Spirit Circle

Spirit Circle, in my opinion, is an example of a story that has an incredibly interesting premise and carries itself well for 2/3rds of its run, but comes crashing down in the final third with a very contrived and banal conclusion. It really soured my experience on the series as a whole, and what could've easily been a 9 or 10/10 series instead ended up as a disappointment, although it was still enjoyable.

Story: 7/10. Easily a 9/10 up until the final act or two, but once the story started tying itself up it was a huge let-down. The story was building itself up so well only to fall flat, and do it in the most cliche way possible despite originally being a series built on nuance and ambiguity.

Art: 9/10. It's pretty charming and very consistent.

Character: 8/10. For the most part, decently done. Each character is unique and memorable, and there is a good interwoven connection between them.

Enjoyment: 7.5/10. I did enjoy Spirit Circle as a whole, but my interest waned substantially around the end. I'd say my enjoyment was at its peak during the first 70% of this series.

Overall: 7/10. Spirit Circle is an interesting manga that fails to deliver in the end, but still has some things worth reading. It helps that in addition to being an overarching narrative, it also has smaller subplots that take shape within the overall story, so even though I was disappointed by the ending, I still liked how some of those subplots were handled.

If you like story that is told in a none-linear fashion where stuff from the beginning is relevant or symbolic to the stuff that's going to happen later on, I would highly recommend Spirit Circle for you.

Spirit Circle is quite clever in that it is able to crunch in multiple stories into one coherent story. We're basically getting five to six different stories with different backgrounds and genre in just one story. And despite the cast being small and there really being only one hero and heroine, due to the nature of the story, we're in fact getting a huge casts of characters. What's even more amazing is that these intertwine stories makes up the character's growth and development so we don't need to get into the nitty and griddy details of every character's life to be able to sympathize and empathize with them at a personal level.

Going into a little bit of the story content, I'd say Spirit Circle goes beyond your typical Reincarnation manga in that the story is told in a fashion where time is not linear. Sometimes, the future comes first and the past comes later. And reading the story, you can gradually and significantly feel the change in each character. The way you view them at the beginning is totally different by the time you finish the story. And this happens in a way that is least expected because you know the characters not through their present self but their past selves. It really gives the idea of how people are shape by their past and alter by their future.

One thing that I am particularly negative about when it comes to Spirit Circle is that it is told from a male perspective. In that it's probably a story mainly for a male rather than a female despite the content of the story. Don't get me wrong. Although Spirit Circle is told from a predominantly male point of view, it is definitely different from the mediocre and redundant Shounen manga that you see nowadays. It may not be a manga for everyone but it is a manga that's unlike any.

I'm no fan of short stories. Usually they fail to create a world deep enough to delve deep enough into to really enjoy yourself, or sympathise with it's heroes. So when I began the lecture of Spirit Circle I frankly wasn't expecting much, a typical "boy has inherited a chakram made of soul from his previous incarnation, meets a pretty girl that's bound to him by fate of vengeance, and they fall in love".

It is with great pleasure that I found out this work refused to throw another "villain that actually wants to be friends and is throwing a tantrum because is lonely" at us whenever it exhausts the plot, but rather consistently added more depth to the small cast of it's characters.

I'll debunk a likely misconception you might get: it is NOT an action manga. in fact, action is very scarce, and used only to empasize the relations between characters, and it treats mainly about mistakes that human is so prone to commit, the grudge they incur, and finally, forgiveness so that all can return to the natural state.

I'd like to make this review objective, if it's at all possible, so I'll stop singing praises now, but i sincerely encourage anyone who wants to read a manga leaving an impression of serenity, peace and... wow, this sounds dumb, but, enlightement, to give this manga a go. I gave it a try for the romance tag, and when it ended, I was actually sad that that's it, depite the fact I couldn't find a more fitting ending if I tried to. This work is bliss.

Spirit Circle was absolutely beautiful.

When I started reading this, I didn't really expect much. Before, I wasn't a big fan of the whole past lives thing but this one really got me. Following their experiences of each past life and seeing how each exploration causes the main characters to slowly change their views of each other was the best part. Each of the past life experiences made me feel like I was in a totally different world, but the end of each past life story would always bring me back to the main story and continue to add to my understanding of what was going on as well as the feels. The way the stories were presented, I felt like I could understand the characters thoughts and how each iteration of a past life would change them. I felt like I was growing with the characters and that's what makes this a 10/10 for me.

Good Points : The length of this series was perfect for the story it wanted to tell, and the ending was also very satisfying. Past life stories are done well and complement each other as well as the main plot.

What I Didn't Like : Pretty much nothing.

TLDR; Past lives done right. Worth the read.

There aren't many that I'd rate as a 10/10.
I'm not the type to rate that high for the big popular ones either.
This is super underrated!
It's sooo good!
It's violent, but not to the point where it's distracting, just enough for when you see it, it's used well to elicit emotion.
It has romance, but just enough for you to get the feels, not enough to bog down the story or turn off those who don't like romance.
It's tragic, but again, just enough for the feels, you get attached to the characters and root for them, hoping for the best and watching them grow.
It's never slow, but the pacing isn't fast to the point that you can't keep up.
I wish I could reread this again having never read it before, it's totally rereadable, but that joy and excitement that I felt the first read through is a rare treat.
This manga is a rare treat.
I'd honestly buy it to have irl, and I REALLY don't buy manga.
Now I have to read everything by this mangaka, he must have some genius for this wonderful treasure.

When I first read the description of this manga, I immediately thought of Kekkaishi, but that was not the case. This manga went far over my expectations. It was very amusing and interesting to see how the main protagonist live despite having all his past lives incorporated into him. It was also kind of cool to see the past lives of the main protagonist and the female antagonist fight against each other.

Satoshi Mizukami is a great storyteller with a clear vision of what he's creating. Maybe you're already familiar with his other works (like Samidare and Sengoku Youko) before you read Spirit Circle, so you probably noticed that already, but if that's not the case, you'll certainly like them and recognize this aspect. It's really cool when all the dots in the plot connects in a convincing way, because you can feel how everything presented was, to some degree, an important part of the overall structure of the story. You can tell that he has a goal in mind from the beginning and even likes to mess around with the reader and plainly tell what’s gonna to happen in the future.

Spirit Circle is not a complex story, but somehow you’ll feel that way. It’s about souls and reincarnation. It's about vengeance, but it's also about making up for past mistakes. There's a mixing of emotions in every arc, which goes from something very comic to something very dramatic. Mizukami can play something serious in a very silly way, which can be anti-climatic, but it can work better this way because of how it can break your expectation, and it’s supported with his skills of portraying emotions so good and with a lot of impact. Otherwise, it would be a more parodic manga without any weight. Mizukami knows how to handle both his comedic and emotion side very well and creates a very charming, comic and yet dramatic story. And that's how I felt for the most part of the story, except for the Fortuna's story arc, which is unfortunately the most anticipated and important one. It's really the Achilles' heel of the manga and show how the author's style can be a dual-edged sword. I didn't feel any of the dramatic curves because everything seemed more comic when they should be tragic.

That said, everything else still works great. The relationship between all the characters is something that it’s developed in a clever way, as everything is a result of a past interaction. What it’s being told is not just the past tales of Fuuta and Koko, the main characters, and their circle of mutual destruction, but how their relationship with everyone around them is being shaped with every interaction and choice.

Even though the last story arc is not a winner, the overall story is still great and can cover any flaws that it has near the end. Mizukami knows how to evoke a lot of emotions from his readers and his characters are very likeable. Spirit Circle is a epic journey of self-discovery, but also of forgiveness and friendship. It’s beautifully presented and, for the most part, well executed.

If you are looking for a journey through a time to another time,
If you are looking for a bittersweet story, a romcom, but not at all,
A wisdom like, loveable, then, I think you will be suited to read this manga.

The story will make you fresh for each arc that you have read, "When is this arc will come out?" "Who is this?" "Ah, so that what it is". Read it all and the after taste will be good in your mouth I think.

Childish but not too childish at the same time, it fit the story really good. Yes the art really fit this manga and there is no in between.

Each arc grow the character and give the reader feel "Ah, so this is what will be like if a person like that in the present time" even it's just a glimpse. Nah, overall the character development is good, even a slight romance growth really so sweet to see.

Like the second paragraph, the enjoyment I can get from this manga is repeatable and it's stacking and giving a really good feeling after reading it all.

*Insert the first paragraph again

A rather mature story that's trapped into a juvenile love story between two teenagers.

Characterization is solid. Every character serves their purpose.
Plot is about the main character travel in his past lives and every life is an entirely different arc. So it provides a way to have different kinds of narratives in a same story while it's not jarring. The manga artist managed to make almost every story (except the transsexual one which is fairly simple) emotional and memorable.

However the main storyline doesn't appeal to me a lot as it traps other pretty good individual stories into an abusive relationship between two middle schoolers. It feels like I was reading two different manga with those individual stories being the relatively mature shonen/seinen story while the main story being a shojo love story.
This contradiction is frequently a turnoff and makes it hard to enjoy the story fully.

Spirit Circle is a work that implements a complicated timeline but manages to tell it in an understandable, non-confusing way.

Now, mind that the start is kinda weaker and might even make you question why this has such a high score. It's not bad, but this manga certainly isn't great right off the bat. The art isn't exactly helping that, as it can appear to be somehow bland at the start. Thankfully, both the art and the story improve. Well, about the art it's more like you'll get used to the artstyle, but it still offers some great pages through the series.

Coming into this expecting another Phoenix might get you disappointed - even with all the reincarnation and deeper themes in its core it's still a highschool-y romance. And I'm not saying that as a bad thing, in fact it is a nice change of pace that such themes are combined with some degree of wholesomeness, albeit reserved. The narration style is enjoyable to read as it makes reader explored different pieces of the timeline together with the protagonist, getting to see how new plot points affect him too.

Where this really shines and where I got convinced to give this 8/10 instead of 7/10 is the final volume which ties everything together. It's not easy to explain without spoiling it, obviously, but the characterisation, the development of said characters and the whole story is done really well in this finale as everything clicks together. Yes, even that thing you might have thought has been forgotten. It's satisfactory enough to deserve that one up in the score. Definitely give this a try and try to continue even if you don't like it at first.

Wow, I've just completed this and I would say that Spirit Circle instantly entered my top 3 manga of all times (and I've read about 80% of manga from the top 200). I put in on hold for so long because I thought that it would be the same as Hoshi no Samidari (which I kind of liked, but not too much and considered it as something that should be read in a special mood) - a shounen manga mostly about fights, but with some crazy plot in-between. Nope, there are barely any fights, instead, you get excellent characters, a bunch of emotional moments, and a complex intertwined plot. This manga made me more emotional than any other I've read so far and I can't recommend this enough both to those who enjoyed other works of the author and those who didn't.

I'm afraid Spirit Circle, by Mizukami Satoshi, will like the excellent but often forgotten Hoishi no Samidare, become only a shadow hit, a read for the people who dig deeper and want different kinds of shonen. So let me try to convince you with this review to grab a book and read this very interesting story.

Art : 6/10

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first : yes, compared to tenors of the shonen manga, the art is...Meh. Although this is an artstyle that feels really distinctive, and works quite well for expressions and faces overall, the real weakness lies in the background, who most of the time, are generic, or just like detail. If you want your manga to be only eye candy, like Blame or Berserk, this won't be one for you.

Story : 8/10

The story will let us follow Fuuta Okeya, a 14-year-old boy who can see ghosts. And this ability is absolutely not the focus of the story. To try and not spoil too much, his encounter with a young girl who just transferred in his neighborhood will lead him into reliving his past lives, to try and understand why the girl wants to kill him so bad.
I found the premise quite original and refreshing. After each past life, it's not like the protagonist gains a new skill, or becomes better at fighting : the real heroes of this story are all of the past lifes of Fuuta, but more on that later.
But Spirit Circle isn't just about those past lives : there's an overarching plot, with completely bonkers consequences like only Mizukami Satoshi can think of (let us remember, he's the one who thought of a biscuit hammer that would destroy the world.) And delving deeper in the mystery of the relation between Fuuta and the girl who wants to kill him, Kouko, is really compelling and interesting.

Characters : 8/10

The character design is pretty redundant, as most of the characters with which Fuuta and Joujo interacts, even in their other lives, have the face of everyone they know (implying they are not the only one reincarnating). But each of these characters have a different personnality, a different goal. In each of his past lives, Fuuta often doesn't act like he does in the present, and he did some pretty horrible things in some lives, even. Watching his present self come to terms with that is really interesting.
Kouko is also a great character, even if her past lives are mostly seen through Fuuta's eyes. She is as well fleshed out as Fuuta in that regard, and her motivations for trying to slay Fuuta are also understandable.

Sadly, the rest of the supporting cast, like Fuuta's friends, aren't very interesting in the present. The only exceptions are for East and Rune, spirits that accompany Kouko and Fuuta in the present, but sadly they play quite a lacking role before the end of the manga. It would have been nice to see a bit more character interaction.

Overall : 8/10

Spirit Circle is a compelling manga that will make you think about afterlife, reincarnation, and responsability. Can you be held accountable for a really horrible thing you did in a past life ? By asking that question, the author takes us on a journey through time to try and discover the worth of a human soul, and ultimately, the worth of who we are, today.

Story
The story is pretty unique. About souls, reincarnation and fate, it has many deeper meanings that you would never find on another manga ever.
I would have liked if an epilogue was present, because the last part of the ending was quite weak.

Art
Old but gold.

Character
Every character had their own developments. They felt all alike.
Obviously, by being "reincarnations", they share some similar details with each others, but it's not a bad thing.

Enjoyment
It is definitely mind-blowing, and may give you the yearn to re-read it after a while.
It's quite short, so it won't definitely annoy you!

Overall
It's definitely rare to find a manga like this. I would suggest it to anyone as a must-read! No exceptions!

I rly like this manga because it got more depth than certain other mangas but also because I get the feeling it ended before it got ridiculous and the meaning of the story was lost which I rly respect. What I mean by ridiculous is that some stories goes into the whole overpowered mc line when the mc have gone through a certain level of trial and this is mostly because progress is important but I think thats wrong when that overroll the message of the story. Why I think it got depth is because how it explores each character thoroughly but also introduced new characters at a steady pace (perhaps a bit slowly but better than normal(nothing)). The soul theories was also interesting and there was alot of this which left me pondering but if I had to say something: I wonder if the seven types of souls had something to do with the seven sins? I could say it would be partly true but that doesnt make me feel exactly right and thats how I feel about alot of the plot devices. Certainly a ending is supposed to close all those plot devices but what the story instead decides to do is open up to more questions but at the end you feel that the most important ones you have gotten the answer indirectly and the rest just feels insignificant. Now if you have readed until now you may wonder what the message was but that is for you too decide, bye!

I don't think I can think of a manga out there that contains as much Wisdom as Spirit Circle. This is surprisingly because Spirit Circle is a work that can't really be defined as 'realistic', and its individual components have been done almost everywhere else. Yet, while Hataraki Man can be viewed as a work that focuses on a micro perspective of life, and a work like Murasaki-iro no Qualia can be seen as a work that focuses on the macro and cosmic perspective of life, Spirit Circle is a work that is simply able to encompass all that, although it is not as psychologically thorough or intellectually thorough as either.

The story has appeared before in Osamu Tezuka's Apollo's Song (+ Phoenix), as well as Andy Weir's The Egg. It has also appeared in Slaughterhouse Five, and it even the shoujo manga NG Life. Its character types are extremely Shounen, although it also takes from the broad strokes of life that Tezuka can pull off. It draws from Samurai stories, historical literature, fantasy literature, and a plethora of other genre influences. It has done nothing particular new in its philosophy either - given that the philosophy is the kind of Buddhist philosophy explored in a multitude of other works out there. It's ultimate ending message was made up of platitudes, but the way these platitudes were structured within the work was so powerful that you have no choice but to see it all in a new light.

Though this work takes from everything, it is still one of the most original Manga in the world. It is simply the best reincarnation story that has ever been conceived up to this date. It draws from the best aspects of this type of story and focuses deeply on the essentials with superb pacing (wrapping up in a mere 45 chapters). The best aspect of a reincarnation story is the beauty of having one's past relations be built anew - because when this happens, enemies can become friends, and relationships can be completely restructured to create new meaning. Spirit Circle is powerful because it managed to arrange all these alternate lives and have them build off one another, seeping and developing into different forms - as opposed to some Manga like Apollo's Song where each reincarnation feels like a vaguely connected short story rather than an actual 'living of a past life'.

This aspect is what drives most of the work forward. Spirit Circle can use platitudes and archetypes because these well-worn tropes will be given new light when it has the weight of several other lives upon it, causing the meaning to twist and swell up into things larger than itself. Something as simple as a few words of reconciliation can be extremely emotionally moving when it is juxtaposed against all the other past lives when such reconciliations failed. When you have all the other lives being able to commentate as well, it gives the feeling of a great historical wisdom emanating from a single person, observing the world from a distant view where everything becomes lighter and more ephemerally precious.

I feel as though Spirit Circle is a work that I'll be able to read again in 5 or 10 years, and still be able to derive something from it. It is an eternal reminder that your ego is the smallest thing in the world, but your relationships with others will surpass the galaxies.

holy sh*t! I just finished this and this manga is just sooo good. I'm surprised there is no anime adaptation yet.
the best thing is of course the story. you get so intrigued and just want to know what just exactly happened between the MCs! every reincarnation lives is appealing and I find it funny when I see MC relationship with each supporting characters. There are few things left unexplained but I like it that way, it feels realistic that there are things in this world that just cannot be explained.
every characters are well written, and you won't get confused because each character has a distinctive features.
overall this is a really good manga, makes you think about life and all lol

First of all, the story, just imagine seeing someone life from start to finish for 7 times in details. Not to mention the variation of era, culture and many insights in each reincarnation. Now this is just the tip of the iceburg, this story also has a lot of mysteries which is not forced but hinted at by author at some point of times which is a big plus for me. Romance is also a fine addition to the story too even if it's not the focus of the story. There's comedy in most chapter which keep the manga light-hearted enough too.

Next, the art, I'm not really a fan of this kind of art. It looks kinda childish to me but the emotions, background and atmosphere is drawn very clearly so it's very good.

Characters. I find MC and co's personality absolutely likeable. They are the definition of good in my dictionary. The FMC however is not likeable at first but hey nice character development. This is a minor spoiler but .....
[spoiler]
Past lifes of these people will show you how the present personalities come to be and it's not forced at all.
[/spoiler]
Well, it's a 10 for me !

Nice story, art and character, ofcourse ! I enjoyed it very much a big 10 !!

Finally, i hope that everyone tried this masterpiece. It's so good that my standard for manga are raised for a while lol

Story(10)
I can't even explain how much I love this manga. I love every single of the lives that you see and experience, and the relationships between all the characters, and how it changes overtime, and everything. The concept is also incredibly cool and I can't wait for the rest to be translated. Hopefully it will get translated.

Art(10)
Although there are some parts that I find the art style to not be fitting, that can't even compare to the rest. I love how the face structures are actually diverse, and the simplicity of the art style overall. It seems cute at first, but the violence in the manga makes the art better.

Character(8)
Although I love the development with all the characters in the 'lives', I just find a lot of places where I can't understand what the characters are doing. I'm not sure if that was the intention, but I find it kind of frustrating not being able to sympathise with some characters.

Enjoyment(9)
Sometimes there are parts where I find aren't necessary, but the light hearted comedy balances well with the darkness of the plot. The romance was adorable too, the blushing faces especially. I always have fun when I read the manga, so I really hope it get translated and not dropped.

Overall(9)
This was one manga that I loved. Although I'm searching for trashy shoujo romance most of the time, I love when I strike gold with manga like this.