Isekai and How Did It Hijack Manga and Anime.

Isekai Quartet

 Isekai, Isekai , isekai isekai , isekai and more isekai and more isekai. 

Why are there so many ISEKAI?! 

I am sure is a question a lot anime fans have asked themselves after seeing isekai series continue to come year after year. 

I will tell you why!

 

Shousetsuka ni Narou - 'Lets Become a Novelist'

To start of the majority of these isekai series started of as webnovels in the website Shousetsuka ni Narou. This website Narou for short is important because it created a platform for anyone to share their works easily and for free without the supervision of editors or publishers. However, how did isekai come to dominate the website? 

But first lets talk about the aspects most isekai share. In these stories the main character usually has a cheat ability of some kind that they gain through reincarnation or trasmigration, both very common plot devices. The origins of these devices came from fan fictions where it was used as way for authors to insert themselves into the world of their favourite stories. Shousetsuka ni Narou was known for its fan fiction stories in its early years and most of these isekai continue to have this 'fan fiction' touch.

Even after the shift to more original works the devices such reincarnation from fan fictions continued to be used. However, whilst shift to original original works meant the 'fan' element from these stories were technically 'taken' out, series from narou  continued to use a lot of familiar elements such as ones from Japanese role playing games like Dragon Quest. In a sense, these stories are still 'fan fiction' in that they still borrow heavily from many other things like games, manga and light novels, that makes them feel familiar to any reader and authors recognise this and make fun of it through meta references. 

However,  whilst this might explain the familiar fantasy setting and the isekai element, it does not explain why most of these stories have a powerful main character, a harem amongst other things. The reason for this also goes back to fan fiction. The series with fan fictions in Narou that made the most success were Negima, Zero no Tsukaima and visual novels or eroge. These series all have harem elements and somewhat powerful male main characters. The popularity of these series within the audience of Narou meant many elements from them, of course came to shape the sort of original series that would gain popularity in Narou. Hence, 'cheat' main characters and the presence of many female characters interested in the main character in a sense is something isekai inherited. So fan fiction culture has played a large part in creating the isekai, we know today. However why did a relatively sub culture grow into a mainstream trend? 

One big reason for this spread of isekai culture was the popularity boost of the Narou received at the star of the decade through the emerging market of smart phones  and similar tech items. These items gave people a way to easily and quickly read novels while, for example in the train to work and back. These novels were perfect things to read for these short commuting journeys since they are free and chapters are usually short and easily digestible since they are quite simple to read for the most part. This greatly boosted the readership of Narou works and in essence this is where the takeover of isekai began. 

Publishers of course started to take notice of how much of an audience these works from Narou had and they wanted to have their own piece of the pie. Therefore, around the turn of the last decade many Narou series started to be edited and packed into volumes and turned into official light novels published for sale.  It was a slow movement to begin with only a few select titles being picked up. However, the success of the anime of Log Horizon and The Irregular at the Magic High School both Narou titles, as well as Sword Art Online meant many publishers started to pick up Narou novels more frequently.  Many found reasonable success, especially the ones that were already popular in Narou. 

Of course, this initial success of series from Narou most of which were isekai meant many other publishers jumped into the Narou bandwagon. The widespread success of these series meant in general series from Narou grew an image of their own and came to be called Narou-kei and whilst it might be associated strongly with isekai not all of them are isekai. 

Series like Redo of healer and Hidden Dungeon Only I can Enter that aired last season are Narou series but they are not isekai. Of course, all the other isekai currently airing are as you might have guessed Narou series. 

Hidden Dungeon I Can Enter 

The success of Narou stories in the light novel market led to publishers of the light novels to also try to take a chance in manga adaptation to tap into into the bigger manga market. Like the success they found as web novels and then light novels, many were also successful as manga. The Time When I was Reincarnated as a Slime for instance became one of the best selling manga in Japan and has over 25 million copies in print. Its massive success  has even led isekai series with slimes to receive anime like the  'By the Grace of The Gods' from last fall in an attempt to catch some of its audience.  This level of popularity from Narou works as manga has meant original manga and light novel series not originally from Narou have attempted to explore the market for series like it as well, which has led it to become an even bigger phenomenon than ever before. 

The Time When I was Reincarnated as a Slime - An incredibly successful Narou series

So far we have talked about the origins of isekai as a sub culture and how it spread into both light novels and manga. So what does this all mean for anime?  What's the next step for Isekai after conquering light novels and manga?  

Web novel > Light Novel > Manga > ? 

The success of narou works in light novels and manga meant they naturally would be lined up for  anime. After all anime for the most part are adaptation of light novels and manga for various reasons which i might explore in a different article. 

However unlike previous trends such as magic high school series which were big around a decade ago, Isekai is different because there are an absurd amount of isekai works already published and many more still sprouting every day in Narou. So there is naturally a lot more popular isekai series waiting to receive anime too. Many popular isekai works have been animated, but many other popular ones still have not received anime yet. What this means is that Isekai will continue to be animated in the future. At the moment 'only' 29 Narou series have been animated, the first one being Log Horizon. Another 17 have been announced for the future and many more are to come in the future. It seems everything points to more and more isekai anime coming in the future. 

Why the hell are Narou kei so damn popular?!

One thing that stands out for me is the simplicity of these series. The story are very simple and usually involve the main character adjusting to a new world and sometimes easily becoming the strongest and overcoming any obstacle that appears in their path. 

However, the simplicity feeds into another factor which is important to take into account - why is the isekai setting so appealing. For me this is because it is a perfect setting for an escapism fantasy. 

eg - Isekai

Reincarnation 

Transmigration 

 

With the isekai plot device, the main character is brought to another world, which is usually has a medieval Europe fantasy setting. the main character is not at the same level as any other person in the series but is instead above through their experiences and knowledge from their previous world when it comes to reincarnation, or special status or skill when it comes to  hero setting. This is a set up for a main character that stands above all others like the series highlighted above, they might struggle at first but eventually, the main character can overcome everything and become an unimaginable being. 

This plays well also in the fact that most character that are isekai-ed in these novels are usually 'failures' in the previous world. In the sense in that in Reincarnated as a Slime, the main character was unable to have any meaningful relationship or in I am Spider where the main character had no friends or a caring family, so instead she spent her time mostly playing games alone. In other series like The Man Blessed by The Gods, the main character was overworked in a black company. In another world, their knowledge and skills are worth something in a way that in their previous life in our world simply was not. In addition, they have the chance to live a more fulfilling life in contrast to their past one. This is what I feel is the appeal for isekai, and more generally Narou series, they offer easily digestible stories that can make us feel better about ourselves by highlighting that every experience is worth and that every bad moment in our lives is transitional and temporary. 

In addition,  in these stories usually have the main character grows strong rather fast and they do not struggle a lot in their journey. Part of this is for me because people look for stories that give them positive feelings. Even when they have a darker story  the main character still overcome any challenges with somewhat ease. Hence, the isekai setting provides a connection with the reader but the lack of struggles leave people with positive feelings in a mirroring the iyashikei aspect that is prominent in Japan. After all, everyone dreams of an easier and simpler life.  

There probably is a need for a deeper study into how these novels could touch so many people and turn into such a phenomenon not only in Japan but outside it as well. I want to delve into this topic with a deeper look next time. 

If you liked reading this, please leave a comment and consider following the blog. I would love to hear what you guys think about isekai and if you guys have any topic you want me to write on. 

Links -

Narou no Shousetsuka

https://syosetu.com

Sunday X Champion - A Comparison of the Moment.

Image from Takekawa x Ichihara Interview 

Sunday and Champion are rather different magazines even thought they are both weekly shonen magazines. Historically, they have different origins and part of this is why they are separated by over a decade in terms of age. However, the history of these magazines is a topic for another post in the future. This time we will be focusing on the current moment. Over half a century after their creation how are these magazines at the moment? How do they compare to each other in terms the current series, but also what they tend to serialise and what has been successful recently. 

One of the first thing to highlight is how Sunday has a title massive title with iconic cultural status ongoing in the magazine. Of course, I am talking about the unaging not quite a child 'Detective Conan.' This provides a pillar for stability for the magazine as the series seems to be as popular as ever, its movie are racking in at the box office and its older and recent spin off works were also incredibly popular. 

Detective Conan vol 96 - Gosho Aoyama

Champion does not have a series with this similar level of sustained popularity. Of course, it still has popular titles such as Baki, Super Radical Gag Family and Yowamushi Pedal. However, these series have not maintained the high level of popularity they had in the past and in addition they were never really as iconic or as popular as Conan. Conan has in sense has remained unchanged since the start but its audience never moved on. In contrast to Super Radical Gag Family, where audiences moved to other styles of gag manga and the The Parents Associations (TPA) quibbles with probably hindered it as well. Baki in a sense was also effected by this as its kind of failed to keep its audience connect in the same way that Conan has over so many years. Conan's multimedia success is probably a big reason for this as it continues to have a gateway with audiences outside of the magazine sphere in a way that the Champion hit series I have mentioned simply cannot.

Position of the magazine 

However, another pillar of stability for the magazine is its turn to successful veterans in recent times. This can be illustrated by returns of Kenjiro Hata (Tonikaku Kawaii), Syun Matsuema (Kimi wa 008), Kotoyama (Yokufushi no Uta), Takuya Mitsuda (Major 2nd), Rumiko Takahashi(MAO) and Kusuba Michiteru (Daiku no Haito). All these authors had previous successes in Sunday and a lot of baggage and they all have on going series in the magazine at the moment. The series of these authors all are reasonably established in the magazine at the moment with most of them having their run break past a year at least. Therefore, we can reasonably argue that this turn to these veterans was part of the magazine turn to a pair of safe hands in the current troubling period for shonen magazines. 

Champion has attempt the same but returning veterans had not had the same level of success. They have veterans too, firstly there are the ones who had previous hits in the magazine are the ones that are still writing continuation of those hits series such as Itagaki Keisuke (Baki series) and Hamaoka Kenji (Super Radical Gag Family series). In addition, Masahiro Anbe (Shinryaku Ika Musume) is one of the few that had a prior hit in Champion and who returned with another successful series. In a similar vein is Ishiguro Masakazu  but his success prior to starting Furutto on Thursday was not in Champion and one could argue this is likewise the case for Sogabe Toshinori (Yankee JK Kuzuhana-chan). Wataru Watanabe could also be seen in the same vein as two previous authors, but before Yowamushi Pedal, he had limited experience and not a lot of success in his baggage. 

Shuukan Shonen Hachi - Akita Shoten 

However, this does not mean Champion did no try to bring back veterans. in fact, in recent times  Hirakawa Tetsuhiro (Himawari), Masuda Eiji(Weekly Hachi) and Hosokawa Masami (Toubousha Elio) all returned. Neither was able to create a successful series and I do not blame them. The magazine is constantly shifting and in part this is caused by how much smaller shounen magazines have become, they do not have the same readership base they might have even only a decade ago. This obviously spills onto the authors and they have to constantly adapt to the changing scenario and develop stories that can catch different audiences. 

In Sunday, not all returning veterans have had the same level of success as well. Kotoyama. Rumiko Takahashi and Takuya Mitsuda stand out as having found decent success admittedly the later has done this through a sequel to his most well known work. The others Kenjiro Hata, Syun Matsuema and Kusuba Michiteru have not found the same degree of success and the latter is the most notable one in his lack of success with Daiku no Haito. 

Excluding, Major 2nd as it is a sequel to a beloved and massively popular, the biggest hits from Sunday in recent times have come from more inexperienced authors such as Oda Tomohito with Komi-san wa Komyshou wa and Sousou no Frieren from Yamada Kanehito and Abe Tsukasa. Of course, many inexperienced authors fail and thats why veterans are a bet with much less risk. However, at the same time veterans have higher a pay rate and therefore many veterans can mean the profit margin of these magazine, which are low to begin with, are even lower. Perhaps this is one of the reasons Sunday has had to hike its price up and reduce its number of pages, so everything has its downsides. 

Champion on the other hand clings to certain veterans but most of the magazine is formed by inexperienced authors or first time authors. There are sometimes experienced authors like Sogabe Toshinori or even Uchida Kohei (Kurobane Hakusho), they are not authors with a massive success however. This means their pay rate is probably not on the level of authors like Rumiko Takahashi or Takuya Mitsuda and that is probably why Champion even though it is from a much smaller publisher is 20 yen cheaper whilst at the same time having more pages than Sunday. 

Recent Trends  

Sousou no Frieren in Cover of Sunday - Yamada Kanehito & Abe Tsukasa

In recent times both magazines have serialised things that were not traditionally seen in shounen magazines in the past. Sunday for once has come to focus a lot in slice of life series and series with a much slower pace. Things like Maiko-chan, Komi-san, Daiku no Haitou,Yokufushi no Uta and Sousou no Frieren are obviously not similar in genre but they all have a slice of life touch and are usually take more time to develop and they are not overtly dramatic either. They are instead all works that give a positive feeling to the reader. Obviously this is not all Sunday serialises but it has grown to focus on these aspects much more in recent times.

On the other hand, Champion is rather hard to pin point. It does not have a clear focus and things are a bit more erratic. In recent times it has taken popular series SNS and made collabs with a popular television program, serialised spin off of its popular works. So things are a bit more peculiar when it comes to champion, there is no clear trend in what is serialised and the very fact it can pick up three series from SNS in one year shows that. It feels like the magazine is always changing and adapting and thats probably a consequence of the lower circulation number which means the magazines have to find new ways to attract new readers whilst at the same time keeping old fans interested. 

Final Thoughts 

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun in the cover of Champion - Osamu Nishi

Both these magazines are quite different. At the moment, Champion feels like it is in a changing possibly due to the popularity of Mairimashita! Iruma-kun, which has meant the editorial department brought other feel good slice of life series to the magazine. At the same time, it also brought more battle orientated series which have found some success in a genre which had traditionally done rather poorly in Champion in the past. It does feel like the magazine is changing whether its for the best depends on each person's personal taste though.

Sunday has not had the same sort of change as Champion in recent times. The slice of life turn is not necessarily recent and it has continued to drift along that wave and I doubt it will stop anytime soon because it has been successful venture. In addition, Sunday has in a sense its own author 'academy' and by that I mean the authors that publish in Sunday are usually groomed in Sunday's wider editorial framework.  Therefore, these trends of the magazine can be more everlasting since the authors are groomed by the Sunday editorial department. 

This is completely different from Champion that serialises many authors from other areas. It does not tie itself with only authors groomed through its editorial department in fact most authors come from elsewhere when it comes to Champion. This is probably why it has less defined trends in recent times but both types have its downsides and upsides so its a mainly question of the overall editorial line each editorial department has. 

Links -

 Interview between Sunday head editor and Champion head editor

https://natalie.mu/comic/pp/weeklychamp01

If  you enjoy reading these posts, please consider leaving a comment, I would love to hear suggestion for stuff you would like me to write about. 

The Stagnation of Shonen Sports manga

Sports manga are a stable in the manga industry. They feature in shonen magazines as well as seinen and possibly at times even shoujo and josei. Of course, they vary significantly to match the respective demographic of the magazine they pander to. However, why is this the case? why are sports manga so common place? There is many reasons for that but the most important is how prevalent sport is as a form of entertainment be it as a viewer or as a participant. Therefore, it is inevitably a great source for stories especially in a visual medium like manga where its action can be crafted into a fluid way for the reader. 

The focus on expressing the action of the sport in clear way feels more important than the story itself at times, especially in shonen sport series. These series embody a singular spirit of sports which best helps it create a story about portraying the sport in various flashy or over the top ways. This singular spirit being the one of competition. These manga are blatant about this as they often have story lines focused around the main character by himself or team depending on the sport trying to get better and better. Of course, getting better entails becoming successful which means winning competitions and its precisely the competitive aspect that shape stories in most shonen sports manga. 

This focus on competition and the simple story structure that originates from it allows the author to explore the expression of the sport through the art as well as the emotions of the participants. It can be  passionate and rather flashy at portraying this and thats where the 'feel' of shonen sport manga lies. What is the significance of this? when it comes to sports manga this singular focus on the competitive aspect and portraying the sport through the art that dictates the story, hence the story is usually empty and mediocre and a lot of shonen sport manga author have grasped onto this. 

Yowamushi Pedal Vol 13 - Yen Press

One example of this is Yowamushi Pedal. The setting of Yowamushi Pedal is rather simple, the main character has through his hobby developed an ability for cycling. His deep involvement in his hobby means he does not have a lot of friends though his ability for cycling gets him scouted for the cycling club and from there on the story develops. He gradually makes friends with his club mates and with them he seeks to become a better and better cyclist. 

The story is simple and one might believe this is a story about a introverted boy coming out of his shell through participating in sport. However, I believe you would be wrong to think that. In essence Yowamushi Pedal is a manga about competitive road race cycling, the initial set up and story of a boy coming of age serves the competitive sport theme of the manga not the other way around. This might seen to be a pointless distinction but it is rather important because the story is secondary to the sport aspect which means its often thoughtless and undeveloped. It only serves as a base to allow the author to explore the competitive aspect of 'improving oneself' with 'passionate' scenes. This is to some extent he basis for many shonen manga in general and I might touch on this another time.

You might say what is the problem with the sport covering the most part of the manga? It is not a problem per say and uts are a respectable way to create a simple story to explore the competitive 'get better' attitude. However, this means the story is always subdued and barebones because all the characters play into this competitive theme and rivalries and friendships also are embedded as parts of the former as well, they are not really things added to develop the characters of built onto the story. The prevalence of this in shonen sport manga has meant the genre is rather stale and it lives of powerful and stylish expressions of sports and the themes of competition, whilst the story and setting only serve to feed into this. This has led to a stagnation of the genre with almost no titles bringing any sign of innovation in recent times, of course part of this is partly also caused by the conformity of mainstream shonen magazines which is the topic for another post in the pipeline. 

Major Vol 1 - Shogakukan

Major is series with a story set up that might lead people to think it is not driven in the singular way as I have described.  However, the set up of the story just feeds into the latter as it serves mostly as a motivation for the main character to play baseball. The motivational factor is important to drive a sport manga but its not continuous and the manga is mostly going from one baseball match to another. The stage changes as the main character grows from elementary school to high school and he meets new people and develops friendships. However, these moments are weak and really are a small matter in comparison to the baseball matches. 

A good example 

Touch Vol 1 - Shogakukan

Touch is an example of shonen sport manga that stood out as it used the sport and embedded it into a story. The story can stand alongside the sport and whilst it still has a focus on competition because the story has more meat, the package all together more polished and has more to offer. This can happen because the series does not hesitate to spend time away from matches or even practice, the competitive sport theme of the manga feeds into the story it does not dictate it. It does not need to base its whole identity towards the theme, so it can explore other themes more effectively and also tell a more meaningful and deeper story. It is not caged and doomed to be just another story that treads the same path as other sport manga.  Other works by Adachi Mitsuru also do the same thing and perhaps other sport manga authors should look to him for inspiration. 

Thoughts on Past Cancelled Manga from Champion

Looking past at these series and trying to make comments on why they failed was not as easy as I thought. Some of these series performed reasonably whilst other faired quite poorly, but I though some that did really poorly were not as bad after looking at them again. Perhaps, the timing was a problem after all some of these series released a few years back and whilst that might not seem like a lot of time champion has changed a lot. Series like Iruma kun became successful as well as more recently Tougen Anki and many others that are not very 'champion-esque.' It also picked up series from twitter which in themselves was new but one specifically has yuri vibes and a clear slice of life focus which are quite a new thing for the magazine. I dragged this on but for me it seems like some of these series might have succeeded if only they were released now, so just keep that in mind as I try to give my thoughts on why they were cancelled. 

Kurotora Vol 1

Kurotora by Suzuki Kai 

An action series in historical setting with supernatural elements, this was not exactly a very champion series even though now it feels like it would feel more at place. in 2015, this series just seems to me failed to grab the attention of enough people to survive, it is not exactly terrible. I do feel like a series like this would be better received in current champion and this is the case for most of these series to be honest. 

Magicalo Magical vol 1

Magicalo Magical by Donsoku Mainichi

A series with polished art but it had a hectic first chapter, I think the author probably needed to be a bit more careful at organising his story to be a bit simpler. It still had a lot of promise for an ecchi fantasy series and I hope the author found success somewhere. Magicalo Magical had all its volume published and its first volume sales were good compared to most other cancelled manga but they dropped rapidly. 

Sumeragi Dressers Vol 1

Sumeragi Dressers by Matsumoto Yutaka 

This series has an interesting setting in a it resembles SHY in that it has a female main character that gets involved into being something of a hero. It is however more focused on the ecchi and comedy and it was not bad but Matsumoto's sensei art was not polished enough and it could have been more organised. His latest one-shots had much better art and both had female main characters which are not as unusual in champion anymore. A part of me wished he had a chance to reform this series and have it serialised again. 

Nikoben Vol 1

Nikoben by Hikari Sumi 

A romcom with perhaps a strange gimmick. The main character loves to make cute bentos but he is admonished for it by his father because it is seen as a girly thing. He gets involved with a cold girl from his class who eats a hinomaru bento and thats how the romcom ball gets rolling. The gimmick is not bad but it does not stick out since it does not fell gourmet so it kind of falls flat. First chapter moved a bit too fast and I am sure that affected the pacing of the story. In terms of art, Hikari Sumi style whilst not unique is polished but with two series axed, he seems to struggle with managing the story of his manga even if the ideas of both seemed good. He continues to work as Itagaki Paru's assistant and maybe he can learn from it.

BADBROS Vol 1

BADBROS by Satou Shuuichirou

The underground not quite death game but prison baseball setting was a nice spin on the sport genre. The first chapter does not feel fast or slow but decently paced, the art is also not bad. I am not exactly sure why this performed so poorly but Blue Lock from Magazine shows that there is market for this sort of sport manga. The head editor could try putting a series like this again especially with Riku gone as well. Though the illustrator and author went their own separate way.

Seigi no Satsujinki Vol 1

Seigi no Satsujinki by Suzuki Yuuta

A somewhat confusing start did not help it and it took a while to clear up which also did not help. Suzuki Yuuta ability with one-shot is unquestionable, his one-shots all were eery but incredibly creative.

The series however was a bit unclear and probably left readers behind. Perhaps he should do something with a more episodic edge than slowly unveils into a larger story.  

Maruyuu Kunoshima-san Vol 1

Maruyuu Kunoshima-san by Kisanuki Tani 

Another work with an interesting setting, a girl inspired by a hero (in a more fantasy jp sense than the SHY sense) in her childhood aspires her to become part of the HSC - Hero Support Company. The start seemed well paced even if it possibly contained a bit too much exposition. The art could be better as well but I feel like this sort of story could be more successful in current champion.

Utsurou Kimi To 1

Utsurou Kimi To by Shirato Yuusuke & Hajime Furukawa -

Another work that was rather polished but that performed poorly. One of the reasons for that I believe was the slow passing, the story was incredibly slow to get going and for the sort of series it was, a supernatural battle series, that was probably a mistake. The author and illustrators went their separate ways,  so any new stuff by them would be different. 

Amayama Maya -  

Chikakarachika and Otae-san Kyou mo Tabetai Vol 1

 Otae-san Kyou mo Tabetai by Amayama Maya.

Both work had very peculiar setting. Otae-san had cannibalism as one of its themes but in a sense the issue with these stories for me were how they were rather messy, in the sense that the story was a bit all over the place. The author has interesting ideas but how he manages them is a bit underwhelming.

Uten Kekkou Vol 1 

Gyakushuu Inferno Vol 1

Gyakushuu Inferno by Shigemoto Hajime 

His art improved a lot since his last series. It also feels a lot more organised though it felt like the series just did not grab the attention of the readers. It was slow to get going and overall I think the author had a  interesting idea with this work but I guess he was unable to balance his story in a way that could get people interest. 

Junior Vol 1

Junior by Haitani Otoya 

Of the recently cancelled stuff, Junior is one of the longest at 6 volumes and they all were released in print too. This was a polished work in terms of art and story but it failed in exciting the reader when it came to the actual sport part. His recent short story on boxing was much more interesting in that aspect and it had an much more developed back story as well.

Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san Vol 1

Ashigei Shoujo Komura-san by Haiba Nemumi

There is nothing, I can really say the story was centered on foot fetishism and perhaps it wore itself too thin because of that. As a one-shot it worked but it feels like the series needed to be a bit more. 

Boryaku no Panzer Vol 1

Boryuaku no Panzer by Furuta Tomohiro

This one was quite an absurd like ecchi manga. The problem for me of this manga was that the ecchi did not feel sexy (eechi) and the comedy was almost always based on the ecchi also did not work as a result of that. It is more series specific comment, so it will depend on what the author wants to do in the future.

Dorakon! Vol 1

Dorakon by Shokubai Hiroomi

Dorakon was much better than Panzer with its ecchi. However, the romcom aspect felt very uninspired, It was not too funny and lucky pervert was quite prominent, the story felt rather underwhelming as a result and this was probably the biggest issue for this series. The example of Yankee JK which is not exactly very inspiring but its more down to earth and stable is probably what Dorakon should have been.

The author names without links are the ones I could not find any SNS or website and the likes. If you do know or can find it, please let me know in the comments.