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Satoshi Mizukami is a great storyteller with a clear vision of what he's creating. Maybe you're already familiar with his other works (like Samidare and Sengoku Youko) before you read Spirit Circle, so you probably noticed that already, but if that's not the case, you'll certainly like them and recognize this aspect. It's really cool when all the dots in the plot connects in a convincing way, because you can feel how everything presented was, to some degree, an important part of the overall structure of the story. You can tell that he has a goal in mind from the beginning and even likes to ... mess around with the reader and plainly tell what’s gonna to happen in the future.

Spirit Circle is not a complex story, but somehow you’ll feel that way. It’s about souls and reincarnation. It's about vengeance, but it's also about making up for past mistakes. There's a mixing of emotions in every arc, which goes from something very comic to something very dramatic. Mizukami can play something serious in a very silly way, which can be anti-climatic, but it can work better this way because of how it can break your expectation, and it’s supported with his skills of portraying emotions so good and with a lot of impact. Otherwise, it would be a more parodic manga without any weight. Mizukami knows how to handle both his comedic and emotion side very well and creates a very charming, comic and yet dramatic story. And that's how I felt for the most part of the story, except for the Fortuna's story arc, which is unfortunately the most anticipated and important one. It's really the Achilles' heel of the manga and show how the author's style can be a dual-edged sword. I didn't feel any of the dramatic curves because everything seemed more comic when they should be tragic.

That said, everything else still works great. The relationship between all the characters is something that it’s developed in a clever way, as everything is a result of a past interaction. What it’s being told is not just the past tales of Fuuta and Koko, the main characters, and their circle of mutual destruction, but how their relationship with everyone around them is being shaped with every interaction and choice.

Even though the last story arc is not a winner, the overall story is still great and can cover any flaws that it has near the end. Mizukami knows how to evoke a lot of emotions from his readers and his characters are very likeable. Spirit Circle is a epic journey of self-discovery, but also of forgiveness and friendship. It’s beautifully presented and, for the most part, well executed.

Mod Edit: This review contains major spoilers.
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Danganronpa is a great game. Dangaronpa 2 is also a great game. But Danganronpa 3 wants to prove to me that I'm wrong and that they actually awful games about brainwash, fake deaths and plainly stupidity. There is nothing great about a series of games in which the main villain just uses a brainwash video to make everything and everyone act the way she want, making them free of all charges and essentially destroying any dramatic effect this would have. That said, let's speak about Junko.

Junko is great. In the midst of a lot of colorful and excentric characters, ... she stands out as the most charismatic and also the most charming one. She was purposely made that way so we could believe that she was capable of manipulating and corrupting all the Ultimates and making them cooperate with her grandiose plan of tainting the world with despair. And so she used every weakness to manipulate them, as informed to the player in a piece of information in the game. But then comes lazy writing and everything now is brainwash. Kinda takes out the whole point of her character, huh? And so everything in the series. The Ultimate Despairs now are just brainwashed people without any responsabilites for their actions. The whole dilemna of "hope versus despair" is entirely meaningless if there is no clear logic behind their actions as Ultimate Despairs.

And really, I don't know what is more stupid: Kirigiri's death or she being revived. What was the point? I can't see any logic if not the writers purposely doing something completely stupid because they knew the game would never do it. Because that's the point of the game. All the death and dark twists mattered. They are important for the thematic construction of the games and its main message to the player. Everything was made that way so its message would be conveyed with a strong impact.

I could go on and babble about the other problems with Danganronpa 3, but those are enough. They destroy everything that was build in the game just for a cheap fanservice with a forced happy ending. A lot of people are crediting this to Kodaka Kazutaka, the creator of the series, but he's just the supervisor, while the writers are actually Higashide Yuichiro and Kodachi Ukyou, the duo behind Gakkou Gurashi. It's difficult to say how much involvment Kodaka has, but being busy with V3, I doubt there is much to credit him for. And now I understand why he made V3 so it wouldn't have any connection with the previous games. No freaking way he could consider this piece of garbage as part of the game series.

There is something great about reading a manga about a normal daily life and feeling a powerful immersion with that common, ordinary reality. It’s delightful to read something so simple and yet so captivating with its wacky adventures and charismatic characters. And that’s Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, or SoreMachi for short, for me.

SoreMachi is a manga about a mischievous and aspiring mystery writer girl called Arashiyama Hotori and her adventures as a normal school student, who also works as a maid in a local restaurant. She lives in the downtown and her neighbors, as well their shops, have an important role in the story. Arashiyama’s ... relationship with her neighborhood is somewhat close to a family relationship: they know her since she was a child and are pretty much used with her mischiefs. There is the owner of the restaurant/maid-café where she works, an old woman who acts like her grandmother, the owner of a local drink store that is like a big sister and so on. This whole neighborhood/family bond creates a very warm feeling around the characters and it's a powerful representation of a family not connected by blood ties, making the city not only just a setting but an important character among them.

Not only that, but the characters are fun in their unique way. The manga follows an episodic format, so you can have a chapter with Arashiyama playing a detective-esque role trying to solve a local mystery or just chillin' out with her friends, but also a chapter around any character close to her doing something totally different and interacting with different characters. The manga creates a setting where everyone can have their shining moment and play their role as a unique character in the story, which can also help to expand its cast.

What is so great about SoreMachi is how it has so many sides and yet it works so well, be it a chapter about Arashiyama’s normal school life and her interaction with her friends, a mystery being solved, some kind of random supernatural event, or an emotional and deep moment of a character. It takes so many routes with its episodic format, but the result is not a mixed reaction. Its real forte is on creating random situations and letting the characters do what they do best. And that's what a slice of life manga should aspire to be. You can show great moments of an ordinary reality if you create great characters to explore it.

Have you ever got bored on class? Probably yes. And you probably tried to do everything but listen to it, setting your own games with what you have in hands. That’s how Seki, the main character, passes his days on school. To minigolf with cracks on the table to a war game with pieces of chess. But what if someone on the class notice what are you doing and try to go along? And so you have Yokoi, the classmate who is the only one that noticed Seki and his games, and do some sort of narration for them, which are also the punchlines and ... where is the humor of the manga.

The relationship of the characters are also established this way. Seki is just the misterious boy who never talks and is a genius in doing improvised games. Yokoi just do the punchlines for herself and sometimes get so much on the games that she tries to prevent some of his doings. We also sometimes have another classmate which just misunderstands Yokoi actions and believes she likes Seki. As for their development, I don't really see any of the characters changing. And they don't need to, as the manga depends on them following their roles.

So, it's just a one gag for all the chapters. Sure will go down and became lame after some time. Well, I prefer to believe that the author has an idea to how long it will work and I don't see it lasting much longer, anyway. In the end, what matters is how your enjoyed what you could.