Time Paradox Ghostwriter

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tldr its fun, its good, it's short, read it
"Anyone could create, so you should create something only you can"

I think this manga was written as a very personal piece, perhaps it was something the author struggled with for a very long time. From the summary you could guess it was about scifi, but it's just a means to an end. Plot device. The story is about a man unable to create something that matches his vision of "creation". Something that would satisfy everyone. So he made a buncha generic manga with no real soul to them. He could only achieve his dream by using ... something he didn't create. It wasn't his. He's unable to call himself an author.

You don't have to be a mangaka to know that feeling of being in a creative rut, of being unable to do something that you want to. Well, the manga doesn't offer a solution, really. More of a suggestion. Be original. Be creative. If you can't be better than everyone, then be more different than everyone.

Try creating something today. Anyone could write a review. Only you could write yours.

Time Paradox Ghost Writer is the first manga that comes to mind when someone asks me, “name one manga series that ended before it got the chance to become something.” Time Paradox Ghost Writer had so much potential to become the next big “manga making” series in shone jump, the next Bakuman, but because of its cancellation, it never got the chance to become good. The reason why I wouldn’t recommend it is solely because of how rushed the ending is, which is definitely because of its cancellation. The only problem that I can think of besides it’s ending is the main characters motivation to ... write manga. The main characters just... wants to write manga, and that’s it. Overall I can’t say it’s recommendable, it’s good but once you finish Time Paradox Ghost Writer, you would just feel like you wasted your time.

Immediately dives off a cliff after the first two chapters and spoils its premise by doing absolutely nothing with its hook.

Teppei is an aspiring mangaka who couldn’t catch a break. Despite all the blood, sweat, and tears, effort can only take you so far, and a little innate talent is necessary to succeed. On the verge of calling it quits, a freak accident allows a microwave to deliver Shonen Jump issues from 10 years into the future. Can plagiarizing the amazing debut from its pages be the path to success? But what follows after Chapter 2 is just a disappointing series of events and course ... corrections that leads it to being cancelled after 14 chapters.

The issue isn’t so much that the main character knowingly plagiarizes manga from future issues of Jump and more of an issue of that it never felt earned or justified. It’s no wonder the audience didn’t have anything to gravitate towards. Interesting conflicts that could have arisen are neutered by chapter 3 because the girl he’s stealing from is an absolute ditz with no agency, unable to put together the situation herself. Having realized this, the series bends over backwards scrambling to piece together a new plot twist that sails on male angst and being applauded a white knight when the initial story was already interesting and compelling to begin with.

The second half also spends an unordinarily amount of time trying to say the greatest manga of all time should be bland and without personality instead of being the culmination of different life experiences. And the conclusion is so obvious from miles away it’s excruciating waiting for the punch line. Turns out, you won’t be able to reach anyone if you’re writing something detached.

What you’ll have is something lifeless…just like this manga. What a shame.