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Mar 15, 2025
[Warning]
child abuse, minor gruesome bits (but never focused on for long)
TL:DR
Simple but charming story of a man finding a family (yes really). 15 minute read. Would recommend!
Story: 7/10
Short and sweet: we meet the characters, we get to know them a bit, they grow closer and the inevitable happens.
Not as grim as the description would imply, it's actually very sweet. The 'black cat' acts selfishly when he takes in the titular young girl but quickly finds she's become precious to him.
...
Character: 6/10
Not a lot of characterisation but what there is is good.
Stiff and cold man becomes more affectionate and opens up when met with this sweet child.
The child, Rain ('ame' is japanese for rain) grows out of her shell she was forced into from abuse. Rain learning to speak is simple but effective way of getting across how much she changes.
Art
In a word: charming. The sketch-like, expressive art seems oddly appropriate for this manga, serving to soften the more grim parts of what it depicts. The fact that the characters (which are well designed) are more solid and real compared to the sketched backgrounds grants the manga a dream-like quality that befits it's strange premise.
Overall: 7/10
It's very short (11 chapters), it has an emotional core, and wonderful art. It's not a masterpiece, but for 15 minutes? You won't regret giving it that time.
I highly recommend this manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Feb 18, 2025
[Warning]
Suicidal thoughts and (surprisingly mild) homophobia
TL:DR
Don't recommend - There are some good moments but the relationship is so rushed that I don't really care all that much. There isn't really that much chemistry between them - or much characterisation at all.
Story: 6/10
A noble lady falls in love with a Japanese maid against the expectations of her family and society. Also she has a fiancé. Well it's a bloody good concept I'll say. However, the manga just feels too rushed to get the reader properly invested in the drama. The death wish thing is dropped pretty quickly by the way.
One mark to the manga's credit is
...
that it makes good use of it's setting, making a point of setting out societal expectations of the time and grounding the manga in the major events of the time such as the trial of Oscar Wilde and Pankhurst's suffragette movement. Beyond thematic importance, they're not a major part of the manga but it does make it feel more authentic. The art is also reflective of this, using hairstyles and fashion popular at the time. All of this helps the reader immerse themselves into the era, the standards of which play such a major part of the manga.
The characters just sort of fall in love because that's what you bought this manga for isn't it? However, there were some genuinely touching moments and the dramatic turns were exciting at times.
Hanako and Alice don't have the character chemistry you need for a proper heart-thumping romance. The issue is that the characters spend most of there time monologuing about how their love is forbidden and little about why they actually love each other beyond “they're nice to me” or “they stay with me”. There's never really any downtime for them to do much romantic or that serves to flesh out their characters so we're left to rush through one plot point after another.
The ending is much too abrupt and isn't very satisfying. Rarely can you say this about romance manga, but this one really needs to be more drawn out!
Character: 5/10
Both Hanako and Alice talk exclusively about how great books are, how much they love each other or how much they're not supposed to love each other. Suffice to say, there's not a lot of room for fleshing out their characters and, as a consequence, they're not very interesting. Alice secretly being an author, and Hanako's favourite author to boot, does spice it up a little but there's
There is a small supporting cast, few of much importance except Alice's finance. This fiancé is sort of the villain of this manga, trying to separate Hanako and Alice. He's not bad, combining a subtle malice for Hanako with what seems to be genuine affection for Alice.
Art
Good art, able to accentuate cute moments and serious dramatic moments as necessary. Appealing character designs, good backgrounds. Not exceptional, but good art.
Overall: 6/10
It's not bad per se but it really needed some time to be fleshed out. It was enjoyable enough as I read it, in that mindless manner of a crappy airplane movie but It's like romance junk food, I just left feeling unsatisfied at the end.
I don't recommend this manga. It's a quick read that might make you smile if you have an hour to kill, but frankly it wouldn't be worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 3, 2025
TL:DR
Characters are vehicles for the plot, some chapters feel more like textbooks than manga and the story jumps to different characters constantly. However, there is something profound in what it has to say. Read it for the philosophy not the story.
Story: 6/10
The manga has three time skips, each following a different character (well, four including the epilogue). First we're introduced to the first protagonist and I was excited to see his journey. Then we have a time skip and I realised that there would be no protagonist to follow in this manga. In fact, we seem to follow the ideas each character left behind more
...
than the characters themselves.
The first part felt too short, it was jarring to move past the first protagonist so soon. The second part was the longest and, predictably, the best. We followed one set of characters for longer and they could be more developed.
The third part was the worst in my opinion, it felt very out of left field due to how, for lack of a better word, shounen it felt compared to the grounded historical feeling of the rest of the manga.
I feel like the manga tries to tackle the historical prejudice against women in the era of the setting but it was very surface level and preachy. The main female character is pretty much immediately accepted as an intellectual equal and there is no obstacle to overcome, most characters around her is totally cool with her being a scholar. Seems weird to focus on the difficulties of female scholars when we really only see it being an issue for a chapter or two.
And yet, despite all my complaints, there is something profound here. The manga dives into the philosophy of faith and science, as well as the fact that they may not be so opposed after all. The characters' motivations behind sacrificing so much merely to advance an idea resonates with me. At times I felt like the author was the one speaking not the characters but their ideas are delivered so earnestly I can't bring myself to hate it.
Character: 5/10
The characters are used exclusively as a vehicle for their respective world views. The majority of their dialogue reads more like the author lecturing through the characters than something someone would actually say.
When I realised that we wouldn't be following any character for very long, I stopped caring all that much for each one and I wasn't surprised when I found that they were not very developed. They don't really do anything except research or talk about heliocentrism.
The main antagonist, Nowak is genuinely scary - his sheer conviction and brutality make a compelling villain. Considering he's the only character that is present throughout all three parts, this is especially good.
Art
Every part of the art is beautiful… except the characters. Buildings, nature, objects, backgrounds, all of it is great but the characters look so strange. Their faces have this strange uncanny valley quality that is genuinely distracting at times. The fact that many characters look very similar does not help. The rest of it is very good though.
Overall: 6/10
The very definition of not for everyone. Orb as a story feels rather bare-bones but it shows such passion for science and the pursuit of truth that I almost can't fault it.
Mixed recommendation: avoid if you're in it for plot or characters but if you want to understand why people pursue truth, then this manga is for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 19, 2024
[Warning]
Suicide (obviously) and self harm
TL:DR
Jumbled story and one-note characters that doesn't even say anything of worth about suicide. Don't read this.
Description
At first glance, Kirari Aokigahara appears to be an average, happy-go-lucky first-year high school student. But instead of running late for school one day, she finds herself running late for a meeting at Seaside Cafe hosted by Rushio, the admin of a website called Suicide Cafe.
The sparkling, charming young lady stands out amongst the gathering's cast of suicidal individuals. She joins the group in swallowing sleeping pills and entering a car filled to the brim with toxic charcoal smoke. However, rather than dying, she wakes
...
up from a dream about a girl's suicide and is surprised to see that the once-suicidal group appears to be revitalized. Upset that she did not die, Kirari goes home and attempts to kill herself, only to realize that she cannot die, no matter the method.
Rushio then appears to tell Kirari that she has been chosen to save people from ending their lives, including the girl in her dream earlier, and become a magical girl of salvation—a "Suicide Girl."
Story: 5/10
This is not as edgy as expected. The premise necessitates a little of it but this manga is actually fairly upbeat and positive, leaning more towards a cheery dark comedy than melodrama and self-indulgent angst.
The story itself feels somewhat disjointed, like many things are all just happening because the plot demands it to and it felt like there was a major lack of connective tissue between some arcs. I will grant there are some genuinely good ideas and I was caught off guard a few times but, overall, it's pretty predictable and you can see some story beats from miles off. Except for the latter third where it gets more interesting, in a good and bad way. Positively, it ups the stakes and begins to explore it's world a little more. Negatively, it's ideas are a bit out there in a way that's not set up well enough and isn't given enough time to breath. Unfortunately it all feels a little rushed.
Thankfully, the author ultimately manages to bring it together and the ending is actually pretty good. But was a decent ending worth all the mediocrity that came before? I would have to say no, it's not worth it.
There is an emotional core to this manga, it strongly implores the reader to find the joy in their life and live the life they wish to. The issue is that it's all very surface level, we never really dig into what that actually means for the characters and how this influences them.
Frankly the whole concept of the manga is just insulting. The idea that people don't really want to commit suicide and are forced to by magic demons and this can also be solved by magic girls killing the demons is bizarre. Look, I can forgive this, maybe it's a metaphor about how people really want to live and they're ‘forced’ to commit suicide by despair and you need someone to help you. Except that completely random people are also driven to commit suicide just by being in proximity of these demons so what's the message there? It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I would suggest anyone who who was put off by the trigger warning at the top to just skip this one. Let's just chalk it up to a bad metaphor and move on.
The more serious issue is that the manga treats suicide extremely lightly. For example, the ex-lovers of one of the main cast shows up and she tells them she never really liked them. They all go to commit suicide and this gets resolved off-screen while the whole thing is used for mild character growth that she should be a bit nicer. No insight into what the lovers are going through or feeling, they get two panels of background each for why they even care about her and they never show up again. Three potential suicides are barely given any attention at all and are used purely to develop a different character. And the worst part is that the whole chapter is topped off with a joke about how this whole event has taught the character she's a perverted masochist! Why the $#*!@ would you end the chapter like that!? This manga, despite it's premise, doesn't seem to actually care about suicide. Genuinely, if the whole premise was changed to be that the demons were making people murderers and the magic girls had to stop that, almost nothing about this manga would have to altered which really doesn't suggest that it treats suicide with any level of depth or insight. I personally believe that media should be able to depict anything but surely we should expect more from a manga that's chosen to engage with such an emotionally-charged and complex topic?
Characters: 4/10
Kirari lost her childhood crush to suicide but is super cheery all the time. That is all.
Manten is an idol who is a creepy stalker that's in love with Kirari. That is all.
Akane is a 15 year old girl who's personality consists of being a creepy stalker in love with Kirari and having big breasts. That is all.
Are you noticing a pattern here? Yeah the main characters are flat and one dimensional. They never develop as character, the few times the author tries to dig deeper are confined to a chapter or two per character and it falls flat. I do not really care about any of them. As the manga goes on, a few characters with a little more promise are introduced but they never get the screen time needed to really make them shine.
Art
The art for this manga is amazing. The characters are so expressive, they all have cutesy characters designs that complements the dark comedy tone of the manga. Yet the artist can also do intensive, bloody action just as well, with greats fight scenes that can be difficult to follow at times and the occasional panel that's too busy to make out what's going on. The monster designs are creative and suitably creepy with some strong body horror elements thrown in for extra measure. The way it depicts the monster's hold over their victims with empty, bleeding eyes and bugs crawling over them is incredible and really sells how terrible these things are. Honestly did not expect this kind of quality from this manga but I was consistently surprised by just how good it could be, I would even say that it gets better over time.
Overall: 4/10
A good ending cannot save a jumbled story that rushes from one place to the next without ever really diving into anything it introduces. Filling the manga with one dimensional characters doesn't help. Fact is, the core concept of ‘Suicide Girls’ needs a deft hand to make it work and the author simply isn't capable of that, only superficially engaging with the topic. Honestly, the author barely seems to care about suicide despite writing a manga all about it. At least the art is good.
I obviously do not recommend this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Nov 21, 2024
[Warning]
adult nudity - don't read this one on the train!
TL:DR
Mixed Recommendation: for those that want sweet romance fluff and melodrama
Cute fluff but pointless drama and main characters are Mary Sues. Honestly reads like self-insert fic for overworked salary men. I suspect many would enjoy this for the cozy read it's meant to be but it's not my cup of tea.
Story: 6/10
It's pretty nice, a little heart-warming tale.
I like the slower build up of the characters feeling, I expected them to be more immediately romantic but we see more of platonic interaction in a way that's more grounded than if they were all over each other
...
right away. The author worked up to them getting romantic feeling and it feels more earned when they fall in love with each other rather than forcing it because that's the plot.
It was fun to see the kids interact as well. There is a weird implication that the two eldest are attracted to each other but this thankfully goes nowhere, they are step-siblings by the end after all. The two youngest are fast friends and it's great to have a core of the family being uncomplicatedly fond of each other. We also get to see a bit of the parents relationships with their children and, more interesting, with each other's children.
There's a lot of contrived drama that is introduced at the start of a chapter only to be neatly resolved at the end with no character growth or effects carried forward into future chapters. It feels very forced, like the author needed to stretch out the run time with filler.
The Mary Sue-ness of the characters and the preachy-ness increases near the end and it becomes almost unbearable. I just wanted it to hurry up and finish already, it soured what was otherwise a decent conclusion.
There's a conveyor belt of love rivals. Some of them are real good and some are boring but none stays for long so we never get much out of them and it's pretty disappointing because the first two rivals are the best of them and I would have liked to see more.
The manga is possessed of a bizarre naivety where antagonist characters will behave like complete and utter psychopaths for multiple chapters and then the main characters will be nice to them for a bit and then said antagonists will be purified of their sins or something. It's so bizarre and it feels ridiculous that the characters are just sooooo nice that they can fix the lunatics that they seem surrounded by.
Not a positive or a negative but the author appears to be a Christian and it comes up sometimes. The manga is not preachy or anything, just an interesting thing to note seeing as most mangaka seem to be Buddhist. Perhaps that explain the redemption of the antagonists, the Christian model of forgiveness and turning the other cheek?
Characters: 5/10
Usually manga characters are self-inserts for edgy teenagers, Shoutarou is what the self-insert character for middle-aged salary men looks like. He is basically the just the perfect husband: self-sacrificing, caring, protective, etc. Usually this is more low-key but there is one chapter where this is just so overexaggerated. I actually kind of liked him up until this, he had charm but this chapter reveals how shallow his characterisation actually is and really slaps you in the face that this is supposed to be the caricature of a perfect husband. Oh and every woman in the manga wants to jump his bone because of course they do.
Natsumi is the caricature of a perfect Japanese wife. Shoutarou alone could be fine but when paired with Natsumi, it turns the manga into something just a tad too saccharine, it's all a little to perfect to really be sweet and cosy. There really isn't more to her than that except when the author decides she needs to be stupid and create conflict which she happens to do all the damn time.
The children aren't important enough to have their own sections. They're fine, they don't have any glaring problems like they're parents but it would have been nice to focus on their relationships with each other because their isn't a lot of it and what's there tends to be pretty shallow.
The rating of this section is singlehandedly raised by how entertainingly mad some of the antagonist love rivals are. There plotting is very amusing, it's just a shame that they have no backstory or character development. This means that they remain squarely one-note villains and they disappear and are replaced soon after they appear.
Art
Nothing stand out but it's pretty good. Cute character design, pretty much what you would expect form this sort of manga.
Overall: 5/10
Do you want some heart-warming fluff? Well there's better but this is a very specific fantasy that you might enjoy. The first half was pretty good and I did finish just to see where the characters were going. The manga was just a bit too saccharine and some of the later chapters left me longing for the manga to just end already.
Mixed recommendation: for those who want fluff and melodrama
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 23, 2024
TL:DR
No a romance, more of a fairly light-hearted drama manga. Large cast of likeable characters and an enjoyable plot, I recommend this one for anyone looking for something a tad more serious than the average shoujo manga.
Description
The story, which takes place in the fictional medieval empire of Saiunkoku, follows the adventures of Shuurei Kou, a descendant of a noble family that has fallen on hard times. Her father serves as librarian in the Imperial palace, a post which offers prestige and respect but little compensation. Shuurei teaches in the temple school and works odd jobs to make ends meet, but her dream is to pass
...
the imperial examinations and take a post in government, a path forbidden to women. Shuurei's plans come to an abrupt halt when the Emperor's Grand Advisor makes a startling offer: join the imperial household for six months as the young Emperor's consort, and teach the Emperor to be a responsible ruler. If she succeeds, the financial reward will be great. The story details Shuurei's growing relationships with the Emperor and other members of the court, the intrigues that surround imperial politics, and Shuurei's commitment to better herself and her country.
Story: 8/10
Yes, the manga's synopsis makes it seem very tropey but it actually drops this conceit fairly quickly. In fact, the manga is not a romance at all and there isn't really any romantic subplot or romantic relationships formed by the end. I'm fine with this, because what we ended up with is far more interesting. The actual plot is also a little cliché to be fair, the main character rises above prejudice of peers to demonstrate that they're actually amazing, but it avoids Mary Sue to be quite well written and very enjoyable. It is definitely more complex than what I was expecting from a shoujo romance with the plot summary I read.
I was pleasantly surprised by how serious the manga gets at points. Now to be clear, this is still primarily a light-hearted story and the characters are rather ridiculous but the manga doesn't shy away from the darker side of life, expect a few assassinations attempts and corruption. Despite this, it's never bogged down in melodrama and makes plenty of time to have fun and be comedic.
The manga is also refuses to stagnate: new characters are steadily introduced or removed, slowly building an extensive cast and we learn new information that recontextualises their relationships and deepen our understanding of the political situation that is the manga's background.
The setting of the manga is essentially just ancient China and the author is uninterested in diverging from this so there is very little world building. The characters are very much the focus here. Whether this is a downside is up to you but I found the story interesting enough that I didn't care about the unoriginal setting.
My main complaint is that the manga just sort of ends. There is technically a conclusion but it doesn't feel all that satisfying. In fact it feels like we're cut off right when we get to the main course. Well, it turns out the manga was cancelled and they never got to cover the content of the currently untranslated light novels this manga series is based off, which continues far past the point the manga adaption ends. What a shame. Honestly, if I'd known this I wouldn't have read the manga knowing I'd never get the ending it deserves but at least I enjoyed my time while it lasted.
Characters: 8/10
Shuurei is the star of the manga and she deserves the role, rarely do you see such a singularly driven and self-possessed female character, especially in a shoujo manga marketed as a romance. She knows exactly what she wants and she won't let anything deter her, be that assassination attempts, discrimination or the romantic pursuits of others. Despite her burning ambition, she's still a relatable character who's easy to like with her pleasant personality and quiet determination. I also like that the manga specifically points out that she doesn't need to abandon her femininity to be strong.
There is also a large cast of secondary characters. They sometimes veer into the ridiculous and absurd with their individual personality quirks but for the most part they're quite grounded characters. Considering the large amount of attractive young men around, I was expecting a reverse-harem type of deal but in fact, only one major character expresses any sort of romantic feelings towards Shuurei. The rest are given more depth than just romance or connection to the protaganist. Shuurei is the driving force behind the manga as expected from the main character but it's made clear that everyone has their own agenda and are driven by their own ideals and goals, which sometimes coincide and sometimes conflict.
Art
Quite good, nice backgrounds make the world feel alive and the character designs are decent but hampered by the fact that many people dress the same and man have similar faces and hairstyles, making it easy to confuse characters.
Overall: 8/10
Great characters, great plot, what's not to love? I recommend this manga to anyone who wants a good female character who cares about more than boys. If only it got to adapt the whole light novel series…
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 9, 2024
TL:DR
An interesting and little-covered concept but repetitive with unlikeable re-occuring characters. Do not recommend.
Description
Shinjuurou Mamiya works as an embalmer—a profession seen as "unclean" by Japanese society due to religious traditions and lack of demand for the service. Driven by his passion to preserve the dignity of the deceased, he has resigned himself to the outcast lifestyle that comes with his job. Though his clientele is lacking, he is exceptionally skilled. Shinjuurou does not shy away from opportunities to show off his ability to transform a corpse into a state that makes a loved one believe they are just sleeping peacefully.
Shigeshoushi explores the delicate psychological
...
relationships between life, death, loss, and mourning. With each embalming, Shinjuurou brings the inner beauty of the deceased back to life to give their loved ones a chance to properly say goodbye.
Story: 5/10
This manga primarily consists of disconnected vignettes centred on someone dying and their subsequent embalming by Shinjuurou. Some of these are thought provoking but most of them follow the exact same template:
- Someone dies
- Embalmer introduces themselves to relative/friend/etc
- Body embalmed
- Rrelative/friend/etc: “Wow they're so beautiful, I'm so happy they were embalmed”
- Azuki pines over Shinjuurou or vice-versa
If it sounds like that would get repetitive, you're right! The concept of embalming is unique but the issue is that there is very little to differentiate each individual story. Additionally, most characters only show up in one chapter so each one only gets extremely basic characterisation. It's hard to care about what they're going through when I just met these characters and the main character isn't very expressive either. This is especially bad considering the manga tries to beat you over the head about how great embalming is with trite sob stories.
The rest of this manga is made of the protagonists backstory or the relationship between the protagonist and his love interest, Azuki. Actually most of the emotions come from the main character's really awful ‘romance’ with Azuki (more on this in the character section).
Strangely, there is very little focus on the actual process of embalming itself, mostly focussing on the emotions of those with relations with the deceased, which does match the manga's philosophy that embalming is primarily for benefit of the living. Considering my above criticism, I do not consider this a good thing.
This manga mostly reads like it's advertising embalming to the japanese mixed with bad romance, broken up in the middle by Shinjuurou's somewhat interesting backstory.
Character: 3/10
The main character, Shinjuurou is insufferable, I really hate him. He takes people for granted and is extremely childish. The fact that his love interest is a high-schooler while he's a middle aged man with a career doesn't improve my opinion of him either.
Azuki is a non-entity with no personality. She exists solely to be the object of Shinjuurou's affection (and he's not particularly good at that). This is not great when she makes up half the emotional core of the re-occurring cast.
Honestly it was really painful to read their so-called romance, It's something I'd think was charming for teenagers but it's really weird for this adult man to behave this way with a high schooler. It seems they are only attracted to each other because the author said so, I couldn't tell you a single reason for them to actually be attracted to each other. They have barely any dialogue with each other and no actual chemistry when they're together. They both have that ‘wonderful’ manga trope where they're both, for some reason, deeply in love with each other but never quite manage to tell each other because something always gets in the way in the most contrived way possible.
Art
Nothing to complain about, nothing to particularly praise. Very middle of the road art in my opinion.
Overall: 5/10
Perhaps this manga takes on a far deeper meaning if you've experienced a loss badly, then you could think on what the funeral meant for you. Perhaps.
Formulaic writing and unlikeable characters kill any interest I had in the manga, even with it's interesting concept. The bad outweighs the few enjoyable parts of the manga and I do not recommend reading it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 21, 2024
TL:DR
Tensionless plot with bland characters and an ending that makes it all worse. Clever schemes but you know nothing will ever go wrong. Don't recommend.
Description
College student Nao Kanzaki has always adhered to her name's meaning: "foolishly honest." However, after opening an unsolicited package containing one hundred million yen, she inadvertently accepts an invitation for the "Liar Game." In this tournament, contestants are encouraged to betray and deceive their opponents to gain a massive amount of cash; conversely, losing will incur a lifetime debt. With all hopes lost, her only option left is to seek help from a con artist.
On that same day, the infamous swindler
...
Shinichi Akiyama is finally released from jail. This former psychology student is known for single-handedly bankrupting an entire company, and Nao believes he is her only chance at escaping her dire situation. At first, Shinichi is hesitant to commit another crime, ignoring Nao and her request. But after seeing her desperation and persistence, he agrees to assist her.
In this fraudulent world, Nao and Shinichi have their own motives. Yet, soon they see the true nature of not only the game, but also everyone involved.
Story: 4/10
There is zero tension in this manga at all. No matter what happens, Akiyama will invariably either effortlessly destroy his opponent(s) or will reveal that the fact that he seems to be losing is actually all part of his secret plan and then win anyway. The unfortunate fact is that the author has written themselves into a corner where the characters cannot afford to ever fail and therefore they never do. Now, I understand that the protagonists will win at the very end but usually there are stumbling blocks, unforeseen situations that the characters must work their way out of. In an action story for example the main character will lose a few fights to show their not invincible, even if they win in the end. But this just doesn't happen in “Liar Game”. The main characters just win every time and it's just so boring. What's the point of reading about something going perfectly?
The ending is nonsense. It comes entirely out of nowhere. It's so bloody stupid. I just can't understand what the author was thinking, I guess it had a message but there is no foreshadowing about this, it has a one chapter long backstory about something completely irrelevant and the epilogue was just dumb. I can't explain exactly why it crashes and burns so hard without spoiling it but I assure you, it makes no sense logically or narratively.
The pacing is also abysmal. I understand this is a very cerebral manga but do we need to have the ‘action’ interrupted every other chapter to have every detail spelled out to the reader? Is there really no better method the author could think of?
Despite my complaints though, the manga really is clever. When the plans are revealed, their boring yes but they don't feel bullshit. They plans are always something a very clever person really could pull off. This is frankly the only thing that kept me reading, seeing what the neat trick, what crafty ploy the protagonists
Character: 3/10
Akiyama is boring but at least it's entertaining to see his scheming.
Kanazaki is really annoying, she constantly makes the same mistakes over and over and is generally just “why don't we all just get along!” the entire time. There is nothing in this woman's skull and it's bad.
Our two priciple characters are never actually developed in anyway. What are they're personalities? What do they like and dislike? I don't know, the author never bothers to make them anything other than ‘the clever one’ or ‘the nice one’. It's so dull.
Yokoya is somewhat interesting in that he's a decent villain. Hateable enough and pretty intelligent. His motivations are revealed later and it's frankly really weak.
The Masked men are… weird? Initially they're non-characters that just advance the plot but half way through, they're introduced as spectators and commentators of the games. They have personalities, though simple, but their real purpose is to exposit what's happening for the readers benefit. It's pretty strange, firstly that they're just suddenly important to the manga and also the fact that they have SO MUCH DIALOGUE. Holy crud, the author makes them explain all the plans like narrators or they say ominous things like “ah they fell for his trap, no I will not explain, just watch” and it's such a bizarre decision to do this. I swear that the dealers get more dialogue than the actual characters! It's such a lazy way of building tension and so boring to have it interrupt the flow of the games.
There are some other interesting characters (Fukunaga, Abe, etc) but they're never properly developed and they're ejected from the manga nearly as soon as they're introduced.
Art
Pretty basic artwork but it's got a good art-style and it isn't anything worth talking about.
Overall: 4/10
No tension, no likeable characters, no satisfying ending. Yes the scheming is entertaining but it's not worth the rest of the manga. Don't read this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 13, 2024
TL:DR
Interesting late 1400s Italian setting, a stand out character and fantastic art. Let down by lack of real conflict, slow pacing, need to exposit about history and weak cast
Story: 6/10
A quiet manga following the life of two Italians whose fates are intertwined. We follow the life of Cesare Borgia, reconstructed from historical records with a generous amount of artistic license along with hapless student Angelo. The manga revolves around the historical events at the time, namely the competition to become the next pope.
The decision to start the manga in a university is excellent. It acts as a microcosm of the state of Europe at the
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time, putting students from the various countries together, and therefore introducing us the the various factions on a small, low stakes scale. From their, the scope of the manga gradually expands until we reach the climax of the manga, where the fate of Europe itself is at stake.
The setting is the strongest part of the manga. This Japanese author builds up the setting better than some European authors, it's very interesting to learn about the social and political history around the late 1400s setting. There is some weird anti-french sentiment for some reason, being portrayed as violent thugs and idiots. Very strange seeing as the manga very explicitly says that the differences in nationalities don't matter.
It starts off quite slow and it's a little dull with little of importance happening, we're mostly just learning about the history and having some character moments but it picks up pretty quickly and we get into the meat of the plot.
In part, poor pacing is inevitable due to the historical setting of the manga, if the author didn't explain it then we would understand what's happening. However, it brings the pace to a dead stop as the author pauses to tell the reader the historical context of the time. However, this is primarily in the first half of the manga and the pacing improves in the second half. This doesn't make it more fun to read though, unless you're a big history buff (which I am).
This manga is more slice of life than drama, and that's despite the multiple assassination attempts. The manga suffers from a lack of real conflict. The manga does revolve around the politics of the time and (provided you don't know the actual history) there is tension around how the central storyline turns out but there isn't that something more that I expected from the description, the political intrigue that I was coming here for was lacking. Maybe that's a problem with my expectations rather than the manga itself but it feels like there are hints of something deeper and bigger that never make themselves apparent. I was waiting for the ‘real’ conflict to start until three quarters of the way through before I realised that the manga really is as shallow as it seemed. Everyone broadly does what they say they will, all major characters in the manga are friendly and work together etc. This is what I mean by ‘Cesare’ being a slice-of-life, it's quite mundane (and not in a bad way!) and it's certainly worth reading for the setting alone but it disappoints if you're looking for intrigue and drama.
Many plot points or character elements, e.g. Cesare's relationship with his sister, are brought up and never resolved in the narrative. This is one point where the historical premise of the manga hampers it's ability to be a story. History doesn't often have satisfying conclusions nor can we know everything. I understand that this is an inherent problem with trying to hew close to actual history but it still makes for a worse story. However The author is willing to write conjuncture about even plot important moments so I am unsure why the author simply left these storylines unresolved.
However, the actual ending of the manga is well-written and is ultimately a satisfying ending despite the above issues.
Character: 6/10
Cesare (the man) is very well written. I enjoy the subtlety the author reveals his deeper character traits. He doesn't have character growth per se but we slowly learn more about him.
Our other protagonist, Angelo feels unrealistic. He's naive to the extreme in ways that seem purpose designed to funnel the story to exposition for the purpose of the audience. There are numerous scenes that boil down to “You don't know that Angelo? Don't worry we'll tell you”. As mentioned above, this is somewhat inevitable due to the historical setting and it does get better. However theses scenes feel more like they're for the reader's benefit, and any scene where the reader thinks “the author wrote this for me” damages immersion and takes us out of the story/world. We learn a little more about Angelo's backstory and more about his character. He also has the most character development in the manga but it feels somewhat rushed. He's broadly the same for the most part and then he just sort of “grows up” near the end, after some time skips. His relationship with Cesare is the most compelling and the contrast between them makes a good character dynamic.
Giovanni initially feels like comedy relief, a more typical manga funny guy, but he does become more of a real character late in the manga. His character arc doesn't really work considering he's primarily portrayed as a pathetic idiot that I'm suddenly supposed to care about and the emotional climax of his arc falls flat because I don't.
Miguel is more interesting, servant and friend to Cesare and the one who understands him most. He doesn't have his own character arc, rather he's the conduit that Angelo (and therefore the reader) learns some of the deeper parts of Cesare's character. If not a very well developed character, he is at least fun.
The rest of the cast has more minor roles and don't matter all that much though Cesare's father, Rodrigo, stands out. One annoying thing is that we're sometimes introduced to random, famous historical figures. Figures that have no impact on the plot. Why are they here? Ignoring how unrealistic it is that Angelo meets all these people, it feels like the author is just putting their name out there to say “look, you recognise this guy right? It's cool right?” and it feels a bit silly.
You may notice that most of these entries talk about Cesare and that's simply because he's the most interesting character. This is a flaw, the rest of the cast are underdeveloped but it speaks to the charisma that Cesare is portrayed it and the relationships the other characters have with him are the most interesting.
Art
Absolutely fantastic, I can offer no critique here because there is none to give. The cityscapes to the historical outfits are brilliantly realised, the atmosphere is created by the art before the characters even open their mouth.
Overall: 6/10
The manga is an interesting read. The strongest part of the manga is the highly researched historical setting, realised with art direction and how it influences the characters. It is a very good read IF you like the setting. Frankly, I expected a political intrigue story and I was disappointed to not get it. The actual story of the manga is very shallow with a distinct lack of conflict and story beats that are forgotten as quickly as they are introduced. The characters (barring the eponymous Cesare himself) are very shallow and not all too interesting.
Mixed recommendation: if the setting sounds interesting to you, this is the manga to read. If you want story or characters? Look somewhere else.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jun 26, 2024
TL:DR
Bad fights, repetitive plot, boring characters. Don't bother with this manga. At least there's good art
Story: 4/10
The manga has the same basic structure that it repeats endlessly:
enemy introduced > defeats previous enemies (now allies) to prove how strong they are > main character destroys them > they are now allies
This is basically covers the entire manga. They do this for nearly every single antagonist that Harumichi faces. Sometimes they focus a little more in the allies but ultimately it's the same every time.
The fights are extremely formulaic too. Harumichi starts out clearly losing, barely getting a hit in. Then, no matter how injured he is,
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he just suddenly decides he wants to win now and then does so effortlessly. Any fights not involving Harumichi are abridged with the author often just skipping to who wins with no view as to how they won or how the fight actually went. Funnily enough, Harumichi's boring battles seem to be the only ones that are shown in full and even that's not a guarantee. This is an insane decision for a manga based around fighting. There's this one fight were the manga just skips the fight and then just refuses to tell us who the winner was (let alone show us!). Why include this stuff if you think it's so unimportant? There are so many fights between characters that are just skipped, fights that could actually be interesting. This manga is a constant disappointment where it brushes past any combat that would be interesting or build up the rest of the cast in favour of giving us yet another scene of our Mary Sue protagonist Harumichi effortlessly dominating his opponent in the least fun way possible.
Our protagonist begins the manga as the strongest guy and ends it the same way. He loses a fair fight exactly once, and rarely loses a wildly unfair fight anyway. He's boring. Why should I care about anything when Harumichi ex Machina will come in and beat the bad guy effortlessly.
This leads to an obvious issue: how strong are any of the characters? They all lose the exact same to next weeks villains and that guy lose all the same to Harumichi. The strength of the characters are completely arbitrary, however much they need to be restart the cycle. It's not like anyone actually changes in strength in the manga, everyone ends it just as they started so nothing actually matters. Harumichi is always stronger than his opponent. Sometimes he wins effortlessly, sometimes he wins with a little difficulty but he always wins. He never has difficulty with anything, he never has to struggle, he never tries to improve, he never has to overcome anything. Why is he even here? Why Should I care about anything he does?
There are a lot of interesting concepts like gang alliance politics but nothing is done with it. Even in fights there are never any consequences. Every character goes down the same, gets the stuffing kicked out of them and then returns in a chapter or two like nothing happens. The most someone suffers is in a bloody car crash that comes out of nowhere and is unrelated to anything happening in the plot, what little of it there is. Now, I'm not saying someone needs to be crippled or anything so grim but there needs to be something or all fights are just pointless. Maybe someone gets depressed when they fail, maybe someone needs to train, to think about their flaws and what they need to overcome. But there's none of this, they just fight seemingly for the fun of it and never grow, forgetting it the second the fights over.
Which leads nicely into my next point, I have no idea why anyone does anything in this manga. Motivations are rarely given for why these fights are happening. These guys aren't committing crimes, they're not making money. The ‘gangs’ of this manga are essentially just groups of friends. Why the hell are they fighting so much? What do they gain from this? Again, I'm not saying that it needs to be something grand, “Holyland” (a manga with a similar premise but much more serious) has purely personal motivations and it's fantastic. Crows provides no reason to care about anything happening, why should I care about wins or losses when the most that's at risk is children's egos being bruised?
The manga never seriously interrogates what it means to be in a gang, what the consequences may be, what the mentality of a young gangster is. The characters are big fish delinquents in the small pond of school with no academic abilities and no real futures that they're working towards. they're in gangs that are basically school clubs and they fight constantly with no real purpose. There are no themes for the reader to grapple with. Things just sort of happen without rhymes nor reason.
In short: nothing of consequence happens, nothing interesting happens and anything that gets close is skipped over.
However there one thing that I will compliment the manga for, the manga gives time for the characters to think about what they're going to do after school, after they leave their gangs and enter adulthood. It's an interesting angle to end a delinquent manga on what the characters do to stop being delinquents.
Character: 3/10
Our main character, Harumuchi, is badly written. He is at his peak in the beginning of the manga and only gets greater with out ever earning it. He has no flaws he needs to overcome. He never has to change and so he doesn't. He has no goals to work towards. He's not really funny and he's not fun to read about because he's mostly just an asshole and not in a fun way.. He's a complete void of charisma. It's clear the author understood this seeing as he barely gets screen time or dialogue outside of finishing a fight. In the latter half, he's pushed to the side in favour of other characters who are frankly much more interesting.
The side cast is somewhat better. There are some interesting characters and they're fun to read when the author deigns to give them time to shine which is unfortunately not often enough. There is a large cast of reoccurring characters and the screen time is split between them and the one-off characters. This means the cast is never given enough time to be developed. Honestly, many of the side cast would be much more interesting protagonists than what we got with Harumichi if the author tried to develop their characters.
Art
The only thing I will compliment in the manga is the art. It's fantastic, fights are explosive, hits carry real weight. Panelling is excellent and it's effortless to follow the action.
The characters are well designed and distinct. For the most part anyway, a few of the minor characters are hard to distinguish but it doesn't negatively affect the reading experience. The characters are bad ass or goofy as needed and it's easy to see how strong a character is just at a glance.
No complaints on this front.
Overall: 3/10
“Crows” was worse than a boring read, it feels like the author is actively trying to disappoint me. Whenever something threatens to be interesting, it's skipped over and/or Harumichi just comes and does all the work with out having to overcome any real challenges. There is never any motivation to do anything so the events of the manga don't hold any weight.
The characters are 2-dimensional archetypes and never change. They are mostly just boring.
The worst sin of all: the fights are bad. This is killer for a delinquent manga.
Don't read this manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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