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Dec 30, 2024
So I guess Kaiji is just a horrible person. But that makes him an interesting character.
This is the third series, and once again Kaiji is penniless and yet roped in a major high stakes game, which he will struggle to get out of.
What's different this time around is Tobaku Datenroku Kaiji focuses on a single game, rather than a series. It's impressive that for 131 chapters, this manga focuses on only a single game, and in fact a single day. Kaiji runs into his old friends who tell him about a underground casino owner who likes to
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play large scale games, and cheats to ensure he wins, but with his friends Kaiji can beat him and earn a massive payday.
This leads Kaiji to start playing "17 steps" or "Minefield Mahjong" and yes, that means this manga is heavily focused on "Mahjong" Though a reader doesn't necessarily need to understand Mahjong to really get a good feeling for this manga, there's a lot of Mahjong terminology and focus that will probably enhance the experience.
Personally I'm not familiar enough with Mahjong but this manga did get me closer to that understanding and like I mentioned it works with out that full understanding as this is a specialized game.
The story here is oddly compelling considering the game, but also since it only focuses on a single gamble and a single night, it's surprising how well the entire manga flows and keeps ramping up the tension until it's almost out of control, and yet finds ways to really push the envelope even when the reader thinks it's over.
It's a very solid series, and in fact I think I might even say this is the best Kaiji manga yet, though I do think the others gave a more diverse set of games (you know... more than one game). Still I'm glad I read this one, and I'm probably going to be continuing this series as I'm curious where this will go next.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Dec 30, 2024
I picked this up because I enjoyed Liar's Game, and found an even better Manga here.
One Outs is about a pitcher, Tokuchi who plays a game of "One Outs" to gamble. If he gets an out he wins, and if the player can get a hit, the player wins. This is where the manga starts. It's an interesting premise, but before long Tokuchi is pulled into the major leagues through a situation and gets a unique contract.
Tokuchi is a gambler, so the contract he proposes is that he earns money for every out he gets, and every run he gives
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up takes a decent chunk of money. The owner of the team being a gambler sees a major win if Tokuchi so he quickly agrees to the contract and that's pretty much the premise.
Tokuchi is set up in situations where the owner expects him to fail, and Tokuchi will work on solutions that will avoid losing too much. Admittedly Tokuchi is not perfect, and doesn't always win, but that's part of what makes this more interesting than a perfect gambler who can't lose.
In addition, Tokuchi isn't a typical protagonist. He's not necessarily a "good person", usually tricking people even his own team at times. But having a morally grey protagonist only makes the series more interesting because the reader is often left out of the major plans until it's revealed, though that definitely makes it a more exciting experience.
And of course there's a decent progression to the series, while the main contract could get stale, both Tokuchi and the owner work to modify it which only changes the rules and makes it more interesting as the stakes tend to go higher and higher.
I will mention, the series does end on a very solid note, and I enjoyed this manga from the first chapter until the final chapter. Like I said, I enjoyed Liar's Game (it's ending is a bit more muddled) But One Out is an excellent manga, with a lot of potential that pays off. I'd easily recommend this one.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 30, 2024
Just a short review for this one.
I love Initial D, I really enjoy MF Ghost.
The main character is weaker, there's not as much development there, he just is an incredible driver, who was trained by Takumi from the original series.
The real "character" that gets developed is the car, that needs to get overhauled and built up for each race. The races themselves are also a very interesting character and the combination of the car versus the race, versus the other driver really gets me going, and has me excited for this series, and finding out how it all
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ends up, which I think is coming soon (chapter 260-ish currently)
The other racers though do have development but overall most are forgettable, with the exception of a brother and sister pair and the top racers.
There's a romance story that I think works a bit better than Initial D but a decent amount of does feel like filler I will likely skip next time.
The series does constantly bring back characters from the Initial D and... yeah I feel like this butchered almost all of them. Especially Ryosuke, especially in that the drawing style is so different.
Still I'm hyped for the ending, even if the main character is "perfect" from the start, the racers are intense, and the fact that a 86 ( GT86) is competing with hyper cars is a little insane, but there's also some plot reasons that make it more possible than you would expect.
Also I will call out that the main character doesn't "win every race", but... well read it and you'll understand it's not like Initial D where Takumi couldn't lose, but rather where our main character shows off his skill.
If you liked Initial D, read it, but don't expect it to be AS good as Initial D, though it is in the same ballpark.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 30, 2024
What if Superman was real, not just a comic book hero, but a hero who actually was THAT powerful?
One-Punch man is a super hero who can defeat any enemy with One Punch. That sounds like a very boring idea for an action manga, and truthfully it is. However One-Punch Man isn't necessarily a pure action manga, it's much more of a comedy affair.
Our main character (Saitama as I'll call him, as it's his name) is actually One Punch Man, and I don't feel it's a spoiler to say, he lives up to that name. In that I
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mean the manga doesn't betray his power. He literally can beat any enemy with a single punch. But everything about Saitama makes this a compelling story. He's a character who got strong by doing "100 pushup, 100 situps, 100 100 squats, and running 10km every day". This sounds stupid... because it is stupid, but that's what what makes One Punch Man work. At first you might wonder if Saitama lies about that training regiment but I think the truth is, he's being honest, he doesn't have a clue why he's so strong, that's just his path.
And what truly makes Saitama an interesting hero is he is looking to grow stronger, but the only way he knows how to do that is to fighter stronger enemies. However if he can beat every enemy in one punch, then there's no struggle. And again, he doesn't betray his power, by forcing himself to use head butts, or kicks or anything else. He's fully strong in every way, it's just he wants a challenge.
One part that really develops the series is that for most of the first and second major arcs, Saitama joins a hero association but because of poor testing he starts as a "C tier" hero. However the other heroes in the group from C to the S tier are utterly fascinating, and a bit silly. We have "Tanktop Man", a guy who uses the power of tanktops, he's an A tier, We have magicians who are also in A tier. There's a woman who runs an entire organization that has a stranglehold on the B tier, and then we have "Metal bat", a guy who wields a metal bat, and that's literally his power. He's an S tier, the highest of the high.
And those other characters will struggle with opponents, in fact a major portion of the manga has been a all out battle, where all the hero association is involved. Which means even though Saitama is made into a person who can't lose... The other characters deliver a lot of drama, and while Saitama could win any battle, he's not omnipresence, he needs to find enemies to fight, which means he can be involved in the large scale scenes, with out completely invalidating the battle just by standing on the field. (Even though he kind of does).
The thing is I don't really have major complaints, this is a funny series, interesting characters, my only real problem is there needs to be more chapters, because I'm really interesting in this universe and world. It has the interesting characters of MHA, but also each hero here is designed to actually fight evil, and then a world that gives them interesting and unique opportunities to do so.
As such I'm giving this a 10/10 rating, this likely will drop eventually, but ultimately One Punch man is fully satisfying and it's a manga that I can see going on for a very long time, mostly due to how interesting and humorous the writing is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 30, 2024
IF you want to see more of the My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia) world. This is a good manga, but it's good, it's fine, it's ok.
Much of my problem with the original manga exist here, but also of course it does, it's trying to be the same thing. You have an older mentor, you have a love interest, you have a kid learning how to be a "hero" (in this case a vigilante).
But that's also a bit of a problem because as a vigilante, the main character doesn't really feel like someone who is constantly hiding their actions.
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Even when we see real heroes, they rarely try to stop the main character. Heck, let's put it this way, because of the Sparring and tests, Deku easily fights more heroes than our main character in this manga.
In addition this is set before the beginning of MHA, which means every great hero even those who might not survive MHA, will have a chance to appear here, so you do get to see All Might in his prime, you get to see who Erasure Head was before he joined the school and all.
But like I said, there's a lot of the same problems. This does have a good first two arcs, but once again the final boss... just takes too long. In this there's a more focused final encounter, but it does feel like it just keeps going on and on and on and ... it's a good battle at times, but it's tiresome.
I honestly don't know what else to say, it's a weaker series than MHA, but not significantly so. If you really want more MHA this does a great and interesting job, but... ehh I probably could have skipped this one as well. It's "Fine". Yeah that's a perfect word for it. "Fine"
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 30, 2024
Sadly I forgot to write or review this series when I first read it so I must go off of memory. But also I really enjoyed this one and I think there's an interesting part to this series.
I try not to address other reviews, but I want to point out an important point, most of the not recommended reviews on this manga have not ready the entire series. It's acceptable to stop a manga at any point if you don't like. It's also acceptable to NOT like this manga, just as I don't like everything other people love. But
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I think it's important to state that my feeling on this series changed significantly in the last 10 chapters or so. With out spoiling anything, I would say that personally I'd probably rate this around a 6 or a 7 before that point, and give a 8-9 now.
So the entire series starts with a "Tomodachi game" basically can you trust your friends. That's at least where the manga starts, but Tomodachi Game's strongest part is that it's not afraid to change it's story or experience. While the game starts with "Do you trust your friends" there a lot of intrigue added into there, including if and who betrayed the group. It's rather brilliant with it's progression, and how the games change.
However by the end of the book, there's new grouping and mixtures of parties involved, and each one actually adds a new wrinkle in the discussion of "trust". In addition the games being played start with interesting ideas (though a bit outlandish, most of them making me wonder how did they do all of this secretly). But the later games are much more psychological and those really elevate the strategy and thought that the main characters have to put in.
The biggest thing though, is the main character. At first he seems like your typical high school protagonist but Yuuchi is perhaps one of the best main characters I've seen in a long time. There's a lot of trauma in his past and rather than just throwing a "Split personality" on him to explain what happen, the manga just owns him as a dark character. In fact for most of the manga, I would say the reader doesn't know if Yuuchi himself is wroth of trust, and that's a brilliant place for the main character. You're not entirely rooting for him, but you also will find it hard to root against him. What drove me on is more to understand Yuuchi.
That might upset people, but I think that's what really drove the score up by two full points. The ending of this manga isn't just good, it is extremely satisfying. Characters make rather important reveals, but they don't betray the context of the previous actions.
I would recommend this series for people want a more morally interesting main character. Yuuchi isn't necessarily dark or light, but the best way to describe it is that while you do question all of Yuuchi's friends in this series, you will also question Yuuchi as much. And that feels unique in a way that makes me recommend this to anyone.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 22, 2024
I guess I caught up to another ongoing manga, and I guess I should say where the manga is right now. Likely this will be my only take on the manga unless it completely goes off the rails
Simply put Chainsaw Man is both extreme and unique. Chainsaw Man takes place in a universe where devils are real and exist. Our main character gains the ability to turn into the Chainsaw Devil.
The idea that the main character can change into a devil with a chainsaw for a face and hands as he wants to fight devils is certainly not one
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I expected. Obviously the chainsaws mean there's going to be a lot of blood, and the certainly is, and it's not only the enemies. The combat is violent, and while sometimes it's a little hard to follow, there's a visceral feel to most of it that works.
In addition, the enemies are interesting and unique. Almost every devil is something you haven't seen before, and each is unique which you want to see how they will fight against Chainsaw Man or any of the other devil hunters.
Chainsaw man is unique in another important way. The Main character Denji is ... trash. And that's intentional. This isn't heroic little Goku who can do no wrong. This is a character who has been abused by the world for his whole life. This is a character whose main goal is to "touch a boob", but clearly has no chance of ever doing it. This is a character who is pathetic in oh so many ways...
And that's the point. Later on in the story Denji wants to be heroic... Like almost every Shonen main characters, but he ONLY wants to be heroic so he can have the girls all over him. He is kind of despicable, and oddly enough that's why he's interesting as a character, because this isn't a grand adventure of a noble knight. This is a character who is fighting through actual devils and actually is one as well.
So Chainsaw Man has interesting enemies, decent action (I wouldn't say "great" but good might fight), and a unique main character. But how's the rest of it.
Well here's the thing, I almost want to give this a "Mixed Feelings" because Chainsaw Man frustrates me a lot. This is a VERY fast pace manga, usually to it's own detriment. It often feels like there's missing chapters or characters who align with each other the last time we see them, end up fighting each other the next. Many characters are developed to be killed off and far more are just killed off like they're a set of toys the author lost interest in entirely too fast.
Many character's motivations are a bit cloudy. With out spoilers this is hard to really explain but it feels like often there could be a couple extra pages just to make it clear what the character motivations are. There's points where a character appears to be in alliance with others and then attacks them a little later. This SHOULD be treated as a huge betrayal but the manga just accept it and keeps it going. Some characters get entirely too much motivation, but their whole purpose in the plot story can be a fraction of the backstory.
But perhaps the most frustrating part is a common issue with Shonen manga. There's three simple questions.
* What is your ability?
* What is your limitations?
* What is your power level?
And the fact is Chainsaw man doesn't seem to want to even address that... even when they do. They make a point of saying when a Devil is feared they get more powerful but if people like the devil it weakens it. With Chainsaw Devil being a hero for much of the manga (or doing heroic looking actions). You'd assume this would come into play, but it's never shown, only told to the audience that this is happening. Chainsaw Devil is usually just the Chainsaw Devil.
Other enemies are often shown have some undefined ability and killed with out much more than a few panels of combat, no intro, just death. Even Chainsaw Man/Devil seems to be able to be destroyed, at least taking heavy damage often but it's easily healed up as well.
The fact we don't understand the exact power levels, characters, or limitations we are playing with ultimately makes much of Chainsaw man feel a bit hollow.
Yet, I can't say I am ready to put it down. The combat might not be the most interesting due to the power issues, and the writing can be a little obfuscated at times, but overall... the characters (especially despicable Denji), the story (For what you get) and the concepts at play here will keep me reading a little farther, likely as long as the manga is being produced.
Like I said, this is a little closer to Mixed Reactions than it should be but, I'd recommend people give it a shot. At least see a main character who is INTERESTING rather than just being a stock Main Character that you get from every manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 11, 2024
Overall a fast and interesting "gambling" manga.
I don't really get the hate of Ousama's Game/King's Game, or I do but we'll talk about that at the end. (Btw, I'll refer to it as Ousama game, but I'll also call the character "King", when I talk about "King" It's the character in the story.)
This is a five book manga, it's not serialized, it's not broken up into chapters, it's just there to read, and in that way Ousama Game is different then most manga out there. The premise is simple, someone sends a message to an entire class demanding one student kiss
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another. From there a new message is sent every day, with a new task for one or two of the students in the class. Eventually a task is not completed and a punishment is handed out... a punishment that ends in a couple character's deaths. Thus is the core of "Ousama's Game".
As mentioned this is a relatively fast read, there's some body horror but the art is a bit weak, so rather than lingering, you'll go through the books relatively fast, however the concept is good and "What will happen next" is always in the back of your mind. Before long the game turns darker than it does and it slowly gets grimmer.
By the end there's a somewhat satisfying ending, though I will say I heavily appreciate that this didn't have a "Friendship beats all" type ending, which is refereshing, for a dark gritty manga, it's good that the manga doesn't cheapen it's story by relying on that overused trope. It's one of my least favorites, and in that Ousama's Game excels in doing something different. It's not perfect, some people might want a whodunnit type approach, but that's not really needed here.
However... I did mention that I understood some of the hate that Ousama's Game gets. I feel like there's three camps.
The first is people who simply don't like the art or manga, and find it cheap, and admittedly it is. This is not a major high class series, it's body horror I could look at even though I hate body horror, most of the characters are a bit generic (we'll dive deeper into that in a moment). However, this is a B-tier effort, it's written almost like a "trashy romance novel". It's popcorn and in that it promises "interesting dares and a fast pace where people will die. The thing is, that's what it delivers, it never said intended to rival the deepest and longest running manga, it's just fun, which is why it's based off a cheap cellphone novel.
The second issue is a lot of people seem to complain about Ousama's Game, but talk about the anime, admitedly from what I hear the anime is particularly terrible, trying to combine two stories into a single season, and knowing that, I doubt it could work. This is a fast paced story, but it's self contained and trying to repeat it or double the situations never would work. This came first, but also this is a standalone medium. This isn't Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, where you're intended to have read the previous books and them changing characters can be a problem to fans, this is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the movie version. You don't need to complain or necessarily compare it to the the book, the anime, the other movie, or anything else. As a standalone property this is fine.
The third and probably the only criticism I can agree with is that. A LOT happens in this story, and the pace of the manga really wants to get to the next major moment as fast as possible. I appreciate this a lot, because brevity is wit. In fact, I heavily agree with that in this case, You don't need 20 pages of whincing to know a character is sad that someone died that he was trying to protect. You know he doesn't like it. The main character is the core of this manga, and a lot of the focus of the story is on him as he deals with the orders King gives, and King's Game.
However (I'm saying that a lot in this review), That's not to say the speed is always good. There's a rather major moment involving something that has to be done but it's devistating. There's a couple other awful, awful things that happen. The problem is, the characters move on too quickly, a little bit of a reflection on this, wouldn't have hurt. It might have made the story go for an extra chapter, but there's moment to really "breath" in this book, the characters have to do awful things, and rather than see them react they almost immediately turn around and are put into another horrible situation.
I am being contradictory, I've praised the speed, but said the book isn't taking any time to reflect on matters, and I think there's a middle ground. This didn't have to be bloated, but certain actions are treated like they can be brushed off, when they shouldn't be. The book's speed is appreciated in most things, but while sleeping on the story here, I do have to admit there's a couple pieces that needed to be fleshed out more, and I'm intentionally trying to avoid talking about it. In fact I moved my score from an 8 to a 7 due to how one relationship is never explored.
Ultimately this becomes a breakneck paced manga, focused on a class of kids put in horrible situations, and done so fast almost none of them develop characters, but I mostly accept that because I enjoyed this as a trashy manga. Not going to say it's the same as any other manga that gets the same score, but I also can say it's more likely I'll re-read this than another 200-300 chapter manga recieveing the same score, and I'm even considering reading others in the series.
Again, that's probably where I might "turn" on the franchise, but this is a single manga, and the first of the entire series, and because of that, I'm probably a lot more lenient.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 8, 2024
"It's alright"
A simple test for me is did I finish a manga, and in Baki's case I definitely did, and enjoyed much of the final arc, which is something I can't say about enough manga. Baki is an enjoyable ride as long as you're will to get on and ignore some rather big issues.
Grappler Baki is a very polished martial arts manga, which combines a variety of different disciplines and creates a tournament... Well it does that eventually.
The thing is, Grappler Baki is all about the fights, and it's a polished gem in that way where it's so focused on
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the fight, that it has removed important other parts of the story. In fact it's removed the story.
What does Baki want? To become strong? Why? To beat his father. How does he do this? Training various forms of fighting. Do we see this training? A single page each, and most of the time not even that.
The first arc in the book just seems to focus on Grappler Baki fighting a lot, and that's really what the rest of the manga is. The reader is just thrown in Baki's life in the ring, and in fact you don't even know why he's fighting for a decent chunk of the book. Then more fights happen. Then there's a flashback and more fights happen.. and then a major fight happens, and then a tournament kicks off... But the thing is none of this is connect. The only truely important fight to Baki is the major fight in the middle, and the final fight, and even then.. the final fight is only important because of an asspull of a reveal, that then takes 7 chapters to set up of completely new information that makes it plausable.
In fact there's a lot of times that the author just pulls out a new technique because he needs the characters to get stronger. Baki doesn't really have a defined fighting style, which is probably intentional so that the author can change what he needs to do on a scene by scene basis. But he just seems to grab random abilities or powers that work. And to be clear, I have mentioned training montages. But often times he's fighting multiple fights between training sessions, and even when he's in a major tournament, the abilities he shows in the final battle aren't even hinted at in the first. He just keeps gaining new abilities.
There's no foreshadowing here, there's no development of the world. There's just epic fights, and while the fight are really good, in fact excellent in the most case, it still feels like there's somethng important missing. Even the ending, feels a touch unsatisfying for a specific reason that would be a spoiler.
Yet this isn't a bad thing necessarily. If you enjoy over powered monsters of men, muscular architecture in each character's body, and so much testotorone this is exactly what you want. Think of a version of Dragonball Z where every character "powers up" at the right moment, only remove the magical elements and focus on just raw martial arts, and Baki is exactly that in a lot of way.
But at the same time, this is JUST a testatorone laden machismo that focuses on the fights more than anything, and actually the biggest issue is when it doesn't. There's a story about a girl who likes Baki... and it really doesn't go anywhere or do anything. There's Baki's father, which is the driving force of Baki's desire but.. he also doesn't really do much half of the times he shows up. He doesn't have a strong purpose in the finale for instance.
So ultiamtely, that's the thing. If you just want extremely well drawn and designed fights with various martial arts, which does sometimes feel like it's just making up new techniques over and over so the battle can go back and forth, Grappler Baki is excellent. If you want a well designed story or world, and a focus on a character who constantly grows more powerful, I would not recomment Grappler Baki to you.
For me.. "It was alright"
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 26, 2024
It's Shokugeki no Souma, but with Sanji from One Piece.
I'd love to know how this came to exist. Shokugeki no Souma's artist and writer, got to use One Piece's Sanji for a series of fun stories.
I enjoyed myself, it's not going to change anyone's life but if you enjoy the main idea of Shokugeki no Souma, I'd give this a read.
PS. It feels like the "foodgasm" in Shokugeki no Souma fits Sanji's mentality so much better.
Also I will admit I'm writing this review a long time after reading it, though gave it the 8/10 right after. So I can't
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go into much more specifics, but what I can say is it's a fun little crossover that I'm glad I checked out.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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