Ultimate_Nerd

Writing?

1 hour ago | [YT] | 9

Ultimate_Nerd

What's your favorite trope?

Split personality/dual identity is so peak 🐐

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1 day ago (edited) | [YT] | 14

Ultimate_Nerd

Best arc?

2 days ago | [YT] | 8

Ultimate_Nerd

Finished The Climber ✅ (No spoilers)

Wow, this was a journey. Now, I have some things to say about this, but first I’d like to say that while I may have previously said that I didn’t like the art, as the story went on, the art got better and better and now I can agree that the art is peak 🐐🐐Anyway…

Synopsis:
Basically, this story is about an edgy teenager who doesn’t really like anything or anybody, but after discovering mountain climbing, begins to really enjoy doing that, and hopes to one day conquer the K2 mountain. Or at least that’s what it wants you to think, because really, this story is a psychological journey about overcoming loneliness

So yeah, after saying that, there’s just one thing that I really gotta say, and it’s that this story is very similar to Goodnight Punpun, which, as you may know, is one of my favorite series oat, so I def have some praises to sing of this manga.

I’m not gonna do my usual method of grading series because I honestly don’t feel like yapping a lot today, but basically, this series is really, really good imo. First of all, the psychology and symbolism of this series is genuinely top tier, like I genuinely don’t think that I even understand 10% of the symbolism and nuance that was in this series, and that’s after reading like 5 analyses. But if you read this while really thinking about what the symbols mean, that feeling when something clicks is genuinely so peak 🤩So yeah, this series is super complex and I think I would definitely get a lot out of a reread, but even still I think that’s it is really good psychology wise. This series tackles the essence of humanity and loneliness really really well in a way that reminded me greatly of Goodnight Punpun, which I think made me like it even more. In simpler terms, psychology peak, complexity peak, symbolism peak, themes peak 🥂

On the other hand, I’ll be honest I didn’t really like this series at first. I kinda thought that Mori was annoying, I didn’t like the art, and the plot was just okay. But let it cook 🐐 I also think that there’s the drawback of pretty much every character besides Mori being really mid, even though I think that’s kind of the point of the series. I also didn’t love how there were like so many timeskips and flashbacks which made it a bit confusing to follow, but looking back it actually really added to the narrative of the story.

Two more quick things:

1. This manga almost reads like a picture book, which most chapters having little to no dialogue lines. Yet, it pulls off the idea of show don’t tell really well, so I think that it definitely adds to the story even though it was a but jarring at first.
2. I thought that the conclusion was still pretty good, but it wasn’t my absolute favorite tbh. It was very satisfactory, it tied up everything, yet I still feel like there were some better moments even though I can’t quite pinpoint them.

So yeah, that’s all I have to say. This was a really well written manga that was also enjoyable and impactful, but it’s not one of my absolute favorites tbh.

Character Ranking:
Mori >>>>>>> Hana >>>>>>>>>> Everyone else >>>>>>>>> Takemura

Writing: 8.8/10
Enjoyability: 7.3/10
Personal Impact: 7.8/10
Would I recommend: Yes, it’s really good all around, good art, and not very dark or explicit

Already started Boy’s Abyss so we’ll se how that goes🤭

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4 days ago | [YT] | 20

Ultimate_Nerd

Happy Valentine's Day y'all: Best romance?

4 days ago | [YT] | 8

Ultimate_Nerd

What edit do y'all want next?

5 days ago | [YT] | 12

Ultimate_Nerd

What series has your favorite art style?

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6 days ago | [YT] | 10

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 week ago | [YT] | 32

Ultimate_Nerd

Should I reduce the size of the MEC tourney?

1 week 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