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May 21, 2024
This manga has been the biggest let down so far in my comic reading journey. This shit is BORING.
I have expected an entirely different story looking at the art and covers, that part is on me, but I was ready to give this a try, I really was, but after 60 chapters where literally nothing happens except for fighting, I gave myself the indulgence of letting go, because for sure I wasn't reading another 60 chapters of the same thing over and over. The MC design is really cool, I'd wager the whole story was written just because the author had a really cool brooding
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elf idea, because that's about it when it comes to what this has to offer.
Art - 7
The action scenes are too chaotic to care what happens in them, but the character designs and style is pretty unique and pleasant to look at.
Story - 4
The twist is revealed at the very beginning of the manga so there's no suspense, I would much prefer if the author just made the manga longer and let us experience the MCs past with him instead of just pure exposition to past events. If you're gonna do this when your characters are weak, I'm not gonna care. Also everything always is going according to MCs plan somehow even if it doesn't, nobody ever dies or is truly unhappy except the antagonists, I ended up probably empathizing with them more.
Characters - 2
Boy howdy, are the characters lacking. The MC literally does nothing except fighting, maybe hiding from fighting sometimes. Fighting is his only character trait, it always was and most of the side characters are either the same or don't have any traits at all. If you replaced all of them with the same person, there wouldn't be a difference.
One point for good antagonists.
Enjoyment - 4
Basically I was forcing myself to read this, because I thought there would be so kind of payoff somewhere, but even when the main protags are weak or damaged, they're absolutely fine in the next chapter. Hell, the MC says he has a "weak body" one second, but then completely blasts his opponent the next. It's just the same fighting scenes over and over. The world is really interesting and well drawn - flying wolves? Horned tigers? Hell yeah. Pity there's no addressing all of that except for the setting of the upcoming fight.
Also, I don't feel like this is seinen, this would be good if it had the budget of shonen jump or something.
Overall - 4
It was just outrageously boring. Maybe I would like it better if I was younger, but there's nothing unique about it. I disliked some mangas in the past but have fond memories with them, because they were original, like Elfen Lied. They made me care somehow, this doesn't.
Also minus points for the very weird sexualization, it feels really out of place and I'm not exactly comfortable suddenly seeing a very detailed drawing of a character that looks like a minor and then she gets a suit in which her breasts are just barely covered, for FIGHTING.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 25, 2019
After half an hour of the first episode, I could safely say that I’ve seen more male genitalia shapes than in the rest of my entire life.
Ahem, on to the review.
I have no idea why someone wanted to make this story in particular into a hentai. I haven’t read the manga that was the prototype for this anime, but I’m aware it’s probably similar and the adaptation couldn’t be done much better. If the sex scenes were replaced even only by half by events actually important to the plot and somehow developing characters, this anime would be better than about 80% of things I watched.
The
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plot is the best thing about it, in my opinion – it’s actually fascinating and if it was spent more time on, made things more logical – that would make it one of my favourites. Instead we have a lot of unnecessary rape scenes that are a justification for the characters to shapeshift or simply get more powerful, which I find NOT satisfying.
There are only two characters that have screen time that is actually not sex and one of them I wouldn’t even consider calling a “main character”, but his motives are explained to the viewer, instead of anything in this show. It’s a pity he’s introduced in a second episode and doesn’t appear in the third.
The art is pretty good in itself, but the quality of the recording didn’t age well, so there’s a lot of stray pixels, the animation is laggy, I could forgive the music because of the time this anime was airing (the 80s, duh), but sometimes it just ruins the mood.
It feels as if the author was largely inspired by the original Devilman series, but didn’t exactly know how to execute his own ideas. There ARE good things about Urotsukidouji, they are simply outweighed by the bad ones, so in the end – not worth a watch, even for someone who likes a bad anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jan 23, 2019
This is an example on how to have an amazing idea for creating a piece of art and then executing it in an extremely poor manner. Minor spoilers will appear at the end of this review.
Let's start with what is good: the backgrounds. They are incredibly detailed, providing the viewer with so much eye-candy that you might as well press pause whenever there's a scene with a forest and spend a good few minutes admiring the work that was put into them.
Second good thing, the music. Although I expected a bit more after an amazing opening song that was immediately saved for my music playlist,
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it is still good nonetheless, serving both as a mood setter for scenes and a pleasant experience alone. I'd say music and background artworks are the best features of the film.
And here it goes downhill. While story is quite okay, even though its inspired a "little" too much by works from Studio Ghibli. Its decent, probably only because scenarios about the relation between humans and nature always have something that catches my attention. BUT - the ending feels rushed. Instead of really exploring the lore of the beautiful world that is created in this anime, it focuses more on characters that have very little depth to them, that didn't have the time to develop and make me attached in some way, and on the universal message "everything is connected", even though nothing pointed to that conclusion throughout the scenario.
Notice how I said that the background artworks are really good. This might be more of a personal opinion (everything is, in the end), but I really didn't like the way the characters were drawn here, in comparison with everything that was surrounding them, it seemed off more the longer I was watching (particularly the shading part). It would be a minor issue however, because the animation is smooth and satisfying, if not for the... CGI.
Yes, someone dared to put so much CGI in this film that it hurts to watch. I think it's the worst part of it, as I was sitting on my sofa I couldn't help but make a grimace every time there was CGI on screen. (Spoilers start) Even the green dragon vines that were drawn at the start of the film and made me excited in the first place, were later replaced by the 3D version. It was infuriating.
Overall, this film is just another mediocre way to kill some time, not even good enough to recommend to anyone or provoke to think about the consequences of our actions on the environment.
Special mention: The way some characters were "enhanced" by the forest was really cringey, it wasn't explained or justified in any way.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Aug 23, 2018
This is going to be really long, because I'm going to divide it into three sections, corresponding to each of the arcs present in the manga.
Original Yu-Gi-Oh! was meant to start off as a horror story, which Takahashi mentioned himself. The art corresponds to that - author tried to draw more realistic characters, which resulted in a eerie feeling at times. It's not done well though, I'm glad he moved on from that later.
It serves as a great introduction to the main story. On its own its main flaw is the episodic construction, much like the duels later on. Its also the part where the
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characters have the most depth to them, over time they seem to lose it and focus of the manga turns completely onto dueling.
The original idea behind "The King of Games" seems like a prototype for "The Saw", I think it was the best part of the story, when the card game is introduced it becomes kind of dull.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist (Battlecity arc) is the longest and most tedious to read part of the series, same themes of friendship are repeated too often, the rules of matches are too poorly woven. Sometimes they even change chapter after chapter, leaving the reader with some kind of dissapointment. Duelist was what drove me to remove the manga from my favourites and leave it on-hold for over a year. Its end though, is satisfying and reveals depth to both the story and the characters, especially Kaiba.
I was pleasantly suprised finishing mentioned Duelist and starting Millenium World, where the horror elements are introduced again. There's no hardcore gore, but I was caught off guard when people suddenly started dying in the panels, the exact opposite of how everyone was somehow saved during the Battlecity arc. Takahashi didn't revert to his semi-realistic, eerie style, but adapted his current one to give off a surrealistic vibe just when needed to. I think this is also when the monster designs get the most attention and detail, and I just can't help but stare in awe at some panels.
The game of Duel Monsters is removed completely (thank god) for the sake of its ancient equivalent. The way its executed is a bit too similar to the modern counterpart, but its bearable and leaves much of the reading time for an actual development of the story and disclosure of characters motifs.
Summary: The series oscillates between being extremely cheesy and well thought-out, it has some plot holes and some unneeded characters. It's not a masterpiece nor a total trash. I read it mostly due to my childhood sentiment but I still managed to enjoy it immensely.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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