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The Rising of the Shield Hero is a Fantasy-Isekai Light Novel by Yusagi Aneko. It was adapted into 3 Seasons by Kinema Citrus, with the 3rd season having 12 episodes produced.

The series follows Iwatani Naofumi, a young man summoned to a fantasy world where he is chosen to be one of the 4 vassal weapon holders, gaining the title of the Shield Hero.

Season 1 was an enjoyable ride with lots of potential shining for its future seasons. The world-building was good, and the rough difficult start made you root for the MC.
Season 2 was heavily outsourced to DB Movie and plagued with awful direction ... and a decline in writing.
Season 3 needed to be very good to heal the damages from season 2.

After the Spirit Tortoise arc and the awful New World arc. Naofumi is trying to find and regroup with the 3 stooges: the Sword Hero, the Spear Hero, and the Bow hero. The writing for these characters has been non-existent, their sole reason for existing is to show how incompetent they are compared to Naofumi.

I know of the lore, Naofumi was the 1st choice for his vassal weapon and the rest were the 3rd or 5th choice, the author tries explaining why the other wielders are so shit compared to Naofumi, but this doesn't forgive bad character writing. Having a season to redeem them and characterize them is a good idea! Unfortunately what we have is worse writing, filler-like episodes, and lots of cringe.

A short summary so beware of spoilers:

Episodes 1 and 2 start with a tournament arc and I liked it. The animation was good and the episodes were enjoyable... but then the three stooges had to become relevant again. The three stooges all have individual tantrums, get manipulated by Malty and there is a baby dragon filler arc.

The Sword Hero goes rogue because his party dies and the proven pathological liar Malty, lies to him. He enters an edge phase from watching too much Berserk of Gluttony but is quickly shown who his daddy is and joins Naofumi's group. Utterly weak and useless, he can't even beat Naofumi's 5th strongest member and is outshined by literal children when they fight a zombie dragon.

The Spear Hero becomes mentally unstable, with a high obsession for Filo, viewing all other women as pigs, and starts calling Naofumi "father". I guess the audience is supposed to laugh? But this is not a one-off side character... he is one of the 4 heroes, someone who will be present in the final arcs. Wow, thank you, this is exactly what I needed The Cupcake Hero.

The Bow Hero… what the fuck. The writing in Redo of Healer is unironically better in comparison. The guy gets manipulated by Malty so unrealistically that you would think he is intentionally trying to get all the low-intelligence speech checks from New Vegas. Cringe, cringe, would be better off dead.

And that's it... the 3 heroes are put in their diapers and are Naofumi's bitches.

The season is uneventful and boring to watch.
Naofumi is lame now, he is consistently put on a leash by other characters to control his temper, trying to convert him into becoming more passive. His aggressiveness and cautiousness were fun to watch.

The animation for this season is really good! Kinema Citrus cares for this season, unlike the previous, much better direction and pacing to boot.

The quote “Shield Hero without revenge plot = generic Isekai”. I denied this after Season 1 since this series had genuinely good world-building and cast. Even after the 2nd season I still gave it the benefit of the doubt, but now after this? You really cannot deny it anymore.

It is watchable and entertaining at parts, but the decline in writing is painful to see.

Dark Gathering is a Supernatural-Horror, Adventure Manga by Kondou Kenichi, who was an assistant who worked on the manga D.Gray-man. It was adapted into a 25-episode anime by OLM, housing talents that helped produce amazing shows like Summertime Rendering, OddTaxi & The Apothecary Diaries

Set in modern-day Japan, it follows Gentouga Keitarou who is trying to readjust to society after being cursed by a spirit. He meets a young girl named Houzuki Yayoi, the cousin of his childhood friend Houzuki Eiko. Yayoi is a genius psychic, hell-bent on finding an evil spirit she named “The Spectre”, who was behind her mother’s disappearance. She drags Keitarou ... into her terrifying world of grotesque supernatural adventures.

While overviewing the Summer 2023 catalog, my initial thoughts after watching the trailer were that of uncertainty. The question was if this anime could be genuinely scary or just another cringy edge fest. Luckily Dark Gathering succeeds with flying colors in being a horrifying, creepy, and suspenseful show.

While the initial episodes have an episodic structure it quickly develops into interesting story arcs as Yayoi discovers that the creation of The Spectre seems to be more sinister than initially believed.

The anime tackles very heavy and taboo themes, with very little if any censorship to accompany them. The horror and tension are intense, and greatly executed, mainly due to two reasons.

First, the haunted locations the characters visit. Many of these locations you could connect to real-life ones, locations holding some dark unknown past of many decades ago, showing the heights of cruelty possible by human beings. For example, in one side-mission, the characters travel to an abandoned building that in the past was connected to a sex-trafficking ring and now is haunted by the spirits of its victims. The supernatural encounters and the horror they unveil never feel too try hard edgy, but instead genuinely creepy in how the spirits, many of them being tortured souls, show their wrath towards the living.

Second, I greatly enjoyed the ghost-hunting combat. A tool the characters use are dolls that act as damage proxies, they transfer damage the evil spirits deal to them to said dolls. The dolls are a great plot device since they greatly increase the sense of urgency, a reality check to you the viewer, that without these dolls and Yayoi’s knowledge, you would have an easier time surviving the Shibuya Incident compared to some of the spirits they encounter.

While the cast is small, they each fit their role within the story well. Yayoi carries the show's narrative and is the most competent among the trio. Keitarou slowly becomes more heroic during the supernatural adventures and Eiko’s love of scary encounters grows.

The production is good, the character designs are cartoony, and the animation is consistently good. The designs of some of the spirits are downright horrific and scary, even scarier in the manga. The sound design is top notch and the soundtrack succeeds in aiding its creepy vibe. The slice-of-life moments are similar to that of Higurashi, where everything is more colorful and goofy, but once it gets serious the art gets more intense.

Overall this anime is amazing, I desperately need a 2nd season. It takes some time for it to cook, but once it does, you are hooked and can’t stop watching.

If you like good horror anime I would recommend Higurashi and Shiki as well.

Devilman is a relatively short horror manga written in the 70s by Go Nagai. It was the subject of heavy controversy due to the violence and dark themes within it for its time.

The manga is an important landmark in manga history. Many creators of popular franchises cited Devilman as one of their main sources of inspiration. Series like Berserk, Parasyte, Bastard!!, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and potentially more would not exist without Devilman.

I was curious about watching the anime adaption, Devilman Crybaby, but I first wanted to read through the original manga. Despite the age I tried to not let it discourage me, it would be ... unfair to dismiss anything and calling it dated just because it happens to be an old work.

However, Devilman is a truly dated piece of art, with its quality having greatly diminished throughout the years.

Devilman tells the story of the main character Akira Fudo fusing with a demon, while keeping his human heart and becoming "devilman", so that he can help humanity defeat the demons.
While the story is boring at the start it does have a good twist and an unexpecting ending.

The art quality is not very good, and the style is TOO cartoony, it feels out of place considering the story and the themes that are tackled within it. The action scenes are passable, and the quality of the environments seem to be Nagai's strength. However, the characters look incredibly lifeless, plain, and end up just looking like Ken dolls.

The manga has several dated writing techniques.

Volume 1: more than 70% is a boring exposition, consisting of the main character Akira listening to Ryo’s explanation about demons. This leads to some unnatural and fictional like dialog between the two characters. Ryo speaking as if he was reading a Wiki, then introducing a “genius” plan consisting of fusing Akira with a demon, while Akira’s wimpy personality evolving into a “let’s do it” attitude almost immediately.

While most authors would cleverly add these bits of information throughout the story, Devilman just throws it all out, most of this information is literally useless. Instead of wasting pages for this boring and overly long exposition, the author should have drawn the final battle in Volume 5.

Volume 2 is a generic and boring fight, between Akira and a female demon.
Later, in Volume 3, they introduce a loli child character out of the blue, she is written as an “important person” to the main character randomly. Despite her not existing until the page you turn to, then gets murdered less than 15 pages later.

Volumes 4 & 5, takes a twist, turning from a generic superhero story about fighting demons to Armageddon of humanity. I did enjoy reading through Volumes 4 & 5, but still suffer from meh art, bad dialog, and a skipped final battle.

Overall Devilman when it was released was ambitious and important for the time, inspiring manga creators to make more mature and darker stories, however now it is a dated piece of history.

Execution, is the thing the manga is lacking at, but you know what is executed well? The great anime adaption Devilman Crybaby.
The anime adaption greatly animated, every change they made was for the better. If you wish to try Devilman, just watch the anime Devilman Crybaby.

Grappler Baki is a long-running action, martial arts manga, written and illustrated by Keisuke Itagaki.

Grappler Baki is a massive manga, having over 130 volumes and is still publishing to this day, the series is currently divided into 5 parts: Grappler Baki (1), New Grappler Baki (2), Hanma Baki Son of Ogre (3), Baki Dou Part 1 (4) and Baki Dou Part 2 (5).

The core focus of Grappler Baki is fighting and fighting only, to quote Super Eye Patch Wolf “Baki is a series for fighting, for fighting sake.”
Realism? It does not exist in Baki, what you get out of Baki is high amounts ... of entertainment, massive amounts of hype, and some insane fights.

Set in Japan, we follow the journey of Baki Hanma, a 17-year-old boy of inconceivable strength, fighting prowess, and potential, the champion of the Underground Arena within Tokyo, an illegal fighting arena, a place where anything goes and has a high chance of death. Baki strives to become the strongest fighter in the world, wowing that he will one day surpass and defeat his father, the invincible Yujiro Hanma. A man so strong, that can seemingly crush and kill any person or creature, thus being given the epithet “The Strongest Creature on Earth”. Just a small demonstration of his strength allows him to quiet literally stop a natural disaster such as an earthquake with a single punch.

The series begins with an introductory arc on Baki, where we view his strength as he fights different martial artists within the Underground Arena. The following 2nd arc takes a Berserk Golden Age approach, chronologically being the 1st arc within the story, showing a much younger, 13-year old Baki pushing himself in various degrees, giving the reader an outlook on the harsh life he lives to achieve the strength he gains as a 17-year old. The 3rd and final arc within the 1st part of the Baki Franchise being the Maximum Tournament arc, a humongous tournament with over 30 battles of fighters trying to prove their strength.

The highlight of Grappler Baki are the fights. It is the main reason why you read the series, the various number of fights can go from good-great to amazing.
Why are the fights great?

First and foremost, the author has great paneling skills, when a fight happens you will receive various shots of the character’s physically intimidating frame to establish an atmosphere. The fights are expertly choreographed because of the author's ingenious if sometimes exaggerated, drawing style of expressing movement. Itagaki is not scared to sacrifice page space, as he will put very small details within his pages: like the startup, launch, and ending impact of techniques.

Also showing various close-ups and facial expressions of the characters battles, showing power and weight within the blows, crazy fighter physiques, superhuman feats in abundance, double-page spread pages of exchanging blows, blood in high quality, teeth flying around, it is all here in Grappler Baki. When someone gets punched in the gut by a powerful fighter like Hanayama. The author makes sure to show you the damage in large amounts and detail, more than the average battle manga would.

In terms of art quality, early Baki is much more inferior in terms of detail and style compared to Itagaki's later work. The first hundred chapters look slightly above average, while later on the detail in the art improves and the last hundred chapters end up looking amazing. Rich detail and noticeable improvement if you compare chapter 1 to the chapters within the three hundred mark.

Baki does not have that deepest story, it does not contain any overarching plot mechanics and most of the character development is only focused on the main character. However, it is a series with a lot of passion and heart put within. The characters love to fight, they are extremely passionate, entertaining, and decently designed. You have various numbers of fighting styles and techniques being showcased within the series. The author also has a good idea of how the power scaling within his series should be and is able to write out pretty consistent fights.

The series is ridiculous and ultimately does not have any amazing storytelling. If you wish to read a simple hype manga, full of fights and receive large amounts of entertainment, Grappler Baki is a great manga just for you. I am giving the 1st part of the Baki franchise a 9/10.

Akame Ga Kill is a 24-episode fantasy action-adventure anime released in 2014 by studio White Fox, an adaption of volumes 9 out of 15 of the manga written Takehiro.

The anime had a lot of hype surrounding before its release, the manga was still publishing, and it was only until 2016 that it finished. The anime was being produced by White Fox, the same studio that made the critically acclaimed Steins;Gate. It felt like a match made in heaven, however the end product, I felt was below average. The adaption has noticeable production issues, inconsistent animation quality, and a bad art style. While the source material ... has an abundance of questionable writing techniques. The anime also sparked a fan outcry because of its rushed anime original ending. As of this review, I have not yet finished the Akame Ga Kill manga.

The story is set within a fantasy-like medieval age, where a group of rebel assassins known as Night Raid are attempting to overthrow the corrupt government of the Empire. The concept sounds solid, however instead of focusing more on the assassination concept it goes into a direction that is less than interesting.

The anime’s art style is plain and out of place, despite having a dark tone and the theme of assassination, the characters have bright abnormal hair colors or attires such as sailor outfits. The manga has a much better art style that was drawn by Tetsuya Tashiro, the colorful characters blend in more. I see many people saying the animation is great, but it really is not. Only the last couple of episodes look great. The animation team takes several shortcuts, most notably using artistic stylized still shots of a single frame. Instead of showing the actual animation of a finishing blow, they just make it a still shot of the ending impact.

The music is solid and the voice acting is average, I do absolutely love the 2nd opening "Liar Mask" by Rika Mayama, an absolutely brilliant song.

The writing of its source material isn't that great either. The series has awful world-building, such as addressing the empire as just “the Empire” or how the world is structured. At first glance, it looks like it is set within a medieval-like age with fantasy creatures, but everything is thrown out the window with its nonsensical world:
- modern-day looking guns are suddenly a thing.
- despite being assassins the characters wear attires like sailor uniforms or super bright colored outfits that fit their hair color.
- scientists can create weapon like augmentations on the human body and plant mini-nukes within a brain.
However, the audience is supposed to believe that there is no way of long-distance communication or any radars within this world?

Then you have Teigus (Imperial Relics), these are the powers of the series. The Teigus are weapons that were created a thousand years ago by the Empire, each Teigu has unique abilities from a makeup box that allows you to shapeshift, demon blood that will allow you to wield cryokinesis, a jewel that allows you to teleport which essentially is breaking time and space or a giant pair of scissors that can cut through anything. These weapons are absurdly strong, nonsensical, and silly, with fights essentially boiling down to one-upping the other with their Teigu’s hidden abilities.

You are grasping the straws at the idea that these weapons were man-made, they are literally just random magic items. Despite these weapons being created thousands of years ago they are seemingly impossible to recreate, with the only explanation that the viewer comes to the conclusion with, is that the current empire is just too incompetent I guess.

The characters are not given much characterization and die too soon for you to build any connection towards, the writing of their deaths is especially poor since in the same episode they start getting more screen time and or get a backstory, they will die. There is too much death that is ultimately pointless, characters just die and you’re left not caring. They introduce factions like the Four Rakshasa Demons, only for them to be killed off like fodder.

Finally, there is the meme of people calling this series too edgy. The series does have the issue of not knowing what maturity is, ultimately the story is very black and white. The Empire is bad, they rape and kill and the rebels are the good guys. No complexity for the viewer to doubt the actions of these murderers assassins, anyone who stands for the Empire is either evil, insane, or an idiot, no exception.

Akame Ga Kill is an anime I really wanted to enjoy and it had moments where it pulled me in but pulled me back out. I am currently reading the manga, it is a slightly better experience so far however the questionable writing techniques are still present. Hopefully, it's conclusion is more worthwhile and I am giving Akame Ga Kill's anime adaption a 4/10.

Princess Mononoke is a Ghibli film that was directed by the legend Hayao Miyazaki. Released in 1997, it is a fantasy action-adventure film and is widely considered, along with Spirited Away to be one of the best anime movies from Studio Ghibli

While certainly, it is a film with a lot of quality aspects, having a solid story, beautiful scenery, and great 2D animation.
It, unfortunately, feels relatively dated with its direction and has some very forgetful characters.

The film is set within the Muromachi period of Japan, Ashitaka the main character, while defending his village from an animal boar ''god'' turned demon, ends up getting his ... right arm infected, his only remaining option being to search for a cure, leading him to stumble into a conflict between certain humans and animals.

The film has a theme of respect regarding nature, animals, and spiritual life. The animals being influenced by supernatural elements and are considered ''gods'' or guardians of the forests, which the evil humans are trying to destroy. The overall atmosphere is great, the movie has incredible scenery and beautiful environments. The 2D animation for its time is wonderful and is very smooth, the voice acting is relatively solid but nothing impressive, and the music is good, having some beautiful piano OSTs.

Personally, I felt the characters were very forgettable. Ashitaka is very plain and uninteresting, he is a strong fighter, he is THE character everyone should listen to and he has no flaws. While San despite being the poster child ''Princess Mononoke'' does not have much worth within the film. My favorite character was the elk Yakul honestly xd

Princess Mononoke has a very dated style of direction with its story and characters. For the time it came out, it was much more appropriate and would have stuck out in my mind more had I not been spoiled by many other amazing films, I only recently watched it in 2020 and after finishing it, I felt slightly disappointed as I expected something more than what I got.

Overall think the film is solid, but I would not be bothered to watch it again in the future.
Should you watch this film? At some point, yes, but it is nothing that will blow you away honestly. I am giving Princess Mononoke a 7/10 for the quality aspects that it has.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an immensely popular and influential series, written and illustrated by Araki, Hirohiko. It is his magnum opus with over 30+ years of work put within it.

JoJo as a franchise has an ingenious structure of having multiple protagonists and multiple storylines tackling various themes, all of them being within the same continuity, while being absurd and featuring tons of action, a crazy adventure, and some great characters.

The series never grows stale, having some of the most amazing creativity that you will find in today's media. For a long time, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, similarly to Berserk was considered “unadaptable”. Despite a few OVAs ... adapting the 3rd part of the JoJo manga, and a movie adapting the 1st part. The series was practically a mess when it came to the anime. While the series was popular in Japan, outside there were few that recognized or appreciated JoJo.

However, in 2012, the studio David Production decided to adapt the first 113 chapters (books 1-12) of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga. Adapting 1st and 2nd parts into a 26 episode anime season, and later seasons started adapting the later parts (Stardust Crusaders, Diamond is Unbreakable and Golden Wind).

This anime season, dubbed "JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: The Animation" was an immense success, it was a page-by-page adaption, having some brilliant storyboarding, voice acting, sound design, art direction, animation, stylization, and music. The JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime is a passion project, years of anticipation of an adaption of a JoJo anime series and it was delivered for the world to enjoy.

The 1st season of JoJo covers the entire Stone Mask saga, consisting of Part 1 Phantom Blood and Part 2 Battle Tendency.

Part 1, focused on episodes 1–9, Phantom Blood is the beginning, set in 1888 England, it sets the foundations of the series. Introducing Jonathan “JoJo” Joestar as he attempts to stop his evil adoptive brother Dio Brando from taking over the world after the latter becomes an immortal vampire because of a stone mask. Considered by fans to be the weakest part, it has an abundance of flaws and drawbacks. Despite this, its main villain DIO is immensely charismatic that was brought to life by some brilliant voice acting by Koyasu, Takehito.

Part 2, focused on episodes 10-26, Battle Tendency is set 50 years after Phantom Blood, following Jonathan’s grandson Joseph “JoJo” Joestar, as he goes on an absurd adventure to fight against Aztec immortal male stripper gods, the creators of the stone masks, as they seek to become ultimate life forms. Any patience you had with Phantom Blood is immensely rewarded with this phenomenal and immensely enjoyable adventure. Featuring strategy heavy battles and an incredibly witty, comedic main protagonist perfectly captured by Sugita, Tomokazu amazing voice work. Having one of the most climactic finalies I have seen, David Production truly put their A-tier game on board.

The anime adapts an enormous number of chapters, despite the fast pace at times it is an incredibly faithful adaption that also expands on the manga. The story of Phantom Blood may be weaker compared to Battle Tendency, but the entire experience is an incredibly fulfilling tale full of excitement, plot twists, anguish, and joy.

The art style is fantastic, capturing the style of the source material and even enhancing it by making its own experience. The poses, the change of colors for certain scenes, the SFX texts appearing on the screen, and having incredible style to boot. The animation overall is solid, in some cases the animation could be better, however.

The music and voice acting are also fantastic, and the sound design is as amazing as are the varied OSTs. The openings “Sono Chi no Sadame” by Hiroaki Tommy Tominaga and Bloody Stream by Coda are both 10/10 songs.

Is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure worth watching? Absolutely.
It is an immensely enjoyable adventure and experience, 2 stories within 1 season. The amazing part is that this is only the beginning of a much larger and amazing journey. I am giving this season of JoJo a 9/10.

Assassination Classroom is an action, comedy shounen series that was adapted by studio Lerche into a 2 season anime. Based on the manga written and illustrated by Matsui, Yuusei. The first season adapts chapters 1-73, essentially the first 8 books into a 22 episode anime, while the 2nd season adapts the remaining material.

Studio Lerche as a studio is fairly unknown, as they haven't made anything noteworthy in the past. The only other anime I watched from them was their adaption of Danganronpa, which was very poor. I am happy to say as someone who has read the manga, that this is a solid adaption and ... worthwhile watching show.

Set in modern-day Japan, the students in Kunugigaoka's Junior High, class 3-E are given a new teacher. Their new teacher is a sentient, octopus-man that can move at Mach 20, the same being responsible for destroying half of the moon and is now threatening to do the same within a years’ time to the Earth. Striking a deal with the government that he will allow himself to be assassinated only if he can teach the students of class 3-E, on the condition he will not harm any of them. The students are tasked with assassinating their teacher before graduation, with an opportunity to win 10 billion yen and save the earth.

The premise is absurd, but it works very well. Assassination Classroom is not a battle shonen, the 1st season is more like an everyday school anime with an assassination twist. Many of the episodes follow the class 3-E students, students that the teachers of Kunugigaoka gave up on and treat as failures because of their poor grades, and how they regain self-confidence by their teacher Koro-Sensei, while also learning assassination techniques and improving their grades.

The characters are an entire classroom, around 28 students as well as their 3 teachers. With such a large number of characters, there of course comes the problem of many of them not being worth remembering, despite this the author still tried to showcase as much screentime for them as possible. Unfortunately, the first season while it is a solid adaption, it did skip 5 chapters (23-24, 37, and 44-45), while not necessary for the story it did focus on minor characters, giving the classroom more depth.

The most noteworthy students being Nagisa and Karma. Karma in particularly having an amazingly fun personality and an overall great character to watch throughout the series. Nagisa despite looking like a femboy is the most gifted student regarding the arts of assassination, and he self discovers these skills as the series progresses.

The highlight of the series is Koro-sensei. He is a big yellow octopus man, seemingly invincible at first, being able to move at 20 times the speed of sound, being able to grab missiles midair, and using them as stoves for making takoyaki. The students throughout their everyday school life start discovering Koro-sensei's weaknesses, taking them into consideration for their many assassinations.

Despite wanting to destroy the earth, his love for his students and wanting to help them is genuine, indicating there is a deeper reason for why he insists on teaching class 3-E. The unique interactions between the students and Koro-sensei are a treat, while the idea of bonding while they happily fill out their sentences with the intent of killing their teacher, might sound ridiculous the anime makes it work.

The animation isn't anything spectacular and neither is the music. Despite this, the art style is befitting and captures the style of its source material very well. The voice acting and the enjoyment I received while watching this anime was great. It gave me a unique experience that I wasn't able to find in other shonen.

Overall I am giving this season of Assassination Classroom an 8/10, I am looking forward to the 2nd season.

Battle Tendency is the 2nd part of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga, covering chapters 45 - 113 (volumes 5-12), written and illustrated by Araki, Hirohiko.

Set in 1939, 50 years after the events of Phantom Blood, we follow Jonathan's grandson the beloved Joseph ''JoJo'' Joestar. After the events with DIO and the stone mask, the latter's creators, the Pillar Men awaken from their 2000-year slumber and seek to become “Ultimate Life Forms”.

Battle Tendency from my view is outstanding. It is an immensely enjoyable adventure while fixing the faults of its predecessor. Having a much more interesting and funny new main character, better side characters, larger scope, ... great threatening villains, and some intuitive fight scenes. It is an epic spectacle of absurdity that reaches a climactic finale.

The new JoJo is the highlight of part 2, while a far cry from the gentleman like persona that Jonathan had, he is an intelligent and creative fighter with an immature/comedic personality. Joseph is an exciting character to follow through the events of the story and the many battles, being a tactician he tries to outwit his opponents, carefully thinking of plans or bluffs, while also using an assortment of varied objects that could help him out. His fights are enjoyable, epic, and manages to include solid humor within them.

Generally speaking, almost all the fights in Battle Tendency are fabulous and climactic. The fight between Joseph and Wamuu is arguably the best one, an epic deadly chariot battle with vampire horses. A mind battle between two fighting geniuses, keeping you guessing who will outwit the other first and come up top. Part 2 is also the last part to focus on Hamon as the main superpower, before switching to Stands. While Hamon was certainly short-lived, it did reach its peak in Part 2 and would have become stale in continued parts.

Araki’s art has not evolved much from Phantom Blood. His art is still superb, but I believe he improved with the designs of his characters. The Pillar Men in particular have fantastic designs and the number of poses have been increased. It’s also exciting to see JoJo in various different settings such as Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland.

The side characters of part 2 are great, they have a lot more screen time and more characterization than part 1s side characters. Lisa Lisa fills the mentor role, and she stood out when the series was in publication since it was uncommon for female characters to fight.
Cesar A. Zeppeli is a womanizer, rival, and best friend of Joseph, the two build great chemistry. Being part of the Zeppeli family gives off the implication that it is truly their destiny to close the chapter of the stone masks, to finish a battle their grandfathers partially closed.
Stroheim is an eccentric cyborg nazi, need I say more? And while the Pillar Men aren't as great as DIO, they are each their own character with their own fighting styles.

Battle Tendency is one of the most enjoyable manga I have read, the adventure, the fights, and the characters are all great. It an enjoyable journey worth reading. If you wish to read Battle Tendency I highly recommend it, the alternative option would be to watch the amazing anime adaption by David Production. I am giving Battle Tendency a 9/10.

Akame Ga Kill Zero is an action manga and prequel to Akame Ga Kill, written by Takehiro and illustrated by Toru, Kei.

Zero is set months before the main series, following Akame’s journey as an assassin working for the Empire. The story is a collection of mini assassination arcs and lots of fighting, it does not have an interesting story, and the execution is hit or miss. You honestly do not even need to read Zero at all to understand Akame Ga Kill's story. The biggest benefit of Zero is that it strengthens Akame's character, giving her more characterization and depth as you start the main ... manga.

Much of Zero feels somewhat like a time waster, Takehiro seems to have gotten horny while writing it so he decided to add lots of fanservice and tetherball sized breasts on the abundance of female characters, as they get brutally slaughtered.

While the art is solid and the fight choreography flows well, the fights have no lasting impact mainly because the characters are worthless. A lot of them have a glaring flaw of seemingly only having a single personality trait. It may seem like an exaggeration, but it's honestly the case. Takehiro wishes to keep up the theme of having characters with no plot armor, lots of characters continue to die, but they do not receive much characterization or screen time before they die. Akame and her sister Kurome are the only character that have any important relevance to the story.

The characters are very cartoon like, they do not fit in the type of story that the Akame Ga Kill is going for. Guy is borderline molester wearing power range like suit to dig underground, Green is that glasses wearing virgin with an armpit fetish while the Oarburgh clan are the worst offenders. They are the main antagonists and, are quite literally a group of powerful, men hating, horny, lesbians, and a majority use maid outfits as their battle attire. This kinda of absurd idea would work in a series like Black Lagoon, but within Akame Ga Kill's world and tone it feels somewhat out of place.

The art style changes as time goes on, with characters at the begging having reasonable sized breasts and by the end Leone has breasts bigger than her entire head. I do not mind fan service, authors should be allowed to draw whatever females however they wish. But it's important for an author to know when to hold back, when you have giant swinging breasts while a character gets sliced in half and it's supposed to be an emotional scene? When the author doesn't show any self respect to such absurdity, why should the reader?

So is Akame Ga Kill Zero worth reading? If you're an immense fan of the series and wish to see some solid fights it is worth it. However this manga is ultimately a time waster and in the end feels pretty forgettable. I am giving it the final score of 5/10.