Manga Kaiwa Podcast

Welcome back. Manga Kaiwa is kicking off it's return with our top 10 favorite Anime Soundtracks. As much art and animation define anime as what it is, OSTs bring an entirety different level of intensity to the experience, so there was no way we weren't going to have a discussion about which one's did so the best in our view!

Firstly, R.I.P. Toriyama Akira, creator of Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, and other treasured works… When a storyteller entrusts their work to another author, it can get messy, but it can also create some of the most interesting developments in the story and fandom. Series like Dragon Ball, Naruto and Berserk have changed hands in one form or another, and the discussions around the topic tend to be highly controversial.  Do continuations like Dragon Ball Super and Boruto only distort the legacy of their parent series, or do they perhaps have something truly interesting to offer? Maybe both? When it comes to media, discussions around stories transcending their creators are certainly some of the most valuable to be had, and, today, we join in on the conversation!

Are Musashi and Thorfinn really that similar? Are tragic manga endings the ones that get received most poorly? How much does canonicity actually matter? Oh, and we’ve got some opinions on a few Dragon Ball Z films as well (*cough* Gogeta vs. Vegeto). This time we do a bit of experimenting with an unstructured episode touching on a plethora of topics!

Time to talk about the GOAT! This time we (over)analyze one of the newest Berserk chapters which follows Casca’s unnerving, psychedelic confinement in Falconia. Man it’s awesome to have new content to rant about for this beautiful series! Regardless of what it is (it’ll probably be peak anyway) :)

It's here. The rite of passage performed by animanga creators for generations... our top 10 fights in anime and manga! What screams anime or manga more than super serious cartoon people clashing body and soul? Of course, while almost all fights are entertaining, some ascend beyond being a simple spectacle and engage the audience emotionally, technically, and narratively. Ranking these moments of peek intensity is arguably impossible, but we had to try our luck. Here's the result!

Morphing into a buff dude with chainsaws sprouting out of his limbs or summoning a glowing ninja cloak are things you rarely see outside of Anime and Manga. Power-ups are a trademark of the medium to say the least and, when done right, can enhance the development of the plot and characters while giving us some incredible visuals! We know how stunning and iconic these moments can be, so we had no choice but to dedicate this episode of the MK Podcast to our Top 10 animanga transformations.

**Spoilers in episode!** Askladd’s death was shocking and glorious, marking a crucial turning point in the character arc of the protagonist, Thorfinn, and the plot of Vinland Saga. Today, we delve into the many paths the story could have taken had Askeladd survived the infamous throne room scene. What would an inevitably exiled Askeladd decide to do with the Danish vikings hot on his heels? What path would Thorfinn choose to take after Askeladd’s utterly unforeseeable massacre of King Sweyn and his court? We’ll see.

Protagonists, Antagonists, and now rivals? Yeah yeah, we know we're starting to check off all of those textbook Anime Top 10s. But we are spicing it up by pushing the boundaries set by the traditional concept of  a “rivalry”! This episode, we list all sorts of rival duos from a combat-crazed ninja clown obsessed with a seemingly invincible super-powered assassins to two sworn enemies who can’t seem to kill each other because they’ve become inseparable bros. Give it a listen!

Your "To Watch/Read" list is overflowing too? Yep, there's an overwhelming sea of completed Animanga content out there, and more and more ongoing gems are appearing everyday. So we talked it out! This episode, we establish our bucket lists of Animanga series we plan on getting into, and discuss what we've been watching/reading recently. 

As we get older and experience ourselves that we aren't perfect or pure (and nor is the world), your classic evil-for-the-sake-of-being-evil antagonists start to get really bland. The "bad guys" need to become more complex the more we learn that pure good and evil don't exist. Since animanga fans are spoiled rotten with its huge selection of multi-faceted, well-executed villains, we had an obligation to count down our top 10 antagonists in the medium!