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Dec 29, 2022
The Man Without Talent, by Yoshiharu Tsuge, is a semi-biographical manga, which shows part of the experiences and emotions of the author himself, with an introspective, realistic and melancholic vision. In the 1980s, when the manga was published, Japan was experiencing explosive economic growth, and the westernization process initiated in the post-war period was already at an advanced stage. As a result, a large part of the population began to live in large urban centers, adopting a Western lifestyle (which encompasses fashion, customs and consumerism linked to the American way of life), and leaving behind, frozen in time and restricted to some inland towns, the
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ancient Japanese customs. That scar on Japan's history can be found very strongly in this manga.
Sukezou, the main character, is a stone seller who has a small shop set up by the river. However, it doesn't make much sense to buy the stones from his stall, since anyone can collect them right there without paying anything. The idea of selling stones came from an ancient Japanese art, Suiseki, which classifies stones according to aesthetics. According to this art, stones can represent landscapes, objects, people and even abstract concepts, however, like other elements of Japanese culture that will be mentioned later, interest in this art was in decline, with a small number of collectors, and even this small group wasn't interested in the stones that Sukezou sells. Therefore, Sukezou and his family leave for a journey in the interior of Japan, in search of rarer and more valuable stones.
Before talking about the trip, it is important to talk a little about the protagonist. Sukezou was a talented mangaka, but due to disagreements with the comic market, he gave up his career and started investing in completely random businesses, which did not give any financial return. For example: buying and selling antiques that often turned out to be fakes, repairing and selling used cameras, in addition to the aforementioned sale of stones. All these jobs have aesthetic value, but they don't bring enough money to support his family. Sukezou has a son and a wife, who works distributing pamphlets, she is always arguing with him, as she knows of her husband's wasted talent in drawing manga, and blames him for the family living in poverty. It's as if Sukezou purposefully chooses to follow paths that will inevitably go wrong, it's as if he's in a melancholy cycle of self-sabotage, unable to recognize his own talents.
During the journey, Sukezou and his family meet a Komusō (emptiness monk), a sect of Buddhist monks who live as beggars, this group flourished and was very strong during the Edo period. Sukezou then, talking to his wife, comments that these monks no longer fit in today's capitalist world, a comment that could go unnoticed but which is actually one of the pillars of this work. Another important passage occurs in the chapter where he meets the owner of a bird shop, who complains that people only want to buy the colorful and flashy foreign birds, without appreciating the beautiful and discreet Japanese birds. Sukezou, outraged by the futility of Japanese society, criticizes the fact that people are becoming more and more individualistic (very influenced by neoliberalism and all ideology coming from the West), and how this individualism is rotting Japanese society and creating spikes in rates of divorce. But soon after, this speech is mocked, due to the fact that both are in decadent marriages, which they hate. Despite the westernization of Japan being one of the central themes of this comic's criticism, nationalist, idealist discourses, which emphasize a supposed purity of eastern values, are also treated with sarcasm.
During the journey, they pass through places that are practically frozen in time, on the margins of the frenetic development of Japan in the 80s. They are places that represent the memories of an ancient Japan, which refuse to disappear, and which are gradually being absorbed by capitalist modernity, becoming commodities through tourism. Between the final chapters of the manga, Sukezou imagines himself as the owner of an antique shop, surrounded by old objects, like a shadow, which is disappearing along with ancient Japanese values and customs. Without a place in the sun, in this world that is being formed.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 12, 2022
Shigurui is one of the greatest works I've ever read, a manga that manages to delve into the characters' minds and develop abstract themes through its beautiful art. A drama capable of stirring the most intimate human affections. In addition to making harsh criticisms of the hierarchical society of feudal Japan. Every page of this is a piece of art.
Art (10/10)
The most impressive feature of this manga is the art, which is not only extremely realistic and detailed when drawing human bodies, but is capable of materialize abstract, philosophical and psychological concepts with mastery.
Characters (10/10)
The main characters are deep, each
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one has their reasons for being who they are, and the author works their psychology perfectly. They have their own fighting style, which constantly evolves throughout the story and that is beautiful to see.
Plot (7/10)
The plot is critical, fluid and mature. Working fine up to a point. The problem is that several characters are introduced, towards the end, and end up being left out, without a more consistent appearance or development.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 11, 2022
Plot (10/10)
There is no animated work of fiction that has performed a greater worldbuilding than One Piece. Cultures, civilizations, power relations, it's a world with an impressive wealth of details. And even more impressive is how the author, Eiichiro Oda, was able to conduct such a long and detailed script with practically no plot holes. A striking feature is how the author often manages to use information that had been left at the beginning of the story, hundreds of chapters later, no information is wasted at all.
Main character (10/10)
Luffy is a character based on Goku, from Dragon Ball, and just like
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him, he has a pure heart and is always helping others, is always hungry, and when he eats, he eats a lot, doesn't have a great intellect, but is a genius in combat. He's a character who can seem irrational and empty-headed to the first-time viewer (and he often is, after all, that's the fun) but Luffy is a deeper and more well-developed character than he seems, and that development only increases with each passing arc. He has great emotional intelligence, a very strong sense of justice and morals, in addition to being able to recognize the strong from the weak, the allies from the enemies, with very little information, just by analyzing the personality. Luffy is a brave, dreamy, determined and loyal character, capable of anything to defend his friends and achieve his goals. He is also a character who goes through an intense process of personal maturation, making him rethink some of his ideals.
Side characters (10/10)
One Piece has a huge variety of characters, many of them are purposely funny-looking, some even seeming like caricatures, but there are also beautiful and stylish ones. Few anime know how to present a character as well as One Piece, often the break in expectation between presentation and reality generates humor. During the journey, Luffy recruits new "nakamas" (crewmates), each of them has unique and important skills, that will be needed at some point. They all have dramatic pasts that shaped who they are, and I'm sure you'll be thrilled with each one of them. Luffy's Nakama are as important, iconic and beloved as he is
Art (10/10)
Art is an essential part of One Piece. There are several islands and even countries, with different climates, cities and cultures. Not to mention the character design, which is extremely creative, and the diverse creatures and monsters that inhabit this rich world.
Animation (4/10)
In an anime with more than 1000 episodes, the animation quality will not remain constant like in a season anime with 12 or 13 episodes. However, this never bothered, until the Wano arc, where the animation style changed drastically, the anime became more colorful, with many special effects (like Dragon Ball Super). In this arc, the episodes that give the most audience receive animation worthy of a movie, these are the ones that have fights or important revelations, while the others received a power point animation. And in this arc the problem was not only in the animation, but in the direction as well, the inability to put the right soundtrack at the right time, or to manage to adapt an important scene correctly. Wano's arc wasn't well-adapted, so I can't give the animation a good rating. Despite having good animations in some episodes, this is not the reality for most of them.
Soundtrack (10/10)
One of the best, if not the best soundtrack I've ever seen in animes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 11, 2022
Plot (10/10)
The script is relatively complex and unpredictable, it's not easy to work with the theme of time travel, but the writers managed to put together the story very well. The concept of divergence number is very interesting too. Certainly, the plot is one of the biggest positive points of this anime.
Main character (10/10)
Okarin is a great protagonist with an unique personality, he is smart, imaginative, outgoing and gives his all for his friends.
Side characters (4/10)
The female characters have standardized personalities, like Tsundere, Kuudere and Dandere. Which makes them extremely annoying and clichéd. There is a character who is a trans
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woman, whose biggest dream is to change her biological sex, in terms of personality she falls into the same problem as the other female characters and there are no big discussions about gender. There are also two male side characters, one of them fits the standard nerd profile, the other has multiple facets and ends up being interesting. In general, I didn't like the side characters very much, but I think the plot worked very well building empathy and giving an important role to each one of them.
Soundtrack (8/10)
It's an anime with an wonderful opening. They also use the sound of cicadas a lot, which gives a relaxing mood.
Art and animation (8/10)
The art is composed of realistic settings, with stylized and somewhat generic anime characters. The animation is fluid.
In general, Steins Gate is an anime with a complex and detailed script, good dialogues, humor, suspense and drama in the right measure, which is certainly worth watching.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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