So Close… Ok let’s just power through this. Nasa’s Shinichi Conan moment. It moves the story along… But not for long. Before you know it Tsukasa is flashing back to the past.
It Takes awhile, and getting harassed by Chitose and Tsukasa, Nasa finally turns it around by pointing out that there is a fully functioning clock in a house with no working tech.
He already had a key with no lock, which turns out to be hidden in the clock. Taking down the clock Nasa finds that it is indeed the item he was looking for.
Apparently not even impending death would stop Tokiko from preparing the last quest by her for the married couple. Hidden inside is… Wait for tomorrow.
Ok. Inside the clock was the parts for a device capable of reading the 5-D chip. But it has no instructions on how to assemble it. Leaving Nasa to put it together on his own.
Nasa will not accomplish this, especially not with Tsukasa’s “help”, until Volume 23. Maybe. So anyway it’s going to be awhile before we see this part resolved.
So how will the 5-D chip solve Tsukasa’s issues? Guess we will find out… Sometime from now I guess. So yeah. Tomorrow we will see the reward for finding the hiding spot. A pile of parts needing to be out together. Stay tuned.
New Things Are Being Ordered Now! Just added My Cute Little Kitten Volume 2 to my review pile. And pre ordered Fly Me To The Moon Volume 23.
Does this FINALLY make progress after these upcoming two volumes of backstory reveal?!? Stay tuned.
Next week Friday it’s time to pre order She Loves To Cook She Loves To Eat’s newest Volume. Presently the only manga with a recurring Trigger Warning Alert.
Given that this manga addresses the sensitive topic of eating disorders and family dysfunctionality in regards to this topic in Japan? You can kinda see why the warnings are needed. Yes?
Monday I’ll tell you how the short trip to the MANGAVERSE devolved into a deep dark rabbit hole, with now X-Men Ronin 2003 joining the review schedule! Ugh. Stay tuned.
It’s time to say goodbye to Kaguya and her entourage. Kaguya hunting to get friends again that she’s more than she seems. But maybe the long flashback will reveal why she’s different.
Realizing that they have yet to find the hidden secret that will help unlock the secrets of the 5-D chip, Nasa tries to think… Flashing back to Tokiko and everything she told him.
First going on a hunch, as he and Tsukasa talk… Joined by Chitose… His hunch morphs into a full on One Truth Prevails revelation. He finally figured out where the secret Tokiko hid was.
Well… I guess it’s not that surprising. Guess what. It’s hidden in the one and only functioning device in the manor.By its very nature as last device working it stands out.
So next time we go through an entire Chapter where Nasa does a Shinichi Conan and reveal everything to Tsukasa and Chitose. Then… The title teased resolution only to take it away.
Then the title makes you sit through the world’s longest backstory moment yet for this title… Maybe not but it eats up the rest of this volume and a lot of Volume 22. So yeah. It’s alot.
But for now… The solution to the non crime non mystery of where Tokiko his the device to translate the 5-D chip. Tomorrow. See you.
Straight Up The Best Of MANGAVERSE Month Maybe the best of the original run. Though being the best of a one month event and seven issues of a short lived ongoing? Maybe not such a great feat.
But if all the MANGAVERSE, this one actually had a Post Mangaverse mini series if I remember right. So hey. It’s pretty good. Highlights of this issue is the full page spread fights, and the interesting Ninja take on Spider-Man and Venom.
No Spider powers. No alien symbiote. Just full on ninja training. Also in this universe Venom was Sensei Ben Parker’s student and… Son? Before Venom killed his master.
We have Mary Jane. And if this series had a longer run this version of Mary Jane might have exploded in popularity like My Adventures With Superman Lois Lane. Also brief cameo by Gwen Stacy.
The issue is Spider-Man fighting Venom and his ninjas. Why? Because the gigantic powerful… But not that powerful… Kingpin wants Spider-Man dead. And Venom almost kills him.
He goes to the afterlife and talks to Sensei Ben, comes back and takes down the ninjas and Venom. But before he can kill Venom and avenge his Sensei… They’re interrupted by Kaiju Hulk.
In this story Kaiju Hulk presents young Peter with a challenge. Kill Venom, or save Mary Jane. Left with no real choice he leaves Venom, and saves Mary Jane… Well, saving in progress.
Venom? He completely ignores his Kingpin orders to kill Spider-Man. He instead goes to Fisk Tower and kills the Kingpin. Suddenly Venom has a great respect for Peter… And it teases a conflict that sadly never really was fleshed out…?
Maybe it was. To this date I have not seen the follow up mini. Maybe that completes the fight between Spider-Man and Venom? If it’s not in this Omnibus I’ll go find it digitally to review.
Say Sony. Need more Animated Spider-Man? How about a Ninja Spider-Man movie? That would be nice. We could really see this world come to life, and all the possibilities of this new take on Spider-Man. Just a thought…
We end the month before OMEGA on Thursday with… X-Men. It’s like the Japanese did X-Men… Oh wait no. We already saw MadHouse do Wolverine and X-Men so no… It’s campy Antarctic X-Men. Sorry but this is just kinda painful.
Too OELManga To Be Hip X-Men. Wrapping up the one shots before OMEGA. Tomorrow. See you.
Do You Want To See Tygra Reference Gold Digger? No? Too bad! Ok let’s get through this ending of ALPHA. Remember this happened before Heroes Reborn & the Ultimate Universe. So Samuel L. Jackson Fury doesn’t exist yet.
We find out Banner is the lead of this month long event because he somehow created infinite power. Power HYDRA wanted. They stopped HYDRA and mind wiped Banner.
But HYDRA knows the secrets of infinite power still exists in Banner. So they’re going to try and kidnap him for that knowledge. Led by Baron Von Strucker, evil Sorcerer Dark… No. I don’t know why Strucker is apparently occult now.
Not like this is the last tweaking of a Strucker. Who remembers the Strucker family from FOX’s other X-Men series spin-off The Gifted? Anyway I’m This universe he is aligned with Namor.
Why? Because Namorita needs to save Banner at the start of OMEGA. But that’s the end of the month. Oh. Also in this universe? Black Widow is evil. Really… Ok.
See that buff brawny dude she’s with? He’s actually a dangerous character from the Midnight Sons opening crossover event. He is one of the demon vampire Lilith’s children. A murderous avatars who killed his own family on Lilith’s orders.
A character… Kinda punked out and dies weakly in this universe. Then again? Looking at Ghost Riders… Maybe it was for the best he didn’t live long enough to see the state of Mangaverse Horror.
We find out Dr. Strange The Sorcerer Supreme is some punk dude. Who employs Tygra (who now looks very Fred Perry Hold Digger-female… Hence her obsession with Gold Digger) as his assistant.
And since HYDRA is now fully occult? They are also aligned with Baron D’arque… Oh no wait. It’s Baron Mordo. He only looks like the artist grabbed issues of Shadowman (Valiant) and based him off Master D’arque. Never mind.
Because they’re using occult magic to kidnap Banner? It brings Strange into conflict with Mordo, while Tygra tries to save Banner. Only because Atlanteans Widow gets him into a mini sub.
Then she makes the mistake of trying to break the mind wipe and reveal the secret of infinite power. Except… Guess what… Being caught by HYDRA and tortured? Birthed the Hulk in him.
EXCEPT something goes wrong. The Hulk manifests, and seemingly kills Widow and her ally… But we won’t find out until OMEGA that he manifested free of Banner. He’s not constrained by Banner in this Universe.
But we won’t learn that until OMEGA. All you know in the here and now present is Black Widow freed the Hulk. And… He’s now a Pacific Rim sized Kaiju. Because of course he is. If he’s intelligent? He’s probably Godzilla intelligent.
So that begins the month long MANGAVERSE. We will look at Avengers Assemble #1 tomorrow. Aka when Tony Stark created Voltes V Avengers. With him, President Captain America, Wasp, etc.
Oh. Also Stark’s daughter also has a giant robot Iron Man suit to pilot because… Ben Dunn. See you.
Behind Beautiful Eyes… So Lilith flashes back to her first time meeting Yuri. Back then she kinda was self conscious of her eye color. Thought it was displacing to others.
Maybe to some. But it’s a beautiful Twilight Sparkle purple color. Which of course explains why this title emphasises her eye color even in black and white. It’s her most notable feature.
Anyway that’s the sum of their first meeting. Yuri telling Lilith how beautiful her purple eyes are. And that lead to him falling in love with her years later…
According to Rule34 probably. I’m still waiting for it to be revealed that she’s his last living close relative. Maybe. But we shall see. Is it love of family, or love that makes Rule34 exist… Sigh.
Tomorrow is Chapter Fifty-Four. Remember when Yuri reconnected with a friend he lost after his parents deaths? They promised they’d have playdates at Yuri’s manor. Well… Today’s the day.
Tomorrow starts the review where we have Yuri & returning friend coming over to the manor. Will Lilith try to get involved in their friendship… Not like that… I mean Meddling Character involved.
Considering how Yuri wants to be so mature? Is he ready for a friendly playdate? Guess we find out tomorrow. See you.
Flashback To The Past So this is a flashback. It’s been a few days since Lilith returned back to the manor. She has come to the point she’s lonely. Lonely for young master Yuri.
She collapsed in the couch and falls asleep. Flashing back to the past. I posted her flashback in full pretty much, as tomorrow’s review shows that this flashback is important.
Why? It’s the day young Lilith met young Yuri for the first time.. How old are they when they first met? What’s their age now? Is this supposed to lead to something?
So far I’ve thought that this will lead to Lilith being revealed as a long unknown sister in law of Yuri. Maybe. But only the end of the series will ferret it out I guess.
So this is kinda interesting as we watch their first meeting. Where Yuri straight up tells young Lilith that she’s pretty… I’m still confused. Are they going to fall in love? Become family? What.
Oh well… We will be to this Chapter tomorrow. Then you can see how the Chapter goes to the moment Lilith wakes up, and Yuri is home once again. See you.
Friendship Restored So. When your trapped (but not really trapped) in a random igloo? With A former friend? You have time to reflect.
We find out that his parents wanted to adopt Yuri after his parents deaths. But he refused. Unwilling to abandon his family home. The last thing he has of his parents.
Running away from others, it turns out, is easier when you justify your actions with nice sounding rationale. I’m This case? Yuri couldn’t accept the help of his friend’s family because he didn’t want to ask for help.
Which is great in theory. Until you explain to your friend that you didn’t shun him. You just shunned him because you didn’t want to ask for anyone’s help… So yeah. You shunned him.
As far as the friend was concerned? He saw the facade that Yuri wife in public everyday. And thought surely all is well with Yuri. Just by stating at his facade. But Yuri tells him that he was anything but ok.
It wasn’t until he hired Lilith (who might be his hidden step sister) that he finally began to recover from the dark place he exiled himself to after his parents died. She helped him become himself again. That’s good. And he didn’t become Japanese Batman.
So a friendship is restored. They find out as the storm clears (with kinda Are You Kidding Me Jesus Skylighting) that they were here feet from the ski resort. Maybe even within sight of the teachers.
Anyway Yuri admits he thought someone was following him. His friend assures him that wasn’t the case. Except we know Lilith was following him and is following him so ok.
Tomorrow it’s the aftermath of the ski trip. What happens then? Find out tomorrow. See you.
And Now For Something Completely Fan Servicey… Fine way to end the Volume. With Chitose & Kaguya groping and stuff while half naked. Also if Chitose is 14 then not very much time passed between her meeting Tsukasa and Tsukasa meeting Nasa.
I don’t think the story of their meeting merits that out but OK. Apparently Full Metal Alchemist the manga only ended a few years ago accordingly the Chitose flashback.
The Combat Maids arrive. It’s time to move the stuff out of the mansion. They also bought breakfast. They find Chitose and Kaguya naked in bed together.
Then I think again how I am certain the maid Aurora originally had a more Japanese name in her first appearances early on, and it was changed later on to Aurora. As I remember it.
Anyway we have a whole bonus half story of Chitose struggling to sleep naked with Kaguya. You can see it here for yourself. Anyway that’s it. And if Volume.
The secret of the 5-D silicone chip is supposed to be revealed next Volume. As well as Kaguya’s secret being outted. Leading to her backstory in Volume 22. But that is coming up.
I’m buying Star Trek Lower Decks Season 4 DVD this week. Because nobody expected Paramount to end the show at Season 5. While renewing Strange New Worlds to Season 4 and 2026.
Word has it they started producing Star Trek Starfleet Academy Season 1 this year. Which means it premieres 2025. That’s fine. Next year we get that, Strange New Worlds Season 3, and the Section 31 movie… Which I guess counts as Discovery content. Because Yeoh.
Anyway new manga begins Monday. See you tomorrow as we crack open a new Volume for review.
Everybody Wants To Change The World. They Just Can’t Agree On How To Do It… So this is an easy Chapter to digest. While in and of itself it’s not a flashback, said flashback is probably coming.
So the Director, one of Kaguya’s entourage pair who came up here to film a movie, finds a strange shard.
It’s old, and covered with several different languages. The most recent (but still old) being French. Written on this piece, in old Japanese Kanji, is the word Destruction.
So if course Kaguya decides to take this fragment to Tsukasa, who is rather amused she finds herself in her long time Fortress Of Solitude… With her husband.
Not the one to mince words, past saying she’s not happy with the selection of pillow given her… Kaguya shows Tsukasa the shard. Soliciting an angry reaction as she takes it back.
So what is it? Kaguya won’t be able to fall asleep if she doesn’t at least know what it is. Sans the deep dive into its history… Though I have a feeling we are going to get that shortly.
What is it? The remains of a… Mask. For once upon a time Tsukasa was some masked vigilante trying to change the ancient world. Or something… And that leads us to next Chapter.
So how did Tsukasa try to change the ancient world in a mask? Guess we are going to find out. Also no. Kaguya hasn’t hinted at having sex with Chitose. That’s Rule34s problem. And such problems should be left over there and away from us.
Ok. Let’s get back to the April Madness detective stuff tonight. I survived my latest COVID shot, so back to reviewing the death in the Orient Express… Which I guess starts here from Eurasia Istanbul Turkey, and goes to France.
Oh well. Time to get on board the train that is not Snowpiercer-1. Tonight. See you.
So Short The Talk About The Shadow Will Be Longer! Remember when they did the sleepover at Katai Makoto’s family dojo? Did the Test Of Courage? And it invoked all of Class 2-2?!? Ever wondered how it was pulled off?
Apparently it takes a class to punk a Komi. Because here is the story behind the set up. Which had the same effort out into one test of courage as an indie horror movie!
Also it could have ended badly as one girl only went because she wanted to… Grab female boobs. Really? That’s assertive in an aggressive lesbian of sense of her… Call the cops.
Speaking of cops? We end the month of March Sadness needing cops. Food in 1937 New York! Because The Shadow is… Stopping people from breaking into a lawyer’s office…?? Prequel to Coyote Vs ACME?!? BTW… Movie inspired by a New Yorker article called Coyote Vs ACME?!? Seriously??
Then we need British Constables to get their blue flanks out to the British countryside! There’s a blackmailer pretending to be The Shadow! Arrest him for copyright theft! And blackmail… Is that really a UK crime? Blackmail is a day ending in WHY on the BBC!
The Shadow. Golden Age versiod. And… Because They Made Blood And Honey Wrong Film Genre version?!? Are all these people in the countryside hidden criminals?!? Sigh. Coming up.
Pop Goes the Darke Raven 