Masamune-kun no Revenge is... well, let me put it this way: you ever put your hand in a blender? Yeah, that sums up how I feel about this manga.
Long story short: good art, bad everything else. Go on the wiki, enjoy the cute girls and Masamune and Kojuro's designs, and go do something else with your finite, beautiful, valuable lives. And if that isn't enough reason to stop you from reading this manga, allow me to explain why I immensely dislike Masamune-kun no Revenge.
Imagine you've got a cool, relatable story of self-betterment and learning, a story which shows how a person can evolve and become
...
something they can be proud of. Add in a nice lil' gimmick about how they're going to get revenge and force the antagonist to realise their own flaws and better themselves, cute girls, and some comedy, and you've got a nice time. But that isn't Masamune-kun.
No, Masamune-kun is a boring, weird story filled with wish fulfilment and tropes. The story starts off... okay? It's realistic enough at least, with character development and has a bit of internal struggle. But, here's where we see inherent flaw with the series: the author is shit. Hazuki has no clue what he's doing or where he's going except for a few key points in the narrative - everything else is free fall until they reach these specific points.
And, let me say, these points are, dare I say, enjoyable. They're not "good" due to their writing (although the art does help pick up the slack), but they're like beating a hard boss in a video game. And that's not a bloody good thing to have in a manga, as failing to beat a boss is YOUR fault. YOU didn't do it good enough, so you have to try again because YOU weren't good enough, didn't learn enough, weren't fast enough, etc. But this is a piece of literature, where such a feeling can be created through two ways: (1) masterful storytelling and manipulation of the characters and audience to create tension and pull at your heartstrings or (2) doing a poor job at writing, forcing the audience to sit through it and endure your writing.
All that being said, sometimes it's fine, you barely notice it - but these times are severely lacking. Most of the time it's painfully noticeable just how bad and just plain strange points of the story are; character arcs and plot points are discarded, their purpose in pushing the narrative on fulfilled. That leads me onto another important thing: the characters.
First of all, we have the eponymous Masamune. He's... alright, I guess. Pretty stock-standard borderline-wish fulfilment character, has a few "quirks" which make up his personality. Then we have Aki, the tsundere-hime who is... more of collection of tropes than a real character (although she does have a nice moment at one point, even though Hazuki's writing rears its head again). After her, we have Yoshino, pretty much loli-big boobs-fanservice-quiet school shooter type. Following her, we have Kojuuro, your generic trap girly boy.
You getting a feel for the characters yet? Did you guess that the next one would be Futaba, the class president? Maybe not, but you got the feeling that these are all tropes and archetypes which barely fill out their roles as archetypes. That being said, I do like three character in this: Kojuuro (he showed some nice character development for the series), Futaba (so much wasted potential, you shall forever be #2 girl to me), and Muriel (only in a small arc and not part of the main cast, but god damn do I love her design).
Now, the second last thing to talk about is the art: I fucking love it. Tiv is a godsend, she can do no wrong (except her questionable colour palette). She is the only reason the story and characters are soft 3s and not a hard 2s, as her art is able to drag the characterisation and emotions up. While the designs and style aren't anything to write home about (being fairly generic for manga and anime), she does them damn well, and consistently for that matter.
So, here I stand, with only one thing to talk about: enjoyment. Why is it a 2 if everything else was a 3 or an 8? Because I fucking sat through 40 chapters of this crap. By the end of the Ch. 18 I was ticked, my score was a 5 or 4, my enjoyment was a solid 5 though. It had been a ride, but I didn't quite regret it. But then... It happened. It is something you will learn of if you don't heed my warning and turn back now. It makes no sense and made my blood run in reverse, almost ending the suffering which It brought onto my existence. While I can't say what It is due to It being a massive spoiler, It ruins everything. "Nothing good could possibly come after It," I thought to myself.
And I was right. Excluding the time with Muriel in it, It does mark the end of everything good in this manga to me. It destroys the past, present, and future of this manga; the past is soured, the present is corrupted, and the future is made bleak, all by It. Don't even get me started on Its big bad older brother, That, which I just witnessed recently. That is like biting into sandwich and biting into a Holocaust. It and That ruined everything good about this (sans the art and the few good moments) of this series for me. It and That did not impact upon my perception of the story nor characters too greatly, just enjoyment.
In conclusion, here are my scores:
Story: 3, a piece of shit. Author has no idea what they're doing except for a few key points.
Art: 8, beautiful and well done.
Character: 3, see Story for reasons.
Enjoyment: 2, hahahahahhahano. No enjoyment here, save a few moments.
Overall: 3. I don't reccomend reading this at all. It's tropey garbage which you shouldn't waste your time reading. Hell, the whole "revenge" thing it has going for it dies off pretty quickly as well.
All that being said, I will keep reading it. Why? Because I'm curious how bad it will get.
May 28, 2017
Masamune-kun no Revenge
(Manga)
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Masamune-kun no Revenge is... well, let me put it this way: you ever put your hand in a blender? Yeah, that sums up how I feel about this manga.
Long story short: good art, bad everything else. Go on the wiki, enjoy the cute girls and Masamune and Kojuro's designs, and go do something else with your finite, beautiful, valuable lives. And if that isn't enough reason to stop you from reading this manga, allow me to explain why I immensely dislike Masamune-kun no Revenge. Imagine you've got a cool, relatable story of self-betterment and learning, a story which shows how a person can evolve and become ... 
Jul 1, 2015
Hellsing Ultimate
(Anime)
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To say that I find Hellsing Ultimate an enjoyable show is to say that Russia's merely been helping Ukraine recently. No, I LOVE THIS SO MUCH! But I shall not allow my blatant love to distract from providing an unbiased review that isn't completely praising it.
Firstly, let me talk about the story: I, personally, really enjoyable and great. But allow me to talk about what it is, and why I enjoyed it. The story basically is impossible to give out with any spoilers, but it goes like this: Alucard and Seras go and do their jobs as vampire hunters. But don't take this in a ... |
