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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.

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.

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.

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 ... 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.

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 ... 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.

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 ... 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.

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 ... 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.

Reading this manga for the first time more than 35 years after it's original run I feel that there has to be some allowances made for some of the more dated elements of the story. What are now clichés may not have been in 1987 (or perhaps not to the same extent as may be the case today) whether it is the impossibly evil step brother, the virtuous but dense as a doorknob father to the unapologetically anabolic physiques; it's all a bit antiquated but not entirely without charm.

The execution of this admittedly very simple, basic story is the main attraction. Nothing about Jonathan or ... Dio or really any of the other characters is unique to this story - in fact they hardly have much personality beyond the factory applied veneer of henchman, mentor, sidekick, main character's girlfriend etc but despite that through the little details like Dio's consistently hateful and aggressive facial expressions to Zeppeli's ridiculous but endearing diamond-pattern top hat, these kinds of micro genius decisions all converge together to produce something greater than the sum of it's parts.

But it is mostly style over substance. Jonathan manages something of a character arc but you'll still be hard pressed by the end of the story to recall his personality other than it progressed from "bizarrely naive" to "stoic".

My issues with the story are some of the more contrived elements. Characters who should be soundly defeated given the rules established in the universe, pull miracle reversals out of thin air often with large speech bubbles explaining, sometimes unconvincingly, how. The final blows in particular are over-explained in some of the fights to where you get the impression that Araki himself was self-conscious of how much he was stretching things, even in a story like this.

Characters also change their resolve, allegiance and temperament on a dime. They'll be stubbornly one way and then based on some usually superficial new information, interaction or event they will suddenly change their mind and reconsider their life choices, for instance joining forces with the protagonist within a few panels of going after them with murderous intent. It doesn't feel real or that these are real characters so much as they are archetypes playing out their respective roles rigidly in a kind of gauntlet that Araki has them running around in.

It's mostly entertaining. The artwork, despite looking clumsy in many places, works well to communicate the energy and power behind physical attacks and blows with the aftermath panel making you almost wince at whatever body part is being crushed brutally if overly cartoonishly. Some of the gratuitous violence is surprisingly eyebrow-raising. Not in a bad way but more just surprising for something that was serialized in a Shonen publication in the late 80s.

Overall it is serviceable but reads like a slightly refined, quickly polished outline or sketch of what should be a more fleshed out story. It's very expository and campy but that coupled with the art style works on a few levels... It just isn't a very good stand alone manga - in fact it is remarkably bad in that regard despite having all the component pieces and elements of a proper start, middle and end.

As the first part of a long-running, very successful series it seems this work serves more as a world-building exercise and a foundation upon which more interesting stories will be told later on. That is my hope at any rate.