UltimateAdrian2013

Shingeki no kyojin otherwise known as Attack on Titan. This series before the anime wasn't popular in the west, but it was fairly popular in Japan being in the top 15/10 best selling manga in 2011/2012. After the airing of the anime it became a mega hit series.

Now before you give this review a not helpful vote because of the 10/10 score. At least read what I have to say before doing your deed. I'm more interested that you guys read my review than anything else. Now let's begin!

"Spoiler free review!"

Story: 10/10. The plot/story IMO is snk strongest point. "Titans" these monstrous looking creatures that comes in different shapes and size. Their main and only goal is to eat "humans" 100 years ago humans where forced to live Inside the walls which are over 50 meters tall, to stop the titans from getting in. This series is full of mysteries for eg. who or what created the walls? Are titans natural creatures? Who created titan shifters? Why were they created? This is just a small dose of the amount of mysteries in snk. Snk is a mystery series with horror elements in it. The plot/story is snk strongest point, but it can be a disadvantage to the series itself. Why? Because the story is setup in a way where it doesn't spoon feed you answers right away, and if the readers don't pay attention to the story. They will forget things that were earlier "foreshadowed" also the series being a monthly manga doesn't help. A lot of complaint I've heard about the series is that it feels like the author is making up things as it goes or pulling things out of his ass. Now this isn't the case. Snk is one of those series that gets better when you reread it. When you reread the series you will see the amount of foreshadowing/hints the author puts in the early chapters of the series. Things that has been foreshadowed in the very first volume is now being answered currently in the latest chapters of the manga. What does this tells you? It tells you that the author has planned out everything already, and he already knows how the story will conclude. The world building in snk is impressive! The amount of details the author puts in his world building is just great. Thd mysteries of the series and the overall plot is just so engaging. You just want to know the answers. This is one of the reasons snk has a lot of theory threads around the net. You know the TV series called "lost" that's the vibes I get from snk story. Except snk will answer our question and not give us any bullshit....I'm not going to go there. Anyways read over this series at least once. You will have a better understanding of the overall plot. And you will be less likely to ask stupid questions. Sadly not everyone is willing or have the time to read over the series. Sigh.

Art: 8/10. You guys must be saying in your mind. "what!? O.O 8/10 for snk art? fanboy alert!" lol, let me explain why I gave it a 8/10. At first I didn't like the art. But I slowly started to like the art. The main reason is because the roughness in the art fits the horror theme very well In this series, I don't think the series would successfully have the "horror" feel to it if it had something like, the Levi spin off manga. I do have to say I don't think the art is as bad as people are making it out to be. I think the scan is mostly at fault for this, if you buy the actual volume you will notice it looks much better than the online scans. Compare crunchy roll scans with manga panda and mangastream scans you will see a difference in quality.

Characters: 8/10. A lot of people say snk characters are flat/one dimensional. You will also notice that most of the peeps that said it are anime only viewers. Now, the first 30+ chapters which is basically the 1st season of the anime are mostly use to introduce us to the big cast of characters. The author flesh out the 3 main characters which are Eren, Mikasa and Armin. The secondary characters are not shown too often so obviously the readers won't be too interested in them. And I'm not talking about redshirts characters I'm talking about the characters that we will get to grow with during the series. IMO. Armin and jean got the most development in the first 30 chapters, although they are both my least favorite characters. Now around chapter 35 is when the author starts to give focus on the secondary characters. And start to flesh them out more as in making us know their motives and also how they fit in the story/plot overall. There is a few more characters that needs some fleshing out/character development. But overall Isayama is doing a solid job with his character especially in a story driven series. About the female characters, I like how he balance it out as in making both the male and female cast both having important roles in the story.


Enjoyment: 10/10. This series is very enjoyable. Not only it has a great story but also it has plenty of action in it that gives me goosebumps. I also like how strategic the fights are in attack on titan especially when it comes to titan vs titan fight. There is no get angry enough and you will win type of fights. Female titan vs eren is a good eg. And I'm not talking about the anime filler with fire titan eren. Or power of friendship defeat the bad guys. If you don't stay calm and think logically you are going to lose. Finding weaknesses and exploiting them is what attack on titan fights are about. Eren vs armored titan is another good eg to that. overall I enjoy the living hell out of this series. The conspiracy, the mystery, the action/horror it all makes this series a series to remember.

Overall: 10/10. As I said before, if you want full enjoyment for this series. Re read it. If you are caught up and you're lost on the plot or you just feel you're forgetting things. Just reread it, pay attention and analyze everything. When you reread this series you will notice a lot of things you didn't notice the first time. Its also funny when you're rereading the manga and you know all the traitors in the series. You will also see how suspicious they were. Anyways time to wrap things up. Don't breeze through the chapters when reading it, take your time and enjoy the series for what it's. Whoever that has made it this far, thnx for reading! And I hope you have a wonderful day.

If you are looking for a manga with a pure and innocent fmc touching the surreal and stupid, being of those that bitch-chan hits, humiliates, stabs from the back, from front, from side, puts everyone against him, even 'his great love ', and even so the fmc keeps defending her, saying she is a good friend, even apologizing after bitch-chan hits her ... yes to her ... well this is your kind of manga.
With a mc that is a simple attractive doll and scarcely says a few lines of text in the whole manga, that does not move a finger on the fmc, although he likes it (or so I think, because I really do not notice it ...) and that simply exists to know that our fmc is in love with someone.
What can I say about rival-kun?, since it's the only good thing about all this (really sata-kun is a love and it does not deserve such fussiness, I'm glad of how it ends) that is totally left out by the miserable, idiot, etc. ... from our fmc, I already said that? is that really so pathetic fmc and that I'm used to the stereotype of shojo girl, but seriously here they took it out of the stadium, CONGRATULATIONS author, you have created a hybrid between someone pure and innocent combined with the stereotype of submissive girl, idiot, stupid, without self-esteem, who self-humiliates shojo.

En español.

Si estás buscando un manga con una fmc pura e inocente rozando lo surrealista y estúpida, siendo de las que bitch-chan golpea, humilla, apuñala por la espalda, de frente, de lado, pone a todos en su contra, incluso ‘su gran amor’, y aun así la fmc sigue defendiéndola, diciendo que es una buena amiga, incluso pidiéndole disculpas luego de que bitch-chan la golpea a ella… si a ella… pues este es tu tipo de manga.
Con un mc que es un simple atractivo muñeco y escasamente dice unas cuantas líneas de texto en todo el manga, que no mueve un dedo por la fmc, a pesar de que le gusta (o eso creo, porque la verdad no lo note…) y que simplemente existe para saber que nuestra fmc está enamorada de alguien.
¿Que puedo decir de rival-kun?, pues es lo único bueno de todo esto (enserio sata-kun es un amor y no merece tal asquerosidad de fmc, me alegro de como termino) que es totalmente dejado de lado por la miserable, idiota, etc.… de nuestra fmc, que ya dije eso? es que enserio que fmc tan patética y eso que estoy acostumbrado al estereotipo de chica shojo, pero enserio aquí sí que la sacaron del estadio, ¡ENHORABUENA autor!, has creado un hibrido entre alguien pura e inocente combinada con el estereotipo de chica sumisa, idiota, estúpida, sin autoestima, que se auto humilla de los shojo.

My first impression of the manga is that it has really nice art, which is what led me to read the story from start to finish.

Plot-wise, it's suspenseful and you have absolutely no idea what's happening. The story throws you into the eyes of our main-ish protagonist (I'll explain why I say '-ish' later) Ryoji Seusu, an ordinary factory worker who gets caught up in an accident with the Shikabane heiress, Hanako. It all starts out intense already, I mean, they get hit by a boiling vat and they all look fine, so I mean, nothing strange there. Weirdly enough, it's never explained why they're both okay and believe me, it has nothing to do with the supernatural, even though it felt like it was going to lead into it.

Due to guilt for the accident, despite it not being his fault, Ryoji agrees to serve Hanako in her home and...regrets it.

The home is definitely not his favorite place at the start and it only spirals out of control in the very short time he's been there. From how it's paced, it feels like it's only been two days since his employment there and many things happen one after another. Several which drive Ryoji and Hanako closer and everyone else apart.

The story isn't the most impressive, and you'll only be invested if you want to know what the hell's happening. And believe me, you don't get any closer unless you stick to the last chapter when it gets explained. While reading it, I was trying to piece everything together and realized that you only need to read the first like two chapters and the final one if you wanna know how it all plays out. I'm not saying it'll all be understood from there, but it's complicated in the middle and would probably make people nauseous if they're not into the whole 'gore' genre.

However, if you wish to read through the manga (it's only 10 chapters, so it's nothing heavy), then go on ahead. I did it mostly to understand the characters as they're the ones who really interested me to pick up the story. What can I say? I'm a sucker for clean looking character design.

The characters are all mad in some way, twisted due to circumstances, and all deal with different reactions towards loveless and negligent parents. From here, we only see their view on familial relations (though, it's obvious for the Shikabane family that their parents mostly cared for the legacy rather than their children) and how it corrupted them into the insanity driven cast we see in the manga.

Ryoji and Hanako are really the ones who stay sane through this out of bounds plot - this is if you can sustain your disbelief long enough to enjoy their relationship and interactions - but honestly, have the more plain designs. Prior to this section, I called Ryoji a main-ish character only because he gets back pedaled to the 'straight man' or the 'sane man' in a cast of very twisted characters. He's there to ground the reality that what the household is doing is NOT normal and that this is truly unacceptable. He's still a main character, but you can call any one of them a main character as there are very small arcs dedicated to each of them.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Shikabane are all distinctive in terms of personality and appearance. I won't spoil this section because...well, they're all pretty interesting, but the one who really caught my attention was the eldest sister, Juria. She's the example of an angel fallen from heaven...and then went straight into hell.

You can tell how messed up the children are and can see how the way they were raised messed up the way they are now. Earlier, I talked about how you can just read three chapters (first two and last) if you wanted to know the story, but if you wanna read through it for the characters, go on ahead. That's why I did it so I can figure out what the hell made them that way. All of their back stories are covered through flashbacks and other narrators, so they're more or less covered and fulfilled.

Again, more or less. They have their moments of being one dimensional, but don't put the author into fault too much as there's only ten chapters. And thankfully, the cast is small enough that each of them were covered pretty neatly in its entirety. However, they all have such deep rooted issues that if the author had a few more chapters and a less complicated plot, then their problems might've been solved in a better way?

I don't know, I should be happy with what I got considering how old this is.

Lastly, art.

Beautiful. Earlier I stated how plain the main duo were, but the rest were all very pretty and seemed like they were in a european setting. Which is strange considering how European the household is and yet they're all Japanese, but I digress. I suspended a lot of my belief for the story, so I'm gonna cut some slack on the designs. I'm sure their parents were European too, so I'm just being nitpicky.

Right, the characters are all cleanly drawn and their expressions conveyed what they felt. When they dreaded, you can feel it. When they're happy, you can definitely see it in more than the lines used to make them. The artist really knew how to reel in the right emotions and to show the disgust Ryoji felt for what was before him.

I wanna say a lot for the art, because, really, that's what drew me into reading it in the first place and I didn't see it decline nor improve during the serialization of the manga.

tl;dr:

Art is pretty. Characters are twisted. Story is meh.

There's a plot twist and I'm not sure how to feel about it as I've recently just finished it.

This is a bad casino royale.

Each week students have to choose one student who will be socially killed by revealing a video of him having sex or whatsoever.

Problem is, there are so many plotholes i had to drop the manga because it made no sense at all. In addition the characters are really really bad, why are they all perverts and criminals? I mean what s the point of revealing videos of them having sex if everyone in the class do the same perverted things and even worse things, how is that supposed to kill them socially? Everything is just pretty dumb in the manga. The students have the weirdest reactions ever to anything.

Art is ok, i ve seen worse.

I dont know what i could add, because the manga felt pretty empty. Well don t waste your time on this manga. I can t recommend it to any audience.

There's a saying in the writing world: "ideas are cheap, execution is everything". No matter how unique or original you think a concept is, it's worthless without good writing to back it up, and Time Paradox Ghostwriter is proof of that.

The series aims to be some sort of fusion of Bakuman and Steins;Gate. The problem is, what made those series work is absent from this one. Bakuman was made by the creators of Death Note, who had a full understanding of the manga industry and how it works. TPGW was made by a relative newcomer. Steins;Gate explored the full implications of time travel and the butterfly effect. TPGW just uses time travel as a plot device. Any potential this premise might have had was wasted from the beginning, due largely to the writer's inexperience. It's one thing to have a really cool idea for a story, it's quite another to actually tell that story, especially for someone just starting out. The more complex the idea is, the easier it will be to screw up.

Most of the series' problems come from its main character, Teppei Sasaki. In a nutshell, he's a selfish whiner with a martyr complex determined to avoid character development at any cost. He couldn't find success with his own work, so he stole someone else's. Sure, he felt guilty about it, but it didn't mean a thing because he always had an excuse to keep going. "I'm the only one who can draw it!" was his mantra in the first half of the series, and the more times he repeated it, the more unsympathetic he became. It isn't just his guilt, either – ANY time he has an opportunity to grow as a person, he's able to get out of it with ease. Any consequences for his actions end up evaporating, and any internal conflict he has never amounts to anything. Now, one might think that maybe this is all intentional, and Teppei isn't actually meant to be the hero of the story. Sorry to disappoint you, but Chapter 7 long put those theories to bed. From then on, Teppei's actions within the story were completely justified, and he was absolved of all wrongdoing. You see, this story isn't about Teppei becoming a better person, this story is about Teppei feeling better about himself.

As for the supporting cast... what supporting cast? Well, there's Itsuki Aino, the original author of White Knight. She's cute, easy to root for, and has an alright backstory. As for the other characters, well, there aren't any. Oh, there are other people who appear in the story besides Teppei and Aino, but they're not characters by any means. Teppei has three assistants who each have one character trait, and don't do anything except tell Teppei what a great mangaka he is. There's a couple members of Jump staff who... also mostly just tell Teppei what a great mangaka he is. There's an old man in Aino's backstory, who... also exists. If any of the "supporting characters" were replaced by cardboard cutouts, nothing about the story would change.

The success of White Knight within the story makes no sense. I know, "it's just a plot device", but there's such a thing as a bad plot device, and this is it. White Knight is successful in the way a little kid might imagine success is like, instant and unanimous. Everyone who glances at it just knows it's a modern classic in the making. Not a single person in the entire world has anything negative to say about it. It's a hit with the readers as early as its first chapter, nay, it's one-shot. In real life, time travel may not exist, but manga does, and no series ever becomes that popular that quickly. Not even the likes of Dragon Ball or One Piece were just massive hits right out of the gate, they needed to take the time to build momentum. Instead, White Knight is just immediately successful because "it's a masterpiece", and we're expected to accept it just because. Its exact role within the story makes it even worse – where most stories have the protagonist work to earn success, TPGW hands Teppei success for free, and then makes him work to keep it.

The exact moment when I knew I wasn't going to like this series was this line: “At one point in their life, everyone dreams of reaching for the sky… and actually seizing the star they’ve had their eye on.” This series was, from the looks of it, aiming to be some profound masterpiece that would inspire generations to come, with a very important message that would echo throughout history! Instead, it ended up being pretentious and amateurish, with a really simple and obvious message any idiot could guess. This made much of the story comes off as self-indulgent, reminding me a lot of the M. Night Shyamalan movie 'Lady in the Water' in various ways.

But, above all else, the biggest sin this story commits is that it is boring. It is so, so very BORING. Every other problem with it comes back to boredom. Teppei easily escapes conflict and never grows as a character, making him boring. The supporting cast is barely utilized or fleshed out, making them boring. White Knight is instantly successful, so Teppei doesn't have to work for it, making that boring. The theme that's supposed to be really meaningful is trite and predictable, so that's boring too. This series is so boring, I swear the writer got bored with his own story, and that's why there are four or five time skips peppered throughout the series. Boring is one of the worst things a story could be. If you can't become invested in a story, then what is it for?

The one thing I can't find any fault in is the art. The art is nice, very detailed, conveys tone pretty well. It was the one thing that got me to almost care about these characters. I genuinely hope Tsunehiro Date can eventually work on a series with staying power.

EDIT: After thinking about it, I'll have to retract what I said about the art. Yes, on a purely technical level, it is very well done. However, and bear with me, it's TOO good. It has this empty, soulless feel to it, like it was made by a machine.

Yes, this series had potential, but potential alone doesn't mean a thing unless it can be tapped. Chock it up to a lack of skill on the writer's part, but considering everything I covered in this review, it's entirely possible that the writer just wasn't interested in tapping this series' potential because that fell outside his artistic vision.

~

EPILOGUE UPDATE (finally):

I actually have to give the epilogue credit for one thing: it's the ONLY TIME in the series when Teppei's actions have consequences. After ending White Knight, he tries three times to create another hit series, and all three of them end up axed. And of course they do. Teppei wasn't that great of a mangaka to begin with, and only got to be a success at all by plagiarizing someone else's work. He was basically playing with cheat codes the whole series, and never actually gained the skills needed to succeed on his own merit. Meanwhile Aino, the actual creator of White Knight, is doing better than ever with a new series topping the rankings.

That being said, this is still Time Paradox Ghostwriter. The supporting characters still only exist to boost Teppei's self-esteem, Teppei himself still doesn't need to grow as a person beyond those self-esteem boosts, and all major obstacles in Teppei's path still magically evaporate. But where there would normally be an aura of smug self-importance, there's only the thick stench of cope. There is no doubt in my mind that Teppei is a self-insert for the series' writer, and the epilogue is his way of dealing with his masterpiece being a flop.

As bad as it was, though, I'm adding just one point to my score. Kenji Ichima has shown some slight signs of improvement, and as long as he continues to learn from this, I hope to see his work again one day.

NOTES
I may have included spoilers in this review. Spoilers range from literal to out-of/with context.

I will refer the lone LGBT character here as a female since the story implies that she identifies that way.

DISCLAIMER
For all intents and purposes of this review, the word "trap" here is meant to refer to the genre of manga featuring the said character trope.




A single seven-chapter (with an omake) volume about a boy named Yuusuke, who one day met his childhood friend Akira again by transferring into his school. Everyone knows Akira is a girl, except for him and Akira's father, who both knew Akira is a he.

Onnanoko Tokidoki Otokonoko (a wordplay on "tokidoki" which can be meant as either the alternate spelling of the onomatopoeic sound of a heartbeat, and "sometimes") is your usual mediocre-to-badly written romcom manga about a trap (Akira identifies as a girl apparently though). All tropes you would find in this type of manga are in full throttle - from the transfer student opening to the weak romance by the two main characters. I'm not complaining though, since first, it's a usual trope from this genre, and second, it's at least a ten-year-old manga.

Story
Badly written, frankly. It's decent enough for a single volume though. Since it's a single volume, of course, it has pacing issues - quite horrible as a matter of fact. The author opens some form of a story, but it's still really weak even for a single volume.

Art
The typical manga art. It's decent enough to look at, though my complaints would be some weird panels drawn by the author - it feels robotic, stiff, and some just plain weird. Layouts are OK, but barely.

Characters
Akira is cute to a degree. I feel that the author focuses much on the design that he/she forgot his/her other characters. Some are quite good though.

Regarding the characters themselves, it manages to barely cross the bare minimum regarding characters of this genre.

Enjoyment
I would be lying if say that I didn't at least enjoy reading this. It has some nice scenes, though forgettable.

Honestly, I'm annoyed with the fanservice of this genre, and I expect them in this one. There are some panty shots angled extremely low focusing on that usual thing most ecchi trap manga focuses on. A little disclaimer, this one's not exactly an ecchi.

Of all the seven chapters of this manga, I like the sixth one (since it features a double confession which I think was nicely done) and the omake (which is really a good read).

Final verdict: not a good read, though can be read in a single sitting. The ending is really forced. So forced that it singlehandedly dropped my score from a 5 to 4. No developments whatsoever, problems opened but closed either weak or forced. Characters just spawn and despawn. More questions than answers at the end.

I mean, even the most basic questions a trap manga usually has, like "why do X dress like that" or "how do X fell in love with Y," are not properly addressed.

Recommendable? If you're planning to read every single trap manga, then yeah. Else, don't even bother.

Re-readable? Since it's a single volume, yeah of course. After all, there are only seven chapters (plus an omake) in it, each at least 20 pages long (except for the omake, of course).

This is one most bizarre and funniest manga i have ever read. The plot involves that the main characters get traps in this mmorpg in where he need to defeat or slay the queen of demons but how the main protagonist those this is where it gets really crazy, but nevertheless it is a funny thing to read or watch depending if you like the ecchi and harem type of manga. The art work is very decent to watch, sometimes the art can be plain with no a lot of art work between pages. The characters of this story can be really funny with the situations that happens during the story events. There is not that much of characters development during the series, main point of this story is more of a funny manga with a lot of ecchi parts. So if you want to read something funny with a lot ecchi elements than i recommend this manga to you, but if looking for something more than this i recommend watching a hentai.

Yu-Gi-Oh is better...

This is just some stupid manga about how making manga is the best thing of the world and even crime misteries are resolved thanks to this profession (bullshit).

Story: Some manga-ka guy tries to resolve a murder crime thanks to manga (seriously the story is just that stupid) 2/10.

Art: Very nice but also basic and even lazy as hell 3/10.

Characters: Dumb moronic shonen characters that make drama about pussy things (like making manga) and other bullshit 2/10.

Personal Enjoinment: I fucking hate this 2/10

Overall: This is boring junk and even I did not pass from the first two chapters. Kazuki Takahashi has become a crappy Manga-ka with time...2/10

Ok, I'm giving this an 8 out of respect to what it could have been

Story (6/10) and Character (8/10):
The plot is good, the characters are great, but... WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! There was none, zero closure to any of the many interesting plots the manga presented to us, both romance and fighting-wise. It really could have became something on the liking of "Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi" in the sense of a long, pseudo-romance, fighting manga. It's a shame it couldn't do that.


Art: 8/10
Might not be most people's preferred style but I like it a lot, especially the characters, male and female. Where it lacks a bit is in the fight scenes, but still far from bad.

A story about a hero who needs to protect the world being thrown out and joining the demon army he just defeated. The characters are enjoyable to read even if a few are somewhat cliche, and their interactions together have managed to achieve both comedy and drama. The story has some interesting elements in both world building and character interactions. It hasn’t fully cashed in on all of them yet but its been an enjoyable and interesting read so far. I am a little bit worried since it seemed to have reached the point where it could have ended in a satisfactory way even if it would have been short, and didn’t end there. Wether it was a good idea to keep going or not I’ll have to wait and see but ultimately this was an enjoyable story with an mc who is rightfully overpowered and I hope it keeps its level of quality or improves from now on.