I honestly think there are some anime out there who have some type of special qualities or abilities: failure frame (not gonna spell that long-ass name) is possibly one of the powerhouses in this regard with such a great "what you see is what you get". Every time our lovely protagonist yelled "paralyze" to the enemies, I, too, was paralyzed on sheer horror. Every "poison" made me feel uneasy too, and all his "sleep" made me slowly fall into a peaceful slumber, as if it were directed towards me instead of the character in the same series. Quite powerful anime, isn't it? Failure Frame is
...
quite the case where the overly simplistic premise progresses so but so linearly and predictably that it becomes infuriating. No, I don't mean it's repetitive (though you'd be correct even in that case). It's just that it overuses the initial plot approach to the point of feeling silly. Stupid even. Failure Frame manages to live up to its name and premise, being quite a failure in almost every aspect.
But what is that makes Failure Frame such a case? What does it have? Well, let's start with a little review of the plot and how it starts:
Touka Mimori, our beloved protagonist, is on is way along with his classmates to some type of class trip in which- Wait what? Every one of his classmates is an absolute asshole? Yeah... Don't get too much good vibes from it... But I digress. So in the middle of the trip they got teleported to another world in which the goddess tells them that they're heroes and have skills and everyone is unique, and the bullies are strong and and and... Yeah, sorry for that, but basically that's your premise on the first episode. The plot itself present itself as such a bitter taste in your already bitter tongue that fall flat, why do I make this kinda of irony? Because I want to break down just how absolute horrible the first minutes of the anime are, we get to see how almost every one of Touka's classmates are absolutes assholes to others while having all the same type of "hierarchy" in class, I always tell to myself that this is the blandest way of trying to settle the tones, like what are you thinking? I don't know anybody and yet you force such a one-dimensional characterization on the WHOLE class and protagonist life just to make it easier to get edgy later? Couldn't you at least hope to wait just a little bit? And am I criticizing this part too much about something so simple? No. Not at all in this episode. The first moments of an anime is something that needs to make you feel engaged to it, that charms that it radiates via the characterization and dialogue that will settle our direction and setting on such works, but this is all we got for our first moment? And just don't make me start on how everyone turn on our protagonist to bully him because he is weak... See what I mean? It feels like all was just a pretext to make something look darker and tragic when it wasn't even organic on the first place, making it that the plot itself feels like something that tries just to fall onto the ground so hard it is almost shameful to look at.
Going back to the main point: the first episode is absolutely horrible, no questions asked. But it’s in the following episodes that you'll be subjected to what you'll hear throughout the entire series. Yes, be prepared for the unbearable, insipid, excruciating, and nightmarish... Paralyze and poison... It seems as I'm doing some kinda of joke now, but seriously, this is what I mean in my first point: Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells, focus in where it says "annihilated everything with LOW-LEVEL SPELLS" because this is a point in where I think we need focus. You see, there's plenty of people of anime (isekai specially) in which the only gimmick is that the protagonist have one thing, let it be quality or skill, that almost runs all his character trying to maintain it afloat. There was an anime in which the protagonist was overly cautious, which I liked, and another one in which the main gimmick is that the protagonist can parry everything which I'm not liking (from this same season), and other in which the protagonist is a middle-aged adventurer (also from this season) that I think is okay... So what's the difference? Obviously, and for starters, it's the direction and how serious the series want to be versus how serious it actually is.
If your protagonist have an overpowered or just silly skill, make it that his personality and plot points doesn't wrap around it.
If your protagonist have a silly exaggerated quality, make it that the series itself can have humor and even teases itself.
But, for the sake of everything that is holy, don’t make your protagonist rely solely on their skill, and even more so, don’t treat it too seriously. At least give us a chance to laugh at the end of the day. What Failure Frame did was the latter. Obviously, this reflects my preferences regarding how a character's personality should align with their skill. I think that what’s most annoying about Touka lies there. It’s not just that; his character almost literally works as an oxymoron for the plot itself.
Now let me try to extend on this little silly idea. You see, the plot enriches itself with the idea of how the protagonist was ranked as a bad hero and how he wasn't even capable of doing anything spectacular, so they decided to send him to a dungeon in where the sunlight don't even peek out contrasted with all the monsters that do peek out to kill and eat, that's known to us thanks to the goddess Vicious, the main antagonist, but there's some question that arise after watching some episodes... First, why send heroes there in the first place? I know it is focused the point that Touka is really bottom of the barrel and talentless... But still, why? This question arise also from the lack of deep and exposition of how the magic and power systems works. Even if it's true that Touka tried to paralyze Vicious to just fall miserably, there's no explanation in how does the effect of paralyze and poison work, neither of how the curve of that power itself work, isn't Vicious just wasting potential like a fool? We just need to take in our minds that it seems that paralyze and poison works on some people and not on others, but doesn't that make Touka almost extremely broken? Add to it the fact the poison and paralyze almost never or straight never goes off the creatures once the skill is leveled up, so it was a little more of training and the protagonist have the power to quite literally kill everyone slowly as he imprisons them. Again, Vicious, aren't kinda of a big fool for wasting this potential? That's one first problem, and why don't use that dungeon as a place for the heroes to train? Doesn't that seems more worth than just doing those stupid errands and expeditions that we see throughout the episodes whose serve no purpose to be honest. The fact that something so simple like paralyze and poison have such a big impact makes it hard to believe the rules bound towards strong hierarchy and the antagonist mentality, as I said, is all forced to make the story edgy and makes our protagonist suffer, because that's the point, to try to be serious yet not being serious, just like as I stated on my first point.
That also followed my second point too: How absurdly linear and predictable the plot progress just based on the approach it takes at the start. When I meant that I wasn't focusing on this series being generic, is that I mean that the tittle says it all about the anime both in progression and content; I usually think there's a misconception when you talk about something being repetitive by following the same structure yet having different content in each structure, than having the same content with different structure in the narrative, both of them don't mean anything bad by itself, but that's a whole another talk and I digress. My point about Failure Frame falls into that, how it does the same thing again and again both in the same content and with the same narrative structure and even plot points, which I find almost inconceivable in any media. That problem of falling on the same structure and content falls because, well, the protagonist have the same skills, I remember when I was a kid I wondered plenty of times "Hey! Why doesn't Goku just spams Kamehameha to defeat his enemies with no problem?" well, little me, it's because that would be fucking boring, so damn boring that no one would think about making a story like that, right...? Sorry my inner kid, your words were heard by a japanese man, whose name is Shinozaki Kaori. But yeah, that's the problem, the content itself is limited when talking about actions sequences and conflicts, because the protagonist has only 2 skills that he spams... Then what about the content? Let me break it down for you:
—"Please please don't kill me! I-I don't know anything..."- Touka, in almost every circumstance
—"Hehe... It seems we have quite the easy target... Hehe..."- The enemies, which proceed to talk with themselves like idiots
—"Haha morons you've fallen for my trap RHHAAAAA PARALYZE POISON!!!"- Touka, who just killed the treat of today's episode
The reason as to why I took my tame to wrote such a lame and cringeworthy set of words is because that's the stamp, the golden print, of this anime. Failure Frame somehow thinks its interesting seeing this, even faking a build up to its reader. Like, what do you mean the strongest character showed died because he was careless? And on top of that, he was careless because the protagonist told him "Hmm... Well if you come later to me, I'll be stronger, so we will have a great showdown and yeah..." what type of poor dialogue is that? This is not any type of subverting expectations to make an interesting plot twist nor to change the narrative, this is just a failed promise by the author, almost betraying the setup he made himself by sacrificing dialogues and a character's conflict, just so the protagonist can go "paralyze - poison - sleep - berserk"? That happens in a specific character to which I even made pasta, which for me is the nectar of life, just for it to get completely spoiled after witnessing such a horrible episode. Both in structure and content, there's no grace in this.
And that’s just the surface, because Failure Frame is full of surprises—or maybe not. There’s a saying in my country, 'Chiste repetido sale podrido,' which means that something repeated too often becomes lame. That’s the experience with Failure Frame; it’s kind of funny, considering that even after everything, I haven’t even started talking about the characters. But there lies the problems, there's really a few to talk about when it comes to characters, because if the main core, the plot and world have deep issues, how are we supposed to look in good eyes at the characters on the world? The character, funnily enough, feels really disconnected from the world they live in, maybe because of how the info dumping works in the series, in which every dialogue is fueled with edginess that is not even funny, so the inclusion of the characters on the main plot and the world fitting around them is so dissonant contrasted by the tones and direction it feels like a lazy attempt instead of characters really talking about themselves, that's specially true in the main duo's dynamic; Touka and Seras.
There's a scene I would use to make an attempt to disclosure just how silly this relationship feels; In a moment they're asking a receptionist for a room, to which the conversation goes like this "Touka, I think we should order just one room to save money" to which Touka replies with "Do you know I am a man, right?" to which Seras blushes and stutters, while Touka just keep his Stoic demeanor... And later at that same episode there's a mistake for Sera's part in which she serves Touka herb that turns him on, to which Seras says "Is there any way I can help you?" and at that point I was done, how could it be that Touka and Seras relationship makes progress based on that stupid tension? I'm saying it because a few episodes before that happens, there is one episode that finishes with Touka literally asking Seras "Hey, remove your clothes". Is when you gather all those dialogue when you notice Seras and Touka's relationship was settled since the beginning for the author, so he just made some lazy plot points for it to make it more sense for them to be together; he changed the order of the things, he thought first on the idea of making a partner for the protagonist, he thought too much into that, making all their interactions later are based on some type of fetishistic things related to the fact that Touka is the one who saved her. So no, the characters doesn't even feel like characters, the main duo isn't even charming in the slightest, and they don't have chemistry whatsoever and their dialogue fall flat, even with all the conflict that Seras had at the start and how Touka helped her they still both feel like their dynamic is artificial and with a dialogue so unsubstantial and so shamelessly insinuate that doesn't even work as irony nor parody, not like that was the author's intention tho.
Now... Stay with me in this one, even if it's true that the source material from this anime is anything but good, there are some guilty people here making this stuff. You know, the charm of this is seen how they ANIMATE the source material into. If luckily, a whole different experience still aligned with the original themes and essence, right? Sometimes I feel like I talk to myself. Now is one of those moments, because this anime looks awful, but goddamn awful. The animation lack in almost every department, but the worst and more nightmarish prize should be given to Kōtarō Sasaki, having worked previously on... Tesla Note?! Don't worry, he wasn't managing the CGI back then, but it seems so, as both look so bad that it even breaks the immersion in the series to an absurd level, I won't even give examples in episodes that looked back, just search the opening on YouTube and enjoy. I'm full into appreciating CGI, the stigma is not bad at all compared to how was it back then on 2016, but there are some art choices that just doesn't seem to make sense on my head. There are plenty of scenes in which the CGI of our main duo walks in the middle of a dark forest, making an abrupt change between traditional animation to CGI while having such dark backgrounds make it look awkward, as its like the whole focus artistically changes with no reason from one point to another... I obviously don't want to insult Kōtarō Sasaki, the budget didn't seem to good for this anime neither, yet I can't help but think that the anime would have look so much better without that nasty CGI and those sudden changes in shots that also changes the animation style with no advent just to follow the same narrative, making is unnecessary and awkward. Sasaki's CGI just doesn't work along with Yōko Nakao's decisions. Its normal, since it is really hard to include CGI in anime like that. But if that was the case since the start they should have not done it in the first place... Yet I'm not expert on animation whatsoever. But if I, the public, see those mistakes, is because something wrong is going on there, the general composition of the series looks awful and sometimes even slow, but at least it feels coherent, unlike some anime from this same season, so that's a little bonus for it.
So, what does Failure Frame attempt to achieve in its final stretch, or in its subversion of the tropes it has been playing with throughout the series? It's a bit funny. Failure Frame tries to impose limitations on the protagonist simplistic powers, but it ends up with strange results. For instance, there's a moment where the protagonist reaches a maximum number of targets, and in another case, he attempts to paralyze an enemy, but it fails because... the enemy covered their face? It feels weird and nonsensical, and there's no narrative explanation as to why that would happen.
Additionally, why tell us he has reached the maximum number of targets, only for him to paralyze everyone again moments later? It feels like a lazy attempt by the author to remind us, 'Oh, remember, this power isn't all that great... but yeah, it still works.' This inconsistency adds to how strange the world feels. Why is this skill portrayed as a weak, extra ability when the series has shown and told us two different things about it? When the premise is delivered so inconsistently, with basic elements far apart like two separate lines that should align, it becomes clear that the plot wasn’t fully thought through.
One of the most frustrating aspects of this adaptation is how little progress the series makes on the central plot established at the beginning. We barely see the protagonist’s journey toward vengeance—it’s as if they bait us with it, only to let it sink. I understand that this is likely due to what the first season is meant to adapt, but since there's almost no chance of a second season (and I honestly hope there isn't one), this feels awkward and almost dishonest. The series spends so much time with the protagonist shouting, 'Vicious, I’m going to get my revenge,' that any other plot progression feels unimportant and uninteresting. Along the way, he recruits characters who are flat and boring, serving only to highlight how terrible the world is. If you're writing a dark fantasy and the only way to show the darkness of the world is through repetitive dialogue and grotesque characters, then the world feels one-dimensional and weak. That’s when you know you fucked it up.
There are countless other bad things to be said about this series, many of which make me feel as furious as the characters themselves. The blandness of the characters—both in their dialogues and personalities—is so infuriating and laughable that you can’t watch any scene involving Touka’s class interacting without asking yourself 'why?' with an awkward smirk. Delving further into it almost feels redundant. Characters introduce themselves, only for none of them to have any real relevance in the anime. The awkward and jarring transitions between CGI and traditional animation don’t help, especially when the environment looks poorly rendered. The worldbuilding is equally awful, with a weak power system, and the main cast adds nothing to the story. There’s no excitement or intrigue for what’s next—it’s just a disappointing mess.
So Failure Frame really did it great, because:
The plot paralyzed me in horror.
The characters drove me berserk with how annoying they are.
The animation poisoned me for life.
Save yourself from this
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Sep 26, 2024 Not Recommended Funny 
I honestly think there are some anime out there who have some type of special qualities or abilities: failure frame (not gonna spell that long-ass name) is possibly one of the powerhouses in this regard with such a great "what you see is what you get". Every time our lovely protagonist yelled "paralyze" to the enemies, I, too, was paralyzed on sheer horror. Every "poison" made me feel uneasy too, and all his "sleep" made me slowly fall into a peaceful slumber, as if it were directed towards me instead of the character in the same series. Quite powerful anime, isn't it? Failure Frame is
...
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Sep 6, 2024
Sekisei Inko
(Manga)
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Not Recommended
One of the most marvelous feelings when reading works by the same writer, watching movies from the same directors, or seeing how a specific animator plays with visual effects, is the sense of familiarity that comes with the phrase 'Hey, I know you.' As a reader or spectator, you become accustomed to their style, which can enhance your enjoyment of their new attempts and narratives. This familiarity allows you to follow their growth and see how they blend their expertise with new techniques to create something more engaging. Think of creators like Satoshi Kon, Makoto Shinkai, or Naoki Urasawa.
But what if that's not the ... case? I’m quite familiar with Wakui's works, having read more than half of them, and unfortunately, they have all been incredibly dull, boring, and lacking in substantial progression. It’s been frustrating to read them. Ken Wakui is a mangaka I’ve given four chances, which he procedded to spit on my face in all those 4 chances... But Sekisei Inko, despite being absolutelly terrible, manages to be his best work... Which is not to say much, but as to feel better with myself after reviewing both Tokyo Revengers and Negai no Astro, I came to deliver some silly rambling about one of his precious early works. Sekisei Inko offers us a story in which our protagonist, Nana (or "Seven"), has lost his memories after the traumatic experience of watching his friend (and lover) Hiwako Shima die in front of his eyes. His suppressed memories take the form of an illusion and a voice in his head called "Memory" as he finds himself caught up in some messy situations. It’s not just messy because of the problems the protagonist gets involved in; it’s messy because of how the story unfolds and the twists it tries to deliver, it tries to drive you crazy with some dialogue and interactions that just don't manage to evoke something on the reader. Another major issue with this manga (which we’ll discuss again later) is its abrupt and absolutelly terrible ending, but we'll get to that, let’s start from the beginning. There’s this silly thing I remembered while writing the review. It’s not something major, but it’s funny to point out. In the first chapter, when Nana talks to his friends about his memory loss and Hiwako’s death, he says, "About Hiwako..." and his friend immediately slams the grille at the rooftop, telling him, "Don’t talk about it ever again... And she would be so sad to hear you call her Hiwako." But in the rest of the manga, literally in all the flashbacks, Nana calls Hiwako by her name—Hiwako. So what was that guy’s problem with it? And more importantly, why would you treat someone who has lost their memory and is completely lost like that? Is that for real? Don't be an asshole, nameless friend from our protagonist. But yeah. It felt like a childish reaction from both the character and the author, as if they were trying to force an unsettling and ominous atmosphere from the very beginning, even though we don’t know anything about the characters' lives yet. What’s Nana’s characterization? It’s difficult to build a well-rounded character with amnesia because you have to work hard to avoid making it seem like lazy writing or like you’re just using the condition as a crutch. That’s one of the basics of writing this trope. But even though it’s a basic trope, crafting and delivering a compelling amnesiac protagonist is tough, especially at the start. How do you make us feel empathy for someone who doesn’t even know themselves? I asked myself that, because, at the start, Nana was... just boring. I don’t know, it felt like my stream of ideas dried up. Nana is so dull and one-dimensional that you never feel like you're on a journey with him to rediscover himself or his memories. This could be attributed to many things: the lack of facial expressions, the stiffness in many panels that fails to evoke emotion during key scenes, or simply the fact that Nana doesn’t open up to others, nor do we see his daily life with amnesia. This makes the plot so straightforward that it doesn’t connect with the reader. And that’s a shame because, in Sekisei Inko, there are sometimes great illustrations, but the catch? All of those great drawings are of "memory", the illusion in Nana’s head. So whenever something happens outside of that, the artwork feels lacking (except for maybe three panels about Nana’s past and Olga). I would argue whether the art is "great" solely because of memory’s existence, while the rest is unimpressive and not particularly memorable. But I digress. To make it short, one of the biggest issues with our protagonist is that the mystery, even though it revolves around him, doesn’t make us feel empathetic toward him. The plot starts abruptly, with no intriguing concept. And to top it off, this manga has probably the worst case of subverting expectations I’ve seen in any media. That speaks volumes about how poorly it handles its twists and revelations. So, when you have a mystery without an interesting main character (despite him being the focus), combined with awful plot twists, what do you have? Well, nothing. Absolutely nothing." But then, what about the long-awaited dénouement, or at least the point where things are explained? Well, that happens almost immediately. Did any reader really get excited when they revealed the truth about the powers in this manga? Let me be clear: I think the illusion-based powers the manga tries to present are so atrocious that I can't even begin to describe them properly. When I saw one character slice a random bystander in half, I thought, "Whoa... things are about to get serious". Then came the explanation: "Wait, what do you mean everything is just an illusion? Huh? People die because their bodies believe the illusion is real? Oh... I see... I see..." That was my honest reaction. On paper, it doesn’t sound that bad, but the issue is that, due to the manga's early cancellation, we don’t get any real explanation about the power’s limitations or how it actually works. And no, saying, We can't use the power too much or our bodies turn black and we die isn’t enough of a limitation. It's completely arbitrary and doesn’t create any meaningful plot points. It feels like a rule added just to mess with a few scenes and prevent the story from being too boring. As for how the power is obtained, or how the protagonist gained it? Nope, not a single clue. That’s why I say the problem lies with the ending. If it weren’t for the cancellation, we might’ve had more insight into this. As it stands, the power system feels like something pulled from a nightmare, badly conceived and incomplete. It was so flawed that I even read the English translation (since I'm a Spanish speaker) to see if something got lost in translation. Why did I even bother to care about that? Am I seriously that dumb? Well, whatever the case, this power system adds nothing of value to the series and isn’t interesting in the least. We don’t even understand why some people can manipulate senses to such an extreme, or how they could use this ability in a more intriguing way. What did the author envision happening after, say, 70 chapters? Two characters who can manipulate the sense of smell fight each other? How would the sense of touch work in this setting? Where’s the complexity when it comes to people manipulating all five senses? I’ve ranted about this topic too much already, but it’s justified. I just hope I never come across another power system as arbitrary, ambiguous, and dull as this one. Yeah... that’s probably wishful thinking, right? *Looks at Wakui’s new manga, Negai no Astro* Goodness gracious... Not again please... And the characters are just as bad, if not worse. Why is the bad guy who tried to kill the main character suddenly siding with him? Who was that old man who died? Why did this character show up just to die? Why is the antagonist so short? Why is this other antagonist still alive? What the actual hell is going on?! To be fair, some of these questions could be answered easily, but when you really think about the author’s decisions and justifications, it feels like a complete mess. Let’s take an example: why does one antagonist look so young, while the other one is still alive despite his age? Well, it turns out they’re searching for immortality and conducting experiments. Oh, I see... but how did they discover immortality, and what about those experiments? Well, why are you asking me that, dear reader? The explanation is simple and to the point: It just happened, and the rest of the details are conveniently left out. It reminds me of when I was in school and would ask questions like, Why does the Earth rotate? My teacher would respond, It's because of something called rotation, but you'll learn more when you're older. And I’d think, Teacher, I didn’t understand a single thing, but I trust that I’ll get it later. That's exactly how this manga feels, except I seem to have died in a traffic accident before ever understanding how the Earth rotates. You see the parallel here? That’s what reading this manga is like, but with a more mundane—and infuriating—twist." I remembered another silly thing about this. In one chapter like near the end of the manga, one character question something that was so rotted on the plot like "Hey... Did that really happened or was just an ilusion?" which made the main character to really think about something, as if the author wanted to change the direction of his work su hardly to even change the first approach of the manga to something new... Yeah, the manga finished not even 10 chaptes after that. -But wasn't this paragraph about the characters?- -You're damn right.- Well, about them, and as I was saying, the cast in Sekisei Inko is full of boring and uninteresting characters. I appreciate when characters are distinctive enough that you can have favorites and least favorites, as this indicates a diversity in motivations and expressions. This, along with some worldbuilding related to the characters’ lives, helps us connect with them. Unfortunately, this wasn’t achieved in Sekisei Inko, and it seems to be a recurring issue in Ken Wakui’s manga. In Sekisei Inko, every character feels like a cardboard cutout. The supposed development in the early parts of the story doesn’t feel convincing or significant. For instance, Nana’s friend, who is present throughout the manga, hardly has any dialogue or noteworthy moments. Similarly, the characters Rem and Digi seem to lack clear purpose and their fate remains unresolved by the end. This lack of depth makes them feel more like plot devices rather than fully realized characters. Consequently, the story suffers from being both poorly developed and forgettable. Well played, Sekisei Inko, you sacrificed negative for negative to try to make something positive... The flashbacks into the main character’s previous life were neither particularly good nor bad—they might come across as boring or disappointing. One issue is that they feel incomplete and disconnected from the main plot. Additionally, the main character regains most of his memories almost instantly and with minimal effort, which makes it seem rushed and disconnected from the audience. Although I appreciate when authors twist historical events and characters, this work only touches on these elements briefly, as if they were mere Easter eggs. The flashbacks also leave many questions unanswered. Overall, the flashbacks and backstories feel almost unnecessary and don’t integrate well into the main plot, which becomes evident by the end. The ending of Sekisei Inko was as unsatisfying as the rest of the manga, and I’m baffled as to why I expected more. It's somewhat amusing that, with Tokyo Revengers now concluded, I can confidently say that Ken Wakui has crafted some of the worst endings I’ve ever read. It’s so poorly executed that it almost feels intentional. However, let’s give Wakui a break; this manga was likely canceled (actually have no idea, I guess it was because there's no other explanation to such ending). The conclusion tries to be pretentious and philosophical, raising existential and almost absurdist questions about the main character's journey and the seemingly meaningless events leading to a predetermined fated conclusion in his inmortal life. It feels as though both the character Nana and we, the readers, are left wondering why we should care to continue. After such meaningless conversation, the ending comes out of nowhere, is pretentious, leaves everything unresolved, and fails to provide any closure for the characters. If this story was meant to be about self-discovery, all I discovered was that it’s a letdown. Sorry, but that’s how I see it. Sekisei Inko is also one of those manga where the title seems to be an error or an intentional misstep. You know how “Dragon Ball Z” was named that way to sound catchier, even though it might have been intended as “Dragon Ball 2”? Well, I honestly think Sekisei Inko should have been called Sekisei Unko because it’s shitty as you can get from start to finish, with no real reason to exist other than to frustrate me. My absolute dislike for Ken Wakui only reinforces my belief that he is one of the worst mangaka in the industry. Seriously, in my life, I don’t think I’ve encountered a creator who, despite numerous attempts, has consistently produced failures with zero charm in any of his art. This might come off as unnecessary hate, but bear with me. I’ve read four works by Ken Wakui, and each of them has received a 1/10 rating from me. How is that even possible? It almost makes me think he’s doing it intentionally. Sekisei Inko was Wakui’s attempt at crafting a more psychological and profound story, but it ended up being an absolute snooze fest, riddled with flaws and lacking any cohesive essence from start to finish. Ken Wakui has delivered his works to the industry of manga and I have extended my arms and hand to him plenty of times, I'm generous you see, yet it seems that, after coming this far and doing 3 reviews in his different works, I've come to the conlusion that I'll sadly need to fucking cut my arms off because this guy is really taking advantage of those chances. With that said, and considering Ken Wakui is the only creator whose works I’ll avoid moving forward, I’d warn anyone interested that reading his work is akin to witnessing a Sisyphean struggle—constantly trying and failing in the same aspects, not once, not twice, but four times. That’s the type of creator we’re dealing with, and you’ve been warned... Cheers
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 24, 2024
Shounen no Abyss
(Manga)
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Not Recommended Spoiler
When I first started reading this manga I was a little taken aback. You see, upon reading the first chapter you're opened with some panels of our main character: Reiji watching her favorite idol in classroom, immediately after that we're welcomed with a big panel with no background in which Reiji says: "I can't leave this town", that one made me feel uneasy and strange, I usually associate that type of paneling when: A character is introduced, for an emotional, for a satisfactory or heavy scene or just a pure shocking moment. So being welcomed into a psychological thriller manga with something like that seemed
...
to me like... Why? Is this panel supposed to convey something to me? And now possibly anyone who reads will say "damn, this guy's yapping is insane" to which I normally say yes and even laugh at myself, but is when you realize that the manga can be totally summed up with those words and with what I felt in everything across this journey: Am I supposed to be feeling something about this manga right now? Isn't this manga supposed to convey something to me? Well... That's the problem with this manga, it wants to make you feel without any kind of honesty or construction in the plot neither in the characters. This manga just see the lector as someone who needs to force themselves to fall into its grasp, rather than inviting you. He throws you into the deep end instead of leading you to explore through it... Yes, this manga is exactly like an abyss. A deep, nasty, dishonest abyss.
But now, what does this manga tries to do? Well this shit works almost like japanese urban legend of Inunaki Village but for people with mental illness: Reiji is a high schooler with not really purpose in life, he just lives because he is alive; that is until he meets with his favorite idol: Nagi Aoe, she is just the same as Reiji, someone who lives because she isn't dead despite her situation and mentality being more extreme than Reiji, after Reiji shows her the way around their little town that Nagi say an iniquitous, wicked suggestion: Let's kill themselves she says to Reiji... And Is from that encounter that our plot starts... But come on, basically the proverbial "God makes them the Devil pairs them" This may seem interesting when you read the first chapters, as you're met with Reiji's "friends" like Gen and Chako and despite having a really simple, straightforward and even dumb characterization it works for now, why? Because with this story we're just presented with the fact that the protagonist want to kill himself, so we obviously need the bully friend and the bad family situation... It is simple, but it just the ground the series choose to hold itself for a while, so the lector can be a little permissive. The thing that is wrong with this first chapter feels to unnatural, is like everything said here and how everyone act is over the place because we don't know anything from our main character that speak from itself, Reiji is too reactive through the first characters so the only moments when we see a little of himself is when people try to control his life, say literally they would be dead or order him something. Yeah, I know depressive people can be like that, of course, the thing is that due to the lack of immersion in Reiji's personality and thoughts, we are just left with a first chapter that tries to wrap everything that Reiji's character will be from other sources who aren't even that great tools to tell the story: The bully saying him that he is his childhood friend while Reiji doesn't say a thing just show how the characterization works here; Gen is a dick... Like a real dick... A REAL dick... And that's all, this happens because the story would usually bring characters to the plot not as characters, but as problematics (will go more deep into that later). That moment where Chako tells literally everything the novel and the story of a town in where he has literally been his WHOLE life (their whole conversation just feel like an excuse to bring up topics that will affect the story later as the mangaka couldn't bring the main character to interact in any meaningful way), with Nagi and his mom is more of that, it is specially weird when his mom textually says "Reiji, without your help I would be dead" and we just recently knew her... Okay I guess? I mean is obviously not serious, but the paneling seems a little off, like that it want us to feel it... But we just can't, we just can't empathize with Reiji's situation or with him yet. After this you can see that Reiji barely interacts at all even in the first chapter, is just normal, which is great! Because if I'm reading a psychological thriller with suicide as topic then at least I want to be presented with the normality, the mundane. Show me life, so after you show me death... Sadly, this chapter and as I told just summarize this manga, Reiji at the starts wasn't someone I was fond on, I thought that how the author presented him was weird but not necessarily terrible, little did I know that Reiji would go into what I would say the biggest flaw of this entire magnum opus dung: The main character. Now all that about the first chapter is important, because I wanted to understand Reiji. We can always relate with characters who suffer in silence, with those struggles you usually fight alone, I wanted to feel that in him at the start, as so I would cheer him or be thrilled with how he manages to overcome his problems... But God forgive our main character be consistent, at first I was a little curious as even despite his loneliness and apathy, we can see Reiji's interest and even how he is a gentle guy (he met Nagi just because he was worried of anything happening to her and the fact that he didn't talked that much at the first character tells us that he may feel lonely and is obedient to others) which is pretty usually the case when you see character like these, the problem is that Reiji later comes like a husk and empty soul, not because of the themes, but because Reiji comes later just a character with depression, with no qualities and with no really actions... Because just remember, how many times did this series not know how to make a build up and just magically just to bring two characters together at a convenient moment? I can tell you some: When the teacher saves Reiji from suicide (around chapter 10), when Reiji meets with Nao at the hospital with Nozoe (chapter 100), etc. With that I want to say that the author just know how to puke things at us, I feel like I constantly need to clean my face as the author just like to throw nonsense after nonsense to make us feel like the story is progressing when in reality is just that "character X meets character Y, character Y mentions suicide and how character X should join it for a lovers or a double suicide, Character X says pretentious and edgy shit to extend the date of their death" and now repeat that line from chapter 1 until the end, that why I say this piece of work commit the worst sin a piece of literature can do, it's dishonest, what am I supposed to feel for Reiji when in chapter 10 he says to his teacher "There simply isn't a good future waiting for me unlike you, miss Shiba" just after Shiba told him "You're just 17, there's a lot more in life"... Can you see just how incongruent the dialogue feels here? Reiji is mentally unstable in this situation, so the author just does the same card that he will use in every situation; victimization and the one who screams louder wins, that annoys me because it's just like if the author doesn't care about how he portrays mental illness, he just wants to make us feel bad, makes us feel bad specially in a time when people romanticize the idea of dying young, dying together, that (ironically) the idea of death is cool and hot (typically because of the mix of identity, death and sexuality) in social media, so when the author just go and does his nonsense and babble about pseudo-philosophycal things and about life's nature it just comes as shallow. Victimization can be used to its own advantage as a way to portray a manipulator, but maybe just with one exception the rest are just putrid from their insides out, not as persons but as characters, he will justify anything in this manga because one character had a bad moment and that's all into it. This stricture sucks specially when you know that the other weapon this manga uses to make us feel heavy is sexuality, not just having characters do intercourse as a way to cope with their life or as a way of discovering themselves, this manga just literally shows you a character crying for it in the next character to have sex because it is his way of showing something mature. This made me realize that, just like any pubescent, this work is just obsessed with death and sex, it wants to make an allegory between them in various moments (the whole idea of Aoe's death and her intimacy with Reiji) doesn't make good the story either, as those scenes just mess with the structure and the pacing. We were watching Reiji with Nagi Aoe talking about their empty life (which is pretty strange how the manga itself showed is weird as Aoe just say to him "your life isn't going anywhere" and like his whole character switched... Another bad bad for shōnen no abyss) to go to them having intercourse together, I know it is a scene of awkwardness for Reiji and characterizes their relationship from there onward, but it is placed at that moment just because it is with no reason at all (even tho Aoe herself say that, for a writing viewpoint is still doesn't hold together as the progression between their dialogues feel artificial talking just about death) just like how every important interaction between character occurs in the whole manga. And let just now start about how characters would even try to sexually harass (and worse) part of the female cast and all the other characters in the series are like "Hey, that's no good" and just leave it like that: In chapter 84 we see how Gen tries to sexually assault Chako, then Reiji comes and tries to stop him and just drop the line "But if you want to die this way, I don't think it would be too bad" and that moment just went over me, Reiji doesn't even understand himself because the author doesn't even understand Reiji. Is disappointing how a really tense moment is ruined with moments like that, with character just saying and mentioning suicide or death as if it was nothing more than a toy, that sucks because that just messes the atmosphere and tones, how are we gonna take it seriously if such a word is just thrown around like a ball, we cannot focus on the main topic with seriousness like that because the characters just feel to inhuman at that point, stop talking about death, talk about yourself, why would we care if that's a good way to die if you had not talked about anything else for 80 chapters? Specially when the manga is full of the same edgy dialogue that I just exemplified earlier, this manga would be writing by anyone in his "You don't understand me" era from their adolescence. But that's not only Reiji, every character here in this mess feels like are just a bad and poor representation of problems or mental illness within people. In chapter 126 and 127 we discover that Gen wasn't attracted to Reiji (something that was speculated and let in the air by the author) and neither to Reiji's mother Yuko (which was said from Reiji) but that he feels like a woman, he was born in the wrong body... And how did he notice that? At his own words, because in Tokyo he saw people being themselves, people just dress as however they want it... And when did we, as lectors, saw that introspection in him? I know what happened here, the author wanted to make a twist about Gen, but he noticed that it wasn't as impressive or "fucked up" as it could be, no, so the author wanted to welcome us with his "development" by saying "I knew it, Reiji... I wanted to be Yuko" and is always that suspense about what's really inside the character's mind for what the author bet. How could I make it worse? How could I show how unstable he is? And that's how he went with that conclusion without doing any build up neither inner monologues that makes us feel empathy for him... And the cherry on top of the cake: "Reiji, don't die with Aoe neither with Chako. Die with me" (from chapter 127) just like how the author always end discussion between character. It's his own period, no more interaction neither thought-provoking dialogue. Add to this the poor retconning the manga always does with characters past established before to add a "layer" of deep to their interactions when it just makes more of a mess of the narrative and exposition of this whole cheap soap opera. And let just nos start about how the character just contradict themselves 10 chapters later. Saying something deep just for it to be opposed by the same character itself make it clear that it just lives for the moment, it all an ephemeral Dantesque nightmare that once you, as lector, woke up, will be left thinking about how this manga works at as an oxymoron of the ideas stated by this, even the title itself was calling it, you cannot expect deep, or be in the bottomless pit when this treat everything like it's the simplest and dumbest concepts ever, an ode to the stupid, boring and cheap unpredictable elements of a work of fiction. The contradiction in its element is so clear that that's why this feels so incoherent and artificially made, have you happen to see a series where everything bad just happen to the protagonist because it is what is it? And to add in it the author just deals with it like a "feat" adding more and more tragedy to the story? It's like Murphy's law being constantly told at us, everything goes wrong because it goes wrong, and it will be the worst, why? Because with that excuse the author can throw even more pretentious dialogue at us without looking at himself ashamed of what he's writing. I feel like there is also a discrepancy between this manga's structure and narrative with its own dialogue. You see, I feel like the author bet plenty of the character development and deep moments are telling us with the metaphor of the water tank and how some people are an "abyss" who just end up making everyone around them fall into them to a journey of pure despair and depression... I understand that, and I love when such suggestive narratives are used to tell us themes far apart from the main ones (like for example series as Houseki no Kuni or Vagabond) or even to make is more appealing and atmospheric, you can't be always telling to the lector or spectator everything straightforward with no sense of taste neither a charming prose, that's a where the heart of this type of stories goes along with the paneling; how to tell and what you tell. Shonen no abyss doesn't know exactly to where to go, it's like constantly trying to choose a way; a rough and raw one or a deep symbolic one, I don't usually mind when the tone of the narrative switch subtly or is generally different from one point to the other, what I have a problem is how does this manga try to do that: When we see Aoe's past we understand her sorrow, we're slowly going on a journey to understand her pain, maybe the paneling and imagery isn't as hard for us as it could be due to the lack of understanding of her daily life behind the incident (which was the first thing I thought would be more strong to show us) but it's competent in what it tries to portray: the fear of being alone; Are my parents dead? When is this gonna end? Those questions emerge instantly as you watch a little Aoe just lying there alone, without a mother or father to hug... But when does this flash back fall down as a story telling device? Well, precisely in the dialogue, this manga relays too much in dialogue to show us emotional pain and mental illness instead of taking advantage of its capacity to portray the narrative in the imagery: When Aoe and her uncle walk around they find out Aoe's bag (which was pretty convenient if you ask me, it's always conveniences to make the situations happen throughout the story) and when Aoe tells her uncle about how she had a little scolding from her parents, we're immediately welcomed by a panel of Aoe's uncle in his knees telling her "it's your fault your parents died" (chapter 172 and 173) and I was like puzzled... Really really puzzled, I'm not the only one who see that discrepancy between what has been telling us from this flash back to how is delivered, right? I cannot understand what was the process the mangaka made to change the structure and pacing of such a heavy background from one of the most important character of the series, is beyond me, all the next important things and way of thinking (or more like her trauma) comes from this exact dialogue which it feels like it was juxtaposed immediately after a poor intent of making a tragic moment, I know it's pretty implied (although it's pretty obvious) that Aoe's uncle used her to gain money taking advantage of her, but this way of orchestrate scenes is what makes Shonen no Abyss and infuriating reading, it feels hollow and lacking in identity with just any excuse to make it disgusting and tragic. This scene is another perfect example of Shonen no Abyss proprieties as a story in this medium, it just lacks in delivering what it wants, I feel like a monochromatic mess of such untactful and antithesis of elements puts in like if it were a poor mix, the dynamics don't feel appealing either, which was the most awful thing when it comes to Reiji's character's relationships with others. All the arc with Shibasawa feels like an exchange between them that goes like: "Hey Reiji, I know it's not right, but I love you" "I love you too Shibasawa, lets just wait until I'm and adult" and then I don't know what type of mental gymnastic the teacher made in her head that she felt she needed to possess Reiji... Which isn't that bad as her character falls into that type of troupe, we know it and Reiji know it... But then Reiji doesn't even make a meaningful interaction with her, its always like "X character is doing this just because Y told him so" and it makes everything so stupidly linear that it just doesn't make up to the seriousness and "deep" that the dialogue and paneling tries to be evocative with the art, it falls into its own trap that it seems even funny sometimes. This is not a drama at all, it just does not present any feelings neither intent of seriousness at all, it always falls into its own little grace with dumb edgy dialogue and a narrative that tries to evoke the same as such works in the medium that makes better use of negative and positive space, paneling and art to make it more interesting to the lector. I have always had my opinion on the debate of "shonen vs seinen" which is pretty much just a full yapping between blind fans of the big three in shonen and the "big three" (which people always use as am excuse to put in their favorite seinen manga just to show off to everyone else... Just a stupidity, but who cares) and I've always thought from it like this: plenty of shonen are between the 4/10 to 5/10 or 6/10 which isn't saying much whereas seinen tend to be more like 9/10 to being straight garbage and a 1/10 in my book... Why do I make this silly and maybe unnecessary allegory? Because I think that way of thinking and how my experience watching and reading in this medium of japanese media make me realize that it all could come down to the old expression of "bitting off more than you can chew" as the narratives and themes usually helps author to portray their product in a way very much different from one demographic to other... What do I have to say about this? First off this conversation and debate is so uninteresting and lacking on understanding of the medium that is straight boring, unnecessary and a little silly (and even a little ignorant of the existence of the other demographics)... The second on and the one in where we will continue is that it can explain the products of such like Shonen no Abyss and other plenty of more curious examples where they try to grasp what the demographic and possibility of being a seinen can bring and just eat it to puke it out in the table; an obnoxious mess with plenty of... Body fluids? Yeah, that's exactly what happened here: poor characters' dynamics, such a discrepancy between themes and how it is portrayed, a terrible structure filled with conveniences and inconsistencies, boring and edgy character and above all else, being dark for the sake of being dark, being sexual for the sake of being sexual, having mental illness for the sake of having mental illness. You know what they say: Nothing's better than a depressed hot experience, right? Well this manga just took that and made it a manga without any interesting context neither being atmospheric and let just not talk about the dialogue... This abyss of writing haven't finished yet, but I've heard that it will finish in this year 2024, when the time comes I plan on expanding and talkies about the ending alongside with the series and themes as a whole... Just don't expect something good of it. ------Edit for the last 7 chapters!-------- So it seems when I first did this review like 2 weeks passed and the author confirmed that it would end soon, yeah, I should have waited for this thing to end but whatever, here we are now, with our precious manga having finally ended. So these will be my final thought of the series added with my last review, enjoy! Okay, so I have a little issue with the last chapters, something that was actually present within all this manga but make it even more obvious as the end was near: the having cluttered plot and not having any harmony at all. You see, when Reiji decides to call Nagi's uncle, Mao, with the idea of killing him and as with everything in this manga, Mao didn't even ended up dying, because Shōnen no Abyss always makes sure to throw you the bait for you to wait for next chapters just for them to not follow that plot line coherently. Is not just about how characters just appears when the story conveniently needs them to (how Nagi and the teacher stopped Reiji from killing Mao, how Nozoe appears with Mao) which I wouldn't usually mind too much, all stories have some type of coincidences just like in real life, my problem is that this series have abused from that for a whole running of 100+ chapters, as we don't really see the cohesive progression between characters and how they develop in a plausible way, I'm not even asking for realism at this point, just for it to follows the own themes and tone of this work, but even that is asking too much. But I digress, my point is that Shōnen no Abyss always wants to throw the rock and hides the hand, they bait you into something that may be interesting just for it to get stretched or put it aside of the manga. In chapter 181 when the teacher and Nagi tells Reiji to not kill Mao I was almost laughing, the series made sure to make us too insensible and indifferent of the characters emotions that I was just like "Oh! Okay. Oh! Whatever..." for the whole discussion they had, because the dialogue feels so bad and so artificial, you know like when you see an interaction between characters there's always like a meaning behind it, right? Just like in real life, when you talk to someone is not unidirectional, is a bidirectional exchange between two characters, but that doesn't happen at all in Shōnen no Abyss, it was like just and attempt from the author side to make it sound deep and trying to show some development for his characters when the series itself isn't capable of showing it with actions, to it relies on those unidirectional and absurd dialogues like "Nagi, let's show this guy your life has been an error, and that you don't have any purpose for living" followed by the "I see... So I was born with the purpose of killing her..." and the epic "If you kill Nagi then I'll kill this guy! I'm faster" and those just felt so so so awkward I couldn't bring myself to take it serious, is the most pathetic and miserable attempt in this whole 183 chapters in this to make a type of meaningful interaction and exchange characters, and do that near the conclusion? That's almost inexcusable. But despite all I've said, in the final chapters there was a moment that I really liked! In chapter 182 I liked how like the title and the character of Reiji mad that little sense when he stared at someone under the rain, then Reiji doesn't recognize if it is his mom, sakuko or Gen, when in reality it was just that no one was there... Yeah, the abyss looked back at him, after falling more and more in the depths of a pointless living and pursuing an excuse to end his existence, the abyss looked now back at him, it is actually kinda cool, right? Specially since the one who tell him that no one is in there is Nagi, the only one who brings more color yet plenty of despair in his life, the one who gives him a purpose (regardless of how poor and shitty was when looking back at it), so at the end it wants to tell us that type of melancholic metaphor about how deep he has fallen into it. He doesn't even care who will accompany him to end his life, he just wants it to end. Being fair, that's something I liked about how the series tried to convey it in an interesting way as the series was always too explicit, not in an edgy nor meaning it has a strong imagery and themes, but in that it had never ever been capable of making anything exciting happen without dialogue as a device to tell things to the lector instead of building up anything for that sort, so watching this little change in exposition and in narrative was a pleasurable surprise. You can count what I said as something good or bad, as the narrative for this type of series with "mature" themes has always been so simple and so boring that even a moment like that left an impact on me, but when something is good is just fair to say it. But then the last chapter, 183, came out, and I think the overall consensus was that... It was underwhelming? I think that could be the right way of calling it, but for me, it doesn't even feel like a final. I understand how Shonen no Abyss want to portray how if two people who are lost get to know each other, they generate an abyss, a source of stress and pain for others that can just grasp onto anything it reaches and how that cycle could be broke (that is, just in theory), but the way in how that is done just make it look like a childish show that just wanted and tried to be deep for the sake of it. In the first 10 chapters we knew about all this lover's suicide, just for the end for it not to happen... Is that bad? I don't really think so, because it could be a clue about character development coming from Reiji and Nagi, but do we see this? I just don't know why the author bet all in for an "open ending" when the series was by its own narrative the most narrowed and obvious things ever, is like if it's trying to be something different right at the end just for it to feel unnatural. I'm not against open endings, but when a show was so blatantly shameless, edgy and just survived by cliffhangers with no purpose, then you can't defend an ending like that (or at least, I, can't) because it ends up being like the last spark before fucking burning down my house, it just won't work and also won't make it any better... But then again, I digress. What I wanted to talk about the last chapters was just everything felt so so so both rushed and inconclusive. Reiji's mother shits on Reiji after all this time, giving Reiji "permission" to leave the town and, indirectly, unlinking her from his life (because she was about to die, and her relationship with Nozoe), so then, what's the core of this? I don't really know, was just me or really all the drama between Yuko and Nozoe didn't had a huge on the lector? I think I couldn't care less about those two, because first, the series didn't even want us to empathize with them, their flashback wasn't just it because I, for real, couldn't understand their actions, and it felt just as if everything bad was throwing at them in such an artificial manner that I didn't even flinch about anything. So in the last chapter, what did we get? Yuko saying to Nozoe "I read your pitiful love letter" and.... That's it? I never thought of Yuki as a character, but just as a device for the story to make Reiji miserable... And now, on top of that, we have this plain, boring and underwhelming conclusion? To what we most could call the "antagonist" of this series? It felt as if the author was saying "Oh welp, yeah I forgot about her but whatever just take this" and called it a day. Is true I didn't care about those characters, but that doesn't mean I'll also be happy with such awful conclusion. And how did they meet at the end? That too just feels like the lack of that "harmony" I mentioned plenty of times before, moving characters conveniently to make the manga more appealing for the lector in such dishonest ways that is even infuriating. And let's not even talk about all the mystery about Reiji's father, it was like a roundabout all this time where the author could use the safe card of "Oh, but he is your father!" to make new conflicts arise that I was just tired of it. The conclusion of the teacher was kinda of a nonsense, I get she needs someone to get dependent on her (that's quite normal, actually) but make use of her primary problem and drama as a mark to conclude with her character, not interacting with the protagonist whatsoever, was really the right call? I don't think I need to say if it was, or it wasn't, because for me, it is obvious. Did she learn something even in all the chapters? Or even more beyond that, is there someone who really cares about her and find her interesting? Both on the story and for the lectors I think I would hear the same: Absolutely no. I know most of my argument are based on the fact that "why would we care about them?" and that could feel a little preposterous coming from me, even something unnecessary for others. But that's not my base, just my conclusion. The teacher was almost surely made as a character for us to not care about her, because she doesn't develop, she doesn't have meaningful nor interesting dialogue with others, she doesn't even have a slightly interesting deepening on her beliefs or catharsis. Why was this character even here? This is one I can really justify my feeling of "I don't really care about her" because how I'm supposed to care for a character that, in the last chapter, commits the same errors as she did on the very first? Is to make us feel like there are people who can "break the cycle" and some who can't? Because if that's the case, let me tell you that it doesn't change my attitude towards it at all, and actually makes me feel a little dumbfounded by the fact the author would almost entirely kill a character just to demonstrate it, not just a character, but one of the mos relevant ones. At the end of the day Shibasawa-sensei is just a character that didn't grow up on the series. Didn't grow up as a character, didn't grow up on me as someone to empathize with, and didn't grow up on the author as it seems. That sudden change in between needing Reiji to after that change onto Nagi's uncle is something that, again, people usually do as a way for someone else feel attached to them, but this just feels wrong, we didn't get any of her thoughts on Reiji's conclusion and that just makes her feel like she lost one of her core motives as a character, immediately for me, that's like killing a character. A character I didn't even liked. But what can we get from our rest of beloved characters? About the intriguing yet toxic relationship between Nagi and Reiji? Well... We didn't really get anything from them, you know what bothers me? When in the very last character, even just that long onto the series, we (or at least I) still don't get what Reiji and Nagi wants "But hey! Isn't it normal for adolescents and people with mental illness! You jerk!" And that's true and even despite all this rambling, I still think I get the appeal of the series for other people. Nothing exists for no one to likes after all. But the mess of character that Shonen no Abyss presented to me was just like a fishing road, not just because of the bait, but because of how this show seems to throw its bait to a shark tank, it just won't do... But why? Because I really think that the author was scared of what to do with the characters, or maybe scared to lost public and lectors? I wouldn't know, and this doesn't go as far as from being just a silly thought of mine. But the author just needed to make the character intriguing and to, even if he needed to sacrifice all his bait, attracts the shark to his side. This is why, despite representing mental illness, the character feels unreal and overdramatized even to me, who has experience of treating with people with difficult conditions (if you're one like that or someone who felt identified with a character on this show, this obviously doesn't mean any harm nor ill words to you. I love you) so I just never stayed still and thought of them as character more than just an over saturated drama who doesn't need when to stop and when to be "normal", that's what makes me a little upset about this manga and how it deals with its characters, at the end of the day, they were never characters, just walking mental illness to bait those who are interested in it. So when at last the character change so suddenly of personality and when they drop all those edgy and pretentious dialogue (all the ones I mentioned before) it makes me think of this manga as something that is even insecure about itself and its own worth. There's a need for it to be the popular and loved one, and this manga knows it, just think about everything in retrospective: Cliffhangers, dialogue, the art... Everything was moved for you to make yourself engaged to the next chapters, which is normal, but such a dishonest work can only get us reach just that far, the last like 60 chapters at least were proof of this, where we just got dragged around anything the author wanted to do to make this series be in more length and be more "deep"... So in all this is when what I said before makes sense, right? I couldn't feel anything from the main duo in the last chapter, because I even thought "are those really our main cast?" because it felt almost as if those two were no more than puppets from the author to make something so artificial engaging. You can't treat your puppets as piece of shit, you haven't seen The Muppets or 31 Minutos, author? That's not how it works, you can't hope for me to care about them when you treat them like that. And that is just the preamble. Because when we get into it, what does the last chapter imply? That at the end, and in a way to show how, even if two abyss itneract between each other, they can still live together "God makes them the Devil pairs them" as I said on the first parragraphs (don't know if that expression work for english speakers, but you get it) so even if the Devil pairs them... They're still allowed to live, right? That would be quite such a case, not because it would be bad, but because I think it would be an interesting tophic and interesting meaning behind an ending... If only it wasn't in Shonen no Abyss. Because Nagi finally gives her real name to Reiji. I love how the change occurs using the black and white in between panels when Nagi says "Reiji, we, together will..." right in front of a dark, even abysmal river... That river in which is said a couple died, and then just changes into some pure white panel accompanied with Sakura petals, don't know why, but that change right at the end of the series left me with a pleasure surprise, as if it's a metaphor of the ending itself where, despite being all dark and clouded, there was some light and spring rays of the sun coming for them... But... What happened? Why leave us hanging like that? Huh? What the hell happened? -My reaction Okay, we didn't get anything really concise on what happened with Nagi and Reiji despite knowing the fact they're still alive (or at least Reiji), so we probably can guess they lived happily... Together? Isn't that... Kinda of, you know, boring? Not because of the fact they may end up living or trying to live a normal life together, but because after all the mess they were both as character and as a device for the plot, didn't clarify anything about it? It feels lazy and so ungratifying after all the near 200 chapters of this manga, to not have something solid as an ending, not because open endings are bad, again, but because we don't have enough to get the idea of what will Reiji and Nagi want to do, precisely because of her personalities, characterization and dialogue we don't have anything to grab for them, I felt myself a little lost as to needing to make myself a sense of why they're still living together. With this I mean that the ending, ironically, is closed as to what happens, but not in why happens and what's the objective with that. Nagi and Reiji live together still on the little town... Why? And what do they plan to do? Is quite symbolic as, told us from the very first chapter, Reiji didn't leave his town, but he will manage to not get consumed by the town itself. It feels underwhelming because it is as if the happy ending happened because just happened, not because some plot points and character development making any sense. So at the end, despite managing to have a quite straightforward ending, the fact that the main duo was so volatile and so untestable doesn't hold up to make us reassured that "oh, they ended like that" and instead makes us wonder what went throughout their minds on the final sections of this incoherent thing in which even to the final day, couldn't handle its own character and makes us wonder, that's it? Anytime it tried to do something. Nagi and Reiji ended just as how they started, as a mess and amalgam of thought the author put on them, like some sponges that try to absorb everything until you can't use it anymore. I reached it, you know? I reached it, the bottom of the abyss, that is. This manga made me travel to the bottom pit near the center of the earth, because I think I've found something that belongs to there, to that abyss that just can't see the rays of the sun... Shonen no Abyss was a strange experience in the wrong sense, I don't even think I find myself enjoyed something coming from it, was how I see everything it tried to convey turned out into some little cartoon for me to silly laugh at it? There are some manga, no, media that try to portray heavy things and be raw. I don't mind any of these as some of my favorite things aside from anime have some rough moments, but then why does this manga fails so bad at that? Because it almost feels inhuman in how it writing is done, is it making fun of mental illness? I'm not as dense as to think like that, but I won't blame someone who thinks like that. I just feel myself so desensitized from this piece of media that I just ended up reading it for compromise and because when I started it is was near the end, but aside from that this work is absolutely terrible and godawful to the point I just can't recommend this to anyone. The char that Shonen no Abyss could offer didn't reach me at all, instead I ended up with a manga that didn't have any identity and, above all else, overstayed its welcome, a welcome that I would not have even offered. You've reached it too, you know? The Abyss... In literature, that is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 8, 2024
Houseki no Kuni
(Manga)
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Recommended
There's something inside any piece of fiction than always makes the spectator heart race, when you see the "magic" inside a world written down by the mind of a perturbed, fascinating, brilliant or weird mind of someone, or maybe all of them coming together to make a work so special, so unique that it feels magical. Whenever I start a manga, anime, visual novel, video game, etc I always think "Well... What do you have to offer to me?" as a way to suppress my own excitement and mind before making judgments in any work... I think here with Houseki no Kuni I found one
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of the most exciting, emotional and "magic" world this medium can offer. A work doted with so much color despite being monochromatic, a work doted with so much humanity despite not having a single human, a work so emotional despite being so draining and desolate... House no Kuni is one of those work that works because is a manga, that takes absolutely and completely advantage of the medium it is written on as to make everything more compelling and charming with its characters, narrative and drawing.
I'll make this review short. And I'll treat the gems as "she" despite being non-binary because it is more easy for me to write this down. Thank for your comprension. Our story takes place in a world where mankind has going extinct, and the world is inhabited by gems that are invaded by lunarians, a weird race that attacks, destroys and kidnaps the gems; Phos, our protagonist, laying in the ground with nothing to do, is wakened up by one of her gems comrades for a work offer... I want to summarize it as simple as this because the twist and the progression in Houseki no Kuni makes it that looking back at this chapter holds a so significant narrative and feeling in it that it is just incredible. Basically Phos is looked down funnily by her comrades gems because the strength of a gem is based in their hardness scale... Then how do our protagonist Phos starts? And that's the first approaching with its character: Phos wants to be stronger, to be able to defeat the lunarians despite having a hardness of 3.5, making it impossible in the eyes of everyone around her and even in the eyes of the master of the gems; Kongo. And with the main plot summarized... What's so special about Houseki no Kuni? I think everyone who has read the manga will answer you the same: Phos, we, as lectors, are drawn upon such a journey of self-understanding coming from Phos that it is so emotional driven it can make people be fond of our protagonist problems and dynamics with other: The feeling of wanting to improve, to help others, just to see all crumble as you continue still going bad ways because of the way you're hurt, that is something that resonated with myself throughout the whole manga, that human feeling of self-hate because you don't fit with everyone else, that strong loneliness of wanting to change... Just to still being unaccepted by the rest... I won't explain in too much detail about Phos journey as experiencing it reading page by page is something that will just be stuck in the lector's mind for a long time. Phos change in the entire manga feels so natural and so well calculated it just can't stop amaze me, people often think Phos is rewritten by the author to make the protagonist fit in the story and Buddhist themes more, but that couldn't be further from reality. Trauma builds character, that's the philosophy in Ichikawa (the mangaka) as she continued the series with Phos, the excessive well thought dialogue and interaction between characters works as an example. In one of the most tragic event for our protagonist, we heard how she is entrusted with the task of "helping sensei to not feel lonely" which is a phrase that resonated so much with our protagonist to the point where we see a real and straightforward correlation between her character progression and this idea that is hurt to see, despite all her changes throughout the story Phos continues to show her self to others in some ways: when she first changed she was still playful and kind to others, after that she still considered Kongo an important piece of her life, and after that she still wanted to help the other gems. That's what is so incredible about how the dialogue is structured and how everything is delivered in this manga, because it makes a twist around our characters, specially the protagonist. Ichikawa tend to make her paneling in which two character are talking some mundane things by a strong following of little change in expression to make it feel real and alive, so when a character speak out the main topic of their exchange in dialogue we're always welcomed with a big panel focusing in their expressions and positions, why? Because Ichikawa's way of portraying the relationships in Houseki no Kuni works as a full exchange between people who are hurt with a dynamic to make it like both character are part of the problem (the examples being between Phos and Cinnabar/Diamond and Bort) and I just absolutely adore how her paneling helps build scenes and dialogue, that's why I said Houseki no Kuni takes full advantage of the medium, because the monochromatic and the like "geometry" in the drawing in Houseki no Kuni is so perfectly well crafted that help us understand more the feeling that this work delivers the best: Loneliness. The negative and positive space just along the structure of Ichikawa's art makes it so the themes and messages are perfectly cohesive with each other. This is not a work where the art is realistic neither it tries to be, but the style it has on its own is just so incredibly good and intriguing that it just went over my favorite art in all of the medium. I love everything about houseki no kuni's style and arts decision: The fact that even backgrounds are little to almost never drawn is something that works because of how it is handled (which normally would be a lazy and mediocre choice for an artist) and how the crippling feeling of misunderstanding and loneliness is present. Ichikawa's artwork and thinking is something that deserves praise. For example, in every volume until volume 11 (where something really big, happens) there is one character that is almost always drawn; Cinnabar, but she is dawn always in the page holder, being apart from every other character... Why? Because that's a subtle way of showing, a paratextual way of depicting Cinnabar's problems and themes in a clever and interesting way that works within the medium of a written work and portrayed it in paper. The budhism messages are a touch so lovely to this work that I always felt like everything was structured so well done I felt even little myself compared to the themes. That thought-provinkg themes of Buddhism, incredible protagonist and the beautiful writing is what makes this work feel special and so magic. Houseki no Kuni is a manga that I followed since school since I was like 13 years old and is finished now that I'm 20 years old. Is a story whose themes followed in my path of life to this day and watching the culmination and how I even managed to understand the cycles of hatred, the loneliness, the sorrow, the fear of change, the fear or forgetting and the forgiveness is something that resonated in some aspects of my life as I have grown up, and the story continued unraveling itself. I may sound silly as I also feel I went on a journey of my own while Phos was going in hers. Sometimes I wanted to give up and feel far away from the world and the people, just as Phos did. I feel like I was lost in trying to please everyone else except me, just as Phos, that's why I'll always have a soft spot to Houseki no Kuni (despite having an overall excellent quality and being one of the best), but just as Phos continued and tried and tried until she achieved peace, I still continue struggling with life too, that's how much this works means to me. A fantastic even cosmic journey of how little we could be in the big picture, about what does it mean being human and the nature itself of us as humans. This manga portrayed so many things in such a creative and interesting way that I feel like this is one of those works that I'll cherish forever in my life and a work so interesting and marvelous it makes me wonder about the structure and the dynamic of a manga. I love Houseki no Kuni and Ichikawa for this work. This review works as a way to just shower this page with my gratitude and with the love I feel for this media. I thank you, Haruko Ichikawa, for making a work as Houseki no Kuni. I'll remember it for as long as I live.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jun 29, 2024
Negai no Astro
(Manga)
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Not Recommended Well-written Preliminary
(11/? chp)
You know there's this feeling when you're a kid, and you're waiting in, for example, a hospital or waiting for a scheduled appointment, as kids, that bored the fuck out of our souls... So what did we do to try to make that time more engaging or at least more entertaining? Think about some awesome stories, I at least did that. Great characters and great fights! You know? When we let our livid and vast imagination go wild to think about those amusing thinking... But that is what that was, just a brief moment of you with yourself, making use of our little world inside
...
a little kid's insight, Right? But after we go back home we realize there's no point in bringing that back, it was just sporadic, there's no way someone would even try to make a story just to justify those epic moments we thought without making a cohesive work... Right? Well, that's what I first think when reading Wakui's new work "Negai no Astro". This is just a poor and boring pretext to bring those sporadic, ephemeral and nonsensical stories and loose "epic" moments trying to make any sense in the big picture.
So lets start with what this manga bring to us: Yotsurugi Hibaru is our protagonist and the biological son of the head of Yotsurugi clan, accompanied by Terasu (one of the few adoptive childrens in the family) one day meteors fall on the Earth and just everyone has powers. That's all. From that point onwards, everything in society falls apart as people abuse of their powers. Let's see, the first problem I had while reading the first chapters is just how ambiguous and convenient for the characters the power system is, there's not really neither a straight nor deep reason as why some people have astros and others not, they just bring up that they "wished for something", that usually brings me with the problem that the world in this series is convenient for the protagonist and wraps around what they need instead of making a harmony between them. It can sound as something really rushed as this has 11 chapters as for right now, but that doesn't excuse the lack of immersion and atmosphere around the first chapters and the situation in our protagonist lives. Protagonist fall unconscious and then 2 weeks has passed, so everything is okay? Well, we didn't actually see anything from our eyes. So when you make a shonen you need to think in how to make your power system forehand to not make it sound convenient or inconsistent as to not break precisely your atmosphere and world: Nen, Innocence, Ki, etc. This is one of the things I didn't like at the start, how the power system is an excuse to poorly tell the story of characters. I don't like when a character does something and then he immediately goes like "Is because I wished for..." and then just explain to you a very ambiguous wish and how that works as a power, people can like it and I can see that, but I couldn't stop feeling like the dialogue never really followed the exposition neither the world, it just feels like what I stated earlier, like a poor pretext to just fight. We want to fight, so let's fight, that's it. The world around us, how the power works is just irrelevant and can be as flexible as I can when I need it and just let it be. I also think there's a misconception in Wakui's mind now that I see Hibaru. Wakui in Tokyo Revengers had a strange fascination making shine "justice" and the good as the simplest things ever. Oh, so the gang is maintaining food for themselves? Let just defeat them and give food to everyone! But what will we do now that the city has fallen and almost everything is destroyed? How are we gonna make or have more supplies? Ahh... Well... Yep, that's exactly what I mean, the world is fitting conveniently under our protagonist will, we don't get a glimpse of how things are going, but we need to do the right at all cost, right? I wouldn't mind it, but my problem comes when is a cartoonish almost as if a parody. Are we supposed to feel admiration when after our protagonist defeat the enemies who were not giving supplies to the people, all he asks is just a candy? That's what I meant when I say it's almost a parody. That's awful, goddamn awful as a way to characterize our main protagonist. People usually have some problems when protagonist in shonen are just a goody two shoes (Midoriya, Tsuna, etc) but I always think there is not a really big problem in that as long as you know how to handle your protagonist mindset, problems and decisions. The problem is when you portrait it like in Ken Wakui's work, does he think justice and doing the good is just showing us how the main cast defeat bad guys expecting to gain nothing and with just a straight unnatural dialogue. It doesn't work as a device to characterize your character as justice or good persons, it just makes them feel like devices doing something conveniently fitting for them because it is easy, just like it was easy doing it in Tokyo Revengers its even easier in here. While reading it I also thought that there were some moments that happened too early in the story. I don't know what was the first fight between our main cast supposed to be. Hibaru fight with Terasu because suddenly they just had a childish discussion in their mindset and approach respect to what to do with the other adoptive children of the deceased head of the yakuza, why childish when it was about live or death? Because for the spectator it can't feel like just two people whining and whining without even understanding commons sense or the other, but that happen when you argue with random people, right? Well... They were almost brothers and best friends… Yeah, not good. This happens so early in the story, with little no not introspection in our characters that we just don't really care either way. Some may say that it was needed in this point as to propose the main conflict between our cast and the situation around them, to which I would agree, but that falls apart when you see how this conflict works as part of our protagonist characterization and relationship with others, as an approach of those themes this sucks to be early, because we as lectors don't have absolutely nothing to where to stand for ourselves, we don't really care about the showing of emotion between them because is just useless information to the lector who doesn't really care if the enemy needs to be alive or dead. Also, there is the fact that fight in this manga suck. You punched me? Sorry, I can punch you harder! (automatically wins) Seriously, who think it would be engaging and interesting to have our protagonist ability to just go and punch harder without even a technique or nothing interesting nor visually pleasing? I don't understand how can this progress forward. That again is just how I think the mayor problem in this manga shows up, is just so little thought out, almost like if this is estimated to last less than 50 chapters even. This duality between how everything feel so little and so uninteresting goes even crazy when you see just how little fights can make you up for the excitement they may bring. The conflict isn't even interesting, and I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel respect our characters. Kuran's story was so rushed and put so early on the series it didn't even let a scar neither a theme around the series, it was just to hope to not make it so lineal with little to not real result. "Am I kinda an ashole and a piece of shit here?" I'm just shitting and shitting on a new shonen manga trying to make it big (At least I think is trying?) in a medium where that can be really hard. This is like beating the shit out of your little cousin because he tried to wipe his shit for his own or the first time, and he let the toilet stink with his shit as he tries something for the first time in this shitty world so now he needs a beating, okay, too much shit in a paragraph, but let that be a metaphor about how shitty this manga is. Seriously I feel kinda weird making and maybe writing more than what I should when this has just 11 chapters. But I just can't help it, I'll admit it right here and now. I hate Tokyo Revengers, but that's not a reason to not give Wakui a second chance, Urasawa didn't start making interesting works in his first try and Araki had plenty of tries and errors before going into Jojo, so why not extend my hand again to Wakui's works? Wrong, next time I'll chop my arm off, that would be better than to experience this mediocre writing again. Wakui just doesn't seem to understand just how lineal his dialogue and portrait of justice is in this medium, making you feel like you're an idiot trying to understand the values in people and how always doing the good is what we must strive. Thanks, I'll continue being a good person, not for this godawful shitty manga tho, not even due to your previous work in Tokyo Revengers. Do you understand then why I made my way to write this review? Is because I feel like Wakui didn't learn anything, not little neither a few in between. Nothing. Zero. Non-existing. I'm not even disappointed, it just feels weird that he can get worse and worse progressively, is he challenging his lectors and the medium? It seems so, because the lack of purpose in this work makes it from something that have never touched pen. Yes, exactly. Never let him take the pen again, because his works are almost denigrating for his lectors. Don't ever let the man grab the pen again
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jun 9, 2024
All You Need Is Kill
(Manga)
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Not Recommended
One of the most compelling thing about manga as a medium resides in its capacity to convey the story conjugating between what is shown and what is told to the lector. You can make the same argument about every other media really, but there is something in the black and white panels, the moderated exposition compared to western comic and how the drawing is different from how scenes are portrayed in anime or animated shows. It's always incredible when you feel like you're being told a story from the manga itself instead of the author talking directly to you... Right? Well, you see, that's one
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of the most heavy sins that I think literature can do as a whole; novels and manga being the ones that most fall under this, how things are told. "All you need is kill" is a manga adaptation from the light novel of the same name written by Sakurazaka Hiroshi, and I think every problem in this manga could be explained by this fact, and adaptation that didn't know how to make the transition from a light novel to a manga.
"All you need is kill" follows the story of Keiji, a soldier stuck in a war against alien monstrosities called "mimics" who destroy everything they come across as just how those creatures are just really, really hard to kill and ruthless in killing people. He goes in his day normally as Vrataski, the elite of the elite, comes to their base... So yeah shit happens and Keiji dies... A lot... But a whole lot, poor guy didn't catch a break in any chapter of the whole manga. I've heard the novel was well-received and praised, thus making it into a manga adaptation. You see, when Ryousuke Takeuchi made the storyboard to this manga, it seems like it didn't sink in the idea of explaining things from a visual angle and with a more orthodox narrative of a novel in a medium that is not a novel: the exposition feels bad and rushed, I don't know what were we supposed to go from chapter 1: The mental downfall of the protagonist? An atmospheric manga about war? And action and frenetic work to gobble ourselves in its viscera? I don't know, and the manga don't know it either. In the first chapter everything feels so scripted to the point of being unnatural, we're being told about everything happening in the world because the narrator just fills us in with every word he can muster until we're exhausted... It's not that is dense or anything special because it comes as a simple war premise, but is just that it doesn't take advantage of the setting to make anything appealing, the setting and every character's main traits are told to us in the most straightforward way possible in that we don't even get to explore character's mentality: Keiji, Yonabaru and Shasta doesn't feel human at all, the only point of the first character was to show how our protagonist becomes a killing machine whose all he need is to kill (no fucking way...), but how the protagonist is going insane is just nos attractive for the lector, why? Because as the setting and characterization is poorly presented, as being too unnatural making it for us to feel the raw pain and desperation feels like out of nowhere, and it just doesn't concern us at all. The characters are also kinda... Lacking? I don't know, it's not like I don't exactly know, is just that there is so little to say about them. Everyone here's just have dialogue concerning the battlefield and mimics, it just feels soulless that the narrator tell us everything, from every one of Keiji's loops and then having the character talking about more battle and more killing feels redundant, few moments are when character talk about themselves honestly without the use of such a straightforward dialogue and even those moments just feel so short compared to all the narration doing the work of over exposition in the world building, I just don't see a moment when characters are really themselves, I would understand if this were just a manga directed towards fighting and being almost like a gore fest, but even the action scenes have a weird paneling in which actions scenes don't feel frenetic neither interesting nor including anything charming neither crude about it. Just showing our protagonist dying and dying over and over isn't enough for me to make it frenetic or interesting, it just goes from start to finish without doing nothing in between. And the main dynamic isn't that interesting neither, it isn't awful nor terrible, but it just feels shallow and made up in the last chapters, they build a relationship made from an understanding and interlinked pain no one has ever felt: the pain of coming back from death, to hours before you died. As it seems like an interesting dynamic, due to the little screen time we can't really grasp the feelings of neither of our main duo (letting aside that all the other character aren't relevant at all) but its the closer we are to get humanity from this adaptation. The art is good, I like the drawing and expressions when the protagonist died, sadly it wasn't used as good as it could due to the try of iterative narration to not make us bored from those aspects, which is a weird choice, why would you skip some moments from your story while also keeping everything related to the worldbuilding and characterization to a narrator? Is just like a mess of dissonances between narratives that just makes no sense when we analyze the pacing of the series alongside the cohesion between chapters, its like if they are so far away because we never see the journey to reach them, we just see the story progressing so straightforward that it just cast everything aside to tell us a story in the most mundane way possible, it's not that it is awful but just feels incomplete, the ending of one chapter and the continuation of the next feels so anticlimactic that I just enjoyed some of the art with some actions scenes... The ending itself just felt like an excuse to make it more tragic, with such an asspull of explanation that I couldn't bring myself to feel bad for our main cast. Well, it seems everything about this manga was bad in my eyes, that's not true. The art is great, some expressions are well-defined, the actions scenes aren't that bad either and at least the manga try to make a meaningful interaction between our main cast (although it mostly falls apart). But I won't say this is good because I feel like the core and essence of what this could have been got lost some place between the narrative; bad character, a downright awful narrative with just one dimensional characters with boring dialogue and a weird progression is what comes to mind when remembering this work... I love media about war, because it shows tragedy in such a realist yet with also an excuse to make everything to dense and heavy to the lector, even better if you add dark fantasy or sci-fi elements as the fear to the unknown and body horror are my main dish when it comes to uncomfortable and horrid moments... But this one just doesn't get it, this one just glorifies and rejoices in its own little world of dying again and again and again with too little relevant in my mind to keep it near my memories, a missed attempt and a forgettable work at this caliber it is sad to see yet make us appreciate literature and story telling as a whole.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Nov 16, 2022
Tokyo卍Revengers
(Manga)
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Not Recommended Informative Spoiler
Tokyo Revengers is absolutely incredible, to this day I still have problems expressing my feeling towards this manga, not because the quality of its writing, but because it shows you how you can always go from worse to the literally absolute worse and just shit in everything that you have done in all of your work. This is the very example of doing everything bad at some point and I almost thought that the author made it worse on purpose due to the obvious lack of standard in quality or just lack common sense in the last path that Tokyo take. But don't be so
...
impatient, Tokyo Revengers is really a phenomenon and is something that needs to be talked meticulously:
Being one (if not the) most popular anime the last year 2021, Tokyo Revengers took plenty of popularity as the manga was quite well-received for people who just wanted to read some simple and entertaining manga about gangs and fights, but oh god, the amount of backlash that the manga received the last chapters along with the general discontent of people due to how a certain character died and how stupid the dialogue was in the final arc (even tho the dialogue was always stupid and boring). But we start with the introduction, about what tells us this masterpiece known as Tokyo Revengers: our protagonist is Takemichi and, well, his life was unfortunate, to say at least. He is a lonely 26 years old who have a shitty work and someone who just live a meaningless and boring life, he then watched on the TV that his girlfriend from school died in hand of the terrible Tokyo Manji Gang... Yeah, shit happens and then Takemichi is pushed into the train tracks, but instead of dying he finds himself 12 years in the past were his life as a student got ruined because of his involvement with the Tokyo Manji Gang, So Tamekichi decide to prevent what in future would be known as the most strong mafia en all Japan. Well, our premise is kinda strange in how is presented, the presentation lacks sense and emotion, but we can let that slide as the time travels just works with the objective to start the plot (kinda like the psychic power in Mob Psycho or something like that), but let's see, the thing that most annoy me starting from the very first chapterr is the narrative and how convenient everything is gonna be until the last chapter and how boring the narrative is. Chapter 1, take attention to the whole scene in the park, every bit of the narrative is just to show us how Takemichi slowly remember literally the worst day of his entire life like what? He didn't remember the day that forced him in the future to live outside his city and the day that started his life as practically as a mere slave of his bullies, you can tell me "but hey, that happened like 12 years ago, it's normal for him to forgot about that" and yeah, you would normally be right, but that's the problem with the narrative of the whole scene with this first chapter, the descriptions are obvious and bland (literally just tells us everything that we can notice just seeing the drawing) while all the narrative indicates how Takemichi slowly remember that day, is just feel unreal and pretty lame in how all the things in this chapter rare warped... Now, let's talk about the other thing that is bad and will carry one of the worst things in this manga, Naoto and how Takemichi will travel between past and future, the handshake between Naoto and Takemichi as a way for travel in time is a bullshit, but like a real big one, Tokyo Revengers in this whole first chapter made me realize that I needed to literally turn a blind eye 3 times: How the protagonist travels 12 years to the past (which will never be well explained in the series), how he didn't remember the day that ruined his life and how stupid is this whole thing of Naoto and Takmichi (let's not forget how Wakui literally explained Naoto believing Takemichi as something so simple as because in that time Naoto believed in occultism)... Fiat is when, in a piece of fiction, something convenient happens but is justified with the fact that is something that is always in the realm of possibility and as long as is not overused it can be logical and not bad, but we have here three times were this manga just didn't even know what to present to us in a plausible way (by the setting we should never expect this to be realistic)... Dear Lord, this is just about the first chapter, we have a long way to go. But as a summary: Yeah, the plot is presented in a really bland, boring and convenient way while at the same time the narrative and the basic concepts of this manga are just something that force us to turn a blind eye. The characterization of the character was kinda okay in the start, we know Mikey and Draken as your typical gang members who are tough and strong, damn, even the presentations of the characters go really well to what we expected about them, we can tell at the first moment how important, strong and frightening that they are to the other character with diverse perspectives without the need of something obvious or plain dialogue, but what is concretely interesting about this duo is how the series in the first arc literally was able to tell us how their relationship work and what they mean to each other (we have the scene of Mikey and Draken in the hospital when Mikey tells him about how without him, he wouldn't know what to do, which is easily one of the best in the entire series imo) and how they really want to be close with each other (how Mikey cry when knows that Draken is okay), is solid and have a great approach in the start... Yeah, just in the start, what happened? We will see it later with how the atrocious final arc literally ruined everything that was made here and how Mikey is just a little bastard that really doesn't care about others, but for now until chapter 180 I can firmly say that this relationship and dynamic of character is the only one that is good and entertaining to see. Good characterization and good dynamic between 2 of the most interesting character in this series, great no? Yeah, something valuable is found here for now, but what about other characters? Mmmh yeaaah... Let's not talk about this. This is too long so let me summarize it for you: --Baji and Kazutora: A duo that at first sight looks interesting but is actually pretty bad due to how pretentious and fucking stupid Kazutora is as a character, Baji, in the other hand, is a character that fulfilled his role even tho it wasn't long, he did good and remembered us that there are some circumstances that Takemichi cannot avoid what's going to happen, but he can change that horrible future that awaits him with managing to archive other conclusion even if the event happened. Then Kazutora a terrible and pretentious character (let's be real, what is about his quote about "the one who kills is a villain but the one who kills an enemy is a hero" is about? Literally a quote that in theory should summarize his character and attitude but is delivered and used in some random scene where it had noting to do about that) and Baji is okay because of what he means to the series and for Takemichi. --Haruka and Ryouhei (Pah and Peh): Wanted to warp them in the same stack because the characters meant the same for the series, nothing more than just being strong, they had their interesting things in Moebius arc, and it was well handed, but then we realize that Moebius arc ended in chapter 33 in a manga with 278 chapters, the author just used them as some guys in the gang who fight alongside Takemichi and nothing more... Man, it really is difficult to talk about the character in this manga due to their lack of presence or interesting things (ah yeah, let's not forget about how idiot was Peh when he failed under the "manipulation" of Kisaki and how he never disbelieved him). --Mitsuya: He just had bad luck, his character and dialogue were interesting to read and was good to the manga portraying the most mature side of a member gang who actually does something more than just go around picking fights or talking shit, his relationship with the Shiba brothers and with Draken was interesting, and it was reciprocal to the lector how while we knew more about his past and relationship with shiba we also understood how he was getting along with Takemichi, plus he is one of the few members in the whole series who isn't one dimensional, a pretty good character for the first 180 chapters... But why then I said he had bad luck? Because of all the characters that were spit out and totally thrown away, it was his character the one who suffered the most to the point that it not only made all of his interesting relationships and dialogue go to the trash can, but actually made the character even worse (he literally used the “the real treasure was the friends we made along the way”). --Inui and Koko: Warped them in the same spot as basically their character is strongly based in how they change each other. Inui and Koko are good, probably the only two characters who even at the final arc aren't that bad at all (but this is more because they doesn't appear that much actually), the backstory of Koko is solid and some of the most interesting and unique thing that Wakui did in his manga, portraying the struggle of letting someone go, how we sometimes search for replacement in other people and how sometimes we need to sink in some vicious or bad thing due to trauma. Inui is just good I guess? Is just that the character is not bad, but I really can't see anything really special about him, how he gained trust in Takemichi was developed in a natural way and his relationship with Koko was good, the problem with almost every character in this manga is the lack of conclusion, this is almost applied to every character apart from Takemichi and Mikey, so in the end is difficult to see really something great in the journey and struggles of every character in this manga... But yeah Koko is good. -Chifuyu: Just boring, his character just doesn't have anything interesting. His relationship with Takemichi is purely artificial, and we see this just because the series force you to see them as best friends out of nowhere (not forget how useless his character was in the last arc and his absolutely terrible and abrupt change from chapter 234... That didn't make any sense at all) You know? Every other character in this manga just suck or doesn't have anything for them, maybe Shiba and Hina are good things but the development in Shiba is practically overshadowed in all of his scenes and Hina just have the work to make Takemichi feel good with himself and almost magically heal him from almost every injury that he gets from every enemy, she actually helped to the development of Takemichi in the first like 200 character, but everything is discarded at character 187 when he screams "I wish I could be able to fight against him again" that was the moment that caught me most off guard and the moment when I thought "Takemichi you really are a stupid bitch" that dialogue literally destroyed the character in few pages, yeah, I know that the intention was to show us how he learned to respect his rivals, but really? Wakui really didn't have other ways to portray it that didn't involve making his main character look like a stupid who really just spit "deep" bullshit about honor in a world of gangs? Thank goodness the series goes worst from this moment, so really this doesn't stand out at the end of the manga so our boy Takemichi is safe because his worst scene is the least bad in this festival of poor writing right? Well actually yes, for real At this moment I really can't think about other moment when he was worst as a protagonist, but there is the trick, in the final arc his character and the conception that we have about him is changed a little, everything about his as a main character worsened when he decided to time travel just to save Mikey, he doesn't have a specific moment that is atrocious, is just that his whole character as how he is just absolute terrible and a piece of garbage, the mere fact that he has thrown away his life and everything for what he fought just to save Mikey who literally shoot him to death is maybe just little pinch about how bad the thing are getting. Oh, yeah I was talking about Hina... But yeah, everything that he did for the protagonist was underdone due to the apparent lack of common sense of our protagonist and how the author just use her as a device for Takemichi to practically gain strength out of nowhere and to heal all his problems. Hina just isn't a good character. The antagonist in this series are actually a little more interesting than the main and side cast (not much difficult tbh) Izana is okay at the end of his arc, the value and impact that Mikey saw in him was pretty interesting when reading that fight again. Izana is a character who tries to be deep but doesn't utterly fail but at the same time doesn't really connect with the lector or with other characters that aren't Mikey or Kakucho, his interaction with Kakucho was interesting as it wasn't the conventional loyalty relationship despite this being the most apparent thing at first view, but the trope of his character was precisely how even tho he was totally alone he finds Kakucho as someone who is equal to him and someone who he can call friend. His fight is boring tho even if the introduction was epic, Izana as a character just had the objective of being epic and making a frightening appearance in the "real final arc" (the series should've ended here) as some type of final boss, scenes like the one where they explain that he made a kid commits suicide or when he destroys the mound that Kakucho made to his parents are a clear hint of his presence and style in the manga, as a cool antagonist it works, but we had other antagonist who did this better... The other antagonist who was actually pretty good and the main protagonist of the arguably best arc in the series is Taiju Shiba, to make myself clear and in short; everything I said about Izana can be applied to Taiju and is even better because his fight is probably the best in the whole series: emotional (with one of the best panels in the entire manga: "loneliness"), a good use of the scenario, plenty of character united just to fight someone who is stronger than them in every aspect... The bad is that the fight ended with the possibly most legendary technique in this series, yeah, with one single Mikey kick!! Sure, the ending of this fight is possibly the most lame in the entire series, but everything prior to that was good and funny to read, damn, if I am being honest I could even give a 6/10 to the entire Black Dragons arc. Every other antagonist is bad or mediocre at least: Kisaki's motivations were lame, South was possibly the worst character introduced in the entire final arc (literally everything about him was bad) and Hanma is just a one dimensional character who literally fights because is fun, and we are never tell more than that (no, character 205 doesn't count, that character just told us what we already knew long ago). Then the list would be like this: Taiju - Izana - Kisaki - Hanma - (every antagonist or minor antagonist who appears before chapter 200) - South... I really want to talk shit about character like South, Sanzu or the Mikey of the final arc, but I just can't because this will be even more long that what it is, but South and Sanzu are literally everything what is bad about this manga, this is nor a metaphor neither in figurative sense, I really mean it, those two have every bad thing that a character in this manga can have: bad backstories, boring dialogue, edgy behavior in the whole manga, bad interactions, bad presentations and actions through the entire manga, bad fights, simple designs (even South who have some of the most outstanding design is just ok), bad conclusions (and even before everything just magically concludes happily they didn't have anything good, but after that they really didn't had anything). The drawing is okay at best, as I say before, designs are okay in the best of cases like Draken, South or maybe Mikey. What I really dislike about the drawing are how Wakui are the manga panels, the focus is just to make every character to look the most edgy possible and the drawing in fight scene are easy to follow, maybe too easy to follow to the extreme that is because of the simple and boring drawing (along with the bad panels) that the fights are bad and so Goodman boring, the scenarios and facial expressions are good, I really think that when Wakui wanted to portrait an emotion with his drawing he was able to do it at some extent, but the lack of a style made all the experience worse in every moment of tension... Just read chapter like 232 or 233 you will have a plenty of panels that scream at the sky "EDGY!!!" for God’s sake I just can't believe that the author drew that thing about the "dark impulses" without thinking that it was bad, in a chapter they really said "South has more dark impulse than Mikey" what? Dark impulses are some type of chakra or ki in this fucking awful manga? This was my limit, I just couldn't took the manga serious after reading that, and the worst thing is that the drawing tries it best to be the most serious and it just fails so loudly that it's even embarrassing. Yeah, bad use of his drawing (or just edgy panels and drawing). With this broken down, I feel more free to talk about the manga. Now, Tokyo Revengers have plenty of characters, just write "Tokyo Manji Gang members" and you will see a variety of characters, each one more boring and edgy that the previous. The first arcs in this series are kinda ok I think, see, is just that all of the fights in like literally every arc are boring and just not interesting at all. Takemichi fighting against Kiyomasa, Mikey fighting against Hanma, Mikey fighting against Kazutora, and we can go on, but what I want to make clear here is the fact that in fights the tension is never present, in the Moebius arc the tension is not about the fight but about the fact that Draken was about to die because Kiyomasa stabbed him, the whole fight scene is forgettable and just a pretext to present this part of the plot (this concretely isn't bad, it's actually the whole idea of the arc that is just a pretext to kill Draken) but come on, at least make it slightly interesting and not dull for the lector to read it, we literally are in the chapter 33. The series also is showing us how it will tell us the story for the next 250 chapters, there will always be a boring chapters were Takemichi go to te future and just talk with Naoto about how Tokyo Manji Gang is still bad or even worse than before, making the plot not just lineal, kinda pointless and so boring, but it will maintan the same structure without trying to make the things interesting, but here, in Moebius arc, is something that we can let slide just because the series is starting and is searching for his place and how the narrative will be to future along with presenting us how the author is gonna handle the times travels... Which ended up very bad, the times travels are literally a device used to tell the lector in his entire face about what Takemichi needs to do and how he needs to do, like if the series is, as if the series was taking us by the hand and taking us for fools who need everything explained in the face to just follow a lineal plot... I don't know if I make myself clear here, but we are face to face against easily the worst type of narrative that a shonen can take; no emotions, everything explicit, so easy to follow that it gets boring, no tension and ultimately the most obvious and least interesting dialogue. Chapter 13, all of the bad things that I said about the use of time travels can bee se in some point in this chapter: the way Takemichi just go to the future as is the most simplest thing in the manga, the boring dialogue with Obanai hinting us about something big is going on... But why is this scene boring and enravel all of the bad things in the use of time travel in Tokyo Revengers? Well, let's see, first of all, the way Obanai is telling Naoto and Takemichi that that fight was something planned by "him" shows us how all the arcs are and they will be linear until exhaustion, you can say that this is something good, because it makes us feel that every arc is connected and everything in this manga matters, but that's not what I see here, what I see here is just the author telling us in our face what he have been telling us this 13 chapters, that something important and siniester is gonna happen and everything is the plan of a malicius man, you see why this is bad? This is still the poor narrative that I explained before but now we even have that in the future which are always the moments where the series is full of diloague, so you are telling me that we are gonna need to endure this dull dialogue in the other aspect of this manga? Yeah, peak fiction right here. In the last part of this chapter we have a scene were Naoto literally summarises everything to Takemichi in the simplest way and is just like "well Tamekichi go now we need to start the new arc and this will be the most basic way of telling it to ours lectors". But ladies and gentlemen let's not be so hater in this series, this arc actually have quite good things that are at least a pleasure to read. The scene when Takemichi is surrounded by Kiyomasa and his other bullies and is about to collapse but is saved by his old friends is a lovely and interesting scene, not just making us clear that his friends can be useful and showing us without an overuse of dialogue that his old friends are really grateful to Takemichi about what he did against Kiyomasa and how he free them of that, but more importantly, it makes us clear the impact that the protagonist can make in other chapter while at the same time there is a clear joint between the first arc and the second arc not just by telling us with dialogue but with how the character comport themselves. Oh, and the series ironically presented us in a good way what it would be known as the worst thing in the whole manga, yeah, the first encounter in character 15 against Moebius shows us just how Draken and Mikey are, yeah, the introduction of Obanai and the gang entering the territory of Touman as the ending of the chapter is a really good bait, but that wasn't even the principal fight in that arc, and it didn't ruined the scene as it was the first time that we really see the power of Mikey and Draken... That's why I consider this as something good in this arc as this is easily the least bad moment when Mikey handled by himself a big army of enemies or the principal enemy in the arc. Valhalla is other bad moment to the series, is bad, but pretty bad: Kazutora, Hanma and Mikey, the three MVP of the most atrocious things in this arc. We still have the bland and lineal plot and pacing in this arc, the character introductions are okay but the first touch of the infamous “dark impulse” was revealed here and that alone makes me dislike this arc like 10x more. But what do we have here? We have a pretentious and insubstantial antagonist who is possible the most futile character to the series and one of the characters who have easily the worst backstory in the whole series alongside South, I talked about Kazutora and Baji before, so I will save the trouble. I just don't know what to say about this arc, is just boring, the climax point in this arc should've been the death of Shinicirou, but the flashback is just so convenient and stupid that it almost made me laugh because of how bad it is, Kisaki and Hanma shows really relevance here, but their roles here are just okay, Hanma in the entire series is just a punch bag who needs to endure every punch either from Mikey or Draken and Kisaki is just some guy who mysteriously have everything planned and is a genius... No, Kisaki, you're not a genius, is just that the average IQ of the character in this series is like 5, is surprising how the plot is so distorted to make Kisaki look like a genius or like someone who is really frightening and calculator, we really are supposed to believe that he planned how to domain Japan in just like 7 years while he was 14 years old? And he succeeded and everything went accord his plan? That some pretty big bullshit that the author made for us, thanks, Ken Wakui, for showing me how you can make something worse than before. But returning to Valhalla: Everything that was made here is destroyed in the final arc; the death of Baji, the repentance of Kazutora, the meaning of everything to Takemichi and his development was everything ruined by the absurdity of the final arc, it really surprises me how bad is. The time travel this time just ended in a cliffhanger for us, but the fact that Mikey killed Hina was something fascinating to read... Is a shame that the author literally didn't use that for anything. Is just that this arc feels tasteless, the same narrative, the same type of fights, bad backstories, the same Mikey who just destroys every enemy while at the same time destroying every piece of tension in these gangs fights “but hey, the real tension in that arc was when Mikey almost killed Kazutora” Yeah it is, but the dark impulses kills every bit of seriousness in this entire scene, is hard to take it serious and is something that give just the vibes of edgy and the repentance of Kazutora didn't matter in the entire manga while at the start it was pointless and a way for us to feel bad for the character or that's what I guess because it really didn't do anything for the characters, just Mikey saying his typically "Takemichji you are incredible you remember me to my brother”... Oh yeah, the death of Shinichirou was literally the most “ok” death that I have read in any type of manga. Bad arc. The Black Dragons arc is actually pretty good, I explained that later; Mitsuya and Taiju Shiba are good characters, so that carries this arc for almost the entire duration... This until Mikey appears and finish everything with just one kick and Draken defeats every member of the Black Dragons outside the chapel, Mikey is starting to develop into the most terrible thing in this manga; an edgelord who kills every tension in this manga who also doesn't have meaningful interactions with other characters. Draken in the other hand is still okay as a character as he has his values and morals established since a long ago with also good interactions with Takemichi or other character like Emma or Mikey, Mikey is just like South and Sanzu as I said before... Everything that is bad in the series, and this arc was where it was most notably just read chapter 106 and 107 and tell me what you can see in Mikey... Just a Gary Stu who at this point don't have anything to give to the plot besides the author just idealizing him in some type of genius in martial arts. Mitsuya backstory and his words to Hakkai Shiba are potent in what the manga tries to transmit with his characters: The strong don't need to use his hands to hurt but to protect, that's it that was a fantastic way to give us the meaning of the entire arc while at the same time making the character's growth, this is clever and funny to read, this is what Tokyo Revengers should have done the entire series, giving protagonist to every relevant member in the gang, although the narrative is still the same as always it just works due to how the arc and how the spotlight is shared between every Shiba member and Mitsuya (chapters 101 and 102 have the same narrative but the panel and the fluidity and naturalness with which each scene passes makes it great). Black Dragons is at minimum a pleasure read, and I was willing to give Tokyo Revengers a 2/10 just for this arc... But I couldn't, I just couldn't with the late chapters in the manga, but this is without a doubt the peak of Tokyo Revengers and maybe the only moment when I can say that this manga was good and was something where the author really thought deeply about his characters and narrative. Best arc in the series and easily (as it was clarified before) a 6/10. The Tenjiku arc is actually pretty easy to see what's bad: a lot of characters, not a lot of spotlights on them. The fights here aren't boring, the fights just don't make any sense, the strength of some characters are the pinnacle of the absurdity (just read chapter 162 and 166), Takemichi'plot armor here is over the clouds and is the most shameless thing in this entire manga, we really saw Takemichi won all his battles just because he doesn't know when to give up and this is all of his ability, this is just absurd and a bald and poor way to made everything goes the way Takemichi wants while also selling us cheap emotional moments about never giving up or always fighting for what you believe... Cheap and bland. All of the secondary antagonist are kinda just there to fight, Kakucho has really good moments, but his character is just standing aimlessly, Mucho had interesting psychological insights, but his character died literally after the arc was finished (let just slide how voluble his character was for the sake of make Takemichi look like a real gangster or a real man standing alone against all odds). Kisaki's character also got ruined here, he wasn't charismatic, his backstory isn't interesting and neither justifies his actions, his plans were absolutely absurdly and just his character is enveloped with pure nonsense and some shit, I am just surprised that at this point of the review I think that I can still talk shit about everything that happened in these points of this piece of work. But yeah, Kisaki really fell off in this point of the manga at the point where he died most just because yeah, shit happens. And those were the arcs of Tokyo Revengers by mi point of view, we discused everything that I think was interesting and was worth mentioning about every character, pacing and drawing. Now let's go to the real deal: This final arc made every character from this series look like almost a retard: Mitsuya threw away his future just for the sake of the gang, Pachin reincorporated in this manga even tho he had a girlfriend and was arrested before, Chifuyu helps Takemichi even after telling him that undoing the perfect future was something unforgettable and what bring the death of Draken... Every character makes the decision of make the gang again just for the power of friendship. Draken died just because... Because I don't fucking know he literally came out of a bush to get shot three times a died, what the fuck what the meaning in that death? Why is this scene indirectly telling us that Mikey's live is more valuable than Draken's life in such a pessimist yet boring and artificial scene? What was the author even thinking? I don't have the slightest idea. But that's not all, South is a character that was introduced in the series just to be killed by Mikey in easily the most boring fight in this whole series (believe me, that's some big achievement right there), his backstory and all the time that this manga takes to ensure he is imposing and literally built different is utterly insignificant at the end, Why? Because Mikey just killed him using his apparently "ki" in this series, yeah, his dark impulses took over him and kill South. Senju is another character that adds nothing good to the series, from the strange and bad presentation and first interactions that she has to the almost funny way that she changes personality from chapters to other chapters in such a fast way that it makes her feel like an amalgamation of ideas of the author for a character yet without making himself clear with her intention, I am saying this because of how useless and convenient she is to the plot despite the plot trying it's hard to make us feel like she was always there, but without taking action. This whole final arc we had character like: Senju, Wakasa, Benkei or South, character who were there just to be menacing and cool without any substance behind them and without being to the expectations that the very manga made for us, it just doesn't make any sense to me how he can handle his characters so bad that we ended thinking that almost everyone apart from Mikey is just some weakling. Then we have Sanzu, who is another edgy yet superficial and uninteresting character who have a poor backstory, I know what you're thinking "man, you have been saying the same about every character. Boring is a subjective term" and yes, I've been saying that word plenty of times in this review, but this is precisely due to their lack of spotlight or how redundant are their dialogues and backstories, or how convenient is every character due to how Wakui is someone who has ideas for arcs and characters yet doesn't have the slightest idea in how to make a "harmony" in his series to telling us how everyone is related or how simply he doesn't know how to present characters to his lectors... And no, boring isn't necessary a subjective term as boring is directly telling that something lacks interesting or funny qualities, which indirectly translates to the fact that almost every character just have one side in them or that everything that they have isn't even worth mentioning neither making emphasis. I feel like that summarizes simply why this arc is so bad and infamous: everything that the author did before was thrown away due to how every character almost turns into an idiot or how everything that he introduced since here filed to its very core, do you understand what I'm saying with this? Because I feel like it doesn't sound that bad as how actually is: Everything that he has done before was futile and ended being obsolete, and everything that he did from now is also bad and a failure... Literally everything to this point was bad or wasn't having the effect the author wanted to make, this literally is the definition of utterly failure. The backstory of Shinichirou could be a high point for many people due to be the great revelation of the base in this manga: how time travel works... It's not that good, the highest point in his whole backstory is Mikey, his vegetative future self was possibly the best of Mikey that we saw in the last 100 chapters: quiet, without his usual edgy dialogues and without being boring to the lector: +1 point to Shinichirou's backstory. Now, the bad things. This whole backstory feels like is trying hard to justify every edgy scene and dialogue in this whole final arc: the chapter 232 in the fight between Mikey and South is an example of how childish is this whole thing of dark impulses and how is unjustifiable. The curse of dark impulse make some sense, yes, but that doesn't change the fact that this whole theme was handled in a way that even makes Mirai Nikki looks like a nature anime, the justification of how the power or impulse was created doesn't justify how bad the author handled it... That's my problem with this backstory, is just a poor and convenient justification to some shitty power, it's a backstory that has just the goal to tell you why Mikey is this edy bastard, but it almost doesn't even try to make something apart from that. We can't even feel sorrow for Shinichirou due to how the backstory is just oriented in such a way that it makes us feel disappointment... Let me explain this, Shinichirou was the character that was most idealized in the whole series, everyone talks about him as some type or martyr in the world of gangs, with everyone saying how "he wanted and almost created a golden era for the gangs" or how he "united the two most dangerous gangs in Kanto"... That's all just to be a boring chapter and having a lame excuse of backstory just for the sake of the convenience in this already so convenient manga. The scene when Takemichi has his power passed to him by Shinichirou is some big (really big) bullshit and a plot device so bad presented that it feels that the author just thought "oh, and that's why he has his powers btw"... Lame, boring and uninteresting are the things that immediately came to my mind when I was reading that part in the manga (but it's not like Ken Wakui has ability writing and presenting backstories or flashbacks to his audience, we know that from long ago in this manga): -10 points for this backstory. The Bonten arc and final arc are the biggest piece of garbage that I experimented in a long time, it not just ruin literally every character, and it makes every arc completely useless at the end, it's also boring, stupid, and lacking of emotion and style/identity. Tokyo Revengers ending really undid everything. Character like South, Hanma or Izana just appears at the end without much explanation because the author laughed in our face pointing at how this is literally the perfect definition of a plain happy ending. In character 277 Wakui tried to conclude this entire manga in 2 chapters at the most garbage way possible, I just think that I am not expressing my disgust enough because I just can't. This final arc is literally the worst final arc and has the worst conclusion in every manga or anime or video game that I have experienced and makes everything that could be from before to just disappear into nothing for the plot, and it makes you feel like everything in this manga was pointless, not funny neither interesting. This is literally an insult for very lector that followed this manga for some time, thanks, Ken Wakui, for showing you disrespect to every lector that you had and for showing us what we never need to do when writing a story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Sep 21, 2020 Recommended
When I started watching Kara no Kyoukai I just thought "oh wel...these movies are entertaining" and nothing more but it was until I watched the movie 5 that I understand the concepts and elements that this movie series really has to offer. It's in this point that I actually thought that Kara no Kyoukai, with all its flaws, it's a really good franchise of movies.
This review will contain spoilers This movie is centred In a case that occurred in an apartment where Tomoe Enjou claims to have murdered his mother, in his escape and dealing with his old friends he manages to meet the protagonist, ... Ryougi Shiki, it will then be under that presumption by which the plot of this will move movie, focusing on Enjou and the mystery behind the apartment where he lived and murdered his parents. First off it's necessary to make an aclaration and is that this movie can easily be the first of the movies that actually make a progresion and that is noticeable because in the first film an emphasis was placed on events from all the other films (allusion is made to the fight against Fujino, Shiki killing and his recovery from the hospital) so from the first moment we could take this film as the turning point between the anachronies and the time jumps of the films, this is very important because it is in fact in this film where many unknowns that the previous films left and even this fifth film being analyzed as a separate product conclude of the other films also shines for its own reasons that we will explain below. After the 4 previous films this is presented in a different way, the presentation does not focus on Mikiya and Shiki as such, but on Enjou and they present you from the first moment a strange scene that uses a little recurrent and extravagant narrative for which the viewer should be absolutely clear from the first moment that the follow-up of the films could become more strange and complex than the rest, this is reinforced by the simple fact that when Shiki welcomes Enjou into his house (when he opens the door ) use animation and transition to move from scenes in a really unfair way, that presentation is key because from the first moment the film makes it totally clear who will be the key, how animation will be used, the use of narration and how and where will the anachronies be located. Something good about the positioning of this film in the chronological line is that the world, atmosphere and tone are marked from long before (it is true that the fourth film may seem simpler, but the atmosphere and tension remain the same) and this film does not presents no hint of changing that and even this film wants to deal with more complex elements throughout the work, dark colors and the use of shadows precisely is something key, Ufotable is well known for knowing how to set situations in dark elements and from this film is noticeable because the most key and conclusive elements occur at night to convey the feeling of gloom felt by the protagonists in front of the antagonists (this is too noticeable when Shiki faces Araya for the first time and she is devoured by the department) which in that sense this film is responsible for dragging all the above from the films (for better or for worse) and develop and exploit it to its favor with the context that this movie is really the only moment so far where you can feel tension when you find yourself after the first movie chronologically, that is precisely the reason why this is the first movie where the enemy actually manages to corner Shiki and even represents a mortal threat to all the characters, although the scene of Cornelius murdering Touko seems to me the greatest example of this, the truth is that that feeling of tension is totally destroyed because Touko was not dead in the end and the explanation is that she had a doll just like her which seemed totally far-fetched and to top it off Cornelius dies in that scene ... without having done anything important in the plot despite the fact that her presentation and foreshadowing in the film was key for the very development of this and that seemed to me a total waste of the character (it is not possible to match what Cornelius presented and incited in the plot so that later he does absolutely nothing and even his wacky scenes are reduced to nothing in the movie). Basically of the 2 antagonists presented, only one is really well achieved (Araya) while the other is totally wasted (Cornelius) and even so Araya's flashbacks are insufficient to fully explain his reasons and justification for the acts, it is not that Araya is A bad antagonist is simply that Kara no Kyoukai has a bad habit of always cutting off her antagonists in the end (see Fujino), Araya has a brutal presentation that practically encompasses the character in its entirety and even afterwards his actions in the movie have a meaning very relevant and stars in the best scenes in addition to presenting the symbolism of existentialism and how that philosophy led him to devise a plan to try to "save" the world by finding the root (which I also loved because he made the first direct relationship with Fate / Zero and in a simple and effective way) Araya's execution is actually quite good but the character's foundations and his Ideologies fail quite a bit even at the end of the film and that disappointed me as he could easily have become the great antagonist of Kara no Kyoukai (although it is not the same that Kara no Kyoukai stands out in large part for its antagonists). And since we are saying that the monitoring and the use of the camera there are quite good scenes like the scene where Shiki and Enjou enter the apartment where the murder of the entire Enjou family is repeated over and over again, specifically him as the murderous mother. the father has a very natural follow-up and it could even be said that it was monotonous for what was shown to be a murder and that is that the same scene poses it to you as a mockery of reality and something stupid but it is real, if we actually remember when Shiki tells him that the scene in front of him is real at that moment the screen changes to show us a man on TV making fun of a program making allusion to this, it is a simple murder that has been repeated thousands of times and does not have No sign of being serious or anything new and it is due to the ingenuity of Ufotable that a simple scene of less than 5 minutes can convey the feeling of stupidity and incredibleness of a character in such a complex and creative way. I also find the scene of the final fight between Araya and Shiki phenomenal, they are very well animated since the use of Shiki's sword in front of Araya's fists has a brutal follow-up that, without confusing the viewer, moves the camera sharply from one side to the other following the sword in a convenient way so as not to lose any movement, thus turning a fairly normal combat into one that manages to meet the expectations of the character, in addition to the scene of both falling is the perfect conclusion to the entire combat Aesthetically speaking, since the combat ends with a simple direct scene of how Shiki falls from the building next to Araya in order to directly end the combat and even the OST accompanies wonderfully well and that is because Dat OST is a matter of looking for the OST on YouTube M19 + M20 "(movie 3) and buy it with the OST" M24 "of this fifth movie and it is that Mujun Rasen's OST is more rushed with a contrast in quieter moments and the more tense or moving and that is why this OST specifically fits this movie very well in particular because the OST perfectly matches the rhythm with the final scene between Shiki and Araya, that is something that I very rarely see well in this In case, the difference between the previous OSTs denotes a comparison between the reserved fights that Kara no Kyoukai had before with those that she has now that are widely different, with an emphasis now really on action and movements. And it is precisely the narration that gave me the most enjoyment in the first bars of the film, I would dare to say that no scene is in the film just because yes, everything has a reason why it is (either symbolic or as a weight in the plot) and time jumps are not an exception, each one of them is made with cohesion between the events that occurred in the past and those that will occur in the future (when Enjou sees the fight between Shiki and Araya he returns to Shiki's house and there we go back to the past to narrate from Mikiya's perspective), these anachronies are well presented throughout the entire film precisely to the game that he does with animation because Ufotable, beyond animating well, knew how to animate these movies. These temporal jumps also help to complement scenes with each other, when Enjou is in the street watching Cornelius follow Shiki it is one of the best examples because in that same scene it is naturally allowed to see that Touko and Mikiya were by his side without Enjou would realize, it is precisely scenes like this that give cohesion and coherence to the actions that the characters do because this same scene indirectly asks you "what is Mikiya and Touko doing here?" And it is obvious that you will ask yourself that question because in that same scene introduces us to the character of Cornelius who, by the simple fact of seeing the design and the angles they give him, gives us to understand that he will be an antagonistic and new character. The funny thing is that precisely when the film focuses on Mikiya's perspective, that scene that I just mentioned obtains a clear emphasis on the follow-up of the department's case, which is why the mistery that was presented to us in that scene before is now taken from Another perspective and gets a different meaning than it had before (there are many examples like those in the movie) and that also serves as a continuation for when the viewer feels confused due to the anachronies, when Shiki receives the sword from Mikiya we are presents in a short scene in which Shiki returns home and meets Enjou and then tells him about the sword that Mikiya gave her so when we go to Mikiya's perspective there is precisely a scene in which it is shown in it how Mikiya gives the sword to Shiki and why he gives her the sword and that's brilliant because it help the spectator to ubique the event because there are really much scenes like that and that's help you to understand the movie at the same time that the movie introduce those scenes naturally and with a good approach. And to describe in a simple way it seems to me that the passing/rhythm is precise and very uniform related to the exposition because despite the fact that the content of the film is complex at no time does it fill you or kill you with information, instead it bothers to explain the characters and events in a more cryptic way, so it does not feel monotonous or turn it into a stupid textual and repeated explanation, it is true that near the middle of the film there are some elements and relationships between characters explained in a vague and sudden way (the relationship between Ryouko and Araya together with Cornelius seems to me totally out of pocket), passing has the The benefit is precisely that it comes according to the movie, the necessary emphasis in the scenes makes the moments feel natural and with a goal, for example the scene where Shiki talks on the phone with Mikiya and Enjou asks if she is okay and Shiki She responds that she is angry with Mikiya because he left without saying anything, that scene not only emphasizes the growing relationship that they have developed and that very thing. It will also impact the evolution that Enjou will have in the same movie. Well we talked about the amazing storytelling and the very good cohesion along with a pretty good rhythm that fits the events and the moment, now the characters and the other elements that make this movie so good. The characters themselves remain very similar to what we saw in the previous movies, Shiki and Mikiya have deepened their relationship and it shows by some short scenes and by various dialogues that Shiki has as the movie progresses and Touko shows a new one facet that he had never shown in all the movies which was ruthless and accurate in killing Cornelius in a simple and fast way, which, although it is interesting, is really not a big thing and you can even forget it for the next movie, but the character that really stands out here is Enjou Tomoe. Enjou Tomoe symbolizes almost everything the film wants to convey, free will and acting on your own, being really free in a world and a life where you were predestined to do predetermined things or you are predetermined to meet predetermined people, it's not just that The evolution of Enjou and its parallelism with Shiki (a real murderer) is in vain because how the personality of Enjou Tomoe softens and even how he sympathizes with his family are scenes that clearly show how he progresses slowly throughout the entire film and even so it brutally reinforces the contrast between Mikiya, the one who helped him accept his family, with Shiki who simply knows how to kill because this makes it clear that Mikiya despite everything that has happened in previous films continues to maintain his word and humble personality just like he said he was going to do it in the second movie. Returning to Enjou then the existentialist and philosophical aspect of the film is largely due to him since it is in the final scene where he discovers that the character's final conclusion is an "impostor", even if Enjou was not real and was not destined to exist. In this world he achieved something, he felt the affection for a moment of his parents, he felt a friendship with Mikiya and, above all, he felt in love and inspired by Ryougi Shiki ... The only person who at one point tried to save him and Help him, his final dialogue against Araya is very good, how Araya tells him that he is an impostor and that he was programmed from the same idea that Araya had to let go of him to fall in love with Shiki until he told him that he did not care about anything ... Basically THAT Enjou did not existed and yet Enjou replied "I existed here" resulting in the outcome of the character, his catharsis with his family was present from the beginning and his emotions were explored throughout the work and it is because of that that the dialogue The end is so significant because Enjou reaffirms his existence, he helped Shiki because he really felt it and even so he managed to belong to something and had a home, the emphasis and metaphor of the keys is precisely important because of this moment because Enjou knew it existed because he found a home and someone to protect, the perfect conclusion for a character who, being introduced in this movie and nothing else, forms as the outcome not only of the film's philosophy but as the entire character as such. Even so, if we analyze the other characters beyond everything, it is not that they are neither bad nor simple, far from it, it is that this movie tries to show parts of the personalities of other characters in order to reaffirm what has been seen previously and thus finish the characterization of these, Mikiya forgives Enjou and his relationship with him shows us the closest we had so far (not counting at school) to seeing him with a friend and chatting with someone, previously we were shown that Mikiya was such a good person that even He could play a rapist and in this film we are shown that he even managed to empathize with a murderer because his relationship with Shiki was the same as that of Mikiya himself ... Outside of that there is really very little to say, Mikiya was always taken by the work as an opposite to Shiki and as someone who does not forgive the murder (despite the fact that in a certain way Shiki is) and even so, under that remarked idea, he managed to develop together with Enjou because he knew of first moment that Enjou was not a bad person. With Ryougi Shiki it is curious because it is in this movie where we are shown with combat with Ryougi Shiki instead of Shiki, many could consider this a Deus Ex Machina and my answer would be well ... No, Shiki's personality change was present Throughout all of Kara no Kyoukai and even the very construction of the world of the movies make it totally clear the change between both Shiki's personalities, even so the fact that Shiki changes his personality through the use of the sword is something that will charge relevance later and in fact the Deus Ex Machina as a rule in themselves are not something negative and this in particular is not because it is the collusion and conclusion of ideas that one can unite oneself from the previous films (the use of the sword Shiki talks about in film 2) and, as I say, this scene and final combat does not ruin the world that Kara no Kyoukai built in the other films, for which it does not ruin neither the scene nor the thing raised in advance and, in fact , reinforces it in an effective and simple way that is also not far-fetched, therefore no, the participation of this personality of Shiki is neither far-fetched nor something negative, it is a matter of paying attention in the previous films and uniting the ideas that exposed the movies from their very beginning. But speaking of Shiki in general as a character ... The truth is very similar to that with Mikiya, there is not much to get out but in this case it is justified because Shiki's personality is raised in the first film, in the second the bases are shown, In the third it is reinforced and in the fourth one sees the conclusion that Shiki reached after the hospital incident, therefore the Shiki of this movie is an amalgamation of what we have seen in all of Kara no Kyoukai and that makes it special because Shiki maintains elements of all the movies and does it correctly, his desire for murder but also how he withholds himself, his relationship and attraction to Mikiya and how he opened his heart to other people. Shiki in this film is easily the most human and the one that most demonstrates the conclusions reached before and that is why I considered Shiki as a good character here for the mere fact of representing everything she achieved and presented in a natural, credible and with a context and dialogue that are just good. I would stop at the OST but I really talked about the OST before ... It is simply incredible and easily one of the best I have heard, what distinguishes it from the other OST I have heard is that precisely in Kara no Kyoukai the sounds used, instruments and the moment they make the scene what it is, it is a set of all the elements in which a work should think when placing an OST and make it unique precisely for a scene that, even pretending it, can be unique, the haunting setting and mysterious also serves to accompany the scenes and is that in this Mujun Rasen is precisely where the mystery most lurks in the environment, the mystery of the apartments is simply rare at first and may even seem uninteresting, but it is due to the explanations that are given later when one can understand that Araya merged with the departments in order to carry out his plan, it is true that some explanations sound quite incoherent as e The fact that the elevator changes the stairways but there is the funny thing, it is a "spiral paradox" that is extravagant as such, in a way even so I was never convinced by this argument so I remain neutral to it as explained by the departments ( being the central axis of Mujun Rasen) because they could have given more clues about how the department works as such without resorting to vague explanations or an exposition that simply does not solve anything or is totally sudden ... Even so, the mystery unfolds well one Once we reach the end. Little more to tell the truth, I talked about the excellent use of animation and dark colors, the presentation and transition of scenes together with the tracking of the camera in specific scenes that I loved, the characters as such, without being a big deal, they excel and manage to fulfill their role in the film in one way or another, the OST and the passing along with the incredible narration, exposition and the philosophy that the character of Enjou carries on himself. My problem with this movie is simply the convenience in the script that it has on several occasions, Touko's relationship with Cornelius and Araya seems to me out of nowhere along with the same doll that she had that was identical (in itself Touko seemed easily to me the most bland and bad thing about the movie), Cornelius is wasted and they could have delved a little deeper into characters like Mikiya ... But all of that is minimized when you see and appreciate the brutality that Ufotable has done here, almost all things bad things can be easily overshadowed by the excellent things that this movie brings, specifically the narration that I think is one of the best in all anime (not only because of its structure but also because of its operation) and finally to clarify some things, the fact that Enjou be an impostor YES it makes sense and an easy explanation (for something Enjou always dreamed of his mother killing him because it was his other clones who died on that occasion and since Shiki and Enjou They enter the departments, this idea is clearly stated), the film simply does not treat you as stupid and even so it serves a lot to capture the philosophy of the film and most importantly, if you find the film pretentious then I invite you to read the I finish, learn it, watch the movie again and intelligently and there you will tell me if this movie is pretentious. Personally, I loved it, it almost does not fail in anything it proposes and it is an experience that for me is unique in this world of anime ... You should definitely give it a try.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 14, 2020
Kimetsu no Yaiba
(Manga)
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(207/207 chp)
Without a doubt one of the most famous "new gen" manga in the acclaimed Shonen Jump, a shonen that the last year dethroned one Piece for a few moments with the title of best selled manga... well then, how good is the manga?
The story centers on Tanjiro, a normal young man who, going out to find firewood, he notices that there is a great snowfall, so he decides to return home the next day, the surprise is that when tanjiro returns home his whole family is dead except for her sister (Nezuko) who was turned into a demon, there she will begin her journey to ... try to make her human again. The story is very simple, something expected for a shonen, but what if we analyze the bases of the story is something that can really branch into an interesting story. But here is a problem, one that will mark the manga throughout its development, the approach of ideas is quite competent, despite the fact that in the early stages of the plot the narration is quite regular (or sometimes directly bad) the problem is the pacing of the manga The beginning of the story feels very rushed, just seeing how the events are triggered at the beginning one realizes Tanjiro's rapid reaction, something that misleads a lot, let's take something into account, the scenario was worked throughout the first chapter, the character was characterized in a way in which one would notice his feelings and his lifestyle, so when the real important moment arrives is that precise moment which feels more empty and rushed, a start that he wanted seems shocking he succeeded , but he did not cope with it in a very remarkable way, the only moment in which we see a human reaction from is when Tanjiro starts crying in the moment he sees that Nezuko attacks him. Not only that, Tanjiro and Giyuu's thoughts quite ruin the moment, when Tanjiro throws his ax at him and Giyuu dodges it, they put us in the mind of Giyuu who literally repeats the same situation in his head, thus serving as a lousy narration and A shameless way of explaining a situation that was explained alone and without the intervention of a narrator or someone else's voice, which in itself makes the manga redundant, is only when that shot ends that the manga really puts us in Giyuu's perspective. Yes, I am being tough and specific, I know, but I do this precisely to denote how at the beginning (emphasis on what it is at the beginning) the mangaka does not know how to combine the narration with the thoughts of the characters, creating bland moments like the one I just mentioned, that's something that will get better, but that mediocre narration will continue until the Rengoku saga (or the infinite train). That would conclude with the analysis of the introduction of the manga. As this is my first review of a "long" shonen manga, I would like to delve into the sagas, but first I want to cover everything else. The characters and designs In Kimetsu are something to emphasize, not only the designs are characteristic, the characters themselves as well. Of the secondary characters the ones that stand out the most are Inosuke and Zenitsu. Zenitsu can easily be considered a deus ex machina at the beginning of the manga, his lightning strike literally one shot's his first 2 enemies, thus taking away much of the weight off the fighting, but outside of that Zenitsu is competent, in fact he fulfills his role, the demon hunters are presented as bold people, the elite in terms of human capacity, but quickly Zenitsu breaks that scheme and idea, he is a character created to contrast the protagonists who appear not to be afraid, his design helps a lot in that since Zenitsu by far seems the least formidable and has a characteristic color that will generate more personality to her design. The development of Zenitsu is presented very little by little, he really evolves very little outside the final arc, when he saves Nezuko multiple times is an example of that, his characterization makes his eagerness to protect Nezuko his greatest interventions and pinch of evolution of the character, in the early his dialogue is really not ingenious, his characteristic dialogue is simply when he says to Tanjiro "I protected the box because you said that it was something more important than your own life", something that hints at Zenitsu's desire to protect people, so it is a feature that we get pretty quickly in the manga, but its peak moment is, without a doubt, its combat against Kaigaku (upper moon 6 of replacement just in case), that combat is the end of everything worked in Zenitsu, not only the approach and concept of the combat is incredible, the execution is also incredible, we observed near the beginning of the manga his flash backs, which showed his relationship with his master, but in his fight against Kaigaku we see the true facets of Zenitsu, his reaction to seeing his old partner turned demon is natural, it was the only time we saw Zenitsu angry only to later see him sad when he realized the loss of his " family ", his dialogue in that fight is phenomenal, we really empathized with Zenitsu when he saw how dissapointed he was, the feeling was very well expressed and his final metaphor about the box of happiness gives him an extra touch, Zenitsu is not afraid of the fight he really want to face her enemy for the first time, a decision that is implicitly explained very well. Now and the interesting thing ... was that Zenitsu pose an ass pull or something? I would answer no, let's remember that the biggest Zenitsu workouts before the final saga were focused on the legs (the rock exercise) and that also, his attack in itself is very similar to Tanjiro's, so he had a source of inspiration, they also put an exclusive panel to show how Zenitsu adjusts his foot to make a new attack, from that moment it is clear that Zenitsu has a new attack, but if it were not, let's suppose what an ass pull is then ... is that really bad if we compare it to all the good that scene did? Yes, his analysis was long, but he deserved it, the only counter to Zenitsu is that his comic relief does not help much, sometimes he manages to laugh, but mostly he does not, his serious moments are the best and he is possibly the best character developed from the manga and I wanted to explain why. Now I will cover Inosuke and Kanao, who have a very similar evolution, since both characters are recognizable for hiding their emotions, this works more with Kanao, let's take into account the impact that their relationship with Tanjiro had when they trained, a natural relationship and what reflected how both characters would take a course throughout the manga, Kanao changed, yes, she changed a lot and that's why we see how she shows her emotions in her combat against Douma is spectacular, we see how Kanao shows anger against the murderer of her teacher (which gives the final step to the relationship between Kanao and Shinobu), Kanao's dialogue is very shocking and that is written like this to generate a contrast between the old Kanao and the current one (his most characteristic dialogue is when he asks Douma why he was born) his final scene with Shinobu and Kanae also shows the appreciation that he came to develop in people, Although this is evident from before, at the moment that Tanjiro recovers after his combat against the upper moon 6, so this last scene is not artificial, since it is an expected reaction if we take into account the precise dialogue he had with Tanjiro. before. The bad thing is that his combat was decided with an ass pull, at first almost Kanao looks like a Mary Sue, but that is fixed when we see Kanao humanized, he is a worked character, but it does not reach the Zenitsu caliber in my opinion. Very similar happens with Inosuke, his fight against Douma is what drives his evolution, his mother's discovery gives us to understand 2 things, the first is that Inosuke saw Shinobu as a mother figure, which subtly explains their relationship and his understanding of things, Douma's relationship with Inosuke's mother is far-fetched, the concept is wrong and the approach does not help either, because it is very sudden and at that moment it seemed that the mangaka wanted each demon to have a relationship with one of the characters, the execution is regular, apart from the fact that it explains to us why Inosuke's mother left him that also generates a real feeling of fighting, it is the only combat where Inosuke does not fight for fame and that is noted later by the more direct dialogue than it has in the middle of the fight. The true importance of Inosuke's flash back is what triggers it, when Tanjiro says that Inosuke's mother surely loved him is a very good scenes and the one that most impacts the character (that can also be seen when Inosuke fails to have the courage to assassinate Tanjiro), his humanization is better than Kanao's because Inosuke is a constant character, but in general they are both equally good. I also forgot to say that possibly the design of Kanao is the most forgettable and that of Inosuke the most memorable, in addition the introduction of Inosuke is the best of the leading team, its charisma and combat style is very noticeable, it has great characterization and its relationship Tanjiro is explored throughout the manga. Tanjiro and Nezuko are arguably the worst characters in the group and are themselves mediocre, yep, I said so. Tanjiro is too ideolized, he has no flaws and a large part of his combats have ass pulls (although that does not take away from the good, but he fights against Rui and the upper moon 6), his evolution is noticeable little by little but In spite of that, the mangaka continues to praise Tanjiro as much as he can (but he does not reach the Meliodas level, that's the worst), his characterization breaks down to make the character as humanly perfect as possible and that disgusted me a lot, it's as if they wanted to you want the character to force and a character can not earn love like that, only a few relationships with the characters save him and the impulse that he gives to the others to evolve, so yes, I consider Tanjiro a mediocre character (which is not bad). Nezuko seems to me a waste, the mangaka does not want to present his evolution implicitly but she does not succeed and that is because it is very obvious and redundant, he only limits himself to showing affection under the excuse that Urokodaki taught him that, in fact In and of themselves, they never explain to us why she is a special demon that resists Muzan, later we see Tamayo, yes, but she had logical grounds for why she escaped from Muzan, Nezuol, not because of her bad approach, her execution and development. she leaves a lot to be desired and also her bouts are not memorable, that's why it is a waste, the mangaka could have implicitly told us how Nezuko evolved, but we did not get even half of that, just a waifu without nothing to highlight (the design is not the Big Deal). Outside the group the other characters work for themselves, characters like Giyuu, Uzui and Muichiro achieve a lot in the manga with their time on screen and the truth is that the mangaka wanted to work on all the pillars, but characters like Sanemi (which He admitted loving his brother out of nowhere, simply to generate something emotional), Iguro (which literally does nothing in the whole manga and is a total waste) and Himejinma (he had little screen time, just wasted). But the worked secondary characters stand out more than the not worked precisely because of the distinctive emphasis of each character, we see the flash back of most of the characters, normally I would say that this is a mediocre way of explaining the feelings and past of a character, but Kimetsu He does it well, he knows how to place each flash back (from the train saga) because he waits for the tension of the combat to drop, presenting a characteristic dialogue of the character that then leads him to remember his passdo, it is natural and does not interrupt the He fights abruptly because the change in tone is evident in the combat and that makes him a worthy presentation, that is undoubtedly a strong point of the work, knowing how to place and present the flash backs can turn a mediocre narrative into a quite interesting one. To speak of elements such as world construction and use of the world would be a waste of time since there is simply no, Kimetsu is a shonen focused on his own and it is made clear from the first moment, the lack of world construction does not make it bad, because that element is simply impossible to analyze here, the bad thing is that it affects the setting which makes it very convenient and poorly built, the Japanese elements help a little, but the fact that we don't even know the time in which the manga takes place It is something that displeases quite a lot and erases the clear idea of Japanese time, they did not even explain to us why the government does not know about demons, it is very unreal ... in fact and now that I see it capable it is true, worldbuilding is mediocre and is very sloppy. Muzan is bad, very bad, but not only talking about who is evil, but what his characters suck, he is the worst antagonistic figure presented in the manga and easily the most wasted character (at least it does not reach the level of Tomura's pretentious garbage at BNHA), his personality is boring, we do not delve into his personality or past or his reason why he is the first demon, his parallelism with Oyakata was very interesting and was reflected very well in the first arches, but his final combat is horrible We only know that Muzan does not want to die, but that is reflected so much in the manga that the exposition of that ideal becomes tedious and monotonous, the character itself is not redeemable, it is a pity how the main enemy ended. Yes, it's a shame how the main antagonistic figure ended ... but what about the secondary antagonists? And it is that part, my dear reader, which interests, possibly Kimetsu is the current shonen that best handles the use and exposure of secondary enemies, the presentation of the 12 moons is somewhat predictable, but it is fine for a shonen like Kimetsu, the open possibilities for all kinds of villains and that is exactly what we got, several types of villains, Rui highlighted and represents better than anyone the lower moons, his saga is the first of the manga that is worth seeing and was the first great challenge in the manga, the construction of his combat together with the use of flash back manage to make this combat a transcendental one. In order not to make us boring this moons issue very boring or repetitive, the mangaka decided to end all the other moons, that scene of Muzan murdering the moons is great, not only because of how it looks but also because it presents the parallels between Muzan and Oyakata and his way of treating disciples, since both scenes clearly show us the essence of both characters, when they all kneel before Oyakata and the murder of the moons lower. The upper moons are very good, their stories have distinctive concepts among themselves and their personalities are also very well worked (in this section Douma stands out), I would delve into each one, but I will limit myself to saying that each panel and flash back is set so ingenious that it plunges us fully into the mind and environment of the enemy (undoubtedly the best example is Kokushibou), its combats are dynamic and its designs spectacular, the only exception is the upper moon 5 which is simply very tasteless and bland. Now that I talked about the characters I will explain quickly my points of each arc: The initial arc that lasted until before the Rui arc (because yes, I was not going to speak one by one). Basically the manga at these points was mediocre, erroneous exposition of fundamental elements in combat, simplistic enemies and a very premature appearance of the antagonist, the most notable is the presentation of the breaths, a quite typical and special power system at the same time, because In artistic terms, the skills are characteristic, which is a point in favor, in addition to that this moment Tanjiro had not any power up and ass pull, Zenitsu for this moment is a deus ex Machina and the overuse of the lower moons (as a concept) makes that there is no great tension and the narration and use of flash back is bad. It is really a very bad and poor start for what will develop later (The rating is for an idea, but is not exact) Note: 3/10 Rui and training arc. Here the really interesting part of the manga begins, the combats feel better formulated and the scenario is better set than before, Rui is not a great villain, but he works and is competent as he serves as the manga's first great adversary, the use of pillars It is quite curious, because we are presented with the human counterpart of the moons that would be the aforementioned pillars, their moments are transcendental and expose the differences in powers between characters, making clear the power level of the leading group quickly and clearly. The bad thing is that Tanjiro manages to stay against Rui due to a quite convenient power up, it would be normal if we got an epic moment, but that part is relegated to nothing due to Giyuu's intervention, so they presented us with a power up in the most important battle only so that later it did not come to anything? That removes great weight from the combat itself, Zenitsu how always taking a shot at the enemy and Inosuke's combat was fine. The part of the training only serves as a transition and to make Tanjiro more broken, we are introduced to Kanao who at first will not be a great character but later he will have great evolution. Shinobu also ends up provoking dynamic reactions and thoughts in the characters with his appearance, but apart from that this part is simply boring, we did not get much, but as I said a while ago, it serves to present all the pillars (with a great characterization) and to show the parallelism between Oyakata and Muzan. This arc would be 6/10 Train arc Easily and arguably the best arc, Rengoku has charisma and shows it from the first moment, the intrusion of the lower moon 1 makes sense and does not feel rushed despite being the last one alive, we can delve deeper into the psychological of secondary characters, the Rengoku himself explains in a non-pretentious or pedantic way his vision of life and the change of tone begins part of the dialogue feels very good, from a tension plane to a more reflective one, the appearance of Akaza is striking and shocking which generates more enthusiasm for the reader to know the other enemies, Tanjiro fights just without taking anything out of his pocket, which is appreciated, the battles against both the inner moon and Akaza feel unique and great to see, the truth is that this saga fulfills many roles being the most important to expose the power of the upper moons and to make it clear to the viewer that the characters can die in the manga. A great arc 8/10 The arc of the red light district Another quite interesting arc to analyze, Uzui is a charismatic character, the art becomes consistent and the antagonist is interesting, everything sounds good if you see it that way, but the combat is quite disappointing, both the leading and antagonistic forces pull out sudden power ups what , they would be fine if they had given indications before, but they generate a very artificial combat and with the intention of lengthening the combat, but emotionally it works, the flashback of the upper moon 6 is interesting and very sentimental, in addition to presenting a message left Throughout all their combat, the relationship between Tanjiro's team and Uzui happens quickly but the change is noticeable and is justifiable due to the setting and environment they were in, but despite everything it feels that much of the search for the upper moon 6 is unnecessary and I branch out the search for the enemy. Yep, despite everything I consider that the combat is mediocre, we have to take into account that this was the first higher moon to be defeated, so the combat should have been better, but it was not, although it has many salvageable things. a 6/10 Blacksmiths Village arc A great saga that predates us and characterizes several secondary characters, the battles seem more like the trigger for a great teamwork, the atmosphere and Muzan's attack was well reflected in the moons he sent (despite that they are the most boring) , at this moment the mangaka has full control over the use of flash back and how to position them, the combat does not feel bland, Genya manages to develop with Tanjiro very well in a very short time, but Muichirou's overwhelming victory against the upper moon 5 A short review for this arc, but quite good 7/10 the last arc I will not lie, this saga started very well, the peak of complexity of battles, character development and their relationships with each other, there were many ass pulls in between, but the saga managed to keep you expectant and tense of what will happen, the designs The enemies and their attacks are great and the deaths are very well built, the motivations of the upper moons are varied and their flash backs are genuinely complex to be a normal shonen ... All that is destroyed once the combat against Muzan begins , the characters stupidly deconstruct themselves to force the plot, emotional moments based simply on victimization, quite boring and not very dynamic combat only to finish off with a Diabolus ex Machina that was solving by a Deus ex Machina, what a great ending ... I lied, really the end is horrible, both the time skip that is too out of place and every fight against Muzan is crap, the contrapart of this combat is the battle against Kokushibou, this battle is the pinnacle of a worked combat in this manga, a combat like this would be a great final. but I cannot ignore all the good things he did at first. an 8/10 (it could have been a 9/10). Now let's talk about other elements, the art itself is not very good, but it has its own style and is characteristic, something very important, the art works well with the attacks shown, but in the final saga they were simply based on launching any attack and the art did not help distinguish, but art itself is not something I would say is bad, it is considerably consistent and characteristic, character design also works well with mangaka art. The plot triggered certain interesting elements, subsequent narrative and exposure generated that the plot was driven more and the story had a more defined direction, the use of internal focus on characters coagulates with what is presented by the plot, even if the plot is generic triggers elements that are exploited by the mangaka, but never touches elements outside the world of demons, making the world feel empty. Oh, and by the way, I reread the ending, it is mediocre or bad directly, too many situations are forced by the sentimental factor, there is no explanation of the reincarnations and there is no sense that there is a photo of the protagonists at the end, because that breaks the whole small world of Kimetsu and also is a total nonsense that, like the whole chapter, just wants to collide with the sentimental factor. This ending almost makes me drop the score to a 6 conclusion The start of this manga is lousy, I will be honest, but it manages to stay afloat very effectively, it manages to appropriate elements from other shonen and shapes them in its own style in its manga, the characters are interesting and charismatic, the use of temporary anachronisms is good and The narration later is fluid and does not stagnate in monotonous thoughts, the design of scenarios and enemies is also a good thing in the manga, the bad thing is pacing, in the last arc it was combat after combat and that could get tired, but the battle against Muzan was affected by this, the entire end of the manga was damaged by the misuse of pacing, the matches have a unique essence, which helps him stand out compared to other shonen, but the matches are full of power up and ass pulls, they are still enjoyable and have many good qualities, facial expressions also cohesive well with the roles presented (emphasis on the flash back of Kokushibou), anyway, I flaunt go too ... Kimetsu is a solid product, it does not deserve the popularity that anime received, but it is a manga that I would dare to recommend, I really liked to follow this manga and it is a great example of starting with simplicity to later explore topics with your own touch, thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 18, 2019
Imawa no Kuni no Alice
(Anime)
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Not Recommended
What a disappointment
Actually Alice in Borderlands is one or my favorite manga, I enjoy reading each chapter, it has been a while since I read the manga, so I wanted to see these 3 ovas to see how good they are, after all for my Alice in Bordelands it was a great and I knew that, despite being 3 ovas, it could be a good thing from there (well, I was wrong). The story does not change much, Arisu Ryohei, tired of his life and with an inferiority complex by his brother, appears in another world with his 2 friends after seeing some fireworks, in the ... "new world" (which is equal to the Earth, but without many people) there are some survival games in which Arisu will have to participate to survive, the plot is simple, but it can unleash many possibilities, but the pacing is terrible, the plot rushes so much that we can not get to Psychologically understand the characters or their actions, the ovas only take advantage that they are a game of death to play great and develop them well (that is a good point that the ova have at least) and then forget everything else, it shows due to the emphasis to make each game fit a game and making their preparations, which does not work because the grace that the games had was to see how the protagonists faced the games in a psychological way and in a way Inamica, while here they only focused on making the game great, leaving a kind of "style over substance", since the reflections and deductions of the characters completely dislodge due to the inconsistency that the ovas had to prioritize and retract the games ( it takes very little time to explain correctly and dynamically). The last game was the one I gave the most hope, but the flask forward (as opposed to flask back) that were recurrent in the chapter made the majority of the chapter's dialogue meaningless and explicitly let you understand that something wrong It was going to happen (which is a simple way to put tension although with everything, this game was the one that best treated the tension), without the need to resort to psychological immersion, which generates, although all the games are raised in a way correct, the latter in particular could have developed in a great way, but the little immersion with the characters and the fact that we could not get into their mentality makes their deaths do not feel like something emotional or that has weight (although the soundtrack did a good job in general), so, despite the good approach, the development was mediocre. The characters are where the ovas weakest, in the manga the characters are undoubtedly their best element (especially Arisu), due to the duration of the ovas the characters are very poor, you can not get to emphasize with any due to the emphasis that is only given to the games and in the ingenious way to solve them, it is not at the end of the third game where you can get to understand the feelings of the characters, but that only serves to generate an emotional scene where friends of Arisu die, if not for that reason the characters never managed to express themselves correctly, the exposition of deep themes is very superficial and pretentious (we never really get to know much about Arisu's past or why Chouta feels a loading, they are only vague themes presented in a superficial way), so the exposition of themes is superficial and does not complement the characters due to their poor presentation in the chapters (although I always I talk about character designs in other reviews, here I have nothing to say, it is normal), the characters besides being poor do not get to express their personality well nor can we see great relationships with each other (which is a contradiction taking in mind that they are best friends), so outside the protagonist the other characters become very boring due to their little time on screen (it provides very badly the exhibition of characters, something that did not happen in the manga). The animation is normal, although the scenarios are very muted and low in color that they use to express more the dark tone of the ovas themselves, outside of that the transitions are mediocre and the facial gestures too, the animation does not help to focus the viewer on certain aspects, at least the animation is not as bad as you might think at the beginning, it just does not meet decent standards. The end of the ovas only leaves the viewer anxious, forcing him to read the manga, which makes it a concise ending, but with clear intentions, I really find that these ovas were totally wasted, the manga being a work that gives much emphasis to psychological aspects and the ingenuity of the games, the anime only gave emphasis to the "ingenuity" of the games (since the few that appear are not the big deal), well, a short review, if I don't talk about other aspects of the ovas it is because it is irrelevant, I really would not recommend these ovas to anyone, or to someone who would like an anime about people in a survival game because in the end and seeing it in retrospect it is likely that there are not many things either good to get out of this animation
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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