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May 21, 2023
English is not my first language
If you expect to find in rookies a manga focused exclusively on baseball as I expected, I'm sorry to inform you that you won't find what you want. But that's not a bad thing at all, because what you'll get is a mix of a sports manga and GTO (great teacher onizuka).
Rookies is as much about baseball as it is about its characters and their dramas and dreams, the critique of the education system and the professional conduct and duty of a teacher.
In a way, rookies reminded me a lot of American sports movies: It's not just about the sport,
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so much so that there isn't as much focus on the rules and the complex techniques that can be used (which are usually presented with more complex explanations in mangas), but how sports, be it baseball, football, football or basketball, is something important to the characters and how they really want to win; that's where much of the emotional weight comes from. And the final pages only reinforce this idea, since a distribution of credit is made at the end for the staff and the editorial board
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 10, 2023
Attention: english is no my first language
You know, I have a love-hate relationship with sports manga. I love the passion and emotion shown in these mangas, but unfortunately, they always end up repeating the same escalation problem, which manifests itself in two main ways;
A) Superficial drama. A complete storm in a teapot, which could be resolved with a simple dialogue.
What usually happens is that these mangas have going on for a long time and all the dramas have already been resolved very early on; a clearly miscalculation. So the author always tries to invent new problems out of thin air, instead of developing
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something he could have established at the beginning. And these new problems are almost always silly or too over the top, as the author is always trying to escalate the drama, make them more serious or urgent, resulting in the mentioned storm in a teapot.
B) breaking of previously established suspension of disbelief. Characters start doing inhuman things when it's already been established that this wasn't a fantasy work.
Wanting to create new exciting moments, but being faced with the fact that there is an exact amount of what can happen within a game, with many of them the author having already reproduced in his work, many authors choose to just repeat what they have done before, but in a more exaggerated way to the point of defying the laws of the established reality (you don't have to follow the rules of real life, but you do have to follow the rules of the reality YOU created).
I have no problem mixing fantasy and real sport, but be consistent. Inazuma eleven, the anime/manga where the fate of the world is decided by football, is much more faithful and consistent within the rules and tone previously established. And tone is also something very important, because, in my opinion, those reallity breaks are made using such silly ideas, but taken so seriously, that it just look ridiculous, sometimes to the point of being cringe. It's like they copied an idea from Inazuma eleven and translated it into a more serious tone, which doesn't erase the sillines of the idea, but create a weird discrepancy of tone.
But I am happy to inform you that this does not happen here at Slam dunk. Firstly, because the personal drama is not the main focus of the work or are they resolved early on. Takehito Inoue, the author, managed to develop and have their climax only at the end without dragin to much, somethings not that amazing, but somehow uncommon in Manga. And also: superficial drama is not something you will find here.
And for the performance escalation issue, takehito not only demonstrates his basketball knowledge, but also his ability to implement them in the games.
rebound
Accidental, Purposeful AND Technical Fouls
offensive charge
injuries
30 second shot clock violation
jump ball
3 point shot
free trow
Wrong Pass(to the enemy)
invalid pass
extended game
illegal defense
jump shot
layout shot
Alley-oop
screen out
mid-air dunk
And obviously, the slam dunk
All that can happen in a game, takehito uses to create exciting games; The Last game is simply the best game in any sports manga I've ever seen. Again, the amount of combinations that can occur in a game and keep making them interesting is definitely limited, but not low. Unlike other authors, takehito shows that his knowledge is not something superficial that even an amateur would know. You not only have fun, but also learn.
Another thing that slam dunk doesn't do is create players who are just one trick wonder. When talking about basketball Mangas that have this escalation problem, it's always common to have some characters with extraordinary skill, whether it's making 3 points or jumping high, who end up not doing much more than that during the course of the work, with the only difference being the increasingly exaggerated execution(the escalation).
To me, these characters don't look like professional players, but like these showmen who make videos that go viral on the internet but hardly can put their skill into real games. And in slum dunk, although there are characters with certain strengths, they are not limited to just that, in fact, the author even makes us get used to these strengths in order to then make the character accomplish something outside his specialization in a fantastic way and decisive for the game, which again, in my opinion, is better than doing the same old thing in an over the top way. And I also think it gives a real sensation that they're real basketball players and not just Showman.
Another strong point of the manga is its art in the final stage of the manga. Here, you can slowly see inoue's journey into becoming one of the greatest manga artists.
I also think I couldn't not talk about the influence of this manga. Slam dunk is a manga that was so copied that probably a lot of new readers will think this is just another generic sport manga in the beginning. Seriously, the influence of slam dunk is something that should be more debated. Even if a today sport manga author wasn't inspired by slam dunk, he probably was inspired by another one who was. The impact of slam dunk even transpast manga and made a cultural change in japan. Takehito Inoue even received a commendation from the Japanese Basketball Association, for his services to the sport, in 2010.
The only negative points I can point out without giving away any spoilers are:
1) By the end, the manga will give you a feeling of an abrupt ending and that more could be told. It'sa realistic ending considering what happens, but not very well delivered;
2) Sakuragi, the main character, is used as comic relief in excess, which ends up erasing a little of his evolution as a player and as person;
3) Misused characters like haruko and ayako. This could also be partly to blame for the abrupt ending, which robbed them of their chance to be used more, but only partly, as they could play a more decisive role during the run, not just at the beginning, like in Haruko's case. In ayako's case, she is ALMOST useless from start to finish.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 10, 2023
English is not my first language
Reverse the roles. This type of romanization in popular manga would put the internet in flames if the sex were changes. I see np problem to depict this type of marriage, partly because this happens in real life, and partly because of freedom of writing whatever you want, but when you start romatazing this shit.. nah bro. People may defend saying they relationship is not sexual so is not wrong, righ? No! There's no sexual relationship but there's clearly a emotional one. This shit is traight up grooming and there's nothings you can say that can refute tha.
The art
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is dope tho. The details herer are amazing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Feb 10, 2023
English is not my first language
The problematic of this manga has gone beyond the point of being forced, which many manga that take place in school have, and it has become just plain stupid. This tension between the schools has no rationale, and the teachers also being part of this tantrum only makes it more ridiculous. The fact that the two schools are single-sex should actually encourage students to interact with each other, as they are deprived of this contact for hours.
In the course of the plot there are some more silly dramas, like the MC's friend getting annoyed because our MC didn't want to
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tell something about his PERSONAL LIFE, as if he had an obligation. This friend is that, a friend, not a father, not a boyfriend, not a brother, so I didn't see much point in all that drama.
Episodes ahead, there are several other moments that are much more dramatic than necessary, WAY more than necessary. The author wants to create impactful scenes in every way possible. some of these moments are even embarrassing. What's worse is that the author must think these moments are super cool and even badass in certain cases, but are actually just Corny because of how forced they are.
Zero emotional intelligence on the part of the main characters.
FMC is one of those characters that the author portrays as a good person who always wants to help, but the end result is a naive person who doesn't think much and doesn't know much about life (which, in my opinion, is reinforced when in the middle of the second volume she is already stating that she loves the MC). When analyzing her actions, I don't see a selfless person, but someone who fails to notice the toxicity of others. Her friend tries to go behind her back and push the MC away from her and in the end it's the FMC who ends up apologizing for making her worry about her safety...jesus. A genuine person would understand where his friends actions come from and, despite excusing him, would not make excuses for his actions and would scold him for it. Here, she doesn't give a fuck, she's her friend so it's okay, you're automatically excused. It's ridiculous that this character trop is repeated so much in manga, especially shounen fantasy, and nobody noticed this. Thet aren't selfless people, they are just ingenuous, or just plain stupid.
And there are certain moments where i feel like I'm reading a manga for children, because of how silly certain parts are(like the above), which creates a huge discrepancy of when it's taken too seriously.
The auto also tends to take the readers for idiots when explaining everything the characters are feeling and going through, or he is simply incompetent in showing and not telling what is going on (which is a great achievement, considering that this would be something easier to do here than in a book, since we are in visual media). Everything that happens is chewed up by monologues and presented to you in such a way that you don't have to stop to understand the characters. Sometimes these chewing scenes are so big and ridiculous that they stretch for pages. Sometimes I feel like these moments take up more than half the pages of certain chapters; this is not hyperbole, these monologues occupy almost entire episodes.
Inconsistent art. At one moment the art is beautiful, especially when it comes to the FMC, but at others it's so clumsy because of how crooked the faces are sometimes.
How does this manga have such a high rating?
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 10, 2023
Attention: English is not my first language
Yet another compilation of generic tropes performed in stupid ways. It's the execution that matters in the end, and here it didn't work.
Just like in bleach, the MC here is very special, he always awakens new powers in a moment of need, without ever having to train to develop the skills he already has. Usually this occurs when thinking about friends promising or something like that, like saint seya. The power of friendship is a key piece here.
As standard in these mediocre shounen, talk no jutsu is the cure-all solution to all the problems the characters are going through
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in their minds. Usually it's a shame to have this solution, because the characters' problems are usually very interesting, so it's a shame to have such a quick and poorly developed solution... but that's not the case here. The problems that secondary characters go through are mostly silly or extremely exaggerated. An example is a family composed of bushi, who, by the way, are terrible characters, are going through a very big family drama that occurred due to a very weak kick; it's a storm in a teapot. But all the years of resentment and hatred is resolved with the appearance of the MC, who performs a Talk no jutsu that magically makes them finally talk and resolve everything.
The world doesn't make much sense, but it had its potential, but its worldbuilding, however, doesn't help much. There is a big difference in quality in these aspects between this manga and magi, another work by the same author. Monsters, here called Kishin, have been roaming the world for a long time and there have been few of them since the beginning, and there's yet a lot of them alive, which doesn't make much sense. There are several famous and very strong groups that hunt them and this has been going on for a long time, so how are there so many still alive? even when not every kinshi is strong? Simple, if there were little, there wouldn't be much monster for the MC to kill and story to tell.
This story wasn't very well planned, which is a surprise when remembering that such stupid manga belongs to the same author as Magi, a work that is much better planned and executed, even considering some reservations that I have with the characters and themes of the Magi.
And both the main and secondary cast are uninteresting and lame. It's the same thing every other seasoned shounen reader has encountered, but in a worse way. If you like it, good for you, but if not, good luck if you decide to read it, because orient is 100% made up of them. The worst case is the MC, who has the intelligence and maturity worse than asta from black clover. Talk no jutsu is already a stupid annoying thing, but here is in another level. And just like in many other shounem, here the problem of minimizing the harm of some characters is makingnor maked, like, there's one that is portrayed as a super nice guy, but he enslaves people... I realized right away that the author would not go deeper into this and this was created just to take the MC to the place the author wanted, so no one should think about it too much because even the author himself didn't think... but still... that doesn't erase that he enslaves people (something which the MC is super against and made a big and stupid speech about) and the characters' reactions to it make no sense (even inconsistent within their story).
The plot is very simple and basic, so, if you don't have any investment is the characters, i dont think you will feel some excitement from it.
About the art: let's say that it is very noticeable when the author made an effort to make the illustrations and when not.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 10, 2023
English is not my first language.
Yet another compilation of tropes, from start to finish. another one of those mangas that just repeat what others have done, with just a few changes. just by the combination of tropes from the first chapter and the obvious theme of the story, which is told in such an in-your-face way that it's embarrassing(i even wondered if the author thinks the readers have a children capacity of analyzing), I already predicted some big plot points.
I'm 100% sure I've seen this exact main character in several other mangas. his shyness and exaggerated lack of social skills is something so beaten that
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i became tired of reading just a few pages. the idea of him spending a large part of the beginning of the work not only ashamed of making the clothes, but of touching the girls, is something that came to my mind and was realized a chapter later. And the fact that the manga is echi means that this would happen again and again.
And due to the theme and popularity of the main female character, I figured it would be a matter of time before the class (or someone from school) saw them interacting, thought it was weird and rumors started (or another similar situation where their close relationship was exposed), which would create a classic scene of her telling him not to walk away from her, that he shouldn't be ashamed, to let others talk blah blah blah.
I foresaw all of this before it happened. so I asked myself: what's the point of reading something so predictable that it makes me tired? so I dropped the manga.
the drama is also very forced. him being ashamed of his hobby and wanting to hide it is something I understand, but isolating himself is something is to much. The author just wants to make his situation more tragic, not caring if it makes sense.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 10, 2023
Attention, English is not my first language.
This manga is already bad in its concept. this universe makes no sense. Why would the government allow such a school to exist? these experiments were to be carried out in top secret military bases; they are developing super fucking human weapons.
if two students clash, they could end up destroying the school! how did the author not think of this? how did the author not realize that this idea of students acting like police is stupid? Teenagers don't have the maturity or intelligence to act like agents of the law. power should not have the main indicator. And there
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are all the moral problems of allowing minors to risk their lives.
This is one of the most poorly designed universes I've ever seen.
and all the rest of the artwork is the same shit you see in other shounem. It's just another collection of generic tropes.
Enemy turned friend. enemy who is a horrible person but has a sad past, so he is automatically excused after regretting. Maybe he doesn't even have a sad past, but he regretted it, so everything he did is automatically excused. harassment=comedy. shallow characters who are always overreacting because... comedy?
the art is the simplest you can imagine. if it simplifies further it would become a sketch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 10, 2023
WARNING: English is not my primary language.
Monologue, monologue and more monologue.
Another manga that has its drama 100% explained by monologues in the first chapters, nothing is left for the reader to interpret; it's amazing the condescension that Japanese authors have with their readers. The concept of subtext seems to be something from another planet for many mangas. All internal conflicts are EXPLAINED in the FIRST TWO volumes. These monologues come out of nowhere and deliver everything important about the characters.
The characters and their dynamics are quite complex, so it's a shame that the author chose to do it this way, instead of slowly exploring, unfolding
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the psyche of the characters over the course of the plot, at least the first three volumes, which are not there very engaging.
Usually, works that are character driven don't have a very exciting plot, but this is rewarded by their characters that make us turn the gears in our heads and think: "What the fuck is going on?" Or "hmm... interesting", but when explaining everything at the beginning, the author unfortunately didn't allow that to happen, so it's very likely that many readers will stop reading because they don't feel anything that makes them scratch their heads in curiosities and go back to fully understand the work.
But despite this long dissertation, don't think that this manga is bad, it isn't and doesn't even come close to being, especially from volume 4 onwards, which is where the plot starts to get interesting. The problem is that i wam just a little frustrated with the narrative approach, which stole the work's chance to reach the value that everyone says it has (I don't think the high score is very deserved). And although the monologue problem reoccurs in volume 6, it's not as bad as it was at the beginning.
My other and only problem would be the meh art.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 10, 2023
WARNING: English is not my primary language.
Less is more.
This is advice the author obviously did not follow.
This manga is a convolution of characters with a sad background. Even minor characters who have no impact on the story get an episode that reveals their entire backstory (which isn't much since they're not important). And that leads us to think: Well, obviously this should be useful later on, right? NO! It's completely useless to the story, it's just an attempt to draw tears.
But it does not matter. What matters is: does the author know how to develop these characters? NO! All character exploration is done through expository
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flashbacks or a monologue that manages to be even more expository than the flashback itself. But over time, these monologues are not only expository, but also redundant, condescending and unnecessarily complex. It may seem counterintuitive to be condescending one moment and unnecessarily complex the next, but trust me, the author has pulled it off.
Just when I think I understand the character's psyche, the monologue comes along and destroys my whole understanding of the character, but not in a good way, like you're subverting expectations, but confusing. They are confusing and pretensous. And it gets to a point where these monologues become melodramatic, which is quite an achievement considering one of the characters was raped. I found it easier to understand the characters by analyzing their actions than through these monologues.
And as if the characters weren't complex enough, there is a love conflict between 6 people(If you don't like the love triangle, you'll hate this one). In the end, one of these 6 gives an opportunity to another of the 6 after realizing that she will never be with the one she likes(one od the 6). and you might wonder: but does she like him? like friend? yes, but lover? very debatable. It's more like a consolation prize, which is pretty rotten and not in line with how the character was developed. And there is not a very strong reason for her to choose him, because if the reason is that he already likes her, there is this 4 character(one of the 6) who also likes her. It's really stupid, Jesus.
The romance at the beginning is interesting, but it never goes anywhere, even at the end of the work we don't know the conclusion of some relationships or if there is a chance of them happening.
And another frustrating thing is how the plot goes in a circle several times in the work. There are too many false conflicts and resolutions for my taste. One moment they make up and the next there's a time jump and it's all bad again. The author just didn't want to progress with the story, but just mumble the character mental state.
The art isn't good, most of the time it's just bland, but there are those rare moments when you can't tell which is which.
There are even more problems, like pacing and characters, but I find it difficult to talk about them without giving spoilers, but believe me, it's not that good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Feb 10, 2023
English is not my first language
Dorohedoro is one of those rare manga these days that genuinely tries to tell its own story, and what a story. It's amazing how this premise that seems so simple ends up developing into such a complex plot. The plot never gets uninteresting and just escalates more and more, both in action and in the mystery behind it all, all combined with good pacing.
But considering that this work started in 2000, it being unique compared to works today is not so strange. He comes from a different time, a time where moe and works that only constitute a
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compilation of Tropes were not yet the rule, a time where manga art tended to have its own touch of individuality and not the generic standard art where everyone resemble mannequins, but with different wigs, a time when the first chapter had no more than 50 pages where the whole premise is told in a hasty way so as to not lose the interest of the readers and be canceled. Dorohedoro just carried the elements of this era during its 18 years of development.
But praise aside, dorohedoro has its mistakes like any other work. And there are 3 sinus problems. they are:
Art: Although I praised her earlier, motivated by the perfect tone she brings the story, I cannot deny that are times when she is an obstacle to understanding what is happening because of how polluted the illustration became. The author exaggerates a lot in black, making it sometimes difficult to identify the outlines of characters, objects and background, making it almost a challenge to understand where they start and where they end, a bit similar to Knights of Sidonia by Tsutomu NIHEI (author of blame ).
Narrative focus: During the course of the story, something that irritated me a lot was the exacerbated focus on secondary characters, who, without any hyperbole, perhaps have more screen time than the main characters themselves. They almost became the main characters, even though the story isn't even about them. This might not seem a problem to you, and it wouldn't be to me either if there wasn't the third problem.
Characters: I bet there are people who have already read the manga who are now reading this review and find this point absurd, even more so when I start to argue that Shin and noi, much loved figures, are not that good as characters. As said, the narrative focus became an issue for me because the characters that received the focus are, for the most part, shallow. Most, but not all, have the depth and motivation of a generic henchman who dies within 3 chapters of his appearance, with the only difference being the characterization, which more closely resembles that of a character who is part of the main character cast.
Shin and Noi are a good example. Can someone who read it really speak with conviction, without making unsupported assumptions, what are those characters' motivations and say: "They're good characters"? Why do they follow En(the head of this criminal organization)? Cash? No, they can get money easily by selling their magic because they are very valuable. Staying protected behind a strong figure like En? No, because they are already quite strong on their own to the point where there are few figures that can go head-to-head. Do they like En or the organization? No, because when En dies and the organization starts to fall apart, they don't show much reaction, mainly noi, who speaks very clearly that she never liked En, so there's no sense of camaraderie or loyalty on their part. The only motivation I can think of for them to join this organization and follow En's orders is because they love to fight/kill, so much so that's how they are presented to us: a combat-obsessed duo. But in the course of the work, the author seems to forget about this part of their characterization, but sometimes, occasionally, returning to this idea here and there, which leaves they characterizations a little inconsistent.
The only vestige of depth that can be taken from them is that they like and care for each other, but beyond that, they are nothing more than shallow characters who only serve as a tool for the author drive the Plot to places wherever he likes; a summary that extends to several characters of the same group. And although many otakus/weebs seem to agree with the idea that more stronger = better character, I don't think that's valid and never will. This type of character, which is copy pasted a few more times in the manga, is not a problem in most cases, since they normally do not have much screen time and die, as said, in 3 episodes after their appearance, something that dorohedoro, unfortunately, go totally against. They are not even bad character's, just not good. At leat they have cool designs, mainly Noi(buff girl rules) and charismatic personalitys.
But not all characters are like those above. There's several characters in the work who pass the questions I asked earlier with satisfactory answers. They characterization, motivations and development are satisfactory, not great, but satisfactory, such as the crosseye group and even two characters from the same group as Shin and Noi: Chota and Fujita, but mainly Fujita, who, despite being used a lot as a comic relief, became one of the best characters in the end. Obviously, I won't forget Kiaman, our MC, who has an interesting, unexpected and intriguing journey for such a simple character in the beginning. A journey that is worth to follow.
One last reservation I have is with the predictability of the ending that the character will have. It is impossible to know where the plot will go, but it is easy to guess the fate of the characters from their characterization. I thought right away in the first volumes who would be dead and who would be alive in the end, even more so with the introduction of a being that can revive the dead. I had a 100% hit on their destinations, something that you, future reader, will probably also achieve with a little observation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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