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Dec 22, 2013
I was almost tempted to give this series a 9, but I couldn't compare it to the other series I had read that I gave the same score to.
[Story: 9]
"Bungaku Shoujo" to Shi ni Tagari no Pierrot, or Bungaku Shoujo, is a manga series about a boy who wrote a romance novel under the pen-name of Miu Inoue. One day, at school, he meets a girl eating the page of a book. She says she's a "Literary Girl" and eats books like people do. This manga has a simple premise, but turns out to be something much deeper, driven strongly by the characters and their
...
motivations.
This manga was so different to what I expected, that I raced through the chapters as I read them, surprised by how interesting it was.
[Art: 7]
The art is visually appealing, but not stunning. Characters and environments are nice to look at, and the art style very much suits the group of high school students.
[Character: 8]
Given that the manga is piloted by the characters, you would expect them to be good. They are foreshadowed by thoughts throughout the manga of a character questioning whether they are really human or not. This theme is followed throughout the entire series, leaving the reader questioning who they really belong to.
Konoha serves as a good protagonist, initially unhappy with being roped into helping Touko by writing her stories, he eventually grows warm towards her and enjoys her company. We learn how he's been affected by his past and how it changed him in the story, as well as his reason for helping the other characters.
Touko is presented to be the main character by the title, but she's actually a secondary protagonist.Touko isn't developed too much in the story and serves to mainly be the catalyst that moves Konoha to act. As stated, he has his own reasons, but Touko sets him on the path.
[Enjoyment: 9]
When I started reading the manga, it took a while for me to get into it, but once I did, it was very easy to read. I completed it alongside another series over the course of a few days.
[Overall: 8]
Overall, I give this series an 8. It's completely worth reading, and will surprise you by how deep and intricate it is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 7, 2013
Quick short review:
Story - 7:
Laura's father dies, and Irene's mother dies. Their remaining parents meet and get married, but because it was so soon after her mother's death, Irene cannot accept her father, Laura or her new mother.
Pretty basic story, but a good premise for a one-shot.
Art - 7:
General shoujo art. An upside is that it's not super sparkly and the characters don't have yelling matches with dialogue all over the place, making the pages look cluttered.
Character - 6:
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Enough backstory to understand why they act the way they do. But obviously, since it's a one-shot, you can't expect much.
Enjoyment - 8:
There was a pretty obvious twist, but it was good to see how things ended up.
Overall - 7:
Suitable score for a one-shot that wasn't all conventional.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 18, 2012
I imagine this will give me more 'Not Helpful' ratings, but such is the business of reviews.
My last thought? Why did they have to write it this way?
Warning that some minor spoilers may follow.
Story - 9:
I haven't read a manga with this subject matter before. Other reviews say that this manga was dark. It wasn't as dark as they described it to be. Maybe I didn't feel it like they did. Bitter Virgin is a manga about a girl named Aikawa Hinako who was repeatedly abused by her stepfather. This abuse resulted in an abortion, then a child. On the first birthday of
...
her son, Aikawa confesses her 'sins' in a church in the town she's transferred into. ...Except the priest on the other side is actually Daisuke Suwa, a local high school student working with his mother in their store.
Indeed, this manga was sad, but I felt that they wrote more horrible things to happen to Aikawa just to enforce the idea that she was tortured and scarred. They didn't even need to write them in order to tell a good story. These moments were so cliche, they were painful to read. In fact, they were only used in order for the main character to come sweeping in and cast him as Aikawa's hero.
Art - 7:
I don't have anything bad to say about it. The art makes everyone look different and unique, but I didn't have any reactions like, "Wow, this art is amazing," or, "This art is really awful."
Character - 8:
The characters in this manga are really well developed. Really. Well. Developed.
Aikawa, a girl who's transferred from her hometown to start anew. She wants desperately for nobody to know of her past, and hopes this happens in the new town (name of it?), but this isn't so as described above. Aikawa, having been through so much, is very flighty and timid towards men. Throughout the course of the manga, we see her evolve and learn to accept friendship from the opposite sex. She sympathises with everyone's struggles and is overall a very strong character.
Suwa accommodates for everyone's needs. His sister, Aikawa--even Kazuki, the overbearing girl with a crush on him. He's barely ever angry, and we only see a suppressed anger when he is pushed to the edge by one of the female characters. He's brave and strong, and seems to be a shining example of romantic interests in High School manga.
Kazuki serves as the desperate (almost psychotic) alternative love interest in the manga. She has loved Suwa for God-knows-how-long, and changes her appearance to attract him. Why she never attracted anyone else is beyond me. As the manga progresses, she becomes more desperate and unruly. We are shown a snippet of her past, adding to her erratic behaviour. In the end...stuff happens and she eventually accepts her fate.
Enjoyment - 8:
Pretty high score for enjoyment. I didn't cry, but I read the manga pretty quickly. If I hadn't spent the entire night playing games, I would've finished this in a few hours. :)
Overall - 7:
Seven because of the non-emotion-evoking art style, and because of the cliche scenes written into the manga. They just didn't need to be there, and the mangaka/writer cheapened the impact of the manga by including them.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 16, 2012
Forgive my amateurish review.
My thoughts? H2O: Footprints in the Sand is like a less-popular Clannad.
Potential Spoilers may follow. Level of spoilers is medium-low.
Story - 7:
Sometimes hard to understand. I spent a few episodes wondering what they were really doing. Basically, Hirose is a transfer student living with his uncle. He's been blind for…forever, imagine, and needs to depend on everyone to help him. One day, he meets a girl called Kohinata Hayami, who is ostracised and bullied by everyone in the town. He befriends her despite this, but ends up falling over when she is taken away for a thorough beating.
Otoha, the
...
spirit of time (what, magic?), grants him sight, and from there, he uses his newfound ability to help people in order to prove that he isn't helpless and use his life for good.
Through the series, we meet many characters who help to form an expectation. The backstory of the two female leads is slowly developed in literally 5-second flashbacks every few episodes, and isn't discussed often. Instead, the show focuses on the relationships between the main characters and hints at something greater midway through. The story of this anime came in little bites, but could've been handed to us faster to make more sense. It was like they tried to add more horrible pasts to characters to make it more interesting.
Art - 7:
Throughout the series, the art style seems to change a little. Not in the way the characters are drawn, but in some of the direction of them. At the start, it was all sharp fringes and everyone looked very similar. In some of the episodes, the characters were standing in late afternoon light, and softer colours and lines appeared. There's nothing you haven't seen before, but it's not so bad. Animation is also smooth.
Sound - 7:
Giving the series a seven for sound. I didn't really like the opening theme, and always quit the show when it ended. The songs don't really stick in my memory, but they weren't bad, I just wasn't interested. There was one, though, about episode 6-ish where Hinata is having a flashback. That was a good song.
Character - 8:
In this anime, we have six important characters, but only three of those are the main focus--Kohinata, Hinata and Hirose. These characters are quite well developed, but I found issue in how the protagonist behaves.
Hirose was blind his entire life, and feels helpless to fight back. However, when he is given the chance to fight back and stand up for his friends, he squanders it by allowing himself to be dominated by the rest of the girls in the group. "Don't talk to the cockroach, or you will be cockroach Hirose!" (paraphrasing) Hirose struggles to be a stronger person and help, as (I imagine), years of blindness has rendered him dependent on everyone else. In any case, Hirose was a good protagonist for a short series like this.
Hayami is a strong character (and my favourite) because she has had to endure endless hardships from every member of the town. She takes everything as it comes and has completely accepted who she is. When the chance for change, appears, we see that Hayami still has the capacity to hope and experience happiness. Unfortunately, when she was happy, she ended up being like all the other girls in her behaviour. As the series progresses, she accepts Hirose's friendship, but still turns out to be a serious girl who is considerate and introverted.
Finally, Hinata was well developed throughout the anime. She starts as a model student, but out of school, she is quite controlling. We see how she is led by her family's words, and how she resorts to increasingly desperate measures to stop Hirose from helping the outcast. As hard as she tries, she cannot stop being submissive and her desperation overflows.
As much as they all fight it, the main characters of the series have a strong sense of justice and together form strong bonds through friendship.
Enjoyment - 8:
Nobody can deny the ease of watching a series only 12 episodes in length. It's simple, quick and the episodes just flow into one another. I enjoyed traipsing through each episode, and craved the scenes where Kohinata showed up.
Overall - ~7:
This anime was okay. I didn't like the fanservice -- honestly that was unnecessary in an anime that feels like it's darker under the surface. Music wasn't catchy, story was stilted, but the animation and characterisation were developed well.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Nov 12, 2012
I went into this manga expecting filth, gore, lots of yaoi and horrible rape scenes. But...honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be. I'm used to seeing gory things--it comes with the genres I like--and Litchi Hikari Club delivered.
Story - 7:
Without giving too much away, Litchi Hikari Club is about a deranged group of students who aim to make the perfect, or at least a functioning, AI robot. They worship their number 1, Zera (Tsunekawa) as a god, and he compares himself to Elagabulus, a Roman emperor who came into power early in life.
The story had a simple concept and I
...
really liked the ending. It was completed really neatly in one volume of manga, without any loose ends to ponder over. I enjoyed this manga because it didn't need me to think at all. However, the twist at the end didn't really seem to fit. It was like reading a crime novel and finding out about every other character except the killer (example - "A Rare Interest In Corpses" by Ann Granger).
Art - 7:
Nothing super. The blood is drawn like tiger stripes over everything when the people are attacked. Sometimes it just feels like thick paint instead of blood. Maybe that's just how it flows. The backgrounds didn't sway me, all the same, but not bad.
Character - 7:
In terms of character development, it's only 1 volume of manga, so you couldn't expect too much. It was sad seeing the generation of the Hikari Club, and what it came to be, and how that affected all the characters. As you were dealing with quite a few characters in a short manga, the difference between each was little. They all said pretty much the same things until the climax in the manga.
Enjoyment - 6 - 7:
Easy to read, no thinking. Blood and gore incited no feelings of disgust or otherwise. It was satisfying to reach the end and see what had come to be, and I did get a little teary.
Overall - 7:
Yeah, seven. Might read again, might watch the series. Probably won't remember the details of it next week.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 5, 2012
Story: 9
In the time that has passed since Inugami has been published, I haven’t ever come across a story quite like it. Elements of the story (genetic take-over) have been used in a variety of other series—manga, books, movies—but they’ve never been quite so impacting.
Inugami never dawdles over its own arcs, it never introduces any elements that aren’t resolved and it never contradicts itself. Each element is explained and there’s no way you can be confused about what’s happening.
Inugami is a perfect example of the horror genre, with a mix of action and thriller thrown in.
Art: 7
Being published mostly in the 90’s, Inugami’s art
...
style is exactly what you expect—realistic, proportionate, even familiar. Masaya Hokazono, the artist, is exceptional in his attention to detail in the two-page spreads, and even in some single-panel shots. Characters covered in fur, trees, even the high-rise buildings are drawn with every single crease or line added in.
The normal human characters aren’t anything special, but I found I even recoiled in horror (teehee) when they were in pain. The blood and gore scenes are especially…entertaining…with body parts flying everywhere and blood splattered on each surface nearby.
Character: 7
Inugami’s characters are nice, but they aren’t great when you come to think of it. They just fulfil the roles they were given, but don’t do much else. We are told to feel something for even minor characters, but I had to flick back a few pages to try and remember whom they were.
The main characters, Fumiki, 23 and the bad dude, are all that really matter in Inugami. Fumiki changes and evolves as the series progresses, seeming mature in some parts, but quite childish in others. In the final few volumes, characters became quite repetitive and I skimmed over some dialogue.
Enjoyment: 10
I wanted to find horror and I found what I wanted in Inugami. This series took me down a path that I had only been down once before (The Fury by John Farris) and sated my need for violence and horror. I waited with baited breath, watching how everyone would react to one thing and how they would deal with crisis.
When the ending came, I felt gratified to have read something so fulfilling.
Overall: 8.25
Overall it’s an 8.25 (8), since that’s the average of the scores. :3
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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