It’s almost been a year since I started this series and I can safely say that it never got better. I’m surprised that it actually lasted to 18 volumes and wasn’t cancelled sooner. This is easily the worst manga series of all time and it would be very hard to actually lose to this one. At least, as far as manga series that I read go. It basically falls into all of the holes and there are no positives to be found. That’s right…there’s really not a single good thing to say about this series, which is why it’s just so awful. I can safely say right from the start, I do not recommend checking out this manga.
Misao is the main character and she lives next door to a powerful demon. He is the tengu and his name is Kyou. Demons are uncannily similar to vampires in this series and they are just as awful. Misao quickly falls for him and then the series is about them getting closer as they destroy the other demons that lurk about. A prophecy says that Misao may die, but that won’t stop our cringe worthy heroes. Let’s see if Misao can survive in an area that is filled with demons.
Man, this series was terrible. Misao is one of those super unrealistic characters as bad event after event happens to her and she decides that it’s still in her best interests to hang out with Kyou. Misao gets threatened, loses her memories, is attacked, almost dies numerous times, but none of that deters her. The fact that Kyou has to hypnotize her parents sometimes so that they don’t find out about the demons doesn’t bother her either. Misao is in this for love and that’s all that she cares about. The main villain kidnaps her more than once and she still believes that he’s a good guy deep down since he’s a demon who is related to Kyou. Really, there is no hope for Misao and I definitely didn’t like her.
Kyou is no better as he suffers from many mood swings. He’ll be nice to Misao one moment and trying to force her to use a spell to knock herself out of time the next. It was for her own good and all that, but Kyou was really doing it for his own goals. Kyou is strong sometimes, but he still gets beaten up by the villains during other moments. One of the volumes that I rented from the library had been read by someone who also didn’t like him as his face was messed with in every panel. It’s just impossible to like this guy.
Black Bird is one of those series that is so awful that it isn’t even a lot of fun to write about how awful is. That’s why this review really won’t be that long. I could go on and on about the negatives, but they’re all just huge errors that were irreversible right from the start. One of the huge parts that made this an instant loss for me is that it’s a total romance. I’m talking Twilight levels here and at the very least, it did help me breeze through the volumes. I was able to finish one of them in about 10 minutes because of how many scenes I would skip.
Unfortunately, the series plays out a lot like Twilight. There is nothing explicit, (No nudity, etc) but those kinds of scenes are definitely not something that I want to see in a manga series and I just skip them all. Hence, why reading each volume proved to be a very short experience. It’s a negative that you can’t really get past and the series was doomed to get a 0 right from one of the first volumes. Maybe even the very first one. It is simply terrible.
There isn’t much fanservice since this is a Shojo series unless you count those scenes in and of themselves. In that case, this one definitely has some of that in it. It’s just adding more fuel to the flame at this point and the series couldn’t get much worse. The main villain is pretty terrible and I never liked any of the characters. They’re all unlikable and do whatever they want when they feel like it. You definitely can’t trust any of the characters here and Misao should have gotten away from the Tengu when she had the chance.
The art isn’t bad, but I can’t really say much for it. The characters don’t all look the same like some other series, but most of the fight scenes are quickly skipped over due to the nature of the series. The art would probably still be the highlight for the series, but that isn’t really saying much considering how bad the rest of it was.
One thing that is also pretty bad is that the series uses the classic blood subplot. Misao’s blood can naturally make the villains stronger so everyone is after her. The blood shenanigans is why I don’t like anything related to vampires so that certainly wasn’t going to make me like any of the characters here. The Tengu all lack will power most of the time and it’s something that they need to work on. They won’t of course, since they’re busy betraying the team and making partnerships with the enemies, but they should move on.
I could talk about each of the characters, but they’re all pretty unlikable so there wouldn’t be much of a purpose now would there? Power level wise, the series is pretty low tier. One character does get a laser blast though and some basic super speed, which helps his case a little. As expected, he is quickly destroyed without really being able to put up a fight. He turned his back and Kyou figured that this would be the quickest way to win. Honor has no place here.
Black Bird forgets the most important part of being a manga and that’s that it is supposed to be entertaining. We never get any resemblance to a good series here and it’s really a dreary story. There is always something to darken the mood and it’s never fun. You could really just call it a tragedy story that most of the characters are not even aware of. The covers were probably a good tip off of this though as they are all pretty bad. This is a series that I will definitely put out of my memory as soon as this review is done. Now, onto the final paragraph!
Overall, Black Bird is really terrible and it’s one of those series that I’ll never even look at again. I would never flip through the pages of any volume because there is no reason too. If I want to re read a series, I’ll check out Megaman NT Warrior for some quality entertainment. This manga is best left forgotten and if you want a fun Shojo series, check out Kitchen Princess or Angelic Layer. (Layer is close enough to a Shojo anyway) Those are series that retain their composure and tend to provide us with some good stories. That’s what we expect when we read a manga so that’s why you’ll want to skip Black Bird. On the bright side, the next manga review should be significantly more positive. (In theory, that will be the Naruto review unless I finish another manga before that)
Overall 0/10
Now it’s time to look at one of the shortest series yet. This one only made it to two volumes before it was abruptly ended with loose ends all around. In a way, it does end before the story can even get started so depending on how you view things…you could say that it didn’t have many loose ends. It definitely depends on the cup “half full” or “half empty” thing though. It’s decently fun and it showed promise, but I don’t see this series making a comeback.
The world (That is essentially Earth) used to be peaceful until many alien races decided that they would have fun conquering it. The humans fought valiently for their land, but defeating one alien species would be tough, let alone a few dozen of them. Now, we only control a very small kingdom and aliens have taken over the rest of the land. A young boy named Astro is trying to make ends meet since he has to take care of a lot of orphans. He is let go from his job and doesn’t know how he will be able to provide for them when the prince appears and decides that Astro will serve in his place. The prince is conveniently destroyed and Astro looks just like him so the main character goes along with this. He now has the strongest weapon in the universe and he will need to quickly get used to it as he starts to liberate the planet. Can he really defeat all of the aliens?
The plot is pretty good and it had the potential to be a long running series like Naruto or a relatively short one like Dragon Drive. There are many aliens to face and I’m sure that we would have gotten more supporting characters as the series went on. As it stood, we had 3 main ones by the end. There weren’t a lot of big villains, but I’m sure that would change since we had only just begun to take back the planet.
As a main character, Astro isn’t bad. He’s not great though as he is quick to cry and his comic relief tendencies can go a bit far at times. That being said, he is obsessed with keeping his family safe and that’s a pretty good thing to be obsessed with. He strongly believes in the concept of a family and will do whatever he can to keep them safe no matter what. His strong ideals are what lead him to unlocking the powers of the Orgue. The Orgue only works when the user recognizes someone as an enemy so there’s no chance of friendly fire. This can also be dicey when Astro doesn’t realize that someone is an enemy, but he’s typically a good judge of character. His character design seems to be a mix of Simon from Gurren Lagann and Rin from Blue Exorcist.
Astro is not a great fighter on his own, but his determination and ethics help him bring out his very best. He learns quickly and he is skilled in using the Orgue. That turns him from a sub par fighter into a great one. The Orgue can destroy any alien in a single blow and its abilities may be limitless. It starts out as a spear and turns into more of a Monado (Xenoblade) by the end. It’s definitely a handy weapon and one that can be very versatile in combat. It’s safe to say that there are few opponents who can stand up to Astro by the end and the hero just needs to work on his speed. Once he gets a little faster, he’ll be virtually unstoppable.
Astro typically travels with Tiamut as per the King’s orders. Tiamut has a pretty good reputation and he can take dozens of aliens out in a single motion. He may seem to be human, but the series hints multiple times that there is more to this character than meets the eye. Whether he is human or not, Tiamut is definitely loyal to the crown. He’s a capable fighter and he teaches Astro how to be a good fighter during their journeys. He’s pretty likable and he would be very likable if not for one quirk that can be quite annoying. He’s extremely shy around ladies and he can’t even look at them. Luckily, he’s so skilled that he can beat many opponents with his eyes closed, but it’s a running gag that I would definitely take out. It’s unneeded and a little generic as far as jokes go. It doesn’t help his character and this means that he wouldn’t be of much use against a female opponent. His shooting sword is a pretty cool weapon since he can use it as a gun or as a normal sword. It’s not as good as the Orgue of course, but it’s useful.
Tico is sort of the main heroine. It’s hard to say for sure since we don’t know whether she would have been travelling with the heroes or not, but I’d say that it’s very likely considering that she came to the palace with them. She wants to avenge her family so she definitely has a vendetta against the aliens. She’s pretty outmatched right now since she’s just a girl with many guns, but I’m sure that this would change eventually. Even if she never gained super powers, I’m sure that she would have gotten some kind of super weapon to tip the scales. It’s just the sort of thing that you would expect at some point. She’s a pretty good character and I’m glad that she’s always eager to fight. She could have ended up being one of the better Shonen Jump heroines.
Black ends up being the big villain of the series. As you probably guessed, he used to be one of Astro’s friends and he started out as a really nice guy. Black doesn’t like when people make crooked decisions and he punishes them accordingly. The problem is that his definition of “crooked” is very dicey so he basically wants to eradicate all life on the planet. Astro slaps him silly for a while and he sees the error of his ways. He would presumably be a hero in the upcoming volumes as he gives Astro advice from his prison. Black is meant to be a very emotional villain, but you really can’t buy that since he only gets to appear for a couple of chapters. The change from hero to villain to hero is too abrupt. Black seems like a cool character, but I’ll say that he’s underdeveloped and fairly uninspired at the moment.
The art is pretty decent although it’s a little rough around the edges. I think drawing the eyes seems to be a little tough for the author, but it may be because most authors don’t bother with too many things in it. Here, the main character has a star in his eyes at almost all times and the extra details may be what makes the eyes seem a little off. The art still does work for the fight scenes and that’s definitely the important thing in a battle manga.
The main story luckily avoids the whole fanservice angle. Based off of close scenes and unfortunate bonus stories/cast interviews, the short run of the series may have saved it here. It seems like this could have been an issue if Barrage had become a long running series so this is probably the silver lining in the series getting canned. There has to always be a silver lining somewhere right?
The series ends with the heroes basically stopping one band of villains and still having to liberate the other 90% or more of the planet. I’m sure that they would have met many tough opponents and the heroes would need more power ups. After all, it was already discovered that the “Dark Power” may be a match for the Orgue. The dark power can be used to amplify an alien’s offense and defense as well as create constructs to aid them in battle. It may be a little generic, but I’ll overlook that since it’s always a cool concept. The dark power gives the aliens a great edge over most of the fighters since they become almost indestructible. It’s too bad that we couldn’t see more of this.
There is one plot twist that is extremely convenient and throwing it in the series just makes things a little too good to be true. You know how Astro is not the prince since he is just taking his place? Well, let’s just say that he looks identical to the prince for a reason! I definitely could have done without the twist since I thought that the development was pretty crucial to the series. Having the old prince randomly sniped added to the drama as well since I didn’t see it coming. (Although it makes perfect sense in hindsight since the prince can’t blackmail Astro later on)
It’s hard to say how powerful Astro is in comparison to most of the other SJ protagonists, but it’s safe to say that he’d be pretty low tier. His weapon is amazing, but he’s physically only slightly above meta human. His speed seems to be decent, but he was thoroughly speed blitzed by one of the aliens. Astro’s durability also seems to be fairly normal so one good hit would probably take him out. The strongest villain in the series is probably the alien who could hop a lot since he had very good speed feats as well as some of the dark power. Black is theoretically stronger than the alien since he was the leader, but his speed is pretty sad and the constructs are too slow to really help him here.
Barrage is pretty easy to get into, which helps the beginning. The intro had potential to be boring since it’s just Astro living in the slums and trying to earn some money. Luckily, the plot moves quickly and seeing Astro trick everyone is pretty intense for him. His first action scene was fun and the series as a whole is pretty entertaining. The chipper tone helps to add some hope for the characters amidst what is technically a sad series since humanity is essentially toast. It does remind me of Blue Exorcist in this regard as well or you can compare it to Buso Renkin. The volumes go by very quickly and it does have a lot of replay value. I could see myself reading this again someday, but pretty far in the future considering all of the other titles that are around.
Overall, Barrage is a pretty fun series. It’s really over when you’re just beginning though and I’m sure that the author had many ideas for its future. It’s always sad when a series is cancelled, but this just means that another series gets to bloom in its place. Hopefully, whatever replaced this series was a good title. It would be fun to see a movie for this manga since it’s short enough and maybe it’ll make a comeback someday. I really don’t see it, but it’s always possible. If you want to see a story about humanity fighting back against alien oppression with a good ole Shonen lead, this is the story for you. It has action and drama. The series never takes a break and you can really see the potential here. Just remember that it is only 2 volumes.
Overall 7/10
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