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Most people haven't read this, which is a shame, because its simply amazing. Its impact and influence on manga is so incredibly massive, that the number of anime and manga that reference it or pay homage to it cannot be counted. That being said, it is referenced and paid homage to so many times that many people will already know the ending despite having never read it. For example, the ending of ashita no joe is a recurring theme and symbolism throughout Bakuman, but I wont say the ending because I dont wanna spoil.

STORY
The story was great, following Joe Yabuki taking up boxing in ... the late 60s in Japan. My one problem with the story is that it took a while to get to any actual boxing, but there is a good reason for it, and it helps the story and characters develop.

CHARACTERS
There are quite a few characters in the series that have a serious amount of development. whether its Joe, and all of his rudeness and depth, Danpei, and his passion and nostalgia, and so on. The characters are great. The one problem I have is the amount of misogynous . The reason its there is kind of unfortunate, with the author being a well known misogynist.

ART
this is to be expected. Mangas in the 60s and early 70s all had very similar artstyle to each other, without many variations. I was never a big fan of it.

ENJOYMENT
I loved it

In conclusion, this series is fantastic. it has some shortcomings, yes, but it has aged well and is a fantastic read

When I first heard about Pluto, I wasnt eager to read it. "Its just a retelling of an arc in Astro Boy," I thought to myself, "cant be that good." Eventually I caved and read it. I was blown away. The story is suspenseful and addictive, as expected of Urasawa. The characters are deep and interesting, and the art style is very fitting. Naoki Urasawa is a two time winner of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. The first time was for his masterpiece, Monster. The second time was for Pluto, and now I see why. However, for all the brilliance in this masterpiece, there is ... a rather large flaw. I never read the original "world's strongest robot" arc of Astro Boy, so this didnt apply to me, but the fact remains that this is a retelling. In other words, to all of those that read the original arc, it is a foregone conclusion. Since one of the pillars of a suspense plot is not knowing what will happen next, this is an unfortunate problem. Thankfully, its so good that even with this flaw, It is nothing short of a masterpiece.

as a writer, one of the basic rules is that your main character has to be either likable, sympathetic, or someone cool enough that readers will admire him. Shamo breaks this rule, and unlike other series *cough*Tenjou Tenge*cough* they do so on purpose. Ryo is a horrible, horrible person. A murderer, rapist, prostituting, violent, insane sociopath, he isnt likable at all. In the beginning he had some sympathy, with the condition of his life, but he quickly loses all of it. Ryo is a monster. his sole redeeming feature is how he does care for his sister and occasionally does random acts of charity, but ... while this seems to prove he is capable of redemption, he adamantly refuses. that being said, Shamo is great. looking past the incredibly dark and violent story, one can see it is very deep. recurring themes include society's cognitive dissonance towards violence, the justice and prison systems being counter productive, that parents shouldnt be pressuring and overbearing as they are in real life, and so on. So much is up to interpretation, including who is the villain. a lot of people would say Ryo, but i disagree, he's a byronic hero who fights because of a warped and sickened survival instinct. but then who is? Is it society as a whole? is it the chairman of the MMA association? is it the main characters parents who he murdered in the beginning? its all up to interpretation, but its incredible nonetheless. There is much more to it than the graphic content, but it still is pretty graphic. But, if that doesnt bother you, then I highly recommend it

Cyborg 009 is incredible. The concept of a group of people, all given superpowers against their will and dealing with the horrible repercussions of such was a revolutionary concept back in its inception, aside from x-men which came out only a few months prior. The characters were interesting, and though it was rushed in the beginning, they soon all got a respectable amount of character development. The overarching plot was great too, with interesting story arcs portraying their conflict. There was also a very prominent Anti-War theme, thought that isnt a bad thing and worked very well in the story. The ending (and by ending, ... I mean what was originally supposed to be the ending) was pulled off very well. But there is a major problem in this series. the art is horrible. It looks like an even worse version of the Jetsons. I was never a big fan of 60s artwork which looks the same most of the time, like in Ashita no Joe, but Cyborg 009 has possibly the worst art i've ever seen. With the dark story, the cartoonish drawings could still fit, as is the case in Devilman, Billy Bat, and so on, but here it doesnt. In my opinion, a good manga should have good Art, Plot, and Characters. Cyborg 009 is missing the art. Art is very important in a manga, it helps portray the story by giving you a perfect visual of the impact of the plot and the characters. Cyborg 009's artwork cant do that, and thats why the series didnt reach anywhere near its full potential. If one can look past the artwork, though, they will be rewarded with an otherwise great series.

A manga about Roller Blades. Oh!Great somehow thought he could make this into something enjoyable. And he was right. Where do I begin? Lets start with the characters. There are a lot of characters in Air Gear, many of them seem shallow and cliche. But thats the point. Unlike some other series, for instance Hunter x Hunter, which choose to go against cliches, Air Gear chooses to explore them and go deep into them, creating a cast of developing and interesting characters. Next, the artwork. Amazing. Air Gear is practically unsurpassed in its artwork, which truly gives the sense that you're flying. Sure, a good ... portion of it is devoted to more fanservice (it IS Oh!Great, after all) but nonetheless, credit where credit is due. Then, the story. The story began interesting but then slowly started getting confusing and boring. When I first read Air Gear, I ended up dropping it midway through because of this. Eventually I decided on a whim to continue reading. That's when it happened. The shocking plot twist, everything changed. I'm not going to spoil it, but it was unexpected and great. Everything got better afterwards as the plot furiously began progressing. The conclusion was great, the story was great. It's worth a reread after you finish it for the first time, because it will help everything confusing in the beginning make more sense. It's not a masterpiece, and maybe I'm overpraising it, but its just so hard to believe that this brilliant manga was made by the same guy who produced the trash known as Tenjou Tenge.

its a manga about manga. Inception jokes aside, let me explain whats so good about it. Once again, the Obata/Ohba team have have gone against the norm in Weekly Shonen Jump, like they did previously with Death Note. Bakuman is a drama and slice of life, no battles or evil editors or anything, and it is amazing. It starts out where two 14 year old boys decide to make a manga together, with one drawing and the other writing, and it follows them over the years breaking into and working as mangakas in weekly shonen jump. There are a wide cast of characters, including editors ... and other mangakas in Weekly Shonen Jump. These editors and mangakas are all heavily inspired or outright fictionalized version of real life editors and mangakas in Weekly Shonen Jump. There is a large romantic subplot which, while one of the main points of the story, is still secondary to the life of a mangaka. One of the most prominent things I noticed when reading it was how realistic it was. It is very realistic to the point of almost seeming cynical, and a recurring theme seems to be Dreams and Idealism vs Reality. A common scenario will be one character expressing his dreams and optimistic ideals and another character shutting him down, explaining how it realistically works, which the idealistic character would reluctantly accept. Another recurring theme, or arguably the main theme, was how difficult being a mangaka is. A recurring symbolic motif in the series, since the very beginning, was the ending of Ashita no Joe which, Spoiler alert, ended with Joe dying in the ring, a smile on his face and becoming "pure white ash", which symbolizes dying while doing what you love, among other things. this perfectly portrays how hard it is to be a mangaka due to the amount of physical risk it puts on your body.

There are battle mangas, and there are sports mangas. Hajime no Ippo falls in the latter category. Boxing isnt fighting, its a sport. Two sportsmen getting in a ring for a regulated professional athletic match. For that reason, with only one or two real exceptions, there are no antagonistic evil boxers. The story starts off following Makunochi Ippo, a young bullied boy who, after meeting a pro boxer, is inspired to become one himself. with a style reminiscent to Mike Tyson (without Ear Biting), we see Ippo climb the ranks of the featherweights. At a certain point, the story becomes less about Ippo (though he ... is the primary focus) and become an ensemble, as the mangaka George Morikawa said "Everyone in Hajime no Ippo is a main character." Additionally, it isnt solely about the sport. One of the biggest reasons why Hajime no Ippo has been as long running as it has is because of its humor and character development, both of which are to be praised. due to the fact that this is manga, the matches are obviously slower than what they really should be, considering a round lasts 3 minutes. This actually serves as an advantage for a number of reasons. The blows and patterns are shown in greater detail to be easier to understand, and we can see the thoughts of the boxers and their seconds as they strategize. These two things serve a very important purpose. The amount of strategy and mental planning show that boxing isnt simply two guys punching each other, but is a sport that requires a lot of strategy, instinct and intelligence. One of the most prominent things to mention is fighting spirit. Yes, one of the most common and overused tropes in shonen manga is in here too. And not only does it work, it fits absolutely perfectly and is a major symbolic theme in the series. Such masterful use of the fighting spirit trope is amazing and is on par with that of Gurren Lagann. Analysis of the series and a couple rereads would show that the series actually shows the cultural symbolism of fighting spirit and the origins of the trope. In fact, it is possible to interpret the series as being somewhat metaphorical of Japan's conflict between its traditional culture and the post-war westernization. I wont explain more, i dont want to spoil anything else, so I'll just conclude with this being a masterpiece.

Detective Conan is one of the greatest mangas of all time. It is very long and the ending is nowhere in sight, but I am nothing short of happy that it isnt ending any time soon.There is one thing I noticed about a majority of the cases, aside from how all the cases are complex and have a trick to them but Conan is able to solve them all. The cases usually have a distinct formulaic structure to them. Generally, chapter A is Conan and co. finding the body or crime scene, chapter B is introducing the suspects and usually ends with Conan mentally saying ... "ah, so it's THAT person!" and chapter C is the reveal of who the criminal is. A majority of the series are these recurring cases that have little to no plot relevance other than introducing new characters and develop some others. You'd think they get boring, but they don't, because finding out who the killer was and how is always enjoyable, so is meeting new characters. Within the sea of these cases lie two recurring ones. The showdowns between Conan and Kaito Kid, the protagonist of Magic Kaito (same author), and then the actual plot revolving around Conan investigating and trying to stop the organization that was responsible for shrinking him. Unlike the sherlock holmes-like mysteries that make up the cases, the plots with the organization take up a more thriller feel and show just how brilliant Conan is, while the showdowns with Kaito Kid are enjoyable battles of strategy in their own right. More and more characters show up and massive mysteries fill up the entire series, most of which have yet to be explained, but as we wait for them to be explained, we can just enjoy this superb masterpiece as it continues.