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Reviews for Binbougami ga!

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m
mlmatlowe0

almost 14 years ago

10

This is certainly the first time I've ever given a 10 to everything, but i just couldn't find a reason why anything should be less than such. Binbougami ga! at first glance might appear to some like your run of the mill comedy manga were a supernatural being and a human end up living together and the humans life is made miserable by said free loader, no doubt I myself suspected as much when i first read the synopsis. I'm glad to say however that I was not entirely wrong but not entirely right either. you'll get what i mean by the end. needless to saythis is by far the funniest manga i have ever read, and by far the most enjoyable.

in my opinion binbougami ga is to manga what azumanga is to anime.

STORY

what makes this manga's story so much better than those of other similar manga's is the fact that the humour doesn't repeat the same trope over and over again (god or demon using normal human methods to defeat the human protagonist only to be thwarted) for comedic effect, Momiji puts a lot of thought and effort into using every possible advantage at hand including Ichiko's friends - once she gets some - as well as items that she orders from the world of the poverty gods, in order to usurp Ichiko's happiness energy.

There's a certain sense of believability in here as well not only because the task at hand would be a believable job for a poverty god, but also because the characters and events in Ichiko's life make sense when you look at how she turned out and how she treats the rest of the world. As well as this something which you don't see very often in these kinds of manga is the fact that Momiji and Ichiko are equally matched and many of the funniest parts of the manga occur when they enter into an epic duel that lasts ages, which brings me to another point. in most manga like this the supernatural being is so humanized and displays so little power or sign of their divinity that often times you forget that their supposed to be a powerful entity all together.

This never happens with Momiji, she is the first depiction I've ever seen of a poverty god in manga or anime where she actually seems like a god and not just some unlucky chump who makes everyone poor and miserable. she is able to turn into a spirit she can increase her size to whatever she wants she can materialise objects out of thin air as well as clothing, you never get the sense that she's human as she always uses her godlike powers throughout the manga which makes for a nice change from the pitiable poverty god who you're meant to feel sorry for.

ART

the art in Binbougami ga! is fantastic for functional reasons. while the art is not ga-rei level it certainly is appealing to look at however the art style they've gone for functions extremely well within the manga particularly for the comedy, there's an element of exaggeration in all the characters designs but this gives the artist the freedom to alter their images without it messing up the flow of the manga an example would be the scene where Ichiko is trying to hide from a certain character who she dissed previously and who just transferred into her class and her method of hiding is to not appear like herself and thus she takes on a very intense atmosphere and the artist displays this seriousness and intensity by altering her appearance so she looks pretty much like a more muscular version of He-man to which Momiji feeling competitive and not reading the situation decides to compete with her and dons a similar appearance and before long most of the class has taken on this appearance which ultimately draws more attention to Ichiko. It was hilarious to say the least.

CHARACTER

here is were the series shines brightest, as the characters are fantastic and incredibly deep for a comedy manga. They are all developed and portrayed very skilfully for example: while Ichiko may appear to be a selfish and apathetic person at heart as you learn more about her history and as she learns more about making friends she shows a more vulnerable and weak side to herself that leaves you feeling blown away by not only how believable it is but also how complex she is in reality. while Momiji's character is less developed she does seem to develop a certain level of care for Ichiko and this is shown by how she cuts her plans short when they leave Ichiko too upset, however she is the primary joker of the manga and most of the humour stems from her and the way the people around her respond to her shenanigans.

this manga has some of the best facial expressions I've ever seen in manga the sheer level of absurdity that they take is not only unexpected but hilarious.

the mangaka is well aware of the comedy tropes in the manga world and he makes this abundantly clear by making the trope itself the focus of the joke, for example in a scene where an ojou sama type character appears trying to kill Ichiko, Momiji responds by saying she is the typical ojou sama character and she's probably gonna start saying ohhohohohoho any minute now. in essence the mangaka is as sick of the tropes as we are and so he turns the idea on its head and makes the tropes very existence a source of comedy.

ENJOYMENT

how could you not enjoy this manga, great plot, great characters and ab buildingly funny comedy what more could you ask for.

you should definitely read this manga you certainly won't regret it .

44
Preliminary
Recommended
Preliminary
g
gtzice2

over 12 years ago

8

thought's: If i were to describe Binbougami ga! in just a a few words it would be drama and comedy story: Is about Sakura, Ichiko a girls who has exponential Fortune energy and lives her ideal high school life. Until a god of misfortune comes to take it away from her.I find the story in this series to be great in how it the premise of this manga expanded upon it tossing in a lot of interesting plot development to make a great cohesive and entertaining story. Art- while good overall i do have my gripes for instance during a fighting scene in whichthere could be something interesting going on with the art but the scene itself feels good, or okay but not great . well this series isn't really about cool action packed fights. One pro i give character do look quite different from each other yet similar.

characters-

Sakura, Ichiko: while original had the personality of a selfish girls who only did things if it to help improve her current charmed lifestyle but as time passes she begins to trust other, gaining friends and learning happiness is best shared with others.

Binboda Momiji: her character is lazy and comedic usually parodying or making jokes every other panel of a chapter. while her character also develop this all you need to know

Enjoyment- My enjoyment was quite high for the series more so during the earlier more comedy focused chapter but it is entertaining to see some of the more darker and sad parts of the stories. my enjoyment was only hindered when i was a few chapters behind and had to read waves of dialogue that came with those 50 page or so chapter it felt like a drag a the time.

Overall: It's a great manga to read if you have time to kill and want something with funny jokes , good character , and story.

8
Recommended
L
Larcus

almost 6 years ago

8

Back in early 2013 I decided to give this manga a shot. And a couple of chapters in I had putten it on hold. Now 7 years later I find myself finishing the manga in just two sittings. So what happened, why did I end up picking it up again in the first place? It would be hard to argue that Binbougami ga does anything different than other shounen series. But it would also be hard to argue that this series doesn't do traditional shounen exceptionally well. The story follows the Life of Ichiko, a lonely rich girl whose life gets turned upsidedown when a Misfortune god Momiji shows up and tries to take away her ludacris amount of good fortune energy. Crazy antics soon presume with Momiji always placing Ichiko in bizarre and hilarious situations while at the same time indirectly teaching Ichiko how to wisen up and overcome her problems. The story doesn't take itself too seriously, but when it wants to, it manages to do so without doing a complete 180.

The story unfortunately, at least for me wasn't the selling point of this manga. The selling points were the unique and quirky characters. All the main characters from the masochistic dog god to the rich loli ninja felt real and genuine. And each time one of them joined our main duo it felt so natural as if a new piece was added to the puzzle. Although each of them has a very specific personality their chemistry and compatibility is noticeable as soon as they enter the story. And seeing their bonds being tested and developed was the heart of the story in my opinion.

The art was nothing less than exceptional. It sometimes almost felt overwhelming in the sheer number of visual references to other manga, history and pop culture in general. From the very start it is obvious that the mangaka wanted to put as much energy and information in a panel as physically possible. This resulted in a very visual and untamed type of humor that can easily go unnoticed. The other thing I need to praise are of course the character designs which gave every character a distinctive feel.

Overall if you are looking for a heartwarming comedy about friendship I would highly recommend this series!

6
Recommended
a
akittenx

about 12 years ago

9

To be honest the story was just ok. It wasnt bad at all, but it wasnt particularly gripping. Now just because it wasnt the most intricate plot doesnt mean that the manga itself was shit in the slightest. Thats mostly due to its immeasurable character development and its masochistic sense of humor (it often made fun of itself and all of the cliches we see in a lot of other mangas). The romance was orgasmically done. With just enough suspense to keep you reading without dragging it out too long. You also cant help but fall in love with practically every character you meet andchange along with them on their journey. It was perfect for a late night pass time. Only thing that could have possibly made this show better would have been more hentai. What the hell man, theres literally only like two things, and you have to preform a black sabbath to find them.

4
Recommended
C
CandleNekra

over 5 years ago

9

That was an enjoyable ride! It wasn't the best, but I liked the story. I'm glad there was a manga to continue off from the anime! I wasn't expecting so much action though! In the anime I just assumed that this story is mainly just a comedy/fantasy/slice of life, but it gets more intense and emotional in the manga. I was shocked, but I'm not complaining haha. The comedy was the same for me as well, and I would recommend it if you guys like Gintama. Nonetheless, it all depends on the individual's taste of humor. The only thing I didn't like too much was theamount of characters. I know stories like One Piece, or Naruto, has alot of characters as well, but the author kept adding complex stories to each characters or they gave them very dynamic personalities. It eventually began to confuse the heck out of me and I couldn't distinguish who's who unless they were in the story for more than 5 chapters.

Romance was also abit mediocre. As much as I liked the main pair together, honestly, I don't know why but I was kind of expecting a thing with Momiji and Sakura. They had more enjoyable moments than Tsuwabuki and Sakura... But still, I enjoyed their moments as well so not that upset...

Overall, I procrasinated on my homework for this manga! That's how good it was.

1
Recommended
h
hexashadow13

about 5 years ago

7

tl;dr: A gag manga with decent comedy and solid character development in it's protagonist that doesn't transition well into having a more significant plot. This manga starts off as a pretty straight up slapstick comedy gag manga centered around Ichiko being incredibly arrogant and other characters, mainly Momiji, screwing with her in a lot of different ways. These chapters were somewhat hit and miss, but were mostly hits in terms of being amusing. The comedy during these chapters, as well as in general, was also a mixed bag in that some aspects like Momiji's crazy antics were great throughout, while other aspects like Bobby and Mamoo'sperversions weren't all that funny and also felt really repetitive. Alongside this, there are serious moments that slowly result in Ichiko developing bonds with others and going through character growth as a result. Watching the development of these bonds and the resulting character growth is pretty satisfying for a pretty large portion of the manga. However, about half way through the manga it pretty much feels like it's hit where it was going to go and there isn't really any significant development after that, at least not any that's strong enough to feel satisfying compared to the earlier portions.

This is where the manga shifts from being a gag manga with random nonsensical episodes to actually having a larger overarching plot with intrigue, suspense, and such. The problem is that the this overarching plot simply isn't very good, and the way its told has it dragged on for far too long. The issue with this portion is that it feels like the author wants the reader to take things seriously when the world built up to that point, and the development even after that really, aren't really the type you can take all that seriously. There were definitely a lot of serious moments before this larger overarching plot came into focus, but they were centered more around character drama and more down to earth aspects, while the supernatural elements were all crazy nonsense that pushed the drama forward, but weren't in and of themselves supposed to be all that important. Thus, just in general while we are supposed to care about the characters, we're not supposed to care about the situations more so than finding them amusing. Towards the latter half of the manga, the supernatural elements take on a much more prominent role and we're supposed to start caring about how the world works, the background of characters, etc. but the quality isn't improved much over the point where all of that wasn't important, and thus I wasn't really able to bring myself to care much. Another similar issue with this portion is that the action also becomes more prominent, which similarly wasn't all that great from the start but didn't feel that important at first but became increasingly important as it went on without getting any better.

Another problem I think is the cast, which frankly overall I wasn't really fond of at all. I suppose I grew somewhat fond of Ichiko due to her growth and bonds, and I found Momiji somewhat likable due to how amusing she was, but they were the only characters I liked and even then I didn't like them that much. On the other hand, there was a lot of characters that I found immensely annoying, essentially every male character. Furthermore, Ichiko is the only one that it felt like went through proper character growth, with there being a lot of other characters that I think the manga tried showing something or other for, such as Ichiko's friends Ranmaru and Nadeshiko, but I don't think their stories were told well enough, probably because there were simply too many characters by the end. This becomes a problem for the ending, because it tries so hard to shoehorn every single character into the final battle, and give all of them at least somewhat decent roles, thus resulting in pretty much all of them not feeling like they got much of any role at all outside of Ichiko, Momiji, and the villain. Another issues with characters, is that while Ichiko's bonds with others as friends are pretty solid, the romance was really weak. Despite that, her's was still the best romance in the manga and the romance involving all the other characters being really random and especially abrupt at the end.

The ending was okay, in that it was pretty much what I expected but it didn't really do anything all that major, so I wasn't particularly satisfied or dissatisfied with it. The character designs and art in general were pretty great. Great color art too.

0
Recommended
J
Joricardo

over 4 years ago

8

A very fun manga, a great start for the author of Sousei no Onmyouji. The characters are very good, very charismatic and have a great growth throughout the story. This is what makes manga so good to follow, the charisma and the growth in relationships between them is something very nice to see. The story is amazingly good. Starting slowly but progressively getting better and more epic. Full of good tense and funny moments, but it's a bit episodic that impairs the feeling of progress. That said, it has a great ending closing the growth and relationship of each character. The protagonist, Sakura Ichiko, is very charismatic. Sheis have Strong a personality, in addition to being that grows the most throughout history.

Her growth is something very nice to see, especially when seeing the change in how she interacts with the other characters.

The art is ok, but it has evolved a lot throughout history. At the end of it, it's very beautiful and still gives a lot of power to the epic scenes of the final arc.

My only criticism would be that some arcs are boring (from Nadeshiko) or have several chapters that look like stuffed with sausage.

2
Recommended
P
PixelB

about 5 years ago

7

I'm not going to lie, I watched the anime back in 2014, and revisited the show and finished the manga just now, so of course I'm looking at the series with some nostalgia. Clearly, the series and show wasn't as polished as I remembered, and it fails in a few departments. That being said, I still enjoyed the series for the most part. The star of the series is clearly the battles between Binbouda and Sakura. Their interactions and the scenarios that they face against each other is always entertaining to read, and I never really got bored of their battles against each other. Facial expressions,varied settings, and random events really make for a good slapstick comedy. That being said, the supporting cast is kind of weak. You got a perverted monk for fanservice scenes, masochistic guy for slapstick, and a rich ninja girl so the only characters that feel characterized and fleshed out among the supporting cast end up being Randou and Keita, and of course, Sakura and Binbouda.

Hey, a few character archetypes is fine, as long as they serve their role in the comedy. I get that, but the more pressing issue I have with this series is how focused it is on romance and action. Like, more than half, I'd say, of the manga is plot and action focused, veering away from the slapstick comedy. Add some romance in there, and you have Binbougami ga! I really don't understand why there is such a divergence in genre. You have episodic slapstick comedy, which is good, and then you just have a lot of serious/fighting arcs. Why? Barring the arcs with Sakura's personal/emotional development which was well made and important to her personality, I don't understand why there is so much fighting later on in the series. It's like it converted to a fighting manga halfway through. There's so much fighting, yet the fights themselves are pretty boring to read, since power levels are arbitrary. As it turns out, a comedy slapstick cast of characters don't have much training or techniques to speak of, so they usually power up or get beaten up in some fashion. And no, it's not a Medaka box, which manages to make this comedy/slapstick/action work.

It just seems like an unholy mixture of bad shounen arcs, mixed with some comedy. It doesn't really work out. I enjoy the comedy focused arcs, but more often than not, I'm being spoonfed some serious antogonists that are trying to kill Sakura's friends or steal her energy, and there's some massive plot arc that spans the course of tens of chapters. It just doesn't work, guys. When people get powered up by random "god items" that appear out of nowhere with little to no explanation, fights aren't interesting. If you're not equipped to create a fighting manga, just don't do it.

That's my biggest criticism of the show. While characters are archetypal and outdated by today's standards, it still is a pretty good comedy. Again, the battles between Binbouda and Sakura don't get old. However, I just can't stand the serious plot arcs that take over the series.

2
Recommended
I
Iqbal124

over 4 years ago

6

Aaah I don't like it, I hate when a comedy anime has a romance like this. Why don't it just focus on the comedy and the story. Actually I like all things about this manga, I love reading it. But it broke my intention when I found that there a romance story between sakura and tsuwabuki, I think... Ahh it's not necessary to put a romance in the comedy manga like this. I mean... I have had an interest about sakura and momiji relationship (as a girl friendship), so why the hell it has that kind of romance story(it's not even fit with the genres) Iprefer their friendship relation. And sakura, I think she's not the type of girls who will be interesting on something like romance and stuff. And for others than that, I like it. I love this manga

I should give this anime a score between 9/10 or even 10/10 if ichiko and tsuwabuki JUST BECOME A USUAL FRIEND NOT A LOVER.

that's it

1
Mixed Feelings