Category: Review Index

[Manga Musings on Mondays] Nijigahara Holograph – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

 

Created by: Inio Asano

Chapters: 12

 

What do I see here? It’s another M in the Day’s column of the calendar. And you all know what that means, don’t you? Uh-ha! It’s time for another manga review!

This week around we will be talking about quite possibly my favorite mangaka of all time, Inio Asano and his nearly impenetrable puzzle-box of a manga, ironically titled Nijigahara (Rainbow-Field) Holograph. Let’s break it down.

 

THE PREMISE:
A set of interconnected stories spanning 10 years in the lives of people who inhabit a city and have nothing in common apart from knowing a girl who sits by the Nijigahara embankment and says that a monster will come and bring an end to the world as we know it.

 

       

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YOU and ME and HER: A Love Story Visual Novel Review – 80/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Game Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47

I will preface this review with the following. Much like Subahibi the less you know going into this, the better. In this review I will have a spoiler section that I will clearly label and that section will contain spoilers for this game and one other. The other game I am referring too will be openly apparent but despite it being a spoiler section I will try to keep things vague regardless. So if you don’t want to be spoiled then do not read past the obvious warning but also I strongly say that if you hold any interest in this game then it is best to experience it without foresight. The game will be released on Steam on May 25 at time of writing but is currently available on the JAST USA store fully uncensored. I will say that it does hold some content that could rub people the wrong way but if you are a veteran of VNs or even completed Subahibi then you are more than capable of getting through it. This is a fairly liner visual novel that took me 11 hours to complete and it is strongly recommended to do three playthroughs.
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[Manga Musings on Mondays] The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

 

A new week, a new Monday, a new Manga Review! Hello, dear sir/ma’am, it’s extremely gracious of you to take time out from your busy schedule to come check out this post. I am eternally grateful. Now, with the formalities all out of the way, let’s jump into this week’s review!

Today, we will be talking about Satoshi Mizukami’s seminal work, Hoshi no Samidare or The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and how it parodies genre stereotypes while still being a highly thrilling and heartfelt story at its core. Let’s break it down.

 

THE PREMISE:

A talking lizard seeks a boy’s help to protect the princess, Lucifer, and save the world from the evil witch who intends to destroy earth by crushing it to bits using a hammer with a biscuit-shaped head.

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[Manga Musings on Mondays] My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

Created by: Nagata Kabi

Chapters: 6

 

Welcome, friends and foes alike, to week 3 of Manga Musings on Mondays. This week I try to give my thoughts on Nagata Kabi’s critically lauded auto-biographical tale, My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. Let’s begin!

THE PREMISE:
A girl in her late-20s tries to come to terms with her sadness and inability to form human connections by developing acceptance for herself; weird, ugly, broken pieces and all.

 

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[Manga Musings on Mondays] A Distant Neighborhood – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

    Created by: Jiro Taniguchi

    Chapters: 15

     

    Hello and welcome to Manga Musings’ Week 2! This time around, I look back at another series which is a favorite of mine but is not as popular among modern manga fans, Jiro Taniguchi’s opus, Haruka na Machi e or A Distant Neighborhood. Let’s dive in:

     

    THE PREMISE:

    48-year-old Hiroshi Nakahara is mysteriously transported to his 14-year-old-self back when he was in high-school, with the memories of the life he’s lived still intact. He slowly comes to terms with being out-of-time and out-of-place and even starts enjoying being given an opportunity to relive his life once again, only to realize that his actions have consequences on the future in ways beyond his control.

     

         

     
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[Manga Musings on Mondays] Let’s Talk About Ethics. – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

 

Hello, one and all!

As you must be well aware, all the shows airing this season have been adversely affected in various stages of production which has led to multiple delays or a considerable decline in quality. These are not the most exciting of times for following seasonal anime but on the flip-side, it’s a great time to sit in the comfort of our homes and read up on some manga!

And so that we can read along together, I shall be starting a new weekly series: Manga Musings on Monday. As the title suggests, every week, I would be going through a manga and posting a write-up with my thoughts on it on, well, Mondays. The manga I’d write about would be decided on the basis of a poll at the end of each post (scroll down to see the one for next week). The poll options would be a mix of series from my personal TBR and your suggestions (feel free to comment down below the series you’d like me to cover next and I’ll make sure to add it to the next poll).

Though, there are some ground rules put in place.

 

Firstly, due to the self-imposed constraint of posting the write-up every week, I would also have to finish the manga I start each week before the following Monday, at the latest. So, it would be preferable if you would recommend and vote on shorter series. Over time, I do plan to cover series like Kingdom, Holyland and Psyren but that will have to be done in chunks (maybe a few volumes per week) and for the time being, I want to put my best efforts into making MMOM a weekly feature.

Secondly, I would not be covering massively popular series like Demon Slayer, MHA or Yakusoku no Neverland. Instead, my main objective behind starting MMOM is to highlight lesser-known and under-appreciated gems of the medium. Also, I don’t dislike any particular genre but have a soft spot for josei, seinen and stories with dark, psychological undertones. So, covering something along those lines would be right up my alley!

Alright, with that all said, let’s dive in to the first manga!

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The Case Files of Jeweler Richard Anime Review – 71/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

It’s nice to see some rare gems like Housekishou Richard-shi surface in anime medium once in a while. It’s about a niche subject matter that is gemstones, and how these jewelries reflect the quality of its owners. The show also builds up a solid relationship between the main duo Richard and Seigi, although it remains ambiguous till the end whether their relationship could qualify as “romance”. The cases vary in its delivery and quality and frankly my biggest issue with the show is that I find a real lack of engagement to the main characters, each has traits that I found unrelatable.

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Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia Anime Review – 65/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47

I am certainly a bit late with this review but forgive me as the Fate/Grand Order mobile game decided that now was a fine time to drop the first chapter in the second big story arc of the game and laziness due current circumstances of which you are no doubt aware. Considering the number of Fate adaptations we have been getting in recent times, I wouldn’t be surprised if that new Fate Grand Order Chapter got an anime adaption in the future but well that is something for another day. This anime is yet another spinoff to the Fate series and if you know anything about spinoffs you would know that Fate is a bit rocky when it comes to their quality. From the boring Fate Extra Last encore to the mixed bag of Fate/Apocrypha to the weirdly excellent Today’s menu for the Emiya family to the sadly disappointing Lord El-Melloi case files. Many a Fate adaptation we have gotten and even as a Fate fan I wouldn’t say they were particularly good. Still what we have here is an adaption of a story from the Fate/ Grand Order mobile game, otherwise known as the emptier of Nasufan wallets. Not the first adaption as we did get an anime adaption of the prologue of the game in Fate/Grand Order First Order which yeah, wasn’t really much good. In a strange twist of fate this adaption is not really the continuation of that OVA but the seventh story chapter of the game, basically skipping the previous six(Well there are a series of three movies which will cover the sixth chapter Camelot)

 

To make things clear from the onset, if your question is “Can I start the Fate Series from here?” the answer is a solid no. For anime only fans you will likely have to watch the holy four(Fate/Zero, Fate(No anime adaption at time of writing), Unlimited Bladeworks, Heaven’s feel) and the First Order OVA but even then this likely wouldn’t give you everything you need to enjoy this anime to the fullest. Quite frankly, this anime is a fanservice anime and in that I do not mean the kind with panty shots and breasts that jiggle at the slightest drop in room temperature. (Though there is some fanservice of that degree as well.) I mean that this is an anime made by fans for fans, that namely being fans of the mobile game. Fate GO Babylonia does not hold your hand and instead barrels forward with it’s plot regardless if you are on board or not. There is only the bare minimum to try and allow the viewer to catch up on six chapters of missing content but it more or least assumes that you not only know what has happened but even know the gist of what is going to happen. There are plot points which will fly over your head if you don’t know your lore and even the main villain’s motivation needs some knowledge of mesopotamian creation myth.
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MHA Season 4 Review – 80/100

by Amunchet, posted in Anime Reviews, My Hero Academia, Reviews by Amunchet

My Hero Academia is the forerunner of modern shounen – the descendant, if you will, of Bleach, HxH, One Piece, and Fairy Tale.  With 2 movies, 4 seasons, infinite merch and cosplay, MHA is a force to be reckoned with. With that in mind, Season 4 proved to be a transitional season, with our lead Midoriya moving forward in the world of heroes and All-Might fading, set against a backdrop of a world trying to cope. 

(I’m also part of the movement to make 50 the new average score, not 70.)

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Magia Record Anime Review – 65/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Reviews by SuperMario

(Little side note: Not meant to start a civil war between us writers but I’m a firm follower of 60 being a line that separates recommendable to mediocre shows. You pass your subjects if you get over 60%, right? Review-aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritics also use 60 as their middle line. So 65/100 means it’s slightly above average) 

Magia Record has a huge hurdle to clear: being a spin-off of one of the most talk-about anime in the last 10 years. This new adaptation doesn’t have the original writer Gen Urobuchi on board, but the background duo of the original Gekidan Inu Curry helm the project with Shaft returning to produce it. The result is a good indication of this transition and of the fact that Magia Record is based on a gacha game. Magia Record has some stunning art designs that fit its dark themes like a T and Shaft does a pretty decent job in terms of visual directing, soundtracking and shot composing, but the show suffers from its lack of focus to the main story, and introduces far too many characters that aren’t well developed. Magia Record uses the settings set by the original quite consistently, with some brand new updated concepts such as uwasa (manifestations of actual rumors) and doppel (materialization of despair from the magical girls), but as the story progresses it feels as if Iroha the main character wanders around for side quests rather than her main quest of finding lost sister Ui whom she has no memory of, as a result Magia Record feels hollow, superfluous and incomplete.

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