Started reading Psyren and uh… is this just Gantz but a Shonen? While not identical, the premise/setup is suspiciously similar, especially the protagonist’s tall and well-intentioned but scary-looking friend who they met in elementary school (and never talked to afterwards until the events of the story) and whom the protagonist inspired to become a better person.
Funnily enough, the thing that immediately stuck out to me was the extremely conspicuous lack of gore. I almost did a double take when a monster breaks some guy’s neck so fast that it causes is head to turn into a blur, yet there’s no actual gore and his dead body is shown with the head off-screen.
Started reading Psyren and uh… is this just Gantz but a Shonen? While not identical, the premise/setup is suspiciously similar, especially the protagonist’s tall and well-intentioned but scary-looking friend who they met in elementary school (and never talked to afterwards until the events of the story) and whom the protagonist inspired to become a better person.
Funnily enough, the thing that immediately stuck out to me was the extremely conspicuous lack of gore. I almost did a double take when a monster breaks some guy’s neck so fast that it causes is head to turn into a blur, yet there’s no actual gore and his dead body is shown with the head off-screen.
The Gantz as a Shounen angle gets dropped pretty quickly. Psyren is really rushed at times even before it gets cancelled but I think it's overall good 7/10 read.
Started reading Psyren and uh… is this just Gantz but a Shonen? While not identical, the premise/setup is suspiciously similar, especially the protagonist’s tall and well-intentioned but scary-looking friend who they met in elementary school (and never talked to afterwards until the events of the story) and whom the protagonist inspired to become a better person.
Funnily enough, the thing that immediately stuck out to me was the extremely conspicuous lack of gore. I almost did a double take when a monster breaks some guy’s neck so fast that it causes is head to turn into a blur, yet there’s no actual gore and his dead body is shown with the head off-screen.
NGL, I tried Psyren a couple years back and dropped it after like 30 chapters. It just didn't do it for me as a battle royal, survival-game type series and my standards for that shit aren't too high, I found Mirai Nikki and Btooom pretty entertaining even if the writing was kinda poopoo.
Started reading Psyren and uh… is this just Gantz but a Shonen? While not identical, the premise/setup is suspiciously similar, especially the protagonist’s tall and well-intentioned but scary-looking friend who they met in elementary school (and never talked to afterwards until the events of the story) and whom the protagonist inspired to become a better person.
Funnily enough, the thing that immediately stuck out to me was the extremely conspicuous lack of gore. I almost did a double take when a monster breaks some guy’s neck so fast that it causes is head to turn into a blur, yet there’s no actual gore and his dead body is shown with the head off-screen.
Not going to lie, my major enjoyment of the series comes from thinking the MC's power was really neat and being a big sucker for berserker-esque transformations.
It switches off from the Gantz angle to become more battle shonen "learning to use neat abilities against big bad" later on. Series isn't amazing, but it'll always hold a special place and I'll re-read it every-so-often.
Peanuts is popular in Japan. Though I wonder if Japanese audiences mistake it are compare it with harem anime or tsundere stuff with Lucy’s interactions with Charlie Brown or Peppermint Patty’s unrequited love for Charlie Brown
And of course we know how American audiences feel about the Japanese equivalent to Good Grief
Not going to lie, my major enjoyment of the series comes from thinking the MC's power was really neat and being a big sucker for berserker-esque transformations.
It switches off from the Gantz angle to become more battle shonen "learning to use neat abilities against big bad" later on. Series isn't amazing, but it'll always hold a special place and I'll re-read it every-so-often.
Finished reading it, it’s fun, relatively short and has a logical plot progression with some great action. I think it’s a pretty easy 7.5/10, maybe even an 8.
The good:
- I normally despise time travel, but I think it was handled pretty well here with the end goal being to completely sever the past and the future, allowing both timelines to continue existing,
- Powers are cool and relatively grounded for a shounen series.
- Art consistently looks great
- Story is pretty solid and mostly makes sense all the way through, ending is pretty solid
The bad:
- Feels a bit rushed near the end. Had many moments where I see a panel, go ”wait, when did X happen/when did Y character get here?“ only to read back and realize that it was something that was shown in one panel 3-4 chapters ago. That being said, if I hadn’t known already, I probably wouldn’t have guessed that it was prematurely cancelled, because the story wrapped up well enough.
- Dark Amamiya was fucking cringe and was an incredibly cliche’d application of the ”evil alter ego” trope which didn’t really get a good resolution IMO.
- The final boss doesn’t feel all that well set-up. I think I remember her appearing like.. once or twice alongside the other WISE members before the final arc, and the reveal that this random lady who was basically just a background character was actually a traitor just didn’t hit as hard.
- Definitely feels overly sanitized, especially the official translation. While there’s plenty of blood and violence, it conspicuously cuts away from most gore and (at least in the official translation) completely avoids swearing, so you have comical moments like where a villain who just murdered an entire building full of soldiers proceeds to tells someone to “kiss his butt”.
- Ageha is possibly one of the most generic-looking protagonists ever, and depending on the panel he can look like Shinji from Eva or Eren from AOT.
Overall I think it’s an easy recommend for anyone looking for an action series with a mostly good story that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Peanuts is popular in Japan. Though I wonder if Japanese audiences mistake it are compare it with harem anime or tsundere stuff with Lucy’s interactions with Charlie Brown or Peppermint Patty’s unrequited love for Charlie Brown
Peanuts is popular in Japan. Though I wonder if Japanese audiences mistake it are compare it with harem anime or tsundere stuff with Lucy’s interactions with Charlie Brown or Peppermint Patty’s unrequited love for Charlie Brown
