Ranked #11281

Aoi Haru (Manga)

It's strange that no one has even bothered to write a review about this awesome manga. But then again I guess it's not much of a surprise given how it isn't very well promoted. However, this manga is one of the buried treasures of the manga world.

STORY: Alright, this story is actually a compilation of several stories all done by Taiyo Matsumoto, best known for his work Black and White, about a group of students during a Blue Spring, or a dull depressing spring in which nothing happens. These kids are on the fringes of society ranging mainly from punks to thugs and it deals with their problems, many of which are quite dark and disturbing.

That said, while some of the stories are absolutely jaw-dropping (If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands, Mahjong Summer) some of the others are mediocore (Revolver: 1-3) to just plain bad. (Peace) These stories are dark and for the most part thought provoking, much like his previous work B&W, but some are just fillers that won't cause you to look twice. This is why I had to give it a 5 in this category although I consider some of the singular stories as 9s or 10s.

ART: Like Taiyo Matsumoto's other works this one's art is somewhat strange. It is not the standard manga-style as is seen in many of the shounen jump works, instead it is much more cartoony and a little more unrealistic. Some people I'm sure will be turned off by it, it took me some getting used to, but others will latch onto it from the very beginning and love it to the very end.

CHARACTER: As in many other manga compilations, the characters are hard to relate with simply because they are only in one story or chapter. The other problem with the characters is what I mentioned before, the characters themselves are just plain hard to relate to because for the most part they are punks and thugs. None of them are really driven by their own desires and they generally belong to a group and follow the demands and needs of the groups. Pretty much, they are sheep.

The only good thing is that some of the other characters in the manga, for the most part they are very minor, but they seem to have more impact on the story than the main characters do. Espiecially in the If You're Happy and You Know It... story. These characters are for the most part not sheep like the main characters and therefore much more likeable. They really make it worth reading.

ENJOYMENT: For the most part, I enjoyed this manga. Like I said before there were a couple of stories in it that I just didn't care for but then again there were some stories that I absolutely loved and reread frequently. A couple have actually inspired the way I write my own stories. For the most part I really enjoyed it.

OVERALL: Like I said before, their are a couple of bad stories, the art may not be for some people's liking, and some of the characters are rather week. BUT (And this is a big but.) some of the stories are simply masterpieces, as is to be expected by a master storyteller like Taiyo Matsumoto. It's just a a shame that he couldn't keep it up all the way through.

Despite all its faults the goods outweigh the bads, and it is certainly worth checking out espiecially if you enjoyed Black and White. As said before, it is one of the lesser known great mangas. Definately worth the read.

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