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Yajin Tensei is a little like what you would expect an isekai with functioning humans to be like. An average guy who learnt some karate is transported to another world, shenanigans ensue. Two things though, make this piece stand out to me as something more than just your average isekai manga. For one, it's heavily subversive, and comedically self-aware about it. Don't expect waifus or harem's here. The world more than anything else resembles the kind of gritty darkness of Berserk(though it never goes full on dark) than it does arifureta or shield hero.

More importantly, the author understands the genre he's writing for extremely well. ... Yajin Tensei is an adventure story, first and foremost. It's a picaresque novel in the vein of Tintin or Raiders of the Lost Ark. It appeals to the exact same sentiment as One Piece would. It's not a work of great depth, though there are occasional moral ponderings by our main character. It's an extremely fun story to follow along, and it handles the subject matter well. And in a sense I have little else to ask of an adventure novel than that. Would I reccomend it? Absolutely, one of the best written works of genre fiction out there.

Sometimes, there are works that come out that push an entire medium forward. I don't think I had truly ever considered manga to be anything more than fastfood entertainment until I read Vagabond. I think there have only been a few works that have truly changed the way I've looked at a medium- and just as how Watchmen redefined comics for me, Vagabond changed the way I look at manga.

I need to get this out first. The art is magnificent. Painting with a traditional inkbrush and watercolors, Inoue has well and truly outdone any of his other works. This is his peak as an artist, ... and in terms of art, a work he is unlikely to eclipse.

The saying goes that a picture is a thousand words, and often Inoue is content to deliver us a two page spread of blood and iron, detailed down to the last droplet. And those details, ah the details- that delivers me to the story itself. I don't think Vagabond is a perfect work. There is undoubtedly some details both minor and major that will not sit well with all of us. There are probably little plot holes or details that I have missed. But barring a purely academic reading of the work, Vagabond is a manga with an effortless story. Miyamoto Musashi starts off thirsting for power, a young man looking to test himself against the world.

Slowly then, we watch as he fights, kills, grows stronger, and matures. All this held against the equally enthralling story of Matahachi Honiden, Musashi's childhood friend. Where Musashi dedicates himself to the passion of his craft, Matahachi indulges himself in hedonistic pleasure. And though there are certain implicit judgements about both characters, the story ultimately treats them as what they are- people. We watch as Musashi seeks greater heights of success, all while Matahachi falls deeper into despair. Then about halfway through, we meet the last of our protagonists- the deaf swordsman Sasaki Kojirou. Through trials and tribulations, we follow the three- well, we are still following the three.

It is unlikely Vagabond will ever be truly completed. Sometime in 2015 Inoue put the work on Hiatus. I do not believe he will return to it again. But in many ways, that only increases how much I love this story. Vagabond may well be a flawed work, for its lack of exposition, or breeziness in content- but say what you will, it is not a work that can be ignored. I see Vagabond as a cumulation of the things it made me feel, that deeply atmospheric art that threatens to drown you in its beauty- the inscrutable characters and their relationships that you can admire without fully understanding. All that and more make Vagabond what it is, and perhaps even more than just the sum of its parts. And Vagabond in many ways makes me take a step further and say- this may well be the greatest manga of all time.

20th Century Boys is three different stories, each of varying quality, all packed into one package. It's a fascinating case of good but misguided intentions. I'm sure given the time to package it all up into three individual manga, Urasawa might well have created one of the greatest works of the early 'oughts. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Twentieth Century Boys begins passionately, a gripping and unsettling mystery. It begins with a simple dual narrative, following failed dreamer Kenji. There are two threads- one of Kenji's nostalgia for his childhood, a distant and long forgotten place- and Kenji's drab day to day life as a ... shop owner. And then, it suddenly all changes, with the arrival of Baby Kanna into Kenji's life. And around Kanna, strange things begin to happen. There isn't much more to say there. From that point on, the story rockets forward through plot points and characters, through suspicions and murders and suicides. The plot develops quickly, led on by these mysterious happenings centered around a mysterious cult leader.

The dual narrative becomes a brilliant narrative device, with warm nostalgia suddenly coloring themselves ominously. It is a race through Kenji's shared childhood to discover what he as forgotten. Paranoia. Fear. Conspiracy. This is one of the aspects of twentieth century boys that made me incredibly uncomfortable, because after all, nostalgia is just our faulty recollections of forgotten memories. I have little to fault here. It is evident, that Urusawa is a talented and capable storyteller.

But his brilliance in the minutae- dialogue, and panels and feelings- that is all lost for a lack of vision. I see Twentieth Century Boys as a three act tale. The first is Urusawa at his best, direct and purposeful in his story, dragging the reader along through a Kafkaesque maze of terror and apprehension. The first act left me biting my nails, worried about our protagonists and their struggle against some unknown greater evil. And that feeling, that heart-racing tension builds and builds and build. And then finally, we come to

And then, nothing.

Nothing at all.

All of a sudden, the story collapses. The tension goes away. Our characters see themselves out the door. Where twentieth century boys had once been an incredible thriller, all of a sudden we are faced with a parable of some kind. I don't know what to call that second act. There are feeble attempts at political commentary that don't ever go beyond whimpering cries of "freedom" or "fascism". Without that same purpose and intention driving the story forward feverishly, I found myself bored by the tale. Things happen, but they are all drab and droll, and the characters cliche now. Where the first act seemed like a seminal genre work- one of the best thriller manga in years- the second act is miserable and dragging.

The third, is even worse. Lacking any intention at all, the third is an amalgamation of loose story threads and a rushed ending. Urusawa tries to bring a variety of different points, from references to the American outsider culture of the sixties, and seventies- references to peaceful protest and Ahimsa, and then somehow manages to pull a full on Nuclear Gandhi move amidst it all. To top it off, the story ends in the direst cliche of shonen manga- happily ever after.

I think this is a work worth analysing. It was almost certainly a response to the '95 Shinrikyo attacks, due to its major themes being free thought and cultism. I don't claim to know any of the personal motivations of the authors, and little exist for Urasawa, but I think that this was a work he felt compelled to write. And there is that fundamental flaw, when I see an artist work and improve not what they are best at, but attempt to appeal to traditionalist senses of what an intellectual work must be.

There are many authors who set out to entirely raise the bar for fiction. Few even reach that preexisting bar. Urusawa is at his best not trying to artificially make his story "moral" or "deep". Twentieth Century Boys is at its best where it starts- atmospheric and tense. It's a pity that its all downhill from there.

Art: 6/10 Practical, if unexceptionall. It is clean and defined, with sharper angles lending it a certain menacing quality. There isn't much to say here.

Character: 7/10 Assuredly the one strong point was how relatable many of the characters feel. There is a certain humanity to each of them in all their portrayals, that show multiple facets. There are occasions where I find the development was forced, or perhaps irrational, but ultimately I found myself recollecting at the very least the protagonists.

Story: I found this the hardest point to rate, as I mentioned in my review. It varies so wildly in quality that I ultimately give it a 5. The first arc is easily a 9/10. The second a 6/10. The third a 2/10.

Overall: Twentieth Century Boys earns itself a deserved 6/10. I love parts of this manga, parts I absolutely adore. But then then I am again reminded of the whole laser pistol debacle, and I want to drown myself in misery. Give the first arc a chance. Don't bother with the second and third halves, you'll end up disappointed.