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The downfall of this manga was so real for me. It went from a 9 a few years ago, back when the manga was around chapter 100, to a nice 5 now, after I finished it this year. While I can attribute the old rating to really loving the concept of a helicopter parent that ruins his child's life and him starting to realize it and starting to break free, the last 40 chapter are what truly crushed me with disappointment seeing as the message wasn't quite what I expected, what the story set up, nor what someone else should actually follow as real advice ... as to what you should do in a situation in which your parents ruin your life. I'll tackle this more later, but yea, I have no idea how much of it is the work of editorial change or if this was something that the author struggled with in his own life and finally got to this man-child answer (seeing as he stated in an interview that the mother is based on his own), but regardless of all that, the story betrayed everything it set up and probably the reader's expectations too (those who realize that you shouldn't forgive anyone who truly hurt and abused you, especially if it's a parent, but also in the context of this story). I'd recommend this story only to people with open minds that are interested in the topic of living with and forgiving your abuser, and even then just as a case study, not as some story with an inspiring message (only for what not to do) or for braindead enjoyment, nor for the characters which are pretty lacking in terms of focus and characterization, except the mother and her child, the main focus of the story. In a twisted way, I actually enjoyed this manga and the themes it tried to tackle, although I have plenty of critiques about the way it did and I can respect it for that, even though I feel me and the manga have opposing views on the subject matter, which are essential to myself and what I believe in and I will probably never agree with what this manga might have promoted.

More than half of the story focuses on the relationship between mother and son and to what extent the mother is willing to restrict her son's freedom in order to protect him, since taking care of him is the only purpose she feels she has in life. Then, around chapter 100, small cracks appear in the story which I decided to leave alone and see how the story will wrap up, ignoring the fact that her kid seemed to wish to be forgiven by his mother and earn her affection, despite everything she did to him throughout all his life. Then, after the time skip, he comes into contact with his mentally and physically unavailable mother that can barely take care of herself, which he decides to care for until her death. I was pretty much done by this point, but I still waited for the end. While the answer is not clear, I believe that in the end, the protagonist both loves and hates his mother. Is this a realistic ending? Pretty much. Is it good in terms of this story? It can be argued, since real life shows us just how far people are willing to go in order to earn a bit of love and affection from those they want or need it. The execution, though, is lacking in terms of trying to make people AND her kid sympathize with the mother or in even giving a reason to care about her, giving us a backstory by the end which, while helping the audience understand her cryptic actions throughout the story more, still shouldn't become a reason to forgive her, especially her kid, since he is personally involved in all that happened. The story tried both to demonize and humanize her, but it was too little too late, especially since the protags life has already been ruined by his mother.

Just because you can understand what someone went through doesn't mean that you should automatically see this as a reason to forget, nor forgive the years of abuse that people put you through. While not usually used this way, this is simple man-child behavior, especially in the context of this story, where the protagonist tried countless times to earn his mothers love, affection and forgiveness, to some extent even in his adult life. Sure, it is natural to expect, wish and need it, but if you are an adult and still desperately seek these from your parents, then you should question your relationship with your parents and how much you actually felt they loved you as their child (and not as their lover, as was in the kid's case). Just because you need it, doesn't automatically mean that you should seek it from emotionally unavailable parents in your later years of life, since this behavior is specific to a kid, as such, becoming a man-child behavior if manifested in the adult life and should be mended and replaced by healing this through grieving and having healthier relationships. Sadly, this is too complex of a topic which can easily offend other people, and I can't blame them, it's a natural instinct to wish to protect your family, but most times, especially those that were abused, but also got to see good parts of their parents, can lose themselves as authentic free people and remain their parents child, not their own individuals and they actually believe that they can and do forgive the people that hurt them through their lives, although therapy will always show that this just isn't the case and that people still internalize the feelings and the consequences of other people's mistreatment or abuse towards themselves. This also seems to be the case in this manga to some extent, since the protagonist, although he probably both loves and hates his mother, is still affected by the actions of his mother until his old age, living a sad, lonely and pointless existence because he was never able to get over his mother's manipulation and the social ineptitude that came from it which lasted throughout all his life. What I feel makes this worse is that the author kind of based the mother in the story on his own and, since quite a few of his stories are personal in nature, coming from his own life experience, thoughts and feelings, may very well have used this manga in order to understand his relationship with his mother better, as authors like Inio Asano do, in order to understand themselves better and heal their emotional wounds. This manga feels like the case of Alice Miller, a psychologist that wrote about trying to heal the emotional wounds that parents cause their children and trying to break free from them, but, in the end, she gave up on it and returned to promoting forgiving the parents, even if they abused you, which feels very similar to what this story does and what the author might have also lived through.

To be fair, it's close to impossible to know with certainty what the message of the story was and how personal it is to the author. On one hand, the manga may well be what I just described. On the other hand, which I hope is the case, this is a cautionary tale as to what a life of trauma by the hands of your parents (and the lack of implication of one of them) can lead to, seeing as the story highlighted just how miserable of a life the protagonist had from his youth to his old age. In the end, the interpretation of the manga's themes and message is pretty subjective and everyone might take different lessons (IF they even want to find them) from it, but hopefully for them, it isn't the fact that you should still care for and love your abuser, but that the past can and will shape and influence your future and adult self, especially if left alone, "forgotten" and "forgiven".

So yea, this manga fails in term of the execution of it's message and how it tried to redeem an unredeemable parent that completely ruined her child's life, but also in giving her child a true reason to partially love her, except an assumption on the reader's part that it is a natural instinct to do so (although this point may be argued, since it could be seen all throughout the story just how many times he didn't care about the abuse, lose of self and of his freedom that it cost him if he could earn just a bit of her affection and forgiveness). Despite all this, there are one or two other reviews that go more in depth in the other aspects of its story, such as the lack of good/complex supporting characters and its confusing execution of some parts of the story which was done just for the sake of it, since it doesn't change what the characters did, nor the story and I can't say I have anything to add about these critique, just that they are right. What I'll give this manga is its atmosphere and the character drawings, especially the mother, it has an eerie and sometimes creepy vibe, which is amplified by the helplessness of the protagonist and his capacity to fight back against his abuser. By the end though (post time skip) the eeriness is replaced by misery pron* and a feeling of despair and hopelessness. Take what you will of that, I think it just reinforces the belief that people can't escape from their past abuse and their parents, even if they are physically separated from them, which, once again, I don't think it's a good message to promote in such a personal and emotionally engaging story, but perhaps other people will take a different message from all this. I said my piece, if anyone is interested in a discussion/debate about it, feel free to message me, I'm open to it, as long as it's done in a respectful manner.

This easily became one of my favorite manga (and surely my favorite short manga, although I didn't believe that to be possible) for the sole reason of it's concept (and execution). This manga showcases just how far removed we currently are from anything close to what a natural human is supposed to live like in terms of food, health, lifestyle, relationships and technology (lack thereof), which not only people don't seem to realize (because of brainwashing), but it’s also crucial to the current state of the world and one of the reasons of so many psychological, but especially physical issues that people have these ... days. The main focus of the manga is an old man betrayed by the world who decides to give up on it and him finding satisfaction and a purpose not in the technological advances of the world, nor in money or anything else specific to these times, but in a simple, humble, life in the woods, far removed from jobs, money, people that tell him what to think and what he is "allowed" to do (just like slaves are ordered by their owners).

Even the title is pretty suggestive: "I'm Still Alive" - which characterizes the protags journey in this manga fairly well, seeing as he manages to live and grow old despite trying to use a rope to help himself, having no money and, at first, being homeless in the woods. And through all that, the manga shows how there is no need for money or even a fancy house or apartment in order to live a fulfilling life, just a cabin in the woods built by your own hands while nature provides all the food that is needed in order to survive and thrive: animal meat, organs and blood. Just like that, a story set in the modern world suddenly becomes a story set in prehistoric times, where the mc, while mainly living in the woods, is still bound from time to time to the current world, making for quite the funny and sometimes insightful scenarios and conversations that show just how far removed the protagonist is from the current state of the world, but also his character development.

The protagonist goes from being a wimpy dog of his coworkers and family to becoming a confident, mature, free man that takes his life in his own hands and becomes a man worthy of respect, a hunter that can provide and fight for himself and his freedom (and later on, for someone else), despite living a "new" lifestyle that is sure to get people's looks and critiques (especially irl). Especially in the first quarter, there are a few scenes that highlight the modern insanity that we live in: people OWNING land (although the land is owned by the planet itself), people being conditioned and brainwashed to think a certain way (the protagonist becoming a free thinker, not manipulated by media or "science") and people needing to "prepare" or "cook" food (humans being the only animals that think we need to do that, because we eat seeds, oils, flowers, leaves, grass and animals raised in bad conditions that damage it's quality and our capacity to eat it raw).

Since the second half of the story is kind of hard to tap into without spoiling anything, what I can say is that it perfectly highlights the natural way people used to live in more primitive times and what makes them happy, which sure as hell ain't school achievements or a slave job, but relationships and living free in nature.

The main reason I give this manga only a 7 is just because of it's simplicity and length, while I don't think it subjectively hurts the experience, I do believe a more complex and nuanced take on the subject matter presented in this manga could only benefit it's message.

That's about it for this manga, while it ain't no masterpiece and I don't expect that anyone will have the same respect and appreciation for this work, nor the same enjoyment I felt while reading through it, what I can say is, if anyone read through this, you probably already know if this story does or does not interest you. It's a quick read, so I don't think it's a waste of time even if you happen to be mixed or not enjoy this. I also recommend the sequel, it's very similar to this work, both of which you can find if you look for them.

TL;DR: A short, but effective story, it had great themes and characters that were also executed pretty nicely, the only reason why I can't give it more than an 8 is the lack of impact it had on me (seeing as I'm already aware of everything that is tackled in this story) and it's lack of complexity, more chapters and time for character development could only help this story and it's characters and themes.

Damn, this hit all the right spots when it comes to it's themes, at least for me. Societal expectations, "rotten adults" (Persona 5 players get it), the importance of keeping your childhood ... innocence. Hell, even one of the best ones, anti-escapism (learning to face reality, the opposite of isekai's). While I only tipped my toes in the manhwa form of comics, it sure has quite some good ones (like Dr. Frost and Bastard (here, as far as I can remember) ). And this one earned its spot as one of my favorite manhwa's, that's for sure. What I should get out of the way at first though, the questionable decision to add a "romance" tag, since this manhwa barely has any and it's almost pointless to the plot,themes and maybe it was fine just for a character's development, but it's still not a main focus and it's not that relevant. For someone who wasn't in the mood for it while reading it, I was satisfied with what I got in terms of it's romance though. It was a short, but nice paced read that I finished in 2 or 3 hours and I believe I got plenty of value from it, judging by its length. Now on with the review itself.

Artstyle
It is almost like a manga in terms of the color palets, it's mostly in black and white, with some hints of color here and there, but it's almost inexistent, so it wasn't hard to get into it. There are also some photorealistic images used in some cases, which, while they are uncanny and goofy, were an interesting artistic decision which I welcomed with open arms, since they aren't common. There is also a case of Punpun drawing, where a character is drawn different then how he looks in reality, which you can kind of figure out when it is stated in the beginning that people around him think he is handsome. It was also a bit unexpected that this style decision was addressed latter in the story, which, if it was forshadowing, it's greatly appreciated, and if it was a last moment decision, it was still alright, since we can't know which is the case, although I feel it was the former. No complaints about the artstyle, I believe the wacky artistic decisions and even the manhwa style of panneling were fitting in context of the story, characters , dialogue and themes, since these decisions are in relation to important aspects of this manhwa's world.

Story
A girl meets a magician that makes her remember the passion that she had when she was little for magic. What stays in her way though is the fact that she is extremely poor, has debts to pay and in order to do that, she tries to mature as fast as possible in order to make a living. Then there is the magician itself who is quite a mystery, he is really eerie, especially in the beginning, and the story focuses on learning more about him, gradually replacing the eerines with humanity. The last of the main characters is long head dude, we see how he deals with the perfectionism that has he in order to please his parents and to secure his future. While it was a short story, all of them got to shine and had plenty of time for living as characters, developing and for having a satisfying end to each of their respective arcs.

Characters
Well, you have the usual nice but timid girl that doesn't socialise, but not for some unfounded reason, as it so often happens in other cases, but because she is focused on academic performance in order to secure a good and safe future and to make money, seeing as she really is in need of it in order to live with her younger sister. What was to be appreciated is that, while she isn't really talkative, she still didn't seem to have any problems communicating with the other 2 main characters, so it looks more like a choice to focus on other aspects of life rather than her being socially awkward. Her goals were also well established, earning money even if she has to sell her dignity and pride, she chooses to sacrifice her innocence, time, money, youth, joviality for her sister, and to a lesser extent, also for her. There is also an interesting conflict between her desire to become more mature (so the aspects I just talked about) and the rekindling of her childhood dream to become a magician with the help of her new magician friend, highlighting the importance of finding and keeping your "inner child", as some psychologists may put it. While I am not a big fan of anime girls and maybe even some manga girls due to the way they are portrayed, usually pretty one or two dimensional and by representing the usual stereotypes, this one is a good addition in my small collection of enjoyable and respectable characters with whom I can empathize, that I can understand and care about, because she is portrayed in a humane way.

Then there is the magician. While, at first, even his existence can be doubted, seeing as how strange of a presence he has, he gradually becomes more humane as we see more of his interactions with other characters, hints of a past, rumors and even flaws. While the main girl tries to get away from her childhood and become an adult, the magician instead tries to avoid adult responsibilities and remain a child. What makes her change is the influence of the magician, while what makes him change is the current and past problems that come back to ruin the bubble that he lives in, as an adult that can play all day with magic like a kid, both of them ending up supporting and helping each other grow and face reality, where the anti-escapism aspects come to light. His character development was something that I wasn't really expecting, I thought he would be more like a plot device that helps the main girl change for the better, but he became a character in his own right. Not only I didn't expect it, but the direction his character went in was also quite unique, especially in execution. All in all, a very satisfying and intriguing character, the only personal problem that I have with him is the ambiguity when it comes to the existence of his powers, although the answer probably can be brought down to "it doesn't matter" because it doesn't matter if the power exists or not, only that it captures the innocence and gullibility of children, which we should also accept in our own lives, in a healthy amount. Despite that, I would have enjoyed a clearer ending to him, but that's just my opinion, I still greatly appreciate his character though and this doesn't take it away from him.

And the last main character, long head dude. Not gonna lie, at first, I thought he was a secondary character and perhaps that was how it was made to look because we still had to be introduced to the other main characters I just talked about, but it was still necessary to establish him as a character and it was a good choice to connect him mainly to our main character, but to then differentiate them in the second half of the story, because we get to learn about both of them by using their interactions, efficiently using the little time that the story has to establish 2/3 main characters with ease and with creating an interesting dynamic between the two, since they both strive for academic perfectionism, yet they come from different worlds (the protag is poor, while he comes from a rich family). He goes through quite the internal conflict and changes, which, once again, while they were not expected to this extent, they were well executed; he had the time to establish himself and to be made understood in the first half, so when the story starts to focus on him more, you begin to empathize with his struggles even more and want to see how he deals with them. It takes a bit for him to really shine and show his true potential, but when that time comes, I believe he shines the brightest and by the end of it, I love his character (and character development) the most. And that ain't easy with an already great duo of MC's and themes that they represent, but it all comes down to taste and personal experience/values. Long head is used to highlight the youth who try to find their real self in a world that already has plans for them and has to become what's expected from them without question, like slaves.

Can't complain here. All 3 of them are focused character with their distinct personalities, traits, values, morals, backgrounds, problems, doubts, dreams and thematic relevance. While they may all seem different, what all of them have in common is their perspective as to what being an adult means and how they should become one, so the author clearly knew what he was doing in term of the direction of the character development. The fact that all 3 of the main characters shine in their own rights and the appreciation of their character writing all comes down to personal taste and how close you can relate to any of the themes is quite impressive and takes a high level of skill to accomplish in such a short time (in terms of the manhwa's length) with this good of an execution.

Themes
"Keeping your childhood dream" (or rather, your childhood self, to some extent). While the story focuses on the dreams aspects of childhood, the message in itself is about not forsaking your immaturity, innocence and playfulness, for the sake of some emotionally detached maturity that focuses on rationality, logic, income and societal status. This theme works very well in societies where maturity at any cost is the main focus of the respective population, since their own humanity is stolen from them and is replaced with slavery to money, society and government. I guess you could say that this is the case everywhere, only to to different degrees, so it's a universally important and relatable theme. To be of note here is also the traumatized children (both the real children and adults who still carry their traumas) that believe they need to become more mature, to stop expressing their emotions, that they aren't natural or needed. I guess you could say that for these kinds of people, this is the only way they learn how to survive and I can't take it from them. But what should be taken into consideration is that the lack of balance between maturity and childlike traits, going in either extremes, isn't something we should live with and simply accept. As someone who's seen and been on both sides, being a child forever just makes it harder to face hardships that are everpresent these days, with the societal and academic expectations that constantly rise and being all mature and detached from emotions can only take you so far before breaking down, and even if you can live with that, it's still a sad life not much worth living, whether these people can see it or not. Although, in the end, I guess it's not really a choice, it's just something that happens, so can't blame anyone for the type of life they live. Despite all that, first, there were feelings, then there were words and thoughts, so no matter how much people try to ignore their childlike traits, behavior and feelings, they are still alive and part of them. And this manhwa shows how abandoning your childhood dream only leads to misery, as can be seen by the protagonist's father, but also the girl herself, and I believe it was beautifully and realistically portrayed in this case. On the opposite spectrum, we can see how living in a constant childlike state can be a sign of immaturity and incapacity of growing up,which leads to the dangers of these dreams as portrayed with the help of the magician, who is incapable of adapting to society and instead runs from his responsibilities in order to pursue his childhood dream. He helps balance the way the theme is shown by not overromanticizing it, but showing both sides of the argument, which leads to a realistic depiction of what living with and without important aspects of your childhood lead to. So yea, the takeaway here is that, while you should still grow up, have some responsibilities, and try to adapt to society, you should still try to keep a part of your childhood alive, in some contexts, since not only it is something natural for us, to a certain extent, but it's a show of maturity in it's own right, since not everyone can easily balance a life where he can behave both like an adult and like a child, depending on the context that they are in and this manhwa shows both perspectives in a simple but believable way (whether it's effective all depends on your personal experience, so I can't guarantee it).

Since I was just talking about the magician, I also have to bring up the "anti-escapism" aspects of his character arc. While he wants to stay and act like a child forever, reality catches up to him, leading to his own conflict, which I believe is really easy to predict in terms of the direction his character takes, without the particular details regarding his life. Still, it's highly appreciated to see a story that doesn't go for the whole "this world sucks, let's go to a fantasy one" trope, but instead shows you how 3 characters try to become stable adults that try to face their realities that aren't by any means easy, fair and enjoyable quite often. I won't go in the direction of "escapism is bad", seeing as, even if everyone indulges in some sort of escapism in it's life, including myself, it is still a way to relax from all the negativity and shitty life circumstances that we have to grow up in and live. What I will argue about, though, is the importance of having more stories that encourage self-reflection, making your life better and taking it in your own hands, seeing as what usually gets adapted into anime is escapism stories. Having more motivating, but realistic stories will probably never be too many or get too old. Escapism can be good, but anti-escapism is the best (especially when it comes to the themes it can tackle).

"Rotten adults" (or if you prefer a fancier and more boring way of describing this theme, "the societal and academic expectations that adults (parents) put on their children). As I previously mentioned, this is shown with the help of long neck dude whose parents put pressure on him to earn perfect scores in all exams. Just like irl, in some places more or less, there is always pressure from the adults to "become someone”, to have a good paid job, to be an adapted member of society (slave) and to always follow what others deem "good” for you, instead of listening to your own feelings, instincts and thoughts (which, to be fair, with how traumatized people are these days, it's probably for the better). Despite all that, some people, once they find themselves interested in their own independence, self-discovery and the truth, it's pretty hard (if not almost impossible) to stop this process, which inevitably make you question your decisions, your family, friends, adults in general, your future and the path that you should follow. And, of course, this story shows how choosing to live free from the chains that adults put around your neck is better than living like a dog of society, even if the path will have it's own hardships, it's still better to be free and struggle than to be an obedient slave. If you are familiar with this theme and how it usually plays out in anime/manga/games, this isn't an exception, but it's executed nicely and it's definitely welcome, as long as the author understands it and how to execute it in a story format (which he does).

While I mainly have only good things to say about the themes, my main gripe with them is that they don't have enough complexity and longevity, seeing as the story doesn't have a lot of chapters and I believe it's a shame, because the themes and characters have a lot of potential and can only benefit from having more time to be developed and highlighted.

Conclusion
There ain't anything left to say, it was a very short, but focused manhwa that knew what it wanted to do from the beginning and executed it to a high degree in the small amount of time that it had. Seeing as my reviews are actually quite long, compared to what I usually see on this site, I should probably end this by thanking everyone that reads until the end, even if you do or don't like what I write (or myself and my taste, seeing as some people probably hate me only because of that). Still, I appreciate it and thank you for reading until the end.

TL;DR: It's murder mystery with a nice take on the revenge theme, which is justified in this case due to how well the character's innocence and descent into despair is executed (although also because the villains are pretty one dimensional). It's still a nice, short read, both for the themes, but also the character's journey in itself.

Oh, the irony. I just finished (and reviewed) Ninja Kamui, an anime original about revenge, where the message is "revenge is bad" (because of course it is), and not soon after I find and finish this manga, where one of the messages happens to be: "revenge can be good". ... It would be pretty petty to constantly compare these 2 in terms of themes, especially since that wasn't the first time a revenge story is bland, so instead, I will highlight how the execution of the revenge theme is better in here compared to the usual "revenge is bad" in media. But before that, the artstyle.

Artstyle

I think's it's debatable what people think and see in it. On one hand, you have the typical pretty high school girls and a hot lawyer, so you could say the woman are sometimes sexualized, even the 2 protagonists, although you could argue that it helps the plot and characters, you could also argue if it could be shown in a different manner, but the way you look at it is based on your own interpretation (except the lawyer, which has at least one unnecessary scene where, to put it this way, you can admire her beauty). Also, some people may also think that the way the 2 girls are drawn can hurt their immersion, since the story puts the girls through some horrendous situations and it can give the impression that the tones of the character drawings and story don't match. On the other hand, I believe that, predominantly, the 2 girls were drawn cute in order to highlight their purity and innocence and how these two are slowly taken away as they become more sad apathetic and angry due to the painful experiences that they go through. Which brings me to the best part of the drawings: the emotions on the characters faces, especially the protags. The happiness, sadness, apathy and anger are beautifully drawn in detail, conveying the characters constant change of emotions, from the most "positive" ones, to the most "negative" ones (in quotes because they aren't inherently bad, but that's another topic).

Story

It's a murder mystery where the 2 main protags try to protect each other from the evils of their own respective lives, especially the ones surrounding Mako, which are involving sexuality.The mystery in itself is, indeed, interesting and catches your attention from the first chapter with it's shock value, but it's sometimes intentionally misleading with it's dialogue, making it seems like a character did something, while in reality it was someone else, when the story finally goes in detail into the scene. I wasn't really bothered by it, but it's still something worth pointing out since not everyone can accept this so easily.

The story can also be divisive in terms of it's content, since some people can tag the vile things that happen to the characters as misery porn and paint it in a negative light. I, for one, see the story from the perspective of two lonely innocent girls that are failed by their respective families, which make them go off the deep end in terms of their actions, especially since they have no adults in their lives that they can confide in or ask help from, so they try to do the best they can with the shitty lives that they have. The short term suffering that they go through may, perhaps, be over the top and unrealistic in some areas, but I do believe it drives the horror and desperation that they suffer because of their families across quite well, since we are shown plenty of good and happy moments of their lives, before and even when their lives take a turn for the worst, being a nice display of trust, friendship and innocence that makes the reader care more about the murder mystery and the characters, since we see how tight the protags bond is and how unfair their worlds are.

There is also a nice parallel between the family and societal situations of the 2 girls. While Mizuki's family is rich and has a high status, she always spends time alone at school and is burdened by the expectations that her family has for her future. Mako, instead, comes from a low income family that struggles with making money, while she does have friends at school. Regardless of which side of society they are on, they still go through a great deal of suffering, whether it's trying to become a slave to society's expectations or struggling to make ends meet, their lives and futures are still in the hands of the family that raises them. So because of that, they try to be in charge of their lives only with the guidance of each other, which ends pretty terrible for both of them, since they can't get help from outside of the bubble in which the two of them live.

The story can be summed up as "2 innocent friends try to deal with their life problems, but fail" (as we can see in the first chapter), which I really appreciated from a story, character and thematic perspective, as miserable as the experience was from an emotional standpoint, the only questionable parts are the lengths to which they suffer that may turn off some people because of that.

Themes

One of them I just touched upon, the failures of the adults and how irrelevant the societal status is to the suffering of the youth, since, while people may come from different backgrounds, they can still share the same feelings and suffering. While it's not specifically talked about, it is subtly present in each chapter and on their journey to make the best of their lives and it is appreciated, although some more focus on it would help it even more.

Then there is the usual friendship theme, written from the perspective of "how far would you be willing to go for your friend? (in terms of actions)". This part is more focused on the main protagonist that the story is seen from, seeing Mizuki go through hell and risk her life time and time again for Mako was very endearing to see, hardly anything can top what she does for her friend and it's executed pretty well, although, again, it could have been a bit better if we would have seen the same thing from Mako and for a longer time.

There is also the failure of the judiciar system that is present in the story and how it can't protect it's victims and the real culprits. If you played the Judgment series (Judgment/Lost Judgment) or if you are aware of the judiciar system in Japan, this is also a great example of the type of negative stories that you hear about it's failures to catch the real culprits, often opting for easy solutions, as in sentencing the most suspect guy, without concrete evidence. While it wasn't really talked about, it was a nice addition to show the incompetence of adults (and it's justice system).

And now the revenge:
Non spoilery information: The manga showcases how not everyone has the capacity to go on with their lives as victims while the culprits don't get their punishment, so it shows how revenge is the only way they can see a future. The usual revenge stories have strong characters that get over it, but here we have lonely, abandoned high school girls that have no guidance or people that can help them and revenge is the only way they have to get rid of their tormentors. It's executed pretty well and believable, so yea, revenge is good in this case, for the peace of the 2 girls.

STORY SPOILER, full version:
So what happens in the story is that the protagonist, awaiting her trial, uses the two lawyers in order to avenge her friend by giving them information that would point towards Mako's stalker as being a criminal and also tries to harm Mako's father for his involvement in the story. While plenty of other stories would have went with the route that the lawyers notice that something is wrong with Mizuki, this doesn't happen here. And because of that Mizuki manages to avenge her friend by putting her stalker in jail for stalking and owning illegal substances (where he becomes insane, ruining his whole life). Not to be misunderstood though, he is responsible for Mako's suicide and also for some vile things, such as selling tapes of the 2 of them banging to others, including her family (for money). By doing this, Mizuki gets her revenge, but also willingly spends from 9 to 14 years in jail for the murder of Mako and for hiding the body of her uncle, which she chose to accept in order to avenge her friend and bring one of the villains to justice. In the end, revenge was seen as the right choice and a good thing from the perspective of the 2 girls who greatly suffered from the actions of people that would hardly, if ever, get found as guilty for their actions. In comparison, many stories, including some that are supposed to be for "mature" audiences, go with the whole "it's not right to take the life of someone", "he must be punished by law to serve his sentence", "eye for an eye makes the world go blind" etc., which is a pretty tired plot at this point, with nothing new to show for it and doesn't do the theme justice, especially as this manga does (well, there is also Vinland Saga, at least). But what if he can't be proven guilty? What if this is the only way for the characters/people (as far as they can see) to find a little peace in their miserable lives where they were constantly the victims of others? Well, this story lets the characters murder (only one character) and ruin other people's lives and it's completely justified. The two girls were betrayed by the adults in their lives and both lost their innocence, happiness and futures because of them. And that's why it works so well in the story, we saw their gradual descent into apathy, sadness and anger and they are more than justified to feel and wish upon their eternal suffering. Sure, some people may have it in them to go forward with their lives even after someone did horrendous things to them, and these are the type of people that we usually see in other stories. In this case, we are talking about broken high school girls who have no guidance in their lives, that see no future while the people that made them suffer are still in liberty (either alive or dead) and I do believe that the story executed this theme very well and convincingly, although it was a bit exaggerated.

Characters

I already touched upon everything that had to be said about the 2 protagonists, so I don't think there is anything new I can add here. They are good, innocent girls that are ruined by the people around them, going from cheerful and full of life to mainly sadness and apathy, as much as they try to hold on to the good side of them Their dynamic and moments are a pleasure to watch, since both we and they get a break from all the misery that surrounds them, which helps humanize them by having a look into their normal lives while there is only the two of them, but it also helps us empathize and care about them more, since we see in the first chapter how bad their lives ended up.

Then you have 2 one dimensional villains that enjoy the suffering of specifically one of the girls just because, or rather, to get the point of revenge being something good across more easily. Then there is another one, who I can at least understand, since he kind of doesn't have a choice (still ain't excusable though).

There is also a pair of lawyers that are decent human beings, but they aren't too relevant and we don't see much of their character, but having at least 2 adults in the story that try to do their best and help Mizuki was a good addition to the cast and story.
Regardless the story focuses on the 2 girls relationships and how the adults ruin their lives (well, one of them is still in his twenties, but you get the point).

Conclusion
This was a satisfying read, can't really call it enjoyable since it's pretty miserable, it can be compared to Punpun, in this regard. There is a bit lack of depth and time which the story could only benefit from, but overall, I think it got the themes across, at least at a decent level, and the characters journey was a nice look into the loss of innocence and happiness of 2 high school girls that are victims of their circumstances.

TL;DR: Not worth your time if you care about the existence of a plot and of at least a decent or bland protagonist (she really is really bad as a character, especially in a leading role), not to mention the many inconsistencies and bs that happens throughout the anime that you are supposed to just "consoom" and not question in order to believe the possibility of this plot actually working. I would say that at least it doesn't promote degeneracy and immorality, but there are at least 2 plot threads about buying a woman (courtesan) because the characters are in love with them and they ... wish to save and marry them for whatever price they have to pay, as much and unaffordable as they may be. So yea, it's a borderline 5/10, close to a 4.

This anime is really impressive with what it manages to make the casual watchers accept in terms of plot convenience and qualities of the protagonist without batting an eye. I'll talk about them when the time comes, but for now, I just want to applaud this anime for the many times it made me scream at it's stupidity which almost never gets explained, and I sure as hell can't recall many times watching anime/reading manga when I reacted the way I did while watching this, so it has my praise for that and also for the fact that it reveals what "modern audiences" like (actually love and say is the best in terms of story/characters) these days. It's pretty sad to see how you can't find anything new in the anime space that really has something to teach you in terms of morals, character and personality traits which are shown through complex and deep character and dialogue, and how nobody cares about any of this and just mindlessly give perfect score to anything with good animation and original (in the anime space) premise, but this is just how it is, I guess, at least there are still plenty of old anime and manga that do that. Not to be misunderstood though, the problem is that close to 100% of anime's these days are feel good/escape fantasies and close to 0% of them aren't about and made with the aforementioned thought in the creators mind, the balance being completely in favor of one over the other. Well, on with the review of this sad, aimless and pointless piece of writing.

Setting/Animation
The story takes place a few hundred years ago in China. I know close to nothing about those times and like you see, even the time period this takes place in. And good thing the story doesn't try to explain ANYTHING regarding this time period, you either watch it without the knowledge, or are/were interested enough in it in order to learn about it on your own. At least I wouldn't say you need it in order to appreciate the "masterfully crafted" story and protagonist. While I can excuse anime and manga that fully use their japanese influence, at least in that case it is clear that it's something made for the audience in your own country. In this case, it isn't. Maybe you can argue that they are taught about old China in school, but it doesn't seem like a good enough argument to have such a setting and explain nothing about it (and please no "read the manga bro", this is the anime's job and this is what I critique here and it still falls on it to do so as it's a niche story context for an anime/manga/LN, it's just like making a story about cloth making or sports and watching it without being given any information about what these imply; and this applies to every complaint that I have that could be attributed to the historical context). Moving on from that, it's an interesting setting that is highlighted by the production value, the backgrounds are stunning, full of detail and color which was the best part of this anime and deserves every praise that it gets for that. Too bad a STORY needs a good STORY and CHARACTERS (and dialogue), regardless if it's an anime, manga, book, movie, or whatever, so this doesn't really change the final score.

Story
It is completely aimless for most of the anime, by the end of it you have only a vague idea about what it wants to do with it and this is what it manages to do in 24 episodes. The protag gets kidnapped, unquestionably and calmly starts to work as a maid, after a while, she loudly talks about what she thinks of the mystery in the imperial court and gets heard by someone important as a plot convenience (both the thinking out loud and being heard) in order for her to be noticed by people in a higher position for which she soon begins to work (again, without caring in the least about it). After that, you have mystery of the week for pretty much the whole season, with a few exceptions, in 24 episodes barely having any plot progression. Before starting with the complaints about the story, I'll have to praise the fact that, while not all, there were a few mysteries that were used as foreshadowing for a plot thread that followed later in the season (some of them were probably retconed, but at least the mangaka didn't forget about them). This feels like a sanitized chinese TV drama made for kids, without any real stakes, where you know that the few important characters will live whatever happens and the drama is kept on an episodic basis, nothing being built up with it (except in that one exception) and there is no indication that it happens, even if it will happen later on.

First of all, why in the name of hell does the imperial court use/buy slaves (maids) from goddamn thugs, without questioning where they got them from and even if they want to do so. Our protag is literally kidnapped and put to work as a maid, no questions asked. It would make some sense if we saw that the court is made of evil people that mistreat their employees, but beside the backstabbing that happens in almost every episode, those with actual power seem like good enough people that wouldn't accept using slaves as workers. And even then, we would still need an explanation for this and how often it happens. Good thing the anime doesn't care about that and even by the last episode (and months later) this still bothered me.
Then there is the poisoning mysteries which seem to happens so goddamn often that I actually doubt that those in power shouldn't and wouldn't intervene somehow, it seems like their whole estate could be in danger any day from spies or simply assholes, yet these cases are just hidden and forgotten. Again, might be a cultural/real aspect, here moreso than in other cases, but still feels strange after so many revealed cases on how they find and hire all these snakes. Maybe I overestimate the people of those times, but so be it.

Also, it looks like she can send letters outside the estate AND temporarily visit her home, even though she was kidnapped and was put to work in an unknown place. But it looks like she still has plenty of freedom, for some reason. And again, no one thought about explaining what happens and why, you just have to go along with it, especially with the protags range of expertise (about which I'll talk plenty later). This world simply has no rules, you just have to go along with the writing decisions and turn your brain off to any potential critique you may have. Not me though, as a living, breathing, thinking human being, I see the sloppiness of the writing and sure as hell won't miss to critique it especially when it leaves such huge plot holes in the story. Then finally, she gets home, almost a year after being kidnapped and never heard of again by her close ones.While some friends/coworkers showed some emotion to finally seeing her back, her father didn't bat an eye to seeing her alive after having no idea what happened to her for so many months. Seems like the apathy runs in the family, I guess, since she ain't any better with her emotional responses throughout the anime.

The mysteries in themselves are quite questionable too. While they may be interesting in themselves, not only do they feel pointless , but they also get resolved in a single episode, ALWAYS by our protagonist, because no one in that estate has a functioning brain and somehow it's still on it's legs, even though it looks like without her, it would all come crashing down hard, with so many poisoning and backstabbings. I shouldn't even mention the difficulty, since it's almost nonexistent for her, the mysteries being solved by making one hypothesis based on one clue that always proves to be the right answer (except maybe once or twice that I don't remember). And as the story is in a stalemate for most of the anime, you bet you will question the reason for the existence of this story. This is probably one of the first times I actually do so, in fact. It all seems pointless and the characters (especially the protag) don't help in the least to give me a reason to care about anything that happens in the story and it's characters.

So yea, the story has pointless mysteries and lacks plot progression, I can think of only 2 real plot relevant changes happening in 24 episodes. The only parts that I enjoyed, appreciate and think are good are a love story that happens in one of the last few episodes and the backstory of a guy that seems like a potential villain.

Characters
By the gods, this protagonist. Where do I even begin with her. She is a literal drug addict whose only source of happiness is the drugs she takes (the poison). Those are pretty much the only times you see her happy, when she has the opportunity to taste test some poison and can play with dangerous chemicals. And this sounds awfully familiar to how alcohol/drug addicts find pleasure in life. But since she is a cute girl whose poison tasting enjoyment is portrayed as quirky and funny, no one bats an eye to the serious issues that this character has. It's just like saying that Kaiji's (from Kaiji Ultimate Survivor) pleasure to gamble is at healthy levels, which, since he plays with his life on the line with excitement many times, clearly isn't and it's not portrayed as such, unlike our quirky little friend in here. Hell, even the one dimensional villains that want to kill everyone/destroy the world are just like this protag, they have only source of pleasure, in this case, it's other people's suffering. Oh well. Since we are on the topic of emotions, she certainly lacks in this department. She doesn't care about her friends, doesn't care about her adoptive father and doesn't even care about the woman that kind of gave her life to make her. She usually acts grumpy, annoyed or bored with whatever she does (except the poison stuff, of course). When she gets kidnapped, she not only doesn't show any emotion regarding her kidnapping and slavery, she barely even thinks about the people that are probably worried for her (her coworkers and father) and even if she does, it's with the stalest expression and voice that she could have. And this also happens when she meets her father later. And back on the mother topic, while it was, indeed her choice, there is just no way that she would literally feel nothing about her mother and the state that she is, especially since she never knew her. But why explore this topic when you can just brush it off like it's nothing important and maybe even life changing for a freaking 17 year old, since apparently that's how old she is throughout most of the anime (maybe 18 towards the end), although the author could have easily fooled me with her lack of emotional responses in dangerous situations, how she acts and her huge skill set. Good way of making me care about the protagonist author, by making her an emotionally unresponsive genius that has no ambition (so she actively progresses the plot, not just follow it as a plot device would) and character (in the values and morals department), only cares about making and testing poisons (since her pleasure receptors are clearly fried, perhaps by the poison and parent issues). Now, let's look at her skill set, which is clearly exaggerated to a whole extreme. Knows MANY types of chemicals, their uses, how to combine them and what they do; great understanding of psychology and social cues (except the ones regarding her employer's romantic ones, by sheer coincidence), great detective (since she is the only one capable of solving every single mystery in the castle), chess and dancing. Hell, as a 17 year old she is on equal terms with 60/61 y/o Miyamoto Musashi in terms of the range of skills that they possess. Sorry story, but I don't buy this one bit. Especially since she seems to be the only character in the story that is as capable as her. And what becomes annoying is the fact that she is the only character in the whole castle capable of solving ANY mystery that presents itself. How the hell did they prosper for decades if she is the only person alive that solves the many problems that the estate faces? Either she is too smart, or the others are too dumb (or maybe both). Whatever you choose, it's still a bad writing decision, either the character is too perfect, or the characters couldn't have lived this long with their level of stupidity. And the last failure of her character: "the character is so ugly in universe", although we as watcher all know that she clearly isn't as bad looking as the anime makes her out to be. It also isn't even an issues, since she is considered ugly because of her freckles, which are fake.

Damn. Now, usually, I would say at least SOMETHING positive about a character, as many flaws as he may have, since it's not cool to just one-sidedly bash on a character, but for the life of me I can't find anything remotely good about her. I guess I could say that it's cool that she manages to keep herself in control and doesn't easily panic in tense situations, but too bad she is ALWAYS like this, even in normal human interactions, so it's more like an exaggerated trait that covers all aspects of her life, which especially doesn't work with apathy that isn't talked about and seen as a real issue by others, if not by her. And as an ending note to her character, the rare occasions when she shows anything other than what I said barely counts in a 24 episodes anime where most of her character consists of what I already mentioned, especially her apathy, and whatever clumsiness, cuteness, happiness she has is usually related to her drug addiction. Sorry, "passion for making/trying poisons".

Now the other characters. Luckily, we can only progress from the pits of hell that we came from. To start with the protagonist's only maid friend, she ain't a character, she is just there as a plot device in order to help the MC progress in her mystery solving and that's pretty much all they talk about on the rare occasions that she appears. Then there is the protagonist's romantic interest. He ain't really useful to the plot, but his liveliness is a breath of fresh air and the shady stuff that he sometimes is involved in due to his role in the estate gives him a bit more complexity and mystery surrounding him, can't complain about him, any problem that arises is due to the protagonist's interaction with the characters, they aren't inherently at fault for her faults. His interactions with the protag. become quite repetitive after a little while, especially since there is close to no development in their relationship, despite the fact that they are quite involved in each other's lives and her reactions are usually negative, which becomes annoying after a while, but can't fully blame the dude, if he wouldn't do that, their informal interactions would basically disappear, which wouldn't help the plot and characters. Then there is the pseudovillain whose actions are usually enigmatic, he seems to have his personal agenda in regards to what he wants from other characters, which also give him complexity and an aura of mystery. His backstory also helps to make the viewer understand and empathize more with him, as well as add to his complexity. He is still pretty unused, but he is definitely a highlight when he appears on screen.

Conclusion
Stay away from this. There is nothing someone interested in a plot that progresses, complex characters, dialogue and themes, can find here. The only remotely interesting thing in the anime is the historical context it is set in, but you will quickly forget or not care about it due to the many problems of the story and protagonist that I pointed out. You will also like it if you come for the pretty colors and backgrounds. But yea, there is close to no substance to this story, I often found myself questioning it's existence while watching since it seems so aimless, lifeless and directionless in terms of story and characters, there being no reason that argues the importance of it's existence (judging by the reception though, it was an entertaining watch for plenty of anime fans).

TL;DR: Basic revenge story, but it's a mix of ninja and mecha. The best reason why you should watch it is because it's a short 13 episode anime with an actual conclusion (if you are like me and have plenty of experience in the anime/manga sphere and just want finished stories, not start the 124th anime/manga that you still didn't see the end of cuz it's not completed yet/cuz you need to read the real source material)

Heard it's an anime original (so finally an anime with a beginning and an actual ending) so I decided to check it out. While the anime is a 5/10, ... I do think it's a fine 5/10 (unlike the 5/10 that I gave Frieren just because it doesn't do anything really bad) and you can get the value out of it if you come in expecting that. And you bet this is what I expected not only because it's some random anime with ninja in it's title (which made it likely to be clichéic, and luckily, I was only kind of right, it's pretty wacky in some parts), but also because of the first episode and how it tries to emotionally manipulate you to care about the happy family throughout most of the episode (except the beginning which promises you action, so the reason you came in here for), before they meet an inevitable unfortunate fate. Sorry story but you'll need to do way more than that to make me care either about the family or the revenge plot. The only reason you want for me to care about the characters/story is "look, he is a good husband and father, I'm sure you care about him now". To be fair though, with what little time they have (13 episodes) to begin and end a story, they probably did what they could. Still doesn't excuse the failure of making people with at least some level of self-reflection and life experience not easily invested in a story due to the failure of making a main character with an interesting personality or philosophy. For a novice or someone too passionate about anime characters it will probably be a good start and a good, enjoyable anime though and I can't take it from these people. Good for them.

Production value (animation/voice acting/sound)
As a story that counts on it's production value to carry the anime, it was pretty good, although there are plenty of complaints about the CGI fights that creep in more and more in the latter half of the series. I for one don't care either about animation nor production value, probably only in the case of Jojo since it is pretty wacky in terms of fights, voice acting and sounds and they really help highlight those parts. Moving on though, there are probably plenty of people that will begin this anime because of the iconic voice of Kenjirou Tsuda which, while I do enjoy his voice, it got pretty boring after a while since he always keeps his cool voice in this anime, without too much of a hint of emotion and I don't think this works in an anime where he is the main character, so it's probably better for him to stay in the side character role. Regardless, while the production value is pretty good, what carries any story is, of course, the story and it's characters (and their dialogue), so this doesn't change anything for me in terms of scoring the anime.

Setting
It's is a world that combines the old ninja ways and the new technological advancements, the past and the future, and how the clash of two opposing ideologies shake the foundations of society. Or rather, it's just an ideea that probably came up because it sounded cool, had main stream appeal and maybe even because it would ease the animation costs (which can't be blamed) but it doesn't have anything to say about it, it's just something for mainstream appeal and for the people who care about an original premise (and animation) more than anything else.

Story
Main character and his family die, he gets revived and tries to find the ones responsible in order to kill them. I said what was to be said about this in the beginning already, so I won't repeat it. Instead, I should mention that the plot focuses on MC, the police side of events, the ninja clan side and the mecha creator side. There isn't too much to the police side (actually, to any of them, since they are spread throughout the story so the time that they have is pretty limited), it focuses on the MC newfound friend and his subordinate, which, I'll give them that, were pretty likable and had their moments and it was a nice change of pace to see a cast with only adult characters. They try to get dirt on the mecha creator (plenty of times with the help of the mc) In order to arrest him and that's about it. The ninja side focuses on the last remaining ninja's and what they should do, reveal themselves or disappear, although it would be quite a stretch to say they actually debate and explore this, but more on this a bit later since it was the worst part of the anime. And on the mecha side of things, he has a few goons that end up fighting with the MC, each of them with their own reasons (some are personal, some not). Shouldn't forget the last fight in the last episode, the MC wins with an asspull, which should be forgiven because it was a pretty cool fight (if you don't care about the CGI)…no way. Of any reason why he should win, he should have a BS move that he normally shouldn't have. The writing team couldn't even come up with the excuse that it is more thematically consistent and justified that the MC wants to put an end to the ninja era, while the villain wants to keep it alive. While that still wouldn't be good because the MC didn't care about this until I think the last few episodes and it wasn't his main driving force, it still would have been a better excuse.

All in all, it was an interesting mix of mecha and ninja's, although I probably wouldn't care at all if another anime came up with this idea again, it's a one and done deal (at least in the fighting focused space, I wouldn't mind something that actually has something to say about these subjects).

Now I just need to talk about the ninja backstory since this is the part of the story that actually triggered me a bit. First of all, it's to be understood that there is a guy who gathers youngsters in order to train them to become soulless ninja that only care about accomplishing the missions that they get and only a few pass. And what a coincidence that 2/3 characters that pass are male and 1 female. I will be that guy and say that seems veeery unlikely. First of all, out of all the males, I doubt that a woman would have the biggest level of strength, maybe she has skill though, but that shouldn't be enough. Secondly, the whole shtick of the ninja school is that they don't want emotional soldiers, yet there are plenty of woman and one of them is actually selected as one of the best ones and not only woman are actually known for being more emotional than man, but there is nothing about her that gives the impression that she is dissociated from her emotions. In fact, none of them seem like that at their core; they are all emotional. I don't know what the hell happens in that school, but it makes and chooses the worst ninja's that they could train. If the whole point of the school is to have fighting machines that lack emotions, perhaps you should train them into subordination and dissociation and not give them the freedom of talking to each other and develop friendships and even romantic relationships. Of course, I don't blame the story for doing that, but the ones in charge of it for making such a poorly thought out lore for the ninja's and how it makes zero sense that they still are functional normal human beings that are able to fight though.

All in all, the story is just used as the appeal for the revenge story, which in turn is used for the fights, since this is what the average anime fan cares about the most these days, although even here they failed since many of these people kind of turned against them, more or less, because they got mecha CGI sword fights that they don't like. Oh yea, the themes. Revenge is bad and you can always change yourself/find your way. Too bad they fall flat since this story ain't made for anything deep or philosophical, this is your run of the mill conclusion that needed to mention it's themes in the end and show that the characters grew up, which wasn't that bad, just generic and what you already expected and Kenjirou's cool and unemotional voice also didn't help. Actually, maybe the problem wasn't with him, but the lack of closure that he doesn't get about his family. He sees his family die and then goes angry and serious throughout the whole story. Then at the end of the story we see him satisfied and ready to move on, which made me think about one of the Silent Hill games (great games, especially the first three), where a character loses his only parent, sobs a bit, than keeps his composure about it until you finish the game, where he finally lets out all of his emotions in a cry of sadness for all that happened to him. A scene like this would have greatly helped the MC and his development at the end, too bad it didn't happen though, I guess.

Characters
I said what had to be said about the MC already since he is quite a plot (and fighting/animation) device, so moving on.
The FBI agent and his subordinate were pretty nice, to be fair, both their dynamic and their characters, definitely a highlight of the anime. While they did have their own character arcs and were made fairly human, the time we had with them and the execution weren't enough to be really significant, especially in a 13 episode anime, but to be fair, this may be subjective.
The villains were alright, nothing to write home about, at most 2D characters that are easily forgettable, I couldn't care any less about them, maybe only in the last 2/3 episodes, just a bit.

I want to mention one of the villains though, because he left a good impression on me, too bad he was done dirty by the writers. (MILD SPOILERS) He lives his childhood as a lone wolf that kills in order to survive, finds two friends that he cares about then gets backstabbed by both of them because yes. They leave the ninja school and abandon the mission and leave him alone. One of them tried to excuse this but it was still pure bs. Later, he also wants revenge on his friend, but of course he loses and gets talked into becoming a good guy and forgiving him, because the writers said so. Not gonna lie, I was way more invested in his revenge and life story than the MC (or any other character, for that matter) and he was fully justified for hating his friend for the rest of his life, showing real consequences to past actions and how you can't repair some relationships several years later after you completely abandoned it by doing almost nothing, hell, even by doing plenty of things. There is a great example in Bojack Horseman (american animation, while I'm not attracted to them, this one blew me away) where the protagonist wants to rekindle his friendship with a dying friend after he also abandoned him, but he refuses to forgive him because he abandoned him for all these years, and now the protag. has to live with the fact that his friend died while hating him. Good thing this anime, like Bojack, is also intended for "mature" audiences (+17, because of the blood/gore, somehow) and it could easily get away with such a conclusion. So yea, points taken for that.

So the characters were serviceable, they did their job and were alright, but not the kind that I really care about or think about tomorrow, they managed to move the plot and it was nice to see an older cast of characters.

Conclusion
I don't think there is anything left unsaid which I already talked about, it's a generic revenge story with alright characters. I probably sounded way more negative than what I actually felt while watching this anime, I knew what I came here for and got exactly that, in some parts (characters) more than I expected and it was an alright watch for something to see weekly, but I still can't recommend it in good faith for someone that has standards.

TL;DR: It's a simple story with simple characters, nice art style, setting , comedy, it knows what it wants to be and the author put a lot of soul into it, as it can be seen from his notes at the end of the early chapters. For some, the fact that the story isn't too deep and doesn't seriously tackle the themes relating to what it means to be a man/delinquent can affect his enjoyment, but I would still recommend it for the humane and down to earth characters and world that builds around them.

In a world where quite a few of the most developed ... countries in the world are in a war against masculinity, reading Crows (and Worst, it's sequel. the most important ones to read to understand the plot) is a breath of fresh air, since this manga and it's sequel (which are very similar in terms of the way it feels, it's character dynamics, story, comedy and themes, so I recommend reading both of them, maybe Worst a bit more) are all about masculinity and how one should act, both of the stories lacking any sign of a woman in it's area, the stories focusing on the relationships between the schools that are built,but also changed by the passing time, all of which are connected by the fights, friendships and rivalries that form between each other.

Setting
The story takes place in a not named (as far as I can remember) japanese town where the only people living in it seem to be highschoolers (only male, HS, in fact), maybe some middleschoolers and young adults by which they get employed and "the police" of which we only hear of in some cases when it relates to a big conflict between schools, lacking any sign of adults, except maybe the occasional appearance of a teacher that gets made fun of, so it's kind of a dream like town where the delinquents rule it and have complete freedom (as far as it can go to teenagers), not having to deal with learning, homework, parents and even rules. While the setting is borderline on the fantasy spectrum, it still feels humane, due to them still living by some rules, such as their human body limits, injuries and the fact that they still have to graduate highschool and find a job in order to make a living, which, while not something that is dramatized, it's still looked over in a mildly serious but also funny manner, depending on the characters. All in all, the town feels alive due to the continous change that it goes through at the level of the relationships between schools, as every alliance and rival school constantly change because the students are coming and going with the passing of time, not everything being able to last forever and it's definitely a strong point of the series.

Art style
No complaints here, there are plenty of backgrounds, instead of white spaces, it is highly detailed, especially the close ups on the characters, which also are drawn in a realistic style usually, contributing to the characters attitude, personality, fighting style but also the emotional moments, although there are also plenty of goofy unrealistic faces made for the sake of the comedy in this manga which nicely enhances those. The art style also gradually evolves, even in in the sequel, where it's most noticable so it's nice to know that the author tries to polish himself and it can't be easy drawing hundreds of characters and still try to make them look original, the author succeding quite nicely in that department. If I were to nitpick, Rindaman's (Hayashida Megumi) hairstyle is pretty hard to understand and it looks amateurish, and maybe it's a me problem, but there were plenty of times where I couldn't connect the character's name to it's face, it being even harder when they advance in years and change their hairstyles and trying to remember who is who (when it comes to the side characters most of the times). It's still a nice art style though, fitting for the roughness with which a highschool delinquent manga comes.

Comedy
It is, of course, subjective, but if you come into this manga having a little background on delinquent behavior or simply know that everything in this manga focuses on the delinquents, that you should probably expect the kind of humour present here. I, for one, really enjoyed it and laughed or was amused by many of the jokes, from those involving hitting someone (which is probably the most problematic one out of all of them since some people may interpret it as bullying and find it in poor taste), to those about their capabilities of getting a girlfriend and those involving stealing (burrowing) someone else's goods, to name a few recurring types of jokes. I certainly thought that in some cases, the bullying was exagerated, but was overall amused by the scenarious that created this moments and I still have no problem with them (I believe they were handled waaay better than those in other anime/manga such as Maison Ikkoku, maybe Detroid Metal City and Nagatoro, to name a few). So if you enjoy the culture around delinquents, you will probably enjoy this type of comedy.

Story
It revolves around Suzuran highschool, known as the delinquent school because that's where the worst of them are supposed to gather, where, while not entirely true, it is still the best school in town in regards to which school would win in a fist fight. The story focuses on the students of Suzuran, with Harumichi as the protagonist of the story, but he and Suzuran also take a back seat from time to time in order to focus on the developments and relationships between the other schools in town, such as alliances that are formed or wars that are started. That's pretty much all that is to the story, Crows spans from Harumichi's transfer in the first year of highschool to his graduation, so for 3 years, durring which old and new characters, relationships, wars and alliances are left behind or formed, all of which enhancing the passing of time and the romanticised highschool days when the characters could just fool around, talk about woman, get into fights, develop new friends, enemies and rivalries, and have a genuinly great time.

Fights
There are three types of fights: the equal, one on one fist fights, usually between the best of each school, but also their close subordinates, the group fist fights, in which the schools fight like in a war, but only with their fists, creating mayhem around them, and then there are the ambushes where the opposing members of a school assault a single or a few members of an opposing school with members, being easily defeated. The ambushes are usually the start of the conflict, one school trying to hunt either random members of a school or well-known ones and starting a conflict between their schools to assert their power. The group fist fights are shown as hype, cool moments where each school can fight to his heart content until he can't fight anymore, preparing the scene for the real, one on one fights.This one is seen as the most respectable and tensioned one, seeing as the reputation of the schools kind of rides on the succes or loss of each of them, although even that can be quite questionable, seeing as the story doesn't seem to concentrate too much on the consequences of these fights on the schools or their individuals, that being one of the true critiques I have of this manga. the group fist fights, they are shown as hype, cool moments where each school can fight to his heart content until he can't fight anymore, preparing the scene for the real, one on one fights. The fights between schools usually follows the structure above, with the mention that instead of ambushes, some conflicts start with low level delinquents getting into a fight with another low level delinquent, building up to the involvment of the school leaders and a complete war between the schools, which makes sense, seeing as they are prideful and want to protect the school's reputation, but also the low members that were hurt in the fight.

Themes
As I mentioned in the beginning, this story heavily focuses on male delinquency, which, of course, leads to all kinds of recurring themes that are more or less talked about, but mostly shown, what unites them all being true masculinity. Respect learned through fighting is one of the easier one to recognise, seeing as the relationships of friendship and rivalry, especially between the heads of the different schools (Harumichi, Ryuushin, Bitou, Bulldog, which are the most important ones of the story), are formed through a shared respect for each other's fighting abilities and spirit. This is the best part about this kind of fighting manga, that fighting is not portrayed as something to be avoided, that it's something dangerous and that only bad people fight. While these are true to some extent, in here, they are shown to be a way to learn about somebody's characters, to see how far they would go for themselves and to protect others, and it's shown, overall, as a means of spending time and having fun, besides those times where white weapons are used, such as baseball bats or iron pipes, which still aren't used to kill someone, just to put them out of commision in order to win a war between schools. As such, learning respect through physical and mental strenght is made out to be something respectable and possitive, a way to learn about someone in a real life way, through behavior, instead of using only words, it's a nice way of showing masculinity, dominance, assertivness and courage, many of which are demonized in some areas of the world, but still highly shown in this manga in a positive light and work well as less obvious themes, but still relating to masculinity.
Equality in fights is also shown in a possitive light, demonizing the ambushes made by other schools or finishing off the head of a school once he beat fair and square the leader of another school. Using weapons, targeting students that you know are helpless and can't fight are all seen as low blows and as scummy behaviors that are preferred to be avoided. Such behaviors can easily be connected to other real life contexts, like not preying on the weak and helpless, such as kids, homeless people and woman, instead holding equal fights (either physically or mentally) with people that are your equal, attacking people that you know are inferior to you in those areas could easily turn into bullying.
Pride is also an important facet of the story and it's characters, because they, as delinquents and especially the leaders of the school have a reputation to maintain, both for themselves and the school (which ties nicely into the respect aspect of the story). This is a driving force of the story, seeing as the leaders of the schools and even their underlings aren't backing down from a fight, the exceptions being when they are made to send the message that a war is coming, every one of them keeping the tough guy act in order to show dominance and the pride of the school, but also his individual pride and respect. It is an honorable and admirable way of living, facing the challenges and taking responsabilities that you have although you may feel that you will lose or do something pointless that only hurts you, and still facing them head on, without making any excuses, is a great show of character and manhood (although, of course, there are also times when you should eat your pride and hold on for you or others).

Characters
There ain't too much to them (except their huuuge numbers), they are at most two dimensional, representing different archetypes of delinquents, from those that lack power who still hang out with the strong, to the pervy ones, goofy and stupid ones (the butt of plenty of jokes) to serious, stoic and angry delinquents, the series covers pretty much all of them. They both are and aren't the best part of the manga. While they aren't too developed and mostly don't develop, except maybe a few minor exceptions which aren't all that significant anyway, they really feel human due to the dialogue and emotions that they express in different conversations, the jokes they make and even the reactions to other's jokes. What I appreciate about them and the reason why I can't fully hate and degrade the character writing is because the manga in general tries to depict the highschool life of these delinquents which rarely and hardly develop and don't necessarily need to do it since their character (what I talked about in the themes section) is already pretty developed. The reason why I choose not to talk about any character in particular is exactly because of this, they are all combinations of each other that mix well, the only thing that separates them is their physical power, seeing as the more important and relevant characters of the story (the leaders of 4 or 5 of the schools), are being focused on for this exact reason.

Negatives
While the simplicity of the manga and the delinquent's lives is it's strongest point, it is also it's weakest one from a more objective perspective (not like simplicity is bad, in itself, but for something to truly be a 10/10 it needs more complexity, emotion, high stakes to name a few, especially when the delinquent genre is full of potential in regards to these). Three years of the character's lives and 8 or 9 years irl and hardly seeing any development in them is quite a waste of time where the characters could have met different physical, psychological and philosophical challenges and doubts in order to build more complexity for them and enhance the themes and the portrayal of delinquents. The fact that this manga was published in a shonen magazine may have affected the end result, but I still believe it is waste potential that a delinquent manga can have, as proven by Bakuon Rettou, which is also a delinquent manga (although from the motorcycle riding night life), but it focuses a great deal of time on the protagonists struggle with his home life, personal life, his future and life choices (and of course, I highly recommend it, this truly got me into the delinquent genre and I still have to see how these 2 mangas compare to other delinquent manga's, since I'm new in this). So yea, simplicity of character = good and bad.
Another problem is the lack of consequences. You would expect that in a manga about street fighting there would be more people that suffer permanent or long term damage to their bodies that can't be fixed by a simple stay in a hospital until the end of the arc, or not even that. Too bad that this is what always happens, even when they suffer quite hard damage from the aforementioned bats, iron pipes and ambushes. To be fair though, the only anime/manga that comes to mind that really tackles the physical and psychological aspects of disabilities (and also in a masterful way) is Real (one of my favorite manga, by Takehito Inoue) and it's quite a sensitive and hard subject to discuss in a manga made for teenagers. But this lack of consequences still are a big no for this manga, even simply not allowing them to fight anymore or make them transfer to another school in a different city would have been better than nothing.
The themes are executed alright and it's nice to see them highlighted from time to time, but they still aren't challenged and there isn't much done with them, it's just some cool aspects of the characters that are used to hype the already cool and hype moments. It's cool that there are some stories that highlight these aspects of man and delinquents, but again, this genre and such themes could work extremely well in the right hands, but also in a more mature setting (and publication magazine).
I'm sure that plenty of people thing I'm petty, an elitist, some hater or who knows what else, and that's quite fair, can't blame anyone for thinking that after critiquing a teenage manga for something that it clearly doesn't want to be. And that's fine, seeing as it still promotes good values and positive views on a type of people that are often misunderstood is highly respectable and I can't take it from the mangaka. But making a complex manga, with well executed themes and characters that nicely complement them and shows the grittiness of these kind of people and how they try to live or change? I think this takes a deep emotional connection and understanding of these types of people and struggles and also skills as a mangaka to succesfully put this ideas on paper and make them flow naturally. It's clear that the mangaka did plenty of good things with his manga, hence the positive reception that it has, but I value and strongly believe that the maturity of an author and him being able to seriously tackle some hard subjects is the one thing that I can easily point towards and call it a masterpiece and give it a 10/10 wholeheartedly.

Conclusion
All in all, I still recommend this manga. While I find myself at a point where shonens with crazy abilities such a JJK, Demon Slayer, MHA or anything with special powers and pretty animation don't do it for me, seeing manly fist fights is really refreshing for me and it's more easily to connect with the characters due to the down to earth fights and characters. The dynamics and comedy moments between the characters are also great and I never got tired of seeing them interact with each other. And what's one of the most aspects of this manga that probably attracted it's readers is the soul that the author put in it, as can be deduced by reading his notes at the end the early chapters. It was very wholesome to read about his struggles, but also enthusiasm and effort he put into creating and serializing this manga, that clearly wasn't driven by money (don't know about the following years/side stories/sequels, maybe the author only wished to develop this living world that he worked on for so many years).

TL;DR: I definitely wouldn't recommend this to anyone that doesn't enjoy dumpster fires (or who actually wants to see and learn from healthy behaviors and relationships), and I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who actually does.

As a reader of Hot Gimmick, the mangakas other insane "shojo" manga (in quotes because this 2 definitely ain't for teenage girls) I expected the worst coming into this one. While it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I still got a nice share of unhealthy relationships being presented in a positive light, along with the enjoyment and amusement of seeing how far it would go. ...

Setting/Art style
To probably no ones surprise, the story takes place in a highschool. Can't really complain about that, since it's the most relatable setting where the story can take place, especially since this is written for teenage girls. While I'm at it, I can also mention that the art style is also your typical shojo style with pretty boys and girls and bubbly, cute backgrounds, although plenty of them lack any detail, the focus being mostly on the characters with minimalistic background details, so, while it is passable, it lacks many details and shadows, being a pretty bland art style.

Story
It starts because of an accident that is waaay to easily resolved, judging by it's severity (destroying a hard-disk with which 2/3 of the main guys could have one 1 million in a contest ,couldn't find if yen or dollars) and the 2 of them and her childhood friend wanting revenge on her, which pretty much goes nowhere, it's mostly used to start the story, although something milder would have worked just fine and it would have been even better, but good thing the mangaka enjoys setting up her stories in this ways, just like in Hot Gimmick, where the story starts with a presumed child (teenage) pregnancy, so we can easily deduce just how unhinged the story will be. Moving on, soon after, some love interests are formed and they almost completely drive the story, it's characters and the dialogue. There is plenty to say about the characters later on, but let's just say that the character's motivations and feelings toward each other start to feel gradually more forced and hard to believe, which also, of course, affects the quality of the story, since the 3 boys, the protag and her "friend" (more on this later) are the only relevant characters, with the only few recurring and relatively relevant characters being the protags mother/father and the parents of 2/3 boys, somewhat. The ending of this story, without spoiling it, is exactly what should be expected from this story, a good insult to the audience and the development of the relationship between the characters for the simple reason of wishing for the audience to finish the story and see what will happen to each of the ships in their own imagination. While I did have fun with the manga, the ending felt kind of insulting to me, and that ain't happening any day with any story, so yea, it's pretty bad from beginning to end. If I were to say something good about the story, it is the plot/arc that focuses on the protags family and how it portrayed their problems (it had it's own problems, but this was quite decent, at least). Oh yea, and about the story's themes, there pretty much is none and I can only hope that it isn't actually the title "Tokyo Boys and Girls", which would imply that this was supposed to represent an average group of tokyo boys and girls, cuz it's probably bs, especially the way they all ended up by the end of the story. And if you read this whole review, you can easily see why this also fails as a cute romance manga made for teenage girls.

Characters
Damn but these characters are something else. We have the innocent girly protag who goes along with whatever 2/3 main boys do, ending up almost cheating on her bf (or depending on what you consider cheating, she actually does that), then her "best friend" who, while she is portrayed as a hopeless romantic who can't get over her unrequited love, she is a slut and a fake friend to the protag. The boys cast consists of the protags childhood friend which, while he still has his own problems, it actually becomes quite understandable since he is the only decent human being in their group, then we have probably the biggest cuck (sorry, hopeless romantic 2) I had ever seen in a story yet and is done the dirtiest out of all of them with the direction his character and conclusion goes, and then we have typical play-boy who just does whatever the hell he wants with whatever girl he wants, regardless of what his friends say about it (by the end of the story, I actually questioned if they really are or were friends in the first place, since it didn't seem like they cared about each other's crushes and feelings, each of them competing for at least one of the main girls, which looked more like manipulation and seducing each other's girls). I should mention that I have no inherent problems with any of these character whatsoever by themselves, but if something ain't cool, it's portraying these characters stories, emotions, behaviors and relationships in a positive light while they surely ain't anything close to that and shouldn't be shown as such, because it sends a bad message to the audience, especially in this case, where this story is marketed towards teenage girls. Now I'll go into each character in more detail, so if you ain't interested in being spoiled about pretty much the whole story, I suggest skipping to the end, just know that some wild things happen between these characters and if you actually are like me and are interested in reading a dumpster fire/want to know how bad a story/characters can get, then you can go ahead.
SPOILERS AHEAD (UNTIL THE CONCLUSION)
Protagonist (Mimori) - While she ain't the worst character in the series, she is still quite bad. At her worst, she easily forgives her supposed "best friend" for acting like a jerk towards her due to her own insecurities without even being given a real apology and almost develops a romantic relationship with her friend's one-sided crush WHILE BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP, because she can't push back against him because she is too good of a human being and pretty much pities him for his current life circumstance, so she chooses to neglect her boyfriend in order to help a guy that clearly wants to play with her. It's a long way between basic human decency and acting like a friend to neglecting your boyfriend to help a male "friend" who is actually romantically into you. Besides this, she is the typical cheerful innocent good girl which is quite generic in itself, probably something you should expect from a shojo manga.
The childhood friend (Haruta) - Probably the most relatable one of the story (as a guy, at least), while he acts like a tough guy and even a bit like an asshole with his GF (the protag), he is in the right in here since, even though he kind of hated her at first (before realising that he likes her), he at least didn't constantly verbally and physically abused her, as it goes with one of the couples from Hot Gimmick. While the story tries to portray him as a tough but secretly sensible guy, the story kind of fails at that, since he always ends up being mad at his GF because she neglects him and spends her time with another guy, which is reasonable enough for him, on one hand, although, on the other, he could also try to communicate his feelings more, especially regarding his jealousy. His character is built up as being one that is not really emotionally vulnerable and, while that ain't a problem in itself, he never develops from this point on since his relationship is being meddled with by his GF's which is actually his friend too (kind of) and he can never ask the real questions and say what is truly on his mind because every time the protag has a new secret, her male friend ends up finding about it first, which he then rubs it on his face, which caused a conflict between the protag and her BF quite a few times. All in all, he was done dirty by the author, what could have been a nice character arc of him becoming more emotionally vulnerable and fully repairing his relationship with his GF ends up being cucked for the biggest part of his relationship. And I should probably mention that the ending is open ended in regards to who the protag ends up with (even though they live together by the end of the story), which was a perfect kick in the balls for his character because he is constantly made fun of and neglected while having no chance to redeem himself.
The play-boy (Kazukita) - In the first half, he is presented as quite the a*hole who flirts around with girls, only to dump them after he has his way with them. And just to solidify his status as a jerk, he uses the protags girl friend one sided feelings for him in order to make her to whatever he wants, while telling her that he is not interested in her at the end of the day (and this exact thing happens through most of the story). In the second half of the story, he develops feelings for the protag and is shown to be a miserable lonely person, since he lives by himself and his father doesn't care about him since he is too busy running a hospital. The author actually tries to redeem him by developing his relationship with the protag, but it's pretty scummy to try to steal a guy's GF, especially since you two quite know each other and are in the same class, so it falls flat on it's face, making him look like a selfish a*hole. If the author wanted to redeem him, he should have AT LEAST left the two girls alone and tried to develop a real relationship with someone who is actually single and that he respects, unlike what he does with these two and ESPECIALLY apologise to his cuck friend for using the girl the he likes (the slut) however he wants, hurting her again and again, even when the cuck asks him quite a few times to leave her alone. At the end of the manga, it's actually implied that there actually is a possibility for him to end up with the protag, even though she actually is in a relationship (which kind of was the point of the story, them developing their relationship), she seems only to pity him, not like him, and her friend is also in love with him. So yea, if he was supposed to have a redemption story, it was horrendous.
The CUCK (Ran) - Holy hell, where do I begin with this guy. He likes the MC's friend, the girl who loves the play boy (who is also his friend). He may sometimes try to spend time with her, but usually he is getting cucked by his friend or rejected by her because she has eyes only for his friend. This goes on for like half the manga, then they bang. Where that came from? God knows. Actually, probably because she is a slut. She got rejected one too many times, she becomes sad, he finds her, confesses, kisses her while saying that he loves her, she also accepts his kisses while saying that she doesn't love him. Then she asks for a condom and then they do the deed. In the classroom (after hours, but there still is daylight). A bit later we find out she gets impregnated by him in this scene. So he accepts to do it with a girl that doesn't like him, but his friend, he does it while she is vulnerable, using her weakness to get laid with someone that doesn't care about him (pretty much like in School Days, where the protags friend does unconsensual banging with a broken girl, but School Days at least had the decency to show this kind of acts and relationships as unhealthy and morally wrong) AND chooses to take responsibility for the child, even though she doesn't like him and would probably cheat on him in the future. He even asks HIM to help make her feel better instead of doing it himself. The next step is probably letting him satisfy her in bed , in order to complete his transformation into a cuck. And that's pretty much all there is to him, a desperate man that becomes a cuck and uses a vulnerable girl just to get laid. If it weren't for this whole romance thingy with him, he would be a decent human being, he is quite light-hearted and seems like a good guy, but this whole romance just destroys his character beyond any possibility of redemption. In the end, he ends up in a relationship with the slut and wants to take accountability for the child, and her accepting this for some reason, even though she doesn't like him. While there is plenty to say about her part in all this, let's just say that keeping the child of a guy that you don't even like and ending up together with him just so that the kid will have a father/because she wants the baby is quite a tragic and f*ked up fate for a character. Good thing this is all painted in a light hearted, positive and heroic manner for him, am I right?
And now comes the one character that motivated me the most to make this review, THE SLUT (Nana) - It hurts even to say her name, knowing that she shares the name of 2 of the best written female characters that I have seen/read up to this day (Of course, the Nana's from Ai Yazawa's "Nana"). This dear little girl is everything that an adolescent (doesn't matter if boy or girl) shouldn't be or look up to. She falls in love with a play boy that messes with her and uses her one sided love for him for his own benefits, all the while she still keeps liking him. While this is quite realistic, if, after all this, you still wish to be with someone, you should probably think more about yourself and your father (or mother, if the genders are reversed), because this sure as hell ain't healthy and a relationship that you should pursue and glorify to teenage girls, when it comes to this manga. Just because it can happen doesn't mean that it should be portrayed in a story for children as something romantic and beautiful. Moving on from this, her crush starts spending more and more time with her friend. And of course, why would she blame the assertive person that she likes when she can get mad and stop talking with the innocent defensive girl who finds herself at the receiving end in all this, despite not wanting this to happen. While this also happens irl, this doesn't excuse this type of behavior driven by rage and lack of rationality and doesn't make her less of a shitty person, especially while taking in consideration all the things she does throughout the story. Then comes the real heavy hitter. She bangs (or rather gets banged) the aforementioned guy while in a vulnerable state, all while knowing that she doesn't like him. While most of the fault is going to him, her just giving in to temptation still isn't the right thing to do, even though it made her look more humane. Too bad this whole tragedy is painted in a positive light, as she becomes pregnant from this, and decides to keep the baby and let him take responsibility for it, all while not liking him in a romantic way and still being in highschool. Nice way of ruining the lives of at least 3 people (including herself) with this decision. But before finding this out she suddenly forgives her friend (although she did nothing wrong to her) and starts talking to her for selfless reasons, like getting to spend more time with the guy she likes and having someone to eat lunch with. She didn't even try to apologise for being a shitty friend and person who was in the wrong, but goes back to talking with her like nothing happened in the next scene when they are seen together. But oh well, all's well that ends well. And finally, the one dialogue that broke me when it comes to this character. While getting closer to the cuck to kiss him, she tells him that she loves the other guy, while also telling him to "love me above anyone else". Now this is a sick joke, if I ever heard one. And this is how her character arc ends. In the end, she is a fake friend that doesn't care about her supposed best and only friend, she loves an abusive guy while rubbing it in the face of the guy that impregnates her and decides to keep his child and her relationship with him, despite not really liking him in a romantic sense, all this while she still is in highschool. This relationship and her child have a bright future ahead of them, ngl.
What I should also mention about all of these characters is that they also backstab each other again and again by not being able to keep confidentiality between the two of them, especially the protag and the play boy. And there are also many dialogues, behaviors and decisions that, while they ain't something that important to remember, they still add to the many flaws that the characters already have.

Conclusion
While I did enjoy every moment of this dumpster fire, I can't give this manga in good conscience more than a 4, the enjoyment adding to the final score, because if there is something that a story shouldn't do, it is glorifying unhealthy behaviors and relationships, especially while marketing the story for children or teenagers, who may actually begin to think that this is anything close to what a normal, healthy and functional human being should be like. The only type of person that I would recommend this is one that tolerate and have fun with the questionable writing decisions and gets into this manga while knowing that it should be taken as a comedy, not as a serious romance story, since is miserably fails at it.

TL;DR: The manga is an easy 10/10 if you focus more on the emotions and lessons presented in this, but it can still be a good 7 or 8/10 manga if you focus more on the objective quality, since it is not too complex of a story and the conclusion of the manga doesn't feel like a true ending, it is just the point where the manga runs out of stories to tell. The art style is highly detailed and realistic, in tone with the grim, yet hopeful manga which presents slightly altered real life stories of young people that the writer of this manga ... actually met and dealt with in his life because he spends his days and nights trying to help them. The MC is the real life version of the writer of this manga who tries to help different youth in self contained chapters (the stories spanning from 1 to 3 chapters per story, usually), him, the children he tries to help and the people surrounding them being grounded in reality with realistic depictions of their flaws and qualities, actions and emotions. The manga has plenty of objectively good elements, but it shines the most when you take it as a personal, subjective experience, that helps you become a better self, while also helping you to better understand the people around you, especially the troubled ones.

While reading the manga, it is quite important to note that it is based on the autobiographical book of the writer and MC of this manga, Osamu Mizutani, who actually was a highschool teacher who spends to this day his time and energy to help ”problematic” youth, as they may usually be described in society. Mizutani, though, sees them as being only troubled, young people being burdened by the problems surrounding their lives, here having the usual suspects: bullying, family drama, self-destructive behaviors, bad influences and so on, them being the victims of the circumstances that they had to grow up with. The chapters are quite formulaic, usually spanning from one to 2 or 3 chapters depicting different youth the author tried to help in his life. While the events presented in this manga are based both on true stories and a different culture, the internal conflicts, the societal circumstances and the strenghts and weaknesses of anyone, young or old, are still the same, making it easy to relate to the characters in this manga and associate their stories to real life cases.

Setting
While we can assume that the stories are mostly based on `80s and `90s Japan (because he is born in `56 and and published his book in 2004), the places that are usually depicted, besides schools, are dark and solitary streets, parks and red light districts, to name a few, this fitting very well with the kind of stories that are told and the places from which the characters come from, they usually coming from low income and social status families.

Art style
The realistic art style complements the dark and gritty setting, while also giving life to the characters, especially in the scenes when they express their strong emotions.


Story and Themes
As I described before, the story could be described as „child of the week”, since the author presents new anectodes every few chapters without any continuity or correlation with the stories and chapters that came before. This is a manga about humanity, about understanding the young people that are considered hopeless, good for nothings and pests by society and guiding them on a better path than the one on which they were before, if you want to take the more adult, duty focused perspective, but it can also be a good way for people that want to understand how the „bad” people that are usually presented and shunned in real life come to be the way they are and also see a more human, positive side of them, not only the traumatized children that they are. What all the stories have in common is the possitive message of trying to get your act together, of trying to better yourself as a person if you want to lead a decent life and whenever you can’t do that, you should find someone that hears you, as loud as you have to scream and try to find that one person (although I think it depends on the people and adults that surround you, so it's quite subjective, not always being the best solution)
For this reason, the semi episodic format of the manga gives the readers a significant amount of stories with different characters, problems, solutions, emotions and outcomes, while also giving each character’s story enough time to be understood and to get its development, never overstaying their welcome. That’s why each reader may more or less relate to the stories and characters that are presented, depending on their on life experiences, making this manga a highly subjective and unique experience for every reader, with different morals and teachings which may or may not reasonate with every one of them. Even if you take the emotional, subjective parts of this manga, all of the stories have a sense of tension and suspense, along with high stakes, not knowing if the children will make it out better or worse at the end of each of their stories, so the manga can be appreciated both on a subjective and objective level.
An argument that could be made against the story is the fact that there is a huge amount of negative emotions and suffering presented, close to misery porn. While that may be or become off putting, there is a nice balance between stories that depict hopelesness and hope, between the stories with bad and good endings, although it is true that the scenarios depicted are usually filled with sadness, anger and fear and that may be too much for people if they binge this manga. The first chapter also nicely sets the tone and expectations of what is to come in future stories, staying true to what it sets out to do and what it shows.
Other slight arguments that can be used against the manga are the lack of complexity and story progression, what you get in the first chapter you will also get in the last chapter, each story feeling quite the same in terms of plot progression and tone (the endings being quite varied though) and making the ending quite anticlimactic because the story follows the same formula until the very last page. The presence of the many emotional scenes in the manga is also making it very subjective, the objective elements of the story becoming more of a crutch on which the themes, lessons and life stories stand, those being it's strongest points.

Characters
Since Mizutani is the only common character present in each story, I will start with him. While he is a highschool teacher, we usually see him after hours, as a night patrol teacher, spending his nights on the streets,actively trying to find new youth to help and to set their paths straight, from leaving behind their gangs, employers and friends, as they usually contribute to the problems in which the characters find themselves in. Some people may find him too perfect of a person for the fact that he dedicates his whole life, from morning to night, to help others, and while that is true to a huge extenct, it can't be defended the fact that he also made some of this youths hate him and made them go deeper into the darkness, while others actually off themselves due to the fact that Mizutani tried to help them, but he either couldn't dedicate himself enough to save them, didn't have the right solutions for each youth he tried to help or even made mistakes in his guiding that ended up costing another person's life. While he looks, and kind of is, like a saint that always wants to help others, he still has his own flaws and problems. One of the major ones is the fact that he always tries to help the youth by making them feel loved and accepted, but while that works on some people, some of the stories prove that this way of approaching the youth weren't always the right ways. This can also create a dependence on him in the children and high expectations for what they wish Mizutani could do for them, but although it can be good for some time, the fact that they get really attached to him also means that he can also hurt them the strongest when he doesn't have the right answers or when he can't be present to help and guide them, ending up doing more harm than good, as seen in plenty of the stories that are told. Because of this, he is also filled with regret and grief which is reflected very nicely both in the manga, but also in some of the notes that he leaves at the end of most of the chapters, his deep love, appreciation and desire to help the troubled youth causing him the biggest pleasure, hapiness and satisfaction, but also the biggest grief, sadness, doubt and regret which he carries both in the manga as a character and in his own, real life, this being proof of his character and resilience and of the fact that he won't try to stop helping others even if it weights his soul down. While he may come off as preachy in some of the stories, it is more in relation to the youth that he tries to help, not towards the audience, he simply telling the stories the way they happened (more or less, due to the importance of confidenciality), not trying to tell the reader that they also have to become like him or have to understand or accept what happens in the manga.
When it comes to the other characters, they all come and go with each passing story, most of them having conclusions, although there are also the youths that Mizutani tried to help but hadn't managed that, not knowing what fate awaited them. Every troubled youth and most of the supporting cast that are connected with them are presented and characterized realistically, with both flaws and qualities, as much as it can be shown and know to Mizutani himself, since not every yakuza member or friend can be seen so easy as both a good and bad person, some of them ending up cartoonishly evil, albeit for a good reason. The characters are easily understood due to the way they are presented, and while they may have questionable personality and behavior that can be hard to accept sometimes, you still get a full picture of their social and personal life, their goals (or lack thereof) and of the ways they try to cope and adapt to the harsh realities that they live in, in just a few chapters without being rushed, forced or inconsistent with their behaviors.

Conclusion
While there is plenty of value to be found in the objective good parts of the manga, I think you can appreciate this manga way more for the emotions that are presented, the life lessons that you can get from them and even from having a person like Mizutani as a role model, as a person someone can aspire to be, since it is obvious how everything about Mizutani and this manga comes from his soul, from his desire to be a positive role model and to help the less fortunate people from the outskirts of society, proving that you don't have to be rich to help someone or to be in the field of social work to be able to make a positive impact on someone, but instead you have to be empathic, understanding and accepting, a human in touch with his feelings and other people's feelings in order to help someone. I don't think there is anything more beautiful and worthy of respect in a story than pushing such messages as the ones present here (this being the reason why this is one of my favorite manga), especially since the anime sphere is filled with escapist, feel-good stories in the past decade (which have their own place in here, but not when this is literally everything that appears every year with very small exceptions), instead of realistic, motivational , inspirational and self-reflective stories that support facing yourself in order to become a better person that can understand the people around.

TL;DR: 5/10, I don't recommend this for anyone that has standards and enjoys a fantasy world that tells you from the very beginning at least SOME of its rules, a good or at least somewhat decent power system, not made on the spot spells for whenever the author needs them, well-explored themes, complex characters or intriguing dialogue.

This anime can easily be described by saying that it is mediocre and generic and it has no reason to be as popular and praised as it is. The reason why I believe this is the case is because of the kind of interesting premise of the show which ... makes people think that this story and characters are actually mature, complex, or even philosophical (which it isn't, only at a surface level), the waifu bait mc, the episodic Slice of Life (SoL) elements and the presence of the well loved fantasy genre which is so popular these days in the anime community, giving huge generic isekai/fantasy anime vibes (especially the world and characters). While I have no problem with people that simply enjoy something for what it is, going from that to giving this anime only 9's and 10's and calling it anything close to "deep" or "philosophical" is an insult to any piece of writing that actually are this things. If you want something philosophical or deep, I can easily recommend anime such as Kino no Tabi (old version), Serial Experiments Lane and Casshern Sins.

World Building/Power system
Almost non-existent, the author makes things up as he goes along the way. No one explains the different classes which apparently exist, the races and the relationships between them, since there are quite a few of them (apparently they are all friendly with each other, except the demons, who are supposed to be the bad guys cuz that's what all the generic fantasy anime/manga/ln's also do) and kind of explain (on a surface level of course) the presence of magic. You have no history or sense of the world and how every species lives the way they do and no well-established fighting system, which makes this world seem extremely uncooked and was just an afterthought for the author cuz he knew all too well that classic fantasy worlds easily sell and everyone understands them, so he had no reason to think about it. While the demons are made up to be a threat, although to a lower extent, they barely appeared and got mentioned throughout the anime, they were probably put in just to have an occasional fighting sequence and to build anticipation of living threats (which they aren't, cuz Frieren's power is completely broken, so there is no tension or urgency for the party).
To add to the power system argument, the fact that Frieren's main hobby is collecting spells makes the anime even worse, since we are led to believe there are spells for pretty much everything since she collects a huge amount of books regularly on her journies, even before the story starts. Too add to that, how she has so many spells and the most important and even basic ones for battles or problematic situations for some reason don't exist or she doesn't have them is beyond me, especially since she has all kinds of spells for daily chores and needs, but not spells such as one that makes you lack the need for sleep, keep you warm in the cold or makes you see what is an illusion and what is real. But of course, we need some fake tension or to show some struggle with the characters because the existence of magic is used as the author sees fit and whenever it leads to the outcome that the author wishes for and it can easily be excused by saying that "she has so many spells, we don't know which she has or which she doesn't" or "she has so many spells, she can't remember all of them".

Story
The protagonist goes on the journey to the demon king castle to relieve the moments she had with her old party members. This is the kind of show where you should simply enjoy the journey, characters and the SoL elements without putting much thought into it. Too bad that, while I will talk later about why the characters are bad, pretty much every episode Frieren and her gang go to different towns, helping people for a few days, then moving on to another town doing fetch quests and sometimes beating an average bad guy (monsters). Fans of these show will likely tell you that all these moments are to build the characters and their relationships and while that may be true to some extent between 2 of them, Frieren not only doesn't do that, but she doesn't even try to learn more about the humans about which she wants oh so much to learn about, this being one of the main reasons (beside reminiscing about the old party) for why she goes on this journey. You would think that when someone wants to learn about other people or races, they would actually spend a significant amount of time with and questioning them at every chance they get. Not Frieren though, she has never even tried to question humans about their short life spans (compared to hers), how they see themselves compared to other species, or the value of their lives, to name just a few potential questions. Instead, she spends a few days in a town, does some chores for a few townsmen and moves on, constantly thinking about the old party she had which she didn't even try to get to know better even after she had realised that she wants to learn more about them.

Art style
As generic as it can get, you have the average fantasy world with pretty, vibrant colors, cute and moe female character design, and soy boyish male characters (not all but quite many of them, as it is the current trend).

Sound
While I usually don't notice the music and sound effects in anime's, there a few exception when I do so, but not in this anime, the OST is your typical medieval fantasy soundtrack.

Characters
Pretty much all of them can be defined by a simple character trait or stereotype, such as kuudere, another kuudere (the mc and the purple haired girl), the energetic crybaby that gets serious when it counts, for the main party, and drunk priest (get it?it's funny cuz that's a contradiction), serious dwarf and energetic crybaby (again), for the old party of Frieren. They all are the typical good guys with not much else going for them. In fact, for some reason, every single person that they meet on their journey just so happens to be good, except the demons, which are bad, as we all know. the old cast and the frequent flashbacks are used to make you feel bad about Frieren (a bit of emotional manipulation since you don't know any of them in the first few episodes when they appear the most so it's better and easier to make Frieren cry after them instead of building up for at least a few episodes the characters and that crying scene), and to make Frieren realise that she actually knew plenty of things about them and actually had a connection to them. This is considered an important plot point in the story because the anime tries to hammer almost every episode (if not every ep) how much she is starting to remember and care about them, but the story keeps going with the flashbacks even though both the watcher and Frieren understand this after just a few episodes and it still doesn't matter cuz Frieren doesn't change in the least after the first few episodes since she has this revelation and starts her new journey to know more about humans (which she doesn't even try to do, as i pointed out earlier). The least I can give it is that the old party isn't, at least, simply forgotten but a reminder for why Frieren goes on her journey, even though this can be simply canceled due to what I just mentioned.
Focusing on Frieren, the main protagonist, shows just how flawed the execution of its supposed themes in this show is. The fact that she is +1000 years old is one of the selling points and main reasons why this anime is usually praised, since it's something "new" and "original" (and as we all know, new and original=quality, doesn't matter how bad the execution is), but too bad that the aforementioned execution shows that it doesn't even matter if she is +1000 years or 20 years old since you can explore the same themes that this show pretends to explore in the exact same way and you wouldn't feel a difference. Actually, it would be even better like this, since she acts like a 5 year old that constantly needs to be spoon fed, woken up and dressed by her kuudere companion, despite her age. She was also a social outcast for hundreds of years , but good thing she ain't a +20 year old shut-in male who collects figurines and posters and suddenly tries to become more social, but a +1000 years cute woman elf that collects spells and only knows how to live like this, despite the years of experience, self reflection and time that she had to change over this period of time, because it would be quite clear who would be more appreciated and liked by the watchers. It is literally impossible to suspend your disbelief that she can still act like a child and have no maturity whatsoever after all this time if you have basic human knowledge and know that change can happen, even just by getting older (not to mention the life experience that she more or less has, even by simply existing) (and since there is no explanation, as far as I know, about the difference in development of human and elves, it's easier to go by human logic since they are extremely similar, except their pointy ears and long life span, which doesn't excuse the almost non-existent development from her childlike state). Neither her behavior, nor her thoughts show anything that could make me point to her and say she is actually a deep or complex characters used to explore themes such as the importance of bonds, of life, the inevitability of death, and the fact that the author just slaps over all her childish elements "+1000" years doesn't change anything about her shallowness, she is just a moe waifu bait who is liked only because she is a cute female, seing a +1000 year old male acting and being treated by others like she is creating quite the different perception of how a person should be at that age.
While I have nothing to say about the rest of the cast except that they are generic characters that are easily replaceable (which would be preferable since it would create more interesting dynamics than the ones in here), I at least enjoyed some of the interactions between purple hair girl and red hair boy, despite the fact that they don't add anything to the anime, not in term of themes, nor of story, especially the purple haired, since this anime shows you just how bland a cast of characters can be if you have more than 1 kuudere, red hair boy being used to liven the atmosphere a little (though it doesn't change much since the show is still boring and bland and mediocre due to the many reasons I presented here).

Conclusion
So yea, this show has nothing going for it except it's empty premise which the anime fails to build upon or execute even in a relatively competent way, being one of the most generic anime i have the (dis)pleasure to watch, but I am quite curious to see if it will even try to do anything better than it currently does, or it will remain an empty premise which the author isn't capable in the least to do something with.