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Pretty decent.

Mafia, spies, secrets, and lies are inherently woven into the classic romcom formula. Sometimes it's a throwaway side character who's secretly a trained assassin, or a love interest whose father is the head of the yakuza. But if love is war, and war has no rules, then these lies of omission are all fair game. Perhaps the prevalence of these stereotypes is a symbolic representation of how love leads us astray from reality (though they usually take the form of yet another cliche). With the success of Spy x Family, it's no surprise that we're seeing more stories that are breathing life back into ... these tropes, and Akabane Honeko no Bodyguard is definitely following in the right footsteps.

In this story, various factions of the yakuza find out that their boss has an illegitimate daughter: a young high school girl named Honeko. This throws a wrench in their internal battle for succession, as this unassuming high school girl now has a right to challenge this position. The yakuza boss thus entrusts a delinquent named Ibuki, one of Honeko's childhood friends, to guard his daughter from the various assassins that are after her life. The catch is that he doesn't want Honeko to know her true identity, meaning that Ibuki must also keep the secret of Honeko's identity and his battles with the assassins from her prying eyes. The setpieces for this story consist of: a deadline set to graduation, a supporting cast of tarot-card-based-specialist-secret-agent-classmates, extremely generic/edgy/dramatic villains, and a childhood promise between the two leads. But although the plot points and supporting cast are generic drama manga staples, the execution makes for a pretty fun time.

My favorite part of this manga so far is how well the two main characters mesh together. Despite her appearance and role in the story, Honeko breaks past the prim & proper stereotype, instead choosing to be a little headstrong, express complex emotions, and have goals/aspirations of her own. Like most high school romcom protagonists, Honeko performs a delicate balancing act between volatile maturity and childish obliviousness. However, unlike many of her counterparts, she is not intentionally insufferable and her outbursts are reasonable and understandable. On a similar note, Ibuki is the classic bold, brash, scary-looking loner whose serious demeanor instantly breaks down when Honeko is involved. However, unlike many annoying romcom characters who fall under this stereotype, he isn't stubborn beyond disbelief and makes several concessions throughout the story for the sake of the girl he likes. In this way, Ibuki shows that the power of love makes him not only capable of comically inhuman feats of strength, but also maturity and growth as a person.

At the end of the day, despite the guns and theatrics, Ibuki and Honeko's story boils down to two people in love who, despite the secrets and lies, are willing to make great sacrifices for each other. And really, isn't that what matters?

Looking forward to reading the rest.

The Japanese supermarket, as portrayed in various forms of media, often presents itself as a middle ground between many different groups of people. From elementary schoolchildren looking to buy an afterschool snack with their allowance to balding middle-aged managers whose wives await them with another lecture about leaving the toilet seat up, there are nearly limitless interactions that can happen between the most diverse of people.

A Story About Smoking at the Back of the Supermarket is exactly what its title suggests. It follows the budding relationship between Sasaki, an overworked middle-aged salaryman, and Yamada, a cashier at the supermarket he frequents. Sasaki's defining trait is ... his unchanging nature. Every day, he works himself to death at his office job. Every day, he comes to the same supermarket to buy a pack of cigarettes. And every day, he lines up to get checked out by the same cashier: a gorgeous young woman named Yamada, who seems to be the only person in his life who ever shows him a genuine smile. Sasaki's fervent adherence to this routine leads him to develop a near-parasocial relationship with this random cashier, to the point where seeing her smile is just as important as smoking his cigarettes.

Unbeknownst to him, Sasaki's obsession has not gone unnoticed. Yamada, who spots him leaving the store, takes this opportunity to invite him to smoke with her, though not before donning a disguise. Yamada's character is predominantly defined by her two faces: at work, she is the cool and collected cashier at the supermarket, never abandoning her perfect smile and treating everyone with the same, calm professionalism. But on her breaks, she transforms into Tayama: the mischevous young woman who ties her hair up, speaks brashly, frequents the back of the store to smoke, and starts teasing the much older salaryman that she meets there. "Yamada" is the perfect girl that receives endless praise and admiration from strangers, and "Tayama" is a disguise that she uses to be her true self, if just for a moment.

"Tayama" initially confronts Sasaki with hostility, asking him about his intentions with the cashier that he idolizes so. But as they share a smoke, the two come to a mutual understanding and begin a tentative friendship. Tayama teases him endlessly, and Sasaki goes along with her antics, even when they cause him grief (both mentally and physically). This manga puts its main focus on the little things, the day-to-day conflicts that these two people share with one another, airing out their gripes and inner feelings as they light up a cigarette together. It's in these little conversations that their relationship begins to gradually bloom. This isn't a slow burn, but rather, a seed in a pot on the windowsill, waiting for spring to come.

I'm a huge fan of how this manga has turned out so far. The artstyle is nuanced and lively, the side characters are utilized well, and the premise is executed to perfection. Looking forward to reading the rest.

Written 09.06.2022 | Edited 06.10.2024

Negative Hero And The Demon Lord is a gem of a manga that cuts straight to the point: a young, innocent child interacting with a grizzled demon father figure. There's no filler, no stupid plot devices, no hackneyed flashback backstories. The wholesomeness IS the plot, and it delivers nicely on a Friday evening with a cup of coffee.

I'm going to continue reading this manga. Will anything change after 10, 100, or even 1000 chapters? Probably not. Will it deliver exactly what I'm expecting? Probably. The beauty of life is that if you wish to reject this simple fact, then you can simply drop it.

Pick ... this one up if you have type-CGDCT diabetes, and pass if you prefer the type of manga that gives you depression instead.

Well, the manga is called Mysteries, Maidens, And Mysterious Disappearances, and it certainly delivers its fair share of each. So far, it seems like it's in a very solid place in terms of characters, pacing, and general plot direction.

At the time this review is being written, there are no comprehensible synopses for this manga anywhere, so I will provide a quote from the first chapter:

"Thse are my records of Sumireko Ogawa, and the fast-talking Ren Adashino.
Of their modest friendship, and of their parting."

Sumireko is a burnt out writer and former child prodigy who has found herself working part-time at a bookstore alongside a quiet ... young boy named Adashino. One day, she receives a mysterious book about urban legends, and accidentally activates a curse that returns her to her talented, youthful self—at the cost of her lifespan. Adashino intervenes to save her life, revealing himself to be an otherworldly being who can suppress urban legends and prevent them from leaking into the human world. He trades them to a shady dealer in an attempt to buy a ticket for himself and his even more enigmatic "sister" to return "home". Sumireko agrees to help him, and thus begins their Ghostbusters-esque journey to seal away various urban legends.

The art is very good. There are maidens. They are hot. What more can I ask for?

I have thoroughly enjoyed this manga thus far, and I highly recommend it to anyone curious enough to have stumbled upon it.

Utter garbage.

The plot wanders like a blind rabid dog looking for scraps. Concepts are introduced, and you're just expected to accept them, because they're so stereotypical that there's no point in explaining them. There is no progression in the story whatsoever.

The author has zero sense of framing. The characters will be fighting a dragon for an entire chapter and none of it actually shows them fighting the dragon. Some of them scream and some of them shoot magic bolts that aren't explained or ever used again. Then the next panel shows the dragon, looking like it took no damage, but apparently the main character ... can somehow see its HP decreasing. I feel like I'm losing brain cells reading this.

The art is painfully average. Fanservice hollers at you around every corner like a desperate gas station whore because the only prop played as comedy in the entire manga is "the main character is a perverted old man." One of the only characters who he actually befriends is a lesbian knight, and it's still played for laughs that he wants to fuck her. Then she just disappears entirely from the story, because the author has no idea how to write. At this point, there's no reason not to just go read actual hentai, because at least it has a clear beginning, climax, and ending.

As for character, the main character is a middle aged virgin who is so ugly that even God himself can't fix his looks. He then asks for maxed out healing powers and just wanders around after his reincarnation, meets hot girls, and thinks about fucking them. That's literally it. His behavior is pretty accurate to reflect the shallow delusions of an ugly bastard without actually letting him stick his dick in anyone. There is a girl literally begging to fuck him by the 15th chapter, but he continues to go for the busty virgin maid who dreams of meeting her prince charming and giving him her first time, until he gets sent off to be a medic in a random war. What a shitshow.

This is one of the worst manga that I've ever read, and it's terrifying to realize that someone is actually trying to make a living off of this dumpster fire.

Very average isekai.

STORY isn't much to write home about. You have your single unique premise, baseball is war. You have an overpowered protagonist and his very weak country. He's going to save them (it's in the title).

ART is very clean. Thighs for days.

CHARACTERS are obvious stereotypes, but their personalities are actually toned down. Isekai protagonists are usually bland, but this guy's entire personality is that he's good at baseball. He fails to feel any emotion about anything that isn't about the game. I'm pretty sure this dude would fail the Turing test.

ENJOYMENT for this manga was okay. There's not much real tension so you're ... just watching a guy in another world play baseball.

OVERALL I think it's just another manga playing the same tropes in a genre that has been done every way from hell and back.

This manga updates extremely slowly so I would only recommend it if you are just trying to pad your manga list.

Warning: As of June 2021, this manga has not updated for over a year. I believe it was dropped by translators or axed.

This manga takes itself way too seriously, and I fucking love it.

Iya na Kao sare nagara Opantsu Misete Moraitai: Yo wa Pantsu ga Mitai zo is the story of Issei Gotoukuji, a 17 year-old genius and the head of his family. After awakening a strange feeling inside of him, he realizes his intense desire to see panties, and embarks on several quests to convince different girls to let them see their underwear.

Issei's journey is one of hard work and strife. As a child ... prodigy, he never had trouble keeping his emotions in check; as such, the overwhelming need to see panties confuses him. Due to being raised in a rich household, he has almost zero social sense and skill. But Issei is a genius, and he learns quickly; what he lacks in socialization, he makes up for with his limitless determination and a willingness to learn.

Issei is extremely fun to watch. He is the antithesis of typical boring protagonists in that he is extremely straightforward, as he often just goes up to the girl and asks her to see her panties. His superhuman abilities and immense wealth also draw a direct contrast to the mundanity of many characters who are simply blank slates or self-inserts, making the manga much more entertaining. He parodies typical harem mc's by taking their traits and cranking them up to 11, such as honesty, purity, and denseness. He feels few emotional attachments about anything, and often acts like a jerk to the girls who like him. He is extremely straightforward, but unpredictably so, and it is this duality that drives the comedy.

Issei is quickly taught many lessons: money does not buy everything, impatience is the bane of great plans, etc. He uses the knowledge that he learns in his previous endeavors to accomplish his later ones, and will often do whatever he thinks is necessary to accomplish his goals. Despite his rather selfish motives, Issei has a positive impact on the girls he encounters. He manages to shine a light in their lives in some way, and later shows that he does indeed care for the women he seeks panties from, although he is not very good at expressing it.

The art is fine. The girls are pretty, and the underwear scenes fill you with a sense of satisfaction (and degeneracy). There are many small details scattered throughout the manga that give a little more nuance to the manga, and it's interesting to find something that you skipped over during your first read.

The intensity of the story, although it doesn't pierce the heavens, is off the charts and I often find myself cracking up at how it takes itself to entirely new levels. It parodies everything from shounen to isekai, and makes fun of tropes in a refreshingly amusing way.

I've heard many people tell me that an anime or manga "transcends its medium." Although I cannot say the same about this manga, it definitely does exceed expectations.

"No, senpai, this is our fight!"

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

TL;DR - If you liked the series so far, you will like this season.

Generally speaking, I watch action to get hyped and drama to catch feels. Similarly, I watch ecchi when you're in the mood for some eye candy. Not to say that these are the only reasons, but just what I would expect to look for in these genres. I think most people, to some extent, have similar standards.

My problem with Strike the Blood is that, despite all its tags - Action, Ecchi, Fantasy, Supernatural, and Vampire - it never thoroughly explores any of them, and ... instead tries to be decent in all fronts. And this has continued for THREE seasons now, and to my utter frustration, it actually gets consistently worse somehow.

As for action, most of it is limited to our favorite immortal vampire throwing one or more of his familiars at the opponent, and maybe Himeragi and possibly a few other members of the harem pitching in with their signature moves. Especially in this season, it feels like Akatsuki is a child playing Pokemon, but he's just spamming all of his cards as fast as he can. It's stale and dull and not the best. But hey, at least they tried.

The ecchi parts were never really great, and the art hasn't really gotten any better than previous seasons. In certain places, it looks a bit sloppier, but maybe that's just me. Fantasy is basically what the story is built on, but the story isn't really exceptional either. Supernatural and Vampire pretty much drive the plot by introducing another baddie that Akatsuki will inevitably beat up and/or add to his harem. It gets dull, just like Himeragi's very overused catchphrase.

I don't like the story because every arc is always going to end up being another way for Akatsuki to bond with one or more girls, usually Himeragi and sometimes Asagi. Also, every time they overhype a villain, they have to rush to finish the arc in time, and the final fight ends up having little to no buildup and the conclusion is extremely unsatisfying. There are plot holes literally everywhere you look, which makes it a little more difficult to focus on the measly sliver of a plot that exists. The show's mediocrity even shows in the art style; you'll notice that they often animate just the mouth of a character, not their expression, which gives them a robotic feel.

I don't really remember anything about the soundtrack, and there's nothing more to say about it. The voice acting is, as expected, good. I was a bit disappointed my personal favorite character, headphones guy, didn't get as much screentime. You could base the entire series off of him and this anime would probably be a lot more interesting. The maid is also pretty badass, but a little too one-dimensional to be a good character. Well, I guess you could say that for pretty much every other side character in the series.

All the characters have plot armor. To be more specific, Akatsuki Kojou and his friends have plot armor, and the villains have the opposite: they always lose. Since conflict is the source of character development, the zero-stakes plot makes for almost none, meaning that all the girls in the show who have no personality are stuck that way. They're so hard to tell apart that I keep forgetting who they are and what stereotype they're supposed to represent. The main female lead herself can't even break out of the cardboard cutout of a character she is.

Speaking of the humor, most of it stems from the harem (just like everything else). It's usually one or more of the girls slapping or blaming Akatsuki for an awkward situation or misunderstanding that he has no control over. Asagi and Kirisaka are extremely prone to this, but Himeragi usually uses her staff-thing instead. It's repetitive and predictable.

In fact, everything in this anime is predictable. Either a current or future harem member is going to have some kind of problem, and our progenitor mc, being the selfless vampire that he is, decides to intervene without even questioning it. Characters who aren't in the spotlight barely get animated, but they're stuffed in somewhere. Abilities are left unexplained, the plot just keeps rolling around while ignoring the clear problems in the way, characters are introduced then forgotten, and the resolution to the problem is so simple and obvious that there is no sense of accomplishment after the baddies are actually defeated. It's a dumpster fire rolling down a hill while mowing down everything in its way, and at the end, rather than climaxing in a big explosion, it just comes to an abrupt stop.

Strike the Blood was the first anime I watched, so it effectively got me into anime. I feel like I owe it to the series to see it through to the end. If you've made it this far, you might have similar reasons. But if you don't, I suggest you drop this show, because it is bad. And if you don't, be warned that the third season is (albeit marginally) the worst of the three.

This is a cute manga.

If you are going into this manga expecting an engaging plot or fleshed out characters, don't.

If it's a rainy day out and you just want to curl up on the couch and relax, feel free to pick it up and breeze through a few chapters.

Reading this manga does not feel like reading. It is more like observing an adorable exchange between several characters. This "moe" manga excels because of its simple honesty.

There are cliches, stereotypes, and one-dimensional characters. But the story never takes itself too seriously, and this is where it really shines. No drama, no tension, just cute demon ... and cool exorcist.

I recommend it if you're a fan of something casual and cute like this.

Yankee Juku e Iku is a story about a boy with a dream.

Ikariishi is a delinquent. Not much is revealed about his past, his goals, or his ideals. Throughout the story, he doesn't really become a better person or change his life drastically. It's quite difficult to tell exactly where the plot is supposed to be going, because it seems to have a mind of its own.

There is no narration in this very blunt manga, just pictures and dialogue. Many of the characters are butt-ugly, including its protagonist. It's strong point is neither action nor comedy, and its characters are about as complex as real ... high school students—in other words, either unreasonably angry, inexcusably horny, or somewhere in between. These characters jump rope with the line between reality and fiction, almost becoming caricatures of themselves in the process.

Our first encounter with Ikariishi is quite typical, as he properly establishes himself as the protagonist by handing out ass-kickings like Halloween candy. By pure chance, he's dragged to a random cram school by a very pretty girl who mistakes him for one of her classmates. Seeing how motivated she is to get into a good high school, he just... decides to study along with her. In the meantime, one of his rivals is back from juvie, and wants revenge! On the day of the entrance exam, Ikariishi is forced to pick between saving his best friend and getting a chance at a normal high school life.

My favorite part of the manga is that Ikariishi truly does look stupidly intimidating. And yet, it's not really his appearance that prevents him from becoming a typical shounen protagonist. He is the product of his circumstances, and his choices are driven by a moral code that has been shaped by the conflict in his life. Ikariishi's fate is the brutal reality that is glorified by delinquent manga: unbridled, unavoidable violence. His inability to prioritize himself over others is the reality of living in a world where the strong rule over the weak. These are the circumstances that lead a young boy to give up on his dreams of the extraordinary vastness of outer space, and to instead be chained down by his responsibility to his remarkably ordinary neighborhood.

This manga is very blunt. Teens rebel just for fun, bully out of boredom, and rarely think about anyone except themselves. Teachers are bystanders, parents are absent. And Ikariishi himself is not a hero by any means—he's just a teenager trying to do the right thing in a world so full of brutality that it threatens to consume him entirely.

Yankee Juku e Iku completely disregards traditional storytelling and tropes in manga. It strikes a strange balance between parody and deconstruction, teetering and tottering towards either side without ever committing to one. But at the end of the day, it's fun as hell to read, and I hope that I've convinced you to give it a shot.

Written 09.28.2019 | Edited 08.28.2024