Back to psyche-K's Profile psyche-K's Profile

EoE, much like the anime it was an "end" to, is polarizing as fuck, and i can certainly understand why. this may be a bit of an unusual take, but i actually kind of liked the last 2 episodes that this movie was supposed to augment. ep 26's message of "although we need other people to survive, you can't solely rely on them to give you meaning. you have to decide for yourself that you're worth something, and that life is worth living" was something i really appreciated (even though i think the monologuing went on for a smidgen too long). however, i was very ... confused as to how exactly the whole "the gang enters a different plane of reality" thing happened. so when i was told that EoE explained what was going on externally, while eps 25 and 26 explained what happened internally, i was pretty excited. "finally, we'll get some explanations for the human instrumentality project, the angels, and all the general weird shit the series is known for!" unfortunately, that very much didn't happen.

the movie starts out with shinji jerking off to topless asuka's unconscious body while he's visiting her in the hospital, and i almost turned the damn thing off there and then. ignoring how incredibly out-of-character and fucked up this is for shinji to do, this is also not the last time we have to look at some 14 year old's boobs in a movie that's supposed to be a serious psychological drama. there are a lot of weird "fanservice-y" moments in this movie that really do not need to be there, and they're incredibly off-putting. maybe that was the intent, but it certainly doesn't seem like it. back to the topic of shinji's character, it's... oof. did you think he was a passive and useless loser in the anime? hoo boy, you ain't seen nothing yet. he spends almost the entire movie being a self-pitying sack of shit that puts his past self to shame, and the consequences are dire.

(you are now entering... the SPOILER ZONE!!!!!)

in general, the main characters are almost completely different from their anime counterparts. rei is the only one that's almost excusable, since she's literally just a clone with no memories (except she is still capable of choosing to defy gendo and merging with eva-01 somehow???) asuka somehow manages to recover from her mental breakdown and magically resolves all her mommy issues (is her mom's soul in the eva, and that's why she was able to have that revelation? who the fuck knows!) shinji becomes the guy people who hate evangelion thinks he is. in the first half of the movie, he spends most of his time moping around (somewhat understandable, considering he'd literally just killed his BFF kaworu), but his inaction leads directly to the deaths of misato and asuka. if that weren't bad enough, he tells rei to make the aforementioned "human instrumentality project" happen, which involves killing everyone so they can all float around together in a sea of combined consciousness. yeah, i know. because he's suffered and lost people (often due to his own actions), he turns everybody into orange fanta. shinji literally becomes the "billions must die" meme.

of course, that would be too depressing and spit in the face of the OG ending, so after some soul-searching (and some weird, avant-garde ass live action sequences) shinji asks rei to undo it. however, it seems that he made it optional, so no one has to return to life as an individual if they don't want to. shinji wakes up on the beach, and finds that the only person next to him is asuka (who still has her outward injuries from her fight with the walmart evas???). he starts choking her to make sure they're not in the instrumentality project, she touches his face, he starts crying, and then she calls him disgusting. then the movie fucking ends. (i gotta say, it really makes the part where shinji decides that he can forgive himself and move on ring hollow in retrospect. in the anime it made sense, but after literally killing everyone on the face of the earth and probably ruining the atmosphere & planet, i don't think self-absolution is really possible.)

as a little aside, i'll briefly talk about the animation and sound. they're both great, as you'd expect. the song that plays during the third impact, "komm, susser tod", is an absolute banger (although i was too consumed with the sheer what-the fuckery of the plot to appreciate it at the time). the animation also isn't handicapped by the budget of three dollars i'm assuming gainax had during the last 2 eva episodes, so they're perfectly capable of drawing the cool robot fights and mental breakdowns we've come to expect from this series.

it's very rare that one comes out of a movie feeling like they knew less than they did before, but by god did EoE do it. i had to go to multiple wikis because i was so fucking confused about what the hell i'd just watched. i'd never watched a movie before this one that simultaneously made me say "too much shit happened, idk what's going on" and "...that's it?!?!" i suppose that's an achievement in its own right, but it doesn't make for a satisfactory ending. i think anno feels the same, considering he made the rebuilds. this movie pissed me off, and it's likely it'll piss you off too. yet even after all that, i still can't bring myself to say "not recommended". there are still glimpses of the eva we're used to among the random ass bullshit we're subjected to in this film. plus, having an in-universe explanation for what the hell happened in eps 25 and 26 is cool, if only so you can argue with people on the internet over it. perhaps it's only the fever-riddled ramblings of a guy with too much time on his hands, but i still think this is a movie you need to watch if you're an eva fan. will you like it? ehhhhhh... but i think it's worth finding out for yourself.

like the other reviewer said, "sangatsu will become an ore-sama" 's title may lead you to believe that it's a shoujo manga. however, it very much is not. if i had to describe it, it's more of a loving parody of shoujo manga (and shounen romance).

this manga involves a girl named sangatsu, whose goal is to woo a klutzy and airheaded guy. unfortunately for her, she's incredibly awkward and freezes up whenever she has to talk to him. she then decides to talk to the resident playboy, nanami, for advice on courting her crush. he gives her coaching on how to imitate the "ore-sama" archetype ... of guys seen in shoujo (basically domineering, suave, and confident). of course, she's not used to acting like that, so hilarity almost always ensues. it's simultaneously poking fun at shounen romcoms and the "typical" shojo story, which makes it surprisingly fresh. there are a lot of moments where they lean on the 4th wall a bit while making fun of various romantic tropes seen in manga, which was pretty fun. (i kinda wished they had spent more time doing that)

the main characters are surprisingly fun. there's the aforementioned sangatsu and nanami, and their respective friends nodoka and yurine. they're polar opposites of each other, so their interactions make for great comedy. some pretty funny side characters also get introduced, and they manage to liven up the manga even more. this is a lot shorter than my usual reviews, but i don't think there's that much to say. i wish it had gone a bit longer, but axe-chan takes many before their time. all in all, it's a nice little manga that provides a lot of amusement in its meager 26 chapters. i'd recommend it to anyone who'd like to kill an hour or so.

i just realized that almost all my reviews have been shitting on manga i thought were trash, so i decided to review one i absolutely adore.

daily lives of high school boys has no plot. there are callbacks and references to past events, but there is no effort put into having an overarching narrative. and in this case, that works brilliantly. as its title implies, this is supposed to be a collection of day-to-day snapshots in the lives of a few dumb-ass high schoolers, and its insistence on episodicity makes the whole thing work like a charm. a lesser writer might have struggled with these constraints, ... but it never drags or feels repetitive.

the main characters are all likable, with similar yet distinct personalities. they insult each other, make poor decisions, and help each other out when it's necessary. they really feel like a friend group that naturally formed off-screen, and not just shunted together for plot convenience. most importantly, they're almost always hilarious. but as good as i find them, their side-character counterparts somehow surpass that high bar. whether it's the hard working student council, the crazy ass literature girl, or the female counterparts to our main trio of goofballs, the side characters manage to steal the show in the chapters they're featured in. they're all incredibly funny in their own ways, and the mangaka always puts them in situations that are perfect for each character.

in short, this manga was great. i was legitimately laughing out loud almost every other chapter, and i rarely saw a joke that didn't land. my only complaint was that it wasn't longer, but all good things have to come to an end eventually. if you want to read a manga that will have you cough-laughing, give this a try

joshikousei no mudazukai seems like it wants to follow in the tradition of "offbeat high school SOL comedies"' like azumanga daioh and daily lives of high school boys. however, poeple aren't going to want to read the exact same thing over again if it's not a isekai rape power fantasy, so the mangaka was faced with a problem; "how do i differentiate this from all those past manga?" unfortunately, it seems her answer was to "make all the main characters unlikable jackasses who very clearly despise each other, but somehow claim to be friends". now, let me be clear: i have no problems with the ... "group of shitheads who are constantly bickering" genre. some of my favorite manga and anime belong to that "genre", so it's not like i can't appreciate it. but there's a very fine line you have to tread when writing characters like these, and i don't think the mangaka did it successfully.

plastic nee-san is a very good comp to the type of manga this was trying to be. it's also about 3 JK main characters who are assholes, but there's two big differences in their characterization. firstly, the main characters seem to generally enjoy hanging out with each other. secondly, the manga really leans into the absurd in terms of character actions. the last part especially is what separates the two. when reading plastic nee-san, the feeling you get is "what the fuck is wrong with these people (lol)". they act so fucking abnormally that it's impossible to take their behavior seriously. when reading jk no mudazukai, the feeling you get is "i know about 5 people like this irl, and i hate all of them".

the comedy is kinda repetitive. it usually revolves around tanaka being delusional or a bully, and her "friends" reacting to it by calling her a dumb piece of shit (which she is). her friend ota is an intelligent and pretentious dork, and robo is the emotionless and unapproachable stoic. a simple way to describe their personalities is, "what if tomo, yomi, and sakaki from azumanga daioh had none of the charm or redeeming qualities that made them fun to read about?" the best parts of this manga are generally when the main characters aren't involved, which is a problem. the three of them are all so insufferable that i look forward to the chapters about the side characters, who aren't anything special to begin with.

in conclusion, unless you like very realistic assholes doing the same asshole-y things for a bunch of chapters, i can't recommend this manga. if you're looking for a similar, but more fun type of manga, i'd recommend the aforementioned plastic nee-san or chio-chan's school road. those do a much better job with their gremlin-ass FMCs

"mixed feelings" pretty accurately sums up my opinion of this manga. there are some good parts, but it takes a very steep dive in quality in the latter half.

*Blade Play* is your typical isekai, except horny. i mean, just insanely, balls to the wall, hide your grandma horny. the premise is that an average japanese college student named kansuke sudo gets sucked into an MMORPG he was playing, and he's chosen as the hero with the power to purify demons. "how does he purify them?", you ask? by fucking them. no bullshit, he has sex at least once almost every chapter. this is much to ... the chagrin of his companion (and later love interest) yuno algracia, a female knight tasked with protecting him over the course of his journey. i'll give *Blade Play* this; for the first 40% or so of the manga, it's awesome. the mangaka's sense of slapstick and comedic timing was elite, and it still managed to keep a semi-coherent and interesting story. the sex was a bit gratuitous, but i still managed to have a good time.

unfortunately, there were about 65 chapters afterwards, which became the ones that dragged the manga down as a whole. the mangaka seemed interested in expanding the world and changing the enemies our heroes were supposed to face, but he clearly wasn't interested in doing it in a coherent way. the latter half of the manga is a rollercoaster, and i mean that in the least complimentary way possible. characters randomly show up and get defeated instantly, the MCs get teleported to random places, and the main villain changes every 15 chapters. things just kinda... happen in the last 60ish chapters, and it doesn't make for good reading. the manga also struggles with tone. it makes an effort to start being darker and a bit more serious, but every other panel is the comic relief characters fucking around, which really ruins any feel of tension or intrigue.

eventually i just gave up trying to figure out wtf was going on and just went along for the ride, and i think that's what you're going to have to do if you want to enjoy this manga.

first half of the manga: 7/10
second half: 3/10
final score: 5/10

the first thing readers should know is that this is very much not a deconstruction of "mon"-type series, and i'm truly not sure why people consider it such. the shadow dragons are much more akin to stands from jojo (at least in terms of how they work). the second thing you should know is that it's VERY edgy. now that's out of the way, let's get into the plot.

i'm not going to insult y'all by writing a summary, because i know you've got eyes to read the one given by MAL when you click on this manga. rather, i'd like to talk about about the ... broader meaning and construction of the manga. first of all, it's edgy. i know i've mentioned it before, but it really is. there's a scene where one of the key characters gets simultaneously raped and mutilated for no real reason, and at the end of the manga

***HUGE SPOILER WARNING, WEE OOO WEE OOO***





the main character's evil twin (kind of???) kills everyone except her and shiina (the MC).





***end of huge spoiler warning. you may proceed, kind traveler***

this is my main problem with this manga and many other deconstructions. they confuse copious suffering with "gritty realism", and the two things are very much not one and the same. i think a story about random kids having superpowers and how they deal with it while growing up in a flawed and imperfect world would be great. if there were kids who decided to become social darwinist terrorists alongside ones that wanted to hide their powers and ones that wanted to save people, it would be fine. but the kids who get shadow dragons are overwhelmingly narcissistic sociopaths with god complexes. the manga even makes note of this, when one of the asshole government suits asks if that's a prerequisite. one of the characters says "it's partly right, but it's also partly wrong too", and refuses to elaborate.

this brings me to my second issue with this manga, which is its complete and utter disdain for explaining fucking anything. MC's deadbeat mom offhandedly mentioning choking her own daughter out when she was younger? fuck you, it happened. MC's sister becoming a shadow dragon and her parents not mentioning her to shiina at all? yeah, that happened too. bully character in a sexual relationship with her older brother? why not??? character stabbing her dad to death with neither provocation or explanation? just one more to add to the file! it's just a near endless stream of awful or strange things happening for no real reason. the mangaka is clearly a nihilist who doesn't see any good in humans, but he's too lazy to actually write antagonists who aren't cartoonishly cruel or literal fascists. the philosophical justifications they give for their actions are empty, and they really just boil down to "i want to do whatever i want, and everyone else should bend to my whims". it's like a manga full of henry kissingers.

given that the antagonists are not great, one can assume the protags do not fare much better. shiina is the only normal shadow dragon "bearer", which makes her very unsuited to be in this manga. the mangaka doesn't really seem to have much interest in normal people other than having them die horribly, so her interactions with others are almost completely irrelevant to the plot. nothing she does ever actually works out for anyone, and it seems like the whole point of this manga is that being a genuinely kind person is for fools and never results in anything positive. the ending really hammers that bit home.

this is a manga that a 13 year old would read and think "oh man, this is so cool and deep" while telling his mom to fuck off and leave his dinner outside his room. i'm being facetious obviously, but this manga is devoid of any imagination. it mistakes nihilism for enlightenment, and seems to smugly revel in its own cynicism. there were times i had to pause and stop reading because of the unending stream of bleakness, and that's not realism. the human experience is more than just endless suffering. are we capable of great evil to others and even ourselves? most certainly. but that's not all we are, and there's worth and value in fighting against that tide of cruelty. hell, even evangelion understood that shit.

in conclusion, unless you're in your edgy emo phase, you won't enjoy this manga much. even if you're here for gore, most of it is off-screen, so you won't be able to get your kicks from this. i wouldn't bother reading this unless you like extremely detailed drawings of jets and character designs that resemble shitty CLAMP knockoffs

i kinda go back and forth on this manga's quality. as you read in the synopsis, it's about a girl who dresses like a boy and the various shenanigans this causes for her and others. while it's accurate, it's almost a bit lacking. it seems strange to say this, but i'd call this manga rather shakespearean in its story telling. not in the sense of "eminently quotable and legendary piece of art", but in the sense of "this story runs solely on misunderstandings which compound themselves into increasingly worse situations because the characters are incapable of being honest". like romeo and juliet, hamlet, or many ... other of his works, the main narrative thrust of a lot of shakespearean plays involved a failure (whether intentionally or unintentionally) to communicate. like those plays, bokuhime uses these misunderstandings as fodder for both comedy and drama.

the reason i related this to shakespeare was because of similar feelings i had while reading both works. my main feeling, to put it bluntly, was frustration. so much of the drama could have been prevented with honesty, and i feel like the social aftermath of shindou's gender confession could've even been as (if not more) interesting than the story we actually got. many times i was almost yelling at the characters to finally be honest about who they were and/or what they were thinking, because the moments where they did so were easily the most interesting. however, those were too few and far between.

although i spent a lot of time dumping on this manga, i will say that i didn't hate reading it. the comedy was pretty decent, the art was fine, and the characters were generally entertaining. i don't know that i would read through it again, but if you're bored and just want to read a silly manga about a crossdressing girl, you could do a whole lot worse.

this is probably going to be pretty derivative of the other reviews, but fuck it, we ball. anyway, this manga is ridiculous. not in a good sense, but in the "this has passed so far beyond illogical that there's nothing other to call it". if you want to make a good story, your characters' (and most importantly, your protagonist's) thoughts and motivations have to make some kind of sense. naruto and db may deservedly catch flak for their story-related issues, but at least characters have understandable motivations.

the mc of this story... does not. he's a guy who mysteriously attracts crazy people. (and i mean, ... really, TRULY crazy. some of these motherfuckers could give the joker a run for his money.) in just about every chapter, he is brutalized in some new horrible fashion, often while remembering some other awful trauma from his past. and every time, un-fucking-failingly, he decides to forgive them. not only that, but he allows them to remain in his life with absolutely no consequences. now, maybe this could have been some subversion/satire of the whole "hero forgives everyone and sees no problem with heinous actions because they're his friends/interesting/etc." trope (*cough* goku *cough*), and might have somehow been interesting.

unfortunately, that doesn't happen. mc is completely aware that these things are fucked up and that the people who do this to him don't actually care about him. and yet, somehow, he continues to let them torture him (in a very literal sense) constantly. the part that really did it for me was when, in a scene just after his latest torture, a girl asks him why he's so kind to her after all the terrible things she's done. (SPOILER! although i hope to god you don't read this tripe)

-

a possible response might be some cheesy bullshit like "because i don't want to hold onto hate" or "you did that because you were scared and lonely, and i want to make sure you're not anymore" or even "i enjoy being put in near death situations because i am an extreme masochist".

instead, he says "it wasn't really that bad". mind you, this girl has: made him eat dog food, poisoned him with a sick person's bodily fluids, tied him up with the intent of permanently confining him, and BURNED HIS FUCKING HOUSE DOWN! we should note that the mc was noticeably upset when all of these things happened to him, and she is aware of that, because she saw his reactions. not only does she know he's lying when he says that, but WE know he's lying when he says that. (spoiler end)

-

if the author wants to have the mc keep being a punching bag who allows himself to get tortured on a daily basis, there should at least be a justifiable reason for it. instead, we have a protagonist who is in constant danger for literally no reason, does nothing about it, and consistently allows it to get worse at his own expense. the ending is especially egregious with this.

all that to say: this is a stupid manga, with a stupid premise, and an even stupider protagonist. if the author wanted to convince us that the mc truly believed in the inherent goodness of these people, he should have tried a hell of a lot harder. it's the equivalent of watching someone get mauled by a grizzly in its cave, going back a week later slathered in honey, and THEN going back with a suit made entirely out of salmon and steak. there's only so many limits to audience suspension of disbelief, and the mc's wanton disregard of his own well being for no explainable reason strains it to the point of tearing.

this manga kinda disappointed me. when it initially started, it framed itself as a coming-of-age story, where the main character slowly learns to stand up for herself and discover what she's truly passionate about through fencing. she's a typical shonen MC: shy, acts in a very relatable fashion, but has an unexpected reservoir of courage, even if she isn't very strong. one scene that illustrates this is when, during a practice match with the best team in the country, her club president puts her up against the the other school's president, who's a fucking beast. MC is scared as hell (especially considering this is literally ... her second ever match), and goes in the bathroom to freak out, but after overhearing some surprising character development from two of her opponents, she gains the courage to go out there, even though she knows she'll get rocked.

and boy does she ever. in this respect, the manga (at least initially) does a great job of keeping it grounded, by having her get her ass kicked the first time she fights, and later getting an injury during another match because she hasn't done enough strength training. however, it unfortunately decided to go the battle manga route, with the MC unlocking some BS ability that lets her keep up with one of the best fencers in japan (who, for some odd reason, has this ability to analyze her opponent and completely predict every possible move like a fucking computer).

now let me say this before anyone gets mad: i have no problem with the battle manga genre. if you looked at my profile, you'd see it's the complete opposite. however, this manga commits to neither grounded realism nor supernatural powers. if you want to a battle shonen that deals with the implications/actual consequences of superpowers, go right ahead! if you want to have a slice-of-life/maturity based normal manga, go right ahead. my problem is that DUEL! tries to have its cake and eat it too. you can't have people who can slow down time or run perfectly predictive mental simulations and also say "oh yeah, actually you have to work out too lol". if this were a joke manga, i'd be fine with its idiosyncrasy, but it seems to want to be taken seriously.

imagine if, while on planet namek, goku had just killed frieza (spoilers) but ended up getting blown up because he twisted his ankle when he stepped on a rock wrong. if something like that happened in original DB, sure you could laugh it off, because it was mostly jokes. but in a manga where the powers of the characters are impressive and to be taken seriously, it just doesn't make sense. the art is fine, nothing too crazy. the characters are extremely hit or miss. there's the asshole, the ice queen, yamato nadeshiko, the psycho, etc., etc. some of them actually get some development/establishment, but most of them are just boiled down to "the fat one" or "the really tall one".

personally, i can't really recommend this one. it's not the "turn your brain off" kind of dumb but fun manga, but it's not the intensely narrative driven one that lets you see into characters and feels like the real world either. it unfortunately ends up in this lukewarm middle ground where it does neither of those things well but tries to do them anyway. which, i suppose, is a metaphor for the story of the mc's journey in a way.

a typical ecchi shonen rom-com, with barely any plot and entirely too much "plot". i don't mind semi-horny mangas, there are plenty of them capable of being titillating and legitimately interesting simultaneously. the problems i have with eiken are twofold: one, that the art is pretty wack (obviously, quality is subjective and all that, but i find it hard to believe that most people will enjoy looking at it); and two, that the ecchi scenes aren't particularly good at being titillating.

the latter problem is partially a result of the former, but the scenes' own execution contribute to it as well. the main conceit of ... the manga is that densuke (the mc) is constantly having """lucky pervert""" moments (much to his own chagrin) that hinder his attempts to get closer to his crush. now, if these happened in moderation, it would be fine. extremely cliche, but fine. the problem is that they happen literally all the time. you can count on accidental gropings happening at LEAST 3-5 times a chapter, and they really wear out their welcome fast (as well as greatly stretching credibility).

another problem is that the girls seem to be legitimately suffering when these things are done to them. some emotional, and maybe a bit of physical discomfort is expected when it comes to this sort of thing, but the mangaka goes out of his way to have them be in pain and vocalize how agonizing whatever new ridiculous way the mc accidentally gropes them is. i don't know if the creator is some super JK-hating sadist or what, but it's incredibly off putting and uncomfortable having them scream in pain every 5 pages. (i guess you might like that sort of thing if you're a sadist...?)

in regards to the plot, it's... perfectly adequate. it's the typical slice of life school rom-com, and the typical episodic storylines. there's no real plot, and nothing really happens. that isn't necessarily bad, but the problem is the characters are also dogshit. just about every character is a boring, one-note, walking trope.

the cast of the titular eiken club:

densuke, the typical harem protag. he's shy and awkward, but has a heart of gold and is willing to help anyone who needs it.

lin grace, who is peaceful and freakishly strong, filling the "weird foreigner" role.

komoe, whose one defining trait is that she's a giant titted 6th grader (🤨???)

chiharu, densuke's crush who happens to be just as shy and awkward as he is. (are you expecting literally any progress in the relationship for the first 100 chapters? LOL)

yuriko, chiharu's sister. here to fill the "insanely horny and forward" slot that is necessary for any harem. constantly sexually harassing our boy densuke.

miharu, the cousin of the former two. she isn't in the club, and only knows densuke because they met at a part-time job. she's the less "annoying & horny genki girl" version of yuriko, but the more "actually developed as a damn character" version of chiharu.

the teacher, who is their advisor. she literally never gets a name, which shows you how much of a fuck the author gave about these characters.

teddy, a 4th grader in a giant bear suit, for... some reason!

kyouko, a scientific genius loli who secretly loves cute things and is searching for her absentee mom.

kirika, a giant-ass (in both senses) woman whose main goals in life seem to alternate between bullying/sexually harassing/trolling densuke and not doing any work as the club president. she seems to have a hidden kinder and less forceful personality that occasionally appears when she is sick or drunk. her past is a mystery to both the club members and the student body at large.

only 2.5 of those characters are even semi-interesting and have their own personality, and that is nowhere near enough. eiken just simply isn't good enough at the ecchi to let its character deficiencies be glossed over. the only reason i give this a 4 is because of the redeeming features of a couple characters, and the plot occasionally being actually funny. in conclusion, don't waste your time on this: the bad moments are everywhere, and the oases of good moments are too few and far between. if you wanna read a decent school SOL ecchi manga, there are plenty of better options. (for example, something like "In Bura" if you're looking for something bitesized, and "torture club girls after school" if you want something longer)