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Apr 18, 2022
Golem Hearts is an adventure manga in a fantasy setting with super power elements. It is targeted towards a Shounen audience.
It was serialized in the biggest manga magazine of Japan: Weekly Shounen Jump. Being known for its harsh environment for upcoming authors, this can be a blessing with lots of exposure but it can also be a curse because of the very high level of competition.
The art and story are done by Gen Oosuka. I never heard this name before. Why? Because this was his first real published work. He had some One-Shots before, but in terms of serializations, Golem Harts was his first
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manga. Let's not talk around the important things. The manga got cancelled (axed), so it ended prematurely with only two volumes.
-- Story and world building --
The story combines elements of other highly popular manga. For example the setting and the topics remind me of Fullmetal Alchemist. And the story telling and the comedic elements remind me of Fairy Tail. While it is of course very subjective of Fullmetal Alchemist or Fairy Tail are good or not is up to the viewer to decide. But I think it is undoubtedly true that both series are popular. So what went wrong? Why was Golem Hearts not as successful as those two?
The main character Noah is not a human, but a Golem. He was created by his master Lamech who has the profession of a sorcery scholar. Because they get along so well (and because Lamech actually considers Golems as actual beings instead of tools), Noah aims to become the worlds number two arcanist. With that, the number one spot would of course be given to his creator. Indeed a huge goal to pursue.
During his adventures he also encounters some bad guys. But since there are only two volumes, not a lot of character progression can be expected. Most characters get introduced once and then never show up again.
There is also some trial for arcanists called entrance exam which Noah is about to take. It is comparable to the Hunter Exam from Hunter x Hunter or the Chuunin Exam from Naruto. But with the manga being cancelled, this is basically the only story arc that exists. With only covering around 3 or 4 chapters you can't really call it an arc in the first place.
-- Art --
The art style is actually not bad!! I love especially the backgrounds which are really rich and detailed at times. The characters look good as well but are lacking a bit of uniqueness - personally I am totally fine with that. All in all I have nothing to complain about the art style.
-- Enjoyment --
I think Golem Hearts was a really easy and quick read. I could have easily seen this as a long running Shounen series if it wasn't for the competitive environment of Shounen Jump. Maybe this manga could have become a big one if it was serialized in a magazine with less competition like Shounen Sunday or Shounen Magazine.
With the author being forced to end the manga way earlier than he had planned, all the build-up from earlier chapters and all the introduced characters never have a chance to shine. This leaves lots of people being disappointed who then rate this manga with a low score. It is true that the ending is of course pretty forced, abrupt and not what the fans or the artist wanted at all.
Just in the second-to-last chapter some new bad guy shows up and wants to.. of course.. dominate the world. But his attempts are crushed so easily in half a chapters what makes him look like super weak. There is no time to explain how, but some way after a time skip of 5 years, the initial big goal set up in the beginning of the manga is reached. In a pretty anticlimactic way.
Considering all of this, the ending is naturally lackluster and not satisfying at all. The huge goal of the journey was reached way too quickly, in a similar fashion like it was done in Alice to Taiyou.
I hope the author has a better run with his next manga called Doron Doron, but to be honest, I don't see lots of hope. The ratings are already pretty low again and... Yep. It is also serialized in Shounen Jump. I think it might only be a matter of time when the next upcoming manga is waiting to be published and one low-ranking manga has to leave its serialization status for something new. This choice might soon be Doron Doron which then would also crumble under the Shounen Jump curse. But hey, this is about Golem Hearts.
I wonder how many manga one author can afford to get axed until he is considered "burned" in the manga industry.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 12, 2020
Ano Natsu: 1959 is a Baseball manga with a time travel twist. An unusual combination indeed. Can it satisfy the demands of Baseball fans and/or time travel fans? Lets see! It was published in Shounen Sunday by a manga artist called Fukui Ashibi who (as far as I know) didn't have any smash hit manga so far.
-- Story --
The story is centered around a high school boy called Natsu who is taking part in the schools Baseball club. Of course he is dreaming about going to the Koushien - the biggest event of Baseball in Japan (even in High School). His school is so close
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to getting to the Koshien, they are in the qulifying match! 60 years ago his grandfather brought the school to the Koshien for the first and only time.
However the match is interrupted because of a thunderstorm. Just when the lightning strike hits, Natsu finds himself 60 years in the past, in the year 1959. He ends up taking part in the baseball club again, but this time together with his grandfather! Will he be able to get back to 2019? Will he win the Koushien tournament now or in the future? Will history change forever!?
-- Art --
I actually quite enjoyed the artwork. Characters looked good and backgrounds were nice to look at as well. The drawings were punchy and had lots of impact when they needed to. This manga made me interested in looking into more published manga of Fukui Ashibi (but I didnt get to it yet)!
-- Characters --
Because the manga is rather short with just three compiled volumes, there is not a lot of time for character development. Because of this, there is some backstory behind Natsu and his grandfather, but other side characters seem a bit uninteresting. Of course in such a short story, its hard to create backstories for side characters or to work out their motivations, ambitions and goals. Actually, just one day after finishing the manga, I already forgot about most of the characters because they were not memorable. Aside from Natsu and his grandfather I remember two others with minor roles in the plot.
-- Enjoyment --
The story ended at a pretty random spot. The ending was what I expected, but it felt like a major point of the story was cut short or left out altogether. Maybe the manga was forced to end because of bad ratings by readers, so the author wasn't able to finish it the way he intended to.
That being said, I still enjoyed the manga quite a bit. The time slip element is an interesting addition to a sports manga. But I would have liked it to play around that premise a bit more. There is much you can do with time travel themend stories - and a lot that can go wrong as well. The saving factor for this manga (for me) was the very good artwork. I really enjoyed looking at it.
-- Verdict --
So who will enjoy Ano Natsu: 1959?
People who like Baseball? Not necessarily, because the story could revolve around any other sport as well. The fact that its Baseball doesn't matter for the story and its not going really deep into sports terms and theory. There are also little games to be played over the course of the manga.
Maybe its suited for people who like time travel? Not necessarily, because aside from the interesting fact that Natsu ends up in the same team with his grandfather in his youth, nothing much is done with this concept. Here and there are references how the sport has changed over the years, but thats pretty much it.
"Is it even enjoyable for anyone??" you might ask, and I think the answer is "Yes" because I still enjoyed it. People who like nice artwork and easy to consume manga might enjoy this. For example, there are times that I want something light to read between some heavy brain taxing stories. Ano Natsu is an enjoyable quick ride, but neither the time slip concept not the Baseball theme was the deciding fatcor for this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 27, 2020
So I finished reading Bakuman some years ago after watching the anime. Currently I am re-reading it and I am 18 volumes in. Because I have lots to tell about this, I would like to offer a review for others to read! This review is including the plot of the first chapter. So if you value not to get spoiled on this, please look at another review or read the first chapter before reading this review!
Bakuman was created by the illustrator/story author duo Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba who worked before on a manga called Death Note and who later worked on Platinum End. Bringing
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in lots of manga creating experience from their own career, they have lots of stories to tell and insights to give about the manga industry. And thats what Bakuman is about: Its a manga about creating manga. To some degree, it might be even valid to say that Bakuman is a "kind of" autobiography of their own life as mangaka.
-- Story --
The story follows Mashiro and Takagi, whose dream is to be published in Weekly Shounen Jump and get an anime adaptation of their very own manga. But as it turns out, the daily life of a manga creator is filled with struggles and hurdles that need to be overcome. Starting from a very young age, still in school, Takagi cleverly forces Mashiro into forming a manga creator tag team. He notices that Mashiro likes to draw and that his artwork is excellent. With this, they have a team consisting of one person in charge of the art and one person in charge of the story.
-- Characters --
The characters are really enjoyable and seem to be realistic. There are hard workers, geniuses, strugglers and many more archetypes. Even though the cast of relevant characters is rather big, they all have their own role and its easy to understand their motivation and goals. Another thing that I really like about the character development is the fact, that this manga covers a big timespan in the life of the characters. They went from being school kids, to university students and several years later. Therefore all of them have the possibility to grow and build up a individual personality.
Its also interesting to observe how the relationship between the characters changes. How bonds are formed and how they grow together. Of course not every character is likable, just like in actual real life - and there are also antagonists. But like in an professional work-life environment Bakuman does a good job of showing that its important to get along (to some extent) with people you don't like as much as others. Antagonists are still not likable, but the relationship between the characters is portrayed in a way that they try to get along, even if they don't like each other - a good lesson for my own life.
-- Art and Presentation --
Takeshi Obata is an absolute master when it comes to creating amazing manga artwork. Even though Bakuman is not known for many action scenes, wide spreads or really punchy visuals, the art style and quality is always on top. Especially compared to some of his early works (for example Blue Dragon Ral Grado) his art made a huge leap into a sphere not reachable by individuals like me.
Bakuman is very VERY communication heavy. Almost every page has a ton of text. Its a story about talking. At some point I even needed to take a break, so I took some days off from reading after volume 10 and focussed on something else. This doesn't mean it is boring, but it might be a bit overwhelming. Conflicts are not solved by fighting, but by talking. And of course by battling with your manga serializations!
-- Realism --
The most crucial factor why I love Bakuman so much is the realistic portrayal of the manga industry. Of course I don't work in the industry myself, so I don't know the details. But what is told in the story seems very realistic, logical and I think many of the industry insights are true and based on own experience of the authors.
The struggles of the characters seem also very realistic and believable to occur in the life of a mangaka. I will not name examples to avoid spoilers of the story. But there are several.
Actually I am surprised that such a "realistic" and "conversation heavy" manga like Bakuman survived in the harsh environments of Weekly Shounen Jump for this long. I would have expected the typical Shounen demographic reader to say "well, this is just talking. Boring. I want action" and then downvote the manga in the questionnaires (I learned about how manga questionnaires work and how its decided which manga to cancel from Bakuman). But Bakuman survived until the story reached a fulfilling conclusion with its final 20th volume.
The passion of the characters for creating manga might have been a big factor that readers of Shounen Jump liked it enough to reach a conclusive end. I remember reading the final chapters of the manga and it made me shed tears because I was so invested with the characters.
-- Whats good, whats bad? What kind of reader will like Bakuman? --
So in the end... Who will probably like Bakuman? People who are interested in the manga industry, who want to learn how manga are created in a way that goes beyond the drawing part will enjoy Bakuman. People who are interested in publishing routines and how the whole industry works together also have a lot to learn from this manga. Also people who like characters with intertwining story lines have a high chance of liking Bakuman because the characters have time to grow and form deep relationships over several years of plot.
I would advise against reading Bakuman if you are not interested in consuming lots of text, because Bakuman has an insane amount of text per page.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 26, 2019
You like food? Good (me too)! Then this manga might be the correct read for you!
This manga tells the story of the daily life of a Japanese manga artist. But not the stressful, deadline focused and nerve wrecking creative aspect! Instead the premise of this manga is the end of the workday where manga artist Hama Kenji has finished his daily dose of manga producing and is headed out for dinner with his assistants, editors or other peers. Better not read this manga, when you are hungry, because like many other food-related manga it has the strength to make food look absolutely delicious! And the
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people are just not stopping to shove all these tasty meals in their mouths. Each chapter I was amazed by how many these people were able to eat!
Takahiro Seguchi is the creator of this manga and I have to say that I haven’t heard of him before. Checking out his other works, the one catching my eye is his illustration work on Girly Air Force, which received an anime adaptation recently. Mangaka Settai Gohan was serialized in Shounen Ace, which also was home for popular manga series like NHK ni Youkoso, Mirrai Nikki and Nichijou.
On MAL (and in the title of the manga Magazine it was serialized in) it hints towards a Shounen demographic. However, in my opinion it could very well be a Seinen-story instead. This is because of the absence of crazy action or other interesting aspects, which are popular for readers in the Shounen demographic. I would even go so far and say, that a usual Shounen reader would find this manga boring, because “nothing much is happening”.
The chapters are mostly in episodic format. The overarching story is very minimal and the chapters are basically good to read on their own. Regarding the plot… Similar to other Slice of Life stories there is not really big of a plot. The characters are visiting different restaurants, bars and Izakayas.
While reading, I had the impression, that this could very well be some kind of auto-biography kind of work. However it just focuses on the different dishes the main character is enjoying. There is also no real ending in the sense of a “finished story” or a goal to achieve. Since every chapter is basically stand-alone, the manga could also end after volume 1 or go on for 15 more volumes. Is it boring because of this? Not necessarily, if you are used to and appreciative of Slice of Life manga.
The art style was nothing out of the world special masterpiece. But it also wasn’t bad. It wasn’t super memorable but it looked good. I liked the design of the protagonist. There was also one female character which I thought to be very attractive looking! The backgrounds actually look pretty nice as well! But what stands out the most is the unbelievable visual representation of food. I can’t believe how they can draw food this good in manga! Especially the individual sticky rice corns are looking super tasty!
The first thing I noticed when ordering the volumes is the beautiful cover design. The backgrounds on the covers look really nice and have a slight blurred effect. I could easily see myself hanging a cover artwork like this on my wall.
BUT. The covers of the volumes actually feel kind of cheap in the hand. I noticed it a lot while reading and it was my biggest negative remark while receiving the shipment. Compared to slick and smooth covers of other manga, these feel a lot “rougher” like made of a recycled or lower quality material. I haven't read unbelievable amounts of manga yet, and I will not say that this is the only manga, that has this "problem" (its not really a problem). But it was the first one I noticed it to this extent. Even other manga of the same publishing company (for example Summer Wars, also published by Kadokawa Comis A) have regular covers. That is in no way related to the art of the story of course, but the presentation of the books is something I wanted to mention.
The characters have little progression but you can see how their relationship with each other develops. If you are looking for a character-driven story, this might not be the correct choice. Because the characters are just average people straight out of real life, they are very relatable. Its easy to see yourself in the situations they end up in, because the characters are realistic like the settings and everything else. For me, average characters end up being not that memorable though and aside of the main character, I can’t recall any of the other supporting characters from the top of my head without checking the volumes.
This manga is a nice and short read. Its especially suited for people, who enjoy looking at beautiful images of food and who are not looking for an in-depth story with crazy twists or character development.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 17, 2019
First of all: I am not interested in football. However, other manga/anime about sports that I am not interested in got me engaged in the story because it was well-told or looked amazing. So, what about Shuudan? This review might contain light spoilers.
Shuudan is a football manga that finished serialization in Shounen Jump and ran from 2017 to 2018. It has 4 compiled volumes and was done by Yokota Takuma, who also worked on Onani Master Kurosawa and the previously in Shoune Jump released Sesuji wo Pin! to: Shikakou Kyougi Dance-bu e Youkoso. Because Shuudan is a sports manga that is following and underdog team,
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it has to compete with the more popular manga that cater to the same audience. Titles like Haikyuu (volleyball), Hajime no Ippo (boxing) and Days (football) come to mind.
The artstyle is enjoyable to look at for the most part. The body proportions seem odd sometimes with legs being too short compared to the upper bodies. Or is my imagination of the human body so twisted by super long legs in anime that this "normal" looking depiction seems unnatural? There are also some panels where players are shooting the ball and twisting their body in weird directions. I guess it was done like this to show motion. I am not a master of anatomy, but these shooting postures sometimes look really painful and unnatural. Isn't the upper body supposed to turn in the other direction when kicking a ball?
I really liked how one of the main characters is a girl who joined the male-only team. I never seen that before and it was a welcome change to the usual male-only teams (or female-only teams). And she is crazy good as well! She basically has become one of the ace players of the team.
Talking about the story, it is easy to digest and pretty fast to read through. In the beginning of the manga, there is no deep story, masterfully crafted character development or world building. Just some kids playing football because they like it - and thats totally fine. Not every manga has to be an nobel prize candidate for intellectual challenging material. Sometimes I like to just read something I don't need to think too hard about. There are some team-building or out-of-game chapters as well, but the focus is on playing the game.
Then in the later parts of the manga, it is a little bit more about the character interactions, especially between Soushi and Nanase. In my opinion, Nanase is the driving force behind the team and behind the whole manga. So making her join a different team got me less interested in how the club was doing. I also felt like Soushi was developing more in the direction of a coach and adviser rather than an actual player. After the time skip to high school, the old companions went their own way and the introduced group of friends that formed the original team drifted apart with everyone following their own ways in life.
One thing that I am not liking about Shuudan (and also about other popular sports manga/anime) is the predictable outcome of the games. How high are the chances that each game they play will end a) with a deciding goal in the last second b) by a score difference of only one point c) with the protagonists team never losing? Of course, it is a Shounen manga and they are supposed to win in the end. But I would have liked to see them struggle more on their way. In real life, you don't win every game. There are also games you lose by a wide margin. Or games where you win and the opponents have no chance at all. But in Shuudan, every game is a nail biter. It is not necessarily bad, but I would loved it to be less predictable and to see the team lose more! I don't want to see the protagonists team win every time! Not because I don't sympathize for them but because for realisms sake. But then again, this is still a non-drama manga for a Shounen audience and I understand that seeing people win games is really motivating to play sports yourself.
One thing I liked is that they didn't go all out Shounen with super-moves. There are sports manga that are actually not tagged with Superpower on MAL but where the players are performing impossible or supernatural movements or abilities (like becoming invisible, like spinning in the air for minutes while hiding the ball, like making the opponents obey to your will just by looking them in the eye). I like the absence of those in Shuudan.
All in all, Shuudan is a solid manga. Aside from minor flaws, it is succeeding at what it wants to do. Which kind of people have a high chance of liking it? I think if you are interested in football, underdog success stories, or a fast and easy read, there is a higher probability to like Shuudan. If you are looking for some story that develops beyond the game itself or if you dislike predictable games, then Shuudan might not be the most likely recommended one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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