Gokukoku no Brynhildr

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~This is my first revive, so be gentle~

(I tried my best to make it spoiler free)

So Gokukoku no Brynhildr, the new mange from the author of "Elfen Lied" (which most of you must heard of and maybe even seen and love it like I do)

Gokukoku revolves about a man named "Ryouta Murakami" that lost his childhood friend "Neko Kuroneko Kuroha"(neko for short) in a tragic accident.
One day, a new girl that looks exactly like his childhood friend comes to his class, and what happens from there is history.

Story: 8.5/10
... So as expetd from the author of Elfen Lied the story here is beautiful.
It is a bit predictable at start, but it gets better with every chapter and I'm sure there's a lot to look for.

Art: 10/10
The here art is absolutely beautiful. I enjoy every and every page. Amazing drawing skills.

Charcter: 9/10
Maybe I'm being too kind here, but the realionship of Neko and Ryouta is really great and most of the other girl characters are also really nice and like I said, same author of Elfen Lied, so I'm sure there is still a lot of depth hiding in the main charcters. The characters desings, also, is really nice.
Neko is just lovely.

Enjoyment: 8/10

I think it depends a lot in the chapter you read. Some were much better then others and some of the chapters in the middle of the story were a bit boring for reading, but just a bit. On the other hand, the thing I still wait the most every week(or more, unfortunately) is the new chapter of gokukoku and most of them are great and even better then what I expected.
And like I said, the art is just stunning and it makes the chapters a lot nicer to read.

Overall: 9.2/10

Gokukou is a great manga. I really think so. Again, I am a bit bribed from loving Elfen Lied so much, but regardless of it gokukoku is a beautiful manga with a lot to wait for.
The only thing that I dislike about it, is the publishing time.
I don't know why but it has an undefined pulishing time and some chapters even had two-three weeks gap between them.
Apart from that,Gokukoku is a must read manga to all Elfen Lied fans and every one who is looking for a new(and pretty sad) mange to read.

P.S

Sorry for the long review, hope you like it and if you do rate it up, thank you:)

Gokukoku no Brynhildr happens to be a hidden gem of the manga world, passed up by obscurity, however, this makes it even more appealing of a manga, if nothing else. As expected of the mind behind Elfen Lied, Lynn Okamoto, Gokukoku is an intelligently done and fairly well thought out piece of work, rich in darker, more ominous airs. Unexpected however, is the "Death Note" style of command and control, cat and mouse esque thinking games also prevalent. Fans of grittier plots will certainly appreciate this particular story without the extreme sense that some horror or more psychological mangas provide. However, the gore and moderately ... sexual themes may turn some readers off, albeit not nearly the level of Elfen Lied, for example.

Story/Entertainment: The story starts off fairly typically, almost giving off an "awkward neet" sense, however, it builds quickly, within the first few chapters, adding Okamoto's "bleak and grit" charm. This particular charm, which never truly escapes the story, is a particularly wonderful effect for fans of the style. One could say the transition from introduction to center-piece of plot was too fast paced, however it doesn't detract in any real way, skipping over unnecessary details and fillers. As the story progresses, the grimness pervades every corner of the story ensuring a continuing theme of death and failure only inches from the doorstep of our protagonists, in a way however, that only bubbles just beneath the surface. In doing so this method of writing creates a sense of safety and well-being for our cast only to be shattered not long after. This cycle builds and adds to the overall enjoyment of the story, rather than an expected and monotonous "edgy and dark at all times" narrative. If any qualms are to be raised in the overarching story concept, it'd be the somewhat harem-ish feel that comes into play after a point, which some of our more purist or serious readers may not agree with. This feeling isn't explicitly detailed, but there are times when you can find yourself somewhat frustrated with our damsels at death's doorstep almost throwing themselves at the hero, detracting somewhat slightly from the gritty theme. One could argue that it is a sense of relief, much need in tales such as this and given the somewhat scarce nature of these occurrences a valid point is presented, and should be left to reader preference. As such, the slight presence of a harem-ism will not detract from the score and should merely be a note in the back of the reader's mind, leaving us a 9/10 in both categories.

Art: The art quality is extremely high and even the pickiest of readers will have a hard time passing up Gokukoku no Brynhildr for it's artistic style. If any issue were to be raised, it'd be simply that noir-style art can make it difficult at times to discern the image of what's being presented. Despite this, it doesn't obscure the image entirely, and is a rare phenomenon, earning the art style an 8/10.

Character: Our character cast is another high earner for the simple reason that the character personalities do not detract from the story in any way. It does take some time to see our various heroes flesh out more unexpected traits from their stereotypical presets, but they do fulfill their roles very adequately. With Ryouta Murakami being the role of the hero and protector of Gokukoku no Brynhildr, his initial introduction is somewhat....opposing of what would be expected. In the first few chapters, most readers will assume, as stated earlier, he is another awkward neet character. This is cleaned up fairly quickly, showing himself to be our hero we expect, and the highly intelligent planner we didn't. Murakami proves himself to be the unexpected mastermind all too infrequently seen in today's Japanese stories, and is a highly refreshing, and exciting change of pace from the bumbling idiots normally placed in heroic-centric plots. Beyond this, however, there is little deviation from character archetypes by the rest of Murakami's cadaver. The quiet and all too innocent "memory ridden" heroine, the ecchi and straight-forward girl, and our hopeless, clumsy child round out the crew. Yet even with this present there are still moments of doubt drawn onto our characters, and you can find yourself second guessing the nature our heroines due to the story-writing, and as such, can be forgiven.

Overall: I highly, highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in a more serious narrative, looking forward to a grittier tale and unafraid of less cheerful and bumbling story. The negatives are nothing worth denigrating Gokukoku no Brynhildr over, and as such, I fully well would advise giving this fine manga your time.

*Note, you'll see I rated it a 10 on my score, however this is due to personal preference in genre. You may disagree, as a 10 to myself, may be an 8 to you, so this review will be based as objectively as possible.*

Written by Okamoto Lynn, known for Elfen Lied, one should expect some similarities between the two. Compared to Elfen Lied, the violence and exposure is toned town, and so is the art quality imo (in the anime it's censored geh) However, that doesn't really bother me much, as Brynhildr makes it up for character growth... well, until something happens to the character, which would be major enough to be a spoiler so I won't say.

I've only skimmed through the Elfen Lied manga, but Okamoto seems to have some kinda liking for sci-fi experimentation with ... girls, cuz Brynhildr is pretty much another Elfen Lied, cept toned town and with a plot more centered on the male lead. Also, the male lead isn't that bad, but it's also kinda scary that he adapts to gore so easily. But then, +1 for Murakami's strategies and ability to confuse and awe the hell out of both his friends and enemies, just with his only significant trait being his photographic memory.
The story and plot seem very Elfen Lied like, a lil too much put that's ok, cuz we got waifus (go Kana potential!) with nice character back-stories and character development! Idk bout yall but when reading manga that tends to be a lil dark and gory, I like a good backstory to get the reader a good sense of what the character(s) have been through. After reading a few arcs you might find the story a bit gloomy and dragging on but w/e problems or flaws or even ridiculous plot armor might occur the characters make Brynhildr an enjoyable read, and their development throughout the story is what I see as the main reason to keep reading this.

For you stat nerds
Story: 8
Art:8
Character:10
Enjoyment:9
Overall:8

*For those of you who watched the anime adaption before knowing about the manga, plz be assured the anime is far from the manga, and edited/distorted way too much. Cuz ik what's like to be horribly disappointed with an anime adaption gone wrong, and this was one of the worst."
Since I first came across this manga, I seriously wanted to make a review but prolonged it. But here it is, my 1st review, though it has a bit of fluff in it. ;p Again, Kana 4 best gurl.

Brynhildr in the Darkness (gokukoku no brynhildr ) is a manga written by Lynn Okamoto.
He will be more known for his other work mainly Elfen Lied .
I have been a fan of his work for some time and read some of his short stories such as Allumage and Flip Flap and obviously Elfen Lied which as the author says is the same type of story as Brynhildr. (also read Nonono his ski jumping manga but who cares)
The thing is Gokukoku's plot was inspired of Old Norse mythology (Ragnarok / AESIR-VANIR war) which makes for a way better and more complex plot in ... my opinion.

Plot 9/10

Gokukoku is an intelligently done and fairly well thought out piece of work, made of dark tragedies and drama as its expected knowing its principal influence : The Twilight of gods or Ragnarok in old Norse Mythology.
The description of a cyclic death and revival is without doubt prominent to the series.
I will say it is not possible to fully understand the manga without having some knowledge about the Edda or at least the tale of Ragnarok. So looking these up is essential to enjoy the manga more.

The story starts off with a what we could call a 'generic start' with Murakami Ryouta, a nerd-ish student trying his best to become a Nasa researcher to ensure he finds aliens. Quirky...
However the plot quickly drifts aways as he retrieves witches having escaped of 'Vingulf' (which is none other than the building of the gods in Norse mythology).
One of these witches is Kuroneko his first love (that 'died' when they were child) which is later revealed to be the valkyrie Brynhildr.

Links to the poetic Edda and Old Norse Mythology.

Ragnarok

In Norse mythology Siegfried saves Brynhildr from death and Ryouta also saves Kuroha. Other interesting fact is that Brynhildr is included in a long battle between brothers and that can also be said for Kuroneko stepping in between Murakami and Makina.
The witches Drasill relates to the mythical tree Yggdrasill (tree of life) ( this tree's roots are being eaten by a mythological Dragon Níðhöggr which signals the collapse of the world's order).
In the manga the use of the Drasill for the magicians could also represent the evil abuse of power and the lack of honor that finally leads the Old Norse Gods to their demise.
Lot of these crossreferences can help predict what will happen or more surely how this manga will end. It is surely important to believe in fate as its influenced by myths and to expect some pretty hardcore twists.

THE AESIR-VANIR WAR

The 'magicians' that befriend Ryouta are used to represent the Vanir group of gods while the Aesir are represented by the villains so Vingulf (In old Norse myths thats also one place where these gods live)
Kazumi is made to represent Frejya :
-'Frejya' in Old norse mythology is the Goddess of Love and sex /fertility.
-That seems highly likely that someone so interested in sex like Kazumi was used to represent the goddess.
-Freya in the manga is actually seen to be quite the opposite only playing video games and lacking hygiene
-Kazumi beats Freya and is said to be equivalent to an S rank
-In Old Norse mythology the Aesir are said to to misuse of Frejya 's power because of their bad morals ---> Kazumi fails the test because her good values and is then given to the Vanir
- She is attempted to be killed three time both in the manga and the mythology.
-As Frejya joins the Vanir group of gods she is associated with a group of goddess of fertility(herself)/ wisdom(Mimir so Ryouta) / magic(Kuroneko-->Brynhildr) / and the ability to see the future(Kana) (making the links between the characters there ofc)
-She is able to join the Edda.

Although in the mythology, Mimir finishes with the Aesir with Odin, this time Ryouta who has the head of Mimir (when his body was reconstructed) ends up mostly with the Vanir. That is important because it points out that if Mimir's wisdom had been shared with the Vanir and the Aesir...the Ragnarok might have been avoided or at least that was what the author might have thought (my guess)..supressing the crooked ego of the gods and making them realize the consequences of their abuse of power would ultimately save the world.

Takachicho, Ryouta's father knows of the failure of the ancient gods and that is why he thinks that by mixing both wisdom and brutal power (Mimir and Loki) he can create a perfected evolved human race free of vice and truly self sufficient.
The battle between Ryouta and his father could be a symbol of the higher god Odin's decisive battle in the Ragnarok and his downfall.
As I said I interpret Ryouta to be a mix of Siegfried and Mimir's brain. This would explain why Ryouta realizes the danger of his power refuses to obtain it listening to his friends.
Mimir's( a giant enowned for his knowledge and wisdom) head was the trophy of Odin over a contest and he now uses it for advice. Odin is often characterized as the will for power in the mythology. He tries the hardest to be the wisest amongst all and for that is ready to kill, steal or do anything that would normally stand against values of wisdom. Odin doesnt only kill a giant for his will of power, he also steals the Mead of Poetry (drink of wisdom basically) from them, not to say that he and his brothers killed Ymir, the origin of all giants and of most of the Old Norse universe.

The evolution of the plot is consistant. Starting with a rather 'easy' and kinda 'carefree' tone, the witches and the MC have to deal with more and more dangerous opponents and villains to save their own lives but can still enjoy their relative freedom. However upon realizing the reality of 'Vingulf' and their plan for Ragnarok they are fated not only to defend themselves but to attack regardless of the danger. This is when comes the grimness and bluntness of the series and its perfectly what characterizes Okamoto's work.

Ensuring a continuing theme of death and failure, of insecurity but also keeping the warm and fuzzy side of themes as childhood / friendship and love makes Brynhildr unpredictable and jaw-dropping. Being able to switch from a date in town to the death of friends and bring you back to the harsh reality they live in.
In this matter I think the author introduces the concepts of living for the moment and enjoying life to the fullest. Thats what Brynhildr is basically about after all. A bridge between death or life.

The author does accomplish this by making some harem-ish scenes and involving some fan service/cosplay that some purist or serious readers may not agree with. However I felt like these moments were needed to break through the continuous darkness of the plot and that these scenes did not impact the plot's content.

The main villains are well designed and are made to look inhumane, holding no moral values to the highest degree and being the most often sadists and individualistic...Involving some pretty gory and shocking scenes as expected.
The villain's reasons for scheming for Ragnarok and their plans are all very well orchestrated and makes for an astonishing constructive end. The more and more we dive into the story the more and more it becomes oppressive and breath taking.
One example would the link between Loki's personality in the myths / his will to claim his freedom from the gods which also appears through Takachiho in a human form and for becoming 'self-sufficient'
Another would be the representation of Brynhildr an important Valkyrie and Freyja the Goddess of Love . These two figures are reflected in Kuroneko and Kazumi.
Siegfired and Mimir as Ryouta.
Takachiho as Odin. Both seek for knowledge but are driven by power. Both acquire the power to understand poetry by power also.

Art 8/10

The art quality is high and even picky readers can come to enjoy the author's gloomy and artistic style through the story, even if it's not for the level of details put into his characters.
Brynhildr was the first time Lynn started drawing on computer and using softwares instead of doing it all by hand.
This lead to a major improvement of his background details but also of after effects, giving Brynhildr a more authentic Gothic and depressing vibe. The double pages spread and entire pages drawings are made with elaborate details and its easy to observe how much Okamoto's art has evolved since Elfen Lied. and his other works.
Although some say Brynhildr was 'tamed' regarding Elfen Lied which had gore all over the place Brynhildr shows later that its use of bloodshed is way more sinister than it ever was in Elfen Lied even if less present.
I would say Brynhildr is more impactful and morbid because of that. Although Elfen Lied would represent better the vice and obscene side of men.

The continuous drama and better character development make for some hyper graphic and sinister deaths and blood scenes. There is also less clumsy use of ecchi or comedy which could break the tension (although its still there ofc XD)

Please note that the use of drama by the author is used till a comedic point which might put off some readers. Again this is a work of fiction.


Characters : 8/10

The character development is one of the best thing about the manga.
Although the MC Murakami looks firstly like a socially awkward character.

This is cleaned up fairly quickly, showing himself to be our hero we expect, developping into an highly intelligent planner as time goes by and an unexpected mastermind after resolving many complex situations that looked doomed to death.
Through his unability to forget and his 'fate' he more than deserves his strong M.C status.

Although the witches accompanying Murakami may look like the usual stereotypes, like neko the tsundere and Kazumi the openly perverted one or also Kotori the clumsy one, they break away (even oppose) from these as the story goes on and they get to experience the joy of normal life (going to beach watching the stars, goings to school ) and the sadness of their reality (being chased by Vingulf, the death of their friends ect).
The background of the MC's life is nicely done which involves the reader more.

For me Kuroneko and Kazumi were two strong female leads which showed till the last moments news facets of their personnality and which were therefore easily relatable or understandable.

The romance development is harsh as we could expect of the apocalyptic situation and inspiration of the Ragnarok and there is many sudden change of events turning the table in a painful love triangle. Although the romance will be developped into dates and some kisses, the romance holds a true part to the tragic story and there isnt much gratification on this side.
After all this is no happy story. It's morbid lets say it.

Overall : 8.5/10
I highly, highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in a serious narrative, looking forward to a grittier tale and unafraid of less cheerful and bumbling story without filters. The negatives (harem-ish jokes? pretty girls ecchi?) or tragic romance are nothing worth denigrating Gokukoku no Brynhildr over and over, and would be more a matter of taste than anything.
On that note if you are curious about Old Norse Mythology, love mysteries and enigmas, horror and action Brynhildr in The Darkness shall be perfect for you to enjoy and always make you want to dive more into this epic adventure. Hold onto your heart !

This is a subjective review or what would be more appropriate to say is that this is my interpretation of the manga = Ofc Im a fan of Lynn Okamoto's work and moreover of the horror,mystery and tragedy genre and did look into it more than an average reader ever would !
Just think its strange Elfen has better ratings than Brynhildr when even the author said the manga would be an improvement over his previous work so I thought I could say a few things and share my interpretation.
Peace !

I don't want to go too in detail but just to quickly sum it up.

The manga starts off pretty decent, the characters comical interactions with each bring a nice touch, the plot (for the first half of the manga) was fairly interesting but sadly this is another one of those mangas where things start off great but at a certain point you start noticing it go down hill.

At around the halfway point (similiar to where the anime ended) the plot development starts getting weird.

So much is crammed in the remaining chapters (120-181) that you see the pace is being picked up and quickly rushed a ... long up to the point where you are at the end of the manga; realising how many things were added and quickly forgotten about.Then you remember the start of the manga that there were the original questions you hoped would be answered but were completely brushed aside a long time ago.

The manga is probably best enjoyed if you only read half of it similiar to where the anime ended, although it won't answer your questions you'll be more satisfied by how the turn of events came. Going any further only feels as if you are being bombarded by various ideas the author wanted in before it ended but there was not enough time to flesh out or explain the ideas but simply quickly slapped in "Okay, so X is here and Y is here and Z is here." but you don't get the why is XYZ there and for what purpose besides it simply being there.

If you are looking for one of those satisfying mangas where you can start from beginning to finish and actually be satisfied at how everything turned out and the majority of reasons why things occurred. This is not one of those mangas, maybe one day I'll find another like that but not today.

This is gonna be my first review so please be gentle.
I just finished reading all the chapters from Gokukoku no Brynhildr and I have to say that I found it pretty cool.
The story was awesome.It may be like Elfen Lied but it is completely different.
Art was not something special,it was fair though.
Characters were amazing.I loved Kuroha and Murakami very much.The bond between all of them was preety strong.Their friendship could overcome all the obstacles.
Overall I higly recommend it to those who search for adventure,supernatural phenomena and maybe a little romance.Those of you who enjoyed Elfen Lied (like I did) will fell in love with this. ... :)

This is honestly the saddest manga experience I have ever had, the first 100 or so chapters are absolutely amazing and might've possibly been the best manga I've ever read but the proceeding 80 or so chapters dropped my score from 10/10 to 1/10. I'm honestly not sure how the series went in the poor directions it did but some advice I'd definitely give, after the end of chapter 100 or 110 or so when it feels like a stopping point, just stop. You can read more but don't say I didn't warn you. It is hard to go over the problems with this manga ... since they take place so far in but it's a combination of dragging on and simply insulting the reader, it almost feels like the author was mad at someone and started writing to mess with them, that's how bad it was.

The story set up as a beautiful tragic romantic tale, and takes off with adrenaline packed chapters of mystery and intrigue without shunning any character development. A thrilling tragic atmosphere is set and maintained. After those first 100 or so chapters the quality drops dramatically with events taking place that don't matter anymore and vile things happening that are played off as "no big deal." It was sad to see the manga drop off so hard when it originally was so good.

The art style is maintained and very good throughout the manga.

The characters are fantastic but after the first 100 or so chapters, any remaining or new characters lost their charm (aside from one I suppose) and some of the new characters are just purely there to make you hate them even though they're actually on the "good" side.

Enjoyment, first 100 chapters 10/10 one of the best ever. Remaining 80 or so, one of the worst drops I've ever seen in any story.

I highly recommend the beginning of this manga but unless you're a completionist, just stop before it's too late.

Gokukoku no Brynhildr It's simple one of the best manga for me. If you enjoyed Elfen Lied you seriously need to read this story. Everything inside it it's awesome. And whatever you would say guys, I think this manga It's very original

I was a fan of this series. Until the Valkria arc ended. This review was written before the ending of the series because as of chapter 155 I have dropped this series. I don't care of it gets better this series has jumped the shark now, and that's not a good thing for the tone that this series tries to portray.

Brynhildr in the Darkness is about a guy and his harem of magical girls. that's pretty much it. But the magical girls are given a very dark twist where they will die within three days if they don't have medicine that inhibits these effects. Each ... girl has their own power from world manipulation to future sight to enhanced hacking (more useful than it sounds) to Shoop Da Woop like laser beams. The series is, or was, creative in it's character designs, it was definitely interesting to see the ideas that Lynn Okamato could come up with. The main character has a lot of respect for the super powered women that have come to surround him, he often turns them away when they attempt to sleep with him so they don't make a mistake. They handle the fear of dying before procreating well, they handle the fear of death before marriage well and the character of Kazumi was an amazing character study to take a look at. But of course that didn't last past the first few arcs. The Valkria arc was amazing, the villain was a great character foil to Kuroneko and it had one of the most emotional character deaths I had seen in a manga or anime for the longest time. Then we end the arc on this note where Okamato could have ended the series and ended it well. The main character and the main love interest had finally kissed before the main love interest risks her life to save the rest of the cast. They'll be getting a supply of the medicine they need and the leader of Vingulf has been killed, and this is where the series should have ended. It's ending wouldn't have been nearly as satisfying as the Elfen Lied manga ending but not many endings are that amazing. But then it continues.

The series continues and it does look a bit promising, but as you read it drags on... and on... and on. Even though it's only 55 chapters as compared to the 100 chapters before hand this last sixth of the manga has been horrible with a massive amount of fan pandering. Then you have the creation of Takaya. I wouldn't have minded if this guy wasn't put into the role of hero but, well he is. Takaya is one of the most sexist anime characters I have ever seen and he down right rapes Hatsuna multiple times under the grounds that he's her boyfriend, this is the worst part of the series by far. Then you have the Amnesia, which is happening for a second time with the same character, it makes for a repetition of the first arc, which annoys the hell out of me. Then we have the blatant flanderization of the characters.

I mention Kazumi a while ago, she was an in depth character that starts off as a this greedy annoying bitch who isn't very likable, but then she goes through a character arc that has you routing for her. She has fallen in love with Murakami to the point where she wants to marry him. This isn't Hatsuna's puppy love or Kuroneko's self taught love for Murikami. It's truer love that stems from a feeling of trust. She wants to marry him and have children with him though she's willing to risk everything, including her life, to save him, if it meant his safety she would give up her chances to live out her dream of becoming a mother and loving wife. She is literally the only character left un-flanderized (when you take the worst trait of a character and make that their only trait).

Murikami was a very nice guy who legitimately cared for the safety of these girls but now he's just a plot device. He's been worse than flanderized, he's been changed as a character. Now he's just sort of an asshole, or the stereotypical harem master.

Then you have Hatsuna, a girl who has the power to regenerate any injury as well as acting as the white mage of the team. She was a strong female character who would fight back and was able to think strategically within critical situations. But she's reduced to a submissive victim. She's constantly being raped by Takaya, which is being used as comedic relief. I mean what the fuck Okamato? You wrote Elfen Lied, which was a masterpiece for many different reasons and then you went and wrote this. You handled domestic abuse so much better in Elfen Lied. And this has just become a series based around fan service. Speaking of which, all of the female characters get a breast enlargement closer to the current point, which was pointless.

What pisses me off the most is that this series had massive potential to be one of the best manga series I have read, and the second on that list behind Elfen Lied, but due to the last sixth of the manga so far having nothing but filler and fan service those chances have been ruined.

The only thing good I can say about this is that it is a very visually pleasing series.

Age Rating: M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Disturbing Content, and Nudity.

Disclaimer: The last sixth of this manga is not for anybody who has a single liberal bone in their body.

Overall Rating: 5/10

I am really surprised to read all those positive reviews here since I dropped the manga pretty quick. What can I say? First I was excited to read another story by Lynn Okamoto who created Elfenlied one of my favorite animes.
But as before when I read the Elfenlied manga I was pretty disappointed when I read Brynhildr.
Elfenlied was, in my opinion, pretty much saved by the anime studio. They cut the story off at just the right moment before Okamoto messed his whole story up.
When I read Brynhildr I felt like he did not really dare to do something new or at ... least somehow different. He used all the same imagery and storylines, mixed them up a little and sold a new manga from it. This really felt like a lack of creativity, so I dropped it pretty soon.

This manga is very good but the only thing I hate is the tragedy. OKAMOTO Lynn seems to only like sad endings, like elfen lied, especialy when you know the end when you start to read it like Grave of Fireflies. Personally, it's frustrating. I want to watch or read because it's good and want to know what's going on and not know how it ends at the beginning. And also tragedy in the story is Ok but having the heroe(s) die... It's disapointing.

Alright, enough. I’m dropping it.

I only continued this for the mystery part, because I really wanted to know about the aliens and all the stuff revolving around it. However, 100 chapters in, and there still isn’t much revealed. Everything that happens is so underwhelming, so I doubt I’ll be satisfied with the ending anyway.

It’s crazy enough that I could get through 100 chapters, even though it’s so energy-depriving. I feel like an empty plastic bottle right now.

The plot itself is a good idea, but the execution is so pathetic. It’s literally just a horny author, who gets turned on by gore.
Every character is shallow, their ... only personality being either whiny/arrogant or perverted. All the superhumans ("magic users") are female, because the institution used science as an excuse to see naked women and get paid for it. There’s literally no other reason why there aren’t any boys used for the experiments.

But the protagonist of course is a boy, so that’s why there’s a harem. You can’t have a male protagonist with only female main characters and not have a harem, right? Compared to other harems, the protagonist has already chosen “his person” before the harem came. Which is cool, but that isn’t stopping the perverts from forcing themselves on him. So many chapters & pages wasted with unnecessary “I want a child from him”-talk.
Or groping boobs. If the perverts can’t have him, they will let out their perversion on their same-sex friends. Who cares about consent? Because even if they say “no”, perverts don’t stop from that.
Just say you’re lesbian, if you love female breasts that much.
Literally every time they were taking a bath together, there’s at least someone comparing their size or groping them.
Do men really think that women don’t do anything else?
Is that actually a thing in Japan (women touching each other’s private parts without it being seen as sexual) or just fantasies, which somehow can be found in every single manga/anime, written by a guy?
I’m seriously considering to write a manga where men grope each other’s parts like that, just to show all the other male authors how ridiculous & pathetic it looks like.

Half of the series is just horny stuff, while the other half is gore. If you’re into that, you do you i guess, but definitely nothing for me.

Another page-waster is the unnecessary drama.
The protagonist keeps getting tragically killed with all the other characters being sad about it and crying their eyes out. Why? It’s very obvious the protagonist won’t die, especially not in the middle of a volume. And with 180 chapters; how would the story even continue if the protagonist died in the first 50 chapters? Absolutely nonsense.
The same goes for the other main characters. A main character either gets a heroic death or will come back to life again, if their death didn’t do anything for the plot. There are no excuses; every fiction works like that.
Yet the author keeps giving them dramatic death scenes, stretching it out through a whole volume sometimes. One volume was actually about a prediction of one of the main character’s death. Of course they didn’t die and it also didn’t get the plot going at all. What could’ve been resolved in one chapter, stretched 10 chapters, alas a whole volume, long. So dumb.

The last thing that really really annoys me is the “art”. If you can even call that art. The backgrounds aren’t drawn, but simply photographs with a cartoon filter put on top to make it look like it is. The author didn’t even try to make it look good tho. You can see all the wiggly lines still.
If it came out this year, it obviously would be that the bgs are ai generated images, but given it’s from 2013-2015, I guess it’s just a cartoon filter.
Look, I get backgrounds can be a pain, especially in anime/manga, where the artstyle is realism. However, it’s even more painful to look and read through this ugly laziness.
I hope the author at least took the photos himself, instead of taking random pictures from the internet to cartoonize, but the chances aren’t high.

The story came from horniness, there’s no creativity to be expected, after all.

I'm reviewing part 1 here, up through the first half. I'm not as familiar with the 100s-ish chapters, so they aren't as fresh in my mind as the first half. Anywho, here goes my first review on this site. No spoilers, hopefully.


This story is a great story for one main reason: the pacing. Everything flows together nicely. While a bit janky at the start, the crucial information is laid out and we understand who the protagonist is, thus allowing us to connect with this adventure. Apart from this one decision, though, the readers find out information when it's needed, and for justifiable reasons. Intelligent actions ... are followed by consequences. If an action caused a problem for the main cast, Murakami knows not to repeat it. Unlike Elfen Lied, there is no justification as to why only women are given magic powers, but this series has forward momentum and goals to characters, while the latter tended to meander in its edgy scenes.

Not much to say about art. To me, if it's serviceable and I can recognize the characters and the actions, it's fine. What sells art to me are the right amount of excess details. Foresight, basically. But that's more towards heavy action stories. Does this story have that? No, but it has minimal action, so I'm not too picky. One art thing I'll praise immensely are the evil faces. You'll know them when you see them, and you'll never fall asleep after seeing them. Okamoto Lynn can make nightmare fuel, and that's an important quality for an artist. It sticks in the mind.

Now characters.
Our MC, Murakami, is a great protagonist for two reasons. One, he is intelligent, and lord knows shounen magazine lacks intelligent protagonists. (It's a ratio complaint.) Two, he is proactive. He chooses to involve himself with the plot and engages the villains while they engage the magic users and unknowingly him. He also has a will and sass, making it seem like he deserves the female attention.
Speaking of which, the rest of the man cast is pretty good. Kazumi, while being sexually active, existed before this crush, and continues to exist following it. A girl as forward as her is rare in this genre, and I find her quite endearing. The majority of the rest of the female alliance is good on a surface level, yet feel like real people. Possibly a tad trope-y, but these tropes are expanded upon a bit, so I like it.
Kuroha is an exception. I'm not fond of her.


SPOILERS BELOW

This is all over the place. My problem is hard to nail down.

Kuroha is two different people, and the most engaging of which shows up for a few chapters only to fade away. The first version we interact with for the majority of the story, she is a good person. After escaping her cargo hold, she wants to spend her remaining days helping people. This is fair, considering that she habitually forgets things due to her power, so having this desire for her supposed last days alive when nothing else exists in her mind, I'm okay with it. But past this, she gains nothing, and has nothing save her selfless attitude. Her affection towards Murakami is extremely immature, and since she is portrayed as smart and easily able to pick up on new things, this dichotomy rubs me the wrong way. The memory forgetting feels like an excuse to avoid her developing. Seriously, can she not find a hobby? Kana has an excuse for being bedridden, and Kotori enjoys the simpler things in life, and Hatsuna wants a normal life free of witch-related hassle. Kuroha has no excuse.
The second version is full of life, and is proactive. This is the version Murakami knew a long time ago, and a major part of his character is the guilt he feels over causing her to die. We don't see Murakami adjust to the new Kuroha, or get ample time to reconnoiter with the old Kuroha. I can't empathize with a female lead that I can't follow.


SPOILERS ABOVE


As for the villains, the majority is nothing too special. For the most part, it's an evil lab that does experiments on girls for evil reasons. It exists for the plot. But while the setting is cliche, the people inside feel like people. Mostly. Putting aside the final villains (again, first half), the enemy magic users feel like people. Even those with brief talking periods, I understand where they're coming from beyond "bad guys tell me to do bad things". A couple humans even feel like humans, not simply of a "discarding trash" mindset.


Overall? Please read this manga, the first half. It's very gripping, and Kasumi is among my wall of waifus. But mostly it has fantastic pacing and a setting fueled by smart decisions. I haven't watched the anime, but it supposedly condensed 99 chapters into 13 episodes. This story needs to be adapted in full. There's little to no filler, and everything plays too well into each other.


If enough people favorite, I'll go over the second half with a critical eye.

Since this manga has a tragedy as its genre, then expect that there will a lot of dying and killing.

First of, I will divide this series to three parts. Since this is what i noticed in the changes of the style of the story.

The First part was neat. Well thought off. As said, there will be lots of killing and dying but there will also be saving of course. In this part, we will be shown a small scale conflict between the main characters against this organization of pure malice. This was a good start and made me keep on reading.

The second part is ... wild, pure chaos. This is like the climax of this second story. Here, I didn't like what happened. In the first part, there was a rule established. We believed the rule. The rule was that characters/heroes come to the last minute to save this and that or perhaps and sudden twist to save this and that. That was on the first. On this second part, this rule was broken. More importantly, it was broken when, to my opinion, mattered most. Lives. Many innocents. Bystanders. Sure, just after that, the mangaka was quick to reason the event, saying it is logical, and nothing is to blame for the heroes/main characters. But he/she did not get that he broke his established rule, that he/she made his/her reader believed. I get the feeling many got angered by this.

The third part which is up to the latest, chapter 152 of the making of this review, was pure perversion. I just skimmed on this part. Rest assured, the hero/main character is not the guilty one but some introduced characters. The story here, on the first and second that was apparent, became so faint now. I believe the mangaka is having a hard time making his chapters interesting and resorting to this unintelligible bits, and not moving on with the story.

Rating the first part, my score is 7/10, the second is 5/10, the third is 4/10

One thing I forgot to tell, there are instances that are also stupid. The characters doing stupid things like guiding possible enemy unknowingly, thus allowing this enemy to take advantage. As vague as I can make it, to show you this so apparent lack of common sense. It was so out there. And don't be lead to this seem like clever solution, although the mangaka throws some scientific terms/reasoning, you would get that the lead to that situation borders to mental. Though it was really interesting at the start. Perhaps the mangaka just got tired of thinking.

tl;dr: A manga with a great protagonist, interesting character relationships, and good writing that begins going downhill about 2/3s of the way through and botches the ending in a number of ways. 

This manga started out amazing but it lost a lot of that by the end. First off, the protagonist is awesome in that he’s strategic minded but not a jerk, kind but not naïve, and reliable but not overpowered. This is a core of a lot of the more intense aspects of the manga, wherein it involves him using his quick wits to come up with ways to get over the challenges they’re facing. This involves using and dealing ... with a number of different powers, but the most interesting and crucial of these is foresight, which ends up allowing all sorts of crazy plans and situations to happen. There were a lot of fake out moments, both with events shown simply being foresight or illusions, and also characters basically being brought back after death.  This did get got old eventually I admit, but it also added a lot of suspense and kept things moving really fast. This makes the more action and intense portions of the manga really interesting through most of the manga, though the last third or so started getting a bit weaker, and I feel that was heavily due to how it involved foresight less. Character relationships are the other crucial part of the manga, and they too for a good portion of the manga were great. There was a constant fear of death in most of the characters, and hence a push for them to do something with the time they had left, which pushed them to move fast in all matters. Hence, they were immensely happy just doing normal things, and that got conveyed very well and often very amusing. Furthermore, the protagonist being as dense as a rock regarding such matters required them to be very direct, which added even more amusement, and always kept it feeling like things were moving. About two thirds of the way through though, it starts getting a lot messier in weird ways due to things getting overtly complicated between them as a result of added variables, memory loss, etc. which felt badly implemented. The ending doesn’t really help in that regard, in that the ending is incredibly strange in that it has elements of being pretty solid regarding such matters, but the way it's done makes it feel kind of unsatisfying. As for the overarching plot, it is incredibly interesting for most of the manga with things slowly being revealed and the villains master plan seeming crazy but also grand and something the reader wants to understand. However, the payoff on that was a mess. It’s quite hard to end such long overarching mysterious narratives, and this did not succeed in pulling it off. The final arc where everything was finally explained ended up leaving a lot out, and even worse bringing up a lot of contradictions and random plot devices to keep things moving forward. While I appreciate it when things are overall consistent, I don’t mind too much with there being contradictions or forced ways to get around stuff established a long time ago. However, here it would be pulling out random things and throwing them out randomly from chapter to chapter and it largely made the ending feel arbitrary and not well planned as if the author just decided it was time to end it and forced it along as quickly as possible. This is up until the finale, where he suddenly decided to put on the brakes and have the characters spin their wheels pointlessly for a bit before finally letting things end, though the epilogue was decent enough barring the previously mentioned character relationship issues. The art was pretty solid all the way through.

Ambivalent feelings about this manga here... This review will look into this manga as 2 separate arcs. The first being, chapters 1 till the point where kuroneko loses her memory. The second being the loss of memory till the end of the manga.

The plot was a really solid one, or at least I thought for the first arc. The story was really well planned, and one could see a good pace of flow. Most of the reasoning behind all these 'Aliens' were subsequently explained in the second arc. The main problem I had with this manga would be the rushed ending that it had. ... The first arc was of a good pace with many character developments. Only up till the point where people kept dying and stronger Aliens just appear out of nowhere, wreaking damage with the Anti-Alien organisation going missing with no clear explanation. While this may seem like a rant, I can assure you that when you reach a point where the climax hits and there is no proper closure, you will seriously get frustrated... Another flaw in this manga would be the unexplained origins of how there are aliens in the spine of the magicians, and the fact that magicians had to be girls. Though the ending of the manga was a happy one, the author did not explain if the aliens within this girls would 'awaken' and cause damage to the world. These are just some of the loop holes that I found were major to the plot which I found was really good at its initial stages.

As for the art and characters in this manga, I found myself gaining some attachments to the characters. The emotions and thoughts were well portrayed and expressed. Or at least for the first arc where the pace of the plot was decent...

In conclusion, I would recommend this manga. Recommend this manga for those who enjoy super natural stories. But a caveat, the plot has many loop holes and most of the explanations were not complete.

I hate being harsh with manga that seems to have effort poured into it, but this manga is really bad.

Initially I was interested in it, but eventually it became more of an attempt at Gunslinger Girl (note: Kazumi looks like a character from there). But, it soon became just a dull attempt at pulling your heartstrings by sympathizing with a main character who is dense and clearly an excuse to build a harem.

The story continues to drone on with incomplete and shards of character development, but in the end it barely closes the doors on the characters - leaving questions open, while making the ... reader frustrated.

It seems that the author loves to add in facts and dilute it with fiction while using more annoyingly difficult words. The world is just a shitshow where miracles happen, while they attempt to salvage it with cruel deaths.

Beyond that, this manga is merely a slimefest.
I cannot for the life of me absolve this manga. The characters are forgettable and irritating - the artwork seems to ooze ecchi but scream editorial restraint or age restriction. The pacing of the plot begins slowly but then spikes in speed as it faces important nuggets/arcs.

Even trying to remember this manga about people forgetting each other while trying to remember each other makes me feel disappointed and frustrated with the bland story.

As a kid (early teens) I was just finding out about the ability to watch anime online and that opened up a whole new world for me of "mature" anime that was too dark, pervy, twisted, or gore filled to be aired on regular tv. (Believe it or not finding out you could watch Naruto subbed on youtube a few hundred episodes ahead of the English dub was actually a big revelation once upon a time. Sure it was broken up into 3 parts per episode and at least one of the parts was taken down by a copyright claim so you could never get ... the segments to line up but hell it was worth it.)

Anyways the sexiest and murderiest of the shows I discovered in that period of my life was an anime called "Elfen Lied" and holy shit was it unlike anything I had ever seen before. Sure there are pervier and bloodier anime around today but 14 years ago in 2004 this was a serious game changer. It had German influence which is a theme not often seen in anime and was filled with guts and nudity. Girls were horribly experimented on and gained super powers but also usually went completely fucking nuts and turned into killing machines. Also the mc was a regular dude who just happened to meet the strongest girl when she was a kid before they were tragically parted. It is kinda lame that he has the typical main character "every female must fall in love with him" trope despite not being that special but he does risk his life for the girls fairly often and they have been abused to hell and back so I guess it is understandable they would fall for the first person to not lock them up and torture them.

By now you're probably wondering if you're reading the wrong review and my answer to that is that the review for Brynhildr in the Darkness is the exact same. I started watching the anime because my experience with Elfen Lied had left such a strong impression on myself as a child that I'm now instantly ready to watch any anime with a German name and sure enough it lived up to the legacy, a little too much in fact. This manga is basically just Elfen Lied but with Conan from Detective Conan as the main character. If you liked Elfen Lied or like dark stories about girls that can kill with their minds and get naked a lot then you will like this story. I would be saying it was a ripoff of Elfen Lied except it was made by the same person and if they want to use the same setup twice to tell two entirely different and good stories then fuck it I guess. Anyways the anime ran out of time to finish the first season to the point where it had characters that died appear alive again in the credits of the final episode without any explanation at all (and it would not have been hard to add) so I strongly suggest reading the manga first and not the other way around like I did it: Watching the anime first and being confused and let down as all hell and coming to the manga for answers to a criminally bad anime adaptation. (to be fair only the ending sucked and it only sucked because it was rushed at an insane pace.)

A word of warning to people reading online English translated versions of this manga: The last page of the last chapter is missing in an upload that is on many sites. Something you should be aware of because it answers a lot of questions.

This story had a few asspull moments where things that never should have worked happened and the main character despite being super smart did things that should obviously get him instantly killed and dying became largely a joke towards the middle of the story and it seems like everyone has come back to life at least once by the end of the story but it is still pretty damn good. I'm also a little frustrated by the fact that all the girls he saves turn out to be super incredibly strong and basically the best at their types of magic despite the fact that he only met them because they were supposed to be killed for being weak but it doesn't eat at me too much.

Overall it is a great and thrilling story about some tortured girls used in lab experiments that gave them super powers at a terrible cost trying to live their lives as best they can despite being hunted by stronger and stronger assholes.

I also feel the need to defend Kazumi, yes she is forward and from the very moment she meets the main character is trying to fuck him but they even go so far to point out in the manga that when faced with the fear of death some people really want to make babies. Not to mention girls can be pervy too. A lot of people think her character is not believable and hate on her because she is so forward but that's just the way some real people are so it is completely fine with me to have a character like that show up in a manga.

I give it an 8/10 for being an amazing story with a few flaws.

(Spoilers for the final chapter) Something this mangaka evidently enjoys doing is ending their stories with unexplained endings (In this case made even harder to understand if you read the translated version online missing the final page) so here is my interpretation of the final page:
(Roughly translated the text is just the Ryouta mocking Kazumi because her chest size is the same as when she was little. Imo that is the ideal feel good joke to go out on so I'm happy with that.)
1) Kotori is there because the things Loki eats get absorbed into EDDA and she was eaten after the memory purge.
2) It doesn't explain why Kazumi is there or why she is little but my best guess would be that when she had access to Loki's memories she uploaded herself. She probably knew that not destroying his memories entirely meant there was a chance Ryouta could still end up merging with them or at the very least thought it was better than dying. As for why she is little my best guess would be that she only had a limited amount of time to upload herself to EDDA as she was melting so she sent the important stuff.
3) The shadow in the bottom left is hopefully Nanami because if Ryouta's brain is EDDA and it contained a planet full of aliens the idea that it could run out of space is bullshit and she never should have needed to delete herself in the first place. Also Ryouta promised he would never forget her which is probably why she is just a shadow but as Kazumi pointed out in her cyberfight earlier deleted data is easy to recover if you don't write over it, so hope for her being restored more fully exists.

First of all I rarely review something unless it really triggers me but nothing has ever bothered me except this one.
I am quite kind when giving Score but its kinda subjective so take it with a grain of salt before you start reading it, or you might already finished and had the same impressions.

Note : I Finished reading in on 1 day.. 1 frickin day. start from 11 am to 9 pm over 18 volume, 181 chapter 3600+ pages.
This manga was amazing if you liked Elfen Lied well except it wont be what you expected, but i'll say you should give a try before ... skipping it so you know how unbearable it was to read it.
Be wary that theres no Proper Romance despite the flag, so yeah i warned you dont expect too much about your shipping.

Here we go,

Story 3/10 : Its good from 1-100, its quite written, they add some abit of drama here and there though on some scene, instead trying to make the readers "Feel" it'll make you want to throw up and laugh. Why? because it felt like forced but overall 1-100 is Quite good, its worth to read Thats why i am hooked on the first place by reading it on a single day.
So you got the point already. You've read the summary and you might as well read other reviewers or watched the "Anime" which seems like a trainwreck.
From 100-181 onwards everything felt starting falling appart, they tried to connect it but then Fails abruptly with scene skipping.
I am not going to lie from about 100+ manga i've read (not included in my DB) this had to be worst ending and pacing i've ever seen. Check it yourself i guess? I cant spoil you unless you're asking for it.

Art : Lets keep it simple, Grotesque Gore,Blood,Bones,Innards,Splattering,Not really cute but okay art they tried. Then what i mostly notice are their "TEARS" Oh god its looks like a fucking melted skin (exactly the same with manga art) or a cum you may say. I am not even exaggerating it because its actually looks like one.

Character : Nothing memorable, They tried to build character but always messed by nonsense scene. I doubt you can even cry by the Death of the characters. They felt like 1 dimension personality.
The 6 Main Character
Kuroha : The Memory cliche, Dere? Oh looks childhood friends.
Ryouta : Tragic back story,Beta MC,Hey at least its smart, but the persona are flat af
Kazumi : The Energetic one, Well except shes hiding her feelings about not wanting to die including how bold she is with MC wanting to bear his child. Well shes quite memorable tbh the character design(looks) making her looks like a side character though.
Kana : Goth Loli, Actually had backstory but not explained properly, the one that wants to protect. I think thats pretty much it? For a human personality shes just an average nice girl
Kotori : No one probably will remember her anyway so yeah i'll skip her
Hatsuna : Oh looks! Another girls who loves MC! Except you might regret shipping those two. You'll get it after you start reading it on Chapter 100+.

Like i said you'll probably only get attached to 1-2 characters Thats pretty much it. The side characters are easly forgotten, heck even the main can be thrown off easly.
Theres alot of nonsense emotional shift which is why it felt like a forced scene because the development are too slow due the chapter are catching up this "Drugs" timers. They should've be done with it. They did but seriously... Its just not enough for proper development.

Enjoyment 3/10 : Like i said it start out pretty good early then fell downhill.. i dont think fell downhill is a good word. How about Free Falling?
Yes after the Valkyrie arc on 100+ The arc were rushed, theres alot of things i dislike lik how this guy even here? Are we seriously killing over without any reason again? Why that scene not even mentioned? The last Volume (18) looks like a generic writings by 12 years old and i am not going to lie.
Do you really expect reader to enjoy something like this? And after all that crap The characters have been through you're not even going to do a proper ending? The hell man.

Overall : 3/10 I could even give it 1(Pathethic) because its not even a refreshing or a proper conclusion leaving more and more question isntead answers.
Like i said all those tortures and events they've been through and they gained pretty much little to nothing from it.
Its not satisfying at all.
Elfen Lied Safed with that endings, its heartwarming and it pretty much conlclude all character story by summing it up in a chapter. but not this one..
Its unbearable to read it and it leaves me a bad taste to watch more from this kind of manga.

God.. even Comedy/Parody Manga such as Bounbogami Ga could made me cry and a proper ending for the conclusion.
This one? Nope.

Looks foward to the ongoing Parallel worlds if you finished this one.

Thanks for reading

Yesterday, while watching a certain youtuber's retrospective on Elfen Lied, I found myself curious as to what the mangaka, Lynn Okamoto, had produced after his first longform (and most popular- in the West, at least) work. Upon seeing the list of his manga, it clicked in my head for the first time that Brynhildr was by him- a return to SF after his sports manga, Nononono. I had heard of this series before in passing due to the anime airing, but had never paid it any special mind, and written it off as a seasonal SF harem romcom.
I'm not sure what it was, really, that ... made me decide to take the plunge and read it. Perhaps because I had less than fond memories of Elfen Lied from high school, I wanted to see whether he had improved as a writer, or was rehashing his prior work like some kind of hack. Regardless of the how or why, I ended up reading all 181 chapters within twenty-four hours. This is unusual for me- I normally dance around a work and read about 20 to 30 chapters at a time.
But Brynhildr is different. It's got a strange, compelling quality, as laden with cardboard cutout harem tropes and haphazardly shoveled in lore as it is. Unlike Elfen Lied, which aggressively pursues despair to the point that it loops back around to being comedic, Brynhildr's character writing and melodrama actually tend to land more often than miss. In a lot of ways, it follows a more refined and articulate style of conveying its misery- the shocks and detailed gore never quite hit the highs of Elfen Lied, but somehow are more enjoyable and nuanced.
The character writing in Brynhildr is what really shines.
Despite the main guy being your typical harem protag self-insert loser, the way other characters bounce off him and shine is positively prismatic. Perhaps it's because of the highly violent, morbid stakes that the girls are subject to, but they all actually feel like rounded out and sympathetic characters. Not to say this is without faults- Okamoto's humor clashes heavily with the tone at all times, with more explicitly sexualized characters like Kazumi and later Takaya delivering their teasing horndog lines with just a touch too much seriousness- Kazumi, easily the most annoying and dislikeable of the main cast, comes off as a pathetic jealous femcel while Takaya's lust for his girlfriend frequently verges on making him look like a rapey creep.
In general, the clash between the dinky fanservice bits and the high stakes action is the weakest point of the series- only two fanservice-oriented callbacks in the entire series actually work, both very late into the story. However, while it's unbalanced and only tenuously entertaining at best, this off-kilter writing is what defines Okamoto's work-- maybe one day, he'll end up getting it right. I can understand what he's trying to do, even when he's not successful with it.
The plot, however, is nowhere near as good as the character writing. This may seem like a strange statement- as stories are rightfully defined by the strengths of their characters- but it holds true. In many ways, it is a rehash of Elfen Lied's central conflict, with many of the unintended thematic issues of his prior work seemingly directly addressed and fixed in this one. Making witches the direct result of experimentation by the institute, for instance, as opposed to diiclonai being born unintentionally from a virus, removes the rather ferociously deterministic undercurrents that Elfen Lied struggled with. On a small-scale, arc-to-arc level, though, Brynhildr still frantically struggles to keep its head above water. Okamoto is rather intuitively good at manufacturing scenarios that keep hype rolling in a serialization, but over the course of the series, the solutions that Ryouta and his little girlfriends come up with as they face increasingly powerful foes correspondingly become increasingly convoluted. There are more than a few times when you can quite plainly tell he's written himself into a corner and needs an out fast, causing narrative upset and occasional tonal issues.
One of his biggest problems- a holdover from his earlier works- is his inability to let named characters go, despite the frequent over-the-top gorefests. He's slightly better at killing people off here than he was in Elfen Lied- where this issue reached near parody levels- but it still remains a significant detriment to emotional investment in the story.
Beyond the character and plot elements, his art has obviously improved since his earlier works (I would be concerned if it didn't). The linework isn't phenomenal and his art style isn't exceptional, but his sense of composition and ability to execute pageturns is practiced and competent. The girls are pretty, the villains are intimidating, the big bad organization's pseudo-religious cult stuff is esoteric. His trademark violence is portrayed at just the right level of tastefulness for this sort of thing, always striking but never straying into hard gore territory.
All in all, it's a pretty alright work. Okay, even. I think if Okamoto continues to serialize manga at his current pace, he might make something good within another ten years.
The strange tone and unique narrative style set this manga apart from other SF harems, making it stand out in both good and bad ways. If you like high school harems, psychic gore witches, terminal illness despair, and Japanese SF interpretations of Nordic mythology, this is the manga for you. As puerile as it can show itself to be, there is a charm to the writing- perhaps a certain innate talent for tension and sadness- that'll keep you emotionally invested despite the work's many flaws. What Brynhildr does best, after all, is believe in love- through shock cuts of gore, suicide, despair, and bad fanservice, it never gives up on Ryouta's dream to bring the witches happiness.