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Jan 23, 2025
This is one of those manga where the protagonist seems underpowered but actually turns out to be completely overpowered. The protagonist, Sky, has a really small pool of mana, but he can cast really fast and very efficiently. There actually is an attempt at fleshing out how the magic system works with an explanation in detail of why Sky’s abilities work differently. At first it doesn’t quite feel that Sky is overpowered, rather it seems to be more in the vein of him having powers that are different from everyone else in both positive and negative ways. However, the negatives quickly seem to not matter
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and at that point he’s just the standard overpowered protagonist and the finer details of the magic system don’t really matter much.
An overpowered protagonist is not inherently a bad thing. I’m rather fond of them myself. However, I feel like this is a pretty bad in terms of execution. The overpowered moments generally aren’t handled all that well, with not enough build up and not enough savoring of the aftermath. There also just in general aren’t enough of them. The manga is pretty weak in terms of its cast as well. Sky is an amusing enough protagonist to make him likable, but there’s no character development. The only other character with enough presence to be worth mentioning is Lem, who was also decently likable, though in general she’s pretty flat in terms of personality and also gets no character development. Everyone else doesn’t get fleshed out in the slightest. There are a lot of characters that you’d expect to be reoccurring characters, but they just aren’t. Also, this is listed as a harem manga in some places, but it simply isn’t. The only character that shows any romantic interest at all in Sky is Lem, though it doesn’t go anywhere. And in terms of side characters, it’s about equal in terms of male and female characters.
There’s also not much in terms of an overarching plot. It takes place at a magic academy where there’s a conflict between nobles and commoners, but it’s all basically just superficial window dressing with nothing of substance. I suppose that has its positives though, in that despite this being an adaptation of part of a longer novel series, it doesn’t really feel like there are any plot threads left unresolved at the end of the manga. Though in general the manga isn’t strong enough to get invested enough for the ending to feel satisfying. I should also note that there’s a good amount of comedy, and while it definitely can be pretty funny at times, there isn’t enough for the humor to hold up the manga.
The art isn’t bad, but it’s pretty generic. The character designs especially are really plain to the point of being boring to look at and the art never does anything interesting with them. Still, the action does flow well and overall the manga is pretty easy to breeze through. The translation seems to be full of lot of minor mistakes.
tl;dr: An okayish overpowered protagonist manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 22, 2025
This manga is about a young woman named Okitegami Kyouko who is an amazing detective but has a condition that causes her memories to reset to when she was seventeen every time she falls asleep. The manga is composed of a series of short stories of her solving different cases. The story is never from her perspective however. Most chapters are from the perspective of Kakushidate Yakuzuke, a man that seems to be cursed to constantly get falsely accused of various crimes and thus someone that constantly needs a detective. There are a few chapters that are from other clients of hers, though none of
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them appear for more than a single chapter.
The mysteries were a mixed bag. I thought some of them were great. And some of them were weak. The final case I found especially weak, which results in a pretty weak ending. Though this is an adaptation of a small part of a much larger novel series, so a great ending was never really in the cards. The mysteries definitely have Nisioisin vibes, though there's never anything supernatural or even close to supernatural in them. The mysteries are much less focused on the how and much more on the why. The mysteries aren't about the tricks the criminal used or anything like that, but rather trying to psychoanalyze the motivations behind why they did what they did. And these motivations generally fall into what you'd expect from Nisioisin.
In terms of characters, while we do learn more about Kyouko as the manga progresses, we don't learn all that much. Her background is a complete blank. At the end of the manga she's still thoroughly mysterious. And due to the memory resets, she obviously doesn't have any sort of character arc or character development. She is pretty charismatic and amusing however, so she's likable enough. Yakuzuke is basically just a really nice guy. Other than him being pretty big and constantly getting accused of crimes he didn't commit, there's nothing all that special about him. Still, in context he comes through pretty well. There does seem to be relationship development between the two, but it's incredibly subtle. Since Kyouko can't remember him every case they meet anew, but she does seem to grow comfortable with him more quickly in the later meetings as compared to the earlier ones. With Yakuzuke its more clear that he's clearly falling in love with her, though it's not at the point he's doing anything about it.
The art was reasonably solid in terms of quality and style. The character designs were pretty plain for the most part, which fits the realistic setting and more grounded tone. Kyouko's design definitely stood out though, and in general the art seemed to put more effort when portraying her, which worked well and allowed her to stand out.
tl;dr: A series of minimally connected mysteries of varying quality about an amnesiac detective.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 15, 2025
The English title of this manga is quite possibly the most generic name for a romance I have ever heard. I understand it's going for somewhat of a hidden meaning, but I still don't like it. The Japanese title is Fetiple as a combination of fetish and couple. That's a much better title that captures the essence of this manga, couples that come together due to their fetishes. Bizarrely, the translation seems to not want to ever use the word "fetish" at all, so it uses the word "kink" a lot. Within the manga itself it translates fetiple as kinkouple, which I suppose is fine,
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but I just found it strange.
Anyway, the manga has two pretty much completely distinct stories. The first story takes up the first five volumes and features a man named Yunoki who loves women's hair and a woman named Kotoka who loves men's backs. They get drunk at a bar and solely due to satisfying each other's fetishes really well, they start going out and not long after that immediately start living together. The comedy initially is absolutely hilarious. I think part of it is how original it is. Rom-com manga with adults living together are pretty rare in general, but combine that with such a large focus on kinks and you get something very unique.
The problem however is that it is very narrow and thus starts getting stale. The manga tries to get around that by introducing new characters with new kinks, but that doesn't help much because the core humor is still exactly the same. The romance side doesn't fare much better. There's a decent story in there about a couple that's only together due to their fetishes actually falling in love with each other independently of them, but it's not all that well written. There's not much progress until the fifth volume at which point it was rushed so this ending wasn't all that satisfying. There's also a side story about a side character that had a crush on the male lead, but it was underdeveloped.
The second story takes up the last four volumes. It takes place six years later and is loosely connected to the first story, but really loosely. It serves as a pretty satisfying epilogue for the couple in the first story, but at the same time you could easily read just the second story without the first story and not miss anything. Though I don't recommend actually doing this. The second story is about a high school throuple that comes together due to their being a chain of fetishes between them. Naoi has a thing for women's hair. Miori has beautiful hair and has a thing for small people. Mugi is tiny and has a thing for good smells. And low and behold, Naoi has a smell that Mugi loves.
Once again, a pretty unique concept that does some pretty interesting things to hilarious effect. However, there's not all that much new material and it starts getting stale really quickly. At this point it feels like it stops trying with the fetish stuff and essentially just becomes an incredibly generic highschool love triangle rom-com where both girls are in love with the male lead. And it's not a well written one either. As such, the ending just in general isn't all that satisfying.
I would also like to specially comment on the usage of kinks in this manga. It feels like they're something that should be a core aspect of the manga, but the specific kinks themselves aren't. What matters is that the characters have the kinks and are very weird about them. It's essentially just for the purpose of comedy and not for ecchi. The manga doesn't really do anything all that interesting with what the characters do to satisfy their kinks. It's all very basic and incredibly tame. I'd even go as far as saying it's boring. Thus, I don't think this manga will do all that much for you if you're interested in the specific fetishes. The art is decent enough but not all that special. It also felt like the art got worse in the second story as compared to the first.
tl;dr: A manga that's only strength is a pretty unique and funny concept that unfortunately gets stale pretty quickly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 14, 2025
This is a pretty short story that serves as a bridge between Trails in the Sky and Trails to Zero while introducing a few characters that appear in Trails from Cold Steel. It chronicles what Estelle and Joshua were doing after the Liberl incident that led them to come to Crossbell. Technically, I think that Trails in the Sky 3rd actually takes place right in the middle of this manga considering that the pair seem to know Renne's whereabouts in Sky3. But for all intents and purposes you might as well view it as in between Sky3 and Zero. And thus, it should be read
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in between playing those two. I should also note that you should read the in-game Carnelia novels before reading this, because they actually play a pretty important role.
The story is a solid enough tale of Estelle and Joshua taking on a Bracer job and doing an exceptionally good job thanks to Estelle's optimism and perseverance. It's something generic and nothing too special, but it's pretty enjoyable if you're already invested in the characters and enjoy seeing more of them just doing what they do. The art was pretty weak though.
tl;dr: A pretty good Trails short story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 14, 2025
This manga is an account of what occurred in the first two Trails in the Sky games from Loewe’s perspective. It doesn’t try to retell the story so it isn’t really a complete story. Rather, it jumps around to the parts where this new perspective would actually contribute something substantial beyond what the games already have. Thus, this manga should only be read after having played through the first two Trails in the Sky games. Some recommend playing it after having played the Crossbell games as well but I don’t think that’s strictly necessary. There is a character in this manga that is introduced in
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the Crossbell games, but they’re left pretty mysterious in both this manga and the Crossbell games so I don’t think it should count as a spoiler.
Regardless of whether you read it after Sky 2 or Azure, I would highly recommend doing so. This manga does a great job of filling in some holes in fleshing out Loewe’s role in what occurred. It is especially good at more clearly expressing what his motivations were, and why he had a change of heart. But once again, it isn’t really a proper story in and of itself. It’s an addendum to Trails in the Sky that you’ll enjoy entirely based on how much you care about the characters in Trails in the Sky. If you don’t care about Loewe, Joshua, Renne, and Estelle, this manga offers very little of value. The art is mediocre and not worth reading for, but it works well enough in conveying the story.
tl;dr: A good supplement to Trails in the Sky.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jan 13, 2025
This manga is about a high school boy named Yamaguchi slowly falling in love with a girl named Satou. Yamaguchi is popular and smart and good at sports. Satou is plain and clumsy and bad at everything. He originally finds her annoying and dislikes having to sit next to her in class, but eventually he comes to be impressed by her kindness, perseverance, and unfaltering optimism.
The manga does a good job with Satou. Her good aspects shine through really well and it's easy to empathize with her lack of self-esteem. She comes across as really cute. Yamaguchi I didn't really like much. The manga is
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very heavy on emphasizing his thoughts and feelings so he's ultimately fleshed out pretty well. However, he's so grounded that he's actually kind of annoying.
Their relationship arc was a mixed bag. There are a lot of cute and heartwarming moments. However, at the same time the plot can get really weird. One of the major plot threads involves how Satou has a crush on a guy she's never met and only knows virtually. This was just really bizarre and I have no clue what the author was trying to do with it. The manga also ends at a point where they have not progressed enough in their relationship for it to be satisfying ending. I suppose that this was unavoidable for a partial adaptation of a novel series, but that doesn't make it any better.
The art was pretty generic and plain, but decent enough other than that. I would also like to note that while this is listed as seinen, that this overall felt very shoujo. I generally do not like shoujo romance and very rarely read it, so take this review with a grain of salt if you do, as you'll probably like this manga more than I did.
tl;dr: A romance manga that has a cute heroine but that is pretty weak outside of that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 7, 2025
As the title would suggest, this manga does feature a romance between a 29-year-old man named Yariba and a 15-year-old girl named Karen. However, romance is surprisingly a pretty small part of the story. I would say only about 10% of the manga is related to this romance, with the majority being towards the beginning and end of the manga. About 50% is about Yariba working as a manager of sorts at a car insurance call center and getting involved in all sorts of corporate drama. And the remaining 40% is about Karen pursuing her dream of a becoming a published author.
The parts of the
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story centered around Yariba’s work life are really well done. The actual subject matter isn’t all that interesting to be honest, in that it’s mostly just optimum call center strategies or corporate forensics. However, Yariba is a great protagonist in such a context. He’s very proactive and competent when it comes to his job and is very realistic about all the bullshit that goes on. But at the same time, he still does his best to do right by his subordinates. And when things get really messy and he ends up a victim of corporate sabotage or on the path to being set up as the scapegoat for someone else’s malpractice, it’s his prior good behavior that ends up helping him turn things around. It can be quite thrilling to see how things progress and it’s really satisfying when Yariba manages to eke out a victory.
The parts of the story centered around Karen’s writing are much more generic. It’s mostly just the standard affair with things like her guardian wanting her to pursue a more realistic career or her needing to pick herself up after her writing gets heavily bashed online. What makes this side of the story interesting is how Yariba plays into it. See, Yariba once dreamed of being a writer, but after many failures he gave up and ended up a corporate slave. Now he’s serving as a mentor to Karen and helping her with her writing in order to vicariously achieve his dream through her. And on top of that Yariba is often able to muster the willpower to put up a fight at work thanks to being inspired by the passion that Karen shows. The writing surrounding this dynamic is interesting in that it acknowledges how selfish Yariba is being, but at the same time it doesn’t really judge him too negatively for it. Overall, I liked the dynamic.
Now while the romance is only a small part of the manga, that is not to say it isn’t there. It isn’t just a hook to draw the reader in. It is something that does progress significantly over the course of the story. It is kind of tacked on though. While it is absolutely essential that the two main characters have an age gap, it didn’t really feel that their being romantically involved with each other really contributed anything. The writing does bring up the obvious issues involved in such a relationship and also explores some of the less obvious ones such as differences in values between generations. Though ultimately, it pretty much just waves them off. It’s not like there’s all that much in terms of romantic fluff either. Overall, it just felt half assed and rushed. There are various other side characters including a couple women that are clearly in romantically interested in Yariba who similarly also feel greatly underdeveloped. For better or worse, the manga is pretty much entirely focused on Yariba’s work life and Karen’s writing.
This manga is the adaptation of a light novel series, and though I haven’t read the novels I believe that this adapts only the first two volumes of what is currently an eight-volume series. This is a good point to stop though as the ending has Yariba making it past a long running crisis, Karen’s making a major breakthrough in her writing career, and the two having taken a major step forward in their relationship. Thus, I was pretty satisfied with the ending. I would read the novels if they got a good translation but I doubt they ever will be.
The art in the manga isn’t that great either. The art quality is okay, but the art style and framing just make the manga feel really plain. There are moments here and there where its a bit better but overall the art didn’t really do much for me.
tl;dr: A manga that contrary to the title is mainly a pretty solid corporate thriller.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jan 2, 2025
This is a manga about a guy and a group of girls playing around in various arcades. There’s not really any sort of overarching plot, but the manga provides a good amount of trivia and random knowledge about a bunch of games. There’s also a good variety to the games being played, ranging from crane games to escape rooms to goldfish scooping. As such this aspect remains reasonably interesting. Beyond that this manga is just a generic harem ecchi rom-com. The cast is likable enough though everyone lacks depth. The romance is really weak though and has an indefinite ending. But the harem and ecchi
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aspects are still handled decently enough. The art is pretty good too though pretty generic. It’s nothing special but its enjoyable enough use of the couple hours it takes to read it.
tl;dr: An incredibly simple harem manga about having fun playing arcade games.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 19, 2024
Zai x 10 is a gag manga by the mangaka behind The Daily Life of High School Boys. It is similarly just a series of gags featuring a reoccurring cast of characters with no real plot. The gags are centered around crimes committed by various criminals, ranging from airplane hijackers to phone scammers. Many of the criminals and their victims appear in multiple chapters, but they’re still not fleshed out at all. They’re simply whatever their role is, such as hitman or shoplifter. There are some relations between characters, but they’re basically just for the sake of the relations themselves being unexpected and serving as
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the punchline.
The only thing the manga has going for it is the comedy. And overall, I’d say it was decent enough. Compared to The Daily Life of High School Boys, the humor is much more ridiculous and nonsensical. It’s the type of humor where there’s no real logic to anything and no sense of continuity whatsoever in order to have punchlines that are even more unexpected. For example, characters are constantly dying or getting arrested, but they’ll just show up again in another chapter as if nothing happened. It’s a bit too random for my tastes, but those that are really into this type of humor will probably enjoy it.
The art is pretty plain, and while it doesn’t really make the manga better it works well enough so it doesn’t make it worse either.
tl;dr: A wild comedic series of shorts about different kinds of criminals with no plot whatsoever.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 18, 2024
This is a manga adaptation of a light novel that also has an anime adaptation. The anime adapted only the up to volume 5, while the manga adapts up to volume 10, though it skips volume 8. So the manga does get significantly further into the story. However, the light novel is twenty-four volumes and still ongoing so the manga still adapts less than half of the full story. Still, this manga in and of itself is still pretty good.
The story is centered around Glen being forced into becoming the teacher at a magic school despite hating magic. This hatred of magic is due to
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him essentially serving as a magic assassin in the past and ending up traumatized as a result. Over the course of the manga he has a pretty solid character arc where he forms closer bonds with his students and overcomes his trauma and his past in order to protect them. He’s also an incredibly lazy good for nothing most of the time which is hilarious and makes him a really likable protagonist.
The rest of the main cast is also fleshed out well and overall are pretty likable. Sistine is a girl that’s working really hard towards her dream and though she starts off book smart she gets absolutely terrified in actual battle. Over the course of the manga she gets stronger in terms of combat abilities and mental fortitude, though she definitely still has a ways to go. This might not seem like that great of a character arc, but the manga manages capture her fear really well so her making progress on that has a lot of impact. She’s also a pretty fun tsundere.
Rumia is an incredibly kind girl that has a complex past which makes her wonder at times if everyone around her would be better off without her. Thus, she struggles with if she has the right to work towards her own happiness in such circumstances. Her character arc involves her becoming more selfish, which also results in her putting more effort towards her relationship with Glen.
Re=l is a girl that somewhat lacks emotion and simply works for the sake of whoever she’s dedicated herself to, but over the course of the manga becomes more human in terms of having emotions. She’s a pretty generic kuudere but she’s written decently well so she’s a solid enough character. Though the manga skips volume 8, which is an arc focused on her, so she gets less development than she deserves.
The side characters are also pretty solid. The most important is Celica, who is a sort of step-mom to Glen. She’s somewhat similar to Rumia in that she has a complicated past that makes her wonder if she deserves to have family, and her arc involves accepting her bonds with Glen. She’s a fun character because she’s a doting mother than can get really extreme when Glen pushes her too far. There’s also Eve, Glen’s former boss when he was a soldier, who has the beginning of a really solid character arc in that she starts off incredibly arrogant, but her pride gets completely and utterly crushed so now she has to build herself back up, though the manga doesn’t get that far yet. A lot of the rest of the cast also have hints about their pasts and motivations, though it doesn’t do all that much with them yet.
The world building isn’t that expansive and the magic systems of the world aren’t fleshed out all that well long term. Despite that, the writing does a good job of building things up within the scope of each individual arc. In each arc, there will usually be minor events where aspects of the world or mechanics to the magic system will be shown and explained and then in the climax one of these will generally be critical to resolving things. This results in the story flowing well. This combined with the great action results in the manga overall being pretty exciting. And add in that there’s also a lot of good light hearted parts with great comedy and it results in a really well paced manga.
The final arc ended up pretty rushed though, despite it being the longest in the manga. It’s an arc that definitely takes thing up a notch so it’s a pretty epic way to end the manga. Though at the same time the ending isn’t anywhere near a proper ending, so ending right after it’s raised the stakes considerably results in an ending that feels considerably more incomplete than the anime ending. Still, the parts that took place after the anime’s ending are pretty great so I don’t regret reading the manga.
The art is decent but not amazing. The style and quality are fine but not particularly noteworthy. The character designs in general are really good though. The school uniforms especially make absolutely no sense but I love them. There’s also a good amount of color pages.
tl;dr: A manga with a great cast and great action that flows well, though it only adapts part of the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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