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With Hiatus x Hiatus, you have to take the good with the bad. Or, on second thought, you don’t really have to take the bad at all. Read the following arcs: Hunter exam, York Shin City, Chimera Ant. I’ll make it easy for you: read manga chapters 1 through 38, 64 through 119, then 186 through 318. That is Hunter x Hunter. The rest is not worth the time. When reading HxH this way, it becomes a really solid, decent length shonen manga with a bittersweet ending. Considering the manga will never have an actual ending, this is really the only way to read it.

So ... don't let the constant hiatuses deter you: the last 50 chapters are garbage anyway. Most of the series is an experience of slogging through bullshit until the next stretch where the it gets decent. But the great thing about the manga is that arcs are relatively episodic, and thus you can do this without missing anything important to the plot or relevant to character development. I wish someone had told me about this before I wasted my time reading shit like Greed Island and wondering why anyone liked this series.

The highs are high, but the lows are miserable. Sometimes it felt like every fight was just two guys explaining each of their 10 abilities to the other in detail until one of them got bored to death. A lot of shonen fall into this trap but I’ve never seen one leap into it quite so fully. It’s genuinely painful to read these scenes. They’re creatively bankrupt, and the only tension is wondering what overpowered new ability Togashi pull out of his ass this time.

There is no interesting overarching narrative, the world is a bit dull, the combat is more annoying than engaging, and most of the main characters are kind of boring. But you know what? The Hunter Exam was halfway decent. Yorknew City felt like a classic battle shonen revenge arc. And the Chimera Ant Arc was an example of the genre at its peak, pretty much DBZ spliced with psychological horror. It got self-indulgent, and the narrator is a bit annoying, but overall it’s one of the best arcs I’ve read in any shonen manga. Justified its length. Meruem is an incredible villain.

I don’t really have much to say about this manga. It's not very remarkable. I just wanted to post this in order to tell people what I wish I was told: just read the good parts. You won’t miss anything. You’ll actually like the series more. Also, make sure you’re reading the scans of official volumes, since for a while Togashi would turn in sketches to shonen jump and then only bother to draw the scenes when the volume was released.

Yeah, that’s it. 5/10 I guess.

Ad Astra: Scipio to Hannibal is the best historical manga I've read, and a great work of historical fiction by any standard. It follows the known history to the letter, while filling in the gaps with compelling interpretations of historical figures and authentic explanations for their actions. It is often the case that creators will insert modern sensibilities or anachronisms into their depictions of ancient times, but the mangaka of Ad Astra avoids these kinds of common pitfalls. Furthermore, he manages to do justice to the wide cast of characters in the Second Punic War, without making any major player seem too perfect or too ... flawed. Scipio and Hannibal are, of course, well-rounded and brilliant, but it is the secondary major characters such as Fabius and Marcellus who bring the manga to such great heights. Even minor figures like Hadrusbal or Maharbal stand out.

The art is not awe-inspiring, but it more than gets the job done. Hannibal looks like he's being played by Keanu Reeves, but that should not be read as a criticism. In general, characters look distinct without looking cartoonish or unrealistic. Battle scenes are depicted in such a way as to make the overall sequence of events very clear to the reader, while not losing focus on the human element of the conflict. The overall structure of the story is similarly effective at communicating the shifting strategical situation, while taking into account the personal motivations of characters involved. Ad Astra: Scipio to Hannibal does everything right, and almost nothing wrong. Some may enjoy more fantastical or original depictions of history, but if you're looking for a manga adaptation of Polybius, this is the closest thing you'll get. My most substantial criticism is that I wish there was more if it.

Attack on Titan is a frequent target of derision from those who would dismiss it due to its popularity, but is it really all that bad? Well, the short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but I do really enjoy vore, which earns it points. God, I wish I lived in the Attack on Titan universe. I would join the survey corps 100%. I’d keep straying from the formation a bit just hoping some hulking female titan would take a hunk out of me.

Speaking of female titans, isn’t it weird that of the original 9 titans there’s shit like the beast titan, the ... warhammer titan, the armored titan, or the colossal titan, and then there’s the “female” titan. This is explained by the fact that the female titan has no unique abilities, and instead mimics the abilities of the other titans, but what would happen if a male ate the female titan? Does it turn you female? Armin probably wishes he could eat the female titan. I digress.

Let’s start with what Attack on Titan does well. Okay, so next I want to talk about the art. It’s quite bad in the beginning, but it eventually becomes serviceable. It is never good. Isayama often neglects to draw backgrounds, even during pivotal conversations, and I sometimes found it difficult to distinguish characters. Despite this, it manages to have pretty fluid and good-looking combat scenes for the most part. And isn’t that what Attack on Titan is all about? Fighting titans, turning into titans, eating titans. Well, not exactly.

Attack on Titan is like a hot girl with an annoying voice. Well, maybe not hot, but you know, you’re a lonely guy, you’ll take what you can get and all. In any case, there was altogether too much talking in this manga. The arcs that centered around politics were dull and nonsensical, at least until the end, when the political plotline still makes no sense but is pretty undeniably entertaining. (It doesn’t help that one of the major plot twists of the Royal Government arc is practically recycled in the Marley arc.) The climactic battles were enjoyable enough, although when the mangaka thinks “we can’t win if we don’t fight” is a line worth repeating a dozen times it does lesson my emotional investment a bit.

One of the ways Attack on Titan garnered attention early on was by catching its readers off guard. And there are quite a few unexpected events, some more logical than others. At some point, though, it begins to feel like the entire plot is structured around these “big reveals,” and the intention is that the readers will clap every time their expectations are subverted. However, this stops working when the reveals start to feel more like asspulls and the universe’s internal logic increasingly falls apart. At one point, a guy gets wings, and no one is really sure why. Then another guy may or may not turn into a bird. It’s all a lot to process.

Armin is annoying. I can say that right? I dislike him quite a lot. Hate him, really. At one point a character lists off a number of clever ideas that Armin has had, in an effort to prove his indispensable value. I was left in disbelief, because while it is true that Armin does 100% of the thinking in the manga and comes up with 100% of the solutions, I attributed this to laziness or carelessness; I never expected it to actually be acknowledged. Eren may be the “he’s just like me” guy everyone uses as an profile pic, but Armin is the one who feels like a self-insert.

I will say that Eren’s character development, if forced, was pretty fun. He starts off as a completely typical shounen protagonist, but is eventually mindbroken into becoming the guy from Taxi Driver. Did this make sense? Not entirely. Did I expect it to at that point? Not even a little. Zeke would have been a better protagonist, really, but if anything the series would have benefitted from more of Eren and less of Mikasa and Armin. Mikasa isn’t as bad as Armin, who I loathe, but she is pretty one dimensional. Even Levi (who I am convinced is only so popular because he makes short men feel better about themselves) is more interesting. By the way, why do Mikasa and Levi never talk about both being Ackermans? It’s discussed that this makes them both strong, fast, and cool, but wouldn’t there be at least one moment where they went “oh wait, we’re relatives?”

Honestly, Attack on Titan is at its best when it reads like Eren’s power fantasy. I don’t care about this universe. I don’t care about these people. A majority of their planet could be exterminated and I would feel nothing. I don’t care when the walls break. I just want Eren to talk to the mirror more. I wish there was a scene where he put on face paint like the joker or something.

All in all, it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve read. 4/10.

My first encounter with the anime "The Saga of Tanya the Not Particularly Evil" intrigued me greatly. I walked in on my roommate watching some anime with a little girl and, as per tradition, I casually called him a pedophile. But then something strange happened. Rather than the usual "ACKSHUALLY, she's a 500 year old demon," he said "ACKSHUALLY, she's a middle aged man." Now, I was horrified by this. I slapped him and began to shout. "Why?? Hasn't this trap shit gone on long enough??? It’s too far!“ I said. But he explained the plot to me, so I told him it sounded stupid. ... "No,” he said “Actually, it's really good." And that is where our sad story begins. (It was not, dear readers, actually really good.)

An essential problem here is that the whole premise feels pointless. Some dude dies and God doesn’t like him so he turns him into a badass loli mage. Because that’s a punishment now. Why is it important that this girl used to be a man when we know basically nothing about her previous life? This reincarnation seems to give her knowledge that battle-hardened generals envy, but there's no reason why some salaryman who’s read a few wikipedia articles would be a genius at military strategy. And did he have to be some fedora tipper's wet dream? Libertarian, atheist……I guarantee this man dabbles in bestiality just based on this combination, and this makes him a really unsympathetic character. Couldn’t we have had an anime where a loli becomes Hitler, without this whole thing where it’s actually some reincarnated old dude? That sounds like a much more interesting character. As it is, they keep telling us she’s a monster or evil every episode, but she’s mostly just dull, which is why they have to keep telling us…..we would have never guessed if we were left to our own devices.

In any case, I care more about the actual plot than this weird backstory. Or I would, if the AU was not so vague and dull. One alternate option would have been to create a whole new universe, with only slight similarities to our own, but that would have required world building and work. Another would have been to have it take place in a universe more similar to our own, but the points at which the anime departs from history often seem to be more out of ignorance than creativity, suggesting that this choice was never really an option. As such, we’re stuck in this uncanny middle ground where the viewer knows next to nothing about the setting, despite how similar it is to his own world’s history. The lack of clarification on points of departure is jarring and it destroys immersion.

The ‘Characters' section must be put at 1/10, to represent that there is only one character. (And she’s not that good!) I can’t say I remember anyone else’s name, or anything about them. It seems as if the creators genuinely did not put any effort into creating unique, compelling, or creative characters. I don’t care about any of these people, or what happens to them. And every time I start to feel invested in Tanya I’m reminded she’s actually just some weird old dude, and the whole orphan backstory means nothing. Most character interactions are very shallow, and we don’t know anyone’s motivations other than the absolute basics. Where are the meaningful character interactions? Where is the development? It’s ridiculous and shallow.

The ED was probably the best part of every episode. Not only because it meant the episode was over, but because it was actually not too bad. No complaints there.

Overall, I thought most of this anime’s potential was squandered. It wasn’t an atrocity but I wouldn’t recommend it, nor do I plan to watch the next season. There wasn't really enough tension or depth to keep me going and it became difficult to watch towards the end.

Story: 3/10
Art: 4/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 1/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: Let's just call it a 4 or something

Prison School is a good anime, although it sometimes fails to play to its strengths and descends into pointlessness.

I don't look to anime for sexual gratification; so when I criticize the censorship, I'm not doing it out of blue-balled resentment. (Well, not just that anyway.) It detracts from the quality of the animation, and it's often just unnaturally forced into the scene, to cover things that don't really need to be covered. They can indirectly depict urolagnian debauchery but they draw the line at panty-shots? Prison School has nice animation, but it's difficult to appreciate this when so much of it is censored.

Honestly, ... I kind of wish there wasn't quite so much sex-appeal. I want to be able to just watch and laugh without having to make the sign of the cross every three seconds. A lot of it was just for the purpose of humor, but when we got into territory that was more clearly aimed at arousal, it got a bit more uncomfortable. The series could have been better if it stopped trying to tickle my boner and started focusing solely on tickling my funny bone. (I can tickle my own boner, thank you very much.)

Speaking of how Prison School could have been better, the characters were something of a minefield placed over a gold mine. Characters like Hana, Vice President, the Principal guy, Kiyoshi, Joe, and Gakuto were great. But then there's characters like that one guy who had no personality, but got kind of pissy sometimes and that's all we really know about him so how can I really be expected to know his name, and Mari, who I find to be rather flat compared to characters like the Vice President. (Haha. Flat.) And then there's Andre. He is filth. He is the most disgusting character, the most repulsive thing, that I have ever seen in any anime. No, in anything. Every time he was on the screen, I felt tears welling in my eyes and beginning to drip down onto my cheeks as my body shook with dry heave after dry heave after vomiting fit. The creator of this character should be shot. Or just killed. I suppose it doesn't matter how. But he must be brutally murdered (or just murdered, I'm not picky) before he releases another Andre into the world.

But it's a testament to the strength of the best characters that the presence of Andre does not result in an automatic 1. Instead, the good, borderline non-existent, and terrible characters balance each other out. I just wish we saw some characters more often. (Like Hana. I want more.)

The plot is absurd; it barely exists, and what is there is ridiculous, but it still maintains somewhat of a sense of internal consistency, and it works. The premise is bizarre, and a lot of the plot developments just make it weirder, but it has a beautiful sense of logic to it that would make Hegel turn green with envy as he realized the insignificance of his boring collections of meaningless compound words.

But whatever. You should probably forget everything I've said up until now. And I mean everything. Forget everything I've ever said in my life. The most important thing is that Prison School is very funny. It could have been better in a lot of aspects, but it succeeds in entertaining its audience. It's unique and hilarious. You won't find anything else like it, and it's not easy to find anything funnier. If you watch it, you will laugh, unless you suck. It's a comedy; it's comedic. There you go. It's a success.

That said, the gags can get very repetitive, (Despite the changing of details and introduction of some new sexual situation, it's still the same damn joke. And somebody needs to tell the mangaka that a running gag isn't just a copy-and-paste thing; you actually have to be creative to keep it funny.) but they don't quite over-stay their welcome. A lot of the time, when Prison School seemed to get stale, it changed just enough to keep you going for another episode. But, towards the end it really isn't that funny anymore. Not laugh-out-loud funny anyway. Ramping up the vulgarity does not equate to increasing the funniness, and it's sort of a cheap tactic.

Instead of watching this anime, you should probably just read the manga. Think about it. It covers a lot more of the story, it has minimal censorship, and the panel format sometimes lends itself to better comedic timing. (Mostly just the first two.) And what did it really gain in the adaptation? The boring OP and ED? I am unimpressed. But if you absolutely refuse to read manga, then that's fine too. I would still recommend the anime, provided that you know what you're getting into.

A 7 seems about right for Prison School. It is very flawed, but the entertaining parts are entertaining enough for me to call it 'good.' It's certainly better than a lot of other anime out there.

Fullmetal Alchemist is not spectacular. What I mean is that nothing about the art or the plot immediately strikes the audience as impressive or unique. The art is not flashy or detailed. It gets the job done, but only just. The action is easy to follow from panel to panel, and it is just dynamic enough to be interesting. The characters are all pretty much distinguishable from each other, despite their simple designs, and some of them look kinda cool. More than anything, the art is solid. It never gets in the way of the audience's enjoyment. And sometimes that's enough. The only times I ... ever took issue with the style were when the characters were morphed into chibis in a weak attempt at comedy.

And that brings me to my next point: The comedy. It's not comedic. Early on, there are many repetitive running gags and the only thing they accomplish is kicking me out of the story. Such a blatant attempt to appeal to the audience can backfire if delivered poorly, and so it felt like a slap in the face delivered through the 4th wall. I don't want to deal with that. But I think that the mangaka realized this direction wasn't working early on, and the manga generally gets more serious as time passes.

Although the presentation of the plot changes over time, the plot itself rarely deviates from a single unified arc, and this becomes more apparent towards the middle of the series. It's clear that the overarching plot was plotted out from inception to conclusion from the beginning. The major villains and major allies are essentially the same throughout the manga, and this helps with the sense of unity and harmony that I get from it. (A unity that reinforces the main themes of the manga, which might otherwise seem to be poorly applied pseudo-philosophy.) There are no major power-ups or ridiculous ass-pulls. All of the plot developments are logical and well-paced.

The action, unfortunately, can be a bit of a weak point. There are several characters who use special alchemy techniques to interesting effect, but Ed's (the main character) fighting style is rather pedestrian in comparison. Still, the idea of equivalent exchange helps the fights maintain an appealing sense of reason and rationality that I appreciate quite a bit. It makes them feel less contrived, something that this genre tends to suffer from severely. Also, nothing was ever dragged out unnecessarily and mid-fight dialogue/flashbacks were never taken too far. Fullmetal Alchemist avoids the major pitfalls of battle shounen and brings in a sense of logic that is very rare to see.

The characters are mostly static, and there is no unexpected development. Sometimes they can feel like cardboard cut-outs. But other times I find myself thinking "wow, a couple of these cardboard cut-outs actually look pretty good in context." Rather than linear development, the characters are developed via increased insight into them and information about them. They are developed from the perspective of the audience. This is a very sensible approach given the relatively short time frame that the series covers; there is some linear development, but it is subtle. Not subtle as in hard to spot, because it is pretty clear when you see it, but it is slight. The characters don't suffer from any about-faces or drastic personality transplants. The most apparent changes that the characters undergo are simply a result of us learning more about them. This makes the manga somewhat reminiscent of a well-structured canvas painting. It is all one unified and unmoving image, but as you look at it, you notice more about it and it seems to tell a story. There are also some irritating imperfections, it looks better from a distance than it does up-close, but these flaws fail to ruin the whole.

The issue with the above picture is that the foreground is probably weaker than the background, and isn't that where our eyes are drawn? Ed's character is mostly defined by basic traits, habits, and general goals; all nuance is absent. This is certainly intentional, to avoid alienating any of the audience from him, but this lack of ambition is irritating for me. Al's character is kind of empty. (Pun retrospectively intended.) His most significant developmental event was his contrived existential crisis that was quickly resolved and never really dwelled on again. These criticisms apply to many of the characters, in varying degrees. Even as we get more in depth into them, they don't ever feel real. That said, they are often entertaining and they get the job done. Ed is not always the focus and even minor characters are established early on and given essential roles. Rather than any individual characters being well-written, what is well-written is their interactions and relationships with one another, and where they are placed and what they do. Every character has purpose and motivation and defining character traits, even if they don't quite feel organic. If you pulled one character out of the plot, everything could collapse. No character is superfluous and no character is forgotten. This says more about the plot than the actual characterization, but it's a positive nevertheless.

More than anything, Fullmetal Alchemist is solid. Most of its imperfections are minor and don't reach the series' core. Nothing about the series is all that exceptional or original in itself, but it adds up into a very well-structured and cohesive work that manages to avoid making a lot of mistakes that are not often avoided. (And, despite its popularity, it never overstayed its welcome and was relatively concise for what it was.) Still, it doesn't really accomplish all that much that I haven't seen done as well or better. It is simply less flawed than most similar works. This makes it feel unique holistically, but not on a more critical examination. It is unique in that you'd be hard-pressed to find a more perfect battle shounen, but this quality is negatively defined: Fullmetal Alchemist is most praise worthy for the things it does not do; what it does do is not nearly as impressive or difficult.

The lack of originality or risk-taking factors against Fullmetal Alchemist, but the form and presentation of it warrants a solid 7. It's quite good, but not quite great.

I don't get it. Bradherley no Basha is basically 8 chapters of abject filth, and it offers its audience no consolation. It's about pre-teen orphan girls getting gang-raped by violent prisoners. The common interpretation of Bradherley no Basha is that it's either a condemnation of the depicted acts or is a mere depiction and should not be taken as anything more. This strikes me as false, seeing as the mangaka contrived the premise of the story illogically, just to force the circumstances where these girls are subjected to the abuse of the prisoners. What I mean is that the reasoning behind giving the girls to ... them seems unrealistic and forced. This is not a story driven by human struggle, but by the mangaka himself. So what's the point? What am I supposed to get from this? How am I supposed to react?

Some seem to find this manga shocking, but I wasn't shocked by it so much as bored. It's all very unremarkable and, despite its explicit subject, rather mundane. There's no social commentary or realism here and there isn't enough going on in the way of plot or character to keep the reader entertained. There is no tension and no sense of urgency. Bradherley no Basha really wants to shock its audience, but it doesn't seem to be willing to put in the work required. Maybe if the characters underwent proper development before they were brutally killed it would be different, but they didn't and it isn't.

If I had to describe Bradherley no Basha in a word, it would be 'superficial.' Everything about it sits lazily on the surface. The art is easily the strongest point. The characters aren't very distinctive, but they don't matter here anyways, and I like the sketchy style. It's nice. Unfortunately, there isn't much appeal to what is actually drawn. There isn't much appeal to be found anywhere in this manga. It just has nothing going for it. It's bland.

Story: 1/10
Art: 7/10
Character: 2/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 3.5/10

We'll call it a 3, because I was very generous with the enjoyment and art scores anyway.

Gantz is kind of awesome, but in a weird way. A really weird way. Not "weird" because of any kind of originality, but because of how it manages to be awesome.The plot is extremely lazy with blatant holes throughout. It's mostly about the overblown/unrealistic action, and holy mother of god, is it overblown/unrealistic. Ammo clips are infinite, when actual guns are used. The masses are weak, brainless, and easily influenced cannon fodder, to an absurdly exaggerated degree. "The masses," of course, including just about all side characters. In the world of Gantz, gangsters hang out in toilet stalls and collect people's teeth like baseball cards. ... Characters lose limbs and just joke about it without bleeding to death. At one point, the crew fights off an army of massive evil Buddha statues. No societal or theological commentary there, just shits and giggles.


This was clearly the product of a creative mind, at least at the outset, but a lazy one as well. It falls apart towards the end, it's full of terminated sub-plots and forgotten characters, and it constantly re-writes its own rules. So why was it not bad? Well, it is self-aware to an almost hilarious degree. Okay, it is absolutely to a hilarious degree. I can't imagine Oku (the mangaka) wrote this stuff with a straight face. The aliens are often ridiculously comedic in their odd design, although they got less so as the series went on. They have zero personality besides some funny quirks and rage buttons. Gantz plays with the idea of "hey, what if they're just misunderstood," and then, for the most part, tosses that idea out of the window along with all possible ambiguous morality or subtlety. Gantz first dons a façade of depth via things such as cynicism and death, but it acknowledges this and subverts it over time as if its playing a joke on you. This is actually enjoyable if you have the right attitude and observe it like you would an Ed Wood film or something of that ilk. The amount of tropes it ultimately evokes may be record-setting, and this is, in a way, impressive in and of itself.



Terminated subplots are probably the biggest issue. At one point vampires are introduced. They are never explained, their exact abilities and motives are unclear, they just look like humans, and their whole diabolical vampire organization is forgotten. At one point psychics are introduced. Their abilities are never explained and the limits vary, the origin unclear. Things in this same vein happen again and again throughout the manga. That said, it's somehow a bit refreshing to have a poorly written series that just does not give a fuck about silly little things like "plot," if only in that it harbors no illusion as to its quality and just focuses on delivering good action and fanservice instead. The series is actually near-pure fanservice, in one way or another. At a certain point, if the plot gets bad enough, the author would be better off just not trying anymore. Gantz knows this. It knows where to focus its energy and how to play to its strengths. I wish manga like Bleach were more like that. Hilariously enough, the attitude the mangaka had while writing this manga epitomizes the nihilistic themes surrounding it far better than anything within the work itself.


Unfortunately, the action is marred by inconsistency. Really, the entire manga is, but I think we've established that. The way the weapons and suits work changes inexplicably from chapter to chapter. Hell, even the way Gantz beams people in varies, in more ways than one. Not to mention all of the rules and limits. As the combat lacks proper consistency, it consequently lacks proper tension. It can be pretty entertaining, like some cheap Hollywood popcorn blockbuster, but it doesn't offer much in the way of substance or emotion. Tension is further reduced as more plot points are introduced that make fatal injuries and even death negligible. There is the whole "what if the world is destroyed" thing, but the general populus in Gantz is so stupid that you kind of like it when they die.


The characters are all either one dimensional or they ended up having development that was completely contrary to everything we had learned about them previously. They sometimes work as semi-clunky plot devices, but they are hit or miss overall. Any development they experience is to serve the plot, contrived, and spontaneous. They all invoke the "parents do not exist" trope to some extent, because Oku considered the prospect of writing more characters and was all like "dude, fuck work" and then I imagine he smoked a joint or two and had a marathon Idolm@ster watching session with Kentaro Miura and Yoshihiro Togashi. That said, a lot of the characters do manage to be entertaining, and, due to the high body count, only a few of them overstay their welcome. The few that do, I want to stab, but I also get some kind of masochistic pleasure out of watching them succeed and I imagine Oku bestowed plot armor upon them for this very purpose.


The art is, surprise, surprise: inconsistent. Some faces are far too similar, or just generally not well drawn. Early on especially, they often looked really wonky. Landscapes are usually lackluster in terms of scope, and creativity during battle. I remember in a scene that took place in Italy the art was just chaotically beautiful, and repulsive simultaneously; the atmosphere was incredibly unique as well and I found myself wishing it was like that all the time, but alas, it was not. The different settings were usually not disparate enough, atmospherically. The aliens are mostly creative and detailed, with some exceptions, such as the entire final arc. The action is sometimes a bit hard to follow, but is generally fluid and well executed from panel to panel. The fanservice was generally alright, albeit forced as all hell, but I found myself thinking that Oku believes all titties are identical and are all the size of basketballs. I was gonna fly out to Nippon with my porno collection to teach a nigga about the vast spectrum of areolas and give him a tit diversity tolerance course and shit, but he eventually learned the concept of "DFC" and I was reasonably satisfied.


The rushed ending and drawn-out final arc is where Gantz went completely wrong. Expect to hear a lot of name-yelling by tragically separated lovers, expect the concentration of plot armor to reach unprecedented levels, expect one of the least subtle manga ever to get even less subtle, and expect to watch the only truly interesting character in the series turn into an annoying and generic Hollywood hero. Every single character morphed into a complete cliché, for that matter; even if they were somewhat cliché before, they still had some individuality. In the end, there isn't a single compelling character.


If you want answered questions, then this is not the place to go. The plot points that were resolved (most were not) were all resolved with a ridiculously random deus ex machina evoking the age-old maxims of "it was [more] aliens" and "don't read too much into it." The ending itself is not only a complete shift from everything that came before in the manga, it is completely devoid of all logic to an extent that I had never seen before this manga. Trust me, no exaggeration, wait until you read it.


If you want mindless—and I do mean mindless—action, then you're in luck, because that's all Gantz really delivers on. That said, it delivers on this somewhat well and with a sense of humor. It is actually at its best when it's overblown, unrealistic, exploitative, and absurd. If you go into it knowing what to expect then you should end up enjoying it somewhat. I have to admit, the only other manga this length that I have reread as many times is probably One Piece. The final arc and horrendous ending drag the final product down pretty significantly, but it's still not bad


Additional comments:
I said "Hollywood" three times in this review, but don't get me wrong, it isn't really like any Hollywood film. There are just some similarities in the intent.

Great Teacher Onizuka had some potential, but all of the humor is repetitive and juvenile, while unrealistic dramatic scenes dominate the plot more and more as the series drags on. It basically fails on both fronts. Plot points and devices are reused to the point where they become dull, and they get increasingly ridiculous as the series progresses. Not in a good way, of course. Holy melodrama, batman! This anime is chock full of bullshit backstories that are supposed to make us go “awwwwww, they’re not a bad guy/girl after all!” by the way. Yeah, it’s definitely as irritating and ineffective as it sounds.


Character ... development is unfortunately absent from the personality of our bland douche of a protagonist, and he is pretty much the same annoying dumbass for the whole duration of the plot. His way of solving issues with students is completely unrealistic, and while this is sometimes acknowledged and played for laughs, it takes itself seriously far too often. He’s pretty much just there for wish-fulfillment, plain and simple. As for his students, all developments in them come off as completely forced and contrived. Plus, almost all of them are blatant archetypes, who have some deep-seated reason to “bawww nvr trust a teacher again!” to boot. Why should we care about anything bad that threatens to happen when we already know that the Mary Sue genius cool handsome hacker boy can fix all problems that come up easily? Another telling issue with the characterization is that just about all men above the age of twenty are, for whatever reason, portrayed as disgusting perverts. This may be a reflection on Fujisawa himself, given the large amount of poorly-placed fanservice. All antagonists in this series start off completely one-dimensional and unrealistically evil, but they then get some sob-story tacked onto their character and their personality changes completely. That is simply not proper character development.


The art is easily the weakest aspect. Almost everybody has the same exact face; you know, that one face that Fujisawa Tohru recycles endlessly in everything he does. The only face he knows how to draw, basically. Great Teacher Onizuka largely depends on visual humor for its value as a comedy, but all of the "hilarious" facial expressions were used over and over again, when they were never really funny in the first place. At the same time, they contribute heavily to my inability to take Great Teacher Onizuka seriously. The rest of the visual humor is just somewhat lame and, man, I hope you like seeing Onizuka’s ass, because you’re going to be getting a lot of that. The animation is nothing special, and any flaws with it are completely overshadowed by the horrendous art.


All of the claims made by Great Teacher Onizuka’s rabid defenders about its “societal commentary” are completely untrue. Bullying is not dealt with much better, more interestingly, or realistically than in many other works I have seen. Furthermore, I failed to see what it actually criticized about the education system, other than the fact that not enough teachers are violent gangsters. This theme continues with just about everything else it supposedly comments on. It either just features these things in a cliché manner or does not really say much about them at all. There is no depth to Great Teacher Onizuka; it is just a simple drama and comedy. This would be fine did it do either of those things right, but, alas, it did not.


I have no idea as to why this anime is so highly regarded. It is just not very good, plain and simple. I get second-hand embarrassment when watching all of those sentimental scenes about teaching, and then I have to wonder why Great Teacher Onizuka didn’t just stick to comedy. Then I remember that it wasn’t funny and I think to myself “ah, that explains it.” GTO started out as a decent parody of all of those stupid shows with a super-teacher who helps his students work out all of their problems and wins their hearts in the process, but it eventually fell victim to self-indulgence and became a stupid story in the same vein. It contributed nothing new nor anything of real value to the genres of school life, comedy, or drama. It never made me laugh out loud, and it never evoked any kind of physical or emotional response. Not in a good way, at least. At its best, it’s okay. At its worst, it’s goddamn painful.

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Code Geass is the dumbest show to ever take itself seriously. It is essentially a hackneyed amalgamation of clichés and overused plot devices that clumsily attempts to disguise itself as something greater. Hell, it stole Death Note’s whole shtick, and ruined it completely, before the anime version even finished airing. It blatantly stole from Evangelion, the most popular mecha anime and deconstruction there is, to make one of the weakest and most cliché mecha series ever. Both of the series Code Geass stole from were dark and had at least some depth; Code Geass, on the other hand, juxtaposes pseudo-dark scenes with ... light school-life harem romcom. Plot develops with a marked carelessness; people die and are inexplicably brought back to life, even though they were either shown dying or there was clearly no way they could have possibly lived. Plot armor at its finest. Oh, did you want an epic and dense war story? Too bad, instead you’re going to get aimless filler, centered on a bunch of people who probably shouldn’t even be in high school, including an episode dedicated to catching a cat. This anime is most notable for having one of the highest concentrations of plot holes and loose ends that I have ever seen.


First of all, the supernatural aspect of the story is just ridiculous and, by extension, the story is as well. This “Geass” ability is completely inconsistent. Sometimes it can be deterred with mere willpower, or even the power of kisses (no joke,) but most of the time it appears to be pretty much undefeatable. There is a Geass canceller that is developed, but it is inexplicably given to only one dude who just pops up whenever he feels like it, with a different personality every time. A weakness, where the ability becomes uncontrollable, introduces itself at one point, but this plot point is quickly dealt with and forgotten. Every Geass user has one single ability granted by their Geass, except for one guy that inexplicably has several, but I won’t even get into that. The biggest issue is that the conflict is all entirely pointless, as Lelouch’s ability allows him to give anybody a command that they must obey. Hell, it can apparently even work on God. This command only works once, but the show makes it entirely clear that he could simply give a command along the lines of “you will be my slave and do whatever I say, until I do x.” So why doesn’t he do that from the very beginning? Because the story must be milked for two seasons, I guess. The whole anime could have ended in episode 1 had Lelouch, the supposed genius, made better use of his ability. Despite this, everything that was built up in the first season is destroyed in the most anticlimactic ending I have ever seen, the show returns to square one, and we have to go through the same style of drawn-out story arc in season two.


Characterization is probably the biggest flaw in Code Geass. The characters are irritating, flat, inconsistent, contrived, and they alone destroy any possibility of this being even a decent anime. The main character, Lelouch, is good at chess and inexplicably predicts a lot of minor events a bit before they happen. This is how we know he’s a genius. He makes a lot of dumb decisions, he wastes troops and resources, he kills potential allies, he spares enemies, he gets caught in needless battles, he makes emotional decisions in battle, he accidentally orders massacres, he never makes a proper back-up plan to deal with things he knows are like to happen, and we never get any indication that he knows the first thing about proper tactics, but he somehow wins battles and he’s somehow a genius. Go figure. Luckily, all “tactics” were just replaced with boring beam spamming in the end, but I don’t know if that’s really much better. Any development in Lelouch’s character is completely contrived and comes out of nowhere. Additionally, he has the inexplicable ability to teleport; at least, that would be the only explanation for how he travels such huge distances so quickly. Suzaku, the kind-of antagonist kind-of not, is probably the dumbest anime character ever created. He is Lelouch’s friend, and if he was a Jew during the holocaust he would do his very best to argue that Hitler is actually an okay guy after all. He believes that the corrupt government should be changed from the inside. So does he get into politics to accomplish this? No, I don’t think he’s really allowed to; instead, he (inexplicably) becomes a mecha pilot for the military that is slaughtering and oppressing his people. He fails to see how this is not helping them. He also moves like a ninja, and dodges bullets, despite being quite clearly anorexic. I’m not even going to talk about their goddawful character designs, just look at some screen shots for that one. All I’ll say on that topic is this: if you’re going to act like a character is hot, then don’t make them an extraordinarily and inhumanly ugly emo anorexic with a ridiculously pointy chin. As for the other characters, there’s some annoying racist yandere lesbian who sexually assaults a table at one point. Seriously. There’s also some immortal chick with green hair who likes pizza; not much else to say about her. There’s an irritating crippled chick, with a completely inconsistent personality, who mostly serves to be useless and need constant protection. Really, for about 90% of the plot, her character just exists to get kidnapped. There’s also some redhead with big tits who loves the main character and has big tits, has a drug addict mother who we forget about for most of the series, and can inexplicably pilot mechas with her big tits and has big tits plus a pair of large breasts. She has a nice ass as well, and you should expect it or her bosom to be the main focus whenever she is in the shot. The "bad guys" are horrible characters as well; one of the main antagonists is eventually revealed to be “a good guy after all, yaaaaay” and the audience is expected to ignore all the horrific atrocities he oversaw. Do these characters sound compelling? Well, if not, then it is because they are not characters at all; they are merely inconsistent and cliché plot devices. Especially the women, who are all objectified to pretty much just get protected, cry, and provide fanservice.


Watch Code Geass if you have a weird Deus ex Machina fetish, but otherwise stay away. It does nothing new and it does nothing well. It doesn’t even fail in an interesting or original way, destroying any chance for campy "so-bad-it's-good" appeal. As a result, I can't think of a single positive thing to say about it, and I have no choice but to give it a 1.

Additional comments:
1. This review covers both seasons. It would be pointless and unnecessary to write a separate review for each. Some manga series have over 40 volumes and we just write a review for them as a whole. I also fail to see why separate reviews should be written for each season when I'm just going to give each one the same score. The second season would be the inferior one due to even more plot holes, worse characters, more fanservice, and inconsistencies, but it also is more entertaining because there’s less aimless filler, just in case you were wondering. The two are both 1s though.

2. I didn’t mention Shirley or Rolo when I discussed the other characters. Why? Because I’m trying to forget those fuckers exist.

3. Among my most used words for this review were “inexplicably/inexplicable” and “inconsistency/inconsistent.” Yeah, there’s a very good reason for that.