Kagerou Daze

[UPDATED] At the time of this review, I've read the all 8 volumes of Kagerou Daze.

STORY: 9/10
The story of Kagerou Daze is a strange and weird one. It is told in a nonlinear way, switching from the past to present frequently. The main story takes place on August 14th and 15th, though goes past this as the story progresses, and is about strange eye powers that reside in the main characters, the Kagerou Daze, and different timelines.

Kagerou Daze is a route of Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)'s Kagerou Project, and is technically a sequel to the songs and manga according to him. Despite this, it still stands on its own for the most part, but I felt it needed a more finite conclusion and expanded more on some of the "Route XX" parts of the songs. In my opinion, it's overall the best version of the Kagerou Project story, but still recommend checking out the songs at least if you want an improved experience.

ART: Good/10
Sidu (formerly known as Shidu) is an incredible artist and one of my personal favorites. Sidu's style is very distinct and noticeably improved greatly each volume, which is a plus because the novels start with good art from volume 1. Kagerou Daze also has some of my favorite character designs, which were done by Sidu and Wannyanpu, but Sidu perfected Wannyanpu's designs which created incredibly appealing designs.

CHARACTER: 8/10
The characters in Kagerou Daze are well done and interesting. Each main member gets a focus throughout the story.

The only particularly weak character of note is the main antagonist, who I felt should've been better fleshed out more, but is still a decent antagonist that doesn't drag the story down.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
I LOVE the Kagerou Project franchise (songs, novel, manga, anthologies, anime) and this is my favorite light novel. The novel is well written and I can feel how hard Jin had worked on these novels and I truly appreciate it.

OVERALL: 9/10
I highly recommend this light novel, I love it deeply and if you like nonlinear storytelling, this would be to your interest. If you enjoyed the songs or Mekakucity Actors I severely recommend reading this.

I always find it creative when mangakas find their different ways of tying a lot of different people in together in realistic ways, well of course it wasn't all that realistic, but you still find yourself amazed when you begin to peace everything together as you go along. This review is only for like the first 15 chapters that are there so far and I can't even explain how hard it is to judge it off of that, but I'll give it a try.

Story 8
I give the story a 8 because it hasn't all been released for me to really piece everything together, but even without the pieces everything is so well put together that you can still rate it high. I don't read much seinen so I can't really tell you how unique it is, but I think the story definitely has the ability to draw you in. The main character that it follows is a neet named Shintarou who's been shacked up in the house for two whole years. He has a relatively bad attitude and he's a weakling who still has a backbone. So far the reason why he has isn't in the manga, but if you look up the songs that the stories based off of you'll definitely know, but I won't spoil it ^_^. Somewhere between the two years he stays in the house a girl named Ene invades his computer and terrorizes him and ends up making him have to go outside and from there the story begins on a humorous path and a very confusing one. To my knowledge the group that forms between the main character all have an eye ability and it hasn't yet clearly been shown why.

characters 8
I actually like the characters with Kano being one of the most interesting to me. His ability makes it hard to understand his true nature, but overall he's the humor of the manga. You'll definitely find that a lot of character have pasts that aren't so favorable and heart warming, but it reflects on who they are and how they deal with situations. I can't really judge the dimension of the characters cause the whole having special abilities thing throws off any realism it can have in my head, but I think that they've got depth and that's well done.

art 8
I like the art and it fits the story it's telling very well, but I actually think I'd might like it better in the anime because the only thing I don't like is all the black haired people kinda look the same with the exception of Shintarou since he has dark outlines around his eyes. I like how their clothes are designed especially Kido's jacket so I think that's especially something good about it. There really isn't much shadin or any realistic characteristics or detail out into their faces, but I don't think it'd match the story well if they did.

Enjoyment 9
I really have fun reading it and I love when a story can make me laugh literally out loud and I think it's something that any audience would be able to enjoy, but everyone is different and has their different outlooks on enjoyment and humor and such so how much you enjoy it really depends on you and what you like.

Overall 8
and I must remind you this is only like the first fifteen chapters but I found it necessary for it to have a reasonable review that actually gives you the story properly and after a while if I change my mind about how I feel, I'll come back and change it, but so far I give it a 8.5 for awesomeness and I really suggest you look up the songs because the songs just make it ten times better for me. If you can't find any try Jin or IA transparent answer and it is sung by a vocaloid just a heads up.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Well, this is my first review on MyAnimeList, so I decided to make a pretty positive review for a franchise I adore.

First of all, before I talk about what MyAnimeList made me rate (Story; Art; Characters, etc...) I took the time to say; One of Media Factory's many monthly comics, Monthly Comic Gene, is said to be shōnen manga for girls. So if one of the characters eats a fruit and becomes a rubber man, I'd be cool, whatever (even though shōnen battle manga isn't my thing, not so sure which direction the novel and manga are going to)

Story:

I'd say it's good, not perfect, but good. Song series wise; I'd say a love it! The characters are wonderful, and it actually made me look at some in a different light (I mean, I knew Kano must be hiding what he feels, but Yobanashi Deceive was a huge eye opener for me!). I really cannot wait until songs like Toumei Answer, Yobanashi Deceive and Souzou Forest go towards the novel/manga/ and future anime area.

Okay, now it's the novel/manga(s) turn. I really find the plot interesting, but it's killing me! I'm sitting here, waiting for my favorite manga's to come out every month (while most translators miss there deadlines, but of course they have a life!) While my brother whistles away reading Naruto weekly. I read the summary's for both novels for the series, so I won’t be getting any new material from the manga until they enter the scene where Ene chases Konoha after the Headphone actor ordeal.

7/10

Art:

What can I say? Every character is cute; bodies are attractive (I swoon over Seto sometimes 0___0) makes the bad guys hot, and then makes the girl characters not look like hookers like every other manga/anime (s)!

If you don't like that, well, we don't have the same minds.

8/10

Characters:

Song series wise; I'd say I love them all! Easy 10/10 for me. Except, I have a different take on the actual plot.

First, we have the neet, Shintaro. You see, he's (what I presume, with the way he acted) friend, Ayano, committed suicide two years before the story starts. The song, Toumei Answer, is saying that he has (what I think) suicidal thoughts and how he is useless. He actually does pretty well in school, but Ayano? Not so much. She just laughs it off with a big goofy smile of hers! In the song, he is asking why he couldn't figure out why she died, since he is the smart one and knows everything; he thought it would be obvious to see why this eccentric girl killed herself.

In the manga, it starts off two years later. He’s this normal guy, nothing much to do, except being in love with his computer. Yes, and once he finishes a song (which is actually Toumei Answer!) Ene finds herself murdering it. Now, Shintaro has to go out and buy a mouse and a keyboard. He notes how hot it is, and tries to remember the neighborhood since he hasn’t left his house for two years! Yes, for two whole years. While at a store, he finds himself being taken hostage by some bad guys. Good news, he has Ene in his iphone! She can easily open the security so the police can save everyone! So then Shintaro meets a cat eyed guy, gets enough confidence to tell the idiot leader that he’ll go to jail, something falls on the guy, so Shintaro uses the time to get Ene and to finish up his heroic service. Wait! Was Shintaro shot be any of them by the end? No, all his confidence drained, and then went back to the coward he was, thus fainting. Later, he finds out he’s at the Mekakushi Dan’s place, with his little sister to boot. He is black-mailed, and goes to the amusement park against his will.

Now, who’s Ene? She’s a cute cyborg that lives inside electronics and is basically is going to kill Shintaro with black-mail. Where did she come from? Beats me, but I know her original self wasn’t so happy, and had to see her entire town get blown up. Takane, Ene’s original form, was cranky, and had something wrong with her body that can make her pass out. Because of this, she takes an exclusive class with a boy, Haruka, who she had a crush on, that has the same fatal illness as her, only worse!

What is the Mekakushi Dan?

Well, there’s Kido, the leader; Seto, the second member; Kano, the third member and sometimes leader, and the newbies, which include Mary (4) and Momo (5).

Now, I’m not a big fan of Kido’s song, so I can only talk about what I got from the manga. She appears as a tsundere. In Konoha’s State of the World, you can she her little self at the end, happy as can be! So what’s the difference between those times? All I can say is that her power is to be invisible. How would you feel like if nobody can see you? That’s what I think, at least.

Seto seems nice, I mean, he’s Prince Charming! I can’t say much though. He did help Mary out of her shell, so, I guess he’s pretty cool? I cannot wait for at least some backstory from him in his future song.

Kano, what can I say? At first, I thought he was just one of those characters. Then, low and behold, Jin says he’s the only one that can keep the story going. Abracadabra; Yobanashi Deceive comes! All I can get from that song is that Kano can’t so his true self. He doesn’t even know who he is, metaphorically speaking. So, this Kano is just a big lie?

I’d love to write more about Mary, Momo, etc… but I feel like I’m going on and on and on! I’ll just say this; each character has a painful past, a quirky personality and has a bright future of character development.
8/10

Enjoyment:

Eh, 7/10. The manga hasn’t hit its high points yet, but it certainly hasn’t hit its low points either. I squeal in excitement once a chapter comes out, I cry in disapproval once the chapters finished. I help communities that contains the name Kagerou Project (Vocaloid wiki, Kagerou Project Wiki) also talking about the series with other people.

Overall:

It’s unique. The characters are satisfying (no Mary-sues just yet) the art is actually attractive. The setting is realistic; the main character is actually relatable. The one problem I have though is that it takes a month or longer to get a hold of on the internet; so if you’re planning on reading this, and are used to reading most of their manga weekly, I’d suggest to listen to the song series. Better yet, listen to the song series first. I think it’s best to watch Yobanashi Deceive when you’re done with all the current eight chapters, it’s more meaningful.

8/10.

Thanks! I really loved it, and I plan on watching the anime series which was confirmed on the Children Record booklet last year 

EDIT: This manga is the sequel to the Kagerou Project songs and prequel to the Novels and Anime.

Kagerou Daze is a manga route of Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)'s series "Kagerou Project". It's written by Jin and illustrated by Mahiro Satou.

STORY: 7/10
Kagerou Daze is the story set mostly on August 14th and 15th and is centered around the Mekakushi Dan, a gang of teenagers with strange eye abilities, the Kagerou Daze, and timeloops.

I would like to note Jin has stated the manga is not intended to be an adaption of the light novel, but another timeline in the series. According to his placement, this route is set after the songs and right before the light novels.

Initially, the manga follows the plot of the light novels, but changes about 1/4 of the way through to being vastly different than any other route in the franchise. Since the manga is now finished, it does NOT stand on it's own and is meant to depict events Mekakucity Actors only showed portions of. I did find the story and bit confusing, and unfortunately I feel the story has not gone on long enough to fully depict it, while the light novels have done better.

ART: Good
The art in this manga is a different style than the designs from Sidu and Wannyanpuu-, it really isn't as nice as Sidu's designs, but they're not bad. Mahiro Satou's art grew on me and I do like it, it's just not one of the best parts of this manga.

CHARACTER: Fun
I really love the characters is Kagerou Daze. However, most characters in this route do not extensively fleshed out unfortunately. I believe this might've been done because Jin expected readers to be aware of the other media as it went on. I felt this is the weakest part of the manga.

ENJOYMENT: 9/10
I'm a massive Kagerou Project fan and this manga is what originally got me into the franchise. I adore this manga and it's very dear to me so I highly recommend it.

OVERALL: 7/10
If you have an interest in weird, sad stories with nice looking characters, you might like Kagerou Daze. PLEASE check out the other media for Kagerou Project because this intentionally became another part of the story's puzzle rather than a contained story. The light novel's story did a similar concept but still resolved story arcs.