Category: Manga

May’s Manga of the Month: GTO Shonan 14 Days

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GTO Shonan 14 Days (麻辣教师GTO 湘南14天) by Tooru Fujisawa

Whenever Tohru Fujisawa needs work he goes back to the well named Eikichi Onizuka. Onizuka has been in Bad Company, Shonan Junai Gumi, and Great Teacher Onizuka and now he is continuing his adventures in GTO Shonan 14 Days. But there is a reason Fujisawa can always go back to the Onizuka well. Onizuka’s adventures are filled with splendid mixture of manly action, naughty comedy, and heartfelt drama that make a well balanced meal that always satisfies and leaves you wanting more.

 GTO Shonan 14 Days is an odd manga in the fact that the whole story takes place in the two weeks between the climax of the original GTO manga and the epilogue. After an incident on TV Onizuka decides to visit Shonan until the heat dies down. He meets the beautiful Ayame Shiratori who knows him through Azusa Fuytsuki and is convinced to come with her at the White Swan youth home. Onizuka has to work his over the top magic with troubled teens while trying to lose his pesky virginity once and for all.

GTO Shonan 14 Days is more GTO just in a new setting but I am all right with that. It is like sitting down to a comforting meal after a hard days work. There is just something comforting in seeing GTO back in the saddle. The kids Onizuka have to deal with always send the craziest problems his way and Onizuka tackles them by seeing their crazy and then raising them double. But he is so charmingly manly when he does it that you cannot help but root for him. The series also integrates some fan favorite characters from both GTO and Shonan Junai Gumi so any long time fans will get a bit of service as well. I really hope that some one license rescues GTO and picks up Shonan 14 Days at the same time. It is a title that really need to stay in print in all its forms. This series is a classic in all its iterations.

Ongoing Investigations: Case #122

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If there are two current Shonen Jump properties that would easily integrate into one another, they are One Piece and Toriko. What with Luffy and crew’s constant island hoping, and penchant for eating large quantities of food, meeting Toriko is right in line with things. So just when the Strawhats find their cupboards bare they spot an island. Luffy, Chopper, Nami, and Sanji head out to find food and run into giant pigs that while still alive already have that yummy barbecued smell and flavor. This is also where they meet Toriko who mistakes Chopper for another piece of rare cuisine. Let the fighting and eating commence! This was actually my introduction to Toriko and it was a lot of rambunctious fun! And that’s all it is, though I don’t know if there is any over arching plot beyond discovering these foods to worry about later on, it just doesn’t need it.

Before we kicked off watching Toriko for the season preview we decided to watch the one hour One Piece/Toriko cross over special. The purpose of the cross over is simple. Toriko is new and they want to build an audience for the show and One Piece is insanely popular so it will draw viewers by default. Despite that cynical reasoning the two shows cross over easily in a very organic fashion. It begins with the One Piece pirates and the Toriko gang landing on the same fantastical island of food. Since both groups are gluttonous little gourmands the fact that they would team up to get delicious but dangerous dishes the logical conclusion of their meeting more than a forced plot device. They have to do the prerequisite fight that is quickly broken up to turn into a team up rather quickly. After the initial misunderstanding is cleared up Toriko and Luffy band together to take down some tasty monsters and rescue their weaker party members when they are kidnapped. I did notice that the Strawhats got a bit of the short end of the stick. Half the pirate crew was on the boat most of the special and Luffy seems to be underpowered in order to let Toriko shine. But this was really made to hook people on what a manly man Toriko therefore if Luffy is destroying everything he meets than people will forget Toriko before they even get a chance to know him. But that does not diminish this fun little side quest. It is recommended for fans of either series or anyone who likes humorous shonen fighting shows.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #121

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I know I could have talked about the shows that ended with the Winter 2011 season but this week I decided to talk about three really odd things and save my feelings on the shows wrapping up for next week.  My first pick is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic because I had to understand the strange cult of the Bronies that has formed around this show. Let us get the most important detail out-of-the-way first. This is a cartoon for little girls. It is a very well made cartoon for little girls but make no mistake it is a cartoon for little girls. As someone who watched and loved HeartCatch PreCure! I have no problem watching cartoons for little girls but let us call a spade a spade. There seems to be this odd Touhou Project effect where fans have this strange obsession with filling in all the details of a world. It also creates this strange phenomenon where the fans of the show seem really proud of how ashamed they are of watching the show. That said there is a lot to like about the show. The animation is wonderful and really shows how far flash animation has come over the years. They do their best to make everyone extremely expressive which makes this show infinitely screencapable. The humor is often actually funny. The stories are often super simple considering its target audience but it is rarely patronizing though they do  restate the lesson at the end of every episode in standard kids cartoon style. And now some random observations. As One Great Turtle so succinctly pointed out Fluttershy is the most moe pony ever and I noted that Rainbow Dash is the Tomo Takino of the show. Overall it is a wonderful show to watch with any younger female relatives you have as it is a show you can enjoy together. Apparently it also appeals to older nerdier male audience and there is nothing wrong about that but it is so so very odd.

Twin Spica vol. 5, you surprised me! In a good way. This installment starts giving us some history and the revelation in it, while not totally clear yet, was not on my radar in the least. On that note, this book deals a bit less with Asumi though we do see the continued developement of Kiriu the boy protester she met in the last volume who is focused on quite a bit this time. At this point we know who Asumi is so branching out is nice. And the game of survival they are thrown in during the last couple of chapters adds some great tension while bringing the past and present back together.

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