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Oct 10, 2021
*Note: Includes spoilers.
Hito Hitori Futari
If you translate it to English, it would most likely mean "One Person as Two", which in a way, is the main plot of the story itself.
Hito Hitori Futari or HHF for short, begins with a view of the Realm of the Dead, the lowest realm of the Spiritual World. Here, spirits are educated for their roles and given knowledge for them to move onto either realm above or be a guardian spirit below on Earth. In the midst of this, we get our main character — Riyon who has been skipping classes to play Othello with a Sage. As
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the story progresses, Riyon is asked to become a Guardian Spirit of a human being and is given the freedom to choose any human as she likes. As such, Riyon chooses a human being in hopes that she wouldn't have to spend much time on Earth as a guardian spirit. And from here on begins her journey of being the Guardian Spirit of none other than the Prime Minister of Japan — Kasuga Souichiro.
That is pretty much the premise of the story and now I am going to discuss some points which unfortunately made me rate the story as 7/10 and not higher. So, let's begin.
This is my first time reading a manga that focuses on Politics but also adds a supernatural element to it. The story mainly focuses on Riyon and the Prime Minister as they continue to play a role in the world of Politics surrounding Japan. The story's demographic is Seinen and I believe that it has lived up to it. The author has done an excellent job of the flow of the story as Psychological as possible, as while reading it, it feels really fresh. But even after doing so much, there are some key elements that are highly missing.
After Kasuga gets psychic powers via which he is able to see Riyon and even read the minds of people by touching them, he treats this new power of his as a gift and wishes to do everything to save Japan and make the place better. In theory, this might sound fascinating, but in practical terms, it's very difficult to achieve. In the world of politics, it's often known that there are various people that are constantly targeted either for good or bad purposes. As such, Kasuga is no exception. After receiving psychic powers, he is then targeted by a political member of the opposition who partners up with someone that can use Spiritual Abilities in the most deadly way possible — Kubo Kouji, the main antagonist of the story.
In politics, we can assume there are often enemies and that's also what I thought, but the story limits the antagonist to Kubo mainly. The opposition is very weak, the members of the PM's party play a very little role and most of all, foreign involvement is very less aside from a few mentions. The story is mostly centered around the PM and it seems that nobody can force him even for medical treatment after he drank highly contaminated radioactive water. It seems to me that the writer decided not to focus on the background much and just kept things as small as possible, like a dream world.
Actually, there's not much harm in keeping the cast less, but if you look at real-life politics, there are various members that are constantly active and comment upon every little action.
For example, even after the Core Government was formed, which comprises of only 5 members and acts as a secret government working with the Prime Minister in the center, you'd expect somebody else to know about it and talk about it. While news reporters did mention they know about it, nobody did anything. It felt as if nobody could be bothered with a secret government at all. The opposition and not even the own members of the party said anything about it. It felt as if it just existed and everyone just went along with it.
Now, let me talk about the opposition or the sort of character that would go against the Prime Minister in politics — Izumi Daiki. I believe the author just didn't know what to do with him. Seriously, I'm not sure if he's even relevant to the story at hand. In the beginning, it was pretty clear that he was going against PM Kasuga so he himself could be the PM but after collaborating with Kubo, his character development failed and he did absolutely nothing. The story kept showing him in the sense that he's just there. This is something which didn't interest me much.
Since the story is centered around Guardians Spirits, let me talk about it a bit. Basically, Earth is between 2 realms, the Spiritual World and the Dark World. There are times when malice comes from the Dark World and harms humans. As a result, Souls are sent to each human being who acts as a Guardian Spirit to protect them from being a victim of the Black Balls or evil. To form the Core Government, the Prime Minister consults with Riyon to check if the members have strong Guardian Spirits or not, which they have. These guardians can see the lifespan of the human they chose to protect as well as how much evil has currently possessed them or is trying to enter them and do their best to repel it.
That much is for the story, now let's talk about the artwork. I believe Tsutomu Takahashi is a good artist as we can see very good double-spread works of his and enjoy them. His drawings of the Spirit and Dark world are just amazing. He can also draw thrilling images repeatedly in a sense that will keep the reader interested.
Unfortunately, there is not an official English release of this manga so I had to read scanlations of it, but surprisingly, the scanlation has good double-spreads which the Raw doesn't. A bit weird, but it's still readable and I recommend it to people.
Oh right, I forgot to mention that the story mainly focuses on the actual 2011 Daiichi Fukushima Power Plant Disaster.
Basically, as Kasuga was the PM when the incident happened, he has this obligation to stop another event like that from happening, less it makes living in Japan much more difficult. So he plans to take action against it and announces the path to Denuclearization. This part of the story is very important as it can be seen as the main story itself. But again, it lacks various responses. If a country decides to suddenly shut down all of the nuclear power plants, it's going to be massive global news, but we are not shown any response from outside or even neighbors. It's as if the author didn't want to include any sort of opinion from the outside world to keep readers focused on Japan only. I personally believe this was a good arc as I was able to educate myself on the harms of radiation and how deadly it can be, but was a bit disappointed with the lack of responses.
As for the characters, I believe the main focus is mainly on PM and his cabinet along with Riyon and the antagonist Kubo. Each character is good but there are some whose potential could not be displayed as they were simply left out. Nonetheless, it is okay.
Lastly, I would like to comment that HHF is good for a read. I don't think it's going to be a massive hit if it becomes popular, but it's definitely something you can pick up and read. It's a good psychological manga and the work is good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 15, 2021
Soloist in a Cage follows the adventure of a girl named Chloe in a heavily guarded and dangerous dystopian world.
I would like to start by saying that the way this manga has been drawn, it feels more like reading a comic book than your average manga. Each and every single page is well drawn. I believe the work has been done digitally because I have a hard time believing such magnificent work can be drawn on paper, while the author of the series has health issues.
Soloist caught my eye when I was going through my Twitter feed and came across my mutual's tweet where he
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was praising the artwork and the story. Looking at the artwork was enough for me to start reading the series right away. I spent around 2 hours reading the entire story and I was in awe when I learned it was serialized in 2018 and here I was reading it in 2021. Almost 3 years late. Well, enough of how I came across the manga, let's talk about the story.
The initial chapters of the manga are amazing. The way it focuses on Chloe even amongst all the elements present is fascinating. It makes you wonder how upside down is the story going to be as you keep on reading it. I felt an intense interest when things got very interested from Chapter 3 onwards. Needless to say, I cannot comment on every detail but I must assure you, that this is when you realize things are going to be awesome.
Now, I do have slight issues with the antagonists of the story. The manga is only 20 chapters long, but I believe that would have been enough to depict a strong enemy. There is a certain someone that you can consider to be a mastermind, but in the end, even he didn't matter much.
This story is set in a dystopian world, or more likely I should say a huge prison. Imagine Attack on Titan's Shiganshina district and now turn the setting into the night, with modern weaponry, cold & snow, and is heavily guarded by Robotic cops. Now, these cops are A.I. but for some reason, they do not have much of a presence after the initial chapters. I personally think they should have been shown a little bit more, but if I go according to the story which ended in only 20 chapters, then it's better this way. Even though I say 20 chapters, some pages are 30-40 pages long.
This is all about the story. Now let me talk about the amazing thing which is the artwork. Man, it felt like reading a western comic. The artwork is so beautiful that every single double page can be turned into wallpaper. The way Chloe fights with her enemies and moves around has been beautifully drawn by the author. You can see the epicness in every single movement of Chloe when she wields a knife. Simply outstanding.
The character designs are pretty good as well. The design of the kids seem similar to how modern children are drawn. They are wearing a cap, boots, and are adventurous. I particularly believe the best characters are those that die in this story. Because what happens next, will impress you a lot.
As for the end of the series, I want to say, it was a rather short experience. What happens at the end is a major part of the story so I will not be commenting about it, but the thing that happens has left me with a bittersweet feeling. It feels as if there were so many things I could have asked for, but I cherish the ending given to me. Honestly, if the author had no health issues, I would probably have asked for more content.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 31, 2020
Tokyo Ghoul: "Jack" is a 7 chapters short story featuring Arima Kosho, the infamous Special Investigator at CCG.
It's only 1 volume with 350 pages total, but it can be completed within 20-30 minutes since the reading experience is similar to a webtoon. I'm pretty sure it is all done digitally.
While the story is interesting, it only shows a single part of Arima in his young days. It's nothing more than a small fragment of his entire life. One may be slightly disappointed for not getting to read more, but at the moment this is the only thing available to us.
Personally I suggest
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those who have read the parent story: Tokyo Ghoul to give it a try as it will leave a good aftertaste before or after reading Tokyo Ghoul:re.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 31, 2020
Tokyo Ghoul is a very interesting supernatural manga. It focuses on the lives of ghouls and humans living in the same society. Sui Ishida has done a great job making this series.
The story starts with Kaneki, who is our protagonist. After his date with his crush ends abruptly as an accident, he begins his new life as a Tragic Hero. Kaneki is shown as a character who is unable to accept his new life and desperately tries to escape it. After failing to do so, he meets new friends who can guide him.
That's the basic part of the story and I can say
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that I've enjoyed all of it. The story has a good flow and things that are mentioned in the past chapters, come easily in the latter chapters. Most of the details are important and if one has a good memory, they can connect the dots easily. The 14 volumes is a struggle between the numerous things that happen there. Even though our focus is usually on the ghouls, we cannot do much but to sympathize with the humans as well.
I cannot say much since it might be spoilers for many, but this manga is definitely worth reading. The artwork is brilliant, and it gives chills at certain points. I read it digitally and felt so much happiness that I wish to buy all the physical volumes as soon as possible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 30, 2020
It's not uncommon for an anime to drift away from the adapted material. Sometimes it's good, sometimes very bad.
When Crunchyroll announced the anime adaptations of 3 major webtoons — Tower of God, The God of High School and Noblesse, I was pretty thrilled. It was desire fulfilled of watching webtoons being animated. After watching numerous manga turning into anime, it was time to enjoy something new. But alas, it didn't work out well. So far, all the adaptations coproduced by Crunchyroll have been utter garbage. They've done everything they can to promote themselves even if it hurdles the story or makes it less enjoyable.
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And Noblesse has been a victim of this.
The very first OVA of Noblesse — Noblesse: Awakening, animated by Production I.G. is mesmerizing. Even though there were some minor details removed and the story was changed, it was amazing. Every single moment of that OVA was worth watching. I was really impressed with I.G. and was hoping they'd do great with this anime too. Alas, I was mistaken.
This adaptation of Noblesse is nothing more than to give hatred to webtoons in general. None of the adapted webtoons gave a sense of "hype" nor "promote" the webtoons. Here are some of the major faults in Noblesse anime:
1. The anime started from the point where the OVA (Noblesse: Awakening) ended.
They didn't bother to give some highlights of what happened before. Majority of the audience were clueless about the scenario and had to do a little bit of research before continuing. But not all of them were to energetic for it, as they simply dropped it and rated it 1 and moved on. Just shows how awful the direction of the first episode was.
2. The anime changed the location from South Korea to Japan.
Now this is something that sticks out for me. Why change the location entirely just because it's being animated in Japan? Personally, this felt like they're either trying to claim that Noblesse is a Japanese story or have a superior mentality that anything animated in Japan will have the details of Japan only. Which in my opinion, is a very bad move. Not only did they change the location, but also changed the names of the characters from Korean to Japanese. This also happened with Tower of God where Bam's name was changed to Yoru to accommodate a Japanese name. But that too was a bad idea.
The idea of changing something entirely to a native perspective by discrediting the official name is disrespectful. It's like Japanese mangaka creating a new Batman story, but instead of naming Batman as Bruce Wayne, they name him Wozaru Koto. Did that make any sense? Nope. So, in general, I found this pretty bad and it made me enjoy the story less.
3. The plot was changed as per the studio's need to adapt only certain things to fill in 13 episodes.
It's not a new thing for the anime to be different than the adapted material. But to literally change everything? That's a no bueno. As far as I can see, they butchered major parts of the story. When the poster was revealed for the anime, Raskreia was also included in there. Which pretty much made me confirm that the anime was adapting everything till the end of Lukedonia. As a person who read the entire webtoon of Noblesse, I knew it was going to be horsecrap. The anime robbed us of key moments such as thrills, excitement, and the joy of learning something new in the story by skipping most of the things.
4. The characters are weird, weak and too emotional.
After watching Episode 13, I couldn't help but facepalm. They made Raskreia out of all characters to be a normal girl with feelings. No, that's not the Raskreia we know. In the webtoon, Raskreia doesn't know it's Cadis who has infiltrated in Lukedonia until he steps in the tomb room. She does have the idea that Cadis was a traitor, but doesn't know his whereabouts for centuries. She's mostly shown as a proud character who can take her own decisions without hesitation. Though she does take a few bad decisions. And for the love of god, she doesn't grovel like a girl who has just been dumped by her crush. So far, all I saw was how they belittled the anime that it's not even funny to laugh at.
5. Character Designs
Almost 50% of the characters shown in the anime have a weak design as compared to the webtoon. Raizel's entire body is weak, with his hair being totally different; Seira's face and hair are different; Gejutel's beard is different; etc. In short, their main plan to make the anime bad worked.
6. Voice Actors
Now, I don't really want to be picky in terms of voices, but I need to state it. The studio didn't do a good job hiring appropriate voice actors. In my opinion, it felt as if they just chose whoever signed up for it. When reading the webtoon, I always read Regis' lines in the voice of Toshiro from Bleach, since it resembles him a bit. But here, the impact wasn't the same, but it wasn't that bad either. And Karias' voice was very different. That I didn't like.
In the end, I'd like to say that this was a very adaptation of the webtoon. Crunchyroll did a very bad job in promoting it. Though they got what they wanted — Publicity. If you're wondering to watch the anime of Noblesse, I suggest you stop right away. You'll miss out on a lot of things and won't get the joy of reading the original story. That is all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 14, 2020
Tite Kubo's brand new work after his mega-hit series — Bleach, is quite a story.
[Story 7/10]
After reading the One-Shot, I didn't have much hope about the story as I didn't understand most of it. While I had mixed feelings, I still went ahead and gave it a try. And guess what? It was better. While these 4 chapters are like a short arc of a manga, it still is enjoyable. There are dragons, witches, Kidos/spells, and Pipes too (which Kubo refers to as something witches blow). Hilarious.
One may not find it interesting as first, but after reading it all, they'll surely likely to read
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more of it as the story takes an interesting turn.
[Art 8/10]
A common interpretation of Kubo's artwork is the lack of backgrounds as seen in his previous work, Bleach. But in this manga, there are a lot of them, which I personally believe to be interesting for the story. The character designs are similar to Bleach Characters but most of them are Original.
[Character 7/10]
The main characters — Noel, Ninny, and Balgo are an interesting bunch of folks. The story so far basically revolves around them as each of them have their own set of powers. On the other hand, a few other notable characters have been shown but so far, they haven't made any impactful presence in this season 1. I believe we'll get to see more of them in Season 2 if there is a proper serialization and not another mini-arc.
[Enjoyment 6/10]
The reason I gave it 6, is mainly because this is a short manga. There is scope for many improvements and a great story ahead. One might enjoy this arc but will surely crave for more in the end. The main thing I found enjoyable was that it was set in London.
[Overall 7/10]
The overall deserves to be 7 points as Kubo has brought out a very interesting story regarding witches and dragons. Everyone has their own potential and if handled properly, this can become a new mega-hit series. What makes me say this is the fact that there are new character designs and so many revelations can be done.
If you want to try this story but are not sure, then I suggest you please do give it a try. I'm not sure if you'll enjoy it but I do can say that you'll like it a lot. Oh, and of course, please do read the One-Shot before starting this as the story initially seems to continue after it ends.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 31, 2020
Time Paradox Ghost Writer — a wonderful idea that could not satisfy many.
Story [6/10]
I loved the new concept that was introduced in this manga. It's perhaps the very first time I'm reading something like this, so I was very keen to learn more about it. As you have probably read the Synopsis, this story starts with a Weekly Shounen Jump from 10 years in the future and revolves around the mega-hit series, The White Knight.
While the protagonist is shown adapting to his new life, it isn't much enjoyable. He's deliberately made as a paranoid person and always wonders on how to continue the story further.
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I believe it could have been handled a bit better. And if it did, then we would likely be blessed with 5-6 more volumes.
Art [10/10]
The best part of this manga is the artwork, which is superb. One of the reasons why I continued reading this manga is mainly because of it. It is simply mesmerizing and if this manga had continued, then it would have surely become a favorite in many user's lists.
Character [5/10]
The main characters are Itsuki Aino and Sasaki Teppei. While Aino has been written has a wonderful character with a lot of smile and motivation, Sasaki on the other hand is always paranoid and is full of anxiety. The main issue that leads to the downfall of this manga is Sasaki. If only the authors took their time to develop Sasaki in a way that the audience likes, then it might have been successful.
Enjoyment [4/10]
The main thing to enjoy is the curiosity to know what will happen next. Aside from that, I don't think there is enough to enjoy since it is a short series.
Overall [6/10]
4 points for the incredible art and 2 points for the original idea. Though the story has references to other manga, the overall plot is amazing. I will probably recommend this manga to others since I like it, and might also buy its volume whenever it comes out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 31, 2018
To be honest, if I was not a fan of Nanatsu no Taizai franchise, then I wouldn’t even have possibly given this movie a try. As excited I was to watch it, deep down I knew something major is going to happen that’s going to excite me a lot. While the excitement did manage to stay at the same level, many disappointments also appeared.
Story [7/10]
The synopsis isn’t currently updated by MAL Rewrite but when it’ll be done, it’ll probably not sound much interesting as the story isn’t that fascinating. Surely, some interesting facts and major revelations were done but the impact that a movie can
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give wasn’t much. The plot was written in a fast-pace due to which powerful fights had to cut short and end quickly. The story shows each Sin to be way powerful than they actually are making this look like One Punch Series where one just can’t be defeatable. Well, that’s that.
But I have to say, this movie coming out is quite a head start for all our excitements to pile up till when Season 3 will be announced. Thankful to a certain someone, we finally uncover the mystery of its existence and why it is so powerful. But after watching this movie, we might come to ask ourselves, “Was it actually necessary for this movie to be created just to show that?”. Well, maybe yes, maybe no. But still, I totally recommend watching this movie after you have completed season 2 because, without this story, we can easily rest assure and continue with Season 3.
Art [9/10]
A1-Pictures surely knows its business. The character art-style, monsters, backgrounds and moreover the Island itself is drawn in such a way that looks really amazing. If this is the case, then why I am giving it 9 out of 10? This is because of the main antagonist’s character sketch. While he sure was powerful enough to cause much damage, he looked exactly like Ban.
It was also a bit hilarious to see him fight with Ban at the end and it looked like twins are fighting with each other. Nonetheless, the rest was amazing.
Sound [7/10]
Not really sure what I should say here but I guess due to its amazing soundtrack, I can give it a 7 out of 10. The Sound has good pacing and is well made for each moment in the movie.
Character [6/10]
This movie has doppelgangers of Meliodas and Elizabeth making it look like they are actually important to the story when they are not so much. It looks a bit idiotic to add them here but I guess the author tried to go with something easy. Trust me, the new characters introduced here aren’t that important at all and seem like a complete joke in front of the seven deadly sins.
Enjoyment [8/10]
This is The Seven Deadly Sins Movie so of course, I get quite tremendous enjoyment from it. Each battle (even if it was short) was entertaining.
Overall [7/10]
This movie is totally extended, fights are kept to a minimum, strongest beasts are played like toys but still, the stretched plot gives us at least an excitement to keep hype for the Season 3. That’s all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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