Reviews for Amatsuki

Story: While hard to follow, Amatsuki has one of the best stories I've seen in a manga in ages. It starts off with a fairly ordinary premise: a boy gets trapped in another world. However, there's more to the story than just this generic, straightforward plot; questions of how Toki is trapped inside the game and what Amatsuki really IS keep you guessing throughout the story and make the whole concept of "a new world" far more intriguing than it usually is. The story is very thought-out, everything is perfectly intertwined, and there are a handful of twists I certainly didn't see coming. The story'sgreatest weakness, I think, is that it unfolds almost like a mystery novel at times and is presented in such a way that it can be very difficult to follow at times. It will probably require you to read through it at least twice before getting a true understanding of everything that's going on. 9/10

Art: Gorgeous and detailed. Not much else to say here. 10/10

Character: The strongest point of the manga. Although Amatsuki has a pretty huge cast, almost none of the characters have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of developement. The characters all seem almost real in the way that all of them have obvious strengths, flaws, and motivations for what they do. While some people complain that there is no obvious antagonist in Amatsuki, this is one of the best parts about it: there are no stereotypically "good" or "evil" characters, just characters on different sides, all with understandable motivations and a whole lot of depth. 10/10

Enjoyment: This is where the manga is hurt the most. Amatsuki, while an excellent manga, is not for everyone. This is a manga that requires a degree of thought and effort to be able to see it for what it's really worth. If you're just looking for a manga to read for fun and enjoyment, you should probably look for something else. Not that you CAN'T just enjoy Amatsuki without thinking about it, it's just not the best manga to read if you're just looking for something fun, fast-paced, and full of action. 7/10

Overall: Good plot, amazing characters, and gorgeous art. It's sometimes hard to follow, but definitely worth the ride if you're willing to figure it out. 10/10

I read this because I watch the anime. But soon enough I realize the anime has failed me yet again because they didn't do justice to the awesomness of this manga. The story line is outstanding. They twist and turn the plot and even after reading along this far, I still have no freaking idea of how the ending would be like. The art is superb. I have no complains. Most of the characters are an eye candy. Not to mention the depth of each of the characters. No one is shallow. I really enjoy this manga and have no qualm to give it fullmarks.

This is also one of the rarest manga where I can't find any annoying or unlikeable characters. Kudos.

I encountered Amatsuki as an anime first. I was curious when someone mentioned that it had a manga counterpart. I am the kind of person who would prefer reading/watching the original work before seeing the other version. The story is not so unusual. It involves alternate worlds and realities. The mangaka chose to portray it via the VR (Virtual Reality) technology. The protagonist arrives at this other world when he encounters two unusual types of monsters, which he, at first, thinks of as part of the VR programming. However, he soon realizes that he is not in the VR world that he had come from. Inthe story, this is done quite seamlessly that you have to wonder how it could have happened. There are events that happen in the manga that make you realize that there is more to the "accidentally-being-in-an-alternate-dimension" coincidence, which we have experienced many times in a manga story. What makes this story different in my opinion is the unique way of how the mangaka portrays it. There are times, however, that I get confused in some instances of the story. There are certain blanks that are drawn, which I suppose is up to the reader to interpret or, probably, left in future chapters. This manga is not all serious. There are cute little moments that make you laugh, or at the very least, smile.

Despite the sometimes-confusing plot, what made me continue on reading this is the art and the character portrayal. Like the great Obata Takeshi, Shinobu Takayama (the mangaka) can seamlessly make his characters chibi to serious and vice versa. I may not be exaggerating if I say that the art is the reason why I'm going to continue on reading Volume 2. The art style for the characters is somewhat relaxed. The details that go in certain scenes are also great. I love how the mangaka's art just seems to flow in the pages. Subjectively, I am a fangirl. The guys are bishounen enough for me to find reason to go on. :D

The characters' portrayal have been compressed quite awkwardly in my opinion. It has only been seven chapters and yet I have seen many characters appearing in the pages, giving hints of their significant role in the story. There is the issue of Toki's seeming nonchalance of the events that happen to him in the other world. But, again, the mangaka provides hints of why that could be Toki's case. Also, I can easily warm up to the characters that appear. That is a problem in my case because I haven't found anyone that I can consider an antagonist. This is considerably bad seeing as I've just finished a volume. Also, this may be just my imagination, but the way Shinobu Takayama-sensei portrays the characters, it's like he's giving a definite go signal to yaoi doujinshi possibilities.

Another upside to this story is the appearance of random trivia. Of course, since this is a historical manga, historical trivia should only be expected. I am referring to the little bits of trivia that could definitely qualify to "I-didn't-know-that". It could, arguably, be considered useless trivia (useless, in the case of not really applicable in real life) but the discovery of certain little facts could definitely make you say a little bit of "Ooh!"

A little redundant, but I have to say this again. The art is simply wonderful! Especially the color pages. I recommend this manga even if only for the art. :D

Overall Score: 7/10

If tl:dr : Excellent story get your hands on it and start reading. So I start reading this manga a couple of years ago (like 2006) because I thought the art was rad. And not only does it turns out the story is also excellent, so are the themes. It's a good mix of sci-fi, fantasy and historical manga that is revealed (a lot later on) to double as a mystery\police story. One of the things that I loved the most is that not one of the character feels superfluous. They all have a backstory to explain their motivations and why they act as they do.It's one of the things I love about this manga. Not one vilain is truly evil, they all try to protect what they cherish and all have reasonable utter-motive.

#aka Bonten and Tsuyukusa, the Princess or name it...

Life is just harsh in medieval Japan and everybody is tied to the choices and consequences of their acts.

I also love quite much how the author use chibi art to cut some tense situations in the manga too, and how queer some character act sometimes! And As someone else said some blanks are left in some scenes that make you wonder what certain character might be doing but it's usually discovered later on.

The only thing that KILLS me is how slow the production of this manga is.

Like serisouly 108 chapters in 13 years

I have read 22ch, and I can say the begining of story was much more interesting, and more action was going on, later on it's just talks like seeing a political show, nothing much happens at all. It all starts with an interesting idea of a wirtual world engineering somehow related to ability to travel back to history, and you get to know some of history of japan. Complicated characters' personalities are interesting, also the unfolding state of whats going on is great in the begining. And later we have clues, that this travel to history may be related to virtual world creation technology, and thats all..no action, just talks and blabering, I find it very boring so I dropped manga, yeah maybe there will be something better if the ongoing future chapters, yet It seems failed. (I mean how can they do so much not interesting talks? just normal talks, without knowing more about others persons, about the future, about plans - it leaves you in a state of monothony what I dont like)

So having a 8 (somewhat very good begining), and having pure (~4) ongoing chapters so overall: Im giving it 4.