Those "individual manga threads" have been seeing all the action lately, so I'll be giving the shocker this thread needs with:
Iceshadow's Inconsistent Manga Reviews!
You know you want it. Everybodydoes.
First up is
Code Breaker: It reminds me of Death Note, except instead of writing in his diary main character Rei Oogami grabs criminals' faces and burns them to death with his magic fire powers. His classmate Sakura Sakurakouji sees this and sets about trying to figure out the mystery around Oogami's powers and actions. I won't reveal any spoilers since this series is still new, but there so far have been some very cool moments most of which involve Oogami being a total dick. My only problem with this series is that sometimes it likes to include comedy moments to break up the tension. It's not always a bad thing but it's unnecessarily included when it isn't needed. However, I do like how Code Breakers doesn't flinch on the violence, plus there's a good amount of action and it hasn't been out for too long so I can't make a good judgment on the characterization. Sooo 3.5/5.
Next up is
History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi: I was really surprised at how much fun this manga turned out to be. On the surface it's about a weakling learning how to fight and getting into fights with progressively stronger opponents, but what makes it work are the characters. Kenichi Shirahama is nice change of pace for a main character, he's surprisingly grounded and practical (one of his opponents tells Kenichi that his dream is to become the strongest delinquent in Japan, and Kenichi asks him what the hell's he going to do once he's 18 and isn't protected by the law anymore) unlike some protagonists *cough*Naruto*cough*. The main love interest is Miu Fuurinji, who is usually far from a damsel in distress due to her being trained in martial arts since she could walk (190 chapters in and I think she can probably still kick Kenichi's ***). Kenichi's masters (there's 5) are also fun characters, each with their own quirks. The fights in HSDK are nicely drawn, I don't think that Kenichi has yet fought someone with the same style twice, but they're kind of unrealistic in that shounen way, but there's no energy beams or anything. Also, the comedy in HSDK is actually pretty decent and it never feels out of place. If you like Fairy Tail and One Piece I think that there is a pretty good chance you will like History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. 4/5
Last up tonight is
Psyren: Another somewhat new series, if you couldn't guess from the title it's about psychics. Not the fortunetelling kind, but more like the kind in comics that usually kick ***. Main character Ageha Yoshina gets transported to a world that looks like it's been in an orgy with a bunch of nukes by some guy (thing?) called Nemesis Q. There he meets a girl from his class, Sakurako Amamiya, who had been missing for the last few days...I don't want to spoil anymore but so far Psyren has been a consistently good series. The character development is nicely balanced with the action, and the setting doesn't get too boring since the characters switch between the Psyren World and the real world. The bad guys (called Tavoo) are also pretty cool, looking like something out of a nightmare. I highly recommend this series for everyone. 4/5 (Note: the first chapter is a bad quality scan but after that they're good)
And I'm spent.