xenoglossy14

English:

Monster has everything that appeals to me in a manga, good story, character development and reading fluency. All of the plot is believable, in part by the author's effort to get a background for each character tied to the main plot, and also by talking about emotional realism that is conveyed throughout the manga, you understand each character's emotions and believe it, in a plot like Monster, this is very difficult.
Art is very good, and it goes very well with the plot, or the author really knows how to develop character movements and reactions, from simple conversation to a shootout, a quadrinization is also excellent and helps a lot in the suspense and mystery scenes.


Portugues:

Monster tem tudo que me agrada em um mangá, boa história, desenvolvimento de personagem e fluência na leitura. Tudo do enredo é crível, em parte pelo esforço do autor para obter um plano de fundo para cada personagem atrelado ao trama principal, e também por falo de realismo emocional que é transmitido ao longo do mangá, você entende como emoções de cada personagem e acredite, em um enredo como o Monster, isso é muito difícil.
Uma arte é muito boa, e acompanha muito bem o enredo, ou o autor realmente sabe desenvolver movimentos e reações de personagens, desde uma conversa simples até um tiroteio, uma quadrinização também é excelente e ajuda demais nas cenas de "suspense" e mistério.

Story: This is an extremely short story, even for One Shot, being only 8 pages, so not much happens. Despite this, it sets up a decent backstory quickly.

Art: Full colored, realistic, and very beautiful.

Characters: Not much description to go on, but fairly decent personalities.

Enjoyment: It was better than most stories this short.

Overall: Very quick and interesting premise. Art was what really made this better than others, if it had been longer this would have been much better.

The first time I saw the anime version of Rahxephon, I quite liked it- it had fantastic art direction, beautiful character designs and decent enough exploration of its characters to feel satisfying. A perfect tone-piece. Manga version, on the other hand, lacks anything that made the anime so special and ends up feeling like pointless drivel that barely has anything to do with the anime in the terms of quality.

Story- 4

The story of the manga differs *significantly* from the anime-, especially in the latter half. Changes made to the storyline are absolutely devastating- the story does not give enough time to explore any of the characters properly- most of them you won't know anything about unless you have watched the anime.The last three chapters are only the only slightly better parts and carry some emotional weight.

Characters- 3

The main protagonist Ayato is just a stereotypical anime protagonist with basic motivations to do what he does best, - fight in the mecha. That basic motivation is his girlfriend Reika Mishima, which is another jarring thing about the manga version- her whole design and personality do not even remotely resemble her anime counterpart, and she ends up just being this pretty submissive female character. Other characters are basically just a bunch of faces who spout dialogue with barely any depth to speak of.

Art- 3

Only a couple of characters look great, and that is mostly because they resemble the designs from the anime. Designs that do not resemble the anime are very, very poor- Reika, who had one of the best character designs ever in her anime form, here in the manga looks beyond stereotypical. Also, it does not help that there is a lot of pointless fanservice- upskirt shots or just body-tight female outfits that serve no purpose whatsoever and often appear at the most inappropriate moments. Mechas look similar to anime and are overall OK.

Enjoyment- 3

I had difficulty paying attention since I stopped caring about the characters, and I am not sure if manga deserved my attention. Overall, the complete contrast to the anime in the terms of enjoyment- I binge watched all of it throughout one week, but here it took me three weeks to finish it since I found it either boring or insulting to the intellect. The last couple of chapters are the only ones that had my attention but are barely worth it.

Overall- 3

A jarring anomaly that barely resembles the fantastic anime show it is based on (or is anime based on the manga- I found conflicting information regarding this). Overall, I do not recommend it to anyone- go watch Rahxephon the anime, and do not touch the manga. I feel sorry for the trees that were wasted so this could be printed.

Or in short- f*ck the manga version of Rahxephon.

Have you ever been at the scene of a horrific car accident? You know you shouldn't look. Most likely, you're driving yourself and you need to keep your eyes on the road, anyway, but you just can't help it. The sights of miscellaneous debris, a twisted heap that's barely recognizable as a car anymore, and possibly even emergency responders on the scene, all draw your eyes in. It's too horrible not to look.

This is the rough manga equivalent of that phenomenon. Words cannot do it justice. It has to be seen. Even so, for me seeing was not believing. I could not understand what I was seeing for most of an entire chapter. Finally, it dawned on me. This manga was rendered with some kind of computer-generated imagery software.

It had never occurred to me before now that this was a thing someone might try. Furthermore, that it would be printed in an ordinary manga periodical, and blithely reproduced on Crunchyroll's website. The result is horrifying. One might chance upon this manga on CR's site, or on an aggregate site such as this, if he is unlucky. It is deservedly obscure. Even if one does happen upon it, he is likely to shy away from it because of its terrible promotional image. As far as I can tell, it only has the one.

The promotional image is baffling in how it is both indicative and nonindicative at the same time. It is indicative of the general quality of the manga, but it doesn't seem to be made using the same model as it appears in the manga. The poor promotion seem to have extended even to the adaptation work. Some obvious mistakes were left in, some panels weren't cleaned appropriately, and there was even an image that wouldn't load.

Considering how slipshod the work itself is, I can hardly blame them for the lack of effort. There are backgrounds that are obviously just photographs. This isn't unheard of in manga, but it's just egregious here. There's even one that appears to be from a timelapse photograph, which is a really bizarre choice. Was it the first picture he found? The CG models are desperately lacking in detail. It really doesn't make a lot of sense in a situation like this where rendering is barely even a consideration, so the only reasonable explanation seems to be a simple lack of effort and/or skill.

I've barely talked about the story itself to this point, but to be blunt these visuals made the story sort of moot. Even putting them aside, it's like a bad version of Hell Girl. But even this comparison highlights the main failing of this manga. Hell Girl nailed the aesthetic qualities. Hell Girl had style. This is liable to make one bleed from the eyes. I hope I won't be spoiling anything by mentioning there are murders in this manga. Those are probably the most important scenes of all, but they look retarded. It looks like somebody's stabbing a goddamn mannequin. It's impossible to take them seriously, much less with the gravity they're supposed to possess.

So, in the end, what even is this manga? In the first place, is this actually manga? Even the aggregate sites don't seem to know what to do with this thing; there are almost no tags used. It's only a "psychological" manga in the sense it's likely to drive one insane. The only thing horrible about it is the way it looks. In the end, perhaps it is only a freak show.

P.S.: Do not read Crunchyroll comments for any reason. You are liable to lose some of whatever little faith in humanity you had left. Even MAL users have eyes.

This pilot gave me a whole new appreciation for Naruto. Why? Because, I still dislike it, but it could have been so much worse. I thought Naruto had too much immature comedy, but in this pilot there are two instances of scatological humor within the first two pages.The art is just awful and the character designs are absolutely butchered. Naruto is not only annoying, as he was in the eventual main series, but he is also a complete dickbag. The "power of friendship" is promoted from one of the main themes to being the entire freakin point. All of the characters are idiots. They're also one-dimensional, but I guess that goes without saying. Anyway, the Hokage (NINJA MASTER BELIEVE IT) spares a clear homicidal threat, police officers assume that a murderer would take a nap at a crime scene, they let criminals switch-out who's going to jail, and some dude trusts a weird fox-boy's sense of smell enough to try to kill him. To make matters worse, the redeeming world-building in Naruto is absent here and Ninja shit is clumsily mixed with a more modern setting. Needless to say, it was not enjoyable for me, and it would be even less enjoyable or productive for actual fans of the series.


Do you want to see Naruto chase art thieves and pee on people instead of have a crush on his creepy emo friend? Then this one-shot is for you, I guess. Weirdo... It was horrible, though, to the extent where even Naruto fanboys hate it and I, the biggest hater ever, was forced to raise my score of Naruto by two points.

Having come across this lesser-known manga quite unexpectedly, it turned out not to be a bad read at all.

Story:
Pretty simple and rushed in at first on how a scary-looking gang boss confesses his love for this ordinary girl in his school. That is basically all there is to the plot in the end in which the story shows the comedic and exaggerated trials of their love and how they overcome obstacles of their romance which is beside the point of my review here. The ending is pretty exaggerated and unbelievable though..

Art:
This is the aspect that I particularly want to talk about. From first glance, on the manga's page, the art does not seem to be particularly unique, great or exquisite, and that IS true nonetheless.

What I didn't see coming was that the mangaka would throw-in some shounen art into the main male character.
Not only that, the way the mangaka draws the expression of the characters is very well done in my opinion. The emotions happiness, shock and anger are drawn and expressed very well in which the reader would be able to tell such emotions instantly.

The degree of the emotion is also very clear in which kept my attention for a few more seconds than I usually would just to appreciate and empathize with the characters.

Character:
Since the manga is not very long and is mainly a romantic comedy, their character development can be assumed to be not very deep.
However, I do like the pinch of realism thrown into it because unlike other super-shoujo manga, the characters truly have emotions and NEGATIVE ones that mean that the characters actually have to deal with tough situations for once.

Overall: (7.5)...
A very exciting and rather action-packed (from a few of their "gangster" fights) manga that truly entertains even if its a short and lesser known manga.
Perhaps not a near-perfect type of original manga, but still nonetheless worth a read if you're feeling bored.

A typical action harem.

Story: 6
Very typical story, with a slightly different twist on the "contract girl" premise like in Sekirei or other works where the MC subjugates a bunch of superhuman girls. Superheavy plot armor. Plot twists pretty obvious.

Art: 8
The art's probably the biggest selling point. Characters were cute, distinct, clean. Fighting scenes are flashy, but detailed. Art conveys the majority of the humor in this series, if any.

Characters: 7
Standard fare harem characters. Token childhood friend, token tsundere loli, token brocon imouto, and token cannot-be-more-generic chosen-one-heroine. The only good thing about them is they contribute to the growing world/genre of monster girls, featuring: Nephilim, ghoul, red dragon, and TBD(?). Nothing else about them is memorable.
Main male lead is slightly decent. He doesn't hesitate, he does his best, he isn't super duper dense or perverted, and he's OP but doesn't boast. Sadly, he comes off as really cheesy. Super cheesy. Because of how short the series is, no rapport is built between the reader and the MC, making him feel like a try-hard even though he's not designed to be.

Enjoyment: 7
As much as you'd enjoy eating a fast-food burger. It's trash but it tastes good. It was nice to see a harem where the girls love and care for the MC, and don't pull melodramatic crap or overdo jealousy wars. It was also really nice to see most of the heroines don't have chests that look like they'll pop at any time; that shit gets suffocating after a while.

Overall: 7. Read it, don't think too much about it. You're here for the pretty girls anyways.

this is worth reading. I really liked it a lot! :))
the art, content AWESOME
you'll sure enjoy reading this coz I do:))

Review in English and Portuguese
Review in English:
Story: 5/10 the story is kind of vague, causing a lot of confusion, which is simply an objective of the MC to kill Number 1 because he killed his MC’s father to become Number 1. Only that there are some things that confuse a lot, because Number one after killing MC’s father tells him to be number 2 and go after him for revenge, but in the middle of a Flashback it’s another person who is in the number 2 range and is the MC’s master he needs to kill him to get it, apart from the million bore of script and that suddenly changes to some situation
Art: 9/10 Art is extremely beautiful I think one of the few good points of the manga itself, because basically the manga is just unbridled fighting and the fights are very good and beautiful
Characters: 1/10 All characters are very boring, you can't like any of them because they have a good development in them
Overall: 5/10 If you want a manga with wild streak beautiful art and good fights this is the manga for you
Review in Portuguese:
História: 5/10 a história é meio vaga trazendo bastantes confusões,que simplesmente é um objetivo do MC matar o Número 1 pois ele matou seu o pai do MC pra se tornar o Número 1.Só que há umas coisas que confundem muito,pois o Número um após matar o pai do MC fala pra ele ser o número 2 e ir atrás dele por vingança, só que no meio de um Flashback é outra pessoa que está com a faixa de número 2 e é o mestre do MC ele precisa matar ele pra consegui-lá,fora os um milhão de furo de roteiro e que do nada troca pra alguma situação
Arte: 9/10 A arte é extremamente bonita eu acho que um dos poucos pontos bons do mangá em si,por que basicamente o mangá é só luta desenfreada e as lutas são muito boas e bonitas
Personagens: 1/10 Todos os personagens são muito chatos ,tu não consegue gostar de nenhum por ter um desenvolvimento bom neles
Em Geral: 5/10 Se você quiser um mangá com porradaria desenfreada arte bonita e boas lutas esse é o mangá pra você

From the duo that gave the world the classic Sanctuary, Strain is like that epic political/gangster thriller on a micro scale.

Author Yoshiyuki Okamura aka Sho Fumimura aka Buronson (so named after Charles Bronson, which makes a lot of sense) delves into socio-economics this time, and brightens the story with viscous violence courtesy of the backstreets of late 90's Malaysia.

His skill is in blending topical insight of Asia's standing in the world; the criminal underworld’s relationship with legitimate business, along with more compelling conflicts in the form of friendship and family, and how politics can send people hurtling towards each other violently.

Strain concerns itself with Japanese mega-corporation Kusaka and its attempts to solidify Asia's role in the oil industry. Buronson gives us a quick lesson in business: there are two main tiers to the oil industry: upstream (production of oil) and downstream (distribution), with westerners sitting pretty at the top in the lucrative upstream position, while Asia as ever is trailing behind the west. Just like Sanctuary, the main characters in this tale seek to usurp the established system and give Asia a chance to unshackle itself from its bindings.

So while Kusaka corp is trying to consolidate power by looking for oil in Asia to get into an upstream position, our main protagonist Mayo is going about his seedy life in Malaysia bumping into loveable maniacs like Angel, a bisexual homicidal cop with a tragic past.

Without going too much into the plot, what we ultimately get in this manga is a pretty break-neck paced thriller about corporations seeking power, offspring demanding answers for their reason for existing, unlikely brotherhoods forming while others disintegrate, spontaneous violence from psychopaths, history and economics lessons, and lots of excellent quotes as usual from Buronson aka Sho Fumimura aka Yoshiyuki Okamura. (Stop confusing us man, just pick one!)

Ryoichi Ikegami's art also deserves a mention; the artist continues his brilliant realist depiction of landscapes, characters and action. Everything just looks classy and mature, but even more importantly it’s staged very well. His pay-offs are superb, they don’t need double page spreads to make impact; he can pull satisfying panels out from nowhere.

Strain is a great thriller that occasionally rises above its pulpy nature, with great story and action. It enlightens the reader while satisfying them with drama. Although some of its twists and turns might be too much for some readers, you have to focus on the actions of the characters not the logistics; it’s all thematically consistent, and just very entertaining. It keeps the narrative fresh and lively, there's no point at all where the manga lulls, it’s consistently hitting you with engrossing content.

Strain speeds along to an ending that feels too soon but awash in poetic justice. Five volumes are good for pace, but this manga could have been on the level of Sanctuary if it were similar in length, such is the mastery of the duo behind these brilliant stories.