Saitou-kun wa Esper Rashii

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I feel it would be unfair to write something about this without recognizing it got axed/terminated before it could reach its "full potential". You should know it ends early and abruptly in what I consider a strange chapter although strangely fitting to the series.

Its such a weird read for me, I love the characters and the humor, I laugh every time I re-read this, I especially love the mind reader and the useless yet arrogant protagonist. It starts on great and we were kind of promised character development and a possible romance, judging the series for what it was I would have to say ... I absolutely love it. Although I love this series my score seems a little too high for what it is, as in the 26 chapter that were drawn would not make this deserve a "9" (whatever that would really mean), the thing is, I regularly come back to this manga, it just nailed so many things, if given a proper amount of chapters this could have ended being up there with D-Frag in my opinion, I really wish it could be revived.

When thinking about this manga I will always be clouded by its potential, but if you want to read it as is, it's a perfectly enjoyable series although too short, and it will always hold a special place for me, maybe because of its circumstances.

I'll type something quick since i just ended reading this and i need to talk about it, thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.

Story: The setting is simple, our MC is an ESPer, and as such he thinks of himself to be above "normal" people. Honestly, i was expecting a simple comedy and laughs and that was what i got, even if the setting itself isn't the most original. (7)

Art: Honestly, the art is amazing, without a doubt the best thing about the manga itself. The ecchi is pretty tame, altho present, and its not over abundant, so it doesn't ... distract you from the story itself and isn't over used for the "oh so many" ecchi jokes. (9)

Characters: They are for the majority, enjoyable, but nothing particular spectacular either, there isn't anything new, but nothing so bad you wanna pluck your eyeballs out and seer or brain so you never remember them. (7)

Enjoyment: I was expecting something, and i got it. I didn't make me go "OMG THIS IS SO GREAT" but i did enjoy it for what it was, if you are looking for a light and fun read, go for it. Don't expect anything to serious (7)

Overall: Honestly, after reading it, i feel like the story got axed when it was going to enter its best part, and as such, it got a pretty shitty ending. Nothing really gets resolved, Saito (our MC) didn't get the development he deserved, the romance sub-plot remained unfinished (did it even ever start ? i guess...), we get thrown some serious stuff that is supposed to happen in the future, and the setting itself has great potential to be good, and if nothing else to be a great comedy, but there just aren't any more chapters, so it made me feel like it fell short. (7)

Again, i personally enjoyed this series and it did make me laugh, but the lack of conclusion to the problem in the last chapter and the lack of resolution to the romance subplot made me lower my overall enjoyment of this manga, but it was still a good read so if you enjoy comedy and some panty-shops, you'll probably enjoy this. Give it a read and fint out for yourself.

In a world ruled by the laws of science and nature, there exists but one man whose sole purpose in life is to be a walking contradiction to elementary physics! His power is so great and inexplicable that minds across the world would fail to fathom it with their meager methods of "science" and "logic". He is, what one could say, an esper! So, what exactly is it that he can do? Behold! He has the power to bend spoon! And uhh...yeah, that's pretty much all he's got. Beyond that, he's just a perfectly normal dude with a cringy personality and inflated ego. Meet Souichirou ... Saitou, the main hero of our journey!...Except he's soon to find out that he's not alone in his extraordinary abilities. In fact, other espers exist with much more powerful capabilities, chief among them being telekinesis, the power to control lightning, and even straight-up invincibility. Surrounded by such talents, what is to come of our hero? How will he fare in accomplishing his visions of an ideal high school life when he gets captured in a club with these weirdos?

With a classy premise like this, the author has a lot of room to work with. ESP has always been a concept that provokes significant intrigue after all. The genre is quite well-defined and has been explored in a variety of settings and styles. However, this manga does little to add on to this corpus of work. Instead, we are bombarded with an array of vapid cliches and trite fanservice that the experienced reader has unfortunately now come to expect out of most manga. Little is done in way of building up convincing story arcs and this can be seen no clearer than in the final arc which was honestly kind of a complete mess. This would be perfectly fine if the series committed to being another schlock run-of-the-mill slice of life, yet it throws these ridiculous wrenches in the way of that goal that will leave you with a bad aftertaste. If you go into this manga expecting either some kind of cohesive story or to have a relaxing time reading a laid-back slice of life ecchi with the theme of espers, you'd leave disappointed on both fronts either way.

That's not to say that this manga didn't have its moments though. Although the characters lack originality, I did enjoy watching them interact with each other and handle situations as they unfolded. However, the abrupt ending does leave us with a dearth of meaningful development.

While I did have some fun reading "Saitou-kun wa Esper Rashii", I left disappointed due to the qualities it had lacked. Overall, I think this manga isn't too far off from what I've come to expect from most random reads. Those who love ecchi slice of life will like this series more than I did.