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At first, I was surprised that there were no negative reviews for this on MAL, considering the nature of the manga. After some thinking, my surprise waned. I mean, most people would look at the case this is inspired by and immediately decide not to touch it; Those who don't are the kind of people who would likely enjoy this by comparison (I do not mean this to slant fans of this, I merely mean that they would be more accepting of upsetting subject matter). And those who find the concept questionable (such as me) would likely assume that the reasons this work fails speak ... for themselves. Honestly, that may be the most offensive part of this manga; It's just not really interesting. Would anyone actually care about this if it was removed from the tragic death of Junko Furuta? Maybe, but I assume that far less people would.

But let's start from the top. '17 Years' is a manga inspired by the murder of Junko Furuta, which occurred about 15 years before this manga was created. If you are not familiar with this event, I would suggest reading about it first, although keep in mind that it was an extremely evil murder and the details are upsetting on every level. Even at its best, such a concept for a manga is dubious. There are examples of stories like this working, but '17 Years' doesn't, and even if it did, I would still question why such a manga needed to be made in the first place. Many people have claimed that the manga excuses the actions of the protagonist (and by extension the actual killers), but to give the manga credit this does not seem to be the intent. However, it is still a very strange decision to take an infamous murder case and focus far more on one of the criminals than the actual victim, especially in such a sympathetic way. The lack of characterization for Sachiko (Who is analogous to Junko) is by far the biggest flaw of this manga (along with how boring it is). We don't see her life before she's kidnapped, and the majority of her panel time is spent being tortured. She is essentially a plot device. This would be bad in any manga, but considering the context this is honestly quite awful.

The ending is by far the most confusing element of this manga. Sachiko doesn't die, she is rescued. ...Why? So she has a happy ending? If the idea was to make a story with a happy ending, why even base it on this case? Was it so people would be more likely to sympathize with the protagonist, knowing that his actions did not lead to murder? What was the point? Was there a point? Why did this manga need to be written? I assume it was to show how a group of boys could be led to do such things, but the message was "Most of this evil murder was spearheaded by one particularly bad guy". Ok, that *could* be a fine story, but is that actually what happened in this case? Well, this certainly wasn't an accurate depiction of events on any level. I really can't think of a reason why this manga needed to exist. It's not good independent of its context, and it's even worse attached to it. At the end of the day it feels cheap. I do not recommend this manga. If you want a non-fiction narrative about delinquent kids' struggles to be better, read 'Bakuon Rettou'.

CLAMP's mangaography daunts me, as each work seemingly ties into an earlier or contemporary one, forming a massive amalgamation of anime tropes and bishounens. 'Tokyo Babylon' seems to be the starting point of all of this, although as far as I know there was a prototype of this story even earlier. Regardless, 'Tokyo Babylon' doesn't try to ease readers into its world at all. Even 'Reservoir Chronicle', which ties not only into this but also the contemporary 'XXXHolic", does a better job of introducing its characters and making the audience care. I believe this feeling stems from a sense of entitlement from the writers. Subaru ... (16, by the by) and Seishiro (25, by the by) are in love. We are told this from the beginning. Subaru's sister Hokuto really wants them together. I suppose the audience is supposed to as well.

However, I never once got an impression that these two were actually in love. Maybe that was the point considering the end twist, but regardless, a majority of the manga is filled with charmless romance scenes that feel entirely unearned. If the idea was to hint that Seishiro was evil, it still failed. Basically, the end reveals that Seishiro and Subaru met a long time ago when Seishiro killed a girl. Seishiro said he would spare Subaru if he learned to love him. Then he erased his memory and re-met him years later. Manga, amirite? I couldn't help but think of Griffifth from 'Berserk' while reading this, but two things separate Griffifth and Seishiro: One, we see the relationship between Guts, Griffifth, and Casca unfold. There's ups and downs. In 'Tokyo Babylon', the relationship feels stagnant until the end. Second, Griffifth does have an element of humanity to him despite the horrible things he did. He's evil, but you understand his motivation at all times. If it turns out Griffifth just always hated Guts and planned to do the eclipse from the start and also somehow manipulated Guts into being a part of it, he wouldn't be that interesting. Oh wait, that's basically what Seishiro did. Seishiro doesn't develop. Before the reveal, he's a nice, boring guy. After his betrayal, he's an evil, boring guy. He doesn't struggle. Why did he even do any of this in the first place? Why didn't he just kill Subaru instead? If he can erase people's memories, why didn't he just leave it at that? He dedicated a lot of his life to this convoluted plan, which makes me think that he wanted to love Subaru, but he acts cocky and proud of the fact that he's never loved anyone. Maybe all of this is answered in the sequel 'X', but I'm not sure how much I care at this point.

The other half of the manga fares slightly better. It's usually pretty disconnected from the romance, being self-contained stories where Subaru helps people, usually using some supernatural powers in the process. Hokuto and Seishiro usually aren't even involved in these either, so I question why they're here. They're not particularly entertaining, they don't really develop Subaru as a character, and any thematic ideas don't really tie into the main story. The name 'Tokyo Babylon' hints at something compelling, a look at the downfall of a modern city. This idea certainly appears at points, but ironically, the story fell apart far more spectacularly than Tokyo did. Despite the classic CLAMP style, I really can't recommend this manga to anyone. Go read "Reservoir Chronicle" instead.

At this point, it’s typical for me to return to art that I love and have a more critical outlook on it. However, the inverse rarely comes to pass; I can’t count many works of art that I disliked initially but enjoyed after a second look. However, there’s one such example I want to discuss here: the Sega Genesis classic ‘Ristar’. Just kidding, I’m talking about ‘Freesia’, on the MyAnimeList page for ‘Freesia’. Yes, I predictably follow norms and don’t deviate from the status quo. It seems Matsumoto tried to follow suit with this manga; This may be his most conventional and least avant-garde work. ... It contains ‘slightly less’ abstractions and explicit sexual scenes than usual! Yeah, Matsumoto undoubtedly authored ‘Freesia’, even if it appeals to slightly more people than his other works.

There’s a trend I’ve noticed with abstract art where people will praise the series for being deep, but not actually expand on the meaning of the abstractions. This is often accompanied by some variation of “People much smarter than me have done a better job analyzing this masterpiece than I ever could.” Today, just like every day of my life, I have decided to be the smarter (read: more pretentious) person, as few analyses of ‘Freesia’ aptly describe the reasons I appreciate the work. On a surface level, the manga unfolds as an explicit action series where 70% of the characters have mental problems. Kano, our protagonist, constantly hallucinates, has an imaginary friend, suffers from PTSD, and can turn invisible with some kind of camouflage. Is that last part actually important to him being mentally ill? …Maybe, but we’ll get to that later. Anyway, Kano acts very odd and standoffish, but this makes him very effective at his job: killing people. In ‘Freesia’, perpetrators of murders are legally allowed to be killed by family members of the deceased, although this usually happens years down the line. If the family of the deceased doesn’t want to commit this act of vengeance themselves, they hire an Enforcer like Kano to do it for them.

One couldn’t hope to analyze Kano on a surface level, so I won’t even bother. Thankfully, other characters hide behind fewer abstractions. Mizoguchi makes a strong first impression, establishing himself as a very, very bad person. A character like this has purpose in this story; Evil people will take advantage of legalized killing. This happens in reality as well. However, Mizugochi overstays his welcome considering his lack of development and complexity. He could’ve been killed off much earlier, and the series would’ve lost little value. The third enforcer is Yamada, the sanest major character in the series. He begins as a lawful good presence, although he lacks the prowess of his two coworkers. Eventually his skills and confidence grows, but simultaneously, his morals begin to corrupt. Yamada stays a solid presence throughout the story, and I think it would’ve been a good idea to focus on him a little more.

If one read ‘Freesia’ as a conventional action story, they wouldn’t be entirely satisfied. There’s a lot of slow moments, and some details (Such as Kano’s aforementioned powers) lack a concrete explanation. The solid page layouts are held back by inconsistent art. Sometimes the art really enhances the work, but other times it looks extremely rough. Matsumoto has always had a sketchy artstyle, but Freesia takes this to another level. Good, self-contained stories appear throughout Freesia, but these still feature a very strange protagonist that lacks charm and tons of upsetting content. Many of these qualities don’t even enhance the story on an abstract level; I don’t see why ‘Freesia’ couldn’t have given more concrete explanations of its supernatural elements, for example. Look at a manga like ‘Eden: It’s an Endless World’. Not only does it (mostly) work as a literal story with great characters, worldbuilding, and presentation, but it also contains a lot of philosophical and abstract concepts that commentate on the meaning of life. If 'Freesia' was trying to mix action and social commentary, it should've given more attention to the former.

Thankfully, the meat of the manga lies within the latter. 'Freesia' contains some very interesting statements on people's place in society. Within this framework Kano’s place in the story becomes very interesting. In the general sense, I believe that Kano’s camouflage ability represents him “not being seen” by society. Even this interpretation could be taken in two directions. It could represent Kano’s pursual of sanity and normalcy, which he struggles with throughout the story. Much of Kano’s life is spent trying to live up to what others believe to be “normal” and “good”. Kano works, he has a girlfriend, and he takes care of his mother. However, looking past the surface, each of these elements of a man’s life that would generally be considered “good” are extremely dubious. His job consists of killing people. His girlfriend constantly cheats on him without trying to hide it. His mom might actually be some random stranger that he kidnapped? However, these oddities in Kano’s life don’t bother him at all. This could be because he only wants to keep up appearance for others, but usually it seems that Kano is so disconnected from normal emotions that he doesn’t realize that these things are abnormal or harmful. Nevertheless, his desire to “blend in” could be a parallel to his camouflage. The alternate symbolism behind Kano’s camouflage could be a representation of marginalized groups. Considering Kano is both mentally ill and a veteran, one could very easily draw a parallel between Kano’s camouflage and a sort of social isolation that stigmatized groups face; Kano has become invisible to others due to being ignored and neglected. He takes a dangerous job because that’s what he knows, and by the end he’s tossed aside when he’s no longer needed. I really think both interpretations fit, and they characterize Kano and his struggle of fitting into society very well.

Even beyond this, ‘Freesia’ contains a lot of commentary on law, justice, and wealth. The enforcement system’s place in the story gradually grows more important as people rightly begin to question the morality of such a law. It’s less so a justice system and moreso an industry; Cases are denied and accepted not based on volatility of a criminal, but instead on self-interest. Does this case bring publicity? Could it get our workers killed? The finale involves Kano’s boss setting up an anti-enforcement political activist for an enforcement, which nicely creates an excuse for a flashy but also compelling final enforcement.

Unfortunately, ‘Freesia’ doesn’t quite hit its full potential. Some plot points and side stories would’ve been better left out for one reason or another (such as Mizugochi’s aforementioned conclusion). As in many Matsumoto stories, the writing becomes strangely transparent near the end, which leads to a solid finale, but not a great one. I enjoyed the main villain’s character, but he doesn’t feel like a true final opponent for Kano. One could argue that another character, Higuchi, was the true villain from the beginning, but she has some problems herself. She’s said to be conniving and scheming, but these traits aren’t evident by merely reading. Honestly, she doesn’t actually do much, although her conclusion was very good in how it contrasted her and Kano’s worldview. The manga tries to tackle several themes and issues near its end (Maybe too many), but its closing moments truly strike me. It parallels the very beginning of the manga, where Kano talked to his imaginary friend. However, Kano now takes the place of the friend, and the reader’s perspective comes from where Kano once sat. Kano begins to muse on existentialism and says that existence is defined through connections with others. While Kano’s friend was imaginary in the manga’s world, Kano is imaginary in our reality. Kano is a manga character, but if his tale here had a profound impact on the reader, does that mean he truly exists? It’s a very interesting finale that puts the reader in Kano’s shoes, which is difficult for such an odd distinct character.

I could analyze many more moments, but we’d be here a while. ‘Freesia’ achieves a level of artistry few manga have, but those quirks and flaws do hold it back a little at the end of the say. Despite its popularity, ‘Freesia’ isn’t quite my favourite Matsumoto manga. ‘Mikai no Hoshi’ manages to tell a denser, less confusing story with compelling characterization in only two volumes, and ‘Alice in Hell’ contains more interesting worldbuilding and plotting while also being much shorter. However, I can’t deny that Freesia has earned its title as a premiere underground manga.

What matters most when writing a story? Characters? Plotting? Presentation? The author's fetish? There's certainly wrong answers (The first three I mentioned), but no right answers. 'Dragon Head' basically puts all of chips on its themes of fear and paranoia. It establishes a mysterious apocalypse very well, and puts its characters in various situations that show the affects of fear and paranoia. The name of the manga itself comes off as a red herring in retrospect; No overtly supernatural elements reveal themselves in 'Dragon Head'. There is no dragon, and by extension, no head. Despite what the manga hints at, no dark, malevolent entity lurks ... in the shadows. This might've disappointed me, but I realize that such a twist serves the idea of fear and paranoia well. Nothing is more terrifying than the unknown, so never giving an entirely straight answer for the apocalypse's origin makes sense for this series. The series concerns itself far more with the self-destructive nature of humanity in these cases; People who believe that there's something beyond comprehension out there. In this way, the anti-climax is merely a way to put us in the characters' shoes. This thematic throughline is undoubtedly the manga's greatest strength, and maybe its only strength...

The characters aren't great. None of them are annoying, but they're all extremely basic. Teru, our protagonist, is a normal guy. Ako is a normal girl. There is some slight character development for them, but it's entirely predictable and not compelling. There is a fairly interesting character at the beginning of the manga, but his presence makes up a small fraction of the entire series. Generally, if a character isn't boring, they're interesting but underdeveloped. The story meanders a lot; It could've been much shorter, considering how loose the plot is here. The story does cover a lot of ground regarding different emergences of paranoia, but even still, the last chapter lacks conclusivity in a way it didn't really need to, even leaving the deliberate anti-climax aside. The presentation is pretty good all things considered; The solid art and good paneling make for a nice reading experience. The manga can be a little to wordy at times, but it balances these moments out well enough such that I'm not bothered. Really, I wouldn't say the story, art, or characters are bad. However, most of the heavy lifting is done by the themes, which I can't say entirely works out. 'Dragon Head' is fine, maybe even good, but if even a little bit more effort went into its other elements, it could've been much more. By other elements, I of course mean the author's fetish. 5/10, very close to a 6.

Visible, apparent improvement from an artist always leads to a fulfilling experience. People often forget how much one has to truly grow as a creator to create a masterpiece. Experiencing the first works of my favourite storytellers has motivated me to keep writing. While Takahashi Tsutomo isn’t one of my favourites, he has a distinct style and skills. He may not be consistent, but he wrote “Bakuon Rettou”, which shows that he knows what he’s doing.

At one point though, he didn’t. Before “Bakuon Rettou”, “Blue Heaven”, “NeuN”, or anything else, Tsutomo created “Jiraishin”. Honestly, what’s here doesn’t differ from mainstream episodic cop shows like ... “Criminal Minds” at its core: Episodic mysteries with some detective work and action, most of which have little continuity with each other. Even from the outset though, “Jiraishin” separates itself from shows like that because it never really pulls punches. Moral characters will die, evil acts are never cut away from or sugarcoated, and our protagonist Ida rarely shows empathy or remorse for others. Of course, none of this is innovative, and none of it prevents “Jiraishin” from feeling underwhelming in its first half. Ida isn’t particularly interesting and doesn’t really develop as a character, and the unmemorable supporting cast doesn’t help either. The art gets the job done, but the soft style doesn’t fit gritty story. The episodic plots range from good to alright, and few have any actual mystery angle to them. “Jiraishin” starts out as an average manga with few unique elements.

However, something interesting happens. This should be apparent to the detectives reading, but “Jiraishin” improves. A new character appears, and Ida’s dynamic with her is far better than with other characters. The art not only becomes more dynamic and detailed, but also more fitting of the gritty tone. The plots of each case begin to tackle more interesting concepts and moral questions. Dialogue also improves a lot. “Jiraishin” becomes a pretty good manga, even held back by its slow start. Ida still lacks compelling characterization, and commentary on his role as a loose cannon could’ve been taken further. Even still, “Jiraishin” works well as a cool detective story and should be read by those who’ve enjoyed Tsutomo’s other works.

I happened upon "Fool Night" while browsing the manga available on the VIZ app. For some reason, its cover stuck out to me. Upon reading the first chapter, I knew the manga had potential. After reading more, I saw that potential realized.

I usually don't like reviewing manga before they're completed, and even less so if I'm not caught up to the current chapters. I certainly would've read more, but VIZ still hasn't translated all of it yet, and the unofficial sources aren't delivering this time. That itself should show how overlooked this manga is (At least in the West). I assume the presentation contributes to ... the low popularity; The artstyle lacks polish, and while that feels somewhat fitting considering the tone here, the roughness remains somewhat off-putting. Ironically though, the overall presentation elevates the manga. The framing and paneling surprise me in their greatness for what is, according to MAL, the a first work of its author. I know this is the hack's go-to for discussing style in Manga today, but the Fujimoto inspiration is evident: Still frames that accentuate small, subtle moments; Considered, cinematic framing; and the aforementioned rough artstyle that enhances the dark setting. In order to earn back a little credibility, I'll now evoke the name of Matsumoto, from which this manga seems to derive use of visual metaphors from.

If Yasuda Kasumi was inspired by Matsumoto (It's far more likely that I am pretentiously reaching as to bring up obscure mangaka), this inspiration certainly extends to the sociopolitical commentary. "Fool Night" addresses current issues, but does so while creating a unique world. The sun has gone out, and trees can only grow if planted into people who consequentially die from the process. Yes, there are some logistical issues with this concept, a few (but not all) of which of which are briefly addressed by the manga. To my memory, the story never justifies why these plants can't grow in animals instead, but whatever. I'm willing to forgive the issues because of the good resulting commentary. Of course this system is used to prey on poor people. Of course the rich would still waste the precious resource of wood on decorations and extravagance. Of course there's an opposition to this, lead by an equaly self-serving leader. The world of "Fool Night" balances similarities to our world and creative divergences very well, leading to good worldbuilding that doesn't sideline the plot.

The enjoyment factor is enhanced by a few smaller, self-contained stories that are eventually integrated into the main plot. These stories are pretty conventional "superpower guy helps people deal with their emotional problems" stories, but they're well executed and ensure that the reader is invested while worldbuilding and setup occurs. These uplifting stories do a good job at balancing out the depressing world of the manga, which is given a lot of attention. The world is initially shown through our protagonist Toshiro's eyes, but other perspectives enhance the worldbuilding in interesting ways. The cast has remained pretty small, but each character is likeable enough and none feel extraneous.

Honestly though, while I do enjoy many characters here, few have realized their full potential yet. Toshiro himself eventually went through some well-justified introspection briefly, but this was interrupted by a new plot point. This plot point is compelling, but I'll be disappointed if we don't return to Toshiro's mental state. It may be too early to say, but that's true of every element of the manga. Maybe "Fool Night", just like its main character, only has a year or two left to live before leaving the world far too soon. At its current trajectory though, this could very well be a frontrunner for classics of the new decade. I definitely recommend this one.

‘Dorohedoro’ might have the biggest gap between the starting date and ending date of any manga I’ve read. Despite being a decently obscure manga, I started reading it far before series like ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘One Piece’. I really enjoyed it, but for whatever reason, I stopped about halfway through and never finished it… Until now. Was it worth it? Yeah, sure, but it’s far from perfect.

People often call the first few volumes (Pretty much just season one of the anime) boring, but I really enjoy it. Pinning it down is hard; It’s slice of life, action, sports, mystery, and somehow it all comes together. ... If you're wanting a weird manga, this is definitely for you, and a big part of that is the location. The world of ‘Dorohedoro’ endures as one of its greatest strengths. It has my favorite style of worldbuilding; Covert and unintrusive, but interesting and fitting of the story and characters. The characters themselves start out great. Pretty much all of the major characters are likeable and have fun personalities, and they all have cool relationships and dynamics with each other. There’s not much in terms of character arcs, but there are compelling character developments nonetheless, with interesting backstories that expand your understanding of a character in interesting ways. One moment that stands out to me is when the backstory of En (The best character) is framed as a movie he made about himself, which is not only an interesting way to present a flashback, but also a great way to characterize En’s goofy, self-centered personality.

It's almost fitting that the manga started to disinterest me soon after En left the story for a while. Generally, what hurts this manga for me is a shift away from laid back hijinks and towards serious, horrific action. The magic system works well enough for the former; It’s very loose, but this is forgivable in a genre with lower stakes. The lack of stakes partially because death is usually more of an inconvenience than an actual consequence. Characters get their heads chopped off and come back like everything is fine. When the series takes a more serious direction later, this becomes a problem. Nothing can kill these people, so why should I care if they get cut in half now that the series wants me to? Revival is never a question of if, but when. Time travel is here. As per tradition, it causes some issues with the plot, although thankfully the series doesn’t try too hard to justify such a nonsensical concept. It became clear to me about halfway through that the plot is actually inconsequential. The author very often makes things plot devices and new powers for characters to move the plot along, and most foreshadowing isn’t particularly interesting because everything sticks out as a mystery, either because it was intended to be one or it simply makes no sense. As such, the shift from characters being a focus to story being a focus was a poor choice.

Despite all of the high-concept insanity and horror going on, I really checked out in the latter half of the manga. It became hard to appreciate character moments when those characters were separated or talking about the convoluted plot. I’d say that it was a bad idea to shift from an off-beat slice-of-life style to a mystery action series, but ‘Diamond is Unbreakable’ did it well so the problem isn’t on a conceptual level, but execution. Regardless, the story would be better if it was all slice-of-life and low-stakes action. At the very least, the art is consistent all the way through. It’s very chaotic and not really geared towards having good fight choreography, but it knows when to pull back and let the reader focus on the important stuff. I wouldn't say the visuals alone justify the experience, but they remain a nice bonus.

I was harsh, but I do like ‘Dorohedoro’ overall. Those first few volumes were just that good, and it does have consistently interesting art and worldbuilding, so my experiencing the manga was fun. However, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. For about three years now, it stuck in my mind as a really cool and unique manga and finishing it kinda ruined that. Well, I guess some mysteries are better left unsolved...

Being a Non-Japanese Speaker, it was hard for me to find any comprehensive information on the author's life. I'm not entirely surprised, as while Takahashi has made a few well-liked manga, his works have mostly flown under the radar in not only the West, but also Japan. 'Bakuon Rettou' was never going to change that. It was a semi-autobiographical delinquent manga in an era when that genre was far past its prime, about being a biker when biking was past its prime. The art looks chaotic, character designs aren't particularly flattering, the main character's not a very good person, and some characters just kinda disappear ... from the story with no closure.

Despite those elements, or maybe because of them, 'Bakuon Rettou' feels real. Sure, that's a given for a loose autobiography, but I've seen few people as honest with who they are in their art as Takahashi is here. Despite the rough look and general low-brow theming, this has an understanding of the artform and take on growing up that no other manga really do. Early on, the rides in the city feel as exhilarating as anything on a black-and-white page could. Blinding lights and deafening permeate each panel, the background fades into a blur, and the wind flows in our protagonist Kase's hair. It captures youthful freedom in a way words never could, and when I read it, I think to myself, "This is great stuff. I hope this manga keeps this up."

Of course, that was never possible.

Don't get me wrong, the manga keeps a consistent level of greatness, but something changes eventually. The first and most shocking harbinger of change is the death of Kase's two friends. This was one of the few things I could actually find regarding the author Takahashi's experiences, as these two deaths were based on his true experiences. This moment in his life clearly impacted him, and by extension it impacted Kase. It's the first moment where Kase begins to think what the reader already knows: "Maybe I can't be in a biker gang forever."

Kase pushes these feelings away, but he's constantly reminded of them. Friends and acquaintances die and get injured around him, others see him for the thug he often is, and he himself gets beaten up and injured. Despite the fun and games, Kase is always one mistake away from death. The manga goes from romanticizing biker gangs to showing the awful effects they can have on people's lives, and this contradiction is embodied by Kase. Some of his friends are moving on to jobs or other passions, and the ones that aren't are going down a much darker path. Eventually, he accepts that his time in the gang is limited and tries to end it with a bang. He gathers over 1000 bikers to ride for the honor of his friends who died. And that was it. Kase rides one more time later after some time in juvey, but he no longer has that feeling he did when he first started. That time of his life is over, and he needs to move on. In the final chapter, for the first time in his life, Kase works, and then it ends. No assurance Kase will grow up to be a good man, no apology to the people he's wronged, nothing. Maybe those happen, maybe they don't. That's up to Kase.

I usually don't go through manga like this while reviewing them, but it's hard to explain why this manga is such a masterpiece to me otherwise. It's a covertly brilliant manga, and the fact that it's so overlooked is criminal despite being expected. I could critique a bit about how some characters felt a bit conflicted in the core message regarding Kase, but it's much more surprising that this isn't true of every character, as most somehow perfectly balance being an entity separate to our protagonist while also enhancing his arc in crucial ways. It's all something you need to experience for yourself to truly appreciate. This is a manga I'll never forget.

Just like Kase and Takahashi, I'll always have the memories.

'Homonculus' is one of those cerebral, dark seinen manga. Our protagonist Nakoshi is a man stuck between two worlds, worlds of nice lies and harsh truths. On one side of where he sleeps is a a camp of homeless people, on the other is a bastion for the wealthy. Running out of money, he takes some money in exchange for having his head drilled into by a guy named Ito. This leads to him seeing homonculi.

At first, 'Homonculus' seems to be pretentious. The titular creatures are merely manifestations of a person's psyche which only Nakoshi can see when he covers his right eye, taking the ... place of the person. This is a fine idea, but these homonculi are either very obvious in their symbolism or they will be explained by Ito. However, where this becomes more interesting is when you realize that homonculi are not only a representation of the person who Nakoshi sees, but Nakoshi himself. It's a statement on how our perception of others is inevitably formed by our own experiences, and the scenes I find most intriguing are formed by this understanding. The last section of the manga has a lot of sections that feel more like a representation of Nakoshi's perception of others than anything else. The ending is a great example of this, where there's a lot of ways to read exactly why Nakoshi sees his own face on everyone else now. Has Nakoshi found the connection to others that he wanted, or is this a reflection of narcissism? I think either could be a pretty valid reading of the moment. I also grew to like Ito far more than I initially anticipated, and his relationship with Nakoshi becomes pretty interesting.

That being said, the first half of this manga is a bit inconsistent. I think the creator was still considering what direction to take the manga. I already mentioned how the series is too eager to explain some symbolism, but the actual stories themselves aren't particularly great either. One story arc in particular doesn't contribute much to the manga and is a clear low point for me. It's about Nakoshi trying to help this teenage girl, and it feels the most like a bad seinen: edgy for no reason, with a somewhat hateful message at the end regarding abuse. One could argue that the teenage girl enjoying abuse from Nakoshi is merely his perception of the events, as Nakoshi himself has been superficial, sexist, and abusive at different points throughout the manga. However, this would take a decent amount of justification regarding Nakoshi's mental state to really make sense. For me personally, it became clear at some point (likely when he drilled another hole into his head by himself) that Nakoshi became truly crazy. That being said, Nakoshi still helped people with his power of insight in a way that wouldn't be possible if he was just crazy. Again, one could argue that this is just him believing he's helping people, but when the line between reality and fiction are blurred with no way to tell between them, the difference between the two becomes meaningless. At least for most of the manga, Nakoshi is supposed to be seeing reality so long as his right eye is open, and you could probably argue most flaws or oversights are due to Nakoshi being an unreliable narrator, but what matters is if it's compelling.

However, I like the series overall. If the entire story was more similar to that last half or so, I could see myself rating it much higher. Maybe I'll like it more if I reread it, but it's a pretty good series regardless.

In a lot of ways, Black Cat is a quintessential late 90s/early 2000s manga. Its style and characters feel so indicitave of its era. I understand that this is kind of just saying that Black Cat is pretty unoriginal and not particularly special, but it still has good qualities. The characters are pretty good here. None of them really have impressive arcs, but their relationships and dynamics are usually well done. Sure, some side characters didn't entirely live up to their potential, but the characters are overall a net positive for the series.

I think what really holds this series back is the worldbuilding and story. ... The worldbuilding in particular is just kind of odd. It's pretty simple at first. There's bounty hunters called sweepers which are generally independent actors, Chronos which is an assassin organization, and this new bad organization called the Apostles of the Stars. Really though, we never get much of a sense of location, most places look the same and all. I also think the power systems here are very scattered. There's these nanobots which just let people do whatever, the villains and no one else has these magical powers called Tao, it simply feels very poorly thought out, which is a shame because series like Undead Unluck and Fullmetal Alchemist have linked their power systems and themes together very well. This manga mainly just uses it as an excuse for action, which is fine, but the action itself isn't necessarily great.

To some extent, the loose plot makes sense. The manga is about the main character Train's pursuit for freedom in life, so forgoing a tight plot in lieu of simple, fun adventures is a pretty good idea. Leaving aside the fact that the later story abandons this idea for a more conventional serialized tale, the writing itself can feel very poor at moments. Here's an example: At one point, the main villain Creed has a mancrush on Train and wants to kill his partner out of jealousy or something. So he has these Nanomachine bullets that will allegedly make people mutate into a chimera-like being or something. However, due to reasons, Train gets hit by one of the bullets. Creed goes to mourn the impending death of his true love, but Train just turns into a child. This causes some issues, but eventually Train returns to his original age, and due to the bullet, he also has a new powerup. Yes, because of the bullet Creed very deliberately decided to use for the purposes of hurting someone and making them mutate and lose their mind, Train gets a superpower with no strings attached when all is said and done. This is stupid, and this kind of writing is a little too common in Black Cat.

So while I'd love to say this is a good manga, it's pretty average at the end of the day. I think a lot of people would enjoy it though. If you like manga from this era, you'll probably like this. 5/10, pretty close to a 6.