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Yuki Urushibara, you beautiful person! This has to be the most serene, calm and beautiful work in all of manga I have read till now. I honestly put the author in the same category as someone would put Kentarou or Isayama.

Mushishi revolves around our main guy Ginkgo who happens to be a stoic backpacker and a doctor of paranormal beings. On his journey he meets people infected by these beings while being possessed by symptoms that might include something as simple as a disability to straight up ghosts, alternate dimensions, clones, time travel and what not.

The charm of Mushishi is that there are ... no villains; instead, the threats that drive the plot are feelings of guilt, despair, longing, and regrets. The episodic chapters include new characters every time and their own feelings intertwined with Mushi make such compelling storylines that always captivate the reader. These side characters are normal people, and their feelings and actions come off so naturally that you feel you’re watching a documentary rather than a cinematic film. There were so many stories portrayed that somehow, I could relate my feelings to. Ginkgo might be an expert, but things don’t always go his way, I like that he doesn't always save and sometimes characters just live with the consequences.

The artwork is pretty fantastic as well, especially at the start of each chapter where everything is soft without any crosshatching or sharp lines. The scenery is really well done. The starting few chapters were a bit shaky and the side characters might look very similar to each other but other than that everything was great.

Overall, this was a great experience. The calmness of the manga was beautiful and inspirational.

It’s hard to believe that this manga was written in 1989, even after three decades it feels modern and stands out way better than some of the popular manga of the current decade. Stardust crusaders at its heart is all about fighting. It’s a battle manga with a new recurring villain every few chapters. While our main characters travel halfway across the year through exotic locations to find their Iconic arch Nemesis Dio.

Art: The art style is very unique with eccentric poses and framing, overly muscular characters and a futuristic fashion sense. I love the art style, but it does suffer a bit from the ... smudginess of 80’s manga art. I feel there wasn’t much crosshatching at that time for darker areas and the darker areas looked a bit muddy. Some of the fast paced action scenes were a bit muddy too, but that happens almost in every manga I’ve read so far.

Story/Characters: Some may say the story here is a bit simplistic, but this manga wasn’t about having a complicated main plot. It’s more about having dozens of complicated sub plots. Each villain presented within the manga is perfect with his own set of unique powers called “Stands”. I’ve always been at the edge of my chair whenever watching or reading part three because of the unique powers and the secret of breaking it down the main characters had to face. Talking about the main characters, each of the four main characters have their unique traits: Jotaro's cool, Joseph’s silliness, Avdol’s insightfulness, Kakyoin’s kindness and Polnareff’s air headedness. The characters are exciting with each having a slightly emotional back story and a huge amount of comic relief which is mostly well balanced.

My favorite villains and showdowns were probably Darby and his poker game and Dio’s final battle. I could feel the intensity seeping out of the manga pages when Jotaro and Dio started walking towards each other for a showdown.

The journey through different countries was pretty epic as well, I loved how the author showed views of the culture that the local people follow. Especially India, it’s like the author had a personal grudge against the country. No offense to my Indian bros, love you from across the border.

Overall, I think this was a great journey and I felt like I was a part of the journey because of the intense psychological fights and beautiful scenery. Definitely the peak of the franchise.

Welcome to Naruto for the new generation. We've got our own funny protagonist with enormous untapped potential complete with a massive hateful magical entity living inside of him, we got the genius emo kid with family problems, we got the tsundre girl trying to keep up with the two main guys. Then we have the teacher with white hair, eye coverings and space bending powers and we even have a whole school vs school tournament arc where young chakra users fight.

The show is all about hype, creating hype for and in fight scenes. The fight scenes were fantastic, animated by Mappa the same ... people who animated the greatest anime of the decade "Attack on Titan". The fights were fluid and well done, sometimes a bit messy but most of the time fun to watch. Especially the fight in the final episode was top notch with great music placement, good ups and downs, and great animation. The last episode alone pushed the score of the anime a few points higher.

I honestly expect the anime to have a deeper plot with good world building as it goes forward. The powers were interesting, the animation and fights were epic, even the comedy was well handled. Just a better plot with even deeper characters and the anime will deserve the popularity it has received.

Vagabond is a pretty straightforward manga, it's about a guy and his journey to live by the "way of the sword" and "become invincible under the sun". There's no magic, no monsters, no plot twists which are usually present in anime/manga. Here the plot is very grounded to earth. The main character is based on and inspired heavily from a real person Miyamoto Musashi. Though by all means the story of the manga is fictional and this isn't what exactly happened in Musashi's lifetime.

The manga itself is gorgeous, the artwork is fabulous. Based in Japanese countryside, the artwork is really connected with nature. The ... way the artist draws his characters is quite unique too and the faces have a lot of unique details in them.

Character development is top notch. The manga could be also called "Samurai Character development the manga" since the whole story revolves around Musashi finding the meaning of being the strongest and what he needs to achieve it and why does he need to achieve it.

The manga has been currently at hold since 2015 but I think this is 75% complete according to the real Musashi's story. Most of the important peaks of his life have already taken place with just a few more left. I read the manga in one go over the course of two weeks and I honestly felt a bit of a brain drain. The manga has its peaks during fights but there are times where the characters are just pondering the meanings of their actions and their way of life and honestly those are the parts where your thoughts might doze off. I'm not saying they're badly written parts, I just think they are too long.

Overall, I think this was great but kind of doesn't deserves to be this high in the top manga list because of its lack of scope as compared to some other stories within the medium but please you should definitely read this as its very well done both the art and the character development.

I've seen the anime series and its sequels, now it was time to read the manga. The first thing I noticed immediately while reading the manga was "Damn, why do these characters look so ancient, this is some Amuro and Char looking shit from the first Gundam series". I know the manga was released in the late 80's but I wasn't ready to see Jojo and Dio different from their anime counterparts. Surprisingly as the series progresses the character look much more modern by the end of this arc. The art was a bit unique, there are somethings I haven't seen much while reading modern ... manga like there's a lot of smudgy shadows on characters which my mind just couldn't process at times and there were a few messy crowded shots during action scenes. However, the poses are pretty great. Jojo is something that is known for its poses and those really add personality to the art.

The character development is decent. The white vs black, Pure good vs pure evil vibe suits the action and theme of the show. I don't think the characters development was too one dimensional or anything. Contrary, this was the perfect balance for an action manga like this.

Plot pacing was pretty good too, honestly, I didn't feel bored. Even in the start of the manga it was exciting to see kid Jojo and Dio get it on.

The best part of the manga was probably how they show Dio with his vampire powers and Jojo with his ripple powers. The fights were fun and chaotic. I absolutely love the representation of vampires and zombies here; they are funny and over the top.

Overall. this is a great action manga with not much depth but great fun. You just need to bear with the weird art style in the beginning but halfway through it will get pretty good.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a two-part series which covers two arcs based on a manga from the late 80’s. The show is a hyper masculine action driven spectacle which knows not to take itself too seriously when it comes to character development, plot progression, jokes, world building and power rankings. However, it is one of the most fun to watch action anime shows out there with a huge cult following.

Plot/characters: Even though the plot and characters in this show are pretty straight forward and one dimensional. It’s the way they are presented that makes them seem spectacular. They have very colorful expressions and dialogues. ... The plot is mainly focused on action and there’s little room for world building and character development. Another cool aspect of this show is the influence of Western music on the character names. We have villains with names Like AC/DC, Dio, Cars (Karrs), Wham (Wammu). This is a pretty neat feature of the show. Overall, the plot pacing is pretty fast, and the magic/power logic is thrown out the window for fun fights.

Animation: Jojo is famous for another thing: the poses! Every character gives off unique poses in critical moments. Whether it's crying or intimidating there’s always a damn awkward but cool pose that shows off their amazing muscles. Oh yeah, the main characters are overly muscular and huge. This is a show definitely for body builders. The other thing I noticed when rewatching the show years later is the amazing use of psychedelic colors. The show often changes its entire color scheme during moments of shock or disbelief. It turns into a Jimi Hendrix album cover from the 60’s. This captures the essence of Jojo being inspired a lot from western music. Other than that, the fights and action were nicely animated.

Sound/Ost: There are a few memorable themes and few forgettable ones. There’s a mix of orchestral, dubstep, electronic, rock music going on during the fight scenes. The pillar men theme is iconic and one of the most popular anime tracks. Even the outro for the series is pretty overused in memes. The first opening was a bit boring, but the second one was pretty cool.

Final verdict: The show has lots of unique personality that sets it apart from regular anime, the character design, color schemes and music influences are all very unique that justify the rabid fanbase the show has. Definitely a must watch for people looking for some good action.

Elves have been a part of fantasy-based pop culture for quite some time now and in all this time no one had thought about making a story about the longevity of elves and how it affects their relationship with other races and society. Sousou no Frieren does exactly that! It tells the story of an elf after she has achieved her greatest feat with her human and dwarf companions.

Plot: The anime for majority of the time is a slice of life anime, but there are some subplots that make the anime a more thrilling action spectacle from time to time. The anime for me ... feels like a mixture of Mushishi (calm and quiet with lots of ambience), sometimes it feels a bit like a Ghibli and Disney film (lots of sweet emotions with swelling music) and sometimes it feels like a slice of life anime where the protagonists just handle day to day tasks.
However, the plot sometimes falls down for being a little bit too convenient like Himmel is presented way too perfect and knows exactly what to say to everyone, the ring finding spell or Ubel’s spells. It feels the stakes aren’t really high for the characters in the anime.

Art/animation: I really like the colors in the anime, almost every object has sunlight shining over it to give it that slightly yellow tint. The artwork looks colorful and vibrant while being calm and mellow. It kind of reminds me of Mushishi a lot. The action scenes are decent, they have chaotic magical explosions firing off that look fun to watch. Big plus point for the two outros, they both have non anime style that looks really mesmerizing.

Soundtrack: The soundtrack is made by Evan Call, the same person who made Violet Evergarden’s soundtrack. The music is celtic folk inspired orchestral music which suits the theme very well. I’m listening to the Ost as I write this review and the music is very dynamic. It has very quiet parts and very loud parts. Because of the slice of life nature of the show the soundtrack is a little forgettable but that one action theme is pretty dope “Zoltraak”. The sound design is pretty spectacular too, again it sounds a lot like Mushishi with great ambient sounds of animals, water and wind. While action scenes have that huge subwoofer energy.

Final verdict: Frieren is a spectacular anime that explores a new plot in the fantasy realm that should’ve been done years ago. The Sound and visuals are top notch, but the plot might seem to be too convenient at times. I hope the show goes here like how Attack on Titan went from S1 to S4. If Frieren manages to make a bigger world with a more robust magic system and lore, it will truly be one of the greatest anime of all time.

The final attack on titan incarnation came out as two one hour and one and a half hour episodes that kind of feel like a movie. It’s best to watch them in one go with a movie experience in mind. The episodes conclude the story but are famous for having a not so good ending, I don’t think the ending is bad but it’s just that the ending is poorly executed with some other bad choices that we’ll talk about.

Characters/plot: After the last season our main characters are on their way to stop Eren and the rumbling all they need to do now is ... get the ‘flying boat’ ready and head straight down for a final battle. The main characters still receive some character development, there’s some interesting highlights in Annie, founder Ymir and especially Eren. Most of the second episode from the series is pure thrilling action.

Ending: I think the main faults of the final episode and its plot is not the plot itself but how it was executed. It’s confusing to say the least. I’ve been reading some posts on reddit about a more in-depth explanation of the ending where people have made some conclusive points that explain much of the ending than the manga or anime managed to explain.
The ending is very human, Eren’s reasons are very human, Armin’s reactions are very human. Nothing is black and white but it’s a mess of emotions like confusion, regret, guilt. I still think Zeke’s plan was the best solution to the problem but Eren himself says that he is a “Backyard variety idiot” and he couldn’t find a better way to end it. There is a mess of time travel memories shenanigans, what was morally right or wrong, characters with severe depressive traumas; like founder Ymir you should have just gone to therapy instead of finding answers by killing 80% of the world's population; LOL. You need to give time to digest the ending and understand that these characters have real human faults, and the ending is filled with real human faults. Nothing is perfect or conclusive, it's just human.

Animations: You know for these two final chapters I read the manga first and I have to say that I imagined it way cooler in my mind but still this was very good, I adore the scenes in the manga where the rumbling is taking place and its effect on world population, and I think this was done very well. There were a few extra scenes added into the rumbling scenes that weren’t in the manga. Another scene that I loved from the manga was the baby on the cliff scene and I love how they did this whole monochrome thing for the scene.
After seeing Levi injured in the previous scenes, I didn’t think Levi would get some solid action scenes, but still they managed to show Levi overpowering Titans and gave us some nice 360 scenes with Levi and Mikasa. Overall, the animations were great, and I have no qualms with anything.
A thing I highly disliked is that they play credits while showing the final scenes of Paradise’s evolution in the process making the screen inches small. Those scenes were precious to me because they showed a world we loved and its mysteries that intrigued us pass away into nothingness. They were very melancholic, but the small size made it hard to decipher what was actually going on.

Overall, great action animation as always.

Sound/Ost: During the second episode I noticed they are playing small segments of all the original Ost back-to-back; it was a really cool tribute to all the great soundtracks that this show has given us throughout the years. Though I’m still angry that even in the final episode they didn’t play the melodies from “Vogel Im Kafig” that was the definitive music of the series. The other thing I’ve noticed that I kind of disliked is the use of vocal driven rocks songs in some critical scenes. They were fine for action scenes, but some emotional scenes deserve a more emotional soundtrack. Overall, great voice acting, sound effects and nice choice of OST.

Final:
So, this is the last time I write about Attack on Titan, the show has been a masterpiece of seinen action driven storytelling. The final episodes are amazing, beautiful and very emotional. There might be some confusion because the ending is not very self-explanatory, but you have to spend some time with and dig deeper into the motives of all the characters and their human nature to slightly understand it better. It's best to read other people's thoughts and opinions on the ending that explain the situation better before joining the bad ending group.

Attack on titan: The final season part 2 is all about final revelations coming to light. The last remaining mysteries that the world of titans held come to light. We get to see the origin of titans, the final solution by our main characters and much more.

Plot/characters: The plot starts with the battle for the founder, so the first half of the show is a really good action-oriented sequence. The second half is also good. We get some good character conflict and alliances. Overall, the characters were used perfectly. Connie, Floch and Shadis get some interesting scenes. We finally get the origin of Titans ... and know more about founder Ymir, that part was very well done. Again, AOT has handled its large cast of characters perfectly.

Animation: The action is top notch once again; I think the CGI titans have been slightly improved. The whole season is riddled with action scenes which show off great animation.

Sound/OST: The voice acting is great as usual and the sound design is really heavy, the bass explosions and everything sounds nice on a sub. The music is really good too, the soundtrack by Kohta Yamamoto sounds really nice and there are a lot of memorable melodies.

Final: This season of AOT is perfect from the series that has given perfect seasons at every turn. I don’t have anything bad to say about this season. The only issue was how it was released as parts that kind of killed off the hype of the final season. I wish this and the previous season were never called ‘final season’ and instead called season 4 or something.

Attack on titan’s last season peaked almost everywhere, it managed to hype up the entire world. Now, when the final season started airing everyone was extremely hyped because of the revelations revealed in the past and seemingly this would be the final incarnation of the series.
The new studio that took over the project did a fantastic job; this season is just as good as the previous season. Here are some of the key features about this season:

Plot/characters: The story this time is from a different perspective, the villain's perspective. Watching this season really tells us that there are no villains in Hajime Isayama’s world ... but only people with different opinions. Reiner receives an incredible glow up and new levels of character depth as we’re introduced to a new world with new characters. Our beloved characters also return, and the second half of the show is set back inside the walls. Overall, there's an interesting change in the story of the anime. Big shoutout to SIGMA male EREN YEAGER, hating on your friends, killing civilians, calling your girl a slave and all of this just so you can be free. What an actual Giga Chad.

Animation: The animation is great; the studios have changed and this time it’s not wit studio but MAPPA that's handling the production. The character designs are fantastic, and everyone looks great close up, but I’ve noticed as soon as the shot pans far away the characters look weird like it’s konosuba and not Attack on Titan. The first half of the series had some great animation, there were many scenes where they used rotoscoping and things looked very fluent but there were moments where character’s hands moved all wrong or were at the wrong place (episode 69 Sasha hands floating over her legs while she’s talking about inheriting the attack titan). The other thing that bothered a lot of other people was the CGI titans. After finishing the show and rewatching it again, I think that’s some of the better use of CGI in anime, though again it’s not perfect but very good nonetheless.

Soundtrack/audio: Season 4’s soundtrack was composed by a new composer Kohta Yamamoto and it also had our previous composer Hiroyuki Sawano. The new composer did a great job and I think the track “Ashes on the fire” is a testament to that. Overall, the sound design, voice acting is great, and the old and new soundtracks work well with the scenes.

Final opinion: This season has gotten very mature in terms of storytelling, character and world building. I regard this season in very high regard. The action scenes were high octane and the calm scenes with character and world development were great as well. Overall, the perfect season to an already perfect show. The only thing that I dislike is probably the way this entire 'final season' was released in multiple parts, that killed a lot of the hype by the end.