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Well, here's the thing. The episodic storytelling is charming, the art is immaculate, the worldbuilding is rich. But the story itself revolves around a grown woman being stuck in a little girl's body (this isn't a big spoiler, it's revealed in chapter 1 or 2). No matter what elements you surround something like that with, it's always going to be uncomfortable. Especially when both boys and grown men are fawning over her constantly. I can't get over my personal distaste for that, and so I can't recommend it in good faith.
As I mentioned earlier, the high point of the work is the extremely high quality ... of the art- Tsukasa Hojo's eye for detail is wonderful and there's not a single off-looking panel in the entire work.
The characters are well-written and the stories tied to them are memorable; they all shine as people. The sole exception to this is the lolicon teacher who's literally just there as a joke (what sort of school principal would let a teacher stay on after discovering he took voyeur photos of the middle school girls' locker room??? That's not funny, that's an actual crime). The casual way all this is treated and the moral loops the author tries to jump through to justify all the romantic and frankly obsessive attention the female lead is subject to borders on revolting. There's thankfully virtually no fanservice except the lead's grown adult body having nondetailed, stylized nudity when she's astral projecting into trees.
Now that I've said all that, if you're still set on reading this, I can't stop you, but I can warn you that the ending is disappointing.

I mean, it's pretty alright.
It's hard to develop an opinion on a work like this that deals very heavily with Korean cultural concepts when I myself have very little prior knowledge of those concepts. If you like that sort of thing, great! This is for you. There's very little prominent manhwa that I know of that deals with similar settings.
Overall, it's a kind of generic romance story, with a barely serious love triangle to the side. The author kind of seems like they want to have a dialogue about the nature of love and what causes it to form, but it's not very developed.
The ... art starts off good, but the second volume looks noticeably worse, and continues to slip as it goes along- the monkey, Bibi, changes in design completely and is nearly unrecognizable. Besides the three leads and the woman they work under, every other character is completely bland and unrecognizable.
The characters are a high point, comparatively, even if they're tropey. The lead girl is an irresponsible and clueless yet charming girl who works in the palace gardens. Her love interest is a careless-but-secretly-serious older man. Mr. Third Wheel is a hotshot playboy prince who's annoyed that lead girl doesn't fawn over him like everyone else. What else is there to say? This kind of story has been written a million times.
I won't say reading it was a waste of time, but I do feel very indifferent towards it. I'd say it's worth reading only if you're interested in the cultural setting.

I haven't read any other works by Akimoto Nami, so I was pleasantly surprised at the level of sophistication present in such a short work. It's definitely worth a read if you enjoy shoujo manga or even just sentimental romance stories.
The story is very dense and detailed for the chapter count, and the author has a real ability to keep interest piqued in the plot. Unlike many try-hard love triangle where the outcome is set from the start, this one keeps you reconsidering who to root for. There are a great many satisfying twists and turns- written in a way where you can kind of ... guess where it's going but also just fresh enough that the twists feel rewarding and invigorating.
Where this work really shines is the art. Every single page is richly detailed with an overwrought, almost Baroque finesse that modern shoujo manga sorely lacks. I found myself comparing it to the work of industry giants like Naoko Takeuchi. The panelling is very organic and emotional, with page compositions that draw you into the story. When I think of shoujo, this is the art that comes to mind: sweet, rich, and dramatic.
The characters are all very well-developed, with realistic flaws and personalities for their respective age groups while never losing their appeal. The lead in particular hits that balance of portraying accurately how girls at the age think while never losing sympathy for her through her struggles.
Overall, I enjoyed Les Miru Fleurs- if you haven't read a shoujo romance before, this is a good place to start.

With amateur-ish art and incomprehensible worldbuilding, this short work is barely worth the time it takes to read it. It's very much a product of its time and doesn't stand out in any way.
There really isn't much to the story; it's SoL with barely developed characters. Half of it is spent on introducing the girls and then half is just the characters messing around, but since the manga is so short there's no room for anyone to stand out. The penultimate chapter is just a swimsuit contest used as an excuse to draw tons of cute girls, like they were side characters the author wanted ... to introduce and didn't have time for, and every single one of them is described with a generic harem trope.
The main characters' power, which is hyped up in the first chapter, is barely relevant and nebulously defined. Hazuki and Aozakura can talk to flowers... but this ability is only useful to Hazuki once and is only mentioned three or four times. They can both also summon flowers out of nowhere for some reason and there is no attempt whatsoever to develop this. There's another character who can see baking fairies when she makes sweets and this is never relevant and only in text for like four pages. Also there's an entire chapter about a ghost where nothing happens except her explaining her backstory to Aozakura and then fading away. The entire thing stinks of chuunibyou, but not even in a fun way.
I'm not familiar with the artist, but if I had to guess I would say this is probably either their first or second work, because the quality of the art is poor. It's very generic for its time period and the panelling work at times feels like an amateur experimenting with an unfamiliar medium. The worst offense of all is the way they draw breasts. Now, I'm not in the habit of looking at high school girls' chests- reading a work like this in the first place is a little out of my wheelhouse, but the fanservice isn't gregarious enough to be uncomfortable, so I powered through it. But oh my God, the way the girls are drawn is so distracting. They're like stickbugs with water balloons stapled to their chests and broken backs. As an artist, I couldn't help but be actively offended by it. If you're going to try to draw sexy or cute women or whatever, make sure they actually look like women. It's ridiculous. It's like the artist has never seen a real tit in their entire life.
I got very little enjoyment out of this manga. It definitely wasn't for me. It's probably best just observed as a stepping stone in this artist's career. Here's hoping the quality of their work has improved over the past decade.

Yet another insipid, utterly puerile work from Go Nagai. Story elements are borderline nonsensical, quickly mashed together tropes recycled from his other works; the only interesting thing about it is that this garbage ran in Margaret, making it ostensibly shoujo (Nagai did other shoujo works though- a number of other early magical girl titles, most of which seem to have been more successful than this).
The art is his usual- though rather than over-the-top violence, this work spends an excessive amount of time highlighting the villains' sex dungeons where they have wild bisexual BDSM threesomes. If that sounds interesting to you, please remember what Nagai's art ... style looks like. A solid third of the last book is just the "pretty" boy love interest in duress.
Avoid this series unless you're a Nagai completionist; vintage shoujo manga fans, Margaret enthusiasts, you will find nothing of interest or note here.

Yesterday, while watching a certain youtuber's retrospective on Elfen Lied, I found myself curious as to what the mangaka, Lynn Okamoto, had produced after his first longform (and most popular- in the West, at least) work. Upon seeing the list of his manga, it clicked in my head for the first time that Brynhildr was by him- a return to SF after his sports manga, Nononono. I had heard of this series before in passing due to the anime airing, but had never paid it any special mind, and written it off as a seasonal SF harem romcom.
I'm not sure what it was, really, that ... made me decide to take the plunge and read it. Perhaps because I had less than fond memories of Elfen Lied from high school, I wanted to see whether he had improved as a writer, or was rehashing his prior work like some kind of hack. Regardless of the how or why, I ended up reading all 181 chapters within twenty-four hours. This is unusual for me- I normally dance around a work and read about 20 to 30 chapters at a time.
But Brynhildr is different. It's got a strange, compelling quality, as laden with cardboard cutout harem tropes and haphazardly shoveled in lore as it is. Unlike Elfen Lied, which aggressively pursues despair to the point that it loops back around to being comedic, Brynhildr's character writing and melodrama actually tend to land more often than miss. In a lot of ways, it follows a more refined and articulate style of conveying its misery- the shocks and detailed gore never quite hit the highs of Elfen Lied, but somehow are more enjoyable and nuanced.
The character writing in Brynhildr is what really shines.
Despite the main guy being your typical harem protag self-insert loser, the way other characters bounce off him and shine is positively prismatic. Perhaps it's because of the highly violent, morbid stakes that the girls are subject to, but they all actually feel like rounded out and sympathetic characters. Not to say this is without faults- Okamoto's humor clashes heavily with the tone at all times, with more explicitly sexualized characters like Kazumi and later Takaya delivering their teasing horndog lines with just a touch too much seriousness- Kazumi, easily the most annoying and dislikeable of the main cast, comes off as a pathetic jealous femcel while Takaya's lust for his girlfriend frequently verges on making him look like a rapey creep.
In general, the clash between the dinky fanservice bits and the high stakes action is the weakest point of the series- only two fanservice-oriented callbacks in the entire series actually work, both very late into the story. However, while it's unbalanced and only tenuously entertaining at best, this off-kilter writing is what defines Okamoto's work-- maybe one day, he'll end up getting it right. I can understand what he's trying to do, even when he's not successful with it.
The plot, however, is nowhere near as good as the character writing. This may seem like a strange statement- as stories are rightfully defined by the strengths of their characters- but it holds true. In many ways, it is a rehash of Elfen Lied's central conflict, with many of the unintended thematic issues of his prior work seemingly directly addressed and fixed in this one. Making witches the direct result of experimentation by the institute, for instance, as opposed to diiclonai being born unintentionally from a virus, removes the rather ferociously deterministic undercurrents that Elfen Lied struggled with. On a small-scale, arc-to-arc level, though, Brynhildr still frantically struggles to keep its head above water. Okamoto is rather intuitively good at manufacturing scenarios that keep hype rolling in a serialization, but over the course of the series, the solutions that Ryouta and his little girlfriends come up with as they face increasingly powerful foes correspondingly become increasingly convoluted. There are more than a few times when you can quite plainly tell he's written himself into a corner and needs an out fast, causing narrative upset and occasional tonal issues.
One of his biggest problems- a holdover from his earlier works- is his inability to let named characters go, despite the frequent over-the-top gorefests. He's slightly better at killing people off here than he was in Elfen Lied- where this issue reached near parody levels- but it still remains a significant detriment to emotional investment in the story.
Beyond the character and plot elements, his art has obviously improved since his earlier works (I would be concerned if it didn't). The linework isn't phenomenal and his art style isn't exceptional, but his sense of composition and ability to execute pageturns is practiced and competent. The girls are pretty, the villains are intimidating, the big bad organization's pseudo-religious cult stuff is esoteric. His trademark violence is portrayed at just the right level of tastefulness for this sort of thing, always striking but never straying into hard gore territory.
All in all, it's a pretty alright work. Okay, even. I think if Okamoto continues to serialize manga at his current pace, he might make something good within another ten years.
The strange tone and unique narrative style set this manga apart from other SF harems, making it stand out in both good and bad ways. If you like high school harems, psychic gore witches, terminal illness despair, and Japanese SF interpretations of Nordic mythology, this is the manga for you. As puerile as it can show itself to be, there is a charm to the writing- perhaps a certain innate talent for tension and sadness- that'll keep you emotionally invested despite the work's many flaws. What Brynhildr does best, after all, is believe in love- through shock cuts of gore, suicide, despair, and bad fanservice, it never gives up on Ryouta's dream to bring the witches happiness.

While this story has a somewhat trendy cliche premise, it's still a very strong solo title and doesn't overstay its welcome. If you're a newcomer to the subgenre of villainess manga, this is definitely a great starting point.
The art is very pretty, and definitely better than a lot of other shorter titles in the genre, though the main girl's design is a little bit generic.
The character writing is very neat and focused, and it doesn't stray too far off into silly gimmicks like some other titles (far too many manga in this genre will have extremely bloated casts of flatly written pretty boys...). ... The narrow focus of the writing and competent pacing keep it enjoyable throughout- it reads very easily and the main girl is very sympathetic.
Overall this is a good short read, definitely worth the time it takes to breeze through. It's just novel enough to be entertaining and familiar enough with its trope writing to feel comfortable.

Amon is a pretty mixed bag of genuinely stunning, atmospheric horror direction and writing that swings between average to bad. I would recommend watching it if you're already into Devilman, but since it covers an alternate continuity version of a specific part of the original story, it may be confusing or pointless-feeling to watch as a starting point.
The direction of this OVA is its saving grace; it has some truly wonderful, tense horror segments, and conveys incredible tone. The sympathy it builds up for Akira genuinely works, and it serves well as a bridge in the story of Devilman- he struggles with himself to ... mature into who he needs to be in order to face Satan and fight. However, it meanders in the middle, and- as much as I love the trademark violence of Devilman as a franchise- tends to stick its toe a little too far over the line with the shock value, scenes with Amon proper often dragging into pure tastelessness. The violence against women in the OVA is also extremely fetishized and goes on just a little bit too long, though if you're already accustomed to Go Nagai and his associated works then that comes as no surprise.
What is a surprise is that most of the OVA hardcuts away from the shock violence and shows only its stark, repulsive aftermath- a decision that makes the focus on grief and grieving more haunting. Akira grieves Miki; Akira grieves the person that he used to be- he cannot go back to who he was, and the slow death of the world around him feels like the death of his Self. Both of the actual onscreen fights are actually quite boring and poorly directed.
The art and cinematography are generally nice and interesting; the style is very 90s and occasionally shows its age, but it holds up. There are lots of novel and interesting shots.
The sound design is not as well-aged as the art, but it is never completely ostentatious, and the sound in the horror segments is generally very well handled. It feels genuinely tense and unsettling.
The character writing can be hit-or-miss; the two female devilmen present are cardboard flat and seem only to exist in order to be brutalized, Amon himself is a one-note force of violence. Akira is quiet, broody, and struggles with himself; the OVA is centered on his emotional crisis and does a good job of conveying it. Ryo's presence, understated, hangs over the feature, and the ending scene- completely silent and still- is one of the best in the OVA.
Overall I enjoyed this OVA and I think it's a worthy addition to Devilman's extended universe, as well as a rare example of effecttive horror direction in anime.

An insipid cash grab fluff piece made to sell model kits with no innate moral integrity.
If you go into this expecting a true follow up to Char's Counterattack, you'll find yourself sorely disappointed. The first in a planned trilogy, it stretches the plot of its respective novel paper thin and chews its scenery in a garishly overproduced fashion. Every single plot point of this film is set up in anticipation of its follow ups; it feels like if you took a rolling pin to a flashy 24 minute episode and rolled it out to feature length.
The character art is gorgeous, sometimes excessively so, ... and the backgrounds as well. However, the mobile suits are all CGI, and a decent amount of the SFX are as well (during the climactic fight, there were some smoke clouds so poorly rendered I couldn't believe my eyes). It doesn't help that their designs are overcomplicated and toyetic in the first place, but even though the CGI is well-integrated, it's still extremely noticeable. Gundam is one of the last franchise bastions of hand-drawn mech and so the opportunistic switch to CGI is a major disappointment.
The sound design is overblown and bombastic, with a score that seems more Hollywood than Gundam. The two insert songs are also not very good, though I have strong opinions on music so your mileage may vary on that count. I'm a fan of insert songs, as well, but they both seemed out of place.
The character writing is standard Tomino flat, a style I normally enjoy, but the rough edges of characters like Gigi and Kenneth feel sanded over. All eroticism is shoveled into one scene and then the character relationships are left to idly wander with no resolution (ostensibly so they can be resolved in the next film- as I stated earlier, I believe stretching the novel into a trilogy was a bad choice and this is a major part of why). Gigi never feels Newtype crazy in that way that girls like Four Murasame or Elpeo Ple do, Kenneth's stated machismo is a squeaky clean cotton white restricted to one or two off lines and then later mistreatment of a prisoner that cuts off as soon as force is used. Hathaway is presented as a dark and broody hero and all of his moral complication is simply implied rather than directly stated, which makes him feel stale.
I did not enjoy this movie; I found it intellectually dishonest at best. It glorifies war and terrorism in the name of selling branded merch without any consideration- it is effused with a love of the idea of "Gundam" without understanding its own text or what Gundam's original incarnation is meant to represent.

I will start this review off with a simple statement:
You should only watch Baoh if you're interested in other things.
Its influence on other media, its place in Araki's career, its standing as an adaptation of an existing manga...
Curiosity about these are all valid reasons to dive into it, but it's not a work that stands on its own; it veers between its various identity crises without really landing on anything concrete. It gets watered down even more in the jump to OVA format, and only brief flashes of Araki's unique flair are present.
A key issue with the presentation of the story is that it ... moves quite fast, hitting all its 'necessary beats' in a mechanical fashion with little attention paid to depth or mood. A story that 1:1 works in manga is not going to work if adapted with no consideration for the change in media- Baoh is a huge victim of this. The story feels rushed, meandering, and more like just "things happening". There's no room for emotional investment and it brings very little to the table.
That said, the saving grace of the OVA is its art- it's incredibly well animated and smooth. My partner referred to it as we watched as 'a stereotypical over-produced 80s OVA' and he was right. This has tons of money poured into tons of detail and barely ever lets up on quality. The cinematography, sfx, and fight choreography are all incredible. It's very technically beautiful and stunning to look at.
The music on the other hand is very stereotypically 80s in a way that I think many may find dated/unpalatable, though I tend to like 80s action scores; it's not anything special, though.
As I mentioned in the story section, the writing in this is cardboard flat and the characters suffer majorly as a result. They feel like desk lamps having plot points thrown at them. Sumire (the female lead) also, in my opinion, suffers majorly from being what I can charitably describe only as a 'classic loli', which is definitely not a coincidence; this was 1987, knees deep in the 80s lolicon boom, after all. Some people may like that...... I definitely did not, and I found the romantic aspect between a ten year old and seventeen year old extremely unnerving and repulsive. There's almost nothing to write about Ikuro, either, really, besides that he's a guy and he does things. I couldn't describe a personality for him if I tried. There's also a weird racist bit about a Native American villain that's hard to describe as anything but some sort of bizarre fetishization. I suppose if you don't care about racial issues that that part might float by unnoticed but it's still... not good, writing-wise.
Overall this made for a very midtier evening watch and I have difficulty recommending it outside of that capacity. It's nothing to write home about and your time is better spent on better things.