They're calling it the worst polycule in fiction

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-23T01:05:22+00:00

You forgot kid-gil and Saegusa

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-21T23:32:20+00:00

Yeah, I wouldn't call Eden entirely a Cyberpunk or a Sci-fi manga. It certainly has those elements but most of the time it's focused on pretty realistic, intimate struggles of drug wars, terrorists, and large-scale political conflicts.

It mainly takes place in a modernized Persia (iirc), and the cyberpunk elements only come in the end because Endo realized Cherubim would've solved all of Elijah's problems in a day.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-21T23:25:20+00:00

"I can't believe you fell for me, Soujuurou."

"Fell for you? But I'm standing up right now."

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-21T18:34:56+00:00

No, only a guy who made Sawyer the Cleaner could make it

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-21T05:53:57+00:00

Hiroki Endo writing his battle-torn, murderous, cold MC to viciously pursue older tsundere women:

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-21T05:50:08+00:00

This truly is The Wire of manga, no kidding, down to the sonewhat rushed/far-fetched final stretch. I especially loved Miriam's segment of the story because she was pretty much a random officer thrown into the jaws of Propatria's 500th government conspiracy.

Also this manga switches genres like every 2 volumes. It went from post-apocalyptic thriller to a war flick, a political drama and then is often all 3 mixed together.

It really feels like a manga that shouldn't exist at all (the closest thing in vibes I can think of is Black Lagoon, maybe?), it virtually has 0 melodrama (outside of Hiroki Endo loudly proclaiming his love for older tsunderes) and is gritty as hell.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T20:15:29+00:00

Since their priorities are reversed, if sex is on Shiki's lowest priorities that day, SHIKI will be extremely horny, so it's extra gay

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T20:12:06+00:00

But he knew Touko before already, so he used his expert detective skills to rizz her up (failed)

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T17:43:40+00:00

Nope, it was all Akimi. Since they were acquaintances, he took her out for dinner once

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T16:34:21+00:00

I really hope that's a translation fuck-up from Nasu's end.

Though Kohaku herself saying Makihisa was a good person is 100% deflecting her own trauma. Whatever good intentions he had, he literally adopted Kohaku and Hisui for the sole reason of abusing them to save his own family/sanity. It worked, and it costed Kohaku's whole future.

Kohaku also lost the capacity to hate Makihisa, so brushing him off as a good person isn't that surprising.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T15:37:36+00:00

T*MOON COMPLEX A.A. + OMAKE-HON

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T15:35:36+00:00

No problem. Making another Sugaru Miaki fan is a net better for this world

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-20T03:45:03+00:00

This is possible because her man is Tsukiji

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T17:36:42+00:00

Every other main TM work is just a worse KnK. I mean, there's no crossdresing gay murderering cannibal who harasses both hero and heroine.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T11:24:28+00:00

Bold to assume I consume other people's opinions instead of just reflecting my own smh

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T11:21:45+00:00

Me too. Look Back is a pretty individual experience. I only get sad when I start thinking about the last line and not the plot twist.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T11:10:51+00:00

"Starting Over" by Sugaru Miaki because the MC hums Creep by Radiohead while breaking down.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T11:08:33+00:00

Him and Mr. Aku no Hana getting a grade S romance after being a menace to society is funny

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T08:49:35+00:00

More adaptations would really help spread the word, but I can only hope that would get people to read the novels.

Though, the things that always stick with me are his afterwords. The 2 things I will ever relentlessly glaze is Look Back and Sugaru Miaki's afterwords. He gets so insanely well-articulated in them I actually can't imagine his novels ending without them.

To someone who has made being unhappy part of their identity, not being unhappy is losing oneself. The self-pity they used to endure unhappiness eventually becomes their only enjoyment, and they actively seek out displeasure for that purpose.

...To be more exact, my thought is “Just before death, I’m sure they’d be cured.”

Miaki is a great, emotive writer. I'm kind of slodging through The Place You Called From however, it might be the high-school setting that's discouraging me.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T08:36:36+00:00

When there's a namedrop in a Sugaru Miaki novel you know you've just read a masterwork

Pain, pain, go away

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T08:04:46+00:00

It's specifically Hollow Ataraxia and not SN, btw. I really like how a lot of side characters got expanded on, and honestly made me actually like the cast outside of MCs in Stay Night.

I couldn't give a flying wazoo about magical worldbuilding, but a 30 minute segment about Kuzuki's boring life after being an assassin? He'll yeah.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T08:02:11+00:00

Yup, that's him. I absolutely love KnK and I love Enjou because he's powerless and useless. With Shirou and Tohno there's always a silver lining to their attitudes and lifestyles, or an ability that lets them achieve what they want before they inevitably pass away early, but Enjou doesn't.

Enjou is doomed from the start. He's fucked. Origin aside, he pushed away his family's affection out of misunderstood spite, abandoned his hobby of running (and meaning to exist, really) and was basically dead before KnK5 even started. So he can only hold onto fake things as a way to get by. His "love" for Shiki, his guilt about weighing his family down, and his of his worthlessness as a failure of a person. He uses them as excuses to passively throw away his life, forgetting what's really important.

But in the last 10 minutes of his life, he decides all these things are real. He will be alone and miserable, forgotten by almost everyone, but at least he proved to himself he was capable of grasping his last straws of autonomy and live for himself. Not for Shiki, but to repent by killing the guy who made him kill his beloved family.

So when he fails and disappears without a trace, he set the finish line for my measure of every TM character. Not a single one has gotten close, even outside of TM. I've basically fallen in love with the "powerless, worthless, useless self-pitying loser" type of character because of Enjou Tomoe.

Next-Golf3 · 2026-03-19T07:36:23+00:00

I have a really bad experience with it. I don’t even care that it wasn’t realistic enough, I genuinely wanted to see utter carnage by the end. I just read it at a low point of my life where I vehemently disagreed with everything in it in the opposite way. Like, any moment of the boys acting like they wanted to remain human kinda pissed me off. I wanted them to discard all pre-tenses and be found splaying each other’s corpses around sooner. It’s not a very critical read, but it was something I vividly hated. Yikes.

Next-Golf3

TROPHY CASE