Versus

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WOAH! If I expected this when I read the first 3 chapters! It's really excellent, be it the chara-design, the drawing or the story. "One" launches a new work after 10 years and he definitely becomes one of my favorite authors (or scriptwriter for that matter). The emotions of the main character are really successful and the character makes me think of Guts probably inspiring, the double page too are really beautiful. the story has a lot of potential, it can be a really funny mess. Really ... check it out.

Story 8/10 (we are still at the beginning of the story but very promising)

Art style 8,5/10 (or even 9/10 really excellent drawing not as good as Murata but Murata is among the best manga artist we can't all be part of the best)

Character 7,5/10 (very good characters even if the manga seems to focus more on the story, for the first 3 chapters anyway, 80p + 80p + 37p is still 3 big chapters)

Chara-design 9/10 (it's "ONE" so of course good chara design and funny head with the fairy pig)

this manga has me a bit confused, because it is getting carried extremely hard by the awesome art, and that is something I thought I would never say about a manga made by One, who is known for amazing writing and mediocre art.
The weird thing about Versus is that it doesn't feel like it is written by One at all.
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1. bland characters.
Versus started of okay. The characters, the world and the concept felt cliche, but I assumed this was done on purpose and at the end of the first chapter it turned out I was kinda right. there is a twist that subverts expectations and ... makes the concept and the world more interesting.
While reading chapter 2 I was expecting One to subvert expectations again by having some kind of second twist that would finally make the bland characters a bit more interesting. there is indeed a second twist, but it didn't impact the characters at all. Instead of flashing them out, One introduces a ton of new characters in the next chapter, all of them bland stereotypes, and this was when I started to get a bit confused. This is written by One, so why are the characters and the dialogue so boring?
the next 2 chapters focus on setting up the story, but zero time is spend on flashing out characters.
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2. setup and pacing.
(spoiler warning for the story up until chapter 5)
after having read 5 chapters I still don't really know what to expect from this manga.
13 worlds have fused together, all on the brink of human extinction at the hand of a different unstoppable ''natural enemy.'' (demons, robots, god, giants, a giant world-tree...) the humans have come together and plan to make the ''natural enemies'' fight each other because they are not strong enough to do it themselves.
The concept is really simple and doesn't need the amount of slow setup that it gets. 5 chapters in and we still don't know how the monsters are gonna fight each other and what role the humans have to play in this. what is the hook of the story? what is Versus actually gonna be about? The real (still unknown) hook of the story should have been revealed sooner. because of the slow setup the pacing suffers.
The slow setup combined with the boring characters makes this manga feel really of to me.
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Because I know One is a great writer I hope he is gonna hit us with a third plot twist were he kills of most of the humans and makes some of the monsters the main characters. something like ''Sike! I know these characters are boring. I did it on purpose, here is the actual main character, an interesting demon boy that has to fight in a tournament with the other monsters to decide who gets to kill the last humans and rule this world, while the first ''main character'' wants take revenge because the annoying fairy and his brother got killed, so he teams up with the god who turns out to be a goofy and likable character that makes fun of the ''main character.'' for being so boring.'
I hope something like this happens. It probably won't tho.
It is still early to really judge this manga, but my first impressions aren't the best and I'm a bit confused.
One, why did your writing style change so much?

6/10

The first chapter of Versus is everything a first chapter of a manga shouldn't be. It's boring, stupid, convoluted, full of generic characters and constant plot twists that don't work. If you are expecting this to be as good as One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100, you'll be disappointed. So let's give a quick run-down on why Versus is most likely set up for failure.

The synopsis itself already presents the series as typical and generic which would be fine if it took it's time fleshing out the characters but it doesn't. The first chapter introduces us with way too many characters who only exist ... to die, as a result creating deaths that the characters care about but not deaths the readers care about. Not much thought is put in to the characters that do stick around who only come off as the character archetypes they were based on and nothing more. An example of this is the protagonist who is basically the hero archetype and nothing more which is as 1 dimensional and boring you can get. There's also that ugly pig mascot who exists to be an ugly pig mascot and to make dumb jokes that have been used in many other manga. That's about all the effort ONE puts into characters writing for the first 80 page chapter. None of these characters are memorable in the way Saitama and Mob are and will never be.

The generic premise is constantly convoluted by random subversions of expectations that just don't work. After a while the unpredictable-ness becomes predictable. The pacing is terrible as ONE tries fitting way too much stuff in the first chapter instead of developing the setting and building the world which are crucial steps in creating a good fantasy manga. The powers in Versus are really generic and typical for a fantasy manga with magic being magic and swords being swords. How boring.

The art is average for a monthly manga. It's not unique or memorable and is no where as good as Yusuke Murata's art in One Punch Man. The character designs are generic fantasy character designs without much thought into making characters stand out. Unfortunately, the art can't carry this series.

That's chapter 1. A rushed, convoluted mess of a plot with a generic "heart of a hero" protagonist, too many side characters who only exist to die and a generic premise made worse with subversions of expectations. The series could get better but by comparing how much better the first 80 pages of ONE's other works are, it's not looking so good.

Final scorings:
Story: 2/10 (It's a mess. "Potential" doesn't matter)
Characters: 1/10 (1 dimensional)
Art: 6/10 (It's fine but it doesn't stand out)
Enjoyment: 2/10 (Boring and bland)
Overall: 3/10 (Very Bad)