Devil Returns To School Days
Found this under the martial arts tag. lol. You know how some action comics will have romance in the background, but despite that you wouldn't consider it romance? Yeah, that's how tenuous the martial arts tag is in this. Anyway, A severely bullied kid finds himself thrown off the school roof by his bullies. The school covers it up, he ends up in a coma that's more locked in body syndrome then an actual coma. The hospital declares him to be in a vegetative state. This should mean no brain function and so no way he could be conscious of things happening around him and hearing people and the TV. Hospitals can monitor brain function and determine these things pretty effectively, yet the translation keeps calling him a vegetable (i.e. no brain function) despite that demonstrably not being the case. Yep, sure is another story where the translator or author doesn't know the meaning of the words they are using. But so, MC spends 10 years in this weird locked in syndrome thing, until he suddenly goes back in time to the day his bullying starts. He wants all of the revenge and proceeds to ape-shit his way to it with a hell of a lot of brains and some brawn. Though not enough for this to deserve the martial arts tag imo. Nitpicking aside the story is pretty compelling, though has some weaknesses for me. It's very addictive and binge worthy. A lot happens, but it's not overwhelming nor does it give you action fatigue. The pacing is great and nothing outstays it's welcome! MC's motivation is extremely compelling and his single minded pursuit of his goals drags you through the narrative mercilessly, making it difficult to put this story down to go to the toilet let alone be a functioning member of society. Character development belongs solely to MC, the other characters are barely better then cardboard cut outs. Everyone sucks, including MC sometimes (which is fine), but the "bad guys" are so over the top I can see some people being put off by it. So that's one of the weaknesses, character development and character moments for people other than MC. We barely get to see MC spending time with his family, talking and having family bonding time. We get some things with the little bro, but it's all solved so quickly we barely see MC and bro together before the story moves on. The trainer and friend are absent for much of the story despite MC supposedly meeting them like every day. Also MC manages to get perfect grades despite all the shit he's doing. How is he even getting home to cook for his family on time if he's off training and having meetings so often?? How is he just fucking off to meet all the dudes for his schemes without his grandmother trying to parent and figure out what this kid is up to. He gets fucked up so much at the beginning but we get no reactions from the family because the whole scene of him being at home with those injuries is entirely missing. Like I wanted more character moments, but fuck me if I know where in the hell the author would have stuck them without completely ruining the pacing of the story. Thus, I'd argue that his family should have been cut entirely and he should have been a welfare kid living alone. The translation ranges from passable to ok. Wouldn't call it great, but it's legible and doesn't completely destroy one's immersion in the story. The art.... needs some more work. The action looks good but the faces are ugly in the way that comes from the artist having trouble with drawing them, rather than because this is a story mostly populated with ugly terrible people. It's really mostly just the faces, the body proportions and depiction of action is good. All in all, it's popcorn, not particularly good or stimulating, but great fun and easily consumed.
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