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May 5, 2021
Quick review of Hige wo Soru: Overall 9
Story 9, Art 8, Character 9, Enjoyment 9 - Chapters read 27
Hige wo Soru is a great manga, that portrays realistical characters with somehow relatable difficulties. It manages to point towards social, personal and interpersonal difficulties of western and japanese society, without losing its focus on the character driven story. Most people might be introduced to it because of the anime adaption and its controversial premise. Despite this premise the manga manages to build itself an identity of its own without relying on cliche stereotypes or redundant story arcs. Its focus is simple and straigthforward: It shows the
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life's and difficulties of a young teenager and young adult as they live together and try to find a solution for their situation. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated.
Characters:
The characters are portrayed believable and realistically. As the manga continues the reasons for the characters actions get explained more and more and their background story starts to open up, bit by bit. Their story is often not simply dumped on to the reader in one character arc, but continuisly developed throughout multiple instances. This is especially obvious in respect to the main female, who's background story is kept hidden for a prolonged time and only parts of it get revealed. This leads in my view to more relatable characters and interactions, since in every day life we usually learn about the stories of persons over years with new information in irregular intervals. All of the interactions feel natural and relatable. People do not simple act based on a simplistic character trait or based on a steorotype. They act because of their own motives and values and respect those in their interactions with other persons.
Seinen not shounen:
I am once again not happy with the shounen category. This manga feels like a seinen manga in every respect. The manga doesn't try to cater to a shounen demographic through it's content or art. The attention to social and personal problems people face is well presented and explained in detail. These are questions that are more important to people in their twenties. How can I aid other's without taking away their means of agency? How can I balance work and private life? How can one go on, even if one faced difficulties in the past? I never felt like the mangaka tries to avoid a certain topic, because it would be too difficult to solve it or to controversial to talk about it. It is also a merit of the manga, that it always stays down to earth and doesn't try to build up unecessary story arcs for drammatic effects without reason. The character are by no means simplistic and don't feel like stereotypes and their interactions are always believable and realistic even if it means that they are less understandable or relatable as persons.
Lastly:
I really have not much critize about this manga apart from small details. The art is by far the weakest aspect, but even there the manga manages to deliver and convey the messages through clear and impressful images. The story is relative straightforward and simple to follow. Since it is mostly focused on character interactions, personal feelings and difficulties of the main cast, there aren't many story plots apart from that. I also think, that this manga will stay on a good track unless it decides to forgo most of it's positive points in favor for a simplistic harem romcom or introduces unecessary story plots.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 21, 2020
Semelparous (9/10)
This is an outstanding manga, that feels very conscious about its direction, while possessing amazing art. Its story and narrative structure is similar to Attack on Titan and Claymore and will feel familiar with fans of those series. While those series focus more on the action scenes and a slow paced narrative, Semelparous shines during the non-action scenes that focus on the reasons for the characters to fight and seems more fast paced. Depending on the amount of chapters this might be one of the most well layed out mangas of said genre (most mangas of the mangaka are around 20 chapters).
If you are
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a fan of seinen action scifi, then I highly recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 27, 2020
Konosuba - Story 4, Characters 5, Art 7, Enjoyment 6, Overall 6 [Quick review]
Konosuba aims to be a comedy parody of the isekai genre. It is an ecchi harem comedy that uses the usual tropes without much reasoning or progression. If you like that, you probably will enjoy this series. If you liked the anime and are thinking about reading the manga, you would probably like it, but without getting much additional content over the anime.
+ Positive points: Comedy (if you like it)
- Weak points: Nearly no character development, no world building, no progression, ecchi comedy (if you do not like it)
In case you
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are uncertain about it, just try out the first few chapters (or episodes). If you do not like it from the start, you probably should just put it aside, because it does not improve or change very much over the progression of the manga.
I will discuss some of the weak points of the manga in the following. This mostly applies to the anime as well, since there are not many relevant differences.
Characters:
Almost all of the Characters are very generic and lacking in development. They aim to be unique and funny but fail because they are not explained apart from their basic characteristics. Most characters are always referring to the same kind of jokes, arguments and preferences during the manga. Apart from their basic introduction they do not receive any character development until later chapters. In the later chapter Megumi and Lalatina will get a character arc which does solve this difficulty a bit, but it still is not enough to make them interesting.
Comedy:
Comedy is mostly concerned about ecchi actions or fantasies of the female Mains or the MC. Most jokes resolve around the same conclusions and do not try to be reasonable or advance anything of the story or setting. Many jokes are flat and generic. If you have read any other ecchi harem mangas you know most of them. In my opinion it is not remotely funny and fails to be a reasonable parody of the isekai genre because it relies on standart ecchi comedy without making it unique or adapt it to the isekai genre.
Audience and rating:
As you noticed, my rating for the manga is lower than the average and the same goes for the anime. This is mostly for the reasons I noted above and it is influenced by preferences and audience.
Intendet audience is probably young male readers around 14-17 years, but it might also adhere towards some female readers of the same age. If you can not cope with silly nonsense and a comedy that constantly draws on ecchi tropes and jokes you are not its right audience,
Konosuba is a comedy show, that is concentrated on its ecchi and harem comedy while neglecting most other aspects that could make it more appealing. It therefore either is to your taste or not depending on your assesment of the comedy.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 22, 2020
Hisshou Dungeon Unei Houhou - Story 8, Art 8, Characters 7, overall 8
This is a surprisingly good manga that shines with its world building and politics while also being silly and strange. You might be upset by its low score and other reviews, but if you like the mentioned aspects and are able to cope with some harem and ecchi stuff you will be rewarded with an interesting story and an unique take on the Isekai formula. Just note that it still is an isekai that is mostly concerned with the main setting even if it includes a political story and world building .
+ Main
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points: Interesting political story, enough amount of world building, Characters are given realistic stories, Art
- Weaknesses: Strange genre combination, Expects readers to have a basic understanding of politics, Some characters are unecessary, Basic Isekai concepts are not explained
Since this review is mostly in defense for this manga i will try to explain why some of its apparent weaknesses are actually worthwile features. Spoilers are marked with *
Story and overall premise:
Basic premise is that the MC is in charge of a dungeon and gets entangled into political complications early on while trying to build a safe town out of his dungeon. This premise is a bit confusing at start since one might not expect the story to take on a political direction so early. But it ensures that there will be enough world building, characters and difficulties to make the story interesting from the beginning. Certainly the basic story is nothing unique or extraordinary, but it is presented and arranged in a interesting and unique style. In the first few chapters (chapters 1-4) you have enough political corruption, confusion and parties involved that would be enough for more than one volume. From there on the story slows down a bit to make room for character introductions and harem scenes, which are mostly fine (chapter 5-10). In between are some smaller story arcs that enrichen the overall setting (11-16). And it will evolve into more complex political story arcs after that (chapter 17-19). Overall the story is fine and serves the purpose of the world building and management of the village which are the main focus of this manga. Also the story advances at a very quick pace.
If you are not convinced of the quality of the story by this abstract overview, i will give a short summary of the events of the first few chapters in the following (there are spoilers for some chapters, so please skip the next paragraph if you are not interested in it; marked within **)
*The first story arc resolves around a captured princess that is the victim of a political coup. This princess did get targeted by a neighboring nation because of her title as a holy maiden that is standing beyond other maidens. After accompaniying a unit of soldiers devastating a village against her will, she gets caught by those former villagers. She is brought by those villagers to the dungeon to get rid of her. After MC saves the princess and solves the misunderstandings of the different parties the princes and the villagers return to the capital to find out about the circumstances of the coup. The princess saves herself and her sister from a new assault and is hiding inside the dungeon with the MC. The king launches an attack against the dungeon in order to save the princesses. The dungeon master manages to defeat the soldiers, inform the king about the corruption, defeat the corrupted politician and secure his position within the realm. After that MC starts to rebuild part of the lost villages inside his dungeon with various slaves. It is from then on that the stories turns more into an slow paced city management and harem story. Later this will be enriched with more political stories. (Note this is the story of chapters 1-5. I did rearrange the story in order to make it easier to understand.)*
Pacing:
The story progresses very quickly in the first 4 chapters. This is in some sense a weakness and a redeeming quality. The weakness is that the manga expects you to understand a large number of events that is thrown at you in an instant and conclude relevant information from it. Maybe this is something readers that are not interested in more political oriented mangas will not understand and the explanations will appear to them confusing or nonsensical. This is not primarily the fault of these readers, since the manga does not aid much with some of the more complex explanations. I still think that one should not critize it unnecessary, since it does explain most relevant things even if not very carefully. You probably should just read it slowly and be focusing on the political intricancies.
Because the manga throws alot at you in a short time, it also might look like it is not able sustaining this large amount of information. Like some mangas that fail with their world building because they never use the settings again and do not show its relevance or expand it. This is not the case with this manga. Some information will become unecessary due to changes in the setting, but it will expand other aspects. This of course might change later and the series might become a full harem comedy if it is not treated with care, but at the current it does not look like that.
World building:
The world building is done better than in most other Isekais. This is not because the world is unique or especially interesting, but because it is explained enough, expanded upon and tied within the story of the characters. Other Isekais often skimp on this parts of the world building and just leave it at the scenery and mention some interesting details. This is why Isekais like 'Bofuri', 'Only sense Online' or 'Sword art Online 1' fail to have significant world building. They have some interesting concepts and ideas but do not utilize them and invest into them. 'Hisshou' does most of it better without being in need of an unique setting.
If you compare the world building and political story to other Isekais then it is most similar to Shield hero (minus the shield hero and the other unique stuff). It probably is on par with the beginning of Re:zero manga number 3, while re:zero of course evolves into a bigger series later. You will be fine with this one If you feel comfortable somewhere around these marks.
Genre combination and strange stuff:
One thing that affects the quality of the manga is the difference between it complex political events and the feeling it preserves of being a silly harem manga that does not take itself too serious. It certainly is a strange combination and it sometimes runs into difficulties sustaining the balance between this aspects. It still manages to tie in both together on a regular basis and make the harem scenes appear as a more or less natural part of the setting.
The manga also does expect you to have read one or more other dungeon master, MMO or Isekai mangas and an economical or political manga, since it does not explain some of the core concepts of adjusting a dungeon, getting dungeon points, interacting with adventurers and managing a city state society very well. This is certainly a weakness of the manga. Since it does not have to explain all of the basics that one might already understand, the manga is able to advance very quickly as I mentioned earlier. So it might also be a good aspect of it.
One other strange part is the ability of the MC to use items from modern japan to have a technological advantage, like using cellphones during warfare or a armored vehicle for traversal. This is sometimes just for comedic reasons or silliness (bathroom and food), but also has the power creep component at its core. This is not unusual for Isekais and it is not used in any redundant fashion. MC does not use his advantage in most relevant events, but tries to use the things around him. So it is an obvious component, but it is less relevant than his special abilities due to being a dungeon master and having princesses as capable advisors.
It is strange that this manga does only have an average score while doing some interesting things. One of the reasons probably are its mislabeled genres. It is labeled as action fantasy harem while it mostly is a slice of life political manga. The harem aspects are not solely about comedy and are more in accordance with seinen harems, which also might irritate some readers (like portraying difficulties in partnerships and expectations). Also a lack of an useful synopsis might be irritating. Lastly its strange combination of genres is probably its main oversight. These are all things that are not mainly a failure of the manga, but a difficulty within the community. I guess, that the part of the community that would be interested in this, did not find out about it or is appaled by some of its strange genres. Also there are some things, that just do not appeal to individual persons like the lolis or realistic warfare. It still manages to appeal on many levels and should be given credit for this. And if you look at the scores of the novel you see that it is a bit more lenient and stays around 7 points (taken from the stats site of the novel), in my view a better assesment.
All in all this manga does a strange combination of requiring the reader to be attentive and interested in a political setting while dismissing some of the expected seriousness for its harem comedy. If you are able to appreciate these different aspects of it, you might be very pleased with this one. If you do not like slice of life world building and political stories or do not like ecchi harem and silly Isekai juice you might be iritated by the inclusion of one or the other.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 22, 2020
Re:Zero 2 - Story 8, Art 9, Characters 8, Enjoyment 8, Overall 8
A very good manga that manages to make the setting of the story and characters understandable. It achieves to integrate sidecontent without comprimising the qualitiy or the pace of the story. This leads it to feel better situated inside its setting. This was one of the main things that I critized about the first manga for not achieving which leads the sequel to be better and more polished than its predecessor.
+ Positive points: Characters, Art, Setting, Interesting sidecontent
- Weaknesses: Not enough world building, Some repetitive content
I will discuss some of the
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interesting aspects of this manga in the following. I assume that any reader does have a basic understanding of the setting and characters involved in this series. I do not include any major spoilers concerning this entry or others aside from information contained inside the synopsis. I will not write too much about the things that are similar to previous entries and concentrate on the more unique and new aspects. (Sidenote: I also have written reviews for some of the other entries in this manga series.)
Story and flow:
Story and progression is very similar to the previous manga. MC learns the new characters in the beginning during peaceful events. In the second part there is a break which will involve the looping setting. It is more focused on story telling and some detective action shounen stuff in the second part. It still manages to tie in some relaxing sidecontent and advance other parts of the setting apart from the story. This is one reason why this manga is overall more evolved than the prequel, since it does not limit itself on only focusing on the story. Also some of the repitive scenes give insights into character traits that make them more understandable. this means that the overall progression and story are better presented than the previous one.
Also the narrative is less centered around prolonged fighting scenes. Most of them are quick and change their setting right after. This gives the manga a more progressive feeling even if the story is not advancing much faster than before. In this manga most fights resolve around a problem and will be useless if that problem is solved. This was less obvious with the first manga in which the prolonged fight scene was more central and long.
There is some uncesseary side content, which does not add much to the story and also does not fulfill the purpose of being filler chapters (mostly the first day of the story, also some arcs around MCs role as a part of the mansion or as a guest). This is different from the extra chapters that are intendet to present a different perspective on the characters and are mostly for fun and fluff (Emilia bathing scene is an intersting insight into her emotional setting and Rems mayonaise party is a funny and strange sidenote).
All in all better and more appealing than its predecessor with some slight mismatch in its flow and content.
Characters:
One difference from is the amount of display that the MC and Emilia are given. There are many short scenes were both interact with each other. Most are silly little side stuff and do not advance the story. These are mostly for filler purposes and confey a cozy and calming feeling. Beyond this they manage to give insights into various aspects of the characters, their circumstances and their relation with each other. This is an improvement over the previous manga, since we constantly learn new things about the characters. It still follows the first manga in resembling a teenager love story while being incorperated in its setting.
Obvious this manga is all about Rem and Ram. They are the first persons that appear in the manga and a majority of it resolves around both. This might be in your favor or not depending on if you like both. One should be able to appreciate the effort that is given in making them more understandable in either case. This character progression without distracting from the main events is one of the main points of this manga. Both are advancing from nearly emotionless maids to characters that have a shared emotional story and are influenced by their motivation. This makes some of the story loops more meaningful since we are presented with character traits that we would otherwise not see. This also makes the resolve of the MC more understandable. If the first manga would have been done more similar to this, then some of its flaws would have been weakened. This will be advanced by the enormous improvements that will be given in sequel 3. So it will feel even more relevant.
Loli golitha Beako is also an surprising addition. We do not really know much about her, but similar to Rem she is going to make a great improvement towards the end of the manga. This is surprising since she was mostly given a setting that would imply much less interactions between her and the MC. It would have been easy for the manga to dismiss her into obstrucity since nobody would probably care. It still managed to give her an interesting and unique story of her own, that fits right with her characteristics.
Of course there are still some flaws. Emilia, which I did praise before is still one of the weaker characters apart from her basic characteristics. She is an absolutely lovely and cute heroine that increases your mood by 200 levels. She still fails too shine outside of this relative narrow role. We only know little about her background, her story, emotions, motives and standing towards most of the other characters. Since her basic situation is explained (and because she got alot of side scenes with the MC) it probably will be one of the main character progressions during later manga adaptions. Same goes of course for Puck and all the characters from manga 1.
Lastly some of the characters seem to lack consistency in that they do have some character traits that only are applied in certain situations, without really be remnisicent from other character traits. MC is mostly a stupid little teenager, but manages to calmy and logically come to complex conclusions during the right moments, without any indication why this would be. This leads to the difficulty that the MC sometimes feels like a child by goofing around with Beako or the maids; in other parts feels like a teenager in his approach towards Emilia; and lastly behaves like a seinen character in his calm observation and clear problemsolving abilities. This does restrict some of the involved characters from feeling like natural persons. It feels like their mental age is all over the place. Of course there are reasons for that design choice if you regard the readers perspective. I still do think that this approach is irritating, since the characters often just feel off. It never is extreme, so one might not see it as a difficulty, but it is noticeable enough that it might irritate readers that are aware of it. Also this difficulty will get even stronger in manga 3 and apply to other characters. (Emilia in the sequel 3) (Rem and Ram are obvious constructed to have different charactersitics so I leave them out at the moment).
All in all a good manga that opens up a large amount of possibilities to expand on. Since the sequel will advance some of this capacity and connects with the characters from this entry, it is clear, that this one is an essentiel part of the series and an interesting manga on its own.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 16, 2020
Re:Zero Dai-1 Shou - Story 6, Art 8, Character 7, Enjoyment 7
A not so good opening for a overall good series. The characters are sketchy and the story is mostly redundant or unnecessary convoluted. It also could have been shortened considerably. It still is a good manga and opens up a series that is much better than the first one would make it look like.
This manga is for you: If you want to read the other re:zero mangas (which are overall very good)
+ Good points: Action, Art, some of the characters are interesting
- Weak Points: Lack of world building and most characters are not explained
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very much. Pacing is a bit off. (The sequels are doing all of these points better).
If you are interested in the series but uncertain if you will like it, I recommend you to look into one of the sequels 2 or 3 and read the first 10 chapters. there are no or only minor spoilers in the beginning of the sequels (Just note: The first chapter of sequel 2 (chapter 0) is a recap of this manga. So if you do not want to get spoiled skip that one chapter.)
Lastly the series is known for depiction of cruelty and psychological horror. Most of it is not overly extreme, but it reaches a certain level, that is not very pleasant. So if you are averse towards that then you should maybe not be reading it.
In the following I discuss some of the points that I think could have been done better. No spoilers are given other than information that is entailed in the synopsis.
Relevance for the series:
If you read through the Synopsis then you know most about the story. MC is getting to know Emilia and some other characters that will not be relevant until sequel 3. That is more or less it. Not much is done with the world or explained about the situation of the MC other than sidenotes. Also everything interesting about the characters can be concluded or reread from later entries. This means that this manga feels rather empty compared to its potential. It is notable that most of the story is not relevant for the sequels (other than what is found in the synopsis). You should be fine with just reading the last chapter of this manga or the recap in the sequel and skip this one. Because of that this manga feels rather irrelevant.
Characters:
Most of the characters are introduced, but not detailed. All of them other than Felt feel very sketchy and are not explained enough. They seem to be unique and have an interesting story, but the reader is not told about it. Becaue of that they are on the verge of appearing shallow and fleeting.
This is especially obvious in regards to the MC and Emilia (main female). Since the first volume of the manga resolves around their relationship it feels vexing that there is not more to it than some standart interactions and character traits. No reason is given about the motivation of Emilia for her behaviour (which is important for the sequels) or the MC (other than him being confused and in love). Also no insights into their background or standing in the world are presented. And as the manga continues there will be less and less meaningful interactions between the MC and Emilia, which leads the characters to feel less relevant and disregarded. Overall I think that the last chapter was the one that saved it from overall disgrace. It managed to reestablish the relationship of the main MC and Emilia and give some insights into some unique character traits.
Since the sequels do evolve most of the characters later and introduce interesting new ones, one should think of this one as an initial setting for later adaptions. If you are only looking at this one manga, then most of them feel average at best.
Pacing:
The pacing of the manga is not optimal. I think that it could have told the story in a more condensed fashion. Everything of the second volume (chapter 6-10) is mostly reiteration of previous events and action scenes. This is not a problem but it takes up too much volume of the manga. Especially since the reader will understand the story quick enough. In my view around 4 chapters for the manga would be sufficient. If you consider the recap of this manga contains most information in one chapter, it proves that many details are not very relevant.
Also one strange thing about this manga (and the other mangas in the series) is that it is divided into two parts. First part (chapter 1-5) is mostly peaceful and concerned with character development and the second part (chapter 6-11) is centered around action scenes and conflicts. This is especially strange since the first part does not really indicate any major conflicts in the later chapters and the second part is nearly independent from the previous. It often feels like a cut off arc. One could skip the second part and would still understand most of the ending. Also as a reader you might not like both parts equally because of their different focus. This is a strange approach since a reader might not be willed to read one part for the other and might be putting the manga aside because of that. Of course, if you like both parts then it is great, otherwise it appears strangely paced.
All in all it is an okay start for the rest of the series. So even if this review is mostly crititzing it, you should keep in mind that this is an overall good manga. Some of the characters are interesting and the story is presented simple and clearly. Also the sequels will give you more character progression and world building if you want that. If you are looking for a more or less self-contained story arc that introduces the main setting and characters then you might like this one but might be confused about its meager relevance for the series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 9, 2020
Kunoichi Tsubaki - Story 8, Characters 8, Art 8, Overall 8
Kunoichi Tsubaki is a nice and peaceful slice of life manga about the lifes of ninja girls in a secluded village. It manages to intrigue with its setting while giving a nice amount of comedic and lightearted content.
+ Interesting setting, plenty of Characters with interesting setup, relaxed atmosphere
- slow pacing of main story, some characters are standard and uncreative, (slow release of chapters)
Please note that there are currently only 27 Chapters released. Since chapter releases are rather rare, some people might be contemplating if they should wait for its conclusion or start reading now. I
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think that the manga is at a point where it has established most of the characters and the main setting and can start to progress its story in the following chapters. So you might want to wait some longer, if you are interested in the resolve of the story. You can read it already if you are interested in the scenes and interactions of the characters.
I will discuss about some of the interesting things of the manga and some of its possibilities in the following.
Content:
Most of the content is slice of life with comedic interactions. This scenes are done very fine. If you have read and liked any of the other works of the mangaka, you will find many similarities and are pleased with the overall quality. I apreciate the quality of reasoning that is given. Problems are not just used for comedic reasons without trying to resolve them (apart from minor ones). And the solutions are reasonable and resemble the characters involved. Comedic scenes are funny and entertaining and fullfill their purpose of making the manga feel lighthearted and relaxing. If you like slice of life mangas with a specific setting, this will be right for you.
Setting and direction:
One of the main points of the manga is its setting. I myself did not care about it at the beginning since the setting could easily backfire and only be used as an artificial attention grabber. But the mangaka manages to make it intruiging without getting too distracted by it. One does follow Kunoichi as the leader of her squad and learns about the other squads and persons inside her clan. These interactions between Kunoichi and the other persons are interesting and are a good start to establish the other characters. Meanwhile the main story about the village as an isolated community gets explained and is expanded. Kunoichi learns about the reasons for the seclusion of the village and their stand in regard to men. The divide between men and women therefore gets more understandable. This is interesting since it opens up the plot for some interesting developments. Will Kunoichi knowing this try to know more about men or will she follow the rules of the village? Will the isolation of the clan stop? Why does the teacher know about it? It is possible that the plot will change the setting respectively. This allows the world to feel wider than it is presented in the manga. Note that the manga still does advance the main plot of Kunoichi slowly. At chapter 27 it still feels like most the girls do is having fun and getting to know each other. This is fine, but it means that the manga also could just ignore its setting later on. By looking at other mangas of the mangaka one can not come up with a clear conclusion. I guess by some of his other works and the general trend of the manga, that there will be some form of progression of the seeting in a non-dramatic and slow-paced manner (like Kunoichi getting to know a man, starting to visit him sometimes, getting critized by the village elder, resolving the issue slowly and making friends with everyone). This is fine and I think Kunoichi will be a likeable Manga with this direction.
Characters:
One of the strong points of the manga are its characters. Kunoichi is the main heroine. She is your cute, brave and dutiful leader that does try to balance her own interests with the priorities of the clan. She is the best detailed character of the manga and her emotions and actions come to be understandable as one does progress with the manga. I like most of the mangakas works and I think that Kunoichi is one of his most well done characters. So Kunoichi is the character with the most draw and if you like her you might like the manga.
Also there are plenty of other characters in all kind of colors. It really feels like a small village with many people knowing each other but being distant enough to not be best buddies. I think that many of these characters are established nicely. Clan leader is a teacher and the girl that is always around her is alright. Most of the girls that have some kind of relation with Kunoichi are likeable. Also notable are some of the leaders of the other Squads that are enough interesting that you want to know more about them, in specific the leaders of the dog and sheep squad. And characters that are introduced later often increase the overall quality of other characters. One does feel some kind of progression in character interactions. All in all most characters are not very unqiue but feel interesting enough to be worthwile additions to the rooster.
Despite this some of the characters fall rather flat decreasing the overall quality of the manga. Especially noteable are Sazanka and Asagao the other two persons of the Akane squad. Sazanka will get a slight character arc and gets a bit more understandable as the manga progresses. Asagao is at chapter 27 still not very relatable and pretty generic. She mostly is just an airhead that only wants to eat some yummi food. I also do not think that Asagao could be done more interesting by a simple character arc. And while I see the value of Sazanka some more, she still feels to insignificant to be a main character. I guess their purpose is to contrast them to Kunoichi. Kunoichi has to use her skills to find a balance between them both since they have different opinions and priorities. So they are making Kunoichi more likeable as a leader in some sense. While this is positive, they still lack on their own as characters. So it feels like they could need an improvement in quality. Other than that some of the other side characters also feel generic and not interesting at all. Still it is early for the manga and some characters were given a better treatment in later chapters, so there is the possibility that this might get better.
All in all I think that the characters are mostly done fine and that the manga has advanced enough to make for an interesting set of characters. If the current cast of characters is maintainend and improved upon then I would see this to one of the a main points of this manga.
Overall this is a good slice of life manga with an interesting setting and cast of characters. All the aspects that currently are lacking could be resolved in following chapters and it feels like the story is progressing fine. If there will be enough insights into the setting and characters than this might be a very good and relaxing manga for many readers.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Apr 6, 2020
Only Sense Online - Art 8, Characters 7, Story 8, Overall 8
Only Sense Online is a very good MMO manga that centres around the progression and growth of a crafter and his shop while having a lighthearted and peaceful atmosphere.
+ Main points: Laid back and peaceful atmosphere, centres around gathering and crafting, very good art
- Weaknesses: Slow paced, no world building, characters are likeable but not very complex
This manga is for you if you like Isekai and MMO manga that are mainly focused on the mechanics of the game. It is most similar to 'Bofuri' and resembles some of the more
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laid back chapters (that centre around the core game setting) of other Isekais like 'Rising of Shield Hero' or 'Log Horizon'.
If you want an interesting plot or world building you might not like it. Also do not expect to much of its economic explanations. It is not an manga that tries to analyze its political and societal foundation. If you want something specific from your Manga like in 'SAO' (action/ love story), 'Log Horizon' (in its world building) or 'Rising of Shield Hero' (political story) you will not be very pleased with this one.
I am about to discus some of the main points of this manga and explain why some of its weaknesses are not that relevant, while others do hinder its quality.
Basic Premise:
This manga's premise is, that the MC starts the game without knowledge of the best combination of skills to choose from. Since MC wants to be an unique character and be of use for his sisters, he tries to be a supporter. This leads him to combine different skills in a unique way, which allows him to make money by gathering, creating and selling items. Since MC is not adapt to fighting there is not much action in the beginning. It mostly resolves around his daily struggles with gathering, upgrading his skills and building up a name as a merchant. This basic premise is done pretty good. I do think that the explanations of the mechanics of the game in the beginning are understandable and plausible (in comparison to 'Bofuri' or 'SAO'). Also the loop of gathering, creating new items and getting new skills is very well done. If you like to watch a character grow by analyzing its environment and adapting to it, this will be interesting. Other than that, it is mostly fun to see the MC make new friends and interact with other people.
Story:
Most of the story resolves around the basic premise. MC tries to make new interesting items and build up a shop. Other than that the manga starts with new story arcs that are resolved parallel to this premise. These are your usual MMO and Isekai story arcs, like special events, item quests, mob hunts or similar. Most of these story arcs are presented interestingly and they often link back to the overall premise by giving the MC a new material or skill to work with and progress from. This combination of premise and story arcs therefore feels progressive and rewarding. It is through this story arcs that there starts to be a bit of world building and character explanation, but not much. Overall the story arcs manage to feel more than just your regular fillers and are wrapped in nicely.
Lack of World Building:
Despite this there are some obvious weaknesses. And in my view the lack of world building is the one that harms it the most. It never really is explained how the surroundings around the MC works. There are towns, dungeons and players. Everything is pretty generic. This is especially glaring in view of the towns and demographics. It is nothing said about the kind of world that they are playing in. Is it a kingdom? Do they have some kind of institutions like a research labs or military? Are there social distinctions like races? Is there a preferred clothing style? Answer for all of them is: Probably not, since all of those questions never are discussed. It feels empty because nothing specific is given about the world and its society (compared with Rising of the Shield hero, where this is one of the main aspects.) Even about trading as the main aspect of the story is not said enough about. You have your usual merchant stalls and player merchants but it is not explained how this is organized. The most we get is through a friend of the MC that does understand the market situation better than him and sometimes talks about the front line, merchant price variations, upgrading your stall to a shop, starting a crafting organization and so on. Still this all feels very generic and is most often only mentioned breefly. Later this issue gets more and more resolved since many of these things will affect the MC but even at Chapter 54 it still feels very unspecific and is not as good as it could.
This same problem also goes for the interactions between players and MMO. Is not explained how players or Players and environment interact with apart from when the MC or known Characters are involved. It just is assumed that players play the game and that is it. It is not explained how and why they are playing it (compared with 'SAO' or Log Horizon in which this is one of the main aspects). One does learn about this things mostly through side events and other characters like MC's sisters. These events show the interaction between players and environment and motivation of the characters, but never go beyond your generic MMO and Isekai standards. It just feels very empty and unimaginative that most of this is left out or is kept as generic as possible. I think that it would improve the quality of the manga, if there would be more insights into this that go beyond the individual characters that the MC interacts with.
Atmosphere:
This manga is mostly about peaceful interaction and discovery of new items and skill combinations. It therefore is pretty easy on the emotional part and never really pushes an overarching plot that is of importance. There are not many action scenes in the beginning. In the middle the actions scenes increase but often resolve around the preparations of the MC and his use of new or adapted items and skills. Therefore the battles often fullfill the purpose increase the variety of items of the shop. There is also a good amount of comedy that does feel entertaining without being to distracting. All in all it feels like a good and chilled manga, that you can enjoy without getting to much invested with its plot or characters, while still giving good value.
I think that the premise and atmosphere is done very good. While it would benefit a lot from some more world building and character explanation it still feels engaging enough to be worthwile if you are interested in the main setting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 27, 2020
Points: Story 7, Characters 5, Animations 9, Enjoyment 7
The story resolves around a young girl that plays an MMO with a friend. This MC is a newbie and manages to Op pretty much anyone just by being strange and silly. This is the anime's most redeeming charm. If you like to watch an airheaded girl doing funny and cute things and just being op by doing so, this show is for you. If you want a story, character progression, world building or consistency in its setting then you may not like this anime.
+ Main positive points: Funny and cute MC, no unecessary drammatic scenes or
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other things that try to give meaning to the anime, peaceful and laid-back atmosphere, very nice animations
- Weak points: No overarching story, Characters are not very interesting and are not evolved at all, no world building, no real consistency within itself (the rules of the world and settings are not really explained, most things just happen without any reason), stereotypical scenes and progression
I will explain some things that I did think were special about this anime and give insights into its main positive points.
Style:
This anime is interesting because it does not really cater to any specific style or audience. After watching it, I was not really certain what the main purpose of the anime was. It is mainly a shounen action, but is pretty non-interesting in that. It is too laid back and silly to really feel like your average shounen. At the same time there is not really enough character interaction and everyday stuff to make it feel like an slice of life anime. Lastly there is also not really enough world building to make it a real fantasy anime (it is one, but not in the same style as log horizon or similar things). Despite not really fullfilling any of these conditions it still feels interesting enough to be a good anime.
This is one of the things that make me interested in the sequel since I am not certain in what kind of direction this anime will be taken. Probably they just stay with the style and keep doing nothing at all. Maybe they start to change things around and give some character insights or some other form of progression. Maybe the give a new story or they do something else. After 12 episodes it does feel like a good setting for an own series that evolves into multiple spinoffs and other things (bit like Sword art online) and has the possiblity to explore different things without really harming the overall consistency of the anime (because there is not much consistency from the beginning).
Progression:
One of the main story loops resolves around the main MC playing the game for fun and becoming op by doing so. She does not really care about optimizing anything but still manages to get interesting skills and friends just by occassion. It just happens so, that she stumbles upon a sidequest that gives her a unique skill and that changes the course of her strategy. Often the anime itself does not even try to really explain why she did get this skill beyond this. Similar story with her friends. All of them just happen to be lucky and get exactly the skills and dropes they need from certain unique quests to give them strategical options inside of the party. Most of the anime then resolves around showing off of those skills in combat. Most unique battle scenes climax around an attack with an unknown skill or combination of skills and the reactions to this by the protagonists or the enemy.
So in some sense, there is not really any progression. The story is just set so that the MC and friends always get the skills they need to overcome the challenges that await. While this might look like an uninteresting thing, it is not. It often is interesting to watch the kind of silly skills or combinations the Protagonists come up with without being too serious about the setting. Meanwhile other characters in the MMO marvel upon the ingenuity and uniqueness of their abilities and are blinded by the glory of their achievements. It just feels super silly and funny. This is what most of the anime is about: Just being strange and silly enough to keep you interested.
Animation and action:
One of the most reedeming quailities beyond this sillyness is the overall animation quality. Especially the battles are animated in a very smooth and intersting fashion. They are flashy and quick. It rarely is over the top with the animations while still being interesting to watch. I usually do not like battle scenes at all, because they most often are just random events whithout much consistency within its setting (think about it: in many animes the MC just wins by doing something out of the box for the first time; this anime is not an exception). Also you get your usual skill shouting and stereotypcial scenes. This is of course exactly the same in this anime. Interestingly is that I did not mind the battle scenes in this one too much. They did feel strategical enough and were animated good enough to even make 5+ minutes battles not super boring most of the time. I guess one of the reasons I did not mind them is because they are not overjuiced with meaning. The people just fight because it is an action fantasy and thats it. No silly reasoning or emotion play beyond that. They fight and win. Point.
Atmosphere:
Lastly one point again for the relaxed and peaceful atmosphere. As I said this anime does not really adhere to a slice of life audience since it does not resemble its scenes and character interactions. It still manages to feel very similar to one since it is pretty laid back and does not have any overarching plot progression. In my view this is a good thing, since the anime manages to captivate without any story plot that has to be resolved or anything. Every episodes in itself tries to be interesting enough so that you will watch the following ones.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 26, 2020
Sounan desu ka? - Story 8, Art 8, Character 8, Enjoyment 8, Overall 8
A very good manga that centres around its main setting while maintaining a good amount of standart entertainment one would expect from a slice of life manga.
+ Its main points are: elegant and interesting edutainment of survival skills, realistic survival setting on an isolated island, multi-leveled progression, nice slow-paced slice of life content with a good balance of novel and standart situations.
- Some of its weaknesses include: Lack of interesting overarching events, few character insights, character and interactions are simple and often stereotypical.
People that like slow-paced, peaceful slice-of-life mangas in an island
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setting will be happy with this one. Also people that are interested in learning about survival situations without being proficient at it.
People that want an interesting story, character progression in a personal emotional sense or just a very good episodical slice of life manga might be dissapointed, since this are not its main points.
I will look into the various aspects of this manga, that I think are done fine and explain why I think the flaws it has are not of importance considering its positive points.
1 Edutainment:
This is primary an edutainment manga. Edutainment is aimed at teaching in an interesting and entertaining way. Therefore this manga contains a lot of explanations of survival skills or similar things. While this might sound a bit strange to some readers, it is done in a very elegant and intuitive fashion. The elements that are introduced always serve the situation and are explained simple and straightforward. Never does it feel like the manga tries to teach the reader something without a reason within the story or setting. The explanations also are easy to understand while being as precise and rightful to the science as possible. People that like being teached in an interesting fashion, that does not feel abstract and is based on actual situations will be very pleased.
2 Character and story Progression:
This one is a bit difficult to explain. If you just look at the surface then it might seem as if there is not much character progression going on. The four girls all feel very standart apart from the main MC and it is not given much insights into their emotional state. Similar there are not many events that evolve the story and it seems like the situation of the girls in the end is only marginally different from the start. Therefore one could think this manga lacks progression all in all. This is not the case. There are four main types in which the manga progresses its story and characters.
(1) The progression starts with a materialistic aquisation of goods and improvement on the skills of the party. In the beginning the things the girls find or make are often important for the following chapters. These materials and equipments give them the possibility to do new things or focus on new plans (like searching the island instead of gathering food). New equipment and activities mean new skills to learn (2). In the beginning this is mostly done by instruction from the leading MC that is versed in survival situations. It evolves soon enough into a state where the other girls are confident in their own capabilties and are able to do standart survival stuff by themselves (gathering food, collecting water). Also they are more and more able to acquire new skills by themselves without homares instructions and change the dynamic of the part accordingly (By doing some funny girly stuff and other things, that Homare would not insist on.). With this the progression changes from the skill and material acquisation to the organization of the party.(3) Questions like their aim and plans become important and the priorities that they have (do they want to separate to increase their chances of being found or do they rather want to stay together?) (4) This also is accompied by the personal and emotional state of the main character that resembles inner growth. Homare is no longer alone and learns to enjoy various activities with the other girls even if it is sometimes not optimal for a survival situation. Personal and party progression are more often in the centre and the manga is able to progress on multiple levels without only being concerned about one thing at once.
This change of progression is in my view well done and feels natural. In many moments i ask myself about the kinds of food, equipment and skills they currently have and about their their current goal and overall fittness of the party. Maybe this is something that people that are not interested in the setting will not be able to cherrish, but in my opinion it is unique and very interesting for people that do so.
Still this does not mean, that the manga itself does put this things in the focus explicitly. Many of this progressions are not apparent without thinking about the previous chapters and the overall situation of the party. Often it is only briefly noted that the party now has certain goods or skills that allow them to do new things. So this kind of progression could be more transparent and it might be better centred more openly. So it is not surprising that some readers might not see any progression at all.
3 Overall balance of content:
Besides this progression there is a good pacing of comedic and dramatic moments (Like a person going missing or a person getting sick). It never feels rushed or out of pace. And the story does not progress solely around this events. And this is a good thing since the manga does not forget its core premise: Which is the slice of life aspect of a group of stranded girls. It is not a quick story that has to evolve or a problem that has to be resolved. Rather it is slow and steady with a good amount of your average situations.
Of course this means that this is not a manga for everyone. At the current rate there are about 70 chapters and one could summarize the story in a few sentences if one would only include major involvments. Similarly this is not your standart slice of life comedy that is only concerned with giving good jokes and be all cute and silly. It seems to try things it a bit different than some other of the same genre and I think it does this fine.
Lastly one can mention the ecchi stuff and semi-sexualized drawings. Ecchi-stuff is most often used for comedic sitations and does reflect on the difference between normal behaviour and the special situation on the island. Therefore these comedic sections all feel a bit samey. They still can be funny and cute sometimes. I think that one of the good things about them is, that they do not feel important for the overall quality of the manga and do not impair it. Same goes for the ecchi drawings. They never really push the girls over the comfort zone or depicte them in arousal situations. It seems to search for a balance between the situation of young beautiful girls living on an island and the situations a reader would associate with it. Overall I think that the comedy and ecchi stuff are very mild and do not harm the enjoyment of the manga.
All in all do i think that 'sounan desu ka' is a very good manga with a good balance of edutainment content and slice of life situations that come with its situation. People that like slow-paced and more relaxed mangas with a specific setting and some progression will be very content with this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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