Back to WhoCanPeliCan's Profile WhoCanPeliCan's Profile

Really cute romcom based off of some fetish bait. However, its handled with enough tact that it ends up being a cute and fun read even for people who aren't into giant girls. I'm honestly impressed with how much the manga covers the logistics of having a giant girl be around. It'd be really easy to hand waive, but there's enough details of the girl, how she handles being large, and what she does with her new situation. It's honestly really charming.

The art is relatively simple, but I like the style of the line art. It has a roughness to it that is really appealing ... to me. It is really obvious that the artist really liked Xenoblade Chronicles 2 though. Not necessarily a negative, but it can just be a little distracting how similar Chieri looks to the character of Mythra from the game.

Give this manga a read, its not as gross as I was worried about.

I am positively stunned that this manga has such a small readership and absolutely no reviews. It feels like something so many people would be really interested in, given that the JAV industry is a little unknown to western anime fans. At least in terms of the specifics of how it functions.

AV Danyuu Hajimemashita's greatest appeal is in its detailed description of the JAV industry. It is presented with a relatively slow pace, taking care to show the step by step process that our protagonist and author took to be in his current position. While doing this, it is sure to characterize the main ... character and other side characters in order to genuinely keep readers invested in the world presented by the manga. In many ways, it reads like a cohesive story with continuous plot progression, rather than the usual slice of life that most manga diaries fall into.

The art for the manga is surprisingly impressive. The use of the white blob figure to represent our protagonist adds a staggering amount of humor while adding a degree off separation that stops the manga from feeling too ecchi to just consume for an average manga reader. This also leads to our protagonist having a wide range of expressions that adds to his characterization. At the same time, the girls are drawn with enough detail to further elevate the humor. At times we just have our blobby protagonist having sex with highly detailed women.

Thankfully, the manga isn't that uncomfortable either. It has some goofs with our main character's abundant sex drive and perversion, but it isn't so much so that it makes it hard to read. He can be very professional at times, making sure to characterize the industry more than the faceless mound of sex that so many people view it as.

If you happen to find this manga, totally give it a go. I'm sure you will learn a lot, or at the very least have a good time.

Drawing While Masturbating has a premise that is just not built for everyone, there's no avoiding that. But if the idea is funny and absurd enough to appeal to you, I think its a genuinely entertaining read with really good pacing and pleasant artwork. In this respect, I only think it really falters in the final dozen chapters. The goofy antics run into the territory of creepy sexual harassment and uncomfortable rapey behavior from principle characters. I recognize that some people may be able to see the humor in its presentation, but I don't think that the story handles it well enough to justify its ... usage. Beyond that, the ending comes mostly out of nowhere, rushing to a conclusion in the final 5 chapters. It's not as bad as some axed series, but it does feel premature in its nature. I enjoyed my time with "Drawing While Masturbating" a lot, and I would happily reread it if I was in the mood for it, but I don't think it's good enough to justify some of its weird pacing issues and character choices. Proceed with caution.

It's incredibly unfortunate that Norihiro Yagi's Angel Densetsu never got the praise and recognition that the author's next work, Claymore, got. I have a lot of love for the bloated, yet charming, manga that this is based off of, but the short length and low production values makes it hard to recommend the anime over just reading it. Some of the best material of this story is left completely unadapted in these 2 episodes, leaving a lot to be desired. While not terrible, the pacing leans on the slow side, further making it hard to recommend over the manga. I'd recommend it for anime watchers ... that don't like reading manga, but beyond that I think there isn't much to gain from this unless you're already a fan of the work and want to see what could have been. I hope this someday gets readapted in its entirety.

This mangaka clearly has a lot of potential in terms of action, art, and comedy, but I don't think this one-shot is anything special. It moves far too quickly for for what it wants to do, using it's space really poorly. This has the unintended side effect of making the characters, setting, and premise feel extremely generic. Our main character has a few quirky qualities, but nothing that hasn't been seen in 90% of other Shonen manga. The comedy feels solid with great art, but the pacing is so fast that none of it really lands. The expressions of the characters sold the comedy better ... than the actual jokes themselves. I look forward to seeing what this mangaka makes in the future, but this feels like a poor man's Kaiju No 8. If it gets serialized I hope it goes through some major changes.

I'm sure a lot of people rate this low because of its concept. I don't need to be the one to tell you that a lot of men have a weirdly twisted view of virginity and the sanctity of the act of sex. However, I bring this up to emphasize that my middling feelings on this manga are not about that at all. I'm writing this review mostly to justify that fact to anyone who sees the score I gave this story. The fact of the matter is I think that the base concept behind this manga is actually decently interesting on paper. Seeing how ... an inexperienced young man handles dating a girl who has only had toxic relationships sounds very engaging. However, the execution of it feels far too lackluster.

Most of my issues reading "Meguro-san wa Hajimete ja Nai" stem from the fact that the writing is incredibly trite. Anime and Manga sometimes have the issue where characters don't talk like real people, and this has a very bad case of that. Everyone is incredibly descriptive of how slutty Meguro is and how much of a loser baby Koga is. No one talks in vague nothing terms except Koga, who aptly attempts to hide anything that would make him a more interesting character. In an early chapter, Koga is confronted by Meguro's generic gyaru friend who is constantly aggressive and unreasonable. Never at any point do this gyyaru or Koga display any complex character motivations aside from base character traits. Aside from Koga mysteriously hiding information to be revealed in a later chapter about how Meguro probably said a nice thing to him when he was probably getting bullied or something. They speak every bit that's on their mind and Meguro blankly talks about what a nice guy Koga is for displaying common human decency in world of people who love shouting rumors out loud in front of the people that they're about.

Reading this manga I feel like I'm watching two people, each of which only have one or two personality traits, bounce off against each other in the middle of a cold and unfeeling world. Sure, plenty of other manga I like have some of these issues, but most of the time they have some other interesting quality that makes up for the dumb and annoying bits. There's nothing interesting here that you can't find in a number of other generic high school romcom manga. Just go read Horimiya or something.

I think there is a legitimately interesting film in here about self growth, trauma, trust, and self-confidence. However, it's plagued with a disjointed pace, and a medley of far too many ideas that are left underdeveloped.

While I enjoyed most of the real-life segments, I found almost everything to do with the virtual reality "U" to be poorly realized. For one, the world itself makes very little sense. I don't believe for a second that people would actually use a program that forces them to stick with one singular avatar and has fundamentally no rules. It appears that's actually the case since only 2 million ... people showed up to Belle's concert. It's the Sword Art Online problem all over again, but at least that game had more consistent rules that separated the real and virtual worlds. In this film characters just move around in both with no real consistency. So many issues in the film would have just been solved with people logging out, something they simply don't do.

The Beauty and the Beast aspects really left me rolling my eyes. They felt super shoehorned in and did little to really service the plot. It messed with the pacing and was extremely distracting. Every time the aspects came up, it felt like it was out of obligation. The film was doing it because the director thought it would be neat, rather than to benefit the narrative being told.

Most of the side characters felt super underdeveloped with no one aside from Hiro really standing out. The film felt like it was splitting it's focus too hard, resulting in unnecessary redundancies. If they weren't going to put the effort into developing characters they shouldn't have introduced them to begin with.

The base twist of the film was not built up well at all, but was still somehow obvious to any viewer paying attention to the obviously innocuous details of the movie. It wasn't bad in theory, but the actual relationship between Belle and the Dragon was not built up well enough to justify itself. Their relationship was oddly romantically charged, despite the fact that the circumstances didn't really call for that.

Overall it's not a terrible movie, but far too unfocused to really be worth it in the end. It's a real shame since Mirai was such an excellent film, I was hoping Hosoda's next film would be just as good.

I like that the mom didn't die from sickness like 60% of these film moms tend to do. It's always either that or murder. 5/10

Going into “Worst Gaiden: Zetton-sensei” I had no idea what to expect. I found it while randomly scrolling for new manga, so I had very little context going in. What I got was an adequately written comedy about a delinquent becoming a schoolteacher.

The art is decent, giving adequate weight to its comedy. The characters are simplistic, but not bad. The story is fine, following a linear path from its beginning. It’s clear that the whole manga will be about Zetton-sensei endearing himself to students one at a time, eventually reforming the problem class. It’s not a fantastic manga, but adequate.

…

That would be the ... end of the story, but after submitting my rating into MAL, I found information that was far more interesting than the actual manga itself. Apparently, this is not a standalone story, but a sequel to two delinquent manga named “Worst” and “Crows”, written by mangaka Takahashi Hiroshi.

I’m not familiar with Takahashi’s work on these delinquent manga, but its clear he is not apart of this project. The story and art are handled by two new mangaka, unconnected to the original as far as I can tell. While this makes it appear like a relatively innocent spinoff, its subject matter makes me this it’s possible that Shounen Champion was attempting to emulate Fujisawa Tohru’s “Great Teacher Onizuka”.

GTO is a story that follows an ex-delinquent attempting to become a schoolteacher, itself a sequel to a delinquent manga titled “Shonan Junai Gumi!” written in the early 90’s. However, unlike “Worst Gaiden: Zetton-sensei”, “Shonan Junai Gumi!” and its sequel are both written by the same author, allowing for a degree of cohesion that allows for the two manga to flow into each other better. As it stands, due to its different authorship, “Worst Gaiden: Zetton-sensei” feels like an outlier in its own series, making it feel like a lame spin-off. It’s not a bad manga, just derivative.

"Akira Toriyama's Manga Theatre" is an excellent dive into several One-Shots by famous "Dr. Slump" and "Dragon Ball" author Toriyama Akira. It covers several different time periods of the mangaka’s career, displaying how his style of storytelling and artwork has changed. Almost all of the stories are relatively simple comedies with generic characters, yet they all have a simplistic charm to them that makes them worth reading. For this review I’ve opted to analyze each of the one-shots individually. I’ll give a brief summary of each story, attempting to avoid spoilers as best I can, and then I’ll follow up with my takeaways from the ... experience. Overall, the collection is well worth the time and money. It’s oozing with both history and charm. In addition, the hard cover volume is excellent and looks great on my shelf. Even if some of the stories are misses, I do think most fans of Toriyama’s work will enjoy owning this collection.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Wonder Island=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Wonder Island follows a Petty Officer who gets trapped on a mysterious island. In its second chapter, a Police force works to catch a criminal who escaped to the very same island.

Perhaps my least favorite of the lot. It’s oddly wordy and not particularly funny. In the first chapter, only the final gag really got me, while the rest didn’t land at all. The second chapter is better, but most of it is built on a relatively weak skit that doesn’t really appeal to my comedic sensibilities. All of this is well drawn, but the only strong trait is the expression work. The paneling is particularly mundane, failing to keep my attention. I can see why this wasn’t a success.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Tomato the Cutesy Gumshoe=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This story follows a police officer who becomes the partner of a recruit, an 18-year-old girl named Tomato.

This manga collection has really brought to my attention how much Toriyama enjoys cop stories. Stories with very similar premises to Tomato make up over half of these One-Shots. Almost all of them involve the police in some form. Unfortunately, I think this is Toriyama’s worst application of the setting. As far as protagonists go, Tomato is annoyingly ditsy. Along with that, the story she’s in just isn’t particularly funny or interesting. I think it’s a testament to Toriyama’s growth that every subsequent one-shot with this similar premise gets better and better.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Pola & Roid=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This story follows a Space Taxi Driver and a Heroine of Justice teaming up and working together to topple a tyrannical fly-themed planet-wide empire.

This story is much better than the previous two, getting me to laugh out loud at several occasions. Pola and Roid are simple protagonists, but they work for the confines of this short story. In general, the pacing of the narrative is strong, with an ending that feels appropriately open ended. This is also where Toriyama starts to really step up the pace with his art. His expression work was already great, but now the panel compositions are much more dynamic and interesting. This story is also unique because it has a softer and rounder look due to Toriyama’s use of an autograph pen instead of his standard tools. You can tell that he’s had much more practice thanks to his work on "Dr. Slump". There’s even a cute reference in the end where the story starts to go a little off the deep end, but it manages to keep itself together through charm and decent comedy.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Mad Matic=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Long ago a giant dragon terrorized the planet until the people trapped him in a giant refrigerator. Now, hundreds of years have passed, and the people of the land are being brought close to extinction once again by an invading army. Meanwhile, a man craving beer makes his way towards the massive fridge.

This story is exceedingly stupid in all the best ways. Toriyama has really gotten a good grip on his humor at this point, allowing for absurd moments that really land. It probably has one of my least favorite protagonists of these one-shots, but I think he’s still very appropriate for the story he’s in. The ending isn’t rushed, and it overall makes great use of its time.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Chobit=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This story follows a useless cop who works in a town in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly a tiny alien girl lands on Earth, helping him with his work.

Chobit is actually the first of these stories that I would have liked to keep on reading. While I think it could have used some refining, the premise here isn’t awful and could have easily sustained a short run similar in length to Toriyama’s "Sandland". The main protagonist isn’t fantastic, but Chobit is cute, and the cop’s siblings made for a relatively interesting dynamic. There is a surprising amount of bare breasted shots of Chobit.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Today’s Highlight Island=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young boy named Kanta gets to school late and develops a tooth ache.

I really didn’t care for this story. The main protagonist is irritating, the side characters are whatever, the narrative is paper thin, and it’s not even funny. I completely forgot I read this and had little to no memory of what happened. This story shows off Toriyama’s tendency towards absurdist humor, but unfortunately fails to land.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Escape=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young woman runs away from a looping threat.

This story is four pages long. It’s well drawn, but there’s very little to analyze. It’s over before you even realize what’s happening.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Pink=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Pink is a young girl stealing water from a big shot businessman during a large drought. The businessman then calls up the local sheriff to put a stop to the girl’s criminal activity.

For those who are familiar, this story is essentially a much shorter version of Toriyama’s "Sandland" mixed with elements from the Red Ribbon Army Arc of "Dragon Ball". While it bears a lot of resemblance to those stories, it stands alone as a well-executed one-shot with decent execution. The pace is strong, and the characters are decently interesting if a bit one-note. Overall, this might be one of the best executed stories in this collection.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Dragon Boy=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young boy is tasked with bringing a displaced princess back to her kingdom.

This story is Toriyama very clearly experimenting with ideas that would later make up the first arc of "Dragon Ball". While it’s a little flatter and more uninteresting than its younger brother, that’s understandable considering its length. It’s paced far too quickly to be a well told story, but it’s given no definitive end and treated as though it will be continued in serialized form. Overall, it makes for a bit of a confusing and uninteresting result.
The story also has a problem of introducing pointless ideas that it has no chance to do anything with. The mystery of Tangtong’s back and the miniature dragon orb things are basically worthless as plot points. They get absolutely no space to work with and make for a story that doesn’t seem to have its priorities straight. It feels like Toriyama was tossing everything at the wall he could, logic be damned.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=The Adventures of Tongpoo=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young boy searching for habitable worlds wakes up from his cryogenic slumber earlier than expected. A failure in his ship causes him to unexpectedly crash onto a nearby planet, meeting another stranded earthling in the process.

If "Dragon Boy" forms the skeleton of "Dragon Ball", then Tongpool forms the muscles that made the early arcs of “Dragon Ball” a major hit. Of particular interest are the character archetypes and technology. Everything from what would become Hoi-Poi capsules, a technologically savvy character, and a promiscuous teenage girl all are aspects that would later be refined in Toriyama’s future work.

That aside, what’s here is really engaging. There are a few very funny gags. There’s a great minor mystery that’s handled much better than Tangtong’s dragon powers in the previous story. The story is fairly original as far as Toriyama’s one-shots go and the dynamic between the protagonists is well realized. I would have loved to read more of this.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Mr. Ho=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A retired northern soldier is exploring the lands to the south when he comes across a bunch of former northern soldiers acting as gangsters in the region.

The protagonist for this story may just by my favorite of the lot. He’s essentially just Yamucha from "Dragon Ball" except with a hankering for bad puns. This means he’s just Yamucha but even better. The story itself isn’t amazing, but it’s pacing is good, and it has a solid ending that works as an inversion of the beginning. It’s nothing special, but it made for a very fun read.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Young Master Ken’nosuke=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young traditional Japanese boy is asked on a date by a girl and must learn what that entails.

The story was a bit awkward to read due to all the formal language, but it made for a fun backdrop to both the aesthetic and the concept of the story. It’s not particularly funny, but I think it executes its idea competently. Not one of the best stories in this collection, but certainly not one of the worst.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=The Elder=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A village elder must confront a man who litters.

This one is short and to the point, but very enjoyable. It doesn’t overstay it’s welcome while providing a few great absurd jokes. It’s not a particularly memorable story, but I think it does what it wants to very effectively.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Little Mamejiro=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young boy gets his Ice Cream stolen by his dad so he decides to become a juvenile delinquent.

While the protagonist is a little obnoxious, I think it executes its ideas well. There are a few funny jokes, but overall, it’s not particularly noteworthy. I’ll take this chance to note that almost every single one of these stories has a protagonist who is physically powerful. There are few exceptions, but this includes most of the stories. It’s sort of funny to me that the three consistent themes for Toriyama one-shots are comedy, cops, and strong people.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Karamaru and the Perfect Day=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young ninja boy goes to the nearby town to sell mushrooms to buy medicine for his sick grandfather. On the way he meets an older, yet more incompetent, ninja.

The main protagonist is absolutely adorable, as is his relationship with the man he meets on the road. It’s nothing particularly special, but it makes for an enjoyable read nonetheless. At this point most of Toriyama’s stories are fairly consistent, so there is less and less for me to say.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Soldier of Savings Cashman=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A space cop crash lands on Earth and must work to get enough money to repair his ship. To do this he becomes Cashman, a paid warrior of justice.

Overall, this may be my favorite story of the lot. Cashman himself is a pretty funny character, combining much of Toriyama’s more serious writing with a comedic tone. I like the stretched out time we get to spend with him, even though I wish the ending felt the tiniest bit less rushed. I feel like, much like "Chobit" and "The Adventures of Tongpoo", this is a concept that could stand to have gone on for a little longer. Cashman’s character design is solid and seeing him deal with both monsters and human life is surprisingly engaging. It reminds me a bit of the work Toriyama did with artist Katsura Masakazu on JIYA.

At this point the artwork has landed firmly in the style he has at the end of "Dragon Ball” but is still thankfully packed full of charm. Also, there’s a moment where the English translation references the Ocean dub of "Dragon Ball Z" and I found it very funny.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Dub & Peter=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A gruff young kid wants to get popular with the ladies, so he gets his genius friend Peter to make him a super powerful new car.

This story is alright, but it doesn’t really do much to make itself stand out from Toriyama’s other one-shots. Unlike with "Soldier of Savings Cashman", I don’t think the artwork really compliments the story especially well. I did enjoy the ending though, even if I saw it coming.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Go! Go! Ackman=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

A young demon boy named Ackman is now 200 years old and ready to start harvesting human souls. However, an angelic rival keeps challenging him to duels in order to try and stop his demonic rampage.

I absolutely adored this set of stories. There are several chapters, so there’s plenty of time to get invested in the little demon boy’s antics. His rivalry with the angel is absolutely hilarious, making for some great comedic confrontations. Much like with some of the other stories in this collection, I just wish there was more of it. Stories like this are just oozing with Toriyama’s charm.

Sanpo Mono is an underrated gem of a Slice of Life that is incredibly quick to read and well worth the effort. Clocking in at only 64 pages, we follow a businessman as he walks around various city streets, observing his environments, enjoying the variety of people, and perusing the random shops he’s never seen before. The manga uses its time well, getting readers into the headspace of our main lead and investing us into his little world. Our protagonist’s adventures epitomizes the enjoyment that one can get from simply walking around, and as a fellow random walker I love it for that. It doesn’t ... do anything major, sitting comfortably in the slice-of-life sphere. Even by the end, there is no feeling of finality and nothing is achieved, leaving readers to move forward on their own. Some may not like that, but I think it’s perfect for a manga such as this.

Sanpo Mono isn’t Shakespeare or anything, but I do think it’s worth a read. It is a little slow initially, but by the end I was really happy with what got absorbed into my seeing spheres. That being said, based on how low this entry’s numbers are on MAL, I don’t expect anyone will even read this review, let alone read the manga.