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Charlotte: The plot is that the main character is an overpowered asshole who is forced to keep learning that with great power comes great responsibility...but its REALLY hard for him to let go of the asshole part.

You have to watch this show till the end. And i mean the very, VERY end. Because yes, it starts bad. And yes, it gets worse. And yes, it gets even worse. But despite it all, you kind of learn to love the absurdity of every world fucking twist. When i say mixed feelings i mean MIXED. It's good...in a way that every criticism I tried to negative nancy ... on to it eventually got thrown out the window because EVERYTHING. Gets thrown out the window. All. The. Time. Definitely an "anime" anime, if you know what I mean.

To be fair, there aren't many other Yuri manga like this.

I found this manga to be incredibly juicy, entertaining, and suspenseful the full way through to being caught up. It's so rare that we can get bad people who both face consequences and also don't really get redemption, and in such a self-aware love triangle, it creates an enticing story. I'd also like to give credit that the author herself makes it very clear that she wrote Fuuko and Yuni intentionally irredeemable. I found this was one of those Yuri that actually worked in getting me thinking about the characters and relationships long term. They ... also provide Nanase and Yuki to be an opposing control group of what a "normal person" is. Apart from the central plot, as it gets further in, the development of the characters' personalities become clear through individual upbringings that I really enjoyed. It explains without justifying. They feel very human still with the exaggeration of manga characters that makes them so fun to read.

It's romantic and lustful and wholly irritating. Some well-written drama that doesn't often exist in this genre. Not to mention that it balances the "existing as queer in society" and also "just because we're lesbians doesn't mean we're perfect or even good" aspects well.

The art is also beautiful--the author can draw faces and hair so consistently beautiful it's actually crazy. The reason I have mixed feelings and can see why other wouldn't want to read it is the clear high school setting mixed with the erotica. I find the characters to have significantly unrealistic bodies, kind of a surprise of the extremity, coming from a female author. Although there actually isn't multiple sex scenes nor is it the main plot, it does exist and is (obviously) central to the story. It's iffy how necessary it is to depict it, but the author seemed to find the graphic-ness necessary, as said in one of her afterwords.

I would recommend this to people who find the synopsis interesting and expectations set, because they will be met. The characters themselves are incredibly dimensional and great at responding to the plot. The plot itself? Goes through many jumps and hills that I'm unsure are surprisingly twisty or bad. Both recommended and not recommended reviews, IMO, are 100% correct at the same time lol

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba follows Narita, a high school it-girl that is desperate to keep her popularity, who (kinda) falls in love with the school tomboy Aoi Koshiba. Its setup is a flashback format, following their high school reunion and the dramas of their friendship/relationship in high school.

The pacing in this manga is by far its downfall. For a drama, it is constantly setting up mysteries and plot twists (character backstories, hidden love interests), that are in theory significant plot points, but end up becoming washed out versions of their ideas that don't get any depth and aren't continued to have importance in the story. ... I believe that this is the type of story that's meant to stretch out across a long period of time, to really sink in their changing feelings. But it isn't. It drags.

This also makes all the characters seem incredibly over-dramatic for what's happening. In fact, all of the characters are unfortunately always teetering the line of genuinely unlikable. Several of the "main" characters are purposely made out to be bad people, with no redeeming or fun qualities. You're not made to feel like you really /get/ any of them, including if not especially the main character.

Speaking of the main character...I have a bone to pick with her. I think overconfident or ditzy main characters can be especially fun, and humbleness is not a trait needed to make an mc likable. But....her struggle with her sexuality is frustratingly confusing. It tries to be a coming-of-age, battle with "do I want to be with her or be her", story line. It is rather another result of feelings that could've been done well if stretched out across various developments, but instead are back-to-back plot decisions that make the characters superficial.

The best part about this manga is by far the art, which has a separate artist (Fly, who designed the Syrup covers) from its writing. It is what gives the drama any substance, and the characters likability.

The ending is very bad. A story doesn't have to give the readers what they want, but with this, it is sudden, misleading, does not correspond with the rest of the plot, and would not make any reader in any world happy. That is why I do not recommend reading this.

READ! FUTARI ESCAPE!!
This is a slice-of-life comedy manga about a mangaka and her lazy freeloader girlfriend, and the various ways they attempt to escape reality and work.

I didn't have huge expectations going into it, but it is FUNNY. It has a surreal, Japanese sense of humor that still translates well into English. It's refreshing in that they're adults, dealing with adult problems, but the tone is never serious unless it counts (and when it does, it's actually very sweet). It's not boring, and it isn't typical either-the two main characters, until later volumes, are really the only ones throughout the entire manga, and so ... you get a real sense of their relationship and past just from their interactions. It sometimes feels like they're the only ones in their world, and it's strangely comforting.

The yuri subtext is really great too. The plot doesn't revolve around it, but it's very clear that they're more than friends, and especially in the last volume, it's a super rewarding type of romance that's established but, again, not boring. It's perfect for someone who likes slice-of-life and yuri together, in just a way that it's nice that it's there.

The best part about this manga is that it doesn't drag or stretch: its the perfect length of rereadable content and it has an amazing, satisfying and sweet conclusion that ties the entire manga into a comprehensible story. I really do recommend this manga.

I've never been more pleasantly surprised. The title alone seems comedic, but this manga is nothing but a heartfelt, wholly gay story. It mostly takes place in the home, so you get a LOT of domestic fluff, but its also a gl that follows the lives of two adults, which is a little harder to find without being violently angsty or sexual.

The characters are adorably designed, with differentiating body types and faces that make the art style very squishy but not generic. It doesn't over-saturate the fact they're gay, but its important to the story and the characters themselves. For such a quick read, it's ... funny, well paced, and satisfying. I just really think this is cute and a perfect read for when you're feeling cold or lonely.

I'm so...underwhelmed. It's difficult to read a 3 volume manga and feel like its so long, and then finish it feeling absolutely nothing? I was super excited for this manga. It has an art style and character designs that are unique and extremely pretty to read through. The characters alone are interesting and have room to grow. And yet, the chemistry between them is super lacking, not very romantic, and don't get any real growth. The side couple is eternally more interesting and I REALLY enjoyed them, but they get minimal page time after their brief flashback, and no real conclusion. It's so strange. This ... series literally skips all of the good parts you are rooting and reading it for. You won't feel satisfied by the end of it.

I don't wanna be a negative nancy, there are some beautiful scenes and a true appreciation for music in these pages. It just ended so fast and yet dragged everywhere else. It's disappointing!

This is a gag manga about a deadpan human and her silly vampire roommate. Super fun premise, super pretty art style with good personalities and designs. Which is what made me really disappointed by this! I feel like it had the setup to be great but failed to be anything. It feels too comedy heavy in the first book and too plot heavy in the second. I personally didn't care much for the slice-of-life but really enjoyed the plot where the more romance-centered stuff happened, but the only other review had the opposite opinion so you'll get one either way.

Don't really expect anything satisfying coming ... from this, either for a romance or any true development, though the ending is VERY cute. You'll get a few great moments but not anything serious. As a warning, there is a bit of fan service which gets a bit weird and unnecessary in the second book. In any case I don't think you should expect it to be great, it's a 2 volume, very small series to begin with, but if you see it somewhere and want to grow your yuri collection I think it's a pretty addition.

Read the manga

Don't watch this. It's like they shredded the plot and characters through an AI and asked it "write the worst possible thing in existence", used its script, and animated it while drunk. Strange, abnormal amount of fanservice, weird fujoshi bait (for EVERY pairing you can imagine) and some wildly unnecessary gore. The timeline is so messed up I don't even understand how the animators understood what they were doing--it's not messed up in a fun, creative way, just in a bad, messy way.

So watch it if you want to get an all around experience of Black Butler, but make sure to read ... on the correct chronological order of the animated series. You shouldn't judge this series as a whole based on this season, as, as you know, it isn't manga canon.

This was really a one of a kind experience. This makes the manga's writing feel like a holy script upon an alter. Just read it. The art is better, the plot is better, and there is no Alois (god bless). The music goes HARD though.

what?

darwin's game: the peak of mediocrity, and the definition of a general waste of time. this anime is just so underwritten and unoriginal that it is hardly even entertaining, not bizarre or unique in any sense. which is actually quite a shame, considering the concept itself is actually pretty interesting and funny. sure, i wasn't going into this expecting anything huge. to be honest, i started dg on a complete whim upon opening netflix, having never even heard of seen it before. something dumb, sure, even something comedically bad; but dg just tries so hard to be a type of cool it can't pull off.

trust ... me when i say, i am VERY EASY TO PLEASE. like, even if a show's writing is dogshit, if it's fun to watch, i'll enjoy it. no game no life, danganronpa the animation, umaru chan, all moral trash, but still very entertaining. in fact, darwin's game is the ONLY show that i've sat through the entirety of and didn't care. it's not cringe or anything, i didn't dread watching it, it's just, so lame.

for starters, its world building is tremendously poor- game mechanics are never explained clearly or elaborated. problems are often solved with fancy big words and trump cards that nobody really cares about, but lets it slide because, "even if i don't understand it, it must be cool if they're playing epic music with cool lighting". and it just leaves such a bland taste in the mouth, because its poor writing just causes you to have, like, no reaction. it doesn't make you happy, it doesn't make you sad (which is saying a lot, it's genuinely rare i don't cry), the most it can get out of the watcher is surprise from gore that lasts a few seconds. there's a lack of comedy (or at least, some with taste), and no fun plot twists. it's just predictable.

but the most outlandish thing about this anime is its characters.

gosh, i have so much to say about this section, first and foremost, i'd like to award dg a plastic medal for not dumbing down its female characters. they're there, they're useful, they have as much depth as the men (that's not saying a lot ig), good for them good for them. anyways, they're still written terribly. as is every character. well, i guess i shouldn't say written poorly as much as it is just, not written at all?

starting off with the main character, kaname. he's somewhat of a gary sue- well, he does have his major flaws but nobody seems to acknowledge them and he basically gets everything he wants? he's introduced as a normal guy roped into a super scary game, and develops into a normal guy inside of a super scary game. throughout the entire show, they make him out to be progressively super powerful and special. like, oh wow, he's someone special big shots are interested in and need to look out for. but really, he's not? he doesn't get anymore powerful besides literally basic training, which is even mentioned but not condemned? and why does he keep winning? his power... is kinda boring despite the anime making it out to be super rare and cool. like, good for him he can make a handgun and small grenade out of thin air. which wouldn't be an issue if they talked about how he could achieve and push limits using a somewhat decent sigil. but he's literally carried by it, and that never changes. not to mention there are TONS of characters with better powers then him, thinking about it, MOST CHARACTERS HAVE COOLER POWERS THAN HIM. hell, the normal dude in the last episode who got a sigil and then died last second for kaname's character development had a cooler sigil.

sheesh, he's just such so badly written, because he somehow goes from scaredy cat to cocky bastard to literal psychopath while still being so boring to watch. and the reason behind that is his motivations suck ass. "omg the game killed my friend who doesn't have a personality, i'm so mad i'm going to end this twisted game." they're cliched and just seem so forced.

but what sucks most of all about kaname sudou is that, hot take, he's a shitty person! like, moral wise, he sucks! he spends the entire anime classically against the act of killing (despite all of his close friends being murderers without good justification)- normal anime troupe, can be done well. but then, he, SPOILER WARNING FOR THE REST OF THE PARAGRAPH, just ends up killing literally everyone? he doesn't go into a blind rage of justice, he literally goes dead silent and shoots characters that we don't even know, mercilessly. this isn't revenge, this is a petty excuse for mass murder. and the ending just totally rubs me the wrong way, holy fuck, they just start murdering random and rather innocent people and NO ONE mentions it? the most logical response we ever get is the blue haired girl whimpering "we shouldn't do this, killing is bad!" and then we just continue and nothing changes. which, hear me out, the fact that he's a bad person isn't my main issue. it's the way that he faces NO CONSEQUENCES. ZERO. why doesn't he face any consequences?? he's constantly rewarded and supported for torturing and shooting several groups of people, and we're supposed to be on HIS side? they ended the show as if they were doing great deeds, like killing anyone who tries to kill is the best way that will solve everything. if i took these scenes out of context, people would literally assume he's the antagonist.

onto the side characters because i'm going to get a headache thinking about kaname much longer. they're all based on really stale personality troupes: shuka is an effeminate maniac, rein is a seemingly emotionless nerd, sui is a coward with a crazy side (or a mockery of DID rep), and ryuji- who is ryuji again? it's so sad because i have seen shows with rather basic character personalities that are still amazing, good example being the promised neverland.

the worst part is the way they follow kaname like dogs. he didn't do anything other than have basic survival skills, so why is he treated like a god? they could all literally wipe the floor with him if they just tried, but instead, they give up midbattle for the sake of not having to write kaname as an actually decent character. like, shuka. a really fun, powerful woman known as "the undefeated queen", who has an interesting backstory and some decent potential. remind me again why she is reduced to kaname's swooning love interest? they don't even have a fun dynamic or any chemistry, which if they did, i'd actually really enjoy. she just goes from an enemy to an ally that seems willing to give everything for kaname, just because he, what, pinned her to the ground despite her sigil easily having the ability to get through it?

the side characters all act like they're on such high moral ground, when they've murdered tons, fighting against killing by... supporting kaname's plan to "kill anyone who gets in his way"? pardon?

the best part about this anime by far is it's art and sound design. it's sound design other than that one scene in episode one when kaname collapses onto his knees and makes a sound that sounds like a wooden door was just shattered, is good. the op and ed sequences are catchy. the art is beautiful, there's great animation and pretty lighting throughout the entire show. i'm just a bit sad that such a budget was put into such... normal character designs. sui, rein and shuka are pretty designs, sure, but i feel like you can find a thousand copies of them. and about a trillion can be said for kaname's ass design. if i drew kaname and posted it with no context other than, "guess who", i doubt anyone would guess him anytime soon. the rest... tbh i kind of forgot them already (i'm writing this review minutes after i've finished). even side characters or antagonists' designs feel undefined, equivalent to the effort of bg characters.

that all being said, it's not an eyesore. it is a very pretty anime with nice composition and music.

closing up, darwin's game feels like if akame ga kill and sword art online had a really ugly child.

ok bye

beastars, beastars, beastars.

beastars is an overwhelming balance of embarrassing high-school romance, several murderers, questionably homoerotic scenes, and rabbit boobs. its so crazy. like i don't know how to lay it down other than to say this manga is just kinda bonkers. it feels like it comes from a mind of a person who's watching everything upside down. i don't know if ms. itagaki has seen all of the world or none of it at all. it juggles so many random genres, characters, and plots at once in such a bizarre fashion that it just, works.

(fyi im writing this at 5am fresh after finishing the ... last chapter so it might sound trash)

beastars takes on the oh so iconic anthropomorphic allegory of human society so beloved and yet shunned within the world of media. don't be mistaken, this isn't some zootopia type business, as beastars has no intention of conveying one message that speaks out against the cruel injustices of this society. it just kind of presents a world: its beauties and its struggles in all its glory.

first and foremost, i gotta talk about the world building in this manga. itagaki sets up the beastars universe to be a society modeled after humanity, while also being completely detached from it. it's so thought out and thorough, it makes the world they live in feel so real and so easy to put yourself within. and it only gets progressively better throughout the story as we learn countless perspectives of said society. adding dimension after dimension so that the world is, at the end, very up to the interpretation of the reader. and i think that's so important- while it explains the drastically differing POVs of several characters, from high-school girls to mass murderers, they're never presented as "right" or "wrong". they just "are".

story wise, i'm really conflicted on this one. because wowza, it is OUT THERE. don't go into this manga expecting one set plot, or even 5. it jumps storylines and genres like a newborn changes moods. and yeah, that leaves a lot of room for plotholes, characters brought in for one chapter and then left completely untouched, and some unsatisfying conclusions. but, you won't be disappointed. or rather, you won't be indifferent. because while there are a lot of different arcs and character stories that are juggled at once, you'll care for each and every one of them. you'll be happy and sad for them, you'll be invested. each one ties together ever so intricately, and they each bring something new to the story. the story writing itself is just incredible. each twist feels so fresh, not just in its genre, but comic storytelling in general.

which, hell, that is saying a LOT. but i can't stress this enough, you won't find another manga like beastars.

i mean, i feel like you can infer that from the cover alone. but really, it's one of a kind. it hardly follows tropes, touches topics that are rarely covered in other popular books, and is an all around unique manga from its character design to authors notes. truly something worth reading if i've ever picked up a book.

something i'd also like to mention about beastars is its author, paru itagaki. daughter of the author of BAKI, sure, but what i'd really like to talk about; she's a woman. something surprisingly and unfortunately very rare in popular shonen work, especially one that contains as much violence, sex talk, and adventure as beastars does. the way she writes characters is remarkable, each main character even apart from legoshi, our protagonist, has an insane amount of development. skimming by louis, a work of art, and juno, one endearing mf, i'd like to talk about haru the rabbit.

renowned and dishonored for her record of sleeping around, beastars takes on the topic of slut-shaming head on. to be honest, i was really shocked by such a modern take in a manga as big as beastars, especially one that's more known for its netflix anime. the way itagaki writes her story, explaining and justifying haru's actions not only as a woman, but as a rabbit, is holy shit, incredible. the creativity one must have to write about such a human topic within a nonhuman world as naturally as itagaki does it, it really makes me appreciate this manga that much more.

this is getting really long as per usual, so i'm just gonna close with my thoughts on the art and overall.

the art. i really don't have to say a lot here, it's beautiful. sure, in the first volume every time legoshi appears i nearly piss myself, but that kind of makes looking back that much more enjoyable if not amusing. the covers are a treat, bonus artworks adorable, and in general, a really beautiful manga.

i've already said all i've wanted to say; beastars is just something that you really don't want to miss out on. even if you don't end up liking it, i can't imagine someone would leave this series gaining nothing from it. truly a work to be reckoned with.