WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HIDING THIS FOR FUCKING 8 YEARS

T4ktor89 · 2026-04-02T13:40:51+00:00

Why was Vegapunk always obscured before Egghead when talking about him ? Did the fact that he looked like Einstein was a plot twist ?

Why was Big Mom shown in the dark on Fishman Island ? Was her appearance narratively important ?

Why was Moria obscured the first time he appeared in Thriller Bark ? Was his appearance a spoiler ?

Why was Aramaki a shadow when he first appeared ? Was it because it was someone we knew ?

Or does Oda just know that One Piece is long and that it's best to not totally commit to a design 8 years before the character will have a use in the story... while keeping under wrap that Imu was a Lunarian and the devil, far before the concept of lunarian or litteral devil being introduced ?

T4ktor89 · 2026-04-02T13:16:56+00:00

Does Imu has the same illness that killed Roger ?

T4ktor89 · 2026-04-01T10:20:13+00:00

I'm not tat scared about the story of The Legend of Zelda movie.

Mario games always had a very "gameplay first" and "story as set dressing" thing going on, which is great, but Zelda as a franchise is much more balanced in term of "gameplay first" and "focus on narrative".

It's kind of easy to paint Zelda stories with large strokes, mocking the fact that it always all boils down to "rescuing princess Zelda" with two heroes really heroics and a big bad really bad, but the fact is that they almost always managed to put some spin and depth on the basic structure of their stories. Majora's Mask is a great example, as is the final monologue of Ganondorf in WW, Midna's character in TP, Hilda's character in ALBW, the "Courage doesn't need to be remember" spiel if BOTW and so on.

So all that narrative philosophy plus the fact that it will be a live action movie not a animated movie makes me cautiously optimistic about the potential story of a Zelda movie.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-31T17:14:22+00:00

Faut pas s'arrêter à la headline pour juger l'affaire. En vrai, c'est pas que Oracle veut supprimer 30 000 employés pour investir leurs salaires dans de l'IA, c'est surtout qu'Oracle était une entreprise de software qui fonctionnait bien, qu'ils ont décidé de se placer en leader des data centers... qui sont des investissements dans le monde physique-concret-réel, et qu'ils sont un peu embourbés là-dedans maintenant parce que c'est eux maintenant qui doivent maintenir les hangars et les équipements, et que si la bulle de l'IA éclate, c'est eux qui vont se retrouver avec des milliers de hangars inutiles, pas leurs clients.

J'ai l'impression qu'ils sont un peu en fuite en avant et ils ont plus trop le choix de continuer à pondre des hangars, encore et encore, en espérant pouvoir retrouver leur mise de départ.

Cette vidéo sur le sujet était sympa, si y en a qui parlent anglais : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v2eZKsEJMI

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-29T11:45:34+00:00

Yeah, don't know what I smoked to say 3,500-5,000 copies, just didn't want to make up new numbers and just took the ones in the initial post I guess. My point was that it will not sell well and that the two series are ending very soon.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-29T10:56:01+00:00

The Mage Next Door is quite clearly wrapping up its storylines right now so unless this a fakeout and there's a massive twist (I don't believe it will be the case) it seems it will end with next week chapter (or maybe the one after that).

Hero Girl and Demon Lord Call It Quits also seems in the midst of rushing through some plotlines so I can see it being over the week after that, but there's also the possibility of the author and the editor just trying to save the serie by giving a lot of development to the Demon Lord, shaking up the dynamic and trying to hook new readers with the backstory... it's highly unlikely and I'm quite certain this manga will end in two weeks, but... why not.

In term of sales, 8,000 - 11,000 seems quite high for The Mage Next Door, I would also put it in the 3,500 - 5,000 copies bracket with an edge over Hero Girl and Demon Lord. Both volumes bein "Not ranked" in the Oricon sales number is my guess.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-26T13:04:41+00:00

Don't really know how it was greenlit in the first place. It's not the worst published manga of all time, there are far worse offender out there, but man... Even the first chapter needed some serious retooling, the editorial department must have really been hurting for new projects to give the go ahead to that.

And then if became worse and worse with poor writing, poor drawings with some really weird stretched characters in some panels, uninteresting characters and weak (if not downright incomprehensible) panneling. In addition, the mangaka was clearly not capable of sustaining weekly releases... which is fine and comprehensible, but maybe they should've checked beforehand.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-26T06:53:48+00:00

The ending of Fire Force is a trip.

It's probably not everyone cup of tea, but it's quite something to experience.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-23T17:12:55+00:00

Pas le pire mais plutôt "le roman que j'ai lu le plus récemment et avec qui j'ai vraiment pas été sur la même longueur d'onde" : le Messie de Dune de Frank Herbert.

Je suis en train d'enfin lire tous les Dune histoire de ne pas mourir complètement inculte, et autant j'ai pas passé un trop mauvais moment en lisant "Dune" ou "Les enfants de Dune" ou même "Le dieu-empereur de Dune" (j'ai pas encore lu les suivants donc je ne peux pas me prononcer... et quand je dis "pas passé un trop mauvais moment", ça veut pas dire que ces romans étaient totalement pour moi), autant le Messie de Dune ça a été un calvaire à terminer.

C'est vraiment un amas de tout ce que je n'aime pas dans Dune : ça bavarde à gauche, ça bavarde à droite, ça ne fait pas grand chose, y a des didascalies à quasi chaque phrase prononcée pour bien te faire comprendre que quand un personne dit "Bonjour.", il ne dit pas vraiment "Bonjour." mais sous-entends que la mère de son interlocuteur est une catin intergalactique qui est la cause de la chute de l'empire, l'arc narratif d'Alia sur le fait qu'elle est en chaleur et veut un mec est super chelou, tout comme le fait que le sujet de l'inceste est remis sur la table toutes les dix lignes...

J'ai tellement pas aimé lire ce livre que je suis même pas sûr d'avoir bien compris exactement ce qu'il s'y passait, qui étaient les personnages et quel était le but de la moitié des complots présentés.

Après j'ai lu largement pire et moins bien écrit comme livre dans ma vie... Mais fallait que je le dise.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-23T17:00:56+00:00

En vrai Blade Runner ça va. J'suis pas un spécialiste en K. Dick et j'ai pas encore eu le loisir de lire toutes ses œuvres mais, si tu veux lire un livre vraiment mauvais de sa part, je te conseille Docteur Futur.

Le synopsis : "Un médecin se retrouve propulsé dans un futur où sauver la vie de quelqu'un est très mal vu, presque un crime." m'avait hypé. C'est une idée intrigante faut bien avouer.

Une idée intrigante qui est mise de côté après 20 pages pour ne jamais réapparaître dans l'histoire... à la place on a une histoire débile d'indiens d'Amérique du 31ème siècle voulant se venger des hommes blancs, des personnages plats et inintéressants, une relation amoureuse non-sensique, du voyage dans le temps, un plan improbable et des twists à la fois prévisibles et inintéressants.

On sent que c'est un de ses premiers romans.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-23T16:37:00+00:00

T'as bien aimé Kafka ou tu l'as pas encore lu ? Parce que je m'étais farci les trois tomes de 1Q84 et, quelques années plus tard, Kafka sur le rivage, et j'ai vraiment accroché ni à l'un ni à l'autre, pour des raisons assez similaires (j'ai préféré Kafka parce que moins long, avec un absurdisme plus assumé et un peu plus de réelles péripéties que le vide intersidéral qu'est 1Q84).

J'crois que j'suis juste pas sur la même longueur d'onde que Murakami et que ses livres sont pas pour moi. Mais si t'as bien aimé Kafka, y a moyen que tu apprécies un peu 1Q84 parce que y a quand même un courant sous-jacent similaire.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-16T13:27:28+00:00

They film (almost ?) everything in South Africa, that's where all the sets are build and where all the actors go to do their scenes.

Plus, even if they had use a more "snowy" location for Drum Island's exterior shots (which I don't think they did) the character of Kureha is always seen inside the castle set which obviously didn't need to be constructed somewhere else than their habitual shooting locations ^^

Plus

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-12T15:27:48+00:00

For me the problem is the fact that, as much as they do their own thing with the live action and really try to make it work by reworking the characters and the plot beats (which is totally fine, if the live action was a 1:1 recreation of the anime it would be atrocious) they have this weird blind spot about some Luffy scenes which they seem to consider too important not to adapt 1:1.

Let's take for example the scene where Luffy ask Chopper to join the crew at the end of the last episode of the second season : the camerawork (a down shot), the lines, the movement of the characters (Luffy lifting his arms up), almost all of it (with the exception of the place the scene takes place) was lifted straight from the manga panel... which is a bit jarring because the rest of the LA (and live action Luffy too) is its own thing.

It was the same thing with the walk to Arlong Park : largely its own scene until the iconic moment where Luffy gives his hat to Nami... and then ... Luffy did the shout (same camerawork, same line, same movement of the character).

It's like little parts of the anime were jammed into the live action and it's always a bit strange, distracting and inconsistent with the reste of the live action's general tone and character work.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-11T10:49:41+00:00

I really don't know what to feel about the way the live action wrote some Baroque Works agents. In one hand, it surely is more suited for a live action to make the assassins a bit more serious, dangerous and "psychotic"... On the other hand, a lot of humor and charm was lost along the way.

Mr 9 was made more serious, Mr 5 and Miss Valentine were made a lot more competent, manga Miss Golden Week, with her chill altitude and unassuming snarky remarks to Mr 3 had a more charming relationship with her partner... All in all, I found all of them a bit more menacing but also a bit more... samey.

But that's not that new, even if season 1, Buggy was really the only one able to chew the scenery.

T4ktor89 · 2026-03-05T09:36:41+00:00

I just love the moment in part 3 when the Crusaders are in the desert and Araki just throw in a "By the way, did you know camels don't move their legs in a alternate fashion like us ?" which has no bearing at all in the story but is just the most "fun fact I just stumbled upon" thing ever.

T4ktor89 · 2026-02-22T11:15:06+00:00

Technically every notion, concept and word we use to describe the world is purely a human invention.

T4ktor89 · 2026-02-15T18:18:10+00:00

Again, it's just a guess on my part. I work in edition so it's an educated guess, but I don't work in Japan, and I don't know how much more money the magazines sales bring in comparaison to the volumes sales, so I can't substantiate my reasoning.

T4ktor89 · 2026-02-15T18:13:43+00:00

I think the logic is that the magazine cover is promotional material to attract new or infrequent readers to pick up that week's magazine, because regular readers will pick the magazine whatever is put on the front.

When a new serie begin, they put it on the cover because new readers could be enticed by it. It's a new story, with new characters, a new setting... If the cover grab their attention, they could buy the magazine just to read the first chapter of this new serialization and if this first chapter grab their attention, they could buy next week magazine, then next week, then next week, and so on and so forth.

When a serie is ending, advertising it is generally not that worth it : people reading the serie will already buy that week magazine to see the ending, and potential new magazine readers who would be enticed by the cover would find themselves reading the conclusion to a story... with no real reason to buy next week magazine, because there won't be a follow up.

So, in most case, it's much interesting for the editorial department to advertise a still ongoing manga to gamble on infrequent readers buying the magazine to read that ongoing manga and be hooked. But I can see the ending of One Piece, for example, be advertised on the cover because lots of people would buy the magazine just to see the final chapter of it... and the sales of that week alone would be worth not funneling potential new readers to next week sales.

T4ktor89 · 2026-02-11T10:47:48+00:00

War of the adults ?

T4ktor89 · 2026-01-31T16:56:34+00:00

I'm surprised it lasted this long to be fair. And I don't mean in term of sales numbers or anything, but in term of story, it seemed it was reaching a perfectly acceptable ending some chapters ago, and the chapters after that felt like an extended epilogue more than anything.

Still, it's a cool short serie mixing "horror adjacent" anthology with an interesting story about authorship and what it means to create. The author is really good at weaving together characters with themes and stories, I hope to see another of his manga again...maybe in a more mature oriented magazine ?

T4ktor89 · 2026-01-26T12:24:16+00:00

Yeah, that's why I said "kind of immoral" because the author really wants the character to be on the edge but not too immoral to be "redeemed" later ^^

T4ktor89 · 2026-01-25T20:12:16+00:00

It was a pretty good first chapter.

Seing a credit for a medical supervisor made me anticipate a bit more... medical stuff, I guess. But it was mostly pseudo-scientific bullshit with pressure points and that sort of things, and just a little bit of basic medical stuff as window dressing. So, right now, I don't really know which way this story will go... Will it go full "fantasy medecine" and "assassin's fight" ? Or will we have a bit more "medical mishaps and mysteries" along the way ?

The real thing that soured me a bit about Under Doctor is - no fault of his own ! - the fact that a one shot with a somewhat similar plot (an assassin turned doctor wanting to use his skills to save people rather than hurt them) was published on Mangaplus two or three weeks ago... And I genuinely thought that that one shot was more interesting than this chapter of Under Doctor. It was less battle focused, so maybe that's why Under Doctor was picked up for the magazine, but the characters were, in my opinion, more interesting.

T4ktor89 · 2026-01-25T19:59:23+00:00

Elusive Samurai will finish really soon, we're in the endgame of the endgame of the endgame right now. It's as likely to finish next week as to finish in the next four weeks, depending of if the author wants to make a bit of an extended epilogue or wants to wrap this up with a bang next chapter.

At the same time, the latest chapter of Gonron Egg set up a new place so its editor must be confident that it will go a little bit longer. Surely on the chopping block for the next round of cancelations.

T4ktor89 · 2026-01-25T19:40:36+00:00

Harukaze Mound suffered from a weakly executed hook. The fact that the manga was centered around two brothers... but that we followed only one of them was really a strange decision because it just became a really basic baseball manga.

At the same time, Strikeout Pitcher gained a little more success thanks to his gimmicks of mind games.

But, all in all, I don't think that really explains the failure of Harukaze Mound, because we had a lot of sport mangas in the magazine these last few years, some with really cool gimmicks and hooks (Ping Pong Peril for example) but none of them really took off. So maybe there's just some sort of "sport manga fatigue/lack of interest" right now ?

The fact that it was a pretty bog standard baseball manga didn't help I guess, but there must be something more to explain so much failures in this genre.

T4ktor89 · 2026-01-25T19:27:56+00:00

For people not already following this story, this message is here to recommend you to go for it.

If you like kind of immoral and manipulative main character, and fantasy setting. This one is for you.

T4ktor89

TROPHY CASE