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Feb 2, 2025
For an anime based on a free-to-play browser game this is honestly rather well put together, mostly competent and coherent. Personifying historical Imperial Japanese Navy ships into eccentric and colorful anime girls might seem like just another anime-ification cash grab, and well okay it is, but both the original game and this anime exude a certain nongeneric charm that is unique to this IP. There is a subtle genius in the way it is all put together that you never feel that this is an entirely soulless or cynical affair - there is personality here and I think that counts for a lot.
There definitely isn't
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anything groundbreaking here but it is also clear that that's not what this anime was setting out to achieve in any case. The original source material this anime is based off of is itself extremely thin on lore and backstory. Do not expect this world to be fully fleshed out or explained. The abyssals (the enemy/antagonists in this show) have zero characterization and if I recall only a literal handful of dialogue lines over all 12 episodes. They are more akin to a pest or infestation that the ship girls are tasked to confront and defeat than any kind of thinking, living and breathing opposing force in a military conflict.
But the abyssals don't really matter in that you're not supposed to be preoccupied with them all that much, or ask where they came from or why they are doing what they're doing. The game and specifically this anime are rather unapologetic about the fact that the enemy here serves merely as a plot device to give the ship girls something to shoot at and fight against and to provide a backdrop upon which to tell interesting character-driven stories.
There has been some speculation that the abyssals are intended to serve as dehumanized stand-ins for the United States Navy and are inserted in such a way as to act out a revisionist fantasy in which Japan wins the Second World War. This interpretation is unconvincing for a number of reasons not least of which is the fact that the game this anime is based on and draws all of its lore and ideas from later added American ship girls based on vintage US Navy ships of the same period, along with ship girls from other nations that participated in that conflict, foes and allies of Japan alike. In the game all of these ship girls, regardless of national allegiances during WWII, can be recruited to together fight against the abyssals.
I think that at times those outside of Japan go a little too far out of their way to read into Japanese media what they believe to be thinly concealed Japanese military chauvinism where in reality is more often simply Japanese earnestness around having an affinity for their own culture and history. While it appears that Japan may still have some unresolved hang-ups concerning their defeat in the Second World War and reconciling that with their culture of honor and the significance of shame and defeat in that context but I don't think this anime or the game it is based on have any sort of pretentions of this nature or any such political message. In fact I will venture to suggest that this IP is going out of its way not to disrespect the US or their WWII allies by instead having a totally fictitious, unrecognizable, almost eldritch enemy for the Japanese ship girls to instead fight against and subsequently destroy.
The reason they are all based on Japanese ships is simply because the original game was developed in Japan for release to a Japanese audience. It's possible to have national pride and an interest in your country's history including the assortment of storied warships constructed in the past without glorifying the brutal regime that directed those machines in wars of aggression. That is my interpretation at least and I see the references to the Battle of Midway and other allusions to WWII like the breaking of codes to be nothing more than neat easter eggs and historical tie-ins to wink back at viewers who know their military history.
This anime and the IP more broadly are really not reaching that deep and I say that affectionately. This is in no way intended to be a war-opera epic; this is an anime where ship girls blow stuff up, exchange banter, form friendships and share wholesome moments. Kantai Collection is very honest and upfront in this regard and I feel that the more pernicious characterizations of the show as revisionist propaganda are unwarranted.
Having briefly played the browser game this anime is based on I can say that Diomedea did a good job tying in both the elements of the game and the tongue-in-cheek references to real-world history and adapting it without having the show devolve into an excess of fan-servicey references or overdone WWII trivia. The characters reference in-game resources like fuel and steel and mechanics like "instant repair buckets" that might seem too silly and absurd for someone who doesn't understand the context of the show being based on a game but these things don't rock the boat enough (pun intended) to otherwise detract from the enjoyment of the series.
I have watched all the episodes dubbed and most of the episodes subbed I can say that this is an example where both the sub and the dub totally nailed the casting. Naturally there are some voices where I feel the sub did better and a few where I preferred the dub but overall the characterizations are consistent across both with some standout performances being Nao Touyama as Kongou in the original Japanese or Sarah Wiedenheft as Zuikaku in the dub. One thing I did want to mention was the insistence on Yuudachi using the same "Poi" verbal tick in the dub. The word itself in Japanese means "like" or "ish" and so simply repeating it in the English dub as "Poi" is missing the meaning in translation and doesn't convey quite the same charm as if the character was ending all of the sentences with the word "like", which is how it works in the original Japanese. I feel the localizers either didn't recognize or appreciate their responsibility to authenticity make the verbal tick make sense in spoken English or that they were too worried about being pilloried by the anime community and western KanColle fanbase who at the time this series was dubbed were fully enthralled by the "Poi" memes surrounding this character.
My take is that the most vocal, hardcore fans are just going to watch the sub in any case so localizers should worry less about that kind of backlash, real or perceived, and worry more about their job which is to make the dub (all of it) make sense in English. It is not the end of the world by any means but it stood out as a strange choice, especially during the first few episodes until you settle in.
The animation is crisp and looks medium/high budget for the most part. The CGI scenes, typically occurring during action sequences, are not all that great but at the same time could be a lot worse given when this was made. For me it's the often clumsy transitions between regular animation and the CGI models that sometimes comes across as choppy and abrupt.
The soundtrack in my view punches above its weight in a big way. I really enjoyed the loud and bombastic OP and the collection of varied tracks do a great job setting and shifting the mood of the show and are well synchronized with whatever is happening onscreen.
Overall I like this anime. It's a fun, wholesome escape with just the right mix of personality, solid production values and WWII trivia and reaches a satisfying conclusion before it starts to overstay its welcome. The excellent voice over work of either dub really steals the show and exudes so much charisma and charm that together with the original character designs taken from the game make for highly memorable and likeable characters, which are without a doubt the main attraction of this series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 12, 2025
Pluto is something of a disjointed narrative that seems to want to say a lot but trips over itself so clumsily that I can't really take it as seriously as it wants to take itself.
To be clear this is a mostly competent story but it's definitely strongest at the start and gets progressively worse as the series goes on, culminating in a fairly contrived ending. This is a similar pattern to that of the other Urasawa work I have read/watched, Monster, where the general concept of the story and sense of journey is strong but the landing can't be stuck and in the end it
...
undermines the strength of the story overall. I am starting to recognize that his personal quirks as an author and his method of storytelling is at best not something I personally gel with and at worst comes across just not as proficient and skilled as his reputation would suggest.
The world Urasawa creates here is admittedly fairly unique and creative, mixing elements of real-world places with a healthy dose of fictionalized aspects and overlaying it onto a semi-near futuristic setting that feels distant in some ways but not too distant in others. You have flying cars and advanced humanoid robots but police detectives still wear cheap suits right out of the 90s, that kind of thing. It's charming in many ways and you are left wanting to know more about the world and it's history but we don't get all that much.
Ultimately Urasawa doesn't appear interested in showing us how this imagined human-robot society and economy even works. What percentage of the population are robots? How and why have they not fully displaced humans from the workforce? While it's fine for Urasawa not to want to get bogged down in the details, when your story centers around human-robot relations and interactions these kinds of details strike me as important to consider if you want to craft a fleshed out and believable world which is able to carry the weight of your messages and themes.
The problem here isn't necessarily the setting, it's the fact that Urasawa seems to want to cash-in on the spectacle and novelty of futurism without thinking critically about how such a future could even exist. While this would be fine if this was a comedy or action-oriented series, it's clear that Pluto is intended to be a more cerebral and thoughtful piece of fiction. It comes across as Urasawa wanting to use robots and artificial lifeforms in a way to say something unique about the concepts of life and death but then not bothering to grapple with the details and mechanics around how or why loss in the context of an artificial and presumably fairly robust robot life would mean as much as loss of fragile and fleeting human organic life.
As far as themes explored I find them to be rather ham-fisted and incredibly unimaginative for a work in a sci-fi futuristic fantasy. For instance why on Earth could a robot, once physically "killed", not have their intact memory chip placed into a new body and essentially reborn or revived? This is perhaps the entire point in having removable personality or memory chips in such a world. Your body gets destroyed? No problem, here is a new one. In fact actual human characters in this same world are described as having been turned into robots/cyborgs after their human bodies are destroyed but the actual robots whose bodies perish can't be reconstituted? This is never explained or explored and it's just so dumb given how the story tries to say so much about the tragedy of loss and considering the melodrama that is employed it's just hard to take anything else in this world all that seriously.
Other aspects of the world are also begging to be scrutinized. Urasawa wants us to believe that there have been 38 previous central Asian wars prior to the continually referenced 39th? Where is the real-world analog to this to help make it even remotely believable? Come on. It would have sounded much more plausible if this event was the "5th central Asian war" for instance but Urasawa apparently wanted to impress the audience with such a high number. I'm not impressed, I'm just taken out of the world. This may seem like a small detail but these little contrivances are common and they add up and erode at your immersion and the believability of this setting and the perceived quality of the worldbuilding. When a story takes itself this seriously then so do I and that means some of the silly choices get less of a pass.
The best parts of the story are the small snippets where interesting characters appear and vignettes that tell a condensed story within the larger narrative of Pluto. Sometimes it is the back and forth banter centered on a legendary robot murderer held in something approximating a maximum security prison who came across as a bit too cartoonishly evil but captivating and original at the same time. Other times it was the C plot like the journey of radicalization taken by a man whose murdered brother was part of a anti-robot hate group and the journey coming full circle to the man's subsequent deradicalization and grappling with forgiveness. These episodes within episodes were much more compelling than the actual A or B plots at times.
Where Urasawa is strongest is when he starts to weave vague notions of international conspiracies, shadowy interest groups, slowly building up with the pace of a semi-psychological thriller... but this mostly falls apart as more is uncovered and revealed the less interesting it all turns out to be in the end. Many of the moments intended to be gasp-inducing pin-drops elicited only an eye-roll from me due to how predictable, telegraphed and self-indulgent they were in execution.
I am left unconvinced that this story offers any kind of profound commentary on war, existence, purpose or really any other theme. The anti-war message for example that is touched on repeatedly came across as fairly simplistic and juvenile in it's black-and-white presentation of one side as totally guilty and the other fully framed and misunderstood. Beyond that the message could be summarized as "war is bad". It's all just way too neat, tidy and preachy to carry any real weight and this is how I received the story's other attempts at philosophy.
Having both read the manga and watched the anime I can confirm that very much like Monster before it this is a very faithful manga-to-anime adaptation. It's basically 1:1. But like Monster that means that all the flaws of the manga's narrative translate directly to the anime as well. If I had to recommend one over the other I would probably go with the anime for the animation and presentation alone.
As a work of sci-fi entertainment and as a decent thriller story it isn't bad at all but it is difficult for me to see it as something more profound.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 12, 2025
Pluto is something of a disjointed narrative that seems to want to say a lot but trips over itself so clumsily that I can't really take it as seriously as it wants to take itself.
To be clear this is a mostly competent story but it's definitely strongest at the start and gets progressively worse as the series goes on, culminating in a fairly contrived ending. This is a similar pattern to that of the other Urasawa work I have read/watched, Monster, where the general concept of the story and sense of journey is strong but the landing can't be stuck and in the end
...
it undermines the strength of the story overall. I am starting to recognize that his personal quirks as an author and his method of storytelling is at best not something I personally gel with and at worst comes across just not as proficient and skilled as his reputation would suggest.
The world Urasawa creates here is admittedly fairly unique and creative, mixing elements of real-world places with a healthy dose of fictionalized aspects and overlaying it onto a semi-near futuristic setting that feels distant in some ways but not too distant in others. You have flying cars and advanced humanoid robots but police detectives still wear cheap suits right out of the 90s, that kind of thing. It's charming in many ways and you are left wanting to know more about the world and it's history but we don't get all that much.
Ultimately Urasawa doesn't appear interested in showing us how this imagined human-robot society and economy even works. What percentage of the population are robots? How and why have they not fully displaced humans from the workforce? While it's fine for Urasawa not to want to get bogged down in the details, when your story centers around human-robot relations and interactions these kinds of details strike me as important to consider if you want to craft a fleshed out and believable world which is able to carry the weight of your messages and themes.
The problem here isn't necessarily the setting, it's the fact that Urasawa seems to want to cash-in on the spectacle and novelty of futurism without thinking critically about how such a future could even exist. While this would be fine if this was a comedy or action-oriented series, it's clear that Pluto is intended to be a more cerebral and thoughtful piece of fiction. It comes across as Urasawa wanting to use robots and artificial lifeforms in a way to say something unique about the concepts of life and death but then not bothering to grapple with the details and mechanics around how or why loss in the context of an artificial and presumably fairly robust robot life would mean as much as loss of fragile and fleeting human organic life.
As far as themes explored I find them to be rather ham-fisted and incredibly unimaginative for a work in a sci-fi futuristic fantasy. For instance why on Earth could a robot, once physically "killed", not have their intact memory chip placed into a new body and essentially reborn or revived? This is perhaps the entire point in having removable personality or memory chips in such a world. Your body gets destroyed? No problem, here is a new one. In fact actual human characters in this same world are described as having been turned into robots/cyborgs after their human bodies are destroyed but the actual robots whose bodies perish can't be reconstituted? This is never explained or explored and it's just so dumb given how the story tries to say so much about the tragedy of loss and considering the melodrama that is employed it's just hard to take anything else in this world all that seriously.
Other aspects of the world are also begging to be scrutinized. Urasawa wants us to believe that there have been 38 previous central Asian wars prior to the continually referenced 39th? Where is the real-world analog to this to help make it even remotely believable? Come on. It would have sounded much more plausible if this event was the "5th central Asian war" for instance but Urasawa apparently wanted to impress the audience with such a high number. I'm not impressed, I'm just taken out of the world. This may seem like a small detail but these little contrivances are common and they add up and erode at your immersion and the believability of this setting and the perceived quality of the worldbuilding. When a story takes itself this seriously then so do I and that means some of the silly choices get less of a pass.
The best parts of the story are the small snippets where interesting characters appear and vignettes that tell a condensed story within the larger narrative of Pluto. Sometimes it is the back and forth banter centered on a legendary robot murderer held in something approximating a maximum security prison who came across as a bit too cartoonishly evil but captivating and original at the same time. Other times it was the C plot like the journey of radicalization taken by a man whose murdered brother was part of a anti-robot hate group and the journey coming full circle to the man's subsequent deradicalization and grappling with forgiveness. These episodes within episodes were much more compelling than the actual A or B plots at times.
Where Urasawa is strongest is when he starts to weave vague notions of international conspiracies, shadowy interest groups, slowly building up with the pace of a semi-psychological thriller... but this mostly falls apart as more is uncovered and revealed the less interesting it all turns out to be in the end. Many of the moments intended to be gasp-inducing pin-drops elicited only an eye-roll from me due to how predictable, telegraphed and self-indulgent they were in execution.
I am left unconvinced that this story offers any kind of profound commentary on war, existence, purpose or really any other theme. The anti-war message for example that is touched on repeatedly came across as fairly simplistic and juvenile in it's black-and-white presentation of one side as totally guilty and the other fully framed and misunderstood. Beyond that the message could be summarized as "war is bad". It's all just way too neat, tidy and preachy to carry any real weight and this is how I received the story's other attempts at philosophy.
Having both read the manga and watched the anime I can confirm that very much like Monster before it this is a very faithful manga-to-anime adaptation. It's basically 1:1. But like Monster that means that all the flaws of the manga's narrative translate directly to the anime as well. The soundtrack wasn't memorable but I don't recall it being bad. Watching the dub the voice acting was also serviceable but nothing particularly outstanding. The animation was however quite crisp, high-quality and in some places downright impressive. If I had to recommend one over the other I would probably go with the anime for the animation and presentation alone.
As a work of sci-fi entertainment and as a decent thriller story it isn't bad at all but it is difficult for me to see it as something more profound.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Nov 3, 2024
Monster is something of an experience and one that I decided to run through concurrently alternating between reading the manga and watching the anime. This is primarily a review of the manga but given that the story is basically identical in both versions (which is to say the anime is a very faithful and complete adaptation) all of what I outline here around the story and plot also applies to the anime.
Right away I can say that this story does not live up to it's acclaim as one of the highest rated manga of all time. This isn't because it's necessarily bad or poorly put
...
together but because it's not all that remarkable or groundbreaking. This is a mostly rudimentary action mystery thriller with elements of a detective story. That's not a bad thing but this is not what the general reception to this work would have you imagine this story would be or how the manga presents itself at the beginning.
The opening chapters of this story were extremely promising and fooled me for a moment into thinking this was the start of some masterpiece of storytelling where a kind hearted, well meaning Japanese doctor in Germany becomes traumatized and tortured by the trolley problem-esque dilemmas of emergency medicine. Being broken after having to save one life over another and so haunted by that to the point of being driven mad. Perhaps mad enough to be motivated to directly confront the inequities inherent in our modern world, leading to extreme, highly immoral courses of action in service to some kind of rationalized greater good and in doing so slowly becoming the titular "monster" himself. Going in blind and reading the first few chapters this is honestly the general direction I thought the story would take and I was prepared to watch the deconstruction of this man Tenma through a complex and tragic story of philosophical and psychological unravelling.
But this isn't the story that unfolds and after the first two volumes or so it became clear this was mostly a mystery suspense thriller. It is entertaining though. The art style on display is signature Urasawa and while it isn't my personal favorite it is very polished and realized and seems to complement the setting and story well. The plot is mostly running around Europe always being a step or two behind the main villain. The series likes to dangle the carrot in front of the reader a lot. It definitely starts to get to the point where you begin to doubt there will be any kind of resolution to the story at all but after 162 chapters there finally is... sort of.
The ending is largely unsatisfying and disappointing in my view which is perhaps all the more egregious given how the story is artificially stretched and padded out in increasingly less plausible ways. There are also all kinds of contrivances employed to keep Tenma's hands clean just when you think he is about to be forced by circumstances to make decisions that go against his sense of morality. The story tries to be deep and while I am sure some readers got the impression that it is, I wonder if they are not mistaking a high degree of polish for depth. To me the overall presentation felt highly polished but the characters, themes and plot came across as largely shallow.
On the characters there is honestly not that much to say. Tenma is an impossibly good guy to the point of frustration. There was so much potential with his character to develop him in so many different and believable ways but he is largely the same character he was at the start of the manga as he is at the end. The villain is easily the worst aspect of the story overall as he comes across totally unbelievable, comically evil and confusingly cruel and the lack of character development is a problem here as well. Some of the other characters have interesting personalities like Tenma's ex, the detective obsessed with Tenma and "the amazing Steiner" and the presence of these more interesting characters is mostly what keeps the story moving.
What this manga admittedly does fairly well is gradually build up the sense of journey and adventure by regularly changing the setting, introducing different characters with different backgrounds and perspectives, Tenma constantly getting caught up in all kinds of unenviable predicaments, and stopping every so often for more exposition and long conversations revealing more behind the various mysteries and conspiracies central to the story. Each segment or sub arc of the manga has a very distinct setting, its own distinct tone and particular group of supporting characters and you can't help but get a bit nostalgic for the various phases in the story once you get to the end. To put it another way I would say that if you layer enough shallow elements together and stack one on top of another then you will ultimately come away with some sort of pseudo or false depth and that's what I think you get here with Monster.
To that end it's a competent story that works both as a manga and anime experience however I think most who come in expecting to be blown away as I did will be left wanting more. A lot more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 27, 2024
Monster is something of an experience and one that I decided to run through concurrently alternating between reading the manga and watching the anime. This is primarily a review of the manga but given that the story is basically identical in both versions (which is to say the anime is a very faithful and complete adaptation) all of what I outline here around the story and plot also applies to the anime.
Right away I can say that this story does not live up to it's acclaim as one of the highest rated manga of all time. This isn't because it's necessarily bad or poorly put
...
together but because it's not all that remarkable or groundbreaking. This is a mostly rudimentary action mystery thriller with elements of a detective story. That's not a bad thing but this is not what the general reception to this work would have you imagine this story would be or how the manga presents itself at the beginning.
The opening chapters of this story were extremely promising and fooled me for a moment into thinking this was the start of some masterpiece of storytelling where a kind hearted, well meaning Japanese doctor in Germany becomes traumatized and tortured by the trolley problem-esque dilemmas of emergency medicine. Being broken after having to save one life over another and so haunted by that to the point of being driven mad. Perhaps mad enough to be motivated to directly confront the inequities inherent in our modern world, leading to extreme, highly immoral courses of action in service to some kind of rationalized greater good and in doing so slowly becoming the titular "monster" himself. Going in blind and reading the first few chapters this is honestly the general direction I thought the story would take and I was prepared to watch the deconstruction of this man Tenma through a complex and tragic story of philosophical and psychological unravelling.
But this isn't the story that unfolds and after the first two volumes or so it became clear this was mostly a mystery suspense thriller. It is entertaining though. The art style on display is signature Urasawa and while it isn't my personal favorite it is very polished and realized and seems to complement the setting and story well. The plot is mostly running around Europe always being a step or two behind the main villain. The series likes to dangle the carrot in front of the reader a lot. It definitely starts to get to the point where you begin to doubt there will be any kind of resolution to the story at all but after 162 chapters there finally is... sort of.
The ending is largely unsatisfying and disappointing in my view which is perhaps all the more egregious given how the story is artificially stretched and padded out in increasingly less plausible ways. There are also all kinds of contrivances employed to keep Tenma's hands clean just when you think he is about to be forced by circumstances to make decisions that go against his sense of morality. The story tries to be deep and while I am sure some readers got the impression that it is, I wonder if they are not mistaking a high degree of polish for depth. To me the overall presentation felt highly polished but the characters, themes and plot came across as largely shallow.
On the characters there is honestly not that much to say. Tenma is an impossibly good guy to the point of frustration. There was so much potential with his character to develop him in so many different and believable ways but he is largely the same character he was at the start of the manga as he is at the end. The villain is easily the worst aspect of the story overall as he comes across totally unbelievable, comically evil and confusingly cruel and the lack of character development is a problem here as well. Some of the other characters have interesting personalities like Tenma's ex, the detective obsessed with Tenma and "the amazing Steiner" and the presence of these more interesting characters is mostly what keeps the story moving.
What this manga admittedly does fairly well is gradually build up the sense of journey and adventure by regularly changing the setting, introducing different characters with different backgrounds and perspectives, Tenma constantly getting caught up in all kinds of unenviable predicaments, and stopping every so often for more exposition and long conversations revealing more behind the various mysteries and conspiracies central to the story. Each segment or sub arc of the manga has a very distinct setting, its own distinct tone and particular group of supporting characters and you can't help but get a bit nostalgic for the various phases in the story once you get to the end. To put it another way I would say that if you layer enough shallow elements together and stack one on top of another then you will ultimately come away with some sort of pseudo or false depth and that's what I think you get here with Monster.
To that end it's a competent story that works both as a manga and anime experience however I think most who come in expecting to be blown away as I did will be left wanting more. A lot more.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 26, 2024
I'll start by saying that I am not a diehard fan of HP Lovecraft so much as I have a general understanding and appreciation for his body of work, the themes, the associated aesthetics and his contributions to the horror genre, which is undeniably immense.
Having said that I also feel that when looking at any adaptation of an original work, manga or otherwise, the reader or viewer should be able to enjoy the adaptation to some degree on it's own merits and not simply because it is connected to or propped up by the original work or the name of that work's author. It's from
...
this general perspective that I am approaching this short story collection in manga form.
This compilation contains three of Lovecraft's stories; The Temple, The Hound, and The Nameless City. I will provide an overview on each story and then provide my overall thoughts on each and the collection as a whole.
The Temple
This is an adaptation of the 1925 short story in which a doomed German U-boat and its crew descend (both physically and mentally) into the dark depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
The original Lovecraft story takes place during WWI, with the submarine and crew in question belonging to the Imperial German Navy. In this adaptation the setting is changed to WWII for some reason. It could be the fact that the Nazi obsession with the occult and lost cities at the bottom of the ocean seem to feature heavily in horror fiction, with the very human, worldly evil that that regime represents often colliding with and being dwarfed by the otherworldly potency of literal demons and demonic forces and in short order succumbing to them in a kind of poetic justice. Tanabe might have been keen to cash in on this trope where he plausibly could. Perhaps it was simply for no other reason than the fact that nothing quite grabs the attention of a reader more than a swastika which features prominently adorning a flag on the first page. This is more of an observation as I find the new backdrop does not take away from or really add much to the story either way but I felt the change was worth noting nevertheless.
Right away the most striking thing about Tanabe's work, which is showcased to full effect in The Temple is the art; namely the character designs, general art style as well as the use of light and shadows. The character designs do not look particularly Japanese or manga-esque and this collection could easily pass for a western graphic novel which might have been the intention; to entice readers who wouldn't normally read manga but are intrigued by the idea of a comic book adaptation of Lovecraft's stories. The art has a very eerie feel to it, with the characters embodying a certain uncanny quality that makes them seem stiff and soulless but in a way that serves to elevate the sense of dread and hopelessness inherent in the story. Tanabe does an especially great job with the faces of the characters which convey the sense of madness and insanity in the eyes of a person who has clearly lost their mind expertly and in a way I haven't quite seen before. The interior conditions and general atmosphere of a WWII submarine are recreated perfectly to where even the reader starts to feel claustrophobic.
Above all is the use of shadows and darkness which do so much work to not only set the mood and atmosphere but in this case inhabit the setting itself. Whether it is the exterior shots of the submarine bathed and surrounded by total darkness, or the barely lit interior of the submarine or the deep shadows on the faces of the characters during head-on close up shots that perfectly communicate the manic and grim nature of the situation unfolding - it all combines to produce a totally oppressive atmosphere that stays with you after you finish the story. That's powerful. In this way I think this story achieves something the original written work couldn't.
That said, there are limitations to Tanabe's approach. Dialogue is often curt in this story and used sparingly and sometimes little is actually explained and just has to be gleaned together by the following or preceding panels to truly understand what is happening. The close-ups of character's faces is perhaps a little overused, not because it stops being effective but more so because it becomes increasingly noticeable as a deliberate technique employed by Tanabe to maintain tension and the sense of panic. Overall though this story is in my view clearly the strongest of the three adaptations.
The Hound
The Hound is decidedly more conventional as a "cursed by a stolen artifact" story. The two characters are introduced and established as arrogant and callous graverobbers in a convincing way consistent with the original story. Here Tanabe's character art switches focus from conveying stiff madness to communicating an almost psychopathic hubris and overconfidence and slowly eroding that away until they express a very sane sense of fear in men who have not yet lost their minds.
It's more dialogue heavy and action-oriented which is a welcome contrast to The Temple, but it is ultimately more predictable as a story and by that token, more forgettable. There are some very tense moments with the paranoid, frightened characters being stalked by the supernatural forces they've unleashed and it's done in a convincing way but here some of the very dark, murky panels again become a little hard to follow.
This is an overall competent but unremarkable adaptation and short-form horror manga story with some very disturbing panels where the horror is less imagined or assumed but actually shown in abrupt and unsettling ways.
The Nameless City
The last story adapted here reads the most like an HP Lovecraft work out of the three largely because it is entirely narrated.
Here Tanabe seems to be invoking Indiana Jones with some of the general motifs and design choices. I wouldn't say it spoils the story but it does seem to me to distract a bit from the general energy of the lore and the mood Lovecraft originally envisioned. Like the inclusion of the WWII setting in The Temple it feels like Tanabe is taking some liberties, albeit plausible ones, to make the stories as visually interesting as they can be but in this case it may be a bit too on the nose.
This is by far the most descriptive of the stories with the visuals rendering themselves as an aide to the narration but in that way it is also firmly the weakest of the three as it is the least visually impressive. Outside of a few specific panels most of the story can be described as Indiana Jones rummaging around ruins in the dark. The Nameless City mostly succeeds when it is expositing on the origins of the found city with palpably ominous, prophetic passages but outside of those sequences it's definitely a degree more boring and the ending noticeably less dark than the other two stories which kind of ends the collection on something of a soft note.
Overall
Looking at this compilation overall I would have to say that Tanabe largely succeeds in capturing the mood and effect of Lovecraft's writings while translating them into the manga form. With very deliberate manipulation of lighting, perspective, close-in shots and simple but effective facial expressions these stories are retold in a way that transcends written words.
The Temple stands out as the mood carefully and methodically established in that story can't be explained as much as it has to be shown. On it's own The Temple is an 8/10 and is easily the most memorable and haunting of the three stories. It's the one you'll likely have stuck in your head for awhile and the one you will recall when thinking of this collection. In contrast the other two adaptations are closer to around 5/10 - they are competent but not remarkable. I really think this book ought to have been titled "The Temple and Other Stories".
At any rate, fans of Lovecraftian horror, horror manga or really just horror in general will get some enjoyment out of this and it is definitely worth reading for The Temple alone. It's important to note that this was Tanabe's first attempt at adapting Lovecraft and he has been busy in the years since this book's release adapting a number of other Lovecraft stories and it will be interesting to see whether his approach evolved throughout that time and if so how. There is no denying that he has a passion for this project given his commitment to expanding his adaptation library as well as the obvious respect shown to the original stories from an overall authenticity perspective. All this to say that the The Hound and Other Stories makes for a enjoyable, if experimental, horror manga experience that works both as an adaptation and also as something novel in its own right.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Oct 20, 2024
I generally try to avoid dropping a series, especially relatively short completed works, if for no other reason than being able to conduct a complete end-to-end review and better understand why I didn't like the work if that happens to be the case. This title however did me in. Upon completing the third volume (23 chapters in) I refuse to push on any further. This came after efforts to resist the desire to end the slog, a feeling that I had been fighting since the start of the first chapter.
The manga drops you in totally dazed and confused as to who these characters are, what's
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actually going on, why it's happening and most importantly why you as the reader should care. You are given sparse information identifying the characters by their names and titles but you can't help but feel that you are missing out on quite a lot, like you are starting a TV series from the third season instead of the first. Like somehow 70% of the background knowledge and information is missing or being intentionally withheld from you. I understand some authors want to keep things light on exposition but I feel keeping the reader in the dark to this extent is a bit ridiculous. The world building 20+ chapters in is almost entirely nonexistent. The premise and the main dilemma are left vague and whenever it comes up again in the story no new information is gleaned or discovered. Character motivations are not properly established or conveyed to the reader; so many things that happen just beg for you to "just go with it".
There is practically nothing about this series that is notable, interesting or likeable. The main character is not merely unlikeable, he's totally hollow and undefined. His "tragic backstory" is exceedingly contrived and not properly connected back to the main story and as such does not serve to really explain why he is suddenly swearing unwavering fealty to this princess he just met; the reader is left to imagine his motivations and fill in those blanks themselves in a sort of guessing game.
The FL is introduced as this apparently all-powerful "princess" (also being bizarrely referred to as "Lucifer") and beyond that she has almost no personality other than being very determined and somewhat bossy. Some of the supporting characters have more in the way of personality and charisma but they are repeatedly overshadowed and swept aside by the continuous recentering on the two main characters who you as the reader are still left lost as to why they are important and why they are important to each other.
Towards the end of the third volume characters upon characters are introduced as "such and such knight", one presuming that this is now finally leading to some kind of proper expository setup, transitioning into the real story in earnest from the end of this sort of slice-of-life prologue but what you are presented with is the most stilted, flatly delivered generic speech from the princess which adds nothing to the story and only confirmed my fears that the author kept these pesky worldbuilding details and character motivations vague because apparently either nothing came to their mind and/or they didn't feel it was necessary for the story or reading experience.
I'm someone who generally likes to know why a world ending cataclysmic event is about to take place, what a princess has to do with it, what is she a princess of, who bestowed these titles of "princess" and "knight", what are these knights, why are the various beasts relevant or significant to them being knights, and easily a dozen other gaps in the plot but that's just me.
It's important for me to point out that some stories can overcome these flaws or deficiencies in plot. If you are not going to properly build your world (the act and art of worldbuilding) or write a clear plot then you're going to have to be doing some other things extraordinarily well for me to see value in your work, to care about it and continue to read on. Either the artwork is going to have to be incredible, or the action scenes well-choreographed or particularly creative, or the comedy would have to be very well-written and witty with jokes that land most of the time or the characters themselves have to be so compelling and interesting that I want to read on if only to see more of them even if the story that they inhabit makes no sense. But this manga has none of those things. I have tried hard to play devil's advocate for this series and push myself to reconsider whether I missed something or if my lack of enjoyment was somehow my own fault or oversight. Trying to find the selling points in this series feels like trying to answer a sphinx's riddle; I'm just stuck and lost for words.
I am not exaggerating when I say that to me this feels less like an acclaimed manga from a well-known mangaka and more like a weekend project a high school student would keep themselves busy with. It just feels childish, amateurish, incoherent, vacuous and empty. With most manga that I dislike I can at least understand what the author was going for, who they were trying to appeal to and why that audience would perhaps enjoy it more than I did. I have no idea what Mizukami was trying to achieve with this or who this manga is for.
I can't recommend it but if I have to say a few good things to justify why it's not a 1/10 it would be that some of the beast characters like the lizard and dog come across as being ripped out of a more interesting manga and pasted in here. Some of the banter between the main character and the lizard has the semblance of being endearing if only everything around it was better. By the same token the delivery of some of the emotional or tragic moments is well executed in the sense that the author can pull off the last step well but is missing all the others that serve as buildup for the payoff. I would liken it to trying to draw realistic shadows around stick figure people.
There are a few other Mizukami titles that I intend to get to and while my intention is to give those titles their own fair shake it will be hard not to keep this particular series in mind as far as poor first impressions go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Oct 20, 2024
The manga sets out to deliver a quirky, stylish, action-packed, tech noir thriller detective story and it mostly succeeds in that the end result is undeniably cool but also somewhat vapid and stodgy. It's unfortunate for a premise with so much potential but the manga does start to overstay its welcome by the later chapters. The overall plot, character motivations, flashbacks and regular exposition become fairly convoluted and you'll find that around halfway through you end up caring less about what's about to happen from a story standpoint and more about treating your eyes to the author's creative and dramatic artwork.
On the artwork, it is
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easily the best part of this manga. Very much in S-tier territory. The character designs are clean, sharp and eye-catching. It manages to keep just enough of the rough linework to be charming while also coming across as super polished and refined as a final product. Karasuma certainly didn't cut corners here and it is fairly obvious that the art style and technical quality of the art together do much to carry this otherwise very average story. No where did I feel the linework was rushed for a less important scene or that the author was particularly better at the start or at the end of the series - the art is just consistently gorgeous with a very premium feel to it.
The series does a decent job at worldbuilding but despite regular exposition there is a very strong sense of disconnectedness from the setting that these characters are inhabiting. There isn't much in the way of inhabitants in the backgrounds or wide shots of bustling futuristic cities but rather close angles of alleyways, run-down apartments, and nondescript sci-fi lab facilities and the like. This is a very personal, intimate story that the author is trying to elevate through higher stakes but it just doesn't fully come together in my view.
The writing is not bad though... the dialogue for one thing is excellent, hitting both the dry humor you expect from a noir-style story but also some very satisfying one-liners and very personalized dialogue for each of the characters. The characters themselves are for the most part likeable and the protagonists feature some very grown-up, believable friendships and endearing interactions.
Overall though the story is a bit too messy, foggy and needlessly intricate to be truly memorable or unique and the attempts at social commentary around topics like body modification and the treatment of war veterans feels half-hearted and clumsy.
Still, there is enough good here to recommend a read through for anyone who wants a Blade Runner-esque action manga with top tier art.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 20, 2024
If you're into NTR and "innocence corrupted" tropes you'll likely get a kick out of this. The premise to start is somewhat novel for a story like this but it does run it's course fairly predictably. The protagonist comes across their husband's diary chronicling his extramarital escapades in vivid detail and this serves as an inspiration and a sort of call to action for her to likewise seek out that which she is missing from her life; excitement and thrill of a physical and sensual nature.
In a sense this is one of those "justified cheating" stories where the author tries to make the protagonist a
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bit more sympathetic than they would otherwise be sleeping around outside of their marriage.
I feel there was room to extend the story past the 22 chapters and explore some other ramifications or outcomes of the protagonist's choices. The ending is fine but it feels a bit abrupt given some of the very late character development within the last few pages that could have taken the story into some other interesting directions. Maybe a missed opportunity there.
Art is good overall however the art style around the faces, especially that of the male lead are a bit weird looking in my opinion and clashes with the erotic nature of the story.
Overall a solid NTR but stops short of being particularly well-done or memorable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 20, 2024
This is a character-centric harem comedy ecchi. Everything from the premise, the setting and the shallow, largely episodic plot points are just an excuse to further the basic outline of the MC building out a harem one girl (usually) at a time. If you are expecting to follow a volleyball sports manga with some ecchi and fan service in between intense tournament drama then you have found the wrong title.
You can't and shouldn't take this manga seriously and there is every indication that the author doesn't expect you to. The idea that these amazons would be tripping over themselves chasing after this dorky MC as
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if he was the last guy on earth or something is ridiculous on it's face and how the MC handles it all is equally ridiculous and unbelievable. Almost all of the characters are some form or another of absurd deviant caricature with some being notably more outrageous than others. Each of their personalities are fairly distinct and consistent within themselves and the girls all play off of each other well in most cases. The most normal or sane characters you are going to get here are probably the volleyball team captain, her bedridden father who seems to be in good health for someone apparently living out of a hospital and the captain of the basketball team that the main cast frequently run into and proceed to antagonize.
But what this manga does well is that it is fairly entertaining and totally unapologetic. You can't help but be amazed at the stupidity of the scenarios and the sheer insolence of the author for writing this in the way they did. Some chapters are definitely better and more memorable than others and the ones that center around college volleyball, though few and far between at times, are some of the better and slightly more serious ones.
The art is quite good in my opinion. The body types on display here are obviously a bit over the top as the title suggests but the character designs are very much "S-tier" and from what ensues you can tell the author is having fun drawing this.
The elephant in the room is that this guy (MC) is probably going on too many, as they refer to it in the manga, "dates", with his sister and it's largely played off as quirky, racy or some kind of normal-adjacent. What is there to say. The author's obsession with this particular pairing over all the other pairings in this harem that one could push from a character development standpoint is somewhat frustrating however in the end and as mentioned earlier this is not a manga to be taken seriously, even by ecchi standards. The idea that this guy would score with any of these girls is already stretching believability and scoring with all of them repeatedly and regularly.. would never happen. So with this pairing you don't exactly have to suspend your disbelief that much more than you already are. Part of the formula here is in the utter madness of it all.
As of chapter 77, despite the gradual escalation of degeneracy the manga is fairly consistent overall and is generally rude, lewd and amusing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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