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Kingdom is one of the few manga series that earned a score of 10/10 for me.

The reason why Kingdom is so good is because it meets a lot of needed criteria of what makes a profound battle adventure series. In this case, it is adventure through campaigns, wars & politics. Kingdom has a solid foundation when it comes to introducing the main character and building them up to eventually reach their goal through gradual progression. Another thing is introducing a massive world while expanding upon it, as if there is a sense of exploration. Aside from those, many themes such as slavery, dreams, personal ... sacrifice, justice and right & wrong all brought up time to time in a satisfying manner. When you add everything together, it's not hard to see that this series have great things going for it.


The biggest criticism of Kingdom from what I've seen is the main character, Shin. Well I digress.

As for Shin, his goal is to become the strongest great general under the heavens. Shin is certainly a protagonist from a shonen-esque mold, derived from your well-known childish, dumb, strong & good-natured character but that is only scratches the surface of who and what he is. Shin is good at reading people, their emotions, and their thoughts. They know what to do with people and how to treat them and make them his friends and he does it all naturally and effortlessly, as well as coping with struggles of becoming a great general. I'm just saying that there is a lot more to what he may appear. And that is why I say about good characterization.

This review will mostly cover the aspects of what makes Claymore a battle manga, noting the good and the bad. I will give a quick rundown of my thoughts on the story, art and characters.

Story: It's not too out of the norm and we've seen many other series with similar structured story, it's good enough to progress for the sake of the series. 7/10.

Art: Not in terms of base character models within Claymores since a lot of them just look too similar to really differentiate. Also, the landscapes were a bit generic and the male character models were quite off most of the times. However, ... what really shines is seeing the awakened beasts and their designs, they're definitely something special. There hasn't been a single awakened form design that I really didn't like. When seeing a creature drawn like Isley's awakened form, it is surely a work of art. 8/10.

Characters: Despite being a character driven series, none of the characters really seemed captivating to me, nor makes me feel drawn into. In fact, there were more characters that I simply couldn't care less for than the ones I really liked. More of a run of the mill characters in both design and backstories. 6/10.


Now, onto the putting my focus on what I really want to talk about. Claymore at it's core is a battle manga, which means that it's a character driven story structured in a way where the main protagonist becomes stronger for the sake of reaching their own goal. With that said, the scale of power weighted amongst characters must be consistent. The main character, Clare, takes in the flesh of Teresa, most powerful warrior in series. In the context of the story, this makes her quarter yoma(considering the Teresa like all other Claymores, was half yoma) This ensures that the main character cannot supersede Teresa's power at any point in the story, which the story makes sure of that. It wouldn't be right for Clare to jump through the ranks to miraculously become a sheer monster without her reaching her ceiling.

The scaling of power as well as the progression had been fairly consistent until towards the latter half of the series. The big problem in a battle manga, the level of power between characters must be consistent, believable and reasonable. My main gripes towards this series is that the main villain is rather unduly overpowered. The level of strength between Abyssal Ones held a strong hierarchy within the pyramid, a structure in the series where these characters were amongst the top level fighters in the series and yet, Priscilla has the power to outright fodderize all three of the characters which ruins what the story has built up to and just treats them like a joke, this just isn't right. This actually was possible considering Alicia and Beth, whom both were rightfully comparable to the Abyssal Ones. The introduction of other stronger beings than the Abyssal Ones had really lessened the enjoyment and consistency from me. I can somewhat compare this problem to the second half of part 2 Naruto, where select few characters managed to become way too powerful in a uninspired manner, completely throwing a lot of the characters and what made them strong under the bus.

Goda strikes again. I can't express in words of how amazing this movie is. All I have to say is go watch it for yourself.

For this review it will be broken down into four parts: Music, Animation, Characters and Story.

Music:
If you watched the trailers, you know that two tracks of Avril Lavigne would be played in the movie but you won't hear that until the credit rolls. First half was "How You Remind Me" and then "Bad Reputation" played after that. The original soundtrack was brilliant. It was different while at the same time maintaining that One Piece feel we all love; high tension ... to melancholy themes that played throughout different scenes.

Animation:
There was a lot of CGI just like Strong World. The action scenes were animated far better than anything I've ever seen in previous One Piece movies or the anime. The angles and camera movements following every scene was done fluidly.

Characters:
The title of the movie is quite self-explanatory. The movie focused on Z, at times even more than the Straw Hat gang. Character Z, also known as Zephyr had such deep story to him and if you love backstories of various characters in One Piece, you'll definitely love Z's. As for our lovable characters, the Straw Hats each got their turns to shine in this movie, however the stronger and prominent fighters such as the Monster Trio(Luffy, Zoro and Sanji) had their own individual opponent to fight. Franky was the next in line after the Monster Trio. Usopp also had good action scenes, but not quite on the same level. Nami and Robin at times were used for fan-service until the climactic battle at the end. Chopper was funnier than ever before, but not entirely important to the story. Brook didn't do a lot in terms of getting into battles, but he had his comedic moments just like Chopper.

Story:
This movie as an entirety was built around the Marine lore and back story. This will have it's drawbacks for some though. The story had lots of explanation regarding the principle themes of the Marines and some characters were basically used strictly just for the sole purpose of providing exposition. To fit the plot in a movie length time span, it was surprisingly well done. This was one huge gripes that I had with Oda's previous project, Strong World was a bit of a let down. With Film Z, I feel that he understood what it took to make a movie that retains the breathtaking aura of One Piece series, and he delivered it.

I would love to talk about just about every scenes in the movie but I want to keep it spoiler-free. If this movie doesn't win major awards in Japan, I will be very surprised. It surely deserves to be nominated in Japanese Academy Awards and win Best Animated Japanese Film Awards or even Best Picture of the Year Awards.

Definitely one of the best Shonen battle series you can find. There are plenty of Shonen manga to read out there, so why Toriko? Here is why.

We are introduced to our title character Toriko, Bishokuya AKA Gourmet Hunter. Toriko is required to hunt down his target for his assignment. This is the how the story goes about at a basic level, Toriko finds an ingredient he wants to go after, and than goes to eat it to fulfill his full course menu. From this, you get the impression that the manga is just some dull story about eating.

We are introduced to "Capture Level" which is ... the ingredient that is determined by strength, environment, how hard it is to prep and cook, and even how hard it is to eat. This makes Toriko such a facinating great adventure manga, as you can see Toriko and his gang travel through series of insane environments, from massive freezing glaciers, to deadly canyons, raging jungles and rivers, to the oxygen depleted stratospheres and even higher. Shimabukuro is a so brilliant at going in depth with food and can make even cooking seem insanely dramatic, this along with the great special effects fortunately carry into the food, which makes the reward of them finally getting it all the more rewarding.

As for the art, this comes down to personal preference. Though Shimabukuro does a lot of stuff to polish his work, the beasts can look extremely intimidating, and some of the characters even more-so. The environment design is absolutely stunning and you can immerse yourself into the world and there aren't many series that can do this. As for the character and designs, it's different from a lot of current Shonen because the main characters aren't bunch of bishie teenagers. From the start of the series, Toriko is introduced as a massive manly guy in his mid-twenties with bulging muscles. I find it refreshing and soothing to my tastes, and it adds a touch of maturity and stylization. The supporting cast offers a wide range of personalities and their interactions with each other is cool to see.

Lastly, since it's a shonen battle manga, the fights are vital to the series. The battles are well orchestrated. Something that sets this aside from some standard Shonens are is that you will visibly see Toriko develop and grow stronger before your very eyes, adapting to his environment, and growing tougher during battles. The battles themselves can end up very intense; seeing two massive characters pound on each other while soaked in blood is nothing short of epicness. I suppose the general concept of a series that is built around food could be a turn off, but it is an adventure genre and the way Shimabukuro created such a vast world surely deserves a lot of recognition.

It's said to be the greatest manga, all the elements you love in a series is all in the greatest treasure in the world, One Piece, left by a legendary pirate mangaka named Eiichiro Oda. Ever since 1997, the new era of manga began, competing to take the number one spot of Shonen Jump, so far, none has yet to step a foot in it's path.

Once I did, I asked myself why didn't I pick the series up earlier. I truly feel that this is the best Shonen series ever made if we were to review it objectively.

Anyway, to the actual review:

One Piece initially ... feels very constantly slow-medium paced which feels just right because it's mostly an adventure manga, you NEED that many chapters to finish a story and write a main character's journey. Also, Oda does an awesome job of offering the massive world which a lot of series doesnt have that feel. The external environment has more development than character wise which also makes OP so much different from other shonens out there. One huge advantage One Piece has over every mangas out there is that the crew simply expands and expands as they travel to new unexplored lands and beyond the endless expanding universe. It really has an element of adventure, excitement and romance(to adventure) to it. It is very straightforward to see where arcs begin and end, because they go from island to island, yet it's completely unexpected. Wheras in something like Naruto, you don't get the sense of that also, also the main character(Luffy) wants to explore the WHOLE WORLD, not just a city or a town and it is needed because adventure is the biggest theme. One Piece is an adventure manga, that being said, something simple as exploring new place after places but they reach a segment and events change, flipped around and find something completely unexpected. Oda does a great job of keeping the audience interested. As we all know that the Strawhats will visit next island, like someone living their everyday life, adding age one after another. That is the basic gist that we will only know. It's completely unpredictable. Obviously you know what you want to do with your life and such but you wouldn't know every events leading up to that. It's simply a broad general idea of it.

Story-wise, it's always filled with surprises. You can never predict what Oda has in store for you. This author/artist/pirate/god himself manages to incorporates various themes into some of the places in One Piece with preferences we are familiar with. For example, one of the city reminds you of Venice, Italy. Another reminds you of an Ancient civilization such as Mayans and Aztecs. There are some very powerful moments in One Piece that WILL break your heart. Even the humor is great, better than some of the American Cartoons itself which emphasizes on comedy. So far, One Piece has never disappointed me. I'm glad I gave this series a chance.

Characters are top-notch. No characters have been side-lined and left in the grave to rot like many other typical Shonen series does. There are too many lovable characters to talk about here but in every series, the main character is the most important so here we go!
Monkey D. Luffy, a young man destined for great things. He never asked to not have a mother, he never asked to be born into a world which forces him to protect others from evil and corruption, and he never asked for any of his loved ones to be hurt. Luffy is humorous, innocent, strong-willed, brave, and most of all, life-loving. His persona rubs off on others, his ability to create joy and peace is astounding. His character's even developed so far as to make his readers weep alongside when he's emotionally broken. They are confused, rendered helpless when he feels helpless. When Kuma separated Luffy's crew, no reactions would be exaggerated. Luffy lost everything he loved, and it happened right in front of him. Luffy is a character that does not treats his nakamas as if they are utterly pathetic and helpless by saying he will protect them, no he is not... He is a man that leads by actions. This is the man that encourages his friends to get stronger for themselves and to protect their captain. Not just friends inspires, he inspires enemies to get stronger as well... That is because Luffy cannot go on a boring adventure become the Pirate King.

The art isn't really something to bash about. It's very unique compared to most generic well-drawn anime that is can be topped by even better detailed art. The art is simply perfect for a series like One Piece, I wouldn't have it drawn any other way. One Piece lacks bi-shonen characters and rather opts for the wild and crazy character designs, the uniqueness and originality is top notch. Me personally, the wackier the better and having every characters look like they hopped out of Final Fantasy. The background very important in any manga and people usually overlooks this, they would rather read a series that is plagued with white backgrounds in panels over generically drawn characters. Oda's world is massive, colorful and very imaginative. Sometimes I think he goes way over-the-top but it really suits the nature of the series.

Regarding all the hype this anime has, it doesn't even live up to the expectation not one bit. It's the perfect anime to piss off your peers if they ever want to get into anime or a well-written fiction in general. I have to say that this is the worst anime I've ever watched, yes even worse than Tite Kubo's trolling in Bleach. I was ready to drop the series after episode 4 but forced myself to finish the series to give a fair review of it. Even after watching the ending, which determines the true quality if the series is really good or bad. ... An ending can either make or break the series. Well in this case, the anime was already terrible to begin with but the ending made it even worse, filling your head with more loose ends, questions and headache.

The characters are bland, story is nonexistent, lacks good humor and most of all, I dislike the childish art despite what others think. Now let's move onto the aspects that saves this terrible anime. However, the only saving grace is the interesting music and the concept of a purgatory where goals were to be fulfilled during the time when he/she/it was alive. In spite of the good aspects of this anime has, it is so miniscule that it's completely irrelevant and doesn't change the series from being absolutely, utterly crap.