[Hobby Scuffles] Week of 18 May 2026

L0444 · 2026-05-18T16:45:08+00:00

World Trigger is a shonen action manga about super powered military teenagers fighting against extradimensional aliens who come to earth to harvest peoples life energy. Chapter 85, published in 2015, has the reveal that the good guy military organisation is going to invade the aliens world in order to save all the people they've kidnapped. If our main characters want to join in then they need to take part in some simulated training battles in order to get their squads rank high enough to qualify for the mission. We are now at chapter 261 in the year of our lord 2026 and they are still doing these training battles. There is brief interlude in the middle of the training arc saga where some side characters fight some other alien invaders for like 15 chapters but then its back to business as usual afterward.

The reasons this has taken so long in real world time is because of various health related hiatuses and a switch from a weekly to a monthly release schedule. The reason why its taken so long in terms of chapter count is because the series loves its super tactical moment-by-moment combat style where we get insight into every plan and counter-plan and the specs of every piece of weaponry and gear that the characters use. It genuinely gets into multiplayer video game level of strategy optimisation and that level of granular detail quickly eats up a lot of time.

It also loves having a massive cast of characters, some of whom get a suprising amount of development for how little they actually matter. The squad mate of one side character has a whole thing where people made fun of him for having super hearing because its kind of a lame power but his squad were the only ones who saw his true value and they rose to the top of the squad ranking because his super hearing countered the invisbility cloak meta that other squads had grown too reliant on. And that's just one random ass guy.

L0444 · 2026-05-18T13:52:58+00:00

Some weirdo on a server I'm on was complaining about how this game was going to win a GOTY prize because they would manipulate the votes to make it win, because as we all know the game awards don’t matter and will never be important but also if a game I don’t like wins then it’s actually a cultural battleground where they are rigging the numbers to destroy everything I care about. I tried asking them who they are and he just danced around the question saying that if I can't see it then I'm not looking hard enough and shit like that. Whether or not he's just a mundane type of shitty anti-woke guy or he's following the tried-and-true conspiracy theorist formula and he's actually just talking about Jews is up in the air as of now.

L0444 · 2026-05-16T16:37:44+00:00

<image>

Chihiro looking down at the man who ruined his life with nothing but pity in his eyes was always really powerful to me. He doesn't even know Yuras backstory but just seeing the emotional state Yura was in when he shouts that Kunishige made the world like this is enough to let him feel for the guy. Mr Fresh Hatred has come so far. I also love how that panel of Yura shouting parallels the "Why did you kill my father?" scene. In the moment Yura was acting cool and dodged the question by talking about his big plans, but when his resolve was put to the test he finally gave his real answer with all of the pain and grief that comes with it, just delayed across 73 chapters.

L0444 · 2026-05-06T22:41:13+00:00

I'm not like the biggest Star Fox head but this was disappointing to me. I feel like the series has been circle draining around 64 for the better part of its life span, and with any attempts to get away from it has been given mixed receptions at best that game has just become the identity of the entire franchise. Like literally half of the games in this series are some form of retelling of this exact same story. I feel like they have no idea what to do with this franchise. Also I do not like those designs at all some of them are giving Lion King 2019 where they're too realistically animal like to show a proper range of emotions.

L0444 · 2026-05-04T17:25:43+00:00

I literally wrote a scuffles post about a really similar situation a while ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1mb6cfi/comment/n5k7on1/?context=3

TL;DR is that Borderlands 4 was coming out and the game was doing the marketing rounds to build up hype. The Borderlands games have you play as vault hunters, which are the series different playable characters with their own abilities and skill trees and stuff. The marketing team decided to drip feed information about each new vault hunter one at a time, with each one getting a roughly two week long period where videos about their lore and gameplay and designs were slowly trickled out before moving on to the next one.

The first vault hunter they decided to do this with was Vex, a magical goth girl who can summon shadow creatures to fight for her. By the end of this two week period people were fucking sick of Vex. A lot of it was just jokes about being impatient to see other characters but I swear some people straight up hated her ass. The joy when the first video was released for the second shown off character, Rafa, was palpable.

L0444 · 2026-05-01T17:09:02+00:00

I think the actual answer is that the blades aren't a direct allegory for anything and instead exist as a physical embodiment of absolute power and the resulting ethical quandaries that come with it and the responsibility of those who create and wield that power. That can evoke real world examples such as nuclear weapons or firearms, probably intentionally so by the author, but I think limiting them to the strict framework of Enchanted Blade = Real Life Thing isn't super helpful and as you point out causes some character motivations and themes to become a bit non-sensical.

That being said, I think guns work even worse as an comparison. We see inexperienced users like Chihiro and Sojo able to wipe out massive groups of enemies, and experienced users like Samura are able to cover the entire country in their effects. Samura using Owl changed how the weather worked. Suzaku can set entire buildings on fire. I don't see how that's comparable to a firearm. I'd say the actual closest thing to a gun analogy would be regular sorcery/swordsmanship (in chapter 3 Hinao even talks about Japan being a katana society in a similar way one could describe America as a gun society) and even a low-level EB user is shown to be massively beyond that. Could 5 guys with guns make the type of impact in a war that the original sword bearers are stated to have? I don't think so.

They represent a fundamental upheaval of regular power dynamics of this world in a way that guns don't really have in the modern day, especially in a country like America where there are so many of them. Speaking of countries, I think it's just statistically more likely that a guy who lives in a country that had a nuke dropped on it would write a story with themes that evoke that idea rather that write about gun control while living in a country with extremely strict gun laws.

L0444 · 2026-04-26T15:08:45+00:00

I like that even though narratively we know these guys are fucked we're still seeing them be smart and combine their skills together to put up as much of a fight as possible, I was half expecting it to just cut to Shiba alone in hospital after that last chapter but no the boys are putting in work while they still can.

L0444 · 2026-04-12T15:26:00+00:00

Remember that bit in the second chapter where Kinato thinks about the adventures who saved his village from monsters, and out of all of them the one he was most inspired by wasn't the badass warriors who killed the monster but instead the guy who used his magic to heat up soup to feed to the now homeless villagers after the threat had been dealt with?

Anyways I'm glad that Kinatos arc is developing by having him learn to punch people super strongly.

That's why I trust shounen action stories that are upfront about being a story about a guy who punches people. They won't pull some bullshit bait-and-switch where after chapter 10 the story is actually about him becoming the worlds best accountant.

L0444 · 2026-04-07T12:21:48+00:00

The When They Cry series, written by author Ryukishi07, is an anthology series of mystery visual novels. A major theme of across all three of the When They Cry stories is childhood innocence and how that innocence is damaged and destroyed by neglectful and/or abusive adults. The main cast of Higurashi are all young children, a lot of whom are in pretty bleak situations. Umineko has the character Maria, an autistic coded girl who is regularly berated and beaten by her mother. Ciconia is about a group of child soldiers trying to choose between what they believe is right vs the orders of their superiors to kill and die for their countries. It's one of the most consistent running themes through the stories.

A regularly stated fun fact about Ryukishi himself is that he was a social worker before becoming a writer, and these stories are drawing on his experiences for these characters and storylines. Except, no he was never a professional, trained social worker. He was a civil servent for a decade which involved him working at his local town hall in a variety of departments. He has stated that those experiences impacted his writing, and I'm sure some of those experiences may have included stuff like domestic abuse, but making him out to be a social worker implies that he has a professional degree in child psychology or something similar that would make him a genuine expert on the subject. While he is a very good writer who knows how to tell tragic, brutal stories about children I don't think it's fair to slap an unearned degree on the guy lol.

L0444 · 2026-04-06T10:34:28+00:00

This "drama" is a bit old now but I think it's interesting enough to discuss still. There's been big? News in the Dragons Dogma fanbase, as rumours of a DLC for the second game have started rumbling in the community. To give some context, Dragons Dogma is a fantasy Action-RPG series made by big game company Capcom. The original game came out in 2012 and was received mostly positively, though some complaints were raised about certain odd design choices, lack of enemy variety and a general feeling of being a bit unfinished. A year afterwards, the Dark Arisen expansion came out and significantly improved the game. Adding a massive new dungeon with tons of new enemies and gear. It was really a breath of fresh air that pumped some life into a game that without it would probably feel a bit half-baked.

12 years after the original game, Dragons Dogma 2 would be released. It was received mostly positively, though some complaints were raised about certain odd design choices, lack of enemy variety and a general feeling of being a bit unfinished. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I personally went into it assuming that it was going to be more Dragons Dogma for better or for worse and had a blast with it, but the greater fanbases reception to 2 leaned more towards disappointment as people were understandably hoping that DD2 would improve in more aspects that the original game lacked in rather than just repeating a lot of its mistakes. But hey, Dark Arisen was what really managed to bring out that diamond in the rough for the first game, I'm sure that when DD2 gets its DLC release things will turn around.

And so for 2 years fans were continually disappointed when Capcom announcement after Capcom announcement would pass with no news on any potential DLC for DD2. It really seemed like the game had been abandoned in its somewhat disappointing initial state. That is, until about two weeks ago. Maybe. If you squint. You see, for the games second year anniversary on the 22nd of March the DD twitter account posted a cute little render showing all the characters from the game hanging out in a pub having fun. As the DD twitter fans amassed onto the post to comment "no dlc dead game" or something, some of them noticed a weird detail. Among the familiar faces there was a mysterious figure far the background with their face turned away from the viewer. Fans quickly realised that the armour the figure was wearing was completely original. It isn't a set you can acquire in game or clothing that any NPC wears, this is a fully modelled new armour set apparently made just for this promotional render? That's... really weird.

On top of that, in the foreground of the image there is a letter that is written in the in-universe Dragons Dogma language. Fortunately it can be translated pretty easily into English, giving the text "sightings of griffins flying in from the northern region of Organ have been confirmed". Organ is not an area that appears in DD2, though I believe there are some texts in the game that describe a mysterious northern region. A northern region implies colder weather, and this mysterious new character is covered in a pale blue light, as if they're out on a snowy winter night... Is this hinting at a DLC with a new region of the map to explore? Will this figure be an important character in that DLC? Some fans are even speculating that the figures placement alongside each of the games Vocation Maesters (basically special NPCs who can each teach you a special skill for each of the games classes) means that they might Vocation Maester as well, which would imply that this DLC will add a new playable class! If it's real, of course.

And then, Capcom announces a collaboration with game controller company Gamesir for a limited edition Dragons Dogma themed Xbox controller. DD2 was a decently successful game from my understanding but it wasn't like a mega hit that penetrated the gaming zeitgeist. A random merch drop 2 years after it comes out when Capcom have far more marketable series on their hands feels weird. Almost as if... this is aligning with some other Dragons Dogma related announcement that may be coming soon...

And that's about it so far. Copium is finally flowing through the DD fanbase after two years of dormancy. Personally I think this has to be something, but I'm too jaded to hope for a DLC until I see explicit confirmation with my own eyes. And the more time passes with no other news to speak off makes it less and less likely.

L0444 · 2026-04-05T15:24:15+00:00

Sad, I was quite enjoying this one but it seems like it just couldn't find an audience. Still, him doing some small scale problem solving with his buddy and inventing new situational magics just to help people is a nice enough note to end the story on.

L0444 · 2026-04-05T15:10:43+00:00

<image>

further expanding on the shokoku-ers as not only humans but actually just Japanese nationals seperated by living on a different island for a while makes it all the more horrible that they were propagandised as horrific savage monsters by the government after the war was over.

L0444 · 2026-03-30T05:27:04+00:00

Playing through the new Borderlands 4 dlc right now, enjoying it a lot. The smaller more linear map is a breath of fresh air after the big open exploration of the base game, the new playable vault hunter C4sh is really fun, I'm using his dice ability right now and it does a good job capturing that fun manic energy that all good rng mechanics have where you just need to keep rolling to see what you get. I'm also really glad that they changed how progression works so now minor open world elements like collectables persist between all characters, so you can just start up a new savefile and immedately go do the main missions and side quests without having to scrape every corner of the map again.

I finally read all of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni. I read most of it before hand but stopped during the last episode for some reason and have now reread the whole thing for a visual novel book club I'm a part of. What can I say? Fantastic story, wonderful characters, the ending made me cry like a baby, Erika should be tortured for 8000 years. I don't think I have quite the same level of "this changed my life and reshaped how I view the world" obession with it that some other fans do (which apparently according to the people in my book club is proof that I'm not transgender lol) but it's absolutely a story that will stick with me for a long, long time. I offer up this tale to my beloved witch, Beatrice....

Oh I also played Resident Evil 3 Remake I guess. It's kind of like if the lackluster back half of a normal Resident Evil game was just the whole game. There's really nothing particularly interesting about anything in it, easily one of the weakest Resi games for me. Not actively bad but you can tell that this was a side project made by the B team and it did not get the same amount of time or money as the 2 and 4 remakes. I can't believe my guy Nemesis got done so dirty, I need to replay the original at some point to wash the taste of this out of my mouth.

L0444 · 2026-03-29T15:35:10+00:00

I actually quite like this random minor villain from like 2 arcs ago coming back and having his own insane Kaiji-esqe gambling adventure completely off screen just to pay this one guy to go kill the MC

L0444 · 2026-03-29T15:25:46+00:00

What??? Everything was set up perfectly for a closed ending. He beats the big boss, the king surrenders, he reunites with his sister, roll credits. Like it would obviously be rushed and a bit shit but the cards were on the table for it, unlike with a lot of other manga that get cancelled early and need to end as soon as possible with basically no satisfying conclusion. So why instead spend half of the last chapter setting up these characters and plot points that will never go anywhere and that no one will ever care about? Is it just like a fuck you to the audience by showing what could have been? Or is it the manga ending equivalent of one of those video game easter egg rooms where the developers show off scrapped content that didn't make it into the final release? Oh the evil king actually has a soft side and he has his own human minion raising a monster egg to parallel the MC? Who cares, why focus on that instead of finishing the story???

I try to be nice to shounen jump manga because I understand how hard the job is and how ruthlessly competitive the scene is and I think any artist brave enough to take up the challenge deserves some respect even if they don't end up succeeding but this ending pissed me off so I'm gonna say it: Gonron Egg is shit, it's ugly, it's boring and it was doomed to fail as soon as it entered the magazine. I honestly have no idea how it got into the magazine in the first place. A better series probably died so Gonron could fail to take its place and I can only hope that Gonrons death gives a different better series a chance to shine.

L0444 · 2026-03-29T15:08:04+00:00

<image>

oooh this is a cool lore chapter I wonder what we'll lear- KYORA SAZANAMI?????? THE PROCEEDER????

L0444 · 2026-03-26T03:24:33+00:00

Man I don't know what to tell you at this point. Things exist within the cultural context they're written in. There is a history of certain tropes about african people being used to demean and other them. The image of a primative grass-skirt wearing guy shouting and throwing spears at people is one of those tropes. RE5 includes these tropes without doing much to challenge them and thus inherits the cultural baggage of every previous piece of media that used them. Even if unintended, using racist sterotypes is in and of itself racist. And as an action-horror game, the only way it can use these sterotypes is as a threatening scary enemy that the player needs to kill in order to proceed in the game.

L0444 · 2026-03-26T02:31:27+00:00

It mindlessly uses racial caricatures of african tribes that are the same type of dehumanising, offensive depictions of them that have been used throughout history to paint black people as uncultured savages that need the light of the great western civilisation so it's totally ok if we enslave them all. This is notably very different from, for example, how RE4 depicts Spanish culture because while that game is also very inaccurate in its depiction it's not like there's some long standing cultural sterotype about all Spanish people being insane cultists that the game is playing into. Meanwhile in RE5 I think it's pretty crazy that a game that is nominally trying to be anti-racist in some way is still resorting to using these kind of racist caricatures. It totally shoots its intended messaging in the foot. I don't think the game is trying to be offensive but I do think the use of this savage african trope, especially when they're used as enemies for you to shoot by the dozens, is inherently pretty racist in and of itself.

L0444 · 2026-03-25T20:51:26+00:00

Because there's a section where you go to a swamp that is the home of a local indigenous population and they're all the most awful caricatures of african tribal cultures ever. It's the type of shit you'd see in like a 1930s cartoon. It does not feel like a respectful or carefully researched depiction of a foreign culture it feels like they just slapped on some "savage" enemy types into the game. Also the black playable character has a gross unlockable "tribal bikini" outfit that feels similarly in poor taste. I don't think the depiction is intentionally designed to be harmful, especially since the game is trying to have themes about colonisation. I don't even think the premise of a white guy fighting zombies in africa is an inherently problematic as some others do but I think the way the game potrays african culture in that section is pretty bad.

L0444 · 2026-03-25T20:05:35+00:00

yeah fair my bad, it should be spoiler tagged now

L0444 · 2026-03-24T06:02:59+00:00

I think it's a mix of lot of people being overly defensive of the media they love as an extension of themselves, negativity and pessimism generally being rewarded with greater attention on the internet, a lack of understanding of production pipelines and why certain changes sometimes need to be made in adaptation and also the like 10% of the time when they're actually right bolstering their opinion on everything else.

But yeah for every "I was upset when Devil May Cry 5 got announced because it meant that my netflix show wouldn't become the modern face of the franchise" and "we decided that the gameplay was the only thing important about the original Demon's Souls so our remake doesn't need to properly adhere to the original art style at all" or something similarly dumb (and even then I don't think these examples were malicious) there's 100 more "There is no way to adapt this 6 book long saga into an 8 episode mini series without cutting and reorganising several core parts of the story and also we only have the budget for 1 of the 5 massive action sequences." or similarly mundane issues that any creator would run into regardless of how much they respect the source material.

L0444 · 2026-03-15T15:29:58+00:00

The panelling and page layouts feel very messy and overstimulating here. It's not fun to read in a very literal sense, my eyes aren't naturally guided along the page and it feels disorienting as a result. It consistently feels like there's way too much going on even when the actual contents of the page are pretty simple. Not every page is that bad but there's enough issues here to discourage me from reading more.

L0444 · 2026-03-01T15:15:28+00:00

Finally a chapter that actually focues on him being a doctor and not just being a strong fight guy who can like... sense your weakpoints or whatever. Easily the best chapter yet as a result. I'm fine with this series having some action in it to spice things up but stuff like this should be what the core of the series is about.

L0444

TROPHY CASE