Omnicore15

To simply state, every theme that is desired from a Shounen Manga is included in One Piece. I would say the overall perspective of One Piece can be mirrored to that of The Lion King. It's impossible to dislike the Lion King, because it addressed so many themes that relate to ourselves and society. The same goes for One Piece. One Piece addresses the importance of Friends, Family, Trust, Goal Orientation, Belief, Happiness, Sadness, and all the common themes that make us go through the day and want to read page from page. Each journey and island that is included in the making of the One Piece story tackles a different theme, and with it different obstacles and challenges. Just like The Lion King is a story which we always remember of a lion who lost his father in return to fight for his throne, I will always remember One Piece as the journey a pirate named Luffy ventured to be the King of Pirates and find the hidden treasure, One Piece.

It's seriously the best. You are doing yourself an extreme disservice if you don't sit down and read that Onepunch greatness. The plot's plastered literally everywhere so let's just go ahead with the usual breakdown thing that seems to be the way to go on mal. Welcome to the glorious anti-stereotypical battle manga, ONEPUNCH M
Story-7
It's not gonna blow you out of the water with an extreme level of intricately detailed depth and massive psychological implications, but this is literally one of a TINY number of instances where I couldn't care less if I actually put considerable conscious effort into doing so. Story for the most part flows well and has enough bubbling (or violently exploding) away at any one time to keep me interested.
Art-10
Yeah. 10. It's just that downright astoundingly nice to look at. Character designs are interesting and extremely detailed, backgrounds are amazing and there are literally bits you can string into a gif image and have yerself a small piece of absurdly fluid (coming from a manga at least) animation. Our beloved MC here is the only one who's drawn horribly-but that's part of the joke. He generally looks like he's drawn in Microsoft paint, but when he shifts to a serious art syle you know shit is about to go DOWN. Best art I've seen in a very long time.
Character-10
This is one of those things that's probably hit or miss depending on your tastes, but I personally LOVE these characters. Saitama is our MC and super-OP badass mofo who people don't take seriously cause he's bald and walks around in tights and a cape-you'll probably grow to love him as he makes mountains out of molehills (ie:missing a convenient sale at the shops while killing bad guys) and generally not caring in the slightest about things that seemingly actually matter. There's Genos, the also extremely badass and super-attractive fangirl bait who possesses a plethora of crazy robotic arm attachments for taking care of the toughest jobs, and a host of other heroes ranging from licenceless rider, a dude on a bike who rides around fighting crime, to guys like Bang and Metal Knight, Also super-OP and awesome. Vibrant cast who grew on me faster than most.
Enjoyment-Gotta be 10 man, Onepunch is the biggest breath of fresh air I've had in a while as it stubbornly wages it's one-man war on shonen battle manga. If you're sick of shitty tropes and garbage plot devices, prepare to see them mocked relentlessy in a setting where the action and characters still manage to dwarf most other battle manga.

I'm gonna go with like 9.5/10
This be mah jam.

I've got to say, I'm kind of disappointed at how unknown this little gem is to the community. I picked up the first volume on a whim and I'm having a lot of trouble finding the second one. This is a series I reaaally want to own.

Milkyway Hitchhiking is about a special, vain little cat named Milkyway who has lovely star-patterned fur, thus her namesake. She's been around since, seemingly, the beginning of mankind, having had many masters and witnessed a myriad different little tales over the years. She "hitchhikes" from master to master, and sort of acts like a semi-omniscient observer over all the people she encounters, and tries to lend a helping paw or comforting presence to anyone she takes a liking to. Milkyway acts as a narrator of sorts throughout the first volume, but there's a huge shift in focus in the second volume where she is treated more as a character than the storyteller.

The manga doesn't have an overarching plot, so far as I've read. Each chapter features a new set of characters in a different time period and setting. Some stories are heartwarming, others dramatic, others comical, but every single one always has that same little charm that I can't quite explain. You're probably not going to be blown away by the ingenuity of these stories, but I don't think that's the author's intention anyway. This is more a serial focusing on personal connections between people, pets, etc. with Milkyway bridging the gap between time and space and love (awwwww). That isn't to say that none of the stories are particularly well written - many of them are, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't leave this one feeling touched.

The main thing you're going to notice about this manhwa, which is the reason I strongly recommend picking up a physical volume for yourself, is that eveeery single page is in full colour, glossy glory. I love black and white manga and comics too, but I really appreciate such stand-out art work when the artist has been able to put the time in to make it. Milkyway has a watercolour feel to it as well, and I totally eat that shit up. So very pastel, so lovely. To put it more eloquently, even if you don't enjoy this manhwa for the storytelling, you should still buy yourself a volume just to look at it. I will note, after reading the second volume, that Milkyway's design, as well as the design of human characters, seems to change just slightly enough to be noticeable. It's not in a bad way, but it's worth noting.

I'll admit, this isn't a very substantial manhwa, but it really deserves more attention than it has right now. At this moment, I haven't found any free digital versions on the web, but Yen Press has an app you can use, and I'm sure it'll let you get a look at this one. Other than that, Amazon sells it for almost $10 CAD less than normal retailers, so I would highly recommend ordering online. I know, I know, most of us would prefer to try before we buy, but if we all put our pennies in maybe we can make this one more readily available to future fans! Please give it a try.

Tokyo Akazukin (Tokyo Red Riding Hood) is, in one word, bizarre. Tamaoka Benkyo has essentially created a gruesome, unique world by colliding Red Riding Hood with Hellsing and adding a dash of Waita Uziga. While the manga first appears to be that of a loli-guro doujinshi, readers will be more than pleasantly surprised at the development of the story through all four volumes. That is, if they can get past the graphic violence and sex that is frequently depicted.

The story of Tokyo Akazukin is a unique one. Following a young, immortal girl through the dirtiest parts of Tokyo, it provides a dark and eerie atmosphere for it's readers. An interesting part of the story is that quite a few primary elements are left to question as the characters seek to find the answers themselves. By doing so, the artist enables the reader to become engrossed in the story and entangled with the characters themselves.

The artwork is rough, dirty, with an almost American touch to it. It is, however, these elements that suit the story best. The backgrounds are simple when displayed, but many panels are left to simple black-out tones. The characters themselves are highly detailed, yet sometimes have an almost anorexic feel. Their facial expressions are well depicted and do well to give the reader a good feel of not only what the character is saying, but feeling as well. The sexual encounters are that of a typical hentai doujin, but by avoiding attempted depictions of genitalia, the artist was able to avoid annoying censorships. Perhaps the most interesting part of the artwork is the prominence of gore. Blood, sweat, and guts are all delivered by the barrel with every violent encounter. From simple cuts to complete dismemberment, Benkyo spared no expense on gore.

The characters, both primary and secondary, are all unique in their design. Whether by identifiable physical features or attitude, every character comes off as providing some sort of "wow" factor for a reader. The way that the characters come to interact with each other sometimes feels a bit up to chance but, in the end, it's good enough to move the story along and will keep readers satisfied until the end. The attitudes and demeanors of these character is perhaps one of the most interesting points of mention. Most seem self-centered and out for their own means, but also seem to provide some form of compassion for others inside. It may have been the artist's intention to show that glimpse of human compassion in even the toughest of characters. That, however, is pure speculation.

The manga, overall, is a strange yet exciting experience for fans of the super-natural. While bewildering and nauseous at times, it is also intriguing and captivating at others. Like a violent detective novel, readers will find themselves going from volume to volume looking for answers to the questions that are given. If there was anything to keep readers from getting into the series, it would either be the gore or pornography (or both). Still, even wiith or without the sexual elements, Tokyo Akazukin is probably best defined as a thrill ride through a modern day, wonderland hell.

ONCE UPON A TIME… there was this stereotypical shounen protagonist that found himself in a great situation that happens after meeting three witches. What is this “great” situation, you may ask? Well, he has to become this one thing that he absolutely loves.. Every midnight, he’s back to himself from it. But every noon, he becomes the very being he absolutely adores: a WOMAN.

I bet you probably were expecting this manga to be something like this.

Sorry, I told a lie. Here’s the truth:
1) This manga is NOT a romantic comedy. It will always be a psychological.
2) The sypnosis here on myanimelist has a TEENY-tiny mistake in word usage. Don’t expect an “ordinary” male character that comes from a harem shounen manga to appear in this one.

AND..

3) The main character absolutely, utterly despises the whole opposite sex. Why?

It’s for a reason which you can read in the manga in order to find out if you’re interested.

But I could say that you should NOT bring your hopes up too high for this one.


Now, here’s where we get to our cast members! I’ll just do this from the top of my head!

-Grumpy Cinderella

-The three witches.. who we only ever see for one page

-Homeless man who just so happened to be a rapist

-First girl that seems significant appears.. who we hardly ever see again after the first chapter

-The former childhood female friend who lowkey wants Grumpy Cinderella to die

-The current male best friend who hardly has any chemistry with the main
character.. How on earth did they become friends?

-Psychopath in a frilly dress who wants Grumpy Cinderella’s D

-Queer girl that should’ve had more screen time than she ever got

-Babysitter/Maid to kill

OK, so notice how none of these characters have names. That’s because I forgot ALL of their names. I will forget every single one of these characters even existed after one month at most. Let me explain.
One of the weaknesses of this manga is that we hardly learn much about each of these characters except our Cinderella in here. I wanted to know more about the psychopath in the frilly dress. How did she come to be one? I wanted to know what all the other characters been through. Unfortunately, I never received that.
Also, I wanted to know more about the witches. They were the ones that started the whole story. But no, they don’t go beyond the first page. We never even learn their names or why they did all this to the main character. We only ever see them ONCE.
There were just a lot of pieces of the puzzle that were just missing, especially in the area of character development for the supporting characters. And some of the scenes in the manga didn’t even make any sense at all. That’s why my score is a 6/10.

Though, I gave such a score, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy it at all and that it was unoriginal.
One of the good things that you can expect from this manga is a main character that is actually quite well done. You’ll see why he acts in some ways as you read along, and he is not the usual main character goody-two-shoes. He is an MC that I would never expect to find in a gender bender.

Speaking of gender bender, I never expected a psychological to accompany it. With gender bender, I typically associate it with something more light-hearted and fun (like “Ranma 1/2” or “Ouran Highschool Host Club”). “Fukigen Cinderella” gave a bunch of surprises throughout!

So, I wouldn’t guarantee that you will like this manga at all, but go ahead and give it a shot if you want a very different story from other gender benders!

I would only recommend this manga to people that enjoyed playing Final Fantasy XII, and would like to know even more information about the characters. This manga is not a good supplement for playing the game, which I highly recommend you do first and then read the manga afterward. I absolutely love FFXII and Princess Ashelia B’nargin Dalmasca was my favorite character in the game, so that’s the main reason why I enjoyed the first three volumes.

All of the characters for the most part are kept character in this manga adaptation, but I honestly think that this manga was created with people that have already played the game in mind. The only reason this didn’t get a perfect score from me is that the art is a bit lackluster, which is disappointing because FFXII is one of the most gorgeous games on Playstation 2. The buildings and airships look great, but sometimes the character’s expressions and proportions look off and sort of like the artist rushed them or didn’t reference the game’s concept art enough.

Final Thoughts ( Spoilers Below )

In the end several things were off with this manga adaptation and looking back there were a lot of scenes/pages that were wasted on trivial events instead of hitting all of the story in the game. Specifically, Fran gets absolutely no time to be developed even though in the game there is a lot of information imparted about her and Viera’s as well. There really should have been one more volume, and the ending seems much to abrupt, I almost wonder if the manga was canceled because although, the artwork did improve, it still wasn’t as consistent at capturing the more realistic/detailed look of the game. Lastly, Balthier’s past and his meeting with his father are not in this adaptation at all and there is no final scene with Gabranth or even the final boss fight with Vayne! This adaptation could have been much, much better, and I’m still glad that I read , because there were moments in the game that were expanded upon but in the end it just seems incomplete and not as enjoyable as just playing Final Fantasy XII.

It's my first review, I've never done one before, sorry for my bad English, with that explained, let's go to the review.
Story: 10/8, the story is about Asta and Yuno who were abandoned in the same church on the same day. Raised together as children, they came to know the "Wizard King", a title bestowed upon the strongest wizard in the kingdom, and promised that they would compete with each other for the position of the next Wizard King. However, as they got older, the vast difference between them became apparent. While Yuno is capable of wielding magic with amazing power and control, Asta cannot use magic at all and desperately tries to awaken his powers by training physically.
Art: 7/10, the only thing I can say about art here is normal and attractive.
Characters: 6/10, nothing to say, normal characters, fine and that's it.
Enjoy: 7/10, it really is not boring at any time and it is not heavy.
Overall: 7.5 / 10, between good and very good.
One thing I want to clarify is that this is not a "deep" review but I guess you noticed a while ago, I hope this review has helped you.

A review for this manga, in my opinion, could easily be summed up with one word. Annoying.

In brief, the story is about a delinquent who suddenly confesses to an "ordinary" girl. She finds him repulsive and wants nothing to do with him, but then immediately realizes she has feelings for him after she rejected him. The rest of the manga basically covers the ups and downs of their relationship and the problems she has going out with a guy like him.

Sounds pretty typical, doesn't it? I should say now that the summary is the best part of this manga. Everything else goes downhill from the get go.

First, characterization. Horrible. Sonoko has got to be one of the worst heroines I've ever come across. The entire story is pretty much based on her feelings of shame and embarrassment at having a delinquent boyfriend. She hurts him repeatedly and goes to extremes in trying to hide the fact that he's her boyfriend. She's constantly questioning how and why she ended up with a guy like him, how shameful he is, how her life would end if anyone finds out, blah blah rinse repeat. It could have been tolerable and even understandable in the beginning, except this happens throughout the entire story. In fact, the increasingly hurtful stuff she does to her boyfriend is what drives the WHOLE story forward.

Narusawa (the delinquent boyfriend), on the other hand, is very bland as a character. To begin with, we were never shown why he fell in love with Sonoko. That, in itself, isn't a big deal as most short shoujo stories are like this. The problem is how scripted his actions feel, like he exists just for the story's sake. He pops in, falls in love after seeing her for the first time (when he had just finished beating some people up and she was completely terrified), acts like a total idiot in love half the time, while the other half was being "stunned" and hurt by yet another stupid thing that Sonoko did, walks off all depressed until Sonoko runs to him in tears and he's immediately all smiles in his idiotic glory again. It's all very one-dimensionally robotic. Like Sonoko, this is also how he is throughout the entire story as well.

So is there any redeeming quality about this manga? There is, a little, which is why I'm giving it a 2 instead of a 1.

The manga, when you strip away Sonoko and the horribly bad romance, has a couple of funny moments. Narusawa and his delinquent buddies are hilarious sometimes with some of the weird stuff they get up to - mostly in that loser delinquent Yakuza-wannabe way. If you like that sort of humor, a scene or two in there may be your saving grace for this manga. Unfortunately, there's always Sonoko's whining to immediately kill any joy you may have had.

Art-wise, it isn't bad nor is it particularly exceptional either. Decent is a word that comes to mind. That's about all I have to say for the art.

All in all, the only thing this manga did for me was annoy the crap out of me. If it weren't because it's only 2 volumes, I would've stopped reading it before I was even done with the 1st. I should add that I read a lot of one-shots and short shoujo stories. I'm well aware of their shortcomings but still enjoy them in general. Love Junky, however, was simply impossible for me to even overlook the bad side - not when the entire manga IS the bad side.

If you enjoy reading a manga about a shallow girl stomping all over a guy's feelings and good intentions over and over and over again, then by all means, give this one a try. Otherwise, I'd skip it. There are plenty of better ones out there.

* Yes, I'm aware this probably wasn't a very well-written review. I'm just now realizing that it's quite hard writing a decent review for a manga I find so horrible.

This manga is only now being translated very slowly by various groups, so bear with this preliminary review.

Violence Jack is where Go Nagai's style I feel starts to shine compared to his earlier violent mangas. The main character, Violence Jack, lives up to his name as a sadistic if slightly moral protagonist, ripping all his enemies into bloody shreds and reaping death across the post-apocalyptic world. I can't say this is a new high for Go Nagai's gore and violence, but in certain aspects such as the gore or the horror it may take the cake over Devilman. There's a lot of very fucked up imagery and sadism on part of Slum King, the main villain, that was a key missing element in the previous Nagai manga Devilman where there's no central antagonist. It's as if Go Nagai picked right off where he wanted to continue Devilman before he kicked it off a cliff near the end.

Although it's not very clear even at my point in the manga, it is obvious that Violence Jack is a part of the greater Devilman franchise and is one of the more important parts of it, so it is slightly annoying this has yet to be translated decades after publication. I won't spoil how exactly it ties in, but this is a very good expansion on the lore if you think about why the world is the way it is, definitely one of the most crucial parts of the series' world building and overarching story. All you need to know is that you should read Devilman first, which is generally the one rule for reading any Devilman manga. I wish Violence Jack would be finished so that this, Devilman and Lady could form something of a trilogy, as right now Devilman is almost impossible to fully comprehend if you don't read Japanese. Now that's out of the way...

Violence Jack is a surreal manga, as well as a violent one. There's a lot of mystery about who or what Violence Jack is from the beginning and most of what happens involves largely unexplained supernatural powers. The best comparison I could make for this series is Hokuto no Ken/Fist of the North Star, both violent and have intense fights, although I'd say HnK easily has better fights while Violence Jack is more, well, violent. Unlike Hokuto no Ken, Violence Jack's structure is not as linear, instead veering off in typical Go Nagai fashion to focus on sub-plots that almost seem unrelated to the main story, but unlike Devilman or large parts of Lady, these parts I actually enjoyed! Not all of them however, this manga might have some of the worst filler yet but what's good is by far the best of this weird series up to this point in Go Nagai's career.

Most of the time the manga follows Violence Jack, but does cut back to show a flashback of what went on before an apocalyptic event happened and at other times to follow side characters. The one flashback in the series is obviously building up to a later reveal, as of now untranslated, but it's a decently interesting foreshadowing that is well executed to show off why the world is in such a bad state, and why Violence Jack is such a messed up immoral person. Other characters it follows tend to be less interesting than Jack, but they have a personality and motivations that are well done. I'm not really sure if there's going to be a pay off for any of this later on, but it's impossible for the ending to be as gloriously dumb as Devilman or Lady anyway.

The story can follow a formula at times of side characters get in trouble -> Jack shows up to save them -> moral dilemma -> dilemma solved (sometimes in very unorthodox/sadistic ways by Jack) -> Jack leaves. This is not too bad though, as it at least leads to a fun little scene of Jack solving the problem, usually dealing with a villain terrorizing innocents. Despite how violent it is, this has a level of subtlety and simplicity that is sorely missing from Devilman. The villains tend to be episodic but there are a few who have their own mini-arcs, with Slum King as the very, very disturbing and awesome villain of the manga. This character really carries what is out right now of this story with his absolute sadism and cruelty, his fight isn't fantastic or anything but knowing he comes back later as well, it's definitely worth reading to see his segments in a similar way to Jinmen in the original Devilman.

What is bad is simply that there's too much plodding, the plot being stalled by these sub-plots and the fights are a little lackluster at their best. Go Nagai's fights are pretty sloppy although I can't blame him too much given the characters and scenarios he has to draw, he does a competent job. The art in general is also some of his very best if slightly more simple. It can feel somewhat by-the-books for art, as characters tend to have this very old-fashioned style, oblong faces, not too imaginative. However if you're coming into Violence Jack expecting a work of art I'm not sure why. It delivers fully on that violence, gore and over-the-top action, even if the art falters at times.

As far as filler goes, there's definitely some padding between the Jack sightings where not much happens. This is another case where a super long manga just has tons of down time between the important events, if only the parts with Jack or his direct interactions were in there, nothing would be lost of too much value. Everyone is only reading for these parts anyway, as the side characters aren't too interesting. It's a shame as without these parts this would be a very solid, short manga that may have been translated by now. Nonetheless one of the stronger parts of this often confusing and loosely-connected franchise. Directly compared, Lady is arguably as good or better than this but in my opinion is worse solely for its inexplicably stupid ending. Recommended strongly to Devilman fans and if you like mangas such as Hokuto no Ken but also have a taste for violence, gore or horror.

At the time of writing I have read 3 volumes.

I have to say that I was scared by the start of this manga. I loved the anime and this was so different and fan-servicey that it scared me. I persevered and so far I am glad I did. The fan service has died down and the plots are coming together.

It seems like the plots are coming one after the other rather than one arc. That kinda gives me the feeling that they weren't sure where they were going. But apart from that feeling of uncertainty it seems to be going ok.

The characters (if I stop thinking about the anime) are well concieved and seem like they have depth. They are different to the anime though, same basics but with differences in behaviour and history. Hmmm may have to do a bit of writing on the differences.

It's hard not to compare the two and they do differ very much. It is more than a rehash of the anime. It's most definatly an AU (alternate universe), but that gives it a chance to make it's own path, which I think it does.

Nanashi Moriko
23/12/07
*Not yet a Mai-Hime manga fangirl*