Medaka Box

I love this manga. I really do.

What else can I say? A God-Mode Sue running the Absurdly Powerful Student Council? It's like Haruhi Suzumiya, except nowhere near as obnoxious.

edited 18th Dec '10 7:21:37 PM by KSPAM

That is at the start. I also liked it early on. The latter stuff though... not so much a Continuity Creep as Mood Whiplash, Cerebus Syndrome, Cerebus Retcon, Knight of Cerebus, and a complete Genre Shift.

In other words, I consider it (almost) Ruined FOREVER. I am willing to bet it was not getting very good ratings, tried the Genre Shift technique, and lost readers like me. Compared to most of the other Shonen I read, it is just not very good anymore. Stopped reading it about the time she was brainwashed.

I like this series sometimes, and othertimes I don't. The title character fluctuates between God-Mode Sue and deconstruction of the same, I, for the life of me, don't know if the Consummate Liar is a good villain or an awful one, and it's very self-aware sometimes but rarely uses that awareness to put itself anywhere really new.

edited 18th Dec '10 8:26:27 PM by Gilphon

This series is a strange combination of having a very well known and previously successful Light Novel writer trying his hand with a new style of writing (Manga) and getting terrible ratings. After being saved from the chopping block a number of times, it switched over to a more reliable genre and saved itself, but at what cost? I think dichotomy you see is the result of the writer trying to do certain things but getting shot down by the editor, who is in fact correct about what kinds of things will sell.

Actually Medaka Box is doing well in Jump.Lately it was in the top 10 and seems to be holding there. The point as so many people miss, about Medaka's character is that she is a God-Mode Sue but she's also incredibly lonely, and doesn't know how to interact with people properly. In fact she's almost like Shirou from Fate Stay/Night in her desire to help people, since that's the only way she can connect with them. It's pretty much a Deconstruction

As for Kumagawa, I think he's a great villain. Pretty clear headed and rational. People have compared him with the Joker and he really is similar. His jokes about Shounen Jump are very funny too.

edited 18th Dec '10 11:01:50 PM by Chaosjunction

Medaka Box was in the bottom 5 for many many weeks. It's popular now precisely because it changed. That's what I meant when I said the editor was right. It's successful despite where the author would naturally take it.

I think the original premise may have done well outside of Jump. It wasn't bad, just not the sort of thing Jump readers were going to appreciate.

Yup, demographics and all that. I'm pretty sure Jump pays more though, or is at least more prestigious.

Just curious, what was Medaka Box genre pre genre shift? Post genre looks like the usual fighting shonen, so whats pre genre shift?

Um... it's hard to describe as a simple genre. God-Mode Sue runs an Absurdly Powerful Student Council pretty much covers the premise though, as the OP said.

Anyone still reading this?

The manga, or the thread?

The things recently shown on the manga are getting repetitive, the power scale will break if they get a even stronger villain than this arc's one.

I'm glad with how the plot is going on right now, especially Nishio's metahumour. Although I'm worried with the future chapters, I don't want to see Medaka curb stomping again.

Well, now there's a rumor going around that the series is getting an anime adaption.

Made by Gainax.

Honestly, I only read the first few chapters of the manga, so I can't really judge the show post-genre shift.

edited 29th May '11 7:35:29 AM by Torquey

dammit I read this as Meduka Box

Supposedly this is no longer a rumor and is confirmed now.

As much as I doubt this to actually be true, but I still feel the need to ask.

If Medaka Box is to be animated by Gainax, then I would assume they're going to stop after about 13-26 or so episodes. Where would that place it plot wise? Because if they follow the manga closely, they're probably going to need a Gecko Ending of some sort, considering how the plot just keeps ramming crap into the plot after the climax of each story arc, I highly doubt they'd have really any other option to resort to.

edited 29th May '11 5:11:24 PM by RenHydron

Well, there are two potential options.

• Just keep it as pre-genre shift for 13-26 episodes
• Stop the plot at a point where it can easily act as an ending (ex. High School Of The Dead)

Once again, I haven't read the manga that much, so I can't judge how it would work.

Gainax? Makes sense. Leave it to the guys who brought us Gurren Lagann to animate something as absurdly, preposterously, ridiculously over-the-top beyond-the-impossible as Medaka Box.

In other words,

OH HELL YES!

edited 31st May '11 5:29:51 AM by RiotousRascal

Take a Third Option: don't follow the manga closely in the first place.

I've stopped reading the manga a while ago. Personally, I think pre-genre shift has better stories. True, there was no real antagonist, but then other super-talented people came into the picture and the abilities quickly entered current Air Gear levels of insanity with absolutely no foreshadowing or reason. I think a better choice would have been to give her a rival for the school counsel president that tries to mess up all her plans.

I got to the whole "I can hold my breath for an unreal amount of time because I am a pro swimmer" before I finally just gave up. The whole point of her character was supposed to be that she was normal

Technically she was "Special" in the series' own categorization.

The series get even more absurd from there, but I think in many ways that was a good thing. While I suppose the original premise might have had some promise, after you've already gone absurd it's probably best to embrace that rather than go half-hearted like your swimmer example. The villain of the following arc is particularly interesting and something of an Ensemble Dark Horse.

edited 31st May '11 9:28:26 AM by Clarste

Believe me, people, it all gets better from after Kumagawa is defeated. There's an actual threat, which is the very founder of the school itself. Since Medaka can't be directly taken out, the threat decided to just 'wait it out' until Medaka graduates. It's a cunning crisis ploy, and it's better than the middle parts of the comic

…

I disagree with the above statement. We have a villain who's basically omnipotent, and the only reason she hasn't beaten them already is transparently- nay, explicitly- the fact that the main protagonist can't ever meaningfull lose in this type of story.

It gives us an enemy too powerful for them to plausible defeat, but we've already been told doesn't have a hope of winning because main character. It's a two-pronged attack that kills all the tension in the story dead.

Also, that would be a smart way of dealing with a God-Mode Sue, were it not for the fact that she literally walked up to said God-Mode Sue and explained the plan. The single largest Unspoken Plan Guarantee violation I've ever seen; enough to turn it from 'actually pretty smart' to 'utter stupidity'.

I disagree with that assessment. I think having a villain who's omnipotent but chooses to avoid conflict (in favor of waiting for her enemies to go away/die of old age) introduces an awful lot of tension since it's no longer possible to win by direct confrontation. And you'll note that when she explained her plan she lied about the details, causing their proposed countermeasure to be completely useless. It wasn't exactly a complete tactical blunder, if anything it controls their actions more.

Although I certainly wonder about the value of directly attacking them later. That seemed completely pointless to me.