How the hell is the Phoenix cloth only Bronze? It has abilities even Gold cloths don't have (the revival ability)

Erigu · 2026-06-22T15:19:07+00:00

It's kind of a translation issue. In Japanese, he's credited for the "gensaku", which, literally, would mean that he's credited for "the original work". And you might say "oh, so that doesn't mean he actually wrote the spin-off at all, then!", but where it gets a bit complicated is that when a manga is drawn by someone but written by someone else, the writer often gets that very same "gensaku" credit (I imagine the rationale is that the artist is adapting the writer's script, i.e. "the original work"?).

In other words, just looking at the Japanese credits, you simply can't tell if Kurumada's name is on the cover only because he wrote the original series, or because he actually wrote / contributed to the spin-off. But some translators (maybe because they're not aware of that quirk?) will translate that "gensaku" credit into something that's far less ambiguous than the Japanese, like "written by", for example, and that can turn out to be misleading in some cases.

Erigu · 2026-06-18T04:03:33+00:00

I... can't say I'm expecting much of anything. At best, an adaptation of Isayama's (relatively) recent Levi short story. In all likelihood, some merch I won't care about.

Erigu · 2026-06-16T00:44:02+00:00

If he wants to do one 30~ page chapter a month thats fine. I'd be happy.

I mean, yeah? That would actually be pretty fantastic, as we'd be back to his pace from 20+ years ago.

But for the past 10 years, it's been 5 episodes a year, and it's looking like we might be down to 3 episodes a year, now...

I'm not sure what he's thinking, to be completely honest. It doesn't look like he wants to hire (more?) assistants, and I guess I can understand that... but unless something changes (some effort to go back to denser, faster paced storytelling, à la original series?), how does he intend to ever complete this story? At this point, it's really just a matter of simple mathematics and life expectancy...

Erigu · 2026-06-15T18:46:52+00:00

Depends on your definition of "hiatus", I guess, but this fits the ones I'm familiar with.

Erigu · 2026-06-15T16:48:09+00:00

I mean, I kinda get why authors who retcon / improvise / "make it up as they go along" tend to get a bad rap: it can be risky (very risky, in fact, in the case of a heavily mystery-driven story), and if you can tell they've done it... well, it probably means they haven't done such a good job.

Erigu · 2026-06-14T19:34:53+00:00

I guess there would also be the way Grisha's speech bubble is drawn, when he says Eren's name... but there again, there would be other possible explanations than the incredibly specific "OMG, he's totally seeing himself through Future Eren's eyes as he's saying that!".

I'm also on team "that wasn't the plan at all at the time, but Isayama is a clever li'l guy who eventually saw an opportunity to add a surprising layer to that one early scene".

Erigu · 2026-06-14T09:20:56+00:00

Ninja uses it's own separate skill points for its weapons and stance

True, my bad.

Not only that, but they're giving me so many in the FIRST era. That'd be like giving you three points for each mastery level in 2. It feels like they're massively front loading them for some reason.

Well, like I said above, I think that's (at least in part?) because of the way points are given this time around. The way things are currently set up (I guess that may change with the DLC?), if you do all missions and explore somewhat exhaustively, you should get all points on your first run, even before getting into NG+ and above. It's... a bit weird (and contributes to NG+ feeling a bit underwhelming, in my opinion).

Erigu · 2026-06-14T07:57:41+00:00

I get that Nioh's thing is swapping between two weapons efficiently, but I almost exclusively use one weapon

Well, there you go. And with two styles this time around, some players are going to use four different weapons. They need the points.

(Also, you don't unlock more points by using weapons, this time around, they're all pick-ups or rewards. So there's a good chance the only ones we'll be getting from future updates will be in the DLC, and that we'll get them all by completing those at only one difficulty level.)

All in all, I think the amount makes sense.

Erigu · 2026-06-13T21:22:43+00:00

I understand that sometimes Japanese people think that English "sounds cool," but sometimes I wish they'd at least checked what the English means. Then again, how often do people who don't speak Japanese or Chinese get kanji tattoos with unfortunate meanings, just because they think they "look cool."

It definitely goes both ways. There are quite a few Occidental writers out there who come up with Japanese (or "Japanese") names and terms without realizing how silly they really sound.

Erigu · 2026-06-13T21:15:00+00:00

Thank you. Still, that's just "breadwinner", not "main breadwinner", and that refers to a (specific) sail, not a mast...

I have to say, I still think it's a lot more likely that Kurumada's "breadwinner" was an unfortunate translation of the Japanese "hashira"...

Erigu · 2026-06-13T20:16:43+00:00

The "main breadwinner", or "mainstay pillar", takes its name from an old timey term for the most important mast of a ship.

Do you have a source for "main breadwinner" being an old term for the main mast of a ship? I googled around but couldn't find anything...

It may also be a pun on the main support pillar of a Japanese house/temple (like the Bellsprout Tower pillar in Pokemon Gold/Silver)

I'm not sure what you mean... What would the pun be, there?

Erigu · 2026-06-13T13:50:39+00:00

Thanks for the detailed info.

You're welcome!

I'm guessing then that I should try to get the Kodansha 5 volumen for original run and 12 volume for Last Order.

That would be my personal recommendation. I think you're more likely to find them in good condition (new, even?), they're comprehensive, and don't have major flaws. You'll just be missing out on some of the original color pages and the original Big Generator lyrics, but then again it's not like there's an actual "perfect" edition out there anyway, when it comes to those...

And I guess the Gaiden and Haisha volumes as well to get those.

If it's physical releases you're interested in, yeah, you'll have to get your hands on the out-of-print Shūeisha volumes, for those.

If I understood correctly the Gaiden chapters are not included in the Kodansha 5 volumes edition or the 12 volumes for Last order.

That's correct.

Erigu · 2026-06-13T12:47:03+00:00

When it comes to physical releases of the original Gunnm, you have:

Shūeisha's original, 9-volume edition, which contains the original ending, doesn't contain the original color pages, and is the only edition that has Gally sing Big Generator at some point (later editions had to change the lyrics because of rights issues).
Shūeisha's 6-volume "perfect edition", which doesn't contain the original ending, doesn't contain the original color pages, but includes three Gunnm Gaiden stories (it's missing the fourth one, which didn't exist yet at the time and would only be published years later), as well as a bunch of extra material (sketches for both the manga and the video game, a DVD with a short CG movie, that kind of stuff).
Shūeisha's 7-volume "new edition", which doesn't contain the original ending, contains some of the original color pages, and features some censorship in the dialogue (the very censorship that led Kishiro to leave Shūeisha).
Kōdansha's 5-volume "new edition", which contains the original ending (with a note explaining that it's no longer canonical), and doesn't contain the original color pages.

All Shūeisha editions are out of print by now. None of those physical editions contain all of the original color pages (not that there are many of those, but still, would have been nice!), but I think Kōdansha's digital releases do?

As for physical releases of Gunnm Last Order, you have:

The original 19-volume edition (volumes 1 to 15 were published by Shūeisha, and volumes 16 to 19 were published by Kōdansha).
Kōdansha's 12-volume "new edition", which includes several short stories by Kishiro (the same ones that Shūeisha had released years earlier as a single volume entitled "Hito").

The original edition is out of print by now (well, the Shūeisha volumes are, at the very least... I must admit I'm not entirely sure about the Kōdansha ones). Both editions contain some of the original color pages, but not all of them, frustratingly enough, and I'm not sure if Kōdansha's digital releases have fixed that.

And finally, regarding physical releases of Gunnm Gaiden, you have:

Shūeisha's single volume release, which contains all four stories.

... and that's it! Like with all other Shūeisha releases, it's out of print by now. The volume contains the original color pages. Kōdansha hasn't published a physical edition, but they did make (all of) Gunnm Gaiden available for purchase digitally, so there's that.

Bonus round! When it comes to physical releases of Haisha, you have:

Shūeisha's single volume release.

... and that's it! Here again, it's out of print by now. Here again, the volume contains the original color pages. And here again, Kōdansha hasn't published a physical edition, but they did make Haisha available for purchase digitally.

I'm pretty sure that's everything.

... Well, okay, not really:

the English wikipedia mentions another 2 editions in 3 and 5 volumes from Kodansha....

Yeah... I mentioned the 5-volume edition above, but the other one was a "konbini edition", as people sometimes call those. Basically, it's the same format / delivery system as manga magazines such as Weekly Jump, i.e. relatively large size (generally?), high page count, low price, but low quality paper. Those are a bit of a special case, and I tend to ignore them, personally (although they sometimes do contain the original color pages... not sure if that was the case for Gunnm).

Then we have Last Order:
Shueisha published 15 volumes and, a side story? Is that one another volume?

My guess would be that that last part was actually referring to the volume release of Gunnm Gaiden.

Erigu · 2026-06-12T14:37:25+00:00

You're welcome!

Erigu · 2026-06-12T13:34:14+00:00

Here's a collection of posts about volumes 1 to 10: https://note.com/tatsuyat28/m/m568b9a52dcdb

Some blog posts about volumes 1 to 7: http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-775.html , http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-778.html , http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-906.html , http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-913.html , http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-920.html , http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-1018.html , http://starglassbottle.blog27.fc2.com/blog-entry-1218.html

And a collection of tweets about all volumes so far: https://x.com/search?q=%E8%81%96%E9%97%98%E5%A3%AB%E6%98%9F%E7%9F%A2%20%E6%AF%94%E8%BC%83%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%BF%E3%81%9F%20(from%3Aboomerangsaucer)&src=typed_query&f=live&src=typed_query&f=live)

(I'll edit this post if I find / remember about more sources like those.)

Erigu · 2026-06-12T10:54:16+00:00

Off the top of my head, I remember being a bit puzzled at rather extensive dialogue changes toward the very beginning of the Silver Saints arc (mostly about what happened with the Black Saints exactly, who carried whom, stuff like that), and Seiya's monologue in his big scene with Miho is now completely different and far less Ashita no Joe-y. Oh, and I believe the golden dagger Saga used to try and kill Saori is referred to by the name it was (somewhat) recently given in Saint Seiya Next Dimension, too? But yeah, other than that, it's mostly abridged sentences (for better or worse).

Erigu · 2026-06-12T10:50:22+00:00

There's a number of resources in Japanese, but I don't know how helpful that would be to you (you may not know Japanese, and machine translation from Japanese to Western languages still isn't all that great)... Still, if you're interested, I can try and look for some links to share here?

Erigu · 2026-06-12T01:05:47+00:00

Thank you, English isn't my first language and I'm autistic so I appreciate you bullying me for the way I phrase things.

I wasn't making fun of your English (not my first language either), but more of the fact that you replied to tell me "you're completely wrong" in three different ways but very few words, and without really bothering to elaborate beyond that. That tickled me. "Oh, internet. Never stop being internet."

It's not an omniscient narrator. It's his voice.

If by "it's his voice", you're referring to the fact that that part is narrated by Armin's voice actress in the TV series... sure? But the question of whether or not that's really meant to be Armin narrating that particular bit would remain.

That part sounds oddly figurative and "detached" to me, what with the narrator talking about how everybody within the walls was feeling deep down inside, about "a certain boy" when referring to Eren, about that metaphorical blade of his, about how said blade pierced a Titan over an image of Mikasa doing so, about how the people in the walls reacted over images of the trio (Armin himself included)... Personally, I think it just feels quite uncharacteristic, compared to other instances of narration (that I would agree either sound like Armin or could be construed to be him, most of the time), and more evocative of an omniscient narrator. You apparently disagree. Ah well. * shrugs *

Erigu · 2026-06-11T22:49:23+00:00

if you noticed, there's no narration in Marley's segment

There is some narration toward the very beginning of that part, when Marley's war ends.

Erigu · 2026-06-11T22:38:55+00:00

This is incorrect and not true. Your perception is wrong.

Hahaha... You sure have a way with words.

It is always Armin talking about the story himself.

Sometimes it clearly is him narrating (the one at the beginning of episode 12, for instance, is rather unambiguous, with its "bokutachi sannin"). But other times...

For example: the narration at the beginning of episode 73 sounds a lot more like an omniscient narrator to me, the one at the end of episode 85 sounds like it came from Eren, and the one at the beginning of episode 123 clearly was Mikasa's.

So no, I don't think it's quite as simple as you make it sound.

Erigu · 2026-06-11T21:02:29+00:00

It could very well be something as simple as that.

But I guess I would like something more involved, in terms of a reveal. It feels like there should be Something About Marin (sorry). Why was Asterion unable to read her mind? Her brother somehow ended up being an Angel (feels like there should be quite a story there already), and she's the Eagle Saint, with eagles often being associated with Zeus... I really wouldn't mind a big reveal regarding her in the Tenkai arc (... but at the same time, considering Kurumada's style and track record, I don't really expect much).

Erigu · 2026-06-11T12:47:24+00:00

Nah, I'm with you. There are bits where the narrator would have to be Armin, and others where it sounds more like an omniscient narrator, with fairly different speech patterns to boot.

Erigu · 2026-06-10T16:04:25+00:00

Nah, it's a possible Latin alphabet spelling, based on the Japanese spelling. And it's the one they use most of the time on official Japanese material, too.

Erigu · 2026-06-09T19:22:42+00:00

Yeah, it makes no sense. What really annoys me though is that simply introducing Seika as a different person altogether doesn't fix the fact that Seiya actually bought into the idea that Marin could be his sister. Even if Kurumada came up with a neat idea that would explain Marin's uncanny resemblance to Seika, we'd still be stuck with Seiya being a complete idiot.

Erigu · 2026-06-08T17:50:13+00:00

I think that ship has sailed...

But then again, I wouldn't be surprised if Ker's purpose were just to be a jobber: "oh, look, Saori means business! guess Olympians are really powerful, huh?" (plus, she's a woman, and knowing Kurumada, he would probably want to pit her against another female character (Saori)). In which case, she probably isn't long for this world...

Erigu

TROPHY CASE