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Kaguya is an episodic comedy of two too-smart-for-their-own-good high schoolers dancing around each other and making elaborate plans to make the other confess their feelings. I like the premise and the characters are okay. However, the narrator is downright obnoxious and ruins the comedy for me.It constantly interrupts the action to explain the obvious and repeats itself as if the viewers had the memory of a goldfish. The silly over-the-top tone is already conveyed through the main pair's inner thoughts - there's no need for a narrator to handhold us through what's happening.

The only good thing I can say about the narrator is that it ... gets less chatty in the later episodes. Unfortunately those episodes also feature high school drama, which I couldn't bring myself to care about.

Despite being perfect at everything else, Issei is clueless when it comes to people. When he gets a random urge to see a girl's panties, he simply asks her to show them.

This ridiculous premise is explored with utmost seriousness. Issei gets closer to a girl, helps her, gains her trust... only to lose every shred of respect he had earned. Somewhere along the way he even grows as a person, yet like the man of focus and commitment that he is, he never loses sight of his goal. And there's nothing sexual about it either. Issei just wants to see some panties and won't let ... anything get in his way.

This manga shouldn't work but it does and it's glorious.

Sevens is a battle harem with politics, empire building, and underdog's revenge. Some of its aspects deserve praise.

The harem, for one, isn't exactly happy to share their man. Factions form and compete and distrust each other. And since some of the women are royalty, their squabbles could involve entire countries, so our poor protagonist has to balance his attentions carefully. What's more, there's an interesting justification to building a harem in the first place.

The adventure part also has unexpectedly realistic parts. Weapons break, guns require ammunition, people need food. As a result, the party has to prepare a lot of spare weapons and provisions, and ... then come up with a way to transport them. This is not one of those stories where the protagonist uses the same unbreakable magical sword throughout. Well, he *does* have an unbreakable weapon, but...

The ancestors' voices accompanying the protagonist are a mixed bag. While they offer interesting perspectives, when you just want to get on with the story already, their constant comments can get tiring.

Leaving the worst for last: Sevens has an infuriating habit of having a character say their lines, and the narrator immediately explain them. Consider this excerpt:

***
"It’s quite a surprise that there are still countries trying to watch and wait."
I was surprised there were still countries who decided to wait it out.
***

Yes, we know the protagonist was surprised. He literally just said that.

This pattern continues through all 18 volumes. I don't know if that's a translation artifact or a quirk of Japanese writing, but it made reading Sevens more of a chore than it had to be.

After clearing a VRMMORPG that became a death trap to its players, Shin is transported 500 years into that fantasy world's future. Its inhabitants have picked up the pieces, adapted, and live normal lives. The world feels far more real than in most isekais, owing in part to its diverse and colorful characters and the bare minimum of "gamey" status screens.

Players like Shin are considered legends, but some still remember them first-hand. It's the support characters (former NPCs) who gained sentience and are seen as living legends themselves. Imagine the world falling apart around you and wandering for 500 years hoping for your master to ... return. Imagine being on the receiving end of such humbling devotion. Shin's reunions with them are both heartwarming and melancholic, and are my favorite parts of the series. Not the least because there's a compelling conflict between them wanting Shin to stay and him searching for a way home.

That being said, I'm still not sure where New Gate is going in terms of the overarching story. Aside from reuniting with his companions, he mucks about with adventuring and gets involved with the country's royalty. Some of these mini-arcs feel drawn out and too much like a typical isekai, especially when Shin gets to flex his power before awed onlookers. Yet the power fantasy elements are bearable and Shin is very likeable, so I'm willing to look past them.

This manga is weird.

On one hand, you've got great world building with a magic-vs-science theme in a fantasy world undergoing industrial revolution. There's adventure, there's politics, there's a interesting storyline where the protagonist has to pretend to be someone else. He fights his own insecurities and struggles to live up to his a fake identity, so despite him gaining immense power, it doesn't feel like your usual isekai power fantasy at all.

On the other, said protagonist literally powers up by sucking on dem tiddies. Yep.

I honestly don't know what to make of this: it's like the author wrote a genuinely good story, and then tacked ... on the fanservice just because. Hey, I've got nothing against tits, so I'll happily read it - but the manga could've been something, and now it's just another trashy isekai.

On one hand, it's the typical premise of a Japanese teenager getting transferred into a fantasy world. The ability he gets is unique, highly powerful, and activated through an interface straight out of a video game he used to play. Yep, sounds like every other cliche isekai out there.

On the other hand, the fantasy world feels real and is filled with characters who have their own motivations. Entire countries want to exploit the protagonist's powers, so there's lots of politicking and scheming. Others just plain fear him. Some want to befriend him. He has to build himself a place in this new world and for ... that social maneuvering is even more important than his powers.

It's a weird one for sure: elements of video gamey isekai combined with actually good world building, politicking, and diverse characters.

The protagonist is a psychotic chuunibyou version of Haruhi in a fantasy world. Most of his delusions turn out to be true, but he isn't self-aware enough to realize it. If that sounds absurd, that's because it is - but man, what a ride!

Although the story essentially relies on one joke, it remains consistently hilarious, and later on, in a strategy similar to One Punch Man's, we see a bigger focus on the side characters, so whenever the protagonist makes an appearance with his chuuni antics, it's always a treat.

The manga also pokes fun at isekai tropes which should get a laugh out of any ... seasoned reader of the genre.

Tate no Yuusha starts out strong. You can feel the pain of betrayal and the crushing hopelessness as Naofumi struggles to survive in a world that hates him for reasons he doesn't understand. Yet the show goes downhill in the span of five episodes. (Spoilers from hereon).

Malty starts making up increasingly ridiculous schemes all of which fail. At one point she runs a wacky race around the village and loses it despite sabotaging Naofumi. She goes from a hated traitor to a caricature of a villain that is impossible to take seriously.

The other heroes are complete stooges. Even their power level varies according to the ... needs of the plot. They're higher level than Naofumi and have better weapons? Doesn't matter, they deal zero damage to the raid boss because the show needs to make Naofumi look good. Any development they might get is ignored the very next episode.

Perhaps the best part of the show is Naofumi's relationship with Raphtalia, but that's not saying much. When she was freed from the slave bond yet stayed with him, that was a perfect moment to show his trust in her, yet he goes ahead and enslaves her again the first chance he gets.

Whoever wrote this managed, by some miracle, to create a strong opening, but bungled up everything that followed.

The hero travels back in time to save the world from the demon king. The premise is cliche, but there are lots of reasons to like this manga.

For starters, there's a proper plot and it's moving along at a good pace. No time is wasted on filler or tedious training sequences. The hero understands that rather than simply becoming stronger himself, he needs to build up influence over the humans' numerous kingdoms and get them to prepare for the upcoming war.

While armed with future knowledge, the hero is making his moves much earlier in the timeline, so he is often as surprised as the ... reader is. There are some subversions of expectations (like with the attempted assassination on the princess) that are really fun to read. He also eventually learns more about demons and their internal factions than in his first life, showing that things aren't as simple as he thought.

Enemies are usually handled ruthlessly, which makes sense given that he hero is a war veteran inside a younger body, but once again isn't something I expected to see in a manga like this. The party aren't beyond trickery and assassination either. This is not treated in an edgy, self-satisfied way, but like the necessity it it.

If I had any complaints, it's that the two female members of the party didn't get any spotlight after their recruitment. They're kind of... just there. In contrast, the hero's male friend is well-developed and in my opinion more interesting than the hero himself, so there's that.

Warning: contains mild spoilers (but nothing we haven't seen in other isekai stories before).

Death March begins with the protagonist Suzuki being transported to a fantasy world and wiping out armies of mobs with an inexplicably-obtained spell. This leads to him becoming so powerful, that nothing poses any real threat.

Now, an overpowered protagonist isn't a bad thing if the story manages to present it in a humorous way, or if there are equally strong enemies. This isn't the case with Death March, however; you can expect Suzuki to destroy any opponent with ease, as long as he isn't holding back for some silly reason. ... Most of the time, he is.

You see, Suzuki is some sort of a pacifist, which is funny considering wiping out hundreds of sentient lizardmen doesn't bother him much. In fact, no one talks about the cataclysmic event that his arrival caused besides a few casual mentions. Acquiring the obligatory harem is much more important, apparently.

To no one's surprise, the secondary characters are all female. Shortly into the story, Suzuki purchases no less than five (mostly loli) slave girls, who are, of course, completely devoted and love him for being such a kind master. At least Naofumi from "Shield Hero" had good reasons to purchase a slave. Here, it is nothing more but a cheap way to instantly build a harem of girls who will never leave the protagonist. Don't expect anything raunchy, though. Among his many sins, Suzuki is a complete herbivore.

I enjoyed "Mushoku Tensei", so it's not like I hate wish fulfillment stories or harems. It's just that Death March is an awful example of both. I'm legitimately surprised that this tripe is considered good enough to get published and get an anime adaptation in Japan.