Dark Gathering - Ch. 63 - Recalling A Name

[ZenMasters]

I kneeled

 

[Yuu221]

It's so peakkk

 

[Draggador]

Anybody could do some quick lore dump on Taira no Masakado for me?

"Taira no Masakado (平将門, died March 25, 940) was a Heian period provincial magnate (gōzoku) and samurai based in eastern Japan, notable for leading the first recorded uprising against the central government in Kyōto.[1]"
— wikipedia ..
.. he seems like an interesting guy in terms of legends about him

 

[Darrem]

What an epic chapter. This manga keeps getting better and better.

 

[WaterSoluble]

And then I summoned a 90's era Image Comics character.

 

[FlorianGran]

That was metal as shit

Just start playing this starting from page 19

 

[Grye]

HELL YEAH

 

[ckcw23]

Either way, this chapter alone is going to put Yayoi on the radar of every spiritualist in the country, she's not going to an obscure homebrew amateur ghost-hunter.

I mean the lady spiritualist and the muscular head monk already noticed her talents and are already scouting her, so yeah more will come soon.

 

[ayyytto]

nothing but big "come at me bro" energy even to the end

I mean what the god can do xD he's literally only have body lmao

 

[dive123]

Thank you very much for the translation

chef kissMasterpiece👌

 

[NIB]

That was neat, the earthquake was a great reference, it had to be the Japanese general (Taira no Masakado?) who had to finish off that "god", whatever...
I don't think that "god" is dead but let's see what's coming next
Thanks for the chapter.

 

[DenjinZ]

Well, the Bunrei is finished. Its the main body in Ai that is still active. We'll see how he reacts to that information next chapter.

 

[Nunally]

Thats Odin entrance lol

 

[SmaugEldritchdragon]

Dark Gathering realmente tem uma ótima arte.
É meio triste que ainda seja lançado mensalmente, mesmo no Japão.

This kind of peak of writing and art is impossible weekly, every manga should be monthly Bro

 

[SilverSour]

Da damn damnnnn bro damnn

 

[beansbunko]

EXTREMELY BASED
All the other graduates are extremely powerful but now she literally has a good and benevolent god tier ghost she doesnt even have to worry about turning on her

 

[Longrua]

If Masakado succeeded in his rebellion, he would have been a good ruler and brought about a prosperous era, and countless lives would have been born and caused a major change in Japan's history, but he failed and they were never born.

The subjects that never were, to the emperor that never was, but was meant to be.

It's more accurate to call those shadows that flown up the grudge of the country itself.

 

[Strela]

I thought it can't be any cooler, but holy shit that evolution sequences, Yayoi unknowingly holding Taira no Masakado the entire time and evolved it to be the new emperor was so damn peak bro. Idk how pokemon with ghost somehow more hype than actual shounen battle manga but here we are.

 

[gamria]

Idk how pokemon with ghost somehow more hype than actual shounen battle manga but here we are.

That's because in the old days, it was trendy for a segment of Shonen anime to feature stories where the heroes' quest is to collect a series of Macguffins. And with each Macguffin, the heroes move closer to saving the world as they're bestowed with new powers, and the audience is psyched to see what the next power will be. And the next one. And the next one.

(Such stories existed even before Pokemon, and honestly I don't know if it predates Megaman or not)

Does this sound simplistic? Childish? Old-fashioned? Perhaps so, but during my childhood years in the 90's and 2000's Asian TV broadcasted many such anime and they just work. By today's standards many will be cliche, unpolished, plot-convenient, etc. but there's still a certain sense of nostalgia tied to them.

A good example would be the Cardcaptor Sakura anime (1998-2000): in Seasons 1 and 2, with every card-of-the-week captured, there is a certain hype whenever Sakura or Shaoran brings out an earlier-acquired Clow Card from their collection to use against the next card-of-the-week. Bonus points if they're used in different and novel ways compared to their first appearance, further points if it's not just the "favourite" ones re-appearing.

Another old one I can remember would be Imagination Science World Gulliver Boy from 1995, where the heroes journey to acquire magical disks containing the power of summons (?)

Long tangent, but to go back to Dark Gathering, there's good reason that many in the native audience find the series positively old school. One is the episodic narrative beat that just screams 90-2000's anime; the other is the collection-and-new-powers hype. Whilst Yayoi's ability system for collecting and managing spirits shamelessly operates like Pokemon, the actual cinematic execution for the spirits' re-appearance and re-powers hype is rather closer to the "collection" stories of yore, like those above.

In essence, Kondo-sensei's approach is not dissimilar to video games that take old ideas but refine them to modern standards for the present day audience - he took old-fashioned now-niche anime ideas, dressed them in modern style and techniques and made them his own. And it worked!