Crows

crows is an exceptional manga, my first time reading it, it was just about highschool delinquents fighting, after reading it i felt empty, surprisingly though, it's still just a highschool deliquent fighting manga. why is it exceptional then? the story is pretty simple throughout the whole story, but it manages to keep you hooked, crows is the type of manga that isn't about the story as much as it is about fights, characters and surprising moments that are able to make you reflect about pretty much anything. about the art, while i do feel that the art improves as the manga advances, it's great since thebeggining, characters looked ugly in the beggining, maybe even simple, but the fights never failed to make you feel the weight behind each punch, motion is expressed greatly in this manga, and as the story advances, you get to see more detailed/appealing drawings. the characters are one of the strongest point of crows, all characters are different one from each other, each character is appealing and likeable (at least for me, there is certainly a case to be made against some characters but most of them have redeeming qualities or have moments in which they reflect and become better characters). characters also evolve and develop as the story advances, by the end you feel as if most of the characters had their fitting end to their story, and some of these ends really make you think and reflect. crows has become one of my favorite series, it has once again taught me things i had forgotten, simple stories aren't bad stories, people don't need complicated/deep reasons to change, life isn't a straightfoward path, and that it can take a mere second or just a little hunch to decide what you will do with your life. I totally plan on reading it's sequels and spin-offs and i can't wait to introduce my friends to this manga

Crows is excellent, perhaps the ultimate delinquent manga. But let's go by parts. The characters are exceptional, being very charismatic and surprisingly deep. It is even curious that Crows never tries to be a complex work in text, but gives density to them when reflecting on their philosophies or attitudes. By the way, the work pays great attention to them, being the protagonist of their own arcs, which is great due to highlighting the cast making them remarkable. The protagonist, Harumichi, is quite charismatic but ironically less profound than the other characters. Don't get me wrong, he is by far one of the best characters in thework with his personality and lifestyle of freedom. However, when all the other characters always end up thinking about who they are and what they're doing, he's just existing lol. The story, he is very good, always very fun and thought-provoking. By the way, the work gives a lot of prominence to several characters, there is always a feeling of something new coming from the vision of a character. Crows helped me remember that not every story needs to be complex to be good, but just fun and well done. The art, initially I found it strange. The '90s streak hit someone who grew up with the arts today, but that feeling quickly faded. The fights in this manga are amazing and very well done, very exciting to see them. Highlight for the MC vs. Rindaman fight, best fight of the work. Finally, Crows is a very fun and good story to follow, with great fights and outstanding characters. My only annoyance with the work was in relation to the end of the MC, but in general the ending was good for the other characters.

TL;DR: It's a simple story with simple characters, nice art style, setting , comedy, it knows what it wants to be and the author put a lot of soul into it, as it can be seen from his notes at the end of the early chapters. For some, the fact that the story isn't too deep and doesn't seriously tackle the themes relating to what it means to be a man/delinquent can affect his enjoyment, but I would still recommend it for the humane and down to earth characters and world that builds around them. In a world where quite a few of the most developedcountries in the world are in a war against masculinity, reading Crows (and Worst, it's sequel. the most important ones to read to understand the plot) is a breath of fresh air, since this manga and it's sequel (which are very similar in terms of the way it feels, it's character dynamics, story, comedy and themes, so I recommend reading both of them, maybe Worst a bit more) are all about masculinity and how one should act, both of the stories lacking any sign of a woman in it's area, the stories focusing on the relationships between the schools that are built,but also changed by the passing time, all of which are connected by the fights, friendships and rivalries that form between each other. Setting The story takes place in a not named (as far as I can remember) japanese town where the only people living in it seem to be highschoolers (only male, HS, in fact), maybe some middleschoolers and young adults by which they get employed and "the police" of which we only hear of in some cases when it relates to a big conflict between schools, lacking any sign of adults, except maybe the occasional appearance of a teacher that gets made fun of, so it's kind of a dream like town where the delinquents rule it and have complete freedom (as far as it can go to teenagers), not having to deal with learning, homework, parents and even rules. While the setting is borderline on the fantasy spectrum, it still feels humane, due to them still living by some rules, such as their human body limits, injuries and the fact that they still have to graduate highschool and find a job in order to make a living, which, while not something that is dramatized, it's still looked over in a mildly serious but also funny manner, depending on the characters. All in all, the town feels alive due to the continous change that it goes through at the level of the relationships between schools, as every alliance and rival school constantly change because the students are coming and going with the passing of time, not everything being able to last forever and it's definitely a strong point of the series. Art style No complaints here, there are plenty of backgrounds, instead of white spaces, it is highly detailed, especially the close ups on the characters, which also are drawn in a realistic style usually, contributing to the characters attitude, personality, fighting style but also the emotional moments, although there are also plenty of goofy unrealistic faces made for the sake of the comedy in this manga which nicely enhances those. The art style also gradually evolves, even in in the sequel, where it's most noticable so it's nice to know that the author tries to polish himself and it can't be easy drawing hundreds of characters and still try to make them look original, the author succeding quite nicely in that department. If I were to nitpick, Rindaman's (Hayashida Megumi) hairstyle is pretty hard to understand and it looks amateurish, and maybe it's a me problem, but there were plenty of times where I couldn't connect the character's name to it's face, it being even harder when they advance in years and change their hairstyles and trying to remember who is who (when it comes to the side characters most of the times). It's still a nice art style though, fitting for the roughness with which a highschool delinquent manga comes. Comedy It is, of course, subjective, but if you come into this manga having a little background on delinquent behavior or simply know that everything in this manga focuses on the delinquents, that you should probably expect the kind of humour present here. I, for one, really enjoyed it and laughed or was amused by many of the jokes, from those involving hitting someone (which is probably the most problematic one out of all of them since some people may interpret it as bullying and find it in poor taste), to those about their capabilities of getting a girlfriend and those involving stealing (burrowing) someone else's goods, to name a few recurring types of jokes. I certainly thought that in some cases, the bullying was exagerated, but was overall amused by the scenarious that created this moments and I still have no problem with them (I believe they were handled waaay better than those in other anime/manga such as Maison Ikkoku, maybe Detroid Metal City and Nagatoro, to name a few). So if you enjoy the culture around delinquents, you will probably enjoy this type of comedy. Story It revolves around Suzuran highschool, known as the delinquent school because that's where the worst of them are supposed to gather, where, while not entirely true, it is still the best school in town in regards to which school would win in a fist fight. The story focuses on the students of Suzuran, with Harumichi as the protagonist of the story, but he and Suzuran also take a back seat from time to time in order to focus on the developments and relationships between the other schools in town, such as alliances that are formed or wars that are started. That's pretty much all that is to the story, Crows spans from Harumichi's transfer in the first year of highschool to his graduation, so for 3 years, durring which old and new characters, relationships, wars and alliances are left behind or formed, all of which enhancing the passing of time and the romanticised highschool days when the characters could just fool around, talk about woman, get into fights, develop new friends, enemies and rivalries, and have a genuinly great time. Fights There are three types of fights: the equal, one on one fist fights, usually between the best of each school, but also their close subordinates, the group fist fights, in which the schools fight like in a war, but only with their fists, creating mayhem around them, and then there are the ambushes where the opposing members of a school assault a single or a few members of an opposing school with members, being easily defeated. The ambushes are usually the start of the conflict, one school trying to hunt either random members of a school or well-known ones and starting a conflict between their schools to assert their power. The group fist fights are shown as hype, cool moments where each school can fight to his heart content until he can't fight anymore, preparing the scene for the real, one on one fights.This one is seen as the most respectable and tensioned one, seeing as the reputation of the schools kind of rides on the succes or loss of each of them, although even that can be quite questionable, seeing as the story doesn't seem to concentrate too much on the consequences of these fights on the schools or their individuals, that being one of the true critiques I have of this manga. the group fist fights, they are shown as hype, cool moments where each school can fight to his heart content until he can't fight anymore, preparing the scene for the real, one on one fights. The fights between schools usually follows the structure above, with the mention that instead of ambushes, some conflicts start with low level delinquents getting into a fight with another low level delinquent, building up to the involvment of the school leaders and a complete war between the schools, which makes sense, seeing as they are prideful and want to protect the school's reputation, but also the low members that were hurt in the fight. Themes As I mentioned in the beginning, this story heavily focuses on male delinquency, which, of course, leads to all kinds of recurring themes that are more or less talked about, but mostly shown, what unites them all being true masculinity. Respect learned through fighting is one of the easier one to recognise, seeing as the relationships of friendship and rivalry, especially between the heads of the different schools (Harumichi, Ryuushin, Bitou, Bulldog, which are the most important ones of the story), are formed through a shared respect for each other's fighting abilities and spirit. This is the best part about this kind of fighting manga, that fighting is not portrayed as something to be avoided, that it's something dangerous and that only bad people fight. While these are true to some extent, in here, they are shown to be a way to learn about somebody's characters, to see how far they would go for themselves and to protect others, and it's shown, overall, as a means of spending time and having fun, besides those times where white weapons are used, such as baseball bats or iron pipes, which still aren't used to kill someone, just to put them out of commision in order to win a war between schools. As such, learning respect through physical and mental strenght is made out to be something respectable and possitive, a way to learn about someone in a real life way, through behavior, instead of using only words, it's a nice way of showing masculinity, dominance, assertivness and courage, many of which are demonized in some areas of the world, but still highly shown in this manga in a positive light and work well as less obvious themes, but still relating to masculinity. Equality in fights is also shown in a possitive light, demonizing the ambushes made by other schools or finishing off the head of a school once he beat fair and square the leader of another school. Using weapons, targeting students that you know are helpless and can't fight are all seen as low blows and as scummy behaviors that are preferred to be avoided. Such behaviors can easily be connected to other real life contexts, like not preying on the weak and helpless, such as kids, homeless people and woman, instead holding equal fights (either physically or mentally) with people that are your equal, attacking people that you know are inferior to you in those areas could easily turn into bullying. Pride is also an important facet of the story and it's characters, because they, as delinquents and especially the leaders of the school have a reputation to maintain, both for themselves and the school (which ties nicely into the respect aspect of the story). This is a driving force of the story, seeing as the leaders of the schools and even their underlings aren't backing down from a fight, the exceptions being when they are made to send the message that a war is coming, every one of them keeping the tough guy act in order to show dominance and the pride of the school, but also his individual pride and respect. It is an honorable and admirable way of living, facing the challenges and taking responsabilities that you have although you may feel that you will lose or do something pointless that only hurts you, and still facing them head on, without making any excuses, is a great show of character and manhood (although, of course, there are also times when you should eat your pride and hold on for you or others). Characters There ain't too much to them (except their huuuge numbers), they are at most two dimensional, representing different archetypes of delinquents, from those that lack power who still hang out with the strong, to the pervy ones, goofy and stupid ones (the butt of plenty of jokes) to serious, stoic and angry delinquents, the series covers pretty much all of them. They both are and aren't the best part of the manga. While they aren't too developed and mostly don't develop, except maybe a few minor exceptions which aren't all that significant anyway, they really feel human due to the dialogue and emotions that they express in different conversations, the jokes they make and even the reactions to other's jokes. What I appreciate about them and the reason why I can't fully hate and degrade the character writing is because the manga in general tries to depict the highschool life of these delinquents which rarely and hardly develop and don't necessarily need to do it since their character (what I talked about in the themes section) is already pretty developed. The reason why I choose not to talk about any character in particular is exactly because of this, they are all combinations of each other that mix well, the only thing that separates them is their physical power, seeing as the more important and relevant characters of the story (the leaders of 4 or 5 of the schools), are being focused on for this exact reason. Negatives While the simplicity of the manga and the delinquent's lives is it's strongest point, it is also it's weakest one from a more objective perspective (not like simplicity is bad, in itself, but for something to truly be a 10/10 it needs more complexity, emotion, high stakes to name a few, especially when the delinquent genre is full of potential in regards to these). Three years of the character's lives and 8 or 9 years irl and hardly seeing any development in them is quite a waste of time where the characters could have met different physical, psychological and philosophical challenges and doubts in order to build more complexity for them and enhance the themes and the portrayal of delinquents. The fact that this manga was published in a shonen magazine may have affected the end result, but I still believe it is waste potential that a delinquent manga can have, as proven by Bakuon Rettou, which is also a delinquent manga (although from the motorcycle riding night life), but it focuses a great deal of time on the protagonists struggle with his home life, personal life, his future and life choices (and of course, I highly recommend it, this truly got me into the delinquent genre and I still have to see how these 2 mangas compare to other delinquent manga's, since I'm new in this). So yea, simplicity of character = good and bad. Another problem is the lack of consequences. You would expect that in a manga about street fighting there would be more people that suffer permanent or long term damage to their bodies that can't be fixed by a simple stay in a hospital until the end of the arc, or not even that. Too bad that this is what always happens, even when they suffer quite hard damage from the aforementioned bats, iron pipes and ambushes. To be fair though, the only anime/manga that comes to mind that really tackles the physical and psychological aspects of disabilities (and also in a masterful way) is Real (one of my favorite manga, by Takehito Inoue) and it's quite a sensitive and hard subject to discuss in a manga made for teenagers. But this lack of consequences still are a big no for this manga, even simply not allowing them to fight anymore or make them transfer to another school in a different city would have been better than nothing. The themes are executed alright and it's nice to see them highlighted from time to time, but they still aren't challenged and there isn't much done with them, it's just some cool aspects of the characters that are used to hype the already cool and hype moments. It's cool that there are some stories that highlight these aspects of man and delinquents, but again, this genre and such themes could work extremely well in the right hands, but also in a more mature setting (and publication magazine). I'm sure that plenty of people thing I'm petty, an elitist, some hater or who knows what else, and that's quite fair, can't blame anyone for thinking that after critiquing a teenage manga for something that it clearly doesn't want to be. And that's fine, seeing as it still promotes good values and positive views on a type of people that are often misunderstood is highly respectable and I can't take it from the mangaka. But making a complex manga, with well executed themes and characters that nicely complement them and shows the grittiness of these kind of people and how they try to live or change? I think this takes a deep emotional connection and understanding of these types of people and struggles and also skills as a mangaka to succesfully put this ideas on paper and make them flow naturally. It's clear that the mangaka did plenty of good things with his manga, hence the positive reception that it has, but I value and strongly believe that the maturity of an author and him being able to seriously tackle some hard subjects is the one thing that I can easily point towards and call it a masterpiece and give it a 10/10 wholeheartedly. Conclusion All in all, I still recommend this manga. While I find myself at a point where shonens with crazy abilities such a JJK, Demon Slayer, MHA or anything with special powers and pretty animation don't do it for me, seeing manly fist fights is really refreshing for me and it's more easily to connect with the characters due to the down to earth fights and characters. The dynamics and comedy moments between the characters are also great and I never got tired of seeing them interact with each other. And what's one of the most aspects of this manga that probably attracted it's readers is the soul that the author put in it, as can be deduced by reading his notes at the end the early chapters. It was very wholesome to read about his struggles, but also enthusiasm and effort he put into creating and serializing this manga, that clearly wasn't driven by money (don't know about the following years/side stories/sequels, maybe the author only wished to develop this living world that he worked on for so many years).