Category Archives: Manga

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Review

Posted on by
Reply


Golden Sun has always been a pretty great franchise and it’s nice to see that this game got a quick manga oneshot. It’s really just an adaption of the intro level so it’s not like it’s very long or anything but I’ll take what I can get.

The story starts with one of the kids trying to show off by proving he could pilot a flying device but didn’t realize that he needed wind powers for that. So naturally he crashes into a dangerous forest. The hero of the Golden Sun event, Isaac heads off to save him. Accompanying him is Matthew and the rest of the next generation. They end up having to fight some monsters though and it’s overall a dangerous mission but nothing will stop them from saving their friend. That is what it means to be a true hero!

Definitely a fun story. It’s also interesting how there are a lot of creative liberties from the game. For starters Isaac is the only adult here so his trusty sidekick is nowhere to be seen in this version. Additionally while in the game this was mostly all part of Isaac’s plan in terms of how to handle finding the lost kid, in the manga he’s caught more off guard. To the point where he actually loses to one of the monsters and ends up having to be saved. This change makes him look really weak so ultimately I don’t think that was the way to go. They should have just had him be in command of everything like normal.

The art was fairly decent. I wouldn’t call it top tier or anything like that but it works well enough to get the story of the oneshot across. Additionally the character cast is on point and this makes for a good adventure. The idea of course is to get you to buy the game and I like to think that maybe this would convince some people. I’ve always wondered just how effective a short promo like this could be but hey I’d say it’s as good an attempt as any. There were really no mistakes in this story. Ultimately I just wish they would have gone ahead and done a complete adaption. That would have been a lot of fun.

Because of the short length there is only so much you can write about for this one though. That’s why this review is fairly short. The characters don’t really have time for intros and there isn’t a lot going on beyond the quick fight because the page count wouldn’t really allow for that. So ultimately this is a pure teaser all the way through but it’s an effective one that will have your interest piqued.

Overall, Golden Sun makes for a good story. As the story in the games is always top notch it makes sense that the manga follows suit. It’s still a little too short to really get invested on this end but at the same time that does mean you can easily read this one at any point. It won’t take long to do after all and then you are all set. I’m currently playing through the actual video game for this story so I’ll have the full review up for that one pretty soon. You could say that I’m in the home stretch already!

Overall 6/10

Tista Review

Posted on by
Reply


Tista is a manga that’s not super well known but due to the success of Spy X Family you should be seeing it around a little more often now. It’s very short at only 2 volumes and you get the feeling that it ended up getting axed be cause there’s a lot of directions it could have gone. It’s definitely an intense story and one with a whole lot of tragedy mixed in. I’d say it works well although I could have used a bit of a stronger ending.

The manga starts by introducing us to Tista who is a legendary assassin. She is so skilled at sniping that none of her targets have ever even seen her. She can hit someone from multiple buildings away and basically pulls off impossible shots like it’s nothing. The reason for this is because her eyes are natural trigger lens as if from a gun. She can auto lock onto anything which makes her the perfect sniper. As people keep on dying, is there anyone who can stop her? Additionally the more Tista murders people, the more she wonders about the meaning of life in general.

See Tista works for the Church. While most people know the church to be a loving environment that takes in orphans and makes the world a better place, what they don’t realize is they have been training these kids into child soldiers whose only aim is to destroy all evil in the world. Now their reasoning for it is basically that the legal system is limited and there are often a lot of villains who escape unscathed because blackmail and corruption run rampant in this town. The villains have gotten so much influence around here that they basically operate out in the open. Of course this is an argument that most anti heroes/villains make so it doesn’t tend to hold water.

I will grant that it’s always a very interesting villain rationale though and it does tend to make a lot of high quality villains like Light Yagami. In this case Tista was groomed into this role ever since she was a small child so it’s not like she ever had much of a choice. It’s basically like brainwashing and that’s a main theme of the whole series. If you grew up in an environment where you were taught to murder from a young age and your eyes grew into aiming signs from the jump…did you ever really have a choice? Once you’re an adult maybe you can snap out of it but Tista’s still a teenager here.

That’s where some of the darker elements of the series come into play. The town is also such a rough place that you either murder the villains or watch them murder someone else. The cops are unfortunately not going to be very helpful here. We do see some good ones but as always there isn’t much point if the higher ups are involved in shady dealings as well. To their credit, the series doesn’t really go too hard on that area so we can presume most of the cop are good here and they’re just really ineffective in stopping crime. Additionally the country is a huge place so it’s not like you can stop every criminal. There will always be crime no matter how many people you stop. That’s true even with Tista bumping everyone off.

Tista does meet a guy named Arty who she starts to become friends with and that puts her in a rough spot. It actually creates vulnerabilities in her that the villains can exploit since he’s the first one to get her to doubt her mission. As I mentioned at the start one of her big advantages is that she can fire from super long distances so she’s never in any danger. Later on she likes murdering people at point blank range to see their expressions and naturally that puts her at a much greater risk. If there are any survivors then she will be remembered and of course all it takes is a lucky shot and she could die.

She basically becomes super blood thirsty by the end which was an interesting character development choice. It’s pretty easy to see how she was messed up after we see her origin story though. There’s domestic abuse and a close friend attempts to commit suicide. In both cases the culprit got to walk off free so Tista took care of that. That’s really set her on the path to being an executioner because if she can destroy all of the evil people then she can give the victims some peace.

Her broken psyche is represented by a chibi-monster version of her that appears to offer its own twisted input. It makes for a pretty interesting inner voice since Tista herself doesn’t talk much. At the end of the day naturally Tista takes some blame for this since she’s committing the murders but it’s not like she has much of a choice here. If she stops then she will end up being erased by the orphanage. If she turns herself into the cops she will be dead on the spot. If she just runs off and gets a new identity then every time she turns on the news and sees another crime she will feel responsible if the person has any priors since she would have been tasked with eliminating that person.

So there’s a whole lot of interesting themes here but of course the series is only 2 volumes long so it really ends just as it is still beginning. It’s the kind of series that could have been a bit risky if it kept on going though as with the dark themes I could easily see the series taking a step too far. Certain things are heavily implied here but the series mainly avoids being exploitative. Bad things happen and we know about them but the series doesn’t go out of its way to show them or drag them out which I appreciate.

In the end Tista is a very depressing series where characters are put into bad situations. The school side of things with Arty is fairly light hearted and in a way it shows just how alone Tista is. Most people live a fairly carefree life unaware of how twisted the rest of the city is. In a lot of ways Tista helps to preserve the peace so she can take a little solace there. It’s just that after you’ve murdered enough people it makes sense that you’re not really going to see the sunlight anymore.

As the main guy, Arty is a pretty solid character. He can be a little off like with the way that he drew a picture of Tista but for the most part he’s just your average guy trying to live life. He gets a lot of points for never selling Tista out or getting her into trouble. She saved his life after all and it’s always really annoying when the characters falters anyway. Owing your life to someone is a huge deal after all so there’s no room for mistakes like that. It would have been nice if he could have learned how to fight or something though. I think if this series had become a long running one he would have gotten something to do later on but as it is his role is a lot smaller than you’d expect.

On the cops side we have Snow who is one of the higher up agents looking into the Tista case. She is good at role playing and getting the suspects to lower their guards but ultimately she isn’t able to find a lot out. Arty gets a lot of credit there and of course the orphanage for having a lot of connections. They know how to shut down a story right away and with their brainwashing it is really hard to touch them. It’s another interesting dynamic of basically working for the villains. Usually you see villain orgs burying evidence and using legal loopholes to get away from the heroes and for once this is what’s protecting Tista.

Proko is one of the big members of the Church and he’s a rather twisted individual. We see how quickly he’s able to entertain the thought of just destroying Tista when she starts to doubt the mission. He really believes in destroying evil at any cost but that also means becoming evil himself. While you could say that the series tries to keep the Church in the grey for the most part, this guy teeters over the line into being flat out evil. The instant you are discussing murdering a child when there is no reason to do so, there isn’t any way to defend you.

It’s already murky enough training child soldiers but murdering them is another step entirely. I’m sure this guy has quite the dark origin story that led to him being so radical but many people have sob stories. It doesn’t give you the excuse to go over the edge and start doing things like this. Down the road I’m guessing Tista would have had to end up fighting the church and assisting the cops. As well intentioned as the group may be, we’ve seen this story many times where the vigilantes end up becoming full fledged heroes. The justifications just naturally continue to escalate which is why in general heroes try not to take a life. It gets a little too easy to keep on taking them afterwards which is why you have to stop that right at the jump.

The artwork for the series is really good. In some ways I’d say it even looks better than Spy X Family but maybe that’s just because this one has a lot of action. We get a lot of impressive double spreads and the background details are really on point. The visuals really pop out at you and go a long way in backing up the story. It’s all got a lot of weight behind it and it shows what Spy X Family could look like if the author ever really embraces the action element more.

Tista not being afraid to tackle some religious themes here also adds some extra depth to the series. After all, the Church is supposed to offer up a chance for redemption and the idea that you always have another chance. So doesn’t murdering these guys go against that? Well, Proko’s feeling here is basically that these guys have no shot of redemption on their own and so you’re removing them from the planet to spare others who actually could be redeemed. It’s also mentioned that this is a mercy in a way although I don’t think any of them actually believe this. The Church isn’t fully united in this mission either as some have second thoughts about this which would probably be a subplot the longer that the series went on. I fully expect a twist that the Church murdered Tista’s father as well since it’s implied so hard that it may as well be confirmed.

I can totally get it if some people are turned off from the series on the premise of the Church potentially being evil here but I just think it’s such an interesting view on the usual anti-hero argument. How bad is it to murder someone who is obviously evil? What’s the difference between doing so in normal peace times vs during a war? The latter is generally accepted by all while the former is frowned upon. Typically there are three reasons for this: 1. Reasonable doubt that the person is actually guilty which is why you need the judicial system and due process of law. 2. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime. For example murdering a murderer may be fine but murdering someone for jaywalking would obviously not be okay. 3. Inspiring other vigilantes who may not have as strong of a moral compass or will murder innocent people by mistake.

All are very logical reasons and why you couldn’t do this widespread. Now if we take this specific example into play, in Tista so far the Church only punished people with such crimes that are worthy of death and of people who we know 100% did commit the crimes. That does solve the first two issues and nobody can really copy their approach because of the special eyes that the Church developed. (We don’t actually know exactly how that works which is something a longer series would delve into. Tista seemed to steal the eyes power right before her friend could unlock them in order to spare her the pain but the whole process is wrapped in mystery) The only weakness is of course if the Church gives Tista a false target she would never know which opens up a can of worms.

So are they doing more harm than good or vice versa? In this case the city is shown to be so evil and corrupt it’s hard to make an argument against them. They’ve destroyed so many murderers and gang members who would have gone free to terrorize people. I think this could be a good editorial for the future about anti-heroes but again that’s why this series is so interesting. Long story short, I don’t disagree with the Church’s actions. I don’t trust them but so far from what we’ve seen they are only making the world a better place and until they actually cross the line of murdering any innocents, whether they be one of the kids or a reporter who is getting close to the truth, I’d be rooting for them.

Overall, Tista is a solid series. It does a good job of showing the amount of psychological damage any sane person would get after murdering enough people. Even if you believe you are doing it for the greater good, murder is murder and will place a heavy burden on you. Additionally that means you are constantly being exposed to the darkness of the world and too much of that is tough as well. I wish the series could have really had time to explore more of the world and the characters even if it could have been a little tricky but ultimately a lot gets done within the two volumes. As long as you’re prepared for the adventure to get a little dark, this is a solid title to check out. There’s really a lot to ponder and discuss considering how short the series is which is impressive.

Overall 6/10

Blue Lock : Episode Nagi

Posted on by
Reply


This Blue Lock spinoff is definitely top tier stuff. It absolutely holds its own against the average sport series and then some. Of course the original Blue Lock is still the best but I’m impressed with how in depth this is going so far. I’ll have a review up for this series as soon as it’s been completed.

Overall 9/10

Super Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultra God Mission!!!! Review

Posted on by
Reply


There are some manga that should give you chills when you open the volume and Dragon Ball has to be one of them. With Dragon Ball Heroes you always know that some brand new super forms will be on the way and this is another really fun adventure. It may only be 20 chapters long but it covers a lot of content and we finally get the Goku vs Goku fight that we had been waiting for. It really lives up to the hype and is something that every true Dragon Ball fan should read.

The story starts with the old Supreme Kai of Time deciding that there are simply too many timelines at this point. Each action creates a new divergence point and eventually it will destroy the cosmos. So she has decided to end it all. She hosts a massive tournament across time and space with the winner being the only timeline allowed to live. The true timeline if you will. Goku and friends have to win this tournament now with the stakes being so high but can they also find a way to save all timelines? Defeating Aeos will have to happen but can even Goku and friends defeat a godlike creature?

This tournament is a great excuse to see a bunch of alternate universe characters like a dark Bardock, one armed Gohan, etc. There are a bunch of great Saiyans running around but of course you also have some previous villains who showed up from a while back like Hearts making his big return and good ole Cumber. You can bet that Broly is around too and of course the demons like Demigra are always waiting in the wings. There are a ton of ultra powerful fighters here but there can only be one winner!

Pretty much the whole series is a bunch of nonstop back to back fights which is a huge win if you ask me. That’s basically what I like to see from this. Dragon Ball Z became famous for the fights although of course the story and characters are amazing too. This is just the iconic part though and so focusing on that is a really smart move. The art is pretty solid here. Now it’s naturally not as good as Dragon Ball Z or Dragon Ball Super but there’s still a whole lot to enjoy so the fights really pop out at you.

These are also some fights you feel won’t happen in the main series for a long time. For example seeing Goku go up against Aeos was such a great fight. It’s a reminder of why time control on its own is not enough to take own someone like Goku. Goku is in a completely different league after all. The fight is cool though because sure we know that Goku has surpassed all of the Kais and the gods of destruction, but it’s still cool to actually see him fighting there.

Additionally Aeos is a really fun addition to the character ranks. She’s a kai but can actually fight really well and has ambitions of her own. She is a villain to be sure but at least she is one with a clear goal, motives for why she is doing this, and the logic makes sense. You wouldn’t be opposed to sympathizing with her cause as a result. In comparison Chronoa isn’t nearly as likable or charismatic. She spent too long having Trunks and friends fight her battles for her and as a result in a power levels sense she just can’t keep up with Aeos. Their battle was still fun though even if it basically ended immediately.

The demons make for a fun third party in the climax as they show up and everyone has to team up. This is the kind of series that would make for a perfect movie since it really has a true beginning, middle, and end structure. Perhaps you could make the case that the stakes feel a bit lower here but technically all of reality is in the balance. You’re just not worried since we have two Goku and two Vegeta fighters running around and all the other big heroes.

When the tournament is interrupted it is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it’s naturally a lot of fun to see the demons force the heroes to team up with the other enemies but on the other hand there were a bunch of other matchups that I wanted to see finish. A good example of a fight that actually finished was Turles vs Raditz which was actually an excellent fight. In general Turles looks amazing in this series with a bunch of extra development the whole time that I was not expecting. I’m guessing that the author really liked him as a character because he gets a ton of shine.

The fight’s also one that you wouldn’t expect but makes a lot of sense thematically. So throwing in a bunch of other fights like that would be perfect wouldn’t you say? There are a lot of fights that start to be sure but a bunch don’t end. Now for fights that do end, naturally the big 3 generations fight was a blast with Goku, one armed Gohan, and Bardock. Seeing them team up for a big energy wave was awesome and the kind of moment that would be immediately iconic if it was in the main series. I’m really hoping these Dragon Ball Heroes titles will get bigger in America at some point. It’s basically like official fanfiction with all of the super forms. I mean just look at the cover at the top right? You probably would not have guessed that this was something official even from the screenshots. In a way that sounds like a shot but it’s more just about how crazy everything has gotten.

If I had any request for the next Dragon Ball Heroes story it would be for it to be more of a long ongoing instead of a mini series. Right now it’s basically a fight compilation which as I said in the beginning is awesome but imagine grabbing all of these characters out of time and having a big ongoing story with them? I think the possibilities would really be endless even if it means having two Heroes series on at once. One for the plot and one for the fights. With how popular the franchise is I think they should really be expanding it more and really churning out products. There is enough lore to absolutely sustain this for a very long time after all.


Overall, Dragon Ball Heroes continues to be a really fun part of the Dragon Ball franchise and I can’t wait to see what shows up next. It ends up being a bit of a quick review due to there not being a ton of story outside of the fights but I still guarantee the 20 chapters feel like a good amount of content once you’re reading it. Heroes has slowly generated quite a few different series and the next one should be coming up fast. It’s basically impossible to guess what the plot will be before it starts of course but you can bet it will involve a ton of action. I’m not sure if they can top the Goku vs Goku fight to end things off here though. Fans have always wanted a GT vs Super Battle and the first two times weren’t super satisfying. This time it was a full fight and it worked out really well. I guess the next logical step would be for Goku to fuse with himself and become GoGoku or something.

Overall 9/10

Mega Man World 5 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a quick Mega Man manga oneshot. It’s always nice to see a game get a quick adventure like this and I think all games should try for this. It’s a great way to get people hyped to play the game even if the intended effect is likely not to be found out like 20 years after the fact. Regardless the art is on point and we get some good action scenes so I’m definitely on board with this adventure.

The manga starts off with Mega Man getting some upgrades. They come at a good time because the heroes learn about a bunch of robots causing carnage over in town. They are led by a robot who calls himself….Earth. Earth wants to unveil a new era with robots at the top and so Mega Man has to try and stop him along with the other planetary robots. These may be some of the strongest opponents that Mega Man has ever come up against so he can’t afford to hold back here but will even his best be enough against such dangerous fighters? Only time will tell.

The manga ends early so that the incentive is for you to play the game to see how it all ends. It’s basically a built in cliffhanger and I would say it works well. Earth wipes the floor with Mega Man and prepares for the rematch which is where you as the player should go and buy the game to see what happens. I already love cliffhangers so this really hit the spot for me. It’s just a good way to go about it.

This also means that the rest of the chapter is basically a bunch of nonstop fight scenes and if you know me you know that I really don’t mind that. Just give me as much action as possible. Sure it’d be cool if the fights could be longer but you get a lot of variety here with Mega Man crushing everyone who dares get near him. He’s basically opening a clinic at that point on how to shred through the robots. They all get a tough line or two before being destroyed.

I don’t even remember some of these robots too well which shows that I probably need to brush up on my Mega Man knowledge a bit. At this point there are so many robots that it’s hard to remember them all but I definitely try. The fact that they are all named after planets definitely makes it a bit easier to recall at least now that I’ve read through the manga. I also didn’t remember this new cat sidekick that Mega Man has instead of Rush. Naturally I miss Rush but the cat honestly did a pretty decent job here. He came in clutch for one moment which was pretty good.

The artwork here is on point and very smooth. I don’t know which artist did this one, if it’s someone who did a bunch of others or only worked on this oneshot but he seemed to be very experienced. All of the characters are drawn on model and the fight scenes are very clear. The writing is good as well so this is a very complete story. Of course that does mean there’s not a whole lot to say here since it’s really just one chapter with a lot of fighting but all you need to know is that it’s worth checking out.

Even if just to see how Mega Man methodically takes everyone down. He’s always been a very efficient fighter and I think we’d see more of that if we got some more Mega Man games with actual cutscenes. It’s easy to forget but he’s not quite as compassionate or emotional as X. Mega Man will blow up any robot master in his way because he knows that they will continue to cause a ton of trouble if left unchecked. He will let Light and friends worry about what happens afterwards but his job is to stop the villains and he does it really well.

Overall, Mega Man World 5 is a solid title. You’ll be finishing it in the blink of an eye but the title has no flaws. The art is on point, the characters are solid, and it’s basically got everything you could want in this story. Trust me when I say that Mega Man is absolutely the manga you want to be reading right now. It also reminds me of why we need a true Mega Man ongoing. Mega Man San is tiding us over for now but that’s still more of a mini manga with how short the chapters are. I need a full blown one and that’ll be amazing. Until then you should read this story for a good idea of the kind of action you could expect from such a tale.

Overall 7/10

“Was I a Fraud?” Lets rank these big villains

Posted on by
7


The term “Fraud” is thrown around quite a lot nowadays. I would say it’s temporarily become a bigger term than “Mid” and of course these terms always come and go as the years go by. Right now is a particularly fun time in manga world though with Sukuna, All For One, and Code constantly getting dunked on in every chapter by people online. So I thought, why not take a quick deep dive into some of the bigger cases of “Fraud Watch” and rank them all? I’ll be listing each character from least to most fraudulent. In each villain’s case I’ll quickly give a summary of the character, the series of origin, and the “Fraud” reasons I’ve seen posted online. I’ll then counter with how valid he reasons are.

I’m limiting this to one series so in each case it’s the one I saw listed the most and also factoring how big the character is. The one series this was tough to decide on was One Piece. Big Meme and Useless Captain Mid were the two runner ups from the fan terms but I would say I’ve still been seeing this the most for Kaido and it’s a bit bizarre. So no spoilers but we’re starting off with him because I don’t think you can make any kind of case for him being fraudulent. Not a valid one at least. Now without further adieu lets talk about the 9 characters with the most allegations here! (Really wish I could have thought of one more to make this a top 10 but I feel like there’s no obvious pick for that last spot.

Note that this list will have spoilers for One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, Boruto, Naruto, Fairy Tail, Black Clover, Attack on Titan, and Seven Deadly Sins

9. Kaido

Kaido is a huge villain from One Piece. The guy was hyped up as the most powerful One Piece villain for a long while. “Land, Sea, or Air, always bet on Kaido!” was his official slogan and even Oda had an interview where he wasn’t sure how Luffy would deal with this guy. His arc is currently the longest one in all of One Piece and he went through a complete gauntlet of fighters. He fought back to back the following fighters: Strawhat Luffy Gears 1-4, Zoro, Kid, Law, Killer, The Akaza 8, Yamato, Awakened Momo, Awakened Yamato, and of course Luffy in G5 mode. He was fighting for an incredible amount of time and basically took on the all of the relevant main characters. So yeah you can see why I don’t find him fraudulent in the slightest. Just look at how many hits the guy tanked!?

Fraud Watch!:

1. Wasn’t able to kill a single character during the fight on the roof
2. In particular could not finish off Orochi, the CP0 agent, or Kinemon despite attacking with the intent to kill
3. Possibly lost before using his hybrid mode
4. Started to get humiliated by Toon Force towards the end
5. Went out without a complete backstory
6. His cause of potential death was underwhelming

All right so I’d say off the bat we can throw out number 5. It’s a valid reason for not liking Kaido but I’d argue it doesn’t make him a fraud. For #1 and #2, yeah he probably should have murdered some of those characters. Most shouldn’t have been surviving those hits but I would lessen that a bit to plot armor. For the most part he wasn’t actively making choices that made no sense. He was intending to murder the characters and should have for all intents and purposes. So I wouldn’t place the burden of that on him.

#3 is still debated to this day but the anime used the hybrid color palette for him so most fans would agree he actually was in hybrid mode and so this should be thrown out. For #4, I would argue he wasn’t humiliated. Sure he got beat up a whole lot but Luffy was the one scared at times in a comedy sort of way. Kaido mainly kept a straight face and at the end of the day he just got beat up. So definitely not a fraud and he shouldn’t be on the list. The fact that he’s been getting mentioned a lot was part of my inspiration for this.

8. Acnologia

This is another case where people need to calm down. Acnologia is the final boss of Fairy Tail. A dragon of such immense power that he is said to be able to end the world. Nobody dares oppose him and he ends up taking on all of the Dragon Slayers at once. This guy got a lot of hype but I would say he earned it. It took a whole lot to take him out and to even beat him two different groups of heroes had to attack him on different planes of existence. The way he may have went out wasn’t great but I’d attribute it more to power of friendship than fraud. He got ringed out once which people found funny but lets face it, that’s still not an L.

Fraud Watch!

1. He got taken out in one punch
2. Retroactively he is no longer the strongest as Fairy Tail 100 introduces at least 5 dragons who are on his level and possibly stronger
3. Couldn’t destroy the ships attacking him in the real world
4. Couldn’t destroy any of the fighters

You’re going to notice a lot of similarities on the Fraud Watch reasons which makes sense but you’ll also see me debunking them in mainly the same ways. For the first reason I’d say it’s fairly disingenuous. Acnologia did get taken out with a punch but that was after a whole lot of other fighting. Whenever someone says a villain got rolled in one hit I usually shake my head because unless that was the start of the fight it’s really not valid.

#2 is also fairly irrelevant, it happened later on so that’s fine. It’s like how Super had fighters more powerful than Buu or everyone in Boruto being able to dunk on Naruto villains, it doesn’t retroactively make them worse. #3 is the most valid point because it was plot hax that he didn’t stop Lucy and crew but hey he was distracted by Natsu and friends attacking him in the dragon world. I think it’s a fairly decent reason why he didn’t stop them and to #4, he did beat everyone up, destroying them just gets rather tricky. I’d say it would for basically any villain.

7. Lucifero

Lucifero, otherwise known as Bullyfero among the fanbase. Well this guy started out strong as the ultimate demon lord who was crushing everyone in his path. The guy got a whole lot of hype particularly as he was slaughtering the main cast at just 50% power. So why did everyone turn on him? Well things got dicey in the second half as he basically got beat up in a few seconds once Asta got his final super form (Asta was only able to keep it active for 5 seconds and blitzed the life out of this guy), then Lucifero got crushed by the other demon with his other 50% so badly that he looked pretty whiny. The guy ended up being treated like a minion in the end.

Fraud Watch!

1. Ultimately being toyed with by Lucius and not knowing it
2. Not being able to finish any of the heroes
3. Not being able to survive Asta’s 5 second barrage
4. Not having a backup plan and going out like a chump
5. Threatening to murder all of Asta’s friends as the cliffhanger and not taking any of them out

Lucifero’s a bit lower on the list mainly because the reasons hit a bit harder for him and are tougher to defend. The first point is pretty rough for the guy. It does invalidate a whole lot of his tough talk. Instead of being a grand mastermind he ended up being played for the fool here. For #2 and #5, they particularly hurt him on the re read. When you marathon the climax now, he looks pretty bad since he talks really tough for the first half but then starts to get spanked. The other demon doesn’t respect him at all and of course he gets humiliated at the end.

#3 is also pretty tough for him because losing in 5 seconds is tough. Yes, he was fighting before that so there is extra context here but even then it’s tough just because of how exaggeratedly short that timer is. No backup plan is also pretty bad for him since he had that other 50% everyone was waiting for. I still like Lucifero quite a lot but I get the allegations. I would just say he pushes through past them and is still a serious threat.

6. Kaguya

Kaguya was the final boss of Naruto and a super controversial figure. Most people preferred Madara to be the final boss and if he wasn’t going to be then people would have wanted that title to go to Obito. Instead Kaguya assumed the throne right away and unfortunately got crushed fairly quick. It’s always the tough part about showing up at the end. She was very powerful and it took the powers of Team 7 to beat her but she didn’t get many lines and also seemed to be very unintelligent.

Fraud Watch!

1. Having no control of her own abilities and putting herself in a bad spot
2. Getting momentarily stunned by Naruto’s sexy jutsu
3. Unable to react to Sakura’s attack from the top
4. Not having any real personality
5. Feeling underwhelming power-wise considering her title

The first one is very valid. She basically created ninjutsu and has powers and experience well above the main fighters. It should be very easy for her to teleport to a realm where the heroes have the disadvantage and finish them off or just leave them there as a ring out. It feels like we didn’t get to see most of her arsenal at all so her losing wasn’t very satisfying.

#2 is just plain embarrassing. There’s no real defending that one. I will defend her from #3 though, it was the middle of a fight and contrary to the memes Sakura is very powerful. Not a top tier sure but it was a combination move so I’m fine with the attack landing. #4 is valid, I wouldn’t say it’s something to put her on fraud watch but it does add to why a lot of people don’t like her much.

#5 is the most valid and why I would say she deserves to be on Fraud Watch. She was the final boss but I would argue most would still put Madara above her in terms of ability. I think some would even say Obito should be above her and I would agree with that. Kaguya’s taijutsu skills seemed to only be decent and while she had a lot of power and speed, it felt like she didn’t have a ton of skill. So it was easier for Naruto and Sasuke to outmanuever her the whole time. The fraud allegations feel real because she did not live up to the hype as the strongest opponent even though that definitely seemed to be the intention.

5. Sukuna

All right we’ve made it to the King of Spirits! The ultimate fighter in Jujutsu Kaisen and some would argue the most powerful character in the series. At least that’s his rep and he’s been hyped since day 1. Well the allegations are coming in fast and hard due to his having a lot of difficulty against Satoru Gojo, the man with the powers of infinity. Mainly the allegations have arrived because Sukuna is not fighting Gojo one on one. He’s currently possessing the body of Gojo’s pseudo son Megumi (Not really related but Gojo got Megumi out of a toxic family and helped raise him), using Megumi’s powers, and is using Megumi himself as a shield to redirect half of the damage from each of Gojo’s attacks. Is this him being a fraud or him being smart?

Fraud Watch!

1. Sukuna got knocked out mid fight
2. Sukuna keeps mocking Gojo and talking smack about being the strongest while using all of this extra help
3. Sukuna’s basically using a hostage throughout the fight
4. All of Sukuna’s own abilities have been completely negated so far with his only damage coming thanks to Megumi

All right so the first one is pretty tough because yeah he was fully knocked out. So without backup that’d be it, it would have been curtains for the guy. #2 is also rough because the guy keeps knocking Gojo and acting like he’s been clobbering the fight when at best you could say he’s close to going even. Now the fight is still going and lots can still happen, we can find out Sukuna was only using 1% of his power or something. As with any ongoing series this can all be moot pretty fast but at the moment it’s not looking good for him.

With #3, it’s a smart villain move of course but it’s also valid as a fraud component in the sense of him not living up to the hype for now. Basically Sukuna absolutely needs to win this fight desperately so he can admit that he wasn’t even trying yet. Because tying in with #4, his Domain Expansion just didn’t work. He actually got to use it and Gojo straight up tanked the attack. That’s the kind of thing that doesn’t reflect well on Sukuna since so far it’s the only true ability of his that we’ve seen. Definitely one of the more hype battles going on right now but the pressure is absolutely on. And if Sukuna were to actually lose this fight (Which is super doubtful) that would really be game over.

4. All For One

All For One is one of the most important villains in all of My Hero Academia. He was the counterpart to All Might and ruled the world through fear for years before the hero came into town. He has virtually an unlimited amount of quirks as he has been stealing them through the years and has a lifetime of battle experience. The allegations came when he returned in the final arc and has been defeating all of his opponents but not without incurring a lot of damage and getting outmaneuvered the whole time. Is that enough to call him a fraud?

Fraud Watch!

1. Allowing All Might to goad him into battle
2. Not stealing the powers of the heroes he was fighting
3. Having trouble dealing with the heroes when he has all these incredible abilities
4. Monologuing a ton when his body is literally dying with every minute he wastes
5. Starting to seem delusional

Okay so All For One’s hecklers really started coming along during #3 and #2. He’s been flying around the battlefield defeating his opponents but having a surprisingly hard time doing it. He couldn’t take out Jirou and the others with his energy attack, she actually tanked it straight up. Then they’ve been making fun of him the whole time and of course he doesn’t really care but the fact that he couldn’t shut them up was dicey. Also, taking powers is apparently as easy as grabbing the person and draining the power as we’ve seen before so why not just grab each of them with super speed and take the abilities? He decided not to take Hawks or Dark Shadow when he was in a position to and it’s odd since he was thinking about it earlier. Even if he doesn’t need it, it would help a whole lot right?

#1 and #4 escalated the issue since he is rapidly de-aging right now. If he doesn’t get to Shigaraki to complete the merge quickly he will literally fade out of existence. Knowing that, he is still making a lot of very long speeches and allowing All Might to get the best of him. You can’t do that and he’s been justifying this. He knows that it’s a trap but equates it to taking out the trash and seems to think this will be easy. Well it hasn’t been easy yet as he’s having a very hard time right now while getting younger and younger. He can absolutely make a comeback but it has been a real rough period for the guy particularly just since with his power level he should have no diff’d pretty much the whole cast that he was fighting. You’d need big shots like Deku to really take him out.

3. Eren Yeager

Eren is one of the most controversial villains of all time and for good reason. He’s the greatest character in Attack on Titan and carried the post timeskip arcs hard but then the author fumbled the bag at the end and turned him into one of the biggest jokes in all of media history. The guy cried about wanting a girlfriend and it turns out that he had no idea what he wanted to do. All of his convictions and inner thoughts turned out to be lies and the ending was filled with more holes than a bowl of swiss cheese. Yeah I absolutely think he has to be on fraud watch.

Fraud Watch!

1. Literally asleep during the climax
2. Turned his back on all his dreams and ideals
3. Suddenly had no self respect or dignity
4. Had powers over time and reality yet couldn’t defend himself
5. Wasted everyone’s time including his own
6. Left his people in the worst shape possible

I’m not going to defend Eren unfortunately. His whole thing was about taking out the Titans and never relenting. We had a whole scene where Reiner told him to go to sleep back in the day and that just made Eren more upset. Now? Well he does fall asleep because he decides to just let destiny play out and have the friends take him down. This doesn’t work though because he had seen the future so he knows very well what will happen. It just makes him look bad and he turned back on everything.

All of his lines up til now? Meaningless. His drive was all fake and his goals were never something he was serious about. This all happens because of #4. Eren gained the ability to transcend time. He exists in the past, present, and future which is the worst thing you can do as a writer because it makes the character completely unstoppable. When you have that level of control and can control the actions of all titans, you can’t lose. It’s why we had to get this whole retcon about Eren not really wanting to win and ditching everybody. Nah that was a really bad way to go and I will always remember the ending as the worst one in Shonen history. Eren is one of the biggest frauds out there.

2. Code

Now we’re getting to the biggest frauds out there. Code is a villain from Boruto and fortunately for him the series is still going so he can change things. This guy has lost almost every single fight that he has been in and his fans aren’t hearing the end of it. The guy was supposed to be so strong that he could wipe the floor with Naruto and Sasuke yet he was dominated by Boruto, humiliated by Kawaki, embarrassed by Eida, and then crushed by Daemon. Finally he just got stepped on by Boruto in his first appearance post timeskip. Is there any saving him?

Fraud Watch!

1. Always getting humiliated
2. Talking tough but can’t control the room
3. Has no good comebacks for when the characters humiliate him
4. Couldn’t control his feelings for Eida

Boruto should still have a lot of years left in the tank so Code could pull off a comeback but it does look like it would have to be a miracle. The problem for the guy is the power creep passed him before he could look good. He’s lost to virtually every heavyweight in the series, cementing him as the weakest out of the top tiers. Part of the problem is that he’s always used to make other characters look good, meaning that he himself never actually gets to shine. I think this was actually an accident, but either way it doesn’t reflect well on him as a character. He can’t talk this tough when he’s always being humiliated. Getting stepped on was probably the last straw there.

Eida’s power is also hard to resist but it’s still embarrassing for him to fall in love with her and get rejected so harshly. Then losing to her little brother? From a power level perspective it makes sense but nobody takes him seriously in the series and the disrespect he gets is completely unreal. The characters never give him even the slightest break and you end up feeling bad for him. That’s not the kind of thing you want to feel for the villain. When you feel pity like that then it’s all over!

1. Demon King

Now we’re at the villain I would say is the biggest fraud in all of anime/manga. Yes, it’s the Demon King! Cool name right? Well it’s not enough but this guy is from the Seven Deadly Sins series. He’s the most powerful villain around (Until he was surpassed real hard in the Apocalypse series) and the whole series you were waiting for him to show up. The problem is that by the time he appeared, Meliodas was already stronger than him. Yet the guy went up against the Seven Deadly Sins. One of the biggest inditements against him is the fact that the heroes were grinning while he was trying to threaten him.

Fraud Watch!

1. The heroes within the series couldn’t take him seriously
2. He spent multiple chapters getting dunked on by everyone
3. Meliodas didn’t even bother using his final form to fight him
4. Demon King didn’t notice and kept gloating even as he was being crushed

Yeah all of the reasons are completely valid here so I can’t debunk any of them. The first point is probably the worst for the guy because when the heroes are kicking back and grinning you really can’t take this guy seriously. How could you when they don’t? You almost felt bad for him the whole time. It ties into the second point where everyone was just using their super attacks on him. It reminds me of the average Shonen Jump movie where everyone appears to do their super attack and leaves. Imagine that but to a canon villain who is supposed to be the most powerful of all. Trust me it’s extremely brutal.

To the third point, yeah Meliodas was casually crushing the guy and wasn’t even using his purified max power mode. The fact was that he seriously didn’t need to. He temporarily uses it at the very end to mitigate damage to the area but he was dunking on the guy even without it. That has to be one of the most embarrassing moments for a villain out there. How do you recover from this? The 4th point is also just bad because he’s still talking so tough. The only thing worse than having the heroes disrespect you the whole time is not noticing and continuing to talk big anyway. Yeah that’s not something you ever want to happen.

So there you have it, from least to most fraudulent that’s how I’d rank the 9 characters I hear about the most. For the most part it’s rare for a big villain to actually be a fraud the way that people say but I still enjoy the memes regardless. Keep em coming, I’ll be grinning every time! Even if a villain ends up being fraudulent you can still be a big fan though because those intro scene aren’t going anywhere even if the final ones aren’t particularly hype. Not every villain can go out a winner of course. Well I mean one can…but he’s the greatest!

Bass EXE

Pokemon: Liko’s Treasure

Posted on by
Reply


I may still miss Ash and Pikachu but it was time to jump into the next generation. I’m very early on with this series but it seems pleasant enough. The artwork is good and we already have a real plot involving a pendent so we’ll see what happens here. I’m expecting a pretty consistent performance from the series and will have a review up once it is completed.

Overall 7/10

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Posted on by
Reply


The idea of an adventure taking place after the main adventure has been completed is a pretty good idea. I’m definitely on board with it and so far the first two volumes have been pretty fun. Whether it goes full action or stays as more day to day adventures, I see this one going far. I will have a review for it once the series is completed.

Overall 7/10

Beyblade X

Posted on by
Reply


Beyblade is a series that’s always great and this manga’s already off to a really good start. Having to climb a tower to prove that you are the very best sounds good to me after all. Ultimately if this one can run long enough I see no reason why it can’t become the next elite title. I will have a review for it up as soon as it’s completed.

Overall 8/10