the story is good, but not as creative as flame of recca. i think the manga would be better if ginta becomes more matured and aware of the harshness of war instead of a naive kid

to the person who wrote "ginta=kenshin" : think twice b4 writing something stupid

kenshin refuses to kill people because he feels guilty to have killed innocent lives, even though they are on the ennemy's side. he realized that the ones he killed at war are his ennemies because they fight for what they believe is right, just like him, but their opinions opposes. he realized that he destroyed families because he took away the lives of a father/husband. he knew the feeling of losing someone precious, which is why he hates killing.

as for ginta, he's just the typical 14 yrs old naive boy who never had any experience of war. of course it's normal that he doesn't want to kill, HE'S A KID! for him, it's too sad to see someone die. also, he knew that not all of cross is evil (ex: the guy who cares alot for him pawn named Gido, he's noble)

[edit by mod: watch the language]

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

What a waste of potential, the series started off rather well and was mildly interesting. However, when they ditched the RPG feel for the tournaments the whole series falls apart. You could see towards the end that the mangaka got sick and tired of the series and wanted to rush and be done with this POS. And the twist at the end of the series is one of the most retarded plot twist I have ever seen. Very disappointed.

We all know MAR bears several resemblances to Recca. A lot of people who don't like it have commented that this lack of originality is the manga's major flaw. Really though, it isn't - after all, Recca was hardly original either (e.g. look at YYH), yet managed to be a lot more entertaining, one of my favorites in the genre in fact.

For me, MAR's main problem is that it lacks direction and focus. It all just seems superficial, as if the central storyline had been predetermined in mad-lib form, after which other characters and events were whimsically chosen to fill the blanks. It certainly doesn't help that the atmosphere often clashes with story (imagine mario characters in resident evil). In the end, I'd rather just re-read something else .

As much as I love Anzai-sensei's art, and coupled with the fact that Flame of Recca is my favorite manga, I went into MAR with high hopes. I didn't feel quite let down by the end, but I felt like I had already read this story before. All of Anzai's manga feel the same, like he never quite branched out past what made Recca so great, and tried to recapture that with MAR and MiXiM, but taking those one-to-one lore items and character personalities outside of Flame of Recca makes it feel shuffled around and recycled.

Ginta = Recca, Jack = Domon, Alvis = Tokiya, Dorothy = Fuuko, Phantom = Kurei. I've read these characters before... It's not bad, but let Recca be Recca. MAR doesn't really take risks once you break it down. Ginta is obsessed with books, Recca is obsessed with ninjas, both find themselves immersed in a world of those as the story progresses. The Hokage Madogu weapons in Recca find themselves rebranded as "Arms" in MAR. I'm sure there are five other parallels, but I'll let these speak for themselves.

If you've read Flame of Recca, you've read a far superior version of this. If you liked it, you'll think, "This is like Recca, but doesn't capture that same magic", but that goes for all of Anzai's post-Recca works. Great art, but everything else has been done better by the mangaka himself.

... Last updated on October 14th, 2020, 8:33pm

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

MAR is a decent story for Shounen fans. Its plotline, like most other mangas, follows a generic pattern so that a little before midway you can tell all the major plot twists, even the ones that were ment to stun the reader. Also, near the end it kinda fizzels out and doesnt quite meet your expectations, but is still a good story.

Even if the concept is old, what save this manga are the wonderful characters, weapons and, of course, artwork. The first 2 volumes are boring, but when the group is gathered together everything starts working, and the interaction between the characters is great. MÄR has a bit of secrets too, because of the new chapters you have to remade all your concepts about the Chess no Koma and other characters. The past of some are very interesting, and i'm particulary curious about Nanashi and Phantom. We've been cleare a bit about Alviss, Rolan and Dorothy. Those are the greatest characters so far, and they make me still hooked in MÄR.

Okay, first of all: if you like the manga, don't watch the anime. In my opinion they messed it up. It became a kids-only-show with bloodless fights (it's not exciting anymore if people don't get wounded and you know they won't die!!).
Okay, as for the manga:
I reeeeally like the manga. Somehow it is addictive, even though I sometimes can't stand the main character (at the beginning of the story he's quite the annoying brat). My favourite character is Alviss so I hope he's not going to end as the weak fighter, looking up to Ginta. Of course Ginta will win the final fight but Alviss could give him a helping hand or something like that. The drawings are more beautiful than in the anime, but I'm not really please with the style (Jack = ugly, Ginta = little brat, the Dog...no comment, the princess = standard cute person, Alviss is my fav :P). The mysterious parts don't work because every time something "mysterious" happens you know right away what's going on. The fights are sometimes too short. In short: A good manga but nothing special, still addictive and the main character shows a real developement (hope this is going to continue. I don't want him to stay a stupid brat forever...he's progressing). => Manga with potential. (Does anyone know if it's finished in japan or which chapter they are at? thx.)