Manga Review: Livingstone, Volume 2, by Tomohiro Maekawa and Jinsei Kataoka

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: March 2016

Volumes: 4.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository.

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

THE BUSINESS OF SOULS

Sakurai has been working with Y.K. Livingstone for a little over six months, so you would think he'd get the hang of things by now. However, his job—to clean and collect the physical form of the soul—comes with unique challenges that make things a little difficult… What's worse, he's been paired up with a partner who would rather play videogames than work. Dealing with life and death can be heavy business, from witnessing the power of emotional attachment, working with local law enforcement, to questioning whether animals have souls, Sakurai definitely seems to have his work cut out for him...

Review:

This series is very intriguing. It’s odd, and very dark at times, with odd humor. It’s enjoyable, but it’s also not really grabbing me with its characters.

There are several cases in this volume, each one violent and sad. A couple in which the girl keeps turning violent and beating up her boyfriend; a surgery that went wrong and the father who knows the hospital did wrong; even a little girl who’s possessed by an adult seductress. A little boy and his pet bird who gets hurt, when his father is remarrying a foreign woman.

We do meet another partnership collecting souls, who argue with our main characters.

I find the characters interesting, but I don’t really feel like I know them, and I’m not attached. The humor can be funny, but there isn’t much of it. I’m intrigued, but only half-heartedly. I probably will pick up the next one when I get the chance, though, since this is a short series.

Manga Review: Deadman Wonderland, Volume 13, by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou

Rating (Out of 5): ~4-4.5
Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: February 2016
Volumes: 13.
Spoilers?: Light.
Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.
Volume: 1. 12.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Framed for the brutal murders of his classmates by the mysterious Red Man, middle school student Ganta Igarashi finds himself sentenced to death and sent to the bizarre and fatal theme park/prison that has risen from the ruins of the Great Tokyo Earthquake—a hell on earth known as “Deadman Wonderland.”

Ganta and Shiro finally face off against each other inside a collapsing Deadman Wonderland. Shiro speaks of her past and how she’s been wishing for Ganta to kill her. Ganta asks her why she killed his friends, but Shiro just pleads with him to make her wish come true. In the end, Ganta cannot bring himself to do it, and so the final battle begins. 

Review:

The final volume. So we get a final reveal, and the final battle. Now, going into this, I knew it was either going to be extremely horrible, which I found unlikely, or it was going to be very cheesy. I was mostly afraid of how cheesy it would be.
Ganta and Shiro finally have their showdown. And Shiro is pissed at what she had to do because of him, even if he didn’t know. And it’s horrible, seeing Shiro like this. Seeing what she went through was terrible, but seeing what it did to her is worse. And the fight is bad—it’s bloody and destructive, and honest. It needed to happen. Which is kind of why I maybe love the ending?
It is cheesy. Some sweet, honest words are said, and Shiro believes them, and Ganta believes them and means them. And it’s what Shiro needs. I’m sure some people don’t like it, don’t agree with it, but I think it’s kind of perfect. I think that what happened needed to happen, and I kind of love it. I really do.
I am more than satisfied with this series, and I loved it.

Manga Review: Deadman Wonderland, Volume 12, by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: VIZ Media

Release Date: December 2015

Volumes: 13.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 11. 13.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Framed for the brutal murders of his classmates by the mysterious Red Man, middle school student Ganta Igarashi finds himself sentenced to death and sent to the bizarre and fatal theme park/prison that has risen from the ruins of the Great Tokyo Earthquake—a hell on earth known as “Deadman Wonderland.”

Thanks to Ganta returning to the battle, Senji narrowly escapes death battling Toto Sakigami. Still, Toto’s power is so overwhelming they remain at a disadvantage. Using a clever strategy, Ganta is able to land a timely strike against Toto, and Senji quickly follows up by slicing him along with the building. Toto is assumed to be crushed to death by the collapsed structure, but is he?

Review:

We finally get some real backstory on Rinichiro/Toto and Yosuga. And, of course, it’s really sad, and bloody. I feel bad mostly for Toto in this, and while I’m not particularly happy with what Yosuga does, I see why. She misses her friend, in the same way that Ganta misses Shiro.

There’s a lot of fighting—a very big fight scene between Ganta, Senji, and Rinichiro, and then another between the group and Rinichiro. Rinichiro is literally insane, and it’s horrible, and I want to see him go down. We only get a glimpse of Shiro in this volume, and it’s not good. We also get a surprising revelation about Ganta’s power, which could be really bad.

We’re left with a cliffhanger, leading up to the big conclusion in the next volume. I can’t wait. I just hope it’s not too horrible.

Manga Review: Livingstone, Volume 1, by Jinsei Kataoka and Tomohiro Maekawa

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Kodansha Comics

Release Date: November 3, 2015

Volumes: 4.

Spoilers?: Minor.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

At the beginning of the 20th century American Doctor, Duncan MacDonald, engaged in a series of unethical experiments. Those experiments concluded that should one suffer a death not ordained by fate the human body lightened by an average of 30 grams, the weight of a man's soul stone.

Today, two men, Sakarai and Amano, are in the hunt to find people who are about to die before their time and either prevent their unnatural death or recover these stones, "Livingstones."

Review:

Since the artist is from Deadman Wonderland, I was intrigued. I’m a little unsure, though.

This is definitely a dark series, and the artwork is of course the same as Deadman Wonderland, which is very nice to look at. The expressions are dark and striking. There are a few color pages at the front of the book, and those are always nice to look at.

The concept—that people have a set path but sometimes stray when imprints get dark, and there are people who can see these things and fix them—is very interesting. And of course get dark, when people get depressed and angry and want to kill themselves. That’s when the main characters step in, to clear things up and set them right.

Sometimes the story lines are depressing, like the first one; conflicting, like when a women doesn’t really want to end things and comes to a compromise; or just depressing, like when there’s an accident and a dog gets angry in the aftermath. There are some interesting characters, and I’m sure there will be more depth and more characters introduced later.

I’m intrigued, but not quite sucked in yet.

Manga Review: Deadman Wonderland, Volume 11, by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: VIZ Media

Release Date: October 2015

Volumes: 13

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 10. 12.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Framed for the brutal murders of his classmates by the mysterious Red Man, middle school student Ganta Igarashi finds himself sentenced to death and sent to the bizarre and fatal theme park/prison that has risen from the ruins of the Great Tokyo Earthquake—a hell on earth known as “Deadman Wonderland.”

Ganta and Senji head deep inside Deadman Wonderland to locate the “chorus blocks,” which are the key to unraveling Wretched Egg’s mystery. However, Toto Sakagami appears, and Ganta is captured trying to protect Senji. Meanwhile, Makina discovers Ganta’s mother’s diary, which contains Ganta and Shiro’s shocking past!

Review:

How can this series be so cruel to me, every single time? How? Why? It just hurts so much every time.

Toto captures Ganta, and we see what he’s really planning. What he wants to do with Ganta. And from that, we get to see what really happened with Ganta and Shiro as kids. And it’s terrible.

Poor, poor Shiro. Toto is behind it all, and he’s horrible. Ganta’s mother is the reason, but she at least felt bad and wanted to stop. It’s just terrible what they did to Shiro, what she has to experience, and it’s no surprise she is the way she is because of it, with two personalities. But it also shows Ganta what really happened, what he saw, and why he forgot her.

The cliffhanger has me excited, and I can’t wait to see how this series ends. I expect more deaths, or at least more violence. It was terrible and graphic and gross in this volume. They’re terrible to each other. And I just want Shiro to have a happy ending at this point.

Manga Review: Deadman Wonderland, Volume 10, by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: VIZ Media

Release Date: August 2015

Volumes: 13

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 9. 11.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Framed for the brutal murders of his classmates by the mysterious Red Man, middle school student Ganta Igarashi finds himself sentenced to death and sent to the bizarre and fatal theme park/prison that has risen from the ruins of the Great Tokyo Earthquake—a hell on earth known as “Deadman Wonderland.”

After hunting down Tamaki, the Wretched Egg appears in front of Ganta, and he finally learns that it is Shiro behind the mask. Standing before the court, his heart torn between wanting revenge for his slaughtered classmates and not wanting to hurt the person he still cares for, Ganta’s sentence is reversed. Still on the brink of despair, Ganta decides to put an end to everything, and then…

Review:

The group is finally out of Deadman Wonderland. They’re free! And they have no idea how to live a normal life. Some are in normal prison now, and some are trying to get jobs. Ganta is supposed to be in school, but he’s just depressed right now. It is definitely weird seeing them in a normal setting, and depressing to see how badly they fit in.

And then, of course, they make a plan to get back into Deadman Wonderland, because they have to fight the Wretched Egg. And at this point, no one but Ganta knows that Wretched Egg is actually Shiro.

Ugh, I’m so upset about that still. I love Shiro so much, and right now she’s being pushed to the back so her second personality, Wretched Egg, can take over. And all Wretched Egg wants to do is kill, particularly Ganta. And they love each other so much! It's heartbreaking to see them like this.

We meet a new character in this volume, who has a past with Rinichiro (the one leading the Wretched Egg around), which sounds similar to what’s happening with Shiro. We also get a huge revelation about how Deadman Wonderland works, as well as something about Ganta’s mother.

There’s just so much terror happening here, and more to come, of course.

I’m excited for the next one.