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Bullying is a concept that many have had to experience in their childhood. Whether it be from looks, intelligence, disability, or other causes, bullying is, unfortunately, commonplace in our society. Bullies are seen as terrible people and victims are shown in a light that causes those who witness it wanting to give the bully the pain they deserve. This is a traditional bullying story in media. However, A Silent Voice explores bullying in a much more realistic manner, showing a bully's life after their victim is no longer part of it, and asking relevant and thought provoking questions, such as: how does bullying affect the bully's life after the fact, can bullying cause self loathing not only in the victim, but also in the bully, and the central question of the story, can a bully find redemption and forgiveness from his victim, even if his actions in the past were cruel and seemingly unforgivable?

Shoya Ishida is a high school teenager who is a former bully. His victim: Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl who's goal was to get along with everyone in her sixth grade class. Due to Shoya's boredom, he begins to bully Shoko, through means such as stealing her hearing aids, writing horrible comments in her notebook, and mocking her speech pattern. Shoya is not the only one to blame for the bullying, as classmates such as Naoka Ueno can be seen as accomplices, but Shoya was the main source. The bullying became so much of an issue that it caused Shoko to transfer to another school. This causes Shoya to become a victim of bullying from those who used to be his friends. Years later, Shoya runs into Shoko by happenstance, and is persuaded to right the wrongs he had created in the past.

The themes in this story are very risky and could easily have come off as manipulative. However, the way these themes are handled are a perfect portrayal of how these issues are in reality. Shoya is plagued by social anxiety. He is unable to look people in the eye, he isolates himself from those around him, and he imagines those around him speaking of him in a bad light, even if their conversation is completely different from his imagination. This is how social anxiety legitimately functions. As someone who has dealt with social anxiety most of their life, this represents exactly how it can affect a person and their psyche. It's not sugarcoating the issue, which is why it is so admirable. All of the themes portrayed are admirable for being blunt and straightforward about their effects. Bullying is not simply shown as a bad person harassing a good person and showing how the good person wins. It shows the long term effects it can cause for a person, how bullying can enhance a person's doubts, how a bully can learn from their mistakes and become a better person. It doesn't create a simpler way to explain the matter. It just shows the reality of bullying, making it stand out from many stories about bullying. Self loathing and suicide are also important topics in this, but these topics are best experienced when reading A Silent Voice rather than having them explained to you. These themes could have easily turned into a manipulative romance story akin to a Nicholas Sparks film, but the author took the time to give the story realism and care in order to make an impact.

The characters have arcs in the story that give them such strong development that they seem to be real people at some points. Shoya is the character with the most development, as he must learn from his past not only to change himself, but to guide Shoko through her fears and doubts. He distances himself from others, but must learn to open up to those around him and be a part of the world around him like he was once before. He must struggle and he does falter and slip back into his habits at some points, but he always attempts to make things right once again. Shoko is also a very well developed character. She is a nice person and never tries to cause fights with anyone, and she is willing to give Shoya the second chance he desires. Many have expressed dislike towards Shoko, as they view her as a typical Mary Sue and find her unrealistic. However, this is not the case. As the story continues, you begin to realize that Shoko is not perfect and has her own demons she must conquer. While I will not spoil anything, I will say that her psychological issues are handled very well and are not just there to make you sorry for Shoko. They are legitimate issues that Shoko must resolve. The rest of the cast does not receive as much development, as they are not the main focus of the plot, but many of them are very enjoyable and have their own role to play in the story. Tomohiro Nagatsuka is the first person Shoya is able to open up to. He expresses friendliness towards Shoya and and almost obsession with him. This is because Tomohiro has found his first friend. His bond with Shoya helps guide Shoya to opening up to others. He also has the best comedic moments in the manga. Yuzuru Nishimiya is also a vital character, as she is the only one who truly understands Shoko. She is very overprotective of her older sister and expresses understandable disdain for Shoya, though their relationship does improve as the story continues. There are many other enjoyable characters, but these are the ones that stand out the most.

While all of the characters are necessary to the plot, there are two that are very anger inducing, even if they are a vital piece of the manga. The first is Naoka Ueno. Naoka is the kind of person that never truly learns from her mistakes. As Shoya is progressing and learning to be a better person, Naoka continues to be the same childish and immature person she was all those years ago. She continues to torture Shoko and cause her pain, while giving an excuse for it that seems petty and ridiculous. She is very important, as it shows how some people will not put in the effort to change themselves and will remain the same even if a change is needed, but this does not change the fact that Naoka is an infuriating character. The other of these characters is Miki Kawai, a character who is possibly more infuriating than Naoka. Miki is a narcissist who changes herself based on what she believes others will like. She paints herself as a saint who cannot do any wrong, while she also participated in the bullying of Shoko, just not as vocally. She never takes responsibility for her actions and lets others take the blame. However, even if these characters are ones that are written in a frustrating way, they still serve a purpose in the plot, which you cannot fault them for. These characters are needed and should not be removed from the plot. Removing them would give the plot less realism and would overall weaken it.

A Silent Voice is not simply a manga you read for enjoyment. This is the type of plot that can change the way an individual thinks about certain subjects and can mold them into better people. This needs to be read by any bullying victim or former bully. Just as Shoko and Shoya had to move on from their past in order to change and improve from their flaws, those reading this may see that they need to change as well, and to not fear said changes any longer.

I have watched FMA: Brotherhood first then picked up this manga, and rewatched Brotherhood again to compare (you could say my latter half of 2016 was dedicated solely to FMA). It is the first manga that I've finished and I gotta say it was well worth the ride.

Story (9) Arakawa managed to combine various genres into 108 chapters with hardly any filler which is quite a feat. Fantasy/magic (alchemy) mixed with politics with some sprinkled action and adventure on the side (and a bit of romance too). The alchemy side of things seem well-researched also and I appreciate the effort put on that.

The story moves along at a smooth pace from the introduction of our main characters right into the climax and into the inevitable conclusion. I think my only negative comment here is the introduction of the Briggs arc with the reason that one character hid something important there. It just seemed quite far-fetched and execution was a bit clumsy- all to show a new place.

I also had a incredibly minor issue with Arakawa's execution of the various deus ex machinas in her story. Can't let our main characters get themselves too much in a bind, eh?

Art (8) This is only my second manga to read so I don't really have a good basis for comparison. However, on its own, the art is quite clean, crisp and consistent. Though not spectacular enough for me to be wowed, in general it is detailed and descriptive enough to add to the atmosphere.

Character (8) FMA has a wide array of characters so it'd be impossible not to find a favorite: we have a cynic, an optimist, a vengeful murderer, a visionary, an ambitious prince and a handful of loyal henchmen among other things. I like how some of the antagonists of the series, the homunculi, aren't exactly cookie-cutter villains and were given depth to their characters.

On the other hand, almost any story will have typical secondary characters who have hardly any growth and are merely used as plot devices; FMA is no exception to this. However, they are introduced and utilized in such a way that you will come and care for them no matter how small their roles may be.

Enjoyment (10)
When I first watched the anime having not read the manga, I thought the way the comedy/seriousness went fluidly from one to another was off-putting, but having read FMA I realized it was just adapting whatever was in the manga. My initial reaction was to side-eye Arakawa's propensity for this but I have since come to appreciate this wacky side of things.

My main gripe on FMA centers around Al. He is my favorite out of the Elric brothers and this is the problem: often times he is forgotten as people mention the trials and suffering Ed face. Both brothers went through a lot together even though Ed may have been exposed to a lot more ridicule as a State Alchemist. I may be biased but I've always thought Al has always been in a tougher place than Ed is; it's just that Ed is more vocal and cynical while Al tries to be constantly cheerful despite living in an armor body. Part of this is my thinking that there are two MAIN protagonists in the story, but Ed is and has always been the primary character with Al as the supporting one.

The above paragraph is my only 'real' hindrance to me thoroughly enjoying FMA and even then I'll give it a top score just because it was incredibly fun to read, it wasn't boring, it can be as deep as it wanted to be but at the same time it made me laugh out loud in some scenes.

Overall (9)
I think one of FMA's greatest strengths is that it is very easy to dive into but it has every little bit of everything that will please everyone. I've said almost everything I've felt about it in the above paragraphs.

The next on my list is to watch the 2003 version, though having spent a long time in the Amestris world I might need a few more months to cleanse my palate first.

I am learning English, this review may have errors, if detects any, I would be grateful if you could tell me. Thank you! :D

Values of the sections:
Story - 3.5
Visual - 2.5
Characters - 4

STORY:
The plot of Steel Ball Run is spectacular, from the beginning the main problem of our protagonist arises, and little by little more elements are integrated to build something much more complex.

The powers and the way to obtain them are presented in a correct, understandable and consistent manner. The stands of this part are mostly original and are used in very ingenious ways, their designs are good and they are very far from the humanoid stands, which gives a fresh touch to the aesthetics of the manga. I think that the only criticism at this point is the lack of compression that the absence of exposure of the Gyro Zeppeli technique can generate, but the manga gives you enough data and situations so that you can understand how this ability works.

Araki had already tried to work with a serious and humorous plot at the same time. In Steel Ball Run this is achieved perfectly. Not only has moments of anxiety and drama, also funny situations where we can know more about the characters. The humor in the franchise was already something iconic since part 2 and was complemented very well with the bizarre that the series intended to be, in Steel Ball Run the perfect balance between comedy and seriousness was achieved.

The climax of this story is beautiful, I would say it is one of the best climax I have seen in a series of action. The scenario that was put together for the final confrontation is amazing, it keeps the reader alert of the development that the climax will take and if that were not enough, it lasts approximately 15 chapters.

There are 2 critical points to the story and they are ... the beginning and the chapters after the climax. As for the beginning, this is very slow, take the time to introduce essential plots and characters, but if you do not have a real interest in the work, you will most likely have a hard time in episodes 6-20, from then on It is endless emotions. On the other hand, there are the chapters that come after the climax, which although they are not bad at all, the climax obscures the subsequent events that will conclude the story.

Score of the story: 9/10

VISUALS/ART:
The art is wonderful: the details in parts that should not be, the transition of paintings, the design of characters, the design of backgrounds, aesthetics, the anatomy of the characters. Everything that encompasses art is achieved to perfection, there is no doubt that Araki exhibited his artistic style in the best way.

The art is changing little by little as the manga progresses and after a certain chapter (if I'm not mistaken 23) the manga has a very high drawing quality.

Score of the visuals/Art: 10/10

CHARACTERS:
Although the main cast of Steel Ball Run is someone limited, it contains some of the best characters in the entire franchise and the shonen genre. The co-star, Gyro Zeppeli, is a daring, charismatic and eccentric man, but with a tragic story and noble motivations that are emphasized throughout the plot.

The protagonist Johnny Joestar, is a brave, selfish and determined boy, who can sometimes become very sinister, to the point of not caring about the lives of others in order to achieve their goals.

The chemistry between the 2 main characters in the story is good, Gyro was only a mentor for Johnny at first, but while they face the different problems of their journey, they gradually build a friendship to the point of sometimes risking their greatest interests for the sake of the other, as they give each other lessons.

One of the most important antagonists in history, Diego Brando, is much better written and characterized than his counterpart to the original universe of JoJo´s Bizarre Adventure. Speaking of the characters that are references to the original universe. Many only limit themselves to being simple references and nothing more, they are only there for the franchise fans to capture the reference and remember the original character in question, in a way it is a shame that this is not taken advantage of it, but at least Araki demonstrates who is fond of his first attempt with the series.

Villains and antagonists have a reason why they came to face the protagonists, some for very tragic reasons, others for very philosophical reasons and others for fidelity to the main antagonist.

The only critical aspect in the characters is the lack of characterization of some secondary, these are well managed and the situations in which they are involved are exceptional, even during certain stages they can feel as elements of the story and not as characters, even So your motivations and convictions are well achieved.

The main antagonist of the oeuvre is sublime. His stand is one of the best musical references that can be found in the franchise and the extravagant name combines totally with the concept of the character, it should be noted that his ability is one of the most powerful in the series and the most original. Their motivations are quite simple, but their goals are huge. The antagonist (like any other well written) has a kind of annoyance with the protagonist, the two do not care about the means to achieve their goals, with the difference that the protagonist does everything for his own benefit and the antagonist does it for the well of many individuals. You even doubt who really is right.

Without a doubt, I can say that the antagonist of this plot is the best or second best of the whole franchise, everything will depend on the perspective with which you look.

The characters of Steel Ball Run are well characterized, everyone has some congruent motivation to appear in the story, the antagonists are not the typical villains of turn, the messages are consistent in the way they are presented, and the situations and characters are memorable.

Score of the characters: 9/10

FINAL SCORE:
9.25 or 9 - EXCELLENT

[spoilers ahead!!!]

If it hadn't been for the last three pages, I would've hated the ending (and I still kinda did but I'm gonna write my review ignoring that)

Story: 10/10

Gripping throughout the whole story, needless to say I was absolutely HOOKED. I don't think I had ever experienced this level of ongoing suspense, especially in the buildup to the last chapter.

In terms of only pet peeves with the story, I'll go further into it in the "character's" section, but the story itself was pure gold.


Art: 10/10

Beautiful art, the settings and character designs were amazing, I can tell the author is really into fashion because of Mello's and Misa's character designs. I don't think I need to go too much into detail, it's not necessary, but if you're looking for a manga with great art, you're in the right place.

Characters: 8/10 [A LOT OF SPOILERS AHEAD]

I found myself rooting for Kira to win from the very beginning and while it might seem extremely twisted, I genuinely believed in light's cause which is important when your protagonist is an anti-hero. My only issue with this section and the only aspect of the manga i can't give a 10 is mainly because of Near, who I found to be an obnoxious antagonist and I hate that he got a happy ending instead of the clearly superior mello. All of the other characters are likable, I was happy ryuk remained neutral till the end and I'm satisfied with him being the one that kills light but oh, man, I really hated near. L and Mello were interesting and likable and had their own convictions while Near just acted out of weird fanatism towards L, lmao what a loser.

Anyway all the other characters were really good so I can't give this part a bad rating just because of one character.


Enjoyment: 10/10

Obviously, the most important thing out of any piece of media is enjoyment and I think death note was extremely enjoyable, so I'll give it a 10.


Overall: 10/10

I get the hype, it was really good and I think masterpiece is a suitable title for it. Good job @ author

TL;DR: Its good but i wouldn't recommend it

I started reading this just after chapter 75 was released and i instantly fell in love with it. The art is spectacular and although the concept of the story isn't original it has been done so well that you don't feel the similarities.

However as i read each i began to realize that the story is just the same arc being recycled and while this can be said about many shonen or shonenesque manga i find this to be particularly monotonous. Every "Arc" involves a the MC meeting a new character that takes an interest in him, he hides his abilities from them only for the a situation to occur that forces him to reveal his true strength.

this cycle could be interesting, unfortunately the author makes no effort to make the MC interesting at all. he has few personal goals and those he does have are resolved with laughable ease. His power scales much faster than that of the enemies he faces so no fight feels tense because not only do you know hes going to win but he wont break a sweat doing it.

Despite that once i realized that was the case i was able to keep reading with no problem because who really thinks Gon, Naruto, or Goku is going to lose? you read it to see the amazing visuals, the great fight scenes, and the character conflicts if you can get invested in them.

Overview: One punch man is a story of an unknown hero named Saitama, who once was an average employee after tirelessly training for three years; he has achieved great power. And with great power comes hair loss and responsibility. After obtaining this great power, he found his new carrier in being a superhero. Despite his over the top physical ability, he was ranked one of the lowest tiers in the hero association; hence the name, the unknown hero. Despite being viewed as one of the weakest heroes, he manages to destroy every monster that comes across his path, rending bored and hoping for an enemy strong enough to defeat him.

Character: Saitama, the main character and protagonist of the story, the strongest hero but is placed in low ranks. Finding no thrills in battle due to his incredible physical abilities. Genos, the disciple of Saitama, a cyborg who became a disciple of Saitama in hopes of becoming as strong as him. (Together, they balance the growth of mindset and the growth of physical ability)

Story (8/10): I understand that this manga is mainly for laughs, but the story just follows a traditional hero journey, lots of fighting and destruction, lacking a bit of depth to the story. But still, get an 8 in my book because of the contradiction between his strength of a god and inconsistent attitude. Becoming super serious when face even with the smallest average day problems while paying no attention when fighting. This contradicting character development makes the story very interesting and compliments the comedy very well.

Art (10/10): Murata Yusuke, the artist for this manga, did a fantastic job matching the expression of the characters to the story. The drawing was able to bring out so much more action in the manga and further compliment the serious and sleepy attitudes that Saitama often have. The detail and clarity found in every image are great for helping the reader to feel more emerged with each character and more emerged in the world of One Punch Man.

Enjoyment (9/10): I personally enjoyed this manga very much; I look forward to new characters that will be coming as the story progresses. (keep in mind that the manga is not finished yet) It is easy for readers to get bored of a manga where the main character is this powerful, but the author who goes by the name of One is able to connect the daily struggles of Saitama and present it in a way that makes the story so refreshing and keeping me want to read more.

Overall: I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys comedy or action, it is a easy to read a piece of the manga, and it is very entertaining. And for those who have read the manga, the anime version is also enjoyable.

So I was told by a famous YouTuber that this was the most brutal and gory manga ever. That couldn't be farther from the truth. To be honest, I've read more brutal mangathan I can count and this doesn't even reach the top tier.

Not only is the plot formulaic, but it's also very predictable. So you have a bunch of people in a lockdown building and they have to survive for 7 days. Basically the plot of the ring and saw blended together. Then we're introduced to a character, we get a flashback, something happens to said character and repeat the whole process.

I will admit though, I couldn't stop reading until the end. Despite its repetitive structure, it does know how to keep the readers hooked. However, I don't think this is the kind of manga you'd want to re-read after finishing it. Once the manga ends, it just... ends.there was no catharsis by the end of it. But for the sole reason of keeping me hooked 'till the end, I still gave it a decent score. I'd score it 5.5, but MAL would just round it off to 6, so there you go.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Rasen Shounentan is nothing more than a poor excuse for an alternate setting for TTGL. Poor enough to raise the question if this is just another example of Gainax teasing their fanbase.

Pitiful character development, a disgraceful and broken plot, multiple failed attempts at referencing to the original story, and more loose ends than one can fathom are just few of the many reasons any fan would become enraged at this watered down catastrophe of a story.

As usual, Gainax delivers with stunning artwork and arrangement. However, an eye-candy shell cannot mask the complete disaster this read holds in store.

Confusing plot devices and broken dialogue makes the reader question what is going on at almost any point in this read. Abrupt character introductions, rushed story development, and pointless relationship changes will leave almost any reader lost in a mess of thoughts as to how the story is progressing.

The manga spans over the course of presumably nothing more than a day, yet relationships that are built between characters are destroyed or changed almost immediately. These changes in character bonds are completely over-dramatized and completely unrealistic. How can the reader feel anything for a character losing a relationship that has lasted presumably nothing more than a few hours?

Confusing age differences between normally closely aged characters, teams made up of less that 2 people, and an ending that leaves the reader unsatisfied and confused leaves a shameful mark on a brilliant series.

If you are looking for an interesting spin on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann's storyline, I recommend you look at fanfiction.net. I guarantee that there are dozens of more satisfying takes there.

tl;dr: A manga that is pretty generic yet still has some greatly amusing aspects, but has major issues that prevent it from being all that enjoyable.

This manga is bizarre. It could have been a semi-decent, albeit generic, harem rom-com. The core premise of a teacher trying to stay true to his love for another teacher while helping other students who fall in love with him so he has to fend off their advances is decent. But the implementation is horrible.

The first major issue is all of the things he has to help them with stem from other teachers essentially molesting them and that's supposed to be funny. If he manages to stop them before they went too far and then afterwards they went to jail that could be reasonably amusing. But rather the teachers manage to get away with quite a lot before they get stopped , far too much for me to think of it as funny at the least. And upon getting stopped, they don't go to jail. They don't even get fired. They just continue doing what they're doing in a different way. And later they're even portrayed as good people. I just found all of this too gross for what is supposed to be a comedic manga. The other issue is that the protagonist is pretty useless, and doesn't even really do much in the various situations where he's supposedly the one that stops the villains and saves the girls, so it all really feels kind of lame.

Because of those two issues, even though there are a good amount of comedic and fluff filled portions that just have the protagonist interacting with the heroines that were amusing and enjoyable, overall the manga was one that simply wasn't that fun. The ending is also the standard indecisive ending, but that's pretty much standard for manga like this so I didn't really find it disappointing. The art was quite good though, so I suppose there was some value in reading it for that alone.

I would like to preface this review by saying that I haven't finished this manga, nor do I ever intend to, but after looking at other people's reviews I doubt that the ending would change my opinion of the story at all.

Story: 2

The story for Ousama Game is simplistic, which isn't necessarily bad but doesn't help it much. A whole class of students begins to get texts from someone named "Ousama" that tells them to do things, but the tasks quickly escalate from juvenile things such as kissing and licking another's foot (for some reason...) to telling other students to die. This could be an interesting study of group psychology, but it's handled poorly. One point that I noticed immediately was the lack of any intervention from authorities. Other series with similar plots explain this by either having it set in an isolated area where no one could possibly help or have it so getting authorities involved would be in direct detriment to the contestants to the game. These situations don't apply to Ousama Game, and as the series progresses it only becomes more silly that police nor the school administration haven't taken action. I know that Japanese school systems don't like to touch the matters of suicide, but when multiple students in a class have all died in a short period of time, with almost all of them being "suicide", you'd think that someone would say "Hey, wait a minute, something's not right here.". Later on, some students say that they've tried telling the police and have gotten no response, but at this point it just seems unrealistic and contrieved, which totally broke my immersion in the story. Also, as the story continues past the initial mystery, more and more plot holes open up and make everything confusing to the point of it being unenjoyable.

Art: 6

I enjoyed the art style, and there weren't many glaring flaws in the art. However, it isn't really special. Not much to say.

Character: 1

I have never experienced such an unlikeable cast of characters that do not seem to serve any other purpose than to push the plot forwards, even if it seems wholely irrational. Part of this is intentional, because a murder game like this would understandedly stress people out and cause them to act weirdly, but there comes a point where it passes realistic stress and falls into the pit of absurdity. The only character that I came remotely close to liking was Daisuke, and that's probably only because he died before he could become annoying.

Enjoyment: 10

Don't get me wrong, I wholly dislike this manga. However, reading it is such a wild ride of things that make no sense that it's almost a comedy. I may not have enjoyed it for the reasons the author intended, but goddamn some of this was unintentionally funny. If you want something to read with friends on a call, this is absolutely it.

Overall: 3

I'm sure others could find this enjoyable unironically, but I didn't. I wouldn't recommend it unless you either are willing to look past major plotholes or are looking for something that's so bad it's looped right around to being a fucking comedic masterpiece to read with friends.