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I don't get what it is with manga authors and using Alice in their titles.

Anyways though, Alice in Hell is a manga about this fucked up kid who is a genius sniper in a post-apocalyptic world. He saves this woman who just so happens to be a leader of a commune, and so she takes him to the commune to live.

This manga is far from perfect, but I have to give it props because this is a manga that felt complete all the way through. Sometimes, some manga can have an issue where you can tell that the author had to inorganically change their story ... because of external factors (health, time issues, reader criticism, etc.).

In other words, the author had a vision for the manga, and he completed it, and I respect that.

However, that doesn't mean that the manga is particularly good. I think the author really wanted to just portray a really fucked up post apocalyptic world where things just constantly go wrong. And things go wrong a lot. Large conflicts escalate from small incidents, and the author does a good job of making it believable.

However, I think while there are obviously themes in the manga, it feels like the author is trying to portray more of a scenario than providing a message. That isn't necessarily bad, but don't go into this manga expecting some kind of deep thoughtful meaning.

At the end of the day, the manga might seem like it wants to be about the communes and the overall life of people in this world, but it's actually only a story about Shuu, the main protagonist. And I think it's best to keep it that way. The android that the entire manga is based around, Alice, isn't even actually talked about as much as you would think she would be. The whole android mystery thing (what are these androids? Why do they exist?) is never really explained, but it makes sense because it doesn't actually matter that much to Shuu. As I said before, the story is actually only about Shuu.

I think I rated it higher because I think the story felt complete. It's not a masterpiece, but I think it is an interesting read.

7/10

I didn't get this manga.

This manga is about a high school girl who has a crush on the 45 year old manager of her family restaurant. That's all I knew about this manga coming into it, and I purposely stayed away from learning anything about the manga because I had heard a lot of good things about it and I didn't want to get spoiled.

But I didn't get this manga. At first, I was just deeply uncomfortable. I didn't like the way that this girl had a crush on this middle aged man, and I didn't like the way that the man didn't just immediately ... rebuke all her actions.

But then I kept reading, expecting it to get better somehow, and I began to think that the series was about how the author could turn this weird situation into something of a nice friendship between the two characters where they both learn the value of having someone with a vastly different life around you or something. Maybe something like Domestic Girlfriend where the story randomly pulls you in. Maybe the story did accomplish that on some level, because I kept reading, but finally I started to think that this story maybe had to do with how each character was able to rediscover their own passions (with the girl, running, and with the guy, writing).

I think that the story is all of these things, but I also think that it somehow isn't either. While each of the things that I stated above are delved into a little bit, I would say that the story ends up being more slice of life where nothing really happens instead of some kind of character drama. So I don't really know what this manga was trying to go for, which is why I say that I don't understand this manga.

But, to be honest, something kept me engaged to the story the whole time, and perhaps that's what matters. It's a short story, enough to be finished in a day, and each of the side characters are pretty charming, even if they only stay side characters (which is to say, not much happens with them).

This manga was released in a seinen magazine, but I think that it's way closer to being a shoujo. Not only does the story deal with the thoughts and experiences of a teenage girl, it also has the shoujo feel. The art style is drawn in a certain way, and the way each of the characters interact feel indicative of a female perspective, if that makes sense.

As a young male, I feel as though I may never understand some of those feelings or some of the actions of why some people act a certain way, and I'll just accept that as what it is. I've never had an unreasonable crush on someone twice my age, after all.

With all these thoughts, this manga is sort of hard to rate for me. I don't think I was entertained and I also don't think that I particularly enjoyed this manga, but on some level I understand that maybe I just didn't understand this manga.

So I'm giving a 5/10.



Post Script Notes:

https://medium.com/@ChristopherInoa/after-the-rain-is-thankfully-not-a-problematic-love-story-f5ae58ea3771

https://www.yuristargirl.com/2019/09/after-rain-volume-5-delivers-right.html

https://beneaththetangles.com/2018/02/23/what-would-it-take-for-you-to-approve-of-after-the-rains-romance/

Having read a couple of reviews on this manga, I wanted to point out a couple of things:

I feel as though the author shouldn't be praised just for not having the characters have sex or develop some sort of more intimate relationship. I think that that should be the bare minimum. However, throughout the entire story I always felt this sense of uncomfortableness that resulted from the weird, almost will they won't they relationship that developed between the two main characters, and I think that that in of itself made this series worse for me. Maybe if you're ok with that then you'll like this series more.

If you read the synopsis of Break Blade, it will say that this story is about a couple of friends who all went to the the same military school. One of them is the Captain in the army of Athens, one of them is the King of Krishna, one of them is a a magicless farmer living in the countryside of Krishna, and one of them is the soon to be divorced queen of Krishna.

But really, this is a mecha story is about a political conflict. There are four main countries in this continent, which are the Commonwealth of Athens, the Kingdoms of Krishna and ... Assam, and finally Orlando. Athens is the largest country here, and Krishna and Assam are both countries that once were part of Athens, but eventually broke off. The whole central conflict in the story starts because the King of Assam is assassinated, most likely due to influence from Athens. Due to this, a civil war soon starts in Assam, with one side being supported by Athens and the other side supported by Orlando. Athens eventually wins, but it blames Krishna for allowing troops from Orlando through, so it soon starts a war with Krishna as well. While this core conflict is hinted at, it is really only formally explained in chapter 59.5 of the series, which is quite a distance in.

So to write a better synopsis: This story is about a central conflict between Krishna and Athens and how our main characters get caught up in it. There is a little bit of a side lore sprinkled in involving magic and quartz which ultimately does not matter at all. And, just for fun, there is also more irrelevant lore about some civilization of advanced ancient people who made the mecha that allows the main character Rygart (or Lygart or Rygats depending on the translation) to be relevant.

The story wants you to get involved in each of our main characters mentioned in synopsis, but if I'm being honest their character arcs weren't that compelling to me. It is done well enough, and some of the characters do go through some character growth, but I think these characters were pretty stereotypical and not much stood out to me. What is interesting is how each of these characters are in such high positions of power and how they have to put aside their own feelings for the sake of their country or their other loved ones. Hodr, the Krishna King, and Sigyn, his wife, in particular I feel as though do not get enough screentime for them to be especially relevant.

Something that I do want to mention though is that you can sort of tell that while the author has some really cool ideas that they wanted to implement, it's just unfortunate that this kind of Game of Thrones esque story is hard to pull off especially in manga form. Halfway through the series the story pivots to some of the internal struggles within Assam, but at the same time there is supposed to be some sort of conflict happening between Athens and Krishna that just is not shown or mentioned. The story basically ends without even actually resolving the conflict between Athens and Krishna. I still think the ending is fine because the main character does reach some sort of conclusion, but this is a story that felt like it did not reach it's fullest potential.

As for the reading experience itself, the translations are a bit rough, but the art and action are both solid. I am not the biggest mecha fan by any means, but I think I kinda get it after reading this series. The combat is done in a way that feels faithful to the world, with a lot of effort being needed to chip away at the mecha's outer armer before finally piercing or crushing the cockpit with either a bullet or some kinda of weapon stab. The action is hard to follow at times, but the author also does a good enough job of allowing you to see who is operating which mecha and how that affects the flow of each battle.

Final score: a strong 6/10 to a light 7/10

Spoiler free short review:
Trippy psychedelic and unfinished manga that has the semblance of a story, but seems more interested in showing you the trips and hallucinations of the main character. Also has surprisingly strong world building with the establishment of a pretty interesting dystopian sci-fi world (think Blade Runner), only filled with drug addicts. Worth a read if you want a trippy experience.

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I've read a couple of Koike Keiichi's works recently. For the most part, they are these very trippy experiences that feel like nonsensical dreams without any set plot. The whole manga is supposed to feels like a psychedelic trip, and Koike Keiichi does ... a good job of adding to this feeling with creative paneling and some breathtaking art. There's rarely any dialogue in his works, but that plays to his strengths as the progression of each manga is led directly through the artwork and paneling.

Ultra Heaven, although unfinished, may be Koike Keiichi's magnum opus. There are only three volumes, but a remarkable amount is covered in these volumes, especially with the details on each page. Unlike much of his other work, this manga actually does manage to follow some semblance of a plot. I think you really have to work to uncover this plot, however, as much of the manga is focused on the main character Kabu's trips, and subsequent flashbacks and dealings with past trauma. The first volume is focused on setting up the world, where drugs are commonplace and people can even go to bars where instead of drinking cocktails, they take drug concoctions, called pumps, which is really just a needle that is stabbed into the hand.

However, through the next few volumes, the story gets a bit weird as we delve a bit more into Kabu's psyche and some of his unsolved trauma, and eventually a sort of mega cult that uses technology to connect people's consciousnesses together is also introduced. It's weird but I think there is a good amount of enjoyment to be had trying to piece together what exactly is going on, as well as what is real and what is another one of Kabu's hallucinations.

It is a shame that the story is unfinished, but if I'm being honest I feel as though this story only would have another volume or two to give anyways. It did feel like the author didn't exactly know which way to take his story, and although there still was a bit left to be explored, I'm not exactly confident that this author would have been able to resolve everything in a satisfactory manner. Still worth a read though, if you want a very unique manga and you also love psychedelics or something.

Strong 6 to maybe a very light 7.

This is, to put it simply, smutty pulp noir done right. (I stole this phrase from someone on Reddit but this description was just too perfect)

This manga, written in the 1980s and set in the distant future of 2014, follows a private detective named Goku who dies and then has his right eye replaced with a cybernetic eye that allows him to control every computer in the world. Also, he is given a steel stick that extends to make him seem more like Son Wukong (hence the name Goku) from a Journey to the West, but also works like a gun. Don't try to think ... too hard about it.

There's a ton of action, enjoyable 80s noir vibes, badass fights, witty one liners, and more often than not the women are naked. It's nice that everyone involved is in their twenties and actually an adult, which apparently a lot of Japanese mangaka have trouble doing. There's a lot to enjoy about this manga. I don't think the story is incredibly well done, but this is more of an atmospheric or vibes based manga.

Something to note, however, is that I don't think you can read the entire thing online. The manga was translated and published by two separate companies, Viz and ComicsOne. Viz only published 6 chapters in one volume, covering the Yoko, Ryoko, and Leila ars, but they are colored so it's a much more enjoyable experience. ComicsOne, however, publishes the entire story in three volumes, which includes four more arcs (Yuko, Bonnie, The Floating Island, and Kassandra).

I think you should be able to count the series as finished if you only read the Viz translation, but I went on MangaDex and the other arcs happened to be published in Spanish, so I just Google translated everything to understand what was going on. They are pretty solid as well.

Overall rating: 7/10.
I think this is worth a read even if it's just for the vibes. Don't come in expecting a mind-blowing masterpiece though.

RaW Hero is a work done by a man who is mentally insane. I guess that's already obvious because this is the same author that made Prison School, but this series is on a whole other level. Just from the first chapter alone, you can tell that this is a series that you can not take seriously and also in the same vein can not expect to be any semblance of "quality."

All this series wants to do is to be weird, to be unpredictable, and it covers this up by calling itself a gag manga. And honestly, it is pretty funny. I actually laughed a ... couple times reading it.

I think that this is a manga in the same vein of something like Golden Boy, although I think that this is just way funnier. To enjoy this manga, you can't expect anything out of it. You read this to laugh a little bit and to see all the ecchi shit that happens.

I don't know if I can recommend this manga to any normal member of society, but I do think that if you enjoy something like JoJos or Golden Boy or Prison School then you might derive at least a little bit of entertainment from this story. Plus, it only takes like a couple hours to read because it's so short.

I gave this a 5/10, close to a 6. Decently funny series that doesn't try to be "good" in any way.

Shimeji Simulation is a weird little manga. I mean, you can sort of understand what you are getting yourself into just from the very beginning. A girl who was a shut in for middle school decides to go to high school, and she also grows mushrooms on her head and she also becomes best friends with a girl who has a fried egg on her head.

Does any of this make sense? Not really. And honestly, many of the things in this manga are purposely meant to make no sense. Here come the spoilers now, although it's already in the title: these characters (probably) live in ... a simulation.

But that doesn't matter. What matters, ultimately, are the vibes of the manga. The story is there, sort of, if you search for it, but similar to a manga like Blame!, a lot of what I think this manga wants to be is just to be weird, nonsensical, and also have cutely drawn girls wander around this weird mess of a world.

Perhaps there is a lot that the author wanted to say with this manga. I personally am too lazy to go back through the manga and analyze it deeply for some deep hidden meanings. But, I think that the author also purposely made this manga bizzare as a way to encourage the reader just enjoy the vibes without thinking too hard.

If you are okay with slice of life, and you also accept this manga for what it is, then I think it's worth it to read it. It's boring, yet interesting if you look for it, and I think that dynamic was fun to have.

I'm giving this manga a 6/10. Not to say that it was bad or not a masterpiece (because this is one of those works where I truly think the author has to be a special sort of manga author to make), but this manga is only what it is, and that is Shimeji Simulation. Give it a try if you're bored, I think that it is at least somewhat worth your time.

I wish I could've enjoyed this manga. But, the truth is that it just simply is not that good.

There is so much potential in this manga, but I guess Ozaki's writing skills just weren't good enough at this point in her career, as the execution is just short of terrible. I loved the premise of this manga, where there is a mysterious immortal man who eventually has to take care of a teenage girl. I thought that their dynamic would develop into some kind of wholesome father daughter relationship. As the series went on and more characters were introduced, I also thought that this would ... develop into a more philosophical series where there doesn't seem to be a good answer to the challenges presented. I thought that the important characters would go through their own character arcs and have a nice resolution. The series never really did into any of these things.

I think my favorite part of the manga was during the beginning third of the manga, when the story was still being developed. I think the villains were introduced very well, especially with the character of Yuca. I loved Yuca's introduction, and I loved the explanation of the Methuselah's past that came along with that backstory. But, after this, the manga just kind of devolves. I can tell that Ozaki had a good outline of what to do with the story, but nothing is actually followed through well. I know I said just a few sentences ago that my favorite part of the manga was during the beginning, but in truth that may be the only actually decent part of this story.

As the series goes on, many of the main characters start to feel crazy and inauthentic. The main character, Machika, starts to become unbearably annoying, and originally interesting characters such as Sharem become simplified and one dimensional. Yuca, who I thought was the most interesting character, did a 180 and started to act in a way that felt out of character.

The worst part of this manga for me was the romance. It's just so bad. I was immensely uncomfortable anytime anything romantic was shown. Machika is too young a character, and I felt that she didn't really have any chemistry with Rain. At some point it starts to feel like all the romances (background ones included) only happen because the author felt some need to include needless romance in the story.

I hate to say it, but it just feels like there is no reason for anyone to read this manga. If you want something with that same old school 90's sci-fi feel, go read Trigun. If you want a very, very good story about an immortal man who has to protect a teenage girl, go read Blade of the Immortal. If you want a good romance story that is better than this, go read anything else because the bar isn't very high. If you want to read something else by Kaori Ozaki that is actually very good, try either The God's Lie or The Golden Sheep. These series, while short, were good enough for me to try out this series just because they shared the same author.

I rated this manga a 4/10, but truth be told I think this score might still be too high. I decided to give it a few extra point(s) because the art is good and also because I'm biased due to how much I like Kaori Ozaki's other works.

Golden Boy is the worst manga I've ever read. While I wouldn't really want to recommend it in general, I think that reading at least some part of this could still be entertaining because of just how weird it is.

And this manga is very, very weird. I personally did not love the anime, so I started reading the manga with no prior information hoping that it would get better. Instead, the manga only gets worse the more you read it. It reached a point where I was physically cringing during almost every chapter, and I had to take multiple breaks from reading because it was ... just too much.

I think Golden Boy works best if you just show out of context screenshots to people. Some insane (and I mean insane as in I seriously think the author has some kind of mental illness) things happen in the manga, and those things are pretty funny if you just take them out of context. Over the course of the series, however, I found that the antics of the manga just got tiring.

At some point in the manga, the author seems to stop caring about writing a coherent story, or even writing a coherent anything. Instead, he just has the characters have sex and start ranting about society and life, usually all at the same time. I got tired of those real fast, but the author seriously has some pretty delusional (and a bit hypocritical) takes sometimes. Some of those rants honestly sound like the stuff you'd hear from a crackhead out on the street at 2 am.

The sex is also just really weird. Some things that happen in the manga include, but are not limited to: mind control, statutory rape, rape in general, NTR, crossdressing, and urophagia. If you're into that, go ahead, but I think you would be better off reading a doujin.

I see that other reviewers online have hated the art. Personally, I thought it was decent enough, as the quality of the art fit everything else pretty well. It's not the best, but I think the art is just a product of it's time.

There's a lot of things that happen in the manga that I could talk on and on about, but I don't know if I can even remember them all, so I don't want to list them all out. Other reviewers on MAL do a pretty good job of doing that already. I will say, however, that the ending is pretty atrocious, as the series just abruptly ends without concluding anything in the middle of a story arc.

For most of the series, I was feeling a pretty strong 2/10. I only give 1s out to series that completely piss me off, and the first half of the manga is just plain bad, but not bad enough for me to actually get annoyed. That started to change more towards the end of the manga when literally every page became a struggle to read.

Final Rating: 1/10

tl;dr: probably not worth reading unless you want something that is so bad its entertaining, except it's not that entertaining most the time

Nausicaa is a masterpiece. and it might just better than anything else Miyazaki has ever created, Studio Ghibli movies included.

Most people finding this manga will have already watched the movie, as I have, so lets just get the differences between the manga and the movie out of the way first:

Firstly, the movie is actually the adaptation of the manga, and not the other way around. Furthermore, compared to the movie, the manga encompasses a longer, more complete story, and frankly it is just a higher quality in general.

I admit I am biased because I enjoy reading much more than I enjoy watching, but I believe ... a lot is gained from consuming Nausicaa in the manga medium. The movie is cool, sure, but the manga contains far greater depth that any movie could ever hope to achieve. The movie only encompasses the first two volumes of the manga, and it also has a completely separate ending.

When I talk about the "depth" that the manga has compared to the movie, I mean that because Miyazaki wasn't constrained as much while drawing the manga, he was able to create a work exactly as he envisioned it, without any compromises. The movie could only cover around two hours of screen time, but with the seven volumes of the manga, Miyazaki has all the room he needs to explore every inch of the story that he envisioned. It's because of this that the manga carries with it a sense of completeness, like it accomplished exactly what Miyazaki wanted to do.

That being said, even though this story a certified classic, I don't think that I got a level of enjoyment from this manga that equaled its quality. In other words, although I appreciate the quality of the manga, I didn't actually enjoy this manga as much. I think that this was more to do with my personal taste just not matching up with what Miyazaki wanted to create.

I honestly didn't really like how the story had this depressing tone permeating throughout every volume. I think a healthy dose of depression is almost essential for any great manga, but this story just beats you over and over in the head with the message of "humans are evil and a cancer to nature." Things just die and die and humans do terrible things over and over again and it got tiring for me.

As a result of this, Nausicaa is not the most bingeable manga. I personally love binging manga and finishing things pretty fast, but this manga just had to be digested slowly, with every volume needing its due time to digest.



***Starting now, I will be discussing some parts of the story that may contain spoilers, so skip this if you are worried about that***

There are also a few parts of the manga that just made me uncomfortable. I didn't really like how all the people just started worshipping Nausicaa. It was probably symbolic or something, but it just made me feel kind of weird. There's also a wide prevalence of the Miyazaki style/mentality, which is basically just "war is bad, environmental damage sucks, and flying machines are cool." It's cool at first, but at some point halfway through the story I got pretty tired of just how often Miyazaki would hit you with the "war bad" message.

Towards the end, I think I got a bit burnt out by the manga, and I just did not agree with the ending. I thought that it was a reversal of Nausicaa's character, because in the end she basically decides to just kill off a bunch of unborn people who were supposed to be the people who repopulate the earth after it was pure again. I also personally didn't like that Nausicaa destroyed the crypt, although I guess it makes sense as overall commentary stating that some knowledge should never be gained (I'm pretty sure this was a metaphor for nuclear warfare). Just to be clear, these aren't things that I would actually want to change in the story, it's just that I personally didn't like some parts of the story because I can see a message that Miyazaki is trying to send, and sometimes I wouldn't agree with the message.

***spoilers end***



tl;dr Nausicaa is a masterpiece, but that doesn't mean that it will be the most enjoyable manga to read. Definitely read this if you are a fan of manga in general, and I recommend it even more if you are a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre, or if you like depressing media.

To me, this manga isn't a 10/10, just based off of my personal criteria where I think a manga has to be both exceptional in both quality and enjoyment. Nausicaa definitely hits the mark quality wise, but enjoyment wise, it just wasn't really there for me. Because of this, I'm giving it an 8/10 overall.