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Geekosaur News #14: Sad Manga News, The Manga/Anime Takeover, And What I'm Up To

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These past couple weeks have been busy, but I hope things are going to fall back into schedule soon.

Manga News

This week we had the sad news that Kentaro Miura, Berserk's creator, died at 54 victim of aortic tear - something that apparently is normally caused by chronic high blood pressure and long term stress. That is really sad and painful to hear, as we already know that people working in the anime and manga industry are often overworked and underpaid.

Although I never read Berserk, I'm very aware of it's influence on both Eastern and Western culture, having influenced so many other creators and creations.

I hope the industry continues to shift towards a more flexible - or at least humane - schedule for everyone involved in creating these stories that we love so much. I get really happy when I see that some new manga series are having a lighter schedule, with 1 or 2 weeks off every month. I hope that platforms like the digital version of Shonen Jump allow them to take more breaks or deliver shorter chapters as necessary.

In some highly contrasting - and better news - is that the manga industry seems to be doing incredibly well overseas. While American comic books from the big (and many small) publishers keep getting more and more repetitive, political, and diversity-checkbox-filling, manga continues to thrive by telling stories that are engaging and people actually want to read.

Don't get me wrong, I love comics, but it can get repetitive quite fast, and the fear of trying something new, offending someone, or not checking enough diversity boxes is troublesome. Dannphan has an interesting video about the topic.

Personal

Gaming

I've FINALLY finished Streets of Rage 4 on Nintendo Switch. I stopped playing quite some time ago and ended up not getting back to it, but I'm glad I went back and finished. Now I just need to wait for the DLC :)

Late June I'll be getting Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which is a game that I loved when I was younger, but didn't get to play much because I didn't have a SNES. And on early July I'll get Monster Hunter Stories 2, which I already preordered. I'm also looking forward to Legend of Mana but unfortunately, it's coming late June, and I don't want to pile up 3 new games, as I also expect to be reading more manga by that time.

Watching

I'm still slowly watching Snowpiercer Season 2 on Netflix, and I started watching Dickinson with my wife on AppleTv. The first 3 episodes are really fun, and I'm excited to watch more. It reminded me that one of my goals for the year is to read poetry, and it's also a nice incentive. I have a collection of Poe's poetry and another of English Romantic Poetry.

Reading

I read vol. 2 of Mieruko-chan, which was fun and hinted that the manga might be starting to get a bit more into it's horror side, and also focus more on a plot instead of self-contained chapters. Hope vol. 3 is great!

Nothing to see here
Nothing to see here

Not reading anything ATM, but THIS is some cool news. Loved reading the original Perry Rhodan series years ago, and I highly recommend everyone to try NEO!

Music

Recently I received 2 new vinyl records: Dua Lipa - Future Nostalgia (Moonlight Edition) and FLCL Progressive / Alternative OST. I got the last FLCL record on Amazon Canada, THAT was luck!

These past couple weeks have been busy, but I hope things are going to fall back into schedule soon. #geekosaurNews

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