RICEA4299114

Huh, this manga has me confused. All the high ratings and hype, I figured this was going to be a masterpiece along the lines of Berserk or FMA, with engrossing and emotional character development, mind blowing powers and abilities, a captivating story, yadda yadda yadda. Sadly I found myself incredibly bored by the halfway point, disappointed around the 3/4 mark, and I really only finished it because I had no other bathroom material to read at the time. There are no characters I'm really attached to, the characters I'm supposed to like I don't much care for, but on the flip side the characters I'm supposed to hate, I do hate, which leads to me just not liking any of the characters, and comes off as imbalanced character design. The premise had me salivating with a race across the west, but then they introduce the powers, and while the race continues it feels like the importance of it was left behind in the dust. While the art is amazing, the same face issue detracts from it slightly.

Overall I'm left feeling pretty disappointed. The ending was not satisfying, nor did it leave me feeling like I was a better person after reaching the end of the journey. The only takeaway for me was to pray to RNJesus for good luck, but that you'll probably just get screwed anyways.

Again, I'm confused on this one. I wouldn't say this manga is bad, but for it to be at the #2 spot on MAL frankly baffles me.

NOTE: There are no spoilers in this review.

"There is no despair that can't be overcome by everyday life"

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (or, in short, “HakoMari”) is a story about what a huge mistake a person can make by turning away from his reality, and if we don't touch philosophy and moral, this is a story about an ordinary Japanese schoolboy, Kazuki Hoshino who was involved in the cycle of various strange and mystical phenomena that were caused by the boxes. And they begin to happen immediately after a new student, Aya Otonashi, is transferred to Kazuki's class.
After that, Aya Otonashi once said to the whole class that she is going to "break" Kazuki Hoshino.
If I will explain the plot further, there can be spoilers which I don't want to touch, but I will immediately go over to the opinion about the characteristics of this creation:

Story/Narrative:
It’s very difficult to talk about the story of HakoMari and not go into the jungle of spoilers, I can only say here that each volume here has its own story about some kind of mystical phenomenon caused by the boxes. What are the boxes? And where they come from? Will be a spoiler if I tell you. I can only say that volumes 3-4 and 5-6 are pairs of "connected" volumes, because the denouement in the first of them (in the third and fifth) doesn't end but continues in the next volume (in the fourth and sixth)...
I can also add that with each volume you are imbued with the concept more and more, reading becomes more and more interesting, more likely due to the fact that after the second volume, the plot in the following volumes becomes only stronger and stronger, as well as the amount of philosophy and moral that the author is very fond of emphasizing because they significantly influence the plot itself, which is not only mystical, but also keeps you in suspense right up to the end of the volume.
The last thing I can say about the plot is that I would advise you to read this work no more than at an average pace, because getting confused in the plot is quite simple here, to be honest - it will be more complicated than in Steins;Gate, but about the quality - the plot is simply indescribable (Dear Eiji Mikage, I can’t even imagine how you sleep at nights after the story you write).

Art/Illustrations:
There is little to explain, I can only say that the illustrations are not perfect - but they couldn't be better. In each volume they feel like they give you a strawberry cake (there is a reference :D) at the top of which there are whipped cream, and you eat them even before you touch the inside... And what about "is it possible to adapt HakoMari?", I think - partly. The first 2 volumes I think it’s possible to adapt, but volumes like the seventh one - almost impossible, and I will be honest, I would be afraid if HakoMari will get an adaptation, because I don't want to see such a creation turned into a trash by some studios... (Tokyo Ghoul adaptation, Studio Deen's Fate/stay night adaptation, and of course - the "unexisting" adaptation of Tsukihime...).
I also want to add that at the beginning of each volume you will see some "thing" in one of the illustrations, which will be somehow related to what is happening in this volume or to the influence of the plot. Either the author who showing you this "thing" at the beginning will just want to say - "remember this little thing."

Characters:
Another of the characteristics that make HakoMari simply an incredible story - is the characters... They have a "+" here not so much in the way that they all have very different personality traits, but rather in how they change and how much their personality is changed compared to their first acquaintance and the moment when their fate, or the fate of someone else, depends on their decision. You will also meet a lot of characters who at first look will not affect the plot, but then you will realize that you were mistaken, for example there I can definitely put Daiya Oomine... And if we talk about "change" - it just cannot be described in words, how Kazuki's personality changed after everything that he went through, and by the end of the story you will see that he is already not the same Kazuki whom you knew at the beginning, and how much his relationship with “Aya” affects the whole narrative and the outcome of the plot, this what makes HakoMari a type of story when the characters influence the plot more than the story itself...
So, about the characters, I’ll say one thing - in this story there are no characters that are shown without a reason, they all somehow affect the plot. There are those that are less, and there are some characters who can literally turn "inside out" all your perception with one "move".

Conclusion + My opinion:
Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria was a work that contained not only a story that was brilliant in every sense, but also a work that contained a lot of philosophy topics about real life and moral in general. For example - the ending of this story tells you that we never can turn away from reality no matter how cruel it may be...
If we talk about the ending, I will say that after 2 and a half months of reading (yes, It was very hard to read, so it took me a lot of time), the epilogue and the end of this story, specifically the last lines, caused me to “automatic” tears... I buried my face in a pillow like an ostrich and the whole story flew in my head, and I still can’t understand... Was it because of such a touching and perfect ending? Or because of the fact that there is the end, and I will never find something like this story? Or both the reasons?
Well, if we don’t touch my personal reaction to the end of this story, I will just say that as for me, the ending was perfect and most importantly - it was "right" ...
So, I will say that HakoMari is a work for lovers of Thriller, Mystery, Supernatural and Sci-Fi (if you liked stories like Stens;Gate, Madoka Magica, Death Note and Kara no Kyoukai - then HakoMari is definitely for you!)...
Finally, what about the rate? I think that HakoMari deserves a lot more than "10/10"...

This is my first review so please be kind ^_^

In my almost 3 decades of reading manga and watching anime, I have just written a review here, once. After finding out that this has no enough rating and review, I was like "What??!! Why?!!" I got frustrated so I logged in and made my second manga review.

To all the people out there who's contemplating wether to read this or not, PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ!!! This is the type of story that will make you want to end your day fast from work or school so you could just open your mobile and continue reading. THIS IS A MASTERPIECE!!!

Im too lazy to write a long review so Im gonna write this in few lines only. Story is beyond awesome! No dull moments! Characterization is great and art is superb! I can hear even the creaking of stones in the mountains! This is action-packed. Fight scenes are amazingly drawn. Oh my! I even added their discord link.

I fell in love with this manga after reaching 5 chapters. This became my top most favorite Chinese manhua now.

If you want to complete your day, read Biao Ren♥️

I'm the type of guy who reads/watches yuri for the romance, not to get my penis upright. Every time I'm searching for a good yuri manga I always get disappointed at how much work is put into the story and the character development. Even though story and the character development is supposed to be more important than the artwork of the manga/anime, personally, art matters much more. This is why I cut a lot of slack when dealing with shit manga/anime. If their art is fulfilling and is to my liking, I will give them extra points.

But this manga?

This is the first manga that I actually write a review because I am irritated at the amount of effort that the author has put into this manga. Don't get me wrong, Koi ni Wazurai has excellent art, and I'm sure a lot of people would agree with me. However, something that a lot more people will agree with me is that the character and the story of this entire manga is dreadful.

The characters/story: I won't spoil much, but the characters in this manga are painfully retarded. They fight for the smallest reasons possible and despite being lovers they never truly consider each other's feelings and also never listens to each other. How is this a lovers' relationship? How did they even become lovers in the first place (I know it's at the very beginning, but the explanation is downright confusing)? These small-ass fights are the biggest reason why they blame each other and walk away, just to come back together with another dumbass reason. I know this is sort of spoiler but it had to be said.

If you're considering to read this short manga, I won't stop you but I'm just warning you, this is not worth your time. I had a full 2 hour leisure session and guess what my 40 minutes were ruined because of this shit manga. Normally, I'd just give this manga a one or two star, but this has to be put down.

This manga is an insult to the yuri genre. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

While I consider Yume Nikki the game as one of my favorite video games ever, the manga is an atrocity. The way the characters are portrayed don't match the way they react within the game at all. The story of the manga seems to be completely out of place due to the genuinely dark nature of the game. The art is quite an eyesore, the characters have no mouths, Madotsuki always has her eyes closed in a very irritating way, and the surrealistic nature of the game is not captured at all in the manga. The art is so bad, that it is hard not to laugh at. I was eager to see what kind of story could be made with the material that the game provided and I ended up being incredibly disappointed. The game had no dialogue in a show don't tell sort of manner, while the manga foolishly fills the entire story with poorly thought out dialogue that ruined the haunting atmosphere the game always excelled in. The story is flimsy at best in the manga because it seems that they didn't want to include too much information about the world, but also decided that it was important not to add a story anyway. This leaves the story feeling like it lacks the depth one would look for and it was better off not having a story to begin with in order to maintain how open to interpretation the game was. The manga should have had either a fleshed out back story or no story at all. I consider Yume Nikki the video game to be one of the most atmospheric, disturbing, and artistic games out there. The manga doesn't live up to that praise in any way and it is one of the worst things I have ever seen. Also, for anyone who claims that the manga could never capture the spirit of the game, read Yume Nikki: Anata no Yume ni Watashi wa Inai. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend avoiding this manga for fans of the game.

This is.... well.... some sort of erotic ecchi horror fantasy thriller thing.

We have a mystery, we have a mysterious powers, we have a cult, mentioned in the official description, we have ecchi/perverted elements (it is not on hentai level) and even lovecraft references.

But.

This is poorly done. The male from the main duo is being a total idiot, to the degree where it is irredeemable. Looking at the story as a whole, it is a mish mash with elements that feel forced, namely crazy antagonists, the whole cheap excuse for erotic/ecchi elements, and so on. Then there's matter of characters not being really believable. It could've been much better. The problem is not with the art, as the art is decent, it is with story writing and characters.

3/10 Story
5/10 Art
2/10 Character
4/10 Enjoyment
3/10 Overall.

All things considered I can't recommend it, even if you are really bored. The art is okay, but that's the only thing about this work. Then again, there are worse mangas out there.

In short, this manga is a heap of torture, humiliation and moral destruction. A manga made for a few, and well, unlike extreme works like ero guro, I'm not really a fan of these bizarre fetishes.

And the manga is really just that far as the translators translated (keeping in mind that the translation stopped a few months ago, so I think my reading ends here), with some loopholes here and there for exploration, but it's basically a cycle of torture, girl by girl explores her pleasure through violence, humiliation and other methods.

As far as I read, everything that happened is gratuitous, but in one of the last translated chapters, it opened a gap for possible motivations, but unfortunately I will not be able to continue and I will follow my guess of what I read, so the manga had mostly gratuitous events.

The characters have some personalities built, each girl has a preference for torture, one focuses on humiliating, another on hurting, another on destabilizing the boy mentally and there is also an important character who were projecting a more important participation, not following the same pace as other characters, which interested me, for being a character who at the beginning of the manga interacted with the protagonist and could connect points for some reasoning in the manga. The protagonist is ok, he doesn't get to be a crybaby like a lot of characters out there, so he isn't that annoying.

Leaving the doubtful: What is genuinely good about this manga? The art is very well done, with good character designs and very detailed, especially when it wants to convey agony or disgust of any of the actions. I kinda enjoyed the manga more after the chapters that showed more gaps of exploration appeared. And I particularly liked the psychological tone of one of the characters, which was not as gratuitous and forced as aggression and humiliation like that of the other girls. Of course, justification and motivation were still lacking, but as a psychological fan, the protagonist's disabilization was pretty cool.

The enjoyment is very subjective of each one, it varies a lot, as well as all manga of approach and extreme themes like this. I was torn between liking and disliking, but I didn't traumatize myself or anything, it was interesting. It's not really my type of manga (even though i enjoy some extreme stuff like Dead Tube and ero guro stuff like Shoujo Tsubaki), but there were things that i quite enjoyed on the story.

If you like bizarre fetishes in a well drawn soft porn, or are 100% open to new experiences in manga outside the conventional, this is for you as an experiment, if you are not willing, I recommend reading something more .. pleasant.

Though the manhwa has been completed, I could not find all chapters translated, so here's a short review of the 18 chapters that have been translated.

The initially feared dragons are now just considered to be rare and expensive ingredients. The story follows Insia and her holy sword as they hunt down dragons. The story is original (I have not heard of any similar manga).And for a small manga, it sure did surprise me a lot.Quite a few things occurred that I had not expected.However it is not gripping and sometimes one wants to just stop reading it and put it on hold. The story has so much potential to become better, pity it lasts for only a few more chapters.
The art is good however the fight scenes were not executed smoothly, but it does not matter as one can often understand whats happening.
The weakest aspect are its characters, they are so cliched. However there is one character (Alderose) who seems to have changed a lot and he is does not seem to be even close to my initial evaluation of him, I guess time can change people a lot.
Overall I am enjoying this manhwa, but I feel that its wasting its potential. However the best thing that I liked about this manhwa was its use of common sense in the first few chapters and it has given me some good laughs. However the fan-service can sometimes be annoying and I HATE 'traps', so it can sometimes leave a bitter aftertaste.
Some people will like this manhwa while others will hate it, afterall, taste matters.

The MC is very likable. Change my mind.

Do you know any series where there's a harem full of beautiful women, and this lucky bastard is just dense and is annoying the hell out of you? Like with no other reason? Like they're just born to piss us off by being dense and petty?

Then my friend, the MC here is different. (Not as great as Yuuji from Grisaia nor Issei from High School DxD tho)

Anyways, the story follows a young boy with his group of valkyries-cute girls with superpowers. The twist is, they need to undergo some romance-thing before the girls power-up. In Norse mythology, there are 9 valkyries so obviously, there are 9 girls. And yes, all of them are well written. Btw, expect some norse mythology references so yeah, literature time.

The concept is actually impressive, as they made a convenient plot device to explain the supposed to be not explainable ecchi elements. And yes, it works

As I've flexed a while ago, the MC is well written. As first, you might get annoyed by his attitude, but as the story progresses, you'll come to sympathize and understand the MC for his action. Not to mention, his growth.

Most people would not take this manga seriously as this is another "Typical ecchi harem", and yes that's true, but this is my guilty pleasure anime. I know it's trash to others, but I enjoyed reading it even if people think of it as trash.

Critically speaking tho, yes, this is trash. But I'm a man of culture, who appreciates art, and I'm proud to say that this is a great read.

I'll explain my final thoughts at the end, but this had potential that wasn't capitalized on, and I'm disappointed.

Story: It's mediocre at best. There's really no plot development, and it's like a slow sitcom. The thing is, I'm not sure as to what the author was thinking when she started the series, in terms of direction or the mood. I think she just winged it cause she thought the story sounded cool.

Art: Cute actually, well drawn. It looked neat.

Character: There's some really weird stuff that happens between the main character and the supporting character, and it's not "normal" reactions (I write this as though vampires are normal, so take that with a grain of salt lol).

To be honest, this could have been a really dark, abusive manga and I would be all for it. But instead it's a comedy of sorts, with cute girls and stuff. So I'm disappointed in a cool plot, and feel like the author skipped out on a dark, memorable story.