Manga Review - Mahou Shoujo of the End

Today's post will feature a manga review of a series that I'm currently reading, which is "Mahou Shoujo of the End".

"Mahou Shoujo of the End"

So "Mahou Shoujo of the End" is a survival manga which starts off pretty much the same as what "Highschool of the Dead" does. It's genres include: action, mystery, ecchi, horror, mature, psychological, romance, shounen, supernatural and tragedy. I'd put a 15+ year old rating on it due to some of the graphic nature in the manga. The story follows Kogami Kii (a high school student) and fellow survivors in a strange "Zombie Apocolypse", where Kii first sees a person brutally murdered outside his classroom window, Kii doesn't believe what just happens and excuses himself to the bathroom. Whilst in the bathroom he convinces himself it was all just a dream and that he just fell asleep in class. Next thing he knows is that all his class mates have also been brutally murdered including Inui Natsuki, a fellow class mate that he likes. Only a couple class mates survive due to hiding. One by one the class mates start moving again, however due to their injuries this shouldn't be happening. They realise that something is very wrong here and escape. Along the way they come across some more survivors and hide away in a class room together. Kii and the fellow survivors try to escape the school and to find out what the hell is going on. Upon leaving the school they can see that the city has also been involved in these crazy events.
Without spoiling the rest of the series I'll stop it there, but this should give you a little glimpse of what the series is about. I know many questions will come from the series like: What are they? Where did they come from? Why are they here? and more importantly, who is behind this? For me, these questions were constantly running through my head, and again without spoiling it for you, and when I found out the answers to these questions (mainly the who) I was a bit like "WHAT!". This was a series that I had trouble putting down, I needed to know what happened next which made me read the first 13 chapters in the one sitting.

A friend asked me recently if I could suggest them something to read manga wise, and since this was the last thing I had read and loved of course I was going to recommend it to them. He asked if I could describe the series in 3 words and what they would be, my response was "magical girl zombies". This got him very interested. If you like anime/manga like "Highschool of the Dead", this is definitely something you should get your hands on.

A common occurrence in the series are the cute yet creepy Mahou Shoujo. Their most notable catchphrase being "Magical", well more like their only phrase.

The main cast include:
Kogami Kii:

Kii is a 16 year old high school freshman. He keeps to himself and tries to stay out of trouble, as well as not build up any unneeded stress. Kii and Tsukune were childhood friend, Tsukune being Kii's only friend in elementary school. Kii has the opportunity to help Tsukune when he sees she is in trouble and being bullied but decides not to intervene and walks off.

Kaede Sayano:

Same school and year level as Kogami Kii. Sayano and Ootsuki are both seen cruelly bullying Tsukune, trying to drown her. Kii notices what they are doing but when confronted by the girls he walks off not wanting to get involved.

Fukumoto Tsukune:

Kogami Kii's childhood friend. Tsukune is seen to be bullied by Sayano and Ootsuki, Kii had the opportunity to step in and help her but because he likes to not involve himself in things he walks on by. She is also seen to be somewhat clumsy.

Hanzawa Yoruka:

Yoruka is a sophomore student. Has gained the nickname "Titty-Chan" from Rintarou Akuia.

Rintarou Akuia:

Akuia is a policeman who after the start of the "zombie apocalypse" has lost his way and part of his sanity. He seems to like this world, mainly due to being able to do as he pleases. He nicknames Yoruka "Titty-Chan" due to her large chest.

Ren Kushiro:

Kushiro aims to apply for medical school, and with some medical knowledge acts as the groups doctor when they are injured.

Inui Natsuki:

Natsuki is a classmate of Kii. Kii also seems to like her, but she seems to ignore him most of the time.

I wont go into the characters any more than that due to possible spoilers. The characters develop quite a bit over the series of events.

Now on to some of the "Monsters", I love the unique designs that they have. Some cute, some creepy and then some a bit of both. Some of them you'll see in the series are:

Even thought the first few chapters are a little slow, definitely keep reading. I'm currently stuck on the cliff hanger waiting for the next few chapters to be released in English due to my Japanese not being terribly great. I would give the series a 9 out of 10. Most sites that I have seen give reviews for this series have given it either around the 4.5 out of 5 or 9.2 out of 10 mark on average. If you are looking for something new to read, definitely give it a look. Would love to hear what others think about the series too, so don't hesitate to comment or message me :)

Happy reading!

Sailor Moon Crystal (Episode 1: Usagi - Sailor Moon - review)

(Sailor Moon Crystal opening title)

So over the last few months there has been a lot of hype and buzz over the new Sailor Moon, myself being one of the many on the hype train. There were a lot of rumours as to if it was going to be a new series or a remake of the original, which in turn created a lot of new fan art appearing all over the internet. I ended up tuning in a few hours after it had aired (due to working whilst it aired), so I was a little tired the first time I watched it since it was around 1am. I decided half a week later to watch it again when I had the time so I could start on this review. Obviously still being so early in the series I'll do another review down the track to see if my expectations and feelings towards the remake have changed or if they remain the same.

Let's start with the opening theme. Both the original Japanese and English dubbed version of the opening theme back in the 90's were very catchy, so much so that I still sing both of them to this day. The new opening for Crystal is very catchy also. Crystals theme is so catchy that I can see myself singing it in the future.

During the second watch through I decided to screen snap a couple images for this post, nothing major to spoil any plots, however if you've seen the original Japanese version of Sailor Moon it's not too much different other than art style.

The art cards that they display during act changes, during the mid episode change over and at the end of the episode are rather beautiful. I snapped a couple for examples. They are so simple, yet very detailed and the artist has done an amazing job. Here are a few of the examples for episode 1:

(Act 1 Art Card)

 (Mid episode change over Art Card 1)

(Mid episode change over Art Card 2)

(Episode 1 End Art Card)

A number of people bought up the issue after seeing a few sneak peaks of the series that the legs were way too long. I didn't actually see any of the images that they were referring to until I watched the first episode. Most of the time the leg to body ratio isn't too bad, however there are some instances where the legs are just not proportionate at all. Example:

(Usagi standing out the front of her class room after being punished for getting to school late)

As you can see, her legs appear to be at least 5 times the length of her torso. To me it's not a huge issue, but can get annoying sometimes when her height seems to vary. I know many have an issue with it and others don't care, no-one is right and no-one is wrong. Each to their own as they say. Everyone is going to have different opinions on things and I'm curious to what everyone else's opinions are. Do you like the longer legs? Do you think they are too long? Please feel free to comment on this below, and comment on any other things that you saw or thought about in relation to the first episode :)

As for the art style of the new series, I'm a bit unsure of how I feel. I loved the art of the old series, but at the same time still loving the updated feel to the new series (mostly). To me, Crystal is great, they have done an amazing job on making it look modern, however in some instances the faces look a little off. Most of the time, let's say 99%, the faces look perfectly normal (just a little getting use to of the new art style which will obviously come with time), however there are  a few instances that the faces look just off. It's hard to explain it, but mostly the faces look too close together, or too small, or even that most of the features are incredibly small compared to they eyes. It's an easy thing to over look. As I stated before that most of the time it's perfectly normal looking. Here are a few snaps from Sailor Moon Crystal of the new art style.

And a few more photo spams of Sailor Moon/Usagi and Tuxedo Mask meeting in episode 1, plus a couple extra Tuxedo Mask pictures:

(Tuxedo Mask looking as handsome as I remember)

As for Sailor Moons new outfit, I like the updated version of it except for the new tiaras. I very much prefer the old style looking tiaras compared to the new ones. The new ones to me just seem too small and in some frames don't look to be equal in shape and in some areas look misshapen. Again not a huge issue, which in time I'll get use to and not even care about any more. The added touch of the blinking red lights on her hair buns is a great idea. Absolutely love it. The broach on the front of the bow I'm not much of a fan of. Just another one of the things where I prefer the original over the remake. You'll also tend to notice through out the episode that Usagi's hair changes length. Sometimes it's to her feet, other times it's to her knees.

All in all, I loved it. I'm excited to watch more episodes, but hate the fact that it's not airing weekly and will be airing fortnightly instead. There was a real nostalgic feel to it that reminded me so much of when I was younger and would wake up early before school to catch it on the early morning cartoon programmes. I'm looking forward to where it goes and see how closely it follows the original series/manga. I'd rate the art a 9/10 and the episode as a whole a 9.5/10.

To all the Moonies out there, happy viewing!