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INITIAL THOUGHTS: This is a gag series - not a detective series!

As a fan of the author's Hitman Reborn series, I was very excited to see that she has started a new series as I wasn't a fan of elDLIVE, yet alone a detective series (my favourite genre).

Needless to say, after reading the first few chapters, I can now confirm that this is a GAG series in a detective setting. It is written like a typical detective series in which a police investigator and a smart detective team-up to solve crimes with clues and stuff. The mysteries aren't that intricate or interesting, and the solutions ... are relatively simple.

What holds this series up is the gags and the characters. The character "quirks" are distinctive and make for some funny interactions. Very much like the early days of Reborn where the characters were so ridiculous. However, the comedy is written much better as I feel like it's more natural for the plotline and not just creating random comedic scenes.

It's fun read if you have some spare time and want a little laugh not to immerse yourself in deep plot.

To be honest, I couldn’t get into it the first time I read it, I only got through the first 15 pages. I decided to give it another shot, and I really wasn’t feeling it until a twist at the end of the first chapter.

STORY:
A high school girl, Mirai, who has no interest in studying and particularly no interest in history, picks up a weird looking rock and posts a photo online. She is then contacted by Noah, an archaeologist who crashes through the window via helicopter and informs her of his interest in the rock she found.

It is revealed that the rock contains a ... key from 2022 ie. the future. Noah sees that Mirai does not understand the importance of history, takes her on an archaeology trip to a train station. The key opens a path to an ancient city from 100,000 years ago.

I won’t spoil the end but that is what got me interested.

ART:
The art is mediocre, nothing particularly stands out. I don’t think the art/style is great, but is consistent. It does have a bit of a distinct style. The character designs are unique enough to stand out among other shounen protagonists, as well as the characters in the series so far. You're probably still going to be able to describe the character designs even in a couple of years time.

CHARACTER:
Let’s talk about the female character.

I hate her.

She’s annoying. She shows no particular skills that make her an asset to the team. She plays the “questioner” role. The one who asks question so the smarter characters can explain everything to the readers. Her design is so-so, but she’s the typical shounen female protagonist thus far. She’s not particularly bright nor particularly pretty in my opinion which is her down fall.

The male character on the other hand, is quite interesting, and is he who carries the series. Still, his personality is a bit exaggerated, and there isn't enough of the story yet to explain him.

OTHER:

I feel like the dialogue and narration doesn’t really flow, making it hard to read. When I was reading, I was subconsciously skipping lines and entire speech bubbles, when I went back to read them, I realise I might as well have skipped them because they were useless. I also found that for the amount of dialogue it had, there wasn’t much information. A lot of the text felt like it served not real purpose. No information, no comedy, no character building. This is why it was difficult to read.

ENJOYMENT:
It didn't hook me, which is a shame because I like history and geology, and there aren’t enough manga like that. This series is has a good concept but suffers from poor writing and characterisation. I can only give it a 5/10 (which is quite high considering I've dropped it.)

STORY:
This series has a very fun concept and setting. It has a middle-eastern style setting in a fantasy world of magic. It is an adventure series for the most part, not only geographically but also ventures in ideology and politics. The characters travel to different countries and are either involved in the land's political situation or partake in some sort of quest. The adventure aspect is definatly the most appealing aspect of this series, however, 2/3rds the way in, it dives deeper into politics and ideology, which is much more text heavy and differs from the "fun" - which may not be to everyone's taste. ... Although, personally I think the actual ending was satisfying.

ART:
The down fall of the series for me would be the art. The actual character and background designs are actually quite stunning, however the actual drawing is inconsistent, with some pages looking beautiful, and some pages looking off model, especially towards the end. I must say, the characters in their 30s look way too young, particularly Simbad, who looks younger and younger as the series progresses. Despite good designs, their actual faces lack variety, with some characters looking almost identical without their most distinctive characteristics. For someone who puts art high about anything else, it was excruciating to read. Unlike other mangaka, Ohkata Shinobu seems to be getting worse.

CHARACTER:
As I said, the actual character designs are okay, it's just the drawing skill that isn't as good. The characters are well developed, even the supporting cast. You can really understand their motivation behind their actions, making them more real and believable. You can see who the characters develop in time, it's not just a sudden change, but gradual. This is one of the few shounen that actual spans across several years with an actual sense of time, and we get to see how everyone grows.

ENJOYMENT:
Overall, I did enjoy this series. It is different from the classic shounen but is still very enjoyable. However, at times, it was really difficult to read, but other times, I just couldn't stop. I feel that it's a bit inconsistent, starting off excellently and wavering towards the final third it's run. I still recommend it as a series that actually ends properly and has a plot right from the start.

SPOILER ALERT
Some story arcs and episodes revealed, but no major plot.

As a reader of the manga, I an utterly disappointed with the amount of unnecessary filler and changes to the manga. Although a little bit of filler is needed in anime, this season had more that it needed. I enjoyed the parts were they fleshed out canon bits, such as the fights during the festival and the final exam, but there were entire episodes fabricated such as Tsuyu's internship. The fact that this is a seasonal series rather than a long ongoing one remove the need to make space between the manga. So the only ... reason why the anime production did this was to milk the series' popularity rather than stay faithful to the creator.

The worst part was the final exam arc that was changed to have each fight happen one after another rather than all occurring at the same time. - which I liked in the manga, but then adding annoying & unnecessary commentary by Midoriya and the other students taking a lot of the tension away from the tests. The anime had to put this stupid troupe of having some BS, unneeded commentary, as if the viewers don't understand simple concepts. I liked that it was almost a race/competition in the manga, and having the a team be announced as the first to pass shows how far ahed they are, but this was completely removed in the anime.

Like I said, as a manga reader I am disappointed, but I understand that it is still enjoyable for anime-only viewers. The art is enjoyable, nothing particularly stand out, similarly with the music. We had some more character spotlight due to the number of tests/exams and how much filler was put in them (again, I liked that bit). Over all, this season was still enjoyable, but i felt like I wanted to skip all the unnecessary bits.

As a fan of yokai/ghost stories, I was happy to see a series the felt with yokai in a more lighthearted fashion, not portraying them as a nuisance or a threat as many other series do. We get to see spirits and humans living in harmony.

The art is fine, nothing special, but watchable and consistent. The art style is generic, and doesn't stand out, making it look quite boring from the outside. The two protagonists can be unrecognisable in comparison to other, similar looking anime characters.

The major fault of this series, and that made me almost drop, is it's characters. The main character, Ashiya, is ... annoying and bland, with nothing to add to the series other than an annoying "kindness" - as they call it. He is unbelievably nice and I can't find any reason for it other than plot. I don't understand why anyone would create such a boring protagonist if they want people to be engaged.

The other protagonist, Abeno, also has a generic, overused personality-type, with a just enough depth to make him slightly more interesting as a character. As I watched the show, I just couldn't understand why he would choose Ashiya as his assistant, which made me dislike him.

Overall, I enjoyed the story of the series, particularly the creative yokai that is introduced. However, the human characters are bland and almost annoying. I felt like watching them, particularly Ashiya is especially tedious. But it's a short series, perfect if you have some time and nothing to watch.

As the illustrator for one of my favourite ongoing mangas right now: Dr. Stone, I thought I would check out his own ongoing series - Origin.

I must say, like the art in Dr. Stone, Boichi has also managed to maintain high quality art in Origin, even more detailed in fact. (Although that is to be expected for a bimonthly? manga.) I’ve read the first few chapters of Sun Ken Rock and was really not into it though.

The premise is quite simple, and not very original though. It it set in the year 2048 around a humanoid robot - Origin, who aims to blend into a ... society of humans, with the risk of being found out everyday as well as tasked to eliminate other badly behaving humanoid robots, as his “father” wishes.

I find that the slight comedic elements fit in quite well. It isn’t forced and comes in the form of many slice-of-life elements that the inhuman protaganist faces that he doesn’t understand. I feel as the comedy in this series is better than in Sun Ken Rock (where I find the comedy to be forced, and poorly timed).

You also get to see how Origin, improve himself by modifying himself after every battle and learn from his past experiences, much like how a normal protagonist would improve after every battle. One thing I will critique is that he seems like an “overpowered” individual, even though he isn’t and actually risks being caught every time. This is due to the way Origin narrates every move he makes. I feel that the only way this has worked in the manga is because he is not a human.

One major negative for me is the main female character/love-interested. I do not like her design and she annoys me. Despite being an “intellectual” character, she has done nothing helpful as of yet and is one of those naive, clumsy, nice-girls, I’m hoping that she will not be the actual main love-interest but from chapter 35-ish, that does seem to be the case. I really don’t like her and seriously hope there will be another, much better female later on.

Overall the plot isn’t particularly amazing, and quite predictable. However I did have a great time reading the action scenes and the artwork is top class. I recommend it if your bored and you want to see cool pictures without having to think too deeply into the story.

Oh yeah, this manga has is a seinen and has (female) nipples so if you don’t like that stuff then don’t read!