Sugoi Smartphone
Super Smartphone

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A new death note caliber manga? I don't think so. Despite it only has 2 chapters up until now and has similar idea of a story with the magical thing that the protagonist owned, I don't think it will be at the same level as Death Note as some people would like to believe.

The story is pretty interesting though with all the superpowered smartphones that can do things, I like to see where it is going. The art is enjoyable and the pace is pretty nice. Its only began its serialization in Jump so you better check it out right now to follow this ... manga.

P.s: the manga title is kinda lame but acceptable

- Overall (6/10):
The best way to describe ‘Super Smartphone’ would be: It’s like ‘Death Note’, but in a friendlier package and with a way more heroic and plain protagonist. The smartphones instead of the death notes and information instead of murder gave a modern touch, but lost its psychedelic and dark aspects. It still tries to add these, but without enough impact. Meanwhile due to the limited time, because of the cancellation, we get a few plain characters. A very soon introduced main villain, some almost unused side characters and a solid, maybe too good, protagonist. So altogether, an appealing manga, which I wished had ... more time to unfold the mangakas ideas.

But let’s see the specs of this ‘Super Smartphone’!

- Processor (6/10):
The core aka the processor of a good manga is a good story (at least in my opinion), and we get that. The premise is that our intelligent, but bored MC finds a ‘Super Smartphone’, which can search for ANY information (within the rules). These can be used to do a lot of crime, like the villains, or as our protagonist, to solve them. And as soon he finds out there are more of them a mind-battle begins.
I’m sure that a lot of you will think, ‘wait a minute… this sounds very familiar!’... Yes, it has many similarities to the concept of ‘Death Note’. However, this modernization appealed to me, but I can understand who thinks why should they read that, if they could read the original instead. On the other hand, which I prefer, why should I read something that I already know, if there is something similar and also interesting. Of course an information battle is not that intense as fighting a murderer. And while ‘Death Note’ definitely tested the Shounen genre’s boundaries, this manga moved within a safer zone, but it was still good. If it wouldn’t have been canceled and it could unfold its own story more, it would have been a solid 7. However, especially at the end, it was way too rushed…

- Display (6/10):
Now let’s see the screen, the resolution and the colors… I mean the tones. And to be honest, the art was nothing special. Not per se bad and still good, but not great either. The character designs were modern, nothing flashy, except maybe the main villain, but maybe also looking more like children/teens than necessary. Solid lining, shading and the backgrounds were rarely empty. Again, the art was good, flawless but not extraordinary.

- Extras (3/10):
The manga’s weak points were definitely the extras, also called characters, which were mostly really nothing more than just some extras. For example, the childhood friend of the MC is just there to be saved in the first arc. The fellow Superphone user is as fast gone as he came. The genius female detective, which was a fan favorite, had almost no impact on the story and was rarely present… It is common that a canceled manga doesn’t have the time for the side characters, so let’s focus on the pro-and antagonist.
Our MC is a bored guy with high intelligence, a kind of cheap version of Yagami Light (‘Death Note’). But with his newly achieved powers he tries to solve the mystery of his missing little brother and to solve as many crime cases as possible. Very noble and straight forward, but nothing that catches the ready immediately. Simple, he is too plain. The antagonist is a famous, rich and powerful adult. His goal? World domination… Of course. Repeating myself, way too simple, even if he is a bit crazy and egoistic. At least his character design is nice.

- Battery (7/10):
To have a good phone a strong battery is indispensable, and this manga has a strong one! To end all these metaphors, how long you can enjoy a manga is the same as how long a phone can be used until you recharge it. And I really enjoyed it, and I think it could have been even more if it would have lasted longer. All these information battles and mind-games were nice, the mysteries good enough to stick around. But it is totally understandable that you need characters with more impact, a story which is more original and not just a cheap ‘Death Note’ version.

However, the only reason why I wouldn’t recommend it, even if I enjoyed it, is because it was canceled so the end was way too rushed and destroyed a lot of the fun.

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 ... 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.