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Sep 27, 2022
I'll begin this review talking about the anime of N°6 first, because it's how I discovered the novel and because it influenced quite a lot my reading sessions so bear with me just a little. When I first watched I liked it, honestly it was a nice take on the dystopean/utopian system without anything mindblowing but the athmosphere was veryenjoyable, while Nezumi and Shion had quite a good chemistry I think it was honestly the athmosphere I prefered in the anime.
But years passed and N°6 the anime wasn't something I remembered as a work that had struck me. One day just like that, I
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decided to pick up the novel as I had the chance to get a hang of it in physical form -though the 3 last volumes weren't translated in my language due to a lack of populariy - The very beginning is honestly like I remembered it, a delight, the first episode of the anime really did justice to the great first scenes Asano sensei exposed as the introduction to the readers with the "fated meeting".
I must say, the writing is not always that subtle or smooth but it was so pleasant, I could read chapters and chapters without feeling tired of it. There aren't a lot of modern light novel that I had this much pleasure reading not talking about the story itself but the writing style (I know it's not a light novel, but I found the format pretty similars).
Anyway, after the first few volumes, I got to the real quality the novel format and lenght coupled with Asano great writing revealed of n°6 : the characterization, I already had a gist of the overall trope of each main and secondary characters from what I remembered of the anime, but I didn't expect to intrude this much into their psychology in the novels. While the nuance brought to the characters isn't that different it captivated me to dig deeper into each of their fear, joys and overall thoughts that would solidify my conception of them as existing entities.
This realisation did take a few time from the moment I picked up the first volume, but I think it's also what made it more special during the last moments. From then on, my heart was with them during the whole journey and never left them.
The rythm of the narration was almost very good to me, not everything was perfect but I liked taking it slowly with shion and Nezumi, when they had a scene either serious or witty, the scene wasn't rushed and it was made sure it was the only focus at the moment, while asano still made sure the progression of the story was consistent.
I said I prefered the athmosphere from the anime, but clearly from the novel there's so much more to like the dynamic between Shion and Nezumi, the little thoughts only we know parasiting and enriching the conversations and KARAN, such an appreciable character and I don't even know why ! And at one point I just automically assimilated the best qualities of the anime into the novel and it made it into such a nice experience.
Watching back on the anime, I don't think I can watch any of the episode of it honestly except the first one for the epic scream, the novel is just too superior to compare, but the visualisation of some elements definitely added to the reading.
TLDR; great novel, great main cast and conflicting positions. Sometimes not very subtle or perfect elements in the narration but makes an amazing story for the heart.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jun 23, 2021
I'm pleased to see in the reviews a lot of people appreciated this seemingly under appreciated work compared to its homologue in the jump (chainsaw man, jujustu kaisen). It's a pretty full story, I feel like the conclusion was very well brought together. Though I'll have to talk about the final battle later.
I really liked the main characters, Gabimaru and Sagiri and not only themselves but their relationship as criminal and executioner who have difficulties coming to term with each other's point of view, transitioning into a companionship of trust and finally a true bond of affection.
The first chapters did an absolutely amazing job of
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characterizing Gabimaru effectively and in a meaningful way. Same for the ninja village which actually interact only one time in the story during the last battle, and really this village "worked" as an entity, as a character in itself.
The others secondary characters which also worked in a pair of two had each their own lot of differences to surpass and I feel like I really grew attached to each of them until the end. Though I didn't retain a strong impression of one of them as much as I would have wanted.
I would say in the cast the only weak links would be the rest of the executioner coming in the midst of the chaos, so there wasn't that much time to make something out of them more than subtle and quick introspection of their personnalities. (still really effective and well implemented in the story!)
And the antagonists who even with some efforts I could never differentiate whom from whom, so tells a lot.
As for the story, I think the author managed to get everything out coherently but maybe a bit slowly. When we begin to learn about what tao is, it seems the author really don't want to make just one big reveal, he went into full on explanations adding some eastern philosophical concept. Not displeasant at all, but just.... those were mostly the part I could easily lose interest.
The main theme of the story seemed to be "humanity", while presenting some fanstastic elements it got close to what the human heart "is", "is supposed to be" or "could be" and the understanding of it.
Of course the way this manga got on it was not totally original but made enough in its own way to make me feel for it.
The art ... Is really good, no way around it; I appreciate how the artist has this rough and precise style making him recognizable. This "rough" feel can also serve the action. Each of his panels containing action gets more really intense. The transitions are spot on and the ryhthm of combat make it a pleasure to follow.
And so that's why I was kinda ... disappointed.... that we din't get more. Yeah, it's not like the final is bad it's more like, it feels very short (subjectively). Still this last one was excellent and the best fight to finish on.
So yup, overall really appreciable and I'm looking forward the anime adaptation and the author's next work >>
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 23, 2021
Requiem of the Rose King... has... its problem, story wise with lots of randomly random events and concerning its characters development that can be quite incoherent..... But.....
I just love this manga. As much as I actually understand where people could see bad elements in there... It didn't bother me at all when I was reading it.
As this manga is "inspired" by the "Richard III", Shakespeare theatrical work, so it's not surprising to see the story taking "overly dramatic" routes with lots of emotional conflicts form misunderstanding, stories of betrayal or even some "scenes" etc... But it doesn't try to hide it and just makes
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it part of the manga "identity", so again : it don't really bother when reading.
Of course this point of view I present, is subjective and as I said I do understand where "Baraou no souretsu" may not seem attractive to people story-wise....
BUT
The ART! The ART is absolutely gorgeous, I can't say I've never seen "better" elsewhere and even much better in term of realism or movement , or lanscape, but the author has such a way with faces and subtility when drawing people. There's a huge gap here compared to her previous works. As if the dramatic tension the story brings just let her transmit more emotions in a new manner.
Even if it were for only this artistic aspect of the manga I'll still truly consider buying every volumes, when I'll be able to.
I didn't really reflect much about the characters and how "good" they are, because as in a real theatrical works, characters are more ones that "undergo" more than "act" and really influence the plot. Apart from 2 or 3 main characters, I have to say most of the cast is actually weak and it doesn't help that many of them are jerks (tho this point does have coherence in the atmosphere the story wants to install, it's just a pesonnal preference).
In the big picture, the manga is enjoyable and despite the light storyline it follows, the author manage to make it up with the atmosphere and the way she deepen her characters with internal or external conflicts beautifully portrayed with the art.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Jan 23, 2021
Most of the reason I'm giving a poor note to this note is mostly due to how much people hyped the ending to me which I can understand could be emotional for people involved but... I couldn't feel any connection to any of the characters.
I can understand why sides characters had to get easily recognisable traits as they are mostly the focus during one episode only. But, it's a shame, the anime didn't manage to compensate the problems that came with it; as in, making the main charcaters the real deal, so that we can put our every focus on them.
Even for Nana from whom
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we get a lot of her thoughts and thus should feel more involved with, I couldn't care less.
The animation is pretty good with nice colors. The "climax" was not super well introduced in my opinion, nothing too bad but it felt flat as there were way too much new elements announced in the end than there were concluded. And while that may work for stories that would involve more plot significance, it's not working as well here.
It's not a bad story at all, the concept seems pretty enjoyable without being too ambitious but I guess it didn't go into the type of development I expected and didn't managed to surprise me. So.... don't think I'll be interested if a season 2 comes along.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 23, 2021
I'm not one to often write a review, so don't take this commentary too seriously.
(I've read everything but for the sake of my mental sanity, for the moment, I'm not taking into account the 70 last chapters that... well you'll see)
I understand why some people wouldn't appreciate this manga and the old fashioned humor but as a whole I think it manages to et over the lack of solid story or its weak set of orginal characters.
The characters are clearly copy pastes of a lot of similar mangas but honestly they still get their own little characteristic trait permitting them to have their own
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"mini- development arc" (except Kinoshita-boy, tho he is the real MVP).
As for the story, (tho I'm really biased as it was one of the first mangas I read when I was 7 or 8) it's just a blast to see so much goofiness, and I feel like we don't need to care if everything transitions well or if things actually make sense one by one. Because I'm just focused on the page I'm reading, and I'm not gonna lie, I was actually super involved in the dramatics moments even when it just mix into the comedy, the characters are so extremely serious about it, I just get into the story a little too much.
The art is really correct and pretty much similar to most of this type of manga of the time, but the breads drawings are super cool and made me actually hungry.
So as I said it's a 100Pourcents sure that I have no real objective vision but as I re-read it 10 years later, I still think it's as much fun as I remembered from beginning to... maybe not the end, and a pretty wild ride into another world of "gourmet reactions" type manga. (I actually prefer the type of "reactions" we get in Yakitate ja-pan than what is in food War which get a little old as it doesn't differ a lot, when here... Everytime it just gets better - until chapter )
(WARNING FROM THERE IT'S JUST A TOTAL MESSY RANT TO HELP ME COPE WITH THE ENDING)
.... And I would have loved to stop here but... What the heck? I discovered I never read the last volume of the manga when I was a kid and... I honestly never should have. The author was obviously on a cruel rush to finish in a way or another may it be satisfactory or not.
I mentioned how I loved the reactions, their originality and "unoriginality" at the same time. Same for every characters that managed to have a specific role throughout the story. But, man, right after that katsuo duel.... Everything went downfall, every character just became unfunny running gag, they lost every flavors that made them appealing and were just ghost of the past struggling to sruvive in the publishing world through incoherent and an even more poorly storyline than ever before.
It's not hard to understand what went though the author mind who, more than ever, doesn't hesitate to break the 4rth wall and comment on the bad absurdity he pushed onto his own work.
Thing is, it's not like the humor is drastically different, he didn't either brought out a new plotline with brand new characters out of nowhere. No, everything is built over what was alaready presented and developed but... I think the author just stopped caring, and tried to satire his own work.
The story was never a seriously thought out, solid one but everything that made it... so refreshing didn't even just disappeared it went straight to the trash. I'm just so sad to me, to discover how one of my now ex-favorite manga ended and collapsed on itself.
I just needed to say that, no need to go into the analysis od the"arcs" or "characters in themselves, just read it and it'll speak for itself; nothing to debate honestly.
Sorry for the super long review, I have a really complicated relationship with this work.... (and like I said, no need at all to take evrything I said seriously))
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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