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Aug 3, 2020
Due to how I want this review to affect the people who will read it, I will try my very best to avoid spoilers - even though it seems like that wouldn't matter.
Basically, two things:
1. I highly recommend you - the reader of this review - to absolutely avoid reading this manga.
2. This manga is quite possibly the biggest disappointment I've ever seen, out of any story, throughout any medium.
I'm only trying to get my point across when I say this, but I am still feeling physical pain from both the shit pacing and absolutely abhorred ending Mousou Telepathy has, about 3 hours after
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reading the final page/chapter. There was so much potential for an absolutely mind-blowing masterpiece here; at the end of chapter 153, my ongoing rating was a 9.7/10, the highest I've personally rated any one thing, ever - whether it be anime, manga, movie, tv show, music album, song, video game, video, (video) essay, anything. If there were not a few hiccups on some of the attempted comedy and a little bit of stuff that was poorly communicated to the reader, I would've actually had an ongoing rating of 10.0/10, because there would've been absolutely no flaws and literally everything would've been executed astronomically well. I do not think I can express how downright insanely amazing the first ~150 chapters of this manga are.
From that point onward, unfortunately, everything falls into an insanely boring, outright angering, and entirely out of character story progression-based loop, that happens twice and lasts for about 400 pages/chapters. Basically, the MC gets into some extensive, long-lasting embarrassing situation, doesn't want to perform a major plot point, and then gets depressed for a vaguely related reason. I'm being incredibly vague because I want to avoid describing any specific plot points that may entice someone to read Mousou, as I really think it would just make their day much, much worse.
After that, Mousou stagnates. Hard. While stuff is technically happening, the plot actually barely develops, there are an insanely large amount of blueballs, and a lot of the characterization up until this point is entirely flipped on it's head. The best way I can describe it is this: Around chapter 450, one of the characters is revealed to some information that, upon being used correctly, could bring the MC to do the one major plot point and basically end the manga (450 could be way off - I forgot to exactly document the page of this event - but I did document the next point, which basically makes having an exact page-stamp of this event pointless/unnecessary). On chapter 662, that same character performs an action that does help the MC get closer to doing the major plot point, but fails to piece together information she gained within the first 150 chapters and the information she got chapter ~450 and apply it, which would've literally definitely caused that major plot point to happen. The only way I can think this would happen is because the author simply forgot this character knew this crucial information, or insisted on not having the character break a promise she made early on. Due to how this character acts, however, and the fact that beyond the first time it's spoken, that promise is never called on or even thought of, I'm inclined to believe it's the former.
Finally, the ending. I'm not going to bore you down with how bad the ending is, since I'm sure you don't want to read another paragraph, but I will say this: The ending fails to resolve one of the manga's main points of tension, which actually existed from chapter 1.
In conclusion: 1.7/10. I'm just sad. So, so sad.
If you want a raw catalog of my thoughts as I read through this manga (which does include spoilers, unavoidably), check out this pastebin. Everything about format and whatnot is explained there.
https://pastebin.com/fMksEy2V
P.S. (This is edited in) Initially I didn't want to read the epilogue before I wrote this review because it's told by the author to the reader (in the ending thank you and credits) that it resolves the main point of tension I talked about earlier. Turns out it's also shit, as while it does technically resolve that tension, it does so in a whopping 2 pages, and only barely mentions two of the numerous initial problems it would create before ending.
Yep, this manga's shit. Goodnight.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 27, 2020
*MAJOR (not manga) SPOILER WARNING*
I personally think there's something to be said about execution in storytelling. There is nothing too absurd, too dark, too extreme, that cannot be brought into light with brilliant execution. And I realize that's a very vague statement to make; 'execution' itself is something difficult to even explain. In reality, execution - at least here, in the context of Houseki no Kuni - can simply refer to tone. Houseki's tension, development, flow, and message all effectively depend on the show's ability to appropriately assign and keep a stable tone. It fails on both fronts, but in a manner that still allows
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you to fully understand the theme: Change is, and always will be, unpredictable.
There are two main points I'd like to go into more detail about, and will absolutely outline what I feel about this anime, and how I felt while watching it.
From a in-world story/plot standpoint, there was no good place near the middle of the manga for the anime to stop at in order to have only 12 episodes. So much more happens past where EP 12 ends, and so many questions that are brought up before then are answered by the end of the manga. That being said, there's a thematic and simply mental effect (on the viewer) this hard stop has relating to what this story is trying to convey, and I believe it's important to underline that. All of Phosphophyllite's development comes from either her own actions or results thereof. Losing her legs, losing her arms, 'losing' Antarcticite, and losing her trust in Kongou are all results of things she decided were the best course of action given the situations she was in. So, when the anime just stops at the end of EP 12, the viewer is forced to accept that it's over, and then look back and question why Phos ended up this way. Whether or not you come to you own personal conclusions as to why she acted in the way she did is unnecessary to understand the theme, which I think is good. It shows a flexibility in the way the theme was integrated into the story and characters, and allows the viewer to understand the theme without needing to understand the story in the same way the author would/does.
Houseki's tone, especially towards the latter half of the episodes, is inconsistent and wild in a way that just doesn't work. There are times where a wild change in tone works for the scene and story, such as when Phos washes onto shore directly next to Cinnibar while the rest of the characters are looking for her, when Antarcticite accidentally(?) shatters herself while trying to remove Phos from her golden cage, and during the entirety of the scene directly proceeding the hibernation, where Phos is chased around and fucked with by everyone else. (That scene is done especially well, as everything besides prior knowledge and Phos' attitude - even including the actual background music - is set up as if Phos is just having a good time while everyone else playfully messes around with her, excellently adding to the tone and effect that scene had on the current tension of Phos' character.) Scenes such as the Lunarian dog chase and the teaming up of Phos and Bort, however, are either too lax or casual despite the situation outside of whatever was happening in the moment, or didn't feel like they were shifting tone in a way that made sense or even came to make sense by the end of the scene. The setting and character development of Phos is mostly toned as bleak, and radically altering it to a tone such as happy, hopeful, or even dramatic would have needed to be done with extreme caution. Sadly, it just wasn't.
I love this show, and while I do think the tonal execution was abhorred in some areas, it was so beautifully done in enough scenes for me to forgive the bad and admire the good.
6.7/10 Overall (I don't do gradings on individual aspects, as I believe properly interlacing them is more important than getting them individually correct.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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