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May 26, 2024
17-sai. (Manga) add
Spoiler
At first, I was surprised that there were no negative reviews for this on MAL, considering the nature of the manga. After some thinking, my surprise waned. I mean, most people would look at the case this is inspired by and immediately decide not to touch it; Those who don't are the kind of people who would likely enjoy this by comparison (I do not mean this to slant fans of this, I merely mean that they would be more accepting of upsetting subject matter). And those who find the concept questionable (such as me) would likely assume that the reasons this work fails speak ...
May 24, 2024
Tokyo Babylon (Manga) add
Spoiler
CLAMP's mangaography daunts me, as each work seemingly ties into an earlier or contemporary one, forming a massive amalgamation of anime tropes and bishounens. 'Tokyo Babylon' seems to be the starting point of all of this, although as far as I know there was a prototype of this story even earlier. Regardless, 'Tokyo Babylon' doesn't try to ease readers into its world at all. Even 'Reservoir Chronicle', which ties not only into this but also the contemporary 'XXXHolic", does a better job of introducing its characters and making the audience care. I believe this feeling stems from a sense of entitlement from the writers. Subaru ...
Apr 12, 2024
Freesia (Manga) add
Spoiler
At this point, it’s typical for me to return to art that I love and have a more critical outlook on it. However, the inverse rarely comes to pass; I can’t count many works of art that I disliked initially but enjoyed after a second look. However, there’s one such example I want to discuss here: the Sega Genesis classic ‘Ristar’. Just kidding, I’m talking about ‘Freesia’, on the MyAnimeList page for ‘Freesia’. Yes, I predictably follow norms and don’t deviate from the status quo. It seems Matsumoto tried to follow suit with this manga; This may be his most conventional and least avant-garde work. ...
Mar 31, 2024
Dragon Head (Manga) add
Mixed Feelings
Spoiler
What matters most when writing a story? Characters? Plotting? Presentation? The author's fetish? There's certainly wrong answers (The first three I mentioned), but no right answers. 'Dragon Head' basically puts all of chips on its themes of fear and paranoia. It establishes a mysterious apocalypse very well, and puts its characters in various situations that show the affects of fear and paranoia. The name of the manga itself comes off as a red herring in retrospect; No overtly supernatural elements reveal themselves in 'Dragon Head'. There is no dragon, and by extension, no head. Despite what the manga hints at, no dark, malevolent entity lurks ...
Mar 13, 2024
Jiraishin (Manga) add
Mixed Feelings
Visible, apparent improvement from an artist always leads to a fulfilling experience. People often forget how much one has to truly grow as a creator to create a masterpiece. Experiencing the first works of my favourite storytellers has motivated me to keep writing. While Takahashi Tsutomo isn’t one of my favourites, he has a distinct style and skills. He may not be consistent, but he wrote “Bakuon Rettou”, which shows that he knows what he’s doing.

At one point though, he didn’t. Before “Bakuon Rettou”, “Blue Heaven”, “NeuN”, or anything else, Tsutomo created “Jiraishin”. Honestly, what’s here doesn’t differ from mainstream episodic cop shows like ...
Feb 15, 2024
Fool Night (Manga) add
Preliminary (35/? chp)
Spoiler
I happened upon "Fool Night" while browsing the manga available on the VIZ app. For some reason, its cover stuck out to me. Upon reading the first chapter, I knew the manga had potential. After reading more, I saw that potential realized.

I usually don't like reviewing manga before they're completed, and even less so if I'm not caught up to the current chapters. I certainly would've read more, but VIZ still hasn't translated all of it yet, and the unofficial sources aren't delivering this time. That itself should show how overlooked this manga is (At least in the West). I assume the presentation contributes to ...
Feb 10, 2024
Dorohedoro (Manga) add
Mixed Feelings
Spoiler
‘Dorohedoro’ might have the biggest gap between the starting date and ending date of any manga I’ve read. Despite being a decently obscure manga, I started reading it far before series like ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘One Piece’. I really enjoyed it, but for whatever reason, I stopped about halfway through and never finished it… Until now. Was it worth it? Yeah, sure, but it’s far from perfect.

People often call the first few volumes (Pretty much just season one of the anime) boring, but I really enjoy it. Pinning it down is hard; It’s slice of life, action, sports, mystery, and somehow it all comes together. ...
Jan 23, 2024
Bakuon Rettou (Manga) add
Spoiler
Being a Non-Japanese Speaker, it was hard for me to find any comprehensive information on the author's life. I'm not entirely surprised, as while Takahashi has made a few well-liked manga, his works have mostly flown under the radar in not only the West, but also Japan. 'Bakuon Rettou' was never going to change that. It was a semi-autobiographical delinquent manga in an era when that genre was far past its prime, about being a biker when biking was past its prime. The art looks chaotic, character designs aren't particularly flattering, the main character's not a very good person, and some characters just kinda disappear ...
Jan 1, 2024
Homunculus (Manga) add
Spoiler
'Homonculus' is one of those cerebral, dark seinen manga. Our protagonist Nakoshi is a man stuck between two worlds, worlds of nice lies and harsh truths. On one side of where he sleeps is a a camp of homeless people, on the other is a bastion for the wealthy. Running out of money, he takes some money in exchange for having his head drilled into by a guy named Ito. This leads to him seeing homonculi.

At first, 'Homonculus' seems to be pretentious. The titular creatures are merely manifestations of a person's psyche which only Nakoshi can see when he covers his right eye, taking the ...
Nov 12, 2023
Black Cat (Manga) add
Mixed Feelings
Spoiler
In a lot of ways, Black Cat is a quintessential late 90s/early 2000s manga. Its style and characters feel so indicitave of its era. I understand that this is kind of just saying that Black Cat is pretty unoriginal and not particularly special, but it still has good qualities. The characters are pretty good here. None of them really have impressive arcs, but their relationships and dynamics are usually well done. Sure, some side characters didn't entirely live up to their potential, but the characters are overall a net positive for the series.

I think what really holds this series back is the worldbuilding and story. ...


It’s time to ditch the text file.
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