MÄR

The story is set mainly in a world other than our own. Ginta, the main character, is a dreamy, less-than-average, Japanese schoolboy who is summoned into the world of his dreams, to fight an evil organisation and save a princess. The storyline is rather typical. The main character is called to be a hero and must save the world from evil. What is unique, however, is the fighting style. In the world of MAR Heaven, people fight using ARMS: jewelery that can be transformed into swords, spears, or even guardian monsters. 75% of the manga is staged within a tournament between the evil organisation, the "Chessno Koma", and Ginta's resistance troupe. Ginta and his friends have to battle one-on-one with their enemies to advance in a "war game" and gain a chance to fight and defeat the "king" and "queen" of the Chess. This, rather than the story, is the lure of this manga. If you like elaborate and exciting fight scenes, I highly recommend this manga for you.

A 10 if you're looking for a case study of shonen, a 4 if you're expecting a high quality battle manga. What separates MAR above other battle manga is that it cuts through the heart of what shonen is. There's no filler here folks but neither are you going to get the type of 'faux' unique quality often praised from series like Naruto. You'll definitely spot the hot blooded hero, the traditional cliches and at first MAR looks like your generic battle manga only if you read through the entire series excluding MAR Omega the sequel you're guaranteed to see a sort of elements of "battle mangacompendium lite" that makes the artist seem more like he was making a subtle serious satire of the genre rather than striving for mediocrity. It's all hard to explain but suffice to say what MAR does best is that it is able to contain all the stuff you love and expect from battle mangas but it slices it so thin that instead of getting a quality manga with no filler - you get even less of that while having the whole package intact. There's really nothing quite like it that I've seen. It's like a master musician stopping at the exact point of the crescendo to the point that it feels flawed but you get that he could easily have continued just one sound further and it would have been great. This holds true for all the plot elements but it stretches further towards the art which is what makes this manga seem poor. You'll see stuff that on hand you'll think cliche or generic and yet when you really think about it, it's original but it's explored at the surface. One of the best scenes to notice this is in a fight with a pinocchio like character later in the series. It's a minor battle but if you pay in particular to how that character speaks and how he attacks and then you re-read that scenes and ignore the elements of the character - you could swear the artist could have easily add one extra sentence, back story or prolonged battle stance and that fight would be more memorable than it should. I'm talking literally "in-your-face" details here even if you're not an artist, a critic or an otaku. That is the secret of MAR but alas it's not an "official" statement - plus you're probably looking for mangas to be entertained or actual tutorials and official announced satire to be thought provoked and in that element, MAR doesn't fair as well especially with more hardcore audiences who think believe they know the cliches and non-cliches of shonen or believe they can just get that info from TV Tropes or other wiki sites. Also one thing to keep in mind when considering MAR, it does this so well because it lifts up the rules without breaking them. Example the titular chain ball character is both a follower of the cliche generic battle manga design which seems like it's trying to follow the rule of cool but breaks it horribly but even as the backstory is rushed up until MAR Omega - the thing is able to grow on you while again constantly breaking the rules that should appeal to your taste. Without spoiling anything, let's just say by the end of the manga, the upgrades to the weapon would all fit the rule of cool quality and would probably make this manga more recognized had the artist designed the sidekick those ways originally but in a masterful stroke, if you reach that far, you'll be more empathic towards the original lame design. An effect that may on the surface seem obvious in that it's clear which design gets the most appearance and is branded into our memory but still as an ingredient of a recipe this is how this manga is able to "tell by showing" the heart of what a true generic shonen manga is and thus in my opinion it is more a valuable tool for the beginner artist/storyteller than everyone else and can't be removed from a high rating in every other criteria except the overall.

Although this story may lack exceptional story plot, I would still consider this manga to be a good read. Ginta, our main character, is very funny at times and I can relate him to Frodo, from Lord of the Rings. In some characteristics, of course not all of them, I think other readers would agree with me on this. ^_^ One of the characters, Jack, once annoyed me, but after I awhile I accepted and then really enjoyed his part in the story, and that kind of attitude in a story is what I really look for. Also, the Evil side of this world, the ChessNo Koma, is a wonderful, fresh form of evil!! Haha, they truly are, with their very interesting characters, their motives for their actions, and their reasoning. Take Ash, Girom, and Phantom as examples. :) I think that most of the characters in this story are well developed and very funny, so with that, I'm giving this a 9. (although I wanted a 8.5, that would be ridiculous) As a side note, I don't really judge too harshly on art, since I can't draw crap! So for this manga, I think the art was pretty nice, and at times paritally strange, off, or annoying. P.S. I hope you thought this review was okay, (sorry if you didn't!) because it is my first!

Seriously one of the most underrated story media’s I’ve ever read in my life!! We got some fantastic characters, humor, and artwork within the story. Ginta legit is one of my most favorite characters by how he was and is now from being a dorky middle school kid to fun and seriously badass character. The story well yea it’s pretty linear and all. It’s still very well executed and worth your time going through I honestly think the first half was alright, there’s some good parts, funny parts, and some boring parts but I think it depends on whoever reads it because I fairly think it’sfunny and that made me stick to it but somewhere in Volume 7, that’s when it gets so so so SOO GOOD!! I started to care about almost every main character, the story gets more and more intense as you WILL be on the edge of your seat. I, in fact, Love this manga even more after reading the whole thing for the second time and appreciated the first half of the story that I originally thought was alright in my first read I think this manga deserves a second chance to become popular or at least more recognized. Viz could do a re-printing perhaps since it seems like it’s no longer in print or some animation company could reboot the anime probably but I really can’t say that since I haven’t watched the anime and don’t know the possible changes or additions that are made in the anime. Anything like that, that could truly feel like giving this series a second chance. Anyways, I'm truly happy to review this manga, and hopefully, you enjoy this manga as well when you get to read it