On today’s stream: A reaction to “Beat & Motion” Chapter 32.
And read along as well: an initial script for today’s stream is below.
An audio-only version will be available as soon as possible wherever you get your podcasts.
Pre-Recording Talk
Hey, everyone. I’m Derek, my pronouns are he, him, his. This is the 69th episode of Sunday Morning Manga.
We’ll get started in a moment, with a reaction to Beat & Motion Chapter 32.
While I’m setting up, feel free to drop some questions in the chat. I’ll answer them in between recording and at the end of the stream.
Disclaimers
Onto this episode’s disclaimers…
Anti-Bigotry Disclaimer
This is an anti-bigotry space: I oppose and denounce any form of bigotry, discrimination, or intolerance, as these are threats to the safety and well-being of every single person on this planet, especially people marginalized because of their identity, and these threats run counter to what my country, the United States, claims it cares about: diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Any audience comments that express hate, prejudice, intolerance, or discrimination against any individual or group (on the basis of, but not limited to, their race, ethnicity, religion, nation of origin, gender, or sexuality) will be deleted by me from the comments section.
None of this is at all to say that I don’t have prejudices and biases, especially unknowingly having them or practicing them due to how bigotry can be ingrained in institutions. And this isn’t to say that I don’t have areas where I can improve at practicing anti-bigotry. I welcome remarks that point out how I am practicing bigotry, so that I can improve at not practicing bigotry. I am interested in using this platform to engage in work to put into practice equity, diversity, and inclusion.
(And speaking of: I’m still looking for alternate platforms to host this livestream and podcast. If you have alternatives where I can host video streams and podcasts, please message me. You’ll forgive me if, given Twitch’s decision to remove and replace its safety council, that I’m not optimistic that my choice to stay on this Amazon-run platform is most helpful in promoting safety, anti-bigotry, equity, diversity, and inclusion.)
Onto the next disclaimers:
Ownership Disclaimer
Sunday Morning Manga is intended for information and entertainment purposes only. It is not endorsed by any companies mentioned, any persons mentioned, or any financial contributors mentioned.
All names, pictures, and sounds are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of their respective trademark and copyright holders.
All original content is the intellectual property of the speaker unless otherwise indicated.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any other persons mentioned in this episode.
No Paid Endorsements Disclaimer
Aside from the names of Patreon and Ko-fi contributors, other persons, businesses, organizations, or entities mentioned in this episode are not sponsors of this episode. My remarks about those persons, businesses, organizations, and entities are not paid endorsements.
Music
And I’m going to record the musical credits for the podcast earlier, as I have been behind on getting new credits recorded on recent podcasts.
Music today included the tracks:
“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction.
“Sunshine” by lemonmusicstudio.
And “For You” by nomaBeats (Hyeon Yeong Jeon).
These tracks are royalty-free and available at Pixabay; links are in the description.
Starting the Recording
With all of this out of the way, let me cue up to record today’s livestream. I’ll read from the script, then we can get started. And as I keep recording, feel free to jump into the chat with questions, and I’ll respond to them along the way.
Okay, starting recording now.
Intro
This is Episode 69 of Sunday Morning Manga for Sunday, June 2, 2024. It is not safe for work.
Let’s get started. Welcome to Sunday Morning Manga. I am Derek S. McGrath, my pronouns are he/him/his.
Accessibility and Links
You can find a transcript and links from today’s episode at dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com.
Contributions are appreciated at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath. Purchases from my Amazon wishlist are also appreciated.
And you can email me at derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com.
Livestream and Podcast Info
I livestream on Sundays at 11 AM Eastern on Twitch and YouTube, @dereksmcgrath.
Podcast versions of episodes are coming–I apologize for delays.
Early access to the podcast and other works in progress are available at patreon.com/dereksmcgrath.
Next Weekend: Spy x Family
The next episode will be catching up on Spy x Family before a live reaction to its newest chapter. You can listen to that episode live on June 9 at 11 AM Eastern.
Today’s Episode: Beat & Motion Chapter 32
Until then, today is a reaction to Chapter 32 of Beat & Motion. The series is written and illustrated by Naoki Fujita. The manga is translated into English by Andra McKnight, with lettering by Snir Aharon. Beat & Motion is licensed by Viz and can be read at viz.com.
And to begin, there’s something I didn’t think I would have to say, but…
Maybe It’s a Good Thing Beat & Motion Already Had Its Anime Announced
I have been ambivalent about the fact that Beat & Motion already had an anime adaptation announced before the manga started serialization.
After Chapter 32 of Beat & Motion came out this week, I should appreciate that the anime adaptation was announced first–because, given the inconsistent pacing the manga has had in taking its time to tell its story, I can imagine the most insufferable manga readers online would be demanding this series be canceled.
I’m now at 69 episodes of Sunday Morning Manga. It’s been almost two years since I started recording live reactions and reviews of manga and anime. Over the course of those two years and these 69 episodes, my focus has been increasingly on talking about the manga and anime I enjoy–because given how much the effort is involved in organizing my thoughts, recording, and editing to get episodes out, I want to focus on stories I actually enjoy and analyzing what makes the stories I actually enjoy work.
Otherwise, it gets exhausting putting in energy only tearing down what I don’t like and coming away having put in a lot of effort and, on top of it, just not liking the thing I put all that time into. It would be a foolhardy endeavor to prop up only what I don’t like–which is why, even as I am a fountain of negativity, I look side-eyed at certain online personalities who have built their brand on only what they hate and practically encouraging their audience to be a mob of haters rather than people who just happen to not like certain stories but otherwise have fulfilling lives enjoying the things they like.
Like I just said, I am a fountain of negativity. I’m not overlooking that I have devoted episodes of Sunday Morning Manga to manga and anime I don’t like. Some of those episodes focused on manga and anime I don’t like because, when this show is built around live reactions, there are going to be newer series I have less knowledge about such that, once I start reading the previous chapters for research ahead of doing the impromptu live reaction, there are some stories I’m just not going to like. Some of those manga and anime I covered in Sunday Morning Manga that I didn’t care for included Tokyo Demon Bride Story, Blue Lock, and Jiangshi X.
And then there are ongoing manga I have covered on Sunday Morning Manga and which I used to enjoy thoroughly but which I now think as of their most recent chapters are lost causes. Those series have lost track of the plot, or gone in directions for plot and characterization that I don’t enjoy, or the artwork got muddled or the narrative got needlessly complex for cheap cliffhangers and unearned emotional reactions, or have undermined their own mission statement and the point of their story.
One example would be My Hero Academia: sorry, but this weekend’s chapter has not corrected the course of that story.
Another example would be Bungo Stray Dogs. A new chapter is coming out soon–we’ll talk about that another time. But the amount of work Asagiri has done to make Dostoyevsky win is out of plot convenience and contradicting the skill set of characters we already met to have them make decisions that don’t align with what we know about those characters. As well, the current arc that has overstayed its welcome and shifts gears so much that the mission statement is ignored and the message is contradicted even within the same arc, not towards questioning its own message or complicating it or trying some philosophical model like a thesis giving way to an antithesis and concluding with a synthesis–it’s just Asagiri throwing anything at the wall with little regard to bring any detail to a conclusion, however temporary of a conclusion. And that’s not even getting into that Dostoyevsky should have possessed Ranpo’s body, not Bram Stoker’s body, for the sake of thematic appropriateness.
But my rant has gone on long enough that I need to get back to actually talking about why Beat & Motion is good despite my apprehension that they announced the anime first even before the manga began serialization.
So, to summarize my point: there are enough stories I have been negative about on this weekly show. And my criticism is all the more egregious because I’m questioning choices made by writers and illustrators. I can’t speak very well to the latter: I write about comics, I am not a comics illustrator by trade. And even if I can speak to the former, about the art of storytelling, that is from the perspective of a teacher of literature and a scholar of literature, not primarily from the point of view of an author. And even if I was criticizing from experience as a fiction writer, that’d be one person’s point of view, questioning another author’s philosophy of literature more than judging the craft of writing on its own merits.
And with how much criticism I read or listen to that is just exhausting because it is just people whining to whine about works they don’t like but which are enjoyable, demonstrate excellent craftsmanship in story and artwork, or which I just like, I don’t want Sunday Morning Manga to be yet another YouTube channel of hour-long videos whining about an arc I don’t like when the arc hasn’t even concluded to judge it fairly in its totality, or just hate on something because it’s slice of life or a genre or topic that appeals to readers who are typically girls or women or otherwise not a cishet man like me.
All of that is to say, I’m glad Beat & Motion had its anime adaptation announced first–because this week’s newest release, Chapter 32, doesn’t quite hold up. Chapter 32 suffers from enough problems within the chapter itself and within the narrative arc it is offering, not because any of those are bad for the art, for the story, or for the characterization, but because I expect there would be some whiny person on YouTube saying this series should be canceled because it’s not getting to the point as quickly as they wish or in a way that isn’t what they expected. I worry, if Beat & Motion hadn’t had an anime already confirmed, that there would already be vloggers and people on the shitty bird app demanding Viz and Shueisha drop this series because the pace is not typical of other ongoing manga in the same genre or along the same topic. And notice that key phrase: “not typical of other manga.” I didn’t say “bad pacing”–I said it just wasn’t typical. And while I imagine the publishing industry is fixated on traditions and avoiding risk, it tends to be even worse among online critics who obsess with the idea that anything that deviates from how publishing should be done and how a story in this demographic should be done and how a story in this genre should be done must be a bad story.
(I am likely guilty of this, too: see my complaint a few moments ago that Bungo Stray Dogs defied my expectations–only my point was that I think the story would have been improved in plot structure, swiftness, message, and characterization if it had made different choices, not that the choices made were unconventional, especially as I think my own suggestions are probably going to be considered unconventional by some segment of the audience, too. But let’s get back on topic…)
I am grateful that, even if I don’t like the pacing choices in Beat & Motion, that series creator Naoki Fujita is able to take the path that he wants to take–because, screw it, he got an anime adaptation already secured for this manga, go for it, do what works for this manga and not for the sake of what trends say a typical Jump series should do. It’s the opportunity I wish other series canceled too soon had received, such as PPPPPP, and at least its creator’s next series Magical Girl Tsubame benefits from a panel structure drawing more from vertical webcomics to let Mapollo 3’s bizarre paneling and almost hallucinogenic aesthetic details shine.
…That being said, I do think there is a potential problem, as I anticipate the pacing is off in these chapters because Fujita is drawing and writing Beat & Motion with an eye towards how this will be adapted for episodic animated television. In other words, rather than planning out the manga to what best suits his own desires and the market demands of biweekly magazine publishing, Fujita is instead writing the story out like anime episodes so that it is easier to adapt the manga to the anime with little need to change in adaptation–and I’m just not a fan of that approach. I’d rather a manga do its own thing, then see how an anime takes the same message, plot, and characters and makes adaptation choices that embody the vast majority of that message, plot, and set of characters while also working in itself as animated television, not strictly as a boring page-to-screen adaptation of what is on the manga page and sticking so close to a plot structure that works for biweekly publishing but not for animated televised serialized narrative.
(Granted, Beat & Motion is confirmed for Netflix–disclaimer, but fuck Netflix and fuck its transphobic horseshit–and I am ignorant as to whether Netflix is still doing a binge-it-in-one-day streaming model and a wait-until-it’s-over-then-dub-it-all model, or if they have caught up with competing streaming services and anime dubbing companies to realize it is better to release and dub episodes weekly. And while I’m doing disclaimers: anime dubbing companies have to pay their employees better for the hectic weekly schedule of recording and editing.)
The Reaction Itself: Chapter 32
But I’ve ranted long enough about the amount of negativity in online discourse around ongoing manga and how pacing hurts Beat & Motion. Let’s begin the reaction to Chapter 32 already, if only as a case example for how knowing you already have an anime adaptation confirmed helps and hurts storytelling opportunities.
Until then, today is a reaction to Chapter 32 of Beat & Motion. The series is written and illustrated by Naoki Fujita. The manga is translated into English by Andra McKnight, with lettering by Snir Aharon. Beat & Motion is licensed by Viz and can be read at viz.com.
In the previous chapters Nico got outed as the daughter of a famous musician, thereby jeopardizing her debut record and her animated music video with Tatsu. Worried for Nico, Tatsu visited her–and if he wasn’t surprised that she exited her apartment, I sure was. Like I said, Beat & Motion has unexpected moments, even if I have to admit, given what we know about Nico’s capricious nature, of course she would lock herself up in her apartment until on a whim she agrees to hang out with Tatsu just to get out of the house.
Speaking of unconventional, Nico starts tearing up because of how good is Tatsu’s work-in-progress for his animated music video. Thus begins an awkward transition to a flashback…
This is yet another flashback in this story, staged quite a bit similarly to Tatsu’s earlier flashback before he reunites with his old bandmates. This is why my upcoming complaints are going to be petty: we already got such a flashback with Nico, and even if I think the flashback regarding Tatsu was awkward, it makes sense that we now get one in a similar fashion and setup for Nico.
Therefore, I am a hypocrite for decrying how much of online discourse is all about the negative–as I have a petty complaint here. We did this same flashback routine with Tatsu’s former bandmates. It’s the timing that feels off. One moment we’re in one part of the story, the next we’re doing a flashback to explain how this character got to this point in their life.
And here is where my complaint collapses into its sheer pettiness: even if I don’t like the craft here, the effect works–we had the flashback to Tatsu to let us know how he knew these bandmates so that, when they re-enter the story as his new animation assistants, we have a sense of their relationship to Tatsu and their personalities. With Nico here, this flashback is needed to specify that her engagement with music is not only because of how it relates to her mother and how it relates to her songwriting partner Miu but how it relates to people at school that she barely knew. And even then, that’s not why she wants to make music: she wants to make music because she enjoys it. It’s not how I expected we’d get to that conclusion for Nico–but it stuck the landing, so I can overlook anything I didn’t personally like because the point is setup and payoff, not always the journey to get there.
Anyway, back to the chapter, in order of pages:
We begin Chapter 32 with Nico back in high school, bowling with her classmates. They tease her about having left her music lessons and hanging out more.
That is, until some time later at school, when her classmates ask her to play piano during their choir competition.
Thanks to this peer pressure, Nico caves in and practices piano at the gym–and the sound is so good that it stops the cast of Blue Box from practicing basketball to listen to her. At the conclusion of her practice, the athletes applaud. (And here is where I imagine Fujita had an eye towards anime adaptation: we’ll have to see how the anime gets the same effect across as Page 13, where the vertical stack of panels of the athletes stopping to listen to her is bordered by Nico passing her hand across the piano keys.
In any case, once the athletes applaud, an embarrassed Nico runs off–until she trips and fall. We hear narration from earlier when her classmates asked why she quit music. We parallel that moment with the present. In the past, Nico lifts her injured face up, laughing and crying at her foolish she was to give up music. In the present, she is crying and smiling at how foolish she is to think about giving up music just because she was outed as a nepo-child.
And, bonus, as another bit of glue to link the past to the present, and to have more parallels between the past and the present, we learn that this flashback was an origin story for the song that Tatsu has used for the music video: the song her classmates wanted her to play for choir was “The Sea We Saw,” the song she wrote that Tatsu is adapting is “I Wanna See the Ocean.” And this is one reason why I don’t think too highly of my negative responses to the pacing in Beat & Motion, because a lot of the problem I have has to do with me: as soon as her classmates said their choir song was “The Sea We Saw,” that should have foreshadowed that somehow this song would tie into Nico’s song “I Wanna See the Ocean.” That’s subtle, it rewards re-reading–it’s the kind of writing I enjoy where maybe you don’t notice the hint, and your time is not wasted re-reading to find that detail you missed.
Anyway, to wrap up this chapter, Nico re-commits to her music career and tips her hat to Tatsu in thanks. The rain stops, the sun shines again–we’re laying on thick the symbolism of a new day, a new era for Nico. That all works. That’s a good place to stop with this reaction to Chapter 32.
But if there is anything else I can say about this chapter: I haven’t talked enough about the artwork. Fujita’s visual trademark has to be mouths, especially when characters are overjoyed or shocked. You can generate enough memes out of Nico’s giant Capital-D grin every time she laughs. Oh, and I like the small detail of the sad faces on the crane machine dolls Nico tries to win–really setting the mood for how dreary everything is despite Nico’s brave face. Good irony.
Wrapping Up
I’ll wrap up there. Thank you for listening to another episode of Sunday Morning Manga.
Have you appreciated the pacing of Beat & Motion more than I have? And do you think I got it backwards, that it’s not the preparation for an anime adaptation that leads Beat & Motion to have an awkward pace, but just something that you enjoy or that works for what Fujita is going for? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section, or email me, derek.s.mcgrath@gmail.com.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Emily Lauer, Ellak Roach, and Alexis Duran
Thanks to Ko-fi and Patreon Contributors
If you like what you heard, let me know!
Contributions at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath and patreon.com/dereksmcgrath are appreciated.
Please include a note to let me know what you liked in the episode and what you would like to hear more of. And your contributions give you the opportunity to recommend works for me to cover each week. Thank you for your support!
Other People’s Awesome Stuff
And if you like what you heard–or didn’t like what you heard–check out other people’s awesome stuff! A blogroll of recommended people to check out is at my site, dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com.
I have three people to recommend.
Eve and Ichi
First and second, please check out Eve and Ichi Rose on their Twitch gaming channels. They accept money contributions, they play Fortnite and recent and retro games. Check them out on Twitch, chip in a few bucks to them–links to their Twitch channels where to watch and contribute are the description.
Glenn Kirschner
And third, please check out Glenn Kirschner on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
I appreciate Kirschner’s recent explanation that Orange Hitler’s hate rally a few weeks ago in the Bronx was an attack on not only immigrants but also an attack on homeless people. This orange Nazi is antithetical to everything the United States claims it cares about–and he is a hindrance on what we can do for a more inclusive, stronger, better nation that cares for all of its people, including continuing the work that must be done until everyone in this nation is fed, housed, and thriving in our pursuit for happiness. Check out Kirschner ripping this xenophobic orange shit-stain on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
And Kirschner also has been talking about how you can write to the government to complain about the alleged judicial misconduct of a certain federal judge who has denied us our right to have a trial proceed against this orange Nazifor crimes he is indicted for and alleged to have committed. Listen to Kirschner’s explanation–link is in the description, it will tell you how you can write to the government about this judge’s lacking impartiality that deny us this trial.
One More Thing…
And one more thing before we wrap up…
In case I don’t make my point clear enough, let me state the thesis right up here at the beginning:
Fuck Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley can go fuck herself. Fuck that war-hungry freak. Not one Republican deserves your vote; vote for Democrats so that these war-hungry ghouls never hold any seat at any level of government ever again.
And arrest Netanyahu while you’re at it.
I have avoided talking as much as I should about Israel and Palestine. I’m not going to go into every last policy position I have, although I have made sure to emphasize at the end of most episodes of this weekly show that we all need to protest against genocide and against ethnic cleansing and against terrorism–because that is what Netanyahu is doing, genocide and ethnic cleansing and terrorism, and that is what Hamas is doing, genocide and ethnic cleansing and terrorism. This is not a “both sides” argument: this is a stated fact, that Netanyahu is engaging in genocide and ethnic cleansing and terrorism, and Hamas is engaging in genocide and ethnic cleansing and terrorism. Hey, thanks for proposing a ceasefire already, Netanyahu–took your fascistic ass long enough, you corrupt fuck.
And Nikki Haley, who has gone back to sucking up to the United States’ own orange Hitler–that convicted felon with 34 counts–Nikki Haley is somehow endorsing both Netanyahu and Hamas. That is a horrifying achievement from this war-hungry bloodlusting prick.
What do I mean by that?
Nikki Haley went to Israel to sign bombs that Israel is using to kill Palestinians. Nikki Haley wrote on the bombs, “End it now.” I do not think she meant a ceasefire.
Oh, and she drew a heart on the bomb when writing “End it now”–because she wanted to make her sociopathy far clearer to those of you who aren’t paying attention to how inhuman and unqualified Republicans like her–like any Republican–are.
The differences between Democrats and Republicans are numerous–and it was the Republicans who sent Nikki Haley to Israel to encourage the bombing of Palestinians and, what’s worse, make it a joyous experience for her proclaiming that Israel should end it now. It is Nikki Haley who want Netanyahu to continue genocide and ethnic cleansing and terrorism–in order to encourage Hamas to continue genocide and ethnic cleansing and terrorism, because for Nikki Haley, who had zero business ever being an ambassador to the UN, she wants war, she wants Netanyahu, she wants Hamas. Fuck her.
And Nikki Haley, this…person, is the one that orange Nazi sent to the UN.
And we are pinning our hopes that people who voted for Haley in the primaries will understand her inhumanity and vote for Biden. We cannot depend on these Republicans–we have to depend on ourselves to vote for Biden. If you are on the left, if you are a Democrat, if you care about your neighbor and yourself, you need to vote for Democrats, not Republicans.
Fuck Joe Manchin–You Should Run as a Democrat
And while I’m at it, and while we’re talking about the differences between Democrats and Republicans: Joe Manchin did my job for me–if the dude doesn’t want to be a Democrat any more, cool, here’s hoping a better Democrat can run for his seat and win. I hope Democrats win every seat possible in West Virginia and that Manchin never gets elected again.
Any election can be won by a Democrat–but only if you vote for Democrats in your area, and if Democrats actually run for every open seat.
Please visit ActBlue to donate to Democrats in your district, and if you are a left-leaning person, please consider running as a Democrat wherever a Republican holds that seat in your district.
Next Time
That’s all for this weekend.
Next episode: catching up on Spy x Family.
Schedule updates will be posted at youtube.com/dereksmcgrath.
Until next time, as I say each week:
If you can register to vote, check your voter registration at vote.org, campaign for Democrats at postcardstovoters.org, vote for Democrats…
And stay safe out there, people: make sure to mask up, get vaccinated, install adblockers, prevent artificial intelligence from stealing your work, register to vote, campaign against fascism and against war and against ethnic cleansing and against genocide and against terrorism, and learn and practice anti-bigotry.
I’ve been Derek S. McGrath. You have a good afternoon. Bye.
Links from Today’s Episode
My Links
Series Discussed
Read Beat & Motion and Spy x Family at viz.com
Others’ Links
Vote for, Donate to, and Campaign for Democrats
Nikki Haley can go fuck herself
Glenn Kirschner about why we should oppose defamations against immigrants and homeless people
Glenn Kirschner on writing to the court system about a biased judge
Music
“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction
Derek S. McGrath 