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Jun 12, 2024
Listen it's One Piece, one of the best selling most popular franchise ever. Everybody talks about it everybody loves it and they're thousands of people way more researched then me that will give you a laundry lists of reasons as to why this series is one the best stories in the in world.
What I want to talk about is how despite me adoring everything there is to this series, I feel in the recent years it has taken a massive shift in the wrong direction and is rapidly losing what made it special. Let me ask you a simple question. In the 3 most
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recent arcs, can you name an animal native to those islands. Whole Cake, Wano, EggHead. Can you think of a single animal there? Not chopper not zoan fruit users, I'm talking about just natural wildlife. No, you most likely can't. Why is this seemingly small question such a massive problem? Simply put, Oda has stopped caring about fleshing out his world and is rushing to the end series. We've seen this as his once beautiful artwork has plummeted in quality, most of the time panels are nothing but illegible chicken scratch. Fights have lost any strategy or choreography, it's just Haki blasts people looking cool with punching each other with Haki. The anime makes it look cool with all those flashy animations, but on a objective level most of the fights are terrible. Katakuri was the last good fight in the entire series, nothing since then has had no where near enough emotion or weight to it. In previous arc the first half of the arc was a demonstration to show how that island worked, who lived there, some cool gimmick specific to the island, character or events that would tie that island to the greater world.
Remember in Alabasta where the crew befriended a group of kung fu seals? Remember when they rode ducks? Remember when they have to travel the desert via a giant crab? Those were really cool moments that fleshed out that specific islands culture and way of living. Alabasta was not just a ploy to beat crocodile, they had to live in that culture to solve it's problems. It makes Alabasta a memorable place and developed the world. Kung fu seals only come from alabasta. Oda took great care into giving each island quirky gimmicks and creatures. Something so simple as creating animals native to that island has been totally lost. It's no longer about world building and crafting an adventure through amazing islands that are detailed individually but taken at large scale make a whole universe detailed.
It's now about going to the next island to beat the next bad guy. It is more fight focused then ever. No more emotional stories about the crew, or them just visiting a cool place. Everything is centered around fighting. I like the Egghead arc a lot but at some point you have to realize, seeing Kizaru and the navy top dogs fighting seriously for the first time is the only draw the arc has. It's only about cool moments and not building an overall narrative. I really loved the reverie arc because it was completely switched to not following Luffy. It was not about fighting at all. It was just a small little arc that showed an in universe government meeting that allowed us to see much more of the world and see the characters we've known for years change. It was a great way to set up future plot lines and gave us something to analyze.
Just think back to well crafted previous arcs were in terms of location, setting, and gimmicks. Punk Hazard was a place split down the middle between pure ice and pure lava. Where kids were being experimented on with drugs that give them immense power but also addictive tendencies. There were two huge yeti assassins roaming around, it had connections with dolfamingos weapons and drug trade and a little group of his was hiding there. The navy showed and threw a wrench in everyone's plan as a 3rd party fighting both the straw hats and ceaser. Ceaser was not some Haki super powered anime god, he went down in a few punches at best, Luffy could beat him with his eyes closed but that was not that point. The point was not fighting Ceaser, it was about this evils scientist running dangerous experiments on kids and how the corrupt world government allowed this to happen by letting a warlord back him up on his plans despite using to spread even more evil. Meanwhile we got to Wano to fight Kaidou. The entire arc is training to fight Kaidou. Kaidou had to have a big army because every crew member needed someone to have a 1v1 against. I did like some aspects of Wano but taken overall, if you get rid of Luffy beating Kaidou, what was even the point of the arc? Is wano an interesting place? No it's not. The location is pretty boring with no crazy gimmicks. It just has a bunch of old artifacts that we never get to see. Any memorable places from Wano? No. The only noticeable place in onigaishma which is only noteworthy because Kaidou is there. Was there any unique wild life there? No. For all it's 200+ chapters that had to spend building a cool place previous arcs like skypeia utterly dwarfed them in story telling. Oda created an entire new technology and weapons to fit a society built on sky islands supported on clouds. It was more thought out and just a better setting that made the arc memorable. When think of skypeia I think of those beautiful sky islands with ancient ruins and a giant snake. When I think Wano I just think of the arc where Luffy fights Kaidou.
I truly believe whole cake was the last good arc of the series. With Luffy being as strong as he is and with how many unresolved plots line Oda has to dump on that last 4 remaining arcs I feel like he is going to massively rush it out, just focusing on making fights look cool with crazy Dragon Ball Z level power up instead of just writing a good story. That's what I liked about One Piece to begin with. It was just a good story that was fun to read with an immensely powerful emotional core. Every crew member had deep emotional burdens that chained them down and one by one Luffy freeded them with his charisma and leadership. There were a lot of moments I cried Like when Ace died, the going merry broke down, or Ussops fight with Luffy. Nothing like ever happens anymore. The writing has gotten worse, the art has gotten worse, everything has slowly gone down hill. You don't create 1000+ chapters along the way and not make mistakes, but I feel Oda doesn't even realize he is making these simple mistakes and he will continue on the way he is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 9, 2024
A masterpiece. There is not a lot of things this story does wrong and a ton it gets right. It is a modern classic, becoming the peak of the mountain other manga strive for. Yes it is popular and every one lavishes praise on it but thinking it is only praised because of it's popularity is extremely shallow reasoning. It deserves it's reputation and every bit of credit it's received. This one of the most well rounded manga and stories I have ever read. It has everything you could ask for and it genuinely well written.
The story is one best this medium has to offer.
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In sea of low standard schlock where most manga have to grab your attention with absurd titles, fan service or superficial characters designs, it is extremely telling that the most important part of Full Metal Alchemist is it's story. The plot is instantly captivating while providing layers upon layers of interesting ideas about revenge, philosophy, science, discrimination, religion, and the meaning of life. It is a story born out of passion and thought where most in this field can't be bothered to beyond making stuff up for the weekly plot, Full Metal Alchemist story was completely planned out from the beginning to craft an ever weaving tale. Every character and arc servers a distinct purpose and there is little to no filler what so ever. Everything is given proper explanations, back story, and reasons. This fictional world has an entire history built in to serve the greater narrative and for the twists. This was not a place made just for the sake of having a story, the world itself is the story and it uses it's rich history to shape it's various characters. Characters are defined by their life experiences and what they've been through. Everyone has some sort of trauma and hidden side they will not reveal to anyone else and these experiences are tested by the world itself. The core meaning of the story is to find out what "Truth" is. In a world where alchemy is real power that can be utilized by people the manipulation of matter and earth what does god look like to these people? What is the meaning in their lives. The series delves deep into this philosophy with every character and comes out with answers you can apply to your own life.
With such a wonderful world and story to build off, it's no surprise the characters inhabiting this world are some of the best one's ever written. Starting off with our main characters, the two Elirc brothers. They were young, naive, but talented alchemist who grew up on a peaceful ranch outside of town. That life was taken away when they're mother passed away and they were left alone, their father mysteriously leaving them for years. These two brother tried to play god and faced truth, whilst trying to commit the greatest of sins, reviving their dead mother. They fail and in exchange one brother losses his life and one losses an arm. The remaining brother uses his knowledge of alchemy to bond his brothers souls to a cold suit of armour, and that begins their journey through life. Climbing the ranks of their governments military and obtaining knowledge about the world and god to find a way returns the brothers body back to himself. This dualism between two talented alchemist brothers, one short spunky and loud, one a lifeless cold suit of armour hiding an equally spunky brother is the core heart of the series. Each other is all they have left and they are forever bound to face the same obstacles. They're both extremely likeable and seeing their brotherly love for each other makes the reader want to follow them. Just these two characters alone would make for a great story and just describing them is griping enough, yet those are only two characters out the entire story. Every other character is as equally fleshed out with their own goals, past sins, and relationships. While having some iconic characters designs that instantly stick out.
Aside from the main characters we must also have a great villain. On this note, full metal alchemist continues to deliver, with a large cast of well crafted villains. The main group that oppose our hero's is based of the seven deadly sins of humanity. Once again coming back to the themes of sin and truth. While obviously paying homage to their sin themes, each one has a very distinct personality and it born of contradiction and made to show the darkest depths human emotions can go. They all have very cleaver and unique powers with various personality and it makes watching them extremely fun. Personally out of all them Envy is the most complex and to me one of the most well written villains period. Owing to his namesake, he is representation of envy, a grave sin of humanity. They are a superficially shapeless entity that can transform into any creature or human it wants. Part animal, part human, part everything. It strives on chaos with a loud and arrogant personality that uses it's power to create hidden but extremely harmful events. Being able to shape itself into any human it thinks of itself as above humans and love to toy with them but turning into peoples family or loved ones. Boasting about how humans are tied down by these emotions that can be so easily manipulative. Their most damaging act was turning into a military officer and shooting a village child of discriminated race within the country to cause they're already weakened people to start a revolution. Showing how disgusting this creature really is, having the power to escalate one event into a mountain of human tragedy, leaving the scene for humans to blame each other and fight without anyone knowing the true cause. We follow Envy throughout the entire story seeing how this group of people was able to become apart of the foundations of every system with their combined powers all while laughing at them from out of sight. However, even sins can't escape the truth. Even pure evil like Envy has trauma they cannot overcome by themselves as despite being able to turn into anything they themselves have no true identity. Despite it's powers being endless it mainly transforms into humans because deep down it wishes it could understand any other emotions aside from envy. It's true form is a grotesque amalgamation of thousands of human souls all of different race, gender, age, and mind set. All creating formless mass that it keeps together by creating a facade of being superior to the very creature it so desperately wants to be. In the end the sin of envy ends up being the least self confident one, finally revealing itself to just be a small harmless creature only given power by stealing others identities. Envy cries for the first time as it realizes nothing he has never done anything to improve his life and he was deluding himself into thinking becoming other people would get him closer to his own answer for the meaning of life. All he did was steal emotions and identities from others when in the end he had none for himself. This is full metal alchemist themes condensed into one beautifully crafted character and this is just one of many.
The last but certainly not least, greatest aspect of this story is commitment to it's own rules. This world is full of alchemy and a by product everything must follow the rules of sciences. Despite being able to manipulate matters like a god, alchemists must follow the laws of universe, They cannot create matter of nothing, they must follow the laws of equivalent exchange. If they want to make something they must take material of equal value of the correct chemical compositions to make whatever they want to make. As a power system it is intrinsically tied to the world building and themes of truth. Despite having god like powers, alchemists are the furthest things from following gods path. As knowledge is basis for alchemy and god is an unknowable figure without proof, each alchemists uses their own power to create their own ideals of a higher power. At it's most basic the alchemy used is an extremely creative and beautiful power system used to enhance fights and any environment can be altered at anytime. It also creates very limited fights where knowledge and skill triumph over everything. At most alchemy is used to shape the environment into hazards, weapons, obstacles, yet such a limited system creates some of the best fights in any manga. It is a very clearly defined system that is built for the narrative which is a such a refreshing idea for a manga. No this isn't dragon ball with massive lasers, super humans, universe scaled attacks. It is simple science combined with the wonders of fiction that still manages to be just as intense.
As you can tell I love this manga. I genuinely think this is a master piece with no singular massive flaw. It truly is a classic and should be studied for any aspiring writers. This is only manga I've read where I can wholeheartedly say every aspect is perfect.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 5, 2024
Is this the best manga ever? No. Does it have the best writing ever? No. Does it have the best art ever? No. What it does have is heart. GTO is one of the most emotional manga ever put to paper, it's a comedy manga hiding extremely relatable and emotionally resonate stories within. We get to see this delinquent with no education or experience become the greatest teacher his students could ever ask for. The school is full of complex kids with backgrounds of harsh environments, but one by one Onizuka teaches them how to walk the path of life. This is not just a
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comedy, this not just a slice of life drama about high school, it's a life lesson to anyone who relates to the stories told. This manga can get pretty depressing at times, dealing with abusive parents, neglectful parents, sexual abuse, violence, drugs, but Onizuka is always there the end to pick these kids up from the holes they've dug themselves. He aspires to be what he wished he had as teacher when he was a troubled teen, and instead of waiting for that moment he become the beacon of light for other people. Onizuka will make you smile, cry, and just miss the time you spent reading about this colorful cast of characters. This is nothing but an emotional rollarcoaster. I have some major problems with it but at the end of the day this story touched me very deeply that not any other manga could. However if not of that convinces you, I'll say one last thing. It's just entertaing. I came in baffled out dragged out this must be if a story about a teacher was 200 chapters, by the end I only wished there were more. That in my opinion is that highest praise any story could receive.
With all the being said, I think it does commit some pretty inexcusable things but it is a testament that I enjoyed it even throughout that. I can tell they are problems because of bad writing in the spur of the moments and not out of bad intent. My particular complaints is how it handles suicide. At a few points GTO tries to have it both ways, it wants to be a comedy and also a be extremely serious and there are times where that line is not walked correctly. It will interrupt serious scenes of characters discussing their emotions and reasons for hurting themselves only for Onizuka to flip their skirts and get a panty short. I understand what it is going for, it's trying to say that these are just kids with underdeveloped minds who are taking things way too seriously and their grand revelations about life fall flat to juvenile things. Onizuka is trying to get these kids to understand their life is so much more and they don't have everything figure out despite what they think. In my opinion it could be handled differently. There are plenty of points in the series this does not happen but also a good few times it does. These topics should get treated with severity and not filled with fan service. The story does not have to be a comedy at every point, there can be slow moments that let the reader interpret things for themselves.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 6, 2024
A underwhelming sequel that tries to hard surpass the original manga but fails at doing so.
I love Tokyo Ghoul RE: it retained it's jaw dropping art work. It's amazing character design and terrific cast of main characters. Wonderful use of squeal building upon the original and developing so much more then what we saw. However, that is the main problem, Tokyo ghoul RE: is more, too much more. At some points that's all it feels like, more characters, more plot twists, more powerful character, bigger scale, more spectacle. Fights went from small scale scuffles between two people clashing ideals and only being able to
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solve that through combat. Whereas the sequel is treated like boneified battle shounen. Kagune are no longer small power ups the act like additional limbs. It's now just a big mess of black blobs that are used to attack from anywhere at anytime, with no unique traits or even appearances. Every fight looks and plays the exact same, every one just transforms into shapeless, black sludge whose power depends on whatever the author wants. No strategy or critical thinking, just be stronger then other enemy because of plot then you win. It completely missed the point of the story. This is not a battle shounen, Kaneki only had to get strong because those in power keeping the world in it's corrupted state where powerful themselves. In the original manga there was only two rate SS ghouls, the owl's. Rate SS ghouls are the most powerful and encountering was a story shattering event. In Re: basic side characters are rate ss, we went from maybe 15 ghouls rated s and above, to 50 plus ghouls all being rated S or above. It is ludicrous. A lot pages completely forgo building up it's story in favor of fight scenes. It did not need to go in this direction and it massively hindered the story which was it's main draw. The original manga is maybe 40% fight scenes because it was trying to depict kaneki's struggles in this world he found himself in. Fighting was there to resolve issues amongst characters. Now fighting is the only story.
Tokyo ghoul RE: introduces or greatly expands on so many new characters, they alone are double the cast of the original while still having to make and develop the main cast from the previous story. One can just tell at a glance the series is bloated, it gets so convoluted the every volume has an introductory page for every character in the current arc, that list includes around 20 characters, not including the numerous side characters. If you have to break the 4th wall and plainly spell out what the arc is about and the characters in it every single time, that is a handi cap to try and mask bad writing. Simply put, there are way too many characters, there are no more back stories for characters because it would be impossible to develop over 50 characters. Most of the time you have no idea what's happening because all the 50 people from different factions fighting the same way gets extremely repetitive to read. It lost all of it's original meaning. It was just supposed to be about a guy getting put in a unforuante situation trying to fix the world of it's discrimination and endless conflict between humans and ghouls because he was stuck in the middle, half human half ghoul. Now it's dragon ballz fights with literal humanity ending conflicts. The message has gotten so superficial are lost in such a unnecessarily long and convoluted plot.
In this case less is more. The original was dense and quaint, it was not till the very end where conflicts got to any massive size. It allowed everything to feel like tight knit group of people who kaneki grew to love as a family. He saw the issues of the world and strived to change it. Now basic conflicts are Naruto like battles with bigger stakes, more character, more everything. No one wanted to the story to go in this direction. It gave up on writing a quality story for cool moments. I did like a lot of what I read but it did not show me anything the original already had and when it did it presented those themes in a much worse way.
As a sequel you should obviously read it to finish the series as the original was left on a cliff hanger ending. As on objective piece of media it really is nothing special and most likely only gets praised because of it's Tokyo Ghoul name status and not as a story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 10, 2024
An extremely good Isekai novel that stands above the rest.
In a sea of low standard garbage schlock that is the Isekai light novel genre, The Rising of the Shield Hero, stands out by being just genuinely well written. Which after reading and watching a lot of Isekai, I can assure you is very rare. Shield Hero gets pretty much everything right, it does not disrupt the formula, but takes it's to peak.
The characters are for the most, very well written. Every character serves a purpose and shockingly, most of them have character development, the characters actually have arcs and drastically change to unrecognizable states.
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Completely abhorrent villainous characters get actual back story and have reasons as to why they're that way, and a lot of them get redemption and end up becoming very likeable.
The main character is the best of them all. He is not a self insert harem gathering chode that becomes invincible. He is a mature adult who gets thrust into a unworldly situation and tries his best to live his new life. While pretty much every Isekai just completely ignores aspects like " How does the main characters understand this other dimensions language?" The answer? The main character studies it. He realizes it is a massive problem and concludes he needs to be able to read the language in order to live. He needs to study and learn from books to improve his skills with medicinal herbs, with trading, when interacting with people. He does this for several volumes and ends up teaching other people what he studied. He is just genuinely likeable guy who tries his hardest and worked for everything. As the title suggest, he rises up from literally nothing. He slowly but surely gets more powerful by learning and building up an empire of people who will back him up. He does not have any love interests or constantly make inappropriate comments about the girls he finds. He just treats them like people. He makes mistakes and learns from them like anyone else. The author knows how to write a good character as the 3 characters who gets Isekai'd with him are the cliche anime garbage mc schlock that lesser works would include as the main character. The author knows that is bad writing and intentionally wrote those character to contrast with the main character. Characters are actually foreshadow and planned out ahead of time. You'll get a hit of a character and 3 volumes later you're like " wait a minute, is this who I think it is?" Is the entire plot meticulously planned out? No it is not but it still is planned to some degree whereas most Isekai manga don't even have anything resembling a plot.
I've been gushing about the characters because I believe that is the strongest aspect of the series. However that is not to diminish the other aspects of the story. Such as the fantastic world building. In such a wide genre as Isekai, where it is literally a magically fantasy land, series hardly ever take advantage of it. Shield Hero knows this, and makes some wonderful world building. The world is properly defined, with unique creatures, land marks, culture, different countries, different types of magic and weapons, different languages. This is such a simple thing that most authors completely forget about, but Shield hero doesn't. It uses this to create a grandiose adventure through ever changing landscapes and environments. You'll travel around the world with the cast meeting new and interesting things each volume. It keeps everything fresh and well paced. You never feel like you're stuck somewhere boring because something is always happening, the environment is always changing. The main characters is a wandering traveler. He will get his epic moments against impossible obstacles with huge magic spells and protecting countries. However, you'll also get get quaint moments where he does nothing more then wander into a small nameless village, meet people there, solve their problems, and get a nice story arc out of it. It allows us to see much more of the world seeing the extremes of fantasy castles to small poor villagers. Making us understand this places problems as a country. Not something just used to make up a plot for the story.
The only major negative I have is the lack of compelling stakes. In total, over the 20+ volumes, only one important character died. Obviously not everything has to be related to a character dying but there is no real end goal. There is no over arching villain expect some vague evil god introduced 20 volumes in. Characters gets captured and defeated but we all know everything is going to be fine in the end. When the series started with this pessimistic theme where the main character could barely scrape by living through a single day and the entire world was against him, it was interesting to see it would play out. How this evil environment affected this character and how we would survive in this world. Naturally he develops as a characters and gets past that. We are now at the point where the main character journey is practically over. He is the strongest person around, he a cast of invaluable friends he would lose life and limb for, he got past all his major hardships, he learned everything there is know and honed all of his skills, he bought a land built a house and small town where everyone he liked in the past gathers to help him build a peaceful empire, he has the favor of the government and mystical beings. There really is no where for him to go. He completed his hero's journey. The plot has to be sorta of forced on to him for something impactful to actually happen. With no major ever lasting villain or obstacle to over come the latest volumes have become kinda stagnant, a lot of it is just slice of life while something completely random and arbitrary happens to force a plot to happen. IMO it has overstayed it's welcome a bit, honestly with more planning on the story and shifting things around this novel could've ended a few volumes ago. In my opinion at least.
I highly recommended reading it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 27, 2023
BETTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE SHOUNEN
That is essentially my overall take after reading a ton of Black Clover. There are tons of amazing things about the series and if you are a shounen junkie I can easily see this becoming your main stay. However, it's still a shounen at the end of the day, it's not very challenging to read, and it's not particularly well written in any regard. The story is just made up on the spot. Character dialogue is very cliche to downright bad. The power system is a complete mess and just there for show, character's constantly gain random power ups that
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are specifically designed to completely turn fights on their heads. They'll get power ups by believing in their friends. Typical shounen stuff. The magic used is never explained, beyond people are born with one type of magic. Anyone can do anything. The rule is cool. The author will just make up new powers whenever the plot needs it.
Tons of incredibly important characters just randomly show up with no foreshadowing. The main group, the Black Bulls, has 4 hidden members we're introduced to over time in the story. They were never hinted at before or even mentioned in the slightest. It's just, "Oh actually I was always a part of this group, I never appeared until now and no one else every mentioned me despite everyone other than the main character knowing I existed. No risks are taken, no important character is ever killed off. Aside from the first major arc, which was the only arc with real substance and proper world building beforehand. Everything else after is just this ultra powerful group of foes who somehow has magic stronger than ever before! Which the main cast has to gain a power up to defeat.
The main draw, to me at least, is the stellar artwork. It is beautiful. Combined with some of the most striking character designs I've seen, everyone is instantly recognizable and unique. Although I hate how poorly underwritten and bad the power system is, the magic used is drawn extremely well. Even though the fights aren't anything beyond basic shounen they're drawn in such a magical way, it makes the feel way more impactful. The author got very creative with what magic they used. An upside to the "rule is cool" is the author can let their imagination run wild. I'd say out of all the big fighting shounen's, Black Clover easily has the best art work of them all.
Another huge upside is the characters, well sort of. . . In terms of actual development and progression, it is not anything noteworthy. However, with how many characters there are, the author manages to give everyone a solid enough personality that sticks out to you. What we do get is amazing groups of characters. Not everyone is super detailed and has a 2 chapter long backstory. However, every character almost always operates in a group. No one feel sidelined, side character's are always coming back and their interactions with each other are quite fun to read, seeing all these personalities clash.
I enjoyed my time reading it very much but I did not take away anything outside of immediate gratification. It does not really have any impactful arcs, themes, or moments. It's just another shounen manga the gets a new chapter every week.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 15, 2023
Tokyo Ghoul is a very well crafted dark thriller that had me hooked the entire time. The arts is so distinctive and beautiful, the character designs ooze detail. It is so refreshing to see such a unique style in the modern age of manga nowadays. I can not think of a manga even similar to this beyond basic story themes and setting. Now for a more in depth spoiler filled review.
Pros- Aside from the art which is amazing some of the best manga art ever put to paper, the most glowing aspect is the pacing. This is only around 140 chapters long and as someone
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whose read it twice now, I can saw there is little to no filler at all. Every chapter has a purpose every arc transitions to the next wonderfully. There is always something important happening which really engages the reader. You're always seeing an ever woven plot unfold. The pacing allows so many characters to be involved in the story, this story has a huge cast of characters yet almost all of them manage to get meaningful development, progression and or screen time. This is thanks to not only the pacing but the pov switching. So many authors are afraid to do this yet it add so much. There are significant chunks of the story where the main character is nowhere to be seen it allows to see much more of the world. The world is every growing and you see it because you're not constantly trapped in one pov. You see the ghouls side just as much the ghouls investigator side. You don't care about one side or one group of characters you scare about everyone, which fits into Tokyou's Ghoul's themes really well, the entire world is broken. Accompanying the plot is very graphic yet beautiful art. The sheer value and contrast in the black used to create twisted imagery is nothing but pure talent. The character designs are instantly iconic. Almost every one stands out. Even better their clothes looks amazing as well, the author must be a fashion guru or something because the sheer amount of variety style the outfits have is insane. Art is amazing, story is great, characters are written well it has a very good foundation.
Cons- The complaints I have with this series are almost dwarfed by the sheer amount of praise I have but there are still problems none the less. My main problem is the power system used. I've read a lot of manga in my time and so I say this as an aid shounen fighting manga lover, I have no idea what is happening half the time. It's mainly the way fights are drawn and handled but even the basic aspects of the worlds power system is haphazardly expositions dumped in a wall of text in one singular chapter. It really feels like the author doesn't care at all how it works, it just needs to look cool. Which is fine I guess but the manga is heavily focused on fighting so I'd like a lot more depth. You never really feel the weight of any fights. They just sorta happen. They are so many fights we're both sides are evenly matched then in the span of 2 panels with no explanation one side just Naruto style speed blitz the other in half. There is no real strategy to any fight just be stronger and you win. Every single fight feels like an arbitrary coin flip and then the author decides who wins based on that coin flip. A lot of fights go by titles rather then power. SS ghouls hit harder then Rate A ghouls, you never know why they just do. No one really trains their powers or develops them they just get magically stronger and faster when the plot needs it to. Any Ghoul power used that is not an actual attack like a punch or kick is just blob of black blurry motion lines. You hardly ever get the chance to just sit back and actual see anything. Touka's main Kagune we saw twice throughout the entire story it's just a wing that makes her faster and hit harder. I have no idea what it actually does because it is never shown or explained.
Aside from that my other huge problem is characters will just randomly pop up whenever. No context no attempt to try to explain it in story. You can tell a significant amount of this story was made up on the spot by the sheer amount of huge important characters that should've been their from the start just getting randomly jammed into the story.
Overall still a great read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 22, 2022
A very solid story that will make you laugh and entertain but not much more.
Konosuba is, for the most part, a very well written comedy. It does not take itself seriously in the slightest which allows itself to put it's funniest characters in any situation imaginable. The comedy itself does not stand alone however, there are plenty of bits of world building, character progression arcs. What jokes could become mundane in a lesser work are exponentially better because of the tight character writing, any old joke is naturally phased out with an in universe explanation, the relationships of the characters change so the jokes.
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No core jokes or any writing trope used gets old.
The cast is very likeable, the volume to volume plot is mostly just placing the already good cast in a whacky place. Side characters introduced all have a purpose and are rarely if ever forgot about. With all that being said you won't get much more out of it. You'll laugh, but there are no real deeper meanings in it, it was written to entice in the short term, not to develop a long-standing plot. Meaning once you have finished you're not really left with anything other than thinking " that was fun, next!" I enjoyed my time reading, but gun to my head I could not recall much of anything in the big picture. No settings, nor major plots, no major villains. They feel well written enough in it's volume but once you look back you cannot describe those environments at all. It is a popcorn action flick, the ride is wild at all times then it is over. Overall I would like to be left with at least something more than " that was good" Konosuba just never seemed to go beyond that.
I would still recommend reading this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 27, 2022
Overall this manga is pretty average, if you liked the anime and want to continue reading it you might like it or not. After the first few volumes the original premise that entices many wares off heavily. The main "gimmick" of the series loses most it not all of its draw as the main cast of characters reaches a point of climax for their character progression. Yet despite that, the series keeps going and going and going. There are a bunch of non-important filler chapters that do not progress anything. The characters stay strong, the art only improves but nothing of importance or memorable happens
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after the first major arc. It falls into the trap of bad writing where the only source of conflict is introducing new characters, which are then left aside after their role is done, leaving a myriad of under written side characters on the benches. Or when characters act out of their own established arcs and motives to make a plot. While the main cast is charming with really solid relationships, it is not so outstanding that I can enjoy reading about their daily lives for more than 50+ chapters. Which when seeing how many chapters this manga has in total, if you're like me, you end feeling extremely bored. For whatever reason, be it money, reputation, the author's passion I don't know, the manga went on and on when it should've ended where the anime ended. It had the perfect conclusion and every character ended up in a good place emotionally, yet it still kept trucking along.
Overall this is an average read. You will find something better than this eventually and will probably end up forgetting 90% of what happens other than the big key moments. It is an enjoyable time killers that does which is a good spot to fill and what all manga should strive for, but it will never be anything other than that. 5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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