Meteor Methuselah
Immortal Rain

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

''Eww. A six hundred year old wanting to date a fifteen year old? This is gonna get old.''

Ladies and gentleladies and as well as that, possible men. I am an idiot. The above I consider not a spoiler simply because in the first few chapters, this is, by all accounts the main drive of the story. The bond between two people, two rather amazing characters. The lovable, big idiot with a timespan of infinite and a hair length that would make Fabio grumble and the girl with a fiery heart that wants to Kill Him, Kiss Him. Not that manga.

It should be -so- cliche by ... now. Romance stories of odd couples are hardly unheard of, so I wanted to dislike this manga. I wanted to. Instead, this became, by all accounts, one of my favorite manga's. Ever. I adore it. Immortal Rain, until I came here, was like the last cookie, you hold it to you and treasure the fact it's yours and just yours. The taste only you get to treasure.

I read the whole story. I laughed at bits and I'm not joking, some parts did make me cry. The raw emotion I felt was wonderful, absolutely dang wonderful. It was a read that engaged me throughout and the only places I felt it fell were certain bits with art that felt over-used and also, the story in places does seem to be the same as it usually is. But after a while, the sheer bonds and development between each character, the grinning, insane and alone Sharem, the cocky, swaggering, brave Eury, the stressed out, lost and angered Ishmael, so many characters, so many things to look at.

In short, why read Immortal Rain? It's a rather, simply put, elegant look at the human condition, why we strive to feel things when everything around us makes us want to scream 'screw it' and not care anymore. The small events that make existence wonderful again. I may exaggerate, but it is a favorite to me. I implore you to read it and even if you don't agree with me? We'll talk about it. We'll be able to talk about it and much like the story itself, we'll have one more reason to give a damn about living a little and talking 'bout it.

VERY UNDERRATED!!

I remember stumbling on this series at my local library, it was a random volume 2--which I find odd even picking up since I hated reading out of order. I was completely drawn to it from that point on and couldn't wait until my holds would come, now this was before I had REAL internet...the dial-up stuff was running at my house; and I didn't even know scanlations was a thing--I was very young.

I love the authors art work and diverse characters. I remember being in middle school and hiding it under my desk because I couldn't wait to read it. There's so ... much nostalgia that I have for this series.

There's such good build up, climax, resolution, and conclusion. If you like complete and fulfilled closures, this would be it. There will be protagonists and antagonists, but by the end of it all, one feels very relatable and great sympathy for all the characters.

I don't know how else to convince anyone to read this series but it is one of my all time favorites! I don't understand how it's not an anime...a big loss really.

I wish I could've enjoyed this manga. But, the truth is that it just simply is not that good.

There is so much potential in this manga, but I guess Ozaki's writing skills just weren't good enough at this point in her career, as the execution is just short of terrible. I loved the premise of this manga, where there is a mysterious immortal man who eventually has to take care of a teenage girl. I thought that their dynamic would develop into some kind of wholesome father daughter relationship. As the series went on and more characters were introduced, I also thought that this would ... develop into a more philosophical series where there doesn't seem to be a good answer to the challenges presented. I thought that the important characters would go through their own character arcs and have a nice resolution. The series never really did into any of these things.

I think my favorite part of the manga was during the beginning third of the manga, when the story was still being developed. I think the villains were introduced very well, especially with the character of Yuca. I loved Yuca's introduction, and I loved the explanation of the Methuselah's past that came along with that backstory. But, after this, the manga just kind of devolves. I can tell that Ozaki had a good outline of what to do with the story, but nothing is actually followed through well. I know I said just a few sentences ago that my favorite part of the manga was during the beginning, but in truth that may be the only actually decent part of this story.

As the series goes on, many of the main characters start to feel crazy and inauthentic. The main character, Machika, starts to become unbearably annoying, and originally interesting characters such as Sharem become simplified and one dimensional. Yuca, who I thought was the most interesting character, did a 180 and started to act in a way that felt out of character.

The worst part of this manga for me was the romance. It's just so bad. I was immensely uncomfortable anytime anything romantic was shown. Machika is too young a character, and I felt that she didn't really have any chemistry with Rain. At some point it starts to feel like all the romances (background ones included) only happen because the author felt some need to include needless romance in the story.

I hate to say it, but it just feels like there is no reason for anyone to read this manga. If you want something with that same old school 90's sci-fi feel, go read Trigun. If you want a very, very good story about an immortal man who has to protect a teenage girl, go read Blade of the Immortal. If you want a good romance story that is better than this, go read anything else because the bar isn't very high. If you want to read something else by Kaori Ozaki that is actually very good, try either The God's Lie or The Golden Sheep. These series, while short, were good enough for me to try out this series just because they shared the same author.

I rated this manga a 4/10, but truth be told I think this score might still be too high. I decided to give it a few extra point(s) because the art is good and also because I'm biased due to how much I like Kaori Ozaki's other works.