winnett14

On many forums I've seen recommendations of Steel Ball Run as an "Absolutely amazing manga", "easily the best Jojos and epitomising everything about that 'style' of comic", and "From the art to story 10/10. Best thing i've ever read". After finishing it, I honestly can't say I see its appeal. The characters were barely fleshed out and quite boring, the fighting frequently was decided on pure "luck", rather than fighting strength or strategy, and the story was painfully plain.

The story - Coming in, I wasn't expecting a narrative masterpiece, but I was expecting a compelling story. I was very disappointed. There really isn't any depth to it other than "I want to complete the race first", or "I want to assemble the corpse". The corpse could've been a very interesting part of the story - but besides it being an object that everybody wants, and some small abilities, it was hardly touched upon. There was almost non-stop fighting, and bc of that really wasn't much of a story. It was basically a stereotypical shounen way of handling stories.

Fighting - There were a couple - 3 or 4 fights that were decided by luck, which left a very bad taste in my mouth. Are real-life fights decided by luck? Sure. But the author makes a big point of "luck" being a main reason why the main character wins some fights, which I cannot fathom why. The bad guy does everything right - but because xxxxx happened just at the right time, the main character wins! Once would have been cute. when it happens more than a few times, it starts getting frustrating. I don't know why the author glorifies plot armor, but it made me lose a lot of emotional attachment to fights and characters.
Also frequently in fights, I would notice that powers are VERY inconsistent - while a random character that gets hit by ability X would instantly blow apart, when it hits the main character, they were given almost 10 seconds - to talk it out, figure out a strategy, and then execute it to get to safety. I noticed this happening in almost every single fight. The amount of plot armor in this manga was ridiculous.

Character - After 22 volumes, I had nearly no emotional attachment to a single one of the characters. I think this is due to the manga being absolutely dominated by fighting. When there is no flashback scene or racing going on, the characters are most definitely fighting, leading to close to no exploration of the character's personalities or character. I honestly think the manga absolutely dropped the ball in this regard, there were some painful and not-showing-at-all moments where one character would say a "gag", but besides that there really wasn't any interesting shows of personalities. Most of them felt like cookie cutter good guys that were just on different sides.
Each bad guy was given a brief exposition of why he wasn't really "bad", then was thrust toward the main characters to get beat.

Overall this manga felt like a mediocre shounen. No interesting characters, no emotional attachment, no interesting story, just tons of fighting with chunk of them being decided by plot armor. Wouldn't really recommend.

Not much more needs to be said than that this is the manga that piqued my interest in Japanese animation and stories, as well as clearly reaching a level of appreciation that I felt inclined to review just what an outstanding manga this is.
It is possibly one of the most well-known anime/manga and with good reason, for it is a pleasing read that traps you with an incurable desire to binge-read and follow the downward spiral of a man with his morally-twisted intentions.
Every character is given certain quirks that add to the art of the story, as the reader is brought down a psychological journey of speculation and interpretation of their own thoughts of intensifying storyline.
The manga has a fantastic build-up filled with characters constructed from both great abilities and human flaws, allowing the reader to sympathize with not only the heroes, but also the "villains" of the story. My only complaint is the lack of a strong female character, all of the feminine heroines held at steps below the men, not just in terms of development and personality but also in their actions.
Although the women do play their part in the storyline, the female characters seemed to lack personality, especially when held in comparison to the men.
However this is the only "fault" I found with this manga, and it did little to take away from a story that prods into your mind as you struggle to answer a recurring question through the series; what is moral justice?
Both Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata nail a conclusion that could have easily been botched, as a story with so many intense twists incited high expectations of an exhilarating and solid ending. Flowing with a captivating journey to a final epic ending, Death Note truly demonstrates how mangakas work their magic over readers, soliciting emotion in both art and words, causing one to ponder their own convictions of the world.

Story
Simply put, the more you progress through the story arcs, the more convoluted it becomes. It gets really bad during the survival game part that is covered in 2 volumes. It is equivalent to an 8 year old continually making rules to a game that is changed to his or her convenience. That really summarizes all the story sections in general.

Characters
The way the characters think and talk seem like they are trying to sound really clever when it really is a bunch of bs that would make a politician blush. The amount of dialogue needed to convey their feelings and attitude is often only a third of what is there. It's like the author just had free-writing exercises and forgot to edit it.

Overall
I will probably be cyber-lynched for sharing my opinion on this critically acclaimed piece of literature, but personally this series just screams mediocre to me, hence the score. I'm really just reading it because I literally have nothing else to read during my breaks. Though the characters and their story of struggle had potential, in the end it's just a big ball of convolution for you to un-ravel with sticky fingers.

The Horizon is quiet, understated, and subtle, while also being shocking, emotional, and unapologetically dark. The overbearing bleak atmosphere dominates this work, while simultaneously making those few moments of happiness so much sweeter. The author pulls absolutely no punches when portraying topics. More so than what I have previously mentioned, the thing that stuck with me the most was how much meaning and emotion is portrayed not through dialogue, but simply through imagery. In fact, there is very little dialogue at all. The art and pacing has absolutely no filler. Not a single panel is wasted. Everything in this story is there for a reason. I cannot name another manga that has made me feel as many emotions to the extent that The Horizon has. The straightforward (literally) concept allows for a story that in it's grit and ugliness is absolutely beautiful. It is an absolute crime that this is not better known. I do not often use this word, but it is an absolute masterpiece. I cannot praise this work enough.

it's almost midnight as i'm writing and currently procrastinating so there might be some typos but i just wanted to get this out of my way.

someone on the forums recommended this manga and i decided to check it out, initially believing that it would be another boring shounen manga. fortunately, i was proven wrong (that person has a good taste in manga) and became so wrapped up in this story. even the first volume leaves me wanting for /more/ since it ended with a huge plot twist!

STORY: very, very nicely done! leaves you with plenty of suspense and anticipating. it's like a thriller where you quickly flip a page (or in this case, press the next arrow key). the pace's not too bad; it's neither too fast or too slow, but just right. although, at times, there may be some concept pages thrown in for clarity such as how the walls are built and maintained -- a crucial component of the plot. it's quite clear that this new mangaka did some research on the practicalities of his inventions, which makes this manga well thought out.

ART: like the other reviewer said, art is very, very mediocre; just enough to make this manga readable. the characters are drawn out of proportions and if you're one of those people with a sense of OCD (or the general eye-twitching at bad art), then this manga may irritate you a lot. however, in this case, this evident weakness doesn't detract from the quality of the manga. i agree with the other reviewer about the mangaka's rendering of the titans: they were /absolutely/ terrifying and evoked the raw emotion of fear from me. the way the panels were structured made me feel the same fear as the characters in the story. i love, love, love the monsters' design and their lack of proportions does make for the terrifying moment.

CHARACTER: at the beginning, when some men were in the woods, i didn't care for the characters much. however, by the end of the volume, i liked misaka even though she's usually very stoic. she does care for her friends. the human characters behaved realistically. if you were confronted by a giant who wants nothing more than eating you, what would you do? no one would dare defeat a titan on their own until they had a huge motivation.

the main driving force of this manga, though, is the human-eating monster. in the first volume, the titans provide a key point of conflict as they easily trample down the walls and invade the humans' remaining territory. not much is known about them other than the fact that they ignore animals and plants and have only one known weakness so far.

ENJOYMENT: because i read this manga late at night, shinegeki no kyojin provided me entertainment. i would definitely re-read it because it captured what no other popular manga did: it exposed my fear of being eaten and of the unknown. i did notice some points where the quality of art wasn't the best, but the storytelling ability spurred me on to read more. i know that three volumes have been released so far, so i'm definitely looking forward to the second scanlated volume!

OVERALL: great story, art could use work in defining humans, characters aren't thoroughly developed /yet/, high level of enjoyment. i heard a rumor that this manga was rejected by WSJ because it wasn't what they were looking for and i believe that it was a good thing that this manga was rejected because had it been accepted, the story would have to be dumbed down for the readers. this type of story is clearly for the seinen audience.

so, if you have time and like plot-based manga regardless of the art quality, shingeki no kyojin is definitely a great read!

I have given this manga a rating of 6.

It deals with some fairly cliched themes, and being a short one-shot, it doesn't have the time for intensive character development or elaborate plot twists. It stays true to the formula and delivers a short sweet love story about an out of luck boy who thinks he will never be able to date a girl and a hardworking girl who is willing to look beyond the appearance of her partner.

In my opinion, this manga has nothing special or unique. It lacks something that sets it apart from other manga. But since it can be finished so quickly, it is worth reading it to while away some time.

Yokohama Monogateri follows an orphan (what a coincidence!) who became a maid for a rich family, her name is Uno (I know what you’re thinking, no, not the cards game). Basically, her family worked for the rich Kanou’s on their farmland but everyone on the farm died due to an epidemic (it seems that Mangaland is FULL of amnesia-related diseases and flash epidemics). However there was one sole and lonely survivor and (I know you’re expecting this because I sure was) and she goes by the name of Uno.

But let’s not get bogged down by the cliché and identical background story of dozens of main characters everywhere.

So Uno unceremoniously gets to be a maid tending to Mr. Kanou’s spoiled, annoying, young daughter Mariko while getting paid zero wages (realistically speaking).

*SLAVE ALERT!*

So time goes by and Mariko and Uno fall in love with guys and vice versa and then they become part of a love triangle and yada, yada ,yada.

This story is superficial.
This story is too sparkly to be read without the use of sunglasses.
This story is unrealistic and not enjoyable. At all.

Where do I start?
-At one point in the story, the slave/maid (Uno) suddenly starts going to school; and please remember dear reader that the story is set in 1875, when even rich girls in Japan DID NOT GO TO SCHOOL!!!!!!!!
How in the world would this make sense?!
-The rich heir to the Kanou business runs away with a geisha (the type of geisha’s otherwise known as: WHORES)
Very realistic Author, please keep that original flow going.
-Uno forgets to do her job in the house (I know how can the family forget to remind her?) and becomes a nurse while still living in the house
Just no comment.
-The main character gets to wear unimaginably expensive (in those days) western-style dresses while Mariko wears traditional Kimonos
I need SALVATION from this madness!

I could just continue forever but I think this is enough evidence for you to think: ‘what the Hell?!’
Yes, I thought that too.

While I could spend this entire review poking holes in the plot, I’d like to instead get down and dirty with some straight cold, hard facts.
There were NO twists. None. Nada. (Enter the equivalent of zero in another language). And as you know ‘no twists’ actually spells B-O-R-I-N-G.
The Manga does not push any stereotypical boundaries nor does it have any controversial content which makes you go ‘Woah! I’ve never thought of that!’ So yes, more boring-ness.
Lastly, there is no suspense to keep you reading the Manga; it’s not like anybody died without the reader not totally seeing it coming, thus all the scenes become rather unsurprising and dull. Nothing like a good Manga (which any of us want to read) should be.

The art was blindingly sparkly, and if Manga were in colour then this story would just be dipped in a tub of pink ink. You can feel the illustrations radiate love and Barbie dolls and… Some more love! The faces and bodies were totally disproportionate.

Look, you simply can’t have me believe that anyone can see through eyes which have approx. 5 cm worth of eyelashes acting like a hairy shield.

Other than the fact that everything was super-detailed (a major plus), the art was repetitive (basically, everyone looked the same). The illustrator didn’t infuse their style into the design of the art nor were the characters themselves unique looking. So the art was just a big could-be-improved-by-a-lot let-down.

In conclusion, the Manga was very 2D and pink and rosy and everything that would end in a Happily-Ever-After way. There is nothing eye-opening, soul-shattering or anything really about this story that makes you love it and it won’t make you appreciate anything new. It’s a very standard Manga that’s there to ‘entertain’ and ‘entertain’ only. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it since there’s nothing here that you haven’t read before or seen before in Cinderella. And unless you want to read about totally un-masculine guys proclaim their undying love to corpses (I’m not joking), I’d say spare yourself the torture to read something else.

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm not an expert nor a fan of asian horror. Why?, well I'm not too sure myself to be honest, I haven't seen that many asian horror movies so perhaps the bizarre style of this manga feels too foreing to me because of that. While I acknowledge that, I do love horror as a genre in many forms of media such as books, movies, video games, etc. Take my review for what is worth with that in mind.

Introduction:
What makes a good horror story?, Is it the hopelessness we like to see portrayed by the characters in the story?, the well managed twists that make everything previously shown understandable?, the unsettling atmosphere that makes you look over your shoulder every couple of minutes?, or perhaps it is the realization that we humans are fragile beings, and our life can end in the blink of a second. Regardless of what's more important to you in a horror story from these elements, It's my personal belief that this manga doesn't succeed in any of them. Let me tell you why.

Plot:
I will divide the review of the plot in two parts. The first part will cover the main story that starts off the manga and the second part will cover the short stories that come afterwards.

-Main Story
Anamorphosis no Meijuu starts off the first of It's stories with a an interesting premise and a lot of potential, unfortunately that potential soon goes down the drain. A group of people are invited to a contest called "Ana Morphosis" in order to survive in a basement floor with a number of rooms for each participant and the recreation of a murder scene in that same basement. A "medium" summons the spirit and then the participants must resist the urge to escape through the elevator and...survive for 48 hours to recieve a cash prize.

The basics for a survival game are set and we can feel the expectation for what's about to happen, questioning ourselves with what we know is the usual formula for this premise, "Who will survive?", "Who's the coward, the gutsy and the comedian of the group?". As such, this set-up is certainly not groundbreaking, but with the correct amount of suspense and atmosphere it can still succeed if it shows us the emotional responses of the characters in an interesting way. This however is one of the many reasons why the manga fails, the characters are bland and predictable in their usual, previously mentioned archetypes with no one becoming remarkable as the story progresses. As such, we feel nothing as the characters die one after another.

The twists that reveal the truth of what's going on are rushed with no time to absorb what's happening to the characters at the end, not only that, but the grand scheme of the perpetrators towards the victims is quite stupid and poorly explained. The story ends with little to no regard towards pacing and an unsatisfying conclusion puts the final nail on the coffin of a story with an interesting premise brought down by an abysmal execution.

-Short Stories
There are 9 short stories after the aforementioned main story. Most of the stories are comedies with a strange and grotesque form of body horror, a branch of the genre that seeks to find horror in the degeneration and corruption of the body.The "body horror comedies" as I prefer to call them, only become more and more bizarre towards the end. A couple of stories are quite sexual, but they all end in a premise strongly sustained in making the human body seem like a sort of meaningless toy that can be played with, with little to no consequence. The stories left me quite perplexed as to what was the author was trying to portray, perhaps it was mostly shock imagery mixed with his own brand of dumb and incoherent humor.

One could call the stories disturbing or perhaps bizarre, but the words that I think describes them the most are incoherent, messy and stupid.

Art:
The art style portrayed in this manga is for the most part very realistic, the first story is very photographic in the character design, with everyone looking almost rotoscoped in the way they look. During the short stories however, the art style continues in a realistic fashion but in a more stylized way, you could compare it with the style of Junji Ito, author of the Uzumaki horror manga.

Overall the art style works well with the often grotesque drawings of the manga, composed mostly of blood and gore, but it's otherwise forgettable. There weren't any illustrations that shocked me or stayed with me after I finished reading, so it all blended in a very mediocre way in my head during the whole read.

Conclusion:
The main story had a lot of potential to craft a well paced survival game, but the author rushed the story and the ending explanation was very dissapointing.

The short stories are incoherent and contain a very dark and disturbing humor that didn't resonate with me to the point that I think most of the comedy was quite dumb, though, If comedies with gore and weird stories are your thing, you might want to give them a look. Be warned though, these are not for the faint of heart.

Recommendations:

If you are looking for a good horror manga to read, these are a couple of my favorites:

Shiki (2007)

A tale of a rural Japanese town in the middle of nowhere where the desire of the townsfolk to maintain their normal lives is crushed beneath the weight of the darkness pouring in.

I am a Hero (2009, ongoing)

View the zombie apocalypse (?) through the eyes of a socially awkward mangaka assistant, his manerisms and kind-hearted personality guiding him in the middle of the breakdown of society.

Thanks for reading!

Note:
If you do not know nor seen either of Devilman and Cyborg 009, then you should look up the source material since this crossover will only give you a short introduction.

Not to mention that this crossover is special as it both series are hardly owned by the same company or person. The few things they do share is their message of war and that their authors where buddies and some times assistans on different projects.

Story:
This, unlike the OVA, is more serious toned and has less fun with the characters. Storywise, this has a more direct conflict between each side and is a much shorter than the OVA.

Art:
The art is decent. The most details goes to the background and it does look good. However some of the character look stiff and has many square shapes. It look like they where drawn natrualy. But that my opinion.

Character:
The character act as they should do, but there is hardly any interaction with each part which makes this crossover forgettable.

Enjoyment:
Mikki in general. There is not enough action for both parties. When they do fight, it's over too quickly.

Overall:
The crossover lacks stuff to make it worth while. It seems that the author is setting up for something big that is not presented in this manga, and I'm not talking about the OVA since they feel unrelated. This is a middle of the road manga. So if you have read either Cyborg 009 or Devilman, then this one might be so that you can get more manga entries on your list, since this is not obligatory to read. You are better off watching the OVA.

A psychological horror type manga directed more towards kids than adults (as I'm sure you can pick up from the dialogue in the first chapter)

Story-
Middle school graduation day, boy goes to tell girl his true feelings, ends up waking up locked in his school with 11 other classmates, and the plot begins from there. I've watched/red plenty of students trapped in the school types, but this ones got just enough creativity to the plot to make it unique.
Art+Character-
The arts lovely, all the students are well drawn and have their own distinct design, instead of being the generic character types were all so used to (except the super religious girl, she's here, and as annoying as always)Through the 35 chapters I've read the characters also go through a lot of progression, changing the longer they go through the horrors in the school.Is it worth it to protect your friends?Who caused this to happen?Will violence solve my problems, or should I run and hide?
Enjoyment-
Although made for children, and being a bit bland with the horror scenes and dialogue, I read all available chapters in one sitting.(though they're kinda short)Each chapters leaves you with a cliff hanger wanting more each time.


Overall, it's a good manga to read in your leisure time if you're looking for something more fast paced and not too serious, but serious enough to keep you interested.