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A friend of mine recommended me another manga drawn by this mangaka, and as I looked it up, the author's name sounded familiar. Turns out, I had already read "Shimanami Tasogare" which caught my eye because of the topics handled.

Starting "Hireath wa Tabiji no Hate", I expected the same breathtaking art alongside page compositions that made me go "oh" out loud sometimes. Kamatani has a very keen eye for creating pages full of the most beautiful art and so far the writing in both of the manga I read left an impact on me. Making me think about things.

The characters in this rather short ... manga are quite likeable, even though you don't spend a lot of time with them overall. For me, the writing was believable, especially for a young teenage girl confronted with death. Her travel companions kept growing on me with each chapter.

I can recommend this manga to people looking for amazing art, because it's worth reading for that alone. But all the more for people like me, who struggle with the topic of death; who'd want to read a perspective on different handling of grief, searching for or not believing in he devine and what mortality means to individuals.

The premise of this manga is an interesting one. I'm all for viewing events from different angles.
At first, I thought it might be a story about female empowerment. Which it certainly is to some extend, but also a tale of tragedies, helpessness and finding a place somwhere you never thought had a space for you.

You get to see the views and perspectives of men from all walks of life who end up in the inner chambers for one reason or another. But also the women who, after being left with every task rise up to the occasion. Peppered with the obligatory intrigues, and ... a whole lot of different heartbreak.

The chapters are quite long, however, which I didn't know beforehand. I thought, "oh, 79 chapters, that's not a lot." Well, it can be, so mind that when you start reading. Having read the manga in its entirety, I'm glad for their length. It added to the whole chronic-like feeling.

Reading the last two chapters of this manga was like letting go of a confidant that I accompanied through the different stages of their life.

I don't even know why I like this. It's just so silly, and really nothing new, but especially the last panel gets me every time. There are, apparently, lots of ways of saying how someone is so infatuated with their partner that they reach their limit of endurance, and I found that both funny and endearing.

Seriously, I clicked on this randomly since it was on the front page and did not expect reading the whole thing in one go. To be fair, every chapter is one single page, so it doesn't take a lot of time.

If you're in the mood for some fluffy, cute, silly ... and short experience, go for it.

In the author Jo Seok's own words: "What I realised once more was that what I find fun and what the readers do differs greatly."

That isn't to say the experience or the work was bad. Just that it's definitely not for everyone. Personally, I feel like a lot of people probably stumbled across a chapter, decided to start reading, but dropped it realtively quickly due to a certain amount of stuff you just have to accept while reading.

And that most likely stems from this webtoon tying into several others by the same author. "Planetary Human" came to be as a prequel to "Tidal Territory" after ... the second season of that webseries left the author dissatisfied. It does have its own sequel as well, which is still ongoing, alongside several stories that loosely belong to the same universe too. Confusing? Sure is.

Imo, you can either read "Planetary Human" as a standalone and be a little confused here and there about recurring characters that most translators thankfully point out are from another work. Or you try tackling the entire universe starting with this webtoon right here.
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Story:

Tbh, it isn't bad. It's simply messy. Jo Seok himself laments this in the afterword. You can find some fun ideas in here. The concept is interesting, especially since it differs for everyone affected. There's even some nice twists. What might dicourage people from finishing the story is its pacing.
Sometimes, you don't have enough time with newly occuring stuff, but the plot already moves forward. I had to go back at times to re-read a chapter. Chapter 97 felt like a good enough ending to me which made me confused about the last chapter - 98. I guess it makes more sense if you know that it's supposed to be a transition to "Tidal Territory".
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Art:

Still okay-ish. Nothing too fancy. Some effects looked cool though.
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Tl;dr:
If you're willing to accept the weirdest things to a certain extent, and go for a ride into some bizarre stuff that ranges from interesting to wtf - go for it. Spend a few afternoons scrolling through the chapters.
If you're not the type for unpolished storytelling where the author just has fun drawing but sometimes loses sight of the reader - yeah, probably not for you.

Before you read this story, in order to know what is going on, you need to first be at least somewhat familiar with "Planetary Human" by the same author. You can, of course, read it without knowing anything, but it won't make much sense, and you might find the ending not satisfying at all.
Also, this review will contain minor spoilers in the character section.
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Story:
The story itself left me in a constant state between weirdly hooked and creeped out for reasons I can't tell even after I finished reading.
There is nothing too special about it, but something about the nature of online webcomics makes them ... strangely addictive in a sense that you just keep reading like you would scrolling through Twitter or reddit.
That is to say, some elements of "Apocalypse Live" play with common fears people might not even realise they have. Which is one reason this series worked for me.
At the same time, it sometimes moves too fast for its own good, leaving the reader wondering what on earth is happening.
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Characters:
Tbh, I'm still a little confused as to who is who at the end. The only characters I could remember were those I knew from "Planetary Human" because they already been established before. Hui Woo, the protagonist here, is easy enough to follow. Although it becomes somewhat messy towards the end, regarding his whereabouts.
The side characters though? Yeah, they unfortunately all got mixed up in my head since you know nothing about them before the events start and learn nothing as the plot unfolds.
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Art:
Is okay-ish. Maybe the main reason why it's hard to tell characters apart sometimes.
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Tl;dr:
I wouldn't necessarily say you can't recommend this to others.
You might get a strange enjoyment out if it, like I did, randomly stumbling upon the author and his weirdly fascinating ideas. But you also might think the whole series is stupid. It really depends on how willing you are to go with the flow of something that doesn't make much sense to you for quite a while.

Until episode 19 I'd have given the anime around an 8 overall score but unfortunately, it didn't stick the landing at all during the end.

It pains me a little to drag down overall rating since I believe this anime deserves recognition, especially since it is the mangaka's first work, meaning even at the age of 41, if you've never worked in the field before, I don't expect perfect storytelling.

HOWEVER, as much as you can forgive certain pacing problems (like a needlessly dragged out plot point over 3 episodes) and inconsistencies, because even the big shots suffer from these occasionally, I was completely taken out ... of the story by episode 22.

Episode 22 completely destroyed the whole journey as it basically absolved one of the characters from everything without consequences or reason. Throughout the whole show, there were at least attempts to create meaningful growth for other characters but this one? Nope. I am a little tired of the "absolved by having a very bad childhood" trope.
Having suffered yourself does not mean you can act out towards others and then be forgiven just like that just because of past trauma. You're still responsible for how you act, what you've done and brought upon others.

Art, sound and voice acting was great, though. Second opening feels like you're watching a tiny little movie with the images and the music.

You'll still enjoy watching Ranking of Kings, it just might leave you disappointed at the end with a wrap up of the plot that doesn't feel earned nor justified even in its own created universe.

Sadly, as much as I was intrigued after the first few chapters, it pretty quickly began to spiral downwards for me.
If you're interested in yakuza, yaoi and the complex relationship between characters, I'd rather recoomend Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai by Yoneda Kou.


It's a shame that, after the introduction to our main protagonist Yuki and Tetsu, as well as Hyodo - a yakuza member, the story relies heavily on the dramatic factor of Yukio being assaulted over and over.

The way Yuki's trauma is portrayed was very good and honest, because, unlike a lot of times, his trauma actually matters in terms of how he acts ... and reacts. That made me hopeful to have found a hidden gem.

Yet, the more I kept reading, the less the story managed to captivate me. Turf wars are nice and all, but it felt predictable sometimes, especially when it comes to the relationship a lot of characters share with Yuki.


Art:
The art is fine. Considering the year it started publishing, you'd find that style a lot. It still holds up to this day, not looking outdated even by today's standards. Which is quite rare for yaoi (imo)


Characters:
As mentioned above, Yuki and his traumatic experiences are implemeted a lot better than I expected from a yaoi. There was one instance Tetsu made me agry, but only because how he acted really hit the mark on teenager stupidity. Well done in that regard.
However, most of the other character fall a bit flat at the end of the day.

Story:
Hoo boy, did I want to like the story, I really did. Yet, after a few dropped bombs in the earlier chapters, it felt a bit forced on how so many characters orbited around Yuki because of who his relatives were. Also, I'm not a huge fan of putting in random assaults for dramatic purposess. But that's just a gripe I have with a lot of the genre's handling of it.
No plot will completely go above and beyond everything we've seen so far, yet the story felt midiocre after some time, unfortunately.


Overall, I'd like to say that if you are fond of the manga, I'm not here to discredit your enjoyment. All of us search for different things while reading manga, and the story might even get back in track for me.
I'll probably finish reading it when it'll be completed, but I won't reccomend it to friends.

It's different from the usual style of the genre, and it's this very simplicity that made me love the full package.

Sure, the first few seconds in, you might think what's going on with the art style, but bear with it as it compliments the story and characters so well.
It almost feels as if the whole plot comes alive just seconds after the artist drew it on a canvas; which gives it both, a sense of liveliness and innocence.
I've not seen many anime productions using a water colour style before, so this was something fresh and beautiful at the same time.

As for the sound: ... as expected with such a soft art style, you won't find some fulminant score to accompany the pictures but that's just fine. You could close your eyes while listening to the music and get carried away like a leaf on a river.

Speaking of which: even the story feels a little like this. You just...ease in and go with the flow.

Divided in different parts, it almost feels like you're looking at an animated picture book and it kind of marks the different stages the two protagonists are going through.
If I should name flaws, I'd say, they lie in the pacing. Sometimes things progress really fast, just to be followed by scenes that come across as brake blocks; but looking at the movie in its entirety, you get why there are some slower parts.

If only the ending wouldn't leave you with that bittersweet feeling of craving for more while being satisfied with the cuteness and simplicity of the movie.
No, seriously, you DO want to know what happens after the movie ends.

Nonetheless, I left Doukyuusei with a big smile on my face, all warm and fuzzy inside.

It's flawed but that doesn't mean it's bad.

With a franchise like this that has been around for about 15 years now, of course there'll be a lot of emotions involved concerning this new approach on Digimon.
Nonetheless, I don't quite understand the extremely harsh judgement of those "movies". With some even going as far as to say it was "ruining everyone's childhood".

The story still unfolds; yes, there are only four tri parts with 4 episodes each but we're only halfway there with episodes 5-8; you can't expect them going full gear every single episode.
The original "Adventure" had more time and thus was forgiven ... when there were episodes that didn't handle intense fighting.

Admittedly, it gets confusing seeing Ken popping up everywhere, acting shady but you don't know what's going on. The plot to this point leaves a lot of questions unanswered - which doesn't neccessarily have to be bad.
I've read (more than once) that the characters have little development and the story falls flat because of topics like "the school festival" and such.

Can't agree with that. Everything about Mimi and Joe hit so close to home I had to pause and take a breath because those were topics that concerned me so much. Most kids that grew up with Digimon (like me) would be in their early to mid twenties by now and you have to face the thoughts about growing up and deciding what you're going to do and who you want to be.
I loved the fact that they included this into the story.

Talking about plot line flaws, I'd rather list the kinda obvious thing about Meicoomon bringing some kind of dark side to everything with its appearance. Or the fact that Taichi and Yamato still have issues with each other and you don't really know the complete reason behind it.
And how most of the kids didn't have their time to shine, yet.
That's what was bothering me.

Man, the sound. THE MUSIC. If the feeling of being at home returns as soon as the first few seconds of the opening play, that's when you know they did it right.
How they intertwined some moments with the music, goodness gracious, beautifully done.

Can't wait to watch the other parts.

Let's tackle this tightrope walk, called "Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari!"

I don't want to make any excuses for a bad adaptation because, for me, it didn't feel like one. Was it on the top of anime adaptations from other source material that I've seen so far? - No
Was it horrible enough to bring me to the edge of dropping the series? - Hell no

You see, the games themselves are complex in a way you wouldn't expect them to be when you look at a summary of what you basically do. To transfer this from a platform that allows you to do investigation yourself, finding ... clues, and uncovering the truth, onto the screen were you're a passive watcher... that's no easy task.

To fairly judge the Ace Attorney anime you need to understand that it's not about copy and pasting the events on TV but that the producers had to neccessarily scrap some of the points they deemed too much for casual watchers who didn't play the game; but at the same time keeping the ones who knew the franchise beforehand at bay.

The pacing for the first two cases started off quite nice, I really enjoyed the introduction though they should have made it more clear that "casual watchers" couldn't expect a serious anime about the law. Because the games just aren't, let's be honest.
(They'd probably arrest you if you'd bring a whip to the prosecution stand.)

Midway through, from episode 4-10, the pacing got rushed and therefore the anime failed to really convince both sides, unfortunately. I know, it's hard when you've been given a limited number of episodes to fit into a season but if that's the case, maybe they should have just covered one of the games and not two of them.
Episode 13 was a very sweet addition though and I applaud them for giving us kid Naruhodo, Yahari und Mitsurugi.

The art and animation was overall fine, sometimes... "interesting" (if you want to call it that). Still, those blemishes every now and then didn't take the enjoyment away.
For me they were charmingly silly and made me laugh, rather than hating the series for not having a good style.

But that voice acting. Especially the last episode brought back the intense feeling I had when reaching the critical point of this particular case just because the seiyuu put their heart into it and really delivered some awesome performances.
The choices, in general, felt right; Kaji Yūki knows how to pull off great stuff and he made me love dorky Naruhodo even more. You can't like a series if you don't feel the main character, and he gave Naruhodo that rookie attorney gone wild vibe.


Overall, this isn't a masterpiece but it's surely not an anime made for the trash bin. If you want to have the full crazy experience, you better play the games because they offer detaisl you'll never find in a season anime that is made with 24 episodes in mind.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with this series even though some of my favourite features were missing.