kind story! We also spend some time discussing a topic close to LumRanmaYasha - the recent #FUCKSVA initiative - and why the School of Visual Arts needs to make long overdue changes to make its campus a safe learning environment for students. It’s a more serious topic sandwiched in the middle of two relatively more l

On this episode of Manga Mavericks, Lum and Colton once again go over some more of the latest manga news as even a global pandemic can't stop all the new series, licenses or even live action adaptations being announced! Some of the biggest news stories this episode include Demon Slayer's complete take over of all of Oricon's sales lists only half way into the year, the end of The Promised Neverland, plus some updates on the state of the North American manga industry via Deb Aoki's article from Publisher's Weekly! Join us over the coming weeks as we have podcast episodes dedicated to discussions of some series such as Cross Manage, Blue Flag, Love Me For Who I Am, and much, much more!! Some of which may or may not end up being uploaded early on our Patreon! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 0:00:00 - Intro 0:01:28 - Oricon's Top Selling Manga and Light Novel Series Mid 2020 0:19:10 - May Bookscan List and June NYT Graphic Books List 0:30:12 - Eisner 2020 Nominees 0:34:48 - Souboutei Enters Final Arc 0:36:15 - Domestic

Geez, between all the series starting and ending in Shonen Jump recently, it sure feels like the brand is entering a new era. Heck, by the end of 2020 over half of the lineup will consist of series that only started this year! There are so many new series starting up that we’re getting up our episode on the last batch just as the new batch has started. Actually, there’s been a new series every month so far this year - it’s hard to keep up! Well, before we can talk about Ayakashi Triangle and the other new blood starting up, we still have to take care of some leftovers. Is Moriking a supremely funny gag comedy or did we want to squash it like a bug? Was Bone Collection bad to the bone? Did we have the time of our lives reading Time Paradox Ghost Writer? Does the Food Wars duo’s new one-shot Yugen’s All-Ghouls Classroom have a ghost of a chance at becoming a regular series in Jump? Is there anything substantial to say about any of these beyond quips and puns? Eh, honestly I wish we’d read more chapters before

Black Lives Matter.  Manga Mavericks stands in support of Black Americans and against the systemic racism and violence perpetrated by the police and the U.S. government.  There are many ways to help the Black Lives Matter movement, be it engaging in the protests yourselves or by donating to those fighting on the front lines. We’ve included links in the description of this podcast for people to learn more about petitions to sign and places to donate. We’ve donated all of our Patreon earnings from this year and hundreds of our own dollars to Bail Funds and Charities supporting progressive movements for change across the country, and if you can give, we strongly encourage you to do so. Otherwise, you can even watch videos donating all their ad money to charities too. Again, there are many ways to help, and every bit counts. To quote a great moment from The Boondocks: "What do you do when you can't do nothing, but there's nothing you can do?" "You do what you can."  In that spirit, we’re also supporting and am

Hello, darlings! Welcome to the return of our Urusei Yatsura podcast, Lum Squad! Well, technically we already returned in last month's episode, but there was actually a year-long break in between recording that and this episode! Think of it as like how there was a break between Viz's original publication of "Lum" that prompted their continuation being re-titled "The Return of Lum." Except we're not re-titling this podcast; it didn't work in the 90's and it ain't happening now. Anyways, because it'd been so long since AC and I recorded the show, we decided to spend this episode going through all the UY volumes Viz has released in the past year and share our thoughts on them! We discuss our favorite chapters, characters, the translation, lettering, and pretty much everything! Oh, and you KNOW we ranted about the whole "Hot Springs Emblem" situation. I really hope Viz reconsiders that name... Afterward, we dive into the Urusei Yatsura fan community, exploring its history and current state now! Look forward to

On this episode of Manga Mavericks, we're joined by new guest Kory from the Taiiku Podcast, as well as our old friends, Bomber (Sakaki) and Jecka from the WSS Talkbalk blog and Twitter, to talk about Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga! Chihayafuru is a high school, sports series centering on Chihaya Ayase, who is inspired by her new friends to play the Japanese card game known as karuta, and from then on becomes obsessed with it to the point of forming a team in high school to seriously compete in tournaments all across nation to become the best in Japan! Our Mavericks both recently read all of whatever was available of the manga from Kodansha USA and instantly became filled with passion while experiencing players from all walks of life competing in matches against each other in a game that requires more then just knowing a few Japanese poems! We discuss how amazing the series is from the first volume alone, as well as why readers will become enamored with the matches that take place despite any language barri

The Manga Mavericks are talking television! Welcome to the first episode of a new irregular podcast series in the vein of @ Movies, except the titular focus this time is the wonderful world of television and streaming shows (except for Anime, which is already covered by & Anime). We’ll be chatting about tv shows we’ve seen and have a lot to say about, and giving reviews of new and upcoming series! We have a very special show to talk about on this inaugural installment! We got the opportunity to check out Apple TV’s new show Central Park, a musical comedy by the creators of Bob’s Burgers. The show drops on Apple TV on May 29th, but we were able to watch the first four episodes a few weeks early! So we’re giving our first impressions on the show, what makes its characters and music special, and how these early episodes stack up against the first seasons of this creative team’s previous shows. By the time you’re done listening, I’m sure Central Park will be central in your heart! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 00

On this episode of Manga Mavericks, we're joined by Lum's good friend, Vix, as we bring back Bomber and Joey once again to talk even more Dragon Ball!! This time however, since we didn't have the time to do so on our previous episode, we take a look at some of the questions that were sent by our listeners in the form of another special Q&A podcast! We talk about all sorts topics, such as our favorite fights and characters, as well as the strengths of Toei's anime adaptation and Shunsuke Kikuchi's classic score! If some for reason you didn't think we talked about Dragon Ball enough on our previous episode, then get ready for another two hours worth!! Enjoy! Join us next week as discuss Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru /w special guests Bomber and Jecka, as well as Kory from the Taiiku Podcast! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 0:00:00 - Intro 0:02:25 - Dragon Ball Questions!! 0:05:18 - What is our Favorite Story Arc? 0:16:49 - Who are our Favorite Characters? 0:36:58 - What are our Favorite Fights? 0:45:39 - Do we fee

On this episode of Manga Mavericks, we invite on the show Shonen Sunday enthusiast Bomber D. Rufi (aka Sakaki) and comics artist Joey Weiser (Mermin, Ghost Hog) to talk about Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga! After many delays and and much rescheduling, Colton and Lum finally talk about the series that means more to them then just being an excellent comic, but a franchise that's been with them for almost their entire lives! A franchise that went from being the biggest manga in Japan, to one of the biggest shows on Cartoon Network in North America years later, to one of the biggest multimedia empires arguably within the past decade introducing tons of new manga, anime, video games, etc. to further expand upon Toriyama's beloved "Dragon World". The Mavericks and friends spend a some time reminiscing about how they got into the series via airings on Toonami and even fansub VHS tapes, afterwards they attempt to go through the entire series arc-by-arc in order to thoroughly discuss anything and everything they

I never thought we’d get around to watching the Bunny Girl Senpai movie. Much less streaming, on 4/20 weekend. Nothing less from you, FUNimation. What a rascal. Was Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl everything we dreamed of, or did we just fall asleep? Special guest Alien.Renagade joins us as we share our hearts and go back and forth on this time-traveling movie! Enjoy the show, and follow us on twitter at @manga_mavericks, on tumblr at mangamavericks.tumblr.com, and subscribe to us on Youtube. You can follow the hosts at @lumranmayasha, @VLordGTZ, and special guest Alien.Renagade at @AlienRenagade. If you’d like to help support the show financially you can pledge to our Patreon and receive some awesome rewards like our Patreon-exclusive Bonus pods! If you want to support LumRanmaYasha’s art and other projects you can donate to their personal Patreon. Don’t forget to also like and subscribe to us on Youtube and iTunes and leave us reviews to help us curate the show and create better content! If t

It’s time to put weird together, and make it even weirder! It’s not just my imagination filling me with anticipation, because we’re talking about none other than Rumiko Takahashi’s planet-rocking hit manga Urusei Yatsura! And we have plenty of cause to celebrate, because we have passed the first year anniversary of the manga’s republication by Viz Media! This is an exciting time to be a Urusei Yatsura fan, and no better time to officially cover it on the show! Long-time listeners may remember that I previously recorded a spin-off podcast called #LumSquad last year where me and my friend AC discussed the first volume of Viz’s new omnibus edition and explored some of the series’ history there. But we always intended to cover Urusei Yatsura on Manga Mavericks as well, and we’ve got a great balance of first-time readers and long-time fans on today to talk about it; our good friend and frequent guest Vix, and first-time guest Dawn from the Anime Nostalgia Podcast! Together we discuss how we got into the seri

*Take this poll to vote for the films you’d like us to cover on @ Movies in May!: https://strawpoll.com/fs3wa1s1 More details below:* We’re celebrating the birthday of Keiichi Hara’s film The Wonderland by releasing our @ Movies review of the film! Is the film as wonderful as Hara’s previous feature Miss Hokusai, or is it no wonder why it’s fallen under the radar? We discuss the film’s clever casting, child-friendly coming-of-age story, eclectic characters, and the most important topic of all - how to make the CATS movie better! Remember, vote for the FOUR films you’d like us to cover in May in this poll!: https://strawpoll.com/fs3wa1s1 We’ll announce our choices on the Violet Evergarden: Eternity and the Auto-Memory Doll episode, which will be out on Friday, May 8th! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 00:30 - Intro and Updates 02:23 - The Wonderland Discussion 48:13 - Wrap-Up Enjoy the show, and follow us on twitter at @manga_mavericks, on tumblr at mangamavericks.tumblr.com, and subscribe to us on Youtube. You can

To say times are rough would be an understatement. The pandemic has infected the anime and manga industry, affecting the production and release of several anime and manga titles. It has even taken down several once-though indomitable cons this year, including SDCC and Anime Expo. So, naturally, we’ve got to talk about all the stuff that’s either been delayed or outright canceled. Which is a real downer, man. Yet, even this pandemic can’t slow down the fast-paced world of manga, so we’ve got tons of serialization and licensing news to talk about as well. Plus, we’ve got some lighter fare including the likes of a list of manga people want to see animated, which includes a surprisingly goofy choice that I’m disappointed isn’t even Goofy-er! We’ve even thrown in a mini-review of the newest Jump series Moriking in the middle of this discussion too! So even though we’ve got some bummer news to talk about, hopefully, you’ll find this episode a humorous and hopeful romp through the latest goings-on in the always li

*Take this poll to vote for the films you’d like us to cover on @ Movies in May! - https://strawpoll.com/fs3wa1s1* It’s time to round out our trilogy of @ Movies Patreon Peeks by releasing a snippet of our exhaustive discussion of the biggest anime blockbuster in North America in over 20 years - Dragon Ball Super: Broly! We’ve previously discussed the film on Manga Mavericks, but on this episode, we dive even deeper into the film’s production and promotional history, the new insights it gives us into the life of the Saiyans, our thoughts on Broly’s new backstory and characterization, and of course - the film’s absolutely jaw-droppingly awesome animation! Plus, Vix shares her thoughts on reading through the manga for the first time, what she enjoys most about the series, and why she thinks this film is a return to form for the franchise! So get ready for a jam-packed discussion on this box office berserker as we explore in excruciating detail just what makes this film’s reinterpretation of the infamous supe

Hello darlings! Welcome back to #LumSquad, a podcast hosted by @LumRanmaYasha and @ProdTally devoted to the wonderful and wacky world of Rumiko Takahashi’s Urusei Yatsura! That’s right, we’re not a one-and-done nor were we meant to be an annual show… even though it has in fact been a year since our last episode. I apologize for that unexpected year-long hiatus, which is entirely my fault. ^^, From here on out I’m hoping to resume production on #LumSquad with AC on our originally proposed monthly schedule. It’s definitely a shame to have such a large gap between the release of the first episode and the second, but hey, it took the Urusei Yatsura manga a year and a half of irregular serialization until it became a proper long-running series, so you can think of our first episode as a pilot and this second episode onward as the real beginning of our regular podcast! Since we covered the manga on our first episode, for our second installment we’re diving deep into the anime! We explore the anime’s production h

*Take this poll to vote for the films you’d like us to cover on @ Movies in May! More details below: https://strawpoll.com/fs3wa1s1 * Does My Hero Academia’s latest theatrical feature rise to the occasion, or is this film MINUS ultra? Find out as Colton joins us to discuss Heroes Rising! We talk about our annoying theatrical experiences, our mixed feelings on the *spoiler* in the final fight, and try to figure out whether Nine actually had nine quirks or not. Plus, a special mid-credits review on the totally consequential one-shot manga tie-in to the movie that explores Nine’s backstory and totally makes him a more interesting character! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 00:30 - Intro and Updates 02:04 - My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising Discussion 1:15:07 - Wrap-Up 1:21:10 - My Hero Academia - League of Villains: Undercover Review Manga Mavericks @ Movies will release a new episode every Friday for at least through the month of April. This is our tentative schedule (Patrons will have access to these episodes at least

*Take this poll to vote for the films you'd like us to cover on @ Movies in May! More details below: https://strawpoll.com/fs3wa1s1 * Theaters might be shuttered across the country, but that won’t stop the Manga Mavericks from talking about movies! That’s right, Manga Mavericks @ Movies is returning to provide some pandemic time-passing entertainment by talking about the latest and greatest anime movies we’ve recently seen! We’re starting off our slate with some banked episodes we recorded back when we could actually see movies in theaters, beginning with our last and freshest foray into anime at the cinema - the recent re-release of Tokyo Godfathers by Fathom Events and GKIDS! What were Lum and VLord’s thoughts on getting to see Satoshi Kon’s beloved Christmas classic on the big screen for the first time, and how did they like the film’s brand new english dub? The Mavericks dig into the film’s themes, GKIDS’ pitch-perfect casting decisions, and how we’d reimagine the film’s cast with characters from other

I have a problem with the way we talk about problematic media. Or, more accurately, the way we don’t talk about problematic media. We’ve had a lot of conversations recently about problematic content in series we like and don’t like, and it’s a topic we’ve seen debated time and again whenever a series or creator does something questionable, uncomfortable, or in some cases, criminal. While it’s difficult to reconcile enjoying something that may be doing something “bad” or was created by a creator who has done something “bad,” I think it’s important to interrogate problematic content in the media we consume to identify the ways in which it may affect real people in harmful or damaging ways, and whether supporting such works emboldens the cultural pervasiveness of this content and their creators. This is a complicated topic that can be approached from many perspectives, so we invited several people who have expertise in holding conversations about problematic media and discussing the ways in which it refl

On this episode of Manga Mavericks, Colton and Lum have a lot of news to catch up on! So much, that they had to add even more to the podcast later! As the title indicates, we record a whole bunch of news that we had been meaning to get to, with even more news that came up afterwards that we decided to include with the episode, which is why this episode is a few days late, but despite the shape the world is in with the current COVID-19 pandemic, the manga/anime industry hasn't completely stopped yet! We have everything from new series, to even more new licenses, as well as our thoughts on the recent announcement of the upcoming interview with Nobuhiro Watsuki and Eiichiro Oda, plus the return of Tite Kubo and the unfortunate exit of Masashi Kishimoto. All that and more on this week's podcast! Remember to stay inside if you can and wash your hands!! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 0:00:00 - Intro Pre-Quarantine News: 0:02:25 - February Bookscan List 0:07:37 - New series by Hiroyuki 0:09:14 - New Series by Shuzo Oshim

On this episode of Manga Mavericks, Colton and Lum are joined by freelance letterer, Brandon Bovia, as well as former Shonen Jump manga editor, Jason Thompson, to discuss Kazuki Takahashi's smash hit manga, Yu-Gi-Oh! A series that went from being about the journey of a young, boy who became possessed by an evil spirit after solving an ancient puzzle, to becoming one of the biggest trading card games of all time! On this podcast, we discuss our memories of the franchise and what it means to us, especially after reading the original source material, as well as many other topics, such as the broader themes of the series and how well they're explored, or if the series would be the same or be able to achieve the same kind of international popularity without the existence of Duel Monsters, but most important of all: Can a Duel Disk eat a Devil Fruit? All these questions and more are explored throughout this podcast, so grab your deck and get your game on! PODCAST BREAKDOWN: 0:00:00 - Intro 0:05:26 - Yu-Gi-Oh! Di