Masamune-kun no Revenge

Masamune-kun no Revenge is... well, let me put it this way: you ever put your hand in a blender? Yeah, that sums up how I feel about this manga.

Long story short: good art, bad everything else. Go on the wiki, enjoy the cute girls and Masamune and Kojuro's designs, and go do something else with your finite, beautiful, valuable lives. And if that isn't enough reason to stop you from reading this manga, allow me to explain why I immensely dislike Masamune-kun no Revenge.

Imagine you've got a cool, relatable story of self-betterment and learning, a story which shows how a person can evolve and become something they can be proud of. Add in a nice lil' gimmick about how they're going to get revenge and force the antagonist to realise their own flaws and better themselves, cute girls, and some comedy, and you've got a nice time. But that isn't Masamune-kun.

No, Masamune-kun is a boring, weird story filled with wish fulfilment and tropes. The story starts off... okay? It's realistic enough at least, with character development and has a bit of internal struggle. But, here's where we see inherent flaw with the series: the author is shit. Hazuki has no clue what he's doing or where he's going except for a few key points in the narrative - everything else is free fall until they reach these specific points.

And, let me say, these points are, dare I say, enjoyable. They're not "good" due to their writing (although the art does help pick up the slack), but they're like beating a hard boss in a video game. And that's not a bloody good thing to have in a manga, as failing to beat a boss is YOUR fault. YOU didn't do it good enough, so you have to try again because YOU weren't good enough, didn't learn enough, weren't fast enough, etc. But this is a piece of literature, where such a feeling can be created through two ways: (1) masterful storytelling and manipulation of the characters and audience to create tension and pull at your heartstrings or (2) doing a poor job at writing, forcing the audience to sit through it and endure your writing.

All that being said, sometimes it's fine, you barely notice it - but these times are severely lacking. Most of the time it's painfully noticeable just how bad and just plain strange points of the story are; character arcs and plot points are discarded, their purpose in pushing the narrative on fulfilled. That leads me onto another important thing: the characters.

First of all, we have the eponymous Masamune. He's... alright, I guess. Pretty stock-standard borderline-wish fulfilment character, has a few "quirks" which make up his personality. Then we have Aki, the tsundere-hime who is... more of collection of tropes than a real character (although she does have a nice moment at one point, even though Hazuki's writing rears its head again). After her, we have Yoshino, pretty much loli-big boobs-fanservice-quiet school shooter type. Following her, we have Kojuuro, your generic trap girly boy.

You getting a feel for the characters yet? Did you guess that the next one would be Futaba, the class president? Maybe not, but you got the feeling that these are all tropes and archetypes which barely fill out their roles as archetypes. That being said, I do like three character in this: Kojuuro (he showed some nice character development for the series), Futaba (so much wasted potential, you shall forever be #2 girl to me), and Muriel (only in a small arc and not part of the main cast, but god damn do I love her design).

Now, the second last thing to talk about is the art: I fucking love it. Tiv is a godsend, she can do no wrong (except her questionable colour palette). She is the only reason the story and characters are soft 3s and not a hard 2s, as her art is able to drag the characterisation and emotions up. While the designs and style aren't anything to write home about (being fairly generic for manga and anime), she does them damn well, and consistently for that matter.

So, here I stand, with only one thing to talk about: enjoyment. Why is it a 2 if everything else was a 3 or an 8? Because I fucking sat through 40 chapters of this crap. By the end of the Ch. 18 I was ticked, my score was a 5 or 4, my enjoyment was a solid 5 though. It had been a ride, but I didn't quite regret it. But then... It happened. It is something you will learn of if you don't heed my warning and turn back now. It makes no sense and made my blood run in reverse, almost ending the suffering which It brought onto my existence. While I can't say what It is due to It being a massive spoiler, It ruins everything. "Nothing good could possibly come after It," I thought to myself.

And I was right. Excluding the time with Muriel in it, It does mark the end of everything good in this manga to me. It destroys the past, present, and future of this manga; the past is soured, the present is corrupted, and the future is made bleak, all by It. Don't even get me started on Its big bad older brother, That, which I just witnessed recently. That is like biting into sandwich and biting into a Holocaust. It and That ruined everything good about this (sans the art and the few good moments) of this series for me. It and That did not impact upon my perception of the story nor characters too greatly, just enjoyment.

In conclusion, here are my scores:
Story: 3, a piece of shit. Author has no idea what they're doing except for a few key points.
Art: 8, beautiful and well done.
Character: 3, see Story for reasons.
Enjoyment: 2, hahahahahhahano. No enjoyment here, save a few moments.

Overall: 3. I don't reccomend reading this at all. It's tropey garbage which you shouldn't waste your time reading. Hell, the whole "revenge" thing it has going for it dies off pretty quickly as well.

All that being said, I will keep reading it. Why? Because I'm curious how bad it will get.

Masamune-kun no Revenge. It's about a high schooler. A typical high school story. Well, in this case, the MC is a hottie. Seems regular to you? Well, at first glance, it is. That's why, as far as the story goes, it's pretty generic in comparison.That's why the mangaka offers something else to the table, art and character

To make up for the pretty generic (with a bit twist) premise, we're presented with godly art and character that is adorable and relatable. Needless to say, they make up for it quite well. As far as I know, the manga is already over and to those who hates rushed ending, this is not one for you. The ending is pretty rushed even though it ended on a good note. I feel like it needs to flesh out the story a bit more before deciding to end it.

It's a harem, yes. Technically. But, the MC is set on one girl while turning down advances from another girl (as for why, it's in the story, go read it). This alone makes it quite an interesting read material. A harem that is not quite a harem. Bit of drama here and there. That's what makes Masamune-kun no Revenge interesting.

So, this could be great all in all but the rushed ending to happy conclusion leaves a bitter taste in my tongue, otherwise, it could be a 10/10 for me.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile.
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✦Story
First, let me point out what I didn't like or even hated.
1. Flimsy approach to love.
2. Filler feelings and relationship replacements/feelings or throwing away oneself.
3. Stupid inability of being honest.
4. Non-Vanilla aspects. Including clouded vanilla romance.

Now. Aside what I didn't like. There story did actually exist, progress and was fairly well put together. I did read in one go, but there more story progressed. The less I started to enjoy it.

Manga where I felt that I should have simply watched the Anime and never touched the Manga. But reason why I picked this Manga after watching Anime, was simply the fact that I wanted to know the outcome.

But yes, as I'm an absolute vanilla fanatic as my "moral compass/views" regarding such things are vanilla oriented as well. And the more loose, false or non-vanilla something is. The more it frustrates me. And thus why even though for the most part story offers rather cute and pleasant love story. It started getting clouded, stupid and distorted.

Point being, in a "structural" way this Manga is rather good. But the personal enjoyment aspect ruined the story for me to a fairly large amount.

Another thing I felt rather disappointed about is how precisely everything ended. It felt too much a normal page/chapter than a "beautiful "fin""

✦Art
Cute, good looking. What else there is to say? It fit well, presented well and was enjoyable.

✦Character
A bit off-sync stereotypes.
A distorted tsundere that is more of a psychotic in a meager odd way, than a trademark enjoyable tsundere.
A extreme narcissist that hides his past and essentially is an indecisive "playboy" that realizes and reacts to things too late.
A eccentric no-pan ojousama whom I love, but is way too problematic....
A quiet chaotic "liar".

And plenty more characters that have rather stereotypical approaches and types with distortion of "modernity" in a bad way. (for me at least.)

There is enough of progression and development of characters, relationships and possibilities. But many of their traits, decisions and so on, did ruin the whole picture of enjoyment to an annoying amount.

Rest can't be told. Rest to be discovered.

✦Enjoyment & Overall
Honestly, I feel the more I write reviews the more I combine enjoyment/overall section to other sections of reviews. Meaning there isn't really anything to add.

Other than summarize that I liked Anime more as Anime ended at part where it was still rather nice. But the further the story went, the less enjoyable it became and the more I unlikable characters became. While in the end it still was rather cute and and more of a light-hearted romance Manga, it simply got clouded and problematic a bit too much to my taste.

There aren't great many routes a romance series can take. Especially the high school settings are limited and suffering from unoriginal content where most series are more or less the same thing. Masamune-kun no Revenge introduces something fresh as like the title implies - the plot of the series centers around a revenge.... kind of.

Our main dude, Piggy, got his nickname from a beautiful girl who ended up bullying him for his outlooks. This happened at a very young age. Good for him, the handsome boy genes kicked in after the childhood phase and he turned into a nice teenager. Just so happens to be, Piggy and mrs. Revenge target are now in the same high school, so naturally, it's time for the payback! .... kind of.

Piggy comes up with a masterful plan -- that was clearly inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo -- to make mrs. Revenge target fall in love with him just so he can turn her down and break her heart for good! Muahahaha. *evil laugh* Unfortunately this proves to be impossible because the girl is a literally evil biatch..... kind of.

This starts off a rather bumpy ride centering around soap opera level writing stuff and side characters who all seem to serve less meaning in the story as it advances. Once the not-exactly-an-epic journey ends, we get the conclusion that anyone was expecting after seeing the romance tag in the series genres.... exactly and literally.

In case the story wasn't problematic enough: the characters are pretty much full of nonsense as well. Piggy and mrs. Revenge target are pretty much the exact same thing: the opposing party is the villain to them both, yet this is just a contradiction caused by fear of nothing less than... being happy.

In one way, the whole point of the series are teenage insecurities and growing over them. Dealing with regret and anger. This is pretty cool and genuine idea, but the characters and story aren't exactly doing a good job on making it meaningful... or interesting.... or really anything else either.

As a conclusion, if this series had been 30% of its current length, didn't contain harem and the characters had spend their time accepting themselves instead of pondering in self-pity, Masamune-kun could have been an average romance story. Now it's clearly below the typical quality of high school romances which isn't that high in the first place.

First review, also English my second language.

Masamune-kun no Revenge is a romance tale of a fat kid who later got skinny and trying get revenge on a girl who rejected him for being fat.
I enjoyed reading this at very beginning. loved the set-up, art is also great and characters was decent
but as story progress nothing much really happen at least nothing out of ordinary for this kind of manga trope.

The ending will probably divided opinion of reader depending which character you rooted for or how it went back and forth toward the end.

overall this manga a good read for someone who looking for a quick read of romance/high school manga since it's quite short. good start but lack impact or impression to make it memorable for reader by the end.

So while I was on chapter 40 or so I noticed that the MAL rating for this manga was 7.4, which is pretty low for a manga. I was expecting more along the lines of 7.6-ish, because while this manga was nothing special (it was more or less "Nisekoi but Worse"), it was fairly light and easy to read.
And I thought to myself, "I don't think it's that bad." And then it hit me. Could it be....the ending?

Hell yeah it was the ending. As spoilers aren't really my thing, my only answer to this ending is "what the hell." Why? What? For what purpose? Why would you screw around at this weird ass time?

Alright, moving on. The story itself is generic and predictable as Soma winning literally everything in Food Wars. Very cheaply thought out, very basic plot you've probably seen in literally every "rom-com" anime. School, harem, tsunderes, spiky haired protagonist, transfer student--wait this isn't Nisekoi? Oops.

The art is...it's manga. What did you expect?

Characters are super generic. Conceited protagonist, bitchy tsundere, loli maid, TranSfEr STuDEnt, meaningless side characters, etc. You've seen them literally everywhere.

I enjoyed Masamune kun relatively well (I like tsunderes) up till the bull ending. I would say around 8 in general but since the ending is literally the most important part I'm going to dock two points.

Overall, it's an ok manga with a pretty wack ending. Very predictable, very generic story and characters, has tsundere so that's okay with me.

I originally wanted to type "what" and be done with this review, but since there's apparently guidelines to follow, I suppose I'll elaborate.

I'm a big fan of romantic comedies. Dish them with an original concept, cute art, and a side of enemies to lovers; I'm sold. Masamune-kun had all of these factors, but after reading the first few chapters, I didn't feel particularly satisfied. The stars were closely aligned, but outside metaphoric language, all that spells is an astronomical disaster. The first sign of warning was the cast. Each is fueled by their own enigmatic and conflicting motivations, with potential for development and overlapping histories. However, the author never seems to know what to do with them. In an attempt to create a multifaceted lineup, the author routinely creates miniature twists in the place of character development. This isn't necessarily an issue in itself, but the constant resets between chapters and anticlimatic plotlines leave the cast feeling inconsistently depicted. Although I left with a sigh of disappointment, I begrudgingly continued on. At the very least, I was enjoying the upbeat art design, and I still held partial hope that my favourite tropes would become realised. Unfortunately, these inconsistencies were only a sign of the overarching direction that followed.

It's difficult to explain why the narrative is frustratingly poor while avoiding spoilers, but I'll begin by noting that all of those minor criticisms become larger and more prominent as the series progresses. The author never seems to be able to make up his mind on where the plot and cast will progress. Characters with hidden identities and mysterious motives are introduced one by one; each exchanging references to dark pasts soon to be revealed. But amongst those that aren't immediately sidelined or removed entirely, rarely do these threads add up to anything. The main 'antagonist' has their ploys unraveled by the lead in a two-page gag; the rivals immediately give up; and most commonly, the manga pulls a double twist. Credit to the writer, some of these narrative turns are both unexpected and exciting, but almost all of them are followed by a character denouncing their truth. As soon as a plot point is introduced, it is immediately invalidated. Perhaps most egregiously, the final few arcs retcon development in exchange for longevity.

Towards the conclusion of the manga, there are four points where one might expect the story to stop. The 'defeat' of the rival antagonist, the confession, the twist, and the retcon double twist. The story continues on. When I opened my review with "what" I was referring to the experience of reading past the logical ending. What was the point? Each of the final arcs leads to the exact same conclusion, so the story effectively meanders around for 15-20 chapters. The exception here is in the character twist prior to the conclusion, which for what it's worth, at-least justifies the hesitation. Unfortunately, as per previous examples, it is immediately and groundlessly ignored - this time, off-screen. By the time the final arc arrives, there is little payoff or excitement; just repetition and confusion: a single "what," if you will. For whatever reason, whether it be indecision; magazine influence; popularity; or minor loose-ends, the manga continues on. Even after the narrative has technically concluded, extra chapters are thrown in with last-second gags, side-character 'arcs,' and a minor time-skip where the heroine's personality 180s.

I didn't enjoy Masamune-kun. After initial disappointment, I expected to eat popcorn and blush to a pretty trope bag of mediocrity. Instead, I was left confused as the story plot threads consistently led no-where, weekly retcons muddled an almost entirely linear arc, characters were introduced and immediately sidelined; and the narrative refused to end. The question of why I felt so inclined to write my first MAL review at 5AM was then because I was baffled and disappointed. The writer has genuinely interesting ideas, but a lack of will or ability to follow-through with them. I'm optimistically excited to read their other work, if only in the hope that those ideas shine through more thoroughly.

The art is what makes this series outstanding. A lot of artists can draw manga but no artist can draw the subtle expressions so perfectly the way this artist does it (except maybe Grand Blue). Every chapter, lit my computer on fire because the romance was too spicy.

If she/he wanted to she could ship the main character with a rock and have you on board in 2 panels. It's is that good. I read from chapter 29 where the anime leaves off. People who don't rate the art highly probably just didn't notice or haven't read the more recent chapters where the art really shines.

Masamune-kun No Revenge is about the main protagonist, Makabe Masamune, who wants to take revenge on his childhood ... enemy? Friend? called Akagami Aki. No one shall ever know. Anyway, this Masamune stayed with his grandpa to train for his revenge, and became a handsome narcissist, ready to take revenge on Aki.

Story:6
The story has a low score as it is extremely generic. Handsome guy says, I'm going to make you fall in love with me" and blah blah blah. I feel like his reason to get back at Aki, the enemy/love interest, was crappy. Move ON, please. However, the author realised that the reason was not giving the MC the 'good guy' look and progressed. And it was much more enjoyable once they were past the drama. Just don't feel compiled to drop this at the 2nd chapter. The first few chapters did not show its full potential.

Art:10
I could rave on about the art in this for at least 48 hours. Trust me, it is that fantastic. What makes the art in this manga different from the usual is that the eyes are beautifully drawn, the shading and highlights are done perfectly, and the colours are bright and unique. If you like consistent, perfect artwork, this manga is for you.

Character: 7
The MC, Makabe Masamune. He was a plump, chubby boy who would get bullied by the neighbourhood boys. After running into little Aki's mansion's gates, he fell in love (i assume?) with her, only to be broken hearted when she gave him the nickname "Piggy". He sought out to take his revenge. The sight twist to this is that he is now handsome and popular. The love interest, Akagami Aki, is my favourite character, as she has a great character design and her tsundere personality does not go overboard, with no love-interest-toss-into-the-air-and-dissapears-into-the-horizon scene.

Enjoyment:8
Overall:7
For my personal enjoyment, I would say it was quite a change from the usual art and character design of manga. Besides that, there are cliffhangers and exiting parts, but you are better off watching/reading Sakurasou if you want (REALLY GOOD) serious drama, or Kaichou maid sama, for a (once again REALLY GOOD) romance manga. Another downside is that it takes centuries to update. Besides that, if you are just looking for some good romance, so-so plotline, and good art, this manga is for you.

Story: 8
A generally good plot till the last 10 chapters of the manga. The development of the story and flow is well paced, not too slow such that it gets boring. The only draw back in my opinion was the rush to finish the manga, which left quite a few things unexplained. I did not really enjoy the 2 plot twist at the ending and the expected girl to win at the end of the manga, but it was generally a good read.

Art: 10
Great art with nice illustrations. I like how the emotions of the characters are displayed through multiple expressions which is not often seen in many manga.

Character: 8
Characters stick to their motto/resolve till the end. Great development of the character's backstory and relationship mid-way in the manga. Of course this development led to a great story line as you can empathize with how the various characters felt. However, that said, there were of course side characters that were quite 'useless' in the whole plot. (Read the manga and you will know why) The side characters were more of a humor sake rather than a flag/stimulus for the various main characters.

Enjoyment: 9
I like myself a decent romance story with focus on the male and female lead. This manga has fulfilled this by avoid unnecessary developments of the side characters. The plot is focused on Masamune and Aki which was great as this story is Masamune's revenge. No redundant relationships were established between characters to prevent side-tracks from the main story.

Overall: 8
Great read. I would suggest investing your time in this manga if you like the more 'modern' kind of art for manga and if you like a plot that is catered to both males and females. No superpowers or flying, just slice of life with romance.

Great Premise Horribly botched execution.

As of now I've read the entirety of the series. It starts off good. All of the characters are pretty interesting. Then plot developments beyond the initial romance and branching storylines start to pop up. They are completely ignored or given a half thought. Themes aren't explored, questions never really answered, relationships not really cultivated, most hard conversations that are necessary are never had or at best glossed over. The absolute worst part is the story takes on a case of Shamalamadingdong syndrome and the necessity to put twists and subvert expectations just for the sake of subverting expectations. This caused the second half of the story as well as the ending to be horrid.

The art is fine but my enjoyment the farther I got into this series was not. 3 out of 10. A good first draft for a story but next time get an editor that knows what the hell they are doing.

all those 40+ chapter leading up into a mess 7 chapter of ending....

pain point:
1. Irrelevant / gimmick side character that really does nothing to add into the ending of the story
2. Later, the series extremely into shoujo romance
3. They drag the series way too long with hollow, meaningless chapters
4. All character feeling and logic are nonsense / stupid that you can figure it out in the first chapter
5. Predictable and hollow ending, left the rest of the character with no proper ending / the author want a good ending for all character but fail miserably
6. The series want to be "light and entertaining to read" but fail and become an extreme shoujo romance manga *BUT* afraid to spice things up and become boring, dull and predictable

Masaune-Kun No Revenge

Reading this manga is somewhat similar to drinking cheap supermarket cola. It's not outright disgusting, but it leaves a rather unpleasant aftertaste. In effect, Masamune-kun no Revenge is certainly not a terrible Manga, but it's not really worth investing time on either.


Story (8/10):
Creating a mediocre Manga by throwing in a bunch of tried and tested cliches is a sure fire way to earn some cash (by appealing to the otaku audience), and that's exactly what Silver Link has done here.
The story is absolutely nothing new - a fat kid works out and diets, becomes a pretty-boy and tries to publicly humiliate the girl who rejected him... only to find that he's falling for her. Of course, when he starts getting somewhere, a couple of other girls appear and voila!- a harem is made.
The developments are all rather abrupt and tasteless. It lacks any semblance of flow and the pacing is quite erratic. All put together, the story aspect is average, if not slightly below average.


Art (9/10):
I'm usually not one to criticize an Manga for its artwork, but this one has some major issues. The main thing I found is that the character designs were rather weird - the faces and limbs were all elongated beyond an level that could be ignored, so much so that it almost felt like Code Geass. Other than that, the animation was alright and the color palette used was quite bright. Yet again, average.


Character (9/10):
I'm actually rather impressed with the creators of this series for being able to make characters this weak, while using only the common cliches as raw material. It's not that the characters are terrible or anything - they're just so shallow and two-dimensional that they can't even be taken seriously. I'll give a short description of two of the characters, just to give you an idea of what I mean -

-Makabe Masamune: The 'hero' of the series. Previously a fat kid who was constantly humiliated, he worked extremely hard to improve his appearance. Now that he's hot stuff, he wants to take revenge on the girl who humiliated him in the past... . And that's it - That's the entirety of his character, nothing more.

-Adagaki Aki: The one-word description of her is (forgive my language) bitch. She has no positive points other than being rich - as for what draws all those men (including our protagonist) to her, I have absolutely no clue.

Other than those two, there are no characters of any real importance. Then again, having those two as the main characters already makes Masamune-kun no Revenge a failure.


Enjoyment (8/10):
It's extremely difficult to enjoy something you've seen hundreds of times before, but executed far worse than most. I, for one, couldn't go any further than 39 chapter before dropping it (although I would've dropped it long back had I not wanted to review it)


Overall (8.8/10):
The end result is that Masamune-kun no Revenge is a mediocre anime which doesn't bring anything new to the table. I wouldn't really recommend this to anyone, but if cardboard characters, boring story and somewhat weird artwork is what you're looking for, then by all means, give it a go.