GLEIPNIR

A very eh story with an interesting idea. That fails on multiple levels of some of the most basic stuff.

~~GOOD~~
Monster designs tend to be creative and interesting.
First couple chapters are fairly interesting.
Some decent comedy.


~~ BAD~~
Characters don't act like regular people.
Enemies tend to be cliche villains.
Story tries it's hardest to be as edgy as can be.
Female Main Character is just not that enjoyable she is kind of crazy.
Male Main Character is a whinny kid that gets powers and what not ( Typical Japan kid gets power trope )


Could have been interesting but got kind of annoying.

This is a really good title with very interesting characters and fantastic story with interesting twists and turns,

I saw that someone was complaining terribly about "fanserwis", which I didn't pay attention to, not to mention that this "fanserwis" adds atmosphere to the whole experience with this manga. (this person devoted a quarter of the review to the "sagging" breasts that are naturally drawn not like in other titles, and the close-ups per step and beloved of the reviewer's beloved vagina appear only 5 or 6 times in 47 chapters [not to mention about the fact that every girl's crotch is flat in this anime])

Not to mention the light fanservice I wrote about no less than the previous reviewer, the whole experience is adorned with a harsh climate that may not appeal to everyone, and the whole weak start of the manga later turns off and chews on the reader with information to process and emotional moments.

bad:
- poor start
- it's hard to like characters at first
- average appearance of the drawings
- we know little about the heroes themselves
good:
- it gets started quickly
- cool character and monster desing
- the story draws you in and comes as a surprise
- annoying characters quickly get their character development
-climate
- later they haven't destroy it (yet)

Since the manag got an adaptation and I am up to date with the manga I wanted to leave my opinion on how it has improved. I have not read a lot of older maga so their could be one with a similar premise but of course it started out with a wimpy MC and a strong female supporting character which is cliche. But it keep growing and created a new lane for itself the MC outgrew whatever fears he had and new things are still being learnt about the story which keeps it interesting. I think it could finish as a solid 8 depending on how things go but I think it's worth the read. The art style is nice and the action is well done.

This is a good series to checkout on if you like action thriller, with a lot of nudity. I really admire the art and design of characters and monster so far, background art is also on point.

That being said, I feel the story could use faster pacing to move things along. The characters are uninteresting at this point other than the female protagonist. She is one hell of a fan service and I don't mind it as long as it doesn't stray too far from the meat of the story.

I'm enjoying this series for trying something different (albeit still in high school setting) when it comes to action thriller. Which is frankly quite empty now that I caught up to Berserk and MPD Psycho.

In the short span of 12 chapters this manga got my hopes up and died in my eyes, both at the hands of its fanservice. Where I once believed there isn’t a way this can flop, I am left to wonder what I liked in the first place.

Thinking back, it was probably the tension, the ambitious idea, the body horror, the nice reversal of gender tropes and shounen tropes: Gleipnir is structured as shounen, but it’s darker and more cynical, focused on the street brawl “by what means we have” philosophy. I was on board with the raunchy, sketchy art. I even enjoyed the weird fanservice, slightly scary, slightly ugly, more sweaty bodies and flapping meat than the usual abstract balloon tits. And all of it was wrapped in a delicious urban legend setting, something with the logic of, say - you find an artifact on a scrapyard, and it works, it’s miraculous, but you probably should not pick it up. *sigh* …yeah, I guess it was a tall task to juggle so much.

So it fell – an overflow of fanservice washed away the magic. In addition to the unusual pandering, and partly instead of it, the author also added the usual type. It is baffling that the scenes, when female protagonist wears the male one (he is a living suit after all, look at the synopsis) are left out, but readers are fed simple pantsu-shots instead. Not to mention that with a girl who is the dick of the relationship in any possible sense and goes around naked a lot, pantsu-shots don’t feel like any sort of arousing transgression. Then there is also purely mindless fanservice, best demonstrated by a reoccurring frame, where they talk about something and suddenly a panel shows the female character’s giant thigh gap with visible vagina outlines, her word bubbles on top, just pointing upward. It doesn’t follow the male MC's pov, and nothing happens with the aforementioned vagina, aside from the fact that it’s suddenly more important than the conversation, so I am not sure why I should bother reading it. It’s heavy stuff too, with nipples always outlined and clitoris hinted through panties.

The incessant need for titillating material has already brought the female MC’s character to ruin, she’s been reduced to a psychotic nymphomaniac (acting crazy for the sake of crazy), which doesn’t bode well for the manga progression: the male MC is yet a non-character (he’s just got to the brooding part), and it’s her motivation which had to be the focus of the first part of the story.

The oft unnecessary fanservice is stalling, robbing the series of its momentum. By the 12th chapter there’s been plenty of sexual teasing, but we know nothing of the characters’ living conditions or interests. The world of monsters is being built bit by bit, but because of the padding the process is slow.

I am not sure about the supposed tactical approach to fighting, it doesn’t seem so clever lately. To be frank, even my positive stance on the art changed, I am perfectly fine with impressionist and untidy manga styles, but human anatomy here gets seriously messed up, and I am getting increasingly disappointed by how boring the unusual is portrayed. The art is not so good from the fanservice point of view as well – it’s not conventionally pretty, it displays a strange fascination with saggy tits, and the heroine’s bust size shifts from frame to frame (would be confusing to fap to, I suppose).

I’ve wanted to review this manga for a while, but in the end I have to write not what I hoped for. I guess, I am venting, sorry. Let’s wrap it up. So:
can I recommend this manga currently? It can be useful for those looking for very specific fetishes – living fursuit, girl entering her male partner, abusive teasing from female partner, saggy tits. But to a broad reader – no, it's borderline readable, but currently a mess. I allow for the possibility that it may improve to some degree, but I am hard pressed to imagine how the damage could be undone.

TL;DR

The Good:
-I've seen worse art
-the story is mildly interesting
-despite being ecchi not a harem
-interesting characters
-the mascot suit is really cute

The Bad:
- uncomfortable fanservice
- The story is a little hard to follow
-unrealistic characters
- the author needs to work on paneling

The Long:
Glepnir is weird. While the art is pretty interesting, the cover is the entire reason I read it, the manga itself pushes VERY CLOSE to making me drop it. You know how Goblin Slayer, has that questionable fanservice, and heinous stuff in it? So does Glepnir(not to the same extent, but it's a turn off) which almost made me drop it.

The characters themselves seem kind of interesting. They aren't very realistic characters, but interesting. This may sound contradictory, yet it's true. The protagonist is weaker, kind of leaning on the Shirou Emiya(Fate/Stay Night) side of morality at the beginning, does understand that sometimes they got to kill.

In conclusion, this manga is similar to Tokyo Ghoul. Not for kids in the slightest with very questionable themes and subject matter. It's not nearly as well done as Tokyo Ghoul, though. That doesn't mean you shouldn't read Glepnir. It doesn't fail miserably at what it tries to do.

Even though the story isn't finished yet, this is quality. The backstory within this anime is probably the best backstory I've seen within anime, very detailed and it explores why the main antagonist became the way he did. The backstory paves a way as a challenge towards morality, which is interesting and how reckless we can be as humans, jumping to conclusions and how we can behave like monsters.

The story nicely ties in the idea of duality, with our main character developing because of his other half, Claire, as he's forced to submit to his environment and drop the morals he long wished to hold on to. The designs of the monsters are really good, and although Claire can be quite psychotic, she is definitely one genius, which is a part of her you cannot hate, and the protection she gives to the protagonist.

Fight scenes are really good, however the story can be confusing at times, and it is quite easy to lose the plot but overall a good anime, mainly built around an excellent backstory, and portrays ideas of how far we go to claim things we believe is ours in this case it was our protagonists memories, who is quite similar to eren in a way.

Also the abilities and power scales are great, so far getting only a few glimpses of how overpowered our antagonist is, and our protagonists Shuichi and Claire.

So far as of Vol 1, I have found that visually, the art is great, the paneling and layout is par for the course, and the word balloons and text are easy to read and fully engaging.

The story itself is interesting, and by the end of vol 1, does leave the reader with a nice hook for the next vol.

The story falls apart in two area's

1. Characters, the male MC is just a whinny goody two shoes, that is being dragged along by the plot. He is as cookie cutter as they come, the female MC to me was interesting, and falls well within the crazy range, but doesn't built any sympathy for her as a person, and does a poor job as the males FOIL. The antagonist is really poor and hopes by the glimpse of backstory, we will be on their side.

2. The fan service is HORRIBLE, I understand having sex appeal, but the VERY FIRST page starts out with a very detailed pantie shot, while the Male MC is serious, in emotional chaos, while talking about a heavy subject. This is also the introduction to the Female MC, which sets her up as a sex doll, rather than a character, and the story suffers from this throughout book 1. Pantie/Bra shots are constantly breaking high tension spots in the story's flow and atmosphere.

I see a lot of people being mad about the ambiance, the pantyshots, the "hentaiborder", Claire's weird character etc...
But in the end, the manga is all about that uneasy feeling. You can either accept it and love it, or hate it. You can't rate a manga based on your preferences only. The art is great the synopsis is good (a little cliché i'll give you that) and the writing sometimes gets out of control but it's weird. Most masterpieces are weird. The mainstream ones sure are familyfriendly, but evangelion, made in abyss, ergo proxy etc... it's their aura that made them so good.

"It just works"
Todd Howard, 400 b.C.

This story has a pretty strong set up, MC is a monster fur-suit, doesn't know why, has to collect 100 coins, Female lead wears him for more power. Simple, lots of potential.

However despite being near 40 chapters in and nothing feels different, the MC is slightly harder after fighting, the female cares for MC, and we know where the coins come from.
MC isn't really stronger, the plot is still mostly just "People want coins for ___", no mysteries are solved, and despite a clear goal being given and the protagonists going to the goal nothing FEELS different.

Art is goo, the designs are interesting, the ideas are solid, and I do like the girl, I'll probably keep reading, but it's really not something I'd recommend for anyone.