Weird Science Manga & Anime Podcast · Manga, Anime, Comics, Comic Books, Television, Movies, Pop Culture, Manga Podcast, Shonen Jump

Manga Monday Ep 136: MamaYuyu Manga Review / Weird Science Manga & Anime

November 28, 2023·35 min

MamaYuyu gets dragged fast. Jim and Luke show up late, tired, and already wary of the hot-off-the-presses pick, with Luke apparently hitting his lowest score ever. Even the title gives them trouble. The recap starts where a first chapter has to work: give them a reason to care. This one mostly makes them ask why. Corleo is set up as the hero of the world, in a place where people and demons have supposedly moved past fighting. There is an idea there. Maybe even a good one. But they keep circling back to how flat the chapter makes it feel, especially when a demon calmly teleports himself back to prison. Then the bullying scene arrives. For them, that should be the easy hero test, the moment where Corleo shows what he believes after asking what a hero is. Instead, he walks into mush. They pick apart the dialogue, where stopping a bullying scene somehow turns into stiff talk about demons, people, old-fashioned conflict, and someone calling someone else a dork. The action line does not hit. The art does not bail it out either, because the panel that should read as inner conflict gets roasted as a face that looks more physically uncomfortable than heroic. That joke basically becomes the review. If the chapter wants conflict, the panel has to sell conflict. If it wants comedy, the scene has to know it is funny. Jim and Luke do not think it knows. The demon kid is barely readable as a demon in their telling, so the people-versus-demons angle feels undercooked right when it should finally click. They keep pitching better versions in real time. Maybe the premise works if Corleo looks more torn, if the people-and-demons peace feels stranger, or if the chapter gives anyone more actual character. The picture annoys them too. The yelling figures on it seem to have more personality than the chapter gives them, which is a rough place to land. By the end, fatigue wins. They are still mangling the title, still laughing at how little stuck, and still fine calling the chapter a miss.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify