Shonan Juni Gumi (aka, the Fujisawa = God thread)

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
I've now covered the first 71 chapters of The Early Years.

The art has gotten a lot better. Fujisawa has switched from cartoony, impossible to copy in real life faces to realistic ones. It's not quite GTO level yet but it's getting there. The character artwork on the covers (clearly done for the 15 volume re-release) is finally starting to match what's inside the books.

But what's really impressed me is the switch in maturity levels, the change in direction having started during the last half of volume three. Going from a story of two best friends trying to lose their virginity and failing in comical fashion, it's reached the heights of GTO level drama.

It started with Ryuji confessing his feelings to the teacher he'd had a thing for (and she for him) since the start (when they almost got it on at resort after they both lied about their ages) after he saved her from the insane brother of her ex/dead husband. Long story short, he proposed to stop her going through with an arranged marriage and she accepted. Ryuji then decided he had to drop out of school and work to get money, which meant his ties with Onizuka had to be cut also.

During Ryuji's 'changing' phase, a kid who got put down by Oni-Baku during the Ryuji confession part previously turned to an infamous guy who was rumoured to have been expelled for killing someone - Okubo. When he visited Okubo, Okubo saw a picture of his girlfriend and told him if he wanted his help he'd have to lend him his girlfriend for the night. Surprisingly, he did, luring her to his place and letting Okubo rape her.

That's right - the story has gone from pure comedy to rape. Serious business indeed.

It turned out that Okubo had left Onizuka both a physical and mental scar in the past. Despite his strength and invincibility in GTO, he actually seemed scared...

...I'm not going to cover the whole story. You get the picture; it's no longer 100% comedy anymore. The story has, in true Fujisawa fashion, gone to one-shot chapters covering the supporting cast now that an overly serious arc has ended, and those are focused more on comedy, but if it's anything like GTO then more drama is just around the corner.

Because of the last few volumes, my rating has jumped from 8/10 to 9/10. When I can read 400 page volumes in one sitting, it means what I'm reading is at least 9/10 worthy. On the whole, it isn't on the same level as GTO yet, but the previous Ryuji arc certainly was. The only thing that made me want to keep my rating at 8/10 was how, despite letting his girlfriend of two years get raped (mentioned above), the guy is going to get married to her - yeah, work that one out!

I'm looking forward to reading volume five tomorrow. Volume six is on the way, too, so I'm not going to run out of chapters just yet. And if Amazon hurry up and send volume seven, that should arrive in time for me to get started straight away. I am, however, soon going to run into a gigantic Tokyopop wall, though - Tokyopop have only released 10/15, and 11 was supposed to have been released back in May. With Tokyopop seemingly close to going under and the series not being a seller, the omens do not look good. I'll probably have to finish the series the e-pirate way.
 
GTO is a great series. I read the first volume of Early years and I've noticed certain points you made about the art as well, but I believe this is also fruits of getting more money to hire assistants and stuff.

Also, with tokyopop releasing it the way it is - double the size of the usual tankobon - I don't know how many volumes it will. Do you have any idea?
 
Thanks Aion. I picked up volume 1 when it was released and enjoyed it, but because it was just comedy I found it easy to drop and didn't bother continuing. It sounds as though it might be worth picking up again from your comments!

R
 
chaos said:
Also, with tokyopop releasing it the way it is - double the size of the usual tankobon - I don't know how many volumes it will. Do you have any idea?
Click to expand...

You clearly didn't read all of my post. :)

There will be 15 volumes - the same as the 'deluxe' Japanese re-release. The original release count was 31 volumes.

The problem is Tokyopop. First of all, they've been using thin, see-throygh paper since late 2008, though they are supposed to be switching back this Oct. Secondly, because it hasn't sold well, the series is 'om-hold' at present, like many other Tokyopop series. It's looking like it'll never go beyond ten volumes released.

Roy said:
Thanks Aion. I picked up volume 1 when it was released and enjoyed it, but because it was just comedy I found it easy to drop and didn't bother continuing. It sounds as though it might be worth picking up again from your comments!
Click to expand...

At first I couldn't read too much at once because it was either too silly or had too many pointless fights, so I understand where you're coming from. But volume four is the best yet - it's the GTO I know and love.


On another note, rather than seeing Onizuka beatable from time to time, I would've rather learned about where he learned his fighting skills. In GTO he's supposed to be a black belt, yet that hasn't been mentioned at all so far in The Early Years. Maybe he gets even stronger later in the series?

I wouldn't have wanted to see a repeat of The Karate Kid but seeing a logical explanation for his skills would've been nice.
 
Cheers for the heads up, Roy.

I was going to wait for volume 7 to arrive from Amazon (bank holiday ;_; ), judge its condition and, if happy, order volume 8 from Amazon. I was then planning on waiting for volume 8 to arrive to see if Amazon could get stock back for the remaining volumes before being forced to go with TBD.

After reading this, I looked on Amazon, seeing volume 8 is now OOS. My only option left to finish the series is TBD. In the past I would've been happy but, with the way my books get damaged in jiffy bags, it's an awful risk paying £22 for them when they're heavy and the small jiffy bags won't offer enough protection.

In hindsight, I should've ordered volume 1-10 in one go from Amazon when they had stock...

*sigh*... Either way, this is a ****** situation to be in. As far as I can see, only the first 80 chapters are on the net, meaning I'll have no way of reading the last 1/3 of the series now that Tokyopop can't finish it.
 
Aion said:
chaos said:
Also, with tokyopop releasing it the way it is - double the size of the usual tankobon - I don't know how many volumes it will. Do you have any idea?
Click to expand...

You clearly didn't read all of my post. :)

There will be 15 volumes - the same as the 'deluxe' Japanese re-release. The original release count was 31 volumes.
Click to expand...
Oh, don't get me wrong. I did read it, but by the time I got to the end of it, I forgot about the beggining.


Ta Rui, I'll try to get my pawns on the rest of it, before its gone.
 
Your short attention span is no problem of my creation.

Amazon still have volumes 2-4... or at least they did yesterday. Volume 4 is a must read.

It appears I'm the only person bothered by this (from a GTO perspective, that is). I can see why it hasn't sold well; no-one gives a toss about it, even though it's the prequel to GTO. I don't get it - when I finished GTO, my first thought was to start the prequel, the only reason I didn't being that volume 1 was out of stock. GTO clearly doesn't have enough real fans who are willing to spend money on what they love.

--------

On another note, I'm not fond of how women are treated in the prequel. Japanese culture and its age appear to be to blame.

First some guy lets his girlfriend of two years get raped in order to get a guy to beat Oni-Baku. In the end, she gets raped every day for a week, by multiple guys because pictures were taken when she was first raped. She later forgives her boyfriend, even getting engaged to him. What the hell?

Then, later, in another story, it's revealed that a guy raped his 'girlfriend' of one year to show her she was his after she had moved to a new school to be closer to an old crush (Onizuka), taking her virginity. In the end, he's shown to be a good guy who loved her, and all was forgiven. I could see it wasn't black and white and even understood why he did it, but still... how can something like that get forgiven so easily?

During that story, Onizuka even pissed me off. He rushed to save her when the guy was taking her in a car to be raped again at a hotel (he didn't know this), and then backed off when he was told it was domestic and that he took her virginity. Things like that have made me feel a little cold towards the guy when reading the prequel.

The 'male > female' card seems to be getting used too much. Ryuhi also had to save his girl from being raped earlier (that wasn't so bad; he got to be a hero), and at the end of the story mentioned previously Onizuka had to save a girl from getting gang-raped by 30 guys as punishment for leaving a biker gang. (According to Fujisawa, leaving a biker gang if you're a girl means every guy in the gang has the right to have his way with that girl in an attempt to make her kill herself. Japan doesn't sound like a nice place to be!)

Also, it was just revealed (well, strongly suggested, anyway) in volume 6 that ANOTHER girl was kidnapped and, for two months, abused by a group of guys, resulting in her getting a split persoanlity. What is it with all the rape in this story!?
 
Aion said:
Your short attention span is no problem of my creation.
Click to expand...
I blame my parents, the environment and television for that.

Now seriously, from your comments above, I wonder how sick the series is. It paints a Japan where rape is trivial. To me it seems a cheap gimmick to make the manga serious all of a sudden.

I'm really divided here if I should get the rest of it or not.
 
I don't think Fujisawa is straying from reality; it's well known how Japanese women are supposed to be more submissive in certain situations because it's expected of them and there are plenty of other Japanese manga involving school girls selling themselves, getting raped, etc. It's just that, from my perspective, it's awkward seeing women getting treated badly - like it's normal. The times are different than when the story was created and I'm not in Japan.

To be fair, my problem with the first rape isn't that it happened - it was how her boyfriend got forgiven that didn't sit right with me. That event started the ball rolling, showing how much of a bastard the guy Onizuka had to deal with alone was. That's the point where I thought, "This is a proper, evil bad guy - not a character who will change. It's getting real."

The part mentioned next by me I understood. He had no right to do what he did, but his logic was that she'd been with him for a year - basically using his name - and she needed to be reminded who he was. Again, what pissed me off was how all was forgiven again. Onizuka's attitude also annoyed me.

The other parts mentioned weren't bad. The 'save me from rape' Ryugi part was there for his hero act, which he followed up by doing something cool. And the split personality issue has been well-handled, Fujisawa being tasteful enough not to show anything and leave it up to the imagination. It's been set up so that Ryugi can play the 'white knight' part again, and that's good because Ryugi is by far the best character in the series. Anything involving his love life is golden.

The series is still cool, funny and worth owning. The points I mentioned simply irked me a little, that's all.
 
Now that I've rushed to buy volumes 8-10 from TBD before they vanish, Amazon have got volumes 9-10 back in-stock. **** off, Amazon.

I'm going to be seriously pissed if the volumes ordered from TBD arrive in tatty condition, and I just know they will.
 
Volumes 7-10 of the series arrived yesterday.

I got lucky. Unlike two of my other TBD volumes, the pages aren't yellowed, and only one volume has damage... though the knock to the corner of volume 9 is quite nasty. But, having had a lot less luck in the past, I'm more than happy with the overall condition of volumes 8-10.

I've read up to chapter 120 now. I hope the Midnight Angel story, which has been going for like 30+ chapters, ends soon because it's all fight fight fight. Too little drama, too much pointless mano-to-mano ****. However, I'll be happy with it IF it ends without Fujisawa doing something as silly as the volume 8 read-up suggests.

(If a guy who kidnapped a girl, keeping her for two months and raping her, knocked out Ryugi's sister and told him it was too bad he couldn't have had fun with her before he arrived, stabbed Ryugi, stabbed his girl, tried to kill Ryugi and set him up with murder charges gets forgiven, then I might have to seriously consider stopping reading.)

Fujisawa likes turning bad people into good people. The problem is, redemption isn't always an option. If he tried to force it by having Onizuka make a rapist/killer into a new man then it'll ruin the story.

The irony of TEY is that it's been at its best when the story hasn't focused on fighting. Comedy and drama are what Fujisawa's best at, and that's why GTO is famous and TEY isn't.
 
I was starting to lose interest in the series, halfway through volume eight. Ryuji had been fully fleshed out, Nagisa had her back-story explained and Onizuka doesn't have much to do in the series outside of fight and cry over him being a virgin. Everything I started the series to see I've seen (though I'll need to read Bad Company to see how Oni-Baku got started). But, like in volume four, it's took a very serious turn, and I'm interested to see where this current arc is going.

Following a chapter where Onizuka, depressed over him now being the only virgin in Oni-Baku, gets rejected by every girl he ever had a chance to bone, eventully (after a chat with the owner of the local video rental store) deciding it's better to fap over 30 perfect porn girls instead of having the real thing, Natsu got introduced. He reminds me of Luca Blight from Suikoden II; a cold-blooded killer who enjoys killing. Even though no-one else in the series has been a killer (or, at least, hasn't killed), this guy has killed people - he took on 18 guys hired to kill him at once, killing all but two. Some seriously intense ****.

I say I'm getting Luca Blight vibes from him, and I can see his past matching up to Luca going on what's gone before in the series. Luca Blight, as a boy, was forced to watch his mother being gang-raped and, if my memoy serves me, killed. Natsu has been shown in flashbacks as a nice boy with an attractive mother. Using my deductive skills, I think I see where this is going to go.

I'm looking forward to starting volume nine. Right now I can't predict how Natsu's story is going to end - Fujisawa would struggle to make a killer into 'one of the guys'.
 
Back
Top