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Description
[From Viz]:
Ginta Toramizu is a 14-year-old kid who doesn't have a lot going for him: he's near-sighted, doesn't do well in school, sucks at sports, and to top it off--he's short! But Ginta is a dreamer and has had the same dream 102 times, always in the same fantasy world, where he is a hero blessed with all the abilities he lacks in real life.
Then one day a supernatural figure appears at Ginta's school and summons him to a mysterious and exciting new world! In this strange universe filled with magic and wonder, he is strong, tough, agile--and he can see without his glasses! Thus, Ginta begins a mystical quest in search of the magical items known as "ÄRMS," one of which may have the power to send him home. Joining him on this epic journey are his companion Jack and the valuable living, talking, mustachioed iron-ball weapon known as "Babbo," which everyone wants but, it seems, only Ginta can possess!
I was once again hooked in one of Anzai-sense's mangas because of the weapons. I personally think he's a genius when it comes to these. Madougus, ARM weapons etc. ^_^ But then as I read into this, I realized it's just similar to Flame of Recca, although FoR is waaay better. The dialogues and lines were already used and amazingly delivered in FoR so I got bored reading MAR. I dunno...I really can't say much because it was bland. xD
Well,what should i say about this manga.First the plotlineattern way too similar to many other shounen mangas with little to no twists whatsoever(even if there are,they are way too predictable),then comes the art:I would say not bad but not spectacular either.And I should say the mangaka played it way too safe by having no new innovative ideas whatsoever.The battles are good but the pacing is fast in a bad way.And there are some parts in the story(like training parts)which copied concepts from DB and Naruto with no changes at all.Overall an average manga which can be read once but dont expect too much out of it
this is a nice fast paced action shounen manga you can't really find a good story but the fights are good and not dragged too long (mostly 1-3 ch) it's good to spend your time to read this manga
*9 is for normal-really good *10 is for good-perfect so don't take my vote so high
Really ordinary shounen, decent art, liked a few characters... It's too bad too, cuz i kinda did like the plot. But way too obvious and unrealistic. Unreal drama, unreal characters, and unreal thoughts and feelings. Made me dislike the whole thing. The characters never seemed to develop... and most the bonds were formed way too easily and cheaply. Never really had any twists, and i pretty much expected everything that was gonna happen MUCH much before it actually did.
Spoiler (highlight to view)
Like Ginta's father, i expected him by the 3rd volume. >_>
Agreeing with both Hetien and Kevinkgood, it's nice to read, a lotta "emotional potential" , but characters are a bit shallow and it's too fast to actually grasp what the characters are feeling.
I have to describe it as a better, more thought out Flame of Recca. Definitely more enjoyable and yet it still is a bit off from one of those great stories, it is still very good none the less. Heck, I finished reading it all in one day so it has to be somewhat addicting haha. Honestly, give it a shot. Sure you can read everyone's, including my opinions on it, but in the end we are not you so everyone has their own preferences. Also, Ginta's final guardian in the end is uber awesome. I really liked this series! I can't wait to check out the author's next series.
well, this was an awesome idea for a manga. artwork's decent, character designs are good. it nags some stuff from outside sources, but they're really short and shallow so it doesnt affect the story, at all. it many manga i've read, flashbacks, fights, and explanations are really draw out. not so here. everything's incredibly short, which keeps it nice for reading time, but not so for the story. there a lot of deep emotion potential in the story, but you never really have time to feel it since it passes by so quickly. characters change insanely fast, like, in the course of two panels. overall, worth reading, but not the best.
this manga here, is like flame of recca version 2. ... did i mention i hated flame of recca?
allright, lets look at the basics. the art itself is not bad. the style is very clean, you can tell the guy has polished his skills when you compare it to his other works. the character designs range from really good to extremely bad. but hey, to me its at least better than One Piece, which IMHO, has the worst art ever, i mean, really.
so basically, contrary to Flame of Recca, where one had to force himself through the most horrible of artwork by grasping at the storyline to actually be able to read the manga, MAR provides some nice things to look at. the bad news is, even though the pictures are good, the story is bad. as many have stated before, the beginning starts out great. its interesting enough, in fact some would argue that the plot moves a bit TOO slow.
then all of a sudden, its like someone hit the fast forward button, and it really gets messed up. you think youre in an alternate reality? you think youre gonna explore a new world? not really, becuase the plots just been changed to a tournament. you think youre gonna get background information on characters? nope, they focus on the wrong characters, and dont even do enough on the ones that you really want to know about. you think that youre gonna see epic battles, cry tears of joy after every victory? nope. each battle is around 2 chapters, bad guys extremely weak, good guys powerupping far too easily, and its predictable.
but the best of all fo this, is what the mangaka did concerning "killing". the protagonist says killing is wrong, yet he and his companions kill everyone they get their hands on. i mean, what was the deal with "not sinking down to their level". i mean COME ON, its bad to kill, yet these people do it with smiles on their faces.
yes its kinda cheap or w/e u many call it but it left a gd feeling in u. lol the main character faces a problem and solves not just his but other people problems as well. xD lol. the plot was averg. the art is not that bad compare to other mangas with good plots but w/ a meh art. the character development was predictable. its a type of story that can be copied over and over again like a cookie cutter but iunno i'm the like who get suck in with cute characters xD lol =)
As many of the reviews mentioned, the beginning of the series is pretty entertaining. It had the world, the feel and it reminded me of Flame of Recca, in a positive way. But after some 70 chapters, it went down the gutter, big time.
More and more one dimensional characters are introduced halfway through the story and at some point, I couldn't care less about them. The background stories are forced down your throat, certain main characters had nothing useful to add and the little potential they had were totally let to waste. Way to go!
The fights were awfully told and the whole thing became really, I mean REALLY, predictable. The fights were standard two to three chapters long and there was little to no originality involved. The protagonist suddenly beats everyone with minimal amount of effort with the same old routine. The summons lacked their interesting background and it drags on and on. All the later fights were avoiding doing anything interesting at all and even the art got really repetitive.
The few last volumes were so down right shitty, it was almost funny. The main villains are disposed off so easily, you would think a five year old wrote the story. The plottwists were weird and not interesting at all. All the tension build up for nothing and just waste valuable story mechanics. Such a disappointment.
Somehow it saddens me how poor this series is, compared to FoR. Or even compared to the typical shounen. This is certainly a manga to avoid. There are many way better series around.
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attern way too similar to many other shounen mangas with little to no twists whatsoever(even if there are,they are way too predictable),then comes the art:I would say not bad but not spectacular either.And I should say the mangaka played it way too safe by having no new innovative ideas whatsoever.The battles are good but the pacing is fast in a bad way.And there are some parts in the story(like training parts)which copied concepts from DB and Naruto with no changes at all.Overall an average manga which can be read once but dont expect too much out of it
