Jagaaaaaan - Chapter 163

4/10
Art was amazing. It was the thing that made me read this manga in the first place, but the story is lacklustre.

Although I have to say, a lot of the characters were really interesting. I really liked Mikazuchi’s character. He has a nice parallel to Jagasaki where he had someone to save by collecting the frenzied frogs. Misogi is another amazing character I wish had more screen time. His idealogy was the same yet different from Jagasaki’s ‘justice’. his ability was sick as well. His final fight was honestly the best in the manga, even though it’s a copy-pasted version of Deku and Eri vs Overhaul.

I LOVED the butterfly and caterpillar guys. Out of all the characters, I think these guys are the most well-written.

Jagasaki progressed as a character. Even though he mostly reverted to his old self in the last arc, I feel like he was a more genuine and human character compared to the beginning.

Even though the main goal shifted throughout the manga, I think it made the story more interesting. We go from crime-fighting vigilante who thinks he’s special, to introducing world peace, to special ops group, to vigilante group again.

The abilities were also unique, though I wish it kept the ‘body horror aesthetic’ for fractured humans instead of eventually just turning into generic superpowers that don’t affect the body in any way.

But that’s about all the aspects I like about Jagaaan.

Besides those few characters, the other characters all felt one-dimensional or bland.
I get that the author wanted the half-fractured humans to indulge in their ‘desires’ and that’s why there’s such a heavy emphasis on their views on life, but it’s pretty naive to think that everyone can only think of a single dark and depressing thought and not anything hopeful. Characters like Chiharu, Nomans, and even Misogi didn’t need to spout their entire philosophical view on life every time they appeared and base their entire identity around it.

They could have developed the characters from the Triple-H, the invisible guy and Mona (the gravity girl) a lot more since I think they could have been fascinating and had their own fights, but I literally know nothing about them besides a single short backstory at most.
All characters that were introduced into the plot, except for a few, felt like wasted potential and they didn’t have any personality or goals beyond their function to the plot, which were very little to begin with.

A lot of things were just pointless.

Like, the entire romance with Jagasaki and Yuma (the librarian), the set-up of the rivalry between Jagasaki and Robahata, the establishment of frenzied froglettes when the tadpoles already exist, the bullet inside of catboy’s head, the fights against the giant-rabbit man and the soundwave guy Mikazuchi fought in Deader Land.
All of these things didn’t change anything. They didn’t exist to affect the characters, or the plot. They happened just to fill up space in the manga and provide meaningless content. Resulting in many things to feel hollow and wasted. They could have been removed and nothing would change.

Mikazuchi didn’t have a reason to sacrifice himself. What, just because they ate ramen together, they’re best friends now? Maybe if the manga was longer and he and Jagasaki hung out more I would have understood his reasoning more. But sacrificing your life for some guy who beat you up and basically spat on you instead of spending your life with your son is dumb.

Some things were also super cliche.

The manga used the superhero team against a villain trope not once, not twice, but three times. It would have been nice if there were a change in the relationships in the main cast once an arc was over.

Belle used to be a cool character who seemed sassy at the beginning but was still a weirdo for wanting Jagasaki’s ‘genes’. But her identity devolved into this purely virtuous deus-ex-machina-tool of a character to provide some sense of purpose for the protagonist.

Do I even need to mention the ungodly amount of horny and sex scenes?

I know the entire B-plot of Robahata was to show what happens when a half-fractured human gives in to their desires in contrast to Jagasaki and the entire Triple-H, but basically all of his scenes were repeated panels of him r*ping a girl that is so predictable and I feel like were added for nothing but shock-value. This schmick already has been portrayed even better in Misogi anyway.

Airi was the other character that was exploited so much to insert random sex scenes into the manga. For example, that sex scene with the CEO, and the part where she CHEATS ON HER BOYFRIEND. The plot would have not been affected in ANY way if those events didn’t happen.

It was so clear that she was just Robahata’s replacement as well, because her side-plot ran at the same time as the main-plot and the entire reason why she was associated with the main cast was because she – like Robahata – was horny.

Many things were unresolved as well.

I need to mention Airi again because her whole character put a bad taste in my mouth. I hate how she’s just a guy who literally killed and stole other people’s identities and everyone is just fine with that. I hate the fact that she gets to keep living as Airi and her ‘ending’ was that she ‘fell in love’ with the catboy and had sex for the rest of her life, even though we’ve seen time and time again that her ‘love’ for others were shallow and short-term. It just felt like her resolution wasn’t correct, and to be honest that’s probably the point. She’s just going to repeat her cycle over and over again, but that just doesn’t seem like a proper way to end her arc in my opinion.

Where did the frenzied frogs come from? Who are the birds? Why collect a thousand frenzied frogs? What will happen if someone does? These all felt like they were plot threads leading to a bigger story in the end, but they weren’t. I honestly think the author wanted to incorporate them into the account but he didn’t know how to and just gave up.

I honestly didn’t know how I expected this manga would end. But the way it concluded was okay. It wasn’t really anything revolutionary or something to be celebrated, but it did put an end to the manga in a fair enough way.

Another good seinen manga with happy ending, wonder with berserk

7.5 manga
IT felt like it was going to be longer but it consisted of mini arc and filler chapters and the plot changed half way through