Reviews for Online

I'm here to review one of the most underrated mangas in the whole world. It's one of my absolute favourites so I thought I'd review it. Anyway, this manga is about a deadly game. "Didn't I read it somewhere?", "It's just a SAO ripoff"... That's how people go when the hear what this manga is about. And this manga isn't even close to SAO. This manga has something original in it, something that would make you laugh, cry, be afraid of the dark, and excited. Everything about this manga is just perfect, amazing story, amazing art, interesting characters with mysterious past, and shocking plot twists thatwill literally make you scream from excitement. Go read it.

(!) If you want a quick(er) review, you can skip the first part below or jump straight to conclusion. First of all, what I consider a manga should be like? In my opinion, it is a form of entertainment that is somewhere in-between anime and novels, but on the other hand it's something unique. Going straight to the point, "Online: The Comic"is just neither of the three of them. Plain text is approximately 80% if the manga (well, it an exaggeration but you get the point). And it's probably ok as long as the drawings complement it right? Yeah, except that they are not... The storyis about an "RPG" "Horror" game on PSP that is connected to your life directly to the point that your consciousness can be transferred to the game. Even if you don't want to play it or if you really suck at it, you'll explode, become immobile or idk (I avoided some minor spoilers I guess, but whatever), and there is a "huge" mystery around it.

...Back to what I was about to say. Visuals. It's a downer that I can't show you, but they are simply pointless. The characters have the same expressions and 80% of the time (now it's literary 80%) they just stare at their PSP with an amused face. Anything more than that? Yeah, I guess there are some screenshots from the game, but again, nothing too fancy or interesting. Oh, another thing, if you look at the genre type of this mange, you'll see "psychological" and "horror". Well, it's a little bit psychological (but not really), it's definitely NOT a horror though, more like a mystery or something.Now I have to go into details about the story and stuff...

Story: 7

Do I need to summarize it? Fine. There was a lady and a mystery about this PSP game called "Nightmare". One day she found a PSP in her mailing list. Then everything began, and she's somehow connected to the game and its origins, and there is an organization that that researches it, and also there is a childhood friend that she doesn't remember. And stuff and the development.

I mean, it's not bad, really. There are some interesting concepts and as I just mentioned there is a mystery and probably a good one. So if you don't care about anything besides it, then go on and read it.

Art: 5

*Sigh* The pages are full of text, so it supports the story, however the drawings are just not there. The faces are always the same - amused/terrified and always looking at the screen, it really is just like watching a boring lets-play or reaction video.

One more thing about it. The appearances of characters are so similar, that it makes you wonder if the artist had really drawn them again or just copy-pasted. There are of course some drawings from the game, and drawings of characters separately or together, but they don't stand out (at least to me).

Character: 4

I'm already tired, better make this quick. There are about 10-8 characters in this manga, important or not so much, and they are decently written. But it's not more than that. Maybe if they weren't always show identical facial expressions, they'd seem more interesting... Character development? Yes, there is, I can't say it's a boring one either. It's a mystery after all.

Enjoyment: 3

My enjoyment was exponentially decreasing, and when it hit 3/10, I decided to drop this manga and write a review about it.

The mange does have some pretty sweet, cute, interesting, fascinating moments, but again, they are just too repetitive.

So, if my math doesn't fail me, it's 5/10 in the and (slightly less, but never mind that), so I guess the manga is fine?

To conclude everything I just said, here are the main points:

- It's more like a bad light novel with pointless pictures than manga.

- The story part is somewhat good

- The drawings doesn't add anything

- The characters' expressions are always look amused, their reactions/actions are too repetitive

- It's a mystery manga, not a horror one (it's just a mini rant)

- If you care solely about the story and like the setup, than it's perfect for you

- If you are about character development, and you don't care about anything else, I guess you'll like it too

- Everything is repetitive to the point that the word "repetitive" becomes repetitive by itself and makes me tired.

P.S.: My review was based on 55 chapters, that's all the available material at this point. I'm done with this manga, therefore I'm dropping it. Do I hate when there is too much text in manga? - Yes and no, if you are interested to what extend or you want ask something else, you know what to do...

Do you know how a good story starts getting bad? There are multiple ways, but here's a simple one: you run out of creative ideas, and just write filler chapters to drag the story on for... no reason. That's also the case with this manga. The story is essentially good and it keeps you interested for a while, but then it becomes stagnant and repetitive, with a single game going on for dozens of chapters and with the storyline having the minimum progress possible. Finally, after 123 chapters that could very well have been 70, we're reaching a point where we get more explications andthings make more sense, but it feels like more than half of the manga was just a waste of time since it didn't help in reaching any of the realizations we're presented.

Also, this is definitely not horror. It's a thriller and part of the mystery genre, but not horror, no matter what the genre tags want to make you believe.

When it comes to the characters, well... it's disappointing. They are more like robots, and even when the artist is desperately trying to make them panic and appear more human by showing feelings, they just feel... off. You don't feel any horror from the manga as a whole, since not even the characters are realistic enough. The female MC is bland and pretty stupid, even though she's supposed to be smart and solves the mysteries of the game. It's like they just used her to solve what they needed to be solved, without bothering to actually make her smart and not even giving her a personality. Honestly, she's annoying. But at least most of the other characters, even the ones with only a few panels, were actually pretty interesting. It makes you wonder how did they fuck up this badly when it came to the literal MC.

Asagi is a cutie tho. Same with Taichi and Amelie. And Yuuka is smoking hot, although questionable.

Overall, give it a shot if you just want the time to pass, I guess, or if you have the will-power and the patience to read half a hundred of filler chapters and ignore a stupid MC causing problems to other people by being (duh) stupid.

Oh and... there is a lot, like, A LOT of text to read, so keep that in mind. :)

An interesting premise and mystery, let down by a super dry reading experience. The art ranges from passable to alright, the characters range from mid to cookie-cutter. There is a prevailing romance element which feels unnatural and stilted. The omnipresent dialogue bubbles make it seem like there was some difficulties in moving the relevant information into a manga format, and I speculate this story works a lot better in its original novel format than it does as a manga. The story itself has a rather dire pace, lingering on elements that would benefit from a faster pace and crawling through scenes that should be pages,not chapters.

I can't fathom the decision to have the action POV often centered on the players controlling their little video game characters through a PSP screen as opposed to physically pulling them (and our POV) into the game, which we know is technologically possible because it *does* happen with certain few tasks/games (which are often the most engaging). Would you rather play a game yourself, or watch a stranger bumble through it whilst providing the most boring, lifeless commentary? This manga feels like the latter option.

A final gripe - puzzles are presented to the characters in this story to solve, many of which would be easy to translate visually for the reader in just a few panels, so they could have a crack at trying it themselves first. Alternatively, you could have engaging sequences where the main characters debate the puzzles and possible solutions, allowing the reader to see their thought processes and logic. Neither happens in this manga. Puzzles are presented to the characters, usually partially off screen or obscured, who tell us the answer after a few panels and move swiftly on. What a waste.

Readers who enjoy the story and premise may be entertained enough to overlook issues like these, but it is difficult to claim this is a manga that truly works.