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Hakutaku commits the cardinal sin of...just being an incredibly boring manga.

Hakutaku is about a team of incredibly young students making video games together. These students have varying levels of knowledge in making games to begin with, but somehow they manage to create games far beyond what they realistically should've been able to make with the time period and knowledge they were allotted in each circumstance. This is the first huge problem with Hakutaku: suspension of disbelief is extremely hard to pull off when your work is not entertaining. It's okay to do things that are unrealistic in a work, even in a more realistic setting, ... but if there is nothing to pull the reader in, then their suspension of disbelief is not going to kick in and the work's logistical problems are going to be in the center stage, and that's exactly what happens here. It does not help that the story has no real goal or aim to it, making the characters just kind of float around and make random games and further preventing the reader from making an emotional connection to the story.

The characters are generally one-note with a singular personality trait given to them if they're lucky. If they're not, they just kind of exist in panels to advance the story and do nothing else to make the reader care about them as characters. The main character is a pushover who seems to get weird, creepy positive feelings from people enjoying his games. The female lead is pushy and generally rude but somehow has way too many industry connections and knowledge despite just being an ordinary gamer who was kind of intense. From there everything else just doesn't matter, and once you've seen the main character and the female lead interact once, you know how all of their future interactions are going to play out, because neither of them develop as characters. I guess they're too busy developing games.

Despite being a manga about game dev, the manga frequently fails to go into detail about the actual necessities of game dev and to a degree seems to be actively avoiding going into any serious detail and instead just nudging things along to show the next bootleg of a popular game that the cast has made. Because of this, Hakutaku feels lazy and as though it isn't particularly invested into its own subject matter. The main character just kind of goes, "Oh, can we make this?" The other characters look at him like he's a genius, maybe a few other panels showing them poking the game, then oh it's done. Many things feel like they are given to the characters on a silver platter.

There are certainly comparisons to be made between this and Bakuman in terms of the kind of tone they were trying to aim for, but that would honestly be a disgrace to Bakuman. I would highly recommend just checking that manga out instead of this.

This is just a mess. The idea of having a protagonist that can control zombies is actually really cool, and then the manga still somehow manages to do next to nothing interesting with it, further hampered by boring characters, kind of ugly art, and a weird, mostly pointless plot that just ends up going nowhere because the manga got axed.

The entire story is just melodrama followed by being incredibly boring, repeat on loop until the manga ends. The characters have little to no interesting motivations for their actions or their behavior, and the protagonist is super edgy-but not in the fun, entertaining way, no, in ... the boring, no reason to care about him way. What stakes can there be when he's just super ultra uber intelligent and genius and always figures out a way to solve every problem, usually in advance? His powers also stretch beyond the suspension of disbelief. Suspension of disbelief only works if the story is actually cool or exciting, or you enjoy it so much that you can look past the flaws/plotholes. This doesn't do that. He just randomly constantly has powers added that he did nothing to earn. It's very dull and makes everything a question of "oh, what dumb power is he going to get this time" instead of "how is he going to get out of this situation," which makes it hard to take the story seriously.

The art really is quite bad. There's definitely promise in it, the artist is good at drawing explosions, for example, but the human anatomy is often pretty off and the gore isn't all that much to look at either, which isn't great in a series focusing on the undead.

There's honestly nothing else to note here. This is just a pretty poorly made zombie manga, wouldn't recommend trying it unless you're digging through the bottom of the barrel because there's nothing else, or if you're interested in the kind of cool base concept and would like inspiration for potentially utilizing it in a different way.

Handsome Must Die is an incredibly rapidly-paced manga that jumps through jokes at breakneck (literally, there is a lot of head removal here) speed and never really calms down until everything is all said and done.

The plot is absolutely insane and takes absolutely no shame in how bizarre and unusual it is. Every time you think it can't get weirder, it manages to one-up itself. This is both a benefit and a detriment: While being able to blast through jokes is great, if they aren't landing well with the reader, then it can quickly alienate them, which means that this is a very make it ... or break it series. As usual for gag manga, I suggest giving the series three chapters to see if its sense of humor lands with you, and if it doesn't, consider moving on. The quality of the humor also swings around randomly, with a few chapters being devoted solely to one of the guys (who has mommy issues) sexually assaulting the main character over and over again, which isn't really a particularly funny joke the first time because of how uncomfortable he is as a character, and definitely isn't funnier the eighth time. If this is a poor topic for you I would also suggest skipping this manga.

Another thing to keep in mind with this manga is that the characters are given limited development due to it being both short and gag-focused, but you do get a good handle on each of their weird roles in the story in the small time they have. This is fine and is handled perfectly alright, but if you're looking for a series to get heavily and deeply attached to the characters, this may not be it.

The art is alright. The style itself is visually distinct enough to make it stand out from other series, but the quality is a bit like the humor in that it can randomly dip. Details sometimes end up being a bit lacking. The character designs are nice and all stand out from each other in appealing ways that also easily convey the point of each character.

All in all, it's one that has decent value if its sense of humor resonates with its reader! It's also surprisingly well-received in Japan, and the author still posts about the manga, so be sure to give that a peek if you end up enjoying it.

Inukai is a national treasure, by the way. Best dog boy.

Many BL series, especially less recent ones, have issues with being either fairly homophobic or having strong undertones of sexual assault, sometimes both, sprinkled with other common issues and tropes to the genre that can diminish the value and quality of the overall end product. Despite this, for a decent chunk of BL, some bad issues can be ignored if the overall story or message is still good, and if it manages to avoid the truly terrible tropes, then it can be an enjoyable experience still. More modern series also are beginning to straight up cast away past issues.

Love Stage, however, crashes headfirst into every ... single possible bad, negative stereotype it can, both within the genre and within homophobia itself as a whole, making it a truly miserable viewing experience.

The story starts out with a hook that honestly isn't terrible: The main characters were previously with each other for a bit as children, and one of them mistook the other for a girl and continued to have a crush on "her" for years. However, when they meet properly again years later, he realizes that, of course, he was wrong and he's been crushing on a boy for years. He immediately starts to think things like "well, it's fine even if he's a boy," and proceeds to sexually assault him in some weird fit of frustration about it.

If you think, hm, this may be an awfully intense and ridiculous response to that, you would be correct. And that at its core is the main problem with the show. The characters in this show are all essentially awful people, but you're not only not supposed to see them as awful people, you're supposed to root for them. Izumi, the boy that was mistaken for a girl, is a stereotypical trashy otaku type of character with little to no backbone and who repeatedly compares his being potentially with a man to being in a situation from a BL, which isn't wrong, but tonally makes even more dissonance with this trying to be a cutesy BL since it quickly establishes that he clearly doesn't find being gay to be "normal" to him. What I'm saying here is that he isn't exploring his sexuality in this series because it honestly doesn't seem like he's interested in men. He's being pushed into a relationship by Ryouma, who mistook him for a girl but essentially does the "a cat is fine too" meme at him when he realizes he's a guy (so in reality, he's not particularly interested in men either). Other less important characters are generally just annoying or weirdly mean for no real reason, such as Rei, Izumi's rich family's manager, basically just stomping on Izumi's dreams of becoming a manga artist and insulting him for even trying.

The sexual assault in the series is completely played off as 100% normal to do to another man. It is both incessant and completely unnecessary to the plot. Izumi even blames himself for it occurring to him at times. Miserably enough, Ryouma vaguely states as a random two second throwaway line that he was sexually harassed when he was younger due to his line of work...but clearly that didn't make him uncomfortable enough to stop trying to do it to someone else.

Outside of Ryouma and Izumi's weird, fairly messed up relationship, not much else is really learned about them. Sure, there are flashbacks shown on occasion, and you get the occasional vague glimpse of something, but in reality, there really isn't that much to the characters of any substance that isn't immediately relevant to their feelings and opinions towards each other, making it even harder to even attempt to empathize with them. Even Izumi's otaku background is simply used to put him in situations that push him with Ryouma more.

There's also just a completely unnecessary, irrelevant to the plot, insane scene where Izumi almost gets gangraped. This is again handwaved like absolutely nothing just happened. Just some weird cutaway scene to I guess further emphasize how he has zero interest in other men and only has a thing for Ryouma because he was effectively harassed into it.

This story is accompanied by very plain art and animation (the usual for BLs, low effort gag art with a lot of chibi and still frame abuse) and whatever sounds and music, making there essentially be nothing that makes this series stand out in any positive way. For 2014, it's certainly serviceable enough visually to not be repulsive to look at or anything, but does nothing beyond that.

Again, BL isn't known for having the most positive tropes associated with it to begin with. Love Stage somehow manages to compound them all and couple them with boring characters who honestly just suck as people and turn out as a totally unlikeable mess.

A short manga that doesn't know what it wants to be. Something that tries too hard to be funny on every page (almost always failing), throws in way too many references, and then tries to make a statement from the heart about enjoying the time you have with the people you love instead of losing yourself in sadness for those who have already passed.

If this sounds confusing and messy, it's because it is. Soul Spewing Wielder is a bizarre short story manga that just doesn't seem to have any idea what direction it wanted to head in or what it actually wanted to focus on. ... It tries to throw in a joke on almost every single page, if not multiple jokes, just tossing random stuff around in the hopes that something eventually sticks, but this ultimately makes almost all of the humor come off as "random XD" because there's little to no build-up and no jokes feel satisfying to have land. Coupled with characters that all kind of blend and mesh together and an incredibly simple and forgettable main character, this makes the manga somewhat of a frustrating read. There are also a painfully large number of references to other series, which makes it feel like the author was under the impression that the manga couldn't stand on its own bones without dragging in more popular series to use as gags.

This is all made worse by the manga trying to gain a serious plot around halfway through, which continues to be interrupted by the incessant need to make weird jokes, references and puns everywhere. There is simply no balance between what needs to be funny and what doesn't, and it's hard to take the serious moments seriously when they throw in dumb asides.

The art is also quite unremarkable, with all of the characters being very plain and derivative designs and personalities aside from the lead girl, who has her cute moments. If there is any small modicum of a reason to read this series, it's to experience her, but all other characters have nothing to make them stand out from the sea of other, better designs in other manga.

Overall, I can't say this is a manga that really would appeal to anyone. The story is too confused with itself on what it wants to do, and the art and characters are overall boring and unimpressive, leading to a series that has serious identity issues. Even as a short series, it's really just a waste of time.

Red Hood is a manga that is essentially one giant mixed bag. Conceptually, it's not the most insanely unique idea out there, but that's okay if the presentation is good. And the presentation, aesthetically, is pretty good! Some of the character designs are quite standout and it's not hard to see why people would attach on to them immediately with a visually distinct style. The monsters are repulsive with a slightly cartoony/goofy flare to them, which suits them being based on fairy tales, and the overall setting feels drawn in a way to invoke typical fairy tale settings and bring things further together.

However, beyond aesthetics, ... this is where the series starts to fall apart. The first four chapters are spent meandering around in a village, which turns into being transported into another area, where the characters...proceed to meander around again. Except this time, there's a TON of characters. Like, frankly, way too many characters. It's impossible to keep up with all of them and the author tries to give too much background information on random characters in the group while we still don't really even know much of anything about the main character. None of the characters really feel like they matter at all, and most of them just passively exist, being more eye candy than anything.

Poor writing for the characters is made more obvious by how bad the exposition in general is. Pages are absolutely covered in speech bubbles, and a decent chunk of it is stuff that either can be shown rather than told, stuff that probably didn't need to be infodumped all at once, or stuff that is just straight-up not that interesting and doesn't really matter. This makes the pages look cluttered and ugly, and many of the panels just aren't consequential as a result. This tears into the otherwise interesting aesthetics of the series. The overwhelming amount of exposition also makes the pacing of the story even more janky.

Overall, this manga is just a lot of missed potential. Weak plot and characters, with a poor first few steps in the chapters, which unfortunately led to its demise. It could still be worth it to check out solely based on a character design or general art level, but it's unlikely to further engage most people.

I would first like to establish that I did not enjoy God Sider. Does that mean I think everyone won't enjoy God Sider? No. I think you need a specific kind of taste to appreciate God Sider.

Do you enjoy manga that's over the top with characters constantly pulling new attacks out of nowhere to stay alive for extensive periods of time? Do you enjoy a lot of blood and guts? Do you enjoy crazy character designs coupled with fantastic art? This may be a good pickup for you. The art is consistently very good and the action almost never stops. This makes for a manga ... that never really lets up on going full throttle and getting more and more absurd, so if you're into that, it can be quite the ride.

However, this manga does have problems, primarily with the story being weird fluff that exists mostly to just further the plot along for more battles (this can be a plus or a minus depending on the reader), the battles often feeling low stakes (primarily due to the stakes constantly being said to be so high that eventually it feels like the boy who cried wolf even while you're witnessing them being super high), and the characters being incredibly simplistic and hard to get interest in or even a feel for the personalities of the majority of them.

The manga is a very mixed bag where you're either going to love it or hate it, and if you prefer heavily character-driven stories (or even...story-driven stories), this is probably not going to be one for you, unfortunately. If you don't care about that and just want to see some good old fashioned violence, this has a decent chance to be up your alley.

This manga is created by the author of Yoakemono and unfortunately shares many of its flaws with it. In short, this is a manga that doesn't give enough screentime to any of its characters to really develop any particular emotions for them, but has outwardly nice art to look at and pretty solid character design.

The main protagonist could be interesting if everything lined up correctly, but we aren't given enough background information on him to care beyond very minor details. The character personalities are very weak, which was also a problem in Yoakemono. Outside of the protagonist, nobody has enough screentime to feel any emotion ... for them, and too many characters are introduced too quickly and then removed from the equation to really process them or be interested in them. Having interesting designs is great, but when the reader isn't really encouraged to care about the characters or get invested in them and their success, it becomes hard to care about what's happening to them.

The plot goes careening off a cliff extremely quickly. I read something from someone else-that it almost feels like the author got bored of their own plot or the editors interfered greatly, potentially an extremely early cancellation notice. And I think I agree with this sentiment. The whiplash from chapter 4 to 5 to 6...I genuinely have no idea what happened. Everything sped up 500% and it's extremely rough. Nothing really makes sense after that point, and while you can see what general story beats the manga would've hit if it wasn't axed, it's still downright brutal to read. It's overall not interesting to read and it's even worse when it feels like you hit the fast forward button so even during the big heroic moments everything feels...whatever?

The worst thing the manga does is just not capture any interest. I'll use the description I used to describe Yoakemono: "Oh. Okay. I guess this event is happening right now." Because that's how it feels. Things are just happening for whatever reason and you're supposed to care about them, but the plot isn't really able to get from point A to point B in a logical way. This is a big part of why everything feels whatever. Like, okay, this thing happened. Alright. Now this thing happened. This thing is currently happening, and you should probably feel an emotion about it.

Definitely a pass. Maybe look up the character designs, they're overall very appealing.

This sure is one of the manga of all time. One what? Yeah, just one of them. It does nothing remarkable.

The strongest point of the manga is definitely its main character, which probably isn't great because he's pretty lacking. I was also disappointed that he started off with striking long hair and then almost immediately cut it for the typical "life changing in a different direction" moment. He looked more unique with the long hair.

The art oscillates between looking quite nice and being abysmal. I honestly greatly enjoy how the artist does faces a lot of the time, but they also frequently go wildly off-model, ... and their anatomy is all over the place. It's also extremely hard to follow the fight scenes, especially when the protagonist is using extending beads as his weapon that can make it even harder to see what's going on. It feels messy and I often felt confused about how we had gotten to the end result of a fight. It also felt like crucial panels were skipped sometimes. Character design also varies a great deal and none of them really feel like they belong in the same series.

Plot isn't anything special. I feel like there was good potential, but as early as the fourth chapter it becomes readily apparent that the creator isn't sure where to go with the series and is just kind of yanking it around all over the place. Characters just kind of exist. It weirdly feels like there's too few and too many at the same time, which I think is in part because once one is introduced, they just quickly shuffle on to the next one. The characters feel more like a checklist being ticked off of common shounen allies than they do like actual characters, with little reason to like or dislike them.

Obviously the series is vastly sped up due to getting axed, but we can still get an idea of what the story beats would've been like due to it rapidly closing up as many plot points as it could, and unfortunately it's just really, really generic and obvious. Generic honestly isn't a bad thing, but coupled with boring characters, random quality in art, and just not being all that exciting, it's not hard to see why it got axed so rapidly. Would not recommend, there's just nothing to see here that isn't done much better in other series.

This is one of those manga where you go "wow, this is a super creative idea" when you start to read it, because it is!

Unfortunately, it's also one of those manga where its super creative idea wasn't enough to keep it alive, and it ended up axed very early on.

Let's start with the good: The characters are, overall, very fun, have great designs, and have separate personalities that keep them distinct from each other in a way that still makes them mesh well together. The art is very nice and expressive (especially the characters themselves) and the backgrounds can get really impressive to ... look at. You can tell there's a lot put into the art and the male lead's design in particular. That might be my slight bias in sharp-toothed men speaking though! The story's main concept is also incredibly interesting, but that's also part of what I think was its downfall.

See, this is a story about both the past, and the future, among several theories about how timeflow works. It's hard and extensive to explain in text, which is a bit of a problem for a visual/text-based form of media, because it means that they have to overload speech bubbles with tons of dialogue and information to the point where sometimes it feels like the characters are just regurgitating information from Wikipedia pages. There are huge amounts of dialogue on almost every page, and it does sometimes feel overwhelming! Because of this, I kind of feel like the series may have done better as a novel rather than a manga. While I do think the art is visually very good and I really enjoy the character designs as well, I don't think the format of visual/text was used to its advantage fully, leaning too much on shoving a lot of words onto each page. Besides manga, I read a lot of books, but this just felt like a lot, as at some point it started to get frustrating to go to the next page and see another super long set of bubbles you have to go through...and then it's the same thing again for the next page. It breaks the immersion a bit and it's why I think this would've done better in a purely text-based format accompanied by the occasional piece of artwork instead, so it would feel less disjointed and flow more. There are also many, many terms used in this manga for the various items and abilities they're using that kind of mush up together a bit mentally and I think it would've flowed better to not introduce them all at once.

I also feel as though the female lead, Mirai, starts to get forgotten about for a while around halfway through the story, because for the start she's used primarily as an excuse for the male lead to exposit information towards her because she's (1) stupid (2) has no idea about most of the things going on. This leads to her early on feeling like mostly a vehicle to push the story forwards, and later on just existing. It felt like a bit of a waste of her character.

Since this manga got axed, it also starts rushing things towards the end, but it does manage to make...most of it...feel natural? And it's a shame to see all the honestly really good character designs with seemingly interesting personalities that ended up having to be pitched to the wayside because of the axe, not to mention several plot points just having to be dropped.

Still, I think this is an interesting manga overall, and the conclusion manages to still be satisfying if not a bit confusing. I'd say if you're down for something that's got a unique idea and you can handle a lot of text with a LOT of random terminology being thrown at you, it's worth a try. I'd say otherwise you're more likely to get frustrated by it overloading you with information.