Spoilers ahead
I'm convinced that most people reading this were just too distracted by the gorgeous art to see how mediocre this story is. Anyway, I'll get into it without wasting time on a long intro.
Art: 9/10
Definitely the best part about the manwha. It's no Berserk but it's almost there; the art is truly and objectively beautiful and the composition is done in this characteristic way that makes most scenes feel very lonely, mainly by contrasting tiny characters with huge detailed backgrounds. I love that effect and if you're as passionate about art as I am, I'd recommend this manwha purely on that basis.
Characters: 5/10
They're likeable,
...
I won't deny that. The sniper guy and The Girl are especially likeable to me, but likeability doesn't mean good character writing. The character writing is absolutely mediocre; all characters are just archetypes and entirely one dimensional. The female characters are even worse; all of them are either dependent on male characters or leave the story having accomplished nothing at all. For example, I love The Girl but she really just depends on The Boy until the end; the only time she had "agency" was when the dude in the shackles literally manipulated her into going against the sniper guy and freeing him. Other than that, she was dependent on her father and the others in the bus until she met The Boy, and then she was dependent on him until she died (I'll get back to that bullshit scene later). The woman in the bus didn't contribute anything at all to the bus community; the men were doing everything. She just got depressed and committed suicide after spending several days lazing around doing nothing at all; we see no character development in her or anything of that kind. The blonde wife we see later also doesn't do anything at all, just depends on her husband to do things and comfort her; she is never seen comforting him btw which I think is kind of messed up. Later, we see the wife with the one eye, she just cries as her husband gets washed out into the sea, doesn't try to save him at all, entirely useless. The male characters are all archetypes too; either they're perverts or protectors of some kind; there are some exceptions like the old men in the story being old men and nothing else really, which is a low bar for character diversity. One extremely easy fix for this whole issue would be making the sniper guy a woman; just keep everything about him exactly the same but make him a middle aged woman instead of a middle aged man, it would have been very unique and creative. Overall, the characters are so mediocre to the point of being terrible.
Plot: 6.5/10
It had some strong points I guess. I mainly only really liked the sniper guy's arc, and the strange man's arc was kind of tense I guess. The majority of it didn't really affect me though. It was all extremely predictable; I was never really shocked or surprised by anything except when they showed that the sniper guy was a cannibal; that scene was epic. There are tons of plot holes too; the main one has to do with The Girl's death. She was killed off in the one of the stupidest and most random ways possible. A fucking missile explodes behind this blonde kid, and he shoots The Girl for some reason?? Like why tf? Was that fucker deaf? Did he not hear the missile exploding behind him? Also can we address how absolutely ridiculous it is for The Boy and The Girl to meet another boy and girl exactly like them? I understand that the author was trying to thematically show how war is created, but that scene would be so oddly convenient in-world. Also why the hell did The Boy immediately point his gun at the other kid? We haven't seen him acting in such an impulsive way before. Even given his situation, what kind of person decides to immediately point their gun at another person the millisecond they see them? It's not like The Boy was a soldier or anything, and the boy he pointed the gun towards wasn't a soldier or anything either. Even though the other boy had a gun, it seems unrealistic to me that The Boy would jump to that action. Another plot hole is that dumbass wave that tried to drag that disabled husband to sea. What kind of goddamn wave is strong enough to pull an adult man to see out of nowhere? If waves were really that strong, then no one would go to the beach. That was such a forced and predictable scene; the second those two said "I love you" to each other I knew the author was gonna try to kill one of them. Another plot hole is how The Girl didn't get that disease that everyone else on the bus got; that's absolutely impossible considering her father, who had the disease, was always right next to her and usually holding her in some way too. Another plot hole is why the hell didn't The Boy's mother just get into that hole with him? In the very first chapter, we see The Boy's mother hide him in this hole in a wall or something, and that's how he survived while she died, but we see that the hole was definitely big enough to keep both of them inside, so why didn't she get in there with him? There are probably more plot holes I can't remember now.
Themes: 7/10
It wasn't bad, but the thematic message conveyed is ultimately quite childish and simplistic. The answer is "love"? Alright sure but like, how is that even practically applicable? It can even be argued that a lot of wars are caused by love; for example if two nations in a very arid environment both need water, they might go to war because they don't want to see their respective people die of thirst. Isn't that also love? The analysis of war presented in The Horizon is quite dumbed down; it ignores the complicated socioeconomic and geopolitical tension that happens before any wars start. The philosophy of this story isn't bad, but it's really lacking in comparison to stories that do philosophy really well, like FMAB or Dororo. It's very vague stuff that makes you believe it's deep simply because of how vague it is. Actually good philosophy isn't vague; it seems vague but turns out to be quite logical upon closer inspection, at least in my opinion.
Overall: 7/10
I'm only giving it 7/10 because of the Godly art; otherwise it would be a 6/10.
Jun 10, 2023
The Horizon
(Manga)
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Spoilers ahead
I'm convinced that most people reading this were just too distracted by the gorgeous art to see how mediocre this story is. Anyway, I'll get into it without wasting time on a long intro. Art: 9/10 Definitely the best part about the manwha. It's no Berserk but it's almost there; the art is truly and objectively beautiful and the composition is done in this characteristic way that makes most scenes feel very lonely, mainly by contrasting tiny characters with huge detailed backgrounds. I love that effect and if you're as passionate about art as I am, I'd recommend this manwha purely on that basis. Characters: 5/10 They're likeable, ... May 4, 2019
Sarazanmai
(Anime)
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Since only 4 episodes have been released I can't say much about it yet other than the fact that this anime is ridiculous but may end up being really great.
Music: 9/10 The opening and ending are really beautiful and catchy too. The ending theme is performed by "the peggies" who also did the Bunny Girl Senpai opening theme. Art: 9/10 By "art" I consider animation as well and this series had animation that reminds me of Kill la Kill (i.e hyperbolized, flashy and over the top) so it really fits the seemingly ridiculous stuff that happens in the show. I said seemingly ridiculous because most of these things aren't ... Jan 19, 2019
Aki no Kanade
(Anime)
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Story: 8
Art: 7 Sound: 7 Character: 8 Enjoyment: 8 Overall: 6 Yeah that may be confusing, 3 out of the five categories are 8of 10 and the other three are 7 out of 10 but overall it's 6/10? Well that's because Aki no Kanade ruined its ending. Basically this pro drummer in Tokyo goes back to her hometown to revive a drum festival, most of the episode is a flashback to her old drumming days as a child and that's fine, actually I liked the flashback and it really made me like her as well. But the thing is that after she gets to her hometown, instead of building up ... Jan 5, 2019
Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san
(Anime)
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You don't watch this anime, you survive through it. One of the worst and most inconsistent toned anime I have ever seen, and unless you're trying to get a quick addition to your anime list, don't ever watch this for fun, because I garuntee you won't have any.
Story: 7 I'm giving it a 7 because to be honest it had a lot of potential if it was done right, but no it decided to be cringy and boring instead. Art: 5 Very inconsistent as well; sometimes a character's size changes randomly, the faces are usually cute at one moment and ugly as hell in another moment. Sound: 5 It was ... Dec 29, 2018
No action, no intensity, no blood and no fanservice...but somehow this managed to get into my favourites section. I haven't really read that many manga but I have watched over 100 anime and that maybe a large number or an insignificant number depending on how much you watched but all I can say for certain is, if you enjoy slow but well paced and unique stories with loveable characters then you'll definitely enjoy this.
I don't want to go into detail about the plot and characters and whatnot because I know no one likes those long reviews and unless you have nothing to do you probably ... Dec 23, 2018
This anime had a lot of potential as a ecchi comedy, but they made a lot of mistakes:
The humour is way too fast and is basically shoved down your throat, if each ep was like 10 min instead of 4 min then it could have done that. The jokes themselves are actually kinda boring and awkward. The MC who is the most, let's say "sane" person out of everyone, doesn't act that role well. He comes off as half nuts and half sensible. The good stuff are: Traps And more traps Along with trap fanservice which any cultured person could enjoy The characters are actually somewhat likeable though most of the time ... Dec 23, 2018
Ichigo Chocola Flavor
(Anime)
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This hentai would be a 7/10 no questions asked IF the hentai only consisted of the first part with a bunch of oldies and a loli in an onsen, but on the second half it became absolutely disgusting and even on a personal level to me because, well let's call her the victim, was a lot like me back when my OCD was really high, so I understood her and well I don't wanna talk about it so basically, if youre gonna watch this watch the first half and leave, you'll be scarred for life if you watch the second especially if you hate things
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Dec 22, 2018
Forget what the others say and give it a chance, I think the main reason Citrus is so hated is because it's "incest" but tbh those are the same bastards who go and watch oreimo so don't give a shit about them. If you think you have the maturity to put away the "incest" and actually try and understand the characters then watch it, that's all there is to it.
I dont really remember the music too well so it was probably alright. The art was pretty good and it really complimented Yuzu's character. The romance is actually shippable. The characters are pretty goood but theyre are some unlikeables. Overall ... |