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Sep 15, 2024
In "It's Not My Fault That I'm Not Popular" or in short "WataMote" the embarrassment your feel is very real, the humor is often hilarious and will have you outright cackling. And the emotional callback scenes will take you on nostalgia trips galore. You just might find yourself rooting not only for the characters, but also cheering your own otaku self to grow faster than them (yeah, I don't expect "normal" people to read this).
This manga has some of the most genuinely second hand embarrassing moments of any piece of media out there. It starts off strong with them and belts you with them
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chapter after chapter. If you are an emotionally sensitive person like me, you will truly feel the pain in your heart as you try to escape the pages by skipping past panels, sometimes resorting to closing the book or "book" outright. It even gets so bad that I and people I know have literally run away, both I during reading the manga and my friends when watching the anime. It is a beautiful experience that I believe makes this manga pretty much a masterpiece in its own right.
The best (worst) part is that people say the things in this manga are exaggerated and never happen. That simply isn't true. Everything you see in the manga is completely realistic and does happen. This leads us to the next important point though: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. This manga has a LOT of it even though it starts off as a gag manga. It turns into a full on slice of life over time and you get to see the plot and its lovely cast of mostly teenage girls develop and mature. The manga does a complete genre shift over time, but it remains great. If you are able to claw your way through the first 30-50 or so chapters, you are rewarded with a manga you will enjoy coming back to like drinks with a good old friend. There will be a bit of slowdown here and there down the line as the transition happens, but it may well be worth your patience through it. The truly second hand embarrassing moments mostly disappear while lesser ones stay, but you've built an immunity at that point, although a few big ones still make their appearance down the line.
The art isn't top notch or overly detailed. It never has been or will be... nor is the paneling the greatest. It runs like a 4-koma manga most of the time. The author's use of expressions is great though. The character's expressions usually aren't extremely exaggerated. They are not even immediately obvious, you have to read into them, even with the simple drawing style, but they will also never leave you guessing the intended emotion, no matter how deep, unless the author intended it to be mysterious. The expressions are consistently spot on. The art quality also never gets egregiously bad. The style is very comfy and feels like a warm bonfire when you just want to sit down and check out the latest chapter or twenty. The embarrassment is very real, the humor is often hilarious and will have you outright cackling and the emotional callback scenes will take you on nostalgia trips galore. You just might find yourself rooting not only for the characters, but also cheering your own otaku self to grow faster than them (yeah, I don't expect "normal" people to read this).
If the art and paneling of this manga were on the level of something like Berserk or Vagabond, I would easily give this manga a 10. Or perhaps not, maybe this is the kind of art the manga needs to feel quite as comfy as it does. It is definitely NOT for most people, but for the people that it is for, it is a complete homerun. So my objective rating is that it's almost a masterpiece. It's one of my favourite manga of all time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 27, 2022
Protect me! Shugomaru is honestly one of the funniest manga I've read in recent times, especially in jump of all places. I had a heartfelt laugh, out loud, in 10 out of 12 chapters I've read so far. Even at work I couldn't contain myself, I had to have a good chuckle like an idiot.
It's a really lighthearted slapstick gag manga. It doesn't have amazing art or a storyline to speak of really, but it has instantly memorable and very unique looking characters that you can't help but love. There are some weirdly wholesome moments in there too as there often tend to be in
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gag manga.
This show has an incredible amount of references to the other shonen jump manga and other media as well, it's a real throwback, sometimes paying homage to something for most of the chapter.
At one point I thought the manga was going to stay completely Safe For Work, but there are some dirty bits thrown in there as well here and there. It's all teenager level stuff though, nothing too mature. I'm amazed how the mangaka manages to make slapstick so damn funny while keeping it almost entirely safe for work.
I wouldn't recommend this manga to the overly cynical or those who are extreme busybodies, this isn't for you. For the rest of us though, when you want something silly to relax to and laugh to, then this is solid.
P.S: Slash Takizawa best girl.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 29, 2021
This is the type of manga that has no "redeemable qualities" or anything in particular that makes it stand out, yet somehow still gets you to continue reading while relaxing your mood.
A perfect read for when you're at work and have a break or when you're tired at home and just want to read something relaxing. It's when you feel you just need a break from high octane high production value tryhard art and give something more relaxed and down to earth a try. During those times, this manga hits the spot perfectly.
The story arcs, if you can call them that are very short and
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are typical slice of life scenarios. Meanwhile te overarching plot is pretty much inconsequential and just acts as device to introduce new characters. That's just perfect. Cause I'm just trying to smooth my brain a little with relatable references and jokes, not investing into a foreign world. Having said that the coming of age elements definitely feel nice, nostalgic and rewarding.
The comedy in this manga is standard gag humor and while I rarely ever laughed out loud, there were definitely some good chuckles to be had. It's all down to earth and in good taste, so always palatable at worst and puts a good smile on your face at best.
The character designs are stereotypical, cute and likeable, even if the art quality is definitely nothing impressive at any given point. There are a few rare panels here and there that have more detail, ironically enough usually being a flashback. The quality never drops off to a point where it becomes jarring though so it will never truly disappoint either.
Overall I recommend this as a relaxing read when you want a break from your typical weekly/monthly materials. A fine manga that accomplishes what it sets out to do.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 10, 2020
If you're looking for a new world of supernatural stories to immerse yourself in, Mushishi is a great pick.
Mushishi is a manga made up of separate stories, fairy tales in folk tale fashion. The stories have a common theme of the supernatural, which adhere to a unique system that the author has come up with. Due to this there are very few recurring characters other than the main character. Characters don't also get much development due to that. You get a lot mystery about the MC though, some of which is unravelled throughout the various stories.
There is no real overarching plot, but the stories are
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great in their unique setting. Some are happy, some are sad, some bittersweet and some never spell out a definitive conclusion. It's easy to get immersed in the world of Mushi and get feelings of nostalgia. The often somber atmosphere makes it for a good evening or nighttime read.
The art quality is all over the place, sometimes getting you fantastic panels with beautiful watercolour style splashes of shapes and shades, captivating you... yet at other times you see the same face, drawn poorly on different characters in multiple separate stories. That's okay though, the art always conveys what it needs to for the story to feel immersive and the great bits simply a nice bonus.
I highly enjoyed Mushishi. It's not action packed nor do you get any extreme bursts of emotion. It's calm and collected and has a great moral point about observing life as it is, instead of trying to categorize everything onto a moral compass. The author has taken inspiration from a lot of basic everyday life activities, locations, animals, people. All that makes for some lovely folk tales that feels like they may as well have been written long ago.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 17, 2019
The first episode of Blood-C is the worst single episode of anime I have ever seen. It is worse than genuinely poor & talentless attempts at animation. This is simply due to the fact that it daringly wastes your time with tiny bits of bait in the middle of the episode luring you with microscopic rays of possible excitement. There was literally 1 second -- and no I'm not exaggerating here -- of captivating or immersive animation throughout the entire episode and there was also exactly one moment of something even resembling character development for the main character, except it amounted to nothing.
If you absolutely
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must watch this show, watch a montage or clip assembly on YouTube or skim through literally everything until you get to the "desired bits". I also recommend watching ONLY with a friend that is capable of having fun watching paint dry. I only watched the one episode I did together with a friend. The dialogue discussing the horror was the only thing that kept my fingers from only hovering on ALT+F4 and not actually pressing down.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Oct 21, 2019
To put this shortly... Kanata no Astra is highly enjoyable at times, but overall a big disappointment. Not because it's bad, but because it fails to live up to its immense potential. Whether its due to the original source falling off (I will probably skim the manga at some point), the adaptation's fault or both combined, it never reaches that permanent 9/10 rating it easily could've been. The first episode contains one of the top 100 scenes of anime in my opinion and is really engaging. It makes you feel like the show's about to be the Interstellar of anime. The best scene alone is
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worth watching for anyone, even if you don't plan to finish this anime later.
The art is great at times with barely passable budget cut animation at others. The sound design, while not outstanding, works well and does its job. Music is probably one of the strongest suits of Kanata no Astra. The OST is great and has several memorable tracks. The story is probably one of the worst parts, but if you can close one eye during the plotholes while enjoying what's executed well on a good premise, it's bearable. The exploration part of the story is the better half when compared to the underlying mainline story half, which gets increasingly more focus as the show goes on. It's very basic and infantile in its philosophies, but not outright insulting.
There are a lot of pacing issues and the quality of the story as well as the budget of the animation. Some parts of the plot could've played out much quicker while others really deserved more time. This show really needed either more episodes or longer episodes. The first episode being double length is definite proof that the show would've worked much better in a 48 minute episode format across the entire season. So many events and character moments that simply needed more attention to detail. So many ideas come across left unexplored. Throughout the show I felt like this could've been the Stargate of Anime, if its potentially was fully explored. Filler would've been right in this show.
Regardless of all its faults, I never felt like dropping it. In fact, I wanted to finish it as soon as possible, ending up in 10+2 episodes marathon over 2 days. I still got a lot of enjoyment from it, maybe thanks to my bias towards space operas like Crest/Banner of the Stars. Yeah, probably that. I hope this review helped and if you plan to watch, I recommend letting a little loose on cynicism during the watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Aug 14, 2019
I made the mistake of this being my first experience with re:zero and its characters. I watched it together as a friend cause I don't really mind spoilers. Luckily there weren't many spoilers, not that I'd remember them anyway from this unforgettable movie. I am sure the actual show is good, but I recommend staying away from this.
Do not watch this unless you're already a an avid watcher of the show and just want some mind-numbing fanservice that feels more like bad shoujo than anything. There is nothing you will gain from watching this movie other than fan service. You should fully be aware and
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have no further expectations.
It's just bad.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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