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The run from Volume 1 to Volume 9 capping off the Bloody Halloween arc is some of rawest material I've ever read. The hook and follow up's just that good and I couldn't put it down. Without giving much away, it takes a page from classic delinquent manga and imbues it with new life. It's a dramatic underdog story about trying to change, camaraderie, flying emotions, and the continuing struggles of a gang with surprising turns that keep you guessing as events keep getting recontexualized. Not perfect but small strains aside, it's an addicting engaging read.

What comes after though is complicated? No big drop in ... quality like Promised Neverland or Food Wars but similar to Yamada and the Seven Witches' issue, to keep the momentum going, twists keep coming but they don't land as well due to lack of extended set up the previous arcs had. It can be rewarding when smaller events in the background get overlooked and come back into play later, but on the other hand, it can get exceedingly ridiculous when other plots connect and it comes off more as a retcon or artificial extension to lengthen the narrative.

This ongoing final arc just finished setting up the pieces and it's still too early to tell how well the landing will stick, but there's been more examples of the latter happening to make the stakes bigger and badder than all the previous hurdles before. To sum it up, the sweeping battles are still engaging but it's less gripping and a bit of a step down to what came before.

Tldr; I'd rate Tokyo Revengers volumes 1 to 9 a 9/10. Close to perfect and almost legendary. The rest of volume 9 to 15 and ongoing are 7/10. Still good but if the final arc ends well, I'll bump the overall series rating to an 8.

An examination of times during and after grief, with the strength of will and humanity.

Adapting and reinterpreting a period novel of the same name, Minetaro Mochizuki has absolutely outdone himself. Although still taking influence from Hisashi Eguchi’s art and sporting that Wes Anderson brand of self-conscious quirkiness, the style presented in Tokyo Kaido has finally been fully realized to become Mochizuki’s own, succeeding in a nice balance of artistry and narrative. In the transition from text to comic medium, Chiisakobee takes full advantage of the format. There’s no shortage of good spreads and meticulous composition capturing snippets of time. It’s retrospective, taking its endearing characters ... to the forefront.

Issues that arise are dealt with quickly but...I never got the impression of wanting more or novel material being trimmed. Rather it comes in celebration of the little victories, especially after heartache that makes life worth living. The story isn’t concerned with stringing out melodrama and refuses to bog itself down. Every experience no matter how insignificant and the achievements overcoming another trial eventually coalesces into something meaningful- the taste of tea, momentary decisions, and the relationships between one another. Most of the characters also receive little arcs and life lessons that complement themes of vulnerability, having empathy, pride in oneself, and eventually lending a hand.

And this emotional weight pervades every step forward, even in our own personal journeys.

Immediately dives off a cliff after the first two chapters and spoils its premise by doing absolutely nothing with its hook.

Teppei is an aspiring mangaka who couldn’t catch a break. Despite all the blood, sweat, and tears, effort can only take you so far, and a little innate talent is necessary to succeed. On the verge of calling it quits, a freak accident allows a microwave to deliver Shonen Jump issues from 10 years into the future. Can plagiarizing the amazing debut from its pages be the path to success? But what follows after Chapter 2 is just a disappointing series of events and course ... corrections that leads it to being cancelled after 14 chapters.

The issue isn’t so much that the main character knowingly plagiarizes manga from future issues of Jump and more of an issue of that it never felt earned or justified. It’s no wonder the audience didn’t have anything to gravitate towards. Interesting conflicts that could have arisen are neutered by chapter 3 because the girl he’s stealing from is an absolute ditz with no agency, unable to put together the situation herself. Having realized this, the series bends over backwards scrambling to piece together a new plot twist that sails on male angst and being applauded a white knight when the initial story was already interesting and compelling to begin with.

The second half also spends an unordinarily amount of time trying to say the greatest manga of all time should be bland and without personality instead of being the culmination of different life experiences. And the conclusion is so obvious from miles away it’s excruciating waiting for the punch line. Turns out, you won’t be able to reach anyone if you’re writing something detached.

What you’ll have is something lifeless…just like this manga. What a shame.

Cardboard characters, enough exposition to bash brains in, and a story only concerned with the semblance of depth more than saying anything at all. Earns good will from unique panel composition and presentation but it’s utterly wasted.

The first third of the story is dedicated to trying to Jomy Marcus Shin, one of our two main leads. We learn about his upbringing, the pristine nature of society, and the long standing conflict between those outcasted and the super computer that wants to uphold the status quo. But instead of being conveying characters and world via autonomy and cohesively, a majority of the run time is lambasted ... by huge texts about the world that's not that complicated to begin with.

Jomy is shoved into a conflict head first and after a character we barely know dies, takes a complete backseat after becoming one of the strongest characters. Second part of the story introduces us to a rival character and second lead, Keith. But the same issues persist and timeskips are the easy solution when you want your characters go from A to B without having connective tissue. Last third is about their confrontation and falling action. But at that point, it felt like there was nowhere else to go and the conclusion/epilogue was hastily done. I've heard the adaptations are much better but this is only a review for the manga source material.

There are interesting ideas and concepts in theory here but you'd get as much enjoyment out of seeing them play out as much as reading a wikipedia article.

The film is another unfortunate example of what could have been.

Studio Ponoc consists of the veteran staff (from Ghibli shutting down) and at it's very best you have the wonderful fluid animation. However, the crucial problem with Mary and the Witch's Flower was the story and script. You have interesting character designs and a ripe world ready for world building. There's some great sequences but without the writing to back it up, it's all flash and no substance.

Characters were all one note. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but when the core drama revolves around a bland main character, there's nothing to grab onto. Mary ... discovers a witch flower and she only reacts to the events that follow. She doesn't have any motivation so when one does appear, it becomes hamfisted and she changes personality. I'm still frustrated with the 'twist' halfway through. All the interesting stuff is relegated to a flashback and I'd rather see that film instead. Hell, I'd follow the random broom keeper. The film didn't really explain why he was there either but at least he had had his eccentricities.

Next up is the setting: The wonderful set pieces are spoiled and there's no real sense of place. Hayao Miyazaki was notorious for crafting layouts from top to bottom and even his son Goro always made sure to keep his films vibrant. However, this film felt really empty. The town consisted of the gardener, the grandma, Peter, and Mary. Even the crazy witch school didn't feel right. By the time the third act rolled around, it stretched out for far too long and I couldn't really bring myself to care as much as I wanted to.


TLDR; Overall, this gets a 6 to a mid 5/10. While it is visually great, everything else from the characters and story was middling to fine. The most interesting aspects are relegated to a flashback at the end of the second act and the rest is a lot of wasted potential. I'd say it's a hard skip.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS


That was actually...pretty good! Went into it expecting more Davy Back Fights and instead walked away with something similar to G8.

Don't get me wrong- the special isn't all that revolutionary or anything, but it was a lot of fun. I'm ecstatic that the under-utilized Strawhats got a huge amount of screen time.

The only con I can think of on top of my head was the animation. Toei decided to cut a few corners by implementing those terrible cgi marines/navy in the background but I'll chalk it up to saving the budget for Film Gold next year (hopefully). While the villain wasn't anything ... to boast home about, he was fine and played his part well.

To be honest, I prefer this kind of special over things like 3D2Y. While that one had a budget to back it up, I wasn't a fan of the typical Luffy saving the day and the same shonen deus ex machina friendship power ups.

But it was gratifying to see a smaller scale conflict as opposed to current events. We even got a lot of cool crew interactions (something that's been missing for years both in the manga AND anime). We got some:

(SPOILERS)

* regular crew downtime on the Sunny

* cute Robin and Franky moments (betting scene & being worried about each other)

* Brook and Chopper team up (Brook's violin playing, bonding with animals, & small time adventuring)

* Nami freaking SAVING Luffy (thunder-bolt tempos, flames, & diving into the pit)

* Badass Sanji and Zoro moment as they came back at the end with recovering & retaliating (kind of minor but they get the main roles most of the time)

* Usopp & Franky doing their thing (for a bit)

The fact that Luffy didn't save the day (on his own) was also really refreshing- the entire conflict was solved as a group effort. To top it off, we got the return of the Foxy Pirates. They weren't too obtrusive and it was heartwarming to see their classic shenanigans.

Overall, nice job Toei.

I've written this out before but just because One Piece is long, doesn't make it a literary flaw!! It has never noticeably tried to artificially lengthen the show and the story has a lot more depth to it than on the surface.

Everyone who is not watching One Piece should be watching One Piece. It is nothing short of a work of genius and while it starts slow, it gets progressively better. I was depressed for a while and it's certainly helped me in those hard times like a crutch.

All the characters are interesting, diverse, and have their own development arcs. It's not just the Luffy ... Show Staring Luffy, every single member of the crew gets time in the spot light and chances to grow as their own character while also developing unique relationships with one another. And that's not even to mention the wealth of side characters not part of the Straw Hat crew, who ALSO get time to steal the stage in their own right, making it a joy whenever they show up again in later storylines.

This extends to every fight the crew gets in being wonderfully creative and unique. Every single member gets to take a part in the fight, none of that DBZ "Goku and Goku's family is the only one who matters", even fucking Usopp gets really awesome battles. And for the most part, the storyline isn't just fights all the time that usually shonen mangas delve into but actually has a great story.

The world and setting is also pretty awesome, with some diversity and complexity to the internal politics and cultural lay out, but the best part is there's not really any part of the series where things just stop dead so someone can have a long exposition scene that's boring and trite. Everything plays out very naturally and the audience is able to pick up on how everything works just by watching it occur in front of them. Also Snail Phones. Cuz Snail Phones.

The series is also incredibly funny, but not to the point of losing credibility. Like, there's some cultural differences, but the manga is genuinely funny and WILL make you laugh. It rival MGS in ability to balance goofy comedy that refuses to take ANYTHING seriously, with legit dramatic moments that will make you choke up.

It has been going on for fifteen or so years, and still has about 7 years to finish, but is still a joy to watching and go along with, and even REWATCHING since it has a habit of bringing back up old characters and plotlines that any other show would have long since forgotten and make them suddenly pivotal and important. It rivals Babylon 5 in apparently having all been planned out from the beginning, or at the very least Breaking Bad in winging it to appear as such.

It is honestly a wonderful incredible show, that unfortunately many people will pass over because of the "anime = genre" prejudice, but I feel that those who give it a chance will not regret their choice. Dealing with a variety of times from dealing with lost, happiness, while being the One Piece, I know and love, it's been one of the most influential things I've read.

Picking up where the series last left off, A-1 pictures adapts Hiro Mashima's Fairy Tail at the Magical Games Arc. Now before I can actually review it, a lot of my gripes with series stems from the one before it and it's not like it's two separate series of continuity.

I didn't hate watching Fairy Tail at first. But the deeper I got into it, the more I felt it squandered all the potential it had at the start. In the end, I couldn't help but see it as the most generic shonen ever - it was as if the author ticked all the boxes ... (stupid male characters with predictable quirks, average-smart females of the needs-saving variety, power of friendship, fanservice, magic power systems, climbing-ranks-and-being-the-best goals, etc.) that are supposed to make a shonen series good, but failing to actually give arcs substance as a whole to make the world believable.

While ever long running show has weaknesses, the others take their setting making most of their unique world and dilemmas. Fairy Tail on the other hand doesn't seem to be getting plot or character developments done. Yes, a few things do happen that seem to affect more than just that arc, but in the end, there isn't even a depth and it remains as shallow as ever.

NOW, why did I keep watching? The first Fairy Tail's glorious osts and it was actually mindless entertainment for the most part. But now that they changed it, while I'm open to change, the music just doesn't mesh well with it. The show also tries too hard to make itself funny and the animation seems to have taken a turn for the worst. I might pick it up some time but I've dropped it for now.

In the end, it's okay-ish if you're brand new to the anime but Fairy Tail never brings anything new to the table that you've probably seen in other shows. If if you're thinking about watching this show, you're better off with another of the Big Three (One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach), Dragon Ball Z, or Hunter X Hunter.