You know what!!! I will debate this!!! (Sorry insomnia has been kicking my ass so bad lately so if none of this makes sense please do ignore me and apologies in advance)
First, let me say I am a big daily life arc fan and so Iāll just go right to my thesis: The daily life arc is the essence of khr and can not be skipped!
Sure okay, if youāre just here for the battle shonen bits as you said. You can read the character introductions and just go to the action. But!!! Then!!! The series isnāt the same!! Because khr at its heart will always be a gag manga! This part is an aspect that never truly left it and is baked into its DNA even after the genre swap into an action series.
I think people who are either skipping over, ignoring or forgetting this essential aspect of KHR causes a big issue with a lot of interpretations and analysis of the series these days. The series absolutely can be dark, it can be serious, and it can have some heart wrenching moments. However, I notice many people struggle to understand some choices made by the author or connect with them, or even in their own works the characters can feel off because theyāre written *too* seriously (not you tho my dear šāāļøšāāļø you strike that balance just fine āØ). Itās so important that in order to write or understand these characters. You have to take them seriously but donāt take them *too* seriously. Because Amano never does.
And thatās the other main point. When it comes to writing the one key rule Amano always follows is this: The rule of funny.
They will always choose the humorous option even in important scenes, even the more serious things will lowkey be gags. Heck just look at the names!!! Theyāre all puns or gags! Ken, Chikusa too! And then thereās that heartfelt reunion between Tsuna and Reborn during the future arc when Tsuna sees Reborn again after Reborn goes āmissingā. The way itās immediately undercut with a gag and Reborn being in that silly white outfit. Also, a lot of Rebornās disguises even as the story progresses is an example of this too! Okay Iām starting to ramble hardcore but just know!! The gag aspect never left the series! And so we must take that into consideration when looking at these characters and their actions too.
And then also!! I disagree most of the daily life arc gets forgotten or retconned after chapter 61 because itās the start of a lot of important character arcs such as Tsunaās and Gokuderaās. And it establishes a lot of its initial characters and bonds. I would even argue you donāt get the full impact of the development of the bond between Gokudera and Yamamoto after the fight in the future arc unless youāve fully absorbed their humble beginnings within the daily life arc.
And Tsuna!!! Even in the daily life arc alone we already start to see some slow development from him! We see him start to get bolder and make more decisions for himself. Like wanting to save that girl from drowning!
Okay okay, this is getting way too long and I think Iām about to reach the limit if I havenāt already but I hope I got my points across that the daily life arc is essential reading and mustnāt be ignored in our interpretations and analysis if we truly wish to understand these characters!!!
First off, I would never ignore you and thereās never any need for apologies from you š I adore hearing your opinions and enjoyed reading your debate here a lot! And I get insomnia kicking asses, from personal experience, and my own reply will likely be disjointed and nonsensical and I canāt even blame insomnia, just constant clopenings from Monday and nothing but solidly long 10+ hour shifts training and clearing up problems. I canāt wait until the weekend off but until then, Iām exhausted mentally and physically, so thatās why it took me so long to reply and why this probably wonāt make a ton of sense.
Iām so glad to hear youāre such a huge fan of the Daily Life arc. Everyone has their own tastes and Iām glad thereās fans of that arc. However, Iām coming at this from the opposite side of the fence, in that the Daily Life arc is actually my second least favourite arc (not including the awful anime only filler arcs, which I blame for a lot of bad Arcobaleno reads in particular, another controversial opinion here). I will be absolutely honest here, since there can be nobody at this point that would doubt Iām a diehard KHR fan, but if it hadnāt initially been for my rule to give any manga at least 100 chapters before deciding whether to continue or drop it, since really, 100 chapters is nothing at all to read for me, I would never have actually continued on or fell in love with KHR. Going only by the Daily Life arc, I would have dropped it completely, had it continued on like that. Itās for one very strong reason that I will expound on in a little bit, but first I want to gently debate something else you mentioned.
That is that KHR, in its essence, is gag manga. Iām going to politely disagree there because, to me, KHR is, in itās essence, a really good example of a classic shounen. It shows even during the Daily Life arc and all the way through the manga in itās messages, tone, character archetypes, etc. Even ignoring that 83% of the manga happens after the complete tone shift into shounen, I think the reason KHR was so flawlessly able to execute a genre shift from slice of life, gag manga into shounen was because the basis for things was set during that arc. To me, classic shounen and shounen in particular has those battle bits and fights and such, yes, but shounen also incorporates comedy in while not quite equal measure but thereās still quite a bit there. It also incorporates a lot of messages about self-discovery, growing, and adolescence, messages and themes around the importance of bonds (particularly male bonds), touching and heartfelt moments mixed with action and comedy. We see that in all the classic shounen manga, where comedy is mixed in with action and all those messages ala the big names like Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, Gintama, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo etc. and even more recent ones like One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100, Sakamoto Days, Black Clover, Mashle, etc. To me, shounen, as a genre, is supposed to have a good mix of comedy in there. The thing with KHR, to me, is it really needed that genre shift into action-shounen after the Daily Life arc because just as gag, slice of life manga, I do not think it stands up or would have continued. I truly believe without that genre-shift, KHR would have been canceled much sooner and certainly would not have stood up and become a cult favourite. Iāve said Iām five volumes in and thatās still where Iām sittingā¦because I just am not at all excited to read the next two volumes and it feels like a slog to get through. About five volumes in, the jokes are getting stale and repetitive and I donāt feel weāre getting a ton of new character developments or new bonds but more deepening of whatās already there.
Before I loop around to my thesis statement, I guess, haha, I want to address your other points. I will say that I donāt think that the ignoring of the Daily Life arc is what causes misinterpretations or ābad takesā of the series and characters. I think itās because media literacy as a whole has decreased nowadays so most new fans havenāt been taught or encouraged to really think deeply about their characters and the stories. I also think itās because KHR is such a long-standing, long-loved series and so many older fans have spent decades at this point surrounded by fanon (and have forgotten that fanon doesnāt equal canon) and projecting onto their favourite characters for so long that they have troubles with any other views of them. I also think that people having troubles connecting with Amanoās choices is actually pretty fair ā there are decisions in KHR, because of itās weekly release (at the time) nature that means that plot holes, moments that donāt make the best sense, and I think them criticizing those moments is fairly reasonable. As for writing the characters too seriouslyā¦well, that is their right. Iām glad you enjoy my writing of the characters ā to me, no human is purely serious and logical all the time, they all have their silly things about them, their little quirks, so all characters have those as well because I like to write the characters as humanly as possible. I also disagree that Amano always follows the rule of funny ā there are always comedic moments throughout all the arcs, but I feel like she balances out the humour much better in arcs after the Daily Life arc with moments where characters had emotional development with each other and by themselves, where story progressed, where lore and the world was built, and where, yes, there were good battle scenes.
I will politely disagree that a lot of the Daily Life arc gets forgotten later on in the manga. It establishes base bonds in the Daily Life arc, but most of the true development takes place throughout the other arcs and base character traits, especially in the secondary characters, almost get forgotten completely. Futaās ranking never makes an appearance after the Mukuro arcā¦why? It would have come in really handy, especially in information gathering during the Future arc. Haruās feistiness gets toned way down, as does her bickering with Gokudera, as the manga progresses. Even Kyokoās own feistiness and weirdness, part of the early Daily Life arc, gets forgotten to make her more of an honestly kind of bland love interest. The extremes of Yamamoto get toned down. Reborn speaking bug gets almost completely forgotten after the Daily Life arc, maybe the Kokuyo Gang, even though honestly, again, would have been an excellent way to gather information in most of the arcs. Skullās link to the Carcassa is just never brought up again after the Daily Life arc, neither is Colonelloās link to Mafia Land. Bianchi being a highly skilled hitman in her own right? Itās just little details that had so much potential that kind of got put to the side or never explored that leave me disappointed.
But my real gripe with the Daily Life arc is my only real big gripe with KHR overall and it comes down to pacing. The pacing in KHR overall is not the greatest. Just as an example, here is a pie chart showing the different arcs and the percentage of the overall total of KHR they take up.
To give percentages ā the Daily Life arc takes up 14% of KHRās total run. The Kokuyo arc takes up 4% of the total run. The Varia arc takes up 12% of KHRās total run. The Future arc takes up 35% of the total run. The Inheritance Ceremony and Curse of the Rainbow arcs take up 15% of KHRās total run respectively. Thatās right, the Daily Life arc takes up as much of the series run as lore heavy, story heavy arcs like the Inheritance Ceremony arc and the final arc, the Curse of the Rainbow, where the whole series and one of its biggest mysteries is meant to be wrapped up.
An introductory arc to a manga is meant to entice you in, to introduce the characters, start setting up bonds and relationships, and introduce you to the world. Itās meant to get you invested, without overstaying its welcome and in my opinion, the Daily Life arc definitely overstays its welcome. In grand total, the percentage of the run time of the Kokuyo arc and the Daily Life arc should have ideally been switched.
Itās not that I think thereās zero merit in the Daily Life arc, but it could easily have been condensed. Thereās many chapters in the Daily Life arc that, to me, are pure filler. And I use filler differently from othersā¦to me, itās not whether filler is purely non-canon or not, because all of the Daily Life arc is canon, but whether the material does anything to push a story along, build characters meaningfully, or meaningfully build bonds between characters. As above mentioned, Iāve read five volumes of the Daily Life arc quite happily but at this point, Iām over it. The jokes feel stale and the whole thing is feeling old and I know I still have two more volumes to get through and it does not feel great. The Daily Life arc could easily have been condensed and I think that if it wasnāt for manga scheduling at the time demanding a new chapter every week and instead gave its mangaka time to plan and edit properly, it would have been. I donāt blame the poor pacing of KHR solely on Amano because she had such extreme deadlines, but more the industry as a whole.
But yeah, thatās my view on it all! I loved reading all your arguments and a lot of them were so well written and very compelling and I think so many of your points are very valid, itās just one of those areas where we unfortunately disagree a little.















