Back to Scaramanggga's Profile Scaramanggga's Profile

Day 19/30 of the Yurithon:
Unfortunately, this is just another one of those days where I didn't have enough time to fit the Yurithon into. Regardless, I'll be trying to pump this review out to the best of my ability. It was such a shame too; I was really enjoying "Whispered Words" for the whole five chapters I was able to read properly. I think this may be the first yuri so far to tackle the relationship between the main characters from a totally different starting position; Murasame has unrequited love for Kazama, and is just trying to make her fall in love with her. I ... guess that might sound a bit similar to the premise of "Villainess", "Lonely Girl", "Whisper Me" and "SQ", but I think "Whispered Words" is inherently different due to so much of the plot's focus being on the main character's unrequited love. In "Villainess", I just couldn't buy how Claire could fall in love with Rae. In "Lonely Girl", the unrequited love isn't really an integral part of the story. In "Whisper Me", the love is technically reciprocated by Kino (just a different type of love). And in "SQ", Sun Jing just has a basic school-girl crush which initiates the romance. But in "Whispered Words", it's established that Kazama likes girls (so none of that "we can't be together because we're girls" schtick), but she just likes cuter girls (i.e., not Murasame). The set-up allows for a reasonable and logical build-up to a romantic relationship between Murasame and Kazama, but with just one Great-Wall-of-China-esque hurdle that needs to be passed. The feeling of unrequited love is demonstrated by Murasame to the T, embodying almost every thought and emotion that goes through one's head when being stuck in this pretty-much inescapable rut. Murasame's unrequited love yielded daydreams, mild annoyances, refusal to accept facts, literal prayers on Kazama's downfall so she couldn't find love, but also pain when Kazama suffered because of love. I felt what Murasame felt; so close, yet so far to her dream. But besides all that romance bullshit, I really enjoyed the dialogue and humour of this manga. The girls just get up to the dumbest, but somewhat justifiable, shit and every character interaction shines. But holy shit, this manga is unfathomably hard to read. It could be translated into hieroglyphics and I'd honestly be able to interpret it a hell of a lot better. There are some panels (yes, individual panels) with 3 different types of text from one character, not even including the onomatopoeia. That doesn't really matter though; I was heavily invested in the story and characters, and I'll definitely have to return to this yuri. But given the track record of yuri published before 2011 (sans "Kase-san"), I'm praying that "Whispered Words" will be able to continue strong and finish strong; I'd hate for a story about unrequited love between two girls, to become a story of lost love to me.

Day 18/30 of the Yurithon:
Damn, it finally feels like the Yurithon's back to form; bringing me solid-ass yuri with poorly-paced beginnings and side characters who are far more interesting than the main characters. That might sound like I'm shitting on this manga, but I really enjoyed it, especially after the consecutive okays and pretty-goods that I've read for the past couple days. Let me get my grievances out of the way first: I was not vibing with the art style of this yuri at all. The characters look like they came straight out of a "how to draw anime" book or a kid's Instagram page ... (and that's insulting to some kids on Instagram). Occasionally, the character proportions would just look wacky, and for some reason, I felt like the noses were always off-centre on the characters faces (I swear I'm not just nitpicking to say something substantive about the art in these yuris). But at the end of the day, art quality (for the most part) really ain't shit to me; I largely care about the characters and plot. Well, I still have another grievance: the first chapters are rough to get through. For better or worse (it's definitely worse), we're back to yuris spinning their wheels in their first couple chapters. It's not until chapter nine that the relationship between the main couple actually begins progressing in a meaningful manner. Hell, I was almost gonna' drop this manga at five chapters, but I guess my curiosity got the better of me. And I'm glad it did.

This yuri tries to differentiate itself with its gimmick (as most yuri do): Ayaka has to fulfill one request from Sora everyday, for Sora to continue coming to school. The request in question is usually something romantic, but Ayaka needs Sora to stay in school so she can receive a recommendation to attend a good university. This almost felt like a repeat of the yuri I literally just read, "I Can't Believe I Slept With You!". We've got a girl who desperately requires something depending on cooperation from another girl who makes them do "romantic" things, eventually leading to a relationship. That being said, I think I enjoyed the relationship between Sora and Ayaka more than Chiyo and Ritsuka. It takes a bit for Sora and Ayaka together, but the author discusses how the boundaries of their blooming relationship are so out of wack because of their initial arrangement. I was glad to see that the premise of this manga and its sheer peculiarity was acknowledged. And I can wholeheartedly say, I enjoyed the side characters in "Lonely Girl" a hell of a lot more than the ones in "I Can't Believe I Slept With You!" As I hinted at before, Wakana was indisputably my favourite character. I was initially worried that she'd just be some asshole who got in the way of the couple, and I thought she'd just add unnecessary drama to the story. Instead, she streamlined the transition from "acquaintances" to lovers for Sora and Ayaka, while providing an interesting backstory to delve into and compare. As soon as she had that discussion with Sora, I felt like the manga significantly improved for me. And it helps that after their discussion, there's some meaningful drama added to the story. And it's not just drama which feels artificially-inserted; its appearance makes logical sense with the chronology and pacing of the manga, and always reveals or changes something about the main couple. By the end of my reading today, I went from truly disliking Sora, to adoring her dynamic and chemistry with Ayaka, mostly helped in part due to side characters and drama. The character interactions were fun and occasionally got me grinning like a moron with their humour; what more could I really ask for? I almost haven't felt this way since about the time I read "SQ: Begin W/Your Name!"; much simpler times, with consistently-better yuri. I really wanted to complete this yuri today. Alas, 24 hours in a day aren't enough time for yuri.

Day 17/30 of the Yurithon:
I thought that this yuri was just going to be some weird nonsense that I would relatively enjoy in the moment, then promptly forget about after reviewing. I hope I was wrong, but I've read so many excellent yuri that I can't guarantee anything. Be that as it may, "I Can't Believe I Slept with You!" was a fun read. I thought for sure that this manga would be way more erotic than it actually was; I've definitely seen this premise in a lot of "media" before. But in spite of that, the author somehow manages to turn a sort of ... pet-and-owner relationship into a believable and cute romance. That being said, I really needed more dimensions to both Chiyo and Ritsuka; they largely go through the story with the same personality and don't undergo much change in terms of character. Ritsuka's awkward meeting with a high school friend was interesting, but I just wanted more of that. The side characters definitely could've used more fleshing out; Aoi worked well enough as a basic friend character, but I feel like Setouchi's story at least deserved a conclusion, and I'm not sure if Yotsugaya should've even been introduced, considering she basically has no considerable purpose in the story. However, I can easily commend the pacing and length of the manga; I never felt like my time was wasted and there weren't really any lulls in the story. This is probably the most seven-out-of-ten yuri I've read (a.k.a., it's mid).

Day 16/30 of the Yurithon:
Yet again, I've come across another yuri that MAL users have decided to blow up. No rhetorical questions here; "Whisper Me a Love Song" was just pretty good. Maybe unfortunately, this yuri was another case where I was much more interested in the side characters (in this case, Mizuguchi) than the main characters, but more on that later. I initially questioned why Kino was already so in love with Asanagi without even having a proper conversation with her, but this is elaborated upon in future chapters regarding what love means to different people. The discussion of the different types of love ... in this manga was pretty interesting, and it was cool to see the dynamic in Kino shift ever-so-slightly through her jealousy. I do find it a bit weird how Asanagi becomes kind of possessive with Kino, and also how Kino desperately feels the need to romantically love Asanagi; it reminded me of Nagisa's reason for chasing Mashiro in "The Anemone Feels the Heat", which felt really artificial to me. Regardless, I find that the couple of Kino and Asanagi was compelling enough for me to maintain my attention, even if all of Kino's dialogue consists of glazing Asanagi. This yuri provided a good balance of perspectives between Kino and Asanagi; every action from one person is explored and elaborated upon by the other person, providing a solid back-and-forth, which revealed more about the characters. On top of that, I mostly found that all the character interactions were just pure wholesomeness, and every character bounced off one another. I particularly enjoyed the scenes with Asanagi's band a lot, due to the sheer personality shining through from each character (good luck getting successful with a band name like "SS Girls" though).

Spoiler warning:
I'm conflicted as to what I feel towards Mizuguchi's sudden turn from antagonistic to supportive in chapter thirteen. On one hand, this felt like an absolute cop-out from the author. Mizuguchi putting all her cards on the table was slowly built up from the beginning. A moment of silence here, a bizarre expression there; the author subtly and effectively increased the pressure from Mizuguchi, until the dam had to burst. By just turning her back into a supporter in the grand scheme of things, it felt like some of my attention was wasted. On the other hand, I think that it might have been better for the author to avoid delving so heavily into drama. This manga was largely following a pretty safe and wholesome plot; adding drama might have just cocked up the tone and vibe, especially since the tone was set by the first ten chapters. So yeah, I definitely have mixed feelings regarding Mizuguchi's immediate change.

There's not much else I have notes on; the art's really good, it's well-paced, the manga sets out to be a nice, wholesome romp, and I can't complain too much about that. Even though some of it might not be my cup of tea, I can definitely recommend reading "Whisper Me a Love Song"... right after at least reading "Love Bullet" and "The Moon on a Rainy Night".

My friend was relentlessly pole-jocking this anime; hell, with the way he was talking about it, I thought Miura (R.I.P.; I know he's not the same Miura but I'ma still put respect on his name) would personally come out and start jorking me. So, did "Blue Box" live up to these expectations? Obviously not; it was still pretty good though. I think I like sports anime ("Hajime no Ippo" is my favourite anime), but romance was never really my cup of tea. I have read some really good yuri which have made me actually appreciate romance for the first time almost ever in my life ... (go check out my Yurithon reviews; fifteen yuri to go), but I think that's not really applicable here. Regardless, I was pretty much walking into enemy territory. How did my experience in enemy territory go? Well, let's just say I was surprised by how little landmines there were, then immediately stepped into one; let me elaborate upon that later.

To start off with, the art (for the most part) was pretty okay. I wasn't expecting sakuga during the more quiet scenes, and what was shown was good enough, but nothing spectacular. But whenever there was a badminton or basketball game, I concluded in my knickers. The animation was silky smooth and the movement of players felt real. Every shot had a bit of weight and every smash had momentum (helped in part due to the clean sound design). A lot of the time in sports anime, the players sometimes just break the rules, break their bodies, and also break the laws of physics for good measure. And while that's very much part of the appeal of sports anime to many people (I really enjoyed "Ippo's" fights because of the exaggerated nature of every motion), it's good to just have a nice and clean game of sport.

But forget the art; I've seen enough exceptional-looking pieces of garbage in my life for there to be an exquisite landfill. What about the characters? I'm just going to get this out of the way: Chinatsu is not a character; she's pretty much a MacGuffin for Taiki's love. Her "character" can be boiled down to "hard-working", "good attitude" and "nice interactions": that's not a character, that's my fucking résumé. I haven't for the life of me a clue as to why Taiki wants her, and not the rose-haired angel named Hina. Admittedly, her character isn't exactly original, but I'd rather have unoriginal than Ms. No Seasoning over here. Regardless, Hina is great; she's got some spunk, but she's also really wholesome, and I was always invested in her character. She easily has the best voice actor in the show and she pretty much kills it in every emotional scene. I can't even describe the wave of despair I felt when her ankle was sprained, and I don't even want to talk about her final confession in episode 24. All I can say is that Taiki tossed harder than the discus gold medalist. Speaking of Taiki... yeah, he's alright. He's par for the course in terms of romance anime protagonists; just some goofy guy who gets into hijinks with girls, but he's passionate about his hobby and locks in when he needs to. In general, I'd say that the characters are pretty decent: sometimes fun, sometimes basic and sometimes bricks. Unfortunately in the case of Chinatsu, she's always a brick. Hell, she bricked the shot that would've won nationals; what an overachiever. But while Chinatsu was bricking, Hina got me bricked (no Diddy). In terms of plot, there wasn't anything too special, but there didn't really need to be. It hits the same beats as every other romance anime, but the beats were hit competently and I don't have many complaints in regards to the story. There weren't any shocking developments and the plot didn't derail and become a trainwreck, and it has a solid and consistent pace. I didn't ask for much and I was just satisfied.

Overall, "Blue Box" was a very competent sports and romance anime. I've actually started reading the manga because I'm interested in how the story will progress (please let Hina have a happy ending; I'm begging you Miura). I'm just praying that best girl wins.

Day 15/30 of the Yurithon:
I'm not sure if I can even review "Prism" properly; the manga was cut short at six chapters. But I think that there weren't any loose threads by the end of publication, so I guess I'm going forward with this review.

This may be the first time in any of the yuris where I felt like the art style was just not cutting it. It's pretty basic, but all the girls had same-face syndrome and could only be distinguished by their hairstyles. On top of that, I felt like the quality was somewhat inconsistent, which kind of gives credence to the claims ... that the author was tracing other peoples' works. At least I finally get to discuss art beyond saying "it looked good" (and other derivatives).

I think this manga suffers severely from its excessively-fast pace and premature cancellation; the main couple literally get together in the second chapter. I needed more time to see the relationship between Megumi and Hikaru develop; the manga was progressing far too fast to get connected to the characters and buy their relationship. In its finished state, I can sort of see chemistry between Megumi and Hikaru; its a nice, half-wholesome, half-dirty relationship. But I haven't a clue what the point of the sideplots were. I'm not even going to try remember the names of the characters involved, but the audience did not need to see a shy girl get a makeover, or see Megumi's sister go to school. Maybe the author was trying to build up to something greater; regardless, in its released state, these sideplots feel like wasted panels. Also, I got more whiplash from the convenience store scene than a car accident. The tone of the manga goes from pretty jovial to downright disgusting in a matter of panels, and is then brushed off almost immediately. I don't really know what the author was going for; maybe he was trying to do some social commentary or add a bit of edge to the yuri, but the scene is never elaborated upon, so it ends up feeling like he was just trying to shock the audience. This might just be the okay-est yuri I've ever read. This wasn't a "it wasn't for me" situation; this was a "could be written far better" situation. I guess what I'm trying to say is that "Prism" is mid.

Day 14/30 of the Yurithon:
Cute girls (once again, no Diddy) with tactical gear, guns and a mission to spread love the American way: by expressing their Second Amendment rights; what's there not to love about this yuri? The answer is "nothing"; this yuri is perfect.

Koharu, someone who's really good at determining future relationships, is confessed to by her friend Aki. But in a fuck-you moment second only to God dunking on the dinosaurs, the Goddess of Love (or whoever) decides to drop steel on Koharu and Aki immediately after the confession. This results in Koharu dying, but being essentially reborn as a Cupid five years ... after her death (another fuck-you moment by the Goddess). Now, her job is to make matches between people by shooting them in the head, and hopefully doing a good enough job to be truly resurrected. I absolutely love this batshit-insane premise. Okay, I know I mentioned that I would stop talking about the art in the previous Yurithon review, but "Love Bullet's" art style and character design is perfectly-suited to my tastes: relatively-detailed, not too baroque, tactical wear and weapons, and with some beautiful action to boot. The combination of the military gear worn by the Cupids with the love and angel motifs just tickles my fancy for some reason. The author inee takes their premise and does the dash with it. Everything, from how the Cupids should handle a love triangle to how collateral damage affects people in the real world and even Cupids, is discussed, and I was in love with every single part of it.

Spoiler warning: chapter eleven finished with the audience being introduced to Ena and her rivalry with Chiyo. I was so excited to see where this would lead to. I then realised that I was up-to-date; I've never been more pissed that I caught up to something. inee is literally edging me. I need more of this; please pick up the pace (but at the same time, don't rush yourself, king/queen). Chapter six is my favourite chapter I've read of any of the yuris (maybe even from any manga I've read). Seeing that Aki was in love with Koharu until five years after her death just rattled me. Hearing Aki explain that she got over her lost love because she thought that Koharu would want that broke me. And reading Koharu say "See you later" to Aki, instead of "Farewell" almost brought me to tears. This manga moved me like almost no other manga has before, and in six chapters no less. This manga shot a heart-shaped bullet into me, and I cherished every page I had the fortune of reading. To any of the unfortunate souls who decided to take a chance on the Yurithon: please read "Love Bullet".

I NEED THIS ANIMATED. I NEED THIS INJECTED INTO MY VEINS. I NEED MORE "LOVE BULLET".

Day 13/30 of the Yurithon:
Okay. Initially, I dropped this yuri at five chapters; I thought this manga was just not for me (a.k.a., "mid"). But I guess something compelled me to continue reading; I reckon it was being completely and utterly confused by how the relationship between the characters began (more on that later). Regardless, after reading fifteen more chapters and almost dropping it again, I can safely say that this is a very okay to decent yuri. I guess the main focus of the yuri is the main couple (no shit), so let's discuss that.

Initially, I did not buy the relationship between Nagisa and ... Mashiro whatsoever; I'd seen arranged marriages with more chemistry than these two. Nagisa's motivation to enter a relationship with Mashiro is based on Mashiro inadvertently causing Nagisa to miss her high-school entrance exam, resultantly wasting years of studying; Nagisa believes if she can like Mashiro, then she'd get over her failure to enter her desired school. This motivation just felt really artificial to me; I don't think friendship or romance should be an objective one must complete to resolve their own traumas (maybe there are some unresolved issues on my part). I probably would've preferred if she didn't have this bizarre motivation, and instead, harboured true animosity towards Mashiro, eventually growing to actually desire a relationship with her. I would've preferred if they revealed cracks in Nagisa's hate overtime, instead of making such a sudden shift in her mindset. They sorta' touch on this in chapter eighteen, but I felt like Nagisa's switch to want to like Mashiro was far too sudden (its literally in chapter one), and the animosity in her wasn't discussed enough to even be cited. Unfortunately, I never really got over that feeling of "artificiality", even if I began to enjoy and understand their relationship a bit more overtime. Eventually, I guess I saw a bit of the love blossoming; this manga's pretty wholesome, so that kind of helped. But honestly, I was much more invested in whatever was going on with Kuori. Her part of the story handles the complex concepts of love and relationships so truthfully that I was fully engaged in whatever scene she was in.

Spoiler warning:
More on the relationship between Nagisa and Mashiro: I feel like Mashiro's guilt should have lingered way more than a couple pages. I'm not saying that it's her fault for Nagisa missing the entrance exam, but surely she'd feel guilty enough for there to be a considerable rift between the two. On that note: why did they immediately reconcile and then enter a relationship after? This relationship was just progressing at a ridiculous rate, even if I liked the basic romantic beats; there just needed to be more time in between the beats.

Art good; I think I'm just gonna' mention if the art is really unique or particularly bad from now on, because I'm getting bored of saying the same thing over and over again (I'm sure all zero Yurithon readers would prefer that). The pacing was really iffy; I like faster-paced romance, but this shit was just moving too fast sometimes (like the aforementioned reconciliation and the officiation of the relationship in two chapters), and sometimes I felt like the author spent too much time with lulls. When I saw that Mashiro's "disability" (I guess that's what it is) was sorta' the crux of the relationship and their first meeting, I realised that "The Moon on a Rainy Night" handled it so much better, and with a hell of a lot more class. You know what: fuck it, just read "The Moon on a Rainy Night". I think I'll keep reading this manga for the Kuori stuff.

Day 12/30 of the Yurithon:
"Cyberpunk 2077", Playboi Carti's "I Am Music", the second coming of Jesus Christ: none of these were as hyped up as this yuri. But did it live up to its expectations? No. This is usually the part where I say it got me bricked up, made me cream, and I beat it more than Michael Jackson; I wish I could, but I can't. This manga was good, but just good, and for some reason that really disappoints me. Maybe it's all the hype, maybe it's because I just read a ten-out-of-ten yuri yesterday; regardless, I can't say this was better than ... "She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat", "Kase-san" or a bunch of other yuri I've read. The art is good; the use of green accents was just the cherry on top. But honestly, sometimes the pages were too difficult to read because of the panel composition. I really didn't feel attached to the characters; maybe it's too early to judge, but I don't really like the chemistry between Aya and Mitsuki as much as Saki and Kanon, Sun Jing and Qiu Tong, and the other couples that I liked. Also, there are pretty much no interesting characters except for Kanna and Joe. The story is pretty okay; it's kind of basic and the drama, so far, feels a bit too artificial. Was it the green? Did people really like the green so much that they decided to blow this manga up over "The Moon on a Rainy Night"? I really don't know what to say, except "why did you guys hype this one up so much?"

Day 11/30 of the Yurithon:
I'm genuinely lost for words. It's perfect; "The Moon on a Rainy Night" is perfect. There are no jokes here, no claims that this is peak purely due to X or Y; this yuri was completely and utterly spectacular. The art is simply beautiful. Every panel is a painting and every face expression perfectly suits the tones of the scenes. This manga is the slow-burn to end all slow-burns, but not a single chapter is wasted; each chapter builds the chemistry between Saki and Kanon at a steady pace. These characters are the best-written characters in any of the yuri's I've ... read so far, and it's not just the main characters who are great. Rinne, Miura, Ayano, Akira, Tomita; all the side characters felt like they were more than just characters. Every single character felt human; everyone had a part to play in the story and their side plots and character arcs always caught my attention. The way the author used disabilities and tragedies to help form characters and their attitudes felt real, and the social commentary never felt forced. The author literally consulted specific organisations to ensure that they were painting the full picture; I have nothing but respect for them. Seeing the changes in the characters of Saki, Kanon and a bunch of other characters touched my heart like no other yuri, or any other media for that matter, has accomplished. Please, if you take anything away from this joke of a challenge named "the Yurithon", just read "The Moon on a Rainy Night". I might be lost for words, but here are a couple that I know are certain: "I loved this manga, and I desperately need more".