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Apr 6, 2024
A underwhelming sequel that tries to hard surpass the original manga but fails at doing so.
I love Tokyo Ghoul RE: it retained it's jaw dropping art work. It's amazing character design and terrific cast of main characters. Wonderful use of squeal building upon the original and developing so much more then what we saw. However, that is the main problem, Tokyo ghoul RE: is more, too much more. At some points that's all it feels like, more characters, more plot twists, more powerful character, bigger scale, more spectacle. Fights went from small scale Kagune battle between two people where martial arts and training mattered.
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No one was a anime god. That has all but vanished, during the two years RE: place every single person has apparently got Naruto like abilities. Kagune are no longer small power ups the act like additional limbs, With designated counter match ups. It's know just a big mess of black blobs that are used to attack from anywhere at anytime, with no unique traits or even appearances. Every fight looks and plays the exact same, every one just transform into shapeless, black sludge whose power depends on whatever the author wants. No strategy or critical thinking, just be stronger then other enemy because of plot then you win. Speaking of plot power ups, this manga is full of it, just to give you a basis to go off of. In the original manga there was only two rate SS ghouls, the owl's. Rate SS ghouls are the most powerful and encountering was a story shattering event. In Re: basic side characters are rate ss, we went from maybe 15 ghouls rated s and above, to 50 plus ghouls all being rated S or above. It is ludicrous. The basic plot point of Kano off screen, without any warning magically creating a new Kaneki prototype with his experiments, that instantly becomes the strongest thing ever and stops the main characters from progressing. That happens like 5 times in the manga. There is a point near the end where a group of new ghouls all rated S above, extremely strong, just appear out of nowhere, complete nowhere. There was no mention of them, no foreshadowing, we get one line of text explain them. Kano can just create whatever he needs for the plot to happen. It's get boring real quick, it massively slows down the already bogged down pacing.
Speaking of pacing that is probably the second biggest problem. Tokyo ghoul RE: introduces or greatly expands on so many new characters, they alone are double the cast of the original while still having to make and develop the main cast from the previous story. One can just tell at a glance the series is bloated, it gets so convoluted the every volume has has introductory page for every character in the current arc so no one is confused, that list includes around 20 characters, not including the numerous side characters. If you have to break the 4th wall and plainly spell out what the arc is about and the characters in it every single time, that is a handi cap to try and mask bad writing. The original story had 3 groups, the Aogriri tree, the ccg, and the ghouls. In Re: ken for the first half is apart of the ccg which lets see how it operates and it's new introduced 20 plus characters. Plus Ken gets new group of main characters since he is now a squad leader. Now there is still the aogiri tree, there is also the clown group, also the shu family group, also like 5 groups all from kanos experiments that all align with other groups or act alone, the cast from the original, the Naki's white suits, after ken leaves his squad gets new members then later splits, the strongest elite group of the ccg falls apart it's members leaving for other groups while getting replaced by another group. Then there is new group called V which also works for the clowns, who also run the ccg, while also having each member of clown individually align themselves with other groups. I don't have to add more for you to see how completely insane this cast is. Simply put, there are way too many characters, there are no more back stories for characters because it would be impossible to develop over 50 characters. Most of the time you have no idea what's happening because all the 50 people from different factions fighting the same way gets extremely repetitive to read. It lost all of it's orginal meaning. It was just supposed to be about a guy getting put in a unforuante situation trying to fix the world of it's discrimination and endless conflict between humans and ghouls. Now it's dragon ballz fights with godzilla like monsters with literal humanity ending conflicts. The message has gotten so superficial are lost in such a unnecessarily long and convoluted plot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 10, 2024
An extremely good Isekai manga the stands above the rest.
In a sea of low standard garbage shlock that is the Isekai light novel genre, The Rising of the Shield Hero, stands out by being just genuinely well written. Which after reading and watching a lot of Isekai, I can assure you is very rare in this field. Shield Hero gets pretty much everything right.
The characters are well written and very well defined there is hardly any anime garbage fan service. Every character serves a purpose and shockingly, most of them have character development, the characters actually have arcs and drastically change to unrecognizable
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states from volume one. Completely abhorrent villainous characters when we first meet them, well get actual back story and have reasons as to why they're that way, hell even one of the main villains end up making a complete 180 and becoming a genuine nice character that becomes very helpful over16 volumes later. The main character is the best of them all. He is not a self insert, harem gathering, chode that becomes invincible. He is a mature adult who gets thrust into a unworldly situation and tries his best to live his new life. While pretty much every Isekai just completely ignores aspects like " How does the main characters understand this other dimensions language?" The answer? The main character studies it. He realizes it is a massive problem and concludes with logic and reason he needs to be able to read the language in order to live. He needs to study and learn from books to improve his skills with medicinal herbs, with trading, when interacting with people. He does this for several volumes and ends up teaching other people what he studied. He is just genuinely likeable guy who tries his hardest and worked for everything. As the title suggest, he rises up from literally nothing. He does not get random plot armour to instantly get pasty road blocks. He slowly but surely gets more powerful by learning and building up an empire of people who will back him up whenever. He does not have any love interests or constantly make inappropriate comments about the girls he finds. He just treats them like people. He makes mistakes and learns from them like anyone else. The author knows how to write a good character as the 3 characters who gets Isekai'd with him are the cliche anime garbage mc shlock that every one hates. The author knows that is bad writing and intentionally wrote those character to contrast with the main character. Villains will becomes allies, allies will become villains, side characters will gets full fledged back stories, every character is connected and has interesting relationships with others completely separate of the main characters. Characters are actually foreshadow and planned out ahead of time. You'll get a hit of a character and 3 volumes later you're like " wait a minute, is this who I think it is?"
I've been gushing about the characters because I believe that is the strongest aspect of the series. However that is not to diminish the other aspects of the story. Such as the fantastic world building. In such a wide genre as Isekai, where it is literally a magically fantasy land, series hardly ever take advantage of it. Shield Hero knows this, and makes some wonderful world building. The world is properly defined, with unique creatures, land marks, culture, different countries, different types of magic and weapons, different languages. This is such a simple thing that most authors completely forget about, but Shield hero doesn't. It uses this to create a grandiose adventure through ever changing landscapes and environments. You'll travel around the world with the cast meeting new and interesting things each volume. It keeps everything fresh and well paced. You never feel like you're stuck somewhere boring because something is always happening, the environment is always changing. The main characters is a wandering traveler. He will get his epic moments against impossible obstacles with huge magic spells and protecting countries. However, you'll also get get quaint moments where he does nothing more then wander into a small nameless village, meet people there, solve their problems, and get a nice story arc out of it. It allows us to see much more of the world seeing the extremes of fantasy castles to small poor villagers. Making us understand this places problems as a country. Not something just used to make up a plot for the story.
The only major negative I have is the lack of compelling stakes. In total, over the 20+ volumes, only one important character died. Obviously not everything has to be related to a character dying and the in moment stakes are satisfying enough for the current plot, but there is no real end goal. There is no over arching villain expect some vague evil god introduced 20 volumes in. Characters gets captured and defeated but we all know everything is going to be fine in the end. When the series started with this pessimistic theme where the main character could barely scrape by living through a single day and the entire world was against him, it was interesting to see it would play out. How this evil environment affected this character and how we would survive in this world. Naturally he develops as a characters and gets past that. We are now at the point where the main character journey is practically over. He is the strongest person around, he a cast of invaluable friends he would lose life and limb for, he got past all his major hardships, he learned everything there is know and honed all of his skills, he bought a land built a house and small town where everyone he liked in the past gathers to help him build a peaceful empire, he has the favor of the government and mystical beings. There really is no where for him to go. He completed his hero's journey. The plot has to be sorta of forced on to him for something impactful to actually happen. With no major ever lasting villain or obstacle to over come the latest volumes have become kinda stagnant, a lot of it is just slice of life while something completely random and arbitrary happens to force a plot to happen.
This story defies cliches and bad writing tropes that so many other series fall into and just ends up being a well made story first and foremost. I highly recommended reading it. I believe once this story is finished this will end up as quite possibly the peak of this genre. Aside from Re:Zero nothing even comes close to how well crafted this story is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Sep 27, 2023
BETTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE SHOUNEN
That is essentially my overall take after reading a ton of Black Clover. There are tons of amazing things about the series and if you are a shounen junkie I can easily see this becoming your main stay. However, it's still a shounen at the end of the day, it's not very challenging to read, and it's not particularly well written in any regard. The story is just made up on the spot. Character dialogue is downright corny/cliche. The power system is just there for show, character's will constantly gain random power up that are specifically designed to completely turn
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fights on their heads. They'll get power ups by believing in their friends. Typical shounen stuff. The magic used is never explained, beyond people are born with one type of magic. Anyone can do anything. The rule is cool. The author will just make up new powers whenever the plot needs it.
Tons of incredibly important characters just randomly show up with no foreshadowing. The main group, the Black Bulls, has 4 hidden members we're introduced to over time in the story. They were never hinted at before or even mentioned in the slightest. It's just, "Oh actually I was always a part of this group, I never appeared until now and no one else every mentioned me despite everyone other than the main character knowing I existed. No risks are taken, no important character is ever killed off. Aside from the first major arc, which was the only arc with real substance and proper world building beforehand. Everything else after is just this ultra powerful group of foes, somehow has magic stronger than ever before! Which the main cast has to gain a power up to defeat.
The main draw, to me at least, is the stellar artwork. It is beautiful. Combined with some of the most striking character designs I've seen, everyone is instantly recognizable and unique. Although I hate how poorly underwritten and bad the power system is, the magic used is drawn extremely well. Even though the fights aren't anything beyond basic shounen they're drawn in such a magical way, it makes the feel way more impactful. The author got very creative with what magic they used. An upside to the "rule is cool" is the author can let their imagination run wild. I'd say out of all the big fighting shounen's, Black Clover easily has the best art work of them all.
Another huge upside is the characters, well sort of. . . In terms of actual development and progression, it is not anything noteworthy. However, with how many characters there are, the author manages to give everyone a solid enough personality that sticks out to you. What we do get is amazing groups of characters. Not everyone is super detailed and has a 2 chapter long backstory. However, every character almost always operates in a group. No one feel sidelined, side character are always coming back.
I enjoyed my time reading it very much but I did not take away anything outside of immediate gratification. It has impactful arcs, themes, or moments. It's just another shounen manga the gets a new chapter every week.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 15, 2023
Tokyo Ghoul is a very well crafted dark thriller that had me hooked the entire time. The arts is so distinctive and beautiful, the character designs ooze detail. It is so refreshing to see such a unique style in the modern age of manga nowadays. I can not think of a manga even similar to this beyond basic story themes and setting. Now for a more in depth spoiler filled review.
Pros- Aside from the art which is amazing some of the best manga art ever put to paper, the most glowing aspect is the pacing. This is only around 140 chapters long and as someone
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whose read it twice now, I can saw there is little to no filler at all. Every chapter has a purpose every arc transitions to the next wonderfully. There is always something important happening which really engages the reader. You're always seeing an ever woven plot unfold. The pacing allows so many characters to be involved in the story, this story has a huge cast of characters yet almost all of them manage to get meaningful development, progression and or screen time. This is thanks to not only the pacing but the pov switching. So many authors are afraid to do this yet it add so much. There are significant chunks of the story where the main character is nowhere to be seen it allows to see much more of the world. The world is every growing and you see it because you're not constantly trapped in one pov. You see the ghouls side just as much the ghouls investigator side. You don't care about one side or one group of characters you scare about everyone, which fits into Tokyou's Ghoul's themes really well, the entire world is broken. Accompanying the plot is very graphic yet beautiful art. The sheer value and contrast in the black used to create twisted imagery is nothing but pure talent. The character designs are instantly iconic. Almost every one stands out. Even better their clothes looks amazing as well, the author must be a fashion guru or something because the sheer amount of variety style the outfits have is insane. Art is amazing, story is great, characters are written well it has a very good foundation.
Cons- The complaints I have with this series are almost dwarfed by the sheer amount of praise I have but there are still problems none the less. My main problem is the power system used. I've read a lot of manga in my time and so I say this as an aid shounen fighting manga lover, I have no idea what is happening half the time. It's mainly the way fights are drawn and handled but even the basic aspects of the worlds power system is haphazardly expositions dumped in a wall of text in one singular chapter. It really feels like the author doesn't care at all how it works, it just needs to look cool. Which is fine I guess but the manga is heavily focused on fighting so I'd like a lot more depth. You never really feel the weight of any fights. They just sorta happen. They are so many fights we're both sides are evenly matched then in the span of 2 panels with no explanation one side just Naruto style speed blitz the other in half. There is no real strategy to any fight just be stronger and you win. Every single fight feels like an arbitrary coin flip and then the author decides who wins based on that coin flip. A lot of fights go by titles rather then power. SS ghouls hit harder then Rate A ghouls, you never know why they just do. No one really trains their powers or develops them they just get magically stronger and faster when the plot needs it to. Any Ghoul power used that is not an actual attack like a punch or kick is just blob of black blurry motion lines. You hardly ever get the chance to just sit back and actual see anything. Touka's main Kagune we saw twice throughout the entire story it's just a wing that makes her faster and hit harder. I have no idea what it actually does because it is never shown or explained.
Aside from that my other huge problem is characters will just randomly pop up whenever. No context no attempt to try to explain it in story. You can tell a significant amount of this story was made up on the spot by the sheer amount of huge important characters that should've been their from the start just getting randomly jammed into the story.
Overall still a great read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 22, 2022
A very solid story that will make you laugh and entertain but not much more.
Konosuba is, for the most part, a very well written comedy. It does not take itself seriously in the slightest which allows itself to put it's funniest characters in any situation imaginable. The comedy itself does not stand alone however, there are plenty of bits of world building, character progression arcs. What jokes could become mundane in a lesser work are exponentially better because of the tight character writing, any old joke is naturally phased out with an in universe explanation, the relationships of the characters change so the jokes.
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No core jokes or any writing trope used gets old.
Rhe cast is very likeable, the volume to volume plot is mostly just placing the already good cast in a whacky place. Side characters introduced all have a purpose and are rarely if ever forgot about.
With all that being said you won't get much more out of it. You'll laugh, but there are no real deeper meanings in it, it was written to entice in the short term, not to develop a long-standing plot. Meaning once you have finished you're not really left with anything other than thinking " that was fun, next!" Almost zero point in re-reading it. I enjoyed my time reading, but gun to my head I could not recall much of anything in the big picture. No settings, nor major plots, no major villains. They feel well written enough in it's volume but once you look back you cannot describe those environments at all. It is a popcorn action flick, the ride is wild at all times then it is over. Overall I would like to be left with at least something more than " that was good" Konosuba just never seemed to go beyond that.
I would recommend reading this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 27, 2022
Overall this manga is pretty average, if you liked the anime and want to continue reading it you might like it or not. After the first few volumes the original premise that entices many wares off heavily. The main "gimmick" of the series loses most it not all of its draw as the main cast of characters reaches a point of climax for their character progression. Yet despite that, the series keeps going and going and going. There are a bunch of non-important filler chapters that do not progress anything. The characters stay strong, the art only improves but nothing of importance or memorable happens
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after the first major arc. It falls into the trap of bad writing where the only source of conflict is introducing new characters, which are then left aside after their role is done, leaving a myriad of under written side characters on the benches. Or when characters act out of their own established arcs and motives to make a plot. While the main cast is charming with really solid relationships, it is not so outstanding that I can enjoy reading about their daily lives for more than 50+ chapters. Which when seeing how many chapters this manga has in total, if you're like me, you end feeling extremely bored. For whatever reason, be it money, reputation, the author's passion I don't know, the manga went on and on when it should've ended where the anime ended. It had the perfect conclusion and every character ended up in a good place emotionally, yet it still kept trucking along.
Overall this is an average read. You will find something better than this eventually and will probably end up forgetting 90% of what happens other than the big key moments. It is an enjoyable time killers that does which is a good spot to fill and what all manga should strive for, but it will never be anything other than that. 5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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