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Dec 4, 2016
I really liked not only the premise of the manga but also the art style that I had seen from a few images on /a/. I honestly didn't expect much, considering the fact that I thought it to be one of those manga that you couldn't really take seriously and it wouldn't really end up being anything more than just a cutesy little thing, but as I read on I kept thinking about how much nicer it would have been if it were in fact more serious than it was, and as such my review is a serious one.
Let's start with the story, then. There
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really wasn't one at all, there were a few hints of something going down with a festival (that ended on something with potential but ultimately the manga didn't do anything with it), as well as summer break bike training and the swimsuit selection, but other than that everything is just episodic. Personally whenever I read a manga that has to do with schooling, I tend to enjoy it more when I can be immersed by having the school go through various events, ie different seasons and festivals, neither of which the story really capitalized on. There was one episode where they changed seats but nothing really ended up happening there. Overall though my main issue with the story is that it's the same thing almost every single time: Girl teases boy, boy gets flustered, tries to fluster her back, and ultimately fails at it usually with a small hint of romance from the girl that the guy ignores or doesn't fully respond to. That's really it, and in my opinion the parts that could have really progressed the relationship between the guy and the girl would have been either the swimsuit chapters (which is where the manga is currently at), the horoscope/blood type chapter, or the festival chapter. All of those show that the relationship between the two of them could grow, but by the next chapters its always the same thing once again.
And with that allow me to enter the characters. If I really were to be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with them. Sometimes the main guy does something manly, but most of the time he's just a retard. The girl can sometimes try and convey her feelings to the guy, but ultimately she just tries to tease him because that's what she enjoys. I really don't understand either of them, I'm sure it's nice to do what they do but why would being in a relationship stop them from doing what they do now? I don't see a reason as to why the girl wouldn't want to be in a relationship with the guy, even though she's tried several times to show him that she liked him. How would she not get upset? Annoyed? I understand being fine with the current situations but it really feels like she's never been serious about this and that upsets me. As for the guy, he just gets really embarassed a lot and tends not to really convey any of his true feelings unless he's kind of unaware of it. He showed SOME character development with the festival scene, but as I said before that literally went nowhere so as far as I'm concerned he's just the same throughout the entire manga. That's the main issue that I have with the characters, they don't progress or develop. They're always the same, there's nothing different about them. They just keep doing the same stupid shit over and over again and after the first 14 chapters the characters start to sound like a broken record. I want to reiterate this: I don't think either of them are bad characters based on how they are in the manga, it's just the fact that they won't develop that makes me unable to believe they are realistic and as such flawed, which is the reason for my low scoring of the characters.
The art on the other hand is absolutely great. I cannot find any mistakes, and if I did, it would be one of the very rare things that happens. Absolutely perfect linework, character designs, and it's just overall nice to look at.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 18, 2016
I want to preface my review with the following: I really enjoyed the ride that Bleach took me on, for the most part. From the very beginning up until the end of Fake Karakura Town, I found great enjoyment, hype, and an engaging manga through Bleach. After the end of Fake Karakura Town, I believe the manga should have ended and if it did I would have given the review a solid 9/10 and would recommend it to anyone as a fantastic read. However, that is not the reality and as such I must assess the story, characters, and experience after that, which has left
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me feeling with a sense of emptiness and disappointment. Regardless, even though I feel this, I would not hesitate to recommend this manga. The experience you get from it is almost unparalleled, very few works can really pull you in like Bleach does. Even though it does fall flat on its face towards the end, everything before is completely worth reading.
*slight spoilers below*
Alright, so onto the review. For the story, I'll rate the individual arcs and why I rated them that way in a short description. Overall, I rate it a 6/10 for the story.
Soul Society Arc - 9/10. Fantastic character development, the power creep isn't too insane, the story is thrilling and gets you riled up to continue reading. I don't really think I can all it perfect, the beginning has slight pacing issues in my opinion and some characters are a bit wishy washy, but I feel how good the arc is makes up for those slight issues.
Arrancar Arc- 8/10. This arc has less of a focus on character development, although it definitely is still there and is noticeable with several characters. I don't think it's super well paced, mainly in the Hueco Mundo arc and parts of the Fake Karakura Town, but I found the rest of it to be engaging and enjoyable. I'd like to point out I thought any time Orihime was mentioned it was not a pleasant experience for me, as I think the story didn't really progress much when she was involved, nor do I think she as a character really grew more than what we knew about her, so I think that's one of this arc's bigger flaws. It felt like to me Ichigo didn't really progress much as a character either and the power creep could get a bit out of hand at times. I didn't like how the Vizards had their potential squandered, they did literally nothing but train Ichigo and that was it. Not only that, but Ichigo also got a lot of asspulls thanks to Kubo. I don't think this arc is perfect, heck I might have rated it a bit too highly, but I think the action fights in this arc just completely blow Soul Society's out of the water. Most of the fights felt like they were the classic ones from the first, i.e. Renji/Byakuya/Kenpachi versus Ichigo, and to do that on such a large scale is not only impressive but just awesome to watch. That is why I rated it a 8/10 instead of a 6/10 or 7/10.
Fullbring Arc - 5/10. I'll be honest here, I don't remember much from the Fullbring Arc besides a few key things, but I think it was bullshit that Ichigo was allowed to get his powers back and that's why I knocked several points off. This arc and the next are the reason why I wouldn't completely recommend this series to anyone, and the Fullbring Arc is the beginning of why I think that. I don't recall the fights being too interesting, especially compared to the Arrancar Arc ones, nor do I feel the story had any real impact on anything with the exception of the fact that Ichigo got his powers back. I didn't like any of the new characters much, I don't think anyone grew as a character in this arc, and so it felt pretty useless to me. That being said, I'm going to be generous and not rate it as garbage because I don't remember it entirely, and so maybe it's better than I remember. I certainly don't recall thinking it was /that/ bad and as such I feel it was at best mediocre, or else I would remember it as being good.
Quincy Arc - 3/10. And so we come to the arc that completed just a few hours ago. I have to say, very little can be said that is good about this arc, but what can be said is significant. The fight scenes are great for the most part, although towards the end they get much worse with asspulls and general unenjoyment attached to them. Still, I felt like I was watching the Arrancar Arc fights, and that sort of hype is always fun. Seeing Yamamoto's Bankai, all the different Quincy effects, etc. That's all I can think of for the good parts of this arc. First off, I think the story for this part was pretty badly implemented. We never find out why Ywach survives (apparently Yamamoto spared him or something? Kubo never goes into detail about it) and he's literally the reason this entire arc starts. Ywach himself is just a bad character, he has no substance and he's literally the asspull king. I mean, the fact that his power is literally the ability to go between futures and change reality using other futures is retarded, and leads to retarded situations like even though Ywach can supposedly see all futures like tiny grains of sand, he mistakes the future where he fucking dies as a dream. Like what the hell? As I said earlier, towards the end the fights get really bad and we see that with stuff like Gremmy, Ywach (fucking breaks Ichigo's new bankai we get to never see, TWICE, thanks Kubo), that big ass dude with the sword and shield. Lots of plot stuff in general not talked about, Urahara/Grimmjow/Nel, what happened in the fight between Hitsugaya/Byakuya and the big dude among other things. Speaking of those two, I honestly think they should have died and not come back, as it really makes the story look worse in the long run. Another thing that happened was Aizen, seeing him come back was another cool thing in the story but jesus christ at the end he is like the most powerful being alive but they still somehow restrain him back into the prison where we see him in the final chapter. The ending was really bad, very little closure was done and it didn't really end as it looks like it will continue as a sequel for the son and daughter (?) of Ichigo/Orihime and Renji/Rukia, respectively. Very disappointing ending that left me unsatisfied.
Art - 9/10. I mean, I don't really have to explain myself much here do I? The art early on was solid and had really neat fashion designs and just all the designs and ability visuals and everything was done so well. Only issue I have is that Kubo got lazy towards the end and stopped drawing backgrounds and somewhat adapted his style to be a bit less... appealing, at least in my opinion. Still, the art is definitely on point in this manga.
Character - 7/10. I think there was a lot of character development and just really solid and interesting characters in this manga. Mayuri, Aizen (one of my favorite Villains of all time), Gin, Ulquiorra, Byakuya, etc., are all just some examples of these characters. There are tons of these in the Gotei 13, in the Arrancars, and the Quincies even. I'd say the weakest characters lie with the main cast (Ichigo's pals) and the Quincies (due to what I presume is a rushed story), which there are also plenty of in this story as well. There are at times flaws within many characters, as an example Orihime, Ywach, and Haschwalth, so I definitely don't think it's too amazing, but early on the character development very on point, in the middle the characters get a huge ramp up in creativity and interest, and towards the end they stop being as interesting for the most part. While some of the Quincies do catch your eye with designs, personalities, and abilities, they generally fall flat with how rushed the last arc was.
Enjoyment - 7/10. I did not follow Bleach along with most of everyone else. I watched parts of the beginning of the Soul Society arc and then parts of the Arrancar Arc, and then read the entire two arcs back to back. Then I finished the Fullbring Arc, read a little into the Quincy Arc, and then stopped for a while. Came back and read some more chapters later on, and then I was off/on for reading it every few weeks or so. I didn't really hate reading it that way, but I'm certain I didn't get the full experience as most other people did. Maybe it was worse, maybe it was better, but I really enjoyed it regardless.
I have a special rating system of my own that I follow, and generally what a 6 means is that I don't really recommend it but it could be worth a read if you're into it. I wholeheartedly recommend the first two arcs, but the last two arcs are really not too great and really bring the series down. The overall rating is done because I think very few people would actually feel satisfied reading the entire thing, and most would end up disappointed like I was. However, the first two arcs are without a doubt amazing, and I think everyone who likes Shonen would give them a chance.
Thanks for the ride, Kubo, shame you had to rush the last arc and have your stuff cancelled, I hope your next series will be as great as Bleach and end as it should have.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 3, 2016
I'm going to keep this short and sweet: Rokka no Yuusha is not what it appears to be. In the first episode, it comes off as a adventure fantasy story about a very self-centered man by the name of Adley Mayer, but the anime actually turns out to be an unexpected and well done drama mystery more than anything else. Coming in, I expected a mediocre action anime that would end up being as bad as I thought it would be but instead I found it to be a fresh work that I hadn't enjoyed as much as anything else in a while. The story
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ends up being very interesting and engaging and the only flaw with it that I can remember is that it hinted at another season when there has yet to be any official word at one, but here's hoping.
There's a couple of CGI bits which look much worse than had they been drawn, although I suppose there might not have been a budget for it, but the CGI that was used was very out of place in my opinion. Most of the hand drawn works and the backgrounds felt good, I don't recall any quality tier animation either.
I had no issues with the sound, I liked the score that it had but it wasn't anything too outstanding. Opening had a cool as fuck song, though.
Characters were solid, I don't think any of them had any major issues, although I didn't like what they did with Fremy much. The characters all had interesting backgrounds (those that had them, that is) and designs and overall I feel like they did a good job with them.
As I said, I really enjoyed myself with this little gem. It's nothing too amazing but it's definitely worth a watch if you like mystery, fantasy, or drama.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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