Faisa_Dragon1

Usually, I don’t review anything that is still ongoing and that I haven’t dropped after a considerable number of episodes/chapters. After 857 chapters of One Piece however, I feel like I have formed a viable opinion. Also, I don’t know if I’m gonna live long enough to see the end.

Story:
One Piece follows the story of Monkey D. Luffy on his way to become the pirate king (whatever that title implies), making friends and foes along the way as his crew grows in numbers, strength and notoriety. There is one thing that sets this manga apart from most other shounen titles however, and that’s the creativity of Eiichiro Oda. He knows exactly whether the story needs more drama right now or more comedy and the plot unfolds bit by bit, but only as much as necessary to keep interest. I mean, after 20 years we still have no idea what One Piece, the will of D or the lost history are, but we learned about other things along the way. But still, that would not be enough for most people, so why does One Piece not get boring? Well, one major factor is that “Oda never forgets”. Remember that little comment from a character 12 years ago? That’s an important plot point now. That new character? First mentioned in 2000. Hey, isn’t that the one guy they beat up in chapter 319? He happens to be an important person on the island they just arrived on. A heavy continuity in a long running series usually alienates potential new readers, but here the lore is never too deep for newcomers so that they would feel left out. Another big plus is the setting. The crew travels from one island to the next, not knowing a thing about the different locations of the world (except maybe for Robin). Therefore, we get to see all kinds of different themes on the visited islands. From prehistoric settings to Egyptian deserts to islands in the sky or underwater, there is always something fresh, a new climate and a new culture, a friendly or hostile environment, you never know. Sure, you will hear people say “One Piece jumped the shark with the XYZ arc”, but that’s normal for a manga this long. People either complain about how it changed or that it’s repetitive, you’ll never make everybody happy.
Except for the Simpsons, I think we can all agree that they have sucked for at least 10 years now.
10/10

Art:
Back in 1997, One Piece looked unique. To some, it looked ugly, so it had a bit of trouble picking up readers. But all it took was a little time to get used to it. Still, Oda’s artstyle isn’t the best around, neither 20 years ago nor today. That’s not saying it looks like shit, not at all, but it seems as if he has trouble drawing a normal human being. He makes up for that with crazy character designs that only got more crazy as time went on. A big point of criticism in recent years have been the female bodies. Realistic females have never been a staple of anime or manga, but in One Piece they not only look unhealthy, but rather impossible. Their breasts are twice the size of their heads while their waists are merely as wide as a thumb. That goes beyond sexy and into uncanny valley territory. In total, Oda has good ideas but occasionally trouble to put it on paper.
6/10

Characters:
At this point I would take a look at all characters that are somewhat important or worth mentioning individually, but if I did that for One Piece, I would need to write a goddamn book. With a series this long that tells a tale of traveling, naturally the character count will be in the multiple hundreds. And here’s the thing: Almost all of them are memorable and unique. While the story in itself may not be all that special for many, you will have a hard time arguing against the fact that the cast of One Piece is simply amazing. Not only do they all have their own distinct design (though females are starting to look more and more the same, sadly) but they also all get a different personality. After all, the fun thing about travelling is meeting many interesting people and that is what the Straw Hats are doing. Characters that are a bit more important to the story usually get plausible motivations, and even though their backstories aren’t all deep stuff, it’s more than enough for a story of this kind. Also, as I mentioned earlier, Oda never forgets. Sometimes, you meet people more than once and the same happens in One Piece. Sometimes they used to be important but aren’t anymore, at times unimportant side characters get a major role, other times they are just as dangerous or useless as they’ve been the last time. In total, the characters embody the fun the story wants to spread among its readers and they stand as one of the best casts of a shounen manga that ever existed.
10/10

Enjoyment:
What can I say that I haven’t already? One Piece is fun. It’s exciting at times, but always hilarious and it owns the shounen genre like no other work managed to do since. In terms of quality (and length) it has surpassed its spiritual predecessor Dragonball, so if you are a fan of that and somehow haven’t checked out One Piece yet, you totally should. While some weaker phases are inevitable, the weak parts of it are still far superior to those of works like Naruto or Bleach. Long story short, One Piece is a MUST for shounen lovers, but also worth at least checking out for anybody else.
9/10

Overall:
8.75/10

I really enjoy witnessing the fans of Kimi no Na wa and Koe no Katachi arguing which one is the better. The comparison is pointless in regard, since they were adapted from different sources, but it is interesting to observe how they keep the purposeless argument continuing. But let back to the main reason why I was here.

A Silent Voice.

The title is easily confusing reader of its concept. They thought this was a series talking about a girl with disability in hearing. But no man, it isn't. If you weren't the insider in this matter, you couldn't speak in behalf of those unlucky, because it was just like forcing one's personal beliefs onto others. And as Hachiman Hikigaya realised what his expectations onto Yukino Yukinoshita were, those beliefs would end up being a sham, you know. So the story of Shouko Nishimiya was not the content, and she would only play an important role at best.

Normal people do have silent voices. And in the protagonist's point of view, those unhearable sounds reveal themselves. He was a bully. Yeah, now we are getting in to the genuine core of this manga. He had bullied the poor unlucky girl. But when they met again, the situation just made a 180-degree turn. He was also a victim of bullying. According to that, I could say that silent voice was his. A soundless speech of the culprit who did the bullying. A silence from the one who eventually became a bullied. Unspeakable words about how he felt, and obviously he couldn't voice them, because it was what he deserved. Still the regret of his childish actions left him speechless. The author has prepared a a splendid stage for the show and that's why he deserves my credit. The outcome was so easy to predict, but he has done well taking me all the way.

Honestly, there is only one difference between the manga and its adaption, and it is how that silence was shown. In manga, it's just in some frames with thoughts or nothing, which was easily to overlook. However, the anime has done well voicing it non-communicatively. There could be monologue, words spoken, but they couldn't reach others, as the main character didn't transmit it verbally. But the viewers couldn't turn a blind eye on them, because they are meaningful details and irreplacable binders of the story. In this point only, I believe the movie has surpassed its creator, and the sound effect has never been more impactful than that.

As I said, outsiders shouldn't speak their mind of the matter, so I can't judge the development in term of personality among the characrers good or bad, but at least it convinced me.

The art was great, as the author used a childish style of design. Reading it is just like watching the main character reminisce, about his childhood and the scars existing there.

This was just a splash in my mind, as I sud-denly thought of it. And The Sounds of Silence there were beautifully ringing to my open ears, telling me what voices never share. This is not my favourite, but well done, Yoshitoki Ooima.

--This review is intended for those who plan to read the novel therefore, it is free of spoilers--

"Kazuki Hoshino. I’m here to break you. This is my 13,118th 'School Transfer'. Even I can't help but get annoyed after so many. So for a change, I'll proclaim war." Those are the words that Aya Otonashi proclaims to our dumbfounded protagonist in the start of the series, and surely, this line not only perplexes the characters in the story, but us as well.

The simple setting of a 13,118th school transfer is enough to pique your interest as this is something that is obviously uncommon. Fortunately, the first sections of the novel hints of an intricate plot in contrast to the introduction that usually leaves a first impression of a clichéd rom-com act(It turns out to be anything but). The plot would gradually unravel the underlying dark theme that is behind something that is seemingly bright.

Hakomari’s narrative starts by introducing our protagonist Kazuki Hoshino, a rather typical student with an anomalous attachment to his ‘everyday life’. Our protagonist is in the belief that there is no difficulty that cannot be solved by the continuity of everyday life. A belief he later finds to be challenged by no other than the transfer student of phenomenal beauty, Aya Otonashi, who with every school transfer throws the class of 1-6 into confusion and chaos through her stunning looks and resolute personality, and her introductions and statements that unerringly leave the class flabbergasted.

The manner in which the first volume is narrated is somewhat unique. It tells the context of the plot by gradually unravelling the events in the story through an experimental anachronistic manner. (This experimental manner of telling the story would be one of the best aspects to be found not only in this volume, but the others as well, but is most eminent in this volume) It is this manner of narration that I would describe as the glue of the entire novel. The author would always follow a constant perfect pace in character and plot exposition, unveiling his well-thought and complex plot that infallibly leaves the reader impressed.

Plot-wise, the story is narrated in a way that resembles a detective novel and is somewhat reminiscent of Death Note. This is no other than due to the fact that the novel is partly mystery. It sets the pace of the novel by pre-emptively unveiling a mystery that drags the reader to its pace and leaves the reader glued to figuring out the happenings. What’s amazing is, Hakomari is not a detective novel yet it surprisingly does it better than most detective novels and would even rival the acclaimed Death Note in terms of complexity. It has become somewhat of a detective novel because the reader would constantly engage his mind in thinking, constantly trying to figure out the reasons of the events, constantly analyzing the statements and dialogues of each character while evaluating if they hold water, only to find their conjectures more or less wrong as the author unravels his grand scheme. This only serves as a testament that the plot is well-thought and effective because the deception is reflected not only on the characters, but also on the readers – you cannot help but get fooled into thinking what the characters were thinking.
One might even call this novel a quasi-detective novel if not for its disparate focus.

With regards to the supernatural aspect of the novel, the narrative first reveals of the existence of supernatural wish-granting machines called ‘boxes’. These boxes are what sets our novel into perpetual motion. It introduces boxes as something that grants our wishes to the extent and limited by how much we believe in the wish, in other words, a 'box' grants wishes exactly as the person pictures it, that means whatever doubts you have in mind would also be brought to fruition. The idea of a box granting a wish distorted by one’s own beliefs is already enough to catch one’s interest, what’s more interesting though is the possibilities that come along with it that become more or less the core of each volume. In other words what gives this series its spice is not the idea of a flawed wishing machine, but the realization that such a premise has the potential to achieve unique and entertaining plot lines. These said boxes are the complete antithesis of our protagonist’s ideal ‘everyday life’ for which he would constantly seek help in order to neutralize and return to a semblance of his everyday life, even to the point of cooperating with his antagonistic rival – Aya Otonashi.

A bonus that comes off from the nature of the boxes is it becomes well-defined. (Death Note for example has its rules written down for the viewers.) This limits the author to reason out the happenings in the plot unlike most series which involve the supernatural that leave explanations to plot convenience. To add to that, despite having a well-defined set of premises, the author still managed to make a very entertaining, unique and outstandingly dramatic story out of it, which I think is very difficult to do. It does the explaining far better and more intricately than say… genie stories where the source of the story’s plot progression is the malign intentions of the genie in granting wishes, where the author can easily manipulate the actions of the genie to fit his mould of the story rather than constructing a logical plot built on well-defined premises. And when I mention ‘genie stories’, I refer not only to genie stories per se, but it extends to all stories that involve the supernatural but altogether fails to construct a coherent plot.

Despite all the praise Hakomari has, all of it would be impossible if not for the well-rounded and well-conceived characters. From the self-sacrificial perfectionist Aya Otonashi, the unbreakable Kazuki Hoshino to various other characters such as the cryptic and intelligent Daiya Oomine. The cast consists of a set of various characters who come along contrastive personalities at times, but in no manner is any character introduced or portrayed as an airhead. The characters all posses a degree of intellectual independence where the absence of which often leads a story to banality since we rarely find high entertainment value in a story where a protagonist’s inherent ineptitude constantly becomes pivotal to a story. In other words we won't be seeing our clichéd and stereotyped males who are inept at everything they do and our unreasonable females whose insights defy all logic and is commonly attributed 'female intuition'. Actually, we get some of this to a certain degree, but they primarily serve as comic relief.
It is also interesting to note our protagonist's character development as he changes his perception of 'everyday life', some may find it as progressive and some may find it loathsome.

The characters and their respective actions are certainly well-thought that we could sympathize with despite them being fictional. They portray reality very accurately that we can’t help but think that the actions they take bear semblance to what we would. This accurate portrayal of reality would inevitably make others feel that the story bears more semblance of reality and mystery rather than supernatural despite it being the main element of the novel, an aspect that makes the reader attached to it like he is with reality, despite the fact that the story is fantasy/supernatural. To evoke attachment to supernatural fantasies is something rarely achieved in the history of (supernatural) literature as they usually feel ‘distant’.

The author (Eiji Mikage) is able to truly manifest his skills in writing in this novel. He manages to display versatility in sub-genres throughout the volumes by shifting from mystery to commonplace mundane themes and even to engaging in light existential and ontological allusions which he usually integrates to his plot. He blends several elements such as psychological, tragedy and even slice-of-life (as some may perceive it) uniquely in each arc resulting in the readers having mixed feelings. He would also insert his timely scenes of comic relief. Exercising the skill of stacking multi-layered plots through each volume, he would further surprise his readers by unveiling a bigger picture that could have only have been written coherently if the author already has the story conceptualized and laid out in his mind, and only has to fill in the details.

With all of that said, Hakomari is one of the best of stories that has surfaced into the literature repertoire. It is a must read recommended for almost anyone as it explores different genres that reach and appeal to people of different tastes. It always leaves the reader impressed through its outstanding narrative and convoluted plot that would always leave the reader with a satisfying explanation, and always urges you to want to read more through other volumes. And despite this being a novel, where music and animation are absent, I would say that it delivers far more entertainment value than most series (including animations) because it exercises your imagination through its rich narrative that would at times border between metaphorical and literal statements, and unveils a plot that barely falls short of perfect.

That being said though, I wouldn't recommend this to the typical elitist who finds that anything involving teenagers and a school setting is abhorrent and would rather stick to his deliberately ambiguous impossible-to-decipher ultra-philosophical anime. Nor would I recommend it to people who find critical thinking to be a chore.

Ok… I kind of went ‘WHAT?’ to this manga. The storyline is really short and it was interesting to find an almost completely wordless manga out there. It sort of showed the storyline rather well and made a bit sense but the ending was really feeling like I had missed something to the story. I read it two times (it was really short so it didn’t bother me none to do that) and I still can’t figure out why it’s called Gong Bao Chicken except for a small comment.

The artwork is well detailed but the lines are really thin so sometimes things blend in with each other a little too much. They don’t seem to show up rather well but I guess since this is the dream world, it is supposed to be unclear. It is very bishonen with the man looking a lot like a woman. It’s a good one for those that only care about artwork instead of the words or just want to see a manga with not very many words.

I enjoyed the manga even though it had faults in rather small areas. The over all one was a rather interesting experience.

Allright, here goes a first review in my life ever

Story- overall I could've seen potential. The story starts off in a way that it takes you off your feet, the story overall was fair, being plot idea and everything. Completely different from Vampire Knight. The more you read into the chapters, the more you'll somewhat understand the plot, because it's kind of centred around the main character more then it needs to be. She kind of ruined it for an ending; felt more of a one shot then a series.


Art- With no doubt, the art style was very good! the scenery may not be Your Lie In April Worthy, but it was good. Nothing more to say here.

Character- Alright, this had me very confused: The story starts off with a bunch of characters you'll most likely not give a crap about later in the story, which kind of sucks a whole lot because there's one character that was very important in the very beginning, who aren't even listed as characters. It definitively needed more detail and backstory to the characters besides the main one. Gives very little backstory or anything to other characters ever.

Enjoyment- I enjoyed reading this, with the plot holes and descriptions that needed to be filled, it was alright.

OVERALL-
This story is somewhat still of a cliched. But then again not as cliched as Vampire Knight, which is always good. The reason why I had given it a four is because the ending of the first volume ruined it's potential. Felt like a one shot more then anything, and I would understand if it was one in that case. The characters needed to not be all thrown in your face, but the story needed it to go on. Somewhat.

REASON WHY I LIKED THIS MANGA:
The story simply combines the modern age with the cliche shoujo every girl loves. Although from my perspective, I feel dirty shipping with such high age differences. Once you read the manga you'll understand what I'm going on about.

You should definitively give it a try and see how it improves.

Haruwaka is an erotastic story. The word erotastic that I borrow from the main character, describes how ero it is as well as fantastic. The fantastic point comes from its illustration tho'.
Haruwaka tells about the twin sisters who fall in love and date the same guy. Haru and Waka are happily date Ono even if it becomes threesome relationship. Haru is more girly and childish while Waka is collected and mature enough. Ono himself is the ero mangaka who dedicates his life to draw 2D manga and everything about 2D, 'til he dates Haru & Waka. The "dating" itself is the reason why everything gets complicated afterwards.

Technically, the twin sisters are "dating" Ono. But, Ono himself views them as his material for eromanga (which actually this-kind-of-just-being-inspiration-for-manga develops into real feelings). The lewd scenes are plenty, but it's not without reason. The character leads to erotic scenes for manga material and it's also funny moments. It's not baseless ecchi-ness.

I still admit that the phase or the development of the story sometimes dull or too fast. They are likely to engage in something Ono asks in a sudden even if it's something which is new to them. Of course, it's not without exact cause. They do things because spending time with Ono is their top priority and being chosen as the only one is their goal.

The art is really nice. The char design looks so yummy. The boy looks kewl with masculine attribute on his face. Not too much exposed like the female face, but it's enough I think. As for characterization, Waka has straightforward trait which is really I'm into, while Haru is a bit resistant with something she's not agree with, but because of love and challenge she is willing to cross the border.


I came up with an idea that the ending will not be too good for me, but yeah it's happened as predicted. If you like an open ending where you can wander everywhere with your mind to decide what kind of ending suits you the best, try this one. Many events involved here as it's real dating and interesting like by the time they go out for summer vacation, the homeroom too, hanabi, cultural festival at school, karaoke dating, and so on. (RATE: 7)

It is a good story over all. But it is confusing some plot lines, and this is my personal bias (because of being trans myself) but the trans issues did not developed as it promised in the beginning.

I would recommend it to any LGBT+ person but if you are struggling with gender issues, don't read it expecting some way to figure out some way to say something o f yourself.

To cisgedered heterosexual people: if you are an ally and you enjoy LGBT+ content, read it. If you are not an ally, just pass this manga, you are not going to enjoy it, but i still recommend it if you want something that may change your mind.

This story in one word is Refreshing
the boys blunt and direct personalty is shocking and amusing but it creates an atmosphere of believability that many manga lack. He shoots down ridiculous ideas and this manga seems to make fun of common cliche but unfortunately/fortunately some are still left. Fun refreshing and comedic

Hey! Are you of of those people who always create recommend threads about "WEAK MC GETS OP" or "MC WHO LIVES TO SORROW" or "MC GETS CUCK *huff..huff*" or "ANIME WITH TWISTED MORALS"? if yes then it's the one that you might lookin for! *cringe*

Yey! Another typical Isekai manga... and it's a soft-gore one..

The story is good but cliche, Characters are pretty cliche too, especially the "WEAK MC GETS STRONKER"+"MC WITH SAD LYFE" type MC and crappy people who surrounds him that gets kind as he gets stonger blah blah...

The art is pretty good (pure personal opinion)

Enjoyment? I'm not a type of person who always look for "Recommend Mangas that is similar to Berserk"(reads gore manga) but still this one is good and decent(if you don't compare it with other one) I kinda like the god and his servant.

Overall. I think it's niceu just don't overthink about stuffs while reading it.

Story: The story really entertaining with different arcs ,where the mc is filming some upfuck shit and something crazy is going to happend. You will never get boring unless you hate gore and violence.

Art : the art style is really beautiful,good and sometimes 'cute'

Character: The mc looks like an average boring student ,but he has a really weird fetish and only wants to film 'beautiful things' and would not stop recording, unless his family is involved. Other characters have only killing, money and sex in mind ,but are also interesting to read. Most of them are assholes ,but they will get what they deserved.

Overall: Dead Tube is not a manga for you to read, if you want to see a romantic ,cool and good story. It's more like a manga for people who enjoy violence ,blood and crazy faces.