Feb 17, 2025
Bit of a weird one. I'm going to say not recommended because it got axed, but in reality this is an incredibly mediocre and inoffensive work that does nothing special, so I wouldn't say it's a miserable read, just one that made a lot of basic mistakes.
Which is kind of the problem. This is a very average shonen manga. In fact, it's extremely average. It's got essentially no standout ideas, which is fine, there are plenty of quite decent shonen that don't put anything crazy on the table. However, when you couple that with the characters being relatively boring, there being way too many of
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them introduced way too fast to get a proper feel for any of them, a few early chapters being dedicated to a sort of entrance exam (everyone's favorite trope...), and just an overall kind of lame, not particularly gripping start that makes the rest of the series not really go anywhere, you have a problem. And then it ends because it got axed.
I feel the main character is probably the biggest issue with the series, being that he's extremely bland and one note and we learn almost nothing about him. It feels like by the end of the manga we know more about his dead friend than we do him. He has almost no personal moments beyond a bit of bonding with another young boy (which is , again, more about that young boy than himself) and by the end all we know about him is that he's reckless and kind of stupid, which we know from the start. There are the inklings of a backstory here and there, but because this manga was cut short, nothing further.
The most solid thing about this manga is probably the character designs. They're pretty fun and some are visually quite pleasing, but again, too many are introduced too quickly to really be able to get to know or care about any of them. This problem is even there for the main character's best friend who dies in the first chapter; since we know so little about him it's hard to have any kind of impact when he dies and it just feels like "Oh. Okay. I guess this event is happening right now," which is how a lot of the plot feels. The art itself is kind of weak, it's definitely nothing amazing and I occasionally found it hard to follow battle sequences because they weren't conveyed well or in a way I thought was compelling.
The idea of characters having the ability to utilize the powers of animals is pretty neat, but they quickly turn it way too superhuman with things like the snow leopard just having the ability to...become unseen, which I am pretty sure snow leopards can't do in real life unless I'm about to be eaten by one, in which case I stand corrected. Despite this, they still try to explain away each power, which kind of annoys me. I'd prefer they lean all into it being unrealistic or lean more realistic, because this just feels wishy-washy. I do think the way the characters look when transformed is very cool and I kind of wish the story had been more of that like, all the time.
At the end of the day the manga just does nothing particularly unique and has pacing issues, too many characters thrown on the reader, and not enough characterization or creative use of powers to make it anything special or really, worthwhile at all. Very, very flat meh, nothing better.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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