Pandora Hearts and Spiral!
PH
+
- It’s not about families, but there are a lot of them, including adopted/chosen families. There is Oz’s of course, the mini-arc about Oscar (and to a lesser extend Ada) learning the truth about him but going no, fuck this, I love you was very, very satisfying ;w; and the weird little family he makes with the main group, it’s the canon stance on Alice/Oz/Gil iirc. <3 You have loving but disfunctional bio siblings (Gil+Vince), good but tragic ones (Oswald+Lacie, the Alices), a bunch of “different” people making a family together (the story of Lily’s integration into the Baskervilles wasn’t very developped but it’s sweet), and people with differing views on adoption (Elliot vs everyfuckingone else in that house) and the effect it has on the family’s dynamics.
(…this isn’t what I planned to say but it kinda jumped at me suddenly, so.)
- The writing !!!! I know people more clever than me had seen the plot twists coming, but even then : they’re set up from the beginning of the series, well so, and they have a lot of impact, both in the way that they hit you hard and that they change everything you thought you knew. (Then, when you think you’ve recovered from one, the manga goes oh by the way Oz-) (Yet they’re not set up in a too confusing way, iirc ? You were always left wondering, but not to the point of, say, DGM’s Mana paradox. Maybe that’s just because the chapters came out regularly, tho.)
The characters are so well written too, you see a lot of different personalities and relationships and they work well ! A lot of (…male) characters have flaws and they matter, Oz’s lack of self-worth got to dangerous levels at times and was mercilessly exploited by Jack, Gil’s insecurities make him useless for what, 10 volumes ? and have real negative effects on him (except for That Time He Kicks Break, bc solving other people’s problems is easier), Break never fucking learns not to be Mr. One-Man-Show until it’s too late, Vincent lets himself become blind to the consequences of his plan because of his devotion to Gil and almost ruins their relationship, Leo refused to acknowledge his situation and it started the chain of events that killed Elliot… Some villains weren’t complex (Isla Yura, Nightray Sr), but then you have Jack, so. On average, they do more than okay.
A good use of humor too (there’s only one chapter/episode that’s mainly there for comedy, the rest of the time it’s mostly a lot of little things), and I found basically all emotional scenes effective. (This is something that’s maybe not done as well in MochiJun’s new series, there are genuine “oh no your life really sucked =<” moments but I don’t feel as engaged as with PH yet. Maybe it’s for the best.)
- I could squee about relationships, but this is already too long so : canon queerplatonic these-three-are-each-other’s-most-important-people, canon platonic and at the same time extremely important relationship between the main male and female characters. <3
- :
- most of the female characters get the shaft. Alice got to be important and have awesome moments, Echo may be a by-the-numbers Rey Ayanami expy but her arc about being a person was well done and she got closure, Sharon… got to complain about not appearing anymore ? She’s there, but her importance drops after a while and she’s not allowed to get it back. Let’s not even talk about Ada whose plot-relevance became so wrapped in Vince that she… wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to her brother ?? Why ??? (And I’ll be honest, I love Alice’s death scene, but both times she and her sister take their lives in their own hands, well, it’s to kill themselves. That. Probably wasn’t intended to mean something, but it’s… unfortunate.)
- the pointlessly cruel fact that Glens physically cannot live long, and get stuck in their successor’s head instead of reincarnating - meaning that, in a series where the happy ending relies on the possibility of characters being reborn, Elliot and Leo will never reunite, at best Leo will catch a glimpse of his reincarnation through someone else’s eyes. Why. W H Y. I hate MochiJun
- and speaking of them, they could have been canon. I’m not mad about OzGil because iirc the way Gil’s crush is hinted is more “implied canon” than baiting, and if Mochizuki didn’t feel like making it requited and tackling an OT3 that was “2 qpp and one romance between a 25 y.o. man and a non-human being identifying as a 15 y.o. boy” in the last stages of her manga, well, I can kinda understand that. But there was nothing stopping her from going there with Elliot/Leo, it hits all the tropes after Elliot’s death, and it’s not like she’s hiding it with the guidebooks casually going “prototype Elliot was a girl, Leo’s servant and his love interest”. u.u
Spiral
+ :
- The plot !!!? Even in the first volumes I like the mysteries and the way Ayumu solves them (including “sometimes you don’t have to solve it, just troll Kousuke”), and later on when the other Blade Children get involved you can tell the characters really are clever, it’s super interesting to read, but mostly… the main plot takes a long time to be revealed, it sounds completely wtf at first, but when it gets there it’s really good. I hate it ! But it’s good. Also, another manga where what you believed all series was a lie ! from the beginning ! but you had the clues to realize something was off and maybe guess the truth, and maybe you did, maybe the fandom did, I fucking sure didn’t. *screams into the void*
- AyuHiyo ??? AYUHIYO *flails and cries*
- How it’s a fucking heartbreaking story, yet the epilogue makes a point to be about hope, living your life as best as you can, and beating the curse basically out of spite. (Well, spite makes it sound negative, but you know. Fuck this, we will make it past 20 and won’t turn into demons, we can be better than this.)
- :
- Not enough Rio after the school arc (which was excellent, but that’s all the more reason to miss her later on)
- …I don’t know, I want to say “fucking Kiyotaka” but he’s a good antagonist… (it shows Madoka has bad taste tho)
- Volume 13, what volume 13 :’D ….no, okay, that’s something I didn’t like but it wasn’t bad. But it could have been avoided, and while I get that “we wouldn’t be in this mess and less people would be dead if you had just talked to me” is a staple of tragedy, IT’S REALLY REALLY IRRITATING, TO PUT IT MILDLY, OKAY.
That’s not a real flaw either, so idk. 7.8/10 too much incest.
