mixing-scents12

A Masterpiece!

Vagabond is my only 10/10 manga, and there's a good reason for it. I'm first going to point out the obvious, Vagabond has gorgeous art. I sometimes find myself lost in the color pages and two-page images, they are absolutely beautiful.

However, the story is more of an subjective subject, and I do think you should read other reviews as well before considering buying it. I personally think it's a masterpiece, It's not an original story for the manga (It was a book, which turn was based on real life events), but I don't mind that at all.

The only "bad" thing I say about this series, is that many characters change names throughout the story, so it can be a little hard keeping track of everything if you haven't read it in a while.

This incomplete horror anthology consists of gory and detailed violence so if you are sensitive to that then I would not recommend it. For those who are interested the story is about these two orphaned kids named Toshio and Maki, these two are always getting into these supernatural ventures. Maki can use psychic abilities which she uses to help solve these paranormal ventures. The pacing for each chapter is extremely fast, things escalate quickly and end up being repetitive for each chapter. The last two chapters have decent pacing and have actual substance compared to the others. The characters are good and are significant to the plot. The art is well done, the violence and gore are detailed and grotesque to look at which is cool.

Overall, I give this manga a 6.5 out of 10. If you enjoy horror anthologies with gory scenes then this is a must-read.

Take a story about defeating the Demonlord and flip it. You did the deed(killed the DL) and now you are stuck with the sword that killed it and it will not let you go. Now you are branded as a thief for not returning it because .. you can;t. so You go to the only place you feel you can be safe. Back to the dungeon you were before. But things have changed.

Yes, this is a switch and yes it is ecchi as the 'hero' and his friend want to turn the former dungeon of horrors into... and erotic dungeon, feeding off the negative emotions of shame and discomfort.

This deferentially seems to be written from a male perspective and you should take it as so. You will 'see' all the usual parts and they come up with some different ways of 'extracting' the magical essence's needed to run the dungeon and turn it into a paradise for them.

It has the usual tropes, maid, former foe girl turned to your side, sex with said people. So you get what you paid for.

Oftentimes, a manga will write a yandere as either a love interest for the main character or as shock value for the audience. What's interesting is when the yandere is written as not just as a generic yandere, but as a geninuely ill mental person, which is what this manga does. This manga reads like a horror story, and I love it. The main characters descent to madness is very enjoyable to watch, as he discovers more and more of the unpleasant yandere side of his student. He struggles with his paranoia revolving her and her aggressive obsession with him, this being the most interesting aspect of the book.

While the conflict between the yandere and main character was surprisingly interesting and gripping, this manga has very significant tone problems. The first half is, for some reason, written like a hentai. The manga goes through great lengths to show you how sexy the yandere is, and how sexually attracted the main character is to her (although he refuses her advances). This is very tonely jarring from the second half of the manga where the tension between the main character and yandere switches from sexual tension to geninue fear and anxiety on the part of the main character. I think the author was going for a "fatal femme" thing, but it just doesn't work at all, and it takes you out of the plot.

1/10

The story was extremely hard to follow and very confusing in the way it was written, half the time I had absolutely no idea what was going on. The story was so back and forth on everything that was happening.

The characters are all fairly unlikable, especially the main characters. Their interaction with each other was dreadful, and the actions they made made absolutely no sense to me. They were inconsistent with their feelings, actions, and words. It's hard to believe their relationship even consists of any romance by the time you get to the end of the story.

It took me 300 days to finish reading this manhwa because of how much the story and characters bothered me.

Honestly, you're better off just not reading this if you enjoy romance at all this one isn't worth it.

TLDR: Don't bother. Somewhat "original" reverse isekai comedy with really poor execution.

Story: I was really intrigued and interested by reading it's title and premise but it went downhill only after that. The story just dragged painfully after establishing itself. Chapters are short but felt so long and drawn to the point it's gets boring really quick. This type of stories live or die by their comedy and this one's just ain't gonna survive in my radar. Do you see that image on MAL? yes that's the whole story and joke. Let's just sexually objectify this Female Knight for shits and giggles. Don't get me wrong i like me some dirty adult humor but this one's really just childishly stupid.

Art: As goes with series like this Art is Mediocre but the only shinning part of this Manga. As long it's not unbearable i don't care if ain't 10/10 Masterpiece. While i can argue that Art should be or is the main factor contributing for the jokes and punchline in a Comedy Manga or Anime in general but i digress. so No complaints in Art but it doesn't help the mess this is.

Character: Setting is unique so for it to work Characters are just plain stupid and given not much forethought. Both Orc and Female Knight felt like filler side characters that are shove to main panels somehow but were not given instructions how to act like one. i couldn't care less whether they succeed or accomplish something nor do they look like care but wait Tiddies that should mean something. In short dreadful characters.

Enjoyment: Sigh.. The only redeeming factor for me which cancels out my other points in other departments is Enjoyment and It had NONE for me. sure watching someone getting suddenly naked might be some different kind of enjoyment but that's just you enjoying from your nether-realms and that's not why one should even pick-up a book, what are these the dark times. To say it bluntly didn't enjoyed it.

Overall: The Premise was really good which could honestly have gone many different routes given the genre it has but all is just for naught. The Execution just killed it for me. You'll have much better time playing with yourself than reading this tbh as it feels like a failed handjob that's just dragging on without reaching the climax.

Well, lemme lay out one important thingy first, before doing anything else. I'm rather biased towards tragedies. I think sadness is quite the beautiful expression (yes, I'm nuts, stay there on the other side of the screen please), but I still consider myself pretty dulled off towards anything tragic. So when anything actually manages to squeeze out that emotion from me, I take it as a pretty intense sign. And this...well yeah, let's cut to the chase already. I'll try my best to write this as neutrally as possible.

However, before reading the series, do remember to think of the discretion advice. The manga deals with sensitive subjects and contain sexual undertones, so although I'm not forbidding you from anything, have this in consideration, because I disbelieve this book's for everyone.

Story: 7/10
Or should I say "stories". Eleven chapters, each spanning one short tale of tragedy, often regarding some rather difficult love situations. A primary topic of interest is incest, in several various forms - parent-child and sibling-sibling, consensual and discordant. But the collection also include various other items, including a story about transgenderism and a somewhat surreal tale about falling dolls.

There's little depth in the "raw story", so to say, as these focus largely on characters and development of those. And by "largely" I mean "at least 80%", so there's no quality loss there, really.

And, please don't let the "tragedy" tag scare you off - many of the stories manage to compromise into a somewhat more happy ending than you would expect.

Art: 8/10
Very distinguished...I might even say "cute", with thick lines and easy on the details, making many characters look similar to each other. I don't see the manga suffering from any character mix-ups though, since the stories are so short, anyway. And as the stories weigh heavily on the actual telling material and not so much on the artwork, I mostly see the artwork as a kind of bonus to the stories. I have absolutely no complaints regarding the artwork, but it can always be polished and improved; hence why I'm not giving out a larger score.

The last chapter is done in a different style, with thinner lines and more character traits - for what reason, I dunno, really. :-J

Character: 10/10
The strongest point of the manga. I was almost tempted to raise it to "11/10"...seriously though, that's dumb. Let's try keeping it relatively sane here.

The characters "are" this manga, essentially. Their personality, their judgments, and most of all their issues and tribulations that shine through in every one of the comics. And most of them seem to have very valuable trains of thoughts - they analyze their situation carefully from different angles, producing wider trains of thought than I would ever expect from someone their age (yes, in addition to being nuts, I'm a darn people pessimist as well), giving me the impression that this Kizuki character (the manga author) does some deep thinking as well. Pouring this deep thinking into words is a beautiful skill, and I score such skills highly.

Enjoyment: 9/10
...um. "Enjoyment" isn't what I would call it, but sure, the emotional response to this manga was quite high. I find myself going overly ecstatic to read/watch stuff that touches deep inside me and leaves an imprint lasting for several days afterwards. Then again, it entirely depends on the particular flavor of the imprint - there are shows that I sometimes regret seeing, due to the sour taste they left in my mouth. Finding the balance between sour tragedy and yet sweet joyfulness is a tricky line to walk sometimes - I feel that Kizuki does this very well.

Overall: 9/10
My first, automatic action was to slap a "10" across this manga and leave it at that. With such a valuable manga, however, I afterwards felt the need to weigh the pros and cons and regulate the score a bit. But yes, this book will probably not be for all - first consider the combination of "tragedy" and "incest". If you're cool with both a' these subjects, I shall warmly recommend this manga to you.

...wow, what a stale thing I just wrote. :-P Must remember to add some lingual flavor to the next one...

If you're here after watching the anime, stick around, because that was my exact position-- even if you hated the anime.

I'm gonna go straight up and say this: I didn't like the anime for a few reasons. To begin with, the overarching plot of 'the awakening' was dull, underexplained, sudden, and really out of place. I hated it. On top of that, all the boys were jerks and assaulted and raped Yui. To top that off, her own story line doesn't make sense. Yui also has as much character as, Ayato puts it, a pancake.

However, a lot of these issues were fixed in the manga.

First off, the story was a thousand times better. This is partly because there was no overarching storyline. The chapters are structured like one shots. You can read them in any order and you can read as many as you would like depending on your favorite character. It reads kind of like oneshot dojinshi or fanfiction, or well, an otome game. I really liked this change. The other problems are fixed with the characters, which I'll discuss later.

The art, I wasn't a big fan of. In some chapters, it was unduly gorgeous, while in others, it looked like it was major steps backward. Was I missing something here? Did completely different people/teams draw each chapter? Idk, I might just be out of the loop. If different people did indeed draw these chapters, then I apologize for this score and you can disregard it.

The characters, boy oh boy did they change! To start off with, Yui was almost tolerable! In some places, she legitimately resisted, and when she couldn't she thought about ways to thwart the guys plans and actually had brains for like a page or two. On top of that, she admitted to being a masochist so I didn't feel like she was being violated as much as she was enjoying it, based on her thoughts alone. Because of this, I stopped feeling like the entire manga was about rape.

The boys were also much better. None of them outright assaulted Yui (other than Ayato like once...) and there was no rape as far as I could tell (perhaps there were some undertones, but I read most of this at two in the morning, so I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell) and they actually had some character. We could see different shades of every guy. My favorites turned out to Reiji and Laito, but all the chapters were still pretty fun to read regardless.

I actually enjoyed this. I may be a little sleepless and insane and change my mind later, but it was like reading vampire oneshots and I didn't mind it at all. It was pretty cute in some moments too. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece-- it has a long way to go, even if it's just romance or smut-- but I can say that it's a stable starting ground if the author wanted to do something else with it.

That being said, I enjoyed this overall.

I would recommend this if: you're into bdsm-y style relationships, you like power/dominance, you like bloodplay, if you're into otome games, you like oneshots, you like short stories, you don't mind dubious consent

I would NOT recommend this if: you're 'vanilla', you're into explicit consent, blood doesn't sit right with you, you like overarching plots, you like long manga, you like plots other than just romance, you want something long term

Have a great day everyone!

I don't normally write reviews however this one ticked me off quite a bit. A lot of the story is pretty good like the scandal between the families that happened 8 years ago and the brother not being blood related that's all well and good HOWEVER the fact that the main character was such a push over, got hit and thought nothing of it, takes orders from the A-hole like it's common sense....(it makes me realize how american I am) as well as the fact that the characters for most of the story are horrid.

thats all that needs to be said.

Halfway through this manga I couldn’t help but voice a loud, “Why the heck am I still reading this?”
I’ll tell you why, because it’s more or less entertaining. At least that’s the conclusion I made when ten more chapters went by and I was still reading. Either that or I am definitely a masochist.

“..it’s a misunderstanding…”

Summary (Skip if wanted)
This is the story of a girl, who didn’t cry a river and drown the whole world. Instead Jae Yoo got drunk and confessed to the guy she liked. He rejected her and feeling defeated she started telling her problem to the only thing that will surely not walk away from her, a pole. Somewhere a long that conversation she bangs her head against the pole and knocks herself out. Like all embarrassing scenarios there is always someone watching. In this case it was Ji Hoo, a random guy just passing by. She won’t give up on love just yet and her friend sets her up on a bind date. The boy loves her she doesn’t share his feelings and rejects him. Still having no place to live Jae Yoo wants to live with “hot guys” and is determined to get into a boarding house that is famous for it. And she does and thus her story really begins. How will Jae Yoo deal with living with Ji Hoo, who happens to be the best friend of the boy she rejected, a gang leader, and all his friends?

The Characters:
If I could use one word to describe the main characters it would be, annoying. I’m not kidding. They are immature and constantly hitting each other, fighting and then ignoring the other person. I felt like the author wanted to put depth in them but it didn’t come out that way. There are some that make it worth while like Soo Bin and Eun Jan, the male character that appears towards the end. Just because they add a little something extra to this cliché of a manga. Though they themselves are a cliché, confused yet?
In my opinion, it lacked realism. The way the relationship was portrayed was cold and aloof. Not true for their age. But then again they aren’t experienced in relationships either. The ship could go both ways in this sea.

Jae Yoo was what kept me reading at the beginning just because she contradicted herself. She was brave but pathetic at the same time. She confronted the bullies in a mocking way but she couldn’t tell the guy she liked that she liked him. Not to mention that she is hardheaded as can be, too many hits to the head if you ask me. Her role was a monotony of; get drunk, fall, eat, say things you don’t mean and eat. Not in that order.

Ji Hoo’s character kept steady throughout. He barely shares information but his action speak more of him than any words can. Between him and Jae Yoo I really wanted to set the manga on fire and watch it burn.

The art is nothing impressive. The fighting scenes, though not many are pretty bland. The way the characters are drawn is common. Now, with color like the manga covers, that looks way more impressive. Maybe because of the freely use of color. With most Korean manga I have read, I have the same issue, the eyelashes are blonde sometime. I have no idea why it bothers me so, maybe because it makes the characters look unattractive? Also in this manga whenever they blush or get embarrassed the way that was drawn made me think the manga was dirty. See for yourself.

If you’re wondering why I chose the words, “It’s a misunderstanding,” as my quote. Honestly it’s because the whole story felt like a big misunderstanding and was said by more than three characters throughout.

If they would have gotten the time to explain things instead of just turning their back and walking away maybe it could all have been avoided and I wouldn’t have less IQ points. :D