Fuck this manga. Shamo is, was, good till you hit a certain chapter. It was great until they introduced the fucking dancer arc. Complete switch to a new character, who I understand is light versus Ryo's darkness. But, then we come back and he's....weak again. After all that build-up, Ryo is weak again.

I'm seriously raging at this damned manga right now. As soon as the mountain arc is done, everyone just stop reading.

 

Well, I wouldn't say to stop reading because the Grand Cross arc is still good. However, you are right that Ryo's complete bottoming out right after China made no sense. At least in Holyland when Yuu had his periodic regressions in skill it was always well explained. In this it was almost as though the author just chose to ignore that the China arc ever happened and pretend as though Ryo wasn't doing anything except fucking around over there. I kind of started skimming after that myself though, at least until Ryo re-entered the picture. Didn't care enough about Toma to want to read about his training.

 

I completely agree with you there. Trinity Seven has been a fairly fresh series, with an awesome protagonist, probably my favorite harem protagonist ever. He's been pretty pathetic magic-wise lately. When the last Trinity member was strutting around, showing her stuff, I really expected him to copy the kiss and get some karmic payback. But nope. And now he's pretty much completely useless, and had a trigger transformation. I HATE those. Whenever he's in a real danger, instead of overcoming it on his own, here's the OP transformation that takes care of it, even though you can't control it, which just created more unnecessary drama. Then when the final conflict comes, with some miraculous friendship power, he gets full control of the power once, and good guys win.

A bit of a rant there, but I really hope the manga doesn't take that direction.

Edit: And regarding Shamo, I was really excited after reading all the recs here, but seeing the protag getting anal raped in true prison style, then forced to suck some dick, and being a wimply little shit in general, really turned me off. Yeah, I hear he gets all evil madass mofo later on, but... blergh, that beginning was horrible! Pretty much lost interest. I have something against rape-victim protags.

 

Seriously, just give Shamo about 10 chapters or so. Ryo doesn't take long to start becoming badass. If you really can't get past that early bit of jail rape than I guess that's that but I would highly recommend trying.

Beelzebub

Hoo boy, this has the potential to get retarded bad really fast. I don't take Beelzebub too seriously as a rule, but am I even non-seriously supposed to buy these random high school freshmen being more powerful than the warrior demons that Oga and co. have already defeated? The lot of them had better be A) demon contractors or B) getting wiped out next chapter or this series might have just jumped the shark.

 

IMO Ryo's weakness was caused by three things;

Continuous fights against untrained opponents resulted in his technique slipping up, bad living conditions, and him not having a reason to get stronger. Thankfully he gets over it in few chapters. And to be honest that dancer fag is everything I hate in a character; presumptuous, and supposedly so beautiful he can only be angel, etc. Seriously what's up with Japan's love for way too effeminate male characters...

 

I wanted Ryo to win that fight so, so badly. I felt so bad for him when he came out to fight, already half-dead from being stabbed outside his dressing room, to see that his teacher (the closest thing he had to a father figure and one of the number of people he could count on one hand who he could have had reason to think maybe cared about him) had betrayed him and trained his opponent to break him. Kurokawa got off easy, even given the unpleasant fate that awaited him that day. That old bastard should have been made to answer for what he did.

 

That was another thing, while that Monkey's master wanting to get rid of his mistake made sense. Kurakawa was also a irredeemable monster himself and perfectly happy with it, him seeing Ryo as a mistake was a suprise for me.

 

This needs more attention! How is this not the greatest manga EVER?

All of those BS shounen manga need a dose of this: Villain just spent 20 chapters powerleveling and gloating? PANG, DONE, NEXT ONE.

 

Just finished Holyland last night. Thank you so much to everyone who recommended it. It was great!

A few years ago I went out looking for something like this. A street fighting manga/anime that didn't suck. And Holyland delivered on that.

To start with, the characters were really good. The main characters didn't follow the typical cliches I was expecting. They have very significant flaws and issues that take a long time to get through.

Spoiler

For example, after promising to stay friends and demanding a fight - as friends - Shougo runs off and becomes a pathetic junkie working for the biggest douchebag in the area. Was not expecting that.

I also loved the way Yuu reacted to the spar at the boxing club. Where despite being happy and excited to be there, the moment he feels he may lose, his own insecurities about bullying come to the surface and he goes berserk.

I actually didn't mind it that much. It gave everyone a chance to basically partner up against King and the taint he was bringing to the area behind Yuu and Masaki.

Spoiler

To be honest (and I kind of hate myself for saying this) but I think it might have been better if Mai was raped. It seemed like the drugs were building it up to a big tragedy - where things really got out of control - but then it just fizzled out. It gave me chills seeing Yuu begging for Yagi to kill him, because otherwise he'd go and murder everyone there, but by the time Shougo rocked up and confirmed Mai's safety (which we don't even really see), Yuu was acting normal again. A tad anticlimatic.

As for the ending, mixed feelings. As everyone else has said, I'd have loved an ending with Masaki and Yuu going to the world stage and making something huge of themselves. But that second last chapter had such a strong impact and bitter irony that I can't help but respect it for what it was.

Manga like this tend to start good, then the plot just becomes too big, and they lose sight of what they are and just kinda trundle along over the place with no clear aim. Good examples of this failing would be Tenjou Tenge, Air Gear, most Shounen Sports, etc. But Holyland didn't suffer from that. Had two climatic arcs, solid character development which begun at the start of the story and finished at the end, and (what I think) a strong ending that wrapped it all up. So yeah, thanks for the rec again.

Wouldn't really say it's like Kenichi. Similar concept on paper, but the way its executed is completely different from the lighthearted shounen that is Kenichi.

As for the lecturing, I actually liked it. As someone who was into martial arts (ninjutsu, kung fu), then got more into just straight up sparring with friends, this has been the most accurate depiction I've seen of a real life activity (including sports anime/manga). I found most of the technical stuff pretty interesting. It's better than what anime/manga usually do - that is have a guy who always stands on the sidelines explaining shit to everyone.

 

So has anybody but me noticed that, finally, the last of Hellsing Ultimate is out?

 

I noticed and then forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.

 

I've been watching it all night long, and by God is it awesome.

 

Just finished Holyland myself. The ending was a bit disappointing, but the manga as a whole, is awesome. It's really been a while since a manga got me reading hours after hours.

I really can't recommend it enough.

 

Until Death Do Us Part

The future is a great unknown. Throughout history, those who have been graced with the power to read it have been sought by many. In this day and age, the term "prophet" is outdated. "Precog," as in precognition, is the modern term.

Yet when the powers of precognition is graced upon a young girl named Tohyama Haruka, she is sought after by a powerful organization. Utilizing her powers, Haruka makes contact with Hijikata Mamoru, a blind swordsman. When cornered by her captors, Haruka proposes an outrageous condition to Mamoru. Haruka wants Mamoru to protect her until death do them apart.

A mature mange where there are no sudden power-ups or god-like humans. Just talented humans and modern technology. The start is especially good while the last few chapters are getting a bit idiotic.

 

Over sexualized 12 year olds make me sad. And there are a lot of errors in the beginning chapters alone. At first he can't see details, but its clearly shown when hes looking at the yakuza emblem that he can. I facepalmed so hard when he says, and I quote, "A gun's ideal range is around 6 to 8 metres".

This isnt looking that great so far.

Edit: Why did they use Edge as a first name. Is it so hard to choose an actual name?

 

Gantz is best manga you will ever read to make you shit your pants in rage. It's so good, but the characters are so bad.

Even the background characters, as the latest chapter has shown. Unless there's a plot reason related to getting Suegirl McPlainface back to Kurono, all humans are shitheads, it seems.

 

Trace 1.5 anyone? This is the sequel to Trace, I only just found it. It's been out for a while, I might've missed a post mentioning it before. The main character this time is a trace who creates some sort of addictive/physiologically altering drug with his bodily fluids, and his attempt to bring humanity and troubles together. I like it so far, though admittedly I preferred the original characters.

 

One of my favourite manga out there: Aiki!

By former? ero mangaka Isutoshi, containing among heaps of gratuitous nudity strewn in between on of the most entertaining main characters ever.

Ever came across this phenomenon in any manga: the side characters take forver and ever or at least over 9000 chapters to finish their fights with the enemies fodder material?

Here we have a main character who´s patience certainly doesn´t last that long and who frequently jumps in and finishes buisness much to the chagrin of his mostly female companions and or discliples who seem to be as repulsed by him as they fear and respect him.

So if you want a fight manga that DOESN´T follow shounen rules of story telling, has great art and is entertaining in almost every chapter give Aiki a try.

 

I'm going to take a risk here, and reccomend a more unconventional manga.

Chikan Otoko/Molester Man

And no, it's not about a molester.

"Based off a real story which was posted on 2ch, Molester Man is the story of how Molester Man is mistaken for a stalker by Miss Understanding, and how they overcome their personal challenges while slowly growing closer to each other." Summary from My anime list.

The weird names are pseudonyms used by the author, "Molester Man", to protect the identities of the people involved. The genre would be romance, however it's not a Shojou, so non of that mushy mushy stuff. It's mostly focused on character interaction and growth. It's pretty funny too.

I could go on and on, but words can't do it justice. It's very well regarded around the web, and is currently the 9th highest rated manga on MAL.

 

^Recommending the hell out of that. I read that over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day and it was an excellent way to start the year.