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I think even reading this review will take away from the experience you get if you were to read this blind, so I recommend you just stop and go read the first chapter. I hope that's enough to convince you to this series, but if not that's what a review is for.

Rosen Garten Saga truly takes everything that makes anime and manga so degenerate and condenses it something absolutely amazing and insane. When I read this, I experience something similar to when I read JoJo. The plot points that drive the story forward are relatively standard, but it’s from the characters and their interaction with ... each other that we truly see how insane and ridiculous this manga is. You really can't expect anyone in this series to be normal and just watching each person behave like an absolute degenerate is absolutely beautiful. What takes this manga to the next level is how clean and sharp the action and panels are. Even in panels that only show a single, simple action, the detail in the art provides so much subtle information that showcase the uniqueness of each character. For example, the weapons in this manga look ridiculous, but the artist still applies small details such as how the blade is held to demonstrate how even something that looks so stupid is actually incredibly badass. Everything about this manga is so stupid and epic at the same time and I truly love everything it represents.

I don't believe a masterpiece requires a epic story or a deep narrative or any distinct defining premise to justify itself. Act-age's story is structured like almost any other shounen, a main character with a special talent and goes through various arcs growing and improving their craft to become the best at what they do.

What truly struck a chord with me was the art. The art on its own is impressive, but its certainly not as streamline and polished as Murata's work in One Punchman or as detailed as Miura's Berserk. It's very hard to explain it without having seen it for yourself, but ... the beauty of Act-age's art is that it enhances the narrative and characters beyond just illustrating them. After all, why draw manga when you can tell great stories through books or show cool action scenes in anime or movies. Manga is a medium that captures a single moment and must portray a characters emotions and energy effectively within the stillness of the panel. I feel Act-age does this better than other manga I've read, as every emotion an actor or actress expresses, joy, anger, sadness, love, and pain, can be seen and understood so clearly, I get chills. Every emotion for every character is expressed uniquely. The sadness expressed by one character is not the same sadness expressed by another character. You can see Yonagi grow as an actress not just by the roles she plays and the techniques she learns, but by the way her expressions change. Its this sort of level of conveyance and mastery of the medium that breathes so much life into every character.

This isn't even something you need to realize to enjoy the manga. I didn't even notice it on my first read, but I think what makes things like this a masterpiece is whether you conscious or it or not, it evokes an emotion you've never felt before. I think epiphanies like these are what define a masterpiece, but regardless of whether you felt the same emotional connection with the series that I had, I think this is a great read for any shounen lover.

Grand Blue is a masterclass work of slapstick and gag humor.

Although the series is about "diving", the setting and premise serve primarily as guidelines for the plot to direct its comedy. In other words, characters can derail into basically any subplot and then realign itself at the end of each arc to ensure the series doesn't go too far off on a tangent and overwhelm the reader with too much absurdity.

The setting itself provides a reasonable justification for the kind of humor you see. Drinking naturally comes with college parties and nudity "naturally" comes with drinking. Diving also offers a unique focal point to ... branch humor from with things such as diving signal gags, and of course, nudity.

In comedic manga, characters are essential to driving a joke home. Although every character is the complete opposite of normal, what they do makes sense because it’s part of their character and that allows the humor to flow. In Drifters, comedy can become awkward at times because malicious and serious characters would suddenly turn goofy for no reason and it messed with the image the characters were supposed to maintain. Every character in Grand Blue has a unique personality and together they can turn any normal scenario into a circus.

Most of what has been said can be said for many other series, but what makes this series stand above the rest? The Art. In Fullmetal Alchemist and Onepunch Man, gags are made by lowering the quality of art to portray the lighthearted or casual attitude of the characters in a high stake scenario, but in Grand Blue, the art quality goes up at the punchline to portray the high tension in the characters despite their situation being nothing serious. This drastic imbalance in what we see versus what we feel serves almost like another joke making it so that each punchline is two jokes rather than one . The flow of text is also superb as it feeds you puns and gags at a precise rate. In Gintama, the comedy is goes by the same formula as Grand Blue, but if you read the manga, the pages are covered in text and content within each chapter is way too condensed. Seeing the emotion and expressions of the characters is harder to visualize compared to Grand Blue, where each facial expression perfectly expresses the absurdity and emotional peak of the characters.

So that’s basically why I think Grand Blue is a comedy gold mine. Hopefully this review makes sense and if it doesn’t, there are plenty of other excellent review that give you an idea how amazing this series is.

Lots of people seem to only really read the first volume, which kind of disappointing because the first volume alone is really is only keyhole into the true beauty of the series. There are many reason as to why I think this series is my favorite, but to things (relatively) short, I'll just be focusing on the setting.
What I believe makes Utsuro no Hako outstanding is how perfectly the author executes the philosophical complexity of human nature with the environment the characters interact in. What makes this possible is how the author designed the functionality of a plot device called boxes. Boxes in the story ... allow the user to make any wish perfectly how they perceive it, including their doubt. This sort of concept gives the author the liberty to throw the characters into all sorts of creative scenarios without the reader feeling like the situation is unnatural. What has made many series appealing were their ability create arcs that could each function independently on their own, yet supplement the character development of the main cast in the overarching timeline. Consider a series like One Piece. Many enjoy the series because each arc provide an unique narrative, yet with each arc, you could see the more of the bigger storyline unfold. Same goes for Utsuro no Hako. Every volume or every few volumes will give you a engaging arc, but as you look at the bigger picture, you start to see how each of these arcs ties with the development of Kazuki and Maria.
As for the actual settings, damn are they interesting. Not only do each of them work under a unique concept, the intellectual depth provides you with sense of thrill you rarely get from most series that rely on have action scenes or emotional trama. If you read all 7 volumes, I'm sure you will be able to appreciate the series's ability to drive your emotions and intellect.