“Fubuki Delenda Est”: Part 1.

The following post is my personal evaluation of Fubuki’s character in the manga and how her storyline was handled in the remake. I will take into consideration the webcomic precedent, obviously, but I will also look at how manga Fubuki stands on its own as an original character with no ties to a source material counterpart.

Let’s get started.

As trivial as it may seem at first glance, Fubuki’s first reaction to Overgrown Rover perfectly encapsulates the core differences between the webcomic and manga incarnations of the character. These are Fubuki’s first thoughts in the webcomic (Chapter 69):

Meanwhile, these are her concerns in the manga (Chapter 114):

Quite the difference, right? Webcomic Fubuki expresses her fear for the potentially gruesome consequences a monster like Rover could pose to civilians if the “dog” were to escape the monster lair, whereas her manga counterpart is so obsessed with her personal gain that she is entirely focused on reminding the civilians about who saved them, like a foolish brat who spares no thought to the threat the monster represents and the danger it poses to innocents - and, thus, getting distracted. This is not how Fubuki behaves: prudence and caution are some of Fubuki’s defining traits, and yet the manga keeps completely ignoring this, characterizing Fubuki as a reckless and foolish idiot, basically the very opposite of who she should be. I will return on this topic soon enough.

Disclaimer: I wrote this post before the release of Chapter 160 (“Divide”). I could have used many panels and pages from this update to further support my criticism towards remake Fubuki (unfortunately), but it’s an already long post so I decided to not bloat it even more: maybe in the future I will write something about it (hopefully shorter than this one). It goes without saying that what follows is based on the currently released chapters. Future updates, manga and webcomic alike, could disprove everything written in this post. Webcomic and Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 spoilers ahead.

EDIT (09/09/2022): fixed typos and rephrased sentences for more clarity. Corrected the numbering of the Chapters as well (for the moment at least). I also added a couple of thoughts and a proper introduction to the post.

EDIT (10/09/2022): Fubuki’s connection to Psykos, how the manga handled it, what replaced their fight and more are all topics I examined in this post (it’s basically a Part 2 to this one). 

EDIT (01/08/2023): added a title.

EDIT (09/03/2024): for a webcomic Fubuki analysis, this post.

EDIT (25/03/2024): added two paragraphs in the sections regarding the Demonic Fan and Do-s’ battles.

Back to topic: in the webcomic the situation was even less tense and dire than in the manga: 

Fubuki, Fang and Bomb were together with Genos when they faced the monster,

there were no civilians nearby,

the group noticed right away that Rover was injured,

Rover itself didn’t attack them from the start, but was simply standing in front of them, 

no Demon Level Threat was lurking in the area, like Do-s in the remake, posing an additional source of problems for the heroes, 

and nonetheless webcomic Fubuki was way more cautious than her manga counterpart and acted like one would expect from a professional hero, focusing on the situation at hand and saving Genos from the monster dog, instead of distracting herself for egoistical reasons only to be saved by Bomb like in the remake. As flawed as she may be, webcomic Fubuki knows where her duties as a hero lie when the situation requires it, while, on the other hand, her manga counterpart can only mumble about the “Fubuki Group”: it’s pure, unfiltered flanderization.

But let’s take a step back and look at how the manga adapts other webcomic moments of the MA arc involving Fubuki, starting with the chapter where the Saitama’s group joins the fights.

In the wc (Chapter 66: 1, 2), after being informed about the S-Class mission against the MA and hearing about the formidable menace represented by the latter, Fubuki expressed her concerns about the threat posed by the Monster Association, dropping her “Fubuki’s group boss”/Chūnibyō persona for the rest of the arc; in the manga, even after confronting one of the MA members (Do-s) and suffering the consequences of it (namely, losing temporarily her group and being taken out of the hero raid as a result of her underwhelming performance), and so knowing full well how powerful and dangerous the monster organization is, Fubuki keeps displaying an overconfident and overbearing attitude - like taking the lead, ordering around the rest of the Saitama group and bossing around her powersful companions as if they were her underlings - as if nothing happened. This obviously serves as the setup for all the jokes and the gags of the following chapters (all manga original content). Consequently, the trajectory of the character in the incoming events changes as well: 

webcomic Fubuki, a (too) cautious and wary hero, found herself in the middle of a war between some of the strongest beings in the setting and then proved to be no mere B-Class but one of the few characters who played a major role in the events of that crisis and greaty contributed to the victory of the HA. Still, that didn’t spare her from confronting a shadow from her past, Psykos, or from experiencing, more or less, the realization of Saitama's "prophecy” when she faced Garou, all stuff that contributed to flesh out her character and push forward her storyline;

manga Fubuki, instead, ends up taking the role of the arrogant but weak fool who gets put in her place by literally anyone, passing 95% of the time sitting on the ground while looking pathetically distressed, providing only plot-fixing healing powers and cheap gags to the story (well, other than shilling her sister, but that’s a common job in the current manga, shared by basically the entire cast, now all super fans of Tatsumaki). 

A downgrade on all fronts.

The absence of Genos during the Overgrown Rover fight also greatly affected (for the worse) Fubuki’s characterization and changed the context behind the “you owe me one” line from the original. In the webcomic, Fubuki says this line to Genos after saving him from Rover (Chapter 69). We have to keep in mind that before the battle Genos had a generally hostile attitude towards Fubuki (1, 2), on top of being an S-Class Hero and being stronger than her - as proven to us multiple times, Fubuki puts all this stuff in high regard. This statement here is her way to admit her limits (being unable to block another volley of projectiles from the monster) to someone more powerful/higher ranked than her (Genos) and warn him about her inability to repeat right-away the same feat in the event of another attack, while at the same time putting emphasis on what she accomplished; beside, Genos didn’t save her before, so the statement makes perfect sense in this context and doesn’t make her sound like an ungrateful idiot. In the remake the same line makes absolutely no sense to be directed to Fang and Bomb: the martial artist brothers saved her multiple times before (1, 2.1, 2.2, 3) (something that didn’t happen in the wc) and never were hostile or dismissive towards the esper, which not only makes Fubuki bad at math (they owe nothing to her, if anything, she is the one still owing something to them) but portrays her as an ungrateful and insufferable brat and all the “good leader” stuff the manga keeps pushing becomes completely impossible to take seriously considering how immature Fubuki acts most of the time. Actually, the way the manga adapted this moment reminds me more of wc Tatsumaki’s words when she stood up again, after being clowned by Psykos and the Cadres, and blamed her colleagues for being unable to take care of the situation by themselves (she even says “you owe me one”): too bad that, after her glorious failure against the Cadres, it was thanks to the Saitama Group and Amai Mask (without forgetting Pri Pri Prisoner and Pig God, who saved the heroes buried under the debris) that the HA didn’t suffer a gruesome defeat and didn’t have already lost the battle. The original Overgrown Rover battle then ends with Fubuki having successfully saved an S-Class from an attack of a Dragon Level Threat with nothing having tarnished her achievement afterward (here), whereas, in the Murata version, Fubuki keeps acting like a clown and falls on the ground reduced to a trembling mess unable to stand on her feet, making “funny” scared faces like a stereotypical (bad) battle-shounen female character (Chapter 123: 1, 2) and that after being rescued by Fang and Bomb once again (never happened in the wc as well). On the subject of remake Fubuki being reduced multiple times to a shaking puppy and how it ruins the character in exchange for bad humor, keep reading. Added in date 28/08/2022: Fubuki’s intervention is also framed differently: in the webcomic she moves in front of Genos, standing between the S-Class and Rover’s attacks (before that she was at Genos side), while in the manga she is caught by surprise behind Fang and Bomb. As we see later on, a worn out and tired Bomb (Chapter 147) and then Fang (Chapter 148-153) were able to keep up speed-wise with Garou the sleeping beauty (stronger than the Garou who defeated Darkshine, let’s not forget) at a speed Fubuki was unable to follow: I don’t think is unreasonable to assume the two brothers stayed behind simply in order to protect Fubuki from Rover and the moment seems to follow this interpretation, with Fubuki forcing the two martial arts to protect her, even though they could have easily avoided the blast but decided to stay because they couldn’t simply abandon the weaker hero to her destiny. Additionally, considering the stuff Fang and Bomb went through on the surface, I very much doubt that they would have suffered any major injury here, let alone die, whereas, Genos was 100% saved by Fubuki, who wasn’t a hindrance or a liability to him at all. Also, the two martial artists were seen deflecting the blasts of Rover even before Fubuki “buffed” them, during the Do-s “rematch” chapter (another instance of redraws creating issues where there were none), so to what degree her power boost actually helped them is impossible to gauge and its effects are never brought up again. Actually, there are no signs of Fubuki effctively improving their performance in any conceivable way. The only thing indicating she did something comes from herself (in the manga she is delusional, so, even if her dialogue box was meant to be an objective statement, it’s hard to tell) and vague Bomb and Fang’s remarks - again, nothing supported by any fact or later development occurring in the story. If you ignore these statements, you wouldn’t even notice something was missing; in this fight, Fang and Bomb simply showcased once again their martial art and fighting prowess, and that’s it. And albeit the dialogue seems to imply it, there was no hint of Fang and Bomb being hindered by fatigue or injuries prior to this scene. Similarly, Fang claiming he got his strength back comes from nowhere as well. Actually, despite this statement, the Fang and Bomb’s combo performed against Rover few pages later is depicted as way more underwhelming than the one against Elder Centipede, despite the latter being a less powerful technique than the one used here (with a buff supporting them too). I want to remark how the buff is never brought up or elaborated on ever again in the arc and the interactions between the characters have barely any consequence in the following chapters too - aside from Fubuki learning about Bomb’s martial arts talent (I guess?). As a proof of this, Fang and Bomb recognize Fubuki's actions and her leader vocation only in Chapter 142, despite having already witnessed it here.

Fubuki’s reaction to Tatsumaki’s lifting the MA’s HQ and destroying Z-City: this is the scene in the webcomic scene (1, 2) and this in the manga (1, 2). As you can see, they couldn’t be more different. I already talked about it plenty in the past (like here, points 15-17), so I will try to get to the point quickly. In the webcomic that scene justified Fubuki’s fear of her sister with a concise and effective demonstration of Tatsumaki’s unstable and crazy temper coupled with immense power, making Fubuki’s concerns believable and understandable to the reader. In the remake it, the scene serves goes in the opposite direction: to reassure us about Tatsumaki’s status as the best sister around - from a storytelling perspective, this change obliterates the entire Esper Sisters arc before it can even start and makes Fubuki comes off as nothing but a pathetic comic relief. Funnily enough, the manga even contradicts itself a few chapters later, but that is obviously not acknowledged at all nor that matter when Fubuki is sure her sister would never harm her and is more worried about poor Tatsumaki’s Blast “curse”. The webcomic scene gave us a glimpse of the relationship between the two sisters, respected the characterization of the characters involved and laid the ground for the future confrontation between the two without feeling intrusive to the plot of the arc and without taking away the focus from the ongoing events; the other version, meanwhile, shits all over one character for a cheap joke in order to shill the older sibling, completely disregarding the type of relationship these two characters originally had (again, the main topic of the next arc). To tell the truth, remake Fubuki has never been shown to actually fear Tatsumaki nor she has any reason to do so, seeing how manga Tatsumaki allows Fubuki to do whatever she wants without suffering any consequence for it (even after being defeated multiple times) - in the remake, the two of them even go shopping together as ordinary sisters: yeah truly like the source material (in Part 2 I will discuss how this doesn’t do any favor to the resolution between the two sisters even if we looked solely to the manga without comparing it to the source material). Furthermore, Chapter 133 (I believe) has Fubuki on her knees screaming like a baby, begging to not be transported to the surface where a powerful monster (Psykorochi) is battling her sister; in the equivalent webcomic scene the group is trapped under the debris and Fubuki isn’t squatting and screaming like a “small fish”, she, instead, is simply warning Genos to not reach the surface because her sister “has entered battle mode” and there are unknown and powerful threats lurking there (1, 2); it’s a reasonable statement, given the circumstances, and her concerns are all justified. Consequently, the narrative doesn’t make fun of her and the two martial brothers, instead of looking at her with a dead-pan expression like they were forced to babysit a hysterical toddler, agree with Fubuki’s advice. By the way, notice how wc Fang, Bomb and Genos don’t express any gratitude towards Tatsumaki either, actually the opposite.

Fubuki meeting Garou: wc (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and manga (1, 2). I already talked about this here too, so I will summarize my thoughts: it’s astonishing how one of the most dreadful and dramatic moments of the webcomic ended up not only undercut by all the previous instances of distressed Fubuki chibi/exaggerated expressions (not present in the wc) but changed for the umpteenth boring comedy relief shtick starring Fubuki and the floor, with the former pathetically watching in awe somebody else being actually the focus of the scene. This undermines not only Fubuki, but Garou himself, lessening the impact of his reappearance. In the original, Fubuki was exhausted at this point, having faced two Dragon Level Threats (one of them being a long lost acquaintance reappearing as the leader of a world-threatening organization) and was completely isolated from the rest of the heroes when Garou emerged from the shadows, a dark and demonic silhouette under the moonlight, a spawn of the night that seemingly threated any achievement or chance of success the heroes obtained by that point. With this moment, Garou truly seemed to have become the monster he always sought to be and that made for an arc-changing moment - ONE deciding to portray Garou with such terrifying and intimidating aura made Fubuki’s reaction all the more justfied and that helped to sell the idea that we were in the last stages of the arc, in the climax of the saga. And nonetheless, right after defeating Psykos, Fubuki still tried to fight the Hero Hunter with her telekinesis, before succumbing to fatigue and to the fear evoked by Garou’s overwhelming power. Other than reintroducing Garou and signaling the start of the conclusion of the arc, the encounter with Garou also has important consequences in Fubuki’s character arc, as shown by the dialogue with Saitama in the elevator and the fight with Tatsumaki, all from the Esper Sisters. So, this was definitely a very important moment for Fubuki, Garou and the story as a whole, instead of a random, “funny” moment. But why portray the scene like that when we can get another one-note joke that doesn’t add anything worthy to the character (or the story) and actually “harms” Fubuki’s characterization in exchange for a cheap gag? Why bother giving this moment some sort of pathos, when Fubuki in the manga has been used solely for providing fanservice and bad comedy? It’s better to throw in a joke for the sake of a joke, right? That’s probably the thought process of whoever wrote this. I want to remind anyone reading this how in the wc MA arc Fubuki’s concerns and fears were never used for gratuitous jokes and she was never rescued or saved by anyone: Fubuki was the one saving her colleagues instead. In Chapter 160 she keeps getting saved by others, by the way.

Bonus: a brief scene from Chapter 113 where Fubuki is affected by a sudden and jarring personality change the moment the remake stops adapting the webcomic (wc: 1, 2, manga: 1, 2).

And these are the scenes of the MA arc shared by the webcomic and the manga (so far). Now let’s take into consideration manga original stuff - the following isn’t a comprehensive list of all the new content featuring Fubuki, but rather additions that impacted in a major way Fubuki’s characterization itself and her role within the series. Obviously, nothing prevents ONE to add/retcon/bring all the following stuff in the webcomic one day, but that’s another matter.

Fubuki’s manga introduction/being defeated by Demonic Fan? [This and the following paragraphs have been edited in date 24/03/2024] Introducing a character in a story, especially a new character in an ongoing narrative, is always a delicate matter. What is shown at this early stage will often be forever associated with the character and imprinted on the readers’ minds as the defining image of this member of the cast, influencing their view and opinion from that point onward. A misstep at such a crucial point might have a cascade effect on the rest of the story and alienate the readers’ interest and willingness to engage with the story of this particular character. Therefore, it’s in the author’s best interest to captivate the readers with an introduction that highlights the characteristics/personality of this member of the cast and provides reasons to be invested in this new entry and their story. There isn’t one single correct way to accomplish this, obviously; what is important, however, is to generate interest and curiosity in the character, set their character arc on the right course and avoid elements of characterization that might lead to insistencies and issues down the line. The OPM manga completely failed at doing so with Fubuki. Fubuki’s first appearance in the series, the manga original Bonus chapter “A New Wind Blows”, presents Fubuki not simply as a in charge of a group that practices rookie crushing (this being the only detail the chapter shares with with the webcomic, although later I will explain how there are major divergences even on this front) but as rather inept leader surrounded by a badly organized clique; in action, Fubuki is shown to be extremely arrogant and reckless, facing head on monsters with no preparation, skill or the strength required, thus resulting in her sister having to save her life and her men. Fubuki not only fails completely as a leader by battling a monster without a strategy or a plan and thus ending up defeated for having understimated the situation, but also as a hero, since she fails to take care of a monster after acting cocky and full of herself, and as a psychic too, since her powers get countered by a fan that, by the standard of the Demon Level Threats in the manga, doesn’t look particularly powerful and whose attacks are not that impressive considering what webcomic Fubuki had to deal with (or compared directly to her telekinesis output, going by the winds Fubuki’s unleashed in the Esper Sisters arc, which wrecked havoc in the hyper-advanced facility built with state-of-the art anti-earthquake technologies and caused seismic activity above level 6 of the Shindo scale, all things way more impressive than slightly damaging a crumbling random building like the monster did; I will return on this). Regardless of following the webcomic or not, I can’t imagine how this showcase could benefit a character that is supposed to play a major role later in the series as a part of the main cast, and it only gets worse when we remember the webcomic blueprint and the nature of the conflicts and the personal history outlined there - what is worse is that this mess occurs in one of the bonus chapters, chapters that are meant to improve and enhance the story of the remake, but that, in this case, did the exact opposite of that.

In fact, nothing presented in this chapter actually respects Fubuki’s characterization or benefits the original storyline in any way. Tatsumaki, the supposed source of her traumas and the biggest threat to her freedom, here saves Fubuki’s life, allows Fubuki to keep her freedom even after such a massive failure and even permits her to maintain a group that is evidently dangerous to the B-Class (in the remake); the oppressive nature of Tatsumaki’s behavior toward Fubuki and the negative influence she has on Fubuki’s mindset is negated as well by the fact this chapter demonstrates Tatsumaki to be 100% correct about her spoiled and useless sister while also being lenient and permissive enough to do nothing about it. The chapter proves Fubuki unable to live by herself, given how eager she is to throw herself to danger despite having no talent, either as a hero and a esper, to backup her attitude, making an hypotethic interference from Tatsumaki on Fubuki’s life choices not a terrifying usurpation of Fubuki’ self-determination rights, but a life saving intervention involving someone who desperately needs to be monitored. The group? Fubuki is clearly a terrible and incompetent leader, who forces people into her organization, poorly directs these underlings and always leads them into dangerous situations without any strategy or battle prowess required for the job, which result in spectactualr fiascos. How and why they could still be loyal to her and stick to the group, instead of leaving like the protagonist of the chapter does, is beyond me, especially considering how the group will only meet failures as the story progresses - a major disservice to the original dynamic and the webcomic that ends up being quite comical. As for Fubuki’s characterization itself, her original cautious and risk adverse attitude is contradicted and replaced by a cocky and arrogant personality not backed-up by any substance, considering how easily she gets instantly defeated; in the webcomic, any time Fubuki had to partake in a dangerous situation and fight, she always expressed caution and denoted a focused and wary professional attitude (see this, or the example at the beggining of this post), a demeanor at utterly odds with what is shown here or elsewhere in the manga. From any angle we look at it, every single detail shown in this instance, or in the rest of the manga, prevents Fubuki from undergoing her webcomic character arc and, at the same time, alienates the readers from the character, because they have no reason to be invested and interested in a similar character, who has no redeeming qualities but a catalogue of dislikable and obnoxious flaws, which don’t make for an interesting alternate reinterpretation of the esper either, but an annoying and boring walking failure. 

For a comparison with the way the source material chose to introduce the esper, in the webcomic we met Fubuki right when she decided to pay a visit to the mysterious B-Class whose rumors of being a sly fraud and troublemaker caught her attention. This setup perfectly encapsulates the real personal issues of the character: not confronting her inner demons and, by staying in B-Class, avoiding any possible competition that would threaten the sense of realization and security that Fubuki painstakingly tried to achieve in B-Class and with her group as the big fish in a small pond, a feeble sense of equilibrium that keeps at bay her self-loathing tendencies and protects her from perceiving herself as “weak” and from failures that the character is mortally afraid of; once a challenge emerges (Saitama) Fubuki attempts to defuse the bomb by having the rookie join her group; once he refuses, Fubuki retaliates, realizing, during the battle, how frail the cage she trapped herself in out of psychological self-defense, fear of failure and as a protection from her sister actually was, while Saitama’s criticism further unveil her psychological issues and mistakes. The webcomic presents Fubuki in a way that reflects her core characteristics, denounces her fatal flaws and sets in motion her character arc, showing the esper at her worst but, by the end of the arc, putting the character on a path of growth and maturation from her habits and negative mindset - the same happens with King (who left people to die and went to play videogames; worse than anything happening here if you ask me) and several other major characters. We are shown her obsession with ranking, her fear of being challenged and her readiness to retaliate in order to not see her bubble world crumble. These are flaws that are integral to her identity and rooted in her past, her upbringing and her mindset - elements that will be explored in more detail as the story progresses. These flaws don’t row against future scenes and the arc Fubuki is supposed to experience, but represent the internal hurdle she will have to overcome going forward (leave her comfort zone, stop obsessing over her status, challenge herself, face her fears and mature as a person/hero). None of what happens here contradicts or undermines future events; if anything, it builds toward them and provides the proper groundwork for what the series has in store for Fubuki. Fubuki is not incompetent or weak (at worst,  she is weaker than some of the strongest characters in the setting and different in the way her battle prowess manifests, being not a brawler but an esper, but that’s it), but flawed and misguided in an endearing and interesting way, especially as we learn more about her personal history and situation. The arc lays the ground for what is to come while establishing the themes and motives that will recur in her storyline, like Fubuki’s complex dynamic with Tatsumaki, Fubuki’s desire to form connections beyond hierarchies and, consequently, the major role Saitama plays in her story, breaking the bubble she entrenched herself within and challenging her mindset by setting a precedent completely new and inedited for Fubuki. This introduction (the original, intended introduction of the character) does as well a very effective job at setupping the B-Class as an underdog and make the reader guess what her role might be in the future, with the pay offs occurring immediately afterward during the Monster Association arc, with Fubuki impressive and outstanding performance. The first glimpse of the character in the remake, instead, portrays her as incompetent, arrogant and weak (all cardinal sins in what is an action manga), devoid of redeeming qualities (including the dynamic of the group and her relation with its components and between the components) and thus completely dislikable. To make things worse, this new set of flaws doesn’t replace the original one but is added to it (making the character twice as flawed) - after all, the series at the time pretended to follow the original 1:1. This results in an inconsistent and contradictory character whose new (offputting) flaws are actually at odds with her original issues - arrogant vs insecure, reckless vs too cautious, delusional vs self-loathing, etc.. The issues is not that the manga version of the character is flawed - webcomic Fubuki is flawed too (in a different way though) and the flaws are part of why I love the character - but that she is fundamentally flawed, narratively; for example, the conflict that should define Fubuki and her struggles simply don’t work in the manga because they are nonexistent. As the manga progresses, it becomes more and more apparent how manga Fubuki is entirely to blame for everything wrong with her life and relations with others (narratively I mean, not morally), including her past with Tatsumaki; nothing the manga presents about Fubuki and the backstory makes it possible for us to understand Fubuki in the present and why she grew up like this, let alone empathize with the esper - I will expand on this in Part 2 when I will talk about Fubuki and Tatsumaki’s conversation. And that on top of being a failure and very incompetent at her job. How could they fumbled Fubuki of all characters it’s mindboggling, to be honest.

“A New Wind Blows” also starts a very baffling manga trend (Fubuki fighting a monster with the group, pathetically losing and requiring to be rescued by her adorable sister) that replaces the original narrative of the webcomic, the sisters dynamic and the nature of their conflict for something way cheaper, boring and hollow. While the chapter doesn’t show Fubuki’s battle or how she actually lost, as it happens off-screen (keep this in mind for the Do-s’ fight), Fubuki’s performance seems to have been affected by her subordinates, who didn’t leave the place, despite Fubuki ordering them to do so. So it was them being a hindrance that led to Fubuki’s defeat and almost to the demise of the entire group. As a result, in the manga, Fubuki’s problems stem not from her past and her relationship with Tatsumaki, but literally from the hindrance represented by her group and how this is affecting her potential. That’s it. It’s as lame and stupid as it sound. It is not anymore an interpersonal conflict spawned by a traumatized kid who projects her traumas into her sibling in order to protect the latter from experiencing her same fate, with the tragic of traumatizing her as well and affecting her life for the worse, a cage monitored by a oppressive warden, but a nonsensical dynamic centered on a person that collects failures for idiotic reasons and can’t survive on her own, neeeding to be protected by her guardian angel, who disapproves the life choice of her sister but permits her to do as she pleases, even if this might result in her death. Furtheromre, none of this incident (or the upcoming ones) worsen or influence the sisters’ relationship nor Fubuki express at any point fear of what the consequence of said failures might have on her life once Tatsumaki learns about it. After the end of this chapter (and the ones recycling this structure) the story of the characters resets so that they could play out the same one more time and no one actually learns anything or grows from this event, as if Fubuki failing and being rescued is the status quo. Even though the relationship is portrayed as distant and cold, as the manga progresses and overtly diverges from the source material, it retroactively becomes more and more nonsensical as to why they got to so estranged from one another in the first place (and bonus art of them hanging out togher like normal siblings add to the confusion) - I will talk about this in Part 2. What sort of conflict there might be between Fubuki and Tatsumaki when their contrast consists in Fubuki constantly failing as a hero and having to be saved by Tatsumaki time and time again, rinse-and-repeat ad nauseam, without ever suffering any consequence from it? Like, how can the sisters’ conflict be a compelling and complex narrative when any tension comes from Fubuki being an absolute idiot with a death wish and a fixation for following a career path she has evidently no talent for, instead of Tatsumaki looming menancingly over Fubuki’s future, ready to strike at any given moment and detaining an oppressive role in her life, with Fubuki preparing her entire existence to this inevitable conflict from which depends her freedom and future? Can you believe what an idiotic and nonsensical conflict replaced the original? 

This completely guts and undersells Fubuki’s personal struggles. Aside from the problems it arises for Fubuki, I really can’t imagine wc Tatsumaki letting Fubuki free if something like this occurred (more about this here and here, points 1-5). Furthermore, Tatsumaki having an idea of Fubuki’s power at this point (and a negative one at that) also  outright contradicts this webcomic dialogue and the entire arc where it takes place (Chapter 100: 1 and 2; Tatsumaki’s statements also imply that she was waiting for an opportunity to retake total control of Fubuki’s life and her expression and behavior betray how happy she is to do so), where it’s revealed that what prevented Tatsumaki from intervening sooner were her doubts regarding Fubuki’s actual strength, and that due to the fact that no events such as Demonic Fand or Do-s occurred in the source material (unless ONE doesn’t start retconnecting stuff and muddling the webcomic). In the webcomic, in fact, Fubuki was never saved by her sister nor was she portrayed as a weakling hero incompetent at her job; at the same time, the real extent of Fubuki’s abilities was conceiled by Fubuki’s tendency to not rely on exploits and “high risk high reward actions” but preferred safer and more cautious activities (choosing to stay in B-Class is indicative of that, for example). As a result, in the webcomic, Tatsumaki didn’t have a solid idea of Fubuki’s real strength and thus an excuse to intervene prior to their direct confrontation in the Esper Sisters arc, where their divergent objectives led to a battle. In the manga that can’t be, since Tatsuamki personally witnessed Fubuki fail or, at the very least, had all the clues necessary to come to conclusions regarding her sister’ telekinesis, being present in either the Demonic Fan and Do-s encounters. Let’s look this the other way, if these two manga original fights actually occurred in the webcomic, then Tatsumaki would have definitely mentioned them as further justifications for her actions and as a source of additional criticism for Fubuki and the group during  the Esper Sisters arc instead of grasping at straws blinded by her trauma, but she never did and that is because they never happened in the source material (unless the webcomic becomes the manga 2.0). Why would she realize only at that point the level of Fubuki’s abilities, if she had already a solid grasp of them and even commented on Fubuki’s level before (I’m referring to her comment on Fubuki being not on the level of Demonic Fan in “A New Wind Blows”)? Especially when wc Fubuki in the Esper Sisters arc gave a demonstration of her prowess that dwarfs anything she did in the manga, to the point they do not compare at all? If the manga and the webcomic were following the same timeline, why would she dismiss Fubuki in the Esper Sisters arc and not before, when Fubuki actually performed poorly (in manga original scenes, by the way)? From this, we can observe what an ill-conceived mess this addition was and what cascading effect it had on the future of the character. 

But let’s take for good this starkly different setup for Fubuki’s character arc and accept that the remake narrative presents the group as a hindrance to her potential in order to eventually then demonstrate Fubuki’s actual power once she is by herself: the manga falls short on this as well. Considering how Fubuki will progressively get more flanderized, incompetent and powerless as the manga goes, with or without the group supposedly “hindering her”, ONE and Murata utterly failed to convey even this narrative exclusive to the manga; in the following events, Fubuki will be useful only as a glorified plot device in two instances (and I’m being very generous)  and, crazy enough, the psychic will actually hinder her colleagues (the irony!) and force them to save her the vast majority of the time - I will talk about this later, but for now, consider how the second Do-s battle completely wastes the narrative of Fubuki being hindered by the group and doing better alone when, in this “rematch”, Fubuki achieves even less than she did in the first one and has to be rescued by Fang. The manga doesn’t stand even on its own legs, but stumbles and falls on itself! The point the remake seems to be really making is that Fubuki would better be off under Tatsumaki’s custody or babysitted by powerful heroes because she is unable to take care of herself and is constantly in danger. What a good pay off to the narrative “it’s the group that is hindering Fubuki’s potential”! Like in what a way was the group preventing Fubuki from being a plot device and a stereotypical healer if that is what the manga intended for Fubuki’s real, unhindered potential free of those pesky shackles? Was their mere presence somehow preventing Fubuki from using her taumaturgic and plot-helping telekinesis before? Interesting enough, the new role and asspull powers that were assigned to Fubuki during the manga MA arc were never suggested, implied or built up in the events before, when the manga was pushing the narrative I’m discussing here of Fubuki’s prowess being limited by her subordinates. It’s as if if Murata and ONE realized at certain point the kolossal damage they did and stopped trying with the character altogether, repurposing Fubuki into an embarassing pushover with a clichés female power-set. As for the group, how the scene from the Esper Sisters arc (Chapter 105), where the members of the organization express gratitude and loyalty to Fubuki for having taken care of them, could work in the manga considering that what has been shown to us is basically her leading them only to abysmal defeats  it’s anyone guess. If this chapter alone inflicts irrecoverable damage to that story outline, ulterior shambling displays and underwhelming showcases erase that storyline altogether. With Demonic Fan, Do-s and several other failures piling up, what we have seen of the group and learnt about them is not what the manga states - it being a well organized, disciplined and effective organization - but an ensemble of poorly lead pushovers with low morale and no ability, always failing at their job and underperforming in any scenario. What is odd is that all the failures and the defeats are never mentioned again, as if they were not a big deal and didn’t affect the group dynamics, despite they should (the only time this happens it occurs in that arc, where Fubuki is the punching bag of the narrative, even more than the usual I mean). The group almost operates following Team Rocket’s rules and while its poor showings affects what perception the reader might have of them, diegetically, in universe, those have no consequences or impact on the character: as mentioned already, Tatsumaki never resorts to anything against them, the group never leaves Fubuki (only one member does, in a bonus chapter) nor criticizes her leadership if not in one arc where we reach level of character assassination that shouldn’t be possible and even then the situation is solved by the end of it (in the most offensively trash way possible), and Fubuki never learns but keeps making the same, idiotic mistakes time and time again. None of this is believable nor feels plausible. Adding new content detracted from the overall narrative, whereas the more concise and to-the-point narrative of the webcomic contributed to the impact and the surprise of the scene where the Fubuki’s group decides to stay with Fubuki no matter what: with didn’t have much insight on theunderlings and the organization prior to the Esper Sisters arc, so, when they revealed themselves to be an organization of loyal and devote subordinates who are ready to die for Fubuki because of her skills as a commander and ability to inspire those around her, it’s a poignant, powerful and effective moment, as it subverts the image of bullies we might have of them from Fubuki’s introduction arc while also adding layers of depth to their bond and, consequently, Fubuki herself - leading to Chapter 105, the Esper Sisters arc nonetheless demonstrate that they were no cowards or weaklings but a well organized and competent group fighting an enemy beyond their weigth, while also displaying trust and devotion to their leader. Another damage this Extra chapter inflicts consists in the fact that it implies that the Fubuki resorts to force (directly or indirectly) to recruit random heroes, even though we can clearly and blatantly see how in the webcomic all its members want to stay part of the group, not out of fear and intimidation, but because they love their leader and refuse to give up on their organization - Fubuki also states that she only confronts those who caught her interest, but that has to be contextualized with the fact that she is talking to someone with a unflattering reputation preceeding him (Saitama) she is wary of and therefore she is trying to appear intimidating. Such a declaration of loyalty and determination simply cannot coexist with the notion that said members were once forced and coerced to join, and the overall message of the arc would fall apart if that was the case. This is not to say that they did not practice rookie-crushing or that Fubuki is a saint, but those episodes weren’t as common as some think and they didn’t involve common heroes or recruitment per se: Saitama’s was an exceptional and unique case in the way the confrontaiton played out, due to what was being said about the hero and Saitama’s personality itself. Moreover, why would an organization that force people to become part of it (as this manga chapter suggests) not punish or retaliate when its members leave, it’s incomprehensible. Again, another contradictory story element born by a chapter that raises issues that weren’t present in the webcomic at all. As a result of this chapter (and, admittedly, other new manga only content that cemented what was shown in this instance), the main takeway many manga readers had of Fubuki was of a spoiled and incompetent hero who recklessly throws herself against enemies with no care because she knows that her sister will come into rescue and save her (the “Fubuki relies on Tatsumaki” garbage), while she surrounds herself with what is nothing more than a fan club that she rules dispotically, instead of a competently led and organized company of heroes who are incredibly loyal to their beloved leader. The fact so many readers got this sort of impression of the character from this addition tells what a catastrophe of a storytelling decision this chapter ultimately was, regardless of the manga following or not the source material.

This manga original content also deprives Fubuki’s encounter with Saitama of being a turning point and a reality check for her character: after all, manga Fubuki has already experienced what Saitama is telling her by the time the two met (contrary to the wc, where it was foreshadowing Fubuki encountering Garou in the Monster Association) and she has already (or should have) understood how frail and feeble her comfort zone is after a “New Wind Blows” (and so, well before her introduction arc and the MA events, whereas wc Fubuki, up to that point, successfully avoided risks and challenges by taking a cautious approach). This completely changes the kind of character arc Fubuki is supposed to undergo as well as her characterization itself: from having to come out of the reassuring habitat she has built for herself - B-Class and her group - that limited her potential (in the webcomic) to a spoiled fool who is unable to realize how outmatched she is and can’t help but throw herself into dangerous situations she isn’t prepared for, needing to be rescued by others and yet always retaining an arrogant and overbearing attitude, despite being a liability (in the manga). It’s basically a completely different character. The Murata version changed Fubuki’s core character flaw (being cautious to a fault and never taking risks, preferring to play it safe) with another (being a foolish and arrogant deluded brat, who acts reckless) which doesn’t suit the character arc she is supposed to undergo at all (having the courage to step up, leave her comfort zone, and confront her traumas and fears). Webcomic Fubuki, at the beginning of her character arc, is presented as a safe player who avoids facing challenges (and her inner demons) and is worried about maintaining her status and rank as the B-Class Rank 1 up until she finally bumps into a situation she can’t avoid or overcome (Saitama) that forces her out of the shell she has put herself in, which leads Fubuki to grow as a person/hero and experience other situations that will push forward her development (the MA and the ES arcs); on the other hand remake Fubuki is someone who keeps repeating the same mistakes, collecting failure after failure without ever learning anything from it, making the whole beef with Saitama, not an extraordinary event that exposes Fubuki to the “weakness” and the shortcomings she wanted to flee away from, but simply another of her failures. This way, Saitama’s prediction to Fubuki, that in the manga is fulfilled by Do-s and not by Garou (another massive downgrade and such an appalling change from the wc), loses all its original meaning: in the webcomic it was a warning to a character who succesfully managed to avoid her inner demons up until that point, a warning reminding her that this situation will not last forever and that she will have to face her shortcomings/issues eventually, while in the manga it’s nothing new to the character since she is apparently used to at this point (the very opposite of her webcomic counterpart).

One single chapter managed to squander the setup upon whom Fubuki’s original arc hinged on. Gone is now any believable or logical reason for being afraid of her sister, now a lenient and sweet sibling; gone is also Fubuki excessive prudence and wariness, which also explained why she chose to stay in B-Class and not advance further in the ranks, even though she could reach high. Nonexistent are now Fubuki’s abilities as an esper and as a faction leader, now a damsel in distress incompetent at her job, too busy to surround herself by fans and rely on her sweet sister than strive to improve and get stronger. Once the chapter ends, in the place where once stood Fubuki now lies a wasteland, a barren and hollow landscape devoid of narrative potential and a future. Any life and any value there were originally there, now have been wiped out by a baffling decision that killed a character right off-the bat. [End of the EDIT]. 

Both “battles” against Do-s (and what about the way Fubuki abilities are portrayed in the manga)? Manga original as well: the Tournament arc never happened in the webcomic and the monster invasion never occurred. Do-s didn’t exist in the webcomic (her wc counterpart, Goddess Glasses, only fought Amai Mask in the monsters’ hideout and died) and Fubuki, after her introduction, stayed at the Saitama apartment up until the beginning of the hero raid. In previous posts, I have already talked about the two Do-s battles (in the post about “A New Wind Blows” I linked above and here), so I will try to be brief about the first battle and the “rematch” (aka bait and switch, Chapter 114), before talking about general issues regarding Fubuki’s powers and her fighting scenes (or lack thereof) spawned as a result of these scenes (and Demonic Fan), so, if you aren’t interested, skip to the next point.

[Added in date 24/03/2024] The first fight against Do-s is basically a repeat beat-for-beat of the Demonic Fan’s one: the Fubuki’s group shows up first, a monster is about to defeat them, Fubuki arrives and seemingly turns the tides while the group cheers only for things to go south offscreen, and so Tatsumaki arrives and saves Fubuki, expressing her dislike for the group. Same stuff, now with a dominatrix instead of a fan and with Fubuki conscious instead of lying defeated. It’s extremely lazy and beyond absurd how Murata and ONE recycled a plot that was already completely detrimental Fubuki’s story and went against the webcomic’s storyline. Botching the character one time wasn’t enough for them, apparently. Instead of adding stuff that could do justice to the character, they went in the opposite direction and completely destroyed any chance they had to rectify the issues raised by Demonic Fan, since they basically doubled down on them. It’s as if ONE and Murata weren’t able to come up with better content for Fubuki to place between Chapter 52 and 53 of the webcomic (where, storywise, the Tournament arc and the Monster Invasion take place in the manga) that could actually build up to her future scenes and her prominent role in the series. Even if we ignore the webcomic, it’s  such a baffling and insane choice: a chapter like this (let alone multiple ones!) gives no reason to the reader to be invested in Fubuki, her storyline (that in the manga consists of her being humiliated and repeatedly defeated following the same routine) and struggles (what struggles? Being utterly incompetent and weak?). But let’s go in order. First, somehow Fubuki forgot how to fly and conveniently stayed on ground level, where Do-s and the slaves could reach her with their attacks. Totally not holding the Idiot Ball here, huh? As shown multiple times in the series, Fubuki can levitate and fly without any issue, like she demonstrated in her introduction arc and in the psychic sisters arc when she left the HA by flying through the hole left by Saitama and reached Tatsumaki, who was very far away from the complex; even during this fight we see Fubuki being capable of levitating (when it wasn’t required anymore) with no problem whatsoever. For some reason Fubuki decided to give herself a penalty. Also, any advantage Do-s might have here is denied by the fact that Fubuki is an esper (and, in the webcomic, a strong one at that) and can strike the monster however she pleases with long range telekinesis attacks. So, given the one-sided matchup they laid out here, how will ONE and Murata solve this issue and turn the battle in Do-s’ favor, since they wanted so bad for Fubuki to lose agaisnt a nobody? But by having Fubuki act like an idiot and allow Do-s to turn the situation against the psyhic off-screen and in a nonsensical way, obviously! Seriously, how the hell did Fubuki put herself in this situation, and how did Do-s gain any advantage? Not even ONE and Murata were capable of coming up with a logical explanation or a believable scenario wherein Fubuki could lose control of the situation and see the tides turn against her in an logical manner, so they conveniently skipped straight to this outcome with no attempts at justifying it. I’m fine with characters making poor decisions during stressfull situations and under pressures: human beings are not automatas and expecting rational choices at any given time would not make for engaging or interesting stories either; however, when, for plot reasons, a character becomes braindead stupid, incredibly incompetent (to the point of forgetting even common sense and their most basic abilities) and unbelievably weak, even though no good reason is provided for that to happen, then I call it bullshit. The Do-s battle is one of those cases. From the way the situation is framed, we have to believe that Fubuki simply did nothing but looked at Do-s braniwashing every single one of her subordinates and awaited her turn while Do-s was busy dealing with the group and forcing them to join her side: Fubuki either allowed the latter to get an advantage or was in a stasis while this happened. And while Fubuki was capable of blocking Do-s’ whip without breaking a sweat when she appeared on the scene, during the actual battle Fubuki is shown to have a very difficult time to repel it. Even if we factor the group and the others getting in the way and Fubuki having to restrain them, this development is utterly preposterous. Now, some could say that Fubuki’s difficulty is the result of a prolonged battle that weared down the esper’s telekinesis, but I don’t think this argument works either, for several reasons. First of all, in the webcomic, Fubuki is capable of withstanding point-blank multiple blasts from a powerful Dragon Level Threat (with difficulty, admittedly, but that’s a given), Overgrown Rover, and keep fighting after that, facing another Dragon Level Threat, Psykos, in a long battle of attrition where the B-Class emerged totally victorious, with still enough energy to attack Garou, appeared out of nowhere; at the end of the arc, the esper lift the boulders Fang (the S-Class Rank 3) was trapped under and couldn’t move by himself - I’m considering the webcomic because, at the time, the manga was following it albeit with additions, and Murata and ONE knew what was ahead for the character. With such a track record, it’s very baffling how they decided to add a battle like this one. Fubuki having a difficult time defending herself from Do-s’ wimpy attacks and low ranked heroes only for the esper to deal effectively and competently against multiple Dragon Level Threats, with energy to spare after a battle of attrition, a day later creates such idiotic and gatuitous inconsistencies and discrepancies that have no narrative justification, which is probably why Fubuki’s major role and distinct performance in the MA arc were utterly cut short and downgraded; and while I have major problems with the Rover battle as you already know, blocking a blast from the monster even in that circumstaces and with help it’s still in another league compared to dealing with the attacks of a fanservice monster and low-ranked heroes, especially considering that it happens a day later (in fact, many readers complained about this despite the fact that blocking Rover’s attack was in the source material and ONE and Murata knew it was coming, yet for some incomprehensible reason they deliberately chose to shoehorn multiple battles, Demonig Fan and Do-s, that only created problems leading to that). Secondly, if what depleted Fubuki’s energy was the duration of the battle and that is the key factor that explains her poor performance against the monster, then we incur in another issue that I already underlined before: if the attacks of the mob and the monster proved to be such a tough order to deal with (something I find absurd, but whatever) then why Fubuki didn’t simply avoided it altogether by flying away and repositioning herself (it doesn’t seem she was even surrounded, considering how in multiple panels the group and Do-s stand in front of her and there was plenty of space around, even roofs from where she could nulllify any advantage the monster might have)? Also why she didn’t employ “Psychic Strike” to put the heroes out of commission if they were such a pesky problem and thus reduce the battle to a 1 vs 1 with Do-s? Frankly, I don’t think I’m asking hyper-competency or machine-like decision making here, but basic logic and strategic play from a professional hero. But what makes it all worse is that Fubuki had the chance to get the jump on Do-s from the start (something that wc Fubuki would have 100% done, see how she attacked Psykos during their conversation in Chapter 74) but decided to make a “grand” entrance instead and even wasted time talking to the monster, resuting in losing the surprise factor - well, honestly, if she hadn’t kept making astonishing idiotic choices, these chapters would have never happened because Fubuki would have won instantly, making this whole sequence very OPM-like, so obviously the remake opted against it. But having lost even that occasion, Fubuki could have still easily blasted the monster from the distance at any given moment (and “the group was preventing her” argument doens’t work as excuse for the reasons mentioned above), and yet she only went on the offensive after having been hurt by Do-s, when the Demon Level Threat approached her very closely, as if Fubuki’s power set doesn’t consist mainly of long-range attacks; cheap attempts at creat tension and drama that ultimately accomplishes nothing and drags into the mud a character. So, the justification that Fubuki was tired out by Do-s and the heroes actually works against Fubuki’s character, since, for that to work, we have to conclude that Fubuki kept herself in a vulnerable position for a prolonged amount of time for nonsensical reasons. In any case, the moment Fubuki retaliated (this and the following pages), Do-s could do nothing, to the surprise of no one: she was ragdolled like a powerless puppet at the mercy of her opponent - by the way, in the webcomic Fubuki attacks Psykos in similar way and she actually dealt damage to the Monster Association leader, and that didn’t require “charging” the attack before unleashing it, contrary to the manga. So, Do-s was getting thrown left and right without any chance to reverse the situation. But obviously the plot intervenes in her favor once again: Fubuki launches a pathetic Hellstorm (the weakest-looking one she ever threw) and then immediately dispels it (literally one page after the spread) before it could tear Do-s apart (the pebbles just started flying and only had the time to scratch the monster). Murata and ONE needed Do-s to be barely wounded because the plot required her to survive by fleeing on her own legs, with the result of making Fubuki look like a weakling who did only surface damage against her adversary; at the same time, though, the “underwhelming damage” argument can be used against Do-s attacks themselves since they, despite cracking the concrete and having struck the esper several times, only left Fubuki with light, surface bruises at most; if the two are barely wounded, it’s because, other than plot, Murata at the time didn’t want to draw female characters particularly injured (I remember how many readers talked about this and how disappointing the whole fight was, in general). About Fubuki’s prowess and her disappointing attacks compare this Hellstorm to the one she launches against Saitama (who wasn’t someone Fubuki wanted to kill, contrary to popular belief) or, better yet, to the one she uses against Tatsumaki, which was so powerful it could be heard from miles away outside the facility; it’s uncanny. Also, why didn’t Fubuki resort to these (1, 2, 3) or this attack at any point during this battle? I’m sure techniques and moves like these would have helped a lot and I don’t see Do-s surviving any of that, considering how she was knocked out by Amai Mask puny head crush and almost killed by another punch of the A-Class (environmental damage is often used to convey the power of an attack, and in this case, is pretty weak, considering how insignificant the damage to the wall is, and, in general, manga Amai Mask himself isn’t particularly impressive), before surviving due to plot armor. Frankly, how Do-s can even stand a chance at all against Fubuki is beyond me, but I shouldn’t expect logic from a manga where, no matter how strong the character should be, if the authors dislike them, they will fail no matter what. Like, even nerfed and stupidified like this, Fubuki was playing rag-doll physics with Do-s with the other at her complete mercy, and this goes to demonstrate how this battle should have never played out the way it did. In regard to the end of the fight, it’s beyond me why Fubuki would stop and wait in front of Do-s for Tatsumaki instead of attempting to finish the monster off before her sister’s arrival, something that would be in line with Fubuki’s character and her desire to not be perceived as “weak” by others. It’s actually quite goofy the way the scene plays out, with Fubuki and Do-s stopping in front of each other and waiting (this and the following pages, basically: “Are you sure your sister is arriving?” “Any time now, for real”), especially with the transition to the next chapter, as if Murata and ONE didn’t know how to properly conclude Fubuki’s battle and introduce Tatsumaki. To be fair, this whole fight is a mess and requires the reader to stop thinking because it makes no sense when put under scrutiny. About the sisters conversation, I have nothing more to say about how this narrative of Tatsumaki saving Fubuki undermines the B-Class completely and makes the older sibling correct because I already explained it in regard to Demonic Fan, which is essentially the same chapter with the same topic, the same character writing and the same (terrible) message; I want only to add, though, that it is frankly hilarious how Tatsumaki allows Do-s to escape and focuses instead on the Fubuki group despite having all the time in the world to kill the former - she also lowers to the ground where she can be attacked, Tatsumaki is another genius, I guess. Well, whatever. The combo of this battle and Demonic Fan is one of the most baffling writing decisions in the entire manga. Why they decided to include this instead of content that could do actual justice to Fubuki’s character is beyond me. On top of all the problems already listed above, this is such a generic fight between a female character hero fighting a villainess who exploits the morality of the former - basically, the very opposite of how subversive and creative Fubuki vs Psykos was in the webcomic, which completely flips upside-down those tropes. Also, while it doesn’t compare to the garbage that will happen later, the sexual/fanservicy undertones are another sign of the series falling for garbage and cheap clichés without any subversion or unique spin on them, setting a downward spiral that will reach abysmal-tier lows in the MA arc (and, sadly, the arc right after that). Additionally, as I mentioned before, Saitama’s warning to Fubuki is realized in the manga by the Do-s’ fight, which factually replaces the Garou encounter. This alone is a massive downgrade from the source material since it’s not anymore the main antagonist of the arc to instill fear in Fubuki and put the psychic in front of the reality she wanted to avoid, but a random fanservice monster. In the webcomic, facing Garou will have major repercussions on Fubuki’s perception of Saitama - as it demonstrates that he was right about her flawed mindset - and, by comparison, serves as a measurement of her growth during the battle against Tatsumaki, the source of Fubuki’s traumas, a battle where Fubuki fights without ever giving up, filled with resolve and determination - the parallels between fighting Garou and Tatsumaki are drawn by Fubuki herself and explicited by the story itself. Meanwhile, the Do-s fight has no overarching effect on future events or Fubuki’s development. Even though Fubuki remembers Saitama’s words during the battle, this is never brought up again nor affects Fubuki’s relationship with the main character at all; if anything, the scenes featuring them will be turned into the most boring and generic “female character pesters the male protagonist” with all the associated clichés, totally ignoring how it was portrayed in the original and how Fubuki was actually written there. While encountering Garou led to the important elevator dialogue that revealed Fubuki’s high opinion of Saitama and how much she respected him, to the point of being honest and sincere with the hero, nothing of the sort happens as a result of the Do-s battle; Fubuki will actually only annoy Saitama and act as a caricature, all problems introduced in the manga that I will discuss later. The only real consequences of the fight consist in the fact that Fubuki recognizes Do-s in their next fight (we will see how inconsequential even this is and how Murata and ONE fumbled spectacularly this setup) and trivial and circumstantial matters with no significant or evelasting effects (Fubuki loses temporarily the group and is extromitted from the operation, only to take part in it regardless). In the end, this battle is one of the numerous changes that don’t improve anything but only ruin and botch the source material.

Somehow, the second fight with Do-s managed to be indicibly worse than the first one.

I won’t bother with Do-s reviving because a drop of blood fell through the ceiling right on her, or the fact that she bumps into Fubuki, of all people. It’s all forced, random and full of coincidences, and I don’t think I can add anything to what is already self-evident from these ludicruous plot beats, so I want to skip to the actual battle.

So Do-s, who teleported between the chapters from being in front of her slaves to being behind them (Chapter 113 and Chapter 114)  (for narratively convenient reasons that should still be a non-factor against Fubuki, as we will see), is using monsterified-civilian hostages to prevent Fubuki from fighting her. But it’s not like Fubuki is some kind of an esper who can use her powers freely and is capable of controlling the direction of her telekinetic waves at will and it’s not like the human-shields Do-s is using are mere civilians turned into some kind of monsters, whereas Fubuki, in the previous fight against the "dominatrix”, was restraining (without harming) 30+ B and A Tier Heroes in berserker mode, all while blocking Do-s whip attacks, right (while I criticized that scene, it’s miles better than the absolute and lampant lack of care of this disaster)? For starters, Fubuki could have taken away the whip from Do-s and/or used the environment against the Demon to restrain or injure her - like breaking the floor, crushing her with the walls or the ceiling - in order to separate her from the hostages - simple stuff that Fubuki should be capable of doing in her sleep if the manga isn’t implying that Fubuki is a Wolf Level Esper, something I won’t exclude considering how Murata/ONE seems to have turned Fubuki from a skilled, capable and strong Esper into the embarrassment of the psychic world. Moreover, in this chapter Fubuki actually still ends up knocking out Do-s using her own physical strength and the monster whip, after Fang took care of everything else, so why not allow Fubuki to play an active part in the scene and accomplish the same with her powers, instead of being a third wheel and only intervening as comic relief? Is the manga implying Fubuki is physically stronger than her own psychic output, despite being otherwise an ordinary human being? There are basically hundreds of ways to improve this scene and make it way less contrived and more character-focused, but that would require spending a little bit of effort on Fubuki and her scenes, something that is clearly deemed a waste of time by ONE and Murata - despite the webcomic providing them dumbproof instruction manual on how to handle the character and write the scenes featuring her, but that is still too much work for the dynamic duo. I’m probably biased, but I truly find it absurd how Do-s faced Fubuki two times and survived basically unscathed - and that without taking into consideration webcomic stuff (more about that later). But, again, ONE and Murata are not even trying to give Fubuki a fighting scene or portray her as a competent and strong hero in an arc whose only content (in the remake) consists of fighting and battle scenes between “badass” and “cool” characters. Compare this encounter to a slightly similar situation that took place in the webcomic, when Fubuki showed up right when Psykos and the Cadres were about to attack King (Chapter 74). At the time, Psykos was at an absolute advantage while the HA team was in shambles. The MA leader was surrounded by Dragon Level Threats, towering over the strongest heroes lying on the ground defeated, yet Fubuki was capable of successfully pulling off a stunt that turned the tides and completely changed the rest of the arc. While Psykos was underestimating Fubuki and boasting about her own superiority, just like Do-s in Chapter 114, Fubuki took advantage of that moment of distraction and overconfidence by sending a powerful psychic attack against her former follower,  leaving the latter screaming in pain (meanwhile in Chapter 65 of the remake a similar attack against Do-s did absolutely nothing): this sneak attack humiliated Psykos in front of the Cadres, who stopped considering Psykos their leader, and Fubuki’s attitude and taunts successfully lured the MA leader away from her underlings, in a place were Fubuki could fight her opponent without any interference. Fubuki basically saved King and the heroes who were about to emerge on the surface (plus the injured ones already above the ground) from dealing with a group of monsters led by a Dragon Level Esper, who, other than being capable of effectively commanding and organizing the Cadres and being an incredible threat by herself, wouldn’t have allowed Zombieman to restrain and “defeat” Homeless Emperor, with the consequence of the Psykos+Homeless Emperor combo being still on the loose. What is this? Fubuki being an actual character whose actions majorly impact the series as a whole and with a real role to play in the plot, instead of being a glorified pinup? 

Webcomic Fubuki proved to be more than capable of exploiting a situation to her advantage, using everything she could to turn the battle in her favor, which proved her intelligence and quick thinking, while her manga counterpart can do nothing but play the part of the powerless and irrelevant dumbass, always at the mercy of her opponents, constantly needing to be rescued by others.

As I mentioned before, during the “rematch” Do-s was barely paying attention to Fubuki, too busy thinking about Amai Mask and her plans for him once she had finished her business with the esper, and was once again relying completely on her love slaves: this made this encounter the perfect setup for another battle between the two and provide a tangible sense of growth for Fubuki from the previous one, showing the supposed development Fubuki has gone through and building up to future scenes (I’m referring to Chapters 142-143) because none of them carry any weight if zero evidence has been provided to back-up the claim that “Fubuki grew stronger/changed” - after all, the manga has completely neglected Fubuki (better waste time on third rate characters and useless battles, I guess). All of this and more could have been accomplished here, in this chapter, and I think that would have been better than Fang taking the center stage and resolving everything for Fubuki, which goes against the entire point of Fubuki’s role in this arc and its original narrative purpose: having to face an unexpected yet dangerous emergency without having anything or anyone to rely on but herself, playing a pivotal role in the MA crisis, proving her worth and her abilities but, at the same time, coming face to face with her limits and her shortcomings. Fang’s intervention takes away from the character arc she is (was?) following without providing any worthy trade-off - comedy-wise this chapter is one of the lowest points of the entire series (and that is saying something considering the “comedy” of the MA arc remake). Fangs removes an obstacles from Fubuki’s path and offers her a “victory” she didn’t earn, but was served to her on a silver plate without doing anything. How this series, in regard to Fubuki’s character and the battles she starred in, went from wc Fubuki vs Psykos or wc Fubuki vs Tatsumaki to this kind of content is truly disappointing and disheartening. The treatment of Fubuki (and female characters in general) between the two versions couldn’t be more uncanny. There were no sexual, morbid or male-gazey undertones in the webcomic scenes and the character was never subjected to this crap (sofar), and instead of fanservice fights against stereotypical fanservice adversaries like Do-s, every Fubuki’s battle served her story and her development, first and foremost. Seriously, how can you take a character like Fubuki, a beautiful example of a well-written female character, and then turn her into a prime example of everything wrong with female characters in battle manga, by resorting to awful clichès no present in the original and also putting her in garbage like this battle?

Added in date 09/09/2022: Fubuki here also acts completely out of character (more than the usual, at least) even compared to her manga self of 20 chapters prior (the last time we saw her before this confrontation was at Saitama’s apartment, single panel appearances not withstanding), let alone Fubuki’s introduction arc or “Numbers” era - there is no need to even bring up her webcomic self: a completely unrelated character would be closer to manga Fubuki than the original, at least so far. The “humor” (a qualifaction that sells to high what is actually present here) of the chapter is bottom of the barrell shounen-shlock exaggerated faces and character overreacting to situations in an amateurish attempt at generating laughs (something that admittedly happens, but not in the way Murata and ONE intended). Many readers often say that the manga is more serious and the webcomic is more comedic: I don’t agree one bit. The webcomic results more comedic because it’s deliver of the jokes is far superior and also because these are perfectly tied to the overall narrative instead of being “breaks”. I would argue that the story is much more serious in the source material - hence why comedy is so effective when it occurs, because it works on the accumulated tension provided by the seriousness of a dramatic build up, a bathos that could only erupt as long as what preceeded it headed in the opposite direction of the subverions - and the characters, instead of caricature, always mantain their integrity and characterization, even in jokes. This in the manga doesn’t happen, and the “Rematch” is a perfect example of that, just like several others (aside from the ones involving Fubuki, Saitama vs Garou and any notable addition that involves Amai come into mind). Fubuki here is not Fubuki, but a clown with no identity or characterization beyond providing the lowest, most idiotic comic relief contribute possible. Her design and mannerism are also reflective of this, for the worse. It’s as if Murata now doesn’t even pretend to draw her as an actual character, but simply as an excuse for trashy fanservice. To think how much better he used to draw the character in the past...

Murata and ONE have clearly shown that if they want, they can go out of their way to allow characters to get their moments, even against opponents way above their league and/or in situations where these characters should be completely outmatched. See how Spring Mustachio was able to fend off Black Sperm (1, 2), whose individual cells are as strong as an A-Class hero in the remake, and, together with Iaian, keep up with Homeless Emperor’s spheres (1, 2, 3, 4), despite the fact he was previously beaten by a Tiger (a Demon at best) Level Threat in an environment where his self-imposed limitation, brought up in the manga during his remake original fight with Garou (Chapter 50), shouldn’t have factored: Spring Mustachio had no reason to restrain himself against Kombu Infinity since he was fighting in a relatively large street in the middle of Z-City (1, 2), a ghost town (as he was saying to Golden Ball prior to the fight), where the trusts of his Tomboy wouldn’t have caused any collateral damage to valuable property or put at risk the lives of some bystanders (it’s as if the excuse for “holding back” didn’t exist at the time). Yet he still got completely and utterly rekted, but apparently in his case that doesn’t count nor did it turn him into a complete joke contrary to a certain member of the main cast. Same could be said about Iaian, who now can keep up with Evil Natural Water (1, 2, 3, 4), fight Black Sperm and deflects Homeless Emperor’s spheres as well (examples above), and that after a taxing battle against a Demon Level Threat, Devil Long Hair. Or Gearspear, who, thanks to the power of friendship, demonstrated a level of psychic powers beyond what manga Fubuki has ever shown (1, 2); always the C-Class esper in the Nyan redrawn fight performed on the fly a more impressive Hellstorm than anything done by remake Fubuki (1, 2, 3), despite the fact he wasn’t even able to use his psychic at all before (1, 2). Apparently Mizuki and the totally random inspiration he got from Tatsumaki were enough to unlock his potential and give him a badass moment - putting aside other issues, as random and forced a temporary power boost is, it doesn’t compare to the sheer insanity of getting a skill boost out of thin air that places Gearspear on the same level of someone like Fubuki because the author wants to give him a random and pointless “epic feat”. After that, Gearspear assists One-shooter, who previously failed to even slightly harm Nyan (a Dragon Level Threat), against Sage Centipede (a “?” Disaster Level Threat, probably on the same level of Psykorochi and so beyond Nyan) and both of them succeed at distracting the monster. Or Mizuki during the fight against Nyan: the absurdity of her surviving multiple direct hits from the monster is off the charts and, in general, she got more fights and pages dedicated to her than what Fubuki got so far. Or Metal Bat teaming up with post-Platinum Sperm Garou in general; etc. If the authors want a cool scene for a character, then the character will get it no matter how tattered and beaten they were in the scene before or how paper thin the logic behind it is (Tatsumaki is a prime example of this). There is no pretense at consistency nor any logic besides spectacle, fanservice, pandering and favoritism towards certain characters. In the case of Fubuki (and Amai Mask, too), ONE/Murata apparently refuses to give her any new battle scene or prove her usefulness in any situation that doesn’t involve “healing” powers. Speaking of healing powers, these have been asspulled brought up simply to bring back to full health characters the story requires to still be plot relevant and also prevent anyone (except some irrelevant nobodies) from dying in a convenient and lazy way. To be useful wc Fubuki didn’t need stereotypical shounen female character healing/support powers nor was this cliché power set required to differentiate her from Tatsumaki or other espers: it was her characterization, how she fought her battles and her more cautious and strategic approach that made Fubuki different. But apparently the remake needed a discount Orihime, which happened to be Fubuki of all characters. In hindsight, the moment Fubuki got support/healing powers - without any previous hint or proper explanation at all, she manifested these out of nowhere when the plot required them - was a red flag of her shounenification into a tropey female character, basically the opposite of what she is in the wc (at least up until now). In the webcomic Fubuki’s achievements and battles were tightly and organically tied to her development and her storyline, whereas her moments of “relevancy” in the remake are deus ex machina galore, serving the plot and other members of the cast first and foremost. The healer abilities are in no way reflective of Fubuki’s character and aren’t linked in any way to her personal history; if there is a reason she received them, it’s simply because the author has read too much battle shounen and thinks that healing powers are mandatory for a female character. These also spare him from the effort of coming up with better explanations for a character recovery or from dealing with the permanent consequences of a gruesome fight (after all, Fubuki will come and instantly nullify the life-affecting injuries of anyone, if no other asspull happens to be nearby). As soon as her plot-friendly powers cease to be needed, Fubuki is immediately re-established as the comic relief and/or thrown off-screen. To to tell the truth, the remake doesn’t even bother highlighting her efforts in scenes involving her new powers, like with Tanktop Master, where it is even doubtful she did anything at all since Murata usually underlines the use of psychic powers with a visual clue, like a glowing aura around the character, absent in that case - compare it to the aforementioned moment with Gearspear and Oneshooter and notice how much more upfront and explicit his contribute to the fight is, it’s astonishing. EDIT 01/07/2023: There is no discernible difference between TTM throwing rocks/debries here and him launching the overhead transmission line (and himself) in the previous chapters, nor with his feats from the Alien Invasion arc; these are all in the same ballpark. If we remove Fubuki here, it wouldn’t affect the chapter: the only thing we would “lose” is a cheerleader following around the real hero and the subsequent gag at her expense. Aside from that, Tank Top Master’s feats would still be consistent with what was shown prior. And with TankTop Master working out and training even more harshly after the events of A-City (the Alien Invasion arc), is it fair to assume that he truly got stronger to the extent the MA arc is showcasing (like throwing the antenna, which happened before the scene with Fubuki that I’m discussing here). So, if anything, it appears to me that this exchange was all a misunderstanding played for laughs: Fubuki did indeed nothing, but TankTop Master, being the perfect example of the remake “wholesome” hero, humbly attributed the merits of his own actions to the esper; furthermore, Fubuki existing solely to be the irrelevant and outperformed idiot who highlights and hypes the merits of the rest of the cast is 100% consistent with the rest of the remake, so interpreting it that way is actually in line with what the series has gotten us used to. If Fubuki actually did something here, it should have been better highlighted, both from a visual and narrative standpoint, by making clear that Tank Top Master was exceeding his limits thanks to Fubuki and that her telekinesis truly made the difference (or anything at all). If she actually did something, why keep it ambiguous like this? And if we take for granted that she truly contributed at all, her “achievement” is only brought up for an extremely forgettable joke at her expense while the degree and utility of her help is not highlighted at all - and again, this only if we assume that she did something at all, which is a big leap of faith giving the precedents of the manga. [End of the Edit] The manga also wasted several opportunities to showcase Fubuki’s capabilities at organizing a group and coming up with a plan (like when the S-Class joined the fight against Psykorochi) and undermined her value as a leader with dozens displays of incompetence (like with Demonic Fan, both times with Do-s, being saved by Fang and Bomb multiple times, lowering her guard for egoistical reasons on several occasions, acting cocky in front of Garou only for Bomb to protect her, being a buffon and a damsel in distress most of the time, etc.).

To be honest, I wouldn’t care about Fubuki getting fewer fights than character x or power levels in general if: 

a) the manga was nothing but a sequence of battle scenes since the Hero raid started; 

b) Fubuki didn’t get a standout performance in the webcomic and wasn’t featured in one of the most important fights of the arc, on top of receiving actual narrative focus; 

c) “characters” that barely matter to the overall plot and add nothing to the story didn’t get way more screen time and presence in the story than her. 

About the latter point: tertiary to background “characters” now have a far better display of their prowess against considerable threats not only compared to the Fubuki Group (whose ability to face a Demon, as stated in the webcomic, is completely undercut by their manga original battle scenes), but to Fubuki herself too - as already mentioned, Gearspear and Oneshooter did better against Sage Centipede than she did against a sleepwalking Garou, resulting in her being a total hindrance to Bomb despite what she declared before (Chapter 146, “don’t underestimate me!”). It’s ironic considering how she was one of the very few characters involved in the MA arc, S-Class included, actually doing something against the Dragons (like defeating the Leader of the Monster Association) and being the most impressive not S-Class Hero on the field together with Amai Mask (and I would argue she accomplished even more than him, as incredible as he still was), but in the remake we have seen several non-S-Class Heroes bravely and tirelessly fighting head-on Dragon Level Threats (see the redraw of the Nyan fight) and that while Fubuki sits on the ground, screaming like a puppy at every turn - even a “character” like Mizuki is depicted fighting against a Dragon with more dignity, professionalism and courage than her. It’s truly absurd.

This brings me to another point: webcomic Fubuki isn’t weak - up until now, at least. Wc Fubuki chose to focus primarily on technique and refine her skills, but that didn’t mean she was lacking in raw psychic power. In the MA’s flashback, Psykos reveals how high school Fubuki was able to move with her telekinesis a large truck ( “大型トラック”= large/heavy truck, weighing, at minimum, 10 tons), and there is no reason to believe that Fubuki hasn’t gotten stronger since then, as the next feats demonstrate; during the MA events, Fubuki was capable of withstanding several Overgrown Rover’s blasts point blank and, afterward, she proceeded to fight Psykos one on one and win (the latter, contrary to Fubuki, being basically fresh and unscathed from her prior battles); after this, Fubuki still had enough power left to attack Garou and, right at the end of the MA arc, the esper casually lifted the boulders Fang was unable to remove by himself, thus freeing the S-Class Rank 3; or in the Esper Sisters arc, when Fubuki destroyed a Tiger Level Threat containment cell as if it was nothing and her psychic powers caused an earthquake capable of shaking the whole HA HQ fortress built by Metal Knight (1, 2, 3, 4); and these are the first few examples on top of my mind (there are plenty more in the Esper Sisters arc). Yeah, truly the weakling the manga wants to pass her for. The only way to reconcile Fubuki’s webcomic exploits with the pitiful performance she displayed in manga original scenes requires bringing up some sort of power-up occurring between the monster invasion and the Esper Sisters arc, which doesn’t seem to be a thing, nor something like that has been suggested so far, if in the Esper Sisters arc she will retain her webcomic feats. In the webcomic, Fubuki didn’t get any power-ups between her introduction arc and the Esper Sisters arc; she was always that strong but what was holding back her own potential were her doubts, her lack of self-worth, her inner (and outer) demons and traumas. And in that context “holding back” wasn’t a lazy excuse for dragging out a battle for dozens of chapters, but an actual character flaw she had to overcome in order to protect what she cared and took responsibility for (her group, Psykos and Saitama too) from Tatsumaki. By the way, notice how Fubuki’s psychological issues played a big role in her characterization in the webcomic and starting to overcome them was a turning point for the character. Well, the manga threw all that aside and removed this central facet of Fubuki’s character in exchange for something completely different: a stereotypical and boring “she is such a weakling!” cocky and arrogant brat who believes to be superior to anyone. The facade she put on in the webcomic, the leader of the Fubuki Group and all that, is now her real personality, her true self and her inner monologue and thoughts couldn’t be more different between manga and webcomic. Apparently, her original personality was too complex for the remake to handle and for that reason it got scrapped, replaced by pure flanderization.

It’s worthy to note how the Demonic Fan and Do-s battles are often brought up when discussing Fubuki vs Psykos or Fubuki successfully blocking Rover’s blasts as a way to criticize the outcome of the latter two, dismissing these as not consistent with previously established “power levels”. Too bad that the Demonic Fan and Do-s battles are manga original content. The manga created inconsistencies with developments that presented no problems whatsoever in the original and undermined the impact of those very moments (especially the duel with Psykos) by making the characters involved underwhelming and the situations themselves unbelievable, thanks to appalling and badly thought additions. The webcomic not only explained why Fubuki was capable of turning the tables against Psykos (superior technique, being the more skilled esper and using her wits), but, before that, did a great job hinting at Fubuki’s expertise in psychic abilities - like her refined and nuanced knowledge of telekinesis mentioned by Tatsumaki or, as I mentioned before, being able to withstand Rover’s energy attacks - while at the same time preserving her status as an underdog by having several characters underestimating her - like Genos's total disregard for Fubuki’s possible contribute in the upcoming battles. If you read the wc from Fubuki’s introduction up to Psykos’s defeat, there is nothing contradictory or confusing about Fubuki’s victory, it’s spelled out clearly in the most dumb proof way possible. For some reason the manga, instead of building up to what one should expect to be an important battle and laying the foundations to this confrontation, has undermined and sabotaged any chance of portraying this fight as one of the major moments of the arc by reducing Fubuki to a pathetic imitation of an esper with no relevance in the story and whose psychic abilities are never highlighted or properly shown if not for fixing plot issues. In the manga, Fubuki is deliberately placed at the very bottom of the esper world, surpassed in raw power and psychic output by manga original characters like Evil Eye and Gearspear. Psykos, who in the remake is leagues and bounds a better and more sophisticated psychic user than her former president, in the original focused only on raw power and she was taught by Fubuki herself (Tatsumaki recognized the MA leader’s telekinesis as similar to Fubuki and drew a connection between the two) - even non-espers like the members of her Group learned basic telekinesis techniques from their leader, which says plenty about Fubuki’s knowledge and mastery of this field. Yet in the manga Fubuki is often employed to prop-up and highlight how better other characters are compared to her - like the laughable page with Fubuki hyping Gearspear while fighting Overgrown Rover (!) - or used as a tool to make Tatsumaki go serious against Evil Eye (Chapter 96 and 97 in the Volumes), and so on. Fubuki is blatantly depicted as a “third rate” esper whose only form of value is represented by her “healing/support” powers, which, instead of being an organic development of her character arc, came out of nowhere and feel like a cop-out from the authors, who, too busy powering up Tatsumaki and Psykos, probably remembered Fubuki was supposed to be an esper too and decided to turn her into a walking Senzu Bean, an easy and convenient way to circumvent stress-free any bothersome narrative dead-end they put themselves in.

Fubuki being rescued by Tatsumaki, relying on and depending on her older sister for her own survival? Manga original scenes. To tell the truth, I don’t think I need to explain any further how something like this completely and utterly obliterates Fubuki’s storyline and makes her appear as a whiny and spoiled brat while at the same time it ends up depicting Tatsumaki as a kind-hearted and indulgent lovely older sibling who is trying to prevent her stupid sister from killing herself. Fubuki being a weakling and needing her big sis is also a handy plot device, useful in case Tatsumaki needs a(nother) power boost and more sympathy points. That said, Tatsumaki has truly a weird way of displaying her “protective” side, if we actually pay attention to the story and ignore whatever ONE/Murata’s pretend to say otherwise: in fact, when Tatsumaki actually found herself face-to-face with a monster responsible for defeating (Demonic Fan) or injuring (Do-s) Fubuki, instead of going on a rampage like what was suggested in Chapter 143, she looked amused and barely bothered by it before failing (or not even attempting) to kill the monsters themselves (by the way, both of them survived their encounter with Tatsumaki, and Do-s even escaped easily from the nonexistent Tatsumaki’s wrath). Fascinating. Another unintended discrepancy between what the manga wants us to believe and how the characters were actually portrayed in the story.

What about Fubuki only babbling about her group during the battles and trying to recruit the Saitama group while fighting the Dragons? These are all scenes added in the remake; the only time in the wc MA arc Fubuki mentions the Fubuki Group is during the Hot Pot, when Fubuki didn’t have the slightest idea of what was happening underground. After that, she didn’t act as the “one in charge”. Moreover, the constant display of cockiness and arrogance during tense encounters is another manga thing that strays far away from the way more cautious, serious and mature attitude of webcomic Fubuki - her more “chunni” side only slips on the surface during “mundane” situations/calm moments and not while she is on duty/mission, and that serves to underline how socially stunted she is and how she resort to this habit when she is outside her bubble, in a foreign environment where she has no idea how to properly fit it (an no, she isn’t trying to recruit anyone here, but her behavior is the result of her severe lack of social experiences). It’s worth noting how the childishness and bratty side of remake Fubuki was a trait usually associated in the webcomic and the early parts of the manga with Tatsumaki, to the point she was often mistaken for/referred to as a child/brat (some examples: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; [EDIT 28/05/2023:] there are also this and this, so yeah, plenty of characters consider her an annoying brat; also when Psykos, disguised as the meat puppet, referred to Tatsumaki as “child”: why? Because that’s how the rest of the world sees Tatsumaki, as an immature brat) - outside of the Alien Invasion/Fubuki’s Introduction arc ones, all these scenes have been promptly removed and replaced with OOC and random praise for Tatsumaki [End of the Edit]. As much as the characters have been subjected to the goody-two-shoes treatment, I would argue that Fubuki comes off as more egoistical, manipulative, immature and self-absorbed than she ever did in the webcomic, let alone how dumb and incompetent the manga depicts her. Also, how Fubuki is deliberately framed as the annoying and obnoxious female character that stereotypically yells and pesters our main character and the others by displaying a childish and irrational attitude borders almost inadvertedly in a sexist cliché, which was absent in the webcomic. Sure, Saitama didn’t find Fubuki particularly endearing and I mentioned above Fubuki’s chunni side in the webcomic, but these were limited to two instances and Saitama found anyone in the group annoying and wanted them to leave (see Chapter 57). Fubuki wasn’t singled out from the rest (see Fang and how Genos calls him out for his dojo-recruitment shtick). For example, compare how Fubuki in the webcomic discusses with Genos, Fang and Bomb the recent events involving the reveal of the Monster Association, where she is hearing their recount and (correctly) guessing her hypothesis, with her manga counterpart, who obnoxiously annoying Saitama (who in this version doesn’t pay attention to her, unlike the webcomic) and the others while drawn in a typical shouen chibi angry expression while being the only one overreacting and also secretly plotting to use them for her own benefits (poor flanderization, which is better than the times when she is anything but Fubuki, I guess). I think this difference encapsulates how differently she is treated.

And in regard to Fubuki collecting embarrassing moments and being used as comic relief? Remake stuff. All the jokes added in the manga MA arc serve no purpose and don’t contribute in any way to Fubuki’s characterization and the only thing they accomplish is to ridicule her and undercut any major moment involving the character. I find really bizarre how the role of the clown was assigned to Fubuki (or Amai Mask) of all characters when several existing ones already filled the comic relief niche and new characters could have been created to fulfill this purpose without damaging and/or affecting the overall plot. Worthy to note is how manga Fubuki’s comic relief role has become a thing from Chapter 85 onwards, increasing more and more as the manga progresses: as bad and lazy as Fubuki vs Do-s was (the first one), there was no misplaced gag or joke like in the “rematch” - the fight itself was a dull and lazy back and forth, but at least the chapter seemed to impact Fubuki’s storyline and have repercussions. Now, both authors don’t even bother anymore. About the kind of humor employed in the scenes involving Fubuki as of recent, compare them to manga original ones of the past, like the Special Chapter “Numbers” (Volume 10): it’s like night and day. In that mostly lighthearted chapter, all the jokes and the humor not only are actually funny but serve Fubuki’s characterization and expand on that, feeling 100% like something written by ONE and following his comedic writing style. Also, the exaggerated, chibi-like expressions Murata keeps drawing Fubuki with don’t suit her character at all and portray her as nothing but a generic, bland female character - a tertiary or minor character like Mizuki, or even Do-s, won’t suffer any major damage from something like this nor will their “characterization” be in any way compromised, but for Fubuki it’s a completely different story; the aura and the personality of the character changed drastically for the worse. To be honest, Fubuki isn’t the only victim of this and Amai, King, Saitama and Garou, just to name a few, have also been subjected to this more slapstick, shounenesque kind of humor with assorted chibi faces, characters yelling at each other et similia - which reminds me of that one time when ONE told Murata to change some panels he drew with Boros losing his temper and acting goofy because it was out of character. Another thing: remember the gag of Tatsumaki being ignored? Well, in the remake Fubuki is subjected to it too (Chapter 95). In general, the remake features several scenes with Fubuki yelling and pestering Saitama and the group like a stereotypical female character. What wonderful additions!

And what about Fubuki not showing up after King did his thing in the remake (Chapters 149-154), despite her being the only one who actually mattered in this scene saved him in the webcomic? As I already wrote, If Fubuki hadn’t appeared there and stopped Psykos from launching a coordinated attack against King, all the re-emerging heroes (and those already on the surface) would have been slaughtered (1, 2, 3, 4). It single-handedly changed the fate of the battle. But with Psykos out of the picture and her role taken by Golden Sperm, Fubuki had no part to play in this section of the arc, despite being fundamental in the source material. To be honest, I can’t imagine remake Fubuki pulling off something like this considering how she has been portrayed. Similarly, I can’t see the manga assigning to her such a pivotal role either, considering how much she gets sidelined and sabotaged at every turn, as if Murata and ONE are truly scared of Fubuki being relevant.

What originated the whole “Fubuki is useless, irrelevant, annoying and weak”? The treatment reserved to the character in the manga. It all started with the Demonic Fan chapter, an awful addition that crippled from the get-go any chance of a close adaptation of the webcomic and to portray the character as a competent and sympathetic member of the main cast. But it was with the manga exclusive Tournament arc and the first battle with Do-s that Fubuki’s status as irrelevant and inconsequential to the overall plot was cemented forever. After being introduced, in fact, Fubuki does nothing for dozens and dozens of chapters and, outside of pin-up covers and illustrations, the only notable additions in the numbered chapters are either Fubuki’s failures or Fubuki pestering others while maintaining an arrogant demeanor. She has been a non-entity in the story for almost 100+ chapters (to give an idea, in the wc 60 chapters after her introduction we were already at the Espers Sisters arc) and the few times she appears, Fubuki is depicted as a weakling with no redeeming qualities, completely unrelated to the overarching plot and the events involving the rest of the cast. Think about season 2 of the anime and how little Fubuki appears in it after her introduction arc: the episode devoted to it is a complete waste of time considering how we barely get to see her ever again and Fubuki’s most “memorable” moment in the season is being whipped by Do-s and then she disappears for the remaining time. Incredible content that truly did justice to the character! If the anime adapted the equivalent number of chapters of the webcomic instead, by the end of the season Fubuki would have already defeated Psykos and we would have gotten her first flashback, on top of Fubuki having much more screen time, relevancy and an actual character arc - and on the plus side of not having the awful manga additions. Murata and ONE clearly not having a single clue on what to do with Fubuki, despite the perfect blueprint provided by the webcomic, completely obliterated her character in the manga and the new scenes featuring her (being defeated by Do-s and then rescued by Tatsumaki) in the new story arc set between Chapters 52 and 53 of the webcomic clearly hinted at how bad things were going to turn out during the Hero raid and the surface battles*.

Cui Prodest?

If there is a character who actually benefitted from all these departures from the source material and from this treatment of Fubuki, that is without a doubt Tatsumaki: after all, the more pathetic, useless and incompetent Fubuki is, the more justified Tatsumaki’s behavior appears and, consequently, the more likable she becomes. The manga desperately wanted to turn Tatsumaki into a sympathetic/lovable figure and employed everything it could to achieve it before getting to the Fubuki’s related scenes and developments, to the point it moved earlier the ones related to the older sibling and postponed and delayed the ones featuring the younger: apparently Fubuki (her characterization, backstory, role in the story, original relationship with Tatsumaki, Psykos and other characters, etc.) had to be utterly demolished in order to overhaul completely (nu-)Tatsumaki and turn her into what feels to be an OC character clumsily shoehorned into the series. What Tatsumaki got in the remake is the exact opposite treatment that was reserved for Fubuki:

Tatsumaki’s role and the importance in the arc got totally turned upside down and ridiculously increased to the point where the remake put her under the spotlight more than anyone else, hijacking what originally was an arc about Garou; manga Tatsumaki doesn’t even resemble her wc counterpart and her worst moments and worst flaws have been erased altogether or changed accordingly to her new portrayal as some sort of paragon of all virtues she never was (not even in the earlier parts of the manga, making the whole thing an incosistent and out of nowhere change that messes with what was established before);

instead of the humiliating defeat she suffered in the webcomic, Tatsumaki received the longest, most padded out, asspull-riddled battle in the entire manga (so far), specifically designed to make her look noble and heroic while fighting a lame two-dimensional opponent, Psykororochi, a fusion that (narrative-wise) worked backward, removing any characterization or depth Psykos and Orochi may have before (at least the former), with the result of turning Psykos (the founder of the Monster Association, the Dragon behind Tatsumaki and Fang’s defeats, the esper who hard-carried the Monster Association during the first stages of the surface battles) into a complete and utter moron, a Dick Dastardly tier-villain incapable of taking a victory even when it is served to her on a silver plate;

Tatsumaki’s contribution to the arc has now become positive and vital for the HA and all her actions are depicted in the remake from a sympathetic angle. Basically every character does nothing but cheer for how amazing, powerful and/or inspiring Tatsumaki is and praise her while barely containing their tongue hanging out of their mouth. All Tatsumaki’s actions are now followed by a cascade of awestruck and amazed reactions (some examples, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; for Blast and God, keep reading), because everyone is suddenly a fan of hers. The whole thing is so absurd that Gearspear becomes an ultra-powerful and skilled esper by simply thinking about Tatsumaki and even those who hated her guts in the wc now are on friendly terms with her (like Genos, 1, 2) and, similarly, the one who was afraid and terrified of Tatsumaki (Fubuki), knowing well what she was capable of, at this point acts full-time as a cheerleader and her number one fan (imagine reconfiguring Fubuki into a tatsumaki shilling machine: complete character assassination) - other examples, like the dialogue between Fubuki and Tank Top Master, were linked above;

speaking of that, the twisted relationship between Fubuki and Tatsumaki has been turned into a generic sweet and heartwarming sibling dynamic, transforming what once was one of Tatsumaki’s worst sides (her creepy and obsessive attitude towards her sister, which contemplated acting like a tyrant and mangling those close to Fubuki) into one of the most sympathetic and lovable elements of her characterization; 

consequently, Tatsumaki’s affection towards Fubuki is portrayed not as an unsettling and toxic love/obsession but as a pure and cute sibling concern, only slightly too protective at times (but rightly so, considering how helpless and dumb manga Fubuki is); 

As mentioned before, Tatsumaki’s Esper Sisters character content, minus the dislikable and unpleasant parts, was dumped in the MA arc and took precedence over Fubuki MA’s moments and focus, let alone Fubuki’s Esper Sisters arc related stuff, with the consequence of Tatsumaki’s past being revealed in this arc long before any Fubuki’s flashback - including the highs chool one which was extremely relevant and deeply connected to the MA arc themes itself; 

Tatsumaki is never depicted to be wrong about anything and if she somehow makes a mistake, she is still justified by being forced by the circumstances or by others; the psychotic, unhinged and violent brat, always ready to throw a tantrum at any given time and capable of putting at risk a mission because of her unstable and psychotic character, turned into one of the most rational, mature and stable heroes of the remake; 

for this, she has become some sort of strategic and intelligent warrior who employs brains and wits in her battles, contrary to the wc where she simply relied on the overwhelming and ruthless use of her psychic powers, bulldozing her way through everything and everyone, be it enemies or human relationships - Psykos, before, and Black Sperm, later, outsmarted her for this reason, but these moments have been completely erased in the manga; 

in the source material (EDIT: and in Volume 6 not 7) Tatsumaki openly defied and criticized King during the Boros arc, then, at the start of the MA arc she complained about the special treatment reserved for him and even when she had to recognize his “success” in securing Tareo, Tatsumaki was still eager to prove herself as the strongest hero and take all the glory for putting an end to the MA. In the manga version of the MA she straight out praises him multiple times, docilely accepting his superiority and, in general, she is way more lenient and reasonable towards her colleagues, not extraneous to recognize their efforts, their struggles and their power;

in the remake Tatsumaki is an exemplary professional hero who puts the safety of the kid and her colleagues over anything else - in the webcomic she couldn’t give a damn about Tareo or her colleagues (the link above about the wc and, for more context, Webcomic Chapter 70);

instead of adapting this awesome moment** which served to prove how Amai Mask was no common A-Class hero but instead someone who could back up his words and attitude with facts, we got Tatsumaki, of all people, teaching heroism to the A-Class Rank 1. Furthermore, during the briefing pre-operation (Chapter 96) is now Amai Mask the troublemaker instead of Tatsumaki (Webcomic Chapter 58); etc.

I guess toning down and whitewashing Tatsumaki’s original character was a given in order to make this character (one of the few female characters of the series, already known by the general public for appearing in Season 1 as the token loli character) more likable and marketable palatable to a wider and more mainstream audience, considering how her original actions and personality could have been offputting for a broader public. 

In the Murata version, the only acknowledged flaw of Tatsumaki appeared to be following Blast’s ideology to the point of self-harm and refusing to receive help from others - which are endearing flaws, not the dislikable or offputting type that might turn off a reader: as of Chapter 156, even that ceased to be treated as such. What saved Tatsumaki from falling prey to God’s ruse was precisely that stubbordn attachment to that mindset***. The “curse” Fubuki was talking about it’s revealed to be actually a blessing and a healthy ideology that, instead of warping and damaging the person poisoned by it and affecting her and the other’s lives (in particular her sister’s), prevents the special snowflake to be tricked by a cosmic horror entity****. In the wc, there is no such thing (at least, so far): in the MA arc Tatsumaki’s zealous attachment to this philosophy and mindset backfired hard, and she had to suffer the consequences of her actions even in the following arc, where, among other things, she tried to kill Psykos (mind broken and detained in the HA’s prison), attacked her sister (and attempted to lock her away forever), and intended to cripple (or worse) the Fubuki’s group, and that in the name of the same destructive words Blast inculcated into her - had not Fubuki convinced Saitama to follow her in the HA’s prison, Tatsumaki would have succeeded in all of her aims. All of this happened because Tatsumaki was following Blast’s advice to extreme and insane degrees. The negative depiction of this unhealthy outlook on life and the foolish disregard of human bonds are 100% consistent with ONE’s other works. In particular, I think, the World Domination arc from Mob Psycho 100 shares many common elements, themes and story beats with the Esper Sisters arc: from Fubuki and Tatsumaki being mirrored in a way by Sho and Toichiro Suzuki, to the role the main characters (Saitama and Mob) play in these dysfunctional families, serving as an equalizer in the unfair and uneven power dynamic between the conflicting family members, which prevents them to communicate on a common and equal ground. Both Saitama and Mod prove with their intervention the importance of human relationships and dismantle the toxic ideology that the two antagonists were following, even at the price of harming their families. Coincidentally, both these arcs were written around the same time, 2015-2016.

In regard of the MA arc, the manga frames Tatsumaki’s defeat against the Cadres to be entirely accountable to the characters she was actively protecting and the beatdown she endured as the consequence of having to take care of others while fighting her opponent(s): the remake is basically justifying Tatsumaki’s overreliance on herself and her distrust of others by making the heroes a hindrance to Tatsumaki who otherwise would have solved the situation quickly and without any problems. If Tatsumaki’s claim about finishing off the MA alone without the other heroes (1, 2, 3) in the webcomic were soundly contradicted later on, in the manga is 100% true and correct. In fact, every time remake Tatsumaki is injured/harmed, that happens because she is too busy protecting/shielding other heroes or because she is limiting herself in order to not harm others, and not as a result of her arrogance: in the wc there were no excuses that could lessen the humiliating factor of her mistakes nor her concerns for others were the reason behind her downfall. Tatsumaki being unceremoniously defeated not only follows perfectly ONE’s style and humor but, more importantly, reinforces the point the arc was trying to convey: the S-Class (and the HA in general) became complacent and overconfident in themselves, believing to not be threatened by anything and, in some cases, acting recklessly to the point of jeopardizing the mission and the safety of others; but as much strong and powerful they are, none of them is invincible and unbeatable. The arc was a wake-up call for them. This applies especially to Tatsumaki: the strongest of the bunch wasn’t worn out or beaten by a super strong “final” boss created by the fusion of two Dragons that was constantly absorbing everything it came in contact with its tentacles spreading through the entire Monster Association, after having been “blessed” and powered by none other than God itself, but in a rather anticlimatic way, beaten by a “weaker” opponent (Psykos) who seized her opportunity just when Tatsumaki wasn’t paying attention, too assured of her imminent victory: that perfectly underlined how none of the Heroes were safe from enduring a painful reality check, no matter how invincible they appeared on paper and all the “hype” surrounding them. None of the S-Class were supposed to get epic and cool duels or awesome showdowns against the Cadres, but to be completely and utterly demolished, and HA’s final weapon wasn’t an exception. Her defeat had to be umiliating and abrupt to drive home the underlying theme of the heroes being flawed, imperfect and not invincible. Depicting Tatsumaki’s defeat as a prolonged, exhausting battle, where she is not at fault for her demise but is heroically carrying the team (a complete liability and a hindrance fo her), defeats the very purpose of this section of the arc (and one of the points of the arc as a whole). Furthermore, the flaws of the S-Class and their shortcomings as heroes/individuals justified to some extent Garou’s points in his speech at the end of the arc, but here all of that was scrapped as well.

To add salt to the wounds and contrary to the manga, the wc Monster Association wasn’t even prepared for a war by the time it was attacked by the heroes. The monsters weren’t ready to launch their attack, they didn’t have the resources, the assets or the numbers of the remake to take on the HA head-on. It was only thanks to a mix of strategy, cooperation and luck (something usually belonging to the hero party) that they were able to completely overturn the situation, making the defeat even more insulting for the HA. This all served as a bath of humility for all of the S-Class (and the HA as a whole) and the next few arcs dealt (and, in a way, are still dealing) with this fallout, which could have been prevented if some heroes weren’t unhinged, arrogant and reckless lunatics. Comparatively, those who ended up contributing the most to the HA’s mission were the members of a group of characters that wasn’t officially part of the operation. They were capable of turning the tides when everything seemed lost: the martial artist responsible for the Garou’s problem, the fraud hero who is too afraid of revealing the truth, the “second choice” esper and the rookie S-Class, Genos, who kept busy the Cadres while Psykos was “playing” with Tatsumaki. And if you look at it, those who impacted the arc the most are the unaccounted variables: Saitama, his group and Garou. None of the S-Class raid members actually defeated or killed a Cadre (the closest being Zombieman and he only restrained Homeless Emperor before God’s intervention), but the “outsiders”. I could add how the addition in the remake of “guests” and participants unrelated to Saitama, his circle of (positive) influence and his foil/ the main character of the arc (Garou) detracted from this subtext and took away the spotlight from them - Genos aside, obviously. Added in date 02/09/2022: I forgot to mention Amai Mask. The A-Class was introduced as a pretty boy full of himself always far away from the action but ready to complain or criticize his colleagues, but, during the worst hours of the HA, he managed to fight alone both Black Sperm and Evil Natural Water at the same time, buying time for the team without ever taking time to rest. Contrary to what his looks and previous appearances suggested, Amai Mask demonstrated his value as one of the most committed and passionate heroes of the HA. In front of his battle prowess, even the S-Class, who previously despised him, couldn’t do anything but recognize his courage and strength.

But the most glaring change, as mentioned earlier, is how the webcomic and the manga frame the supposed similarities between Fubuki and Tatsumaki in a different way: in the former (1, 2, 3, Chapter 105) marks one of the most dramatic points of the arc and it is Tatsumaki herself who smugly states this while observing Fubuki’s renewed will to fight, now enraged by what Tatsumaki (apparently) did to Saitama and by the threat the older sister posed to her freedom and the people close to her. EDIT: another instance (Chapter 101), where Tatsumaki states that Fubuki can endure the loss of every person in her life because she is Tatsumaki’s sister after all, hence not “that” weak. It goes without saying that this supposed similarity is depicted negatively, highlighting how deranged and insane Tatsumaki’s ideology is by pitting two sisters who love each other but are unable to communicate one against the other - bonus: this panel from Chapter 88.1 of Mob Psycho 100 has a striking resemblance to the pages linked above (especially the one from Chapter 101). In general, wc Tatsumaki’s influence over Fubuki is portrayed negatively and she is depicted as a harmful and bad “role model” with unhealthy world views that contributed to the shape Fubuki in the way we see in the present. Meanwhile, in the manga (1, 2), ignoring the completely gratuitous, idiotic and tasteless boob joke that seems to have been written by a fan***** and not by ONE (what the hell were they thinking? How low can this manga fall?), the similarities between the two  are actually depicted as something positive, as if Fubuki could be good only as long as she followed in the footsteps of her sister, which reflects the role of paragon of all virtues attributed to the older sibling and the blatant favoritism towards Tatsumaki demonstrated by the authors - whereas in the original Fubuki being her own person and not having to deal with what cruel bullshit Tatsumaki wanted to impose to her was one of the underlying messages of the Esper Sisters arc.

Conclusions (for now).

With all that being said, I don’t want to change anybody’s opinion on the character or “taint” their enjoyment of the series. With this post, I simply hoped to dispel and clarify some misconceptions regarding Fubuki, whose character is often discussed without taking into account the major and staggering differences between the webcomic and the published manga, and also reflect on the way the manga drastically altered her character.

Personally I think that the manga has not expanded or built upon the extremely solid foundations provided by the source material but, on the contrary, has only lessened and undercut Fubuki’s role in the series. What is worse is that this utter and incomprehensible disservice to a character already had a great blueprint in the source material and simply following that would have been more than enough. Back in the days, I would have never expected the manga to not capitalize on it and strive to improve what was one of the most well-written characters in the series nor for Fubuki to be relegated in the MA arc to a plot device employed as a way to solve pesky narrative problems the authors clumsily put themselves in by not planning and properly laying out the events of the arc and the role assigned to each character. It’s really absurd how Murata and ONE went all out with a character like Metal Bat (for example), who in the webcomic had barely anything going on for him (at least before the most recent developments), while someone like Fubuki, with an actual role, a “supporting cast”, a well-written arc and an interesting backstory to delve into, was essentially sidelined. Actually, scratch that: even the likes of the Support Team received more love and care than her, and they are cardboard cut-outs at best. One would think improvements, additions, new details and new scenes would write themselves considering the layout provided by the original version yet here we are. Fubuki’s role and characterization, personality and storyline, even the tone of the scene she is in and their content are the exact opposite of her webcomic counterpart. Fubuki has been degraded from being an actually major player to an absolute joke, a comic relief mostly ornamental to the scenes she takes part in while even non-characters keep getting put in the limelight multiple times. What makes this even more frustrating is that Fubuki was directly and intrinsically related to characters, themes and scenes of the MA arc, to the point of being one of the few characters that actually made the difference and, on top of that, having one of the best performances of the MA on the hero side. Now? Something that can’t be said anymore. Characters that barely did anything or that weren’t even present in the original got more screen time and flashy battle scenes/heroic moments than her (really anyone, from Tanktop Master to the Support Team, Spring Moustache, the Samurais, Metal Bat, Drive Knight, etc.), which is absurd in itself, even without taking into account how badly Fubuki has been written and used in the manga compared to the the webcomic. Her character clearly fulfills a completely different narrative purpose and, consequently, the manga reserves her a completely different treatment, from a member of the main cast with an active and important role to play (and one of the few developed characters with an ongoing character arc) to a background entity who shows up every now and then mostly for lighthearted moments (or on the front page of a chapter). It’s as if Murata and ONE went all “Carthago delenda est” on the character because Fubuki posed a narrative threat to her sister’s popularity.

At this point, if somehow the manga started adapting the webcomic 1:1 again, following Fubuki’s original webcomic characterization and masterfully enhancing her original scenes to further heights (like a perfect adaptation of Fubuki vs. Psykos) or if it came up with new memorable and interesting developments, that wouldn’t still erase what came before (aka shitting all over the character for 100+ chapters), nor would it repair the damage already done. Now even if Fubuki fights Psykos it will either be an unsatisfying adaptation that won’t do any justice to the original battle or an unbelievable and jarring confrontation with no build-up nor strengthened by previous chapters. The only way to effectively “fix” this mess would be to rewrite the vast majority of the scenes involving Fubuki and to remove entire portions of the remake, which obviously can’t be done. Now, the problem isn’t simply that the remake not following the original route or not respecting how this character was written before, but the fact that manga Fubuki has a nonsensical and contradictory character arc (if this unintelligible mess can even be qualified as a “character arc”) that occurs largely off-screen; it’s a mess regardless of whether or not you take into account the webcomic. Remake Fubuki is, at best, a collection of female battle shounen tropes badly put together and, at worst, something out of a fanfiction (written by someone with a clear bias and favorites) or a dōjinshi even, before having anything to do with the original character.

With the manga following a different route (both in relation to Fubuki and the series in general), I truly don’t know what ONE wants to do with the character and the prolonged absence of Fubuki in the wc (save three pages last year) doesn’t help either, making her future in the series unclear. And, obviously, manga original stuff could always leak all over the webcomic, as unfortunate as that may sound. With the manga having effectively destroyed anything that made Fubuki unique, relatable and interesting (even esthetic-wise, she is basically a moe-blob nowadays), perhaps as a way to not take away the limelight from certain characters, I wonder if this is indicative of Fubuki’s future in the webcomic: maybe, despite all the seemingly hanging plot-lines related to her and the importance and the focus she got in the past, Fubuki will not play any role or won’t have an active part in ongoing and future arcs; if that’s true, it would be a shame and a total waste of this character. With that being said, if instead wc Fubuki gets a well-written and satisfying progression and conclusion to her story, that will be enough to make me forget the massive disappointment the manga turned out to be.

In any case, the Part 2 of this post will touch all the topics not covered by this analysis and address what is left of Fubuki’s involvement in the MA arc.

*The fact that Murata and ONE forgot about the foreshadowed second confrontation between Fubuki and Do-s makes it blatantly clear how Fubuki is nothing more than an afterthought in the remake.

**to tell the truth, that was adapted in the manga. Same thing, really...

***God, the entity the manga keeps shoehorning at every turn, is another victim of Tatsumaki’s shilling: apparently the mysterious being that knew of Tatsumaki’s past didn’t resort to using the perfect trigger (Fubuki) to trick Tatsumaki and make her accept its offer, but decided to impersonate the one person who taught Tatsumaki to only rely on herself, Blast. Not even Eldritch Entities are spared from holding the Idiot Ball in order to show off how awesome Tatsumaki is, which results in the threat posed by God and its mysterious objectives being completely undermined by an incredible display of stupidity, tailored by the author(/s) as a way to put their pet on a pedestal. And some consider Garou as a Gary Stu! What I find ironic is the fact the manga has rewritten Fubuki to be a damsel in distress who needs to be protected 24/7 by Tatsumaki, yet it doesn’t employ this already established dynamic or follow its narrative logical conclusion for what would be the most natural outcome for this setup (it still wouldn’t make up for what has been done to Fubuki, though): Tatsumaki seeing through God’s lie and not taking the bait, recognizing that Fubuki would not have asked for her help. This would have provided an actual sense of growth to Tatsumaki’s character and her role as a big sister to Fubuki (well, considering how much more rational and less obsessive Tatsumaki is compared to the webcomic, not so much, but still better than nothing, I think).

****Blast’s comment on Tatsumaki’s growth is nonsensical too: it’s the #1029  “character x comments with a smile on their face how character y has grown up” heartwarming moment of the arc played completely straight, with nothing differentiating it from the others. I wouldn’t even complain if there was something slightly ambiguous about it or if there was anything to infer about this exchange beyond what there is on the surface, but so far it is  as dry as a desert, and it doesn’t help that Blast himself is the most colorless character in existence, a black hole of characterization and writing of such magnitude that calling him bland or generic would be paying him a compliment. Besides, compared to when Tatsumaki developed? To her ten year-old self? What she said in this chapter is no different from what she would have said to God if this scene had occurred during her first appearance in the series (”A New Wind Blows”). Blast’s line doesn’t hold any value and doesn’t serve any narrative function other than fellate Tatsumaki even more.

*****Or something Murata could come up with: for proof, don’t look any further than his comments during the live streams or the sketches and joke comics he drew in the past, like the high school Fubuki one, but there are plenty more. It feels like he got a bigger say in the writing of the scenes featuring Fubuki, which are now more comedic, generic and “fanservicy”.