Reviews for Zatch Bell!

If you're the kind of person who appreciates a good story about demons, fighting, friendship, and growing up, then Konjiki no Gash Bell could be right for you. The characters are believable, the logic is easy to follow, there are no long random deviations from the main plot of the story that don't somehow tie in, and most importantly, it ends. I think that for the most part the characters in this series are those that could be conceivable in the real world. Obviously not all aspects of each character could be perceived as true in our reality, but I do believe that most, if notall of the characteristics for Kiyomaro as he grows as a character in this series are those that would follow if someone in his same situation was given a chance to grow as he was.

There are some stories where the storyline can become really complex because of logical errors or logical complexity. Sometimes it's just how the publisher/editors have chosen to rewrite the Japanese text, and other times it is just that the author chooses confusing and winding logic instead of simple, easy-to-follow logic. I personally get annoyed when there is a simple efficient answer to a problem, but the characters in a series take the roundabout route, even though they are smart enough to realize that the choice that they've made, though it achieves the same end, is too difficult for a slower member of their group to understand. One of the best things about this series is that whenever a strategic move is used, there is no difficult, hard-to-grasp strategy-- just the most simple and efficient, as if the reader had also been in mind.

In anime, tangents to the plot are called fillers. Fillers are annoying because the characters in fillers are usually never to be seen again characters who don't advance the story at all. Every character in this story advances the plot even by a little bit. This means that most of the tangential things in this book end up not actually being tangential. But this only applies to certain characters within the manga itself-- like most manga that has also been adapted into anime, there is a movie, and those characters have no bearing on anything.

Finally, this series ends. I know it seems stupid to mention this, but there is a saying that all good things must come to an end, but sometimes authors don't seem to realize when a story must end. When you understand what the idea of the story is, what the goal of all the characters are, then you understand that once that goal is met, the story must terminate, and it does. The author does not throw a wrench into the works and add another plot to a story that's dying down-- he just allows the story to end. It's wonderful and sad all at once, especially if you end up enjoying the series.

I thought the story was great-- but I had the chance to watch the anime while reading the manga and I don't really enjoy the fillers as much, so I give it a 9. I do like the art work a lot as well, it's really well done in both the anime and the manga. The characters were wonderful, and I enjoyed being able to watch and read their stories. Overall, this series gets a 10 from me!

"One seed gives birth to one million melons." Did you know that? What could be more amazing than one million melons!? Just thinking on it I feel like singing... Dun Dun Dun... Dun Dun Dun... Catch my heart! Berry Melon! Berry Melon... Catch my heart! Berry Melon! Berry Melon... sorry. There's only one thing more amazing than the deliciousness of a melon and that's Konjiki no Gash! Konjiki no Gash appears to be just an ordinary shounen, which isn't false to say, but it doesn't have to be anything else. The manga serves the genre justice by emphasizing the merits of shounen: action, friendship, difficult challenges,character growth—all are handled excellently to where they shine. By focusing on what makes the genre so popular: dramatic battles, important friends, teamwork, it doesn't waste time with unnecessary crap trying to be unique or extraordinary. As a result the quality of it never wavers. With fan service and complex plot omitted there's less to distract or confuse the reader, making for a more enthralling adventure for those who seek and enjoy grade A shounen material.

Focusing on the life of Kiyomaro Takamine and Gash Bell, two strangers thrust together and forced on a quest of epic proportion, the tale revolves around their hardships and joy along with the other characters. Similar to siblings, Gash is the young, energetic and naive little brother while Kiyomaro is the old, calm and rational big brother. Side by side they face the challenges that await them as a team, unlike some shounen which paint the MC as the lone wolf who holds the world on his shoulders. In Konjiki no Gash, they lean on each other to build an unbreakable resolve, their friends' desires become their own and as one they strive ahead, emphasizing the power of friendship and teamwork.

Crucial to the enjoyment, the character interaction will make you laugh, cry, facepalm, cheer, and smile as it encompasses the entire manga. The pacing, while arguably a snail's pace, shows thought put into development of the story with each encounter leaving a memory and impression on Kiyomaro, Gash, and the reader. The art, while being silly, does a great job at expressing emotions and thoughts. In its exaggerated nature, it becomes easier to get a feel for the absolute terror, determination, joy, and sadness the characters display. It can cause you to laugh at its ridiculousness while feeling despair when tears begin to flow.

Konjiki no Gash will always hold a place in my memory due to its unadulterated presentation by being hilarious in its childish nature and dramatic with its story, the way it emphasizes the importance of friendship and determination while making me cough up a lung, and the silly art style and how it complements the overall theme of the manga. I highly suggest it to anyone who likes shounen, comedy or what those genre have to offer. Oh and melon, especially if you enjoy melon... Bwraaaaa! Bwraaaaa! Berry Melon! Berry Melon!

One word sums up this manga for me. Perfect. I could find no real flaws in this manga. The characters were likable, had excellent synergy, were well fleshed out, fun, made sense, were intelligent, wacky in a funny way, they had FOLLOWUP(this is important), proper closure(even a lot of the villains), and had amazing growth. They were everything I could want in manga characters. I'd also like to make a special note on the villains. To me, the villains in this show actually felt like children(except the final one). Even if they didn't look it they had this way about them. It felt to melike they didn't really understand the gravity of what they were doing and were just acting like a bunch of brats a lot of time. Brats with incredibly dangerous powers but brats nonetheless. It showed in their actions, their reasoning and their conversations. It was truly masterfully done.

The story is just GENIUS. At first glance it just seems like a everyday generic setup to push large numbers of battles between the demons, but the particular way it's set up and executed leaves so much room to maneuver without creating plot holes that it's just a work of art in and of itself. Gash has no main plot asides from the battle of 100 demons so the story takes an arc based approach where they switch goals throughout. These range from giant arcs of over 80 chapters to short arcs of just 2-4 chapters, but the key is that these short arcs never feel like filler because of the way the story is designed. The true genius of this plot is the fact that it was made so that no matter what is done, the main plot, the battle of 100 demons, is always moving along and never gets derailed even if it isn't directly focused on. Even when Gash is not fighting personally, you can safely bet your ass someone is in a battle for their life somewhere in the world.

By having 100 people scattered across the world the story leaves a lot of room for exploration, and since the rules of the battles are no more specific than "burn the book", it leaves room for a lot of character interactions that go beyond just straightforward battling upon meeting each other. And since the goal of these battles isn't just to win but to become king you get to see these demon kids thinking of there own image of king and trying to develop their own kingly path, making even more fun character interactions since the people gash fights aren't always particularly bad. All of these are used to the fullest degree and makes it so that nothing ever feeling like filler because something is always gained from it. A book is burned or a new spell is learned or a new friend is made or a new mystery is solved or found.

The art style is also quite great. It played to the strengths of the manga's more silly and hilarious style while always managing to bring the intensity and weight needed for the battlefield when necessary. It played the manga's strengths perfectly and I personally can't imagine gash being drawn any other way.

My final opinion. It's perfect. No real plot hole, great characters, incredible story, amazing ending and most of all it's fun. This story just takes you and a joyride that's entertaining and lasting with a satisfying end that leaves you somewhat sad at the same time. It has high re-read value despite being so long and I end up re-reading this manga about twice a year. My only complaint is that once you're finished it's hard to fill the void left behind, so prepare yourself for that when you start getting near the end.

The power of friendship... This is what the manga is all about. And the development of the characters through harsh battles and the bonds they have with one another. 100 demons and 100 human partners with complementing personalities, all of them in the fight to become king, all of them with their own reasons for fighting. The characters, even that who appear in only one chapter, are greatly developed, fun and deep. The story keeps you wanting to see the next chapter, with a plot that starts low, and then gow up to a complex storyline. The fights should be enough even for the mosthardcore battle fan. With mighty battles that leave you wanting to read non-stop. The art functions very well, from the comedic sequences, to the tear-jerker scenes, especially the emotions in the faces of the characters. Above everything else, it's fun. This is a manga everyone can read, and become bonded to the characters and story, at least it will not be a time wasted.

This review contains spoilers. This story starts out nicely and relatively small scale. A couple of odd battles here with Kiyomaru our protagonist making friends along the way. Everyone questions whats the point of having everyone fight each to be king and Zatch likes to avoid them if needed. The story is really neat when it acts as a slice of life with the tournament to decide the Demon King is put in the after thought. The first 1/3rd is a nice little read. ' However, the later 2/3rds of the series is taken up by 3 major arcs all in a row. Each one terriblydrawn out. The first 2 major arcs throw a wide array of characters at us, over 2 dozen each. Some people complain about One Piece introducing 10 new characters for new arcs, Zatch Bell blows it out of the park. So many characters I don't know and never will care for. So many useless battles. It becomes sluggish to push through the series. This is ultimately what made me stop/start read the series until 6.5 years had passed.

To add to the problems, the consequences within Zatch Bell fell into the shonen power trap. The escalations of failure continued to grow to monstrous size. It goes from one demon wanting to genocide humans, to another demon wanting to genocide demons lol. The clashes turned from small scale fights that can happen in a field, to mountain busting, to a full on space battle.

Speaking of tropes. The ending was worse than Naruto and Fairy Tail combined. Power of friendship? Zatch Bell takes the cake easily with an unexplained power up having the spirits of the fallen demons coming to back Zatch up in his final fight lol. This is a massive problem from the beginning since the series failed to establish power rules or a power scale.

There's a mess of other issues. Racist depictions of black people, never explaining the politics of the demon world which is the source of every single problem, attempting to redeem every single character by giving them a sad backstory or saying the power they held is what made them evil. That includes both genocidal maniacs. There's also stupid reasoning that we shouldn't kill people even when dire circumstances call for it. At one point someone could've shot the book owner of one of the genocidal demons, effectively stopping the demon from using his power. Which was very much needed because a giant demon he was controlling was about to destroy to Japan. But noooo, we cant kill people, that'd make us just as bad.

To fixate on another issue, I mentioned prior how the last arcs introduced far too many new characters, This not only resulted in boring fights, but also diluted the use of the main stay characters. Many really good characters within the series got shafted to do something else so Zatch could be the forefront of attention. We never got to see the really unique fights that could've occurred between the other main stay heavy hitters. A travesty in storytelling setting up the less interesting protagonist to be the savior of all. Horse cock and bullshit is what it is. Fuck you, Bari is a better character. Fuck Raiku for shitting all over him.

I could go on and on with the issues of Zatch Bell citing more detailed examples, but you get it. Now I will focus on the positives.

Cute and badass character designs. Multiple amazing double spreads straight out of some kaiju world. There can be some really great character moments in mid-fight too.

That's it. Fuck this mess. Hopefully Raiku improved his craft in Animal Land.

This was one hell of a fun manga; I never got bored once while reading it. Gash Bell is by far the best tournament manga I have ever read. The story is simple, but that's how it ought to be in this genre, because what really matters are the characters, and they are all well-developed and full of personality. The art is authentic—rather odd in the beginning—but it gets better and better. I'm not sure if it’s a 10 out of 10, but it’s definitely close to it. If I were to summarize what Konjiki No Gash Bell is, it would be: the best exampleof how a children's manga should be.

Typical anime story about human kid joining with some kind of monster in a partner system where they battle other kids with monsters to decide who will be the kind of monsters. The difference in this one is that instead of monsters, they use young kids, which allows the partners to develop a better connection with each other, like they were older siblings and younger siblings. The action is great. All fights are based on the monster kids using magic spells that are unique to them. Each one has different magic and each magic has tons of spells, so it creates fights that never feel repetitive orboring since you never know what spell they will use next.

The mcs are also great. They always fight using actual strategy to win the battle and have a lot of depth and charm to their character.

Some of the humor is hit-and-miss, and at times the art can be kinda odd, but I feel the good outweighs the bad in a massive way.

I started to read this manga because I used to watch the anime on the TV when I was 10 years old. I think that was the best election of my life. I enjoyed so badly this manga, I know that the nostalgia could have something to do with my excitement reading this manga, but anyway, I consider it a masterpiece. The power of friendship, that's all this manga is about. In life, you have to cooperate with people with the same objective as you to succeed. Maybe the art style is no the best nowadays, but the building of the characters and their development overcome thisinconvenience. Maybe if some arcs the story could be a bit shorter (only a bit, a couple of chapters), but it´s not a problem.

I think Konjiki no Gash is the manga that I lived the most, sometimes I put myself in the character's shoes that I cried so much

There is definitely a lot of bias here since this was the first anime (that I realized was an anime) I watched as a kid. That being said, the reactions I had as a kid reading this was exactly the same as an adult. The comedy in this is what I call stupid funny. I laughed and teared up many times while reading this series. I think what makes certain scenes so effective is the unique expressions they have. For example, when a character is surprised in a comedic way we usually see them have large eyes. But instead we see them in tears that jutout. There are many other expressions that are different as well that are entertaining to see. The author did a great job pulling different emotions from me.

the story starts off with gash bell a child from the demon world who loses his memory on the way to the MC kiyo, early on the story progresses and you learn more and more about gash and the demon world, more importantly on why gash is there and why he has a book with a weird language, even MORE importantly are why there are other kids his age with their own adult figure holding the same kind of book gash brought with him. its basically a battle manga where these demon children all fight till the last one standing in pokemon style battles. thewinner is determined by who burns the opponents book first, which will send the child back to the demon world, the more battles you win and using your emotions you unlock new spells, which are how the demon children battle, some are for attacking and some are for defending, each new spell is more powerful as the last. each demon child kind have types like pokemon? some demon children are all out strong, others are more supportive type, and others are best for healing. the reason for these battles if i havent mentioned it yet is that its to figure out who the next king of the demon world for the next 1000 years will be. no matter who it is, no matter where or how they do it, as long as they are the last demon child who hasnt had their book burned, they are the next ruler. its an exciting manga worthy of reading, though be noted the english version is missing the last few volumes so you would have to read the last big amount of chapters online.

It's so simple, though it's still just perfect. I've finished this manga it's been a while and I never got confident about writing a review about it, but here we are now. This review doesn't contain any major spoilers, so you can read it with no worry Konjiki no Gash!! works very well with its characters relationships, their chemistry simply works amusingly. And here we got a very different main character from what we are used from other shounens. Mostly shounens have this kind of character archetype, such as; The Hero (the chosen one, or something like it). Or that kind of energetic character with acharismatic personality and strong morals, like Luffy, Goku and Naruto for exemple. Kiyomaro is more reserved, intellectual, apathic and rational. Though Gash also plays the role of main character along with Kiyomaro and kind of fits in that kind of archetype, he have his uniqueness.

Gash isn't moved by wish of becoming strong or just fighting strong opponents, he do wishes to become the Demon King, for different reasons that other characters like Naruto and Luffy who wanted to become Hokage or Pirate King. Gash wants to become the Demon King, because he wants to stop the fights for the throne, he wants peace to his world. He don't want to see friends having to fight and hurt each other. Though he having such strong morals and empathy, he's still just a 6 years old kid (though he isn't human), he likes to play hide-n-seek, play with toys and this kind of stuff. Gash and Kioyomaro have opposite personalities, though their relationship is strong like older and younger brother. Sometimes Kiyo teases Gash and makes him sad, they fight and all that stuff, but in the end, like every brothers, they care about each other.

Gash helps Kiyo to open himself to other people and make new friends. Gash changes his life positively, in the beginning Kiyoamaro rejects going to school and making friends, due him being extremely more intelligent than his classmates, he got difficult making friendships and dealing with people.

It's not just Gash and Kiyo out there, we got a lot of fun characters, like Folgore, Kyanchome, Kolulu and etc.

I love every character shown in this manga, they all got their own goals, interests, unique personalities and relationship with their demons.

In combat there's also something very interesting, Kiyomaro is the strategist, always thinking one step ahead and calculating the openings in their enemies attacks and all. Their team work is the best team work I've ever seen in my entire life.

Something I like a lot too is the sense of humor of Makoto Raiku (the author) if you like that early One Piece or DragonBall sense of humor, then you're going to love this manga.

I won't comment about major points in the story, but it's ending in just competent when compared to other mangas I've read, it doesn't seems there's something off or that it could have been better. It's simply efficient and competent on its own.

Konjiki Gash is a simple and fun shounen, doing what it sets out to be very well. But let's go in parts. The characters are very good, in fact it really fun journey to follow the group that is forming around Gash. The development that each one has is very cool, where the author really shows how strength comes from weakness. The protagonists are excellent, be it Gash or Kiyomaro, where both grow in strength and determination in pursuit of their goals. It's fun to follow them because of their charisma, plus it's always great to see allied characters pass the torch of their will to agood king when they lose.

The story is simple and executes very well. Not every story needs to be dense or complex, as long as it is well done and conveys emotion to the reader, that is enough. In this sense, the work is excellent with good characters who have constant growth through confronting their own fears and trying to overcome them, it is always exciting to see.

The art grows progressively, a detail for example is that the author takes the time to use a double page in the story, showing in a way the control of the narrative rhythm through his art. When passing through the arcs, the art has fantastic moments, but some scenes are confusing because there are many frames in which complex actions take place, which can cause some difficulty in understanding the scene.

Ultimately, Konjiki is really a simple battle royale story. But very well told with good characters, good fights and art that delivers breathtaking moments with an excellent ending. If there was anything to criticize, it's that the introduction is a little too long, which can tire the reader.

To start, I want to share my story with *Gash Bell*. When I was a kid, I was already a fan of the series. I loved it a lot, but as I grew older, I decided to rewatch it. However, I stopped after a few episodes when I found out the anime ending was filler. So, after a long time, I decided to read the manga from the beginning. I read the first chapter and was blown away — I didn’t remember it being such a deep story. I want to go through each arc, give my thoughts on them, and then explain how important this story isto me and what it taught me during this moment of my life.

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Encounters Saga

This arc is simply perfect.

The manga starts off strong, introducing Kiyomaro — a lonely, withdrawn boy who’s afraid of people and believes everyone hates him.

But then Gash shows up and slowly frees him from that mental prison.

And man, in less than ten chapters the manga already has you completely hooked.

Each chapter ends on a cliffhanger that makes you desperate to read the next one — I got totally addicted.

The pacing is great, the growth of Gash and Kiyomaro is clear, and Raiku knows how to give characters proper development and backstory.

You just want to see more of each of them.

And the comedy — the guy’s a genius with it.

The humor feels natural, never forced, and it doesn’t break the tone. Everything flows perfectly.

Stone Tablets Saga

This is where the story truly starts to shine.

Raiku had been building this up from the start, with subtle foreshadowing, until he delivers an amazing plot twist about the ancient mamodos.

This is, to me, the peak of the story.

Every character is well developed and has strong motivations.

Gash starts to mature as a king, showing compassion even toward his enemies.

It’s honestly inspiring.

Brago and Sherry also have one of the best stories in the entire manga.

It’s incredible how Raiku makes you care about everyone — every character feels like a protagonist.

And the weight of each battle is real. There are sacrifices and losses that make you feel the consequences of everything that happens.

Faudo Saga

This is the arc I like the least.

It comes right after the Ancient Mamodo saga, which was massive, so I was expecting a breather. There’s a short moment of comedy, but it doesn’t really work.

The arc starts off with potential, but it quickly becomes overly long.

The fights drag on for too many chapters, and the focus gets spread across too many characters. Everyone gets a moment to shine, but it makes the story feel exhausting.

And honestly, Faudo is the weakest villain in the whole manga for me.

He’s literally a giant mamodo with a half-baked explanation.

The arc tries to build mystery around him, but in the end, it’s just a mess.

Zeon shows up as a promising villain, but he’s defeated in the same arc — with barely any real development.

Everything feels like one big *Deus Ex Machina*, with Kiyomaro and Gash suddenly getting new powers out of nowhere.

To me, the Faudo arc is the weakest part of the series — dragged out and incoherent.

Clear Note

This is the final arc, and honestly… the most disappointing one for me.

Clear Note is a villain who just doesn’t fit the tone of the series.

He feels like a random RPG final boss thrown in, absurdly powerful and with no solid reason behind his actions.

He wants to destroy everything because “humanity is corrupt” and “there will always be war,” but that’s shallow and poorly explored.

In the end, they just say he had evil in his heart, and that’s it.

It’s an interesting concept, but badly executed.

His design and his partner’s design didn’t really appeal to me either.

I would’ve much rather had the final battle be between Gash and Zeon — that would’ve made for a more meaningful and emotional ending.

Still, this arc has its good points.

Raiku gives excellent development to the characters, especially Kanchomé, showing how much he’s grown.

And it’s beautiful how the author portrays fear, pain, and courage in such a human way — after all, they’re just kids fighting.

The ending is incredibly emotional.

The farewell between Gash and Kiyomaro absolutely broke me.

Even with the *Deus Ex Machina* touch, the message is beautiful:

“You don’t win alone. Having a happy heart is more important than being king.”

And that meaning makes it all worth it.

To me, *Gash Bell* is a wonderful manga.

It’s not perfect — it has flaws, uneven pacing at times — but it’s one of the best shounen I’ve ever read.

Gash is one of the most human protagonists in the genre.

He doesn’t want to be king for power — he wants to end suffering.

He doesn’t mind losing, as long as the new king is a kind one.

And that’s one of the purest and most beautiful messages I’ve ever seen in a manga.

Raiku might not be the most famous author in the world, but what he poured into this story is **genuine love**.

And that love shows on every single page.

While reading the manga, I reached a chapter where Raiku shares a personal story.

A teacher once asked his students what they wanted to be in the future, and he said he wanted to be a mangaka.

The teacher laughed at him, saying it was a pointless dream, that no one read manga, that anime would always take the spotlight.

Raiku carried those words for a long time.

He worked in an office job, almost gave up, until he realized he couldn’t keep denying his own dream.

And he chased it — until he created *Gash Bell*.

Today, even if he’s not the most famous author, he’s loved by everyone who knows his work.

He **won**.

He shut up everyone who doubted him — and more than that, he inspired people like me.

He wrote something I’ll never forget:

“If you have a dream, if you’re in the same situation I was in, chase it.

Your future belongs only to you.”

When I read that, I cried.

Not because I had never heard those words before — but because **this time, I believed them**.

Raiku spoke to me, truly.

A man on the other side of the world made me understand that it’s worth following your heart.

And that’s what I decided to do.

To follow my dream, no matter what others say.

Even scared of tomorrow, even not knowing what comes next — I want to live true to what brings me joy.

Because, in the end:

“If you follow your heart, you’ll find the right path, even when everything seems lost."

Zatch Bell (Or Golden Gash?) is amazing, and absolutely a classic, and also an interesting classic, at least to me. Review will contain minor spoilers. I remember watching the anime as a kid, and being left with a feeling of absolute wonder, so on the *Shounen* front, it is very much an appealing work to young kids, and rereading it as an adult with a more experienced palate, it's easy to tell that it's also a *very* formulaic manga. By formulaic I'd mean that it follows a very monster-of-the-week structure, with the protags (or side characters) frequently facing a new foe that is quickly vanquished so thestory can move on to the new threat as our beloved characters power-up. Though this makes sense for the Battle Royale/Tournament structure of the plot. Oh, and also, some enemies get beaten by the *FRIENDSHIP* solution when they're too strong sometimes.

The word formulaic might be construed as negative nowadays, but I'd say Zatch Bell should be the absolute GOLDEN standard of formulaic Shounen Manga. The reocurrent cast is incredibly likeable, the gags are really good, and the emotional moments all tend to hit like a truck, and Raiku's art is visually charming and eye catching through the entire manga's run, so even if some story beats are predictable it's still fun to watch the characters go through it.

If you're looking for a straightforward, cheerful manga that can be a bit cheesy at times, with interesting battle sequences, then Zatch Bell is honestly one of the best you can read.

It begins by establishing the protagonist as an antisocial who doesn’t have friends, gets bullied at school, and treats everyone else as inferior. I like this guy, he reminds me of someone. With that said, this information is told to us, we don’t see it, so it comes off as lazy. I’m not going to believe him just because he said it, I want to see him being an antisocial who doesn’t have friends, gets bullied at school, and treats everyone else as inferior. Doing stuff like making youtube videos for showing off how smart he is by constantly shitting on the opinions of others,like someone else I know of. But we don’t see him doing anything, we are just infodumped about all that, because the mangaka is incompetent and clearly beneath smart people like me.

If this was your typical manga for horny roneries, you would most definitely get a manic pixie dream girl jumping in his life for taking him to a world of magic and adventure. And she would instantly get sexualized so the protagonist, and by extension an audience of horny roneries, would simp for her as means to accept whatever absurd things she wants them to do. Luckily for us this manga is not that modern. Instead of a sexualized naked loli or some shit, it has a butt naked boy. We get the subversion of a manic pixie dream boy jumping in his life, so instead of horny roneries the manga is inviting fujoshits and shotacons. By the way, am I the only one who had Dragonball flashbacks from this image? A naked boy with a big fish? The introduction of Goku?

The protagonist is not a shotacon, so he refuses to listen to the naked boy with a big fish and goes to school where the local school bully is some sort of a psychologist. Besides bullying girls and stealing their lunch money he also speaks like he has a degree in psychology and describes how the protagonist thinks. Talk about a wasted talent, instead of becoming a doctor he just bullies girls and steals their lunch money. Or it’s another case of the mangaka being a bad writer since instead of showing us the protagonist being an antisocial who treats everyone else as inferior, what does that remind me of, he has a school delinquent infodumping all that even if it doesn’t fit.

The no longer naked boy with a big fish psycho analyzes him further, because the manga doesn’t rely on exposition too much already, and says it’s not the protagonist’s fault he’s a genius, it’s the other kids who are jealous of his intelligence. This is so relatable for some reason. And it’s also a power fantasy for everyone who is lonely and has convinced himself everyone is jealous of his intelligence. By the way he keeps calling the protagonist a friend although they just met. Real friendships need years to form properly, but in shonen they happen in a few minutes. All you have to do is give someone food or some shit.

Anyways, the school bully who is also a psychologist is dealt with when the relatable protagonist reads a magic book that causes a building to blow up behind him. Something which took him like a minute to do while the bully was right in front of him and did nothing to stop him. It’s like magical girl transformation sequences, you cannot interrupt them.

The logical thing to do after that is to throw away the book and call the cops, because the former naked boy with a big fish is some sort of a super weapon he has no business keeping at home. But this is an anime so we get the Elfen Lied logic of doing things. Just like that protagonist keeps the horny naked girl at home despite the constant deaths she is causing, this relatable protagonist keeps the horny naked boy at home (yes he also has horns) despite the constant destruction he is causing. Because they are friends. An unknown boy jumped butt naked in his room and blew up a building, so that makes them friends. As for the building he blew up, nobody cares about it. The school bully said nothing, the news media didn’t mention it, and it’s generally treated like a building in Power Rangers. You know, they destroy a dozen of them in every monster attack and everybody acts like nothing happened. And wait a second, the sound effect of throwing a book is ban? Is there going to be a kai after that?

Here we go again with more Dragonball flashbacks. Remember the episode Bulma gave Goku a bath? Why do I think of Goku whenever I see a naked boy? Maybe I’m the one who needs a psycho analysis. Anyways we find out the boy has fast regeneration because it would be inconvenient to wait months for the wounds to heal after every mission. Your average shonen character would be an uncle after a dozen missions. We also find out that the again naked boy but without a big fish is here for helping the protagonist to make friends. Something that is as easy as a stranger jumping naked in your house and blowing up the building next to yours.

After that the Froydian reminder of a naked Goku convinces the protagonist to save the girl from a bank robbery. Not a different girl, the same girl that was being harassed by the school bully just one day ago. What are the odds of the same girl needing rescuing so quickly? And I need to point out that whenever the horny boy is not naked he’s dressed like a girl. Look at him, he’s wearing a skirt. I know it’s supposed to be some sort of old-style clothing for dolls, but it comes off as a naked cross dressing boy who attracts a lot of weird people to the manga. And it looks really lame whenever he proclaims he will beat the bad guys, while dressed like that.

As for how they deal with the bank robbery, the relatable protagonist simply spends a minute in trying to figure out how to use the spell, and once he does the bad guys are instantly defeated. This time without blowing up any buildings or hurting any of the dozens of hostages that are close to the robbers. How convenient, the destructive force of the spell changed so the protagonist won’t be responsible for something negative. Also this thing wouldn’t be possible if the moronic bad guys weren’t standing still doing nothing. They had guns and constantly threatened to shoot anyone who does something strange, yet didn’t fire once when a guy and a cross dresser jumped inside the building, proclaimed they would beat them up and then began reading a book. In effect these robbers were even more incompetent than the school bully, since at least that one kicked around the main character a few times and also psycho analyzed him. The robbers on the other hand didn’t even lay a finger on him. By the way, the spells don’t activate when you read them but when you have strong emotions. They work when you have the feels and not when you are being reasonable and try to use tactics. It’s the usual copout of any writer who doesn’t want to use his brains for getting a character out of a dangerous situation. He just finds a lazy excuse for sudden power ups that instantly defeat the bad guy and calls it a day. That’s why this manga is super dumb with weird fetishes that make you need a shrink.

Unlike the building that blew up and everyone forgot about, the bank robbery made it to the news and people noticed the protagonist being responsible for the capture of the criminals. That’s a nice touch, having the world interacting with the protagonist instead of being an empty city that gets constantly demolished and nobody takes notice of. Hello, Bleach. With that said this happens only once and is then forgotten. The citizens quickly forget about it and not even the protagonist’s mother seems to give a shit anymore.

Then a bad guy with his own magic boy appears and wants to fight. When the protagonist asks him why, the bad guy is kind enough to explain the situation although he doesn’t have to, he can just shoot them both and leave. It’s yet another case of an infodump, things that we could have seen but instead we are told, because incompetence. In the tradition of most shonen the bad guy does his worst to come off as a one-dimensional asshole with no redeeming qualities so the audience will want to see him punished and for the protagonist to get the moral high ground. Basically the villain is just an obstacle for the protagonist to surpass, he has no worth on his own and the situation is black and white like in a fairy tale.

The bad guy cannot be defeated with the basic attack, because he counters it with his own basic attack. Just like it happens in videogames, the more you fight the more special attacks you unlock so the cross dresser boy uses spell number two, which is sending back an energy attack with a boost. Oh so now instead of a naked Goku it’s an Inuyasha flashback. He too could counter attacks more powerful than the original and it’s why the battles became shit. It’s also a completely broken power, since the bad guy had a second spell as well, and it was just freezing the legs of someone so he can’t run away. The bad guy got that simple ability, while the protagonist gets a boosted counterattack. That doesn’t sound like a balanced videogame to me.

The next opponent also throws in another infodump, because we didn’t have enough of that, and the protagonist learns the cross dresser Inuyasha is part of a tournament arc where the winner gets to be a demon lord. She offers to take away the magic book and let the protagonist leave the game instead of suffering a lot because of the cross dresser Inuyasha. This creates an interesting internal conflict which could lead to some interesting theme exploration, if the mangaka didn’t resort to the power of friendship. It came down to “I won’t abandon my friend” and that was apparently enough, although they met like a few days ago. The protagonist also gets plot armored since the woman leaves without taking the book, something she could easily do with her far more powerful magical boy.

In the next fight the protagonist finds out magic attacks doesn’t have unlimited uses. Their ki or chakra runs out after awhile and they have to recharge by resting, or by getting emotional encouragement by the people around them, like a genki-dama from Dragonball. That’s a nice thing to know. What is not nice is learning that from the guy who attacked them. They got another infodump from their enemy, the last person who would want to help them because that way it’s way harder for him to win in the tournament. Also, stopping the fight just to explain the magic system is just dumb. But that’s what happens when your plot doesn’t have a mentor or a magical high school that can do the explaining in a more organic way. When your protagonist is oblivious and there is nobody else who knows what is going on besides the opponents, then the author has no other way to explain how the magic system works. Somebody didn’t think things through.

Also the author is not doing a good job at setting limitations, not even in the arc where they are supposed to be established. On one hand he says energy attacks have limited uses, and on the other hand he gives Inuyasha boy a buffed counterattack. The protagonist won again by bouncing back the enemy attack. Why does it matter if the energy attack has limited uses when you can just win by counterattacking the enemy energy attacks?

I know the answer seems to be physical attacks instead of energy one, but even that limitation went away when the Inuyasha boy unlocks a third spell that lets him magnetize someone on an object. Not even physical attacks have an effect now since the enemy gets pushed back and gets stuck on something. What is this, the protagonist can counter everything.

After that the manga follows a very repetitive plot structure. Since the only thing that’s going on is a tournament arc, the plot is always about someone coming after the protagonist with a one-trick pony magical boy. The protagonist will get beaten up until he figures out a way to counter the trick and will then quickly defeat the bad guy. Something he wouldn’t be able to do if any of the enemy attacks were strong enough to knock him unconscious. Conveniently enough none of them can do that while his attacks can, therefore it’s another form of plot armor. Rinse and repeat that for every arc up until chapter 100 with minor variations not worth pointing out.

That aside, everything plays out in a very simple way. If you are used to something like Naruto or Bleach you are definitely going to get tired of Zatch Bell in a dozen chapters. Since the choreography of the fights is not based on martial arts it comes down to yelling single word spells and firing energy attacks at each other, many of which are either weak or can be avoided by tumbling to the side. If I summarize my issues, the action is not exciting and gets repetitive fast, there is not much variation from one arc to another, the protagonist’s personality is your typical protect friends type of guy, the support cast is ephemeral so there won’t be many significant interactions, and the setting is just our world, there is nothing captivating about it. It doesn’t have any of the stuff that makes a manga popular, such as mystery, or hot waifus, or gore. Even the artwork is pretty weak, with simplistic character designs and stiff movements. Even the jokes are not funny most of the time. They are like cringe slapstick comedy for little kids.

This eventually changes after 100 chapters by having group battles. This made the fights more elaborate and multilayered, since each demonic child has different buffs, but was done by breaking the rules, since the enemies are not from this tournament. They are from the previous tournament and jumped in this one after they got released from imprisonment. As before this had to be explained to the protagonist by his enemy, as if she had something to gain by doing that. The protagonist fends them off by forming a team of his own out of the remaining owners of magical books, which is a good change, but at the expense of breaking the rules of the tournament, since they weren’t supposed be teams, there can be only one winner. If you have to ruin the power system for the plot to continue in a more interesting way, you know you didn’t plan ahead properly.

The fights after the tournament rules were thrown in the trash bin are way better than the simplistic nonsense from before. Some of them are on par with early Naruto. Someone creates a diversion for someone else to set up a trap and then a third one hides for the final attack, and so on. It’s still not going to win that many people because the good guys look like silly cartoons, but if tactics is what you want the most you will get them here. If there is something I didn’t like is how all the bad monsters are now controlled by the same one boss monster, who looks and acts like Frieza from Dragonball. It simplified the interactions every different demon had with his human partner. Now it’s just a demon with a zombie human partner.

The thing is, they need a human to cast the spells. And that human is specific, it can’t be anyone, they have to form a contract or something. And there is no contract here. The humans they use are mind-controlled; they didn’t agree to this because they have no free will. The excuse of those humans being the descendents of those who had made a contract during the previous tournament, so they don’t need their consent, is very silly. But whatever, the rules don’t actually matter.

Something which doesn’t have to do with rules and I can’t get over is how dramatic everyone acts wherever a good guy’s book gets destroyed. A demon simply returns to his world when that happens and yet they make it sound like he died. He didn’t, he just went home where he belongs so why are they acting all dramatic about it? Yeah, supposed they lost a friend but they are acting like he died.

Anyways, there’s this other demon child called Brago who is like the Vegeta of the story. Zatch is naïve and kind like Goku, Brago is ruthless and doesn’t take shit from anyone. He’s also constantly presented as the strongest of them all since he easily overpowers everyone. Seeing him going up against the main villain, who’s basically Frieza, gave me Namek flashbacks. That aside, Brago is boring as a character since he’s basically an overpowered edgelord who doesn’t need the help of anyone for beating his enemies. While everyone else had interesting team battles, he just overpowers his enemies. Including the Frieza wannabe. Yes, the final boss is defeated by a side character with no team battles. Because the manga is dumb.

Once that is over the tournament continues as before, which is bullshit since a lot of the participants were taken out against the rules. And how do you go back to one on one fights and assume people will still be interested? It’s the group fights that were the best part. Also a demonic building appears out of nowhere, but nobody’s doing anything about it. Just like the people don’t see all the crap going on around them, they also ignore huge buildings appearing out of nowhere. Because the manga is dumb.

Anyways, they go to this structure which is supposed to be in New Zealand, but you wouldn’t know that from the backgroungs, since no time is spend on the journey, the protagonist appears where he has to, making the location he’s supposed to be at completely meaningless. Which is something the mangaka hadn’t done during the first trip to England. Since the fights there were happening in the middle of the street, you were clearly seeing famous landmarks so there was some attempt to make you believe the characters were there. Every other trip after that happens inside ancient ruins and you never see any landmarks, thus the whole concept of traveling doesn’t matter.

The threat level and the power scaling go a bit out of control after chapter 200, when the structure ends up being a mountain-sized demon who can wipe out entire islands with a single blast. Boy, I really wanna see how the rest of the world is going to ignore this one. Anyways, the team battles are back and there is a race against time before the demon destroys the world, so there is enough tension to maintain the interest of anyone who is not bothered by the overall dumb designs of the ones fighting.

As epic as all the action is at this point, the plot becomes really cheesy and it doesn’t fit the seriousness of the situation. When the protagonist’s friends get defeated, they are not sent to the demon world (which for some reason counts as being dead). They get trapped in pillars so they are not going to be “dead” yet when they get freed. Then the protagonist gets killed, but he resurrects with a power up and can spam his magic attacks all he wants with a potion that is basically senju beans. And the final boss this time is the identical evil twin brother of the lead demon boy who is really jealous of not being given the strongest superpower by their demonic father. Because yes, like every generic shonen protagonist he is special, he is royalty, and he possesses the most broken powers. And then they solve their quarrel with a friendship speech or some bullshit. For a supposed planet-level threat it’s all really cheesy.

With that said it still has a lot of fucking awesome panels. The mangaka will be wasting hundreds of pages on stupid shit and then he will be making some really epic stuff. If most of the manga looked this amazing it would be a great rule of cool proxy battle manga. But no, the main characters do stupid jokes, get convenient power ups, and send away the mountain-sized demon in a rushed manner.

The last remaining demons do the final duels for who gets to be the demon king and to have his wishes granted. Supposed the stakes are high because if a bad demon wins he will wish for the world to be destroyed or for all the demons to perish. The issue here is that there was no build up for the demon world or this final bad guy who wants to destroy everything. This manga doesn’t do any world building so you are not made to care about the world. And the final bad guy is supposed to be the most powerful of them all since the very beginning, yet we never saw him all this time. Does this mean the previous two main bad guys never had a chance to win against him and their master plans were bound to fail even without the protagonist? Well that takes away the importance of the previous fights!

Anyways the final battle happens in space where all the previous demons give the protagonist their power for a final attack that defeats the bad guy. Yes, the power of friendship created a genki dama from a different dimension. And then the protagonist gets a dragon wish and resurrects everyone back to life, so it’s like nobody ever died. Although they were never dead to begin with, they were back at their homeworld. If they were dead they wouldn’t be able to give the protagonist their power.

So everyone at the end is alive and happy and the skirt wearing main demon becomes the king and we get a sappy happy ending and oh my god what kind of a fairy tale ending was that? Zero negative consequences and it became so childish. I hate it. It’s almost like the protagonist was predetermined to win by being a prince with the most awesome spell from the get go. Yes, another hidden king type of power fantasy. You can’t be a shonen protagonist if you are not born to win. It’s not relatable to the losers who are reading it and imagining themselves being hidden kings or some bullshit. Meanwhile, Brago, the demon who was not a prince, who was not given the most awesome spell, and who got all the way to the end with personal effort, without nepotism, and without even needing others to help him out, does not become the king. He was the actual underdog the whole time and he gets the middle finger. As a whole the manga had some good parts like the team battles and those huge epic panels when they were trying to stop the giant demon. The rest of it was silly comedy with mostly lame demons designs and stupid resolutions. I can’t give this manga more than a 3/10.