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Feb 22, 2024
The long and short of it is this: there are a thousand better stories for you to read, even among the "comfortable trash" genre that this story occupies. It's not like it's awful, and for a short read that you can blow through in a couple of hours it's not the worst place to waste your time but it's just kinda bland and lacks soul.
If you're looking for comedy you'll find a bit. It's not always fantastic, but some jokes land. If you're looking for romance read something else. There is nothing new to be offered here. If you're looking for fanservice, you'll find
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it, but not in enough volume to call the series "ecchi", nor of the quality one might hope for.
Story: 4
There's not much to say for a story as simple as this one. There's a guy, there's a heroine, there is a supporting cast who have quirky one-note character traits, and that's about it. What little there is in actual plot progression is nothing to write home about. And, in regards to the ending, it is obviously the product of an axe... so don't expect a satisfying ending.
Art: 6
Not much to complain about with regard to the art. It plays it safe and doesn't get much "wrong", but it doesn't inspire. The only complaint I have is that, if the author was trying for the fanservice angle (which they increasingly seem to be as the series goes on), the che characters are not detailed enough for it to have any effect, and the style feels a bit too cushy to leave a lasting impact.
Comedy: 7
The comedy is OK a lot of the time. I chuckled a few times, though never uproariously, and the author did a good job when jokes landed. Not all of them did, of course, but all in all the comedy is fine.
Overall: 5
If you're looking to turn your brain off and just waste time this is a fine place to do it, but it's really nothing special. There are plenty of better places to go if you want to experience anything of worth.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 3, 2020
I have a bit of a soft spot for whimsy, so when I cracked this open with basically no context for what it was, I was happy to find a fun slice of life story about 4 high schoolers playing with kids toys. For a 21 (and 2 extra) chapter read, this series provided a light, enjoyable experience for the time that it took.
Those familiar with Dagashi Kashi might find this appealing for its similarities - and indeed it has a few. In both execution and premise, Bandai Kaname wa Asobitai is very close with Dagashi, but it is inferior. Characters in Bandai have
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less time to develop and are more one note, whereas Dagashi both has longer to develop, and better written characters. Bandai has average art, and Dagashi has great art. Bandai barely has a story, whereas Dagashi has time for both story and fun.
What I'm trying to say is this: Bandai Kaname wa Asobitai is a fun, whimsical, nostalgic romp that you can read in 3 hours. It isn't amazing - nothing to write home about - but it's the kind of series that you can enjoy despite that. But, if you're tight on time to read, I'd encourage that you try Dagashi Kashi before coming to this. However if you've either already read it or have the free time and you find the description appealing, you probably won't regret it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Mar 23, 2019
Ever watched the TV show 24? The one with Jack Bauer running across America being a double agent who stops terrorists who are gonna launch nukes or release bio weapons? This is that, but Japanese. If you have watched, and liked, 24 you will most certainly like this manga. If you haven't watched it, which I assume many of you haven't, let me explain further.
This manga focuses largely on making an intense, thrilling, situation where you have no idea what is going to happen next, who is going to be the traitor, or if the threat from the terrorists is just a bluff.
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Credit where credit is due, the person (or people, idk) who wrote this has a clear sense of how to keep a story going, even if some of the twists are out of left field. I had a hard time putting the series down, and when I had to, I picked right back up on the story whenever my schedule gave me a chance to. This is by far the strongest point of the series, even if you can see a lot of it's flaws and even if you are saying to yourself. "Come on. REALLY?" at some points, it has this sort of relentless attitude that keeps it going. Enough said about that.
I'm now going to begin to talk about some of the more negative aspects of the series. First off, the art. I will not be the first to say that the art here is not stellar. It isn't bad, just nothing that really captivated me. Most of the characters have very simplistic designs, which is ok from a writing standpoint, since the manga can take less time being drawn and more time being written (I hope that makes sense). The problem is when I can't really tell one secondary character from another without first waiting for them to be named, and this is a problem in a story where almost everyone is important in some way or another. This improves as the story progresses, and some panels near the end actually look pretty great, but getting into the series is a bit hard on the art standpoint.
The characters were fine. Not much fuss there. Most of them had one or two key personality traits, and that worked just fine since what we really care about is what they are doing rather than why they are doing. I may just be being a little too casual when saying this, and I'm sure someone who actually critiques stuff for a living could pick apart everyone in the cast as pretty 2 dimensional, but the characters served their purpose, if nothing else.
Finally, let's talk about the thing I most despised about the story: the plot twists. Not to say that the plot twists are bad, they usually aren't, but I feel a lot of them are unearned. I'm not going to fully detail any example from the series for obvious reasons, but the first "BIG" twist that is not the one which is obvious from chapter one comes out of nowhere. Minor spoiler warning due to vague-ish details about this twist. You kind of get a feeling that maybe this character is suspicious simply because you know this is a manga, but you are given no real reason to believe that further until the twist is revealed, and it is justified with two chapters of flat exposition, which is fine except that the smallest and most insignificant reasons are used to prove it, and then the MC turns out to be right about his hunch anyways and nothing is wrong with this. This problem happens again when- get this- the BIGGEST TWIST IN THE SERIES happens about 15 chapters before it ends, and there is no proper explanation as to why, even if there are clear hints towards it earlier. At least that's how I see it. I won't get into further explanations for obvious reasons, and also because this review is starting to look more like an essay.
Final thoughts: If you are willing to overlook the mediocre art, and the semi-infuriating plot problems, you have an immensely enjoyable and wildly engaging series, but otherwise this is not for you.
Sorry for the length of this, it probably isn't that helpful anyways, but I felt I needed to get all of this off my chest after my mixed emotions at the end of the series. Oh, also the third act is about as long and rushed as this last criticism. Bye.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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