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NEWS: Time Paradox Ghostwriter Manga Ends in Shonen Jump




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Whis-pur



Joined: 26 Jul 2015
Posts: 130
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:22 am Reply with quote
What?! Oh no...this was my favorite new manga Sad
I guess this explains why some story beats seemed fast.
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ErikaD.D



Joined: 09 Jun 2019
Posts: 658
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:35 am Reply with quote
Man, WSJ has more misses than hits nowadays.
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JonDoe



Joined: 14 Oct 2019
Posts: 243
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:57 am Reply with quote
Another one bites the dust. And this one lasted for an even shorter length of time than Bone Collection did! Ouch.
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KarlFranz



Joined: 17 Jun 2019
Posts: 179
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:26 am Reply with quote
A lot of people are trying to push the narrative that this series only failed because Japanese don't like plagiarism as a plot device. That is however not the case. The first 2 chapters are good, however by the 3rd it showed the series and the author have no direction where the story will go. there a a tons of issue of about it:

- First, the series lack identity, it doesn't know if it want to be a sci-fi series, drama or a story about making manga. The fact that it resolve the primary conflict of the MC and the main girl by chapter 3 showed that.

- Second: The author attempt to make the MC sympathetic. Of course trying to make the MC sympathetic is good, but the way the author tried to archive it is terrible. The author bend the story trying to give MC a good reason to keep doing the wrong things rather than accept that the MC is flawed. people criticize the plagiarism not because they hate it, they hate the fact that the author keep trying to tell that plagiarism is okay. It would be like if Death Note framed Light as a perfectly good person and trying to justify his actions.

- Third: Unlikable MC. This linked with the second point. MC is just a bland nice guy which do not fit this narrative . It doesn't help that he keep been self-pity and his enormous martyr complex( It's my duty to sacrifice my integrity so that the world could see this masterpiece). Also his dream is stupid, you can't create a work that will please everyone. People have difference taste.
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blahmoomoo



Joined: 27 Jan 2020
Posts: 457
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:43 am Reply with quote
It definitely started very good, but I do wonder if it ended early only due to the rankings being immediately bad (since it seems in some cases, slow moving stories don't work well at all with WSJ's survey audience, like what seemed to be the case with Stealth Symphony). Because the way the story was going, I'm not sure what else could have been done with the last several chapters.

Sure, more direct interaction between Aino and Sasaki before the inevitable failure would be nice, but the plot would have ended up there anyway. spoiler[And Sasaki spending years writing manga to one-up Aino could have used more chapters, including addressing the psychological strain more deeply (really, how was he motivated that much?), but ultimately it would have ended up in the same place.] My point is, it didn't seem like the plot had multiple directions it could go in, so I wonder if the author accidentally wrote themselves into a corner.

...and now I just read the last chapter, so spoiler[I guess there is a bit of a problem here: Aino worked super hard to make the best manga, but overworked herself to death. Sasaki did the same thing, but in a magical space where he couldn't overwork himself physically, only mentally (but that wasn't a problem for reasons, likely due to the impending cancellation, but whatever). Something about that is way too convenient for Sasaki. At least it made Aino realize having fun in making manga is more important than overwork to make the absolutely best thing, instead of crushing her dreams entirely, but a lot of this situation just rubs me the wrong way.]
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Hal14



Joined: 01 Apr 2018
Posts: 653
Location: Heart of africa
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:45 am Reply with quote
My biggest issue with this manga was how non-committal it was to discussing manga. I've seen some arguments in forums that it shouldn't be compared to Bakuman but even without going that far the series never gives it's own idea of what a good manga is. Characters in-universe say that the MC's manga are great but never go into detail. Similarly when the main characters say their work isn't good enough and start over, they never say what the problem was so we only have their word that the final draft is the best. It's like reading a cooking manga without any mention of tastes, preferences or flavours.
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sakurahitagi



Joined: 12 Jan 2014
Posts: 70
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:59 am Reply with quote
HAL14 wrote:
My biggest issue with this manga was how non-committal it was to discussing manga. I've seen some arguments in forums that it shouldn't be compared to Bakuman but even without going that far the series never gives it's own idea of what a good manga is. Characters in-universe say that the MC's manga are great but never go into detail. Similarly when the main characters say their work isn't good enough and start over, they never say what the problem was so we only have their word that the final draft is the best. It's like reading a cooking manga without any mention of tastes, preferences or flavours.


I think this was my issue too. The series started off really good, but it didn't live up to its potential. It never showed a vision of what is a good manga.
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KarlFranz



Joined: 17 Jun 2019
Posts: 179
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:22 pm Reply with quote
HAL14 wrote:
My biggest issue with this manga was how non-committal it was to discussing manga. I've seen some arguments in forums that it shouldn't be compared to Bakuman but even without going that far the series never gives it's own idea of what a good manga is. Characters in-universe say that the MC's manga are great but never go into detail. Similarly when the main characters say their work isn't good enough and start over, they never say what the problem was so we only have their word that the final draft is the best. It's like reading a cooking manga without any mention of tastes, preferences or flavours.

The first mistake the author made was described White Knight as a perfect manga which mean there no way for the author to show it cause there no such thing as perfect and if the author can create a perfect manga he would have create it instead.
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kgw



Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 1048
Location: Spain, EU
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 3:10 pm Reply with quote
As others, I liked the beginning of the story, but the development was too quick and confusing. Was it a series about manga? Science fiction? Mistery? They never allowed us to know why White Knight was that good or why Aino had to be saved -which is a good cause, of course, but who started it?- Many characters (Jump editors, assistants...) came and go. Making a manga was important, but then it's was not. There was a problem with "chapter #46", then it was suddendly resolved. Time skips for no reason...

Also, MC who cannot understand "you should make YOUR story, not copying other's gimmicks and hope someone like it".

In the end, the art was gorgeous, the story fell hard.
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 1987
Location: australia
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:42 pm Reply with quote
I like it a fair bit at the start, but my interest dropped slightly when the girl ended up being quirky. My interest got a bit lower as it went on (and kinda turned into Bakuman or something) and then I fell behind and the episodes went behind paywall so I don't know what's happened.
It got to the "there's no release this month! what do I do!" storyline really quickly so it felt kinda rushed from the start.

I'm not really surprised it's cancelled as everyone kept mentioning it in threads about axed stuff. I wish the author luck. They had an interesting idea but not enough focus.
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BlueAlf



Joined: 02 Jan 2017
Posts: 1493
PostPosted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 7:48 pm Reply with quote
I actually didn't like the first chapter. It felt the authors were projecting themselves too hard. Instead of sympathetic, to me it just felt weird and unnatural.

But around chapters 3-4, IMO they hit the right story beats and I was beginning to get the idea they were gonna tell. Apparently they were gonna mix Bakuman-style manga rivalry with time travel suspense, but they failed to address the MC's problematic nature that ended up being its biggest flaw.

I think they really have potential to be good though. I have high hopes for their next work.
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Thaumana



Joined: 08 Jul 2017
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:55 pm Reply with quote
Wow, never would expect such a sudden end.

KarlFranz wrote:

- First, the series lack identity, it doesn't know if it want to be a sci-fi series, drama or a story about making manga. The fact that it resolve the primary conflict of the MC and the main girl by chapter 3 showed that.

I strongly agree with this one. The premise about a unsuccessful freshbaked mangaka who got crushed by his ambitions and eventually find a way to make a hit through plagiarizing another person's work from the future felt fresh and was already predestined for a good plot with a bunch of dramaturgic events and conflicts.

Stories about underdogs who earn their success through rather questionable methods aren't that uncommon. A well-presented narrative and insight that explores the motivation and mindset of the protagonist could still make the reader root for the protagonist, especially when they feel conflicted with themselves knowing that their actions are actually wrong but are still tempted to keep going since it is apparently their only opportunity to chase their dream.
The whole plot could've been a clever approach to address subjects like artistic identity or creative branding. At some point the protagonist wondered if this is still his story or does he just copying it 1:1. I wish they could have gotten more out of this thought. Sometimes the source material of the premise can be promising, but without the personal touch, the visual execution it will stay an empty shell. That's the same big deal of media-to-media adaptations or collaborations between an author and an artist.

What a pity. I rather felt that the released chapters were just an introduction for a bigger more complex plot which revolves around a dilemma of morales and work ethics combined with a clever time paradoxon scifi story but in the end it seems like the team behind that title didn't think their idea through the end.
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Kyo Hisagi



Joined: 01 Jul 2017
Posts: 255
PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:46 pm Reply with quote
You understand that you're trying to critique a series that was axed after one volume? Bruh. It didn't even had a slight chance to present something or to develop a narrative, tbh, author did the best he could under these circumstances.
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