Soul Eater Chapter 66: No, Ohkubo, actually, there ARE Kinko's stores in Africa. I'm serious.

[nenena]

Scene: Central Africa. No need to specify a country, I guess, since "Africa" is all one big indistinguishable mass. Goddammit, Ohkubo.

Kilik, the pots, Liz, and Patti are walking around in what appears to be a more-or-less abandoned town. And they're all wearing SHINIGAMI BLUETOOTH. Awesome.

Also notable: Kilik is wearing twin underarm holsters.

Azusa is communicating with them from inside The Mystery Machine her mobile command unit. "Kilik, Thompsons, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear!"

"This is the Death Scythe, Yumi Azusa." Yeah okay I think they know that? Unless she has to say that because this entire mission is being Recorded for Quality Control Purposes.

"That is the extent of your mission today," Azusa says on the next page. Wait, uh, did we skip a page or something? "This is your first mission as Spartoi. I will be praying for your success."

"Got it," Kilik says. Then he taps his awesome SHINIGAMI BLUETOOTH. "Man, this Demon Tool is amazing. Who would've guessed that you could hear a person's voice through something this small?"

Wait, didn't Sid already use a cell phone in an earlier chapter? And didn't Maka call Big Daddy T-Rex on a tiny handheld mirror? Why are these kids suddenly strangers to modern magical technology?

"It's called a 'Portable Un-Meeting,'" Liz says. Holy shit I hope that cnet can up with a better translation than that, because I'm kind of flabbergasted here. That, or Ohkubo is being deliberately silly with his device names. Meh, I'm going to stick with Shinigami Bluetooth for now.

One of the pots (I can't tell them apart in black & white) suddenly starts slamming his (I think?) hands against the ground, while the other tugs at Kilik's sleeve. "Oh, you found it already?" Kilik says. The ground opens up to reveal an underground staircase. "Good job, Fire, Thunder."

Kilik gears up, with Liz and Patti in his holsters, and the pots strapped to his hips. Oh now that's not cumbersome at all. "Let's go," he says. "This is our first mission as a team. Thompson sisters, are you gonna jam with me?"

"Hopefully not getting our bullets jammed, no." Yes, that is the pun that they're making in Japanese.

Liz and Patti are notably naked in their gun forms, but still wearing their Shinigami Bluetooth. Awesome.

Down Kilik goes. It is very dark in the room at the end of the staircase. "Clear," Kilik says. Wait, dumbass, that's not how you clear a room! You can't just walk into a dark and dangerous unknown space with your guns still in your freakin' shoulder holsters! You're supposed to hold one of your guns out in front of you when--

Oh wait, never mind. I assume that Kilik is taking after Kid in this regard, then. ("Hurrr hurrr I'ma gonna board this demon train with my guns still holstered and OH WAIT SHIT HOW DID THIS MONSTER GET THE DROP ON ME?!?!" See, Kid at least had the excuse that he couldn't climb through a window and hold both guns at the same time, hence he climbed through the window with his guns still holstered. Kilik, on the other hand, has no such limitation regarding needing to hold both guns at once, so he could just--)

I'm sorry, digression.

Anyway, Azusa is speaking through the bluetooth. "Continue forward," she orders Kilik. "I can't confirm on my end whether there are any booby-traps or not, so proceed with extreme caution."

"Roger." Now it looks like Kilik is wandering through a witch's house. Or a mad scientist's house. He passes by a jar full of intestines, and another jar in which a single eyeball floats.

"Liiiiz, lookie lookie!" Patti says. "There's an AWESOME eyeball over--"

"Eeeew, no way! I don't want to look at that! Stop showing me gross things, Pa--"

"Oh, is that how it's gonna be, huh?!" Patti says. Is she talking to Liz? Nope, she's glaring at the eyeball. "If you wanna staring contest, fine, but I ain't gonna lose!"

"Go ahead and let it win, Patti. Staring is its whole identity."

"Ooooh, so it's 'eye' and then 'identity', huh? That's bo~oring."

Yes, that is the same pun in Japanese, again. At least Patti thinks it's lame.

Kilik is making an epic WTF face at his guns now. I think we all know what he's thinking. Kid was probably used to this by the time that Patti started babbling about eyedrops and nonsense when they were in the pyramids together. I think that Kilik is juuuust starting to realize what he's gotten himself into.

"Huh. I guess in terms of power of observation, we still can't compare to Azusa," Liz says. "I really hope that we can reach her level someday, though. We should, since we're guns like her."

"We totally will! A HA HA HA HA HA!" Patti laughs, somewhat maniacally.

Overhearing this, Azusa makes her pissy face. They certainly sound like they're having fun! "Kids, you should know by now that flattery won't get you anywhere with me! Quit your babbling and get on with the mission!"

Scary lady, Kilik thinks. Then he investigates a desk covered in vials of black liquid. "There's a lot of black liquid here," he reports. It's probably ink, genius. Because it's a desk covered in writing utensils. Yeah, I'm guessing ink.

Or possibly black blood.

"Kilik, hold the papers in front of you up to your eyes," Azusa says, getting ready with her pen. "I'm going to make copies of them."

Or, you know, Kilik could just take the papers with him and then they could all, like, make copies at Kinko's or something. Hell, Shibusen is a school, they must have at least ONE working copy machine, right?!

But nooooo, this is Shibusen, and we're going to do things the hard way! Azusa DRAMATICALLY SCRIBBLES FURIOUSLY in a scene that would make Yagami Light proud, as she orders Kilik to look at each paper in succession. "Next. Next. Next!"

"That's almost all of them..."

"All right," Azusa says. "We're finished here. Please return immediately. And thank you for your hard work."

Wait, so Kilik is just going to leave all of those papers behind? Instead of like, you know, taking them with him? Huh. I would buy this if and only if there had been some previous indication that a) this lab was still in use and b) Kilik & Co. wanted to sneak in and sneak out without leaving behind any evidence that they had ever been there in the first place. We already know that neither is true, however, since a) the lab is clearly abandoned and b) Kilik re-arranged and then neatly stacked up the papers on the desk, thus leaving behind an obvious sign that some stranger had pawed and read through those notes.

Sooooo, why is he leaving those papers behind, again?

Because Clown, I guess.

"Man, no enemies, no traps, no nothing!" Kilik says. "This mission was too easy. Oh well. Let's get out of here."

Kilik climbs up the staircase and into the bright sunlight. He flinches, momentarily blinded. "Too bright..." Then he realizes that there are some men standing in front of him. "?"

These guys, they don't look very happy. "Looks like the townsfolk have arrived..." Kilik comments. (This, too, was a very bad place to put ellipses, Ohkubo. Just saying.)

Kim and Jackie are overhead, flying air support. "Kim, can you see what I'm looking at right now?" Azusa asks. "I've linked you to my observation abilities. Let's see if this works."

"Whoa... No way! I can see it, I can see it!" Kim sees a vision of the pages that Azusa just copied down.

"Good. Then please begin analysis of the data that you see in front of you immediately." I guess because Kim is a witch, so she's the only one who can understand the writing in the pages that Azusa's got? Maybe, possibly?

"Roger!"

Wait, WTF? If they already have the pages safely copied, why couldn't Azusa just... I dunno, wait until the mission is over, then hand the pages to Kim and have her look at them the old-fashioned way?! You know, with her own eyes?! What's so insanely important about these pages that Kim has to read them RIGHT FUCKING NOW?!?! And also, what's preventing Kim from flying down there and looking at the pages with Azusa anyway? Why does Kim have to stay distant and airborne? It's not like she's going to be able to help out in a fight when she's busy reading Azusa's book by proxy.

I think I detect of whiff of LOL AWSUM MAGIKUL POWERZ for the sake of LOL AWSUM MAGIKUL POWERZ even thought said LOL AWSUM MAGIKUL POWERZ are really excessive and unecessary in this case.

Anyway, down below, Kilik is staying cool as a cucumber. "Uh, hey," he says to the men slowly surrounding him. "We're from Shibusen. Sorry for intruding like this."

Above, Kim is still reading the book. "Madness. Kishin. Black Blood. Crona...?!"

Down below, the townspeople still aren't speaking, but they're leering and lurching toward Kilik. One of them is drooling. Their eyes are blank. Kim's word bubbles overlay Kilik's scene: "This research... Is about manipulating insanity with magic?"

"Their eyes are weird," Patti observes, watching the townspeople draw closer. "Even Zu-san would be surprised."

"Hey!" Liz shouts. "I don't think these guys are--"

And then one of the dudes pulls out a gun and shoots Kilik.

"Uwa!!" Kilik, however, being awesome, manages to dance backwards like a dork, avoid certain death, and then dive behind a wall as more guns are pulled out and the bullets start flying toward him. "What's up with these guys?!"

Azusa finally overhears the sounds of the fight. "Kilik... This is Azusa."

Let's try that again.

"Kilik. This is Azusa."

Better.

"Kilik, this is Azusa."

Even better.

Goddammit, Ohkubo!

"What's going on?" Azusa asks.

"The people in this town are attacking me, for some reason!" Kilik runs for new cover. "But now I think it's time to fight back." The townspeople charge toward Kilik, looking very much like grotesque, overly-limber zombies now. Kilik pulls out his guns. "Give me non-lethal level bullets," he orders Liz and Patti. And then he fires.

Well, that takes down the dudes charging in front of him, but Kilik has managed to trap himself in a narrow alley that happens to be open at both ends (KID-LEVEL DUMBASSERY ALERT oh god this is so beautiful) and now here comes another group of zombies from behind him with--

HOLY SHIT A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL!!

"HOLY SHIT A MOLOTOV COCKTAIL!!" Kilik exclaims.

And then the alley goes kaboom.

Kilik, however, has escaped! By... using his hithero-unmentioned Spiderman powers to climb up the walls of the alley. Okay. He leaps onto the roof of a building, only to be confronted with--

"No freakin' way!" The barrel of an assault rifle, pointed right at him. "They're on the roofs, too?!" Somehow Kilik manages to avoid being turned into a fine red mist by the assault rifle, then draws Liz and Patti and takes down the rooftop zombies.

"Kili-chan!!" Patti shouts! "R! P! G!"

That stands for Rocket-propelled grenade, in case you didn't know. And indeed, there is now one flying directly at Kilik's head.

"You have got to be kidding me," Kilik says. He managed to avoid the explosion at the last minute by leaping backwards again.

"HEY, KIM!" Kilik screams into his bluetooth. "I'M KINDA, LIKE, GETTING KILLED OVER HERE!! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE AND GET US OUT!!"

Kim flys over and looks down at the brutal scene of urban warfare. "Hey, what's going on over here...?" And then, of course, a bunch of armed zombies on a rooftop start shooting at her.

See, guys? This is why y'all should have just STUCK WITH KINKO'S. Seriously. If it hadn't been for Azusa and Kim wasting their time reading Medusa's (I'm assuming that it's Medusa's) leftover notes, they wouldn't have not noticed the giant battle going on in the town before now. And Kim wouldn't have been caught by surprise by a battalion of zombies wielding machine guns.

"Hey, what the hell?! I'm being attacked over here!" Kim shouts into the bluetooth.

"Man, we are so fail today," Kilik comments, before he takes a flying leap off the rooftop and down through the window of an abandoned building, ducking and rolling for cover.

Hey, he leapt through the window with both guns drawn!

KID ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS?! THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT!

Kilik listens to Azusa yelling at Kim over the bluetooth. "Kim!! Get out of there right now!!"

"Kim!! Jacqueline!! Are you guys all right?!" Kilik asks the bluetooth. No answer. "Damn... Now I'm worried about those two. But we can't get out of this on our own..."

"So get your heads together!" Azusa shouts at both of them. THANK YOU Logic Lady! "Kim!! Kilik!! Right now I'm using my observation powers to find a rendezvous point for both of you to meet up at! From now on, you both have to move exactly as I tell you to!"

Azusa begins to direct Kilik. "Get out of that room. Turn right. At the next corner, turn right again. Jump - through that window - into the next building. Turn left right away."

Kilik runs through a hallway. Jackie flys through the air.

"Good," Azusa tells Kilik. "Now keep going straight, stay totally straight, just a little bit further."

"What do you mean, 'straight'?! There's nothing but a huge wall right in front of me! Are you sure you're not...?"

"You're a man, aren't you?! Now give that wall a good punch!"

Kilik pots up and punches a hole straight through the wall. He bursts into the outdoors, leaping straight through the air toward Kim. "Yo," he says.

"You just scared the crap out of me!"

Kilik flies through the air and grabs onto Jackie's handle. "Hold on tight!" Kim informs him. Yeah, Kim, I don't think there's any danger of Kilik not holding on as tight as he can right now.

"Here we go!!" Jackie shouts. And then she like, I dunno, farts sonic rocket power, or something.

Cue the fiery sonic boom.

"Jackie, I think you may be overdoing it a bit," Kim comments as they zoom away.

Scene change. Kim, Jackie, Kilik, and Liz are standing beneath a tree. Patti whirls the pots around in her arms. "Azusa... This is Kim," Kim says into her bluetooth.

Oh, fuck me. "Azusa. This is Kim." or "Azusa, this is Kim." For fuck's sake, Ohkubo!

"We have successfully rendezvoused with Kilik's team," Kim continues, "and have just landed in a safe place far from the town. Yes... All right. Later, then." Kim turns to the others. "Azusa said that they're going to blockade that town."

"What the hell was all that, anyway?" Kilik asks. "Was that the result of Medusa's freaky research?"

"Maybe," Kim says. "It looks like Medusa was researching a method to control insanity. Didn't you see the eyes of the townspeople? There was something really, really wrong with their eyes. There was stuff about Maka's friend Crona written in Medusa's report, too. Crona, too, might already be..."

Okay, stop. Full stop.

Does anybody here really think that Medusa would be stupid enough to leave her notes lying around on her desk in a totally unsecured location so that anybody from Shibusen could just wander in and steal copy them?!

I don't think so. Not for a moment. Unless she did it deliberately.

I smell a trap.

"Is there any way to return those guys back to normal?" Liz asks Kim.

"Obviously, there should be," Kim says. "But there were no pages related to any kind of cure left behind in those research notes."

"Black Star's team might have found something useful on their mission," Jackie points out.

"For now, though, we really don't know anything," Jackie says, as...

Uh...

As black arrows start rising up out of the ground beneath her feet.

Followed by a hat. A tall, striped, very very very phallic hat.

The twins notice it first. Then Kim. "What the--?!"

It's a giant black goo monster! With arrows! And Ragnarok's lips! And three dots on its forehead! And

oh holy shit oh god no ohkubo please please please don't let this be the new Crona--

"We are the Black Clown," the goo monster introduces itself, "Born from Medusa, inviting you to insanity."

(Oh thank God. It's not Crona and Ragnarok. BTW the Clown is referring to itself with the singular royal we, not the plural we. Sorry if that doesn't come across very well in English.)

The goo melts away from the clown, revealing its true form. Huh, I guess this thing has been taking fashion advice from Noah, then. Well, it is insane, after all.

Caption: ARTIFICIAL BEING BLACK CLOWN

It has smile dimples that are little arrow heads. Kick. Ass.

Heeeey, here's a fun game! Let's count the repitions of the three-motif on the Black Clown's design. I got: Three dots on its forehead, three stripes on each of its fingers, three panels of armor/leather/whatever on its sides, and three stripes on each of its feet. Did I miss any?

The Black Clown grins at them. "Care to fall into insanity?" it asks.

And then the chapter ends.

So! It looks like we've moved away from Team Failboat and back into the Crona storyline, at least for the time being. I wonder if Ohkubo really is going to juggle both storylines at once, switching back and forth between them every couple chapters. Or maybe Medusa and Team Failboat are going to turn out to be more directly connected than we think. Last month, a whole bunch of you predicted that Waffles would eventually meet his end at Crona's hands. I approve of this totally awesome prediction.

And speaking of awesome...

HOW FREAKIN' AWESOME WAS KILIK IN THIS CHAPTER?! Huh?!

And how totally pimping is it that Kilik can fight not just with two partners, but with four?!

That is awesome. That alone definitely propels Kilik into the ranks of being one of the biggest Mack Daddies in this series to far. Which leads me to wonder, as I am wont to wonder when bored: who would y'all rank as the rest of the Biggest Mack Daddies in Soul Eater so far?

Accounting for all possible sources of canon, my personal ranking would look something like this.

~ Nena's Highly Subjective Soul Eater Mack Daddy Ranking Index ~

6. Excalibur
This is assuming that all of the girlfriends that he told Ox about were indeed real women and not just figments of his imagination. They might have just been figments of his imagination.

5. Soul
Soul gets a special spot in the ranking because Maka clearly likes having him between her legs, Blair likes having him between her breasts, Black Star spontaneously generates glittery pink sparkle bubbles of tru wuv whenever he's within hugging range of him, and - according to Japanese fanon - Kid is apparently hot for him too. But then again, Japanese fanon is stupid. (Probably not any more or less stupid than English-speaking "LOL WAFFLES" fanon, but still stupid.) Also, I feel it necessary to remind everyone that Soul was technically penetrated and knocked up by Ragnarok, so we'll add Ragnarok to the list of Soul's hook-ups. Plus, Soul is one hell of a GQMF, so he gets points for that, too.

4. Tie: Ox and Kim
The only two characters who have actually gotten on-screen kisses yet.

3. Stein
Medusa, Marie, and Spirit. Need I say more?

2. Noah
Hooked up with Ponera in the Wii game, probably banged Arachne in the manga, is probably banging Kid right now, and also has Waffles dying to get into his pants. Noah is docked one slot in the ranking, however, for the fact that he apparently doesn't care that Waffles wants to get into his pants. Also, because he can't dress himself.

1. Arachne
Arachne definitely deserves the Numero Uno slot in this ranking, for bagging Giricco, Mosquito, Mifune, Noah, and Asura in her Fabulous Man-Harem of Doom. Granted, her hooking up with Noah backfired in the manga, and her hooking up with Asura rather spectacularly backfired in the anime. But as far as I'm concerned, Arachne still deserves the title of the Biggest Mack Daddy in Soul Eater So Far, if only for the fact that she had the most fabulous man-harem, the most fabulous sense of style, the most fabulous car, the most fabulous wine selection, the most fabulous evil lair, and the most fabulous villainous plot compared to any other character on this list.

Also, you know that Medusa was totally jealous of her sister's Fabulous Man-Harem of Doom. As Arachne herself pointed out, Medusa couldn't even get one guy to mack on her. And said one guy was borderline delusional and suffering from extremely questionable judgement, too. Heck, even Free seems to have passed over Medusa in favor of hawt frog tail.

Medusa may be the shrewder and more successful villain of the two sisters, but she'll never be as faaaaaaaabulous as Arachne was, ever. Not even stealing Arachne's body can increase Medusa's faaaaaaaabulous quotient.

Unless...

Okay, now I'm totally imagining a scenario where Giricco finds out that Medusa has Arachne's body now, goes hubba hubba! and dumps Justin's ass instantly. I will lol so, so hard if that happens. Heck, I will lol forever if it turns out that Giricco survives Noah's death and saunters on into the next story arc, where he becomes a part of Medusa's gang. That would be epic awesome. And it would be super epic awesome if Giricco survives the Team Failboat story arc the exact same way that he survived the Baba Yaga story arc: By standing back and doing absolutely nothing during the finale.


Edited to add: quientusabes has pointed out that Angela deserves a spot in the Mack Daddy rankings, and after reading this comment I'm inclined to agree. We'll put her between Stein and Noah then.

Edited again: I completely agree with what a couple of people on my flist have said today: Even though it was awesome to see Kilik working with the Thompsons, it was also extremely disappointing to NOT see Patti wielding Liz as a technician herself, especially after all of that build-up that we've been getting in the previous chapters.

Comments

[atelierjoh.livejournal.com]

I didn't read this post, but the line "Africa is all one big indistinguishable mass" made my day XD

... Mind if I make that into a text icon?

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Sure, go ahead.

[darksyx.livejournal.com]

"This is the Death Scythe, Yumi Azusa." It's typical for radio hams to stay their code when speaking, so I guess it makes sense that military and the like identify themselves too in operations even if the people involved already know, I think. And it's more exciting when people use silly codes to lose time and let enemies attack you! Very useful in terms of action for the heck of it :D.

Anyway, awesome and funny recap.

(And Patty is such a freak, I love her XD.)

[darksyx.livejournal.com]

And forgot to say... not Crona!!!
*relaxes*

[pachilove.livejournal.com]

Killik has done some massive pwnage now.
Makes me sad how little action the Killik-Kim-Ox team got in the anime :/

No clue whatelse to say other than:
Thank you for the wincakes synopsis |D

[alice-rm.livejournal.com]

KID-LEVEL DUMBASSERY ALERT oh god this is so beautiful
LOL
Maybe that's why Liz and Patti can be used by Kilik lol well, that, and because Kilik is used to weild two weapons at the same time, but is not as funny as the first explanation

Glad to know that that weird thing is not Ragnarok!

And that list is so true! xD but in fanon terms, Kid and Crona are the bicycles of SE IMO

If we're lucky, we will wait only a month to know how Kilik and company are going to escape :S I really hope that they won't be turned into zombies too

As always, thank you very much for the recap!!!

[loliverse.livejournal.com]

Why exactly did I get Resident Evil 5 vibes out of this chapter? Oh right, zombies with guns in Africa. Resident Eater 5 perhaps?

Decent chapter though.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that you weren't the only one reminded of Resident Evil 5.

[zuki-san.livejournal.com]

I kept expecting you to go off about the racist depiction of African people with guns as mindless voodoo thugs at any minute.

Then again, compared to Death Scythe Brazil...

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. With Ohkubo it's always one step forward, two steps backward.

Honestly, I didn't comment about the zombies because I was mentally deflated as soon as I saw "Central Africa" as the caption in the very first panel. Since Ohkubo wasn't even going to bother to specify a country, I kind of expected that I was about to get a less-than-progressive depiction of whatever Ohkubo imagined a dark and scary place like "Central Africa" would be like. I was right.

[alex-servantes.livejournal.com]

Giricco needs a text icon too.
Something like "good at standing back and doing absolutely nothing".
Where Giricco holds a bottle.
Yes.

Also.
Mack Daddy Ranking is awesome:D

[its-onthefritz.livejournal.com]

Haaahaha, the Mack Daddy ranking system is cracking me up.

They might have just been figments of his imagination.

I'm pretty sure they were xD.

Thank you for the chapter summary!

[animeshen.livejournal.com]

oh that cheered me up! I feel better now! XD Thanks for writing this, I needed it today!

[chiikaboom.livejournal.com]

no ocd goth cowboy. BOO.

Kilik was pretty awesome though.

[anitheanimaniac.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. Killik. I'm so glad he is getting more screentime cause I really like him and he's awesome. (Oh gosh I need Killik icons)

Cool chapter, especially since it didn't focus so much on the main team.

[plushabilities.livejournal.com]

HAH! So my first impression was kind of right! SWEET!

[sagesoren.livejournal.com]

Oh god. Am I to assume, therefore, that next chapter might be Black*Star centric?

D:

To make up for this painful injustice, I vote we get a sidestory bonus chapter about Shinigami making spaghetti or something retarded like that. I would read it...

Kilik is awesome, though, and I'm all for him getting more screentime. I agree with the "everyone is potentially falling into Medusa's trap" dealie, too--wouldn't be the first time, after all.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Oh god. Am I to assume, therefore, that next chapter might be Black*Star centric?

No, the next chapter is probably going to be Kilik and Kim's teams fighting the Black Clown. And possibly the chapter after that, too.

The next-next chapter is going to be Black Star-centric. ;)

[sagesoren.livejournal.com]

*s-sob*

Oh, Black*Star. Do something to make me like you a little. Please.

Also, retarded question, but I honestly cannot remember what chapter had Kid and the train thing. I whined at Wikipedia for an answer and found no mention of it in the manga volume summaries. 8|a;;

[nenena.livejournal.com]

It's chapters 30 and 31.

And FYI I'm not a big fan of the word "retarded" for personal reasons, so could I humbly request that we don't use it anymore in my journal? I will, however, gladly answer any "stupid," "blazingly stupid," "moronic," or "completely fucking idiotic" questions that you want to throw my way. ;)

Er, not that your question actually was stupid, or anything. 'Cause it wasn't. (*sticks foot in mouth*)

[sagesoren.livejournal.com]

No, that's totally cool. It was sort of a tactless slip-up on my part, since I try to avoid saying it in the first place. I'm sorry.

A-also, thanks.;;

[quientusabes.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thank you for the recap! Awesome Kilik is Awesome, and the plot is finnally getting to the rescue of sombody! I suspect Black Star team is also looking for clues somewhere. Perhaps.


Bout the Mack Daddy you could totally count Angela, she has hit both Soul and Kid in their private area, had Mifune 24/7, and had pretty much all Arachnofobia workers doing whatever she wanted. Didn´t she?
Oh, and Soul also had both Thompson sisters over him in two covers. Without counting the cover where he is in a boat with Maka and the Thompsons... And Kid. Yeeah.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes, how could I have overlooked Angela?!

So totally adding that in an edit right now.

[sno-oki.livejournal.com]

I loveeeeeeee your summaries. It makes the extra few days wait bearable. And I love your comments about Kid. They're so very, very true.

[olgiebear.livejournal.com]

You forgot to add Blair to Soul's list.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Good lord, you're right. Adding now.

[cykstar.livejournal.com]

When the FLIPPIN hell is Crona coming back? We see she-man screaming like crazy and then it's about Kilik. I wouldn't mind so much if it weren't for the fact that this is a monthly series, not weekly, not even biweekly (I hope I used that word right).

Whatever. This chapter sounds awesome, but I can't help but feel Ohkubo is starting to deviate from the original charm (It just suddenly feels like it changed completely).

[nobl3sse-obl1ge.livejournal.com]

I. I just could not help myself.

Also my sister (papel_luna) says that she wants for Crona to become a weapon and be wielded by Kid.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

I am torn between utter adoration of your icon and the urge to run away screaming from giant neon ellipses. I'M SO CONFUSED!

[elwafler.livejournal.com]

Elipses, hallmark of modern manga.

[takumee.livejournal.com]

"But nooooo, this is Shibusen, and we're going to do things the hard way! Azusa DRAMATICALLY SCRIBBLES FURIOUSLY in a scene that would make Yagami Light proud.."
""Here we go!!" Jackie shouts. And then she like, I dunno, farts sonic rocket power, or something.

These are my favourite parts, mostly because of the mental imagery.
Also, Mack Daddy index ftw.

Can I clarify something? cause I haven't seen the raw.
"the singular royal we, not the plural we."
Is "waga" the royal we, and in what context is it normally used?

[nenena.livejournal.com]

The Clown used ware, actually. Which is so delightfully old-fashioned and snotty that I decided to translate it as the royal "we." But, for the record, ware is singular and wareware would have been the plural "we."

[rarelyupdates.livejournal.com]

Awesome recap. Kilik has awesomeness drenched upon him this chapter. Seriously, Bourne Supremacy meets Resident Evil 5? When he rips off, Ohkubo rips off good. XD
And I never really thought about Arachne being such a player...nice observation skills.

[lmd-84.livejournal.com]

Fun commentary, liked your points about Kilik. :)

I was also wondering about Liz and Patti not working together, although it is very fun to see a different set of characters get some screen-time for once. Definitely enjoyed this chapter. Azusa doesn't take any crap from the kids, whatever Shibusen bit (south-east Asia, was it?) she's in charge of must be a scary place...

Having not been able to follow recent chapters properly, I read this together with the previous two. 65 makes it feel like the story's moving properly into a new arc, rather than the odd battle to showcase how good Maka and Soul are. Which all well and good, so long as Okubo doesn't do it too frequently. It just loses its effect after a while.

Now, if Kilik is with the Thompsons, then I suppose that means Black Star is with Ox and Harvar. The loud assassin with the bookworm and the stoic. Oh, that will go well -_-. At least we'll probably get to see some fun action.

[(Anonymous)]

I love your sarcastic recaps, they remind me of my friends xD

Just one thing: I think that Maka really deserves a position in the ranking for many reasons:
Her dad is desperate for her love, Stein pulled up her shirt and sweater and tried to dissect her, soul nearly dies for her and gets sliced in half, you also have Black Star blowing up a wall because he is pissed (that chapter where Maka gets paralysed by Arachne), Kid yellig "Don´t you dare to lay a finger on her, biatch! (and he got punched by Gopher after that xD), Chrona goes all fluffy and bursts into tears when Maka hugs him/her, also Noah wants her life and... I can´t think of anyone else else.

To sum up: she is an undercover Mack Daddy.

Sorry if i wasn´t clear enough, English is not my mother language (I´m from Argentina), and my keyboard is not working very well ...

Anyway, I´ll be waiting for your next recap (we´re getting closer to chapter 69...)

[golden-ravish.livejournal.com]

i'm fairly new to your recaps and i have so MUCH love for them! i know this is a chapter from several months ago, but i've been working backwards because your commentary makes this manga even more awesome for me. i'm also the type that reads your commentary in parallel to the scans. Did you ever notice that you really were missing two pages of this chapter? At the very beginning after Yumi Azusa is 'announcing' herself to the team, there are a couple of pages of her just outlining the purpose of the mission. it sort of threw me off for a bit because i was looking at the scan and looking at your recap for several minutes wondering why i couldn't make them line up with each other lol!


and then, i don't know what it was about this line right here:

'And then she like, I dunno, farts sonic rocket power, or something.'

but i had a serious giggle fit, while i was at work, and taking phone calls. i just knew my supervisor was going to come block me from the internet at any moment because i could not get it together. i am not a fan of potty humor, but this one did me in because i've always wondered the same thing lol!

well, keep up the good work. i'm really looking forward to future recaps! :D

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Hello!

First, yes, I'm aware that I skipped two pages at the beginning of this chapter. FYI I sometimes skip panels and entire pages when I write my recaps because a) they're irrelevant or b) I can't think of anything funny to say about them. My recap posts are meant to be recap posts, not full direct translations, and that's one of the reasons why I sometimes skip redundant panels when I feel like it. ;)

And second, thank you for the lovely compliments about my recap posts. I'm glad you like them!