One of the most compelling thing about manga as a medium resides in its capacity to convey the story conjugating between what is shown and what is told to the lector... You can make the same argument about every other media really, but there is something in the black and white panels, the moderated exposition compared to western comic and how the drawing is different from how scenes are portrayed in anime or animated shows. It's always incredible when you feel like you're being told a story from the manga itself instead of the author talking directly to you... Right? Well, you see, that's one
...
of the most heavy sins that I think literature can do as a whole; novels and manga being the ones that most fall under this, how things are told. "All you need is kill" is a manga adaptation from the light novel of the same name written by Sakurazaka Hiroshi, and I think every problem in this manga could be explained by this fact, and adaptation that didn't know how to make the transition from a light novel to a manga.
"All you need is kill" follows the story of Keiji, a soldier stuck in a war against alien monstrosities called "mimics" who destroy everything they come across as just how those creatures are just really, really hard to kill and ruthless in killing people. He goes in his day normally as Vrataski, the elite of the elite, comes to their base... So yeah shit happens and Keiji dies... A lot... But a whole lot, poor guy didn't catch a break in any chapter of the whole manga. I've heard the novel was well-received and praised, thus making it into a manga adaptation.
You see, when Ryousuke Takeuchi made the storyboard to this manga, it seems like it didn't sink in the idea of explaining things from a visual angle and with a more orthodox narrative of a novel in a medium that is not a novel: the exposition feels bad and rushed, I don't know what were we supposed to go from chapter 1: The mental downfall of the protagonist? An atmospheric manga about war? And action and frenetic work to gobble ourselves in its viscera? I don't know, and the manga don't know it either. In the first chapter everything feels so scripted to the point of being unnatural, we're being told about everything happening in the world because the narrator just fills us in with every word he can muster until we're exhausted... It's not that is dense or anything special because it comes as a simple war premise, but is just that it doesn't take advantage of the setting to make anything appealing, the setting and every character's main traits are told to us in the most straightforward way possible in that we don't even get to explore character's mentality: Keiji, Yonabaru and Shasta doesn't feel human at all, the only point of the first character was to show how our protagonist becomes a killing machine whose all he need is to kill (no fucking way...), but how the protagonist is going insane is just nos attractive for the lector, why? Because as the setting and characterization is poorly presented, as being too unnatural making it for us to feel the raw pain and desperation feels like out of nowhere, and it just doesn't concern us at all.
The characters are also kinda... Lacking? I don't know, it's not like I don't exactly know, is just that there is so little to say about them. Everyone here's just have dialogue concerning the battlefield and mimics, it just feels soulless that the narrator tell us everything, from every one of Keiji's loops and then having the character talking about more battle and more killing feels redundant, few moments are when character talk about themselves honestly without the use of such a straightforward dialogue and even those moments just feel so short compared to all the narration doing the work of over exposition in the world building, I just don't see a moment when characters are really themselves, I would understand if this were just a manga directed towards fighting and being almost like a gore fest, but even the action scenes have a weird paneling in which actions scenes don't feel frenetic neither interesting nor including anything charming neither crude about it. Just showing our protagonist dying and dying over and over isn't enough for me to make it frenetic or interesting, it just goes from start to finish without doing nothing in between.
And the main dynamic isn't that interesting neither, it isn't awful nor terrible, but it just feels shallow and made up in the last chapters, they build a relationship made from an understanding and interlinked pain no one has ever felt: the pain of coming back from death, to hours before you died. As it seems like an interesting dynamic, due to the little screen time we can't really grasp the feelings of neither of our main duo (letting aside that all the other character aren't relevant at all) but its the closer we are to get humanity from this adaptation.
The art is good, I like the drawing and expressions when the protagonist died, sadly it wasn't used as good as it could due to the try of iterative narration to not make us bored from those aspects, which is a weird choice, why would you skip some moments from your story while also keeping everything related to the worldbuilding and characterization to a narrator? Is just like a mess of dissonances between narratives that just makes no sense when we analyze the pacing of the series alongside the cohesion between chapters, its like if they are so far away because we never see the journey to reach them, we just see the story progressing so straightforward that it just cast everything aside to tell us a story in the most mundane way possible, it's not that it is awful but just feels incomplete, the ending of one chapter and the continuation of the next feels so anticlimactic that I just enjoyed some of the art with some actions scenes... The ending itself just felt like an excuse to make it more tragic, with such an asspull of explanation that I couldn't bring myself to feel bad for our main cast.
Well, it seems everything about this manga was bad in my eyes, that's not true. The art is great, some expressions are well-defined, the actions scenes aren't that bad either and at least the manga try to make a meaningful interaction between our main cast (although it mostly falls apart). But I won't say this is good because I feel like the core and essence of what this could have been got lost some place between the narrative; bad character, a downright awful narrative with just one dimensional characters with boring dialogue and a weird progression is what comes to mind when remembering this work... I love media about war, because it shows tragedy in such a realist yet with also an excuse to make everything to dense and heavy to the lector, even better if you add dark fantasy or sci-fi elements as the fear to the unknown and body horror are my main dish when it comes to uncomfortable and horrid moments... But this one just doesn't get it, this one just glorifies and rejoices in its own little world of dying again and again and again with too little relevant in my mind to keep it near my memories, a missed attempt and a forgettable work at this caliber it is sad to see yet make us appreciate literature and story telling as a whole.
All (74)FriendsKiragane99Yep_kazumaArdanazfallenpetalKuronekoYamatoDarvallasGoldenarrow7778Madotsuki_ZefADI_10literaturenerd
Also Available atRSS Feeds |
Jun 9, 2024
All You Need Is Kill
(Manga)
add
Not Recommended
One of the most compelling thing about manga as a medium resides in its capacity to convey the story conjugating between what is shown and what is told to the lector... You can make the same argument about every other media really, but there is something in the black and white panels, the moderated exposition compared to western comic and how the drawing is different from how scenes are portrayed in anime or animated shows. It's always incredible when you feel like you're being told a story from the manga itself instead of the author talking directly to you... Right? Well, you see, that's one
...
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Informative
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all 
Jun 9, 2024
Shounen no Abyss
(Manga)
add
Not Recommended Preliminary
(176/? chp)
Spoiler
When I first started reading this manga I was a little taken aback. You see, upon reading the first chapter you're opened with some panels of our main character: Reiji watching her favorite idol in classroom, immediately after that we're welcomed with a big panel with no background in which Reiji says: "I can't leave this town", that one made me feel uneasy and strange, I usually associate that type of paneling when: A character is introduced, for an emotional, for a satisfactory or heavy scene or just a pure shocking moment. So being welcomed into a psychological thriller manga with something like that seemed
...
to me like... Why? Is this panel supposed to convey something to me? And now possibly anyone who reads will say "damn, this guy's yapping is insane" to which I normally say yes and even laugh at myself, but is when you realize that the manga can be totally summed up with those words and with what I felt in everything across this journey: Am I supposed to be feeling something about this manga right now? Isn't this manga supposed to convey something to me? Well... That's the problem with this manga, it wants to make you feel without any kind of honesty or construction in the plot neither in the characters. This manga just see the lector as someone who needs to force themselves to fall into its grasp, rather than inviting you. He throws you into the deep end instead of leading you to explore through it... Yes, this manga is exactly like an abyss. A deep, nasty, dishonest abyss.
But now, what does this manga tries to do? Well this shit works almost like japanese urban legend of Inunaki Village but for people with mental illness: Reiji is a high schooler with not really purpose in life, he just lives because he is alive; that is until he meets with his favorite idol: Nagi Aoe, she is just the same as Reiji, someone who lives because she isn't dead despite her situation and mentality being more extreme than Reiji, after Reiji shows her the way around their little town that Nagi say an iniquitous, wicked suggestion: Let's kill themselves she says to Reiji... And Is from that encounter that our plot starts... But come on, basically the proverbial "God makes them the Devil pairs them" This may seem interesting when you read the first chapters, as you're met with Reiji's "friends" like Gen and Chako and despite having a really simple, straightforward and even dumb characterization it works for now, why? Because with this story we're just presented with the fact that the protagonist want to kill himself, so we obviously need the bully friend and the bad family situation... It is simple, but it just the ground the series choose to hold itself for a while, so the lector can be a little permissive. The thing that is wrong with this first chapter feels to unnatural, is like everything said here and how everyone act is over the place because we don't know anything from our main character that speak from itself, Reiji is too reactive through the first characters so the only moments when we see a little of himself is when people try to control his life, say literally they would be dead or order him something. Yeah, I know depressive people can be like that, of course, the thing is that due to the lack of immersion in Reiji's personality and thoughts, we are just left with a first chapter that tries to wrap everything that Reiji's character will be from other sources who aren't even that great tools to tell the story: The bully saying him that he is his childhood friend while Reiji doesn't say a thing just show how the characterization works here; Gen is a dick... Like a real dick... A REAL dick... And that's all, this happens because the story would usually bring characters to the plot not as characters, but as problematics (will go more deep into that later). That moment where Chako tells literally everything the novel and the story of a town in where he has literally been his WHOLE life (their whole conversation just feel like an excuse to bring up topics that will affect the story later as the mangaka couldn't bring the main character to interact in any meaningful way), with Nagi and his mom is more of that, it is specially weird when his mom textually says "Reiji, without your help I would be dead" and we just recently knew her... Okay I guess? I mean is obviously not serious, but the paneling seems a little off, like that it want us to feel it... But we just can't, we just can't empathize with Reiji's situation or with him yet. After this you can see that Reiji barely interacts at all even in the first chapter, is just normal, which is great! Because if I'm reading a psychological thriller with suicide as topic then at least I want to be presented with the normality, the mundane. Show me life, so after you show me death... Sadly, this chapter and as I told just summarize this manga, Reiji at the starts wasn't someone I was fond on, I thought that how the author presented him was weird but not necessarily terrible, little did I know that Reiji would go into what I would say the biggest flaw of this entire magnum opus dung: The main character. Now all that about the first chapter is important, because I wanted to understand Reiji. We can always relate with characters who suffer in silence, with those struggles you usually fight alone, I wanted to feel that in him at the start, as so I would cheer him or be thrilled with how he manages to overcome his problems... But God forgive our main character be consistent, at first I was a little curious as even despite his loneliness and apathy, we can see Reiji's interest and even how he is a gentle guy (he met Nagi just because he was worried of anything happening to her and the fact that he didn't talked that much at the first character tells us that he may feel lonely and is obedient to others) which is pretty usually the case when you see character like these, the problem is that Reiji later comes like a husk and empty soul, not because of the themes, but because Reiji comes later just a character with depression, with no qualities and with no really actions... Because just remember, how many times did this series not know how to make a build up and just magically just to bring two characters together at a convenient moment? I can tell you some: When the teacher saves Reiji from suicide (around chapter 10), when Reiji meets with Nao at the hospital with Nozoe (chapter 100), etc. With that I want to say that the author just know how to puke things at us, I feel like I constantly need to clean my face as the author just like to throw nonsense after nonsense to make us feel like the story is progressing when in reality is just that "character X meets character Y, character Y mentions suicide and how character X should join it for a lovers or a double suicide, Character X says pretentious and edgy shit to extend the date of their death" and now repeat that line from chapter 1 until the end, that why I say this piece of work commit the worst sin a piece of literature can do, it's dishonest, what am I supposed to feel for Reiji when in chapter 10 he says to his teacher "There simply isn't a good future waiting for me unlike you, miss Shiba" just after Shiba told him "You're just 17, there's a lot more in life"... Can you see just how incongruent the dialogue feels here? Reiji is mentally unstable in this situation, so the author just does the same card that he will use in every situation; victimization and the one who screams louder wins, that annoys me because it's just like if the author doesn't care about how he portrays mental illness, he just wants to make us feel bad, makes us feel bad specially in a time when people romanticize the idea of dying young, dying together, that (ironically) the idea of death is cool and hot (typically because of the mix of identity, death and sexuality) in social media, so when the author just go and does his nonsense and babble about pseudo-philosophycal things and about life's nature it just comes as shallow. Victimization can be used to its own advantage as a way to portray a manipulator, but maybe just with one exception the rest are just putrid from their insides out, not as persons but as characters, he will justify anything in this manga because one character had a bad moment and that's all into it. This stricture sucks specially when you know that the other weapon this manga uses to make us feel heavy is sexuality, not just having characters do intercourse as a way to cope with their life or as a way of discovering themselves, this manga just literally shows you a character crying for it in the next character to have sex because it is his way of showing something mature. This made me realize that, just like any pubescent, this work is just obsessed with death and sex, it wants to make an allegory between them in various moments (the whole idea of Aoe's death and her intimacy with Reiji) doesn't make good the story either, as those scenes just mess with the structure and the pacing. We were watching Reiji with Nagi Aoe talking about their empty life (which is pretty strange how the manga itself showed is weird as Aoe just say to him "your life isn't going anywhere" and like his whole character switched... Another bad bad for shōnen no abyss) to go to them having intercourse together, I know it is a scene of awkwardness for Reiji and characterizes their relationship from there onward, but it is placed at that moment just because it is with no reason at all (even tho Aoe herself say that, for a writing viewpoint is still doesn't hold together as the progression between their dialogues feel artificial talking just about death) just like how every important interaction between character occurs in the whole manga. And let just now start about how characters would even try to sexually harass (and worse) part of the female cast and all the other characters in the series are like "Hey, that's no good" and just leave it like that: In chapter 84 we see how Gen tries to sexually assault Chako, then Reiji comes and tries to stop him and just drop the line "But if you want to die this way, I don't think it would be too bad" and that moment just went over me, Reiji doesn't even understand himself because the author doesn't even understand Reiji. Is disappointing how a really tense moment is ruined with moments like that, with character just saying and mentioning suicide or death as if it was nothing more than a toy, that sucks because that just messes the atmosphere and tones, how are we gonna take it seriously if such a word is just thrown around like a ball, we cannot focus on the main topic with seriousness like that because the characters just feel to inhuman at that point, stop talking about death, talk about yourself, why would we care if that's a good way to die if you had not talked about anything else for 80 chapters? Specially when the manga is full of the same edgy dialogue that I just exemplified earlier, this manga would be writing by anyone in his "You don't understand me" era from their adolescence. But that's not only Reiji, every character here in this mess feels like are just a bad and poor representation of problems or mental illness within people. In chapter 126 and 127 we discover that Gen wasn't attracted to Reiji (something that was speculated and let in the air by the author) and neither to Reiji's mother Yuko (which was said from Reiji) but that he feels like a woman, he was born in the wrong body... And how did he notice that? At his own words, because in Tokyo he saw people being themselves, people just dress as however they want it... And when did we, as lectors, saw that introspection in him? I know what happened here, the author wanted to make a twist about Gen, but he noticed that it wasn't as impressive or "fucked up" as it could be, no, so the author wanted to welcome us with his "development" by saying "I knew it, Reiji... I wanted to be Yuko" and is always that suspense about what's really inside the character's mind for what the author bet. How could I make it worse? How could I show how unstable he is? And that's how he went with that conclusion without doing any build up neither inner monologues that makes us feel empathy for him... And the cherry on top of the cake: "Reiji, don't die with Aoe neither with Chako. Die with me" (from chapter 127) just like how the author always end discussion between character. It's his own period, no more interaction neither thought-provoking dialogue. Add to this the poor retconning the manga always does with characters past established before to add a "layer" of deep to their interactions when it just makes more of a mess of the narrative and exposition of this whole cheap soap opera. And let just nos start about how the character just contradict themselves 10 chapters later. Saying something deep just for it to be opposed by the same character itself make it clear that it just lives for the moment, it all an ephemeral Dantesque nightmare that once you, as lector, woke up, will be left thinking about how this manga works at as an oxymoron of the ideas stated by this, even the title itself was calling it, you cannot expect deep, or be in the bottomless pit when this treat everything like it's the simplest and dumbest concepts ever, an ode to the stupid, boring and cheap unpredictable elements of a work of fiction. The contradiction in its element is so clear that that's why this feels so incoherent and artificially made, have you happen to see a series where everything bad just happen to the protagonist because it is what is it? And to add in it the author just deals with it like a "feat" adding more and more tragedy to the story? It's like Murphy's law being constantly told at us, everything goes wrong because it goes wrong, and it will be the worst, why? Because with that excuse the author can throw even more pretentious dialogue at us without looking at himself ashamed of what he's writing. I feel like there is also a discrepancy between this manga's structure and narrative with its own dialogue. You see, I feel like the author bet plenty of the character development and deep moments are telling us with the metaphor of the water tank and how some people are an "abyss" who just end up making everyone around them fall into them to a journey of pure despair and depression... I understand that, and I love when such suggestive narratives are used to tell us themes far apart from the main ones (like for example series as Houseki no Kuni or Vagabond) or even to make is more appealing and atmospheric, you can't be always telling to the lector or spectator everything straightforward with no sense of taste neither a charming prose, that's a where the heart of this type of stories goes along with the paneling; how to tell and what you tell. Shonen no abyss doesn't know exactly to where to go, it's like constantly trying to choose a way; a rough and raw one or a deep symbolic one, I don't usually mind when the tone of the narrative switch subtly or is generally different from one point to the other, what I have a problem is how does this manga try to do that: When we see Aoe's past we understand her sorrow, we're slowly going on a journey to understand her pain, maybe the paneling and imagery isn't as hard for us as it could be due to the lack of understanding of her daily life behind the incident (which was the first thing I thought would be more strong to show us) but it's competent in what it tries to portray: the fear of being alone; Are my parents dead? When is this gonna end? Those questions emerge instantly as you watch a little Aoe just lying there alone, without a mother or father to hug... But when does this flash back fall down as a story telling device? Well, precisely in the dialogue, this manga relays too much in dialogue to show us emotional pain and mental illness instead of taking advantage of its capacity to portray the narrative in the imagery: When Aoe and her uncle walk around they find out Aoe's bag (which was pretty convenient if you ask me, it's always conveniences to make the situations happen throughout the story) and when Aoe tells her uncle about how she had a little scolding from her parents, we're immediately welcomed by a panel of Aoe's uncle in his knees telling her "it's your fault your parents died" (chapter 172 and 173) and I was like puzzled... Really really puzzled, I'm not the only one who see that discrepancy between what has been telling us from this flash back to how is delivered, right? I cannot understand what was the process the mangaka made to change the structure and pacing of such a heavy background from one of the most important character of the series, is beyond me, all the next important things and way of thinking (or more like her trauma) comes from this exact dialogue which it feels like it was juxtaposed immediately after a poor intent of making a tragic moment, I know it's pretty implied (although it's pretty obvious) that Aoe's uncle used her to gain money taking advantage of her, but this way of orchestrate scenes is what makes Shonen no Abyss and infuriating reading, it feels hollow and lacking in identity with just any excuse to make it disgusting and tragic. This scene is another perfect example of Shonen no Abyss proprieties as a story in this medium, it just lacks in delivering what it wants, I feel like a monochromatic mess of such untactful and antithesis of elements puts in like if it were a poor mix, the dynamics don't feel appealing either, which was the most awful thing when it comes to Reiji's character's relationships with others. All the arc with Shibasawa feels like an exchange between them that goes like: "Hey Reiji, I know it's not right, but I love you" "I love you too Shibasawa, lets just wait until I'm and adult" and then I don't know what type of mental gymnastic the teacher made in her head that she felt she needed to possess Reiji... Which isn't that bad as her character falls into that type of troupe, we know it and Reiji know it... But then Reiji doesn't even make a meaningful interaction with her, its always like "X character is doing this just because Y told him so" and it makes everything so stupidly linear that it just doesn't make up to the seriousness and "deep" that the dialogue and paneling tries to be evocative with the art, it falls into its own trap that it seems even funny sometimes. This is not a drama at all, it just does not present any feelings neither intent of seriousness at all, it always falls into its own little grace with dumb edgy dialogue and a narrative that tries to evoke the same as such works in the medium that makes better use of negative and positive space, paneling and art to make it more interesting to the lector. I have always had my opinion on the debate of "shonen vs seinen" which is pretty much just a full yapping between blind fans of the big three in shonen and the "big three" (which people always use as am excuse to put in their favorite seinen manga just to show off to everyone else... Just a stupidity, but who cares) and I've always thought from it like this: plenty of shonen are between the 4/10 to 5/10 or 6/10 which isn't saying much whereas seinen tend to be more like 9/10 to being straight garbage and a 1/10 in my book... Why do I make this silly and maybe unnecessary allegory? Because I think that way of thinking and how my experience watching and reading in this medium of japanese media make me realize that it all could come down to the old expression of "bitting off more than you can chew" as the narratives and themes usually helps author to portray their product in a way very much different from one demographic to other... What do I have to say about this? First off this conversation and debate is so uninteresting and lacking on understanding of the medium that is straight boring, unnecessary and a little silly (and even a little ignorant of the existence of the other demographics)... The second on and the one in where we will continue is that it can explain the products of such like Shonen no Abyss and other plenty of more curious examples where they try to grasp what the demographic and possibility of being a seinen can bring and just eat it to puke it out in the table; an obnoxious mess with plenty of... Body fluids? Yeah, that's exactly what happened here: poor characters' dynamics, such a discrepancy between themes and how it is portrayed, a terrible structure filled with conveniences and inconsistencies, boring and edgy character and above all else, being dark for the sake of being dark, being sexual for the sake of being sexual, having mental illness for the sake of having mental illness. You know what they say: Nothing's better than a depressed hot experience, right? Well this manga just took that and made it a manga without any interesting context neither being atmospheric and let just not talk about the dialogue... This abyss of writing haven't finished yet, but I've heard that it will finish in this year 2024, when the time comes I plan on expanding and talkies about the ending alongside with the series and themes as a whole... Just don't expect something good of it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Nov 16, 2022
Tokyo卍Revengers
(Manga)
add
Not Recommended Informative Spoiler
Tokyo Revengers is absolutely incredible, to this day I still have problems expressing my feeling towards this manga, not because the quality of its writing, but because it shows you how you can always go from worse to the literally absolute worse and just shit in everything that you have done in all of your work. This is the very example of doing everything bad at some point and I almost thought that the author made it worse on purpose due to the obvious lack of standard in quality or just lack common sense in the last path that Tokyo take. But don't be so
...
impatient, Tokyo Revengers is really a phenomenon and is something that needs to be talked meticulously:
Being one (if not the) most popular anime the last year 2021, Tokyo Revengers took plenty of popularity as the manga was quite well-received for people who just wanted to read some simple and entertaining manga about gangs and fights, but oh god, the amount of backlash that the manga received the last chapters along with the general discontent of people due to how a certain character died and how stupid the dialogue was in the final arc (even tho the dialogue was always stupid and boring). But we start with the introduction, about what tells us this masterpiece known as Tokyo Revengers: our protagonist is Takemichi and, well, his life was unfortunate, to say at least. He is a lonely 26 years old who have a shitty work and someone who just live a meaningless and boring life, he then watched on the TV that his girlfriend from school died in hand of the terrible Tokyo Manji Gang... Yeah, shit happens and then Takemichi is pushed into the train tracks, but instead of dying he finds himself 12 years in the past were his life as a student got ruined because of his involvement with the Tokyo Manji Gang, So Tamekichi decide to prevent what in future would be known as the most strong mafia en all Japan. Well, our premise is kinda strange in how is presented, the presentation lacks sense and emotion, but we can let that slide as the time travels just works with the objective to start the plot (kinda like the psychic power in Mob Psycho or something like that), but let's see, the thing that most annoy me starting from the very first chapterr is the narrative and how convenient everything is gonna be until the last chapter and how boring the narrative is. Chapter 1, take attention to the whole scene in the park, every bit of the narrative is just to show us how Takemichi slowly remember literally the worst day of his entire life like what? He didn't remember the day that forced him in the future to live outside his city and the day that started his life as practically as a mere slave of his bullies, you can tell me "but hey, that happened like 12 years ago, it's normal for him to forgot about that" and yeah, you would normally be right, but that's the problem with the narrative of the whole scene with this first chapter, the descriptions are obvious and bland (literally just tells us everything that we can notice just seeing the drawing) while all the narrative indicates how Takemichi slowly remember that day, is just feel unreal and pretty lame in how all the things in this chapter rare warped... Now, let's talk about the other thing that is bad and will carry one of the worst things in this manga, Naoto and how Takemichi will travel between past and future, the handshake between Naoto and Takemichi as a way for travel in time is a bullshit, but like a real big one, Tokyo Revengers in this whole first chapter made me realize that I needed to literally turn a blind eye 3 times: How the protagonist travels 12 years to the past (which will never be well explained in the series), how he didn't remember the day that ruined his life and how stupid is this whole thing of Naoto and Takmichi (let's not forget how Wakui literally explained Naoto believing Takemichi as something so simple as because in that time Naoto believed in occultism)... Fiat is when, in a piece of fiction, something convenient happens but is justified with the fact that is something that is always in the realm of possibility and as long as is not overused it can be logical and not bad, but we have here three times were this manga just didn't even know what to present to us in a plausible way (by the setting we should never expect this to be realistic)... Dear Lord, this is just about the first chapter, we have a long way to go. But as a summary: Yeah, the plot is presented in a really bland, boring and convenient way while at the same time the narrative and the basic concepts of this manga are just something that force us to turn a blind eye. The characterization of the character was kinda okay in the start, we know Mikey and Draken as your typical gang members who are tough and strong, damn, even the presentations of the characters go really well to what we expected about them, we can tell at the first moment how important, strong and frightening that they are to the other character with diverse perspectives without the need of something obvious or plain dialogue, but what is concretely interesting about this duo is how the series in the first arc literally was able to tell us how their relationship work and what they mean to each other (we have the scene of Mikey and Draken in the hospital when Mikey tells him about how without him, he wouldn't know what to do, which is easily one of the best in the entire series imo) and how they really want to be close with each other (how Mikey cry when knows that Draken is okay), is solid and have a great approach in the start... Yeah, just in the start, what happened? We will see it later with how the atrocious final arc literally ruined everything that was made here and how Mikey is just a little bastard that really doesn't care about others, but for now until chapter 180 I can firmly say that this relationship and dynamic of character is the only one that is good and entertaining to see. Good characterization and good dynamic between 2 of the most interesting character in this series, great no? Yeah, something valuable is found here for now, but what about other characters? Mmmh yeaaah... Let's not talk about this. This is too long so let me summarize it for you: --Baji and Kazutora: A duo that at first sight looks interesting but is actually pretty bad due to how pretentious and fucking stupid Kazutora is as a character, Baji, in the other hand, is a character that fulfilled his role even tho it wasn't long, he did good and remembered us that there are some circumstances that Takemichi cannot avoid what's going to happen, but he can change that horrible future that awaits him with managing to archive other conclusion even if the event happened. Then Kazutora a terrible and pretentious character (let's be real, what is about his quote about "the one who kills is a villain but the one who kills an enemy is a hero" is about? Literally a quote that in theory should summarize his character and attitude but is delivered and used in some random scene where it had noting to do about that) and Baji is okay because of what he means to the series and for Takemichi. --Haruka and Ryouhei (Pah and Peh): Wanted to warp them in the same stack because the characters meant the same for the series, nothing more than just being strong, they had their interesting things in Moebius arc, and it was well handed, but then we realize that Moebius arc ended in chapter 33 in a manga with 278 chapters, the author just used them as some guys in the gang who fight alongside Takemichi and nothing more... Man, it really is difficult to talk about the character in this manga due to their lack of presence or interesting things (ah yeah, let's not forget about how idiot was Peh when he failed under the "manipulation" of Kisaki and how he never disbelieved him). --Mitsuya: He just had bad luck, his character and dialogue were interesting to read and was good to the manga portraying the most mature side of a member gang who actually does something more than just go around picking fights or talking shit, his relationship with the Shiba brothers and with Draken was interesting, and it was reciprocal to the lector how while we knew more about his past and relationship with shiba we also understood how he was getting along with Takemichi, plus he is one of the few members in the whole series who isn't one dimensional, a pretty good character for the first 180 chapters... But why then I said he had bad luck? Because of all the characters that were spit out and totally thrown away, it was his character the one who suffered the most to the point that it not only made all of his interesting relationships and dialogue go to the trash can, but actually made the character even worse (he literally used the “the real treasure was the friends we made along the way”). --Inui and Koko: Warped them in the same spot as basically their character is strongly based in how they change each other. Inui and Koko are good, probably the only two characters who even at the final arc aren't that bad at all (but this is more because they doesn't appear that much actually), the backstory of Koko is solid and some of the most interesting and unique thing that Wakui did in his manga, portraying the struggle of letting someone go, how we sometimes search for replacement in other people and how sometimes we need to sink in some vicious or bad thing due to trauma. Inui is just good I guess? Is just that the character is not bad, but I really can't see anything really special about him, how he gained trust in Takemichi was developed in a natural way and his relationship with Koko was good, the problem with almost every character in this manga is the lack of conclusion, this is almost applied to every character apart from Takemichi and Mikey, so in the end is difficult to see really something great in the journey and struggles of every character in this manga... But yeah Koko is good. -Chifuyu: Just boring, his character just doesn't have anything interesting. His relationship with Takemichi is purely artificial, and we see this just because the series force you to see them as best friends out of nowhere (not forget how useless his character was in the last arc and his absolutely terrible and abrupt change from chapter 234... That didn't make any sense at all) You know? Every other character in this manga just suck or doesn't have anything for them, maybe Shiba and Hina are good things but the development in Shiba is practically overshadowed in all of his scenes and Hina just have the work to make Takemichi feel good with himself and almost magically heal him from almost every injury that he gets from every enemy, she actually helped to the development of Takemichi in the first like 200 character, but everything is discarded at character 187 when he screams "I wish I could be able to fight against him again" that was the moment that caught me most off guard and the moment when I thought "Takemichi you really are a stupid bitch" that dialogue literally destroyed the character in few pages, yeah, I know that the intention was to show us how he learned to respect his rivals, but really? Wakui really didn't have other ways to portray it that didn't involve making his main character look like a stupid who really just spit "deep" bullshit about honor in a world of gangs? Thank goodness the series goes worst from this moment, so really this doesn't stand out at the end of the manga so our boy Takemichi is safe because his worst scene is the least bad in this festival of poor writing right? Well actually yes, for real At this moment I really can't think about other moment when he was worst as a protagonist, but there is the trick, in the final arc his character and the conception that we have about him is changed a little, everything about his as a main character worsened when he decided to time travel just to save Mikey, he doesn't have a specific moment that is atrocious, is just that his whole character as how he is just absolute terrible and a piece of garbage, the mere fact that he has thrown away his life and everything for what he fought just to save Mikey who literally shoot him to death is maybe just little pinch about how bad the thing are getting. Oh, yeah I was talking about Hina... But yeah, everything that he did for the protagonist was underdone due to the apparent lack of common sense of our protagonist and how the author just use her as a device for Takemichi to practically gain strength out of nowhere and to heal all his problems. Hina just isn't a good character. The antagonist in this series are actually a little more interesting than the main and side cast (not much difficult tbh) Izana is okay at the end of his arc, the value and impact that Mikey saw in him was pretty interesting when reading that fight again. Izana is a character who tries to be deep but doesn't utterly fail but at the same time doesn't really connect with the lector or with other characters that aren't Mikey or Kakucho, his interaction with Kakucho was interesting as it wasn't the conventional loyalty relationship despite this being the most apparent thing at first view, but the trope of his character was precisely how even tho he was totally alone he finds Kakucho as someone who is equal to him and someone who he can call friend. His fight is boring tho even if the introduction was epic, Izana as a character just had the objective of being epic and making a frightening appearance in the "real final arc" (the series should've ended here) as some type of final boss, scenes like the one where they explain that he made a kid commits suicide or when he destroys the mound that Kakucho made to his parents are a clear hint of his presence and style in the manga, as a cool antagonist it works, but we had other antagonist who did this better... The other antagonist who was actually pretty good and the main protagonist of the arguably best arc in the series is Taiju Shiba, to make myself clear and in short; everything I said about Izana can be applied to Taiju and is even better because his fight is probably the best in the whole series: emotional (with one of the best panels in the entire manga: "loneliness"), a good use of the scenario, plenty of character united just to fight someone who is stronger than them in every aspect... The bad is that the fight ended with the possibly most legendary technique in this series, yeah, with one single Mikey kick!! Sure, the ending of this fight is possibly the most lame in the entire series, but everything prior to that was good and funny to read, damn, if I am being honest I could even give a 6/10 to the entire Black Dragons arc. Every other antagonist is bad or mediocre at least: Kisaki's motivations were lame, South was possibly the worst character introduced in the entire final arc (literally everything about him was bad) and Hanma is just a one dimensional character who literally fights because is fun, and we are never tell more than that (no, character 205 doesn't count, that character just told us what we already knew long ago). Then the list would be like this: Taiju - Izana - Kisaki - Hanma - (every antagonist or minor antagonist who appears before chapter 200) - South... I really want to talk shit about character like South, Sanzu or the Mikey of the final arc, but I just can't because this will be even more long that what it is, but South and Sanzu are literally everything what is bad about this manga, this is nor a metaphor neither in figurative sense, I really mean it, those two have every bad thing that a character in this manga can have: bad backstories, boring dialogue, edgy behavior in the whole manga, bad interactions, bad presentations and actions through the entire manga, bad fights, simple designs (even South who have some of the most outstanding design is just ok), bad conclusions (and even before everything just magically concludes happily they didn't have anything good, but after that they really didn't had anything). The drawing is okay at best, as I say before, designs are okay in the best of cases like Draken, South or maybe Mikey. What I really dislike about the drawing are how Wakui are the manga panels, the focus is just to make every character to look the most edgy possible and the drawing in fight scene are easy to follow, maybe too easy to follow to the extreme that is because of the simple and boring drawing (along with the bad panels) that the fights are bad and so Goodman boring, the scenarios and facial expressions are good, I really think that when Wakui wanted to portrait an emotion with his drawing he was able to do it at some extent, but the lack of a style made all the experience worse in every moment of tension... Just read chapter like 232 or 233 you will have a plenty of panels that scream at the sky "EDGY!!!" for God’s sake I just can't believe that the author drew that thing about the "dark impulses" without thinking that it was bad, in a chapter they really said "South has more dark impulse than Mikey" what? Dark impulses are some type of chakra or ki in this fucking awful manga? This was my limit, I just couldn't took the manga serious after reading that, and the worst thing is that the drawing tries it best to be the most serious and it just fails so loudly that it's even embarrassing. Yeah, bad use of his drawing (or just edgy panels and drawing). With this broken down, I feel more free to talk about the manga. Now, Tokyo Revengers have plenty of characters, just write "Tokyo Manji Gang members" and you will see a variety of characters, each one more boring and edgy that the previous. The first arcs in this series are kinda ok I think, see, is just that all of the fights in like literally every arc are boring and just not interesting at all. Takemichi fighting against Kiyomasa, Mikey fighting against Hanma, Mikey fighting against Kazutora, and we can go on, but what I want to make clear here is the fact that in fights the tension is never present, in the Moebius arc the tension is not about the fight but about the fact that Draken was about to die because Kiyomasa stabbed him, the whole fight scene is forgettable and just a pretext to present this part of the plot (this concretely isn't bad, it's actually the whole idea of the arc that is just a pretext to kill Draken) but come on, at least make it slightly interesting and not dull for the lector to read it, we literally are in the chapter 33. The series also is showing us how it will tell us the story for the next 250 chapters, there will always be a boring chapters were Takemichi go to te future and just talk with Naoto about how Tokyo Manji Gang is still bad or even worse than before, making the plot not just lineal, kinda pointless and so boring, but it will maintan the same structure without trying to make the things interesting, but here, in Moebius arc, is something that we can let slide just because the series is starting and is searching for his place and how the narrative will be to future along with presenting us how the author is gonna handle the times travels... Which ended up very bad, the times travels are literally a device used to tell the lector in his entire face about what Takemichi needs to do and how he needs to do, like if the series is, as if the series was taking us by the hand and taking us for fools who need everything explained in the face to just follow a lineal plot... I don't know if I make myself clear here, but we are face to face against easily the worst type of narrative that a shonen can take; no emotions, everything explicit, so easy to follow that it gets boring, no tension and ultimately the most obvious and least interesting dialogue. Chapter 13, all of the bad things that I said about the use of time travels can bee se in some point in this chapter: the way Takemichi just go to the future as is the most simplest thing in the manga, the boring dialogue with Obanai hinting us about something big is going on... But why is this scene boring and enravel all of the bad things in the use of time travel in Tokyo Revengers? Well, let's see, first of all, the way Obanai is telling Naoto and Takemichi that that fight was something planned by "him" shows us how all the arcs are and they will be linear until exhaustion, you can say that this is something good, because it makes us feel that every arc is connected and everything in this manga matters, but that's not what I see here, what I see here is just the author telling us in our face what he have been telling us this 13 chapters, that something important and siniester is gonna happen and everything is the plan of a malicius man, you see why this is bad? This is still the poor narrative that I explained before but now we even have that in the future which are always the moments where the series is full of diloague, so you are telling me that we are gonna need to endure this dull dialogue in the other aspect of this manga? Yeah, peak fiction right here. In the last part of this chapter we have a scene were Naoto literally summarises everything to Takemichi in the simplest way and is just like "well Tamekichi go now we need to start the new arc and this will be the most basic way of telling it to ours lectors". But ladies and gentlemen let's not be so hater in this series, this arc actually have quite good things that are at least a pleasure to read. The scene when Takemichi is surrounded by Kiyomasa and his other bullies and is about to collapse but is saved by his old friends is a lovely and interesting scene, not just making us clear that his friends can be useful and showing us without an overuse of dialogue that his old friends are really grateful to Takemichi about what he did against Kiyomasa and how he free them of that, but more importantly, it makes us clear the impact that the protagonist can make in other chapter while at the same time there is a clear joint between the first arc and the second arc not just by telling us with dialogue but with how the character comport themselves. Oh, and the series ironically presented us in a good way what it would be known as the worst thing in the whole manga, yeah, the first encounter in character 15 against Moebius shows us just how Draken and Mikey are, yeah, the introduction of Obanai and the gang entering the territory of Touman as the ending of the chapter is a really good bait, but that wasn't even the principal fight in that arc, and it didn't ruined the scene as it was the first time that we really see the power of Mikey and Draken... That's why I consider this as something good in this arc as this is easily the least bad moment when Mikey handled by himself a big army of enemies or the principal enemy in the arc. Valhalla is other bad moment to the series, is bad, but pretty bad: Kazutora, Hanma and Mikey, the three MVP of the most atrocious things in this arc. We still have the bland and lineal plot and pacing in this arc, the character introductions are okay but the first touch of the infamous “dark impulse” was revealed here and that alone makes me dislike this arc like 10x more. But what do we have here? We have a pretentious and insubstantial antagonist who is possible the most futile character to the series and one of the characters who have easily the worst backstory in the whole series alongside South, I talked about Kazutora and Baji before, so I will save the trouble. I just don't know what to say about this arc, is just boring, the climax point in this arc should've been the death of Shinicirou, but the flashback is just so convenient and stupid that it almost made me laugh because of how bad it is, Kisaki and Hanma shows really relevance here, but their roles here are just okay, Hanma in the entire series is just a punch bag who needs to endure every punch either from Mikey or Draken and Kisaki is just some guy who mysteriously have everything planned and is a genius... No, Kisaki, you're not a genius, is just that the average IQ of the character in this series is like 5, is surprising how the plot is so distorted to make Kisaki look like a genius or like someone who is really frightening and calculator, we really are supposed to believe that he planned how to domain Japan in just like 7 years while he was 14 years old? And he succeeded and everything went accord his plan? That some pretty big bullshit that the author made for us, thanks, Ken Wakui, for showing me how you can make something worse than before. But returning to Valhalla: Everything that was made here is destroyed in the final arc; the death of Baji, the repentance of Kazutora, the meaning of everything to Takemichi and his development was everything ruined by the absurdity of the final arc, it really surprises me how bad is. The time travel this time just ended in a cliffhanger for us, but the fact that Mikey killed Hina was something fascinating to read... Is a shame that the author literally didn't use that for anything. Is just that this arc feels tasteless, the same narrative, the same type of fights, bad backstories, the same Mikey who just destroys every enemy while at the same time destroying every piece of tension in these gangs fights “but hey, the real tension in that arc was when Mikey almost killed Kazutora” Yeah it is, but the dark impulses kills every bit of seriousness in this entire scene, is hard to take it serious and is something that give just the vibes of edgy and the repentance of Kazutora didn't matter in the entire manga while at the start it was pointless and a way for us to feel bad for the character or that's what I guess because it really didn't do anything for the characters, just Mikey saying his typically "Takemichji you are incredible you remember me to my brother”... Oh yeah, the death of Shinichirou was literally the most “ok” death that I have read in any type of manga. Bad arc. The Black Dragons arc is actually pretty good, I explained that later; Mitsuya and Taiju Shiba are good characters, so that carries this arc for almost the entire duration... This until Mikey appears and finish everything with just one kick and Draken defeats every member of the Black Dragons outside the chapel, Mikey is starting to develop into the most terrible thing in this manga; an edgelord who kills every tension in this manga who also doesn't have meaningful interactions with other characters. Draken in the other hand is still okay as a character as he has his values and morals established since a long ago with also good interactions with Takemichi or other character like Emma or Mikey, Mikey is just like South and Sanzu as I said before... Everything that is bad in the series, and this arc was where it was most notably just read chapter 106 and 107 and tell me what you can see in Mikey... Just a Gary Stu who at this point don't have anything to give to the plot besides the author just idealizing him in some type of genius in martial arts. Mitsuya backstory and his words to Hakkai Shiba are potent in what the manga tries to transmit with his characters: The strong don't need to use his hands to hurt but to protect, that's it that was a fantastic way to give us the meaning of the entire arc while at the same time making the character's growth, this is clever and funny to read, this is what Tokyo Revengers should have done the entire series, giving protagonist to every relevant member in the gang, although the narrative is still the same as always it just works due to how the arc and how the spotlight is shared between every Shiba member and Mitsuya (chapters 101 and 102 have the same narrative but the panel and the fluidity and naturalness with which each scene passes makes it great). Black Dragons is at minimum a pleasure read, and I was willing to give Tokyo Revengers a 2/10 just for this arc... But I couldn't, I just couldn't with the late chapters in the manga, but this is without a doubt the peak of Tokyo Revengers and maybe the only moment when I can say that this manga was good and was something where the author really thought deeply about his characters and narrative. Best arc in the series and easily (as it was clarified before) a 6/10. The Tenjiku arc is actually pretty easy to see what's bad: a lot of characters, not a lot of spotlights on them. The fights here aren't boring, the fights just don't make any sense, the strength of some characters are the pinnacle of the absurdity (just read chapter 162 and 166), Takemichi'plot armor here is over the clouds and is the most shameless thing in this entire manga, we really saw Takemichi won all his battles just because he doesn't know when to give up and this is all of his ability, this is just absurd and a bald and poor way to made everything goes the way Takemichi wants while also selling us cheap emotional moments about never giving up or always fighting for what you believe... Cheap and bland. All of the secondary antagonist are kinda just there to fight, Kakucho has really good moments, but his character is just standing aimlessly, Mucho had interesting psychological insights, but his character died literally after the arc was finished (let just slide how voluble his character was for the sake of make Takemichi look like a real gangster or a real man standing alone against all odds). Kisaki's character also got ruined here, he wasn't charismatic, his backstory isn't interesting and neither justifies his actions, his plans were absolutely absurdly and just his character is enveloped with pure nonsense and some shit, I am just surprised that at this point of the review I think that I can still talk shit about everything that happened in these points of this piece of work. But yeah, Kisaki really fell off in this point of the manga at the point where he died most just because yeah, shit happens. And those were the arcs of Tokyo Revengers by mi point of view, we discused everything that I think was interesting and was worth mentioning about every character, pacing and drawing. Now let's go to the real deal: This final arc made every character from this series look like almost a retard: Mitsuya threw away his future just for the sake of the gang, Pachin reincorporated in this manga even tho he had a girlfriend and was arrested before, Chifuyu helps Takemichi even after telling him that undoing the perfect future was something unforgettable and what bring the death of Draken... Every character makes the decision of make the gang again just for the power of friendship. Draken died just because... Because I don't fucking know he literally came out of a bush to get shot three times a died, what the fuck what the meaning in that death? Why is this scene indirectly telling us that Mikey's live is more valuable than Draken's life in such a pessimist yet boring and artificial scene? What was the author even thinking? I don't have the slightest idea. But that's not all, South is a character that was introduced in the series just to be killed by Mikey in easily the most boring fight in this whole series (believe me, that's some big achievement right there), his backstory and all the time that this manga takes to ensure he is imposing and literally built different is utterly insignificant at the end, Why? Because Mikey just killed him using his apparently "ki" in this series, yeah, his dark impulses took over him and kill South. Senju is another character that adds nothing good to the series, from the strange and bad presentation and first interactions that she has to the almost funny way that she changes personality from chapters to other chapters in such a fast way that it makes her feel like an amalgamation of ideas of the author for a character yet without making himself clear with her intention, I am saying this because of how useless and convenient she is to the plot despite the plot trying it's hard to make us feel like she was always there, but without taking action. This whole final arc we had character like: Senju, Wakasa, Benkei or South, character who were there just to be menacing and cool without any substance behind them and without being to the expectations that the very manga made for us, it just doesn't make any sense to me how he can handle his characters so bad that we ended thinking that almost everyone apart from Mikey is just some weakling. Then we have Sanzu, who is another edgy yet superficial and uninteresting character who have a poor backstory, I know what you're thinking "man, you have been saying the same about every character. Boring is a subjective term" and yes, I've been saying that word plenty of times in this review, but this is precisely due to their lack of spotlight or how redundant are their dialogues and backstories, or how convenient is every character due to how Wakui is someone who has ideas for arcs and characters yet doesn't have the slightest idea in how to make a "harmony" in his series to telling us how everyone is related or how simply he doesn't know how to present characters to his lectors... And no, boring isn't necessary a subjective term as boring is directly telling that something lacks interesting or funny qualities, which indirectly translates to the fact that almost every character just have one side in them or that everything that they have isn't even worth mentioning neither making emphasis. I feel like that summarizes simply why this arc is so bad and infamous: everything that the author did before was thrown away due to how every character almost turns into an idiot or how everything that he introduced since here filed to its very core, do you understand what I'm saying with this? Because I feel like it doesn't sound that bad as how actually is: Everything that he has done before was futile and ended being obsolete, and everything that he did from now is also bad and a failure... Literally everything to this point was bad or wasn't having the effect the author wanted to make, this literally is the definition of utterly failure. The backstory of Shinichirou could be a high point for many people due to be the great revelation of the base in this manga: how time travel works... It's not that good, the highest point in his whole backstory is Mikey, his vegetative future self was possibly the best of Mikey that we saw in the last 100 chapters: quiet, without his usual edgy dialogues and without being boring to the lector: +1 point to Shinichirou's backstory. Now, the bad things. This whole backstory feels like is trying hard to justify every edgy scene and dialogue in this whole final arc: the chapter 232 in the fight between Mikey and South is an example of how childish is this whole thing of dark impulses and how is unjustifiable. The curse of dark impulse make some sense, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that this whole theme was handled in a way that even makes Mirai Nikki looks like a nature anime, the justification of how the power or impulse was created doesn't justify how bad the author handled it... That's my problem with this backstory, is just a poor and convenient justification to some shitty power, it's a backstory that has just the goal to tell you why Mikey is this edy bastard, but it almost doesn't even try to make something apart from that. We can't even feel sorrow for Shinichirou due to how the backstory is just oriented in such a way that it makes us feel disappointment... Let me explain this, Shinichirou was the character that was most idealized in the whole series, everyone talks about him as some type or martyr in the world of gangs, with everyone saying how "he wanted and almost created a golden era for the gangs" or how he "united the two most dangerous gangs in Kanto"... That's all just to be a boring chapter and having a lame excuse of backstory just for the sake of the convenience in this already so convenient manga. The scene when Takemichi has his power passed to him by Shinichirou is some big (really big) bullshit and a plot device so bad presented that it feels that the author just thought "oh, and that's why he has his powers btw"... Lame, boring and uninteresting are the things that immediately came to my mind when I was reading that part in the manga (but it's not like Ken Wakui has ability writing and presenting backstories or flashbacks to his audience, we know that from long ago in this manga): -10 points for this backstory. The Bonten arc and final arc are the biggest piece of garbage that I experimented in a long time, it not just ruin literally every character, and it makes every arc completely useless at the end, it's also boring, stupid, and lacking of emotion and style/identity. Tokyo Revengers ending really undid everything. Character like South, Hanma or Izana just appears at the end without much explanation because the author laughed in our face pointing at how this is literally the perfect definition of a plain happy ending. In character 277 Wakui tried to conclude this entire manga in 2 chapters at the most garbage way possible, I just think that I am not expressing my disgust enough because I just can't. This final arc is literally the worst final arc and has the worst conclusion in every manga or anime or video game that I have experienced and makes everything that could be from before to just disappear into nothing for the plot, and it makes you feel like everything in this manga was pointless, not funny neither interesting. This is literally an insult for very lector that followed this manga for some time, thanks, Ken Wakui, for showing you disrespect to every lector that you had and for showing us what we never need to do when writing a story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Sep 21, 2020 Recommended
When I started watching Kara no Kyoukai I just thought "oh wel...these movies are entertaining" and nothing more but it was until I watched the movie 5 that I understand the concepts and elements that this movie series really has to offer. It's in this point that I actually thought that Kara no Kyoukai, with all its flaws, it's a really good franchise of movies.
This review will contain spoilers This movie is centred In a case that occurred in an apartment where Tomoe Enjou claims to have murdered his mother, in his escape and dealing with his old friends he manages to meet the protagonist, ... Ryougi Shiki, it will then be under that presumption by which the plot of this will move movie, focusing on Enjou and the mystery behind the apartment where he lived and murdered his parents. First off it's necessary to make an aclaration and is that this movie can easily be the first of the movies that actually make a progresion and that is noticeable because in the first film an emphasis was placed on events from all the other films (allusion is made to the fight against Fujino, Shiki killing and his recovery from the hospital) so from the first moment we could take this film as the turning point between the anachronies and the time jumps of the films, this is very important because it is in fact in this film where many unknowns that the previous films left and even this fifth film being analyzed as a separate product conclude of the other films also shines for its own reasons that we will explain below. After the 4 previous films this is presented in a different way, the presentation does not focus on Mikiya and Shiki as such, but on Enjou and they present you from the first moment a strange scene that uses a little recurrent and extravagant narrative for which the viewer should be absolutely clear from the first moment that the follow-up of the films could become more strange and complex than the rest, this is reinforced by the simple fact that when Shiki welcomes Enjou into his house (when he opens the door ) use animation and transition to move from scenes in a really unfair way, that presentation is key because from the first moment the film makes it totally clear who will be the key, how animation will be used, the use of narration and how and where will the anachronies be located. Something good about the positioning of this film in the chronological line is that the world, atmosphere and tone are marked from long before (it is true that the fourth film may seem simpler, but the atmosphere and tension remain the same) and this film does not presents no hint of changing that and even this film wants to deal with more complex elements throughout the work, dark colors and the use of shadows precisely is something key, Ufotable is well known for knowing how to set situations in dark elements and from this film is noticeable because the most key and conclusive elements occur at night to convey the feeling of gloom felt by the protagonists in front of the antagonists (this is too noticeable when Shiki faces Araya for the first time and she is devoured by the department) which in that sense this film is responsible for dragging all the above from the films (for better or for worse) and develop and exploit it to its favor with the context that this movie is really the only moment so far where you can feel tension when you find yourself after the first movie chronologically, that is precisely the reason why this is the first movie where the enemy actually manages to corner Shiki and even represents a mortal threat to all the characters, although the scene of Cornelius murdering Touko seems to me the greatest example of this, the truth is that that feeling of tension is totally destroyed because Touko was not dead in the end and the explanation is that she had a doll just like her which seemed totally far-fetched and to top it off Cornelius dies in that scene ... without having done anything important in the plot despite the fact that her presentation and foreshadowing in the film was key for the very development of this and that seemed to me a total waste of the character (it is not possible to match what Cornelius presented and incited in the plot so that later he does absolutely nothing and even his wacky scenes are reduced to nothing in the movie). Basically of the 2 antagonists presented, only one is really well achieved (Araya) while the other is totally wasted (Cornelius) and even so Araya's flashbacks are insufficient to fully explain his reasons and justification for the acts, it is not that Araya is A bad antagonist is simply that Kara no Kyoukai has a bad habit of always cutting off her antagonists in the end (see Fujino), Araya has a brutal presentation that practically encompasses the character in its entirety and even afterwards his actions in the movie have a meaning very relevant and stars in the best scenes in addition to presenting the symbolism of existentialism and how that philosophy led him to devise a plan to try to "save" the world by finding the root (which I also loved because he made the first direct relationship with Fate / Zero and in a simple and effective way) Araya's execution is actually quite good but the character's foundations and his Ideologies fail quite a bit even at the end of the film and that disappointed me as he could easily have become the great antagonist of Kara no Kyoukai (although it is not the same that Kara no Kyoukai stands out in large part for its antagonists). And since we are saying that the monitoring and the use of the camera there are quite good scenes like the scene where Shiki and Enjou enter the apartment where the murder of the entire Enjou family is repeated over and over again, specifically him as the murderous mother. the father has a very natural follow-up and it could even be said that it was monotonous for what was shown to be a murder and that is that the same scene poses it to you as a mockery of reality and something stupid but it is real, if we actually remember when Shiki tells him that the scene in front of him is real at that moment the screen changes to show us a man on TV making fun of a program making allusion to this, it is a simple murder that has been repeated thousands of times and does not have No sign of being serious or anything new and it is due to the ingenuity of Ufotable that a simple scene of less than 5 minutes can convey the feeling of stupidity and incredibleness of a character in such a complex and creative way. I also find the scene of the final fight between Araya and Shiki phenomenal, they are very well animated since the use of Shiki's sword in front of Araya's fists has a brutal follow-up that, without confusing the viewer, moves the camera sharply from one side to the other following the sword in a convenient way so as not to lose any movement, thus turning a fairly normal combat into one that manages to meet the expectations of the character, in addition to the scene of both falling is the perfect conclusion to the entire combat Aesthetically speaking, since the combat ends with a simple direct scene of how Shiki falls from the building next to Araya in order to directly end the combat and even the OST accompanies wonderfully well and that is because Dat OST is a matter of looking for the OST on YouTube M19 + M20 "(movie 3) and buy it with the OST" M24 "of this fifth movie and it is that Mujun Rasen's OST is more rushed with a contrast in quieter moments and the more tense or moving and that is why this OST specifically fits this movie very well in particular because the OST perfectly matches the rhythm with the final scene between Shiki and Araya, that is something that I very rarely see well in this In case, the difference between the previous OSTs denotes a comparison between the reserved fights that Kara no Kyoukai had before with those that she has now that are widely different, with an emphasis now really on action and movements. And it is precisely the narration that gave me the most enjoyment in the first bars of the film, I would dare to say that no scene is in the film just because yes, everything has a reason why it is (either symbolic or as a weight in the plot) and time jumps are not an exception, each one of them is made with cohesion between the events that occurred in the past and those that will occur in the future (when Enjou sees the fight between Shiki and Araya he returns to Shiki's house and there we go back to the past to narrate from Mikiya's perspective), these anachronies are well presented throughout the entire film precisely to the game that he does with animation because Ufotable, beyond animating well, knew how to animate these movies. These temporal jumps also help to complement scenes with each other, when Enjou is in the street watching Cornelius follow Shiki it is one of the best examples because in that same scene it is naturally allowed to see that Touko and Mikiya were by his side without Enjou would realize, it is precisely scenes like this that give cohesion and coherence to the actions that the characters do because this same scene indirectly asks you "what is Mikiya and Touko doing here?" And it is obvious that you will ask yourself that question because in that same scene introduces us to the character of Cornelius who, by the simple fact of seeing the design and the angles they give him, gives us to understand that he will be an antagonistic and new character. The funny thing is that precisely when the film focuses on Mikiya's perspective, that scene that I just mentioned obtains a clear emphasis on the follow-up of the department's case, which is why the mistery that was presented to us in that scene before is now taken from Another perspective and gets a different meaning than it had before (there are many examples like those in the movie) and that also serves as a continuation for when the viewer feels confused due to the anachronies, when Shiki receives the sword from Mikiya we are presents in a short scene in which Shiki returns home and meets Enjou and then tells him about the sword that Mikiya gave her so when we go to Mikiya's perspective there is precisely a scene in which it is shown in it how Mikiya gives the sword to Shiki and why he gives her the sword and that's brilliant because it help the spectator to ubique the event because there are really much scenes like that and that's help you to understand the movie at the same time that the movie introduce those scenes naturally and with a good approach. And to describe in a simple way it seems to me that the passing/rhythm is precise and very uniform related to the exposition because despite the fact that the content of the film is complex at no time does it fill you or kill you with information, instead it bothers to explain the characters and events in a more cryptic way, so it does not feel monotonous or turn it into a stupid textual and repeated explanation, it is true that near the middle of the film there are some elements and relationships between characters explained in a vague and sudden way (the relationship between Ryouko and Araya together with Cornelius seems to me totally out of pocket), passing has the The benefit is precisely that it comes according to the movie, the necessary emphasis in the scenes makes the moments feel natural and with a goal, for example the scene where Shiki talks on the phone with Mikiya and Enjou asks if she is okay and Shiki She responds that she is angry with Mikiya because he left without saying anything, that scene not only emphasizes the growing relationship that they have developed and that very thing. It will also impact the evolution that Enjou will have in the same movie. Well we talked about the amazing storytelling and the very good cohesion along with a pretty good rhythm that fits the events and the moment, now the characters and the other elements that make this movie so good. The characters themselves remain very similar to what we saw in the previous movies, Shiki and Mikiya have deepened their relationship and it shows by some short scenes and by various dialogues that Shiki has as the movie progresses and Touko shows a new one facet that he had never shown in all the movies which was ruthless and accurate in killing Cornelius in a simple and fast way, which, although it is interesting, is really not a big thing and you can even forget it for the next movie, but the character that really stands out here is Enjou Tomoe. Enjou Tomoe symbolizes almost everything the film wants to convey, free will and acting on your own, being really free in a world and a life where you were predestined to do predetermined things or you are predetermined to meet predetermined people, it's not just that The evolution of Enjou and its parallelism with Shiki (a real murderer) is in vain because how the personality of Enjou Tomoe softens and even how he sympathizes with his family are scenes that clearly show how he progresses slowly throughout the entire film and even so it brutally reinforces the contrast between Mikiya, the one who helped him accept his family, with Shiki who simply knows how to kill because this makes it clear that Mikiya despite everything that has happened in previous films continues to maintain his word and humble personality just like he said he was going to do it in the second movie. Returning to Enjou then the existentialist and philosophical aspect of the film is largely due to him since it is in the final scene where he discovers that the character's final conclusion is an "impostor", even if Enjou was not real and was not destined to exist. In this world he achieved something, he felt the affection for a moment of his parents, he felt a friendship with Mikiya and, above all, he felt in love and inspired by Ryougi Shiki ... The only person who at one point tried to save him and Help him, his final dialogue against Araya is very good, how Araya tells him that he is an impostor and that he was programmed from the same idea that Araya had to let go of him to fall in love with Shiki until he told him that he did not care about anything ... Basically THAT Enjou did not existed and yet Enjou replied "I existed here" resulting in the outcome of the character, his catharsis with his family was present from the beginning and his emotions were explored throughout the work and it is because of that that the dialogue The end is so significant because Enjou reaffirms his existence, he helped Shiki because he really felt it and even so he managed to belong to something and had a home, the emphasis and metaphor of the keys is precisely important because of this moment because Enjou knew it existed because he found a home and someone to protect, the perfect conclusion for a character who, being introduced in this movie and nothing else, forms as the outcome not only of the film's philosophy but as the entire character as such. Even so, if we analyze the other characters beyond everything, it is not that they are neither bad nor simple, far from it, it is that this movie tries to show parts of the personalities of other characters in order to reaffirm what has been seen previously and thus finish the characterization of these, Mikiya forgives Enjou and his relationship with him shows us the closest we had so far (not counting at school) to seeing him with a friend and chatting with someone, previously we were shown that Mikiya was such a good person that even He could play a rapist and in this film we are shown that he even managed to empathize with a murderer because his relationship with Shiki was the same as that of Mikiya himself ... Outside of that there is really very little to say, Mikiya was always taken by the work as an opposite to Shiki and as someone who does not forgive the murder (despite the fact that in a certain way Shiki is) and even so, under that remarked idea, he managed to develop together with Enjou because he knew of first moment that Enjou was not a bad person. With Ryougi Shiki it is curious because it is in this movie where we are shown with combat with Ryougi Shiki instead of Shiki, many could consider this a Deus Ex Machina and my answer would be well ... No, Shiki's personality change was present Throughout all of Kara no Kyoukai and even the very construction of the world of the movies make it totally clear the change between both Shiki's personalities, even so the fact that Shiki changes his personality through the use of the sword is something that will charge relevance later and in fact the Deus Ex Machina as a rule in themselves are not something negative and this in particular is not because it is the collusion and conclusion of ideas that one can unite oneself from the previous films (the use of the sword Shiki talks about in film 2) and, as I say, this scene and final combat does not ruin the world that Kara no Kyoukai built in the other films, for which it does not ruin neither the scene nor the thing raised in advance and, in fact , reinforces it in an effective and simple way that is also not far-fetched, therefore no, the participation of this personality of Shiki is neither far-fetched nor something negative, it is a matter of paying attention in the previous films and uniting the ideas that exposed the movies from their very beginning. But speaking of Shiki in general as a character ... The truth is very similar to that with Mikiya, there is not much to get out but in this case it is justified because Shiki's personality is raised in the first film, in the second the bases are shown, In the third it is reinforced and in the fourth one sees the conclusion that Shiki reached after the hospital incident, therefore the Shiki of this movie is an amalgamation of what we have seen in all of Kara no Kyoukai and that makes it special because Shiki maintains elements of all the movies and does it correctly, his desire for murder but also how he withholds himself, his relationship and attraction to Mikiya and how he opened his heart to other people. Shiki in this film is easily the most human and the one that most demonstrates the conclusions reached before and that is why I considered Shiki as a good character here for the mere fact of representing everything she achieved and presented in a natural, credible and with a context and dialogue that are just good. I would stop at the OST but I really talked about the OST before ... It is simply incredible and easily one of the best I have heard, what distinguishes it from the other OST I have heard is that precisely in Kara no Kyoukai the sounds used, instruments and the moment they make the scene what it is, it is a set of all the elements in which a work should think when placing an OST and make it unique precisely for a scene that, even pretending it, can be unique, the haunting setting and mysterious also serves to accompany the scenes and is that in this Mujun Rasen is precisely where the mystery most lurks in the environment, the mystery of the apartments is simply rare at first and may even seem uninteresting, but it is due to the explanations that are given later when one can understand that Araya merged with the departments in order to carry out his plan, it is true that some explanations sound quite incoherent as e The fact that the elevator changes the stairways but there is the funny thing, it is a "spiral paradox" that is extravagant as such, in a way even so I was never convinced by this argument so I remain neutral to it as explained by the departments ( being the central axis of Mujun Rasen) because they could have given more clues about how the department works as such without resorting to vague explanations or an exposition that simply does not solve anything or is totally sudden ... Even so, the mystery unfolds well one Once we reach the end. Little more to tell the truth, I talked about the excellent use of animation and dark colors, the presentation and transition of scenes together with the tracking of the camera in specific scenes that I loved, the characters as such, without being a big deal, they excel and manage to fulfill their role in the film in one way or another, the OST and the passing along with the incredible narration, exposition and the philosophy that the character of Enjou carries on himself. My problem with this movie is simply the convenience in the script that it has on several occasions, Touko's relationship with Cornelius and Araya seems to me out of nowhere along with the same doll that she had that was identical (in itself Touko seemed easily to me the most bland and bad thing about the movie), Cornelius is wasted and they could have delved a little deeper into characters like Mikiya ... But all of that is minimized when you see and appreciate the brutality that Ufotable has done here, almost all things bad things can be easily overshadowed by the excellent things that this movie brings, specifically the narration that I think is one of the best in all anime (not only because of its structure but also because of its operation) and finally to clarify some things, the fact that Enjou be an impostor YES it makes sense and an easy explanation (for something Enjou always dreamed of his mother killing him because it was his other clones who died on that occasion and since Shiki and Enjou They enter the departments, this idea is clearly stated), the film simply does not treat you as stupid and even so it serves a lot to capture the philosophy of the film and most importantly, if you find the film pretentious then I invite you to read the I finish, learn it, watch the movie again and intelligently and there you will tell me if this movie is pretentious. Personally, I loved it, it almost does not fail in anything it proposes and it is an experience that for me is unique in this world of anime ... You should definitely give it a try.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
May 14, 2020
Kimetsu no Yaiba
(Manga)
add
Recommended Preliminary
(207/207 chp)
Without a doubt one of the most famous "new gen" manga in the acclaimed Shonen Jump, a shonen that the last year dethroned one Piece for a few moments with the title of best selled manga... well then, how good is the manga?
The story centers on Tanjiro, a normal young man who, going out to find firewood, he notices that there is a great snowfall, so he decides to return home the next day, the surprise is that when tanjiro returns home his whole family is dead except for her sister (Nezuko) who was turned into a demon, there she will begin her journey to ... try to make her human again. The story is very simple, something expected for a shonen, but what if we analyze the bases of the story is something that can really branch into an interesting story. But here is a problem, one that will mark the manga throughout its development, the approach of ideas is quite competent, despite the fact that in the early stages of the plot the narration is quite regular (or sometimes directly bad) the problem is the pacing of the manga The beginning of the story feels very rushed, just seeing how the events are triggered at the beginning one realizes Tanjiro's rapid reaction, something that misleads a lot, let's take something into account, the scenario was worked throughout the first chapter, the character was characterized in a way in which one would notice his feelings and his lifestyle, so when the real important moment arrives is that precise moment which feels more empty and rushed, a start that he wanted seems shocking he succeeded , but he did not cope with it in a very remarkable way, the only moment in which we see a human reaction from is when Tanjiro starts crying in the moment he sees that Nezuko attacks him. Not only that, Tanjiro and Giyuu's thoughts quite ruin the moment, when Tanjiro throws his ax at him and Giyuu dodges it, they put us in the mind of Giyuu who literally repeats the same situation in his head, thus serving as a lousy narration and A shameless way of explaining a situation that was explained alone and without the intervention of a narrator or someone else's voice, which in itself makes the manga redundant, is only when that shot ends that the manga really puts us in Giyuu's perspective. Yes, I am being tough and specific, I know, but I do this precisely to denote how at the beginning (emphasis on what it is at the beginning) the mangaka does not know how to combine the narration with the thoughts of the characters, creating bland moments like the one I just mentioned, that's something that will get better, but that mediocre narration will continue until the Rengoku saga (or the infinite train). That would conclude with the analysis of the introduction of the manga. As this is my first review of a "long" shonen manga, I would like to delve into the sagas, but first I want to cover everything else. The characters and designs In Kimetsu are something to emphasize, not only the designs are characteristic, the characters themselves as well. Of the secondary characters the ones that stand out the most are Inosuke and Zenitsu. Zenitsu can easily be considered a deus ex machina at the beginning of the manga, his lightning strike literally one shot's his first 2 enemies, thus taking away much of the weight off the fighting, but outside of that Zenitsu is competent, in fact he fulfills his role, the demon hunters are presented as bold people, the elite in terms of human capacity, but quickly Zenitsu breaks that scheme and idea, he is a character created to contrast the protagonists who appear not to be afraid, his design helps a lot in that since Zenitsu by far seems the least formidable and has a characteristic color that will generate more personality to her design. The development of Zenitsu is presented very little by little, he really evolves very little outside the final arc, when he saves Nezuko multiple times is an example of that, his characterization makes his eagerness to protect Nezuko his greatest interventions and pinch of evolution of the character, in the early his dialogue is really not ingenious, his characteristic dialogue is simply when he says to Tanjiro "I protected the box because you said that it was something more important than your own life", something that hints at Zenitsu's desire to protect people, so it is a feature that we get pretty quickly in the manga, but its peak moment is, without a doubt, its combat against Kaigaku (upper moon 6 of replacement just in case), that combat is the end of everything worked in Zenitsu, not only the approach and concept of the combat is incredible, the execution is also incredible, we observed near the beginning of the manga his flash backs, which showed his relationship with his master, but in his fight against Kaigaku we see the true facets of Zenitsu, his reaction to seeing his old partner turned demon is natural, it was the only time we saw Zenitsu angry only to later see him sad when he realized the loss of his " family ", his dialogue in that fight is phenomenal, we really empathized with Zenitsu when he saw how dissapointed he was, the feeling was very well expressed and his final metaphor about the box of happiness gives him an extra touch, Zenitsu is not afraid of the fight he really want to face her enemy for the first time, a decision that is implicitly explained very well. Now and the interesting thing ... was that Zenitsu pose an ass pull or something? I would answer no, let's remember that the biggest Zenitsu workouts before the final saga were focused on the legs (the rock exercise) and that also, his attack in itself is very similar to Tanjiro's, so he had a source of inspiration, they also put an exclusive panel to show how Zenitsu adjusts his foot to make a new attack, from that moment it is clear that Zenitsu has a new attack, but if it were not, let's suppose what an ass pull is then ... is that really bad if we compare it to all the good that scene did? Yes, his analysis was long, but he deserved it, the only counter to Zenitsu is that his comic relief does not help much, sometimes he manages to laugh, but mostly he does not, his serious moments are the best and he is possibly the best character developed from the manga and I wanted to explain why. Now I will cover Inosuke and Kanao, who have a very similar evolution, since both characters are recognizable for hiding their emotions, this works more with Kanao, let's take into account the impact that their relationship with Tanjiro had when they trained, a natural relationship and what reflected how both characters would take a course throughout the manga, Kanao changed, yes, she changed a lot and that's why we see how she shows her emotions in her combat against Douma is spectacular, we see how Kanao shows anger against the murderer of her teacher (which gives the final step to the relationship between Kanao and Shinobu), Kanao's dialogue is very shocking and that is written like this to generate a contrast between the old Kanao and the current one (his most characteristic dialogue is when he asks Douma why he was born) his final scene with Shinobu and Kanae also shows the appreciation that he came to develop in people, Although this is evident from before, at the moment that Tanjiro recovers after his combat against the upper moon 6, so this last scene is not artificial, since it is an expected reaction if we take into account the precise dialogue he had with Tanjiro. before. The bad thing is that his combat was decided with an ass pull, at first almost Kanao looks like a Mary Sue, but that is fixed when we see Kanao humanized, he is a worked character, but it does not reach the Zenitsu caliber in my opinion. Very similar happens with Inosuke, his fight against Douma is what drives his evolution, his mother's discovery gives us to understand 2 things, the first is that Inosuke saw Shinobu as a mother figure, which subtly explains their relationship and his understanding of things, Douma's relationship with Inosuke's mother is far-fetched, the concept is wrong and the approach does not help either, because it is very sudden and at that moment it seemed that the mangaka wanted each demon to have a relationship with one of the characters, the execution is regular, apart from the fact that it explains to us why Inosuke's mother left him that also generates a real feeling of fighting, it is the only combat where Inosuke does not fight for fame and that is noted later by the more direct dialogue than it has in the middle of the fight. The true importance of Inosuke's flash back is what triggers it, when Tanjiro says that Inosuke's mother surely loved him is a very good scenes and the one that most impacts the character (that can also be seen when Inosuke fails to have the courage to assassinate Tanjiro), his humanization is better than Kanao's because Inosuke is a constant character, but in general they are both equally good. I also forgot to say that possibly the design of Kanao is the most forgettable and that of Inosuke the most memorable, in addition the introduction of Inosuke is the best of the leading team, its charisma and combat style is very noticeable, it has great characterization and its relationship Tanjiro is explored throughout the manga. Tanjiro and Nezuko are arguably the worst characters in the group and are themselves mediocre, yep, I said so. Tanjiro is too ideolized, he has no flaws and a large part of his combats have ass pulls (although that does not take away from the good, but he fights against Rui and the upper moon 6), his evolution is noticeable little by little but In spite of that, the mangaka continues to praise Tanjiro as much as he can (but he does not reach the Meliodas level, that's the worst), his characterization breaks down to make the character as humanly perfect as possible and that disgusted me a lot, it's as if they wanted to you want the character to force and a character can not earn love like that, only a few relationships with the characters save him and the impulse that he gives to the others to evolve, so yes, I consider Tanjiro a mediocre character (which is not bad). Nezuko seems to me a waste, the mangaka does not want to present his evolution implicitly but she does not succeed and that is because it is very obvious and redundant, he only limits himself to showing affection under the excuse that Urokodaki taught him that, in fact In and of themselves, they never explain to us why she is a special demon that resists Muzan, later we see Tamayo, yes, but she had logical grounds for why she escaped from Muzan, Nezuol, not because of her bad approach, her execution and development. she leaves a lot to be desired and also her bouts are not memorable, that's why it is a waste, the mangaka could have implicitly told us how Nezuko evolved, but we did not get even half of that, just a waifu without nothing to highlight (the design is not the Big Deal). Outside the group the other characters work for themselves, characters like Giyuu, Uzui and Muichiro achieve a lot in the manga with their time on screen and the truth is that the mangaka wanted to work on all the pillars, but characters like Sanemi (which He admitted loving his brother out of nowhere, simply to generate something emotional), Iguro (which literally does nothing in the whole manga and is a total waste) and Himejinma (he had little screen time, just wasted). But the worked secondary characters stand out more than the not worked precisely because of the distinctive emphasis of each character, we see the flash back of most of the characters, normally I would say that this is a mediocre way of explaining the feelings and past of a character, but Kimetsu He does it well, he knows how to place each flash back (from the train saga) because he waits for the tension of the combat to drop, presenting a characteristic dialogue of the character that then leads him to remember his passdo, it is natural and does not interrupt the He fights abruptly because the change in tone is evident in the combat and that makes him a worthy presentation, that is undoubtedly a strong point of the work, knowing how to place and present the flash backs can turn a mediocre narrative into a quite interesting one. To speak of elements such as world construction and use of the world would be a waste of time since there is simply no, Kimetsu is a shonen focused on his own and it is made clear from the first moment, the lack of world construction does not make it bad, because that element is simply impossible to analyze here, the bad thing is that it affects the setting which makes it very convenient and poorly built, the Japanese elements help a little, but the fact that we don't even know the time in which the manga takes place It is something that displeases quite a lot and erases the clear idea of Japanese time, they did not even explain to us why the government does not know about demons, it is very unreal ... in fact and now that I see it capable it is true, worldbuilding is mediocre and is very sloppy. Muzan is bad, very bad, but not only talking about who is evil, but what his characters suck, he is the worst antagonistic figure presented in the manga and easily the most wasted character (at least it does not reach the level of Tomura's pretentious garbage at BNHA), his personality is boring, we do not delve into his personality or past or his reason why he is the first demon, his parallelism with Oyakata was very interesting and was reflected very well in the first arches, but his final combat is horrible We only know that Muzan does not want to die, but that is reflected so much in the manga that the exposition of that ideal becomes tedious and monotonous, the character itself is not redeemable, it is a pity how the main enemy ended. Yes, it's a shame how the main antagonistic figure ended ... but what about the secondary antagonists? And it is that part, my dear reader, which interests, possibly Kimetsu is the current shonen that best handles the use and exposure of secondary enemies, the presentation of the 12 moons is somewhat predictable, but it is fine for a shonen like Kimetsu, the open possibilities for all kinds of villains and that is exactly what we got, several types of villains, Rui highlighted and represents better than anyone the lower moons, his saga is the first of the manga that is worth seeing and was the first great challenge in the manga, the construction of his combat together with the use of flash back manage to make this combat a transcendental one. In order not to make us boring this moons issue very boring or repetitive, the mangaka decided to end all the other moons, that scene of Muzan murdering the moons is great, not only because of how it looks but also because it presents the parallels between Muzan and Oyakata and his way of treating disciples, since both scenes clearly show us the essence of both characters, when they all kneel before Oyakata and the murder of the moons lower. The upper moons are very good, their stories have distinctive concepts among themselves and their personalities are also very well worked (in this section Douma stands out), I would delve into each one, but I will limit myself to saying that each panel and flash back is set so ingenious that it plunges us fully into the mind and environment of the enemy (undoubtedly the best example is Kokushibou), its combats are dynamic and its designs spectacular, the only exception is the upper moon 5 which is simply very tasteless and bland. Now that I talked about the characters I will explain quickly my points of each arc: The initial arc that lasted until before the Rui arc (because yes, I was not going to speak one by one). Basically the manga at these points was mediocre, erroneous exposition of fundamental elements in combat, simplistic enemies and a very premature appearance of the antagonist, the most notable is the presentation of the breaths, a quite typical and special power system at the same time, because In artistic terms, the skills are characteristic, which is a point in favor, in addition to that this moment Tanjiro had not any power up and ass pull, Zenitsu for this moment is a deus ex Machina and the overuse of the lower moons (as a concept) makes that there is no great tension and the narration and use of flash back is bad. It is really a very bad and poor start for what will develop later (The rating is for an idea, but is not exact) Note: 3/10 Rui and training arc. Here the really interesting part of the manga begins, the combats feel better formulated and the scenario is better set than before, Rui is not a great villain, but he works and is competent as he serves as the manga's first great adversary, the use of pillars It is quite curious, because we are presented with the human counterpart of the moons that would be the aforementioned pillars, their moments are transcendental and expose the differences in powers between characters, making clear the power level of the leading group quickly and clearly. The bad thing is that Tanjiro manages to stay against Rui due to a quite convenient power up, it would be normal if we got an epic moment, but that part is relegated to nothing due to Giyuu's intervention, so they presented us with a power up in the most important battle only so that later it did not come to anything? That removes great weight from the combat itself, Zenitsu how always taking a shot at the enemy and Inosuke's combat was fine. The part of the training only serves as a transition and to make Tanjiro more broken, we are introduced to Kanao who at first will not be a great character but later he will have great evolution. Shinobu also ends up provoking dynamic reactions and thoughts in the characters with his appearance, but apart from that this part is simply boring, we did not get much, but as I said a while ago, it serves to present all the pillars (with a great characterization) and to show the parallelism between Oyakata and Muzan. This arc would be 6/10 Train arc Easily and arguably the best arc, Rengoku has charisma and shows it from the first moment, the intrusion of the lower moon 1 makes sense and does not feel rushed despite being the last one alive, we can delve deeper into the psychological of secondary characters, the Rengoku himself explains in a non-pretentious or pedantic way his vision of life and the change of tone begins part of the dialogue feels very good, from a tension plane to a more reflective one, the appearance of Akaza is striking and shocking which generates more enthusiasm for the reader to know the other enemies, Tanjiro fights just without taking anything out of his pocket, which is appreciated, the battles against both the inner moon and Akaza feel unique and great to see, the truth is that this saga fulfills many roles being the most important to expose the power of the upper moons and to make it clear to the viewer that the characters can die in the manga. A great arc 8/10 The arc of the red light district Another quite interesting arc to analyze, Uzui is a charismatic character, the art becomes consistent and the antagonist is interesting, everything sounds good if you see it that way, but the combat is quite disappointing, both the leading and antagonistic forces pull out sudden power ups what , they would be fine if they had given indications before, but they generate a very artificial combat and with the intention of lengthening the combat, but emotionally it works, the flashback of the upper moon 6 is interesting and very sentimental, in addition to presenting a message left Throughout all their combat, the relationship between Tanjiro's team and Uzui happens quickly but the change is noticeable and is justifiable due to the setting and environment they were in, but despite everything it feels that much of the search for the upper moon 6 is unnecessary and I branch out the search for the enemy. Yep, despite everything I consider that the combat is mediocre, we have to take into account that this was the first higher moon to be defeated, so the combat should have been better, but it was not, although it has many salvageable things. a 6/10 Blacksmiths Village arc A great saga that predates us and characterizes several secondary characters, the battles seem more like the trigger for a great teamwork, the atmosphere and Muzan's attack was well reflected in the moons he sent (despite that they are the most boring) , at this moment the mangaka has full control over the use of flash back and how to position them, the combat does not feel bland, Genya manages to develop with Tanjiro very well in a very short time, but Muichirou's overwhelming victory against the upper moon 5 A short review for this arc, but quite good 7/10 the last arc I will not lie, this saga started very well, the peak of complexity of battles, character development and their relationships with each other, there were many ass pulls in between, but the saga managed to keep you expectant and tense of what will happen, the designs The enemies and their attacks are great and the deaths are very well built, the motivations of the upper moons are varied and their flash backs are genuinely complex to be a normal shonen ... All that is destroyed once the combat against Muzan begins , the characters stupidly deconstruct themselves to force the plot, emotional moments based simply on victimization, quite boring and not very dynamic combat only to finish off with a Diabolus ex Machina that was solving by a Deus ex Machina, what a great ending ... I lied, really the end is horrible, both the time skip that is too out of place and every fight against Muzan is crap, the contrapart of this combat is the battle against Kokushibou, this battle is the pinnacle of a worked combat in this manga, a combat like this would be a great final. but I cannot ignore all the good things he did at first. an 8/10 (it could have been a 9/10). Now let's talk about other elements, the art itself is not very good, but it has its own style and is characteristic, something very important, the art works well with the attacks shown, but in the final saga they were simply based on launching any attack and the art did not help distinguish, but art itself is not something I would say is bad, it is considerably consistent and characteristic, character design also works well with mangaka art. The plot triggered certain interesting elements, subsequent narrative and exposure generated that the plot was driven more and the story had a more defined direction, the use of internal focus on characters coagulates with what is presented by the plot, even if the plot is generic triggers elements that are exploited by the mangaka, but never touches elements outside the world of demons, making the world feel empty. Oh, and by the way, I reread the ending, it is mediocre or bad directly, too many situations are forced by the sentimental factor, there is no explanation of the reincarnations and there is no sense that there is a photo of the protagonists at the end, because that breaks the whole small world of Kimetsu and also is a total nonsense that, like the whole chapter, just wants to collide with the sentimental factor. This ending almost makes me drop the score to a 6 conclusion The start of this manga is lousy, I will be honest, but it manages to stay afloat very effectively, it manages to appropriate elements from other shonen and shapes them in its own style in its manga, the characters are interesting and charismatic, the use of temporary anachronisms is good and The narration later is fluid and does not stagnate in monotonous thoughts, the design of scenarios and enemies is also a good thing in the manga, the bad thing is pacing, in the last arc it was combat after combat and that could get tired, but the battle against Muzan was affected by this, the entire end of the manga was damaged by the misuse of pacing, the matches have a unique essence, which helps him stand out compared to other shonen, but the matches are full of power up and ass pulls, they are still enjoyable and have many good qualities, facial expressions also cohesive well with the roles presented (emphasis on the flash back of Kokushibou), anyway, I flaunt go too ... Kimetsu is a solid product, it does not deserve the popularity that anime received, but it is a manga that I would dare to recommend, I really liked to follow this manga and it is a great example of starting with simplicity to later explore topics with your own touch, thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Sep 18, 2019
Imawa no Kuni no Alice
(Anime)
add
Not Recommended
What a disappointment
Actually Alice in Borderlands is one or my favorite manga, I enjoy reading each chapter, it has been a while since I read the manga, so I wanted to see these 3 ovas to see how good they are, after all for my Alice in Bordelands it was a great and I knew that, despite being 3 ovas, it could be a good thing from there (well, I was wrong). The story does not change much, Arisu Ryohei, tired of his life and with an inferiority complex by his brother, appears in another world with his 2 friends after seeing some fireworks, in the ... "new world" (which is equal to the Earth, but without many people) there are some survival games in which Arisu will have to participate to survive, the plot is simple, but it can unleash many possibilities, but the pacing is terrible, the plot rushes so much that we can not get to Psychologically understand the characters or their actions, the ovas only take advantage that they are a game of death to play great and develop them well (that is a good point that the ova have at least) and then forget everything else, it shows due to the emphasis to make each game fit a game and making their preparations, which does not work because the grace that the games had was to see how the protagonists faced the games in a psychological way and in a way Inamica, while here they only focused on making the game great, leaving a kind of "style over substance", since the reflections and deductions of the characters completely dislodge due to the inconsistency that the ovas had to prioritize and retract the games ( it takes very little time to explain correctly and dynamically). The last game was the one I gave the most hope, but the flask forward (as opposed to flask back) that were recurrent in the chapter made the majority of the chapter's dialogue meaningless and explicitly let you understand that something wrong It was going to happen (which is a simple way to put tension although with everything, this game was the one that best treated the tension), without the need to resort to psychological immersion, which generates, although all the games are raised in a way correct, the latter in particular could have developed in a great way, but the little immersion with the characters and the fact that we could not get into their mentality makes their deaths do not feel like something emotional or that has weight (although the soundtrack did a good job in general), so, despite the good approach, the development was mediocre. The characters are where the ovas weakest, in the manga the characters are undoubtedly their best element (especially Arisu), due to the duration of the ovas the characters are very poor, you can not get to emphasize with any due to the emphasis that is only given to the games and in the ingenious way to solve them, it is not at the end of the third game where you can get to understand the feelings of the characters, but that only serves to generate an emotional scene where friends of Arisu die, if not for that reason the characters never managed to express themselves correctly, the exposition of deep themes is very superficial and pretentious (we never really get to know much about Arisu's past or why Chouta feels a loading, they are only vague themes presented in a superficial way), so the exposition of themes is superficial and does not complement the characters due to their poor presentation in the chapters (although I always I talk about character designs in other reviews, here I have nothing to say, it is normal), the characters besides being poor do not get to express their personality well nor can we see great relationships with each other (which is a contradiction taking in mind that they are best friends), so outside the protagonist the other characters become very boring due to their little time on screen (it provides very badly the exhibition of characters, something that did not happen in the manga). The animation is normal, although the scenarios are very muted and low in color that they use to express more the dark tone of the ovas themselves, outside of that the transitions are mediocre and the facial gestures too, the animation does not help to focus the viewer on certain aspects, at least the animation is not as bad as you might think at the beginning, it just does not meet decent standards. The end of the ovas only leaves the viewer anxious, forcing him to read the manga, which makes it a concise ending, but with clear intentions, I really find that these ovas were totally wasted, the manga being a work that gives much emphasis to psychological aspects and the ingenuity of the games, the anime only gave emphasis to the "ingenuity" of the games (since the few that appear are not the big deal), well, a short review, if I don't talk about other aspects of the ovas it is because it is irrelevant, I really would not recommend these ovas to anyone, or to someone who would like an anime about people in a survival game because in the end and seeing it in retrospect it is likely that there are not many things either good to get out of this animation
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Sep 16, 2019
Kagerou Daze: In a Day's
(Anime)
add
Not Recommended
Well I think this will be my shortest review (normal, it's just an "ova"), so let's get to the point.
I like Kagerou Project, I don't know if I could consider myself a "fan", but I really like it, the thing is that, despite that, it really hurt to see this ova (I will talk all the time, not like in the other reviews where I separate and analyze more deeply aspects of the ova). First; the redesign of the characters is good, I could say that it is a way to mark distance from the original anime (Mekakucity Actors) and thus attract more attention, the colors ... are still distinguishable in the characters (not as much as in the original anime), but beyond that all good, does not change the essence of the character at all. The point that falls most on this ova is the fact that; it is unnecessary and it makes no sense (or simply the events generate almost nothing of the plot's development), this is noticeable because they use the fact earlier in the plot to introduce more drama to a scene that, in the original series, It lasts 1 chapter and that is also set aside, so it can be deduced from the first moment that the events are irrelevant and just want to give more "flavor" to a normal moment in the anime. Also the introduction is very abrupt and the animation does not accompany at all, in fact at the beginning the animation is quite clumsy when it tries to "play" to add more emotion or fluidity to the intrusion of terrorists in the mall, the animation also It falters throughout the ova, there was no great effort in truth (a special mention to the fact that apparently the Seiyus had a bad day, that would explain their demotivation and little effort to double the characters, also the fact that in some scenes the character's voice is heard, but his mouth does not move). They tried to divide the prominence across the entire ova, resulting in a lot of nonsense throughout the ova, silly and illogical actions (such as when Seto and Hibiya try to save Hiyori), making the ova look much more silly than what in principle could be (oh and, as is the terrorist attack, the scenarios are very muted, all the scenarios seem the same and that makes it very boring, obviously the colors too). The enemy seemed to have red eyes just like the protagonists, which in itself makes no sense, in the original plot makes it clear that there are only 10 snakes and breaks all logic and credibility the fact that a character appears with another snake. The final scene was interesting, the fact that it is understood that the characters die in the explosion at the end complements the revelation of the reboot of the universe in the original series, at least there they made a good move. Well, I said it was going to be short and so it was, I think it is clear my discontent in all aspects, thankfully I can still enjoy the other material, but without a doubt this is the worst related to Kagerou Project, if you want to complement or add something to the original anime, at least do it right, and if you don't intend to do it right (which is what I believe after seeing this ova) then do nothing, please
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Sep 15, 2019
Mekakucity Actors
(Anime)
add
Mixed Feelings
Wow, I think, for better or worse, I found those "strange" anime that win that category, not because of their humor or crazy or random characters, but because of their weird plot and narrative.
Well, with that simple introduction I would like to clarify some things, being the first one that I saw the anime in unison that I read the manga and read the novel (although it only has a reading volume) and that I have also seen the music videos, so I could contextualize enough (despite everything it was complicated to follow the anime, which I will explain later), despite having heard many bad ... things and going with little hope of watching the anime, somehow I end up liking and entertaining enough to see it complete without thinking "ok, this is trash" -------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- History is something that, from afar and superficially, may seem simple and even generic to some. -Shintarou is a boy who never leaves his house, his only company is a "virus" inside his PC called Jan. On August 14, Shintarou's pc breaks down and he must go buy another one, then meet some guys with special eye skills that call themselves the "Mekakushi Dan" (to make it simple that's the plot) - The plot unfolds at a very imprecise pace, because in a certain way the songs (which are the original material, because from there everything was born) have to fit into the chapters and that sometimes makes them have to force the way they are events unfold (Chapter 4 being "Kageou Daze" and 7 being "Konoha's State of the World" are put very forcefully and are hard to follow), the plot does not revolve around anything until long after the series (almost more than half), because until then the series focused on long flash backs or events that only led to the introduction very late, practically the continuation of Chapter 1 is 5, at that time we know something about "protagonist" Shintarou and at that time the anime tries to focus on other characters without achieving a total focus, because in chapter 2 we are introduced to Momo, in the 3 to the entire Mekakushi Dan and in the 4 we focus on Hibiya although for the majority that It does not capture the plot of the anime, it is a bizarre chapter and without much sense (also it is presented to Konoha in a very simple way, at least later it would have a chapter more focused on it). So one thing that the plot weakens a lot is in the lack of focus, following with the above chapters 6 and 7 try to explain the bases of many enigmas in the anime, which turned out well, because those chapters were narrated from a more coherently than the others (several things were skipped, but they knew how to capture the most important) and in a way that does not clash with the other chapters, being well-achieved chapters and with which you can relate many things. Then, with the foregoing, it would be possible to say that the plot step at the beginning is very little progersive due to the lack of focus and the time it takes to introduce characters without advancing with other aspects of the plot, thus getting stuck many times, this concretely repeats itself in the first 3 chapters, chapter 4 being a stranger chapter than the others, where many things are left cryptic and poorly developed themes and characters are introduced (especially by Hibiya and Hiyori), the last 2 chapters occur at great speed, making it is easy for the viewer to miss out and without being able to explain, directly or indirectly, several themes of the series (special emphasis on the Shintarou scene with scissors or the scene where they defeat the snake that possessed Konoha's body, being a more metaphorical scene) in the other sections of the series there are also moments that are difficult to understand or elaborate because of the moment they are used: the scene in the that Mari and Shintarou are shown making a "promise" in what seems to be the end of the world or Hibiya's next to Ayano in Chapter 4 are scenes that dislodge the viewer a lot and it is necessary to analyze them well to understand, this implies a moment of inflection, since for the majority they are only pretentious scenes without much meaning, when I saw them for the first time, I came to think that, but I came to think because they were very sudden and with a poor explanation, but once the anime Go through a more independent section, try to make sense of what is shown above, explain it a bit late, but that's your idea, confuse you while telling the story in a not-so-conventional way, causing you to deconcentrate yourself from the mysteries it hides in some segments of the chapters. So; a bad step taken during the first 3 and last 2 chapters, with a slightly bland introduction but with a well-used development, without being excellent, but with a very hurried ending (comforting the fact that it is conclusive and the animation plays to make the ending more interesting, you just have to see the final scene where all the characters They leave normally and you can see Konoha running to get to the meeting place, it is a scene that goes unnoticed, but the colors, the animation and the feeling that it transmits makes it special Briefly describing the end I would not classify it as bad or disappointing, but if I would say that it could have given more, it is like somewhat anti-climatic due to the little appearance of the antagonist, the moment really does not impact as it should, the antagonist, which is the snake with awareness, he had appeared before and due to the dialogue between the characters he was expected to do more in the end, when he appeared he was shown as someone (or something) intelligent and trained (Ayano's own mother says in chapter 9 that she is a being very intelligent and that he was able to deceive even his mistress, in addition to being intimidating in the chapter where the story of Azami is told), so see how in a single chapter he presented himself to the enemy, controlling Konoha's body , that in songs such as Outer Science is treated as the definitive antagonist of the series, being someone that causes tragedy, but despite that in the anime it only appears for about 5 minutes and then is derro tado, even its presentation when it appears on the teacher's body is not very dramatic, it has good camera angles with good transitions (worthy of the Monogatari series production house) especially those transitions that emphasize red eyes, but nothing ends by be as great or dramatic as it appeared in the songs or how things were being built in the anime. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The characters in Mekakucity Actors are "special" said in a simple way, since most of the characters appear in the series when they have already evolved, when they have already overcome the loss of someone they love, they appear already psychologically mature. Shintarou already overcame Ayano's death (especially the song "Lost Time Memory" explains and delays his overcoming very well) so that his personality does not change throughout history, the minimum we can say about him is that he begins to valuing a little their new friendships (it is noted for the change of mood and responses that it has throughout the series), in addition to obtaining the courage to get out and get ahead, but all that happens very unnoticed or is almost non-existent (despite to make it small, there is a bit of change in the character), his personality manages to be pleasant, he has very funny moments (in my opinion the funniest of the series is where he apologizes in underwear to Jan in Mary's bed) , the theme of Neet and Hikikomori is not fully explained, but Jan explains the basis of his social reluctance, the other sequels being that (the death of Ayano), I would say that, if we can consider Shintarou the protagonist ( because most of the Mekakushi Dan has more prot agonism that he) is a portagonist with whom it is easy to empathize, you can even notice that he cares about his sister (such as when he tells Momo that he does not need to remember his father's death in obtaining his powers) , so the protagonist is a good (or decent) point of the anime. The main members of Mekakushi Dan (Seto, Kido, Kano and Mary) fail to develop in their entirety, being the most affected Seto and Mary, possibly the captive personality of Kano is that he gains much prominence, he is the one who has more reasons to strive for others (then everything is clarified in Chapter 9 with Mary's flash back) and to save all those who have ocular powers, Kano is a very superficial character at the beginning, but as the series progresses more facets are known From him, we can see that he is the one who hurts most the death of Ayano (in chapter 8 he laments saying "why did you have to die sister?" in a broken voice, the seiyu did a good job on that line and gestures Facials were good, which is surprising), so, beyond the evolution of the character, what a good character does is how it unfolds around what the characters reveal, it is the character that most intellect puts in their actions, deep down you get to understand it and that makes it nice to see. Kido is practically the first member of the group to present himself properly, his introduction at the end of chapter 2 can be intriguing and somewhat dramatic, which generates a sense of curiosity to know more about the Mekakushi Dan group (although at that time still did not show up), Kido's personality may not be as intriguing or attractive as Kano's, but Kido's personality complements a lot with that of others, it is probably the character that works most with others, since in the anime Kido expresses itself correctly with most characters (the exception being Konoha, Ene and Shintarou capable), but it would not be a joke to say that Kido has the most interesting and important dialogues, that is not only noticed by what he says (she explains almost the whole plot of the group and explains a lot about the Kagerou Daze, although Kano referred to the Kagerou Daze before), despite that it must be said that Kido does not evolve as such, but it does develop emotionally while the story goes by (in the flash back of chapter 6 she is very shy when she enters to play the "Headphone Actor" with Takane and Kano), besides that her interactions with characters like Momo show that she likes to make friends, she could To say that Kano and Kido are passable characters, they contribute a lot to the plot and their personalities are not totally boring, in addition they both coagulate well with the main group. Seto and Mary do not have much prominence throughout the series, Mary practically matters because the series forces him to call her the "queen" of snakes, but outside of that she does not have many interactions (curiously, her greatest interactions are with Seto, what which is explained later in an appropriate way), it is in the final section where Mary gains importance, receiving many script twists that literally had not been prepared before, being revelations from nothing that are only to surprise (I mean, literally it is revealed that Mary restarted the universe many times to get back together with her friends, that was very far fetched for most, I expected it because I went to see the anime already contextualized), Mary is not that I stand out much considering the other characters that surround it, something salvageable is that it is one of the characters that most grace causes and has a recognizable design at a distance and that is used a lot to make intertext strapping With the fact that it looks like a princess and all the anime is a story (something witty the truth), at least in the end he manages to relate to Konoha, although his time on screen is very short. Seto is always portrayed as the character who takes care of Mary (even referring to that in the scene when Azami leaves a person who attacked her house alive, the person she left alive was equal to Seto), so from the outset in the anime you can see the "purpose" and goals of the character, being, beyond a good introduction, a precise introduction and certainty of what the character will be throughout the series, beyond that the design of Seto is Unlike the others for its use of colors (I have to say that I like everyone's design, which I will explain later), the green color being characteristic, the character does not present a personality or memorable evolution or something similar, it is just an archetype character, being the kind and honest character of the group, which does not generate an interest to the viewer, is a character that does not serve individually because it is very boring (less bad in the manga is not so, I leave it as data), besides having very little i Importance, this in general is due to the duration of the anime and the fact that they should focus on about 10 important characters, causing several characters to get stuck (being Hibiya, Seto, Konoha and the antagonist clear examples of how characters were wasted due to to the duration). The other 4 characters in the group are: Hibiya, Momo, Ene and Konoha. Jan and Konoha are the characters to whom the series wants to devote more time, this is clearly noted due to the entire chapters dedicated to them 2; Jan is almost the first character to appear, her personality is the one that stands out the most since Jan is undoubtedly the most animated character, sometimes that makes it seem that the series revolves around her, since many incidents of the plot are related to her, we can not only understand her motives, we can also know how she feels (something that develops in the series little by little), so Ene is a very good character taking into account what the anime and the bases propose that he has, without forgetting that Ene's design is definitely the character with the best elaborated design hits him the design of "virtual program", without forgetting that he also has his characteristic color, being blue (which generates "harmony" with the scenarios in which it appears). Konoha can be considered a very special character, since his complement along with Haruka is done by someone solid, with good times, partially remarkable development and with a captivating story, taking into account that he can be considered a remarkable character in the story, despite that Konoha itself is a very empty character (which is a way of referring to his life happens being Haruka, someone who wanted to have friends and a normal life), the bad thing that Konoha has is that he does nothing during the first appearances of the series, it does not even make sense when it appears in chapter 4 next to Hibiya and Hiyori, its design is also nice to see, without such an obvious characteristic colo, but with a design from which you can expect that it is the character arch. without emotions (you only need to see some facial gestures at the beginning of the series and this fact is evident), but the fact that at the end of the series is a part of Haruka makes him a brilliant character, especially taking into account the end of the series where he appears next to the other members of the Mekakushi Dan. Hibiya is perhaps the most tasteless character in the entire series, literally his greatest interactions are with Momo at the beginning of the series, I would say that with Konoha the same, but they really do not manage to relate at a remarkable level, Hibiya does not present an interesting or remarkable personality either , all the other characters overshadow him, although Hibiya played a leading role in Chapter 4 the truth is that we didn't know him very much and really the important thing in that chapter was how the Kagerou Daze absorbed him, playing a lot of animation in that chapter so It seems to Hibiya more interesting (so do the camera angles), but it does not present a very consistent evolution or dialogue, so it is not a character to remember or something of the style (in fact from what I read in the novel there his Intrusion into the Kagerou Daze is better developed), it is really a shame since its history and what could develop from it was very interesting (besides almost the only thing that talk is sober Hiyori). Hibiya is perhaps the most tasteless character in the entire series, literally his greatest interactions are with Momo at the beginning of the series, I would say that with Konoha the same, but they really do not manage to relate at a remarkable level, Hibiya does not present an interesting or remarkable personality either , all the other characters overshadow him, although Hibiya played a leading role in Chapter 4 the truth is that we didn't know him very much and really the important thing in that chapter was how the Kagerou Daze absorbed him, playing a lot of animation in that chapter so It seems to Hibiya more interesting (so do the camera angles), but it does not present a very consistent evolution or dialogue, so it is not a character to remember or something of the style (in fact from what I read in the novel there his Intrusion into the Kagerou Daze is better developed), it is really a shame since its history and what could develop from it was very interesting (besides almost the only thing that talk is sober Hiyori). Momo somehow has a "cliche" personality (which in my opinion is not all bad), after all it is the typical idol with a traumatic past, but I think that even so it is a character that serves within the plot, It must also be said that he is the character that they would use for the fan service (it is noted by the angles in Chapter 2, where it first appears), but the fan service is not really abused, which is appreciated since it did not have much felt in the next sections of the series, where things start to get a little more serious, Momo's design is one related to that of an idol, the type of design they used in addition to the animated color is a bit evident (one half yellow or orange) to characterize the character, it is fun to see it on the screen from time to time and his personality clashes a lot with the Mekakushi Dan at the beginning, but things progress realistically, after that Momo does not shine much until he meets Hibiya as well that there is not much to say, I would say that it is a passable or mediocre character, without more. the other anime characters are not very relevant, or if they have it, it is because the plot wants to involve them at certain times and then forget them (Hiyori, Kenjirou and Azami are important for the plot as a base, but then they become obsolete, wasting many characters), at least Ayano is more frequent in the anime, which also causes her to be one of the most mysterious, events unfold in her favor and that causes that, although this "dead" has more relevance that most of the main cast, there were a lot of wasted characters, which is a shame. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The animation of Mekakucity Actors is also a curious point to analyze, since in visual subjects, it is the same as Monogatari Series, since the change of colors in dramatic moments is something that happens in the series and is very well achieved in several scenes (such as the terrorist attack of the first chapter or in the Kagerou Daze of chapter 4), in addition to that the animation plays with the angles and the shadows to create more memorable and curious scenes, so as not to opt for a generic narrative (the fact that in Chapter 4 the shadow of the cat that Hiyori chases is Kano is a fact that serves the plot or the shadows of Chapter 2 where Momo explains his past), so the animation makes good use of itself to play with the narrative and with what you want to show directly and what you don't want, the color palette in the characters is fine, but in the scenarios it fails in most moments (in addition to creating very boring scenarios, they probably did it so that the focus on the characters, but that is difficult considering that most of the series the characters do nothing), the gestures of the characters are curious, so it shows the desire they had for the characters to stand out ( you just have to see the scene where Kido shows up and when Konoha meets Shintarou), so the animation is a good point (although the beginning of chapter 9 easily enters the 10 worst atrocities I've seen, that CGI was totally horrible) and in visual terms, both the scenarios and the colors are decent, although the scenarios end up being boring, in the moments of a Kagerou Daze the scenarios are very ingenious (also that in the first chapter the fact that each character appears with a scenario that has to do with the death of his loved one was something brilliant). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I do not know if it will be very obvious to say that the strong point of the anime is precisely the soundtrack, practically the chapters, characters and situations fit so that the music that represents them also does it, the truth is simple, even the ost it has is salvable, but if we speak more deeply the truth is that the original songs of "Kagerou Project" are the ones that give life to the anime and are well positioned (although that would be the minimum expected), but it is good to see that the songs were preserved and that in fact they were not put in version IA (although there was one that yes, I think it was in chapter 10 or 11), there would be nothing more to say, an approval. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In general, I would say that I liked the anime, although this is partly because I had heard many negative things about it and because I had previous knowledge, so you could say that it is an anime for fans (or so I think) that, Despite being for fans, I manage to be popular (it is among the 300 most popular anime), the plot fails a lot and several characters are wasted (but let's not forget the salvageable characters), the plot is inconsistent and there really isn't a I focus until later in the anime, but the animation and music save a lot along with the curious and experimental narrative that can be easy to understand after analyzing the series many times, first normal chapters, with a better development and an end ( and antagonist) mediocre. Although it does sound bad the truth is that I get to count more good points than bad, it is not something that I would recommend, but if you want something strange or that strives to be special, here you have Mekakucity Actors, just be careful not to go with a lot of hope, it's not the big deal either, but it will entertain you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Mar 31, 2019
Tenkuu Shinpan
(Manga)
add
Mixed Feelings Preliminary
(258/258 chp)
Well, Tenkuu Shinpan ended. This is one of the first manga that I started reading because it caught my attention and the interesting plot... I really regret to see how it ended.
I must say that despite everything I like the manga, but that does not prevent me from being disappointed. There will be spoilers The manga itself presented an interesting story, the story is about a young girl named Yuri who is transported to a world where you can only walk between buildings (or so it is at the beginning) while a person wearing masks and weapons murders all people What do you see. Well, the story ... presents a solid base presenting quickly and mysteriously how your world is governed which is fine, we have demonstrations of or more masks work (like when the maid mask commits suicide because his mask was broken). The story moved at a more than decent pace, making a contrast between tense moments against the masks and moment of dialogue between the characters, the story would be fine, but in a certain part of the manga the story becomes nuy convoluted and elaborate, the presentation of the guardian angels was well achieved, because they were powerful characters that with their simple presence it was noticeable that something important was going to happen, but then the manga wants to look like a shonen of fights and stable Yuri and his brother who fight against the guardian angels more strong which removes one of the major elements of tension of the manga (it must also be mentioned that it is not as if the fight were memorable, in fact they do not present something ingenious or a key element, only simplistic explanations of how humans can fight against the guardian angels). When the manga is ending the story, rhythm and drama decays much more, with a mediocre and hurried final combat in addition to presenting scenes that do not have much essence or feeling (when Kusakabe meets his son at the end or when Rika cries for Yuri they are scenes that feel very empty, but the death of Aikawa wins the prize, introducing us to whom he believed himself to be the main antagonist and killing him in a simple and uncomprehending way, as if it were nothing). Manga characters can be interesting and have charismatic personalities to a certain extent, because there are some like the sniper mask or the great angel that come to have menorables moments and to be interesting without having the need to go deep into them. The protagonist, Yuri Honjou, is the one that I consider the worst character in the whole manga, has no chemistry with other characters purs its personality is totally boring and does not generate any unpredictable dialogue or a competent dialogue for the plot, because Yuri always talks about how he wants save all and typical things of this type of manga, it would be justifiable if Yuri will present some kind of evolution, but never notice a noticeable change in it (oh if it is opaque because they wanted to put elements Badass to Yuri to do very powerful and that is noted by the approaches that put the drawing when she fights), also that throughout the first half of the series Yuri always saves because he remembers advice from his brother (which is a cheap excuse), what more decent is that she is the one that has the most credible objective to the beginning is well planned for the plot (its design is normal, but not bad). Other characters such as Yoshida, Kuon, Kazuma (the scientist) and capable (only capable) Nise are somewhat decent for how they perform with the other characters, generating a change to the characters around them and evolve, the death of Kazuma it is the best of the manga for how it changes in the others (especially in Ain, but it's a pity that she never shows that change by making the character feel empty and unused). others like Rise and Yoshida change in a credible way, because Rise felt for the first time a great affection towards someone, which intensifies and makes their relationship real, the only unpleasant thing about Rise is that his personality is obscured or simply afterwards it is not explored ( final is totally forgotten), besides that his past is nuy edgy, but that is passable. Yoshida on the other hand is the archetype of character who always wants to do the right thing, very similar to the protagonist, but Yoshida in itself presents more humanity and looks a bit more like a real character, even near the end of the manga he offered his body to the administrator in order to be able to be strong and achieve their goals, realizing that what he did is wrong he sacrifices himself to save Yuri's life, which suggests that in the end the whole magician Yoshida could achieve his goal to be of great help and actually if it became strong, it is difficult to sacrifice your life for another. Kuon is the character that generates the sniper mask can evolve a bit, generating a contrast between mask and human living in the mumdo, expanding the possibilities of mangaka to develop a relationship (also that naturally presents the fact that there are people who They can control the masks, besides that Kuon is a character that unlike most manga characters, does not decay, his personality is not spoiled or become a deus ex machina for having the strongest power of the manga, which is appreciable because at various times the tension was intact because they did not abuse that elemnto, Kuon does not present any evolution which does not seem to be something totally horrible, Kuon throughout the manga I present a lot of determination and even impact a bit with his death, but then "survive" and explain it in a decent way (and I take this parenthesis to say that the design of all these characters is nor bad, there are designs like that of the sniper mask that you have left because it combines with his personality). This part I would like to focus on some specific characters, if I do not talk about some narrative element or character is simply because it is irrelevant, although I will use to say that the dialogue is quite mediocre, often giving unintelligent insinuations on a topic and without memorable phrases or interesting that drive the plot, because almost the whole plot advances with the action, many characters that contribute in dialogue are discarded totally (as the scientist Kazuma who contributed giving intelligent and scientific comments and the prophet who was responsible for putting together a strategy, just as Rika and the mask sniper, those characters save a bit the dialogue), returning to the subject wanted to talk about just the large number of characters that are finally forgotten, all the characters who died before are not remembered and the "antagonist" Aikawa is totally forgotten and do not even mention it, the prophet and the angel guardian fighter appear very little and u importance is minimal despite the potential they could give, the characters added near the end the only decent is Juo, with a more cruel and simplistic philosophy so that he can survive in the world, generating disputes with all the characters and even having a reflection before dying (the chapter when he dies is amazing, the drawing they make to his facial expression is incredible and that pleases because the facial expressions are not the strong of the manga, also the angle that they put to his death, falling towards the floor just behind a bottle that says "favof not vote baaura", an ironic death with a reflection at the end, very well achieved). The drawing of the manga seems accurate, with good shots at the right time and with interesting and unique perspectives (the drawings of the landscape with all the buildings was very good), the manga has a lot of censorship and that spoils the emotion because the manga itself is not so graphic as to censor some parts (although much censorship is for the panties of the female characters), the drawing also evolved throughout the publication of the manga, which is noted and appreciated, I would say that this is the best point that has the manga because the perspectives that make everyone with all the buildings drawn is incredible, but the approaches they do are not very suitable since several only have the intention of showing panties shamelessly while in action scenes He opts for a more common plane, but when the guardian angels appear that changes radically (emphasis on the appearance of the guardian angel who was a wrestling wrestler). The end of the manga is disappointing, all the questions raised by the manga were not even resolved in a subtle way, the final stage had been built during many episodes just for the final battle to say one or two episodes, besides that they made Yuri too powerful making no enemy seem a threat and that was reflected in the end, the emotional moment of the end were very fast which prevents me from empathizing with the characters, the dialogue is still just as concise and the end left many things open and without solution (the same thing happened to Dolly Kill Kill and Eden No Ori, they had so many topics to explore and they were wasted making a dull ending that can hardly be considered an end). To summarize the things I would say that Tenkuu Shinpan is another case of wasted manga, few good characters, mediocre dailogo, a plot with very good base but bad development, interesting element, but little used, an interesting final scenario poorly executed and a protagonist very op , at least he had an incredible drawing and the first half is more than entertaining, that saves the manga from making it a bad work. Despite everything said, it is likely that I will remember manga because it was one of the first I read, but I would not even think about recommending it to anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Feb 16, 2019
Katanagatari
(Anime)
add
Recommended
Katanagatari is an anime that it came to surprise me, not to discredit, but the other animated works of Mr. Nisio Isin have seemed very mediocre, under this prejudiced thinking, I present myself before Katanagatari
Oh, and there will be spoilers The story of Katanagatari is not surprising at all; A long time ago, a sword-maker called Shikizaki Kiki forged 1000 swords, of which 12 are said to be the swords that Shikizaki could perfect; the Shogun wants to recover those swords (after innumerable failures) and for that the Shogun sends the young Togame to speak with the current head of the Kyotoryuu clan, Yasuri Shichika. The story, ... as I said, is simple, but the author knows how to captivate us with the stories of the 12 swords that Shikizaki Kiki forges, I say this because stories are told at the beginning of the story and epics; that a person possessing one of the swords can defeat only 100 soldiers (or more), that the swords are worth more than a country or that many times the government has been betrayed because of the value of the swords. Everything is exaggeration makes you have immersion, it assumes that Katanagatari is not a realistic series, since that would take away the essence to the way it narrates the majesty of the swords, with this point I would like to make clear that all the stories that are told on the swords they help immersion (many will say that I am exaggerating, but later I'll go deeper into that). In spite of what I told before, about how the main focus of the story develops (which is the story that the swords and their users keep), now it's the introduction, being honest, the introduction seemed mediocre; the introduction of Togame and Nanami's meddling in situations was pretty bland. Togame explained almost the entire synopsis in about 10 minutes to the protagonist of a very poor narrative, as if they wanted to vomit the whole plot from one moment to another without pauses to reconsider everything heard, not even Shichika came to wonder why Togame told him all, it is true that the introduction gives way to ironic comments by Togame (ironic and cynical comments abound in the work), the reasons that Togame gives Shichika to fight at first are ridiculous, but also try to parody one of the most used topics in stories of adventure or action, shoveling for love. The rest of the first chapter (which would be the introduction) after the 18th minute or so, achieves its purpose, you can appreciate the good animation, the oriental soundtrack that is wonderful in several scenes (special focus to the soundtrack that it sounds when Shichika uses his "special technique" to Koumori), he introduces himself to the first enemy dynamically, creating a formidable design for Koumori, besides having many extravagant scenes, like when he takes the sword out of his stomach, if we put all this together we make an introduction that can be very pleasant, the explanations were mediocre, but this is compensated by some ironic comments, the intrusion of an enemy that is not boring, fluid animation and pleasing to the eye and even more pleasant soundtrack. The characters of this anime are in my opinion a strong point along with the battles, I would like to clarify since each character feels unique due to the characteristic design that each character has besides the exaggeration that they put on many scenes. With that clarified I would like to talk about the chemistry and dynamics generated by our leading duo; Shichika has an evolution throughout history with Togame, not only can you get to understand a little more about her romance (we must take into account that at the beginning Shichika said that he loved her in a very empty way, but in the end Togame's death caused a great mental shock in Shichika). but is the Shichika evolution well achieved? I would say yes, after Shichika has faced death so many times with Togame it is normal to assume that evolution is credible, this sounds superficial, but let me dig a little deeper. Shichika knows practically nothing of the outside world, he has not even experienced love as such (it is true that he obviously loves his sister, but it is not the same kind of love, logically), the impact of knowing that Togame is the descendant of the person who was killed by Shichika's father causes him to generate a strange sense of duty with Togame, normal taking into account the values that his father taught him, precisely from there arises the seed of a love that at first is superficial and very soso, but through actions and dialogue you can see that their relationship progresses well (take for example chapter 2, Shichika says that a plan to make Kinkaku leave your room is causing the death of Togame, obviously this happens, but then in combat Shichika jumps in Togame's face to defeat Kinkaku, Shichika says that this is necessary, but then does not use Togame in the same way, not even when Shichika is in great danger (in chapter 8, when they face the doll, Shichika never approaches Togame despite that it would do him good to buy time, or in the chapter where he faces Nanami, he gets mad when Nanami cuts his hair). Outside of that Togame at times talks about how he wants to defend Shichika or prevent him from dying at all costs (as in chapter 2, where Togame says that Shichika is not allowed to say his "last words" or chapter 9, where many misunderstandings and Togame realizes that he has to act quickly to continue with Shichika). At the end the relationship progresses through the 2 protagonists are knowing more about each other, which is clearly seen in chapter 10, the last cusp would be the last chapter, where Togame speaks to Shichika without fear, without pretense or masks, telling him unpleasant things that would normally be annoying, just to end up saying, can I fall in love with you Shichika? So showing all the feelings of Togame, this is not a deconstruction of their relationship, is what makes it so real, Togamr says absolutely everything to Shichika, but even with that, she could not help telling Shichika that she wanted it, The last thing he wanted to say to Shichika was a demonstration of love, that's in my opinion one of the best-achieved scenes of the anime. Beyond that the protagonists evolve in a good way, Shichika goes from being a sword to being a true man and Togame becomes a woman who knew how to obtain her goal in life and knew to know the true meaning of love, achieving that the evolution of the characters complement very well with their relationship, in this section I like the series very much. Relevant secondary characters there are not many; Emonzaemon seems to me the most wasted, having a decent personality and a potential promising past is only relegated as the princess Hitei's doll, which would be acceptable for the plot, but this fact totally oats the personality of Emonzaemon and makes him a disappointing character , it is not explained why he wants Princess Hitei so much or what happened to his clan a long time ago or because he knows Houou, it is true, Emonzaemon does several tasks to move the plot, but otherwise it turned out to be one of the things disappointing anime, a character with potential and a design that I think is great, at least his death and combat is one of the best in Anime, causing him to die in a successful way. Now let's talk about the characters that added points to the anime; the first to be Houou, the Maniwa within the story is simply a joke, at first the esñectativas are high because the first member of the Maniwa had a sword, but in the second and third chapter a member of the Maniwa is shown only to be killed by the person who has one of the 12 swords, but this is unnecessary because you already know in advance the power of those who own swords, so this does not have much use to the plot (although it must be said that these 2 Maniwa were assassinated quickly had good design accompanied of an abnormal charisma, taking into account that they appear very little), although it sounds like a negative point, in reality the Maniwa are something good that has the anime, it is true that the first seem a waste, but they all have such unique designs, such unique movements and they make them so extravagant approaches that, although they die fast, they manage to be a visual delight, but not only that, I liked the Maniwa, as well I like the jump they have to chapter 4, where Maniwas are shown more human without becoming boring, 3 members are killed by Nanami (the protagonist's sister) and the way he cheered on stage was accurate, beyond being good it was precise, it was played with the unpredictable and they made the 3 most human Maniwas so far are killed in a brutal way, in order to feel sorry for them, the Maniwa won a certain recognition in that chapter, presnetado very well and in a way He needs 3 characters (I love how they used the approaches well to not show the ability of the Maniwa Chouchou and thus hit) that at first glance would seem pathetic, because the Maniwa had only been a punching bag, an excellent demonstration of the Maniwa; similar cases occur later with the Maniwa in chapter 6, 9 and 11 (I think those chapters are) where Maniwas are shown again that if they serve for something and manage to keep the audience entertained. Talk about the Maniwa, but what about Houou? It is assumed that he was going to speak, Houou is the typical character who does not go for a fixed side and has no clear objective, his actions throughout the history show great determination and the moments in which he seems the plot of he moves in an exact way, his personality is not overshadowed, his struggles are not either, the ironic and intelligent dialogue (for in most of his dialogues he talks about strategies with the other Maniwa) that are used to promote events in a natural way, especially end of the anime, where he gets the 11th sword and causes the complete destruction of the village of the Maniwa (although his combat is not the big deal), Houou seemed to have a past with Emonzaemon, but on Houou's part it is known that he destroyed Much of the village of Emonzaemon, but not much more, on Houou's part this is forgivable, since Houou's motivations are very distant from having to do with his past with Emonzaemon; In short, Houou is a very curious, extravagant character, the character that for me has the best design, one of the characters with the best dialogue and one of those who moves the plot, a character that undoubtedly fulfills its objective in the anime. Another character that caught my attention was the Princess Hitei, it may be that some consider her as the antagonist or something like that because practically his fault died Togame (I take to say that the construction to get to the scene of his death is impeccable), but his role would say that it goes beyond simply being that, the presentation of the character as such is for me a nod, Togame had talked about Hitei a few chapters ago, but had not been seen (also served to get an idea of what kind of life Togame had before and thus generate more immersion, because not all people can talk to a princess), I would say that Hitei's dialogue is one of the best, his ironic dialogue reveals important parts of the plot in a way in which the spectator is going to take him by surprise (however they are not badly executed or abused situations), a clear example of this is chapter 9 (I think) where Hitei reveals that he is descendant of Shikiza Kiki Kiki ironically and engages in a conversation with Emonzaemon where the interactions are so peculiar that they left me a bit dislocated, but then I immediately realized what was happening, which is quite intelligent on the author's part; also it is worth noting that Hitei is like Houou in the sense of boosting the plot, one of the positive things about this anime is how the vast majority of characters serve to drive the plot, but with Hitei she felt as if she had planned the majority of the events from the beginning, it was very interesting how they explained all this in the anime, even in the end she seems a new person, because she does not have to be tied to the government's mandates and it shows that she pays homage to Emonzaemon (you just have to note that he wears his mask), so I feel that Hitei was a very well-carried character. Speaking of technical issues this is for me a wonder, the scenarios, the changes of planes (special focus in chapter 4), the animation, the color palette and the soundtrack is simply amazing and all this together is even more incredible , everything combines and highlights the right parts. The comedy had me a bit doubtful at first, it is true that the dialogue contains comical and ironic moments, but some jokes that are not funny as the joke of the cherio, who never graces grace and when Togame discovers wrong stat the joke is lengthened about 5 minutes, in chapter 9 the sudden approaches in Shichika can cause a bit of grace, since he does not know how to use a sword well and take advantage of that to make jokes about him in chapter; What made me "funny" (the quotes go because it was a very special moment) was chapter 4, with the battle against Sabi Hakuei, Sabi is probably the character that has the most baddas design, scenes were dedicated to him in the chapter 2 and 3 where it showed a little of their personalities and skills, all this combined with the fact that it was known in advance that he was the strongest swordsman in all Japan caused me a hype (especially seeing the progress of the chapter 3, yes, here is the special that looks at the advances), to finish off it is said that he can cut the moon, all very epic and if, the battle does not happen, all the stage prepared to make that joke, many got angry, but when I went to capitile 5 the only thing I did when I remembered chapter 4 was to laugh and say "what trolling took place there", the joke was planned in a spectacular way, everything prepared just to do that, the best thing is that throughout chapter 4 There is little talk about the protagonist's sister and they are in charge of showing us how powerful she is, in this way they make such a brutal and surprising turn that makes you easily forget the epic combat between Shichika and Sabi. The second best chapter for me without a doubt. And finally I would like to talk about some issues, from the beginning it seemed that history would repeat the formula of a chapter we get a sword and ready, without much depth, but having such incredible designs, scenarios so colorful and varied (besides that most of the swords are different, that is, by God, a sword is a doll and the other an armor), but what I loved was how the different people were different: Past, Personality or simply the way the combat; all that makes the fighting seam unique and fresh (especially the capitilo 2, 3 and 9, which leave a great lesson in Shichika and will serve to mature), so the anime knows how to handle his formula in an ingenious way, it would be stupid resume the series in "a chapter a sword", because it ignores all the rest that makes the fighting great. I would like to leave a short dedicated space talking near the end, it sounds weird, but Shichika in the final chapter reminded me a lot of Gon from HXH in the chimera ant saga, Shichika is someone if I evolve, but it took away something precious, that I caused a shock so big that it clouded the mind, I lost my mind, so I say that is equal to Gon, both lost something precious and then reconsidered and returned to act normal, but with very remarkable psychological sequels, Shichika was angry and showed everything that he learned in his trip with Togame, is even poetic, Shichika ended up in the Shogunate (I think that's what it's called) to lose his life, being that Togame left in that place, who gave him life and to finish in that place he uses all the techniques that he learned with her, I am glad that Shichika has not died and the end is left with that feeling of melancholy for the trip of "vagabond" Shichika that (and returning with the comparisons) reminds me a lot of Ken shin by Rurouni Kenshin; the The narrator's words at the end are beautiful, I have to say that they moved me (especially when Togame is seen next to a tree). In conclusion it seems to me that this anime is spectacular, it was a great surprise; he fulfilled expectations that he did not even have (that in itself only makes some sense), he has a few mistakes, but they are compensated in a phenomenal way, an anime I would recommend to friends and remember, not only for all the positive points I mentioned, but Because I will remember the laziness that gave me to see the 50 minutes of the chapter and in the end I always wanted more, that's all
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all |