Jul 1, 2025
I am really sad to rate this title as "(4) Bad" because I was insanely excited to read more and more at the beginning.
The formula of Origin being a socially awkward broke android that has brain capacity beyond human understanding really worked for me. I found the jokes really funny and the characters worked well for me in the first arc. I laughed quite a bit watching how the protagonist is avoiding socialization at all cost not because he is some weeb degen, but because he simply doesn't want to get discovered, and yet still attracting attention because he has not idea how to communicate.
...
Now let's get back to bad rating.
<Fights>
I don't really understand why other people are giving praise to fights because the fights are actually abysmal dogsh*t. Yes, the art is there - we have cool poses and brutal action. But there is no motion, no actual choreography. You often can't track the fighters' movements as they turn into a complete mash of white lines and post-image that aren't even shaded in according to movement order.
<Fanservice>
It is ubiquitous. It will chase you to the bottoms of hell.
Panels with the behind-woman's-ass camera framing will be present throughout the whole journey, up until the last chapters. I believe there are more asses drawn then girls' faces. I was hoping to get a solid battle in the end wit pure fighting and nothing else. I was immediately reality checked by a page wide panel with just a female pelvis flashing a thong under a floating skirt, showing thick thighs in strapped stockings. Yes, we get it Boichi, you can draw very sexy stuff, now can we pleeeeeaaaase get a normal hand-to-hand combat?
The manga also always returns to the trope of the poor android with no money "ha-ha even robots have to work in this capitalism" - and I liked those bits. But the author just keeps going back to this idea all the way to the last arc, Boichi doesn't even change wording, it's just the same phrase over and over "Even a robot has money problems, what a mess" or something like that.
This problem persists into other parts of story as well, characters keep repeating the same phrases and trying to make it look like character development. Our hero is constantly wondering what his father tried to tell him, which is theoretically fine, but he just keeps saying the same thing over and over until some stupid ass pull happens and he "changes" as a human. This "character development" feels so abrupt and disconnected that it feels like I am reading about some bipolar dude spitting nonsense to people around him for no reason.
I mean, imagine if your best friend suddenly started talking like Warren Buffet about some insane finance investment formulas and ideas, then talking like a hobbo who only wants to drink moonshine whole week, and then like Donald Trump blabbering about his greatness. Now stretch this psychotic episode for 90 chapters and you get Origin character experience.
All that said, I beg you to try reading Origin for at least twenty chapters. During these twenty chapters the world of Origin is very grounded and organic, it is fine, it works.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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