Manga Review: ib – Instant Bullet by Aka Akasaka

KADOKAWA
Published April 24, 2014

Everything in this world is my enemy. This kind of world is worthless. A boy, who is called a demon with no human heart, breathes, lives and imagines. But what is the pounding in his heart when he heard he is going to save the world? That’s not his wish, though…- Goodreads

I was surprised with this particular manga. It is so different. Granted the summary is extremely vague and you really don’t know what you are getting into until you at least finish the first volume. Even then you are still a bit unsure if you want to continue but towards the end things shift and you want to keep reading to find out what happens.

Without giving too much away, there is a boy who is not only lonely but he is disliked by his peers (sounds familiar). Please tend to get hurt around, he has no family and for the most part he really doesn’t react well with people. But he comes across a girl (sounds familiar) who indirectly helps him discover a form of magic he has. But here is where the difference comes in; the magic isn’t typical magic, nor is the boy a hero or for the most part a like able character at least earlier on. And the girl… she isn’t someone who secretly loves the boy and is trying to be his friend and all of that.

I’m probably not explaining this in the best way and that is because if I tell you details, I am telling some important parts of the story that I believe help push the volumes. There is complexity to the story especially within the main characters. I love how there are similarities between everyone within their own personal stories but there are still experiences that make it personal to the character.

But beyond the story moves fairly quickly; there isn’t a lot of dead space to try to keep things going. Black and white art work that isn’t the most innovative but that is not a shot at the illustrator. The great thing about the art is no one looks the same.

Overall, if you are looking for something different in relationships and magic, I would recommend this read.

3 Pickles

Manga Review: Boku dake ga Inai Machi 1 (Erased #1) by Kei Sanbe

Kadokawa Shoten
Published Jan 26, 2013

Satoru Fujinuma wants to make it as a manga artist but doesn’t know how to deal with people and relationships. So on top of his art, he works as a part-time pizza delivery boy. Looking from the outside in, Satoru is an average male but he has a special ability called “rerun” that allows him to see things before they happen and potently right a wrong. 

But when one of these incidents opens a long forgotten memory, Satoru average life takes a turn.

I sat on this review for a while. I had to sit and let everything I read process. I know what you’re thinking this must have been a terrible book. No, it wasn’t. It actually was one of the best manga’s I have read that wasn’t a high school romance.

It was complicated, emotional in a if I had a child type of way, it was a novel and I loved almost every minute of it.

I say almost because it started off pretty slow and I didn’t really like how it was ended. The issue with the ending is it didn’t provide the fulfillment that the main character had the ending he deserved. It just ended; not with questions but it simply ended. I still don’t know how I feel about that.

In between the slow beginning and the eh ending, the story was great. It had me at the edge of the seat with each page. Satoru doesn’t have much a personality; he isn’t the most depth person and if it wasn’t for his power he would just be a jerk that doesn’t know how to deal with society. But I don’t mind this because the author did an amazing job with the story. It wasn’t about him. It was about the surrounding characters and their lives. He was a feature; do not get me wrong an important feature (he being the hero and all) but a feature compared to those around him. I loved how the author did this. It focused on the story but it wasn’t short of character development.

Its a complicated story that moved fast but not too fast that you felt that something was missing. There was no predictability. When you realized what was going to happened it was already happening. Completely loved it.

The artwork was great as well because it was far from cliche. Everyone looked different, there wasn’t a subliminal sexual innuendo, and the characters had emotions; varying emotion. They felt human. The story felt real as if it happened before or it could happened.

There is an anime for this series but it isn’t complete. I recommend reading it because you will be upset with the way the anime stops.

Overall,

4 Pickles