a day like any other the students of class 1c sit in bored anticipation as their teachers lecture draws to a close when suddenly a voice sounds over the intercom welcome to the classroom of truth you may call me God members of class one see you shall all be participating in a game of survival the one who commits a certain acts will die and the last one left alive shall be granted their freedom with any attempt to escape the classroom failing panic quickly spreads through the students their teacher pleads with them to calm down and work
together to find a way out only for him suddenly to vanish leaving nothing but his clothes and an echo of his final thought if this is true then I'll have to kill all these damn kids myself this brings the students of class 1 C to three equally impossible realizations one anyone who lies in the classroom will die to their teacher was planning on killing them to ensure his own survival and three there's no way to tell who among their classmates may be thinking the same thing locking the students of class 1c in a deadly game
of Lies and murder this is classroom of truth a story its creators describe as a battle manga of the minds and I think that's a really interesting concept something that takes the drama intensity and excitement of a battle series but expresses it through mind games and deception sounds pretty good right well here's the thing classroom of truth is not a real manga but a fictional one created by a fictional author in the 2010 series Bakuman bachmann is the story of two high schoolers artists more tacky amish hero and writer akuto takagaki a major plot running
through Bakuman is the two craters attempt to find a style of manga that best suits their individual strengths resulting in the making several different series over the course of the story before they eventually refine their style into what they refer to as non-traditional battle manga battle manga of the mind and unconventional traditional battle manga but for the sake of simplicity I'm just gonna call non bottle bottle series and this is what I'd like to talk about today but to do so we first need to have a little chat about traditional battle series to start I
want to say that I love traditional battle series these make up some of my favorite stories in existence and if I'm going to be perfectly pathetically honest have done a lot to shape me as a person and the reason myself and I think so many others are so invested in these series is because these stories are universal from the gore fields death battles of Fist of the North Star to the deception based shinobi combat of Naruto these stories all carry the core themes of struggle conflict and growth themes that anyone in any position can relate
to and so seeing those themes expressed through explosive exciting bouts of combat that's why I [ __ ] love this genre there is however a problem facing a lot of modern battle series and this is something that Bakuman itself actually touches on that traditional battle titles have existed since at least the late 70s meaning any author once create a new battle title has four decades of competition as well as ideas that have already been done meaning that in order to stand out and stay relevant traditional battle manga have had to gradually broaden the scope of
what battle even is and you can see different series handle this problem in different ways from the key blast of Dragon Ball Z to the men's system of Hunter hunter or these stand battles of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Jojo is an especially interesting example here because a lot of the later stand battles apply rules to combat that are so abstracted that it starts to feel more like a weird physical puzzle than it does anything resembling an actual fight where instead battles are conducted through gambling Super Nintendo or mind games and yet still these non battles
have all the same drama and intensity of a regular fight scene to the point where we can start to see how it's possible to even remove the idea of combat from bottles entirely and yet still retain and those core themes and feelings of excitement that make the genre so worthwhile in the first place while also allowing creators to tell fresh original kinds of stories and express ideas not possible with a more traditional battle format this is all sounding a little abstract and out there so let's nail down with the authors of Bachmann's previous work an
obscure little-known title called Death Note [Applause] Death Note was originally published in late 2003 and what's interesting about this period of jump is that the rest of the magazine was filled nearly entirely with either straight of battle manga or sports titles making the slow paced cerebral conflicts of Death Note a strange but compelling entry for jump if somehow you haven't read or watched Death Note it's the story of Light Yagami who finds a mysterious notebook which kills anyone whose name is entered into it prompting lies to take up the title of Kira and cleanse the
world of all criminals only for him to be pursued by the mysterious international super detective known as L the two entering a war of misdirection and espionage as light attempts to discover Elves true identity while L seeks to bring justice to the one known as Kira like a lot of great shown in series the drama of Death Note came from the rivalry that existed between these two characters but unlike a lot of more traditional Shonen the language the battle played out in was entirely different we're in a more traditional battle series a devastating physical attack
might be a dramatic turning point in the conflicts but in Death Note it was when one character outmaneuvered the other by causing them to give away information that left them at a disadvantage and so despite the fact that there is no physical combat death notes Jules felt dangerous and exciting and critically that feeling was also conveyed by the visuals of the anime The Death Note anime was directed by Tetsuro Araki a man made famous by his ability to direct exciting and insane action scenes if you've ever seen the boob matrix shot from high school of
the Dead yeah that's this guy but this time he's using his abilities to give tiny seemingly insignificant little actions like writing in a notebook waste and consequence by using extreme close-ups sweeping dynamic camera angles and jagged punchy editing meaning that while Death Note is really just a show about a boy writing in his diary it always has this massive bombardment of these scenes are kind of absurd but I think that absurdity only adds to the enjoyment of this kind of storytelling Jeff too has a video on this subject I will confirm that the rumors of
Jeff who and I hating each other are true but even a broken clock is Right twice a day and he did okay on that one Death Note was a smash hit selling tens of millions of copies adopted into six movies and seven different video games and is still today regarded as one of the best anime for people who don't watch anime I have friends who actively mock me whenever I wear one of my several Dragon Ball Z t-shirts but have read and enjoyed Death Note and I think a big part of that is how successful
the series was at capturing what makes a battle anime so exciting but distilling it into a format more palatable to your average media consumer the success of Death Note shows the potential power of this kind of storytelling but there's been a lot of lesser-known non battle battle anime that retained that same feeling of excitement and tension while also forgoing traditional battle formats and particularly anything by nobuyuki fukumoto from mahjong to office management's this guy is basically the king of this kind of storytelling I would describe the more tense moments of some of his stories as
genuinely unbearable he's a master of locking his characters in intense psychological battles and raising the stakes to near excruciating levels the only reason this video isn't entirely about Kaiji ultimate survivor is because that video already exists because I made it other series like liar game strip out the pretense of bottled nearly entirely focusing only on a very simple set of rules but with a heavy focus on applying a psychological pressure to your opponents and waiting for them to crack up until now we've mainly talked about series to replace physical battles with psychological ones but the
great thing about non battle series is their appeal is potentially a lot broader than that as you can replace the idea of battle with basically anything cooking science acting to the point that I'd say non battle series are the cross-pollination of traditional shown and battle with any other genre and it's here where things start to get really interesting because we could potentially have a shown in battle manga about something like making comic books which brings us tidally back to Bakuman Bakuman follows the story of our artist writer duo as they attempt to create a manga
that will take them to the peak of shounen jump the battles this time being the pages of weekly shonen jump itself as the different artists fight to become the number one series of the magazine every week in the reader popularity polls the top series climbing ever closer to the hallowed ground of anime adaptation while those on the bottom plummet towards cancellation what makes it feel like a legitimate battle series is how Bakuman uses the conventions of traditional battle titles to build its story there's everything from overpowered rival characters to the learning of new more advanced
techniques to even an ongoing desire to grow and become stronger and critically Bakuman isn't just written like a battle series but it's drawn like one as well in the same way death notes Direction works to give the minut physical actions weight and drama orbiters artwork does the same for come on he uses dramatic forced perspective to make these simple act of drawing feel like these characters are unleashing these massive special attacks he draws the characters in these exaggerated expressive poses that convey the passion and energy they have for creating manga and lays it all out
with this loose chaotic paneling that makes the more dramatic moments of the story you feel like a legitimate Vice Buckman is intense and exciting but the final part of what makes it great is that it also has this weird metafictional charm to it it's the story of an artist writer duo creating a non battle battle manga for a fictional version of shown and jump while also in reality being aid non battle battle manga written by an artist writer duo for the actual real life shown and jump and while that is interesting to think about in
a reality bending kinda way it also means that Bakuman has this super interesting insight not just into jump the magazine but the process of creating comics themselves and this is what I loved about non battle series they have the potential to open us up to entirely new worlds anything can potentially be the subject for a non battle series and if you don't believe me I want to take a moment and talk about one of my favorites the tears of God a non battle battle series about wine tasting look I swear to god this is good
also known as drops of God it follows the story of Kanzaki Shizuku who from early childhood underwent brutal training from his father analyse wine critic who would feed his son on a diet of bitter fruit force him to smell belt leather for errors and have him memorized the taste of knives and pencils all to help develop a highly sophisticated palate so he could one day become the greatest wine taster of all time only for Shizuku later in life to discover that his father also has a second son worn also highly trained in wine tasting with
the two becoming bitter rivals in their battle to inherit their father's legacy and discover the ultimate wine the tears of God and if that plot sounds familiar it's because it's the exact plot of groppler Bakke only with wine tasting instead of fighting tears of God is compellingly told and beautifully illustrated what a love the phone of the series is seeing how something as passive as wine tasting is framed as a combative contest with a character's expertise in wine given them the technique to unleash a wines true flavor and allowing them to taste the secret message
of each bottle and if you think that sounds insane it really is one wine tastes like the rock band Queen another like saying goodbye to your mother and yet another like killing children it's weird but part of the fun of non bottle series is seeing subjects depicted with an absurd level of intensity and in this case watching people be very very very serious about wine and I know it's successful because it actually kind of made me give a [ __ ] about wine tasting oil also being so warmly received by the wine tasting community the
tears of God started to spike the market value of many of the wines featured in it if something like tears of God can work in a bottle format that essentially opens the floodgates anything can be the subject of a bottle series and those subjects can potentially convey new different kinds of stories and that friends brings us to our final series of the video and one of my favorites from last season Kaguya love is war khaki olive is war is like a combination of everything we've talked about today it's a psychological war between two characters it
turns seemingly mundane interactions into heart-stopping bottles and uses the hallmarks of battle manga to express something not possible in a more traditional battle format Kalia shinomiya is the proud aristocratic daughter of a wealthy family my Yuki Shiro Ghani is the stoic accomplished student body president the two together being popular attractive well-respected members of the student council who are also totally in love with each other but there's a problem neither Cagayan or my you GE are willing to sacrifice their pride by admitting their affection both being assured of their own superiority and ability to make the
other person confess first and so the to enter a war of emotional manipulation trying to force each other into a position that they have to show some sign of affection and in doing so causing them to lose ground in this battle of romantic attrition with each episode broke into three distinct matches with a winner and a loser declared at the each one of my favorite bottles of this show starts when our two protagonists find themselves facing a rain drenched walk home both characters know that if they're seen walking under the same umbrella it could be
interpreted as the to being in an intimate relationship and so the one who offers shelter to the other could be seen as attempting to initiate that intimacy both claimed to have forgotten their umbrellas which is of course a lie on both parts and the battle begins my Yuki takes the offensive questioning hell Kaguya with her mansion full of servants could have possibly been left leave her home without adequate protection from the rain but without any real information to back it up Kaguya casually sidesteps me Yuki's accusations my Yuki completely unaware that he's now fallen into
cockiest trap Kaguya having engineered this entire scenario including carefully monitoring the weather forecasts and slashing the tires of her own driver's car earlier in the conversation while you he claimed that he had forgotten his umbrella because he hadn't seen the morning weather report but Kagura having done her research knows why Yuki took the train to school instead of cycling something he would have only done if he'd known it was going to rain a piece of information he only could have had if he checks the morning weather forecast meaning he did check the weather report he
did remember his umbrella and why don't they both peer into his bag to confirm it seems like this are what make Agia so much fun whether the characters are trying and failing to play volleyball or just eating additive katsu restaurants it always has this big bottle feel to it but what makes the show really special is the story it tells through these battles slowly peeling away the mask of both characters and showing them as these shy flawed people they really are both Kagura and my Yuki are arrogant and prideful buts the more we learn about
them the more we see that these bottles are really just a way for both characters to guard themselves against their own insecurities and that sort of things kind of amazing about this show it takes the conventions of a bottle anime and somehow uses them to tell a story about the simple fear of vulnerability and I mean we've all been there we've all been afraid to put ourselves out there with someone we're alike for fear of what might happen if we do and the fact that Kalia manages to capture that universal fear of intimacy while also
telling a story with the hilarity and intensity of a traditional battle manga hell that is why it's my favorite show of the year so far if I've sent a dismissive of traditional battle series in this video I don't mean to I love them with a fire I have spent most of my time on YouTube trying to express and justify and that's also why I get excited when I see the core of what makes these series grace being expressed in new original ways I think battle as a genre still has a tremendous amount of unexplored potential
what series like dr. stone and Provost Neverland becoming some of the biggest titles of the current age I can't help but be excited for the potential of battle series yet to come friends thank you for joining me today I really hope you enjoyed this video and hey if you did why not saunter over to patreon calm for it slash super eyepatch wolf where you can become an official member of the eyepatch Wolf Pack with all these stunningly attractive people right here and whether you are a past present or future patron I just want to thank
you so much for letting me do this on a full-time basis special shoutouts this week to poke a serous Greta gabba gabba L or hull rafter man and O'Leary and never run before as always find me on Twitter TV Ford / super eyepatch wolf hosting the let's fight a boss video game podcast or on Twitter at I pad twelve friends take care of yourselves and I'll see you next time
