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It's a fine read. The fights are engaging, the artstyle is lovely and unique, and the funny, cute moments are balanced with serious ones. Most battle shounen I've read are like that. But KNY achieves a certain effect by setting up adequate expectations from the beginning.

First, it seems to revolve around a brother-sister bond, but once you get past a few chapters it becomes pretty clear that Nezuko is no different from an animal mascot because she barely talks, only there to appear cute and fight. So I am not very disappointed when the story shafts a brilliant, underused concept in favor of a more ... classic battle shounen trope of the protagonist having more important bonds with other male characters.
Okay, now that I have actually written that out, that's actually pretty depressing and disappointing, but not enough to take you out of the story because the story doesn't center on any themes whatsoever. It's straightforward and honest, just like the protagonist. Speaking of him, I love him, because he is so sweet, and there are plenty of fine, non verbal details that add substance to what would other wise be a typical goody-two-shoes personality. He's no deeper than that, especially since the story doesn't connect to any themes, but that's okay. Not everything has to be Fate/stay night.

As always, I often have my criticisms of the way female characters are portrayed, such as with Nezuko and the unnecessary, weakly-excused design of one of the female Pillars. But I do praise the other female Pillar, who wears the same battle outfit as any other male fighter, has important relationships with female characters, and whose friendship with another male character isn't romantic (and, there's nothing wrong with romance, but it's annoying when female characters always have to be romantically involved with a male character when the male characters don't get that same treatment).
The last thing I have to say about the female characters is that there really isn't much to say about them, and in the case of KNY it actually doesn't bother me, because none of the male characters are particularly well-developed or go through an interesting character arc either. That part is refreshing, because the "homoeroticism" found so often in battle shounen often fuels the misogyny by developing male characters but not female ones.

Anyway, maybe other people don't think the same, but I thought it was interesting how romances are implied in this manga. There are a few sweet moments that hint at things and at the end you see the result of all that in a timeskip. There are no big confessions of love, so it all feels like it would naturally happen once the events move past endgame.

Finally, I like how short this manga is, but maybe it's a little too short, considering the importance of the last arc and how many important character moments are stuffed in there. But it's not disappointing or immersion breaking.

I think this manga is something I'd look back on fondly for its simplicity and aesthetics.

I get why Berserk is at the top of MAL's manga section, and it's because of the Golden Age arc. It's in the character development and outstanding writing. We get to see how the characters react to different developments in their lives (especially Griffith) and how their relationships and motivations change. Characters like Griffith are detestable, but they are completely understandable and even relatable. All the events that come to pass to culminate in the Eclipse make sense. It's like watching an epic Greek tragedy.

My biggest problem is with the portrayal of the female characters. To start off, there's an evil group called the ... "God Hand," consisting of 5 members. And the only woman just happens to also be the weird sexual sexy one while all the males look very different from one another and don't get spicy angles. It gets worse: how this series handles depictions of rape. In one character's backstory we see that his childhood rape gets handled tastefully with no unsavory camera angling, but in the rapes of women they go on for way too long and are heavily angled to emphasize certain areas. Now before you say "but what about all the depictions of men brutally killed" are they all conventionally attractive and hardly look different from one another? There's this depravity that's too commonly found in men where they seem to really like drawing conventionally attractive women getting brutally raped. And I didn't even get to how the female characters are actually handled. If you look at them without their contexts they do seem very decently handled, with carefully thought out motivations and dialogue, but in the context of the story as a whole they are sidelined and used as plot devices. For example, the main female character's motivations center around one man, and later another/both men. That's not a bad thing, but the narrative seems to paint her romance with the other man as "true love" when in reality they're replacements for someone else. None of these issues are resolved or addressed, especially since that female character is "absent" for a large portion of the narrative so we never get to see her thoughts on anything until a small portion where afterwards she is rendered a damsel in distress again. And the female side characters are handled no different (female children aren't spared and are also given strange naked camera angles). A prominent female side character's story is overly sexual, and her "character arc" turns her from the weird sexual one in a leadership position to the meek, demure one following the team. I get that there's nuance in the other bits of that narrative but in the wider context of the story it's just so coincidental that she has to have those traits, especially when a certain male character's attitudes towards sexuality are handled with much more taste. And because of that, this work feels homoerotic, not in the sense that it's yaoi, but that there is a clear love for and preference towards men and the deep, transcendent relationships they form; women are simply middlemen or vessels of lust.

Guts is better than many protagonists I've seen and he does go through a character arc so I'll give him that. I've seen people complain about the battle shounen-eque parts of the later story but I actually think it serves his character well, except when nothing ends up changing and he continues blindly on his clearly pointless and meaningless goal. But that's not his fault, that's the fault of the writers for padding out the main conflict; Guts wants revenge on the main antagonist, who the writers have no idea what to do with. He's way too powerful and every arc ends in some kind of horrorfest where everything keeps going wrong, so they move to another area, and villain man keeps getting powerup after powerup while the few powerups Guts gets are killing him whenever he uses them. It gets tiring after a while, seeing this predictable parade pan out, because you cant tell there's no clear goal. There's never going to be an end to this godforsaken story.

But when themes are handled excellently, they do hit hard, especially coupled with lovely, unparalled art, which was what allowed me to read 300+ chapters. But I'm not keeping up with this manga any longer.

You know, this really was a fun manga to read. It monopolized my attention from start to finish and I binged it in two sittings. Upon reaching the final chapter, however, I found that I was lacking passion for it. Why?
I didn’t remember having any major grievances against the manga or problems with the plot. But still, something was bothering me. So after some contemplation I found these major problems with the manga that do not allow me to regard it higher.

The protagonist
I’m surprised I’m writing this. I found him to be really well written and compelling… well, at least at first. You ... see, we are given a satisfying backstory right from the start that explains why he acts the way he does. Sure the perversion was annoying, but a character can be unlikeable and yet well written. And he does have his moments that allow me to root for him. Denji is also downright hilarious. “What a mood,” I found myself saying. Moreover, his character held my interest. His internal monologues give hints of him perhaps growing as a person after meeting other with different perspectives and further explains why he acts the way he does. But… it was misleading. He doesn’t change at all. He’s still a hyper sexual idiot who doesn’t value connections with others outside of sex. That would be fine if that was more clear and other characters acknowledge that as fundamentally warped. You know, like in Evangelion, which actually explores its characters and how their worldviews and dispositions clash with expectations of others and of themselves. But CSM throws in some scenes of self reflection and proceeds to never address them again. Oh yeah why is he so warped anyway? Nobody bothers to delve deeper into if Denji really has a heart or not. So are fiends supposed to be sociopaths? They are fused with demons in the first place. Aren’t they supposed to want humans to die and suffer? What about pochita? Why is he a hero?

See? I got off track because the major problem I have with this manga is that it generates more questions than answers then proceeds to never answer them. It is a disorganized mess. I only thought it was good because I dismissed all those questions at the back of my head hoping they would be answered later. But CSM’s fast pace makes it clear that it will never have the time to do any of that.




As always I must see this from a feminist perspective. I appreciate that none of the female characters dress like strippers. Although they do get their clothes ripped to shreds. That would be fine since they don’t dress like prostitutes so they are basically half naked all the time, however it is unfair that the men hardly suffer clothing damage.
Also Jesus Christ. Of course a girl has to use her uniform as a weapon Kill la Kill style.
And most women just HAVE to seduce Denji don’t they?

One nitpick. Art suffers too much from same face syndrome, making introducing many new characters seem pointless.

That’s it. At least I found a manga as disorganized as I am.

If you want quality well written romance this ain't it.
The protagonist sucks. She falls in love very quickly and so does the guy after 10 chapters even though he is supposedly cold-hearted. Was expecting a kuudere but he actually is a fickle "not-like-the-other-girls" simp. Sure we get some hints of what she feels about her parents' deaths but they do not affect her character at all for some reason. Also, she learns selflessness after falling in love with the dude, even though she was lazy all her life. Like she does a complete 180 from her childish self with no redeeming qualities for the sake ... of simping for a guy who rejected her just because he's hot and nice to her for 5 seconds. She lacks an identity for such a stupid ass reason. If you want a well written codependent character like Casca this ain't it. Her only somewhat likable quality is being a herbalist (the fucking ML's words), which makes no sense in the first place because she is self taught and shouldn't know the names of any plants at all since nobody told her. Also, not only does he make the "cold-hearted" ML fall in love with her so quickly, but she also has other hot men who like her for no reason too. One of them literally likes her for no reason, and the other likes her for... being nice? Idk. Does anyone have standards anymore? Oh yeah, that Yuki guy sucks and has shitty reasons for being misogynist.
this whole thing was a mess.
The art is pretty. It's cuter to look at than your typical shoujo style. and I appreciate the cute character who is a ripoff of Shippo from Inuyasha. He even has the fricking fox tail.

I'd say read it if you like nice art, poorly written romance, harems, the FL and ML to fall in love super quickly, being disappointed, and an unbearable, spunky protagonist.

Overall, there are way better Hanzous on the market. VN's do this stuff better idk why I keep reading shoujo.

It's only good in the beginning.
The first 20 episodes are very entertaining, with lots of hilarious moments and interesting fights and characters.
By the time the anime and manga split off, Soul eater suffered from extremely slow pacing that bored me out-- the anticlimactic, poorly paced major fight before the new arc didn't help the transition to anime canon.

The most memorable thing about this anime that puts it above a 5 is the aesthetic. It's so unique and memorable. The OP song "Resonance" and the accompanying dynamic, well-choreographed visuals are a part of that.

Many moments also replied too much on fanservice (only intended for males).

If you're looking for quality romance and writing, this ain't it. Yuki, at first, gives the impression that she has standards and doesn't take shit from anyone. However, the first sign that she is somewhat shallow is that she was already in love with her senpai because he was nice to her one time. And then she gets seduced by Naruse because he kept sexually harassing her and suddenly doing nice things after he kissed out of the blue. Blah blah blah boring stuff happens and side characters that ad nothing to the story. Naruse sucks imo, he doesn't respect boundaries.

Art is 10/10 though.

Oh well. ... It's way better than Lovely Complex or Bokura ga Ita.

Just read the first few dozen chapters or so for the wish fulfillment, hot guys, and doki doki moments.

Ah, shoujo manga. My guilty pleasure.
Manga like this is pure fantasy indulgement and not quality romance if you're talking only about the relationship between Yukino and Souichirou (yeah i'm just going to use this spelling I don't know how many "long o's" his name has). You see, they are both terrible people so I guess they are perfect for each other, but they fall in love with each other way too quickly and for no good reason as well. Souchirou likes Yukino because he can talk casually with her (?) and Yukino likes Souchirou because... she should (since he looks attractive and appears to ... be an upright young man). And then in later chapters after you pass all the side character romance development you get to Souichirou's darker side that further establishes the fact that Souichirou does nothing for Yukino. It is there that Yukino self sacrifices too much, to the point of getting pregnant from forced sexual intercourse in a library that Yukino claims wasn't rape because she didn't say "no," just "wait." lol lolololololol i tolerate a lot of things that may seem weird by today's society's standards, but this? hmmmmmm. seems like a pretty toxic relationship.

The best romances are the sub plots. change my mind. souichirou x yukino bad.

Like so many shoujo manga, it starts out sweet, even with the reveal of Kira's secret. The declaration that Ninon would stay was Kira was touching. And Kira's bouts of crying throughout the manga was also heart warming..
But then of course the ML screws things up by virtue of having no self respect. Like seriously? Fucking the school nurse just because you feel bad for her? Do you have no boundaries? Not like he cares about others' boundaries anyway as he kisses Ninon out of the blue after he breaks up with some girl. And the worst part about it is that Ninon doesn't ... even care. She also doesn't care when the male rival kisses her suddenly with no consent. She just chalks it up to him teasing her/harassing her as if that is a normal way for one to show dislike. yeah no.
I did like the premise of helping a guy with a presumably short amount of time left to live find meaning and happiness and life, while the female lead grows because of that (she becomes more confident and even gets the Character Development Haircut in the first chapters). That's what I like to see. A relationship that is not one-sided. But of course Ninon ends up doing more for Kira-kun anyway lol.

I recommend it for those who want wish fulfillment and hot guys, and doesn't mind sacrificing quality writing for it. Better than Bokura ga Ita.

Like so many manga in the shoujo demographic Lovely Complex starts out nice and sweet. Koizumi has a crush on this boy that's her type (taller than her) who is friends with Ootani. Ootani has a crush on this girl who is his type (shorter than him) who is friends with Koizumi. They decide to help each other out. Maybe their relationship can change from this.

But after Chapter 10 the manga starts getting very painful to read. And it is not good pain. It's... cringeworthy. And not the good kind like Watamote. It's an unrelatable cringe that comes from watching furry cringe compilations or whatever. ... Because Koizumi starts to like Ootani and Ootani leads her on with the whole abandoning seeing his ex girlfriend for going to a concert with Koizumi. You get the feeling that maybe they;re better off as friends because at some point after Koizumi confesses her feelings to him hes' like "nope I feel no sense of physical attraction to you at all. like zero." And yet she still keeps pursuing him... it's just bad. Well whatever.

king of shounen.
everything was wrapped up perfectly. everything made sense. nothing felt out of place or unnecessary. very memorable.
even the dub was amazing,
moreover the female characters aren't treated like crap by the author (ahem like in Naruto) which probably has something to do with the mangaka being a woman. Unlike in other stories in battle shounen Fullmetal alchemist portrayed a romance between a man and a woman that didn't involve the woman also fighting, but in an equally useful role (mechanic) because other battle shounen (ahem naruto and bleach) just sideline them and make them useless in fighting anyway lol
the story dealt ... with some nice philosophical issues without going into territory the mangaka wasn't equipped to handle efficiently and with nuance (ahem attack on titan).
The idea of "alchemy" as a power system was also very unique and memorable.