Babylon made wa Nankounen?
How Many Light-Years to Babylon?

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tl;dr: A short manga with a few really good jokes and skits but that is otherwise lacking.

This manga is pretty short, only one volume long, and essentially tells the story of the last human in the universe after Earth is destroyed. He gets picked up by a couple other aliens out of Earth’s wreckage but seems to have lost his memories. Still, the fact that he’s the last member of his species really gets to him, and thus he decides to go on a journey to try to make offsprings. The chance of different species successfully mating is incredibly small though, so he travels all ... around the universe in order to mate with as many women of as many species as possible.

As it goes on it deals with other plot matters, such as him getting his memories back and discovering why Earth was destroyed in the first place. However, overall, the plot isn’t that important, nor is it that good, basically just being an excuse to get involved with various alien and space related things. The characters similarly aren’t that great, with none of them feeling all that worth getting invested in.

The only aspect of this manga that felt like it had any substance was the comedy. This comedy can be pretty great at times making good use of the opportunities that sci-fi comedy allow for smart and unique jokes that feel somewhat reminiscent of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which makes sense considering the plot is somewhat similar as well. Unfortunately, the comedy falls flat as much as it lands well, and thus while there were certainly moments that were funny, overall the comedy was only okay. The art works well with the comedy at times, but overall I thought it looked pretty awful.

Toward the middle of the manga, there is a joke about overworked artists being pressured to produce an impossible amount of pages in a ridiculously short amount of time; that one-off gag feels particularly relevant here, considering that the main issue with 'Babylon made wa Nankounen?' is how rushed and unpolished it is.

Let's start with the writing. First, the story begins as a crude comedy, with humor befitting of a thirteen year-old's horny webcomic, and the pacing and dialogue of 2008/10 YouTube sketches. Quickly, however, the tone and plot do a 180, leaving us with more of a 2012/14 Nostalgia Critic kinda vibe. These tonal ... shifts would've been enough to give one whiplash, but then, the whole thing gets messy and convoluted, to say the least, with twists so telegraphed, they'll resonate in your head in Morse code as you read through them. Finally, the conclusion is a letdown of epic proportions, as you realize that the events that set the whole story in motion never needed to happen, because, had the antagonist simply thought out a better (very obvious) plan, they could have achieved their goals easily and without going out of their way so much.

Next, the characters. None of them really jump out as either awful or great. Bub is alright as an every man protagonist, if a little bland. I literally don't have anything else to say about anyone else. I think there are close to ten named characters in this single volume manga that I just finished reading and I really just remember the main guy.

Finally, the art. There's just not much to look at. Most of it is empty black backgrounds, some circles and dots (for planets and stars)... The character design is cool, but the lines are so unrefined. Also, nothing is ever done to visually communicate any sense of importance or grandiosity, outside of one place, the library planet, which was admittedly pretty cool; but I which space had been made to seem like a more interesting place to explore.

Overall, I do not recommend. I thought this would be a cool little space story that not many people knew about, but now I know from first-hand experience why it's not popular, and I think that's a good thing...