AniManga: Jujutsu Kaisen

 

First let me say I'm pleasantly surprised to see Bleach return to serialization. It was one of my top three manga's twenty years ago. I didn't like how the original story-line ended. It felt unfinished. I'm curious to see how the new arc develops.

 

Now with that p.s.a. (public service announcement) out the way, let's talk about the current manga in my top three. Jujutsu Kaisen, is written and illustrated by Gege Akutami. It been in serialization since 2018. The 24 episode anime ran from Oct. 2020 - Mar. 2021. If I had to describe the series in one sentence, I would say... "It has martial arts battles like Naruto, crazy powers like Dragon Ball Z, with plot twists and originality of Hellsing". It's off the chain.

The foundation of sorcery is control of cursed energy. All living beings release cursed energy. It's the build up of negative thoughts and emotions that's unconsciously leaked into the environment. When there's a strong convergence of negative energy it results in the birth of a cursed being. These cursed creatures or invisible to human eyes but can still kill, and consume humans. Cursed energy can also be imbued into objects such as weapons, places or jewelry. 

The most powerful cursed being was Ryomen Sukuna. He was so powerful it took the entire sorcery world to defeat him. All that remained of Sukunas' body were his twenty fingers (he had four arms) containing his cursed energy. The fingers were spread in various places throughout the world. Some were collected by sorcerers, others collected by curses, while the rest were lost.

The story revolves around a high schooler named Yuji Itadori. He goes from being a normal student to a fugitive in the dangerous world of Jujutsu sorcerers. Through a series of unfortune events Yuji ends up eating one of Sukuna's fingers to save his friends. Once Yuji ate the finger he became the host for Sukuna. Sukuna's goal is a world where curses rule and humans are servants. The more fingers Yuji consumes, the stronger Sukuna's possession over his body becomes. To help Yuji control Sukuna's possession they send him to a sorcerer school to learn how to control cursed energy. Aside from being able to see and exorcise curses, Jujutsu sorcerers can use it to recover from fatigue or heal wounds. 

The Jujutsu world is torn asunder once curses learned Sukuna had a vessel and could be revived. The majority of  the Jujutsu sorcerer's decided to execute Yuji. Most of the powerful curses hunted him for capture. Yuji spends the majority of the time fighting curses, other Jujutsu students, teachers, and rogue agents with nefarious agendas. The battles are intense and  exceptionally detailed. (They get busy!)  It's a fast paced, original story with good character development a lot of plot twists and dark humor. If you're looking for something new to read, u should definitely check out Jujutsu Kaisen. If u like the manga support the artist and tell a friend to tell a friend. 

Until Next We Speak, Be Well 

Tha One an Only

AniManga: Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School)

Kangoku Gakuen (Prison School in English) is my manga guilty pleasure. It has a comedic storyline, interesting character development, kinky imagery, and insane plots. The manga is written by Akira Hiramoto. Its been serialized since 2011. The series was made into a twelve episode anime in 2015.

This AniManga centers around a group of five teenage guys who attend Hachimitsu Academy. The school was formally an all-girl academy and one of the strictest schools in Tokyo. To make things worse the school is under the control of a group called the Underground Student Council. Most of its members hate men. The rest of the student body is apprehensive about talking to men because they have no experience with them. If that sounds bad..it only gets worse from there. On the high school premises is a small prison, hence the name Prison School.  The five guys named Kiyoshi, Takehito, Shingo, Joji, Reiji get locked in prison. 

Kiyoshi is the main character of the series. He's in love with the president of the USC (Underground Student Council) little sister Chiyo. Kiyoshi is also the love interest of Hana another member of the USC. Hana is a martial arts expert, sadistic and is jealous of Kiyoshi's affection towards Chiyo. Out of the four guys Kiyoshi is the most normal and runs into the most problems. Kiyoshi and Shingo were friends from middle school. Shingo, is your average high school delinquent. He has a pessimistic personality and almost zero loyalty towards the other four guys. 

Takehito (also known as) "Gakuto" is a glasses wearing otaku with a fascination for the Three Kingdoms. Throughout the series, Gakuto proves to be a smart strategist and opportunist. During their stay in prison, Gakuto and Kiyoshi come up with several ingenious plans to escape their forced captivity. Out of all the guys, Gakuto takes the most physical abuse during the series. He also has the worse reputation. 

Joji (also known as Joe) is the weakest member of the group. He has a persistent cough that never goes away. He can only take light physical exertion and is no help in their attempt to escape prison. Joe does have an affinity towards animals. At one point during the series, he is portrayed as a Doctor Dolittle by talking to a colony of ants. Joe is loyal to his friends. On numerous occasions, he tries to be the voice of reason for the group.  

Reiji (also known as Andre) is the largest member of the group. He is overweight and taller than the other guys. Andre stands out from the group because he is a masochist with extra long earlobes. He enjoys pain and being degraded. During his stay in prison, he becomes obsessed with their prison guard Meiko. Like Joe, Andre is fiercely loyal to his friends. Throughout the series, he starts out as a gentle giant. As it progresses, he becomes more outgoing. Due to his strange proclivities, he becomes the object of fascination for several girls at the academy. 

I'll leave the circumstances of how the guys get locked in the school prison up to you the reader to discover. What I will say is once the guys are in prison they get treated like POW's (Prisons or War). Their prison guard and enforcer for the USC is a woman named Meiko. She is in charge of keeping the guys in line by using fear, intimidation, and extreme violence. For some reason, she has a particular dislike for Gakuto. 

Meiko is a tall curvaceous woman who is fiercely loyal to Mari the USC president. Meiko also has enormous breasts which she flaunts proudly. As a youth, she was bullied for her breast size until Mari befriended her and helped her develop the self-confidence to be proud of her figure. Due to her constant strength training, Meiko is often drawn sweating. She is an extreme sadist with inhuman strength. Meiko is stronger than Andre the biggest member of the guys' group. She can be seen as the main protagonist during the first half of the series. 

Mari is the USC president. She is also the daughter of the Chairman of the academy. Mari hates boys and believes all men are perverts because her father has a fascination with the female form (especially butts). Mari plots and conspires with the rest of the USC to get the guys expelled from the academy. In the first half of the series, she is pure evil. During the second half, she becomes calmer because she experiences some of the torment she put the boys through. Her relationship with the chairman is tumultuous. She is overprotective of her friends and little sister Chiyo.  

The character development during the series is phenomenal. The whole first half is about the USC while the second half of the series is about the above ground student council. The USC and the student council go to war for control of the academy and the five guys get trapped in the crossfire. My one criticism is that during the second half of the series some of the story arcs get dragged out. The writers break-up the action between too many chapters instead of keeping it fast-paced and condensed. 

Overall Kangoku Gakuen is an awesome series. If you're looking for action, ecchi, romance, comedy, interesting characters, with insane plots...I highly recommend it. 

Waiting to Watch

Things have been busy so I haven't had a chance to see any new movies for a while. The short movie I'm working on will be done tomorrow so I'll post it.

Talking about movies, I finally got to see the new Star Trek movie "Into the Darkness" and I wasn't impressed.The movie wasn't bad but I like the original "Wrath of Khan" version better. It was more grimy and the dialog between Capitan Kirk and Khan was intense.

There's a few movies I'm waiting to see. Most are science fiction cuz I love the genre, but there may be a thriller or two in the list also. Top of the list is The Wolverine! Most people are waiting for Superman, but I was never into Superman comics. I collected Wolverine for years and like how they told his origin story in the first movie. Hopefully they repeat the fine blend of story-telling and action in this film.   

Below are the trailers for some of the films I'm waiting to watch. 

AniManga: Nurarihyon no Mago

I just finished watching the anime series Nurarihyon no Mago (Nurarihyon's grandson). It's an Animanga that was good... but left me unsatisfied with the conclusion.

The series is broken into two parts. First, there was Nurarihyon no Mago. The grandson of great Yakuza demon lord, Nurarihyon named Rikuo Nura. Rikuo has to take over as Third Head of the Nura Clan at the young age of 12 years old. His father was killed in front of his eyes so he was forced into the position.

The Nura clan are Yokai (demons) which protect humans and keep other gangs out of Edo, Japan. Rikuo is only one quarter Yokai, and can only change into demon form at night. The series follows  Rikuo as he trains to become a skilled ninja fighter while building his own parade of 100 demons. Just like his father and grandfather.

The protagonists in part one were a group of rival demons from the Shikoku area. They knew the Nura clan was weakened by the death of Rikuo's father and planned to take over their territory. The Shikoku group of 88 demons led by its leader Tamazuki, had a sword named the Devil's Hammer. The sword was fabled to be unbeatable. Even with the sword, they get crushed by the Nura clan.

There's also a third group of fighters which are humans named Onmyoji. They are like the Quincy's in Bleach. The Keikain House, are the most famous Onmyoji. They specialize in using Shikigami. Spirit creatures and elements like fire, lightening, water, etc. There job is to protect humans from yokai. 

In part two, Rikuo undergoes more training and learns how to control "Fear" which is demon energy. The Nura clan has to fight a 400 year old demon fox, named Haguromo-Gitsune. Who is trying to give birth to the anti-christ so demons could rule over the earth in darkness.

Part two is way better than part one in my opinion. It gives the complete back story on how Rikuo's father dies. Why he dies. Who orchestrated the hit. The connection with the Onmyoji, and a lot of ninja battles. The fights are fast-paced, with good action sequences. They mix martial arts with magic like Naruto or Bleach. 

The only problem I had with part two is that they don't conclude the story! The series stops on episode 25. They do a recap of the whole series in episode 26. If they did end it on episode 25...I didn't understand it. If you have seen the series or watch it and get the ending. Write it below this post in the comments or send it to me in an email. I am dying to know what happened.

Check out the battle between Rikuo Nura and Seimei the Anti-Christ below.