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I'll keep this short and sweet. First season is a bit confusing, slow, tedious, but it all comes together for second season making it the best gundam season I have ever seen (I've watched most of them), and easily in my top anime of all time.
Its that good.
It left an insane impact on my soul. Mcgillis is one of the best anime characters ever made. Hell one of the best fictional characters of all time.
Anyway I don't want to spoil anything. Its a dark, fascinating, and weirdly realistic show. With a lot of political philosophy. Just endure season 1 for the glory that is season ... 2.

Im reviewing the main story for this anthology, Fragile.
Fragile is a story about a rich, sheltered, innocent girl.
This girl is likable, she is just trying to be "herself", instead of just being the type to please her family.

The plot takes some very interesting turns. if you are into corruption its amazing.
Even if you aren't the twist at the end is satisfying.
The characters feel very believable and their backstories make sense.

There is no gore, but there is a lot of sex, its obviously a hentai. Its very short only a few chapters so very worth reading.

The rest of the stories in the anthology are forgettable, but ... Fragile is quite good.

Fragile 2... is very funny.

This is interesting because its a bunch of mostly unrelated manga one shots.
I would say half of them are "mid" quality, where they are entertaining and goofy but nothing special, 7/10.
BUT, the other half are one of the best I've ever read.
They are high impact and really stick with you.
So the way I am rating this is what the "best" manga in the collection are like, which is 9/10.

If you like this author's other works, you'll love this collection. Its really interesting to see his progress over the years as well, each manga starts with the year it was made and a paragraph about what ... he was like at that time. Really fascinating.

Anyway its all very short so I think this is must-read if you like this author.

A short one shot, only 35 pages, not much dialogue, mostly visuals. Nothing ground breaking, but the art style is interestingly realistic.
Plot is short and sweet, a good quick story if you have a few minutes to spare.

Its not scary, its more about a sort of mini-world building about why spirits would stay on earth and coalesce into trouble. its a fun and contained story and I wouldn't mind reading more if there were more because the world building feels fun.

This is not a must-read manga, but at the same time there is no reason not to read it. If you like ghost stories where ... a big part of it is why the ghost is "staying" in this world you might like this.

Boys on the run should be required reading for all college students.

It perfectly portrays the weaknesses, manipulations, and common mistakes both men and women make when young (and sadly many make when older too).
This is a manga about people ruining their lives because of their mistakes. These mistakes have valuable lessons to teach its readers.

Its also simultaneously extremely soul crushingly sad and hilarious. The plot feels extremely authentic and real. There are no cheesy power ups, plot armor, or anything. Instead we see a gritty depiction of the real world. I've read all sorts of messed up manga and stories, but this one really hurts. ... The realness of it penetrates your soul and makes your heart crumble.

But through it all we see the virtues of human spirit as well, and gain enough wisdom and hope to become better people after reading it.

A dumb man cannot learn from his own mistakes, but a wise man can learn from other people's mistakes so they never have to make them. Read this if you want to improve your wisdom. Also its pretty short, great pacing, doesn't waste your time, and its a page turner, so, yes, its a 10/10.

A lot of people want to bash the ending and the "ki arc" of this manga.

Let me say the ki arc, though the ki aspect is dumb the rest of that arc is good with a very interesting villain.

As for the ending. The ending is actually PERFECT. This manga is subversive through and through. It's entire point is to highlight that the real world is not like a shounen jump story. In the real world there are characters who cheat to win. And at first you may think "that's pathetic they cheated!" but then you have to remember the ORIGINAL PURPOSE of martial arts and ... karate, there ARE NO RULES.

That's what makes the main characters dirty tricks a good thing. They aren't dirty tricks, they are a closer more beautiful form of martial arts that isn't dirtied by artificial rules. They are what "real" karate would look like. And his main rival recognizes this and that is why he is willing to fight him.

Now the last two arcs get a lot of shit. But the ballerina-guy arc ends beautifully. In most manga like dragon ball z the main character refuses to change and instead changes his opponent into being a better person. This is exactly what the ballerina-guy wants to do, he wants to change the main character into a good person. But well, you'll have to read to find out what happens and I think you'll understand why I think its perfect that fight ended that way.

Then you have the last arc. At first the last arc seems really bizarre and strange and pointless. But it makes perfect sense. The last arc is basically the main characters karma coming back to haunt him. Do you think the MC deserves a "honorable" last fight? Do you think he deserves to have his final fight be with an honorable awesome character? No he doesn't. The last arc is perfect and the ending is a reminder of what awaits you if you if you live like the main character does.

The bad reviews for this manga are completely missing the point. It's as if they didn't even read to the end.

This is NOT a manga about bullshit "wish fulfillment" like most body swap stories which are basically "oh man it's so fun to be the other sex", or at best are "wow I didn't know the other sex was like this".

This is a story about the main protagonist being surrounded by a shallow life that is slowly and painfully transformed.

The most interesting thing is that this sentence "This is a story about the main protagonist being surrounded by a shallow life that is ... slowly and painfully transformed" means something completely different at the very beginning of the story than at the end.

This is a story that is about abandoning friendships that were subtly toxic. Replacing those friends with real mutually cherished friendships. And realizing how some people who say they "love you" don't.

It also makes you question who you really are and if you are being true to yourself.

And that is why I have to give it a 10/10.

Firstly, I found out about this because it's one of the famous actor Christian Bale's favorites.

Turns out Christian Bale has great tastes because this is a great series with an authentic take on war and violence that you just don't see much anymore. It feels very real and the story sticks with you for awhile and really influences you.

Its dark, but not overly so. More "serious" than edgy. It has such a thick girthy vibe like Bladerunner and other older media.

The animation style is great, the story amazing, the characters fleshed out, and great pacing as well. More for adults than children though.