Forum - View topicStinkers of last year. The most disappointing manga
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darkhunter
 Posts: 2992 Location: Los Angelas |
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Ever brought a manga and after reading it, you felt like you should of never pick it up? A lot of crappy manga came out in 2004 so, I thought we have a discussion on it. I tried not to mention the "obvious" bad manga like beyblade. Feel free to argue or post up your own "stinker" by using reasonable examples.
After reading good review on the Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok and seeing the nice cover, I decide to pic this book up. Boy was this book crappy. The character are too simple and almost childish with little personally trait. The main character (Loki) looks like a 7th grade school girl. A lot of the character were not introduce and thus they come in and out without any signifigant imporant. The whole cast is kids. The dialog between the character are static because the character arn't doing much most of the time, thus making the story dull and boring. Stories such as girls lose her memories. I don't want to ruin the story for anyone but detective stories are suppose to be clever and inventive but this is not. So far the first volume would get a 2 out of 5 rating, wonder if it gets better. Drop this series. It's probably a good recommendation for someone young like 10 to 13 because the book seem too simple and too childish at times. Runner up: Happy Lesson: silly and illogical story about a guy who move into a house with 5 "mamas" who also happen to be his teachers. I like fanservice (negima) but this was just bad. Last edited by darkhunter on Fri Jan 07, 2005 8:27 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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molloaggie
 Posts: 578 Location: Texas |
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The most overhyped title IMHO was Angel Sanctuary. The fan girls were screaming about this title so I gave it a three volume whirl. Well, about 600 different characters had a crush on this one guy who really is girl. Throw in a couple of ultimate powers and what you get is a beautifully drawn, but cheesy novel.
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IvoryBirch
 Posts: 137 Location: a distant northern land |
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I know it's pretty inane to try to change your mind, but I strongly encourage you to keep reading Angel Sanctuary. Despite seeming somewhat cheesy at times, it really does get better with every volume, especially after the "Book of Hades" begins. And then come the Hell and Heaven arcs when things really get interesting... Anyhow, enough of my groveling. Of the 2004 releases I've read, I suppose I was pretty disappointed with Pretear. It wasn't particularly horrible, but it was fairly bad. With every cliché in the "magical girl" genre coupled with mediocre artwork, it left me feeling very unsatisfied. |
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Kagemusha
 Posts: 2783 Location: Boston |
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There were so many that people overhyped, so I'm only going to list the ones that I thought would actually be good:
Bleach-This isn't a bad manga, but I was expecting it o redefine the shonen genre for some reason (I heards a couple of people rant about its greatness before reading it, and the art looked quite cool). It's still a good manga, and the main character is quite interesting, but there isn't too much else to set it apart from the slew of other shonen mangas at the moment. Angel Sanctuary-Again, not a bad manga by any means, but again I was mislead to think it would be a great epic without flaws. Aside from problems with the writing, some of the themes and ideas really weren't as amazing or facinating as I had been lead to believe. Still, I can borrow it from a friend, so I'll keep reading. Peacemaker Kurogane-This one I wasn't expecting much from, but it seemed alot of people praised it when it really is a very mediocre title, especially when compared with some other samurai manga that is now available. |
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littlegreenwolf
 Posts: 4796 Location: Seattle, WA |
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As resident Loki freak, I feel it's expected of me to defend this. First off, Mythical Loki Ragnarok vol 1 is a manga that starts out in the middle of the series. It's technically volume 8, and was the continuation of a rather depressing arc involving Loki's daughter Hel, and an oppertunity lost of Loki getting back in his original form, and returning back to the world of the gods. Most people can't start from the middle of a series after all characters and previous plot lines have been introduced, and like it. Next: Not all the characters are children. Loki for one in reality is a playboy in his true form, well beyond the age of puberty. Narugami who is also the god Thor in disguise, is a highschool student, along with Mayura. Heimdall and Reiya (Freja) are also other Norse gods pretty much banished to earth and sealed the bodies of children. The being sealed as children is supposed to be a 'cute' characteristic of the series. The series originally starts off as series of bloody murders Loki solves, and then turns into a story about him becoming unsealed and trying to stay alive as Odin sends out assasins to kill him. Now, the girl looses her memories thing: Not a main thing in the story. Spica is said from volume one to be the mother of Yamino, Hel, and Fenrir, aka Angrboda, Loki's mistress. The "mystery" surrounding her is the lack of speech. This is a continuation of the previous Loki series, and it's just getting started with Spica showing up and a few hijink chapters that the Loki series is known for here and there. And last, I have a question. In all the 'hype' of the Loki series did anyone ever tell you it was some epic, dark manga? I don't think I've ever seen anyone pass it off as anything more than an action/comedy with drama here and there. These are the Norse gods sealed in the bodies of kids and sent to live in Tokyo for who knows what reason. It's not a well written series, and it's mainly surviving on it's 'cute' value. And to those who have only read the first 5 or so volumes being released by Viz: Angel Sanctuary is a 20 volume series, and is only JUST getting into what it's infamous/popular for here in America. It's a series that is well worth its hype in art and story when all is said and done in the end. |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6227 Location: Houston, TX |
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Gyo disappointed the hell out of me, i can't believe Junji Ito wrote such a half assed story. the ending just sucked.
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aloysius
 Posts: 17 |
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I agree with Loki Ragnarok, but I picked that up this side of New Years, so I can't name that one in my stinkers list. :p
Death Note: I read this in Weekly Jump as it progressed, and liked it very much until ... well, no specific point, really, aside that I think Oba ruined the fine power balance at some point, after which I couldn't see L to be plausible at all. But YMMV. (I admit to reading it until a few weeks ago, because the comedy is priceless. One of the best comedy manga in Jump, this one.) Buso Renkin: Not a stinker as such, but ... the battle scenes are so boring. And I usually don't even care about battles, so if I think they're boring, that's some high degree of boringness. I kept reading it in the hope that Chono will appear (because Chono = ultimate cool), but then spoiler[the Chono v. doctor battle came around and that was boring, too, so I lost faith in Chono]. Sigh. Eroica yori ai o komete: I believed the hype, got through the annoying three protagonists at the beginning, and what do you know, it was still boring. I normally love old shojo manga, but I don't get the hype on this one at all. |
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Arkard
 Posts: 677 Location: Poland |
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Record of Lodoss War.
We got it in Poland a couple of months ago and in my oppinion it`s a real stinker. After watching the anime I was expecting something.. at least something good. But I got crap. First of all, the story in the Lodoss anime was a little corny at some points but at least it was entertaining. The manga fails at that point. It is boring, trite and even more predictable than the anime (which still was good mind you). The anime at least had some beautiful animation but the manga... no sir.. And the character desing.. omg... I thought I stumbled upon some Lodoss omake or somefin. The characters look too childish. With their bulby heads and ultra, stick-like limbs... they make me laugh. And I spent almost 6$ on this trash? Luckily i found a sucker who took it off my hands. I really regret ever buying the RoLW manga. |
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Have to agree with you on this one! While I originally wanted to pick it up simply as a show of support to a new company entering the manga market, and as an appreciation of an older title, *once* I finally did, the only reason why I'm not really regretting the purchase is because I only spent $3 on it. As a 'historical document' from an earlier age of manga, it's...interesting, and I guess a nice twist on the same ingredients that are much more familiar to all of us in Lupin III...but in of itself, especially given what's out there now and how far manga has moved from the mid-1970's, it really does not stand up. Then again, the title pretty much came in under the radar anyways, and I really don't expect there being that much of a run on it... |
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cboudreau
 Posts: 69 Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada |
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I'm going to agree with Kagemusha here and state that I too was disappointed in Peacemaker Kurogane and Bleach. Neither of these first volumes held up to the hype that preceded them.
Another I'd like to add to this list is Trigun. Holy smokes! I don't know where the popularity for this one comes from. (Perhaps it's just the anime...) I found the art to be cluttered, disproportionate and very difficult to follow. The writing wasn't much better. |
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quincyarcher
 Posts: 164 Location: Age of Paranoia |
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Well, Gundam Seed was probably the one title I could've lived without. Because the anime was so long(and always out from the rental shop), I ordered the manga instead. x.x Ugh. It ended up not doing a lot for me. Luckily, Ashtray was a lot more enjoyable(and the anime was too, but the local rental shop only had a few volumes).
Othello's another title that was pretty disappointing. A lot of noise over this popped up in some shoujo and manga communities I'm part of. And the first volume was pretty good, funny and intriguing. Overall well played out, even if the 'chin' joke was a bit childish. But when I picked up the second volume, it lost it. The maturity level bombed and ruined the story. |
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wanderer
 Posts: 77 |
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I was disappointed with the first volume of Peacemaker Kurogane as well; it didn't really have a good flow and I found it kind of boring and a mess in general. However, after much agonizing, I sucked it up and bought the second volume and was really pulled in by it. The end of the second volume floored me and, like no other manga this year, caused me to take a minute and gather myself. After an unimpressive start, the series redeemed itself with the second volume and, I think,is worth a second chance. As for my choice in stinkers, I have quite a few but the one I was disappointed with the most was One. Its supposed to be a romance but I didn't get that; I didn't get any sense of a story at all. Its about some kid musicians with enormous egos 'makin' it' in showbiz...or something like that. I honestly can't think of anything good about it other than perhaps the artwork.This had to be the two most indescribably boring and nonsensical books I've ever read. |
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Nagisa
Moderator
 Posts: 6128 Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh |
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Yeah, the SEED manga's real pretty & all, but it compresses the story way, way, way too much. It's really something that you're only able to enjoy if you're already familiar with the series (sorta like the SEED Special Edition compilations...or a possibly more familiar example, the X movie).
Astray never had an anime. The closest it got were two five-minute promotional shorts and that was it. |
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xjadedragon750x
Posts: 263 Location: Chinatown |
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I thought Instant Teen: Just Add Nuts was REALLY disappointing. I have no idea (which I never do) what I was expecting of it, but it was disappointing. The art was very typical of shoujo titles, but it clearly illustrates the belief that "beauty gets everything" in the beginning, after the little girl spoiler[eats the nuts, grows into a teenager, and instantly "bags" the good-looking hairstylist.] Do little girls REALLY want to get breasts and all that stuff? Yeesh.
Having watched Gravitation and enjoying it, I read the manga. Boy! Was I surprised. In the anime the characters had different colored hair so it was easy to tell them apart, but the manga, sometimes I can't even tell this one from that! I thought the plot was interesting, but I looked at it before I watched the anime, and it didn't look good to me then either. Only after I watched it did I give it another try... Planet Ladder also sounded interesting. The art and basics are fine by me, but the story is somewhat. Bland. |
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Haiseikoh 1973
 Posts: 1590 Location: Waiting for the Japanese 1000 Gunieas. |
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Disappointing is the avalanche of Mature/Adult Oriented Manga on the market in 2004 (I was surprised Kitty Media got into the act with a few titles). While DMP's IWGP was good, Tokyopop bombed with both Arm of Kannon and Warriors of Tao. Guess they can't spend the money translating Initial D aceptably.
And an aptly named Manga, Worst was.....the "Worst" POS I read. It was just a poorly written fighting manga. Hell, Dragonball had more plot than this. |
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