Skip to main content

Click "Archive" or "Labels" in the sidebar to browse reviews, or use the search bar to look for a specific title.


Review: Eyeshield 21, Vol. 1: The Boy With the Golden Legs

Eyeshield 21, Vol. 1: The Boy With the Golden Legs Eyeshield 21, Vol. 1: The Boy With the Golden Legs by Riichiro Inagaki
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Banner

I almost dropped this after reading the first 2 chapters because it was so generic, but decided I should at least finish the volume. You know, since it's supposed to be a pretty good sports manga/anime and all. Also because I've dropped too many manga after reading only the first chapter or two, and a series really does need more of a chance than that.

Eyeshield 21 is a sports manga about American football.

AMERICA! FUCK YEAH
USA! USA! USA!

I don't really care too much about the sport myself. I had some fun playing it in grade 10 but that is the cap of my interest in it. But like I said in the introduction paragraph, this here is a bit of a modern classic in the sports manga genre, so being the sports lit connoisseur that I am you know I had to give it a go.

Just like what I got from the first two chapters, it's still a pretty generic sports manga, but it does also have some interesting elements that keep me wanting to read more. The main character is actually pretty interesting--besides being generically wimpy--and the supporting cast is also pretty fun. I enjoyed how the MC actually wanted to be the team manager instead of a player, but because of the evil insane captain of the football team he's forced to play instead. That's technically a spoiler I guess, but in actuality it's extremely obvious that of course the super fast MC would play. I also like how they made his identity a secret, because that will definitely cause some juicy misunderstandings and awkward scenarios.

If the American football aspect wasn't American enough for you, the art makes it feel even more American because of Yusuke Murata's cartoony style. I'm actually so torn on the art. The cartoon-yness has me shook but at the same time I love it. Especially the cartoony way the bodies are drawn. I read manga and expect to see a specific style of art, so when that expectation is subverted it's jarring, and not in a good way. But by the time I got to the end of the volume I got more used to it. I'm actually now looking forward to reading more of this series specifically so I can see more of the art.

View all my reviews
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Review: 寄宿学校のジュリエット（３）

寄宿学校のジュリエット（３） by 金田陽介 My rating: 5 of 5 stars Brb, crying. Not actually, though. Like, I didn’t shed any actual tears or even get close to it, it’s just that this series… is so good . The romance between Romeo and Juliet is still weirdly innocent, but the actual story is so engrossing and entertaining. It also seems like almost literally every single character is complex and interesting and multi-layered. (Only the background characters like Maru’s lackeys are undeveloped, but honestly they really don’t need any development anyway.) The relationships between characters keep getting more and more complex, and the situations that the characters have to deal with are also super juicy. This is such an addicting series. My initial problem with Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was that it seemed pretty unhealthy and one-sided to me. Later, I found it very weird how sexually immature they both are, and how un-intimate their relationship is. What is interest...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Lulu Is a Rhinoceros

Lulu Is a Rhinoceros by Jason Flom My rating: 3 of 5 stars The second I saw the cover of this book and read the synopsis I immediately thought that this was going to be a book that uses animals to create an allegory about transsexuality, as another installment in the growing genre of kid’s LGBTQA+ books. The whole "that's what she sees when she looks in the mirror" business felt really on the nose, and I feel like the authors purposefully used this wording in order to generate buzz around this book. In actuality, this felt like any other normal kids book. You have a character who feels misunderstood by their peers, and so they go on a "journey" to find and/or prove themselves and eventually end up finding peace with who they are and/or a group who accepts them. To me, the story was told in a way that presented Lulu like any other silly character in a children's book that had a silly problem stemming from their silly misco...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: モブサイコ100 2

モブサイコ100 2 by ONE My rating: 4 of 5 stars [Source] The end of the first volume very briefly introduced the best character Teruki Hanazawa, and the entirety of this second volume is comprised of the conflict that arises between him, Mob, the punks, and the Body Improvement Club. These episodes were super hype in the anime, and it’s just as hype here in its original manga form. ONE is absolutely fantastic at drawing fights and portraying movement to the point where he puts lots of trained and seasoned manga artists to shame. The art is actually really good: The hatching, the backgrounds, the use of perspective, the layout of the panels, the movement, the emotion, the faces, everything is actually SO well done. ONE’s art style just has this shitty kind of sheen that obscures all of that which is what gives the impression that the art isn’t good (when it actually is). The only complaint I have is that it felt like the, ahem, “power struggle” (I’m tryin...
Post a Comment
Read more