RE: Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker

You know every so often I’ll mention that my brother was the inspiration was behind a post?  This is more than one of those times.  This is peak “thank my brother for this post”. We’ve entered maximum broverdrive here.

Strap in.  This is Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker.

So How Good is Shonen Jump, Really?

I’ve been thinking about it, and I’m starting to suspect Soul Eater is my favorite anime.

Well, one of my favorites, I guess.  Gundam Build Fighters and JoJo are both making their way up there.  But in terms of preferences bred from experience?  From nostalgia?  I’ve got to give it to Soul Eater.  It had pretty much everything I could ever want in an anime: crazy cool characters.  Style in spades.  A sense of energy and spirit, be it in the fights or just some comedic beats.  And even if you look past the macabre elements -- themselves worth plenty of praise -- it’s worth noting that despite the title, Soul Eater’s real main character is ostensibly the super fighting bookworm Maka…i.e. the fabled “strong female character”.

Maybe I’ll get around to watching the anime in full one of these days.  It’s certainly an easier choice over some of the stuff that’s popped up this season.  There’s some good stuff, sure, but I gave Kantai Collection a look, and it’s a wonder that my skull is still intact.  Plenty of anime bloggers have noted the absolute onslaught of magical school/harem/halfhearted fantasy shows out and about; I’ve read their posts, and the content for some of them is the sort of thing that would make a fan drop the medium like an angry snake.

Which brings us to…well, you read the title, didn’t you?

Let's discuss Binbougami Ga!.

Weird punctuation in the title.  This is gonna be a good post.

Anyway, have you heard about that game J-Stars Victory Vs.?  I’m guessing that if you’re reading this blog, you have a faint idea of what that is; for the uninitiated, here’s a primer.  Characters from the much-adored/ballyhooed Shonen Jump, a premiere Japanese comic collection, come together to fight it out in 3D arenas via 3-on-3 tag battles.  So you can have famous heavy hitters like Goku, Naruto, and Luffy on one side going up against new blood and/or old friends like Joseph Joestar, Medaka, and Kenshin.  I’m hoping that the game makes it over to the U.S. -- and, you know, is good -- because with the semi-recent announcement that MAH BOI Tsuna is in the game, my body is slowly but surely becoming ready.

But you know who I really want in the game?  Ichiko from Binbougami Ga!.  It makes perfect sense; people have complained that there’s a dearth of female characters in the game, so she could fill it easily.  She’s got more than enough inspiration for some special moves, so she could translate into the combat space pretty easily.  She’s got MORE than enough personality, so her moves could either be ridiculously over-the-top, or outright comedic (think Faust from Guilty Gear).  Or if nothing else, putting her in the game would certainly put a smile on my face.

Why?  Probably because for one reason or another, I really friggin’ like her anime of origin.  And by extension, probably because I think she’s one of the best Jump characters to pop up in a while -- because there's a lot any given writer can learn from her.