The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

Posted on June 30, 2024 by dreager1

Twilight Princess is easily the longest Legend of Zelda manga. They really went to town on this one making sure to adapt everything and taking the time that they need. I thought that was an excellent decision and it’s really the right way to handle these adaptions in general. nothing is rushed and you really got to be with the character for a very long time. It’s a really good title and the artwork is absolutely fantastic. You will definitely want to check this one out to see Link at his best. He is really a strong lead who will keep on fighting all the way through to the end.

The series starts off by introducing us to Link who is a very capable farmer. He gets along well with all of the villagers and it’s really peaceful place but that doesn’t last. Monsters invade and deal a whole lot of damage. They are led by the mighty Zant who takes Zelda and threatens to conquer the entire planet. Link will have to brush up on his skills and also use the Master Sword in order to make a comeback. This will not be an easy challenge by any means but Link isn’t here to just fight the easy battles. He’s here to conquer everyone in front of him and will stop at nothing on his quest. He is the hero of time and he will not be denied.

I actually haven’t played the Twilight Princess game yet although you can bet that it is definitely close to showing up on my docket. I’m knocking out a few other titles first but then it’ll be around. Twilight Princess always seemed to serve as the big sequel to Ocarina of Time. Yes, we also have Majora’s Mask for that but I think it’s the fact that this was the big Gamecube game that really made it super memorable. I remember having part of the study guide for it that came with Wind Waker and the game always looked like a lot of fun. You can definitely bet that I will enjoy diving into this one.

The manga works as a good preview for it exactly because it is so detailed though. First up, the artwork is absolutely stunning. This is a title that clearly had a whole lot of dedication and talent behind it. There’s a ton of hard work put into the manga. Each fight looks amazing and even the normal drawings of the characters walking around works well. The super detailed and serious art style works really well in Twilight Princess where everyone is down on their luck and things aren’t looking so good. You can really feel the despair within the art. It also means that each of Link’s rage modes work really well here.

Now since the story has a darker tone that does mean occasionally it can trip into some issues. There is some animal violence like when the villains go after horses and other creatures running around. It’s pretty rare and that is something that could have been taken away if you ask me personally. The serious tone works for most things but that is definitely not one of them. Lets just focus on Link fighting off these monsters.

In terms of portrayal this will always be the best Link. He’s just such a capable fighter and well balanced character. he really comes into his own as a full fledged character even outside of his title as Link. Zelda doesn’t get quite as much to do since she is out of the story for most of it though. She is still solid as always and never gives up even while in the dark kingdom though. I give her credit for dedication but yeah it would have been cool to have seen her get some action as well.

Midna is the main heroine here instead. She’s rather jaded and has a hard time connecting with Link for a while there but ultimately she is here to help. The manga slightly plays up a bit of a romance there which will have you shaking your head but she does do pretty decently in terms of being around to support Link against the villains. Her dark magic seems to have a lot of versatile uses but she rarely gets involved in the actual fights which is a bit of a missed opportunity. Having her actually take down more of the bosses would be good since she does mainly consider herself to be a full fighter as well.

Part of her whole plan is getting Link here to take down the enemies but otherwise she had plans of her own so that would mean she should be able to fight at a high level too. Meanwhile Link does have a curse on him that keeps turning the guy into a wolf. That’s definitely a tough one to deal with since he naturally can’t fight as well in that form. He does his best but it’s definitely clear that this is a full nerf for him. He can’t lift a blade and mainly just takes Ls in that mode. I already know becoming a wolf in the game is going to be annoying since I can’t use my sword combos.

Zant is really the main villain here and he’s not bad but I do think he ends up falling in the shadow of Ganon the whole time. It’s just hard for him to get out from under that because they’re both very similar villains with a shadow motif. If the manga had taken him in a very different direction then that would be one thing and could work but when they’re this similar? You’re going to end up remembering the original more and the way the manga plays out, it doesn’t exactly make a compelling case for the guy.

So in the end he’s okay but I liked the concept of the villain more than the execution. Ganondorf is excellent as always though. His presence is felt and this design is still one of his all time best. It just works super well and you feel like this could be his strongest incarnation. The guy is able to hold his own in stats and ability with Link. Very few other characters can really hope to say that. It definitely makes for a great climax.

The best fight out of all of them though is likely when Link meets up with the Ocarina of Time version who is now a skeleton. Now that was a really intense fight. I was really glad that they incorporated the other Link into the mix like this. It’s something that really helped to make the story stand out as well. It adds in that crossover kind of feel to it even though it’s the same series. I’d still love to see a true crossover game someday with a lot of different Links running around. I’m not sure how likely that is…probably not very likely but it would be really cool.

The older Link really helps the modern one to refine his skills and also keep his mind at peace. Link tends to lose his cool at times and go into a rage but with all of the evil going on you certainly can’t blame him. He’s been through a lot, the difficult part is just that using rage diminishes the power of the Master Sword since it runs on justice. That could be a longer debate in and of itself since you’d think that falls under righteous justice but perhaps the sword doesn’t agree. One of the things Link learns over the course of the series is to let go of the revenge and focus purely on stopping the enemies.

Yes, he does stop them lethally but now it’s out of a pure desire to vanquish evil so it’s different. I do appreciate Link taking definitive measures here because in the wild realm of Hyrule it’s not like you can toss them into a prison cell. Half of the fights are happening in the wilderness and the middle of nowhere. He can’t just carry the guy back to Hyrule every time, that would definitely be a losing strategy.

I spent years reading this story until it finally ended so you’re definitely going to be lucky to be able to binge the whole series now that it’s over. The story will be even more seamless this way. Despite being such a long series compared to other Zelda titles, there isn’t a lot more to say about it as you already understand the formula. Link will go to each village/area and take the big boss down. It’s what he does and it’s why he is such a legendary hero. The bosses are all reasonably strong. Some are vicious creatures while others are humanoids. I wouldn’t say that any of them individually are super memorable but they work well in their roles as obstacles for the hero. Each of the lands are solid as well and I look forward to playing through the levels in the game.

The manga does full justice to the game and the story might be straight forward but it’s not rushed which I appreciate. Most titles are 2 volumes max for a game adaption and this one is over 4X longer. So they really make the most of this extra time by giving Link a lot of times to be introspective. We definitely learn way more about him here than we do in any other continuity. Oath of Lilto may be a lot shorter with a longer writeup but in a way that’s because of how different that title was. There were a bunch of characters to talk about and the whole DBZ art style. This one is playing things out more traditionally and ultimately it did end up being the better series so these things have a way of balancing themselves out. I would certainly recommend checking this series out first as the true definitive Link title. There’s actually time for him to interact with the people and friends he grew up with aside from saving the world. It makes the whole world feel very interconnected as Link continues to try and save the world.

Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a great Link title. It’s really got all of the elements of his adventure that you could want and this would be easy to translate into a TV show or movie series. In a lot of ways it may even be easier for the general audience than Ocarina of Time since no time travel is necessary this time. Whether you are familiar with the games or not, I definitely recommend this title though. It’s a quality fantasy adventure title no matter what kind of context you have for the title. The series gives you all the knowledge and context that you could ever need.

Overall 8/10

The Legend of Zelda: Oath of Lilto Review

Posted on June 30, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a Legend of Zelda title that is pretty different from a lot of the other ones. For starters, Link isn’t even the main character this time. Instead it’s about a kid who is trained by Link and so we have a lot of original villains and heroes running around. This one plays out like a pretty intense Shonen title from start to finish. At times it can be surprisingly intense to be sure, like a modern version of this would likely have to tone down some stuff. It’s interesting though because the tone tends to be light, it’s just that the violence wouldn’t have been seen as such a problem back then. It’s definitely a relic of its time but one that makes for a memorable read.

The series starts with Lilto being interested in studying the sword. The elder decides to train him for 10 years. After that point the village is attacked by 4 evil fighters who work for Ganon. They want the Triforce and will work to revive the evil lord. Even the elder is quickly defeated by one of the minions who works for the 4 but Lilto is able to draw the Master Sword and fight him off. This comes at the expense of his life though. In the afterlife Lilto trains with Link to better his skills and then has one more shot at life itself. Will he be able to save the world and make a difference or will these monsters be too much for him?

So when I’m talking about shock value and big violence, what am I talking about? Well, in the very first chapter the villains murder a bunch of babies. The murders are actually on screen and it’s super disturbing. Then of course we have people being cleaved in two, animals getting blown up, and it’s clear that this is a very dark world. The villains have a whole lot of influence here and without Link, the world has really gone into a bad place. The series has that light tone I’ve been talking about but mainly because it’s from Lilto’s perspective and the guy has a lot of hope in the future.

If you take a step back and look at it from the perspective of the average person living in the land, I’m sure they would not be feeling so great either. There’s just not a whole lot to feel great about here. It also shows how the world desperately needs Link because without him nothing goes too well. I actually wish Link could have appeared more in this title because he’s such a high quality title. It’s definitely a younger version of link like in the classic Adventure games but he still has his bravery and readyness to do the right thing. He’s patient with Lilto and even ends up being a solid teacher. Link still inspires heroism and taking down the villains even when he’s not the main character.

The main heroine Kalin is a solid enough character. Unfortunately for her she doesn’t have a whole lot of time to do much before getting kidnapped. It’s always tough when your screentime is so low but she was a good person from everything we have seen. Lilto naturally gets a lot more screentime here and does well within his scenes. He’s got a lot of confidence and tries hard. He feels like your classic Shonen lead. He may be out of his depth most of the time but still doesn’t back down from a fight so I can really appreciate that. Lilto gets stronger and stronger as the series goes on so he is eventually able to hold his own here. You might say that he’s a little on the generic side but all of his individual qualities are good so I have no issues here. He can almost feel like a younger Goku but if you know Dragon Quest then I’d say Dai is probably a better comparison.

Gonza is a hero who means well but does have a rather rocky start. He hypes himself up a little too much and as a result his skills really started to suffer. He needs to put more work in and also not sabotage other heroes along the way. So once he goes through his character arc then he’s on point. You never feel that Gonza is really in Lilto’s league but with his bombs and speed he can at least be a good support fighter as necessary.

Kaala is a girl who shows up later on to help the heroes out. She can fight which is always a big deal since there aren’t many good guys around in this era. She has good fundamentals and a solid amount of durability. Ultimately she may not do much against any of the important villains but it was still good to have her around. Without her the heroes would have been more outnumbered and everything. I liked her tough attitude the whole time. Definitely my kind of character there and she would have been even better if she could have had some kind of power up to keep pace with the others.

Haggis is the first of the big villains to make a move. He’s a very confident kind of fighter who thinks that he is above all of the other characters and you can see why. With his abilities he has likely not had a real challenge in some time. Even Lilto is unable to do much against him although there are some asterisks in their first meeting. He works well as a villain. The guy has an intimidating presence the whole time and is the most memorable out of the 4. As a character I can’t say that I care for him as his motives aren’t the best. He may be ambitious to be betraying everyone and trying to even take out Ganon but using Kalin for this doesn’t exactly win him any points.

The other generals look pretty bad though. Keep in mind that when you’re working for villains it’s not like you can ever trust any of them right? You should be looking out for yourself the whole time and making sure you don’t get stabbed in the back. These guys underestimated Haggis way too much and as a result they don’t get to do much of anything here. Even Ganon doesn’t look very good I would say. His plans didn’t work out the way that he wanted them to and in a large way I would say it’s because he also underestimated the other villains. This was his chance to really prove himself and instead he faltered when it counted. In the end the villain roster just wasn’t all that good.

Pretty much the whole series is focused on Haggis though so it was a trade off that the series made. I would say it’s one that worked reasonably well though. He definitely did feel like a very serious villain and I dare say that he really did hold his own. He was winning for most of his screen time after all and fought smart so it’s not like he’s one of those villains who lets it all go to his head.

The art is really excellent for the series though and definitely helps to elevate it to the next level. This is a manga where all of the fights look really intense. It helps that the series is styled on the DBZ type of artwork. All of the character designs and everything look like it as well. It means that even a more comedic character like Gonza looks really intense here. I always love to see this kind of artstyle too. It was really huge during the Beet and Dragon Quest eras. You may not see it as much anymore but trust me, it holds up really well.

The series is fairly short at 15 chapters long and as you can guess it has to get a little rushed towards the end. Put it this way, you have the 4 enemy generals and Ganon. Well, by the time you reach chapter 8 which is over halfway through the series, none of them have been defeated yet. That’ll probably get you thinking a little bit right? The series does its best not to feel too rushed but I would say that it absolutely happens regardless. There just isn’t a way around that. This is the kind of series that easily could have kept on going for another 4-5 volumes and I think that would have really allowed them time to flesh everyone out.

It’s not likely to ever happen but this definitely could make for a solid little anime. You could adapt it all quickly after all and it’s a classic fantasy story so it’s not like it ever goes out of style. Link could definitely use more animations considering how big the video game franchise is. The writing in the series was on point and all of the heroes were likable. I always have to give the author big credit there because that’s not always easy. For example the comic relief hero could have easily been annoying but he has enough solid scenes where you don’t mind the bravado. None of the heroes are written too extreme in either direction.

Then for someone like Kalin, at least she has a role beyond being a damsel in distress. She actually has powers of her own which is part of why the villains want her. While her hype comes at the expense of Ganon, she actively contributes to the story. That’s something I really enjoyed because it was definitely unexpected and it also makes me gain a lot of respect for her as a character as opposed to just sitting there and accepting her fate. Now that would have been a bad look.

Overall, This is definitely a very different take on the Legend of Zelda. If you enjoy the main stories then you should still have a good time here though. Link himself may not be here to take a starring role but the series still plays out in a similar way to as it would if he was there. He’d probably be dominating a little more than Lilto but it’s not like their personalities are completely different either. There’s enough common elements between the two to make it all work. The series goes by fast and while it goes down a bit of a different path than you may have expected due in part to it being rushed, it’s a quality story. It’s held back a bit by some of the shock value and violence but mainly that’s all at the beginning of the series. After that the DBZ action is prioritized a whole lot more which works better. The power levels definitely make you really look at the series different and I’d like the main LoZ games to go into that a bit more. Link is really powerful, it’s just that the game style doesn’t always show it.

Overall 6/10

Call of the Night Review

Posted on June 23, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for some vampire stuff running around. Naturally you know that vampires isn’t quite my main genre and this being a romance/slice of life title it doesn’t quite raise the stocks here. Ultimately it is better than the average vampire title but I would still give it a thumbs down in the end. The ending definitely doesn’t work out very well and the characters should have handled things very differently. At least we avoided a decent amount of blood sucking but of course it still does happen sometimes.

The story starts off by introducing us to Ko who is just depressed. On the surface his life seems fine. He is very popular at school and has a lot of friends. His grades are good and so life should be fine but he feels like he has no real purpose. So he wanders around at night and one day bumps into a vampire named Nazuna. She tends to be rather bored with her immortality too and the two decide to become friends. It’s a bit transactional but hey Ko doesn’t mind his blood being drained. Now he would rather hang out with her than continue his daily life but it looks like he’s starting to become part vampire too. Will this complicate his life?

Part of that premise is pretty fun because the idea of walking around outside sounds very enjoyable. In a dream world without crime I’d certainly like to try it sometimes because it’s a whole different environment and the views would be great. I’d never try that in real life though because that’s how you vanish. Yeah statistically speaking you’d be fine but I don’t really take chances like that. So I can see why Ko enjoys this and it’s something different to do. It also feels rather “taboo” in a sense so he finds it exciting since it’s his chance to break the social rules.

The series also handles his depression well. Sometimes you don’t have to be depressed because of some big sob story or a huge event. It could be as simple as you wake up one day and just wonder what you’ve been doing with your life. In a way Ko has been playing a character while at school and has been unable to really be himself. Now with Nazuna he finally has a person who really understands him or at least he feels that way. Of course it does rope him into a lot of trouble but in a way this is what he has been looking for so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Nazuna is fairly reasonable and won’t drain him dry. That may not be the case for other vampires though so Ko has to watch out. He’s introduced to a whole vampire group of sorts with some girls who think that he’s a liability. Fortunately Nazuna has a lot of clout and physical strength so they aren’t quite able to mess with him in any way like that. Nazuna always has his back which is good. Ko really wants to be a vampire though and may not understand the full gravity of that so a lot of the series is really about this. There are no takebacks after all. Once you’re a vampire you have to avoid the sun and you will be immortal. So if you get bored of being a vampire after 200 years, well that’s tough.

As the series goes on we also find some difficult truths out about becoming a vampire. If the vampire really loves you as you are drained, then they will die so the vampire is turned will be all alone. It’s a risky gambit there especially since Ko thinks he is in love with her but what about Nazuna? You have to assume that the whole concept of love and romance will be very difficult once you have been alive for so long. The feelings are just way different by that point.

The series also spends a lot of time on vampire society as a whole. It’s mainly a big secret from the masses. There are legends and stories but it all gets suppressed rather well and so there are no big wars going on between humans and vampires. This series isn’t really about action so that makes sense although I do wonder a bit how that’s really sustainable. There aren’t a lot of vampires running around as it’s a fairly small group but you still do feel like leaks would be impossible to stop and eventually the government would be aware of what’s going on. Ah well, I guess that’s just how it goes.

The world building is fairly detailed and you could just say that vampires have the edge here. They can drain people in secret and when that person wakes up they likely won’t remember anything. Since the vampires are mainly very responsible the risk isn’t quite as big as it would usually be. If the vampire population starts to grow then this would be more of an issue which is also where part of the concern in turning Ko into one starts to come in.

Akira is Ko’s childhood friend and she is concerned about him the whole time. Ultimately there’s not a whole lot that she is able to do for him so she tends to take a backseat here. I thought she was a good friend though and someone who always wanted to help him out. So I appreciate her dedication there and she was friends with both Ko and Mahiru so she helped keep the balance even when things got a little tense between them. She may not have had the most conclusive ending but her role in the series was certainly rather large.

Mahiru gets a big role too but he’s more on the annoying side the whole time. He is another kid who is really popular at school but is really faking it the whole time. His home isn’t the best environment to grow up with as his brother died a long time ago and the parents never really got over with. He falls in love with one of the vampires named Kiku and that starts him down a dicey path. For starters he wants to really become a vampire and starts to get super jealous of Ko. If he handled this reasonably then I wouldn’t have minded so much but the guy is just super petty about everything. He picks fights and generally seems like a bad natured guy.

I think the series was trying to have a nuanced take about the guy but he just felt really sub par the whole time instead. I couldn’t root for him and while I sympathized a bit with the backstory, it didn’t excuse his actions in the present. So he didn’t have the greatest ending but it’s hard to feel too bad for the guy. He made his choices every step of the way and there’s not much that you can really do about that. At that point it’s really all about what he wants to do.

As for Kiku, you could call her the main villain of the series. Like I said this isn’t an action series first and foremost but when she shows up we do get some real action. She has several fight scenes and proves herself to be one of the most powerful vampires in the series. Her years of experience have really allowed her to hone her skills and it was always fun to see the action scenes happening. As a character I would say she was rather tragic. Basically she really couldn’t understand the concept of love and needed to finally succeed. The problem is that in the wake of this she would keep on turning people and then ditching them which led them to commit crimes and cause a lot of trouble.

She’s irresponsible to put it mildly and definitely deserves to be called a big villain here. It goes without saying that I couldn’t get behind her romance with Mahiru. The age difference is rather massive and while it will eventually get relative once they have turned, it’s definitely not the play right now. This series is all about being a slow burn romance so even Ko and Nazuna’s takes a while but at least that one has a much better build up to it. Nazuna doesn’t have any older memories so she is fairly young relative to the other vampires as well. It makes for a much better dynamic there.

One of the big characters in the series is Anko who is a big vampire hunter. The fact that there is such a profession does at least show that there are a decent amount of vampires out there who re actually evil. I do think this starts to break down the world building about the general public not knowing about these things but for now we will just say that she is super good at her job so she takes them out that fast. She is an interesting character who works as a third party for most of the series. Everyone has to watch out for her.

Her character definitely gets watered down once she turns good but until that point she makes for a very imposing villain. Certainly not someone that you want to mess with. It is a little hard to take her seriously though because you feel like she should stand absolutely no chance against the vampires. They have super speed, super strength, and a whole host of abilities that should be so far above hers that it wouldn’t be a contest. The series does little to convince me otherwise. She would be absolutely blown away as soon as the match started so I don’t see how she has any success here.

The series does invent an interesting weakness system which is that you can destroy a vampire by destroying the item most precious to that person. The main tricky thing about this is it’s really hard to figure this out. In most cases the vampire will figure it out first so they can just hide it somewhere and that’s it. Remember that they can fly and have super speed so finding a good hiding spot will be easy. Just fly to a mountain and drop it off somewhere. Boom, no way Anko will ever find it. So yes this is why I say she’s outgunned.

The first of the vampire cabal is Seri who definitely suffers from the power creep here. She is wrecked in her brief “fight” with Anko which made no sense but it is what it is. She shows up early on to mess with Ko but to give the kid credit he really does only have eyes for Nazuna. I can definitely respect that and it’s part of why I can buy into the romance there way more than the average one. Seri is a nice person though and afterwards acts as a very reliable figure. She treats her followers well too.

Nico is more of a tough vampire or at least she puts up that front. In general all of the members of the group are nice enough. I don’t feel like her role ever got quite as big as the others but it’s fairly relative since again, the series does give everyone their own mini arc during the course of the series. Kabura gets a rather massive role as she is involved in quite a few twists. She can be rather cold to everyone for the most part but Nazuna’s an exception. I wouldn’t say that she’s one of the more likable characters or anything but is definitely useful as someone to deliver a bunch of info dumping.

Midori is another character who tries to mess with Ko at first but quickly gets with the program. She’s not bad although I wouldn’t say her dynamic with her followers is quite as healthy as some of the other characters. In general a lot of the humans who were turned by the vampires really just exist to simp over them now. It’s not a particularly glorifying way to be presented but that’s just how it goes. It’s a rough fate and you hope that more of them can find their own kind of purpose. Like at least one guy know show to talk formally now with all of his m’lady stuff. While he also feels kind of desperate at times, I at least like his personality and that he can even work as a love coach at times.

Kei was a fairly solid character. She may be super busy since she had to raise Ko on her own but she can always tell when something’s bothering him. She is always there for him even without being a hovering kind of character and gives really good advice. Her parenting style works well and I thought she was super reasonable the whole time. If anything Ko’s actions would make most parents panic so she went well above the average there.

Susuki is a random vampire who shows up later on once the series went into its battle phase. She was a prodigy in combat who was really doing good in her opening battle. It’s a shame that she didn’t stick around, I actually think she would have defeated Kiku. Her role may have been small but it definitely left an impact. Azami is another vampire who showed up during the action phase. He can fight rather well but I wouldn’t call him a top tier. For example I think Kiku and Susuki would definitely be able to take him out. He’s a good training mode type fighter though.

Then we have Haruka who is rather desperate. I was glad Ko beat him up. He definitely misuses his vampire abilities and while he may have changed his ways, it’s hard to say. I suppose all of the vampires misuse their abilities in order to feed but the way Haruka did it just feels particularly devious with his mind control going on and everything. That just seems to be something that only a villain would do under normal circumstances right? That’s just me though.

We learn about Haru, Nazuna’s mother later on. I wasn’t a big fan of hers. She is certainly very outgoing and talkative but I do think she could have handled things way better so that Nazuna wouldn’t have been in the dark about everything. Haru is someone who plunged ahead into new adventures and fun all the time without planning ahead and that’s something that can and will often be a big problem the longer you do it.

So there’s quite a large set of characters here. Some interesting ones to be sure but the best ones who came in during the action segment just don’t last long enough. It can also be easy to mix up some characters occasionally because of the art style. In particular a few of the vampires from the cabal look kind of similar. The art is very rough, I would put it under most other manga titles that I’ve read but it’s still readable of course. Since there aren’t many fight scenes it’s not like there is a lot to worry about here.

The ending is one that I was not a fan of as I mentioned before though. It’s just not very satisfying at all and I would have handled things way better. I think you gotta either go with the full sad ending or a very upbeat one but this tries to do a little bit of both and sort of fails on both sides. It’s not one of the worst manga endings or anything like that though, it just could have been a lot better.

In 20 volumes a lot of story certainly happens so you don’t have to worry about a lack of content. There isn’t always a full ongoing plot but there are mini arcs here like different school trips and of course the battle with Kiku. In general those arcs were more fun than the standard slice of life stuff but I suppose it depends on the arc. It’s an interesting slow burn but the vampire stuff just messes it up more than help the series. Some characters like Anko should have held onto the grudge against Kiku the whole time. Bumping her off in a full fight would have been nice considering what she did to Anko’s father. I don’t see how you really get past that.

The series is about emotions a lot of course so I suppose grief and rage are just more examples of those. If the series had fully committed to being an action title then I think things would have gone better. Ultimately it just wasn’t really up my alley. Maybe if they threw in some more comedy that would be another way to go up aside from action scenes. The series takes itself rather seriously and there’s no problem with that necessarily but in general I do prefer rom-coms to rom-drams. Any scene of the characters getting drained or Ko pressuring Nazuna to drain him can be annoying. It’s like peer pressured blood draining. The world also seems like a depressing place in general with vampires draining people at night without their knowledge and the victims who get turned are stuck for eternity in a rather sad existence. In a way because of how seriously all the themes are played, the series isn’t quite able to spin this into a positive.

Ko and Mahiru definitely do their part in bringing the series down a bit. Mahiru because he’s just a pretty bad character and the whole romance is one that just makes you shake your head. Ko because he’s really not that interesting. That may sound harsh for just not being all that interesting but I would have liked him to have had more goals or some kind of definitive character ending. It just feels like he didn’t move on much and in some ways may have regressed with having to keep up a front again. Maybe have him be able to handle Nazuna’s constant stream of suggestive dialogue with some banter. The only time he stops her is when he tries to be romantic which isn’t really the same thing.

Overall, Call of the Night is a fairly big romance title and it’s impressive that it lasted for 20 volumes. Each character gets a whole lot of development so even though the cast isn’t huge, you get to know all of them rather well. If you were to remove the vampire aspect entirely I think the series would work better. Ko would meet people during his nightly adventures and in that way discover a whole new world. The vampire stuff just adds more blood sucking which is never a great idea as those scenes tend to be rather gross. The art can be really rough but it’s not as if that’s a dealbreaker. If you can get past the vampire stuff then you have a reasonable slice of life title here. It may not always be the most engaging but it is a very calm series so you can pick it up and read at any point. For the most part you should be able to easily understand what’s going on.

Overall 4/10

Bass: Time of Reunion Review

Posted on June 22, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a oneshot about the best character in all of media. Bass has returned and he’s ready to really dominate as always. Many people forget this but Bass is the strongest character of all time. Who can possibly challenge the guy? Well, in this chapter some tough fighters like Megaman try but they are definitely found lacking. It’s nothing to be ashamed about though, it was…inevitable.

The special starts off with Searchman and the army trying to take down Bass but they are quickly routed. Surprisingly he spares their lives. They then go over to Lan and Chaud to ask for their help. Basically Dr. Cossack is dying and he wants a chance to say his final goodbyes to Bass. They all figure Bass won’t come quietly so they’ll have to try and defeat him. Lan agrees to help since he’s ready for a fight and Chaud’s not one to be left out. Do they really have a chance though or is this a suicide mission? One wrong move and they may end up being confined to oblivion!

Trying to mess with Bass definitely doesn’t sound like a good idea under any circumstances. Serenade makes a quick appearance and also confirms that this may be ill advised. For starters, trying to kidnap Bass to make him meet up with Cossack seems a little iffy right? That’s not a great reason to kidnap someone in general. It’s certainly not as if the planet is at stake or anything like that. So that’s the first problem here. Then of course there is also the matter of his power. Serenade crushes Megaman and Protoman while admitting that Bass is even fiercer. Still, they are eager to try.

It was fun to see Serenade for sure. Then in terms of the actual fight, the art is top tier as always. It’s great to see Bass taking everyone on again like in the good ole days. People forget but Bass was the original powerhouse. He speed blitzes Megaman and Protoman while dealing massive damage the whole time. It’s great to see that he has not lost a step. Even with Hubstyle and Double Souls combined, it’s clear that Megaman wasn’t quite strong enough to be of any real danger to Bass. Bass wasn’t afraid of anything the whole time, nor should he have been. He doesn’t even have to resort to Beast Out or his own Hubstyle at this point. He’s just at a completely different level.

One thing you will notice is that Bass is quite a bit nicer here. He seems to have mellowed out a whole lot since the events of the manga to the point where he actually spares people at times and doesn’t mind talking things out. The old Bass would never have humored the heroes the way that he did here. He’s definitely had a whole lot of character development over the years. So it all works out okay here but I do agree with Serenade that Megaman and Protoman were in the wrong the whole time. So if Bass had wanted to murder them then he would have been fully in his rights to do so. You can’t just go trying to take someone down like this.

I wouldn’t say that the oneshot opens the door to future sequels I’m afraid. So don’t get your hopes up for that but even just getting another look into the world was fun. Megaman NT Warrior is still my favorite manga of all time and everything is exactly as it was. The art still looks super intense and the writing is on point. It just goes to show that there are still a ton of different stories you could do within the series. There is a lot of ground left to uncover. It may be tough to come up with enemies who can be a real threat at this point but then you could do some prequels or something. Lets just get more Megaman content around.

Overall, This is a really fun one shot. I’m also impressed at how long it was. It’s almost like a full volume with around 100 pages at the ready. The author really knows how to craft a good story. Outside of the battles the humor was also pretty fun. I liked the banter between Lan and Chaud. They definitely haven’t missed a beat there. The series always had top tier action but would take a break for some comedy every once in a while. It’s a good mix I would say. You should definitely check this out. It’ll really be very nostalgic as well.

Overall 8/10

Mega Man World 3 Review

Posted on June 19, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for another Mega Man adventure! This time around we actually have a full volume’s worth of chapters to tackle Mega Man World 3 so the pacing is a whole lot better. This is much more in line with what an adaption of a video game ought to be. Each robot master and his stage get a decent amount of screen time before Mega Man dispatches them. This is why he is the Blue Bomber, the hero of legend. He will continue to fight and win for as long as humanity needs him.

The story starts with Mega Man visiting a beach while on vacation and looking forward to having a good time. He seems surprisingly lazy as he isn’t thrilled to help Roll out with the preparations but reluctantly he does his part. The festivities are short lived though when it turns out that wily is causing chaos to unfold on the planet. He has a bunch of evil robot masters and together they are doing a bunch of evil things. The only way to stop them will be for Mega Man to destroy each and every robot master. Does he have what it takes to vanquish these foes though or is it all over?

Like I said, this time each of the bosses gets something to do so I definitely appreciated that. Mega Man actually has to contend with each of their special abilities and figure out how to counter them. In quite a few of the boss battles they even show him using the weapon that is super effective against the boss. Works like a guidebook to an extent and the series even gives tips about some sections within the manga itself. So that’s some really nice attention to detail and it’s the little stuff like that which makes you feel like the writer was really paying attention to the game. He knows exactly what was going on with the levels and was given enough of a page count to do it justice.

It also has an extra impact since I just played through the game and I recognized all of the areas that were referenced here. The manga feels like an extended boss rush of sorts you could say as the main focus here at all times is for Mega Man to thoroughly crush everyone in his way. He really doesn’t get a break as he will beat one boss, then the next one shows up, then an army of minions appears, etc. It’s a good thing that as a robot he doesn’t get tired because otherwise he would really be in rough shape there. It’s not easy being the Blue Bomber but someone’s go to do it.

The art looks pretty solid here. Perhaps not out of this world or anything like that but it certainly does the job and leaves you satisfied. The action scenes are al on point and the artist draws the characters well. Everyone is immediately recognizable and the pages are very easy to read. It’s part of why you will be blasting through the series because the quality is so good.

Mega Man is the kind of franchise that was made to have a bunch of manga titles. It’s a simple plot that is still always an interesting one. The storylines for each of the games always guarantee that you will be getting a lot of action as well. So it’s really a win/win no matter how you slice it. What I would like to see down the road is Proto Man or Bass showing up though. Even if they weren’t in the game, at least give them a cameo in the manga or something right? That would be awesome. The secret boss for this game was Punk and he get a solid appearance. I’ve always liked his EXE counterpart and I can safely say that the classic one is good too. He really gave Mega Man a tough time.

Overall, Mega Man World 3 is definitely a fun Mega Man story. I wouldn’t say it stands out per say as you will probably mix it up with other Mega Man stories eventually but it still does execute every scene rather well. So even if it is by the numbers, there are no real negatives that I had with it. I could easily recommend the title to any fan of a good action title or if you just wanted a quick read. It’s an entertaining story after all with themes that anyone can appreciate. Sometimes you have to stand up and save the world even when it’s hard. If it was even longer then we could have really dove into some scenes outside of the battles but the author really had the priorities straight here. Most importantly, the manga is just fun to read and that’s always an automatic W.

Overall 7/10

Mega Man World Review

Posted on June 19, 2024 by dreager1

I just got to play the game boy games for this title so seeing it in manga form is interesting. Ultimately what keeps it from a higher score is how short the title is though. There are 2 chapters, they have 20 and 18 pages respectively. In those 38 total pages they have to adapt the first two games so as you would expect there isn’t a whole lot of time to really go through the story. Some characters end up missing out entirely and other bosses are downed in a single hit. What this means is you’re sort of seeing an abridged version of the games. I’d have liked to have had a more extended look at the series but at the end of the day I’d still prefer to have an extended version over not having it at all. So in the end I’m still reasonably satisfied here.

The story starts with Wily destroying the city and so Mega Man asks Dr. Light to let him fight. Light equips the kid with a Mega Buster and gives him the iconic Mega Man armor. Now our brave hero is ready to face off against Wily and does so with ease. Cutman and Elecman are the only ones to get real fights as Mega Man gets used to combat. From there he one shots all other opponents as he gets into the zone. Poor Wily is forced to run off and that’s how the adventure goes. It’s a good story but again just so super short.

The second story really follows the same beats here. Only difference is this time Mega Man one shots all of the bosses until he runs up against the alternate, evil future version of himself. This time we get an actual fight as he has to try and win while also realizing that he is destroying his own future. It makes for a pretty good dilemma and also makes the second chapter feel like it has more of an actual story. Wily having to go to the future here is definitely not something that I was expecting the manga to have time to get into.

It reinforces what a genius Wily is and how he will go to great lengths to ensure that he gets the outcome that he wants. He is definitely not the kind of guy that you want to make an enemy out of, that’s for sure. Dr. Light still did good in making Mega Man or at least helping Wily to make him but I wish he would do more during the series. If I saw him being more proactive on a daily basis then that would definitely raise his stocks in my eyes. I want to see him using his own wits to help protect the planet.

The artwork is fairly solid. It’s got more of a retro feel to it with how wide the eyes can be. The battle scenes look good and the pages are easy to follow. Clearly the focus of the manga was not on fights so they are fast but the images that we do get are pretty solid. I definitely didn’t have any issues here, the adventure works pretty well on all accounts. If anything the fact that I think it’s too short shows that this was a quality title since I think there is more they could have done with it.

Overall, Mega Man World is definitely a good manga but it goes by in a flash. The good news is that means you can read is super fast so there’s no excuse not to check it out. Just give up 10-15 minutes of your day and you are all good. That’s not a huge investment right? It’s always fun to check out Mega Man stories and this one was no exception. It’s just a well balanced story all around with a wholesome ending and good writing. If you enjoy this one a lot then you should follow up by checking out Mega Man Gigamix which is still the definitive story for the classic version.

Overall 6/10

Rockman-san Review

Posted on June 16, 2024 by dreager1

Now this is a manga that I wish had kept on going for a very long time. It tackles a ton of very interesting topics and took a very different approach from the usual Mega Man product. There was a ton of potential here so it was a shame to see it end so quickly. Either people didn’t resonate with it quite as much as I would have expected or the author just didn’t want to continue. Either way I had a really good time with this one. It’s a story that I shall not forget any time soon!

The story starts off in a world that has already lived through all of the Mega Man adventures. The robots all work different jobs in the city and Wily no longer actively threatens the planet. Mega Man doesn’t even have his combat suit on much anymore as he just patrols the world as a normal citizen. The thing is, a lot of robots don’t really feel like they have a purpose in the world anymore. What are they to do now that there are no more battles to be fought? Some of them actively fight depression while others did find a new calling. Things threaten to be changed forever though when a conspiracy appears about a town that was wiped off the face of the Earth. It looks like the divide between robots and humans is about to grow ever larger and Mega Man will be forced to choose a side. Will he aid the humans, or the robots?

You might not be surprised by this but I didn’t really support the humans much at all in this one. I found them to be incredibly unreasonable and downright annoying at times. They were looking out for themselves the whole time and not the robots. In fact, the humans were still making the case that robots were disposable and at one point they decide to melt them all. Naturally a lot of the robots rebel against this. They’re already being treated as second class citizens but this is taking things a step even further.

It represents a permanent mindset that can’t really be fixed in the Mega Man series. No matter how much personality some of the robots get, they continue to be treated poorly and thought of as just machines the whole time. It’s really unfortunate because a lot of the robots have tried really hard to fit in. The whole first half of the series is about showing us how hard the robots are working and all of the mental tolls it has taken on them. The humans just ignore this to try and wipe them all out which is absolutely crazy.

Naturally two wrongs don’t make a right so you still don’t want the robots to be murdering anyone. Thing is, they aren’t. They rebel by blowing up the facilities and freeing other robots from their controlled states but that’s it. Perhaps that would change in time but at least for the moment, they were not doing anything wrong even while the humans were still causing problems. Right up to the end, the robots are trying to leave the planet and find a new home and the humans are still trying to blow them up.

I feel like the writer was on the robots side here and didn’t like Dr. Light. It’s pure speculation on my part but Dr. Light looks awful in the series so it tracks. He just allow the government to do whatever they want and he barely talks against it. He’s the exact guy that you would not want to have in your corner. You know that you would quickly be sold out at any point. Even if he just does nothing, that’s still a net negative because you are counting on him to help you. Both Dr. Wily and Dr. Cossack look considerably better than Light in their brief cameos. They at least try to inform the world of the incoming threats and everything.

Again this is not an action series first and foremost though. In most cases Mega Man tries to resolve things with words. It’s only when there is no other course of action that he dons the Mega Buster. In some ways it is disappointing to see him ally with the humans but that’s just the way he has always been. He is also just trying to make sure that nobody gets hurt and figures the humans need to be protected. The main problem is it implies that a part of him also doesn’t feel like the robots are sentient or else he would be helping them too right? That’s a topic that comes up several times here.

I don’t give Mega Man much grief here because he was clearly trying his best to find the optimal answer here. He wasn’t giving up or being passive here. He just kept on trying to get more information the whole time so that he could make an informed decision. Even for robots he tried not to hurt anyone. So yeah he’s a really good hero even if his instincts aren’t always right. Additionally he gets to look fantastic in the fight scenes. When he actually does fight, he tends to blow his opponents away. They just don’t stand a chance and that’s against a heavily suppressed Mega Man who is rusty in terms of combat.

This is fully deserved though. I am glad to see Mega Man being portrayed as the ultimate robotic fighter that he is. There should not be any fighter who can stand up to him at this point. Only exceptions would be Proto Man or Bass but they don’t appear in this story. Instead Mega Man’s rival is a guy named Enker. His role initially is to try and destroy Mega Man but then for most of the series his mission is to protect Dr. Light. He has a lot of good comedic moments but also looks good when it comes time to be serious. He’s a solid character and I like how his arc played out. He definitely ended up being one of the more memorable characters.

The ending to the series isn’t quite as satisfying though. It’s really abrupt with everything still going on. I’m always up for a good cliffhanger of course but it felt less like a cliffhanger and more like a complete loss for robot kind. I feel like the Earth is about to get a whole lot worse now. If the humans decide to go after Mega Man we already know that Dr. Light won’t do anything and what is even worse is that Mega Man may not decide to stop them. Taking a punishment that you don’t deserve is no good.

The artwork is pretty great as you would expect. There is a lot of detail in the series and all of the character designs are on point. They did a good job with Mega Man’s new design as well. It’s one that makes sense with the character and ties in well with his attempts to be more human. When we do get some action scenes, they really pop out. The artist would clearly do extremely well in a full on action based series. It really helps to enhance the manga as well.

While the first half may be a little bit on the slow side, I do like the mystery that kept on building up towards the climax about the villains making their move. I was like Detective Conan where you would get one nugget every few chapters. It’s kind of like that but for less time of course since the series isn’t all that long. It makes the stand alone chapters work well but additionally I was liking them anyway because it was interesting to see what each robot master was up to. This is the kind of series that worked really well as a slice of life title and then it also worked really well as a more serious plot based one. So they were really covering all of the bases on this one.

Now lets go on a final tally on which side I was in for each of the debates. The humans ordered all robots to be disarmed and then hunted down the ones that did not comply. Naturally I’m with the robots on this one. If you disarm them all they will be completely defenseless for when the humans get up to trouble and that always happens at some point. I already talked about the humans orders for them to all be melted down so that position is rather obvious I would think.

Then when the robots are trying to leave the humans want to blow them up to make sure they are not a threat later on. As you can surely guess, I was not a fan of that either. So no matter how you slice it, the humans were wrong in every single case. I think the dangerous thing is how a lot of their laws were going through with no real opposition. Mega Man didn’t even realize the robots were losing so many rights. More specifically he didn’t see it as a kind of oppression and was just on board with it from the start. He saw nothing wrong with it and basically had to be informed by the robots.

This is all before the whole conspiracy even appears which makes things even worse. The whole story serves as a cautionary tale of the classic corrupt government story. It’s good to be a hero and all but you have to be careful who you’re fighting for. Ultimately Mega Man has no regrets in saving the world so many times which is a good thing but for sure things are going in a rather dangerous place right now and he has to adapt. This manga should have been stretched to 100 chapters and you really could have done a deep dive into the topics.

Overall, Rockman-San is a great manga and a very interesting title in general. I feel like we’ll never see anything quite like this one again even though it is super interesting. I want to see more of this era from after the battles. Of course there are still a lot of fights going on with different factions being chosen. The series does transition into more of a battle manga for the second half and this balance really could have been kept for a long time. It asks you to really think carefully about the issues and see how you would respond. I don’t think Mega Man responded particularly well but maybe you will agree with him. It’s not a straight forward yes or no depending on how you view the situation. I would definitely recommend checking it out though. Even if you’re not a Mega Man fan, it plays out like Pluto where you can understand the themes well enough and weigh in on the debate. In fact Pluto is the best comparison to make, if you liked Pluto then you’ll enjoy this one. Rockman-san is not nearly as dark or as intense but does tackle a lot of the same themes of robots and humans.

Overall 8/10

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Review

Posted on May 19, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time to talk about peak fiction and by that I mean Boruto of course. It’s no surprise that initially a lot of people were rather down on the series. Sequels can often be met with a lot of skepticism at first because you’re worried at how they’re going to humiliate the old characters in favor of the new ones. Well I can say not to worry because Boruto is actually a great series. Yes, the old protags are done extremely dirty and the power levels get kind of crazy but at the end of the day the series does a lot of things exceptionally well.

The series picks up after the first series ends with the world finally at peace. Unfortunately becoming Hokage has gone to Naruto’s head and he has started to shirk his family duties to do paperwork all day. Gone are the days of Naruto being the ultimate family man and this has caused his son Boruto to resent him. Boruto has no interest in becoming Hokage and just wants to be a cool ninja so Naruto can acknowledge him. Unfortunately it won’t be so simple as more aliens are arriving on the planet and seem to do battle. Can he surpass his father and put these guys in their place?

For me personally, I actually get really excited whenever there is a big sequel. I love to see all of my favorite characters in a new setting. Did they keep up with their training and how quickly will they be power creeped? As long as it isn’t overly disrespectful to the old characters I’m generally okay with them being crushed and anything like that. The old characters actually get a fairly big role at first and it starts to lessen as the series goes on but they’re always relevant which is nice. This is a true sequel in that sense and not some thing 100 years in the future when everyone is dead.

To address the elephant in the room, I don’t think the art is all that great. The images I chose here are some of the worst so don’t think that the whole series looks like this but my main problem is that it often ends up getting too cluttered the more the series goes on. In some ways I would say it actually looked clearer before. Take the image of Naruto that I attached in this review. Sure people may poke fun at it but it is easy to read and you know that’s Naruto right off the bat. I’ll take simple art like that which clearly shows who we’re supposed to be talking about over something that’s more on the vague side any time. That’s just the way to go. Still, it’s not bad but I would consider the art to be the weakest part of the series.

Now let me address the next biggest part, what about Naruto and Sasuke? These two were absolute beasts in combat before. They are the strongest Shinobi on the planet. Well, for some reason Naruto never gave Sasuke his arm back and I could see that being for emotional reasons but still it’s a slight nerf. You’d still expect them to absolutely dog walk any opponent in the series and that doesn’t really happen. Delta actually gives Naruto a good fight for a while there. Then later on, Naruto and Sasuke struggle rather hard against Momoshiki, they get absolutely clobbered by Jigen, and they get humiliated by Isshiki.

They are consistently shown to be old news at this point. They get just enough hype to be used as hype tools for the villain but they aren’t winning the fights. So why do I still love Boruto? Lets face it, there’s nothing wrong with a little power creep. I do think that the way it is written doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. You can’t tell me that Naruto would be fodder with Sage mode when Boruto was holding his own against Kawaki while still being really young. It seems to be that Naruto and Sasuke were heavily nerfed to give Boruto his chance in the sun. I completely get fans being upset about it but in general power levels are not the kind of thing that I deduct points for. It hurts yeah and I definitely will always bring power levels up but at the end of the day I’m more concerned with portrayal.

In that sense, Sasuke still looks really good. He may have calmed down a whole lot since the old days but he’s still the tough rival. With his Rinnegan abilities he actually serves as more of a threat than Naruto at times. I would like to see him use the sharingan more often to one shot opponents immediately but in general he gets a lot of hype for being a tactical mastermind. He’s absolutely one of the highlight characters of the series. He did a lot in making Boruto a better character by showing him the true way of the shinobi. He’s still not quite what I would call a family man but he’s someone you can depend on.

As for Naruto….uh oh. Now here’s something the series did drop the ball with. There is still no possible explanation for why Naruto would have ditched his family like this. He doesn’t even attend Himawari’s birthday in person which crushes her and infuriates Boruto. From the dialogue we see that he hasn’t had time for them for years at this point. I’ve heard every excuse in the book for this but none of them stick. You want to know why? Shadow Clones. For a guy who can make thousands and thousands of these, there is no actual reason why he can’t just have a shadow clone doing the Hokage paperwork. You see all the memes all the time of how the previous Hokage handled the business better.

Is Naruto just a bad Hokage? I mean that’s possible but kind of a depressing thought. So Naruto was character assassinated early on. This was all for a character arc where Boruto gets him back into his prime self but that sure took a while and didn’t make sense. After that though he is back to being the Naruto we grew up with. He has a lot of great moments and it’s just really nice to see him again. We rarely get to see the main character after he has achieved his dream so this is really an honor. It’s another reason why I love the series, just seeing Naruto and Sasuke again is a blast. It’s why I will always appreciate Dragon Ball Super as well for all its faults. We get to see Goku and Vegeta again. It’s a bit different since they’re more or less the same age but it is still a vehicle for getting way more moments than what we had before so it works out really well.

Okay…so this review’s been way more about Naruto than Boruto so far but that makes sense since that’s what happens in real life as well. There are so many people I’ve seen online who basically skipped to the moments involving the original characters and ignore the Boruto stuff. Hopefully they’ve changed their ways though because it is great. So lets talk about that now. To do that, we have to start with the main character Mr. Boruto Uzumaki himself! This is the kind of character who can easily hold his own series.

At first I was more indifferent about Boruto. He was a nice enough main character but there wasn’t much to him. He was a little whiny at times and also cheated on an exam. Well, here’s where the character development really starts to come into play. He goes from that to being one of the more mature leads who really talks a good game. He absolutely dishes out the disrespect against all of the villains and it was great. At one point he was smack talking in every single chapter for quite a long time. That’s the kind of energy I want to see. Boruto doesn’t put up with any nonsense from anyone. He also does feel like a bit of a mix of Naruto and Sasuke. Boruto can make some good speeches and knows what it means to be a hero but he’s also more aggressive like Sasuke and will just start fighting at times.

There was a whole lot of pressure on Boruto himself in order for this series to be good and he definitely pulled it off. He held his own really well and so the series was able to take off. The fact that we already have a new sequel series for the time skip is super impressive. I expected that Boruto would still keep going for many years but this one only ended because the sequel was coming out which barely counts as ending. So in a way I still feel like I was right, you know what I mean?

As the main heroine, Sarada is solid as well. She has a hard time keeping up with Boruto here so as the series goes on her role gets smaller and smaller but she fights hard and does her best. It’s always fun to have more Uchiha fighters in the mix and the fact that she wants to become Hokage is a nice change of pace here. You would have expected that it would be Boruto and instead he went in the opposite way. I wouldn’t be shocked if he eventually makes that his aim though. If that happens then it could be hard for her since he is the son of the Hokage after all. For now at least it’s nice to see that the modern version of Team 7 actually gets along really well.

The third member of the group is Mitsuki and he’s not bad but he really gets the shaft in this series. He just doesn’t get a chance to show off what he can do even though we know that he should be pretty strong. If there’s any main criticism for the Boruto series, it’s that the supporting cast rarely get anything to do. They’re around to be sure but for the most part this is purely the Boruto series. If you’re not directly related to him or crucial to his story then that’s it. Interestingly the anime sort of works as an extension of the series so it you really want the side characters then you have to watch the anime. As far as the manga goes, you’ll barely know who half of the new Genin 11 even are.

The first main arc is about the Chunin Exams. Team Boruto is entering to finally get their ranks up and in the meantime the next two aliens are here to cause some trouble. It’s a great way to kick things off. Yes, it keeps the old characters in the mix to start the ratings off on a high note and then in theory you stick around for the new characters. I actually think this is a fairly good idea as a transition. It’s also a pretty good arc in general if you take power levels out of the equation. Again you won’t really care about most of the kids introduced but the villains are solid.

Kinshiki and Momoshiki are sort of like Kaguya. They show up with crazy feats and start messing with everyone. Kinshiki sort of gets the short end of the stick here. He was a very loyal villain though and I rather liked him. He may not have lasted long but he did his best to fulfill his mission. Meanwhile Momoshiki would go on to be one of the most interesting villains. I actually liked him quite a lot. The guy had quite a lot of presence the whole time and would go on to have a lot of fun moments in the series. His role is like the Nine Tailed Fox’s but he’s not quite as nice as that beast was. Even by the end of the series you could argue that Boruto should not trust him at all.

After that we get the first main mission without the old characters so things are toned down quite a lot in terms of scale. The heroes have to deal with a cannibal villain and there’s a kid who needs protecting. The arc shows us more of Boruto’s character like how he plays video games and has a full card collection. This helps him bond with the kid somewhat. Boruto also gets to act a little more mature here. It’s a solid enough arc even if it is technically the weakest. The villain is rather forgettable though.

After that we have the introduction to the villain group Kara. They’re basically a poor man’s Akatsuki but they do have a rather big role in the series. We get to see how they’re such a big threat that even Naruto and friends have trouble. Ao even shows up so Konohamaru finally gets a good fight. The arc has a lot of good fights and in general this is always a soli thing about Boruto. Every arc has some big fights involved and so there are a ton of milestone moments. Again the power levels get dicey when Naruto and Sasuke show up but it’s still nice to see them having to give their all to fight these new threats. It does raise the stakes a whole lot.

Ao makes for a solid opponent. It’s interesting to see how far he has come during the Naruto days. You can easily see why he changed a whole lot. I don’t have much sympathy for the guy but his debut was undeniably cool and he left an impact. I was also glad to actually see Konohamaru show up and fight. The guy can actually hold his own now which is nice character development. his role is still really small overall but that’s just how it goes. There are a lot of characters to juggle.

Delta is one of my favorite members of the villain group. She has a lot of confidence and can fight really well. Her speed is impressive and her fight with Naruto still ranks up there as a highlight moment in the series. Then we have Koji who I found less interesting but there is a lot of mystery around his character. He looks a whole lot like Jiraiya so why is that? I just didn’t care much about Jiraiya back in the day which is why I found it hard to care about this guy. Koji is tough to be sure but he’s no Delta.

Then we have Jigen who is another true powerhouse here. The guy is crazy strong and that led to another hype fight. He would eventually be Isshiki so you could go by either term here. Regardless, the guy is one of the cooler villains here to be sure. It may be a valid complaint to say that he doesn’t have a ton of character and it’s more about his overall abilities but I’d argue that he still has enough to back him up. I was interested in what he was going to do at least.

Around this time we also got introduced to Boro who was one of the weaker Kara members. The guy was a power type so he mostly exists to get wrecked and show off everyone else’s hype. The role works well though as it still has Sarada’s best Chidori and I liked seeing everyone’s teamwork. I don’t really care about Boro but he had an intimidating character design. Then we met Amado, the scientist with a grand master plan. His whole thing is that he’s sort of like an evil version of Shikamaru. He’s always got a plan at the ready and has many different contingencies. You definitely don’t want to underestimate this guy.

I’m not really a fan at the moment though. He talks tough and gets a lot of hype but hasn’t done anything with it yet. Unless he has a super big reveal, I don’t really see him rising up the ranks. At least we do have Kawaki though, which finally gives us a rival for Boruto. The problem is that he’s no Sasuke though. When Kawaki first shows up you can see how he’s stronger than Boruto but that changes real quick. Kawaki gets crazier and crazier as the series goes on which ultimately does hurt him. I don’t care for his motivations or reasonings quite as much as Sasuke.

There is still a lot to like about his character though so don’t get me wrong. He’s solid enough as an antagonist and rival pre time skip. He gives Boruto a reason to keep on training hard and has a lot of clutch moments. At this point in time he’s a very interesting character and we needed Boruto to have a challenge. Most of the other figures here just can’t do that anymore.

Finally, we end the series with some more villains showing up. We now have androids at the ready. I do have some major problems here like in DBZ though. There’s no way you should be able to create new villains that can rival the gods. It’s just not happening and the power scaling goes absolutely crazy so you will want to avoid that. The main new villain here is Code and he wants to destroy Boruto to avenge Isshiki. He wants to take everyone down for that reason really since he basically worshipped the guy. To do this, he wakes up Eida and Daemon, two other figures to take down the heroes.

The series goes pretty hard in trying to set them up as powerful fighters but you can tell that the series is writing itself into a hole. First up is Daemon who cannot be injured. If you even so much as think about hurting him then the damage is reflected to you. He’s said to be stronger than Naruto and Sasuke combined. No worries, this technique gets nerfed in the sequel but for now that’s an absolutely crazy ability. I never cared for him as a character though. He may be strong but he’s not my kind of villain.

Then there is Eida whose ability makes it so that everyone falls in love with her. Additionally, she can see all events in the present and the past. It’s basically an omnipotence ability and it’s certainly handy. So nobody can really attack her and you can’t keep any secrets from her either. She isn’t really a physical fighter as far as we know but that means she doesn’t need to engage in physical combat anyway. Another character where I can’t say that I give her a real thumbs up though.

So that leaves Code and well the poor guy constantly gets clowned on. He got a ton of hype when he first showed up but it all went downhill from there. The main problem is that he gets surpassed too quickly which absolutely undermines his character arc. If he could have been allowed to slowly be surpassed that would have worked better. The guy just ends up whining a lot which doesn’t help his case at all. The guy had a promising future but he fell flat.

That’s roughly all of the characters. Shikamaru gets a big role on the heroes’ side but naturally he doesn’t look very good either. He’s mainly here to get wrecked or to hype up another character. His days of always being the smartest and being in the lead are absolutely over which is a shame. I’m still waiting for characters like Kakashi and Tsunade to show up as well. They should be able to help out a little bit after all and acknowledging them would be cool. Sometimes the series feels a bit too isolated which doesn’t work when everyone in the lead village should still be in peak shape. If they get to fight, it’s usually to get one shotted. So again, don’t get too attached to the old character.

At this point it’s a bit of a meme that we’ll never get to the quick moment that was teased at the very beginning of Boruto. It was a flash forward hinting at some epic things and it just never happened. So in a way people were right which is kind of crazy because you would have assumed that it had to appear. Still, it will likely show up in the sequel series which is what counts. I don’t think anyone could have guessed that this manga would end on a cliffhanger. Since there’s a sequel there’s nothing to worry about for folks who don’t like an unfinished story though. If anything this manga ends in an extremely hype way. The final page is awesome with another one of Boruto’s best moments. Like I said before, he really came a long way from the opening chapters and is just an awesome main character now. He can hold his head high next to Naruto.

Overall, Boruto was a great manga series. It really does a good job of continuing the legacy of the characters and showing us what happened next. This really is the next generation of Naruto and I can safely say that the legacy is in good hands. If you’re looking for great action and a solid plot then you have come to the right place. It can only adapt so much though so don’t expect this to answer your questions on where every old character is. Some have not yet gotten to appear and others probably won’t, even in the sequel series. For the most part you do get the picture of how things went down though. The sequel series is also off to a great start right now so it’ll probably be going for a long while. Once it has been completed then I will have a review up for it though.

Overall 8/10

Mashle: Magic and Muscles Review

Posted on May 18, 2024 by dreager1

You know it’s actually a bit weird to think that Mashle only had 18 volumes. For some reason I figured it had around 30 or so. I guess it was shorter than I thought but it’s fine because the series was jam packed with tons of high quality moments. It hit way above its pay grade the whole time and you could even say it embraces the parody angle even more than One Punch Man did. Mash isn’t quite as invincible as Saitama was by any means but for the most part he still scaled above his opponents. This is definitely an excellent series that I absolutely recommend checking out. It’s a series where I recommend checking out the anime a lot as well since it did a great job of elevating the material even further. Yeah you’re definitely in a great position here.

The series starts off by introducing us to Mash who was born without magic for some reason. In this world it is seen as a curse to not have magic. Like you are not loved by the universe and it’s practically a crime to even exist. Fortunately he is adopted by a nice man who vows to keep him safe but the authorities find out about this. Mash must now enter a magic school and become one of the Divine Visionaries. Only by doing this can he keep his father safe and perhaps end this crazy discrimination against the magic-less users. Is he strong enough to pull this off though? Mash will be fighting the absolute cream of the crop, the strongest magic users to ever exist.

While the characters start coming around later on, most of them are unreasonable at first. It’s crazy how many people are basically jealous of Mash the whole time. They are rooting for his downfall and are no shy about it. They want to take him down for the count no matter what it takes. There are a lot of petty people here but I suppose that is almost to be expected at this point because most settings end up being filled with crazy people while the main character has to prove them wrong. Such is the fate of being the main character.

The artwork here is really good, in fact I would go as far as to say that it’s spectacular. The author absolutely nails both the comedic and action parts of the story. That’s what happens when you have a top tier artist like this at the ready. It holds its own with the upper echelon of Jump titles here. The fights are incredibly satisfying. It’s channeling the energy of the older Jump titles like Kenshin where you had everyone fighting the final boss one by one. They would all go down and then the next fighter would make a move. The fights are easy to follow while the abilities remain very creative and colorful the whole time.

I’d also say the pacing is good. Every chapter has something going for it. Again that could vary between a really hype action scene occurring or maybe it’s a really good gag. Either way the story never just pauses in the middle to leave you hanging. You can be reassured about that. Also while a lot of stories tend to have endings that aren’t all that great, I thought the ending here was pretty fun. It worked well with the themes of the series as being sort of serious if you zoom into the themes but comedic on its face. It’s definitely a fun way to do this.

There’s definitely quite a few arcs in this. The first main part of the story involves getting the stars needed to enter the big tournament coming up to set the stage for the visionaries. This pits Mash up against some steep competition like Dot and Lance at least they were tough back in the day as well as a whole cult group. He has to make sure not to lose himself during these battles either. If he lets his guard down too soon then it’ll all be over for him. Fortunately he’s not the kind of guy to stress about anything. He just eats some cream puffs and gets to work. Definitely one of the bravest fighters out there without a doubt and it helps to have the level of ability that he has. One punch is enough to usually win the day. Quite a few of the characters become main characters by this point and join the good side so a lot happens in the intro.

You may expect that the series gets more and more intense with stronger villains that it would get a lot more serious but that isn’t really the case. Right up through the end the series is still managing a really good balance between comedy and action which is definitely impressive. Most titles would not stand a chance at that or it would feel very weird with the tone but that’s never a problem here. That just shows how good Mash is. The Divine Visionary exams take up a very large part of the series so hopefully you like them but I don’t have many doubts about that.

Mashle does a great job of keeping every challenge fresh and it’s always a lot of fun. Then we jump into the big climax against Innocent Zero and his forces. Like I said before the climax is really great. We’re talking nonstop fights here with a lot of great appearances from everyone involved. Everyone has a part to play and they complete their roles flawlessly. Whether it’s a supporting character who has been around since chapter 1 or a very recent villain, everyone does something here. The whole montage of fighters is really impressive to be sure. One of the best climaxes I’ve read in a while. It makes full use of how many characters have been introduced and fleshed out over the years as well as the increasing power levels here.

At most you could say that it does highlight some power level issues in general though. For example, it feels like there should be no way that half of these characters can survive a single hit from Innocent Zero. At this point the amount of power we’re talking about it crazy after all. You’d expect that Mash himself would murder say Dot or Lance with a single hit if he’s serious and this guy is leagues stronger than Mash. So there may be a little plot armor occurring at different points here that you will have to try and ignore. This is something that happens to any series once the power levels are high enough though so it’s not like it’s a shock. It’s just the way that the ball bounces.

Now lets talk about the characters a bit. First up is Mash who is a very solid main character. He may not take things seriously all the time but he can fight well and ultimately wants to do his pops proud. He has his deep moments when avenging a friend where we see that he notices more than he lets on. So all in all he is definitely the guy you want to have on your side. I would say he balances out the serious and comedic parts of his personality really well. He ends up being funny without being annoying so there really aren’t any big downsides to his character.

Then you have Finn who is one of those really scared characters. For the most part he is not ready to deal with the big threats but eventually gets his man up moment. So naturally you know that I don’t really care for the character too much. I always appreciate it when he steps up as needed but that’s too little and too late to really bump him up the ranks for me. I would need to see that done on a consistent basis.

A better example of a flawed character who is still rather solid is Dot. Dot falls for all the traps and his weakness to girls is a really big one. At the same time he can still fight rather well and always talks tough. So he can actually back himself up and continues to get stronger as the series goes on. He may not be one of the strongest fighters out there but he is a consistent ally who always does his best and he is entertaining. So I give him a thumbs up there.

Lance is an even better fighter. This guy is the genius of the main characters and so he was able to master his craft at an early age. There are very few other fighters who could have managed that. His fighting style is also very direct. He plunges you into the ground with his gravity which is an ability that is really hard to block or dodge. You just have to be even stronger so that the gravity doesn’t affect you. The guy’s main quirk is a bit much so that can hold him back but otherwise he’s solid.

Lemon is the main heroine in a way but she gets a really small role next to her competitors. You can go through just about the whole series and only find a rare handful of moments where she really got something to do. She’s a super minor character all the way around and wasn’t that interesting. Wahlberg may not do much for a large chunk of the series but he is at least rather cool. I don’t think that he’s a great headmaster since he tends to take his time making the right choices. He will ask the other students for their input a little too much and tends to be rather passive. However, I can forgive just about all of this for one big reason, he is strong. At the end of the day, that helps a character overcome many obstacles. So by the end I would say that he was rather solid.

Rayne is one of the first divine visionaries to appear and get to fight. The one catch with that is he doesn’t get as much time to be mysterious and get a lot of hype. Still, his abilities are the real deal and I like him. He’s not quite as much of a stickler about the rules as some of the other characters which I can appreciate. He doesn’t lose sight of the forest for the trees while other characters lose sight of that immediately! My favorite visionary is easily Ryoh though. He’s the light visionary who is really cool and confident in his own abilities. He may brag a lot but that is rather deserved when you consider how strong he is. Why wouldn’t he brag right?

He gets some really good fights in the series as well an left a big impact. His screen time relative to some of the other characters may have been small but he was still a lot of fun. Tom is another fun character who doesn’t appear much. He wants Mash to join in the sports events and it’s easy to see why since Mash is a super athletic star. At the same time, this guy can’t fight so he is written out real quick. Definitely don’t expect much out of him.

Margarette is one of the big antagonists early on and is definitely powerful. I actually forget how close the fight with Mash was. The ability to use sound waves and then shape them into various objects is really impressive. Margarette leaves quite the impression even if I am not a big fan of the character. Carpaccio is someone who has even less of an impression. Cool character and definitely a lot of fun abilities but a very small role. One of those characters who really existed for Mash to beat up but otherwise didn’t have much to do.

Innocent Zero is easily one of the biggest villains in the series. It’s not surprising as he is introduced as the big bad fairly early into the series. His abilities are the real deal and they get more impressive as the climax hits. He’s a really solid villain. Although I feel like I tend to remember him more for his super powerful abilities than as a character. That’s the kind of figure that he is. You’re not thinking about a grand origin story and super ambitious goals but more of a classic final boss kind of figure. It works well enough with him though and he leaves more of an impact than most of the others.

An exception to this is Doom though. He’s the best villain in the series by far. The guy’s another crazy strong fighter but he has a good honor code and is also just a lot more interesting. His fight with Mash felt more personal and his impact on the story was bigger. He was the true benchmark for Mash to compare himself with and serves as the last main opponent before the final boss. Doom got to fight quite a few opponents during the series and always dominated in his matches. Yeah that guy was awesome.

By the end of the series we even get to see the god of the world show up which was certainly interesting. It was another chance for Mashle to showcase its unique form of humor and it felt like something out of One Punch Man. I wouldn’t be shocked if that series pulls off something similar at some point but in the meantime this is really a Mashle exclusive. The god here is fairly powerful to be sure, probably one of the strongest but he’s no Mash. Okay now lets circle back and look at some more of the characters.

Abel is one of the first big villains and he was a whole lot of fun. The guy’s role has aged well and he just makes for a very imposing figure. The series goes into the redemption arcs without too much thought into them which is fitting for a light hearted title. So you may be a bit dubious on everyone being cool with Abel but it is what it is. He’s a solid villain through and through. I also liked his right hand man Abyss a whole lot. That guy is super loyal and he was also a terrific fighter. He really gave Mash a tough run for his money during their initial encounter. I always value loyalty in a character.

They had a number of other fighters on their squad who showed up but for the most part they were all written out after they were dispatched. Back to the visionaries, Orter is another strong member but definitely the most fixated on the rules to becoming a borderline villain. The fact that he is always so eager to execute Mash reflects real poorly on him. Here’s the problem, Mash at the end of the day is someone who is actively working to fight the villains. So taking him down doesn’t help at all except to restore the status quo. It’s my big problem with a character like this who completely loses perspective. So he’s okay as a villain but I wouldn’t acknowledge him as a hero.

Kaldo is a lot more interesting. He doesn’t necessarily approve of Mash in any way but he gives him some advice. Kaldo recognizes the benefit in having another strong fighter on board which immediately makes him a whole lot more interesting. I also like the sword that he uses. I wish he could have appeared a little earlier on so that he could get more fights but he still made the most of his screen time.

Brad is one of those bullies who quickly turned over a new leaf and it’s a good thing that he did or Mash would have really gave him some trouble. He ends up being a reasonably entertaining character in the background but he definitely never gets much of a serious role. Same goes for Regro who did a good job of raising Mash but after that he is really written out. There just isn’t anything for him to really do at that point.

Not all of the visionaries get a ton to do though so I’ll go through a few of these quickly. Renatus is one of those guys who is rather tough with a psychotic streak. He’s definitely interesting but I would have liked to have seen more of him. I can’t say that I liked Agito at all. The guy definitely doesn’t stack up with the others and his being quirky doesn’t end up really being a positive.

I can’t say I remember Sophina or Tsuara much at all to be honest even after refreshing myself on the wiki. So I’m going to list that as a demerit. If I don’t remember you very well then that means there is clearly a big problem here. It’s a shame but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Meliadoul is an interesting character. She shows up really late to the whole thing but gets a solid role near the end. She’s actually rather tough and I admire her fiery resolve. She is the opposite of Ochoa who is one of the worst characters in the series. Right up through the end he proves himself to not be trustworthy at all and someone who will seek his own safety first. There’s definitely no room for a character like that in these ranks and I wish he could have been more likable. He was good for some of the gags but gets a thumbs down.

Cell War is a fairly cool villain and I definitely like the name. His spikes are hard to dodge and so he is a very powerful fighter all the way through. He’s rather twisted and evil but without overplaying that card. Everything about him is really memorable so you aren’t likely to forget about him anytime soon. Domina was another one of the more impressive villains. His water skills were really good and even by the end of the series he is one of the most powerful members. He is one of those guys where you might not buy into the redemption arc all that much though. You have to suspend a little disbelief there but it was definitely satisfying seeing him show up in the climax so that was cool.

Charles doesn’t quite have the same energy behind him. He’s also rather strong but not as impressive as the last few. I did like Levis a lot though. He’s another villain who is more on the crazy side and fights hard. His ending may not make him look super impressive but for the most part you can count on a tough fight from this guy. Famin is super strong and one of the more twisted villains. It seems like the clown/jester villains always have a bit of an edge to them right? Don’t let this guy’s quirkiness fool you, he’s as deadly as they come and really leaves an impact.

Epidem has one of the most memorable scenes later on because how much of a sucker he proves the heroes to be. The main thing to remember is that if a villain offers you food, you probably shouldn’t take it. That’s like the first lesson everyone learns right? Well, you would think that was the case at least. So his entire fight was really fun. Delisaster is another villain I’m drawing more of a blank on but the design is really solid. It’ll be fun to see all of these villains animated at some point. There are just so many great fights to be had.

Mashle is a series that has tremendous amounts of replay value though. There are so many great fights to be found throughout all of the arcs and like I said the humor is also really good. It takes you back to a nostalgic time in Shonen Jump and it really always keeps a good balance between action and humor. I’d have been cool for the series to have kept on going for a long time. This could have been the next Naruto in terms of impact.

Overall, Mashle is an absolutely elite title. One of the all time greats and definitely a story that you need to read. It’s not every day that we get another big action Shonen like this so you need to check it out right away. The character cast is fun and there are so many fun little references and easter eggs here. The world is really well fleshed out and so you are absolutely engaged in everything that is going on from start to finish. Also if you like cream puffs, this series will likely help you take that to the next level!

Overall 9/10

Delicious in Dungeon Review

Posted on May 12, 2024 by dreager1

It’s time for a big food based manga that has gotten especially big lately with the show ongoing. Well, it’s definitely got a unique premise but given that it’s all about eating every monster possible, you can probably guess that this is not going to end well for the show. Even fans of cooking will probably have a hard time with this one since it’s not like you can actually copy most of these recipes but the series gets some props for sticking with the concept. Even to the end, cooking is always a primary focus of the series. Still ends up being a miss for me though.

The series starts with Laios and his party going through a dungeon when they are attacked by the legendary Red Dragon. Unfortunately it ends up eating Laios’ sister Falin and escapes. Half of Laios’ party disbands the remaining members are basically bankrupt. Laios doesn’t want to wait and go all the way out of the dungeon so he decides that they will just have to eat every monster they come across. Fortunately they meet up with a guy named Senshi who is an expert at cooking up monsters and he agrees to help. Is this really something Laios is doing out of desperation though or is using Falin as an excuse to eat monsters?

The series is fairly long with 14 volumes so you may wonder how all of that can be about finding Falin. Well, that’s not the whole plot. Things keep on going and you really have 2 main story arcs here. The second half takes a while for sure we the heroes have to learn more about what to do next and then work on their plans. The cast further expands here so there are a good number of characters to keep track of. The series also has a lot of world building which works well for including a bunch of characters into the mix.

As a little background here, the world connects to a massive dungeon that appears to get bigger and bigger every day. There is no upper limit to the dungeon and so people continue to go in and grab some money. You can use remains of animals to sell, different treasure chests, artifacts, etc. If you die in the dungeon then you have to hope that someone goes up to you and casts revive. Your soul is trapped when you are in the dungeon which is why you don’t die right away. On one hand that may sound good but on the other hand that also means it could very well be possible that you are stuck for all eternity. Jut think about that for a minute there, it’s not exactly a spot that you want to be in. It also means that several characters will die multiple times. Just because you can revive doesn’t mean that the pain goes away which is another thing to consider.

Basically what I am getting at is that living in this world feels really dangerous. You can just decide not to go into the dungeon and have a normal job but the series doesn’t go into that too much so it’s hard to say just how feasible that is. For all we know there are barely any jobs available so you would have to venture into the unknown anyway. Then you have the Elves who tend to be rather selfish and dangerous. They do not have your best interests at heart so you need to keep that in mind all the way and of course if you run into the mad mage then you may be put to sleep forever. Fighting between adventurers is completely forbidden but since when has that ever stopped anybody right? So you better keep your guard up at all times.

The art is pretty solid here. That doesn’t always work in the game’s favor but there is a lot of detail here at all times. The characters are easy to spot and while the series doesn’t have a ton of fight scenes, the action scenes that we get look pretty good. At most, some of the climax moments can be a little too cluttered with everyone running around but on the whole I would still say that things look good. The art is not a problem I have with the title.

So lets talk about the big issue right out of the gate which is naturally the animal violence. Yes a lot of these are fantasy creatures but we’re still watching the heroes slice and dice them to add onto a meal. This tends to be rather gross a lot of the time. A lot of these creatures also end up looking like real animals. It gets more and more twisted as some of the creatures get close to being humanoid. I thought that Marcille had a good point about at least drawing the line at humanoids but why would Laios listen to that? These are desperate times so it makes sense to do what you have to do but by the end everyone are eating various monsters.

So all of this eating is a big blow and that’s a main focus of the entire series so you’re not really going to be coming back from that. I usually like a lot of good food titles like Superman Meshi but this is one that I just couldn’t get behind. You would need to change the entire premise of the series to make this work or put them in a virtual world where these are just programs or something. By the end of the series it gets even more and more twisted about what’s being eaten. The whole climax is easily one of the most disturbing ones that I’ve read in a manga.

It’s not just about being eaten alive but how graphic and painful the whole thing is. The series is never afraid to be on the higher end of the violence side since characters can be brought to life. This is shown early on by the manor in which people die. They get stabbed or shot through the head and while they are revived later on, you feel like it’s a bit much. So just keep that in mind, this is a series that tends to be on the more extreme side in each aspect of the title.

Take away all of the animals and I would still have some problems there but yeah that’s got to be the biggest one here. I was rooting for Marcille and the various characters who didn’t want to eat these monsters to stay strong but ultimately they couldn’t. To an extent you may feel it’s no different from cooking actual animal so what’s the harm right? Well the first part is that cooking those after being hunted would destroy any series for me anyway, the monsters only dampens the blow to an extent but it all just feels wrong.

Part of the problem is how crazy Laios is. The more the series goes on, the crazier we see him become. The guy can barely contain just how twisted he is at different points and that’s really the main issue with him. I don’t like Laios as a character. He really does seem to be using Falin as an excuse half of the time. He’s super interested in trying out every monster, he basically wants to become one. This is mainly played off as a gag of course but he is still like this in the serious moments as well. So he’s not exactly the hero type and his twisted set of morals should have you concerned.

Marcille is easily the most likable member of the main crew. She has a rather intense backstory and really good reasons for wanting to save Falin. She’s the first friend that Marcille had after all. Yes, Falin also has her weird moments to be sure but on the whole she is a lot more normal than Laios. Marcille is always ready to do whatever she has to in order to save the day even if it means putting herself in danger so I can definitely applaud that. You want her on your side without a doubt. She makes a whole lot of sacrifices in order to get to the end and even her overall goal makes a lot of sense. Yes, she comes close to accepting a shortcut which wouldn’t work out so well in order to support her goals and dreams but you get why she would do this. So she’s an interesting character all the way.

Then you have Chillchuck who is a bit more jaded than the other characters and gets jaded a lot. He doesn’t have some grand master plan for the world and talks tough but at the end of the day he is here in the front lines fighting with everyone else to save Falin. So you can definitely give him a lot of credit too all the way through. He is good at avoiding traps and helping the heroes get through the dungeon so he is definitely really handy. Meanwhile Senshi may be the MVP for the group since without him they would have a hard time staying alive at all. While cutting up all of the monsters may not help the series as a whole, it definitely helped the main party conisderably.

Senshi has a ton of experience not just in cooking but surviving in general. He knows a lot of the different players in the dungeon and has formed strategic alliances that allow him to do what he does. Without him the heroes would have been murdered by the trolls, orcs, or other random creatures. Then you have Izutsumi who joins up later and is a solid addition. She has quick speed and can fight rather well thanks to her claws. She is cursed to be part cat which is tough in terms of having to live that way but it really comes in handy for fights which is what the main cast really needs in this situation. So that is definitely impressive and in general I liked her. She’s not going to fall for the usual illusions and traps that the others jump into.

As for Falin herself, I wouldn’t say that I was a big fan. She’s okay and seems like a nice enough person but she does suffer from a lot of the same issues as the main guy. It wasn’t great for Laios and she doesn’t fare any better either. If anything I would say the more she appears, the less normal she acts. I suppose because at that point everyone is a lot more familiar with her but she tends to be at her best when Laios is not around. Her abilities are certainly impressive though.

Then we have Namari and Shuro who I didn’t like because I consider them to be traitors. After Falin was taken out they both ditch the party. Yes, Shuro shows up to help later on but he makes a big fuss about the dark magic used to help Falin and is generally a pain in the neck. He doesn’t make things easier for the main characters at all and by making things tougher that just means that he’s in the way. Not a good look when you need everyone on deck right?? That’s what I thought! Namari is at least more sociable but it doesn’t change the fact that she ran off either. I still can’t forget that and it’s a really big deal. You can’t just run off, there is no coming back from that.

Kabru is easily one of the most interesting characters though. I’m not big on a certain plot twist he got in the end but for the most part he was a strategic figure who helped to add a little intensity to the plot. You never really knew hat he was thinking and he was a really good wild card. He kept all of the characters on their toes which is exactly what you would be expecting from a character like this. Kabru was always one step ahead of the other characters. He may not have had a great ending but I still enjoyed his character a lot and if anything he should have been the real main character.

Meanwhile the mad mage Sissel was a reasonably solid villain. I thought he had some reasonably solid goals and ambitions the whole time. He did start to get more and more unreasonable as the series went on though. I suppose you could say it was maybe because of the influences around him but that’s probably more of an excuse in the long run. This guy just couldn’t handle the power and didn’t think things through in the long run. That’s what really got him in the end. Still, this was a threat that made all of the heroes get up and pay attention which was nice to see. If anything they’re lucky that he didn’t press the attack more.

Then you have the main canary Mithrun who was a fun character. He’s seriously skilled and always goes for the lethal attacks in a fight. He desperately wants to stop Sissel but that’s hard since the whole dungeon obeys the mage. It’s really a one sided revenge tour since he doesn’t have much of a chance of really doing anything here. Still, he goes through a whole lot and is a likable character. The whole thing feels like he got the short end of the stick so you can feel bad for him there.

Finally there is the Winged Lion who is a very interesting character. His goals may not be as intense as Sissel’s but in a way that’s due to his nature. For the mot part he’s doing everything because he can, rather than having more of a specific ambition. He is absolutely able to play the long game though and has been strategizing for a very long time. He does a good job of manipulating characters so I give him a ton of credit there. Not just any character could manage to pull that off. He can also fight well so that’s another plus.

So the character cast here is pretty solid. While I had a lot of issues with the execution, I think the world building is pretty solid. For starters it is interesting to see a world where a dungeon is the primary source of income because of all the rare stuff in there. Death being suspended is definitely pretty cool since otherwise the body count would be massive. You’ve got the Elves and a bunch of kings running around as well to stir up some trouble. I would have liked some more fights between the factions but again this isn’t really an action series first and foremost. It’s more about the platforming and eating. We do get fights but they just aren’t the primary focus.

I still can’t help but think of how much better it would be if not for all of the animal stuff. Just have them eating off the land, lots of berries and things like that. That would have been so much better and would have made me proud. Seriously it would have been a really good idea al the way. Ah well, at the end of the day it is what it is. I can say that I will never forget the series, it really is quite memorable. Also while the humor around Laios doesn’t tend to land, the series does actually have some rather solid gags. I really enjoyed seeing the characters come to terms with how they’re seen by the rest of the party for example when they fight a bunch of shapeshifters. That was funny while also being very interesting. The characters tend to be very expressive and the series is rather light toned so there are lots of opportunities for fun scenes apart from everything being eaten.

Overall, This series definitely lives up to the name. There is a lot of food everywhere and the whole series does involve a dungeon so there is no clickbait here. Everything is as you’d expect it to be from the title except for the fact that none of the food actually looks delicious. The characters do say that it all tastes delicious though which I suppose is the important part even if I am super skeptical. So really if you can get behind all of the monster eating then this should be the story for you. If not, then consider this an experimental series that just can’t hold its own and give it a skip. There are enough good manga out there where you don’t have to force yourself to check this one out. Check out Superman vs Meshi as a good replacement.

Overall 3/10

	Princess Ichigo Brad… on Ichigo Momomiya vs Sailor…
	dreager1 on Braveheart
	Anonymous on Braveheart
	Anonymous on Tokyo Mew Mew Review
	dreager1 on Goku vs Beyonder
	Anonymous on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (…

DReager1.com

The Ultimate Fighting/Review Site

Tag Archives: Manga Review

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

The Legend of Zelda: Oath of Lilto Review

Call of the Night Review

Bass: Time of Reunion Review

Mega Man World 3 Review

Mega Man World Review

Rockman-san Review

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations Review

Mashle: Magic and Muscles Review

Delicious in Dungeon Review

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: