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Nov 19, 2022
Aliens Area falls into 'that' category of Shonen series... Where initial idea shows potential, but it falls apart when developed.
Which kind of reflects with the fact it got axed. Even the whole setup showed influence of other series, so despite having fresh spark on the paper, in reality it seemed like we haven't seen anything new. It's a mixture of good elements from other mangas, but with a slight lack of enthusiasm behind it. Or rather, it was difficult to get attached to characters, plot or "world building" (power system, mechanics, etc.) from a get-go.
Plot on its own is dabbling on borderline of
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those detective noir novels (of course, painted by Shonen tropes) and sadly it never kicked off in that direction. For this kind of themes, story is heavily driven by characters, who came out slightly flat and emotionless (aside our mc, who had initially had it plenty of, but it got lost along the way). Heck, most important factor for enjoyment of such stories is villain... but at the end,one can only feel disappointment over who villain is or represents. To be fair, author hadn't had much space to develop more than this, given that this manga is only 20 chapters long.
On the other hand, art elevated the quality of this manga and, with some editorial aid in terms of writing, author could make something more impactful in future.
It's short manga. It's ok for an rainy afternoon read, to kill some time. But there are better picks for that elsewhere.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Oct 19, 2022
Damn, this story was such a blast. I watched anime ages ago and liked whole idea, but messy end made me hesitate picking this up.
I've noticed people labeled it as "Female Berserk", but this is a whole another story and such comparison somewhat hurts quality of Claymore. Yes, it is gorey, yes it has effed up "demons" and yes, MC seems unable to get a break from suffering. However, story is driven toward whole different path.
Premise is that there is a world, where sometimes demons pop up and slaughter innocents. As their countermeasure, there are Claymores, silver-eyed witches that share demonic blood and
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hunt these vile creatures down. Initially, manga did give bit vibe that this won't kick off in a way it should; beginning felt slightly drawn out (pace-wise) and characters were harder to click (mostly due to a looooot of deaths).
Claymore is a story about accepting yourself, about knowing your limits, figuring out your strengths and finding how not to isolate ourselves due to our flaws. On moments, it can be brutal, quite wholesome or comedic and I believe author portrayed characters' relationships fairly realistic (with few tropes that hurts this portrayal, but hey... not all tropes are meant to be dodged).
Art style is gorgeous, it goes hand in hand with creative display of powers/abilities.
Characters tended to seem bland at first, but once they are given enough attention, we can see depth in most of them.
Story is a blast. I was worried how will it all wrap up and I imagined all the ways it would go bad and I am thrilled I haven't guessed any of them.
The only reason I am dropping a rating for one is slow start and slightly messy early stage of final battle(s).
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Aug 10, 2021
I was quite excited when I heard news of Bleach One shot, despite still having murky after-taste of chaotically written last arc in original manga. And I am happy for many fans who still feel the same, but this seemed as underwhelming revival.
Whole one-shot danced between "hey you are long time fan, you know these people" and "Let's make it totally new". For me, this didn't work out. All the faces I knew felt like complete strangers to me, while newcomers felt gray-ish.
Pacing itself was all over the place. Yes, author wanted to set up base for new arc, but at same time
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it tried to connect with its predecessor. In doing so, it felt like TK was eager to return and repair damage from original series, but at same time wanted to move on and "restart" it in a better way. Either direction would be fine, but trying both at the same time didn't click for me.
Plot(twist) itself was okay-ish. Idea was good, but it has issues blending with already established world. Made me wonder how such a big thing had such weak dealing with it and how pessimistic whole ordeal sounds.
It is unclear whether author can (clearly want) proceed with more than one shot; can he make this a series. Despite having support of fans, if I was well informed - Bleach was only one of Big 3 that ended up getting axed by Shonen. In any case, with news of anime returning (and fans talking about repairing damages) and this one-shot being announced, I was hoping more for return to stuff TK wanted to fix. He is immensely talented writer and I know if he were to return back, he could've done things way better.
Reason I am leaning more toward repairment is mostly because this whole one-shot gives some sort of Boruto vibes. Not that I mind having key character going from dad to kid, but I don't know would it work for Bleach.
From looks of things many were quite satisfied with this one shot, I wish I was too. Bleach was what got me into anime, yet it never reached its full potential.
In any case, time will tell. His art-style and character design are still amazing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 7, 2021
"Star that burns the brightest, burns the shortest".
If we were to rate this solely based on the brilliant beginning or a disappointing ending, we would have to go to very extreme of marks.
Whole story started off brilliantly; pace, characters and plot twists had us all hooked on. Anime that followed did great job on expanding the audience, as well as doing decent justice to the source material.
As time progressed, it was becoming more apparent that the author had planned out quite far ahead of the story, showing through foreshadow that he is indeed talented writer. He tackled fairly serious topics, revolving it
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mostly about politics (from war, through controlfreak leaders, to innocent ones sufferings), which provided good food for thought. By following Eren's story, I found myself debating on righteousness and approach, about power and revenge.
However, at the series finale, it felt like author wasn't sure how to wrap it all up, and as the climax was reaching its end, disappointment grew larger. It is apparent that author wanted to "tell the world" about price a freedom can have, about his view on oppressed and oppressors, but from writing point of view, he took an easy way out.
World building was fair, although it felt that it could've been expanded much more. A lot of has been left to the readers imagination, which undoubtedly will, at this point, be chaotically painted.
SnK had some insanely memorable moments, ones that are worth for the history books, undeniably. Sadly, it crumbled under its own weight of story; perhaps the massive expectations of the fans aided to this. For all that it has given us, promising beginning, extraordinary middle and disappointing ending, my ratings went from 10/10 to, final, 7/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 4, 2018
It never ceases to amaze me how a person can find almost anything he/she is passionate about, covered through the eyes and the heart of fellow artist. Sometimes it gets really popular, and sometimes the art is getting dragged through the slums, never reaching the wider audience.
Break Shot is in the latter category. Question that naturally pops up is - is it justifiable placed there?
Do note that this review may not be 100% unbiased, due to me having underdog stories as a guilty pleasure, which are easily found in most of the sports manga and anime.
Take on the story itself is rather simple. Our
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main character is infatuated with the billiards, and most of the chapters focus on showing his sharp mind leading his passionate heart through bunch of matches and championships.
At the second half of manga, we are introduced to some mystery elements, which pace of revealing is slightly slower than preferable.
Art style is sort of (what I deem) classical for the late 80s, and whole take on the plot and character development fits that mold as well. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it is quite gradual, and it takes time to do so.
Very nice amount of characters do feel quite unique, even though obvious focus is solely on main character, both skill and personality wise. Perhaps it is because it is billiard we are talking about that the characters feel... less brute, and more intelligent, which makes it as a plus in my book.
Of course, like most of sport mangas (especially ones published by Shonen), Break Shot as well follows some tropes. Although, given how long ago it came out, I do wonder is it perhaps among trend/trope setters instead. One of the tropes that was avoided almost completely was development of love interest. It exist, in a way, but it isn't even part of the focus.
Despite it all, Break Shot do offers quite an enjoyment to a reader. It is thrilling to observe how will the main character deal with perils on the pool table. Not just him, but how other characters deploy their tactics, how they think (mangaka did good job on developing enough unique tactics among individuals), how they deal with mistakes etc.
I think Break Shot came too early for sake of todays readers, because it is extremely difficult to find whole manga translated to English. At one point, I had to switch to Indonesian translations, just so I could finish the story (God knows I didn't manage to understand it all, but one can connect the dots enough), so if you do consider taking this manga to read, be prepared for this issue. It will be worth it though.
Question I have given to myself at the beginning of this review has come for its answer:
From the overall quality of the story and manga itself, Break Shot shouldn't have ended in the slums. Yes, it has tropes. Yes, it has slight dose of surrealism, as does every sport manga published by Shonen (although, Break Shot really tried to keep that at low amount)
However, it has to be acknowledged - billiard is not enjoyable to everyone. If you love billiard, you will most likely enjoy this manga. If you are sucker for sport stories, you may like this manga. if you appreciate when majority of characters actually do have brains, you could give this a go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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