07-Ghost

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3 years after its completion, I still find myself inexplicably mesmerized by the epic tale that is 07 Ghost.

It's a tale about the rise and fall of kingdoms - about power struggles and political squabbles. But while the military backdrop and history of the land are beautifully carved, 07 Ghost is not a warstory at all. Rather, at it's core, 07 Ghost is a story about accepting all that life has to offer. It's about having the heart to appreciate another's act of kindness. It's about having the strength to move on when bad things happen.

The battle mechanics in the story reinforce this. Characters use ... an energy called "zaiphon" - which conveys the feelings of the user. Although there are different types of zaiphon that are loosely related to the personalities of each character, at the fundamental level, everyone's zaiphon is of the same quality - it is the strength of the user's mentality that determines the zaiphon's strength.

The main character, Teito Klein, is crafted brilliantly. He starts off without the least bit of appeal, an amnesiac with childish tendencies, who mopes about his circumstances all day, but he noticeably grows through the relationships and connections he builds throughout the series, developing a strong appreciation for the world, his friends, and even his enemies, until he eventually becoming a charismatic leader you'll have difficulty taking your eyes off of. It's amazing to watch his journey come full circle through the series.

Yes, it's a cast of pretty boys. Yes, it's cliche as fudge. Yes, the action scenes are lackluster. But by the end of it, I hope you'll agree that 07 Ghost is so much more than that.

Wow. It seems like it was only yesterday that I was still in high school, obsessing over this obscure anime/manga that hardly anyone knew about. In 2009, I watched an anime called 07-Ghost, and let me tell you, I was OBSESSED with it. Almost as obsessed with it as I was with Shounen Onmyouji. I even made AMVs for it, and nothing else ever made me try to attempt that before. One of my best friends even got me volume 3 of the manga as a present once, back when Go! Comi still had the license for it. Of course, those three volumes were all ... that anyone got in the US back then, and unless you read it online, you couldn't read the whole story, since by that time, Go! Comi had shut down, and their licenses were in limbo. I did read it online up until volume 7, but then stopped due to other obligations. Then, several years later, Viz Media rescued the manga, and in 2015, released every single volume. As of this writing, I now own the whole series, and have read it from volume 1 to volume 17. After years of not even touching this manga, and having finally picked it up again, what do I think of it?

Well...I won't lie, the manga does have good qualities, but it's held back by a pretty hefty amount of problems.

At first, the story seems basic. A young boy, Teito Klein, is sent to a special military school thanks to his ability to use a kind of attack energy called Zaiphon, which is very rare for a human. Every day, he has strange dreams that frighten him, but doesn't know why. One day, he overhears someone named Ayanami talking, and suddenly, he realizes why he has those dreams: They're actually memories from long ago, and the man, Ayanami, killed someone he loved and took everything from him. With the help of his friend Mikage, he escapes the Barsburg Empire and finds allies in three bishops of the Barsburg Church: Frau, Castor, and Labrador. In due time, he discovers great secrets about himself, which put him and his friends in danger more often than not, and he is now determined to find the truth behind both his fractured memories, and the history of his homeland, the Raggs Kingdom, as a whole, and doing so may end up destroying the world.

I was introduced to 07-Ghost through the anime first, and I didn't read the manga until a little later. I loved the anime's art style: it was clean, clear, with a lot of bright colors, full of creative shots and camera angles, no distorted faces, etc. On the other hand, the manga's artwork is much more messy. That's not to say the art is bad. Far from it, actually. I think a better word for it would be busy. Lines aren't always clean and straight, there's lots of jagged edges and sharp angles, and sometimes I feel like the artwork could use a lot more polishing. From what I hear, this was the first ever manga made by Yuki Amemiya and Yukino Ichihara, so I think a lot of the artwork's problems can be attributed to them still trying to truly polish and find their art style. Thankfully, the drawings slowly get better and better, though it's still rather busy and all over the place at times.

I also think the jagged, messy artwork also contributes to the manga's other problem: the pacing. Everything goes really, REALLY fast in this manga. First, Teito's in the military academy, them boom he's in the church, then an epic fight scene, then he leaves the church, then there's yet another plot twist that changes everything, and so on. There don't seem to be ANY chapters where the characters can just sit down, breathe, and take a break. If you're a big fan of fast paced action manga, then this is definitely for you. On one hand, there's no filler, so the story is always moving forward, always having something happen, and I've heard some people that don't like the anime say it was too slow paced and had too much filler, with nothing else happening. In the manga, there's always something going on, hardly leaving any moments for the readers to get bored, which is always great! On the other hand, 07-Ghost seems to think that it has to keep going at full speed, taking no breaks, which can make the story really hard to follow at times, what with all the crazy, plot twisting revelations that crop up every few chapters or so. It can really made the reader get all discombobulated, because something's ALWAYS going on and there's hardly any breathing room.

For what it's worth, the fast pacing does manage to keep the characters on their toes, and as a result, they're always changing and evolving. At first, they seem like archetypal anime tropes: the impulsive, reckless main character, the good-hearted skirt-chaser, the smart one who wears glasses, the girly man who loves plants, etc. But with the way the story is always moving forward, it forces the characters to confront their demons, face their pasts, and really change to get from point A to point B. Reading further into the manga, the characters are more than just one-dimensional archetypes with one personality trait. Even the villains are given reasonably good character development that shows that they aren't just typical Saturday morning cartoon villains who want to take over the world. In fact, many of their motives are deep and even sympathetic, even though the manga makes it clear that their actions shouldn't be easily forgiven. The characters, while still a little bland sometimes, really shine over the course of the series.

Of course, even the characters aren't spared from getting bogged down by some serious setbacks, the biggest one of them being Teito. Don't get me wrong, he's a decent main character, if still kinda cliche in some ways. But sometimes I feel like the narrative tries way too hard to make him the center of everything. At one point, he's shown to have the Eye of Mikhail, then it's revealed he's the long lost prince of the Raggs Kingdom, and the list goes on! No, seriously, he's revealed to be at least FIVE different things at once, all of which are super important to the storyline. Now, two or three of these reveals are fine, but more than five? I think this, along with the fast pace and heaps of plot twists kind of bog the story down by making it feel bloated by adding in all of these different elements. If the mangakas just cut out some of the excess fat and tried to develop some of the ideas they already had, I think 07-Ghost would be a lot more refined and polished than it is now.

I was originally going to rate this a little lower, but then I read the ending, which was extremely exciting and satisfying in the best ways possible, which made up for most of the series' flaws. I won't lie, 07-Ghost isn't perfect, and I don't like it as much now as I did when I first saw it in high school. But honestly, reading it again, and in its entirety, was like reuniting with an old friend and catching up on lost time. That old friend is still kind of awkward, but still a great old friend regardless. At least, that's how I see the series. If you're a fan of fast paced action, then this is definitely the manga for you. For their first manga, Amemiya and Ichihara did a splendid job, though not without a few bumps on the way, and from what I hear, they're still making manga. Here's hoping they're successful! While not great, 07-Ghost is a moving, ambitious, action-packed epic that will definitely give you an adrenaline rush.

If only someone would license rescue Cantarella and release its final two volumes!

(just for the record, this is a slight alteration of my anime review)

I’m not homophobic nor I see women only as sex toys and anything you read here is pure sarcasm. I just can’t help myself not making fun of an obviously poorly written series that appeals mostly through erotic aesthetics, rather than good directing and character emersion.

ART SECTION: 7/10 [Don’t I look hot in this robe?]

General Artwork & Backgrounds 4/4: A blend of medieval fantasy and science fiction, the artwork is both catchy and interesting. There was much work and detail given into making surfaces and textures to look fairy tale-ish so the series ... manages to attract you on first looks with its amazing combination of clergy life, occult mystery and military super-soldier projects. So, yeah, the general looks of this series are captivating.

Character Figures 2/2: Hohoho, this is a series of bishounens. Every main and secondary character is made to look like a dream boy any fangirl would kill just to touch his hair. They have glances and smirks that can lure you into their arms in less than 3 seconds. There are some women and old people as well but they are just background decoration or cute mascots, like a perky mermaid, a fuzzy pink critter and a trio of aloof sisters. Most of what you see in the foreground is bishounens women dig and men are envious of.

Although I find it lame to have a picture-perfect cast, I must admit that this series was MADE to be eye candy for a female audience, pretty much like an average harem is full of bimbos and nude aiming at a male audience. This series is almost devoid of nude or blunt fan service yet it doesn’t take much to understand that the characters are made to look and act all erotic. This is NOT a negative aspect; the target audience loves this sort of thing. They are dream males acting all moe and a fine looking cast is what you should expect from it.

Readability 1/4: And here is where things are one big mess. Action scenes and frame flow are terrible! Choreography is a joke, while trying to figure out what exactly is going on is usually very confusing because of the vague way the plot moves. I understand the series was never about the action but this is too much. The only thing you are left to gasp at are the pretty faces and the funky decorations. It is awesome when you look at individual frozen frames; but looking at the chaotic flow of the action in a whole page is just ruining most of it.

STORY SECTION: 4/10 [Oh forget about the fate of the world and just look at me walking elegantly]

General Scenario 2/2: Ok, seriously, this is not a series you watch for the story. It sounds mighty interesting as a concept with military secret ops, mystical temples, scary ghosts, gay innuendos, a sort of detective feeling, a lot of daily fantasy life, you name it. The general idea is mighty interesting. But…

Pacing 1/2: Slow! Very slow! Most chapters don’t even seem to progress the plot and the rest just drag it to the point where you only learn something new just for few frames per volume. Seriously, they could have taken out half the chapters and it still wouldn’t feel rushed.

Side Stories/Extra Spices 1/2: Very few and simple. It is a straight forward story, centered on five people in a world of millions. And that wouldn’t be a problem if it was also a simple story. Yet it isn’t one; it has world shaking events in it. It stays too focused on a few aspects (the military base and the temple) of an otherwise huge and complicating setting.

Plausibility 0/2: With chaotic flow, speed of a snail pacing, and a picture perfect cast spending most of the time looking erotic towards you, you hardly believe this story is realistic or even plausible. And this wouldn’t be a problem if, again, the general story was simple. But it ain’t. Military invasion, murderous ghosts and other world shaking events play less important that a spaced out look from Teito the pretty boy. So ok, it is a light series for aloof viewing but this is just too much. It is just slice of life with some poorly inserted magic dressing that unfolds in a very slow and tiresome way, while focusing too much on erotic aesthetics. The scriptwriter is hardly trying.

Conclusion 0/2: It is still published but I wouldn’t care less about its ending at this point.

CHARACTER SECTION: 3/10 [Pick the one you want to date]
Eh, they are so blunt I won’t even bother separating them into categories. Just like playing a date sim, the series is full of ero/moe archetypes you are suppose to like for their variety in looks and mannerisms and not because of their personalities. Let’s face it, most of the cast was useless to the plot altogether; yet, it was there just so you could pick your favorite amongst the drones. If you ask me, all the characters the series needed was Teito and Mikage (the main couple… err, pair), any one of the priests and Ayanami the psycho military man. All the rest was just dressing and a bad one in terms of personalities. So, although they all LOOK great, very few actually offer anything; and even those few don’t actually blow your mind with their antiques.
It’s less than a half-baked result as they have very little to offer in overall.

VALUE & ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10 [Next please!]
Meh, this series doesn’t really offer anything new or refreshing or even remotely interesting if you are a seasoned viewer. The plot is snoring and the characters too generic. I understand it will feel a lot better for women (the target audience) and far worse to homophobic males (who have no reason to watch a series of pretty boys and devoid of girls in the first place). I for once have seen far better BL, or yaoi or fantasy/sci-fi blend.

VERDICT: 4/10
Down to it, this series is a one-time time killer at best. It will be forgotten soon under some pile of mediocre manga.

SUGGESTION LIST (although I hate those a lot)
Vampire Knight
Kuroshitsuji