Episode 121 - Versus by ONE, Kyōtarō Azuma and bose

Mat (0:11)

Hello everybody and welcome to Manga Tak, the weekly podcast where we read and reflect on the finest Swiss volumes your money can buy so you can find your next favourite manga. As always, I'm your host, Mat, and this week, I'm happy to welcome back a man I've summoned from another podcast to help me fight the natural enemy of podcasters, silence.

It's Mr. Zane Reid. Hello, friend. How are you doing?

Zane Reid (0:32)

I am doing well. How are you? How are you coping?

Mat (0:36)

Well, as I've just alluded to you, I'm not in the best of health at the moment, so I apologise, dear listener, if this ends up being potentially a shorter episode than usual, potentially a more lucid episode than usual. We will see how it goes. Other than that, I cannot complain. Thanks.

Zane Reid (0:51)

First of all, I got to do some house cleaning. I listen to some previous episodes. I'm a keen listener. I always am. I'm always checking in. First of all, I accept your apology of episode 118 around Burn the Witch. Fantastic episode, by the way.

Mat (1:04)

Thank you.

Zane Reid (1:05)

But I accept your apology on not being able to talk to you about this. It's absolutely fine.

Mat (1:10)

Okay.

Zane Reid (1:10)

We've got more than enough time to revisit.

Mat (1:12)

I mean, we are potentially on the precipice of maybe even a new Taito Kubo project. We will see how that goes.

Zane Reid (1:20)

Don't get me hyped. Don't get me hyped.

Mat (1:22)

Let's see. There's a lot of allegations about a series Mitch has told me on that episode that I'm not allowed to say the name of a certain arc, so I won't just in case I ruin it.

Zane Reid (1:31)

There's one other bit of housekeeping I just want to tee off as well.

Mat (1:35)

Fair enough.

Zane Reid (1:35)

I listened to another fantastic episode, your review on Magi with Susu Dei, best friend of the Undisputed Anime podcast. And you can only imagine my devastation when he said, I can't remember the anime. I was like, oh, it's so fantastic.

Mat (1:52)

This is what I feared.

Zane Reid (1:53)

To his credit, he said it was a great opening, and it is a great opening. And maybe the onus is on me. I make him watch hundreds of anime to review and rent, as we do on the podcast. But Magi, the anime is absolutely fantastic. Also, I laughed out loud when you asked the question, is Sinbad that universe's Gojo?

Mat (2:13)

Yeah.

Zane Reid (2:13)

I was like...

Mat (2:15)

It is my question now. It's just like, well, is it Gojo-inspired or is it Proto-Gojo? I think that is the main thing that I'm seeing in a lot of these shounen manga that are popular amongst our friend group, shall I say.

Zane Reid (2:29)

I think we'll need a calendar going forward of before Gojo and after Gojo.

Mat (2:33)

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a whole spectrum, isn't it? Because it's like, before Gojo, after Kakashi, before Kakashi. There's a list. I'm sure I could do this. This might actually be a fun Instagram post to be like, before this person, there was this person.

Zane Reid (2:47)

Yeah.

Mat (2:47)

I might look into that. That might be a fun idea.

Okay. Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed both those episodes. Again, it means the world that our friendship is still intact, despite me promising you the riches that are Burn the Witch and then so cruelly pulling it away from you yet again. But you know, had I not picked this book this week myself from a list that you served up to me, I would accuse you of some shenanigans here because you keep me lists and on there was a book that you were like, oh, it's by ONE, it's Versus. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I mean, it seems to have a lot of other people attached to it, but I like ONE, I like Mob Psycho, I like One-Punch Man. Let's do that one. You failed to mention, Zane, that it was potentially an Isekai.

Zane Reid (3:33)

But is it an Isekai?

Mat (3:36)

I mean, for a staff that's just got a one-word title, which puts the whole thing into question really, doesn't it?

I kind of feel that it is and it isn't, and this is typical ONE, obviously. He is a master of subverting genre. He is a master at looking at something that's popular and going like, oh, what if I did this, but this? And I mean, no more true is that in his other work. And I think it is and it isn't, which is why I think it'll be an interesting book to talk about.