Platinum End

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Hello, my dear reader.

Let me tell you a little story.
What story, you might ask? Well, it's your story, and mine, and that of many others. How do I know? Because it always follows the same pattern.

It all started when you heard that Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata were working on another manga together. Great news, right? You loved Death Note and/or Bakuman, and you were instantly hyped up for more awesomeness from the power duo. You were perhaps a little surprised that a new manga coming from them didn't have any buzz, but you thought nothing of it at the time.

"It's just ... because the series is relatively new," you thought. "It'll all change when it gets an anime. Then it will receive the attention it deserves."

Excited as you were, you rushed to check out the summary, perhaps on this very site, and that's when you had your first moment of doubt. The premise sounded exactly like Mirai Nikki!
That caught you off guard. You were certain that Ohba was more original than this.

“Oh, well,” you thought naively. “No matter. I'm sure that his take on the whole thing will be totally different and million times better!”

With your fears assuaged, you got your hands on a perfectly legal copy (cough, cough) and started to read.

First you got an eyeful of the art, and it was top notch. Rich backgrounds, realistic character designs and everything you'd expect from Obata, only better than ever before. The visual aspect of the manga did more than just meet your expectations; it surpassed them by far.

It's even more of a shame, then, that Platinum End was a sore disappointment in pretty much every other department.

You were put out by the incredibly cliché main character, Mirai — an abused orphan boy, raised by his evil aunt and uncle. (Harry Potter anyone?) A perfect, standard anime hero who refuses to kill under any circumstances, and loves to make moralizing speeches every chance he gets, to allies and enemies alike. His motto seems to be that it's better to be harmed than to harm others, even in self-defense. (Kaneki, much?)
From the author who gave us Light Yagami, you would have expected something much more memorable than a stock character like that.

“Still,” you thought, “boring protagonists are pretty much standard. The rest of the cast will make up for it, I'm sure.”

Long story short, they didn't. From the equally cliché antagonist with a sister complex, to a bland love interest who has nearly the same personality as Mirai, none of the main characters of Platinum End are even remotely interesting, and most of the side characters are one dimensional, over the top caricatures that make Misa Amane look subtle and down to earth by comparison.

You found nobody here as intriguing, unique and unforgettable as Light Yagami, nobody as iconic as L, nobody as entertaining as Yuno Gasai. The cast is below average.

So, what about the plot?
In the interest of fairness, one has to admit that it's written adequately. Ohba-sensei still knows how to establish a coherent set of rules and stick to them. There are no asspulls to be found in Platinum End, but neither is subtlety of any kind. Everything here is on the nose, heavy-handed and exaggerated. Then there is the overall silliness of the manga, the best example of which are the Power Rangers style outfits that our main characters insist on wearing.

“Really,” you asked with a facepalm. “Really, Ohba?”

And, yes, he really did it. The master of nuanced mind games had switched to pure ham and cheese.

Other than that, what else can I say about the plot? Well... Let's see how it compares to the other O & O creations.

Death Note was a very unconventional work that didn't follow many standard manga cliches, subverted and deconstructed others, and ended up giving us one of the most unique stories in the medium.
Bakuman was an interesting shounen manga about making shounen manga, that looked at many familiar genre tropes from a perspective of a creator.
Platinum-Please- End-Already, on the other hand, just takes a bunch of overused shounen cliches (death game, becoming a god as a reward, Shinji Ikari-esque protagonist, etc.) and plays them completely straight without any imagination or creativity. Everything Platinum End does has been done hundred times before, and done better. The story it tells comes with no strong distinguishing elements, and no true identity of its own.

“How is it,” you wondered, “that Death Note was more exciting when Light was EATING A BLOODY BAG OF CHIPS than Platinum End is when our characters are fighting for their sorry lives?!”

And that's how you understood why almost nobody talks about Platinum End. You understood the lack of hype and enthusiasm.
Perhaps you did the smart thing and just dropped it. Perhaps you refused to give up and slogged through it, hoping that a miracle will happen and the manga will eventually get good. If you did the latter, congratulations! You are one of the majority of Platinum End's “fandom”, if we can even call it that.

We follow Platinum End out of loyalty for Ohba & Obata duo, nothing more. If it wasn't for those two names, we would have forgotten it ever existed a long time ago.
We read the chapters when they come out, we get bored and annoyed, and we visit forums to practice the ancient and noble art of bitching. You'll find far more people who enjoy complaining about Platinum End than those who enjoy Platinum End itself. But, of course, you'll have a very hard time finding anyone who talks about it at all.

Or maybe I'm wrong, and this isn't your story at all? Maybe you are just at the start of this journey, and you only dropped by to read the reviews and find out if Platinum End is worth your time?

Short answer—it's not.
Don't just take my word for it. Notice that all the glowing reviews were written after the author had read only a few first chapters, and all the others offer almost nothing but criticism, even if they give the relatively lenient score of six.

We all want to go easy on Ohba & Obata, but this work of theirs just doesn't deserve it. It's a generic, by-the-numbers story, sub-par in many aspects, and I will only rate it as high as five because of the great art. If I were to sum up Platinum End in one word, that word would be "meh".

Let's all cross our fingers and hope that their next manga will be a return to form.

Platinum end is a bizarre manga, and an interesting failure.

Story (3/10): The plot of platinum end starts out as a death game/sentai parody. It's an exaggerated action manga that is played mostly serious. It has its moments but ultimately just feels over the top in its set pieces and gore, with a cast bizarre side characters who don't last very long. They aren't entertaining and some are just unpleasant to read about, namely the 'ugly' guy and the 'disease' girl.

However half way through there is a direction change, and the plot becomes more of a slow paced political thriller with some moral and philosophical arguments. ... During this time it becomes fairly boring and is a series of confrontations that lead to nothing. After the entire series builds up to a certain event it finishes off with a weak anti-climax and one of the worst endings I've ever seen in a manga in the very last chapter. Some unanswered questions remain so I wonder if the ending was rushed because of declining sales.

Art (9/10): Obata seems to have put some of his best work in his whole career in Platinum end, and that's saying something considering his track record. In the first half of the series the panel style is similar to in Bakuman, with a lot of creative panel shapes and dramatic drawings. At points it is overwhelming and confusing to look at. After the direction change half way through, the panels become more straight and the art less dramatic, it kind of loses it's steam, but still is excellent throughout.

Character (3/10): The characters are extremely weak. The protagonist is very annoying with his refusal to give up his ideals in the beginning. He 'develops' into a boring, passive shell of a character. The heroine of the series and main love interest isn't interesting either and is basically a non-entity after her character arc at the start. Many other characters appear but usually only briefly and are pretty one note. The two main antagonists of the series are weak as well. The first is stereotypical and the second is one-note and boring. Neither of them have motivations that make much sense.

Enjoyment (2/10): This is the preachiest series I have ever read. Multiple times characters will go on long rants about moral or philosophical arguments. But what is conveyed isn't deep or interesting. The themes are basically outright told to the reader multiple times, but they aren't even good. You might think that a manga with lots of moral and philosophical arguments would be interesting, but it's obvious the author doesn't understand the arguments and just reads like someone talking to themselves while missing the whole point. This series is just a massive slog that thinks it is far more intelligent than it actually is.

I know why you are here!
It's because real life Ashirogi Muto is back for one more masterpiece up their sleeves!! You know what I am talking about if you have seen Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's Death Note and Bakuman.
I know it's too soon for me to write a review on this manga but I will keep on updating it as some new chapters are released.

Story -
Fed up with the depressing nature of his existence, Mirai Kakehashi, decided to suicide. After jumping off a nearby skyscraper, when he opened his eyes, he found himself in the arms of an angel, Revealing herself to be ... his guardian angel, Mirai is given the choice between wings to fly anywhere and arrows make anyone fall in love with him for 33 days. Seizing the chance to take both powers, Mirai uses them to discover the truth about his life, allowing him to finally find a reason to live.

Art - 10/10
Platinum End delivers more of the fantastic art that Obata is known for. I can’t say enough about how well Obata’s art complements Ohba’s writing, perfectly emphasizing the thematic contrast between light and dark. I especially love the character design. Like always, Ohba has followed his drawing style of drawing one character, Mirai, pretty similar to Light of Death Note and Takagi of Bakuman.

Character -
Not many characters have been introduced yet. I will probably add more to this section later on. For now, I will let you know that, like Light of Death Note, Mirai's personality is great. With his charming and smart personality, he will climb up the favorites list pretty quickly. Just hoping that Mirai doesn't becomes exactly same like Light or else it will become boring and predictable.

Enjoyment -
I really liked the first chapter. Platinum End shows huge potential and I must suggest it to everyone to start reading right now!

Overall - 9
Based on it's first two chapters, I am giving it a 9. My ratings may change with the plot progression. Platinum End appears to be a successor to Death Note’s continual contrast between “good” and “evil”, and its commitment to showing relativistic nature of these concepts. This is made apparent in this chapter through Mirai’s angel, who gives advice strongly suggesting Mirai use his powers for his own gain, even if the surrounding results are darker than one might expect an angel to tolerate. The end of the chapter excitingly ties this all together in revealing the wider context behind her sudden interest in Mirai. It’s definitely worth witnessing firsthand so I won’t spoil it, but I loved how many potential directions this story could go in.

I can't believe i got excited to read this trash.

Story(3.5/10): I never thought a Tsugumi Ohba story, would remind me so much of all of the super cringy, gorefilled edgy manga, that were funnily enough inspired by Death Note, it's like seeing Akira Toriyama writing the FanFic plot for Dragon Ball Super.
There was no real meaningful development aside of the first few chapters, no new powers, no new rules, no interesting new concept or even any event that would give any motivation whatsoever to the main character, or maybe make we see him in a different light.
The story grew stale even before the end ... of the first volume, it could've been 30 chapters long and it wouldn't lose anything, it might as well have ended after the first main villain is defeated halfway through and it would've been better for it, but not by much.

Art(8.5/10): Takeshi Obata delivers, as always, been a fan of him since the Hikaru no Go days.
Even though this is not his best, Platinum End is nothing to sniff at, even with the bland designs, specially the "battle suits", i also expected a bit more detail or complexity in the artwork, since this is a monthly title and looking at his earlier weekly work.

Characters(2/10): I don't understand what happened, every characters needs to be hyper over the top or as dull as a rock.
After a certain point in Ohba's career, he stopped being able to write believable people, and he couldn't give even a little bit of a personality to Platinum End's main character, even if his life depended on it, don't even bring up female characters and the romance, they're as ridiculous as the respect Light has for his mother, sister and Misa.

Enjoyment(3/10): Was there really any, aside of seeing Obata's work, and to see the trainwreck happen in real time, i wish he would find a better writer to work with.

Conclusion:
This is not the Death Note successor you were hoping for, you can see in Platinum End, all of the worse aspects of Ohba's writing style, how convoluted the story can get, exposition heavy and bs philosophy that leads nowhere.

The ridiculous ending made me chuckle, overall score of 3/10 it is.

Simply put, Platinum End is a story about a boy who commits suicide, but is saved by an angel so that he may participate in a battle royale to become God.

Disclaimer: Platinum End takes a very cynical view on the concept of God. If you love listening to Pastor Dave preach every Sunday, I would not recommend this to you.

Tl;dr
Platinum End is philosophical and presents interesting questions on the role of God, but suffers from a lack of character depth. However, I thought it was interesting and I think you should give it a chance and read with the ... role of God in mind.

The story is written by Tsugumi Ohba, the critically acclaimed writer of Death Note and Bakuman. In terms of story telling, Platinum End does not reach the intimacy that Death Note and Bakuman.
Platinum End is set in modern society, so there is little world building. Thus, it heavily relies on the characters for most of its story. There is a great emphasis on specifically human psychology and their outlook on life. Topics such as greed, depression, cynicism, etc. are used as a means to question the role of God. Many of them come off as simple and one-dimensional, but not out of place.
The story heavily relies on the dialogue between these characters who have all decided to take their life and are chosen because of their dissatisfaction with the world. The core theme that this manga centers on is the role of God. How should God act in the face of cruelty and injustice? Should God intervene to make humans happy? And specifically, What is God?

The art is by Takeshi Obata, the same artist that partnered with Ohba on Death Note and Bakuman. If you love his art style, there is more of it here! The art style is definitely not as radical as Death Note nor perky like Bakuman. It is more somber and blurred compared to his previous works.

From here on out, I'm going to take a more polar stance on this manga.
Personally, I found myself realizing that the scope of this manga is too big for its own good. That's not to say that it's terrible.
First, characters in this manga are shallow. But I believe this was intentional and too much of it would take away from the core themes that Ohba was trying to establish.
Second, this manga handles its main character in a somewhat unorthodox way. It establishes Mirai as a depressed main character, but he rapidly turns into a messiah character. I found him to be somewhat unrelatable toward the end. A similar thing happens with the main heroine and I believe that most readers would loose interest because of it.
Third, the angels literally do next to nothing for the story other than being a plot device. There is little to no character building for them which I believe is a missed opportunity.

Overall, I thought it was a fun read and the somewhat open-ended? ending was interesting.

Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's 3rd Manga to be my next obsession. First Death Note and then Bakuman. A manga worth crying for :'(

The two artists are well renowned for their first manga Death Note which was thoroughly set the dark mood for the readers. Based on the current chapters it has the potential to be as interesting as their first work.

I believe that with they themselves it will be impossible to beat death note. People are reading this manga and cant forget how well Death Note did and feel like they are trying too hard and pushing their luck. This manga should be ... read forgetting that and enjoyed on its own.

Story:9
The story as of yet is premature, Mirai Kakeshi a boy who doesnt seek refuge in living attempts to kill himself only to later find himself alive and saved by an angel. As the first chapter concludes he finds himself on a game where he needs to survive to be crowned god. Will he change his mind to live or not?

Art:10
Obata contributes equally and even better with ever work he is serialized in. The right amount of everything where it is needed. Very delicate and sophisticated details behind his art. His art style well suited for this manga's dark theme.

Character: 10
Not much characters have been introduced as yet. Not, focusing on the main character it is being well developed. He finds no reason in living and tries to kill himself. After being given a second chance to live he learns to the reason why he is so miserable of the way he is. An interesting way to see how he reacts on the situations about to unfold on him. Within the story are angel with opposed nature to what most people would believe. The angels show little remorse to the humans want of surviving and some enjoy their slaughter.

Its a manga work looking forward to the end. I have enjoyed the chapters I've read so far and is worth giving it a 10!

Two months since i'm deciding to create account and starting to arranging my old anime and manga that i've ever seen in my life without any desire just to post or reviewing anything here
And what i got? My favourite author Tsugumi Ohba with his dynamic colour of intencity that can we seen clearly enough on his past works (Death Note and Bakuman) and the soulful art by Takeshi Obata that i knew it since his works at Hikaru no Go, has back to the party! what a nice time for me to be alive.. :D
and thats why i decided to make an early review.. and ... i'll try to design this review that i hope would be matched if compared on any timeline on this Platinum End's story, early or ended.

Story/Character:9
One thing that i wondered when reading the introduction and the 1st chapter was as if i could sense that it was another version or even i could say it was same style with Tsugumi Ohba's Death Note, but flavoured with contrast of origin on the main character, between Light and Mirai, that was bored perfect student that already got everything in his hand and Unknown loner student that determined that he don't belong to everything and some more detailed end-game's story, that i hope it could be packaged by them perfectly,like they always did.

Art:10
Another thing that i could say about Takeshi Obata was,how good he is to make his drawing as like have a mind. And i've tried to read the 1st chapter on few different scanlation, and it got different emotion,based on blended essence between image and word that used on each coloumn and page. (I think this is also the exact reason why we need to buy official works,not reading online, lool)
So i hope you all got the best scanlation that could deliver the purest form of Ohba's mind that invented from Obata's hand that've possible to be presented to our senses.

Enjoyment:10
If you ever read their past works, and diving on Ohba's mind systematically and his point of view about justice, love , and life or moreven if you have faith on them, there would be no one else that could make you more excited than the Platinum End's progress.

Overall: 9
The only reason i didn't give 10 even though i really want to,was the fact that i knew that im not an Oracle, and the time would tell us what value they would deserve.

Are you a fan of Death Note? Well look no further cause this is the awkward version of it. Heck even the MC is like Light except all his cool qualities got showered down to make him look like a normie. Instead of BiG BrAiN plot, we get something downright normal, almost making it closer to a slice of life anime then a thriller.

The Beginning of the manga was not all that bad, but everything starts looking bland as the series enters its middle stages making me question is "this" or is "that" necessary, for instance the presence of romance in this part ... was just bland and cringey.

Then there is the "villains" who are supposed to have a good excuse for opposing the MC, but not gonna lie, the excuses are completely stupid and hilarious as if the author decided to copy a couple of Gintama gag villains

Some people shit on Death Note saying that it has a bad ending, But once you finish reading this, you will start questioning your own existence on why you spent a week reading this manga.

But enough of its bad qualities, let move to its good attributes: the art... and yeah that is all it has.

Platinum End - A manga work... about to die.

When people known that Ohba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi would work together again, it was only logical that I became very enthusiastic in what they were going to do for this third work/manga together. People already knew this but for those who don't, these two authors worked together on past works such as Death Note (2004) and Bakuman (2008) as Ashirogi Muto.

With this information previously known, Death Note has succeeded in being one of my favorite works so far succeeding consequently other works with the same legal value as this. This manga, Platinum End - or in ... Japanese ["Puratino Endo"] - still had an advantage that the previous works didn't have: the fact that now it is being worked on a magazine that would give them the supreme freedom and with that, I sincerely hoped that this pair of authors delivered already in the first chapter, some fantastic content and really developed. However, this was not what was shown.

The plot begins showing a class with all the students making plans for their future, while the protagonist, named Mirai, is apathetic, finding everything extremely tedious/boring.* Apparently, Mirai is just a normal student but the story behind it is much denser and heavier than Death Note. When he is about to commit suicide from a 23-story building, he is saved by a (woman) guardian angel called Nasse. During the speech, the angel says that it simply appeared because she wanted to make him happy no matter what, and this is the symbology to which this manga gives when it mentions human feelings. Nasse also explains the definition of "love" as a normal feeling, within an enormous amount of pages.
Explaining by detail what I mean, it is actually very simple to notice: the first chapter has 66 pages, including covers (manga plus the magazine where it is serialized) and commercials, and with that twenty (plus more) pages are 'wasted' just to explain Mirai's sense of his future. Obata Takeshi did an excellent job bringing Mirai's anguish, despair and skepticism in the first pages, however, his work was almost in vain because his colleague Ohba Tsugumi chose to explain that Mirai no longer wanted to live in those several pages. Ohba wanted to show (to the readers) that Mirai is an isolated character (as if he doesn't feel in a correct social position) due to his shameless past. While re-reading in the actual book, Ohba touches the subject, again and again, using almost ten pages to force the existence of Mirai's sadness; it reinforces an idea that was previously settled and understood in the main plot by the (woman) guardian angel Nasse, which in detail makes no sense, since the idea is repeatedly reinforced in the Nasse's speech balloons. To make the point clear, the motive for Mirai's suicide was due to the horrible life he had when he was younger, where his family mistreated him (while they were still alive) but this becomes clear when, once again, Ohba decides to reinforce the idea of the horrible life that Mirai had - and Ohba keeps doing this explanation every time there is a new chapter.

The problem of Platinum End is, therefore, the repetition of the same idea in each gesture of action that happens as the story progresses, there are also problems of speech because each character makes very large and extensive lines to explain something, which turns out to be boring while reading the actual volumes; it's something very annoying to me but people overall can tolerate it. The artwork never goes unnoticed and is just one of the few highest points in the manga.

In a few pages, the protagonist's expressions, the feelings that come to mind, and the depressive character were all well captured visually and you can see in the realism of the drawing. I do not want to blame one artist for the other or vice-versa, but I believe that Ohba should have thought more specifically about the idea of this work and especially in existing terminologies of human life in order to perform this work phenomenally and without errors, as he did in Death Note where each weapon was a way to react and to think. In this case, Ohba treats the reader as if he was a child and he himself 'punishes' the reader with the repetitions of speech and the way of acting before society. It is quite clear that the society that is shown in the work is a society closed and isolated from the rest of the world, just as Japanese society behaves. By the way of seeing more selective, Ohba gives us only a repeated history and with basic narrative errors.

The small problems of this sequence of scenes are that the authors simply sought out ideas that had already been published, more concretely they were to look for ideas to the previous work, Death Note. They also tried, in a way, to introduce plot twists so that the story seemed more truthful and specific but this did not work out, in Death Note the lines were small but explanatory so that the reader perceived both sides of the same coin and in Platinum End, there are not simply two sides of the same coin, there are overly explanatory and redundant lines that reinforce a single idea, which has already been explained (previously). There are scenes that include blood - not gore scenes - that are positive for this series because they give readers a new experience without the basic idea that is provided to us in the synopsis.

So far, the story is by no means a novelty but somehow the script works and here are some reasons: Platinum End is a work that was delivered to the fans in an inconsistent, predictable way but at the same time it is an interesting subject that few mangaka's approach for being vastly vast and complete and therefore I feel that Ohba should be based only on the theme of anguish, despair, and hope that ceases to be negative and hopefully positive.

*(That's a reference to a character named Yagami Light, from the Death Note manga. As shown in the manga, Light also finds everything extremely boring, before finding the ultimate weapon, the Death Note. However, Mirai takes it to another level because Mirai suffers from depression).

Story: 4 | Art: 6 | Character: 6 | Enjoyment: 5

Score: 6/10 (so far)

Personal Note: This is not my definitive review so over time I will edit it. The first volume just came out in Portugal, so my review is limited in comparison with other manga versions, as far as the language in which this manga is edited. Next update can happen maybe in August.

This is my first review and i translated from my native language to english in google translator, so maybe the text will have several languagues issues, i'm sorry about that.

Platinum End review- Minors spoilers
Summary:
After the death of his parents ,and a life of suffering, Mirai tries to commit suicide, however he is saved by an angel Nasse, and she then reveals that he was chosen along with 11 other people with no will to live, and that they should compete with each other until they choose a new God for this world, and thus the story begins.

Story-2/10
The story starts with a touch of ... Mirai Nikki, but even so, it's a good premise and is very well used in the first chapters, until the story seems to lose focus and gets twisted and stuffed, another bad part of the narrative is not having many battles, the only battles happen until the 26th chapter, after that it becomes just disscussions and that's it, for having a lot to talk I divided the manga into two sagas.

The Metropoliman Saga-2/10- Chapter 1 to 27
In short, the saga begins very well, with a mysterious and intelligent villain, killing one of the god candidates and showing that he is strong, in the next chapter, we already lose this aura of mystery when we see that the villain is just a rich and handsome high school student, and that if he became a god he would eliminate all inequality by killing the ugly and the poor, with this ridiculous idea of a villain, he puts into practice one of his plans, which is to gather most of the god-candidates and eliminate them, but it is just a boring sequence of events, not at all fun to read; Later on, we see why he is evil and we see how ridiculous this character is with his silly backstory that honestly only made me laugh. The conclusion of this saga is so confusing that I don't understand it until now.

The New God Decision Saga-2/10-Chapter 28 to 58
This whole issue of angels and god goes to the media, and the general public gets to know about this information and starts to cause problems for the society, and then the governments of the whole world decide that it is time to end with this issue, studying them and making a way to solve the problem of the god candidates, and they start to go after the god candidates, but an agent manages to host the protagonist and his friend without major problems and they help each other to solve the god selection and find the other candidates to make a vote of who should be the new supreme being (at this point of the story there were only 6 god candidates), when 5 of them reach the consensus they have to find the last candidate and make him support this choice, if he was the unanimous choice, they wouldn't have to kill each other until there was one left. The "villain" of this saga is very strange and comes with some talk about divine existence that makes no sense and this only destroys even more the story that is already boring, the end is so bad and senseless that it is not even possible to understand what happened.

Characters-1/10
The characters have ridiculous motivations, have the charisma of a slice of pizza and have terrible dialogs, like the one about homophobia and the one about the existence of God. There is only one character that is good in the work, who doesn't appear for a long time, it is absolutely terrible this part of characters, especially the protagonists.

Final-1/10
Horrible ending, it happens out of nowhere, there is no explanation for half of what is happening and makes it seem like everything was a waste of time, I'm traumatized.

Art-7/10
I saved the only good thing for the ending, the art is phenomenal, but when it's in a fight scene everything gets very confusing and it's impossible to understand anything.

Final Thoughts-2
It's not worth reading, maybe the anime will fix some of this dialogue and the confusing artwork in battle scenes, but even then it won't fix the narrative errors, only a miracle.

Hope you enjoy the review and that's it! Thank you for reading!

First of all this might have some spoilers.. you have been warned.

OK so first i have to say i love this manga as much as death note, allot of people would call me insane or stupid for that but, hear me out. Before we get into why i like it let me introduce some problems people have with this that i didn't, which is probably why i like it more then them.

First is that people were wanting something like "Death Note" i loved death note its what got me into Physiological stuff, but i didn't want something too similar to it, so if u want ... something like death note it has some things that can relate to it just nit the same way.

Second, I started Dec, 23 2018, so i had allot more content to read through, and it releases a chapter a month i believe so people also didn't like the wait i would recommend reading it after or near the end, in fact that when i believe most people will enjoy it the most when they can just read through all of it.

Third, i seen people complain about the fight scenes being too long that them all having the same weapons make it boring, all i have to say to that is, that its also a battle of wits not only physical i would say its more a battle of wits, so of course they're going to be long they have to think before making a move, and i think that them all having the same weapons makes it more interesting, you get to see how differently they can be used, it shows how different the characters are, some use the arrows for greed, others use it for good, etc. They can also use it in different ways, shoot it, use it like a sword, and more that can be done with using both the wings and arrows and even more with white arrows. So in pretty much all battles its whoever outsmarts the other or something unexpected happening,

And now the actual review is shorter than the problems i seed that really don't have to do with the story itself. Im trying not to spoil it so making it simple.

Story, i find it great, some cliches but i never had a problem with them as long as its still a good story and it doesn't get in the way of the story.

Art, as expected from Takeshi Obata amazing, all there is to it.

Characters, are good, they don't emphasize character development as much as other story's really only see a big change with a couple of characters the rest you have to notice the little things to see how they changed. Or they're hit with a red arrow and change completely so theres really not much to it, so i do say it can be better but im not the type that goes only for the characters. (that being said....still Nanato and Nasse are my favorites.)

Im really enjoying it so far.

i Give it a 10 overall sure 9,10,7 and 10, don't make a 10 but im being bias on this part i love this manga and think that the fight scenes will get better if it gets a anime adaptation so, In short i love it

Platinum End Review
Chapters 1 -18

Hm.

I think the proof to some degree is in the pudding here. The fact that I don't see many people reading or talking about a new series by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (the creators of Death Note and Bakuman, but I think you all know that). These are some of the biggest names in the game and yet people don't seem to be taking much of any notice at al in the couple of years since this series started.

At first, I was a bit confused as to why this was the case, the first volume (Chapters 1 - 3) are ... actually very good, they build a lot of tension, have some great Ohba twists, and set up a dark, gritty and realistic tone for the rest of the series, despite the magical premise. But even still there are problems that were apparent there, such as the premise being exactly the same as Future Diary, and that, at points it felt a little close to a Death Note re-hash.

However in Chapter 6, it all really goes to shit. A bunch of these God candidates meet up at a stadium in these ridiculous overblown sequence, with Kamen Rider-esque suits to boot. It's truly absurd for many reasons, not least of which the unnecessary costumes that just paint the show as silly.

There also comes in the problem of the larger world, in Death Note, the way the world reacted to Kira was a big drive in the story, he kept himself hidden but had to really watch his back, but here in Platinum End, there have been a bunch of people suddenly flying around, killing people by pointing at them, and all sorts of other shenanigans. But no one seems to be doing anything about it, it feels like the only characters that exist in this world are the main ones, everything else just bends around their story.

So you're probably thinking at this point, why is my score positive (if only slightly) if I have so many problems with the series, well, for one Obata is just such a great artist, the panel structure is often very engaging and the way he adds detail in the characters for tense moments works brilliantly and can make some very simple images very disturbing.

And the characters, at least some of them, do quite a lot for me. The fact that the God candidates are chosen from people who are about to kill themselves, who can't take the world as it is, is a really good idea, and we get a cast of totally damaged, broken characters. I know a lot of the anime/manga community doesn't like these types of characters, but I really do. I love that Mirai has genuine conflict over whether to kill, and the chapter where Saki tells him how she really feels is fantastic, probably my favourite part of the whole series.

And still Ohba can create a compelling structure, the twists pull you through even if there is not much else really going for the narrative.

I think Platinum End is a pretty big disappointment so far, but I don't think I'll drop it, a little bit of Obata's art each month never hurt anyone.

After giving us Bakuman and Death Note, two works which had each their own appeals and were really great, you would of course expect a lot from this new work of Ohba, the mysterious author who sometimes cooperate with Obata. Unfortunately, this is nothing like their previous combination, and here we have a rather disappointing and even mediocre manga.

The first chapter did not have anything amazing, however we were still given a sight of how much Obata's art has improved over the year, and finally there was indeed something which looked like an interesting idea, the premise being that an angel gives our main character ... special abilities, which was quite reminding of Death Note.

However, it all goes wrong when instead of having our protagonist wreak havoc in a way similar to Death Note, or even do good deeds, we instead have a competition between more people chosen by other angels to decide who will become the next God. Will the winner be chosen over his good deeds or capacities ? This was never explained, and it doesn't really matter since it turns out to be a battle royal with everyone trying to be the last man standing.

Still, it could have been a good manga even with such a plot but it fails horribly. The main character seems wise at first, hiding and waiting for other to act, but instead of becoming the fisherman he gets stupidly caught by his love interest who coincidentally turns out to be a chosen too, and makes him her slave. Following that, they act like wuss and keep hiding without doing anything. The story then either shows them doing literally nothing but hiding in their house, or battles between other people.

And here again, it's just horrible. From Ohba and Obata's duo, you would expect smart battles similar to what happened in Death Note, or even something like Hikaru no Go but certainly not. Here we have absolutely nonsensical but "wise" battles with random explanations thrown at every stupid action. What's even worse is that they aren't even on the same footing since the beginning, because the angels aren't on the same level either and not everyone possess every power like the main character.

If not for this being the work of two authors I greatly enjoyed, I would certainly not continue reading something so mediocre, and the art still rises my appreciation by a lot more than it should be. I would not however recommend reading this to anyone, as it's nothing but disappointing.

This Manga is underwhelming, in its premise, its execution of the core themes and its progression of plot and characters . It is not outright bad, though there is a lot left to be desired from Platinum end. Even without comparing it to the previous work of the manga creators, Death Note, this manga does not add any significant creative value in the battle royal, psychological action Shounen space. I'd rather check out Future Diary, and that is already a worrying bar to fail to meet.

The story is difficult to take seriously in the first half of the manga. It takes a very questionable idea; ... the selection of God candidates from people who wished to end their lives, and adds angelic power ranger themes, half interesting characters and untidy plot developments. What results is a manga that tries to be unique, yet feels disorienting to read through. The second half of the manga does try to reach a more consistent and philosophical approach but ultimately there is a lot left wanting even in the closing half of the show. There is little reward in reading through this anime apart from seeing the well drawn art, and reading through semi interesting philosophical dialogues here and there about the meaning of happiness and true nature of the celestial realms and a lot more pretentious subject matter..

Not much else to say, it is fine to get an introduction to battle royal manga, but there are better stories than this.

Well, I started to read this when the 4th, 5th Chapter got out, right now I've read for about 8 Chapters (?)

Note that the creators of this manga are the same creators from Death Note and Bakuman, both really good and known by almost everyone (Even though I haven't watch/read Bakuman until the end). So, as may think, this manga has a great potential and also, became popular because of their creators.

Moving forward, I enjoyed the beginning of the story, it was interesting, depressive boy wants to die, an angel saves him and boom, magic happens, all that thing about being the god and introducing ... the villain was also fun and interesting to read.

Summing this up, I enjoyed what I've read until now, and I am expecting it to become better as more chapters are published, ( even though I don't remember some things already because it takes a long time for chapters to get out haha)

Last question: Would you recommend reading it?
A: I totally recommend you to read this manga if you like the stuff that they made before, and I would also recommend you to watch/read Death Note and Bakuman ( I failed in this one xx)

It was my first review, so, I am sorry if I messed up at some point.

This is my First Review, will try not to give any spoilers.
So Ohba sensei and Obata sensei are here with a new manga, Platinum End. If you are looking for something similar to Death Note or something as Death Note's successor, you better don't read this manga, cause you'll be disappointed.

Story (9/10)
So a depressed guy, Mirai Kakehashi tries to commit suicide but an Angel Nasse saves him and gives him arrows and wings and from there starts the journey of choosing the next God of this world. The story from the beginning had a subtle philosophical approach which got stronger and more prominent near ... the end. The plot twists were at times predictable but no one could have imagined the end. The end is quite a unique way to end the manga. The Manga actually tries to find some important answers like What is God? Origin of God, Who came first Mankind or God? Obviously the answers depend on ur interpretation. The main theme starts with finding Happiness but in couse of time it couples with those questions. But tho towards the end it has a high philosophical tone, the manga in itself is quite enjoyable.

Artwork (10/10)
The artwork is great, just as expected of Obata sensei.

Characters(8/10)
The Characters are mostly cliche. The MC is a kind guy who wants to find happiness. A love interest of the guy, a sister obsessed antagonist. The characters are not something too unique. The character developments are also less and not something two great. One may connect with some of the characters there and well it's not bad not to have unique characters everytime.

Enjoyment (10/10)
Yes, I enjoyed the manga on spot. Reading all the pages with excitement of what's gonna happen next.

Overall (9/10)
One can sure give it a try.

Platinum End is a manga from one of my favourite author which are Tsugumi Ohba who handles the art and Takeshi Obata who handles the story. These 2 are my favourite duo and they made my favourite manga(Bakuman) and Death Note that has a really thrilling story and great mind battles.

At the first few chapter, this manga seems totally like a normal psychological manga and i thought that it's just a few chapter and it will get even better. After getting introduced to more of the character, i was really dissapointed and I don't like it, i expected much action like death note, but ... the story keeps talking about happiness and future.

The two character i like that has really impacted my point of view of this manga is Nasse and Metropoli-man, other than these two maybe Rubel, Saki and Mukaidou are the best ones after them. I am really dissapointed at how the main character turn out to be. Light Yagami and Mashiro Moritaka was one of my favourite character made by the same author and i really love them. In the story, the character development was ok and it explains the concept of the story well.

The Art was ok, it was great. The ending was great, altough it's a bit rushed in my opinion. The dialogue was crazy lot but i think it's what makes their story good even with Death Note and Bakuman.

When reading this, i remembered about one of the manga Ashirogi Muto(the pen name of Takagi and Mashiro from Bakuman) made with a similar concept

After the terrible and untimely passing of his parents and younger brother, Mirai was forced to live with his violent uncle and aunt. Later, he makes the decision to terminate his life before being spared and granted a second opportunity by Nasse, one of the thirteen angels sent by God. She tells him that before the old God retires in nine hundred and ninety days, he must compete against twelve other God contenders. From this point on, Mirai must start again and determine whether or not his second shot at life is worth fighting for.

The characteristics of the characters were all very different from one ... another; some of them have been seen often yet are still vaguely recognizable in other works of media. Not too intricate nor too stale.

The music had a heavenly aspect to it while also capturing a tense turn of events that helped to portray the tone of the story's locale and characters. Notable figures include the legendary Metropoliman, in particular, with his hidden identity, past, and moral convictions of trying to succeed in becoming the next God and Mirai confessing his true feelings and relationship for Saki.

The speed and resolution were the only issues I had with the manga and anime. Viewers and series aficionados disagree on whether the finale itself was satisfactory. Some of the story's episodes' pacing and storyline developments were enjoyable and manageable to follow, while other episodes seemed to be either moving too slowly or too quickly for me to fully absorb.

Overall, some may advise avoiding this entry due to its weak plot, unlikable characters, and recurring moral themes from Tsugumi Ohba's earlier works; however, if you like Tsugumi Ohba's numerous works, including Death Note, Bakuman, and many more, as well as anime that features life-or-death encounters between people in desperate situations where participation is either required or encouraged, I would consider giving this piece of artwork a chance.

I'll make it short. This manga stunned me. After reading Death Note and Bakuman, Tsugumi Ohba's story was once again a masterpiece. I've read 5 chapters and its potential is huge. The character designs - especially Mirai and Nasse seem to be really well done. Reading this really shows the reader that Ohba and Obata do what they always do.
The first chapter was very interesting and reminded of Death Note. Mirai seems to be a total opposite Light. The final showdown will PROBABLY be Mirai vs Metropolitan Man though it is safe to assume that Saki might try to do something. I can't wait for ... an anime adaptation and hope that it happens soon. I can't say a lot about the story since this is just the beginning but we may see a story that might be as good as Death Note if not better. Obata and Ohba have once again done a marvellous job. Overall, I really have high hopes for this series and highly recommend it to Death Note fans.

My initial interest to read this manga sparked from the fact that Platinum End has the same artist and author as Death Note. A series that is arguably one of the most popular and most liked Manga series of all time.
As you can imagine my expectations were quite high when I started reading this one.
I have to get this out here as fast as I can: Platinum End is in no way similar to Death Note!

In the beginning you might find some similarities like how both MCs have some supernatural being as a companion and godlike powers to change the world but the whole atmosphere ... and story are completely different from another.
Let me get into details now.

Story:
The premise of this manga sounds like a battly royal although it's not really one.
13 angels have the duty to chose one human that then becomes a "god canditate" meaning they become a person among 12 others that will get the chance to become the new god of the world.
Those who are chosen are being bestowed with godly powers.
There are three different powers in total and while some people have all three of those, some only have one because their angel doesn't have a high enough rank.
Just on paper it may sound dull to only have 3 different powers but in execution the author shows that there are many different approaches to make use of their abilites.
In that aspect it's a bit similar to Death Note because the rules of those powers are just as important as the powers themselves.

The story takes a long time to get going though and I only started to enjoy the story to the fulledt when I already read around 15-20 chapters.

Art:
The artstyle of this manga is probably the best thing about it altogether.
It's super detailed with expressions and no character looks like a carbon copy of another. It's ironic but the "blandest" character is probably the main character as he looks pretty much like Light from Death Note.

Character:
Oh boy the characters are probably one of the weakest aspects of the story.
The main character is an extreme pacifist which is not surprising because many shounen MCs fit that bill but in his case it's so extreme that it sometimes just comes off as very annoying. At least there is a reason for him to be this way but still.

Personally I enjoy the side characters way more than him and some of these are really well written to be honest!

The most interesting characters are probably the angels though.
They seem to be loyal to their chosen human but we never know what they really are thinking and what this whole "god choosing" is really all about.
This makes them extremely interesting and mysterious. Not to mention that they're designs are super pleasent to the eye as well!

Enjoyment:
In my opinion this manga is definitely worth reading and is one of the better shounen manga. It's really mature for a Shounen Jump title and tackles some really heavy topics like suicude and illness.
You shold not expect Death Note and you shouldn't expect a Battle Royale ala Kings Game either. It doesn't have as many mind games as Death Note but there are still so many suspenseful moments that want to make you want to read just one more chapter after another!