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Dec 13, 2024
Perhaps one of the most modern manga of sorts with a look at how two adults fell in love as neighbors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Home Office Romance is a very short but sweet and wholesome story of an exhausted office worker finding love and fulfillment during a tumultuous time period. It's good to read a rom-com that focuses on two adults who are forward in their feelings, have decent chemistry and dispense of the usual cliche nonsense. The main characters are likable and it's interesting to see a concept which hasn't been really too explored yet in media.
What prevents me from
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rating this manga higher is that it has a lot of missed potential. The flaws of the manga come from its one volume length which while competent and sufficient for what the author sought to achieve, really missed what could have been a perfect romance if it was expanded, even by two or three volumes. There are no characters besides the main two until the last chapter, so for all intents and purposes it's as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. COVID plays sort of a Schroedinger's rabbit role in that sometimes it's a plot device, and other times it's nonexistent as the main characters go to stores and sit in crowded trains with no visible changes besides everyone wearing masks. While it is nice to see the main characters develop their relationship, I feel like a lot of steps were rushed to fit the story within one volume as the last third of the manga has a sort of lightspeed pace. It's not that any part of the manga is objectively bad, but pacing and lack of substance in some areas limit its potential.
In spite of this, I did really enjoy reading and do reccomend anyone who wants some nice fluff and romance to give it a shot. The art is gorgeous, the main pairing is really likable and relatable, it's a welcome change of pace from other stories in the genre, and at least the manga was bold in attempting such a story which should be applauded. Could have been more, still very good.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 23, 2024
Good Lord, this manga is disgusting. Quite possibly the most degenerate piece of military fiction I've ever consumed. It's a shame as what started out as a great story which showcases the naivety of the public and how the world treats distant wars along with a strong Korea parallel with great foreshadowing to Ukraine, ended up into a messy and perverted slog that absolutely killed all interest I had in moving forward.
The greatest flaw of this manga and what turned it from a strong 8-9 in the first arc is its obsession with shock storytelling. The manga is littered with scenes where something sexually degenerate
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or a bunch of gore happens with absolutely no benefit to the story, but just for the shock value. The first sign of this is the conclusion of the first arc where the love interest whose sole character is being "slutty" and whining about wanting to be at home with her daughter, dies in a Looney Tunes fashion where a pistol's bullet bounces off a mech, travels several hundred yards and perfectly penetrates bulletproof glass to blow her head off. I straight up hollered when this scene happened because it was just so ridiculous I lost all investment, and it went downhill from there.
At first the story does a good job at showing the horrors of war, how innocent people suffer in a conflict started by greed and the consequences of a nation being divided for artificial means. Then after the first arc, the enemy faction the USN, the America expy, basically become Nazi rapists, and I am not exaggerating at all. One arc has the protagonist fight against literal genocidal squads like the SS who exterminate civilians, for no reason, and all the villains and like half of the extras and side characters for the "good" faction are rapists or horny degenerates. Even worse is that the sexual violence is not treated as a horrific crime that it is and one of the many brutal horrors of war, but presented as a sexy ecchi scene meant to get the readers hard.
This was what ultimately caused me to quit the manga. There were two super long arcs which were a combined quarter of the entire manga that emphasized this and just utterly disgusted me. In one of them, a cyborg super soldier unconsciously grooms a prostitute with a child-like mentality and takes advantage of her after she was assaulted by a squad of the enemy, and said prostitute is taken advantage of by the cyborg's officer who was presented as a stern and competent leader yet when she meets the prostitute, becomes a lustful degenerate because of the author's lesbian fetish. The second arc is basically a loser Incel murdering his best friend to get in bed with his hot wife. I'm not joking, that is the entire arc from start to finish and all of volume 4.
When a writer puts sex into their story, it has to be done tastefully. This manga is so raunchy and degenerate it makes The Boys show look like Veggietales. There is also an incredibly annoying protagonist character, a war otaku journalist who just wanders across the battlefield in each arc and takes as many gory and action pictures as possible and never is injured or suffered despite being in the heaviest fighting. At first, it seemed like he was an excellent critique of military otaku culture and the obsession some develop with war, but then he becomes a literal Deus Ex machina who teleports around the battlefield and is able to move around literal mechs and heavy military equipment with no issue while never coming under harm because he has an "invisible face".
Even if one were to ignore the trashy story and characters, you can't even find fun in the military fights because literally every single fight is a one sided massacre where one faction wipes out the other troops completely without any losses. There's absolutely zero nuance to the battles, it's just massacre after massacre.
The only redeeming quality of this manga is the artwork. The art is beautiful and highly detailed and the mechs are excellently adapted from the video games. It's just a real shame that the action sucks and the author has a strong habit of making most of the characters ugly as sin like the most awful of hentai, which in many respects this manga is, a glorified hentai with mechs.
Overall, this manga is garbage and it's a shame because if you read Gundam Thunderbolt, you can tell that the author improved dramatically with Thunderbolt being a legit grounded war story with nuance. For anyone who likes this manga, please watch any Hollywood war movie or a documentary, do not delude yourselves into thinking this is an accurate portrayal of war.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 26, 2018
Paranoia Agent is a overhyped mess that started out living up to its praise as a great anime with an intriguing storyline, than after the first half slowly starts to fall apart as the writers think too highly of the "brilliance" of their work to bother writing a coherent and decent storyline, eventually resulting in a band trainwreck that left a really bad taste in my mouth. Were it not for the incredible first half, I would have hated this anime completely and given it a lower score around a 4.
To start this review let's deal with the rather fair parts of the anime.
Art: 7/10
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Art is good and maintains a coherent standard throughout the show. Unlike most anime, Paranoia Agent takes a strong departure in not portraying any of the characters in an unrealistic manner and draws most of them in a rather crude, and dare I say "ugly" fashion. While not completely realistic it does strive for that angle. Background work is decent and consistent in quality. However, there are no moments within the anime that go above and beyond in terms of animation and even the more bizarre paranormal scenes are really bland and lacking in emotional effect through the visuals.
Sound: 7/10. The sound is at it best at intense moments of climactic action and of paranormal nature, delivering to the viewer a highly ominous feeling. The OP and ED do its job really well, but when the series is watched in a binge sitting like how I did, it loses its magic quickly. None of the OST is memorable at all.
Character: 6/10. Now we get into the part where Paranoia Agent starts to fall. The characters of the first half were all greatly written for the most part and each one showed a certain light on a present day sociological or psychological issue with Japan and the Japanese people. Their stories were engaging and the VA's had a great and consistent performance. The problem is that after the first half, the characters drop off the show almost entirely besides some minor characters, and we have absolutely no resolution to any of their conflicts beyond what we, the audience, can infer on five second shots of them in the latter episodes. There are so many huge and important conflicts affecting the main cast, yet none of them are ever dressed in totality and at the end we are given they are portrayed as never having gone through their conflicts.
The three worst parts of the cast were Tsukiko Sagi, Detective Mitsuhiro Maniwa, and Lil Slugger. Tsukiko is supposed to on paper be the "Protagonist" of the anime, yet after the first episode she disappears except for some guest roles in scenes until the last two episodes when the spotlight focuses on her. She is a blank slate with no definitive personality or character traits and most of the time acts like a robot who has no presence or engagement in the plot. There was absolutely no reason for me to root for her and I could not emphasize with her, even though she is a HUGE reason for much of the main conflict. Maniwa started out good as both the straight and every-man and had a good buddy cop relationship with Detective Ikari. After the first half Maniwa goes insane and acts ludicrously in ways that completely reverse everything that was established about his character. As for Little Slugger, he is not a good antagonist with no presence or established personality with his only trait being to hit people. Completely forgettable.
Story: 5/10. OH BOY does the story go completely off the rails! The first half was a good psychological drama that was combined with a crime mystery. Then afterwords the anime loses nearly all semblance of continuity and logic and goes off rails with dynamic events that are never addressed or never affect the main cast, a paranormal system that has no rules or is never concretely explained put together in a orderly fashion, and an episodic theme whose semblance of "moving forward the story" is just to have completely random and bizarre acts take place and call that "Plot development". The paranormal really ruins the show as its hard to tell just what's even real and happening half the time. No one reacts to the events like how anyone would in real life, and I am left not caring if the cast doesn't care to their environment and half of what I am watching doesn't take place.
Paranoia Agent is a story that had great potential and could've become one of the all-time greats, then shot itself in the foot through its self-righteous writing that tries way to hard to be a groundbreaking fantasy in a manner similar to Stephen King, and act as the moral compass of Japanese society and the go-to for parody and social criticism. Paranoia Agent suffers from an immense issue of lack of editing, and had there been proper editing of the story and massive rewrites of the script, then it could've been something watchable.
I only rate this a 6 for its amazing first half. Were the first half even slightly lower in quality, I would've dropped the anime far earlier and give this show a far harsher rating.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 25, 2018
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Genocidal Organ is the last film of Manglobe before its bankruptcy in 2015. With its unique premise and fascinating setting Genocidal Organ could have become a great last performance for a studio that has produced a number of decent anime in the past. Unfortunately Genocidal Organ is a disappointment as an anime film that fails to live up to its premise and throughout is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, mostly lows.
Before I talk about the most egregious parts of the film, the story and characters, I shall focus on the better aspects of the movie which made it watchable.
Animation: Overall
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the animation was decent throughout and enjoyable to look at. There is nothing too ground-breaking or revolutionary, but there is a consistent quality in every scene. The animation really shows its best with the battle scenes which are highly engaging and immerse the viewer into the film, also showing the most unique aspects of the near-future, specifically A.I and the use of super soldiers in warfare.
Setting: The setting is a fascinating look into how our world could become in a couple of years with quicker development of current technology as well as heightened surveillance from a worse War on Terror. When the horrid plot isn't on focus, the key details in the background which shows how society in this semi-dystopia lives their daily lives, alongside the brutal battles in advanced warfare, captivate the viewer and leave them wanting for more. I must also give props to the writer for depicting American culture in a fairly accurate fashion rather than some of the more infamous stereotypes presented in past anime.
Sound: The OST is pretty lackluster with absolutely no memorable original work from the movie. Most of the sound is kept grounded and focused on what is happening in the environment rather than inserting a song. This both works and doesn't as it keeps scenes realistic yet it doesn't add further emotional weight. The only good instance of sound was an excellent insertion of Beethoven to add tension in the beginning scene.
Characters: Now we get into the aspects of the story that really drag it down. Besides the four main characters of Clavis Shepherd, John Paul, Lucia, and Williams, the cast is completely forgettable with characters only existing to move the plot forward and not contribute anything of worthy enjoyment. Williams was the only likable character as he had a humorous personality and actually acted like a real human being instead of a robot that only contributed exposition and ranted about nonsense philosophy. The rest of the characters are abysmal.
Lucia in her scenes range from passable and somewhat likable to a boring slate whose only purpose is to express to us Itoh's views on the world. Lucia has no purpose besides only acting as a token Bond girl and Shepherd's love interest, yet the romance fails completely when she and Shepherd have little chemistry and we aren't given enough scenes to show their relationship naturally improve.
Shepherd is a badly written character because he is not a character in most senses. As our protagonist Shepherd is supposed to be the man we relate to and the person who acts as our guide to become immersed in our world. The problem with this is that we know nothing of Shepherd and he has no defining characteristics. Shepherd has no history, likes and dislikes, quirks, hobbies, dreams, wants or needs; absolutely nothing. I would say he's a robot but there have been multiple robotic characters in anime who are far more human than he is. The only moments he has any signs of character is when he rants about philosophy, a wannabe soldier scholar. Even when he talks about philosophy and politics, there is no believing that these are Shepherd's POV and not Itoh's. His character arc is nonsensical and his decision in the end of the movie to enact a social revolution to end the state of surveillance comes out of nowhere. Shepherd is a blank slate that any other person could have filled and there wouldn't be a difference.
And let's talk about John Paul, the villain of this film and ultimately its downfall. John Paul is a Mary Sue. Now this is a bold claim but it's one that any viewer can come to after watching the entirety of this film. John Paul somehow has this ludicrous method of making any person commit genocide simply because he speaks the grammar differently. This superpower is some nonsense science that has absolutely no basis in current linguistics and is just some macguffin that was created solely for the plot. John Paul can apparently make any country, no matter how stable, collapse in six months into total genocide. Somehow he can brainwash literally any person to do his deeds, he has loads of followers and an in-place support structure even though he is literally worse than Hitler. He has a hot girlfriend in Lucia. He gets Shepherd to agree with his viewpoints. He can escape any situation to avoid capture. John Paul manages all of this when he's a dropout from MIT. The character is a Mary Sue whose only purpose is to babble about psuedo-philosophy and psuedo-politics so that the message is hamfisted into the audience's mind.
Story: The story is a trainwreck that focuses on four different and conflicting themes; genocide, government surveillance, loss of freedoms, and modernization. The writers want the audience to know that "Big Brother is Bad, we must get our freedoms!" but it's hard to focus on that when the antagonist who is advocating against the state, is literally committing multiple genocides just to get his point across. The involvement of genocide should have not been in the film at all as it makes what's supposed to be a grey conflict into one that's one hundred percent black and white, and completely against what the writers want us to believe. Multiple times in the film we are told that surveillance is bad, when through the dialogue and what we see in the background total surveillance actually works and has caused terrorist attacks to drop. The plot makes the U.S to be some sort of authoritarian police state that abuses its powers when we see no abuse of the system and it works just fine. The ending where Clavis starts his grand revolution makes no sense because the quality of life in America and Europe seems to be good, all thanks to new technologies and the police state. The story would have been far better if it was a series that slowly developed the world and actually showed us what's wrong with constant surveillance. With the inclusion of genocide there is no reason to actually think about the message as there's a straight forward right and wrong. However it is hard to actually focus on the message when every speech about society is based on the twisting of history, nonsense ranting about humanity's evils, and contradictory arguments that fall apart after a couple of minutes.
The greatest issue with the story aside from its nonsensical message, is the Genocidal Organ. Obviously only the basic research on the actual history of genocide was performed due to the plot making it seem like genocide is one of humanity's darkest and most inane traits, when it's completely not. Until the Holocaust there was no word genocide as nothing on such a scale or intent had ever taken place before. Genocide while technically a definition for mass killing on a grand scale, always focuses on the mass murder of many individuals of a specific ethnic group. Genocide is horrible because it is irrational and is built on artificial hatred that dehumanizes one group into mass death. Genocide is NOT some survival instinct to purify the human population. There is no Genocidal Organ, therefore John Paul's plan is laughable and would never take place in the real world.
In conclusion, Genocidal Organ is an average film with plenty of potential that was wasted in its production when Manglobe chose to focus on politics and philosophy instead of telling a good story. If Genocidal Organ was ever expanded upon and its world given greater focus with a well-written cast of characters and a story that is actually grounded and stays within reality, then it could be a great story to tell. Unfortunately with Manglobe going bankrupt it is likely that Genocidal Organ will simply fade away and be forgotten by all but a dedicated few. A tragic waste.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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