- Half of the story is about having sex or thinking about it.
- It's kinda boring, I really think that the author make the story long enough to achieve the 69 chapter.
- It's realistic, which makes the story sometimes enjoyable and relatable and sometimes depressing.

... Last updated on October 21st, 2019, 1:45pm

Stop moaning about the ending. Its perfectly fine.

Very engaging title that i would easily recommend to anyone and especially ppl who are not into manga. Brilliant coming-of-age story. A manga you'll add in your list of best manga you've ever read.

But you won't, if you insist on holding to a rigid view of what a man, even a teenage guy, should be. The thing I'm loving about this story the most, as a matter of fact, is that in this manga it's the BAD GUY who comes closest to matching the standard idea of manhood: handsome, athletic, confident, emotionally dead, and, in fact, mean.

In this story the main character is a teenage wimp, but he's one a lot of readers will like or be willing to identify with because he's kind, gentle, and caring. For you guys who were, or are, a bit like that as teenagers, you will find in this story a great picture of the internal life of such a guy. Beyond that, in this manga this main character gets lucky in several ways that such guys aren't normally depicted as getting. And at the same time he's not the complete dork that the male main character in shounen manga often is—yet showered by the love of multiple females just to fulfill the fantasies of horny teenage readers.

In fact, this is that very rare thing, a truly realistic manga about teenage life, with just enough exaggeration added to make it exciting. If you loved "Onani Master Kurosawa", I'm pretty sure you'll like this. And the art is just great.

.....

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, there's suspense and danger in this manga, quite a lot of it. And the ending is a standard feature of reality.

... Last updated on May 13th, 2016, 6:27pm

1. The main character is too pathetic to feel real.
2. The characters are built up with a personality and maturity but some events are forced which makes their actions inconsistent, especially with the rape.





... Last updated on September 26th, 2015, 1:21pm

Had a good pace and kept me hooked while reading but the ending absolutely killed it. It's left a bad taste in my mouth and has left me wondering why I even thought of picking it up. Really disappointed...


... Last updated on August 16th, 2015, 1:26pm

In many ways this is a darn good manga. I enjoyed much of the art style, though as I understand it the realistic approach was new for the manga artist and something that his long time fans didn't like. I thought it was pretty brave to change his style somewhat and the quality was pretty good. Some of the comedy made me chuckle out loud, mostly because of the comedic timing. This really stood out for me, because I've read other comedies that were ok or maybe had really good jokes by themselves but very few where set-up and delivery were done so well (the whole thing with the artsy-fartsy girl? I've known people exactly like that and it felt real as well as funny). The whole manga is not a comedy though, its primarily slice of life. Its looking at the ups and downs of the main character as a teen. I think the manga delivers in the comedy elements and in understanding the perspective of a bullied teenager struggling to grow.

However, I thought there were somethings the manga was weak on. In the early chapters its hard to understand the tone and comedy because the main character is often drawn in a caricature style while everyone else is more realistic. He looks like a midget when he's with his girlfriend at times and its jarring with her more realistic rendering. The artist ends up pulling back on this after awhile and emphasizing more funny faces as he goes along instead of whole body caricature and I think it ends up working better. The other thing that's inconsistent is the drama. The situation with the bullying is done well, and I think the main character's lack of self-confidence works. But there's some stuff that feels randomly thrown in and not really resolved like the rape. All of that was an opportunity that was let go and lost I thought. It was sort of a false build up to drama with out the payoff, so why even include it? Also some reviewers have stated that the girlfriend didn't have enough development and I agree to a certain extent. I mean the story is mainly about the main character Ogino, not his girlfriend, so of course we will get most of it from his point of view. It makes sense, but I think its not her lack of development that is the problem more her lack of personality at times. She feels a little too vanilla. Mainly what's emphasized over and over is how hot she is and how lucky Ogino is. That is not a lot to go on and almost just paints her as a sex object. Supposedly she's smart, but we don't really get how smart she is in relation to others plus she makes a few mistakes in judgement that make you question this.

Finally there's the ending, which left me really dissatisfied and really hurt the manga imho. Its not where everything ended up in the end, its the abruptness and lack of explanation. Once again it feels like some of the other random elements that got thrown into this manga. It stands out so oddly that it makes me wonder if it was intentional or if the manga was going to get axed or if the author ran out of ideas. It happens all in the space of a chapter without any build up or explanation which makes you wonder why it went that way. To be fair where everything ends up is sort of telegraphed the entire time by the main character, but still a flashback or a few words from the character as to how or why would have helped the readers. We didn't need chapters to get us there, but some kind of insightful comment by Ogino at the end would have helped. Again its not where things ended up that really bugged me, but how we got there or the lack of explanation in how we got there. Fill in the blank or let the readers come up with their own reasons works sometimes, but I don't think it worked here, at least not for me.

... Last updated on November 7th, 2014, 9:57am

I've finished Ciguatera not too long ago and it left a deep impression on me. It felt like real life.
Ogino, the main character, looks miserable at first, but his development is rather nice. Sure he continues to be a bit of a wimp and doesn't have any self-confidence at all, but it was very interesting to know about his thought process. The rest of the cast was small but each served his/her purpose, just the way I like it.
The world in ciguatera is raw, bleak and real. Some parts didn't need to happen and served no purpose whatsoever other than to leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth. (Rape is a big no-no, and the culprit got away. I was seriously pissed off.)
Despite that I think it was very good overall. I've read comments saying that Ogino's girlfriend is not developed, but I think she was the perfect girl for Ogino in the sense that she provided him with the emotional support he needed, any other and Ogino wouldn't have made as far as he did. And he acknowledges that, that for me was pretty huge. She was needed to allow Ogino to think about things and not to allow him to overthink or make a big deal of a situation.
As far as the ending goes... After a while I think it's good. Yeah it wasn't what I was expecting, nobody saw that one coming I think, but we were treated to a couple of years in the life of this guy and got to see him mature and evolve. Were things supposed to stay like that forever? Life is never fair. And yet you see it at that time too, Ogino recognizes his life, and what could change.
Because of that super realistic ending and what it left to interpretation, I just have to give this a 10. I know that it has its flaws, but it's a 10 for me.

... Last updated on September 23rd, 2014, 6:06am

this manga is basically a story of growing up, a story of how a young boy with wild delusion change. he met a lot of incredible people in his path. some do him harm, some do him good, most make him uneasy. however, he manage to get past them one way or another. usual narrative will demand perfect resolution for every thing that had ever happen, however this is as slice as life as possible, thus, like real life, a lot of things dont have real conclusion that readers will be content to. readers must accept some good guy get bad luck, and some bad guy will never have to pay for their transgression.

i find this manga thoroughly funny, especially toward the end where the mc is bathed in happiness. the last chapter is like a cold water dousing me with reality. however, i do accept it. nothing last forever - i think this is the message the mangaka try to tell us.

Another manga that tries to be very realistic, but kind of fails at being so. It definitely has some good moments but there's lots of weird mixed up in it. Lots of loose ends remain when the manga ends, too. All in all not too much of a satisfying expierence.