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Jun 14, 2020
Long story short, the best gambler in this manga is author himself. While he is not very good at mindgames, tension, worldbuilding or character writing, he knows how to hook up average reader. Just make a story about cute schoolgirls doing edgy and silly things with some “special school” premise.
So, there is an elite school where main thing is your gambler skills, because… well, author said it’s a best way to attain a strategic mindset needed in high society. This special environment permits rich kids to freely bet lives or wealth of their parents. 10 thousand or 10 million or
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10 billion of yen doesn’t matter. Even slavery system exists for losers. You can find this premise hilariously stupid, but it’s just a tip of the iceberg. Real show begins with main character
Jabami Yumeko – typical mysterious transferred student, mostly gentle and polite girl, but when things go to gambles she can go in crazy-yandere state in span of mere second accompanied with many suggestive expressions. By the way hers and other characters exaggerated expressions ranged from typical rapeface to angry gorilla mask is one of if not the main selling feature this manga have. Back to MC topic, naturally, no, OF COURSE she is also very talented in different fields, observant, good at strategy and reading opponents and most importantly she is lucky. She is opposite of normal high stakes gamblers whose try to minimize luck factor, but anyway, it doesn’t obstruct her constant wins. We also never see her thought process, so all games come to same scenario. Third person or opponent thinks that situation is hopeless for Yumeko, state by internal monologue or sometimes even openly petty trick (like marking cards...), then Yumeko goes crazy gambler mode, discovers cheating by means reader hardly can imagine beforehand (for some reason no one concerns with open cheating), read obligatory moral and win with help of devil luck or not very impressive strategy. Stakes unfortunately don’t matter or make sense, absurd amount of money comes out of air, life or death bets results so no one ends hurt. All games are brief, so the same pattern becomes tiring fast. Not to mention games themselves often poorly thought-out with little to nothing space for strategy and the most of “strong” opponents in this so called meritocratic school actually incompetent at gambling. As a result technically it’s very bad gambling manga.
Someone says, cast and their interactions are saving grace, but I thought most characters personality is nothing to note. They have normal mode with standard archetypes and stupid edgy mode with expressions I mentioned earlier. Their backstories are typical, kind of you can expect from rich kids or highschoolers in general. After defeat they usually become friendlier with mc and as consequence more likeable. Finally it doesn’t look like author trying to convey interesting message, so manga filled with boring phrases like “money is power”, “be yourself”, “life is interesting, because it’s unpredictable”.
Well, in the end 90% of characters are gilrs with good design either moe or sexualized and show presented a lot of yuri-bait moments, so with good art and typical humor it can be considered as okay mindless entertainment. Nothing more, maybe, something less.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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May 26, 2020
«I’ll say as many times as takes for you to hear it. It may not be stylish, but… LIVE»
Kaneki Ken, «Tokyo Ghoul :re»
*Spoiler free*
Tokyo Ghoul series hold a special place in my heart. I’ve been reading it since 2014 and strangely relatable struggles
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of main character helped me to overcome some real life difficulties.. Fortunatly they were much less dramatic. Nevertheless I had a strange relationships with sequel-manga Tokyo Ghoul :re. When it ended I thought it was very confusing read. Inconsistent art, especially in the second half, bloated cast with so many interesting characters got sidelined, sometimes strange pacing and convoluted plot with many important points just briefly mentioned or even remained to readers imagination. It certainly was not the kind of sequel I expected from tragedy of the first manga. Recently I made a reread and give some deeper thought to all the different aspects. While most of previous criticism is still pretty solid, now I think :re is actually amazing manga with great ambition to it and some interesting ideas.
Story: 8
First of all, I think to really appreciate Ishida’s work we need to understand one fundamental difference between two manga’s. Although :re is direct sequel, it’s very different story in tone and manner of exploring same themes. It’s not a tragedy, not a heroic epic – these are just some narratives that different characters try to apply furthermore metanarrative is takes a big role in manga. Real genre of the sequel, as cheesy as it sounds is very dark satire with strong existential message about living in chaotic world. Also it has more objective point of view, while first part was very subjective journey, so we have more perspectives and less characters inner monologues.
There is always a second layer to episode and strong sense of irony underneath. Many intended parallels with original help to highlight differences in tone and also gives us additional context to episodes. For examples, where in original we have a pathos showdown between two idealistic heroes, sequel gives you two broken and brainwashed soldiers that simply seek some meaning in their absurd existence. In the second half satiric nature becomes even more apparent, as main antagonist with his group take big entrance. This bunch excels at crack jokes and pinpointing some absurd aspects of TG societyl. There is strong Orwellian vibe in social commentary and some references to Clockwork Orange that ads a certain aesthetic to institutional violence. Basically further manga goes – the more obvious becomes contrast between superficial story pathos and deep rooted irony. In the end we have almost biblical scene that becomes completely absurd if we give a second thought to true nature of participants. This sense of absurd is similar to the kind you can find in Franz Kafka’s novels – needless to say, one of main inspirations behind the series. Random events become elements in long-running schemes or stay random, but entertaining. Whatever appears as pure white vs pure black conflict it is actually pretty gray with human, yet controversial choices from characters. All of it doesn’t take away emotional episodes (in fact, best characters moments often comes from sequel), but gives a lot of more space for different interpretations dependent on your personal worldview. On the other hand author concern with keeping parallels apparent so concrete chapter of sequel can match concrete chapter of original sometimes result in rushing things through and doesn’t work as good, as it was in ongoing.
Character: 9
Unfortunately, with increasing plot scale many characters got sidelined, yet there are many new interesting characters and some of old ones got amazing development in sequel. Main character was initially deconstruction of sacrificial-type MC, but sequel goes even further and deconstructs Kaneki from original with all of his catchphrases and signature features such as changing hair color in the most stressful situations. He becomes a modern Don Quixote, someone with great need for attention and having a meaning in life. You can certainly despise him for some choices and lack of straightforward development, but also admiring for psychological complexity and many nuances given. As much Kaneki is tricky character, main antagonist can hold a candle with his greatly entertaining troll persona and complex conflict behind it. You actually need to think to understand his motivation and actions, otherwise there is risk to fall in trap with meme keikaku wannabe. Deuteragonist is also there to balance Kaneki with more obvious development and simpler story in terms of entertaining. Well, there is all kind of different characters, most of them will have their chance to shine (sadly not all them), because one thing Ishida definitely excels of – is exploring different types of psychic. With help of parallels (context) and symbolism author give a lot of different mini-stories about relationships between parent and child, friendship, love, duty, raison d’etre and will to live. Ishida doesn’t tell you right answer and allows reader to find their own truth based on many different choices made by his characters.
Art and symbolism: 8
Art sometimes can be very sketchy and some action scenes are hard to understand, but then Ishida actually tries and this happening fairly often, picture becomes mesmerizing. Characters and monsters design is mostly simple, yet very stylish and his strong suit is definitely conveying emotions, especially all shades of melancholy and madness.
Another important aspect that deserves a separate paragraph is author usage of symbolism – it’s great significance and variety is one series distinguish features. There are many usage of Taros Arcana besides occasional numbers on characters, for example backbone of Kaneki and story development is Taro Fools Journey. A lot of context and rhymes thanks to deep web of parallels, adding “re” prefixes to chapters names, different mythological and literature references from the Holy Bible and Alice in Wonderland to Franz Kafka and Hermann Hesse, different symbolical flowers, moth and centipedes «metamorphosis» leitmotif, chess pattern to highlight gamey nature of main conflict, strong meta aspect with characters openly playing different roles and trying to create their own narratives – postmodern nature in TG strong as it ever was in manga.
Enjoyment: 7.5
In the end vast usage of bathos can be tiring and :re certainly lost some potential from the first manga, even ruined original somewhere retroactively, but it also give so much more to it, things I didn’t even imagine it would. Love or hate it, you will probably find your reading interesting and maybe even reread it later.
Overall: 8
What is Tragedy? It simply is a goat song.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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May 26, 2020
Pandora Hearts hit me really hard because of many amazing qualities. It has deep and complex, yet perfectly understandable plot, bright and beautiful art that can convey madness and melancholy, if it wants to do, cast of really melodramatic characters that nonetheless feels like real people. I really wanted to write this review.
Story: 9
It handles themes that most of shonen manga have, such as friendship, love, own personality with stong emphasize on the first one, but with great maturity and nuance. Empathy doesn't always become a magic fix to problems and can bring a tragedy, especially if it done in half-assed manner. Plot starts
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of with great intrigue, but really begin to take reader interest near 15th chapter. It's not a big problem, because once story begin to reveal own secrets it never stops until the very end. Prepare for plot twists among plot twists with many emotinally crushing episodes. Fortunatly author is pretty good at explaining things, so it doesn't become mess and brings one of the best mystery-driven plot in manga-medium.
Art: 9
It simply beautiful and suits very well with elegancy of Victorian age. Sometimes author can bring pretty scary things, because manga has a dark undertone with more mature outlook on bizarre legacy of Lewis Caroll Alice. In my opinion real forte of Jun's art besides amazing color illustrations is conveying characters emotions, especially those of melancholy. That aspect on par with another master of this - Ishida Sui.
Character: 10
Too many stories has a good plot with so-so cast or the other way around. Pandora Hearts managed to make the amazing cast of characters that drives story to the incredible path it has. Many of them have a comlplex personality with own backstory and understandable motivation. When they clash in dialogue or rare instances of action, author reveals some nice detail about their goals or worldviems. Finally they have some glimpse of weirdness to them. It makes a greath aesthetic match with parallels to Alice in Wonderland and rarely ends as simlpe wannabe.
Enjoyment: 10
Masterfully crafted emotional rollercoaster with joy and tears comes of very naturally. Unforgettable experience.
Overall: 10
If you love manga with complex plot, great sense of mystery, mostly melacholic, yet hopefull tone and great variety of bright characters with their own ideals and backstories - Pandora Hearts is certainly your choice.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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