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Disclaimer: I’ve been in a romance drought for a while now (both in media and IRL), so maybe that contributed to my enjoyment of the series, so consider this review not fully objective.

Romance manga has always been constantly evolving through out the years, and recently I’ve discovered that it’s caught onto a trend that I’m really not a fan of:

It’s too wholesome.

I understand the appeal of a good, peaceful manga with saint-like characters and pure romances. I’m not bashing any of you sugar-addicted folks.

Yeah, you can add a gimmick. A new couple. Have an early confession and let the couple hijinks occur. ... You can do all of that in a manga. But frankly, I find it a little boring, and frankly, pretty idealistic. I’m tired of it. I want some good, fucking drama in my veins, and Blue Box is my supplier.

Love, and especially teenage love is pretty fickle. It’s full of insecurity and immaturity. It’s not always smooth sailing, and frankly, I think Blue Box has really represented it pretty well, albeit it still idealizes it.

I understand the complaints, and to some degree I actually agree with them. The drama in Blue Box is convenient at times, and perhaps even repetitive, but it manages to strike a perfect balance between entertaining and genuineness, and this is all attributed to the characters. Most of the characters in Blue Box just feel so genuine in the way they express their emotions or handle their predicaments. It’s just amazing.

It just hits close to home sometimes. The constant second-guessing. The anxiety. The over-thinking. I could feel Taiki’s insecurities and anxiety. I could feel Chinatsu’s doubt towards her true feelings. And you better fucking believe I could feel Hina’s entire fucking character arc.

I admit, it’s a lot at times, with the crazy tension and the constant setbacks. But when the series calms down, with the background fading to white, and the attention solely on its characters, there’s an fiery energy to the pages that’s hard to put into words.

And there’s nothing quite like that kind of emotional pay-off.

"For folks like us? Wrong city, wrong people"

When this show was first announced, people were tentative, to say the least. Cyberpunk 2077 had already practically died, along with it's many glitches and unfulfilled promises. What good could Edgerunners bring to the dying franchise?

In short, it revived it. Edgerunners rose out of the ashes of a tarnished game, showing off a vibrant, lively Night City along with just as vibrant and unique characters to match. Every single frame of the series is oozing of love for not only the franchise, but the Cyberpunk genre as a whole. It's a tribute, really, to the stylized anime OVA's ... of the 80's and 90's. It sucks you in for a short 10 episodes and casually drops you with an existential crisis on your way out the door.

It's simply the complete package. A gun-swinging, head-erupting, emotionally turbulent roller coaster that grips you from beginning to end. And it couldn't be any better than that...

Honestly, if you're looking for a manga to read, don't read this one.

Act-Age was one of the first series I followed in WSJ. I loved it, especially the art. The premise was also interesting enough, as I never had much experience with stories about movies and acting. It was also selling amazingly well, with even an anime and live-action play on the way. Everything was going good, until the author turned out to be a d*ck.

And it was cancelled. A series with so much potential. Good characters, art, and story. Plenty of opportunities to begin a new era of Weekly Shonen Jump, but it ... all ended.

That's why you shouldn't read it. Spare yourself the pain of an incomplete story. The pain of what could've happened. A story with potential, failed by it's very own author.

However, I do really hope the artist can make another manga, and I hope it takes off. She doesn't deserve what happened with this series, and she has a lot of potential.

If you want to read this series, it’s best you stop right there. Let me give you some advice, don’t read axed series.

If you end up finishing it without particularly liking it, good on you. But if you end up enjoying it, it will only hurt you. You’ll ponder about what could’ve happened if it wasn’t axed. The potential it had. The story you wanted to experience.

This is what I experienced with Time Paradox. Honestly, I saw this coming. Although it had an interesting premise, it was quite questionable. Plagiarism isn’t exactly a good thing, especially in the manga industry. While this manga definitely ... doesn’t outright encourage it, it’s not like it’s particularly discouraging it either. This turned off many readers, especially in Japan.

Well, on the bright side, it wasn’t axed as brutally as another certain series earlier this year. It had a conclusion to the story, which is always better than nothing. I expect good things from this author, and I hope they can get another series out in the future.

Most of us have probably watched or read a series like Eromanga Sensei or Ore no Imouto. Anime and manga more often than not, sprinkle romantic feelings in brother-sister relationships. Not to criticize this, as some people do enjoy these types of shows. However, as a person who has a little sister, I do find it quite weird and very unattached from the real world.

However, this series is different. It's one of the closest representations of a sibling relationship I've seen in quite a while. Siblings don't have weird romantic encounters, they fight. A lot. They argue over everything, cause disputes around the household, ... and make sure there is no peace anywhere when they are with each other. But when time comes when it really matters, siblings are one of the best people to look towards for help.

What makes this series great is that it accurately represents what most siblings are like. Of course, it often exaggerates to add comedic effect, but I can confidently say that my relationship with my sister is quite similar to this series.

If you just want a quick read, or maybe a taste of what a sibling's relationship looks like, give this series a try. It's a fairly short read, and you probably won't regret it.

Ah, Solo Leveling, basically the front page of r/manga nowadays. The top rated manhwa on MAL (at least at time of writing). It's seemingly everywhere, especially since Season 2 has started.

It's been a while since the start to Season 2, and I feel like I should put my two cents out for this manhwa.

Solo Leveling is a fun series to read. It's a guilty pleasure, a wish fulfillment manhwa. It has a very simple story, with flat characters. That isn't a bad thing. Solo Leveling is a power fantasy, you can't really rate it with something like Vinland Saga. Many people criticize it ... for it's often repetitive plotline, and very bland characters. Even though I do agree for the most part, you can't argue that the series really did do the concept of "power fantasy" correctly.

Power fantasy is the new battle shonen. A recurring genre in the manga/manhwa industry nowadays. All power fantasies have a very overpowered main character who can practically destroy all the other characters. It's a relatively simple genre to write in, and quite profitable, which is why it's been extremely popular the past few years. Great examples of this are "That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime" or in a sense "Sword Art Online", who probably started this whole trend in the first place. Solo Leveling did this right. It made the story just interesting enough so that it would feel unique, and it's art only further boosts it's worth.

Many people are criticizing Solo Leveling because of it's characters. And yes, I do agree that most of the characters are very bland. The character designs are really cool, but they do feel repetitive. The faces look really similar to be honest, but this isn't really a criticism, since a lot of manga have the same problem. The problem behind the characters is how they are used. All of them are just conveniently used just to add to the plot, only to disappear, never to be seen again. Of course, a lot of manhwa do this, but it's especially annoying when you find an actual interesting character, but they just get thrown aside.

The protagonist is also a big problem. Sung Jin-Woo is just a really inconsistent character. Most of time, he's a very edgy character who doesn't care about anyone except himself and his family. However he can also seem like a light-hearted and often clueless character. It just doesn't match up. His character just feels very bland, and there isn't a unique trait anywhere. The only time I liked him as a character was in the first few chapters. In the first few chapters, Sung Jun-Woo was genuinely likable. He was polite and determined, despite being the weakest hunter. The story would be a lot more interesting if it was an underdog to hero story, like My Hero Academia or Naruto. Instead, the author trashes his character almost instantly, and he becomes an edge lord for no particular reason. At least Sasuke had an actual reason for being edgy. Sung Jin-Woo just became an edge lord with no reason at all. If he had kept his original personality, I would've liked him a lot more.

I feel really sorry for the other characters, as in the manhwa, they explicitly state that the other characters have no room for growth, except for our protagonist. Think of Krillin from Dragon Ball. Does he have nearly as much screen time as Goku in the later parts of the story? Does he really do anything that important? The same exact thing happens in Solo Leveling. Other characters just become irrelevant, chained down by the story's own rules.

The plot is mediocre. It's trying to be mysterious and complicated when it really isn't. The author continues to try and throw mysteries in your face, but those don't really grab my attention. Basically, it's trying to hard to have an interesting plot. Power fantasies restrict themselves from being too complicated. The stories are designed for people to turn their minds off for a while, and just enjoy the simple story. Solo Leveling tries to be unique in that aspect by introducing a mystery into the plot. Instead of being an attention grabber, it just becomes a minor annoyance to readers. Power fantasies shouldn't have overarching mysteries like other manga. That's just not the appeal of it.

I'll stop criticizing it for now.
The art is fantastic. It's clean and unique, with really awesome moments. I'd say the art itself carries 50% of the entire series. It makes it quite interesting to read, and it sets the series apart from others of the same genre (power fantasy), which usually only have mediocre art. Most of my enjoyment of the series is just admiring the beautiful artwork. The fight scenes are also quite unique, usually composed of glowing eyes and lines that flash around the panels. Other than that, I can't really say much.

Overall, Solo Leveling is a good series. It does what it wants well. Yet I think the rating of the series is a lot higher than it should be. Solo Leveling is not a masterpiece. It's no where near one. The main character is overly edgy, and the other characters are thrown to the side after the author has used them. You can see that this series is specifically targeting those who enjoy these power fantasies, not people who enjoy thought-provoking series. It tries too hard to appeal to both sides, which leaves the plot into a jumbled mess. It isn't a bad series. It's actually good, for a power fantasy that is. The series is still a while from over, so I guess I'll keep reading on for now...

How much money do you think your life is worth?

I first saw this manga ranked quite high, and to my surprise, it had fewer than 20 chapters. Since I had time to kill, I decided to try out this manga.

The story was fantastic. The way the story was told made it feel so happy but yet in a way, very bittersweet.

The art complimented the "quiet" feel to the story. There isn't too much dialogue in this manga, so a lot of the time, the story is told through the art. And there were some absolutely beautiful panels.

The two main characters are the focal ... point of this series. Both of them are really interesting, and their backstories are never told all at once, which gives a feel of mystery.

After finishing this manga, I can say that it left me with feeling of the "void". The story really hits home to my own life situation, and made me really contemplate about how I should live my life. In a way, it "changed my life".

Honestly, if you have no idea what to do with your life, you should read this manga. It changed my life, so it may change yours too.

You thought Season 1 was good? Well this one just blew it out of the water.

As a manga reader, I was already familiar with the story that were to be adapted in Season 2. But the animators really gave it their all this season. The animation quality and art is great, and they took many scenes to the next level. Adding more detail to even the most minor of things.

Any normal viewer would walk into this season, expecting it to be filled with comedy and bits of romance, without much progress.

However, this is not the case. Yes, it is filled with comedy. ... But unlike the first season, I think this season's strongest point are it's characters, and their interactions. The amount of character development in this rom-com will definitely surprise you.

Overall, this season is most definitely better than the previous, a wild ride that you just cannot stop watching.

I can already tell that the next season will be EVEN better than this...