Reincarnation no Kaben

Well first of all to me it seems like the kind of story you instinctively get attracted to and like or skip to look for something more off your own tastes. It targets a rather specific public. But certainly try and read a few chaps, you never know what new horizons you find and enjoy. This could be a potential one.

Story (10):
The groundwork for this series, the grand idea, is rather simple. Characters in modern society, no less misfits of society, being able to reach some sort of recognition or fullfillement through reincarnating into important, groundbreaking or frightening historic people. The later stages which contain the MC's mentality and overall emotional/mental insight & interaction between characters, is what really gets me in the reading zone for this series. Now add to that some mix of dark & cheerful humor to latch the transitions together and not flipping one page after another becomes rather difficult (that goes for both ways, it's definitily a series you tend to look back sometimes to take the whole vibe in)

The few drawbacks I could imagine happening (but there isn't yet enough substance to safely say this), is that it might be too smallscaled without unexpected influences from outside. What I mean with that is that the story will most likely not involve modern day society and keep it purely between 'The Returners', which could make things repetitive or predictable after awhile. Besides that this manga uncharacteristically relies heavily on it's MC's positioning in this universe, where does he stand in all this, who will he follow, what is his goal and how will he reach this. Bold choices & the Anti-Hero MC gimmick is what really make some scens shine. But as much as something shines brightly now, such things can reverse in the blink of an eye (literally in this case). But consider this jumping the gun for now.

Art (8):
Typical Konishi Mikihisa style. It has some interesting character designs & clear dynamic, not too much inconsisten wishwash where you can't make out what is what in each panel.

Contrasting this is the lack of backgrounddetail or detailed surroundings, but that's a minor issue. Characters are the main focus of the series after all.

Character (9):
A way to concisely explain the characters. Imagine your standard get-together off the different over-used charactertypes. What differentiates them from your average clichés is that they are all adults or at least were. And more then that misfits of society, which adds a certain quirk here and a tad of cynism there, making the bunch come over as that little bit more down to earth, unlike the many anime-characters floating on their pink cloud in their own little universe. What we would call a cliché characterresponse in most series is in this manga still considered amusing, while it is easily considered annoying or repetitive in others.

Besides tiny panel-nitpicking characterissues, there actually isn't anything specific or something to make a common issue from.

Enjoyment (10):
Is there still something I want to add, that isn't already mentioned above... I guess for me a big factor is my curiosity and interest in the MC, with his seemingly grand, yet so plain goal/desire. It kinda settles the whole story on a more relatable lvl for the reader. And just the overall enjoyment of how this writer views certain historic people, which attitude, behaviourpattersn & mentality he gives them (even though part is the mentality is influenced by who the person was in his insignificant life, it still makes you wonder if that's how they could've really been, aside from the ridiculing of each historic person in some way).

Well this is the point where I leave you to your own wits and let you decide on wether you'll read it or not...

It was my pleasure and hope it gets a few stoic souls, myself included, some pleasure as well from what this series has to offer.

*Warning: This review contains some spoilers*

Many people probably pick up Reincarnation no Kaben (aka. Petals of Reincarnation) because it is written by the author of the memorable Suashi of Metorite.
I also have the privilege of knowing Japanese and getting to read the raw till the latest chapter (chapter 21), so I was lucky to get to the great twist of this story (around CH8-9) and fell in love!

Story: 9

Reincarnation no Kaben (let's say RnK for shot) has, as the name suggest, reincarnation theme. Indeed, reincarnation stuff may strike you as cliche at first, but this one is interesting in that characters get a 'talent' from their past reincarnation (i.e. legendary sword skills, Mathematician's stats-calculation ability...etc) of famous personalities, not the memories and all that jazz. So, it turns out to be something like an ESP, superpower manga, but at the same time quite different.
In my opinion, though it's better to be original, being cliche doesn't make a manga bad. To me, how it is executed is more important, and the way RnK is executed is so unusual. And, let me emphasise, it is full of marvellous plot twists, as expected of this author.
The story is quite on the violent and cruel side, but not all as gory as Another and Kami-sama no Iutoori-esque survival manga. At least, it is not filled with friendship, hard wprk and victory idealism.

Art: 9

The art is excellent. I have no problem telling characters apart or what's going on. The art might not be the most original and could become quite unclear in action scenes, it is much better than Suashi no Metorite. You can't help but think this promising manga now developed into a full-fledged gem! It's certainly an eye-candy in a psychologically intense scene.

Character: 10

I think this the paragon of this manga!

First of all, I really love the male protagonist. It begins with him saying how talentless he is, but it is implied that he is not a 'no-good' guy. In fact, he's hard working and get something like 80% on his exam (which is quite good). But he's not satisfied as he's like a jack of all trades, not outstanding in any particular way. And there is a valid reason for this being his background... He is not your fluffy shonen manga protagonist sprouting pretty morals and craps. He's an anti-hero (and I like that) while not being completely evil and showing hints of kindness sometimes. He's a man of contradictions, probably after his past reincarnation, which gives his character quite a depth. I will just say though that he's an intelligent character, which makes seeing how he use his ability more enjoyable than other manga with stupid protag (*cough* charlotte *cough*).

Other characters, on the other hand, may be less original, but all of them are driven by a desire as desperate as the protagonists (that they can die for it) for the ability. The female protag(?), for example, is not annoying and quite relatable. Other characters took after their past reincarnations of famous personalities, which are quite interesting.

ENJOYMENT: 10

I totally enjoy this. Probably because I'm a sadist reader who loves dark stuff, revenge and broken MC (*sweatdrop*).

I, got into this manga simply because I found the sypnosis interesting (and the mc somewhat badass-looking). I only learned that it was the very same author as Suashi later. I admittedly had a high expectation before reading this. And it was NOT a let down at all. In fact, it exceeds my expectation.

Personally, I love this manga much better than Suashi. I think the author has progressed much further from his first work.


Overall: 10

This truly is a underrated masterpiece! A hidden gem! I couldn't recommend it more.

Take a bunch of random people from history and make it a battle manga. Basically famous people from history are coming back and fighting each other for reasons. Nothing really matters except they now have super powers based on their most famous achievements.

What's even better is that everyone isn't just some japanese hero you've never heard of. In lieu of twenty different Nobunagas and we get real history figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Darwin, Bobby Fischer, Julius Caesar and everyone in between with pretty awesome anime powers pitted against each other.

The main protagonist is kind of a drag, but plenty of time is spent without him and gives plenty of times to people who matter, like Isaac Newton, Einstein, and loli Hitler.

As a history buff and a fan of battle manga it pumps me up with every reveal. Definitely a fun ride for me.

This review will not contain any spoiler (I'll try my very best not to write it).

In this era, most of manga just contain that "lame-ass joke", "supernatural power that not that super", "friendship power that change the tide of battle", "loving someone because they save you", "that kind of 'duh' mind-battle" or "'you dont say' plot twist". This is really disapointing me as manga lover.

Trust me, this manga contain that shit, BUT!!!!
Read it! Just go on with that lame-shit! But you must know, this is really a different shit!!! This is a whole new shit, awesome shit! You will change your mind after you read it!
Nothing can thrill me like this after I read Death Note like 9 years ago!

Story : 9
Why I cant say this is perfect 10? This manga sometimes give me that feeling of boring, but even it's boring I still give it 9/10, why? Try it yourself

Art : 7
The art is meh itself, even though it has great detail, its doesnt fullfill the represent of human's proportion in right place, but this is still acceptable, because you can tell apart each character on its own. But its shame for me to compare any other artist drawing to Takeshi Obata-sensei's drawing.

Char : 8
blah blah blah, just read the other review for this, this is not real world where everyone has their own mind, this is just a drawing and a narrative story wrote by single person, so yeah its not like they have "that different" way to express thing.

Enjoyment : 9
Still not that perfect 10, this still give me that strange feeling that the author gonna fuck up this manga's logic.

Overall : 9
9/11 would BANG this again!