Roasting Apple Black by WhytManga: The Prelude
i must remind you that whytmanga is my Favorite
Last summer, I roasted the Apple Black light novel and I made it out alive.
There are no new warrants for my arrest. The typical “I can no longer associate with this individual” messages written about me didn’t deviate too hard from the weekly average. The YouTube adaptation did pretty well, despite being demonetized (and demonetized videos will always have a harder time in the algorithm)
Therefore, I feel emboldened to roast the mainline “Apple Black” manga.
No matter how harsh I am going to be, I want to make this clear:
I want Odunze Oguguo, aka WhytManga, to have a career as a mangaka.
No matter how much I snark and side-eye this awful, awful series (and his dorky youtube content), the worst case scenario for any of this is Whyt calls it quits retires from the Internet. I do not want that to happen.
Consider my posts on Apple Black a public service announcement intended to rally the troops and support this artist I so deeply love.
I need Apple Black to continue.
I need you to give this series a 5-star review on Goodreads. You don’t have to comment anything nice or at all. But the five stars is vital.
If you’ve got a little extra scratch, I want you to buy the Apple Black manga, specifically, Volume 5.
Volume 5 is struggling.
Volumes 1-4 enjoyed a nationwide distribution at Walmart and Barnes & Noble. Volume 5 isn’t getting the same treatment. Later volumes in a series naturally have a harder time with sales—and being unable to walk into any random B&N or Walmart and pick it up is another punch to the sales gut.
Again: I want this series to continue.
According to the Apple Black wiki, “At NC Comic Con 2023, Creator, WhytManga, says that he intends to have the series run until like Volumes 24-26.” They didn’t provide a clip of this statement, so who knows how much Whyt stumbled over himself to arrive at the conclusion that he wants to make 24, possibly 26 volumes.
The closest I can find is on his Twitter, he said that 23 volumes would be “perfect” for Apple Black (source)
Too bad he mistakes Ryuzaki for “Ruby” so, who knows what was goin on in his noggin when he tweeted that.
Regardless. If Apple Black ends at volume 5, that is catastrophic. That is cutting his magnum opus short (Keep in mind that this series began in 2014 and has undergone far too many reboots and redraws to arrive at the version currently in print).
I will be reviewing this series in its entirety, using the Kobo e-books for volumes 1-4.
I will give my notes as I read each chapter.
Volume 5 isn’t available on Kobo just yet (The eBook for “Apple Black Origins” was released on Amazon months before other platforms, something similar may be happening here). I’ll figure out how I’ll read volume 5 when I get to it. My point is, because this series has endured so many tweaks from the webcomic version to the latest version (that is, the version distributed by Quatro Publishers), I should clarify which one I’m reading for this review.
It’d be easier to just call this version of Apple Black the “definitive director’s cut.” It’s a darn shame that Whyt could never string together such a simple explanation. Here’s how he breaks it down on Volume 1 of Apple Black’s Goodreads page:
I do not need a complete play-by-play with what’s different in this book. Do I need to know you drew a new cover? Are you afraid I’ll get confused?? Just say this version’s the director’s cut. Boom. Done.
There’s a comment like this on all of his books, by the way.
I still have no idea what Apple Black is about, how he felt making it, or why I should read it. Whyt has truly mastered the art of using words to say less than nothing.
So I will be going through chapter-by-chapter and giving my commentary. I bring to this review my knowledge from reading the prequel light novel, Apple Black Origins, and from being a subscriber to his YouTube channel. I have not watched every video he’s made, because my love has its limits.
And that’s another factor driving this exhaustive review.
Apple Black owes much of its success to Whyt’s YouTube presence.
True to the shonen manga formula, I've been drawn into Whyt's orbit, following the same path, like a rival destined for an explosive showdown. I started with manga and I’ve fallen into YouTube, and I’m hoping to leverage my YouTube success to bolster my manga career. Just like Whyt.
Surprisingly, social media is Whyt’s biggest moneymaker. This was shared courtesy of my mole in Whyt’s patreon discord:
Social media is his biggest moneymaker?! That means he’s not a mangaka, he’s an influencer. No shame in that: I’m in the same boat.
But if he can’t use his platform to make the gang open their wallets for volume 5 of Apple Black, then, well, what’s the next move? What will this all be for if he can’t secure the future of his series?
I don’t want to find out.
Sickeningly, our YouTube accounts have the same Social Blade grade.
If we’re on the same path, then I’m already in his rearview mirror. If this is the tournament arc he holds so dear, I’m the dark horse that makes Whyt rethink his entire existence. Fuck being his cutesy “forgotten rival”. I’m promoting myself to villain of this story and serving Whyt the character development he didn’t know he needed.
Because if your manga sucks, it doesn’t matter how big of a following you have on YouTube. All signs point to Whyt being another influencer with delusions of artistic grandeur.
Which is exactly what I want to be.
So if this terrible, terrible manga can tough it out ‘til volume 24 (or 26, possibly, maybe), then that gives me hope. But make no mistake: this manga sucks. And it’d have a hell of a better shot surviving if it didn’t suck.
As of this writing, I have read one chapter of Apple Black. I am not saying this to be hyperbolic or as a joke: This is the worst “Chapter 1” of a manga I have ever read.
Which is why I’m kicking this review series off with a villain monologue instead of just diving into this shit pile. It is uniquely terrible.
I am speaking as someone who follows Shonen Flop and reads a lot of amateur webcomics. Despite charging into my YouTube reviews with a boisterous “fuck you” attitude that went extinct when Nostalgia Critic stopped being cool, I know I’m a notch more forgiving to amateur art than your average “angry pngtuber reviewer”. But I am struggling to find any redeeming qualities with Apple Black. This manga is flatly terrible. Given Whyt’s stubborn nature, I am pessimistic on this series ever rethinking its approach and finding its footing.
In my next posts, I will thoroughly make my case for why Apple Black is awful. No stone unturned, no nitpick too petty. If Whyt does find this, I hope his plot armor lets him brush me off and continue, business as usual, and continue to be an inspiring beacon for wannabe mangakas everywhere. If he can make it, we can all make it.
But its about time someone gives this manga the pummeling it deserves.
I'm so ready for more.