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Sep 3, 2023
Daisuke Enoshima is a mangaka to keep tabs on. Even with a short run, this series managed to maintain its strong and fleshed out lead characters along with a compelling theme that stays consistent through its solid conclusion. That's not to say that this manga isn't without its obvious flaws.
Despite never catching on in popularity, this series was a hidden gem amongst the many contemporaries that serialized alongside it in WSJ. The biggest problem was the narrative pacing, which is a far too common issue among short lived manga. Once a series is proven to be a dud in terms of sales, the editorial department
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usually lets the mangaka know a bit in advance about potential cancellation and this could happen any number of times. It is apparent especially for a series like this where you can pinpoint two or three different instances where it feels like story was heading to a climactic finish but then continued on anyways. After 36 chapters, it seems Jump finally settled on axing the series for good. As a consequence of this, some aspects are clearly lacking, such as the side characters who are well eatablished with their introductions, but then are relagated to oblivion once the story is forced to move onto an imminant ending.
So why am I going on about the "axe" procedure of Shonen Jump? Well you see, despite the obvious issues that paint the surface, Fabricant 100 at its core is a well crafted and throroughly thought out series that has some brilliant moments of paneling, character development, and thematic story beats. The obvious issues are obvious, but there is so much more to this series than that. The stories we learn through the inhuman fabricants are fantastic, with No100 being an obvious highlight. In fact, I love how up until the end Enoshima maintains consistency with the character; no matter how much a fabricant wants to become an ideal human, they never will be one. At the end of the day fabricants are exactly what their name tells us they are. Nothing more than a mimic of humanity... but that doesn't mean we as humans can't draw meaning and emotion from them. I'm sad that this series didn't get more fleshed out, but I am glad that I got to encounter it nonetheless. I look forward to whatever Daisuke Enoshima does next.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 2, 2022
Stone Ocean is back! What does this batch of episodes have in store? Greatness. That is what lies ahead within the prison walls of Green Dolphin Street. Many people are attracted to JoJo for a variety of reasons; whether it be fights, artsyle, pop culture references, music, memes, story, or the characters. The second part of Stone Ocean has all of those.
We kick off with a battle taking JoJo back to it's horror roots, combined with a short but wonderful revenge story. We then enter a series of back to back brawls where the creativity of the abilities is Araki at his most experimental- and
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they work very well. Along the way the interactions between characters ends up being more BIZARRE yet this nevers soils the severity of the situations at hand. Towards the end of these episodes, Jolyne faces problems that test her mentally moreso than they do physically, which contributes greatly to her development as a character.
In this section of the story we witness great thematic moments, some of which will only be strengthened when certain backstories are revealed in the next batch. What does it mean to be alive? Do your memories dictate your identity? What does it mean to have a soul? Are humans actually bound to a fate?
The animation has really stepped up from the previous batch, and I applaud the studio for their work on these episodes. They added some new scenes which really helped the source material shine.
What else can I say? This was a fantastic adaptation of this part of Stone Ocean. I look forward the the 3rd part.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 23, 2022
Aliens Area comes across as a rehash of the popular battle shounen trend: teenage boy goes through a traumatic event and ends up joing the special organization dedicated to fighting [insert supernatural entity]. The special flavor of this manga is the use of the buddy-cop genre and dealing with aliens. For the first six or so chapters, the story basically moves along as one would expect... cool gadget abilities, new teammates, first mission, mentor flexes their high level power, etc.
And then the plot changes for the better! We enter an episodic format where we gradually learn more about the world this series takes place in.
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One day they're dealing with an alien who is a petty thief and on another day they have to confront one illegally parking a spaceship. It's not all human vs alien fighting in this manga; the daily life of alien law enforcement is on full display. The mangaka has a fun time making these encounters both goofy and endearing.
While Tatsunami has a pretty simplistic goal in protecting his siblings, we slowly uncover more of his personality through these slice of life interactions with the side cast. The mission-by-mission story brings a sense of nostalgia I feel is lacking in the current generation of battle shounen. Instead of rushing through the plot at breakneck speed, we take in this world full of extra terrestrial visitors at a gradual pace and experience it alongside Tatsunami. The casually episodic and day-to-day life aspect of Aliens Area is something I welcome with open arms. This pacing feels like a breath of fresh air in an era of shounen where plot development is demanded every chapter.
When it comes to the art, the mangaka is inconsistent. This is unfortunate, because their rough and sketchy style looks great in most chapters. Other times it just looks sloppy. The same can be said for the paneling too. Battle sequences flow really well but there are other non-action scenes where the transition from point A to point B isn't as clear as it should be. As for character designs, most of them are pretty decent, with the more generic ones having a unique flair to them thanks to the artsyle. I mostly enjoy the designs of the different aliens, but my favorite design is the one for Sharaku. His hair, his scar, his trenchcoat, his cane; the way he is drawn just requires your attention whenever he appears in a panel.
Overall I would have given this manga a 5/10, but because of the laid-back pacing I find myself enjoying the simple advancements of the story, so I'm bumping it up to a 6/10. I recommend it specifically because of how the author takes their time with allowing the series to grow naturally.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 29, 2022
I appreciate what the mangaka was going for but unfortunately it just falls short of average and is a miss for me.
Upon reading the first chapter I had mixed feelings because the first half was a slog to read. Once the phone was introduced, you could see a gigantic change in pace and creativity. We witness a great mini adventure as we see the mc working through a problem with deductive reasoning. The ending was satifying and it felt like it really established what was to come.... but the sad thing is that the next 3 chapters don't use that structure. We return to the
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poorly crafted characters and create absurd logical conclusions out of thin air only thanks to panels and panels of info dumps.
After reading each new chapter for a few weeks I find myself frustrated with how the mc accomplishes what he does with the phone. We don't see any struggle to deduce information. We see no risks to take when having to make a decision based on the data presented. We just watch it happen and the mangaka expects us to go along with it after he already demonstrated that he is capable of writing way better than this. It appears to me that the author had a great layout for the first chapter's use of logic and reasoning but couldn't think of how to do it again with the subsequent chapters.
The art is boring and doesn't draw me in. Same goes for the character designs, although that one detective person and the bad guy at the end of ch 4 are okayish but not by much. The whole "gugugu" naming thing is also just dumb.
I know I sound like I'm being too harsh, however I saw the author demonstrate that they are capable of writing a story around deductive reasoning and then they just proceeded to no do that for multiple chapters. The protagonist feels like he was made specifically to rake in pseudo-intellectuals who unironically think they're smart but are just lazy.
Okay, now for some positives. Aside from what I mentioned previously, there are intriguing elements that I like. The mystery behind the super smart phones and the point system are great ideas that helped to keep me hooked for the chapters I read. The mystery of how his missing brother fits into all of this also interested me. The actual story beats themselves aren't that bad either; I think the idea of the tower raid and the setup of a cat and mouse chase between three characters seems promising. For me personally, they have been poorly implemented into the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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