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Have you ever thought to yourself, as you read through various shounen over the years, that everything just seems a little too well tread? The plot devices have been done, the archetypes are very familiar, and in the end the good guy is going to win because in the world where you appeal to young males the audience doesn't want to go home with a frown, but with a smile as the heroic hero slays the villains and is victorious through a variety of obstacles that were merely illusions, set pieces for the victory itself.

Be glad then that you are not alone, and someone ... that thought a lot about this has written a very, very fine shounen manga for your enjoyment.

Medaka Box starts off as a story about a girl who loves everyone and will help anyone in need twenty four hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year and turns into the finest satirical and self-aware shounen out there. As the story unfolds the manga shifts around to suit its moods. As the manga went on is true form became more and more apparent: the story was not meant to be taken seriously, but the message behind it was. Medaka, as a main character, is as mary sue as mary sue gets. There is simply no way around this fact. She does everything perfectly, and the things she doesn't do perfectly she learns to do perfectly, and sometimes even beyond perfection. She represents the hero that many have a soft spot for but wish would be more complex. The brilliance of this manga though is that the supporting cast shares our sentiments. They worry that she doesn't understand them, that she values her enemies more than her friends. That she can't truly like someone until she's fought them, which is a common theme in battle shounen and is on full display here.

There will probably be times where you won't like the main character, and this is by design. Unlike some manga though when she is at the peak of her tyranny, as other characters see it, the manga subtly shifts away from her a fair bit to an amazing supporting cast which is as fleshed out and complex as you could ever ask from this type of manga. Each villain of the major arcs offers something completely different from the last, posing different challenges both to the main cast of the story as well as to the reader. This is a manga that, if you allow it, will make you ask some interesting questions about not only some of our favorite stories but about life in general. There are characters who talk about life in a very frank and real way, a stark contrast from the world of shounen and it makes it all the more refreshing to see it.

The art is pretty great a large majority of the time. It doesn't inspire all of the time though, just because it lacks a certain edge that a lot of great manga have when it comes to art style. But the drawing always seemed to fit the mood really well and helped portray the characters different emotions.

If you want to root against the main character in a healthy way, are sick of reading generic shounens, and have a story whose undertones hit all of the right spots I would really recommend this manga to you. If you aren't much for "meta" humor where the characters examine the tropes they live in, and like a more well defined and structured battle shounen, then Medaka Box will probably end up disappointing you.

I will say this though: Get to the part where the character Kumagawa appears. If you don't the manga after that then this won't be for you, because he is its shining star.