I'm heartbroken this manga didn't make it past two volumes.

This, hands down, has to be one of the most unique and interesting plots I've ever seen. And normally, I'd be the critical guy, here... because what makes a manga good (or any story, for that matter), isn't its ideas, but how it presents them. It's clear in the very fabric of Time Paradox Ghostwriter that the series got axed right out the door, but even so, the mangaka were able to wrap it up in a way that I still found worthwhile.

It's no surprise that people took offense to the plagiarism element of this manga, because people can find a reason to be offended by anything. In my opinion (and I'm stating this for the sake of the review, here) everyone should be able to understand that stories have always explored topics that cross social taboos, and finding ideas "offensive" or "insensitive" are not meaningful ways of interacting with media. Ever. Period. Doesn't matter where you come from or what topics you balk at. Boundaries are superficial, cultural, and very fluid. Everyone has different lines, and they will always be crossed somewhere.

With that out of the way, I think Time Paradox Ghostwriter was a fantastic story with wonderful art, and an intricate, unique setup that uses this element of social taboo in its very premise. We get to see a protagonist who does something quite pathetic out of some tangible desperation, in a workplace setting and sci-fi time travel story that I would never have been able to conceive myself. The genius of this is that the main character is constantly drilled with the idea of making a manga that isn't "hollow," a manga that only HE could make, something unique, original, personal. With a message, too. That's exactly the manga itself! It's wholly unique, original, and personal -- but unfortunately, it had to bumrush its message.

If given enough time, the weight of his plagiarism, the passion he feels for his work, and the lives of he and the heroine could have been explored in quite a beautiful way. For what we got, though, I'd say the managaka did very well.