Muzi081

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run is definitely the best piece of literature that I have read so far. It is a sort-of reset to the series and takes the concept of its previous parts and juices it until it's dry. Fortunately, it worked out amazingly.

Story: 10/10
Steel Ball Run is a well-written story, though it may be a little hard to invest yourself into at first, however, Steel Ball Run's story only goes uphill after stands are introduced. The fights are always interesting (even though there are few which are a little bit confusing) and it has a good climactic ending. Stands are a lot more simple and easy to understand, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Instead of having really powerful and fast stands that fight for you, the fights are about its user and strategy, and how well they can abuse their stands ability.

Art: 10/10
The art style in Steel Ball Run looks very nice and the character design is flawless. The backgrounds are always detailed and very pretty. The character design is most likely the best I've ever seen, each character is very unique and different from another and much like the backgrounds, much detail has been put into these characters and Diego Brando has the best character design I have seen.

Character: 10/10
Steel Ball Run has some fantastic characters. Although Johnny might be the "JoJo" of Steel Ball run, Gyro was the main character for probably the first half of the series. Both Johnny and Gyro have a unique and interesting personality. The side characters for Steel Ball Run are also very fleshed out and even have an interesting backstory such as Ringo Roadagain and Hot Pants. The main villain of this part, President Valentine, is the best antagonist in the series because his reasoning is something that the viewer can see as a good thing. Everything about the characters is amazing.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I read this so fast because after finishing a chapter I thought "What will happen next?". Steel Ball run was very enjoying from the start to the end and I don't think have enjoyed reading nearly as much before or since reading Steel Ball Run. It was very fun to read and I could read it over and over again without getting bored of it. I really enjoyed seeing Johnny and Gyro and I think that they are a better team than any of the other teams in JoJo's.

Overall: 10/10
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run is ranked one for anything that I have ever read in my life. The story is amazing and it's a roller-coaster of bizarre events and fights that keep you wanting to read even more. The art looks magnificent, the backgrounds look pretty and the character design is flawless. Steel Ball Run is an amazing part and it is worth reading every single page because of just how perfect it is.

I enjoyed the movie, and i heard the manga was better.

Its not, i couldnt even finish it.

The characters are even flatter than in the movie and thats saying a lot, the character relationships are just as articifial and forced as the plot progression, a lot of time is wasted on useless shit that doesnt further the plot nor helps worldbuilding.

On a more possitive note, i kinda enjoyed the art, and in the late chapters there is some top notch qual art, or so ive heard.

It has aged horribly, and the slow pace makes the characters n plot problems even more agravating.

Ive heard the last volume is where the real shit starts, but I cant bother to read all the way to it.

Without trying to spoil the story, the plot is about this old yakuza member trying to revive the Okinawa yakuza by recruiting members. The story gets political and displays the connection between politicians and other yakuza. The Chinese are also shown as inferior compared to the Japanese, so if you're offended by that then I wouldn't recommend it. The pacing is pretty good so the story is progressing as it should. Considering this is manga is illustrated by Ikegami Ryoichi the art is very good. The main character is such a badass, he may have a lack of morals however he ends up doing the right thing.

Overall, I am enjoying this manga a lot and if you like mangas about yakuza life then you should give this one a read.

Utterly and totally disgusting.

this manga is more than cringe worthy, it is just horrible. The ,main girl is raped not once, not twice but many times by the same guy and she keeps going back to him. She does not get help, never tells her boyfriend, but simply becomes a sex toy. The guy has his whole band rape her and she still comes back to him......sorry but no Female would be able to remain sane let alone go back to the one who is causing such distress to her.

I highly recommend you skip this manga, it also looks like it was dropped from translation as well....in the end she leaves her boyfriend to be with the rapist....yeah good ending. BTW I am a guy and felt deep hatred for the author for writing this trash. Dropped but went looking on the message boards for the ending to see if at least justice was served in the end........

The normal cliche of Shoujo manga, right? Boy falls in love with a girl, but the boy's childhood friend fell in love with him.
A cute little story of love and friendship, but with a most shocking end.
I recomend this to all manga lovers. Even those who don't usually read Shoujo.

I will try my best to not contain any spoilers, but if you think hints are also spoilers, there will be a bunch of them here.

So...Unfortunately, after reading every single chapter, the entire story just feels like a disjointed mess with ecchi stuff thrown into the mix.

In detail:

Story: 3

At first, you will find that everything feels like a nice supernatural mystery, yet, it really wasn't. The story will tell you why everything happened that way it did but in a sloppy way that leaves you will no real satisfaction. Even the reason for the ecchi stuff (Which is kind of the main theme, but not really...) is not clear nor satisfying to read through, they just did it because...?

Art: 6

Well, the only reason that I give it a 6 is that the art isn't bad at all, but nothing impressive either, so...yeah...middle numbers

Character: 3

It is all over the place. The main character went from a normal human being who was traumatized to a bat-shit insane person who felt the need to do whatever it takes to...escape? It was implied in the story that he could've escape in an extremely easy way, yet just because he gets to have sex, that is thrown out of the window. It is not like the villagers wanted him there either. The main bad guy or the main antagonist constantly stuck between "Okay, let's be rational", and "Oh, fuck that shit...Let's kill this fool!", and I was like "Dude, you have been doing the same shit like...a few centuries over, and you are the head of the village...Get a grip, dude...". I have more to say, but at this point, I may just as well spoil everything.

Enjoyment: 3

I do not enjoy this, if I wanted ecchi stuff, I may as well read an 18+ doujin with the same plot, which there are an abundance of. The only reason I even bother to get it a 3 is because they at least give the story an opening and an ending.

Overall: 3

I still appreciate the writer went the direction that created this story because it tells me what works and what doesn't in the world of writing and storytelling. There is really no reason for me to read the entire series again, even if it is for the ecchi scenes, or if there is some information that I have missed, but honestly, even had I known, I don't think it will change much of what I think about the series. But at the same time, maybe the book was right that the reason I do not enjoy this was that my own value and experience does not match the writer's or something else, but regardless, thank you for the hard work.

First of all i picked up this manga because there is a novel (yeah really!) so before reading a novel i decided to check manga and now i have my doubts....

Story 4/10

Well as you would expect it is a standard Rom-Com-Harem (harem being on weaker side since until chapter 21-22). Mal team forgot to put harem tag even though novel definitely had one and why is that important? Well Rom-Com-Harem mix is a known recipe - moronic MC, moronic hurdles and one dimensional girls who fall in love in MC for stupidest reasons.
Now for setting - it is set in High School where our male lead is in 2nd year (much wow much original) where he encounters his harem members that include perfect 3rd year president (you know those that regulate school rules), playful gravure idol, small sister, 5th grader (lolicon) and lastly teacher(presumably Main harem member). Also our ML has deep hatred against teachers for a very stupid reason like calling it stupid is an understatement.
What differs from others settings is that from chapter 1 everyone confesses to our ML but he sorta rejects them with the help of teacher(ML i think) and they profess their love to other members. Author made a fool out of me thinking that that dynamic will continue but no soon after we finally start to see heroine Arcs where MC somehow helps and resolves their problems (22ch 1 resolved) and even though he clearly stated he doesn't want a harem he starts to shift from his initial plans and becomes a standard ROM-COM-HAREM MC where his indecisiveness leads the story.
Almost forgot there is a lot of fanservice to the point i think we might find some hentai with the same author.

In short i think this is vanilla harem story where ML will go through every problem the girl has in ARCS and finally arriving to happy end.


Art 7/10

Possibly the only redeemable side of the manga. Characters are sexy (to the point of being distasteful) art could be easily be hentai characters are standard but drawn good nonetheless with good h-scenes, background was ok but a bit primitive with blanks in between. Panel placement and speech bubbles up to standard.

Characters 4/10

Male Lead - he has two sides first his present second his past. First the present boring, nothing special, problematic with teachers, indecisive(revealed in chapter 22-21 i was stupid to think that he would be something else). And has a severe case of amnesia (to the point of not remembering what happened last year) + with the mix of split personality. Has a cringe face whenever remembers his past self (meaning from last year and further down the history).
Now for the past a real teacher hater speaks against them constantly made some things to make harem members to fall in love with him but present self forgot everything (right until members had to tell him).
Female Lead(possibly) - Teacher, two faced due to having some hard past decided to be miss perfect but buried her real self, only shows her true self to MC because he saw through her. Kinda perverted, jealous and crazy while has also a lot of good qualities.
All other members will be called supports, well one dimensional soup of harem heroines with some authors outer layer i don't want to waste your time describing them because they are what you see at first with some past drama nevertheless they are standard harem members only we might not see tsundere (i might be wrong here i have my suspicions who will tsundere i.e. 6th member).

Enjoyment 4/10

I had my fill with "these" types of mangas/animes even in my teen years i considered them a bit annoying but since i was new to asian entertainment i was enjoying it for exotic feel.
Now of course annoyment meets anger while reading this factory type mangas a no brainer if i might say so, where you don't need any skills of writing the story you need only to draw something sleazy enough in order for blood to go down and hook a boy under charms of h-scenes and fetish fantasy.

Overall 5/10

Would i advice to read it well only if you're new to these types of genres or if you are a pubescent boy who wants to release some pent up energy or who wants to increase it other than that i would advice to stray away from this manga.

I will read a novel for experimentation reasons since reading sh*ty manga is one thing but reading a novel that created this manga is something i never done. Saddest part even though translated novel is almost finished or is finished reviewers read only up to 4volume and their reviews are not reliable but almost the same as mine which makes me worry that i will waste time on 9 volumes of sh*t.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THIS AWFUL MANGA.

Who, in the name of Jesus Christ, can like THIS aberration against the Saint Seiya franchise? Look, I've seen and read ALL about Saint Seiya, it is my childhood's iconic series. Masami Kurumada made, in 1986, one of the most famous Shonen series of all time. He created the Gold Saints, characters everybody love. He made epic fights, taking advantage of the Greek mythology. Of course, in the manga, he left plotholes he couldn't fill or he forgot to. One of the most iconic plotholes in Saint Seiya, is when Sagittarius Aiolos saved Athena from Gemini Saga. Episode Zero covers that part of the story.

The story is atrociously bad. All the Gold Saints have recently received their armor, so they need to train in order to be stronger. Gemini Saga kills Aries Shion and tries to kill Athena too, but Aiolos saves her. Well, we all know this part of the story. Aiolos arrives to the Pisces temple. There, he fights Pisces Aphrodite. Here, is revealed that the sacred Sagittarius technique is an arrow that don't allow movement. Of course, in the original Saint Seiya anime, Shura and Aiolos had a fight where he showed his terrifying Atomic Thunderbolt, an amazing technique. Here, we have..., an arrow, and a shadow. He leaves Aphrodite alive and he gets to fight Shura in the Capricorn temple. And then, Deathmask, blablabla.

Kurumada's art is always the same. We saw 1986's Saint Seiya, and we saw 2006's Next Dimension. Well, of course, Episode Zero looks like it was drawn in 1972. All pages are colored, but, who cares?

The characters are the DUMBEST IN HISTORY. First, we have Pisces Aphrodite and Cancer Deathmask. They are selfish and quite stupid too. At least, Deathmask has some type of personality, but Aphrodite is like a blank sheet of paper, totally different to the 1986's version. We have, of course, legendary hero Sagittarius Aiolos. He bravely fights his companions and get to the Sagittarius temple to take his armor. But he does not use it even when he is close to die! No excuses. He could have used the cloth to easily defeat Deathmask and protect himself in the end, but he prefered to carry it in his back. Finally, we have Capricorn FUCKING STUPID Shura. Shura was always represented as the most loyal defender of Athena. Well, at first he looks like that, but in the end he prefers to kill Athena in order to kill Aiolos! WTF?!?!?!?! You were supposed to protect your goddess, you dumbass!

I am so severe with Episode Zero because the main story was really good to tell a great story. Some people has been waiting for years to see Aiolos in a real fight, with great techniques and fights. Instead, Kurumada prefered to draw some random shit with a mediocre story and stupid characters.

Blue spring is the darkness that often precedes the light at the end of the tunnel. A light which in this short story collection, is a little out of sight. Spring is known as being a time for rebirth, a fresh start, and often a chance of change. In this case, the outlook of the characters is coloured with a gloomy wash of blue that defeats the usual themes of hope, hard work, and happiness. Seven chapters showcase the lives of high schoolers who have fell out of touch with reality after coming to a realisation that it doesn’t have much to offer them. Or so they think. Waiting for the idea of summer to fill a gap in their monotonous lives, they readily shake hands with death and danger as they seek thrills to justify their living. Standing on the edge is the closest thing to relief that these people often partake in just to keep themselves going.

A lot of familiar themes are explored within this collection, but they aren’t peppered with easy answers or slithers of hope. Being unsure of the future, coping with loss, feeling like you aren’t valued or respected for your actions. Wanting to take past mistakes back, but knowing you have to live with them, despite making your best efforts to wallow in them. Always not being enough, or having enough in life. Living under the same sun as others but having different perceptions of the shade it brings to life.

Now these themes may play into your interests, but the characters in these stories often find themselves dealing with them by bruising their knuckles, or just generally causing trouble with a flavour of introspection as they consider their actions, yet still go through with them despite knowing the risks. So the reception of the characters and stories I’d imagine will be wildly differing, they are characters you can love from their earnest way of how they cope with living, or hate for how easy they give in to things such as violence.
Despite the aching melancholic feel of the stories shown, Matsumoto still somehow manages to inject dull scenes with life. His unconventional linework is palette of emotions that he mixes very carefully before applying. He still understands what it still feels like to be young and hopeless, or one yearning for hope, and it is portrayed with a form of boundless precision in his works. The panel work in blue spring is absolutely exceptional, often splitting pages into diagonals numerous times but still not interrupting the flow whatsoever.

But with his artwork mentioned, I feel like that may be one of the few things one could consider flawed. Although his artwork is more anatomically accurate, it plays host to some sort of surreal exaggeration which makes it greatly stand out. I personally adore it, and would hope that others would be willing to give it a chance. Because it brings some very special stories into the world.

I would not recommend taking your time to read this story. Just walk away. I know it's short, only six chapters, but many short manga are able to develop a story with plenty of engagement and character depth. Parts of it are cute but without any real character description it didn't move me.

I don't understand how the characters' relationship even starts. It's romance for the sake of romance. The characters go through the motions of love but I don't believe any of it.

The love triangle feels contrived as well. Suzuki's other love interest, Tanaka, is supposed to seem like an obstacle for Ninomiya. He seems like a nice, pleasant guy though. Why shouldn't she date him instead of the lead?

I enjoyed parts of this but I couldn't get into it. I kept thinking of how unrealistic it is. Shoujo manga is supposed to be a little bit of a fantasy, but fantasy should have substance.

I do think the female lead is drawn in a cute way, though the male looks more typical.