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Jun 18, 2017
On many forums I've seen recommendations of Steel Ball Run as an "Absolutely amazing manga", "easily the best Jojos and epitomising everything about that 'style' of comic", and "From the art to story 10/10. Best thing i've ever read". After finishing it, I honestly can't say I see its appeal. The characters were barely fleshed out and quite boring, the fighting frequently was decided on pure "luck", rather than fighting strength or strategy, and the story was painfully plain.
The story - Coming in, I wasn't expecting a narrative masterpiece, but I was expecting a compelling story. I was very disappointed. There really isn't any
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depth to it other than "I want to complete the race first", or "I want to assemble the corpse". The corpse could've been a very interesting part of the story - but besides it being an object that everybody wants, and some small abilities, it was hardly touched upon. There was almost non-stop fighting, and bc of that really wasn't much of a story. It was basically a stereotypical shounen way of handling stories.
Fighting - There were a couple - 3 or 4 fights that were decided by luck, which left a very bad taste in my mouth. Are real-life fights decided by luck? Sure. But the author makes a big point of "luck" being a main reason why the main character wins some fights, which I cannot fathom why. The bad guy does everything right - but because xxxxx happened just at the right time, the main character wins! Once would have been cute. when it happens more than a few times, it starts getting frustrating. I don't know why the author glorifies plot armor, but it made me lose a lot of emotional attachment to fights and characters.
Also frequently in fights, I would notice that powers are VERY inconsistent - while a random character that gets hit by ability X would instantly blow apart, when it hits the main character, they were given almost 10 seconds - to talk it out, figure out a strategy, and then execute it to get to safety. I noticed this happening in almost every single fight. The amount of plot armor in this manga was ridiculous.
Character - After 22 volumes, I had nearly no emotional attachment to a single one of the characters. I think this is due to the manga being absolutely dominated by fighting. When there is no flashback scene or racing going on, the characters are most definitely fighting, leading to close to no exploration of the character's personalities or character. I honestly think the manga absolutely dropped the ball in this regard, there were some painful and not-showing-at-all moments where one character would say a "gag", but besides that there really wasn't any interesting shows of personalities. Most of them felt like cookie cutter good guys that were just on different sides.
Each bad guy was given a brief exposition of why he wasn't really "bad", then was thrust toward the main characters to get beat.
Overall this manga felt like a mediocre shounen. No interesting characters, no emotional attachment, no interesting story, just tons of fighting with chunk of them being decided by plot armor. Wouldn't really recommend.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 18, 2016
All the other reviews for this manga are positive, and I honestly can't understand why. The only thing I didn't think was total trash about this manga was the art, and that was "meh". Really, nothing is worthy of praise in this mess of a manga.
Characters - 4/10. All of them are unlikeable (except one or two). And NONE of them have any meaningful development. This wouldn't be that big of a deal (I mean, how many series has character development for side characters) except for the fact that whole volumes are dedicated to some characters, and still they don't develop. Of course the
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MC doesn't develop either.
The story - 3/10. Terrible, terrible storytelling. Reading through, my biggest impression was that the author couldn't decide on WHAT to focus on. And since he can't decide what to make of the manga, it fails to be anything. As a character study it fails because the author switches between characters way too much, and nothing seems to have a lasting impact on any of the characters. Also, the situations the kids are put in are so bizarre and extreme they are nigh impossible to relate to. As a fighting manga, it fails because the "enemy" seems to forget about their plans to capture/ attack the protagonist after one fight. They just.... forget. There was also hints of it trying to be a coming of age tale, but again it switches between characters way too much, and protagonist doesn't get any character development. Besides all of that, there are many plot holes and random stuff that happen in the manga for no apparent reason. So... yeah. The whole manga is pretty much just a bunch of weird characters interacting with each other, for 12 volumes. And all of it is pointless, too. Seriously, you can read book 1, skip to book 12, and you wouldn't be missing a thing; when the finale comes, you'll be just as confused as anyone else that read the whole thing.
All in all - 4/10. Narutaru is pretty much a pointlessly violent, incoherent version of Evangelion. But if you reeeeally want a dose of kids suffering in pain and misery, read Bokurano by the same author (he's obsessed with psychopathic kids). It has the same agony, but the story is infinitely better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Mar 24, 2016
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
This is easily my least favorite shounen of all time. Why? Because it's a clusterfuck. This manga is what happens when you take shounen, try to add deeper, darker themes to it, all the while trolling readers with the ability to revive people. Seriously, everything about it is a mess.
Our protagonist, Yoh, is a dreamy-eyed, high moral values airhead, like a Luffy that is constantly high on some meth, if you will. Typical to shounen, bad guys change their outlook on life immediately after they are beaten by our protagonist, inspired to suddenly be of use to the people, and become
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a comrade to the protagonist. But in Shaman King's case, the change is INSANITY. Our protagonist's third enemy and later best friend Tao Len, was a sick fuck that wouldn't think twice about murdering innocents. But after he gets beat? He's suddenly one of the "good guys". Same with his sister that used to go around murdering film actors. The only other series that I can think of that pulled such a fast 180 on characters is SAO with Kayaba. Shaman King does this constantly, though. But that's not all. While some of the bad guys that get beat turn into allies, a handful of them got depressed and committed fucking mass suicide. This manga is weird that way.
After the revival concept is introduced, it's honestly hard to know what the fuck is going on. People die at the speed of Shingeki No Kyojin, but they come back at nearly the same speed. There's no telling who's REALLY dead and who's just kinda dead until they're revived. So when you see a bunch of the protagonist's friends brutally murdered, tbh you're kinda left wondering how to feel. "Wait, but they're just gonna come back to life anyways, right?". But sometimes, apparently not. You really can't tell until a couple chapters later.
The ending; I want the phrase "Shaman King ending" to be coined as a way to describe an ending that leaves long-time readers feeling trolled, cheated of their money, and feeling like they got bitch slapped by salmon. After struggling through the clusterfuck, after numerous insane power-ups, after Yoh gains the power of the Gods, after beating all of Hao's followers, after hearing Yoh say "I'll be the next Shaman King" for the millionth time, you would think Yoh would finally beat the evil Hao and become the next Shaman King. Well, sorry to tell ya, he was 10 minutes too late, and Hao becomes the next Shaman King. Yoh? He gets vaporized.
BUT THAT'S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART
After Yoh gets vaporized, for some reason his "spirit" gets to chat with Hao. Yoh talks about how friendship is great, and humanity isn't hopeless, because look at how high as fuck Yoh is. And Hao, after hating humanity for 3000+ years, IS CONVINCED. He's literally like, "Yeah, you're right, I guess I was wrong, I'll be a good Shaman King instead of using this power to destroy humanity, like I was planning to". ASDASDKLADJALK
So at the end, Yoh, failing to be the next Shaman King loses all meaning in life, Hao makes the fastest 180 ever known to mankind, all enemies and allies that died during the whole fight is resurrected, and you feel like you just wasted about 20 hours of your life. You almost expect the author to include a last page: "and then Yoh woke up from his dream".
If you want to see what One Piece would be like crossed with Shingeki no Kyojin with a 4chan troll controlling the plot, this manga is for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Mar 18, 2016
I feel like lots of reviews here are so very low because many people were disappointed with what ZNT became, in contrast to what it would have become. If I were to say I wasn't disappointed on how the series turned out, I would be lying.
When at first, the two protagonists steal a nuclear reactor thingy (we didn't know what it was at the time), and subsequently destroy a building, I thought this series was going to be the next masterpiece, the next Madoka. A thought-provoking, edgy, dark tale that poses various moral dilemmas to the viewer. I could almost see how the story
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would turn out; as their terrorism continues, they accidentally murder civilians. They begin to question if what they are doing isn't simply fueling a circle of hatred, and are subsequently driven insane. It would have been such a juicy series to watch. Alas, the series chose to make it a simple tale of "solve the mystery!". There was no questioning of morals, and no questions were posed to the viewer. I was so very disappointed.
But this review is about what the anime IS, no what it could have been.
Art: 10/10. The art was beautiful. I found myself admiring some of the art while watching the anime, which was, honestly, a first for me. Some of the scenes were like animated canvas paintings. The art group for this series needs an award.
Story: The introduction of 6 did derail the story quite a lot. No longer are we focused on the plans of Nine and Twelve, but now our protagonists are trying to stop Five instead. But what I found most annoying was the bullshit the show pulled when it comes to Five. Yeah, if America pressures Japan, most things will go their way, but I simply don't believe that the Japanese government will just allow a train full of civilians to be blown up. Same for the destruction of a commercial plane. "Let's blow up a plane to catch two terrorists". Give me a break, that'll never be approved. These plotholes were pretty annoying. Otherwise, the pacing was slow, and the "mystery" was pretty meh when it was revealed.
Characters: I feel like the series screwed up with the characters as much as it did with the story.
Twelve would've been so badass if they had more fighting scenes. It was implied he was super athletic, so why not make him do some crazy stunts? Also, I forget why, but he changes his mind about the "terrorism" SO quickly. I think he starts moaning about it in episode 3. Like jesus, you spent 10+ years thinking about the plans, and you think you should quit now because it's "wrong"? What???
Five is a psychopath, but the series tries to make us feel kinda sorry for her when she dies. But honestly, I don't know how I was supposed to feel sorry for a person that tried to murder hundreds, TWICE.
Nine was silent and calm, but I feel like they screwed up on his delivery, too. He spoke so little, and we were given so little access to his thoughts, that at the end of the series, I was left with a tiny but more knowledge about him than from episode 1.
The detective was the best character by far. He was entertaining, he acted like a human, and he was great. Loved him. I also loved his chubby sidekick too.
In general, they tried to switch perspectives between characters throughout the series, which might have worked, but this series is only 11 episodes. Because of this, viewers were left with a little bit of knowledge of a variety of characters, but not much about any single one. The fact that they don't talk their minds much didn't help, too.
Overall: They hyped me up for a dark, morally ambiguous story, and I got a straightforward, catch the bad guy story. The story wasn't bad, but it wasn't great, either. Viewers were given so little information about characters, it was frustrating. I would've given it a 8, but the plot holes really bugged me. Overall, I would recommend for anyone to watch it, as it isn't a bad story, the art is fantastic, and the music is hauntingly great. But don't expect anything beyond a "pretty good anime".
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 18, 2016
This was the first gorey manga that I read, and boy did it leave a strong impression on me. In fact, I still consider it one of the most twisted series out there.
The strength of this series doesn't lie in its gore. The strength of this series lies in the fucked-upness that it achieves in both story and characters. Some of the characters and their actions are truly disgusting and pretty sickening. The fact that the recipient of such actions are little girls makes it worse.
This doesn't mean this series has bad gore, either. In fact, the gore in this series, although not
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the most extreme, imo is one of the best in terms of quality. The guts are not only detailed, but even have a glistening quality to them. You can really feel the love the author put into drawing them.
Art: The art in this series was spot-on. Although at times the faces of some characters looked like squished play-do, the dark and twisted art style really complimented the series.
Story: The story could've been better. Most annoying were the many things introduced and then ignored for the rest of the series. Superpowers were introduced, then all but forgotten. The "Dolls Fall" game wasn't really explained, and it was never really explored. Girls having some kind of past was hinted, and then generally forgotten. At times the girls figure stuff out, but they take little to no action regarding it. Seriously, the author tried to put in way too much stuff, which left everything half-assed. The random stuff not only distracted from the plot, but also left big breaks in gore, which was a damn shame.
Overall: 7/10. The story could've been a lot better, but the gore + fucked-upness really shone through. And ultimately, that's what I look for in a horror manga. This isn't one of those horror manga that make you jumpy and paranoid. This is one of those series that makes you lose a bit of faith in humanity. While not the most shocking, some of the scenes in this series left a strong and lasting impression. Overall good read, and would recommend.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 17, 2016
Despite what many people say about this anime, I actually enjoyed it A LOT. Each story was interesting, and the way the story unfolded was unique because each episode had a time lapse of about 30+ years. Viewers are shown how the world changes around the protagonists, while they themselves don't change.
People complain about fan service in the series, but I honestly disagree. Fan service, imo, is when random panties and tits come out of nowhere, they're on the screen, and it contributes nothing to the plot or character development. What Mnemosyne has are sex scenes. Now, do they contribute to the plot, or
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character development? I would argue yes. Either way, it feels much more mature than girl shrieking, and guy being all red-faced and apologizing profusely cringe-worthy fan service that is more prevalent in anime.
The story is generally on an episode-per-episode basis. While there is an overarching plot, it is minimally addressed. Each new episode has a new conflict, and the protagonists tackle it, and solve it by the end. It was very quite entertaining to watch. In fact, I liked it so much, I would give it a rating of 9.5/10.
Things took a weird turn after episode 4. The show goes downhill unbelievably fast from there. The formerly overarching plot? This is when they address it, and it's not all that great. In addition, the delivery is a downright mess. The number of sex scenes in the series skyrockets after episode 4. But even then, episode 5 was ok I guess. Episode 6 was a disgusting, unbelievable, convoluted fucking mess. People with backstories are introduced that have significant meaning to the plot, and are killed seconds later, sex and rape galore, the lore of ygdrassil that was teased throughout the whole series, is "explained" in literally 10 minutes, there is disturbing son eating his dad's semen imagery, just... holy crap. They go through everything SO fast, although I was able to follow it, I felt no attachment to anything, because buildup was non-existant. Nothing is explained fully. The dialogue at the end of the series also made me cringe really hard. Their idea of a "wrap up" is a joke.
Seriously, the last two episodes are terrible. I wouldn't recommend not watching these, but these two episodes will probably leave anyone that liked the first 4 episodes seriously disappointed.
Overall, since I really liked the first 4 episodes, I would still give this anime a 8/10. The stories are very interesting, and unless you have something against gore or sex, I see no reason why anyone should shy away from it. Just am very disappointed with the last two, and especially last episode.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 25, 2016
Anyone that says this anime isn't a masterpiece is full of shit, plain and simple.
Never has an anime been so thought provoking, so realistic in depiction of characters, so questioning of morals. I loved every single aspect of the anime; every character, every little story, the soundtrack.... there is nothing I can think of that I didn't like about this anime. Everything was utterly fantastic. I loved this anime so much so that when I saw bullshit reviews, I had to create an account just to call them out on their bullshittery.
First, my review---
The art-gorgeous. The alternate universes look exactly like what I
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think "another world in the human world" would look like, if such a thing existed. The music- fantastic. Without bias, I would still say the series has some of the best OSTs out there. And not just one, but a large number of them are REALLY good. It's almost mind-boggling how one anime can have so much great music.
The characters in this anime were pure gold. They were some of the most realistic depictions of people in any anime. To put it simply, the characters acted like normal human beings the entire way throughout the anime. For example, the main 2 characters, upon hearing that they can become Mahou Shoujo and save innocents from invisible monsters, DON'T jump on the chance to save innocents. Instead, they think about what sacrificing their normal life would mean to them, the dangers of fighting such monsters, etc. Some people didn't like this, as the characters were "uncharismatic" or even "bland". Well, they're two regular high school girls. Wtf did you expect.
But this doesn't mean they're boring. Watching how they react to different extremely morally ambiguous questions are entertaining to say the least, and watching their answers play out is also great.
Deconstructing the mahou shoujo genre- in the genre, to put it simply, girls are given magical powers to combat the forced of evil. This anime does a great job at deconstructing such a genre, delving into such questions as, what happens if one of them dies? Is devoting your life thanklessly, to save innocent people really worth it? Overall, this anime deconstructs the established genre really well, exposing how unrealistic the genre in itself is.
I've never seen an anime that posed so much moral dilemmas in only 12 episodes. To get the full effect of the anime, I wouldn't recommend watching the anime passively. Instead, I recommend taking an incredibly aggressive way of viewing it; when a choice is presented to a character, instead of just blankly staring at the screen, reflect on the question at hand. What would I do in their situation? What are the repercussions? Why would I do this? Usually, there are no "right " answers, so getting to an answer requires you to really examine yourself. It's sometimes a frightening experience to realize what you would most likely choose to do in incredibly stressful situations, but re-examining who "you" are is a very precious experience.
Now onto some of the reasons why the anime was downvoted- bc only girls can be mahou shoujo , characters are non-charismatic and average, the pacing is horrendous, anime wasn't particularly gripping before episode 10, even the accusation that Madoka was designed to be a smash hit.
1. Girls can only be Mahou Shoujo bc Mahou Shoujo translates to magical girl in japanese. Why can't a guy be a magical girl? Ridiculous question.
2. Some people also thought it was a "plot hole" that only girl's sorrows are harvested, bc aren't girls and boys emotionally the same? Is the series saying that girls are more emotional than boys? That can't be true. Well, my response is, in that world, cats grant you wishes while harvesting your sorrow as you turn into monsters, and girls can pull 8 rifles out of their skirts. So maybe in that world girls are more emotional than boys. For god's sake, don't expect political (or biological) correctness in fucking anime. Seriously.
3. Characters are non-charismatic- as I mentioned earlier, the best part about this series is how all these girls realistically react to anime elements. That's what makes this anime so "realistic" and thought provoking. Besides, there are no linear characters; all the characters go through change throughout the course of the story, and all have their own interesting background stories. In fact, Madoka changes incredibly throughout the story, changing from shy, timid, "I'm not good at anything" girl, to a very brave, and mature, respectable person.
4. The pacing was beautiful- I can't even believe anyone would suggest otherwise. There were no filler episodes, every single mini-plot of the story contributed to the bigger picture, and there was always something very interesting going on, provided you weren't absent-mindedly staring at the screen.
5. Madoka being designed to be a smash hit is possibly the most ridiculous accusation. Because it can't be further from the truth. I'm not a anime director, but if a guy were to propose a story in which mahou shoujos face real life dilemmas, I would have probably have laughed in his face. There is no audience for such an anime to cater to- mahou shoujo fans wouldn't watch something so depressing, and people that like dark animes would much rather watch elfen lied or deathnote. So why was it so universally loved? "Because everything about it was so very beautiful" would be my answer. If the writers weren't so fantastic, this anime probably would have been a festering dump of an anime, pretty much a second School Days. In fact, with a plot catering to no particular audience, and the girliness pushing away all but the most experimental of viewers, it might have even been worse. I too only gave it a try bc one of my friends insisted it was the best thing he has ever watched.
Honestly, this is by miles the best thing I have ever watched, or even read, in any medium. Immensely thought provoking, this anime really takes you for a dream-like ride, keeping you thoroughly entertained, as long as you really delve into the anime. Calling this anime a masterpiece isn't giving it enough praise- I wouldn't call this anime ABSOLUTELY perfect, but this, and the Steins;Gate opening are about as close to perfect as anything in this genre has gotten.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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