- Last OnlineYesterday, 12:53 PM
- GenderMale
- BirthdayJan 31, 2002
- LocationFar Far Away
- JoinedJun 6, 2020
RSS Feeds
|
Nov 24, 2023
A slow burn supernatural slice of life? A concept not unheard of, but stays uncommon. First time I started reading I did not know what to expect. I mean I only knew the mangaka's work from voice overs made by amateur youtubers.
And now here I am, stating with confidence that this manga is far far better than it has any right to be. Well, it may not seems "professional" at first glance. However, as the saying goes, there is more to a book than its cover. The art is quite simple. Little emphasis on the background, no crazy shading or line work. Only
...
exception being when a few characters get into an amped state. in those occasions the art gets unusually detailed. Nevertheless, Zyugoya's main strength as an artist lies in style rather than detail. This signature art style is one of the most charming and recognizable I've seen in a long time.
The story is very interesting. It is, as I said a slow burn supernatural slice of life. But, unlike most works that consistently follow one or a few plot lines, this one instead is a collection of short stories whom building upon each other in a chronological order. Sometimes it's just refreshing to see something that goes against the grain.
Another surprise for me were the characters. They feel like real individuals with multiple personality traits and individual outlook on the world which further develops as they face and overcome the many challenges life throws at them. Since this manga is being such a slow burn, it leaves plenty of time to show in detail these challenges and how it affects the characters. Which in result makes it really authentic.
Although I have a minor criticism. After the first 100 or so chapters, the genre is shifted towards a battle shounen with a clearly defined plot line. This in on itself is not a bad thing. In fact, even as a battle shounen this work stand its ground. However, those little, more personal moments where the characters helped each other weather through their worse moments, that the previous genre allowed. Were exchanged for a flashier larger scale conflict. Don't get me wrong the character writing is still chef's kiss, it is just that now it have to skid over those little nuances. Which I don't think woth the trade off.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Nov 5, 2023
So, did you know this was written by the same guy who made Battle in 5 Seconds. At first I did not. Though in hindsight the two works both have that Saizou Harawata quirk to them. Which I'm a fan of and overall was a source of enjoyment in this manga too. However, I unfortunately didn't find the peaks of the previous work in Reincarnation Colosseum and was left with the worse aspect I expect from the author.
Well, I don't want this review to boil down to a comparison for it would just end up bashing Reincarnation Colosseum for not hitting the same standards
...
as Battle in 5 Seconds. That wouldn't be that interesting. So I plan to dissect this manga and judging it based on its own merits and shortcomings.
Let's start with the visuals. This aspect was actually well done. It is evident that a lot of care and effort were put into that. While the background and the world of this work does not feel that special, on a technical level, that is well done as well. However the biggest selling point though definitely is the character design. Every major player of this story is distinct, drawn with a lot of detail and has a really strong sense of style. All in all, I was really pleased with the artist's work here.
About the premise, the plot and characterisation. basically what gives the substance of a manga. In short the premise is: Scrawny gamer loser gets isekaide. In that world the value of a person are based one how many skills they have and how powerful they are. Protag kun got a single weak one. Big bonkers priest lady that summoned him is not happy so he is reassigned to do gladiatoring.
There he fights till he either forfeits or gets killed. Though the staff can revive him later. Here's the catch though in the collosseum the winner gets to screw the loser. After they duked it out before the public, they both get a magic horny potion and proceed to duke it out between four walls to. I have no particularly strong feelings regarding the setup, although I have to remark that I feel it was written too "plot convenient".
Next the characters:
PROTAG KUN. Might look like your typical shounen center figure, but he lacks any sense of morals, empathy and is actually highly intelligent. I especially liked how he actively go out of his way to get as much info about his next match as he can. Overall he is not a bad character, however this "tHis Is JuSt A gAeM aNd I aM tHe BeSt gAeMer" mentality of his makes his interaction with other characters pretty shallow.
BIG BONKER PRIEST LADY. She is portrayed to be powerful and competent. I mean she has a pretty high place in the social hierarchy and four of the most powerful fighters serve under her. Sadly this portrayal is quickly shattered and she regresses to an one dimensional Saturday morning cartoon villain. Her whole shtick is being cocky, getting her fighter KO'd then furiously malding till the next match.
THE FOUR LACKEYS OF BIG BONKER PRIEST LADY. All I can say is meh. they are kinda uninteresting. All four of their character arc comes down to being excessively sadistic -> getting beat by protag kun -> having a change of heart and kissing the ground he walks on.
Reading so far, you might think, this isn't sounds that bad. Why did you gave it such a low score? To this I say, because I haven't talked about the elephant in the room yet. You remember what the name of this manga is? Reincarnation Colosseum, damn right it is. And what people do in such a place? Picking flowers? Having conversation about the meaning of life? Or, perhaps fight? Yeah, they fight. It is a central point of the story and the battle sequences are royally messed up. MC has ridiculous plot armor, the moment to moment combat is non existent, there is no dynamism, the hits have no impact, no back and forth, because of the aforementioned plot armor the are no stakes either. after the first two match it becomes predictable. Big powerful bad bitch is overconfident, but protag kun finds a way to bullshit his victory even though the odds are horribly stacked against him. And it is portrayed like he is some kind of genius even though it is blatantly under the nose how obviously he got his way because the plot demanded it. It just makes the whole story come off much less clever than it think it is.
So yeah, that is why the low score. Although if you are looking for a quick wank, it is qood enough of a read. Now as final words, if you got this far, thanks for reading my overly long rant and have a good day.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Apr 26, 2023
What would happen if someone took the idea of boys vs girls and crank it up to 11? Well, this.
It is quite an intriguing idea and perfect half not only revolves arount this concept, but really went out of its way to make it as grandiose as it could. But did it succseed to tell a good story with complex characters, clever twists and whatnot? Let us find out!
Without spoiling too much, I want to say it's unlike most works I've read so far so by thar virtue it immediately had my attention. However after 120 chapters I have to say it's not without
...
faults. Perfect half bleeds from so many wounds I kinda feel bad for tearing it apart in this review.
First, the art, which is easily the strongest aspect. The visuals are simply a joy to look at, everything is detailed, the characters look unique and the the world feels cohesive. The only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is that some pieces of clothing looks too modern considering the medieval setting.
The panels are not clustered at all and the action is easy to follow. However something I don't understand at all is why does every chapter starts with the recap of the previous one? It is nice to be kept up to date, but they should be at the end of a major story arc. This aproach makes it a time waster at best and infuriating at worst.
Regarding the action. While this works is not afraid to shy away from gore and excessive violence, it lacks tension. Not a single fight had this back and fort between the opposing sides. The stronger combatants were always effortlessly beat the weaker ones. That is just boring. The moment to moment movements were missing too. The fighting scenes consited of cool poses and crossing blades, but little details in between.
Still, overall the art is great. The character writing on the other hand... To live with the words of the internet's busiest music nerd, is not good. Although there is two that stand far above the rest. I would like to leave the best for last tho so more on that later as what took me aback the most is that the author managed to cram not one but two Mary Sues in a single work. Honestly that is impressive to say the least. The first one is the male MC. Imagine him as a really horny shounen protagonist. My main gripes with him is that while it was told that he was trained to be a top tier fighter by his fater since a young age. However, one, it was never shown what kind of training and whenever he gets in a tight situation he solves it without much effort. And two, it is hard to believe that he is able to go to toe to toe with much more experienced fighters than him, let alone overpower them.
The lead female character is arguably even worse than that. She is better at everything than everyone without any character flaw or more in depth info about her past hardships, dreams or life philosophy that would make her less one dimensional.
But it's not the end of the world since the supporting cast and the antagonist can carry the plot still. Except the supporting cast while likable, they rarely get the spotlight and the main antagonist are the moustache twirling kind. All theatrics no depth.
As I mentioned previously tho. Fortunately there were two characters whom stood out. One is the MC's dad. He rarely appears but never fails to steal the spotlight. At first shown to be a comedic relief but as the plot progresses he turns out to be a quite mysterious man who moves a lot of strings from the shadows. A shame he is not the protagonist. Either him or Ryu Karim the other person that is written much better than the rest. He actually has a clearly defined reason behind his actions and despite being one of the top dogs, he actually have to struggle to get his way. It is really weird that Perfect Half is able to incluede engaging characters yet settles for mediocrity.
So far it seems like this chain is not made of the strongest links, and I still haven't toched upon the plot. In short and free of spoilers, man and woman live in seperate kingdoms and there is a war going on between them, with the rulers of both land tring to gain an edge over another. This is basically what the main conflict is in a nutshell. As you have guessed there is a little more nuance to it. Not a whole lot because most of the time it is a bout screwing around. I mean literally. This is quite an explicit story. Which would not be a problem in itself if the plot wasn't so barebones. Most events just happen out of the blue with very little exposition.
Another thing that pisses me off greatly is how morality works. Every single character is either on a pure black or white specrum with no in between. Though things get more high octane at around the 100th chapter, but it's too little too late.
In the end, Perfec Half was a major dissapointment for me. I really wanted to like it because I see potential underneath all that rubbish. But I arrived to a point where it just became a waste of time tho get to the latest chapters. Overall it is not better than a weak 6.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Apr 16, 2021
The first thing I want to say about Akudama Drive is that it turned out to be something completely different from what I have expected it to be.
To avoid spoilers, I would like to talk as little about the plot as I can. Telling the premise won't hurt though. So to keep it brief: The story takes place in a cyberpunk japan. In this world criminals are called "Akudamas". Interestingly, our protagonist not starts out as a criminal, but have to become one thanks to some bad luck. What follows is an insane and action packed journey with high stakes. It's pretty simple honestly.
...
Not untill halfway through. From onward things took a pretty big twist. I would not consider Akudama Drive a profoundly deep or a thinking man's anime, but it actually proposes a question about morality and what is the defining factor of declaring someone a criminal.
Also, I want to stop and talk about the art. It's slick, stylish, over the top and may be familiar for Danganronpa fans. That is because the anime is the brainchild of Tookyo games, ex spike chunsoft employees who were heavily involved in the making of danganronpa.
Next, the characters. Well, they are mostly tropes. Although all of them has some extra spice that gives them an uniqe flavour. They are far from boring I assure you. Overall, they served their purpose from the start to the ed very well.
In conclusion: It's pretty good. Has spectacular action. However don't expect it to be a "WHOOaHH MuH MasTaHpieCe! I'M and EdGy 14 YeArs OLd aNd iT'S dEEp!" kind of anime. Despite tat, it is worth a try since the show is only 12 episodes long. I would say give it a go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Apr 7, 2021
Watching Redo of Healer is like witnessing a car accident. Despite you get shocked, you still keep on watching the events unfold because it is interesting in a really morbid way. The problem with the show is that it is 12 episodes long, and while it is something new and rarely seen before in the mainstream media, it loses its magic quite fast. After the 4th episode it becomes hard to enjoy, unless youre the kind of guy/gal who gets off of this. Hey! I'm not judging.
Redo of Healer only has a few positive thing going for it unfortunately, so I start with that.
...
First, the character design and the setting (I'm strictly speaking about the visuals.) It is what you usually see in most run of the mill isekai/fantasy animes. While far from being original or super uniqe, at least it's pleasant to look at. Even has a certain charm, albeit a rather weak one. The next is the H scenes. They are pretty good actually. I can go as far as to say that those were done the best. After fapping to it, you realize it is a very sad thing though. ALSO! The next best aspect of Redo of Healer is that it can give a huge confidence boost to aspiring authors since few can do a poorer job than this work's author. Moreover it can work as a guideline on what not to do if you want to write something.
Funny thing is. The worst part of the anime is the characters and the setting as well, with the plot joining them. Making the duo the unholly trinity.
Basically the most important part of any story. In short: The main hero begins his journey as one of those "Good guys" You know, the shounen protag kind of good guy. Then he becomes a member of their kingdom's army. Which is hypercorrupt and aperrently, even a single decent soul can not be found there. (It has some Akame ga Kill vibes to it. That anime didn't turn out to be great either.) After that "things" happen, MC ends up back at the start and goes one a trip to take revenge on the other heroes for all the wrongs he had to endure. May sound interesting, however it was executed badly. The other members of the main cast can be summarised as MC's harem. Basically, they are devoid any trace of a personality and hardly add anything to the show expect for the H scenes. Oh, and half of them started as an antagonist but after MC's brainwashing rape magic they teamed up with him.
All in all, it's stupid, shallow and a mayor screw up. As I mentioned before, it is interesting for a while, but that only lasts for so long. After that you better drop it, for it ends up as a waste of time and is a waste of effort from the studio's and the mangaka's part.
I rate it 4,5 out of 10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
Feb 17, 2021
Well. Death Face is not your average hentai. It is more messed up than most guros, even Mai chan's daily life can't hold a candle to this. However, unlike the aforementioned work, this focuses far less on the story and indulges in the author's sick fetishes. For this reason it is much harder to take it seriously. Simply put, it is so mind numbingly stupid and unreal that you simply can't be triggered despite all the violence. And this is why it is so great.
Story: 5
As I said before, it is dumb. its only purpose is to be a filler before the "fun part". And
...
yes, I said it sarcastically.
Art: 4
There isn't much to be said.
Characters: 5
They cannot be called as such for they simply severly lack any kind of personality. However each of them is uniqely messed up on their own way, which makes it interesting to a degree. Still, they are there to be a personification of the authors fetishes.
Enjoyment: 7
Honestly, I had actual fun reading it. Not because it is good. Quite the contrary. It is the case of being so bad that it is good. But I can't recommend it to any sane person. If you are a degenerate though? it is a must read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|