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After reading two other works from this author (Spirit Circle and Sengoku Youko), I expected this to be on par with the others given the reviews. But, what I got instead was a series that I found it quite hard to read and one that I only finished because of my admiration for the author (and while it seems weird that I gave it a 7 despite the not so kind criticism that I've just given it, I'll explain my reasonings after I finish this paragraph, which isn't done yet because I'm rambling within these parentheses, and now I feel like dragging it on because ... you want to read the rest of this review and I'm in a jocose mood so I'm trying to drag this on because I think it's funny but it's really not so I apologize and also implore you to not write run on sentences like this when you (or if you) write a review in the future).

If you're familiar with the author's works, this series will feel very familiar to you, as he has a signature style that can be seen in many different aspects of the storytelling: the characters are loosely described at first and get characterized through fast paced events, the subtle and constant subversions of characters through increasingly complex storytelling, and the use of death as a means to progress characterization and plot forward. All of these things (and if they don't make sense to you then don't worry, you'll understand if you read something by him) are very difficult for mangaka to pull off, which is why I appreciate his style so much (yes, I do, despite the critiques I'm going to drop soon) and why I am working my way through all of his material. But, as mentioned before, this series was hard to get through for me, because it felt like he either failed or was very weak with all of his signature details.

The author's style heavily relies on a strong beginning; if it doesn't work out in the beginning, then the entire manga feels as though it's been corroded, because the most excellent portions of his works are at the end, as every series I've read builds up and gains extreme momentum until a huge ending with many twists and turns and satisfactory explanations leave the reader with a huge feeling of satisfaction; the guy is a genius, yet in this manga about hammers made out of biscuits (not really but lets pretend it is), his wobbly begging covers the brilliance he had tried to create by the end.

The begging fails because: the main character is annoying and makes no sense, and even though you get the feeling that it's a set up for something later (as every minor detail by this author is a set up for some lesson or characterization moment), it feels too forced. And, the rest of the main cast feels flimsy and uninteresting--which, is by design, as the author wants to build up his characters (since that's his style), but as I said before: the beginning is crucial for his style, and his characters are too weak at first to make everything go smoothly (yes, this implies that the ending is actually good). There's also another major issue: predictability--because, if you've ever read a series by this author, you can tell when people are going to die, and in this series I could feel every single twist and turn coming up, so I felt no emotions during the scenes meant to be potent because I knew they were coming and I knew why (as I know the authors formula).

So, if you still managed to read through this, I'm impressed (I've written alot honestly), so I'll reward you with my explanation of why I gave it a 7 (which isn't really a reward--it should just be a function of this review): this biscuit but not food related manga has a brilliant overarching storyline on par with the author's other works, and the last 10 or so chapters are beautiful and string together everything he had been subtly planting since chapter one. However, because most of the time spent reading was painful because of the failed execution early on, I can't give this any more than a 7. And, while part of me felt like I could rank it lower, the quality of the ending, combined with the fact that a first time reader of this author's work might not have the same predictability issues makes it impossible for me to rate it under a 7 without exerting unfair bias.

So, a 7 it is, despite the potential for it to have been a 10.

This is the worst manga I've ever read, and yes, I'm including random one-shots made by fan fic artists with 2,000 social media followers into this equation; Shogumaru is worse than those.

And, to begin, I need to get something off my chest (and no, I'm not talking about the ingrown hair or the unidentified insect that bit me 3 summers ago and is now a sentient lifeform communicating with me through telekinesis): this series does everything poorly, so I won't give it a lengthy review like I do with other series, because the author didn't put any effort into this series. So, therefore, I ... will try to put as little effort into this review as possible (which is what the insect attached to my nipple is telling me).


Story: Bad, because it makes no sense, as every possible joke derails whatever excitement or build up that should be occurring. And the plot, which revolves around a pint sized boy protecting a girl, is utterly destroyed (despite having potential if you only read the synopsis) by the main character being the dumbest culmination of conundrums and annoying traits that you could possibly insert in a weekly gag manga with a barely consistent storyline. Despite being 4 feet tall, the male MC is not a short king (shout out to the short kings of mal--I'm not one of you, but I'm always looking out for your well being).

Art: Bad--and very surprising, considering this got greenlit by SJ (it doesn't even look like it'd get an A in a high school art class).

Characters: While I hate almost every slang term that's ever been created by Gen Z; the generation with record low literacy rates and falling IQ scores, I have to give them credit for the term I'm about to use: fortnite balls. These characters are literally fortnite balls.

Enjoyment: I'd rather be playing fortnite with screaming children permanently damaging my tympanic membrane (or ear drum for Gen Z kids who think I just mentioned a drug) than read this headache inducing trash.

Overall: 1--the only 1 I've ever given a series (and hopefully it'll stay that way).

I don't normally write reviews this early, but seeing so many positive comments about this series makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. This series (so far) is not good, and many of the things people are saying in these reviews are objectively wrong, so while this already sounds like a condescending review written out by a angry loser (which is an accurate assessment of myself), I feel like I have to make this, because the other commenters aren't being truthful.

TLDR: This series feels like something you've read before, but with worse art (characters not even being proportioned properly throughout a chapter), a ... worse story (boy goes to do thing because people die and he has no friends because the author flew through an entire arc in just 5 chapters), and worse dialogue (it's jammed like wano country one piece, except the text boxes are in all of the wrong spots, and the story is a flare and no substances because the most unique thing about the story is the big tiddies on major side characters).


Story:

I think there are two major draws to this series: the characters and the story. The premise, which feels loosely based off of little red riding hood, is something that attracts many fans (especially western) because they grew up reading about little red riding hood as a kid. So, with such deeply tied sentiments, a manga that includes relatable monsters, as well as imagery that feels somewhat homely feels like a must try for many people.

But, despite what seems like a good idea (a hunter association of riding hoods that fights evil werewolves and witched), the author was able to make the concept tedious and almost plagiaristic in just seven chapters (which is an impressively bad feat). For such a great concept, red hood already feels like an over the top, outwardly ambitious (meaning it projects itself to be genre bending, but ends up being as run of the mill as you can get) hunter hunter clone but with a couple of wacky additions onto the main premise so that the reader feels like they're getting something new, but they aren't (again, outwardly ambitious).


Characters:

The characters are the second major reason why people review this new series so highly, but in general it's for bad reasons rather than good (that probably doesn't make sense but keep reading - I promise that I 'm onto something). To be fair, I'll first include the two good characters that are offered: the mc, and an old dude that's a fatherly figure to the mc. The relationship between these two, and the potential lore that is hinted as the old man is further extrapolated on, is an actually pleasant addition to this series; one that isn't otherworldly in it's ability to capture you, but it is enough to pull you.

But, the next two characters I'm going to discuss are the main reason why I think this series is popular (and why I strongly dislike this series so far): they're two chicks that feel like they're seven feet tall, and they have monster sized assets (boobs and ass). I have a theory that people enjoy these characters and overlook the negatives of the series because of horniness, and I think it's true because the internet threads revolving around red hood for this almost exclusively talk about the two of them (instead of the actual story). But, even though it sounds like I'm someone who hates overly sexualized characters - I'm not. If the character is well written and their image fits their purpose for the story, that's fine with me - I'll like them because they're a good fit to the story. But, the image of these two (big hulking babes) feels like a strange attempt at uniqueness rather than a good faith effort to implement good design into the story. They're overly sexualized for the sole purpose of capturing the horny youth, and one of the reasons for me thinking that is this: one them is the most poorly designed character I've ever seen in any manga (and I've read One's version of one punch man).

The female in question has the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger but with grotesquely defined muscles that straddle the line of being considered orc like. She has the boobs of a mother who feeds 10 children a day, and then has the face of a anime school girl that struggles with bulimia (the face is slender and very petite and not rough and chiseled like her body). So, combining all of those elements feels like the accident that made the powerpuff girls, yet this character doesn't feel like a true success like the PP girls (maybe not the best acronym). This character feels like an utter ass pull to be original, but she looks abysmal. And, on top of this, the author fails to get her proportions correct whenever she's shown, so it feels like she's constantly different sizes while reading, which is utterly unacceptable.

So far, her popularity seems to have spawned from images of her popping up on forums, and then people saying: "who is this? I need to go read that series ASAP." But, if people are going to get horny over creatures that should be in Ripley's believe it or not, I'm a bit scared for the future of manga (if this becomes a successful series on the world's biggest manga platform), because it could open a floodgate of characters styled after rule34 content into the mainstream. This isn't inherently bad, but seeing as this story is abysmal at the moment and it's still popular, people are overlooking it's failures because of horniness, and that's scary to me.

Art and Pacing:

I'm running out of room so I'm going to combine these two elements. The artwork itself is good, and the author has a clear talent for drawing, but the pacing is utterly awful, so the dialogue gets squished, and then the art doesn't feel good on your eyes despite it being decently drawn (except for that one lady who's proportions keep getting changed - that's just bad artwork). Sometimes, in order to change the pace and have more intimate conversations, the art quality becomes lowered (as almost every other series does), but for some reason, the way these types of panels are presented in this series makes it feel like a work by a novice high schooler that shouldn't have ever been printed.

Also, the pacing combined with shoddy story telling make for a depressing combination: some good designs, coupled with decent ideas, provide the spark that all new series need to people gripped. But, in this manga, those things are shown, and then eviscerated by an overly generic plot, a lack of context despite the bombardment of dialogue, and then the speed which makes parts of the story that should have appeared 20-30 chapters in be shown by chapter 6.

This manga felt weird from the start: a detective that falls madly in love with criminals, to the point where she does criminal acts.

When typing this down, it feels like the plot has some promise, because there are salvageable ideas that could come from a main character who fits that description. However, the author of this series seemingly does everything wrong with the execution, to the point where it's unclear what the purpose of the manga is, and why anyone in the world of this series even bothers to put up wither her (the MC's) shenanigans.

Instead of exploring a dark element where the ... detective commits crimes for love and covers them up, the MC commits crimes, but somehow her actions always allow for the police to catch the bad guy, and somehow, without explanation, the MC will be credited with planning the entre thing out and her crimes will be absolved. She also puts herself in harms way, and instead of being maimed or hurt, the author wrote in a male character that always jumps in to protect her, even though he has no real reason too other than being a complete simp (which also makes no sense because some lady in the office is in love with him but he doesn't notice).

Pros: None

Cons: The characters introduced, outside of the MC, are all extremely shallow, and seem to be used as props to fill in gaps in the writing of the MC that the author needed to fill while producing this series. Nothing about them seems well prepared or throughout, as the most prominent side character is supposed to have a running gag about being a fitness freak, but it rarely gets brought up. Yet, when it does, he'll have a dumbell and everyone will comment about his love for fitness, yet he never talked about working out for huge periods of times before this. That's just one example of the lack of execution in this series If I had more room and time, I could list issues with just about every side character so far in the series.

The story is extremely flawed, as there is no real direction. Like I mentioned before, the MC is the entire focal point of the series, yet, it feels like 5 chapters into the manga the author realized he needed to have more of a plotline than the MC oogling over criminals, so he added an organization, and the problem being judged for solving crimes the wrong way. Sure, this scenario has potential, yet like every other part of the series, it's poorly done and doesn't feel like it's important to the story, even though it's probably the most important aspect of the entire manga.

The art is good, but doesn't stand out in any way.

The pacing is also good, but I wish it was faster because reading this series gave me more headaches than I had anticipated, so it would have been nice to finish what I read much faster.

I dropped this series but still gave it a 7, because the first half of the manga was so entertaining that I originally wanted to give it an 8 (maybe even a 9 on a good day). I would feel wrong if I gave it a 6 or under, because the series did offer me significant entertainment.

However, as the series progresses through significant climaxes, the author seems to snap: it feels like they decided to bypass their original ending and thus continued to make a series without the flexibility or creativity that is needed to make late game scenarios entertaining. Nobody wants to read ... a series that repeats the same ending to each arc over and over again, but here we are; that's what happened in this series..

If it had ended at a certain point, I would have loved it, so my head cannon has decided that the newer chapters don't exist.

I would normally go into more detail about the art and whatnot, but I've said my piece: If you're willing to accept that the series runs too long and you'll stop enjoying it eventually, then please read this, because it's really good up to a point. If you can't do that, don't read this.

Before I even get into the review, I have to mention the other reviews, because they're wrong; this series is a manga adaptation of the anime, not the other way around. So, because this series is a drawn version of the anime, the pacing is weird, the story is scattered, and the ending is just a random spot where the publisher (or artist, I'm not entirely sure), decided to stop the manga and call it a day.

My 6 rating is because the story of yamato is fantastic, and the art in this is passable enough to make it readable. However, I would not recommend ... buying this novel set because the art is a bit blurry, and it feels like, as a whole, the the manga is not of a high quality (which goes back to it being a physical adaptation of an animated series).

I wouldn't recommend reading it online either. Your best course of action, if you're interested in the series, is to simply watch the anime.

Even if you like romance comedies, or softcore hentai, or elementary school girls with massive tits (hopefully you aren't that sus), this show will only give you a mere taste of what you want. On the surface, this show is palatable, but as you watch successive episodes, the lack of pacing, corny jokes, and stale dialogue will make you come to a stunning realizatiuon (which may sound like this): "Holy shit, I can't believe I just watched 10 episodes of this nonsense."

Pros:

The story itself has potential, and in comparison to other shows with similar plots, the MC is actually written to be ... more enjoyable because he's athletic and a functioning member of society (whereas other anime of the same type are usually captained by MC's that fall over when the wind picks up, or have such difficulty talking in social settings that they might need to be diagnosed with something).

I guess, before going into cons, I should remark about the voice actors. They're pretty good, and they bring the energy that the story desperately needs.

Cons:

The story does not live up to it's potential, because the humor misses too often, the plot doesn't develop enough, and it there are too many tropes relied on to make the anime feel like your even watching a new anime (it sometimes feels like uzaki is a haze; as though you've seen it before because so many of the situations are stale copies of other romance comedies). Unfortunately (or fortunately, for big boob lovers), the only thing that ever sticks out in a good way are uzakis boobs, and her mothers boobs.

The art is horribly average.

The pacing is ok but slow enough to show you how little effort was put into the series.

Conclusion:

Don't bother with this series. It feels like it has potential as you watch, yet any enjoyment will slowly wither away after a few episodes, and by the time you reach that point, you've already wasted your precious time on this planet. If you like huge boobs, just watch hentai.

When I first opened up the series, I thought to myself "wow, this is stupid." Now, after I finish reading and enjoying every new chapter that comes out on Sundays, I think to myself "wow, I guess I'm stupid."

Why am I stupid? Well, the most accurate answer is that I didn't pay attention in school. But, an answer regarding Sakamoto Days, involves this: I thought that the concept was lame and that the story couldn't reach farther than a few chapters. I ended up being completely wrong, because the story is excellent, and the main concept of the story is intelligently written so that ... it keeps every weekly chapter fresh and exciting. For thinking that such a good series had no hope, that is why I, dankchungus, am stupid.

Pros of the series:

The artwork is exceptional. It's not the greatest you've ever seen from a detail standpoint, but it's interesting to look at, and has it's own unique style, which should be appreciated in a time where so many different manga are being produced. It's hard to standout in the way this series does.

The characters each have their own unique quirks, which is normal for battle manga, but unlike other series that fail because their characters are too wacky and zany to fit in, the author somehow make the interesting people that show up feel human, despite their strange tendencies.

The story so far is beginning to expand to a larger arc, which is far different from the gag/battle manga that it appeared to be from the first few chapters. Each time a new person is introduced, they are seamlessly included into the plotline, which is now reaching towards a grander goal.

Cons of the series:

I honestly can't find a con, which is incredible for someone like me who thought that series was stupid and first glance and was prepared to knock it down. I've spent multiple weeks cringing before opening this series, because I expected it to drop in quality at some point, but it never did, so because of the excellence the author is currently putting onto the paper, I can't find any cons from between chapter one to chapter 21, which is where I currently am at the time of writing this.

I just binged the series in it's entirety (as of making this review), and several hours felt like only a few minutes. When a manga has the ability to grip you like this, you know you've just experienced something great.

However, I can't give this series more than an 8 at the moment, because there are some flaws that I was personally able to overlook, while others may not be able to.


Pros:

The story's main premise relies on the main female character, who struggles to contain her emotions regarding the main character who she refers to as senpai. At first her actions appear to ... be bullying, but as you flip through consecutive chapter, the author does a masterful job of gradually letting the reader look into the main female's psych, and understand what her true motives are behind her aggressive nature.

Another pro, which attaches itself to the first, is the realism I was able to draw from the manga. No, certain actions aren't realistic at all, and the way some characters act is in ways that could only happen in anime and manga. Yet, the premise of a girl struggling to flirt with a nerdy art study who she finds attractive is similar to what many people experience in high school, and what I have experience with as well. At the age of 16, I used to be very athletic, and only hang out with certain groups. The girl who I had the most interest in dating was more reserved, intelligent, and spent time with people I felt I shouldn't associate with. The struggle that the main female character deals with in interaction with "senpai" can be perceived as more complicated than what looks to be bullying at surface level: it's a girl unsure of what she wants, and is afraid to follow her feelings despite what appears to be confidence oozing out of her. While I never bullied my crush, I also never talked to her, and I feel some sort of connection to this series because I always felt like I shouldn't be talking to her for some reason, and if I tried, I never knew what to do or say.

Cons:

The biggest failure of the series, and what ultimately prevents it from receiving a 9 or 10 from me is the misandry. The author, in order to streamline the series and only have you feel connected to the main character and the main female, displays most people in school as dark shadows. While the lack of significant from other characters isn't a big deal, the male representations outside of the lead is appalling: for the first 50 or so chapters, until a certain school trip, the only other male characters are portrayed as over confident, self-righteous, and predatory assholes that the main character must push aside in order to protect the main female. While the inclusion of such men does bolster the lead's characterization, the author of the series fails to include genuinely nice males outside of our main character, which causes him to be put on an unworthy pedestal. As you read, it's hard to escape the feeling that the MC being the only nice guy at the school destroys much of the enjoyment of the manga. I was personally able to overlook this and imagine a deeper world than what's given, but at face value, the author made critical mistakes with male portrayals in this series.

Conclusion:

There's a chance you might detest this series, but if you're a fan of romantic manga's, this series is quick and engaging and might leave you with a pleasant smile by the time you're done. I would recommend this to most people, despite the flaws I described above.

Phantom seer, at first taste, seems like a potential candidate for the illustrious title of: "the next big thing." But, as the last 5, or maybe ten chapters have come and gone, the buildup provided (the very build up that made me excited about this series) has been squandered by generic, garbage, and an utterly boring moment (which might not be able to be considered just a moment, because it's last for over 5 chapters).

This series, if it get axed in the near future, will be eliminated all because of this one fight: the dollhouse fight, which is still going on, despite me cringing ... at seeing that it's still a thing with each new release.

So, if you haven't read this series yet, let me put this into perspective: there's some really cool story elements going on with this story. While some feels generic, other pieces are completely fresh and innovative (specifically his relationship with his overpowered mage sister). As the series chugs along, a level of anticipation builds because the author begins to hit his stride, and then, when a big fight is about to break out and build onto this train of good vibes, everything gets ruined. Instead of something interesting happening, the MC and his new friends get ambushed in a doll house, and fight possessed dolls for multiple chapters in a row. They fight for so long, that they're still fighting as I type this review, and in comparison to other chapters, the fights were quick and decisive, which makes this garbage pale of an arc way longer than any other combat moment in the series thus far.

PROS:

The artwork is very good.

Some of the main story elements are very interesting.

The powers are cool looking, and provide some level of mystique within the series lore.

CONS:

Dolls.