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This is going to be a short one. In summary, very good and cozy romcom manga. The art is cute and the premise very simple, but kinda different in its own way. A Power Ranger dating the villain isn't something you see very often. Quick list of points that I liked and disliked:

Likes
- Art is simple but good, easy to read. Great character design, too.
- Characters are the strongest point: Charismatic idiots, almost all of them
- The gag about both of the organizations (the heroes and the villains) being structured like some kinda of regular japanese company
- For me the comedy is good and not ... too repetitive
- Does not take itself serious at all.

Dislikes
- When I started reading I expected them to be fully adults and not some high school kids. I'm starting to realize how dificult it is for japanese authors to make adult romance manga that isn't a h*ntai, it probably doesn't sell very well, which is a shame.
- Kinda on the same page, the story ending after their high school graduation like almost every romance manga. I wished they showed a bit of their college and adult lives as well.

And I think that's that. It's kinda like a restaurant that looks like fast food but when you eat some has a little home-made meal taste. Recomend to everyone that likes stupid romance comedies like the Seto no Hanayome anime and such.

Almost a decade after I watched the anime (2015), I'm happy that I could read all the original manga. All these years I didn't know what to expect from the rest of the story that the anime didn't cover, and I can safely say it was a pleasant surprise.

This is a tale about seven young men – Nicknames Mario, Suppon, Heitai, Kyabetsu, Joe, Baremoto and Anchan - in a juvenile reformatory in the post-war Japan (1955, more specifically), and how their encounter changed their lives.

Being written by George Abe, who was a teenager in the 1950’s Japan, takes great care in addressing social topics such ... as the American occupation and how it affected the country culturally (we see an ascension of Jazz and Rock music, boxing and other western sports, etc.).

But the main point is the economical devastation affected the Japanese people for decades after the war.

The manga expands beautifully on the backstory and development of all the seven characters, their personal struggles, families, goals, traumas, hopes and dreams. But the focus is on their relationship since juvie, and how there is no bond as unbreakable as a strong friendship.

It’s a wonderful tale wonderfully illustrated by Masasumi Kakizaki, a very talented artist.

Despite all the social criticisms Abe makes, you can tell a lot of the plot has his own life story in it, and the main point he makes is and how having good, trustworthy people by your side is what makes you overcome even your most rough hardships.

Overall, a great and very human story, great character design and development, beautiful art and a clear philosophy. I can respect that.

Recommended specially if you like historical novels and such. It was the first piece of media that I saw being set on 50’s-60’s Japan, and being told by someone that lived the period, at that.

“If there’s a place inside this world,
Where hopes and dreams are not yet lost
We stand and climb against this walls,
And fight this fight forever more.
If there’s a place inside this world,
Where hopes and dreams are not yet lost
Where we must go back to once more,
Until the day,
We find that place…
We are not alone”

I don't want to write a long review, but I'll start with this: NieR: Automata is one my favorite games of all time.

I love the music, the gameplay, the characters, and specially the story and what it represents. But not only that, I absolutelly love the way it's presented using gameplay mechanics and cliche videogame tropes. So, from the get go, I knew this was going to be a challenge when adapting the full story to an animated series.

So, is the anime bad? Not really. The astonishing music from the game is there; the fights, although short, are well animated, and the narrative is ... ALMOST the same as the game. Is there something to complaim, then?

Well, let's talk only about the changes then. SPOILERS AHEAD:

1 - The Good

Keep in mind this are my personal opinions so take it as you want.

First, the decision to insert some bits of NieR: Replicant into the story were brilliant and a love letter to the fans.

The decision to adapt the full story of A2's past from the manga is brilliant too. In the game if you don't go after it you finish the game without knowing her backstory. Oh, and it's told only by visual novel format, by the way.

I also liked that they made the resistence members have more relevance in the fighting.

2 - The Bad;

There is some understandable cut content, like the battle with the giant colossus on the flooded city, but the change in some dialogue made the pacing of the story feel weird. One good exemple is 2B going to the abandoned factory soon after rescuing 9S by herself: there was no order by the commander or the suggestion by Pascal to come to that specific place.

Annemone being switched with Lilly was kind of disappointing, but only because I like Annemone's character design much more.

Eve dying instead of Adam was... odd, by the very least. First of all, he could not have really died there because only Adam disconected himself from the machines network, but focusing on this is being a little too nitpicky. In the game, Eve's reaction on Adam's death reflects on his childish personallity, and his way of dealling with loss is with rage, hate and thirst for revenge (the theme of "dealing with loss" is a recurring one in the game). So this change in the anime felt really unatural.

The reveal that humanity is already extinct by Adam was awfull too. In the game it was never clear (at least to me) that 2B knew about this.

3 - The Impossible.

I could argue that adapting a story like Nier: Automata to an anime while maintaining 100% of it's power is an IMPOSSIBLE TASK. It can only reach it's full potential because it uses videogame mechanics to subvert the plot and Yoko Taro knows damn well how to do this.

Killing the bosses mercilessly in route A and understanding what they were saing and thinking when playing again with 9S in route B; Hacking the bunker's server and reading all the files by yourself; slowly realizing about the nature of the machines after killing hundreads of them because that's only natural in a videogame; exploring all the side-quests that discusses important philosophical themes, all of this has an emotional impact that the format of an animated series cannot replicate.

So, in the end, I think the anime did as well as it could, maybe. If it brings more people to know and play the game, that's enough for me as a fan. If you liked the anime and have the opportunity to play the game, please do. I'm sure you won't regret it :)

This manga falls flat where it could shine the most.

The story is boring, the characters one dimensioned and the art, although technically good, doesn't stand out much (I like the clothes choices and designs though).

If you want a "story/characters/art" type of review, there you have it.

Now, I want to quickly dive deeper in some bad points where I think could have made this manga a great one:

1 - The events

... Actually, the lack thereoff. "What do you mean, dude? This sh*t is almost 200 chapters long!. That's exactly the point.
You see, it's not that nothing happens, but it's presented in a way that makes everything sooooo uninteresting. Well, we could argue that, from the first chapters, the author just wanted to make a short and funny manga about a peculiar couple: The shy and unlucky guy, incompetent at almost anything he does and his girlfriend, a beautiful girl skilled in almost everything, that saves the said guy from unlucky events. Not particularly original, but some situations can make you at least chuckle a bit. Both in high-school, because of course.

But then, more characters get introduced, then we have a full group a friends. Then more and more secundary characters get introduced. But every story arc in the whole story can be sumarized by:
a) A major event is about to happen (sports festival, cultural festival, going to the beach or the mountains, preparing for exams, etc).
b) The event takes place. Everything goes right, everyone smiles, says "good work", "I know you worked hard", "I won't lose to you", I'll work hard as well".
c) Ocasionally, we have a random flashback.
d) Repeat the process.

To me, there lies one of the greatest problems in this manga. We don't have the opportunity to see the characters struggling through really dificult situations, we don't see them making dificult choices, we don't see them conflicting each other on any given time. This makes them very flat and stale very fast.

2 - The melodrama

That being said, another problem I have is taking the story with the seriousness that the author apparently want me to: The formula I presented earlier is presented with TREMENDOUS amout of drama. We even have a word for that in my native language (portuguese) wich is "piegas", meaning something extremelly melodramatic.

I know that things like social anxiety exists, but have an entiry arc focused on one secundary character no one cares about learning to comunicate with his group by saying "I WANT TO BECOME STRONGER!" like a shounen protagonist is... oof. Really, my eyes are rolling back just by typing this sh*t hahaha

In the end, it just feels like a fantasy and idealized world to the point of bizareness (no jojo reference intended).

3 - The main relationship

Ok, so, in a manga whose main characters are the couple I mentioned before, surely there are good romance moments here and there, right? My man... you sure about keeping your hopes up? At this point?

It's almost a rigid law that a romance manga must begin with the main characters first knowing each other and ending when they start dating. I hate that trope so, so much. And nothing takes the idea out of my head that it only happens because the author never had a romantic relationship, you can see the lack of experience in the matter. And there's is nothing wrong with that by itself, but it reflects on the dificulty they have when writing the daily lives of a couple.

This is the case for Shikimori-san. And mind you, we have here a RARE CASE of a manga that starts with the couple already dating. And they take long to even hold hands. Oh man, so much wasted potential...

But why does this bother me the most? Well, I had a relationship that lasted through the end of high-school to the middle of my college years. I like seeing stories where the couple learn more about each other, show their affection in particular ways, get more used to touching and physical contact and knowing each other more intimally. Of course, this process is not a rule and it differs a lot from person to person.

The thing is, Izumi's and Shikimori's relationship had so few major advances that by the end you feel almost like they are in the exact same spot as the beggining.

Also, the story concludes when they go to college together. WHY STOP THERE, AUTHOR? YOU HAD SO MANY OPORTUNITIES ON YOUR HAND, YOU BASTARD! It's this era of someone's life that very few manga talk about and it fascinates me the most, because it's a time of growth and discovery in many ways. Oh, well...

Conclusion - Do I recommend it?

Look, maybe it's my fault expecting something more from a "feel-good" vibes slice-of-life romance manga, but... I stil had some minor enjoyment out of it, even if it burned me out by chapter 100 or so.

If you like cute character designs, a very soft and extremelly sweet to the point of diabetes type of story, you can give this a go.

If you're just a hopeless idiot like me who expects deep romantic narratives from a web manga, them I would advice you to stay out of this one.

What if an 1,200+ years old ancient demon lived in the body of an ordinary, kind-hearted japanese salaryman? This is the question Tetsuya Saruwatari tries to answer with his manga Igyoujin Oniwakamaru.

I'm gonna keep this one short and the most spoiler-free I can: The story has a very interesting start - the first chapters showing how our protagonist Hitori Tachibana finds out he shares his own body with Oniwakamaru, an extremelly powerfull demon that is also known as "The King of the Yokai".

Hitori or "Hito" is a ordinary everyday worker, a married man, and a very good person, so much so you could say his ... kindness is boderline naivety. Sudently, he finds out he can transform himself into Oniwakamaru body when faced with eminent danger, but eventually learns how to use his demonic powers for a good cause, while defending himself from other Yokai that attacks him in order to absorb Oniwakamaru soul and receive his immense power. As you can see, the main concepts are highly inspired by japanese folclore and Shinto-Buddhism.

What captivated me in the beginning was Hto's own relantionship with his literal "inner demon", as his philosophies often clashes with Oniwakamaru's, that constantly learns how to value life as a whole. Also, it has that "superhero" gimmic of an super-powered individual just trying to live his ordinary life the best way he can, while using his demon abilities to help other people in need.

However, by chapter 20 the story starts to lose it's footing, as the author abandons the espisodic "slice-of-life" pacing and tries to approach a more serious and linear narrative. Unfortunatelly, everthing from here to the end is so full of shounen-esque and generic cliches (except for the high level of violence) that it kinda ruined the whole experience for me.

The art is very good, SPECIALLY the demons, spirits and yokais. I fuc**** LOVE Oniwakamaru's character design!!

In summary, an interesting concept ruined by poor execution and lack of narrative creativity from the second half of the story until its conclusion. An overrall fun read nonetheless, so I can recomend it for people who likes a short action-packed and violent manga with some great character designs, but don't go into it expecting a great and deep reading experience.

When i finished the last chapter, the only thought that came to my head was "Oh boy, what a waste".

But I'm getting ahead of myself. What is "Death Sweeper" really about? Well, it happens that Japan has so many cases of suicide and people who die alone in their houses that there are several private companies whose main job is to clean the location where the person died. It's a nasty job, and unfortanatelly, a necessary one.

Interesting, right? Well, the only reason I felt disappointed is because the mangaka had a really good chance to exploit some deep rooted social problems in modern japan: ... the high suicide rate, depression, hikikomoris (shut-ins), NEETs, the cruel reallity of being a ordinary salary worker with no perspectives for the future, etc.

Well, on a materialisc analysis, we all know these problems come from capitalism, more specifically late capitalism, a system made to brutally shove the working class on a industrial meat grinder. As a regular salaryman/woman, you have to work on 10-12 hour shift but receive a little more than minimum wage. Things start pilling up: Food, rent, bills... some times, any kind of entertainment is out of question, either because you have no money or no time. All of this so 99% of the profit derived from your work go directly to the owners of the company, the ones that really control the means of production. It's hard not to see how a system like this can induce so many people to develop all kinds of mental illnesses (depression, anxiety, burnout, etc). Mark Fisher's "Capitalism Realism" tackles this problem in much more depth, for anyone interest on reading about these topics.

But does the manga talk about this, though? Well, it does present all these problems, but never presents them as an "economic system problem", but rather an individual one. BUT HEY! that's ok, it's quite unfair on my part to expect this 43 chapter manga to be an deep essay about the harms of modern capitalism in Japan.

Instead, after reading the first chapters, I undertood the author went for a more philosophical aproach on the topic, specially how different people deals diferently with the deaths of their loved ones or the grasp on their on mortality. That was what I was expecting, anyway.

Suicide is a pretty sensitive topic in japanese society. The ones who take their own lives see themselves as "worthless, shamefull, pathetic" people because they don't have jobs, money, a romantic relationship... Again, it's hard not to see this as a result of the neo-liberal ideology present on such a salvage, near cyberpunk-esk capitalism - "the ones that don't produce or have anything to contribute to society should just die".

The author had the oportunity to show how this types of thougths are dangerous and inhuman, and how suiciders are victims more than anything. I again, I'm wasn't asking him to approach this from a political/economical perspective. He could've easily done so using some philosophy, show us stories that made us really empatize with the suiciders, while Okazaki, the MC, progresses on the job of cleaning death scenes and learning to respect and value more life as a whole. Hell, if not that, at least bring to public knowledge about the mere existence of companies that pays their bill cleaning liquefied flesh and decomposing blood in apartments and houses .

That said, the mangaka did some of these things in the first half of the story. When Okazaki was almost killed, he realizes how much he tried to protect his own life and start to value it a bit more. During the cleaning scenes, we see how each member of the sweepers deal with their work routine, and how the families of the deceased mourn diferently after the passing of their loved ones.

But from the second half to the end, the story shifted to conspiracy theories, cheap plot twists, pseudo-religious concepts and eco-fascism. Like, c'mom, really??
That's why I said in the beggining this manga is a wasted potential.

As for the characters, they had some charisma but lacked any substantial development. Another problem for me is the female ones. I can’t shake this feeling of hatred the mangaka has towards women in general. Why? Well, one is a disturbed spirit medium, another is crazy cat-murderer psychopath, another is a compulsive liar who almost convinced the MC into a double suicide and another is a hot manipulative femme fatalle who talks people into suicide just so she can mummify them. How can I not feel this way?

And last but not least: the art. it’s pretty standard and does the job well. The anatomy is good, but the expressions are a little off sometimes. For the rest, it’s pretty ok.

Closing this (probably unnecessary) long review: I would recommend it to anyone who’s interest in this topics, but the brutal shift in the story, lack of character development and apparent misogyny may disappoint you in the same way it did for me.

THIS REVIEW HAS NO SPOILERS

First of all, my english is a bit rusty, so please, if you see some grammar errors, just ignore it.

This Review will contain great historical content, so I can make a proper analysis about this anime.

Story (10/10):
Ahhh World War II... when millions of people lost their lives, their families, their homes... everything because of the selfish actions and decisions of some psychopaths that had political power. And this applies specially to the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan, but most specifically Japan.

Back in the 1930's, after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (1931) and the "Rape of Nanking" in the Second Sino-Japanese War ... (1937-1945), the Imperial Japanese Army was well known for it's great cruelty and brutality towards enemy soldiers, prisioners of war and civilians.

In 1941, Japan attacked the North-American base on Pearl Harbor, forcing USA to declare war on them. Well, it was a bloddy and dark jorney of brutal battles until 1945. Japan was clearly losing the war against the Allied Forces, but refused to surrender. Many air raids were made by the Allied Forces, droping incendiary bombs in regions where civilians houses were made of wood.

When the allied air forces did reconnaissance missions in Japan's main islands, they saw civilians being trained with bamboo spears and suicidal tatics with explosives. They came to the conclusion that an ground invasion was to risky and would cost way to many lives.

They decided to test the atomic bombs they were developing, so they could also testify it's destructive force and demonstrate the size of their military power, thus forcing Japan to surrender.

August 6, 1945. The B-29 plane named "Enola Gay" drops the first atomic, the "Little Boy" bomb on Hiroshima, killing more than 100.000 people and reducing the entire city to rubble. 3 days later, they droped the second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. In September 2, Japan officialy surrendered. World War II was oficially over.

If you want more information about this historical event and it's victims, i recomend this documentary: http://www.fallen.io/ww2/

NOW, LET'S TALK ABOUT "RAINBOW: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin"!!

Well, the history begins exactly 10 years after the end of the war, in 1955.
Six teenagers were arrested for the comiting various crimes, each of them being explained later.

What matters here is: although the story begins 10 years after the end of the war, it's very clear how the japanese society, as a whole, struggled to came out of the misery and tried to redeem for their past mistakes.

I'm not trying to discuss if events like the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings were right or wrong. The point is, it's really fair that a whole mass of inocent civilians, some of witch didn't even agree with the war, had to suffer so much because of the actions of some psychopath's soldiers, military commanders and politicians?

Rainbow brings up that simple question. How the children suffered with all this. How their families starved, how the lives of their relatives were cut short by the war, how they had to do extreme things to survive. And no, i'm not saying Japan is a victim. Like I said before, we don't forget the cruelty and brutality their soldiers showed to nations they invaded.

But in war, there's no such thing as a winner. Everybody that takes part in it loses something. And the suffering of the japanese population during and after the war, like many others in the entire world, it's a historical fact.

Going back to Rainbow, the most beautiful thing about this whole story is how this six teenagers grow up together in prison, how they become real brothers and how they struggle together to overcome the hardships of life.

The friendship is a simple thing, but one of the strongest relations humans can make. And, unfortunately, not everybody got to fell the wonderfull experience that is to have someone you can really call a brother.

The way the story develops, tha cruelty in the prison, the social discrimination, the dificulty of the teenagers that lost all and tries to adapt into society and persue their personal dreams is simply a masterpiece. Truly a wonderfull massage.

Art (9/10)

The art and animation was made by Studio Madhouse, and it is very well done. The visuals are stunning sometimes, and the art can express the dark moments and the happy ones in very good way.

Sound (8/10)

The music it's very good, but it's not the strongest point in the series. It's very fitting and imersive, but also kind of repetitive.

The OP, in my opinion, it's great. The english lyrics fits perfectly in the story, and the metal rifs helps to add the "harsh times" felling.
The Ending, however, it's no big deal.

Caracter (9/10)

Walking along side the great story, the caracter development are a very strong point. I can say much, because if a I do, I'll give major spoilers.

What I can say is that not every caracther has a great developmente in the story, and that's because the anime didn't adapted the whole manga series. Still, it's a great feature in the animation.

Enjoyment (9/10)

That's way to personal. If you enjoy watching a series with a great dramatic background, historical content, realistic caracters, a very good animation and a great philosophical story, you will certainly enjoy Rainbow.

Overall (10/10)

Well, I've said too much about this series, but it's certainly one of the best anime i've ever watched. I would recomend this to anyone tha likes the kind of content that i've listed below. So, if you read this to the end, thank you for your time and give "Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin" a try!!

"If there's a place inside this world
where we must go back to once more,
until the day,
we find that place,
We're not alone."

First of all, sorry for my bad english and forgive me for any grammar errors.

Well, I'll write this review in a general perspective of the piece. Buyuden is a normal boxing manga. It has all the elements of a shounen/martial arts: A typical highschool boy gets to know some way that might make him stronger, and this simple desire is what keeps him moving forward.

But this had some new points that I have never seen in any boxing/martial arts manga. Well, the first one is that Take Isamu, the protagonist, wants to learn boxing only because he met a cute girl (Kaname Moka) ... that pratices it, an so he has this sole motivation to introduce himself in the world of boxing.

Second point, the fights. They're not as emotional, tecnical, strategic and epic as Hajime no Ippo's fights. They're pretty simple and very fast. But the point here it's the results. The main pugilists struggle A LOT to defeat an oponent, and don't win the fights very often. They have to think fast, know their own weaknesses and punch under the adrenaline and pressure of a boxing match. They can't win with their motivations and willpower only. That is a strong point for creating realistic fights. Perhaps the strongest point in this manga.

The art is good, especially in the fights. From the beginning to the end, it doesn't change much.

Now to the weak points. Although the story is interesting in the beginning, it walks in the same path as any shounen manga. Take Isamu only continues in the world of boxing for the desire of becoming stronger, even if he says that he does so to "Complete Moka's dream".

The characters... well, they're not very developed. They do change, but it's nothing gradual and slow like Holyland. It's a bit unreal, but it doesn't mess up the story.

For conclusion: This is not similar to Hajime no Ippo, and neither to Holyland. This is Buyuden. It's not a unique manga, but it has it's differences with other shounen/sports/martial arts. I had a good time reading it, as a boxing fan myself.

My advice is: Are you a boxing/martial arts fan? Are you looking for some refresing reading? Do you just want to see some fast punching fights? Them Buyuden is for you, give it a shot.

Are you looking for a unique manga? Are you not a fan of boxing/martial arts? Are you looking for a manga with a strong story? Them, don't waste time reading it.

First of all, this is my first review, and I apologize for my rusty English. But when I saw some reviews of Kill la Kill, I couldn't help but to leave my own opinion of this show.

Well, when I began watching Kill la Kill, I had some bad expectations. But, as I was watching it, I realized that I found an anime with that feeling of "long time no see".


Story: 7/10

As I said, the story isn't the strong point in Kill la Kill. It has that repetitive revenge plot we all have seen in anime these days.

With a cliche story, but surprising sometimes, Kill la ... Kill turned out to be a genius parody. Today, anime just have focus on high school girls, horrible stories and huge, VERY huge fanservice. At first glance, Kill la Kill looks like one of those. But when you watch it, you see you were wrong. They had all these overused tropes in recent anime in the story, but in a funny and brilliant way. All the elements were there for they own purpose.

Art: 8/10

The art in Kill la Kill it's good in its own way. I personally liked it very much. For me, it looked like the art of a 90's anime.

Sound: 8/10

The soundtrack in Kill la Kill is very good, but unfortunately very repetitive. Some interesting eletronics are in the series too. The strong point here its the first OP and ED.

Characters: 8/10

Although not very developed, the characters in this anime are all so idiot, and that makes them so damn funny. The most developed is the protagonist, Matoi Ryuuko.

Enjoyment: 10/10

In my sincere opinion, this is the strongest point in Kill la Kill. It's funny, lively, and very refreshing. The characters are funny, the fights very exagerated, mass destruction almost every episode end the provocative clothing for no reason (the most aparent critic of exagerated fan-service) makes Kill la Kill unique and very pleasant to watch.

Overall 9/10

Well, I don't have much more about to say about Kill la Kill, but the series is great. If I had to define it in one word it will be: "SURPRISING".
It really teached me not to judge a book for it's cover.
It's really worth it. For those who are still thinking if they should be watch the show or not, I say: Give it a shot, you got nothing to lose by checking it out. you may surprise yourself as well ;)