Guardian of the Witch Review

Posted on February 12, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time for the next in the line of cancelled Shonen Jump titles. Guardian of the Witch is a title with a pretty decent premise and it’s one of the stronger cancelled titles that I’ve read. Unfortunately for it, this was not nearly enough to keep it alive. I certainly have my thoughts on why it was cancelled and how it could have improved but first lets dive into the story and see what it was able to accomplish in the 19 chapters.

The story starts off by letting us know that humanity was mostly destroyed by the titans evils. Now walls have been built around each little village that’s left and they are all referred to as city states. In order to fight off the Evils, each village has a Witch who protects them and her protector is known as the Guardian. The guardian is the most powerful fighter in the land while the witch is the chosen one who is able to use supernatural powers in order to beat back the invaders. It’s a tireless job but it’s one that has allowed humanity to stabilize so the witch is seen as a hero and revered by all.

The main character is Fafner and he can’t stand the Evils. He wants to destroy them all after his family was murdered by one. He doesn’t think witches are necessary since the humans are the ones who should beat them back. Of course the irony was that by honing his skills to fight them, Fafner became the guardian since he was the strongest. His life is turned upside down when he finds out that Witches are destined to become evils and his job is ultimately to murder Manasfa (The witch) when she starts to turn into one. Turns out that a whole lot of people knew about this by the way but he never did because he was busy fighting. Well, Fafner decides not to do it and takes Manasfa away. They are now wanted by the whole world but Fafner has decided that there will be no more witches as he’ll find a cure and then he’ll take out the evils. Will he succeed?

The series clearly takes quite a lot of inspiration from Attack on Titan. It’s also not very subtle about this like in the way Fafner’s family was murdered. It’s extremely similar to Attack on Titan. There’s also a very random moment where Fafner bites his wrist the way Eren does to transform. Only here he does it to “remember pain” so that he isn’t slowed down in a fight. It’s a very forced scene that is just here for the Attack on Titan comparisons. As soon as the heroes leave the village it starts to find its own identity but I imagine the start may not have given it the warmest reception among the readers.

Once we get going, there are really 3 arcs here and then the series just ends. In the first arc, the heroes are on the run of course and don’t get far before they’re attacked by a very powerful guardian and witch combo. Their names are Gen and Ruli who work directly for the government and don’t seem to have a village to protect. I’ll give the series credit for adding in the fights early on. As mentioned, the series isn’t even 20 chapters long and yet there really are quite a lot of fights. The powers are varied and the 2 on 2 style with the witches there works well.

The chapters go by very quickly too because the fights are a bit on the longer side. For example, once we finish this fight then the characters head right into a battle with a mysterious new character. This arc’s more of a training arc as this guy introduces himself as Drake. He’s a guardian who did end up murdering his witch as per the rules but has regretted it ever since. Now he lives a quiet life but is willing to help the main characters out. It feels a little bit early for training but it’s handled quickly and the characters were getting wrecked before that. At least this way they are ready for their next fight.

They don’t have to wait long for it either as the next village has them fighting another guardian/witch combo. By this point I should mention their main goal is to get to the final village to locate an old witch who is said to have retired. The reason this is important is because it means that she did not turn into a witch somehow so if they can get that secret then perhaps they can change the flow of the entire system. Nobody else is really buying it though and the heroes are still wanted fugitives so they have to deal with Spica and Claude next. This battle takes us to just about the end of the series.

Technically there are 3 chapters after that but I think the author may have been rebelling against being cancelled because a whole new arc seems to be starting at this point. The heroes head to yet another village where there’s another witch and they want to let her know about the possible cure. There’s not much time for anything though so for once there is no fight. We then get hit with the big 5 year time skip and a lot of emotional dialogue and convenient moments. The 5 year time skip does help make it seem like this wasn’t too easy though. 5 years is quite a lot of time even if the explanation may have sounded a bit too convenient.

So lets quickly talk about what went right and then what went wrong. First off, I definitely liked the art quite a bit. The action scenes flow well and the artist seems experienced to me. I didn’t have a hard time following the action at any point and the blows always landed with a good amount of intensity. The character designs are on point and I found it to just be very impressive. Additionally there is a lot of action throughout which is always a good thing. The series doesn’t take long to really get going. I felt like that should have helped the series last longer but I suppose it just wasn’t enough.

Fafner makes for a good character. He certainly does have his big mistake in the beginning with almost taking Manasfa down just because he was ordered too though. There’s no way he should have even been tempted there. It feels like a scene that just doesn’t make sense with the rest of his personality because he’s not really that kind of guy. Cutting out that scene would have done the whole series a favor. It’s hard to overlook that scene despite Fafner being great in the rest. He’s a strong fighter who never gives up. That’s always a good quality for a main hero lead.

Then we have Manasfa as the main heroine. She is fairly strong but can’t control her magic well and of course using it will speed up her descent into being a demon. These are two fairly good nerfs to keep her from dominating in the pre arc adventures. She’s a fun enough main heroine even if she tends to feel like giving up quite a bit. As the series goes on I expect we would see her be more and more confident. She also has a lot of banter with Fafner all the time. It may be basic compared to some titles but it works well enough and I always like some good back and forth dialogue.

The maid accompanying the two of them is called Nahta and she’s my least favorite member of the 3. Mainly because she spends most of her screen time early on explaining why Fafner should have just destroyed Manasfa. Keep in mind that Nahta is supposed to be the best friend. Her reasoning is that it would have been an honorable death but cmon now…that’s still awful. At least Fafner made the right decision in the end, Nahta is still clinging to her same lines for a while until she snaps out of it. Nahta can’t fight either so she would need something big to change things around.

For what went wrong, well you can probably see how every arc is fairly repetitive. The heroes enter a village and try to tell the witch that she doesn’t have to die in vain since there’s a cure. She decides to fight instead so the heroes get the win and then move onto the next village. Rinse and repeat for the entirety of the series. I don’t think I’ve seen a series start out quite so formulaic or at least not a Jump title. It’s really like the same thing keeps happening. Maybe that was the easiest way to keep on adding new characters but there definitely should have been a more seamless way to pull this off. Something more subtle or some way to change things up.

I liked each arc but I can see how it would feel like the same thing keeps happening. I already spoke about the Attack on Titan homages and usually the quicker you get your own identity the better. This title did get that but I wonder if it was too late. Mainly I think the series would have been able to survive if it had just kept the story switching up a bit. In an adventure title like this you probably want to spend a little more time on character development and a little less time just running around all the time.

Now lets wrap up the rest of the characters. First up we have Gen who is one of the strongest guardians around. He’s more of a villain though as he doesn’t care about his witch partner and just lives to fight. That kind of character can usually be cool but this one just felt more shallow than anything. It doesn’t help that Fafner beats him in the opening fight so there goes his hype. His being mean to his partner also just feels petty.

This doesn’t help Ruli either. She just lets Gen treat her like an item and is cool with it. She seems fairly emotionless so being a witch has clearly taken a lot out of her but it would be nice to see her have some kind of agency. She is able to strengthen her magic by getting injured which is definitely unfortunate. Clearly the team have come a long way in the rankings so this approach has worked but hopefully the power of friendship would have reached them pretty soon which could have helped.

Then we have Drake who shows up in the training arc. He’s a decent enough character. He messes with the heroes a lot by saying things like he may turn them over to the villains but you never really figure that he would actually do that. He has some skill which is good so he lives up to his hype of being one of the top ranked guardians. That said, I wasn’t very impressed with him. After all, he did destroy his own witch which was a really poor decision on his part. That’s never the right call.

Finally you have Spica who is probably the nicest witch. She is always breaking the rules to try and help the civilians who badly need supplies and other such equipment. Unfortunately for her she is always found out by her guardian Claude who puts an end to that. Spica may be a little too indecisive at times but I give her big points for trying to help people. She clearly has a better moral compass than Claude did.

Meanwhile Claude was a stickler for the rules but ultimately the main characters get him to see their side of things. He would have only continued to improve if the series had kept on going. His low points are from when he was a villain but as a hero he’d be fun enough. The guy just seems slow on the uptake with how obviously evil the king of his village was. You’d think people would have picked up on that. The king was the worst character though as we have a scene of animal violence thanks to him and he’s just too over the top. It’s hard to see how nobody has overthrown him by this point.

As a final note, I liked how the power system was set up here. Each witch has their own unique magic which they are then able to enhance the guardian with. The guardian’s ability will then be something related to that element while still being something a little different. I do question how all of these characters have cool elements like gravity and metal while Fafner has nothing but I bet he’d have gotten a power up at some point. You just have to question how Fafner didn’t know more about all of this since he was the top guardian. For now I’ll blame this on his village just being really behind the times. The power system would have likely continued to get even better as the series went on so it’s a shame that it ended so quickly. We could have gotten more explosive fights!

Overall, Guardian of the Witch is a fun series. It’s an action title that wastes no time in getting to the actual fights. The characters are good and I liked the art so you really can’t go wrong here. It’s a shame that it was cancelled, I think it really could have gone quite far. The ending is probably the most abrupt I’ve seen for one of these cancelled titles to the point where I think it should have just ended on a cliffhanger instead to leave room for a possible sequel. There is something fun about the series trying to genuinely have the kind of emotional final speech that you would see for a series with 20+ volumes. Lots of events are referenced that we never actually saw and it’s like for once you are hearing the speech from the point of view of the random townsfolk who have no idea what is going on. The series may have ended but I’d recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of action titles. The fights here are pretty fun.

Overall 7/10

Yugen’s All-Ghouls Homeroom Review

Posted on February 12, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time to look at a one shot in Shonen Jump from a while back. The idea of supernatural exorcists is nothing new but very few have used a school setting like this. Depending on when it came out I wonder if it was trying to capitalize on the success of Assassination Classroom. Well, either way this experiment didn’t really work. The title has potential and solid art but ultimately this did not work out. The main character hurts this series quite massively.

The story starts off with someone asking Yugen to help him with a supernatural situation. He agrees and then we never go back to that plot so it was a completely pointless opening page. The story really starts on page 2 as we’re introduced to Mishiro who is super excited to be a teacher at a very prestigious academy. She will be teaching a year 2 course and it ready to uphold the school name. Unfortunately one student named Saeri has not been feeling very well lately. She has become withdrawn in her house and refuses to go outside. This is bad news for the school.

See, the school is known as a perfect finishing school for young ladies and prides itself on a 100% success rate. They’ve never had a troubled student drop out or anything like that. They’re so desperate that they call in a local counselor who just so happens to be Yugen. Mishiro doesn’t like this because Yugen immediately sets a bad impression as he does not dress professionally and flirts with everyone. Can she keep him under control long enough to help Saeri or is this game over for all of them?

I can see what they are going for with Yugen (As the title throws this in your face throughout the one shot) but it doesn’t work. See, as an exorcist Yugen is completely oblivious to a person’s outside appearance. It’s why he falls for those who are much older and much younger than he is. He looks only to the soul and his goal in life is to one day find a wife. By the end even the main heroine starts to get on his side for that reason which is certainly cheesy and sudden but this is a one shot.

You can’t make a good main character like this though. The flirting kind of character is one I usually dislike and Yugen is no exception. He should be taking his job more seriously and not be flirting while on the clock. Naturally it turns out that he is a genius, but even so that doesn’t excuse him here. He’s easily the worst character in the one shot and since he is going to end up being the main focus, that’s a really bad sign for any future potential here. If you were going to do this kind of trait then the only way it could have worked would have been to make him a high schooler as well. He could just be a teacher because of what a genius he is. That would make the plot of him flirting with students not so bad and you could still have him irritate the other teachers. Of course then you can’t have a possible romance with the teacher but that shouldn’t be here anyway.

In this one shot Yugen quickly takes down the spirit possessing Saeri easily enough. It reminds me of Muhyo and Roji where it’s not really a fight so much as Yugen just pointing at the enemy and taking it down. I assume this would likely change as the series went on but I suppose that isn’t a guarantee. I’m not really sure at this point if the series would have turned into a full action or just been more of an adventure title as each kid has their own issues.

The artwork isn’t bad. The designs are suitably creepy and ominous for this kind of title. It doesn’t look like a brand new kind of series which makes sense since the artist is experienced. I do hope that whenever a spirit is exorcised this isn’t just an excuse for fanservice here as the soul ends up appearing each time. The one shot was fairly reserved so I won’t take that as a point against it for now.

As for the other characters, well Mishiro seems reasonable enough. You can tell her dynamic will be about calling Yugen out every time but always being surprised as his antics end up turning things for the better. Ideally she will be able to do more than that as the series goes on. Then you have Saeri who is the victim here so we don’t get to see her full character much. She seems nice enough though and now that she has learned to break the rules (The moral of the story here) she should be able to keep other spirits from possessing her.

Naturally the one shot does end with a big cliffhanger as more spirits attack and the students are going to be in a tough situation now. At the end everyone’s missing which seems to include Saeri. If that is the case then she is supremely unlucky to have been possessed twice. That or she’s in a different class which is definitely possible. After all it’s not the whole school that has vanished so this is certainly possible when you think about it.

A one shot should be intriguing enough to make you want to read a full series about the premise. That’s the entire point so the question is…did this one pull it off? I would have to say no to that. There is potential here but the one shot didn’t make the best use of that. As far as supernatural worlds go, this one has less to it than most. I wouldn’t say that there is a lot to make the series stand out in any way. As mentioned, it is definitely trying for a Muhyo and Roji kind of feel but without the humor and the main character is a big step down.

The series feels a lot more grounded than other titles as the rest of the characters all seem like normal humans. Of course they could introduce more tough fighters eventually but I don’t see as much potential in this one. Throw in how the main character’s not very good and I have to give this a thumbs down. It’s not a one shot that I can recommend and I can see why it has not gotten a full ongoing at the moment. It’s just not ready for that.

Overall, Yugen’s classroom is already out of session and I don’t think any more classes will be coming up. Perhaps we’ll see more of this title in the future but I have major doubts on that. The art is the strongest part of the story and that’s not really a good thing. Of course I am glad that the art is good but you seriously need way more than that if you want to end up being a big story. That’s just how it goes but as they say, it definitely could have been worse.

Overall 4/10

Toy Story 2 Review

Posted on February 6, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time to look at the manga version for the sequel. Much like the first one, the manga for Toy Story 2 does a good job of adapting everything and tying the story together well. The art is still clear and the writing is good even if the editor needs to check the text more closely for a proofread. It’s always good to see some new characters here like how we got Jessie into the mix. That definitely helps widen the character roster and I always thought she was a fun character. So you’ve got another quality character into the mix.

Things are finally going well enough with the toys when the manga starts off. They’re all getting along now while Woody and Buzz have become best friends. Unfortunately Woody is getting older now and is more prone to breaking. One day a collector happens to see Woody outside and figures that he can make big bucks by completing his Wild West set. So he steals Woody and now Buzz and the others have to find the guy before it’s too late. Meanwhile Woody meets the Prospector and Jessie, the two toys that he goes along with in the set. They really want him to stay because then they can all live forever in the museum. It is a rather tempting offer for the main character. Should he go with them or stay with his old friends?

This story has a bit more of a sense of danger about it thanks to the involvement of the Prospector. He makes for a solid villain because the guy is absolutely crazy with how badly he wants to be in the museum. It’s also more of a personal threat than the human because this time it’s a toy trying to mess Woody up. Woody isn’t exactly much of a fighter either so you can’t see him fighting the guy off without the team. If only he had chosen the old toys a little sooner, then he may have ended up getting out easier.

Woody is conflicted for parts of the manga and that makes sense to a degree. That said, I can’t imagine anyone being happy being trapped in glass at the museum for all eternity. If the case is secure he won’t even be able to move around. So he can talk but imagine not being able to move for the rest of your life? Now that would have to be really hard to deal with after a while. Don’t underestimate just how long a period of time the rest of his life would be. So if I’m Woody I still would have been going back with the main characters right away.

Meanwhile Buzz is the one who really has all of the answers in his sub plot but unfortunately for him he is taken out pretty early. The scene where he is stuffed in the toy box is pretty emotional because there was definitely a chance that he might not have gotten out. It was a nice excuse to see more of the classic Buzz though who still thinks that he is a toy. The fight with Zurg may be a bit on the anti climactic side but since they’re both toys that does make sense. It’s not like they could suddenly develop powers or anything.

Jessie also gets her character arc here as she was nervous the whole time about not being played with or being abandoned again. She’s already had a rough ride as it was but fortunately things work out for her. She adds to the character dynamics within the roster and will stay on as a good character for future movies. The Prospector is out of options but that’s what he gets for turning evil right?

Toy Story 2 does a good job of keeping in what made the first film good and then upping the ante with the stakes and villains. Seeing all of the toys getting along is also good since it shows how far we’ve come from the days where Woody and Buzz would fight all the time. It’s definitely been a long time since then and the toys need to stick together after all. Considering all the dangers out there, teamwork is really what keeps them together. Buzz deserves most of the credit for the gang being able to find Woody in the first place.

The art is also good like in the first one. Not amazing or anything but it’s all clear and the character designs are on point so you can’t ask for much more than that. For these adaptions I find that the art is usually clear and not too detailed or it tries too hard with the details and gets very messy. If I had to choose between the two options then I would certainly go with the former. You’ll end up blasting through this adventure really quickly that’s for sure.

While he’s not the main villain, I did like the toy collector though. He’s the kind of villain you can have fun with because at the end of the day he’s trying to get rich. It’s a classic motivation and from his perspective he’s stealing a broken toy and turning it into thousands. That’s quite crazy when you think about it. Even if this is what you would call a “petty” crime of course you are still hoping the heroes stop him. It’s so petty that it goes across the bend into being humorous though which is what really makes this villain work in the story.

Overall, Toy Story 2 is a good story. Like with the first manga adaption you still feel like it can’t quite match up to the film but all in all it does a good job of translating this over to the manga format. If you haven’t seen the film yet or are torn on if you should see it, then you’ll want to check this manga out. It’ll give you a good idea of the story and adapts all of the big moments but then you can always watch the movie afterwards if you liked this one. It could be a little while before I’m back into the Toy Story world so this is a good send off in the meantime.

Overall 6/10

Toy Story Review

Posted on February 6, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at the manga adaption of Toy Story. It’s pretty fun to relive the film as a manga. This always seems like a good idea for someone who has no time to watch the movie or in general for manga readers to check out and then be inspired to watch the movie. I’d say the manga does a good job of adapting all of the events. Of course if you can only pick one way to experience the story then I’d probably say to go for the movie but all in all it’s a pretty enjoyable experience.

The story starts with Andy getting a new toy so all of his existing ones are very nervous. Up until now Woody has always been Andy’s favorite toy but what if that changes? Well, the odds of his fears coming true seem high as Andy’s new toy is Buzz Lightyear. The hottest toy on the market and this guy has a lot of cool gadgets like a button that has some snappy voice recordings and he can even glides thanks to his wings. That’s an awful lot for Woody to compete with. One day Buzz ends up falling out of the house and it seems like Woody may have done this intentionally so he has to bring Buzz back to clear his name. Can he pull this off or are the other toys going to forever think that Woody is very petty?

Describing the plot for a quick adventure is always tricky because you have to think about what the perfect cut off point is. I think that’s a fair description personally even if the story does change quite a bit as it goes on. You definitely understand why Woody is so jealous although at the same time it really doesn’t look great for his character. The guy doesn’t have much confidence to be intimidated like this on day 1. You’d expect him to hold down the fort for a week or so at least but playing with Andy is just too important to him. Woody would ultimately continue to improve as a character in the future films but just by this adventure you would probably put Buzz as the MVP.

He is a fun character after all. Buzz may not realize that he is a toy but partially due to that he does have a ton of confidence. There is no challenge that Buzz doesn’t think he can tackle and he does help the other toys out when they’re in a jam. The next door neighbor makes for a fairly imposing threat since the guy is absolutely brutal when it comes to the toys. It’s really fortunate that the toys don’t seem to properly feel pain like most beings because otherwise that would be really rough for them. It seems more like they just find the sensations odd at most like then the guy merges different toys together.

To think, if Buzz didn’t show up then Woody and friends might never have made a move against him. So Buzz was definitely a net positive for the whole team at large. I’d also say he gives us the best humor moments throughout the volume although Woody deserves credit there as well since the dynamic between the two of them is really part of the selling point for Toy Story in general. The other toys are nice enough like the Piggybank and Bo Peep but their role here is fairly minimal. After all the volume has to go through the events rather quickly so if you aren’t one of the main two then you’re basically out of luck.

As for the art, it’s fairly good. Nothing spectacular or anything as it’s really just going through the motions. It’s always very clear so you know what’s going on. You definitely would not say that the art ever gets cluttered or anything like that. The artist has fun with the expressions and the whole time you do feel like it all looks appropriate based on how the film was. So I don’t really have any issues there, it accomplishes what it set out to do.

The story is also fun enough like with the movie. It’s a pretty interesting concept about how the toys are alive. Naturally you’ll have a lot of questions about this because the implications are huge. Of course you’ll have to think about that on your own since this manga isn’t about to get into all of that. There’s really just not enough time for it but I’ll always give the film credit for really putting in a unique concept here. Perhaps the toys should go around from door to door to rescue other toys and make sure they’re all being taken care of. I suppose the world of Toy Story is likely a pleasant one but just like how they had a mean next door neighbor, I wouldn’t be surprised if other people are being mean to their toys. You could probably do a whole spinoff series about the toys trying to save everyone.

Overall, There isn’t a ton to say about this one. In part because I already reviewed the movie and also in part because it’s just so short. The volume is fairly small and it’s not like there’s a huge cast or anything. There’s no big topic that I have to spend a few paragraphs discussing or some kind of subplot I want to address. It’s a fairly straight forward adventure from start to finish and one that is executed well enough. It’s like a quietly good story that you had fun with. It wasn’t super or anything but you didn’t really have any big issues with it. That’s how I see the Toy Story manga. I probably wouldn’t read it again but it wasn’t bad or boring. It kept my attention and had good characters so you can’t really go wrong there. In the back of your mind though you can’t help but compare it to the movie the whole time though.

Overall 6/10

Megaman X4 Review

Posted on February 6, 2022 by dreager1

The Megaman X adventures continue as we head into X4. The manga has always made sure things were quite tough on X and this series is no exception. Just when X feels like he has finally beaten the bad guys and can relax, things go off the rails again. The series had to end rather quickly so we don’t actually make it to the ending of the game this time but it’s still a fun adventure. If you’re a Megaman fan or just want a good action title then this is a good one to check out.

The story starts with X and Zero enjoying the peace from the space station. It seems like the world is finally back to normal since Sigma is no longer around. X no longer has access to his post death environmental form and is back to his standard gear. For some reason Zero doesn’t seem pleased at how everyone is cheering on X as a hero but doesn’t say anything. Unfortunately peace is very short lived as a monster known as Eregion appears and immediately destroys an entire city. It begins laying waste to the world until X and Zero stop it.

The government needs someone to blame though so they say Repliforce is behind the incident. There is a lot of machinery around which does seem to link them. Repliforce is to be disbanded and all of the robots incinerated to achieve world peace. Repliforce doesn’t agree with this though and declares war on humanity. Zero ends up joining them as he doesn’t think it’s right for them to all be destroyed while X is left with the Maverick Hunter group to take them all down. Will X really be able to put aside his feelings and destroy Zero and the Repliforce members or will he have to abandon the fight?

By this point X is sick and tired of always having to fight off these mavericks. He takes it all rather hard and the worst part is how he can never save anyone in time. Later on the Repliforce group shuts off a power grid which ends up taking out a bunch of hospitals so many people die. As X watches all of this go on with no way to stop it. This has been a running theme in each series where X does save the day but only after major casualties. It’s why he has retired several times and why he detests the mavericks so much.

At the same time X has so much humanity within him that he is unable to keep from crying many times. He certainly cries a lot in this series as well and you can see how he’s emotionally unbalanced at this point. A ticking time bomb of emotion you can say and it does catch up to him. After X is defeated by Frost Walrus and he has to watch as another one of his close friends is murdered right in front of him, X goes completely insane. He turns into a dark form and just wants to murder everybody.

It was certainly a drastic shift although it’s one that doesn’t last long as the series quickly ends up finishing. I thought it was interesting although I think this already happened to X in a previous series. Either way it makes sense that this would all start to effect X quite a lot. You really do feel bad for him, I dare say that few main characters have suffered nearly as much as he has.

Meanwhile Zero is a mixed bag here. The mild subplot of him being jealous of X feels completely out of left field. By the end of the series we learn that what he is truly jealous of is X’s ability to feel emotions. Zero can feel sad and everything but he can’t cry, it’s just impossible for a robot like him and he takes that personally to the point where he even strikes X. Zero’s decision to stay close to Repliforce to keep an eye on them is very much in character with how he operates though and he got a lot of good fights. Having X and Zero in different locations was a good way to have each of them deal with a lot of mavericks.

Like with X things don’t go very well for Zero though as he can’t save everyone either. Being a Maverick Hunter is really a business where you shouldn’t expect any gratitude since nobody seems to like them at this point. Zero has his skills as always though and looks very impressive here. He’s still one of the strongest heroes on the block that’s for sure. At this point X and Zero are the only two good maverick hunters so they better keep their guards up.

As for the villains, Eregion was a cool one to start things off. He’s fairly mindless but still a strong maverick who really put the heroes in a tough spot. I certainly missed him when he was gone but you won’t forget that intro scene. Cyber Peacock is another fun one mainly because I enjoyed the mini arc where Zero enters the data world. In a way it reminds me of Battle Network which was always fun. Magma Dragoon doesn’t do a whole lot but I always like his Street Fighter type moveset which is handy for any fight like this. He is able to get up close and deal massive amounts of damage at any given point.

For someone with a big role though, Frost Walrus is your guy. This guy gets a ton of credit not just because he defeated a whole army of fighters but because he beat X and the Flame reploid in a 2 v 1 fight. Sure, X was using his base armor, but that’s been enough to defeat most fighters up until now. Against Frost Walrus that didn’t cut it. Walrus doesn’t really hold grudges either and approaches the fight as he would any other. He even lasted for a little bit against X in his rage mode. If not for Walrus doing so well and Double goading X on for a while, the hero may not have gone back into his more powerful forms to end the series off. Without a doubt you won’t see a villain more memorable than this guy here.

Colonel has a big role too of course since he is one of the Repliforce leaders. He has a big rivalry with Zero so they fight quite a few times but I definitely didn’t like him much. He’s never worried about putting Iris in trouble and puts her in a really tough spot all the time. He’s not as honorable as he tries to act. I agree with Colonel that Repliforce is being used as a scapegoat and of course he should be fighting back but intentionally targeting civilian areas like the hospital is really an underhanded play. There’s absolutely no honor in doing that.

Iris is a good character though. She does her best to keep Zero and Colonel from fighting at any cost. Additionally while Iris was conflicted about what side to join, she was doing her best to heal everyone she could. As a doctor she believed her role was to heal everyone regardless of faction and made good on that ideal for as long as she could. Then you have the General who is easy to mix up with Colonel. This guy’s a solid character and while he may not be the one giving out the orders, General follows them rather well. He’s just strong enough to be a threat without overshadowing the others.

It wouldn’t be a Megaman X manga without a traitor though right? That’s where Double comes in. By day he is the comic relief newcomer who doesn’t know anything but then he is one of the top mavericks on the villain side by night. Even his whole design changes into something that looks really cool. He works well enough as the traitor although it’s so fast that you don’t have a lot of time to process this on an emotional level. I don’t think X was particularly broken up about it at least. Man, robots don’t stay as Maverick Hunters for very long do they?

I would mention Sigma, but he doesn’t actually get to appear. As I mentioned earlier, this story ends early so the cliffhanger is the two heroes about to fight him. Too bad it couldn’t get 1 more chapter though since I think that’s really all it would have needed in order to have adapted that fight. It was soooo close, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Too bad too since I rather enjoy Sigma’s X4 design. I have a lot of nostalgia for the game in general since X4 is one of the first Megaman X games I played. It really holds up quite well as both a challenging and enjoyable game. The fully animated cutscenes were also a blast.

The artwork here is very nostalgia since it reminds you of the first 3 adaptions. That said, I do think the art has slipped a bit. Some of the action scenes can get incredibly chaotic to the point where it is really hard to know what’s going on. You know in a general sense of course but following the play by play during an action scene can be a bit of a trial. It means each chapter will take you a little longer to get through but ultimately I still want to emphasize that the art is good. Even if it may not beat the first 3, the action scenes are on point and the character designs are solid.

X4 tackles quite a lot of themes here so it’s a shame that it couldn’t have been longer to really expand on them. Like how X is the only machine who can cry and so Zero and the others are sometimes envious of this. Crying is a rather big theme in the manga and also the reverse which is that X can lose himself in the rage. I think if we had gotten more chapters we likely would have seen the two of them have a big fight to try and get X back to normal. He sort of just went back to normal on his own which was odd.

Then you can also see why X is so upset. He makes a speech about how he’s been stopping Mavericks since forever and saved the world a few times but it feels like nothing has changed. The depressing part is that nothing has changed. It’s hard to look at the world before he saved it and afterwards and see any kind of tangible change. It just isn’t there at all. Everyone is still dying constantly and the divide between robots and humans is as big as ever. After all, the government was very quick to say that every robot in Repliforce should be terminated.

X doesn’t have much time to even think about this before the group is committing terrorism everywhere. Otherwise though, you can see why Zero didn’t like this since it implies that the robot lives are meaningless. They can simply be snuffed out when they are of no more use to the government. By all means X needs to fight for the robot’s rights but once they start hurting civilians X is forced to go against them. It’s interesting because X really can’t reason with them at all right now since every minute spent talking is one where the villains are blowing more people up.

Zero quickly sees how irrational they are as well. The group could have made more good points but in the end they were just too quick to attack. So I would say they are all mavericks just using this as a convenient time to strike. Especially once we have the link to sigma. Some of them seem to really believe in the cause but then they should have been more careful with their targets. I’m convinced that they could have talked X into their side if they were more patient.

After all, X is someone who will absolutely be willing to talk and debate ideas. He’s that kind of robot but they didn’t give him a chance to do it. It was poor planning by Repliforce and another thing to blame Colonel for. As a final note, I really like the strong continuity among the X titles. We have flashbacks to the original series and even some previous guest stars. It’s always nice to be reminded that the previous adventures happened. Of course we know they did but that confirmation is important since otherwise it can quickly be forgotten.

It also gives us a chance to see why X isn’t using his big super powers from last time. It seems like he just lost them and for the upgraded armor he stopped wearing them since it was a time of peace. After being goaded on by Double, X was able to take these back out and go on the offensive. X is very strong in his own right so I can see why he left these initially but I was glad when he went back to get them. Underestimating the enemy is not something you ever want to do.

Overall, Megaman X4 is a great manga. You can certainly see where it starts to feel rushed near the end even though just one or two chapters could have made a difference. The series is filled with ideas even if a lot of them don’t really get to be completed. All in all, it still serves as a solid conclusion to the series. It would have been nice if it could have had a happier ending for X though as he still has no reason to feel anything but despair at how hopeless the whole situation is. To this day I will always be surprised at the absolutely massive body count in this series. Thousands die in every title like it’s nothing. X’s world is certainly the roughest timeline to be apart of. If you haven’t checked this series out then you definitely should.

Overall 8/10

Hyde and Closer Review

Posted on January 23, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time for an action series that isn’t super well known. It’s certainly on the more obscure side I’d say as even I hadn’t heard of it before starting the series. It feels like Reborn in a lot of ways with how the main character isn’t very brave but the chibi mobster helps him learn how to defend himself and fight back. Only instead of a baby gangster it is a toy gangster. So there’s a lot of similarities there but while this series never makes it up to Reborn’s level, I would say it’s still a pretty good title.

The manga starts out with introducing us to Shunpei who is a nervous wreck and never really developed his magical abilities. His grandfather Alsyd is known as the greatest sorcerer in the world and always leaves souvenirs for Shunpei. Well, one day the grandpa vanishes but not before leaving Shunpei with a stuffed bear named Hyde. Shunpei’s too old for toys but when he is attacked by one, Hyde is the only one able to come to his rescue. Hyde explains that sorcerers all over the world are going to be going after Shunpei to take him down for good. Each Sorcerer uses a toy of their own and if Shunpei wants to live through this then he’s going to have to man up and work with Hyde. Shunpei isn’t thrilled about any of this but doesn’t have much of a choice and he is worried about his grandpa.

The manga’s reasonably short at 7 volumes but gets to do quite a bit before the ending suddenly blazes in and everything just ends. It’s a very retro kind of story that feels old while you’re reading it. Not in a bad way per say but you can immediately tell that this isn’t a newer manga. Likewise the art is a bit old like that but it works out well enough for the fights. It’s the kind of artstyle that can get a little busy during the fight scenes so the pages may take longer to read. I would still say it looks good though, not very good or anything but it gets the job done. The series has quite a lot of action and all so it’s reasonably balanced. It just never hits its stride and becomes a great manga.

I would say that’s in part due to the characters. The cast isn’t bad but they’re not great and that seems to sum up most of the manga. A lot of the villains are quite forgettable and the side characters were only just coming into their own by the end. The strongest aspect of the story is the whole toys angle as that’s fairly unique. I also like the idea of the curses bouncing back at the user if they lose a fight. It makes each battle more high stakes for the villain for a change which is certainly a twist.

Shunpei starts out as a very underwhelming main character because I never like the nervous types but he really turns things around in the second half. I haven’t seen such a big turnaround in a minute but he gets very serious and is suddenly jumping into fights. Shunpei learned how to use the barrier skill which was his first big power up and he certainly does make the most of it. While it’s not an offensive move, it can protect him from almost all attacks. I suppose in that sense it’s more of an absolute domain since he creates the rules within the pocket he draws. Shunpei could directly contribute this way and when you mix in his confidence, that definitely helped a lot. You almost don’t recognize the guy from the first half.

Then you have Hyde who isn’t quite as charismatic as Reborn but he has the tough guy personality where he talks like a mafia member. He really wants Shunpei to learn what it is to be a man and has a lot of speeches for it. I like his personality and what they are going for here but the only underwhelming part is I feel like he’s quite weak half the time. He needs Shunpei to take out the Chainsaw from his back during the first fight and that seemed like a huge weakness. After that Hyde is able to fight on his own but he seems to “Meet his Match” in just about every fight so Shunpei needs to help out. I would expect more out of Alysd’s most powerful creation. I know he is always running on low energy due to plot reasons but I would have liked for him to have gotten more solo wins before he was outmatched.

As for the grandfather, he misses out on most of the story of course. When he does appear, Alsyd does look good though and lives up to his hype as the greatest sorcerer. The manga has a good reason for keeping him out of the action for so long even if it’s a shame that he had no way to contact anyone. He certainly performed his part well and bought the characters a whole lot of time. He’s one of those manga old guys who seemed to have gotten even more powerful with age given how long he was able to hold out without food or drink.

Tatsumi is the main heroine here and she’s fun enough. She reminds me of the heroine from Law of Ueki although she doesn’t actively help out in the fights quite on the same level. Tatsumi gets to see Shunpei’s character development first hand and is always around to support him. I wouldn’t say she ever makes a mistake of trips up and remains a loyal ally throughout the whole series.

The first big character to show up is Shindou as the first assassin to be going after Shunpei. He uses his doll Tomiko in order to fight and her hair is indestructible. Their dynamic is very similar to Yuta’s from JJK. A curse is essentially the reason why Tomiko is a doll now and Shindou fights in part to get rid of that curse. As a rite of passage usually the first villains are the ones who have the greatest chance of becoming a hero and he does end up helping Shunpei for most of the series. He’s the smart member of the group and is always careful to measure the odds. I liked him well enough and Tomiko was a good fighter. She’s the best shield you can have and is really the one doing all the heavy lifting since Shindou can’t fight at the same level. This series is all about teamwork and since these two have such a strong bond, they were in a good spot from the start.

Kazan is another one of the allies who helps out Shunpei. He protects a lot of kids but feels guilt over having murdered someone by accident. While he was ultimately forgiven and not hanged as a result, it took him a while to come to terms with that. Nothing a good speech and beating from Hyde won’t cure though. Kazan’s the tough kind of character who will rush into action but isn’t quite as powerful as some of the other members. His doll Desmond also feels weaker than the others. I like the suit of armor but beyond that it doesn’t feel like he has a game changing ability like Hyde or Tomiko.

Ana is another one of the fighters who wants Shunpei’s power. Initially she appears as a villain due to that and then gradually becomes another one of the allies. She actually gets a full backstory which ties into one of the villains later on and so she has a big role throughout the series. Her doll is one of the more versatile ones with the boombox abilities and music type skills although I would say that it lacks the raw power that some of the others have.

Then there’s Pacqwa who is an items seller but the gimmick is that she isn’t very good at being a seller which I wasn’t a fan of. I feel like she could have put more effort into her craft. Ultimately it works out since Shunpei is able to believe hard enough though and belief is how you get the magic to function in these things. He really had to do all of the work though so I hope she will improve in time for a sequel series some day.

There are a ton of one shot villains here of course which is good since that way you won’t be able to tell which ones will turn good and which ones are doomed. The more evil they are, the stronger the curse is when they lose so some of these guys end up dying or being sent to the hospital in critical condition. Either way, it’s a good explanation for why these guys don’t return since they won’t be in a position to do so for a very long time.

Schubert was personally one of my favorite villains. The guy’s a rich CEO and so of course he has a lot of toys. With his ability he is able to use tons of them at a time and it’s very much a quantity over quality kind of thing. Even with that he is able to give the heroes a good fight though and I would say he was the most impressive villain in the series. He really had them on the ropes for most of the fight and why does he want the power? Because as CEO he just wants everything of course. The reason is so simple that you just can’t help but find it funny. This guy was just a blast.

Enrique is another one of the villains who is ultimately being manipulated here. He thought that he needed to take Shunpei down and really went for it but the hero realized that something was up and didn’t finish him. Not that Shunpei finishes most of his opponents off but he was able to end the fight before the curse could flip so nothing really bad happens to Enrique. Nice enough kid but he definitely needs to be careful not to trust too easily.

Now as for The Watcher in the Window….this guy isn’t all that great. It’s probably the biggest risk of having a villain who is always hiding in the shadows when the series has to quickly end. He doesn’t really get to do anything until the very end where he is quickly dispatched. There’s no time to really get to enjoy his character or anything and since he loses quickly…he doesn’t look as impressive as he could be. Now, he is certainly powerful and deserves to be the final boss but I would have liked him to have done something a whole lot sooner. The egg plan wasn’t even that bad in terms of unlocking pure evil but the watcher’s whole character arc goes so fast that it’ll leave your head spinning. I would have handled his character in a different way as the potential there was great. Still, I imagine the author had different plans too.

There are a few more villains we should talk about though. Next up is Punch, he’s ultimately one of the stronger opponents and makes for a good rival to Hyde. Their battle goes to the wire and it’s always good to have the dark version of the lead show up. In a lot of ways he is like an alternate look on what would happen if Hyde turned evil. Fortunately that was never in the cards as it would go firmly against Hyde’s code of ethics.

Ronove is completely psychotic and basically just likes to see people and things die. She started from plants and went all the way to people with this. I can’t say that I liked her right from the jump. The psychotic villains like this tend to just be so over the top that there no longer is anything interesting about them. I’d rather if she had a lot of plans and ideas but instead she is just crazy with no bigger goals than dishing out pain. Of course her boss has big plans but she is only following to inflict damage. Her character was just sort of doomed but I can acknowledge that her flames made her one of the most powerful villains in the series. Possibly second to the Watcher.

Finally you have her partner Asmodai who is also evil from the jump. In fact, he was murdering people while he was still in the womb and wasn’t born yet which is kinda crazy. He starts murdering people over something super petty as well and just never went back from there. He’s not quite mindless but Asmodai is basically just a brute who goes around destroying everyone he can. There’s not a whole lot to this character and while that can potentially work if you are very charismatic or have cool powers, that’s not the case with him.

So that wraps up the cast. As you can tell I was much more impressed with the heroes than the villains. The Watcher was an interesting character though but I just don’t think he stuck the landing. Ultimately Hyde and Closer is a fun series but not one that you would call great. It doesn’t have enough special aspects that would cause you to really remember it among all of the competitors. The whole curse and puppet angle could have helped make it big since that’s a fairly small sub-genre. The biggest one I can think of like that would be Zatch Bell.

It felt like the series was gearing up for a big arc in the future but ultimately the series ended before that could happen. I think the author did have a lot of plans for this one but the series couldn’t manage to make it that far. Definitely too bad. The series did have a little animal violence during one of the sob stories and the final two villains were trying to be as twisted as possible so it’s possible that extending the length of the series could have hurt it. For example if the author decided to double down on that and keep making things darker. I don’t ultimately think the series would have fallen off of that cliff though so I would have liked a few more volumes.

The series does get to conclude its arc of turning Shunpei into a man though so the author made sure that wasn’t left unfinished. He does have a brief moment near the end of the series where he effectively gives up and reverts back to his old self but fortunately that was temporary. It would have been a shame to have wiped out his character development like that but instead he stays strong. It may be a rather basic message but it’s executed well. Shunpei learns how to stand up for himself and how to create his own sense of justice. That’s always good for a lead to have.

Overall, Hyde and Closer is a solid adventure title. I think that’s the best way to think about it as you will have a good amount of fun reading it and then the whole thing will be over. The art was good and we got solid fight scenes even if it could be hard to read at a glance sometimes. Shunpei showed tremendous improvement as a main character and I believe he would have only continued to improve from there. The monster of the week format was working well enough but it was nice to get a big villain organization near the end and amp up the fights. It all feels like we were still in the first act though and things could have really kept on going for a while yet. Don’t let that stop you from reading it though as the series does have an ending. Maybe one day it’ll get a sequel.

Overall 7/10

Neru: Rise of the Martial Artist Review

Posted on January 22, 2022 by dreager1

It’s time to take a look at the next in the line of Shonen Jump cancelled titles. Neru always looked fun when it started although it was completely overshadowed by Red Hood. I don’t recall seeing almost any discussion for this one while Red Hood was always on the webs. That said, the series is quite solid. I can unfortunately see why it ended up getting slammed but the title had a lot of promise and ultimately could have made it to the next level. That just wasn’t in the cards this time though.

The series starts off by introducing us to our lead Neru. He is a guy who is completely obsessed with martial arts and trains nonstop at all times. As a result he hasn’t made very many friends…in fact Mikio is his only friend. Still, that doesn’t really bother him because he’s never really thought about it before. Neru is just satisfied improving his craft but one day a mysterious girl beats him up and invites Neru to join her martial arts school. He will have to pass some exams though but now he finally has something to work towards. Can Neru actually make it in?

When it comes to the Jump main characters you’ve usually got 3 kinds. The inept ones, moderately talented, and the genius fighters. Neru is certainly in the latter category as he starts out as one of the most powerful characters in the series and ends on that note as well. The series was over before it could really introduce a whole lot of characters who could defeat him so as a result Neru ends up slaughtering most of his opponents with ease. Metaphorically btw, as he doesn’t destroy his opponents like that.

Right away one of the strengths of the series is the action scenes. I like the martial art battles and considering that this is a new series, I thought it looked really well polished. My only issue is that a few of the characters have very similar designs which can make things a bit tricky. The actual artwork is on point though so I definitely have no issues on that front. The series is also fast paced so things happen right away. If it had kept up that pacing throughout the series I think it may still be going but unfortunately things slow down a whole lot near the middle. It’s not as noticeable when reading all the chapters through but it does mean that weekly I’m sure these chapters were rather low ranked.

You can really divide the 18 chapters into a few different parts. Of course you start off with the introductions as Neru loses to the heroine Akebi and then meets his match against her brother Jokuro who is one of the most skilled fighters in the whole school. The fact that Neru is self taught and keeping up with these guys is really impressive. It’s a solid start as we get the hype of preparing for entering the school and also have two intro fights right off the bat. You couldn’t ask for much more than from the intro so I thought this was executed really well.

After that, Neru has to pass the test to get into the school. I think this will always worry people since they say you don’t want to do exams early on in a manga anymore. Fortunately this is very short though plus the exam has a combat element. So Neru gets to do the paperwork in about 1 chapter and then we get the battle chapter where even the advanced ninja class is no match for him. It’s a bit slower but still works out well. Now Neru is part of the school so it definitely changes up what you would expect from the series going forward. I’m not even sure what I would expect, it could go for a happier tone like Prince of Tennis where the characters have friendly battles or we could have some evil schools and combatants who show up to make things complicated.

Once Neru gets into the school we start to meet up with a bunch of the new characters including the character who seemed primed to be the real main heroine. With how quick the series ends though it’s hard to say who should really be considered the heroine. Either way the mini arc here involves a hazing from the upper classmen. Neru and Kaname have to compete to find an arrow and the winner gets to live in the dorm while the other has to camp outside for a while. Naturally Neru isn’t the kind of guy who worries about such things so he’s willing to let Kaname get the win but they have some nice teamwork moments here. It’s not as exciting as the intro but it’s really to develop the characters more.

Then we enter the climax which is that Neru needs to find a match so that he can try and rank up. Unfortunately nobody wants to fight him until the psycho Enkoji shows up. This worries Neru’s roommate Ryuzen who has resigned from fighting due in part to a sob story with Enkoji. Neru has to convince this guy to fight again so they can have the match. This part can drag a bit since you likely don’t care about Ryuzen at all yet and you just want to get to the fight. Once we get to the fight it’s pretty hype though. Then of course we get the inevitable 5 year time skip since the series was cancelled.

So I had a good time with this series. It really ends in a flash but you get to have a good time throughout the series. It has solid action and a good cast of characters. There’s no time for any of the characters to be great or anything but they had a good amount of potential. From the cancelled series I’ve read recently I would definitely put this as one of the more impressive ones. We also don’t really see a lot of series about martial arts so it would have been fun to have seen this one last in the end. It’s also borrowing a lot of elements from the God of High School which of course was a really fun series that really went all out by the end. You have the mysterious grandfather who disappeared one day, the fact that Neru uses a martial arts style that revolves around his legs, etc. I could see this series going down that route although minus the gods and aliens. There was a lot here.

That said, the grandpa plot never ends up going anywhere since the series ended so fast so you don’t need to worry about that. In fact, there are no true villains in the series so far since we’re still in the school phase when it ends. I mean Enkoji’s effectively a villain because of how crazy he is but technically the guy is just another classmate so I wouldn’t count that. It’s why I’m not even positive if this would be the kind of series with big villains and everything or if it would be treated more like a sport series about martial arts. It’s just too early to call there although I assume it would involve true villains and end of the world stakes soon.

Personally I think the series ended up being cancelled because of the lull in action near the end when Neru is trying to set up a match. I don’t think people really cared a whole lot about the setup and why Ryuzen quit. I know I didn’t care a whole lot. Not something I would cancel the series over of course but if all the other titles were beating it up at the time then of course being cancelled would make sense in the end. So to avoid cancellation what I would have done is have the first match start right away. Don’t have people dodging Neru in terms of battle and give him a few solo wins before he has to go into doubles.

After all, I don’t see how everyone could dodge him. The series never actually goes into the rules of this but this is a martial arts school. Everyone is so scared of the new kid that Neru can’t get any challengers? To me that just speaks very poorly of the school itself if the students are that scared. Also, if you need to fight in order to advance then I imagine that there should be mandatory fights. I don’t get if it’s a 3 year type school that you can accelerate and you still have to go through most of the time or if fights just directly skip everything. Perhaps the martial arts part is just a small part of the school. Either way we could use more answers but I understand why the series wouldn’t want to waste time on exposition.

In that case it should have just kept the fights going and that would have worked really well. I think that’s the best bet the author could have done to have kept this going. It might not be fun for the author to have to move fast and keep the action going at first but you really gotta do it that way instead of going more for the plot and character elements. At the very least I’d say it’s safer to be really action packed at the start and work from there. Now lets talk about the characters.

As mentioned, Neru’s a fun main character. He’s very invested in his goal of being a martial artist in part so he can find his grandfather. It’s a noble goal and he’s a nice guy who stands up for the weak. He’s a very solid fighter and I’m glad that he doesn’t fall for tricks very easily. He was able to adapt to each of the ninja’s moves very easily and that really helped him stand out here. I wouldn’t say there’s anything unique about him just yet but all of his character traits are good so I definitely have no complaints.

Then you have Akebi who shows up in the opening chapters but vanishes until the end otherwise. She would have been a fun character though. She would have served in the mentor role for a while although it seemed like Neru was close to surpassing her early on so this may not have been a role she’d have stayed in for long. She doesn’t enter tournaments like the other characters so I’m assuming we would get some kind of backstory behind that eventually. She’s definitely a fun character and would have been a good member of the main cast.

Jokuro is the next guy up and we don’t get to see a lot of him but he does get the opening fight which will have to do. I like his confidence and he seems like another fun character here. He also seems to have a bit of a friendly rivalry with his sister Akebi which would have been a fun dynamic. Having Jokuro be one of the strongest fighters was a good idea because he’s a likable character so that would make for a positive obstacle in Neru’s path.

Shoze seems like he was being built up as the rival in the series. He’s a first year student like Neru who was in the exams but the tricky thing is that Neru seems to have already been stronger than him from the start. So maybe saying they would be rivals is a stretch but everyone else is impressed with the guy in the series so it still seems that way. I guess it would depend on if Neru would be a rival to the masters like Jokuro or if he would be a rival to Shoze. It all depends on how fast Neru ended up improving so I suppose that could go either way. I’m not a big fan of Shoze though, the kind of guy who will look the other way when someone is getting beaten up so he can succeed. It’s perhaps not unexpected for this guy but it’s not something that will help me like him.

I should give Mikio a quick mention but he’s Neru’s friend from the old school so I suspect that he would not end up doing much at all in the coming chapters. Nice enough guy even if he is too quick to spill all of his secrets about Neru to Akebi though. I see where his priorities are now and Neru can’t really trust him. Toriichi seems to be the replacement as he’s also a super nice guy who’s rather meek and mild mannered. I don’t see this going over well for him at a martial arts school though so I question why he is even here. Maybe his family forced him to come? That would at least make some sense I suppose.

Next up is Kaname, one of the heroines in the series. So she is the sister of one of the “Big 3” fighters in the school. Her family are all made up of fighters but they say that she shouldn’t be fighting along with them because she’s a girl. It’s definitely a very classic kind of character arc and she needs to learn to fight really well to show them that she is ready for the battle field. Her personality is very tsundere type with Neru. She can’t fight super well yet from what we can see but with her determination I’m sure she would go far. I liked her character even if we didn’t get to see her a whole lot yet. Even if I probably wouldn’t be on board with the romance, I could see her having a solid dynamic with lots of good banter in there.

Finally we get to the fighters from the last battle. There’s Ryuzen who doesn’t like fighting anymore and the reason feels unique but doesn’t help him a lot. Basically if Ryuzen takes any damage he has a hard time withholding his urge to kill and so he’s decided that it would just be safer if he didn’t fight at all. If he can’t control himself of course that is correct but he might as well not attend the martial arts school in that case. His decision to stay tells me that it is possible to graduate without fighting though which is definitely interesting. I didn’t end up liking Ryuzen even by the end though. The guy’s rather mean to Neru for no good reason and he takes forever to do anything. He was even letting the villains double team Neru while he was busy getting ready.

Enkoji is the only villain as mentioned before and I wonder how he was not expelled. He basically confirms that he intentionally injures his opponents to scar them so he can match their scars with self inflicting wounds. He really injured Ryuzen’s partner quite badly and is happy about it. He has no problem saying all of this in front of everyone by the way. Does the school just tolerate anything? It appears that way of course. Enkoji’s whole character is that he’s insane and likes dishing out pain so I can’t say that there is anything interesting about him. You’re waiting for the heroes to beat him up and that’s about it.

So for the most part we’ve got a good cast here. I imagine we would start to meet a lot more and of course there are other students that I did not mention. They would likely get more of a role going forward as well with all the fights coming up. The series may not have made it as long as the author would have hoped but it does succeed in telling a complete story. The series did a good job of having everything wrap up cleanly. The grandpa plot is ignored but we get to see how Neru’s path ended and see that the world is just not too out there this time. Based on the timeskip the world around the heroes is really quite normal and everyone’s just having a good time. No end of the world plots or anything but I wouldn’t say this definitively means that the series was going down that route since the series was ending here anyway.

Overall, Neru: Rise of the Martial Artist is just a fun series. You’ll have a good time reading through it because the characters are pleasant and the story is good. It had a lot of potential. I don’t think it was ever going to be one of the all stars but it definitely would have been another solid installment to the Jump lineup. Hopefully the author is successful in their next endeavor and I would like to get another martial artist series at some point in the future. There’s really a lot you can do with that. If you’re looking for a series to sit down with and spend an hour or two, this is certainly a good option.

Overall 7/10

La Corda d’Oro: College Arc Review

Posted on January 9, 2022 by dreager1

After all these years, it is time to take a look at the sequel to the first La Corda De Oro. This one doesn’t really bring the supernatural elements back though so say goodbye to the magic fairy that would help Hino play her instrument. He does appear briefly in the story but those adventures ended up just being filler in the end since the story wasn’t impacted. I want to say the original one was better than this sequel but I suppose it wasn’t a bad continuation. It’s always interesting to see the reverse harem style where everyone is desperate for the main heroine and she has to make her choice. There is a choice here which is good so even if we are getting bonus routes in the next few chapters, I would consider this ending as the main canon one. (I wouldn’t mind if more titles started having alternate endings though. It’s an interesting concept and a good way to stretch a series out for a bit longer.

The series starts off by explaining that Hino is still not together with Tsukimori yet. He ended up moving out to Vienna to improve his musical skills. They keep in touch through mail but neither one of them really seems to be able to reach out to make their status official. As a result, Tsuchiura, Kaji, Hihara, and Yunoki all figure that they still have a shot at Hino. Perhaps they can seduce her away from Tsukimori while he’s abroad. There’s even a new student named Kamata who may be interested in her as well. Can Hino stay strong and wait for Tsukimori or will she ultimately choose someone else?

Now from the start you’re probably going to be blaming Tsukimori here. Moving out to go practice his instruments is all well and good but he should have taken Hino along with him. Leaving her alone for such a long period of time with no return plan is really asking for trouble. You get the feeling that they will end up being together anyway but it really doesn’t make things easy on their relationship. Mix in the fact that he’s not great at communicating and it only makes sense that they would continue to drift apart.

I also thought that he does a horrible job of handling the situation when he appears. The series loves to get dramatic so of course he is super jealous of the other guys and says some hurtful stuff to Hino. He has no reason for this other than that he was envious of the others who got to be with Hino this last year but it was his choice to leave. I’m sure Hino would have gone with him if he asked. Also, you mean to tell me that he didn’t travel back to hang out with her a single time? That’s just a bad look on him. It’s been a while since the original series but the fact that he’s made no improvement is concerning.

As you can probably tell, I wasn’t exactly rooting for him and his romance to take off. Hino doesn’t handle all situations great either but at least she has been working to improve her own abilities throughout. The characters are all impressed at how she has improved and she has done all of this without any fairy to help her out this time. It’s pure skill and that’s good because she is in a music school surrounded by geniuses so it makes sense that she would improve. My only real issue with her character is how indecisive she is.

Each of the guys are able to cause her to be flustered at one point or another. They’re constantly flirting or threatening to make a move and she just acts shocked each time. They always end up leaving her alone and instead of reflecting on this or rejecting them she will head off to the next guy to be woo’d again. She doesn’t keep up any defenses around them like when she goes to one of the guy’s places to take a nap. It’s great that she trusts them all so much but it’s hard to believe that she hasn’t noticed how they’re all completely obsessed with her. She needs to be a little more self aware here and start friend zoning each of them so this isn’t up in the air.

By the end of the series the characters all start to give up on her one by one. It’s just annoying that they have to give up on their own as opposed to Hino telling them off. I would have liked if it was Nisekoi style where one by one the guy would have a heart to heart with the girl and explain why they had to stay as friends. Hino having a conversation with each of them like that would have been really nice and a solid way to give everyone some closure. They each got their own little mini arcs/adventures with her so that really could have worked.

Lets talk about each of the guys now. As you already know, I didn’t like Tsukimori. There’s not much more to say about him so we can skip the guy. Next up we have Tsuchiura who is the classic “Nice Guy” of the group. He can’t make big bold moves the way that the rest can. He treasures his friendship with Hino which is also what stops him from asking her out. He had the best chance to be with her at one point when she’s in a vulnerable spot but decides to help her get back with Tsukimori. He’s a good guy through and through but you know that he is doomed right from the start. In a way it felt like he was never in the running as a result. He’s easily the best out of all the guys but that’s not saying a lot I suppose.

After all, I was never going to like these guys much because they’re all trying to get together with Hino even though they know that she likes Tsukimori. I mean, I suppose it’s fair game until they are actually together but then they needed to be up front about that. Since she trusts them so much, it’s only right to do so immediately. Next up is Yunoki. He’s the rich one of the group who always tries to impress Hino with flashy displays. The guy has an edge there for sure since he can make her biggest wishes come true. That said, it also feels like he never had a shot here since he seems a bit older than the others. Might just be the way that he carries himself though, I assume they’re all around the same age. The series even plays into that later on as he acts more like a father figure.

He can be nicer than he acts but I still wouldn’t trust the guy too much. Shimizu is probably the most serious rival out of the group. He’s more straight forward about liking Hino the whole time and also does so in a mature way. He has his own character development as he learns to accept his feelings and he even gives her some pep talks. The guy isn’t really as friendly as some of the other characters but he knows how to behave around Hino. From the guys he would easily be the best aside from Tsuchiura.

Hihara likes Momo as well but has the hardest time really getting close to her. The guy just isn’t really ready for romance which is one of the main reasons he has to give his feelings up. He would have needed a lot of help from the other characters to make a move and so it was just too soon. If Tsukimori blows it later on then I guess he’ll have another shot. Hihara’s a nice guy and someone you can find on so hopefully he will stay as a dependable friend. There is a random new student named Kamata who seems to like Hino but he only appears for a chapter or two and promptly vanishes so we don’t need to talk about him much. I don’t even know what the point of his character was.

Lili returns briefly, but as mentioned earlier the whole fairy part feels like filler here. So Lili randomly shows up to wrap Hino into the past where she is able to meet up with all of the characters before they actually met her. It’s interesting and doesn’t seem to have been a dream but it literally doesn’t change anything. Hino doesn’t treat the characters differently and the event didn’t change her so it is really filler. There’s another time Lili appears which causes the characters to all be warped to a remote island along with their past selves. Again, this has nothing to do with anything so it was really filler. It’s interesting that we have some time magic going on but Lili could have really been used in a different way. The fairy affecting Hino’s music skills was a fun plot in the original so I’m not sure why it was completely ditched here.

While the series is mainly episodic, I should mention that the plot line which connects this all together is that there is going to be a big concert soon. So the characters are prepping for it and that’s one of the excuses for Hino to be alone with each guy for a chapter. Each one gives her some advice to further hone her skills and make the Vienna guy jealous since he couldn’t help out. The actual concert barely appears and is mostly off screen though which is why I would consider it as more of a plot device than an actual sub plot.

As for the art, it’s pretty good. I thought each of the pages was really clear in pure quality as well as layout. It’s always easy to tell exactly what’s going on and it makes reading the series really easy. You’ll be breezing through the pages. I would occasionally mix up the characters as a lot of the guys look so similar but fortunately their personalities are very different so as soon as they start talking then I’m good. The more you read the easier it gets in that respect.

The sequel had a fairly decent run with several volumes out. If the alternate endings each get a volume or so then this will really have a good run. I decided to do the review now though since I consider those to be bonus chapters as opposed to continuing in the main series. This ending feels like it’s the proper one after all. I may not be a big fan of the pairing but the whole series seemed to be leading up to it. It’s why I’m curious how they’ll play out the alternate endings. At what point does the manga diverge and how will they have Hino end up with each character? At the very least it’ll be interesting to see how it’s played out.

The writing in the series is good but as expected, the romance is really what holds the title back. It’s what keeps me from saying that the series is good. Hino is just way too passive the whole time. She lets each character drag her around and I’d have liked her to have taken a more active approach. If she goes with someone it should be her pick, not that everyone just gave up and helped her find the right guy. Tsukimori is also just such a jerk the entire series. There’s no way to root for him as a result and his excuses get pettier and pettier throughout.

A lot of the characters clown on Tsukimori for his decision and instead of feeling bad for him I just agreed with them. Here you have a guy who has a girl who is super devoted to him and he just ghosts her for long periods of time. Then whenever we cut over to him in Vienna he tries to say that she means a lot to him and he just doesn’t know how to contact her. That’s just not a good excuse and running away to Vienna for a second time made him look even worse. The only reason why their relationship works at all is purely based on her efforts. I can’t give him any piece of credit.

Overall, La Corda d’Oro is a very serious romance. You won’t really find a lot of humor here at all. It’s not dark in the slightest, it’s a light hearted series but you won’t find a lot of gags or anything like that. I’d call it a serious romance because each guy is doing his best to win Hino over and the manga plays it straight. It makes for a suspenseful read as a result but you probably won’t be smiling much. It’s like reading a chemistry textbook or something, you might be interested in what you’re seeing but there’s no time for laughter. I think the series could have used a bit more levity. Throw in the fairy and have some more adventures. Instead with all the romance chapters back to back, there was never any room to really rest. Off the top I would say the original series was better although it’s been ages since I’ve read that one. If you want to revisit the cast and see how things have gone along for them then this is the sequel you’ll want to check out. It’s not bad but I wouldn’t say it’s good. It’s interesting to say this but you won’t really have strong opinions about the series one way or the other. Not to say it’s boring but there isn’t a whole lot to talk about. Ultimately it’s a series of romantic adventures and Hino chooses one as we cut to the ending. I don’t think you’ll be thinking about it the very next day you finish it. I can’t think of the last time a manga just felt empty like that for me after I finished it. Again…it’s not bad but it sorta leaves you a bit empty. Hmmm….that’s the best way I can put it.

Overall 5/10

The Hunters Guild: Red Hood Review

Posted on January 8, 2022 by dreager1

Red Hood was a really big deal when it first came out. People got really hyped after the first chapter but then the hype slowly started to disappear. By the time it was cancelled at 18 chapters, a lot of people were disappointed but it seemed to have already fallen off the top. Well, I’ve finally checked it out and the manga had some fun ideas but is really held back by the art. Manga’s such a visual medium where if the art is bad I think it will be extremely difficult to succeed. Effectively the manga is starting itself off at a disadvantage. It’s not a bad title by the end but I can certainly see why it was cancelled. It goes without saying that this review will have complete spoilers so if you have not read the chapters yet, you will want to do so before checking this review out.

The manga starts off by explaining that the hunters have exterminated all dragons off the face of the Earth. Now they aim to destroy all of the werewolves next. We then cut to the main character Velou who is a kid that just wants to protect his village. Unfortunately Werewolves are quite powerful, can shapeshift, and even regenerate. There’s no way Velou can win on his own so the village spends all of their money to call in a hunter to help. Her name is Grimm and while she appears to be a small child herself, she has never failed a mission before.

This intro mission lasts for almost half the series with around 7 so it’s a bit longer than you would expect. Usually in something like this you have 1 or 2 chapters for the intro and then you keep it moving. This slower pacing is different but not necessarily bad. We get to see what a big threat the wolves are to the average person and there’s a lot of lore thrown right at you this way. You get to really learn about the world and that’s never a bad thing.

You also get some Promised Neverland vibes here. Velou looks just like Emma from that series even down to the hairstyle and with Wolves lurking around every corner, the series is going for a bit of a horror theme. You can’t trust anyone and despair is right around the corner. It could also just be that the art gives this effect as the drawings never look complete and everything’s so convoluted. Regardless we even meet some of the big villains from the Red List and at the end of the intro Velou decides to become a hunter. The exam lasts the rest of the series with the exception of the final 3 chapters where we hit the climax. So as you can see, the series didn’t have a whole lot of time to do much here.

Lets break this down into sections though as I’m jumping around a lot here. For starters, I’m not a big fan of Velou being such a little kid. To me that rarely ends up working because for a series like this you need the main character to be able to fight. While Grimm could have looked better (More on that later) she can at least fight and has 100 different tools. The other fighters we see can all fight as well, Velou is the only exception. The series is going for a World Trigger vibe where Velou has to get used to being the strategist but I don’t think that works very often. It can be hard to root for a main character who can’t actively fight himself and has to hide behind his friends. Velou does have a gun but tends to miss his shots at point blank.

Velou means well and has a lot of the usual hero dialogue but there’s nothing that really draws you to the character. I don’t see a lot that would end up making him very interesting and so this doesn’t help his case in the long run. As for Grimm, she’s the real character that got a lot of attention at first. Her story is that she is cursed to be trapped in the body of a child and can only go back to her adult form for 3 hours a day. Sort of like an All Might situation there. Thing is, while she gets a ton of hype, she doesn’t look great. She lets her guard down against villains multiple times and is completely helpless against the Red List. Grimm doesn’t even get a true final fight at the end.

In this case, it would have been better for her to have just not fought yet. It would be like Kakashi meeting his match immediately in Naruto. This is more like Rukia losing in episode 1 of Bleach which was still sketchy when it happened. Grimm has a lot of confidence in herself though and loves to fight so you can probably guess that I enjoyed her character quite a bit. I just think she should have looked stronger.

I’ll give the series credit for being aware of this though. This is actually turned into a bit of a sub plot as a character realizes that Grimm isn’t looking so good. It turns out that there is some reality warping in effect so that is a very reasonable in-universe explanation as to what’s going on here. Trust me, I’ll definitely talk about the reality warping coming up since that’s a big factor here.

One character we meet during the exams later on is a guy called “Bonkers”. Bonkers is you classic strong guy with a bad attitude who doesn’t even care about entering the exams. He has a tragic backstory and has just given up. Fortunately Velou is able to talk him out of it so he can learn how to be a team player. This is so successful that Bonkers is the one giving a speech in the next chapter. I could see him being a decent character as time goes on but for now there isn’t a whole lot that is interesting about him.

There are tons of trainees introduced in the long exam arc but most of them won’t leave a big impression on you just yet. There just isn’t time to really learn about them. You have Tylty who doesn’t trust people anymore and wants to win the exam on his terms. You have an older scientist who wants to prove that his inventions will be useful in combat. Then there’s a girl who believes in being very practical so she will betray you or stay on the team depending on which option makes more sense. She’s not going to choose an option just because it’s the right thing to do. It seems like most of these characters were meant to become main characters eventually so it’s a shame that the series ended before they could return.

Then you have Debonair who is one of the more experienced hunters. She’s actually teamed up with Grimm on the field back in the day so she knows her stuff. She was cursed to always have a high body temperature so she uses that in her attacks. It’s a creative way to take control of her curse so I’ll give her credit there. She was definitely one of the more enjoyable characters here. She adds a lot of energy to the series and always just jumps into action. She doesn’t hesitate to attack anyone whether they are friend or foe.

Then we have some villains in here like Cinderella. She is one of the highest ranking villains of the Red List and I’m very interested in how she turned evil in this continuity. Of course as the series goes on we see that her faction may be the good ones. I’ll break down the two sides later on. Cinderella is a lot of fun though and would have been a solid reoccurring villain if this series had kept on going. She has a partner in Lycaon, the king of the beasts. This guy is huge and immensely powerful so even though these two villains appeared almost immediately, I wonder if they were planned to be end game type bosses.

Aside from a few minions, the only other big villain we met was the mysterious mayor. It was a pretty big twist to have this guy end up being with the villains. I’ll talk about his goals in a second but it’s a very interesting direction to place this guy in. He looks good. His last second character 180 I can ignore since it was the last chapter and that’s likely the only reason this happened. Otherwise I doubt that would have happened at all.

Before getting into that I’ll quickly talk about the 3 arcs. So the pre arc where we were introduced to the main characters is the weakest one. It’s hard to get all that engaged in reading about this village filled with expendable characters when the 3 wolves attack. It also lasts pretty long even though Grimm should have just ended all of the werewolves in an instant. Of course she was testing Velou but she also did promise to save everyone. A bunch of people really could have died every minute that she was messing around instead of helping out. The only really solid part of the arc was the ending when Cinderella showed up to style on everyone. It was also an interesting way to get Velou to join the her since he only relented since there was no longer a village to save. It was the fact that Grimm failed the mission which ended up making him join. Not the greatest reason to get in on the action.

For the exam arc, well it’s a cool concept for a test but it is just too soon. So you’ve got a bunch of random characters who have to put aside their difference to win the test. If the main character could fight that would work better but since he can’t, it just doesn’t work as well. The whole exam also makes no sense because there’s no way a bunch of random cadets could hope to beat the top 2 hunters. Even if they are holding back so they don’t murder the kids, I don’t buy for a second that the heroes were able to outsmart them every time. It ended up being a complete loss for the hunters as they couldn’t capture a single cadet. That’s going beyond lucky to just being unreasonable.

Then we enter the final 3 chapters with reality warping and such. It’s hard to get super engaged here either since it’s all happening so fast. We get a super gun that can destroy everything and an onslaught of twists. The plot twists are interesting and put the series on what would have been a very interesting path but we don’t get to explore it. Throw in the cheesy ending and that doesn’t help matters a whole lot. At least we did get some action though.

So, what is going on here? It turns out that the entire world has been destroyed many times. See, humans and werewolves have been locked in war with each other for millions of years. The issue is that the werewolves cannot be destroyed because any human can turn into one randomly, without warning or reason. So the only way to destroy the werewolves is to destroy the human population. Apparently the hunters have tried this before and destroyed all the humans but then everything got reset each time. See, there is a powerful high above being working on this…The Readers. Yes, in this series the reader is a concept.

So the characters are all locked in a twisted fate of never being able to escape. Then you have the Red Hood who is in charge of writing in the master book, events of what is to come. Whatever is written ultimately ends up happening and so he writes good and bad events to occur. Villages getting burned down? The guy wrote all of that. So destiny has complete control over everyone because their results were already written in.

This is where the Red Line comes in. Their group is made up of other powerful fighters who don’t want to be trapped by Destiny. So their goal is to take down the hunter alliance and seize control of the book. That way they can stop anyone from writing in it and people can make their own choices. Based on that intel, I would argue the Red List are the good guys right? Yes, but then you remember the first chapters and how they’re going around burning down villages and eating people. So…they lost all credibility in an instant.

This is clearly a series where both sides are going to be evil. Well, this is where the Mayor steps in as a third faction. He pretends to be a part of the Red List but has his own goals. He wants to destroy the book entirely and end reality. I should mention as part of the Red Hunter’s duties, they write in the book to appeal to the readers. Well, the Mayor believes that writing to appease a bunch of violent gods isn’t a good thing to do. Humans are not puppets and so he plans to end all of reality. To that end he created Velou, who isn’t truly real. Velou is an anti destiny, sentient bomb. Just by existing he causes the characters to break away from their script and regain free will.

If the Mayor can get Velou near the book for a long enough period of time, then the book will blow up and the Mayor will have gotten his wish. In the meantime the Mayor stole two pages of the book so he can fill them with anything to change destiny. It’s a very overpowered ability that’s for sure. The series ends with him turning good as he’s blown up and the heroes are all finally freed from destiny to do their own thing. As the series was cancelled, the readers are gone so nobody can dictate how their series will go. It’s very meta that’s for sure.

Some interesting concepts there but I think it would put the series in a hole rather quickly. Once you get this meta and are breaking the fourth wall all the time, it’s hard to tell more stories. Once the characters know that they are characters and that everything’s a manga, it just seems like it would be hard to actually tell any stories. There were some hinting about proper scripts and characters acting in line early on in the series so I think this was originally meant to play some kind of role and it wasn’t just because the series was cancelled. I’m guessing the twists wouldn’t have happened so quickly otherwise though.

Personally I think the series was cancelled in large part because the art’s just not that good. It’s very cluttered and it can be hard to tell that is happening half the time. There’s one scene where a hero kisses a villain just to annoy her but you don’t even realize that happened for a few panels because the art’s so bad. It seemed more like a hug initially. Forget about the fights, it becomes 10 times harder to follow along once that happens. It doesn’t help that each of the werewolves are huge. Even experienced artists can have a hard time with big opponents, much less a new series artist. Should have stuck to street fights even though those don’t look great here either.

The series could have been saved if the art was better. I also would have pushed back the exam and shortened the intro. Have the characters go straight into another mission first and learn about the world. Maybe the test could happen as part of arc 3 or arc 4. That would also give Velou some time to get better as it’s hard to see him being ready to be a hunter this early on. I’d also say it’s probably best to get rid of the meta aspect of the series since I don’t think it works in a serious context. That said, if it’s the main point of the series then I won’t ask to remove it since that would change the core story. Velou being an anti destiny bomb was interesting at least. If he had been a main character who could fight I also think that would have been an upgrade.

I won’t say the series is bad though. It’s certainly not something I would be very interested in reading again but it does avoid fanservice (Due in part to the art being so bad so even all of the exaggerated designs and costumes don’t register) well and there’s no real wince worthy moments here. In an anime version we’d have to see how the Werewolves are drawn. Having them as opponents would have been very dangerous for the series as a whole unless it was stylized. At 18 chapters the series is just gone in the blink of an eye so I’d say you might as well check it out. It’s a decent adventure but one that was more positive for potential than what it actually did on the screen.

The writing was good and there were some good tactical elements in here. Since the series was definitely going for the strategic kind of main character, I think it would have pulled this off well enough. The plans in the manga were good although I call major hax on the cops and robbers plan. There’s just no way that would work against the hunters so hopefully the future plans would be better. It’s an entertaining read, there are just enough issues where it’s hard to see this ever surpassing a 7 at best. There isn’t a true hook that would have ever kept this going for very long.

Overall, Red Hood could have been the next big thing if it played its cards right. A Shonen Jump action story about fairy tales and folklore could have really been something. We get quite a few references to Little Red Riding Hood of course and with Cinderella as a villain, I’m sure the series had a lot of ideas. Of course the tragic part of being cancelled is that you will never get to see those moments. It’s considerably better than some of the cancelled manga that I’ve read but that does seem a bit like a back handed complement when you think about it. We’ll see which cancelled manga is next but in the meantime I would definitely recommend checking this out. At least you can see what all the hype was about.

Overall 6/10

One Piece: Episode A Review

Posted on January 1, 2022 by dreager1

It’s no surprise that a title like One Piece would keep on getting more spinoffs. Ace is a really big character among the fanbase so it’s quite fitting that this mini series would be about him. He always was a fun character. I wouldn’t put him as one of my favorites or anything but his skills were good and the guy was always ready to jump into a fight. I can certainly admire that kind of dedication. The 4 chapters go by quickly but it’s a fun read and the battles are certainly intense.

The series picks up with a guy named Deuce who wants to write some amazing stories. Unfortunately he is stranded on an island and doesn’t really know what he should write about now. Well, one day Ace crash lands on the island and Deuce agrees to help him build a ship to get out of there. Deuce never imagined that he would be a pirate someday but hanging out with Ace has been fun. Ace is leading them down a dangerous path though as he says that his goal is to defeat one of the 4 Emperors, Whitebeard. This sounds like an impossible goal but Deuce figures that if anyone can do it…it would be Ace.

Naturally the bulk of the first chapter is the two characters meeting each other and Deuce slowly coming around. So that there is a little danger we do have a giant bird that appears which causes a bit of a misunderstanding at first. It’s quickly defeated which wraps up the first story. It introduces the setting and how things will be but at this point Boichi isn’t really trying to hide the Dr. Stone influences here. Deuce looks like he’s straight out of Dr. Stone and this chapter has a lot of building and crafting scenes as the characters build the boat. It’s an interesting look at how he might have tackled One Piece.

Then we get to chapter 2 where they finally get close to Whitebeard but first have to contend with Jinbei. Jinbei gets a really striking splash page. The realistic artstyle that this series uses certainly makes for some memorable shots. While I wouldn’t say that it beats One Piece’s standard art, it’s definitely fun to see the changes to how everyone looks. The fight between Jinbei and Ace is also a blast. It’s over quickly but both fighters get to show what they can do. Ultimately Ace comes out on top here I would say as he’s in better shape after the 5 days. I call foul on their actually fighting for 5 days though. I find that incredibly hard to believe. Whitebeard showing up at the end to get in a good fight was a nice way to end things off. Ace finally got to experience what a loss was and we get a classic look at the nice sky which turns into Gold D. Roger. It’s a nice little detail in the background.

Chapter 3 is the most action packed chapter as Ace keeps trying to take Whitebeard down over and over again but simply isn’t strong enough to do so. By this point he is slowly coming around to respecting Whitebeard although of course he can’t quite admit it. Whitebeard was always his goal to surpass after all so working under him just doesn’t feel right at the time. Still, he does recognize that they aren’t in the same league. Ace’s strongest attacks don’t even singe Whitebeard and the emperor has yet to use his devil fruit. It’s a fun chapter that balances comedy with the despair Ace feels at losing. Thing is, he starts to take it in stride too and this all becomes one big training session for him. It’s nice to see how understanding the crew is even if they would destroy Ace on the spot if he were to somehow destroy Whitebeard.

Finally we get to chapter 4 where Ace joins up with the crew and we get some flashforward scenes to the most influential Ace moments. We even get a few panels of Yamato showing up at the end which was neat. It shows how popular she has gotten to where she would even be squeezed into this adventure. This ends the adventure off on a nice note. You know that things ultimately don’t end well for Ace but at least he got to have a lot of fun in the meantime and really made a name for himself. His journey was brief but it was a good one.

One thing I definitely enjoyed here is how they retroactively added Haki to a lot of the scenes. Ace uses it to fight with Jinbei and also gets to experience it when fighting some of the challengers to Whitebeard. We see Ace learn how to mix it in with his logia abilities and it shows why he was a solid first commander. Now we see that every Yonko’s next in command had Haki so it wouldn’t have made sense if Whitebeard’s didn’t. I do think it’s hard to make everything connect since Haki wasn’t thought of for a while in the series but ultimately it’s a smooth addition here and does help show off Ace’s solid abilities.

The artwork also makes the most of his fire powers. The fire really stands out and we get some great spectacles. At one point Ace uses an attack where he creates a bunch of fire dragons and uses them to attack Whitebeard with. As someone who has mastery over fire, it’s nice to see Ace really getting creative here. There’s a whole lot you can do with fire after all even if the fire fist is his signature move. As a logia type there are few who can stop him. It’s why I wouldn’t mind a time travel arc where the heroes go back to save Ace. It would really tie things over well as Luffy finally saves him and they get a big teamup.

There’s not a whole lot more to discuss since the 4 chapters are over in an instant but you won’t be disappointed with this adventure. Ace really gets to show his stuff and it’s also fun to see Whitebeard again. We don’t get to see him fight very often and he really gets his proper respect here. No attack can really phase him and Whitebeard’s attacks are off the charts. It’s an intense story and this is also a title you can easily read even if you have not read One Piece. It’s still easy to see what’s going on since the story starts from the beginning and you understand Ace’s goals.

Overall, Episode A is a really solid mini series. With how the title is, it makes me wonder if they’ve already got Boichi ready to do some other stories. Like Episode S for Sabo, Episode Z for Zoro, etc. There are a whole lot of characters who could have fun little stories to themselves. Well, I guess we’ll see how that goes when it happens. In the meantime you should start by checking this story out anyway. There’s a good amount of action and adventure here with quality writing. You’ll be having a good time from start to finish as the story just carries you along for the ride. Each chapter is close to 50 pages but it won’t feel that long with all the big art pages and battles going on. The art is super clear which always makes reading the story that much easier.

Overall 7/10

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