MangoPamda5

Spoilers ahead

I didn't think a new manhwa would come around and give me this much enjoyment as Solo Leveling did. I like how Sung-Jin Woo seems like Yoo Jin-Ho's older brother and they give a lot of emotional attachment. Like the scene where Jin-Woo heals Yoo Jin-Ho's dad from Eternal Sleep.

The only thing I dislike about this series is that Sung Jin-Woo still hasn't lost any battles and he always arrives last minute to the fight. It's a common trope in a lot of battle anime/manga/manhwa/manhua/novel/light novel and it would just be better if Solo Leveling didn't do that.

OH boy. Its finally here. The most hyped webtoon currently airing. In the sea of straight 10s this is about to receive, I just wanna say if this really deserves it.
Story: 7
First of all, if you aren't in the mood to read a complete zero to the absolute hero story then don't bother. In terms of story, Solo leveling doesn't do things that are too different or too unique but has enough fresh elements to keep the reader engaged. Our MC is very close to being the generic cool and overpowered light novel protagonist that we have come to accept. What makes him stand out is that we get to experience his growth in an RPG like system.This is what makes it automatically better than something like SAO which also has an OP protagonist but Kirito is so devoid of any personality and we have no believable information on how kirito attained the godlevel skills he has. It is very different in this as we see almost step by step the growth and evolution of our MC.Its nothing unique, but goddamn is it amazing.

Art: 10
OMG the art is absolutely freaking amazing. This is without a doubt top 10 in the art department and can hold its own again mangas like sunkenrock. Its all in colour which adds to the badassery. This is the main source of enjoyment for me. The colouring is so amazing as the colour are so vibrant and breathe life into what is still images.

This is without a doubt the most hype i have had reading a manhwa. The hype here is equivalent to one punch man and kingdom.

Characters: 8
Honestly, the characters aren't anything special but they are extremely entertaining. Most characters are sidetracked to make our MC more cooler. We are too early in the story for me to actually talk about certain characters that i find interesting.

The fights is where the manhwa truly shines. As the art feels top notch and the flow from one panel to other is absolutely crisp. Honestly, it feels like reading something animated. The only mangas that have given me something like this is probably Blade of the immortal or One punch man.

The opening arc might just be one of the best intro arcs i have ever read. It was genuinely creepy and so interesting and sets the stage of whats to come perfectly.

One of the issues I have with this is the repetition that plagues the story. Almost every dungeon raid is miscalculated.

Enjoyment: 10
I cant help but binge this. This manhwa has almost perfect pacing and doesn't feel like its slogging in certain areas or going too fast.And when i started reading this, every other manga was on hold for me. I had so much fun binging this its probably my favorite thing i did this summer.

Overall: 9
Is this over-hyped in the community? Yeah. It is. But it is definitely worth a read.
There isn't really anything deeper to this conceptually. And this is intended for a younger audience as story is pretty basic. The thing most people praise it for is it being bad-ass. And that is pretty much the only reason why most people should read this. It doesn't deserve a 10 as it still is pretty basic and quite generic in certain areas.

Out of Takehiko Inoue's three major works, I would say Real is overall the best. His first major work of Slam Dunk, whilst good for what it was, had too few stakes to keep investment high and Vagabond took too long to provide a major focus on character development. In that sense, Real can be considered the best of both worlds and overall an improvement on everything about Slam Dunk to the point of the predecessor's redundancy akin to what Hunter X Hunter is compared to Yu Yu Hakusho.

The plot is something fairly straightforward and summaries of it wouldn't make the series sound so interesting. If it were purely the disabled playing wheelchair basketball, the series would have nothing to keep investment high. What does allow it to shine compared to many other manga, especially of the sports genre, is it's focus on characters and their psychology. Most of the cast are given a large focus on their personal struggle and how being catapulted into the realm of disability can affect both their path in life and relationships with their loved ones, particularly well done with the character of Takahashi. There is also exploration on the guilt and regret that comes from this sudden change, with many of the transformations into a paraplegic being due to an accident caused by reckless decisions. This can be particularly seen through the character of Nomiya and his attempts to atone for his sins in a life that he ruined. These elements provide the opportunity to create great drama, which the series utilises to it's full potential with it's exploration on the temporary nature of life.
However, it's not as though the synergy of a plot with good themes and very good characters makes something a masterpiece. Unfortunately, later chapters of the series spend so much of a focus on the failures of characters to get past their problems to the point of derailing the manga's pacing and causing some story lines to seemingly go in circles.

Onto the superficial element of art, this is an aspect of the series that is truly excellent. Inoue's art is well renowned as highly detailed and realistic, this holding true for Real. His work as an artist and ability to catch the audience's attention through it has improved staggeringly since Slam Dunk, though I'd say the peak of Vagabond's art surpasses Real's, but when the former is one of the most breathtaking manga artistically that's still a worthy feat.

As for the conclusion, is Real the greatest sports manga of all time? No. That title would belong to Ashita no Joe. However, Real is a worthy second place in that category with it providing enough drama and danger to stand above the countless titles of lukewarm importance within the genre and act as Inoue's expansion as a writer after Slam Dunk. Too bad the series will likely be stuck in hiatus hell for many years.

Overall ranking - 7.5/10

Why is there no review?

I really enjoy the story of Natsume. It is, I guess, a supernatural slice of life. It has a gentle feel, and it manages to tweak on all the emotions - I laugh, I cry, I sigh, I feel angry, and through it all, I enjoy the story. There are underlying themes of loneliness, but ultimately, I feel that is about finding your place in the world.

Our protagonist, Natsume, can see spirits (yokai). This has been a bane in his life, as when he was young people thought he was a liar. This wasn't helped by the fact that he moved from relative to relative, as his parents were dead. His past is told in flashbacks (often through dreams after meeting various yokai) and the story is based at his most permanent home, to date.

The story is gentle and episodic - the different yokai he meets, the returning of the names. Although I have just completed volume 9, and it is starting to get a little more tense, and there seems to be a much longer story arc involving some exorcists.

The art quite beautiful, and very suitable to (generally) gentle nature of the story. The very different spirits are quite wonderful - some tiny, some giant, some shadows.. beauitful.

I find the characters quite exceptional! Natsume especially draws you in, but each character has a story to tell. There are a number of recurring minor characters (a few school friends, more yokai. And it is interesting to see how the main side characters change as Natsume changes). Natsume himself is a typical sort of boy, with the exception that he sees spirits. It is quite nice having a story where the teenage protaginist. His sensei, a yokai, is comic relief in many ways. But it is wonderful seeing how these two jounrey together, and change as they experience more.

I reccomend this manga whole heartedly!

If you're a fan of Hong Kong cinema and procedural cop dramas, this is somewhere between the two. It is very much a John Wu film (sans massive shootouts) in storyboard format.

The style is distinct and very shadowy, with a somewhat masculine, almost androgenous heroine. The stories are on the darker side as well; if Law & Order SVU makes you uncomfortable this may not be your thing. Otherwise it's a very good noir detective title. I believe it capped out at three volumes but if I come across a fourth it has a place on the shelf.

Pour a strong soju and light a Marlboro for added atmosphere.

This story is mature. There not too many characters who stand out. It is weird but compelling like reading a thriller. Once you get into it, you might keep reading just to see how it all turns out. I found myself asking WHY a lot. You'll see why if you read it. The art is not amazing. The only redeeming material here is it gets your heart racing. Very good drama. In fact, this would be a great material for a play. If you don't mind cursing, sex, and violence read it. If strong language and GRAPHIC images bother you don't read it. NOT FOR KIDS. Overall, I enjoyed i but was also disturbed by it.

The fact that I'm starting to love even more survival horror stories made me read Bloody Maiden.

Twelve girls of a Naginata Club and their adult adviser went to a training camp on an island belonging to the club president's family. Long ago it was a hideout for a famous and extremely violent group of bandits, meaning that their goods were still on the island. However, when the girls are going to sleep their first night before training, the adviser and some few members start to disappear and get brutally murdered by a masked man. It is up to the remaining girls to survive...

The story is quite simple and straightforward and what I mean by that is that the mystery being the killing is not complex at all and easily understandable, even though for me, the "answer" was a little bit weird and creepy... And we got the typical survival progress where little by little, girls of the club end up dying and some do anything to (try) to survive.

When it comes to art, well, I was expecting some ecchi right before reading, because it is a manga about a group of girls, so naturally, you will see some ecchi scenes between the girls but they are not big deal at all, but it makes somehow sense because we are talking about girls, and even in real life, some of them like to compare or show their physical attributes, am I wrong? Sometimes some of their body parts are somehow a little "hidden" and sometimes they are not at all, what was the writer thinking? (xD) You can also see the girls naked when they get murdered (what a pervert killer!!! xD) and the bloody moments are fair enough, as I was expecting from a survival horror story. The girls themselves are not badly drawn even though sometimes I had some difficulties in distinguishing some of them in certain moments...

Since we are talking about a 11-chapter story and having so much characters, it is natural that some of characters are not interesting at all or don't have a unique thing in their personality, mainly because they end up dying early or they don't appear very much. However, you can see some few traits and personalities within the most important ones, which are fair enough.

I somehow got myself enjoyed because I always want to know who's the next one to die, who's going to survive and the mystery behind the murders in any survival horror story. It is mostly enjoyable you love this kind of stories or else it won't be that much for you...

Finally, my final words... Bloody Maiden is not terrible but is not that good, still somehow a little enjoyable. Read this if you are fond of survival horror stories or if you are looking for something fast to read.

Following suit of the overly popular Sword Art Online, RealPG takes place in a special castle themed area with video game like characteristics such as levels, abilities, floors, etc. To be completely honest, this manga updated so slowly that I forgot if there was a way to win, but I'm guessing it's to get to the the top of the castle (100th floor anyone?). I had extremely high hopes for this manga after reading the first few chapters, loving the extremely strong start and the captivating initial plot. However, there are a few flaws that heavily impacted my enjoyability of the manga.

Story 7/10: As I mentioned before, the manga had an very strong start, and got me hooked in the first few chapters. However, most of the plot is very rushed, and it's not clearly explained. More than once I had to go back and reread some bits to get a better understanding of what the chapter was about, and even then some of the parts were unclear. Also, the ending is the epitome of unsatisfying. Instead of having a few chapters after the climax, or even one, the author stuffs the climax, resolution, and ending all into around 20 pages, hardly enough to explain all the **** that went on the other 10 pages. A lot of the concepts were also unclear. Despite having a decent foundation, the middle and end fail to satisfy imo.

P.S. This is not necessarily the manga's fault, but the chapters were updated so slowly that I forgot most of the plot by the time the next chapter updated, making me reread the entire thing.

Art 9/10: The art is fantastic, but there were a few flaws such as cluttered pictures and some intentionally messy bits that made me just skim over it.

Character 6/10: Almost no character development, save for maybe 2 characters. The characters weren't captivating, and I can really only say one character made me feel anything. The dialogue just seems a bit too fast to be realistic.

Enjoyment 8/10: This maybe coming off my SAO high, but I really enjoyed the beginning of the manga, and had high hopes for it. Maybe I just don't understand it well enough, but it fell off in the middle and died in the end.

Overall 7/10: It's not completely horrible, and it's worth about 20 minutes of reading or so out of your day if you have nothing to do, but it is by no means a masterpiece. Anyone who absolutely loved SAO (and I mean like figurines and plushies and pillows and whatnot) should definitely enjoy this. However, if you're anything like me, the manga is slightly above mediocre at best.

Prince of Parched Love is a smutty shoujo romance with cluttered art that feels a little too 90's, and relies heavily on the aforementioned smut to really delve into intricate storyweaving.

It consists of 6 chapters, the first four revolving around a particularly horndog working-class couple who don't know how to keep it in their pants and the rest are high school based romances.

Who should read this: Smut-o-olics and those in the mood for abruptly melodramatic settings leading to prosaic lovemaking. Seriously. I didn't even raise my eyebrows, that's how uninspired the surprisingly detailed smut was!

Who should avoid this: Pretty much any self respecting shoujo romance otaku who wants to read an absorbing tale with character development and interesting dialogues.

As the first story starts off, some elements just don't seem to fit it and seem far too dramatic or serious to be part of such a small series. And then all of a sudden, the crazy drama build up just ends and gives way to explicit sex! O_o Despite getting enough validation and plenty of orgasms, the heroine Kiyouki (if you can call her that, I would prefer 'female in a much luckier circumstance than is necessary') seems annoyingly insecure/needy. It's interesting since it's setup in the office rather than at high school, which maybe makes it a titillating read for gossipy secretaries. The male lead isn't all that bad, just normal, but hot damn, you get fed up with that wimpy ass Kiyouki soon! The first four stories about this office going couple feel mostly like a lot of filler before surprisingly unfulfilling lovemaking scenes. Dialogues and story are seriously the last thing on the mangaka's mind here.

Fifth story had a bit of a redeeming character with a slightly sensible heroine who held her own for most of the story. Helped that the hero wasn't a brute as much as just hopelessly besotted with her ^^ Cute enough premise and funny in bits. Not too witty in terms of repartee or execution though.

Sixth story starts out funny with a bit of an attitude, I may have enjoyed myself a little too much at how the token rebound treated Haruka the heroine! Most girls tend to keep all their ugly thoughts to themselves, but she lets it all out, and boy it works well for her! This story is actually pretty decent since it shows surprising character growth through the use of clever flashbacks. By now you'll have gotten used to the art and may enjoy the story a bit more than it probably deserves!

Overall B: I would recommend the last story in this anthology to diehard shoujo romance nerds who appreciate a bit of smut in their manga, and would caution those embarking on the entire volume to leave your expectation of a riveting storyline at home!

I think that I can say that I was betrayed by Isekai Nonbiri Nouka. Or rather, betrayed by what it promised me. After seeing the cover of the light novel, which I found very pretty, I decided to give a try to the manga. I was surprised to see that it was not at all as pretty as the original work.

The story is fairly classic: a middle-aged man is resuscitated as a young man in a fantasy world and must now live in this new universe. So, an isekai story. The title didn't lied. What makes it out of the ordinary is that the MC has chosen to live a farmer's life instead of becoming a traditional adventurer. Instead of chasing monsters and completing quests, he preferred to opt for agriculture and construction.
Although it must have been done already, the concept seemed interesting. It changed from an ordinary isekai. But it soon became boring. There is a cruel lack of scenarios. A chapter is only the MC who builds something new in his village. It could still be interesting, but no: you don't see him building his thing. Each chapter is composed solely of his thoughts. The actions are only summarized and the dialogues are almost non-existent. A page is equal to a shitload of rectangles.

Because yes, if there is almost no dialogue, it's mainly because of the characters. First of all, the MC has no particularly transcendent personality, so do not expect much from him. Then, it's necessary to wait for the eighth chapter for him to interact with another human. It's far too long to introduce secondary characters, especially since he has been alone with his dogs during all previous chapters. After that, he is joined by several characters (obviously only females, let's not forget that it's an isekai). However, they don't bring anything to the story and their dialogues remain limited. Well, at least they're cute. And if at least the MC was interesting. But no, it remains the very archetype of the brown-haired MC without personality. I mean, fuck, I don't even remember his name.

The art style can't even raise the level. From the first pages, it can easily be seen that no efforts were made. The characters look stiff and have no apparent expression. The only ones that are pretty well drawn are the dogs. Who knows, maybe the artist is a furry after all. Also, whole pages can be found consisting only of landscape plans and the MC thoughts. In addition, the characters always talk about the progress made in their village and all their constructions. However, we never see them. When represented, it's always in the form of diagrams. With all the advancements they make and all the people they welcome, their village must be immense. But that, we'll never know.

Maybe I should to wait before being too harsh with this manga. Maybe it will get better. But it's already 20 chapters and nothing interesting has happened yet. It's way too long to install a proper story. It's not even a slice of life, it's just the perfect farmer's guide with some bad illustrations. If the story had not improved after the arrival of the first secondary character, I would have probably put a lower note.

For conclude; Whether you're a fan of the genre or not, pass this one. There are so many other manga about this subject, you will surely find a better one than this one.