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Jul 6, 2023
My biggest takeaway from this movie is that Shun and Mio’s relationship is notably messed up and incredibly depressing. Is that what people find appealing about this series? Not always; from reading reviews, its appeal often lies in “realistic representation”, personal relatability, and a supposed dearth of toxicity. I do not care much for those things; I just want convincing romantic writing, but there was a jarring lack of buildup. Was that the point? Was the gap meant to draw attention to how egregiously desperate Mio is because of his loneliness and life circumstances, and how Shun possibly thinks he’d never be able to find
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anyone else who’d naïvely accept him to such an extent? Is this supposed to make me intensely uncomfortable when they show intimacy? If anything in particular, was the usage of the “oh, I know you actually want this, so I’m going to veto your refusal to consent” trope meant to be exciting or disgusting? The answer does not matter, for there was not enough chemistry between them to make it remotely tolerable (for me). I cannot root for them. It feels like the writing shoots for melancholy and drama just for the sake of it. Unfortunately, attempting to portray the effects of discrimination does not automatically create depth. It may have depth in other areas, though—the extent to which their relationship is messed up was interesting to analyse—but it has mostly just left me angry. As for the age gap, they get together as adults after a timeskip; cool, but in my opinion, the way that element was executed and treated was disconcerting because the adults around them normalize adult-child affections and portray them as endearing. Feel free to think differently, but it’s hard for me to read it in any other way. The story wouldn’t be as exuberantly deranged without that element, though, so maybe they made it creepy on purpose? To excite those who relish in the disturbing and downcast (i.e. realistic)? I actually prefer to read “messed up” stories above “wholesome” ones sometimes, but I wasn’t remotely excited. This story mostly just felt hollow and gross. I did not find that it celebrated gayness whatsoever but instead focused on how grim it can be, to the point where it’s easy to read it as trauma porn.
Anyway, there were pretty backgrounds, but I hate it when adult or older teen mcs look like little kids, especially in BL. I don’t necessarily think it’s creepy in all cases; it’s actually an interesting choice given the history of the genre, but I don’t personally find it appealing, especially in this particular series. Also, the animation is jarring at times, and the cats’ eyes threw me off. Thus, I don’t feel inclined to compensate many points in the art department. As for the quality of adaptation, I will be generous: the writing/pacing is not its fault but that of the source material, which the anime only improves upon by being slightly prettier. It almost got a bonus point for tempting me with the presence of a superficially refreshing f/f couple, for their exuberant presence in the same home as someone as repressed as Shun provides some context for Mio’s frustration (among other things). However, they treat Shun’s infatuation with Mio when he’s still only 16-17 as normal and cute. When people do that irl, it creeps me out. Thus, I have elected to revoke half their bonus point, so as to echo Shun’s revocation of Mio’s right to verbally refuse to consent.
Ultimately, aside from the very short list of mentioned positives, I do not like anything about this series. In assuming for the sake of my own analysis that it is rich in (depressing, intentionally messed up) subtext, I may be giving it the benefit of the doubt. However, rich subtext can be tarnished by what appears even at surface level to be subpar writing, especially in the departments of pacing and character development.
(note that i don’t exclusively accept safe, “wholesome” bl; one of my favorites is bad boys, happy home, which is MUCH darker than this and has similar problematic elements. i also do not exclusively enjoy optimistic or celebratory bl. if you have a disdain for being wrong, please refrain from attributing my take to puritanism, and instead patiently reread the previous paragraph.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 20, 2022
I don’t think you should go into this manga taking everything the author says at face value. I prefer to read it as a portrayal of the author’s complex relationship with his own reality, especially the anguish he feels when he tries to reconcile himself with it. It’s more of a cry for help than it is applicable to real life, I guess, but it’s detached from reality for a reason—heavy stuff can hard to think about and confront directly. In the end, it was easier for him to continue his escape with fallacious portrayals of human nature than it was to make any constructive
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points or observations. And that’s what most people end up falling to, anyway. If anyone has ever had a conclusive answer to the questions he dances around, they would have shared it with the class by now.
That is ultimately what made me appreciate The Music of Marie when I could’ve easily dismissed it just because I disagree with what one may mistake for being its message. The story, art, and writing are all simultaneously intricate and raw, just like their world as it is under Marie’s watch. Emotion does not escape through the cracks in its machinery to draw your attention away from them—it’s what powers the machine to begin with.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 20, 2022
Reading this was an EXPERIENCE. It got really wordy, but the art is masterful. Don’t be fooled by how pretentious some of the characters’ waffling is. I don’t think it’s intended to teach or be relatable to the reader; it more so shows you some perspectives that inspired the work, but it also might characterize the setting and the main characters’ uneasiness within it. I connected to both leads in that respect, so maybe the story won’t have the same meaning or impact for everyone as it did for me. That is, however, pretty standard for a manga that requires you to do a boatload
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of thinking in order to get anything of substance out of it…unless you liked the way it looked at surface level, anyway..
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 20, 2022
For a story that should be rooted in humanity, Monster feels oddly distant from it. Many characters feel like spokesmen for ideas rather than actual people, and even the main character and antagonist do not feel fully fleshed out, which is shocking given the length of the series. Often times, the side characters were the ones to captivate me because they had emotional backstories, but most of them seem to be forgettable plot agents. I find that in series of this length, this is usually a detriment because it makes them difficult to follow if you don’t binge read. My immersion was frequently broken because
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I would forget so many details that I’d have to go back and skim old chapters almost every time I picked it up again…after like, a day. Meanwhile, with other, longer series with larger casts, I’ll recall nearly everything, so I don’t think it’s that I have a below-average memory. I think I may not have even cared to remember; the author couldn’t make me, nor could my own extrapolations.
Ultimately, I think the main reason I cannot say I fully enjoyed Monster was that I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. It features some questionable and vague portrayals of mental illnesses, disorders, and trauma, and these are hinged upon for the story to even work. Additionally, it depicts Tenma’s surgical genius, an intricate plot in a very politically charged setting, and methods of manipulation in a way that feels like the author is just throwing things at you and saying, “trust me, bro.” I’m not closely familiar with all of the subjects it presents, so I’m not an optimal judge for their accuracy, but neither is the average reader, and things did feel off. Considering that the series otherwise seems to want to be grounded in human reality, this can be damning, as it’s much easier for me to take something at face value when I know it’s supposed to be a little ridiculous to begin with. Then again, considering that many characters may have been nothing more than plot devices, maybe it wasn’t supposed to be realistic after all. So I should be paying more attention to the “themes”…except wait, nothing made me feel remotely motivated to, and again, it hinges on the antagonist’s trauma responses being convincing…and now I’m stuck in a loop.
I’m sure Monster feels suspenseful and well-crafted if you don’t do this kind of thing to yourself. I’d be willing to dismiss myself as a picky old curmudgeon who just could not get immersed. It was so rough that I initially dropped it after volume 4 a year ago, and was deathly afraid to pick it up again. Now I fear that if I am to ever actually appreciate it, I may have to do some external research, but I feel like that’s not something one should have to do just for a story to be believable or remotely impactful. Overall, Monster probably was just not for me, and I should have given up a while ago. Maybe if I had approached it with more forgiveness—although there was nothing that made me want to—I would have had a better experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 15, 2021
I don’t usually watch anime, and when I do, I either drop it or it takes months to finish because I stop for no good reason. I think this is the fastest I’ve ever watched an anime, which is saying something. I don’t know what it was; I even found the beginning to be unrealistic and lackluster.
I don’t really care about that now, though, because everything that followed was so compelling. Even when it was rocky, there was just something about it that kept pulling me in, whereas with other shows, they’ve started really strong but they didn’t give me a reason to care
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about them. This show rewarded me for staying. The later episodes, wherein the characters’ individual struggles were touched upon, hit really really close to home; they made me reconsider what I value in life and what I’m missing. I really needed to watch something like this, and I’m so glad I actually bothered to for once.
I think we all might need our own Hakone Ekiden.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Nov 18, 2021
TL;DR: What with the push among some for BL manga to be “wholesome” and “relatable”, I think it’s hilarious that Ganbare Nakamura-kun is one of the poster children. This manga could be considered insidious—it masquerades as a cute, silly story about a guy who loves his classmate, but if you squint, you can easily reveal the author’s fetishes. If you’re uncomfortable with some of the less savory BL tropes, be wary of the sequel. This is relatively tame; the sequel is worse. I doubt that the events of that story are a misunderstanding or a setup for criticism of that trope because of what I’ve
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seen in the author’s other work. Overall, I think the uproar in favor of this work as one that is a “great step forward” for LGBT+ manga is misguided; from my perspective, it’s just more of the same old stuff I hate and would like for authors to move on from.
The rest of this review will contain minor spoilers.
As for my problems with this manga outside of that: I found Nakamura kind of annoying and just downright weird. I’m not really rooting for him, though the author most certainly wants me to. The humor was the wrong kind of ridiculous for me, and that’s coming from someone who has a flair for the bombastic. Like, it wasn’t believable, which is fine, but it wasn’t even interesting. I couldn’t take any part of the story seriously because of it, but the more serious parts are not all that riveting or groundbreaking to begin with. For some, the themes might be a breath of fresh air, but I’ve read so many works with LGBT+ themes that this one felt dated and stale.
To clarify what I alluded to in my introduction, a student is mistaken to be in a weird situation with a teacher for “haha funnies”. However, it was not funny at all because it was like, “why would THIS be what you’d jump to”, and it made me feel suspicious of the author. I tracked down their other works and I found…more teacher/student stuff, but worse. I am fine with reading about morally questionable topics as long as they are treated with sensitivity; there are shown to be consequences for the negative actions (and the author shows awareness that it was messed up); and/or the execution is thought-provoking or interesting. Ganbare Nakamura-kun isn’t that for me. While nothing actually happens, it comes off like adult/minor teacher-student relationships have been normalised and fantasised about by the author; after all, it is clearly a BL trope they like. It doesn’t do much to critique the trope, merely playing it off for laughs and to shed light on Nakamura’s extreme anxiety. That is why it irks me that people think this manga is one of the pinnacles of “wholesomeness”. You’re allowed to like stuff that isn’t 100% sanitary anyway, but it’s also ridiculous to blindly promote something as “wholesome” just because you loved parts of it so much you didn’t notice that something was off. If the “wholesome” medal is meant to protect younger readers, then be extremely careful with what you choose to bestow it upon.
Anyway, there’s no actual romance, so I don’t feel inclined to call it much of a BL. If you are chill with that and just want to read about a guy with a crush, this will be fine for you. If you don’t have a thick stomach and don’t want the positive connection you made with this book ruined for you, you probably shouldn’t read the sequel.
Overall, I do think there should be more queer stories about “a guy with a crush”, as they can be relatable for many readers (just DEFINITELY not me). However, I’d prefer for them to be thoughtful, well-intentioned, and actually funny. IMO, there is much better BL (and otherwise) out there if you feel like looking for it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 24, 2021
Chainsaw Man is by no means perfect, but my brain keeps telling me it is, so that’s probably saying something.
I will start by making it clear that I technically started this series by accident. I had seen the first volume at the bookstore and gotten it so that I could give it to someone who needed it, since it had been hard to find at the time. Instead, I became so captivated by the book that I couldn’t bring myself to stop reading, let alone give it away.
The biggest reason why I am so attached to this series is because it’s so interesting to
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think about. There is a goldmine of depth and literary genius underneath its surface. I think more people should go looking for it.
It’s probably been eight months since I finished reading, but I still haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I think the series as a whole does not just break some aspects of the shōnen mold—it also subtly critiques some of the expectations and feelings of parts of its audience. I have talked my mom’s ear off about it more times than I can remember (and I don’t even live with her, nor did I ever talk about much to her when I was growing up, so I don’t know WHY I do it). She thinks I’m crazy.
What I would say Chainsaw Man suffers from is occasionally ineffective pacing, but it doesn’t ruin my investment in the story as much as, for example, the pacing issues in Jujutsu Kaisen do. I also think that if there had been just a few more chapters where the characters just got to relax together and expand their relationships, it would have made the heavy parts hit harder. For example, a specific scene involving Angel Devil would have been more impactful if he’d been given more screentime alongside the other central character. Instead, it felt like it came out of nowhere the first time I read it.
When I don’t consider my feelings about Chainsaw Man, it’s probably a strong 8. However, that just feels wrong, so I gave it a 9 here. Please go read it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 1, 2021
This series is really special to me in a weird way. I could not tell whether I actually loved it after having finished it because I was so immersed in the story that it felt much more like an actual experience than something I was reading. I couldn't consider it in the same vein as most of the other manga I have read, and I think that in and of itself makes it a great manga.
The characters and their motivations and their growth alongside each other are extremely riveting. They felt like real people to me. I love how cutthroat Tetsuo is.
The only part I'm
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still not sure of my feelings about is the ending, so the last few chapters. I also am not sure how I feel about some of the author's depictions of Tetsuo, especially in chapter introduction pages, though I personally was fine with it (and I am trans myself).
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 1, 2021
While I really appreciate how this manga stands out from other BL in how it treats the MCs' relationship, I thought the premise was kind of meh, and the characters were notably underdeveloped and uninteresting. It felt like their backstories were all there was to know about them, and I wish that there had been more meetings between the brothers and the main guy before anything had happened between them.
While I'm a sucker for cute stuff, this didn't really hit that spot for me. I think it the fact that it was so short may have been what made it too saccharine for me--I don't
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think the MCs really had enough time to shine together and develop actual chemistry, so the ending did not feel earned. Thus, I couldn't really get much enjoyment out of this manga.
While I didn't really enjoy it, I will say that the art was really nice--I love the cover. I also thought the portrayal of the little brother, Tane, was very accurate; he reminds me of my siblings when they were younger.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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