Shadow Star☆

Shadow Star is probably the most well done manga I've read and could have a code name “100 ways how to mentally break young teens”. Cute monsters and young girls? Why not make their life hell and make them fight for their lives in a battle that is seemingly lost even before they try? Why not add a psychotic group of young teens that want to rule world with “cute” monsters of their own and give “cute” another meaning the most ugly and bloody way? That’s pretty much Shadow Star. Story: 10/10 Everything begins when Shiina finds a weird creature, Hoshimaru (as she names it), and keepsit as a pet. Later, she meets another girl with a similar pet but, unfortunately, the said girl isn’t very friendly and is weird. Weird as in, if taking everywhere your own bunch of bushes to hide in was possible she would do it. Shiina somehow manages to make this always scared and hiding girl her friend. But it isn’t until they are attacked by a freak (of similiar age) who gives a new meaning to “cute pet”, that the story actually starts unfolding. They found out that their pets are creatures called dragon children and are emotionless tools of mass destruction. Of course they find out it the hard way. These dragon children need human souls in order to mature because they don’t have their own. They usually look like something from fairy tales to show us that maybe they weren’t so far from truth. Story perfectly ties together in every way. Not to mention that it’s perfectly realistic and whether air or ground battles with military are nothing rare. Neither are deaths that by the end happen on a massive scale. Art: 9/10 While art isn’t anything perfect or modern since it’s a bit older but it’s extremely realistic and precise. It fits the story amazingly. Character designs are also very well done and memorable (although I didn’t like Shiina much). Characters: 10/10 While this have a very well done and solid story with unexpected twists, characters are about as strong. This manga goes as deep into characters’nature and mental health as possible. We have a big variety of characters yet none could be a stereotype or underdeveloped. Even side characters get their own nature that is just their own and recognisable. Main characters have it much more difficult because this manga doesn’t spare them any mental trauma since they are thrown into first fronts of a warfare at a very young age. I dare to say that character mental development and exploration goes as deep and in NGE but at a far larger scale yet it feels perfectly fluent. This doesn’t spare anyoe, whether it’s the villains or leads or side characters, everyone has a secret to explore and everyone has at least one mental breakdown to survive. Enjoyment: 10/10 The reason why I started reading Shadow Star, was the anime that ended not even in the middle of the manga. I finished the anime within a day since I just couldn’t stop. Manga took me a bit longer because my parents forced me to do such useless stuff like eating and sleeping. Needless to say that even though I was scarred for life, this was the best manga I’ve ever read. Though, that might be because I have a weakness for psychological horror. Overall: 10/10 This is truly a must read for everyone who enjoyed NGE and the character depth in it. Everything is either explained or hinted at well enough. This is truly a masterpiece and when I manage to gather enough courage, I’ll definitely re-read it.

All the other reviews for this manga are positive, and I honestly can't understand why. The only thing I didn't think was total trash about this manga was the art, and that was "meh". Really, nothing is worthy of praise in this mess of a manga. Characters - 4/10. All of them are unlikeable (except one or two). And NONE of them have any meaningful development. This wouldn't be that big of a deal (I mean, how many series has character development for side characters) except for the fact that whole volumes are dedicated to some characters, and still they don't develop. Of course theMC doesn't develop either. The story - 3/10. Terrible, terrible storytelling. Reading through, my biggest impression was that the author couldn't decide on WHAT to focus on. And since he can't decide what to make of the manga, it fails to be anything. As a character study it fails because the author switches between characters way too much, and nothing seems to have a lasting impact on any of the characters. Also, the situations the kids are put in are so bizarre and extreme they are nigh impossible to relate to. As a fighting manga, it fails because the "enemy" seems to forget about their plans to capture/ attack the protagonist after one fight. They just.... forget. There was also hints of it trying to be a coming of age tale, but again it switches between characters way too much, and protagonist doesn't get any character development. Besides all of that, there are many plot holes and random stuff that happen in the manga for no apparent reason. So... yeah. The whole manga is pretty much just a bunch of weird characters interacting with each other, for 12 volumes. And all of it is pointless, too. Seriously, you can read book 1, skip to book 12, and you wouldn't be missing a thing; when the finale comes, you'll be just as confused as anyone else that read the whole thing. All in all - 4/10. Narutaru is pretty much a pointlessly violent, incoherent version of Evangelion. But if you reeeeally want a dose of kids suffering in pain and misery, read Bokurano by the same author (he's obsessed with psychopathic kids). It has the same agony, but the story is infinitely better.

"Shadow Star" is something I happened upon on the internet, the anime that is. After watching some of the anime, I decided to read the manga too. A little sceptical at first, I gradually got pulled into the story that exceeds the standards of the anime (for one, it actually CONTINUES the story and ties up many of the loose ends left in the anime). Not to say that the anime was bad, but I found the manga was a bit better. In particular, the art of this manga is very unique. While manga usually has many busty maidens, in this one all the kids areskinny and flat-chested, and the same goes for the adults, few of them have prominent busts at all. One thing to note about Mohiro Kitoh, is that he really likes to put some shocking scenes in his manga. The further you read through "Shadow Star", the more uncomfortable things happen. One in particular was featured in the anime, and guess what, that episode was really controversial. There was an outrage (admittedly, it was broadcast on 'Kids Station'-God only knows why). It is about here that the English adaptation of the manga and also the anime adaptation ends. The manga continues, continues to delve into even more dodgy territory. Most of these kids are 12 year olds. And some of the stuff that happens is just completely un-natural for kids that age. That isn't a criticism though. In fact, the dark twisted material of this manga (that completely contrasts it's outer image) appeals to me. If you want to read something different, and if you were a fan of "Bokurano", then I am sure you will like this ★

Narutaru is perhaps one of the worst manga I've ever read, but that's probably because I stick to the ill shit. I see a bunch of praise for this manga, but I feel like that's just a misguided slap in the fucking face. This manga legitimately makes me angry, it is, very.... disappointing. To understand why Narutaru is so bad, you'll have to read it yourself, however I urge you not to, because then you'll just get blue balled like I did. The premise is interesting, however it doesn't bother doing anything new. There are a few instances where the characters are intriguing, sure, and thestructuring was cool in certain areas. An example would be the group dynamics for all the characters, they all belong to a group, while everyone is working for their own purposes. The series doesn't really treat it's characters as a collective, but rather just specific cases. I'm not gonna lie that I did skip certain sections of the manga, but that's because the pacing is really egregious. There's not much in terms of character development in this manga, the characters just never learn, or bad things happen to them just because. The philosophical portion of this manga is weak. If you've seen any psychological anime or manga, it's all basically the same shit. This manga is seriously just Evangelion, with The 7 Psychics from Yu Yu Hakusho as the antagonists, with meaningless shock horror. It feels like this manga doesn't even have a point, the gore or whatever happens to the characters isn't insightful, and every conversation that talks about a characters "ideals" or what have you feels forced, like projection from the author onto the audience. The Art Style sucks, it has this bubbly Pokemon art style, people call this a deconstruction of the Mon genre, which isn't really accurate. The only thing it could've possibly subverted is just being tailored towards a different demographic. The art style is especially heinous, in the fact that you it makes the tonal whiplash of the manga all the more apparent. There's down time, and then some fucked up shit happens, rinse and repeat, all the while this manga looks like some generic CLAMP shit. I'm only giving it a 3 because Kitoh IS competent when it comes to machinery like cars and planes, however: don't ask me how this is possible, but this dude can't draw in perspective to save his life. I have no idea how you can learn how to draw detailed planes right, but can't even draw a point of view shot of looking up a stairwell. Spoilers ahead, but honestly, don't read this manga: The worst part however, was the ending. The ending was rushed, and some BULLSHIT. The main character does a complete personality 180 and nothing makes any sense. Every character is quickly killed, for no reason, other than to justify the main character resetting Earth. This manga is seriously conflicting, it could've been cool, if the ending didn't just invalidate the entire story, and wasn't just so damn edgy and meaningless. The only "point", I could possibly divulge from this manga, is self reflection, but that's a cop out answer, because the philosophy is trite, the characters don't act like humans do, and this is a dumb fantasy story that doesn't seem to know it's target audience.