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This is a pretty beloved series so this may be a contentious review. The tl;dr, it starts off very good, but progressively gets worse until I'd argue it's barely worth reading.

Oshi no Ko starts off very strong, but even at its peak it suffers from massive tonal shifts, where you can get 10-20 chapters that are essentially slice of life drama, and then a few chapters where it turns into a mystery briefly before rapidly shifting back. The characters are all very likeable, and it does a good job at not glamorizing the entertainment industry while giving an interesting look into the inner workings and ... how talent are chewed up and spit out, and backstage employees are overworked and underpaid.

The issue then, comes from the mystery side of it. It really brings the worst out of the characters, and serves to destroy any 'progress' made in the slice-of-life portion. I don't think it does it in an artistic way either, I think that the author is just less adept at telling mystery stories than they are at slice-of-life. Every so often supernatural elements are brought in to deus-ex-machina a plot point because the author seemingly couldn't find a natural conclusion for it. Characters suddenly become horrible communicators, urgent actions are left untaken for years. It isn't a planning issue either since, to the authors credit, they seem to have the entire plot planned out from chapter 1. I just think it's badly written, and after chapter 80 when it becomes the central focus of the story, it really begins falling apart.

I think the premise was really good, and half of the execution was great, but the other half left a lot to be desired. The overall product is fine, but it's not incredible by any means.

Review contains spoilers including for the ending. Be warned.

Story:
The arc-by-arc story for The Boxer is very high quality. After being introduced to Yu and see his start in the boxing world, he very much becomes a secondary character, almost a force of nature. The story instead gets told primarily from the perspective of his latest boxing opponent as we learn their past, why they got into the sport, how they became who they are today and what led them to stand in the ring opposite to Yu, before he inevitably creams them.

The overarching story with Yu deals heavily with abuse, depression, and a search for ... a meaning in life. This is where things can get a little off-putting, as the entire plot around Yu, K, and J is essentially a Christ (yes, as in Jesus Christ) allegory, with K being a stand-in for the devil and J being a stand-in for Jesus - as J sacrifices his life to save Yu. In and of itself this isn't an inherently bad thing, IP's like Narnia have told compelling stories with an overt-Christ allegory playing a central and prevalent role. The issue in The Boxer is that J is mostly missing from the story until the last 20% or so. Meaning they only reveal the religious overtones at the very end of the book. Additionally the author is no theologian and I don't get the sense they're deeply familiar with the philosophy they're discussing, resulting in the ending seeming very philosophically-hollow and taking an unexpected sharp turn.

Art:
The art is fantastic. It can be bright and vibrant in one page and dark and depressing the next. Like many Korean Manwha the series is also full colour which I'm sure many appreciate.

Character:
As stated in the story section, The Boxer fairly quickly abandons Yu as the protagonist in favour of it's several side characters, all of whom have plenty of life and are all very enjoyable. The weakest character in the novel is definitely K. The reason for this is because K is a character inextricably linked to his philosophy of life, a sort of social-Darwinism, and the author doesn't have the background to make the character seem intelligent or reasonable/sympathetic and instead he simply comes off as desperate and unhinged.This could very well be intentional by the author, as K is portrayed as the antithesis of J (who again, is Jesus) and so he may intentionally be an un-reasonable character. But I think it would have made his point come across better if K (the Devil) was shown to be charismatic until J (Jesus) showed the error of his ways. When the audience can immediately identify the issues with K's reasoning then J's role in the story becomes much less important.

Enjoyment:
Very enjoyable overall, with the last 5 or so chapters being weak due to the aforementioned issues.

Overall:
Overall The Boxer is very good and definitely worth a read. I'm not a religious person and the religious overtones at the end of the story really didn't bother me because the rest of the story was so well told. It's just a shame how the end of the story was implemented, as taking a more subtle approach or better execution in the same time-frame would have resulted in a better ending - and as many of us know the two most important parts of a series are the beginning and the ending, since they are what will draw you in and what leave a lasting impression respectively. Overall The Boxer is absolutely still worth a read, and still an incredible piece of art.

9/10

Story:

The story follows Takano Hitomi (the titular MC-female) and her senpai Usami-Yuu (MC-male). Takano is a freshmen in highschool after recently moving into the area with her much older brother. She's always had trouble socializing and making friends because of her scary face and (somewhat) asocial attitude. Despite that she's a good girl at heart, very athletic but a little dumb (academic wise). Yuu on the other hand is a short, unathletic sophomore who happened to meet Takano by virtue of them taking the same public transport together. The two become fast friends as Yuu shows Takano around the city.

Story: 7/10 - Good - There ... is room for growth. At the moment the manga is a slice-of-life/comedy but is hinting at evolving into a romance. If handled well that could make the story much better.


Art:

Nothing overly special about the artwork. The author seems to love drawing tomboys and girls with scary faces - putting much more work into their character (specifically their bodies) than the other character.

This is fine, but I feel like the design of our male MC and his sister (who is the most frequent side-character to date, bordering on MC status) lack attention.

5/10 - average


Character:

Takano and Yuu are both likable if simple characters. Neither are very deep, nor do they have any hidden secrets or pasts (which is fine). Additionally, the side characters introduced so far are a mixed bag. Yuu's sister and Takano's brother are both strong and worthy of being MCs along with their siblings. However, the several delinquents Takano accidentally befriends are weak and seem to only exist to hint at yuuri for fanservice.

character 6/10 - fine - If the siblings are developed and utilized more a strong cast of characters could be made, bringing this up to and 8. If they are ignored for more side characters the ranking will stay the same.


Enjoyment:

I enjoyed the 23 chapters released so far. I will enjoy it more if a more focused story develops and a romance is formed between Yuu and Takano rather than just constantly hinted at. It's funny and sweet as is.

7/10 - Good

Overall:

It's worth a read, although I doubt it will make your top of all time list. If the author continues treading water I can see the manga continuing being enjoyable to come back to every few months to catch up on chapters. If they handle the romance well and develop their cast of characters properly this is a manga I can see myself eagerly waiting for the release of.

7/10 - Good

Bad. Like really, monstrously bad.

Story: 1/10
The story follows a young girl named Koharu Maezono who after a bad breakup in Tokyo returns home to find her family in debt, 30million yen in debt. Out of a sense of duty to her family to save her parents from selling their house and restaurant she agrees to marry a mysterious man named Ryuunosuke Date. This is when things get really ugly.

Date already has two wives and is forming his own harem. He's extremely sexually active and dominating, regularly attempting to force himself on Koharu. The story basically follows Koharu's relationship in the Dare family as she puts ... up with bullying from the other two wives, and is expected to devote herself fully to Ryuunosuke who believes wives are "posessions" belonging to their husband. Meanwhile her parents are ungrateful for her sacrifice and believe Ryuunosuke to be a perfect gentlemen.

Art 9/10
It really is fantastic art. There is full frontal nudity in numerous scenes, so be warned.

Character 3/10
Koharu = shy tomboy who loved her family
Ryuunosuke = Christian Grey from 50 shades of grey
Madoka (wife 2) = cold calculating woman madly in love with Ryuunosuke
Yuzu (wife 1) = bimbo

All characters other than our MC are very one-dimensional. Even our MC loses appeal when stockholm syndrome starts to kick in and she falls for her abuser. Ryuunosuke emotionally and physicall abuses each wife. Stripping them nakes and tying them up for hours as punishments, as well as other things.

Koharu is the only one with any life, or umph to them. They were the only thing keeping me coming back, and I had to stop reading for fear that they would devolve into something I truly hate.

Enjoyment 2/10
I kept hoping for Ryuunosuke to evolve in some way. He's so blatantly nasty that I thought it was bound to happen. It never did. At best the manga is a string of funny one liners (like the priest officiating the wedding remarking "God is weeping" at seeing the marriage situation).


Overall 3/10
This manga is two things, to different people.

To some women this is erotica in the same line as 50 shades and others. It features an abusive dominant husband who "would never really hurt me because he loves me so much". It's a dark fantasy that I am not into.

For some men this is a power fantasy. These people, like Ryuunosuke, think of women as only tools. Possessions to be awarded to them for simply existing. Ryuunosuke has a nasty personality, he's lazy, rude, creepy, uneducated, unemployed. He gets his wives to do all the work while he sits around the house and uses them for sex and money.

Looking back the art is literally the only thing saving this manga from a lower grade. And even then I might come back and lower my rating further.

Story: The story follows a group of dept-collections/loam-sharks running what seems to be a legit payday loan business while conducting illicit operations for themselves and the yakuza under the surface.

The story is equally about these characters led by the titular Ushijima-kun (who is possibly the best gangster/criminal ever put to manga-ink) and the 'victims' of the group - from a rich debutante forced into prostitution to pay off her debt, to a young businessman left for dead after being 1,000,000's of yen in the hole and unable to pay.

10/10 gritty, dark, not everyone has a happy ending, but some do. This is everything you want ... from a 'no country for old men' style of story telling.


Art: The art is very realist as far as manga goes. Properly proportioned bodies and faces gives the manga a dark overtone that when coupled with the fantastic and detailed backgrounds and set-pieces brings a lot of life to Tokyo's underbelly.

8/10 gets the job done but the art is still rough in some places - gets much better over the run of the manga.

Character: Side characters are introduced, developed, and dropped in the span of ~10 chapters each. Despite this I never thought it would be possible to empathize of hate such a new character as much as I did with people like gay-kun and the kids from arc 1.

Our MC, Ushijima-kun is a hardened criminal with no remorse for the 'slaves' who he milks for money. Despite his cold demeanor he isn't made out to be some sort of super genius always one step ahead of everyone and has moments when he's taken advantage of. A man motivated purely by money, Ushijima never wants to resort to violence or murder and seems to be respected by most rather than feared.

9/10

Enjoyment: I didn't enjoy it. But I was enthralled by it. It's like listening to a 'Daughters' album ie, a horror movie in music form. Yamikin Ushijima-kun had me staring at my screen from chapter 1 to 52, I simply couldn't put it down!

10/10


Overall: While my scores might not indicate it I am going to give this manga a 10/10 (pretty rare from me if you look through my rankings). This isn't the best manga every written, but I think that for what it is, Yamikin Ushijima-kun is the best at what it does. That is give a realistically bleak portrayal of a crime that isn't usually covered by hollywood or popular-fiction, but is non-the less still prevalent and harmful.

These characters are not meant to be heroes, or even anti-heroes. They're villains motivated by greed and looking to take advantage of addicts and people caught in bad situations - and they play the role perfectly.

10/10

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii follows two couples, and close friends, who work desk jobs at an unnamed company. Very different on the outside, each of them are united by the fact that they are an 'Otaku'.

The term otaku is greatly overused in western pop-culture. To be clear, the definition I will be working with is: 'a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills.'

That being said, calling our MC's otaku is misleading. Each has social skills, and indeed, all are very popular at work, and 3 out of the 4 were ... very popular growing up, with non being 'picked on' at any point in their lives (that we've been shown). Their otaku-ness stems from their hobbies.

Nifuji (boy 1) is obsessed with video games, and is shown to be a master of all games, no matter the genre. Momose (girl 1) is a fujoshi (girl who enjoys Yaoi or male-on-male relationships/sex) and even draws her own doujinshi which she sells at conventions. Koyanagi (girl 2) is a cosplay fanatic and her boyfriend Kabakura (boy 2) is the most 'normal' of all four MC's and serves mostly as the straight man/foil to the eccentricity of the others.

Story: the story is mostly a string of random events, dates, hangouts, etc - that take place in the lives of our four MC's. Each story is well told, and they are connected to the larger 'plot' which is seemingly the growth of the relationships between the four characters.

Art: Fantastic. It's clean and cool. The art is reminiscent of Horimiya, in that both use a very minimalist and realist Shojo art style that proportions the characters close to reality.

Character: The characters are mostly simple tropes and cliche's. However each have fleshed out backgrounds and personalities that come to the surface in more serious moments.

Enjoyment: Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii is a comedy before it is a romance. If you wanted a romance to read with comedy sprinkled throughout give Horimiya, Hiyokoi, or 3D kanojo a read first. That being said, it is a fun comedy, which is all you can really ask for. It does have a few genuinely sweet moments to it, but that isn't what the manga is about.

Overall: Enjoyable read and does everything it seeks to well. That being said, it's directly competing with what I would consider to be titans of its genre including: Horimiya, Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu, and Ouran Koukou Host Club. Compared to those manga, Wotaku ni koi wa Muzukashii's flat characters, and uninspired setting causes it to fall short.

Story: 6
Art: 10
Character: 7
Enjoyment: 8
Overall: 8

A visually striking manga that follows a young human girl Somali and her 'father' a golem - one of the guardians of the forest. Somali to Mori no Kamisama follows their travels as the Golem seeks to reunite Somali with humans in a world full of 'monstrous' anthropomorphic beast-men.

The setting of the story is rich and deeply fleshed out. It follows the large, peaceful, anarchic society of the beast-men, a generic term for dozens of non-human races, who peacefully coexisted with each other for centuries until they ran in to humans. The beast-men eagerly invited the human's to join them in their paradise, but the ... humans who mistook them for savage monsters attacked, sparking a war.

An untold amount of time later, humanity is on the brink of extinction having been slaughtered in a series of wars and hunts by the beast-men, who realize that to continue to live peacefully, cannot allow humans to exist.

It is in the morally grey world that the Golem must smuggle Somali who will be killed if her identity is discovered, as the two desperately search for any remaining humans while under a strict time limit.

Story: 10/10 - There is no story, and there doesn't always need to be some epic tale of adventure to make a media enjoyable; and that's what Komi-san is. Pure, unadulterated enjoyment.

The tl;dr is the main heroine, Komi-san - is a beautiful, intelligent girl with crippling social anxiety. With the help of our main character Tadano, Komi-san hopes to make 100 friends. This premise serves as a segue to meet a string of colorful supporting characters, and allow them to interact in fun everyday events, that are totally new and unique to previously friendless Komi.

Art: 9/10 - Good, clean art with fun caricatures. Komi is, ... for all intents and purposes - a mute. As such most of her 'dialog' comes from her physical reactions to events, something the author does a fantastic job showing.

Enjoyment: 10/10 - In 10+ years of reading manga and watching anime I don't think a series as short as Komi-san has ever made me laugh, or go aww, as many times as this one has. I've recommended it to multiple friends and never gotten a negative response from those who gave it a read.

Komi-san is funny, sweet, heartwarming, and shallow - and sometimes, that's exactly what you want.

Overall: 10/10 - Is Komi-san the perfect romance? No. Is it the perfect slice of life? No. Is Komi-san the perfect comedy? Maybe.

Komi-san is a series that I come back to every few months and reread it from scratch. The short chapter lengths allow me to finish the series on a lazy Saturday, and I'm always left with a big smile and a full heart.

I cannot recommend this Manga enough.