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- BirthdayNov 25, 1993
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Apr 27, 2024
Quite a strong one-shot from the author of Kagurabachi. Many have felt ninja manga is an overplayed trope since the obvious giant in the space, but manga of these sorts are a staple of shonen all the way back to kamui-den, and greats like Go Nagai have produced their own ninja manga like Kuro-No-Shishi. In recent years, there is a bit of an attempt to revive this format, we also saw this with Black Torch which took the same cyberpunk/tech bend that is pushing in the genre. Chain takes a similar attempt with a more 'modern' settings compared to the historical version of ninjas most
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readers have come to be familiar with, but in this version they operate like something of a CIA, or Soul Society.
The characters are pretty contained, and the strength of the one-shot is on the focus on the main duos personalities. They are imbued with a swagger that typically is found specifically in ninja manga, an almost silent killer vibe that persists across the genre. Personality, this is an appealing personality trait, but I would admit some readers might find it extremely cringe, so out of self awareness it's hard to fully co-sign the intense confidence of the characters.
The drawing isn't exactly the strongest, and some of the characters blank stares aren't sold the best, but in a way that works with the trope at hand. Much of this is also found in Kagurabachi, and if played right can work, but I've found the authors unique style isn't exactly the most suited for drawing faces. However, the action is very strong, with the pacing of the movement working well with the characters personalities. There is more expression in their movement and interactions than in the actual drawing, which is a drawback for a manga and limits this from rising to a higher rating.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 30, 2023
Incredibly charming manga about a woman running a restaurant-hotspirngs on a small planet. Each chapter is a sort of one-shot with different guests coming to the planet, sometimes with more connection to Motoka, but often times completely random and sharing their life stories. These stories are always interesting, impactful, and filled with emotion even though they are quite short. The sci-fi context of the story really enables a variety of interesting plots framed inside the vast reaches of space. You aren't sure what guests will come next as they can come from anywhere, and often that enables the author to play with interesting plots and
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bring in side characters that have a lot of charm. Fantastic read, manga doesn't try to be anything other than itself and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 30, 2023
This Movie/OVA/Filler Episode extracted out of the Ninku series actually felt like one of the better examples of early Pierrot, and the evolution that goes into creating specifically Naruto. While this absolutely stands on it's own, the early formula that is pioneered by Ninku and even by Pierrot in this movie is a critical chain in the development of Naruto. The side characters, themselves actually more interestingly designed than the main Ninku cast, really showcases what develops into both Naruto and Bleach filler design. While many criticize the pacing of Pierrot filler, rightfully so, when paced well like in certain Bleach fillers they can be
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quite excellent, something we see with this Ninku Movie. The villains especially feel like something you would see in the Naruto Movies, and it's likely the designers are the same teams that later go on to develop those movies.
The most striking example of Pierrot flair is actually the 'jutsus' which are SIGNIFICANTLY developed from the main series. In the actual series it's one, or two signs, but at times they really expand the handsigns into more complex chains that often end in the same signs we see in Naruto. The fire jutsu ending in two open hands to the side is specifically something we see in Naruto, and it's unclear if that even came from the Ninku manga or Pierrot came up with that themselves. It's very obvious, and Kishimoto has stated, that he was inspired by Ninku so it's almost guaranteed he was watching this movie as the basis for much of early Naruto's combat. While the pull from Ashita no Joe is clear, the actual choreography in this movie is phenomenal and really leans into a development of Ninja-shounen combat diverging from previous ninja series. More focused on a back and forth found in works such as Dragonball, less death-strikes seen in the previous Ninja works up to this period.
Even the ending of this feels like something you would see in Naruto, avoiding spoilers, you can see how Fuusuke really shines and stands out as the emotional core of this series. It's incredibly wholesome. Such a short 'episode' is hard to comment on extensively, but this is something I'd recomend any Naruto or Shonen fan to give a watch even if they haven't seen Ninku prior. It's some of the best historical exposure to the series you can find.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 29, 2023
Anyone whose read this manga will know how much Colorido actually improved upon the source. Obviously Kubo is heavily involved with the project, and you can tell his studies on London/England are paying off, and he really infuses that world design with the cultural background. At first you would think a series like this leans on Harry Potter tropes, but many of them are blown out and upgraded in ways that give them a unique identity completely separate from obvious inspirations.
The design are incredible, and Kubo is still in his prime. Every single detail and little addition to the characters comes out in a classic
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Bleach style, but with an even sharper refinement of his previous style into something similar, yet different. It really helps give the world it's own "identity" aside from Bleach, but you can easily see these characters appearing along side the Bleach ones as they have the same framework in design. Everyone feels unique, and you can already feel the desire of cosplayers wanting to imitate Ninny's hairstyle, or Noel's outfit. Osushi feels like a level up on the Kon formula from Bleach, with more integration into the story itself.
The dragons are maybe some of the most interesting work I've seen, and are like an evolution of Miyazaki's Catbus from Totoro mixed with Shadow of the Colossus presenting a fresh take on both concepts with this "biologically mutual" relationship. The way that helps the actual plot and feeds into the world design is something unique, yet familiar to anyone used to the Hollows. Nearly every dragon could be made into it's own plushie, with an almost Pokemon, or Dragon Quest design work. At times the dragons alone have you wishing for a HxH, or Toriko style spin off really focusing on that aspect, and you can see all of this working inside a video game possibly even better than it does as an anime. The world is maybe one of the best I've seen in a Shonen.
Sound design and animation is on point, with Colorido adding dozens of fine touches that elevate the manga source. Things like the Dragonball and Sailor Moon themes being used as ringtones show a passion for the material that infuses the animators own influences into the work, showing how Burn the Witch is rooted in a lineage of incredible Shounen and Shojos, fusing to make something fresh and new. I truly hope Kubo is into this project, and want's to write the manga even at a slower pacing. This has so much potential, but already serves as a wonderful introduction.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 27, 2023
Epic story that leans on aesthetic vibes more than writing. Lots of extreme violence, intended to satisfy manga fans, like myself. The addition of Toyoo Ashida's writing (Dr Slump) really gave the movie an identity separate from the manga, but one that clashes with the vibe of the world, ultimately detracting from true desolation and brutality of the manga. Feels like a lost Dragonball film at times, and leads into the flashy combat later seen in Z and other 90s hypergore OVAs. The soundtrack's influence on not only video games like Final Fantasy, but also J-Rock through Gackt is another critical lineage under explored.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 24, 2023
Fairly straight forward Dr. Slump movie that focuses on the Great Race of Penguin Village. Interesting is that I think this movie did the concept before the manga, but I could be wrong since the timeline is pretty close. Additionally, that arc of the manga is the only arc that Toriyama himself didn't write, it was mostly his assistants, so it's very possible they took and adapted the idea from this movie.
Both are different, and spend time on separate gags, and since Slump is so comedy focused it has to rely on those gags a little more. I think the ones from the manga
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are a little stronger, but both are nearly the same quality.
The movie is limited by it's length which prevents spending enough time with any characters to draw any sort of emotional reaction from a viewer. Other than light giggles there is no much here, even for someone who is into the "world" that Slump built. In the early 80s this would have been quite a treat for fans of the series, but in retrospect there isn't nearly as much value watching this movie compared to the previous two slump movies, which are quite strong and stand on their own foundation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 17, 2023
Flying Ben is an incredible generational story dealing with the lives of three dogs and their owner Tadashi. Much of the story revolves around themes of family, loyalty, the struggle to survive, and generational trauma. Without spoiling to much of the plot, the trio of dogs operates like many other famous manga trios, with the brother-like relationship between the two male dogs being the center for multiple battles across the dogs lives. The intense battle scenes are starkly different from much of Tezuka's other animal works, making this quite violent in character. The story really helps cement the tone of Shonen manga for generations to
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come.
In contrast to many other works revolving around animals, Tezuka centers both the protagonist and antagonist as main characters, with the humans serving and supporting agents in the cast rather than being the primary agent of the plot. Even the main human is less of a "driving force" for the manga with the two dogs being his right and left hand both literally and metaphorically. Much of the story centers around greed, money, and survival. Tezuka develops the animals personalities in vibrant ways giving them an almost human character. In one of the manga's most striking scene, Tezuka anthropomorphizes the animals into human form during an intense debate between the two male dogs prior to an all out brawl. This framework of a discussion between the two primary forces, leading into a major battle is one we find present in nearly every battle Shonen following and a framework Tezuka had continually worked to create over decades.
I would recommend reading Flying Ben to anyone who enjoys Tezuka, Shonen, and anyone who enjoys stories with dogs.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 2, 2023
While Slam Dunk and Vagabond are two of the most well known manga series, and regularly rotate into many peoples top ten and favorites lists, few are aware of Takehiko Inoue's One Shot he created between these works. Instead of spoiling the plot, I can only say this manga is canonically related to Slam Dunk, and thus strikes me as a bit crazy so many have not heard about it. Given the subject matter it helps flesh-out some details of the characters in ways that heighten a reread of the original.
However this manga is not just a piece of canon, but also a fantastic work
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in it's own right. Rather than leaning on story beats and style found in Slam Dunk, this manga takes an entirely different approach and doesn't "feel" like it fits into that world which may explain why so many haven't read the One-Shot. The almost dreamlike nature of the story may throw a reader off, but it's one of the more well paced and structured One-Shots I have read.
Artistically Inoue was still morphing into his "Vagabond" self, but you can already see those early aspects of composition mastery, and attention to detail. Few are able to seamlessly encapsulate so many story beats within only a few pages. The size of this work is astounding due to how much content Inoue fits into the work. So much is communicated in so few pages with little fluff or wasted space.
I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who has read Slam Dunk, but even someone who hasn't would get a lot out of this work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 1, 2023
Magma Taishi is an interesting look at early Super Robot manga. While having many derivative elements found in the earlier Tetsujin 28, Magma Taishi finds it's own flavor and develops a unique style separate from other Super Robot manga. While the designs of the characters leave something to be desired, their personalities are well fleshed out with strong identities and unqiue roles to fill in the plot.
Many modern readers might view the mangas plot as simple, but at the time Magma Taishi was fairly complex with high level themes laced throughout the manga in typical Tezuka fashion. However, this manga was not actually done by
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Tezuka. He came up with most of the ideas, and early volume work, but the art was nearly done entirely by his assistants who took over much of the writing duties by the 2nd and 3rd volume. That doesn't detract from the narrative structure much as the artists clearly follow through even more on Tezuka's ideas, but it does give the manga a strange "non Tezuka" flavor. The manga lacks some of the more whimsical aspects typical of Tezuka's works, as well as the fluidity of movement in art that Tezuka was known to have mastered.
Overall Magma Taishi is a bit of a relic, but I would have to be favorable in any rating given it's pseudo-pioneering nature. Chapter 18 and 19 especailly ring out clear as some of the earliest influences on series like Gundam, especailly War in the Pocket which features many similar plot elements. While it doesn't follow through much on these ideas, few older manga did and were rarely intended as the long, plot driven arcs that modern manga has come to represent. I would recomend the read to anyone who enjoys older manga, and can appreciate some of the rougher edges.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 10, 2023
Number 7 is one of the more interesting work of Tezuka's, filled with many of the themes later found throughout the sci-fi genre of manga. You have numbered squads of special soldiers, space battles engaged across battleships (with the ever present space pirates), isekai otherworld time travel, alien-mutant post-humanism and technological themes that seem incredibly ahead of their time. Although Mitsutera Yokoyama was serializing side-by-side with this manga, hitting on many of the same elements in Shonen Rocket Corps, arguably many of these themes are built upon Tezuka's earlier works Lostworld, Metropolis, and Nextworld but this is the first time those themes begin to be
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put together in a cohesive whole. While Astro Boy tends to focus on Superhero-like robotically driven storylines about emotion, Number 7 operates more like an adventure across a variety of settings, something we see later in the works of Leiji Matsumoto, Go Nagai, and Shotaro Ishinomori. While many may point to the previously mentioned Lostworld Trilogy or Astro Boy as being those authors inspirations it's undeniable each of those works lack the particular cohesive themes present in Number 7, and Number 7 acts like much more of a blueprint for what becomes Yamato, Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider, and Mazinger. While Yokoyama cites the Lostworld Trilogy as his inspiration, Tezuka was actually worried about Number 7 influencing Yokoyama's style. The grotesque like design of many of the creatures tends to border on something akin to Alien, however being written in 1961 it's clear that the major inspirations for a work like this stem more directly from Buck Rodgers/Flash Gordon archetype than anything inherently Japanese. However, those monster inspirations are no doubt something Go Nagai is fond of, many of his own works fitting the same monsters x space-time adventure. Space-Time being more like Space+Time, as both of them are often found in his works, something originally pulled from Number 7. As a result, i would absolutely recommend this to anyone seriously interested in understanding the early development of manga as there is no doubt this offers a critical look into early shonen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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