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Art: the art of this manga begins with a cartoony style but goes through a substantial upgrade early on to become one of the best ever in WSJ, although it at times feels overly blocky and sterile. Over time it becomes more detail heavy and choppy and feels like less a manga and more a series of illustrations each seeking to be as impactful as possible, the fights scenes may be confusing for some readers especially later on due to the unorthodox paneling.

Plot: The plot starts out as the epitome of a trope heavy shonen story done right, later devolves into periods that drag endlessly, ... feel rushed, fake outs and dropped plot threads, and just a feeling of huge wasted potential. It also becomes extremely self referential with regular flashbacks. The plot does not go in the direction most are expecting so it is unpredictable in that sense avoiding major tropes usually found in super hero stories or battle shonen, but what replaces them isn’t particularly gratifying.

Characters: The characters start out likable and well written if a bit one note, however over time most become relegated to the side lines with more and more introduced that get little to no development, the characters that do get focused on often become empty shells of themselves or just constantly grovel and apologize in the case of heroes, and becoming tantrum throwing self parodies with meaningless development in the case of villains.

Themes: The story injects many philosophical points seemingly inspired from classic American comics such as discrimination, what it means to be a hero, mutations, the morality of killing, corruption among heroes, freedom to use powers, etc. but generally most of these are rushed and explored poorly while ultimately giving mixed messages.

Overall: this manga starts out very strong for the first quarter or so, it starts to decline but still has its moments, but by the last third ranges from mediocre to truly awful.

This series is a hard one to review because it was always intended to be a light read. There are no deep themes, or plot twists, it’s just something you’re supposed to read on your commute once a week and give you a “Aw, how cute” feeling.

That being said, it still felt like it was milked way beyond appeal.

Story: Almost every chapter follows the same routine. Nishitaka wants to defeat Takagi-san and they play some “game”, he loses, and perhaps there is some hint of romance between them. Occasionally we follow other characters, but they usually just are their own couples with their own routine ... dynamic. By Chapter 50 you’re probably already tired of it, and it’s not even half way over. There isn’t really romantic progress, though it’s hinted at more and more as the series goes on, the plot is not told chronologically, you aren’t actually seeing a deepening relationship. The series would have been a lot more enjoyable if it was much shorter, or Nishitaka and Takagi’s chapters were a side plot and the manga spent more time with other characters to inject some variety.

Characters: The games Nishitaka and Takagi play range from clever to kind of weird and making either Nishitaka look like a moron or Takagi has some sort of psychic powers. They are definitely some of the best “cute” characters in a series in a while, but they get one note at times. The side cast appears sparingly and are also somewhat one note.

Art: The art style shifts somewhat dramatically. It becomes much cleaner and more detailed, however Takagi’s design becomes more moeified and looks like a alien at times.

Overall: 5/10. It definitely can be enjoyable if you want a light read and cute moments, but due to its length and the time invested to read it all, it could have been more engaging with some changes without losing its main appeal.

Platinum end is a bizarre manga, and an interesting failure.

Story (3/10): The plot of platinum end starts out as a death game/sentai parody. It's an exaggerated action manga that is played mostly serious. It has its moments but ultimately just feels over the top in its set pieces and gore, with a cast bizarre side characters who don't last very long. They aren't entertaining and some are just unpleasant to read about, namely the 'ugly' guy and the 'disease' girl.

However half way through there is a direction change, and the plot becomes more of a slow paced political thriller with some moral and philosophical arguments. ... During this time it becomes fairly boring and is a series of confrontations that lead to nothing. After the entire series builds up to a certain event it finishes off with a weak anti-climax and one of the worst endings I've ever seen in a manga in the very last chapter. Some unanswered questions remain so I wonder if the ending was rushed because of declining sales.

Art (9/10): Obata seems to have put some of his best work in his whole career in Platinum end, and that's saying something considering his track record. In the first half of the series the panel style is similar to in Bakuman, with a lot of creative panel shapes and dramatic drawings. At points it is overwhelming and confusing to look at. After the direction change half way through, the panels become more straight and the art less dramatic, it kind of loses it's steam, but still is excellent throughout.

Character (3/10): The characters are extremely weak. The protagonist is very annoying with his refusal to give up his ideals in the beginning. He 'develops' into a boring, passive shell of a character. The heroine of the series and main love interest isn't interesting either and is basically a non-entity after her character arc at the start. Many other characters appear but usually only briefly and are pretty one note. The two main antagonists of the series are weak as well. The first is stereotypical and the second is one-note and boring. Neither of them have motivations that make much sense.

Enjoyment (2/10): This is the preachiest series I have ever read. Multiple times characters will go on long rants about moral or philosophical arguments. But what is conveyed isn't deep or interesting. The themes are basically outright told to the reader multiple times, but they aren't even good. You might think that a manga with lots of moral and philosophical arguments would be interesting, but it's obvious the author doesn't understand the arguments and just reads like someone talking to themselves while missing the whole point. This series is just a massive slog that thinks it is far more intelligent than it actually is.

This manga was the greatest disappointment in recent memory. The hype and push it got pre-release was more then possibly any manga ever, only for it to drop with not even a whimper.

Story: 4/10

You may be confused to see two common complaints about the setting. It has too much exposition, and that it doesn't have enough exposition and is confusing. The reason both of these complaints can coexist is simple, the setting was explained horribly. When we needed exposition we got none, leaving the reader not knowing what was happening, and when we got exposition it was given in the most convoluted and uninteresting way.

The ... concept the series has of sci if and fantasy mixed had great potential, but it was totally squandered. It also really kills suspense when the power levels start at planet buster and the characters can regenerate perfectly from every attack.

Art: 3/10

The art of this series is probably the worst in recent memory. Though many manga come out with objectively weak art like One Punch Man (Web) and sometimes Hunter x Hunter, they always manage to be able to make sense and not be annoying to look at.

Samurai 8 does not, the manga lacks line density and shading meaning everything looks white, like its a marshmallow world. There is no grit or depth to anything. The first few chapters have partical effects everywhere which just makes the page overloaded and is actually annoying to look at. The backgrounds are very detailed, but it just makes the pages feel full and overwhelming. The artist seems to have caught this problem, and started doing better after the initial first volume of chapters. But it's still not solved entirely and I have to wonder how the artist, writer, editor, or board of editors at jump didn't notice such a glaring issue. The character designs are very simple and flat. I'd be surprised if this artist could draw realistic humans, his proportions of characters seems off and overly skinny and moe blob like.

At the same time Kishimoto does the paneling and story, and carries over all the issues Naruto's paneling had in its final years. Very static panels, not a lot of big ones, showing characters at more of a distance, and not showing scenes it assumes the audience can predict. It feels like it's missing a page sometimes. These techniques exacerbates the flaws the art has.

This isn't a mecha series, but there is something similar to that in the animal guardians who become suits to characters. Their designs are amazingly weak, over complicated, and unmemorable. (And also totally white)

Character: 5/10

This manga basically solidifies the most stereotypical shounen character tropes into the setting. There is the main character, his master, a supporting female he protects, and later a villian he wants revenge on. The only thing it's missing is a classic rival character, something like that has been introduced, but it's so boring and has little development I'll give the manga benefit of the doubt it's a side character and not their serious attempt at a rival.

This simplicity would be fine for a classic style shounen battle manga, the problem is these characters are incredibly boring and weak in comparison to how these roles are filled by countless other shounen before it. Including many running in the same magazine simultaneously.

Without spoilers, a major death happens early in this series, but compared to how that same style of plot point played out in countless other shounen series including Naruto (multiple times), the emotion and impact just isn't there.

The comedy in this series is truly god awful. Lots of people complain about the comedy in later parts of Naruto, I personally had no problem with it. But somehow this is far worse, and really really forced. Kishimoto's classic sad back stories are back, but he tries to rush through them in less then a chapter. Compared to the more famous tragic back stories in early Naruto, or even in other shounen, the ones here are weak.

Enjoyment: 3/10

This manga is the definition of wasted opportunity. The artist clearly puts a huge amount of effort into all the detail, and the writer a lot of effort into the world and setting. But it's managed so poorly it just hurts the series.

In years to come people will forget how hyped this manga was, but it was truly something. It's pre-release trailer got a million views, people had been speculating about Kishimoto's next work ever since he said he had a great sci fi idea. The series launched with multiple color pages in a row, and huge ads on newspapers and in stations in Japan, and thousands of ad slips in other manga volumes.

It's low reception was so baffling to people it brought back the old speculation late naruto haters had that the real reason naruto was a success was because of Kishimoto's first editor.

Overall 3/10 , wouldn't be surprised if it's axed or moved to some lesser magazine to quickly finish its run and sad existence. Would NOT recommend.

UPDATE: Samurai 8 has been cancelled. Because the ending is rushed I have lowered the score to 2/10. I hope Okubo and Kishimoto can come back from this, either working together or separate. If not, I wish them the best in their future.