Spawn is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I have been reading it for 4 years now and I am still only 210 out of the current ~370 issues in. I have probably spent over 100 hours reading the comic, reading the side stories like Gunslinger Spawn, The Scorched, King Spawn, Spawn and Witchblade, watching the 18 episode 1997 HBO masterpiece that was a great introduction to the comic, despite being very different, and the only cartoon I know of that is darker and grimmer in tone than anime Japanese anime I've ever seen - Corpse Party, Elfen Lied, Death Note, Perfect Blue
...
and even Berserk included. When I first heard that there was a manga branching off of the greatest American comic book or "graphic novel" series of all time, I was pleasently shocked and scowered the internet in search of this 3 volume, obscure manga. What I found was so unbelievable subpar to cary the name "Spawn" along with such a cool title, that I wonder how on Mamon's Earthly realm was something like this greenlit? My disappointment is immesurable and my day is ruined.
The main character's backstory has been altered to the point of losing all drama, resembling the intentionally comically basic backstory of Kenji Fujikido in Ninja Slayer. He has a happy family, which is shown for all of a couple of panels and then BOOM! Suddenly they are dead and he's on a quest to avenge them. It's revealed in the opening sequence that he's some sort of 400 year old warewolf now. WTF??? It's like the author wasn't even a fan of the story he was basing a fanfiction off of. What true fan of Spawn would seek to remove all elements of the story that make it so incredibly good? The fact that there is no long time skip in the base universe and timeline of Al Simmons so that he is perpetually trying to reveal himself to his former wife Wanda who's perpetually young and the mother of two toddlers.
Juzo Tokoro-san saw this amazing drama and said "Yeah, but what if it sucked?!". The one thing that remains unchanged is that Spawn dies in a fire, so his skin deterioration is still inline with the premise of becoming hideous from your own demise, but now it's not being betrayed and scorched in Vietnam but instead...is blown up in his own car no reason??? Was the IRA involved in this plot?
Nothing works. This work doesn't work on any level. Non-Spawn fans wouldn't ever read this and would be confused and Spawn fans will be insulted. The story makes no sense. This isn't Spawn. It's some cheesy 80s one-shot action doujinshi/pulp idea rebranded under one of the biggest names in comics so as to sell more - and it clearly failed, as evidenced by the fact that no one has ever heard of this manga.
Everything happens fast. There is no timing to anything. It's almost like Tokoro-san had no passion and wanted the drawing sessions to end as quickly as possible. To top it all off, he gets random ass powers with no explanation, rhyme or reason. Spawn getting a hard, unpiercable armor and fighting with punches and kicks? Has Tokoro-san even read Spawn? Spawn is a story about a man being brought back from the dead after making an accidental deal with the Devil, thinking it was God, not stuck on Earth as a hideous zombie with regeneration abilities and decaying flesh, unable to fulfill his dying wish of reuniting with Wanda, tortured physically and mentally, unable to die. A bitter, horrifying, gutwrenching irony. To the point where the concept for Deadpool was completely ripped off from Spawn, as well as Deathstroke/Slade and others. Besides regeneration, Spawn has a symbiotic suit made of cursed earthworms that chase him anywhere he goes, plasma blasts and teleportation powers in the original series, as well as unbreakable chains he could shoot, tie around enemies necks, or immobilizing them. He's a Hellish entity, hence HellSPAWN. Not a UFC kickboxer. None of his signature stances are present. His iconic long cape is gone in the process of fighting the extremely flat, uninteresting minor villains that pop up every 10 pages or so in just a few pannels. Why would you not just make an original character to carry out your story if you're gonna turn him into a basic street fighter? Why do you have to highjack an intricate, grim, complex and epic franchise like Spawn in order to just make a Saturday morning cartoon? What a waste. A spawn manga sounds so much cooler on paper. The Deadpool manga, although formulaic and certainly no masterpiece, is orders of magnitude more professional that this garbage.
Is this what people who don't like Spawn see when they read Spawn?
If you are someone who enjoys manga but never reads comics, please for the love of God, give Spawn a chance! But not this version! Before even thinking about wasting your time on this, read the original story. Make use of the fact that it has the compendium editions now, so it is a lot more approachable than it used to be, despite its extreme length. It is America's Berserk. I actually prefer it over Berserk, believe it or not. It is more my kind of story and, unlike Berserk, it doesn't take a while to get use to or get into. It's good right away from chapter (issue) 1. Maybe, if you don't wanna read, watch the 1997 series. Anything but this is a better start into the franchise, even the 2000 movies with shit CGI.
The art is super mediocre. Nothing more to say about it. TBH, you can't find any good scans on the internet and the quality of the scans contributes to the illegibility of the manga. It has some cool panels and pretty cool monsters, so that's where the only extra point lies in the abysmal rating that I would give this:
2/10
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Jan 27, 2025
Shadows of Spawn
(Manga)
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Not Recommended
Spawn is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I have been reading it for 4 years now and I am still only 210 out of the current ~370 issues in. I have probably spent over 100 hours reading the comic, reading the side stories like Gunslinger Spawn, The Scorched, King Spawn, Spawn and Witchblade, watching the 18 episode 1997 HBO masterpiece that was a great introduction to the comic, despite being very different, and the only cartoon I know of that is darker and grimmer in tone than anime Japanese anime I've ever seen - Corpse Party, Elfen Lied, Death Note, Perfect Blue
...
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jan 25, 2025
Ninja Slayer Kills
(Manga)
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Ninja Slayer has the most insane real world backstory of all time!
In the 90s, two American OG weebs, inspired by bad dubs of 80s and 90s cheesy Japanese media like Gundam, Japanese B movies and what little anime aired in the West, decided to write their own story in that style. Naturally, it was awful. Considered, in a sense, "The Room" of light novels, except for how obscure it was, as compared to how popular, or should I say - infamous - The Room is. It contained badly used, romanized Japanese words, constant references to the few bits of Japanese culture they new - constant ... references to ninjas B films and the character craving sushi, things randomly exploding, characters bowing, saying "Domo" in an English language novel and introducing themselves before brutally killing eachother, the main character being so edgy and one note. Like a Goblin slayer for ninjas made by 90s Weaboos - Ninja Slayer, if you will. This series faded into obscurity, the two likely forgot they published this in their youths and the books collected dust in random book stores, archives and libraries. Randomly, in the late 2000s, some Twitter users stumbled onto it and began translating it into Japanese and some mangaka, named Yuuki Yogo (same mangaka as Akumetsu!) accidentally stumbled onto this and had such a laugh that he decided to make a manga out of it. Then studio Trigger made it into an anime in 2015 as one of their first major anime (well, technically, their anime more closely resembles the Kills version up to episode 20, the "Stranger than fiction" arc, featuring the lovely Nancy Lee), as well as one of the most often forgotten about. They went above and beyond to take the piss out of it, using amazing coloring, the amazing character designs by Yogo-san and amazing animation....in the scenes that matter the least, while using godawful animation during the fight scenes. I LOVE esoteric memes and this series itself is an esoteric meme. It somehow turned out great not just ironically, but unironically somehow, because they made the most out of this concept, as did Yugo - well, almost. Here's where this manga comes in. Kotaro Sekine took this concept and somehow perfected it even further! With even better character redesigns, looking closer to the characters in the Trigger series, an even better artstyle than Yugo (despite this being his first manga!) and unbelievably cool action and retelling of the story. Where it really shines is how it improves on the way in which the story was told in the original Ninja Slayer manga. The original had to work under bad conditions, having to adapt a story that was coming out page by page on Twitter OUT OF ORDER, translated by random bilingual Twitter users with no prior experience and adapting one of the worst and most amateur novels ever written. Considering all of these factors, it's rather impressive, but when this came out, it completely blows the original out of the water when it comes to coherent storytelling that isn't out of order. Yes, you heard that right. The other version of the series is canonically out of order and it makes trying to understand what's going on a nightmare. I just finished reading it for the 3rd time. This is, no joke, without a hint of irony, one of the best manga I've ever read. It's only flaw is that it finishes in the middle of nowhere, story wise, whereas the original novels, manga and the Trigger anime all go further into the story than this iteration. Despite being the shortest, this is without a doubt my favorite version of Ninja Slayer, despite being a fan of all iterations. 9.5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 22, 2025
Bang Babang Bang!!!
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
I don't know why this is here. It's not "anime" - it's a bit of a streatch to consider it アニメーション, because there is very little movement on the characters to speak of. The sond is annoying and not memorable. It mixes cheesey "hyper-pop" with metal breakdown drumming, which doesn't work for me as an actual metalhead. I suppose it seems a little banal to me, but in Japan this kind of stuff is apparently not considered cringe - or, at least not universally. It uses a sexualized blonde animu girl as clickbait and a thirst trap, that's why its here and in my ads
...
for the 5 years that I've been on this website now.
There. Now leave my feed/ad space. Please! P.S.: So apparently, you need at least five hundred words for MyAnimeList to consider your "review" a "review" or a "proper review". As you can see, I needed to post this here in order to fulfil the wishes of the MAL mods. From high school, I have, of course, mastered the art of reaching the word minimum without actually having anything to say in the slightest.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Oct 11, 2024
Sousou no Frieren
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Well-written Spoiler
I acknowledge that this will be my most controversial post ever. Even more than my posts denying the genocide of the demons. I have always had unpopular takes – in fact, I’ve always had mostly unpopular opinions, but I gotta say – I’ve never felt more alienated from the general population than when looking at the average rating for Frieren on MAL. There will be mild spoilers throughout.
First of all, let’s address the mini-controversy: the demons. My position is that the idea of “evil races” in fiction is perfectly okay and, if anything, fantasy is the place to do this and so is sci-fi. No, ... Starship Troopers is not an anti-fascist satire and the bugs there are not “the true good guys, as opposed to the evil human conquerors”. Research the author of the novel and his politics. The bugs are an evil species that has no morals against killing intelligent life, despite being intelligent themselves, attacked humanity first and pose an existential threat to it. They are an evil, dangerous species that needs to be eradicated for humanity to ever be safe again, and so are the demons in Frieren. Yes, they look just like humans and that can lead to people giving them unwarranted sympathy and second chances. That’s the whole point that’s made in the show. People who claimed that Frieren is pushing hateful rhetoric, accidentally or intentionally, are victims to the same deception as the characters in Frieren’s universe. That’s the whole point of the demons. If Sousou no Frieren is pushing genocidal rhetoric, then so is Demon Slayer, by the same logic, because the demons in Frieren aren't any different than the demons in Demon Slayer. I don’t think there was anything wrong with their inclusion. In fact, I think that they were a wasted opportunity (so far). I do, however, have gripes with just about every other aspect of this series. Let’s begin: Pacing. I must start the critique by saying that this is easily one of the slowest anime ever made. I don’t know how they made an anime in 2023 that is more boring than One Piece. It doesn’t even have a hook until episode 8 and it doesn’t go anywhere with it. Most of the runtime is walking through generic forests. “Bask in the glory of the scene and let it take more importance than the characters” doesn’t work when you aren’t Inoue Takehiko or have his art of vivid stills and instead have generic anime forests I’ve seen a thousand times before. I thought that episodes 2-7 were bad, but 11-17 really take the cake for one of the stretches of episodes with the least amount of noteworthy things happening that I’ve ever seen in any anime – and I’ve seen Dragon Ball! Most of the run time is just dialogue – talking head scenes. You might say “It’s moving the plot forward.” No. No, it isn’t. In the wise words of the great renegade angel Xavier himself, the dialogue in this show has diarrhea of the mouth faucet. Furthermore along Xavier-sama’s teachings, the characters are about as deep as bowls of soup and their tongues are as sharp as soup spoons. Most of the dialogue is filler fluff and repeatedly telling us what we already know that the main character is quinquagintillion years old (not a made up number). It’s funny because when female characters want people to be able to peep at others’ naked bodies it’s perfectly fine, goofy, unserious and wholesome character writing, I suppose, but when the male character simply exists in the same episode without even knowing about this, he is there to absorb the scolding. He is repeatedly treated as a loser, despite not doing anything wrong, besides being a bit of a coward. There isn’t much explanation to why he’s even following their quest at all. Characters. The comedy is really bad. There isn’t much to say here. There is a lot of unnaturally shoved-in fanservice in the show that simply doesn’t work and is played off as “comedy”, despite not having any sort of punchline. The other “jokes” revolve around the character’s personalities. What’s the point of establishing such an age if the 14 year old side character is consistently the far more mature one in all aspects? The third wheel dude is just Zenitsu. That’s literally it. He is literally Zenitsu. I don’t even remember his name. That’s the level of personality we are working with. I suppose he cries less, so ever so slightly less annoying, though he still yells a lot. He is also the butt of every joke, despite doing nothing wrong because…he is a man, I guess and I guess it’s funny when he gets treated like a pervert in the episode where Frieren was clearly the pervert. Fern gets easily upset and offended and demonstrates it by bulging her cheeks and not speaking. Stern – the third wheel guy, whose name I had to look up just now – must then buy her food for her to forgive him. Oh, and his personality is that he is a coward, at least every now and so. He is never the butt of the joke when he does cower, but he is always the butt of all jokes whenever he hasn’t done anything wrong in the episode. Now, how about the protagonist? Frieren is really boring and wayyy too OP. She never breaks her bored expression throughout the series and wins every fight by a power surge due to being simply superior to the opponent. Whatever an opponent may come up with to raise the stakes, she will end the fight with a random asspull trump card attack in one move. No strategy whatsoever – just trumps everyone and everything. Even when she had to fight a mirror image of herself, the only fight that involved “strategy” in the whole series, had it boil down to Frieren distracting it for a bit while Fern attacks it and defeats it in a single blow. Really riveting stuff. They’ll be writing about this level of nuanced fighting in the history books. Keep in mind, this is besides the fact that it has been established beyond a shadow of a doubt to the viewer that Fern couldn’t possibly defeat, let alone one-shot, Frieren, whether she is distracted or not. It has also been made abundantly clear the Frieren couldn’t possibly be distracted in the first place because she is a literal Mary Sue in every way. This all contradicts the established idea that the mirror image of the character is actually an equal in fighting. No limitations of her power are ever demonstrated and the author hasn’t even made an effort to make sure that the power system in this series (battle Shonen, btw) even makes any sense or has any consistency to it. What mages can and can’t do is never established. We go through multiple time skips, in which Fern grows up from a little girl and is shown to be much stronger, but the exact process of growth is left to the imagination, I guess. The only villains in the show are two members of an evil race introduced in episode 7. They seem like great potential for final villains in episodes 7-8, we have an interesting fight, they seem OP, it seems like they’ll “win” and force our main two to retreat and come back stronger 50 episodes later for an epic conclusion….and then get one-shotted in episode 9. You see, Frieren was yet again holding back when she was clearly on the path to losing and she actually just one-shots the big bad. This establishes that you should not ever feel like anyone that Frieren likes in this show is ever in danger, because this show is that dumb. Frieren and Fern are basically Saitama and Genos. Nothing bad could possibly ever happen to them, so the story, which mind you is not a comedy or parody, is completely pointless. Visuals. Can’t complain. The fights in this show look amazing! The first few episodes don’t really show that. You can tell that there is an above average framerate to the few short fights that happen early on, but it doesn’t really demonstrate just how good they look later on. BUT…beauty is only skin deep. 20 episodes of white noise are not worth it for about 5 episodes of very well-animated fighting. Plenty of other anime have great fights AND they have strategy and skill to them. Plenty of anime have even better animation. The future is now, kiddo. Have you SEEN Edgerunners? Soundtrack. This is an aspect of Frieren that has been universally praised. Having a “grand and serious” soundtrack, akin to LotR. This is nothing like LotR. It’s generic folk soundtrack. Real zzz snooze fest here. It gets very repetitive when binging the series. Several tunes probably play easily more than 50 times throughout a 28 episode anime and no time was given for anything to diversify the sound. I assume the voice actors are really good, but in Frieren’s VA in particular, have not been given much to work with. The strong, silent protagonist is my favorite, but in this case Frieren is just a cardboard cutout version of that. She is what people who don’t like this archetype think it is – just a soulless character. Overall. 3/5 people gave this show a 10/10. I need to remind you that 10 means perfect. If you think this is a “perfect” fantasy, watch LotR, or Adventure Time, or Avatar: The Last Airbender and you might have an epiphany. This is an overrated generic fantasy with stupidly broken protagonist, thus no stakes, lame characters, very little plot, very slow pacing, random bits of fanservice awkwardly shoved in, despite adapting a manga that was allegedly free of that sort of stuff, too much repetitive dialogue, nothing happening for the vast majority of the show, very bad comedy, doesn’t build up to anything, doesn’t have any villains we can look forward to defeating next season, so the whole thing feels completely pointless and unsatisfying. The only episodes I can say I enjoyed were 8-9 and 23-26. I can’t even remember what happens most other episodes. When only 5 episodes out of 28 are any good and the rest feels like watching static, 4/10 is the best I could give such a show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 13, 2022
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
(Anime)
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Recommended Funny
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is easily one of the greatest anime ever made.
I knew this was gonna be good – it just had to be! An anime made by my favourite studio set in a sci-fi urban setting in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe??? Sign me up! Obviously I had high expectations, but this surpassed all of them easily. I’ve been waiting for this for two years straight but I had no idea that it was actually all gonna pay off like that. Let me explain why it’s so great and why you should go watch it immediately (after it gets dark) Animation and art style – 10/10 This is ... simply the most gorgeous anime ever produced. I’ve never seen any piece of media look this good. Every single frame in the show is wallpaper-worthy. Not most frames, all of them. That’s because the backgrounds are meticulously crafted by the Trigger workers, who I am convinced are just as genetically-enhanced and inhuman as the characters in the show. I’ve always been a lover of city skylines, particularly at night, and it’s even better if they are futuristic, but this brings it to a whole new level. Most textures are extremely photorealistic to an extent I’ve never before seen blended well into an anime. Add on top of that the fact that all lighting is with beautiful vibrant neon lights and top it off with excellent fluid cartoony animation a la Trigger and you have yourself a delicious serving of orgasmically beautiful art style and animation. Oh yeah, and the fight scenes are lit, too. Bloody and gory, too. Trigger was the perfect choice for this as the studio has been particularly good with colours, but they’ve really outdone themselves here. The character designs are great, too. This looks like Ninja Slayer, if it was given a gigantic budget and it took itself seriously. I love the transitions, too. They are perfect for this internet-fueled world and make you appreciate just how truly little time you need to spend in a scene to take it all in. As expected with Hiroyuki Imaishi’s work, it’s as fast paced as it needs to be. At no point is there even a hint of a feeling that it’s dragging on. I found myself actually pausing just to appreciate the beauty of each shot and the amount of detail that went into making it. I gotta say that you MUST watch this at night in the dark to fully appreciate the beauty and the neon colours. Watching this in a bright room with a dim screen is just an insult to the show and the team behind it. Experiencing this in the dark will definitely show you why I couldn’t possibly give it any less than a 10/10. Music – 10/10 The visuals aren’t the only thing that really stand out as excellent in this series – the music was something unique. It has a decent OP and ED, but what I’m really interested in is the background music. It always fitted the scene perfectly. Some extremely sad melodies for the end of episode one, cool pop rock for the cyberpunk city, epic battle music for the fights and some really unique tracks. The music that plays when they’re in a bar is exactly like what you would hear in a real late night bar in the west. I gotta say I didn’t expect to hear (Hungarian? Polish?) rap or some head-slammin’ pig-squeelin’ death metal in an anime series…an anime by Trigger in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe with insane production values. We truly live in the strangest timeline, huh? Story – 10/10 It’s not just the outside of this anime that’s beautiful, it’s also great on the inside. The basic synopsis goes something like this: David Martinez is a troubled highschooler who lives with his mom in poverty, struggling to pay the bills for his school gear or even the public washing machine. He gets picked on at his high end school for things that aren’t really his fault but continues to struggle on because he knows he’s doing it for his mom, who singlehandedly raised him by working all day every day. It is not explicitly stated, but is strongly implied that she works as a prostitute or something equally shameful in a world where sexual satisfaction comes with the click of a button and placing of the VR set. One day their normal life comes to a halt when a gang warfare on the highway ends with a car crash, injuring him and his mother gravely. From then on, he vows to take revenge on those who’ve wronged him and rages against the decadent city that has abandoned him by acquiring a robotic spine that allows him to travel at super speeds for a brief period of time, in exchange for exhausting his body and slowly turning him mentally unstable. He meets a girl that pickpockets for a living who forces him to join her criminal gang. One thing leads to another and before you know it, he’s done some pretty fucked up things. What’s genius is that at (almost) no point in the show does he have much of a choice. It is difficult to blame him for what he becomes when you consider how little control he ever had over his own life. Similar to a show like Breaking Bad, this anime shows how the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The moral dilemmas in this show are amazingly well made. Should he let himself be viciously bullied or should he fight back in an unfair match? Should he stay loyal his friends in the gang who provide him with money and necessary medication or spare the life of the father of his bully, that wants to bring him back to the academy? Should he give himself in to the cops? Is there turning back from the criminal life? How long can this gang life last and does he have any future now? It all leads to a very intense and satisfying ending. Characters – 9/10 David is just an example in how to write a good protagonist. He goes to an elite academy, but isn’t an elitist or a smartass, he is a delinquent but not an asshole or a dumbass, he’s poor but not a lowlife, he’s talented but not overpowered, he’s awkward but not cringy, etc. Above all, he’s a believable teenager, period. Something that's hard to come by as far as most anime are concerned. Lucy gives off some very intended Blade Runner vibes and has an interesting role throughout the entire show and backstory towards the end. Even someone like Maine who seems like a simple brute early on is surprisingly nuanced. Overall – 10/10 This was something else. An amazing experiences from beginning to end. Every episode was a 10 and went by extremely quickly, every moment looked absolutely stunning, every action scene was blood-pumping, every edit and plot turn was on point. There are very few shows that I know are gonna be in my top 5 just from watching episode 1. There are also very few shows that force me to watch till the end in one sitting, even deep into the night. Kudos, Trigger has done it again. They’ve once again forced me to change my anime rankings. I don’t know how I could possibly give this anything less than a 10 or how anyone else could, either.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 18, 2021 Recommended
This review is intended for those who have finished the part and are aware of the plot. It’s impossible to do this manga justice without easily saying too much. Jojolion is one of the most easily spoilable manga in existence and you should go into it absolutely blind.
For those who want a spoiler-free review, here it is: It’s the best manga I’ve ever read and you should definitely read it, too, if you have read parts 1-7, that is. Just trust me, bro. Jojolion is ending. I can’t believe it. I’ve spent the last four years reading it on a monthly basis and now….it’s finished and ... there are like ten major plot points that we haven’t even begun to touch upon. I am not at all a fan of the rushed conclusion. There is potential for up to ten more volumes worth of content in the story in order to explain everything. Let’s address the “ending”: If all of these last few chapters, as well as all of the random unexplained plot points in the part, were simply as a build-up that would segway into part 9, I might actually end up liking them more for that. I have always been on board with what Araki does. Some JoJo “fans” only like some of the parts and completely bash on others or even tell newcomers to skip parts, which, on top of meaning that they would miss some amazing stories, completely ruins the impact of the story and misses the whole point of JoJo. These are not real fans and you should enjoy every part of JoJo for what it is. Each part is very heavily thematic. JoJo doesn’t need to wrap up every single thing at the end. It doesn’t need a Naruto-style narration and look into what the characters end up doing after the conflict is finished. It isn’t about bringing closure, it gives you more information than you need and leaves things to your imagination. From this perspective, if part 8 is about breaking a curse, it should end as soon as the curse is broken, right? The only problem is that by part 8, the writing has become so intricate, that leaving things out just isn’t right, nor what you’d expect from Araki. Random characters not coming back in no way affects the quality of part 3 since it doesn’t matter, but in part 8 it is a big deal, considering up to this point the part has relied on very intriguing mystery that requires extreme attention to detail. When you bring up small details back in a grand way constantly in a story, it makes the story a lot more enjoyable, but also makes the times you fail to do so so much worse, given that the audience has already acquired high expectations from you as a writer. Back to what I was saying, I’ve never been disappointed of any of the fights, the twists and turns or whatever is included into the story…..up until now. I’ve loved JoJo since episode one and has been my favourite series ever since the end of part 1. I like every chapter of Jojolion, even the last few. There is nothing wrong with them as chapters. The only bad thing about them is that Araki decided to make them the last few, despite the fact that they don’t feel like something that should be an ending to anything at all. I can remember when first starting part 4, I was really put off by the change in style and thought to myself “Really? A slice-of-life? No way that can be as interesting as the previous parts.” and at the beginning of part 7 I was thinking “Really? A western? I don’t think that’s gonna work with JoJo.” but Araki made it work brilliantly well. Since then I’ve always put blind trust in Araki during part 8. “Whatever this man’s doing, he knows what’s best more than I do. I shouldn’t criticize him. Just trust the plan!” Well now my faith had been shaken. At least with some other series that ended abruptly, their popularity had been declining for a while, so the publication forced their mangaka to wrap up the story quickly, like what happened to Bleach for example. This cannot possibly be the case here. JoJo parts 7 and 8 have been by far the most popular Ultra Jump titles and everything else on Ultra Jump is straight up obscure by comparison. Ever since Jojolion began its publication, most Ultra Jump covers have simply been a copy of the most recent monthly Jojolion chapter. It would make more sense for Jojolion to be the most milked part than to end abruptly. Furthermore, the last thirty or so chapters have all been very slow paced, with minimal dialogue, containing bits of dialogue that are not vital to the plot at all like Tooru’s “wireless charger” idea and have contained a lot of pages of nothing but art and detail to every single motion, showing that Araki still enjoys drawing as much as ever. Meanwhile, chapter 108 was incredibly rushed for no apparent reason, almost to the point where it felt like a fake-out. Why would Araki stall for 30 chapters and then go a mile a panel in third-to-last chapter? No matter how much I try to rationalize his decision, I can’t come up with any reason why he would voluntarily choose to end part 8 here in such a rushed ending, followed by a random flashback to a completely new storyline and setting, other than prepping up for a potential part 9. JoJo seems to operate in trilogies, where the first part in each trilogy is the setup, the second one is the more removed one from the story and the third is the payoff/resolution with very climactic ending. I’m talking about parts 1, 2 & 3 and 4, 5 & 6, and, potentially, 7, 8 & 9. Perhaps Araki wanted to leave out the resolution to part 8 to be a small part of part 9, adding to its epicness. If Araki can pull that off well, part 9 will be the best, but enough wishful thinking! If, however, there really ends up being no part 9 and chapter 110 of Jojolion is the end of JoJo, it will be the biggest disappointment of my life and that’s not an exaggeration in the slightest. It would honestly be even worse and even more underwhelming than the ending of Bleach. It’s like if on chapter 1021 or whatever in One Piece you had some of the Strawhats fight and defeat some minor villain and go do something else afterwards and everything from the story to the art was excellent, but for some reason the chapter ended with a text of Oda saying “Next chapter is the last one. I’m wrapping up the story here” and the fans will never even see the full resolution to the arc, let alone the story or THE one piece. I’m not caught up to One Piece and just used it as an example, because I’m sure that the fans would be absolutely devastated by that. Jojolion feels like it’s been building up and building up to something amazing and it was exciting to read it the whole time, but then it never pays off the hype. However, an underwhelming ending does not make this a bad part. I’ve always scratched my head at why people seem to believe that a bad ending can make or break a story. If you read 110 excellent chapters and have a great time all throughout it, why would a bad ending undo all of that? It wouldn’t. Would a bad ending undo all the laughter and feels you got so far? No, it wouldn’t. Part 8 is easily my favourite JoJo part and there is literally nothing that could happen at the end that would change that. EDIT: The last chapter is finally out and it was great. I think I’m depressed now, not just because this story is ending, but because of the uncertain fate of certain characters like Holly and Josefumi’s family, as well as the giant loss that the Higashikata family had to endure. Also, we got an anouncement for part 9, so fingers crossed it answers at least some of the things that Jojolion left out. Story: 10+/10 Let’s start with the writing. It’s the best. In existence. In all of history. In all of manga. That I’ve read. Which is not much, I guess. But still, it’s unlikely to be easily topped by anything. At the beginning we get a narration from this beautiful bae, explaining how not too long ago the small Japanese town of Morioh got hit by this bizarre natural disaster (or calamity, if you will….) where unexplained seismic activity caused the ground to rupture near the beach at the river delta and create these sharp cliffs, that devastated some houses that happened to be built over that area, and that people there called the “wall eyes” for some reason. Yes, this is the same Morioh as in part 4….well, kind of, but it’s set in the SBR universe. Going from 1890 to 2011 is by far the biggest part skip in JoJo and changing the setting from a western taking place in America in the same time period as part 1 to a repeat of part 4’s setting in the same time period as part 6 is a decision which leads to part 8 intentionally seeming very vastly separated from the events and continuity of part 7. That beautiful bae I talked about is actually an alternate version of Koichi, so it makes sense for her to be the first character we see, right before she “bumps” into a JoJo. We start off the story with the protagonist, who we’re gonna call Gappy, because of the enormous gap in his teeth, that makes him look like a gay sailor reimagining of Spongebob Squarepants on DeviantArt, being found buried in the ground by hot Koichi, who later goes into a will-they-won’t-they type relationship with him. He of course has the Joestar birthmark, making it obvious that he will be the main JoJo of the part, but also has these weird bleeding bite marks around it, and from the birthmark comes a soap bubble. He asks who he is, setting up the amnesia trope, but for the main character at the beginning of a JoJo part? Oh, and he’s wearing a sailor hat even as he comes out of the literal ground. Then hot Koichi’s ugly and weird boyfriend comes out of nowhere looking for her and sees her with a naked man right behind the wall eyes (which I imagine might be a very weirdly romantic spot for couples) and understandably gets the wrong idea. He tries to get into a fight and picks up a large rock, but is quickly bodied by Gappy. When the soap bubble bursts, the ugly dude’s eyes do so as well. Later, they are somehow restored perfectly. Hot Koichi calls an ambulance, but they end up only carrying some other guy, who was also buried with Gappy, but we never get to see. Mind you, this is only the first chapter….and it ends with hot Koichi explaining how Gappy very clearly has four testicles. Weird start, but okay. I think we can officially call this part, the sequel to Steel Ball Run, Four Ball Run. Terrible joke, I know. Are confused yet? Don’t worry, it will get much more confusing than this. Even if you didn’t feel the “bizarre” vibe during this 103 volume, 7 part adventure so far, Jojolion will definitely slap that label in it for you, too. After the incident, Yasuho (hot Koichi) tries to retrieve Gappy from hospital to learn more about him. Here, his incredible intelligence is shown by the fact that he can instantly identify animal species just by looking at them and give us some encyclopedia-style facts about them. This is a nice set up to show us that, while this character does act silly due to his lack of awareness of his surroundings and strange behavior, he is still a JoJo, so he still has the innate ability to come up with completely out-of-the box ideas to get out of situations any non-genius, real life person would probably just give up on life in. We also see that this is not your typical amnesia plot, but Araki in fact goes all out to show us that this character is truly lost in this world. He doesn’t simply not know who he is, but he doesn’t even know how to chew properly. In other words, he doesn’t know how to human. He’s like an alien. Societal norms don’t apply to him, which leads to some pretty hilarious antics. It simultaneously creates visual and narrative gags that make the part really enjoyable to read early on, sets up for (even more than usually with JoJo) unorthodox solutions to problems posed onto him, that make the part really engaging to read midway through AND unseen character growth, that makes the part rewarding to read in the late game. Looking for clothes that match his hat, they enter a shop, whose owner tells Gappy that he looks identical to the man who bought the matching sailor outfit, Yoshikage Kira. They break into Kira’s house, there they find molds of human hands and there is even a picture of the Mona Lisa on the wall. Then they find a woman naked in the bathtub, but she isn’t casually washing herself. She calls for help and show Gappy a picture book of her and/or other women being treated with some seriously weird and intense BDSM crap by this man, Kira, who looks just about identical to Gappy. Upon this sight Yasuho understandably gets the wrong idea and runs away while crying. What ensues is an unusual stand fight, where traps set up by someone else, such as needles in the bath towels and flip flops nearly cause Gappy to injure himself, and on the occasion that he does, his limbs with cuts on them start acting according to someone else’s puppeteering. Gappy summons his stand, shows off his ability in two very clever ways, by removing the friction from the ground on the floor below and the ability of the wall to make any sound, even when being smashed, and bombards the user with an “ORA ORA” rush, after which Yasuho turns back grieving and with the guilt that she left without giving Gappy a chance to speak. Gappy proceeds to tell Yasuho to look in some random direction before smashing the perpetrator (Ojiro)’s face in. Gappy thinks Ojiro is the real Kira and Ojiro thinks Gappy is Kira, since he looks exactly alike. Question: What did we learn from these few chapters? 1)Yoshikage Kira exists in this universe and is still a hand freak and possibly a real danger. This will obviously come back later. 2)Gappy is most likely Yoshikage Kira, who somehow lost his memories. The idea that they are just two people who happen to look identical, except for the haircut and wear the same clothing, seems ludicrous. The story has to, at some point, go back to this. 3)Some woman is being held captive and the signs on her hands indicate a stand ability is at play. 4)This is a more R-rated part than previous ones. 5)Yasuho is a sensitive and kind person who cannot tolerate cruelty. This will come back later for her character. 6)Gappy’s stand design and ability. My favourite stand ability of any main JoJo based on its broad and cool potential applications, which will be explored later in the part. 7)Gappy is another genius JoJo, who knows how to utilize to the full extend the capabilities of his stand and we’ve only gotten a little taste of that. We will see more of it later into the part. 8)Stands and stand abilities in Jojolion are a lot more intricate, specific and, usually, less overpowered in a broad sense, but more so in a well thought out scenario. Stand battles will also be a lot more abstract and feel less and less like battles. The barrages are mainly used as a finishing move more so than the means by which one defeats an enemy. If you are here mainly for action and action sequences, you can leave. This is the part in JoJo that is the least “action” based and the action tag takes a back seat to other genres to be finally fully explored within JoJo. This will be the case for all the fights in the part and will be important to remember later as some of the most bizarre sequences in JoJo ever will unfold. 9)Yasuho is ALWAYS willing to give others a second chance. This will come back almost at the end of the part. 10)We introduced a character, seemingly a minor villain who, believe it or not, will come back 90 later. 11)Everything so far was just bait. The story will go back to it later. 12)Kira has gone missing….duh! Of course we’re gonna find out what exactly is going on with Kira/Gappy….later. 13)Gappy, despite seeming goofy as hell with his actions, innocence and SpongeBob teeth, is actually really violent towards his enemies. Kira confirmed??? Well….you guessed it. This will come back later. Not only can we learn SO much from these few chapters, which will likely be adapted into just one episode in the anime version, right at the beginning, but none of it is useless information or information that will only serve the current arc or defeating the current obstacle. It is all vital to the plot of the part on a fundamental level. It gives you ALL the context you need to be invested in the mystery and characters of this part. It gives you just enough information to make you excited about what you’re in for with this part, but just short of enough information in order to fully grasp what’s going on and where the story might be heading in the future. And all of that is without even discussing things like the fact that Gappy somehow instinctively knew how to use his stand, signifying that in one form or another, he has used it before, or things like the man Gappy envisions in a vague flashback-like sequence he gets out of nowhere, despite having no other memories whatsoever, which is still an enigma to this day, even as Jojolion just finished. It is a sequence so minor that you probably completely forgot about after your first reading, since you already have so much to take in with what’s going on, but simultaneously so major that ten years later people, myself included, are hardcore theorizing on those four panels, that it could even be the final villain of the JJBA, appearing and being fleshed out in the next part. After this, Yasuho tries to introduce him into the Higashikata family. He also takes up the name Josuke, after Yasuho straight up tells this mofo that he looks like a dog, and couples with the surname of the Joshu’s family, it all comes together to reveal who he is supposed to be an alternate universe version of……sorta. After the fight, where he proves to be a good guy to Yasuho and clearing up the misunderstanding by defeating the current enemy at stake, this feels earned for Gappy, but he has yet to earn his position as a family member in the eyes of each one of the Higashikata family members. His interactions with Joshu are already set up to be interesting, but we have yet to see the interactions with the other children, who he has to take on, in a non-combative way, one by one. We can also draw an easy mind map of the events as they unfold: Naked amnesiac -> naked body and hat -> misunderstanding -> fight -> ability -> injury -> hospital -> ability again -> hat again -> store -> identity -> location of residence of the identity aka old home -> hostage -> dark past -> red herring enemy -> ability, in full form this time -> revelation -> new home -> new family -> new conflicts and new bonds -> new things to laugh and cry about The only issue with having a supernatural series where random people all over the world have unique superpowers, where the main characters have to fight a central villain and all the henchmen he puppeteers is that the only way to do it is with the “enemy of the week” forman or, in this case, “stand user of the week” format. Now, I LOVE this story structure and it’s for the same reasons I love tournament arcs. It’s just an easy convenient way to have as many fights one after another with minimum filler in between. But I’ve heard a lot of complaints from a lot of different people, who have a strong distaste for this format and I can see how it can get repetitive for them. This is one of the most common criticisms of JJBA as a whole, as every part in it has this structure to some extent. But you can already see, with this setup, that Jojolion is different. In fact, it is the furthest from this narrative structure that JJBA has ever been the plot progression is unpredictable, yet so smooth, you rarely even notice that we’ve changed the scene un until the setting intervenes with the story. Arcs blend into one another, despite having a very distinct feel to them. Obviously I didn’t think about all of this while reading it, but breaking it down to its elements and revelations about the story elements like now solidifies this introduction arc as the best not just in all of JoJo for me, but in all of manga. I’ve never seen a first arc this gripping. Not only did I read the first two volumes in, what feels like, a heartbeat or a single breath, but I subconsciously absorbed all of this information, that takes far more time for me to write about in this paragraph than to experience while reading the manga. Sometimes it’s just fun to read the most recent chapter of an utterly unpredictable series, be confused, put on a tinfoil hat and theorize endlessly about what’s going to come next in the story and how it’s all gonna tie up together at the end. Typically, those theories are far too grand, because we imagine what we most hope for, these series being as good as possible for our particular tastes, but also way off, because at the time of coming up with them, we miss and have to assume essential information that we’re not supposed to have, that the author has yet to reveal. I assure you, there is no better series for this than Jojolion. For the first half of Jojolion, the big question is “What is Josuke’s true identity?”. As it already did with Kira, it will give you red herrings, it will confuse you. He obviously has the birthmark, therefore he must also be a Joestar. Him reading the family tree and history in the basement of the Higashikata house is another thing that puts you off, as not many potential candidates are there, and there are even unnamed or not shown characters, who are canonically in the family tree, possibly setting up future characters. The family’s maid even has an excellent arc, that gives a partial explanation to Josuke’s bizarre anatomy, but things aren’t fully revealed up until the end of the Vitamin C arc, one of the greatest arcs in all of JoJo, that simultaneously concludes Josuke’s identity arc, Hato’s arc, the oldest daughter of Norisuke and Kato, two new, yet old, characters, shows the last of the Higashikata children’s stand ability AND somehow does all of this without contradicting any of the previous, seemingly self-contradictory evidence, AND still leaves room for speculation on certain things to do with Josuke’s past, all while providing an excellent battle, frightening new threat, both stand and stand-user-wise, and a heartbreaking backstory. On top of everything, this arc hits even harder when you listen to Vitamin C and read the lyrics carefully. For the second half of Jojolion, the big question is “Who is the main villain?” This one is even more of an enigma while you’re reading it, with even more red herrings, plot twists, tinfoil hat theories and speculations. It didn’t help that by the time I was caught up with the series, the Vitamin C arc had already concluded and we were just scratching the surface with this second half of the story. It was all up in the air to where it could go. Is it gonna be Jobin? Damo? Kato? Flashback man? Tsurugi? Poor Tom? Norisuke? Toru? Joshu??? No ultimate villain/free for all? I’ll admit I was a hardcore devout “Jobin final villain” fan-theorist ever since he was first introduced and it was all the way up until chapter 95 that circumstances forced me to drop that worldview. In hindsight, that was really dumb and embarrassing, but for the time being, it’s more credit to Araki for making the part so well that literally anything goes for an ending and every scenario still has seeds planted early on, except possibly what he actually ended up doing. Steel Ball Run is usually regarded as the best part, and I can kind of see why, though I can’t see why anyone would think it’s surpasses other parts by more than just a small margin. Again, every part of JoJo is masterful, but I do have my favourites. I can guess as to why most people wouldn’t put this one over SBR. For one it’s not as “epic”. The first three parts of JoJo are absolutely epic, which is what made me fall in love with the show in the first place. Part 4, in contrast, is much smaller-scaled that the previous parts, which is also what put me off of it at first. Like I also said, once I gave it a chance I was pleasantly surprised. Part 7, being an alternate version of the first three parts, is also grandious and epic in story and execution. It may be just crossing the US instead of going from Japan to Cairo, but it’s still a crazy journey. Part 8, being an alternate version of mostly part 4, is likewise very similar in scale and, in fact, identical in setting to part 4 for the most part. It’s the least epic part. It’s even less so than part 4, as it doesn’t even keep to just the town of Morioh, but it spends most of its run in the middle of nowhere in rural Japan, which is one of the most anticlimactic settings you could do. Like I said, I fell in love with JoJo because of how intense it was, so the fact that where it is now is still 10/10 but for a completely different reason is insane to me. JoJo has changed so much over its 35 year run so far in both the storytelling and artistic departments, that it’s basically done a full 180, and still manages to not lose its readers’ interest and retain an essence that keeps it unique, though I can definitely see why a minority of people would be put off of what it has become. Its weak setting, combined with its confusing narrative and next level “bizarreness” can make Jojolion a love-it-or-hate-it type part, while for others it’s up there, but has to take a back seat to something more universally enjoyable like Steel Ball Run. The best way to describe Jojolion is that it’s like putting together a puzzle and each chapter of the series is like a new piece of the puzzle, but no piece is monochrome and actually adds more line work, more details, and even completely new things within it. However, you are not even given the box that the puzzle came in until halfway through, so you don’t even know what you’re building, and when you are finally given the box with the picture on it, you realize two things: 1)The picture on the box has a central part of it damaged and obscured, so it’s still not recognizable. You have to find out what it is by completing the puzzle yourself. At least now you have the general shape of the image you’re trying to put together. 2)The puzzle is actually composed of 5000 pieces, not 1000 like you initially thought, and up until now you’ve only worked on a small part of it, which you thought was the entirety. I have experienced great mysteries and have been caught up to many serializing shows, but have never experienced this level of writing, where each chapter adds context to not just one character or minor event, but the story as a whole. I have been caught up for four years now, and on a monthly basis, every chapter of second chapter has fundamentally changed my understanding of the plot. After each chapter I come up with pretty solid-sounding theories for what’s gonna happen next and I look up prominent theories online and believe the more believable ones with strong confidence, and each next chapter completely destroys that. And if every chapter changes everything I thought was gonna happen in the future, then every second chapter also changes my understanding of what was happening in the past and present. I’m gonna keep reiterating this until I’ve driven the point home: on an almost monthly basis, my fundamental understanding of what this part is even supposed to be about has changed drastically. Characters: 10/10 Jojolion features the best overall ensemble of a character cast in JoJo. I will detail a few here. Josuke When your main characters start at their lowest points, they are open to the greatest change and it is the greatest accomplishment and fulfillment to watch the process of their character development. When we see him for the first time, we know absolutely nothing, just like him. In fact, we adopt his perspective for nearly the entirety of the series (minus the flashbacks and narration). This has allowed the reader to most easily relate to Josuke’s woes and reactions and to easily go along with anything that he does, even if his actions do involve the usual JoJo bizarreness, he always has a goal in mind. We feel sympathetic towards this character that woke up knowing nothing and it immediately thrown in a situation where he is cut with needles and razor blades and has to fight off a stranger with the ability to control his limbs and being bitten by snakes, only to then have to prove his worth to his adoptive family and constantly be dragged into “calamities”. He never wished for this, he never went on a big journey to stop some bad guy, knowing there were gonna be painful road blocks in the way. He just wants to live a normal life and find out who he is and what his place is in the world. While having zero knowledge on how the world around him works, he still retains the usual JoJo ability of outsmarting his opponents in unbelievable ways. Much like some of the previous JoJos, especially Giorno, he has his two sides to him. Normally, because of his amnesia, he acts like an innocent child, but when fighting an enemy stand user, he becomes violent, brutal, merciless. As I already stated, his interaction with Ojiro early on proves that and heavily foreshadows how future fights will play out. He is definitely not a “catch and release” (or “retire” as they did in part 3) type fighter. He is an effective rock human killing machine. The early JoJos tended to start with strength, intelligence, looks and luck all maxed out. While Josuke has all of those (he has a ripped body, is very clever and has a harem almost immediately) but you only really get to see his true badass personality emerge during the fights and slowly over the many arcs it fully replaces the goofy weirdo. Him being able to find his footing is an incredible process to watch and turns him into a character that is almost impossible to hate. After learning about his past and the only person he can consider a blood relative, Holly Joestar Kira, he goes on to do just about anything in order to harness the fruit’s ability, which is the only hope of healing her sickness. This is obviously mirroring how the driving force behind part 3 was Jotaro trying to save his mom and Joseph – his daughter, however the difference here is that Josuke doesn’t know Holly – he’s only seen her once, and he was already just as determined as Jotaro or any other JoJo was in protecting her before they even met. Jobin The reason I so heavily favoured the idea that he is the main villain, aside from the fact that he is an absolutely amazing character and would be a much better final villain, is just that he emanates this insanely cool villain aura. His whole character is a lot of fun and he is possibly the best minor villain in JoJo, unless you count Speedwagon or Stroheim. His introduction arc, which fans dub “Beetle Tendency” is surprisingly hype for what it is. Kato How many characters in fiction do you know that would talk about Inca no mazame potatoes in the middle of a fight and carry their crossdressing grandson in their pockets? Truly a great GILF. Joshu I absolutely loved Joshu from the start. I don’t think he’s a good person and he clearly isn’t supposed to be a particularly likeable one, and there are some actions of his that I will definitely not even try to defend. That’s not what I’m talking about. Nearly every scene in which Joshu has ever appeared has been hilarious and he does have a lot of redeeming moments and times to shine. I love his stand, I love every instance of him using it and I love his weird antics during the part. His little arc where he ended up getting more and more money by “chance” because of a curse that was placed on him was one of the most fun mini arcs I’ve ever red in anything. Despite his horrible haircut, there is a sense of “coolness” about him and whenever he does actually help in one way or another or accomplish something, he is somehow really badass. I can’t really explain why, but I absolutely adore this character. Yasuho What’s not to love about Yasuho? She is literally perfect, or at least impossible to dislike. She is incredibly kind to everyone and shows forgiveness and humility even to people who are clearly a threat. This leads to her only character flaw being that she might be a bit too trusting and naïve. Josefumi and Kira’s story is treated almost like a mythos in Jojolion, with her being the only thing linking it to the current events and characters. Tsurugi Extremely clever child, albeit a bit weird and creepy at times. Definitely not someone to underestimate and a very morally gray/questionable character that really had us there for a long time thinking he was gonna break bad - full on - because of the flash forward. Art: 8/10 when in black & white and 9/10 when in color Art has never been the strongest aspect of JoJo. It’s never been bad, but it’s the only aspect of JoJo, where I’m willing to admit that there are many series that beat the JJBA manga. In terms of detail in his drawings, Hirohiko Araki is obviously far surpassed by authors such as Yusuke Murata, Inio Asano, Kentaro Miura, Inoue Takehiko, Kaoru Mori and many others, so I cannot, with an honest look, tell you that JoJo is in that “best of the best” category. However, in terms of pure style, memorable character designs, good paneling and sheer ability to make anything epic, memable and memorable, Araki is definitely in the “best of the best” category. Araki really goes ham on (pun seriously not initially intended) the art in some specific chapters, typically after a hiatus when he had twice as much time to draw out stuff just how he wanted it to look like. When I think of great artwork in JoJo, I always think of chapter 99 of JoJolion. It all looks great but there is one panel in particular where the more I look at it – the more details I notice with the landscape. Generally not a whole lot of detail is put into the characters, except when they are first introduced or on covers, and instead most of the ink work is focusing on the background art. The art is bizarre (pun fully intended) and honestly doesn’t feel like manga at all. It takes some time getting used to, but it really is in a realm of its own. It looks almost like he goes directly to inking and skips the pencil or shading process. Araki really likes to draw things out – the first five to ten pages of every chapter usually have zero dialogue. The whole head doctor/dangerous pursuit/endless calamity arc is about 8 volumes in length, but will most likely be adapted in 15 episodes or less as there is so much emphasis on every movement and detail in the art and so little dialogue. Unlike other authors, he hasn’t really complained about creative or artistic burnout or overworking himself because of a packed schedule. He must have used the stone mask on himself, because he seems just as youthful as ever and his stories are just as fresh and exciting as ever, even more so in recent years. Conclusion I believe Jojolion is the most well-written story I have ever experienced thus far in my life. Reading it has been some of the most mind-boggling experience of my life. I have probably, nay, definitely overhyped this manga to such an extent that no one will really agree, but I don’t care. I wanted to express how I feel now that it’s finished after ten years, four of which I have been strictly following it. Not only is this my favourite manga, but it’s something that I’m certain will adapt really well into anime form and be my favourite anime ever as well. Not only that, but there are several ways in which I think the anime will most likely improve from the manga. I am incredibly excited to be there on a monthly basis starting a new story in part 9. And, who knows, maybe after it's done I'll write an even more massive essay of a review. See you there. Godspeed!
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jul 20, 2021
SSSS.Gridman
(Anime)
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Recommended
It’s difficult to review a show like this one, especially for a spoiler-free review like this one.
Story – 9/10 SSSS Gridman requires a very clear attention to detail. The mystery isn’t just about the main dynamic, it’s about literally everything and is everywhere. Why does the main character have amnesia? Why is everyone reacting to this insane things to casually? Where did the dead people go and how come everyone’s memories are false? How do buildings get instantly repaired in the next day? Is the Chief-Over-Justice-looking dude simply an ally to the main villain or is he the main villain and is the master of puppets in ... the situation? Is the world we’re looking at even real? A dream? A simulation? What’s with all the sequences in the op? Is the ed sequence in the “real” world? Else, why are they wearing different uniforms and acting like friends? What’s up with that marble they keep pointing to? What are kaijus and where do they come from? It is all answered bit by bit and, at least to me, it was all very satisfying, though I can easily see why it wouldn’t be to someone who did pay attention althroughout. This is one of the best “mindfuck” anime out there, both in writing and effectiveness. Screw Steins Gate! Characters – 8/10 You get introduced to a cast of awesome and ridiculous characters with names like “Samurai Calibur”! And yes, they come from a place called “Neon Genesis Junior High”. Gridman references almost every other previous work of Trigger as well as Evangelion, Gurren Lagann, Tokusatsu, old mechas, Power Rangers and even Ultraman. This is not an entry point anime for anyone. Trigger shows tend to be underrated with their genius going under radar for many of their viewers, as they tend to be niche, but this is even more niche than some of the other Trigger shows. You need to have seen a lot of stuff before you can truly grasp what this is all about, even if it is also good as a standalone story in many other ways. I’m sure there were many references and easter eggs even I didn’t get. That’s because SSSS Gridman was fundamentally designed to be an homage to the old Saturday morning cartoons and things like Power Rangers. One of the girls in the show is often listening to music, which a lot of the time is either a theme from another Trigger show or a cover/remix of one. The whole anime is one of the most meta things I’ve ever watched. I believe that buildings getting fixed seemingly overnight is a jab at how super-hero-type stories never have any of the mass destruction affect the plot in any substantial way. Art – 8/10 A lot of (very ignorant) people will be quick to criticize the animation as generic and often lacking. Some might even criticize the purposely bizarre-looking CGI of the mechas and the enemies/kaiju. It’s very clear that the animation team put a lot of effort into making them look a very particular way, almost as if you’re watching people in suits. I believe that motion capture was not used in the production, which makes it all the more impressive that they’re using regular CG to model and replicate the motion capture feel. There are other creative ways the animation composition is handled. There is one scene that comes to mind where they either recorded an actual set piece explosion and integrated it into the scene, or they drew one that looks incredibly realistic to the point where I can’t tell it apart from a real one. They also often had fights with a mixture of CG and 2D where the blending point wasn’t clear at all, all while rotating the angles of the camera and having an epic fight. Oh and when the action gets going, it looks absolutely amazing. There are many moments where the animation team was obviously saving animation frames, but it is done in a way that is never jarring or takes away from the show. By that I mean that there are certain scenes where animation is reused or a near-freeze frame is used, but they are all gag scenes which work better because of it. Trigger always knows how to balance their production for the best output possible. On the contrary, there are many moments that look like wallpapers but in motion. Enjoyment – 9/10 SSSS Gridman had some of the shortest-feeling episodes of any anime. At the end of some of the episodes I could swear I had only been watching for a couple minutes. The last time a show had episodes go by so fast for me was when I watched Hunter x Hunter. Gridman is a super entertaining show from beginning to end. It was not exactly what I expected, because most other Trigger shows I had seen had super-fast pacing and this was not like that. I didn’t think I was gonna like the slower, calmer pace of this show, but they made it work just fine. My only issues with it are: 1) The characters felt a little lifeless at times. They should have been given more energy. Kill la Kill level energy maybe wouldn’t have worked as well for this show, but they should have been given more. 2) They should have had a few more episodes at the end in which the epic fights escalate to new levels. If they actually fought a giant Alexis in the op and had a longer fight, it would have been awesome. The pacing was fine and I was surprised they could pull off the ending so well in the final episode without it feeling rushed, but for a concept this good there is a lot more they could have done. I know anime studios like to stick to the 12-13 episode format, but something like 15-16 episodes with more explanation and use of the concepts, like the motherboard-looking thing it the sky or the marble, would have been great. Overall, I would give SSSS Gridman a strong 9/10. It was an excellently written piece with a very original concept and great execution. Just like with every other Trigger show I’ve seen, I’ve gotten into it with the mindset of “maybe this is the one that’s actually gonna be mediocre” and like every time before I get another show that enters my top 15 of all time with ease. And just like every show from the same creative team, it’s something different, something unique.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 29, 2021
The Rapeman
(Manga)
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Not Recommended Informative Preliminary
(16/90 chp)
I am surprised that no one has reviewed this yet. Perhaps it's because this isn't as well known as I thought. Perhaps it’s because not one person who has seen it on this site wants to touch this with a ten foot pole. Perhaps that’s for the better. I know for me it is as I get to talk about this masterpiece.
I originally heard about “The Rapeman” several years back when an online friend of mine mentioned it in the same line as Berserk somehow, when talking about great manga, possibly semi-jokingly, almost definitely fully jokingly. Either way something with that name sounded almost too ... awesome to be true: like a superhero who…..rapes! And somehow it isn’t too good to be true because it is real. No, this isn’t heaven, but it might as well be Hell on Earth. I quickly looked up more info on this eternal classic. As it turns out, “The Rapeman” is quite ancient of a manga, originally released in 1985 and serializing for 7 whole years! On top of that it apparently had an OVA adaptation in 1994 by Pink Pineapple and even a series of 5 feature length live action films adapted from this. I am not kidding. Japan is a terrifying and wonderful place as always, it seems. I originally read the first volume, then left it as I got bored, but for the sake of this review I had to re-read it. It’s just as painfully mediocre at best as the first time reading it. Just as it sounds, Rapeman is like a superhero that rapes…….well he’s more like a hitman. Each chapter follows a different target. From the first chapter we see two parents hire him to give their daughter a “firm lesson” and to get some alone time for themselves. This is when you learn that each character is made to be as absolutely awful as possible. This happens every chapter. Of course in a story, where people hire someone to rape someone else, you would expect characters to be awful, but I was expecting to see at least some “rape and revenge” type stuff like Last House on the Left or I Spit on Your Grave, but alas, we are rarely given a sensical explanation to why someone is doing this. In the second chapter you have this girl who wants another girl to be raped because……she herself likes the idea of that happening to her? It doesn’t make too much sense. In the third one, he’s trying to teach a lesbian the lesson that men are better at “loving” women, even though…….she isn’t even a lesbian and has a husband? The manga doesn’t even try to make any sense out of that. The idea behind this manga is to be a dark comedy. Now, I am completely on board with dark comedy, but I can’t tell you which parts they were even trying to be comedic in. It’s not funny, it doesn’t seem to be trying to be funny at all, and it isn’t even all that shocking at all. The only reason for this to exist is for you to laugh at the fact that it does and the idea behind it….and the fact that is was weirdly successful. Not because of massive popularity or sales, but because it somehow published 13 volumes and 90 chapters over the course of 7 years and had a hentai OVA and 5 feature length live action adaptations! Could you imagine dedicating a large part of 7 years of your life drawing….that? “I understand that is must have been a harrowing experience for you, but wouldn’t calling this person a “pro” be going too far? What’s your basis for this?” “I am a pro as well—a professional pianist!” …… “If a lady were to be met with such a fate, being handled so roughly by someone like that, anyone would be misled!” “Professionals…..a pro is…a pro is on a completely different level than that scum!” Just some of the hilarious lines from chapter 16. As you can see the dialogue is absolutely horrible. I know it was probably bad to begin with, but the people translating this must have had a blast making it as dumb as possible. One thing that’s very funny about it is the amount of times characters shout “the fuck?” out of nowhere, in inappropriate-for-it settings. Overall, this is funny on an ironic level for a bit, but after two or three chapters it isn’t even that anymore. It’s just boring.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jun 3, 2021 Recommended
You know that feeling when you search for a song you don't know the name of and you find it after months? I had an extreme case of that with this show. I watched this some time around when I was six or seven on TV and recently I'd been seaching exessively for this show's name to find and rewatch it. I finally found it and I'm glad I did. The show is just as good as I remember it and I had an absolute blast binge-rewatching it. I gotta say the animation is not very impressive but that is not the show's fault as
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it wasn't very mainstream and so it didn't have a huge budget and also TV CGI in the 2000's wasn't very developed. Although the voice acting is pretty decent, the sound design felt a bit off until I realized what I was watching is probably a dubbed version. If that's so, it's one of the best dubs I've ever heard since dubbed voices very rarely match the caracters so perfectly that you wouldn't expect it to be a dub. Although the animation is not impressive the fight scenes and some of the best animation in the show is in the later half of it - either that or I got used to it, and the story telling easily makes up for the CG. This is an exceptionally well-written story in terms of how quickly it introduces us to this robotic world and builds up it's heroes and villains. The character development on both Marty and Ally is also very well done in such a short time. It's a masterpiece of storytelling.
I strongly recommend giving this a watch if you haven't already, don't get fooled by how childish it seems the first time getting into it. 9-9.5/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 27, 2020
Shinseiki Evangelion
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
Warning: Since almost everyone here seems to love this show, you probably shouldn't trust this review. Statistically, it's unlikely that you, the reader, will agree with me, regardless of if you've finished it or are about to start it. Since most love it, you have a high chance of loving it, too, so go whatch it!...I guess...
Also, the review is more so for people who've finished it anyway, so beware of some spoilers ahead! Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the most universally praised, influential, popular, and overall beloved anime of all time. Almost everyone I know, as well as the majority of users on this ... website seem to praise it as a MASTERPIECE, or at least a very good show. I'm gonna be blunt. NGE is one of the biggest pieces of crap to ever become a mainstream anime, in my opinion. Let's start with what is actually good, because a lot of the aspects of this anime are actually salvageable, which makes it all the more tragic at how grandiously it failed. Art - 7/10 NGE looks a lot better than most TV anime of the nineties. It's well-drawn, has a good use of colors, and stills of it look really good, but the animation itself fits the pacing - that is to say, it's not moving sometimes for near a whole minute at a time. Sound - 7/10 Cruel Angel's Thesis is a great opening and Fly Me To The Moon is a good ending. The voice acting and voice direction was ok, not great, just ok. The concept for the anime was great. It presents itself like a battle sci-fi at the beginning, and it makes you interested in finding out what the "angels" actually are, where they came from, and what the government is doing exactly. Now onto the trash fire: Characters - 2/10 The characters are terrible. You've probably already heard the criticism that Shinji is a boring, whiney wuss, who is unable to stand up for himself and isn't a strong enough character to be a protagonist, let alone an interesting one. I am inclined to agree to that, but Shinji is nowhere near the worst character in the show, and he's still a simpathetic boy for the most part. Asuka is the worst and most overrated anime character I've ever seen. She's whiney, annoying, bratty, scummy, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why people like her other than her aesthetic. (fyi she's not legal) Asuka is somehow meant to be a deconstruction of the tsundere archetype in anime, somehow. Yet, instead of deconstructing the stereotypical portrayal of cold-on-the inside females (which I don't necessarily dislike), she shows the absolute worst aspects of being one with none of the positives. "Tsundere"s are supposed to only put their brattyness on the outside, but be nice people. That's how they can become beloved characters. In Asuka's case, however, besides a few moments where she shows some humility, she's generally just a b*tch. If one of your main "good guys" goes so far as to show amusement at her crewmate suffering, like when Shinji was close to dying to an Angel and she was braging about how he was asking for it and they should have let HER do the job, because she's apparently a perfect pilot (she's a terrible pilot btw, wastes ammo and gets herself into trouble all the time), then you know something is wrong with your character writing. (SPOILER) If I was Shinji, I would have probably at least attempted to strangle her as well. Other than that, there is Rei, who is probably the most decent character out of all of them, but still boring nonetheless. Misato is okay, but being a thot is ingrained into her character. Shinji's dad is a horrible, neglectful person, and Shinji himself goes insane towards the end and does things that make it impossible to root for him, so there is literally no one left. What happened to great, strong, badass protagonists, with resolve, like Kenshiro and Jotaro?! It's often mentioned that NGE changed the landscape of the anime industry completely, and as true as that is, not all change is for the better. Shinji is the reason why pathetic excuses for protagonists like Kirito clone #55 and unironic Kazuma #14 dominate the anime landscape today, unlike the afformentioned badasses. Who said protagonists have to act like real life people when put into hard situations? It's anime, it's MEANT to be exaggerated and idealised. Real people suck most of the time anyway. It is said that NGE put more psychological and "deep" elements in mecha shows. Who cares??? If it was a generic mecha #119 I would have enjoyed it more. To me, it doesn't just stand out from the rest, it stands out at how bad it is. It is also said that NGE made female characters more three dimentional. And so what??? Regardless of whether Asuka is 2D, 3D, or even a 4D tesseract, she's still a bratty sis. (still not legal btw) Story - at least 8/10 for premise and 2/10 for execution As I mentioned before, the show starts out very promising. It almost looks like a battle shonen from the way it invites the viewer into an interesting distopian setting and makes you wanna see more action and discover the truth behind the Angels' invasion. After that it just goes nuts. Instead of answering questions, it only poses more. It tricks the audience that they are gonna watch something cool, but instead it it partially abandons the original premise a few episodes in and focuses on overdone, cliche (even for 1995) teenage drama, and then completely abandons the original plot in the last third where the show, and the director, go INSANE. First off, it's ironic that fans of the show overanalyse every little detail and can talk for hours about how deep it is, when the dynamic between the three children is on the same level of depth as The Jersey Shore. The reason why there are so many open-to-interpretation bizarre sequences is not that Eva has something deeply profound to say, that is hard to express with words, but that the people behind it didn't know what they were doing. The show is a disjointed mess that doesn't know what it wants to be. It's a sci-fi action mecha, but not really. It's a psychological thriller, but not really. It's a drama about growing up with some comedic elements, but not really. It's a study of the minds of some seriously messed up kids, but not really. It's a bad hallucinogenic trip, but not really. It goes from a quirky show where some woman drinks six packs of 100% alcohol "beer" and her penguin eats toast and takes baths like a human, to an apocalyptic existential nightmare. The tonal shift isn't commendable like the slow-burn, mindblowing tonal shift in Adventure Time, or the sudden and unexpected one in Made in Abyss. It's a disaster, where the production was started while the script was still ongoing and the ending (if you can even call it that) was an afterthought. You know how everyone hates the talk no jutsu in Naruto, because the creator put it just because he felt like it after a session with his psychologist? That's exactly how EVERYTHING towards the end of Evangelion (the series, not the movie) works. The director became depressed and not only wanted the series to reflect that, it feels like he wanted the fans to suffer as he does, for some reason. I've heard he even admitted that Evangelion's plot makes no sense, but I cannot find a source for that. Either way, the lack of consistency in the writing is even reflected in the animation and general production. It's the same negligence that caused Gainax to blow all their budget prematurely and animate the last episode with what appears to be crayons. You see, Evangelion's ending is not so much bad......as it is NON-EXISTENT. Evangelion is the reason why people make fun of how studio Gainax ends their shows, even though it's not really true for all their shows. Gurren Lagann has, in my opinion, one of the greatest endings of all time, but people still prefer to talk more about the bad. I like every other Gainax anime I've seen more than Eva and it really tarnishes the reputation of the studio for me, just as it tarnished the reputation of their ability to write and produce a good ending. Enjoyment - 3/10 Once again, the show was interesting at first, but about 10 episodes in I was already sick of its repetitiveness. Every angel attack felt the same, but even then that's still the best part of the plot. I was sick of Asuka and the rest of the cast. The pacing has been extremely flawed from the start, but it felt slower and slower the further I got into it. It's really boring to watch, and the whole pretentiousness doesn't help. The weird sequences and Christian symbolism make no sense. Don't even try to make sense of them. The creators didn't have any comment to make on religion or using religious symbolism, they just like adding things they thought look cool, and if you, like me, don't think it looks that cool, then a large portion of the anime will be a waste of time for you. (SPOILER) Apparently Rei is a clone of Shinji's mom because his dad loved her too much to let her go. WTF?.....Okay, whatever. The EVA unit going berserk was supposed to be the climax of the series? That was disappointing. A great show like Kill la Kill could probably make Ryuko mowing her lawn more intense than that. The show is pretentious. It has nothing to teach you, it has no deep meanings. It's just a hodgepodge of random things the creative producers and director thought would be kinda cool. Worst of all, it's boring. It feels even slower than the average 90's show, and it never fails to be anticlimactic. Despite it's roaring commercial success, I still consider "Neon Genesis Evangelion" a massive FAILURE of storytelling and entertainment.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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