Level E

Level E Review Story (7/10) Good This story is mostly follows the story of Ki El Dogra, Baka and we go over multiple arcs and mini stories that consist of Aliens existing on Earth. When the first time the story arc switched on me I didn't know how I felt about it and I think it was when I started Volume 2 with the kids (which is the one I found the most interesting) that I realized how this manga goes. And at first no story arc that was introduced was interesting to me but by the time the story arc was over I was indeedsatisfied and kind of disappointed that we are moving on to the next one. Art (8/10) Very Good The overall art I felt was good for a short series and also knowledge on the mangaka I know I've seen worse from him so I will cut him some slack on the parts that were suppose to look detailed you can tell he put time into to (which was most of the demonic and insect looking creatures he created which is where I see the Chimera Ants in HxH's inspirational character design initially came from) Character (8/10) Very Good I thought the characters in this series were all very good no character I felt was horrible but I also didn't feel any character blew my mind on how awesome they were the closest was obviously Baka Ouji because he is indeed a comedian, semi-deviant, cunning, smart and most of all a troll so he's definitely the reason this gets an 8 without him this section would be a 7. Enjoyment (6/10) Fine My enjoyment like I said earlier was never at the start of arcs but during the 75% point of each story arc. There is a lot of setup in the start of his arcs and understanding everything Togashi is trying to throw at you before starting the "good stuff" maybe a bit of a mini-grind itself because each time you have to now re-understand how everything works in this arc before he starts moving the story along and he does that with the initial characters of that arc explaining with a wall text that might be a turn off if you get confused, lost or tired. I definitely felt all 3 of those as given times during the beginning of most of the arcs especially the baseball in that guy's dream one. Overall (7/10) Good Obviously for something so short and right after finished YYH you can tell that with the some of the character in Level E like Baka Ouji's servants who played kind of the detective role in some cases you can tell that Togashi still have that Spirit Detective thing going on back from the early arcs of YYH before it went DBZ on us. And the creation of certain characters you can see the inspiration for the character designs for characters like Gon, Kurapika and the Chimera Ants for the manga he made after this HxH. So I fairly enjoyed seeing those things. I'm glad I took the time to read this short manga and will most likely want the anime adaptation of it in the future.

Urusei Yatsura meets Alien. Instead of demons, UMA, or cryptids as the west knows them, are alien creatures that secretly inhabit earth with their own political goals and culture. While that may be an interesting story, Togashi writes it as a casual gag manga that switches around quite often. There are moments of seriousness, with insane plots akin to the Chimera ant arc, but Togashi doesn't seem all that interested in exploring them with complexity. By volume two, the story switches entirely to something akin to Hunter x Hunter's Greed Island, mixed with a little Dragonquest Dai no Daibouken. This is not a surprise atall, as not only was Togashi balls deep in his Dragonquest obsession, nor is it a drawback as this is one of the earliest manga to grapple with video games in general. While Dai no Daibouken is a literal video game manga, similar to Pokemon Adventures, Level E takes a .hack, and dare I say, Sword Art Online approach to video games. The main characters are transported into a world almost identical to what happens in HxH, except the mains end up a Super Sentai hero team that must defeat the Dark Lord, with art akin to Chimera Ant aesthetics. This leads nowhere, however, as a gag ends this "arc" of the manga. Normally these things are not negatives, however, when thrown together this way, and when written in a disjointed, jumbled a-typical format , it makes it hard to really put together a contained narrative. As a result the manga reads more like Dr.Slump or Urusei than it does a shonen like Yuyu Hakusho, or HxH, but not a particularly good gag manga either. The additional gag comedy breaks from Togashi's normal serious tones, which isn't a bad thing but doesn't tend to be one of his strong suits, as Togashi's hallmarks have always been psychological expositions of character through combat. The lack of either of those in this manga ends up weakening the overall story, and prevents you from enjoying the main characters. As well as the convoluted shifts of story, which potentially can be forgiven as an editing decision, don't help with that tonal consistency. Another drawback for this is that Togashi was clearly still drained from YYH. As a result, those gag stylings which serve to lift up Togashi and motivate him to write the story feel like more of a side show than a well woven story. Overall this tends to give the story a mediocre feel, without a clear narrative there is little to draw a reader into this manga. Individually the parts of this manga have greatness, but together it's sort of a mismatched effort. As usual, Togashi is a complete pioneer, as video game worlds were a topic many major series would deal with over the next two decades, as well as one of the earliest depictions of a more serious trans character, and homosexual themes. It's not just some "trans character" either, but an entire exploration into the sexual reproduction, soul, and "true gender" of the trans character, woven into the plot in seemless Togashi style. Again, this is not just some "genderless" or confused character, or some "brief homosexual portrayal" like a Hisoka, it is a literal discussion and scientific analysis of the XX-XY chromosome genetics in humans. It's deeper than serious political discussions of the topic tend to be, and it's moments of brilliance and pioneering that really, in my eyes, put Togashi among the pantheon of legendary mangaka. Even when writing a "mediocre" work, completely burnt out from a shonen series, Togashi still manages to have flashes of brilliance that shine brighter than anyone in the industry.