Red Sprite

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This is more of a first reaction, rather than a full review. I will update it as the story progresses.

Red Sprite is a manga that started in SJ right after Bleach ended, yet it received close to zero hype, thus not many people have heard of it. The author, Yagi Tomohiro, is also relatively new to the manga industry, having only drawn one more series for SJ, which never took off and ended after 20 chapters. It's safe to assume that the expectations for this series are not set too high.

STORY: I was pleasantly surprised by the story. The mangaka has managed to create ... a unique setting, which is a huge plus in today's saturated shounen industry. In only 11 chapters he has managed to create a solid world and has given the reader enough information, so as to prevent confusion, while also not giving out too much. The ordeals thundercore humans face are also very realistic, hence the main cast's troubles stick with the reader.

The progression of the plot is also a potential selling point for this series: this series is quite fast paced. For example, the main character doesn't start off as a total weakling as in other popular shounen. Instead, the first arc begins after a time skip, during which the MC has acquired enough strength to be able to protect himself and his crewmates.

The first arc is both unique and standard. That sounds contradictory at first, but while the premise of the arc is the search for the protagonist's childhood friends, the way the mangaka goes about developing it is different to what we've seen in most other manga so far.

As for complaints I have with the story, I guess I'm not entirely sure where exactly it is headed at this point. Sure, the protagonist has set a goal for himself, but since it's different to the goals of other shounen protagonists, I can't see where this is going. That might be a huge advantage to this series, but the mangaka is treading on new ground, which means that there isn't a set recipe he can follow. Instead, everything depends on his skills as a writer, something which he hasn't proved yet.

CHARACTERS: There is not much to say about the characters at this point, since it's too early. The main character is a classic shounen protagonist, somewhat similar to Luffy in my opinion, since he is quite strong, confident and immature, yet has those few moments where he exhibits unexpected maturity. There is a relatively large cast of characters, but most of them haven't got enough time yet, so I can't comment on them. Two people that stand out are his two childhood friends. They have been fleshed out quite well for the time being.

ART: In the beginning the art was average. It wasn't bad, but it left no impression on me. I'm happy to say that lately I have seen steady improvement and certain panels, where the mangaka "flexes his muscles", were very impressive. I can see this turning in a very good looking manga in the future.

(I'm not in the position to write a paragraph about enjoyment yet. This is too early to judge)

OVERALL: I think this series shows a lot of promise and I hope it turns into something great. However, I can't be sure about it for two reasons: First of all, it hasn't got much attention. That's very scary, since this could indicate a premature cancelling of this series, which would be a huge shame. Secondly, I feel that, while it has the potential to become a relatively popular series in SJ, there is also a high chance of the author making a mistake developing the story, due to not following any paved path. This means that there is a high risk of it crashing and burning.

Ultimately, I feel this deserves more attention and would definitely recommend that you check it out.

Edit: Well, it got axed. Sad, but expected I guess.

Red Sprite had a lot of potential, and sadly it got the ax like so many series all too soon.

What I really enjoyed about Red Sprite was the world. It had a clear steampunk WWII aesthetic going on... or would it be more appropriate to call it electropunk? Anyway, really cool setting where babies are experimented on to be, essentially, human batteries to power weapons. There was a clear and achievable goal from the get-go, which is for the main character, Tatsu, to find his brothers and sisters that were taken from the orphanage. It just so happened that taking down a dictatorship is the ... easiest way to do that.

The characters haven't had much time to grow, but you clearly understand where all of them stand and where they're coming from. Already, I am loving the Red Sprite's crew led by Tatsu. In the few chapters that we got Tatsu had already saved two of his comrades. One of them being the best boy, or girl(?), Mono. Mono is such a sweetheart and I must protect them with all my heart.

I really appreciated that the series didn't end with a quick wrap-up. It got to the point where it was between stories and had a classic cliffhanger. Those are some delicious balls to leave us off on. And to think that they also just introduced these nightmarish enemies who regenerate from the ashes of the dead. Ugh, such potential.

If there was one major weakness this manga has it's in its exposition. Not that there isn't any, quite the opposite. I think the first chapter really soiled a lot of readers because it is one of the heaviest expository chapters I have ever read. What sucks is that it's all necessary, but there's just too much we needed to know in order for the story to kick off. Sadly, the exposition doesn't get any better later on even though there is less of it. Characters will randomly spew science in order for us the reader to understand what is going on. At times I feel like the art conveys a lot of the heavy lifting, and if the author used captions instead of characters it may have felt easier to read.

Story: 6/10
Art: 6/10
Character: 5/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

Red Sprite - Sequel to Bleach (?)

Red Sprite (in Japanese, Redo Sprito) is a manga that started in Shonen Jump (SJ) right after Bleach ended, on August 29. By this, people had high hopes for this series and had hoped that Red Sprite (as a title) would become a regular series in the magazine. That didn't happen and so it ended in 15 chapters. Instead of a great/epic series (as main shonen series are supposed to be), what came to the readers was a series that was desperate for the spotlight and didn't realize its full potential.

The beginning of it all happens pretty much as ... other shounen titles, which is promising. Our main character Tatsu Frampt, a young boy who lives in an orphanage nowhere near the city, dreams that one day he will be the captain of his own airship and travel around the world alongside his friends, and this is all you need to know. And I know that there is a lack of new shounen adventure manga out there but this is not a good example, as something good enough to be reading inside that genre. I say this because this series wanted to catch the attention of the readers by adding fight scenes early on without any sort of character development and that's a great mistake (as being an error). Because this series was canceled, many characters were not developed or memorable, making it kinda edgy. I must say that the art was something decent but there's nothing special about it. The reader doesn't even recognize the author, even by other works done by itself (I didn't read Iron Knight so I don't count it). Without that, Red Sprite is even worst than we thought it would be.

You can tell that the author got pressure when making this manga and this is the result of a bad planning. As this manga didn't get a badass story, badass character, badass main character or even an ending who is not very explanatory this justify why it gets zero hype. It got axed and people knew this was coming so it's not a big of a deal now.

Story: 3 | Art: 4 | Character: 3 | Enjoyment: 3
Score: 3

Personal Note: I try many times to complete this manga and I didn't when it came out. Eight months later I finally did it but it was not my fault.