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Literally, physically painful for me to read in many places. Having known people who have experienced abuse (and having known people who are abusers), it felt very real. After a harrowing night when I soldiered my way through the entire thing in one sitting a friend asked what the point of it was - who knows if he meant the point of subjecting myself to it or the point of the series. I think what the author is trying to do is render the experience of abuse and the life that grows from it in visceral detail. It isn't a caricature. When it leans into ... the abstract, it feels relatable rather than mind-bending, how a person sees the world when they've been through something as difficult as this.

Like I said, though, it's not for the faint of heart. While I'm very sensitive to stories of child abuse because of my work and my personal background, I've never actually experienced it myself. If you have, or if someone very close to you has, this might be overwhelming. I also don't know what the impact might be on someone who has experienced abuse and can comfortably read the series. Would it feel like old hat? Would it grant insight, or would it only dredge up the past? I don't say these things as a criticism. If only for its educational or empathetic potential, the series seems (to me, who again, hasn't experienced abuse like this first hand) like a worthy contribution to the world.

The closest parallel to me feels like PERFECT BLUE, a movie very close to my heart. PERFECT BLUE is a lot shorter and very different just by the format of a movie itself, so it's a very different experience, but if you feel like you got something meaningful from it, you would probably appreciate CHI NO WADACHI/BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. I say appreciate, not like - I struggle to imagine the person that would say they liked this.

Starts out fairly absurd with a crazy depiction of a senile teacher, really out there characterization, and "typically shonen" battles and techniques. Near the end, though, as the extravagant elements start to fall away, the core of the story is exposed as a tragic story about obsession and obligation. It really comes into its own as it heads toward the conclusion, and it makes me wish it had calmed down a little bit to give the earlier events more weight. I think I'm probably the only person that feels that way, though.

Most of the characters aside from the two leads (including their female love interests) ... are much more shallowly drawn. Some of them have a "hero of another story" air about them, which is probably because they featured more in the novel Shigurui is based on, but others feel more like caricatures. Some people will probably enjoy that, like the more out-there tone of the earlier parts of the series, as mentioned previously. For me, Kogan was a sticking point. The master of the dojo where both leads are students, Kogan and his idiosyncrasies play a major role in the series, but he doesn't often feel much more "real" than someone like Yujiro Hanma (BAKI). If he had been more human I think it would have enhanced the dynamic between him and his students, and their dynamic with one another. Someone like Logan Roy in SUCCESSION is what I'm thinking of.

The art is very strong, again, especially in the later parts. Yamaguchi uses a lot of nudity, literal and figurative, which always demands reflection, I think. It's not just fanservice, and can often be pretty disgusting. The goal is to get at the "core" of the characters, what's going on "inside" them, but after the tenth time it isn't very impactful. The landscapes are a high point. The elaborate castles and cities of the Tokugawa have a lot of shine. Personally, I thought the characters were fine, but not exceptional, both in design and rendering. The action is well realised and makes it clear what's going on when, which is something a lot of combat series struggle with.

A really solid work by Taniguchi, which should be no surprise.

JOURNAL OF MY FATHER uses a funeral as the setting for a man's exploration of his father's memory. It's a conventional premise, but Taniguchi uses it to good effect. Yoichi and his family are depicted with as much rawness as a Japanese funeral allows, and for the most part the stiffness of the proceedings contributes to the overall work. Yoichi is essentially estranged from his family, and a funeral can't mend those fences.

The most successful parts of the manga come near the end when Yoichi really comes to terms with what his estrangement ... has meant for his father. While it's built on the foundation of the first half, I think that this section needed more room to breathe specifically because it's the most emotionally affecting. It seems like the story moves a little too quickly from point A to point B here.

I really have to admire Tezuka's ability to cover an enormous range of subjects. There's not many people that would seriously attempt a graphic retelling of the life of the Buddha, a Nazi spy drama, samurai stories, and a queer crime romance. It's not hard to tell why he was such a trailblazer, not only in his early work like ASTRO BOY but in his gekiga era as well.

MW is a mixed bag. It's an interesting premise. The Catholic clergy is a rich subject to mine for storytelling and the queer criminal angle is pretty fresh even now. With that said, it's not a story ... that's aged particularly well. The women here are one-dimensional wilting lilies and Yuki himself, the aforementioned queer criminal, is a caricature. Thankfully our protagonist Garai is more interesting and has some really rich conflict going on as he struggles not only with his vows and with Yuki but with his own history and his sexuality. It might have been a stronger piece if Yuki weren't so cartoonishly evil and the story had focused more on Garai's attempts to fix him.

Even more than MESSAGE TO ADOLF this story is tangled up in the early gekiga style. Tezuka never really amended his art to fit better tonally with his later stories, so his characters look as cartoonish as people like Dr. Tenma from ASTRO BOY. In MESSAGE TO ADOLF at least it lent his depiction of Hitler himself a real vibrancy, but during the grittier sequences it just doesn't work. MW is the same way. There are rare panels when he tries something more realistic, like in the page where Garai is haunted by the memories of his first meeting with Yuki, but overall it looks a little too Disney. Something like Nagai's DEVILMAN does a better job of bridging the two artstyles. If MW got a modern update in the style of Urasawa's PLUTO, it could make for a fantastic anime or manga.

It's an alright read in the end. Tezuka remains a technical master. His pages are composed well and his grasp on story is strong. The trouble is that his villain here is so comically evil that it strips all the depth from the telling. As it is, it's impossible to get past the dissonance between style and subject. Not one of the master's stronger works.

No surprise from Yukimura, but this is a really solid piece of work. It's got a really fantastic depiction of the Bakumatsu and the tensions at work within the war. On one hand, it doesn't demonize Shisengumi like Okita Soji, but it thankfully doesn't valorize them like the endless romance stories that star them. The real highlight of the piece is a flashback from Soji to his fighting days when he has to confront the question of violence that Yukimura makes one of the main issues in his VINLAND SAGA.

The art is more in the style and quality of PLANETES than it is VINLAND. While ... it probably could have benefited from Yukimura's more lavish modern style, he obviously hasn't developed it yet. What would have been.

When taken together with PLANETES and VINLAND, SAYONARA proves that Yukimura just doesn't miss. With VINLAND wrapping up, SAYONARA makes me wonder what kind of work he'll try next.

A respectful and fairly early portrayal of a trans man in manga, but one that needs a little more depth. Rather than elaborating on one idea or storyline, Ikeda ping-pongs between a few romances with the fairly loose connecting thread of Claude struggling to make people understand him.

The art is solid, but that's unsurprising from a real star of shojo. The backgrounds and the fashion are the real highlight here. While the characters aren't especially interesting to look at (partially because of Ikeda's role in defining the shojo style), her backgrounds are rich in detail and depict a more modern France than VERSAILLES.

The ... romances aren't especially interesting in themselves, as mentioned previously. They suffer from "serialized syndrome" where they have some out-of-nowhere endings that don't really clearly advance the story just to wrap things up within the page count for the month.

Claudine is an interesting subject for a manga, but it would really work better if it stuck with one idea for more than a chapter.

Look, it's a great read, but probably not in the way that the author was going for. It's got all the signature melodrama of a shoujo romance/drama (love triangles, vindictive villains, bad boys, good boys, etc.) except... none of the characters can shut up about turning into panthers. It really undercuts the tension in a scene when someone says something like, and I quote, "If I were to be killed, don't turn into a panther!"

The art and plot are passible with some good moments but overall they're uninspired. If I had to wish the author genuine kudos it would be for their page compositions, ... which are for the most part dynamic and well assembled. The characters are cardboard cutouts and you can guess everyone's deal shortly after they're each introduced. But by God would I recommend you read this series. Half of my photo album is screenshots from this series.

The early parts makes you feel like this could be one of the greats and then it ends very quickly. There's not much payoff to the really fun characters, the dynamics between them aren't explored enough, and the things you're hyped for never happen.

Tanjiro and Inosuke are fun. Nezuko starts out strong and ends up being abandoned for the last third of the series, screentime-wise. Zenitsu starts irritating and jumps to being less irritating by having a bunch of development offscreen.

In the end, it's just a pretty okay shonen manga. I wouldn't caution you against reading it, but I wouldn't recommend it, either.

If it were possible to watch episodes 1-3ish, then episodes 9-finale, it would be a 7 or an 8. Some of Urobuchi's best work thematically. The problem is that he bailed out of the middle portions of the series, making it a real uneven mess that takes a turn away from the actual interesting part of the story to do some kinda vapid fanservicey stuff. Unfortunately you can't really skip over it because there needs to be character development to move the hero from the great opening to the great ending.

Still worth a watch, just barrel through the middle.