- Last OnlineFeb 20, 2:46 PM
- JoinedJan 31, 2021
RSS Feeds
|
![]()
Feb 12, 2025
You get what's on the tin. Middle of the pack (jk not really, kinda lowly scummy dude) guy and his yes-men go around sliding by on the bare minimum to pass. Main boy wishes nothing upon his life but mediocrity, just doing what is required, living day to day. But wait... someone appears in his life... a girl... with passion!!! With passion towards a project!!! She wants to be the best!!!
Initially I thought this would go down the route of "guy hates someone who is passionate about something in life, bullies her, then grows to admire her because of her perseverance..." and boy howdy
...
is that exactly what happens. Though, I do admit that the main boy becomes more likeable because he fully understands that the girl has a mission in life and he respects her for it and he stands up to people who diminish or make fun of the main girl, so that's the bare minimum of respectability, good job.
Thoroughly average story, with slightly more heart than a story as brief as this, art is very idiosyncratic, loose and freely moving, varies from time to time, there's a panel where we see the male lead from the side and it looks so derpy, it threw me off for a bit, but I got back into it. I will say though, there were a lot of people saying that this was a very relatable story for them, they related strongly towards the make lead. Which led me to think about the unfortunate state of people who wish to achieve more in life instead of the dreary average. I hope they get more out of this life than originally planned, so that's where this story goes from meh to okidoki (as minor of a jump, I felt sorry for the public comments section.)
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all
![]()
Feb 12, 2025
Usagi Drop 2: Fantasyland Boogaloo (sort of, but it's a shorter one-shot so it's over quick)
I just realized that the aspect of incestuous raising of a child is woven into the fabric of Japan's literary classic: Genji Monogatari. Therefore, whatever insular form of society (nobles particularly enjoy this type of debauchery, and eventual deformity in their children to preserve a bloodline is simply a byproduct) normalized this type of flaw is now reaping the reward of making bad choices in the present era.
The story is divided between a lengthy first part where a non-magical wizard summons a human child from the human world through a
...
magic portal, all in order to eat her heart to gain magical powers. Knowing that if you care and put more attention into things like cooking, you create a better product, the wizard believes that caring for a child over time will make the heart more powerful, therefore stronger magic. So you get to see what happens over that time, the child is stalked by other demons trying to eat her but through powerful stares and the presence of the main wizard, they back off. We later learn that the wizard is part of a noble family of powerful witches and wizards and is sort of laughed at for not having powers.
Up to now, all good, the character design is cute, with a slight vibe of 2000s western animation in the wizard with the lanky and bendy character motion. The small girl is a cute, fluffy kid. And for positives, the vibe shift between the cute versus the creepy demonic creatures is absolutely a high point, it's a drastic contrast as the demons look Lovecraftian, and you even get to see the main wizard's demonic form and it's a treat. For the first part, I thought, oh this is Yattara (other manga currently running in Shonen Jump) in a fantasy world, cool, I can get down with that.
In a twist, the wizard decides to send the child home, if you want to read, there's a pivotal moment of growth around this part that, if the narrative would end here or the story ends differently, this would be a cute 7/10, nice job author, keep workin. But no.
Time skip, 15 years, the human child has now grown to be the same-ish age as the wizard somehow, though visually it looks like the design they give semi thick young woman, particularly of the yandere variety. The yandere is madly obsessed with the lanky, timid wizard and they get so close to kiss and the manga ends with some sort of musings on twisted love/obsession.
That's it, it just closes on that scene. No indication on how the human was able to bring the wizard out of cryosleep into the human world, no further plot development or explanation. Just cringey, obsessive stared and heart designs on the yandere girliepop with the cutesy aesthetic, this is definitely aimed towards an audience of the goon variety. I loved the comments section on the app and their continuous usage of "gooner slop," love that vocabulary evolution.
So yeah, the artist of the work really developed an interesting aesthetic sensibility, mixed in some Mieruko-Chan elements of creepy demon designs, added the usagi drop weirdness and gave us a nervous and meh protagonist when encountering a woman, whereas he was more confident in the wizard world.
I only give it positive points for the decently interesting first part of the story, and loses me everywhere else. 4, which is MAL's way of saying "bad," which it is, because this is one of those stories where the ending absolutely does obliterate what it had going on, because it's so short.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Feb 4, 2025
I liked this, it was a fresh concept from people outside Japan, Rafal Jaki who worked on Cyberpunk Edgerunners, and Machine Gamu who is anonymous so I don't know much about them. So good on Jump for taking a detour to non-Japanese authors, but shame on them due to cancelling the series.
I think I agree with everyone's comment that this world's powersystem is beautifully unique as you get your powers from the name you're given (ursa/ursula variations gives you bear powers, ralf gave wolf powers, etc). Even those characters with the same names or similar names would have a different application or manifestation of the
...
powers- do you control a ghostly beast or do you become the beast you are named after. This resulted in some fun fights and choreography. Everything positive to say about this aspect of the manga, beautiful artwork, cool composition, fun concepts. But yet again this story was cut short.
The main characters are a part of the Nordic Naming Bureau and they monitor the use of people's powers. A decent number of people in the world are unnamed and this causes specific problems within families leading to mistreatment, abandonment, and strange conspiracies. The world is huge and would have garnered many stories and many themes but given only 14-ish chapters (first ones are pretty long), it was not given a possibility to cook long enough.
From the story we have, the story introduced underground fighting scenes, betrayals in the bureau, the possibility of corrupt politicians swaying public opinion, cover-ups about secret programs involving nameless children. It's a lot of concept, a lot of promise, but less cohesion that I would have liked because there was so much up in the air and you could see the main characters are about to go through some growth and engage in some deep revelations about their past but nothing results from this as the series just... ends.
As the author's note says in the final moments and in the comments section of the shonen plus app, see you soon. The author and artist have proved that they are capable of catching people's eye, whether they keep our attention remains to be seen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Jan 28, 2025
Despite the character design making them look rather young even as adults, I think we get to see some of the more proper adult characters in the shonen jump space, though they do suffer from being a lil delulu, childish, and struggling (that's a neutral statement, many artists struggle). We have a musician wishing to make it big despite having a former superstar musician mom, she's trying to escape the nepobaby curse, which, good on you, girliepop. Then we have an artist who aims to make his animations into films at some point, but he always had a love for the musician's music so he
...
wants to animate a music video for her.
Great, the characters intermingle, the goals are set, there's some setbacks, some drama, some growth, and overall just a solid time, if a little boring and with typical usage of cliffhanger endings due to weekly chapter drops. I read somewhere that this was not intended to be a super long running manga, which is great to see from time to time, if anything, its rambling, uneven attention to detail or plot may be due to extending something beyond its intended ending point. And that's honestly a good problem to have instead of the opposite where your wings are cut before you get to fly.
There's kind of a sweet spot that this manga hits between realism and the contrived, messy plot creations of shonen manga. The characters don't express their feelings and bottle it up until it explodes or causes a problem, another manga might have this go on for entire arcs, this one solves it in a couple chapters. A different musician is later introduced and she has a major problem with main protag musician Kashiwagi, and the first time they interact while alone, we see the problem directly, they yell, they air out their grievances, and then they become closer, then another issue arises and since they aired out a previous grievance, they are at a better, healthier place to discuss a new one. Similarly, the main protagonists don't stay in the will they won't they stage for too long, and once the reveal is made the couple moves with certainty. Main dramatic moments are solved relatively quickly with a conversation and a rant and things get better. Main themes include music and animation industry woes, relationship mismatches due to business, creative differences, and success and failure in creative endeavors.
This is decent read for anyone who wishes to see how creatives deal with their problems in a productive way, and while the beginning of this manga really focuses on the intensely driven drunken but ambitious waifu-bait, I think that changes and improves enough to keep things interesting. Our main guy is kind of boring the whole way though he is hardworking and resilient, and the moments where the mangaka's art vastly shines are in those contemplative moments where the main man questions why he is even an artist, or those moments of realization that he's not alone anymore or he's improved in quality. Things got a little rushed towards the end but that's fine, author probably wanted to end things semi-ambiguously because the story should have been relatively short.
It's not a remarkably amazing manga but I hold a sweet spot for its short, self-contained story with an endless possibility for what happens after the curtains fall. I wanted our cast to succeed and I think I was left satisfied with how things ended up. Side characters were not the most fleshed out but they contained a lil bit of growth in their interaction with the two protags.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 14, 2024
Check the other reviews for summaries of each chapter (bilingual, in fact). According to the afterword at the back of the book, this is a collection that was gathered in 2021 against the backdrop of the height of COVID-19's effects on the world. Because of this, I was wondering to what degree some of the themes of pandemic, sickness, isolation, loss of power, loss of access to public space, etc might come into play. Maybe upon a reread those might pop out more but I didn't sense much specifically around those themes.
I want to echo what another reviewer said that I would not recommend people
...
start with this Ito compilation. I would definitely recommend to begin at what made him famous, and go chronologically. Earlier full stories like Uzumaki or more coherent collections like Tomie, or even adaptations like No Longer Human or Frankenstein allow you to see the power of Ito's illustrations over a longer narrative, even if stories like Tomie were published over long span of time, there is some coherence between. Once you dip into his work there, decide if it's for you and enjoy the various collections of short stories that are not this one. Then, and only then, would I recommend this collection of short stories. Not because I think they're bad, just because I think they're not his best, and even he admits one of the stories (Slumber) is more of a thought experiment rather than a fully developed idea. I liked the majority of these but I like them in the same way you enjoy a PB and J sandwich, like it's filling and nice flavor but there's not much there, no lasting power, cheap and easy.
I'm not one to absolutely enjoy everything an author I like puts out, I don't believe things are free from critique. I want to say something completely untrue but I feel it explains how I came to these stories: I think Ito Junji vacationed in Mexico, and partook in our culture a bit because these stories have elements of Mexican culture or are adjacent to it. Lemme explain. The first story starts strong with some inspiration from Mexican folklore of La Llorona (not recall, I said it's completely untrue that there's a connection to Mexico but who knows). I liked this one, it shows women in a ghostly town weeping to fix the drought in an area, but in classic Ito style, the characters grow obsessive and start to rampage. This story is fun and mysterious and allows Ito to draw some extreme faces of sadness and despair along with showing the potential effect of excessive crying on someone's skull (definitely read this one).
Continuing my crackpot theory of Mexico-flavored Ito, the second story has religious cult of catholicism's repression in its entirety. Though thats not unique to Mexico, there's tons of people you can ask about their religion and they say they "grew up catholic" and we won't get into it but there's a reason it's past tense. This story shows some wonky stuff going on with a private school whose protagonist is the typical Ito Junji sameface heroine (no shame to the game but you can't say that he doesn't draw sameface often) but there's a creepy headmaster who's cheating on his wives left and right and some students are leaking salt out their ears. This has a really cool and silly ending when someone gets impaled by a cross, it's wild and overall yeah this one's okay, not bad. Not exactly inventive but efficient at getting across that religion and adoration of idols is a classic horror trope.
This third one has Mexican duende written all over it. Two people go into a forest to commit suicide (Aokigahara), and when they get there they discover a spiritual stream of power that shoots out a cave and one of them decides to go into the stream and it transforms them... I recommend this one for its surreal quality where shit just keeps getting much more wild. There's some sexy moments and the art style of the newly transformed protagonists is silly yet fun and I recommend this one for being on the silly side of Junji's stuff. Less scary, more just kinda funny how serious the protags become at becoming more and more... spiritually connected with the flow.
The fourth one's Mexican connection is probably forced (told you, my theory is stupid and doesn't always hit) but you could say it touches upon several killings like how Mexico is plagued by death (femicide, cartel violence, killing of journalists, etc, it's a problem we have in the motherland). It's the least enjoyable, it's a rather straightforward story of whether one should believe the protagonist or not due to them murdering people in sleep, but not being able to remember it when they are awake in the morning. Ito himself let us know that this came from an idea long ago and it's telling that this is how the collection ends because I think he started on a high note.
Anyway, I would always recommend an Ito Junji collection but I would never absolutely blindly love everything, these are fine and short stories and you can breeze through them in the night, there's a few memorable moments like the skeletons in the Weeping Women short, the impaling in the religious story, and the protagonists new form in the third story, but beyond that, I'm just gonna use MAL's wording for this is just fine, nothing wildly special, not terrible either. 6.5-7/10, I gave a 7 because I enjoyed things more with my theory that Ito went to Mexico.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 13, 2024
I have started some reviews indirectly critiquing people's reviews/commentary on some series recently. My own thought process is as follows: I finish a series, form my own thoughts, draft an early idea, go to see the reception of the series or the major recent chapter, write my review. Before I dive into my thoughts, I think audience reception is important to the work we are discussing: be it massive disappointment, justified or not, amazing praise, again, justified or not, deep dive or shallow wading in the work; how people receive the work is important to me from a holistic perspective.
That being said, yet again,
...
a huge title ends, and I seriously don't understand how people are calling the ending to this work a disappointment, nor can I sit here idly and accept that this is at all times a masterpiece of manga. There were flaws, nothing egregiously detrimental to transform this into slop, and there were high points, that equally deserve their praise and I'm sure other narratives did it better. Now, enough meta-preamble and just give some minor thoughts. This preamble is more for future me to understand that on release, the last few chapters of this series that no doubt will stand as top manga/anime for many was quite divided online.
I jumped into this ride fully hooked on the mysterious introductory chapters that seemingly take place in the future of the main pages of said chapter, there's a seedy underbelly of entertainment mystery and there's a clever setup to the story where we see future glimpses while reading the prologue. Except you don't know much. That was really fun, and what drew many people in. Death of a main character happens, reincarnation, time flows, new protagonists take the field, an overarching mystery of who killed that main character, and a fun narrative where you reincarnate with all your previous intelligence and huge amount of connections, star power, and luck form around two siblings. Childhood turns into adolescence, revival of idol groups, movie dreams, live theater, youtube, entertainment industries are captured really well at the outset. Probably around 2/3rds through, one of the bigger weird moments of incesty vibes occur, and I will say that the overall quality of the manga went down a little around this time, i wasn't rushing to open the app and read new developments, I sort of took a break as it seemed there needed to be a hiatus on behalf of the creators and as readers, the hype that held us went away and we wanted more answers. The artist and author come back, we get a huge culmination of many loose ends, and we get a controversial ending (but I'm left with the question why was it controversial?) and the series ends on a tragic bittersweetness with glimmers of hope. That shouldn't be a spoiler, you know how dark things began, I would say that the ending landed largely in the same way.
The art was great, and there were panels of excellently executed mesmerizing gazes and vistas, of course very dramatic since this is a story revolving around actors and their major stages or minor stages, be it at a concert or masking daily pains and tragedies of their pasts. I think the character designs were nice, attractive actor vibes, the idol sets and costumes, even the theater moments, really allow the artists to shine and make dashing outfits and wonderful backgrounds for our little acting troupe The characters were fun, albeit annoying sometimes on account of them being literal children much of the narrative, but you know what! They mature and they grow and they develop realistically through mental illness, trauma, career challenges, everything, so it's really great to see how they grow. I mean this narrative takes place over a couple of decades, and even the adults in the story have their ebbs and flows: particularly special was seeing how the couple that adopts the main protagonists at the beginning go through a separation and then years later meet again and without spoiling much, they're just very realistic and adult about what happened.
The story is a meandering mess (nonderogatory, it's messy, let's be real) of tragedy, comedy, and will they won't they-isms everywhere. There was a general sense of "I'm so smart no one will figure out my plan" and then a character would be like "I know your plan, don't think I'm as stupid as others, let me in on it" and the characters would put themselves in dangerous positions and go through unhealthy moments and grow out of it. There was care between these characters, even buried under the tsundere glares of some, there was genuine care and I appreciate that about the characters advancing forward to succeed in this little twisted fictional setting.
There are touches of supernatural that I felt would be expanded more, if anything that is a criticism I have, perhaps it's that I found a character that represents chaos showing up shrouded in crows to be fascinating but besides one arc, much did not happen with that aspect. And that goes for the end too. You see, I can sympathize with the criticism that the ending was rushed. The ending 4ish chapters after the main climactic action that rocked the world, were done with a narration over action, so dialogue was not front-loaded, rather the viewpoint of a singular character. I get why that would not mesh with people on account of an ending to a series that was so dialogue heavy, built around actors with strong emotions, and gushing with personality, it's a little strange to not have final moments of the same way. But that cannot blind people out of understanding that the ending was good. It's not a happy ending where everyone gets away free of consequence, choices matter and actions of the main characters matters in the end, to protect who they love and to advance the goals of those in their lives. People's complaints assume because of the time passing in those last few chapters, that the characters get over what occurred and I'm shocked by this lack of comprehension. The characters are not "over" what happened, nor are they uncaring for the friends they lost on the way.
I think the ending solidly showed how grief manifests in people differently and with a nuance that doesn't show melodrama and constant suffering nor does it show happy-go-luck lalaland.
TL;DR: I would definitely recommend this series to anyone willing to go through a story with its major flaws coming in late in the series. The opening gambit of unique storytelling and the arcs based around the characters evolving their acting and connections, it's a drama after all, and it was a little wishy-washy with its potential love triangles and the waifu wars but with a little bit of introspection, I'm sure we can all agree that the journey for this story was fantastic, and the ending is shocking but enjoyable. It is not a waste of time at all, or mid, or a waste of potential as I'm seeing doomposters say. On some days I want to give it an 8, on other days I want to give it an 8.5, this is a great story and does not overstay its wonderful welcome.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Nov 11, 2024
(Finished main story, yet to finish epilogue) I was reading through some negative reviews of this series and seeing a common denominator. I think people are mad that a power fantasy that sticks to a repetitive formula where the main character suffers no longlasting consequences got hyped over their own beloved series that does the same. I also started reading this because I wanted to see why this was praised as one of the best things ever written. It's not that I'm disappointed, I had a lot of fun reading this, and I hold a great appreciation for the artist and writer, also I'm not
...
ever going to read the light novel and we may be missing out on the missing internal development of characters that people are craving. But this isn't the mindblowing experience I thought it would be, it's not a 10/10, it is just fine, rather fun in its power fantasy moments and I enjoyed watching the ever-escalating calamities and overpowered protagonist fighting said calamities. So lemme set that aside, just temper your expectations and be realistic when maybe running into this series.
That said, I do recommend this as an entry to manhwa that fulfill the same role as shonen power fantasties in Japanese manga. I'm no expert in the field, I've really only read 3 action manhwa (the Pick Me Up Infinite Gacha, Omniscient Reader, and Towed of God), but my own addictive personality and reading style made me rush through this series and I put the other ones on hold because I saw I was reaching the end. The opening maybe 100 chapters are really fun and addicting, you get to see how Sung Jinwoo keeps growing and adapting to his environment with an iron will and a deeply overpowered god ability saved only for him. You kind of get to this point in the story and truly understand this man will not be defeated so easily, to the point that the world has to continue getting stronger and more overpowered to balance the sheer power. Once the series gets to the point where there's infighting between countries and their top hunters, you see the dick measuring matches happen all the time, I sort of took a break, not because I didn't like what I was reading but because I could see that the repetitive formula of our protag was getting a little old and I wanted a breath of fresh air. The apocalypses and destruction grow grow grow and then by chapter 130 or so, you're nearing the last 50 chapters and you can see the end.
Art, which seemed to be everyone's top agreement, it's beautiful, I can see the immense amount of work that went into this and I really praise the art team on this one. And I want to say that I'm sorry at a certain point I became a speedreader because the fight that was occurring was a little blurry and difficult to follow, I just wanted to proceed to the narrative that follows the action. No shame in the game, sometimes you're pressed for time and watch to say you read a chapter. The creature design was fun and I really liked their palette swap when they turned into army of the undead.
The characters were fine, varied in their quality. Oh boy do I wish we got more development on the other characters but I understand with such a gigantic cast of characters, it's hard to get depth. Even Jinwoo's shadows got some funny development through the series, more than some human characters.
I have just read a bit of the epilogue and have no idea what's to come but I think the ending was inferior to the journey, which may often be the case in these power fantasy things. The end result is bittersweet in many regards and I have no idea what the remaining 20 chapters of epilogue have for the story but we shall see.
I think for my final verdict, the 10/10 story and masterpiece that people claim this to be, I see that for the first half, when we're figuring out the dungeon system, when we're introduced to the inequalities and problems that are amplified in a society where there is an innate quality of superiority in people who gain powers. Once you start to discover the reason the whole power system exists, the excitement lay in the mystery of what is to come, and less on how Sun Jinwoo will beat the upcoming antagonist(s). Then, the cool, edgy protag that becomes so overpowered, reality is rewritten and undone and all these crazy things, if that is within your wheelhouse, if you love that satisfying moment of victory where the chad remains over the rubble and they're doing their little confident smirk and everyone's praising that character, if THAT really gets you going, this one is for you. If you want a fantastic story that gets better as you go, with depth and mystery and drama, that's not the end result. This is a fine introduction to how the rpg system of leveling up is done with fancy gamer screens and cool effects, and I vastly enjoyed most of this. And I'm gonna get through the epilogue. This had me hooked, then it got a little too repetitive for me, then I reflected on its cultural impact like wow this really does it for people, and then I thought that the end was eh it was alright yeah, and for that, it gets a 7/10. 7.5 if it were allowed but yeah it's worth diving into, and then dip if it doesn't catch your fancy once the world becomes bigger with more countries and more players and more threats.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 27, 2024
I think the art is gorgeous and very clean. The story is decent and reminds us of a common situation while reading about fantasy characters... judging who we can trust more: the main character's family, or strangers they know a shorter time. In the brief moments we are given with our characters, we have the narrative of a strict mother figure teaching a young witch, learning the exact way to navigate her powers, then a newcomer arrives to mess with the flow of life for everyone. We are given early warnings by the mother that the main character is dissuaded from interacting with others and
...
instead focus on practicing emotionless magic, for a witch must stay in control of her emotions or magic disappears. The newcomer is shown as a happy-go-lucky teen, around the age of our main character, and he's just happy he met someone in the woods he can interact with while bringing gifts from the outside world and learning about each other.
In this one-shot, we get a history of the treatment of witches, and treatment of humans, an isolated family and the reason they are so isolated, and an interesting power system where cold and calculated is a MUST to cast magic.
Short, not sweet, great art, decent plot, check it out, it's not long.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 1, 2024
When this manga is on top of its shit, it is absolutely a wonder to hold. I will die on the hill that I found the 3 chapter Takaba and Kenjaku "battle" to be one of the best moments I've experienced on this whole ride. The jackpot explanation of Hakari's domain comes in a close second, and to be honest, the way that the final villain was finally dealt with in the final chapters is rather excellent in my taste. But when I say that the journey through this "final" arc was a slog... I mean it. There were whole weeks I became uninterested in
...
the advancement of the culling game's end because it really didn't move along at all. I don't know what occurred from an editor's standpoint but the flow of explanations and series of events became so formulaic: event happens, backstory to when the characters put the plan into motion for said event, event which happens was thwarted because character is too strong and cannot be defeated yet, new character comes in, old character returns, defeat, last minute event no one saw coming, progress, opponent is so strong, repeat repeat repeat. Now, granted, this would all happen in different ways but the final villain of this was too big to fail and every week for months would move at a glacial pace. And the main battle would go to side battles whose outcomes at times did not matter. Lastly on this, the events were so confusing at times, and the explanations so bonkers so as to make a new-gen Jojo stand comprehensible, that at points I found myself glazing over the dialogue of a battle shonen.
This manga absolutely deserves its accolades for a strong early story and the hype behind it is absolutely warranted, the middle-ish arcs in Shibuya and the backstory for Gojo and Geto as younger students, early culling game, those moments were great, hell, even some later moments in the culling game such as when the military gets involved were refreshing breaks in the story. The image that comes to mind is that drawing of a horse 3/4ths of the horse are well drawn but the last 1/4th is a kids drawing. What would have been higher in my enjoyment plummeted once the story was moving a centimeter per week. Now I will be the first to acknowledge that absolutely the author's health comes first and I was so glad the author took a well deserved break after delivering a seven page semi conclusion to a fight, and I don't know what happened to let the story escape from the author's hands or if the hype and enjoyment, maybe even nostalgia, of early JJK made the latter bits much less enjoyable. The author could not match the thrill of the early and middle days once the end reared its ugly head.
It's a good story and I would very much enjoy a reread catching what made it a magical moment in the beginning, and such a wealth of unique characters with amazing design and powers, it's unfair to compare with a nostalgic lens but as the story went on, it lacked the magnetic energy of earlier fights and plotlines. But on its own, the ending fails to grasp my attention, even literally the last chapter I just saw the final panels and just nodded, I dont know what the story needed, maybe a pace modifier, maybe an edited timeline where things felt earned, maybe the action not being interrupted by the setup of the action, or you know what, THOSE TIMES WHERE PEOPLE WOULD CALMLY JUST SIT IN EXPOSITION AND EXPLAIN WHY SOMETHING WOULD OR WOULDN'T WORK, those chapters were rough... but I guess that's what happens when you write something to complex that in order to set up rules for things in your world you'd need to explain the policy and how we got there.
I don't envy the spot Gege was left in, it's a monumental task that many a fan might not be able to even arrive to an ending that would satisfy even a tiny minority. Just what we received, maybe it's fitting that the last panel is a middle finger.
A good ride, a meh ending, I'll see you on the next one, Gege. For now, enjoy the rest. (Gege's probably got fuck you money from how big this story has become).
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
![]()
Oct 1, 2024
SHONEN JUMP/SHUEISHA WHOEVER THE FUCK WHEN I FIND YOU I WILL KICK YOUR WATER BOTTLE OFF THE TABLE !!!!!!
I will fully defend so many works that get published and then never make it past their first or second arc. I don't know when the authors get that grace period message that their work will never develop past a certain point, I don't know at what point the ax swings down, but I know the disappointment of the period after, I notice how fans commiserate in the comments section mourning something that never got a chance to fly. I get that it's a cutthroat world out
...
there and I will say I'm rather new to the disappointment of watching something be taken away when it was not given full possibility.
The author of Goze Hotaru was cookin and the appetizer was delicious, the news of the main course was appetizing, but I never got to eat it. You have this historical setting set with a vibe very similar to the wandering of a manga like Mushishi, surreal and supernatural spin in its art and menagerie of potential non-human beings, such loose and alluring strokes of the pen, moments of near cartoonish expression, vibrant and vivid patterns that make us understand that the characters in this world are blind yet their perception is vitally important for their career and livelihood, so how do you express something happening to the characters in a sonically rich and mysterious world? I think we come close to success here.
This is one of the standouts among all published works that held such a thrilling potential: we see a young blind girl find a group of misfits who go around singing and telling stories to villages, the untapped storylines that could be there, it was exciting, it was fresh, there is mystery to the background of major and minor characters that weave a loose but expertly crafted story (like a wooly sweater with large bits of yarn). And while the core of the mission for Hotaru was to understand the reasons her family was split apart, we know that if the author was given time, there would be a fruitful journey of growth, discovery, community, hardship, etc etc that would make the main cast of lovable, talented dummies a warm welcome to a found family trope.
And you know what? The rushed ending to this short 24 chapter was actually not bad! There was a timeskip and even then, it didn't feel obscenely disruptive to the flow of the narrative, it set up for its audience a charming epilogue that may open up many a fanfiction to bloom from the world the author gave. I'm frustrated that such a unique storyline will be let down, and hey this may not be someone's genre especially from it being in a place full of action shonen, so really this is a plea to readers (though those who are already here may already agree), branch out to stories like this instead of the usual slop and give this a fighting chance. I'm gonna miss this. I look forward to the author's upcoming works, for now, enjoy your rest.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
|
