Memerulesworld14

I think you'll be better off reading the novel or watching the movie adaptation, anything else but reading this manga. I find the story, being about a piano tuner, a breath of fresh air. However, the story wasn't well-told nor well-paced at all, with none of the characters being really memorable. At the end of me reading this manga, I'm pretty sure I deduced that no major development actually occured to the main character. The art was fine but way behind its time. I think the manga would've benefitted more from having more chapters to spread the story out, but as things stand now, I really didn't have a good time reading The Forest of Wool and Steel.

tl;dr: A manga with no plot, shallow characters, and repetitive comedy, that's sole good aspect is pretty art showing off attractive characters.  

The manga has shallow characters that aren't particularly likable and essentially no plot, not just in terms of overarching plot, but there wasn't much plot to the smaller stories either. It seems to want to rely solely on its comedy and art. In terms of the comedy, it was pretty lackluster, being incredibly repetitive with the MC being the punchline of essentially every joke. In terms of art, it certainly does a good job at showing off the characters and is really attractive in that sense, so I do consider it pretty successful in that regard, but it didn't really grow as it went on so as the manga progressed it felt less and less impactful and not enough to keep the manga from feeling like it was pointlessly dragging on towards nowhere. I also found it strange that in the last chapter rather than doubling down on the only aspect that it seemed to be doing well in, it seemed to drop it entirely in favor of throwing in some random plot, which didn't really work at all. 

Pokemon Go meets Kangoku Jikken...what a novel concept.

The story of Dorie Yuugi is about a typical High School Protagonist dragged into a world of debauchery after downloading a game that allows him to turn people into slaves on a whim. And in doing so is introduced to a massive underground society that thrives on elite wealthy types participating in human slavery. Mysteries of how this world operates, Characters slave and master alike with their own goals in this messed up place. How will he fare?

Story:
Synopsis aside the story itself isn't anything to write home about. If you're familiar with these kinds of stories then you're not in for any surprises. It's very straightforward with little in the way of interesting plot threads. And aside from some charming characters it's pretty par for the course. Of course there's plenty(and I mean PLENTY) of gore, violence, humiliation, and grotesque imagery if you're into that sort of thing.

It does like to play a bit fast and loose with physics. This is supposed to be taking place in a world analogous to real life yet there are times you'll see a man capable of ripping someone head off or punching a hole in a person with their bare hands. It;s not too distracting but it gets a bit silly at times.
I've read this story to completion and, without spoiling anything, I will just say that I was not too satisfied with it. Apparently there is a sequel but I've honestly no interest in seeing it. It's a sort of character arcs type of story which might tell you WHY the ending ended up disappointing me.

Also a lot of mechanics, and plot threads are just kind of unresolved. The app that introduces this very story is soon dropped entirely as just a menu to convey information. A character that has some form of importance to the society is quickly put in the background. Our MC here is apparently of some major significance to the society that is frankly never explained. I wont hold my breath to see if it's tackled in the sequel. Also the ending feels weirdly rushed.

Characters:
The characters in this story are either A. Hyperviolent battle freaks B. Deranged sociopaths or C. Helpless normies. There are some likable moments with certain characters. But they are such terrible people that I find myself unable to really root for anyone. Most of the characters are very VERY one note. I DESPISE stories where every other person is a MONSTER. A slime dressed as a wolf in sheep's clothing. And design-wise it suffers slightly from the "Flashy Protagonists, Bland Extras" trope. They aren't terrible but they arent interesting.

Art:
Okay! So artwise this show has some pretty interesting scenes. The composition is fascinating at times and the artist here has a knack for drawing very...expressive faces. But again, this is reserved for important characters/moments. It's well done though. Visually it's appealing if you aren't put off by gore.

All in all, I found myself reading this chiefly to pass the time and frankly it was just kind of run of the mill. And the ending to me was a disappointing one. I'm trying not to hold that against the author as there WERE moments and characters I enjoyed as well as some ggood art here and there. But when I think of the wasted plot threads, over reliance on shock value, ridiculously flat characters, and bland story I just find myself glad to be done with it. Your mileage may vary.

A very traditional Japanese ending. Manga and anime of today are huge jokes right now (well, at least they're good for escaping reality), but sometimes mangakas create rare gems like this one.

The initial plot really softened the reader up while leaving clues for the eventual ending of the story. In retrospect it was a little obvious, but the build-up was pretty enjoyable and the art was very well-drawn.

If I had to compare the ending with some other manga, I would compare it to "Velvet Kiss" (totally recommend it, but it's low-key softcore). Both had very succinct and bittersweet endings that leaves things open for the readers' interpretations while juxtaposing the two very Japanese concepts of "duty" and "personal desire."

Personally, I think that bittersweet stories like these reflect life very well: it sucks, but people endure and move on.

I don't get it. Bradherley no Basha is basically 8 chapters of abject filth, and it offers its audience no consolation. It's about pre-teen orphan girls getting gang-raped by violent prisoners. The common interpretation of Bradherley no Basha is that it's either a condemnation of the depicted acts or is a mere depiction and should not be taken as anything more. This strikes me as false, seeing as the mangaka contrived the premise of the story illogically, just to force the circumstances where these girls are subjected to the abuse of the prisoners. What I mean is that the reasoning behind giving the girls to them seems unrealistic and forced. This is not a story driven by human struggle, but by the mangaka himself. So what's the point? What am I supposed to get from this? How am I supposed to react?

Some seem to find this manga shocking, but I wasn't shocked by it so much as bored. It's all very unremarkable and, despite its explicit subject, rather mundane. There's no social commentary or realism here and there isn't enough going on in the way of plot or character to keep the reader entertained. There is no tension and no sense of urgency. Bradherley no Basha really wants to shock its audience, but it doesn't seem to be willing to put in the work required. Maybe if the characters underwent proper development before they were brutally killed it would be different, but they didn't and it isn't.

If I had to describe Bradherley no Basha in a word, it would be 'superficial.' Everything about it sits lazily on the surface. The art is easily the strongest point. The characters aren't very distinctive, but they don't matter here anyways, and I like the sketchy style. It's nice. Unfortunately, there isn't much appeal to what is actually drawn. There isn't much appeal to be found anywhere in this manga. It just has nothing going for it. It's bland.

Story: 1/10
Art: 7/10
Character: 2/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 3.5/10

We'll call it a 3, because I was very generous with the enjoyment and art scores anyway.

I'll make this short and straightforward because I was a bit sad to see that it has such a low rating, and I hope I can get you to give it a chance!

Let's talk about the art first, because that is arguably the most charming thing about this manga. It reminds me a little bit of est em, Hidaka Shoko and Yoneda Kou all mixed together: the characters are definitely masculine and very attractive in that manly, but not bara, way. Super gorgeous and good-looking. But then again, what constitutes as "good art" is very subjective. However, if you're a fan of the drawings done by any of the three mangakas I mentioned, I can guarantee that you'll love this.

Plot-wise, the author managed to make the sexual tension between the brothers feel authentic and non-icky. Incest can either be really sexy or downright gross but she succeeded in creating an interesting relationship with their subtle flirtations, and the contrast between their attitudes towards each other - the younger brother is angsty and provocative, while the older brother is cool, mature and aggressive when it counts.

On the downside, the story was a bit too short, cutting out tons of opportunities for character development and more drama to unfold. Still, I highly enjoyed it and cannot wait to see more works from this author.

I couldn't read past the fifth chapter, I just didn't like the art work at all.
It looked like the artist was trying to make the characters 3D, but it just didn't work. Most of the characters look they have alien features.
The story was alright, pretty girl who the gang leader wants but she's not interested to begin with. I would've kept reading but the art was just really bad.

I told my friend about this cute, short, and fun manga about dinosaur-girls. I told him that the art was solid and that the story had a more "episodic" feel to it. I also told him that all the characters were fun and likable (except for maybe Nowol), and it was a treat to see them all interact with one another. I said that it's only two volumes with about fourteen chapters a volume, making it something that is easy to finish in maybe around two-three hours if you need a quick chuckle or heart-warmer. He then called me a dino-fucker and dino-fetishist. He also asked if I go to Natural Science Museums to jack-off. 8/10 just don't tell your unnaturally witty friends.

First of all, i'm doing this review after i finished this manga and currently reading the original Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
(How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend) manga. And i've been seeing clips of the anime adaptation of the original on youtube so i got curious and started reading this series. (Also there will also be some spoilers in this review)

Story: pretty normal/average plot progression and aki (the protag) got me pretty annoyed when he got eriri really mad at him for helping another artist (izumi) with her booth at comiket and he didn't even choose eriri's work when eriri asked him which one he prefers more.

Art: It's really good (this was pretty much one of the reasons why i started reading this series) kinda reminds me of the artstyle of "kyoukai no konata (beyond the boundary)" and i also love how eriri's facial expressions have been drawn.

I recommend that you read this manga if you're into the rom-com (romance comedy) genre, and if you're into doujinshi works since there a parts in the story where the character eriri works on some doujinshi.

Unico is a fairy-tales-like shōjo manga from Osamu Tezuka. It was started in 1974 in the short-lived magazine called Ririka.


Tezuka is known for crafting some of the first notable shōjo manga, with for examples Ribbon no Kishi in 1953 or the shōjo version of Hi no Tori in 1956. Those stories were for their time quite interesting ; definitely cute, stereotyped but with some little twists here and there, with cartoonish humor and compelling stories.


But then, 20 years after, in 1974 Tezuka did a new shōjo again, Unico.
Basically Unico is the same than those two manga, but without any humor, the little twists aren't there either, and there no real story anymore : you just repeat again and again the same motif because Unico forget everything between each chapter.
That's the main issue of that manga : no story, and thus no real character. It was really a boring read.

The other issue is simply that between Ribbon no Kishi and Unico, the content didn't really evolved, yet there is 20 years of difference between the two works. During those 20 years, there was some authors like Hideko Mizuno, Moto Hagio, Yumiko Ooshima and others who really changed the face of the shōjo manga, with more deep and complex stories and characters.
Tezuka said it himself in the postface of Unico : Unico is anachronistic, by being too smooth, too cute for being cute and with too flat, one-dimensional characters. You can't compare Unico to, for example, Wata no Kuni Hoshi from Ooshima, another manga for young girls from the same period than Unico.
Tezuka is known for being a precursor, but with Unico, he was really has-been.


Is Unico a bad read? No.
But if you are planing to read some old shōjo from Tezuka, you might as well read Ribbon no Kishi or even Hi no Tori that are more interesting in my eyes, more compelling.
And anyway, Unico was published 10-15 years too late.