Accelerate the story while the complex plot unfolds As so often with graphic novels and especially mangas, the stor Lost helpers and a demonic big boss
Accelerate the story while the complex plot unfolds As so often with graphic novels and especially mangas, the story is amazingly complex, interwoven, and fascinating. So although the sidekick might have sometimes been annoying in the first part of the series
Nothing beats a good rescue mission Combined with very strange upbringing methods. That mixture alone is an example of the many great, creative, and probably sometimes even unique ideas the series shines with, just as the
Exaggerated evilness of antagonists and bosses By using the simple comedy tool of describing everything totally over the top and hyper extreme, Miura managed to create the uniqueness of this work. Other authors often fail when trying to satirize by bending the tropes until they break, becoming stereotypical, boring cliches, and thereby unintentionally ridiculing themselves while wanting to be deep and wise. But Miura had the ingenuity to intuitively understand how to mix it up into something unique.
Rock together with their sidekicks The protagonist has such sheer loads of past traumas, a bad reputation, all kinds Dark sarcastic fantasy antiheroes
Rock together with their sidekicks The protagonist has such sheer loads of past traumas, a bad reputation, all kinds of evil magic issues, and sheer inherent madness that it would be a bit over the top if it wouldn´t be that entertaining and well written. Just for the fun of it
There are seas of blood and tons of gore And the always big questions of what crazy idea the author might come up next with. By adding massive loads of the postmodern approach of taking nothing really seriously, including the work itself, Miura created
A violent homage to the renegade warrior stereotype That hardly ever reaches that quality. Besides the irony, great characterizations, and artwork, the work is soaked by the uniting power of the love for extreme violence.
No honestly, does it really matter? Of course, the chicken, cow, pig, or human who has a happy life before getting kilWhat´s ethical meat consumption?
No honestly, does it really matter? Of course, the chicken, cow, pig, or human who has a happy life before getting killed, running around with others of his species in the sunshine on a livestock friendly, organic, humane slaughtering farm, tastes far better. No chemicals, stress, and other meat quality reducing factors would probably also let
Cannibalism seem not that bad Yea, well, murdering other creatures, especially if there would be alternatives, seems to be evil in each case. That´s the core idea of the Tokyo Ghoul, combining slasher horror with not just nom noming humans, but doing what vegetarians and vegans do. Kicking bigoted meat eaters butts, not to make them softer for consumption as a freaking schnitzel, but to get them
Thinking about group sociology and the morality and ethics of food Of course, one can go without that and just enjoy the complex plot and drawings, but the dark satiric, black comedy undertone is what makes it taste most delicious. Damn, I´m kind of getting hungry while creating this drivel. Time to go out and hunt some vegetables.
Which is just one of the many, action driven story elements Besides the whole mind and consciousness thing, technology,You´ll never guess who Akira is
Which is just one of the many, action driven story elements Besides the whole mind and consciousness thing, technology, and the after WW3 setting, the complexity of the plot, conspiracy secret military research facility, special service, and post apocalypse rebuild setting it´s also
A milestone of sci fi, graphic novel, and manga It definitively (as said in the review of the first part) massively inspired sci fi, but the more parts of this series I read, the more I question myself
What came first: Comics and graphic novels or the book ideas It doesn´t really matter, the most important thing is that it´s there. I came along the sci fi novel road and enter the graphic universes right now, so I subjectively feel all of these ideas linked to the grandmasters of sci fi literature. But the more visual art I enjoy, the more I question and ask myself what the optimal way of consuming futuristic and dystopic ideas might be. Possibly, as so often, a healthy balance of both old school literature and the unfolding universes, with the help of better and better animation, CGI, and AI, all together tuning and improving the combination of reading, gaming, and passively watching series and movies. Akira is also
Oustanding in the graphic novel/movie comparison And let´s one easily imagine how this could go now and in the future. Especially the immersive VR and AR factor is an aspect that could much more often be used as a storytelling and gaming element. That would definitively be the ultimate fourth wall breaking of a series dealing with what sentience, mind, intelligence, soul, consciousness, immortality, etc. really are.
One of the best and darkest mangas ever written gets more complex
Ryuks is death goding really hard So why not just create some chaos by dropping the dOne of the best and darkest mangas ever written gets more complex
Ryuks is death goding really hard So why not just create some chaos by dropping the death note into the human world, not really caring about anything, and having a great, entertaining sidekick appeal with a „Whatever“ attitude. Except for apples, vitamins are important for one's health.
The detectives They seem to be better people than the protagonists, putting the question of how absolute absolute powers corrupts into the limelight again. That´s the most important red line of the work besides the ethical questions and investigative fun.
Lights transformation As soon as one begins to kill for egoistic and not altruistic reasons anymore, the morality compass switches to evil. In this case, Light should have kept doing normal business by just killing criminals. On the other hand, he wouldn´t be able to crush monsters anymore if he wouldn´t protect himself from the investigators. So what´s the best ethical solution? There isn´t any, because, with an arrested Light, criminals could kill again much more people than he has to exterminate to not get caught. So what´s worth more, the life of one cop or the many lives of civilians?
Funny, deep, and entertaining, what else can one wish for The sheer complexity of this thing is amazing. It lets the reader stop so often to think about the implications for real justice and life that it´s hard to just read without the feeling of missing some sophisticated auto mind penetration. This is one of the milestones all great future works of the subgenre will be compared with.
She could literally eat him, sweet as he is. Ken should definitively have avoided this Barbie
Cannibalism without zombies is such a refreshing change She could literally eat him, sweet as he is. Ken should definitively have avoided this Barbie
Cannibalism without zombies is such a refreshing change in the alternative nom nom game Instead of the usual, brainless infected or fantasy made zombies, rational people just decide to change their diet due to paranormal infections. A predator just has to do what´s necessary to survive and stay strong, so why all the panic? Just because it´s human and not pig, cat, chicken, cow, or dog it´s unacceptable? These are
Definitively double standards during short coffee shop breaks Sadly, it´s not vegan or at least pesco vegetarian, but offers bloody meals too. And as always, everyone has faith style imaginations of what´s the right, ethical, cruelty free meal to serve that lead to
Radicalisation by force Once ghouled, Ken could live a good life with new friends, if there weren´t these opinions formed into ideologies. Yes, even in cannibalistic fantasy town politics ruin everything! Why can´t they eat and live in peace instead of making the lives of others as hard as possible? At least they stayed human in this regard.
Manga just rocks the death horror dark fantasy genre Just as Death Note, the not so hardcore but also dark Full Metal Alchemist, and the probably loads of other, still unread pearls, Japanese art hasn´t just incredibly entertaining violence, gore, torture, and human suffering. But brilliant characterization that is always perfectly fused Brandon Sanderson laws of magic style too. One won´t find a moment of not perfect unity of world, plot, abilities, and complex, credible character
Look at these sweet skinless, fleshy titans, I want one as a pet
Looking forward to more backstory exploration I can hardly remember a case where a myLook at these sweet skinless, fleshy titans, I want one as a pet
Looking forward to more backstory exploration I can hardly remember a case where a mysterious worldbuilding and background event is so obviously and huge put in the main focus. One more great example of how Chekhovs and MacGuffins can be used in ridiculously giant ways.
Digging deeper into behemoths flesh The symbolic aspect of this shouldn´t be underestimated, let´s say Japanese and general East Asian isolationism during the last centuries. And in most of these cases, the monsters won because of technological and military superiority. Without the specific Asian focus, it could also be seen as a general metaphor, allegory, or just freaking deep message about xenophobia, building walls, and fearing everything foreign.
Medieval feelings with grains of demonic megalomania The setting is just perfect, because people like their genres, especially fantasy and not so hard science fantasy, without too many techy elements. Sci fi fans like me are more tolerant regarding some wizards and dwarfs in their worldbuilding, but fantasy heads are often a bit fastidious regarding their genre soup.
Perfect military division for maximal plot options By mixing infantry, reconnaissance units, and military police, there aren´t just a lot of war and battle, but also story complexity tuning opportunities. I guess this will develop into and accelerate forward to some great, more character than plot driven, fights for power between the already losing humans.
Nom noming in manga horrorland It´s one of the most graphic and dark mangas I´ve read so far, Death Note, Tokyo Ghoul, and a little bit of Full Metal Alchemist are dark fantasy too, but this one is especially disturbing because of the amazing quality of the art. So maybe not for everyone, but for special people like me, who are into darkness and invite gore, torture, and human suffering in their already struggling souls to feed them with the screams of the dying, a great entertainment.
A manga milestone, showing the postapocalyptic genre flexing its muscles
Who the heck is Akira? A great open question, just like the origin of the beheA manga milestone, showing the postapocalyptic genre flexing its muscles
Who the heck is Akira? A great open question, just like the origin of the behemoths in Attack on Titan. Asians just know how to fish and also hold the attention of an audience. In this exceptional case, it´s also mixed with some
Science fantasy post apocalypse cyberpunk It´s outstanding for the reason that Otomo can dance at all these weddings without offending any of the guests, not even one genre savvy mother in law. There´s something for everyone, because thanks to the grain of fantasy in a mainly violent and tech centered universe, each reader will find something perfect for her or him. Especially because this expands to
The protagonists have to struggle with the mental and physical consequences of their actions Thereby, a complex and credible character evolution is compared with the badass abilities to ensure the anticipated overkill mega disaster, no matter how invulnerable one is.
Trying to find comparisons and „Who inspired who“ pedigrees in sci fi and manga/graphic novels This part is irrelevant drivel: My reading highly depends on listopia, meta user ratings, old school literary prices, etc., let´s just say that I like to do my homework research as a security measure to make sure that just the best stuff enters my shelves as second hand paperback. This is combined with taking ridiculously huge amounts of speech notes, cobbling them together into reviews, and comparing genres, subgenres, and authors. That was the exposition Here comes the topic related stuff. While entering graphic novels, mangas, and comics, I´m permanently having vivid flashbacks to reading tons of science fiction and science fantasy and the big, open question. Is modern sci- fi a purely Western thing or did many authors reinterpreted and borrowed ideas from mangas and graphic novels? Especially regarding cyberpunk, hard sci-fi, and some social sci fi (space opera not that much as it subjectively seems at the moment) I would really like to know who first invented it because the similarities are just too huge to be random.
An ingenious concept for a crazy, disturbing tour de force mangaing to be appealing to close to all audiences of horror, dark fantasy, mystery, crime,An ingenious concept for a crazy, disturbing tour de force mangaing to be appealing to close to all audiences of horror, dark fantasy, mystery, crime, philosophy, and humor together
Who created it? That nobody knows who Tsugumi Ohba really is is freaking funny and adds an extra bonus to the mystery of and cult around the series. For an average series, this might be no real big selling and advertising argument, but because of how big and brilliant this thing is, it adds an extra arcane bonus level.
What is right and what is wrong? Ok, it might be a bit of an overreaction to kill people, but maybe they would have someday killed (others) themselves, so it´s maybe some kind of good preemptive policing and self justice that´s perfectly fine? Probationers would have no work anymore and who cares about the differentiation of how high the reoffending rate really is for each case and crime. But seriously, the big ethical, moral question behind this is
How someone would use that power for which kind of justice. Imagine being able to not just kill murderers and monsters, but everyone. Let's say people at work who could get the promotion, friends, partners, family members, maybe even kids. So with great power comes great responsibility and the
Protagonists are used to make the reader think about justice Because they have completely different opinions and worldviews, their argumentation which criminal is to kill for what makes it a roller coaster ride and ethics class example fun with the reader permanently being mindblown. Because obvious cases change, new evidence occurs, something completely changes the state of evidence, and one is confused about what is right and wrong anyway.
This series doesn´t grow too big because it was built to perfectly end I still haven´t read just close to all of it, thank and hail Ryuk and the flying spaghetti monster for that, but I assume that trying to put all in just a few parts increases the quality, and avoids a great series crashing to redundancy and at best average quality, by growing to inappropriate length.
I don´t know the anime and movie, but possibly many readers will get extra kicks out of it. What the ratings are saying, the anime is a pretty good bet, while the movie seems to be some kind of fandom war territory. One of these cases where it´s impossible to say if the movie sucks and if they ruined a perfect series, or if it was just impossible to live up to the expectations of the fandom.
Oustanding for the manga and anime genre It´s pretty disturbing, sick, and absolutely not what many associate with the stereotypical manga and anime features, some find a bit too extremely sweet and thereby annoying. That it´s dealing with some pretty deep topics and has both great art and writing makes it one of the most popular milestones of not just manga, but also graphic novel history.
Try Full Metal Alchemist and Battle Royale too if you like that kind of stuff.
Not just full metal, but hardcore death Scandinavian black doom overkill
2 brothers, perversion of religion, and a perfectly finetuned magic system, Not just full metal, but hardcore death Scandinavian black doom overkill
2 brothers, perversion of religion, and a perfectly finetuned magic system, it may be even a bit hard Characterization is top to show the struggle of the pair regarding good and evil, career or own moral codex, and many other questions this series is dealing with, more or less, under the surface. The combination of the religious steampunk industrial complex, the degeneracy of faith, and the warmongering and greed, and the splendid protagonists make it an exceptional masterpiece.
Military dictatorships are still bad, but cooler with dark fantasy Especially if the whole necromancing dark magic voodoo stuff is perfectly organized and integrated into a crazy, trigger happy war machine that breeds Saruman's en masse. That´s a great trope for expanding towards big wars, inner conflicts of one or some protagonists until the escalation to civil war and revolution or just a fantasy version of 1984 or The forever war unfolds.
Background story exposed To jump into the series, we get a load of background information about the not so loveable protagonist antiheroes, who are another manifestation of the big „What is evil“ question. If it´s useful to survive or get loads of money, booze, and boys/girls/ animal hybrid chimeras, whatever one is into, the general trend or dogma of an era is something just wrong for dirty troublemakers.
I´m quite sure that there are high and dark fantasy equivalents But because I haven´t read fantasy for years and not that much before that time, I don´t know for sure. But fantasyheads will certainly find similar or maybe even identical concepts, because it´s just so logical to pervert this kind of magic.
Automaily steampunk elements Early industrialization was already dirty, bloody, and exploitative enough, but good old fantasy steampunk makes it even grittier and more disturbing. Although I subjectively don´t enjoy the steampunk genre so much, because it tends to be closer to fantasy than sci-fi, this visualization of an ending era and interim makes it much funnier and quicker to consume. Especially imagining that beginning mechanical and magical biomedical research will become nanotech and bioengineering in real sci fi is a funny thought experiment.
Bloody philosopher stone chimeras An even better manifestation of escalating evil magic than the whole dark Hogwarts concept. Tricky not to spoiler, so let´s just say that, instead of searching for wisdom, magicians can try to go the, not stereotypical, self destructive path towards more power. If you excuse me now, I´ll now really have to continue my necromancing lessons because procrastination did already cost me world domination several times. Better like this review or be my slave forever instead of freely resurrecting.
Should one choose? If it was that easy, but there are both nature and nurture at play, so one has to smoothly move within these bWhat kind of alchemy
Should one choose? If it was that easy, but there are both nature and nurture at play, so one has to smoothly move within these borders. While the universe unfolds and one learns more about the concepts of magic
A secret killer is lurking To take out the state alchemists. Jumping between the cool magic and the crime thriller plot, the brothers are still the main protagonists, struggling with the problems the world has given them. No matter how hard they have to fight for a reputation
Family always comes first In contrast to darker graphic novel series, the more positive undertone and humor are another outstanding element besides the great idea itself. But don´t worry, there are still enough disturbing ideas and concepts, that somewhat also, subjectively, go a bit science fantasy steampunk, to explore and enjoy.
In a, soon, not so futuristic setting anymore Because of the date of publishing, 1989, soon 35 years ago, one Oldschool cyberpunk illusion of identity
In a, soon, not so futuristic setting anymore Because of the date of publishing, 1989, soon 35 years ago, one can guess what´s already there. The tech of that time seems so steampunk, primitive, and without freaking internet and AIs that it was a truly utopic vision when it was published. Nobody could imagine how incredibly fast
Computers, neuroscience, and medical surgery would develop Take a look at the current state of prosthetics, neurosurgery, implants, and especially AIs and robot surgery and say that it won´t be possible to create cyborgs, human constructs of consciousness as sentient and self aware AIs, and then, by the way, explain what the difference is. Because that´s the
Philosophical extra bonus Not just that someday all of the tech will be realized, but that the work is especially dealing with the psychological, sociological, and economic consequences of using and misusing such technology. In a fair, eco social Nordic Model state, some kind of free immortality could be reached. In everything beyond that one can welcome economic or totalitarian rule realizing all dystopian sci fi tropes of absolute mind control. Whoever disobeys, simply gets deleted. Forever dead in a world full of immortals to keep the dissidents calm and frightened.
Mario the lone bookwolf
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