Tougen Anki
Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood

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Just got done reading all of the current chapters. At first I was enjoying the art and I liked the MC, I'm not too fussed about generic MC's like that. The first few chapters almost gave me mixed vibes between TG, BBB and Blue Exorcist. But then it suddenly changes pace from the academy, to a whole arc elsewhere before we even get time to be with the supporting cast.

At first I didn't mind it too much, thinking it was a new mangaka (with their first series), who has a chance to improve. But nope, it was brought to my attention by someone else that ... this is definitely the same mangaka that made Bougyaku no Kokekko (who went under a different pen-name), and based on the reviews and criticisms, the same issues all exist in that series.

The pacing sucks, the character writing sucks, the art has moments where the characters look too stiff, no name characters have faces drawn in a completely different style, the constant use of tropes, trying to make me sympathise with the bad guys with some really awful writing, the power system which just seems to be a weird combination of a bunch of other manga power systems in one, etc etc.

Honestly, this should get axed. The mangaka should look into doing art exclusively, and finding a writer that is actually competent. That way he can focus on fixing the art issues, while not having to write a story that sucks so bad. The fact that he's going under a different pen-name and still making the same mistakes is proof enough that it's just a waste of time to have views like "It has potential, so I'll keep reading". These seem like inherent problems with the mangaka that won't change later down the road.

So It's been a while since I started reading this and I've wanted to write a review but I just couldn't find the right words to help me convey what I feel about this manga. Slight spoilers ahead btw.

SO first of all the plot is very generic, but generic doesn't mean bad. If it's done in a good way generic can also be good as seen from almost every new gen shounen. But this... is just mid. The story starts with letting us know that Ichinose Shiki (the mc) is a trouble maker, always making trouble for his old man and everyone around him and ... he also never goes to school. Then a few panels later person with some type of mysterious magic comes in and tries to kill Ichionse, but of course his old man tries to stop him and dies in the process. But guess what? HE WASN'T HIS REAL DAD!! HE PICKED ICHINOSE OFF OF NOWHERE WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT?! After this Ichinose is all alone and miserable and doesn't know what to do which is when a mysterious guy with rollerblades and an umbrella made from blood comes in and tries to awaken Ichinose's true power by training him a bit. After training for 2 chapters Ichinose is told to go to this school for oni (his type of species which are basically demons able to manipulate blood) who train to fight off the momotarou (a group of supernatural humans who use bacteria? as their power source). Which is when he realizes that HE IS INDEED THE MC AND THE KID OF SOME IMPORTANT ONI FROM A CENTURY AGO aka the plot of Blue Exorcist and a couple of other shounen we've all watched before.

I'm gonna be honest it is kinda enjoyable at times despite not having a single unique trait. The characters are all painfully basic and stereotypical, though a few of them have some mystery behind their character which is good. One thing that this series doesn't fail at though is making good looking characters. EVERYONE is good looking. The villains, the doctors, the students, the teachers all of them are good looking. But I do not appreciate the way the women are represented in this. Sure they are thick and beautiful but all of their boobs are seriously VERY HUGE. No human can carry that shit around. I understand that it might be for fan service purposes but that shit ain't attractive at all.

One thing I like about it is that while the oni or the "bad guys" are just creatures trying to live their life peacefully, without harming humans, the momotarou who are supposed to be the "good guys" are the ones that are seriously corrupt. I think this is a good representation of how some good and evil works and I appreciate the author for doing that.
That being said, you should read it if you are an extreme shounen fan or if you want to kill time if you're bored.

Currently having 50 chapters and being caught up to all of them, Tougen Anki is your generic Shounen Manga that seems to have elements of other mangas like CSM, TG etc. But this doesn't mean that the manga is "down to the core" bad or anything.

Incoming reviews might have spoilers-

Plot (6)
The plot is too cliche. As i said above, the plot is almost as same as Tokyo Ghoul, having humans and "enemies" with focusing the main characters siding with the "enemies", where enemies are considered threats to humanity and is being hunted down by a special group of humans.



Characters (7)
Nothing too much has been ... revealed about the main characters, but at the same time, every student of the Rakshasa academy is diverse in their own way in terms of looks and personality.


Art (8)
The main plus point of the manga. The art is very dope and the quality increases considerably as the tension on the scene increases. The manga also has comedy elements which is shown through the artstyle, having similarities to Gotouge Koyoharu-sir's doodle-like artstyle as seen on Demon Slayer


Overall (7)
The manga is decent, not too good but at the same time not too bad. Sure, it has its flaws but hey, the manga is still pretty new and it still has time. Personally speaking, i would recommend this manga to new readers cus its interesting af.

This manga is like isekai, but for shounen. There is literally nothing you haven't seen before. And I would be okay with that, there is plenty of anime/manga that either starts off generic but becomes something more exciting or solid that you can enjoy.

Unfortunately, this is not that.

Story: 3
The manga starts off very interestingly from the get-go, but damn does it fall off. The distinct art and the interesting powers carried the manga throughout. It's a coherent story, but extremely simple. Those are really the only compliments I can give. It then heads down to a downward spiral of generic and laziness, where even ... the somewhat interesting artstyle feels like it's calculated.
There are so many expositions as well, that it actually horribly ruins the immersion and slows down the manga, especially during the action. I can only imagine one character that I personally enjoyed reading through their thoughts somewhat. But that's just one character. If I want to read every single move and every single thought, I'd study chess. But even then, chess is at least a game, reading this is a chore.
The way it introduces characters and story plots, the way they're developed feels so very outdated; almost gives the vibe of a worse Naruto. The arc doesn't flow neatly with each other as things feel introduced either too quickly or too slowly. The story especially, I've read about 120+ chapters, why the hell has there only been a half arc that made a slight difference? I won't spoil the arc, but if we take Tokyo Ghoul for an example; each piece is constantly being played, affecting one another on the board where you see two sides slowly changing.
After 120+ chapters, none of that. Only one good arc that managed to change one character. The half arc is more so the current one, but also it's half because the damn character's pretty much forgotten because they needed to add lots of fighting, promptly ruining the build-up of a character. I'll go more into detail in the Characters section, where it relates to the 100+ chapters.

There's nothing fantastic or special about the story. Most of it is predictable but you can't even have fun with that, it's extremely bland by following other manga that's done much better, without improving or putting a twist. This manga reads like an outdated piece, that might've been popular a decade ago, if not that.


Characters: 3
Most if not all characters are unlikeable; some because they act childish and not in a cutesy way, and others are extremely frustrating and you wonder why they exist. Most of them feel cheaply written, and you wonder why they are all introduced the exact same way. But then you realize the two reasons as you read through so many chapters:

* It's all been done before, every single beat.
* they throw away or forget parts of character and story development, then add them haphazardly afterward for cheap emotional writing.

A few examples, it took a story 100+ chapters for them to realize "Oh, one of the characters needs to have an arc where they talk about teamwork. Let's do that right now, after 100+ chapters of story!", or "Oh, we completely forgot about this character. Let's just add a sob backstory with a flashback, and that'll fix everything!" The second part happens often, adding sob backstories in order to make you care about them. It's fine if they're sad, but you barely believe it, because it mostly affects them for one chapter. Luckily it doesn't happen to all characters, but sadly to the one most important - the protagonist.

They forget our protagonist's main motivation pretty much entirely, he becomes from a generic protagonist to a tool of a story, where he can just smile through everything since he knows he has plot armor, and is only really relevant in one good arc. It's fine if they wanted to write other characters, but at least add something more to our protagonist, instead of pushing his development aside for so long.
Most characters are similar to this, the manga makes characters irrelevant only to make them relevant through their usage of powers. At best, they have a certain quirkiness that helps you differentiate one from another. At worst, they're just another mob character that truly feels like they're wasting chapters.


Art: 5
It's edgy but in a more controlled/calculated manner, in a way that turns the edge so dull. Although the style may be distinct, sadly the manga suffers from the same face and body shape, making it difficult to follow along.
The art is not really inspiring to look at personally because it feels so calculated, similar to the story. It doesn't improve as the manga goes on. Actually, it feels like it gets worse; the choice of panels and angles, although that's also because of the story, sometimes focuses on something that's not needed.
It also gets ruined by constant talking that's not necessary. The fighting is a constant whiplash, but not even a fun one. I believe the reason is inconsistency. Sometimes, the body and head proportions don't make sense. It's as if the head is floating, or my guess; is the artist copy-pasted the head onto a body to avoid drawing it. The inconsistency with art makes the manga incredibly jarring, where it honestly sometimes feels like a constant rollercoaster without the fun.

The one thing I hate most is how stiff they all feel, and the artstyle does not help with that. Luckily their abilities sometimes offset the character's stiff movements, but there's so much more that actually feels so lazy from the art side, such as the background. The background is just filler, but not even a good one because very often it's just blank white. As an example, they would fight at night, but suddenly it's a blank background just so you can focus on the characters themselves. But by doing so, you're giving up a crucial aspect of art, just for the manga's convenience.

The art itself is not bad by any means, it's serviceable and sometimes enjoyable. But I can't give it any high praise, even in much later chapters where I am shocked it hasn't improved all too much.


Overall: 3
It's like an AI made this manga or hundreds of artists, editors, and writers constantly tweaking it, trying to figure out what the consumers want; instead of a group of people just inspired to draw something unique, or some kind of twist. The story's bland and insultingly dull, and the characters are generic and slow to or don't develop at all. Some characters like the protagonist actually lose progression and interest.
But, it's not to say this manga is devoid of pleasure. Just like when the big isekai craze happened, it's trash food. You can still enjoy eating the same thing over and over. This manga is just that, for shounen.

If it's your first manga, I don't place blame on you for thinking shounen manga are boring or left feeling insulted as a reader.
Because this manga does everything all shounen manga has done but is more bland and generic. I groan with every chapter or stare at it blankly. Please, read any other shounen out there. There are plenty of others that you can find entertaining.

This manga has most of the usual anime plot... I think its most similar to Naruto tho... the main trio, a teamwork strict strong sensei, heart breaking backgrounds, the main 8 mystery children (who r super strong), the two cults colliding in war. heck even the enemy side has a sad backstory.... Like the Uchiha Clan versus the world... but the MC reminds me of Natsu from Fairy Tail and theres this one character strictly like the MC from Fire Force (i forgot his name lol) I like 2 of the characters, the anxious dude and the weird ass big sis cuz they seem original ... enough but the plot is good and the series is fantastic! Awaiting new updates!

I am pretty sure the author likes Bleach, JJK, Chainsawman and wanted to write a story which turned into this abomination.

The first 21 chapters are a mishmash of rushed story arcs. No time for character development or proper introductions. The MC is annoying - the usual dumb loud mouth and likes guns. We don't really get much more development than that. Some characters just exist to info-dump on the audience. Some others exist just to fill cliche roles.

The art is pretty bland and I can't tell the other black haired kid and MC apart.

Overall I don't recommend wasting your time reading this ... review or the manga.

When I was reading the reviews on this manga here, I keep seeing people saying that this manga has too many plot holes and mistakes, and that it's generic and is just like other mangas. I often get annoyed whenever I see this because these readers only focus on how similar the manga is to other ones and refuse to read the manga for it's actual plot, characters, and world building.

In my personal opinion, I think the characters are pretty well built, Ichinose has a goal, and he may not be the smartest, but his fight scenes(especially with Mikaido) are incredibly good. The way he ... learns and developed his movement and fight, the way to the art developing and the poses get less and less stiff. It just makes you want to really scream in excitement while reading.

I also think that the other characters are pretty well built just as the main character, from the girl and her oni sister, to saw stitches, their backstory and character may be similar to other manga trios. But these days, manga trios are everywhere, Chainsaw man is a great manga too and it has more fans than this manga, therefore no one compares the manga trio to anything else(not that I'm hating on chainsaw man it's just an example).

The world building is great too, it gives you enough information about Onis and Momos, how each Oni section work together to survive and their underground hospital. The Momo government don't really have much details yet when you see chapter of them in their building. It seems just like the Oni if they could work on the surface. They show just enough cruelty of how bad the racism against Oni is, and how much Oni is just like the Momo, just with more power.

And alright, I have to admit, some characters can be a little confusing to read, but nonetheless the recent chapters with the guy with invisibility and tracking is incredible. I can't help but sit and wait for the next chapter wondering what will happen.

It's a great manga, it may be similar to other mangas but I still love it, it's one of many mangas I would be excited for each week and month. So please just read it as the manga it is, enjoy the characters as who they are drawn and written as, and stop comparing it to other mangas just because it's a bit generic, each generic manga still has it's own story after all.

So, I just read the 100th chapter and all I have to say is that Tougen Anki is about as generic as shounen gets. I can't feasibly imagine how this series has reached the 100 chapter mark, yet here we are.

STORY - 5/10
Boring. Very, very generic shounen arcs. Tragic backstories to make you feel bad for the good guys, completely unjustifiably evil villains for the sake of someone for them to fight.

ART - 5/10
Probably the best feature of the series. It's good albeit samey. Major case of same face syndrome with all the male characters, to the point where I actually cannot tell them apart ... sometimes. Again, it's just boring. Clothes, hands and weapons are drawn with a lot of detail, but when you're seeing the exact same poses over and over, and the majority of the characters wear the exact same outfit, it gets immensely repetitive.

CHARACTER - 3/10
Don't get me wrong, the characters are quite differentiated from one another and usually have their own unique backstory/reason for their powers, but how can I care about that when none of them are relatable whatsoever? Their stories are so generic that I can't empathise with any of them and when I can't even tell them apart by design, what else is there?

Don't even get me started on the female characters. There are minimal women in this series, and the few times they're shown to be relevant, they're drawn in this weird, almost fetishistic way - huge boobs, no waist, massive hips. They're there to be looked at, but they're so weirdly deformed that I can't imagine anyone even liking them for their designs, making their lack of personality even more egregious.

I can't even remember any of their names aside from the MC.

ENJOYMENT - 5/10
Now, this series can't be completely pointless if I've managed to read 100 chapters of it, but I think I'm borderline hate-reading at this point.

If you like formulaic shounen that's just like everything else out there but more mediocre, then this is the series for you.

Honestly, despite all the flaws that the manga had, I truly enjoyed the show. Maybe because of how comforting it was to know basically everything that was about to happen. It's pretty generic in every sense. The art isn't that great, but it does have really cool scenes to get you going.

Despite many of it's flaws though, I do like the storyline and where it is headed. Every character has a ridiculous power and its really cool to watch every one of them use it. The arcs, though I think there's only been two or three so far, has me hooked and I truly ... do look forward to it.

I think a lot of people have said this by now but it really does seem like a rip off of blue exorcist, and as much as I like the manga, I can't deny it. Also, another thing to note, is that the boobs are drawn really weirdly? I don't know why but it really threw me off how all of the girls were drawn.

Overall, I'd say read this manga if you're into really generic shonen series and isn't too picky about the storyline. Also, the hot men are a plus so there's that.

I read the most recent chapter of Tougen Anki a few days ago.

The plot is pretty generic, but it is still decent. Some people have stated that the "pacing sucks," but at this point i couldn't even tell you what that means because of how many people have said that about various manga that were either picking up pace after an introductory stage or had a lot of details to talk about in one of the more action packed parts of the story.

As others have said, the main trio are pretty similar to the Naruto trio, and the characters exemplify a lot of the traits ... of the fire force characters.

the main thing that i really liked about this manga was the way characters emotions were displayed when they interacted with each other. One scene i had in mind was the...

[SPOILER AHEAD]
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...part recently where shiki ichinose (the mc) went berserk while fighting momodera mikado (his friend (not the sasuke guy)) and they were having a heart to heart while trying to blow up shiki w/o killing him.
there are scenes like this in many other anime and mangas, but this one specifically was kind of different. usually what happens is that the mc goes crazy because of whatever special power he has (in the case of naruto it would have been the nine tailed fox) but instead it was used to exemplify the mc's character traits. also it displayed the power balance of the characters and how dangerous the enki powers are actually.
===========
[SPOILER OVER]

another thing that i liked was that the different characters were all explored to an extent unlike how the only thing we know about half the characters in other shows is that they are not the mc so they will not amount to half a shit.

thank you for reading
this is my personal opinion. if you don't like it i don't really want to know. just know i probably don't like your opinion either.

CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS!!!!!!


Story: 6| It's just the same old not so smart mc loses his family/parent (goes beserk/ finds out he's an OP dude) mostly gets picked up off of the streets, most likely gets enrolled into a school to gets stronger and hone his skills so he can get revenge. I feel like this would be the child of JJK and FF/ENS (Fire force) So a 6 for me really

Art: 9| The art is probably the BEST thing in this manga for me and if it ever gets animated i hope that it will continue to have this amount of detail in it.

Character: 9| ... I like all the characters really and I did enjoy the Kougasaki Jin and Byoubagara Homare backstory moment that we had which really served as a filler and I hope that sometime soon we get to have a better peek at other characters backstory as to why they joined and what their goals are. They relationships are not so refined and Shiki hardly made any 'friends' except for Mikado and Kougasaki maybe Homare could count as a friend aswell depending on how you look at it. Especially since we are getting more characters at this point so Character development could be better but with how i am feeling about it I will give it a 9.

Enjoyment: 9| Having finally caught up with TA feels great and i honestly cannot wait for more chapters and hopefully more intel on the Kikoku Unit. Something that did peek my interest was when (i think) Mudano said "He was THE other Mudano before me" When the panel was focused on Torikai Uri, i hope we get more information about that and about Mudano's black tattoo on how it looks and where it started and it's origins all that. I also hope that we get more female characters like Kuina and Miyo whom are more confident and prone to fighting.

Overall: 8| Despite it being a very generic manga i feel like it does have potential to be a big hit someday like JJK, I am totally fine with this manga and i hope it continues to grow big!! Absolutely love this btw Gou reminds me of Magna from BC XD

I kind of went into this one without much expectation, literally, because I didn't even read the description. I just saw the tags and the cover and decided to start reading.

Review will contain spoiler

Story
So far we have a development. We’re going somewhere decent. As you’ve read the description, our MC Shiki joins the “villains” to fight the “heroes” of the story. In actuality, Onis are victimized people like the Uchihas. Those who go berserk are not in control of their powers therefore they kill. Once they kill, they are hunted down by the Momotaro who view themselves as heroes but they are a vile ... bunch. So far the author is doing a good job with the distinction between good and bad. But that’s just all there is. A group that call themselves good and a group that are just trying to survive, not particularly that they’re “evil”. It’s rather simple and straightforward, which can be a good thing, but if you’re talking about complexity, then there’s none here. Something I'd appreciate is if the author delves into the human side of the perspective. We know Onis are considered "evil" and Momotaros are considered "good" but how does a human who is powerless to both groups look at them?

Something I want to touch on that is a vital part of the story are the fight scenes and pacing. I personally think fight scenes are alright, but when you pair that with bad pacing, it gets pretty bad. If you showed me just a panel of a mid fight scene I’d say it looks good, but if I read from beginning to end, then I can tell the fight scene actually ain’t that good. You don’t want fight scenes to last 10 chapters of back and forth but you also don’t want them to last a couple panels, you know? There’s no thrill. Characters make a couple good moves and someone goes down. Just like that.

I think the powers for the Oni are pretty neat and cool and each character have their own manifestations that are unique to their specific backgrounds but I do wonder what the limitations are. For example the teacher Mudano has the umbrella that rains blood armies that shoot arrows. But then he can also control it to turn into a dragon in the chapters later. So as long as it "rains" blood, can it be anything? Or does it have to be associated with his past? I don't know. With the other Oni characters too, it seems their manifestation can change too, so this aspect of their power is a little unstable.

Art
I think the art is good. Although I do think the transitions between panels could use a little work. Sometimes fight moves make no sense to me as I can’t understand what just happened to cause a wound or for a character to be pushed back, etc. We see the same issues in non-fight scenes as well where characters make a particular movement but the impact seems different from the movement.

Character
On their own, I think the characters are alright. They each have their own unique personalities and backgrounds. Shiki reminds me a little of Bakugo with his way of speaking. Personality wise, Shiki has more humanity but he’s just severely rebellious right now. I’m not gonna talk about the other characters as they aren’t very important right now. They do get their own little moment to shine but they’re just background noise at this point.

Moving on to an issue I found poking annoyingly at me. Something I find not very well established is Shiki’s relationships with others. So far he hasn’t developed much of a friendship with any of his other classmates, aside from Mask face kid, but we do have some outside of that. The only budding friendship I can understand is Shiki and Mask face kid. From the start to the present, they have had a cat and mouse relationship and we can see them develop from then to now, how closer they feel to actual friends. The other friendships I find rather contrived. Shiki meets a little girl who loses her family during the battle and he gets friendly with her, understanding her loss as a Oni who lost family, and he cries for her so hard during the final scene to encourage her to smile. The other friendship is when Shiki, as a disguised person named Natsu on a mission trip with the others to discover their desired Units in the Corp, meets a Momotaro and they immediately become friends within two or so chapters. They have a rather deep seated talk about “would you kill your friend if you find out they are an enemy” and I just have to pause myself because these two who have just met consider themselves friends…..not just friends, but friends who believe each other on a profound level. In these two cases, with Mei and the Momotaro, the friendship had no build up and they just happened. I don’t think that is very well written at all. With Mei, I know they have the connection of losing family, but do they have to go on crying in the middle of a fight? For the Momotaro friend, I would’ve bought the “my long lost pal from elementary school is actually a Momotaro now” more than this. At least then there’s a prior establishment to why they are friends and how that will affect them going forward. There’s more impact that way.

Enjoyment/Overall
We’re only at the beginning and I did enjoy what I read. I can’t say this is a bad story based on what could be 1/10 of the actual story. So far it’s been generic but so many stories are generic and can still be enjoyable. All I can say is that pacing and character developments could use a lot of work. However the author wishes to develop the story, I hope they do it better. Because the story itself seems fine to me, just the execution needs work.

It's a pretty generic story. It follows the typical shounen manga. There's nothing wrong with that, tbh. But the reason why I got a pretty low review was because of the part around chapter 20-30+. The villain Shiki faced (where the element thing got introduced) was very OP. But at the end of the arc, he got suddenly overpowered by Shiki. I mean, that's kinda bad writing for me because he can hold out Mudano, who is obviously stronger, but when he faced Shiki he suddenly got nerfed? Plus his backstory was kinda lame, considering he showed a "no mercy" image, but when the flashback ... came, it was pretty lame with the guy thing. And the only likeable part in that arc was when this sadistic girl was fighting along with the shy-scary cat boy with the fan (?). Although that's the case, I am still reading it because I believe the series has a potential with the power/abilities and hopefully the plot improves over the time.