Owari no Seraph: Ichinose Guren, 16-sai no Catastrophe
Seraph of the End: Guren Ichinose - Catastrophe at Sixteen

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If you come into this expecting it to be like the main manga, Vampire Reign, then you are wrong. It's a lot more different.

As someone who didn't even like the OG manga, this one is even worse. At least Vampire Reign had some positive points to it, Guren Catastrophe has no redeeming qualities to it.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS"

Setting:

The takes place in ordinary Japan. What made Vampire Reign interesting was the postapocalyptic setting, but in this manga that has not happened yet. So, most of the action is in a high school setting. Guren Catastrophe at 16 doesn't have the dreary and depressing vibe that ... Vampire Reign has.

Characters:

In Vampire Reign there were a lot of interesting characters but in Catastrophe at 16 there are only two. Saito and Shinya. Everyone else is disappointing.

Guren: In this manga he's a Gary Stu. He's so special and so strong and amazing. The manga just repeats how different he is from the rest of society. Also he wants to get stronger to protect his comrades and his mentally ill girlfriend (we'll get to her later). And that's it. If you're reading this manga with the expectation of seeing the Guren in Vampire Reign, you're wrong. You might as well consider them to be different people. This Guren's a joke.

The female characters except for Mahiru: The only thing the female characters exist for are to be fan service, fawn over Guren, and to be nearly r#ped. That's it. There's nothing else to them. They add nothing else to the plot. I would talk more about them but there's nothing else to say about them.

Mahiru: Like Guren, the manga keeps reminding the readers how beautiful, perfect, special, and different she is from the rest of society. Like the female characters she also fawns over Guren. BUT she is very mentally ill, her love is really just her own mental health issues she's projecting onto Guren. She's crazy and that makes her slightly more interesting than the other female characters but not by much.

Saito: He's the only one reminding us there's an actual plot to this story. Without him, this manga would be so boring. As a character he's not really developed, but he is the walking plot device of the story.

Shinya: The only one who gets any development. His backstory is pretty tragic and all the most emotional scenes involve him. Any time Guren acts like an actual characters rather than a Gary Stu it's usual thanks to Shinya. If Shinya was the main character instead of Guren this manga would be way better.

The story:


You remember how most ONS fans thought the Second Shibuya High School Arc was so f*cking boring and were glad it finished in like three chapters? Well imagine if that arc didn't end. Imagine if it just went on and on for like 40+ chapters. That is the plot of Guren Catastrophe at 16. That's why this manga sucks. It's boring. And to make up for it, it's more violent than Vampire Reign. Of course, the violence doesn't really add anything besides shock value.

Only the last 5 chapters are actually interesting everything else is so boring.

TLDR: Guren Catastrophe at 16 is a mess. It's boring, it's purposelessly violent, it's got over the top fanservice, and the characters suck.