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This is one of the most unique manga I've read, and it's one hell of a wild ride. It's an exhilarating mix of weird comedy, gripping action, badass characters and Man vs Wild-style documentary. That doesn't mean it's without its flaws though, and I'll try to explain my opinion as thoroughly as possible in this review.

NARRATIVE STYLE: one of Golden Kamuy's most distinctive characteristics is that it has a bit of a documentary vibe, as it aims to describe Hokkaido at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as introduce the fascinating traditions of the Ainu people (including cooking). On the whole it's very ... interesting stuff *but* it can get a bit dense sometimes, as it feels like the author is trying to cram as much historical information as possible in each chapter. I had a lot of trouble with that at the beginning but it got much better later on, I guess I simply got used to it.

COMEDY 9/10: another of this manga's characteristics is that it features a lot of comedy, mostly in the weird/dark category à la Dorohedoro, but also a lot of sexual innuendos as well as various running gags. Not everything made me laugh, but the best moments are absolutely hilarious and had me in tears.

STORY 8/10: Golden Kamui follows a fairly classic treasure hunt plot, but one of its best assets is how it handles the air of mystery. The protagonists have to work with shady characters to get what they want, so there's quite a bit of suspicion between them, and the threat of betrayal is never too far. That gives the story a nice atmosphere of suspense.

Other than that, the manga strikes a nice balance of thrilling action scenes and “slice of life”/cooking/documentary-style moments as mentioned above, so that it never gets boring. I did note a few inconsistencies and narrative asspulls, but these never really detracted from my enjoyment.

CHARACTERS 7/10: probably an unpopular opinion, but this is the manga's weak point for me. Many of the main characters are well-written, with distinctive personalities and compelling backstories, and character interaction is handled very nicely on the whole. It's pretty easy to get attached to most of them. But, at this point in the story (Chapter 129), the crew around Sugimoto has simply become way too large, there are too many superfluous characters, some of them are complete non-entities, while others had some potential at first but were then relegated to mere comic relief. I feel that the current cast is in severe need of trimming, a few of them should've died earlier but didn't and thus have completely overstayed their welcome.

Asirpa (the second protagonist) is an example of character-writing that I'm not too happy about. For the first 50 chapters or so, it seemed that her main role was to act as Sugimoto's guide and make him discover the Ainu world, which is alright but made her seem like a plot device at times. That went on until a certain plot twist, which aptly turned the whole situation upside down, even though we haven't really felt much repercussion of that until now. I'm hoping that she will get some much-needed development in the next few chapters.

ART 7,5/10: I don't have much to say about it, it gets the job done and the backgrounds in some panels look absolutely beautiful. The characters' expressions are nicely conveyed, and their faces are sometimes distorted for comedic effect.

All in all, despite the couple of flaws I mentioned, Golden Kamuy has been getting better and better with each chapter, and is easily one of the most entertaining manga currently running. I can't wait to see where it goes next, as I'm sure it has the potential to become even more amazing in the future.

Originality isn't necessarily a good thing, and Blame! is a complete example of that.

At its core, this manga follows a very classic "quest" storyline, similar to all the poems about the holy grail etc: we meet a hero on a quest, the hero has to fight a lot of enemies, he makes some friends along the journey, the enemies are getting stronger, some of his friends betray him, but the hero finally manages to overcome all those obstacles and completes his quest. That's the basic outline of this type of story, and Blame! follows it quite meticulously.

The reason why this kind of story usually ... works, and why in Blame! it falls flat on its face, is quite simple: the CHARACTERS. The characters in this manga do not have any personality at all, no background, no dreams, nothing. I usually complain that some manga characters are one-dimensional, but here it's even worse, these characters barely have any dimension at all. As a result, I don't feel anything at all for the protagonist when he faces danger, when he escapes "death", when his friends betray him, and so on. I don't feel any attachment to them, and no emotion at all apart from complete frustration. It's even worse for the "enemies", who are basically nothing more than faceless clones. Because of Blame's unique technique of storytelling, this results in a quest story for which I couldn't feel anything at all, and even though I can't deny it is quite original in itself, I can't say it makes for a good story, quite the opposite.

Other elements don't help matters, such as the repetitive action scenes, the "same-face" syndrom for the main cast, and the non-sensical twists, but I don't mind them that much compared to the utter void that is the characterization in this manga.

Despite all these flaws, I can't give this the lowest score, because they were a couple of elements that I liked. The ending is actually quite beautiful, even though it's not worth slugging through 65 tedious chapters to get there. The worldbuilding is fairly interesting, with an otherworldly air, and the art is pretty good when it comes to post-apocalyptic landscapes. I think I would've liked it much better if this was a single-volume manga about Killy simply walking through all those desolate landscapes, considering how bad the actual story is it would've been better to have no story at all.