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I don't think I need to explain why One Piece is fantastic and a narrative masterpiece. All of the other reviews have said what needs to be said in a much better manner than I ever could. So, instead of doing the easy job and telling you why One Piece is so great, I'm going to detail my ONLY major complaint: the fan-service/depiction of women.

This "review" will have minor spoilers.

The fan-service before chapter 600 was bearable. It crossed my boundaries maybe once or twice in the Thriller Bark Arc, but, otherwise, I didn't mind. But, my goodness, once chapter 600 hits and we get post-timeskip Sanji, I'm just barely able to like his character and Oda's depiction of women. Thankfully, after Fishman Island Arc, Sanji becomes his better self, but I still am not a fan of how Sanji is written, and how Nami and Robin have basically become outlets for Oda to draw over-sized breasts. It's unfortunate because none of the female cast is written poorly, per say, but it's obvious that their designs only really serve to get the bodies of little boys to pump out hormones faster than Luffy's Jet Gatling. I really hope the fan-service gets toned down later, as I'm only on the Punk Hazard Arc as I write this.
I'm sure that, for a lot of people, this is not an issue. And I think it's important to note that the fan-service doesn't degrade any of One Piece's other outstanding elements. But, I'll be honest, it's starting to drive me crazy, and, if it continues, it will seriously lower my enjoyment of this otherwise amazing manga.

TL;DR fan-service bad, but not Fairy Tail bad

Death note is a perfect manga of suspence and thriller. The story line is rich and tasteful and characters really standout from other manga and anime by the fact that they are so different. while reading Death note it will make you think and guess until the end. This manga is has dark themes because the main character basically goes on a killing spree for 6 years to create the perfect world and outsmart this foes.

About the story. The main character is Light Yagami who is a bored Highschool student, he soon finds a Death note which has the power to kill people by writing there name in, he soon finds out about this power and a Death god call Ryku comes to Light. He decides to make the perfect world in which he is God. He starts killing criminals with the death note and soon becomes famous and known as Kira. We then see how the story unfolds and the intelligence of the main characters.

Just something I should point out, you will never guess what happens at the end.

Ano Natsu: 1959 is a Baseball manga with a time travel twist. An unusual combination indeed. Can it satisfy the demands of Baseball fans and/or time travel fans? Lets see! It was published in Shounen Sunday by a manga artist called Fukui Ashibi who (as far as I know) didn't have any smash hit manga so far.


-- Story --

The story is centered around a high school boy called Natsu who is taking part in the schools Baseball club. Of course he is dreaming about going to the Koushien - the biggest event of Baseball in Japan (even in High School). His school is so close to getting to the Koshien, they are in the qulifying match! 60 years ago his grandfather brought the school to the Koshien for the first and only time.

However the match is interrupted because of a thunderstorm. Just when the lightning strike hits, Natsu finds himself 60 years in the past, in the year 1959. He ends up taking part in the baseball club again, but this time together with his grandfather! Will he be able to get back to 2019? Will he win the Koushien tournament now or in the future? Will history change forever!?


-- Art --

I actually quite enjoyed the artwork. Characters looked good and backgrounds were nice to look at as well. The drawings were punchy and had lots of impact when they needed to. This manga made me interested in looking into more published manga of Fukui Ashibi (but I didnt get to it yet)!


-- Characters --

Because the manga is rather short with just three compiled volumes, there is not a lot of time for character development. Because of this, there is some backstory behind Natsu and his grandfather, but other side characters seem a bit uninteresting. Of course in such a short story, its hard to create backstories for side characters or to work out their motivations, ambitions and goals. Actually, just one day after finishing the manga, I already forgot about most of the characters because they were not memorable. Aside from Natsu and his grandfather I remember two others with minor roles in the plot.


-- Enjoyment --

The story ended at a pretty random spot. The ending was what I expected, but it felt like a major point of the story was cut short or left out altogether. Maybe the manga was forced to end because of bad ratings by readers, so the author wasn't able to finish it the way he intended to.

That being said, I still enjoyed the manga quite a bit. The time slip element is an interesting addition to a sports manga. But I would have liked it to play around that premise a bit more. There is much you can do with time travel themend stories - and a lot that can go wrong as well. The saving factor for this manga (for me) was the very good artwork. I really enjoyed looking at it.


-- Verdict --

So who will enjoy Ano Natsu: 1959?

People who like Baseball? Not necessarily, because the story could revolve around any other sport as well. The fact that its Baseball doesn't matter for the story and its not going really deep into sports terms and theory. There are also little games to be played over the course of the manga.

Maybe its suited for people who like time travel? Not necessarily, because aside from the interesting fact that Natsu ends up in the same team with his grandfather in his youth, nothing much is done with this concept. Here and there are references how the sport has changed over the years, but thats pretty much it.

"Is it even enjoyable for anyone??" you might ask, and I think the answer is "Yes" because I still enjoyed it. People who like nice artwork and easy to consume manga might enjoy this. For example, there are times that I want something light to read between some heavy brain taxing stories. Ano Natsu is an enjoyable quick ride, but neither the time slip concept not the Baseball theme was the deciding fatcor for this.

I read this manga because I heard people were surprised it was getting an anime, so I decided to see what the fuss was about, and wow. I didn't enjoy this manga. The revenge story became over complicated, all the comic is literally rape, that's about it. Now I'll go into spoiler territory so be warned if you wanna read it. First of all, why would he put himself through all that torment a second time? If anything the whole story could have been about him running away trying to kill the other heroes to be completely honest, it would have been a lot more interesting and made more sense. It would add a lot of suspension to the story as well because you'll be on edge thinking "will they catch him?". He could have also flat out refused the drug or stop using his magic after healing the sword hero's arm. Instead, he goes on some elaborate rape fest, mind controls the heroes, gets his whole village killed, and basically tells people he's the healing hero. Also, this is all my opinion, if you enjoy this then very cool. I personally love revenge stories such as this but this was such a letdown, it's not dark in a good way it's just dark porn. I wish they would have animated a different series that deserved it more.

A little known gem, this manga gets a lot of things right - suspense, engaging characters, involved and intricate supernatural elements, and above average gore. The main character may seem a bit of a mary sue, but I feel that her backstory and relationship with Jack would have made for an excellent stepping board for development. The setting is great, nothing beats this time period for creating a world that a lot of western readers will both recognize and at the same time find completely alien. The devil lives in Georgia, and playing to the religious psuedo-mythology of the South is a great base for just about any fiction, especially horror. Jack is just the right amount of terrifying and likable, and it seems that his power is nearly limitless, adding to the intrigue. The art is above average, with extra points for a believable portrayal of the rural south and not skimping on tough stuff like gore. All of the characters are well designed, look great, and feel like they belong, with the exception of the exorcist group that feel like they came from somewhere more refined, which helps in some ways but hurts in others. The addition of an antagonist/ group that fit in the setting more would help the world building, but hey that's just me.
Now to address the elephant in the room: it's only three chapters long on most sites and doesn't seem to be coming back. Its sad, but that doesn't mean you should pass on reading it. With a great cast, great setting, and above-average writing, this is a fun tidbit, even if it leaves you chomping at the bit for more. And boy would this series do well with more. Obviously nothing gets completed in three chapters, not even character building per se, but what's there is well worth your time. Give LIttLE 13 a shot, you'll definitely find it worthwhile.

This is a pretty good manga if you can get past the whole idea of committing suicide. During the two characters journey together they find happiness as they inevitably know their destination.

I thought the characters were enjoyable, understandable and likable. The other characters that they meet during their journey is what I truly believe that helps them to find happiness.

Despite it being a good read for me, the ending was rushed as you didn't get really know one of the character's back story that well. This manga was most likely axed which gave it an unsatisfied ending for me. Although I did feel that the characters completed what they wanted to do before the end.

Overall if you want a quick read with a lot of feels then give this a shot but beware the ending is rushed.

The title page reads: Diabolical Hard-boiled Story. With this goal in mind, we follow the life of Benkei. Drawing heavily from the Noir genre, this story is chock-full of murder, mystery and mafia. The story has as much development as you can get in 7 chapters from a combination of hits and Benkei’s personal life. Where the story falls short is the personal side. While that could be a stylistic choice, several developments happen behind curtains and later are just evident from the new state of affairs.
7/10 Story

The art is nothing special either way. It is stronger during the assassination parts, but falters during more generic scenes and shots.
5/10 Art

The characters are the strongest point of this manga. While several follow classic murder-story archetypes, this fits the overall style well. Benkei is the cold-blooded paid avenger he is advertised as, but he shows his depth outside of murdering. He shows not only a job-oriented pragmatism, but also his ability to deal with the people he associates with in his line of work.
8/10 Characters

I personally enjoyed this manga quite a bit, although I was disappointed there wasn’t more. I liked the majority of the story as well, although it occasionally played too much to its tropes, with a foolish upstart Mafioso and the old, emotional Don, served by cutthroat second-in-commands. It was enjoyable seeing how Benkei handled all of these characters.
9/10 Enjoyment

I would recommend this manga to anyone who likes noir-style stories. In this case, the synopsis is a pretty good indicator of how much enjoyment you’ll draw from it, I believe.
8/10 Overall

Satoshi Mizukami is mainly known for Samidare and maybe Spirit Circle, but like every mangaka he has dozens of works that barely got a one-shot if they were printed at all. This is a collection of pilots, only a few meant to even try to get serialization.

If you haven't read anything by him before the style might look a bit rough, mainly when it comes to faces. But he makes up for it with very dynamic movements, and you get to see how he slowly found his footing in that style.

The author comments keep insisting that there are connections between the stories, I'm pretty sure it's just a running gag. All the characters stand perfectly on their own and share that calm weirdness that makes this author stand out. I wouldn't recommend this as the first thing by him you read, it's all rejected stuff after all, but if you liked something else it will really cement what makes him special in such a generic market as this.

So, I see this manga again after two years since I first read it in 2016, and I spent the last 2 days binging it and catching up to what is at the time of this post the latest chapter, chapter 44.

First off this isn't a manga that should be binged. It's just unbearable to read multiple chapters of this psychotic shitshow of a manga. At least not for me.

As for the manga itself, I guess I'll start with story. The general synopsis is that there's this site called Deadtube and people upload basically very very bad boy stuff on there from rape to mutilation and murder to gain views and millions of yen. The site and the acts that can be seen on the site are protected from worldwide scrutiny by "corruption", a really totally completely flawless excuse for why people can get away with mass murder and the like.
But guess what, there's a super secret catch, the lowest viewed channel on the site gets to take the fall for all the rest of the crimes and shit the rest of the site does.
Now the story focuses on our MC, a sad degenerate to put it mildly, who loves filming. What he likes filming the most though, well that's you would have to read to find out.
Oh, don't get it wrong, he's not alone. 95% of the characters in this manga are just plain psychos just to be psychos. The author also has the really cool habit of making sure to brutally kill off pretty much every character who's somewhat good for the really wow factor.
The other 5% of the characters are a little better development wise but when your main girl's specialty is to just to be a weapon wielding psycho , it doesn't really speak volumes about your ability to make interesting characters.
The arts somewhat decent, which is a small saving grace of this manga. It does give good eye candy of cute girls, of course before it brutally kills them or before making sure to shove in your face a friendly reminder that they're either side characters to rack up the body count or just evil as shit villians.

Enjoyment wise, this was a hassle to catch up on. The main characters are pretty much all trash, both trash in writing, and trash as you want them to die. The story is halfassed with the excuse of "muh corruption" to explain why they can somehow coverup a site that hosts massive amounts of videos of mass murders and torture that involve thousands of people at minimum. It would be one thing if this manga incorporated perhaps some kind of fantasy element to help out with this, but this manga is supposed to be set in the same time era as current, so there's no excuse for why a supposed murder site of this proportion, even with the help of corrupt officials, would still be able to stay in the dark after all of the chaos it's brought. The only thing I found interesting about this manga was the good art and the fact that some of the characters that are seen are pretty fine, but even that is in general ruined by the fact that they are either psychotic or just get killed immediately.

Overall, I give this a 5. If you love gore and can turn your brain off to a shit plot, then go and enjoy this slaughterfest. Otherwise don't even bother, it's just another crappy gore manga that tries to play up the shock factor.

A huge dissapointment. It started of well enough with promising characters and the plot seemed fairly interesting but quickly devolved into a shallow story. I might be slightly biased here but the protag is everything I hate in a shoujo heroine; unnecessarily tsundere,airheaded, clumsy, irrational(Can't mind her goddamn business either) and the "I'M DEFINITELY GOING TO MAKE YOU NOTICE ME HI!HI!HI!"type- she's also inconsistent which makes her very annoying and frustrating.
The main guy is nothing to write home about either. He started out interesting and the air of mystery around him was intriguing but all that along with any chance of character exploration was thrown out with a clichè "justification" who hardly even impacts the story.
The romance is the worst thing yet, it felt forced, boring and unnatural. Throughout the chapters he wasn't a strong believer of solid relationships and suddenly he's in love and ready to be faithful to the protag?Ok. It doesn't feel like a real relationship or like the two main characters formed a good "bond" at all. It's all very rushed