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May 25, 2019
One Piece is in my opinion not only a great manga but also one of the greatest pieces of written fiction of all time. Its 22 years and ongoing run is nothing short of incredible. During its run several cultural phenomena of old rose and concluded, some beginning side by side with One Piece and others only beginning their journey to the top as the next big hit. And I can say without a shadow of doubt that nothing will top One Piece for as long as it is in publication, the stories are only getting grander in scale and the decades old mysteries of
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the world are finally beginning to reveal themselves.
There’s a reason as to why One Piece has endured what to many might sound like a grueling run. 22 years as a mangaka takes a toll on a person, be it physically or mentally, at some point people break down due to the sheer amount of unrelenting work they have on their hands week after week. The manga industry not only a competitive environment that demands high performance and creativity but also an unrelenting and unforgiving beast that continues to eat at a person’s life even if you become successful. Only few have ever lasted long and even if they do, the quality of the stories either decline leading to a cancellation, or… hiatuses, long extended breaks that can last up to years.
One Piece fortunately hasn’t fallen into any of these pits. Oda has an obsession with writing One Piece and it shows in many of his interviews, he’s always extremely excited for the future of the series throwing out many promising teases for upcoming arcs. In fact, during his search for an assistant in one of his ads, he announced that the assistant should be “willing to die for One Piece.” Oda’s passion, much like the manga industry is unrelenting and it shows since the story has only been getting better despite being its best long before.
Story 9.9999/10
One Piece’s story is nothing short of a masterpiece and can probably never be duplicated in any shape or form. It has managed to remain fresh after so long all thanks to Oda’s versatile writing and is the reason why One Piece has endured so many years of competition. Each arc has its own distinct themes and genres so that no 2 arcs ever feel the same, one moment the strawhats are helping a princess thwart a rebellion set up by a warlord so that he can gain full control of the kingdom and the next it can go to being a prison breakout story that fails and leads to an all out war between the strongest.
There is a strong emphasis in creating impactful emotional moments in the story and they’ve never failed at pulling on my heartstrings. And this can be attributed to great character writing on Oda’s part. It’s almost like he challenges himself on making tragically sympathetic characters and he keeps on one upping himself throughout the entirety of the story.
Moreover, the fights in One Piece are not only beautifully choreographed but also expertly written. Every single encounter inadvertently showcases the character’s personality, be it Zoro’s short, no nonsense and to the point finishers that end fights in one blow being a reflection of who he is as a person or Sanji’s whacky kick style fighting because he vows to only use his hands for cooking. These might be trivial personality traits but it’s the little intricacies that contribute to further enriching the story.
However, the most important and arguably the most consistently praised part of One Piece’s narrative is without a doubt the world building. It is such an overlooked element in a lot of other stories, but it is undoubtedly one of the most integral foundations as to what sets One Piece apart from others works of fiction. Oda has crafted such a believable world rife with details, it enriches every single part of the story to unspeakable levels and contributes to huge payoffs in the story making for some really intriguing revelations at certain parts of the narrative. This worldbuilding is also singlehandedly responsible for one of the greatest mini arcs in all of One Piece and easily in all of shounen i.e. the Reverie arc, everything that has been built up and introduced in the 900 chapters all come together in this arc making for one of the most densely packed stories with mysteries upon mysteries introduced and some absolutely historical moments being unveiled.
This intricate worldbuilding is also responsible for the deepest and most detailed lore in fiction creating a lot of fascinating mysteries that have yet to be unveiled so far. The promise of the answer to these mysteries is yet another reason as to why people are so invested in reading the story because they can be nothing but mind-blowing. It broadens the scope of the story and keeps arcs from being self-contained.
Oda has crafted a living, morphing and ever-changing world that reacts accordingly to the effects that each person inflicts in certain parts of the seas. Each faction has their own goals and motivations and go about it regardless of the protagonist’s actions. At one corner of the world you’ve got a faction waging war on all nobility, in another there’s a meeting of the world’s most influential powers to discuss the affairs of their respective kingdoms. Most stories react to and for the protagonist which makes for extremely limited stories and characters that lack personality. One Piece however, rejects that long standing plot device and makes a vast world with different moving parts that don’t have anything to do with the protagonist. This makes for a believable world with authentic and genuine characters making for organic build ups to some of the most historic events in the story.
Oda’s use of flashbacks in the story is yet another praiseworthy trait of the series. Flashbacks usually tend to be reviled in most stories, it breaks the pacing of otherwise highly anticipated events and can really bring the story to a halt if done wrong. Oda however makes flashbacks a welcoming element of each arc in the story, readers love seeing the history of the island and how characters came to be. They also have some pieces of vital lore information that contain answers to some of the mysteries of the world. Oda’s flashbacks are mostly all tragic with a heavy focus on character, these lead to some of the most heartbreaking moments in the series. It adds depth to the character, expands upon the background and context of the conflict and brings about emotionally gratifying climaxes.
While there is a lot to praise in the story of One Piece, it is not without its flaws. One such flaw is the pacing of the arcs. Some of the arcs suffer from some pacing issues and are dragged out for way longer than they should be. Oda is way too ambitious with the way he wants to tell some stories, and this can lead to bloating up arcs. In fact, the Dressrossa arc that is 100 chapters long takes place during the course of one day in the One Piece universe. While it is one of my favorite arcs in the series due to the latter half being tightly written with some of the best flashbacks and drama in One Piece, it focused on less engaging plot points for far too long and introduced too many characters. Weirdly enough, this is needed because these slow parts really pay off in big dividends by the end of the story.
Oda’s ambition is his biggest strength and his weakness, he has got too much story to tell but doesn’t pay heed as to whether this information really is relevant or not. Yes, more story might be good but not at the expense of slowing down the story to a grinding halt.
Compared to the intense care and dedication Oda has put into crafting such an intricate and entertaining narrative rife with details and mysteries, an issue such as pacing can only seem minor especially since it’s not that prevalent in the story. Not to mention, upon reread the pacing problems rectify themselves rather easily.
Characters 10/10
One Piece has one of the most loveable main casts out of any series I’ve read. They are well designed, charismatic and have beautifully written, tragic backstories. This writing however is not just reserved for the main cast, every single character introduced have similarly fleshed out tragic backstories that make you feel connected to them emotionally.
Oda’s character writing has only gotten stronger as the series has progressed with him writing some of the most complex villains in the more recent arcs in Doflamingo and Katakuri. What’s even more is that each character is written so differently from the last. Doflamingo is arguably not only a great villain but also an expertly crafted character shown in a mega flashback. His twisted demeanor was so well justified and portrayed in his arc that he was nothing but captivating. Katakuri was crafted in an entirely different way, it really felt like Oda was experimenting with real time character development when writing his character. We knew and understood everything about him during his battle against Luffy, fighting off his insecurities, letting go off his decades old burdens and finally resolving his inner conflict by the end of the fight all without flashbacks. His fight told a beautiful story and it is why Katakuri is already such a beloved character though only being introduced fairly recently.
What differentiates Oda’s characters from most other manga is that they feel believable. Most shounen villains especially feel like they are all perfect godlike beings that can do no wrong. And sure, they might look and act cool, but they don’t feel believable, they feel like blank emotionless beings incapable of nothing more than being the protagonists’ foil. They lack personality, they don’t look like they have a life beyond scheming their evil plans. And this makes them all out to be rather samey and rather uncharismatic. To keep it short, they don’t feel like people.
Oda however, understands that every single person has a life of their own disconnected from the story and are rather apathetic to the protagonists’ development. For example, Doflamingo loves throwing pool parties and loves his women, he also surprisingly cares a lot for his subordinates despite his rather psychopathic tendencies. One such inconsequential detail is that he beats up the boyfriends of his subordinate Baby 5, she tends to fall in love with every man that gives her attention leading her to being taken advantage of countless times.
Similarly Katakuri loves his doughnuts but cannot express that openly due to his compromising features and his overly serious attitude that a lot of his siblings look up to.
Because no one schemes evil plans 24/7, they have a life beyond their relevance in the story. I feel like not enough characters, especially villains are shown in this light, they like chilling too! They like having fun and have their own life to look after.
Everyone has their own adventures just like the strawhats, and not all of them have to be as important as finding the One Piece. Buggy goes on his own adventure to find a stash of gold in a deserted island along with his newly formed allied crewmate Alvida, Kaya is studying to become a doctor, Jimbei goes about searching for a lost sea cat’s parents with the help of a police dog. None of these really matter but they add up, they make the world feel alive and these adventures are quite charming.
There are so many characters that live their own lives even though they’ve long lost their relevance in the story. And it’s honestly heartwarming, seeing these characters grow along with the strawhats. You’re happy with how they’ve ended up, be it by working on their dreams or waiting for the one they love to come back. Some of my favourite moments in the series is when characters react to the strawhats’ bounty and these are characters who we’ve been introduced to and long since moved on from almost 20 years ago. It’s extremely charming and heartwarming seeing these old faces again.
Finally, I’d like to disprove a misused and rather ignorant criticism that seems to be pointed at One Piece far too often. And it’s that One Piece’s characters have no development. This is simply not true. First of all, the story of One Piece takes place over the course of a mere 2 years so you cannot expect rather significant changes in demeanor from the main cast. Secondly, there are a lot of characters that go through their own mini arcs throughout the story regardless.
Usopp’s character arc is one of the most endearing and emotional rides in One Piece. His character arc was beautifully told in 2 story arcs with a beautifully written resolution realizing that he doesn’t need to be as strong as Zoro or as talented as Nami to be an asset to Luffy. What matters is that you try your best if nothing else, because everybody has their moment to shine. This is when he truly came to his own as the sniper of the crew finally letting go of his insecurities of feeling like a burden to the crew and embracing his role. It also helps that he’s arguably Luffy’s closest friend in the crew from what I’ve observed from then on.
Luffy’s arc is perhaps the most elaborate. He started off as an overconfident airhead in the beginning of the story. Beating formidable foes that boosted his ego even more only to finally hit an unforgiving brick wall towards the end of the pre timeskip era making him realise that he’s but an inconsequential pebble that couldn’t save his friends and could not save his brother. The war was a much-needed wake up call for Luffy, leading him to make the decision to train for 2 years before entering the new world.
Robin and Chopper go through similarly elaborate arcs that are just as prominent, with Robin slowly opening up to the crew in later arcs and Chopper becoming a lot less insecure of his looks and becomes far less dependent on the others for help and taking a lot of initiative in certain missions.
Another praiseworthy trait of Oda’s character writing is his ability to create hype characters. Oda has arguably created some of the most exciting and charismatic characters in shounen, the vast world he has crafted has given rise to some legendary characters who by their very nature captivate the reader even if they don’t appear for more than a snippet. Dragon, Shanks, Kaidou and Blackbeard always make me excited whenever they appear in the story. This is because Oda always keeps an air of mystery to them. We don’t know anything about them but the weight they carry in the world and rumours of their feats are proof enough that these are characters of legend, they have a commanding presence and are extremely charismatic whenever the appear on page.
Honestly the characters are all wonderfully crafted with each having their own charm. Some of them have rather whacky backstories but they are told with such sincerity that you can’t help but fall in love with them. There’s such a large variety of characters who all have their own endearing backstories. They’re all loveable, charismatic and only serve to enrich the dense story and intricately built world of One Piece.
Art 10/10
Oda’s art style has come under quite some criticism, it probably turned off quite a few people from reading the story since they look pretty wacky. I’ll admit, I too initially veered away from the series due to its art style. But you’ll soon forget about it due to the captivating story. However, art style is all subjective.
Oda’s art is beautiful, expressive and captures emotions unlike any other manga. The way he draws people crying can pull on anyone’s heart strings. He also crafts such fantastic dream like worlds so effortlessly that they become stick in your minds years later. Sky Island and Whole Cake Island were absolutely amazing to behold and were a fantastic visual treat. The backgrounds are crisply detailed with a very proper sense of geography and he also tends to put a few tidbits of details that become plot relevant hundreds of chapters later. Dressrossa and Wano feel so immersive and grounded and similarly offer a varied visual treat.
There’s nothing to complain about when it comes to Oda’s art, it stands among the best even though it’s a weekly shounen and it only gets better as the years go by with the most recent arc possibly having his greatest work.
Overall 10/10
One Piece is an emotional ride that I cannot help but see through to the end. This is a series that hasn’t once dropped in quality, with its latest arc already introducing one of the most despicable villains in the series and arguably having one of the most emotional moments in the story.
How does Oda do it? How does he keep surpassing himself?
It’s simple… he loves One Piece, more than any of us ever could, more than any of us combined ever could. His undying love for his craft is why he ceaselessly pushes himself through what many consider to be a living hell.
I look forward to seeing how this epic saga will end, this is one of the greatest works of fiction and I believe that when One Piece ends, it will be a classic for generations to come.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 19, 2018
My Hero Academia has pretty much unanimously been touted as the new age shounen. With massive series like Naruto and Bleach ending BnH stepped up to the spot and has enjoyed an explosive wave of popularity. BnH does a great job of being a very approachable shounen manga with mass appeal. The fact that it has a superhero theme also helps since it has blasted into mainstream western pop culture as of late thanks to 3 well produced anime seasons.
But while this is a competent shounen story with tropes that we’ve all come to love, there seems to be a lot of problems with
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it regarding to its storytelling and characterization. It quickly became clear that BnH was content being a safe, by the books shounen story when it could be so much more, especially when you have 30+ years of material to learn from, from Dragon Ball to One Piece to Naruto and truly create something new and unique. Instead it follows a fairly clear cut structure that doesn’t want to be more than it could and should be. It’s a letdown especially now after seeing what new age shounen actually can be in Dr Stone and The Promised Neverland with unique premises and creative ways to carry out encounters.
Story 5/10
The narrative for the most part follows a very monotonous and boring structure, one training arc followed by a villain arc.
The plot points are also generic, encounters and battles for the most part in the story boils down to who is stronger and our protagonist Deku has been blessed with bar none the strongest quirk in the world. It makes for uninteresting fights because his quirk is as generic as they come, super strength. Super strength does not bring about unique or fancy encounters, it just comes down to who can punch harder which gets old real fast. In fact, most powers are basic with no unique mechanics to make it stand out. I’m not asking for it to be a Jojo, but One Piece is a great example of how unique powers can be introduced without it being extremely complex.
This new age shounen in many ways feels so dated and basic. Battles carry out in the most predictable of ways and there are no unique abilities introduced as yet much less any mechanics that can change the tide of the fight.
What’s weird is that the mangaka can try to make weird quirks if he wants and he did but when compared to the God tiered Deku, Bakugo and Todoroki it’s hard to believe that they’ll amount to anything. And I was right, in the Overhaul arc they don’t.
There also are essentially no signs of world building at all. It feels like everything happens in the high school and nothing really is affected beyond the students/ school staff making for no stakes at all. There really is no sense of geography or immersion within the world. We're essentially reading a hero vs villains story in a bunch of isolated places with no consequences. Characters are introduced and killed off or made irrelevant all within the same arc making for a lot of self-contained stories that do not having any bearing on the overarching narrative. The overarching narrative too isn’t intriguing since the main villain is weak.
Yes, most if not all villains are weak compared to the high school students. So there really is no point in fearing whatever trouble they seem to be in since the God tiered Deku, Todoroki and Bakugo can essentially end the villain's group if they want. I have never felt any sense of dread or danger in this story. The mangaka did try to add stakes in the most basic of ways, by killing off a character that he introduced in the same arc. I didn’t care one bit for his death by the way.
What also bothers me is the lack of comedy or bad attempts at comedy. There’re no solid gags at all which is kind of sad.
Art 7/10
I have no problems with the art style of the manga, there are very cool character designs and they are varied enough for me to differentiate one from the other. There are some shoddy panels here and there but that's fine with me.
What I do feel a let down by are the villain designs, they aren't anything great or captivating. I've never once been captured by a villain only from their design and that's upsetting. Overhaul's design was average at best and All for One's design was nothing unique.
Character 4/10
BnH suffers from the same things that most past shounen did which is funny since there’s been 30+ years of material to learn from. And even then, One Piece solved that problem effectively with others following suit and creating their own ways to counter that problem. This is the “power tiers making others worthless” problem. Quirks are made in such a way that one person is vastly stronger than the other, which isn’t a problem in itself. The problem comes when these students want to all become frontline heroes when a large chunk of them are clearly support who have no place in combat.
There really is no actual relevant battle beyond Deku’s battle, he’s by far the strongest. I don’t need to be shown battles from lower tiered people since they will always be less interesting and will have no bearing on the narrative. Not to mention I simply do not feel any attachment towards them, their flashbacks, motivations and personalities all feel like they are taken from preset molds that lack any creativity. It doesn’t feel original or new.
It also becomes boring when everybody wants to be the “best hero ever” especially when clearly Deku, Bakugo and Todoroki will always ever be in the run for that title, so any conviction for that sort of title from any other character is basically mute and doesn’t make me want to be interested in them. Power creep hurts and if it happens this early it’s going to be a big problem in the future.
Not to mention the obvious main villain of the series is also weak, but more importantly he is not charismatic or menacing, so I really don’t yearn for the encounter. I’m not hyped for them to fight the same way I was hyped for Goku vs Frieza, Naruto vs Sasuke, Whitebeard vs Admirals, Luffy vs Doflamingo. There’s yet to be a villain like that. There’s yet to be characters that hype me up at the mere mention of them and I really like that aspect of other shounen series. It’s still early days but the series has introduced so many bland villains already. Stain was that guy at one point but he’s really low tiered in terms of power, hence he isn't menacing.
In my opinion, the characters are some of the weaker elements of the series.
Overall, I understand why BnH is so popular, it’s the least complicated shounen out there. There’s no intricate world building, no elaborate lore, no complicated power mechanics and more importantly no long drawn buildup arcs that many other “old age shounen” have. It’s super accessible and has well-paced “hype” moments, empty as they may be.
The thing is that when making a shounen like this, which is clearly meant to be accessible and simple to follow, it lacks soul or buildup or anything close to me feeling any emotional beat it clearly wants me to feel at moments. Having characters that have been made a million times before, having villains that lack charisma and are weak, having fights that boil down to who punches harder, it just all amounts to a story that doesn’t really excite me in any way.
And fine, I could still get over the story for being basic and unoriginal, but it needs captivating characters. Not ones that feel like they’ve come from a factory made shounen based mold. It needs a world that feels alive and is its own entity, not a mere backdrop for battles. The world here feels entirely based around the superheroes and superhero culture which isn’t interesting at all.
Again, you’ve got worlds like One Piece and HunterxHunter to learn from. Characters who have with their own paths and goals, they are not connected necessarily to the main narrative. The world goes on regardless, Marines do their work chasing bad guys, political meetings happen between the most influential in the world, different factions have their own aims, you’ve got one preparing to wage war on the world in one corner and in another corner there’s people trying to overthrow a dictator touted as the strongest. You need worlds like these to make me feel invested in this hero villains’ story, why is it a world worth saving?
It’s still early days for this series, it’s only 200 chapters in. The thing is I don’t think it’ll run as long as One Piece and if that’s really the case BnH has to pick up its slack and shake up the formula somehow.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 25, 2018
Dragon Ball Super, after a 3-year journey, has finally come to an end. The sequel to one of the most influential and ragingly popular series that captured the world by storm, that made preteens scream and wish they become a super Saiyan and had them do Kamehameha waves during recess hours in school is a show that unfortunately fails to capture the magic of its predecessors and is terribly misguided as to what made Dragon Ball Z such a great show that impacted a whole generation of not only children but also shounen anime in general.
Dragon Ball Super's story is flawed and is definitely
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one that will not stand the test of time. The first nail in the coffin was definitely that the show was going to adapt the movies that came out fairly recently (2 years before the broadcast started), this obviously didn't sit well with the audience since the new content would take a long time to release. It didn't help that the adaptation was vastly inferior to the movies (obviously) with shameless padding and terrible animation that looked way worse than the franchise's anime debut 3 decades ago, it took a whopping 8 months for the show to get started on any new content.
Dragon Ball Super's NEW content was shamelessly unoriginal, 2 of the 3 main arcs were TOURNAMENT arcs, this obviously meant that there'd be no real effort in world-building, what a waste of potential especially since we just now learned that there were 12 universes opening various opportunities for discovery, adventure, and world-building, but now the majority of the show's narrative would be contained in a martial arts arena, SUPER INTERESTING.
One of the arcs i.e. the non-tournament arc had considerable hype surrounding it, the Black Goku arc, it had fan-favorite character Trunks make a return and to top it all off the villain was actually Goku, an evil version of him. It also finally made the show feel like as if there would be drastic consequences, real stakes were there and it certainly had a dark tone to it, there was a mystery to uncover, an intrigue as to the identity of this villain and the first parts of the arc were really good in building it up, but unfortunately the story fell flat and the villain, while interesting and empathetic to an extent became a mindless power hungry meathead who wanted world domination. It had a sloppy ending and the story was entirely self-contained with zero consequences to the world, even Trunks didn't care about his world.
Coming to characters, Super has a shockingly terrible understanding of them, the show introduced very weak characters that lack motivation and are shockingly generic, while Dragon Ball Z didn't have very complex characters, it nevertheless made them grounded and loveable, introducing characters that were very focused on their ideals, their desires, and motivations. Vegeta's pride and his insecurities led him to become Majin Vegeta and led to a fight that was extremely gratifying and even cathartic, it gave him closure to his insecurities, his insecurities were erased and thus he went on to sacrifice himself to save the world i.e. his son Trunks. Gohan too had a similarly interesting character arc. The reason I'm talking about this is because DBS has severely stunted character growth and hasn't established their driving motivation, all characters are either forgettable or are the same as when they started out. The show is just mindless fighting offering no insight as to the character's ideals with nothing more than a desire to "save their world".
Hit is merely reactionary and doesn't have any will of his own making for a very uninteresting character, but honestly, he is by far the best new character of Super which is saying something. And Jiren, ooohhh boii, definitely the worst main antagonist of the franchise if not in shounen history. First of all, he is such an incoherent character, he started off as this self-righteous and almost majestic villain that I'd argue had some depth to him and then BAM he has a backstory that is extremely derivative, shockingly generic and very insulting to the character, because almost instantly he becomes "evil" and says generic evil things like "strength is absolute", "lament your weakness", "friends are useless" and it just totally destroys him and really insults the viewer's intelligence because Jiren finally becomes a generic villain that makes Goku look good rather than someone who was calm, calculating, self-righteous and pursued something "beyond strength". It doesn't help that his design is mediocre and that he looks like Buu in the final episodes.
While Super's stories and characters are mediocre at best and insulting at worst, power scaling is something Super seemingly throws out the window making even the notion of Gods ultimately pointless because even normal people like Trunks, Kale and Caulifla master it within minutes to a day and that is insulting and makes for poor, unlikeable characters. I still can't shake off the fact that Goku, someone who has fought the God of Destruction on equal footing and is trained by the even stronger Angel Whis struggles to pummel a Super Saiyan 2 (at best) fusion. It sickens me that that fight even happened for as long as it did.
Dragon Ball Super's animation has had a rocky ride, it ranges from shockingly terrible to amazing. There are many standout fight scenes in the show that make these characters move in kinetic and dynamic ways that really make the fights very entertaining to watch however they are few and far in between, most of the show is sloppily done. This show has had a terrible production run, it had no manga to follow so all the stories, character designs and other technicalities had to be made by the animation team themselves which I assume amounted to many problems while making the show and I assume would result in a troubling and hectic production.
Honestly, Dragon Ball Super's only redeeming aspect is the fight scenes, they are well done and beautifully choreographed, Ultra Instinct was well done. However there's one really troubling problem here too, it's the overuse of effects, at times the auras just drown out the characters and it honestly looks like 2 balls of fire clashing rather than actual people fighting, it is really annoying since it covers actual real animation.
So far there's been a lot of bad things said about this show and while it has been poorly handled it is not without good moments, I actually think that the filler in this show is really entertaining and dramatic and should not be missed because it gives insight into each character's personality and is overall really fun and light-hearted, it had heartwarming moments too. Character interactions are funny and really well handled with a good sense of humor and ridiculous plot lines. It somehow feels good to see the lives of the people who were once part of the main cast, be it Gohan's acting career and cheating scandal, or the baseball match between U6 and U7, it's all fun to watch and weirdly heartwarming.
I honestly enjoyed Dragon Ball Super at its best, but there is no denying that this is a flawed show that relies more on hype transformations rather than focusing on fleshing out characters, it's really a pity because the Dragon Ball franchise is something I've loved and cherished for a very long time and resulted in some of my best childhood memories, when Goku first went Super Saiyan I was ecstatic, when Goku fought Majin Vegeta I was shocked and saddened, when Gohan went Super Saiyan 2 I was severely moved by how he let go of his emotions and hesitations to be able to protect his friends, these moments were severely lacking in Super, any semblance of character driven narratives or transformations were entirely non-existent and it's a pity because Super could have easily built on Z's foundation, build on its characters, introduce new and intriguing ones but unfortunately all it learnt was that transformations generate hype and result in selling more merchandise and it has kind of butchered the franchise in my opinion.
I know that there are diehard fans of this show who don't mind shallow and mindless fights that need no context but that's not what Dragon Ball was to me and it surely shouldn't have been what Super focused on, it could have learnt and become better and surpassed it, Dragon Ball Z defined shounen, it inspired legendary shows like One Piece and Boku No Hero Academia that built on its formula and pushed shounen forward as a genre but unfortunately Super is severely misguided as to what makes Dragon Ball Z such a generation and genre defining series and has succumbed to using insulting plot devices that make for shallow characters and generic stories.
I will never give up on Dragon Ball as a franchise, it's something that I hold close to my heart, I am saddened by how Super has tarnished the franchise but it'd take more than that to destroy Dragon Ball. Here's hoping to a great movie and to an all but confirmed eventual series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 2, 2018
Black Clover...what happened??
You were supposed to be the next big shounen, to fill the void Naruto left, to kill my time until Boku No Hero Academia season 3 came out, to make me feel better about Dragon Ball Super's unexpected demise, to push shounen forward as a genre. You were supposed to be my weekly ritual. Black Clover should have and could have been a lot of things, but it saddens me to say that it is none of those things and beyond. This show is flawed on a very fundamental level, it is no doubt trying to replicate the feeling of Naruto but it
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does that so shamelessly that it reeks of unoriginality, this is a forgettable and irredeemable show not worth anyone's time.
Black Clover's story is the definition of basic, it introduces a derivative shounen setting, a world of magic where the more mana you have the stronger you are. So far the story arcs in this show are forgettable and bland, they serve as exposition for the large land of the Clover kingdom. There's a good amount of flashbacks which attempts to flesh out characters and make them more empathetic but goddamn is it just so badly done and overall kinda cheap since it comes out of nowhere and feels pretty irrelevant. There's a big problem with the narrative, especially since the protagonist, Asta is endowed with probably the most overpowered ability in shounen history, it requires no mastery, it doesn't carry any risks, it doesn't introduce an intrigue as to the origins of such a rare ability, it's just there as a bat for Asta to wield making fights uninteresting since it has the overpowered ability to repel all magic and makes the fights last not more than a minute or so since it entails sword bashing everything, requiring no strategy. The protagonist is way too strong rendering even respectable "magic knights" and well-feared villains of the Clover kingdom useless in front of Asta this not only makes fights pointless but also will no doubt be a detriment to the protagonist's character development since he doesn't need to evolve beyond a sword-wielding barbarian.
Black Clover's animation and art seem cheap and unbecoming of a modern show, especially since it only has a limited amount of episodes, you'd think more time would be put into making the show look beautiful but goddamn there's no effort put at all in presentation. It has washed out and muted colors making any landscape look drab and forgettable, the art style is a bit rough in my opinion, it might be a stylistic choice but it doesn't captivate me in any way. There is seemingly no animation work done at all for this show, as I already mentioned, the fights are short and require no strategy or hand to hand combat it entails sword bashing a bunch of badly rendered CGI stuff for maximum 30 seconds, so there is no need for complicated movement animation and zero sakuga animation. This is extremely disappointing especially for a battle shounen where fights are supposed to be highlights. The most animation you'll see are recycled walking animations, most of this show is filled with close-ups for talking.
Sound design is decent, you can hear clangs of swords. Soundtracks are forgettable for the most part except for one piano piece which plays at the climax of each fight.
The characters in this show are one-dimensional clichés that don't build on this genre at all. Asta is a loud annoying brat complete with a never give up attitude and a simpleton that knows nothing of strategy in combat, he's not smart at all and is way worse than most shounen protagonists, like even Goku and Luffy aren't really smart and so dense but when it comes to combat they are geniuses, Naruto wasn't really even stupid. Yuno, his brother is introduced as his rival but it doesn't make sense since they don't even try to compete with each other and Yuno doesn't really act as his rival at all, they are more like friends, I don't know why he's even introduced because they do their own thing and no one really affects the other. The side characters are just one cliché after the other, wholly forgettable, I barely remember their names. Black Clover isn't a shining example when it comes to character writing, it's derivate of other shounen shows but somehow does them a lot worse.
Overall, a terrible shounen show that shouldn't have been even hyped up to begin with, it reeks of unoriginal and derivative writing, an uninteresting, overpowered and rather stupid protagonist in a group of walking cliché side characters that are mostly irrelevant and lazy animation work. This show is irredeemable. I am surprised it is rated so high as it is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 11, 2018
I had never heard of Devilman before and if I did I would have dismissed it for having such a dated and cringy name like Devilman. Coming from an era where the word "man" slapped onto any word would make them a superhero, this show modernises the manga in meaningful directions and is anything but dated, it's fresh and edgy in all the right ways and is honestly one of the best things to have come out of Netflix and Anime as a whole in recent years. If future Netflix anime adaptations are anything as experimental and fresh as Devilman: Crybaby, I'm all for it
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because goddamn was this show an exhilarating ride from start to finish.
The story while not original was remarkably well executed, it introduced meaningful characters, a narrative that introduced and tackled complex themes and a very satisfying plot twist at the end. There was not one scene that detracted from the experience, the story rarely slowed down and it was a pulse-pounding binge-watching experience with a rather brisk pace. However, the story is not anything new and the themes that were tackled by this show were mostly glanced over making them more tacked on than anything. The story isn't flawless but is nevertheless a very good story and is shown in a fresh and unorthodox way. The show is in no way for the faint-hearted, there are a lot of gory scenes that could totally not be to your liking but these scenes do in no way feel cheap and really fit the tone of the show.
The art and animation are just incredible, it's abstract, different, original and just so goddamn eye-catching, the colors pop and there is a strong sense of visual imagery that is haunting. The style is expressive and very dynamic, however, there are some rough edges as it can be too dark and I literally see a black screen. This bold style is very welcome in this day and age where there are an increasing amount of "clean" art styles that all look the same.
The soundtrack is legendary, it has epic opera style music mixed with an amazing bass line, has synthwave, has emotional piano pieces all that stick in your mind and can make you feel a range of feelings from hype to downright sad.
The characters are well fleshed out and all have a rightful and deliberate place in this show all pushing the narrative forward in meaningful ways. While I do like these characters, we aren't given a lot of time with them and that can make one, more interesting than the others. The protagonist is likable and is easy to love, he's handsome, brash and has a good heart. His love interest is good-natured, and her innocent heart is so hard to not love. The villain is well developed and is arguably as likeable as the protagonist.
Overall this anime is a must watch, it makes me feel happy for having Netflix, if it wasn't featured on the front page I would probably never have seen it anywhere else since I feel like this anime isn't getting the attention it deserves, it is a fantastic show that feels fresh and is just so goddamn good to watch. It might not be for everyone because of its gore but it's exceptionally well done and marks an amazing start for anime in 2018 and could arguably be one of the best of this year.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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