Jump Start--Takujo no Ageha
Nov. 25th, 2014 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyHi folks!
One of the ways Weekly Shounen Jump stays on top of the sales charts is by "churn", ending old series and starting new ones in their manga anthology magazine. Now, sometimes this happens naturally, as the recent run of Naruto reached a good point to end the series. But more often, it's a series that used to be popular but has gone downhill (Psyren for example) or a recent entry that didn't catch on (for example, Barrage.) In these cases, the writer has to wrap everything up in three or four chapters, so the story has some kind of ending.
Generally, the Jump editorial people want three new series to start each quarter of the year; which means that it's time for the online edition to have another round of "Jump Start." This last week, the first of the new series debuted, Takujo no AGEHA.
It's about ping-pong, or as they persistently refer to it here, table tennis. 18 pages of 55.
Grandpa admits he was just kidding about the bath, but seriously, could Ririka plan to take over the family business and run the center? She gives him a death glare as she refuses. Again. She considers herself a Cinderella, who does not deserve to be trapped in such shabby circumstances/
Grandpa thinks there's nothing to be ashamed of; Japan was once a ping-pong power, with thirteen world champions, and he personally--Ririka has to rush to school.
On the way to school, Ririka is followed by a flock of male admirers. A female acquaintance wonders why, if she's so popular, Ririka doesn't have a boyfriend.
The groupie battalion decides that this interloper must be punished for dissing Ririka. He easily dodges each attack, even predicting where the attackers will end up being humiliated.
Ririka introduces herself to Ageha, and we learn that his resistance to her charms has piqued her competitive spirit. She starts talking about fate. Ageha hands her a letter with a heart seal, which Ririka takes for a love letter. It is, to table tennis, detailing his practice schedule. Infuriated, Ririka decides to bring out the big guns.
The teacher tries to remind everyone that class is supposed to be in session, and is roundly ignored as Ririka and Ageha trade barbs.
Miyaji gave up ping-pong as "uncool" so that Ririka would like him better. No one's playing table tennis at this school if Ririka isn't happy about it. As is traditional in series like this, Ageha challenges Miyaji to a match. Ririka tosses in that she'll kiss the winner. maybe. Miyaji is agreeable, Ageha pretends he is repulsed, but is applying lip balm. A bystander wishes he was playing if it meant a kiss, but pooh-poohs the notion that table tennis is a difficult game.
Of course, with higher level players like this, it's like watching lightning. Miyaji gets the first point, but then Ageha starts dominating, hitting balls he shouldn't be able to react to. He mentions that ping-pong is the fastest ball sport, with the ball only taking .1 second to reach the opposing player, while a human can only react in .2 seconds. Thus a true table tennis champion must be able to predict the future.
Ririka is surprised, she'd tuned out everything Grandpa said about table tennis, so she hadn't caught on that he was a world champion back in the day. Ageha is his apprentice, his "Golden Successor."
Suddenly, Ageha's predictions aren't working as well, and Miyaji's strokes have gained power.
Of course, since Ageha's name is in the title, he's already adjusted, and uses a sneaky sinking shot to baffle Miyaji.
Ageha is as good as his word, delivering a humiliating defeat. Ririka notes that while he has no other good features, something about the way Ageha plays table tennis is...interesting.
At home Grandpa suggests that perhaps Ririka has fallen for Ageha, something she fervently denies. She goes off to take a bath and soak away her mixed emotions.
Next week, it's E-Robot, with the power of weaponized fanservice.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
http://www.skjam.com
One of the ways Weekly Shounen Jump stays on top of the sales charts is by "churn", ending old series and starting new ones in their manga anthology magazine. Now, sometimes this happens naturally, as the recent run of Naruto reached a good point to end the series. But more often, it's a series that used to be popular but has gone downhill (Psyren for example) or a recent entry that didn't catch on (for example, Barrage.) In these cases, the writer has to wrap everything up in three or four chapters, so the story has some kind of ending.
Generally, the Jump editorial people want three new series to start each quarter of the year; which means that it's time for the online edition to have another round of "Jump Start." This last week, the first of the new series debuted, Takujo no AGEHA.
It's about ping-pong, or as they persistently refer to it here, table tennis. 18 pages of 55.
Grandpa admits he was just kidding about the bath, but seriously, could Ririka plan to take over the family business and run the center? She gives him a death glare as she refuses. Again. She considers herself a Cinderella, who does not deserve to be trapped in such shabby circumstances/
Grandpa thinks there's nothing to be ashamed of; Japan was once a ping-pong power, with thirteen world champions, and he personally--Ririka has to rush to school.
On the way to school, Ririka is followed by a flock of male admirers. A female acquaintance wonders why, if she's so popular, Ririka doesn't have a boyfriend.
The groupie battalion decides that this interloper must be punished for dissing Ririka. He easily dodges each attack, even predicting where the attackers will end up being humiliated.
Ririka introduces herself to Ageha, and we learn that his resistance to her charms has piqued her competitive spirit. She starts talking about fate. Ageha hands her a letter with a heart seal, which Ririka takes for a love letter. It is, to table tennis, detailing his practice schedule. Infuriated, Ririka decides to bring out the big guns.
The teacher tries to remind everyone that class is supposed to be in session, and is roundly ignored as Ririka and Ageha trade barbs.
Miyaji gave up ping-pong as "uncool" so that Ririka would like him better. No one's playing table tennis at this school if Ririka isn't happy about it. As is traditional in series like this, Ageha challenges Miyaji to a match. Ririka tosses in that she'll kiss the winner. maybe. Miyaji is agreeable, Ageha pretends he is repulsed, but is applying lip balm. A bystander wishes he was playing if it meant a kiss, but pooh-poohs the notion that table tennis is a difficult game.
Of course, with higher level players like this, it's like watching lightning. Miyaji gets the first point, but then Ageha starts dominating, hitting balls he shouldn't be able to react to. He mentions that ping-pong is the fastest ball sport, with the ball only taking .1 second to reach the opposing player, while a human can only react in .2 seconds. Thus a true table tennis champion must be able to predict the future.
Ririka is surprised, she'd tuned out everything Grandpa said about table tennis, so she hadn't caught on that he was a world champion back in the day. Ageha is his apprentice, his "Golden Successor."
Suddenly, Ageha's predictions aren't working as well, and Miyaji's strokes have gained power.
Of course, since Ageha's name is in the title, he's already adjusted, and uses a sneaky sinking shot to baffle Miyaji.
Ageha is as good as his word, delivering a humiliating defeat. Ririka notes that while he has no other good features, something about the way Ageha plays table tennis is...interesting.
At home Grandpa suggests that perhaps Ririka has fallen for Ageha, something she fervently denies. She goes off to take a bath and soak away her mixed emotions.
Next week, it's E-Robot, with the power of weaponized fanservice.
Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
http://www.skjam.com
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 05:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 11:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 11:21 am (UTC)I shudder to think of the destruction that a ball such as that would bring into the world.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 11:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 02:02 pm (UTC)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oNoX5ozDtU
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 02:33 pm (UTC)Sports anime are kinda weird.
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Date: 2014-11-26 11:24 am (UTC)Though admittedly, those kind of manga do have a sort of charm to them, in the sense that in most cases it results in everyone in the entire world acting fucking batshit insane over the topic of choice.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 01:22 pm (UTC)You know, I realize now that if I ever made a manga (which, considering my artistic skills are garbage at best, will probably never happen), I would just take the entire concept of a 'specialty school' to its logical conclusion: literally everything in society is based on one extremely specific topic, like for example marbles.
And I mean everything. World leaders are chosen through marbles tournaments. Physically desirable men and women are challenged to marbles for their hand in marriage, with resulting marriages being legally binding. Money is only really used to buy more and better marbles and to pay marbles teachers, as anything else can be earned through beating the seller in a game of marbles. There are no wars, only generals playing marbles. Beating a judge at marbles gets you an immediate acquittal. And anyone who's caught cheating at marbles is executed immediately by the Secret Marble Police.
And of course the series will follow a guy who absolutely SUCKS at marbles, and is thus taken advantage of constantly, until he discovers that a master at marbles (who he's a husband/slave to) cheated in one of her most recent matches, and thus is able to blackmail her into teaching him how to get good using her secret (non-cheating) techniques.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 11:41 am (UTC)This however just seems like someone went through a checklist of popular tropes and threw them all together without any care into how they fit. Get a girl who likes sex, and a girl who is concerned about her "innocence"(only quoting the comic here, not even gonna comment on the concept of a woman's worth being related to that), and two more other girls with different opinions. Don't just throw it all unto a character and make her a bunch of tropes without a personality.
This just gives me uncomfortable flashbacks to know acquaintances comments about manga characters and women in general. >_>
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 11:52 am (UTC)Sadly, next week's entry is possibly worse on the female lead.
no subject
Date: 2014-11-26 10:32 pm (UTC)