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I loved the first 25 chapters of Kimi wa Pet, but not so much the rest of it. Everything I found intriguing at the beginning of the story-- Sumire's refreshing personality, her relationships with Momo and Hasumi, and her funny yet relatable work environment-- all ended up needlessly frustrating as the story dragged on and on without any real change. In the 5th chapter, Sumire is in a relationship with Hasumi, however she has Momo living with her as a pet. By the 40th chapter-- the situation is still pretty much the exact same, save for a few minor details. At this point, I was ... almost over the manga as it had seemed bloated with filler, and I was worried that the story would repeatedly drag on until the final volume.

Unfortunately for both Kimi wa Pet and me, the story took a worse turn that simply being a drag. Something unexpected occurred in the middle of the manga which left a bitter taste in my mouth and completely hanged my view of the story. Spoilers ahead-- but something about falling in love with the person who raped you when you were black-out drunk just isn't something I'm into (and neither should anyone else be). Combine that with a plethora of other grievances about the manga-- such as Sumire's long-term emotional cheating on Hasumi, a weird time travel plot-twist at the end, the lackluster side couples, confusing paneling, and bad pacing issues-- the manga just ends up falling flat on its face for most of the series.

Now don't get me wrong, Kimi wa Pet has its moments. I was enthralled with the first few volumes of the story, and even in the latter chapters, there were still a couple moments that pulled on my heart strings or made me smile with glee. The last 15 or so chapters had a good amount of development between Sumire and Momo, which I liked because I wanted them to be together. The ending is relatively nice, and it IS a decent manga as far as mature/adult relationships go-- however, none of that is enough to save Kimi wa Pet for my own enjoyment. 6/10.

Dosanko Gal is a pretty great manga... up until the point where it became a harem. I have to admit I really enjoyed the manga in the beginning— there was a cute girl doing very cute and funny things, and an MC who maybe didn’t seem hopelessly dense when it comes to love. But alas we can’t always have our cake and eat it too.

Unfortunately I had too high of expectations when I thought this MC could actually recognize and realize the main girl’s feelings. No matter what type of romantic or sexual advance main gal makes, our virgin boy always somehow dismissed it ... or turns it platonic. For example, in one chapter, our main gal straight up sends a photo of herself in the bathtub to MC, yet he has the audacity and lack of brain capacity to respond with, “You’re very serious about taking care of your beauty! I really admire that!” Like NO sir, she was trying to get you to fuck her, not praise her skin routine. It is like this with practically every girl he encounters— main girl #1, main girl #2, and probably main girl #3.

Despite MC being as dense as a brick, and despite the manga steering into a harem route (which I personally think is unneeded), there are still enjoyable things about this manga. Every main girl is genuinely a likeable character. They all compete for MC’s love and affection while still being friends and maintaining a good relationship with each other which is pretty respectable. And somehow I also still think that MC is an adorable and loveable character— he just needs to work on his density.

Other pros: Good art, funny story, light ecchi (not too much and not too little, just the way I like it), very regionalistic as Hokkaido culture is apart of the manga.

Overall, could this manga be improved? 1000000% yes. Should you still read it even though it has flaws? Yes, yes you should.

God, how do I describe Shimanami Tasogare? Should I call it a masterpiece? Or should I wait until there's more chapters to say that? Well, for now, I'll summarize it in a few words: extraordinarily amazing, and a MUST READ for LGBTQ+ people.

Truthfully, I do not even know where to begin with describing this manga, much less explaining on why it's so fascinating and revolutionary. I guess I will start with talking about the basis of the plot: Shimanami Tasogare is a slice-of-life/drama manga about a group of LGBT people who find themselves all hanging out in a lounge. The story revolves around a ... gay teenager who struggles with his sexuality and very slowly learns how to find comfort in it. Alongside him are other queer people-- a lesbian couple who wants to marry but find social obstacles in their way, a young cross dressing boy who hasn't figured out his identity yet, a transgender man whose old classmates aren't very accepting, and others. It's a story about the struggles of LGBTQ+ people living in Japan.

Now, I'll explain exactly what makes Shimanami Tasogare stands out from all the other yaoi/yuri/LGBT manga out there. One of the biggest reasons Shimanami Tasogare needs to be praised is that it's purely a story about queer people in Japan. Personally, I feel as if the lack of glamorization and sexualization in this manga is what makes it so refreshing. There's so many anime and manga out there that uses gays/lesbians purely for sexual desires. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but yaoi/yuri has become both awkwardly glamorized and fetishized, and people sometimes forget that gay couples aren't simply entertainment. There's also a lot of anime that use trans people for comedic effect/shock factor. But this manga doesn't follow these stereotypical cliches.

Another reason is that Shimanami Tasogare addresses the very real psychological, physical and financial struggles of LGBTQ+ living in Japan. Truthfully, I have seen very few manga that centers around what it is like being a gay person in Japan. And it does in such a modest manner that you cannot help but respect it. What this manga does is it creates very realistic and normal characters, but simply make them queer, and then place them in situations that any queer person in real life could find themselves in. These simple yet meaningful and eye-opening incidents can range from unaccepting family members or quitting a job due to the heavy social pressures of being gay or your classmates finding out you're gay when you haven't come out of the closet yet. This manga takes these elementary, almost mundane-like struggles of any queer person and somehow creates an entertaining, yet informational and compelling story out of it.

Though, what contributes to the overall success of a story such as Shimanami Tasogare is not only the story and characters, but also the small details and what is hidden in between its lines. Symbolism is a common trope found in this manga, yet it is never abused and adds a charming mood as the audience tries to figure out, often with not much struggle, as to what certain objects or drawings can mean. Also, something the vast majority of people can agree on is that Shimanami Tasogare is known for its beautiful, detailed and sensible art work, only assisting to its realistic atmosphere.

I can probably go own for hours, maybe even days as to all the little things I currently love about this manga. But I will wait until more chapters are released. Until then, if Shimanami Tasogare continues on its glorious path, then I can say with absolute certainty that it will become a masterpiece.

[Story]: 9
[Art]: 10
[Character]: 10
[Enjoyment]: 10
[Overall]: 10

Here's my review of Rakudai Kishi no Calvary. I tried my best to make it short, had to actually cut a lot of stuff out (it's still kind of long) but I didn't want to drag it out.
Story {8}:

The concept of Rakudai Kishi no Calvary is not unique. We've seen it a thousand times before actually. It's a magical school series where students fight against each other in an elimination round style to prove that they're the best in the school. Main Character, who always has a crowd of girls around him for some reason, is labeled one of the worst fighters but is ... actually one of the best, etc. etc. Just the usual. But something that separates Rakudai from every other series is the actual content in the story; the execution of it. Hidden underneath the introduction of the series is a fantastic anime that makes it more than the typical shounen.

Art {8}:

The art is a little unique. It doesn't look like your typical anime art, though that doesn't mean it isn't good. The character design is average; the backgrounds are beautiful, and the way it's overall drawn is pretty nice. The art rarely ever falters as well. And in the last six episodes especially, the colors play a unique feat.

Sound {8}:

The music and overall soundtrack of Rakudai is pretty good. The opening is very catchy and won't leave you disappointed. I can't say the same for the ending (the ending sounds like something in a horror anime tbh. It reminds me of Another's opening) but it isn't too bad either.

While we're discussing about sound, I should add in that most of the character's voice actors/seiyuus voices really fit their characters. You know those characters who look super badass and mature but their voice is super squeaky like a loli or a child? That doesn't happen in this anime.

Character {8}:

The main characters are pretty good. Their personalities aren't original or anything and there's definitely a lot of recycled tropes and cliches, but the characters are still enjoyable and nice.

Both the male and female lead, Ikki Kurogane and Stella Vermilion, are both nice characters. They both trained very hard to get to where they are today, and neither of them are dense. They might be annoying in the beginning, but both of them get character development over the series, making them lovable characters.

There's some other characters as well, like Ikki's sister, Shizuku, who can be very, very annoying in the beginning of the series but becomes an enjoyable one, and Ikki's friend, Alice, is mostly there to give him support throughout the show. There's also a whole bunch of other side characters too.

Enjoyment {9}:

As for enjoyment, I thoroughly enjoyed this anime. It was quite the pleasure watching of. I loved a lot of things about it; the amazing choreographed fight scenes, the lovely soundtrack, the fact that it's NOT a harem, the extremely cute romance in it, etc. I don't have too much to say as to why I liked this anime, but I just know that I was anticipating for the next episode every week as it aired. In my eyes, it was a totally enjoyable anime and I honestly hope that it gets a season 2.

Overall {8}:

Overall, I'd give it an 8. Personally, I rated this as a 9 on my anime list (since I rate mostly on enjoyment) but if I added in all the other factors such as story, art, etc. then it'd become an 8.

Rakudai Kishi no Calvary is a fantastic series, and though it's concept is pretty cliche and overused, the execution of the show is amazing.

When I finished reading this short one-shot, I was laughing my guts out, not like there was any funny scenes, but I was laughing at how absolutely horrible this was. Despite only being 20 pages, there's at least four or five times in this one shot that make you go, "What the fuck?! Haha, that's crazy!" And I hope that this is a one-shot that was made as a joke and not an actual manga (I apologize for my blunt harshness but it's true.)

Story (3): I guess you could call this story a "Love at First Sight" kind of story. The boy (or man, ... I should say) literally saw the girl and became lusted by her looks, then asked her to meet him on the top floor near the escalator. What's even more funny about this is that she agrees to it and willingly takes the time to walk to him even though she had never seen him before in her whole entire life. And not even knowing his name, she's seemingly in absolutely love with him. The rest of the plot escalates quickly from there and it's quite amusing to read.

The story does probably deserves something lower than a 3 since the story line is absolutely atrocious, but because of how funny the author handled the situation, I'd rate it a 3 at best.

Art (2): I honestly don't even know what to say about the art. It looks like some 2002 shoujo line art gone wrong. It's not mad cringy but you'll probably be surprised when you first see it, and not in a positive way. Though, I did fairly like the usage of the screentones.

Character (1): The characters are very plain. We know extremely little about them (though that's common for a one-shot) and both of them are pretty dense. The man sounds like an arrogant pervert who only wants the girl for her body, not to mention that he's 11 years older than her. The girl acts a little childish, though she is 18 years old and still in high school. She's naive and seems to fall in love wayyy too easily, which could be a good thing, if only they hadn't, literally, JUST met each other.

Enjoyment (4): From my personal opinion, it wasn't something that made me shiver from head to toe in absolute disgust. There were a lot of parts that I didn't like and some parts that I found myself laughing at; this whole thing just kind of felt like a crack manga. Pretty much the whole reason why I'm giving it a 4 is because it made me laugh a lot.

Overall (2.5): I'd rate this a 2.5. (MAL doesn't have decimals so I rounded the overall score to a 3.) I wouldn't really recommend reading this unless you wanna be plagued by bad art and a horrible story line, but that's up to you. The only real thing that would make this one-shot worth reading is the tiny bits of humor in it and the overall laughter of how poorly written this was. I can't even guarantee that you'd laugh to be honest. This may be an okay read if you're looking for a quick read on something light and nonsensical (while still SOMEHOW managing to retain a plot) but if you're looking for an actual GOOD shoujo, then you should look elsewhere.

Don't let the fact that Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! is a 4-koma manga or the fact that its summary statement seems rather week drive you away.

Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! is an amazing manga about a teenage girl, Tomo Aizawa, confessing her love to her childhood friend, Juunichirou Kubota. The only problem is that Jun thought Tomo was a boy until they entered middle school and he keeps treating her as if she was a guy even in high school.


Story:

The main plot of this story is Tomo trying to get Jun to notice her and accept her as a girl more, even if it ... means totally stepping out of her comfort zone and becoming more feminine. Though I wouldn't say that this plot is the most unique or original, the execution of it is flawless. Right in the first chapter of this manga, it already seems to be leaving a strong and hilarious impression on you, and that impression will surely grow as you read the next dozen or so chapters.

Though, as it is a 4-koma manga and there's barely enough material to get one volume, don't expect there to be any major changes in characters. No character development yet, folks. The story progresses nicely and it moves at a fairly quick pace, but that's a good thing since it doesn't really drag any scenes out so that they're unnecessarily long.

Art:

The art is very nice and neat. It's easy to distinguish between main characters and some of the facial expressions the characters make are absolutely phenomenal. Plus, there are times where Tomo looks like a girl and other times where she looks like a guy, adding to the beautiful confusion of why Jun might have seen her as a boy when they were younger.

Characters:

The characters are absolutely amazing. They all have different and contrasting personalities that blend and balance out the mood of the story. None of them fall into any of the /dere/ categories (except maybe Tomo, but that depends on how you see her.)

Tomo tries her best to be open with Jun, but ends up using violence almost every time to cover up her shyness and embarrassment. Jun is hilariously dense when it comes to Tomo and romance in general, but he has a good heart and always means well. Tomo's best friend aka the MVP, Misuzu, is a cool type of girl, one that you'd mistake for a sadist in the beginning but find out that she's more than just cold glares and petty insults. There's a whole bunch of other fantastic characters that make up the pretty amusing cast.

Enjoyment:

I definitely enjoyed this manga. I read it at 12am at night and it had me in absolute stitches. I was laughing so loudly that my dad had to text me to be quiet and go to sleep. I'd definitely read it and recommend it to so many people because this manga is absolutely amazing and funny in so many ways.

Overall:

I'd give it a 9 out of 10 score. I probably repeated this over and over again, but this manga is absolutely hilarious. If you're a comedy lover and don't mind a few perverted jokes, this is for you.

FINAL SCORE:

Story: 9
Art: 9
Character: 9
Enjoyment: 10
>>Overall: 9