Posts made by BoomerKoala

Ep 32: Hakumen is fabulous, and oh "Mother" First of all, Akabane and Goro-san are heroes. HEROES I tell you.

This is a perfect episode. They absolutely nailed the reunion scene between Ushio and his mom.
I loved how eerie Sumako looked as she's sitting there and covered in dust. It's really stark against her real demeanor and warmth.
And Ushio, what. You can't be this childishly cute.

NOOOO you're a shonen hero not an adorkable kid. Well, this scene kinda reminds me that he's 14 again.
With all the things he's been through, he deserves a freaking PAT ON THE HEA–-

ALL HAIL HAKUMEN

The moment of his ascent up to that shriek is both awe-inspiring and pants-shitting.
From that tail-swishing madness and that slow ungodly rise to the surface, that music and that GRIN.

(This one to be precise).
THAT and that Hakumen grins A WHOLE LOT in this episode makes me a very happy camper.

So about Hakumen's weird shriek
Fujita confirmed that Hakumen is genderless, that's why his voice is a mix of a woman, man and child. Which makes that shriek even better. It starts all Godzilla-ish and ends up with a shrill wailing mixed with a raspy breath and winds thrown in for fun and horror.
Go do some damage, little fox-chicken!
Next week! The Beast Spear is Destroyed!
Yeah!

P/s: (No I am not hakumen's underling)

Ep 28 aka everything is starting to hurt

and it won't stop anytime soon ​
Poor barbecued Ushio

The emotional scene of this episode was great. Even though I've been through the manga a couple of times but a part of me still had a gut reaction to Asako's jump. I literally for a second had a moment of jaw-droping disbelief as I thought she'd actually die as a sacrifice lol.

Especially this split second scene. The culmination that lead to this and the emotion was unbelievable. It had so much going on, fear and determination, strength and vulnerability.

I think my heart just stopped.

Finally saw Ep27 just now. Wow, things are going down fast!
And this image gives me chills

! I love you, you majestic, evil, bitch

I'm so happy to see the Western Osa Shinno and Ibuki. The Western Arc yokais got skipped over and I'm not surprised if people got a little overwhelmed by these horde of new characters lol.
Western Arc (192-217)

Another thing, please don't hate on Kirio. He didn't simply got sent to Mayuko's house by the Kouhamei sect.
His retribution Arc got skipped as well. (231-234)

If you guys don't wanna be spoiled avoid reading after 234. The story starts from here.

SPOILER ALERT:

The episode has big spoilers for Ushio & Tora at 5:04-5:-09, & some mild spoilers for Karakuri Circus at 5:16-5:27, 17:11-17:18 & 18:07-18:13!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3y7htn_urasawa-naoki-no-manben-manga-documentary-s1e2-2015-fujita-kazuhiro-english-subs-720_creation

SO while waiting for ep27 to arrive, I'd share this gem.
Basically it's a program hosted by Naoki Urasawa where they interview and observe various mangaka at their workplace, meeting deadlines, inking processes and such. It's a freaking awesome program, but not many got translated. I just found that Fujita's manben got translated so here it is.

It's a long video, about 40 minutes, but its well worth the watch.
I won't spoil but let's just say Urasawa's shocked at how Fujita draws lol.

And Fujita-sensei, gotta say he's pretty good looking for a 50yo mangaka.

Yes. Shima does something right this week. The panels, action and flow is oozing with power and this is the kind of stuff that got me hooked in the beginning of Toriko. That Mantle Shot double page left me all giddy; it's like Ice Hell Tommy all over again.
Like many said before, Shima is a master when it comes to action scenes, especially when it includes PUNCHING lizards/people/demon.
That said, I'd love to see Shima make an MMA-based series. No weapons, no laser-beams, just fists and knees.

I like that both Jiro and Setsuno calls each other with -chan, it's cute.

Bumping for 1st of April. Can't wait for second season!

! that tora though, goddamn. of all the poses they went with this one lol

That was intense from beginning to end.

Jumbo made one in advance killed me lol.

Holy hell that page where bert swung his legs like nothing is AMAZING. "Dont look down on me blah blah, you're just huge blah blah" and then he got his ass whooped. Is this supposed to be comedy, because i haven't laughed like this in ages.

Oh man, i love Don Slime now, and Ichiryuu even more. Don is so freaking adorable, and that part with the DonSly abbreviation is cute, and sad.That demon really loves Ichiryuu.
Toriko's 'secondary' characters never cease to entertain, and i hope the fight betwen Don and Neo would go on for a few chapters. Though, i do think ultimately Don will lose to Neo, heck he could possibly be killed… Because good characters always go so soon ;_;

SO this week's chapter is good, next week could be bad lol. Gotta condition my brain for it; it's becoming a running theme for Toriko nowadays.

Okay so first, i assume that is zebra's young demon, is originally a darn cute little blob of floof.
The Nitros history is really fascinating and i wouldnt mind the whole different planetary species world adventuring premise at all… but i dream of a Neo chapter and all i got was crappy chopped up snippets of events.

! The chapter was….. uh, it reminded me of how terrifying shima's writing and pacing can be.
So the flashback ended abruptly, and the story is brought back to present, which is horrible considering how excited i was for a Neo flashback. And now the dread of the komatsu hack is closing in, and toriko is, well, frustratingly repetitive. Ugh.
Can toriko and komatsu just.... disappear for a while, just shut up for a moment, and let the nature of the other characters run its course. The series would benefit a lot by the main characters absence right now, ffs. Shimaaaaaaaaa

Oh boy.

Squid princess and Sunny will gross each other out. Thats probably my OTP now, even if they'll never meet.

If there's only One Back Channel for the whole galaxy, then that Squid King is some powerful being.

@Area51:

So you're saying NEO (I take him/it as an example) was a real being, made of Gourmet Cells, he/it died and then embodied Acacia's body? And so did Slime with Ichiryuu?

When you put it that way….. how did these Livestock had a physical manifestation in other planets but need to go through with all these hassle of posessing human bodies so they could eat on Earth?

Shima better start explaining bcause this is getting interestingly complicated as hell.

I finally had the time to speed read the chapters of the Blue Grill arc till the present and gotta say, even if shima did skip a bunch of cooking stuff and relied a lot on godmatsu hack, ANOTHER is a cool ingredient/arc. I felt sad for the food spirits when they went to Komatsu hungry for something with flavor. And hack as it is, it's great to see the spirits finally having to taste the deliciousness of their last meal. Kinda weird to sympathize with monster spirits but look, aw they're smiling.
I fall for cheap crap like this all the time.
But still, ANOTHER is great because eventhough there's no actual tastet, the concept of eating it makes people/monsters remember what they've forgotten is something i could roll with.

Last week's chapter is still bull-fu#@ing-shit though. No excuse for that.

HOLY SHIT NEO WHAT the hell is wrong with Shima. Last week was a total wreck, and this week he's dishing out quality nightmare fuel. Wtf.
A good, unusual chapter. Neo's absolutely horrifying in this chapter, no kidding. That last page actually did something to my bowels, awesome.

Im gonna refrain myself from reading too much in this thread as i wont be reading the manga for now…. but since this thread's already here and i have to unload all these

! FUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKK after episode 4.

Smiles all around.

What color would the third oni be?
Since there's Red, Blue, so Yellow? It'll be funny as hell to have them in primary colors though.
Or it could be stronger as Red and Blue combined, so Purple? But purple is too soft and mysterious, i dont think it suits at all

I havent read the manga, but Boku dake ga inai machi is a crime. It shouldnt be this good. This series kept me interested and on edge the whole 20 minutes, not a single yawn through it all. And the OP is by Asian Kungfu Generation so another yes. Im totally forcing all my friends to watch this now.
There's nothing to hate and complain.
Except Hinazuki's mom.
That bitch.

So the Third demon has the scars since the other two didn't… I'm just gonna asume these demons are backchannel frat boys or smthing.

! holy hell its a sniffing contest Im just gonna put trust that shima will eventually show us what happens for each main ingredients… I mean, you cant just skip zebra, shima.

Episode 24 is PERFECT YES

This has been my OTP since it happened. Screw the non-believers.

Anyways, about this ep. Although perfectly fine on its own, they left a few things out.

1. The title is "Fools Gather at a Party" –- but they skipped the 'party' part. They cut off dozes of side-characters, but they're insignificant enough.
2. A lot of Tora as Mayuko shenanigans get cut off. Fun bits here there and generally a lot of part of Tora being a cute tsundere ass.
3. .....and that's about it.

Honestly this is quite a faithful episode.
I was really surprised last week during the Preview; that they decided to freaking keep this mini-arc goddamn Fujita. He knows what the old readers are waiting for, and yesssssssssssss it's finally here. My OTP is now eternally in animation.:wub::wub:

It is crazy and even I can't randomly read a chapter from the endgame without having to read the previous ones. It has a LOT going on, because all those from Ushio's journey will play a part in the battle against Hakumen. The adaptation skipped plenty of arcs, so it won't be as epic (and fun) as in the manga.
Like when a ship from a skipped arc just fucking slammed Hakumen in the face. It's beautiful.

@LaCaSiNa:

I'm so glad I decided to check this out. And judging by what I've read in this thread, it's well worth it to read the entire manga as well. I love Ushio and Tora's relationship, the creepy as fuck monsters (especially Hakumen I mean GOD DAMN) and when the animation is good, it's really good. Really looking forward to future episodes!

Glad to see more people are watching this! This series is seriously underwatched, but i can guarantee its one hell of a ride.

Although the adaptation is excellent on its own, it did skip a lot of fun stuff (tora in a train etc, tora actually eating food out of people's hand, great character interactions and short stories like Sports Day and Kagari's 'date' with Tora) and LOADS of story arcs. And the author himself is epic.
He likes to do Puzzle Corners at the end of the volumes.

! destroying characters in the process.

The manga has plenty of comedic moments to lighten the overall dark tone of the story. Its well worth the read :happy:

Well he is lazing around down there, being cryptic and shit. Plotting to destroy humanity and giggling at despair and suffering, sending deadly fur to do his job. And a woman around to take care of him.

Like a housecat.

Next week we get to see the final spear candidate. Giddy.

Episode 20 is calming.
Really, it is the most relaxing episode since Episode 10. And ooh boy, do they pack everything in, granted that next week is the beginning of a new arc already.
Overall, it's a good episode. I haven't lurked to see what anime-only viewers think of the episode but I know there's a few things missing in here….

Nitpicking time.

! I love Giryou's scene, but Jie Mei's sacrifice happened too quickly. I know I'm biased towards the manga in a way, because this part was supposed to be narrated and seen in Ushio's perspective.

With all the deaths, what really hurts me most is actually how Ushio handles it.
It's heartbreaking to see him just watch everyone die. Really. He believed in saving people so much, and then that got shattered again and again.
What makes it painful is that Ushio wanted to stop any tears from falling, and he had saved all those girls and see them smile in the end.
And then there's Jie Mei who DID smile but he failed to save.
:sad:
Throughout the manga, even with the uncle face and hot-blooded thing going on, Ushio grew on me as a kind-hearted and generally sweet-natured kid. Watching him suffer is just too sad.

And then at the beginning, even with all the bad thing that's going on at least Hakumen's looking suave and evil and plotting like a true weasel-fox thing –--

! BUT WAIT. In this ep the anime didn't show Hakumen as the asshole he truly is. There were a LOT of jerkfaced eyeball shenanigans that's not animated, like grinning like a glorious bastard after ruining the whole city, charred dead bodies and people running around in flames and whatnot. And Ushio in despair horizon watching all those piled up bodies –-- graphic cruel things. Funny they decided to skip those scenes, since I think it really shows how terrifying Hakumen could be. I think there's a difference between animating silly gore (flesh-ripping, close-up bone breaking) and genocide. I was waiting for this part to get animated
! I'm not cruel, I just like big monsters with flaming bazooka breath but they decided to cut the budget this ep ;___;

Lots of revelation and emotional scene (done amazingly well) but i didn't get my giant flying fox wrecking absolute hell, oh well.

Oh, Ushio's name translates as 'tide' btw.

! since the ocean tide is the only thing accompanying her all these years alone under the sea :sad:

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Sander:

I'm not even sure whether Hakumen's ploy was to buy it time to recuperate or if it was just messing with Jie Mei for evulz.

I wouldn't put that past it.

The anime skipped a LOT of information: simply put, he was BADLY injured and needed time to heal himself. With all the yokai and human chasing him all he could think of is to submerge himself into the pillar that supports the island of japan. He lodged himself in the pillar deep enough and with his power, even moving a single tail can cause that pillar to crumble.
If the yokai attacks him, Japan will sink.
If he escapes, Japan will sink.
Jie Mei's barrier can only buy time until the arrival of the Beast Spear.

In a way, he IS using Jie Mei. But now he wants out.

@Sander:

One thing I found kinda suspect though

Tokisaka feels an awful lot like a breathing plot device. "YO I'M THIS RANDOM ASS YOKAI OUT OF NOWHERE WHO WILL TAKE YOU TO THE ORIGIN STORY TIMES FOR WHATEVER REASON SO THAT STUFF CAN BE REVEALED!" Is there more to him and his motives or is he literally there to move plot forward?

Not that it matters because Hakumen da elder gawd and the rest of the episode was good too.

Tokisaka will be around till the end. He's known to other yokais and his power is not just to explain the plot (though that happens too). In his own way, he indirectly participate and help in the battle against Hakumen. He's generally a good yokai.
And is he voiced by Mayumi Tanaka? I think i hear a Luffy in there lol.

Also it's implicit that timelines cannot be altered in Ushio&Tora's world (or maybe they even mentioned it?)

I'm not sure how it works too, and theres not much discussion about it. But from my understanding, the past cannot be changed, but you can be a part of it (?)….. Yeah I'll wait for the anime to reach that point so that the discussions get going. I have no idea how the laws of time-travel works in this series.

@Sander:

I think that raspy creepy womanly voice is even better than a manly booming one. Coupled with very unsettling delivery it's straight up perfect.

My imagination as a kid is cliche lol, so i was thrilled when hakumen's voice is NOT what i had imagined.
Did you hear the banshee shrill during those picture flashbacks? Thats just freaky cool.

@Sander:

Is Hakumen NOPE Mono a male? It seems to have a penchant for posing as women.

Hakumen's gender is never specified, and the translation always uses 'it' to refer to it. But i prefer 'him' because back as a kid i imagined the main fox body with a booming guy voice and i cant change the habit now.

Him posing as a woman is a sneaky way to influence and control men of power, kings of countries etc etc. Before he made way to Ancient China, he was in Ancient India and he also ruined kingdoms there by being the consort of kings. He'd get away with 'games' like guessing the gender of an unborn and slicing open the mother's belly. Posing as a woman of great beauty is how he gets to control these men. There's also other tricks up his tails, but all in good time.

Also, is there any particular reason why it hid it's tails in those other concubines? Other than making one hell of an entrance of course.

He likes human fear, pain, despair and mostly hatred. His flashiness is to show how powerful and insane he is, just to make people shit their pants. And after he'd had his fun, he'll find another place to play.

Tl;dr hakumen is awesome and because chicken-headed foxes with rock hard abs are awesome.

@Sander:

So, how did nobody in the royal castle ever notice that one of emperors's concubines was creepy as all hell? If Hakumen NOPE Mono was disguised as one of his concubines, does it mean the spooked monarch had sex with THAT?

Everyone else just saw Hakumen as a regular/beautiful concubine, or perhaps he's one of the emperor's favorites. The purple face was just for the viewers, but i don't know if everyone else saw 'her' all bug-eyed lol. Hakumen can act out a character PERFECTLY when he wants to, and we'll see that play out sometime later in the series.
And being a concubine and all that jazz, he probably had sex with it/him/her…..... that's not a fun image at all.

Been busy, so I haven't been around to give my two cents about the series, but I've been watching every week. So far, so good. Hey, they covered 3 Spear candidates, Moritsuna's possession AND the Comb Tag-Team shenanigans in what, 5 episodes? Its fast, but now we're in Ancient China! Awesome!
I expected that I was just watching another episode of Ushio and Tora; a manga reader, I know what's to come, so nothing will surprise me. I can't wait to see Hakumen no Mono, let's do this!

…...annnnnnd I've never been so wrong in my life. Nothing had prepared me for the 18th minute of the story. It wasn't like this before.
I've been eagerly waiting for this part of the story, but I didn't expect it to be SCARY AS FUCK.
The studio made Hakumen menacing as ALL HELL just look AT THIS THING YOU DO NOT STARE LIKE

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
That eyeball stare is so empty, hateful and mocking, it made my the hair at the back of my neck stand and i felt shivers man.
The manga didn't have this, THIS is exclusively ANIME and I LOVE IT. This is what I've been waiting for.

YES

Oh, the pacing is back to normal –- a bit.

Torikos had a few bad weeks but now that its slowed down a bit, im interested to see to see what the hecks been going on here.
But im lost on the whole soul-trading thing, and how the back channel works, and wtfs going on everywhere else here and there. Basically i dont have a clue whats going on anymore even when i do read every week's chapter.
Sigh i need to reread after the bambina arc now.

Episode 14 - Hiyou Pursuit ~ Successor is Out!

!
Send help.

In this episode, Ushio hasn't learn his lesson from previous events! Stupid kid! Stop being a 14 year old!
To see Ushio gleefully hopping on a tour bus after almost getting killed last ep is just, stupid. In its defense though, they actually skipped a good 2 volumes before Ushio got on a bus again. So the more you know.

Also, Nagare and Hinowa makes an appearance; Hinowa's annoying as ever, and Nagare will always be my baby.
And also, Oh My God –- those new OP visuals caught me off guard. I can't say anything yet without being spoilery so let me just bite my nails in anticipation.

SO They've covered quite some chapters in this episode, about 5-6 maybe. Quite a lot of materials to adapt but I say they did a great job, it didn't feel very rushed.
On a different note, if you guys felt Hinowa's part ended abruptly, it's just, that's really what had happened. She'll be around, though.

From now on the story should have a proper straightforward progress compared to the last 'season's' episodic style.... atleast for a few episodes. There's simply no telling what'll happen.

You know what Shima's really good at? Making awesome spreads of gigantic animals. Like the Mother snake and Forest deer a few chapters back (i forgot its name) spread, the beasts exudes terror, power and calmness at the same time, and the background environment is beautifully drawn, pretty sweeet stuff.
By now i think i've lost track of the story…. i have no memory of what had happened to toriko and the gang lol.
But Shima's art is the best thing in Toriko for me, as it has been for a long time.

Bambina is the best character in the whole torikoverse. Also jirou. And zebra.

@Sander:

So Ushio is basically weaker right now compared to when he first picked up the spear?

Kinda. While he is getting stronger and more experienced physically and mentally, the spear is still using him as an energy source. So its more to exhausted than weakened.

Tora is more than capable of killing Ushio without the spear. But now since he even admitted to his change of heart, we can put the whole killing thing behind.

However, back when he's still eager to kill Ushio, he can't do so because the spear will protect its wielder even when knocked unconscious. It has a mind of its own but it still needs a wielder as its source of energy. (Its weaker now due to some past events, which will be explained due course). Another point is that the spear has NO emotions, no fear of death, no mercy, nothing. Its an object made for the sole purpose of slaying yokai. So yes, Tora is scared shitless of the Spear.

Yes. And there's a chapter dedicated to it. Its ch 219, though, but theres no major spoilers in that ch.

Were done with episodic monsters for the time being. And youre on point for remembering the military.

! People will think Yuu is the important character introduced in ep 8, but wont notice the Pilot Atsuzawa…..

He did in the past, with Fusuma on the plane. Though the fire is not as powerful as his lightnings, its worth to mention he's completely fireproof.

Episode 13 - The Touno Yokai part 2 is out!

!
with all due respect, this here is a BITCH[[/spoiler]
! Minor name error in this episode: The name is not "Sugako", it's "Sumako". I really laughed my ass off at that honest mistake, because it sounded so goofy and so out of character.
Anyways, here comes the CUTS.
! Story 13 - Namahage with Skin Obsessions (55-58)
Story 14 - Ghost Ship (59)
Story 15 - Vampire, and Hyou's in this one (60-63)
Story 16 - God of the Lake, Tora gets his ass whooped (64-68)
Story 17 - Mist Yokai, and Yakuza man (69-74)
! Next ep will start from ch 75 onwards –- and hopefully they'd introduce two characters then.
I'm eager to hear the Spear Candidate's voices coughnagarecough

So thats what the freaking CAN is for. God i was waiting for an explanation for that thing. I never thought itd be THIS important. Holy what.

Episode 12 - The Road to Touno Yokai Battle Part 1 is out! –-- God thats a handful title.

!
aka Tora's a big cat that goofs around until some yokai gets in his way, which transforms him into a coooolllll badass demonnnn but by now we all know how he really is

The episode's very heavy on the exposition eh? Some minor scene's been cut, but nothing major.

What I'm surprised with is Hakumen's voice…. I don't think THAT would will be it's final voice, would it? It's way too jumbled up ----- then again, even I can't exactly say how he/she should sound like.
.....Maybe it's intentional after all.

Chapter 800 shows again that Oda has a thing for Frobin.
It's moved from me shipping them quietly to saying 'look theyre wearing matching outfits AGAIN'…. Im so happy. ;___;

Holy cow that lazy eye Acacia sent chills down my spine, which is amazing because he doesnt even looks conscious. And thats creepy as hell.

I like when Midora tells Joa to stay in demon-form, and those 'bits' breaks my heart every time. ;_;
I…. didnt see (or lurk enough) that don slime being ichiryu's demon coming.... wow.

Plenty of stories will get cut, unfortunately. But surprisingly they decided to include 'the striking mirror', which is weird because that only lasts one chapter. But i guess its because Ungaikyo no Onji has something to do with the end game.
So after the Toono yokai arc:

! - the yokai extermination bonanza (including namahage, ghost ship, lake yokai, and vampire) will certainly get cut.

• Im about 50-50 on the Mist yokai, because it's related to Hakumen.
• theyll cut the karakuri doll

! After the Spear arc:

• more yokai bonanza (yukionna, train yokai, bike yokai)
• i hope they dont cut the mayuko and tora episode, i really really dont, so another 50-50.
• minoru, gedou girl, shippeitarou

! Now my concern is, even after all these arcs cut off, will they get to animate the Western yokai arc, the HAMMR arc AND the whole Endgame arc (that one lasts for 8 volumes) in only 39– now its left to 29-- episodes? Whew.:blink:
! In have no idea how theyll do it.

IMO none of the stories are expendable, but the anime is doing a great job right now so i have nothing to complain.:happy:

@spyda:

i have a feeling this isn't the last time we see Zashiki warashi

This isnt the last time we'll see Saya as well. And most of everyone else.

To hell with the dad and grandma though.

Forgot to add: they included Oyakume and Nigira's scene thats originally from The Heretic Monk, but no Kyoura. Poor ugly dude lol.

Episode 10 - The House with a Child is out!

Everything about is is just… SPOT ON. I love this story as a kid, because goddamn if that yokai doesnt creep anyone out. There's something about it that's uncanny. It looks human, but its head is... slightly off. The music accompanying the yokai is also spot on. Ah, much better than last week.
And Tora is just, daw.

Back then as a kid, the episode with the Kamaitachi is what gets to me most. But now as an adult, Omamori's episode left me very emotional. That strikes me as interesting because i didnt care for Omamori as a kid. I guess growing up is part of the reason why this episode felt too good.

Now that the gang's complete (for now, eh not really), onwards!

About next week, there's no cut. However, the striking mirror is only ONE chapter. Maybe it'd immediately follow with the next Story, I'm not too sure.

That Midora reaction face…. it hurts. Has it been mentioned that he knows Joa looks like Frohze?