Roasting Apple Black, Chapter 1 (Part 3)
Introducing: Ryuzaki "Ruby" Bakugo
The scene shifts to Sano, who’s struggling with the map of Newgarth, and his ditzy behavior is cut short with a punch from Ryuzaki, aka Bakugo Kneepads. Ryuzaki’s personality is. just. Bakugo. It’d be easier for everyone if I just called him Bakugo Kneepads. Everyone except WhytManga, that is. He gets very sensitive when you compare these two characters, and is quick to remind you that, actually, he thought of Ryuzaki first.
I have legitimately never understood why he’s so personally hurt over this. He’s Bakugo. Who cares. If anyone compared my OC to Bakugo I’d draw the two of them hanging out and giving each other noogies all the time. Play into it, dude! Don’t get so defensive!
Something that I truly love about manga is how blatant it is about being remix culture. Mangaka aren’t afraid to play into tropes and give audiences what they want.
I’m sure you’d understand if someone told you, “the tsundere character in this anime is exactly my type, I’ll give it a try.” I can buy an infinite number of manga that feature a character that looks like my favorite character. Maybe these characters came before or after my fave, I don’t care, I’m having fun.
One of the single most catastrophic things missing from the “international” manga scene is the fact that we don’t have anything resembling doujinshi culture. That’s a whole topic by itself, but I want to specifically focus on what doujinshi can tell us about an artist’s values.
There’s something so uniquely gratifying about buying a smalltime artists doujinshi, and a few years later, they get a manga serialization. And what’s especially interesting is when you can piece together that lineage, and you see what they valued in their secondary works carry onto their original works. And this is never treated as something shameful or unoriginal: the doujinshi is an avenue for a creator to express their interests, and we’ll see those interests carry into and evolve with their original IP’s. And, sure, we can kind of get that if you sift through an artist’s fanart and whatever keychains they sold at the artist’s alley. But the doujinshi to manga pipeline feels much bigger, more “real,” since it’s the same medium.
Being so far removed from this remix culture is an interesting angle when we’re debating over whether or not international manga is “real” manga. Because the heart of that debate is trying to decipher what makes a manga “a manga” : and these cultural differences feed into what we perceive as a manga, whether we’re aware of them or not.
My point in bringing this up: I can only interpret this persistent Bakugo-related shame and anxiety as something rooted outside of the otaku mindset. And I know that sounds silly since Apple Black, whether you want to call it a manga or not, is roughly manga-shaped, and, 20 pages in, it does read like someone who specifically loves shonen manga.
This art style wasn’t flippantly chosen because it feels cool. Whyt’s art style comes from 10,000 hours of reading Bleach… but this isn’t read the same way as the guy who read Bleach by buying Shonen Jump every week at his local 7-11.
By the way— I’m not saying this to judge or shame anyone. An interesting variable in “international manga” is there’s manga in Japan that feel less like “a manga” than select international manga. (My prime example is comparing the proudly-dingy “Beastars” with Saturday AM’s “Otherworld Travel Agency”.).
I talk about this a lot, because I don’t have a concrete answer, and I enjoy hearing all sides of this argument.
Regardless. Constantly comparing Ryuzaki to Bakugo— even if it’s just the fans doing this— happens when you have that smaller frame of reference, when you aren’t inundated with manga from birth, when you stare blankly if someone describes Bakugo as Deku’s osananajimi.
So our hotheaded rival shows up, tries to kick Sano’s ass… because he’s the Trinity, so Ryuzaki the Bakugo sees Sano as a Worthy Opponent. He starts kicking and blasting fireballs and being a huge pain, but Symon with a Y takes Sano aside to safety. Symon explains that he does believe the prophesy, he believes that Sano is the chosen one who will bring peace and harmony. And while this would be a straightforward “meet the classmates” scene in any other manga, but instead, it’s another chance to flex a power level. Sano is confused by Ryuzaki’s hot-headedness (“This can’t be how friends greet each other. This guy’s a lunatic!”) …but he’s able to completely read Symon.
After Symon points out that Ryuzaki was “just testing one’s skill, I suppose,” Sano counters with this:
“I know. That’s why I didn’t dodge. This might sound weird coming from someone who’s been isolated their whole life… but your look baffles me. I don’t even think you need those glasses. At least I understand Ryuzaki’s motives, but you… You’re scarier than Ryuzaki.”
Yeah, Sano, it does sound weird coming from someone who’s been isolated their whole life. You pointing out your astute people-reading skills does not make it any less weird.
When it comes to characters raised in isolation, taking a more lighthearted approach means they aren’t going to actually act like they’ve been isolated. Growing up in isolation can severely damage a person’s wellbeing.
But this is anime! I’m willing to suspend my disbelief. Princess Fiona can be a lovestruck romantic, Rapunzel can be a super quirky ball of sunshine. I’m assuming that Sano is going for something similar. He’s all giggles and merriment to finally begin school and start making friends.
So this moment where he reads Symon does not, at all, even a little, make sense.
When it comes to this flavor of anime bullshit, you have to pick one and stick with it. If we saw Sano was studying up on advanced psychology before he came to Hogwarts, I could maybe buy this moment (I’m imagining a character who’s autistic-coded and did nothing but read about human interactions their entire life)— but in that case, I’d wonder why he’d reveal something so crucial to Symon.
This moment exists because this line: “You’re scarier than Ryuzaki” is meant to shock the audience. We thought Ryuzaki was a big tough badass, but Symon is actually scarier!?!? I don’t see how Symon is actually scarier, he’s just kinda vibing in the background. Maybe not everyone needs to constantly swing their dick around and state their power level.
Or maybe this is the WhytManga’s fear creeping onto the page: maybe his biggest fear is dudes who read. Given how this dork obsesses over his Goodreads reviews but barely clocks in any books, I can see why Symon would be his worst nightmare.
So Mikael finds the three knuckleheads, he gives them detention, leads them to class, Sano gets flustered by Lilly saying hi. Which would be a total nothing burger, but more time is given to Sano getting the side-eye from another tough-guy. You’d think his first interaction with a girl would be more important and warrant more screen time, but this manga’s core ethos is who can beat up who.
It is all spectacularly fucking lame and I’m only halfway through the chapter.