Back to bustybeast's Profile bustybeast's Profile

Sayonara Rose Garden is a premise as old as time, that was extremely rushed and uneven. This manga has many issues, but all in all there are some touching and lovely moments between the two main characters and some side characters. This isn't really a deep or memorable read, maybe if you're stuck in a train for some time or on the toilet.
I want to start with some good points of this manga. This is a romance that manages to deliver a nice coherent-ish plot, even with some reveals and mysteries. Surprisingly satisfying reveals and nice allegories.
This manga suffers greatly from it's artstyle. All the ... characters look the same, the only recognizable one is Hanako, who is a Japanese woman and has dark hair. The rest of the characters are English, and look pretty much the same, with light hair and huge eyes. The men also look the same, and this similarity makes it very difficult to understand the plot. It makes you think the same characters are appearing in each panel and doing many things that contradict each other, but in actuality these are different people.
Another problem are the rapid personality changes of the characters. In the beginning, they characters have set motivations, goals, and some even mention some lines they'll never cross, like a moral compass of sorts. In the span of half a chapter suddenly these are thrown in the trash, they go against everything they promised they'd never do, for the convenience of the plot. It's very annoying, and makes the story illogical.
This manga is VERY wordy, which isn't necessarily bad, but the amount of useless dialogue or exposition in this manga is insane. Whole pages can be skipped because they either beat the dead horse of "our love is forbidden" to the point there's a hole is the horse or add useless details that are quickly forgotten. The amount of pondering and inner monologue that is copy - pasted from chapter to chapter is immeasurably large.
The final issue I'd like to address is the pacing. The manga starts reeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllllllyyyyyyyyy slow, but in the final two chapters rushes so much stuff - character development, major plot points and events, the ending is super mega rushed.... even a short manga can be adequately paced, this one is definitely not.
To sum up, it's a decent read but definitely not the best. If you like historical fiction and wlw romance you'll probably get a smile or nice addition to your collection. If you're looking for story focused manga look elsewhere.

The fox and little tanuki (korisenman) is such an adorable little masterpiece. It has everything: comedy, adventure, charming characters and even stories and motives from Japanese mythology. The story goes deeper than it might seem in the start, and is suitable for an adult audience as well - in fact I'm an adult, and i love this manga a lot!
There are actual stakes for the characters, and the story even manages a couple plot twists and surprising reveals. The plot is very easy to follow and answers all question the reader might have while reading (there are no plotholes). The art is adorable and very ... beautiful, showcasing forest scenes, urban scenes and mythological\magical locations.
The story makes you experience many emotions - from happy, sad, anxious, pissed off but ultimately it's a very good experience, and very immersive for the reader. I love how alive the setting feels, how lush the forests feel, how familiar the characters feel, kind of like a group of old friends to the reader. It's easy to fall in love with this story and remember it for a good while afterwards.
Korisenman is a fun read, that is suitable for a reader who likes adventure, mythology, and forest critters. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Heavenly delusion is a great adventure mystery that puts an emphasis on immersion and let's the viewer figure out the mystery as they continue watching. With all that, it manages to add comedic and immersive elements that engage the viewer in the story further. If you're looking for a mystery, psychological thriller and/or adventure in a different world than our own, this is the anime for you.
I want to give additional praise to this story for being able to address some difficult and touchy subject in a mature and respectful way. This story includes characters who are children and teenagers, and experience the difficulties of ... growing up in different environments. It flawlessly combines the mystery aspects with the problems the characters face, while including subjects such as sexuality and puberty, illness and identity in a way that feels realistic and not explicit. There is no focus on the private or physical aspects of uncomfortable events, and the imagery is not inappropriate or disturbing when there is no need. In other words, this story doesn't need to rely on sheer shock value to engage the viewer, and it's aware of this fact.
Please consider that this is not the full story of the manga, and obviously does not aim to fully conclude the larger storyline. Though it does lose and conclude several shorter storylines which are very engaging.
Besides, it's a very short watch, and a very high quality one at that.

Are you looking for a psychological horror where the characters experience hardships that mess with their minds and try to overcome them in a comprehensible way? Do you want a thriller that will leave you at the edge of your seat waiting for the next chapter to begin? Are you looking for a tactful depiction of trauma and a respectful approach to difficult topics? Then go away! This isn't any of these things.
Mahou Shoujo Site is like a train-wreck: it's horrible, bloody and depressing, and you can't understand what you're seeing or believe it's real, but it's so hard to look away. The reason it's ... hard to look away, is because the beginning of this manga is pretty promising, but less then halfway through the real nature of this storytelling come to light.
PLOT: the concept is interesting and a bit different from other magical girl stories. I liked the idea that there are stakes present for the characters... or at least it seems so at the beginning. The further you read, the more plot holes you encounter. Every chapter ignores the rules the previous sets for the world of this manga, how the power and magic systems work, how strong or weak the characters are in it's confines. Sometimes, Things just happen, because they need to move the plot. Other times, characters develop new skills in the span of two panels without explanation, and the other characters just accept it immediately. The plot is like a loose set or recommendations the manga sometimes returns to, but never follows fully.
WRITING & THEMES: even for a psychological thriller, this manga is VERY heavy in traumatic and difficult themes. It's not a bad thing on it's own, plenty of other works show or reference traumatic things in a relevant and tactful way, even if a lot of these kinds of elements are present. But Mahou Shoujo Site is not like that. This manga feels like a person thinking of every single difficult, traumatic, horrible, inhuman and evil thing people can do or go through and constantly dumps them every chapter, every panel, every brushstroke. Murder? Plenty! Abuse? Sure, many kinds of it. Sexual assault? practically the norm. Topics of identity, acceptance and family relationship? these are stomped on and paraded around like they're a trophy, and not respectfully addressed. Hell, 99% of the traumatic scenes, difficult topics and graphic themes are not relevant to the plot. It feels like they're just placed there to fill the page. There is not reason to include so much horrible events that do not contribute to the plot whatsoever, it's just torture porn.
The writing around these events is horrible, unrealistic and ridiculous. It denies the reader a sense of immersion and empathy or even care for the characters. Another problem is the consistency of text. Sometimes, for whole chapters there is almost no text, and then BOOM exposition bomb, where there are no panels and only text.
COMPREHENSIBILITY: the manga is incomprehensible. Some scenes are so confusing you have to re - read just to understand what the hell just happened, and even then you are left to fill in the blanks yourself or just ignore whole pages of confusing panels that lead nowhere. Sometimes, the characters fight and die, but in the next panel they're up and running. The scenes are so harshly blackened no detail is understandable, or so whitened you can only see a line or two of ink. It's hard to make out the actions of the characters when the whole panel is full of blood or light and nothing else.
A problem in a different realm of comprehensibility is plot comprehensibility. The plot is incomprehensible unless you pause the manga somewhere in the middle (only the translator recommended where to stop, it's not even official) and go read a whole different manga. But the other work is not a prequel, it relies on this manga, so it's not like you can read it before and understand. Apparently there is another story you need to read to understand the ending, but I couldn't even find it anywhere. This manga relies on the existence of other works, with different characters and settings, that themselves rely on this manga to be understandable. Not a good setup...
CHARACTERS: the characters are supposed to be taken seriously, but it's impossible when every single one of them is just a stereotype taken to the extreme. We have the depressed girl, the bullied abused girl, the angry bully girl, the yakuza girl, etc etc.. it feels mean to reduce them to a stereotype, but there is honestly nothing else to them. It's so dull and like a parody.
Another character problem is the sheer number of different characters that are supposed to be relevant. Sure, there are multiple magical girls, okay. But every couple of chapters another one is introduced and they're impossible to remember. Half the time you're sure one of them died but they're actually fine and dandy.
Irrelevant characters are introduced every chapter, and you're expected to remember and care for them too. They're also purely stereotypes, in case you were wondering.
LENGTH AND FILLER: this manga is too long. The story has a lot of unnecessary filler, irrelevant backstories, and full chapters of gore and abuse that are irrelevant to the plot.
CHRONOLOGY: many stories rely on non chronological storytelling. This one tries it too, so hard but ultimately it's futile. Because of the plain and poor designs visually, it's not clear when they're going to a time other than the present, and how the story should be understood. The character died? Don't worry, actually, this character died 20 years ago... or 20 years from now... or in some kind of time that isn't real - which is not a plot device, just a thing that happens without explanation.
There is so much to say about this manga and none of it is good. Please spare your eyes, and read something better. There is so much to offer in this genre and Mahou Shoujo Site is none of it