- Last OnlineMay 13, 2015 1:26 PM
- JoinedFeb 25, 2014
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Feb 28, 2014
114 of 166 chapters read
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28
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Art |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
OYASUMI PUN PUN, has nothing to do with this manga but if you've read it you might notice some similarities between these. Both have lots of surrealism and extremely depressing circumstances, and both seem like an outlook into literal insanity. Both follow a single main character and his story, and both end like shit lol but more on that later
It's psycho-horror thats what it is, especially in the later chapters. Never before have you watched someone go crazy in such a natural way. This is the epitome of a unique manga, which may seem stupid to say after i start with a series of parallels
but they are just that, parallels. They are still two different manga, as Homunculus will provide plenty of evidence for throughout its pages. Homunculus is about a man named Nakoshi who sleeps in his car in a parking lot between a hotel and a park. Each day he wakes up, tunes his car a bit, and eats with his homeless aquaintences. He seemingly has no money whatsoever and has no motive for being where he is, as well as a nonexistant history. One day he is stalked and approached by an almost inhuman looking punk man who proposes to him a process in which he will drill a hole in his head and pay him afterwards, for the purpose of testing the existance of ESP. After that things go crazy quite literally.
Nakoshi gains an ability to see "things" about people in the form of bizarre hallucinations. These "things" are seemingly random caricatures of the person he is looking at, but he starts to realize that they may represent something about the person. Throughout the story he gets more and more obsessed with his ability and its uses for no clear reason. The reader of the manga takes a very 2nd person perspective in this. You will hear the thoughts of Nakoshi but they will slowly stop making any sense, giving you a very detached perspective that works perfectly with the atmosphere and the plot. This is a story that is bizarro to the core and there is nothing quite like it.
The art is good. Some of the faces look weird but I can't help but think this is the point. Nothing really stands out which is of no problem because the content is what is of note here.
This manga has from what I've seen, polarized its readerbase. Some people outright hated it because of how random and crazy things are later on. The ending in particular makes no sense, which I love. It's just something you should read and have your own impression on whether or not that includes an interpretation of events. In fact at one point in the middle I dropped it because I was bored. But in the end I picked it back up and was so glad I did because its just so fucking weird. It's like theres some sense behind it but its so buried and vague that you will be debating if it even exists rather than what its content is (which is great!)
It's Good! You should read it. This review may seem half assed thats why I shouldn't right three at once but at the very least I have brought it to your attention and hopefully this one in particular will not leave it.
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Feb 28, 2014
75 of 76 chapters read
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14
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
10 |
| Art |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
This is manga is about Munsu, who is the last Angyo Onshi, peacekeepers from the fallen kingdom of Jushun who wander the land defeating corrupt lords and generally being of benefit to the people. However Munsu is an asshole, and stands out greatly from a wide spectrum of other protaganists even in the anti-hero classification. Angyo Onshi do not have any special powers or special skills, in fact Munsu's superhuman abilities are nonexistant compared to not only antagonists but even less relevant side characters. He is however, very smart, and also has an amulet called the Mahai, something that is his badge as an Angyo
Onshi. The Mahai is a magical device that allows him to summon a legion of Joker faced phantom soldiers, who will slaughter at command. Munsu uses this ability and a few rather ordinary pistols to take care of ordinary enemies. He cannot use the Mahai all the time, and it is generally ineffective against skilled enemies as the Phantom Soldiers dont have any special powers, and are completely ineffective against non-human enemies. Munsu later gains a companion of a young woman named Chan Hyuang, who possess superhuman fighting strength, and makes her the official servant of an Angyo Onshi, called the Sando. They have a rocky relationship. Munsu continues to travel and complete his duties as an Angyo Onshi, all while chasing down a man named Aji Tae who is believed to be the one responsible for the destruction of the kingdom of Jushun, although the past is mysterious.
The story is the best part about this manga. You will notice some parallels with Berserk, although order of events are completely different and of course the story itself is original. Both possess a mysterious past of a destroyed kingdom, betrayal, angelic antagonists that go above morality who are inherently demonic, morally gray decisions, demon fighting, revenge etc. Munsu is the most interesting character and despite the Berserk relations he really isn't similar to Guts as all. Munsu is very cunning and not actually powerful, and tends to use a bizarre mix of assholish philosphy, disguise, and tricks to beat opponents. He is however, very likable and will grow on you quickly. The story is episodic in the beginning, which is completely dropped in the second half. Many of these episodic adventures are based on Korean folklore. It lets you see more into Munsu and Sando's character and is just overall entertaining. It's not really filler but if it was it would be very entertaining filler. The OVERALL story arch, concerning the mysteries of Munsu and the kingdom of Jushun's past, is paced perfectly, executed perfectly, and ENDED perfectly. It is a somewhat short, fantastic journey that will leave you thinking about it for days. It is the epitome of an low fantasy plot, with unique characters and lore and a very mysterious protaganist. It's plot is a mystery itself which can at many times be solved before fully revealed if you pay attention, which is a rewarding experience akin to beating the pace of a Sherlock Holmes novel. You'll find that characters can die at any time especially towards the end, and many unexpected things can occur. It is interesting, but never cheap. I can only think of one part that seemed like an asspull when a particular side character survived a seemingly fatal blow, but this oddity never stopped me enjoying the rest of the manga because it was molehill to mountain. Every twist or backstory has depth to it not originall shown, which makes it a joy to read.
This manga ran from 2001 to 2007. As a result the art in the beginning is not fantastic, and somewhat offset by absolutely horrendous scan quality if you are downloading it or reading it online for that matter. However both improve drastically long before the second part begins. The art is able to portray a great style which suits the several different tones of the enviroment and mood, with notable art influences from Trigun for some western scenes. The action is very cool, showing a vareity of different stuff going on. Choreography is great, gun fights, explosives, bladed weapons, and tae kwon do prove to be a crazy mix. While I was usually not blown away by the aethstetics, I did see quite a few very cool scenes, particularly towards the end but also in the flashback part and the Hwangdo arc. Bottomline is that the art is by no means the best of the best and one might often come to mind with a manga like Berserk, but it does in no way hinder the story. On a side note they seem to have put every single kind of character design archetype in this manga, everything from angelic sexy man to Vash the stampede sunglasses guy, to Victorian Demon Gentleman, to muscley ninja woman, and of course rugged wanderer dude.
I wish I could forget this manga and read it again as with most of my favorite manga. If you are still questioning why exactly I thought it was so good because I didn't explain it properly, let me just reiterate by saying it is extremely good. I can't promise you will like it as much as I do, but I gurantee it will be one of your favorites if you read it all. It's a tall order but I think you'll find yourself often surprised by how concisely executed this manga is.
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Feb 28, 2014
170 of 170 chapters read
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32
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Kokou no Hito is about Mori, a young, very angsty and lifeless man who initially transfers to a new high school. In 1-2 chapters Mori is goaded by a classmate into climbing up the school building and seemingly in a trance, he does so, almost killing himself in the process as he climbed up a small pipe 4 stories up. After being scolded heavily and slapped in the face by Onishii-sensei, he is encouraged to take up climbing and take part in a local contest, of which he initially refuses but ends up going through a series of events. Mori realizes rather unconciously, as he
is a very dense youth (not stupid mind you), that he feels alive by climbing and takes it up almost religiously and out of nowhere, as if climbing was meant for him all along. This dude also makes some funny faces sometimes. Mori then decides to take up climbing not really professionally, but as if its the only thing that matters in the whole world. Moving on-
Alot of things happen in and out of climbing to these characters, as there is a cast of sorts. It's very realistic, there is zero nonsense in how they interact and how events transfold between them. "That makes no fucking sense" will never be said to describe anything here. In fact its so surprisngly serious in parts it may completely take you off guard, as if you just got in the face with some of the stuff. It's pacing is all over the place, which is PERFECT for this type of story, as life does not always go fast or slow. Good atmosphere, basically. Now you may be thinking that this kind of story is not entertaining, as you are not a supposedly overly pretentious reader who needs everything to be dramatic and realistic and etc. HOWEVER you would be surprised how entertaining someone climbing rocks is. It is. I say beforehand I enjoy every manga I review but I very much doubt others would disagree with me on this for the most part, but don't let my perceived minor uncerainty shake you just try it for yourself its bretty good.
So the characters are fantastic, the plot is a very human drama about life and death, moving on, things of that nature. It's hard to swallow, it very much is. That's another adjective that you can use to describe the entire manga, "heavy." Everything is heavy in this manga. Even the art style is heavy. Elaborating on that the art is very good
It's very difficult to make the review standout so I think most of the time at the end of these I will right a paragraph that is a thinly veiled "read it read it read it" statement. I loved reading this and if you are in the mood surely you will as well, I don't really believe that someone is only an "action reader" etc. rather you just have to be in the right mood for certain stories. This is one of the best manga I have ever read. I found it by clicking the random button at batoto lol
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Feb 28, 2014
134 of 181 chapters read
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18
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Sun Ken Rock is about a Japanese man named Ken. Ken's love interest Yumin moves to Korea to become a police officer, and Ken follows her to impress her with success. In a ridiculously short time he becomes the leader of one of the largest criminal organizations in the world, with a shitload of some of the most insane plot twists and over the top martial art fights I have ever seen in a manga in between. Make no mistake that this is predominantly an action manga, but by no means does that mean the characters were left out of the loop. Ken is like
a magnet, he has an almost supernatural aura of main character righteousness that he seemingly indoctrinates people into good morale by beating the shit out of them. Rather than this being deus ex however, its a plot device that is observed by other characters in the story. It also doesn't hurt that Ken is an extremely likeable character. He does not always win, and he does not always lose, he is not arrogant, but he respects himself and his gang and will beat the shit out of other gangs that challenge its pride of the street. As time goes on and his gang becomes more and more of an influence in Korea, Ken's character starts to change rather drastically as well. It's cool to read is the bottom line here.
Plot is good. Plot is bretty very good. I liked the plot, which is basically divided into "arcs," that involve a specific plot device or character or event with Ken and the others. There aren't very many of these arcs, maybe like 4, but the length is perfectly sufficient to tell the story at hand and the overall tale of the Sun Ken Rock team. No arc is irrelevant etc. and none drags on for longer than it needs too. Theres depth to the story which has alot to do with the background of Korea, which the manga presents to you both directly and indirectly. Very frequently the manga will show the long term influences of the Vietnam and Korean Wars, as well as the slow collapse of morale in the populace of Korea. It's definitely not paper thin and will make you think which is ALWAYS GOOD IN A MANGA or any media for that matter. It's a deconstruction of society and this theme is heavily present through the entire manga, not thrown in one chapter for sillyness.
Action is CRAZY insane. If their was a 1-5 scale of how realistic fights were in manga, with 1 being Hajimme no Ippo and 5 being some energy technique battle stuff, Sun Ken Rock would be 2. But that does not stop the fights from being brutal and over the top, in fact it exemplifies it because there is no blatant superhumaning (save for one scene with the Vietnam Satan but it was so cool it doesn't matter.) Ken and his gang use an unidentified mix of martial arts to kick everyones ass to varying degrees of success, but its always awesome to read. NEVER BORING. Art is fantastic of course as well, make no mistake that although the mangaka is not particularly famous, he can really fucking draw (don't judge the art by the picture I show you, judge his art as you read it all) it also improves throughout the manga. So basically the action scenes are very dramatic, awesome great super cool, there is a very high chnace you will think so too.
There is comedy in the manga as well, its used frequently in the beginning as well as in between main arcs. It will usually come in the form of one panel of some sillyness or fanservice (which is also over the top but by no means does it dominate the whole manga), or an entire chapter about Don Huang's Sushi Adventure. Never really got on my nerves in the slightest which may be an indicator that it flows well with the dramatic moments. Not out of place and random basically.
In conclusion I feel as if I have barely said anything about this manga that makes it stand out, an action with plot ok theres half of manga right there. But make no mistake that this entire manga is standing out, its so ridiculous and so awesome its an unbelivable that it isn't top of the charts, you will certainly see what I mean.
This is NOT a manga where you have to read 15 chapters for things to start moving. Read one chapter and I am sure you will be sold, specifically 25 pages in or so to said chapter. It's super cool shit, fantastic super awesome, great good.
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Feb 28, 2014
66 of 66 chapters read
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56
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
To put it simply, there is a reason Blame is such a renowned cult hit. It's art style is both captivating and horrifying, it's story extremely minimal, it's atmosphere thick as syrup, and with it Blame has always been seen as a modern classic of cyberpunk and experimental manga. If you are in for something strange and off the beaten path then you will surely enjoy this bizarre and complex piece of cheese.
Blame is about a lone wanderer named Killy, who in keeping up with cyberpunk standards, is not 100% human. Killy begins a quest to find net terminal genes, a genetic code that may
or not be extinct, To find net terminal genes, Killy wanders in the setting of the manga, known only as The City. The capital letters and context alone may show its quite the mysterious place. The City is a vast technological world whose bizarre nature borders on surrealism in some parts. The City seemingly has no vertical or horizontal end, stretching on endlessly forever, everywhere. No government can be seen in any form, and machines run rampant doing crazy stuff. Factions of silicon based life forms and trans-humans struggle to survive in a very unforgiving and relentless enviroment, constantly put on the pressure of the Safeguard, a relentless machine god horde of creatures seemingly out of God Emperor of Dune. Killy attempts to find the Net Terminal Genes for a human faction, in an attempt to bring control to the City and the Megastructure inside. The Megastructure is an infnitely expanding series of floors in the City, seemingly making it impossible to go up or down to another floor due to it's nature of a being a gigantic infitely long space wall that is several hundreds of miles thick. Killy is the only human able to traverse these megastuctures due to his possession of a bizarre weapon with unknown origins, the Gravitational Beam Emitter, a gun so powerful that it can potentially punch through the normally indestructible Megastructure.
Blame!'s story is not really a story in the typical sense. Usually in a story you have some characters with their own development, backdrop information, and instances that drive an overarching plot forward. All of these things are virtually non-existent in Blame, which is hardcore minimalist. Dialogue rarely occurs, and you can never understand what characters are thinking. All you are presented with is Killy going around, his reasons mostly unexplained, the setting unexplained, a glossary of terms that does not exist etc. But you can figure things out about the story, however its never directly presented to you, so you have to pick things up from the details completely, which are subtle at best. Needeless to say, that makes the story completely open to interpretation, but it's interesting interpretation in the sense that it can make sense in a concrete way. Lets say you finished the manga and then went to forums to see what people thought of the ending, if they reference a particular part in the series to construct their theory, you can say "Ah, I remeber that part." It's interesting.
Art is pretty crazy. You can probably get a good idea what the style is like from this spread I posted with the review. It's very sketchy and unpolished looking, but it works well. Sometimes I like to say that "bad art is not a style, even if its consistent" but I never really found Blame's art to be bad. The only thing that was a bit strange looking was the faces, but you have to keep in mind this manga is damn old. Nihei however, has always had this sketchy style which makes the setting, and ESPECIALLY the enemies look eldritch level insane. There is not a single way I can describe the designs of the Silicon based life besides that, they look like they literally climbed out of a wormhole. Guts spill out of random places, their metal skull based on some animal thing, bizarre needle arms like Bokurano, you name it. They are all unique in overall design and they are all crazy looking.
Conclusively, its very hard to review Blame in a concrete way due its nature of being so broad in interepretation. I loved it due to it's unending surrealism and mystery and the minimalistic plot, along with the art style. I will probably never understand the intention of the story as a whole and especially the ending, if it exists. But without a doubt this rather short cyberpunk classic deserves to be read by all fans of manga.
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Feb 28, 2014
Unknown of ? chapters read
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3
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
5 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Certainly a weird one this is. It's a short take on the first parts and prologue of Journey to the West that ends up being ridiculously violent and dark. Goku ends up being more of a cannibalistic monkey Conan the Barbarian then the Zen Buddhist heaven revolutionist he is in the original. Regardless, its a pretty cool one just because of how strange the choreography of the action scenes and of course the art, the art being completely in color and in a very sketchy style and blotted style. It works well with the demonic character designs and hellish enviroments that Goku is pictured in,
whether he is eating a demon in the bowels of a larger demon, or attacking a Taoist deity on top of a tree. Beyond the art, there is no plot to summarize really, in fact unless you check out parts of Journey to the West on wiki to get some context it basically makes no sense at all, combined with a really crazy and erratic series of events. Worth a check for the art alone.
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Feb 28, 2014
38 of 38 chapters read
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3
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
7 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Feng Shen Ji goes hand-in-hand with a certain concept in reading and enjoying manga (or alot of things for that matter) that I like to call Closed Accomplishment. A manga with closed accomplishment is one that is not trying to be stunning in every category of writing etc, rather it attempts to be the very best at what it is at its core. Feng Shen Ji is just Feng Shen Ji, and because of that can be enjoyed in a sort of vaccuum, with there being no need to judge it in numerous factors to enjoy it fully, this being due to its unique artwork
style, and heavy content amount unusual for a japanese manga (as this is originally a Chinese Manhua.) Down to the point though, Feng Shen Ji is an action manga showing some of the most enjoyable, well drawn fights I have ever seen, and a simple albeit perfectly executed storyline that goes with it.
Feng Shen Ji is about Wu Geng (Ah Gou), the son of the Emperor of the mighty nation of Zhang. When Zhang is tasked by the Gods to conquer and unite humanity, the Emperor Zi Shou refuses, declaring revolution against Heaven in order to rid the human race of the Gods' Dominance. Despite a roller coaster encounter with all 6 great gods and the Ruler of Heaven Tian himself, Zi Shou is defeated, and his Empire destroyed and conquered by the resident number 2. Through a series of events, Wu Geng is killed by his own mother and ends up possessing the dead body of a slave whose eye he stabbed before the beginning of the story. Wu Geng is told a great destiny awaits him, and he is captured and taken to the dreaded mountain mines with the slave's wife to be and some others. Things only go crazy from there.
The first thing I want to talk about with Feng Shen Ji is the art. When reading Feng Shen Ji, something is going to stand out to you right away, and that is that EVERY SINGLE PAGE IS IN COLOR. There is no exception to this at all throughout the manhua, and since its barely 2 years old with chapters over 40 pages on average one wonders about the work ethic of it's creators. In my earlier Tower of God review, I talked about even if an art style is inherently not good, color can make it overall a more pleasing visual experience then well drawn black and white manga. Despite this I warned readers that since Tower of God isn't even actually drawn it might still not look great. But what about Feng Shen Ji, the second fully colored manga? Well rest assured, Feng Shen Ji doesn't disappoint in art style either. Anatomy, facial detail, and environmental detail is all top notch. Fight scenes are fantastically drawn, each detail in every fist, flame, tooth, and nail is given a full accord. To put it simply, Feng Shen Ji would have been one of the most well drawn manga even without the color, but in addition to that, every single page is in color. And I haven't said it before, but this is good color, as not all color jobs on manga are created equal. It's obvious that this colorist is consistent and actively work's with the artists to achieve a perfect result. The consistency in quality is notable, and although the art is wonderful to begin with, it gets better even so. Similar to the Monkey King, you can enjoy this manga just by the art alone, and going back to my original statement on how Feng Shen Ji is fantastic because it achieves exactly what it attempts to, the art is a massive factor into the overall quality of this well drawn, well choreographed fighting manga.
Coming off of that, what purpose is art unless there is something to draw? Luckily, Feng Shen Ji's action sequences do not disappoint in the same way the art does not. Action scenes are creative, bombastic, and fun. No fight's outcome is predictable, and more than that, no fight's processes are predictable. In this regard it achieves what many action manga try to achieve, perfect action. The world of Feng Shen Ji is full of gods, demons, zombies, beasts, and stone warriors, choreography involving the inevitable bouts with these creatures prove to be as wonderful as foreshadowed, something not all manga can achieve well. An example from the story would be Wu Geng's initial fight with Shi Xing, Shi Xing overpowers him completely, but Wu Geng escapes and uses a variety of carefully planned bullshit with everything from bazookas to pocket sand to attempt to defeat him. It's all ridiculous but it fits to perfectly with the tone up to that point but you can't help but be entertained. I've mentioned it before but one thing that makes the fights specifically so fun is that they are very unpredictable. When I read Medaka Box, it was kind of silly how much foreshadowing there was in a fight, you could tell exactly who was going to activate their power up and win. This was so prevalent in fact, you might even be able to tell when specific plot twists would happen. In Feng Shen Ji, this doesn't occur. That's because you aren't given enough background information to infer what is going to happen, not just in the form of the story lore but also little details that determine a fight's next sequence. It's very awesome to read, and really puts the previously detailed artwork and color to work, synergizes completely.
Feng Shen Ji's story can be interpreted in a few different ways. Battle of the gods and Heaven Revolution is by no means an underused trope in manga (or fiction as a whole for that matter), so then why is Feng Shen Ji interesting. Well for one thing, it is not based on frequently used Greek, Japanese, or Egyptian mythology. It is based entirely on Chinese Mythology, which if anything, does not compltely correlate to many stereotypes in these types of stories. The "Gods" are not so much a dozen or so super powered beings with divine powers representing a certain element of nature, but rather a race of super humans residing in heaven, with their own cities as well (however they are the former as well.) There is no concrete lightning great god, there are several Lightning Great Gods, there are several great plague gods, etc. The point being this is an original pantheon, so you can expect a unique backstory. I also want to mention on while this manga is obviously based on Chinese folklore it doesn't actually follow it in anyway, its only based on it. There is no God from real chinese mythology in this manga, and just so the world of Feng Shen Ji is not Earth, and doesn't share its timeline. It is a unique canon with its own history and backstory, and some interesting meta canon as the concrete to the bricks. With that detailed I'll talk about some specifics. Wu Geng is not an interesting character, but he is entertaining. Wu Geng does not have any depth to him at all, that is to say, his entire thought process is displayed to the reader at all times. He does not have a mysterious past or some childhood trauma that similar protaginists have that affect their personalities, Wu Geng is too cool for any of that nonsense. In fact, Wu Geng is so incredibly normal for his character archetype (that is a very hot headed, leadership like character) that he makes most of his clever decisions actually reasonable. You the reader may find this a little bit strange, as usually a complicated plot will not fully be revealed to the audience for suspence. Not the case with Wu Geng and his shenanigans, especially in the mines. What this shows as despite being simple, this character and his motivations are just as likeable as the best from the other side, it only beneficially adds to the experience. Wu Geng also has some interesting one liners which may or may not be the result of a language barrier with the native Chinese, such as "Put face into ground and eat dog shit God, God eating dog shit kick!" which he uses more than once. Wu Geng isn't the only fun character though, some like resident quiet badass and smelting aura master Zi Yu are even more fun to watch, Zi Yu having no special backgrounds but still the first character to actually kill a God. It's interesting because, none of these characters particularly become dislikeable, I personally think it might be because this story is so momentum drive, with almost no time spent on developing characters, only on developing events, that they are never given the chance too. It begs the question that if development is done off that it can make characters less enjoyable. No need to worry about that, as the Berserk Gorillas attacking are much more important right now then character development. It may sound silly to say such, but it works just fine.
Feng Shen Ji is a manga that accomplishes what it is. It is an action driven story, with focuses on fights, adventure, and revolution. It doesn't make any prolonged attempt to develop characters because that is not this kind of story. If this kind of energetic manga is to your liking look no more for the epitome of the genre.
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Feb 28, 2014
65 of 65 chapters read
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3
people found this review helpful
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Art |
7 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
It's very hard to classify this manga. It's a comedy, an action, a slice of life, a drama, and a psychological all rolled into one, with respective attributes shown throughout the manga, some alot while others not as much. Upon reading the first 3 chapters, I doubt anyone would have thought that there are several tragedies throughout this manga, how it could it pull it off with all the silliness. It's a jack of all trades of genres, with all of their best accompanying aspects and little of their tropes and bad parts, it is a manga about a suicide pact between a girl who
cannot accept her mortality and a sullen boy who loves her and it is a very good manga.
Hoshi no Samidare, better known by subtitle Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer, has a somewhat simple setting. Student Amamiya Yuuhi is tasked by the talking lizard knight, Sir Noi Crezant, to protect the princess of earth from the mage's golems and stop the Earth's destruction from a doomsday device called the Biscuit Hammer. Yuuhi is given all this information in the first few pages, and quickly throws the lizard out through the window. Sir Noi Crezant, not so easily shaken, teleports back into the room and reiterates the situation with a more flustered tone. Yuuhi tries to clear his head by going to his classes, only to find the Lizard does not give up and that he cannot be seen or heard by anyone else. On the way back to home, Yuuhi is attacked by a one eyed rock monster, which Noi identifies as a golem. Noi tells Yuuhi to use the weapon of the Lizard Knight, domain control, to fight the golem with the power of the domain control ring that has been placed on Yuuhi's finger. Yuuhi summons his power and uses the weapon to do no damage to the walking bolder, who tries to cut him in half. Out of nowhere, a girl comes and punches the golem into smithereens. Noi Crezant identifies this girl as Samidare the princess of Earth, and that is the beginning of the story with the Mage and his golems, the Beast Knights, and the Biscuit Hammer.
Initially in the story, no background information is given besides the stuff Noi Crezant spews out in a flurry in the first few pages. There is an unidentified being as the mage who supposedly controls a device known as the Biscuit Hammer, and is sending golems to attack the characters. Why there is a talking lizard, magical rings, and superhuman princesses, no one yet knows. Fortunately all things are revealed with time, and this manga does not save all mysteries for the end, with most of the information give out by the halfway point, the fifth volume. As you will soon tell by the tone though, this is not a story that revolves around its yet to be revealed info to keep the reader's interest, its rather the opposite, because this is a slice of life manga as well, but more on that later. The story itself I enjoyed alot, it was simplistic in design, concise in execution, and its characters the highlight of the mix. To me it often seems that the shorter manga are the ones with the most concise character development, that is written well enough to not come on as to obvious or forced but still amount to an actual change in personality, with subtle upbringing of these changes the most fragile part of all. Luckily Hoshi no Samidare achieves all of this quite well. It's a bit of a spoiler, but there are other knights like Yuuhi, 12 of them in fact, and they are all characters that are given multiple chapters to highlight them exclusively, giving them a shine despite being side characters. Some very good examples are one character's changes after the passing of another, and another after finding his baby sibling, things like this. It flows well, above all. Yuuhi and Samidare's development differ in circumstance, while both of these characters change according to the plots progression, they are not truly highlighted like the rest until the very end. Yuuhi pledges himself as a knight to the princess, the princess being a 16 year old girl who wants to destroy the entire planet after they defeat the Mage who is trying to destroy the planet. It's this kind of nonsense that the reader knows is not as simple as it may seem, and is intrusively linked to the character of the Princess and Yuuhi, the protagonist. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll leave the development at that. The actual story is interesting though, and serves more purpose then just developing characters, although it is not quite as essential to enjoyment of the manga as the former is. As I mentioned in the introduction, this manga tries to do a variety of other things as well and for the most part succeeds. The sad parts are very sad, the slice of life is slicey, and the comedy is funny. The romance is very slow, and does not take a central role until the end and even then its nothing too brazen, in fact there is more romance going on with side characters.
Quick passage to talk about the art before I wrap this up. The art is nothing special really. It's very simplistic.
Is it so mediocre that it detracts from the rest of the experience: no. The spreads are drawn fairly well, and like most manga, the mangaka uses tone and atmosphere to fill in for what the art is lacking in several more emotional parts.
This manga is popular for the things it does very well, the story, the characters, the tragedy, the slice of life. But more than that, what this manga really accomplishes is putting all of these elements together into something that actually works. It's a genre diffusion at its finest, and is perfect for anyone looking for a shorter story.
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Feb 28, 2014
123 of 190 chapters read
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12
people found this review helpful
Preliminary
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Dorohedoro is an amazing fantasy manga by Hayashida Q, notable for being a studio assistant to Nihei before making the Maken X manga adaptation. The story starts off in a dimension called the Hole, which more or less is a very run down and dangerous world that looks like what San Francisco would if the nukes dropped. Kaiman and Nikaido, the two central protagonists, are attacking two people identified as magic users, those who can spray black smoke from their hands to cause an effect of some sort, although the particular usage of the magic smoke is unique to each user. After subduing one, Kaiman
is revealed that he is immune to the effects of magic, and subsequently takes of his gas mask revealing that he has the head of a giant lizard. Kaiman then stuffs the magic user's head in his mouth, where inside he meets a phantasm like being who remarks that this magic user "is not the one." Kaiman pulls the user out of his mouth and asks him "What did the man in my mouth say?" Upon being revealed this information, Kaiman takes out a pair of knives and cuts the magic user into 4 pieces. It is revealed shortly after that Kaiman has no memory prior to the time he met Nikaido, and is staying at Nikaido's house until he solves the mystery of the ghost in his mouth, what his past was, and why he has a lizard head. The second magic user is able to escape from Kaiman and Nikaido, and returns to the home dimension of the magic users, the aptly named Magic User World. There the user, whose name is Fujita, reveals what transpired to a magic user named En, who controls a global conglomerate in the Magic User World concerning mushrooms. En, taking an interest in the matter, contacts his cleaners Shin and Noi, two extremely powerful magic users and his personal hitmen, to investigate. This is where the intricate, absurd, and fantastic story of Dorohedoro begins.
The story in Dorohedoro is very fun. If I could describe it with one word it would be adventure, and what I mean by this is that action is a device used to tell the story, the story taking up the bulk of the manga. For disparity, it is an opposite of a manga like Feng Shen Ji which only uses the story as a device to formulate the action sequences, which I would classify as strictly an action manga. Beyond that, Dorohedoro's story is just adventurous in nature, with main characters Kaiman and Nikaido as well as the En Family going all around the block and back again. Going into some specifics, I just really like the way character objectives and motivations are handled in this manga. In the beginning what drives the Kaiman side of the plot and most of the story by extension, is his quest to get his original head and memories back, but of course an extreme amount of shit happens between then and now. This is standard structure for an adventure story, but what makes it stand out just like alot of really good manga, is its execution. Not all manga actually come to the point that has been predisposed since the beginning of the story, or if they do the objective has been completely transformed by transpiring events. In the case of some manga like 7 Seed and Bastard!!, it will completely abandon various original objectives for the sake of continuation, which is usually a sign of not great writing. Some manga like Berserk, on the other hand, don't really change the overall quest at all during the story, rather the transpiring events are used as buffers for character development or simply filler. Dorohedoro on the other hand, can take all kinds of different plot lines and converge them perfectly without skipping a beat, and this doesn't come at the expense of other aspects of the manga either, but more on that later. There are other elements that drive the plot of course, a notable one being the characters that act it out. All of Dorohedoro's characters are great, to put it simply. Gary and Mary Stu, or whatever you want to call a generic archetype with predictable interactions and design, does not exist in the slightest. Every single character is quirky, complex, and with an original personality. In fact the manga is so alien in not just this regard but other aspects as well, that I have read about many people saying how it feels more like a western comic (please don't let this put you off, this is far from Spiderman.) Kaiman is jolly, simple minded, happy, and crazy, while Nikaido serves as a contrast by being more level headed. En's family particularly comes to mind when thinking of fun characters. En himself, while being a very powerful magic user, is still cranky and idiosyncratic to the maximum. Shin is a hitman with an interesting history, and while he looks happy and rather bright in most of his normal appearances, shows no mercy to his targets. Noi is an extremely tall and muscular woman, who is boisterous and infatuated with her partner Shin. Ebisu is an accompanying member of En's family who due to shenanigans with Kaiman early in the story, goes braindead and behaves ridiculously for most of the story, with Fujita constantly on her tail. Other great characters include Professor Kusakabe and his assistant Johnson the Giant Cockroach, members of the Cross Eyed Gang, mysterious Outsider Risu, and the Devils. The cast is vast and absurd, to such a degree that no other manga quite shares. I've talked roughly about how fun the characters are but I have a few other things I want to mention about them. Character development doesn't exist in the same way it does in more realistic manga, in all honesty it just doesn't belong in Dorohedoro. A character's personality changing is not necessarilly warranted in the first place, and I truly dislike this being a standard for good characters. Although I've said this, some character's personalities do change such as main character Kaiman, but not due to conventinal reasons that would be normally called character development. Dorohedoro does have development though, more specifically along the lines of cast development. Introductions of new characters happen all the time in Dorohedoro, creating pockets of plot and side stories all over the place while never actually diverting from the main storyline, in fact its woven in such a way that all plot lines are equally a part of the main story. On another note, there is alot of comedy in Dorohedoro, but make no mistake this does not stop the story from overall being serious. There will never be a moment when dramatic scenes are ruined in tone due to comedy bits. But when the comedy is shown is very funny. This is mostly due to how riduculous the world of Dorohedoro is and how quirky the cast is as well. To summarize this, Dorohedoro's story is mysterious and bizarre, and the characters that drive it are as exceptional as a manga could hope for, although prepare to abandon manga standards from works like Pun Pun if you really want to enjoy it.
The next main thing I want to talk about with Dorohedoro is the art and design of the manga. In the beginning of the review I mentioned how Hayashida Q was once an assistant to cult sci-fi mangaka Tsutomu Nihei, who is pretty famous for his work Blame! and his bizarre art style and tone. Putting it simply, Hayashida Q and by extension Dorohedoro inherited this style. The art of Dorohedoro is reminiscent of the style of works like Blame! in a few ways, although do not make the mistake of thinking the art style is a "rip off." An overall sketchy style, crazy enemy designs, and detailed backgrounds are all things they share in common. One difference is that Q's artstyle of humanoid characters is generally more realistic and overall more pleasing to the eye than Nihei's style, which is mostly used on inhuman designs. Character design of Dorohedoro is particularly very awesome going off of that. Almost every character or enviroment design is notably original or cool in some way, and I am quite understating the gravity of that. The worlds of the Hole and Magic Users have all sorts of bizarre land marks, and they are just overall very unique in conceptualization. The people of the manga have many unique designs as well, with some notable examples being Shin and Noi. Shin being a tall man wearing a rugged screwed up black suit, a backwards heart mask on his face, sneakers, stitched together fingers, and a shed hammer as a weapon. Noi an extremely tall and muscular woman, who uses a strange blue mask with the vines on it and a similar suit. The character of En has bright red hair, a mask that only covers his mouth, and clothes that usually go with the fashion mood he is in. Most of the magic users have a particular style and mask that they use to identify themselves, although there are several magic users and regular humans that are exceptions to this rule, and by far its interesting character design. Some other cool designs are the already mentioned Johnson, Kaiman himself, and the Devils, which are mysterious beings that screw around with humans and magic users alike, with a unique wit and style to each one. There are a variety of less humanoid designs as well, such as some hulking monsters, and Kirukage, a cat like creature that wears a leather wrestling mask and wooden stumps for limps who can bring people back to life with little restriction. Overall its a fantastic art style that notably improves both technically and as a style.
In conclusion, I would say without a doubt that Dorohedoro is one of the best of the best when it comes to manga. It's bizarre biopunk/fantasy style leaves little to be desired in originality, with a great story and quirky characters to go with it. It is terrifying, unique, extensive, interesting, and hilarious, and you should definitely give it a try.
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