Psyren

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Popularly, the shounen market is known for being over-saturated with the same kind of average stories and not presenting a whole lot of originality. I hate that kind of view, but I have to agree that the definition of Psyren is average,.

Psyren is a shounen manga serialized between 2007 and 2010. It was created, written and illustrated by Toshiaki Iwashiro.

Ageha Yoshina is a high schooler who frequently gets into fights and always wins. After one of his incursions, he passes by a payphone and it starts ringing. He answers the call but can only hear static. When he hangs up, he finds a calling card ... with "Psyren" written on it. The next day, he goes to school and a visually distressed girl, Sakurako Amamiya, forgets her wallet. Ageha picks it up and sees that the girl has the same card. Both of them end up getting involved with the game "Psyren" and uncover some incredibly distressing mysteries.

The beginning of Psyren is very promising, but, after the initial wonder, it becomes awfully predictable, for the most part. With the introduction and defeat of a character in the world of Psyren, it is made awfully clear that it would become a much more predictable story than it first seemed.

It already starts trailing off by the middle. A lot of different characters and concepts are introduced early on just to be forgotten for about 50 chapters, until they suddenly appear again as if nothing had happened.a I have no idea what happened with Ageha's original friends, they just disappeared.

Towards the ends, the unpredictability comes back, but not in a good way. It becomes almost nonsensical, with asspulls left and right. The impressions it gives is that the author got tired of writing Psyren and rushed to end it without thinking too much about it.

The battles, with a couple of exceptions, don't include any type of strategy, they are only based on who is stronger. That is actually pretty sad, as the abilities themselves are pretty imaginative and created a lot of possibilities for better battles. The main character's ability, "Melchee's Door" is truly original and also had a lot of potential, that wasn't fully used.

The cast is pretty big, but most of the characters are pretty well developed. However, there wasn't a single character that had an original personal arc, everything had already been done before. It was pretty easy to see what would happen with each of the characters from their first appearences.

Which brings me to the character design. It also isn't any different than most of other shounens. It is extremely easy to recognize everything about a character with just their design, from abilities to the personal arc. It makes everything extremely easy to predict, taking away any tension.

The art as a whole is pretty, but doesn't have a hint of originality. It is the traditional art for shounens.

Psyren was an extremely boring read to me. I knew what was coming most of the time because of the predictability of the story, which made it lose its edge. When it tried to be different, it became extremely confusing. The characters and their interactions were also pretty standard.

If you are looking for a new shounen to read, it is exactly what you are looking for. Yet, it doesn't offer anything different from all the other hundred shounens.

I started reading Psyren for one purpose, and one purpose only. I wanted another Gantz.

STORY: 7/10
The story starts out similar to Gantz. People are teleported away randomly to go fight mosters for some unexplained reason. The only reward being that they may some day be free from the hell (sorta) that is Psyren. Theres different missions and such, and in the beging Psyren was doing great as my "second Gantz". Sadly, the whole thing changed. I'm not going to go into too many details because i hate spoilers and i hate spoiling, but it pretty much turns into any other shounen. People with special ... powers fight monsters to save the world. Can't shounen mangakas ever think of anything else? Story started off at a solid 9, but it dropped dramatically after the first couple volumes. My fingers are crossed that alot of the main characters die off, and the story turns more Gantz-like again.

ART: 5/10
I started off not really liking the art. It grew on me a little bit, but not much. It won't really pull you into the story. It has sort of a bleach feeling to it, but not as terrible. The backgrounds are there, but at times they can be very boring and plain. I'm getting bored just thinking about the art so just know that it's very very bleach-like.

CHARACTER: 3/10
Almost no character development so far. Only 73 chapters have been released, and i'm holding out until chapter 100 before saying theres no character development at all, but for now theres none. At least the characters are a unique bunch. Theres a hot-headed, hero main character, a damsel-in-distress romantic interest, a cool guy, and even a never before seen snikering villian who wants to rule the world.....I'm beging to think theres some sort of "writting shounen for dummies" guide book that all the shounen mangakas read. A shounen bible of sorts. All main characters must never give up! When a main character is about to die just give him a super special awsome power to use just in the knick of time!

...but i digress. Characters are just poor. They're overflowing with genericness.

ENJOYMENT: 5/10
The begining of the manga was so Gantz-like it was like the second comming of Jesus...but Gantz instead of Jesus. I enjoyed the begining a lot. I really did. Where the manga is at now, not so much.

And since good + bad = average, I'll give it an 5. But if Psyren continues with the generic shounen thing it's been doing lately this rating will surely drop even lower.

OVERALL: 5/10
If I were to just rate the begining, i would rate it a well deserved 9. Too bad the mangaka stumbled upon the Shounen bible, and messed it all up. I was this close to having a second Gantz. Well if you like Bleach, One Peice, or generic shounen number 3, then you will like Psyren a lot. It will only get better the more you read. For most others, it will only get worse. Psyren was promising, but it's no Gantz.

Psyren is Wasted Potential: The Manga. There are so many interesting elements to the story that the author briefly touches on and then moves on (the "programming" of psychic abilities, villain backstory, powers revealed near the end...I could go on). Battles with seemingly big bads end in a matter of seconds/chapters and feel poorly paced. There is an enormous plot point introduced in the story that is never addressed again. Funny enough these only happens a little after the midway point, like the author got tired of writing the story or the series was cancelled and had to wrap ASAP. What starts as a cool ... premise of time travel turns into a rushed out mess of a product by the end, resulting in it being a fairly forgettable, skippable experience. In instances like this, the artwork can usually redeem a mediocre story, but the art here is nothing but average. Overall a fine "popcorn" read but lacks the lasting power of some other shonen out there.

Sometimes I read an obscure manga on the off chance that it may be something interesting, and while Psyren was alright, it's far from a hidden gem. It's more like finding a penny on the ground. Sure, you got something out of it, but not much.

The story starts with an interesting mystery, and while not earth-shattering, the twists and turns are enough to keep you invested. In fact, the plot was interesting enough to keep me going to the end, and was pretty good to the end. It was cool to see how actions in one world effected the other.

The characters are the real problem. ... While some can be fun, not much comes from them in terms of actually being interesting. There were one or two that felt like they had some depth, but many characters are just there. Some characters are even shafted for a good amount of the story, which could've been a good decision if the story was longer, but given it's length, main characters are missing for a good third of the series. The coolest part was seeing some characters changes in both worlds, but the biggest disappointment were the villains who did nothing. The main 2 were important, and a few more were too, but besides those, the villains are very weak.

The battle system had potential, but didn't do much with it. The idea of programming powers was cool, but there was no use of it besides making the main character stronger. Some people did have interesting powers, but it's never the level of even a basic shounen like Naruto.

The art is probably the worst part. It's fine, but it's so basic in terms of style that it might have been what killed the series.

While a fine series, this isn't a hidden gem. This is fine, but there are many better series to read.