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Jan 4, 2014
Kyousougiga is phenomenally done. The art is superb, and the characters are genuinely interesting. This is an anime with themes--family and love, duty and purpose--and it explores them coherently and purposefully, in a way that is central to the plot and story, but with enough room to the sides for excellent visuals and the aforementioned characters to shine.
STORY
The story, on the first watch, is confusing. This is because the plot is not shown as a whole until the anime is over. This is NOT a bad thing! A storytelling choice like this is certainly unconventional, but after getting over one's initial reluctance with the strange
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withholding of information, the ride is enjoyable.
In the end, the plot exists to expound on the true messages of the series. The show should not be watched for the superficial plot. The plot exists to present ideas about what a family is and ought to be, what love is and how it is truly expressed, the purpose in one's life and the meaning to it all and whether there needs to be a meaning anyways. It would be very difficult to watch this show without noticing these ideas, even though they are very simply displayed.
ART
The art is absolutely wonderful. Heavy nods are given to a particular set of scrolls from 13th century Japan. It faintly echoes the paint brush art of said scrolls. Animation, during fight scenes, is lovely to watch. The animation is, more importantly, stellar in seemingly mundane moments outside of fights--like when a character embraces another with love, it is done in a way that conveys volumes about her feelings, emotions, and personality.
( A note here--the plot does falter a bit in episodes 8 and 9, but they land the ending very well, in a way that forgives them.)
SOUND
The musical decisions will remind you greatly of FLCL. The musical genre is the same, and it plays in the background of many scenes. Personally, I find it distracting to have songs with words playing while people are talking, and so I don't warm to it so much.
There are many, many orchestral pieces, which do their part to bring your attention to what is important and why. They are a bit overdone in parts, but the mixture of orchestra pieces with rock songs is nice.
CHARACTERS
The characters are wonderful in every way. The aforementioned themes of the story are told through their human vectors. This anime does an excellent job of presenting interesting, novel, compelling characters. Only the protagonist, Koto, feels remotely rehashed--everyone else is like a new face, someone I've never met in another anime.
OVERALL
This anime is artistic in nature. Its focus is thematic, presented through characters and plot, with stunning visuals to guide you through. It can be consumed quickly, enjoyed thoroughly, rewatched with excitement, and in the end, it leaves you with things to think about without pulling you into the depths of philosophic rumination. It is the best anime I've seen in a very long time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 10, 2013
In Short, Oresama Teacher is a good manga. The plot suffers in places and the art suffers from some common failings, but the characters are mostly original, and there is enough enjoyment gained from reading that it is a good casual manga.
STORY
Oresama Teacher's pacing is sort of the worst thing about the manga. The general plot isn't bad, and is in fact a good hook--delinquent girl must hide her unscrupulous past while fighting to save a school from closure, all while making friends (tm). It's a bit generic, especially the friendship-gathering, but the facet of hiding Mafuyu's past delinquency is interesting.
But--and that is a huge
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but--the way the mangaka paces this manga is poor. I often find myself utterly confused as to what is happening and why. The manga is released monthly (more or less), and every month, I'll have forgotten what the past chapter covered, and will then read sixty pages of confusion. I've taken to writing a small summary of where the plot is, and reading it whenever a new chapter is released.
This happens for two reasons, I believe. First, the manga doesn't really recap what happened last time very well. It feels like they are simply drawing the next page, instead of opening the next chapter. Second, the plot itself can be, at times, unclear. Why are they doing that? What are they doing it for? I don't know! This is likely a two-part issue: an average translation, stacked on top of an already-vague narration.
ART
The art is standard fare for your average manga. In general, people are drawn well--nobody suffers from stupid-face. It's very representative of the style towards which many shoujo manga have moved in recent years. However, there are two major flaws which come from this industry-wide art shift.
First, many characters resemble each other greatly. There are very few women in this manga, and tons of guys. This is a problem, because the mangaka seems to have a limited set of eyes + hair + size to work with. The art is not greatly detailed, so the characters tend to blend together.
Second, backgrounds are often just gradients, or slapshod drawings of lockers or doors. It's not very detailed, basically. This isn't as big of an issue as the last problem; in the end, this is not a manga to write home about. It's one you read because you like reading manga; it's not trying for any prizes.
CHARACTERS
The characters are surprisingly interesting. There are few trope or stock characters that truly exist. There are plenty of delinquents, and while they appear standard, they often show depth of personality (or at the least interesting traits).
Mafuyu in particular is nice to see. For whatever reason, she's absurdly strong, but her personality is not shoehorned into the Strong Female Character trap. She's dense, and plain, and dorky, but in ways which are utterly normal. She's well written, and a great female action MC
ENJOYMENT/OVERALL
Despite the faults in plot pacing and art, this manga isn't half-bad a read. As said earlier, it's nothing to write home about, and it knows it. It's not trying for anything profound, or weaving a grand tale. It's like reruns of CSI or Seinfeld--it's something that you read when nothing else is happening, and you enjoy it, and then you are done with it. For that purpose, I'd recommend the manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 6, 2013
Shut Hell is a hidden gem in manga. I found it by accident, read all that was available in a night, and mourned for years as nobody picked it up.
STORY
The manga is a very unique blend of history, action, and a strange supernatural subplot. The first chapter focuses on a modern japanese student, Sudou. He meets a strange girl, who seems to know him. He had made a very strange instrument which even he did not have any knowledge of planning, and she is able to string it, and begins to sing. Her music transports him jarringly to the body of a woman hanging
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from a gallows, in the steppes of mongolia, almost a thousand years ago.
The first half of the manga is a recap of sorts. The man, in the body of the woman named Shut Hell, is told by Yurul, the (presumed) ancestor of the girl he met, about Shut Hell's history. It is a lurid, violent tale, of how her culture and tribe were annihilated by the mongols, and her subsequent transformation into a machine designed to wreak her vengeance upon the Horde.
The historical devotion is something to note here. The manga feels like it is well-researched, and I personally learned much about the historical tribes of the steppes, including the Tangut, the Song, and the Mongols themselves. I had not known that the Horde had committed a form of genocide by systematically destroying cultures. This manga centers, in part, around this little-mentioned event.
For all the praise that can be given to the treatment of history and the thrilling first arc, much of that glint is lost once the recap ends. Shut Hell's character is the most compelling driver of the story line; with her absence and the transition to Sudou's struggle to understand his place in events, the hook is dislodged. Shut Hell was engaging due to her resolve; Sudou lacks resolve or confidence of his own.
While it is understandable for this development to happen, given the first chapter's setup, the transition in tone and focus is not handled expertly. It is still worth reading after this, but it definitely needs to find a way back to its home.
ART
The art is magnificent in this manga. It draws on stylistic influences from brush drawings, creating the same airy feeling with straight lines. This adaptation from brush strokes to straight lines serves to give intensity and energy to the art, even when there is no actual action happening. See Chapter 5, Page 9 for a two-page panel that steals my breath away--the intensity and beauty in the posing and display of the two characters is phenomenal.
When there is actual action happening (which there is a lot of, to be sure), the manga's style truly thrives. Look at Chapter 15, Page 18 for an example--there is a great deal of tension in the air, and the static page seems to move itself; you can see her draw her knife and grab Yurul''s chin. It's phenomenal. That being said, in true action sequences, sometimes the action can blur together, and it's difficult to tell exactly what is going on. Here, I can forgive it, as the art style is more artistic than descriptive, and the message is transported through the drawing.
The use of panelling can be exquisite as well. An example lies in Chapter 13, page 19. Some action mangakas will attempt to draw an action scene straight through, without breaking the focus between two sources. This mangaka will frequently intersperse monologues within the action. Sometimes this fails; here it succeeds, and serves to add drama and intensity to the scene.
CHARACTERS
Shut Hell is one of the best female action characters I have ever encountered. She does not fall into the traps or stereotypes that often plague the genre. She is not a "strong female characte"r; she is not deviantly, perversely violent; she is not spunky or quirky or manic. Her mental collapse is presented exquisitely well. It reads like something that would really happen to a person, and her violent, desperate need to destroy the Horde is wonderfully expressed. She is monstrous, and beautiful, and tragic, and exciting. Even when her seemingly endless rage is tempered by Yurul, it seems so real.
Yurul is wonderful as well, although his youth sometimes feels a bit odd, in that to defy his tribe as he did seems a bit grandiose for a boy of no more than twelve. I get that many shounen/action series has young protagonists, but here it still feels off. He does not act like a boy of his age; he is much too rational and determined for that. Despite that, the construction of his character is still well done. His fierce resolve to preserve culture is a very good defining characteristic in this age of shounen manga.
Side characters, too, are interesting and well-presented. While there is not nearly as much backstory for these characters as there is for Shut Hell, they still feel real. They don't need them so much; the sensation persists that these people have deep personalities, with complex motivations.
OVERALL
This manga is an excellent hidden gem. The art soars, and the character of Shut Hell is astonishingly well-written. The story itself drops itself after the first arc, but the first half more than makes up for that (hopefully temporary) lag.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 6, 2013
Only two or three chapters have been out at the time of this writing, so keep in mind that opinions on the story and the characters may not be accurate in the future.
This author normally writes shounen-ai manga. This is both a departure from that and a sort of riffing on the idea of BL in general.
STORY
The MC is a fujoshi (aka the mangaka's fanbase) who suddenly finds herself quite beautiful, and attracts the attention of four of her male classmates. There aren't many reverse-harems in circulation, and those that are around usually don't reach for new heights. This premise does. The males who
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surround her all have distinct personalities--as does she and her female friend. The thing is, though, that they all respected her before she became beautiful. It makes their attention after her sudden transformation both more believable and less disrespectful. All in all, the treatment and presentation of her relationship with the other characters is very, very promising.
More than that, though, is the riffing off of BL trends and tropes. The mangaka will set up panel frameworks which are commonly used in shounen-ai, then use them as the backdrop for a joke. For those who have read BL in the past, it's very amusing to see this happen.
ART
I read her past BL stories for the art. The mangaka can draw people splendidly; she also wonderfully avoids the trap so many BL artists make when they try to draw women and end up with boys in wigs. All her people look unique, and the art is crisp and clear. Backgrounds are limited, and tend to be forgotten when people are talking; however, in general, this plays back into the BL-riffing theme--usually there's no space for backgrounds because everything is filled up with sparkles by the boys' faces.
CHARACTERS
The characters, as mentioned before, are excellent. They all have their own unique personalities, and avoid falling into any real stereotypes. They all feel like real people. It's really very nice to see.
ENJOYMENT
This manga is enjoyed more deeply if you have read BL in the past. However, even without that basis, it can be enjoyed by anyone for its fresh, appealing take on how people get along with each other.
OVERALL
This manga holds promise, and will enamor those who are inclined to it. It is novel in premise, and smart in character presentation. It lacks in background, but really, that's a small detraction in an otherwise solid shoujo manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 5, 2013
One Piece is a monument in the manga/anime world. There is not another work that can be named that is so loved, so large, and so acclaimed.
For all that, though, the sensation lingers that maybe its faults have been washed from view by the massive wave of hype and adoration surrounding it.
I have read One Piece, to the at-the-time current chapter, at least three times. It was always a struggle to maintain focus and interest. Several flaws continuously added upon themselves, until they drowned out my view.
This review attempts to address the many faults of the manga, from the most objective point of
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view--that of a reader who neither hates nor loves the series, who holds no real emotions towards it.
STORY
The story reads like the ecstacy-driven doodle-comics of a child. The various arcs are surreal in basis, and character designs are fantastical. This is not in and of itself a bad thing--sometimes it is amusing to see what the mangaka comes up with next--but after hundreds upon hundreds of chapters of zany crazy hijinks, it all blurs together. There is a constant high output of crazy; however, after so many readings, a tolerance is reached, and it is no longer remarkable or engaging.
There is a well-developed fan theory that makes what I feel is a conclusive case for the end of the manga. It points to many hints and threads carried throughout the arcs, and weaves a pattern for the rest of the show, based off of real historical accounts. Many point to this theory as a sign of Oda-sensei's ability to create great plots. This is very, very wrong. This fan theory, while solid in nature, was only noticed by one reader, who had an extraneous amount of knowledge on key parts of the subject. Foreshadowing serves a purpose in literature--its primary purpose is to hint at what is to come, but more importantly, it builds excitement in the readers, and by fueling fan conspiracy, allows fans to become engaged in the work. This fan theory, while solid, is based off of hints so subtle that the audience at large passed by them, unnoticed, and if not that, misinterpreted them entirely. The foreshadowing failed in this regard.
ART
Like the story, the art is completely surreal. This is not to the benefit of the manga. Many will point to the elaborate backgrounds and surrounding action in large panels as signs of devotion and talent. I will not dispute the former, but the latter is definitely not the case. Artists need to be able to draw the reader's attention to important pieces of action. This is accomplished in many ways--through line thickness, framing, and level of detail. Oda-sensei fundamentally lacks the ability to focus layers of the background in meaningful ways. Some panels have so many details that just looking at them hurts. There is simply too much unsorted information to process, and it meshes together into a meaningless blur. In short, complexity and details do NOT automatically make a manga superior to any one or another. It requires balance, which One Piece lacks.
CHARACTERS
Here I will address both the general character design and the artistic design. The characters are, for the most part, loud, excitable, hooplah-generating machines. While there are characters who are "quieter", like Chopper or Nico, their characters often seem to get caught up in the overwhelming wave of energy that is mass-produced from other characters. I am certain that in any other manga these characters would be excessively loud in their own regard.
By loud, I mean that the characters lack much subtlety. They all have their reasons for sailing with Luffy, and they all have goals and dreams and backstory. However, their baseline personalities are caricatured versions of the person that these histories would've otherwise produced. Sanji is OBSESSED WITH WOMEN, Zoro is OBSESSED WITH SWORDS AND STRENGTH, Usopp IS A COWARD EXCEPT HE PULLS HIMSELF TOGETHER FOR HIS NAKAMA, Franky ALWAYS NEEDS MORE MODIFICATINS, Brooks IS LITERALLY BONES AND MUSIC AND PUNS, Nami IS A STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN. It's all so superficial; they all lack nuance. It's boring and annoying and grating after 700+ chapters of the same shallow characterizations.
One of my largest issues with One Piece is the simple visual character designs. I understand that the manga is surrealistic; however, there is a limit to how noodly people can get (and I'm not just talking about Luffy!) If people are thin or normal, then they are streched out, strange thin bendable shades of people. The opposite does not improve the situation; when they are large, they are just a mountain with eyes and appendages. One can capture the essential form of a person and transform it into a surreal caricature which still manages to express the essential qualities of a person; this mangaka cannot do that. People become monstrous, and it eventually feels like I'm reading a webcomic about an entirely different species.
OVERALL
The manga is popular. The manga is huge. The manga grosses more money than any other.
The manga's story has been the same theme for so long that it has lost its flavor. The manga's art shows severe deficiencies in simple framing abilities. The manga's characters are as shallow as the plot.
It's not terrible, being as large as it is. However, its size has blinded people to its very real faults. It's a good manga to read if you want to understand what your manga-loving friends are talking about; it's not the manga you want to read if you want a manga to digest, thoughtfully and slowly. The appeal of this manga comes from the community, not from the manga itself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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