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abysscronica · 1 year

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What do tou think about the big 3? Do you think there are new shonen lately that can compete?

Hey, thank you for the question! I can't remember if I was asked about the Big 3 before, so here we go. Please remember this is solely my opinion, everyone should be free to enjoy what they prefer.

They all started pretty close to each other, One Piece in 1997, Naruto in 1999, Bleach in 2001. Despite being bonded to the classic shonen traits, they all have different narrative dynamics.

Obviously I think One Piece is the unmatched best (and also the only one still ongoing). I always talk about it, so I'm not gonna spend too many words on it here, but basically I think it's strengths compared to the others lie in the world building, memorable scenes, and ideals.

It's no secret what I think about Naruto, I was asked before. I believe Naruto part 1 is AMAZING. Compared to the other two, Kishimoto had a head start. Buuuuut then, for me, Shippuden was a complete let-down. The crafting of shinobi battles introduced before, where each player had a (more or less) precise set of skills and had to find a way to make it work against the enemy, was discarded in favor of divine powers, together with many characters introduced in part one. Plus I found the plot boring, and the final part a total mess. It had its moment, don't get me wrong, but not enough to keep me entretained.

So Bleach. I have to confess that I haven't finished Bleach yet, so maybe I shouldn't even talk about it, but there's a reason I got stuck. Even though Kubo wrote what I think is one of the best shonen arcs ever written (the Soul Society arc), then he... kept going back to the same plot. That's why I stopped reading at the Espada arc, I felt like we were doing the exact same thing, just swapping Rukia with Orihime. From there I felt it got really messy, with forgotten characters, storylines, and repetitive cliches.

I hope I won't upset anyone with this, as I said before it's just my opinion, and all three manga must possess great qualities to even be defined "Big 3".

Now, about the new generation. Shonen are slowly evolving as well, so it's hard to compare the new ones - and I haven't read many, I have to admit. My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan (is it even a shonen?), Beastars, One Punch Man (dropped tho), and Chainsaw Man. I've watched the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen and I tried Dr. Stone, but I dropped it soon because I found it boring, despite the great art. Most of these suffered (or are suffering...) of a bad/rushed finale, which is a common issue for this type of manga.

In short, no, I don't think any of the new gen's peaks matched the Big 3's peaks. MHA had a shot for a moment, but then declined. (and Chainsaw Man is too particular and plays in its own league). Maybe the heirs are among the ones I haven't read (yet), like Black Clover, Mashle, or JJK.

But the only one that truly had a shot, in my opinion, is not a new gen. It's Hunter x Hunter. If it weren't for its serialization problems, it'd probably be one of the Big 3 (knocking out Bleach I guess?).

BTW I did thoroughly enjoy Demon Slayer and Beastars, and I'm currently enjoying CSM.

#shonen manga #big 3

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fuyunoakegata · 3 years

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mini-rant about Chuck Dixon, incoming, because it's come up several times recently...

I remember when I started reading DC Comics really seriously, 11 or 12 years ago. If you asked a group of readers the best, most influential Nightwing writer, it was a better than good chance that most of them would mention Chuck Dixon up at the top, and god forbid you badmouth him. I went along with that at the time, because he was certainly prolific, and he wrote so much that I just internalized as iconic Dick characterization, then.

Thankfully, we all grow and change as we read more and more and think about things and dig deeper and see the end results of things that could seem minor or ignorable at first.

Take Nightwing 25. The Boys. Or as most of you probably think of it as "The Trainsurfing Issue." It's definitely an iconic story. And what's not to like? Dick and Tim, together, bonding, and doing it in such an over the top Batbrother way, right? And for the bonding and working together, the sheer brotherly vibe they've got going together with Dick being a tiny bit of an ass with teasing Tim and Tim being the bratty little brother, yeah. We all loved it. But how many of you remember what they were talking about during the trainsurfing?

Women.

Chuck Dixon writing about two guys talking about women... what could go wrong? /sarcasm

They say show, not tell, so I'll share a few relevant pages.

Tim lists no less than 6 “love interests” for Dick, making it sound like that’s an unreasonable amount of women to have been with. Not all of them were the same level of importance, and some weren’t even notable enough to bring up except as trivia for the diehard fans or plot points, and some weren’t even relationships to begin with. And then, the way Dixon has Tim and even Dick describing them... Kory “answered a need Dick had for affection.” Really? They were a hell of a lot more than that to each other. If not for some technical snafus in the Titans office at the time that led to the absolute mess that was New Titans 100 (and the subsequent Deathwing *sigh*), they would have married. So yeah, Kory is a bit more than filling a need for affection (and knowing Chuck’s moralistic views, it was the physical affection he was referring to and decrying there).

Dick and Donna are platonic soulmate besties forever. Period. So no, not a romantic relationship there, even though it’s framed differently by both of them -_-

Miggie and Emily didn’t even need to be brought up. What happened? Tim went through old files on the batcomputer but then didn’t even read the whole files to realize they weren’t significant partners for Dick? *sigh* Please try to write something believable and not insulting to all the characters involved and us as readers. Please.

And then Clancy. Dixon is the one who wrote that to begin with, and then nixed it before it even got off the ground, unless he was trying to purposefully add in the confusion of “will they or won’t they?”

As for Babs... they didn’t officially become a thing until a bit later. Cover date on Nightwing 25 was October of 1998 and cover date of Birds of Prey 8 (and Dick and Babs still aren’t dating after that; and btw, that’s also a Chuck Dixon tale) was August 1999. So I’m not even sure they should even be in the will they or won’t they stage yet for the purposes of the conversation.

And then they toss in The Huntress. First off, why would Dick willingly bring that up to Tim when it was so very short-lived, anyway. It gives off “hey, little bro, guess what/who I did?” locker room talk vibes to me and just... yeah. None of this was necessary or added to the story. Neither did Tim’s and Dick’s conversation about Steph. Have I mentioned yet today how much Dixon and especially his portrayal of women pisses me off? (though I will admit one more thing to thank him for, unintentionally. I don’t think I would have shipped Babs and Dinah as much as I do if not for that scene in Birds of Prey 21, the Hunt for Oracle storyline, though that’s probably mostly the Butch Guice art).

Anyway. This is definitely one of the earliest examples I can think of with Dick being portrayed negatively as a ladies’ man, and along with the fallout of the whole Mirage fiasco in Teen Titans and Nightwing Annual 2 by Andreyko, are probably the 3 biggest reasons for that “Nightwing is a manwhore” idea that pops up again and again and should never ever have been a thing.

#meta #character analysis #nightwing 25 #complaining about chuck dixon #dick grayson

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dickgreyson · 3 years

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Hi! This is probably a bit random but I’ve been getting more into titans comics and one blog I’ve taken some cues from (ie what issues or series to read) is yours! I’ve read all of the silver age and I Loved it. like so much! So I went ahead and read the titans 1999 series because I know you’re a fan of that too and I didn’t really care for it at first read! It had some weird story arcs and seemed like everyone was mad at each other so much of the time (my fav is Dick too btw) and I was just wondering if you’d be okay to share some of your thoughts and opinions on it? I’ve honestly come to trust your opinion and I’d love to hear about how you view this series in particular and maybe help me see it differently and in a new way if you’re feeling up to it! Thank you :)

That's so cool that my list actually helped someone!! And to be honest I agree, titans 1999 does have some weird writing. I mean, didn't Devin grayson write a whole big chunk? When I reflect on runs that I've enjoyed "as a whole" its really just some key moments that have stuck with me that make me think positively. And those are kinda rare in dc.

The 90s were kinda a dark spot in comics history, so the reason I like select issues in this run is because of like all the titans chilling at diners, Lian being there, that time dick threw a hissy fit and like collapsed a cave to be alone, the way the titans as a group weren't totally atomized. Yes, it was a weird run, but at least they felt more like a family than they did in rebirth titans.

I also like how it set up for outsiders 2003 (another weird run that I love for maybe 5 good books). Because the titans were enough of a family, the grief was real and palpable. You could really feel it.

So no, I don't know if I can make you think about it in a positive light outside of a few books. It really isn't as strong as ntt or silver age, but like it gave us roy and grant, it spent a lot of time focused on the person roy worked hard to be, and it gave me one of my favourite runs ever afterwards. So not a total win, but not the worst.

#i also have adhd and will pick up put down and skip thru runs #so my understanding of a whole run is always fuzzy #im a vibes based person #id love to say more but the space bar on my laptop isnt working #and i hate typing essays on my phone

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