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I'm going to hate myself for this. I know, the word bait is in the name. But for the love of....you CANNOT be this delusional. You cannot be serious! ItsSamu is right, you are not reading the manga at all except through your filtered lenses!
I'm going to dare to ask; do you have any proof of these so called "editor interferences" when it comes to romantic pairings?
Because just earlier you said that Naruto and Sasuke were canon. Does marriage and having children not imply a canon pairing, or do I live on another planet? You point to Sasuke having more screentime with Naruto--yeah, for a battle manga I would certainly hope that the main character's best friend and rival would have more screen time than their romantic partner! Sure, things have improved with manga like Mission Yozakura Family and Undead Unluck, but Kishimoto already admitted to being shy about writing romance, anyway.
It's also funny (and kind of surprising) that you listed Ichigo and Rukia among the pairings that were screwed over, because if we take what you said about screentime, I think Ichigo and Rukia had the most screentime together in the beginning of the series and it just became less and less as the series went on.
Like...please, help me understand your logic, man. None of the established pairings for main characters in any battle manga came out of nowhere. I understand you're a hardcore BL fan, but I think you should be searching for that in genres that actually welcome that taste with huge flashing lights. Is it not painful to be teased and baited (I suppose...?) over and over?
I'm going to hate myself for this. I know, the word bait is in the name. But for the love of....you CANNOT be this delusional. You cannot be serious! ItsSamu is right, you are not reading the manga at all except through your filtered lenses!
Very good issue to kick off the new fiscal year, lots of chapters were pretty pivotal in-context and even the worst of it was still passable - nothing was plain bad or offensive or terrible to read.
Here's my top 3 for #52, final issue of 2024:
1. Akane-banashi
2. Hunter x Hunter
3. Sakamoto Days
And my top 3 and full ranking for #1 of 2025:
1. Hunter x Hunter
2. Akane-banashi
3. One Piece
Excellent, could have been in the top 3:
4. Sakamoto Days
5. Kagurabachi
Stellar, very good stuff:
6. RuriDragon
7. Ichi the Witch
8. Blue Box
9. Hima-Ten!
Pretty decent:
15. Undead Unluck
16. The Elusive Samurai
17. Mission: Yozakura Family
18. Shinobi Undercover
Fine, passable, not awful:
19: Hakutaku
20: Syd Craft: Love is a Mystery
21. Kill Blue
22. Super Psychic Policeman Chojo
@Shinuki no Reborn feel free to use both those above for the current + next polls.
This trio of Hunter x Hunter chapters seems like a strange detour but ended up doing a lot for both Morena and Borksen; the latter who was only introduced in the last batch of chapters two years ago and we've been fully in her mind for weeks now. Loved the new shades to this relationship between these seemingly tertiary characters getting explored so heavily. If next week is the last before a break then I hope we get to see the fallout of the martial law as it affects the other major players.
Togashi is still giving updates despite having surgery this month, by the sounds of it:
Storyboards complete for up to around 438
Character inking done up until 424, likely now proceeding to various next steps in the meantime
Chapters 411-413 in the final steps prior to being published; since he hasn't done his usual photo of sending the manuscripts for print I do think there will be a break and he'll be able to get ahead of schedule in the interim. Or maybe the extra time during the double issue weeks will be a blessing and keep us going if he picks up the pace? Either way, I think up to chapter 420 feels pretty much guaranteed for this year.
This was my favourite One Piece chapter in Elbaph so far - it feels like this drawn out introduction is now going to step up a gear (or five). Still mad about that death in Kagurabachi... never committing myself to another character being my new fav, even if they look cool as fuck . Ichi the Witch was a blast, and Hima-Ten is doing a good job of balancing the romcom tropes with some grounded, realistic dialogue between the characters. Undead Unluck and Mission: Yozakura Family are proceeding with the final battles pretty well. Naturally, I preferred Me & Roboco's parody Undead Unluck chapter to the actual thing though, that was fun. Astro Royale and Nue's Exorcist doing nearly the same thing on the same week, and being close to each other in the TOC is amusing. Both were really good chapters though, can't discredit them even if the timing is strange.
Shinobi Undercover really does feel like the chuunibyou little brother to Sakamoto Days, thanks to it channeling early-MYF energy as well. I wish the art and character expressions were better, but Sakamoto Days improved a lot as it went so if this did manage to survive I wouldn't be too mad if it meant Santa levelling up their game. Meanwhile Super Psychic PolicemanChojo's chapter felt strangely pointless even by one-off gag manga standards, lacking in any real jokes or impact in what it was going for? And Kill Blue seems to me like it's speeding through what's it's set up. Going to be curious to see what happens by the end/after this festival arc in the next few weeks to indicate it's near-future.
For RuriDragon, this was my favourite chapter of the series so far. The fact we're at 25 chapters too considering where we were a year ago is really nice, and only one month has passed in-story, wow. Great balance of funny, Ruri stepping up to the plate in a way that affirms her evolving as a character, a new big sister introduced with a sick design, and lots of others got cute little moments too. And on one particular point from my 2025 predictions:
We're not quite there yet but I'm going to give myself half a point already with what is likely going to be used as the exact reason why Ruri's mum didn't actually bang a dragon, at least in its traditional dragon form. Hot sexy semi-humanoid man dragon is bound to happen.
As for the My Hero Academia epilogue, what a brilliant send-off, and based on some of the reactions here and elsewhere it affirms the obvious: (1) the MHA fandom remains one of the most embarrassing of the past generation and (2) as far as fandoms go they actually hate their own series they claim to love more than maybe any other; at least others will dickride their favs until their blind to the faults - which is annoying in a separate way - but seeing the reactions to the final pairing or the final rankings of the heroes when all of it makes complete sense for their characterisations and arcs up until now is seriously baffling. Specifically: Of course Deku and Ochako was going to be canon. Of course BakuDeku was not. Of course Bakugo isn't going to be good as being popular when it comes to being likeable to other people.
If you genuinely thought otherwise then you weren't actually a fan of the series - you had your own tinted glasses painting the series in a direction you wanted or were somehow convinced would happen, even though the text never, ever suggested it would. If you're outraged or shocked or upset by this ending while also claiming to be a fan of the series then you're simply not a very attentive reader and don't enjoy what it's actually about near as much as you think. Embarrassing MHA fandom being embarrassing as always. Rage about your favourite character not being good at being a perfect hero and his score reflecting that, or that it was framed form Ochako POV (imo the best decision since her arc felt not fully complete in the WSJ chapter run - so this was needed and correct), rage all you want but it all makes sense and concludes the series in a fitting way. And this is coming from someone who overall was pretty unenthused by the final war and wasn't loving the series the past few years as much as I used to.
I've said it before, as a gay man myself, having a legitimate gay/queer pairing in WSJ would be a dream to see (though it has before with Hibari-kun in it's own problematic but affectionate way, which it being published in the early 80s is even more impressive), but it's not happening in MHA or any series that are being published right now at least based on the chapters they've released so far. Complaints about that being the status quo are valid but become a bit of a useless echo when it's because people have projected their own fantasies onto a pairing or characters and it's clouded their judgement. Shipping should be fun, have fun with it, don't take it too serious if the series itself doesn't, and if it doesn't become canon then it's not that big of a deal - what you liked about the dynamic still stands even without a big Canon™ stamp of approval. Okay, maybe you're entitled to be a little mad if it's a romcom, but that's the exception. Don't embarrass yourself by hating on the character that 'won' in the shipping war you invented in your mind. If you're going to frame it as some anti-gay agenda then I'd suggested you read a manga by an actual queer author or a steamy or cute BL if you want to find something that scratches that particular itch - there's a wealth of (good) options out there. To name a few across the demographic labels:
Double by Ayako Noda (Josei)
Blue Flag by KAITO (Shonen)
Hiraeth: The End of the Journey. by Yuuki Kamatani (Seinen)
Here And There And Us + and it's sequel: Here And There And Us (And Then And After) by Thanat (Seinen that became cute BL)
Like the Beast by Kotetsuko Yamamoto (Horny Boys' Love)
I Think Our Son is Gay by Okura (Unspecified demographic/self-published)
Not to start a debate, but objectively the romance in Naruto is extremely badly done and simply shoved in. Feels like the poll is more about what pairing people like and not whether it is done well. For example, I like Sukuna x Gojo and you know how that pairing went in the manga??
An example of ACTUAL romance done well in battle manga is Dandadan. Nothing can top it
I'm going to hate myself for this. I know, the word bait is in the name. But for the love of....you CANNOT be this delusional. You cannot be serious! ItsSamu is right, you are not reading the manga at all except through your filtered lenses!
I'm going to dare to ask; do you have any proof of these so called "editor interferences" when it comes to romantic pairings?
Because just earlier you said that Naruto and Sasuke were canon. Does marriage and having children not imply a canon pairing, or do I live on another planet? You point to Sasuke having more screentime with Naruto--yeah, for a battle manga I would certainly hope that the main character's best friend and rival would have more screen time than their romantic partner! Sure, things have improved with manga like Mission Yozakura Family and Undead Unluck, but Kishimoto already admitted to being shy about writing romance, anyway.
It's also funny (and kind of surprising) that you listed Ichigo and Rukia among the pairings that were screwed over, because if we take what you said about screentime, I think Ichigo and Rukia had the most screentime together in the beginning of the series and it just became less and less as the series went on.
Like...please, help me understand your logic, man. None of the established pairings for main characters in any battle manga came out of nowhere. I understand you're a hardcore BL fan, but I think you should be searching for that in genres that actually welcome that taste with huge flashing lights. Is it not painful to be teased and baited (I suppose...?) over and over?
Editor interference was definitely involved in Naruto. Consider how Naruto was soley focused on Sasuke the entire manga, kissed him multiple times (manga + anime additional episodes), hyper ventilated at the thought of Sasuke, and Sasuke driven to grow due to Naruto, and additionally Naruto willing to die for Sasuke...and then in Boruto, Naruto and Sasuke having more romantic vibes than with Sakura or Hinata, worst, Hinata and Naruto getting together came out of freakin nowhere when Naruto feelings for Sasuke were ever present. It's even worse for Sakura (consider how there was even a plot written out of rebellion that Sakura wasn't Sarada's mother for example), just so much content that shows that SasuNaru was and is canon.
Ichigo Rukia fell into the same thing where IchiRuki writing and chemistry was so incredibly strong, even their date in the anime was particularly well done and a literal love letter to fans. Inoue Ichigo was written as supposed to be an unrequited one sided love where Inoue was supposed to let go of Ichigo whom she saw as an older brother. The chemistry between her and Ichigo felt so unbelievable and non-existent. Consider every single IchiRuki interaction, literal cute slow burn romance all the way.
These editors seem to pull the rug from under the writers and forced the writing to make two characters with little to no chemistry a canon couple...when there was much stronger, tighter, better chemistry, development over another couple. It is not possible to read HeroAca and fail to see the chemistry between BakuDeku (Deku save Baku, Baku die for Deku to save him since his "body moved on its own" (like SasuNaru), BakuDeku bonding, sharing secrets, holding hands to share the quirk, the list goes on)
By the way, i say this as someone who has no stake in either side. Yall seems to portray the shippers as the only stupid ones. When shippers also got a lot of attacks from the other sides. Including this one who literally tell people to xxx ?
Frankly, mudslinging happen both sides. People should be respectful on each other feelings please. People are valid if they are disappointed (does NOT mean they can attack Hori. That's stupid. And the non shippers, calling shippers "mentally ill" etc, like i see in this thread, is NOT cool).
Not to start a debate, but objectively the romance in Naruto is extremely badly done and simply shoved in. Feels like the poll is more about what pairing people like and not whether it is done well. For example, I like Sukuna x Gojo and you know how that pairing went in the manga??
Bejeebus how are you people still going on about ship wars? I kinda just dozed off and dipped because it was such a boring topic to watch silly twitter people lose their minds about ships but it's still going. Why get thrown into a loop about whose butt Deku is sticking his weewee in? In the end, it's just fiction, and whatever happens in canon shouldn't deter whatever whack ideas you have. Just go write a fanfic or something and sate yourself, I dunno. Geez. These things always happen when pairings are set at the endings of whatever story. I don't understand what kind of life you gotta be living to get so hot under the collar about fictional relationships of fictional people. I find it just as nonsensical when I watch a harem manga end and people get mad that their best girl didn't win or something, as if getting with and dating a blank slate with zero personality or talent is something worth celebrating. This is just a step ahead of that and there are words being thrown around like homophobia or misogyny or character assassination and it's all a giant salad bowl of nonsense.
The only consolation is that it's over and I hope we can move past this episode because it's not entertaining at all.
Looking at the ending of Naruto, i seriously think Kishi simply decide on the pairing by pulling names from the hat. The only thing that remotely get hinted on/make sense is just Shika x Temari and it is already super generous.
I am saying all this as someone who has zero interest in Naruto shipping. So this is not about me whining about my preferred ship not canon or whatever.
I frankly always joked about this:
Battle shonen manga romances:
(1) Girl and Boy's eyes met: married
(2) Boy and his male best friend literally think about each other all the time. Willing to die for each other, protective of each other, has alot of screentime and chemistry with each other, motivation revolves around each other: friend.
More manga should do Boy x Girl ship like Dandadan. That one is so amazing and so good.
Sometimes people should see things from a more objective point of view. It is not that BL shippers hate women or het. They just prefer relationship that has better dynamics and developments. Whether it is intended as platonic or romantic does not matter. Dynamics are all what matters. People don't like it when pairings are made canon just because one has a dick and other has vagina, dismissing the ones that has much better dynamics.
Saying this not referencing Naruto, MHA, or any shonens. Just saying in general (heck. I love Ochako and I am happy about OchaDeku. And i also like Bakudeku. Honestly i have no stake in this shipping war. Seeing this mudslingings both sides are stupid). Anyway i am just sharing perspective why people are upset.
Looking at the ending of Naruto, i seriously think Kishi simply decide on the pairing by pulling names from the hat. The only thing that remotely get hinted on/make sense is just Shika x Temari and it is already super generous.
I am saying all this as someone who has zero interest in Naruto shipping. So this is not about me whining about my preferred ship not canon or whatever.
I frankly always joked about this:
Battle shonen manga romances:
(1) Girl and Boy's eyes met: married
(2) Boy and his male best friend literally think about each other all the time. Willing to die for each other, protective of each other, has alot of screentime and chemistry with each other, motivation revolves around each other: friend.
More manga should do Boy x Girl ship like Dandadan. That one is so amazing and so good.
It has been a long time since i read Naruto, i forgot 99% of the plot and I remember the ending the most. And also all the jokes about Naruto caring about Sasuke more than the supposed love interest.
And as I said, i have zero interest with Naruto shipping. I am OK with NaruHina.
This still doesn't change my opinion that Naruto did abysmal effort in developing any romance. And it being "battle shonen" is not an excuse, as Dandadan literally is able to develop its romance and still give very peak battle shonen.
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