#dfrag!

Favorite female character :

Favorite male character :

Favorite animanga :

Animanga you are currently enjoying :

Animanga that exceeded all your expectations :

Unpopular animanga you really love :

Favorite romance :

Favorite action animanga :

Favorite fantasy :

Favorite sci -fi :

Favorite drama :

Favorite comedy :

Favorite anime movie :

Next in your watch list :

Next in your read list :

Favorite antagonist:

Thanks if you want to answer.....

Oh man, these are always so tough haha. Definitely will be a bit of recency bias, but I'll give it a shot!

Also, for reference, for everything aside from next watch/read, I tried to choose entries that I'd experience both anime and manga from (excluding LNs because I'm picky like that). If I didn't I'd have been stumped on this all week haha.

Favorite female character: Mitsumi Iwakura

Favorite male character: Kenji Kazama (arguably the pinnacle of comedic-slash-classic manga protagonists)

Favorite animanga: Heavenly Delusion? (these sort of end all be all picks are so impossible for me haha)

Animanga you are currently enjoying: 'Tis Time For Torture, Princess

Animanga that exceeded all your expectations: Heavenly Delusion (both initial experience with manga and anime, actually)

Unpopular animanga you really love: D-Frag! (the exclamation is part of the title)

Favorite romance: A Sign of Affection (I know the anime's not done, but Ajia-Do and Yuta Murano's work is too outstanding to discount)

Favorite action: Jujutsu Kaisen (though specifically excluding S2 due to Park's departure)

Favorite fantasy: Made In Abyss (I think even in spite of some of the creator's tendencies, the worldbuilding is just on another level in comparison to other fantasy series)

Favorite Sci-Fi: Neon Genesis Evangelion (there's a lot of choices here)

Favorite Drama: Nana

Favorite Comedy: Uramichi Oniisan (since I already used D-Frag! elsewhere)

Favorite anime movie: Blue Giant (again, so many to choose from)

Next in your watch list: Noir (one of a handful of cel anime to be shot on widescreen 35mm film, so I've been very curious to start it, even though I've been putting it off forever)

D-FRAG!, Vol. 12

Story and art by: Tomoya Haruno MSRP: $12.99 Release date: September 11, 2018

A BATTLE IN ENEMY TERRITORY!

Yes, this is an old series. Yes, it can be hard to find physically because of that. And yes, it is fun as all hell. I recently managed to get my hands on all but 3 volumes of the series so I've done a re-read from scratch on it, and it really is just incredibly hilarious. It can be a little formulaic with the whole straight man routine, but it gets both incredibly meta and off the rails with it. I mean, the sheer amount of jokes that they break out in relation to it always keeps it fresh. Getting tired of Kazama making comebacks? There's probably a joke or a remix on the horizon for it. And personally speaking it always gets me, whether it's one volume in or 16 volumes in.

Anyways, let me backtrack a little. What is D-Frag! ? Well. Well.... It's a high school comedy taken the max of what can be weird, with lots of other little bits mixed in. Kazama is a young delinquent who comes to Fujou high believing he'll be able to take it over and make a name for himself. Too bad he gets suckered in by the curious ongoings of a video game club and gets tortured into joining them. From there, his high school career of insanity and infamy as the king of comebacks (and second fiddle to the most fearsome people around) begins as they galivant and explore and in general cause mayhem and headaches.

Oh yeah, and there's 17 volumes and it's still not been a full year in real time in D-Frag! Yeah, that's right, this thing is stretched out, but you don't even think about it. One could only imagine how experiencing all of these moments one after the next would affect a young high schooler. Moving on, some art to break up my monotonous explanations of what D-Frag! is!

I don't think words could really explain what's so appealing to this manga. It's got such a classic feel to it and is so incredibly true to itself. No matter what trope it brings up, it'll subvert expectations and find a way to turn it silly and diffuse any and all tension. It builds things up and up and up, and just as it's about to place the final piece on top to complete it, Tomoya Haruno (the author) comes swooping in to topple it in the most satisfying way possible.

Not to mention, it's running jokes are absolutely top notch. There's definitely some that are rather cliched, but also more than a few that are fresh and enjoyable within the overall approach of the series. Like the constant jokes about the envy and fear that Takao's (one of the characters) chest instills in fellow women and girls.

It's really hard to talk about how D-Frag! is so much fun and such a great read without spoiling because I could talk on end about how refreshing, unique, and interesting redacted was. Or how the entire redacted arc was a wild card that was incredibly fun. Maybe this. Parents exist in D-Frag!, they really do. We see both Kazama's mother and father, we see Roka's mother, Takao's mother, Chitose's older sister, and a handful of others. Oh yeah, and just for effect, Sean Connery is a teacher at Fujou High.

And who totally could would forget the unique side characters of D-Frag! ? There's , and there there's , and of course you can't forget about . Jokes aside, the side characters have a real thing for being bald and weird in general and I'm all for it. It's so out of left field and random that it feels like two series collided to form this single one.

I swear, at least one chapter every volume has these ridiculous battle shounen introductions and interactions, and no matter what they get me every time. And they're so detailed? Haruno sensei absolutely put a good amount of effort into designing them and adding random throwaway details just to make them seem more absurd.