Kagerou Daze

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Who am I gonna lie to, I’ve been a fan of Kagepro since I can recall, this is the franchise that I have always loved n matter what, maybe the anime was a bit of disappointment, but that is not the topic.

This is the only manga I’ve ever read that I started and finished in the same day (I don’t know how honestly).

I’d only recommend this manga if you have some basic knowledge on the project, itself, you may get confused about it, and I recommend too reading this manga first, and later on watching the anime (Mekakucity actors by the way.)

Story: 9/10
The plot ... is a bit confusing, but I loved it so far, I don’t have any deeper criticism on it.

Art: 7/10
The art is nice for sure, pleasant to have and everything, but I would have loved to have a more recalling/remarkable art style (Kind of like Tokyo revengers/Jujutsu kaisen?)

Characters: 10/10
I LOVE the characters, all of them, my least favourite from the may be Hibiya, but I adore him too. The characters aren’t the most realistic nor well written (in exception of Ayano, truly an underrated character), but they are fun to read, their dynamics combine truly well blending with each other, it feels kind of nice seeing how they get along, no one truly hates each other, and I am all down for a group of friends like that.

Enjoyment: 9/10
I don’t have really much to say about this, I got kind of lost between everything, but still managed to bring my attention back.

Overall: 9/10
Over everything, a very enjoyable manga for those who still miss the days where we had notices about the project, I hope someday Jin will take on control again, and try to give it a proper end, I will not complain if he gives me more merch of Seto in a raccoon suit anyway.

EDIT: This manga is the sequel to the Kagerou Project songs and prequel to the Novels and Anime.

Kagerou Daze is a manga route of Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)'s series "Kagerou Project". It's written by Jin and illustrated by Mahiro Satou.

STORY: 7/10
Kagerou Daze is the story set mostly on August 14th and 15th and is centered around the Mekakushi Dan, a gang of teenagers with strange eye abilities, the Kagerou Daze, and timeloops.

I would like to note Jin has stated the manga is not intended to be an adaption of the light novel, but another timeline in the series. According to his placement, this route is ... set after the songs and right before the light novels.

Initially, the manga follows the plot of the light novels, but changes about 1/4 of the way through to being vastly different than any other route in the franchise. Since the manga is now finished, it does NOT stand on it's own and is meant to depict events Mekakucity Actors only showed portions of. I did find the story and bit confusing, and unfortunately I feel the story has not gone on long enough to fully depict it, while the light novels have done better.

ART: Good
The art in this manga is a different style than the designs from Sidu and Wannyanpuu-, it really isn't as nice as Sidu's designs, but they're not bad. Mahiro Satou's art grew on me and I do like it, it's just not one of the best parts of this manga.

CHARACTER: Fun
I really love the characters is Kagerou Daze. However, most characters in this route do not extensively fleshed out unfortunately. I believe this might've been done because Jin expected readers to be aware of the other media as it went on. I felt this is the weakest part of the manga.

ENJOYMENT: 9/10
I'm a massive Kagerou Project fan and this manga is what originally got me into the franchise. I adore this manga and it's very dear to me so I highly recommend it.

OVERALL: 7/10
If you have an interest in weird, sad stories with nice looking characters, you might like Kagerou Daze. PLEASE check out the other media for Kagerou Project because this intentionally became another part of the story's puzzle rather than a contained story. The light novel's story did a similar concept but still resolved story arcs.

Kagerou Project is an interesting multi-media franchise. Yes, let me start with stating this is a multi-media project. The other media aren't optional - this is just one part of the overall story. It isn't "alternative version" in a stand-alone way, no, it's all just a part of one large complicated storyline with multiple routes.

The manga is one of such route(s). The novel is another one. The anime is sort of a finale (or at least at the point in time this review is being written, with a sequel to that finale planned). The music and music videos are... chaotic pieces of information that ... you will have to put together somehow, good luck with that - no, really, the franchise isn't going to make it easy, considering some short manga are included only with a limited edition of the cds. Yep, specifically only with the limited editions. You want to get the whole picture? Better pay up.

The fact that I even had to explain the basic structure of the franchise before getting to the actual review might leave you wondering where should you even start. My recommendation would be music - manga - novel - anime, but asking the nearest KagePro fanboy will probably get you more detailed and reliable explanation.

Now, for the manga itself - it starts with the classic scene of terrorist takeover of a shopping mall - one that is present in almost every part of this franchise. You might be even wondering if the manga is actually going to be any different. It is, but it gets a while to really get going. For me, I wasn't really interested in the story until the later half of this manga. Until then, the characters didn't feel exactly interesting or relatable. In other words, it the story struggles with making you actually care about what happens to the characters - it just plainly introduces them, almost like it expects you to already be a fan. Well, it probably does hope you already are a fan.

If, like me, you would not exactly call yourself a fan, I would still recommend to not drop this manga before it gets to the part about Azami's backstory - as mentioned, the part where it gets interesting. Sure, that means you might endure the somewhat boring first part, but I'd say it's still worth sticking with it, especially if you want to see what is all this hype about. While I don't want to spoil the content, I would definitely not recommend picking up the novel or the anime without finishing this manga, as finishing this manga might be the point at which you might start being more invested in the characters - something that lot of this franchises unfortunately builds upon a lot, the expectations of you already being invested from some other parts of the franchise. Similar how the cryptic and scattered format of the music videos might make you interested into seeking out more complete version of the story.

The art is fine, most of the time it's somewhat average (not bad, but also not breathtaking), but it does have some cool spreads. At the very least, the art doesn't deteriorate the experience.

Overall, while it might not be as amazing as the fanbase wants you to believe, it's still worth checking out.