redclouds14

Solo Leveling is one of the most enjoyable reads ive had in a long time!, I smashed throgh 81 Chapters in less than a week *that was the current chapter at the time*, after each read i craved more!

The story is really gripping from what i have read so far, watching the changes & development of Jin-Woo on his adventures and the uniqe twist the story thows in, apparently we are less than half way through the web novel material so far so there is alot more content to read in the future.

The Art is stunning & fully colored!
being a Manga reader I rearley see the storys I read colorised so its a treat to the eyes :)

The Characters are all interesting with there own unique traits & abilitys their designs are amazing my faveroute being the white tigers Guild Master *Beak Yoon-Ho* with his "uniqe" ability.

I personally find this series to be an easy read and really enjoyable, if your on the fence about reading this series I say just give the first 11 chapters a read, you wont regret it.

"A compilation of supernatural-themed short stories. "

That's the summary, but it omits- well, that's hard to describe. Each of these leaves you with a specific set of feelings, ranging anywhere from a nostalgic sadness to fear to cheerfulness to a (in any way) disturbed state of mind.

They're quite short in length, and you can read through them fairly quickly, in the span of a short evening, and I'm pretty sure that anyone can find something in this collection that will resonate specifically with them in terms of mood and themes.

In all honesty, I might've chosen 'fantasy' as a better descriptor than 'supernatural', but then again, not all the stories fit that genre either. The closest thing I can compare them to is fables, or the kind of stories you tell at night, during a sleepover.

Of course, being so short, the characters in each don't get particularly developed. As mentioned above, the main point appears to be evoking emotions, so the story and atmosphere take center stage. Some are light, some dark, some heavy. It's slightly psychological with a taste of mystery and at the very least, I don't think you'll get bored.

The art is perhaps unique, but generally pleasing, not all the way to awkward and just on this side of enjoyable. Personally I loved it, since it suited my tastes, and it was actually the cover art that convinced me to give it a shot. I'd say it matches the slightly dreamy feel of the stories.

Enjoyment? Very quick to read through, generally good at setting a mood, with interesting storylines and a diverse spectrum of themes. If you like either supernatural, fantasy, psychological, mystery, or even horror, I'd recommend giving this series a look, since it won't take up a lot of time and might strike a cord somewhere.

Buyer beware, there is no actual ending.

There’s nothing inherently right or wrong about this work, art, character development, and story are all passable. It definitely had the potential to be something more than it was.

It seems like the writing was on the wall pretty early on and the story abruptly cuts off at the end of chapter 21 with a note from the author saying they had to rush the ending due to unforeseen circumstances.

Given that tidbit, unless the story sounds interesting enough at first glance to make a non-ending palatable, don’t pick it up.

A thoroughly decent read (aka it’s a 6). But the lack of ending really hurts

This manga seemed really promising for about the first third or so, but then it went downhill fast. The ONLY consistently good aspect of this manga is the art. Character designs, environments, gore, and nudity are all well-represented artistically. Unfortunately, that is ultimately just another aspect of this manga's wasted potential.

I thought this story might be pretty good at first, not mind-blowing elite-tier stuff, but solid and enjoyable. The exposition escalates things quickly, there's some twisted, fucked up scenes early on, our protagonists are fairly likable, the villain is a generic horror super-sadist. All that needed to be done from there was to keep the focus on the characters and put together a coherent beginning, middle, and end for the story. Then you'd have a good, but not great manga (in the 6 t0 7/10 range).

Unfortunately that doesn't happen. New characters I couldn't be bothered to care much about continually get introduced, the plot takes a turn involving pointless super-powers that often don't even come into play when the characters would need them, and confusing and seemingly completely unrelated plot-points are introduced as well. In short, the back half of this manga is a completely convoluted mess in terms of story and characters. I couldn't even tell what the hell was going on much of the time.

Scores:
Story 2/10
Art 8/10
Characters 4/10
Enjoyment 4/10
Overall 4/10

*Scores are based around 5/10 being considered "average"

Ultimately, the only things keeping this manga's score out of the cellar for me are the very good art and the fact that it did show some promise in the beginning. Would not recommend though. Although you may get some enjoyment if you just want gore and twisted shit and don't care if you're able to tell what is going on.

Becchin to Mandara is best described as a psychological slice of life. Set in a ruined, post-war Japan, the manga shows the bizarre day-to-day lives of two girls, Becchin and Mandara. However, unlike other stories with a post-apocalyptic setting, Becchin to Mandara isn’t a story about survival or adventure. Instead, it completely defies the genre’s conventions by being utterly abstract. Constantly shifting tones between twisted humour, disturbing imagery, and zombie-killing action, Becchin to Mandara will have the reader wrapping his head around its story (mainly, lack thereof) in the most unpleasant fashion possible. The manga is grounded (or ungrounded) by the twisted interactions between Becchin, Mandara, and the anomalies (namely, swarms of ladybugs, large, flying insects, and fully sentient corpses) surrounding their countryside abode. To give you a little taste of the manga, here’s a description of its two main characters:

Mandara is as batshit crazy as a girl can get. Energetic and always referring to herself in the third person, she constantly shows sporadic behavior and thoughts. Of this behavior, she seems to be fond of imitating things – hillbillies, animals, and “crabvaders”? She also has a peculiar obsession with tape recorders, whereas any mention of this specific object leads to Mandara flailing her arms and breaking out into hysterical, tear-filled fits. If her dialogue doesn’t consist of incomprehensible rabble or delusional ranting, then it probably has something to do with the repetition of the words “tape recorder”. Like a broken tape recorder herself, another quirk in Mandara’s speech is that she tends to speak in loops, repeating her thoughts endlessly until interrupted.

“Who is Bill Gates?”
“The first man who succeeded in reaching the South Pole.”

Although a bit more mentally sound than her schizophrenic friend, Becchin suffers from a mild case of paranoia. She’s shown to hallucinate, and have conversations with herself on a regular basis. It’s through these hallucinations that we also see glimpses of Becchin’s pre-war life, as fragmented and far in-between as they may be. Although she takes pills to mitigate her hallucinations, the reader is left to wonder how much of the manga’s world has been distorted by Becchin’s mind, as we see it as Becchin does… Floating pianos, swarms of ladybugs, and all.

At first glance, Becchin to Mandara has all of the makings of a subtle, anti-war allegory – a post-apocalyptic setting, the defense of a dried out riverbed against “invaders”, and socially dejected, mentally unstable main characters. However, a complete lack of narrative, a scatter-brained introduction and conclusion, and failure to maintain a consistent plot made the manga almost incomprehensible, let alone able to convey any sort of message. Even the tidbit of social commentary introduced towards the ending seemed arbitrary, given the incoherent nature of the manga. Well, where does that leave the reader? What were the intentions of the author when writing Becchin to Mandara, if the story itself lacks any meaning or coherency?

Welcome to the twisted world of Jiro Matsumoto.

Ever wondered what it’s like to peer into the mind of a potentially insane mangaka? Well, Matsumoto’s stories will take you beyond the fine line of dementia and lunacy. Like all of his manga, Matsumoto doesn’t hold back on disturbing and graphic scenes. This is a man who will pull out all the stops for the sake of shocking readers, and he’s as unflinching as he is… Imaginative. On the milder side, the girls are often shown nude, or having vivid chats about sexuality and sexual acts. Or, in the middle of a conversation, another character will suddenly reveal a fully drawn, flaccid phallus. However, at its most brutal moments, the author doesn’t even bat an eye at, say, a teenaged girl wearing a school uniform, laughing maniacally while getting violated by a hoard of zombies in a horrific scat orgie.

… What? Yeah. Unfortunately, this is just senseless shock value. There’s little context behind these acts, and they exist simply to appall readers.

Becchin to Mandara isn’t without its black humour though. Throughout the manga, Matsumoto throws around not-so-subtle allusions to popular anime: Princess Mononoke, Evangelion, Gundam, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa, and even Full Metal Panic. There are also comedic elements in the manga’s styling, such as the use of a game’s inventory system when one of the characters was taking stock of her belongings, or the appearance of a JRPG battle menu when the same character later encounters a zombie.

Like all of Jiro Matsumoto’s manga, Becchin to Mandara’s artwork is… Unique, to say the least. The artist manages to make each panel highly detailed, yet crude at the same time. Matsumoto makes great use of etching, but these details create two effects. At its best, and quite often, these etchings create diverse facial expressions and highly intricate environments with fantastic shading. On a few rare occasions though, Matsumoto’s etchings can make for overly clustered panels.

Overall, Becchin to Mandara left me disappointed with a half-realized story, poor flow of narrative, and thoughtless imagery. Nonetheless, don’t let this manga deter you from reading Matsumoto’s other works. I was lead to Becchin to Mandara by Freesia (which is fairly underrated, yet highly praised by some), and Yuretsuzukeru, one of the few erotic works that isn’t overtly smut. It’s a dark collection of short stories that deals with psychology – what Becchin to Mandara could have and should have been with a little more care and restraint.

Basically 200 pages of people making increasingly emotionally immature decisions.

Between the Sheets (Sheets no Sukima) is actually pretty good at depicting how idiotically people can behave when love & lust are involved. Basically none of the four major characters make any really good decisions over the course of the book, and their motivations are a mix of lust, envy, and spite. A little painful and a little cringeworthy, though mostly because you know you’ve seen at least some of this play out IRL.

That said, the back-cover claims that “Erika Sakurazawa boldly introduces a new type of relationships for girls” and I can only pray that the Minako/Saki dynamic is no reader’s first romantic rodeo. Minako has a romantic crush on her best friend Saki (who by all accounts is pretty solidly heterosexual), causing Mina to go through various stages of angst, sorrow, anger, and scheming. Unless by “new type of relationships” they meant “toxic ones”, in which case, Between the Sheets is perfect.

Nobody in this book is coping healthily with anything, be ye warned.

A tale of father and son searching for memories in a race against time...

Imagine someone stole your time, you‘re beginning to loose your latest memories, you forget what you did yesterday, last week you even forget who your son is, while your body gets younger and younger.

Sounds rather nice huh? Well, I thought it was (until the last couple chapters; we don’t talk about the couple last chapters).

And since nobody wrote anything about this series I thought why not.
(Disclaimer: I have only read the chapters published in Japan, since it the serialization was dropped there after ch.77). You won‘t get any conclusion to anything, which is a big letdown, just to let you know.

Story:
Just read the first couple of chapters, it will catch your interest.
The story has lots of potential, which is lost while the story goes on. Maybe it picks up in the later chapters, I’ll never know.

Characters:
You have your always funny and carefree seeming MC, who can be pretty serious, you have the meany serious side MC, you have the cute annoying seeming Main Girl, you have the side kicks like the dumb boy who gets to violent, yeah your typical set of characters you would expect.

I especially liked the relationship between Viktor and Kiri.

Art:
It’s good, I can’t complain.

I don’t get the terrible rating this got, I knew the beforehand the anime for this series is supposed to be terrible but after reading through the manga blind, I didn’t get the hate for it (story-character-artwise).

I'll try to update this review periodically as more chapters are available, but it should give a fair indication if this manga is for you or not. There may be some spoilers of the first 5 or so chapters so that I can give you an informed opinion, but nothing too major.

To preface this review, I'm a sucker for the horror genre as a whole. The terror, the hopelessness, the gore and nudity, and how ridiculously over the top the genre can be sometimes. This manga falls solidly in "the over the top" camp.

We have intelligent killer apes that seem more like monsters than animals (Planet of the Apes meets Ito Junji's style), someone that can talk to animals, someone who gets off on gore, more characters with other zany powers, and a girlfriend that "looks like a grade schooler but we swear she isn't™".

Most people would likely write this manga off after reading the above paragraph, but if you are still here and the above doesn't sound like a deal breaker, I welcome you to another fun read my friends.

Even though the characters have about as much depth as a puddle, some of the archetypes are a lot of fun. The art is really nice and the gore is over the top and awesome.

If you like over the top horror that's sometimes more funny than scary, you'll find a lot to like here. As it stands now I can't imagine this being anyone's favorite manga, but even so it is an entertaining read that will tickle that special spot some of us have in our hearts for absolutely ridiculous horror.

Well, this collection of short stories has obvious good and bad points.

For the good, some of the plots are pretty original. This is the biggest thing it has going for it. I think a lot more could've been done with these ideas to make the stories much more enjoyable.

Unfortunately, most of the time the conflicts are really melodramatic and often, as a result, cheesy. I think some of the stories were intentionally silly, especially in Kanojo no Himitsu, but others came off as unrealistically dramatic.

So yeah. I recommend reading these quick stories for the interesting plots, but be prepared not to take any of it seriously.
(FYI I think the first story was the weakest, so feel free to skip that chapter.)

First, let me point out that I love Metroid games, so of course I had to try this manga.

Learning about Samus Arans' past is quite entertaining, as I got to see her grow up. There is the Chozo, Mother Brain, Ridley,and many people that I've never even seen in the games (because they aren't really needed in the games)

The art is plain, boring, and simple. I wish that the author would have taken more time into the art, because it was kinda hard to get past it at first.

Overall I am enjoying this manga, as many metroid fans would. If you're not a metroid fan...well you might just look at the art and the alien bird things and go "Wow. Creepy. Time to pick up some Bleach"