IO

This was one of the most unique stories that I've had the privileged of witnessing in a long time. This was a cross between harem, mystery, Romance, and sport (if you consider scuba diving a sport that is). Story: The story starts out with a class trip down to some tropical islands where our lead protagonist meets a girl who blames him for killing her mom. One thing leads to another and the next thing he knows he's learning how to scuba dive with some long lost, and apparently forgotten friends. Now this story really has two stages to it. Itstarts off with the very technical stuff: setting character dynamics, relationships, and intro into the main storyline, as well as all the tech of scuba diving. Being a scuba diver, seeing everything that i learned put into this story, and extremely accurate i might add, was really cool. But for those who aren't into that type of stuff this can seem kind of boring. Then the story cranks it up to the real mystery and plot. Now without giving anything away, this is when the characters really start to change and grow, and for most people this is when it starts to get good. This story does have it back draws though. The story seems to pull in every which way up until the very end, which can make the story exciting but also confusing as well. But the main thing was the fan service that was in here. While not being overwhelming, there still was a great deal that didn't seem to have any point for the story except being there, as well as also taking away from the pure romance of the story. In the end, this was one of the most enjoying mangas that I've read so far. It had great and compelling characters that stuck with you, even if they do drive you crazy at times. It also had a plot taht made just want to keep on reading up until the very end. I definitely recommend this for anyone who is looking for a good fun read.

Gosh, it must have been while I was in college that I read this manga. Now several years later, with a bit of time to spare, I saw it pop up again in my browser history (yeah, yeah, I really need to clean it up one of these days) and couldn't stop myself from diving right into it (you see what I did there? *wink* *wink*). I can tell you one thing: it was a mistake. A horrible mistake. No, not because it was terrible. I fell in love with it once more (as far as that's possible with something on paper/your computer screen) and couldn't helpmyself: I had to read it all as soon as possible. Damn you, Minato Koio, for taking away my social life for these past few days. But thank you for bringing this story too! Let's start with the story (or plot, to use a fancy word): 8/10 Taiyo visits an island. And while the temperature isn't as high as you would expect, his hormones are working overtime. The tropical island is the perfect background for a story with romance, a harem (a pretty secluded place, which apparently allows little contact for the girls with the other gender) and mystery. Thinking back, I think this is one of the stories which made me wish for a more quiet life on an island (I once went to a Dutch island, it was quite nice and peaceful. But the lack of beautiful girls in bikini was... o right, the review...). It's the perfect place for this little 'adventure'. Romance, while playing a major role, is spiced up thanks to some mysterious stuff happening (and thank God it aren't aliens). The plot is, in the end, perhaps a bit too far fetched and I myself would have settled for a simplified version. Maybe it's just because I loved the character development more than really having to know the main character his tragic past (because we all know there is one thanks to the amnesia). Art: 8/10 I love the scenery used in the manga. It almost feels so real. Like you're looking at a picture. Wait, it actually IS a picture. The author doesn't even try to hide it. The first page opens with one! Not that I found it disturbing. I like the variety. The characters weren't always drawn great. From time to time I even had troubles differentiating the sisters. Not that it was a major problem. Their faces (and mostly Mio's face) can deliver the right feeling to the reader when necessary. Characters: 8/10 Not only for a harem manga, but also for a manga in general, I considered the characters interesting and fleshed out. Taiyo, the main character (if you had forgotten his name, just like I always do), is in my eyes one of the more irritating characters: from the beginning he's acting like a playboy. For some reason this 17/18-year old boy still is acting like he just got in puberty. Yes, people of that age talk about girls and sure, boys love to see women in bikini, but why do you have to repeat it at loud over and over again (at least with so many strangers in the vicinity, like on the plane)? His indecisiveness is from time to time irritating (oh, the horrible cliché of harems!), but luckily not in such a degree that it ruins the story. There is too much happening and he seems to act like a normal human being when it's really necessary. From all the sisters, Mio (the youngest child), got the most of my interest. She is clearly different from the others around her and even is worried that becoming normal would end her bound with her the main character. She acts like someone should act (perhaps minus her habit of throwing people from cliffs). Shibuki, the second sister, and major love interest: a jealous one for sure. Those who read the manga will agree that one page can summon up the inner conflict of Shibuki concerning her relation with Taiyo and Mio (can't tell which one, of course, or I would spoil it). She's not sure of herself (not only when it comes to love), a bit violent, but certainly a good girl. Nagisa... not really worth talking about. If you want to see an 'adult' get drunk all the time then you will find her very interesting. I didn't. I like drinking a beer (or five, six, seven...) but not when I'm short on cash. About the other characters: there are quite a lot and all have a certain story. Some are surprising, some aren't. But isn't that how real life is? The last chapters tie most knots together about some characters' personality and shed new light on their decisions and unravel a perhaps unexpected ending to the story. It surprised me the first time I read it. It may surprise you. Or not. Enjoyment: 10/10 Yes, a 10. I don't want to scream like a fangirl (very difficult as a boy I lack certain girly thingies), but I really enjoyed reading this again. If you're looking for a story in which you can sit back, relax and see how the flowers of love blossom while still having an adventure going on, then this is something for you. But beware for the nipples (yes, there are naked women in it)! Oh yes, this is my first review on this site. And yes, I'm not a native English speaker, so don't be too hard on my baaadd uze of zhe language. Heck, like you guys even care while you can watch the a picture of a girl at the top of this page anyway.

IO starts with the protagonist traveling to Okinawa on a school trip takes a detour after three girls who claims to be her sister. This manga is all in all a romance-mystery with addition of Comedy,Harem and supernatural. Art:10 If you want to see some outstanding art of underwater/ scenic beauty, I will recommend this as one of the best. The views drawn on first few chapters are enough to lure you to read this entire series. Also the characters are designed pretty well. There were few scenes where you might confuse between Taiyo and Shibuki (they have similar face and shoulder length hair attimes), but all in all its great. Story:7 This is where this series lacks behind. The overall plot is nice.From the start it started building up the suspense, but then there was suddenly a cool down, which kind of spoiled the fun.There were times when it seemed like the story accelerated too much. There were also few places they slowed the time unnecessarily. The story has a lot of twists (a positive or negative point depending on your choice, honestly at time I got frustrated with so many twists). The last arc started with the huge wham but again it was unable to satisfy my expectation and the series ended with a little disappointment. All in all, it was a great manga. Character:9 Great character design, especially the Miyara girls and Taiyo. The true intentions of the researcher, various associations and other side characters were not shown fully till the end which was one of its best point. I found the Mar's charachter a bit unsatisfying and also the fact that there was no other guy in the whole series similar age to Taiyo. but it can be neglected Overall great manga. I will recommend this one to read it at least once eapacially for the underwater views.

IO is a manga that starts off with a high school boy returning to Okinawa and reuniting with three sisters that he hadn’t met since his parents died and he had to go live with his new guardians in Tokyo. The sisters own a failing inn that also takes people scuba diving. Thus, the manga at this point seems like it’s going to be about Taiyo helping the girls revive the inn while also giving the reader a look at the world of scuba diving. However, it quickly becomes apparent that this is just background noise, and instead the plot is centered around a globalancient civilization that worshipped whales and a conflict between the US Navy and an ecoterrorist group over control of a white whale with supernatural powers. To be clear the manga does go into some detail about how scuba diving works and various elements of it, especially towards the beginning of the manga. However, it doesn’t go into much depth and is far worse at it than other manga that handle the subject, such as Wa ga Na wa Umishi. The manga also does deal with the main cast reviving the inn and some difficulties related to that, but it’s pretty much entirely glossed over and not focused on at all. Thus, I would not read the manga for either of those aspects. As for the supernatural ruins related plot line, that isn’t very good either. There are certainly some interesting elements early on, but as the manga progresses it devolves into complete nonsense. It lifts some light elements from the mythology of Japan and the Inca, but most of it is made up. Despite that, it doesn’t really provide much detail on anything and there’s essentially no world building. The plot with the different factions and it being unclear who was in the right is also terribly written, flows terribly, and doesn’t make all that much sense. In the end, the manga doesn’t doesn’t have proper explanation for most things, such as why the various factions wanted the white whale in the first place. The ending is completely unsatisfying in terms of the plot, and only somewhat redeemed in terms of doing okay by the main cast. The main cast is pretty bad though. The protagonist, Taiyo, is mainly just a generic kind and somewhat heroic guy that are a dime a dozen in manga. The only somewhat unique aspect about him is that he’s really perverted, to the point that he straight up cheats on his girlfriend. Though to be honest, I didn’t really care all that much because his girlfriend, Shibuki, is pretty terrible. Her base character is the generic tsundere that is constantly hitting the MC, which many seem to hate but I don’t have much of a problem with. My problems is that she has a lot of really low points that make her really unlikable, such as when she throws a jealousy induced tantrum over Taiyo prioritizing taking her little sister to the hospital over spending time with her. That little sister, Mio, is in elementary school, but there’s this weird love triangle with Taiyo and Shibuki. The fact that she’s like 12 isn’t even the weirdest part, though what is would probably be considered spoilers. The last of the three sisters, Nagisa, is mostly just a useless drunk. There were moments where the manga tried to make her seem more useful, but they mostly fell flat. If that cast of characters wasn’t a big enough of a mess, there are flashbacks into what happened with their parents that have some major twists near the end, and they were an even bigger garbage fire. To be honest, I enjoy social trainwrecks so if the manga was just focused on that I think I might have enjoyed it more. However, intermixed with the more serious plot line the issues were just really annoying. The art starts off as not good but evolves to okay by the end. It’s decent with the scenery and such, but terrible with characters. The style just looks kind of off and unappealing. Showcasing girls in bikinis is really common throughout the manga, but due to the art I don’t think it works all that well most of the time. It’s only ever good when its color, though to be fair there’s a good amount of that. Also, a lot of characters are drawn very similarly. Shibuki and another girl named Riho look pretty much the same other than that Riho wears glasses. But this is a manga about diving so due to what’s going on and the camera angles it can be somewhat confusing at times. tl;dr: A manga with some mildly entertaining aspects but that is overall a mess.