Drawing Your Favourite Iconic Manga (Badly)

Welcome back to my drawing manga series, where I draw really good manga really really badly. Perhaps it's nice to see someone else's take on a character, or perhaps it's just nice to watch someone fail. Either way, you are reading this, so please brace yourself for what is to come. Although I don't have …

So What Happened to Kaiji? Kaiji Part 6 – Chapter 62 – Revelation – Review

So I know all of you have been waiting with baited breath to finally find out what happened to Kaiji! This section of the manga, with Kaiji planning his escape and then executing it has taken 22 chapters and now it seems like it's finally over! While it was great for most of it, there …

Did Kaiji Escape Part 2

I didn't think this would need a part two, but the level of thought gone into the newest chapters of the Kaiji manga make the story keep going, and make more theories plausible. The problem with the last story was that Kaiji couldn't ride a motorbike, yet the masked man rode a motorbike, so it …

Did Kaiji Escape?

Spoilers for the manga of Kaiji, up to the most very recent chapter, which is chapter 312 of the Kaiji part 6. As of now Teiai have Kaiji cornered. He is trapped in his mums apartment complex, watched at all exits, with no possible way of escape. However something that I, and a couple of …

I Love Berserk 1997 For It’s Age, Not Despite It

With talk about the possibility of a new 2D Berserk adaptation coming to Netflix how could I not talk about my thoughts? After all Berserk 1997 is my favourite anime. First of all I just want to say that of course I want this to actually happen, of course I want a 2D Berserk anime, …

Obscure Anime/Manga Genres

There are lots of weird and obscure genre's of Anime and Manga so I thought it would be fun to explain what they are and learn what they even are myself for a lot of them! Also I will be giving popular examples. They won't be anything that I recommend just what MAL recommends, though …

Junji Ito – Clubhouse / House of Friends / Gang House

It now seems clear to me that Junji Ito is not happy with doing things that are generic, even if theirs something that's already been done before he will always throw a twist or two. This isn't just because he wants to be original but theirs an element of horror and fear that is lost …

Junji Ito – Ice Cream Bus

Junji Ito's story of the Ice Cream Bus is so good for how creepy it is. Ito often draws his horror from very basic and ordinary things, then extending them to the extreme or obsession to make them scary. The story follows a single parent father taking custody of his younger son and an ice …

Junji Ito – Long Dream and The Story of The Mysterious Tunnel

Got 2 one shots for you this time! Long Dream This one shot by Junji Ito was just great. It was scary, had crazy art and was really entertaining and interesting as well as scary. The ideas about death were what made the story so fascinating to me it was crazy. We start fairly innocently …

Junji Ito – Ghost Heights Management

It's been like 10 days since I last wrote a post here, sorry. I've been busy with constant work lately and I find myself rarely thinking about my blog, after Halloween there should be a bit of a reset where I can actually work more. That's sort of a shame though because It means I …

Which One Of Us Is The Killer – A Story Trope I Tend To Hate

Recently I've been reading this crazy messed up manga called dead tube which I was really enjoying until it introduced a story trope which I hate: Which one of us is the killer? This story tends to take place on a place where everyone knows each other and nobody can escape. Often a ship in …

Liar Game Musical Chairs Arc Review

I've already talked about what the game of this arc is so if you've missed that or want a refresh of the rules you can find that here. In that post I talk more about how to make a really interesting game from a very basic concept and why it works so well, I don't …

How A Simple Game Can Be Made So Tense and Terrifying In Anime and Manga – Musical Chairs (Liar Game)

In a lot of my favorite manga there is often a game involved which the protagonist will play against villains, and it would surprise you just how often these games come from simple origins. By adding extra rules it achieves two great things. It becomes easier to understand since everyone already knows the basic rules …

Friendship and Betrayal in Kaiji and Liar Game

(This post features spoilers for both Kaiji and Liar game, but if you haven't seen any of these by now what are you doing? I've been writing about this stuff for ages!) Both Kaiji and Liar game are very similar shows in the fact that they feature gambling however the nature of the characters and …

Liar Game – Pandemic Game Arc Review (Round IV Qualifier Round)

That's right I' m back with reviewing Liar Game arcs! The contraband game was too confusing for me to comment on (though I really did enjoy it) and I didn't want to review the second revival game arc because it was too similar to the live action version which I had already reviewed. The sad …

Why The New Kaiji Might Just Be The Best (Spoilers)

Before you start laughing at me I want to make it clear that I'm not talking about the Tonegawa spin off or any Kaiji sequel in the future. I'm talking about the manga and specifically Kaiji part 6. I will now begin to spoil everything about Kaiji from part 5 onward. If you want to …

Berserk is the Greatest Manga of All Time: Chapter 4

Since this is a review of the second chapter of the guardians of desire arc it's recommended that you read the previous one so that you can understand this post. We open the chapter directly after the previous, with Vargas, an ex-physician who got brutally mutilated, offering him the behelit in exchange for killing the …

Berserk Is The Greatest Manga of All Time: Chapter 3

Yeah we're continuing with this series, where we go through all of the berserk chapters until the golden age arc starts, because I really like that early stuff as well! It's funny to me to have the start of a huge arc at the very end of volume one, where chapter 3 takes place. The …

Music Week – Gattsu (Theme of Guts)

Here we are! It's the last day of music week and this one is a treat! Probably my favourite song of all time. I love it for the peaceful tranquility it communicates in a world of terror and war known as Midland. If you ever see me with my headphones on chances are I'm listening …

Sora No Otoshimono/Heavens Lost Property Volume 1 Review

I watched all of Heavens Lost Property and thought that it was alright. Then I see a huge video series by Syy called a love letters to heavens lost property where he convincingly describes why this show is his favourite anime and I get his perspective. If you're thinking of watching the show then I …

Berserk Is The Greatest Manga of All Time: Chapter 2

Chapter 2 "The Brand" is the 2nd part of the three story arcs before going to the golden age arc and it's interesting that after this review we will already be 2/3 of the way through the stories. Chapter 1 "The Black Swordsman" is a huge chapter and is 90 pages long and chapter 2 …

Liar Game Manga – 24 Round Russian Roulette Review

Yeah we're back to doing this again! I've skipped the contraband game for now and we're on to this because we've not only got a review but comparisons to the live action version to make! I really love this arc in the manga because it takes something completely random and puts predictability to it in …

Berserk Is The Greatest Manga of All Time: Chapter 1

I love the Berserk manga a lot and I thought it would be really interesting to dissect everything in the chapter. In the past I did a thing like this for chapter 1 and 2 but would like to continue it for the chapters leading up to the flashback. I just think that there is …

Is Manga too Long?

Until recently I would have absolutely said yes to this question. There are so many manga's that take a huge amount of time to read. It's often that the worry of "will a show get bad" stops becoming a possibility and an inevitability since the mangaka's get so overworked that it becomes near impossible to …

Liar Game Vol 3 – Revival Game and Sick Tricks

So I guess I'm doing this now. It's like an episode review but for manga except its longer than a chapter review. I feel like chapters are very short and difficult to comment upon because not a lot might have happened however a sizable amount of stuff can happen in a volume so I think …

Liar Game Vol 2 – Self Contained and Lately Explained

I like manga that is self contained to one volume. It feels really bad when you buy a volume and it just has the middle of an arc without the start and end point. It's an incomplete story and it doesn't fit together in a nice package. It's why I like having the first three …

Liar Game Vol 1 – Schemes and Trickery

This will be the first in a series of posts where I talk about manga. The basis of the discussion will be around the works of Shinobu Kaitani who wrote liar game and One outs. I am enjoying reading the works of this guy and have found a few things to say about it! But …

Identity Theft – 12 days of anime Christmas day 3

Sorry about the dark and difficult themes discussed on the previous day, at least for day ten we’re covering a fun light hearted subject: Identify theft! Oh wait… One of my favourite parts of the year was binge reading a manga called pretty face. Basically a guy is in a terrible bus crash and is …

Berserk – Put Your Grasses On, waiting for so long

Berserk's opening is brilliant and since I've been discussing several OP's recently I thought I'd talk about it! Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocQ6PDiP014 A claim that people often make is that the OP doesn't fit in with the rest of the show and I couldn't disagree more. To me the music is hype to represent all …

The End Of Kaiji And Should You Continue The Manga?

Once you’ve completed Kaiji part one and two you probably feel in doubt whether you should continue with the manga, since kaiji ended sort of weirdly and the 2nd season wasn’t as good as the first, let me explain why. The first part of the season is within a forced labour camp after the fallout …

BERSERK: Kentaro Miura’s Other Work / What To Read Whilst Waiting For New Chapters

Miura is probably my favourite manga artist because of his brilliant Berserk Manga which is full of dark fantasy, brilliant characterisation and stunning art work. Since the chapters release very slowly I thought I’d talk about his other work so that you can find something to do whilst waiting for that next chapter! Futatabi Futatabi …

How Berserk Creates It’s Villains

When you see Berserk it’s very easy to generalise the villains and see them as not really threatening. Giant demons with transformative human powers don’t always make the most interesting villains yet the way that they’re created is very interesting and noteworthy. It’s very unrealistic to think that in this very real world of complex …

The Interesting Villains Of Berserk #3

Something that I love about Berserk is the great villains that are prevalent in the series. Some are outright villains whilst some overs are complex, floored villains with different ideologies. I’ll be running through the villains in order of appearance in the manga and why they’re good for the series. As I’ve already talked to …

The Evil Epicness Of The God Hand

The God hand are the brilliant overarching villains of the Berserk series however the other four members are often overlooked as they're pretty minor and often not talked about much so I feel like it's important to show that they're real and interesting characters even from their first appearance in the manga I will be …

The Interesting Villains Of Berserk #2

Last time we talked about the count and the baron of koka castle and we will go on to talk about the villains of Zondark, Bazuso and Donovan who mostly feature in the manga. I really love the villains of Berserk as I feel like they do so much for the Berserk manga and are …

Berserk: Golden Age Arc III: The Advent

Something that I praised the first film a lot was how it managed to fit a lot of events in to one very short film. This third adaptation of the golden age arc from berserk was both long and didn’t fit a lot of events into it, making it boring in my opinion as everything …

The Interesting Villains Of Berserk

Something that I love about Berserk is the great villains that are prevalent in the series. Some are outright villains whilst some overs are complex, floored villains with different ideologies. I’ll be running through the villains in order of appearance in the manga and why they’re good for the series. As I’ve already talked to …

Berserk: The Battle For Doldrey Film

This Berserk film is very similar to the previous one and covered what I would expect it too. My brief opinion is that it was worse than the first film yet still alright, I feel like the extra run time was actually a detriment to me as I started losing attention towards the end. Despite …

Berserk: The Egg of the King Film – Not For New Fans Of Berserk

Films are something that I find pretty difficult to like and I often tend to dislike for reasons that I can’t really describe. It’s normally a mixture of things I dislike and my short attention span that cause me to lose interest half way through. If you want to know how much I dislike films …

Berserk 1997: Action With Complications And Meaning

Berserk is a brilliant anime that I’d consider a must watch for anyone who likes and enjoys anime. From the outside looking in this show appears to be some kind of dark, demonic action show but it really isn’t. There’s a lot of gore and action in most episodes however it never seems to be …

Berserk: How To Introduce A Great Villain – Part 2

The villain of Berserk is spoiled in the manga so while the overall villain is introduced early in the manga it's introduced late in the anime so avoid this if you care about spoilers and are planning to read this manga or watch the anime - You're in for a good time as long as …

Berserk: How To Introduce A Great Villain

Naming the villain of this arc is a spoiler in itself so unless you’ve seen it or know the ending of the golden age arc don’t read this because there’s a twist at the end unless you’ve seen the manga in which it gets introduced early. This can also link to my guardians of desire …

Darren Shan: Vampires Done Correctly

Since I’ve decided to review every single anime that I’ve completed and dropped I thought that I might start another series where I attempt to review every single manga that I’ve read or dropped. Unfortunately most anime books that I’ve caught up too aren’t yet over so I’ll also be talking about ones that I’ve …

Berserk: The Significance Of Skipping The Guardians Of Desire Arc – Part 2

Previously I explained the guardians of desire arc in Berserk and the events that took place in it so now I will continue to detail its significance and the implications of skipping it out. Spoilers are ahead so don’t read on unless you’ve seen the anime or read the first three volumes of the manga. …

Berserk: The Significance Of Skipping The Guardians Of Desire Arc

Instead of writing all of my Berserk posts after I’ve finished it I’ve decided to just write about it whenever I’ve got something to say instead of finishing. This post will contain huge spoilers for Berserk which are mentioned early on in the manga but late in the anime adaptation. The Guardians of desire arc …

The State Of Manga In Libraries

As anime and manga are pretty uncommon things in the UK, it’s interesting to look at the state of libraries and what they have and if they have manga at all. I can’t speak for when I was young and visiting libraries for just one time but I used the school library and a library …

Berserk Could Have Been Completely Different – (The Berserk Prototype)

While Miura was in college in 1988 he made a one shot manga chapter called the Berserk prototype which is set in the world of Berserk and is about the character that Guts could have been. It seems that the prototype was Miura’s first initial vision of what Berserk was going to be and it …

Comparing The OST’s of Berserk 2016 and 1997

(OST stands for original sound track just in case you didn't know) As I’m sure you know, in anime the music and sound design are extremely important for creating a brilliant scene. It’s hard to get an emotional moment without an emotional song and it’s hard to feel like you’re watching great action unless the …

How Berserk 2016 Completely Misses the Point Of Berserk Manga (part 2)

Previously I discussed why the build up and ending of the skeleton fight scene completely missed the point of Berserk manga and I will continue to do this by analysing thoroughly why the build up and middle of the scene really don't do the manga justice. Section 1: The Build up The intro to both …

How Berserk 2016 Completely Misses the Point of Berserk Manga

From the previous part we established that the main appeal of Berserk wasn’t the crazy intense action scenes and more the great story, personality and history of Guts. I would absolutely not consider Berserk an action manga. This is where the main differences between the three versions of Berserk become apparent. Berserk 2016 looks like …

Berserk: How To Introduce A Great Character

Recently I’ve become a huge fan of the massively popular manga named Berserk. Due to this, after reading the first few volumes I tried watching both anime’s of it up until the point where they catch up with where the manga left off. The reason why I can say that I like the manga Berserk …

The Legend Of Zelda Manga!

As a lover of both manga and the legend of Zelda I was very excited to read the box set of all the currently released Zelda manga written and drawn by Akira Himekawa and I did not feel disappointed. The manga is different enough to be interesting for people who know the games inside out …

How To Binge Read Manga

For quite long manga’s it’s quite difficult to get into due to the large amount of chapters which seem daunting. This is why I have put off getting into one piece for a long time however recently I’ve been trying to binge read it and found some tips that help can help you read manga …