Magdalen7

This webtoon is overall really enjoyable, notably due to the awesome interaction with Jinwoo's shadows. Thanks to the awesome art, at some moment you can really feel the pressure from the enemy, notably the first boss who gave me goosebump.

But since he got his shadow army, most of the time he doesn't fight himself and just watch his summons, and you can't sense any kind of danger for him.

MINOR SPOIL S2
Even in the new season, when he's suppose to struggle a bit without he's shadow army, he only take a good punch and then sudenly he's even more powerful. Which is kind of a bummer.

After the successful, 18-volume run of "Barakamon", Satsuki Yoshino presents a spiritual sequel which flips the script and tells its story from the opposite perspective.

STORY

I call it a "spiritual sequel" because there is zero plot overlap and no knowledge of "Barakamon" is necessary to understand the manga. While "Barakamon" told the story of a privileged young man from Tokyo's high art scene adjusting to the simple life in Japan's rustic Goto Islands, "Yoshi No Zuikara" (The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean) takes a different approach and tells the story of a Goto Island native leaving his shell and learning to interact with the wider world. This different viewpoint makes what could have been a simple rehash of Yoshino's previous work feel distinct. And that different viewpoint is critical, because "Zuikara" heavily relies on slice-of-country-life elements and the actual plot is quite straightforward. You won't stay here for the twists and turns, it even calls itself "The story of the uneventful days of an unremarkable manga creator", but if you're up for another relaxing trip back to Nagasaki prefecture, this story will fit the bill.

ART

Solidly drawn. The manga can have its occasional "talking head" segments, where most attention is given to medium-shots or closer images of characters simply speaking, but good attention is given to backgrounds. This focus on backgrounds typically comes in when the manga is focusing on something suitably "rustic" such as a mochi drying rack or fishing boat dock. Characters are also distinct, although you can occasionally notice traces of "Barakamon"characters in their designs. Kudos to Satsuki Yoshino for varying his usual style a bit for his manga-inside-a-manga scenes, where we see the slice-of-life manga our main character is himself creating.

CHARACTER

A slice-of-life story lives or dies by its characters (a revolutionary, unheard-of statement, I know) and "Yoshino No Zuikara" delivers and entertaining cast. This series' subtitle of "The Frog in the Well Does Not Know the Ocean" is telling, as our MC, Naruhiko Tohno, fits that bill. The "Frog in the Well" is an old Japanese proverb to the effect of "A person with limited experience has a limited perspective", and Tohno's life experience is quite limited. Since he's able to earn enough money to pay his own way and is capable of (limited) social interactions he may not qualify as a full-blown hikkikomori shut-in, but he's not a whole lot better either. As the story progresses, he finds himself having to grow as a man and being drawn out into a greater connection with people in the wider world- ironically due to his manga about a naive, insular boyhood. The first two volumes have focused primarily on main character Tohno himself, but I imagine that as this manga's run continues, more development and characterization will be given to the supporting cast- although Tohno's energetic-but-tactless assistant and a 10 year old girl obsessed with one of his characters is already quite entertaining.

ENJOYMENT

You need to go into this one expecting a relaxed slice-of-life story. S-O-L tends to be a "love it or hate it" kind of genre in my experience, and I haven't seen anything here which would truly change the mind of the "hate it" crowd. But if you liked "Barakamon" you'll like this one too.

OVERALL

In the final analysis, "Yoshi No Zuikara" fits neatly into its genre and the mould of its spiritual predecessor, but it has enough uniqueness and positive attributes to make it a worthwhile read.

Before I read this story, I've read other works from different mangaka where the art style doesn't go by the conventions of the usual modern Japanese manga. One example of this is Mohican-zoku no Saigo, a 1953 manga adaptation of an old French novel.

With Mohican-zoku no Saigo being a product of its time, the art style is crude in most places, and a bit of an eyesore in others. It was mostly due to there not being much conventions of what manga looked like to begin with, because I can assure you it was not due to the artist's capabilities. It was apparent that in some places, such as certain characters that expressed more of a DC hero-styled art style, that the influential mangaka at the time had genuine talent. What that manga taught me was that despite a book's questionable art style, it shouldn't deter from what could be an thoughtful, inspiring work.

Then I read Travel. And while I turn the pages of this book, constantly reminding myself of the lesson I learnt and genuinely trying to enjoy the book unfolding, I come to an important realization. That being that, while the manga I had previously read relied more on its story, this relied more on its imagery. This is a manga about travelling, about riding different modes of transportation, about observing the scenery and the people around you, about the experiences you go through like buying food and cigarettes on the go. Nobody in this manga says anything, so their actions and body language had to do the characterization for them, and what was happening had to be interpreted by the reader since no one talks about what's going on.

I'll say it again, the single point of this manga is solely to simulate what travelling is like. So with the very little story this book provides, it's safe to assume the art style alone is your only aid to visualize what the book wants you to visualize. And what of the art style itself?

Well, I can say the mangaka's drawings of architecture and animals aren't half bad. Not any level I would consider professional but I was okay with the views outside the windows of the various modes of transport I witnessed. Unfortunately, this is where my praise turns to utter disgust.

I genuinely cannot find a term to describe just how horribly ugly everyone looks. Aliens? Monsters? Abominations? No, cause using those terms would be offensive to all three of those groups. It'd feel like I'd be saying the alien/monster/abomination equivalent of the n-word. My little cousins who only know how to color can draw better eyes than whatever the heck this artist decided to deem human eyeballs. Everyone has the same face, and I found myself constantly flipping back pages cause I was lost to which character did which action. I'd previously praised the architecture but in some shots it also looks badly thought out, and even the good shots were overshadowed by the creatures this manga calls people. I thought the Fresco Of Jesus restoration was a mistake, what made the artist decide to pick it up as an art style?!

Artistic choice? Miss me with that. I may not be Picasso and I always feel bad when I criticize art that tries to do something new, but for the love of Miyazaki, this is not a painting or a mural, it's a freaking manga! A bad painting with this art style you're only supposed to see once and interpret what you see, you don't have to stick around and see these ugly shmucks almost every damn panel.

I can't imagine the delusion someone may have that this unconventional art style could be considered good. For a book that relies entirely on its art, you're sure bombarded with shots of crudely drawn freaks. Never think that unconventional always means passable, cause this is definitely not one of those cases.

Aristide Lang aka Alice can only play one song perfectly but he can't even read music scores and has no knowledge of the basics but somehow because of this song he played in his entrance examination he was accepted into Mondonveille School of Music which is a prestigue music school. First volume gives you some hints of Alice's family background (his father is some legendary violinist that died very young) and that his grandfather wanted Alice to join the music school to follow the footsteps of his father. Have to read more volumes to continue judging this manga. There are some hints of shounen-ai in the first volume with Victor constantly hitting on Alice but after reading La Esperanca from the same author it'll be mild shounen-ai. I have high hopes for this manga being a fan of La Corda manga and La Esperanca I'll continue to support this manga. In terms of graphics and drawings similar to La Esperanca very beautiful characters.

Volume 2 gets even more interesting... what's Vick's relationship with Max Alice is actually pretty talented it's just that he doesn't read scores. Georges from La Esperanca is also in this volume too.

I came across Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yuume after playing the game (Eternal Sonata) and reading that there was also a manga adaptation. The manga itself is an enjoyable read but suffers from some serious drawbacks, which I will explain below.


Story 7/10

The story itself is very confusing, due to a lot of background information being left out and thus it is unclear what drives the characters. The manga is clearly made for those who have played the game and this is shown by cutting a lot of content and background information. This is a shame since it is a very interesting story about dreams and dealing with emotions

Art 7/10

The art isn't outstanding but isn't bad either. The reason I gave it a seven is that the battle scenes were very confusing and poorly drawn. What I did like was that the characters are very detailed, Frederique looks indeed like a 40-year old man and Waltz looks evil rather than a little boy.

Character 6/10

As I said in the story part, the characters lack depth and it is quite unclear sometimes why they react like they do. The manga could've easily been longer by implementing the backgrounds and the potential romance budding in the manga, a shame really.

Overall

Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yuume is a mediocre manga for those who didn't play the game, but even if you did the manga does not offer much. Although I would suggest reading it if you enjoyed Eternal Sonata to see for yourself.

Summary

+ alternate Story
+ detailed Characters
- sloppy writing
- confusing battle scenes
- meant for niche audience

Hm...no one have written review of this yet.
I am someone who likes reading romance stories but i wouldn't say that this one was something special...
Lets start with the story...I give it 4 cause it is the normal romance between teacher and student who know each other since long time.Kinda boring and it not makes you say:"Oh I wanna read that again".Nah...more like " I am happy that it was one shot and no full lenght manga xD
The art is not bad but again kinda typical for romance manga.Still I give it 7 as the best thing in the whole one shot.
The characters,just like everything else,have nothing that a normal (not big fan but even normal) romance manga reader have not seen until now.So for them 5 is enought.
At the end enjoyment is...hm...5...The whole manga is not bad but I don't think i will read it again.Still if you have a little time that have nothing to do,you can try reading this one shot.

I heard that apparently Robot x Laserbeam is getting axed after another chapter or so. And honestly? It doesn't surprise me.

While Tadatoshi Fujimaki hit the jackpot with Kuroko no Basket's success, Robot x Laserbeam doesn't bring anything new to the table. It seems like he's rehashed a lot of tropes and cliches that he's used before, and this manga doesn't really incite any emotion in me. I don't care about any of the characters (except perhaps Youzan) and I'm also not interested in the sport or the matches with how it's being presented either, even though the art is pretty good.

The story started out decently enough, but once Fujimaki wrote in a timeskip that jumped from the beginning of Robot's first year at high school to being an adult pro, it was essentially over. For a sports manga, skipping all of the high school years just to focus on the pro world is basically suicide. It kills all of the necessary aspects of a sports series, such as teamwork/partnership, friendship, and most importantly, the mental and emotional growth of teenagers.

I get the feeling that Kuroko no Basket's fame has held Fujimaki back a little bit, because instead of breaking through his shell to explore new ideas with Robot x Laserbeam, it ended up being nothing really special.

It's a shame, honestly.

For starters, this is my first review and englisch is not my native language so plz forgive me if there if spell some words wrong.

Thes story is very basic: the cute, new manager of the soccer team Hisa has a part-time job to support her family. This has to be kept a secret because if the school founds out, she has to quit being the manager. However, this secret is discoverd by Sakyou, the handsome, star player of the soccer team and then gues what happens: they start dating (they also have sex very fast).
This story is more mature than story's like kaichou wa Maid-sama, there is alot of sex and the reactions of the supporting cast is more mature.

Character: The character development is kept to the minimum. Hisa and Sakyou stays pretty much the same and Kaito undergoes a mayer change in 1 chapter: from being jealous and aggresive to understanding and supporting. This change isn't explained very well in the manga.

The art is good but i don't know alot about art so i will keep this section to the minimum.

Overal is this a good manga if you want to read a manga without a deep story. Its perfect if you have an hour or so to spare and you want to read a romance manga where there isn't a challenge to the realationschip between the two mains.

I saw that this manga had no reviews, which didn't come as much of a surprise due to its low popularity and the fact that it is just a bundle of one shots. However, I actually found myself enjoying this manga a lot. Note that this was my first time reading shoujo manga.
(I will be focusing on the first story only)

Story - 7/10

I understand that the story may seem quite normal to shoujo readers, but I barely read this type of story. And it actually works well, to my surprise. It was able to pull me in, but I feel like it was missing something. It had too much of a happy ending. I realise that shoujo manga is usually about an ideal romance or friendship, but I really didn't enjoy how ideal the storyline was for the main character. There was good character development, but much of the plot was made to suit the main character. But this was a good manga, especially for a one-shot.

Art - 6/10

I am not a big fan of shoujo art, hence the low score. But I didn't find the artwork to be a distraction, nor did it put me off reading the manga, which was good. I could spot a few mistakes in the artwork, but they were quite small and didn't really affect much. All in all, the artwork was average.

Character - 7/10

Now this is when the characters come in. I found the characters quite average, especially the girl. There are many manga with the type of girl who, basically, has no friends. And the only development they make is friends, and become more socially adept. This was the same case with the manga. But it didn't affect my thoughts about the manga much, except I found her to be quite annoying sometimes. The guardian is also quite normal. He is the typical "guardian" type found in most manga. This is basically it for the characters.

Enjoyment - 8/10

I enjoyed this one-shot quite a bit, it had a good speed and had some cliff-hangers. The events included in the one-shot turn the pages for me.

Overall - 7/10

I enjoyed this manga quite a lot... Its only downside being its unoriginal and clichéd story.

Well Well Well, what do we have here? Does it look like another version of The Breaker and Veritas? In some ways, it does and in some ways, it doesnt. Lets look into it.

Story (7/10) Good
The story is very much similar to that of Veritas and The Breaker. The story involves martial art schools betraying one another, the death of close relatives/friends, and the protagonist getting stronger. Sounds unoriginal right? Well, you ARE right. What we have here is the typical martial arts/ action genre of a manhwa. The titles and names of people/techniques are ridiculously long and overrated (Holy Wind Crusher, Divine Water Strike, etc).

This Manhua has tons of action, so thats a good point there. Plus a hint of romance and a sprinkle of some ecchi. Dont let the "ecchi" part get you down; manga/manhua's with action that involves ecchi are known to be bad but in few cases such as this one, it is acceptable. It has enough to relieve the intense mood of the manga so it is kind of needed. All in all, the plot was okay and is good enough to keep you wanting more.

Art (9/10) Great
The art was Great. The way Kyong, Chu Lee drew every character with so much detail really got me on. Although I dont blame him, and this cant really be called a fault, when he draws a crowd of people, they tend to look the same (as with the monks). However, individually everyone looks different and beautiful.

Character (8/10) Very Good
The characters were unique in their own different way. The main protagonist of this series is Kang Gi - Mu. Gimu is a tough guy; always looking for fights and is never one to back down. However, he tends to let his emotions get to him at times which burdens him down. He is seen to have a very unique, rare power in the Ping world, and so he is a special person.

Shiya is as beautiful swordswoman with long hair about the same age as Gimu. She is seen as the same as Sasuke from Naruto: bent on revenge. However, this doesnt stop her from caring about her friends and suboridinates. She doesnt back down from any challenge, the same as Gimu, and so this willpower is one that made her very tough.

Seung is one of the followers of Shiya. He is very cold and often turns to violence to solve his problems. He is very quick to care for Shiya and has earned her trust.

Pung is the other follower of Shiya. He is very tall and burly, but is the compassionate and forgiving type. He acknoledges his opponents for their good points but also points out their bad points. He is very quick to care for Shiya and has earned her trust.

Enjoyment (7/10) Good
The enjoyment is satisfactory. The elements that make up this story goes only so far as to make me just read and click and not take it in and enjoy it. It was just way too trendy like other korean martial art mangas. All in all, it was enough enjoyment to at least write a review about this.

Overall (8/10) Very Good
This manga would probably take around two days for someone to finish. But if someone is going to read it continuously, it will probably take around 1 ~ 2 hours, depending on the reader. If you have that kind of time, then I encourage you to read this manhwa. Time will fly by, and your head will be stuck with kung fu moves and such.