Tag Archives: Manga Review

Jujutsu Kaisen Modulo Review

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After the ending of Jujutsu Kaisen it was time for a whole new adventure. It’s still not all that common for a big title to get a sequel so quickly so this was really exciting. It was announced as a mini series so you knew it wouldn’t be going on for too long but that was still cool. The title delivers with cool fights and some solid new characters. It does go by quickly though so every time there would be a lore chapter it would feel like precious time was being lost. In the end there are quite a few plot lines that should have kept on going but ultimately this was a good title so I don’t really have any big regrets.

The series picks up many decades after the original Kaisen ending. Most of the old characters are dead or super old. The new generation of Jujutsu sorcerers are far weaker than their predecessors and that is not good because aliens have arrived among us. For now they appear to be friendly but is that really the case? A cold war of sorts is starting and in the meantime a lot of kids are vanishing all over Japan. Yuka and Tsurugi are tasked with finding out what is happening to them. They must take the alien known as Maru with them so that he can learn about humanity. Perhaps aliens and humans can live in harmony?

Kaisen has never been the type of series for easy answers and this one is no exception. We see there are immediately bad actors on both sides who are trying to stoke the flames of war. They aren’t being subtle about this either. They want full on war and as many casualties as possible. Both sides think that this will be necessary in the long run so why not do it now right? One issue that will be hard to get around is that cursed spirits emit the same energy wave as the aliens. So every time the humans exorcise one, it feels like they are attacking the aliens.

Even once the aliens are told that this is the case, they are unconvinced. I don’t really blame them, that seems a little hard to buy even if you were to ask me. This ultimately does lead to a big fight and fortunately the humans do have one secret weapon in their corner through Yuka. She is able to summon the mythical Mahoraga, a being which continues to grow stronger and stronger through combat. The aliens have Dabura though who is a true prodigy and continues to get stronger as well. Makes for a great fight.

The artwork here is really impressive. It does absolutely look better than the original Jujutsu Kaisen and for a sequel that is always a good honor. The fights look incredible and there really is a whole lot of detail in each of the pages. This looks like a monthly manga through and through. You will be impressed from start to finish here without a doubt.

Now lets talk about the characters. First we have Yuka who is very confident and proactive as a sorcerer. She wants to help everyone out and most importantly, she wants to defeat her older brother Tsurugi. Unfortunately she is quite sick and that has made things difficult on her. She doesn’t want to be a burden but the deck has been stacked against her. It makes her optimism all the more inspiring and so she ends up being the standout character here. None of the others come close and you’ll be rooting for her the entire time.

She may not be the strongest fighter but she means well and keeps on training. Her summoning ability also allows her to fight at levels far beyond what she is capable of even if it does come at the expense of her life. Then we have Tsurugi who has to put on a brave face for his sister but the guy has had it rough as well. His cursed energy output isn’t very great and so he has to rely on cursed tools. He doesn’t really know how to reduce the burden on Yuka and so their dynamic isn’t exactly where he would want it to be.

The two of them care for each other a ton but just don’t really know how to show it. He tends to be less forgiving than she is though and so he was the perfect member to really go up against the aliens. He has to make a difficult decision by the end. While you can argue that he makes the right one, it will still come off as a bit annoying considering the price that had to be paid here.

To go more into details on the dilemma, the aliens need a planet to live on. They have been travelling for a very long time and their people are really going to star dying out if they have to search for another planet. Meanwhile the humans don’t really want to give up this planet. If they each decide to take up half of the planet, well that’s going to be extremely difficult and you have to go through all of the countries. So what this ultimately means is that the aliens are going to invade. They may have a sad story but it’s still going to be hard to root against the humans here.

So Maru ends up not being as likable as the series may have meant for him to be. Now the length hurts this part but Maru is initially introduced as a very innocent alien who wants to learn about the human world. As the title goes on, while he does want to help the humans he does pick his own people. This leads to all of the battles of course and it’s an emotional betrayal of sorts. Thing is, he only knew the characters for a very brief amount of time so this doesn’t hit as hard as it would have otherwise.

His power set is fairly confusing with how it can do almost anything but Kaisen likes to be confusing so that’s not necessarily a time crunch thing. It was still cool to see him and Tsurugi going at it. I ultimately thought that Maru made for a good villain but I couldn’t see him as the hero type. The end of the series tries to show that nobody had any hard feelings and it’s all good but I thought that was a bit much. The message is that they were all cogs in the system and so they didn’t take anything personal but when someone is trying to murder you…well that feels personal.

Maru’s brother Cross even gets to be with the group at the end when he was an antagonist the entire time. It’s hard to see why anyone would be all that cool with him. Well, I guess that just shows how open minded everyone was which is a good thing in a sense. Dabura also makes for a really impressive villain even if he’s mostly here for the power levels. He doesn’t get a ton to do beyond that but he is able to leverage his abilities in a way where he could defy the system. I appreciate the fact that he wasn’t just some foot soldier.

His fight with Mahoraga is also the highlight of the series. After all the chapters about concepts and such, it was nice to see a truly long battle like that. It was really impressive. Finally we have Yuji who shows up. The long years have taken their toll on him as he’s a very different character here. Not bad or anything but he’s become more emotionless and doesn’t even fight to save humanity unless it’s dire. He’s been off doing his own thing and doesn’t even jump into the Dabura battle. He helps Maru with a plan to change the situation which is good but the guy feels too passive to me. It sounds like he will continue to act that way now that he will live for hundreds of years so he doesn’t stagnate humanity’s growth or something like that.

I tend to always disagree with this logic. If you have the abilities to save someone then you really ought to use them. Doesn’t matter if it’s for a week or 100 years. You keep fighting until you can’t fight anymore. That’s the only way to really live as a main character here. The ending does offer a lot of hope though. In theory humanity will be in a healthier spot now and just has to worry about infighting among themselves.

Of course that’ll probably happen. The series does go out of its way to show how corrupt both sides are. For the aliens there was a lot of infighting and murdering from the start. Two of the clans had differing systems on how to handle everything and so the stronger one subjugated the weaker ones. For the humans, some were complicit with the whole kidnaping humans thing and it shows that they will always sell out for a good price. You just can’t trust either species and that’s a real shame. They’re obviously still better than the cursed spirits who are definitionally evil but it’s not like either race is going to be selfless. This isn’t really that kind of title even if the ending was certainly an upbeat one.

So while the ending is controversial, I tend to like it. I like happy endings after all. I would still agree with the fact that it was rushed though as one big fight didn’t conclude and others that could have happened afterwards never got a chance. I suppose I just have to be happy for the fights since the series could have easily gone through without any. Now that would have been a real shame. With this high level art quality throughout, it would just feel like a missed opportunity.

In a way I’d compare this series to Pluto. It’s a really interesting mystery of sorts with the kidnapped kids in a grounded setting despite how crazy the world is. We know about demons and all kinds of users with powers but the plot is focused around a few kids in a local context. Then you have the whole alien race plot so the big shots like Yuji have to be looked for. It all leads up to the big, grand battles that were shaped from the opening chapters and how the humans/aliens fundamentally saw things differently. The problem is that you can only do so much in 3 volumes. We spend quite a few in the first volume to set things up but things are still being set up in volume 2 which is where things start to move kind of fast. The Mahoraga fight will always be an absolutely spectacular moment but I wish we could have seen the end to that as well as gotten a proper conclusion to the rest of the plots. Yuji’s whole character feels like a missed opportunity for a lot of good scenes for example.

Overall, A few more volumes would have been nice for the fights and all but we still got new content here which was fun. Yuji has really gotten powerful to the point where nobody can stand up to him anymore. Other outliers like Dabura and Mahoraga show that the rest of the fighters can stay calm because they will never be able to reach that level. There won’t be much point in trying either now that cursed energy itself has changed thanks to the ending. A certain villain even gets a little cameo here. If you haven’t read the original Jujutsu Kaisen then this series will probably feel weird but a recap of sorts is included. So that might get you up to speed enough for this. Maybe a movie will adapt this sequel at some point.

Overall 7/10

Cardfight!! Vanguard SkyRide Review

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This is one of those manga spinoffs that feels extremely random and that’s part of the fun. It’s nice to see a series be able to just jump in and throw all the characters into a whole new scenario. Aichi even gets to show up which is the first time we’ve seen him in a new combat situation in a super long time. So that was cool and the main story involves a lot of nonstop action. The series does come to a rather abrupt ending though which is a shame because it felt like there was a lot of meat left on the bone. Hopefully Cardfight continues to churn out a bunch of other titles though.

The series starts by introducing us to a new kind of Cardfight, Sky Battles! These battles are super exciting but also incredibly dangerous. If you fall off of your hoverboard during a fight then you will potentially fall to your doom. There are no real guard rails here. Additionally there is a terrorist organization known as Blast! who specialize in stealing cards and challenging duelists to these sky battles. They are bad news and with the real impacts of card effects, anyone trying to fight them is risking his life.

Zero’s not scared though and so he aims to get out there and take them down. This leads him to enter a big tournament where all of their fighters will be attending. What he doesn’t anticipate is that the tournament will end up being on the planet Cray. It’s unknown how the fighters will be able to get back home or what will happen if someone is defeated. For now Zero just has to focus on defeating every fighter in his way but this will definitely not be easy.

As the main character Zero is definitely a really fun lead. He is always ready for a fight and doesn’t back down to any challenge. The guy was just a normal fighter but doesn’t bat an eye or hesitate for a moment when he suddenly has to go up against the organization. Some may say that he even adapts to this whole thing too quickly but honestly that’s part of the charm. I like when a character isn’t worried about the small stuff and is just getting ready to fight right away. Zero starts out the series at a high level already but as it goes on he gets even better.

Zero also has a hidden origin story which is hinted at right away even if it doesn’t get explored until near the end. I may have more nostalgia for someone like Aichi but I dare say that Zero starts out at a higher level and his consistent confidence might even make him a better main character. He’s not perfect or anything like that but is someone that you can always count on to defend his friends.

The only other character who comes close to his level is Shiki. Shiki is the shop manager and initially he just seems like a comic relief character but then it turns out that he has a whole backstory related to Blast. That helps to make him more of an intriguing character and his skills are also top rate. That was really important because being strong without the skills to back it up would not go anywhere. This way he was someone who could stay relevant to the end and he even got my favorite duel in the series. I would have liked him to have fought more but the series is fairly short so there’s only so much that you can do here.

The guest stars in Akina and Aichi both look good in the series. Akina may not have been a match against Zero but he put up a really good fight and nearly claimed victory. Aichi has a significantly larger role although I feel like his deck isn’t quite as impressive here. He makes up for that with his sheer experience but in a way Akina just ends up looking more powerful. It’s also cool to see both main characters in the same adventure, raises the odds that perhaps someday we can get a full crossover across both character casts.

The main heroine in the series is Suina and she’s definitely a fun one. I was a bit worried that she wouldn’t get any wins for a while there but she was able to clutch one out in the end. She did a good job fighting on behalf of the shop owner and making sure that none of the main characters lost themselves to rage. A more difficult task than you might expect in this series. She was also able to keep on fighting even when roped into a shadow duel where the damage dealt was all real. There wasn’t too much time for Suina to appear but she made the most out of every appearance.

Then we have our villains. The first member from blast is Kira and he took Zero down rather easily near the beginning of the series. After that you have to wait until the climax for the rematch. Kira sort of sees this all as a big game. He is definitely evil because it’s not like the guy is brainless but doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of what he’s doing. I thought that he was a good villain but did get overshadowed by most of the others.

Reiryu is the first member of Blast’s elite four to fight and now this was a really powerful figure. Zero had to pull out all the stops here and unfortunately this is one fight where Suina was crushed. The battles were a good way to show how the Elite Four were a complete step above the normal fighters though. These were not opponents that most fighters could handle and none of the other Elite Four were quite able to match this initial appearance.

Hibana is one of the other members and she was strong. She probably could have defeated Zero if it was one on one but she had the misfortune of having to take on Aichi as well. There are very few fighters who could defeat two MCs like that. She lasted quite a while either way so the Elite Four tag continued to get its due respect. Then we had Amon who gets a lot of screentime. He started out as a nice kid who just wanted to learn Vanguard but unfortunately Zero was too focused on winning at the time. He prevented the fights from being fun and this broke Amon down to the point where he ended up with a whole lot of split personalities.

Amon broke down in a very literal way and ultimately had to have the personalities literally knocked out of him. He should be okay now but that was definitely a tough process to go through. I can’t say that I loved the character but I thought his backstory was done very well. Finally we have the main villain Yuyu. (No relation to the anime main character Yu-Yu) This guy is cool and a super strong duelist. We sort of get cheated out of a climax for him though as an ancient demon god takes over his body all of a sudden for the final battle.

He was still a cool villain though and definitely put the main characters through the ringer. The demon monster was cool too of course but a bit more of your classic destroy the world type. There wasn’t a whole lot to him beyond that. The series wanted to end with super high stakes though and there’s no better way to do that than by adding in a big monster.

Yuuki is technically a more minor character but he served as the first real challenge for Zero in the tournament. He has a really cool design and is known as one of the strongest duelists in Japan so it’s not like the guy is all talk or anything. He was ready to fight from the start. As far as the minions are concerned, he ends up being one of the more memorable characters. If this series had been longer, I suspect he would have done more.

The artwork is definitely solid. There are a lot of good speed lines for the action scenes which really lets the series show off its intensity. The pages are all easy to read and the character designs are good. It can get a little rough during some of the busier turns when a page is trying to do a whole lot at once but that tends to be more of a rare event. So on the whole the art is definitely more on the positive side. The best panels are always when Zero gets in the zone and really locks in against his opponents.

You can definitely see where the series starts to really sped up the pacing but I thought that it all ended out well. Throwing in a tournament near the beginning of the series that goes all the way into the end is always a fun way to go about things. The Sky Ride duels seem a little too risky to ever be practical but the rule of cool is fun. The shadow duels are also a great way to introduce high stakes right away. This is a series that is focused on getting you hyped right away and I’d say that’s the right approach here. You can leave logic behind for a little while.

Overall, Cardfight delivers with another solid title here. It’s one of those manga that makes for an easy read and will keep you entertained the whole way. It may not be the kind of title that you remember a whole lot down the road as a great adventure but serves its purpose. I didn’t really have any issues with it and the series can actually get rather intense and emotional when it wants to. I’d like to see this animated at some point, I feel like you could pull it off in a 12 episode season. Just seeing the old main characters would already be a great selling point. If you’re looking for a good dueling title, this is definitely one that I can recommend.

Overall 7/10

Mega Man Star Force (Re)Birthday Review

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It’s always good to see Mega Man coming up with a new manga even if it’s just a oneshot in this case. Star Force was always a fun trilogy and now with the collection it can reach a whole new generation of fans. This story has the heroes getting to team up against an old threat for one last hurrah. It definitely goes by quickly but still manages to be very nostalgic and satisfying all the way through.

The title starts off with Geo’s birthday being celebrated by his friends. He has saved the world 3 times in the past so it’s about time that he gets to relax a bit. Well, it doesn’t all go according to plan when the Crimson Dragon returns. This creature intends to destroy everything and so Geo is called in one last time to help out. The others tried to beat the Crimson Dragon on their own, but he’s too powerful. Mega Man is needed!

Now if I’m splitting hairs here, I feel like Ace and Bly should be enough to take the dragon out. He was really powerful as a final boss of course, but these guys are true power hitters. Maybe I am underestimating the Crimson Dragon though. Personally I never expected to see him again so that was a fun surprise. This also gave us a chance to see the whole cast show up and start throwing blows. It’s always fun to be reminded of just how fast the main characters can move with how they were in space right away. It may be the last time that Geo gets to really have a proper fight like this though so I’m sure he enjoyed it. If anything that makes the birthday more exciting.

There isn’t much more going on beyond that but it’s still enough to be a fun chapter. The artwork was excellent and I’ve come to expect nothing less from the Mega Man titles. Each page pops out and the action is drawn well. The characters have a good relationship between each other so it’s easy to root for them here. I don’t really have any negatives. While there isn’t much to say just because of the size of the chapter, it is a good time.

I was also glad that this takes place after the trilogy. You don’t always get to see what the main characters are up to once the main quest ends so this was a good way around that. The time skip isn’t very large so the characters still look the way that you remember them but it helps to work as a sort of epilogue. Maybe someday we will get a 4th Star Force game. In general I just want more Mega Man content because it feels like this tends to happen way too slowly.

Overall, This was a good one shot. If I had my way, every series would get a oneshot at some point so the franchise doesn’t have to be totally over. Of course a new game or ongoing series would be even better but I’ll take what I can get. It’s also cool that Capcom actually released this in English officially. So if you haven’t checked it out yet then you should change that. It only takes around 5 minutes to read it after all so it’s not like you are going to be missing out on anything. You owe it to yourself to read this and remind yourself why Mega Man is such a cool series.

Overall 7/10

Moriarty the Patriot: The Remains Review

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It’s time to look at the Moriarty spinoff. It’s always interesting to check out the spinoff of a title that has completed while the main one is still ongoing. So you’ll see the more in depth thoughts on Moriarty and the crew once that title is done with. It is fun to see the cast all having fun in rather low key cases compared to the main series though. Each adventure is a fairly cozy that shows how daily life is improved thanks to Moriarty and his crew. The 3 volumes definitely go by real fast.

The general premise for the main series is that Moriarty has decided to be the world’s ultimate villain in order to destroy the class system that has taken over the country. In the meantime he helps out those that he can. He’s certainly not the most heroic soul with how many murders are necessary for his grand plan. In this spinoff, we see a few day to day adventures so I’ll dive into those as I discuss the series.

The first story is about Moriarty finding out that his teammate Moran lost a game of cards. Not only did he lose, but he was found to be cheating and will be losing a great deal of money. Moran’s only hope is a double or nothing game against another cheater who has a lot of sway within the gambling circuit. Moriarty is forced to jump in and figure out a way that he can cheat without the cheater finding out. This is naturally a bit of a logic puzzle so it’s something that’s right up his alley.

It’s already a fun twist to know that Moran was cheating as well. The other guy was just able to prove it quicker than Moran could. So this isn’t a case where Moran is innocent or anything but Moriarty is always ready to help his friends. It’s a simple enough 2 part adventure here. There isn’t a ton of danger but it shows how close the group is for Moriarty to show up personally to help out here. This wasn’t something that he was going to let go on for very long. He is the lord of crime after all.

The second story is a prequel about how Jack the Ripper trained Moriarty and his brothers. Jack made a deal where he would train them on how to be excellent fighters if they could win a game of tag against him. Basically they have to tag him three times before he murders them. Yes, he is actually trying to destroy them all which is a part of the deal. If they are unable to survive then it just means that they were not ready for this level of competition. Moriarty and the others are absolutely ready to handle this threat head on but it won’t be easy.

Naturally, as good as Moriarty is at thinking, this will take some plot armor to really survive such a situation. You won’t really be able to buy into this but I give the manga credit for trying to write this as realistically as they could. Moriarty uses every kind of trick in the book and even then they only barely claim victory. I know they’re all villains but I always find it a bit iffy when the training involves a chance of dying. Always seemed counterproductive to me.

After that we have a story where Moriarty was doing some shopping when he runs into a girl with the power to see a person’s true soul. Her rainbow eyes can detect evil people from good ones. It’s not quite as perfect an ability as it sounds but it can still help her avoid total troublemakers. Unfortunately a group of robbers attack the mall and are holding everyone hostage. Moiarty will have to find a way to take all of these guys down without letting slip the fact that he is the lord of crime and an incredibly powerful figure in the underworld.

Since the girl can see into him, she notices the fire within his soul but is fine with it since she can tell that he’s not fully evil. I’d treat this like a spider sense where she knows that he isn’t targeting her at the very least. It’s a pretty fun story where Moriarty really gets to use his intellect in such a way where he can even manipulate the little girl into making the right moves. It’s also a story where he is really on his own for a lot of it which works well. I always like to see just how much Moriarty can achieve without any real backup.

Then in the next story the girl actually returns. Moriarty and his crew decide to host a survival game where they have to shoot each other with paint balls and see who the last man standing is. So you’ve got Moran, James Bond, and all of the other big shots around. Isn’t this a little too frivolous even for a spinoff? Well, it would be except that Moriarty is also doing this to drag a corrupted rich person out from the shadows. In that sense this story is the most similar to the main series where that is usually what’s going on. In the meantime it’s fun to see all the characters competing although it can be hard to tell just how hard they are going at each other while keeping the plan in mind.

The characters say they are going all out but it’s hard to say. In a life or death match I imagine Moriarty would come in first, followed by Moran and Bond. Jack would probably be in 4th and then after that it’s tricky for the rest. The girl got to use her spirit powers once again to do pretty well in the game. She even managed to make a friend so that was pretty wholesome. The adventure is a fairly long one as they really had to set up a big trap for the villain and we got some extended fights in the meantime. From all the cases this was probably my favorite one. Even if calling it a “case” may be a bit misleading.

Finally it was looking like Holmes would miss out but he’s in the final adventure. It actually continues directly where the last one left off. Moriarty and crew managed to get their man but now they need a proper cover story and a “hero” to take the villain down. So they create some evidence which lures Sherlock Holmes into the mix. Once again you could say Holmes is one step behind Moriarty as usually was the case in their games of cat and mouse. Holmes still has to do a good job of putting all the pieces together though.

In a way it’s a real feather in Moriarty’s cap because he has to plan everything so thoroughly that he also anticipates every single action that Holmes will make. In that way it may sound like Moriarty is way smarter than Holmes but Holmes is often able to do a similar amount of deducing. As Holmes mentions in the main series, Moriarty just has the advantage since he is the one committing the crimes while Holmes has to solve them afterwards. It would be a completely different story if Holmes were a crook.

So the stories had a good amount of variety here. There may have been some danger in the hostage case but for the most part these were all just calm stories to look at while waiting for the main series. It’s a quality spinoff that can hold its own even if you aren’t familiar with the main series. Granted, it would probably be a bit less impactful since you wouldn’t know any of these characters at all. It’s not like the series goes out of its way to reintroduce them although characters like Holmes and Moriarty are fairly popular in pop culture so that shouldn’t be too confusing.

Moriarty is a fun main character as always. It’s nice to see him always in control here and you can see how he is far superior to the average crook running around. Moriarty always sees the big picture here and doesn’t miss a beat. Holmes also works well as the rival who is incredibly confident and knows that he can hold his own at all times. We don’t have time for banter between them this time but that is always the best part of their interactions.

The artwork is definitely solid as well. The angles are all very dynamic and the characters really stand out. It’s not like there is a lot of action here but the paint ball survival case got to do some pseudo fight scenes. Same with the mission against Jack and each one looked good so I don’t have any issues there. The series definitely delivers on the technical aspects. This may not be a series that you think about all that often but it serves its purpose as a fun spinoff.

Overall, This is one of those really safe spinoffs. Nothing particularly big is happening nor are any of the characters really challenged a lot. It’s just an excuse to see your favorite characters in some new cases. Fortunately that’s right up my alley. It makes for an easy read at any time and the quality of the writing is still really good. Each case will keep your interest throughout so I can easily recommend this to anyone. I’d be game for more spinoffs in the future.

Overall 7/10

Batman: Justice Buster Review

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I started this manga a long time so it was pretty fun to finally make it all the way to the end. It’s probably not too surprising to say that this one gets pretty deep into the philosophy when it comes to Batman’s code of ethics. Is he true Justice? Well, the series will definitely have him think about this at real length. Now you may wonder what the rest of the DC heroes are doing. Well, this is addressed so for better or worse it’s not like the series ignores this.

The series starts by showing us that Gotham is in pretty bad shape as per always. Criminals are everywhere and there just doesn’t seem to be any end to them. Batman does his best to take them all down as efficiently as possible but he just can’t possibly keep up with the onslaught of opponents. There is really no end to them. So he needs the help of Robin, a state of the art A.I. that will help him in missions. This works well for a while but Alfred fears that Batman is relying too much on this entity. What if it turns evil?

So you’ve got the general premise there and obviously the A.I. isn’t going to be on the side of justice for very long. Well, depending on the definition of Justice at least. This is what the bulk of the series is about. Batman starts out the series believing that justice is essentially born through violence. You have to use violence in order to keep the peace and fear will keep everyone in line. It’s an interesting perspective since you tend to see the whole ruling by fear thing being a villain’s ideology. And yet it makes sense because Batman has seen first hand just how corrupt Gotham is. It’s why he does a ton of philanthropy on the surface but also fights crime during the night to fight the battle on multiple fronts.

Superman shows up with the more basic version of justice. He says it is simply a matter of helping others out. It’s an answer that obviously isn’t wrong but does lack a lot of nuance. Batman points out that it may be that easy for Superman, but certainly not the case for anyone else. Superman doesn’t budge of course and while he doesn’t get a whole lot of screentime here, I do like that he is shown to be every bit as tough as Batman.

Superman’s not some rookie. He is a seasoned fighter in this manga and has likely had many adventures of his own. So nothing Batman says is really able to rattle him at all. They just go their separate ways. Later on the villains put some people in danger to keep him from joining the front lines but I have to admit that this is a little tough to believe. With his speed, Superman could have absolutely returned to save the day. This isn’t his story though so I was just glad to see that his character was handled extremely well. He was the symbol of justice as always. The artwork also does a good job of making him look absolutely menacing.

Then you have Jason Todd who is the Joker in this story. His ideas of justice are consistent with what they usually are as a vigilante. He murders criminals who get in the way so they cannot cause any more problems. Vigilantism is always the most tempting form of justice because of its absolute results. Any criminal who is murdered can never hurt anyone else again. It does remove the possibility of redemption but also results in the most lives saved. It’s not something that Batman can ever condone but the merits speak for themselves.

Jason was a really fun character to have around throughout though. The manga did a good job of balancing a whole lot of characters and he was a compelling one. He may not have gotten along super well with Batman for a while there but at least they could talk to each other. Alas, the city is a pretty dangerous place and there can only be so many fighters running around.

Robin’s philosophy is the most difficult to unpack. It’s a spin on the usual robotic kind of view which is that crime will always exist so long as humans do. Yet he doesn’t really go down the whole “All humans must die” approach. Instead he mainly focuses on proving that Batman’s justice is flawed so it’s like another avenue without actually giving a real answer to it. Perhaps there is none in his eyes. Robin made for a very interesting character but I do think that the ending messed him up a little bit. The final twists and character moments just didn’t make a lot of sense to me. It all went on a bit too quickly and took away some of the punch.

There’s also a kid in the series who gets a pretty big role. You can probably guess early on how that character arc will play out. I thought he was a lot better than the average kid. He had to grow up in a rather rough environment and didn’t panic too much when confronted with all of the villains and super powered fighters running around. A lesser character would have been panicking the whole time so I really appreciated that. It’s the little things that make a big difference.

Then we have Joe Chill who shows up as the mysterious villain for most of the series. Seemingly he’s the one who murdered Batman’s parents but is that actually the truth? Every time he talks, the guy seems to lie a whole lot. Trusting anything that he says seems like a really big gamble. He is also quite powerful and tends to have the advantage in every fight. It’s as if he isn’t truly human.

The series at times goes to the border on being part horror series in addition to being an action title. Part of the reason for this is because of the artstyle which is very grim and detailed. It definitely makes for a lot of really intense shots. It also helps with the fight scenes to look very sci-fi in nature. I was certainly a fan of it and this is a series that will end up being very memorable by the time you’re done with it.

It even dabbles a bit into the multiverse with little guest star panels and such. It’s not particularly important but was interesting to see. Then back to Batman, well he looked good as always. Even if his sense of justice got shaken up quite a bit, he still made the right decisions when it counted. Additionally, he was beating up on all the villains in his way at the same time. Batman didn’t let his indecision ever take priority over saving Gotham. Batman always tends to be a really good character so it’s not like that was surprising.

I’ll also give Alfred a shoutout for looking pretty good the whole time. He was constantly the voice of reason here. He’s also the only guy that Batman will listen to at times. Granted, not always but at least some of the time. We also have quite a few other villains running around aside from Joe Chill like Deathstroke, Two Face, Firefly, and Killer Croc. For the most part these guys aren’t really tying into the bigger plot but tend to be used like pawns on the board to force Batman to make a move.

The whole series is like a big chessboard with everything slowly connecting to Joe Chill and the murder of Batman’s parents. his would really make for a great two part movie eat some point. You will be at the edge of your seat the whole way through and this is one of those mystery titles that actually does have a lot of replay value. You can easily go back to read this one again after you complete it. The fairly short length at just a few volumes makes this pretty easy.

As for who has the best vision of justice in the series, well it’s probably going to have to be Jason here. Superman’s on the right path but nobody else has the power to see it through. Batman’s makes a lot of sense but when even a lot of cops and the prisons are corrupt, the villains will naturally go out eventually. Jason’s the only chance that the world has of being rid of the worst crime doers around. So long as he keeps from getting too extreme then it should work well. Of course, that’s a big if since this tends to be a slippery slope.

Overall, Justice Buster was definitely a great series. I would have liked for it to have continued on for longer to be honest. There’s just so much story to cover and so many characters running around. It does a good job of wrapping everything up and you just know that the story will continue on. I’d certainly like to see more manga for the DC heroes. They’re just done so masterfully well. Whether you are familiar with Batman or not, I would recommend reading this series. It’s a really compelling read all the way.

Overall 8/10

Sword Art Online Progressive: Barcarolle of Froth Review

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Sword Art Online is one of the most frustrating franchises of all time. This is because the highs and lows are so drastic. You’ll go from watching one of the greatest movies of all time to watching a terrible season of the anime. You’ll play an amazing video game and then read a below average manga. Unfortunately this one is in that side of the camp. I wanted to enjoy it but unfortunately it was clear that this story wasn’t exactly focused on the plot.

This story takes place during the early days of climbing to the top of Aincrad. Kirito and Asuna are still stuck inside the death game that is known as Sword Art Online. The only way to escape is to clear the 100 floors and right now they aren’t even halfway to floor 10. Yeah it’s going to be a long journey and so they try to have fun while they can. They go on adventures ranging from making a boat to visiting an elf friend of theirs. Will they be able to keep their sanity in such a strange situation?

Now if I’m being extremely generous, you could say that a lot of the crazy shenanigans here is because that is how they are coping with this situation. Acting extra silly helps them take their minds off of the danger. That said, even I’m not quite this generous. It’s clear that the series is having fun using fanservice as a tool to move things around all the time. The fanservice within this series is constant and it really does drag the series down quite a bit.

I haven’t seen a series be this obnoxious about it since Fairy Tail. There is a certain amount that you can maybe overlook here and there but when it is this frequent and intense, well there is no escape at that point. There isn’t a single chapter without a little of that and it seems to be the main default for the title when it comes to humor. It’s a shame because there are so many ways to throw in good jokes without relying on fanservice.

Additionally, the series should have an advantage here in that the Kirito and Asuna romance is one of the few really good ones among any anime/manga. So this is really about building chemistry and that’s what the title should have focused on. Not constant excuses for getting to the beach and swimming. At least Kirito tends to stay strong and doesn’t panic as much as Asuna but he’s also portrayed as lightly taking advantage of the situation at times which is not what you’d expect from the hero.

As a result the plot takes a back seat here. It’s not like the story is all that complicated anyway though. It’s really about taking on side quests. The longest one is when the heroes make it back to the elf kingdom and have to help them stop some invaders. It’s not the biggest challenge that Kirito has ever faced but he wants a perfect victory without any NPCs hurt in the process. So he convinces the ruler to help out and then they claim a nice victory. The climax is fairly quick here. There was also a quick action piece for the side mission to build a bridge.

The artwork is pretty solid so the action scenes look really good. Unfortunately the fact that the art is really good also means that the fanservice is worse. It’s a true double edged sword when you really think about it. The pages are easy to read and so you’ll blast through this one quickly. It’s only two volumes long after all so this is very close to actually being a oneshot adventure. This is probably why I had even forgotten that Sword Art Online got so many different manga titles for a while there.

While Kirito is the one who tends to steal the show the whole time, Asuna does well on her own as well. I was glad the manga didn’t overdo it with showing her to be a newbie because by this point she should be experienced enough not to be making the day 1 blunders. Kirito naturally still has more experience all around which makes sense but it’s not like she’s lagging behind. Her combat skills are also really on point here. Her character tends to suffer for most of the fanservice moments but outside of those she is a quality character all around.

There isn’t time for much of the supporting cast to appear otherwise. You still have the two factions fighting each other to clear the floors quickest but Kirito always runs in to steal the last hit bonus anyway. Shows you just how much of a pro Kirito is. Argo is fun enough as she keeps trolling everyone by withholding information. I like that Kirito is able to hold his own with her by this point since he knows how she operates. They have a fun dynamic going on here. I’d even say it’s a great friendship dynamic.

Part of why the supporting characters can’t do much is also because the series just doesn’t have a very strong cast of them by this point. The franchise wouldn’t get better at that for quite a while but it’s fine because Kirito and Asuna are all you really need to lead the adventure. They have a good dynamic as well and I would be able to just appreciate the fun vibes of it. Honestly if you take out the fanservice then you have a very good story here. Of course a what if scenario doesn’t help the actual product. It’s a key example of how just one area can really sink a story.

Overall, I would say to skip this one. The Progressive series is meant to be an ultra extended look at the first arc which means that you can really identify more with the characters. At the same time, that means you can easily skip chunks of it like this one without really missing anything. Technically this could be treated like filler so it’s worth checking out if the story is good. Since it’s not, you’ll want to keep going on your way. The drastic changes in quality for the franchise really continues here. That’s just how it goes sometimes though.

Overall 3/10

Spider-Man: Octo-Girl Review

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This is one of those series that lasted longer than I would have expected. It’s always good to get more superhero manga and this one definitely fits within that category. It’s a pretty fun story that revolves around Doc Ock for a change. The art is good and the pacing is solid. There does tend to be a lot of plot armor since a bunch of kids are around as main characters but even with all of that I would say this is a pretty good story.

The story starts with Ock getting absolutely destroyed by Spiderman once again. He just can’t seem to keep up with the web crawler but lost quick enough this time where even Spidey forgot to hold back. So as Ock plummeted to his doom, he activated his last minute clone technology to send his mind to one of the doppelgangers. Unfortunately, the A.I. made a critical error and he ends up being sent into the mind of a little girl named Otoha who was in a coma. Pretty big glitch in the system right? Now Ock has to share a mind with her until he can find a way back to his own body. In the meantime he refuses to live a sub optimal life and so he intends to help Otoha deal with her various issues.

Don’t get the wrong idea, he has no intentions of assisting her because he cares about the situation at first. He’s just doing this for his own ego because Doc Ock must always be on top. That is how things have always been and how they must persist. Ock gets a whole lot of development within the story as he learns more about being empathetic. He’s in an interesting position because this clearly takes place deep within the Spiderman mythos so to an extent you’d figure he already knew a lot of this. He’s a character who often teeters between being a hero and a villain. Still, it’s an alternate take so that’s the best way to write this off.

Ock’s inventions are certainly very useful at all times as he quickly improves Otoha’s situation. The metal arms make her a force to be reckoned with and while she often has to tone him down, I don’t think she could deny that she was in a better space immediately after he showed up. Ock gave her more confidence in standing up for herself which is her main character arc. Otoha starts out as a really timid character but gradually becomes able to defend herself and reach out to gain back some friends who had been lost along the way. She never became one of my favorite characters but had a noticeable improvement from the early scenes.

Marika was apparently a nice person throughout the series but her first scene got her off on the wrong foot with Doc Ock. After that they get along well enough and Marika even plays a role during the series in getting one of their friends back to being a nice person. She can’t actually fight though and so generally she’s more of a spectator. Denko gets less of a role but she tends to have an edgy outlook on things like telling people they’re better off dead. Certainly not the kindest thing to write to someone who was just in a coma and nearly died…..yeah I never ended up liking Denko.

Taka is much more than just one of the opening chapter bullies though. She actually gets a really big role as this series’ Vulture. She gets her tragic backstory and all but it’s not enough where you end up rooting for her over the heroes or anything like that. She made her choices and like Ock she will have to try and atone for them. I liked how tough she was throughout the series. In her opening moments she was already talking tough to Doc Ock and never wavered in the midst of his power. Now granted, that’s probably not smart since at the time she couldn’t fight.

She does gain powers later on though and really makes the most of them. I always tend to like the tough talk and when a character is really confident so that sounded good to me. She’s easily one of the better characters in the series and helped to not only increase the stakes but make them personal too. She gave Otoha a reason to fight along with Ock as opposed to just being in the backseat. Otoha had more of a reason to fight in this case to be honest. The series wouldn’t have been the same without Taka.

Another really good character is Haruka. When she showed up it was a pretty awesome moment since she’s already well known from other manga titles like Deadpool. Alas she is still stranded across dimensions and that has been hard for her but she won’t overlook the crimes around her. So she naturally goes into battle with Ock. While she is essentially on the losing side and continues her streak of consistently being defeated by everyone, I’m glad that she never stops trying to fight. You need a hero like that, especially when Spiderman is never around in all of these spinoffs.

Then we have Superior Ock who shows up as another personality gone rogue. It’s pretty fun to see two versions of Ock running around at the same time. Superior Ock gets all of the best dialogue throughout the series and consistently dominates whenever he is on screen. I also really liked his Spider-Man costume which is also similar to the one he wore during that era in the comics. You needed a villain like this to fight Ock brain to brain. He also forces our doctor to confront his past self in a sense.

The villain who is a bit redundant is Old Ock who shows up for a climax. He is really here just to redo the character arc of Ock having to see what he used to be like. Old Ock is his earlier self as well from when he was pure evil. So this one wants to destroy everything as opposed to being an extreme justice advocate. He doesn’t have enough screentime to really contribute much and is mainly just here to extend the climax a bit. The action is all solid but yeah this character wasn’t needed.

I suppose it may have been better than sticking with Maxine as the corporate final boss. It was fun to see how shady corporate was as per usual but it’s not like that makes for a very interesting final boss. The series is under 40 chapters so you didn’t need a whole lot of characters. The cast we got was solid enough. Spiderman himself shows up for the beginning and ending of course. He looks good and heroic as you would expect. He never gave up on Doc Ock throughout the whole time he was in a coma. It’s why Spiderman is always an inspirational hero.

The artwork in the series is pretty good. I would say the title especially excels when it comes to fight scenes which is a good thing. We get quite a few dynamic pages with characters squaring off. The artwork does a good job of keeping up the intensity and definitely getting you hyped for the battles to come. So the series gets a real good thumbs up there.

While you may wish Ock didn’t have to share a body with Otoha, it would be a different story at that point. The school stuff may be far less interesting than what is going on with the villains at large but the plots are often really intertwined to the point where you are getting a lot of screentime for both at all times. It’s not like each plot has to take a break for the other one. This is definitely a fun manga to binge and the art is clear enough where you would finish it up pretty easily.

Overall, Octo-Girl is a pretty good series. It gives each character a good amount of character development and lasted long enough where nothing feels rushed. You could tell the author really had the story beats laid out from the start and followed them all. We start off with the slice of life adventures to get you used to the characters and then we enter te story arcs. Everything feels planned out in a good way so I definitely appreciate that. If you like the various Spiderman characters then you should check this one out. There is a lot to enjoy for longtime fans and newcomers alike. Doc Ock may be a character who has already gotten a lot of development in different titles but it’s always fun to see a new take. I am still waiting for a new title about Spiderman himself though.

Overall 7/10

The Bell Rings in the Holy Night Review

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It’s time for a very short story but with only 20 pages it manages to properly develop two different romances. I would highly recommend this to any aspiring writers out there and naturally it’s a blast to read through as well. You won’t look at other romance titles in the same way after this one and you almost wish they could have made a whole series out of this.

The story starts on Christmas Eve with Ken preparing to assassinate a big crime lord on orders from his boss. He definitely doesn’t really want to do this but at the same time he feels trapped. He is basically out of money and feels like he’s never proven himself as a man. Ken hasn’t even been able to give his girlfriend Meg an engagement ring yet. Well, she’s not okay with this idea at all. Ken is a minor so he figures he would only go to jail for 5 years and then they could be together but Meg fears that he will have lost a part of himself. Fortunately an older man named Joe shows up and warns Ken not to go through with it.

See, Joe was in the same position 40 years ago and he actually succeeded in murdering his crime lord. What happened is this ended up making it so that he went to jail for far longer than 5 years. He was on the run for a long time even after that and couldn’t bear to show himself to his girlfriend. They had agreed to meet in front of the chapel on Christmas Eve but it took him 40 years to actually make it. He figured that the girl had forgotten all about him by now but it turns out that she had waited all the way until her dying day. Her grand daughter still goes there every year to pass on the message.

So Joe realizes that he really made a mess and wants to make sure that Ken doesn’t make the same mistake. Ken takes this message to heart and ultimately doesn’t sacrifice himself. It’s a really emotional scene and a reminder to never take the shortcuts in life. It’s the kind of message that hits hard because Ken was only a few minutes away from making a decision that would have ruined his life forevermore. That’s a tough pill to swallow.

Meg gets a lot of credit here too for telling Ken that this was a bad idea from the start. She knew that the easy money wasn’t going to make them happy and that turned out to be correct. While we don’t see much of Alice, I appreciated how loyal she was. She didn’t run around looking for a rebound or anything like that. There’s noting more romantic than hanging in there no matter what. They can have eternity in the future even if it didn’t work out in the present.

That’s the true spirit of romance, to never waver and remain together until the end. Even if things don’t work out the way you hoped like one person dies tragically young, you just keep on going with the memories and then make it to the end. I have high hopes that Ken and Meg will last as well since their devotion already appears to be very strong.

The art is really strong. You can see how similar it is to the Saint Seiya series and can imagine how good the fights would be. The artstyle is very expressive which works well for a story like this. Additionally the characters are all really likable. This is just a complete story and the pacing is also on point. It’s really impressive how much ground was covered in a mere 20 pages. It’s a reminder that you can really do a lot and can execute on an excellent story with even a limited page count.

Overall, I would recommend checking this story out. It’s a really good title for Christmas and is how you want to write a steady romance without needing to build it up for 50 volumes. You could believe in the bond here through the characters’ actions. Maybe one day they will make a short animated special of it or something like that. I’d definitely check it out and of course there are enough plot elements to make this into a movie if you really wanted to do that. You’d probably just expand on Joe’s story and we see how everything plays out in real time.

Overall 8/10

Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission Review

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This is definitely a very different kind of Dragon Ball manga. It follows the adventures of a bunch of kids who have read the old DBZ stories and just want to have fun with their arcade machine. What they do not realize is that these adventures are more real than expected. The series ends rather quickly with there only being 30 chapters and the first half of the series is comprised of 5 page chapters.

The story enters around a kid named Beet who is rather good at Dragon Ball Heroes. He’s been training under Sora for a long while and is finally ready to start entering tournaments professionally. He gets to go up against some of the greatest players in the world. The best part? Beet is actually holding his own! Unfortunately the tournament is interrupted when a mad scientist activates the dragon balls and accidentally summons the 7 Shadow Dragons. Beet and the other tournament contestants will have to destroy them, using their temporary super powers thanks to their forms within the game. This won’t be easy but Beet is not the kind of guy to give up without a fight!

It’s always an interesting twist to make it so that the DBZ characters are actually real. That being said, I do think the writing could be a little weak at times. For example, Beet has been playing this game for a long time and knows various characters across the mythos. How does he not immediately recognize characters like SSJ4 Broly and Baby from GT? There are a few times where it just feels like shock value that wasn’t taking the context into consideration.

Additionally, it can be a little cheesy that Beet doesn’t know a lot of the rules or players within the game and yet he is already a top 5 fighter in the world. I guess you can make the argument for natural talent but that can really only account for so much. I would have not escalated the stakes to being that of a global tournament so quickly. I get that the pacing had to be fast but Beet’s wins didn’t always feel earned. He’s a nice guy and all but you need some strategy.

It’s why I was able to root for Note a whole lot more. She is someone who has lived her whole life with studying the decks and getting a proper strategy in. It’s easy to see how she has found a whole lot of success here. Despite that, Beet surpasses her almost immediately. I was glad that Note still got a big fight at the end of the series along with her rival though.

She certainly did more than the mentor Sora who just dips when the going gets tough. It’s implied that he had to head off to stop some other threats but it’s still a rough look to see him leave all of the kids alone to deal with evil monsters that are trying to murder them. It’s made clear that if you die in the game, you die in real life. So these stakes are really quite real and the kids may be familiar with the video game, but their combat experience is minimal.

Also the series does have an ultra rushed ending here. We don’t get to see the final fight and then there is a giant time skip that comes out of nowhere. Not the ideal way to end the series so the climax is really weak but at least before that it’s just a bunch of nonstop fights. Pretty much every chapter has a bunch of action going on so that’s fun. Even if the various DB characters are soulless avatars, it was also nice to see all of them mixing it up.

The side characters probably take the brunt of the damage from the series being so short. It feels like the author had clear character personalities and dynamics in mind for all of them but they just don’t have a chance to do a whole lot. I still liked them for what it’s worth. Note’s rival was definitely a worthy foe who was always ready. Then you have the #1 fighter in the world who is very calm and does his research on everyone. He ended up being a super strong opponent.

That guy has his own rival who is rather strong as well. Then you have the Main kid who is super timid and doubtful of himself but gradually learns to get past all of that. Even the Shadow Dragons get little moments here and there. So as long as you’re mainly reading the series for the vibes and action, then you should absolutely walk away satisfied.

The artwork is really good, the fights definitely stand out. The character models are always on point and there is a good amount of variety here. It’s always easy to understand what is going on as well so the artwork certainly didn’t feel rushed. On the whole I would say that the series didn’t really have any technical issues here. If they ever revived this series for more of a longform adaption, I would definitely be on board. With the references to the Supreme King of Time, you could easily have this merge into the more traditional Heroes stories. Have Beet and Note actually team up with the real Goku and friends like in the animated trailers.


Overall, This was a pretty fun manga. It does end up feeling incomplete because of how much progress it had to go through and how quickly this had to happen. A whole lot feels like it was skipped over and this should have been a proper 7 volume series. You could have really gotten a whole lot of adventures in it if that had been the case. I would still recommend checking this one out though. The artwork is solid and I did enjoy the action scenes. The DB Heroes game always seemed like it would be a whole lot of fun and I definitely enjoyed playing the console port on the Switch.

Overall 6/10

Good Morning, Great Old One Review

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Usually when Jump comes out with a oneshot, I expect something that’s maybe 40-50 pages. Well, this one is surprisingly shorter than a weekly chapter so that was really odd. Nothing wrong with a quick adventure of course, but at the same time you are left thinking that they could have done more with the concept. It’s not bad or anything but I don’t think this one is really going to leave a big impact on you. It will have ended just as you were getting into it.

The story starts with a girl watching her favorite youtube videos when an alien creature walks over and asks what she is doing. He doesn’t seem to know much about Earth and its customs. The girl isn’t particularly shocked either and just explains that she doesn’t like going to school which stifles her creativity. Instead she watches Youtube on the beach and skips school whenever she can. Her favorite channel has stopped uploading videos due to an alien invasion though so the alien puts a stop to it and asks if she would like to make a Youtube account with him. It looks like these two are going to be having a lot of fun now.

I suppose if the author ever wants to, he can make a whole series out of this. It seems like it would have a buddy cop kind of feel. Maybe it would transition into being an action series later on since the alien is clearly super powerful. There is a lot of potential here in either case but it’s not like this oneshot could really get into much of that. It could also stay as a full on comedy for all that we know.

The art is quite solid. You can tell that the action scenes would look really good if the author wanted to go in that direction. The character designs are memorable although I can’t say that I love the way the alien looks. Definitely going to be a little hard to market that design but there have been weirder characters in the past. The heroine seems to be the type of character who doesn’t let anything phase her so I suppose that will be part of the comedy dynamic here.

There would be more characters later on but yeah it’s hard to really judge it too much off of 12 pages. I think there is potential here so I’ll put the series right in the middle. I just need to see more for me to really call this a good story. It’s just exceptionally short and I can’t overstate that enough. Maybe this really is some kind of back door pilot and it’ll get a full adventure someday. If so, I like to think that I’ll still remember it at that point.

Overall, This oneshot pretty much felt like a trailer to a manga. There’s not a whole lot going on here and you couldn’t really get a glimpse of what the main plot for an ongoing series would be. It could play out in a few different ways depending on what kind of tone the author wanted to use here. I’d say to check it out while the oneshot is still free on Viz. It’ll only take maybe 5 minutes after all. Otherwise if you just want to wait and see on an eventual series I guess you’ll be rolling the dice on this one. There are technically many oneshots which never get an ongoing series after all.

Overall 5/10