Zatch Bell! 2 - Vol. 4 Ch. 22

[Doomroar]

Dude Raiku is such a beast, i tell you if he hadn't been screwed over by Sunday, this would have been the best selling shonen manga of all time, i genuinely think ZB can compete and win vs One Piece, give it some more years for Raiku to solidify more of the world building and we will have the whole package

Look at this chapter, it had comedy, action, heartwarming wholesomeness, and incredible awesome monster design, it even has muscular women in bikinis!!!!

 

[saredesu]

A weapon to surpass Big Boing.

But then Raiku-sensei pull that shit. I'm so angry. Fuck man. Don't bully Bleu so much, can't she be saved after all😭Her partner is cool too

 

[BobBob]

Damn, poor Bleu.

 

[jackalan]

Dude Raiku is such a beast, i tell you if he hadn't been screwed over by Sunday, this would have been the best selling shonen manga of all time, i genuinely think ZB can compete and win vs One Piece, give it some more years for Raiku to solidify more of the world building and we will have the whole package

Look at this chapter, it had comedy, action, heartwarming wholesomeness, and incredible awesome monster design, it even has muscular women in bikinis!!!!

I love Raiku Makoto's mangas with all I have. And I've re-read Gash a lot of time. In my own world, it is undoubtedly one of the best, the finest that would ever be.

However, to compete and win against One Piece... I think it's a reach. Gash was immensely popular, but not everywhere it went. One Piece, on the other hand, has reached the level of Dragon Ball Z's stardom. It's hard to compete with either, even if you're Sailormoon It really is up to the readers, how they react to the work and if they welcome it so, to which level.

That reminded me of Animal Land. Such a good manga! I feel like it was even more complicated than Gash. But no matter how good it was, it never surpassed Gash or became as prominent.

I agree, Raiku Makoto has had it tough with the publishers. I'm still glad he went independent and has been able to do things on his own and achieve certain successes with it. Sensei knows for sure, there are fans like us, always eager for his next things.

 

[Remixman87]

Raiku is the only possible author that can throw both such weird, insane character like "Rolling Witch" and then such a menacing, evil looking MFer like "Hem"... and all in the span of 5 pages.

 

[FarAndLow]

We went from the god bringing in his classic joke villain to this is the most evil MF'er I've ever seen.

 

[FarAndLow]

wow he really is all grown up and looking regal

I think this is one of the first times where I looked at Gash and thought, "Wow, this dude IS the King."

 

[Doomroar]

I love Raiku Makoto's mangas with all I have. And I've re-read Gash a lot of time. In my own world, it is undoubtedly one of the best, the finest that would ever be.

However, to compete and win against One Piece... I think it's a reach. Gash was immensely popular, but not everywhere it went. One Piece, on the other hand, has reached the level of Dragon Ball Z's stardom. It's hard to compete with either, even if you're Sailormoon It really is up to the readers, how they react to the work and if they welcome it so, to which level.

That reminded me of Animal Land. Such a good manga! I feel like it was even more complicated than Gash. But no matter how good it was, it never surpassed Gash or became as prominent.

I agree, Raiku Makoto has had it tough with the publishers. I'm still glad he went independent and has been able to do things on his own and achieve certain successes with it. Sensei knows for sure, there are fans like us, always eager for his next things.

Keep in mind that ZB had to change magazine twice mid run, went on hiatus, and had an incomplete anime, and yet still managed to keep up

Anything similar happens to any other series and they just die

By comparison OP has had the full support of WSJ for almost 3 decades, and even then it is just in these last few years with Film Red and the live action adaptation that it is starting to get the proper international attention that it should have 20 years ago, and that's in the middle of Wano which is a mix bag if an arc, thanks goodness Egghead is going pretty much perfectly

OP itself has yet to reach the peak of its popularity, still trailing behind DB when it comes to the world at large, something that the anime remake could fix, on some places even trailing behind Naruto, for the manga plus international ratings Boruto and JJK at times even out performing it (neither series being anywhere close in quality, they just come with better anime)

That's a 20 year setback just by having a bad dub for its early arcs, and a current anine adaptation with a weekly model that is no longer trending, while everything else goes more than perfect

If ZB had things go that well I am sure Raiku could have done it, 30 years of uninterrupted serialization for an author this good who can keep up this quality is rare, only Oda and Raiku can pull this off, in fact it took Toriyama himself (RIP) quite a bit to get back into the groove, and that's with him just doing the writing side of things

Everyone else peaked back in the day, Takei is on some marvel bullshit with Shaman King Flowers being divided in a bunch of spin offs with a story that refuses to advance on a conflict that doesn't feels justified, Watsuki is shamelessly milking kenshin for something that has no merit to exist when we already know that the batusai dies of tuberculosis after being a deadbeat father, Kishimoto peaked on the Pain arc and it doesn't seems like Boruto will change that any time soon, Togashi is pretty much retired, and Araki pivoted into doing seinen manga, Kubo couldn't even do his own manga right drawing it more as a storyboard than a manga, and is relying on adaptations to keep up

Everyone else has yet to go through the gantlet

But Oda and Raiku not only keep going they still keep getting better at it, I have no doubt that all things equal Raiku could have done it

 

[jackalan]

Keep in mind that ZB had to change magazine twice mid run, went on hiatus, and had an incomplete anime, and yet still managed to keep up

Anything similar happens to any other series and they just die

By comparison OP has had the full support of WSJ for almost 3 decades, and even then it is just in these last few years with Film Red and the live action adaptation that it is starting to get the proper international attention that it should have 20 years ago, and that's in the middle of Wano which is a mix bag if an arc, thanks goodness Egghead is going pretty much perfectly

OP itself has yet to reach the peak of its popularity, still trailing behind DB when it comes to the world at large, something that the anime remake could fix, on some places even trailing behind Naruto, for the manga plus international ratings Boruto and JJK at times even out performing it (neither series being anywhere close in quality, they just come with better anime)

That's a 20 year setback just by having a bad dub for its early arcs, and a current anine adaptation with a weekly model that is no longer trending, while everything else goes more than perfect

If ZB had things go that well I am sure Raiku could have done it, 30 years of uninterrupted serialization for an author this good who can keep up this quality is rare, only Oda and Raiku can pull this off, in fact it took Toriyama himself (RIP) quite a bit to get back into the groove, and that's with him just doing the writing side of things

Everyone else peaked back in the day, Takei is on some marvel bullshit with Shaman King Flowers being divided in a bunch of spin offs with a story that refuses to advance on a conflict that doesn't feels justified, Watsuki is shamelessly milking kenshin for something that has no merit to exist when we already know that the batusai dies of tuberculosis after being a deadbeat father, Kishimoto peaked on the Pain arc and it doesn't seems like Boruto will change that any time soon, Togashi is pretty much retired, and Araki pivoted into doing seinen manga, Kubo couldn't even do his own manga right drawing it more as a storyboard than a manga, and is relying on adaptations to keep up

Everyone else has yet to go through the gantlet

But Oda and Raiku not only keep going they still keep getting better at it, I have no doubt that all things equal Raiku could have done it

Agree, agree!

Raiku Makoto had it horrible with the publishers and he would have achieve so much more with more stable and supportive ones.

I just remember, Gash's anime being a bit controversial in term of quality back in the day? Maybe it's another setback for Gash to reach wider audience as well. Generally speaking, anime is pretty much what solidify the work's popularity. (Personally speaking, I read mangas and rarely ever watch animes.) And in some places I've been to, people weren't that keen with Gash's drawing style or found Raiku Makoto's humour a bit weird to their taste, which are the two things that hooked me into Gash from day one because it stood out from the rest!

All in all, I think it's a lot of factors. And I must also emphasise on the one thing that's keeping it all together: Raiku Makoto's quality. I never thought we'd be getting a Gash sequel, let alone one THIS good. So I hope he'll keep going. More people will read and appreciate Gash. And all the best to him and his team!

P/s: Right now, I only follow OP (Egghead has been great) and Dandadan on Manga Plus. And please disregard my profile photo, I don't love OP more than Gash (actually the other way around haha). Just the expression and laziness to change.

 

[Pluveus]

Oh I see, so Belial is Zophis 2 Zakeru Boogaloo.

 

[Doomroar]

Agree, agree!

Raiku Makoto had it horrible with the publishers and he would have achieve so much more with more stable and supportive ones.

I just remember, Gash's anime being a bit controversial in term of quality back in the day? Maybe it's another setback for Gash to reach wider audience as well. Generally speaking, anime is pretty much what solidify the work's popularity. (Personally speaking, I read mangas and rarely ever watch animes.) And in some places I've been to, people weren't that keen with Gash's drawing style or found Raiku Makoto's humour a bit weird to their taste, which are the two things that hooked me into Gash from day one because it stood out from the rest!

All in all, I think it's a lot of factors. And I must also emphasise on the one thing that's keeping it all together: Raiku Makoto's quality. I never thought we'd be getting a Gash sequel, let alone one THIS good. So I hope he'll keep going. More people will read and appreciate Gash. And all the best to him and his team!

P/s: Right now, I only follow OP (Egghead has been great) and Dandadan on Manga Plus. And please disregard my profile photo, I don't love OP more than Gash (actually the other way around haha). Just the expression and laziness to change.

Yeah, but OP has that same issues I remember back in the day when I tried recommending people to read OP, and they all dismissed the idea because they found Luffy's face too goofy, despite that goofiness being part of what makes it good!!

 

[AAA1]

Dude Raiku is such a beast, i tell you if he hadn't been screwed over by Sunday, this would have been the best selling shonen manga of all time, i genuinely think ZB can compete and win vs One Piece, give it some more years for Raiku to solidify more of the world building and we will have the whole package

Look at this chapter, it had comedy, action, heartwarming wholesomeness, and incredible awesome monster design, it even has muscular women in bikinis!!!!

I like one piece. I think zatch bell was incredibly popular at the time, proved by how this series got varieties of franchises like anime, game and manga. It's just ended before 2010. Every mangas that ended before that year need to be brought up again by anime re-edition to be relevant again. I think it's not due to bad publication of the manga. I hope this manga got attention to be re-animated asap (with good adaptation of course)

 

[AAA1]

Keep in mind that ZB had to change magazine twice mid run, went on hiatus, and had an incomplete anime, and yet still managed to keep up

Anything similar happens to any other series and they just die

By comparison OP has had the full support of WSJ for almost 3 decades, and even then it is just in these last few years with Film Red and the live action adaptation that it is starting to get the proper international attention that it should have 20 years ago, and that's in the middle of Wano which is a mix bag if an arc, thanks goodness Egghead is going pretty much perfectly

OP itself has yet to reach the peak of its popularity, still trailing behind DB when it comes to the world at large, something that the anime remake could fix, on some places even trailing behind Naruto, for the manga plus international ratings Boruto and JJK at times even out performing it (neither series being anywhere close in quality, they just come with better anime)

That's a 20 year setback just by having a bad dub for its early arcs, and a current anine adaptation with a weekly model that is no longer trending, while everything else goes more than perfect

If ZB had things go that well I am sure Raiku could have done it, 30 years of uninterrupted serialization for an author this good who can keep up this quality is rare, only Oda and Raiku can pull this off, in fact it took Toriyama himself (RIP) quite a bit to get back into the groove, and that's with him just doing the writing side of things

Everyone else peaked back in the day, Takei is on some marvel bullshit with Shaman King Flowers being divided in a bunch of spin offs with a story that refuses to advance on a conflict that doesn't feels justified, Watsuki is shamelessly milking kenshin for something that has no merit to exist when we already know that the batusai dies of tuberculosis after being a deadbeat father, Kishimoto peaked on the Pain arc and it doesn't seems like Boruto will change that any time soon, Togashi is pretty much retired, and Araki pivoted into doing seinen manga, Kubo couldn't even do his own manga right drawing it more as a storyboard than a manga, and is relying on adaptations to keep up

Everyone else has yet to go through the gantlet

But Oda and Raiku not only keep going they still keep getting better at it, I have no doubt that all things equal Raiku could have done it

let's put aside other franchise other than the manga since i can't get a definitive measure about them. But you surely underestimated how one piece monopolized manga's publication, especially in japan. Boruto or naruto never once beat one piece in their peak arc. The only manga that actually dethroned one piece is kimetsu no yaiba. After that, one piece lost that monopoly to blue lock (which is very hyped with world cup. The publisher team was superb) and jujutsu kaisen. Even now, blue lock can't compete to one piece, jjk, and spy x family. Even among The big threes top selling mangas nowadays (one piece, jjk, and spy x family), one piece is slightly have higher sales than jjk (measured with its own latest volumes)

Anyway, my point is zatch bell definitely still need a huge booster to compete with the top contenders of top selling mangas currently

 

[jackalan]

Yeah, but OP has that same issues I remember back in the day when I tried recommending people to read OP, and they all dismissed the idea because they found Luffy's face too goofy, despite that goofiness being part of what makes it good!!

I never paid attention to any of that! From the get-go, I felt that OP is very easy on the palate. I'm glad it got really popular. Thank you for the information!

 

[Doomroar]

I like one piece. I think zatch bell was incredibly popular at the time, proved by how this series got varieties of franchises like anime, game and manga. It's just ended before 2010. Every mangas that ended before that year need to be brought up again by anime re-edition to be relevant again. I think it's not due to bad publication of the manga. I hope this manga got attention to be re-animated asap (with good adaptation of course)

It is a hundred percent an issue of publication, it is a miracle that Raiku was able to salvage and retain the IP after leaving Sunday, and that alone is proof of how good he is, he is probably the lone example of a manga author that manages to pull off something like that

let's put aside other franchise other than the manga since i can't get a definitive measure about them. But you surely underestimated how one piece monopolized manga's publication, especially in japan. Boruto or naruto never once beat one piece in their peak arc. The only manga that actually dethroned one piece is kimetsu no yaiba. After that, one piece lost that monopoly to blue lock (which is very hyped with world cup. The publisher team was superb) and jujutsu kaisen. Even now, blue lock can't compete to one piece, jjk, and spy x family. Even among The big threes top selling mangas nowadays (one piece, jjk, and spy x family), one piece is slightly have higher sales than jjk (measured with its own latest volumes)

Anyway, my point is zatch bell definitely still need a huge booster to compete with the top contenders of top selling mangas currently

All of your examples given are by recent authors that only got to beat OP thanks to their anime adaptations, no one cared about neither of those series before their anime glowup, and they also have very, very short runs, none of their authors can prove that they will be able to keep their quality 10 years down the line

Demons Slayer and JJK, specifically are well known for already having very sloppy endings, with JJK becoming a memefest as of late, and with what they managed to do they already showed their limits of their craft, in fact it wouldn't surprise me if both Gotouge and Gege never make another manga again

Which is why i didn't even bother with them, they are too new to even bother mentioning, and what they did they already showed limits to their writing abilities

Ai Yazawa, the author of Nana also very briefly beat OP in sales, and? where is she now? hasn't made anything in 15 years

It is an absolute rarity for an author to not only keep up quality but actually improve while keeping themselves in good enough shape to keep drawing

There's no one equal to Oda, but if there was it would have been Raiku

 

[AAA1]

It is a hundred percent an issue of publication, it is a miracle that Raiku was able to salvage and retain the IP after leaving Sunday, and that alone is proof of how good he is, he is probably the lone example of a manga author that manages to pull off something like that


All of your examples given are by recent authors that only got to beat OP thanks to their anime adaptations, no one cared about neither of those series before their anime glowup, and they also have very, very short runs, none of their authors can prove that they will be able to keep their quality 10 years down the line

Demons Slayer and JJK, specifically are well known for already having very sloppy endings, with JJK becoming a memefest as of late, and with what they managed to do they already showed their limits of their craft, in fact it wouldn't surprise me if both Gotouge and Gege never make another manga again

Which is why i didn't even bother with them, they are too new to even bother mentioning, and what they did they already showed limits to their writing abilities

Ai Yazawa, the author of Nana also very briefly beat OP in sales, and? where is she now? hasn't made anything in 15 years

It is an absolute rarity for an author to not only keep up quality but actually improve while keeping themselves in good enough shape to keep drawing

There's no one equal to Oda, but if there was it would have been Raiku

Oh nice reply. (I expect bothersome reply when i replied that before. Sorry about that) I see Raiku did that amazingly good.

Hmm oh there is other series that i think it should be very popular too if it's in the hand of right publisher. Dungeon meshi. The anime did that series justice. But netflix exclusivity making the anime's potential losing to other anime airing currently which is my disappointment

 

[jackalan]

It is a hundred percent an issue of publication, it is a miracle that Raiku was able to salvage and retain the IP after leaving Sunday, and that alone is proof of how good he is, he is probably the lone example of a manga author that manages to pull off something like that

There's no one equal to Oda, but if there was it would have been Raiku

Absolutely!

Demons Slayer and JJK, specifically are well known for already having very sloppy endings

I have to defend Demon Slayers here though (for myself only). Initially, I refused to read it because it was TOO popular too quickly. I don't read every single popular shounens. I do give some a try and if they don't fit my taste, I move on, no hard feelings cause I still update some as pop cultural references.

But I decided to give Demon Slayers a go last year (out of nowhere). I was hooked! The story are not new. But the characters, emotions, settings, arcs are very well-made. Albeit, I agree, the ending was a little bit lacklustre compared to the rest. It is still a well-made manga in my opinion. I don't know if this will hold in my future reads. Very few mangas I didn't like in my first read, yet changed my mind after the second read. One of that rare ones is Inuyasha. Demon Slayers anime is also a job well-done too.

Again, back to Raiku Makoto. What you said is so true! And I'm even more happy for and proud of him! Big cheers to his creativity and longevity! I will continue to support him and his work however I can!

 

[Doomroar]

Absolutely!



I have to defend Demon Slayers here though (for myself only). Initially, I refused to read it because it was TOO popular too quickly. I don't read every single popular shounens. I do give some a try and if they don't fit my taste, I move on, no hard feelings cause I still update some as pop cultural references.

But I decided to give Demon Slayers a go last year (out of nowhere). I was hooked! The story are not new. But the characters, emotions, settings, arcs are very well-made. Albeit, I agree, the ending was a little bit lacklustre compared to the rest. It is still a well-made manga in my opinion. I don't know if this will hold in my future reads. Very few mangas I didn't like in my first read, yet changed my mind after the second read. One of that rare ones is Inuyasha. Demon Slayers anime is also a job well-done too.

Again, back to Raiku Makoto. What you said is so true! And I'm even more happy for and proud of him! Big cheers to his creativity and longevity! I will continue to support him and his work however I can!

The problem with the Demon Slayer ending is that you can just see the moment mid fight when Gotouge gives up gets tired and just wants to finish things, then we get a timeskip and the whole thing ends, and they haven't made anything else ever since, so their peak as an author remains around the infinity train arc, rather than at the climax of their story

It is very similar to how Oda decided to just punch Kaido really hard just to get out of Wano quickly, but thankfully for all of us, Wano was not the final arc of OP

 

[AAA1]

The problem with the Demon Slayer ending is that you can just see the moment mid fight when Gotouge gives up gets tired and just wants to finish things, then we get a timeskip and the whole thing ends, and they haven't made anything else ever since, so their peak as an author remains around the infinity train arc, rather than at the climax of their story

It is very similar to how Oda decided to just punch Kaido really hard just to get out of Wano quickly, but thankfully for all of us, Wano was not the final arc of OP

wow. I agree to all of that. I am one of the people who followed kny till the end when it's still airing. I know the atmosphere before is just like you said. People was grumbling. The fight was too long and then ended in more lame situation than the expected. There was a rumour that the author already feeling tired and ready to ending it few chapters before. But the anime success make wsj to force her to hold back the ending and that's why there is an ending like naruto to boruto (a timeskip). I guess it didn't go as planned and left her don't want to produce manga anymore.

And wano is a mess too lol. But the problem is a different things. People was concerned oda make one piece hastened than supposed to be. (This is just an assumption from me, the editor looking at kny success make the suggestion to oda to hasten the pacing.) So the quality of story in wano was suffered compared to previous arc.

 

[Obscxrity]

The problem with the Demon Slayer ending is that you can just see the moment mid fight when Gotouge gives up gets tired and just wants to finish things, then we get a timeskip and the whole thing ends, and they haven't made anything else ever since, so their peak as an author remains around the infinity train arc, rather than at the climax of their story

It is very similar to how Oda decided to just punch Kaido really hard just to get out of Wano quickly, but thankfully for all of us, Wano was not the final arc of OP

(I'd just like to note that the reason KNY's ending is the way it is, is because Gotouge had some personal issues at the time and chose to quickly end KNY over trying to continue a weekly schedule when they also were going through a rough period of time. Were it not for the IRL issues arising, KNY likely would still be ongoing at present.)