Dracosine9

If you're into sci-fi and fantasy, with a lot of psychological elements, then this is the right manga for you.

The mixture of reality, fantasy, and science in this manga feels all-too natural. A lot of fantasy novels/manga I've read have flaws (like Harry Potter, where a thousand year-old legend is hidden in a bathroom that couldn't exist a thousand years ago). This, however, has none (as far as I could see). Arakawa-sensei had researched intensively for this, and covered up any holes that a reader might find.

The setting of Fullmetal Alchemist is a fictional world that wouldn't make you feel as though you've left Earth at all. There is a sense of connection between its world and the real world. Once you've started reading it, you will be plunged into a world that is different but a place that you could relate into. This is probably one of the main points of the manga that will hold your interest.

The characters of Fullmetal Alchemist are practically alive. Arakawa-sensei deliberately breathed life into them. As you read, you will find yourself empathizing with the characters. You can practically feel the emotion they have, feel the weight of their problems, and the dilemma of their troubles. Arakawa-sensei had succeeded in giving them their own thoughts and principles in life. Arakawa-sensei gave the sense of being human through them.

Delving into the ideologies, Arakawa-sensei focused on conscience, the sense of what is right and what is wrong, faith and belief in God, and the upholding of one's principles.

What's beautiful in this manga is that it's not all-out stiff-serious. There are a lot of humor, that are like breathing spaces in between dramatic events.

Concerning the art, the paneling is alright, though I find it a bit spacious. I like the fight scenes, since they're a lot understandable than other action mangas I've seen.

All in all, this is one of the finest mangas I have ever read. Describing it in one word, I'd say: AWESOME!

It’s an old story. The hero is Musashi Miyamoto; the greatest samurai who ever lived, author of that esoteric sword-fighting guide that I couldn’t get past the first page of. His legend was brought to a more international audience with the film series starring Toshiro Mifune. While it would be impossible for another actor to outperform Mifune as the samurai master, the realm of manga can achieve the impossible. I was never a huge manga geek, but I’ve read a decent amount of the most highly-acclaimed. Vagabond is without a doubt the most incredibly drawn manga I’ve ever read.

The way of the sword in Japan has always reminded me of Hinduism’s yogic paths. The samurai strives for utter mastery of the self much like a yogi in the wilderness. The biggest difference is the amount of bloodshed. Eastern religion and philosophy has often centered on perfectibility. According to belief, through many life-times the Hindu or Buddhist can reach a divine state through practicing austerities and mastering the body and mind. There are various yogic paths ranging from study to sex. But what of the soldier? The creation of bushido in Japan was very convenient for emperors and shoguns of all sorts. To become a master in the art of slaughter… was a spiritual matter!

Mushashi, born Shinmen Takezo, wants to be the strongest samurai of all time. It’s not an uncommon hero motivation. Ash Ketchum is still trying to be the very best pokemon trainer there ever was. Unlike the many seasons of Pokemon however, Vagabond shows the consequences of this “heroic” desire. Takezo slaughters man after man; some are horrible bandits, some are honorable samurai, some are confused boys with swords. All this is done for Takezo’s quest for perfection. An interesting character, almost a comic relief, is the Buddhist monk Takuan. He serves as Takezo’s Jiminy Cricket throughout the manga; his irritating conscience. If the dialogue between characters were a debate, Takuan demolishes Takezo in every single one. He exposes Takezo’s masquerade: savage bloodlust in the guise of honor. Although Takezo doesn’t heed much of this advice in the beginning, his staunch mindset is gradually assaulted by the monk’s reason.

As Takezo’s story progresses, we slowly come to understand the “way of the sword” that he is striving for. To be the very best there ever was… was a bastardization of his true goal that he didn’t even know he had. Zen Buddhism took hold in Japan as a synthesis of the Buddha’s teachings and Lao Tsu’s “Taoism.” The Tao is the Way; a romantic belief in natural spontaneity, or being in tune with the natural way of things. An obvious reason why this took hold in Japan is because of the Shinto tradition which also taught union with nature. In Vagabond, Takezo meets various masters of the sword who teach him about this path. He no longer fights for egotistical pride, but for union with… the natural order of things. It’s all very romantic, but very Eastern. The hero of the philosophical West might fight for deep moral principles ordained by God so he might be forgiven for his life full of sin, but the philosophically Eastern hero fights in an eternal search for divine union with the universe.

Vagabond is, aside from being an incredible character-driven story of Zen Buddhism and the ronin lifestyle, a beautiful manga. To the most philosophically ignorant—or apathetic—individual, Vagabond will be an engaging action packed ride to be lost in for hours on end. The VIZ Big editions of the manga are quite expensive in total, but it’s worth the investment to own this story for the rest of one’s life. Vagabond will probably never actually conclude as a manga, but I’m not sure Miyamoto Musashi’s quest ever concluded either.

Made in Abyss is one of the very few mangas that I have read in one go, mainly because it draws you into its world through the use of its unique art, story, and characters. One moment the story will show the reader how twisted and disturbing the abyss is and the next will leave you in awe of how beautiful and epic the abyss can appear in certain moments.
Even making a dangerous man-eating creature appear majestic at times.

In terms of world-building, it was a good choice to flesh out the abyss and the island it belongs to as beyond the island is not all that important when it comes to Reg and Riko's journey, though it has been talked about a few times throughout the story.
Speaking of beyond the island, Bondrewd an antagonist and a wanted man from another country has become one of my favorite antagonists of all time.
(Have been obsessed with him for quite a while after reading, though most people who've read the manga probably hate him #bondrewdbestdad)

Bondrewd is a man devoted to knowledge and will stop at nothing to pursue it, sacrificing people as a means of acquiring knowledge and has become so warped that he cannot see the wrong in his actions.
Along with Bondrewd, the main protagonists Reg and Riko are very likable, Riko is brave and knowledgeable but physically weak and reckless.
Reg is physically strong and cautious, but at times acts cowardly and is emotionally dependent on others.
And both characters develop throughout their encounters in the abyss overcoming their weaknesses both on their own and through supporting each other.

Story 10/10
It may seem like a basic set up for an adventure story, but has many surprising twists and turns in the story.
Especially after the point, they meet a character called Nanachi in the story and dive into the Bondrewd arc. Though it was already pretty surprising before that point anyway with how the curse of the abyss affects people when they descend and the things that were revealed about both Riko and her mother.
Art 9/10
The Art fits perfectly with this manga giving it a unique look fitting to the story and can transition from light-hearted to dark moments effectively.
I also love the design of each layer in the abyss, each having its own look and creature designs unique to that layer.
At times it was hard to make out what was going on in a scene, which wasn't that often for it to be a major hindrance.
Character 10/10
A lot of well designed and likable characters such as Ozen who has more depth to her than at first glance and is a major link to Riko's mother.
Nanachi is a later addition to the main cast, who is shy and distant at first but is found to be kind-hearted yet haunted by her past.
Then there are the characters from below the 6th layer that all have strange personalities and have mystery surrounding how they came to be.
Also, many of the inhabitants below the 6th layer believe in the importance of possessions, a little more than they should. (my favorite being Majikaja)
Enjoyment 10/10
As I said at the beginning couldn't stop reading until I had reached the current chapter and had to wait for the next.
Overall 10/10
A must-read for fans of fantasy manga, though don't be fooled by the cover, this is by no means a light-hearted read as it contains quite a few disturbing scenes and dark subjects. And the deeper they go into the abyss the darker it gets both literally and metaphorically.

Summary Scores
Story: 9
Art: 7
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 9

The reason for the submission of this review is that I thoroughly enjoy the series (so much so that I read 870 chapters in 2 weeks, whilst going to school), and that the other half caps review is trash.

First off, the premise of the story is very similar to any other shounen manga, Eyeshield 21, Naruto, etc. I could go on. However, it is unique in the fact that boxing is a blend of both the action and the sports genres - leading to none of that ridiculous superpower crap, yet not sounding completely unrealistic and solely created to maintain interest I might add, when a new ability or move is created.
In the first few hundred chapters the story progression is relatively quick, with Ippo advancing through the Pro Test, the Rookie Tournament, Japanese Rankings, and finally the Boxing Championship.
However, past this point it is simple title matches - that is not to say the enjoyment is greatly diminished. I still enjoy it to this day, definitely one of the higher rankers of shounen manga.

The art is pretty archaic, not so much so that it is downright unattractive; but, it still maintains that aged feel of classic manga. Although it has somewhat progressed throughout its publishing the overall feel is still there. I personally don't mind it, but to say I prefer it to the the standard of modern art styles would be incorrect. Although, the actions scenes are brilliantly illustrated, utilizing in full huge swishes of wind and the like.
Character design is, again, good, but nothing amazing.

Characters, the part where this manga truly shines - Takamura is undoubtedly the most popular character; his antics make him a very likable chap. However, he is not simple comic relief. He carries an aura of idolization, with all boxers in Kamogawa Gym, save Ippo's eventual kouhai - looking up to him. This admiration is not unwarranted, Takamura's record is superhuman and he is an absolute beast in the ring.
Ippo, somewhat standard fare, the young, naíve boy unhappy with his current life experiences a contextual epiphany and suddenly desires to become 'stronger'. However, Ippo is unique in that he does not start off as a complete wimp, containing power equivalent to those several weight classes above him.
The rest of the support characters are sufficiently likable, one may find themselves sympathizing with Aoki and Kimura's plight, being overtaken by their kouhai and never being able to retrieve the Champion belt.
I also found the Itagaki puns hilarious.

Enjoyment was very high, the fights keep ones testosterone at its peak, at least with what a manga can achieve at any rate. The training is amusing, the large amounts of manliness, guts, effort flying around is enough to get one's posterior on the edge of their seat.

Overall, Hajime no Ippo is one of my favourite mangas to date, and a shining example of a good shounen sport manga.

Yukichi Yamamatsu a 50 year old person from a developed country going to a developing country. Do not expect a culturally sensitive person. He depicts many problematic situations and ideas and shouldn't be looked at in positive light, but looked at in fascination of how he interacts with the new world around him as it chews him out.

Being an autobiographical and that the protagonist is in a foreign country where he doesn't speak the language, he stands as the only real character in the series. Most of everyone else doesn't need further characterization, but at times it feels like the other key reoccurring characters around him are lacking and if he could better communicate with them we'd have more developed or funnier conversations with them bouncing off each other. But as it stands people are neglected to being funny angry faces who he can't understand. Which was a smart idea to focus more on the comedy aspect of this stupid story.

There's not much else to say as it's a quick read and Yukichi being an idiiot failing to cross the language barrier. If you enjoy exaggerated funny faces you'll enjoy this.

Satisfactory. This word is most befitting of this short sequel. It seems that many readers of the original novels have overlooked the existence of this hidden gem. I believe that the contents in this volume far exceeds the entirety of the prequel.

The focus lies on events after the main story taking place in the future. The character's development is the primary focus of the sequel as their mental development is displayed early on. This sequel attempts to tie loose ends and provide a conclusion to the main story. It far exceeds expectations as the characters who receive development are not limited to the protagonists but also other relevant characters. We, the onlookers, get to experience the state of mind of many characters and experience characters who come to realizations and partakes in changes.

The less important aspect is therefore executed in a worse manner; meaning that the story is subpar. It adds content by introducing a new character who seems to be generic at first but develops somewhat significantly. The issues lie in the execution of the story as it's in a similar fashion to what the prequel provides. It follows a redundant sequence and is predictable for the most part.

Being a sequel, it is difficult to implore you to read this volume without reading the prequel. If you have read the original novels, this entry is not a side story, but a sequel that succeeds in providing a conclusion. The character development stands out but the story focuses on mundane events and lacks in proper execution.

A short manga published in France as a homage for 150 Anniversary of "Alice in Wonderland".

About plot. Elise, who looks, dresses and behaves very much like Alice, is a little girl born and living in Wonderland among strange people and animals in dresses alike. She is supposed to have hard life living with her adopted dormouse and working to earn some bread for two of them, not able to attend school anymore, but looks rather happy. But then a kind-hearted tortoise working in the school library adopts them both and she starts to have some ordinary living-with-strict-mother-having-to-do-chores-being-not-as-rich-as-her-classmates problems. We will never learn where are her parents, how she met her dormouse and stopped attending school and started to work to feed it, why she has aunt and uncle but was left alone in this situation and how she was enrolled in this prestigeous magic school in the first place. Because it's Wonderland.

The art and character design are really cute and have this dreamlike light feeling about them because of really fine, sometimes dash-and-dot, lines. Besides, the design really reminds of John Tenniel's illustrations for "Alice in Wonderland", only less exaggerated and caricaturical. If you love looking at postcard-like animals in suits and dresses and some victorianesque children for hours, this certainly is a manga for you.

Apart from the art, the manga is mediocre. This is your slice-of-life manga without any kind of plot or character development which makes people drop and hate slice-of-life manga. It is not really funny. It does not explain how characters bond together. Sometimes something kinda happens, but nothing changes, really, even on I-learned-something-today level. Ok, may be there was some I-learned-something today in a couple of chapters, kind of. And it ends with nothing after like two years of slowly changing magical seasons.

I will recommend it to anyone who wants some Victorian-fairy-tale like atmosphere and doesn't care for any plot logic or development. Probably can be enjoyed by children.

Just a quick review.

It's a pure gag manga and doesn't do things like ecchi, one-punch man esque fighting, romance, moe or other things like that. Just focusing on jokes and parodies with pretty unique characters. Honestly as I browse manga, I find this type really is a rarity so I'd highly recommend it. The fact that it's so lowly rated is just disgraceful and misleading.

It also doesn't have some plotline that they are forced to go through with so I don't see them pigeonholing themselves in future chapters. So far every chapter has been enjoyable by itself and I really hope it can keep running for a lot more chapters.

This manga is quite unique. I've never expected to find someting so good from looking at random manga to kill some time. But anyway, let's get to the review.

Story: The story is really well made. l It's about a methot called 'Tsubomi Methot' that is enforced to kill the second generation children (or so called W Children). But why do we need to kill the second generation? Because they have powers that most of the time are destructive, they can ruin the normal lifes of the people that are not second generation or destroy them completely. The story follows our protagonist Wakaba, that is also from the W Children, but she isn't on the bad side. She had a totally normal life, untill that methot started and her powers were switched 'on'. The story is well thought of and it had a interesting twist that I didn't expect. The world building is also on a good level. Story - 8/10

Now, let's see if the characters are that great.

I won't lie. They're problematic. At the start we see the characters in a very odd light, creating us a image of them in a completely wrong perspective.
Kazuki in his introduction is portraid as a total asshole, that doesn't get along with anyone and will punch you no matter who you are. But in the other chapters he's just a kind of a jerk and a good guy.
Tsubomi is looking like a caring friend, an ally, but when she comes back she is with a completely new personality.
If you think that I'm mistaking character development for this, that's not the issue. The characters just go away somewhere without a trace and when they return they're a totaly different. Even if they develop their personality we never get to see it.
The other issue I have with them is that sometimes their actions can be repetitive.
After Wakaba switched 'on' her powers she started talking how anybody that came close to her would die, but then it was discovered that she said it so everyone can avoid her because she can not control her power so she can be a potential danger for the people around. Okay that was interesting. Then some chapters later Tsubomi started talking how she will be ready if there's a battle and a second later she was just joking around.
And after that again, some chapters later Wakaba's father told her how he will be ready to kill her if she stands in the way, but suprise - it was only so he could protect her.
Still there were really well done characters and the ones that had the starting issue became much better. The writer can even make you care about the minor characters like Miho, her backstory was good and I think that it was the reason I care about her.
Their designs are also not much. If there's good there's bad. I really liked the designs of the high level members of the tsubomi methot - they look like the police men that go to keep the protests from escalating to something more dangerous and you can see clearly that they're a high class compared to the ordinary members of the tsubomi methot.
I didn't liked the design of 'Woke' Wakaba. Dress made from blood? Honestly I think that it would have been better if the writer was going with something else for design. Characters - 5/10

Visuals: The manga looks good. The art sometimes looks very pale (even for a manga) but that happens rarely. There are some pages where the art really stands out. The manga looks unique because of the style Sayaka Mogi (The writer and artist) haves. You can recognize his drawings for seconds. Visuals - 7/10

Enjoyment - I really liked the manga. Even if the characters have some issues you should read it for the story. Don't miss the chance to read it. It's really good. I will love to see a properly made anime adaptation of the manga with the problems fixed. Enjoyment - 7/10

Overall: 6/10 - You should read it for the story.

Potential. XO Sisters is the epitome of potential.The series shines with a unique charm and room for development in every single chapter. The characters might not be the most well-written, and the art is amazing but it's not the absolute best. The story is pretty cliche, but with a unique spin on it. The entire manga is incredibly enjoyable and reading it is a total joy. However, it's still hard to rate it above a 7, or even a 6.
Now would be the proper time to address the elephant in the room, the cancellation of this series. It was cancelled only 17 chapters into the series, on a rather bad note, no less. With that fact being thrown out there, it's hard to read a manga/manhwa in which you know the ending is going to be abrupt and lackluster. However, despite this, it's still a manhwa worth checking out. The potential this series holds is incredible. It throws out ideas and teasers that all seem interesting and judging by the way the manhwa was going, it was going to be done just as good as the rest of the series. However, just as the story was rising in quality in terms of its story, it was axed.
It was a shame this was cancelled. Honestly, it didn't deserve it. It had enough quality to become a long running staple. The ideas were all set in place, much like a line of dominoes. However, as the first domino was knocked over, it stopped falling before it hit the second one. We'll never know what would have happened to the rest of the dominoes. We could assume, we could guess, we could wish. However, we will never attain the pleasure of seeing the dominoes being knocked over. Despite all of this, the manhwa is still worth checking out, it's short, so you won't be wasting much of your time. Just do it, and maybe one day the line of dominoes will be set back up again, with no sudden stops. I'm honored to have my first review be about this series, I just felt too strongly about it's cancellation and I had to write out my thoughts on it.