shanaia13

"Why can't I do anything but cry? "-Winry

FMA deserves to be on a pedastool, one for Overrated manga. The little level of quality it contained, and glaring plot inconsistencies moved me to write a review because of the many faults and mistakes. FMA is one of the worst Shōnen to be created, the toxic fanbase rating anything close to it low, just to keep its prize manga up there.

Now in FMA, the story is one of its double-edged swords. It was evident that the author had planned certain parts, and It is clear she had an end goal in mind. She planned major plot points and great plot twists, and it is evident in the story. My mind was often blown by the setup that happened and the subtle pieces of foreshadowing involved. However, the story itself is a bit fuzzy, to sum up.

Two brothers commit a taboo, human transmutation in an attempt to resurrect their dead mother, and when It backfires, the younger brother loses his body, while the older loses one of his arms and one of his legs. Because of this, they both suffer and go on a quest to receive their bodies back, and the only thing that can do it is a philosopher's stone. And this is where the story gets shafted and slowly loses its potency. From about episode three, the story starts to shift both predictably and generically, as they meet an illogical amount of barriers and have the most incredible luck.

The story seemed only to consist of filler, and major plot points, the author having very little ideas what to do with the spaces In between the plot points. Thus, reading the chapters is a nightmare, as the pacing constantly shifts from too fast to too slow. Thus, the plot, which has some amazing mysteries, actually starts to devolve, as the filler seems to really hurt the storytelling and sometimes messes up the villain's plans and personalities. 

In all, the story feels weird. FMA brings in some amazing and unique concepts that blow you mind at the creativity. However, the author seems to omit most of the reasonings, as the filler seems to take up the spaces to create it all. If the plot holes were explained, I would probably rate the story a 9/10, but due to the number of unanswered plot holes, I would give it a 4/10.

Now the art which Is another downside of the series. Now I am not a huge art critic and will read most things despite the art. Boruto manga art is terrible, but I still manage to read it. Art is only a problem for me when the story and the characters are bad enough for me to focus on the art, and when even that is bad, I can't stop noticing the mistakes.

First, let's talk about the manga paneling. Now I have never in my life thought about manga paneling. When people complain about it, It seems like they are just looking for mistakes and have run out of legitimate reasonings for their arguments. Then I read FMA. The main problem with the paneling is the author's inability to draw her characters. Not only is there a sum of 5 different characters' designs and haircuts, but she doesn't seem to be able to draw them in many different positions. So when she is drawing and overcompensates in a panel, she keeps it stuffing the rest of the information on the page instead of re-drawing it. Not only does this hurt the fights, but the pacing and the character designs. The sad scenes seem to take place in seconds, and the fights way too long. Each character is drawn in very similar positions, and with people already looking way too similar, the author changes the panel sizes and focuses on differentiating the people somewhat. She focuses on trivial parts of character design to identify it like them, meaning that you have a hard time telling who it is. The character designs seemed all very similar, aside from Alphonse, who sadly isn't drawn most of the time correctly.

Finally, I want to mention the fights, which were a few things the anime improved. FMA is a battle shonen, and what that entails is fights, a lot of them. However, the fights are poorly mixed. In a fight, four methods are commonly used to create action. Speed lines, blurred appendages, hit marks, and the poses both combatants are in. Despite starting in 1989(12 years before this), the Dragonball manga utilizes these techniques perfectly, while FMA spectacularly fails. 

The action in FMA composed of mismatched poses, speed lines in the wrong places, and blurred appendages that make the characters look inhuman. With irrelevant fights happening over chapters and relevant ones in less than four pages, the action is defiantly not the best. The author seemed to think that she was a comedian when the comedy was downright annoying. This happens through most of the show, but what is worse is when in the fights, it happens, and suddenly all the tension leaves, even against major foes. Finally, the power system was abysmal. I won't even ask anything about alchemy as it is a bunch of plot holes condensed into a power system. But she couldn't even write it in the fights. When the alchemy was used, the majority showed the lightning, then zoomed out to a building exploding. Only to zoom back into a dying foe somehow hit by the alchemy.The only ones they showed was some stone, and Roy's fire, which didn't even look remotely like fire.

FMA lacks in many things, but you can look past those and still give it a good rating. However, the characters are one thing you can't overlook, as they are probably the saddest excuse of a supporting cast ever. Now I didn't dislike them per-say, but they definitely weren't good. The author created static and bland characters, but my problem started when she tried to make you feel for them. 

Now Ed, and Al, as a concept, are genius. The fact that Edward condemned not just himself but his younger brother to a terrible fate is emotional. When it shows in small scenes how it hurts for him, the auto-mail that makes him strong is a constant reminder of what he did to his brother. He hurts all the time and puts on this facade of happiness and being okay. Alphonse put in a suit in which he can not feel or taste, trapped in by his older brother. In this body, he feels inhuman unable to confirm his existence or individuality. While Ed hurts, he can't, and that pains him as he sees his brother push himself more than necessary every time to try to save him. With all the nights to reflect, he starts to overthink things and blames himself when something happens.

Their brotherly bond also feels real as they act like brothers, know each other as brothers, and experienced trauma together. They are SO close together, both only looking out foe each other, determined to save the other rather than themselves. They are a fantastic duo and great characters. My only problem with them lies in the comedy, which really hurts the depth of their characters. But if you can look past it, you will see two amazingly written characters.

Now let's go with the rest of the cast, which is quite frankly a disaster—first the cast itself, which were quite all over the place. The main cast seemed to switch every 5 chapters as they would focus on a different group, and until it seemed to involve almost every named character. This hurt the show as it would attempt to use them all, which slowed down some parts quite heavily.

First Mustang, who is Overrated. He has more of a cool aura in the manga, and he is a LOT better here than in the anime. He has a nice connection with his subordinates. However, they are used for his character. Mais Hughes was a plot device to give Mustang character, Hawkeye and his troops were there to provide him with character, and 2-dimensional characters outside of that. He was a decent character, but his whole arc about revenge in the manga with envy was poorly handled, not given enough time, and felt shoehorned. Same with the sacrifice of a specific part of his body. It wasn't given enough time, mentioning it and giving it little time to sync in. As much as I dislike the anime, those two scenes were better handled. 

Winry, another 2-dimensional character who could've been good but was thrown away, as the plot took credence over her developing character. If you skipped the whole part with her and Scar, it would be impossible to tell that it happened. Speaking of Scar, what a letdown. While he seemed quite interesting and mysterious initially, he quickly became a member of the crew, forgetting his whole grudge with Amestris and the fact that he killed multiple major alchemists there.  

Izumi Curtis was the run of the mill mentor with nothing going for her. Alex Armstrong had something going on but is skipped as again the plot takes credence. His sister too. The rest of the cast comprised of hundreds of soldiers and lackeys that followed Ed blindly cause he rubbed off on the good, even though he was their mortal enemies first. He saves two chimeras who try to kill him, and then instead of the enemies who were trying to kill him seconds ago viciously, they decide to be his friend and his lackeys.

And finally, the villains, probably the worst ones in fiction. 

Sloth, a disappointment, just there for plot. Nice irony of his name, but as soon as he became relevant, he died. Lust died in the second scene we saw her. Pride, amazing plot twist, and a stroke of genius. Then was cast aside, going from overpowered to weaker than automail. Gluttony, nothing whatsoever. Envy, they tried to give him some development but failed miserably. Wrath, again, amazing plot twist and mind-blowing reveal. But he was an evil Captain America who was evil for the sake of it. The six of them were underdeveloped characters who both didn't represent their sin and had no reason whatsoever to be evil.

The main villain was also bad, evil for the sake of being evil, and lacking a concrete plan. Greed was the only good villain, and he was mostly on the good side.
In general, the characters were pretty bad, both the villains and the supporting cast completely underdeveloped. This was probably the weakest part of the show, and If you are looking for good characters, don't expect them. 

Now one thing people forget to mention when they talk about FMA is the comedy, which is awful. Heavily inspired by one piece, FMA tries to make it a battle Shōnen, and comedy, and magnanimously fails. With each interaction having something to do with Ed's height, it will stop at nothing to make up some terrible comedy. Unlike the anime, which cuts out most of the comedy during the fights, the manga keeps it in, creating previous tense villains and bad guys not as impressive, and the tension is lost. And that not it. 

One-piece has many running jokes and new ones that will make you laugh. In FMA, the author picks on Ed's height and his short temper, as if that would make us laugh. And it's not the terrible that makes you laugh, but the kind that makes you annoyed after hearing the same dull joke and punchline for the 30th time. 

The comedy definitely isn't its strong point; its story is. There are plenty of payoff moments in this manga with the story as small, subtle hints that were provided payoff and blow your mind. While I was annoyed most of the time, there were plenty of amazing moments.

Now the manga was a breath of fresh air compared to the anime and was probably better than the show, with people making more sense and the plot more explained. Of course, there were plenty of worse parts, like the "comedy" and art, but overall, it was better than the anime. I still dislike it. However, the manga raised my appreciation for the series.

Story 4/10
Art 3/10
Character 3/10
Enjoyment 4/10
Overall 3/10

The girl simply turns up one day and gets into the back seat of the 1943 Rikuo. She doesn't seem to have a name, but then nobody else does, either. The driver and the passenger drive away without even speaking to her, and that's how they come to be together. A little further down the road, they run into Suzuki, so called because that's the name of her machine, and they agree to conduct a cross-country race all the way to Nagasaki. Winner gets the other bike.

Shinohara's "Two Car" is mostly about this race, which is an odd race in that nobody much seems to want to win. The driver and the passanger have devoted their lives to racing and winning with their customized and rebuilt Type 97, and Suzuki identifies intimately with her bike, yet they keep stopping to help each other along the road, as if the road would be unbearably lonely if that other car weren't sometimes in view.

What I liked about "Two Car" was the sense of life that occasionally sneaked through, particularly in the character of Suzuki. She is the only character who is fully occupied with being herself (rather than the instrument of a metaphor), and so we get the sense we've met somebody. That, and some of the racing and road scenes, and the visual texture of the manga, makes it worth reading.

This manga is basically about a male lead, who is famous as a love deity in his company. The people consult to him about their love wishes and they are miraculously granted. The female is a new hire becomes interested in the guy who is 12 years older than him.
I like the drawings. I found that the character of the guy really cute especially near the end. It’s a nice cute short story.

REVIEW: chapter 1 to 18 ---

STORY:

The first 4-5 chapters of Samurai 8 starts a bit slow, the hype and the outstanding situations got better and better after every chapter.
Kishimoto did a great move by giving us many infos during the first 5 chapters, and then giving us important answers during later chapters.

Now the story is definitely interesting.

VOTE - 8

ART:

Same. The first 4-5 chapters the art was a bit confusing (not that much, do not listen those guys who says they can't even read it. This just means they are f*cking blind), after those chapter teh art improves A LOT! The level of Okubo's art reached epicness, especially when he draws astonishing attacks! Sometimes the art is really breathaking, i have to say that...

VOTE - 8

CHARACTERS:

As expected by Kishimoto he created beautiful, interesting and original characters. Everyone with their differences and secrets. Hachimaru's father is one of the best...and a huge emotional boost for the MC (Hachimaru).
The secondary characters, especially the new additions, are funny and cool at the same time. You'll recognize Kishimotos' hands!
The first main villain is extremely OP and interesting! Remember Madara? He was nothing!

VOTE - 10

ENJOYMENT:

Besides the first 4 chapter, a bit slow but still nice, Samurai 8 is a great and amazing manga! It deserves to be read till the latest chapter! DO NOT just read the first 4-5 if you don't want to miss epicness and a lot of revelations!

OVERALL - 9

Calling Huvahh a manga (or even a one-shot) doesn't really do it service. It's pretty much just a showcase of some character designs and environment motifs for Shadows of the Damned. For the five minutes or so it takes to read it and really observe the art, if you're a fan of Q Hayashida (Dorohedoro) or Shadows of the Damned, it's totally worth reading.

There is barely any plot, dialogue is all mumbling nonsense, and there barely even a through line between pages, but the art is really all you're coming to the book for, so none of that really matters. If you've played Shadows of the Damned, you can see some familiar designs and motifs floating around. It's definitely a great companion piece to the game, especially considering how long it is. If you're reading this review right now, you've probably spent more time reading about Huvahh than you would reading Huvahh.

I only give it a 7 because I would have preferred a few more pages and some of the art could use a little more polish, but that grimy sort of crust punk garage album cover art aesthetic is what Hayashida is so well known for.

I, like many people, picked up this manga because of my love of the movie, and Tezuka in general. What I didn't know was how immensely different from the movie this is. There's no Rock, no politically driven story or romance: there isn't even a "Tima".

The story focuses on a gender-bending young robot named Michi, who is very like Tima in almost all respects. Both befriend Kenichi, have run ins with Duke Red (who isn't nearly as charismatic as he is in the movie), and both are, for the most part, innocence incarnate. Many recurring characters in Tezuma's world make appearances, and even some hilarious references to Disney (from whom Tezuka's style is mostly based on) pop up in the form of radioactive rats resembling Mickey Mouse.

The art, admittedly, isn't Tezuka's best. The backgrounds after the initial, almost chaotic, pages are very sparse, but when he does do one of those panels that takes up 2 pages, there's a lot going on. His old school style, almost Steamboat Williesque in its simplicity, makes for a very entertaining read considering the content of this manga, which includes blackmail, betrayal, and some brutal (and by brutal, I don't mean bloody) deaths towards the end.

The characters are kept simple. Duke Red is your typical intelligent gangster evil scientist (if having a list of descriptions like that can be called "simple"), Mustashio is the detective (along side none other than Sherlock Holmes himself), and Lawton, who appeared to be insane and almost sinister in the movie, was far more kind and respectful than I expected him to be. Unlike the movie, where there are so many characters its hard to keep up, there were way less characters (the biggest loss for me was Pero who apparently had no role in the manga)

I personally had a blast reading this. It's not the best manga out there, but when you get overwhelmed with the overly complex story lines of modern manga and arch after arch of the same thing over and over, its nice to take a break from the fast paced stories of nowadays and go back to a simpler time. This will certainly not be for everyone, but if you want to pick something short of Tezuka's to get into, you can't go wrong with Metropolis.

This manga's story is bad...the jokes ir bad...i gived this manga a 4...i should give it a -1 but the art is good thats about it....dont even try to read this manga...why is it bad you might ask ? at one moment the guy punch's a person then 3 seconds later he dose a joke that's not even funny...then 2 seconds later he acts like a idiot...nothing make's sens...reading this manga will drop your Iq to -12....

I have only read 3 chapters of this manga, so, if my opinion of this changes after reading more of it, I will revise my review.

That being said i'll move on~

I love supernatural, action, shounen-ish stuff a lot. But I also really enjoy mystery and psychological reads as well. For some reason I was hoping to find a little of both worlds in this manga. So far i'm not impressed. Note: I did read the one shot before starting the series.

(Art) The quality of art in a manga is not something I would typically consider when rating. (unless it was downright awful) But if I were to rate the artwork I would give it a 9. It looked clean and well done. The monsters were very detailed and interesting to look at.

(Story)(6) Im gonna start by saying, this story has a lot of potential. The storyline is good and the ideas are interesting, but the author, in my humble opinion, isn't doing an awesome job with it... But like I said. Im only on chapter 3! So I'll give it a 6 being that its still early in the story for me. 3 chapters in and i'm not clear on what the monsters are, where they came from, or how they came to be. I can barley tell the setting that the story is taking place in. And I know little to nothing about any of the characters. I feel like the author has skipped the first few chapter and that this story doesn't have a very solid foundation.

(Characters)(5) Oh my gosh. The two main protagonist of this story, are grading on my nerves. Its unusual for me to not like a male main character but I feel very little affection or attachment to Haiji. He is very hard to relate to, has close to no emotion, and seem to have omnipotent intellect and power right off the bat. What makes a good character? In my opinion, its the flaws. Some people reading this might think; but he does have flaws! Ok, but of his flaws, which can you relate to? If he's a genius, can easily master great power and succeed at anything he wants to with ease. Then to me, he's boring. Another character that comes to mind when I think of Haiji is Jio Freed. Similar in a lot of ways but very different. Jio is a great character.
Now for the second protagonist Torioji. Not much to say about her... She's dull, boring and predictable. A flat character who's only purpose that I see is to be the foil character for Haiji. Oh, and apparently giving that 1% of inspiration to Haiji.
I would write about the main antagonist but so far I dont really know enough about him to form an opinion.

This manga has potential and I hope it doesn't crash and burn. I don't like being negative like this but this is just my honest opinion.

Please feel free to send me feedback on this review if you think I missed something or want to share your opinion on what I wrote. I love constructive criticism, I just ask that you be nice. I hope this review was helpful~ :)

I'm writing this review just because of how bad it was, hoping people like me won't make the mistake of reading (and completing it, no less) this. I haven’t seen the original anime or Blood+, so I’m unfamiliar with this setting. I started reading because of CLAMP (and Watanuki)’s involvement.

Blood-C follows the story of Saya Kisaragi, a shrine maiden who hunts monsters. She has a father and close friends that she wants to protect and keeps fighting night after night despite the risks. This part along with a bit of SOL was neither unique nor well-told, but it wasn’t bad either.

I found it hard to understand what exactly the antagonists were trying to do, which is the kind of things that irk me the most. The lack of purpose and logical reasoning behind the characters' actions is consistent across the story. The ending tries to conveniently justify all events in the plot with an absurd reasoning. It’s one of those endings that leaves me going “Huh? What the...”. I feel like whoever was responsible for the plot was very much forcing it to be a fairy tale ending that goes against the whole story's concept. I'm not saying a dark story can only have dark endings. Far from it, but just that it's unnatural in my eyes. Many of the characters seem like a part of an unnecessary clutter that don’t have any reason for existing.

The art was decent, and the amount of gore wasn’t disturbing. Woulldn't really say it's a saving grace though.

It feels as though the creator thought up of an interesting concept on a whim and dumped it onto a paper while it’s still undeveloped. The whole chaos of the plot and setting seems like a good representation of what was going on inside the creator’s mind.
It’s a story that gets worse as you keep reading. I suggest you don’t start reading at all.

Probably the only one where I will give it an even rating across the board but I think this is accurate.

The story is actually quite cool, being a fan of boxing myself it was nice seeing a newer boxing manga because they are rare. Aside from the ending which I didn't like, the only other aspect of this that I disliked was how literal they made the techniques. For instance they would make it so the MC struggled against an enemy that he could easily defeat only to have him win after 'figuring out' something he already knew, or they had the MC pretend the be bad only to show that he is good. It was kind of ridiculous in that regard.

The art was basic, you could see what was happening and feelings were properly portrayed through the expressions so that is good. I just don't particularly enjoy the art style itself.

Other than the things I mentioned about the MC pretending to be bad, he was a really likeable character who had great character progression, same as most other relevant side characters. I didn't like that Moka was chubby though, I liked it even less when they kept making her give up on her weight loss.

I won't spoil the end of the story for you but it was seriously a letdown.