Medaka Box

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

I've come to realize that people who watched the anime series will have an hard time to grasp what the series is trying to accomplish, as it only shows it's true colors by the third arc (I'm counting Uzen has first arc, since everything before it was just establishing characters).
It goes something like this:
Pre-First arc: Mneh.
First Arc: Okay, things are picking up, this may become interesting.
Second Arc: Generic yeah, but it's fun (This is where the anime ends, as far as I was told, btw)
Third Arc: The author comes at this point and laughs at you for having liked the first two arcs.
Medaka ... Box is simply a satire of shonen mangas tropes. It basically grabs Goku, Naruto, Ichigo, Luffy, Jesus Christ and boobs and mix them together in the most overpowered, ridiculous, bland character of all time. Why is Medaka so strong? Well, the explanation is "Because she is the main character", you can't argue with that.
But I'd say that the strong point is, rather than the main character, everyone else. From Kumagawa, the boy who always loses, Zenkichi, the true main character, or even a villain that, even though she's the most OP thing in the story of OP things, simply refuses to fight Medaka because "Main characters always win against last bosses."
The third and fourth arc are what make Medaka Box what it is, because it's the one that really explores the ridiculousness of battle mangas, but not in a bad way. It's never "Shonen mangas are so stupid and ridiculous, you should be reading actual good things." it's more like: "Shonen mangas are so ridiculously stupid, but so what? They are supposed to be, it's what makes them fun, and that's why you should read them." And that's true, no matter how many complex and serious stories are there, there will always be space for simple fun stories too, and we should enjoy both.
So that's why Medaka Box exists, and you'll either love it or be pissed off by it.

[Quick Review] (for the people who don't have the time to read lengthy reviews)

Medaka Box, a manga written by Nisio Isin, is a satire disguised as a Shounen Battle manga. It mocks every aspect of the shounen genre as well as extending its mockery to include even ecchi and "perfect-girl" manga (if such a thing exists). Every part of this manga is intentionally bad and exaggerated to emphasize just how ridiculous and poorly executed most (but not all) shounen manga are.

If you have not read enough shounen, you won't get it.
If you like a lot of shounen, you won't like it.
But if you're open-minded and ... enjoy a good satire, then Medaka Box will be your cup of tea.


[Actual Review] (an over-analysis of the manga for people who have the patience to read lengthy reviews)

This manga is bad. Really bad. The thing is, it intends to be bad. While you lie on your bed, reading the pages that comprise this manga, disgusted at just how generic it is and laughing at how this manga can drive the shounen battle genre to new extremes (extremes that not even Dragon Ball could reach), the manga will be laughing with you. It is self-aware on how awful it is, and actually quite proud of it.

The best part of this manga is its characters.
Medaka is a parody of not just the shounen protagonists, but of perfect-girl characters (most notably Haruhi from TMoHS). She starts off as a perfect little student council president, hell bent to reform everyone who she deems as delinquents, then BOOM, sudden tone change. Medaka is now your usual overpowered protagonist, who gets more and more powerful as the manga progresses. Her perfection makes her into an irritating character (this can be seen as a critique of the shounen heroes).
Hityoshi Zenkichi, Medaka's long time friend, is basically a shounen battle version of Kyon (from TMoHS). He complains about having to be with Medaka, but actually cares. He later becomes the bitch of the series, but I won't get into that.
The rest of the characters are very distinct from each other (a trait Nisio Isin perfected in his continuous quest to create the oddest characters). Although, their distinction can't make up for their lack of depth (another critique on shounen). They fill a singular role (without any groundbreaking development) and function to play that role well at the same time to parody it. The manga also illustrates one of the most basic traits of shounen battle manga, big villains get bigger and badder. Each villain is stronger and more overpowered than the last. Heck, at one point, God was a villain. GOD WAS A VILLAIN. AND GOD WAS HOT! (note that this is not an actual god from any religious text nor any from mythology. Just a chick strong enough to be considered god. A chick who could make Goku her foot stool and Vegeta her jester while nibbling on Luffy cookies).

[. . . .]

And how could I not mention Kumagawa Misogi? In my opinion, his arrival marked the point when Medaka Box became a grand manga. He is a one-dimensional character, the villain of a later arc, and an overall amazing add to the mix. He is the Joker of the manga (that is, if the Joker was a loser.)

The story is a gem in terms of satires. It is the perfect satire of the shounen genre (although perfection in this field doesn't mean that it is good). The first arc establishes the student council, the main characters, and that Medaka is too perfect. That arc demonstrates just how bland shounen can get when setting up. It's so bland you don't need to read it. Just go read a synopsis then skip to the battle part. After that, the story takes a bumpy change in tone, shifting from being a slice-of-life shounen manga, into a battle manga (kinda like KHR). Here's where things pick up. The pacing becomes faster once they introduce Unzen (the first villain) and the manga goes from being unusual to illogical. And it doesn't stop. It gets crazier in the next arc, introducing Kumagawa Misogi, and further demonstrating why the powers in Medaka Box easily trump all other powers in shounen.

But I think I fell in love with this manga after Kumagawa's arc. The arc that follows challenges the Weekly Shounen Jump. It bites the hand that feeds it. It is filled with 4th wall breaking, which is used not just to mock Shounen Jump, but to challenge it. Sure, this arc dragged on for too long, but don't most shounen drag on for way too long? This arc concludes in spectacular fashion with troll-like humor and every trope you pull out of the book of shounen.

[The art is nothing special so I won't talk about it (maybe it was intentionally mediocre?)]

To wrap it all up, I think this manga is a genius at what it does. A masterpiece in terms of manga satires. This alone will not justify how bad the manga is, but is sure as hell makes it worth the read.

Ever wonder what happens when you try too hard at something?

Well, in the world of Japanese entertainment, you get Medaka Box. Minor spoilers ahead.

I can't even call this entertainment. It's more akin to torture; a joke gift you give to a friend. There's literally no way to read this manga that will leave you with a positive feeling when you're finally done.

Why? Let's start with the story.

STORY: 3/10

If this is your first time with any anime or manga, this story will seem innovative. If you have seen at least one anime or read at least one manga in your entire life, then you've most likely ... witnessed a similar plot to this or better.
If you're more experienced with the medium, you'll be rolling your eyes. Set in a prestigious high school where there are seemingly no adults, first-year Kurokami Medaka wins the position of student council president by a whopping ninety-eight percent of the popular vote. How? Well, it's Medaka Box. More specifically, it's Medaka herself. She's good-looking, super smart, super strong, super persuasive, and super busty. I'd love to go on, but I'll save that for later.
As soon as she's given the position, she sets up a suggestion box (or "meyasu" box, from where the titular wordplay comes) and encourages the student body (A.K.A. the entire school) to drop in suggestions or problems, for which she offers to help 24/7/365. Having the mention of this box in the title itself would infer that it's a really important item throughout the whole story, right? Wrong. It's completely forgotten a couple dozen chapters in. Only about two to three times is the box ever brought up later. Additionally, most plot points or backstories aren't brought up until very late, usually for the sake of pure convenience or to make a gag, which always fails to extract even a mild chuckle.
Time to address the most glaring problem with Medaka Box: Until about chapter 20, I was reading it under the impression that this was a manga written with lots of effort, was meant to be taken seriously, and reflects what the author (and artist) wanted the reader to take away from it. It was not only until I did a little more research that I found out this was a satire, or parody. Upon reading that, I said out loud to myself, "what the fuck?"
That's right; this manga is meant to be a satire of every imaginable generic shounen trope. It's too bad that NisiOisiN has no idea how to do satire. Never is there a single tell or sign in the beginning that it's of that genre, and instead goes on happily assuming the reader already knows what it's doing. I had to go out of my way to have someone let me know that it was a satire, and it was only after that realisation that every attempt to subvert some trope became more and more jarring, as if it were saying, "Guys, just to let you know, this is all ironic. You know what would normally happen in a generic shounen? Well, that's what we're doing, except ironically!" It goes from being incredibly ambiguous with its purpose to having so little faith in the reader's intelligence that it feels the need to constantly point out when it's subverting something, which is about 90% of the time. Also, its attempts to cleverly break the 4th wall are played so childishly that it'd make even a fan fiction look amazing.
As a side note, I'd like to point out that Medaka Box was serialised on Weekly Shounen Jump. Constantly throughout the series we get characters saying how rudimentary and childlike manga in that magazine are, while it sets itself up to be so much more mature simply because it subverts everything. People make this out to be a taboo of criticism, but I'm not afraid to say Medaka Box is utterly pretentious. It thinks it's so much better than the rest, yet is exactly the same, if not worse.
Furthermore, how the hell would you criticise something like this? If it's always being ironic 100% of the time, then it's impossible to rate it; it's always going to be an instant 10.
Manga did some stupid shit? Hah, no worries, that's the point, it's SUPPOSED to be bad! We just set ourselves up for an impenetrable defense against criticism! A foolproof excuse for every time we may falter!

The reason it's so detrimental for Medaka Box to try to subvert literally everything (emphasis on "try") is because that's all it eventually becomes: A manga that's just pointing out typical shounen tropes and how clever the author is by announcing that it's subverting them. It does this so often that it destroys its own identity, and any later attempts to create one instantly fail. Not only that, but it's also devoid of genre. What IS Medaka Box? A slice of life? A drama? A battle shounen? A sports manga? A martial arts manga? A psychological manga? A romance? A comedy?
The correct answer would be, "everything." But a more correct answer would be, "nothing." It crams so many genres in one package and tries to pull them all off at the same time that none are ever fully realised. In trying to be a little bit of everything, Medaka Box succeds at being a whole lot of nothing.

ART: 3/10

It's difficult not to associate "art" with just the quality of the drawings; however, in manga, "art" also refers to other things like style, backgrounds, paneling, expression, and consistency.

Akatsuki Akira's art in Medaka Box is pretty detailed by itself, even though most characters have bags under their eyes all the time and a criminal case of sameface. Fortunately, in terms of quality, it's not bad. It's in everything else that the problem lies.
Character designs are exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous and downright offensive to look at, with a few exceptions. The most notable examples of this are the villains, especially ones like Miyakonojou and the generic antagonists in the first few chapters. But oh wait, they did it on purpose, so it's okay!
No it isn't.
If that was on purpose, then was the questionable paneling, disconnected movements and the artist's lack of ability to draw hands also on purpose?
Yes, the artist can't draw hands. You can see how hard he tries to hide hands in his art, whether they be out of panel or in pockets, but when they show, 90% of the time, they're all in one single position. I recommend you see for yourself and imagine that for 194 chapters.
Backgrounds are done well enough, so I have no complaints there, though it's what you'd expect in your average manga. One gripe I have with the backgrounds is that they never make anything truly stand out in the world. Everything looks just as much like everything else as, well... everything else. All in all, they're average. They do their job, but I never found myself in awe over how a certain background was drawn.

On a smaller note, it looks awful in color. Characters that would be drawn with black hair have a really ugly brown color, and Shiranui's bright blue hair gets on my nerves. And speaking of characters...

CHARACTERS: 1/10

And now, the moment of truth.
Characters can make or break a series. For Medaka Box, it's the latter. Apparently, in a satire like this, there has to exist at least one character whose sole purpose is to subvert a certain trope. I know I'm sounding like a scratched disc, but this manga absolutely LOVES drilling in the fact that they're trying to be meta right into the reader's brains.
You have your average guy who tags alongside the protagonist because he's her bitch, is average at everything, does average things, and reacts accordingly to every situation. In other words, the most boring conceivable human being. Now, later in the story, he has some basic development, but it's all so predictable that you wonder why they didn't make him like that from the start, since pretty much no other character gets any development, aside from bad guys turning good.
And it's not like the rest of the main cast is any memorable, either. Not only are they pretty much idle for the majority of the story, but they only show up when absolutely necessary, save for Kumagawa, but he comes later.
As for the rest of the cast... who the hell are these people? Their names are completely forgettable, their designs are not even worth mentioning, and they all only ever get a few lines before the manga decides it's had enough of them. As a desperate attempt from the author to convince the reader that these characters didn't just phase into existence as soon as the story saw fit, they throw in a vague, quickly mashed together backstory during a battle. Seriously, six characters were introduced in one chapter only for them to be instantly defeated in the next and never brought back. Speaking of characters, there are many. And I mean like, more than this manga knows what to do with. They're all different variations of the same generic archetypes anyway, so if you just skip every page where they appear, you'll miss out on absolutely nothing. It's a privilege to even call these soulless, concave shells, "characters," anyway, given how many times I just used the word.

But you don't want to hear about them (and frankly, neither did I); you wanna hear about our lovely, beautiful, strong, athletic, busty, generic, overpowered, conceited, arrogant bitch of a protagonist that is Kurokami Medaka.

What is the point? As in, what is the point of Medaka existing? She's perfect in every way. She can do everything right, and if she doesn't know something, she'll just learn and master it in the blink of an eye. "Mary Sue" would be an understatement for this sort of blemish on the art of writing itself. She's good at everything, she never fails, she's popular, and there's no way to defeat her. Coupled with the fact that she has about five different god modes, in what way do you ever expect any battle with her to have any sort of tension? There simply is none, because you always know she'll win. It's established from the beginning that she'll always win. You're plowing through 194 chapters simply just to see Medaka win over and over again by pulling something out of her ass or bending the rules of storytelling itself to her favor. Was she made to be this formulaic and boring by design?
Of course. Medaka is singlehandedly a worse protagonist than even Amagiri Ayato or Kirito, because they at least have a personality. Medaka has nothing. She does things for the sake of people. For the sake of the reader. She does what the reader wants her to do all the time. The entire concept of this character is so inoffensive; so formulaic; so safe, that you never expect anything out of her than what you always would. Medaka will always win, whether you like it or not. She'll never do anything stupid, or screw up, or say anything out of character. She exists for the sake of filling in the protagonist slot.

Oh yeah, Kumagawa.

Kumagawa Misogi could be considered the saving grace involuntarily stuck between this trainwreck. His role in the story is that of "the loser," and in no lighthearted way. He serves the purpose of being the person who is always destined, or cursed, to lose. He can never beat the main character or anyone simply because he's the bad guy and not the protagonist. He's come to terms with this fate and puts himself down with those who are weak to study them in order to strenghten himself. That sounds great. If only the author didn't make him talk about how it's all so different from a stereotypical Shounen Jump manga, then I'd like his concept even more. On top of his power being cool--though not properly used most of the time--his design doesn't give you eye sores, which is always a plus in Medaka Box, saddening as it may be. Unfortunately, he's not our main character, but he's still redeemable and memorable enough to stick in your mind even after the PTSD has worn off.

ENJOYMENT: 1/10

What is there to be taken away from this manga? All that's visible is a perfect example of how not to write anything ever. In fact, this series would be more informative than anything if read from that perspective. There's just nothing enjoyable about this. The characters are bad, the interaction is bad, the art leaves much to be desired, and the story is dreadful and just keeps going. As soon as you think it's reached a satisfactory conclusion, it suddenly keeps going, immediately jumping into a new worthless arc that by the third time would make anyone go, "there's more...?" The more the story goes on, the more you want to see Medaka dead and everyone else doing something with their lives. What you've seen here you can see anywhere else, and done better. Please do not waste your time on Medaka Box, even if by mere curiosity.

A 1 might seem harsh, though. After all, I just mentioned some redeeming aspects that would save it from the title of absolute worst.
However, this isn't a review that tries to appeal to a general audience; it's one that expresses an opinion. If there was no such thing as perfection to the mind, the 10 on a rating scale wouldn't exist, making the highest score a 9, and since a 9 would be highest, an 8, so on and so forth. The same applies for the 1. Simply having some redeeming factors doesn't mean one can't think something isn't absolutely bad, and vice versa. The nice animation in Sword Art Online alone doesn't make a person want to keep watching for forty-eight episodes; similarly, okay art and one good character don't make a person want to read through the entirety of this mistake.

OVERALL: 1/10

This manga is not fun. This manga is not interesting. This manga is not engaging. Please, by all means, stay away from Medaka Box. Please, don't watch the anime thinking it'll be better. And if you ignore all of this, then at least don't raise your expectations too high, otherwise you'll be as criminally disappointed as I was. I wanted to like this series. I went into it thinking, and hoping it would be good. But by chapter 12, I simply couldn't continue. I gave up on that notion. As soon as that happened, everything fell right into place exactly how I thought it would. It's predictable, it's degrading, and it's insulting. Not just to the reader, but to itself. I wish Kumagawa could make this manga have "never happened."