D-Frag!

Aug 15, 2013

Aincrad2013

Recommended

Preliminary (48/? chp)

“…and this guy, the leader of…of…” “That’d be… Uhhh…Mm? Hmm…?” “My name is Kazama Kenji!! Remember that!!” “You just said the Kazama Gang!!”

D-Fragments is a comedy manga based around manzai. For those less familiar with Japanese culture, manzai is a type of stand-up comedy in Japan which revolves around two performers: a tsukkomi (straight man) and a boke (funny man). The boke creates a funny situation using misinterpretation or forgetfulness and it’s the tsukkomi’s job to butt in and correct him. Most of the jokes made are based on misunderstandings, puns and other verbal gags.

Kazama Kenji, a wannabe delinquent with ego to spare, inherits ... the job of tsukkomi in a world filled with boke. Yet his job becomes even harder when he is suddenly kidnapped and forced to join the game production club (temp), a club filled with the worst boke imaginable. And thus hilarity ensues. The story progress in the usual slice of life manner we’re well accustomed with (club activities, school festival, competition with other clubs, etc.) but does so with slight twists to them and combined with the manzai creates very funny situations that will keep the readers laughing every chapter. And one of the things that I really appreciate about this manga is that it is faithful to Kenji’s background, dedicating more than a few chapters to his attempts to leave the club and make a name for himself as a delinquent. Something worth mentioning is that this manga is a harem in the strictest sense of the term, with multiple female characters vying for Kenji’s affection (MC joins a club filled with only beautiful girls, check). Yet with the vast amount of female characters, only a couple are actually trying to become romantically involved with Kenji and this manga isn’t chockfull of harem clichés, making it an enjoyable type of harem. And even if you are completely averse to harem romances, the romance plays a minor role in the manga and most of the time it’s used as a way to enhance the comedy rather than being a focus in itself.

As always, the focus of a harem shifts towards the female cast, and here we see more than a few archetypes that we are familiar with: eccentric yet cute female lead, tsundere love interest, cool student council president, little sister character, the ACTUAL little sister and many more. Yet while they are somewhat annoying in a more serious setting, archetypes greatly enhances ones enjoyment in comedies because you can simply laugh at them while also becoming attached to them if you’re a fan of a certain archetype. And having a big number of characters helps in this regard as readers can find their favourite archetype without it seemingly be forced on a certain character. The main character himself is a breath of fresh air as he isn’t lacking in personality like most male leads and doesn’t always succeed in what he attempts to do, becoming a damsel in distress himself more than once. The Kazama family as a whole is probably my favorite set of characters in this manga without even including their tsukkomis. Yes, Kazama Kenji isn’t the tsukkomi simply because he’s the male lead, but because his family is descended from an ancient lineage of tsukkomi…or something (personal speculation section ends here). Thus his family is able to take over for Kenji when he becomes incapacitated enough to be unable to tsukkomi.

The art in D-Frag is great. For the most part it is simple as to enable the readers to focus on the dialogues and jokes made but manage to be detailed as the situation requires. From character expressions to scene appropriate chibis, the art serves as support for the comedy and enhances the jokes, perfect for a fast paced type of comedy such as manzai. Fan service is minimal and as with the romance, is only there to support the comedy rather than being a focus in itself.

Overall, D-Frag is definitely one of the better comedy manga I’ve had the pleasure to come across and it is a definite recommendation to anyone looking for something funny to read. With the recent announcement of an anime, readers will have something to look forward to once they finally caught up to the latest chapter of this amazing manga, which is all the more reason to start reading D-Frag.

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Aug 19, 2013

Emsavio

Recommended

Preliminary (50/? chp)

Story: 9
While this manga isn't a heavily story-driven piece of art like FMA or the likes, it's very episodic and highlights the story (or even lack thereof) in mini arcs. The randomness of the stories and adventures that the characters are filled with hilarity on every single panel, and so far it's made me laugh as much as Gintama and Nichijou...which is saying a lot on my part.

Art: 8
The art is very good, but not the best...but in this type of manga the art isn't the main selling point. It's good as it is, and the environments are clearly drawn and the characters all have ...

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Aug 22, 2015

Nervin

Recommended

Preliminary (73/? chp)

While searching for a comedy based manga, I stumbled across one with a strange title: D-frag. The premise seemed unappealing and boring, with a generic setting that didn't promise anything spectacular. Nevertheless, intrigued by the title of it, I began watching it, and I can say I was pleasantly surprised. D-frag is comedy/harem manga, though it is not your typical ecchi/comedy manga out there. So what makes it hilarious? I will try to explain it below.

~Story~

First of all the comedy is based on the manzai, where a "Tsukommi" (straight man) retorts the actions of the "Boke" (funny man) who creates a funny situation. This is ... quite frequent in japanese comedy shows, and being a personal fan of this type of comedy, naturally appealed to me. However, if this type of comedy doesn't appeal to you, then this may be not suitable for you.

D-frag focuses on the delinquent Kazama Kenji, who with the help of his gang, the "Kazama" gang, intends to take over his school. This doesn't go as intended and in the process he is forced to join the game creator club (temp), composed of the most strange girls. From here on audiences observe how Kazama deals with the bizarre club members, leading to absurd and hilarious situations. These range from typical everyday life situations, to the same events a lot school comedies have to offer, such as territorial fights or festival games, naturally taken to the extreme absurdness.

D-frag has little story to offer, besides the actions of the game creator club (temp). The story is split in mini arcs, each with enough comedy to make you laugh, making it perfect for this type of manga. Furthermore, said arcs are even more absurd and hilarious, in addition to being more expansive. It also tagged with the romance and harem category, though the harem aspect is not the main focus of this show, neither is the romance. Moreover, it is used to enhance the comedy.

~Characters~

Being a comedy based manga, D-frag has a lot of characters to offer, each with its own charm. As it is a harem too, there are a lot of female characters but these are not detrimental to the manga; which is to say, it doesn't exhibit an excessive focus on the females. Personally speaking, the protagonist Kazama was of the most interesting character as it was not your typical main protagonist. He doesn't take romantic interest in the female lead characters, neither does he always accomplish his goals, in fact he is often helped by someone, which is bonus.

Other character that stood out, and is my personal favourite, was the teacher Sean Conne Conne, who clearly represents the actor Sean Connery. His character, moral values and actions are very refreshing to the manga, besides enhancing significantly the awe factor of this character. Naturally, character development is nearly nihil in this manga, in addition to the fleshing out of the characters, though these are observed to some extent later on.

The secondary characters also play an import role D-frag: these have all certain personalities that makes it easy to distinguish from the others. While the protagonists create absurd and hilarious situations, these are often enhanced and supported by the actions and comments/retorts of the secondary characters, and vice versa. There are also different factions present, each with their characteristic attribute, for example, the baldies or music bands. The good thing is that these are all simple and not such impressive characters, they're in fact simple people even though the manga portrays them as "badass" characters.

~Art style~

The art style of D-frag is simple, which was at first rather lackluster, but evolved to the better; this made it easier to focus upon the comedy, rather than the art style itself. Character designs are varied, yet are nothing remarkable. The facial expressions were well done, which was of importance for the comedy gags, as without them it would have been worse. The placement of the panels was very well done, as it enhanced the comedy aspect of the manga significantly.

~Enjoyment~

I personally enjoyed D-frag a lot; It made me laugh throughout the whole duration with hilarious and absurd situations, as well as the wide assortment of characters. There were naturally some gags that got old or were predictable, besides of having no story direction whatsoever: this was nevertheless a small drawback. So if you are interested in reading a comedy manga with an enjoyable harem, or just are searching for something to read, D-frag may be something for you. Just don't expect any deep characters or story.

Thank you for reading.

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Jul 22, 2018

iMysteriousAura

Recommended

Preliminary (102/? chp)

This is my review for D-Frag. I’ll be referring to the characters by what they are most commonly called in the manga. Please note that this review is structured around how I personally felt about the manga: objectively, it deserves an overall rating of 7. (individual ratings of 5/6/9 for story, art, and character, respectively), and subjectively, I give it a 7 as well.

Story: 5/10

The main attraction to D-Frag is the comedy. More specifically, it utilizes a style called manzai, which, in short, is where there is a character(s) creating funny situations (the boke), and another character retorting them as the straight man (the tsukkomi). ... With this being said, when considering only the main cast, the tsukkomi is Kenji (and sometimes Takao) while the bokes are the rest of main characters. It is also important to know that while she isn’t a main character, Noe, who is Kenji’s little sister, is also a tsukkomi. Since D-Frag is complete comedy, there is little to no story, with the closest being at the beginning when Kenji is roped into (and against his will) joining a school club. From there on, most of the chapters are episodic (although there are some arcs that extend for multiple chapters) and he reader proceeds to read about the wacky adventures of the main characters. Although MAL gives this manga the romance tag, it is very, very subtle, and not the main point of this work. Therefore, read D-Frag for the comedy and slice of life, not for the romance. Since there is no story, (it isn’t needed, anyway) it deserves the standard 5 rating.

Art: 6/10

The artwork here is very standard. The illustrations are not super detailed, but the faces of the characters when they react are drawn nicely. This is probably the most important factor to consider when grading the art for a manga such as D-Frag, since the reader would be expecting funny and/or exaggerated reactions. The visuals do not detract from the original humour given in the words, and actually enhances them.

Character: 10/10

D-Frag relies on having quirky and lovable characters to be its selling point, and it does this very well. It is like other manga with similar premises, as without a particularly strong story or art to keep the reader engaged, the characters must be strong enough to “carry” the load. Subsequently, D-Frag does this very well with the cast that is put on paper. The characters here do not fall under certain tropes, (asides from the manzai theme) making them unique and memorable. We have some very interesting dynamics here, such as Kenji x The Kazama Family, Kenji x Roka x Takao, Noe x Sakura, and Chitose x Tama. These are some of the most prevalent relationships between the characters, as a good amount of the comedy is from those pairings. The supporting characters, while appearing far and in between (often for only for a few panels) are humourous when they do appear. You have every boy’s dream girlfriend, Funabori, a super cool teacher in Conecone-sensei, and Kenji’s little sister, Noe. All around an excellent cast of both main and supporting characters.

Enjoyment: 9/10

D-Frag successfully managed to not only capture my attention, but hold it ever since the opening chapter. It has nearly everything anyone could possibly ask for in a work of comedy , and most importantly, excels in the area most important in the category of manga that it falls under: the characters. Although over 100 chapters (in English) have been released at the time of my writing this review, each chapter is approximately 15 pages in length. For anyone looking to laugh out loud, and especially to lovers of the manzai setup, D-Frag is the manga for you.

That’s all I have to say. Thanks for reading!

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Feb 25, 2021

PixelB

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (50/? chp)

The D-Frag anime is decent, so you'd think the same think would be said for the manga, but honestly, it falls flat in various areas.
It's a gag manga that's really random, but even the randomness doesn't add to the comedic factor. it's just random, not funny, and while it's random, many of the same gags are repeated for the same characters since there's not much depth or characterization to them, so it's randomness that's repetitive in a way.
Art is just bad. Again, it's comedy, so you don't need amazing art, but there's a threshold and this manga just doesn't pass it. Backgrounds, characters, and paneling ...

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Oct 29, 2017

69thStreet

Recommended

Preliminary (98/? chp)

Summary: Kenji Kazama, the main character who gets sucked into a video game club and gets into many random situations.

Story (8): As you can tell by the summary, it's not really anything too special, but it's something to keep you reading. The manga's comedy involves around Kazama's tsukkomis, the situations he gets into, and the characters themselves. It's a harem manga if you haven't notice, as Kazama is probably the only attractive and sensible male in the whole school so it makes lots of sense once you keep on reading lol. I might change my score on this part of the review since ...

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