If you don’t already know, mangakas are manga creators that write and/or draw manga, but for this I’ll be using the [AND] version. When a manga is completed, I typically try to follow the mangaka into their new work esp if the story+art is good. And so I’ll be talking about the 3 mangakas who only have 1 banger manga and subsequent flop mangas. First:
Now this manga is severely underrated…I came across this because I was starved of action mangas that had a female protagonist. If you’re not already familiar, mangas are categorized by gender — it’s literally in the name: shounen=young boys and shoujo=young girls. And so, they are stereotypically targeted by gender, with shounen = action stories with male protags and shoujo = romance stories with female protags.
With ESPRIT, it had all the qualities of a shounen manga, but with a female protagonist, which I was immediately drawn to. The main character herself, Mio, has all the characteristics of a typical male shounen protag during the mid-2000's: curious, boisterous, determined, child-like nativeté, etc. In my opinion, this character archetype was super rare to come across for female characters, especially with most mangakas failing to write interesting female characters properly (I’m looking at you Kishimoto).
Of course, this manga is far from perfect and still has some glaring issues, like the overused trope of the male pervert as a form of fanservice that was unfortunately popular during the 2000’s [towards underaged girls at that]. But when you progress through the story, especially towards the climax, the mangaka actually gleans some decent character development from the ensemble cast uniquely and doesn’t rely on clichés to advance the story. The series is only like 30 chapters, so I would definitely recommend giving it a read if you can stomach some of the parts that aged like milk.
And then the mangaka creates this:
With an open mind I did give this a read and like, it's relatively tame compared to the other *harem* mangas I’ve skimmed (*I don’t like this term to describe this genre). But when I want a slice-of-life manga I’d prefer it if the MC isn’t fawned over by their supporting characters accompanied by fanservice OF HIGH SCHOOLERS. As we go through the next mangakas you’ll definitely see a trend and I will progressively become more unwell.
Black Cat is a sci-fi/action manga about Train (left), a bounty hunter whose infamous past comes back to haunt him…sound familiar? This manga’s kinda like Cowboy Bebop without the noir elements. On a quick re-read, Train, Rinslet (foreground), and Sven (background) are pretty similar to Spike, Faye, and Jet, but like the Kids BeBop version. So as a kid reading this, I was mindblown — if I had watched Cowboy Bebop at the time I wouldn’t have liked it because I definitely wouldn’t “get” it. I know making comparisons is a little unfair but I’d be surprised if the mangaka wasn’t at least *slightly* inspired by it given the similarities. Even though this did get an anime, when you’re up against anime figureheads like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece during their heyday, it's understandably overlooked.
I was drawn to this manga because the setting was more “mature” — most of the cast are adults, and so this manga was a nice change of pace from mangas with a shounen+school life aspect. Did I also mention it’s like the Kids Bebop version of Cowboy Bebop? Same vibe, but without the existential ennui. Overall, the series has aged pretty well aside from the typical pitfalls of shounen manga, namely the fanservice-y elements [OF HIGH SCHOOLERS], and I would recommend giving this a read-through.
But then the mangaka went on to draw for… well this:
Yes, it’s about multiple girls fawning over one guy. Yes, it’s an ecchi harem (perverted, male-gazey objectification of women, AND OF HIGH SCHOOLERS AT THAT!). Although he didn’t write the story to this, bringing this story to life is a crime in and of itself, especially when it ran for a total of 11 years. Yabuki also has a newer work in this decade that he’s written and drawn but it looks like it sucks so it’s a hard pass for me (it’s called Ayakashi Triangle, which surprise! is the same genre). So nothing else for me to say other than I am Unwell.
Aaaaand now…drumroll please for the final mangaka!!!
While most people were into the bigger animes like Naruto, they never really entranced me as much as Soul Eater did (Full Metal Alchemist is an honorable mention but will need to reread to digest as an adult). Soul Eater was definitely popular at the time, but it wasn’t as astronomically popular as its peers. As a kid already in love with witches, vampires, werewolves, and the like, this manga was one of the defining mangas of my childhood. I distinctly remember catching up with the latest chapters while listening to Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) by Lady Gaga, which wow how 2000’s is that sentence?
Like many shounen mangas, Soul Eater is a school life+shounen manga, but instead of its setting being in Japan, it’s set in Death City, Nevada. All of the characters from this manga came from different backgrounds all around the world with culturally different supernatural roots, which stood out to me since most of the popular mangas were set in Japan/fantasy Japan/fantasy Europe. From all this world-building that captivated my younger self, Ohkubo was also the first mangaka I read that had a distinct visual style:
Aaaaand then, Ohkubo came out with Fire Force. Fair warning I will go on a mini-rant because Wow I have some things to say:
Yes, I did try reading this, but nothing about the characters or story wanted to make me stay for the long run personally, but I would skim some chapters every now and then. Ohkubo’s art style is definitely more pronounced and is undeniably stunning, but that alone does not and cannot save bad writing. Case in point, Tamaki Kotatsu. She has “fire cat” powers, but her little quirky thing is her “lucky lewd syndrome”, which is her uncontrollable clumsiness/unluckiness in being put in pervertedly humiliating situations:
Unfortunately, very rarely are shounen mangas completely devoid of “fanservice” [OF HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS], and as a hardened manga reader since the early 2000’s, this panel is not new. But granted that we’re 20+ years past the shounen tropes of yore, you’d think that Ohkubo would, I don’t know, change for the better?
Soul Eater definitely had its fanservice moments, but what is truly unforgivable, and unintentionally hilarious, is that Ohkubo tries to justify Tamaki’s sexual objectification by so bravely asking the question: What if a strong+beautiful woman had no choice but to be unwillingly sexualized by some uncontrollable fate, and how would society (specifically feminists) react to it?
Now Tamaki’s backstory isn’t covered until chapter 171, so if you were earnestly reading, you’d have to trudge through 100-and-fucking-70 chapters of unnecessary fanservice even worse than the first panel above. So after chapters and chapters of viewing Tamaki as a conduit of fanservice, when you finally get to this chapter, you might hope for SOME sort of characterization depth besides “I’m fiesty and strong and I hate being sexualized but I can’t help it”. But the most you get out of this chapter is “Tamaki was bullied by women who misunderstood her, which is the reason why she holds herself back from her true potential, but despite that she’ll become stronger with her friends”!
This crumb of “meaningful” development for Tamaki then gets quickly derailed by— you guessed it — gratuitous fanservice! Just for a cheap giggle or whatever the fuck! Like at this point, it’s hard to believe if Ohkubo wanted anyone to take Tamaki seriously as a character…she’s so terribly written it’s comedic and sad. And also pretty insulting to the audience if he really meant for us to honestly enjoy it?
This is Chapter 281 — I was reading through the panel above that surfaced on Twitter and. Words are certainly being exchanged huh! And so I had to read the chapter itself.
It’s kinda embarrassing that I had to reread the chapter to really understand what Ohkubo was trying to say since I so wanted to naïvely believe that he was still the same author that wrote Maka. And again with the 100+ chapters to get to some character development for Tamaki… the answers we get from this are quite telling of Ohkubo’s character instead.
Simply put, the story is meh at best and at worst sexist/misogynistic, which is disappointing since he was able to write pretty interesting and memorable female characters in Soul Eater (other than Maka — Medusa, Tsubaki, Liz+Patty from the top of my mind). I could (maybe will!) write an essay on Tamaki’s characterization…because she really isn’t a person/character, but more of a proxy for Ohkubo to pathetically bash “feminism”, or at least his interpretation of it.
Thanks for reading this far — much love to you and hope you can tune into other things I enjoy talking about!