I don’t really read enough to post here often, but since it’s a new thread, some impressions on the few things I’m keeping up with. Both are super big, so probably no huge surprises here, but still felt like writing something. Unfortunately, neither have an official English release, but one’s already announced, and the other will presumably get it at some point.
Oshi no Ko
The other manga from Aka (Kaguya-sama), with art by Mengo Yokoyari. Right now I actually prefer this to Kaguya. It’s a lot more plot heavy and a lot faster paced, while still retaining the same humor that makes Kaguya great.
Without going into spoilers, its basic story premise is set around the Japanese entertainment industry with several short (10ish chapter long) arcs looking at different aspects of it, with a focus on keeping things somewhat realistic (sometimes clearly based on real events) and not shying away from darker topics. So far, it covered over-possessive fans, live action manga adaptations, idol concerts, stage plays based on anime, and reality dating shows.
I already liked Kaguya a lot, so it was pretty clear I’ll like this, but I think Oshi no Ko finally made me realize why I like Aka’s work more than most of his contemporaries – because while his work is rooted in shounen tropes and storytelling (Kaguya being a high-school romcom for example), unlike most shounen it’s written for a (young) adult audience. This was already evident from how Kaguya handles its relationships, but it’s made explicit in Oshi no Ko with the introduction of a certain adult character
It’s not exactly subtle or deep storytelling, but it perfectly illustrates the point above about how this is basically shounen storytelling, just explicitly aimed at an older audience. And while I like deep and complicated plots and morally ambiguous characters as much as most people, but sometimes you just need an unambiguously positive message like that, and that’s kind of rare to find in more adult manga. At least in my experience.
The art is also great Aka’s a good artist in Kaguya, but I prefer Mengo’s art here. Although I suppose that splitting responsibilities between writing and drawing would result in both of them being better.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
The Amazon store page describes the story here as:
Elf mage Frieren and her courageous fellow adventurers have defeated the Demon King and brought peace to the land. With the great struggle over, they all go their separate ways to live a quiet life. But as an elf, Frieren, nearly immortal, will long outlive the rest of her former party. How will she come to terms with the mortality of her friends? How can she find fulfillment in her own life, and can she learn to understand what life means to the humans around her? Frieren begins a new journey to find the answerAnd while that’s technically accurate, descriptions like these made me reluctant to start reading it for a while. Because it honestly sounded like just another sob story, with a plot setup that seems almost identical to To Your Eternity.
But to my surprise, it’s actually not like that at all. The story still has sad moments, particularly at the beginning, but very soon it becomes much more of a standard fantasy adventure, as Frieren assembles a new party and essentially begins retracing her steps. In fact, I’d say it’s a really good blend of a comfy slice-of-life with a more standard shounen fantasy adventure story. For example, the manga makes frequent use use of dialogue-free pages filled with multiple panels to portray the passing of time. Even the sad work better because you never feel like the story exists just to make you feel sad.
It helps that all of the characters are great. Frieren is a great example of an overpowered protagonist – she’s strong, but she’s not an asshole about it, and rarely actually needs to use her full power. And the overpoweredness actually works really well with the slice-of-life aspects, as the party is never in any real danger, so you can just relax while reading. And, as the synopsis says, the way she grows and slowly start to open up to the humans around her, as well understand her emotions towards her old party, is really well done.
Pellaidh, May 2021
Manga OT 