Ultimate_Nerd

What series has your favorite art style?

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15 hours ago | [YT] | 9

Ultimate_Nerd

Finished Watership Down ✅ (No spoilers)

If y’all have been around for a long time, you might know that I’m a fan of the book series Warriors, which is about wild cats that have this whole clan thing going on. Anyway, somebody who knows that I am a warriors fan recommended me this book because it’s similar, so I decided to give it a read.

Basically, this story is about rabbits, and these rabbits have their home destroyed, so they go on this journey to find a new place to live 🐇

Now, for anyone who has read Warriors, you may notice that there is no shortage of stuff going on, despite it technically being about cats chilling in the woods. For Watership Down, this is not the case 😭My main complaint for this book then is that pretty much nothing happens for the entire story 😭😭😭Mind you, this book is 426 pages, on big pages with small print ☠️

So yeah, when I say this book is about rabbits, it’s literally just about rabbits. On one hand, it was kinda cool in the sense that the author clearly knew a lot about rabbits, and they didn’t just feel like humans that just so happened to be rabbits for the sake of the story. So in that sense, I could genuinely believe (for the most part) that this was just a group of rabbits on a journey. And I also learned a lot about rabbits which is cool

On the other hand, this book is JUST about rabbits 😭Like, there are multiple segments of the story when they’re literally just walking, eating, and sleeping. Like, mundane dialogue lines and really in-depth descriptions of the grass 😭

Anyway, I will say that book did start to pick up towards the end, and the author does a decent job of integrating old rabbit folk tales into the story when the pacing is really slow.

As for the characters, I think this story kind of had the problem of where every character was the exact same with very slight differences like one was smart, one was strong, one was a story teller, etc.

The protagonist, Hazel, I did like a good bit though because for the most part he’s just a chill guy. Fiver, the deuteragonist, was also kind of interesting but like none of his character is ever explained which is um…something. Bigwig was cool ig and the only character with development. And Woundwort was a fine antagonist with a very cool concept which was just not executed as well as I would have liked.

Overall, it’s not a bad book, but it’s pretty slow with not a lot of payoff, so I can’t say I’d recommend unless you really like rabbits or your fine with sitting through a lot of pages of mid for a decent final arc.

Anyway, hopefully No Longer Human is next on the book list ✌️

1 day ago | [YT] | 20

Ultimate_Nerd

Should I reduce the size of the MEC tourney?

6 days ago | [YT] | 18

Ultimate_Nerd

Finished Lord of the Flies ✅ (No spoilers)

Gonna try to keep this short because I don’t have as much of an interest in the classics in comparison to animanga 🤭🗣️ but in case you don’t already know, I enjoy reading the really popular older books so I’m trying to get through a good bit of them.

Basically, the story is about a bunch of British kids, ages 6-12, get into a plane crash and land on a deserted island with no surviving adults. The kids, with very different personalities, try to survive and form a government on the island until they can be rescued. I’m sure you can guess how that goes ☠️

Now, one thing that I really like about this series is that, although not being the most entertaining, it probably has one of the best examples of themes and symbolism executed well 🗣️The themes of the id, ego, and superego were really well done and the symbolism is absolutely amazing. I honestly don’t love Goulding’s writing style however, and he tends to just insert gigantic chunks or scenery description which were honestly pretty uninteresting to read after like the 2nd chapter.

The overall plot is pretty solid, it wasn’t the most entertaining thing ever, but I think it was built up well and it felt very realistic. And the conclusion was an amazing example of irony, symbolism, and really encapsulated the themes of the story well, but as an overall conclusion, I wasn’t a huge fan 😔

As for the characters, Simon was probably my favorite, I liked Piggy a good bit, Ralph started off terrible but I grew to like him a lot, and everyone else sucks besides Sam and Eric 🐐Jack was an interesting antagonist with great symbolism and okay writing, but I just hated him 😭

Anyway some peak quotes:

“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend"

"What could they do? Beat him? So what? Kill him? A stick sharpened at both ends."

Overall, one of the better classics I’ve read, but nothing extraordinary

1 week ago | [YT] | 13

Ultimate_Nerd

Finished Blue Lock + Episode Nagi ✅ (No spoilers)

Finally got through this, which has been on my list for a long time (and that’s saying something) 😭I’m pretty sure ? this was my first sports manga, so I was actually pleasantly surprised to find it more enjoyable than I was expecting it to be. However, I’m getting ahead of myself-

Basically, the plot of this story is that this group of Japanese soccer strikers get recruited to go to this really intensive training camp designed to produce the best striker in the world. And then stuff happens from there…

Anyway, considering that this was ? my first sports manga, I honestly went into this series fully expecting it to be a bunch of soccer yap, but honestly, this was not the case. I think that the balance between non-soccer stuff, training montages, and actual soccer games was pretty balanced to get my interested in the characters, interested in the full-on games, but not totally sick of seeing a soccer ball to the point where I see them when I close my eyes 😭And even when it was a bunch of soccer-y stuff, it almost didn’t even feel like they were playing soccer because there was a LOT of other stuff going on in the character’s thoughts and the fancy tricks that they can do can barely even be considered soccer anyway ☠️ So yeah, if you’re no the fence about this series because you’re worried about a soccer overload, I personally didn’t feel that

And another thing about this series is the aura/hype 🐐🐐 The way that every character in this series spams aura farming is pretty cool to see and the art 🔥Some of the panels are genuinely so cold it’s crazy. And when a character scores a goal, it’s genuinely so hype ✋😐🤚

Oh and I should also add that this series does a good job of not really giving any character plot armor so I’m always wondering who’s gonna win and lose, which I think adds a lot to the hype this series can make me feel.

On the negative side, this series does def have some drawbacks 😭 While a large majority of the cast does have a backstory, which makes the cast a bit more dynamic, a large majority of the cast ONLY has a backstory 😭😭Like, some random NPC character that I don’t care about gets a backstory drop, and then I’m like okay cool, and then they get cooked in some way or another and then fizzle out of existence 💀So I guess what I’m trying to get at is this series tends to save the present time for aura farming and then insert all the character writing into the 1 chapter of less backstory

And another thing is that, as I mentioned, this series loves aura farming, which is fine, but it’s not something that I personally enjoy in a series 😭So while I can respect this series from a more objective standpoint, my personal preference tends to be more emotional/depressing stories rather than hype and exciting 😅

I’d also like to make some comments on Episode: Nagi, which is something I view in a very positive light 🐐First of all, this part converted me on the Nagi agenda for sure, but the Red agenda 🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐 I was kinda just eh about him in the main series but now I understand how peak bro is. I was reading some reviews after finishing it, and it seemed like a lot of people found it a bit underwhelming or something, but I definitely can’t get behind that sentiment 😔So yeah, if you read Blue Lock but not Episode: Nagi, then you best get on it because it’s only 35 chapters 🤭

As for the characters…

Yoichi Isagi: A good protagonist, I like him a good bit and he’s probably my favorite from the series altogether. I think he’s a very cool concept for a main character, I’m glad he doesn’t have plot armor which makes me like him a lot more, and seeing his growth throughout the story is very fun. That said, he’s not one of my favorite characters of all time, but I do still like him.

Rin Itoshi: Another character that I like, I think that he plays a good role in the story and has some really good moments. I like the idea of his character a lot, but I feel like his execution (particularly in the main part of his backstory) could have been a lot more compelling for me to like him more. Other than that, I like all of his moments and I only wish he had more screen time

Michael Kaiser: Another really good addition to the story, I thought the way that the author handled his character was really interesting. His progression throughout the story was very good, and his backstory + symbolism are peak 🐐🐐I honestly have no complaints with him

Seishiro Nagi: Honestly, I didn’t really like bro for most of the series, but later in the story and Episode: Nagi converted me 🐐He’s definitely one of the top in BL in writing and I also like him enough

Reo Mikage: Again, another character who I really didn’t care about too much until later in the story + Episode: Nagi 🐐 Red is my goat and I am converted to the agenda.

I’m honestly too lazy to list out the other characters but just know that I like most of the cast (*cough* except for Kunigami *cough*)

Writing: 6.5/10
Enjoyability: 8.2/10
Personal Impact: 4.6/10
Would I recommend: It’s an enjoyable read for sure with some really good moments, so yeah I’d recommend to anyone not looking for a super deep or emotional story

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1 week ago | [YT] | 13

Ultimate_Nerd

Writing + Enjoyability + All other categories

1 week ago | [YT] | 11

Ultimate_Nerd

Rank these protagonists

1 week ago | [YT] | 9

Ultimate_Nerd

Highest Peak?

1 week ago | [YT] | 11

Ultimate_Nerd

What should I read next?

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 14

Ultimate_Nerd

Rank these antagonists

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 31