Roasting Apple Black, Chapter 1 (Part 4)

You will never be Dog Ningen.

At the halfway point of Chapter 1, we finally meet Madame Naomi. Suddenly, I no longer wish to nitpick. I can only admire her for the beauty she is. This babe is an absolute smoke show and I’ve busted a fair amount of nuts to her enormous saggy tits, so no matter what, an appearance from Madame Naomi means this automatically makes this chapter better than the rest. Madame Naomi unironically makes me want to hook up with a gilf. That is not a joke. Not a bit. I want to plow someone’s grandma and ruin both Thanksgiving and Christmas when she invites me as her “very special friend”.

I know Whyt has drawn Madame Naomi in her younger years and I absolutely, unquestionably, fucking hate that every time I see it. This woman needed time to mature and age into the beauty she is today.

There’s plenty of anime characters with full, round breasts, showing off their goods. How many saggy gilfs are showing off their goods? It’d be zero if it wasn’t for Whyt’s heroic efforts.

When I’m hit with post-nut clarity over Madame Naomi, I do have to wonder what’s the intent of the character. Was this intended as a cool body positive move— that is, just because you’re old, doesn’t mean you need to be stuffy and dial back the fun. Or was she made to be subversive- like, here’s your fan service chick, fuck you, only the grandma is gonna be the sultry temptress. Or is this supposed to be a gross-out thing?

“Gross out” seems to be the canonical attitude. Angelo isn’t too pleased to see her naked, and he’s letting her know. So if this was intended to be something body-positive, it’s ruined by the other character’s reactions.

I guess we’ll see how others react to Madame Naomi before we jump to any conclusions. Maybe Angelo’s just too much of a soy boy to appreciate this goddess for who she is.

Because I will keep saying it: I fucking love her body type. One of my biggest kinks is post weight loss flabby bellies (Look up “loose_skin” on e621). I am the only person on the goddamn planet regularly making kink art of this, so admiring saggy breasts works as a decent substitute when I want to spice things up and beat off to something other than my own art (for anyone looking to max out our parasocial relationship, 99% of my fap journal involves Volo).

So far, sexuality in Apple Black has been treated as something to make you look ditzy. Symon hides his power level by openly gushing over Princess Zion being “extremely hot”. He really loves sharing how enamored he is with this big-tit viking babe manga, because it makes him look stupid.

What little we’ve seen of Sano’s sexuality is more of a pure puppy love, and it immediately inebriates him— but he doesn’t totally understand it, either.

I will abstain from sweeping judgments about how Apple Black treats sexuality until I’m a little deeper in, but so far, this doesn’t leave me with a lot of hope.

So Mikael the Teacher tells Sano to “stay put” while he gets him a dorm. Sano notices a poster for Gideon Banburi, who I, too, recognize from the light novel.

for once me and sano had the same reaction

But they lobbed some information that contradicts what we learned in the light novel, so I needed to take some notes and try to figure this out.

Guys, I’m making a genuine effort to keep up, here.

But then I was thrown with something even dumber.

sorry i have to keep reminding about the reversed page order but i hATE IT I FUCKING HATE IT. HOW DO YOU FUCK UP A BOOK THIS BADLY, ITS A DIGITAL BOOK, YOU CANT EVEN SAY SOMEONE FELL ASLEEP AT THE PRINTING PRESS, HOW THE FUCK DOES THIS HAPPEN, HOW DID NO ONE FUCKING CHECK THIS EBOOK BEFORE THEY THREW IT ON THEIR DIGITAL SHELF. FUCK!!!!!!

Mikael the Teacher tells Sano “You’re the face reader… you tell me.”

Is super empathy just one of Sano’s superpowers? Is he the world’s most specialist little empath?? That moment with Symon was bullshit, but if it was a one-off moment because Symon’s such a sneaky little rat, then, sure, it’s still dumb but it’s not the worst thing going on. Already I’m sensing Sano’s Profound Empathy is going to be one of those overpowered cheat codes to be used as an unnecessary plot lubricant.

So Sano gets hungry, wanders off looking for the cafeteria, and bumps into the rebel who muscled past the guards earlier in the chapter. And Sano bluntly asks this grunt if he can talk to his leader, Gideon Banburi (which makes Sano look stupid, and pisses off the bad guy).

Sano!! SANO!! SANO YOU DUMB! FUCK!! WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS! I thought I was going to begrudgingly accept that you have overpowered SuperEmpathy, now you’re putting your foot in your mouth and acting Totez Awkward!!! Do you have superempathy or not???

When a story is propelled by character’s emotions, that leaves a lot of room for variance. Emotions are difficult and tricky and everyone’s different— but a good writer will guide you through this and let you see everyone’s point-of-view. Stories based around power levels don’t have to do as much heavy lifting in this department. With good fight choreography, you can tell a compelling narrative without digging deep into how the characters feel.

Sano’s empathy is the worst of all worlds. It conveniently turns on when it needs the plot to move forward, but otherwise, he’s a bumbling doofus who’s naively sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.

So they get into a fight, there’s some Talk No Jutsu, and I’m wondering which book Sano picked this line up from

Sano reveals he has Arodih’s arm, they fight some more, we lean Sano has a bounty on his head (????) and we learn Rebel Dude is atheist/agnostic on The Prophesy (so now I want to start a tally on how many people don’t believe it)

Anyway, Sano wins the fight, and he uses that as a springboard to pontificate about forgiveness.

this would have a lot more impact if the PAGES WERE IN THE CORRECT ORDER

I hated this page. It felt like an inverse of Dog Ningen’s chapter 1 ending. Except Dog Ningen was, like, good.

Now I’m just thinking of Dog Ningen and how that manga kicks so much ass and how much I’d rather be reading that. In Chapter 1 of Dog Ningen, we learn:

• Character’s history

• What makes him unique

• Personal motivation

Meanwhile, one chapter into Apple Black and I’m already taking notes so I don’t get lost. God, what a headache.

Onward to Chapter 2!