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dereksmcgrath · 1 year

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On today’s stream: How do you think I can get more consistent revenue from my writing and livestreaming? Plus, a live-reaction to Chapter 90 of Witch Watch!

And read along as well: an initial script for today’s stream is below.

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Video Description

On today’s stream: How do you think I can get more consistent revenue from my writing and livestreaming? Plus, a live-reaction to Chapter 90 of Witch Watch!

Read “Witch Watch”: https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/witch-watch

Read “Magu-chan: God of Destruction” Chapter 27: https://www.viz.com/shonenjump/magu-chan-god-of-destruction-chapter-27/chapter/21842

A transcript and links to content discussed are available at http://www.dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com.

Support this livestream at http://ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath (and get access to my Discord, too!)

Continue donations to the University of California Academic Workers Strike Support and Hardship Fund: https://givebutter.com/uc-uaw

Donate to the Southern Poverty Law Center: https://www.splcenter.org/support-us

Links:

NJCU ending 37% of academic programs: https://www.nj.com/hudson/2022/12/this-is-new-jersey-university-is-laying-off-30-professors-eliminating-37-of-academic-programs.html

Promotions:

Commission GoldenSunDeer for artwork: https://twitter.com/GoldenSunDeer

Support Jeff Harris: http://paypal.me/nemalki https://bio.link/nemalki https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2XVBY1VHOBSKA

Professional Left Podcast: https://professionalleft.blogspot.com/

Black Comics Chat: https://www.twitch.tv/blackcomicschat

Check out “Sudden Death, Sudden Life”: https://www.patreon.com/painapplestudio

Irregulars Productions “Soul Eater” content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbepqcHtthJnp2uTriH8wIw

Join more ethical social media platforms

Music:

“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction: https://pixabay.com/music/motown-old-school-rnb-los-angeles-20922/

“Sunshine” by lemonmusicstudio: https://pixabay.com/users/lemonmusicstudio-14942887 https://open.spotify.com/artist/4XWZhZ32YrVV5lvpF7cr1E?si=tnbSklR7SJyPNKiHP4MbHA

Intro

Let’s get started. Today is December 18, 2022. This is Sunday Morning Manga. I am Derek S. McGrath, my pronouns are he/him/his. I’m here every Sunday, 11 AM Eastern on Twitch and YouTube. You can read my writing on Tumblr, Medium, WordPress, @dereksmcgrath, and email me at [email protected].

I’ll talk about this more later, but if you like what you’re hearing, please consider a monetary contribution. Putting together this stream takes a bit of work, and your tips help pay down costs for setup and subscriptions. You can tip me at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath. Thank you for your consideration.

The views and opinions expressed on this livestream are those of the speaker–me–and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or any other person mentioned.

Today’s Live Reaction: Witch Watch

As with every Sunday, there is a live-reaction to a new manga chapter. This time we’re looking at Chapter 90 of Witch Watch!

The series is written and illustrated by Kenta Shinohara, with English translation by Adrienne Beck and lettering by Annaliese “Ace” Christman. Witch Watch is distributed in English in the United States by Viz, available to read at viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/witch-watch.

Accessibility and Links (and Mask Up!)

Links to this chapter and other content from today’s stream are available on my web site, dereksmcgrath.wordpress.com. There’s also a script for today’s stream and all images for greater accessibility.

And as annoyed as you are hearing it, I’m just as annoyed seeing it: we’re not out of this pandemic, people, please mask up when going out or indoors.

And please get vaccinated! I had to take off last weekend from the livestream to recuperate after getting my latest COVID booster–I apologize for my absence. But I’m so glad I protected myself, and others, by doing what is the bare minimum. Please, take time to schedule your vaccination and recuperation (because if you’re like me, getting the vaccine is still going to take a lot out of you while you recover). The holidays are going to be rough for everyone traveling and being in large gatherings–so, mask up, vaccinate, and be smart and responsible to protect your health and those of others. Thank you.

Donations

Speaking of the holiday season, please consider donations to political and social causes, as well as to people contributing so much to education and critical thinking.

It is thanks to the volunteers, staff, and financial contributions to Raphael Warnock that he was re-elected to the Senate in Georgia–thank you, Georgia! And there is more work to do ahead of the 2024 elections in order to increase the number of Democrats in Congress. Please look into Democrats to run in primaries–starting in Arizona. Please look at candidates there to get the Democratic Party nomination for Senator of Arizona so that a fink like Sinema gets replaced with a decent Democrat.

And don’t forget, this holiday season, please donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds at abortionfunds.org, as well as to the Southern Poverty Law Center at splcenter.org (and support the Center’s lawsuit against the potentially unconstitutional Florida’s flights of asylum seekers to Massachusetts).

The University of California Academic Workers Strike Fund is also still continuing to raise funds at givebutter.com/uc-uaw.

Emergency Funding Request

And speaking of contributing money at the end of the year: I wish I had better financial news, personally.

The last year and a half has been rough. Thanks to this ongoing COVID pandemic, I am limited to remote work options. But one job contract ended, and with it a remote work opportunity that I was depending on. Then you have unexpected costs, such as my computer giving out months ago and requiring that I pay for a replacement. (And soon I will have to pay for new eyeglasses to replace the ones I have on.) Finally, moving into 2023, my health insurance cost is going up, along with the price for my Viz subscription that I use for this weekly Sunday livestream.

Each week on this livestream, I mention my resume, qualifications, and work interests. I don’t do these livestreams only to entertain myself–I do consider this work as part of my job. And while I appreciate all the contributions I receive from viewers and listeners, I am looking for more predictable and consistent payment options. I am applying for more jobs and trying to line up more interviews–but I also need some predictability in income.

This is where you come in–to offer me some feedback. What would you recommend as options for increasing payments and making them more consistent?

I already have my Ko-fi account–but would you all also be interested if I added Cash App?

I do livestreams on YouTube and Twitch for Sunday Morning Manga, and I will be bringing back my online American Literature I lessons–but would you prefer additional content, or different ways to package it? For example, I could do the American Literature I lectures as recordings rather than livestreams–and share them as early access to Patreon contributors.

And I could do video game playthroughs on Twitch. Would you be interested?

I write and post on Tumblr, WordPress, and Medium–but would you be interested in subscribing to a Substack? And perhaps sharing these livestreams as podcasts on Substack and elsewhere?

I welcome your feedback, as this is really important for me to find opportunities to support myself, when reliable and safe remote work opportunities have been limited. Please let me know in the comments which options I should explore to increase earnings from my livestream, podcasting, and writing. And please consider contributions at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath to help pay down costs setting up this livestream–and making sure I can afford health care the next year. Thank you in advance.

Labor Update

Before we get into this week’s live reaction, let’s do a check in on labor and unions. There is a lot I haven’t gotten into–including my conflicting feelings regarding the federal government imposing the contract onto both the labor union and the railroad industry, but the failure of enough Republicans to support the sick days asked by those railroad unions. While many railroad unions opposed the deals, there were railroad unions that also supported those deals. This is not an issue that is going away–and we need a Democratic Party that will have the votes to support union, which is not possible unless we vote for Democrats, kick out Republicans with our votes, and do all we can to defend unions and strikes.

Which leads to something I can speak to more easily, from my experience in higher education, whereas I’m not a railroad worker and can’t speak as well to those topics.

New Jersey City University is ending 37 percent of its academic programs, which will result in the firing of 30 professors. Programs ending include ones in early childhood education, journalism, and environmental science. You can read a full list in the news article by Joshua Rosario at The Jersey Journal–web link is in the video description.

You’ll forgive my sour grapes if I point out that this should be major news from certain academic organizations–but isn’t. Don’t say you stand against the evils of neoliberalism (or, you know, you could just call it the evils of capitalism, or the evils of greed, or something that more people can understand) if you’re not going to actually stand up for something. It is easy to say you stand against something awful–but do nothing meaningful about it–because it is harder to actually stand up for someone and offer meaningful action.

NJCU is a public university–I recommend, if you are a voter in New Jersey, that you call your state legislature and tell them to find funding to make sure these professors are hired and that these students’ programs are returned. We can’t keep rolling back funding for education and then wonder why we have an electorate that votes against its best interests, and people who can’t support themselves without education or work opportunities.

Please, if you are in New Jersey, look up the phone number for your legislator’s office, ask where they stand on funding NJCU–and if they can’t commit to funding higher education, let them know that you are considering voting for someone else to take their seat, whether in the Democratic primary or for a Democrat over a Republican.

Live-Reaction: Witch Watch

But enough about labor–let’s get on with today’s live-reaction!

As with every Sunday, there is a live-reaction to a new manga chapter released this morning, this time looking at Chapter 90 of Witch Watch!

Previously in Witch Watch

The last time I talked about Witch Watch at length was a live reaction to Chapter 79, way back on October 2, 2022.

I wish I could say I was following the major arc that has dominated the manga…but my attention waned pretty quickly, not helped by one off-putting gag chapter. Although, as I’ll talk about in a bit, there was one really funny chapter that was evocative of Shinohara’s previous work on Gintama, so, that was a plus.

It’s bothersome to me, because I remember really liking a lot of Chapter 79, with gags built around Kan’s awkward footwear and fighting a soda-theme Kamen Rider knockoff–it was too goofy to not appreciate.

And the next arc was an admittedly amusing two-chapter arc about independent manga publishing, which had some decent in-jokes about the marketplace, comics conventions, print problems, and marketing strategies.

But then Witch Watch entered into a serious arc, and I felt lost as well as underwhelmed.

In this arc, Morihito meets up with his old teacher Ran. It leads to an annoying gag around Nico assuming Morihito is meeting up with an old girlfriend, then that gag is thrown away once the misunderstanding is cleared up–because the go-to gag for Shinohara is that she has to be worried about her relationship with Morihito at all times, which does feel stifling for character progression.”Stifling,” but not the only thing she is about, given her progression with her magic and, as Morihito has to struggle with, too, her own family’s drama.

And that family drama catches up to Morihito, as his teacher Ran is an old family friend–who proceeds to try to kill Morihito in combat.

Spoilers for this arc, so bear with me. The secret of this arc is built around who Ran really is. We’re introduced to him as being an ogre, like Morihito. But then we learn Ran’s shocking secret: he’s actually a warlock, on his mother’s side–and his mother died in childbirth…because heaven forbid we have a man as a major character without having a dead woman be the motivation for this story.

(Granted, the story writes in a reason: his mother wanted to die, she is immortal, she can’t die unless it’s by giving birth. It’s some real Steven Universe energy–but, again, without really having the feminist and queer cred to pull this off.)

So, because Ran’s life exists just so his mother could die, he has a chip on his shoulder against the world. And then when his dad died, and Ran’s lifespan was elongated by slower aging thanks to his mother, he just gets more bitter, claiming his dad never loved him, that he had to live so long. And then he saw how well Morihito got along with his own dad, so he got bitter and jealous and took off running in a huff–

And I don’t care. I know I sound callous, and maybe this all will be revealed later. But right now, we’re told that Ran’s dad never loved him–and that’s it. We’re told he is judged by others for being a warlock and the son of an ogre–and we only have his side of the story. I feel like this will be when we learn Bowler Hat Man in Meet the Robinsons was actually rather well liked by everyone, and his toxic personality is what led him to think the worst of others, not that he was mistreated. I want to know that Ran here is mistreated, and what he says about discrimination should prove that–but I want to see it, not only hear it.

We don’t get more than this: we just get whatever Ran says, not seeing that animosity towards him. Why should I believe Ran’s word? We’re supposed to get that vibe, that Ran is correct, that people do fear him for his origins–as we see when he confronts a crime boss. But that’s only after the human gang members approach Ran and think he’s human before fighting him. We don’t have the gang members knowing he is already of ogre origins–they just goad him into a fight, and he responds in kind because this was all according to his plan. It’s out of order. Make it so that the gang members already see he’s an ogre–and hate him for that. Show us that discrimination. Otherwise, Ran is just making crap up that people don’t like him for being an ogre rather than for being a jerk–which, maybe that was the point, that he is really a jerk and just finding motivation out of presumed prejudice, which…yeah, that has its own unfortunate implications, so I am going to step away from that detail for a bit until I can process this idea more.

But back to Ran and his parents. How do I know this plot won’t unfold that his dad really did love him, and Ran’s actions are inspired by misconceptions? This feels like when Shadow the Hedgehog can’t determine his motivations until he remembers Maria’s last words, then suddenly his motivations change. I know I’m overthinking storytelling tropes, but, yeah, if I’m not entertained, I nitpick more than I enjoy the work.

And I’m not sure this twist works, the twist that we all thought Ran was an ogre but he’s actually a warlock. It depends on building up a mystery that can be solved by Ran by accidentally revealing he isn’t really an ogre. Who would he let that slip to by accident? Maybe Morihito? I don’t know–it just feels off to have Ran be yet another dull antagonist who anticipates everything and never slips up once. Seeing as Morihito has been trying to win all his childhood to be stronger than Ran, only to learn now that would never happen because Ran is a warlock, and that’s how he beat Ran, not with physical strength but just magic.

Granted, Witch Watch does anticipate a bit of this: thanks to a warning sent to Nico, she shows up and reveals Ran is actually a warlock. So, this is both me complaining about how long Ran could really pass as an ogre–and using one of your established characters, Nico, to believability out Ran as a warlock when no one else could. I want to acknowledge the good, that the mangaka Shinohara does set up a problem, then lets Nico solve the problem. That is good writing–just not the most interesting way to handle a dull antagonist.

It’s not as if this choice with Ran–that he hides his warlock nature for so long–doesn’t show that he is a calculating, shrewd antagonist. But it is odd that he can deceive people for, what, at least five years, that he is indeed an ogre? This is handwaved by having Ran be a pivotal part of Morihito’s childhood–for just two weeks, though, before he walked off. So, we get an in-story reason.

But, thematically, this is also an unfortunate storytelling choice. This depends on ideas about passing–which, honestly, Witch Watch has been odd about, where so much of the story is told in terms of supernatural characters who can easily pass as human, which builds the theme of the story as being that we are all really the same despite our differences…while still building that theme on the notion of just having everyone look human, which robs variety in character design potential and suggests that passing as human is the most acceptable visual option. Not all people can just change their appearances that drastically–but this is a thorny topic that I am not approaching as well as I want to without putting in more time to think it through and write it out.

I could go into more detail about this plot, including how we learn Ran is part of some conspiracy to use Nico to resurrect a powerful warlock–but I don’t care, this is a long-term plot, and this comparatively shorter arc is just a stepping stone, so until I see how the story wraps up, I don’t feel invested enough to enjoy how well this arc sets up that ending.

If there is any regret I have from my first reading, I did not appreciate the action in this serious arc. I have held back on criticizing certain action manga–My Hero Academia, chief of them–where the action is not easy to follow, in paneling or representation. But the fight between Ran and Morihito in Chapter 83 is actually easy to follow, and I love the line art when Morihito is knocked back, with the parallel lines to show the impact of Morihito being thrown aside. That is a simple action, but one that Shinohara does well illustrating, better than the admittedly more ambitious work Horikoshi is trying to accomplish in My Hero Academia.

Let’s wrap this up and talk about the next three chapters–and what does and doesn’t work in them. We get a chapter that is about vlogging and genderbending–with a weird TM Revolution pun and a pretty crass joke about flashing the camera…which, yeah, I’m not the age group for this manga, but at my age, with characters this old, creepy. Then we get a chapter about being invisible…which leads to a corny Terminator gag (as if I need to hear more people sucking up to James Cameron this week), and a “no homo” homophobic gag, which…no. All of that, no.

The best of these filler stories was the previous chapter, Chapter 89, in which the crew’s friend tries to make a picture story for her young cousin–but the illustrations are all creepy drawings that don’t match the story, leading to humor in terms of the disconnect between the two. It’s a simple story but a funny one. So, yay, we wrapped up this string of chapters with a better gag comic compared to the overly serious narrative arc and some clunker filler chapters.

Live-Reaction: Witch Watch Chapter 90

And now that we have caught up, let’s get started with Page 1 of Chapter 90 of Witch Watch! Read along at viz.com/shonenjump/chapters/witch-watch–link is in the video description and on screen.

[Transcript of the live-reaction to be included later]

Contact Info and Credits

I’ll wrap up there. Thanks for listening to this week’s stream of Sunday Morning Manga! What did you think of the new chapter of Witch Watch? Please share your remarks in the comments section or send me an email: [email protected].

Music today included the tracks titled “Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction and “Sunshine” by lemonmusicstudio. These songs are royalty free and available at Pixabay–links are in the video description.

And if you did like what you heard, let me know! Contributions at ko-fi.com/dereksmcgrath are appreciated: please include a note to let me know what you liked in the livestream and what you would like to hear more of.

And if you thought anything in today’s livestream would suit your web site needs–such as news, commentary, or analysis of comics, anime, or larger pop culture, please reach out to me via email, [email protected], and I can adapt remarks from today’s livestream into an article for your site! Additional job leads in writing, commentary, and online broadcasting are welcome: please email them to [email protected].

If you have a request of something for me to talk about in the Sunday livestream, drop me a contribution in the Ko-fi tip jar–$1 minimum–and if it’s something I’m comfortable covering here and is pretty much the same kind of content warnings as anything else I cover here, I’ll consider it or talk with you until we find something I’m up for talking about.

Emergency Funding Request

And as I said at the beginning of this livestream, I would appreciate your feedback how you would like to see revenue generated from my work. Cash App? Early access to my course lectures? Patreon? Substack? Live video gameplay? Let me know in the comments–thanks for your consideration.

Other People’s Awesome Stuff

And if you like what you heard–or didn’t like what you heard–check out other people’s awesome stuff! There’s the Pro Left Podcast, Black Comics Chat on Twitch, there is the writing of Jeff Harris at post.news/nemalki (and please support his work in media criticism on Paypal and his Amazon wishlist).

GoldenSunDeer

And there are illustrations by the talented GoldenSunDeer (please commission them: their rates are listed on their social media). And appropriate for the winter season, here is some of their latest artwork, featuring the cast of Soul Eater engaging in a snowball fight! Looks like Crona isn’t into it as much as Black Star and Patty are–which, yeah, that fits. Thank you for sharing this art, GoldenSunDeer! If you like this art by GoldenSunDeer, please commission them at https://twitter.com/GoldenSunDeer.

Irregulars Productions

And speaking of Soul Eater, please check out the YouTube channel Irregulars Productions for more Soul Eater fan content.

Sudden Death, Sudden Life

And while they are not accepting December Patreon contributions, check out Sudden Death, Sudden Life, a DND-style isekai illustrated audio drama by voice actors, directors, and illustrators Micah Solusod and Ayu. Episode 1 of Sudden Death, Sudden Life is available for $5 patrons at https://www.patreon.com/painapplestudio.

Next Time

Next Sunday is Christmas, so unless plans change, I am not going to have a livestream–if I do, I promise, it won’t be a live-reaction, so, we’ll keep that a surprise, either I surprise you with no livestream, or I surprise you with a different reaction video.

And I don’t know the release schedule for Viz manga coming up in two weeks. So, how about we celebrate the new year with our favorite chibi eldritch abomination getting into the holiday season? Next time, we go back to Magu-chan: God of Destruction and see how Magu celebrates the new year in Chapter 27.

Until next Sunday, I’ve been Derek S. McGrath. You have a good afternoon. Bye.

Links from Today’s Stream

My Links

Twitch

YouTube

Tumblr

WordPress

Medium

Ko-fi

Donations

Donate to Democrats at Act Blue

Donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds

Donate to the University of California Academic Workers Strike Support and Hardship Fund

Labor Update

NJCU ending 37% of academic programs

Series and Films Discussed

Witch Watch

Magu-chan: God of Destruction Chapter 27

Music

“Los Angeles” by Muzaproduction

“Sunshine” by lemonmusicstudio

Other People’s Awesome Stuff

Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal

Black Comics Chat

Support Jeff Harris (Paypal / Amazon / Post.news)

Commission artwork from GoldenSunDeer

Irregulars Productions Soul Eater fan content

Painapple Studio (Patreon / Tumblr / Twitch)

#sunday morning manga #livestream #witch watch #Youtube

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