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One of the WORST manga I have ever read.

Since I am NOT the target demographic of a little girl, which this manga's story is supposed to be consumed by, I am NOT going to critique the STORY ITSELF. However, I AM going to critique how the story is PRESENTED, as well as the art, structure and so on. As the story could be the best, most violent adult thing ever, but the if the presentation is as bad as Sailor Moon is, then I will still critique it in the same way. As this is a product, while the story may be fine for ... little girls, the product itself is downright horrendous in the all the ways which it's presented to the reader, something that little girls wouldn't be mature enough to understand, but as an Adult, this is one of the worst presented manga I have ever read. This review counts for the horrid prequel, Sailor V, too.

-Art/Structure/Layout

The art in general if fine, with some stunning art here and there, especially with the character designs. However, the way in which the Mangaka, Takeuchi-sensei, presents this art is abysmal. This is a clear case of page and panel over-saturation. While it may seem commendable at first to have so much going on in a single page, with full-spread characters overlaying the page and all sorts of twinkles and posh decorations littering every panel and empty space, it leads to absolutely INSANE levels of visual noise. There's nary a white space to be found. This over-indulgence may have been tolerable if reading as it came out, as it was a monthly release, however, reading the entire manga back to back leads to crazy amounts of eye-strain and visual clutter that tires you out. Part of this is due to the target demographic, as the main cast are mainly females, so have a lot of "dreamy" moments (faces in the sky, etc.), which little girls could perhaps relate to. Nonetheless, it's an agonising read despite the clear effort Takeuchi-sensei puts into it. Panel layouts are wild, they break the mold of what is traditional in favour of using up as much space as possible, sometimes even going as far as putting over TEN panels in a single page. There is absolutely ZERO room for the panels to breathe, and they all blend into one another in a mish-mash of twinkles and over-layering. I realise that this is a monthly manga, which are sometimes forced to adopt as much panels as possible per page to keep up the pace, however this manga is so terribly messy despite it's chic and fancy facade.

Speaking of Pace:

-Pacing and Story presentation

You've probably heard that Light is the fastest thing in Existence. You're wrong, it's actually the damn pacing of Sailor Moon's Manga. Characters, plot points and fights all take place at a breakneck speed. I mentioned before about the layout of the manga not having space to breathe, well, the story doesn't either. It reads more like a plot point summary of a story than an actual story with natural build-up and exposition and down-time. In the span of only 14 chapters, what could've been the plot to a 140 chapter weekly manga takes place only in those 14 chapters. It's utter insanity. While the story itself is extremely simple, just a female team of heroes fighting against clear-cut evil, with themes of royalty, which is par for the course for an accessible little girl's manga. Especially as this manga gave little girls all over the world female heroes to look up to and wish to be like. Although, there's a lot of the manga which could be further elaborated on if given the chance. You're left feeling breathless only 14 chapters in, and there's still 50 more. There's practically no character development, as the entire point of the Sailors is that they "awaken" to their memories of their previous lives, rather than developing as actual characters. There's also the issue of morality, as the Girls are 2 separate entities of their lives before the awakening and after. So the implications that the lives they led up to that point was for nothing and they don't get to live their own lives, but the lives they get forced into, is an issue nobody talks about. It also doesn't help that the manga repeats things like crazy, such as character introductions. Which is fine for little girls with short attention spans who may have forgotten between each monthly release, but is grating and patronising for an Adult like me binging it back to back. The fights? What fights? The fights last panels, and the action is so extremely hard to make out that it's laughable. I keep wondering what I'm supposed to be seeing only to not get what is being shown. Choreography is non-existent, powers are so wishy-washy and inconsistent and there are undeniably no stakes at all. Leading to relentlessly boring back and forths making them the worst part of the manga.

The fights are perhaps the WORST FIGHTS of any single product I have ever seen. I'm not joking.

The 2nd worst thing it does is repetition. It's literally THE EXACT SAME FUCKING PLOT ***EVERY*** ARC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Takeuchi must love recycling, because she has the exact. same. plot. for every arc. The exact same things happen, just wearing a different skin. It's truly one of the worst stories in history, and while the story itself in isolation is fine for what it is, it's irrefutable how much DeJa Vu one gets reading this. I do not kid when I say I was suffering reading this manga, if painless torture exists, this is it. For the hundredth time, this reusing of the same premise every time would be fine for ignorant children, but oh my goodness, does it accentuate the worse parts of the manga even more by not even gracing the reader with actually new content or scenarios.

I've never read a story that felt like the author was forcing huge handfuls of story down my throat without even being able to swallow between each handful. While it may have worked for a little girl reading monthly, as intended, it's lack of foresight in the collected volumes which make up a lot of the sales, as well as literally every sale overseas, is asinine. I don't wish to be rude, this manga did a lot for the industry, however It is a problem that cannot go without scrutiny.

Sailor Moon fans think Sailor Moon could beat Goku in a fight, but they are wrong. However, Sailor Moon's manga can absolutely beat Dragon Ball's manga with how much characters are killed and brought back to life! The way in which the manga doesn't care for it's characters or tension may sway the hearts of little girls who take things at face value, but again, as an Adult, it's just.... lame.

Overall:

Official translation also doesn't replace the sound effects with English, instead translates it below the SFX, which is lazy. But a good release nonetheless. While some people would call me stupid for reading a manga meant for little girls as an adult, I do say that there are plenty of "for kids" products that can appeal to adults as well as children, many of which I have enjoyed (Harry potter, Dragon Ball, and more). However, this is NOT one of them. The poses the Sailors make are at least pretty cool (pun intended). While the manga does nothing actually "bad", like pushing wrong messages or hostilely making fun of groups of people, the low rating is based purely on how little enjoyment the manga provides as well as it's horrible presentation, as opposed to doing anything outright evil or lazy like certain other manga.

I do not recommend this manga to anyone, unless, of course, you are a little girl.

2/10

(P.s, this review ISN'T "CONFUSING" If you actually read the manga.)

THE BEST FIGHTS IN MANGA! (EXTREMELY LONG REVIEW!!!)

Art:
As with any good fighting manga, impacts are *very* well drawn and conveyed, the speed and footwork of these fighters are incredibly shown and helps immerse you that much deeper than what watching Rocky or a real life Match could do. It's simply beautifully violent, and makes you feel very hype. The way the characters look like they've been hit by a grenade or truck with each punch is captivating, and the unique angles Morikawa offers later on in the series as techniques get more and more advanced are utterly jaw-dropping and hype-inducing. Each foot and each fist ... move in such fluidity and power that you could swear you see the panels are moving!

Very rarely does anything unique with the manga format, like drawing a full character on a page with panels, or having a fist come out of a panel and into another. Though this does increase as the manga goes on. The only consistent outlier being The cheering SFX that are plastered almost everywhere during fights in the Arenas, which helps to communicate that the audience is going wild.... If you can read Japanese that is. But it's a simple "ア" sound effect which literally just means "A". So the cheering is just "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA", just generic SFX but still helps in solidifying the crowd's presence in the matches. Character designs are top notch, there's practically no-one you will forget the looks of, and the artistic evolution of the series as Morikawa matured as an artist is, just like one piece, endearing. The manga is definitely sometimes a product of its time, with some pretty unexpected humour, this might be because Morikawa hasn't worked on much besides just Ippo and one other manga I believe, but the way he keeps the art style of the 90's with a modern flair really helps root the manga in its 1990's setting even more.

Fights:

The best fights in manga*.

The asterisk is there because these are grounded, realistic fights. Well, Morikawa takes some liberties as all entertainment products do, but they are the best realistic and choreographed fights you'll ever see in Manga. Somehow, Morikawa manages to make every fight unique, you start to wonder just how the man can make the next fight interesting because Boxing is pretty simple, but you're surprised every time. All Boxers are unique and have skills that you will remember them for, while still sticking to that realistic tone the series goes for. The themes of hard work and talent are incredibly used and captivating as the good characters fight all sorts of foes from Hard working good guys giving it their all in a fair fight to Talented bad guys just wanting the fight money and playing dirty. The best thing about the fights is that you never know who's going to win most of the time. Morikawa expertly makes the fights feel so tense and the feeling of "Will the hero lose?" Is present in almost every single fight even well into the manga which presents every fight as insanely gripping and fun to read.


Characters/story:

The characters are amazing. While people rarely have any emotional moments akin to One Piece, they are still effective and each and every one of them has a special backstory and reason to fight or live that is specific to them. There isn't much "darkness" to this manga however, so while the fights remain engrossingly violent, very rarely do you fear for the lives of the characters themselves, leading to quite a light feeling read that still manages to make you shake in excitement. You find yourself sympathising with even the most evil foes, just like One Piece sometimes does. The manga also sometimes brings back old characters, keeping them relevevant and making the manga feel less like a Manga and more like a living, breathing world where things continue to happen outside of our views of just the main character. Some characters fill generic roles, such as the love interest, which can lead to some being pretty shallow. But with the sheer amount of characters in this manga, that's okay. The main cast continues to develop somehow despite having so much screentime, which isn't a bad thing, and you don't get sick of the characters despite spending so much time with them. You feel like you actually know these people, but at the same time you wish that someone else would be getting the spotlight once in a while.

Still, the characters are a massive part of Hajime no Ippo, and it is an absolute joy witnessing every moment, from silly to tragic, with them. The cast is also a sausage fest. Which makes sense, Boxing for women was extremely unpopular in the 80's/90's and still is to this day, but for most of the time this manga was releasing, especially its creation date, it makes sense that it's only Guys who fight and women play supporting roles. As the manga takes place in the 90's, so too does its attitude for women and men. Which can be a negative for some, but it was part of the times. Women are generally the problem solvers though, and they offer things the men cannot. However as the boxing is so much of a focus, things like romance are few and far between, with characters even pointing this out to the reader. Things just gestate and some will find this problematic but I didn't. Comedy however, is the second biggest focus for this manga. It's extremely funny, and every character has gags or other jokes that make you laugh or chuckle, without taking away from the seriousness of the Boxing or character drama. Most of the characters are fleshed out with extensive backstories even hundreds of chapters after their debut. One point of contention I have is that some characters are obviously, how do I put this, "held back" from progressing in order to maintain the status quo. While the status quo is amazingly fun, it is noticeable when you see someone who really should be moving up in the world being held down by Morikawa in order to keep them around in the plot. Though there are reasons for this in the story, it's made even more apparent if you have kept up with the story for the decades that it has been ongoing. It's the only blemish on an otherwise perfect cast. Again, the story isn't as deep as one piece, in fact sometimes I expected the manga to get really dark only for it to be something not dark at all. But that's not a bad thing, however In my own personal preference I'd wish for a bit more darkness, but as that would overshadow the boxing, I can see why they didn't go that route. It's still an absolutely enjoyable story full of decently hard hitting moments and is perhaps the funniest manga I've ever read to top it all off too!

The biggest issue I have with the manga is its' lack of variety. While the downtime between matches are long enough reprieves, said downtime is almost always still about boxing. Whether it be training, or just talk about boxing. This makes sense as it is important exposition and reflection, that's not the issue. It's so HYPERFOCUSED on boxing that the manga SORELY lacks anything else. Romance, Drama, dark moments, even just slice of life are extremely rare or aren't focused on enough to be substantial. Your pretty much getting only boxing, which can, depending on your preferences or personality, be repetitive. Comedy and gags make up 99% of the non-boxing sections, which are some of the greatest comedy and gags you'll ever see, may also not be some people's cup of tea. The sheer focus on boxing is commendable, but it is not a manga that satisfies all avenues of media. Morikawa routinely pokes fun at this aspect of HNI and goes as far as trolling the readers that something of substance in the subplots of the manga will ACTUALLY develop further, only for it to become a gag. The humour is still the best in manga history, but the blueballs is rightfully the biggest flaw in HNI and will affect everybody differently. It's actually insane how this manga has been going on for over 3 decades and some character relationships or plot points have barely even developed. So be sure to get your fix from other sources while reading Hajime no Ippo, but you should still BINGE this manga like I did to retain as much information as possible, because as I said, older characters and events are referenced or used almost constantly.

Setting:

The setting is hard to criticise. On one hand, it's pretty boring compared to exploring the entire world of One Piece and its fantasy varied environments, but on the other, this is a modern day 90's Japan Boxing manga so it lacks interesting environments. In fact, Hajime no Ippo could be a stage play with how simple the manga presents itself. There are a few key locations the story centers around: The Gym, The Arenas, and a running embankment. With some other lesser used places like restaurants, Ippo's home and boat, and a few special places like visiting other Gyms or other character's houses sometimes. It's hard to fault this manga for having extremely bland environments, the environments are not interesting at all which is a shame, but it's the fighting and the character interactions that is the real draw of Ippo. But the fact that you don't notice how much the manga takes place in only about 3 major locations goes to show how strong the manga is in its core strengths.


Overall:

Hajime no Ippo is one of the best manga ever created.

Its fights are captivating, Artwork is jaw-droppingly impactful, the characters are endearing and the comedy is absolutely hilarious. It is a must read, the 1500 chapters just fly by. A heads up that this manga isn't officially translated, the manga only just started being officially released in 2023 with the first 100 chapters. The chapters unfortunately do not redraw the sound effects so it's pretty lazy especially because it's such an old damn manga, but at least they add a little translation below them in English. But at least it's getting an official release! The fan translations are great, until about 700 chapters in where for about 100 chapters your stuck reading quite low quality scans, with them even acknowledging this. However it returns to it's normal quality later on in the 800's and the translators sometimes even help with boxing terms and knowledge as well as Haijime no Ippo trivia when it's relevant. So please stick with them. The official release will take well over a couple decades to finish at their current pace, so the fan translations are the way to go. But If you can, please support Hajime no Ippo by buying officially licensed merch and the official translations!

(All of the anime content covers up to chapter 500 or so, and of the few clips I have watched, is insanely hype and the SFX, voice acting, and choreography are some of the greatest I've ever seen. If you have the time, the anime could be also an amazing way to consume Hajime no Ippo. But the manga is obviously no slouch itself, and as someone who's read hundreds of manga, It fits comfortably in my top 5.)

This manga is one of the greatest ever made, it's a masterpiece despite its flaws and has the best* fights you will ever read.

Prelude:
I've always shied away from Books that feature Guns heavily. I've read many books, my favourite being the first "Hunger Games" book by Suzanne Collins. Part of the magic of books is making the pictures yourself in your head. This is easy for books like Harry Potter or the Hunger Games where the world is what comes first and the action second. So naturally I gravitated to books like those, or to horror books or crime books where the mystery or immersion takes center stage. I'd never really fully experienced or wrote a book that contained so much Gun slinging action. So when I read ... Shaitane Badi, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I utterly loved it.

I don't wish to spoil anything, so I'm going to just say this. I fully recommend Shaitane Badi to anyone, even for those who haven't seen Black Lagoon. The book does an incredible job picturing Roanapur and the characters of Black lagoon. The Gun fights were absolutely amazing, I've never been more impressed with how dynamic and tense a book could make a gun fight. It feels like you are right there alongside them. Honestly, the gun fights in this book are better than anything we got from the manga or anime. Which is a phenomenal achievement! They all focus less on spectacle and more on strategy and patience, leading to nail-bitingly intense moments.

Characters are just as good as always, and the new characters are interesting and varied too. The Book heavily centers around Balalaika and her past coming to haunt her, the book feels more like a game of chess than anything else. Your heart races as each side moves their pieces, never knowing when a checkmate could happen.

The story is so intriguing that I couldn't stop reading, the good thing is that you can finish this book in a day. I won't say anymore. There are a few pages of exclusive art by the mangaka done for this book, which looks great as always.

Overall, this is a must read for any Black Lagoon fan, and an excellent book in it's own right.

A 3/10 anime that occasionally reaches 6/10 with it's amazing soundtrack and CGI. But is a boring slog outwith that.

Wangan Midnight offers a different and unique spin on Racing anime. Set primarily on the Wangan route of highways but dabbles in others. As such, straight lines are the name of the game, and the need for speed is more necessary than the drifting techniques of Initial D, the anime this is most compared to. I will also be making this comparison.

The CGI is amazing, and holds up well today. The cars are very well detailed and the backgrounds provide a beautiful backdrop as ... the speed intensifies. Great lighting and weighty physics make the cars feel satisfying.

Characters:

Characters are extremely boring. Practically everyone has the same personality, that being none at all. THEY ARE ALL SO MIND-NUMBINGLY BORING OMG. There are no varied personalities to clash with other's individual ideals and experiences. There are only: Racers, Tuners, and spectators. There exists no other roles for characters to fill. Everyone is a brick wall, and they only ever talk about racing. Leading to absolutely zero engagement from the watcher. You do not care about these characters, and you shouldn't. Not much character development at all, which is a shame compared to Initial D's exceptional handling of characters where defeat would shape them and their worlds. In the grand narrative of WN, there is not a clear goal unlike Initial D's prefecture touring. People just sort of float around until they hit the next plot point. Literally, characters will drive hours on the highways just to bump into another character randomly rather than asking them to be at the place at a specific time. The "opponents" of the main Character also lack foreshadowing, so new ones just show up out of nowhere jarringly. Character designs are trash, a lot of people look the exact same facial wise, leading to confusing sometimes. With forgettable outfits. There are some infuriating characters, but Racing is likened to drugs in this anime, so some of the decisions make sense. Nonetheless, the characters are their cars, and nothing else. EVERYONE seems bored, despite risking their (and others') lives to feed their addiction. But literally not a single person jumps for joy, even after winning despite this being so important to them. Vice versa is also true, Characters don't shake in rage, yell in frustration or fall into a depression after losing. It's insanely asanine and it's as if it's actively attempting to be boring to watch. Villains, or rather Opponents, are terrible. It's more of a friendly rivalry between friends in the craft of street racing than anything like retaining honour of your prefecture by racing other people from different prefectures or famous individuals within said Prefecture, or making a name for yourself as the Main character doesn't wish to be famous, he just wants to drive. There's nothing at stake and everyone is so friendly they literally drive each others' cars, pointing out weaknesses and tuning each other's vehicles like it's nothing.

Animation:
Overall 2D animation is insanely bad, no character acting and stiff facial animation can leave people looking like talking ken dolls. I don't even think a single character blinked once. Lip flap animations are usually awful and not synced most of the time. Which can be very distracting. This is all made worse by the 480p release that didn't get a HD remaster. Halfway through, I switched over to a fan remaster with 1080p. Some episodes looked off at certain points but it was a MUCH better experience overall, especially the driving scenes. I recommend watching the series with this remaster by JDM restoration. Even the AI's touch makes the anime look less plastic, but does blur things somewhat in some places.

Voice acting is decent across the board, but nothing special. Sometimes you can hear echo from the voice acting studio. There is also an issue of weird direction here and there, with some laughably directed moments that take you out of the experience. There are some cast members who would later go on to do big roles, Like All Might from MHA.

Driving/Action:

Driving wise. It's not very interesting, there's only so much you can do on a straight road. There's barely any interesting techniques, yet just watching these beautiful machines glide across the asphalt is enamouring and satisfying. The CGI feels weighty and crunchy. Alas, there is not much hype moments in this anime. It is more of a smooth drive than a racetrack rumble, especially with all the mechanic tuning and whatnot slowing the pace down dramatically. Some car nuts may get value from these scenes though. There isn't much drama, in all honesty the drama just seems to be there just to further the plot than as an actual consequence to anything the characters have done, but it's still effective with the underlying messages of Racing addiction. Still, the utter lack of distinctive Racer Driving styles or racer specific techniques like the "Zero theory" or "Fujiwara zone" from Initial D, practically every single character is, to borrow a quote from sonic the hedgehog, "Gotta go fast". This all ties into the Addiction theme, but it gets old fast. The characters themselves are not memorable in the slightest due to these compounding issues, the lack of unique songs for each racer like in Initial D further reduces differentiation, and the Highways of Wangan Midnight, despite being beautiful, get stale the longer you watch compared to the varied environments of Initial D's multiple mountain passes and prefectures. Especially because each individual area in Initial D offered not just new racers and ideas, but environmental hazards or opportunities for the characters to experience. Overall, Wangan midnight might best be experienced by just watching a compilation of the races (similar to Initial D's Battle stages). You will miss out on the theme of addiction, however your not missing anything really. Rather than the main character attempting to beat others, it's the opposite with WN. Others are attempting to beat *him* because he has the OP car. Which is a fairly unique prospect. The main character is practically overpowered and has no growth from defeat, but rather it's his opponents that grow from defeat. As such, most of the anime is spent on all of the opponents point of views, leading to quite an admittedly novel watching experience. It's similar to watching a player die over and over to the final boss before accepting defeat and moving on, defeating their addiction by realising that this can't go on, no matter how badly they want to win. It isn't worth it. The thing about the races is that they are all absolutely inconsequential. It doesn't matter if characters win or lose. There's nothing at stake, because the characters have already thrown their life away (Quit school, left their family, etc.) *before* the races even begin, so there's no drama or tension. The races also have no structure, I think only a SINGLE race had a "starting" and "finishing" line. So those white knuckle, heart pounding last second overtakes at the finish line don't happen. Races seem more like a "who can lose motivation the fastest" thing more than anything. The Great CGI and music is the only thing keeping the races somewhat engaging. It's unfortunate, as the sense of speed at 200MPH could have made for some insane high stakes action and picture finishes. Traffic, weather and track hazards are also non-existent which further adds to the staleness of it all. They are fun to watch individually, but they cannot support this anime, so everything crumbles underneath the poor 2D animation and horrible trope-filled story. Ending isn't satisfying and leaves much unresolved, but since it only adapted a fraction of a huge manga, this is expected. Still, this is one of the most boring stories I've ever seen.

Soundtrack is amazing, not quite On initial D level but still very great! If anything the soundtrack itself is worth checking out if your not interested in the anime!!

Overall:

Wangan midnight is a 3/10 show, bumped up 3 points to a 6/10 for its great soundtrack and CGI, and it's interesting unconventional story telling. But keep in mind that this is a BASE 3/10 show that's SOMETIMES a 6/10 show. So in the end, if you don't wish to experience the themes of racing addiction told in an unorthodox structure, at least watch the Racing scenes and listen to the soundtrack. It's always telling when I have no zero desire to read the manga after an anime that doesn't fully adapt the manga. If you want more Initial D, watch MF Ghost, ID's sequel.

Stay away from this anime, unless you *just* can't get enough of cars.

Hell's paradise review:

It's a cliché power fantasy that feels like it should be the final arc of any other manga.

Setting:

The manga is set almost entirely on an island called Paradise. (Spoiler-ish about the design of the island) The island is full of religious body horror monsters with some being quite creative. But the island itself is quite boring besides that which lives on it. The only standout areas in this entire claustrophobic area the manga takes place in is the Palace. The palace has some memorable scenery and is just as wild as the monsters that Guard it. However the fast paced nature of ... the manga makes it so that you can never truly appreciate the palace as there are barely any establishing shots, especially during fight scenes. The inner palace is very dark and dull, with all rooms being samey (for story reasons, alas) despite having the opportunity to be wildly different because of the characters which inhabit each room pursuing different "goals" but end up being quite plain and traditional old Japanese and Chinese architecture. The opportunity to have a truly stunning island with creative flora and fauna and an even more beautiful Palace is instead opted for a run-down, bland and barren setting in both nature and buildings. For story reasons this is acceptable, however it is insanely stale and uninteresting.


Art/Structure:

The art in general is fine. With Lackluster and mediocre panelling, choreography and layouts. Though some panels with Hatching and calligraphy-esque art are praise worthy albeit rare. The manga has many Biological-Lovecraftian horrors that are genuinely creative and unorthodox. There are a few outliers with some panels genuinely leading well into the next, which warrants praise albeit it's few and far between. Ultimately, this manga is as standard as you can get. There's no creative angles, the medium of manga is not used in any way whatsoever to enhance the structure in an out of the box way. For an action battle shounen, there NEEDS to be unending creativity to keep your reader hooked, Lest the action becomes stale. Which is exactly what happens here. So much repetition.
A good thing about this manga is it's uncensored freedom. The mangaka always says that they let him "draw whatever he wanted" and that shows, that freedom you feel from this manga is pretty unique and adds to the visceral carnage of the unrelenting world of Hell's paradise.




Story/Characters:

Interesting premise with a cliché execution. The manga consists of 90% fighting with little character development, though the "The strongest bonds are formed in the toughest situations" saying can apply here. Characters are eerily similar to Bleach both in design, function, and looks and are all 1 dimensional. The problem with battle shounen, Is that there is no hype. No buildup. It's constant stimulation and you get numb to it without periods in between to build up tension and hype, leading to boredom no matter how good the choreography or art is. There is a story reason for this initially, but it still does not negate the issues in retrospect. Villains are extremely boring and offer nothing, despite being different in designs, they all offer the same functionality despite supposed to be filling different roles and could easily be merged into one entity with the way the awful power scaling functions.
Characters are laughably overpowered, to the point where a Character who lost their right hand literally learns to become left-handed after a few swings of a sword. There is a power system in which almost every character masters or is a prodigy at immediately. Therefore, the fights have no tension or stakes behind them. The wishy washy power system leaves lots of plot convenience, anything can happen so long as the author wills it, rather than it being grounded in the power system's scaling and rules. Pretty good ending that's not rushed. The biggest issue I have with this manga is that it feels like the last arc in any other manga. All of the characters are already trained, and have already been through large moments of their lives. Unlike Naruto for example, we don't experience that with them, we are simply told them. Leading to not being attached to the characters, being told what to feel is not an effective way to make people care about your characters. As such, while all the characters have decent designs, they are all shallow. Or rather, Hollow.

Overall, If you only care about fights, this is the manga for you. I do not recommend this otherwise.

Rating: 4/10

Rating 4/10

For BOTH Trigun and Maximum.
Trigun is a disappointment. The manga keeps letting itself down at every turn. Here's why:

Setting:

Trigun's setting is similar to Cowboy Bebop, with mankind having populated another planet far away from the ruined earth. However, Trigun does absolutely *nothing* with this environment. The planet is a sand ridden landscape and gives off a wild west feeling, and is intentionally designed to look uninhabitable for story reasons, but it makes everything look the same, bland and boring. Not only that, but Trigun never stops to explain locations or simply walk around and take in the sights. Every single location has only one ... purpose, to set the backdrop of whatever fight happens there. There is practically no explanation behind the social structure of the world, the people living and working there and what kind of troubles they encounter on this hazardous planet. I'm pretty sure we don't even know the planet's population size, the planets size itself, how many moons and suns it has, and just where exactly the planet is in the universe. Trigun just doesn't respect its' setting, and completely ruins the intrigue by ignoring the basics of environmental storytelling. Unlike media set in our present reality, media set in fictional settings NEED to explain how they work. Because there is no prior knowledge going into this unlike how we know how our present earth functions. There are a few great shots of vistas, but the fact that Trigun ignores them completely alienates me from the world.

Art/structure:

Trigun's art is fine, with some actually great art here and there. However there is a massive problem with how the art is presented. Many, many times when reading the manga, there are panels where I need to stare at the art for a few seconds before actually noticing what has been drawn. Many doubles takes have happened due to the art's horrible composition, there's just simply too much going on and very poorly laid out on the page, causing confusion and making my eyes hurt. This is a problem with many manga with guns, but Trigun is unique in having this problem with a greater magnitude compared to something like black lagoon, which had a simpler art style with bolder lines and cleaner layouts. This is a 90's manga so there's an endearing drawing style and emotes, with similar era humour. The character designs are top notch for the most part, and actually have visual story telling within them. Another issue with this manga is speech bubbles. Many times you just DON'T know who is supposed to be speaking, leading to even more confusion. One of the biggest issues with this manga is the official English release version I read. The official English version does NOT translate sound effects at ALL, not even a little text box underneath the SFX explaining what it is, they don't even bother putting them below a panel or anything. This is extremely lazy and while I DO know hiragana and katakana, Japanese is NOT my first language and I'd much rather have the sound effects be in English. This issue must be even more apparent to people unlike me who DON'T know Japanese characters. This is inexcusable because the English version releases YEARS after Trigun ended, so there is absolutely no excuse for this lazy official version people pay for. (SPOILERS) There is also an issue with the main villain being the twin brother of the main character, so fights between them compound the previously mentioned issues even more (end of spoilers)


Story:

An absolute mess. It's a revenge story. But the main character is a pacifist. With a large overarching message about the value of human life. Pretty standard, however the manga spends far too much of its time on story, constantly rushing along to the next plot beat or fight with no In-between time to worldbuild or even for exposition. Leading to a very empty narrative. The time skip is practically useless as nothing happens in between, unlike one piece, everyone remains the same more or less. Take it out of the story and nothing would change. There is no character development, and when characters change, they don't do it because they had been built up, they do it for plot convenience. Leading to some of the biggest ass pulls in the manga. There are a few decent moments here and there, but for a manga that sacrifices everything else just to get the villains and heroes to collide as much as possible, as fast as possible, it's extremely bland, predictable and cliche. There is also a humour issue, like Demon slayer, where the tension is completely revoked, e.g being a severely injured character in one panel having their face exaggerated when touched by someone, usually with "owowowowowow!" which takes away from their supposed injuries.

Overall:

This was one of the most boring manga I have ever read. It has some incredible character and gun designs, Vash in particular, however the manga is let down by poor art composition, a cliche bland story, and forgettable characters with no natural development in a boring planet that's only there to provide a backdrop for the mediocre and boring fight scenes devoid of tension.

Rating 3/10

For both Trigun and Maximum.
Trigun is a disappointment. The manga keeps letting itself down at every turn. Here's why:

Setting:

Trigun's setting is similar to Cowboy Bebop, with mankind having populated another planet far away from the ruined earth. However, Trigun does absolutely *nothing* with this environment. The planet is a sand ridden landscape and gives off a wild west feeling, and is intentionally designed to look uninhabitable for story reasons, but it makes everything look the same, bland and boring. Not only that, but Trigun never stops to explain locations or simply walk around and take in the sights. Every single location ... has only one purpose, to set the backdrop of whatever fight happens there. There is practically no explanation behind the social structure of the world, the people living and working there and what kind of troubles they encounter on this hazardous planet. I'm pretty sure we don't even know the planet's population size, the planets size itself, how many moons and suns it has, and just where exactly the planet is in the universe. Trigun just doesn't respect its' setting, and completely ruins the intrigue by ignoring the basics of environmental storytelling. Unlike media set in our present reality, media set in fictional settings NEED to explain how they work. Because there is no prior knowledge going into this unlike how we know how our present earth functions. There are a few great shots of vistas, but the fact that Trigun ignores them completely alienates me from the world.

Art/structure:

Trigun's art is fine, with some actually great art here and there. However there is a massive problem with how the art is presented. Many, many times when reading the manga, there are panels where I need to stare at the art for a few seconds before actually noticing what has been drawn. Many doubles takes have happened due to the art's horrible composition, there's just simply too much going on and very poorly laid out on the page, causing confusion and making my eyes hurt. This is a problem with many manga with guns, but Trigun is unique in having this problem with a greater magnitude compared to something like black lagoon, which had a simpler art style with bolder lines and cleaner layouts. This is a 90's manga so there's an endearing drawing style and emotes, with similar era humour. The character designs are top notch for the most part, and actually have visual story telling within them. Another issue with this manga is speech bubbles. Many times you just DON'T know who is supposed to be speaking, leading to even more confusion. One of the biggest issues with this manga is the official English release version I read. The official English version does NOT translate sound effects at ALL, not even a little text box underneath the SFX explaining what it is, they don't even bother putting them below a panel or anything. This is extremely lazy and while I DO know hiragana and katakana, Japanese is NOT my first language and I'd much rather have the sound effects be in English. This issue must be even more apparent to people unlike me who DON'T know Japanese characters. This is inexcusable because the English version releases YEARS after Trigun ended, so there is absolutely no excuse for this lazy official version people pay for. (SPOILERS) There is also an issue with the main villain being the twin brother of the main character, so fights between them compound the previously mentioned issues even more (end of spoilers)


Story:

An absolute mess. It's a revenge story. But the main character is a pacifist. With a large overarching message about the value of human life. Pretty standard, however the manga spends far too much of its time on story, constantly rushing along to the next plot beat or fight with no In-between time to worldbuild or even for exposition. Leading to a very empty narrative. The time skip is practically useless as nothing happens in between, unlike one piece, everyone remains the same more or less. Take it out of the story and nothing would change. There is no character development, and when characters change, they don't do it because they had been built up, they do it for plot convenience. Leading to some of the biggest ass pulls in the manga. There are a few decent moments here and there, but for a manga that sacrifices everything else just to get the villains and heroes to collide as much as possible, as fast as possible, it's extremely bland, predictable and cliche. There is also a humour issue, like Demon slayer, where the tension is completely revoked, e.g being a severely injured character in one panel having their face exaggerated when touched by someone, usually with "owowowowowow!" which takes away from their supposed injuries.

Overall:

This was one of the most boring manga I have ever read. It has some incredible character and gun designs, Vash in particular, however the manga is let down by poor art composition, a cliche bland story, and forgettable characters with no natural development in a boring planet that's only there to provide a backdrop for the mediocre and boring fight scenes devoid of tension.

5/10

This is my honest opinion, I am NOT being a contrarian just because this is one of the most famous manga.

- Cons
Bleach is mostly Boring. The manga is made up of 95% fighting, 5% training and SOL moments. This might be good for some people who prefer nothing but action, but this is such a major flaw. Because not only is the amount of fighting so skewed, the fights themselves are extremely boring and predictable. A large majority of the fights can be taken out of the manga and ZERO plot would be lost. Not only that, the fights follow an unbearable structure of ... "Bad guy powers up, Good guy powers up too, Bad guy powers up again, Good guy powers up again, Bad Guy powers up with their hidden power/move, but it turns out all along the Good guy could also power up with a secret move and oh look the Good guy was overpowered to begin with". That fake tension and constant, unending "But what will you do against *THIS* move" that they keep pulling out of the hat every time you think the fight will end is nauseating and completely pulls you out of the experience by DRAGGING on for so, SO long. All these elements are doubly offensive when the manga speedruns everything that isn't fighting. Ichigo will train for 3 days, or 10, or 15 minutes in a different dimension where time is slowed and BARELY anything is shown, he just shows up with new power and we see next to nothing of his struggles unlike something like Dragon Ball. The manga isn't comfortable outside of fights. Most of the arcs are overly long due to all these compounding issues, and have nothing of substance. This manga put me to sleep multiple times, and I still binged it in less than 10 days. The ending was also infamously awful, but that was due to Bleach being cancelled abruptly as well as Kubo's health issues in the last arc, but it still leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

- Pros
The only good thing this manga does exceptionally well is its characters, which is odd because they barely get any time to develop because of all the fighting. But Kubo has crafted every character to be unique and memorable, and all have their own ambitions and good and bad points. You will forget the fights, not the characters. Some mystery elements and the world in general are intriguing, but not nearly as much as Naruto or One Piece. Character designs are cool and have hidden meanings, the music that Kubo assigns to specific characters are fitting and add that extra layer of depth. Despite the fights being boring, there are genuinely some great fights, but few and far between. Some of the comedy is funny. The Art is good too, sometimes great!

- Overall thoughts

This is the last of the BIG 3 I read, and It baffles me that this manga/anime is held up to Naruto and One Piece as equals.

If you enjoy endless, mindless fights with no substance, give it a shot. Otherwise, stay away from this Boring slog

Blame! Is unlike any manga you'll ever read. It's gritty, dark world is quite possibly the worst ever conceived. There are more deaths in this manga than there are words spoken. Which is yet another unique thing about this manga. Dialogue is rare and, as the saying goes, the art says a thousands words. It immerses you into this grimey void of mechanical nightmares where time and space are just a suggestion, and the world is designed haphazardly to the point where stairs and doors will lead to nowhere.

Huge bio-mechanical monsters terrorise the claustrophobic sea of grey metal and concrete that make up the ... world of Blame!. However this can lead to the art being very messy and disorienting, which is more of an issue with this type of genre of "Mechanical nightmare dystopia" in general. However the sheer amount of effort in the very well-drawn, if albeit visually noisy, world and characters is staggering.

Rating: 8