Jean_Marcos12

Story: The story is quite good, though I see a lot of different reviews saying "this isn't your typical OP protagonist". Well actually, it is. I mean, it's okay because the story itself is good and I like the world the author created, but shit, the protagonist doesn't take a loss lol. Sure he's up against some strong guys, but he doesn't really come close to losing. Which I think is poor storytelling as this is getting quite repetitive now.

Art: I mean, it's colored and the amount of detail in everything is astounding. Fantastic art style and it's well maintained throughout the series (the quality doesn't diminish the later you get into the story).

Character: The characters are good, a bit 2 dimensional, there's one point where I thought a demon would become sort of a love interest/side kick, but it never ended up being a thing which is kind of lame because the story needed some extra spicing up.

Overall, this is a very good story. The art and pacing makes it an enjoyable read and I scored it accordingly. I know the story is a bit repetitive or dull, but the pacing and overall grand-story (ants), allows for a positive experience.

This is my first review and possibly the only review i will ever write.

Vagabond it's only the second manga i've read and the reason why i'm writing this review, it's because while reading this manga i started to notice how good this manga became to me. It's truly a masterpiece and to be honest, i don't think i can find another one like this. I enjoy reading this manga so much, i started to feel a certain empathy to Musashi's feelings because whenever he questions his ability and his strength or feels clueless about the true meaning of being invicible, i start to question myself too. Whatever he feels, i shall feel too. Creepy. Anyway, Vagabond or should i say Inoue Takehiko, brings us closer to the dimension he created and brings us the best and worst of mankind and/or life. The rise and fall of great men. The circle of life and death. The gore, sex and the casual order of life. The thing that i like the most is the complexity and simplicity of all the characters in Vagabond. Mushashi is at first, a demon-like child, an outcast by society, a warrior that fights to be invincible under the sun. It's amazing to see how he grows to not only be invincible but also to question what to be invincible means. But he can only reach that answer through Inei, old man Yagyu and Takuan. For me, Vagabond and all these characters taught me how important it is to love and to be loved, how love can erase such thoughts of invinciblity. It also taught me the simple values of life and by choosing to live by that philosophy, you can be truly happy. Musashi is slowly learning them or maybe he already know that but the desire of being truly invincible and chasing the meaning of being it, makes him choose whats really the best for him. From one of the best, we go to one of the worst men in the Vagabond universe and that man is Matahachi. He's a Musashi wannabe that tries his best to be like him but fails and taints his soul with the deviant ways of the perverted ronin that he is. I like him anyways. He lost all, love, home and a mother to become something he isn't. Musashi was already born with that mighty warrior spirit of his, but Matahachi lacks that. Kojiro on the other hand, is the most simple character i laid my eyes on. He does not have the desire to be invincible or to be the best , altough Ittosai tries to put that aura on Kojiro. I see Kojiro as a man that never totally grew up, he still has that face of a child that plays outside on the sunny days. He is happy. I never saw him sad. I think we all can learn from Kojiro and Musashi.

I'm sorry if i didn't mention the story above. Overall, Vagabond is a manga worth reading and worth waiting a month for the next volume and worth waitng a whole lifetime to see its development. i hope it never ends but that is a stupid thing to say. I questioned why Vagabond isn't an anime already. It's such a good manga it doesn't need to be an anime. Why possibly ruin a perfect thing? If you read my review, thank you and sorry if you didn't like it but i thought this was the best way to expresss my happiness in reading Vagabond and i wanted to share it with other people. Thank you.
Here's a hint: listen to Nujabes while reading Vagabond. It's something out of this world.

Aka Ihon is a very disappointing collection considering its great potential.

The collection contains vague and open stories, there are some well thought out metaphors and the art is ok in the horror, despite the repetitive formula of transmitting with the same facial expressions and the like (also, it's very forgettable), that kind of horror does not reach me very much. The psychological part is solid, has interesting criticisms of many things and good personifications. It is a pity that it is not very elaborate and gets stuck in simplicity, leaving loopholes that could be well explored. In short, potential wasted.

I struggled between giving this a 7 or an 8 (good or very good). It's based on how you preceive the story. This is the second piece I've read by this mangaka, I've been taken in by the originality in the style of drawing. That's what first drew me in. I'm currently on Sukitte Ii na yo, which is stil in the ongoing process and it was my introduction to her style of writing and drawing I fell in love with both.

Now to discuss this work. This will focus mainly on the broad theme of the 5 one-shots in this piece, they all revovle around loneliness, love, and earlier heartbreak. However, the most dominating is loneliness. On that aspect you see how loneliness can drive people to various aspects of desperation as seen in the fourth and last one-shot. They are the more extreme examples.

The first one-shot focuses on a Student/Teacher relationship. This is of course a cliched storyline in which the student and teacher are neighbors. The student is male and seems to have a party of sexual deviance every night to the dismay of his neighbor. His neighbor a relatively young teacher at his school (who is also his homeroom teacher) lives alone and focuses hersel around her job, keeping up appearances of being happy, jolly, and fun while in fact she goes to be early and alone to the noises of her neighbor. Overall the story is rather mediocre and mundane since it's so classic. All in all it didn't give me anything much except how impressed I seemed by the lead male. There was something about him that appealed to me. However I feel the same about a lot of her heros. I would give this a 4 out of 10 (it's too mediocre).

The second one-shot deals with unrequited love. This one is realistic almost to a tee, I've known couples like this and the girls suffering. Sadly, it's a girl suffering---however an almost similar story happens in the one-shot immediately following but in the reverse role. In any event, girl falls for guy and is willing to take him anyway she can...ie she willing becomes his toy just becasue she sees it as an ounce of returned affection. Thing is he's in a relationship. What's aggravation is the extent the woman allows herself to be dismissed or abused. However, at the same time..it's understandable and definitely mirrors reality. Many people thrust themselves in unfulfilling relationships wher one party is like a succubus who takes and never returns. However we see how this turns out in the long run and of course each manga has a happy ending of sort. However I found this guy emotionally taxing and abusive (just by the fact he was so careless with her emotions). Out of 10 this would get a 6.

The third one-shot is a serious social commentary which recounts a young girls dealing with DV (Domestic Violence), betrayal, and ultimately rescue from the unhealthy situation. Similar to the male in the above one shot, this male annoyed me as well. The male lead here was aware of everything going on and instead he allowed it to continue. All in all it was a failure and I just kept picturing her getting killed or hurt so bad she was hospitalized. However it's an important piece and shows how women allow the subjugation, abuse, and marginalization of themselves in this belief that they are in love or due to former images they were sold on when they entered the relationship. I would rate this out of 10, about a 5.

I believe I liked the fourth one-shot the best. Deals with an older gentleman who would like friendship and basically posts an advert like on craigslist to meet up with someone. He gets a teenager girl as a companion and you sift through the various changes in their relationship and ultimately the culmination. I felt more connected to this couple. It definitely touches on extreme loneliness. I think what brings this home is that I have went through such a thing when I first moved to England at 19...so bone deep was the loneliness that I almost went and committed extreme acts. I have a friend who's come with me to France and she's currently doing the same thing. Posting on craigslist and trying to make friends. It's the loneliness that does it and it shows how weak humans are to such emotions. But it also touches on the fact that we need other people, that we crave relationships and bonds with other people, it's a basic instinct of human nature and to deny oneself results in acting out which is not always normal. In the case of the male lead in this role and the female lead it worked in both their favor. I'd give this an 8 out of 10.

The last one-shot is the saddest one. A young girl basically date raped and prostituted by someone she considered a friend because she thought she was doing all of this in the name of friendship. I knew girls like this in school----they will do whatever they can in order to keep somene they believed to be a friend, even if the so called "friend" made them do things that was harmful to them. Most would call the girl an idiot or weak, I felt bad for her, I pitied her that she allowed herself to fall prey to people like that. And at the same time it's our needs to be reassured to make sure that what we have that we derive pleasure from never goes away. It's like something precious that you have or own and if someone were to break it you'd cry, break down or lash out. You see value in it. And she allowed her belief in the "friendship" to put her into an unhealthy situation and unhealthy relationship. I liked the development of the story and the redemption of the lead male. All in all i found it a relatively original piece and I'd like to read more mangas like this.

I think this series of one-shots is worth the read, and keep in mind the theme is loneliness so the mangaka pushes that home all the chances she gets and shows the resolution in the end. The art work is an acquired tastes. Some people love it, some abhor it. I'm in the love it category----however her storylines are good and worth the read. I definitely recommend this and actually any of her others. If you haven't yet and would like to read a great ongoing on loneliness, individuality, and love then I recommend----Sukitte Ii na yo of hers. Great manga.

Artificial Maiden has left a certain impression on me for a long time and I always wanted to review this manga. So here we go.

The plot revolves around a scientist who takes the brain of a guy named Misumi who was killed and puts it into the body of a girl named Nina. Later in the series you find out why this guy is killed and why he was created. Not everything is what it seems to be in this manga as there are plenty of plot twists and turns. The one negative aspect concerning the plot of the series is the abrupt ending, leaving you to desire more of the story, yet there is nothing else.

The art can be a little strange at moments and there is a lot of gore and nudity in this manga. Of course that kind of stuff appeals to me, but not everyone enjoys that kind of stuff. Misumi is an interesting character and he at first is rebellious and angry towards Hiruma, but as the series progresses he warms up to the scientist and eventually falls in love, despite the fact Misumi was previously a guy.

Artificial Maiden was an enjoying read and worthwhile read.

This manga is not very good. It's nothing more than a generic attempt at shoujo. The "special" thing about the couple is that Honjo has a cooler body temperature, and Azusa has a warmer body temperature, so they sorta turn into a milder temperature when they embrace or whatever. It portrays what is actually an emotionally abusive relationship (on both sides) under the guise of being romantic, but not in an interesting or captivating way. For instance, it's supposed to be cute when Honjo says Azusa can't accept gifts without his "permission." We're supposed to feel bad for Azusa when she loses her shit when Honjo makes one step slightly out of line. The story wasn't really anything special, because all you do is watch Honjo be possessive, and Azusa yell and storm off.

Okay so there are only 4 chapters at the moment, but I'm hooked. To put it briefly, you have your typical setup with childhood friends and the girl is popular with guys and in this case the mc has a cleaning addiction. One night the mc contracts a bloodlust disease and internally struggles with his uncontrollable bloodlust.
*Spoiler*











A fact about the disease is that you want to kill your loved one the most, surprise surprise. However, it also applies to other people as well in general (example: people who piss mc off). As to be expected, the mc also develops superhuman strength among other abilities. Overall (so far) the mc could qualify to be a male yandere which is very unique. I'd say give it a try, especially since its so short; it won't take up too much time. Oh I gave it a 6 because I'm harsh with ALL of my reviews. It means its an interesting read and all but I probably will not go back and reread it after its finished.

The "office lady is an otaku" genre has more works than you'd imagine. In a sense this is probably the best mixture of the otaku topic and the actual plot. At first characters look and behave similar to their 0079 counterparts, but as the plot progresses it becomes an office satire about Gundam.

The chapter by chapter comedy is solid, the gundam is in no way subtle but the jokes go beyond references and in general it would be good even without the Gundam angle.

Sadly the final chapter is a huge insult that has to take away points from this. Not only that but it got cut right when Zeta's AEUG was forming and we had so many characters to develop. There wasn't even time for a Hitler comparison!

I completely recommend this manga but be prepared for the worst final chapter you could ever get, way worse than anything you could imagine.

I'm not typically the kind of person who reads romance novels. I find them very cliched and formulaic.

Which is exactly what After Hours is.

The thing that sold it to me is the chemistry between the characters, I found them very enjoyable and they felt human. At least to me.

The rest is okay, the plot is formulaic girl meets girl they fall head over heals for silly reasons, contrivance happens and they nearly break up but blondy's conviction results in her patching things up with her girlfriend and everyone doesn't live happily ever after.

I think more than the characters, the thing that stuck with me with After Hours was the ending.
Things don't turn out perfectly okay, we don't return to our established status quo but they also don't flop miserably. It felt like a bitter dose of realism in an otherwise silly romance story. A feeling I found deeply relatable and one that moved me to consider After Hours among my favourite manga series.

Story (3): It has a somewhat good premise going on, but it reminds me to much of other mangas like Soul Eater with the girls turning into weapons and the masters being the boys. It's a girl battling against sexism and bias in a school where girls are seen as nothing as tools, sounds like some feminist ideology to be honest, and that's not why I'm giving it such a low score. I did like what the first few chapters told, but as soon as it kept going, it got confusing, dull, a chore to read through and the ending just leaves us with too many questions.

Art (8): I thought it was pretty good to look at, but it's no where perfect. So not much to say on this part.

Character (6): I really did like Himoto Sora, but she seems too much as a Mary Sue later on as the story goes on, is it bad? Not really, but the other characters all have great designs of their own, but all have dull or confusing objectives going on. I feel like this manga needed over 100 chapters in order to get some justice to these characters, but since it's pretty short, it ended up doing a lot of damage.

Enjoyment (4): Well..... it's boring, not really a pain to read through but it's hard to keep your attention. It took me a long while to skim, not read, skim through a single page, and it really does suck because I feel like this manga had a lot of potential when it first started but it self-destructed as soon as the next chapter appeared.

Overall (6): Read it if you want to fall asleep, it's not a good yuri, not a good romance, nor a good story. So skip!