Welcome to The Pickle and Daweeb Show, where we burn the Viking ship of 2021’s anime and manga news in a massive fire that contravenes several health and safety standards.
Bye Bye 2021! Bring on 2022!
Singing Auld Lang Syne is one New Year’s tradition I’ll never get tired of, and we’ll be belting it out as we run 2021 off with flaming torches, pitchforks, and angry cries of “and never come back!”
Jokes aside, any year is going to have its ups and downs, and 2021 was no exception. Anime, manga, and tabletop gaming are all doing well, with their market segments growing. This proves, without a doubt, that the entertainment industry can survive anything Netflix throws at it.
We’ve seen a bunch of anime IPs getting a tabletop incarnation, and that trend will continue for as long as great anime captures the imagination of fans and gamers. What stands out though, is that games are getting easier and easier to make. Take 3D printing, for instance. It’s now easier than it has ever been to find experienced miniature modelers who can turn your favorite anime or manga character into a tabletop gaming piece.
The continued Covid-19 pandemic has also brought many digital versions of tabletop games, including robust virtual tabletop apps (VTTs) that’ll let you play your favorite tabletop games online. Many of these tools were around long before the pandemic, but the pandemic gave VTTs legs and now every big tabletop company seems to have made an alliance with their VTT of choice.
What does this have to do with anime and manga? Well, we’ve never been so close to literally living in our own recursive isekai. You can play an online, digital version of a board game, which is itself a port of an isekai anime, which is inspired by a tabletop roleplaying game, which was inspired by another isekai, which was itself inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. You can even wear funky 3D goggles that may or may not prevent you from logging out of the game, thereby forcing you into a life-or-death struggle to beat the game.
The new year is sure to bring all sorts of interesting developments along similar lines, and we’ll do our best to keep you informed, so strap in.
Dark Horse Comics and its Manga Muscle
According to ICv2, Dark Horse Comics, probably best known as the publisher of The Mask, Hellboy, Star Wars comics, and Frank Miller’s Sin City, revealed that Berserk was its top print property from 2019 and well into 2021. That’s right, a western publisher’s best property was a manga title. I remember when the only manga our comic shop stocked was Record of Lodoss War, but now manga is mainstream and you can find it wherever books are sold.
Earlier this month, the Embracer Group began the process of acquiring Dark Horse Media, Dark Horse Comics’ parent company. The Embracer Group is a Swedish video game holding company, which owns THQ Nordic, DECA Games, Asmodee, and a ton of other game studios and publishers. It was because of the acquisition process that Dark Horse Comics revealed their sales figures.
Whoever thought being an otaku would become so… mainstream.
Dark Souls is Getting a TTRPG
Give up joy. Give up hope. Give up any dreams you have of getting a character to level 20, because Dark Souls is getting its very own tabletop roleplaying game.
Roll your dice beside the bonfire and link the flame 🔥
Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game is coming. If you, too, would like to learn what lies in the heart of Lothric, add your name to the ranks of the Unkindled! https://t.co/H5cJHLEaWl pic.twitter.com/vYdY9hyCEh— Steamforged Games (@SteamforgedLtd) December 22, 2021
Dark Souls, the 2011 video game published by Namco Bandai Games, is legendarily tough to beat, yet went on to be praised as one of the best games of all time. It’s not surprising then that it spawned a board game, and that a roleplaying game is now in the works. Of all the TTRPG’s announced this year, this is the one I’m most excited about. Give me that grimdark goodness any day.
K-Pop Mega-Star Group BTS Gets Own Webtoon
The BTS boys will star in their own comic, entitled 7FATES: CHAKHO. This urban fantasy story sounds like it’ll be an uplifting tale of overcoming difficult times and reaching for one’s destiny. It is scheduled to launch on January 14th, 2022.
BTS is a South Korean boy band consisting of seven members: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. They’re the best-selling group in South Korean history… so a bit of a big deal. Especially when you realize how much influence K-Pop has over J-Pop.
Webtoon is a South Korean comics app that lets you read manhwa (Korea’s version of manga, to oversimplify things) on your smartphone.
Popular Media’s Predictions for 2022
Predictions from games and light novels set in 2022 include Perfect Dark (for the Game Boy Color) predicting South America developing cyborgs and a UFO crash landing, and Aruvu Rezuru: Kikaijikake no Yōseitachi, by Yū Yamaguchi, predicting we’d be able to jack our nervous systems into networks via nanomachines. Things get even more interesting when thousands of consciences are lost inside the network. Aruvu Rezuru was adapted into a short film in 2013.
Movies set in 2022 include Bill & Ted Face the Music, Soylent Green, and Time Runner (aka In Exile), which starred Luke Skywalker… I mean Mark Hamill.
Did we miss any predictions made by popular media? Do you have some predictions of your own? Smash that keyboard and let us know, in the comments below.
That’s it for 2021!
Till next year, why not check out the J-List Store for all the best goodies for adult fans of anime and manga. If you want to hang out and chat about anime figures, manga story arcs, or the best way to secure a Japanese girlfriend, then join us on Discord. We’ll see you in the new year, I hope it’s a great one for you!
