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Feb 19, 2018
When I first started to read this manga, I didn’t expect much other than lots and lots of imagery of tits and naked women. Oh yeah, and apocalyptic imagery and boy, I was not disappointed.
I’ll admit that this manga was way out of my usual comfort zone – especially with how American politics being the way they are but it did give me some insight to what the general mood was like during the 1980s. You see, the Cold War didn’t just affect the United States and the Soviet Union when it was still around – everyone in the world was scared about nuclear
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fallout and potential for World War 3. I would imagine that countries affected by World War 2 outside of the United States felt extremely nervous about that.
There’s more of a focus on the destruction of the world than it is between the relationships between the characters. As a matter of fact, I was surprised to learn that Ryo had fallen in love with Akira or that Miki and Akira had an actual relationship beyond “oh, he’s staying with me until my parents come back”.
If you were looking for any meaningful relationship between any of the characters in the original iteration of the Devilman manga, you’re not going to find it here. Instead, what you’re going to find is someone’s fears of another war happening – only with nukes and demons. Basically, war is bad and that we’re all going to die.
Go Nagai wanted to try something different from his usual gag manga and ended up inspiring more people than he probably thought otherwise. The storyline is a bit messy to follow since, again, he doesn’t put the focus on the relationships between the characters but rather on the destruction of the world and the decline of humans’ humanity.
The biggest problem I have is how rushed the fights were. To be fair, this is only five volumes and with his focus primarily being about the apocalypse and the fight between good versus evil, there were going to be some things that are left on the cutting room floor. There was one fight that sort of came out of nowhere with how detailed the relationships between the demons were – all we knew was that they were after Akira to kill him and to allow the demons take over the world in peace, so to speak.
Would I recommend this to other fujoshi?
Probably not. The relationship between Ryo and Akira isn’t that deep other than the meme pictures that were floating around on social media. I was surprised to find out that Ryo had fallen in love with him, as I’ve mentioned, along with the fact that Ryo’s actually supposed to be dead and then the betrayal Ryo did for… some reason I wasn’t clear on.
If you’re a fujoshi looking for something spicy in between the death and apocalypse, you probably won’t find it in this iteration. However, if the hopeless apocalypse is something that interests you, with how America politics are going these days again, then this is certainly for you – I just hope you’re able to deal with the titties and vagina demons easier than I could. I get that Go Nagai is a ‘legend’ among enthusiasts, especially ecchi enthusiasts, but certainly, this manga isn’t for me.
What I would say though is that this manga managed to inspire works such as Berserk, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many, many more. This manga certainly is more inspirational for other reasons but Boy’s Love is not one of them. This is a pass for other fujoshis but, otherwise, it’s a good read. It just isn’t for me.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 14, 2015
The first impressions I had about this OVA weren’t really favorable. Because of the ridiculousness of the original anime, I didn’t expect much other than another not-so-good parody of the magical girl genre and I wasn’t expecting this OVA to be serious in the slightest. This is only one episode so a lot was going to be as packed in as possible.
However, I was met with exactly those expectations. It seemed they aged up Kokoro to make it appropriate for the animators to draw her in sexy clothes and sexy gear and to show off the panty shots. This OVA is very unapologetic about their
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panty shots and enlarged breasts (especially when you consider Kotonoha’s aversion to sex in the series).
This is an alternate universe where magical girls are real and so are villains. It’s clear who is fulfilling each role. If there’s any plot twists, it’s that Kokoro actually has a double set of secret identities and Makoto Itou is actually a good guy. We finally see Sekai’s mother, even if it’s brief.
The animation is standard but the art is still pretty cute despite the dark themes. There’s nothing really to say much else to say about it. Everything is in place and, because it’s not my humor, it’s not that funny to me. I never liked Makoto or Sekai but it was funny seeing her get some comeuppance, even if it’s not as extreme as it was in the original anime or game.
Clearly, this OVA was aimed towards the fans of the type of sexualized jokes and not someone like me whose only enjoyment was seeing the Nice Boat meme come up randomly.
Would I recommend this OVA to others? Sure, if they “School Days” fans. I wouldn’t really recommend this as a magical series or to magical girl fans, especially if they’re not familiar with “School Days”. At least, Magical Heart’s outfit is really cute. Too bad it’s wasted.
(Part of Project Magic!!)
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 3, 2015
This short story was actually Arina Tanemura’s first full length manga. It’s a cute short story about a girl, with a special good luck charm, falling in love with a boy while attaining even more telekinetic powers. Is this any more realistic than her other manga, or the manga that’s to be? Sure; it has a mix of science and the supernatural so something like this could happen.
The art in this manga is iconic and it’s what Tanemura’s known for – big eyes, detailed hair, and the same face & personality. You see, Tanemura hadn’t really deviated from the looks she gave her other characters.
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There’s the spunky lead with the long hair, the friends, the pretty average looking guy, the long haired bishounen, the weird looking guy, the cheerful guy, the nerdy, etcetc. Basically, this is where it all started in terms of the looks of the characters.
For a first story, it’s fine. It’s a fine start with stories that’s to be expected from this author. But if we look at it on its own, it’s a typical shoujo story where the girl falls in love first this time but the male character is clueless with another girl vying for his affections. There’s actually a love rival for the male (he’s always after Ion and even has a but he’s so inconsequential to the story, he’s only seen as comedy and the driving force to bring Mikaido and Ion together.
The story is pretty basic although it does explain Ion’s connection with her good luck charm and her psychic ability that’s brought on by Mikado’s substance. For a short story, it works. It doesn’t really need any other extra information, although it’d be nice to get to know Ion’s father more other than the cop-out “He’s actually the scientist Mikaido’s work is based off of! And it just so happens…” trope. But despite this, it’s cute and it’s a nice read which doesn’t require a lot of deep thought especially since it’s so predictable.
If you’re interested in Tanemura’s first story, by all means, this is for you but on its own, it’s just a cute story about love and telekinesis!
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 27, 2015
The first impressions I had about this anime was going to be a slice of life type (since CLAMP love doing those along with romances) with some extremely basic themes as the art design seemed really simple, cute, and heartwarming. With only 18 episodes (plus 8 specials), I’d figure this wouldn’t take me very long to finish anyway.
“Sweet Valerian” is really cute and it’s really simple. The entire length of an episode is actually three minutes long, enough time for things to happen and the Valariens to take down the monster but if there is a plot to have it’s simply about this: monsters are
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created by a super stress gun that detects the highest amount of stress and the Valerians use their powers to find a way to destress, or rather, relax the victim.
There is an origin story – the girls were going about their daily lives but realized that life would be a lot easier if they had a moped. So one passes them by and they were each inspired to go get a moped license when they get stopped by a mysterious looking custodian (who’s really Panda-bu, the sidekick and the one who lets the girls know when there’s danger in the city called Asianland City). Soon, they’re led in a secret room where they meet someone called the Ear Hermit.
After some training, the girls eventually get something “Valerian License” which is what transforms them into cute, adorable bunnies.
All of that, in three minutes, no less! The art is really simple and cute but the animation isn’t very impressive, it’s pretty average. The music in the anime itself is very relaxing and fits with the theme with the story – which is about relaxing even thought here’s so much stress in people’s lives.
All in all, it says exactly what’s on the tin box, especially within the three minute time-span; but despite all the mediocrity of this anime, and the extremely simple plot and the time span, the comedy in the series isn’t bad at all. Sure, there’s a lot of cultural jokes that may fly over especially western viewers’ heads but the other jokes are actually pretty funny. The monsters have creative designs and even though Kanoko always tries to talk to them at first, she always loses her temper immediately.
Would this series be better as a regular 23-24 minute episode series? Maybe not. The whole idea of this show is to relax and not let everyday stress build up with something charming and sweet.
If there’s anything to compare this to, “Sweet Valerian” is like a snack: it’s good to sit down and enjoy it, but if you eat too much, you’ll spoil your dinner.
(Part of Project Magic!!)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Feb 15, 2015
This manga is more realistic than Yuu Watase’s other work. This manga is a simple story about a simple country girl who helps change a technology ran and expensive high school. Yuu Watase’s art is always very nice and it’s clear what’s going on in the story. The characters are easily defined, visually, and it’s easy to tell them apart from the background characters.
As far as the writing, though, it’s good at first. The romance is pretty clear between Tanpopo and Koki, the male lead and there is an actual friendship between the two. Not only that, it’s clear that there’s a friendship between the
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characters (especially Aoi, Arisa, and Tsukiko) and it doesn’t really feel forced although Aoi’s pranks do go a bit far sometimes where it’s almost unbelievable.
For their personalities, though, they’re unique and not just cookie-cutter. Tanpopo really is one of a kind where she’s always smiling, even while she’s being bullied at first, and she always tries her best to inspire her friends.
The manga comes almost to a halt, though when they find Youji, Kouki’s older brother who had disappeared a couple years prior. It also drags a little bit more when Erika, the obligatory fiancee, shows up. It would have been nice if there was some mention of it before (or at least a rumor of Kouki having a finance spreading around – even if Tanpopo never really pays gossip any mind, it still would have been better off hinting at it) or at least something that headed towards that direction.
It does end up having a “pair everyone off” issue at the end after Tanpopo decides to go back to Hokkaido after her grandfather faints. Honestly, I wasn’t really completely disappointed by the ending – it would have been a lot nicer and more fun if Tanpopo stayed in Tokyo (and really, get rid of Erika and her last conversation) but it’s still a pretty decent ending, nevertheless. It’s not too bad but others might have an issue with it.
The comedy, though, is pretty funny and a lot of it is deadpan humor and puns. Overall, this manga doesn’t require a lot of thought but it does get you invested in these characters’ relationships with Tanpopo herself, though not so much with each other.
It’s a simple manga that’s fun to read when you just want a simple romance manga. I’d recommend it to those who especially love the country girl in the big city type of manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 13, 2015
The first impression I had about this particular anime is it didn’t strike me as a magical girl OVA and just more of medieval/fantasy story. Since this particular OVA was released during the 1980s, I wondered if it’s going to have any of the ridiculousness and cheese that American movies had in their own media that was present at this time. Although, looking at the promotional art and some screencaps, the art is extremely gorgeous and it’s something that definitely appeals to me. The only thing, though, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I actually do.
Since this is only one OVA, I’m
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not going to do a synopsis of it, but there are elements in this review that do have quite a bit of spoilers.
Because Yohko wrote a song, it’s important to note that the music is an important factor in this anime because she uses this as a catalyst to confess her feelings for her secret crush. There are piano pieces, synth (which shows its age), and orchestra music in this anime which is strange when one considers the mix of sci-fi and fantasy.
The sci-fi is a little out of place in an anime that’s mainly about legends and fantastical beasts. It’s not melded in very well and it’s kind of weird that after learning about Leda, there’s a throwaway line about hopping their robots. Perhaps it’s to help understand how Leda managed to make Master Zell bring Yohko to Ashanti and try to discover the secrets of her stereo. Despite this, though, the random inclusion of sci-fi isn’t terribly distracting or take the audience out of the show. It’s used to help understand how the people of Ashanti live on the land without just saying, “it’s just because of magic”.
Yohko is a very good lead character – she seemed adaptable and definitely capable, though the fact that it’s only one episode hurts her character a little bit. She’s not shown to have some kind of athletic ability until she arrives in Ashanti and starts running, and lifting herself from the vines. It does show that she has an ear for music since she composed the song her self but it’s not too bad.
The other characters, Ringum, the talking dog, and Yoni, the remaining Leda shrine maiden, are very good characters as well. They can stand on their own and they really are interesting in their own rights but they never seemed to overshadow the main character herself. As for the world, it would have been nice to know if there were other villagers in this particular world to show how devastated it actually is when it seemed that Leda abandoned them.
A problem, though, with the characters, including and especially Master Zell, they act as actors playing a certain archetype instead of being actual characters. Usually, this would be a really bad thing, the archetypes, but it’s not as annoying in this OVA. It’s pretty much downplayed as something that someone with an affinity for cheesy 1980s media would enjoy.
The animation, especially for its time, is absolutely stunning! Granted, there are quite a few flubs here and there but it’s not so bad that the viewer wouldn’t be too distracted from it. Certain angles, colors, and the atmosphere of the anime itself is extremely well done and pretty effective. It certainly works with what’s going on and the colors aren’t over-saturated with a singular one. All in all, it’s gorgeous to look at!
As for the magical girl component, well, it’s there. She does get powers and there is a cute mascot. There is a sequence and she does eventually return to her more normal every day life. If there’s an appropriate way to help understand, it’s pretty much a lite version of “Conan the Barbarian” but with sci-fi & magical girl tropes added in.
Would this anime benefited more as a 12-26 episode series rather than a single OVA? It doesn’t necessarily need to have an entire series about the lore, technology, and the characters but it’d be nice if it did. But, as it stands, it’s pretty much good on its own. It’s something to watch when you need some action with little bits and pieces of romance and magical girl. It’s fun and that’s all it is.
It’s really enjoyable and I’d recommend this OVA especially to those who enjoy some lite 1980s anime cheese.
(Part of Project Magic!!)
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 31, 2015
The first impressions I had about the anime is wondering if it’s going to be as funny as “Excel Saga”. Granted, a lot of people didn’t like the humor in “Excel Saga” but it is a hit or a miss, depending what type of humor the viewer has already. Since I did previously enjoyed “Excel Saga”, I wondered if it’s going on the same vein, but rushed.
In the first episode, we’re introduced to POemy Watanabe along with her adoptive parents, Nabeshin (whom she calls “Mr. Director”) and Kumi-Kumi. Right away, we see the magical girl, Poemi, fighting the classic and iconic magical girls (up to
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this point in time) and it seems actually pretty serious.
The comedy here is pretty funny, since it focuses on referential humor and dealing with Koyabashi’s wastefully energetic personality. Granted, newer viewers probably won’t get the references, especially the older magical girls, but it’s still funny. There is an alien who swings … an extension of itself and ends up killing Nabeshin, his wife, and the pet robot dog they had only for Kobayashi and Futaba, the parody and more hardcore version of Tomoyo Daidouji from “Card Captor Sakura” and Kobayashi’s best friend, finding their bodies crucified.
From there, Futaba manages to convince her sisters (who do everything together and who are various ages and different points of life) to let Kobayashi stay with them. Apparently, though, it’s revealed that the Aasu Family not only does everything together, but they also protect the Earth as well.
Unfortunately, they can only defend and it’s right around here the first episode ends.
The second episode is when everything simultaneously falls apart and shows it’s true colors. It’s a lot more explicit and while the first episode did have some nudity and fanservice, they decided to just go all out in the second episode.
It got to a point where the reason why the alien wanted to take over the world was because: he’s an erogame enthusiast. He also apparently hates voice actresses and flat chested girls (which is what Koyabashi is, and especially the fact she’s not a very good voice actress either).
When you break it down and look at each individual Aasu sister, one could realize that these women weren’t magical girl tropes or archetypes – instead they’re the tropes and archetypes for erogames. There’s only one scene where they imply they’re doing something sexual to them but would I even bother to call it fanservice? They never really bother trying to hide anything unless the person was underaged, or a human man, and there just nothing really funny about it anyway – unless that’s your type of humor.
The script could have been easily ripe for a genuine magical girl parody but by the middle to end of the second episode, it seemed more of an ero game parody at best. It would been fine had it been an ero-game parody OVA in the first place.
Despite the attempt at writing the parody, the musical score is actually pretty good and it fit the themes rather well. The opening and ending is sung by Koyabashi’s voice actress and it really does do a decent job of parodying magical girl openings. It also sets the mood right for the tone it’s about to ruin with a joke or more referential humor.
The animation, for its time especially, is almost on par with “Excel Saga” since it was made around that same time frame. Not only that, it was made it the way that it was to allow the voice actress to do a lot of speed talking and made it seem that she was also moving along with her characters’ actions. Granted, one of Aasu sisters looks almost exactly like Hyatt but with much bigger breasts but eh.
I really wouldn’t recommend this to anyone since a lot of the sex jokes really made me feel uncomfortable (especially since it made the underaged characters do really suggestive stuff) but if you don’t mind the sex jokes and if you don’t really mind absolute nonsense, then this magical parody is for you!
(Part of Project Magic!!)
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 30, 2015
[SPOILER WARNING]
I’m not quite sure where to start off with this manga. First of all, I didn’t like it. The art was nice but that’s probably one of the nicest things I’m going to say about this.
I’m going to be honest with you, when I first read the description, I thought I was going to read something actually interesting and of substance. Maybe this will be a one shot about how the victims of kidnappings are handled in Japan, or at least a critical look at their mental health system.
But it wasn’t.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what was even going on with the manga itself.
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Okay, the gist that I’ve understood — eight years ago, prior to the story, there was a kidnapping. They kidnapped Mayu and a little boy, presumably the person calling himself “Mii-kun”. Afterwards, she kidnapped two children, a brother and sister, and keeps them in her closet.
There’s these murders that’s happening around the city. Okay, I got that too.
How do these two connect?
They… really don’t. They kept making it seem that “Mii-kun” was the one who’s doing the murders because all we see is the hooded figure walk away ominously with a bloodied knife and who do we know that has a hoodie…?
And then there’s these adults – a doctor that seems to have a deeper connection to “Mii-kun” than she lets on (and someone who Maya calls a liar) and there’s a detective who’s just there just to fill in the character count.
It turns out that the killer was actually the real Mii-kun who was kidnapped (the narrator just happened to be the kidnapper’s son and who happened to be there) along with Maya and Maya had killed her parents and the kidnappers (the narrator’s parents) and that messed her up, big time.
How did the narrator know the real Mii-kun the killer? We’re supposed to be following this guy everywhere, since he’s the narrator, but he’s like “Oh, yeah, I totally knew it was him all along.” Couldn’t you drop a hint or two there, friend? I get this is a oneshot but still – how did you figure that out?
Why did Maya kidnap the brother and sister? There was literally no point to this at all other than an excuse for the narrator to “save” her – he had no intention of saving the kids. There was no rhyme or reason for her to do that other than, “Oh, she was kidnapped before. Her mind is broken.” Okay, and? She must have had some purpose for them.
Who is this doctor and what is her connection to the narrator? Seriously, what’s going on between them? You can’t really just slap that on and go, “Oh, what a mystery!” Context clues! Hints!
Why bother with a detective at this point? She was only there, really, to kill time I guess because there really was not much use for her.
What happened to the kids after they got away from the real Mii-kun? Seriously, they kept showing us them each chapter and they kept saying how they were abused by their parents. Okay, but…. did they get away safely? What happened to them? Shouldn’t the detective be worried about their safety as much as the narrator’s or any other characters?
Why did the real Mii-kun start killing? They made it a point that, while he and Maya are in the same class together, it’s clear that the both of them don’t remember fully what happened all those years ago. Okay, but why did he start killing then? It would have been nice to get at least his perspective to make this an interesting story so we could at least sympathize with him or understand him better. Why did he pick those victims in particular? If you’re going to have a theme of mental illness, try to delve in deeper than just “selective memory”.
Why couldn’t they show the real Mii-kun more often? They only showed him mostly in the beginning and then at the end, in the big reveal. You could barely see him in between and when the big reveal was shown, it was just very underwhelming. Who was he and why should we be surprised it was him?
What was the point of the narrator being with Maya and trying to “save her”? He owes her nothing and he didn’t even really seem to love her. If anything, he seemed only to check up on her since he knew she’s rich and used her as a free place to crash. In the beginning, he seemed to be stalking her but for what? Why? Again, explain yourselves! Why do these characters do anything?
I wouldn’t say that this manga offended me as much as I’m making it sound — if anything, it’s just making me question a lot more. There’s not much mystery. There’s not a lot of romance (mostly because I don’t think the narrator was that much interested in Maya anyway beyond a free meal and housing). There’s not much of anything. There was not neither enough showing or telling. It felt really bland and it felt very run of the mill.
Apparently, this manga was based off of a novel by the same name but I can’t imagine reading something like this in print if the manga adaption irritated me this much. I don’t know. There was hardly any mystery about anything.
I really wouldn’t recommend this if you’re looking for a mystery, or really anything, manga. This isn’t very good and, as interesting as the premise sounds, I have to warn you – it will disappoint.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jan 30, 2015
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Despite the cutesy art and the fact the main characters are in middle school, this manga is a lot deeper than at first glance. It might even be too real at certain points. However, it’s the art that draws me in and it’s the story that kept me there.
Nagisa has a stay-at-home brother, whom she admires, while her mother is constantly working. Apparently, her father passed way ten years prior to the story while he was fishing. Since then, they’ve lived in poverty. The insurance for the father had long since dried up and Nagisa was starting to feel the effects of
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puberty.
However, when the beautiful young girl moves into town, she seriously shakes things up with how quirky she is. Naturally, this annoys Nagisa because the girl wants to be her friend. Throughout the story, Nagisa talks about bullets and “candy bullets”. The thing about is that, her brother refers “candy bullets” as words meant to incite a reaction. Usually, these words can be said over and over but they don’t really mean anything. Mokuzu never had enough of these “candy bullets”. She called herself a mermaid and would always easily explained away the bruises on her as well as any other physical issues she had.
There’s a boy that liked Mokuzu but Mokuzu clearly never had any interest in him in the first place. But because of the evils that Mokuzu lived with, she didn’t know how to respond to affection other than the violence she was subjected to by her own father. And because of her violet behavior, he’s no longer the boy that Nagisa loved – he’s different to where he has deviant desires, possibly.
Nagisa’s pain is clear throughout the manga: poverty, her once honor roll brother is stay-at-home and eating up the funds while her mother is at work all the time; puberty, the feelings she had for her classmate; apathy, being stuck in a rural town while trying her best to live day to day until she can join the military force; and loneliness, she pushed away people because she can’t relate to them or do the same things they can do.
In order to cope with the added responsibilities, she sees her brother as a “noble”, someone who needs to be taken care of and she’s more than happy to do it. Her mother never complained in front of her but her mother ignores the gossip about her family, especially her son.
Mokuzu, on the other hand, had a case of Stockholm Syndrome. Her parents are divorced (whether it’s official or not) and she lived with her eccentric father; but no matter what he does to her, she loves him. And it’s complicated, to love an abusive parent.
It’s a little hard to review something objectively with a manga like this, especially with the content. Gradually, as the plot goes along, another layer of Mokuzu’s home life is carefully torn, even with it’s short volume count. There’s a lot of details that could easily be missed but towards the end, after the discovery of Mokuzu’s body, it falls apart. The teacher, who showed up only a few chapters before, suddenly talks about how he tried so hard to be a super man and care about the kids but it never really showed that.
Instead, the closest thing he’s done that is lecture Nagisa about going to the military school, instead of straight to high school, because of her brother. Certainly, there could have been instances where the teacher could have tried to talk to Mokuzu (and she’d brush him off).
Earlier in the manga, it’s shown that Nagisa is solely responsible for the school rabbits, but they were found slaughtered one day – one of which whose head was in Mokuzu’s bag. If the teacher really did care, as he said, he would helped the students suspect her a little less and have it a bit more believable. There were times where it felt that they could have something better to add on to instead of what they actually put.
There’s also the matter of the young boy, especially since he’s the one who discovered the rabbits’ bodies. He’s shown prone to violence – some people argue that Mokuzu manipulated him into doing those things but, is it innate? Is it environmental? This is probably one the more controversial scenes in the manga simply because he reacted the way he did. Some people say that she manipulated him to garner more attention from Nagisa but, personally, I don’t think that’s it at all. She never showed interest in him. She knew that Nagisa showed interest in him but didn’t mind – as long as Nagisa is her friend, who cared? Still, I personally don’t think this manga is a romance, or even have inclinations of romance, at all.
With a longer volume count, they could concentrate more on what had happened to Nagisa and her family. It’s said that her brother cut his hair and joined the military but maybe it’s best that it was open ended like that.
This manga, though, does get gory but it does censor enough. You see enough to get the gist of what’s going on but it’s not so censored that you can’t see anything (though why would you want to?). This manga isn’t for everyone and it’s not for the faint of heart. There’s a lot of triggery content in this manga though it’s handled well and with enough respect to show how dire the situation is.
So, dear readers, answer me this riddle’s: A woman’s husband recently passed away. She meets a man at the funeral who made an impression on her. In fact, they both had favorable impressions of each other. However, the next night, her young son was murdered. She confessed, she did it. But why? Can you tell me why?
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 30, 2015
First, let’s point out the elephant in the room: the art. The art is not you’re typical anime or manga style that we’re so used to seeing. On top of this, this came out in 1993 so, I suppose, this is a retro manga. Obviously they made Toshiko extremely beautiful and the rest of the women kind of average but that’s the point – Toshiko is a hidden beauty who had been under the watchful (and extremely disturbing) uncle who had raised her since she was orphaned as a little girl.
The story starts out with Kuro after he had sex with two women and someone
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tries to kill him. The women actually scold the guy for trying to kill him… Anyway, meanwhile, Toshiko is trying her best to work in her aunt and uncle’s hotel but a mysterious guest messes with her that causes her to drop her stuff (as it was a lot). The uncle berates her and sends her to the post office.
While that’s going on with Toshiko, Kuro is running around in the forest in his underwear and the guy who’s after him nearly catches with him until Toshiko manages to save him in time and, despite it all, gets caught up in the drama. They ended up in one of the hotel’s cabins that’s available on the site and, apparently, someone Kuro knows owns it because John Woo, at first, tries to attack him until Toshiko calms him down.
Kuro and Toshiko fall in love in first sight and have sex after some tender moments. Also, there’s a Doberman named John Woo; real subtle there…! Anyway, Kuro decides to leave the sleeping Toshiko because he didn’t want to endanger such a beautiful woman like her.
However, she ends up falling into it anyway when she realized that Kuro was gone when she woke up. She takes off in the forest after she overhears a couple of gangsters talk about him and realizes that he had apparently stolen some money. She decides to help him and eventually catches up with him and they decide to just run away. They make their way out of the forest somehow and they wandered to find a car from Tokyo parked.
They steal it and head towards Tokyo. They take a rest in a hotel only for Toshiko to pass out as soon as she got in the bath. In tattered clothes and a hundred million yen to spare, Kuro tells Toshiko to shop for some new clothes as, well, the dirtied clothes she wore into something sexy and something to help her confidence. Toshiko goes into a store and asks one of the girls to do so with the money she had. Not only that, she got some clothes for Kuro as well.
When the two meet up, he had just gotten off the phone with someone he had known from his younger days and so they go visit there. However, his friend tells him it’s the last time he’s going to help him – he has a family now. He couldn’t do crazy stuff anymore… but that’s when Kuro gives the man some leftover money as a gift for the man’s kid. The two of them leave only to be followed by the guest, who will eventually start calling the shots, and the man who’s been chasing Kuro all this time.
The couple go to a hotel to rest for the night after a bout of sexy times, they start talking about what to do since the money is dwindling down now. When Toshiko had lost her virginity to Kuro, she had called her uncle to tell him to essentially fuck off and that she’s not going back to him and her shitty life but in this moment, she admits she had savings back home that she should have brought with her.
So she calls up the uncle, who had been fretting over her sudden departure by admiring her panties, cutting it up, and eating it, and tells him to meet at an undisclosed location with her money. He agrees and then gets ready himself to “take Toshiko back”; because hey that’s what any normal worried uncle would do.
Anyway, so they meet him but he’s sold the couple out because apparently the gangsters looking for Kuro had been back at the hotel, asking for him. So he managers to knock Toshiko out and kidnap her while the gangsters come by and try to kill him. They fight for a little bit while the uncle goes to a mine that he had apparently set up in secret in case something like this were to happen.
What the fuck? Like, this guy has everything planned, doesn’t he?!
So he tries to rape her in her sleep but she manages to wake up in time and hit him hard enough to knock him out (yeah, a heavy rock to the head will do that to someone). She grabs his rifle and runs away to try to find Kuro, now she’s running in her underwear now.
She runs into the guest who made her fall in the beginning and they start fighting. Ultimately, Toshiko kills her and tries to protect a slowly dying Kuro. They make a promise to each other to survive and to depend on each other since Toshiko made her first kill. She’s no longer a normal member of society.
Then the final showdown happens between the main guy who was chasing Kuro (I could honestly never remember his name) and they have a stalemate. Everyone is pointing a gun or a knife at each other and then…
Well, the ending is just literally someone driving in a car and saying, “Oh, you thought that they made it out of the forest? Hahaha…”
Honestly?? In any other manga, I’d be furious and probably give this two stars easily but with the way everything was set up, I believe this was done on purpose to keep it an open-ended ending. I want to believe Toshiko and Kuro made it out, but barely, but that’s the romantic in me and that’s the one who rather have a bullshit happy ending than a more realistic/tragic one.
From beginning to end, I really enjoyed this manga. Even though it’s wildly over the top, even with some plot holes I’m trying to figure out (like, when did Toshiko learn how to use a gun behind Kuro’s back?), it’s still really good and the art reminds me of American comics during that era (1990s)!
Apparently, there was a movie released in 1998 that added and edited a few things out (like the whole creepy uncle thing, I hope) but hmm. Usually this kind of stuff, I wouldn’t consider it really but there was just something about the art style that intrigued me and I feel pretty good about it.
There really isn’t a lot of complaints I have about this manga. The sex scenes were treated with respect (does that even make sense?) and it wasn’t really gratuitous as much as a typically usual manga would. I’m actually kind of glad this manga was only two chapters long. Same thing with the ending – if the ending wasn’t open-ended, it probably would have cheapened all the action and everything that the couple went through in the span of a few weeks.
Also, I really like Toshiko’s transformation. It’s kinda believable in that kind of situation but… again, when did she find time to learn how to use a pistol, much less a rifle?!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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