Fanclub Owl’s Fiction Evaluation Club.

#1
My dear fellow fiction connoisseurs, have you ever desired a place where one could converse with other like minded individuals regarding the objective quality of various works of fiction? :smithnie:

If one’s answer to the above question is “no” then one should simply move along. :goatasure:

If however, one’s answer to the above question is “indeed” then I welcome you, dear reader, to Owl’s Fiction Evaluation Club or O.F.E.C. for short. :fransuper:

The intention of this here humble club is to be a general meeting place where all those who enjoy to discuss and review fiction in detail can come together to evaluate numerous works of fiction. :brootea:

Whether it be books, manga, films, comics or video games, all works of fiction are welcome to be discussed within this club (bar pornography/hentai obviously).

Now, I believe some established ground rules are in order to help streamline discussion, ensure quality reviews and to promote friendly, good natured banter. :kizabat:

Codes of Conduct. :absojustice:
I) Avoid one liner or low effort posts. This is a place to discuss fiction, not to make an opinionated single sentence statement. The internet already has Reddit for that. Lel.

II) No pornographic content. That is not to say that one cannot discuss any work of fiction that has nudity/sex in it (e.g. Titanic) but if the content in question is clearly intended to be erotic material then no. Lol.

III) No religious texts. It would not be the first time that I have heard someone refer to a Bible or the likes as “the greatest work of fiction ever created”. Works of fiction that explore the themes of religion/faith or portray characters/factions that are zealous (e.g. the Covenant from Halo) are fine but I do not want to see a debate on whether God is real or not. This is not the place for that.

IV) While discussing whether the power scaling for a series is logical or not is fine, I do not want to see matchup battles being discussed. We have the Battle Dome for that.

V) I ask that everyone be as objective as they can. Obviously an objective opinion is still an opinion at the end of the day but one should always strive to be fair and unbiased in one’s assessment of a work of fiction in order for folk in general to get the most out of a review post.

I would also say that for those who desire to discuss One Piece that they should go to the Oda Critics Club, which is specifically for discussing One Piece.

For those of you who simply seek to read and enjoy quality fiction without necessarily going to the expense of discussing it, simply think of this club as a place where online weebs go out of their way to find quality fiction gems from a sea of entertainment dirt so that you do not have to. :zehaha:

For those of you wondering what reviews should look like then here are a couple of examples (regarding Bleach) that I made in the Meme Repository thread that ultimately led to the idea of creating this haven in the first place. :sanmoji:
I was originally going to share my thoughts on this with my Tyrant brethren on Discord but I thought “Screw it, this is worthy of a post”.

Well, I am now on Chapter 184 of Bleach and I have finished the Soul Society Arc (aka Bleach’s supposed best arc) in it’s entirety.

Honestly, Bleach has to be one of the most boring mangas that I have ever read and one of the greatest contributors to that problem is it’s setting.

Besides the High School shenanigans with Japanese teenagers in a world exactly like ours (bar the presence of supernatural abominations and superhumans), Bleach is set in the Soul Society, the base of operations from which the Soul Reapers operate from.

The Soul Society is split between the Rukongai, where the souls of deceased mortals stay for an undetermined amount of time (one soul confirmed that he had been there for over two centuries) and the Seireitei, where the Soul Reapers themselves reside.

In short, it is the afterlife. The only afterlife. Every single soul that ever existed passes through the Soul Society.

Now one would think that the afterlife would be a fairly exciting setting. A holy place of reverence that should bring those who behold such a wondrous supernatural spectacle to their knees in awe of it’s beauty and wonder, right?

Wrong.

Bleach’s afterlife is exactly and I mean exactly like Earth in every single way imaginable.

Poverty? Check. Nobles? Check. Conflict over resources? Check. Folk living in buildings? Check. Death (yes, you can die in the fecking afterlife)? Check. The need to eat (but apparently only for those who possess spirit energy)? Check. Illness (yes, the afterlife has that too... somehow)? Check. Animals (I guess they have souls)? Check.

The afterlife even has Cabbage White Butterflies. That is right, major agricultural crop pests that haunt the average farmer, inhabit the God damn afterlife. As a horticulturist, that reveal personally insulted me.

The thing is, even if one decided to work within these limitations that the afterlife must resemble our world, there was still potential to make this setting interesting.

After all, this is a place where all souls come through from all of human history.

Imagine the potential for cultural combinations? This is a place where Romans can meet Vikings, Aztecs can meet Mongols, Visigoths can meet Ancient Egyptians, Huns can meets Spartans etc. etc. One could see Egyptian pyramids next to Gothic cathedrals, oriental palaces next to Roman colosseums, modern buildings next to ancient architecture or even attempts to combine cultures. After all, there should be a lot of architects with literally all of eternity to spend on projects.

Imagine the potential for historical figures? Aristotle can have a chat with Karl Marx, Einstein can share his findings with Galileo, Ghandi can converse with Martin Luther King etc.

Or even how ordinary folk react? After all, atheists will be most surprised at the fact that an afterlife even exists while those of faith might be confused and even potentially disappointed over their situation that their faith that they dedicated their entire life to was a bit off the mark.

Well curb your imagination my dear reader cause according to the whims of Titty Kubo, all of the afterlife is one giant, feudal Japanese shanty town with a nice white wall palace in the middle and everyone in existence is Japanese.

This is not even getting into the inconsistent nature of the place.
Soul Reapers have to maintain an equal number of souls between the Soul Society and the Living World. If the balance is upset, the universe collapses.

Even an imbalance as small as a single bloke killing a couple dozen ghosts can threaten the entire universe.

Despite this, souls can kill each other as they please in the Rukongai without the Soul Reapers batting an eyelid.

Bleach has it’s own equivalent of Hell, where the Hollow by the name of Shrieker went to.

The Rukongai is divided into four sections (North, East, South and West) which in turn are divided into eighty sections where District 1 is safest and District 80 is a poverty stricken war zone where evil sods fight and kill each other regularly.... Despite the fact that there is a literal Hell to dump evil fecks into.

In short, Bleach is cripplingly disappointing in it’s setting and it makes it that much harder to read this damn series. Especially when it takes about 50 Chapters for the plot to even start and another 20 Chapters after that to get to the utterly boring Bleach afterlife.


This is not the only issue I have with this manga but damn is it the one that makes this series a damn slog to get through.
Well my fellow manga connoisseurs, I have finished Chapter 423 and thus I have also finished the second arc of Bleach, also known as the Arrancar Arc.

Mother of manga what an absolute mess.

Before we even get into the meat of this manga, I want to say that I originally calculated this arc to be around 240 Chapters long but then I remembered that I actually forgot to take into account that Chapter 315 is split like this.
Each of those .5/6/7/8 Chapters has multiple Chapters within it, so conservatively, we are looking at a single arc that is about 250-260 Chapters long.

That is some rather insane pacing.

“Ah but Owl, you feathery fecker, perhaps Titty Kubo could not skip anything and had to make the arc as long as it was?” some sassenach could potentially say.

Well I say that that is some nonsense talking considering that 1/2 of the Arrancar Arc’s plot is just a back to back, copy and paste, exact replica repeat of the Soul Society Arc’s plot format. :goatasure:

Shall we look at some examples?
To clarify, everything left of the / is from the Soul Society Arc and everything right of the / is from the Arrancar Arc.

Now let us get started. :smithnie:

I) The plot of the Arc begins when two mean arse sassenachs in Byakuya and Renji/Ulquiorra and Yammy (the latter two’s first appearance in the story smacks hard of Vegeta and Nappa’s landing on Earth) start to feck shite up.

II) One of the sassenachs is a quiet, collected individual in Byakuya/Ulquiorra while the other is a boisterous loudmouth in Renji/Yammy.

III) Sassenach Renji/Yammy starts going after Ichigo’s friends while Byakuya/Ulquiorra sits in the background. Ichigo’s friends in Rukia and Uryu/Chad, Orihime and Tatsuki fail miserably to protect themselves.

IV) Ichigo saves his useless friends in Rukia and Uryu/Chad, Orihime and Tatsuki at the last second.

V) Ichigo fights loudmouth sassenach Renji/Yammy and surprises them before getting his shit kicked.

VI) Serious sassenach Byakuya/Ulquiorra promptly informs Ichigo of how pathetic he is before they leave, making Ichigo feel inadequate because words hurt.

VII) Urahara saves Ichigo’s tenderised bacon before he can die. Admittedly the timing is different but it is still Urahara saving Ichigo from the exact same situation.

VIII) Ichigo’s lady friend in Rukia/Orihime is captured by mister serious in Byakuya/Ulquiorra.

IX) Training montage. Ichigo admittedly goes somewhere different but his friends train with Mr Urahara in both arcs.

X) The eternally useful Urahara knows exactly how to open the Stargate or whatever to the Soul Society/Hueco Mundo.

XI) Ichigo’s friends come to assist Ichigo in his would be suicide mission against the Soul Society/Hueco Mundo.

XII) Ichigo arrives in a boring arse world and must travel to the white walled fancy palace of Seireitei/Las Noches (which I keep thinking of in my head as Lost Nachos).

XIII) Three locals in Kukaku, Ganju and Yamada/Nel, Pesche and Dondochakko assist Ichigo and co. They help them get to the whitewashed palace of Seireitei/Las Nochas.

XIV) One of the locals in Yamada/Nel has healing abilities. How conveniently useful.

XV) A character assisting Ichigo in Yoruichi/Nel transforms into a waifu bait warrior.

XVI) An antagonist in Kenpachi/Grimmjow goes out to seek Ichigo just so they can fight him.

XVII) An antagonist in Kenpachi/Grimmjow captures Orihime, goes looking for Ichigo and ends up giving him assistance.

XVIII) The first notable minor antagonist that Ichigo fights in Ikkaku/Dordoni, goes on to give Ichigo some immediate minor assistance to Ichigo after he heals them.

XIX) Uryu Ishida fights an insane, sadistic scientist in Kurotsuchi/Szayelaporro (feck this guy’s name).

XX) Insane, sadistic scientist character in Kurotsuchi/Szayelaporro prevents their demise by Uryū’s hand through fictional science.

XXI) Insane, sadistic scientist character in Kurotsuchi/Szayelaporro has complete and utter disregard for their subordinates.

XXII) Chad flexes on weak fools using his muscular arm gains until he meets a big name character in Shunsui/Nnoitra, gets completely cobbled and does nothing of significance for the rest of the arc.

XXIII) Uryū’s first fight involves humiliating an opponent by destroying their sankatsu chain or whatever it is called (he basically chops off their spiritual nads and makes them spiritually impotent for life. Uryū is a dick.).

XXIV) Ichigo fights a battle obsessed sassenach in Kenpachi/Grimmjow (as well as Nnoitra I suppose).

XXV) Orihime helps out members of the enemy faction in Maki Maki/Loly cause she is kind.

XXVI) Ichigo has a second encounter with Mr. Serious Byakuya/Ulquiorra who says “Yeah you improved mate but you still ain’t worth shit”.

XXVII) Ichigo has his third and final showdown with straight faced sassenach Byakuya/Ulquiorra and wins against Mr. Serious due to his Hollow side taking over and causing him to temporarily go berserk.

XXVIII) Ichigo wins every single one of his fights due to power ups.

XXIV) Ichigo gets power ups through fighting some inner spiritual manifestations of his powers (he fights against Zangetsu and Hollow Ichigo both times).

XXV) A character in Uryū/Ichigo uses a “final” attack that if used causes them to lose all their spiritual powers but the character gets all their powers back anyway by the next arc.

XXVI) Hinamori gets screwed over by Aizen in both arcs.

XXVII) Orihime bitches about how useless she is. In both arcs and just in general.

It is very difficult to enjoy anything within an arc, when half of it is just the same shit on repeat that one has literally just read and the other half is just a loose collection of fights of varying quality ranging from “nice” to “meh” to “oh feck off Kubo”.


This, this is only about 1/3 of the major problems I had with this arc but more on that later. This is enough for a single post. Lel.
Tis now time for myself to call upon potentially interested parties. :queenhear:

Now, let there be reviews. :finally:
 

Light D Lamperouge

𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕮𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉 𝕳𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝕭𝖊𝖊𝖓
#2
@Owl Ki have you read/watched Death Note? It's my favourite manga/anime of all time, and I might be a little biased, but I think it's a masterpiece, and won't be surpassed, but I'd like to hear your critical evaluation of it. It has 110 chapters and 37 episodes, and I recommend trying both. The ending is slightly changed in the anime, not a huge change or something that alters the plot though. The anime however has amazing music that fits in quite well. The animation is also quite good and fluent. If you have some time I'd like to hear your review of it.
 
#3
@Owl Ki have you read/watched Death Note? It's my favourite manga/anime of all time, and I might be a little biased, but I think it's a masterpiece, and won't be surpassed, but I'd like to hear your critical evaluation of it. It has 110 chapters and 37 episodes, and I recommend trying both. The ending is slightly changed in the anime, not a huge change or something that alters the plot though. The anime however has amazing music that fits in quite well. The animation is also quite good and fluent. If you have some time I'd like to hear your review of it.
Or shall we have him review Code Geass instead?

Looking forward to your reviews @Owl Ki !!!
 
#6
My dear fellow fiction connoisseurs, have you ever desired a place where one could converse with other like minded individuals regarding the objective quality of various works of fiction? :smithnie:

If one’s answer to the above question is “no” then one should simply move along. :goatasure:

If however, one’s answer to the above question is “indeed” then I welcome you, dear reader, to Owl’s Fiction Evaluation Club or O.F.E.C. for short. :fransuper:

The intention of this here humble club is to be a general meeting place where all those who enjoy to discuss and review fiction in detail can come together to evaluate numerous works of fiction. :brootea:

Whether it be books, manga, films, comics or video games, all works of fiction are welcome to be discussed within this club (bar pornography/hentai obviously).

Now, I believe some established ground rules are in order to help streamline discussion, ensure quality reviews and to promote friendly, good natured banter. :kizabat:

Codes of Conduct. :absojustice:
I) Avoid one liner or low effort posts. This is a place to discuss fiction, not to make an opinionated single sentence statement. The internet already has Reddit for that. Lel.

II) No pornographic content. That is not to say that one cannot discuss any work of fiction that has nudity/sex in it (e.g. Titanic) but if the content in question is clearly intended to be erotic material then no. Lol.

III) No religious texts. It would not be the first time that I have heard someone refer to a Bible or the likes as “the greatest work of fiction ever created”. Works of fiction that explore the themes of religion/faith or portray characters/factions that are zealous (e.g. the Covenant from Halo) are fine but I do not want to see a debate on whether God is real or not. This is not the place for that.

IV) While discussing whether the power scaling for a series is logical or not is fine, I do not want to see matchup battles being discussed. We have the Battle Dome for that.

V) I ask that everyone be as objective as they can. Obviously an objective opinion is still an opinion at the end of the day but one should always strive to be fair and unbiased in one’s assessment of a work of fiction in order for folk in general to get the most out of a review post.

I would also say that for those who desire to discuss One Piece that they should go to the Oda Critics Club, which is specifically for discussing One Piece.

For those of you who simply seek to read and enjoy quality fiction without necessarily going to the expense of discussing it, simply think of this club as a place where online weebs go out of their way to find quality fiction gems from a sea of entertainment dirt so that you do not have to. :zehaha:

For those of you wondering what reviews should look like then here are a couple of examples (regarding Bleach) that I made in the Meme Repository thread that ultimately led to the idea of creating this haven in the first place. :sanmoji:




Tis now time for myself to call upon potentially interested parties. :queenhear:

Now, let there be reviews. :finally:
Seems great. I guess Ill be here to give my reviews for Berserk and MHA when I catch up.


Yall ever noticed how hisoka kinda a baddy ahaa~
Sexiest anime character:amazing:
 
#7
@Owl Ki have you read/watched Death Note? It's my favourite manga/anime of all time, and I might be a little biased, but I think it's a masterpiece, and won't be surpassed, but I'd like to hear your critical evaluation of it. It has 110 chapters and 37 episodes, and I recommend trying both. The ending is slightly changed in the anime, not a huge change or something that alters the plot though. The anime however has amazing music that fits in quite well.
I have heard of Death Note but I have never read or watched it. I heard great things about but that it also apparently drops in quality after a certain point.

Regardless, Death Note seems to be an iconic series in the world of manga/anime and I intend to try it.
Or shall we have him review Code Geass instead?

Looking forward to your reviews @Owl Ki !!!
I hope to see other folk review stuff too as well. The main reason I put my name in the thread title is so that I could have my O.F.E.C. acronym. :madmonk:

Though if folk are desiring another Owl Read’s review for a manga then I have one for Afro Samurai that I made a while back.

God, I would sooner read another five Bleach arcs then ever see another panel from this manga ever again. :catcry:
The Afro Samurai manga is easily the worst thing my eyes have ever beheld. There is not a single redeeming feature from this steaming pile of shite.

Spoilers coming up I guess but you should know what you are getting yourself into with this one so you can avoid it completely or look forward to the biggest train wreck in manga.

The protagonist (creatively called Afro because he has an afro) is utterly detestable. The more you learn about him, the more you will loathe him. He is supposedly the second strongest man in the world but he will use, I kid you not, children and disabled teenagers as meat shields against fodder.

It would be the equivalent of Shanks using child Luffy as a meat shield against Higuma.

The protagonist’s motivation is revenge, revenge against the man that killed his father when he was just a young boy.

Okay, understandable. Plenty of revenge stories have worked in the past you know. :kayneshrug:
His first step on his path for revenge is murdering his adopted father who lovingly raised him since the day Afro was orphaned in order to take his headband (there is supposedly significance to this piece of cloth but still)......

Why is this bloke a protagonist again? :memehm:

Oh yeah and later he kills his adopted brother who wanted revenge for their shared adopted father’s death.

*Sigh*
:lawsigh:

Cause this world is edgy as fuck and nearly everyone is despicable there are only three whole kinds of character motivation.

Money.
Power.
Revenge.

Or a combination of any of the above. Take your pick, it does not matter cause they are all hollow.

I do not usually critique art (heck, I enjoyed the One Punch Man webcomic) but the art here is so dark and blurry that the first time I looked at it, I thought something was wrong with my eyes.

Absolutely atrocious. I have utterly no feckin idea how this dire, depressing, despicable world works.

You start in a setting that looks like Feudal Japan in terms of technology and by the middle to end, you have cyborgs, lasers and all kinds of crazy shite.

Why the crazy technological disparity? Nobody knows. :yasu:

There are these headband plot mcguffins that everyone fights over. The current #1 Headband owner acquired it by killing the previous owner, Afro’s father.

These headbands supposedly grant power, power that is never seen or shown in the entirety of the series..... Right.

The rules are that the #1 Headband makes you a God....... Somehow. Meanwhile only the holder of the #2 Headband can challenge the holder of the #1Headband while anyone and everyone else can challenge the #2 Headband holder.

Who made these rules? Why do they exist?
Nobody knows. :yasu:

What do people actually gain or do once they get these headbands? Is the supposed power real or simply perceived?
Nobody knows. :yasu:

Why do these Headbands have spirits attached to them?
Nobody knows? :yasu:

Why does everyone keep telling Afro he will cause chaos if he kills the #1 despite no chaos happening when Afro’s father died or despite the fact the #1 is already dead?
Nobody knows. :yasu:

Why does Afro not die after years held in a enclosed throne room with no food and water?
Nobody knows. :yasu:

Why was the previous #1 found dead? Why do humans in this world require a God to prevent them from becoming despicable beings? Why is everyone despicable regardless of if someone actually has that dumb headband or not?
Nobody knows. :yasu:

Why does nobody know? :yasu:
Cause the author is crap.:lusalty:

Besides the child killing protagonist there a myriad of other hollow characters wanting to kill our loathed main character.

Gorukobe, a mercenary who uses nude, bound women as furniture and who wants to kill Afro because money. By the time he faces off against Afro, it is the rapist mercenary versus the callous child killer and you aren’t sure who you want dead more. :catsure:

The Empty Seven, an aptly named group of seven brothers (motivated by power) who are supposedly big names so important that they don’t have names, just numbers. Probably because half of these ancient baldies are completely interchangeable to the point not even the author cared. :catsure:

Jinno, whose most notable feature is that he wears a teddy bear helmet.... ok. Anyway, this is Afro’s adopted brother that wants revenge (oh joy, another one) for Afro killing their adopted father. Spoiler, he unfortunately fails. :catsure:

Justice, the main antagonist, the big bad that killed Afro’s father while he was still a young boy. He allowed Afro to live (wait, the main antagonist doesn’t kill children but the protagonist does, the fuck?) with the promise of expecting him to take his #2 Headband to challenge him in the future.

Why is he called Justice? Nobody knows. :yasu:

Why did he want the #1 Headband and supposedly become God?
Nobody knows? :yasu:

Why did he want Afro to challenge him?
Nobody knows :yasu:

What are his goals and opinions?
Nobody knows :yasu:

What did he do to the world while he was supposedly God?
NoBodY kNoWs :yasu:

Why does nobody know? :yasu:

Cause by the time Afro finds him in his throne room, he is already feckin dead. :lawsigh:

Pure asinine shite.

Afro’s father vs Justice.
The biggest event in the story, is offscreened and somehow, Justice can decapitate a dude with a six barreled revolver? What? :kaidowhat:

Afro vs Gorukobe and his goons.
Is resolved by using children and disabled teenagers as meat shields. :believe:

Afro vs Empty Seven and goons.
Afro gets injured by an arrow to the arm before he even meets anyone important. Then he meets Brother 7 who dies. Then two other Brothers jump out of Brother 7’s backpack (the fuck?).... So two dudes were just chilling out being a liability to the main fighter of the group and only do shit once he dies? :kaidowhat:

He also defeats one dude by kicking his balls...... :lawsigh:

Anyway, Afro kills everyone, meets Jinno who, despite utterly despising Afro, doesn’t kill him because edgy reasons (“You haven’t suffered enough”) and lets him live by... Tossing him off a waterfall.... Dude, do you want him to live or not? :kaidowhat:

Afro vs Jinno.
If you think you have seen plot armor before then sit down son and let me tell you why your shonen MC’s chain mail plot armor is nothing in the face of Afro’s full plate plot armor. :smithnie:

Jinno utterly dominates Afro, lands countless blows, never gets hit by Afro, disarms Afro of his sword and goes for the killing blow..... Only for a metal comb in Afro’s afro to deflect a feckin sword, fall out of Afro’s hair, fall into his hand and allow him to one shot Jinno by stabbing him in the throat............
:kaidowhat::kaidowhat::kaidowhat:

Afro vs Justice.
Doesn’t happen cause the main antagonist and catalyst of the entire story and all it’s events is already dead. :catsure:

That means Afro was technically the strongest man in the world when he used children as meat shields. :goatasure:

Afro vs Random Kid.
After Afro becomes the #1, a child that Afro orphaned by killing his father in front of his eyes (yes, Afro did the same to someone else what Justice did to him) comes after Afro for revenge (what a surprise :noo:).

Afro says he has no will to live, kid goes to kill him, Afro kills him cause according to his Headband’s spirit, his “blood won’t let him die”..... :kaidowhat:

Afro kills everyone in his way, including family in order to avenge his biological father only to find the dude he had a vendetta against was dead all along, that everything was a waste of time and now he is apparently God. The end. :catsure:

I dare you all to find something worse than this. :smithnie:
It is only (mercifully) about 10 chapters long (other sites include interviews with the author as their own chapters hence why some sites say 13 chapters).

I originally looked up the manga after seeing some AMVs of the anime and seeing it looked quite good in terms of animation and fight choreography.

From my limited knowledge on the anime, Afro’s father vs Justice isn’t offscreened, there is a reason why Afro’s father was decapitated, Afro vs Jinno doesn’t end with a comb shot and Afro vs Justice does happen.

Only reason I kept reading the manga after Chapter 3 (child meat shield chapter) was to see how bad it could get.

It got so bad. So, so bad. :catcry:
This utter train wreck is the hardest one that I have ever taken for the team. :catsweat:

On my A Rank Scale of Excellence (or A.R.S.E. for short.) Afro Samurai straight up gets a 1/10. It is without a doubt the most miserable experience I have ever had with a work of fiction. :mihugh:
 

Light D Lamperouge

𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝕮𝖔𝖚𝖑𝖉 𝕳𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝕭𝖊𝖊𝖓
#9
I have heard of Death Note but I have never read or watched it. I heard great things about but that it also apparently drops in quality after a certain point.

Regardless, Death Note seems to be an iconic series in the world of manga/anime and I intend to try it.
You should check it soon. There is a drop in quality and you can clearly see it, but even with that it is much better in my opinion that like 90 percent of other manga.

Aye, I am looking forward to it.
 

Jew D. Boy

I Can Go Lower
#11
Definitely into this idea, and I’m not surprised that it’s Owl who stepped up and created a thread like this :finally:

I’ll admit, once we get past the major tentpoles of the manga industry, your OPs/Narutos/Dragon Balls 😏, my familiarity with a lot of series are either glancingly or completely nonexistent. Can we also discuss novels and other fictional works outside of that world? I don’t assume y’all know a lot of the books I want to review off the top of my head, but I’d like to give recommendations on that kind of thing (and receive any y’all may have!). Will that fly here, @Owl Ki?
 
#13
Isn't code gesse the basically what if politicians had super powers and were built like yaoi characters

:whitepress:

Like....
I would have expected the founder of the LGBT+ Character Fan Club to be pro-Yaoi. :daydream:

Have you ever tried HxH ?

Good shit. :blush:
That is another one that I indeed need to try out, though I do prefer going through completed works for full reviews.
Definitely into this idea, and I’m not surprised that it’s Owl who stepped up and created a thread like this :finally:

I’ll admit, once we get past the major tentpoles of the manga industry, your OPs/Narutos/Dragon Balls 😏, my familiarity with a lot of series are either glancingly or completely nonexistent. Can we also discuss novels and other fictional works outside of that world? I don’t assume y’all know a lot of the books I want to review off the top of my head, but I’d like to give recommendations on that kind of thing (and receive any y’all may have!). Will that fly here, @Owl Ki?
Sure. Lol. Unappreciated gems are the ones that deserve a loving review the most. :smithnie:
 

Jew D. Boy

I Can Go Lower
#15
I would have expected the founder of the LGBT+ Character Fan Club to be pro-Yaoi. :daydream:


That is another one that I indeed need to try out, though I do prefer going through completed works for full reviews.

Sure. Lol. Unappreciated gems are the ones that deserve a loving review the most. :smithnie:
Hell yeah! I’ll start thinking of some books I’ve read during quarantine that some of you may be interested in and report back shortly :catsweat:
 

Lee Ba Shou

Conqueror of the Stars
#16
I do declare, now I can read Owl's beautiful opinions in real-time
:dogood:

Well in the spirit of kicking off this thread, I wanted to do a small post of appreciation for my favorite Manga ever starring my favorite fictional character ever, Berserk. I imagine the majority of this thread will be devoted to criticisms and such, and the Bleach discussion will undoubtedly get bumped here, but I'm going to go on a beautiful caffeine-induced side tangent right off of the bat. I hope you guys enjoy :) (And seriously, read Berserk. I need more fanbois).

I am currently in my 3rd readthrough of Berserk, and honestly, there are so many reasons I love this manga. Whether it be the gargantuan displays of abstract beauty like these:




To the visceral displays of brutal artistic violence:




To the more quiet and heartfelt moments:




This is a series that has captured every fiber of my soul, and no other Manga aside from Kingdom has even approached my appreciation for this complete masterpiece. It's hard to explain what makes the actual story itself so memorable without diving into hardcore spoilers, but let's just say that Berserk tackles themes that I've never seen even attempted in other manga. Berserk is in many ways, a satire of traditional Shonen-tye stories in the way that it tells its story.

To give some minor details, the main antagonist of Berserk is essentially a dark, twisted, more horrifying version of Shonen protagonists like Naruto or Luffy, someone who lived his life in pursuit of a dream, and ultimately achieves that dream in the end, but Berserk goes about this trope in a truly horrific way rather than an idolizing way like other Manga do. Guts as the protagonist, begins the story as literally the strongest human alive, but the story is quick to reinforce how much Guts' titanic strength is completely and utterly meaningless in comparison to forces like fate, destiny, and the supernatural. Even though Guts is the strongest human in the world of Berserk, the forces that he is up against are so much more astronomically powerful than any mortal could ever become, that the story is less focused on how Guts is supposed to get stronger to overcome his next obstacle, and more on Guts' struggle against forces that no mortal should ever be able to stand against in the first place.

Again, it's really hard to deep-dive into Berserk without spoiling things and I really don't want to spoil the story in this thread, I would just strongly recommend anyone who is itching for a Manga to read to dive headfirst into the GOAT.

Oh, and also disclaimer, Berserk is X-Rated. There is heavy explicit rape and horrific sexual violence throughout. It's a pretty dark manga that's not going to appeal for everyone, and it's definitely meant for an older audience lol. So keep this in mind before you dive in, but if you think you can handle such heavy themes, this is one of the best stories you will ever read, I can guarantee that lol.
 

Warchief Sanji D Goat

Ubel > Frieren and Fern
#18
Why Fairy Tail is the greatest anime/manga of all time!!!!!!

So apparently, Fairy Tail is very popular in Japan, it has engaging plot, good comedy, bunch of action and drama, adventure, friendship (:madmonk:), ecchi and etc.:sanmoji:The pacing is good unlike One Piss:finally:The protagonist Natsu is one of the most developed main character out there:fransuper:The fights scenes is beautiful and meaningful :akaman: The characters design is unique unlike One Piss with all the female characters looking the same:namiriously:The lore and mythos is amazing in every ways:myman:The music and soundtrack is Top Notch:kata:And the fact that the author of Fairy Tail Hiro Mashima still continue the spin-off Fairy Tail 100 Years Quest and Edens Zero makes me happy and entertained:cheers:

#Fairy Tail Reign Supreme
#Fairy Tail >>> One Piss
 
S

Shuyaku

#20
Well....I have a confession to make @Owl Ki i still haven’t read Kingdom yet:endthis:i do plan on reading it and getting into discussions bout it. Think it’s on my list of shit to read along with:
  1. My Hero Academia
  2. Bleach(re-read)
  3. JoJo(whole series)
But not to fear I will read it my boi
You should try Kingdom, me and @TheAncientCenturion are big fans, if you like zombies and a different setting than usual it’s for you
 
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