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Showing posts with label Recommended. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Recommended. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Ubel Blatt Review: Recommended Brutal Adventure

Story of Ubel Blatt is set on foreign nation of darkness where people are warring with wischtech. The emperor sent 14 youths with a mission in order to block the invasion of wischtech crossing over the barrier. Three of them died along the way, four betrayed the emperor and were called "Lances of Betrayal" and the seven remaining brought peace to the land and were called "The 7 heroes". The Lances of Betrayal formed a militia called "black wing sword army" to oppose the empire.


Our story follows a young elf looking boy named Koinzell, who is somehow connected to the previously mentioned 7 heroes, but how, that's up for the reader to find..

The series is brutal, the battles and sceneries have been composed very well with excellent art that is like candy to eye. As Ubel Blatt is released monthly it basically means that there is more than enough time to make the art look very good, but the unfortunate thing at least for myself is that the releasing schedule is a bit too rare - I tend to forget easily in month what has happened in the last chapter.

 Characters of the series are likeable, but it's one of those series in which none of the side characters really shine: the main character Köinzell shines through the series and is keeping it alive regarding the characters along with good villains.

Ubel Blatt is a good read, to be short. The story is very engaging from the start and it keeps the reader interested throughout the chapters with imaginative battles. There are lots of referring to german language which made me a little bit uncomfortable first because it was so unusual, but in the end it really doesn't matter. The worst it does is that the characters names are not that memorable.

Anyways, I enjoy Ubel Blatt a lot and I believe if you are one of those who enjoy mature adventure with good art and engaging story this is a definite recommend for you.

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Sunday, February 3, 2013

Nanatsu no Taizai Review: Recommended Adventure


Nanatsu no Taizai's preset is about The legendary group of "Seven Deadly Sins", who ten years ago tried to take over the Kingdom of Britannia, but were rumoured to have been killed by the Kingdom's Holy Knights. After ten years of the disappearance of The Seven Deadly Sins the Holy Knights assassinated the king and became the sole tyrants of the kingdom.

The late Kings only daughter, Elizabeth goes on a journey to find the Seven deadly sins to help her pay back to the holy knights. She ends up in a tavern which is kept up by a young boy called Meliodas, who turns out to be something more than just a kid...

The art can be considered good at the best, but honestly it doesn't matter to me that much. When I think about how art scales with the story the most important thing in my opinion is not how good it looks, but how it manages to compliment itself with the story. I think that the art that is used in Nanatsu no Taizai compliments almost perfectly it's intentions and the nature of the story, especially it's fighting scenes So even if the art can't be considered as "excellent", it's still very good since it works so well for me considering adventurous nature of this series.

The characters are one of the strengths of this manga. I realized while reading this that I have a habit to like very carefree characters with not-so-good manners and taking things with humor. The second main character Meliodas for this series is exactly like that and it works very well. The way of displaying great strength along with a usually cosy characteristics is a sure recipe for a good character. The protagonists and the antagonists have ended up being interesting so far and I don't see why that would change in chapters to come.


The story really isn't anything original, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless. I think the preset of the story resembles Ubel Blatt very much, but it has much more light heartedness which works for it very well. I think that if you have tendency to like adventure mangas then Nanatsu no Taizai is almost for sure for you. I have always thought that what makes the story interesting is not always what the story sounds like, but how it is relayed as a totality to the reader and this is why Nanatsu no Taizai works for me so well.


Conclusion: If you enjoy a good adventure with good characters then you will most likely enjoy Nanatsu no Taizai. The story progresses in a good pace so that the reader doesn't have time to feel boredness while reading this, but this has a unfortunate side effect also: I feel that the story is progressing so fast that I'm afraid that it will end too quickly. I wish that the author manages to keep it as well paced, but figures out how to prolong it to be so long that it will continue to be enjoyable for years to come.
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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Tower of God: Review - Definitely recommended

At first I was very reluctant to read Tower of God because of form in which it is published. I simply freaked out because of those long pages and being used to manga, all those colors. Thank god it was only a matter of getting used to it. I've read all chapters of Tower of God which have been published in the span of couple of days and I have to say that I'm really happy that I finally got over my anxiety of reading this splendid webcomic.


Tower of God starts with introduction of the tower: It's said that once you manage to climb on top of the tower you may achieve anything you desire. Our story starts Baam and Lahel (later translated as Rachel), who seem to be in some sort of a cave. Rachel disappears right under Baam saying she's going to climb the tower. Baam says that he's going to follow her to death, hence he opens the door to the Tower to climb it. Inside he finds that Rachel isn't anywhere to be found and that him coming in to the tower isn't anything usual - he's considered as "irregular", someone who open the doors to get inside instead of getting chosen by rulers of the tower. In past all irregulars have been exceptionally powerful, but Baam is nothing like that. Not long after the tower shows it true colors: it's nothing sort of a deadly competition and backstabbing..

Tower of God is part of Talse uzer story.


I'd say that the art gets after (very rough esimate) 30 chapters from good to very good. Fights are very well drawn and once you get used to the colorful world they are such a eye candy, especially on the second part of the series.  If you've usually used to reading black and white manga, don't get scared because of the very different form of showing us the story. I have to say that this way of drawing actually brings the story in some cases more alive than in traditional manga!

Characters of this series are definitely enjoyable. Some of their goodness however comes from the story twists, which can of course be said to be character qualities in some way also. Not much to say about the people in this series: they are simply good, SIU certainly knows what he does when he's making this webcomic for people to enjoy.

Well, what can I say about the story? I could say that it's pre-set idea isn't anything special at first, but it will be getting more complex (but easy to understand) pretty soon. It's truly entertaining story which has very good twists. What I like about this series is that even though it sort of is pretty "generic" shonen because of it's idea of getting stronger through advancing the towers floors the immense power difference between top people of the towers is very well designed and relied to readers through work of story and art. It basically shows us unlimited potential of this story and makes it interesting. I've heard people also say that this can be a bit humorous read - it's usually of secondary importance for me, but I can imagine that some people find it important.


It's also great to see that the author is actively blogging and communicating with his fans. Through his communication with the fans, from which the important parts are fortunately translated we get a lots of "background" information about the tower, it's design and especially it's residents.
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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Manga recommendation: Psyren

One day Ageha Yoshina answers to a pay phone, finds a calling card with name "Psyren" on it and begins the journey of his life. Whole consept of "Psyren" reveals to be an urban myth, but eventually after couple turns of events Ageha will be sucked into a weird world.


As you can see, art of Pysren is pretty good, however at the beginning it can be described as decent. It tends to be that as these series that are over hundred chapters long improve their art quality as the time goes on. I could say that Psyrens art had somewhat unique feeling to it and in my opinion the author did manage to use contrasts to his advantage. Psyren will always stay on my mind as a manga that gave somewhat new epiphanies in the battles that was shown us in form of good art.

Characters of Psyren is one of it's good sides: it doesn't have a protagonist that is a total pussy, but a man who doesn't know what he does but is willing to know more. There are a lot of enjoyable side characters, but the best thing is that it doesn't fall into the pit with the main character. The villains in this manga surely deserve some praise, they manage to be everything (especially the main villain) that makes up a good bad guy: they are mysterious, powerful and have a plan that isn't revealed to be retarded in the first couple of chapters.

Story of Psyren can be considered as it's best side, since it actually is one of those that you want to know more of when you begin reading. There are plot twists that intrigue the reader and the pace is pretty good: it doesn't drag itself. Psyren as a series however isn't long, but I see that as a strength since the author knew when it wouldn't be a good idea to unnecessarily lengthen the story, but put stop to it when it was time to do so. I remember when I first read Psyren I wasn't impressed by the first couple of chapters, but pretty quickly the story managed to offer me something that kept me going and eventually made me enjoy the series more than I could have imagined.

This series consists of super powers, interesting villains, decent protagonists, good plot developments and truly intriguing mysteries. There's not a lot to say about better than average story - you have to read it, experience it and enjoy it. Psyren wasn't too long and that's a very big plus as it held my attention very well until the end. That basically means that the author didn't resort to milking the last out of the series but gave it a ending without prolonging it too much. Psyren truly is a hidden gem.


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Monday, January 14, 2013

Kamisama no Iutoori Review, sparks interest

Nowadays I find it very hard to get interested in to new mangas in span of one or two chapters. Series too often need in my opinion too much of like a forced read through like 5-10 chapters and then I have to re-evaluate whether or not I wish to continue reading that particular manga. Usually not.


Kamisama no Iutoori is a splendid exception to previously mentioned: it's unique idea got me hooked from the first ten pages. Maybe it's the brutal and interesting idea of this manga which makes me want to read more, but the main thing is that it does entertain straight from the beginning.

This manga begins with a normal and boring class in the life of Takahata Shin. But suddenly, the teacher's head explodes! The boring class becomes something else entirely: a game of survival. All the students in the class realize that something has appeared on the teachers table and for unknown reason now the students heads are exploding. How to survive from this and what is the reason for people dying such a gruesome deaths?

Art of the Kamisama no Iutoori is half of it's 'deliciousness', such a brutal story with people being killed in the most imaginable ways would be nothing but cheap comic without very good artwork. Thankfully in this series the art is very detailed and is very enjoyable to read.
 
 
Characters understandably aren't as important in this series as you could imagine: most of the characters have very short life spans so it mostly revolves around a couple of main characters who I found pretty entertaining. There really aren't any characters who I didn't like so it was nice to follow their 'journey'.

 As for the Story Kamisama No Iutoori manages to be certainly interesting. Like Gantz it relies a lot on brutality and mysteries, which work pretty well together. Even though the games that the people are playing in the series are very well known it still has the certain surprise element which involves people being in constant danger of losing their lives.

It has managed to keep me interested altogether. I can recommend this based on the initial spark it has on the reader. If you like Gantz, you will most likely like Kamisama no Iutoori as well. The characters are fine and well designed, but the best thing is that they don't even have to be - this kind of story brings any kind of character alive: they are always truly on the brink of death. Art is fine and reminds me bit of Gantz, but that may be because of the general feeling of the story rather than the quality of drawing.


I will be eagerly waiting for "Like god says 2", which is apparently second part of the series.
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