Golem Hearts

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I recently read the series and caught up to it. Its been on my to do list for a while, because the title and cover seemed interesting. Plus a new shounen is always a potentially great day. After reading it I had wished I did so sooner.

The story and premise is great thus far. Golems aren’t exactly a new thing (what is?), but I’ve never seen a series that focuses so well on them. The treatment of Golems as tool and prospect of a living golem is also extremely interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes in a world where everything ... from the arts to warfare is shaped by golems.

The characters are somewhat cliche as with any shounen, but endearing enough that you still love them. As always the main character is happy go lucky, hard working, kind, etc. And as always it just works. I also personally love how this one isn’t relaly ambitious. Everything he does is for the sake of others and he truly only wants to help. The same goes for his dream. He doesn’t want to be the very best like some 10 year old with his head stuck in the clouds. He truly wants to help and even his dream reflects that (I’d say more, but knowing me it’d lead into a spoiler. It becomes pretty apparent early on what I’m referring to).

Overall this manga has been very good so far. The arts nothing amazing, but nothing cringe worthy either.

The only problem I have with this series is the rival, which for me is often either a hit or a miss and this one was sadly a miss. Though simple on paper the concept of a rival is pretty difficult to pull off successfully. They aren’t the antagonist or necessarily an ally. It’d be closer to say they are a foil to the main character, but wven thats not necessarily true. Suffice to say the rival and main character have a complicated relationship and I’m disappointed to say that here the rival feels to generic and bland. I get the feeling the author added a rival because every shounen manga just needs one and then he (she? I am now regretting not researching the author first) focused too much on having the rival be a contrast to thhe main character. Yes I get that everyone is worse than you. Yes you’re a child prodigy full of talent because of you not your super powerful relative. Yes, you’re a special little snowflake above all. As of right now the rival feels to me like an annoying emo teen. Also why do all of these “genius” child prodigies seem to know nothing about genetics? Its true that learned traits gained from hard work can’t be passed down, but if its a natural talent then it could be a family trait. Luckily the series is still fairly new. Its entirely possible that the author will improve the rival as the series continues, but as of right now he is the worst part of it for me.

I would like to add that I gave the series a 7 simply because its new. It has a lot of promise and potential and honestly if it continues down this path with improvements I’ll happily give the series a 10.

The consept of golem hearts was very good and unique it seems the ending was rushed after the series probably got canceled by the publishers the author was likely forced to wrap up the story within a few chapters but at that point i understand just getting it over with and moving on if it had gotten a chance to go further it could have been very good although generic in many ways so maybe it having almost nothing diserning it from other more popular and overall better writen battle manga was what caused it to get canceled by the publishers it was trying to ... compete with mainstream battle manga without much if any twists on the tropes asociated with the genre which 99.99% of the time is just a losing battle from the start. Though it felt like the author didnt know how to write slower moments and transitions between scenes properly so things were rushed from the start for example the initial 4 year time skip and the transition to the enterance exam after it was explained to the exam takers.

Golem Hearts is an adventure manga in a fantasy setting with super power elements. It is targeted towards a Shounen audience.

It was serialized in the biggest manga magazine of Japan: Weekly Shounen Jump. Being known for its harsh environment for upcoming authors, this can be a blessing with lots of exposure but it can also be a curse because of the very high level of competition.

The art and story are done by Gen Oosuka. I never heard this name before. Why? Because this was his first real published work. He had some One-Shots before, but in terms of serializations, Golem Harts was his first ... manga. Let's not talk around the important things. The manga got cancelled (axed), so it ended prematurely with only two volumes.

-- Story and world building --

The story combines elements of other highly popular manga. For example the setting and the topics remind me of Fullmetal Alchemist. And the story telling and the comedic elements remind me of Fairy Tail. While it is of course very subjective of Fullmetal Alchemist or Fairy Tail are good or not is up to the viewer to decide. But I think it is undoubtedly true that both series are popular. So what went wrong? Why was Golem Hearts not as successful as those two?

The main character Noah is not a human, but a Golem. He was created by his master Lamech who has the profession of a sorcery scholar. Because they get along so well (and because Lamech actually considers Golems as actual beings instead of tools), Noah aims to become the worlds number two arcanist. With that, the number one spot would of course be given to his creator. Indeed a huge goal to pursue.

During his adventures he also encounters some bad guys. But since there are only two volumes, not a lot of character progression can be expected. Most characters get introduced once and then never show up again.

There is also some trial for arcanists called entrance exam which Noah is about to take. It is comparable to the Hunter Exam from Hunter x Hunter or the Chuunin Exam from Naruto. But with the manga being cancelled, this is basically the only story arc that exists. With only covering around 3 or 4 chapters you can't really call it an arc in the first place.

-- Art --

The art style is actually not bad!! I love especially the backgrounds which are really rich and detailed at times. The characters look good as well but are lacking a bit of uniqueness - personally I am totally fine with that. All in all I have nothing to complain about the art style.

-- Enjoyment --

I think Golem Hearts was a really easy and quick read. I could have easily seen this as a long running Shounen series if it wasn't for the competitive environment of Shounen Jump. Maybe this manga could have become a big one if it was serialized in a magazine with less competition like Shounen Sunday or Shounen Magazine.

With the author being forced to end the manga way earlier than he had planned, all the build-up from earlier chapters and all the introduced characters never have a chance to shine. This leaves lots of people being disappointed who then rate this manga with a low score. It is true that the ending is of course pretty forced, abrupt and not what the fans or the artist wanted at all.

Just in the second-to-last chapter some new bad guy shows up and wants to.. of course.. dominate the world. But his attempts are crushed so easily in half a chapters what makes him look like super weak. There is no time to explain how, but some way after a time skip of 5 years, the initial big goal set up in the beginning of the manga is reached. In a pretty anticlimactic way.

Considering all of this, the ending is naturally lackluster and not satisfying at all. The huge goal of the journey was reached way too quickly, in a similar fashion like it was done in Alice to Taiyou.

I hope the author has a better run with his next manga called Doron Doron, but to be honest, I don't see lots of hope. The ratings are already pretty low again and... Yep. It is also serialized in Shounen Jump. I think it might only be a matter of time when the next upcoming manga is waiting to be published and one low-ranking manga has to leave its serialization status for something new. This choice might soon be Doron Doron which then would also crumble under the Shounen Jump curse. But hey, this is about Golem Hearts.

I wonder how many manga one author can afford to get axed until he is considered "burned" in the manga industry.