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RaW Hero is a work done by a man who is mentally insane. I guess that's already obvious because this is the same author that made Prison School, but this series is on a whole other level. Just from the first chapter alone, you can tell that this is a series that you can not take seriously and also in the same vein can not expect to be any semblance of "quality."

All this series wants to do is to be weird, to be unpredictable, and it covers this up by calling itself a gag manga. And honestly, it is pretty funny. I actually laughed a ... couple times reading it.

I think that this is a manga in the same vein of something like Golden Boy, although I think that this is just way funnier. To enjoy this manga, you can't expect anything out of it. You read this to laugh a little bit and to see all the ecchi shit that happens.

I don't know if I can recommend this manga to any normal member of society, but I do think that if you enjoy something like JoJos or Golden Boy or Prison School then you might derive at least a little bit of entertainment from this story. Plus, it only takes like a couple hours to read because it's so short.

I gave this a 5/10, close to a 6. Decently funny series that doesn't try to be "good" in any way.

Shimeji Simulation is a weird little manga. I mean, you can sort of understand what you are getting yourself into just from the very beginning. A girl who was a shut in for middle school decides to go to high school, and she also grows mushrooms on her head and she also becomes best friends with a girl who has a fried egg on her head.

Does any of this make sense? Not really. And honestly, many of the things in this manga are purposely meant to make no sense. Here come the spoilers now, although it's already in the title: these characters (probably) live in ... a simulation.

But that doesn't matter. What matters, ultimately, are the vibes of the manga. The story is there, sort of, if you search for it, but similar to a manga like Blame!, a lot of what I think this manga wants to be is just to be weird, nonsensical, and also have cutely drawn girls wander around this weird mess of a world.

Perhaps there is a lot that the author wanted to say with this manga. I personally am too lazy to go back through the manga and analyze it deeply for some deep hidden meanings. But, I think that the author also purposely made this manga bizzare as a way to encourage the reader just enjoy the vibes without thinking too hard.

If you are okay with slice of life, and you also accept this manga for what it is, then I think it's worth it to read it. It's boring, yet interesting if you look for it, and I think that dynamic was fun to have.

I'm giving this manga a 6/10. Not to say that it was bad or not a masterpiece (because this is one of those works where I truly think the author has to be a special sort of manga author to make), but this manga is only what it is, and that is Shimeji Simulation. Give it a try if you're bored, I think that it is at least somewhat worth your time.

I wish I could've enjoyed this manga. But, the truth is that it just simply is not that good.

There is so much potential in this manga, but I guess Ozaki's writing skills just weren't good enough at this point in her career, as the execution is just short of terrible. I loved the premise of this manga, where there is a mysterious immortal man who eventually has to take care of a teenage girl. I thought that their dynamic would develop into some kind of wholesome father daughter relationship. As the series went on and more characters were introduced, I also thought that this would ... develop into a more philosophical series where there doesn't seem to be a good answer to the challenges presented. I thought that the important characters would go through their own character arcs and have a nice resolution. The series never really did into any of these things.

I think my favorite part of the manga was during the beginning third of the manga, when the story was still being developed. I think the villains were introduced very well, especially with the character of Yuca. I loved Yuca's introduction, and I loved the explanation of the Methuselah's past that came along with that backstory. But, after this, the manga just kind of devolves. I can tell that Ozaki had a good outline of what to do with the story, but nothing is actually followed through well. I know I said just a few sentences ago that my favorite part of the manga was during the beginning, but in truth that may be the only actually decent part of this story.

As the series goes on, many of the main characters start to feel crazy and inauthentic. The main character, Machika, starts to become unbearably annoying, and originally interesting characters such as Sharem become simplified and one dimensional. Yuca, who I thought was the most interesting character, did a 180 and started to act in a way that felt out of character.

The worst part of this manga for me was the romance. It's just so bad. I was immensely uncomfortable anytime anything romantic was shown. Machika is too young a character, and I felt that she didn't really have any chemistry with Rain. At some point it starts to feel like all the romances (background ones included) only happen because the author felt some need to include needless romance in the story.

I hate to say it, but it just feels like there is no reason for anyone to read this manga. If you want something with that same old school 90's sci-fi feel, go read Trigun. If you want a very, very good story about an immortal man who has to protect a teenage girl, go read Blade of the Immortal. If you want a good romance story that is better than this, go read anything else because the bar isn't very high. If you want to read something else by Kaori Ozaki that is actually very good, try either The God's Lie or The Golden Sheep. These series, while short, were good enough for me to try out this series just because they shared the same author.

I rated this manga a 4/10, but truth be told I think this score might still be too high. I decided to give it a few extra point(s) because the art is good and also because I'm biased due to how much I like Kaori Ozaki's other works.

Golden Boy is the worst manga I've ever read. While I wouldn't really want to recommend it in general, I think that reading at least some part of this could still be entertaining because of just how weird it is.

And this manga is very, very weird. I personally did not love the anime, so I started reading the manga with no prior information hoping that it would get better. Instead, the manga only gets worse the more you read it. It reached a point where I was physically cringing during almost every chapter, and I had to take multiple breaks from reading because it was ... just too much.

I think Golden Boy works best if you just show out of context screenshots to people. Some insane (and I mean insane as in I seriously think the author has some kind of mental illness) things happen in the manga, and those things are pretty funny if you just take them out of context. Over the course of the series, however, I found that the antics of the manga just got tiring.

At some point in the manga, the author seems to stop caring about writing a coherent story, or even writing a coherent anything. Instead, he just has the characters have sex and start ranting about society and life, usually all at the same time. I got tired of those real fast, but the author seriously has some pretty delusional (and a bit hypocritical) takes sometimes. Some of those rants honestly sound like the stuff you'd hear from a crackhead out on the street at 2 am.

The sex is also just really weird. Some things that happen in the manga include, but are not limited to: mind control, statutory rape, rape in general, NTR, crossdressing, and urophagia. If you're into that, go ahead, but I think you would be better off reading a doujin.

I see that other reviewers online have hated the art. Personally, I thought it was decent enough, as the quality of the art fit everything else pretty well. It's not the best, but I think the art is just a product of it's time.

There's a lot of things that happen in the manga that I could talk on and on about, but I don't know if I can even remember them all, so I don't want to list them all out. Other reviewers on MAL do a pretty good job of doing that already. I will say, however, that the ending is pretty atrocious, as the series just abruptly ends without concluding anything in the middle of a story arc.

For most of the series, I was feeling a pretty strong 2/10. I only give 1s out to series that completely piss me off, and the first half of the manga is just plain bad, but not bad enough for me to actually get annoyed. That started to change more towards the end of the manga when literally every page became a struggle to read.

Final Rating: 1/10

tl;dr: probably not worth reading unless you want something that is so bad its entertaining, except it's not that entertaining most the time

Nausicaa is a masterpiece. and it might just better than anything else Miyazaki has ever created, Studio Ghibli movies included.

Most people finding this manga will have already watched the movie, as I have, so lets just get the differences between the manga and the movie out of the way first:

Firstly, the movie is actually the adaptation of the manga, and not the other way around. Furthermore, compared to the movie, the manga encompasses a longer, more complete story, and frankly it is just a higher quality in general.

I admit I am biased because I enjoy reading much more than I enjoy watching, but I believe ... a lot is gained from consuming Nausicaa in the manga medium. The movie is cool, sure, but the manga contains far greater depth that any movie could ever hope to achieve. The movie only encompasses the first two volumes of the manga, and it also has a completely separate ending.

When I talk about the "depth" that the manga has compared to the movie, I mean that because Miyazaki wasn't constrained as much while drawing the manga, he was able to create a work exactly as he envisioned it, without any compromises. The movie could only cover around two hours of screen time, but with the seven volumes of the manga, Miyazaki has all the room he needs to explore every inch of the story that he envisioned. It's because of this that the manga carries with it a sense of completeness, like it accomplished exactly what Miyazaki wanted to do.

That being said, even though this story a certified classic, I don't think that I got a level of enjoyment from this manga that equaled its quality. In other words, although I appreciate the quality of the manga, I didn't actually enjoy this manga as much. I think that this was more to do with my personal taste just not matching up with what Miyazaki wanted to create.

I honestly didn't really like how the story had this depressing tone permeating throughout every volume. I think a healthy dose of depression is almost essential for any great manga, but this story just beats you over and over in the head with the message of "humans are evil and a cancer to nature." Things just die and die and humans do terrible things over and over again and it got tiring for me.

As a result of this, Nausicaa is not the most bingeable manga. I personally love binging manga and finishing things pretty fast, but this manga just had to be digested slowly, with every volume needing its due time to digest.



***Starting now, I will be discussing some parts of the story that may contain spoilers, so skip this if you are worried about that***

There are also a few parts of the manga that just made me uncomfortable. I didn't really like how all the people just started worshipping Nausicaa. It was probably symbolic or something, but it just made me feel kind of weird. There's also a wide prevalence of the Miyazaki style/mentality, which is basically just "war is bad, environmental damage sucks, and flying machines are cool." It's cool at first, but at some point halfway through the story I got pretty tired of just how often Miyazaki would hit you with the "war bad" message.

Towards the end, I think I got a bit burnt out by the manga, and I just did not agree with the ending. I thought that it was a reversal of Nausicaa's character, because in the end she basically decides to just kill off a bunch of unborn people who were supposed to be the people who repopulate the earth after it was pure again. I also personally didn't like that Nausicaa destroyed the crypt, although I guess it makes sense as overall commentary stating that some knowledge should never be gained (I'm pretty sure this was a metaphor for nuclear warfare). Just to be clear, these aren't things that I would actually want to change in the story, it's just that I personally didn't like some parts of the story because I can see a message that Miyazaki is trying to send, and sometimes I wouldn't agree with the message.

***spoilers end***



tl;dr Nausicaa is a masterpiece, but that doesn't mean that it will be the most enjoyable manga to read. Definitely read this if you are a fan of manga in general, and I recommend it even more if you are a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre, or if you like depressing media.

To me, this manga isn't a 10/10, just based off of my personal criteria where I think a manga has to be both exceptional in both quality and enjoyment. Nausicaa definitely hits the mark quality wise, but enjoyment wise, it just wasn't really there for me. Because of this, I'm giving it an 8/10 overall.

Hotel is a weird series to write a review one, because it is actually a collection of short stories, each with their own degree of quality.

I've read my fair share of Boichi works, and for the most part I've come to the conclusion that while he is very good at drawing, he is not quite as good at writing stories to go with the art.

However, the first three chapters of this manga are, surprisingly, pretty good! This might be some of the best writing I've seen from Boichi.

Chapter 1 is a pretty cool story about this little AI that has the job of keeping ... all of life's DNA intact. It's postapocalyptic, and pretty well written. I'd give it a 6/10.

Chapter 2 is about a man and his soon to be dead wife. It's just a one shot, but it manages to pack a pretty cool story in the short amount of time. I'd give this a 7/10.

Chapter 3 is my favorite in this entire anthology. It's the story of a man who just so happened to eat the last tuna in the world, and his life's work trying to bring it back. It's funny, yet still deeply touching in a way. I'd give it a 8/10.

The last two chapters are, quite frankly, a mess. I don't really know what was going on there, or what Boichi was trying to do. I'd give them both a 2/10.

Adding this all up, you get an average score of 5/10, which I think is pretty much what this series is. It's a cool, short read that I would recommend if you want to just pass some time.

I'll be honest. Flow is far from perfect. But having come fresh off of a second reading of this series (4 years after I read it for the first time), I think that this is a case of a series that just has an ending that is so well planned out it elevates the rest of the series to a higher level.

Before we talk about that ending, lets first state some of the glaring flaws that Flow has. The first problem that I have with series actually comes from the translation.

I read this from Webtoon, and the translations are simply not good. There is a ... decent amount of typos and grammar issues, and some of the dialogue can feel sloppy, which is more of a fault of the translator than it is of the author's writing ability. I'm honestly surprised that Webtoon still keeps this translation up (and are even charging Daily Passes for it), because this series just deserves so much better*. The translation is so awfully done, I would almost recommend pirating the comic.

*as an example, they say that someone's name is Jun, and then right after it is shown on a nametag that Jun is actually spelled Joon. Just sloppy translating, which really sucks.

That being said, the story does suffer from some writing issues. The author actually mentions that she wrote the story for part three, and this makes sense because, to some extent, it does feel like the rest of the story is just filler to get to part three. The first two parts suffer from many Webtoon cliches, such as there having a tournament arc (which I didn't like too much), and also the need to have a ranking and play pointless games. If you've ever read a popular Webtoon (think God of High School, Tower of God, Unordinary, etc), you've definitely seen similar things before too.

This is made even worse by the art, which is frankly pretty sketchy. I didn't really care for a lot of the background characters, because they all looked the same. I mostly used the tried and true anime tactic of recognizing people by the color of their hair.

When building up the mystery, the author also tends to use the pronoun game a lot. This just means that they will end a chapter with a person saying that they need to tell "them" about someone, without actually saying their name. It's a bit tiring and lazy, in my opinion, but it can be brushed off.

But the reason why I rate this manga so high is because of the oh so amazing part three. While rereading the series, it took me about a week to drag through the first few parts, but then once I hit the end of part two and the beginning of part three, I just couldn't put it down. The pace really ramps up, and part three is when all the shit hits the fan. It's pretty obvious that the author planned out the ending extensively, because after reading part three you can go back to the previous parts of the story and find various details, which I really love. There's even a lot of tiny little plot twists and subversions, which just even add more to the story. Some of these are listed below, but they are pretty big spoilers:

spoiler warning!!! Don't read this part until after you finish the series!!!

Because Seo Yulbi is a pigeon anima, you are led to believe that she was the red phoenix all along (she also has pink hair), but it turns out to be the little boy. The series also makes you guess if the older brother or younger brother is the black dragon, but it ends up being both of them, which was also a nice subversion. Hyun Eun Jol's anima is also a snake, which is a nice lead up to him being revealed to be the black turtle, as snakes and turtles are both reptiles.

spoilers end here!!!



The first time I read Flow, I rated it as a 10, albeit with a few flaws. When I inputted Flow into MAL, I decided to knock that score down to a 9 (because of part two, which I remembered not enjoying). To me, part 1 is a 6/10 (which could become a 7/10 after you read the ending), part 2 is a 6/10, and part 3 is a solid 10/10.

On the second reread, I've decided to combine these scores into a total score of 8/10. I admit that this score is inflated due to a good amount of nostalgia from my part, but I still think that this story has merit just from part three alone. In all honesty, because I've just read so much great manga, I think if I read the series blind today I'd probably give it closer to a 6 or a 7. That, in my opinion, is still a high enough score to justify reading it. Maybe you'll get your mind blown just like I did when I first read this story 4 years ago.





If you want to read a similar story (albiet significantly more complex and hard to understand), maybe try out Pandora Hearts.

Koudelka is a story with great potential that just kind of falls short, mostly in part due to the pacing and the overall length of the manga. I like the ideas that it has going for it, I just feel as though the manga needed maybe 3 to 4 times the length in order to fully flesh them out.

The story starts off as a simple "oh no mysterious girl has amnesia" story, but it quickly devolves more into sci-fi/fantasy tropes. Some parts of the story can feel a bit cliche, but I still had fun with those moments. What I do have a problem ... with is just how rushed everything was.

I'm no expert on this manga, but it feels as though it got axed straight from the start, which might contribute to the rushed pacing of the story overall. The author tries to contain so much, yet with only 15 chapters, each story arc probably only lasts 3-4 chapters, and things just sort of happen that you have to accept.

There are a lot of ideas and elements within the story that seem interesting, and the story actually does conclude in a satisfying way, which I found surprising considering how much actually happened in the story. At some points I felt as though things might get too expansive, but all things considered the author actually does tie in most things pretty well, which I thought was impressive.

Is this worth a read? I say yes, especially if you are a fan of that late 90s/early 2000s artstyle (think Trigun). It's only 15 chapters, and although the chapters are a bit lengthier than average (around 33 pages on average), this manga will only take about an hour to read.

If you want a very expansive and intricate story that sort of has a similar tone, try Pandora Hearts.
If you love the style of this manga, maybe try Trigun.

Overall, I give this a 6/10. Solid and worth a read, but not worth going out of your way for.

A short review: Memories of Emanon is mystical in its premise, oddly nostalgic in tone, and amazing to read. Go read it, it is a perfect short story.


I want to spend the rest of this review writing somewhat of a reflection that also serves as a preface to the story.

To start, I want to say that as of this writing, I have only read Memories of Emanon, and not a single chapter of the follow up series, titled Sasurai Emanon. Memories of Emanon itself is a self contained story that is adapted from a short story by Shinji Kajio. The manga itself is actually also ... made in a collaboration with Shinji Kaijo, and although there has been a sequel series published, I found that Memories of Emanon has a special charm to it when read just by itself, so I wanted to note down my thoughts before I start the other series.



The premise of this manga is such:

Memories of Emanon is a mystical story about one night aboard a ferry that you will remember forever. The year is 1967. On board a ferry you meet a beautiful girl. The name she gives you is Emanon, but she is also quick to point out that this name is really just "no name" backwards. Names are, after all, just labels. As you sit down to eat, she begins to tell you a truly fantastic story...



It is almost impossible for me to use a perfect word to describe this series, but nostalgia is the first word that comes to mind. The story is essentially about one short night that the narrator would carry with him for the rest of his life. There are only six chapters that actually have to do with the story, and these chapters are split into times, starting in the afternoon, and ending at night. The entire story structure is, for the most part, the narrator recalling this one night.

A second word I would use is to describe this series is mystical. The secret story that Emanon tells the narrator is (spoilers!) that she has the memories of every life form since life has existed. However, I don't think that this is what drives the story. What I mean by this is that it doesn't matter what makes her mysterious, it is the fact that she is mysterious that drives the intrigue of the story.

In the afterword, the author, Shinji Kajio speaks that he wanted to write about a fantasy he had while sitting on a ferry, which is that "wouldn't it be amazing if I met an incredibly beautiful girl on a ferry ride, and I spent the whole trip talking to her about random things?" To that extent, Kaijo completely achieves his goal, as the series is really just about how the narrator meets an incredibly mystical and mysterious girl, and what effects this has on the narrator. It's incredibly fun to enjoy the interactions between the narrator and the Emanon, but at the same time there's also a sense of wonder from Emanon being something that it supposedly supernatural, and I think that provides a really interesting dynamic.

The story is brilliant, but what makes this manga truly outstanding is the art. The first thing you notice when you read this story is just how beautiful everything looks. Of course, Emanon herself is beautiful. But, there is still a painstaking attention to detail in the backgrounds, and I love how every character looks.

When you combine the beautiful art with the beautiful story, I find that the end product is so well done I'm surprised it was even published as novel at first, because it just works so well as a manga. Just as the story only takes place over one night, yet has a lasting impact on the rest of the narrator's life, I expect that this short story is one that will stay with me for a long time.

Final score: 10/10, or 5/5

Chainsaw Man is probably one of the most unique manga I've read, and that is in part due to how chaotic and bat-shit crazy it is. It isn't afraid to wear its influences on its sleeve (Dorohedoro and JJK, as stated by the author himself), but it still manages to be amazingly unique and wild.

The story is mainly just about this poor (in every sense of the word) boy named Denji, who has a demon friend who also lives in his heart who also helps him kill other devils. Don't worry, it will make sense as you read the manga more, much like Dorohedoro.

This manga ... does everything. It has action, interesting worldbuilding, fun characters, and most importantly it's own sense of style. It even made me laugh the hardest from any manga I've ever read from from just 6 pages, during a very memorable scene involving hamburgers.

There isn't much else that I can or want to say about Chainsaw Man, because so much of it is just so unique and hard to explain. I also don't want to say too much because of potential spoilers, as explaining parts of what makes this manga so unique might be a spoiler (Halloween!). All I can say is that this manga is very good, even bordering on great, and is definitely worth a read.

The only things that I didn't really like in the manga is how it feels a bit incomplete. There isn't nearly enough information on things like the darkness devil, for example. However, these issues should be fixed, as there will be a part two coming out soon.

Story: 9/10. Pretty interesting story, really unique world, however it does feel a bit incomplete, as I mentioned above. This opinion will probably change as part 2 comes out.

Art: 9/10. The art is very unique, but sometimes it feels a little bit scuffed at times. This isn't necessarily bad, but I don't give out 10s for art carelessly, and although the art is very good I don't think it compares to the art of I Am a Hero or Boichi's work, for example.

Enjoyment: 10/10. One of the most fun series I've read.

Characters: 10/10 The characters are great. Power is one of my favorite characters, and I loved watching the relationship between her, Denji, and Aki progress. The villains are also great. Santa Claus is amazing, for example. I personally am indifferent to Makima, but watching the online wars revolving around her simps and normal people is also super fun.


Overall: 9/10 There isn't much to dock off points for. The only reason that this manga isn't perfect is because it feels a bit incomplete, which should hopefully be fixed as part 2 begin to be published.