2018 MANGA MADNESS brackets, pt.5! (Patreon)

Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the next round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:

(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)

A few words on the manga involved in the latest set of brackets:

*Akira was a Big F**king Deal for me and easily my biggest early influence as an artist and storyteller; in fact, I still use techniques today that I've largely forgotten were originally derived from imitations of Otomo. Still, Tetsuya Egawa's Be Free! wins out, for reasons I'll discuss later.

*Kazushi Hagiwara's Bastard! was a major mid-90s influence for me-- or, at least, the run of vols. 14 through 21 or so. I bailed on the book circa 2000 or so, when he switched over to CG tones and dramatically changed the artistic look of the series. That being said, the manga's artwork and bold storytelling choices were what I prized; I didn't really care very much about Bastard!!'s ongoing storylines or its characters so, for me, this definitely wasn't "the total manga experience" that one might hope for. 

*As wonky, goofy, and tonally-all-over-the-map as Tomonori Inoue's "genetically engineered schoolgirls in a radioactive Tokyo wasteland" manga Coppelion could often be, the series did give me much more of "the total manga experience," as I did indeed wind up caring a great deal about the manga's storylines and characters. 

In fact, believe it or not, I even considered doing a tribute piece for Coppelion, and I pretty much never, ever do fan art (of my own volition, that is, as opposed to an art request or commission). If I ever get around to said piece, likely after rereading the series yet again down the road, I'll post it here and talk more about the manga's surprisingly important late-career influence on me.

*Aaaaaaand I'm waaaaay outta time for this post, so no commentary on Negima! for now. (Maybe later, as I've recently been catching up on Akamatsu's follow-up series UQ Holder.)

Stay tuned for our next bracket update in a few days, okay?

NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: A mo' substantial, art-based post of some sort, I would expect!