Red Sprite

This is more of a first reaction, rather than a full review. I will update it as the story progresses.

Red Sprite is a manga that started in SJ right after Bleach ended, yet it received close to zero hype, thus not many people have heard of it. The author, Yagi Tomohiro, is also relatively new to the manga industry, having only drawn one more series for SJ, which never took off and ended after 20 chapters. It's safe to assume that the expectations for this series are not set too high.

STORY: I was pleasantly surprised by the story. The mangaka has managed to create a unique setting, which is a huge plus in today's saturated shounen industry. In only 11 chapters he has managed to create a solid world and has given the reader enough information, so as to prevent confusion, while also not giving out too much. The ordeals thundercore humans face are also very realistic, hence the main cast's troubles stick with the reader.

The progression of the plot is also a potential selling point for this series: this series is quite fast paced. For example, the main character doesn't start off as a total weakling as in other popular shounen. Instead, the first arc begins after a time skip, during which the MC has acquired enough strength to be able to protect himself and his crewmates.

The first arc is both unique and standard. That sounds contradictory at first, but while the premise of the arc is the search for the protagonist's childhood friends, the way the mangaka goes about developing it is different to what we've seen in most other manga so far.

As for complaints I have with the story, I guess I'm not entirely sure where exactly it is headed at this point. Sure, the protagonist has set a goal for himself, but since it's different to the goals of other shounen protagonists, I can't see where this is going. That might be a huge advantage to this series, but the mangaka is treading on new ground, which means that there isn't a set recipe he can follow. Instead, everything depends on his skills as a writer, something which he hasn't proved yet.

CHARACTERS: There is not much to say about the characters at this point, since it's too early. The main character is a classic shounen protagonist, somewhat similar to Luffy in my opinion, since he is quite strong, confident and immature, yet has those few moments where he exhibits unexpected maturity. There is a relatively large cast of characters, but most of them haven't got enough time yet, so I can't comment on them. Two people that stand out are his two childhood friends. They have been fleshed out quite well for the time being.

ART: In the beginning the art was average. It wasn't bad, but it left no impression on me. I'm happy to say that lately I have seen steady improvement and certain panels, where the mangaka "flexes his muscles", were very impressive. I can see this turning in a very good looking manga in the future.

(I'm not in the position to write a paragraph about enjoyment yet. This is too early to judge)

OVERALL: I think this series shows a lot of promise and I hope it turns into something great. However, I can't be sure about it for two reasons: First of all, it hasn't got much attention. That's very scary, since this could indicate a premature cancelling of this series, which would be a huge shame. Secondly, I feel that, while it has the potential to become a relatively popular series in SJ, there is also a high chance of the author making a mistake developing the story, due to not following any paved path. This means that there is a high risk of it crashing and burning.

Ultimately, I feel this deserves more attention and would definitely recommend that you check it out.

Edit: Well, it got axed. Sad, but expected I guess.

Red Sprite - Sequel to Bleach (?)

Red Sprite (in Japanese, Redo Sprito) is a manga that started in Shonen Jump (SJ) right after Bleach ended, on August 29. By this, people had high hopes for this series and had hoped that Red Sprite (as a title) would become a regular series in the magazine. That didn't happen and so it ended in 15 chapters. Instead of a great/epic series (as main shonen series are supposed to be), what came to the readers was a series that was desperate for the spotlight and didn't realize its full potential.

The beginning of it all happens pretty much as other shounen titles, which is promising. Our main character Tatsu Frampt, a young boy who lives in an orphanage nowhere near the city, dreams that one day he will be the captain of his own airship and travel around the world alongside his friends, and this is all you need to know. And I know that there is a lack of new shounen adventure manga out there but this is not a good example, as something good enough to be reading inside that genre. I say this because this series wanted to catch the attention of the readers by adding fight scenes early on without any sort of character development and that's a great mistake (as being an error). Because this series was canceled, many characters were not developed or memorable, making it kinda edgy. I must say that the art was something decent but there's nothing special about it. The reader doesn't even recognize the author, even by other works done by itself (I didn't read Iron Knight so I don't count it). Without that, Red Sprite is even worst than we thought it would be.

You can tell that the author got pressure when making this manga and this is the result of a bad planning. As this manga didn't get a badass story, badass character, badass main character or even an ending who is not very explanatory this justify why it gets zero hype. It got axed and people knew this was coming so it's not a big of a deal now.

Story: 3 | Art: 4 | Character: 3 | Enjoyment: 3
Score: 3

Personal Note: I try many times to complete this manga and I didn't when it came out. Eight months later I finally did it but it was not my fault.

Well instead of giving my two cents worth about a series such as Tokyo Ghoul or One Punch Man, I’m going to talk about one a lot less known.
Red Sprite is a manga that ran in Shonen Jump for three months late last year. Unfortunately, for creator Tomohiro Yagi, this was his second serialisation to be cancelled without given the appropriate time needed for complete story fruition.
Before I dive into this review, there is one thing I believe we need to take a minute to think about, and this factor is the only background information I’ll take up your time with providing.
As most of us know, the famous manga Bleach had been on a serious level of decline in the Jump rankings for the last few years. Due to this, creator Tite Kubo was forced to wrap up the final fight and conclusion of the series in only three or four chapters.
What resulted from this was a cringeworthy final battle, and an ending that left out a lot of closure. Oh and of course a tonne of pissed off Bleach fans.
Shonen Jump as of lately has been set on bringing in as many new series’ as possible with Toriko having recently received the Bleach treatment too.
Where does this all tie in? Well Red Sprite was the manga to replace Bleach. The manga that Jump were so quick to shove Bleach out of the equation for its’ arrival.
There is a lesson here and I believe that as much as business is obviously an important factor for Jump, I believe there should be a bit more respect for a mangaka who has shown Jump mostly success for the last 15 years. Come on Jump, at least try not be such dicks in your desperate quest to find the next One Piece.

However, moving on.
Red Sprite was essentially a battle manga.
It based on the concept of the advancement of technology but at a sinister cost. I won’t dive further into the story as I feel that is not what a review is written to provide.
This concept set up for a classic morally right vs morally wrong in fine print, which I will further examine later on.
After reading the first chapter of Red Sprite, I immediately found a few problems.
Don’t get it twisted, it wasn’t a horrible piece of story telling, but the flaws were easily evident.
The debut chapter decided to go via the route of; MC and said side characters share their lives a little differently to the rest of the world but all is okay and manageable. MC and side characters learn that everything they have ever known is wrong and is immensely fucked up. Oh the horror of it all. Ignorance is bliss, right?
New Shonen Jump series, The Promised Neverland delivered a similar first chapter, however with the latter being much more attention grabbing, I found.
The first initial problem that came to mind with Red Sprite was… well, after reading chapter ichi, I probably could have dropped the series and never really reflected back to it.
Unfortunately, shonen battle manga is becoming more and more repetitive with typical clichés, character traits and plot devices.
The series Black Clover, for example, immediately screams Naruto x Fairy Tail.
Red Sprite didn’t so much remind me of another series so bluntly, but it’s set up felt somewhat flat.
Nevertheless, I decided to continue reading.
After fourteen chapters, Red Sprite was removed from Shonen Jump.
I’m going to present some points which I believed caused this cancellation.
By the end of the manga, I had realised two things.
Realisation #1 The MC couldn’t be anymore MC.
To further explain my point: Kentaro Miura’s Berserk is the perfect example of a unique MC because Guts isn’t so self-righteous. The dude has killed an innocent little kid, somewhat accidentally, be that as it may.
And I realise I am comparing a shonen to one of the darkest seinen manga to ever exist. But what I am trying to demonstrate is that with a main character that defies the cliché traits, uniqueness and interest can often immediately be noticed in a refreshing light.
Realisation #2 This is straight up good vs evil.
If there is one thing that mangaka Yoshihiro Tagashi is great at (besides playing Dragon Quest) is his portrayal of villains in his two-well-known series’ Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter. (the ‘x’ is silent, n00bs.)
Villains that cause readers to contemplate if the villains are really even villians, or simply share conflicting interests with the protagonists, creates intellectual rich story telling.

In terms of the side characters, 14 chapters is certainly not enough time to expect any kind of development so I feel it is only fair to leave them unjudged at this point in time.
At times it felt like the story wasn’t really going anywhere in particular, and due to this, cancellation or not, I cannot imagine how the story would have progressed past 20-30 chapters.
A lot more depth would have definitely been necessary for the story to flourish. Interesting world building could have helped dramatically, though again, fourteen chapters simply could not provide this, respectfully.
The conclusion was predictable, but not horrible for a forced ending. I mean, good won over bad, what more can I say.
And that’s just exactly where this manga fell flat. No one will remember it in a year’s time.
The art was itself a metaphor for this manga. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

At this point, I feel like I’m starting to become repetitive (though not as repetitive as Hiro Mashima’s trolls) so I’ll wrap this up.
If you’ve read this far, I appreciate it. It’s been fun.
Feel free to comment on my profile, we can talk about Red Sprite.
In conclusion, it’s unfortunate to see that mangaka Tomohiro Yagi, can’t quite get it right just yet. With Red Sprite failing for different but still similar reasons to Iron Knight.
I’ll still be looking out for his next try and honestly, I hope his next series passes the yearly mark. Ganbatte, Tomohiro Yagi!

This was: Let’s Talk About Manga #1 Red Sprite

I have read 6 manga chapters and really liked it, I'll be letting down what I am thinking of the first impressions of this manga that if you continue the way it is, will have a great future ahead

A great story with a Shounen main character, but this mc has an skill and charisma higher than expected, a manga with great potential, let's wait and see. do not have a pre-conception, you will enjoy this.




I'll keep reading and i hope that the story is still as good or better than it is, and i will be hoping that this manga will have a successful anime.

I had picked up red sprite randomly. Like, really randomly. I scanned for a new manga. ANY new manga. Red sprite was the only manga with 1 chapter out. So I just went in and read it. For a one-shot, it seemed to be very interesting.

After reading 8 chapters, I note a high semblance to the plot and the setting of FMAB in a slightly different pretense.

I believe that this will be a series with great potential. I would follow it closely. The plot really escalated in the last two chapters. I'm sure that the anime would be fabulous.

For what I have seen till now, there are many action scenes and some decent quality drawings. I don't think any more can be said this early.

All in all a great shounen manga with an interesting plot and a prospective storyline.