I have read my fair share of manga and have never felt compelled to write a review on anything else until Holyland. A manga that I don't even view as the best manga I have read, but one that is without a doubt one of my favorites. The reason that I feel this way isn't because of the uniqueness of the art or panelling, because they aren't, or the way the story twists and turns and creates mystery, because it doesn't. I find this manga to be one of my favorites because of the emotion that it made me feel and because of the characters, which are some of the richest and deepest I have ever read. Excitement, awe, anger, grief, sadness. These emotions come in waves as you dive deeper and deeper into the world of Holyland, because Yuu's struggle to find a place in his world is so tangible.

In other incredible manga, being tied to the main character is something that the most skilled mangakas can do almost effortlessly. I have never had a goal as lofty as the Pirate King, yet Oda has made me a devout follower of Luffy's journey. I have never felt the inextinguishable desire for revenge that Thorfinn has, yet Yukimura had me binge read Karlsefni's adventure until I had no more chapters to read. I have also never been beaten and bullied every day of my life until it seemed like suicide was the only option, yet Mori has created circumstances where the only thing I want is to see Yuu succeeding, regardless of the atrocities he has to commit. I want him to find his Holyland. However, there was something different that I felt while reading this manga that I didn't share with any other. Anger. When Luffy got chased out of Sabaody or when Thorfinn lost his grudge match against Askeladd for the dozenth time, it made me upset. I wanted the protagonist to succeed, and therefore when they lost it made me feel as if I lost as well. Holyland is the same way. Even though Yuu can kick some ass like Thorfinn or Luffy, he also looses fights just the same. But when Yuu lost, I wanted blood. I wanted to jump into the story and make Yuu pick himself up off the floor and beat the brakes off his opponent. But why? The stakes are always high in every fight Yuu has because his reputation grows and grows, but whenever he looses a fight you can almost always assume what the next course of action will be. Every mangaka knows that they can't kill off their main protagonist before the manga is finished (except for Gantz but that piece of work is a whole different story) or else how could the story progress? Yuu never dies so you as the reader knows he always has a second chance at the opponent he just lost to, so why do I have such a strong feeling of anger and resentment whenever he does loose. I can't relate to the past hellhole of a life Yuu had to experience or to the unconventional and dangerous environment he lives in now, so the deep personal connection with the main character isn't something that I feel. But when Yuu does loose and I saw his reputation get tainted and people that believed in him start to turn their backs I couldn't not be upset. And the thing that irritates me the most is that I have no reason to have this anger in the first place. But because I do experience these strong emotional beats, it made the rest of the story feel like a genuine fight for survival.
Something else that I want to include quickly before I get into the issues I find are the characters. Yuu is a great protagonist. I think that you could understand this from what I previously wrote. The side characters, however, are where it's at. Unmatched is the only word and can really describe them as. They give advice and guidance to Yuu in the most brutally honest ways but are also equally compassionate and caring at the same time because they all want the exact same thing that Yuu wants. They want to get lost in the streets and find a place that they can protect, and they all do this together.

The reason I think anyone loves a manga and views it as their favorite is because they found something special within the story that they can grab a hold of. Something that makes their favorite manga stick out among the lineup of dozens and dozens of other stories they have read. But just because one manga is your favorite doesn't mean that it moves this manga into the objectively best manga category. If this happened then the Berserk elitists would be loosing their' shit. Everything has flaws, even our favorite manga. I believe that Monster is a better manga than Holyland when it comes to pretty much everything. I say pretty much because Naoki Urusawa isn't really strong in the art department. But that's not really the point of reading a piece of work by Urusawa, you read Monster or 20th Century Boys or Pluto to get your socks blown off by some of the most incredible stories ever written. It's for this reason that Monster is number 5 right now on MAL and Holyland is drifting around 120. Holyland isn't as tight of a story and it has more flaws than other manga that sit at the top of MAL. For example the repetition of the fights gets so bad that by the end of the series you can almost call what happens every page turn. I didn't find this a big issue personally but that doesn't mean others see the same way. Another big, glaring problem that I have is the dropping of a compelling conflict that I wanted to see more of and I thought would contribute greatly to the story because of how important it seemed. No spoilers I promise. If it were expanded upon I think that the story would have shifted greatly, maybe to the point where the entire manga as a whole would have changed. It was included in the beginning consistently so I was led to assume that it was a big problem. But it just ended up fading out.

Finally, I want to give my scores in the individual categories and explain why I gave the overall score I did. Story-9. Art-9. Character-10. Enjoyment-10. Overall-9. I'm not going to do the thing where I average out the scores and get a 9.5 and round up to a 10 because this manga isn't a ten. It's not even a 9.5. It's a 9. But when it comes to the raw emotion and thrill that you get while reading this manga, if I could put an 11 I could. I really wanted to put a 10 but I couldn't, because even though the best reviews are often subjective where opinions are thrown around like distasteful jokes at Thanksgiving dinner, objectivity still plays a role. You must look at a piece of art for what it is and take all of its pieces into account. That being said, I beg you, please put Holyland near the top of you next reads list if you haven't already. I promise you will find something that you can be happy with reading. Thank you, and have a wonderful rest of your day.