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Tentative: 8/10

This is one of the series I’m most hopeful about from the current newer Jump crop. It isn’t anything earth-shattering and the basic premise has been done before, but it is fun and the combination of the characters, situations, and profession make for an engaging mix of elements. It has comedy and enjoyable action, and I’m interested to see where it goes. It’s hard to tell this early in the run and I may change the score later, but my score reflects that for a new manga I think it’s very promising and people should give it a shot. There are a lot of ... factors both in and out of the artist’s and Jump’s control, but with continued good writing, a focus that’s maintained, and the right circumstances I could see this one catching on and becoming a reader favorite, or at least solidly liked and in the middle of their rankings. If it’s able to stay consistent, I could also see this getting a successful anime release.

7/10

Fun, simple, easy reading. It’s short and you can read it in a few sittings, or one if you feel like it. There’s nothing surprising or exceptional here, but it’s a fun little road trip with engaging action, kinetic art, and great location art. However, I also felt like there wasn’t much that was substantial here. I wasn’t especially interested by the plot and the backstories, but I did like the vibe of the world. I didn’t love the “sexy teenage girl wants to fuck the over the hill guy” thing, her character designs and art is sexy and all but it felt like an ... unnecessary addition that didn’t add anything. I think a platonic relationship would have been a better vibe, or less of an age gap so it doesn’t have the older man fucks girl that’s easily young enough to be his daughter thing going on.

9/10

Story: 7.5/10 – The story is nothing amazing or groundbreaking, but characters have solid goals and motivations, with larger events being built up to. The stakes are low, ranging from getting more followers on cosplay s to building and maintaining professional cosplay careers, but nothing over the top or too melodramatic. Deep knowledge about cosplay culture is displayed throughout, and realistic (within reason) depictions of cosplay events and the industry factor into the plot. The plot has a lot of great slice of life and character-building moments, and the relationships between characters build and develop. I feel invested in the characters succeeding and excited to ... see what their next cosplay will be. There are great touches like giving details about a game that they group cosplay and the significance that both the game and their individual character choices have to them and to the cosplay fans. Giving details about a fictional in-universe game, or the main anime with Liliel that they both obsess over, makes the characters feel like they’re realistically interacting with the world in a way that’s in line with real cosplayers, even-goers, and otaku. The ecchi elements are for the most part woven into the plot through costuming, scenes of changing, etc. The “accidental nudity” or “walking in at the wrong time” etc. tropes are kept to a minimum, and the manga doesn’t go out of its way to waste time concocting ridiculous scenarios to have nudity and sexual scenarios (if you want that, Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher!? is the manga you’re looking for). If this manga was toned down to a shonen level of sexuality (no nudity, occasional skimpy costumes) I would still rate the plot the same and I would still read it.

Characters: 9.5/10 – The characters’ genuine love of and respect for cosplay, manga, and anime comes through in the writing and informs their relationships with one another. It features some typical harem vibes, although it’s a small amount of characters and doesn’t dominate the plot. The characters’ main motivations stay with cosplay and anime and that ion motivates their relationships to build, which helps the characters feeling 3 dimensional (pun intended). The characters are likable and differentiated, and each of them has unique and fleshed out reasons for their goals and motivations. Okamura, the male lead, is funny and likable and has personality rather than being a flat audience insert character. His basic characteristic of not being interested in real life girls because of a bad experience is kind of silly, but it’s clearly there to set up his relationship with Ririsa using her Lillie’s cosplay as a way to bridge the gap (the “2.5 D”). Even if it’s a little silly, it does mirror the experience of some otaku who partially shy away from real life dating and romance due to negative interpersonal experiences, and it does so in a way that doesn’t treat him like a loser or a coward and works toward introducing him to love and acceptance through his hobby and ion. He’s likable and is also very respectful of the girls – he doesn’t leer at them and isn’t a perv, and understands that women can do sexy cosplay for their own reasons and not just male sexual gratification. Despite the fact that yes, this is an ecchi where the girls are heavily sexualized for the reader and that’s part of why we like it, it’s nice to have a male character that treats the female characters with respect. The fact that he’s a nice person who shares their interests gives the reader an actual reason that multiple women would be interested in him without overdoing it (he’s not some amazing prodigy or paragon of virtue, just a good regular dude) and without overdoing the girls’ interest in him (they aren’t obsessed with him and they don’t worship him, they just want his romantic attention while also maintaining other goals.

Art: 10/10 – The art is god-tier, I don’t know how else to explain it. The character designs are incredibly cute, and when it gets sexy it’s ridiculously sexy. Hip bones, stocking thigh pinch, under/sideboob, cosplay costumes that are achingly revealing but always keep you from seeing too much, amazing posing and angles – the ecchi elements are truly top notch and I will be watching the artist’s work closely in the future. When it’s not ecchi, the art is still sublime. It’s detailed and the characters have tons of personality in their expressions and movements, with a lot of emotions and excitement expressed. You can really feel the chemistry between the characters just from how their interactions are drawn. The art is dynamic and varied throughout, making even the most low-stakes slice of life scenes feel intentional and effortful, and don’t feel like filler art.

7/10

Story: The premise is cute and simple, two boys that have very different personalities both cross dress for various reasons and fall for the other. Situations ensue from them both dealing with their secrets. This manga is nice and light – there’s tension and comedy from them trying to hide their secrets or getting into embarrassing or comedic situations, and at the same time the stakes are never too high so it doesn’t get overly dramatic.

Characters: The leads are both charming and cute, and I like how apparent it is that they’re both very into one another. It’s cute to watch them get embarrassed ... or second guess themselves because they’re trying to impress or woo the other. And it’s cute when they interact as boys, not knowing the other’s secret. The cast of side characters is fun. There’s enough of them that there’s variety, but not so many that they start blurring together.

Art: The art isn’t the greatest in the world, but it’s still good. It really gets across their cuteness, especially with the way the artist draws expressive eyes.

Overall: I highly recommend this to anyone who likes light romance, slice of life, and BL/queer manga. It’s just a nice, fluffy story about two cross dressing boys falling for one another in a romantic comedy of errors. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, you’ll probably love it. For those that want more tension and drama and plot, this might not be your favorite. And if you aren’t into adorable crossdressing femboys… go sit in the corner until you understand why you’re wrong.

My reaction to this manga is mixed, as reflected in my recommendation. I think that some people will enjoy this manga, while others will find it distasteful or outright disgusting.

Story: This is the classic “stranded with violent savages” story that you find in media like Cannibal Holocaust or The Green Inferno, although this trope goes back a long time. This manga does a fairly decent take on it. A group of students and teachers is trapped on an island after being shipwrecked, and they find the island is inhabited by a violent tribe of savage beast-men. There is a mystery element with the tribe and ... the shipwreck(s), as well as a survivalist element and a major driving plot point of needing to rescue captured of the group.

Art: The art is a little hit or miss, but is for the most part good. There is a good eye for making things intentionally gross or disgusting, which adds an uncomfortable rawness (this discomfort will be good for readers that like the seedy vibes and violence. The ecchi elements are drawn well, with sexy and well-proportioned women and some muscled men. Whether you like the context of the ecchi is up to you.

Characters: The characters are alright. There are quite a few of them, so I have a hard time getting a strong personality from some of them, while others are more defined.

Okay, on to the distasteful elements. First off, it’s pretty damn racist. This whole genre of “brown savages attack the civilized man” has hugely racist undertones in general, and this comic is no different with some of the tribespeople being portrayed as inhuman or subhuman. There are zombie-type people that I give a to because that’s totally different, but some of the tribespeople are just portrayed as these inhuman, savage monsters with Caribbean accents and distorted, racialized features. I’m not overly sensitive about problematic or somewhat offensive media and I’m still reading it, but it does feel a little gross at times. The other big thing is that this comic is extremely exploitative of its female characters. For the most part they are not capable or active participants, they are objects to be kidnapped and saved, with a ton of sexual abuse. You can get a vibe by looking at the covers of the volumes, which feature women partially clothed, sometimes bound or bruised and clearly in distress with strong vibes of sexual abuse and sexual violence. The themes of sexual violence are very strong in the plot, which combines with the racist tropes in a way that can feel very off-putting – it sometimes has the vibe of “look at these savage black subhumans, of course they’re violent rapists!”

6/10 – I think this manga is okay, and while some people will enjoy it, others will find it very off-putting. If you can look past some of the unsavory elements and treat them as ultimately just schlocky tropes, it can be a fun read. However, others are going to find it unenjoyable and gross.

This really is one of the gems of currently publishing manga.

Story: The overarching story is compelling, with the main character’s curse serving as a long term plot driver while offering episodic chunks of taking on various locations and spirits. The spirits and entities they face are varied and always presenting new horrors, new stories, and interesting new occult magic. I don’t get “scared” from media so I don’t find this or any manga “scary” in that way, but this manga is genuinely disturbing at points. It’s very graphic at times and it pulls no punches with disturbing and violent events. I really like that there ... is an element of traditional Shonen battle manga with the spirits being raised and battled, but the stakes always feel high and it is balanced against the disturbing and mysterious plot elements to truly feel like horror and not just Shaman King with more blood. I’m constantly engrossed by the stories, eager to find out the backstory of the new spirit, or see what tricks the main characters will have to use to get out of a bind. There is genuine tension and a sense of unease running throughout the manga that sets a really delightfully foreboding mood for horror fans.

Characters: The characters are all interesting and have unique, defined, and different personalities. I was skeptical when I saw Yayoi’s design, as the aesthetic is a little Hot Topic or goth Steam game-esque in a manga that for the most part has fairly grounded characters and realistic character design (realistic in of clothing, design, and general demeanor of the characters). However, I find her character charming as the strange outsider while Keitarō plays the everyman (including being rightfully terrified to death of these horrible spirits and entities), and Eiko… has her own thing going on. The main trio contrast with one another in of goals and reactions to situations, which makes them feel defined and differentiated.

Art: The art is fantastic. The locations feel deep and lived in, and the design of the spirits is often horrifying and disgusting in new and surprising ways. The art captures a lot of disgust, horror, violence, and kinetic energy that makes the scenes feel dynamic, important, tense, and engaging.

Another small thing I appreciate while reading: the author sprinkles in pages at the ends of chapters where a page or is redone but with absurd and comedic dialogue replacing the original to reinterpret the scene as something ridiculous, funny, and off the wall. I think it’s a great little way to inject some comedy without putting it in the main story and interrupting the tense and serious mood.

9/10 - One of the best manga I’ve read in the last few years. It’s really a refreshing delight, and fans of horror, the supernatural and occult, and violent manga will surely find something to love about this comic.

You already know if you’re going to like this or not.

This is basically Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher!? but with lolis. It’s the same kind of comedy, where normal situations turn lewd through ridiculous and comedic circumstances. Instead of big breasted teachers getting into compromising situations, it’s lolis. The characters are cute and have nicely differentiated personalities, and it’s a fun read, and very sexy if that’s the kind of thing you’re into.

Like I said, you already know if you’re going to like this or not, and if you think you will like it then you’ll probably like it a lot and if ... you don’t think you’ll like it then you’ll probably dislike like it a lot.

5/10

This manga is incredibly average in most ways. It’s average as an ecchi, average as CGDCT, and it’s average as slice of life.

Characters: The characters are all fun and likable with well-defined personalities.

Art: The art is great, with a lot of attention paid to anatomy. Something that I like is that while there are some absurd bodies meant to be unrealistic and exaggerated, many of the bodies depicted look within the realm of realism. An example of this is the women’s breasts, which have a pretty realistic size and shape rather than looking like someone with watermelons under their shirt. We ecchi enjoyers love ... a good unrealistic, sexy, bombshell anime body, but I think that the choice to make the women sexy but not absurdly unrealistic was a fantastic choice for something centered around real exercise.

Writing: This is where it really suffers. I enjoy manga that is chill slice of life with no real plot development, so when I criticize the writing, I am doing it in comparison to other similar aimless manga, not against plot and character-heavy works. I read 7 volumes of this manga, and just a few volumes in I was already thinking “is every single chapter going to be the same?” Don’t get me wrong, there are new locations, new characters, etc., but it all feels the same. Every chapter is like “I wish my boobs were perkier!” “Oh, you know what’s good for that? Exercises that target the upper pectorals!” followed by several pages explaining how to do something like incline bench presses, how to hold the bar, how to sit on the bench, etc. I get that explaining exercises is a core concept of the manga, but it gets tedious to have every chapter grind to a halt so that they can do a lifting tutorial that you would just google if you ever wanted to do it in real life, followed by a high-effort full-page ecchi drawing that is ittedly quit sexy. And while some of the exercise advice is good, some of it is iffy (there’s even a chapter I saw where the exercise is accompanied by a note that says “This is an outdated approach, consult a trainer”. Okay… so if it’s bad advice that people don’t use anymore, why is it in the manga? Just because the author couldn’t think of another useful exercise?

Overall, I don’t think that this manga is bad. It just feels very same-y all the way through, in a way that I found boring and shallow rather than comforting and chill. If you’ve read a couple volumes, then you’ve essentially read as much of it as I have because every subsequent chapter will feel exactly the same except for they might go to the beach or a haunted house occasionally or something like that. If you like no plot slice of life ecchi with cute girls, you might like this. If you’re into exercise and weight lifting in real life, you might find it fun to find that in a manga. But as an avid lifter and dumb manga fan I love both of those things and still couldn’t find anything particularly fun or interesting here, and there are a ton of series that will offer much better ecchi, much better slice of life, and much better CGDCT, although I can’t think of another that will give you the weightlifting focus. Give it a shot to see if it’s for you, but I would suggest taking an afternoon to watch the short anime adaptation and skipping the manga.

If you read Monster Musume and thought “these monster girls are too close to human girls, I wish they were significantly closer to animals and there were huge walls of text explaining in detail how their animal genitalia works and how many reproductive organs spiders have”, this is for you.

It was not for me. I found it gross and constantly felt a strong undertone of bestiality while reading it. What I want out of animal/monster girls in anime/manga are essentially human women that have some cute animal features (cat ears, a lamia tale, etc.). What I don’t want is for them to be feral, semi-sentient ... animals with significantly realistic animal parts on their bodies. This is perhaps the least erotic ecchi manga I have ever read (that was actually published for real, I’m excluding random self-published things and internet comics).

Story/Characters: The setup for this manga had promise, but ultimately it fails to deliver a compelling or enjoyable read and is marred by a number of problems. Assassination Classroom had some pacing issues, but the modern day classroom setting made it easier to jump between slice of life, comedy, short episodic stories, and plot-driven chapters. The Elusive Samurai, on the other hand, has incredibly poor pacing that is at odds with the weighty historical narrative it seeks to tell. Characterization is uneven and strange in a way that can seriously cut into the dramatic tension, and often it feels like it can’t decide if it ... wants to be a goofy, light-hearted samurai/ninja fantasy story or a historical drama. The plot also often feels like it’s trying to get to the next big plot point or battle or set piece as quickly as possible, and frequently does so at the expense of important events, information, nuance, and character building.

Art: While others have praised it, I found it to be uneven. At its best, it delivers dynamic scenes packed with details. The issue is that the artist does not use restraint with his digital drawing tools. There is no issue with drawing digitally – much of the manga industry has moved toward digital, which has many upsides that have led to a surge of world-class art in recent years. However, The Elusive Samurai is filled with ugly and overdone digital effects and sometimes packed with so much visual clutter that it draws attention away from the action. There are copious lens flare and smudging and tippling effects that look odd. When action lines are added, they are so overdone that they cram the with ugly lines covering all of the art just being it’s easy to add a new layer and a bunch of straight lines on a drawing tablet. When characters furrow their brow, instead of a wrinkle the artist draws a ton of black lines converging in a way that is difficult to understand how it even abstractly relates to the expression. Characters with black hair (such as the main character) have so many shiny white highlights (that are drawn with individual, extremely clean digital pen strokes that look weird and mechanical) that their black hair is dominated by white. It can sometimes look their hair is half made up of long, white strands rather than coming across as sheen. One of the other biggest issues with the art is the constant use of pattern effects for things like the clothing. These effects are clearly just applied as a layer over the drawing, so none of the folds or texture in the clothing have any effect on the pattern, which is almost always just a perfect digital pattern without any dimension, folds, angles, inconsistencies, etc. that would make it look real. In s that show many characters from a wide shot, the artist applies patterns to almost all of the figures, giving it a horrible visual clutter that is unnecessary and makes crowded s look terrible.

This manga has some genuinely good moments with thrilling action, interesting historical facts, and amusing comedy, but the poor pacing, uneven storytelling, shallow characterization, tone clash between grounded historical drama and completely detached goofy fantasy, and art that ranges from great to some of the worst eyesores I’ve seen from a well known artist make it very hard to recommend. However, people who don’t mind the art and are seeking a casual read with no expectations for deep storytelling may find something that they like in here.