psychological ↘↖
Manga Review: Parasyte
Even in real life, humans are slowly destroying the planet. However, in Parasyte Earth may have a chance due to alien invaders. These aliens are parasitic, sometimes symbiotic, creatures that attempted to take over human bodies when they first invaded. Most Parasites succeeded and took control over human brains. Others failed to take over humans but succeed in controlling other animals, although this is considered a failure by the Parasite population. These Parasites develop a need to eat others of the same species as their host. Thus Parasites in human hosts eat other humans. Another failure is when a Parasite fails in taking over a human’s brain and instead controls a different part of their body. This is the case of Shinichi Izumi who has a Parasite in his right hand.
MangaLog: Hotel
From the same mangaka that brought us Sun-ken Rock, Boichi, comes a collection of five oneshots.
In general these oneshots have amazingly detailed drawings. Seeing how most of these oneshots have a sci-fi theme to them pictures can become quite grand, to have such images as detailed, crisp, and clear as these is quite the accomplishment. The facial expressions on the people here are of the most expressive I have ever seen in a manga. Boichi-sensei also shows off his ability as a writer. Together, the drawing and the writing act as an efficient conductor of emotion. The emotion Boichi-sensei put in is the emotion you receive, no less but everything more.
Click the break to read a summery of each oneshot and my thoughts on them.
I started making a post about every chapter of manga chapter I read. I called it MangaLog and I started off strong with a collection of oneshots.
Manga Review: Iris Zero
Available here
“In a world where every boy and girl has a special power called Iris, Toru who, as a result of not having any kind of special power, was bullied from a young age, lives by his motto: “low exposure” – to live without standing out. But his peaceful school life changes when he receives a certain “Confession” from the schools most popular girl, Koyuki. His motto begins to shake!!
The school fantasy story that shakes the heart begins with their meeting.” - Mangafox.com
Manga Review: Angel Sanctuary
Available here
“The angel Alexiel loved God, but she rebelled against Heaven when she saw how disgracefully the other angels were behaving. She was finally captured, and as punishment sent to Earth to live an endless series of tragic lives. She now inhabits the body of Setsuna Mudo, a troubled teen in love with his sister Sara. Setsuna’s misery mirrors the chaos among the angels, and their combined passions threaten to destroy both Heaven and Earth.” -Mangahere.com
Manga Review: Kamiyadori
Available here
“From Tokyopop:
Girard and ViVi are special government agents known as “Right Arms” whose job is to seek and destroy people who have become “infected.” In this world, a weird virus that turns people into monsters has run rampant and the only way humanity can survive is to keep tight control on those who are infected. If the virus’ symptoms appear, the person must be disposed of. It’s a tough world where women and children must sometimes be killed to prevent the spread of the virus.” - Mangafox.com
Elfen Lied
Available here
“The story involves human mutations called “dicloniuses”, who grow horns on their heads and possess telekinetic powers, in the form of invisible “arms” called vectors.
The tendency for violence among dicloniuses varies among characters. Certain scientists contain them in a Facility in cells where they are subject to inhumane experiments to test their abilities or where they await execution for being too dangerous.
An infectious virus is also associated with the mutation. This virus is spread through non-lethal contact with the vectors of a diclonius.
The main non-mutant character in the story is Kouta, who ends up becoming increasingly involved with these dicloniuses, as they seek refuge from the scientists.
The main diclonius character is Lucy/Nyuu a killer whose alter ego is a hapless, and very cute child whose vocabulary and intelligence is quite limited.
{Corrections from Silvermagic.}
After a large amount of choice occurences the lives of these two characters becomes inexplicably intwined…” -Mangafox.com
I don’t think I have misjudged a manga as much as I have this one. Normally, I judge a manga by its artwork. This is a bad habit and I am trying to work myself out of it. To fix my habit I generally read a chapter or two so I can accurately judge weither or not I think I will enjoy reading this series. Normally that is enough to get a good feel of the manga. But it wasn’t enough for this manga. There was so much blood and gore right off the bat I felt like I could not continue. And I didn’t continue, until many months later when a friend of mine highly recommended reading it. Since we have similar tastes I decided to give Elfen Lied another try, and I do not regret it.
As it turns out my original assessment was not untrue but simply it overlooked too much. You see, there is a lot of a gore in this series, in fact that is an understatement. You see so many people dyeing in such gruesome ways that you think everyone will die and, in fact, everyone is in danger of dyeing by the end. By there is much more to that. There is love, hate, sadness, happiness, hopeless, hope, betrayal, forgiveness and just about every other emotion you can think of. If you can get over the gore there is a lot this manga has to offer. The characters for one, are very lovable. The plot is extremely good there is never a dull moment and the ending was just absolutely golden. When I reached the ending I was so flooded with emotion I almost had to take a break to collect myself… almost.
A warning to all potential readers: If you do not like gore or can not stomach it DO NOT READ THIS MANGA. It is very common to see heads, limbs, and bodies flying everywhere, the innocent are not spared. Also nudity is fairly common, this is basically a manga you want to read in privacy. You have been warned.
Sources: wordpress.com, mangareader.net, mangafox.com
Manga Review: Bitter Virgin
“Suwa Daisuke is the ladies man of his small town high school, and he has his eye on almost every girl, except for one. Aikawa Hinako isn’t his type, but when he overhears a deep dark secret of hers, he finds himself thinking of her more and more.”-MangaFox
Available here
This is one of the most touching mangas I have read. I have said it before and I will say it again. I read manga for the feelings I get when I read. Those emotions the mangaka embeds into the story are what makes manga worth while to me. Whether it be joy or sorrow I love it all. This manga has more emotions packed in its thrity-two chapters than most mangas do in a hundred! The emotions you feel from this manga are sorrow, empathy, and a hint of joy. This manga uses emotionally charged themes so feeling something while reading isn’t too surprising. But since they are emotionally charged themes are used the mangaka could have made a wrong move and upset many people. Due to either skill or luck (which in some cases is a skill) no body was upset, or at least I wasn’t upset nor were any of the other people who read it on various forums I traverse. The summary above does a good job explaining the initial plot without giving too much away. If I said anymore I would spoil the plot. But I will say the beginning is a bit slow, and seeing how the manga is short, the time lost building up was unaffordable. Perhaps it was necessary though because once Hinako’s past is revealed everything is already set up and things start to get good. Also it is important to know that this is a Drama/Romance. If this turns off anybody I suggest they read it. This is one of those must reads. The story is very relatable especially in today’s world. I suggest everybody at least tries to read it.
Holyland
Available here
“Yuu is a high school kid who doesn’t really fit anywhere. To find a place he can belong, be accepted, he will do anything. However one thing leads to another and he is forced to fight to keep his place, his holyland.”- mangaupdates.com
Before any of its other genres this is a martial arts manga. How is this possible, you say? Because this manga gives you an education, you learn from this manga. You see instructions of how to kick, punch, throw people all that in easy to understand explanations complete with pictures. Every time I read these explanations I feel like I know the move well enough to use it in real life. Yuu has no luck. He gets into the worst situations, often. But these situations are not unbelievable in fact they are very likely in real life. Getting ambushed in a dark alley and being confronted by a crazed person with a knife are very believable situations. Yuu was able to survives these situations and the mangaka explains everything so that you can too! But you learn more than just about martial arts here. You also learn about the inner workings of a lost high schooler, Yuu, who is trying to find a place for himself, his holyland. And he finds it. He finds it in a world that comes out in the night, behind the eye of society. A world full of thugs, violence, outcasts, and martial artist!?! For the sake of the story thugs here know martial arts. Which isn’t too far from the reality. Well thugs have to get stronger somehow, right? I thoughtfully enjoy reading this manga, not just for the action, but for the knowledge I gain too. You may not like the story or the characters, which is unlikely since both are very well done, but I would still recommend reading this just for the explanations of what to do in dangerous situations. They are interesting on their own.
Battle Royale
Available here
“Remember reading Lord of the Flies? Battle Royale is Lord of the Flies on crack. Don’t believe me? Then read about the 42 classmates that are forced onto an island all armed with weapons. The goal is simple: kill everyone else and be the winner, the last survivor. Be sure to heed the warning below… Warning: This series has gore/nudity and is not suitable for anyone under 18! ” - thespectrum.net
The summary above makes things sound pretty straight forward. You can already guess a lot of what will happen, those who were once friends will turn on each other, people will go insane, the innocent will die, alliances will be formed, betrayal will be common place and by the end nearly everyone will be dead. That much is obvious, does that sound like the whole story? Well that is the bare skeleton of what will happen. Even though you know generally what will happen the mangaka does a great job of keeping things new, interesting and emotionally charged. By emotionally charged, I mean you will feel every emotion between anger and fear to happiness and sorrow. You will feel emotion in every scene. But this may also be a bad thing. The feelings may be too intense for some. I felt like crying often. And as I mentioned before people die. People die often and in very gruesome ways. I wouldn’t be surprised if readers would threw up at some of the scenes. What makes things worse/better is that each character has great development, you feel a bond with each character and as they die, one by one, each death hits you hard. I don’t think this manga needs anymore explaining. Things may seem straight forward in the long run but in actuality things are the opposite. You will have no idea what will happen next. If you have the stomache for it I highly recommend this manga. For those of you who are worried, this manga has a great heartfelt ending that will leave you more than satisfied.
WARNING: THIS IS FOR A VERY MATURE AUDIENCE
