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Cool until you get to the antisemitism and xenophobia...

The story behind the author and her struggles with mental health and social isolation leading to her eventual suicide is very sad. Some of those feelings can be interpreted through the abstract violent insanity that is Nekojiru Udon. An overall very dark and nihilistic "comedy" that grips you with its amateurish art style contrasted against very mature themes and ideas. A lot of what was put on the page here is very much the author's personal life and feelings manifested into most of the time short little stories revolving around a family of cats. Many of the ... scenarios are based on a dream journal Chiyomi Hashiguchi kept. Now all of this sounds cool right a surreal and experimental piece of art that allows the author to fully embrace her ideas and concepts into a piece of media. However, maybe some opinions are best not left on the page. In multiple stories of Nekojiruo, there is an obvious disdain for foreigners, especially those of the Jewish faith. In a three-part strip entitled The Mountain God the main villain is a big-nosed greedy man... yeah. To make it even worse a God brutally kills the man's entire family and leaves him with only a jewel. There are many other instances of violence towards foreigners or just outright racist depictions of different cultures. I don't know if there truly is ill intent behind these strips or if it's meant to be just for laughs. Whatever it was it left me with a bad taste in my mouth which is unfortunate because I do enjoy this series and the creativity behind it.

All in all, I find it hard to recommend this to anyone but if you want to get into it I would say read chapter 9 entitled The Great Wizard it's fairly short and shows some of the best aspects of the manga in my opinion.

(little side note only volumes 1 and 2 were translated into English volume 3 has never been translated)

This story truly embodies the tantalizing journey that life presents us. The meaningless void it can throw us in, leaving us with never ending scars. However there is also beauty in it all. When we view the world with others the darkness of the past gets blurred leaving only happiness.

"The Horizon" follows a boy after viewing his mother die. This destroys the boy turning him into a nihilists devoid of any reason to live. Until he meets a girl. The two travel down a long road moving forward no matter the adversities in their path. Creating a bond that can ... never be broken.

The Horizon blends the line between what is right and wrong. It poses morale questions that truly have no answer and puts our characters in the middle of it. These decisions degrade them and make them loose semblance of what their life means. However they are able to overcome the dark feelings surrounding when they enjoy life's small pleasantries together. Simple beauty can overcome the strongest disparities, showing us the humanity in everything and everyone.

Death is a prevalent theme in "The Horizon". Many characters wish to die to end the suffering plaguing them and will give up living if it means to end the insufferable loneliness and pain. We learn however that when we find someone we care about, we find new meaning in protecting them. We see characters relearn humanity through each other. Demonstrating the artists belief that human connection can conquer fear and pain. When we find others who bring forth joy we discover that life is not meaningless, and death can not erase the connections we have made.

I have never experienced a apocalyptic story that focused so little on the actual events of the disaster, instead showing how the characters interact within it. This leads to a compelling tale of the human psyche. Displaying the ideas of nihilists and how they interpret the world around them. Love is what makes the world grounded and round, it leads us down a never ending path. This path even with no clear direction is enjoyable since it can be walked with others who feel the same things we do. This is the beauty of the world and the reason we strive to live.

"The Horizon" is a masterpiece that showed me the importance of relationships.

I hope it will do the same for you.

Psyren is one of the most unique and mature series I have read from Shonen Jump. With a creative premise and fast paced yet methodical battle system. Sadly however, like many Jump manga this one was rushed due to the unpopularity and low physical manga sales resulting in the manga coming to an abrupt end.

The story focuses on a boy named Ageha Yoshina who after witnessing his elementary friend Sakurako Amamiya disappear decides to investigate in the strange game called Psyren. After arriving in the world of the game he discovers that the massive wasteland he was transported to is ... actually the future of Japan. Together with his companions, Ageha must find a way to prevent this future destruction from occurring using his new abelites of PSI.

The mystery presented makes for an engaging read, as new details unfold of the coming downfall of the world. This allows for slow build up of events and characters as the coming dread of the end slowly creeps up on them. This is accomplished due to the limited time and rules place on them by the seemingly omnipotent figure named Nemesis Q. Q makes it harder for the group to accomplish their goals. This is due to the rule that anything talked about in the present about Psyren will turn that person to ash instantly killing them. The rule makes the series more tense, since the group cannot tell the people who are in danger of the coming travesty about to befall them. Leading to a griping narrative where the truth of the world is left with only a small group of people fighting to change the future.

Like many Shonen manga this one contains many high action battles, and Psyren does not disappoint in this department. The fights are based on a PSI system specifically three types called rise, burst and trance. Rise, boosts the power of a persons senses and reflexes giving them greater speed, strength and awareness of their surroundings, Burst, allows the user to create mental images and turn them into psychical things like fire or a weapon. Trance is the manipulation of another destroying them mentally or controlling their senses or even body. These three types can also be combined leading to some compelling action scenes that fully utilize the ideas of the systems potential.

Even though Psyren presented a compelling story and great action the series was rushed due to low readership. Due to this, many of the setups presented in the beginning either never came back or were gone over with little explanation in order to give the series an ending. Many new characters and abilities are also thrown in in order to give the manga an ending before it was pulled from the Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine. This sadly lead to a rather lackluster ending which didn't fully deliver on the ideas presented in previous chapters.

However, Psyren is still an amazing manga. Many of its faults were due to the competitive scene of manga creation and the sad reality that many amazing series fall into. Even with this Psyren still is able to deliver a more mature and unique story with themes of incoming devastation due to the treatment of those different from regular people. I hope many more people read and enjoy Psyren and maybe one day we can see a truly realized version of this story.

Stardust Crusaders part 1 Stand Fights Ranked

14. Arabia Fats- Damn guys the sun is hot what a foreign and unique concept
13. Strength- Pedophile monkey owns a boat
12. Wheel of Fortune- Monster Trucks prequel CONFIRMED
11. Tower of Gray- How did no one wake up while giant men screamed at a big for 20 minutes, and a PLANE CRASHING
10. Dark Blue Moon- Start of everyone talking as one of their comrades slowly dies
9. Empress- Sorry lady Hol Horse is my man
8. Hierophant Green- Pretty generic fight but not bad for being the first to introduce stands
7. Ebony Devil- Is juice flammable???
6. Yellow Temperance- I will never ... look at the cherry the same way again
5. Silver Chariot- Kinda boring... IF NOT FOR THE INTRODUCTION MEGA CHAD JEAN PIERRE POLNERAFF
4. Lovers- I loved watching Jotaro beat the shit out of this douche for 30 seconds straight
3. Justice- A terrifying stand run by a terrifying user also Polneraff licks a shit covered toilet...
3. Hanged man and Emperor- Cool concept for a fight loved the way Hol Horse and Geils abilities worked off each other
2. High Priestess- Reminder don't let Star Platinum ever major in dentistry
1. Death 13- I would talk about how interesting and fun this stands ability is and how it leads to one of the most unique fights i the series but instead... HAHAHA baby eats his own poopy (I have come to realize that to many characters eat poop in this show)

What does it mean to truly create? This is the idea that is explored in Studio Ghibli's the wind rises.

Loosely based on the life of engineer Jirō Horikoshi as he develops a new model of plane to be used during the 2nd world war. As we see Jirō work on his design a romance blossoms with a lady named Naoka, who is ill with tuberculosis.

Jirō has a dream to create aircraft's that are innovative and can compare to other great engineers like his hero Giovanni Caproni. Even if he knows his planes will be used to kill during the war he ... still wants keeps on designing. He does this for his wife who is sick in bed never knowing when she will die. His plane is no longer a weapon of war instead an artistic vision representing his love for his, wife who dies after his new plane the Zero Fighter is built.

This film truly shows the beauty of creativity and the negatives that can arise from peoples dreams to create, but also the artists desire to create not for for the people and things they love.

“But remember this, Japanese boy... airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.”
― Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises

At first glance "Misumisou" does not look like it would be a horror story, based on its art style. However, this manga does a really good job at showing some truly terrifying emotion and detailed gore that truly made it a horror story worth reading.

The story follows a middle school student named Haruka, as she transfers to a small town and is bullied at her new school, when the bullies go to far she decides to kill those that have taken away what was important to her. Even though the plot is simple, it gets its emotions across well ... and shows the trauma that the bullies and protagonist endured that lead them on the current path they are on. The setting also gets across the isolated feeling that these kids face everyday. Living in a town with a depleting population where there is nothing for them to experience and look forward to, makes it so they naturally go insane with boredom leading to a lot of the violent acts they commit.

Overall this is a well done horror manga from an author that mainly does comedic series. The characters and environment give off the feeling of desolation and seclusion that is very foreboding, and the art does an amazing job at showing characters at their absolute limit. I would recommend this series to anyone looking for a gory horror manga that shows the extreme affects of bullying.

Whisper of the Heart is very different from other Ghibli films, there are no strange creatures or crazy imaginative worlds. It instead takes place in a regular city where a girl named Shizuku, tries to find what her true passion is and the challenges she must face to accomplish her dream.

One of the best things about this film is the growth we see from Shizuku. She starts off as just a regular middle school kid, as she studies for exams and casually reads books at the library. This is until she is introduced to a cat who shows her a path ... that leads her to an antique shop. Here she falls in love with a boy named Seiji, and sees how the boy is challenging himself to be a master at crafting violins. This inspires Shizuku to find her own path as a writer as she now pursues her calling, leaving behind studying for her upcoming exams to focus on her book titled "Whisper of the Heart". This is a very real problem that all people face, how we challenge ourselves to become better and pursue our what we believe is the right path. Even though it may be tough and scary we push through to follow our own calling from our heart.

Like most Gihbli films this movie has good animation and music, that pushes forward the coming of age story it is telling. The settings in this film also show the viewer Shizuku's development as things change in her home and antique shop as the film progresses, showing that things change as we grow up.

One thing that I didn't like about the film were the relationships. The main relationship between Shizuku and Seiji was important. As it pushed our lead to think about her future. However there is a B plot that happens near the beginning where Shizuku's friend falls in love with a boy who actually likes Shizuku. This never comes back for the rest of the film and kinda felt pointless in the long run. Since they were developing it for the first half an hour of the movie, I thought it would come back and give our lead a huge decision to make between pursuing the one she loves or the one who says loves her. Instead it never gets a conclusion and just got to assume what happens.

Overall I would highly recommend this classic as it really is unique from the rest of what Ghibli has to offer, and tells a very real down to earth story that any can enjoy.

Fist of the North Star is like eating tour favorite chocolate bar you know its not good for you but God damn if it isn't satisfying.

Kenshiro is one of the most bad ass protagonist put on a page, with some of the most amazing one liners that are instantly quotable as soon as you read it. Mixed with the bold lines and expert shading the art exemplifies Ken's pure manliness in all its glory and makes any fight he is in a sight to behold. Another thing that I absolutely love about this series is the post ... apocalyptic setting. It perfectly shows the brutal and savage world these characters have to live in and the hardships it presents to the regular people inhabiting this society. As they are brutally put in treacherous situations by the animalistic men that only live to kill and maim those weaker then them.

Sadly however this series has other characters and its sad for me to say but I found most of them underwhelming or just plain boring (except for Raoh who was an excellent antagonist). Most characters have very simple and predictable arcs that left me asking why most of these characters were even included in the first place. One of these characters is Jagi who trained with Ken. A character who has such history with the main protagonist should be an important character but he just ends up dying in like 4 chapters with no motivation other then he doesn't like Kenshiro for being better then him. Another problem I have with this manga is how long the story is. After Ken defeats the big villain who they set up for most of the manga and he learns the ultimate Hukoto move you think it would end. Nope this series goes on for another 11 volumes that keep adding more and more guys for Ken to beat up with no set up that other antagonists had previously.

In conclusion I would highly recommend this series to any one who loves the shonen genre. Kenshiro is an awesome protagonist and it has a very unique setting not seen in other shonen manga. I hope others will continue to enjoy this influential series forever. I mean who doesn't like a good chocolate bar once in a while.