Manga 138842 Sanda

Aight so, this review is not only hella informal but kinda short, and that's because I read this all tonight and it just left me fucking baffled, in a great way though. Paru Itagaki, the goat honestly. My girliepop really made Beastars then made something that managed to top it's bizarreness. No but like really... This manga gives Aku no Hana or just any Inio Asano work vibes because of the characters being so young and struggling with sexuality. I connect with things like that because I'm also a teenager. Despite that though, this shit is just fucking weird??? Like okay, the premise made me ... giggle because what do you mean this kid just turns into Santa Claus because of the color red coming in contact with him. You're also telling me that this starts to build up an interesting world that is shrouded in mystery as well as write its characters decently? You're telling me this gimmick isn't all this story has going for it?? Yeah, and that's because Paru Itagaki is just the fucking goat like that.

Some thoughts on the story: The story I think is actually quite solid, and I have high hopes that it'll keep going and actually deliver something quite great. I like how silly and absurd it is, but I don't know how to really put across how silly this is without spoiling. It's quite literally just Paru spilling her ideas out onto the ground and us as an audience can either see this spillage as a fun puddle to splash in after the rain or as the 800 pounds of sewage dumped into a river by Dave Matthew's band. If you don't like things that are sexual that involve kids, please stay away, because it does have some of that, and it's completely valid to find those things uncomfy, I do too. In this scenario, it isn't kids sexualized however as much as it's just expressing the sexuality of these kids as well as just being weird because Paru is a weirdo. If you've read Beastars, you know this very well.

Some thoughts on the characters: I like them, they aren't all that special, but they aren't completely boring. I think the main two as well as a few others are definitely standouts, and I think the gimmicks of each character is pretty entertaining. (Obviously Sanda turning into Santa being the best) Other than just gimmicks, I think the way they are written is very good already at just 56 chapters, I have a feeling the more this series goes on the more we'll see these characters evolve or maybe regress and I think the payoff will be great.

Some thoughts on art: The art is how her art always is and if that's your cup of tea, then it's eye candy (or eye tea, since it's your cup of, ah nevermind.) I love the rough sketch vibe that some manga have, I think in context of gritty weird worlds it works perfectly, and that's what Paru is cooking up here, so I like it a lot, though it's obviously not for everyone.

I guess all in all, I'm a Paru Itagaki fan, and if you aren't you probably won't really fw this that heavy, but if you like weird shit you might fw this... girl I don't know...
Read it... yeah just read it give it a shot it's fun. If you don't end up liking it then at least you've read some of a niche manga or if it's done by the time you may be reading this and still not popular you've read a niche manga that no one will care that you read but at least you feel like you have indie cred or some shit. All right bye bye.