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I will say this right here, right now: Steel Ball Run is incredible and it brings me to tears thinking people have died without reading it. ]


Story: 9/10


The story of Steel Ball Run is the tale of paraplegic 'jockey' Johnny Joestar, who, after meeting a strange Italian man with steel balls is compelled to join in on the Steel Ball Run Race, ranging from San Diego to New York. And this is just a fantastic and unique concept. I find it great that Hirohiko Araki, the creator of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, can always come up with a fresh, original and interesting story premise following the end of each part. Golden Wind was the climbing up the ranks of the mafia, Stone Ocean was escaping prison with your edgelord father, and JoJolion is finding out why you have four testicles.
Also, the concept of Jesus Christ's body parts granting stand abilities is hilarious, yet awesome.


Art: 9/10


The art in Steel Ball Run is just great. The art at the start (ha. ha.) is a bit more of a realistic version of Part 6's style, and I like it. But, I'm not sure if it's the crappy scans or Araki mixing up his G-Pens with his G-pens, but the line art around the beginning is very blurry. The character designs in Steel Ball Run are F A N T A S T I C and definitely the best in the series. They look incredibly cool but their designs still hold a lot of meaning. However, around the middle is where the art starts to get even better. Noses and eyes and even mouths to an extent are much more realistic, and the hatching and crosshatching is bumped up, and looks great.


Characters: 10/10


The characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are arguably it's strongest point, and this is no different in Steel Ball run. Johnny Joestar is by far the best JoJo. He has believable motivations, a compelling backstory and undergoes mass amounts of character development throughout the part. Gyro Zeppeli is too an incredible character, easily the greatest Zeppeli. He fits incredibly as a mentor and best friend to the protagonist and his connection with his family and the steel balls is really fun, but what's not fun is his depressing backstory. The main villain is also easily the best so far and at some times you really need to ask yourself, is Funny Valentine right? Is he? No, he's not. But the plain charisma of him makes him a fantastic character. Lucy Steel is also a fantastic character, and there is a lot of meaning behind her existence. (Also, if you weren't paying attention, Lucy Steel is alternate Erina Pendelton!"
And did I mention the stands?! They are incredible in this part. Tusk, Ball Breaker and Scan, Cream Starter, Scary Monsters?! The reinvention of Za Warudo?! And did I mention?! Did I mention?! Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?! Tusk and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap have to be my two favourite stands in the whole series. There are so unique, powerful, they both have incredible designs and users, and just everything about these two stands... everything... is just unbeatable. The one problem I have though is the death in Part 7. Only one death was actually meaningful and genuinely sad.


Enjoyment: 10/10


Steel Ball Run is just a ride. I enjoyed most fights, the D4C arc is just unspeakably good, Johnny and Gyro are just so cute and just everything about it was too good. Once again, it's just a ride, like a train. A love train. And did you know that when you finish Part 6 you get a ticket? That's why Steel Ball Run is just like any other train. A train, where you need a ticket to ride.

Overall: 10/10

Okay sorry that was terrible. Steel Ball Run is breathtaking. There is no reason why you shouldn't read it. (Unless you haven't read or watched parts 1-6.) Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I never got into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure...

"Remember, Johnny... My real name. Don't tell anyone. It's a secret..."

This was the first manga I ever read fully and it remains my all-time favourite. It deserves all its popularity and hype, and you will not be dissapointed if you read it! Honestly, I decided to start this one day and it was very hard to stop. Very very hard. I think I read this all in a day the first time I read it.

First things first, the story is incredible. The characters work so well together and the story takes a lot of risks but all of them work really well. The time jumps are great and mean the story doesn't sit around doing nothing at any point. Light is a character you can both love and hate, as you can see both that he is wrong in using the Death Note, but the reasons behind it - to start with - are pretty pure. L as well is my favourite character of all time and the two are perfect as both enemies and friends - which remains one of the complex and best relationships I have ever seen.

The characters are almost all enjoyable, though I can't say I liked Misa much - this might be just my opinion - yet the story does take a few turns that will have some people extremely upset. Death Note though is great in that it kept on creating brilliant new characters throughout, who are even better than some of the original characters!

The art is great, and each character is given their own 'look' as well. I liked how Light always wore something that suited his personality, considering how many different outfits he went through, and how this point applied to everyone else. The artwork for L as well made him stand out from every other character, which showed just how different he was from them. The shinigami also have some great artwork too as some are made to look like humans - only twisted - while others are made to look only like monsters.

This manga is well and truly a classic. It's not easy to create characters and a story that focuses so heavily on moralistic values and good and evil. Each plot twist is cleverly crafted and it always is made to feel fresh, especially when new characters are involved. If you have not already read this manga, do so now. If you have already, read it again. It is one of the best out there.

Kamasutra is a manga from 90's.
The plot:
In short, a ecchi Indiana Jones.
the art:
Character design is dated, but the scenery is amazing and pretty realistic.
Character are clichet and plain, but they are funny. I am not a big fan of pervet old man, but professor is so crazy funny.
The main guy Ryuu is the tipical virgin, clumsy guy, but he is likeable.
Prince, the vilain, is the wicked man.

What I like:
this manga is so non sense, but clichet plot hooks you, you wanna know what it will happen next ( it will be a lot of scenes) and action scenes as well. Not quite bright lecture, but it's funny and relaxing to read, you laugh and... I recommend if you wanna some non sense sexy manga.

One can no longer deny the literary merit of this title.

Out of the huge variety of stories that gets produced yearly for the anime/manga/VN/LN medium, there's one specific group that continue to grow both in popularity as in quality. Call it a subculture, a sub genre, new medium, 18+ pop art, deviant entertainment, whatever you wish but it all means the same thing: porn with plot.
I've convinced myself that "porn with plot" is just a dumb meme word, used by those who want to make fun of Fate/SN fans, and that never a material written mainly for masturbation would actually have a decent, well elaborated story.
Well, I was wrong. This title proves the very opposite. It may be part of a new trend -and that would be quite something- or it may also be a single gem that pops up once in a while but whichever its fate may be, what it's doing now is memorable.
MAL calls it "ecchi" and "seinen". Don't fool yourself, it's still porn. Just a rare, refined, tailored kind of porn.

Netoraserare, self explanatory title, explores the lives and sexual misadventures of a newlywed couple. Shuujirou and Haruka seem like a perfectly normal and happy family to the outside observer however when taking a closer, more intimate look, one will realize things aren't that happy nor normal. They have trouble expressing their feelings, Shuujirou has a socially awkward fetish and just like every Japanese relationship, nobody knows how to be direct and clear in a verbal conversation.
Forget nakiges, Key, minori, Mari Okada, your favorite NTR doujinshi, this story pushes the DRAMA in human relationships (as in, sexual relationships) to the furthest.
We are complicated beings, it's no news, specially when interacting with others or knowing your restrains.
But where's the boundary? Who sets a line? How far can you push someone until something is broken?
This story starts with a premise, it makes crystal clear that at least someone will get hurt, there is no win-win situation when you play with people's emotions. It will get ugly, it will get violent and yet, it's arousing. There's a certain pleasure in doing and watching something that feels wrong. That's why you're reading it, isn't it?
The tension builds up to the point you forget about the primitive urge that made you start reading it in the first place and simply continue moving on, page by page, argument by argument, watching characters go through disgust-filled looks, ruined careers, bad nights of sleep, just waiting to see how it will end.

Yes, artwork is also gorgeous, honestly I started reading because of it -before finding out about the many layers of story. It definitely wouldn't be the same thing with, say, Key/Visual Arts tier of character design.
The amount of detail this mangaka puts into his scenes, yet keeping it straightly realistic is phenomenal. Not only that, Haruka's design is also an instant pick up.
It's probably good advice to check the rest of his stuff.

Perhaps it's because of the strong cultural identity Japan enforces or the huge clash between ultra-conservationism and experimental youth, either may it be, it's undeniable they provide the most "dude, that's fucked up" overly-dramatic romances.
Give this thing a try and see for yourself.

Just as the title says, the MC is OP in this series, though the series will be boring for some of you, it's still worth the read if ever you got nothing else to read

I really like the part of this series that makes fun of the typical Isekai cheating MC where after dying they become OP without even working hard for the power they get.

Some of the characters are likeable, except the female mc (maybe?) who treats the MC like some lowly peasant despite knowing how powerful the MC is.

anyways... the series stays true to its title :) the series gets better around 25+ chapters

Even if this might be my first review on MAL, I still intend on diving straight into the heart of the matter (so forgive me in advance for my selfishness):

Although this manga's concept touches my heart in more ways than one, I was at first uncertain about whether I should read it. I almost did not bother: I assumed it would not end well because the manga was rather short. In the end, rather than sleeping, I decided to read it. Despite everything, it left me with an lasting impression. (I am going to have a sweet dream tonight, that I am sure.)

The major reason for which I enjoyed this manga is probably that, like the protagonist, I have a tendency to escape from reality. Minor reasons include the manga exploring some aspects of existentialism, and unrequited love. Such features allow me to empathise with the protagonist and the 'heroine'.

So, if you have some time to spare, or if you also tend to run away from real life, it would not hurt to read this manga. It should not incite strong emotions, especially with limited character development: like this first review of mine, it practically goes straight to the middle of nowhere, and leaves you in the middle of nowhere, too. However, I would not go so far as call it lighthearted either. You might get some inspiration out of it, even.

Most likely you have never heard of this manga ("Ooshima-chan Cannot Say her Own Name"), but you may know another one by this mangaka which recently got a controversial anime adaption known as "Aku no Hana." Shino-chan resembles Aku no Hana in more ways than just the very similar art style (the manga's of course not the anime's style).

Story - 8/10

For a manga that only consists of 11 short 20 page chapters, this manga manages to have a well rounded story with good character development (for a short manga), interesting characters, and a very good ending. Even if you're a slow reader like me, it'll probably take a little less than an hour to read this.

Despite starting off a little slow, in my opinion this manga picks up a lot around halfway. The story follows Ooshima Shino, a shy girl with an extreme stutter who can't even say her own name to her class on her first day of high school. After that, she quickly becomes the laughingstock of her class which is only further worsened by her inability to even answer math questions in class or have a normal conversation with anyone. She ends up having no friends and spends lunch behind the school conversing with herself. One day, a girl from her class shows up behind the school during lunch listening to music. The girl notices Shino and starts to leave but Shino tells her to wait. Unable to get the words across, the girl gives a pad of paper and a pen to Shino to use and tells her to quickly write something funny. Shino manages to make the girl, whose name is Kayo, laugh and they decide to become friends. Kayo also tries to help Shino stutter less and get to the root of her problem.

Art - 7/10

As I mentioned, the art is almost identical to Aku no Hana's later art style as this started in 2011 while Aku no Hana started in 2009. While the art is not the best, it is definitely not bad and the emotions the characters show are really well displayed. The character designs are not very unique, (aside from maybe Kayo's) but they don't really need to be for this simple high school story.

Character - 7/10

The only really important characters are Shino and Kayo with a few other minor characters. They have a similar relationship to Kasuga and Nakamura in Aku no Hana except without the darker aspects of Nakamura's personality being involved. Shino's development throughout the story is the stronger of the two and she really becomes a great character by the end of the manga. Kayo is tone deaf, but plays the guitar (well) as a hobby. She is annoyed by Shino's stuttering but tries to help her and be her friend despite that.

Enjoyment - 8/10

For a short manga, I really found myself stuck to it and connected to the characters. Watching Shino struggle with her stuttering problem was kind of hard at first, but that just shows how good the character-to-reader connection is. I recommend this manga especially if you like Aku no Hana or any other manga by the same mangaka (though I haven't read any others yet). WataMote is another similar manga with very similar introverted main female characters, though WM has comedy while this manga has mostly drama. Overall, "Shino-chan" is a good short manga if you just want to sit down and finish something in one sitting. It has a good, short story, nice art, good characters, and a good ending.

I give this short manga about cute girls befriending giant monsters...a 71/100.

Some anime/manga creators think slapping cute girls in their works will automatically make it popular. That's not entirely true. Cute girls alone can't carry an entire story, and any writer that tried it wound up meeting the business end of failure. That's why the moe genre tends to be universally hated in various places. But in recent years, some works have actually made efforts to put out moe anime/manga that actually do have genuinely good stories and characters. Girls Last Tour made a premise of two blobby girls exploring the end of the world and contemplating the nature of life and their own existence work really well. Non Non Biyori told a series of slice-of-life vignettes about a group of friends living in the countryside, and it got wildly popular to the point where it has a third season confirmed. Laid-Back Camp had a very intense focus on camping and teaching the audience the wonders of the great outdoors, and A Place Further Than The Universe cared much more about characterization and really exploring what an actual trip to Antarctica would actually be like, both of which received high praise. So, yeah, moe alone isn't going to make a story work. As such, others have tried to follow in their footsteps, one of them being a manga I discovered recently, Monster Tamer Girls.

Monster Tamer Girls first got serialized in the magazine Manga Time Kirara, which generally focuses on moe manga and was the origin point for a lot of works such as K-On!, Kiniro Mosaic, Is The Order a Rabbit, Sansha Sanyou, and many others. The story takes place in a modern world where humans have learned to coexist alongside large monsters, which can apparently be tamed when a young girl sings to one. A young girl, Ion Hidaka, was chosen by her school to help take care of a large, Godzilla-like monster alongside her friend Sora, even though she's scared of monsters. But she is genuinely curious about Tamers, as when she was younger, an older girl saved her from a rampaging monster by singing to it. While not the ideal situation, Ion does the best she can in her new situation, and hopes to maybe find the girl who helped her out...who may be closer than she thinks.

As much as I want to like this manga more than I do, there's a lot holding it back, one of which is its worldbuilding. It's established that monsters originally threatened humanity, but SOMEHOW, voices of young girls are able to subdue them and make them tame by way of singing, so young girls are trained to tame monsters. This raises so many questions that really don't get answered: How the hell would this even work? Do monsters just respond better to women in general? Do young girls have a special set of vocal chords that have properties that can resonate with the monster? (Say what you will about Symphogear, which I hate as a show, but it at least went to the trouble to establish an actual explanation for why singing helps to fight against and defeat the monsters of the week!) Why do only young middle school girls have to be tamers? The latter especially doesn't have much of an answer, though I can only presume this is so the mangaka can have some kind of excuse to shove cute girls into the plot, completely unaware of all the plot holes and questions they raised with the premise alone. I mean, don't get me wrong, the premise is interesting to me, seeing as I'm a fan of shows such as Pokemon, Digimon, and any kind of show that features kids befriending monsters, and some parts of the show's setting are very intriguing and well set up. But often times it feels like the author just shoved cute girls into this setting instead of trying to work towards making it work and flesh out other parts of the story and setting.

For the art, it's about as typical moe as one can get. The girls all look cute and adorable, even the adults, though the men look relatively realistic. But for the girls, it kind of suffers from everybody looking the same, to the point where if you swapped their hair and eye colors around, you wouldn't be able to tell the characters apart, which is something that, unfortunately, many moe manga are notorious for. Furthermore, the manga uses a lot of very thin lines and gray color schemes, without a whole lot of prominent whites or blacks, which makes everything feel rather muted, reinforcing just how indistinguishable the girls are if you switched their hair and eyes around. Even the background art is very simple, with thin pencil lines and gray shadows. There's not much about the art that really pops, other than the monster designs, which are much more detailed and distinct, but not overpoweringly so.

Adding onto the characters, the girls do have one or two basic traits, so they're not exactly the most well-rounded or fleshed out. Ion's the shy, scared girl who learns to like monsters and has a special gift because the protag absolutely HAS to have one, Sora is a tomboyish girl who loves to eat, Kotomi is the snarker who likes getting on her friend's nerves, so on and so forth. They're not bad or anything, but they don't really stand out, so they're rather bland. I liked them all okay, but personally, I feel the Committee Chair girl, Tsukiko, is the most interesting and the best character. She starts off as a serious, stoic girl who oversees Sora and Ion's activities and isn't kind of indifferent to monsters, but actually really, really likes monsters to the point where she wishes she could be a Tamer and goes googly squeally over them. Plus, she and her friend Kotomi bounce off each other pretty well and have good chemistry.

The manga is only two volumes long, so it's a fairly short read. I kind of wish there were more volumes, because not only are there still a lot of unanswered questions about the story and the world these girls live in, I actually do want to read more of this story and learn more. But we only get a small portion of what feels like a much bigger story, and there was one subplot that seemed like needless filler to me. A few chapters involve Ion meeting this little girl named Nonoka, who it turns out is an astral projection only she can see. The real Nonoka is in a coma because of some really rare disease with no name, and there's no explanation for why she's a spirit and why only Ion can see her. Later, she wakes up from her coma and nothing about her storyline is ever given any resolution or explanation whatsoever. What was even the point of this, and what purpose did it serve? To me, this subplot added nothing to the story, and the author could have used these chapters to further flesh out the already present cast of characters and the world they live in.

I feel kind of bad for dunking on this manga, because for what it has to offer, I actually did like it. It's nothing special or noteworthy, but it's a cute little time killer for if you want to read something short, sweet, and harmless.

A nice read if you want to pass some time and if you also happen to have these types of interests.

In my opinion, Hikaru to Hikari was a decent trap/gender bender manga. The story had some nice moments, and you get all those messy situations you want from this genre. However, not much really stood out but nothing was bad either. Maybe it's because this series was so short, Hikaru to Hikari doesn't offer the same level of depth or personality that a series like AKB49 would have, but I think that it's still worth the read.

TLDR; Read this if you like traps.

After reading Cappuccino, Rouge Noir was a manga talking about more serious problems than the first one. Or not?

In Rouge Noir I greatly enjoyed the way protagonist was talking about music. I don't remember how long ago I was reading a manga or book and noticed such a passion with which a protagonist was talking about music.
On the other hand, the story was weird somehow. A woman falls in love with a 14-year-old boy? Well, anything could happen, I guess, but love for life? After this 14-year-old rapes her?
Seriously, am I the only one who sees this as an unrealistic thing? It makes me confused whether I should take this manga seriously or just as a simple Saturday reading. Probably the second option as the plot seems to be undeveloped and the story itself appears quite often in josei mangas maybe as an opposition to usual shoujo stories where love is rather idealized. There is no particular idea which would inspire reader as well as there is no deeper meaning in the plot. Reading Rouge Noir was something similar to reading Twilight - unrealistic plot, but the story itself was quite fun to read. It didn't make me think deep which is kind of cool if you don't get into reading such stories in an overly vigorous way.

This manga was rather good until I understood that the protagonist is pathetically in love with her raper. Later on I decided that this manga is not worth taking seriously and is made to bring enjoyment and fun on lonely evenings. The ending proved my opinion. This reading must be taken with joy. Without any commitments. Just like jazz, huh.