u/OmegaDungeonZ

It feels good to properly binge a manga again. This tells the story of Tobio Masubuchi alongside his friends, living ordinary lives which come to an end after a revenge plan gone wrong. Took me six days to complete.

I quite liked how this portrayed the never ending spiral of guilt which is something I could connect with. Obviously, I never done anything as big as what these guys did but there were times where I hid things from people and it was eating me up inside. The story was weird at a lot of points and the art contextualized it for better or for worse. I do like the ending and the theme of “you can only move forward”.

I wish I had more to say but that’s about it.

I haven’t been binge reading any manga for a good while so I figured I’ll just redo my “Jiraishin” review. It tells the story of Kyoya Ida, a detective based in Shinjuku, solving cases often by using extreme methods.

I’m probably on an island on this one but I usually like my stories to have a bit humour to them, that way I could connect to the characters more. Oddly enough, it’s the opposite here. It’s very unsympathetic and deprave at times but it shouldn’t be anything else. It’s an introspective on the worst of humanity but the underlying theme is definitely tragedy. In most of these cases, we see how the people involved got pushed into being monsters through the events that shaped them.

Kyoya Ida is definitely my favourite MC that I’ve read. He’s very clearly not a good person but that’s the point, he’s like a devil to some people and leaves a trail of destruction in his path, hence the name Jiraishin. There is some humanity to him, he knows who he is and the life he lives so he doesn’t settle down and start a relationship. By the end of the series, it’s revealed that Kyoya’s dad was also a cop and had died at some point but it’s never elaborated on any further. It does explain why Kyoya is the way that he is and in a way, it makes him the same as the people he goes up against but I don’t know man, there’s a part of me that wishes he was left a mystery.

Eriko Aizawa shows up much later as Kyoya’s previous partner died. Her presence is welcomed as she really feels like the second half of the series whereas before it just felt like the Kyoya show. I wouldn’t say she grounds him but it feels like she makes him more human. I also commend the fact that they weren’t made a couple. It just shows how they live in completely separate worlds.

There are other characters like Chief Narita but a lot of them don’t make by the end.

The ending was rather abrupt and I was hoping it’s sequel series, “Diablo” would fix that but it was mixed bag. It felt like the series but it also felt like it was missing the point on what made it work. It has an overarching story as opposed to an anthology which I don’t have a problem with in concept but the story we did get was rather ridiculous. The first series wasn’t realistic by any means but it was grounded enough. Kyoya’s new partner was interesting enough but he was no Eriko who doesn’t show up until the end and her absence is felt throughout. I will say that I think Diablo’s ending felt more satisfying.

Overall, I’m rather sad that we’re probably never going to see this world again but I’m holding out cope that we’ll see these guys in some way, like a cameo in “Jumbo Max” or something.

I think her inclusion in general was really needed as most of the previous arc felt lacklustre as there wasn’t really anyone Wally could bounce off of. I think their relationship really captured the youth aspect people were craving for in this series.

With a name like that, I expected this to be a gag manga that I read the first chapter of and never think about again. But the more that came out about it, the more I was interested. I don’t think anyone was expecting how hard that first chapter would go.

It’s biggest problem that it relied on hype moments and aura. That’s not a bad thing, I like those things but it becomes an issue when that’s your main priority. By the time the plot started rolling, it was already too late.

This overall was a fun story but I had an inkling that it wouldn’t last. It reminded me of “Dear Anemone” in that with a premise and setting like an island, I just don’t see it going on for a 100+ chapters even if didn’t get axed, at least 40-50 but hey, I’ve been surprised before.

Brought to you by the “Shinobi Undercover” duo. Took me a day to complete.

I’ll praise this for it’s unique usage of sweets and desserts as it’s power system but I feel that it was never at it’s true potential. I also feel like the training/exam arc was a kiss of death for this manga, which seems to happen a lot from some of the manga that I’ve read. Other than that, this was pretty enjoyable for what it was. I like that some of the concepts carried over to “Shinobi Undercover”.

I remember seeing one of Iwashiro’s notes, saying that characters from this series were planned to show up in “Psyren” but that ended up not happening. Took me a day to complete.

This tells the story of a spirit guide, Myoujin gaining a new tenant, Himeno Okegawa, a girl who can now see spirits after a close encounter with death.

I wasn’t expecting much going in as I only really read this since I’m running out of manga I want to get to. I did like a good chunk of it for what it was but it did lean into the battle shonen a lot more near the end and that just wasn’t for me. However, I will say that you can definitely see the seeds being planted for what would become of “Psyren”.

I found this manga on YouTube while searching for another series and figured I’d check it out. I decided to lump the original and it’s sequel, “VS” together as I thought it be better if I had the full story. In total, it took me seven days to complete.

This tells the story of Kiichi Someya and his rise as a radicalist leader, set on changing Japan.

I won’t lie, the original kind of bored me but that’s mainly because I wanted to get to see Kiichi’s time as an adult. It mostly served as a long prologue to get him to where he’s at in “VS” and I think it does a really good job at that. We see this kid at the age of three-four, lose his parents and living on the streets, witnessing what life is like for the people of the lowest class. His resolve really strengthens later in his childhood when he learns that a classmate of his is being exploited by her father and those of higher status. He goes after them to the point of staging a fake hostage situation. When you add all of those up, It’s no wonder why he became like this and why people follow him, seeing as he pulled all of this off at the age of ten. Finished this one in three days.

“VS” was a mixed bag honestly, I liked it in some areas but I was bored in others. I just don’t have a lot of stronger feelings towards it. I wasn’t really invested in any of the characters other than Kiichi and Kai. I will say that Kiichi’s death was a given, no way the story would’ve ended with his survival. Finished it in four days.

Overall, I appreciate this series more than I actually like it.