Back to deralte's Profile deralte's Profile

An outcast, who's been persecuted his whole life, vows to become a ranking samurai and save his people from persecution. Unfortunately, his rage and inability to think lead him to a massive killing spree, culminating in he and his victims (all missing limbs) fighting to the death.

In short, nice art. Awful story. Blatantly racist, and more than a bit stupid.

At first I really enjoyed the first pages of this manga because the art is gorgeous with the subtle use of colour in the first section really adding an extra pop to all the panels. Then it presented and descended into racist propaganda that ... isn't all explained away by it being a period piece. The fact that Gennosuke is portrayed as a mindless beast whenever he picks up a sword - that he can only be tamed by his civilized sword master - that he transforms himself into an armless monster-snake is just such an example of blatant racism, it was hard to bear. I understood the racism the characters portrayed since that was a historical fact, but the racism the author portrayed was not acceptable and completely ruined the rest of the manga for me.

The last half of it also descends into a repetitive killing orgy of handicapped samurai. Hardcore the first time, boring the second, third and fourth times. I've read other manga by this author and I know he has more imaginative plots, but it doesn't show here.

I love history so I was expecting to really enjoy this series, but it's so disjointed, I felt like I was missing pages of action. It seems that the author's pacing and ability to tell a story are awful. It's a shame cause what I got of the characters was interesting and it seemed to follow history fairly well. The disjointedness of the story flow makes it impossible for me to read though. Oh well.

This is about the aftermath of a revolution, portrayed without the romanticism you usually find in manga portrayals of the Shinsengumi and the bakumatsu. I like how subtly the mangaka portrayed everything - Okita's flashback was particularly affecting. It starts off a little slow, and I think some will be disappointed that the artist stuck to a close portrayal of how everyone actually looked, but the art is gorgeous with the imagery telling the story just as often as the words. Nicely done.

It had everything I love about the series - good music, wonderful characterizations and dialogue, beautiful art. More impressively, the fight scenes were fantastic, the tension beautiful and the plot nicely spaced and plotted. Cool new characters too. Excellent.

Miyori no Mori is a rather straight forward story about a girl accepting her place in the world and saving the forest she's grown to love. There's a strong environmental message that reminds me of Ghibli films like Pom Poko and Mononoke Hime. While the spirits and demons bring to mind things like Tonari no Totoro or Natsume Yuujinchou. It really succeeds with its' imagery - classic scenes of thatched houses or dragons or witches are used to evoke a nostalgia and wonder.

In short, if you enjoy Ghibli films or relaxing stories about demons and spirits in Japan, than you'll like this film. The ... art is lovely. Miyori ends up being a lot more three dimensional than, say, your average Ghibli protagonist, and her issues with her parents add a realism to the movie, I didn't expect to find.