Let's☆Lagoon

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tl;dr: A manga that’s a good survival story until it suddenly goes in a very different direction, ultimately leading to a really bizarre ending. 

The plot of this manga in one sense is about people trying to survive adverse conditions on a deserted island. This aspect certainly has some issues, mainly things that didn’t really make a lot of sense, but was overall done pretty well and was satisfying enough at how it pushed forward various character interactions and relationships. However, this aspect while still being present up to the ending, becomes far less of a focus as it goes on, focusing instead on a much more complicated and ... convoluted plot thread centered around the island being irregular. This aspect could be done well, but here it felt really random and not that well thought through, rather feeling like the author got tired of people pointing out issues with survival aspect of the manga and forced in a complicated plot line where such things would make sense which ultimately makes a plot that works, but isn’t particularly great. Rather than the plot, the strength of this manga comes from its main characters and their relationships. The protagonist is a bit strange in that due to the strange flow of the plot he’s both incredibly observant and able to draw well thought out conclusions but also misses the obvious a lot of the time. However, his nature at being earnest and reliable comes through really well and holds him up enough to make him likable. Chika is okay as a character and goes through some growth, but it mostly felt like she was in Nori’s shadow once Nori was introduced which is strange as Chika is the main heroine. Still, Nori is a really amazing character with a bright, dedicated, and go getter personality that gets shown really well due to her bonds with both Yamada and Chika. However, maybe because of that, it feels like the author tries too hard to give everyone a happy ending and ends up forcing the side that would not get one into an ending that’s not quite sad, but is just incredibly awkward feeling, which just muddles up the whole ending and makes it not very satisfying. The art was pretty good, though it feels like it tried harder to have good shots towards the last third than it did in the beginning. 

This manga turned out to be something different from what it appears to be at glance.

In the beginning we would think that this manga is just like any other manga, full of fan service and a rather pathetic guy. The synopsis is misleading your preconception of what this manga really is. The mystery genre is the real gem of this manga. It keeps teasing you and makes you yearn for more. As we read more we start to think about the mysteries in this manga such as how they got to this island. Don't let ecchi genre throw you off, there is very little ... of those scenes.

In terms of character development, as we learn more about our main character, we soon start to see him being put in situations where he begins to mature and become more reliable. There isn't exactly situations where they battle for survival but they need to adapt to the situation they are in.

If you are looking for a relatively short but interesting read that will keep you engaged and wanting more, feel free to give this manga a go.

About 10 years after the fact I'll briefly talk about this. It's ironic in context.

As with any "synopsis" it's incredibly inaccurate or rather it's misleading. All those beefy lines and elaborate description is for naught as it describes the first 5 minutes. It quickly spirals out of control with convoluted time-travel. Now that's all fine and dandy because such concepts can create branching possibilities and "unique" character development, but I could predict *everything* that was going to happen. Not even the kind of speculative "I wonder if..." predictions. More like "oh boy let me guess..." kind of predictions.

Or rather I could accurately predict everything up ... until the story gave up and overused time-trave for no real reason and drumming up drama. You can tell that they really didn't have any idea how to end the Manga either as it got progressively worse and worse as time went on. Only in the final few chapters do you get any sort of explanation to what's going on. However it still tries to be "mysterious" by just conspicuously leaving information out. So it explains just enough, but leaves just enough out, to make even less sense than if they didn't explain anything at all. How do you manage this? It just becomes mindless and virtually contextless content that just seems to be happening. One character in particular just keeps getting metaphorically beaten up for literally no real reason other than having a goal in life beyond "here and now".

It's not a terrible read and the art isn't bad, but it really became mindless and convoluted. Especially when (not really a spoiler) the romance elements are fully introduced and a love triangle forms solely based on the events of the first few chapters. It might be the most "forced" thing I've seen.

It's a solid 5.5/10 because it has it's moments and a remote few good characters, but it's negatives are really negative.