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[1483] Brawler

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:13 am
by paarfi
Fred has posted the new comic (partially shaded) to his Patreon. He plans to finish shading it later today, and then post the finished version tomorrow.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:15 am
by paarfi
Paging DrunkenSailor! :lol: :ninja:

Ninjagrrl is just awesome. That is all.

Edit: Also, I think the answer to Ninjagrrl's question in the last panel is "Yes". Though it'd be protecting from the consequences of Junpei's choice, rather than from Miho herself.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:11 pm
by jkhartl
Ah, I see that Miho is now sporting a swirly

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:34 pm
by Invisigoth
We are rapidly heading toward in story total confirmation that Miho is NOT Japanese.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 3:38 am
by mistersaxon
jkhartl wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:11 pm
Ah, I see that Miho is now sporting a swirly
I've been reading Ménage A Trois and find this comment very disturbing in that context.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 4:31 pm
by darrin
paarfi wrote:
Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:13 am
He plans to finish shading it later today, and then post the finished version tomorrow.
Any update on the plan for when the new comic will be posted to the main site?

EDIT:
Yay, there it is. :D

Cute Miho is cute.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 5:26 pm
by DracMonster
Asako, is that you? I think it's Asako.

Seriously, she has a suspiciously similar bubbly personality and tendency to bounce all over the place. This is my new headcanon.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 5:57 pm
by GreyWolfe
"Hello, my name is Ninjagrrl. You may have potentially injured my father. Prepare to perhaps die."

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 6:08 pm
by paarfi
One of the things I think is interesting here...

Ninjagrrl seems sharper than the valley girl talk and hairdo-no-jutsu would imply. She's been testing Miho, figuring out her power and her fighting style. When they first met back in [1473], the "I should probably be killing you" seemed kinda bubble-headed and not serious. Besides, we hadn't seen anyone yet who can come close to Miho's power. Ed, Dom, Yuki, even Junpei (though he was fighting with one hand figuratively behind his back) were no match.

But the threat in the last panel of this comic feels much more serious. Ninjagrrl has sized up Miho's fighting ability, and she thinks she can take her. The question now is whether she needs to do that.

Is Miho a threat to Ninjagrrl's family? Yeah, she is. We know Junpei is doing the right thing. But he's gone rogue for Mugi's sake, and Stability is not going to be happy. Do the ninja's support Junpei and risk the wrath of Stability? Or do they turn their back in Junpei? Either one sounds like a real threat the Ninjagrrl's family. A threat that could be ended fairly simply by Ninjagrrl just killing Miho like Stability wants.

I think at this point we don't know how much Ninjagrrl actually knows. But I suspect she knows more than she at first appears to.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 6:10 pm
by Rapierman
Now that I've seen the new strip, I can definitely say to the young kunuichi:

"Don't even entertain that thought right now." :roll:

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 7:47 pm
by Entangler
I see Miho couldn't stop the hair style. 😄

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 10:25 pm
by Heywulf
This comment is not going to be well organized.

What I hear from this encounter, is that Ninjagirl fights in the 'Adolescent Tiger' style. Looks like, anyway. Late-adolescent tiger cubs are cute and kitten-like... in a 90-pound (40-kilogram?) kitten sort of way. (They cheerfully play "Pounce-and-Bite-the-Ankle"with success when they are about 10 pounds. You can maybe imagine what they play like at 50 pounds.) Just saying that if you had a farm or ranch compound (or ninja compound), perhaps when Grandmaw closed the gates, perhaps she would let all the adolescent dogs run-around free-of-restraint inside the fence. Or an adolescent tiger. Or ninja girl. "You can scout and watch wherever you want, as long as it is inside the compound: But don't let me hear or catch you doing it."

So, I wait to find out: Is Ninjagirl's open aspect, honesty, and innocence who she is? Or is this just her her appearance as part of a sophisticated style?

This is relevant to the last panel. What may be being said by Ninja-girl (behind the words): "If you don't convincingly open-up to me, Strange Lady, you will have to kill me."

Ninja-girl has spent some time (and poses) admitting to Miho that she is not familiar with Miho's fighting style or sources of skill and power. Miho has perhaps 'beat' Junpei... and Ninja-girl would measure her own abilities by his skills. Implied: "If you are a threat to my family, I will have to defend my family to my death anyway. You will have to kill me."

(Miho's response to Ninjagirl's interrogation could be the answer to a test. A test by Ninja-girl, or for other members of the ninja family. Sneaky, sneaky ninjas.)

Miho's expression in the last panel is not happy at all. Even sad. I think she has already played out many possible immediate scenarios in her head. She's had many story scenarios in her life. I suspect she has done worse actions in some of them. It is not easy, starting to become Good, and defending the future of her own family. But a Good entity certainly does not want to kill her host's tiger-kitten. Everyone would feel sad.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2017 10:54 pm
by Heywulf
Here's what I find 'kind of' scary about this page: Panel 6, Ninja-adolescent says to Miho: "But you aren't big or tall enough to land blows that heavy without some sort of force multiplier. I can't figure out how you do it." That's a very open admission of ignorance. Especially from a member of a ninja family that has members with Junpei's abilities. What 'force multiplier' is there in ninja-physics to power multi-mile leaps and bounds? Or the super-speed we sometimes see... in Ninjagirl, for instance. But Miho seems to be outside of Ninjagirl's myths, instruction, or experience. For some reason that seems awe-inspiring. And even scary.

Perhaps Ninjagirl is posing ignorance. Perhaps she is kept ignorant. Maybe it is not yet time for her to learn. Maybe she has never heard of a personified story.

Miho was said to be "not just a Character Analogue...She's the Real Thing." (As said by a possible Untrustworthy Narrator.)

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 4:34 am
by Small Pink Mouse
Rightly or wrongly, my suspicion at this point is that Ninja Girl is the grandmother Junpei spoke of. The apparent youthfulness of her body might or might not be genuine depending on what she had access to or ran into but the genki girl mannerisms are pose. all pose. With this in mind, I would say that Paarfi's suspicions are correct about her knowing more then she lets on. ^_^

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:39 am
by NinjaDefenestrator
Miho is ridiculously cute in that getup. Sad, clearly doesn't want to deal with the idea of "story" in any form, but still cute. She doesn't see this girl as a threat or else she wouldn't have looked away.

Ninjagirl reads like an exposition catalyst to me, confirming bits of the overall picture through her analysis, for the benefit of a more casual audience. Miho's "drunken sailor brawling;" yup, she really was on a pirate ship. "Force multiplier;" Miho has some kind of reality-bending power. "Not Asian," despite Miho's outward appearance.

Seems like Ninjagirl is still learning to perceive situations based on movement the way Junpei (and presumably other ninja) can, and Miho's an interesting challenge to her- a chance to get some experience in the field, so to speak. Ninjagirl made a wise call in those last couple of panels, though: analyze later, distract Miho now. She excels in making silliness work for her.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 9:15 am
by BetaCygnus
I don’t know much about ninjas. But there’s a lot of cuteness and threat in this page. Enough to make it amusing, in a disturbing way. =)

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 9:46 am
by Initial B
The fact that Miho has allowed Ninjagirl to dress her up like that seems to indicate that Miho is holding back a lot of her power, considering what she did to Junpei. That threat by Ninjagirl might just be the thing to make her drop her limiter.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:00 pm
by DrunkenSailor
When Miho and Piro started their trip to the bath house yesterday, Miho took many cosplay outfits with her. She knew they would have to change her current story several times to be able to explain everything to Piro without being discovered by her little horde of school crushing fans. The horde can apparently locate her by her being herself and engaging in Miho CA normal activities. She needs to adopt and maintain an alternate persona to stay hidden. And that would only be temporary and thus the many cosplay outfits. Yuki ruined that by following her in to this not-very-Mihoish-reality and needing rescued.

Once Yuki was safely in Mugi's hands, Miho went off on another cosplay with Piro. This time with him being a perverted foreigner and herself an innocent school girl being tempted off to a foreign country. Somehow that failed as well.

Later thinking Piro was dead and herself responsible for that, she told Kimi a LOT more about her origin than she'd every told anyone. I think she may have known she was committing suicide, or at least inviting total mayhem with that, but she was feeling pretty down about herself. When Piro suddenly reappeared alive, part of the panic attack that caused her to to into cardiac arrest again, may have been fear over what she'd just done. More so than any light shove from Kimiko.

I think it's obvious that explaining the story she's in and what she is, changes the story she's in. It changes the understanding of other characters, their motives, actions and words. Actively trying to save or help Miho from her real problems, is equivilant to forcing Miho into one of her typical story lines. Thus the horde detects her and here they come.

If she told the truth here she not only needs to fear the little Ninja-girls reaction, but telling the truth may render her safe house no longer safe. It might alert the horde she fears. So her biting her lip and keeping quiet here might be more than just not wanting to talk to the flakey scary Ninja-girl. If an answer is required to complete some sort of test to keep the Ninja-girl from attacking her for real... well that might be a real problem.

On a totally second note. I'm going out on a limb here and saying.. Miho is Japanese. In appearance at least (well purple hair is not strictly speaking Japanese but you know). I think this is confirmation that she is originally from another country, from other statements probably Ireland, but her current body, face, eyes is Japanese. If she looked western to other characters in the comic, Fred would have let us know that by now. The Ninja girl is just a very astute observer, possibly even seeing visual aura's or what not and obviously not the flake she was pretending to be

DS

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:25 pm
by Teddy-Werebear
Yes, Nabiki... yes you do!

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 2:09 pm
by jkhartl
DrunkenSailor wrote:
Tue Jul 04, 2017 12:00 pm
I think it's obvious that explaining the story she's in and what she is, changes the story she's in. It changes the understanding of other characters, their motives, actions and words. Actively trying to save or help Miho from her real problems, is equivilant to forcing Miho into one of her typical story lines. Thus the horde detects her and here they come.

If she told the truth here she not only needs to fear the little Ninja-girls reaction, but telling the truth may render her safe house no longer safe. It might alert the horde she fears. DS
I think that Miho is also concerned for the people that help/grow close to her getting hurt. This is why she suddenly ‘disappears’ as she did to Junko.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:17 pm
by Patty Acer
Wow. If the 'Miho is Irish' theory turns out to be true -!

LOL at the ridiculous amount of flowers in Miho's hair. And I'm thinking this girl is either Junpei's sister or mom. Can't tell her age but she's not giving off a 'grandma' vibe to me.

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:53 pm
by Lingman
Anyone else catch that the bandage on her cheek has been replaced as well? And where is our swirly in the last panel...

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 9:51 am
by Yl33 D4 N00b
What about 1352? Is Miho saying she is a Japanese schoolgirl, or just playing one? :?

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:05 am
by Invisigoth
Miho is most definitely NOT Japanese. No how and no way. This has now been established by her reveal of her backstory and by the observation of our kunoichi.

Oddly she observes that Miho gave Junpei an unprecedented beat down and yet seems totally confident that if necessary the can end Miho. This isn't the rambling of hero worshipping Imouto

Re: [1483] Brawler

Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2017 12:38 pm
by DrunkenSailor
Invisigoth wrote:
Wed Jul 05, 2017 10:05 am
Miho is most definitely NOT Japanese. No how and no way. This has now been established by her reveal of her backstory and by the observation of our kunoichi.

Oddly she observes that Miho gave Junpei an unprecedented beat down and yet seems totally confident that if necessary the can end Miho. This isn't the rambling of hero worshipping Imouto
Yes and shes 100 and something years old, was originally Irish or something, and has died many many many times. No one has questioned how she came to live in Japan. Did they just have such a wondrous manga and anime fiction environment that she got on an airplane and relocated? Or do some of her deaths and resets, reset her further than just to the nearest Nospital facility with new hair? No one before the little Ninja girl has questioned Miho's Japanese-ee-ness. If something is visible to the characters in a comic, it is normal to make it visible to readers. Manga-art style doesn't really support that, so it would be normal to have some character comment on it in the script.

When Miho re-materializes in the hospital bed, or where ever, she's no longer dead. She's no longer blasted into toasted atoms by numerous SONY kill bots. Her hair grows back and her hearts beating strongly enough to go back to her normal life for a while. If she resets to another country, it wouldn't strain this level of magic much more to make her appear Japanese.

I believe Miho looks Japanese. Until someone without a mystical skill set observes otherwise, or Fred says so, (and I mean that she now looks not Japanese, not that she was not born elsewhere) I'm going to continue to believe that.

You are free to believe what you want. But repeating it and saying it louder won't help. Just claiming to have better understanding-the-comic-we're-all-reading skills than everyone else, isn't something I'm going to surrender to.

DS