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If you're familiar with Kurumada's storytelling, i.e. deus ex machina galore (see: Saint Seiya), well... B'T X is pretty much exactly the same. It is the epitome of the classic 90's shōnen manga -- for the most part (*more on that later). Kurumada said he had never drawn a story with robots before, thus was born B'T X. A B'T is a large mechanical being often based on a mythical creature that is loyal to their blood donor... forever linked until death. X is the name of the B'T of this story's hero, Teppei. The author will explain in the story what the "B" stands ... for... but forget the "T", that one is never explained. XD

Anyway, your enjoyment of this series will be heavily based on your tolerance for ridiculous clichés and deus ex machinas. This manga is deus ex machina after deus ex machina after deus ex machina. Most characters have a single special attack that's used over and over again. You'll be tired of seeing Teppei's Methayer Fist soon enough. Also, battles don't showcase movement. It's mostly always one drawing and little stars and explosions in the background. I don't think Kurumada really knows how to draw battles that have some back and forth. It's just... blah blah blah WATCH MY FIST EXTENDED INTO THE AIR and the enemy goes ARGHHHHH and little explosions everywhere. Also, for some reason, Kurumada really likes to draw a line right in the middle of a character's face. When there's "action", there will unavoidably be lines everywhere, and one line will always split the character's face in half. It's a weird design choice but you get used to it.

You also have typical tropes such as... "OMG! We have a 99.8% chance of losing against this B'T!!!" (that's an actual stat given in the manga). Anddd do you think they will lose? :) Deus ex... You also have stuff like... ARMOR REINFORCED TO 200%! You know, usual random power stats given to "illustrate" power.... A new special move discovered can be used more than once in the battle, too, just to win twice in a row *yawn*. But remember, it's always one drawing of the special move and one drawing of the enemy getting destroyed. There's rarely more than that. It's also very classic in its development... we have to fight seven generals to reach the base! So our hero slowly advances towards the base during the entire duration of the manga.

There's also a weird mix of esoteric/spiritual/philosophical/scientific mumbo-jumbo in the story. Kurumada likes to bring real-world concepts into his story and give his opinion on a bunch of subjects, like religion, black matter, atoms, music, etc. He also usually tries to explain a character's special move rationally, with real-life physics concepts... except when he needs a deus ex machina and suddenly the "power of the heart" wins over everything. Like, seriously. At one point an attack manages to succeed because the enemy omitted to consider the power of one's heart!! It's pretty ridiculous.

Kurumada also lovessss his mathematical equations. When you get to volume 13, there's the ultimate anti-shōnen battle I was referring to at the beginning of the review. There's a battle between two adversaries that is literally a series of extremely high-level math challenges... and the questions and answers are all given to us! Most of us wouldn't be able to solve any of the equations presented, but who cares! This is so out of left field that I love it. It feels fresh and unique and that's a big feat for this manga. And this is where the positive points finally appear in this manga for me. Out of 16 volumes, I feel like volumes 13-15 are the best ones. The characters suddenly feel more developed and more interesting.

The last volume is disappointing, as the ending is a let-down and again, typical of the genre. Despite all of it, though, I think B'T X is an easy read. It never really feels boring despite not being particularly good. I would probably not recommend this manga to most readers, but if you're willing to make it to the end and are a fan of the author or that era of manga or the cliché and deus ex machina-ridden storytelling or the static artwork, you might find yourself enjoying this.

Ahhhh, Ninkū. Always been a fan, even if I can't really recommend the original series. This sequel, however, which is actually a prequel... but a sequel to volumes 7-8-9 of the original Ninkū (lol), is much, much, much better. It also lasted 12 volumes instead of 9, which is an indicator of the quality of this sequel/prequel.

First, you see the drawings are much improved as soon as you open the first page of volume 1... night and day with the original Ninkū. Sure, Fūsuke still looks like a frog because that's what he's supposed to look like, but everything else is much cleaner, much more ... polished, and generally just more pleasant to look at.

The story is much more involved and features more interesting characters and character interactions, although, admittedly, the first six volumes or so don't have that much fighting at all, and some of the same flaws of the original manga are back. Substitution technique, shocked pikachu face, over. Some characters are completely wasted, like Domon, who's super interesting, but in the end never really gets to fight. A lot of the fights are just... water everywhere... or rocks everywhere... or wind everywhere... and that's it. I mean, it looks fantastic! Kiriyama is really good at drawing natural elements, but the fights are lacking. Same story for Vell, for example, whose abilities we never even get to *really* see for the entirety of the series! At least the storyline is developed way better than it was in the original series. We also get to meet all 12 etonin (Ninkū masters), unlike the first series.

Things really start to change when we get to volume 7, and especially volume 9. Now the battles have movement. A beginning, a middle and an end. A crescendo. It really gets riveting if you've followed the story up until there! Of course, if you expect Hunter x Hunter or Dragon Ball levels of fighting, you'll be disappointed, of course, but it's honestly not what Ninkū aims to do, and it's quite exciting regardless, when you consider that it's the best Ninkū has ever been until that point!

I think that, ultimately, Second Stage lacks a little when you consider it takes 7 volumes before things start ramping up, but when you finally get there, it's totally worth it. At the end of the series, Kiriyama mentions he'd like to finish with a final stage one day, presumably with an older Fūsuke again, but as of writing, there is still no news of anything. I really hope a sequel one day comes to fruition, but I hope he makes it more like the second half of Second Stage, and especially not like the original series. Mindless battles with no story are boring, you need a good setup, and good characters, and good motivations, like this second half of Ninkū Second Stage manages to do.

Final note: As of writing, it's still not in the My Anime List database, but during the publication of Second Stage, there was a Ninkū Zero volume published, which compiles a bunch of stories from the First Stage that had never been published before in book form. It's... like the First Stage. Just a bunch of little comedic stories. So, technically, there are 6+1 volumes that take place during the First Stage (first six volumes of the original series + Ninkū Zero), and 3+12 volumes that take place during the Second Stage (the last three volumes of the original series and the entirety of the Second Stage Etonin-hen series).

If you understand Japanese, I highly recommend you check it out!

It's hard to recommend the original Ninkū.

Let me start by saying that the manga has NOTHING to do with the anime. Only a few chapters were reprised for the anime, which was made by studio Pierrot.

Ninkū had a first run of 9 volumes. The first six volumes (later dubbed ~First Stage~) take place with an older Fūsuke (older as in 12 years old), our main character who can control the wind. He mostly goes through adventures alongside his friends Tōji (who controls the earth) and Aichō (who can fly), as they are all part of the Ninkū elite group of combatants, of which there are ... 12 schools, all based on the Chinese zodiac signs.

The series goes through a slew of episodic stories which lack a compelling storyline or any development at all. It's mostly bad guys showing up after bad guys, with no overarching plot. The fights mostly always unfold the same way, with a substitution technique used by our protagonists, and then a shocked pikachu face by the enemies, and then a few more blows. Some of the image compositions are really nice, but most battles are awkward, stilted, and lack any sort of adequate flow.

I'd say only the first three books are worth reading, the most interesting story arc being the one featuring Aichō and one of his disciples, Hamaji. It's also the only arc the anime took, because it's the most interesting one. After that, the story gets ridiculous, with random enemies popping out of nowhere all the time and disappearing just as fast. They're just there to pose a threat but offer no complexity whatsoever. There's also like, a scroll which contains all techniques ever, even the most far-fetched deus ex machina techniques, for example. Just so our heroes can do pretty much whatever they want. That's basically Ninkū for you.

Some of the artwork in the later volumes is also very rough, with the author Kiriyama himself admitting he lacked time and spent more time thinking about the story than drawing. It shows... except the story isn't very good either. It seems like Masashi Kishimoto of Naruto fame was a huge Ninkū fan, but don't let that fool you. It feels like Kiriyama didn't know where to go, or that he really just wanted to write the story for his ~Second Stage~. That's right... the Second Stage takes place BEFORE the First Stage, when Fūsuke was like 5 years old. Those are books 7-9. We learn how Fūsuke discovered the existence of Ninkū and how he met some of the other Ninkū masters. It's not much better.

But Kiriyama seems to like that era, because 10 years later, he would come back to release another 12 volumes of Ninkū subtitled ~Second Stage: Etonin-Hen~, this time in a seinen magazine instead of shōnen, and that, my friends, is a much better manga.