Cerberus

Typical shounen manga, not that I mind. The main characters is weak, but has courage. He is willing to protect people, regardless of the odds. His childhood friend seems to have some sort of feelings for him, and will also try to protect him when she can. There are two type of characters that appear that I usually hate, and made me drop the story. The first was a character that is more of a burden than help towards the main character. It is a naive character that does not learn from their mistakes, and cause the main character injuries from not learning. The second type of character that appears is the one that I hate the most in manga. A character that has killed many innocents for whatever reasons or circumstances, but is forgiven has long as the character has a sob story. That is right, it is not self-defense or revenge, but murdering innocents but all is forgiven because of a sob story.

There's absolutely nothing in Cerberus that hasn't been done before. It's a typical shonnen manga: a guy (Kei) gets the powers from a supernatural entity (Yukifusa, a cool hellhound) to protect those around him from demons;, he is strongheaded, dumb, has bad attitude, but he is a nice guy and he has a childhood friend who is clueless of her powers and he cares about her deeply. Does this sound familiar? Anybody who has seen a fair amount of anime must have come across these kinds of elements, and this manga adds nothing new to the mix. In fact, the art is truly poor if not pathetic, the story plot is decent at best and the characters don't go beyond their steriotypes And yet I can't stop reading. I actually don't know why, for some reason it's kind of entertaining. Could it be that it's so bad that it's good? Maybe, yet the art is so annoying that it's hard to believe I can put up with it.
So yes, it's bad, but there's one thing I can't deny the manga does well: push the cool button. You see, the transformation the main character goes through to become a Grave Protector (or keeper, they always shift it) is one of the coolest I've seen, and that's why I started reading this manga in the first place. It's so incredibly cool that you just wish this concept was done by a better mangakate, one that could actually pull off a better concived story plot, characters and drawings, but instead... we get this.
It's very predictable, it's a pain to stare at the dreadful drawings when you have seen much better (I'm looking at you CLAMP), but the Kei's powers are so cool that I can't stop reading it. I want it to become better, and sometimes I have to admit that the manga is able to draw a smile out of me (mostly due to Yukifusa, the only character that is kind of interesting and refreshing), but so far there is no real indication that it will be more than what it already is.
It's too soon for me to judge it, as Rave Master started almost equally shaky and became epic later on, but I don't hold much hope. I'll most likely keep reading (and update this review once I get through it) just because it's kind of addicting, but there's no denying that, at least for now, it's a bad manga all around.

Pretty much your typical shounen series... but the action scenes seem bloodier (literally and figuratively) and the main characters aren't so bad. It can get better depending on the new characters showing up and the stuff that the hero would need to do.

~ More thoughts @ Daydream Sanctuary

Well this is my first review on MAL so please don't be too critical of my way of seeing things ^^ Thank you

CAREFUL, CONTAIN SPOILERS!

So Cerberus is what we could call the typical shonen manga, not really anything new, still good but not extraordinary. You might want to read it if you're looking for a shonen manga that's easily readable and enjoyable ^^

Story 6/10
Well nothing exceptional concerning the story, I mean, a guy and his best childhood friends go into an abandoned house and they end up awaking entities that shouldn't have been awakened. That's when Kei, the main character, ends up meeting yukifusa, a hell hound that was guarding the souls, Yukifusa gives his power to Kei in order for him to send the 'bad souls' to their graves and protect all his friends and family. That said, nothing that's really new but still a good plot for a shonen manga :).

Art 7/10
Well, the art isn't bad, it's in the average for a shonen manga, even though Kei's gravekeeper form is quite good :3

Character 6/10
Well, each character has his own personality, even though some are quite superficial and it is pretty much the same as every shonen manga, an op main characters who wants to protect those around him. But there is a still character development mostly between Yukifusa and Kei, and their friendship, at the beginning, yukifusa sees Kei only as a tool to send souls dto their graves but it evolves into a bond of true friendship between those two. There is also a bit of background for the character of Yukifusa, which shows us who he was and how meeting Kei helped him get over being just a guardian bored and unhappy of his life.

Enjoyement 8/10
Well I like shonen mangas so this manga was quite enjoyable, a lot of actions and the typical shonen manga so I couldn't really dislike it ^^

Overall 7/10
Even though this manga is not great, it is still quite good if you like shonen mangas, if you don't, it's not worth reading ^^

Thank you for reading ;)