Homunculus Manga Review

Wow. What to say about this manga. This is easily the craziest manga I have ever read. People get lured to psychological genre because it makes you think and question yourself. And if thats your thing, you are in for a treat. Homunculus will not disappoint. The story follows the life of Susumu Nakoshi, a 34 year old man who used to be rich but decided to take an extended vacation to discover himself by living as a homeless person. But having lived the better part of his life as a rich person, he is not able to completely indulge into the secluded life of a homeless. To cope with this internal struggle, he lives in his car, thus hanging halfway between the life of a homeless and a "normal" person. Meanwhile, he meets Manabu Ito, a doctor who offers him money which he direly needs. In exchange, he would become part of an experiment which would involve drilling a hole in his skull. This is a real life occult procedure called "Trepanation" and is followed by cults in some parts of the world. The procedure is supposed to help you use your brain to its full potential by increasing blood flow to your head. Rubbishing these claims, Nakoshi accepts the deal just for the money. But to his surprise and disbelief, due to the operation, he starts seeing illusions in the form of weird monsters, called Homuculus, which for some reasons, he ends up believing as hidden messages to him. The story which follows is about how these illusions change Nakoshi's life and depicts his internal struggle as he realizes how connected these illusions are to his own life.



Homuculus tries to showcase how empty our lives have become in today's industrialized world and how centred it all is around money. You get to see the world from homeless's point of view and so it also deals with issues like income disparity. You might also develop your own philosophy observing everything that goes on in the manga. Its difficult to talk about the story without spoiling things but you get to see inside the minds of various people, revealing their deepest desires, fears and most concealed (and significant) parts of their life.

But what makes this manga so crazy and different is how freely the thoughts of the characters flow without any barriers or censors. It takes complete liberty with even the most controversial and taboo thoughts that occur to us almost all the time and realizes their significance in shaping our personality. So if you get easily grossed out by weird sexual situations in fiction, then read this manga with caution. The story takes complete liberty with sexuality. In fact, the persona of a lot of major characters is in some way or other highly associated to sexual reasons. There are some gay scenes, cross-dressing scenes, rape scenes and some even weirder stuff you could never have imagined existed. At one point, I was compelled to doubt the mental stability of the author himself. There is just too much crazy stuff to talk of. Seeing the psyche of the characters getting so brutally opened up, you might end up messing your own mind by drawing conclusions from your own past.

The art is great and well suits the nature of the story. There are a lot of face close ups which serve the purpose of showing the enhanced expressions of the characters. The disturbing drawings do justice to the disturbing thoughts portrayed. Overall, I have no problems as far as art is concerned.

The only problem I have with this manga is that it becomes too difficult to follow in some parts. It becomes too difficult to draw conclusions from events so you end up completely confused. Confusion to some extent is understandable and expected since the whole story unfolds based on hallucinations that our disillusioned mc sees, but I think there should have been a tad bit more clarity. Even while reading some of the most important events, you will be confused as to how the plot lead to this point. So multiple reading might be required. But still many things are left to the imagination of the reader. This criticism is certainly not a deal breaker though. What's really astonishing is that, even with the heavy content, this manga makes for a very fast and highly addictive read. I marathoned it in just 8 hours. So if you are free one day and are looking for some psychological craziness, go for it. This is a great manga and something the fans of psychological genre can not miss at any cost. 9/10 (Great)

One-Punch Man Manga Review

The biggest highlight of this season has hands down been One-Punch Man. Only one or two anime appear every year that get this kind of hype. And that hype is understandable considering the backstory that this anime has. The manga was initially released as a webcomic by an artist that goes by the name ONE. It went completely viral, surpassing 7.9 million hits in June 2012. Later the series was remade with art done by Yusuke Murata and began publication on Shueisha's Young Jump Web Comics website in 2012. Considering the inconsistent rate at which the new chapters come out, fans had never expected that the series will ever get an anime. When it was announced that the series was going to get anime, and that too done by the western audience's favourite Madhouse, it led to unbelievable amount of enthusiasm among the fans. It was due to these fans that the huge hype was generated and has resulted in the anime getting huge viewership. But does the manga live upto the hype? Here are my thoughts about the series.

I ended up reading the manga after watching eight episodes of the anime since I couldn't live with the anticipation that the episode created with a cliffhanger at the end. I have only read the remake done by Yusuke Murata, since the art in that version is hugely better. But I don't think art plays that big of a role in this series since even original comic with art done by ONE got huge viewership. Anyway, since a version with better art was available, I could not find any reason to choose the original version over the remade one.

The series follows the story of our main character Saitama, who is a hero for fun and has ended up becoming so overpowered that he ends up defeating all his opponents with just one punch(hence the name). The story is actually intended to be a parody of the conventional shonen battle series which usually have an overpowered main character who simply can't lose because he is the mc(or because he has plot armour). Similar to these main characters, Saitama also gains followers as the series progresses. But the big difference here is that Saitama isn't even enjoying this journey. Since, he can destroy all his opponents with just one punch, there is no fun in the battles anymore and everything has become boring for Saitama. The series parodies several characters from other series as well as takes several plot points from other every famous series too. Its fun to recognize what they are referring to as different scenes come up.

The jokes are actually funny and create an great upward experience in the beginning of the series. But they get tiring after a while. I get it that its a parody series, but nonetheless, it should atleast have a moving story. A sign of a moving story was seen when they introduced the existence of Hero Association but that too very soon became just an excuse to introduce a new character in every episode. Character development is almost absent in this series. As the main character is too overpowered, he just keeps on defeating his opponents again and again and thus this kind of story leaves no scope of character development for him. A new villain is introduced in almost every chapter and chapters end with Saitama finishing off his opponent with just one punch. This really lead to the manga getting boring for me in its later part. But then again, I have a critical mind so I guess its natural I wouldn't enjoy this kind of a story that much.

But all is not negative with this series. It has actually in my opinion been very successful in what I believe it was trying to do. Although the series is a parody series, a lot of the fanbase doesn't even realize that. And that just proves that people just love anything that has been put into the shonen formula, even if the whole story is intended to be joke. The so called elites of the anime-manga community have this stereotype of shonen fans about them being kids who are just action hungry and don't care about the plot or characters. People taking this series seriously just proves that in their eyes. Although, I disagree with this view about shonen series as I believe some truly inspiring and meaningful stories can and have been told using shonen mangas, I still think that people really shouldn't take this series seriosly. I see people all over the internet analysing every episode, and making comparisons between powerlevel of the characters and trying to analyse the story, I think they should just stop. If taken for what it is, this manga actually made an enjoyable light read. Just go along with the chapters and absorb yourself into the hype and you would really have a great time.The art is phenomenal and the backgrounds are really detailed so that will also keep you gripped.

So if you are looking for a light comedy series to pass time and want to become part of the huge culture that has been created around this series then go and give it a read. Whether you like it or not will really depend on your taste but still think everyone should give it a go even if just ti become part of the conversation and getting to know the series that has arguably been the biggest highlight of this year.

B Gata H Kei Anime Review: The Ecchi Quest Continues

Since I started watching anime I have always tried to maintain my distance from ecchi. I had this image in mind of bouncing titties and cheesy jokes and always skipped on it thinking I should rather watch porn. I have had several friends recommend it to me repeatedly so I had to finally give in and decided to find out what the hype is all about. Recently I watched Golden Boy and loved every bit of it. But then I quickly realized that that was a rare gem and I am probably not gonna find anything like that again. So now I am watching a more conventional kind of anime that fits a bit more into the general ecchi image. But it was enjoyable and funny nonetheless and did have a moving story and meaningful characters. Let's get into the review.

B Gata H Kei is about Yamada, a 15 years old virgin who goes on the quest to make 100 casual sex friends. She is exceptionally beautiful but at the same time is highly self-conscious about her body and thinks that her vagina looks weird. She thinks that an experienced partner will tease her about her weird vagina and thus wants her first partner to be a fellow virgin. She meets Kosuda Takashi, a very generic looking guy. From his generic looks she deduces that he must be a virgin and thus begins her quest to seduce him. But due to her lack of experience she has no clue of how to go about it and thus begins the journey of Yamada and Kosuda.

When I read the plot summary my first impressions were like isn’t this a bit too much? But then I thought what am I afraid of (I had already watched those toilet licking scenes in Golden Time) so I decided to give it a go. And surprisingly the anime isn’t nearly as crude as its plot summary. Instead I found it to be quite light hearted and easy to watch. It contains a proper storyline and somehow makes the lead character believable even with all her craziness. This is not your typical romance(like in Bakuman, for example) and finds a new and unique way to present it. Even someone like me who is quite impassive was rooting for Yamada and Kosuda actively throughout the show.

The best thing about the show is Yamada herself. Rarely do you get in a show made mostly for men a female character as crazy and open as Yamada. She has no idea about how the world works but her libido level is so high which leads her to doing crazy things. Her mind is completely filled with perverted things but she is still a shy girl who doesn't like it when her true feelings are out in the open. She wants Kosuda to always take the incentive to begin things. Kosuda is equally clueless about what is going on as he is as inexperienced as her. On top of that he is not that good looking so he lacks confidence. This creates a situation where neither of them can express their feelings and thus begins a chain of events where they try to take there relationship forward but fail at it miserably. But those are the scenes where the comedy lies. Just their thoughts and expressions while they are on date and are in uncomfortable situations will make you laugh out loud.

Other characters include Kosuda's neighbour girl and the "ideal housewife" Miyano. She is his childhood friend and secretly loves him. I found her adorable and felt really bad for her when she found out that Kosuda loves Yamada. Then there is Yamada's rival Kyuoka who is too perfect but she is not interested in other boys and only likes and wants her brother(lol). There are more side characters like Yamada's best friend, her little sister, Kosuda's elder sister and more but the characters which steal the show are the Ero-Gamis(Sex Gods). They greatly enhanced the comedy and helped give quick uplifting to the show in some of the slow scenes.

The show has average music but happens to have a great opening and ending song. I completely watched the opening without skipping in almost all the episodes. The opening has that cute feeling and I found it to be strangely addicting. Its the same with the ending but I think the opening was better. The animation is also fine and I didn't feel any problems on that part.

The anime has 12 episodes with no second season. But this is one of those anime for which I want a new season. The ending is not really conclusive but is satisfying. If you find yourself yearning for more you can go read the manga(although I don't plan to) which is complete. The anime had a decent beginning but got slow in the middle. But in the last two episodes you will find yourself laughing like crazy so do watch till the end as you will be missing a lot if you don't! Overall its a cute little anime you should not miss if you are a fan of ecchi.

Golden Boy Anime Review: Ecchi Comedy

So I am only recently starting to get into ecchi anime and was looking for an ecchi comedy and this title came forward in the top recommendations in my search. I must say I wasn't disappointed. This anime is hilarious!

Golden Boy is about a 25 years old, easy going, job hopping, part-timer Kintaro Oe who loves to observe people he comes across on his journey. And of course he meets a lot of women along the way and somehow ends up seducing them(you gotta love ecchi for these crazy plots :p). Character of Kintaro is of a very simple minded yet super intelligent boy who is kind hearted and loves doing new things. I found him quite similar to Onizuka from GTO(except for the intelligence, of course) and this kind of character fits quite well in a comedy setting. We see him going job to job meeting new people and learning about several professions. He is always taking notes which mostly are sketches and measurements of women he meets and occasionally his observations about people. He seems to have a fetish of toilets and really gets turned on by cleaning toilets while imagining women sitting on them(those scenes are hilarious xD). The only thing that always stays with him is his all time partner, his bicycle. He rides it everywhere using it for jobs and we even get a complete episode with his bicycle in the limelight. As the show is episodic, the side characters aren't very complex and mostly include non-important people working at offices with one main female lead in each episode whose life Kintaro dramatically changes with his charismatic personality and surprising actions.

At only six episodes, the anime is very short and is actually a OVA series. Each episode has a separate story but we do get a finale episode which features characters from all six episodes. Half of the episodes are complete crazy with unnatural plots and other half are kind of more serious. You will get plenty comedy in all of them though. I personally liked the crazy episodes more. The anime features mature content with occasional scenes that involve female nudity, orgasms and a lot of sexual settings so parent guidance is recommended. From what I read, the anime is actually a toned down version of the manga, which almost seems pornographic. But I was surprised at the amount of detail it showed in some of the professions it featured.

Art and animations is typical 90s style animation but like most classic anime it just works. I never felt anything lacking on that part. Classic animation has its own taste and can sometimes feel better suited in some settings. The kind of expressions that you get in this anime, the quick transitions from poker faces to surprised perverted faces, I doubt they would come out this good in modern animation. So I don't really have much complains on the animation part.

Music is also on point. There are several OSTs for different situations and all of them work really good for building up and preparing you for the scenes to come. Sometimes sexy peppy songs with english lyrics will pop up in really weird situations that will make the scene even funnier. There is nothing special about the opening track but it works according to the vibe of the anime and even without any lyrics will prove to be memorable and is sure to give you that nostalgic feeling when you listen to it after a while.

Overall Golden Boy is a great anime and is very well written specially for an ecchi. It is short and will keep you gripped. You will find plenty of hilarious scenes with high rewatch value. Watch this anime if you want to lighten up your mood and get a big freakish perverted smile on your face. This is surely a memorable one. Highly recommended!