Recent Reviews

The artwork in this manga is consistently beautiful. The backgrounds are detailed, the action scenes are easy to understand and the side characters have individuality. The mangaka also does a great job of allowing the artwork to tell the story rather than relying on excessive dialogue.

Though most of the characters have a hint of cliche, their development and their personalities are interesting. Even though I've seen their "types" in other manga, it was easy for me to fall in love with Aidou and Zero because of their stories and presentation.

Unfortunately, as the manga progresses you'll see that the characters' personalities are greatly affected by the manga's change in tone and plot. Normally, this type of development is welcome. However, because the story becomes so convoluted and unfocused, the characters suffer as well.

I rate it at a 7 because the art is wonderful and the first story arc is enjoyable. I only continued reading after the first arc because I felt obligated. Overall, it isn't terrible but after reading the first story line you expect more than what you receive. So be warned that the end of this manga isn't nearly as good as the beginning. read more

Simply amazing. For such a short visual novel this really blew me out of the water. The artwork in cooperation with the its OST and the brilliant story. Be sure to check this out guys

From Clamp to Urarsawa to Tezuka, each series from the respective authors have distinct art styles that can be recognized through the course of their works. Some have even became staples in the world of manga art that many authors try to incorporate into their own series. Now what if one author decides to rather experiment with multiple styles in both structure and character models rather than sticking to one consistent style? Throw in some extremely sexual scenes and grotesque gore while adding a cup of cynicism and you have Usamaru's four panel series, Palepoli.

As one may expect from a four panel manga, there's no real plot and the whole series runs on comedic gags. In Palepoli, many of the gags are extremely adult rated that ranges from grotesque deaths that are handled like child's play to full on sex scenes that are treated like a joke.The series is also not afraid to poke at touchy subjects as incest, suicide, and even satirical jabs on religious symbols are common. In between all of this also includes references to other works (Such as Golgo and Doraemon) and allusions thrown in. Overall, the humor is very hit and miss as some of the gags start to repeat over and over with little change. Some scenes also just left me with disgust as the manga attempted to see how much it could shock the reader.

The art is the real star of the show. These panels range from being very detailed and realistic, to simplistic and cartoony, to everything in between. Bizarre facial expressions and and even optical illusions are also utilized which makes for a unique experience like no other.

If you want something different in style and structure and don't mind overly sexual and bizarre scenes, then I'd recommend giving it a try as it's a ride that one will never forget. read more

So I just finished reading the Afro Samurai manga, and I have a few things to say. I've been racking my brain trying to figure if I liked the manga or anime better for Afro Samurai. I have the manga rated slightly higher than I do the anime, but that's just for a few things I didn't like with anime. You can read my review on that if you wish.

So the story of the manga is quite different than the anime actually. While it still has the same premise of Afro trying to kill No. 1, all of the events have pretty much been changed around sometimes occur in different orders. I think I enjoyed the story of the manga better than the anime. That's just personal preference though.

The art was decent, nothing special. It was sometimes hard to tell what was happening in some of the fight scenes, at least for me.

The characters were pretty much the same as from the anime, with a few differences here and there.

I really enjpyed this manga. There are certain things I prefer from the anime over the manga and some things I prefer from the manga over the anime. I really did not like the ending to the manga though, but then again that's just me. I wasn't too fond of the anime ending either.

In the end I would say if you are a fan of the anime then you would most likely very much enjoy the manga. It's only 10 chapters so it should take a day to run through it. It'll keep you entertained for the day.

So in the end I'm going to give this manga a 6.9. A strange score I know, but I don't feel it's truly worthy of a 7. I'll just leave rated a 7 for the review. read more

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm not an expert nor a fan of asian horror. Why?, well I'm not too sure myself to be honest, I haven't seen that many asian horror movies so perhaps the bizarre style of this manga feels too foreing to me because of that. While I acknowledge that, I do love horror as a genre in many forms of media such as books, movies, video games, etc. Take my review for what is worth with that in mind.

Introduction:
What makes a good horror story?, Is it the hopelessness we like to see portrayed by the characters in the story?, the well managed twists that make everything previously shown understandable?, the unsettling atmosphere that makes you look over your shoulder every couple of minutes?, or perhaps it is the realization that we humans are fragile beings, and our life can end in the blink of a second. Regardless of what's more important to you in a horror story from these elements, It's my personal belief that this manga doesn't succeed in any of them. Let me tell you why.

Plot:
I will divide the review of the plot in two parts. The first part will cover the main story that starts off the manga and the second part will cover the short stories that come afterwards.

-Main Story
Anamorphosis no Meijuu starts off the first of It's stories with a an interesting premise and a lot of potential, unfortunately that potential soon goes down the drain. A group of people are invited to a contest called "Ana Morphosis" in order to survive in a basement floor with a number of rooms for each participant and the recreation of a murder scene in that same basement. A "medium" summons the spirit and then the participants must resist the urge to escape through the elevator and...survive for 48 hours to recieve a cash prize.

The basics for a survival game are set and we can feel the expectation for what's about to happen, questioning ourselves with what we know is the usual formula for this premise, "Who will survive?", "Who's the coward, the gutsy and the comedian of the group?". As such, this set-up is certainly not groundbreaking, but with the correct amount of suspense and atmosphere it can still succeed if it shows us the emotional responses of the characters in an interesting way. This however is one of the many reasons why the manga fails, the characters are bland and predictable in their usual, previously mentioned archetypes with no one becoming remarkable as the story progresses. As such, we feel nothing as the characters die one after another.

The twists that reveal the truth of what's going on are rushed with no time to absorb what's happening to the characters at the end, not only that, but the grand scheme of the perpetrators towards the victims is quite stupid and poorly explained. The story ends with little to no regard towards pacing and an unsatisfying conclusion puts the final nail on the coffin of a story with an interesting premise brought down by an abysmal execution.

-Short Stories
There are 9 short stories after the aforementioned main story. Most of the stories are comedies with a strange and grotesque form of body horror, a branch of the genre that seeks to find horror in the degeneration and corruption of the body.The "body horror comedies" as I prefer to call them, only become more and more bizarre towards the end. A couple of stories are quite sexual, but they all end in a premise strongly sustained in making the human body seem like a sort of meaningless toy that can be played with, with little to no consequence. The stories left me quite perplexed as to what was the author was trying to portray, perhaps it was mostly shock imagery mixed with his own brand of dumb and incoherent humor.

One could call the stories disturbing or perhaps bizarre, but the words that I think describes them the most are incoherent, messy and stupid.

Art:
The art style portrayed in this manga is for the most part very realistic, the first story is very photographic in the character design, with everyone looking almost rotoscoped in the way they look. During the short stories however, the art style continues in a realistic fashion but in a more stylized way, you could compare it with the style of Junji Ito, author of the Uzumaki horror manga.

Overall the art style works well with the often grotesque drawings of the manga, composed mostly of blood and gore, but it's otherwise forgettable. There weren't any illustrations that shocked me or stayed with me after I finished reading, so it all blended in a very mediocre way in my head during the whole read.

Conclusion:
The main story had a lot of potential to craft a well paced survival game, but the author rushed the story and the ending explanation was very dissapointing.

The short stories are incoherent and contain a very dark and disturbing humor that didn't resonate with me to the point that I think most of the comedy was quite dumb, though, If comedies with gore and weird stories are your thing, you might want to give them a look. Be warned though, these are not for the faint of heart.

Recommendations:

If you are looking for a good horror manga to read, these are a couple of my favorites:

Shiki (2007)

A tale of a rural Japanese town in the middle of nowhere where the desire of the townsfolk to maintain their normal lives is crushed beneath the weight of the darkness pouring in.

I am a Hero (2009, ongoing)

View the zombie apocalypse (?) through the eyes of a socially awkward mangaka assistant, his manerisms and kind-hearted personality guiding him in the middle of the breakdown of society.

Thanks for reading! read more

REMEMBER THAT ALL THE THOUGHTS IN THIS REVIEW IS MY TOUGHTS ONLY!!

Bakuman is the story of the 2 boys "Mashiro Moritaka" and "Takagi Akito". Through the series we are following these 2 boys when they try to creat the best manga in japan. Their main goal is to get one of their mangas into an anime.
You could call this a fast summary of the story. I feel like writing more actually would ruin some of the excitment in reading Bakuman.

Story 8/10

Now for the art. The art in Bakuman is really really good, the way they have the pages and chapters layed out is also making some of the way the art looks in this Manga. The expression of the characters is also very good.

Art 10/10

Characters: The most characters in Bakuman is really fitting for the series. They all look like normal people but still they have that little something special that makes charcters remembered.

Character 9/10

Enjoyment: I think that this isn´t something i could say opinions on. Everyone have different kinds of things they like, but I can say one thing, after the first chapter you actually want to keep on reading.

Enjoyment 9/10

Overall:
+ Characters, Art, excitment, expressions and the way they bend their series (i will explain that in a moment)

- Some chapters felt just liked rushed manuscripts, I would enjoy more chapters.

Overall 9/10

Now for the thing i mentioned earlier.
This manga does have 176 chapters and i would really enjoy more of them BUT, This kind of manga is special. I dont get at all how they were able to keep a series like that for so many chapters, they come up with new stuff after you thought it would soon end. This thing is almost turning my 9 into a 10.

//Liuz3
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Even though the introduction makes the impression that this manga is an episodic-styled, comedic, and typical ghost-exterminating story, it is really not. Ga-rei really is a plot-intensive (heavily involved in a lot of mysteries of the past), action-packed, and intense light-romance manga.

In fact, I call the broad category of manga that possess the level of intensity in works such as Ga-rei: epicness! Seriously. Just when the protagonist fell into an absolutely despairing situation, Kensuke always does something epic that saves the day. Anyways, that feeling just can’t be put into words…

Another one of the biggest strengths that Ga-rei has is the way it narrates the story. Instead of the usual “third-person” narrative, it uses “first-person” narrative, which is rare in manga. The advantages of latter choice is expressing the protagonist’s thoughts and emotions directly in the manga panels. In this case, Segawa does this extremely well because the sentiments of the protagonist feel real, and his thoughts are what any normal person would think under those situations. Soon, audiences are pulled into Kensuke’s thought, and this is part of what leads to Ga-rei’s epicness.

The art in this manga is also refreshing, although whether I wouldn’t know whether this novelty is a good or bad thing for readers. For me, it is a plus. I liked how the mangaka would draw the lines and curves slightly thicker than others.

For the finishing touch, all good plot-heavy action manga should have some romance between main characters in the mix (the opinion of my teenager self), Ga-rei is no exception. It is not a lovey-dovey romantic tangle. But, you know, the male character saved the female character from absolute death for a few times, and vice versa. Plus, there is a satisfying enough romantic conclusion for the couple. All is well.

Story: 9
Art: 8
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 9

Originially posted @ http://bunny1ov3r.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/no-16-ga-rei/ read more

I could write lots of good and bad things about this manga. It had its own downhills and uphills, but have finally finished with a - in my opinion - beautiful ending.

Let's face it, the story wasn't that original to start with and the characters were stereotypes or idealized men and women. Although Yuuki - our heroine - is like that too, she was my favourite character in the beggining, but that changed when an important incident occurred(don't want to spoiler it for you, although it's quite obvious). She is cheerful, hard-working, always trying to do her best. Kaname and Zero are typical male characters: the sexy, elegant, kind man and the sexy, stubborn, hard-working bad guy. They're not anything special, but you may start liking them if you're into massive shoujo stuff. :)

If you want to read an awesome review about this manga, there are a lot of honest and true writings out there. The only reason why I wrote this, is because I've just finished reading VK, and I really liked the ending, which was IMHO far better than the last, like 30 chapters. It was a human ending, many people who loved this manga and its characters probably shed tears over it. Of course, when you get to the, for instance, 15th chapter, you can already guess the story will be a bit gloomy and without a true happy ending. That couldn't happen, who has read the first few chapters should be able to figure that out.

Anyway, it leaves me with no sorrow, no grieving for another volume, not even a side story – although that is really likely to happen. Overall, I give it an 8. I’m really glad I didn’t stop reading it halfway through, its end lived up to my expectations – far more, it was much better than I first thought it would be. I recommend you to read it even after you’ve watched the anime.

(sorry for my english, I’m not native)
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Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa

the ending, not happy ending...

i want Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa continue

why the ending not happy ending ?

Thanks all

I started Fairy Tail before the Big 3, and it was one of the first long ongoing shonen manga that I've read (and watched). While it started mediocre, Fairy Tail reached high potential once it reached the Phantom Arc and onwards. And I must say that I was captivated from that point onwards.

But then the more I read, the more I began to enjoy it less. There is this lack of uniqueness in the plot of each arc, where it begins to form a pattern of Fairy Tail fighting this dangerous enemy, and gets thoroughly defeated. Yet after no training, no whatever, they seem to do much better in a one on one battle, finishing the arc off with Natsu beating the big-bad with some kind of "power of friendship".

If this happens once, or even twice, in a story, I would just overlook it as a writers' block for the mangaka, but unfortunately, for Fairy Tail, it seems to be the basis for almost all the story arcs. I'd like to point out that Natsu has NEVER lost a deciding battle, no matter how strong they are supposed to be. What's worse his that he doesn't even train for it, and the only permanent-powerup he gets is from someone else magicing him stronger.

And then lately, it was the last straw. When the long awaited battle in the Grand Magic Games ended up in an anti-climatic surrender. Shortly afterwards, the mangaka has spent at least 10 pages on wasting space and room by drawing our main character naked for no reason other than fanservice. I can't say I can expect anything from Fairy Tail anymore. read more

I'll keep this very short.

My thoughts after reading up to CH.45

"God this manga is so fucked up, and I've read some pretty fucked up shit. Nevertheless, its very entertaining, in a fucked up sort of way".


The story basically starts when the main character, comes across a bag left by the class beauty. He ends up opening the bag, and inside the bag, is her gym cloths. He then hears a sound, and his reaction is to stuff the gym cloths into his school uniform and run away. Little does he know, his actions that day, will not only change his life, but the lives of many others.


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Shokugeki no Souma is a story about a mainstream boy who is trying to get through the toughest and most famous cooking school in Japan. Yukihira Souma has a dream of becoming a professional chef and surpass his father at cooking.

Story -10: Right now, the story is amazing. I've literally fell in love with this. It's no doubt one of the most unique and groundbreaking mangas I've read before. It mixes in lots of comedy, adventure, drama, school life, and even a little romance just do finish the cake! The story really reminds me of Prince of Tennis, Naruto, and Iron Chef all in one. It's really a great story.

Art - 9: Artwork looks great. Very nice and clean look to it. Serious and playful at the same time. Great mixture!!

Characters - 10: These characters are magnificent. They're loving and challenging. Souma is relaxed, but serious when need be. He's strong, faithful to his friends, and loves everyone. Best of all, he never backs down from a challenge. These characters are excellent.

Enjoyment - 10: The novel is just great from the start. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far and the new chapters are no exception to that. Outstanding performance so far!

Overall - 9: Even though I gave a lot of the previous criterion 10s, the story is still very new and doesn't have a lot of chapters yet. It is updating at a pretty good rate though. However for the time being, I'll keep it at a 9 since it's still young. If the manga continues just as it is now and sticks to the story line, the will easily be a 10. I strongly recommend this to anyone who's looking for something to read. I know some people this is ecchi but so far, I haven't really seen a huge ecchi theme. Sometimes the characters get all flustered up eating the food and it is portrayed like sex, but really I think thats just humorous. Don't read this if you're just looking for a good ecchi theme book. It's not :| read more

Rising x Rydeen is basically a superhero story. It's about a group of "strangers" who fight evils in the world. These strangers have extraordinary powers like lightning, fire, etc.

Story - 9: I find the storyline a little confusing. It's really good, but can be confusing in some parts. It's very unique and very funny too which is the main reason why I gave it a 9. If it becomes clearer, I think this would easily become a 10. So far the story is extreme good and worth reading. Somehow this story kinda reminds me of Love Hina. Silly but serious guy who in a sense is trying to win the hard to get girl.

Art - 9: Great artwork. Emphasis on boobs which really is annoying in my opinion.

Characters - 9: The characters are extremely serious when it comes to fight but just plain silly any time after. They look like heroes but then turn into high schoolers. I think it's a fun and entertaining mix.

Enjoyment - 10: So far I really really like this manga. Even though it's not the best I've read or am reading, I'm really interested in what happens in this manga. I feel like it's got 2 story lines happening at once I guess...

Overall - 9: Great manga. Read it if you like adventure, harems, love and romance, and just simple comedy.

Note: If you're here for fighting, you'll be disappointed. Sorry :( read more

Minamoto-Kun Monogatari is an adaptation of Tale of Genji. I actually have read ToG and really enjoyed it. This is pretty similar. Modernizes it into a college boy's life. The book would fit under Comedy, Ecchi, Harem, Romance, Seinen.

Story - 9: It's not super original, but it is captivating. I won't lie I read to the first 50 chapters within like an hour. I think the story can somewhat connect to some people and how they're struggling with different relationships. Minamoto himself experiments with different women from different backgrounds. I think a lot of people can relate which makes this story good.

Art - 10: I think the art is amazing. Everyone looks really pretty! This may sound gay but the guys look good too. Great art. More mature than I expected and very pretty.

Characters - 9: Idiot and pathetic protagonist. But that's really mainstream now in these love stories. I still think the characters are really unique and funny. I love them all.

Enjoyment - 9: Enjoying the story so. It's actually pretty funny to read this. I've laughed out loud several times. I already stated that it is consistently producing good chapters. I'm just hoping the updates come faster :D

Overall - 9: Very nice in general. I would easily recommend this book to anyone who's interested in love stories and harems. read more

Essentially, a much more involved, fast pacing version of Kimi no Todoke - but not to say it's worse. I find it a much more interesting watch as compared to Kimi no Todoke. The protagonist Mei is unfriendly but she's confident unlike Sawako of Kimi no Todoke. The romance here develops much farther than the one in Kimi no Todoke and throughout KnT, I found myself wishing for things to happen quicker and it does in Sukitte Ii na yo. Overall, its an interesting watch, (I believe to be) different than other shoujo anime.

This is my first time reviewing so don't be too harsh.

This manga was one of the first manga i have ever read, i thought it was beautiful. The art was interesting, the character were nicely drawn but gradually once i went on to read more manga and came back to VK only when new chapters arrived, i felt deflated because i found out that this was a typical vampire book with a sappy story and unfortunately at the end, a terrible ending.

I liked it but overall at the end it was only decent. I only gave the overall score a 7 Because of the art and the patience the author took to write/draw it. I will never come back to it nor will i tell anyone to read it, I am not saying it was horrible, if you like the typical romance vampire story with surprising endings and lovable art go for it. I'm not stopping you. Just be warned.

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Coming to grips with the harsh realities one faces in adolescence, the insecurity of one's place and purpose in the world, the realization of one's true self, and the impact that society can have on a person: these are all realistic obstacles and troubles that humans face every day.

Rather than one overarching story plot, the story divides itself into multiple short stories with different characters and their own array of problems. Overall, most of the stories are well done as each handles the situation in their own way, whether there was a good result in the end or not. The 4th chapter is the one story that I believe is handled the best as story and characters are seen from the viewpoints of three different characters, and one can see the true impact of how one has effected the other character and their thoughts process as a whole, rather than the preconception one character might have had on another. Some of the chapters however would benefit from having more attention as some of the characters didn't feel as well developed as they could have been (most notably, chapter 5).

To those who may have read Asano's other works, then it may be no surprise for you that the art is very detailed and quite beautiful with the attention that is put into the characters and the backgrounds. This is even true for the bizarre facial expressions that are common through the manga, which can add a comedic effect even when misfortune is happening to an individual.

If you're fine without a work having an overarching plot and if you a manga that can hit close to home with others, than I'd greatly recommend this. If you want something similar that's a bit lighter, check out Solanin, but if you want a work that's a bit more cynical with a darker plot, check out Oyasumi Punpun. read more

The picture of the title, is a little misleading, or at least that's how it appears to me.

It was an entertaining ride to say the least, but I wasn't pleased with the turn of events. This manga starts out humorous, then gets kind of serious, then slightly depressing, then "wtf happened". As you can see, this manga is a bit bipolar. Nevertheless, I can't really say that I regret the time it took to read it.

I gave it an average score, because the ending was a bit, uninformative.

Lately, I've been looking to oshimi shuuzou's series, so I found this manga and I read it in a few days since it is short so I decided to make a brief opinion on it.

I had an expectative on this manga, since other works from this mangaka show readers characters with some deep problem and hard situations to manage in their lives.

So this story, is pretty short, as a result it is hard to develope a complex story on it. But the main concept is not that different, there is a girl, Shino, who has a problem related to get involved with others because she has a problem with speaking accurately. As a result, she developed a shield which separates her from the world, which was provoked by her classmates by bullying her. This situation is seen along all the manga. Then she meets a girl who also has a problem (not as evident as hers) who befriends her, and they decide to combine their skills and reduce their weaknesses to create a music band and participate in the school festival. There is a secondary character who is interested in shino, with minor participation. That's all the story, you can try to find a deeper meaning, but there is no much to look for. It is just clear that both girls have a problem and they try to do something for living.


However, I consider as stated before, that this manga is just one volume so tha mangaka has not much to develope, but the story by itself hasn't many chances to be expanded. About the art, there is no much difference from other works, so it's ok, i would have liked to see a beautiful girl such other series from the same author. The characters are basically both girls, and there isn't an attractive feature on them, just this problem of shino, and they are just school girls. I ended reading this with no major satisfaction

So if you are interested in oshimi shizou style you may take a look on this series. Otherwise i would advice you to read another story.

Story 6
Art 8
Character 5
Enjoyment 5
Ovarall 6 read more

This one is a keeper. Definitely a manga that imprinted a lasting impression on me. Love Hina is an old but gold story. Although I really hated the anime, the manga is just magnificent. The story of a young college boy trying to study hard and find love is really fun to follow.

Story - 10: Excellent storyline all throughout the manga. I don't think a single chapter was boring. The storyline is very serious at times and very relaxed. It has so many aspects you just don't find in a single manga now. I just can't emphasize how great it is. Please read before I spoil it. I think what I really like about this manga is that it doesn't emphasize on anything specifically. In other mangas, something more ecchi would focus on sex or boobs. This balances everything out perfectly. Not too much ecchi, not too much school life, and not too much stray from the main storyline.

Art - 9: Great artwork. Nothing super special, but it is very nice and clean.

Characters - 10: Unforgettable characters. Their lives and personalities are really good. Although they are cliche, I guess the way they're all put together makes it good.

Enjoyment -10: Thoroughly enjoyed all throughout the manga. Literally from page 1 to page XXXX. It was perfection at its finest.

Overall - 10: Easy 10. I can't think of any other love story that has inspired me and entertained me as much as this one. Also since it is pretty old, I feel like this is a great manga to read. I would recommend it to anyone. Literally anyone. read more