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Nov 10, 2022
- Overall (9/10):
I’m relatively certain that ‘Kaguya-sama’ is one of the best RomCom of all time, and not just talking about manga/anime! Most of the RomCom’s that you may know, always repeat the same couple of jokes until you get bored, totally forget their side character, don't even consider writing at least a stable story or add fanservice after fanservice until you ask yourself if you are still reading a manga or softporn…
And none of these are true for this manga!
But what is then the missing point? To answer this, let's go to the details!
- Story (9.5/10):
You should already know the synopsis, but if not,
...
let’s say it is a mind-battle manga just like ‘Death Note’, but in the RomCom genre. The two MC’s try the wildest plans to get the other one to confess. This sounds silly and interesting (at least for me), but probably you are thinking right now: that doesn’t seem as special as you earlier mentioned. Yes, that’s true… I thought the same at the beginning. But after chapter and chapter you get more and more invested, and this results from how great it is written.
For example, take the jokes. Many manga/anime tend after a while to repeat its comedy, but put it in a different setting. However, this one has a huge amount of different gags. And of course, not every single one hits your funbone perfectly, but all of them are funny. And yes, there are repeats, like Fujiwara’s ramen eating, but everytime it gets an extra or a development so it will feel fresh.
Then the other part of a RomCom, the Romance. How well written that is, shows that the 3rd season of the anime, which adopted the absolute peak of romance from the manga, was (even if just for a couple of days) the highest scored anime on MAL! Even if at the beginning it feels a bit lame, after piece by piece you will get the great big picture. Not to mention that the story doesn't stop by confessing. It goes way beyond (even if some of them just show up in the epilogue), including break-ups, forgetting old loves, modern day area slice-of-life, pregnancy, same sex couples etc. Believe me, you will get a lot!
On top of these, the other strong point is, as the story goes on and we get new characters, the author takes his time for each one of them! There are a lot of side stories, some of them goes so deep that the story changes from a funny cute manga, to hardcore depressing drama. This natural flow, how it goes from one genre to another and back, is damn special and outstanding!
The only tiny bit of a problem and the reason why it doesn’t get the full 10 was that at the final arc, before the great epilogue, you can feel how the author got burned out. It feels a bit empty, stretched and rushed all at the same time.
- Art (6/10):
Now we have arrived at the biggest weak point of this manga. As you may know, the author Aka Akasaka announced they won’t draw manga anymore… But don’t worry, they don’t give up the writing, which is clearly their strength, so check out his other manga ‘Oshi no Ko' / ‘My Star’ which they write.
Why is that information important? Now you may get that this manga will not seduce you with its backgrounds, designs or style. The backgrounds are several times just blank or simple. The reactions and emotions look often the same compared to previous chapters. There are characters that look so similar that I was confused during some early chapters.
Why is it then above average? It still delivers. The author has a picture in mind and can mostly give you the right image for the scene. Also the character designs change over time which you don’t see in every manga either. So Aka Akasaka is very creative, but due to their lack of skill, the manga sometimes fails to give you the exact image as wanted.
- Characters (10/10):
Back to the strong points, or to be exact to THE strong point, the characters! As said at the beginning, I’m sure you have never ever experienced a RomCom that focuses so much on the side-characters without stealing the screen from the MC’s. Every character, even if you may think there are just some nuisances, gets a whole backstory, development and conclusion over the time. To underpin this, you get 2 whole volumes for the epilogue for every semi-important character! And even after that, the author said that the unfinished storylines, which I wouldn’t even call unfinished, will be done in the future in one way or another!
It’s amazing how this human loves their characters so much, and you will definitely feel this!
But let’s take a step back, and talk about the title giving main character, Kaguya-sama. How she is written as a fragile caged girl, but at the same time overpowering existence and silly cute lady is such a huge spectrum, that other titles' characters all together don’t have this. Not to mention it still feels believable. These wide characteristics are also true for the other main characters. You don’t just get a one-trick pony, you get the whole farm for each one of them, that’s again outstanding and unique. Personally, my absolute favorite was Ishigami’s story from beginning to the end, as well as his development and growth.
I could of course continue this for every character, because as said these are real personas and not just filling material, but let’s slowly end this review…
- Enjoyment (9/10):
As I mentioned at the story part, within this huge amount of jokes you get a couple of chapters which you won’t enjoy as the rest. The art can be stiff as well and ruining a great chapter by showing poorly the right emotion/reaction. And sometimes a misplaced joke destroys a very good drama chapter. So yes, it isn’t perfect, but altogether, you get a variety of amazingly written characters, comedy, love stories and story in general. If that isn’t worth a shot, then I don’t know what.
Once again: One of the best RomCom of all time! So give it a try, or the anime, if you like this genre.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 17, 2022
- Overall (6/10):
The best way to describe ‘Super Smartphone’ would be: It’s like ‘Death Note’, but in a friendlier package and with a way more heroic and plain protagonist. The smartphones instead of the death notes and information instead of murder gave a modern touch, but lost its psychedelic and dark aspects. It still tries to add these, but without enough impact. Meanwhile due to the limited time, because of the cancellation, we get a few plain characters. A very soon introduced main villain, some almost unused side characters and a solid, maybe too good, protagonist. So altogether, an appealing manga, which I wished had
...
more time to unfold the mangakas ideas.
But let’s see the specs of this ‘Super Smartphone’!
- Processor (6/10):
The core aka the processor of a good manga is a good story (at least in my opinion), and we get that. The premise is that our intelligent, but bored MC finds a ‘Super Smartphone’, which can search for ANY information (within the rules). These can be used to do a lot of crime, like the villains, or as our protagonist, to solve them. And as soon he finds out there are more of them a mind-battle begins.
I’m sure that a lot of you will think, ‘wait a minute… this sounds very familiar!’... Yes, it has many similarities to the concept of ‘Death Note’. However, this modernization appealed to me, but I can understand who thinks why should they read that, if they could read the original instead. On the other hand, which I prefer, why should I read something that I already know, if there is something similar and also interesting. Of course an information battle is not that intense as fighting a murderer. And while ‘Death Note’ definitely tested the Shounen genre’s boundaries, this manga moved within a safer zone, but it was still good. If it wouldn’t have been canceled and it could unfold its own story more, it would have been a solid 7. However, especially at the end, it was way too rushed…
- Display (6/10):
Now let’s see the screen, the resolution and the colors… I mean the tones. And to be honest, the art was nothing special. Not per se bad and still good, but not great either. The character designs were modern, nothing flashy, except maybe the main villain, but maybe also looking more like children/teens than necessary. Solid lining, shading and the backgrounds were rarely empty. Again, the art was good, flawless but not extraordinary.
- Extras (3/10):
The manga’s weak points were definitely the extras, also called characters, which were mostly really nothing more than just some extras. For example, the childhood friend of the MC is just there to be saved in the first arc. The fellow Superphone user is as fast gone as he came. The genius female detective, which was a fan favorite, had almost no impact on the story and was rarely present… It is common that a canceled manga doesn’t have the time for the side characters, so let’s focus on the pro-and antagonist.
Our MC is a bored guy with high intelligence, a kind of cheap version of Yagami Light (‘Death Note’). But with his newly achieved powers he tries to solve the mystery of his missing little brother and to solve as many crime cases as possible. Very noble and straight forward, but nothing that catches the ready immediately. Simple, he is too plain. The antagonist is a famous, rich and powerful adult. His goal? World domination… Of course. Repeating myself, way too simple, even if he is a bit crazy and egoistic. At least his character design is nice.
- Battery (7/10):
To have a good phone a strong battery is indispensable, and this manga has a strong one! To end all these metaphors, how long you can enjoy a manga is the same as how long a phone can be used until you recharge it. And I really enjoyed it, and I think it could have been even more if it would have lasted longer. All these information battles and mind-games were nice, the mysteries good enough to stick around. But it is totally understandable that you need characters with more impact, a story which is more original and not just a cheap ‘Death Note’ version.
However, the only reason why I wouldn’t recommend it, even if I enjoyed it, is because it was canceled so the end was way too rushed and destroyed a lot of the fun.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 18, 2022
This mediocre work swayed between totally unnecessary/empty chapters and great emotionally story chapters. And their average would be mediocre work... But I think it is below that. In short, you get a kinda nice fantasy drama, however, at least half of the manga is boring (for me, and maybe for you too) or unnecessary. But let us dig deeper!
Story 4/10
The story has a good basis. 2 countries at war, an abandoned son (who made a big mistake and suffers from his trauma) of the current (old) king, brothers and sister who want the throne and a little bit of magic. Sounds interesting, of course. However,
...
almost none of that gets really relevant... and this is due to a terrible pacing and focusing.
3/5 of the story is so damn slow, there are literally chapters you could skip and you wouldn't miss a thing! But the worst is, these 3/5 was kinda the introduction. Than we reach a point where the 10 siblings have to fight for their rings and who collects all of them gets the throne (which would be really interesting and it was), but the pacing gets so fast, that in the next 1/5 of the story our main character gets almost all of them and shortly after the final last battle begins for the last ones.
Also, the war will be just slightly mentioned with 2-3 chapters to show the readers that the war exists, but we just don't care about it! That's one of the main reasons why our protagonist does what he does! His trauma, which results from fearing to use his own power, will be solved in maybe 2-3 chapters... So literally he doesn't use his magic, but then thanks to some talking and a little bit of training he can suddenly control the strongest power in this (manga) universe...
I think you already get what I wanted to tell you, most of the time you get unnecessary dialogues, which hold the story back, but when it needs time it just goes so fast or skips things, that it totally breaks the flow... And that's really sad, because it has a lot of potential.
(And I don't even mention the total nonsense unbalanced magic powers)
But not everything is bad. Sometimes the focus and pacing is good and gets really interesting, as well as the basic story. You want to know what will happen, especially due to some plot twists you maybe don't expect. Also it has a touch of good working romantic and comedy which gives you a bit of lockering during all the tragedy and lifts you up.
Art 5/10
The biggest problem is the almost totally empty backgrounds. I would say 90% of the manga is just talking, what's not bad, however if 80% of the backgrounds are nothing or almost nothing it gets boring. Especially with long and slow dialogues. On the other hand, the character designs are nice, a bit shoujo like not so detail rich with thin lines. Also there are some events in the manga with really great illustrations, which really seems cool. So altogether it's a solid "okay", 5/10.
Character 3/10
The characters are strange... They change so suddenly, you think you are missing something. For example, the very first character who confronts our protagonist and treats him like shit, gets his almost best friend in the next chapter out of nowhere... I really don't understand it, maybe I'm still missing something, I don't know, but as I read the comments, I wasn't the only one. And this happens with almost every person who confronts our protagonist. It's kinda like the usual shounen hero superpower (he makes everyone his friend), however here, it doesn't match in the big picture. Then we have the character developments... As you can maybe assume from the story pacing, our characters change from 0 to hero from one chapter to the other... Also we have a character named Judas... Maybe not everyone, but at least 99% will already know what this means...
So yeah... Suddenly changing plain characters... They are not terrible and everyone has their own kinda backstory / reasons, and at least they have a character development (not as many successful shounen mangas) but they are just too simple, too poorly written.
Enjoyment 4/10
3/5 of the story is unnecessary. The characters are poorly written while the art is at most just mediocre... So what can you enjoy? I wouldn't say nothing, because even in the first 3/5 of the story there are at least 2 highlights, and the last 2/5 are really good. But it's everytime the same problem. Something enjoyable happens, they solve the problem and conflicts so fast that at the end it's no more than a peak. And even if it was mostly boring for me, for others it could be interesting. Also all the tragedy at the beginning gets resolved at the end (in one way or an other), and you may feel this liberating happiness (not me because I'm not this type, but maybe you).
Overall 4/10
Altogether, you get an almost empty story and art, with a bad pacing and focusing... Is it worth it?... What should I say? Everything under 5 (out of 10) I can't fully heartily recommend. For me, it was mostly boring, with some highlights, that's all. However, I saw some people who really enjoyed this. So if you are into a slow paced story with some magic as well as some romantic and funny moments, and you are an emotional person, give it a try. Everything else, just skip it... you can waste your time better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 29, 2022
In my opinion, the only reason why this manga has been canceled was the complete failure of the editorial department. And yes, Yuji Kaku did not create such a great manga as ‘Hell’s Paradise’, but to cancel this one over completely mainstream shounen manga, which even had worse sales than this, and that they ran this manga before the Anime of “Hell’s Paradise’ even started, showed me how incompetent the current JUMP editorials are –just look at ‘Red Hood’ or ‘Phantom Seer’–. But enough about JUMP, let’s talk about the manga and why the editors thought this won’t be such good work like his previous
...
work.
Short version
- Overall (6/10):
‘Hell’s Paradise’ catched the reader immediately with great artwork, designs, mystery, mature action and as the most important, 2 extraordinarily interesting main characters. Meanwhile this manga failed in every aspect, compared to the other work. This does not mean that ‘Ayashimon’ is a bad manga, but it was definitely weaker than the author’s previous one. The artwork and designs were still good, but due to its own story limitations the action was way too one dimensional, the mystery aspect was slightly noticeable and we got a female protagonist which is just there to be protected, while the male protagonist is so plain, dumb and one-hit k.o. strong that it gets boring fast.
This sounds harsh, but don’t forget: COMPARED to ‘Hell’s Paradise’, so a lot of fans are surely disappointed. But on its own it is a solid action manga, which had a lot of potential if they would have given more time to extend. So let’s get into the details.
Long version
- Story (6/10):
The plot is a typical revenge story, but with so-called Ayashimon, which are demon/ghost like creatures. The ayashimon girl (Urara) wants to avenge her father and for that she wants to take over the yakuza like ayashimon syndicate. This is of course not all, because we also have a male human protagonist (Maruo), who is so strong that he lost his purpose in life. So a lucky accident brought them together, and Maruo gets the bodyguard of Urara. Together they literally punch through ayashimons over ayashimons to solve mysteries like ‘who was the traitor?’ or ‘how this weak and plain guy got the most badass antagonist ever?’, but the start was maybe too slow to catch every reader and at the same time the pacing was too fast (meeting the final boss within 5 chapters).
The other negative in the story was the ayashimon’s ritual fights, which were a 1-v-1. Because the male protagonist was too plain, dumb and strong at the same time, the fights get boring fast. This also improves later – at the end the amazingly choreographed mass fight in a hotel without catching the attention of the guests was definitely the highlight –, but again it was potentially too late. Also they tried maybe too hard to ride on the ‘Tokyo Revengers’ hype with such a darkish yakuza like revenge story, which did not fit very well with the Shounen JUMP’s demographics – which the editors should have known… –
So the story had potential, it just started to unfold the mysteries and the power levels, unfortunately it was too late and the limited 1-v-1 fights + the simple protagonists decreased its own chances to fully evolve.
- Art (7/10):
I gave ‘Hell’s Paradise’ a 9/10 for art, so how can this be just a 7? The artstyle of an author should’n get worse in such a short time and mostly it even improves further, so why? The answer is simple, I think Yuji Kaku is not so suited for a weekly series (‘Hell’s Paradise’ ran in Shounen JUMP plus, where he had every 3 weeks 1 week break). The designs of all the different ayashimons are great again, but they weren’t as much in focus as could be, and we mostly just saw the plain protagonist. On top of that, the whole style felt rushed. The lines were more shaky and here and there I missed 1-2 more panels to get a more smooth dynamic. And again the 1-v-1 fights took a lot out of the fights, especially if the protagonist’s full fighting repertoire is a strong punch… I mean, it works for ‘One-punch Man’, but that also gives you way more build-up and/or comedy. And of course it had the faults from the past of felt like missing backgrounds.
Here and there we get a glimpse of the author’s creativity, like the mentioned hotel fight, but probably after he got the OK to do what he wants due to the cancellation. Which again showed that the editors limited him.
- Characters (4/10):
Now we have arrived at the major weak point of this series. I’m sure you got the big picture already, the characters were way too simple and one dimensional. Female characters (not just Urara) whose only purpose is to be protected by others is way too outdated. Maruo’s dumb and plain character could be fun, but it is also often boring and repetitive. Most of the side characters and antagonists get almost zero screen time, so why would you care about them?
But again, after a certain point in the story we get a very interesting side-character – similar to Gabimaru of ‘Hell’s Paradise’ – and his backstory, as well as the main villain get a more proper introduction and our 2 protagonists evolve characteristically. So it is a pity it did not have enough time.
- Enjoyment (7/10):
To be honest, as a ‘Hell’s Paradise’ fan, I still enjoyed this manga even if it was not as good, but had maybe even more potential. Yeah, the characters and story could be way better, but I think with more time it would have worked. The art / designs were still outstanding and the creativeness of the author was really refreshing compared to the current running battle shounens. So give this mangaka as much freedom for its work as he wants and it will be as great or greater than ‘Hell’s Paradise’!
It is very sad that the editors at JUMP seem sometimes really off in their manga predictions and/or limit the author's potential. Giving other series enough time to unfold (like ‘Yozakura Family’), but axe very promising ones (this or ‘Red Hood’) immediately…
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 23, 2022
Fire Force… The second big hit of Atsushi Ookubo. To tell the whole story, when I started to read this manga, I did not know it was the same author as for ‘Soul Eater’. Which is important, because I was literally traumatized by the ‘fist of friendship defeating the biggest evil of the whole universe’ of the Anime… So I have never read the manga, (even if I know it is different in many ways than the Anime), and after I realized it I was a bit shocked, because it was really good! However, I soon experienced my fear was not unfounded!
Short version
- Overall (6/10):
This
...
manga has big epic moments just as often as total trash ones. The mangaka said several times that this will/is his last work. It definitely felt just like it. He took all his positive as well as negative thoughts and puked it in this work… To put it very simply: Completely meta and fourth wall breaking themes, total crazy action, epic art these were the perfectly chosen ingredients to create a great manga, but Ookubo (not so) accidentally added a massive stupidity in it… BOOM! And so was ‘Fire Force’ born!
Long version
- Story (3/10):
To go into the details, let us begin with the most controversial part, the story. Just as usual in a shounen manga, we follow the life of our main hero, Shinra, who literally calls himself a hero. But everybody else says he is a devil because of his evil smile instead of other emotions (for example crying). His ability is to blaze flames from his feet and fights fire demonic creatures. For this purpose he joins the name giving ‘Fire Force’, which is no more than a fire department who fights fire with fire. Soon we get our first antagonists and build-ups for the further story.
Until yet, nothing special, literally very generic and a bit stupid… I mean who tries to extinguish fire with fire?! But as we go deeper and deeper into the building, we see that the author tries to ignite the house… To heat up the story he throws a lot of crazy (e.g. time travel, the number Pi, space fights etc.) and meta (e.g. chapters long discussions about the necessity of ecchi in the world, fourth wall breaking talks with the reader, REAL life pictures etc.) stuff in! This not just creates a bunch of plot holes and unlogical story parts, it scares off (casual) readers, especially with the sheer amount of these. If you know ‘Soul Eater’, which was already partly crazy, then imagine the 3 or 5 times of that. You will totally lose the focus of the story, and it doesn’t even matter, because it just has to be wild and stupid at the same time!
So we get a hard to follow story, full of craziness, stupidness and plot holes. If you like Ookubo’s style or what you read ‘till yet, you may enjoy it, especially the Soul Eater references, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
- Art (8/10):
But gratefully, a manga is not just about a good story, or at least it is not indispensable. How the author infuses his craziness into this work is really artistic. For example, when he throws real life images in the manga, it follows a clear (but crazy) art concept. These make this work partly really artistic. On top of that, we get hell of good character designs, especially the fire demonic creatures, powerful action scenes, dynamic paneling and amazing creative settings. With such joyful visual enjoyment it is hard not to stay until the end, even if the story often lacks logic.
On the other hand, shades were almost non-existent so missed the depth in the images. Backgrounds were a bit too often just empty. The unnecessary ecchi scenes disturbed me too. And sometimes it felt like the author had a hangover so he just did half hearted work.
- Characters (5/10):
To the characters there is not much to say. Most of the female characters are there to be saved or to show some boobs. Or if they have some kind of use, their part concludes too fast. The male characters are all strong, but somehow stupid. The villains never felt like a real threat and missed substance for their stories. So, they are all very generic. And yes, they all get their backstories and developments, but even if they wouldn’t, nothing would change, except for the mc.
But there are 2 highlights: Arthur, the kind of rival of our protagonist Shinra, and Benimaru. Due to Arthur’s silliness he brings extremely hilarious moments, while his backstory is way too dramatic and funny at the same time. And at the same time his chemistry with Shinra works very well. So every time he successfully refreshed the tensions in a good way. A really excellent character for Ookubo’s crazy manga. But a warning! He could be sometimes too stupid to bear.
Meanwhile Benimaru is the character for totally epic fight scenes and to give us the insight for the power-levels and system. The kind of teacher for this shonen manga. But while in other manga the senseis/masters are somehow restricted, this one is full power and still balanced! The author used this character very well for his story.
- Enjoyment (6/10):
Altogether I have to say, it is hard not to enjoy and not to hate it at the same time. For the epic and hilarious moments it is definitely worth a try. And including the great art and action it seems to be the logical decision to read this. It is a truly crazy and enjoyable manga. However, as I said, the story is way too weak, way too stupid and sometimes it could be down to trash, especially with the fanservice scenes/chapters. What I can say, if you liked ‘Soul Eater’ you will like this one too, and if not then you should miss it. And if ‘Fire Force’ would be the first manga you read of Ookubo and you like a wild, crazy action story, then you may enjoy it, but be aware of the high amount of stupidness.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 8, 2022
Short version
- Overall (5/10):
‘Magu-chan: God of Destruction’ is a wholesome comedy slice of life, which remained behind it’s expectations. The author clearly missed adding some kind of goal or a redline to bring out the full potential of his/her great characters. 60-70% of the manga are boring/generic one-chapters, but the monster designs and the bigger, wholesome arcs definitely helps to enjoy it until the end.
Long version
- Story (3/10):
To start with the worst part, let us begin with the story. Our protagonist, Ruru, finds a supernatural being similar to an octopus, Magu-chan, at the shore of the little island where she lives. From this moment
...
on our two characters (and later more) explore the daily life of a demonic creature learning about humans and their creations. And to be honest, that’s all. Of course, from chapter to chapter their little microcosmos is expanding, by adding new characters (humans and supernatural lifeforms) and situations, but after a while you get the feeling it’s heading nowhere.
Yes, you get some great arc’s, really feel-good ones, partly sad ones or funny action ones. But without a clear goal all these just happen to introduce maybe 1-2 characters to the plot, which later get their own (not so) funny one-chapters. And these comedy mainstream slice of life chapters are 60-70% of the whole manga. Most of them are not or just barely funny (of course, there are exceptions) which you probably will totally forget in a couple of weeks.
The mangaka definitely knows how to introduce characters, build up a story and create dramatic arcs, but this manga has just too little of them. So if 60% of the story is meaningless cliche one-chapters then it’s hard to enjoy and you will get bored.
- Art (6/10):
On the other hand, the character designs, looking at the cute demon gods, were outstanding! Generally the art was mostly sloppy, yes, but every time a new character got introduced it was refreshing. It was like experiencing a new Pokémon game and every time you encounter a new mon, you get excited. But as I said, everything else was most likely average. The designs of the humans, paneling, shading and background were all good, nothing disturbing or extraordinary. The lining is slacky which sometimes dims the dramatic, wholesome and/or serious moments, but works good at the funny parts. While the action scenes were not so well choreographed either.
- Characters (7/10):
In my opinion the most important part of a good slice of life is the good chemistry of the characters. And to be honest, this worked out amazing! It was the main reason why I enjoyed following this manga until the end, even with the boring story parts. Every character has its own gimmick and bond with another. For example, we have the stupid hero and his non-human trickster master. We have a money/gambling loving seastar (Neputaaku the best!) and his rivalisation with Magu-chan, or the main part: our protagonist Ruru who sometimes scolds and sometimes is grateful for what Magu-chan did.
- Enjoyment (6/10):
Altogether, to fully enjoy this manga it definitely needed a better written story or comedy. However, the strong characters and the bigger arcs (2-3 chapters) save a lot. Everytime a new character appears it boosts the fun for a short time. While the longer arcs always lead to well written wholesome moments, but just too few of them. There were also a couple of really funny one-chapters, but again, 5 out of almost 80 chapters, is just poor. However, at least for these highlights it is worth a try.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 28, 2021
‘i Tell C’ is one of the most disappointing Manga that I read. It started very strong and interesting, but then turned into some slap-stick comedy… It was like reading the first chapters of ‘Death Note’ (no, even at the beginning it wasn’t that good), but then it switched to the netflix adaptation of it… If this didn’t scare you off, then let us go more in the details.
- Story (3/10):
The whole story is based on the main character, who once got kidnapped and developed a kind-of stockholm syndrome, she gets attracted to criminals. However, she is also a detective, so she fights crimes with
...
crimes, or more precisely she tries to convince them (with strange methods) that they are bad and should give up. For example: to stalk a stalker. This not just sounds twisted and dark, it was… at the beginning… But this premise is for a shounen manga a hard one. To show young boys (the target readers) that realistic crimes could be good, work hard in this type of magazine. Conclusion: all the dark and psychological vibes had to be erased…
So to change the course of the manga they drastically modified half of the concept after around 10 chapters with as many plot holes as possible. For example, one character gets shot, but out of nowhere he survived just to save our main character, while another one also gets shot in a similar way and dies... Which definitely changed the concept, but was totally strange.
And after that, they installed a lot of slap-stick and childish humor. For example: one character is (suddenly) a total training junky, so everything he eats are proteins and does weight lifting in every free minute in his life. And random appearing characters whose only purpose is some kind of running gag (focused on symmetry, a gun lover or an overly attached father type). These may have worked, even if at that moment there were currently running better comedy titles, if the whole original idea was to create a comedy crime manga. But after the first 10 chapters, the other half was a total disappointment, and it lost its readers...
- Art (6/10):
However, even if the story was pure chaos, the art was good! Especially in the first chapters it had these nice scary and dark vibes. But also the comedy half was drawn well. The characters were stylish, with changing outfits and different emotions to show off. Background, toning and shadowing were solid too. So with a clear straight concept or better written story it may have been an outstanding manga like ‘The Promised Neverland’ (first third). On the other hand, it also has room for development.
- Characters (4/10):
Despite the good look, the characters are extremely weak. As mentioned, except for the main character, the characters are on 2 legs running gags. They are totally empty, no back stories or introductions, they are just suddenly there. While the villains get way more focus, which is good, but they are there for just a few chapters…
At least our one and a half main characters have a solid back story and introduction. However, due to the circumstances of the manga they also turn from interesting to some kind of joke...
- Enjoyment (3/10):
To turn back to the beginning, a story of a detective who does crimes to solve crimes sounds good, but works hard. The whole police department doesn't like her, but in reality they should arrest her, which makes the complete story illogical. For me, this destroys my enjoyment… You can definitely do this the right way, for example an anti-hero who defeats the villains even if they have to kill them or cause a big uproar or whatever.
And I know, the idea is that (not all) the criminals are bad people… But to cure a serial murder by accepting his ‘weird hobby’ of collecting human hands is kind a ridiculous… While in the first chapters she drove the criminals to give up by doing the same to them...
- Overall (4/10):
Overall, as I said it was a huge disappointment… It started really interesting, twisted and dark, but turning it into a comedy manga and curing every criminal with a pure heart of a lovely lady, ruined the whole manga. At least I can recommend the first 10-11 chapters, but after that, forget it.
Note: The mystery/crime at the very end was a nice one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 22, 2021
At the moment when this title started I was thinking, ‘why aren’t any (good) mangas about cops. That’s kinda a market hole… hmm’. And a little bit later there it was, ‘Hard-Boiled Cop and Dolphin’! I was really hyped, especially when I saw it was made by Ryuhei Tamura, the author of the successful ‘Beelzebub’ (which I haven’t read or watched) from which I heard a lot of good things about. Sadly, this hype died very soon but I hoped for something better until the end, which never came.
Short version
- Overall (5/10):
This manga definitely failed at the beginning, with missing pre-building and introductions and the
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short/bad written buddy-cop principle. Too many characters and the unsuccessful attempts to change the genre dulled the greatly written mystery story. However, it has its moments, the story is told and not ended abruptly, while Chako (the little girl) puts her childish energy again and again into it to push the story further, create funny moments and shake your heart at the correct time.
But let us dive deeper!
Long version
-Story (4/10):
This manga struggled a lot at the beginning and tried a lot of genre mixes which was definitely the reason why it dried out. The problem is that buddy-cop stories work the best if they have enough humor and/or action and a good chemistry between the 2 main cops. The action and humor were mostly missing… It started with a good mix, but after the first ‘He is a human, but has a dolphin head and sometimes does dolphin things’, the impact of the jokes calmed the waves. While the action, which was often just some underwhelming gunshots and punches, was barely existing like the survival chances alone in the open water. These failed genre parts drowned the interesting and steadily working mystery part, which contained humans evolving into fishmen, mystical powers, weapons and creatures as well as an evil cult trying to reach their goals. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
But as I said, it fought for its life like a fish in a net. The author saw the weak action-comedy and tried to put a bit of ecchi, slice of life, wholesome and even romance (?) in it, but these attempts were just confusing and weakened the good mystery part and lost its readers. To be clear, for a really good mystery manga (or else), you need a lot of prebuilding and introductions to unfold its core step by step. And these were missing just to put unconceptional things in it! For example: Some strange fishman attacks the people! But don’t worry, it got arrested… So maybe we should investigate this? Meh, the next chapters are about finding a new apartment! Or about some delinquents trying to impress the female cop, but in the end it is totally enough just to see her bra… Or introducing a bunch of characters 2 whole chapters long (of around 50) where maybe one was truly relevant?! Come on! What a marine pollution!
At the end, this dolphin in the net was already dead before it got catched, due to irrelevant waste in this mystery ocean… And even a hard-boiled cop wasn’t enough to stop the junk before it got thrown into the deep water…
- Art (5/10):
As it tested different genre parts, at the end the typical ‘battle shounen’ remained… Which I understand, because one of the best chapters were, when the fishmen got arrested with some nice action. But most of the fights were totally unsatisfying. For the typical ‘battle shounen’ you need a lot of creative powers, weapons, magic, transformations or at least something! And I know, there are people who don’t like that, but if you focus on the fights, you need these things to get excited for them! And these are best shown in the art. Creative designs for the villains or the different powers are almost a must have. And yes, we get fishmen and kind of water kung-fu or whatever, but these are mostly underwhelming.
Want an example? Sure: There is fishman 1, who looks like a normal person with strange skin. Okay. Fishman 2, looks like a normal person, but with strange teeth. Hmm… Fishman 3, looks like a normal person, but with strange eyes… Or our main villain looks like a normal person… That’s all! Holy sea cow! How uncreative is that? Yes, for normal people the fishmen look scary or rowdy, but they are supposed to be some ocean-creature human hybrids! The ‘special’ powers were poor too. For example: a breathing technique underwater to be drawn exciting is damned to fail. The fights per se lack the dynamic moves. You can create a battle manga without inhuman powers, like a martial art type, but if your characters are static, you won’t catch the readers' attention. Again an example: If your super one-hit k.o. attack is just to put your hands together and create a boom, then nobody will care at all! It’s too weak compared to titles like ‘Black Clover’ or else.
So yes, this forced ‘battle shounen’ elements failed completely, especially with this weak illustration. But it is supposed to be a mystery manga, so how are the backgrounds and the settings?... They are fine. I mean, we are on an island far from a big city where nothing amazing happens. So you won’t get fired up, but it is good. It looks like a small nice village. While the sea- and underwater life are greatly illustrated. What about the character designs?... They are fine… I mean, yes, they are uncreative for some fish-human fusions, but the illustrations of the humans are… okay. The female characters more or less look all the same, especially the ‘white’ haired ones, while the male characters show some diversity. Looking at the two and a half main characters (Hard-boiled, Dolphin and the little girl), they have a solid design. Nothing extraordinary, but good.
Overall, it definitely lacks creativity, especially for the villains, but everything else is solid and good.
- Characters (4/10):
Continuing with the characters. They may don’t look too interesting, like a youtube aquarium video, but maybe they have something beneath that? Sadly, no. Like I mentioned in the story part, without pre-building or introductions or at least, for Poseidon's sake, a backstory, they are just randoms tossed in the ocean… Especially in the last 10-15 chapters. We suddenly get more than 10 characters, but you could not tell more than 2 facts about them, except for 2. But even the female cop, introduced at the beginning, is just there! At least at the very end we get some backstory and closure for 2-3 characters… out of 50 or so...
Of course, the problem is it was too short, but you can’t make interesting characters without their backstory, or some introduction, then it’s not the fault of the length… If you would focus more on a bunch of them, before putting new ones in, the readers may have stayed.
But okay, look at these 2-3. As I mentioned, one of the crucial parts of a buddy-cop story is the chemistry between the 2 cops. And here is the most disappointing thing! At the very first, they were like oil & water. But just a few chapters later they were like two identical characters just one of them has a dolphin head… So one of them is totally unnecessary, however, the dolphin has to be there for the mystery line… Which is swamped by filler like chapters… So I can totally understand those people who dropped that after 10-15 chapters. However, one glimpse of hope was the ‘half’ character, the little girl Chako! Due to her childish attitude she not just created chaos and pushed the story further, she also refreshed the wholesome, heart-shaking and comedy parts. Especially at the end she catches the reader and saves us from the plastic ring of ‘who cares?’
- Enjoyment (7/10):
This will sound strange, but even if the manga failed in many sections, I enjoyed it a lot! Mostly because of the mystery part, which I really wanted to know and was well written! The mangaka definitely had a good concept in his mind. The hard-boiled main character was cool too and the little girl adorable. Also in a not ‘battle shounen’ viewpoint the action was good enough for the arresting parts. And the fishmen were uncreatively designed, but they still had their epic (few) moments. So I could ignore the micro- (and sometimes macro) plastic junk in our dolphin, but a lot of people won’t and that’s totally okay.
Altogether I would say: give it a try! If you are hooked, nice! You will enjoy it, because the quality is mostly stable, but if you don’t like the bait, ignore it and keep swimming, just keep swimming...
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jun 2, 2021
After reading the title or/and the synopsis, you may think this could be an interesting dark martial art manga. This isn’t completely false, but it has a lot of blind points.
- Story (4/10):
The story begins with a random person who challenges dojos. Few moments later you know, he will be the main villain, because he not only defeats our blind protagonist (Shinobu) but he also takes his girlfriend. So to take her back, he goes in a time skip, training like hell and then to a prison led by our villain. Of course, it’s a prison where you have to fight a battle royal, to
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be exact, you have to gain 100 points to be free again, where 1 kill = 1 point.
This sounds interesting, yes (but battle royals are kind of overused), however our protagonist is way too kind… You learn very soon how kind he is, because he never kills and you hope for one of 2 options at this point: he never loses his kindness or he dives in this ‘Abyss Rage’... And now we already arrived at the big blind point. I don’t even have to spoil it for you and you still know which of these 2 options it will be. This destroys the whole tension.
But hey, it could be still dark, I mean we are in a prison full of criminals. And we talk about rapists, murderers and psychopaths, not just some little thieves. However, this prison specialized somehow in martial art, so everything they (or at least the bigger villains) do is either train or kill with their pure fists. So yes, it could have been a dark prison story with martial art, but it isn’t.
But hey, you get nice fights, which are good!... On the other hand, they are god damn slow… Each fight lasts 3-5 chapters and in each they make 2-3 blows, while of course the backstory for every villain can’t be missing, so another 3-5 chapters where the main story stops. And speaking of backstories, the rule in this manga is, you get someone’s backstory before their final moment. (Which don’t have to be their death, it is just they did what they have to, so they don’t have any use for the story). You may think I’m overreacting, but that happens literally every time!
Now you may understand what the big weaknesses of this manga is. The premise is good, but it’s slow, it’s not dark enough and the repeating plot destroys the whole tension completely. However, it also has a bright side. The backstories are nice and varied (but still somehow martial art related), and the fighting scenes are well written too.
- Art (4/10):
While reading this manga, I saw some comments about how amazing and realistic the muscles and bodies were drawn. I doubt that. Maybe I read too many more well drawn manga, but in my opinion the art was totally ordinary. The praised bodies looked almost the same, the characters like some bodybuilders and not like martial artists. And I wouldn’t call that realistic at all! Sometimes it was like they were put together of bricks.
Also to mention, the fights were definitely missing the dynamic. They were not just chapters long, but each panel felt so lame like you would watch it in slow motion.
Now I may overreact a bit, because altogether it was okay, but if 80% of the manga is fighting and the dynamic is missing, it gets boring ironically fast.
- Characters (6/10):
One stronger point of the manga is the characters! The main character is mostly boring, typical shining hero-like, yes. However! The support characters, including the antagonists, as mentioned are all very well-written, with understandable backstory and character development. You really get to know them, which helps to feel their pain and struggle.
Additionally, it has a big extra point for diversity. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but let me say it is way more diverse sexually than a lot of other manga.
The achilles tendon here is the rule of the manga, you get the backstory before their final moment. So if one character doesn't have fights, they don’t get a backstory, which is sad, because there are interesting characters which definitely didn’t get enough screen time, but if you are lucky, then they have some parts in someone else's backstory. It also means that we get the backstory for our protagonist at the end, and until then he is just a blind guy who tries to get his girlfriend back. Which might be enough, but you won’t really know him.
- Enjoyment (5/10):
It isn’t as dark as I expected, the action scenes were slow, but did I enjoy it? Meh~ It was okay. I may have awaited too much and got disappointed. But if you don’t have high hopes and don’t look at it as something dark (even if it tries to be) you can enjoy it more. In addition, if you don’t have to wait 2-3 weeks for a chapter and can read it continuously the lameness won’t be such a downer. And as I said, the characters and backstories are interesting.
- Overall (5/10):
Sadly you won’t get a dark prison revenge story, also it may be too slow for a lot of people and way too easy to predict. But even with weak art, the action scenes are mostly nice, the characters are well-written, with good backstories and developments. So overall: it was okay or average.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 26, 2021
- Story (3/10):
This manga is so random, in every chapter you will experience something chaotic. It starts with our 4 protagonists facing a dilemma, the earth is destroyed, they are the last surviving humans on a different planet… but all of them are boys! Then a Higher Being (literally) appears to help them with a genderswap machine… How this ends, read it yourself, however don’t expect too much, because you will get something similar or even worse in every chapter. For example: A whole chapter about going to poop, a total ridiculous bassball (which is baseball with stupid extra rules) match, or a ‘pick up
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females'’ challenge on a foreign planet. While you read through this total madness it is told in a very childish comedic way. Repeating jokes of ‘one character looks like a girl but he isn’t’ or ‘everyone does something totally strange and one shouts a comment about what they are doing is ridiculous’. While a child usually doesn’t notice these repetitions, an adult does.
So the core of this manga and its comedy is that you will face a sudden SOMETHING, which could be literally everything… It’s totally random. Also gags about poop or male parts are very primitive. So for me, with my almost 30 years, it wasn’t funny at all, however, for a child it could be, but then you have better options in the Shounen Jump magazine at the time when this manga was ongoing.
One last thing, even if it was completely random, the author connected the little parts at the end heading to their final goal. Which shows, the mangaka could have written a better space adventure with a more mature comedy or without gags at all.
- Art (4/10):
The designs and art were okay, the backgrounds were good. The different space creatures and designs that our characters get due to the story was nice, and rarely funny. The problems are coming from the comedy part. While the jokes are repeating, the expressions are too. In conclusion, there are 2-3 (normal - shocked - lovely/sexy) expressions rotating. On top of that, the whole manga felt pale. The toning wasn’t good at all, so the art couldn’t impact the reader as much as it could.
- Characters (4/10):
A gag manga doesn’t necessarily need character developments, neither does this. However, our 4 protagonists (and later the side-characters) are nothing more than 2 legged running-gags. For example: a girl looking boy, a total fanboy, a super shy guy etc. And these characteristics are the base of all of their jokes! The same joke in 50 chapters is really unsatisfying. Although, there is one character which really is refreshing, the Higher Being and how it ‘plays’ with the humans. This one part gives a little extra point for this manga.
- Enjoyment (2/10):
As mentioned, this random chaotic comedy isn’t my taste at all. On the other hand, I’m not the target for it. For children (8-12 years old) it is definitely more enjoyable. But then, with a similar stupidity and less childish jokes “Mitama Security” or with a more intelligent humor and parodic style “Me & Roboco” were the better options which ran at the same time as “Agravity Boys” in my opinion.
- Overall (3/10):
It was a total disaster, especially how it ended. There was a really weak main storyline, which was the only reason for me to suffer through this, but then the final was as random and sudden without answering and closing anything like the whole manga. However, the extra chapter at least tried to end all the open questions, which was good and gave us a conclusion, but on the other hand it felt really forced. So altogether, if this chaos is exactly your humor, go for it, for anyone else… don’t… just don’t!
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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