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A perfect distillation of everything Fujimoto is as a person and as an author. Lines are drawn not only on paper, but between people as well. A relationship born from a shared passion for a craft ends up being even deeper than you ever thought it could get. Love for art, that translates into love for people, but also loss, grief and needing to move on.

But was it truly the craft that I had passion for, or was it for you? Would I had loved my time as much as I did if you weren't there with me?
And what will I do when you are ... not here anymore?

One of the greats when it comes to coming of age stories. Doesn't pull any punches and I had to wait a long while before being able to write anything about it. If that doesn't tell you enough about Tatsuki Fujimoto, I don't know what does.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen... Jujutsu Kaisen, what happened to you?! You were supposed to be one of the greats! The flag bearer of a new generation of battle shonen... and yet, you fell on your face.

Jujutsu started started out good, became great around the Junpei arc, was PEAK in Hidden Inventory and The Shibuya Incident... and then progressively got worse and worse until the finale. One of the worst, longest and most boring shonen arc I've ever had the displeasure of reading. But does that make the other arcs retroactively worse? My opinion on them hasn't changed, but my opinion of Gege's writing ... definetely has. Is this what happens when you lose such a good editor? Or maybe he just didn't have any juice left in him after Shibuya and winged the penultinum arc before it was all over.

Whether you wanna read the manga now it's up to you. You may not wanna get invested in a story if you know it doesn't end good. Or you may still enjoy the good parts along the journey. It's not like this is a bad manga or anything. It's just sad, that's all.

You were my Specialz...

Kamen Rider is... better than the things you like. There are no words to describe the satisfaction you get out of watching some japanese dudes using weird belts to transform into superheroes and fight monsters every week for the sake of love, peace and human lives. And it's no surprise that Kamen Rider W, with it's themes of comradery and deciding on who you truly are, has become one of the most celebrated entries in this 50+ years old franchise. What is surprising, however, is that this one show has not only gotten a sequel, but an animated one as well.

Fuuto PI is here, ... ready to continue W's story from where the finale left off (or better, from where the post series movies left off...), and to expand on it's characters and world building. Being based on a manga written by W's own head writer Riku Sanjo, PI does a fantastic job on adding elements that fit the show naturally. You are almost led to believe that all of these things were always meant to be there, such as they are nicely incorporated.

At first I was unsure about giving a tokusatsu show a sequel in the form of an anime, but the animation was fantastic as well, all the returning characters look great (seriously, they made Shotaro look a lot more cooler than he was even in the first show). And the fact it's animated means that the show allows for action and designs that would be physically impossible in live action.

While of course the show brought back all the main fan favourites, it also adds many new characters, particularly the detectives' new ally, Tokime. She is... okay. I was annoyed by just how many fucking scenes with her exist only for sexual fan service (there was one in the last couple of episodes that was down right creepy considering the age of the only other character in it), but it's undeniable that she's been of great help to the protagonists. I have not read the manga yet, but I hope that her character keeps getting better.
And while it was sad to not get the original actors to play their characters again, the voice actors have done a terrific job, even if some of them sound nothing like the originals.

Now, if you plan to watch this anime, trust me: you gotta watch Kamen Rider W first. This show does a decent job at explaining concepts like the Gaia Memories or Dopants to newcomers, but half of the appeal of this series is getting to see characters you love again. It also spoils many plot twists from W that may ruin the experience if you want to watch it afterwards. So, get cultured already and watch Kamen Rider! Those 49 episodes + multiple movies may scare the average modern anime fan (50-circa is the standard for Toei tokusatsu), but trust me, it's worth it. W is a fantastic entry to this wonderful world.

So, whether I have now interested you in watching both W and this show after that, or you are already a Rider fan who wants to know just what the hell Shotaro and Philip are up to now, Fuuto PI (or Fuuto Tantei if you are very annoying) is very much worth your time.

AND NOW... COUNT UP YOUR SINS!

The original Kamen Rider manga, which shows Shotaro Ishinomori's original vision for the 1971 tokusatsu show, exceeds 70's charm from all of it's pores. With every page, every character design, and every pose, you can tell this man trained Go Nagai. So while clearly being a product of it's time, this does not really fault it in the realm of aesthetics.

The plot, while clearly very simple and not at all difficult to understand, actually tackles some topics that are still very important today. Capitalism, pollution, politics... all while a cybernetic grasshopper man is beating up a spider guy. Ishinomori was clearly very interested in scientific ... progress and what it will do to humanity, and that is seen clearly when Takeshi Hongo (and later, Hayato Ichimonji) gets turned into a cyborg by the evil organization Shocker, who intend to force him to do their bidding. But Kamen Rider manages to escape, and from that day on he fights Shocker and it's evil cyborgs, who are so similar to him in concept, but who have been transformed into mindless monsters only capable of evil. In fact, the theme of both good and evil using the same means for different ends is a reoccurring theme not only in this manga, but in the entirety of the Kamen Rider series as well.

"Science... is neither good nor evil. It all depends on how it's used."

But while the subtext is fantastic, the primary text is again, very simple. Most chapters, while beatiful looking, mostly just amount to "Shocker cyborg attacks humans, someone dies, Kamen Rider intervenes, he wins, everyone is happy". This is not a completely bad thing: this manga was intended to be read by kids, as Ishinomori wanted first and foremost to teach them lessons about humanity, heroism, and evil. So it couldn't be too complicated. And always remember: Simple ≠ not deep.

Still, it could have been better in places. My least favourite thing in the whole story is the character of Ruriko Midorikawa: she only serves as a Damsel-In-Distress who can gush over the hero. At one point she stops appearing altogether. I much prefer what was done with her character in Hideaki Anno's Shin Kamen Rider (a movie which pays homage to this manga in many ways, showing how Anno knows and deeply respects Ishinomori's legacy).

All in all, this is an incredibly important piece, not just to Kamen Rider, but to the whole of tokusatsu and manga as well. And I had lots of fun with it.

RIDER KICK!

SHOTARO ISHINOMORI MENTIONED!!!!!!!! GO, GO, LET'S GO!!!!!!!! KAGAYAKU MACHINEEEEE

A incredibly short special episode released a year after the original first season of this show. Just a quick final (for now...) look at Honda-san's daily life, in three little stories. Expect the same peculiar animation and lovable writing that you got in season 1. The first story in particular was hilarious, and the third contains some cheeky references to other mangas.

There is honestly not that much to say. I guess I'm just sad we haven't gotten more content other than this.

This shit better get a season 2 or else I'm gonna turn someone into an actual ... skeleton if you catch my drift.

This short anime is a real underrated gem. A fun journey that will make you learn a lot about how bookstores work and that will inform you of the general mood of the workers at such stores. I was so enamoured by the daily struggles of Honda and co-workers, as they deal with publishers, wholesalers, foreigners and obsessive manga fans. The animation is super good and original in the way it presents the story and the gags. The writing is hilarious, you can tell the author knows how to ironize his experiences properly.

Maybe the one complaint i have is that the pacing is incredibly fast. ... I had to sometimes rewind back some scenes because I had missed a joke or two.

But apart from that, this is a piece that I reccomend wholeheartedly. Just a serious good time spent into the hard life of a bookstore employ. I am now incredibly sad that it's over. I'm gonna miss Honda-san a lot...