Back to bobadilx's Profile bobadilx's Profile

Gamaran, while following the typical shounen formula of someone yearning for power who happens to have a mysterious/famous father, has much more going on underneath the surface than appears at first glance.

Story 9:
The story itself seems very familiar at first, as a young boy tries to become a martial arts master in order to defeat some grand arch-enemy and even enters a competition to try to hone his skills. However, the setting of Gamaran adds another layer to this much-repeated story and draws the reader back in time with many historic subtleties to a time when swords ruled Japan and martial arts were the ... epitome of warfare. Additionally, the description of how each martial technique works with some realistic logic (and some not so realistic obviously) is still intriguing and demonstrates the author's passion for the weapons and martial arts of Japan's past.

Art 9:
For a manga such as this to work, detailed artwork needs to show off the moves and the weapons of every character so that any following explanation actually makes sense. The drawing itself is not overly unique, but it is done well enough that the reader is occasionally caught off guard by the artistry of the page he/she is looking at.

Character 9:
The main characters have detailed histories that are revealed as time goes on and each one has their own main antagonist, which helps spread the focus away from Gama, although not in a way that takes away from his central role. The teamwork aspect adds a nice touch as they can teach one another and work together to defeat enemies. A lot of information is also revealed about main antagonists, giving the series even more depth. The variety of techniques and weapons also add a nice touch to both protagonists and antagonists.

Enjoyment 10:
I happen to love shounen stories and this one satisfies my every urge. Staying realistic is a nice touch, especially with the explanations and the historic element only gives it more bonus points.

Overall 9:
Definitely a great manga and one of my current favorites.

This is my first review, so I apologize if it's not very clear or has any other problems. Now onto the review:

Story 7:
The manga started off great and the story was very pulling and imaginative. The wealth of characters and the different types of weapons/enemies in the manga made it very enjoyable. Although it followed a somewhat streamline shounen storyline as the main character achieves more and more power-ups as time goes on, the philosophical and religious perspective of the story added more depth than what most other similar mangas have. I loved the story a lot until the more recent ... chapters where things have gotten very confusing. The story itself is still interesting, but the way the manga is presented it's hard to understand what your looking at and through whose eyes your seeing it as flashbacks and reality become mixed together in an unflattering way. If it somehow comes out of this with some clarity I'd raise the score but as it stands, it is very crude and deserves a mere 7.

Art 8:
I'm not much of an art guy when it comes to manga as long as you can understand what is going on in all the frames. The manga does have a unique look and the characters each have their own sense about them from the drawing, but once again the recent chapters and their confusion has lowered this score as well.

Character 8:
The characters are numerous and up until recently were covered extensively in both their background and how they acquired their abilities. One of the main drawing points of this manga was that even though it had to focus on Allen, it never sacrificed the other characters to do so. Once again, in recent chapters, a large number of new characters are introduced and this score, which was a 10, has now gone down to an 8.

Enjoyment 9:
Even with the recent flaws, the manga as a whole is very enjoyable for a variety of reasons: unique storyline, great variety of characters with a lot of depth, the different weapons and enemies that keep the reader intrigued.

Overall 8:
All I've said above should sum it up pretty well I would hope, and this would be higher if the recent chapters had not taken such a horrible turn for the worst. One can only hope the manga will be restored to its former greatness.