 Hey everybody, welcome back to A Week in Geekdom, Gio here and today we're doing another first impressions video on two manga series that recently debuted on Shonen Jump and it is of course Blue Box and Candy Flurry. So the last first impressions video that I did was way back at the beginning of the year and I talked about four new series. Now here we are with two more and I know, I know I'm a little bit late, precisely like 10 weeks late, but nonetheless it is something that I wanted to talk about even if you already know about the series and you've already made your minds about it. It's alright, here we are sharing my opinions on these two series which are totally different from each other and I'd love that Shonen Jump can take its time to build up a catalog of really diverse titles. You got your Shonen battle manga stuff and you got things like Blue Box which it's a rom-com, it's sports, it's slice of life, all bundled up together and I absolutely loved it. So the story of Blue Box is quite simple but beautiful in its execution. We're following the character of Taiki Iromata who is on the boy's batminton team at this powerhouse school. I believe it's a junior or senior high and he is in love with the basketball player Chinatsu Kano. She is sort of the all-star top athlete on the female basketball team and what the story kicks off Taiki is this sort of shy nervous yet determined kid because he's actually pretty freaking good at what he does when it comes to sports but he doesn't have the nerve to talk to Chinatsu. Opportunity presents itself and we find out that she is actually quite the wholesome nice individual and there is some sort of chemistry there you know it's a little bit tropey I'm not gonna lie but it's still fun to see a love story in development like this where you don't necessarily have the characters in the same area or in the same sports field if you will. So Taiki's moment with Chinatsu blossoms when opportunity strikes and we find out that Chinatsu is her family is supposed to leave out of the country but she's going to stay because she's also a very young spirited determined individual she's a top athlete. So she decides to stay and Taiki of course is relieved because you can still see her and possibly have more opportunities to talk to her and then maybe become friends or something else and the cool twist here being that Taiki's mom used to play on the same team with Chinatsu's mom so they knew each other from high school and sports all that stuff. So Taiki's mom volunteers to let Chinatsu stay at their house which comes as a complete shock and surprise to our main protagonist who is just through the roof with excitement and you know he is given the golden opportunity to make this possible relationship blossom start or happen and the story just kicks off from there. The art in it is absolutely beautiful. I love the character designs and the character models and how expressive and beautiful they are especially when they're just doing the thing that they love whether it's on the basketball court and stuff like that you really see the motion and the fluidity of the characters and how nice the mangaka has drawn the facial structures for the characters especially Chinatsu. Now I should have mentioned at the start that the story is created by Koji Miura. I'm not aware of the mangaka but she is crushing it when it comes to these sorts of stories. I've looked up her different works and they all share a similar theme with their art but it's very beautiful and honestly quite breathtaking for his shonen jump mangaka. So yeah I know we've gotten rom-coms in the past but I like the idea that it's not like I said earlier it's not the similar sports disciplines it's two completely different things but you find a common ground or a common element with themes of perseverance and first loves and these characters be trying to awkwardly be friends and not really knowing each other but here's this great opportunity to beat up and see if something develops out of it. Of course our main character is pretty straightforward in his ambitions and how much he loves the character of Chinatsu and wants to know her better but Chinatsu maybe at the beginning doesn't really know what Taiki's intentions are or doesn't necessarily see him that way. So I'm only 10 chapters in as of the recording of this video and I absolutely loved it. I love having these mixed sports slash rom-coms together it makes for a very exciting will they won't they read and all that fun stuff obviously throwing in the elements and the tropes of a sports manga is awesome and I really enjoyed I'm so looking forward to more chapters to see how this potential couple develops if you will. Next up from Ipon Takagushi comes a very unique story that blends a lot of action elements with just the craziness of manga and I love how creative it can be and it is of course candy flurry this is a world where toy toy candy is introduced and if you eat one of these magical sweets you gain candy powers it can be lollipops ice cream popcorn whatever you're thinking of when it comes to sweets it becomes a giant weapon that you can use and it lends itself to some battles shown in mechanics and super heroics and stuff like that so at the start of the story we are told that there was an incident where Tokyo was basically demolished by a lollipop user literally using a giant lollipop to decimate the city and the culprit was never caught so there is a warrant out for the arrest I believe people lost their lives or were displaced from their homes I'm with memories a little bit foggy doing this video but something like that a lot of tragedy happened that day and we fast forward to present time and we follow the character of Minase Sumugi who is this cocky brat that will at the start of the manga will take advantage of the situation using her broads and cuteness and all that stuff to gain certain things and behave a certain way but when the first incidents in the opening chapters begin and we find out that Minase's ability is that she's also a lollipop user things get interesting you see in this world there cannot be duplicates of the candy powers so if somebody finds out that she's a lollipop user they're gonna accuse her of being the attacker that destroyed the city of tokyo now obviously she didn't do it it doesn't really match and she's out there eventually you know somebody finds out so she's going to try and disprove everything and let everybody know that she's not the lollipop user that people are thinking of and she's just doing her own thing she just happens to really like sweets candy and of course lollipops it's a very interesting world really well constructed from the get go you get the rules immediately the art is really nice especially with it the you know the character models and them unleashing their powers it's a very dynamic line work that I really enjoy the phases and all that stuff are really well made and it keeps you engaged and interested in reading more chapters the character of Minase you know she when she unleashes her powers with the lollipop it is visually striking because you're not used to seeing a common thing like sweets being used in such a ferocious powerful way like a you know a weapon there is the reset who are basically the police force special forces of this world and they are looking for any culprits and people you know violating the law and and using their magical sweets abilities to harm people or steal or do whatever and the second character that we get introduced to is Misaki Midori who is a young reset officer who doesn't really like the magic sweets so he's going to use tools like a freaking giant fork to fight off evildoers and when he finds out about Minase he starts doubting her but through their interactions he sort of sides with her and you start meeting other people and of course Minase gets the idea to actually join the reset to not only clear her name potentially as well as you know get stronger and and get down to the bottom of the mystery of the lollipop user and all that stuff so yeah this has elements of stuff that you might have read before but it's the combination and how the author uses these elements and tropes that really makes it stand out from the rest of the battle shonen uh manga that are around right now i love the visuals with the candy and the sweets it makes for a very visually appealing series especially when you get any colored pages i do hope that the manga can continue onward and onward so that we can get more colored pages because i think that's really going to benefit candy flurry and how nice is going to look in the future so there you have it guys two new imaginative series these are crazy wild premises well maybe for candy flurry not so much for blue box but you get the picture they're pretty creative in my opinion but what about you guys what did you think of candy flurry and blue box if you're currently reading them let me know in the comment section down below thank you everybody for liking commenting subscribing being a part of a week in geekdom thank you so much i really do appreciate it that's it for me guys god bless stay safe out there i will catch all of you on our next episode