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With the works of Urasawa that I’ve read, I can safely say I’m not a fan of his. To me it appears some of his works contain the same common ground of presentation—one slow, tedious, stretched-out slog of an endeavour—that I’m repulsed by. Billy Bat’s insidious nature too dictates improper planning and lack of direction.

There are some positives I can extract out of this manga. Billy Bat has a well-established premise that exudes intriguing mystery through a bizarre comic character. This peculiar entity maintains its mystique dimension throughout most of the manga. The manga is reliant on historical context that I find to be solid ... enough, though sometimes it can be a bit cheesy. And while being considerably slow, the first 90 or so chapters manage to enthrall with some gripping reveals and events.

The second portion of the manga which involves the second Kevin as the protagonist is certainly inferior to everything prior as it feels all over the place. The chapters with the first Kevin as the protagonist had elaborate self-contained storylines that felt significant and memorable; something I can’t say about everything after where nothing sticks out or manages to form a path encompassing clear direction.

Don’t you find it disappointing how the continuous deepening of the mystery only leads to an ending that feels so anticlimactic and underwhelming? When I take into consideration how some of Urasawa’s works were serialized simultaneously, I can’t help but think there isn’t a full-fledged picture in his mind (or the one whom he collaborates with). It clearly manifests in Billy Bat’s lack of cohesion. As a whole the story doesn’t really make any sense and feels too disjointed to determine a solid finalised impression of its overarching narrative. By the end it’s not clarified what Billy Bat is and how it came to be a universal entity. Implementing some symbolic purposes isn’t enough when the character or concept itself isn’t clear or doesn’t make sense. You can talk forever about the message conveyed through an idea and how it’s fascinating, but if it can’t secure a believable and consistent spot in the narrative, it’s bad writing.

And the message itself? I tried to piece together the scattered bits and came to the conclusion that Billy Bat is the manifestation of a two-sided coin of ideology or will. The "wrong" way to use Billy Bat is by dividing, corrupting and contaminating the world—a process that is done by people who fall into the category of: Having a desire to rewrite history in order to appease one's selfish wishes and regrets (which can also be a desire to repair humanity's mistakes; both are things that could lead to the destruction of the universe) and having a desire to conquer the world by means of brainwashing, indoctrination and authoritarianism (using Billy Bat’s radiation of happiness and influence as a weapon to control the masses as depicted by the imposter Chuck Culkin and his successor)—these are 2 of the 3 Billy Bats who are divided.

And so the "real" Billy Bat—the one whose usage is "correct"—is the one who has the power to unite the entire world and portrays humanity in its most pure and ideal way. "Keep drawing" Billy Bat as it will be the force which humanity will be dependent on unanimously: That’s what I got from the two Kevins’ realization and the ending portion with the two soldiers. Billy Bat can lead to either the destruction of humanity or to its unification.

The progression of the plot is dependent on precognition whose telling controls the characters, and therefore the characters remain superficial with no explored-upon or elaborated motivational merit. And that includes both empty shells of protagonists. The two Kevins are driven by a willingness to unite the world by using Billy Bat, and that’s about it. The second Kevin is especially bad considering not only is he a derivative character, but he also lacks personality.

Billy Bat insists everything that occurs is according to its plan, and so some characters are detached from free will. Although it's a theme that is touched upon with some characters, it affects too much of the cast to justify their lack of depth since then it would be indicative of redundancy.

Even the characters that seem to have more depth to them fall flat. Take for example a character like Kurusu: They clearly tried to write an elaborate characterisation of him and his motivations, but ultimately it was as hollow as it was badly concluded. He’s a one-dimensional character who represents the side of persons who want to use Billy Bat to erase their regrets and past life. But the worst part about him is that he was introduced as an ominous, scheming individual with an intriguing mystique only for his character to end on a side-story undertake that is related directly to no relevant character—not even the first Kevin whom confrontation with him at the beginning has established a long-term conflict to be resolved.

What you need to understand from this is that the manga is entirely dependent on its plot. And that’s a problem when—along with the negatives of the plot I’ve presented thus far—it has many questionable elements. There are many cuts that try to provide tension and thrill, but their over-usage ruins the flow of the story. Some characters know certain info without reason; they go to a certain place, but their reasoning or justification to go there are nonexistent. It’s not complemented well by Billy Bat’s convenient telling which has tendencies of serving as a plot device. Other forms of convenience include the second Kevin managing to stop Kurusu from destroying the world by altering the preconceived future sight of Kurusu fulfilling his wish. So basically, the plot struggles to be the great dominant force of the manga.

I’ve tried Billy Bat several times and ended up dropping it until recently when I picked it back up and finally read it from start to finish. I felt like there was something, an aura which gravitated me towards trying it again and again. As I’ve said, there is an excellent premise here. The surreal mystery and uncertainty of the start are impeccable. But after finally finishing it, it felt like a miss-opportunity; a luring idea whose true potential has been neglected.

“Chainsaw Man” immediately starts out with a disappointment. In “Fire Punch”, the author’s other work, you have a protagonist who fuses with fire and essentially burns permanently. A protagonist who fuses with a chainsaw and fights with it like a sword sounds less captivating in comparison.

Now this is only a minor issue as it’s not necessarily bad. What ultimately matters is if the whole package is worth it and able to provide unique qualities.

This work's strongest aspect is certainly its interesting and playful concept that becomes fairly clear early on: Humans versus fears. Anything that can plant a sense of fear in the human mind ... can manifest in the form of a Devil. That's why, as implied early on, even a "Car Devil" could be a thing as stressing over being run over is a valid concern. The greater the fear of something is, the more power the Devil receives. In the circumstance of a crisis the relevant Devil will become more powerful and daunting.

This premise showed much potential for an immersive ride that needed to deliver on the other aspects. Unfortunately, it failed to do so. Not only is it not gripping and accompanied by shallow characters, but the story is also an overwhelming wave of unrefined and sporadic ideas.

The manga feels somewhat directionless at the start until we're introduced to the Gun Devil and the process to reach him. The main conflict at first features only two groups. It's straightforward and remains that for the most part (and I’ll get to that later). The problem lies with the structure. The manga going on for dozens of chapters with such a linear plot that progresses slowly is a downside. Though It does try to compensate or justify that.

It’s an action manga which is mostly about fighting. And while creating a manga that relies solely on action can be solid, the execution has to fulfill some basic properties. You see, in a manga like "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", which is all about the action, the battles themselves are thought-out, imaginative, strategic, surreal and sometimes hilariously absurd. In "Chainsaw Man" you don't really get any of that as the battles mostly boil down to characters inflicting damage on each other mindlessly with powers we've all seen before. It definitely doesn’t help that the action sequences are filled with dense artwork that makes it hard to comprehend what you're witnessing.

While what I’ve touched upon now is my biggest issue with this, I want to go a little deeper and put into perspective how flawed this manga really is.

There comes a point after 60 chapters where the plot tries to expand by subsuming international conflicts. And that’s also where the madness arrives. I generally have an issue with how chaotic and unclarified this whole section is, but I liked it slightly more than the previous chapters. Specifically because of the Darkness Devil confrontation in hell. I liked that battle. With that out of the way, let’s talk about some nonsensical things. In this section the Puppet Devil had a big role. I guess you have to assume the Puppet Devil’s objective didn’t align with the objective of the nations which hired her to get the Chainsaw Devil’s heart since she was willing to give it to the Darkness Devil instead in order to kill Makima. Her objective isn’t explained and that’s confusing (and it gets even more confusing when you later understand that the nations want Makima dead). There is a contradiction that bothers me too: I’m pretty sure it was established that Devils can’t form contracts with one another, but somehow the Puppet Devil is capable of doing so with the Darkness Devil (yes, she did that through her puppet, but she was the one who got a fraction of the Darkness Devil’s power). Not only her mind being connected to all the puppets in the world isn’t a solution, but it also makes it even less reasonable. So is that woman the Puppet Devil or not? Who knows. At this point I thought the author was a little off the rails. But then I had thought about it more, and yeah, the line between a Fiend and someone like Denji is blurry when the Fiends have the memories of the humans they possess. It’s pretty questionable. But you know what’s more questionable? The cycle of life and hell that Devils go through. Sometimes the Devils are immortal, and other times we’re led to believe they actually aren’t when they are supposed to be reborn in hell. It’s a mindless action manga. But as I’ve mentioned before, the action here is uncompromising to the point where it becomes null. So all you have left are the elements surrounding it. In this case they involve some nonsensical things. The bigger problem though is that they continue to appear without pulling back.

The assassins served as an excuse to bring action that feels more meaningful because it gives the illusion that it revolves around distinguishable circumstances. However, these chapters didn’t offer much progression and ultimately barely mattered.

And so now we’re back to square one with the Gun Devil. As the confinement of its essence is being lifted, we come to understand it. We were hinted at its origins as it was explained in the beginning that it gained enormous power due to the global gun manufacturing which was conducted in a lot of countries in order to annihilate the Devils and has emitted fear. Since it is beneficial to them to manufacture and distribute weapons as it increases the strength of the Gun Devil, a lot of nations hold bits of its power, and the nation that holds the highest percent is the US. Along with firepower, there is another dimension to their rule as it also depicts control. And so there is a Control Devil who is revealed to be Makima. It seems she has rebelled against these nations which gave her a strong form. Accordingly, the US sent their bit of the Gun Devil after her since they’re aware of her overwhelming power. I honestly liked this neat concept of these fears being represented by nations that claim control. I thought Makima’s power was a little shallow; in addition to controlling beings, she has the ability to hold any Devil’s ability. Really? But that is besides the point.

This section showcases how the 70 chapters that led up to it barely had any significance. After we learned about the fact that the Gun Devil is with the nations, the main idea becomes as clear as “nations chase after the Chainsaw Devil’s power; Denji and company rise against them”. This really solidified it for me how stretched out this work is. It’s especially bad considering it reached a subtle and anticlimactic conclusion.

You have to piece it yourself and assume that Makima knew from the beginning about the Gun Devi's location and deceived the nations' spies into thinking the Devil Hunters organization just found out about its location, so that the nations will send their Gun Devil. Finally, Makima defeated it, took control over it and made it possess Aki so that Denji will kill him. All of that for her grand plan. Who are the spies? No one cares. Shouldn't have the nations known about Makima's info? Yes, and they just waited for some reason. Couldn't have Makima just spread the info among the Devil Hunters organization without revealing her true self? Probably. Am I running in circles? Maybe, and I blame it on this manga being a mess.

It turns out Denji was manipulated by Makima and became her desired weapon after blaming himself for Power and Aki’s death (as well as his father’s, but I will get to that later). In its full form, the Chainsaw Devil has the power to erase individuals’ memories of things by eating Devils of events and conceptions (pretty random considering it’s just a chainsaw). But a bit later it’s conveyed that it completely erases the events and conceptions along with the awareness. Now that is where I have an issue. WWII is gone, okay, but what replaces it? What happens instead to all the factors that were involved in it? Maybe the solution is it being a time paradox, so you might want to start theorizing there are multiple timelines in this manga. I wouldn’t make such a big deal out of this if it was just a random ability that was given to some forgettable character, but it plays a big role in Makima’s plan to create an ideal world. In addition to other things, she wants to eradicate the concept of death. Considering it affects the past as well, every living being that died will resurrect. Go figure how the evolution of human civilization will work that way. And surely there will be enough space for everyone on earth too.

The motivations are aggravating and nonsensical. I hate them as much as I hate the supposition that the author thought it was a unique and smart idea. Her plan desperately needed to be on a smaller scale and not blown out of proportions. You want to make your audience think by introducing the final boss’ master plan, but her plan is just filled with intricacies that go nowhere. No clarifications; contradictions; untamed nature – it isn’t as stable and riveting as it should be. Also, it isn't clear why she developed this mindset of trying to create a pure world and how it relates to her being the Control Devil, and thus it makes her character feel unfinished.

In the whole section of Makima vs. Chainsaw Devil it’s explained that she has died numerous times. According to the life and death cycle of Devils, the Domination Devil is supposed to be reborn in hell. And that is really just one example. You clearly can’t escape from inconsistencies in this manga. Anyway, Denji comes back to his senses due to convenient stuff with Power and the strength of the Chainsaw Devil subsiding. You get a stupid final battle between Denji and Makima (the fake Denji who’s made out of the plushy chainsaw and the chainsaw made out of Power’s blood – who buys this?). It appears Makima recognized and remembered people based on their smell and that’s why Denji won. Sure. It seems she somehow, after several attempts, managed to die and go through the cycle of life and hell as the Control Devil has taken the form of another human. Sure. She actually wanted a family all along. Sure.

By the end I was sure the author was the Insanity Devil. I’m looking forward to him in the sequel. But seriously, aren’t a lot of the details throughout the whole manga scream how messy and senseless it is? Does the author genuinely believe it all makes sense? To me it clearly doesn’t.

So Makima is appalling. What about the other important characters?

Well, let’s talk about Denji. To put it bluntly, he’s pretty bad. His selfish and negligible desires aren’t funny; they’re an annoying gimmick. They shape him as an anti-hero with a lustful urge. But why is he like that? Probably because the author thinks it's funny and unconventional for a Battle Shonen manga. Unlike him, I would prefer a protagonist that isn’t annoyingly comedic, even if they're somewhat generic. Just a bit before Makima took full control over Denji, it’s mentioned he suppressed his memories of killing his father. It’s also said that it was revised as a suicide. Additionally, his father was abusive. What? All of this had no foreshadowing as far as I’m concerned. Apparently because he killed Aki (not really), Power (not really) and his father, he can’t live a normal life. Except no shit you can’t, you are literally a chainsaw that brutally slaughters monsters until blood sprinkles off the screen. Though it feels like a stretch to me, maybe this makes more sense in the context of his changed perspective later. He comes to the realization that he was just a tool and only obeyed others, and he embraces the notion that he’s not normal. And finally, he wants to be Chainsaw Man under his own terms. I liked that, too bad he’s still Denji though.

Power's initial objective to save her abducted cat doesn't make sense as her first priority was to join the Devil Hunters organization. All she needed to do was to provide a human to the bat, so obviously she could've done that without applying as a Devil Hunter. Not clarified, but you already know there isn’t a real answer to this. Besides that, I've been more troubled by her character being very blank. We saw her being dedicated to a cat, but then it becomes irrelevant quickly, and she remains an apathetic individual who adds nothing but comic relief moments along with the protagonist. The more I think about the pairing of those two and their dynamic, the more I hate them. They're not funny nor interesting. Most of the time she’s not doing anything remarkable. And while at least the author tries to add some nuance to her character, I can’t help but think it’s only to add to her relationship with Denji which turns out to be all about him in the end. Her death isn’t impactful; it feels empty.

The girl with the eye patch (the first one, why are there 3 characters with an eye patch?) – I would've loved to see more of her struggle with not being "insane" enough to be a Devil Hunter and trying to get Aki to quit. I can only see it as something left to be resolved through Aki. Was her character's purpose to enhance his character? Well, not really worth it if his character is all about vengeance. And yeah, ironically it might be cliché to say it's a tiring trope at this point, but really, what is there to him? A Devil killed his family, he wants to get revenge. He’s not strong enough, so he’s willing to sacrifice himself in order to get stronger. I struggle to care. I mean, even the author seemed to poke fun at it when the annoying duo implied it’s lame. Eventually he realizes he can’t escape from his humane nature and his conscience is telling him to stop pursuing the Gun Devil. He would rather protect the ones close to him. While I did like him growing out of his edgy phase, it still felt tasteless. It comes after an event in which Power and Denji were hurt immensely. But what individualizes this as the “red alert” to stop trying to chase something meaningless? If anything it holds less reasoning than Himeno’s death. And even more abrupt is his contrived death whose sole purpose is to advance the plot.

But if you thought the deaths stop there: Beware, there is no reluctance.

The Devil Hunters organization’s portrayal is all over the place. Just like the plot, the organization feels too thin to get excited over its full scope. The higher-ups don’t have any presence as they only serve as an authoritative body with no real impact on the occurrences. For some reason they let Devils into their ranks and give them the option to roam around freely. It's said that some changes are implemented on the special divisions, but all we see are members coming in and out. Some of them die, but there is no reason to care since they barely had a character. And some of them form a bond with the members without prior build-up (like the Shark Fiend). We are introduced to members of other divisions, and suddenly they die or quit. Notice how a lot of the deaths are of members of the organization who were introduced periodically and never had a prominent role until their death.

I can’t point out one character who was overall good. Maybe if you stop killing every character, you would be able to write one that’s actually compelling.

Which gets us to my final point. As much as it seemed to me at first that the manga tries to incorporate Battle Shonen tropes, it actually tried to deviate from them as much as possible. Although it’s admirable on some level, it can come off as forced, cheesy and unpolished when it tries hard not to blend in with the mediocre and oversaturated realm of Battle Shonen. The main protagonist's eccentricity, instantaneous tonal shifts, overblown plot, tiring shock value moments and frequent weightless deaths are indicative of that. So the manga doesn’t really offer you a better experience than its bland contemporaries. And once you think about more of its attributes, it only becomes apparent that, despite some solid ideas here and there, “Chainsaw Man” is devoid of substantial content and concise narrative.

This is one of those works where the author believes existence is something’s everything and anything is nothing. Look, I’m not a writer, but I think I can write something better. Anyways, spoilers ahead.

You get glimpses of bizarreness in “Soil” from the beginning. The art is pretty limited yet somewhat detailed. The characters, even the main ones, seem normal and yet they have shticks that make them seem unreliable. The setting takes place in a normal-looking town yet the place feels quite ominous and fake. And the story just seems to be going on without ever having a predictable aura. Seems like a nice foundation ... for an enjoyable and mysterious piece of fiction. But in actuality, once you have finished “Soil”, you realize it was all a facade and a deceiving disguise of the true nature of this manga: a convoluted mess with random oxymorons. And that’s not me giving a negative opinion - the manga tells you from the beginning that some mysteries were never meant to be solved. And that’s true, this piece does contain a mystery that might as well be a dream. But the bigger question at hand is if you could actually justify an implementation of this type of mystery in your story. That sounds somewhat contradictory considering the mystery is supposedly unsolvable and illogical, and so the answer to that question is inherently “no”. And yet, this manga actually tries to give reasons and explains its mysteries. Okay, then let’s try and view this rationally.

The final chapter contains the big reveal or confirmation that we’ve all been waiting for - the root of the Suzushiros’ existence. But is that reveal actually satisfying? Well, that amount of satisfaction equals the amount of rationality in the connection between the cause and effect - none. And that’s the whole manga. X happens, totally inconsequential Y happens. Why? Well, because X doesn’t make sense, a portal that is connected to the realm of Santa Claus is created and by nature gives birth to Y which also doesn’t make sense - 10/10 what more can I say. The mystery doesn’t follow a consistent and reasonable narrative. An idea like this is inevitably bound to be executed terribly no matter its complexities and that is this manga’s greatest sin.

By establishing that things like diseases, deaths and general non-conformity actions are things that could be considered “inexplicable” and make “rifts”, you make these random supernatural cases general and somewhat common, and so the “Suzushiros’ disappearance” becomes an unremarkable case out of many in the world. And I get it, the leakage of the “inexplicable beings” has to start somewhere. But that just goes to show that there is a fundamental flaw in the portrayal and progression of the main mystery. By the time we reach the truth of the Suzushiros’ case, we’ve come to learn about several abnormal cases which undermine its impact. It doesn’t really feel like a mystery being unfolded, but rather a nonsensical and messy concept being unraveled. Somewhere in the middle it seems to have lost its initial point. We also learn that reality always tries to fix itself; any “inexplicable being” is destined to disappear. But it׳s not clear whether it disappears because a density of “inexplicable beings” surrounds it or because it gets too immersed in materialism. It is most likely the former, but the Suzushitos disappearance suggests otherwise. Either way, this idea is way too general to be consistent (what is the minimum requirement for it to disappear?), so it relies on randomness and convenience. This intricacy leads to an irredeemable, terrible, abrupt and nonsensical ending which destroys almost everything the story has built.

And it’s a shame really considering the first 30-40 chapters are actually pretty solid. The story is quite captivating in that span of chapters (though shows signs of being illegitimate by the end). I especially like the beginning when Onoda and Yokoi are slowly getting a grasp on the town and its residents’ true nature. The atmosphere is quite eerie and ominous, especially when it involves the Suzushrios, which adds to the intensity and yet repulsiveness of the plot’s development. Those chapters contain some familiar themes that are presented in a chaotic and unsettling way like escapism and hopelessness that stem from a numb environment and damaging circumstances. It’s manifested fairly well within Kento who tries to seek fake happiness (Accordingly, Mizuki represents “fake happiness” which matches with the perceived idealistic happiness her fake family embodies), while he is encompassed in his rough mental state derived from a reality full of sorrow. The problem though is that his ordeal is left inconclusive by the end and the later chapters ruin it by having characters suggesting that the kids are just insane; nothing really comes out of it in the end because by then, no one cares, including myself.

And so the characters are not good overall.

Some characters seem to exist for either comic relief or just to witness the plot. The prime example is Onoda, which for the most part, is an extremely passive character (ironically she keeps spouting her resolve but does almost nothing) with no character depth whatsoever. Her “logical” approach to the case is inherently wrong and makes her static. Not even a backstory; she’s basically nothing.

Yokoi’s character is a mess. At the start, it seemed like the author wanted to give him some depth with him meeting his child and the story indicating he’s divorced. Unfortunately, nothing whatsoever is tackling it afterwards. Seems like something the author has abandoned midway as it makes it awkward. And eventually he’s absorbed both mentally and physically in the “inexplicable realm” and becomes a character who is hurt by the plot immensely. He does random abstract things in order to reach the truth of a specific abstract case - just an example of the stupidity of the plot and naturally Yokoi’s character becomes stupid.

Kosaka’s son is a messy character with wasted potential as nothing is really revealed about his “inexplicable” nature. Is it his mental state? If so, why is he like that? I would probably take “well, it IS inexplicable” as an answer if I was wearing socks on my shoes. It would’ve been nice if the story had been consistent in its reasoning with this major factor. We get a random character indicating in an absolutely random way that Kosaka’s child is destined to be an “inexplicable being” before he’s born. Not very convincing if you ask me. Anyway, his character ends abruptly and incohesively.

Some characters have unclear purpose or motivation like the two inspectors that confront Yokoi who are a mess. There is not one mention about who they are or what they’re trying to accomplish. You have to assume they’re some “inexplicable beings” that try to make the story reach a climactic end. And Tamura - is he relevant or not? Surely his betrayal must hold some significance. I think it’s pretty obvious how terrible of a character he is.

Something went wrong with the writing of these characters, and the notion that some of them stick out not for any good reason is hilarious.

If you look at this manga and can’t draw any meaning out of it, I definitely wouldn’t blame you. Considering how this manga likes to shove its chaotic nonsense down your throat, there might as well be no meaning. The “mystery” here - is it even mystery or just nonsense? Is it mysterious nonsense? Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. Yeah… that would explain the naked guy with a sock on his penis.

As you can tell from the score I’ve given this, I don’t like it. But do keep in mind that every issue I have with SEL is entirely based on my opinion, my experience with the show and what I got from it in terms of enjoyability. Every objective factor that applies to the established consensus standards of writing isn’t relevant here because I prefer to consume and view art solely based on my own standards and my own enjoyment (though an experimental show like this isn’t relied on consensus standards in the first place), like most people. I know it’s pretty obvious, but there ... are people who would likely ignore certain ways people consume art when viewing someone else’s differing perspective, so this is just a disclaimer.

So, SEL, right? It’s quite bad. I think the show’s approach to writing and symbolism serves as a testament to pieces of art, specifically in the form of writing, that try to convey a message passively without proper execution, delivery and reasoning, ones that lack self-awareness. When they thought about the phenomenon or concept they’re going to deal with, they might have had a vague idea on how they will express it through the show, but the execution shows how minimalistic and narrow-minded their view was on it. The only thing SEL basically does right is wasting your time, if that was your intention going to it.

I guess this review contains some spoilers, but in this show the objective details aren’t a major thing so… do what you want.

First, Lain - I don’t like her. She appears to be a lost emotionless child that tries to find her purpose in life. Sounds familiar? I’m sure it does. Everything that revolves around her supposed “character” doesn’t have anything to do with her, but rather what she symbolizes, at least as the story progresses. You could say she's the representation of humanity's will to advance into a united civilization via modern technology. The protagonist isn't really a character, which I guess is what makes her the cryptical “character” that people love. Though she does struggle with identity, the lack of depth in her motivations as an individual delegitimizes any little development she goes through. That’s what happens when you focus too much on themes in this instance - the main character becomes a bit one-dimensional. I guess Her becoming a "god" could be interpreted to humans creating the concept of god while slowly becoming the somewhat suitable definition of it as they’re manipulating the world to their own will. They created a god and it’s in the form of a program whose purpose is to link everyone in the world together. Humans as a whole are the ones that are lost and lack any capability to adapt to reality, therefore trying to pursue peace and purpose. This seems to be the established foundation of the show. Okay, but what now? How is the show going to twist this idea to present its statements on it? Well, unfortunately, this idea crumbles down and SEL fails miserably at trying to tell us anything.

This show is regarded as ahead of its time by a lot of people and is defined by its progressiveness due to it dealing with advancement of humans’ technology and how it affects future societies and generations. Specifically, the process in which the world has gotten enslaved to globalization and connectivity, the modern age. How do we as humans perceive this notion that is supposedly presented in a negative light in this show? Personally, the modern age has its flaws, mistakes and dark sides, but is it really the source of human destruction as depicted by different forms of media and commentary? I would say it’s quite naive to think the logical conclusion to human technology will be the ultimate downfall of humanity, considering how its beneficial effects have only elevated and progressed humanity into a better future, whereas without it humanity might as well have self-destructed due to overpopulation, lack of resources, etc. These are problems that still exist, but current long-term developments are operated to prevent them as much as possible. Other positives might provide an even better argument, but I’ll stop with that. One could say that the show presents modern age’s self-defined persona in a very intriguing and complex narrative. But to that I would say: what’s the point of this show? Does it try to convey a direct message about society that people in history have already foreseen while expressing the consequences of abandoning an ideal lifestyle? Does it try to convey a message while using contextual knowledge to add more information for people who lack perspective on science and its philosophy? Does it try to convey how humanity is advancing towards a future where individualism and identity are not valuable and are forgotten? This show is the very definition of a pseudo “deep” or “intellectual” show, as cliche as that sounds. Why? Well, basically, the show is a very half-assed commentary on globalization, as it comes off as something that tries to implement the concept with surreal thematic imagery, and forgets that when exploring a concept like this in a piece of art, there needs to be a distinctive characteristic or perception to it which separates it from already existing works’ perceptions on the same idea. The problem here is that there are no statements being presented at an appropriately constructed level. None of the general approaches formerly addressed by me are manifested in the show in any meaningful way or capacity. As I mentioned before, there seems to be a negative view on this concept which suggests that the internet isn't a fulfilling ideal replacement for reality, but that isn't fully fleshed out because the writers seem to lack the ability to express their stance in a proper manner as they're having trouble focusing on it. We see Lain interacting with her close ones with cold tension, and we see those two secret agents that try to prevent the alignment between the wire and the real world, which both indicate that point, but we spend little time dealing with it, and it becomes irrelevant very fast. Irrelevant to the point where there are no explanations as to why they chose to bring up this view. Wouldn’t you guys want me to explain why I dislike this show, rather than me just stating “it’s bad” without providing any arguments? The same applies to how the show tackles its themes. So basically, we’re left with no insightful approaches. And that’s the thing, the show’s content doesn’t justify its length. Most of the events that occur could be condensed into a much more short and precise narrative due to the concept being explored in such a superficial and pointless way, and it would still be the same. What does the supporting cast add to the narrative? Nothing, clearly nothing because the conclusion was obvious since early on, and especially because the writers don’t expand on their statements. They added nothing, they did nothing, I felt nothing. The originality, inspiration, experience and thought-provoking views are nonexistent in this, resulting it to fall flat on its face and remain a static work that lacks personality and uniqueness. When consuming a piece of art like this, you would expect it to impress and engage you, at least a little, with any form of distinct expressive features in terms of interpretation as well as the presentation and the explanations of it. In a show like this, where the plot is surrealistically nonexistent, themes are the main things that define and drive it. Well, I approached this show with a certain view about its themes, and left it remaining with the same mindset, as if the time of me consuming the show remained a blank period where I experienced nothing insightful and intriguing… talk about forgettable.

So again, is this show about something that is worth your time invested in? Well, yes... But the show isn't quite worth your time invested in. SEL tries to mask itself as something symbolically sophisticated by incorporating abstract and disjointed imagery, while in reality, it doesn’t add anything imaginative, profound or new about an idea people have already researched and debated about before. A piece of art that lacks the ability to communicate its distinctive stance on a concept, while being defined by themes as the major and maybe only component , can hardly be considered a “masterpiece”. But I can say with comfort that SEL is a bad show.

Part 8 is the worst part, and even more than that, an awful part, just awful. All the reviews here are extremely positive, of course it's their opinion, but the love for this part is something that i don't get and probably never will. I'm giving this a 1 because that's how i truly feel about this part. I went to this with high expectations because of how amazing part 7 was, and i can't believe that this is the next part, i just can't. The drop in quality is big on this one. I'm really disappointed.

At the start, this part was kinda enjoyable (although ... the story begins with the main character waking up with amnesia which is an annoying plot convenience, it makes the story more intriguing because it's jojo at the end of the day). It started out really weird and kind of unique even for something like jojo. the main protagonist was mysterious and i was really hyped to see where it would go from there. well, it did go, all the the way to trash can. Right after Jousuke was taken in by the Higashikata family, it just got worse and worse. The plot itself felt so forced to start as a "mystery" because when you eventually find out who Jousuke really is, the whole thing about the start being a "mystery" feels so stupid and unnecessary, This is just a trick to make the plot itself look better or smarter, when it's really not. And it is getting worse form there, because now, the element of "mystery" is gone, and the whole plot is so slow and not engaging that i stopped paying attention at certain dialogues. What does it matter, they're about those boring fruits anyway. It doesn't need to be that slow. If you look at the plot as a whole it's really not something that inspired or game changing, it's just another generic plot, and that's crucial here because the plot in this part is more relevant than any other part's plot. One of the two things that can save jojo at this point are the fights of course, that's what jojo is all about after all (except for this part i guess). are they good? no, not really, they're kinda bad, like, really bad. It's just fight after fight, stand after stand, that makes me question my love for jojo. EVERY STAND IN THIS PART IS BAD. HOW?? Every time a new stand is introduced, it's less of a real fight and more of a fight about which stand is trying his hardest to be more boring than the other. And i swear, if there are people who give a pass to that beetle fight...

That's it for the plot. Now, the characters? Like the stands, worst ones in the series so far... forever... we'll see. The protagonist, Jousuke, is the worst jojo ever. I don't get the love for him. His design is kinda boring (except for the hat), he has a boring personality with an awful stand. Like, how do people like his stand? It's literally the most unspecific stand ever which makes it boring as hell. Such an uninspired character. Even after he understands who he is, he's just the same unfunny and empty character as he had always been. Now, the girl that's with him, well, she's just trying her best to be the most irrelevant character in this part. Can't say she failed, good for her.
The Higashikata family are as boring as Jousuke. Every introduction is more pathetic than the other. and the youngest member, don't even know what's the point of her, she's just there. same goes for the other chick. Now, Joubin has a nice design, I like his outfit and those spikes, but then the fight with the beetles came and i was getting kinda scared that he will became another boring character. well, he did. boring personality, boring stand, boring objective (he makes the plot even worse). Every part, even if it was a mediocre one, had at least a couple of good characters. Here? None.

In one word? Boring. This is what this whole part is, and it's a shame because it's coming from someone who considers part 4 and 7 masterpieces. This is a great example of something going in a different direction and failing miserably at that. Araki is more uninspired here than he had ever been. He had always been inconsistent for me, but this is just something else. I love jojo, but this part is probably one of the worst mangas/animes that i have ever read/watched. It's frustrating. I hope the next one will be better, that's all i can say.


and remember guys, this is just my opinion :)

I wasn't a fan of part 5, so i was hoping that this part would be better, especially because of the fact that the prison setting sounds really refreshing for jojo, but unfortunately, for me, this is the worst part so far.

The story flows quite well and the ending, while being weird, was really unique and kinda satisfying, but of course i'm talking about the story and not the last fight, the last fight was average and boring, just like the last fight in part 5. that's the problem - This part has the worst fights in any part. at least in part 5, for ... every bad fight, there was a good fight, but most of the fights in this part are average/bad. Chapters 1-20 were interesting and i was hyped to read the rest of the part, but, right after that, the quality drops heavily, when they start to introduce the main cast while i have to force myself to read boring/overly complicated fights. Especially the fight against that old man with the dragon, it was so boring that i stopped paying attention in the middle. after chapter 100 is when it got really boring to me and i was forcing myself to read it so i could finish it already. Basically, almost all of the stands in this part are boring, that's what truly made me dislike this part.

The characters are a hit and miss, just like in part 5.
Jolyne has a fun personality, definitely one of the best in the series, but her stand on the other hand is not shown a lot throughout the part and that makes her a little less enjoyable. Her being Jotaro's daughter is engaging and the interaction between them is fun as hell. i would say that she's a better character than Giorno overall.
Hermes is my least favorite out of the main ones, her backstory and the whole thing about her revenge felt forced and out of place, she's just an empty character for me.
Annasui was an ok character, his stand was bad, but his personality was nice, although they didn't really explain why he had that habit of breaking things, they didn't really expand on it. His interactions with Jolyne were a hit or miss tbh.
Pucci was an average character for me at first, but after we got his backstory, i really liked him. His objective was something weird and interesting at the same time. I was really surprised at what he did at the end, that made him an even better character, absolutely better than Diavolo.
That's all i have to say about the main characters, there are more, but i don't really have something to say about them, they're fine, i guess.

I start to think that the author was uninspired when he was making this part. even part 3, while being inconsistent, still had a lot of good fights, it's a shame that i can only name 3-4 good fights in part 6, and two of them are at the start. I'm glad that this part is supposedly the finale of parts 1-6, and that the author took a new direction with jojo, because after this part, it definitely needed that.

oh, and remember, OPINIONS :)

2 years ago i’ve watched the first season of the anime and thought "damn, this anime is engaging as hell". So i went to watch the second season and i was a bit disappointed because it lost a little of its charm form the first one, i still liked it tho.

2 months ago i decided to read the manga from the very start. read it until recent chapters, and...

This manga is good... until a certain point. I'm sure a lot of people feeling the same way that i feel about this manga. it starts good as a "Zombie survival" manga, an actual good and interesting ... one. But then of course comes the moment where the author doesn't know where to go with this. I mean, how long can you drag this kind of manga? let me tell you - you can't. And that's what killed this manga. Those who've read this beyond chapter 86 know what i'm talking about.

Where is the build up to that chapter? I know that there are a couple of references here and there, but that doesn't considered a good build up. You can't just *Spoiler* switch the story out of nowhere like that and smile while saying "Nailed it". NO, NO, JUST NO.

Every thing that happens between chapter 50 something and 86 is a big pile of nonsense and a terrible excuse to extend the manga. And the stuff after chapter 86 made me hate the characters along with their stupid decisions. and the plot? well, everyone love politics in AoT yay - awful.

It's a shame that this is what the series turned out to be. Would i recommend this manga? well, yes, but you'll have to find out for yourself if this is what you're looking for, just don't expect anything. If you're looking for a series that is consistent and will not "betray" you, just don't read this.

Remember guys, this is just my opinion. If you think that my opinion is terrible then i think yours is too. :)

jk, this is my first review so kill me if you want to