My friendly pusher provided me with a random sampler of some almost-contemporary shonen manga. It was amusing, but seems like not my thing.

I heard that "MÄR" was popular, but it (actually its "Omega" continuation) grabbed my attention the least. It's Mahoraba art at best, and goes into endless fights with overgrown puppets right away. At least Naruto headbutted Gaara, you know. "Utsurowazarumono (+ breath of fire)" is the most likeable. It is drawn competently and tries to tell a story.

Still, reading these reminded me how Evirus eulogized a particular Precure for "end-to-end mahou-shoujo beatdowns", while Aroduc exalted the fluidity of J2. I am simply not interested, and all of these manga go to some lengths to present dramatic ass-kicking.

UPDATE: Evirus sent along a great example where he finds All Stars DX "Pretty Satisfying" (it was the one before DX2), with choice screencaps. And you know, I'm on board with that. I loved Cat Shit One. Having the end-to-end asskickery in a movie format may be pretty satisfying once in a while. Secondly, I'm ok with the cameo fanservice... Look, it's Honoka and Nagisa, and they are back.

My point above, however, was that obviously someone, somewhere enjoys the catharsis of page upon page of fighting motions captured in the ink.