The Brave-Tuber

This is a very fun little hidden gem. I never thought I’d want to see a parody of YouTube’s modern landscape with a classic fantasy setting, but I’m glad this exists and I think it’s funny from start to finish. The basic premise is simple and really unique; the internet, and as a consequence, social media, exist in a classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy world. It’s fair to say that “chaos ensues,” and it’s all so familiar that I can’t help but appreciate nearly every page. While Twitter and Facebook are made fun of too, YouTube gets the brunt of this manga’s satire with jokes about everythingfrom prank videos, clickbait, the oversaturated “review” genre, and even the pervasive trend in children wanting to be break-out hit YouTubers, parodied in the main two characters. While the they are not exactly deep or compelling, they serve the story well as funny faces to drive the conflict, and therefore drive the comedy. There’s jokes here about streamers being heckled by their chat to do something stupid in public, reviewers lying about the quality of the product they’re showing off, the pain of posting a video you worked hard on only to watch it get a measly 38 views, and what exactly a content creator would need to do to break out of a cycle of an overdone, tired brand. Answer? Copy everyone you see until something lands! Sitting at a comfortable two volumes, the pace of the story is perfectly fine and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It truly only has jokes for one general topic, but that’s fine because each one has the appropriate space to land and actually be funny. I found myself laughing — actually laughing — at least four or five times per volume. I think if you’re not really familiar with the landscape of modern social media it won’t do much for you, but comedy more so than most other genres can’t be engineered to appeal to everyone. Also, while the art isn’t something to go nuts about, I think it serves the tone of the story by not being too detailed, but still having expressive character designs. I really recommend this manga! It’s a short read, and it’s rewarding too. I have a hard time imagining someone who wouldn’t find the scenes with the Demon King to be absolutely hysterical. Really good for what it is, pick it up if you think it'd appeal to you.