Psychic Power Nanaki Review

Posted on January 24, 2015 by dreager1

This series is only three volumes so it’s definitely pretty short. At least we can call it a trilogy now right? It’s not bad, but it’s one of those series that definitely takes a major hit because one of the main characters is unlikable. In a small series like this, you definitely want to like all of the recurring characters. It’s a decent manga, but you can see why it was shortlived.

Nanaki was having fun being an ordinary teenager when he dies in a dream and gains ESP abilities. He’s an “attack” type so all of his abilities are related to fighting or ones that can help in combat. He can teleport and blow things up from a distance. Basic mental resistance to telepathy users and levitation are also granted to him. An agency quickly forces him to join so that they can keep an eye out for him. After all, they don’t want people with psychic abilities running lose right? Nanaki is paired up with Aoi, a healing type whose abilities are purely defensive with the exception of his ability to transform his metal stick into any object that he wants too. Given time and practice, that ability should be able to evolve at some point.

They have a few one shot adventures before the series is already in the final volume. The author quickly decided to do a mini arc that takes up the volume so that’s pretty neat. A vampire has appeared and he wants to take Aoi down. If he destroys him, he may be able to become immortal and gain absolute power. Well, Nanaki isn’t going to have any of that and the ultimate battle for survival begins!

So, it’s a decent series. It’s fairly interesting, but you could never call it a page turner. A lot of the stories feel a little generic and you can’t help but feel that there isn’t much of a point to the agency. They help out once in a while, but nobody takes them seriously and it sounds like they barely get any work. Supernatural occurrences must be rare and even when they do happen, the agency seems outmatched. I don’t know how they survived for so long without Nanaki since they are sorely lacking in offensive power.

Of course, that goes into one of the plot lines that is never developed. Aoi had a partner who was actually pretty tough like Nanaki. Unfortunately, he went over to the dark side and became a freak. “Freak” is an interesting way to say villain, but it’s the official name for what happens when you go from a hero to a villain in this series. The sad thing is that the guy never actually gets to appear aside from flashbacks and that was a fairly huge plot. You could tell that the author was leading up to a big fight between him and Nanaki, but it just wasn’t meant to be. The commander also has a sob story that never gets to appear about why he can’t fight that much anymore. Aoi obviously has a troubled past and the other members probably have stories to tell as well.

This is why you always want to start a series out strong. You’ll never be able to get to show everything that you wanted too if you don’t take the opportunity when it arrives. The author made the mistake of thinking that an episodic beginning would be enough to capture the attention of the readers and he paid for it with his series. Starting the series off with some big battles and Nanaki being told what the situation is as he goes would have certainly helped.

Nanaki is a pretty decent/good main character as I’ve mentioned. He’s hot headed and he never backs down from a fight. The hero shows nothing but contempt for the agency as he still does what he wants whenever he pleases. Naturally, he was sounding too good to be true so the author also made him a flirt. He will flirt with someone even if he knows that she’s evil and it goes way too far. He failed the same simulation three times because of this and it’s a computer simulation!! His abilities are impressive, but also hard to deal with since his abilities will typically destroy an opponent. It’s hard to blow someone up without fatally injuring them so that may have gave him some fun morality questions to solve at some point. Either way, Nanaki is easily the best character in the series and he proves himself to be a loyal ally through thick and thin.

Aoi is the cool and collected rival figure for the series, but he just doesn’t do a good job in this role. He is constantly sarcastic to the point where you just want him to stop talking and he’s exceptionally weak. Nanaki has to constantly save him and Aoi still acts as if he’s in charge. He starts to befriend Nanaki as the series goes on, but his character development never gets a chance to go anywhere and he looks downright terrible in the final volume. He’s a character who will certainly get on your nerves in just about every scene. Aoi’s too full of himself for his own good and he never really helps in any of the fights. He’s simply too powerless and he’s naturally not good at the whole teamwork thing. Rivals need to be strong and independent. Aoi just doesn’t fit the bill and he certainly hurts the series since he is constantly on screen.

The agency randomly gets two other members who appear at one point, but they get even less of a role than the other characters since they appeared late. One of them can kind of see into items to view their past while another one has basic super strength. The super strength girl is all right I suppose, but that power is not going to cut it against a telekenesis user. She’s also a little too antagonistic at first. The other character is definitely not good in combat, but she’s definitely a more likable character. The commander is starting the series off on the right foot, but he’ll never get a chance to fight so we’ll just have to buy the hype for now. He seems like he would ultimately have a role that’s pretty similar to Kakashi from Naruto, but it’s all speculation at this point.

Nanaki’s art is pretty decent. It’s not great so it won’t be winning you any awards in the near future, but it works for the characters. The fights tend to be a little blurred so it’s hard to tell what is happening though. That is definitely its weak point. The art is certainly rough and it looks like an early work by the artist. I’m not crazy about everyone’s eyes becoming squints when they’re playing the straight man in a joke or just doing the joking, but it’s not as bad as other gimmicks that I’ve seen in the past.

Again, this is an aspect that could have been better and I’m talking about the volume covers for the last book in particular. It’s a cover that doesn’t make you curious about the series at all and you would likely just pass it by. The first two weren’t bad, a little generic of course, but they weren’t bad. The third one is a turn off though and it doesn’t do a good job of representing the series. An action packed cover is what we expect to see and that just doesn’t happen.

Nanaki will definitely be over before you know it and we’ll remember this series as one that showed promise, but ultimately ended too soon. What keeps it from a 7 is that it’s not quite as fun to read as the other mini series like Legends and Yugioh R and we don’t get enough action from the series. I can certainly see why it was cancelled so while I may sympathize with the author, I would have canned it as well. It simply wasn’t good enough to keep afloat.

Overall, Psychich Power Nanaki is a decently fun manga to read. A little less flirting from the main character with the clients would be appreciated. Aoi is also just not a good character and I don’t think that the author knows how to write the banter between him and Nanaki effectively. That certainly limits the series potential and we do have a lot of loose ends that don’t get wrapped up. It’s the kind of series that may have gotten better as it went on, but it never got a chance. Well, it’s a decent read if you want to see some action, but you can probably find better titles as you go on through the manga world. Check out Black Cat for a main character who looks similar, but is a lot cooler.

Overall 6/10

Angelic Layer Review

Posted on January 21, 2015 by dreager1

It’s time for a classic battle series that may not be the most popular series that Clamp has done, but it makes a solid argument for being their best. The series is only 5 volumes, but it’s essentially comprised of nonstop fights. That’s a winning formula if I ever heard of one and it comes close to 9 star territory, but it does stumble a little along the way to victory.

Misaki is the main character of the series and she grew up in a world that has become engrossed in a new game called Angelic Layer. Essentially, it’s like the Bionicle Meta game in real life, but with a bit more intensity. You buy a doll and then you customize her to be a speed, power, or defense fighter. After that, you can buy her equipment and accessories so that she can be a distinct fighter. Now that you’ve completed all of the steps, you’re ready to enter the tournaments! Misaki witnesses an incredible battle between the angels on TV and decides to enter one with her new doll. What’s the harm right? Maybe she’ll actually end up being the world champ by the time this is all over!

You can argue that Misaki’s road to the top is a little more lonely than the average main character. The reason being that she does have two friends who are main supporting characters, but they don’t play Angelic Layer. Most leads get to spar with their friends, but that isn’t the case for Misaki. I don’t mind the fact that the friends can’t fight though because they just aren’t very good characters. One of the friends is Tamayo and she’s definitely very annoying. She’s constantly beating up Misaki’s other friend and talking about romance when there is no need for it. Her over the top theatrics are not amusing and I would be able to take her a little more seriously if she could actually fight. She actually involves the one big negative for the series so we may as well get it over with as soon as possible.

It’s a running gag that Misaki’s undergarments are mentioned when Tamayo or Ohjiro is around. It’s completely unnecessary and definitely not a good way to throw in some comedy scenes. It’s safe to say that this prevented the series from getting 9 stars. It’s not bad compared to most other series since you never actually see anything, (There is basically no fanservice in the series, which is pretty exceptional) but it’s still not something that you want to see in a series. It just helps to make Tamayo even more unlikable than she already is and it also stops Ohjiro from being a good character.

Kotaro is the other main character and he’s much better than Tamayo. He’s pretty generic and he’s certainly not one of the best characters out there, but he tries hard to be cool. He knows how to fight in the real world and it comes in handy at the very end of the series, but he really needs to learn how to fight in Angelic Layer. He spends the series just getting beaten up on so this doesn’t do wonders for his character either.

Misaki is a pretty decent main character. She always fights to the end while never giving up. Misaki’s instincts for battle are typically spot on and she can decipher the weak point of any opponent that she faces. On the other hand, she can certainly be a little on the generic side and she gets flustered way too often. Misaki isn’t going to be the next Ichigo or Kirito, but I’ll accept her as a decent enough lead to hold the series up. If she was a little more hot headed with some trash talking to back it up, I think that I would probably like her a little more. As it stands, she’s pretty polite and she keeps everyone in the friend zone so I can admire that. Misaki’s other trait that can get to you is that she’s way too gullible. The scientist tries to help her get through this, but it’s a difficult task.

Icchan is the scientist in question and he’s definitely all over the place. He likes to make remarks that don’t make sense and he’s constantly ditching his job to help Misaki. He definitely plays favorites throughout the tournament, but it all comes down to Misaki’s cheerful demeanor. All of her opponents end up rooting for the main character after they lose because Misaki doesn’t want to win for the money, she wants to win for the love of the game. Icchan gives her the angel and he also helps Misaki customize her during the earlier stages of the manga. He’s definitely a decent character, but his almost literally all talk as he never actually fights even though he knows so much about the game. Ah well, he’s definitely a nice guy and he knows that ice cream is one of the best desserts.

Hikaru is Misaki’s angel and she’s one of the strongest fighters in the series. She is a speed fighter so she relies on a lot of quick hits and sudden moves to knock the opponents out of the stage. It’s good that she can do this since she usually starts the battle on the losing end. Her health goes into the red zone before she counters and typically she wins with a one hit KO or some quick attacks. She’s definitely a great angel and one who will certainly remind you of Megaman. She may not have a lot of flashy techniques at her disposal, but she gets the job done. She’s definitely the most likable angel in the tournament.

Hatoko is one of Misaki’s friends and her angel is named Suzuka. Hatoko seems to have a pretty good reputation as a very good Angelic Layer fighter and many thought that she would ultimately win the big tournament. Her angel is a powerful defense fighter so she is able to repel just about any blow with ease. Suzuka’s design is definitely pretty good and she shows that defense types can still match up against speed fighters when necessary. Her final fight in the series isn’t very satisfying since she loses in a single blow, but Hatoko made it pretty far. She’s definitely the best friend from Misaki’s supporting cast and Suzuka is probably the third best angel.

Ohjiro and his angel, The Wizard, are not some of the best characters here. The Wizard is actually a pretty good angel and he’s another defense type. He can block an opponent’s attack by reflecting their energy and making a barrier. He is said to have never been hit by an opponent before so his opponents have a lot of explaining to do. Naturally, it’s up to Hikaru to give him a pretty good fight and prove that speed really does trump everything else. The Wizard looks a lot like Syaoran or Fai from Tsubasa, which is cool since Clamp loves borrowing characters and designs from their other series. The Wizard is pretty likable even if he seems to be pretty weak once you get past his barrier. On the other hand, Ohjiro is definitely not cool. He talks a lot from the shadows about how cool he is and on Hikaru’s potential, but it never goes anywhere. Once he starts to make random comments about under garments that have no relevance to the plot, he immediately lost any chance that he may have had on being a likable character. Sometimes, that’s all that it takes to make a character plummet down the ranks.

Shuko and her angel, Athena, are known as the strongest fighters in Angelic Layer. After Hikaru wins the tournament, they have a quick clash. Athena is technically a speed type, but she’s also one of the strongest fighters in the series. I was pretty glad to see that after all of the defense and speed fighters that were featured throughout the tournament, it was a good change of pace. I did think that Hikaru was probably doomed though since attack power is probably the most important factor in a match like this. Not to mention that Athena still has enough speed to match Hikaru’s. Athena also comes equipped with a giant energy blast that really tips the scales in her favor. Athena is probably the second best angel in the series. It’s too bad that I can’t say the same for Shuko. Shuko has a pretty big twist that is pretty obvious once you see her, but I guess I’ll refrain from saying it just in case. It explains why she isn’t very likable, but it’s still pretty overdone. Shuko is incredibly shy so that she’s constantly blushing in just about every scene and she can barely talk to someone without looking away. She gets tricked at the end into finally seeing the main characters again and maybe this will help her as a character, but we never really get to see this.

Arisu and her angel Alice are the final fighters to face Hikaru in the tournament. It’s actually pretty anticlimactic since I would argue that Alice is much weaker than all of the other opponents that Hikaru faced. (Not counting one shot characters) Alice doesn’t really have any gimmicks and her special trait is that she has great balance. That’s nice and all, but it seriously doesn’t help in most battles. She just gets lucky because the stage is an ice rink so Hikaru’s balance is off for the whole fight. She quickly figures out a way around this though so Alice was doomed. Alice is all right, but she’s not one of the better angels. You could really say the same about Arisu. Arisu just doesn’t have a whole lot of character and she’s simply not that likable. I think that the Wizard probably should have been the final boss.

Sai and her angel, Shirahime, are pretty similar to Hatoko and Suzuka. Sai fights with complete seriousness and poise as she faces her opponents. Shirahime is also a defense type of Angel and her stats are almost identical to Suzuka’s. Their match was extremely close and she puts up a very good fight against Haruka. Once she sheds her protective gear, Shirahime is able to move at speeds similar to a speed type’s, but then she must lose her defensive edge. It’s a gamble, but one that I would definitely make since defense usually doesn’t trump a good speed character. Sai seems to be a little full of herself, but she is a good fighter and I like Shirahime. This is another fearsome pair who could have defeated most of the other opponents in the series.

There are a few other characters like a wind doll and one who could use Hyper Mode, but you get the jist of the series. It’s basically one battle after the next and the fast pace is one of the reasons why the series is so fun. It’s like a good ole Megaman manga and it never gets dull. The action scenes look very impressive and I have to say that it’ll be tough to adapt in animation. They’ll probably tone down the speed feats so that it’s lower tier, but maybe they’ll be able to do a good job.

Clamp just outdid themselves with the action this time. The fight scenes are similar to Megaman NT Warrior and DBZ. The constant hand to hand combos mixed in with the occasional special technique just makes the battles so exciting. The art for them is excellent and I can see why Clamp has such a good reputation. It may not be as impressive for the normal scenes, but they still look good. There’s a rough edge to it that will remind you of their other titles, but you can always clearly see what is happening. I’m not a huge fan of their art gags like the characters turning into octopuses all the time, but they’re not bad either. If they could just tone it down with the blushing, it would be even better.

Angelic Layer is just a very fun series to read. It’s pretty light natured and you could almost picture it in the real world. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that we’ll finally have virtual reality games like this one within the next 50-60 years. I may be too old to really enjoy them by then, but it would be pretty awesome to have a realistic simulator like this. It would probably be a bit more complex here and I doubt that a newcomer would become the world champ after a day of practice, but we can let that slide since Misaki may be the chosen one. She has a better battle record than most main characters since she wins just about every battle that she enters. The final battle may be unsatisfying to a lot of people, but you can argue that Hikaru was still battle fatigued. The actual ending to the series is better than most of the other manga titles that have ended and there is certainly lots of room for a direct sequel (So Chobits doesn’t count) if Clamp really wants too someday. That would definitely be exciting.

How does it compare to other toyetic franchises? Well, it definitely loses to Megaman and the Yugioh franchise is too massive to lose here. Aside from that, I dare say that it takes down Bakugan, Beyblade, and most of the rest. It loses to Cardfight Vanguard as well, but it puts up a brave fight. Power level wise, it’s probably above all of them and only Yugioh/Megaman could hope to stand up to them. Angelic Layer’s biggest advantage over most series is just how absurdly fast the angels are. Catching up to them is nearly impossible and their attacks have lethal amounts of power behind them.

Overall, Angelic Layer may only be 5 volumes, but it’s a great series to check out. This is definitely Clamp’s best work as it even takes out Tsubasa. It’ll be hard for them to top it, but it’s always possible. The nonstop action can rival any series since the fights are so good. In terms of speed, you could probably pit the angels against just anyone short of Goku and they could probably hold their own. Most of the characters are pretty likable and the art is solid. If not for the lines of the two annoying characters, this could easily be top 5 material. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend this title if you like action and it could end up being one of your favorite titles.

Overall 8/10

Detective Conan

Posted on January 9, 2015 by dreager1

This is a pretty classic mystery series and I’ve finally got a nice start on it. It’s not what I pictured as I was thinking of a kodomo vibe when I saw it. Well, a Shonen twist certainly works and we actually get a fight scene. Don’t expect a review for this series for a few years though…the series is still going after all!

Overall 9/10

Beelzebub Review

Posted on January 1, 2015 by dreager1

Beelzebub was a Shonen Jump series that never reached the level of fame and popularity that Naruto and Bleach received, but it still ran for quite a while and provided us with a lot of action. Like Reborn, Beelzebub starts off as more of a comedy and then quickly turns into the action manga that we had all been waiting for. It has some flaws thanks to the actual plot, but it manages to get past that and actually turns into a pretty great series. At least some of the credit should go to the main character.

The series starts out with some one shot stories before the first big arc arrives. The school is ruled by 4 strong classmates from the shadows. They are the 4 Emperors (Not the title that is used, but close enough) of the school and they each have their own minions/groups who follow them. Oga has been forced to baby sit Beelzebub, the future king of Hell and possibly destroyer of Earth. Oga isn’t thrilled about this since carrying a baby along with hurt his image. So, he decides that he’ll need to find someone who can be Beel’s (The baby) owner instead of him. Beel is attracted to negative energy so he just needs to find someone who’s even meaner than him. (A tougher feat than he imagines) That being said, peaceful negotiations tend to break down so then it’s fight time!

After that, the heroes are barely given a breather before they are taken to another school. Oga has basically accepted his fate of sticking with Beel by now. Unfortunately, his friends are being picked off one by one by the student council of the new school. These guys are apparently great fighters and one of the members is pretty familiar with Oga. Oga had wanted to make it through this new school peacefully until he could go back to his normal place, but he won’t have this. The arc results in a 5 on 5 fight that is pretty awesome! (I love group fights.)

The most popular arc of the series comes around as the demons finally invade Earth. They make their own school and challenge Oga and his friends. They will destroy Earth anyway so the heroes may as well put up a fight. Oga decides that things are getting a little too dangerous so he heads into the enemy base alone. Things also got personal since they kidnapped Hilda, one of Oga’s allies. He’s coming with a vengeance and this arc is where he finally gets his first super form. You can say that this is the arc where the series finished its transition into the ultimate Shonen Jump battle title that we knew it could be.

The final arc is sort of two arcs in one. The heroes return to their school and find out that a lot of new gangs have popped up. Among them, 6 leaders stand out and each one of them seems to be about as strong as Oga. They all want to defeat him to claim their spot as the strongest and they don’t mind targeting his friends to get him to act. (The friends also target the 6 so it evens out. Even if the allies should know that they’re doomed from the start….) This arc is interrupted as Oga decides to go to America to find Beel’s parents and then he eventually goes back home to continue the arc in more of a horror setting.

The series mainly takes place in various schools or in the city, which is definitely fine with me. There aren’t many big manga series that use such a setting for long. Bleach is one of the few that does this, but then we had to go off to Hueco Mundo for a few years, which wasted that opportunity. Beelzebub takes advantage of this local and it’s a fun setting for the fights. We don’t really get much of a city fight until the end of the series, but fighting inside of a building is the next best thing.

From the one shot stories and mini arcs, Beelzebub actually had a few interesting ones. The main one that comes to mind is when Furuichi got powers. He decided that he would challenge all of the characters in the series and it was pretty intense. A certain punching bag gets to fight Furuichi so the comic relief sidekick finally gets some hype of his own. It was good to see Furuichi finally get some props. He may not be a great character, but you never want to see a character be on the losing side for the whole series right? That’d be 20+ volumes of Furuichi getting kicked around. This mini arc managed to give him some wins, which was probably happy for his fanbase. We also had school plays and even a trip into the demon world. All of the stories were typically entertaining unless they were about Beel.

Naturally, Beelzebub is mainly an action series so the tone is pretty light, but it can be rather sad for the side characters. Again, Beelzebub is like Reborn! in the sense that the character power levels are heavily skewed. Oga is the only real powerhouse on the hero side for a while. Kuneida, Tojo, and Hilda are never far behind, but what about their numerous school friends? They never get any real powers ups until the climax of the series so it can be frustrating for them. They get knocked around so many times that you feel bad for them. They used to be the strongest thugs in the city and now they can’t beat the weakest minion from the villains. They try so hard and even go on the verge of tears. It’s great for Oga rage moments, but it does add an emotional touch to the series that it possibly should have avoided.

Back to the rage moments, Beelzebub does do a great job with those. One can argue that it happens a little too often, but I love those scenes so I’m okay with it. You probably know the type since it happens in most anime at this point. Where the main character suddenly get serious and says something that sounds intense as he begins to fight. That happens to Oga constantly as well as to his friends. Rage moments happen in almost every fight alongside a big double spread so that we can see just how intense they are. It gives you the chills while you’re reading it and it’s one of the main reasons why I like Bleach so much. So, this is going to be a mixed bag for many people, but I say “Go for it!”

One of the negatives for the series would have to be the crude humor. This is an issue that is actually rare for manga, or at least Shonen Jump titles. The problem is that the series technically revolves around Beel’s plight as Oga is raising him and that means that a lot of comedy situations will have to happen. Everything is exaggerated with Beel so when he has to relieve himself, he ends up nearly flooding a city. You can imagine how other baby scenarios can go from there. It’s a little too gross for me and I never really like seeing Beel on screen. He’s a character that I couldn’t adapt too and he certainly didn’t help the series. It mostly goes away during action scenes of course, but it’s one of the few negatives of the pre arc. Now it’s time to talk about the characters and there are quite a few in this series.

Oga Tatsumi is a pretty great main character. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of him since the author tried a little too hard to make him a mean character. Yusuke and Ichigo are rebels, but what makes them cool is really the fact that they aren’t afraid to stand up to any villain. They also fight at the first opportunity. Oga is a pretty likable rebel for most of the series, but at the beginning it acts a little too much like a villain at times. Him messing with Furuichi is supposed to be comic relief of course, but he goes a little too far at times. Especially considering that Furuichi just wants to live a peaceful life, but is always forced into dangerous situations because of Oga. So, once Oga learns the values of friendship and mellows out a little more, he quickly becomes one of the best main characters out there.

One of the qualities that I respect the most in a main character is when he/she is willing to help out a friend even if it means breaking the rules. Oga definitely does that and he’ll always come to the rescue when his friends are in danger. (Which is rather often) His super form may not be the most imaginative one out there, but his fights are always fun. His fighting style of using magical seals is very unique and mixing in his extremely heightened physical abilities gives you a very powerful fighter at the ready. It would be hard to make Oga much cooler than he currently is since he’s just so good at this point.

Furuichi is the most recurring character in the series beyond Oga. He is always around no matter how dangerous the situation is. It’s rather sad for him since he is very weak and he never gets much stronger. He gets some magical tissues at one point that let him become a stronger fighter, but then he just gets beaten up by a new villain for shock value. He never wanted any part of this battle life that Oga has centered his life around, but he can’t desert his friend either. There is simply no winning for Furuichi so his tale is typically sad. He also has a sad origin story as well.

It would be easy to feel bad for Furuichi…until he does something bad and then you don’t feel bad for him anymore. He’s the kind of character who is way too into romance so you stop feeling bad for him since he isn’t a good character. It’s too bad since he has many likable moments and he gets quite a few intense moments like Oga. They’re just spoiled because you know that it’s going to go to his head and he’ll revert back to the character that you didn’t want to see. He has his good moments to be sure, but I definitely wouldn’t call him a good character. There is simply too much material to use against him.

Natsume is one of the only friends that I’m mentioning here, but I had too because he is a very odd character. The author never knew what to do with him so he gets a lot of hype at one point and then he basically vanishes for the whole series. He’s supposed to be very tough, but we never get any confirmation of that since he’ll just go and lose to a random figure when he feels like it. He is still a human so we can’t expect too much out of him, but his power level is never that consistent. He doesn’t take most of his fights seriously so it’s also hard to gauge just how good he is. He’s an interesting character, but you’ll probably dislike him by the end since he is just one big missed opportunity.

From the 4 big fighters of the school, Kuneida probably gets the biggest role. You can argue that she is the main heroine or you can make the case that Hilda deserves that title. Either way, Kuneida steadily improves throughout the series and she gets more training scenes than Hilda. She’s a much better character as well, but I suppose that this shouldn’t really sway you on who deserves the title of main heroine. They both get a lot of screen time I suppose. There aren’t any real negatives with Kuneida’s character and I was thrilled to see a sword fighter appear at last. It is sad that she is partnered up with Koma though since Koma is such an awful character. Luckily, she doesn’t have to actually work with him for most of her fights and she learns how to use some abilities while on her own. By the end of the series, she’s probably in the top 5 strongest heroes so that’s pretty impressive considering that she was just a human tier fighter at the beginning of the series.

Tojo is also a great supporting character, but the situation just isn’t in his favor for the most part. The problem is that he’s like Vegeta or any of your average Shonen Jump rivals. He looks great at first and he’s basically an unstoppable antagonist. Then he turns good and the author realizes that the audience will be shocked if he loses to a new villain. So it happens…and it happens…and it happens over and over again. If a new villain is introduced you may as well start counting the chapters until he crushes Tojo. Tojo always enters the fight with a lot of confidence and tough talk, but you know that he’ll end up on the ground. For extra shock value, he is sometimes taken out off screen or without any effort. He is the ultimate punching bag in the series. That being said, I do like him as a character. He temporarily passed Oga at one point in the series and it stayed that way for a brief while until Oga passed him again. He’s a likable character and he’s nice to animals, which is a huge plus. Unlike most of the other heroes, Tojo was always a good guy. He likes to get into fights, but it’s within reason and he’s a pretty upstanding citizen otherwise.

Himekawa is easily my least favorite member of the opening 4 bosses and he is just hard to like. I was almost warming up to him at one point. Not that he would ever become one of the most likable characters in the series, but I didn’t mind him as an ally. It all fell apart when he pulled a Rossiu on us and decided to wreck everything. We got a twist about that of course, but Oga had to take a lot of extra damage thanks to Himekawa’s rash actions. I couldn’t just let that slide and Himekawa had one of the biggest drops imaginable for an anime character. He was decent and now I consider him to be a downright terrible character. I couldn’t wait for him to get written out of the series.

Kanzaki is the first boss from the series and he must have been pretty popular since he gets to appear a whole lot after that. He’s your average bully who is actually a nice guy deep down and he loves to pamper his little sister. He’s not a bad character per say, but he is pretty generic and he rarely gets to win a battle. He just doesn’t add anything to the story, but his final form was pretty cool for his fans. Things definitely may have gotten dicey for him otherwise. He’s a loyal ally and a good friend to have, but he could have used some more character development or maybe just an epic fight. Seeing him jump into the school with a baseball bat was cool, but we knew how it would all end up. (It was a very frustrating scene though) That was the fate of his character.

It’s time to look at one of the characters who got hit the hardest by Beelzebub’s sudden ending. That would be Ichikawa. He was one of the 4 big characters from one of the final arcs and he got a lot of hype. He was going to be one of the strongest characters out there in theory, but then he went and got pummeled off screen. So much for his tough talk right? It’s too bad since he was a very interesting character and I wanted to see him get a few fights. He was likable in his few pages, but he just got the short end of the stick. We ended the series without really knowing much about him.

The same can be said about Akahoshi, but to a smaller extent. Thanks to a few filler chapters, we definitely know a lot more about him than Ichikawa. He was also a pretty fun character and I would go as far as to say that Akahoshi is probably one of the best characters in the series. He is main character material and it’s probably no coincidence that he looks very similar to Oga. It’s still a mystery as to why he’s so powerful since I didn’t totally buy the explanation, but he doesn’t get to finish his character arc. He came closer than Ichikawa though so I’m glad about that. He’s a lot nicer than Oga, but he’s still the leader of a gang so you should not underestimate this guy.

Hojo is probably the worst member of the 6 big fighters in that arc, but that also meant that she got to totally have her arc completed. She’s the weakest member of the group and you don’t really need any demonic abilities to take her down. She’s not completely weak though as she still gave Kuneida a decent fight, but she doesn’t strike fear into you the same way that the others could. She just felt out of her depths here and her goals of stopping Kuneida and the Red Tails just felt a lot more petty. If not for Beel pulling his tricks, her arc would have been a whole lot shorter.

Nasu is pretty crazy and he gives Oga a pretty good fight when they meet. He’s not one of the big 6 so his powers still aren’t extreme, but that just makes his battles that much more impressive. He beats up on the side characters for a while before getting to Oga, but he’s seriously bad news for most of the heroes. I don’t care for him personally, but his fights are pretty fun to watch. There aren’t many people who fight with their head smashed through a wall for the entire battle. (Hard to describe, but picture someone being rammed through a door and taking the door with them. Then imagine that person continuing to fight while the door is around their neck. It’s pretty surreal)

Takamiya may not be the final boss of the series, but he is certainly the most impressive fighter since he gets a lot of screen time. He really beats up on Oga and his allies even if there are some special circumstances at one point. He may be one of the strongest figures out there, but I definitely do not like him as a character. It helps that I didn’t care to see him beat up on Furuichi for so long since the hero couldn’t fight back. Takamiya is pretty sadistic and that’s why I didn’t care for how his character ending went. I know that Shonen Jump is about forgiving and forgetting, but it shouldn’t happen to instantly. I would have liked to see Takamiya go to jail for a few years to cool off. He definitely deserved that after everything that he did. His character design reminds me of Mukuro’s and it’s interesting since it’s not what you would expect from a street brawler. Likable or not, Takamiya definitely provides us with some great fights.

Fuji is the final boss of the series and he certainly lives up to the hype. His abilities are possibly a little too exaggerated since he’s been lounging around at home for the last few years instead of training. Having a demon to partner up with definitely gives you some added abilities, but the boost was way too big if you ask me. Well, ignoring that, he’s still a pretty good character. He’s pretty insane and he’s evil as opposed to most of the other guys who are simply “misunderstood.” Seeing him take on the entire cast is also a pretty great feat and he’s fun to fight. He has almost no development though so he’s just an opponent to face, but I suppose that this is fitting for the final boss. His abilities are no joke and he probably has the coolest super form from all of the villains. He’s probably my favorite villain now that I think about it.

Izuma is another hype character who appeared in the school challenge arc and you have to wonder what happened to him. There was a time where it seemed like he might have gotten a role in the current arc to help against the demons along with Tojo, but then he just took a backseat and decided to watch. He still got a decent role in the school battles of course, but stalemating Tojo isn’t the feat that it used to be. Since Oga already had a rival, this guy was basically not given the chance to prove himself. He’s definitely a decent villain though, but he seems unaware of just how badly he has been corrupted. He is sticking up for bullies after all so he should consider who the real villains are since he claims to be a hero. Still, he is interesting, which is good enough.

Miki is Oga’s rival and he knew the main character from their early days. Things happened and they grew apart, which made Miki decide that he wanted to beat up/destroy Oga. I can’t say that I agreed with Miki’s reasoning since it was pretty obvious why Oga did what he did during their origin. Even if Oga had been sincere, destroying him is going way too far. I can sympathize with Miki wanting to defeat him in combat. I’m totally all right with that, but he’s constantly going for the permanent solution so I can’t see him as anything other than a villain. It is impressive to see just how strong he got through his training though. It’s just too bad that he becomes irrelevant as soon as the real villains show up. He had a good roll until then though.

Saotome is a mysterious teacher who shows up at one point to help Oga train and he’s very powerful. You just wonder how he got to be so good and his backstory is never fleshed out. It’s cool to have a mentor figure of course, but he just pops up out of the blue and then he vanishes once things get serious. He does have a few good smirmishes with the villains though, but I would have liked to have seen him fight seriously at least once. That being said, he is significantly better than other mentors like Jiraiya and Master Roshi. At least you can take this guy seriously.

Beel appears about as much as Oga so it’s too bad that he’s completely unlikable. Just like how I don’t care for kids being main characters in live action films, I don’t care for babies being protagonists in manga. Beel is really just here for crude humor, which is too bad. He also puts Oga in a lot of tricky and/or embarrassing spots thanks to his actions. Beel gets a lot of hype for being immensely powerful, but we never get to see that since he is always just powering up his partner. That’s one way to show off a character’s strength I suppose, but it’s simply not a great way to do it. I don’t think that Beel had a single cool scene in the entire series and it would have been better off without him. He’s certainly one of the worst characters in the series. It’s definitely rare for a series with a pretty bad concept to actually become a legendary title, but Beelzebub pulled it off so Beel couldn’t really hold it back for long.

En is related to Beel and he’s just as annoying. He’s a little older so he’s more of a kid than a baby, but he’s very spoiled and his mini arcs are never that much fun. He’s not very good at video games and he’s just mean to everyone. He doesn’t mind blowing up the Earth so I think it’s fair to say that he’s a villain. There’s not a whole lot to say about him because he never gets to fight in the series, but he’s simply not my kind of villain. He’s certainly not loyal to his allies so he’s not even a respectable villain.

We can’t forget about Beel’s parents. They get a surprisingly small role in the series, but they are still around nonetheless. The Demon Lord is said to be extremely powerful, but he never gets to fight. He’s actually used for comic relief as he has a terrible memory and he’s always playing video games. He also seems to have the mentality of a little child as he sulks a lot and holds grudges when he feels like it. It’s easy to see why other demons keep planning to overthrow him since he does a lousy job of upholding law and order. I think it’s safe to say that the villains would have easily succeeded in their plans if not for Oga. The Demon Lord is just too oblivious to everything.

I can’t say that Iris is much better. She seems to be a lot more reasonable of course and things are pretty sad for her since she can’t walk. That being said, she is basically being played for her entire on screen appearance. She doesn’t even realize what is happening even though it is only thinly veiled. She also did leave Beel for basically the whole series so I really can’t sympathize with her actions. It doesn’t help that this was during the rushed part of the series. Maybe she could have been a better character with more time…maybe.

Athrun is a character who never got to appear much and the author may have forgotten about him. He is pretty powerful and he was much stronger than Oga at one point. It’s safe to say that Oga has surpassed him by now, but it would have been cool to have seen them fight. He’s the cool and calm collected character that you expect to see in a series at some point. He’s a swordsman, which makes him even cooler for me. He should have gotten more screen time! Johan is another intriguing character that I would have liked to have seen more of from the final part of the series. He’s pretty intense and he’s definitely a good agent since he can ride a motorcycle with ease while shooting at Oga. He may be a body guard, but he can hold his own with the best fighters out there. He is also pretty smart and he was one of the guys who tricked Iris for so long.

Alaindelon gives Beel some competition as one of the most annoying characters in the series. He’s always trying to be friends with Furuichi and most of his lines are purposefully suggestive. He acts gay throughout the series and it’s meant to be funny, but is just isn’t. He doesn’t contribute to the series at all even though he is always around and I don’t know how he ever got picked to be one of Beel’s bodyguards. He simply doesn’t help the heroes when it’s crunch time and it’s too bad that he was in the series at all.

Hilda is one of the main characters and she’s pretty decent. Unfortunately, she talks tough for all of her appearances, but she doesn’t get many fighters where she can really show off her skills. She is very tough since she was picked to guard Beel, but her power level is not very consistent. She’s definitely a very likable character though. She gets two personalities as she is usually in her normal one and she acts differently when she temporarily loses her memory. Both forms are pretty good although her normal personality is definitely the best one. She never backs down from a fight and she’s determined to protect Beel at any cost. She should have struggled a little more to stop herself from being kidnapped, but that’s a minor gripe. Through and through, Hilda is a very good character.

Yolda is Hilda’s rival and she’s a character who also could have used some more development. She seems like a nice character deep down even if she typically acts like an antagonist. She’s usually comic relief aside from her first appearances and while she is a decent fighter, Yolda is quickly surpassed by just about everyone after her initial fight or two. I think her character did have a lot of potential though and she is pretty likable. Certainly one of the better villains even if her boss is pretty cheap.

Lamia is the nurse from the demon world and she is good at her job, but she’s not a great character. She becomes friends with Furuichi, which is cool for him since he doesn’t have many friends. That being said, she can’t fight, which really limits her potential in this kind of series. She can heal their wounds, but that’s not the best role to have. She is also used a lot of comedy situations with Furuichi, which is not the greatest fate either.

Behemoth is an old demon who apparently was one of the strongest fighters back in the day. Unfortunately, we never get to see this so he’s a character who literally has to live off of hype. He’s still pretty strong of course, but it’s apparently only a glimpse into how he looked back in the day. He’s decent for an old fighter, but I just can’t take him seriously. I have nothing against the hype…but he needs to prove himself a little more. He just goes along with the villains and he doesn’t even get a say. Not exactly leader material!

Jabberwock is the big villain from the demon arc and he’s definitely intense. I’d say that he’s one of the better villains even if he’s not all that interesting. The series never gave him a whole lot of character development so he fell by the wayside. His abilities are good though. He’s pretty stuck up, but that makes it all the more satisfying when Oga takes him down. His design is pretty fitting for his character and he was a good villain. Jabberwock is honorable, which is more than I can say for a lot of the other villains.

The art is pretty good for the series and I definitely have no qualms there. The author uses a little too much ink with the demon attacks at times, but it also helps to show us just how powerful the attacks are. Most of the characters have pretty unique character designs, which help the characters to stay memorable. Naturally, this also helps the fight scenes since a good action moment needs great art if it wants to survive. The series also manages to pull off a pair of horror themed chapters towards the end where Oga enters the ghost town that used to be his home. It’s pretty intense since the tone shift was so dramatic, yet the art was able to keep up.

Whether a fight is occurring or not, Beelzebub is always fun to read. I’d compare it to Medaka Box in the sense that it is a fun ride from start to finish. There are no boring volumes and very few chapters that won’t entertain you either. Even the filler moments like Furuichi gaining magical powers are pretty fun as well. There are some serious moments thrown in for good measure, but the series never loses sight of what it is. An upbeat fighting manga that will always leave you feeling content with it.

One angle that I didn’t really discuss was the fanservice part. It’s not there a whole lot, but it is present thanks to Koma and Furuichi. Just about every scene in question that is in the series has something to do with them. Koma is the stereotypical pervert of the series while Furuichi falls into that category as well, but he typically tries to be more subtle. It’s still too bad since this is just a cheap trick that most series use at some point or another for quick views. It could have been worse, but what we did get still shouldn’t have been there. I’m still waiting for more series to take a look at Prince of Tennis so they can see how you do a series without any fanservice whatsoever. That series is still a shining example for all to see.

It should be noted that the series does end rather abruptly and it’s not very subtle either. The author handled it with as much pizzazz as he could, but there are still quite a few plot lines that are not wrapped up. An arc starts and then it quickly shifts to another arc before anything had really gotten to happen. When we go back to the previous arc to end the series, we find out that most of the battles already happened off screen. Naturally, this means that we also get a quick power up with a worse explanation than Ichigo’s big showdown at the end of the X Cution Arc. The situation is rather similar as it involves a rooftop battle and a lot of flashy abilities. I do love Oga’s final form so don’t get me wrong, but it definitely came out of nowhere. It did give us some great DBZ references though so I’ll let it slide. The series almost deserves an extra star for the way that it wrapped things up. The final fight was definitely DBZ level and it’s safe to say that Fuji and Oga could definitely hold their own against any fighter. They won’t be beating Goku of course, but their abilities could give most arc 1 guys a run for their money like Frieza or SSJ1 Goku. If you thought that Gintama was the only main character who could steal abilities…just wait. If a series being cancelled means that the author can go all out with super forms and powers, I wonder what Kubo would do for Ichigo in that case. The possibilities are endless!

How do the characters rank tier wise? Well, they’re nowhere near DBZ level (Except for the final fight) and I don’t see these guys taking down Tsuna, but then things get interesting from there. As I mentioned, there are some really powerful fighters, but the majority of the characters would lose to Naruto’s team from part one of the series. I think that Oga and the generals could probably hold their own against most One Piece/Naruto characters, but they would start to hit some trouble over in Bleach. I would consider the series as a whole to be A rank. I think that they could give Bleach a very good fight and they may have been able to win if not for the serious disadvantage in numbers. Beelzebub against Reborn! would be an incredible fight and I think Beelzebub may have the edge. Tsuna is certainly stronger than Oga, but his supporting cast is even weaker than Oga’s. It’s definitely a tough call, but reaching A-S rank is a pretty great feat!

Overall, Beelzebub is a pretty great Shonen Jump series. It has a lot of action and cool characters so that’s really all that you could want in such a series. Naturally, there is some mild fanservice to be found here once in a while, but it’s very rare and this series has less of it than Bleach and possibly even Naruto. The main thing that would have helped the series would have been if Beel had not been in it. I think it’s safe to say that the series could have easily reached a 9 with that. Even if the series kept Beel, then maybe getting rid of all the crude humor would have had the same effect. This series rivals Bleach in the number of “epic zoom in” scenes, which is very impressive. I highly recommend this to all manga readers and try not to enjoy the humor filled beginning toooooo much since the series jumps onto the action train pretty quickly.

Overall 8/10

Sword Art Online Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

Sword Art Online is one of those Mega titles that we shall never forget. For better or worse, it’s basically ingrained in society at this point. I started the franchise out with the anime before checking out the novels and then the manga. This actually doesn’t bode well for the manga since the designs are pretty different and I consider the anime to have the true ones. That being said, I like to think that I wouldn’t have been crazy about the art either way. It’s a decent take on the show, but I think it could have been better.

In case you are not familiar with the plot, I shall quickly explain it. Sword Art Online takes place in the future and virtual games are all the rage now. One in particular is called Sword Art Online and it is the first big MMORPG. Everyone is hyped and resident computer whiz Kirito decides to buy it. Suddenly, the players become trapped in the game and they can’t get out unless they complete the title. 2 years later, the story begins as Kirito must try to become the best. Can he really do it as a solo player or will he end up joining Asuna’s (Main heroine) group? Only time will tell!

The actual plot always sounds great no matter how many times I write or hear about it. You simply can’t beat a good sci-fi plot like this or not very easily. Being stuck inside of a video game is a concept that appeals to me in part because it sounds like it would be a fun experience in real life. (To an extent of course) I think that it might be a missed opportunity for the series that they quickly skipped the first two years, but we still get a lot of cool moments so it still works.

The main problem with the series is that the art isn’t very good. The characters just don’t look like themselves and it’s like they’re half chibi. If you’re going to make the characters tiny you’ve got to go all the way or leave them in their normal size. It can also be hard to follow some of the fight scenes although the art gets better as the series progresses in that respect. It’s still pretty below average though. It’s hard to say if I would have liked it more if I had read the manga before the anime or not, but it’ll just be one of life’s mysteries. Either way, I doubt that I would have called it anything above average.

The characters are pretty in character since a lot of the dialogue is almost word for word from the novels/anime. Kirito is still as hardcore and intense as ever. Aside from his unnecessary and disheartening one night stand, Kirito has proven that he has what it takes to be the main character. He doesn’t back down from a challenge and he’s pretty confident in his abilities. That’s why the art always gets me. He just does not look tough! He looks like a kid and his serious scenes just don’t come off as cool as they should this way. It’s not the character’s fault, but the art.

Asuna also makes for a good heroine. She’s probably in the top 3 highest leveled players in the game and her speed is certainly good. She is lacking in attack power as seen in the boss fight, but she always gives it 110%. The one night stand also hurts her character development, but luckily that’s pretty much the last that we’ll see of that. Klein is one of Kirito’s old pals (AKA, they met in the game for like 5 minutes) and he’s actually pretty decent. He’s a nice guy and he actually doesn’t hold it against Kirito that Kirito left to be a solo player. Klein ended up reaching a decently high level himself so it makes you wonder how things would have been if Kirito had stayed with the party. He’d probably be a little lower leveled, but Klein’s group would be higher leveled than they were. Ultimately, Kirito made the right decision, but who doesn’t like hypothetical situations.

The main villain naturally gets to appear since he locks them in the game, but don’t worry…he has plans for them! He’s a pretty good fighter even if he cheats sometimes, but he does fight with just his talent in the end so we know that he’s for real. He’s decently cool and easy to root for. They try to play him off as a sympathetic villain by the end, but it still doesn’t work considering how high the casualties were. You can’t really forget that, but he is still a pretty neat villain. His plan was also intriguing, but I think that the final boss would probably be too much for the heroes.

The speed at which this manga goes is very quick, which can be a good or bad thing. You really breeze through the arc since there are only two volumes and they have a whole lot to adapt. Some scenes are simply breezed over while others are long enough to essentially match their alternate (Novel/Anime) versions. The pacing works for this series although I wouldn’t have minded stretching it out to 3 volumes and extending some of the fights. You can never go wrong with longer fights since they just add to the overall epicness of the series.

In the end, there are to real negatives to this story aside from the one night stand. There’s also a dicey moment that doesn’t make a lot of sense where Asuna falls out of a portal and Kirito essentially panics. That was pretty sad, but at least it’s an extremely brief scene thanks to the pacing. Those two faults are there, but that’s not a whole lot so you may wonder why it didn’t crack the classic 7 rating. Well, the art keeps it from that. Art is more important in comics/manga than in any other medium except for maybe TV shows. (It’s just not typically an issue there) Bad art can overpower good writing just like bad gameplay can override graphics in a video game. That being said, it’s still a good manga, it just could have been even better.

Overall, it’s ironic that this version gets a higher score than the anime even though the anime does a much better job with arc 1. Ah well, it is still a pretty fun premise to play around with and the art may have taken away some of the enjoyment that I could have gotten from it, but there was still enough to go around. Kirito makes for a good main character and there are several fight scenes here. Since this is basically two volumes merged into one, it’s also a pretty nicely sized volume that should last you long enough to really be worth the value. I recommend it to anyone that wants to see a classic fantasy RPG or for anyone who wants to see a cool main character.

Overall 6/10

Neuro Supernatural Detective Review

Posted on November 28, 2014 by dreager1

It feels like a long time ago, but I actually read this series as recently as the end of May. (May 31st is when I had the original post up) I haven’t read many mystery series in the past so it’s great to finally meet a long one and it naturally has the Shonen twist to spice things up. All that aside, could it end up being as good as Assassination Classroom and join the big leagues? (Not saying that Classroom is in the big leagues yet, but it’s a solid series thus far) Time to find out!

The main character of this series is a girl named Yako and she was leading a normal life until her father is murdered. This naturally distresses her and she’s unsure of what to do next. Luckily, a demon by the name of Neuro appears and he agrees to solve her mystery, but now she will have to be his assistant…forever. That seems like a small price to pay so Yako accepts. There are many mysteries that make up about half of the series (Feels like it anyway) until the real plot begins. An organization of terrorists appear and they want to spread chaos and panic throughout the world. Their actual goals beyond that are pretty vague, but they want to conquer the world. They’re all human and Neuro’s a city busting demon so this should be easy…right? Well, Neuro gets weaker for every day that he is in the human world, so that helps to even the scales a little bit.

The artwork is pretty great and it’s very easy to follow the action along. This isn’t the Sword Art Online manga that we’re dealing with! It can certainly hold its own against just about any other series on the artwork and while it may not stand out as terrific, I would call it very good. The character designs are all fairly unique, which helps you to remember them pretty well. (Names are another matter altogether. I can’t say that I remembered the names of just about anyone after I finished and let my thoughts stew for 4-5 months.)

The humor in the series wasn’t for me and it certainly played a part in the series inevitable drop in the ratings. One of the running gags in the series is that Neuro is constantly making Yako’s life as miserable as he can. He puts demons in her food so that she can’t eat and he never lets her sleep by placing many traps around the apartment. If she tries to go to sleep, she runs the risk of being impaled, electrocuted, or basically destroyed. Keep in mind that this is all in a comic relief/slap stick so to some it may not seem as bad as it sounds, but the humor is still too morbid for me. The stuff that Neuro really crosses the line into being a villain no matter how Yako may try to sympathize with him. It’s just not enjoyable to watch.

As a main character, Yako is pretty good. I still think that she shouldn’t put up with Neuro so much, but she really does want to help solve mysteries relating to crime and she’s always ready for a good meal. I’m not sure who to compare her too in terms of main characters, but she’s likable. Naturally, she won’t be very similar to someone like Luffy or Ichigo since she never gets to fight, but she helps for the brain vs brawn argument. Of course, this does lead to some plot hax during her big action scenes. I have to say that the ending of the series is pretty sad for her.

Neuro is the other main character and I don’t care for him. He has some good parts of course. I like that he’s one of those fighters who never backs down from a villain and he could care less about what the villains are threatening to do. He’s very skilled and he enjoys a good challenge. This is just outweighed by his bad aspects. He loves inflicting pain and misery to people and his whole gimmick is that he eats mysteries so he loves when things happen to create them. No matter what the act is. The only reason why he is against murder is because it eliminates future mysteries that could have appeared. He’s simply too over the top. Also, he may be insanely strong, but it’s simply not enough at times. He grows weaker with every chapter and eating mysteries doesn’t give him back enough strength to counter what he has lost. So, he gets less impressive as the series goes on and it gets to the point where a human (Amped of course) is giving him some trouble. It was still pretty interesting though and Neuro is one of the few main characters in media who uses fear as his weapon. (Nura is the only other one that I know of who uses this attribute)

X is one of the biggest villains and he/she is decently cool at first. X is a human who can shapeshift and “he” doesn’t even know if he is a guy or a girl. I’m just going to refer to X as a him for this paragraph since the first form that we see him in is that of a guy. He’s pretty quick and since his DNA has been messed with, he’s far superior to an average human. I found myself looking forward to his fights with Neuro. That being said, he was ultimately doomed since he went after a dog. That was the moment of no return for him. His method of destroying people is also rather sinister as he literally turns them into a box. It’s pretty dicey to say the least. I gotta admit that it is a great name for a villain though!

Godai is a former thug who is forced by Neuro to work as the Detective Agency’s bouncer. He does the dirty work for the heroes like filing for an eternity and Neuro messes with him just as much as Yako. Unlike Yako, he doesn’t really get to participate in the mysteries very often though so it’s a pretty rough situation for him. At least he has started to work legitimately so we can thank Neuro for that. I still didn’t care for Godai no matter how much the series tried to make him likable. He just didn’t really add anything to the series.

Sasazuka is one of the best characters in the series. He’s a Policeman with a mysterious past and he has no problems with talking back to Neuro. He’s one of the few humans who is actually very helpful against the villains and he has a pretty emotional wrap up to his plot. His past is rather tragic as you would expect from someone in this series. Upon further thought, I would say that Sasazuka is the best character in the franchise. It’s just hard to top him and he’s basically perfect. It would have been great if he had been the main character.

Sicks is the main villain and he’s certainly unlikable. He’s meant to represent evil in its purest form. Everything that he does is evil and his goals are for the sake of evil. The author makes it clear that you will be rooting against him and we are reminded of this pretty regularly as he attacks people and decimates many buildings as the casualties continue to rise. He’s pretty tough for a human, but it was still pretty hard to buy the fact that he held his own against Neuro. No matter how many power ups he gets, Sicks is still a human so it shouldn’t have been much of a fight. He does have an intimidating presence about him so he was certainly a good match to fight Neuro.

Ishigaki is Sazazuka’s sidekick and he’s typically humiliated throughout the series. Someone is always breaking his toys and all of the villains are able to defeat him rather easily. It’s a running gag in the series on just how weak he is and the worst part is that one of the big tragedies in the series is arguably his fault. It’s because he typically messes up that we assume that he did in one scene, which ends up hurting the heroes. He’s technically pretty likable, but he can become way too full of himself at times.

Usui is one of the higher ups in the police and he’s pretty good. He sets a lot of traps and while Sasazuka may be more of a direct combatant, Usui likes to set traps from the shadows. They both find some success in their methods, but I still prefer Sasazuka. Usui does manage to come through when it counts though, which should not be overlooked. He’s a pretty solid character and it’s easy to root for him.

Higuchi is a top notch hacker who joins the ranks of the heroes about halfway through the series or maybe a little earlier. He’s all right, but he never got a whole lot of character. He’s just what you would expect from a hacker and he’s not quite as tough as Daisy. (The hacker of course) He looks pretty bad as the series goes on since he’s not exactly immune to mind control and that’s what Hal does best.

Speaking of Hal…he’s a pretty cool villain. After he is built, Hal naturally evolves and decides that he will rule the world on his own. His powers inside of the Cyber World are absolute and he is actually able to give Neuro a good fight. Neuro may be the strongest fighter in the human world, but the net is a different story. It was also a fun way to show off some more of Neuro’s powers since there were no bystanders to worry about. It was a fun mini arc and Hal may be the best villain in the series.

Aya is one of the first villains to be defeated by Yako and she gets a decently large role in the series. Her crime wasn’t as bad as some of the others as she only destroyed two people. Her music has the power to control people’s minds and she’s quite good at it. She is rehabilitated after her first crime and she gives Yako advice from time to time. It would have been cool to see her fight, but I guess her powers probably wouldn’t have much of an effect on the villains. She’s certainly better than some of the other villains.

Ai is X’s assistant and it feels like she just got a bad draw. She’s a lot like Konan from Naruto. She is not inherently evil, but she was an assassin for a while and then she began to work for X. She developed a pretty close bond to the villain and decided to work with him until he discovered his true self. She will do just about anything to help him and she is also one of the only people not to fear him. She keeps him in line and watches over him when it comes to conventional things like reminding him that he needs to eat. You end up feeling bad for her since she seems to be a very nice person at heart.

Hisanori and Yukinori are brothers who get their own mini arc and then help out in the final arc. They’re pretty minor villains at first and they seem to be on their way to being more on the side of justice by the end. Yukinori tries to attack Neuro, which is admirable, but both of these guys are seriously outmatched compared to the real villains. One of them has a fishhook and the other one can’t even fight. I wasn’t really a fan of either character.

Genuine was one of the worst villains from the big 5. She can’t really fight, but she is able to lure men to her and mesmerize them so that they can distract the heroes. We all know that this technique won’t work on Neuro so she was really doomed from the start. Her character is just pretty bad and she is just letting herself get used by the villains. Her story was not going to have a very happy ending.

Of course, at least Genuine got character. You can’t really say the same for DR, Tierra, and Vijaya. Vijaya has poison abilities and he barely gets to appear. He puts up a decent fight with the heroes, but he is the only one who doesn’t even get to fight against Neuro. That shows how he is simply not at the same level. His abilities are dangerous since getting near the poison will destroy you, but it’s simply not enough. DR and Tierra have been modified so that they have animal DNA like claws and sharp fins. They’re decently tough metahumans, but they’re basically throwaway fighters for Neuro to take down.

Kasai has fire abilities and he easily gets the biggest role from the villains. He’s decent for the most part, but there is a scene with an old lady that doesn’t help his case and he’s ultimately just not that likable. He’s probably the only villain to talk back to Sicks, but he’s still extremely afraid of the man so it’s not much of a consolation. It’s sad too since his fire abilities guarantee that he is the strongest human from the bunch. He is not amped up so he may lose to some of the other villains, but there is no defense against a good fire blast.

There are many more villains that I didn’t even name from the mini arcs since each mystery brings a new cast along with it. There is also a new policewoman who joins the force towards the end, but her character arc never really went anywhere. She got her own sub plot and mini arc of course, but it just didn’t have a lot of meat to it. She’s super serious so she is naturally paired with the comic relief guy, which leads to sadness for the both of them.

One of the issues that I had with the series is how gruesome the villains and situations can be. Aside from the main arc there are many small mysteries that take up 3-5 chapters. They usually involve something sinister, but I wouldn’t say that it’s anything too drastic. The plot is where things start to go a little overboard. There are really a few types of violence and I categorize them in various ways. In this case, the one that stands out is fighter violence vs bystander violence. See, it’s one thing to see someone like Ichigo or Goku take a beating and another altogether to see a random cop or expendable fighter get crushed. The first typically isn’t as bad, but not beyond reason of course. Here, many of the characters suffer fates worse than death, which is when things get too dark for me. If the character’s never going to reach the light at the end of the tunnel…just let the character die already! (From an author’s standpoint, not the hero’s)

The atmospheric writing is very similar to Attack on Titan’s. You know how Titan loves to show a scene every other chapter where the heroes remind us that we have to lose our humanity while some expendables talk about how they don’t want to die? It’s supposed to add realism, but you just start to tune out the whining from the expendables after a wile. Neuro loves to do that with the characters as well. They deeply think about life and how pointless it is while others are just sad by how frightened they are. One scene that stands out is when a villain is so scared of the main villain that he obeys an order to destroy himself in a rather painful way. The logical choice would be to attack, run away, or quickly destroy yourself before they can stop you. Just obeying like that out of fear is a little much, but we get tons of speeches to try and rationalize it. There comes a point where all of the self doubt and realism just makes it too “realistic” to the point where it isn’t like the real world anymore. That’s an example of one of the “worse than death” moments, but there are several others throughout the series. Torture, or any other fate that you can think of, which fits that criteria is not acceptable in any medium under any circumstances. It always helps me drop the score from something and that’s where Neuro lost the majority of its points. It probably took it all the way down from a 7 to a 5 because that was really the big negative in the series.

There aren’t many fight scenes to be found until the plot really begins, but the ones that we do get are pretty fun. The author takes the easy way out though since Neuro continues to invent new powers throughout the series. He seems like he can do just about anything that one can think of if he wants too. He has a bad habit of playing around with his opponents until he’s so weakened that it’s a close fight though, which is pretty dangerous. It usually turns out okay though I suppose.

Overall, Neuro was really teetering between a 4 and a 5 for a while. On one hand, I was pretty hooked once the plot began and it was hard to tear myself away from what was happening. On the other hand, that’s simply an effect of the well written universe that the characters were interacting in. It still had too many unnecessary scenes and themes for me to rank it as a 5. The villains are simply too disturbed and the casualties could have been lessened or made less intense. I also think that Neuro should have been more likable or heroic since it would have made the ending more believable and emotional. This is a pretty good series if you want a mystery and you want something that is pretty dark tones. Otherwise, you may want to check out Spiral for a good mystery title. That one was pretty great and it even has a prequel to check out once you’re done with the main series. After reading this review, you should hopefully recognize him in the PS3 fighting game with Goku and friends!

Overall 4/10

LBX Little Battlers Experience

Posted on November 6, 2014 by dreager1

All right, it looks like we have another solid manga series to add to the current lineup. The LBX show is good, but it’s been very slow paced and the animation can be better. The manga improves on just about all of its faults and volume 1 was a pretty great start. It reminds me of Megaman in many ways. Keep it up and this series could go down as one of the big toy based manga. I shall have a review for it when the series finishes.

Overall 7/10

Accel World

Posted on October 23, 2014 by dreager1

Now, I seen Accel World in three mediums. The anime is still the definitive version and the book will likely be more detailed, but the manga is pretty faithful thus far. The art is pretty easy to follow and get into. It’s pretty clear so it doesn’t seem like an early creation for the artist and it holds up well as a tie in. They wrecked Ash Roller’s design, but you can’t win everything. It’ll be fun to see the fight scenes that are coming up! I’ll have a review for the series up once it finishes…which could be a while.

Overall 6/10

Sailor Moon Review

Posted on September 24, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to review a pretty legendary manga in the form of Sailor Moon! If DBZ is the most popular Shonen manga of all time (Mildly debatable I suppose since One Piece tops it in sales, but DBZ basically invented the industry and nobody can forget it!) then Sailor Moon is the most popular Shojo title. It revolutionized the manga industry as we know it and they recently came out with the new Sailor Moon Crystal anime to be a more faithful adaption (in theory) of the manga than the original show. They also re released the manga volumes again in a crisp, new form. So, I finally got to read it and it’s a solid Shojo title. It’s safe to say that it beats most of the others, (I still say that Fairy Navigator Runa may be better…) but it definitely has its weak points as well. Let’s see how the series held up through the years!

The plot is pretty large so bear with me. The first arc mainly follows Usagi as she deals with the usual school routines and such until she is given a magical amulet by a cat. She is actually the legendary guardian of the moon…Sailor Moon to be exact! (I like to think that the sailor part is there because the scouts soar through the cosmos with their FTL feats and space has been known to have similarities to water) She must now find the other Sailor Scouts who have been scattered around her school and neighborhoods so that she can find and ~~destroy~~ defeat Queen Beryl of the Negaverse. (Dark Kingdom) It’s a tough job, but the Sailor Scouts were literally born to do this. (In this reincarnation anyway)

Things wind down a little after that as we get introduced to Mini Moon. Her courage is matched only by her cunning and she certainly makes things difficult for Usagi. (I still prefer to say Serena, but I suppose that I can deal with calling her Usagi) She has come to the present because things are getting dangerous in the future. Wiseman has assembled some powerful allies and they now wish to reduce the world/galaxy/universe into ash. That may not be his exact goal, but that’s more or less what happens. The heroes will now have to time travel and meet up with a new sailor scout to take these villains down. Can they really hope to do this or have the heroes met their match?

Next up, we get the Death Busters! (Really cool name right?) This is the anime that made Sailor Moon famous (to me anyway) and it was pretty intense in the anime. These heart snatchers want to power up an immensely destructive being to wipe out the universe once and for all! The true threat may be closer to the heroes than she appears. Will the heroes really be able to face off against someone so close? Meanwhile, Tuxedo Mask struggles to stay relevant, but it’s a losing battle. As the fate of existence hangs in the balance, Sailor Moon will have to make a tough call!

It’s hard to call the next arc an arc, but I suppose that we’ll have too since even Wikipedia recognizes it as such! A circus comes into town and there’s a new queen who happens to be evil. Nehelenia is so evil that not even the heroes can hope to make her change her ways. The scouts have been through this before, but can they hope to beat the Amazonian Quartet? The villains have finally taken the scout’s number advantage in the fights so the battle can truly be even now!

Well, every series must end at some point right? Things get chaotic for the heroes as a bunch of new characters are introduced. None of them are likable of course, but have we ever had a character debut in the final arc of a series and still manage to be epic? Sure, we can name a bunch of villains, but how about a hero? Gets interesting doesn’t it?……verrrryyy interesting. Anyway, Sailor Galaxia is basically the Sailor Moon version of Galactus and she doesn’t suffer from his great size disadvantage. Sailor Moon is completely outgunned and the scouts really seem to be outmatched. They’re going to have to use the power of friendship and something that could be even more useful in a fight if they really want to end things once and for all!

I’d say that the series’ main weakness is that it feels dated. It’s not really in a good way as some series can pull it off a little more efficiently than others. The art is the main problem that I have with it. It’s kind of like Tsubasa in the sense that the art usually looks all right, but it gets dicey for fight scenes. On the other hand, Tsubasa was still a lot newer and it did look more refined than Sailor Moon. I have a feeling that it’s the kind of series that is easier to read the second time around, but I read this one pretty recently so I likely wouldn’t revisit it for a while. Thus, I can’t really say that I care for the art. I would certainly call it under average, but I’m sure that many series back in those days weren’t quite as refined as the ones of today. Some would hold up well and others just wouldn’t. This is simply a case of the latter.

It’s also why my memory of the series is more grainy than it would be for something like Bleach. The events start to blur together after a while and the characters can look very similar as well. I also have the TV show to thank for my distractions since I saw it quite a few times so I tend to think of the TV show version of each arc instead of the manga’s. What can I say…the show was just That good. Still, this could be the manga’s greatest weakness. No series wants to be forgettable and my recollection is just way vaguer than it should be. Even for a series like Muyo and Roji or Kingdom Hearts II where there may be yearlong breaks between chapters, it’s always pretty easy to remember past events and just jump in. It helps that there are only a handful of characters who really stand out in Sailor Moon. (Plus, no “Rage Mode” scenes or big power ups that radically change Sailor Moon’s appearance.

The oldness of the series does help it in one big area. There really isn’t anything in the way of fanservice. It’s possible that there is a scene or two somewhere in the manga, but I can’t recall any and that’s always a good thing. There is a pretty big dose of romance thanks to Tuxedo ~~Last~~ Mask and Sailor Moon though. I can’t say that it’s very good though and the constant insults can make you take a step back. Why couldn’t these two just stay as rivals or enemies? Most of the bickering was in the anime so it’s not quite as common in the manga, but it’s still intense to see. Taking away the romance would have been fun since the new characters in the final arc wouldn’t have jumped into the fray themselves. The romance isn’t terrible like Black Bird so it won’t really affect the score that much, but I definitely would have liked it to have been cut out.

One thing that always needs to be addressed are the power levels for the series since they’re always compared to DBZ. I have to say that I sneeze at the very thought of Sailor Moon being that high. One Piece or Naruto could have a field day with the Sailor Moon universe, never mind Bleach! Sailor Moon would have a more even match in something like Shaman King I suppose, but pre elemental spirits and taking Hao away. Then, that could be an interesting fight. The problem is that the Sailor Moon fighters tend to be very slow and their durability is really underwhelming. They’re basically just meta human in those areas or maybe not even peak human. All you need is a quick slash from Kenshin and they would all go down. It really all comes down to Sailor Saturn and Sailor Galaxia to hold off the big threats since they have some good proven feats. The rest of the characters are mostly hype at this point. The manga does make it easy with all of the narration. We find out towards the end that all of the Sailor Scouts are immortal and their spirits are indestructible. This means that they can never be defeated for good because their souls will just be reincarnated. So, the debaters who put a lot of stock into the “immortal = victory” argument will definitely like this. Of course, destroying them once every 100-1000 years shouldn’t be too difficult for the villains since the reincarnations will likely not be much stronger. This is why immortality really doesn’t help all that much. Well, it’s still good to see that Sailor Moon has a lot of debaters on their side.

Sailor Moon is the main character and she’s pretty unique. It’s safe to say that there aren’t many main characters like her, but I can’t say that it’s really a good thing. She’s just not my kind of main character. She’s mostly comic relief for about 90% of the series and she’s just not very powerful. I guess it’s okay for the main character to not be supremely powerful or born with the powers of the 9 Tailed Fox or something, but it certainly doesn’t help. Let’s also not forget the romance subplots as well. Adding all of these things up results in a main character that just isn’t my style. If she could have at least said something like “Only one of us is walking away from this chump” or “In the name of the Moon, prepare to die!” then that likely would have helped me gain some respect for her. I just want her to strike some fear into the hearts of the villains or to at least stand up to them. Typically, Sailor Moon just isn’t that kind of character.

We’ve also got Tuxedo Mask, but they don’t call him Tuxedo Man for a reason. He constantly gets kidnapped or brain washed so it’s really hard to take him seriously. He doesn’t really have any abilities at his disposal so it makes sense that he would be defeated, but he should at least lose with some dignity. His rose was surprisingly effective in the anime, but it was definitely not quite as lethal here. He also develops a romance with the main character that he tries to deny through insults and such, but he eventually crumbles. The romance plots don’t help either of them as you would expect. Again, Tuxedo Mask just needed to act a little cooler for me to really like him. At least punch out one of the villains or something! Don’t worry, we’re going to talk about a cooler character next for a change of pace.

Sailor Galaxia is the big villain that I had been waiting for! It’s no stretch to say that she rose the series up the universe tiers by herself. There were other strong fighters of course, but Galaxia is a casual planet buster and she actually felt like a DBZ villain. This is someone that I could actually picture fighting opponents like Frieza. (Let’s not push it and request that fight though) She’s easily the best villain in the series and that’s great since it means that the manga got to end with a bang. Her armor is really cool and it helps her design to end up as one of the best. She’s easily one of my favorite characters in the franchise and maybe she is my favorite. It’s something that I’ll have to think about.

Two other villains are Queen Beryl and Queen Nehemiah. Unfortunately, they are essentially the same character. I can’t really say that they have any personality. They just want to destroy the world or something along those lines. They are willing to destroy innocent people to do this and Sailor Moon won’t stand for it! They’re not bad villains, but they are pretty generic. In that case, your only hope is usually for the villain to have a cool design or to have some impressive combat feats. In those regards, Queen Beryl definitely beats Nehemiah. I can’t say that they really added much to the series, but Queen Beryl has become pretty iconic by this point. So, I’d say that it warrants her appearance and she can definitely fight. I’ll also give some props to her since her name is a pretty cool pun. From the manga, Queen Beryl is probably my second favorite villain. It’s a bit of a “by default” thing, but that still does mean that I find her likable. It may be in comparison to others, but she still beats many other villains. If only she could have gotten a nice hand to hand fight or an extended action scene. That certainly would have been cool!

Wiseman is the big villain from the Mini Moon arc and you gotta love the design. He has a pretty intimidating cloak. Unfortunately, his plan is rather sketchy. It revolves around Mini Moon lacking strength of character and buying into what he’s saying. If she had just stayed in the castle or been a little more defiant..things may have been okay. Still, Wiseman’s “cunning” I suppose and he can still fight when it comes to that. He’s not the greatest fighter, but that’s all right considering who he’s fighting. He’s a little generic, but there’s only so much you can do with a serious villain who runs around in a cloak while holding a crystal ball.

The Sailor Starlights come in during the end of the series and they’re pretty underwhelming characters. They’re only here to mess with Sailor Moon and Tuxedo ~~Mast~~ Mask. This gets old rather quickly and you would think that their tricks wouldn’t work on the strong bond that the two of them have right? Well, the problem is that Sailor Moon is easily impressed by just about anyone and we’ve established that Tuxedo Mask doesn’t have a lot of will power. The Starlights are eventually written out of the manga, but why they were added in the first place is beyond me. They scream “filler characters” whenever they’re on screen.

We’ve also got the three Outer Sailor Scouts. Neptune, Pluto, and Uranus. These three were pretty intense in the show, but their roles have been drastically reduced in the manga. Sailor Pluto never really gets to fight since she has to guard the time portals. She eventually rejects that job, but she only gets a page or two of action to use her signature attack. It’s a pretty good attack and more fighters should learn how to use the classic energy ball. Uranus had a pretty great attack in the show and I believe that it’s the same in the manga, but it doesn’t look very impressive. Neptune’s water abilities are decent as well, but these two never get to do anything worthwhile. They couldn’t take down Saturn and I think that’s when the audience realized that they weren’t any more useful than the other Scouts. Only Sailor Moon can hope to take the villains down.

Well then, how about the normal scouts? Mercury is one of the originals and she’s not really a fighter. She’s pretty smart and she has aqua abilities, but even her powers aren’t meant for combat. It’s all about bubble illusions or other non threats. She eventually gets some better abilities, but she really doesn’t help all that much in the fights. Sailor Mars has fire powers and she is a little more refined with her abilities. She can talk a good game and her fire arrow is an attack that I can actually trust. She’s a step up from Mercury to be sure. Sailor Jupiter doesn’t have much character and I really didn’t like her in the show. I’m more indifferent as far as the manga is concerned. Thunder abilities are cool, but they never really help her out. Sailor Venus is arguably the strongest member of the main Sailor Scouts with the exception of Sailor Moon. She has a lot of prior experience since she was already a Sailor Scout since before Sailor Moon’s time. Her experience causes her to be pretty confident or to completely underestimate her opponents…usually both. She’s definitely better than most of the others, but Sailor Mars may give her competition. (In the manga anyway)

Mini Moon is sort of a member, but I like to think of her as a part timer. She hasn’t really gotten to develop her abilities yet so she can’t help in a fight. Mostly, she just tries to psych out Sailor Moon and mess with everyone’s memories. She’s pretty skilled in that area, but she tends to make a lot of bad decisions that endanger everyone. Mini Moon gets a pretty cool/powerful super form as a result, but it’s only a positive for her. At the very least, Mini Moon manages to be a lot more likable than Mini Mini Moon. (Or Chibi Chibi Moon) The double Mini Moon can’t really talk since she’s so young and she’s really only useful for one of those twists that you were waiting for at the end.

We’ve also got the mysterious Sailor Saturn. She’s one of the main antagonists for a while and her power is considerable. Aside from Sailor Galaxia, it may not be a stretch to say that she is the strongest character in the series. She actually shows her feats instead of relying on the hype of the other characters to keep her going. Sadly, she doesn’t get to do much once she turns good, but one good action scene is still a lot better than 90% of the cast. Her design is pretty inspired and she’s easily one of the best characters in the series.

There are certainly other characters that I could mention. We had The Heart Snatchers, The crazy Scientist, The evil circus…but they aren’t huge players. Sailor Moon is not the kind of manga that really believes in a lot of character development so they’re all pretty one note. This sort of leads into one of the complaints that I have with it.

Sailor Moon is always the hero. What we’ve learned from epic manga like DBZ and Naruto is that it’s best for supporting characters to also get their moments. Imagine if Goku got to fight Android 17 instead of Piccolo and if he fought 18 instead of Vegeta? Picture Goku always being the guy to claim victory while all of the side characters lost every time. That’s basically what happens in Sailor Moon. Her teammates can’t really do anything right and they have to be saved by Sailor Moon everytime. It can get pretty annoying after a while and especially if you don’t really care for the lead. This is probably one of the reasons why the other characters aren’t memorable. All of the Sailor Scouts are just there to be defeated over and over again. Sailor Moon’s victories also aren’t that impressive because she’ll just fire some kind of energy blast and the opponent is disintegrated. This never fails.

How does Sailor Moon stack up against the anime? Not very well I’m afraid. I think Toei realized a lot of the mistakes that the manga made and rushed to fix them. They didn’t get everything right though. Toei added some extra romance with Mars and they made Jupiter to be a pretty unlikable character. That being said, they made sure that each of the Scouts got their time to shine and there were many more fight scenes to be found. The fillers helped to develop the characters and I can safely say that I remember most of the episodes pretty clearly. I dare say that the anime is in another league and that is very rare since the manga is typically on the same level as the show. Some would say that the manga is typically superior since there is no filler. This is just not the case here. How does it stack up against Crystal? Much better so far, but it’s likely a losing battle. I’ll get back to you on that once I watch it.

This review may have seemed pretty negative, but that’s just because there are a lot of noticeable errors. Some series are just easier to rip apart than others. You still have to consider that this is one of the oldest fighting, shojo manga and it didn’t have a lot of the resources available to us today. It didn’t know that supporting characters should get a bigger role and the art isn’t really its fault. (Still gotta count it though) Sailor Moon was a fun read and that’s what counts. I’m confident that a remake manga would be even better and it still clobbers the average Shojo manga of today.

One of the positives that I can easily elaborate on is the final arc. I guess it would be a stretch to say that it saved the manga from being known as an action series without much action, but it did add a good amount. The stakes were a lot higher and the fights were a lot more engaging. The Sailor Scouts had been needing an opponent like Galaxia to fight because it would make things more interesting. It’s the closest to DBZ that we’ll get here and it was a blast. Galaxia’s minions weren’t that interesting, but her fight was definitely a lot of fun. It also proved that the artist can draw good fight scenes when she wants to. If we had another arc after the final one that had been just as action packed, it may have given it enough steam to earn an extra star on its rating. As it is, it ends up missing the solid seven. If you’re thinking about checking out the series, I’d definitely recommend making it to the final arc. The battles and nonstop action definitely makes it worth it!

Overall, Sailor Moon is a legend and it’s still one of the biggest titles around. I definitely had my share of qualms with it. I didn’t care for the art and most of the characters weren’t really likable. Still, it manages to avoid most of the pitfalls of other manga like fanservice and characters that are beyond dislikable. (Even DBZ had some of those!) Some parts of the series definitely feel dated, like the writing and the art, but it’s still a fun read. This is a series that has a lot of replay value. There are around 12 volumes and slightly more depending on the format. I would definitely recommend this to the average manga fan and especially if you’re curious about the Shojo version of DBZ. Don’t go into it expecting a bunch of fight scenes though as it’ll give you the wrong impression. Just go in blind and I’m sure that you’ll enjoy it as a pretty nice series. Who knows, maybe this will get you to watch the anime based off of it. See, I think it’s a fair assessment to say that Sailor Moon fails as a shonen action series about warriors who defend the world from evil. You should not read it for that. If you read it as just another Shojo series, then you’ll be very impressed since most of them stay away from the action genre. (Don’t compare it to other magical girl items though or you’ll be saddened to see just how much it gets stomped by Pretty Cure) Sailor Moon won’t be joining the elites of manga, but it can easily fight for Top 3 in the Shojo section of manga. (Which is impressive in itself!) I do plan to give it a re read someday since the ambiguous art also makes you want to check again to make sure that you didn’t miss any feats.

Overall 6/10

Cross Game Review

Posted on September 5, 2014 by dreager1

It’s time to throw a baseball review into the mix. Cross Game is really the only manga about baseball that I’ve read and it’s pretty fun. You don’t need to worry because the actual sport gets a lot of screen time and that’s how it should be in a sports manga. It doesn’t take itself quite as seriously as many of the other sports manga that I’ve read. Prince of Tennis, Slam Dunk, Whistle, etc. They were all pretty serious and Eyeshield 21 still managed to keep the stakes a little higher than Cross Game. Does Cross Game’s attempt at mixing Baseball and humor work? It’s time to find out!

The plot for the first part of the series is mainly about Ko as he learns what it means to be a great pitcher. He becomes pretty close to Wakaba and things are going pretty well. She wants him to win the big tournament so Ko’s going to make sure that he does this. After all, who doesn’t want to become the world champ for that age division? (Actually, this part is only 1 volume. I thought that it was around half of the series for some reason, but it’s a lot shorter than I thought. Well, I guess Wakaba and the early adventures with Ko were very memorable then!)

The plot for the rest of the series is more or less the same. Ko still needs to become the best pitcher that he can be, but the pressure’s really on now. It’s less fun and games and Ko can’t let down his guard for a second! His team has gotten a lot more talented and Azuma has helped to make their offense a contender as well. If Ko’s ever going to make it to Koshien, it’s going to be in this tournament. It’s do or die and there is no going back now!

Ko is an intriguing main character. He’s definitely pretty unique compared to most other leads like Naruto, Allen Walker, Goku, etc. He doesn’t want to be the very best Baseball player because he loves the game so much. (Although he really does love Baseball) He needs to throw an extremely fast pitch to impress Aoba and he needs to make it to win the final tournament to fulfill a promise that he made to Wakaba. So, unlike most other leads, the stakes are very high from the beginning. After all, he can’t make it to the big tournament once he graduates from the school so he only has 2-3 tries to make it all the way. Because of this, Ko continues to train hard day in and day out. He tries to keep the atmosphere light, but he can never be quite as chipper as his teammates on the inside.

He ends up being a pretty likable main character. He can joke around a lot, but it’s mostly to keep team morale up and to put up a solid front. He does also get into the romance subplot for the majority of the series and that can be a distraction from his pitching. Luckily, he’s still pretty good. Ultimately, he’s a nice guy and Ko is serious about winning at Koshien. He exercises vigorously every day and he never loses sight of his goals.

Aoba is arguably the main heroine. I would say she is since she’s around for both parts of the series and she’s especially important in the second half. She has a rivalry with Ko in the sense that they are both pitchers. Aoba gave up her dream eventually since girl teams became harder to find, but she still took the time to practice and trade techniques with Ko. Aoba definitely played a big part in how Ko became such a great player since he learned from her stance and technique. Aoba mostly resides in the role of game manager as she finds out a player’s strengths and weaknesses. She’s typically pretty gruff with Ko and the two of them keep up their rivalry for the whole series. Both of them were pretty close to Wakaba, which likely helps in this regard. Aoba challenged Ko to pitch a 100 mph fastball back when they were kids and that helped to jump start the whole series. She’s a pretty good character and probably one of the best members of the cast. (Who else could knock out a criminal by throwing a baseball from a moving train?)

Akaishi is one of the main characters and he’s a good person. He becomes a catcher to help Ko fulfill Wakaba’s final wish and he does a pretty good job of it. He does fall into the whole romance angle a lot easier than the other characters, but he manages to resist it for the most part. He hasn’t totally gotten away from it, but he tries. He’s one of the few characters who knows how personal the Baseball games are for Ko and he’s always someone that he can count on. His role never becomes as large as it could be though.

Azuma is probably the best batter in the series. He starts out as Ko’s biggest rival since one hit can make or break the game for Ko depending on the situation. Azuma always has a chance to hit a home run so he shouldn’t be underestimated. He ends up joining Ko’s group for the second part of the series, which makes their team almost unbeatable. He likes Aoba, which can cause tension between him and Ko. It’s a professional rivalry though so they don’t spend their time trading insults or trying to back stab each other like you may expect from a movie or something. They both do their best to reach their goals without trying to sabotage the other. They’ll let the playing do the talking! Ko badly needed a rival in this series so it was good to have Azuma on board. He’s a decent character. I don’t care for the romance part too much of course, but at least he’s a good player and he definitely doesn’t mess around. (Unlike Senda)

Senda is the main source of comic relief in this series. He flirts a lot and he seems to think that he’s actually a great baseball player. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The heroes don’t even try to humor him most of the time. Things never end well for Senda, but he stays pretty chipper about the whole situation. I definitely wouldn’t mind if he wasn’t in the series though since we don’t need more flirts. At least he never does anything really drastic though so I can let him slide for the most part. His comic relief stays classy and that’s always a good thing.

Wakaba is one of the big players in this manga. Her story is definitely one of the more emotional ones, but she was pretty optimistic through it all. She was a nice person and she definitely helped Ko to excel. She doesn’t really play Baseball, but she’s still pretty influential to the series in other ways. Her name probably pops up more than all of the other characters. As with most of the other characters, Wakaba was a good addition to the series.

An intriguing plot point develops when a girl named Akane moves into town. She looks exactly like Wakaba and the same goes for her mannerisms. The similarities are uncanny and this can definitely be dicey for the main characters. It also helps to provide the Wakaba plot with some closure, but it’s safe to say that she wasn’t quite as good as Wakaba. They were a little too similar so you end up thinking of Akane as a poor substitute for the real deal. That being said, Akane doesn’t do anything wrong and she’s still a pretty good character. I definitely prefer Wakaba though.

As you can see, Cross Game has a pretty good cast of characters. Senda can be a little annoying and the same goes for a certain truck driver, but nearly all of the other characters are pretty good. If there was a character who could have been a lot better, it would be the coach. He’s very old and wise, but he’s just not as enthusiastic as the other coaches from your average sports manga. I would take the coach from Whistle any day. Being able to play is also a key factor and that’s something that this coach really can’t do. He has an assistant as well, but she never really gets a role in the story. There are definitely other members of the team that I could mention as well, but they’re mostly just here to fill in the ranks. I will say that the coach of the main rival team was a lot better than our coach. He was pretty sinister and he’s an antagonist, but he has personality. He really took the games seriously and he always got upset when his team loss. It’s what you would expect from a real coach and the (not so) subtle insults from him are a nice change of pace from the polite cast of characters. His shades also add an extra dimension of coolness for his character.

The art is very clear and easy to read. An argument can be made that it is a little too basic, but for a Baseball manga maybe that’s okay. It doesn’t look bad and you can always tell what’s happening. I won’t deny that a more intense looking art style like Prince of Tennis or Eyeshield 21 may have helped the series a little more, but the artwork here fits the tone. One problem that I have with it is actually the number of reused facial expressions and panels in the series. It seems like the author can only draw a handful of different facial expressions so every member of the cast gets to try them out. There are whole panels that look exactly the same and the dialogue is only subtly changed. I’m sure that it saves the author time, but maybe it’s intentional. Some of the gags rely on the fact that the panels are the time so maybe it’s a mix of saving time and allowing the panels there for joke reasons. The series has a lot of comedy undertones so it’s always possible.

Cross Game is certainly more emotional than the other series based off of a sport. It also manages to balance other genres like comedy and romance while giving the Baseball games a lot of screentime. It’s a little tricky to do all of that and I wouldn’t have minded if they cut down on the romance and comedy a little more. Keeping it as a Baseball themed story with some drama would have been interesting. The romance was just a ltitle too much of a focus. The rival likes the main heroine and the main character is conflicted since he sort of likes the heroine, but he also likes someone else. He can try to move on, but is it the right choice? There’s also tension because the catcher liked one of the main characters and we can’t forget about Senda. Essentially, all of the main players liked someone so there was always some kind of romance plot in the air. It’s handled in seriousness sometimes or just played for laughs. The series jumps from both genres a whole lot so it can be hard to tell at times. It is what it is though and Cross Game did a decently good job considering. If you’re going to have romance then at least do it in a professional manner and that’s what the series did. They didn’t waste time with random fanservice scenes and the series should be proud of itself. It managed to jump past a hole that most other series fall into quite a few times. The series got close to 20 volumes, which is pretty impressive. As with Bakuman, the series goes by in a flash and it’s hard to imagine that it went on for so long.

So, how does it stack up against the other sport manga? Well, I may have already hinted that it’s not quite as intense as some of the others, but let’s be direct about it. Cross Game isn’t quite as good as Whistle, Prince of Tennis, Eyeshield 21 or Slam Dunk yet. (Granted that I’ve only read one volume of Slam Dunk, but I thought that the start wasn’t bad) I prefer those series because they are a lot more fast paced and the sport action is really intense. They feel like Shonen Jump titles and they can even hold their own against battle manga like Naruto and Bleach. Cross Game just isn’t that kind of title and it doesn’t try to be. It’s still a pretty fun read though and it’s more about the overall experience than the excitement. You won’t get a rush from reading it, but you’ll still enjoy the experience. It’s a manga that leaves you feeling happy and that is definitely a good thing for any title.

Overall, Cross Game is definitely a fun read. From start to finish, it’s an enjoyable experience and it’s something that you could recommend to anyone. The story is very accessible so it’s something that the mainstream crowd could enjoy as well. (Provided that you like Baseball) The characters were all fleshed out and it’s a fairly deep experience for a Baseball manga. The story never drags out either and I definitely wouldn’t have minded if the author had continued for another 5-15 volumes. I do think that the artist could be lazy with the dozens of reused facial expressions and panels, but it may have just been an artistic choice that didn’t go over very well with me. There aren’t a whole bunch of characters in the story since you don’t get to really meet a lot of the opponents, but that’s all right. As long as the main characters are solid, then that’s really all that we need. I definitely recommend checking this series out!

Overall 6/10

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