Im
Im: The Great Priest Imhotep

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I found this manga completely by chance, and was intrigued to see a manga based on Ancient Egypt (which I am absolutely fascinated by). I gave it a read, and was immediately hooked, and as I kept reading, it slowly worked its way to my personal top 5.

Story 9/10
The story in this is very good, with a well defined conflict, a well rounded setting, and a clear progression of events. The primary strength of the story lies in the way it incorporates the mythology. I mean, yeah, the characters are still drawn in the typical shounen style, and Japanese culture will inevitably ... trickle through and leave its integration on the Egyptian, but one kind of expects that with these kinds of stories.
That all said, its in the third act that the story begins to falter slightly. As it begins to delve further in into the characters' backstories, and the story begins to have its twist, it begins to rush itself slightly. Perhaps the author had a deadline or a set amount of volumes, but a few concepts that are set up are ultimately put aside in favor of other ones. Now these new concepts aren't bad, but its not it doesn't do a story right to get rid of the old altogether. And while I won't go into spoilers in this review, I'm not fond of the ending, but I suppose that's more a matter of taste than anything else.

Art: 8/10
The artwork in this is really good, and allows for a lot of creative designs and action. I really wish there was an anime of this, because I would love to see motion and color in this. I especially like the look of the gods and demons in this; while they might not be immediately recognizable (thankfully the manga always does well to identify which is which), they all have unique looks that suit their personalities and aspects.

Character: 8/10
Anyone familiar with Egyptian history and culture might recognize some of the names, but they aren't the figures at all. While it uses historical names and presents them as the historical figures, they're not by any stretch of the imagination. Not a complaint or criticism, just a statement as something to keep in mind while reading.
However, the strongest part of this manga's characters, is in how well defined they are. Each major character is given a clear, and well established back story, with perfectly defined motivations. Even the villains, who you presume are just there to be the one note villains so common in manga, get a full set of backstories and motivations. The relationships are also very strong and legitimate, particularly between the main characters.
I do wish some characters got more attention though. The gods, for example, are indicated to have various little quirks and traits that make them unique (and some pretty cool looks), but they aren't given much time to themselves for us to learn about them. And its a shame, they could've been quite intriguing. Again, it may come down to limited time to depict all these different characters.

Enjoyment: 9/10
As someone who really enjoys Ancient Egyptian history and mythology, this series is right up my personal alley. However, if you're not interested in either of those things, it might be harder to get into this manga. This series identifies as a shounen, so keep that in mind while reading, but I personally enjoyed it quite a bit, and its definitely in my personal favorites.

Overall 9/10
If you're interested in Ancient Egypt, definitely give this one a look. With strong characters, a strong story, a strong setting, and some great artwork.

Happy to leave a review if it gets more people to check this series out!

I'm mildly obsessed with Ancient Egyptian culture, so I'm already biased in this series' favor. The fact that so many of its little details are fairly accurate to history/mythology just makes me really happy.

That aside, this is a worthwhile read for any manga fan. The story's not too far yet as of the time I write this, but I'm up to date with it and I look forward to seeing how it goes from here. I think the backstory is more interesting than the story at present, but if they ... can fully explore everything raised there, it's gonna be one hell of an epic ride. (Chapters 6/7 explain most of this and they might be two of my favorite chapters in manga, period.) It doesn't take itself all that seriously, but it handles its serious moments well, gives them the gravity they deserve.

The art and designs really stand out: the characters all have very distinctive looks, which I always appreciate, and incorporate the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic well. Shout-out to the Amen High Priest uniforms, which are absolutely awesome and tell you about the characters just from how they wear them; Anubis (who needs to exist as a plushie); and the designs of the Gods, which are every bit as impressive as you'd expect and then some. Everything's incredibly detailed and can look as energetic, elegant, or absolutely nightmarish as fits the mood. I've already screenshot a bunch of the Nightmare Fuel moments because they're bloody awesome in their gruesomeness.

And the characters... Im is great, but right now the villains and gods are far and away the most interesting to me. Djoser, to be fair, is a pretty generic 'destroy the current world and remake it as I see fit' baddie, but there's nothing wrong with that if it's done well. He's got an excellent reason to feel that way, and how Im deals with him- and his own guilt over leading to this situation in the first place- could carry the series well on the merits of its premise. We haven't seen TOO much of the gods yet, but they keep a watch over everything and have already proved they're not against intervening in the mortal realm. And, I mean, THEY'RE THE FRICKING EGYPTIAN GODS; I can't wait to see how they're characterized. I will say that Hinome doesn't connect that well with the rest of the action thus far, but there's plenty of time to work her into things.

Like I said, there's not tons for me to go off right now, but this is a series I'm excited to see more from and I want it to be getting all the attention it can. If you care at all about Ancient Egypt, just want to see its mythology put to better use than in the 4Kids dub of YuGiOh, or like series that dish out magic, action, mild amounts of fanservice, and badass fights against nightmarish creatures, then I especially recommend giving this one a look.

Gonna write a short spoiler free review
Binge read the whole thing in about two sittings, made me tear up once or twice.

Do you want a cast of people that support each other? Here ya go. Everyone is enjoyable and I can't think of a single character I dislike, even the "bad guys". The lore is interesting too.
Scoring is a 7 because the ending isn't my typical favorite and its the kind of ending I don't really enjoy for reasons. In my opinion it kind of drops the ball and I would like something to be addressed but it seems glossed over to me.

Art is very ... cute I'm reminded of Toilet-bound Hanako kun. I can't help but think that everything regarding story, character depth, and powers could have a little more in depth, especially the egyptian gods themselves and the nature of uh whats em called again the sekmets or megets or something like that the "bad guys" basically. If everything (character relationships, lore, power explanations, etc) went into a little more detail I think I would give it a higher rating.

This is like eating a bag of really good chips but you can't help but want more substance.

Also someone gets white washed as their super power form lmao

tl;dr: A manga with a pretty solid first half that becomes an incoherent mess.

This manga is about the great Egyptian high priest Imhotep, AKA Im, reawakening in the present in order to deal with false gods known as the magai. It starts off with him appearing in modern Japan and helping a girl named Hinome with her magai problem and then basically just crashing in her house while he deals with other magai, as he has nowhere else to go. This part has a large focus on the effects magai have on people and is essentially a bunch of short stories about people overcoming psychological ... barriers to grow as people. The writing isn’t particularly amazing, but it deals with its subject matter decently enough. Furthermore, the comedy is pretty great and Im being such a weirdo is hilarious.

That’s only the first volume though, and in the second it transitions into focusing on a more serious overarching plot regarding Imhotep’s background including where the magai originally came from and Im’s relationship with his best friend Djoser. The set up regarding the overarching narrative is pretty solid here, though the focus is heavily on Im’s relationship with a new team he’s working with, the Japan chapter of the Amen Priesthood. Due to various circumstances relating to both Im and their backgrounds, they originally all hate him, and Im accepts that he deserves to be hated, but over time he manages to bond with them and in turn helps them go through character growth as well. The action improves a good deal and the battles are pretty solid. The general pacing is pretty good too.

Things start going down very quickly about half way through once the story shifts to being set in Egypt. The plot becomes a complete mess. It’s clear that the mangaka didn’t have an overarching view of where to take the story or at the minimum was never able to stick to it for extended periods. It’s very disorganized and has a terrible sense of flow. Characters pop in and out in a way that feels kind of weird and makes characters feel inconsistent and hard to get invested in. As such the myriad of emotional beats that are centered around investment in characters just don’t land. There’s an attempt at trying to show that every single character including every single villain is actually a good person, but it really just doesn’t work for some and feels really forced. Foreshadowing that felt like it was going to be important turns out not to matter at all. Past plot devices are forced into fitting into the mold of new plot devices in ways that are incredibly inconsistent tonally and thematically. There are explanations given that it doesn’t make any sense at all to not have had explained earlier. There’s lots of info dumping that ultimately doesn’t even matter. Mechanics relating to action that were developed earlier are dropped and the action just becomes random powers that do random things whenever they need to. And all of this leads up to an ending that’s complete nonsense and not at all satisfying.

I would also like to note that the use of Egyptian mythology and history is pretty half assed. Like it’s not as bad as Yu-Gi-Oh for example, but it’s not much better. It’s all fiction anyway so it’s not like it matters that much and it even gives a plot reason at the end for why things are so different from our understanding of Egyptian history/mythology so I’m not viewing this as a detriment. I still thought I should mention it as if you’re considering reading this solely for the Egyptian aspect it’s definitely not worth doing so.

The art is okay but not that great. The style looks pretty nice in color but the black and white feels like it’s really lacking in personality to the point it’s kind of dull. Design wise the use of Egyptian aesthetics was decent, but beyond that it was pretty lacking.