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Shibatarian has a lot of promising elements and an interesting premise, but unfortunately it just didn't quite hit hard enough for me. Sato meets a boy called Shibata buried up to his neck under a cherry tree, and they become friends. But, after a falling out, Shibata disappears for 5 years, and when he returns, he and his many clones are out to destroy the world.

The art is of a fairly good quality. There were very few moments I looked at and wished they were better, and a few moments that I considered very nicely executed. The astro-boy like design of Shibata (especially along with ... its later variations) creates an interesting dichotomy between his design and the horror aspects. Unfortunately, it doesn't lean into that. The art just wasn't quite good enough that the uncanny design would carry it, nor did the story lean enough into the psychological aspects of the manga.

I think the only case where I would recommend it is if you're looking for something incredibly surrealist and like the sound of the premise. Otherwise, there are a lot better zombie-esque apocalypse manga out there. Maybe try something like Sweet Home instead.

I really like MAD so far. In a word, it's Fujimoto-esque. The closest thing it reminds me of is Fire Punch (except the art. The closest thing that reminds me of is Chainsaw Man part 2). The basic premise is that the majority of the human race has been wiped out after aliens - which are copyright-infringingly close to just being Xenomorphs - came down in meteorites. For all intents and purposes, humanity is dead. There are no hidden cities, just disparate bands of maybe a dozen survivors trying their best to not get noticed by a single one of the aliens, because if they ... are they're dead. The protagonist is John, a normal guy trying his best to survive, when the group of survivors he's with picks up a signal and make their way towards it.

The first chapter excellently plants enough implication about the grim setting, and from the second chapter on it begins to weave a compelling mystery. But I won't spoil anything more than that. Needless to say, the characters are compelling and quirky, the story is intriguing and the comedic moments are a blend of dark and hilarious.

The art really is its biggest flaw so far, though. With a lot of visually unimpressive manga, you can at least say it has its good moments. I can't really say that with MAD. It more resembles a storyboard than anything else, and the designs for the aliens and the sci fi equipment are all very generic. I would advise going into it expecting a webcomic level of quality more than a professional manga.

Overall, the story is very compelling but the art lets it down a bit. It's the author's first serialised manga, so I expect that to get better over time. If you enjoy dark stories, apocalypses, Fujimoto manga or thrillers hearty recommend.

Overall, Centuria so far is fantastic. It has beautiful art and an engaging story, with a lot of promise for the future. It's a high enough mark of quality that, after finishing what of it is currently out, I wished there was more because I was that engaged.

Narrative - The story is about Julian, a young boy who stows away on a slave ship, who is found by the slavers and cared for by the slaves. Very minor spoilers for the first chapter here, but when all of the slaves are killed by the slavers, a goddess of the sea appears to him and offers ... him power. The story after this point is him trying to live a quiet life with the people who care about him.
Judging the quality of the story is difficult, seeing as it is just getting into its stride, but what I can judge are the characters. They're emotionally engaging and do a fair job of avoiding bland stereotypes. The evil king, for instance, is a noble humanitarian who has advanced the rights of the populace.

Visuals - The art is, taken holistically, fantastic. The scenes of action feel very dynamic, and the aftermath can be gory and inspired in composition and subject. On top of that, the designs given for the monsters and characters are sufficiently intimidating and highly evocative. The only criticism I have of the art at all is some of the scaling. I particularly noticed it with the hands of the characters just seeming too large. Altogether, that's little when compared with all the good, just a little distracting.

Innocent is very good, just not something for me, personally. You should absolutely read it if you want a deep and emotional dissection of a boy so feminine he may as well be greek, or if you want to indulge in a pseudo-historical story with lovely art.

On the subject of the art, it also was not a style I particularly liked. It is undoubtedly of a high quality, but it didn't exactly endear itself to me. The facial expressions felt inhuman at times, particularly regarding the grandmother. Nonetheless, the scenery is beautiful and so are the boys.

As for the story? As I mentioned, it is ... certainly a compelling enough character drama, but I felt it went far beyond my own palette and into the realm of melodrama too often.

This is a weird little manga. I very much enjoyed my time with it, though. TL;DR, it's not an amazing story, it's really not a good art book but it was fantastic as what is almost a philosophical text.
The story focuses on a range of characters who become entranced by the theory of heliocentrism in a geocentric world and are subsequently hunted by the inquisition. They all share their passion for knowledge and truth and struggle against their faith in the face of what they know to be heretical ideas.
Oh, right, also a warning. It's a very graphic manga very quickly.

The major downside of ... Orb's story is that it is far too wordy. Some pages are more on the 'book' part of 'comic book', and basically all of its narrative is told through the dialogue (save for a few rare moments). It can be somewhat of a fatiguing and slow read at times because of it. On top of that, its writing is also mixed. It feels strange that the characters have such thoroughly formed ideas and articulate them so well, referencing philosophical texts far beyond the historical setting.
Despite that, the dialogue is doing something right, because I loved listening (or, reading) the clashing views of each of the characters. These characters each strive to realise their meaning and ultimately find it through knowledge and freedom to different extents, and oftentimes end up debating and coming to terms with the conflict of their incomplete knowledge, which gives plenty to consider in the course of its length. Though, if the manga wanted a more compelling narrative, I feel there are ways it could've been done. I would kill for a story about Jolenta's life instead of just receiving a timeskip and seeing what came of her. Instead, it follows heliocentrism more than it does the principle characters.

The art is honestly not very good, and that is the biggest criticism I can possibly draw. It was bad enough at points that it totally ruined the impact of certain scenes. The worst one was during the emotional climax of the story as the main character of the arc looks out over the sunrise, and we get a panel of them looking like an original character from One. The character designs are also very difficult to tell apart. I don't know why they made one of the last characters we see separate from but identical (including in name) to the first character, but it greatly confused me. There are also some very out there designs, especially with the knights in the latter half of the story which were impossible to take seriously.

Overall, it would have been worth an 8 if the art was of a more standard quality. For any improvements beyond that, it would have needed to be more deft in its storytelling and careful in its writing. Ultimately, it's worth giving a go if it sounds like your thing. Give it 10-20 chapters to really get a feel for it

Man, what an amazing manga.
The Bugle's Call is about a kid called Lucas who is part of a mercenary band as the bugler. There are 2 things unique about him, though - the branch coming out of his head and that he claims he can "see the music".

The characters are what hooked me the fastest. The first chapter manages to tell a self contained story about Luca's adoptive father and show that, while he's a brutal commander on the surface, he's a got a deep care for Lucas. The following chapters quickly managed to root an investment in every single one of the characters ... he meets.

The other standout feature of the manga is the art, particularly the panelling. There are a lot of creative panel layouts, and chapter 13 has the best use of panelling I have ever seen in a manga. The art itself is very expressive, especially in the faces, and the scale of some of the scenes is shown excellently.

There are only 2 things I would consider even remotely criticising this manga for. One is that the world doesn't always make sense. It's hard to give examples without spoiling, but the idea that the people don't actually know about the Ramus is ridiculous, especially given some of the ones shown later. The other is that, in the first few chapters, the art is a little warped.