Zihvuda's manga / #Shounen(8)

I wish this was BL, I really wish this had been BL, it would have been so damn cute, especially when the plot was at a 'monster of the week' type of plot. This was great even though it wasn't a BL, and despite there not being romance and me wishing there was, it was still really good! I also kind of wish the executive and Sakae had interacted, though it is best that they didn't. Man that would have been a grudge match worth watching! Shame it wouldn't have worked for the plot. Like at all. Also, like everyone else has been saying, THAT ENDING!! TT-TT This adorable fun little series had no *business* making me cry as often as it did! ヽ(｀Д´)ノ Fuck this was great!

It was pretty good, although some things in my opinion lacked enough weight to make me care properly. Some of the deaths felt very unearned (as in "farewell person, we barely knew ye" kind of way). And I wish the comedy relief screaming ninny of a coward would have died. Like at any point in the story would have been good. I was so disappointed he wasn't one of the deaths at the end of this manga. I never managed to fully warm up to him, and I remember on more than one occasion I just skipped his dialogue entirely. I honestly don't understand how anybody could have liked him, or why in the world the author chose to give him the ending they did. Oh well. There were a few other things I didn't like, but in the end it was pretty good, and I did read the whole thing through to the end, so. Wouldn't call it the best series, don't understand why the movies based on this story have been so popular, but whatever. It's definitely not trash like Bleach, so I guess it's ok. Plus it's been a while since I've read an action story about demons, so it feels kind of nostalgic too.

This is a really fun story! The art is great, the character design is damn good and the story isn't annoying. I do wish there'd be a manga out there that would handle the concept of giving up on dreams in a graceful manner rather than this "pursue your dreams at all costs always and never ever give up" business, but this story is too good to get hung up on that. The pacing is good, there's no annoying love interests or purely fanservice/mascot characters. There's some predictable plot turns, but they're executed pretty well so you can't stay too mad at it, and I do love that Kafka gets found out really quickly. So far the author's been very good at not making any plot beats, action or characters outstay their welcome. I find all the characters to be likeable, and it's also SO goddamn refreshing having a main character in an action manga that's in his freaking 30s and actually feels it.

I can see why this is popular. A boy with super speed and a love of cats, meets an injured stray cat one night. He takes him home to treat his wounds and discovers it's actually an extremely powerful ability user (man) who transformed into a cat to escape his pursuers. The two bond, and soon form a student/mentor relationship, which eventually takes our little cinnamon roll of a speedster on a path to fight a bunch of people and become the strongest. Barring his master. It's very shounen-y and while I do love it, I feel there's not enough character exploration and bonding. Except between master and disciple, plenty of cute moments there. The other supporting cast on the other hand... how do I explain this? They have their moments, but they are few and are quickly over, and frankly I want more. The action is fun and creative enough, although there are some small hiccups that are just... weird. He can use his power for 5 seconds? Really? Cause it sure as shit don't look that way at all, they last waaay longer than that, it's just not possible. At some point they say he can use it for 6 seconds, but there's no fucking way those fights only lasted that long. I seriously don't get it. Still it's a small thing that's easy to ignore, because you do end up quite drawn into the story and action. I did at least. The art's alright, though everyone looks feminine. Also all properly buff people are evil. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ It's a shame, but oh well. There's a bit of lack of diversity in character design that thankfully gets better later on in the story. At the beginning especially everyone just seemed to have the same hair cut or they looked like palette swaps of other characters. The palette swap thing is still the same, but it's an easy thing to forgive. Now, the translation is below average for pretty much all of the chapters. Bad grammar, missing words, extra letters that shouldn't be there and were obvious typos. That sort of thing. The names kept changing too, cause why would translation groups bother with consistency. Now, this isn't to say the translation is word salad, for it is legible and you can understand what's happening. It just may require a little more effort than stuff done by now-a-days Asura-scans for example, but definitely not the word salad shit I've seen killing interest in other series. So far, no outright romance, though there's a few potentials I suppose. I don't think any ages are ever specified (other than, "he's your age!") and I was under the impression one potential love interest was waaaay older than him, but apparently not? Still, at ch 249 it's yet to be addressed so who knows if it ever will, or if anything even comes of it. MC does eventually start developing a crush, though it's not really addressed, to the point where one isn't even sure if he's noticed this development himself. I do hate the "what am I feeling right now?" trope with a fiery passion, but so far it's not outright done that. All in all, I do recommend reading this, it's pretty addictive and I absolutely love our pure cinnamon roll main character. He is best boy. The other characters can be pretty fun too. Although there are a couple shit-heels that for some reason are termed "good guys" despite having absolutely no redemption arc to speak of. Make no mistake, mc ain't one of those morally ambiguous types. He's a good boy. I honestly don't know why he's so forgiving of the shit they did. So like I said, I recommend it, but it ain't perfect. Nothing really ever is, but it's not difficult to see the imperfections in this. ALSO! (almost forgot) WARNING: ANIMAL ABUSE in some chapters. Particularly cats, and no, I don't mean battle animals fight and protect their owners, I mean actual ANIMAL ABUSE. Also a lot of emotional and physical abuse. As in domestic abuse. Also torture. These rich kids are so fucked up, the poor things. Everyone needs sooo much therapy, and no-one gets any. TT^TT Then again, as is common in most shounen series, they're fine. Even though horrendously traumatic things have happened and happen to characters, they're fine. I hate that, but it is what it is. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻