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Story: 1
Kowamote Kouchai ga Ichinichi Ikkai Suki tte Ittekuru is a story that tries its best to teach you a lesson about love, but fails to do so in an unbelievably stupid way. Before getting into any more details, I just want to say that there are so many aspects of this story that are just unrealistic to a pretty high degree. Usually, that would not be a problem in most stories. However, this is a Romance story, and in a good or even decent Romance story, you as the reader should be able to at the very least identify or empathize with one of ... the characters, specifically, one of the main characters of the story. But the absolute absurdity of this story just prevents you from being able to identify with any of the characters at all. When it comes to the story, we have Haru who is basically manipulated by her boyfriend into continuing her relationship with him through nothing but him telling her “I love you” everyday. However, it turns out, he was using her to have access to her apartment/house so that he could bring women over to cheat on Haru with. And then we have Okuma who is Haru’s coworker, and after he finds out about Haru’s situation, he confesses his love to her and begins to tell her “I love you” everyday from there on in order to try to win her over. So this story is basically about Haru trying to know what it means to love someone and what it means for someone to love her back all in a romantic relationship type of way. So basically, the moral of the story is that the three words, “I love you,” are very powerful, but it can either be a blessing or a curse depending on how you use them. At least that is what this story is trying to convey, but it fails to do so because of the absolute absurdity that is this story. It will probably be more clear once I get into the characters, but all that I really have to say about this story is that it is as if the author knew nothing about the concept of love when writing this. Love as a concept is portrayed in the wrong way in this story where you explore the idea of love. It boggles my mind that the author that made this manga is the same person that wrote the story for Maria no Danzai. But to be fair, Maria no Danzai takes the concept of love and turns it into the idea of obsession or insane love which is not a hard thing to imagine, but the author completely butchers the general idea of romantic love completely in this story specifically. I am not trying to compare this story to Maria no Danzai, but I just want to point out how wrongly love is portrayed in this story compared to another story that this author has written. Like, I do not recommend reading this story at all, but if you do want to read it, you will understand completely where I am coming from, especially if you go on to read Maria no Danzai. It just hurts me just how wrong love is used in this story. Anybody with a brain cell can tell you that this story has no idea what it is talking about when it comes to love.
Characters: 1
We got 2 main characters and 3 antagonists. First up, we have Haru. I don’t even know where to begin with her. She is a very hard-working person and you can observe this pretty well as there are multiple points in the story where she is very willing to put a lot of effort into her work and she is very proud of her effort and her work. There is a literal scene where she sheds tears from being so happy that she accomplished something big at work. From this, you can garner that Haru is a hard-working, strong-willed, and capable person. Except that is completely irrelevant when it comes to her personal romantic life. It’s as if she has no stats in romantic awareness because I swear that anybody that breathes and has at least 1 brain cell can make better romantic relationship-related decisions than she can. She started dating this dude who has no job and does nothing to appeal to her romantically in any way other than telling her “I love you” everyday. And with her having a full-time job and not going out with her boyfriend that often, she just practically hands over her literal home to him for the entire day. I don’t know if you could even call it him manipulating her more so than it being him using a completely oblivious person for his own personal agenda. I just do not understand how you could come up with such a stupidly idiotic and oblivious character who is just so weak-minded. It is a complete 180 from her work personality. And moving over to Okuma, he isn’t any better either. This dude is expressionless for the entire manga and starts telling Haru “I love you” over and over and over again like Pokemon saying its name. Okuma is literally bull-heading his way into a relationship with Haru, and if it was not for Haru’s absolute inability to make any sensible decisions when it comes to a relationship, he would’ve been pretty much knocking on wood. He does save Haru from her situation with her boyfriend, but at the same time, it is her overwhelmingly weak, feeble, and oblivious character that got her into that situation in the first place. He was basically saving her from herself at that point. No wonder the title calls Okuma “bear-headed,” he is literally trying to get into this relationship the same way a wild animal would force themselves onto a mate. He is just such a boring and one-dimensional character, it is just crazy that he is who Haru falls in love with (not that she was any better in the first place). Antagonists: we have 3 of them which consist of the boyfriend, the friend from school(?)/coworker, and the parents. Starting with the boyfriend, he is made up to be this person who was taking advantage of Haru and actively cheating on her and forcing her to continue their relationship so that she could continue to reap the benefits. He is made out to be such a problematic individual, but in the end, he, himself, is nothing more than fresh meat. The only reason why he was a big problem for Haru was because he was basically preying on the weakest possible person he had ever come into contact with. Once he is dealt with, he is a literal nobody and a massive weakling once Haru is out of reach. He is not a great character, he is not a well-written character, he is a literal nobody who was only successful because he was basically a lion preying on a singular ant. Next up, we have the friend from school or the coworker I guess because there is literally only one panel mentioning that she went to school with Okuma or something and the rest is history. Basically, she was cheated on and now she wants to squeeze herself into every and any romantic relationship to make it seem like the man is cheating so that his girlfriend will break up with him. I’m sorry but what the actual hell is this. That is the most petty thing I have ever heard of. Like that is like Eobard Thawne the Reverse Flash going back in time to kill Barry’s mother type of petty. And then she is thrown to the side of the road again, just like Haru’s boyfriend was and we never see her again. Lastly, we have Haru’s parents whose whole spiel is about “love is irrelevant and you just need to marry into money.” Well, they only last for 1.5 chapters, so you can guess how that went. To sum up the characters in this story, they are some of the worst-written characters I have ever seen. Some are completely unrealistic and some are written to be so stupid that it hurts.
Art: 4
I mean, the art isn’t great, but I just want to out that there is a part in the story where Haru is slapped in public while she is sitting down next to Okuma on a bench and the force of the slap sends her flying, almost doing like a 360 in the air, and has her falling to the ground on her back. I thought I was reading a romance story, not an action/martial arts story. I mean it is so unrealistic, but it is so funny I had to mention it. Haru literally got slapped with the force of a thousand suns and was sent flying in a goddamn romance story.
Overall: 1
Yeah, don’t read this. It is a waste of time. When a story like this presents itself with a lesson or a moral to take away, you expect you to learn about that moral or at least take a part of it with you. The only thing I got out of this story was that you need to understand love to correctly describe it with this manga being a good example of not that. The overall concept of the story is pretty generic, but I could see how someone can take it and turn it into a good or at least decent story. Yet, that still depends on the various aspects of the story and the characters themselves being well-written or designed in a way that makes sense and is enjoyable for people to read about and possibly even relate to. This manga’s story was murdered by how terrible its plot elements are and how indescribably bad its characters are. You can make characters weak and/or pathetic, but there is a difference between making a good one and a bad one. I’m sorry if this just seems like me ranting, but there are just so many different elements to this story that are so clearly badly designed that I just had to point out all of them. This manga misses the mark so badly and it doesn’t even come close to even reaching the level of decency it set itself for. There are no redeeming qualities to this manga, so it is best that you do not waste your time with this.

Hero’s Daughter surrounds an interesting premise, a male hero who has died and reincarnated as a female. It is not unheard of, but for me, at the very least, this is one of those types of stories that have finished or that I’ve read to completion. 622 chapters later, I finished reading, and I don’t think that it is the greatest thing I’ve read or the most interesting or well fleshed out story I’ve been exposed to. However, that doesn’t mean that it is wholly bad in any way. I just feel like it is severely lacking in different attributes that it advertised originally, failing ... to present them in a way that is “more” interesting or at least more detailed. Let’s get into it. (Skip to “Overall” if you want the TLDR)
Story: 6
We follow Reid, a half-demon assassin who is a part of the legendary six great heroes. However, he lost his life protecting others by fighting off a demon, and he was given another life by an incredibly weird (sus) goddess, subsequently being reborn as the daughter of two of his comrades, Lyell and Maria of the six great heroes, now being known as Nicole. I think that this is a pretty good way to start off this kind of gender bender, reincarnation type story. Even if this was already pretty clear by the title of the novel, I think that having Reid being reincarnated in his same world is a whole lot better than having him being sent to another world to be reborn there like most other reincarnation titles would have you experience. And the plot of him being reborn as the daughter of two of his comrades brings a lot to the table. For one, it gives you the inclination that this story would be pretty interesting. Imagining yourself as a parent, it would be pretty jarring for your daughter to announce that she is your former comrade that died in battle. Nicole would most likely try to hide this fact as best as she can in order to prevent something like that from happening as well as trying to live a normal life. This she does. Off the bat, you are given your protagonist whose situation gives you the inclination that it would make the plot extremely interesting and enjoyable to read. Well, the story does accomplish that to some degree, but it fails to meet expectations based on what was advertised.
One of the first gripes I have about the story is about Nicole hiding her identity of being Reid. The whole point of a novel including a character who is trying to hide their true identity is to have their true identity be found out or accidentally revealed to others. The way that this is done is not great. Most of the characters who find out about or know of Nicole’s identity as Reid are mainly characters outside of Reid’s former comrades and outside of Nicole’s current friends. Even with that being said, for 622 chapters/13 volumes, only a select few characters actually find out that Nicole is Reid. I understand that a story about an individual hiding their identity can have that character’s identity being found out or have their identity hidden with the story still being interesting. However, the plot of this story is lacking to the point where you kind of want more people to find out that Nicole is Reid in order for more character development and more plot development to make things more fun and interesting. In fact, I would say that some of the best moments in the story is when someone of Reid’s former comrades or someone that knows him from his previous life, discovering that Nicole is Reid. The whole big reveal of Nicole’s true identity is not until far off into the story. I’m not going to say when in order to avoid spoilers, but it is definitely a long way before you are going to get to that point. This story really needed that push from Nicole’s true identity being found out by her friends and comrades more to make the plot more interesting, but with how little it actually happens, the plot sometimes gets stale to the point where you’d wish this happened.
Second, oh boy, the plot is so slow. Adventure or Slice of Life. Choose one, the other, or both. The Adventure aspect of the story is seriously lacking. When I was first reading this story and got around the 400 chapter mark, I still wasn’t completely sure when the story would end because of the extremely slow progression, but I figured that there would still be time for more of the Adventure and Action parts of the story to be added in. That wasn’t the case. Plot involving the main antagonist of the story is so spread out and uneventful, that it sometimes felt annoying to be reading those parts and you’d rather be staying with Nicole and her friends’ antics. Any large-scale encounters with the main antagonist are basically almost nothing until the very final confrontation which is really disappointing. The Adventure and Action in this story just is not it. As for the other half which is supposed to be somewhat a combination of School-Life, Slice of Life, and Romance, it definitely fills up the beginning parts of the story when Nicole is still in school as well as most of the downtime in the plot, but there is also nothing much to say about it either. I think that this aspect of the story is fine at the very least. It allows you to get to know a lot about each of the characters, but it leaves you wanting more in other areas. But the romance is either there as a light whisper or completely absent in certain parts. Cortina had a hidden crush on Reid in his past life, and it is so criminal that their relationship is not explored that deeply now that Reid is Nicole. The same goes with Reid/Nicole and Finia. I won’t get too much into it as it would spoil some of the story and character interactions, but the romance is just completely absent at times which is extremely disappointing to say the very least. And the comedy. Oh boy, the comedy. It is practically nonexistent in the story. I would like a laugh or a hearty chuckle once every dozen chapters, but the story is missing a lot of comedy aspects that would’ve made the reading experience more enjoyable or at least more fun than how it already is. Sure, I’ve definitely laughed a handful of times throughout the story due to Nicole and her friends’ antics, but I didn’t get something that really made me hold a smile and truly laugh until the very end of the story during its conclusion. I’m just very disappointed in the lack of comedy to keep things fresh, interesting, and entertaining consistently throughout the story.
Characters: 6
I won’t lie: most of the characters in this story are pretty interesting. However, just like with the story, I have many gripes with some of the characters. Starting with Nicole, I think the way she is characterized is suitable for the most part. Because the story and her character is focused on her being the reincarnation of Reid and trying to hide that fact from her friends and former allies from his previous life, it brings a lot of character to her and makes her incredibly interesting. That being said, I think her development throughout the story is also pretty decent. Most of it involves her coming to terms of her now being a girl and understanding that she is no longer the same person with the same capabilities as herself in her past life. That aspect of her character is very straightforward which is nice to see, but I still would’ve liked more conflict between Nicole’s current life and character versus her past life and character as Reid. There are only a few parts of the story where the whole idea of Nicole being a much more fragile individual is taken into account. And there are even fewer moments when there is visible disparity between Nicole’s current life as a female and her past life as the male Reid. To be speaking more clearly, I just would’ve wanted to see Nicole/Reid’s development as a woman, now that she is one. It would’ve provided some more good character development to her while also potentially adding to what is currently the lacking comedy aspect of the story. I’m pretty sure that you have at least read one or two other Gender Bender or Sex Shift manga and/or light novels to understand what I am trying to say here. Nicole’s character is almost like a mask covering up her character from her past life instead of trying to incorporate herself and really seriously take into account and develop in her new life. Moving onto Nicole’s close friends, Michelle’s character is really never expanded on that much outside of the beginning arc of Nicole growing up. Her character is portrayed as the fun-loving girl of the group who can be a little bit dense at times, but she still is very lovable, especially with her love for food. And I just wish that was expanded on more. There are hints that kind of give you the idea that she sees Nicole more than just as a friend, but that is just never expanded on, just like the rest of her character. I have no real issue with Michelle as a character, but she is just pushed out of the story way too often for you to really consider all that much about her. As for the rest of the people in Nicole’s close friend group, they do have their moments in the story, but I will avoid talking about them here in order to avoid spoilers. However, just like Michelle, they are very often put on the backburner so that Nicole can be centerstage of much of the plot. When it comes to the legendary six great heroes, they are pretty hit or miss. I won’t get into all that much to avoid spoilers, but, again, similar to Nicole’s close friends, they are absent from the story for long periods due to Nicole being front and center of the plot and they just don’t have any real important role, aside from like 2 ½ of them, to Nicole’s development and the plot involving her. Finally, when it comes to the main antagonist of the story, I just find them to be annoying. Their entry into the story is pretty abrupt and you see really no real purpose to them being evil and all that. The same can be said about the minor antagonists of the story. They are just pretty annoying with how infrequent encounters with them are, and you would usually rather quickly read over their parts to get back to Nicole’s antics.
Overall: 6.25
I don’t hate this story. I definitely would not say that it is among any of the best stories I’ve read either. To make things simple, I would just say that this story is boring. Fantasy, Slice of Life, Adventure, Romance. This story just lacks in each of its respective genres, and what hurts it even more is the fact that it severely lacks in comedy or light-hearted fun. The story just follows Nicole and centers on her so much that everyone else is practically put off to the side so that there can be focus on her. I definitely would’ve liked some better writing and character considerations in order to make the story a bit more enjoyable to read. But would I recommend reading it? Yes, but leaning towards maybe. This story is completely fine. If anything, it is more of just a very straightforward story with very straightforward and simple writing. It’s not a bad read, and the story itself has no obvious or outright-detrimental flaws with it. However, it is 622 chapters, and the plot and writing is very bland. It’s not stale, but bland. There are many aspects of the story that I find lacking, not bad, but lacking in things like comedy, light-heartedness, and a change of pace in between significant plot developments. It is just alright.

Story: 6.5
29 to Jk has such an interesting premise. Through the synopsis, you are given that you are following a 29 year old corporate slave named Yariba Eiji who has managed to get a 15 year old high school girl named Karen to become interested in him and even fall in love with him. That alone suggests that this manga would have some assemblance of a funny and cute story about their relationship and how it progresses despite the fact that their age groups are so far apart from each other. Well that’s not the case at all. This story only has a few key ... moments of romance and development in their relationship. The story actually centers around Eiji and the corporate company that he works for. If you are coming to this story and expecting some sort of cute relationship story to be given to you. Well, you are not getting that. Not to say that the story itself is that bad though. As said, the story is focused around Eiji’s life in the company that he works for. It mainly centralizes on the trials and tribulations of working for a corporate company, its competitors, and the overall shady and disgusting figures that you would find when working for such a company. While doing so, it provides some good drama and characterizes Eiji extremely well. It shows everything from his strengths, to his weaknesses and hubris, and his overall development as a person all while offering up a satisfying ending to all of the ordeals that he is put through. I like the story, but if you want a story that centralizes mainly on romance instead of the development of a single dude who works in a harsh environment, this story maybe isn’t what you are looking for exactly.
Characters: 6
There are a couple of characters who continuously reappear in the story aside from the main characters of Eiji and Karen, but I just don’t think that there is all that much to say about them. Eiji is obviously the most well-developed character as you are literally following him as he shows off his abilities, is presented with his weaknesses and hubris, and is tried by everyone again and again. But since the story is mainly focused on Eiji himself and his own development, the other characters lack in development or realistically even their build-up. Karen is a pretty shallow and underdeveloped character. There was so much opportunity to have her develop just as much as Eiji as she is also placing herself in a very tumultuous environment, that of trying to become a writer whose stories will be loved by everyone. However, because the story is so focused around Eiji and his time in the workplace, you don’t really see that much of Karen in a scenario where she is able to really show her character and develop. Sure, there are some times when you can see her character growing stronger mentally, but that is to be expected when you are subjecting your writing to others who judge and criticize you for something they don’t like. There isn’t much to say about Eiji’s coworkers because they aren’t exactly the ones in the limelight of this story. As for Karen’s grandfather, he is such a hard-headed individual that his actions are literally what is driving most of the conflict in this story. You see no change in his character and the only times he rescinds his decisions is when he comes to an agreement or makes a deal with the other party. The antagonists of this story are pretty much just scumbags. Nothing much to them, but I will say that the second antagonist of the story is pretty well-characterized in terms of an antagonist. However, their actual character still isn’t much.
Art: 6
I think that the art is fine. My only gripe with it is that Eiji doesn’t show that much emotion. Sure, there are points in the story where you can see him frustrated or stressed or pleased, but comparing those moments to some of the faces drawn for the other characters when they experience the same feeling, Eiji’s expressions are definitely lacking, especially for what he goes through in the story.
Overall: 6
I like this manga. I think the story is good, but my only real problem with it is how it is presented. The title is literally called 29 to Jk (29 year old and high school girl), but the focus of the story is not about Eiji’s relationship with Karen in spite of their age groups. I am not bothered with how the story played out with Eiji’s time working in his company, but I am disappointed that it isn’t what was advertised. I think that many people will come into this manga expecting it to be more focused on Eiji and Karen’s relationship, but their relationship is more of a side plot or even as a plot tool in the story rather than something that is front and center. If their relationship was more focused on or if it wasn’t advertised as such, perhaps the overall experience of reading would be better, but as it stands, the story is still good. Just not in the way you would expect from how it is presented in the first place.

As a big fan of the Neptunia franchise, especially when it comes to the games, the Neptunia Anime has always been more of a letdown. There were some high parts of the anime and there were some pretty low parts. The Neptunia OVA seemed to be very promising when only Episode 1 was released, but the following 2 episodes left a lot to be desired. Since the 3rd Episode just aired, this will be a review of all 3 episodes of the OVA.
Story: 5
There really was not much to the story at all for any of the 3 Episodes. The trailer for Episode 1 ... showed a summer vacation and the CPU Candidates getting lost in a different dimension where they meet Adult Neptune. And while Episode 1 does feel like the most well-made from the whole OVA, there isn’t much depth to the plot other than what the trailer implies. The CPUs go on a summer vacation, the CPU Candidates somehow get sent to a different dimension where they meet Adult Nep, and now they have to find a way to get back. That is all it is. There is really not much else to it. The way it was executed was good, but the story was not anything special. The trailer for Episode 2 basically showed that Neptune passed out from overworking herself on planning a festival around her, so now Nepgear and Adult Neptune have to find a way to keep things running smoothly. The story is very generic, there is not much depth to it either, and scenes were pretty strange to say the very least. It was probably my least favorite out of the OVA. Trailer 3 basically showed that all the CPUs (excluding the Candidates) got turned into children and now they need to get back to normal. Generic story once again, but this episode really surprised me. Because our comical villain of the series, Arfoire, is one of the main focal points of this episode, we get to see an aspect of her that is pretty much forgotten since it was only utilized in the original Hyperdimension Neptunia game and Re;Birth1. It was certainly very interesting and my favorite after Episode 1.
Characters: 6
I mean the only new characters here are Adult Neptune, Croire, and I guess you can also count Arfoire as Episode 3 expands on her past. The other characters like the CPUs, the CPU Candidates, IF, Compa, and Histoire are pretty much the same which is what I expected. Adult Neptune’s character is captured perfectly. She is mature and caring, but she is still the same old Neptune on the inside. Croire is a bit more tame here, but since there isn’t anything close to the shenanigans in Megadimension Neptunia VII, she has no real reason to embrace her more chaotic side like in the games. However, her character is otherwise still pretty spot-on. I don’t want to get into too much detail about Arfoire as it’s a pretty big spoiler, but I really like it. It shows an incredibly different aspect of her that was really never expanded on because she suited the role of a comical villain rather than someone ”human”.
Art/Animation/Sound: 6.5
I was never a huge fan of the animation and art style used for the Neptunia anime, but it certainly was not bad. And while there wasn’t much new music that was added, everything was pretty much serviceable.
Overall: 6
I think that the Neptunia OVA is okay. It is definitely serviceable, but it leaves a ton to be desired. Most of the story was pretty generic and each of the episodes did not try to dive deeper into these relatively generic stories to make them all that more interesting. There were definitely highs and lows, but they are very noticeable. I feel like it would’ve been much better to animate some of the side stories from the games, but since the anime already took up the mantle of splicing together bits and pieces from the games to make its own plot, this was to be expected. Overall, it’s fine, but it’s not great.

Story: 5
To get it out of the way, this story has time travel and timeline shenanigans which is already a red flag because it is a concept that is hard to form into a coherent plot element, and it is certainly very outlandish for a romance story. Pure introduces herself to Akira as her future lover from 6 or 7 years in the future and this is fine and all because at first, it just seems like this is how Pure is trying to flirt with Akira. However, things start to change because we are introduced to the element of timelines and time travel as ... an actual concept in the story. Akira’s brother, Ruri, seemingly appears out of thin air, despite having not been since for about the first half of the story, with the goal of trying to interfere with Pure and Akira’s relationship while also trying to fix another timeline for his own goals with a literal time machine that he built. With Ruri interfering with the timelines to have things go his way, it creates multiple points in the story where the setting/scene shifts to a completely new one. There are so many timelines that appear in front of your face in the story that you quite literally have to go back and reread slowly to understand what is going on. If we look beyond the timeline elements in the plot, the romance isn’t really that great either. Pure and Akira are an unlikely couple from an outside perspective, and while it would be very cute to see Akira warm up to Pure, that is all cut short because of the timeline shenanigans that occur, which is unfortunate. The timeline stuff is like the boogie man in the storyーnot only is it very confusing, but it is also a massive hindrance to the romantic developments that have occurred.
Characters: 6
The characters aren’t that great. The only characters that we mainly focus on are Akira and Pure, of course, but the rest of the characters that have any assemblance of plot relevance are very haphazardly thrown into the story without any prior story elements leading up to their appearance. There isn’t any real character development that really occurs outside of a “change of heart.” I mean, you could argue that Akira falling in love with Pure after having claimed that she will not get involved with 3D romance is character development, but that really went nowhere because of the whole implementation of the timeline stuff in the plot. The changes in the timelines pretty much reset any character development that had already occurred. This results in Akira and Pure pretty much being close to total strangers (for the most part) to each other until the climax of the story. The other plot relevant characters like Ruri do affect the plot, but their characters just aren’t explored well enough. We see very little presence from the other plot relevant characters outside of Pure and Akira, so you really don’t know much about them until they actually come back into the scene.
Art: 7
The Art is fine. Don’t have anything against it, and I don’t really have much to compliment about it either.
Overall: 6
This manga is absolutely all over the place. Characters are pretty much being randomly added into the story and the whole idea of time travel and timelines really messes up comprehension of the plot as well as messing up characters themselves and their development. Is it something that I would reread? No. I feel like it is a stretch to really say that this is good. I believe that this manga is alright, leaning towards the lower end of the spectrum. It is an absolute headache trying to understand what is going on, and even once you understand what is going on, you aren’t greeted with a well written and well executed story either.

This season of Digimon Xros Wars is something that should not exist. This is perhaps one of the worst sequels to any anime that I have ever seen. Not only was Digimon Xros Wars originally a slight bastardization of the original concept of Digimon that spanned from Digimon Adventure to Digimon Adventure 02 to Digimon Tamers to Digimon Frontier to Digimon Savers, this season of Digimon Xros Wars is a bastardization of the previous 2 seasons of Xros Wars.
Story: 4
The story is downright awful when it comes to its concept and its execution. Digimon are back in this alternate realm known as the DigiQuartz and ... are feeding off of negative human emotions. Now, a bunch of random children are being given Fusion Loaders in order to capture these Digimon. I’m sorry, but this does not seem like Digimon Xros Wars Season 3 to me. It seems like a completely different anime that features characters from the original Xros Wars as well as the concept of DigiXros. It is a completely different scene from what we were originally introduced to in the original Xros Wars. Children are collecting Digimon like it’s Pokemon now, what is up with this? That’s the general concept, but now let’s get into the story revolving around our main characters: Tagiru Akashi and Gumdramon. Unlike the other “Hunters” (which is what they are called), he cares for other individuals more and so, he seeks to help those who are being used by the Digimon who’ve entered the DigiQuartz, making him the usual hero at the end of the day. The sequence of each episode is usually: Human gets tricked by Digimon, Tagiru and Gumdramon find out about this and go after the Digimon, Gumdramon Super Digivolves into Arresterdramon, they fight, Tagiru DigiXroses Arresterdramon with one of his other Digimon, and they win and capture the rogue Digimon. It is that same mundane, repetitive process over and over and over for each episode. They all follow the same lazy and uninspiring formula. Of course, Taiki Kudou and Yuu Amano are also there as characters from the previous seasons of Xros Wars to help out as well, but they are treated as side characters more than anything. Now, it is revealed near the end that the DigiQuartz was created by a Digimon to try to take over both the Digital World and the Human World (as per usual), so everybody gears up to fight back, but Tagiru is the hero at the end of the day because he is the Main Character. Everything about the story is so boring and really repetitive. I’m not sure what could even be changed to make it more interesting, even if only slightly.
Characters: 2
We basically have 2 characters because the rest of them are never given the same amount of screentime. Tagiru and Gumdramon are 2 of the worst characters that I have ever seen. They are your average rowdy, hard-headed, loud, obnoxious, and straightforward Shounen characters. They basically have no character development at all and stay the exact same from beginning to end. Sure, Gumdramon is able to mature (very slightly) in order to Super Digivolve, but this practically resulted in no changes to his overall character which is very disappointing. Taiki and Shoutmon were already pretty mature in Season 2 of Xros Wars due to the insanely high stakes back then, but they’ve matured even more in this season. They are basically treated as the GOATS when it comes to Digimon and Hunters. Another character that gets much screen time is Yuu who has long since been the child manipulated by Dark Knightmon back in Xros Wars Season 2. He has matured much, similar to Taiki, but he also is very serious and sometimes comes off sad due to the death of Damemon back in the previous Season, and haven yet seen him once again after the rebirth of the Digital World after Shoutmon becomes king. However, Damemon does come back which is pretty obvious because he and Tuwarmon were in the OP since Episode 1. The other hunters are barely given any screen time and are generalized to be pretty much the prideful, showoff veteran Hunters. As for the villains, the only villains were basically the enemy Digimon, and they were pretty terrible. All of them pretty much were very prideful and manipulative in order to feed off of human negative emotions (which is not something new). As for the final villain Digimon whose name I will not say to avoid spoilers, bro, he was only shown in a single Episode (being the last one), so there isn’t much of him at all. Overall, the Characters are absolutely atrocious. There is no originality, no real development, and the screen time wasn’t shared between all of them enough to warrant them even having their traits be shown.
Digimon (Portrayal): 3
I already dislike Xros Wars for basically getting rid of the whole Evolution Level concept (Egg, Baby, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega, Super Ultimate). This meant that Rookie Digimon were beating up Ultimates, Champions slaying Megas, and all sorts of weirdness that otherwise should not even be possible because the difference in power between each Evolution Level is massive. In Xros Wars Season 2, we were introduced to Super Digivolution. This allowed for a given partner Digimon to Digivolve into what is basically an Ultimate Level Digimon which was the case for OmegaShoutmon and ZekeGreymon. However, this is not the case anymore because we have Gumdramon Super Digivolving into Arresterdramon who is a Champion Level, Dracumon turning into Yaksamon which is also a Champion, and Damemon turning into Tuwarmon which is also a Champion. I understand that Evolution Levels don’t exist in Xros Wars, but seeing “Super Digivolution” not making an “Ultimate Level” Digimon is strange for someone who understands the Evolution Levels. Thus, you still get things like Rookies beating up Ultimates (ex: Shoutmon vs. Sagomon) and Champions beating up Ultimates (ex: Arresterdramon vs. MetalTyrannomon). Another change would be how DigiXros works. You can only have 2 Digimon out at once, so you can basically only Fuse 2 Digimon together. This is a good change as you can’t just go nuts on Fusing Digimon, but it does make larger Fusions harder to access such as the Shoutmon line. Also, let’s talk about “Superior Mode”. The only 2 Superior Modes in the Digimon Universe are Shoutmon X7 Superior Mode and Arresterdramon Superior Mode (not including any Xros Up). When there used to be only 1 Superior Mode which was only possible by Fusing every Digimon in the Digital World with Shoutmon, it seemed sacred and really cool. And then Arresterdramon got it too. Like, Tagiru and Gumdramon barely worked for it. Gumdramon basically matured (very slightly), realizing his past and having been punished by Sanzomon, and was able to “unlock his true potential” and got a Superior Mode. Literal Bruh moment. This Season of Xros Wars just makes the previous ideologies of the concept of Digimon even more worthless, basically bastardizing the original concept and the concepts brought up in the previous 2 seasons of Xros Wars.
Animation/Sound: 5
I have no issue with the music and sounds. It’s the animation that I have an issue with. The closest thing I can compare this steep drop in Animation quality to is Pokemon XY&Z vs. Pokemon Sun & Moon. But even that wasn’t that bad. The difference between the Art and Animation from Digimon Xros Wars Season 2 and Digimon Xros Wars Season 3 is like night and day. The quality just dropped to near rock bottom. It is indescribably bad.
Overall: 3
If you are a fan of Digimon, you can literally pass this up. Xros Wars Seasons 1 and 2 were decent, but this was just plain awful. It reuses the same formula for every episode while basically giving the Main Characters no development over the course of this 25 Episode anime. If you do want to know what happens after Season 2 of Xros Wars, you could watch this, but I expect you to be sorely disappointed because even the recurring characters are portrayed terribly. There is a single memorable part of this anime which was the fact that characters from the other Digimon timelines make a cameo due to plot reasons. I feel like it was put there for fanservice reasons only because of how somewhat minor it is, but it is definitely cool seeing Taichi, Daisuke, Tatsuya, Takuya, and Daimon standing side by side. I sincerely do not recommend watching this.

Because I already wrote a review for Kunoichi no Ichi, I might as well read the sequel and review it as well. I was very hesitant to read it when the translated chapters started coming out because of how bad Kunoichi no Ichi was, but I caved and read it. And not surprising at all, Kunoichi no Ichi! no Ni is not much better.
Story: 5
I will give credit to the fact that the idea behind the story this time around is much better, but the way it was executed is not that great. The plot is that Ichi has returned to present day, but ... slips in time are transporting his friends from back in the past to the present and it all requires the power of the Ninja Tome, that has long since become a part of him, to return to the past. However, there are individuals in the present also wanting to get their hands on the tome for their own selfish (and perverted) purposes. The concept behind the story is great. There is a larger sense of urgency (somewhat), and the story plays out much better than in the prequel. With Ichi being a student, the story has a much better school-themed atmosphere with there being more characters, including new and old ones, being a part of the on-going plot. However, the transitioning and pacing of the story is still very all over the place. Initially, the story plays out pretty gradually, slowly introducing new characters and new plot points, but you pause after a while and realize that you are more than halfway through the manga and there hasn’t been any step forward in resolving the story’s conflict. The gradual pacing eventually devolves into a very fast-paced series of plot developments which is unfortunate because I expected this to be resolved as the prequel had the same issue. And this leads to things such as the overarching villain being added extremely abruptly leading to them not having much time in the spotlight as well as the ending being very rushed. Overall, the story is slightly better than the prequel’s and as a stand-alone manga, there is not much to really praise about it but it is tolerable.
Characters: 5
I think that the characters have improved from the prequel, but not by much. Starting with the biggest thing on my mind, there are much more characters this time around. We are not just seeing the same characters over and over and over again like how it was in the prequel. The returning characters are just alright. Ichi is still very powerless in the story despite being able to give power to his ninja friends via the Ninja Tome. In fact, this is only relevant in the plot like 2 or 3 times only, so there really aren't any improvements when it comes to ichi’s characters. As for Ichi’s ninja friends from the past, I understand that they have a different relationship with Ichi now as he isn’t a crossdressing boy in a girl’s school anymore, but it’s like their character has completely changed from before. For example, Nagisa isn’t that rowdy and much of a delinquent as before and Erena has completely lost her high-strung, tsundere character. The only past characters that I feel are well represented in their original character and development since the prequel are Ayame and Kosaki as they still have their romantic interest in Ichi. The rest of the girls who had a thing for Ichi don’t even show it anymore as if they were never in love with him at some point. As for the rest of the ninjas from the past, they are either too minor of characters to really be well-expressed or they are literally throw-away characters whose presence is only for the sake of some plot point. The new characters are much better in comparison. While most of them are minor, they are pretty interesting. Not really much else to say about them since they never got too much time in the spotlight. The characters are a slight improvement from before, but there are some pretty massive issues with them this time aroundーmainly from how they are not reflective of their original character from Kunoichi no Ichi!
Art: 6
I mean, the art is not much different other than the fact that there is more effort being put into minor scenes unlike before which is nice. There is a lack of lewder ecchi scenes from before as well as there being fewer lewd accidents. It doesn’t bother me too much as I am more of a story person, but I will admit there being a lack of ecchi (relatively).
Overall: 5
Kunoichi no Ichi! no Ni is a slight improvement from Kunoichi no Ichi! It doesn’t feel like a sequel as it feels more like the same characters interacting with each other in a different setting under the premise of a different situation at hand. That doesn’t mean that it is bad, but there are other, larger issues to talk about. The transitioning and the pacing of the story is still bad, leading to the overarching villain being introduced very late and giving them very little time in the spotlight as well as the ending being extremely rushed. Even the ending itself is not good as it doesn’t give much information about what happened to Ichi’s friends when they returned to the past (as that is the whole goal of the story) and it doesn’t give much detail about Ichi’s immediate life after their return. The returning characters are also a mess. Many of them are given such minor roles that they sometimes don’t even show up for several chapters or until the literal end when they are able to return to the past. They also do not retain much of their unique character from the prequel which is also incredibly disappointing. As a sequel, it isn’t impressive. As a stand-alone manga, it still is pretty underwhelming. If you want some ecchi, you can go right ahead and read this, but if you are a big story person or if you want a serious sequel to Kunoichi no Ichi, you will be disappointed.

Warning: Contains Spoilers
Story: 6
Watashi wa Succubus to Kiss wo Shita follows Yukiko Ootsu who is a succubus who had decided to live her life as a normal human being to avoid being potentially dragged into an abnormal lifestyle due to herself being a succubus. The story begins when a transfer student named Konomi Nirasaka joins Yukiko’s class who reveals herself as a succubus to Yukiko resulting in Yukiko doing the same and from there, Yukiko starts learning to live her life as a succubus. The concept of the story is solid. You have a succubus who has lived a majority of her life as a ... human and has yet to really experience living a life as a succubus which is to say that succubi need to take life energy in order to survive. Now, she steadily learns how to traverse life as a succubus. The story thoroughly explores each of the characters’ lives, their relationships with each other, their past, as well as their thoughts, feelings, and actions towards succubi. And it all columates into an ending where everyone is pretty much in a happy or at least satisfied state. I have no real issue with the story, but I have some issues with how the “antagonist” of the story is followed through with. Nozomi Ashiyama is a big driving force for the plot in the later half of the manga due to her past with Konomi, her despising succubi, and her manipulative and psychotic nature. I have no real issues about her character herself, but I just feel like she wasn’t well represented in the story with her being the “antagonist.” We are shown her nasty, dark side, but we don’t really see her normal life and we don’t explore enough of her inner thoughts. And at the end of the story, due to her past with Konomi, Konomi sort of takes the bullet for the rest of the characters as she is the one who deals with the Nozomi by keeping her busy (succubus style). And we are pretty much left off at that point. The story is good, but I do wish we were able to explore more of the Nozomi as well as see a more detailed or at least drawn out ending involving her with Konomi.
Characters: 7
I think that the characters were all really well made, and I believe that their development throughout the story was also very well done. Yukiko was very well written and her character mirrored what she was introduced to us as perfectly: a succubus who has chosen to live her life as a human, basically an inexperienced succubus. Her development, with her being the protagonist, is great. She goes from an awkward, shy individual to being a more outgoing and more expressive person as she learns to live as a succubus and as she develops her romantic relationship with her closest friend and partner, Fuu Yanigahara. Fuu also develops from being a held-back, possessive individual to being a more forgiving one when it comes to her relationship with Yukiko. Yukiko's little sister, Aki, is also well represented as we are shown much of her thoughts as well as being shown many aspects of her relationship with her partner, Mirino. Konomi is also a very well drawn out character with her being one of the larger driving factors for the plot in the story with her influencing Yukiko to be more of a succubus as well as her past with Nozomi. Nozomi was a very intriguing character. Her psychotic personality was a big 360 from the initial mood of the manga, and while much of her character is shown, her being introduced so late in the manga resulted in her not being that thoroughly explored which is my only gripe when it comes to characters.
Art: 7
The art is great. Everything from the background to the characters are very well done. And the kissing and licking scenes are very unique when it comes to how they are drawn. There is a lot of effort and detail being put towards illustrating the kissing scenes, especially when it comes to the massive amount of saliva being passed around. It’s not off-putting, but it is pretty unique.
Overall: ~7
I enjoyed reading this. I give it a score of 6, leaning more towards being a 7. Around something like a 6.7/10 or something like that. The story is good, the characters themselves are very good, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this manga. It’s not the most impressive thing I’ve read, but I found it satisfying and I believe that most people would also agree. Nozomi’s character and her presence in the story could’ve been more well done, but overall, this manga is good.

Have you ever experienced something so shockingly bad that you have literally no solid recollection of what you just did or experienced afterwards? That is literally how I felt after I read Kunoichi no Ichi! I simply had a single thought in my mind when I finished reading it: “What the heck did I just read?”
Story: 4
The story is completely nothing like what you might expect after reading the synopsis of the manga. You will not get the slow, gradual progression that most school-themed manga usually follow. It is more of a rather incoherent plot which is so incredibly fast-paced that you really have no ... time to enjoy the setting of the manga itself, nor do you actually get to understand each character that well. One minute, you are getting yourself comfortable with the plot and characters and the next minute, you have completely no clue about what is going on because the individual “arcs” in the manga go by so quickly in a bad way and there are little to no transitions in between each of them. As for the writing itself, you are not getting what you came for. You are not getting to see Ichi, our main character, really develop into some kind of mutual relationship or even friendship with other students, nor do you see him using his own techniques to survive his time in the ninja academy. All the “techniques” you will see are just acts of kindness born from the power of friendship and not something brainstormed by Ichi himself. He mainly gets himself out of sticky situations via plot armor, the power of friendship, or by the other characters in the manga who actually have unique abilities of their own. You physically do not get to see Ichi himself develop in order to survive in this new, unknown world.
Characters: 4
For a “school-themed” manga, there is certainly a huge lack of characters. You have Ichi, the main character, the only 3 classmates that he has (or that are actually shown and written about), and you get the pretty much a singular faculty member and the villains. This is a “ninja academy.” Where are all the other students other than the same 3 of Ichi’s classmates? Where are the other faculty members? Literally the largest group of characters stem from the villains and they are basically throw-away characters for how insignificant most of them are. Also, with how quick the plot progresses, there is little to no character development at allーnot even with Ichi himself. You basically get to know Ichi and the situation that he is in, and for the rest of the characters, you basically are introduced to who they are and you get to know their quirks and traits. They basically receive no character development and as for Ichi’s classmates, the only development they get is slowly getting attracted to Ichi because this is a harem manga after all. So it’s really disappointing to see how little emphasis was put on the characters and their development over the course of the manga.
Art: 6
I’m not that against the art, but I wouldn’t say that I am a fan of it either. The art itself is pretty average and then the quality of it suddenly jumps up whenever there is a lewd, ecchi, or teasing scene which is something to expect from an ecchi manga I guess.
Overall: 5
I mostly enjoyed this manga. I wasn’t that put off by it until I actually finished it and was absolutely shell-shocked by what I had just read like I was practically in disarray about how bad the manga really was after going over it mentally. I certainly had no issues while reading it, but I had no strong feelings towards or against it either. While the serious parts of the story were pretty bland, the ecchi parts of it were not terribly designed. More or less, it was just funny to see Ichi get caught in an episode with one of his classmates and be totally oblivious to it while the other party is freaking out. I do wish that this manga conformed to the school-theme of it much more as there was a huge lack of actual characters (including background filler characters) and a huge lack of actual plot and character development. This seemed less of a school-themed manga and more of an excuse to write about a ninja trap surrounded by girls since even the girls were pretty much unfazed by the whole guy thing.

*Contains a few spoilers*
I found manga while I was browsing “exorcist” related manga and I didn’t have too high hopes for it as my initial reaction was that it was a “cheeky rom-com” type manga from the synopsis alone. While it wasn’t completely that, this manga is definitely nothing to write home about.
Story: 6
We follow the development of Annelotte Capell (Anne) and Hal's relationship as Hal continues to protect her whilst continuing to propose to her. It is a simple story to follow, but there are a few major issues with it. Most of the issue comes from the characters themselves, but I’ll leave that ... when I talk about the characters. One of the issues is the lack of the actual antagonist, Mephisto, from actually appearing in the story. He appears about 2-4 times during the entire story, so he is supplemented with other demons looking to take away Anne. While this might not be an issue on the surface, we have no clue about who Mephisto is as an antagonist which makes him very forgettable until he does pop up again. The other issue of the story would be progression. The ending of the story is super rushed in my opinion. It kind of just slaps the final climax of the story in our faces and makes us continue reading on from there. I was really confused at the sudden shift and went back to make sure that I wasn’t missing some crucial turning point in the plot to which I had no avail. The story was definitely in the right position for the final climax to occur, but it was just so sudden that it jumbled my mind for a bit. In reality, the story is nothing special, but there are a few major issues which kind of drag the experience of it down.
Characters: 5
There is a massive issue with the characters which is the fact that they are so easily forgettable and literally just tossed to the side after they have completed their role. The 2 characters that this story centers the most around are Anne and Hal and the other characters are barely ever talked about after the subplot where they are important is over. The only exception would be Johann as he physically stays close to Anne and Hal for most of the story, but he is still generalized to the “best friend” trope. The other characters are very general as well and have little that is really interesting about them. Also, because Mephisto barely has any time in the spotlight in the story, we practically know very little about his character despite him being the end-all antagonist. Even though Anne and Hal’s characters are thoroughly observed throughout the story and are pretty interesting, it isn’t fair for them to be the only ones with any essence as a character.
Art: 7
I have no issues with the art, but I don’t think it is the most “unique” thing that I have ever seen. I do like how it goes into a lot of detail for close-ups and how it transitions the characters into chibi, child-like states when the conversation starts to include funny or embarrassing topics. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Overall: 6
I certainly did not hate this manga and I pretty much enjoyed it until it got to the end where the sudden insertion of the final climax made me incredibly confused. I might’ve been a bit harsh on rating the story, but I do feel like this was a pretty average manga. I definitely would’ve given it a 7 or something if it wasn’t for how bad the ending was and I do believe that the ending tying up a manga is one of the most important aspects to take into consideration.