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Having read the whole manga 2 years ago (not an MAL member by then), and recently going through ts sequel, I wish to share an opinion of this manga after 2 years of condensing: this is an informative collection on operation and prevention of fraud techniques, but not a great story.


Plot: 7

The plot is simple: Kurosaki, a young swindler vowed only to cheat money out of fellow swindlers, investigate them through victims of the swindlers or his boss Katsuragi (operating his own "Katsura bar" as a disguise), then approaches the swindlers and cheats money out of them by no less than the amount the victims ... are cheated of.

The 20-volume story is pretty independent between arcs, illustrating a wide variety of fraud methods, from domestic ones like prepaid beauty service contracts and sure-win lottery, to commercial ones like defrauding lending banks and insurance agencies.

While the plot is fruitful to learn to beware of different loopholes in daily and commercial transactions that may bring in fraud, and demonstrating how some "proof" documents are easily forgible, the story pattern is admittedly repetitive. This is a major reason why I had to take a long break after the 20 volumes.

Kurosaki's performance is also understandably limited to a simplified description of "phishing" and outwitting other swindlers. It would be outrageous to expect a published manga detailing step-by-step guidance on how to commit fraud (especially on professional fraudsters). The focus of the story, rather than intense battles of wits, tends towards educating the public to beware of the fraud techniques and how cruel the reality can be.

Although the arcs are largely independent and episodic, an overarching plot line does exist between Kurosaki and Katsuragi, but has not been resolved in this story (resolved in the finale of the series).

Characters: 6

Characters in this manga largely serve as device to show readers the plot. Kurosaki is almost the only common point between all the fraud arcs. He is practical, but also challenges other characters (law executors) as arrogant, which is quite a realistic opinion from the underworld (as the author also proclaimed to have worked as a swindler).

Yoshikawa (female lead(?), a univeresity student studying law and aspiring to become a prosecutor) and Kashima (a young police officer, serving as a complete opposite of Kurosaki's values), while serving as the conventional main cast group (but appearance being less than often), tries to bring in the point of view of lawful citizens and executors of law. The only highlight is a debate between Kurosagi and Kashima on why they had chosen such different paths despite having similar back stories, but, unfortunately, Kurosagi failed to justify the merits of his chosen path, not to mention convincing readers of his choice. Certainly, such justification would unlikely be published on a manga.

Art: 7

Typical 90s to 00s manga art-style, the regular cast and characters (victims, swindlers etc.) in the same arc are largely differentiable. Although the same cannot be said for one-off characters across different arcs, there is not any need for readers to do so.

Enjoyment/ Overall: 7

Kurosagi only succeeds in being a fruitful casebook of fraud techniques, no matter in domestic or commercial contexts, by an author with proclaimed first-hand relevant underworld experience. Although published over 10 years ago, some fraud techniques are still prevalent nowadays, especially in Asian countries. An example is the re-emergence of "Ore Ore Sagi" (phoning victims and impersonating their acquaintences, and later claiming they have got into trouble and request victims to bail them out with a handsome sum of money). For shortcomings, it fails as a captivating story with persuasive characters, or any deep or inspiring discussions into the relation between lawfulness and righteousness.

Kurosagi is a good read for readers interested in understanding operation and prevention of fraud, and perhaps even some operations of finance in real life. However, this niche market is likely the only group Kurosagi can capture and appeal to.

Being a seinen (so far) focusing on professiona baseball field in Japan, the setting of Gurazeni seems more cut out for a live-action drama than an anime, especially when designs of main characters are qutie simplistic, and do not fall within the current sense of "hot husbando".

That being said, Gurazeni is still an enjoyable slice of life comedy involving realistic concerns such as salaries, and the difference between high school baseball team life and career as a professional baseball player, which is quite different from the passion of shounen genre.

It also gives the audience an insight into profesional baseball field, such as explaining baseball player ... statistics, for those interested to learn, and concerns of baseball team management board behind the glamour of keeping a star player.

Overall, while Gurazeni is not made out for typical anime audience, it is still enjoyable as a light-hearted sneak peek into the professional sports field in Japan.

Side note: the Ending Theme is really cute, hope to hear its full version. The girls in the OP and ED have so far not yet presented themselves, most likely as family members/ acquaintances. I hope they can still keep the comedic pace.

As a underworld/mafia drama lover, I write this review mainly for fellow audience considering this anime due to its mafia setting or existence of multiple characters, who may come across Ramens due to its connections/ collaborations with other works such as Durarara. No non-biases guaranteed.

In short, I find Ramens a relatively "idealistic" and "light-hearted" potrayal of the underworld (as opposed to others like Black Lagoon). This is a good show for pass-time, fun, light-hearted, (BL,) and perhaps, knowing slightly more about baseball and Hakata. However, it lacks depth for character and plot development, which is prevelant in underworld dramas involving multiple parties, reasons explained below.

Story: ... 6
12 episodes are quite neatly divided into several arcs. No strong cause-and-effect relationships between arcs. However, the patterns are largely similar and strong hints to the story development are always given. Towards the later arcs, I gave up worrying for the protagonists even when they are emminent danger of betrayal/ death because of the repetitive and cliche pattern.

Characters: 4
Try recalling the underworld animes (e.g. Black Lagoon, Jorumugand, Durarara), or even movies you watched, what pops up in your mind first? It is often not the plot, but the characters that impress audience the most. The soul of this genre of work often lies in the characters. Ramens is critically damaged and flawed in this respect.

All characters I can recall at this moment are largely stereotypes, especially allies of the protagonists: typical loli, typical old man-with a-past-glory, typical innocent rookie, typical smartie pants, typical hotheads. Allies of the protagonists mainly stand in the background as "back-up" serving protagonists in respective professional fields such as hacking and medication, and by chance information sources. Lack of female characters' screen time, while proving Ramens' target audience is fujoshi, is unrealistic for a modern city like Hakata.

Now back to the main characters, who supposedly have more screen time and development to be convincing. Bamba (possibly also tasked with baseball and Hakata tourism promotion) is composed yet humourous, the type of lead which many, including myself, enjoy to watch. Lin, supposedly a well-trained assassin, is the de facto female lead which shows characteristics conflicting with his profession. Dressed as a female (yet staying with a male voice) for unexplained reasons, Lin's abilities has more than once been compromised by the outfit. Heels he wore caused him to lose balance when the train suddenly stops, and twisted his ankle when he jumped out from the window. When protecting allies, Lin had also forgone to fight using his skills as an assassin/ fighter,and opted for the less effective method often used by female leads of other animes for no obvious reasons. I respect characters of different styles, but allowing style to get into the way of assassin's profession, where a slight mishap could cost life, is purely perplexing.

The extremely strong bond between protagonists and their allies, while impressive and admirable, does not seem realistic for a world of outlaws. All characters never hesitated in siding with their own friends, despite threatened with death, in standing against politicians and mafia syndiciates. Ramen's alliance (centred around the main characters) has over 10 people (sufficient to monopolize Hakata underworld), always serves the protagonists but never maintains any organization structure or gives any interests. It solely relies on self-conscience and friendship, which is very ideal, but often stands so vulnerable to power, fame and money in the complexed world of reality, especially underworld. Can such pure alliance and trust exist in a world of outlaws, where even law is disregarded? Even if so, how such strong bonding came to centre around the protagonists is never explained in the story, thus failing to convince the audience.

Enemies are less on par with the lead and their allies than expected. Minor: Although some screen time is given to the last boss, his tone is not strong enough to fully characterize a strong last boss with a unique mindset. (this is perhaps due to my own imagination of a stronger line for the boss)

Art: 7
Generally fine. Action scenes are often neglected until the last 2 episodes.

Sound: 8
Ending theme of pure jazz is great, bringing back reminiscence of Cowboy Bebop's OP, especially with the images shown as the song plays. Some piano arrangements of the Opening and Ending inserted towards the end of the arcs are pleasant, comparable to the kind of music performed live by a pianist at a hotel candlelit dinner. Rest of background music generally fits with the scene but does not stand out.

Overall: 6
Biased with my expectation of a in-depth exploration of the underworld, I find the story cliche and unexciting, characters unrealistic and even perplexing. On the other hand, I do recognize its effort in music and some light-hearted comedies. Again, if you look for light pass-times, Ramens is a good choice, but it is the opposite if you are looking for in-depth potrayals of human interaction in underworld/ mafia.

First Review for this manga (as the user who submitted this manga to the MAL database) and my first review:

Marigold - Flower meaning "Sadness and Desperation of Parting", but also "Life"
4 minutes - The golden time limit to save a person whose breath stopped, where survival chance is still beyond 50%.

These explanation of title keywords largely shape the atmosphere of the manga:
A sad-yet-heartwarming story on love how to face death, which a romance-avoiding reader like myself can enjoy and relate to.

----Detailed Review Below -----

... Story: 10

As an ambulanceman, Mikoto's has inevitable encounters with different realistic people on the verge of life and death throughout the story. Through the down-to-earth encounters, readers are brought into discussions of different attitudes towards death. These realistic (certainly not grand and flashy) stories build up strong persuasion for how different people react to death (especially to the death of their close ones), shaping Mikoto's reflections on Sara's destined death. In turn, readers like myself usually feel sad for characters' loss of loved ones, but also invited to remember the love of their loved ones, and to treasure the happiness of being with them. A heartwarming story on reacting to death indeed.

Art: 9
One of the reasons I started to read this manga is the art style standing out from conventional mangas. As you can probably observe, rather than traditional Japanese manga style with sharp face features, the art style tends towards sketches, where proportion of features are more realistic. This fits well with the calm and tranquil atmosphere conveyed by the story itself. Shadows traditionally observed in still life drawings are removed to keep the art simple, fitting with the story.

In addition, flowers like marigold are depicted well thanks to the strong sketching/ still llife techniques of the mangaka.

Characters: 9
All characters are gentle and bring in realistic concerns, fitting well with the story. Conversations are mainly used to shape characters, especially monologues of Mikoto, which makes him gentle yet relatable to readers. Along the story, you do pray for the happiness of characters, especially Mikoto and Sara.

Enjoyment: 9
Tranquil yet heartwarming story shows me a way to accept death in a less pessimistic way, and shows the importance of treasuring the time with your loved ones now. As a usual reader of seinen and shounen manga, I occassionally find this work slightly slow-paced, but it's justified in the story context.

Overall: 9
(Read my Enjoyment part)
Do not get turned off if you are used to fast-paced stories like me. It's just 27 chapters, why not give yourself a break for a life lesson on death?