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Jul 30, 2013
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
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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.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 29, 2013
This may very well be the single most disgusting piece of fiction I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Given my frequent forays into the eroguro genre, and the fact that I have watched Human Centipede 1 and 2, A Serbian Film, Hostel, Martyrs, and Irreversible, me calling Haou Airen the "most disgusting" is a much bolder claim than it would be had it come from the average person. Haou Airen is not gorier than any of these things, it actually it is not gory at all. It does not have a much larger frequency of graphic rape than some these things, although it
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comes close. So why do I say that it is more disgusting than any of them? The lack of self-awareness, for one. It was morally repulsive to me, as it would be to any rational and decent human being. Haou Airen is about a girl who falls in love with her rapist, and it is not a morally ambiguous story, an accurate or unbiased account, or a psychological piece. It deals with the issue of rape in a frivolous manner far more disgusting than base exploitation; Shinjo Mayu, the mangaka, makes it quite clear that she believes brutally repetitious rape coupled with psychological abuse to be not only justifiable, but romantic, if it is done by a smexy guy who just needs some love.
Never-mind the generic and bad art, never-mind the flat and unrealistic characters, never-mind the contrived circumstances, never-mind the plot’s absurdities, never-mind the fact that it was essentially the same shit over and over again, never-mind how so little thought was put into the panel layout that it is nearly impossible to tell who’s speaking; this manga is utter trash regardless, but with the moral aspect taken into account, this is something worse than a 1. Haou Airen is arguably the worst thing I have ever read. It is certainly the most blissfully ignorant, unhealthy, and therefore emotionally harmful thing I have ever read. At least Hitler knew what he was doing when he penned Mein Kampf.
This is the least erotic piece of smut I have ever laid eyes upon. I had to set it aside and just stop at least 10 different times, and it was physically painful to finish. I wish I didn't finish it, really. I wish I never read this shit. I wish I never knew this shit existed. I wish this shit didn't exist. I wish there weren't any societies on this planet that would condone this sort of thing. If you are one of the 558 people who gave this worthless fucking loathsome garbage a “10," then you seriously need to re-evaluate your life, and probably get a therapist. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go lie down and deal with the emotional ramifications of the bile I just read. Fucking disgusting.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 28, 2013
Q: What happens when an unstoppable Mary Sue meets an immovable Mary Sue?
A: Death Note.
The protagonist, and his adversary, are both genius pretty boys (with the odd names of Light and L) who have an incredible amount of achievements and skill for their young age. Light somehow predicts things that he could not possibly have the foresight to predict, because, you know, probability is a thing. Don’t worry though, it’s not like you know that he’ll always win, because L possesses this exact same unexplained and ludicrous ability to predict the future; he just does so without a cheesy “Just as planned!” catchphrase
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that makes me want to shoot myself every-time it graces my ears. In this way, rather than being a dark and mysterious thriller, Death Note often manages to be an overblown mental mudslinging contest between two impossibly perfect master practitioners of bullshit who are both describable in a single sentence. This is epitomized in an early scene where the two, who both have tennis skills at a professional level, get into a match and engage in a ridiculously drawn-out internal line of logic about how the desire to not lose might relate to the true identity of the other.
Furthermore, what kind of psychological mystery thriller has a plot entirely driven by coincidences, improbabilities, and impossibilities? Again, Death Note. Plot devices like this were used every-time the manga found itself in a narrative corner, and these cop-outs always completely killed the tension that was built up to that point, while simultaneously disengaging the plot from the audience.
The concept was intriguing, and I won’t say it did not entertain me at some parts, but it was ultimately far too flawed in its execution to be called enjoyable or good overall, and it never managed to pull off the promise of its premise. It seemed overdone at times, with eye-roll worthy developments, and lines like “I take a potato chip and eat it!” delivered with the utmost significance and conviction, devoid of any irony or self-awareness. Light’s ability, of writing a name in a notebook as a method of killing, is initially well established and limited, while being relatively creative, although you would think he’d be able to do a bit more with it, but the way the new rules of the note are introduced as the story goes on can get a tad contrived.
Characterization quality is somewhat varied, but I would say that it's generally not all that good. It was bad, really. Light is a bit too perfect, his only flaws being the well-concealed logical results of his perfection, such as his narcissism and overconfidence. It could be argued that this flawlessness was intentionally done in an effort to depict the deconstruction of a seemingly perfect human being, but I think this concept eventually fell flat. It would have been far more interesting to see an average teenager find the note and watch the scope of his ambitions and arrogance develop over time. Light is arrogant, ambitious, and a staunch consequentialist from the very outset; this, logically, kills almost all opportunity for development. As for the rest of the characters, L was far more interesting and entertaining than Light, although he was even more unrealistic, evoking the child prodigy and boy detective clichés among other things; I mostly found myself rooting for him rather than the protagonist. Light's eventual “girlfriend” falls in love with him, to the extent of obsession, right away, as the plot commands it, and this insufficiently-explored obsession with him defines her entire character. There is absolutely nothing to her besides that, despite her eventually becoming one of the most significant characters in the series. In all actuality, the motivations for most characters, besides the protagonist and the Shinigami, are hazy at best and, with the exception of L, none of them are interesting in the slightest.
Death Note has some religious symbolisms and themes, which are underplayed and done well until a forced Christ allegory towards the middle, but this all kind of falls apart in the second half and all of the symbolism quickly vanishes into thin air. To make matters more dire, the already limited development of the protagonist stagnates and his adversary is quickly replaced by two identical, yet duller and less compelling, copies. At the same time, while the developments and additional rules to Light’s ability in the first half were often a bit contrived, they were usually better than nothing; pretty much all evolution stops in the second half, and it only gets worse. The manga essentially loses everything that it ever had going for it, and it then lies fallow in that inadequate stage for the remainder of the plot, all leading up to an anticlimactic conclusion that the audience knew was coming from the very beginning. The manga would have lost nothing to speak of had that conclusion come around 4 volumes earlier than it did. Therefore, as the plot progressed, it increasingly lost its higher significance and simultaneously started to wear thin the initial appeal of its premise.
The art is arguably the strongest, or least flawed, aspect of Death Note, the character design being particularly astounding, with the exception of a couple characters introduced in the second half whose designs were either dumb-looking or recycled. The art is generally pretty atmospheric and it never skimps on detail out of convenience, although not much detail is required in the first place. The design of the main antagonist, while understated, is particularly impressive due to the fact that he manages to be very aesthetically appealing, despite the ridiculous heroin chic vibe that the audience gets from him. It is usually pretty stellar, although side characters aren't all that detailed.
In the end, what Death Note did accomplish was hackneyed and not all that original; it could not be called “deep” nor was it ever cutting-edge in the grand scheme of things. The coincidences and general improbabilities that drove the plot bar it from being called “realistic,” more than the out-there premise ever could. That said, it should be given some credit for featuring a true antihero, who is still often admired by the audience, and ultimately not being afraid to portray him as pathetic. It also never used the character’s high school age as an excuse to throw light school-life hijinks into the plot. But these positive qualities unfortunately failed to have too much influence in the industry, and they are additionally outweighed by negatives in the universe of the manga itself. Code Geass, a blatant Death Note rip-off, wasted no time at all in taking every single good Death Note did and flipping it all on its head. I might recommend Death Note, if only for the first half, but only with a warning that it fell apart and that even the first half is not as great as it's often made out to be. You honestly might be best off watching the first half and simply skimming the plot summary of the second, because it has nothing of value to offer the reader beyond that point.
Note: This is mostly a modified version of my review for the anime. They follow the same storyline and suffer from the same fundamental issues.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 28, 2013
Q: What happens when an unstoppable Mary Sue meets an immovable Mary Sue?
A: Death Note.
The protagonist, and his adversary, are both genius pretty boys (with the odd names of Light and L) who have an incredible amount of achievements and skill for their young age. Light somehow predicts things that he could not possibly have the foresight to predict, because, you know, probability is a thing. Don’t worry though, it’s not like you know that he’ll always win, because L possesses this exact same unexplained and ludicrous ability to predict the future; he just does so without a cheesy “Just as planned!”
...
catchphrase that makes me want to shoot myself every-time I hear it. In this way, rather than being a dark and mysterious thriller, Death Note often manages to be an overblown mental mudslinging contest between two impossibly perfect master practitioners of bullshit who are both describable in a single sentence. This is epitomized in an early scene where the two, who both have tennis skills at a professional level, get into a match and engage in a ridiculously drawn-out internal line of logic about how the desire to not lose might relate to the true identity of the other.
Furthermore, what kind of psychological mystery thriller has a plot entirely driven by coincidences, improbabilities, and impossibilities? Again, Death Note. Plot devices like this were used every-time the anime found itself in a narrative corner, and these cop-outs always completely killed the tension that was built up to that point, while simultaneously disengaging the plot from the audience.
The concept was intriguing, and I won’t say it did not entertain me at some parts, but it was ultimately far too flawed in its execution to be called enjoyable or good overall, and it never managed to pull off the promise of its premise. It seemed overdone at times, with eye-roll worthy developments, and lines like “I take a potato chip and eat it!” delivered with the utmost significance and conviction, devoid of any irony or self-awareness. Light’s ability, of writing a name in a notebook as a method of killing, is initially well established and limited, while being relatively creative, although you would think he’d be able to do a bit more with it, but the way the new rules of the note are introduced as the story goes on can get a tad contrived.
Characterization quality is somewhat varied, but I would say that it's generally not all that good. It was bad, really. Light is a bit too perfect, his only flaws being the well-concealed logical results of his perfection, such as his narcissism and overconfidence. It could be argued that this flawlessness was intentionally done in an effort to depict the deconstruction of a seemingly perfect human being, but I think this concept eventually fell flat. It would have been far more interesting to see an average teenager find the note and watch the scope of his ambitions and arrogance develop over time. Light is arrogant, ambitious, and a staunch consequentialist from the very outset; this, logically, kills almost all opportunity for development. As for the rest of the characters, L was far more interesting and entertaining than Light, although he was even more unrealistic, evoking the child prodigy and boy detective clichés among other things; I mostly found myself rooting for him rather than the protagonist. Light's eventual “girlfriend” falls in love with him, to the extent of obsession, right away, as the plot commands it, and this insufficiently-explored obsession with him defines her entire character. There is absolutely nothing to her besides that, despite her eventually becoming one of the most significant characters in the series. In all actuality, the motivations for most characters, besides the protagonist and the Shinigami, are hazy at best and, with the exception of L, none of them are interesting in the slightest.
There are some religious symbolisms and themes, which are underplayed and done well until a forced Christ allegory towards the middle, but this all kind of falls apart in the second half and all of the symbolism disappears. To make matters more dire, the already limited development of the protagonist stagnates and his adversary is quickly replaced by two identical, yet duller and less compelling, copies. At the same time, while the developments and additional rules to Light’s ability in the first half were often a bit contrived, they were usually better than nothing; pretty much all evolution stops in the second half, and it only gets worse. The anime essentially loses everything that it ever had going for it, and it then stays in that inadequate stage for the remainder of the plot, all leading up to an anticlimactic conclusion that the audience knew was coming from the very beginning. The anime would have lost nothing to speak of had that conclusion come at least 10 episodes earlier than it did. Therefore, as the plot progressed, it increasingly lost its higher significance and simultaneously started to wear thin the initial appeal of its premise.
The art is arguably the strongest, or least flawed, aspect of Death Note, the character design being particularly astounding, with the exception of a couple characters introduced in the second half whose designs were either dumb-looking or recycled. The art is generally pretty atmospheric and it never skimps on detail out of convenience, although not much detail is required in the first place. The design of the main antagonist, while understated, is particularly impressive due to the fact that he manages to be very aesthetically appealing, despite the ridiculous heroin chic vibe that the audience gets from him. The animation is nothing special, but it does not really have to be; this is not an action series. I feel like the art for the manga was superior, and it could have been done better in the anime adaptation, but any complaints I have about it are relatively minor.
In the end, what Death Note did accomplish was hackneyed and not all that original; it could not be called “deep” nor was it ever cutting-edge in the grand scheme of things. The coincidences and general improbabilities that drove the plot bar it from being called “realistic,” more than the out-there premise ever could. That said, it should be given some credit for featuring a true antihero, who is still often admired by the audience, and ultimately not being afraid to portray him as pathetic. It also never used the character’s high school age as an excuse to throw light school-life hijinks into the plot. But these positive qualities unfortunately failed to have too much influence in the industry, and they are additionally outweighed by negatives in the universe of the anime itself. Code Geass, a blatant Death Note rip-off, wasted no time at all in taking every single good Death Note did and flipping it all on its head. I might recommend Death Note, if only for the first half, but only with a warning that it fell apart and that even the first half is not as great as it's often made out to be. You honestly might be best off watching the first half and simply skimming the plot summary of the second, because it has nothing of value to offer the viewer beyond that point.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 26, 2013
Death Panda is the cutest panda since Sexual Harassment Panda. With the contrast between his fur, laden with heart shaped white splotches, and his vicious teeth and claws, he is fucking adorable. Be forewarned, this story doesn't have any incredible characters; most of them don’t do too much before dying. It is not very thrilling. It is not all that grotesque or messed up, not compared to previous Uziga Waita manga. It sure ain't scary. So what are its strengths? It is pretty funny, for one. It’s really funny, actually. It's about a demonically cute panda that rapes and kills at a whim; as you
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can imagine, people's reactions to him are pretty priceless. This shock value humor almost renders Death Panda as a kind of one-trick pony, but it manages to spice things up with exceedingly creative brutality, injected with a scathing wit and an unpredictable nature, and then it concludes before its ephemeral appeal wears off its welcome. Despite Death Panda's inherently transient nature, augmented by its high entertainment value, in its duration it ironically and moralistically explores things like familial relations, homosexuality, animal captivity, the meaning of evil, idolatry, reincarnation, and the metaphysical definition of the distinction between human and beast. No, this is not a philosophical or “deep” manga, it merely satirizes these things. It also satirizes the power rangers.
For a good example of the type of comedy you are like to find in Death Panda: in one Uziga Waita manga, Death Face, a girl calls an obese mentally deficient man ugly. He then rips her vaginal opening with his hands, turns her inside out, and embraces her remains as they ooze blood, guts, and cokroaches. He then lachrymosely warbles out the age-old cliché of "we are all the same on the inside." This strange and repulsive sense of humor is omnipresent in all Uziga Waita works, and that is what you should expect in this one as well. The reason his manga tend to be underrated is that people expect erotism or serious and dark plot from his work, when those things were clearly never his strengths. He is a humorist at heart, strangely enough; it's just a very dark sense of humor. I find his style to be clever and fresh, but not all will. Still, the story was very unpredictable and it was perfectly paced, so I must at least give it a 7/10. The art is well-done, with admittedly more detail done on the characters' entrails than their faces, but it's also a 7/10 because it definitely accomplishes what it was designed to do and the detail is there when it is needed. Characters have over-the-top and entertaining development, although they are just vehicles for the plot, and I have to give them a 7/10 or a 7.5/10. Enjoyment is easily Death Panda's biggest strength, as it is incredibly engaging despite not exactly being profound or groundbreaking; I have to give it at least 9/10 for enjoyment. Overall, it's a semi-weak 8. It certainly lacks universal appeal, but the niche it was designed for, the readers who have no issue stomaching it, could consider it a potential classic.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jul 24, 2013
Moderator Edit: This review contains spoilers.
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Groove Adventure Rave, or Rave Master, was the first long-running manga of the mangaka now acclaimed for Fairy Tail. I used to be pretty biased towards it, due to it being one of my first manga, but the nostalgia wore off on my latest reread.
At one point a character is introduced as being just an ally of Demon Card, which is this manga’s cliché “evil organization.” Then it's decided that he's a Demon Card general, but he is the weakest of the generals. Then it's decided that he's somehow the strongest. I’m not basing this on observation, I’m actually
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writing it based on what people in the manga said. Observation is useless when determining power tiers in this manga regardless. Many characters are endowed with completely broken powers, such as the ability to absorb all life, the ability to create anything from nothing, the ability to control gravity, physical invulnerability, regeneration, the ability to twist and break any object, or the power to pulverize anything that touches the user's skin, but they either don't use those abilities in the big battles, they don’t use them to their full potential, or the powers just don't work due to the willpower and power of friendship possessed by the heroes. In most battle shounen, the protagonists always win, but it's still fun to see how. In Rave Master, it just isn't. The battles always follow the same exact arc and I consistently find myself thinking "really, again?" Dark Bring powers get repetitive and some of them are rip-offs of each other. We never fully understand the mechanics behind the characters’ powers either. The way Dark Bring are created is changed about 4 separate times, along with the tiers of them, their extra abilities, what effect they have on the user, and how they are distributed, and then magic is eventually thrown in and utilized in a very cliché manner. In the Q&A section of an early volume the author admits that he did no little to no planning before writing Rave, and it really does show. This is an incredibly lazily told story.
Unlike in the world of One Piece, where people almost never die no matter what, or in an actual realistic manga where people die all the time, people only die in Rave when the plot commands it. Someone can be riddled with stab wounds, get hit with a blast that is imbued with infinite energy, get shot in the head, be struck by lightning, be fatally poisoned, or fall from an aircraft and be perfectly fine, but a wooden-staff inflicted stab wound or a falling rock is enough to kill some of the stronger characters. At one point a little kid gets riddled with machine gun bullets, and he is shown dying, but he is magically resurrected for the convenience of the plot. Well, no, he is never even resurrected, that would be absurd. Instead, the mangaka just ignores the clear fact that he died.
This manga is filled with like contradictions. Sometimes the main characters are perfectly fine with killing people and sometime they aren't. At one point one of their best friends goes missing and is presumed dead for about 5 to 10 volumes. They never mourn or mention him while he's gone and then he just pops up again, somehow managing to know exactly where they would be. At one point it’s stated that two characters are close friends, but then it turns out that one just tried to kill the other once and that was the extent of their relationship. I have no idea how the characters mixed those two concepts up, but that happened. At one point, several main antagonists are killed off and are instantaneously vaporized in a huge explosion; later they reappear with the half-assed excuse of “dude, we had a bunker” even though there’s no possible way they could have seen the explosion coming or hidden anywhere in the vicinity of the blast. Just to make matters worse, events like this, among others, are constantly alluded to by characters who could not possibly know that those events took place. These inconsistencies and plot holes litter the manga. If spoilers were allowed, and if it wouldn't be unnecessarily redundant, then I could spend an entire 3000 word review listing them all. Seriously, I listed them all out on my latest reread, just to get a feel for how bad it was, and I hit that milestone around the halfway point without even using complete sentences or paragraphs. This manga is also filled with anti-climaxes and half-assed explanations that were clearly written after the fact. As a fan of One Piece and Fullmetal Alchemist, I think continuity is one of the most important things in any battle shounen. The lack of continuity destroys the atmosphere, kills the world-building, gets rid of all empathy the audience has built up for the characters, and makes the combat more contrived in addition to being less compelling.
The art is bad for the first seven volumes and it never really gets good at anything but fanservice. The characters are all more primitive versions of designs that were recycled for Fairy Tail characters. About halfway through, the art quality peaks at "mediocre" and stays there for the duration of the plot. It’s generally not very creative or detailed. What I can say about it is that it's usually easy to follow, although the character designs aren't too distinctive.
Just about all of the cute women love the main protagonist, without him ever really having to do anything but be his annoyingly cliché idealistic self. The main antagonist for the second half of the series is supposed to be very charismatic, but the source of this charisma and influence over others is not at all apparent to the audience. Characters' entire personalities are changed by tiny things like seeing a pretty dance. Villains are portrayed as absolutely evil, then they are all given some little contrived sob story; they were originally great guys but they turned evil and did bad stuff because they were lonely or because their wife died. The characters are often supposed to be funny, but far too much of the humor consists of ridiculously immature fart jokes and recycled facial expressions. The main cast also consists of a mindless pet, a delinquent with a heart of gold, an airheaded heroine, a perverted land jellyfish, and a dragon-person with a ridiculously inconsistent personality. I barely know what to make of the characters except that they all suck.
This manga is not very good. I found the combat to somehow be less boring than Fairy Tail was (not saying much,) but the issues with continuity ruined it. Then the art and characters made it even worse. This all culminates in a lackluster and bland conclusion, which makes me wonder why anybody would want to read through the whole thing in the first place. There are better and more creative battle shounens out there. A whole lot of them. This manga brings nothing new to the formula and continually trips over itself even while telling the most predictable story possible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Jul 24, 2013
This is a sequel to a good manga. This is not a good manga. As a matter of fact, I rank Battle Royale 2 among the worst manga that I have ever read. I had always heard bad things about it, but I assumed they must have been exaggerated or superficial. All of my expectations were shattered. This is the exact opposite of what a sequel should be. Everything that the first Battle Royale did right, this manga does entirely wrong. It takes all of the first's strengths and turns them completely on their head. Battle Royale featured a cast of very flawed teenagers and
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made us feel sympathetic towards them. This sequel features a group of idealized and unrealistically innocent teenagers only because it lacks the finesse to make us feel for a flawed character. It tries to make the characters more sympathetic with their over-the-top innocence, but it achieves the opposite effect due to how unrealistically they are portrayed. The characters would all describable in one word, that is if they would be if they showed any sort of consistency. The cast of characters was reduced from the original in quantity as it was in quality, the scope and ambition of the work decreasing proportionally.
The art suffers from the same fatal flaw as the characterization. The gritty and detailed art of the original Battle Royale is cast aside for a poorly sketched cartoonish abomination; comically huge ears and noses are the norm. The characters' faces aren't even drawn with a consistent amount of shittyness, the proportions changing constantly. It's not "different" or "creative," it's simply atrocious and it makes absolutely no aesthetic or symbolic sense. It was done because it was easy to draw. After it tries and fails to make a sweet and innocent atmosphere to contrast with the plot, it only serves to detract from the quality of the manga.
Despite this abominable gimmick of an art style, Battle Royale 2 paradoxically takes itself more seriously than its predecessor, and all of the comic relief and satire from the first is absent. As are the quality action and tactics, but that somehow becomes a minor concern compared to all of this manga's other unforgivable and blatant flaws.
The plot starts off somewhat similarly to its predecessor, but it quickly veers off into sheer nonsensicality and a complete lack all of logic. Characters' actions make absolutely no sense at all, nothing is explained, and some important plot events were simply physically impossible. It lacks continuity and it seems to not even take place in the same universe as the first, nor does the royale itself occur in a remotely similar way. Also, rather than portraying a slow degradation into madness, important parts of the plot and the character development are skipped over entirely. The conclusion could not be called a conclusion by any stretch of the imagination; it just kind of tapers off without much of a climax, and with the reader having absolutely no idea what the fuck they just read.
I have no clue who could have possibly thought that this sequel was a good idea, but they are clearly in possession of an extraordinary lack of intelligence or good taste. Or they are just very lazy. Or this manga was simply a cash-in on the popularity of Battle Royale. Or, my personal favorite, all of the above. I can think of no other reason than greed for this to have been labelled a sequel of Battle Royale. Any similarities between the two are fleeting and conceptually superficial at best.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 24, 2013
"I bury those cock-a-roaches"- Tony Montana
Terra Formars is a halfway decent Gantz knockoff that is interlaced with Japanese nationalism and general xenophobia as rabid as it is unsubtle, pushed to such a ridiculous extent that it's not even offensive anymore. Okay, it can get a bit offensive. Most of the time it's just eye-roll-worthy though. I won't even get into it...
The concept of Terra Formars is that cockroaches were used in the terraformation of Mars (bad-title origin hint) and within five hundred years they have evolved into savage and violent black humanoids who wear no clothes and use primitive weapons like some kind of African
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tribesmen. They sometimes are referred to as "those black shitstains," and they have nappy hair plus exaggeratedly broad facial features, but hey guys, hey, no racial. Squads of good bug people are sent to exterminate these filthy bad bug people once and for all. What's that? You think this premise sounds like that of a comedy? Mayhaps that of an old "so bad it's good" campy sci fi horror flick? Preposterous. Terra Formars is serious business, guys. Real serious. Or at the very least, it completely ignores the fact that it is fundamentally absurd in its scientific inaccuracy and physical impossibilities, squandering any potential it ever had along the way, and it then uselessly attempts to force the audience to take it seriously anyways. The plot would be better if the author didn't try to explain anything scientifically, but he unfortunately seems to be under the delusion that he is an intelligent and distinguished evolutionary biologist, or at least that he has the first clue what he is talking about. Just in case you were wondering, he actually does not have a single clue what he is talking about. A simple "just because" or "aliens" explanation like in Gantz would have served the plot far better.
The characters are all cliché and none of them are significant in the slightest. Terra Formars attempts to create tension by killing the vast majority of the characters off, but this tactic is rendered entirely ineffective when the audience simply does not have any reason to give a flying fuck about those characters in the first place. The dynamics between these characters are consistently recycled and this, among other things having to do with the manga's general lack of variety, makes Terra Formars feel incredibly repetitive, a problem that its oft proclaimed spiritual predecessor, Gantz, only came close to suffering from in the very end, and that was for far more forgivable reasons.
The artwork is laughable, in a literal sense. Character designs are repetitive along with being anatomically inaccurate; female characters are only there to provide poorly drawn fanservice and ryona. That said, the real issue with the art is the cockroaches, the "scary" antagonists. The facts that the antagonists are all identical and all possess the same recycled faces and expressions could be partially overlooked were they not so ridiculous in appearance. I have a large album of pictures of them saved on my computer, because they are just that hilarious. This manga would be far superior in quality and infinitely enjoyable was it a slice of life about the cockroach people forming a club at school, drinking tea, running in the street with toast in their mouth, and perhaps even engaging in a steamy and moderately comedic romance with the cutest misunderstood bad boy in school. That concept would properly play to the, admitted few, strengths of the artwork, which clearly do not include terrifying imagery or fluid action. Unfortunately, we instead get stuck with a half-assed plot and pointless fanservice.
This manga is filled with psuedo-depth and characters (plus the irritating word of god narrator who also spiels on about nets and insects and pretentiously quotes barely-relevant scripture) who muse, redundantly and at great length, about the fascinating (except not actually) relationship between cockroaches and humans. You see guys, it is simply so genius and profound that you probably completely missed the complexity and intricacies of it; the roles of the two species have been reversed. We used to kill them just because, and now they kill us......just because!!!! Dun dun dun. Right? Get it? Got it? If this concept is too difficult for you to understand then, don't worry your pretty little head over it, the cast of flat and often identical characters will spell it out for you over and over again, in the same exact way every single time, of course. Sound deep? Sound interesting? Insightful, perhaps? No? Good, because it actually isn't.
Gantz may have had a bad ending, and you might want more, but, for the love of god almighty, do not be tricked for one moment into thinking that Terra Formars ever comes anywhere close to being as good as Gantz was in its prime. It lacks the self-awareness, quality art, satirical nature, characterization, immediate general appeal, pervasive camp, creativity, variety, and sense of humor that made Gantz good. All of that being said, even if the humorous nature of the manga was completely unintentional, and the antagonists were lame, they did offer a bit of entertainment. Terra Formars does have something about it that moderately entertained me and kept me reading despite, or maybe even because of, it being extraordinarily bad in an objective sense; just for that, I will go ahead and slap on two extra points like the generous and forgiving critic that I am. I give this manga four offensive racial underto- points, I meant to say points, out of ten. Read chapter one of Death Face if you want a more enjoyable, touching, and profound story about cockroaches.
Additional comments:
Germans do not name their kids "Adolf" anymore. Just saying. I have a distinct feeling that “Nazis” is all the author knows of Germany and “Communists” is all they know of Russia.
Also, I have a hard time believing that geopolitical relations have barely changed over the course of five hundred years. The battle between Capitalism and Communism in real life progressed more in a decade than it did in five hundred years in this manga. In fact, nothing about the atmosphere of the series is futuristic in the slightest; that kind of advancement in time will have massive changes in culture, not just technology. The “futuristic” technology does not go much past space travel and gene splicing either. This all shows a huge lack of imagination, depth, and vision.
Additionally, the mere assumption that an insect's strength and abilities in proportion to its size would be retained were they scaled up to humanoid dimensions ranks among the dumbest things I've ever heard. A bit smarter than "people die if they are killed" and "I will be hokage ninja master believe it," and yet a little bit dumber than "fun things are fun."
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jul 12, 2013
Mikai Hoshi (meaning Uncivilized Planet) is not a sci fi manga, although it does take place in a futuristic world. It seems to take place in the ghetto of this world; the characters have less technology and modern conveniences than you or I, and the sci fi aspect of the plot mostly serves to give the characters false hope. It is an essentially human story, devoid of gimmicks, raw, and powerful.
Mikai Hoshi, like most Matsumoto Jiro manga, is much more than it appears to be at first glance and is far greater than it would appear to be on a surface level. It actually
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tends to be underrated even among fans of Matsumoto Jiro's manga, for supposedly being more conventional and simple; the truth is that it is absolutely unique, even among his extraordinarily strange manga, and it is utterly fascinating. The art is sketchy and unrestrained, in this mangaka's characteristic style, and could even look slightly amateurish to the untrained eye, but it is astoundingly atmospheric and closer examination will show that it is in fact chaotic, but it is an expertly calculated and purposeful chaos. The plot seems simple and short, but there is far more to it than it would initially seem. For instance, on my first read through I made the fatal mistake of assuming the sex was meant to be erotic (it is absolutely not) and that it was inserted into the plot for the sole purpose of fanservice, but I soon realized that sexual desire, objectification, and corruption is one of the core motifs of this manga, and is important in how it parallels modern society. Mikai Hoshi is a heart-wrenching and tragic tale, but in a very unconventional way that is entirely atypical in classical storytelling. Most of the characters lash out uncontrollably as a result of their suffering, making them intentionally difficult to empathize with. The cast seems doomed from the very beginning, and it's clear to us that there will be no complete happiness or truly happy ending, making this manga more of an affirmation of nihilism than an argument for it. The readers witness a snapshot of several characters' lives, eerily similar to our own, yet exaggeratedly horrible. There is no epic plot, there is no fall from grace, and there is no nobility. There is no grand war, but there is an oppressive, yet cowardly, military force. There is nothing pure, nothing sacred, and all becomes corrupted soon enough. There is no happy present, just an unreachable past plus a seemingly unreachable future. There is nothing but a cesspool, on rock-bottom, populated by dreamers, exploiters, and the exploited; all of them getting by however they can, and the distinction between these three categories being often indiscernible, never clear cut, and constantly overlapping as the plot progresses. Despite this constant and unshakable misery, this sorrowful tale is brought to a compelling and unpredictable conclusion, and it somehow manages to remain an emotional roller-coaster throughout.
The characterization is arguably the strongest aspect, although there are only three central characters. This is one of the best and most intriguing love triangles I have ever read, if their relationship can be considered simple enough to be classified like that at all. The two women in the main character's life go through much development as we learn more about them, as they commit acts of desperation, and as the plot progresses. In the beginning of this manga it seems as if one of the girls is "good" and the other is "bad," but this is quickly changed as the audience's perceptions and ideas of what these words mean are challenged. They both show displays of compassion and malevolence realistically and understandably. You will most likely end up feeling equal parts fascination, sympathy, and animosity towards the pair of them. The main character is a sympathetically meek and artistic space-case (pun unintended) who just wants to live his life, but is never really allowed to. He spends his time and money on people who never appreciate him and who treat him, literally, like dirt. People use him and treat him like an object, rather than an artist or a person. Everyone around him pushes him around and generally makes him miserable, forcing him to take refuge in his daydreams about a small cast of surreal space-adventurers. These bits of fictional comic relief, that took place in his head, contrasted and paralleled with the main plot in a masterful way that actually enhanced the bitterness of the atmosphere rather than clumsily injecting sweetness or humor into such a bleak plot. The main character slowly comes down from this fantasy world, and they eventually connect, as he suffers more and more, and he slowly becomes one of the more self-aware characters in the manga, although that may not be saying much considering the consistently delusional nature exhibited by most of the cast. Character development is universal and every character serves a purpose.
Mikai Hoshi is saturated with symbolism and demands much attention (perhaps a couple readings as well) for full appreciation, even during the disturbing, depressing, and difficult to look at scenes that this manga is so full of. It has just about everything that I look for in a manga, and it is easily Matsumoto Jiro's strongest non-one-shot work. It takes most of the best ideas that are explored in his one shots and expands on them, thematically and atmospherically; it does this in a somber way and, as mentioned earlier, all humor only serves to make the plot darker. It contains more profound and intelligent, if simpler, societal commentary than all 82 chapters of Freesia, while never losing focus, and it feels a lot less aimless than Netsutai no Citron. Mikai Hoshi is a multifaceted, cynical, and supremely nihilistic story that just about anybody who isn't overly sensitive to sexual themes or tragic plots will most likely appreciate in some way or another.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 11, 2013
This manga is about a girl who goes to live with an older man whom she has never met before. Why? I have no idea. It's never explained. This man insists on going around their apartment nude, even after she moves in. Why? I have no idea. It's never explained. He is not a naturist and his immediate motive does not seem to be sexual harassment, even if that is the obvious result. The creepy naked guy has a friend who regularly stops by just to make a large quantity of dick jokes about his supposedly large dick. You have to try really hard to
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fuck up dick jokes, as they are the easiest of jokes to make, but these were as unfunny as any I have ever seen, and were more creepy than amusing. Actually, they were very creepy and not amusing at all. These are the three central characters and none of them make any modicum of sense. For the first 5 chapters all character interactions pretty much consist of the two men sexually harassing the teenage girl. In the final chapter, as if you couldn't already tell from the description, she decides she loves him and they are going to get married. Why does she love him? Is it the unrelenting harassment? Is it the creepy older guy thing? Is it the dick jokes? Is it his dick? I don't know. It's never explained.
I know this is a comedy, but I could not bring myself to laugh at such a dumb concept and messed up plot. Am I supposed to find the sexual harassment and subsequent stockholm syndrome of an underage girl funny? Well I'm very sorry, but I just don't. At all. Not one bit. It was too far absurd to take seriously and simultaneously all too real to find funny. Most people would have to go out of their way to write this poor a story. The only positive things I could possibly think of to say about it are that the art was alright and that the short length made for easy reading and less suffering. Taking those slight positives into consideration I will give this manga a very generous 2 rather than the 1 it probably deserves. It was not compelling as a romance or a comedy and had nothing of value to offer whatsoever. I would not recommend it to anyone. Do not read it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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