Master Of Sea UMISHI

This manga is about a marine salvage company known as Nanba Salvage. The company takes all sorts of jobs at sea, ranging from towing uncontrollable ships to raising crashed planes off of the sea floor. They help out lots of people including those in life and death situations, but they are still very much a business. This is initially a major issue for the protagonist, Nanba Rintarou, who saw salvors as nothing more than hyenas. However, after his father died and left him both the company and a massive amount of debt, he had no choice but to take up the reins. It’s not longbefore he came to appreciate what salvors do, and he too began striving to become a master of the sea. This manga deals with what is a pretty unique topic and does a great job of showing off lots of different facets of it in detail. That alone is enough to make it interesting. But on top of that, the story overall flows really well. There are a few major arcs that get really intense, but between that there are shorter stories that are more character focused. The major arcs are really exciting with all sorts of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. The fact that they get increasingly dangerous as the manga progresses definitely helps with that. And the lighter feel to the shorter stories in between helps things from getting to be too much. Unfortunately, the final arc was really rushed and though it definitely has its high points, it leaves a pretty weak final impression. In terms of characters, I felt Nanba was a great fit for the story. He’s a goody two shoes that starts off overtly self-righteous and pretty annoying, though he quickly grows out of that. However, even after that, he’s still a really good person that’s too nice for his own good. While some may be tired of such protagonists, I feel in the context of the pretty unique setting of this manga he still felt pretty fresh and likable. As for the rest of his crew, the dynamic for Nanba Salvage overall is still great so it’s easy to get invested in them. There are two characters, Sawa and Hiro, who both have pretty decent starts to their character arcs. However, they’re both heavily tied to story elements at the core of the final arc, and since the final arc was really rushed their arcs have pretty weak endings as well. There’s also a villain turned rival sort of character named Eguchi that has a pretty decent arc. Beyond that there are various characters that are amusing, but nothing too interesting or memorable. The manga has some romance, but it’s not very good. The main romance seems to be between Nanba and Hiro. There’s some subtle relationship progress throughout the manga, but it’s very lite. They still have decent chemistry though, so it works. There’s this strange love triangle that forms with another girl in the mix, Maaya. However, she’s a completely pointless character and it felt really forced. And making the love triangle into a polygon towards the end just made things messier. It also didn’t help that the ending was pretty rushed in regards to all of this too. The art isn’t all that great when it comes to people, mainly in terms of their faces and expressions. However, it’s amazing when it comes to stuff like ships, the sea floor, diving suits, etc. Thus, it’s great at what are the most important parts for the story being told and that’s enough to make the art good. tl;dr: A well paced manga centered around a pretty fresh and exciting topic, though with a rushed ending.