Jul 31, 2017
MÄR is the definition of a mediocre manga, or close to it. I had seen some of the anime in my childhood and had some nostalgia for it, so I decided to give the manga a whirl. It didn't stack up to my memories of it.
Story:
The story is as bare-bones as could be and the weakest part of the manga. For the first thirty or so chapters there is something resembling an actual story as the cast of main characters is assembled, but once they are, it launches into a tournament arc that lasts for the rest of the manga. The beginning had some promise,
...
so it's a shame. I don't know if I should even refer to the two parts as "arcs". Maybe it should just be "Pre-tournament" and "tournament". I can only say that this was a terrible choice. There are no real developments throughout the tournament aside from some forgettable and half-assed twists peppered throughout the thin number of pages there are between fights. While a relatively generic fantasy world, it would have been better if there were more traveling and exploration of the setting. The tournament arc shouldn't have been so long and it shouldn't have been neither the second part of the manga or the last part. The location of the tournament, a floating castle, does not change throughout the manga aside from a quick visit to a character's hometown towards the end. The characters are transported to various different arenas, but that doesn't change the fact that 75% of the manga takes place in a single location.
Art:
The art is the strongest aspect of MÄR. It isn't highly distinct and it isn't a masterwork, but it's good and done by an experienced hand. My only real problem with it is the paneling. I may have imagined it, but there's often an odd disconnect in the procession of events depicted. For example, a character will give another character an object, but there's no actual panel SHOWING them handing the object to the other character. Or a character will remove an earring from their ear, but there's no actual PANEL showing them removing the earring, just a panel before they remove the earring, and then a panel showing the earring flying to the ground. And they won't be grasping the earring with their hand in the panel before the earring is tossed away, they'll just be standing normally. It's like somebody went through the manga and removed a single panel from all sorts of random places. It really throws you off and sort of cheapens everything you see.
Character:
The cast is comprised of fairly typical and common character types. The hot-blooded protagonist who alternates between goofy and sincere moments, the lewd and seductive older woman who makes advances on the main character, the male friend to the main character that sometimes acts as comic relief, the cooler, more reticent and skilled character, the innocent childhood love interest, and the tough older man that knew the main character's father. They're not especially well fleshed out due to the vast majority of the page count being dedicated solely to fights. Little development in the margins between the fights. The villains are worse. There are too many forgettable small-time henchmen littered throughout the tournament. By the time we get to the more interesting elite villains, there's no time left to expand upon them and they're ultimately as forgettable and as one-dimensional as the henchmen, There were possibilities here, but they weren't explored.
Enjoyment:
It's not horrible, but MÄR gives you a feeling of unrealized potential. Like a incomplete story board for a larger story that never gets told. It's not very satisfying.
Overall:
The feeling that I ultimately took away from MÄR was a strong sense of unfulfilled potential. I still have fond memories of the anime from my childhood, but revisiting the story now I find it's regrettably unremarkable. MÄR isn't horrible, it isn't terrible, but it's painfully mediocre. There are better shonen battle manga out there to choose from.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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