Kikaharu3

[MINOR SPOILER WARNING]


I don’t like to use too often the word “perfection”, since in my belief, from the common use of it, the word itself might tend to lose it's valor, and of course, very few manga can correlate with that word in particular.

However, “perfection” is a word that absolutely fits this manga, Vagabond is beyond great, from every aspect you may look at it, it is usually regarded as a Martial Arts/Combat Seinen, but the story goes much more deep than that.

Duels and battles, even though are astonishing, are just one aspect of this fantastic work by Inoue sensei, that one aspect leds you to a variety of profound thoughts involving philosophical themes, it makes you to seriously reflect on yourself as a person as you get deeper in the story, you get attach in the characters mind throughout their own journey.

The development of the main character through the series is amazingly well written by the author, and as he gets closer on his goal of becoming “Invincible under the Heavens” through the way of the sword, makes him wonder on every step he takes as if questioning if that’s what he really wants, “What is true strength?".

A key point on his development in which he gets to another level of maturity is after the Battle of Ichijoji-Sagarimatsu, where he slaughters the remaining members of the Yoshioka clan, that battle, is the best one that I’ve read in any manga, no unnecessary dialogs, no forced power ups by the protagonist, no flashbacks to interrupt the pace of the battle, just a guy swinging his sword to the best of his skill, cutting down foe after foe while on a "mushin" state of mind. What Inoue draw on this was taken out of perfection, it makes the reader mind get completely immerse in the battle scenes where you almost feel you're "in the zone" just like Musashi.

Regarding the Art of the manga, it feels like is drawn by angels, Takehiko Inoue might be the greatest mangaka ever when it comes to the art, as he has already demonstrated in his different works; the art is definitely one of Vagabond’s most impressive aspects, you might get goosebumps just by looking at some of the panels, I personally even just stared at some of the panels for minutes just to appreciate how beautiful they are in it’s entirety.

I could expand myself much more on what this makes this work fascinating but I think I’d never end, so you should discover by yourself once you embark on this journey.

To end this, I just would like to let you know that even thought it’s currently on hiatus, Vagabond is an absolute masterpiece among great manga and a top contender (if not the champion) for the title of the “best manga of all time”.

At first glance, Onepunch-Man looks like a typical action manga. But look into it just a little more, and you’ll discover just how different it is.

For one, the main character is the ‘caped baldy’ known as Saitama. His appearance is somewhat bland, but there’s a reason: He’s so strong that all his hair fell out. How strong? Well, he ends all his fights with one punch (hence the manga’s name). He’s presumably a parody of all those overpowered protagonists you see in anime and manga, but his uninterested personality is quite unique for an action hero.
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Early on in the series, a cyborg who becomes Saitama’s student is introduced. His name is Genos, and he’s definitely powerful with his cybernetic weaponry and armour. He has that handsome appearance that makes him look like the protaganist, when he’s really just the student of the protagonist. Genos is also more serious and apparently smarter than Saitama, but Saitama doesn’t seem to be bothered.

Onepunch-Man features many villains, and a lot of them are seemingly unstoppable until Saitama gets to them. There’s a giant, an insect swarm and ‘seapeople’, for example. One recurring villain, Sonic, doesn’t fall under the same category as these monsters, but that’s because he’s kind of important.
Eventually, an organization full of heroes comes into the story, which Saitama and Genos join. Heroes are ranked in a system going from C-class to S-class. Many heroes appear in the story, with their ranks and abilities varying (amongst them, there’s an esper, a shiny muscleman and a guy in a dog costume). Once this group is introduced, the fight scenes become all the more epic.
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Speaking of fights, there are a lot of them in this manga. And they are drawn with great detail: They are better quality than the rest of the series, which looks decent at its worst. You may think it’s boring when Saitama wins with one punch, but here’s the thing: He usually only appears late into fights with other heroes involved, and his punches usually have to actually hit to do anything. So fight scenes are really hype-filled when they want to be.

The story of Onepunch-Man… Well, I can’t tell if it’s serious or comedic. I’m guessing it’s both, as it can be funny one minute and intense the next. Each villain has their own motive, some of them based on their past. And there are some heroes that definitely don’t act like heroes. The author is quite interesting, to say the least.

In conclusion, Onepunch-Man is a great series. Read the manga, then watch the anime by Madhouse when it starts.

Okay, so I have been a fan of the Ginga saga since I was a child, and Yoshihiro Takahashi's works are always really close to my heart in their entirety. So, as hard as it was, I tried to write a non-biased review about this heart-warming short story in the hopes that it'll help someone :3

Story: 9/10
Like most of Takahashi's stories, this one was also brilliant, although it was quite different than what you'd expect from Takahashi. In Ginga Nagareboshi Gin and Ginga Densetsu Weed, there's constantly a war raging and a major enemy that needs to be killed by one of the legendary Akita dogs... Not with this one. There's no real major war or enemy, but this story solely focuses on an unknown branch of the legendary Akita family tree and how they used their heritage to defend their owners. Unlike the taking down of Akakabuto in GNG, the 'quest' is not nearly as extreme for Jiromaru and his family; instead they just want to look after young Anju and help her through the rough parts of her life. It's a heart warming story, and I personally loved it, as it brings in the nobility of Riki and his descendants into the mundane world. Also, it highlights things we overlook as a society, like child abuse and neglection, and Takahashi shines a light on darker topics of humanity fantastically through this story. But my reson for a 9 and not a 10 is because the plot seemed to be quite fast-moving and rushed. Maybe it's just me, but I would've liked if the story was a bit longer and not hurriedly jumping from one stage to another every other page.

Art: 10/10
It's Yoshihiro Takahashi, c'mon. Nobody draws manga canines better than him. In my home country of Finland, we call him "Koiramangan Mestari", or "The Master Of Dog Manga", so it's no surprise that his work gets a 10 from me. GDATJ is a lot more recent than e.g. Shiroi Senshi Yamato (where the porportions are a bit all over the place and the expressions are *cough* well, strange, but I'm letting Takahashi off because his style has become significantly more enjoyable in the 30 years that he's been drawing) meaning that the finish is a lot nicer. I especially liked the few full-colour pages right at the start of the manga.

Characters: 9/10
Okay, I find Jiromaru and his doggy family adorable, Anju is a sweetheart, her grandfather, aunt and eldest uncle are noble and kind, and Anju's other uncle is a perfect villain with a perfectly idiotic family of greedy a******s. Nice variation of characters, and interestingly in this story Takahashi focuses more on the people rather than the dogs. Another thing that I liked was that Jiromaru and his siblings, despite being Weed's relatives, did not show those annoying "goody-two-shoes-rightous-goodness-annoyingly-angelic" traits that Weed has. *bleurgh* I seriously don't like Weed's personality, because he's too soft. That's why I love this branch of the Akita family: Jiromaru, Taromaru, Saburomaru and Koyuki were all dedicated to their tasks set by their mother, Yuki, showing off the noble Akita family blood of being determined, rightous and strong-willed, WITHOUT going over the top like Weed did. But I really would've liked to have seen more development within the characters, even if it was only a short story. I would've liked to have seen more of Jiromaru's siblings, and how their personalities developed as we don't really get that much of an insight into what they're like. Jiromaru is the same, though we see a bit more from him as he's the protagonist, but still not enough to make me deeply "synchronise" with the character. After all: it didn't really feel right reading a true Ginga manga by the master of dog manga where the people were more developed than the dogs.

Enjoyability: 10/10
I didn't put the book down. I couldn't. Even though I already knew the story before I read it physically, I felt the need to blast through it in one go. And... Yeah, okay, I don't often get emotional, but towards the ending, I could't help but feel a little rip in my soul and a little tear in the corner of my eye. This book was a great read, and despite the plot jumping around like a hyperactive chipmunk on coffee, I kept reading because I naturally wanted to know what would happen. It was a dramatic read after all!

Overall: 10/10
Yes, I would really reccommend this to anyone who is even the slightest bit interested, and especially to anyone who is a fan of Ginga! The story is very touching, with strong themes which link to hidden and overlooked modern day issues, sprinkled with unique Takahashi-style dog characters! And if you're a fan of the Ginga saga in genreal, this is definitely worth reading, because it shows a different side to the wonderful and weird world of Ginga :3

SHORT REVIEW: The manga adaptation of Concrete Revolutio doesn't do the original justice.
*ba dum tss*

LONG REVIEW:
The back page of the Concrete Revolutio manga begins with the line "Based on the hit superhero anime!" That is simply a lie. Concrete Revolutio may have been a modern-day masterpiece, but it certainly wasn't a hit. Despite being a critical darling amongst blog writers and cool people, the show sold very poorly in all and didn't spawn the following or success that such an original passion project deserves. I kind of wish the publishers had the guts to put "Based on the severely failed superhero anime!" on the back.

But I digress. If you've made it this far, you're willing to give Concrete Revolutio a chance. Even better, maybe you enjoyed the show and are seeking out more content. Or maybe you didn't like the show's time-hopping setup and want a more comprehensible but still deep plot. Unfortunately, this manga will satisfy absolutely none of you.

The Concrete Revolutio anime is a vast and complex work, spanning 24 episodes and a bunch of arcs that intertwine as the chronology develops. Slimming it down into a 2-volume manga requires careful consideration on what and what not to include to still get the series' messages across. Sadly, the manga manages to miss the point in every conceivable way.

Let's start with the hot-button issue: the chronology. The Concrete Revolutio anime is infamous for its nonlinear timeline. Episodes frequently jump 5 years into the future, showing the direct consequences of the Superhuman Bureau's earlier actions. Eventually, the present catches up and the whole show takes place later on in the timeline. This manga gets rid of the time-skipping entirely, relying on solely a linear plot. This could have been a good thing! Had the manga gone on long enough, we would have eventually seen the future actions that happened in the anime, just in chronological order rather than plot-relevance order. But the manga doesn't go on for long enough at all, and those future events are cut from the plot entirely. Entire arcs are cleaved in half, with stopgap or unclear resolutions that surely make no sense unless you watched the anime and knew what actually happened later on. The one instance of a time skip in this manga seems to have been played largely as a joke, too. Overall, the non-jumping, non-resolving timeline severely damages Concrete's plot here.

Concrete Revolutio is known for its wide palette of characters. The superhumans are incredibly varied, from robots to yokai to witches to kaiju, and the anime has a brilliant supporting cast with all sorts of different motives. That's not the case here. Only the main members of the Superhuman Bureau show up as characters here, and a lot of them have little to no personality. And Emi -poor, poor Emi- yet again has almost zero characterization. Even Jiro suffers immensely from this adaptation. In the show he's morally gray and always fights for what he believes is just, even as his sense of justice is tested and altered. Jiro's sense of justice is never challenged here, nor is it even a major plot point. This was one of the most compelling parts of the show, but it was completely removed in this manga. The only character that came out kind of alright was Raito.

The artist, Nylon, is a porn artist. You might think I'm just leveraging a personal attack, but it shows. His art isn't particularly good and certainly doesn't hold up to the anime's excellent visuals, but the worst offense is the fanservice chapter halfway through. Why does this chapter exist? Why is Kikko so sexualized? Why do some of the panels look like they came right from a hentai? This chapter ruins any sense of pace or seriousness in the manga, and feels like a waste of 20 pages more than anything.

Finally, the deviation. While the first half is a faithful recreation of the first few episodes of Concrete sans the flash-forwards, the second half of the manga is an entirely new arc that cuts the series short before anything good can happen. Needless to say, it's awful. The new villain and his motives are baffling, Jiro never even gets to use his locked-up powers, and none of it is actually interesting. There's no moral or philosophical quandaries being posed in this new fight. It's basically just a lame shonen arc, which isn't what I expect or want from Concrete. The very ending is extremely shallow as well, and can't hold a bone to the show's smashing resolution.

Needless to say, the manga adaptation of Concrete Revolutio is bad. It's real bad. It retains nothing of what makes the anime so great, and every time it does something original, it introduces a whole slew of new problems. It's hard to believe that the original writer of the anime also came up with something this disappointing. So here's my takeaway: don't read this manga. If you came here without having seen the anime, please please please watch it. It'll be worth your time and it'll be far better than this adaptation. And if you have seen the anime and are hungry for more, then I'm sorry, this manga just won't do.

Avant-garde Yumeko is about a teenage girl who uses her art to manifest a growing interest in the male body and sex. Whenever she thinks of or sees a dick, she gets the urge to draw! And her work is quite impressive.

This concept could easily be turned into a hentai. Knowing this medium, it probably already has. Oshimi Shuzo is more concerned about the importance of art in the hands of someone who needs a way to channel their curiosity in a private and productive activity. Needless to say, sex is a really hard thing for teenagers (and even adults) to talk about openly - many never have any sort of education or "talk" from their parents to prepare them for what their bodies are designed to do. This manga presents a constructive solution to that curiosity that I found to be quite endearing and funny. It's probably relevant that Japan's obscenity laws prohibit depictions of genitals in their media, further limiting the agency of a teenager to learn about sex through the media they consume. Yumeko then has to satiate her curiosity through her own imagination, and with the help of a willing male club member.

That said, there are a lot of drawn dicks in this manga. So I can imagine readers being too grossed out to even care about what themes are being conveyed. It doesn't help that this is an early Shuzo work before his art style became more refined as it is now, making it a bit harder to take seriously and to identify what the point of the story is.

Personally, it didn't bother me enough to take away from the enjoyment of the manga. and I find this to be a good precursor to later works with similar tropes that you may recognize as a fan.

Kyuusen no Shima starts out quite promising. The first 3 or 4 chapters set the tone (mildly creepy and very "ecchi") and give a decent framework for the story to unfold. The premise (main character uncover misterious circunstances surrounding his family in a isolated insland) is also interesting. Sadly, it goes downhill fast, and the ending feels very rushed. There is some development of the main character and antagonist, but most of the support cast isn't really fleshed out.
Overall, if you appreciate ecchi manga (more like borderline hentai harem) and and just wants a quick read, this is a great pick. The art is very good and will keep you attracted to the manga, even when the story falters.

"Hey Satan, do you like manga?" "Yeah." "Nice. What kind of? I mean, seinen are probably my favo-" "Ero-guro." "...what's that?" "It's this type of gore mixed with sexuality, sometimes it's black humor." "That doesn't sounds too good, Satan." "No no, read this one, I think you'll really enjoy it." "Shintaro Kago's Suck It?" "Yeah." "Alright then."

"Did you read it?" "..." "Did you get to the panel with the bees? Probably my favorite." "..." "..." "..." "You okay?" "..." "Come on man, it wasn't that bad" "...the... the guy..." "What?" "Shintaro Kago..." "What about him?" "Is he human?" "Technically yes. I took the soul of Maruo Suehiro this time he visited me in Hell then sprinkled a little of the Marquis de Sade's soul." "Damn."

This manga had been sitting on my plan to read for so long that a weight was lifted off my shoulder when I opened the first page. And I'm glad it did.

//I don't know what counts as a spoiler, so I might have flashed a teeny bit that I shouldn't in this review. But I promise nothing major.//

Story (7/10): The plot itself is a happy-go-lucky one when you look at it at a glance. This manga is about our optimistic main character, Sakura, who lives in a supernaturalistic world along with her friends. Despite the peculiarity of the world Sakura lives in, there was always a common ground that our world and their world has. At first, I couldn't understand why the world she lived in was very strange. So, almost reaching her adolescence, Sakura becomes intrigued with how the way things are, including this very peculiar object, called a 'dick', that was mentioned in a book she had read.

Art (8/10): When it comes to Fumi-sensei, she knows how to sweeten things up with her art. The fusion of cuteness and horror which creates a surreal universe in which our characters live.

Character (8.5/10): This is probably the one category that this manga has given me a bone-chilling feeling. If you look beyond the strange setting, I strongly believe that Sakura's character was a euphemism for an awakening. She's at the age where she's almost no longer a child and notices things don't occur like she had thought it would have been. After meeting a certain person, her outlook on reality had significantly shifted. The abnormal world she had perceived has become her norm, and yet 'our' norm seems abnormal to her. She realises the existence of the opposite sex's genitalia, for example. A sort of 'childhood ruined' moment that we've all experienced before.

Enjoyment (9/10): If I could use a word to describe this manga, it would be 'warm' - as in the comfort of warmth, a reassuring and warm hug. I found this manga to be a therapeutic read.

This is sort of out of topic, but I enjoyed re-reading this manga while listening to Kikuo's 'Kaleidoscope'. Bizarre and yet aesthetically beautiful.

I'm going to be real with you guys, it's not a good Manga.

I don't read LNs, so maybe the story is better there, but this Manga is not worth the read.

The Plot:
An OP MC visits a Magic School. Everyone thinks little of him, until he shows that he's at least 40 times more powerful than the next student in line. How does he show?

Well, they are some kind of Monster-Races and their task is to create their first dungeon. Everyone does like 5 floors, 10 is considered extraordinary.

Well, our MC does 400 just like that.



Anyway, it's not really important because all he places in there is a bed for him to sleep in. What happens? He wakes up with a cute Vampire girl next to him. He enslaved her by accident. And then he goes and enslaves another girl by accident.


And all the people around start to like him. Yeah.




He's also from that super mysterious Village so he thinks he's average but he is actually super powerful... as the Manga develops so far this feels like written by a elementary Schooler who explains his OC Superhero.

Thing is... the "Guy who thinks he's mediocre but is actually from a super powerfull region" Plot is also done by "Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shounen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Youna Monogatari" just that it's way funnier.

While This story is played straight as hell, Last Dungeon is at least exaggerated and funny.


I rate this 1/10 because I think "pathetic" is what fits this Manga best. Stil gonna read it, if it ever updates - might get better.

When you pick up a Tetsuya Saruwatari manga, you know what you're going to get: a protagonist who looks like Riki-Oh, a sibling or childhood rival, cartoonishly sadistic villains and absurdly violent martial arts fights rendered with excruciating anatomical detail (Seriously, the guy must have had anatomy textbooks off-hand while drawing). Dokuro is no exception, and its only differentiating factors are an evil religious organization and the hero's gimmicky weapon - a hook-on-a-wire that results in many scenes of decapitation, hanging, lips getting torn off and faces stripped off skulls.

With Saruwatari, you come for the spectacle, not the story. As usual, there's little plot or character development to find; The hero goes from one fighting set-piece to another with little reason (including the author's favorite setting, a maximum-security prison), and he's pretty much an invincible force-of-nature the whole way through, so there's little tension. The author also stinks at writing endings; They often feel too easy, rushed and anti-climactic. Speaking of which, a detective gets introduced and the manga seems to be building up to a final clash between him and the hero, but it never happens.

With that said, if you enjoy a little mindless carnage (I know I do), you shouldn't be disappointed.