Warning: Spoilers follow for the more recent chapters of One Piece, published in Weekly Shounen Jump Alpha. Proceed at your own discretion. Is there a minimum length for a fight? A character getting knocked out in one panel hardly counts, but how many panels are necessary for something to qualify as a real fight? How [...]
About Derek Bown
Derek Bown is a creative writing and editing student at Brigham Young University. He started watching anime back when Pokemon was first popular, moved on to Ranma 1/2 and One Piece, and eventually found his way to manga. He runs his own anime and manga review blog at Burning Lizard Studios, which he started back in 2009. He is a massive fantasy fan, and loves comedy and action manga the most. His knowledge of anything other than shounen manga is woefully inadequate, but he knows his way around pretty much any action fighter series worth reading. He also happens to be a closet romantic, but will deny any knowledge of shipping fandom if asked. His favorite manga are One Piece, One Piece, and One Piece.
Combat Commentary: Fairy Tail Vol. 11, Ch. 86-87 – Lucy & Juvia vs. Vidaldus Taka
March 6, 2012 by 2 Comments
The good thing about writing about fight scenes in shounen manga is that I will never run out of material. The bad thing is that I have too many to chose from. When considering which battle from Fairy Tail to write about, I had to eliminate several possibilities, though chances are they will all see [...]
Combat Commentary: Toriko Vol. 4, Ch. 26-28
February 28, 2012 by 3 Comments
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of food manga? Is it shounen fighter series? I didn’t think so… Huh. I guess it would be kind of up there. Surprisingly enough, food is actually a major part of many shounen fighter series. Take for example Goku, Luffy, and Natsu, who [...]
Combat Commentary: Bakuman Volume 6, Ch. 48-50
February 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
What’s that, you say? What am I doing looking at Bakuman? It’s not even a battle manga. Don’t I know the title of my own column? Well, allow me to explain. I’ve mentioned before that I am interested in looking at non-conventional fight scenes and battles. Not all conflict (or even fights) needs to be [...]
Combat Commentary: Hellsing Vol. 1, Ch. 4-6, Alucard vs. Alexander Anderson
February 8, 2012 by 2 Comments
Seinen battle manga can be a glorious thing. Once the restrictions of a younger audience are removed, seinen artists can show the brutal reality of battle. Limbs go flying, and blood splatters cover entire pages. That is not to say that shounen manga is sparkly clean. Despite being aimed at younger readers, shounen battle manga [...]
Combat Commentary: One Piece Vol. 3, Ch. 18-20 – Luffy vs. Buggy
January 31, 2012 by 2 Comments
And we save the best for last. Not necessarily the best fight, but most certainly the best series. One Piece is interesting when compared to the others of Jump‘s Big Three. As opposed to starting strong and losing steam as the years passed, One Piece did the exact opposite. It has become a war cry [...]
Combat Commentary: Belated Introduction
January 24, 2012 by 4 Comments
It occurred to me, after reading Philip’s new column, that I had been remis in my priorities. I should have realized that an introduction was in order, otherwise how could readers know what I was trying to do, let alone who I am. I will rectify that mistake right now. Most of you probably don’t [...]
Combat Commentary: Bleach Vol. 2, Ch. 9-12
January 24, 2012 by 3 Comments
Bleach is similar to Naruto, in that it’s a popular series that has lost a lot of fans in recent years. Like Naruto, there is a tendency for people to dismiss Bleach as another overhyped series that has outstayed its welcome. And this would not be entirely untrue, but again, like Naruto, Bleach would not [...]
Combat Commentary: Naruto Vol. 2, Ch. 12–15
January 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
Fight scenes are practically synonymous with manga and anime. Few people can think of anime without thinking of two over-muscled men throwing energy beams and punches at each other while screaming for minutes on end. These people are wrong, and most likely stopped paying attention to anime and manga back when Dragonball Z first came out [...]
Combat Commentary: Bleach (The Entire Series)
It occured to me that in the event that I ever run out of fights to cover (HA!), I needed to think of variations on my basic theme. And then I thought, instead of focusing on individual fights, it would be worth it to look at the basic fighting style(s) of entire mangas. If the [...]