39 replies to this topic

[hero]

there might be even another arc.
Strictly thinking, the ultimate reason for the flask plan hasn't been revealed yet, so, id she succeeds, giving zenkichi ultimate power, what will come out of it?
However, I also do think, this manga will be over, the moment Medaka loses for the first time.

ist´t the reason for the flask plan to make everyone perfect?

[Irecinius]

Latest chapter, lol
Indeed An'shin!!
GOOD BYE SHITY BATTLE MANGA!!!

Took long enough

[hero]

wow, I didn´t expect that one.

[ndanix]

And with the latest chapter...

It is indeed going like a romantic comedy.

And the final declaration... "I'll end this manga before the anime begins". That's probably the most 4th-wall breaking comment ever made in this manga XD.

[Nolonar]

To be quite honest, I enjoyed the series up to around chapter 20.
I did follow it until the "Not Equals" made their apparition, believing the Author just had a bad period, but instead this series just went deeper into being (in my opinion) bullshit.

The story is full of loopholes, inconsistencies and it's not even well constructed.

First, we had the "Abnormal" Medaka, the one-of-a-kind girl, with unrivaled power and intelligence.
Then appeared the also "Abnormal" Unzen (whose powers and intelligence rival Medaka's) and as soon as the Flask Plan got announced, I was wondering if the "abnormal" ones weren't in fact Zenkichi and the other two from the council, since they were the only ones without special powers (not to mention all those "Abnormals" whose powers and intelligence rivalled Medaka's).
Suddenly, Kumagawa the "Minus" made his appearance along with many other "Minus". Not to mention the "Not Equals" that appeared right before I gave up on this story.
If there were so many of them, how come nobody has ever heard of them before they made their appearance?

At first, the Author tried his best to make the character's abilities seem like they followed some kind of logic, even making this self-proclaimed "Abnormal King" say: "Controll of Gravity? This isn't a Battle Manga!"
But then, the Author added Kumagawa, whose abilities are just plain ridiculous. "Making reality become nothing"? Who was it, who said "This isn't a Battle Manga"? (and yes, I do know, that Medaka Box is a Battle Manga, despite what the characters say)


I expected Medaka Box to be a decent School-Life (humorous) Manga with an unusual protagonist.
Instead, I got a school themed Dragon Ball Z rip-off.

I'm seriously disappointed in this series, and I'm also truly amazed to see it become as popular as it is.
Well, that's as far as my opinion goes. To all those, who still enjoy it: I hope Medaka Box won't disappoint you as much, as it has disappointed me.



PS: I'm not here to start a flame war, I've stated my opinion and given examples as to why I don't like Medaka Box.
Your opinion may be different, and I respect that. If you can convince me that I was wrong, then I'll gladly accept it. But My opinion still stands, which is: I didn't, I still don't, and I won't enjoy Medaka Box ever again.

[ValorantX]

I'm not sure what you're saying, although I did kind of also expected a school comedy type of manga, that's not what the author intended from the start. It's a unique series that constantly breaks the 4th wall (if you know what that expression means) with super-powered characters to create a non-restricted storyline. It constantly changes between battles, logical games, and comedy but that's on purpose.

I understand if you don't really like a manga that doesn't have a clear and well developed setting, in fact I only semi-enjoyed the series myself, but I don't think you really understand the purpose of Medaka Box's style. So what if Kumagawa's ability to make things into nothing is unrealistic, there are no restrictions that it has to be.

[Thunder Wolf]

The story is full of loopholes, inconsistencies and it's not even well constructed.

At first, the Author tried his best to make the character's abilities seem like they followed some kind of logic, even making this self-proclaimed "Abnormal King" say: "Controll of Gravity? This isn't a Battle Manga!"
But then, the Author added Kumagawa, whose abilities are just plain ridiculous. "Making reality become nothing"? Who was it, who said "This isn't a Battle Manga"? (and yes, I do know, that Medaka Box is a Battle Manga, despite what the characters say)

Medaka box isn't a battle manga. It's a meta-comedy. It's made to purposely have plot holes as a way of making fun of more popular series like Bleach, Naruto, Toriko, Dragon Ball Z and so forth. The author doesn't need his characters to have logical abilities, because when have normal battle manga ever made sense? Really, explain how power levels in DBZ grow. Bleach has a huge amount of plot holes and Naruto has even more regarding chakra.

All the powers in Medaka Box are powers from other manga, taken to the extreme. Kumagawa erasing the existence of something is a parody of stories like Mx0 or Railgun where the Hero can negate other people's powers. Medaka's powers are making fun of how the Hero always wins, and can somehow overcome any villain no matter what. Zenkichi is the typical support character (although we really know he's the main character, he's made out to be a supporting role).

Basically, unless you read a lot of manga and understand meta-fiction, Medaka Box is not for you. Shakespeare himself used Meta-humor. Let me quote a line from Twelfth Night Act 3, Scene IV, "If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction"

Basically, Medaka Box is high brow humor disguised as a simple action manga.

[Nolonar]

It's a unique series that constantly breaks the 4th wall (if you know what that expression means) with super-powered characters to create a non-restricted storyline.

I don't know about the more recent chapters, but for as long as I've followed this series, Medaka Box didn't break the fourth wall a single time.
Sure, there was Kumagawa and some other characters saying: "This isn't a Battle Manga" or "If this was a Jump Manga, blabla...", but that's more irony than breaking the fourth wall, since they never really talked to the viewer.

Basically, unless you read a lot of manga and understand meta-fiction, Medaka Box is not for you. Shakespeare himself used Meta-humor. Let me quote a line from Twelfth Night Act 3, Scene IV, "If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction"

I did read a lot of Manga and also made many connections to Medaka Box; the latest chapter resembles Yu-Gi-Oh, if I'm not mistaken.
Still, I simply can't see Medaka as a parody, even after reading your post. I'm wondering myself, why I can't.


Anyway, I'm glad this discussions didn't turn into a flame war, and I totally respect both of your opinions.
If Medaka Box truly is a parody, then I was wrong taking it so seriously. Still, I can't seem to like it.
But it was good talking about it.

Edited by Nolonar, 29 January 2012 - 11:20 AM.

[Thunder Wolf]

I don't know about the more recent chapters, but for as long as I've followed this series, Medaka Box didn't break the fourth wall a single time.
Sure, there was Kumagawa and some other characters saying: "This isn't a Battle Manga" or "If this was a Jump Manga, blabla...", but that's more irony than breaking the fourth wall, since they never really talked to the viewer.

"I'll end this manga before the anime begins"
""If this is the Weekly Shounen Jump, then this bullying scene should be regulated"
"It'll continue after the commercial break. The Demon Queen Naze-chan's Minus Nullify System!"

Those are just some examples. Breaking the 4th wall doesn't necessarily means talking to the audience. It comes in many forms.

I did read a lot of Manga and also made many connections to Medaka Box; the latest chapter resembles Yu-Gi-Oh, if I'm not mistaken.
Still, I simply can't see Medaka as a parody, even after reading your post. I'm wondering myself, why I can't.


Anyway, I'm glad this discussions didn't turn into a flame war, and I totally respect both of your opinions.
If Medaka Box truly is a parody, then I was wrong taking it so seriously. Still, I can't seem to like it.
But it was good talking about it.

I actually made the Yu-Gi-Oh! - Kumagawa Photoshop in the comments section and current chapter discussion. I'm glad I wasn't the only one making parallels. Also, I think I know why you still can't see it as comedy. You started this manga with expectations. Once those expectations weren't fulfilled, it disappointed you. Unless you expected Medaka Box to be filled with meta-humor, it's hard to appreciate it. A few of us (I included) have read or watched Nisio Isin's previous works, and expected this. First impressions are important. More often than not, people don't understand Medaka Box when they begin reading it.

Either way, I think it would be unlikely for a flame war to start, considering many of Medaka Box's fans are civilized gentlemen. Tip of the hat and chim chim cher-ee!

[naphack]

hahahahaha
what the fuck?
Medaka-chan is too much xD

only thing I can think of now is:
"look! up in the sky!
It's a bird!
It's a plane!
No! It's Kurokami Medaka!"
seriously, she is indeed more powerful than a lokomotive...

[ernabc]

OK...After only 5 or 6 weeks of Medaka Box I asked Mangafox to change the manga type and add fantasy and/or parody . I was refused saying that it is a simple action+comedy+school+shounen . I couldn't read something so childish ( such powers and action development without fantasy/parody ) and I stopped reading MB . I can say that today I slightly remember those 5 chapters.

Same with Cage of Eden - I read first 30 chapters and I insisted many times for seinen or , at least , horror tag . They said they can't put seinen instead of shounen because is a shounen magazine and the "little" horror is covered by "adventures" tag. I've answered that adventures+seinen +ecchi covers the excess of horror and nudity or sex . In my opinion this manga treats the dark side part of the human in extreme environment. It can't be a simple shounen ! My son had 16 years at that date and I really didn't want him to read it . They refused me and I stopped reading it even I liked it. Ok, I'm a weird guy but it doesn't cost me anything to be so. Ok, that was after MF tried to put out all adult series.I was glad to see that Shamo and Vagabond had "seinen" tag .

Edited by ernabc, 03 February 2012 - 09:40 AM.

[hero]

wrong thread...

Edited by hero, 03 February 2012 - 01:37 PM.

[ValorantX]

What's with forcing your ideas about what should be tagged shonen or seinen....... Cage of Eden is considered a shonen manga from a shonen magazine so they keep it that way. The distinction of the label for shonen and seinen is a bit blurred, I think the label seinen is tapped on if there is any small amount of adult level content in there and Cage of Eden doesn't yet fit that description. If it was just a comparison by level of violence, than HunterXHunter should've been seinen.

[Lustful]

Yes, good.

[神山早崎]

I have the feeling the autor will troll us so good.....that the anime will be made by SHAFT! well, I don't know who was it the one that'll turn MB into anime but the best relation I could make is with Bakemono(Nisemono)gatari, but that will be mostly the latest chapters, the first ones were school life weren't they? Then the battle manga and then...Trolling every chapter...but it was really good compared to the usual shounen infinity power-ups. For me, I expect it as much as Beelzebub.

[grandking3]

I would never consider MB to be "just too good," hell even considering it an okay manga would be a stretch for me to say. this manga was not stimulating for me in any way (emphasis on me) that's why i dropped it so long ago. whats this you say, they have an anime coming out for it? seriously? there's an anime coming out for this thing? wow that's something alright. another point for mindless entertainment.

[hero]

I would never consider MB to be "just too good," hell even considering it an okay manga would be a stretch for me to say. this manga was not stimulating for me in any way (emphasis on me) that's why i dropped it so long ago. whats this you say, they have an anime coming out for it? seriously? there's an anime coming out for this thing? wow that's something alright. another point for mindless entertainment.

thats why everyone of us has a different opinion on everything.

[Thunder Wolf]

Hahaha. Calling it mindless entertainment. That's pretty rich, considering it's a direct parody that makes fun of other manga and the dynamics they use.

Gosh, this manga just plays with tropes. That's what it does. No more, no less.

[Rody van der Borst]

Actually I rather feel like this manga is very superficially playing with tropes.
like part of the examples basically amount to the character calling out on several tropes.

But that is besides the point, I don't really follow this manga anymore because... it simply moved towards something that I could no longer enjoy/care for.

Besides the meta-humor, there really doesn't seem to be anything to enjoy the manga, not in plot not in character, not in anything.

[Sir Flash™]

What's with forcing your ideas about what should be tagged shonen or seinen....... Cage of Eden is considered a shonen manga from a shonen magazine so they keep it that way. The distinction of the label for shonen and seinen is a bit blurred, I think the label seinen is tapped on if there is any small amount of adult level content in there and Cage of Eden doesn't yet fit that description. If it was just a comparison by level of violence, than HunterXHunter should've been seinen.

i agree

Actually I rather feel like this manga is very superficially playing with tropes.
like part of the examples basically amount to the character calling out on several tropes.

But that is besides the point, I don't really follow this manga anymore because... it simply moved towards something that I could no longer enjoy/care for.

Besides the meta-humor, there really doesn't seem to be anything to enjoy the manga, not in plot not in character, not in anything.

I got 3 words for ya "read my location"!

Thank you oh kind sir