Manga Mavericks

On November 13th 1996, Rumiko Takahashi's feudal fairy tale InuYasha began its serialization in Weekly Shonen Sunday, where it would continue to run for a nearly 12-year run. From the very beginning, InuYasha was wildly popular and successful both in Japan and internationally, and its popularity and influence on anime fandom are still indelible nearly a decade since it's conclusion. In honor of 20 years of InuYasha, Manga Mavericks' resident Rumic World expert LumRanmaYasha has recruited their brother and previous guest VlordGTZ to discuss the legacy of the series. We explore the origins of why InuYasha was created, how several characters came to be, and the history of InuYasha in North America. Then, we answer some Q&As asked of us by fans on Reddit, and discuss our favorite moments from the series, as well as commenting on Rumiko Takahashi's own. So sit, boy, and listen to us talk about everyone's favorite dog-eared half-demon. Don't worry, we promise it won't take as long as actually reading/watching

Halloween may be past us, but the scariest day of the year has yet to arrive. You know what I'm talking about...ELECTION DAY! Oh, the horror! The suspense is killing me! It's like the tagline for Alien vs. Predator - "Whoever Wins...We Lose." And the spectacle is going to be just as painful to watch as that movie was! Who needs to watch horror movies when real life is already so scary? So in honor of these scary days, we've invited all-around comics connoisseur and horror homie Casey "MinovskyArticle" to come on the show and delve into the depraved domain of horror manga. From the screwy spirals of Junji Ito to the killer cocks of Kazuo Umezu and everything in between, Casey provides some fantastic and frightening recommendations that will haunt your dreams and keep you up at night all year round! Other topics we cover include Seven Seas' tidal wave of new manga licenses, new E-book services, upcoming manga contests, DMP's Under the Air & The Crater Kickstarter and a whole lot more! Podcast Breakdown:

I'm not watching any anime this season. I'm not watching anything that's airing on TV (except South Park). The time I have for recreation has become limited, and so the amount of what I can watch has become more select by necessity. I don't have the time to watch an entire season of Luke Cage on Netflix, or the four hour-long DC shows airing weekly on the CW, much less the dozens of new anime that came out this season. These days, after exhausting myself from long hours of work on little sleep, I'd rather listen to podcasts or curl up in bed with a good manga to read. Does that mean that I'll never get back into TV and anime? Not necessarily. I'm interested in checking out some of those things. Basically, I'll get around to it...someday. Luckily, you're not here to see us talk about TV or anime, but manga! And this week, the Manga Mavericks have A LOT to discuss. Not talking about news for a month will do that to us! So, as you can imagine, this episode is extra long as your titular mavericks, Colton and Sid

Welcome to the first episode of our new podcast series, Manga Mavericks Presents: Manga Fights! Operating in the same fashion as Screen Junkies' Movie Fights, Manga Fights features passionate manga fans debating it out over manga-related several topics both intriguing and insane. With the Manga Mavericks as your hosts, intelligent conversations, heated arguments, and unintentional comedy is always sure to abound! Continuing off our Yusei Matsui coverage on Manga Mavericks, Colton and Sid are joined by translator extraordinaire Bomber D Rufi as they debate several topics revolving around Matsui's series. First, Colton and Bomber face off against each other in the debate round, where they frustrate Sid to no end by their refusal to actually finish their arguments. Then, the winner faces off against Sid in the speed round, full of fast-paced pitches, forgotten arguments, and surprising upsets! Since this is our first time doing this, rest assured that nothing goes quite as expected and hilarity very much ensues

Just in time for his special appearance at New York Comic Con, our long-awaited Yusei Matsui episode has finally arrived! This week your titular mavericks, Colton and Sid, are joined by the unofficial translator of the Gintama manga Bomber D Rufi as we go over Yusei Matsui's career and major works, from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro to Assassination Classroom and everything in between! No news this week folks, we jump right into the discussion and talk about how much we love Matsui's manga for a solid two and a half hours! Going over how creative an artist he is to common themes between his works, we had a blast discussing one our favorite mangaka and two of our favorite series and we hope you guys have just as much fun listening! Podcast Breakdown: 00:20 - Introducing Bomber D Rufi 5:24 - Assassination Classroom’s Success & Controversy 10:00 - Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro Discussion 1:11:00 - Rikon Choutei & Tokyo Depato Sensou Taikenki Discussion 1:24:30 - Assassination Classroom Discussion 1:52:15 - F

We talk about a top 10 shojo manga list in this episode, and we'd only read about one and a half of them. We really need to read more shojo stuff. That's why I'm glad Viz has been having a lot of digital shojo manga sales recently. I picked up the entirety of Ceres and From Far Away recently, and they've got Basara for sale right now. These sales are great if you want to get into older and out of print titles like those especially. You have to budget yourself just right if you want to get full series though. I'd love to pick up Basara, but I already blew my budget this month on Ceres and From Far Away. There's always next time, I suppose. My point is that if you really want to get into more shojo manga, trying out at least the first volume of one of the series Viz has been putting on sale every week would be a good place to start. That, or refer to the list we talk about in this episode and select a title from there. There's really a lot of variety in shojo titles that may surprise you. Last saturday was a r

Oh my god, they've killed Colton! Those b@st@rds! Wait...WhatwhatWHAT? Relax, guy. I'm not being seriously. He's fine. He dies in every episode! Inside. Because editing so many podcasts makes him want to suck Chef's chocolate salty balls. Last week he went insane and said "screw you guys, I'm going home." Last I heard he went off to hunt for ManBearPig with Al Gore in a quiet pissant mountain town. Don't know where he is now, but he's probably fighting the frizzies, at eleven. They mostly come out at night. Mostly. Me? I'm super! Thanks for asking. But with Colton MIA I had to get someone to sub for him. So I some calls and got Rod Stewart to play a gig at New Year's in Las Vegas...but it turns out he doesn't read manga, so he wouldn't come on the podcast. So, I just got my brother Varun aka VlordGTZ to come on instead! And if you don't like it, well...you go to hell! You go to hell and you die! Or blame Canada. Their cartoons destroyed Colton's fragile little mind Plus, they bombed the Baldwins. Those un

It's kinda crazy that Pokemon is more popular than ever internationally twenty years later. Pokemon Go was a phenomenon, the hype for Sun & Moon grows more and more like an Exeggutor every day, and there was a huge uproar over Ash losing his match with Alain in the finals of the Kalos League in the anime. With the games, anime, and manga all better than ever, this has been a great year to be a Pokemon fan! Heck, with this much vitality, Pokemon is sure to be going strong another 20 years! On that note, screw the Olympic Committee's reasoning for not including Pokemon among the anime and gaming franchises representing Japan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. So apparently Pokemon is not as popular internationally as Yo-Kai Watch? Suuuurrreee.... While some franchises like Pokemon will never die, most series are finite. That's especially true of manga. It's unbelievable just how many long-running and popular titles have ended this year. Just this month alone, there's been Nisekoi, Billy Bat, Genshiken, and as of

Manga Mavericks might be a manga podcast, but that doesn't mean we don't enjoy comics from countries outside of japan! Be it manwha or bande dessinees, we believe that every comic in the world has the right to be loved (except for the really bad ones)! All-Comic.com is one of the few comic sites out there that shares the love for comics made around the world in equal capacity. That's why we're called All-Comic! Can't get more inclusive than that! I think it's time to start a movement. Equal rights for all comics! #EFAC! Spread the world! Share the love! Read some comics! If you believe in that mission statement, then maybe you can help us out a bit. Now, I don't want to go all NPR on you guys, but the site's grown too big to be funded out of pocket, which is why we need readers like you to pitch in and help support the reviews and podcasts you want to read. Keep in mind no one on this site is actually getting paid. This is just site maintenance cost stuff. To keep the site afloat for another year, we'll need

Manga Mavericks was almost in a real crises this week folks. We normally record the show on Friday afternoons, but I was out on a trip during our regularly scheduled recording time, and Colton was too busy over the weekend to do the show on any other date. We had too options: either delay the show another week or two, or Colton getting someone to sub for me in my absence. Luckily, the man of the hour, esteemed anime podcaster extraordinaire Josh Dunham of Senpai Coast to Coast and Wave Motion Canon fame answered the call, and the fate of the podcast was secured! Then it turned out that they’d be recording at 7pm Friday night, and I’d be home by then, so I could do the podcast anyway. Which we could have just rescheduled to in the first place, making all our worrying for naught. Woops! But it was a happy accident, because while this was a short week of news, with our first-ever guest on board there was plenty to talk about! So join us this week as your titular Manga Mavericks and special guest dive right in t

...And boy was it ever big! Lots of hot and exciting news came out of AE this year, and this week your titular mavericks, Colton and Sid, run down each juicy bit of licensing news and other cool stuff looming on the horizon. But that's not all! We also discuss some other fresh developments, from the revamped Shonen Jump website, to Kodansha re-licensing former Del Ray titles for digital distribution, and perhaps the biggest news of all, Bleach finally actually decisively definitively inexorably assuredly honest-to-god totally ending soon! For reals this time! Lastly, we answer a Q&A asking us why we love* Rurouni Kenshin, leading to a pretty passionate discussion that's not to be missed! NOTE: The character whose name I keep forgetting in the Kenshin discussion is Kujiranami. Also, he has a cannon for a hand, not an axe. Not sure how I mis-remembered something like that. ^^, *Editor's Note, 2020: This podcast was recorded over a year before Nobuhiro Watsuki was arrested for possession of child pornograp

It's been ten long episodes in the making, but the promised day has finally come! After weeks of saying we'd get around to it, we finally read Tokyo Ghoul! Well, okay, we didn't read the whole thing. I got through about half of it and Colton only read the first volume. So yeah, I know it might not exactly be what you were expecting or wanted, but the reality is we put everything into making this episode. We didn't try to kickstart it, or set up a Patreon for extra money. We put it all in. So, for now, this is what you hear and this is what you get, for the Manga Mavericks podcast. But, again, we hope that if this is well received, there'll be follow-ups. Because I'll tell you what, I'm not getting my Tokyo Ghoul-podcasting fill. And at the end of the day, even if it's not perfect, it's better than nothing. Besides, listening to this episode will definitely be better time spent than playing Mighty No. 9, and it didn't even cost you a dime (or however much money people wasted backed on that crap)! But seriousl

We wanna be the very best Like no podcast ever was To read manga is our real test To review them is our cause We will broadcast across the internet Downloaded far and wide Help people to understand The story that's inside Manga! (Gotta read 'em all), it's Colton and me I know it's our hobby (Manga!) Ooh, you're my co-host In a podcast we do bi-weekly Manga! (Gotta read 'em all), a backlog so huge Our library cards will pull us through You loan me, and I'll loan you M-an-ga! (Gotta read 'em all) Gotta read 'em all Manga! You know, I was also going to do a parody of the Pokerap, but somehow, I don't think Tezuka would approve of a rap number if he were alive to see this. Episode 10! We're finally in the double digits. If this podcast were a person, and episodes represented it's age, why, it'd be old enough to go on it's own Pokemon journey! Thank you guys for all your support and comments so far! It really means a lot to us! We've got plans for some fun topics to cover in the future and a few projects rela

Wow, it's been a while huh? Almost a month! Man, you guys must have been devastated, going without hearing our pristine sexy voices for so long. Sobbing in a corner like Sugao from Shonen Ashibe and hugging your makeshift Colton and/or Sid body pillows tightly, impatiently tapping the refresh button hping, ever so desperately, for a new episode to load. But that episode never came. So you sat there, wallowing in a mess of piss and tears, eyes red from sleepless nights waiting, ears perked for any hint of our beautiful voices. Your friends and family worried. You'd become a podcast-aholic. You needed your fix, and Manga Mavericks was your drug or choice. Finally, enough was enough. Your family put you in therapy. You resisted at first, but slowly, the therapist gained your trust. You talked. You learned things. About yourself, your problems. You joined Podcastaholics Anonymous, and over time, you got over your addiction. You were free. FREE! ...Or so you thought. The addiction could only be suppressed, not ove

Felicitations! We're the Fast Food Fanatics! We run down all the latest news and gossip in the deliciously detrimental world of flash-fried quick eats! What's cooking this week? Well, your titular fanatics Colton and Sid are full of beans and keen as mustard to shoot the breeze on some rather fishy business, including McDonald's new chicken nuggets recipe, the consequences of California's controversial $15 dollar minimum wage, why you should never ever eat at a Burger King in Brooklyn, and Chik-fil-A's oh so exclusive "invitation only" loyalty program! (Seriously, did you know about that? I go to Chik-fil-A almost every frigging day, and I've never received no red carpet treatment! "A-list membership" my ass! Screw those chicken-shit frying elitists!) Also, should millennials invest in Chipotle stock? The answer might surprise you! We might have our fingers in a lot of pies this time around, but believe me buddy, we know our onions! So let's fry some fish, and dig in to the meat of thin- WAIT A MINUTE! Don't

The Skip Beat! Kickstarter was a success! Not only did it meet it's funding goal, but the stretch goal for a blu-ray release as well! This bodes very well for the future of crowd funding campaigns to fund other anime series that have been overlooked or were considered to be tough-sells by big-name licensors. Similarly, the Kimagure Orange Road Kickstarter is going swimmingly as well. When you think about it, it's already half-way there to reaching the goal required to get the series fully published, and there's plenty of time left. As always, I strongly encourage you to support this Kickstarter if you already haven't. Even if you don't have a lot to give, any amount you can give can make a difference. Beyond simply getting this classic title published, this Kickstarter will open up doors for similar projects and more classic or obscure manga beyond just Osamu Tezuka's works to potentially receive crowd-funding campaigns. Both the Skip Beat! and KOR campaigns' success have set great precedents that should hop

The new anime season is upon us, and I'm pretty satisfied by it so far. JoJo's and Ushio & Tora are back and better than ever, and My Hero Academia's much anticipated premiere was fairly solid. But can you believe just how many shows are coming out this season? Last I checked, we're getting around forty in total. That's crazy. I know the anime industry has to contract sometime, but every season it continues to put out more and more stuff. And of all of these new shows, how many stay memorable? Only a handful, if even that. Either way, I'll never be one of those people that can somehow keep up with every show in a season beginning to end. Even with JoJo's I'm likely to fall off for a few weeks before picking it back up again. But we're not here to talk about anime; we're a manga podcast after all! Join your titular mavericks once again as they debate about whether it makes sense or not for Viz to run the Assassination Classroom bonus chapters, get excited over the prospect of a Shonen Jump Cinematic Unive

Guys, we have to apologize. We totally forgot to mention all the new manga releases coming out in March on the last podcast! I know how disappointed you all must have been. I mean, how else were you guys supposed to know what's coming out? Look it up yourself? Outrageous! There, that should cover it. We'll remember to cover April's releases properly in the next episode! So with that out of the way, what's in store for the Manga Mavericks this week? Well, as usual, Colton and Sid have got the latest NYT Top Selling Manga List and plenty of news to discuss, and a whole lot of it is Weekly Shonen Jump related! If March is Anime Madness, then April has got to be Jump Madness, because there's a lot to look forward to from the imprint next month, particularly the long-awaited return of Hunter X Hunter! How long will the series run for this time? One chapter, two...gasp, maybe we'll get three whole new chapters! How very exciting! Also, Colton gushes over the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! movie, and reveals that he takes a s

Anime Madness is starting up over at Rightstuf again, and this year I'm in it to win it! Sure, I lost miserably in the years before, but as they always say the third time's the charm, right? That said, I'm still mulling over my choices. I mean, Evangelion vs. One-Punch Man? A match-up like that could go either way! How can I possibly quantify and compare otakus obsessive love for two equally and insanely popular anime franchises? Well, leave that for me to worry about, because it's time for another episode of Manga Mavericks! Join your titular mavericks, Colton and Sid, as we go over the latest New York Times Best Selling Manga List, unintentionally patronize Seven Seas, promote the new Skip Beat! anime Indiegogo campaign, answer a Q&A about preferring omnibuses to single volumes, and rave about why you really need to watch Naoki Urasawa's manga documentary series, "Urasawa Naoki no Manben," asap! Plus, we say hello to last week's surprise Jump Start, Bye-Bye Humanity! Did we welcome it with open arms,

Welcome to the third installment of the Manga Mavericks podcast! And before you ask, no, we still don't have a catchphrase. Alas, it seems some things just aren't meant to be. We've made peace with that. Well, at least Colton has. Sid's kept up at night thinking about it. It haunts his dreams. But hey, who needs sleep when there's such a wide array of manga news and tidbits to discuss! Join your titular mavericks, Colton and Sid, as we give a rundown of the latest New York Times Best Selling Manga and BookScan's Top 20 Graphic Novels lists, talk about the impending endings of a few pretty prominent series, and discuss Weekly Shonen Jump's latest Jump Start, Kimetsu no Yaiba! Plus, Colton convinced Sid to finally read Sket Dance, and they chat about the first couple of volumes, the noticeable similarities it shares with Gintama, and how shockingly sad a certain someone's backstory was! Who would've ever guessed a character with such a silly quirk would have such a devastating reason for it? Who are we talking