Thoughts on Versus by ONE, Kyoutarou Azuma and bose
So I really wanted to try to finally put into words what I think about this series. This is in no way any serious review of the series or anything like that. Just my personal feelings and thoughts about the story and characters and such.
Now chapter 16 is out. Btw, this series is officially translated in English on K MANGA and it is a simulpub there as well. (However, it is a shame that K MANGA is US region only at the moment, and it appears you have to pay to really see new chapters, unlike on MANGA Plus.)
But enough about that. Just a fair warning: This post is full of spoilers from Versus manga!!
General thoughts
I first read a chapter or two shortly after it was released in Nov 2022. But since it's a monthly release schedule, it kind of made me wait for over a year to check out again. And I am very interested in the story and characters. The whole "isekai" story idea has been done well so far. The story also really doesn't pull back on the gore or death in general. Humans will suffer one way or another, but it forces their natural enemies to deal with each other as well (and I am interested to see how this plays out with certain other natural enemies we have yet to see much of).
It is very enjoyable, and leaves you wanting more. Only negative I could think about is the update schedule, but if it's something that is necessary, since the manga is very well illustrated, I won't whine about it. Other thing I could think of that bothers me is the English translation; its weak official availability.
I like the character designs, albeit certain color choices sometimes surprised me. (I remember reading how people wish that Pakkya's hair color should be something else than red and green. Someone even said it resembles Christmas colors lol. Although, red and green are complementary colors.) But I guess there is explanations for those, since the characters are from different worlds and such.. Oh yeah, Kiva has Boros' colors. It does suit him, though.
While the image of Boros is not the one in his armor where his skin color is similar with Kiva's, I think this image illustrates the color similarities well enough.
I really like how ONE writes his characters. They all have some kind of motives to act why they act, which makes me wonder what lead to the natural enemies in some of these worlds to hunt humans. Like, when and why did demons start doing it? What is with the nature and why it attacks the humans? What is World Tree, and when did it start taking all life from the planet? When did titans start doing their human hunting? Where did neo-humans come from and when did their sick play with the paleo-humans start? We know that madalans came from outer space one day and started their invasion, though idk if there is more there. We also know about the A.I. robots. A program went rogue and started hunting humans (though, is there more to it as well?).. And we really don't know how trustworthy all the humans actually are to each other.. Currently, there seems to be more going on than meets the eye.
I also see some improvement in the art style of the manga, since if you read the couple first chapters and then the latest chapters, you can see that Azuma is getting comfortable drawing the characters. (There's more certainty in those lines.) Then again, he has to keep up a monthly update schedule and he apparently has other projects to deal with as well. (Good luck, Azuma!) Also, I really like how he uses perspective in this story. Such a good angles from time to time. Makes me really happy. The focus on some of the emotions in the characters' faces is also really to my liking.
A panel here, a panel there
So, random snippets from the story, because why not:
Chapters 2 & 12: Well, well, well. How the turn tables, huh Kiva.
Chapter 1: Heroes. Ah, they look so cool. They have cute support fairies as well.
It is a shame we won't be seeing most of the heroes in action since many of them are dead. Macbuk is alive, but brainwashed, so I wonder.. We are going to see him most likely with the demon lord who most likely brainwashed him. There are also heroes like Fecaccio, who was captured as a lab animal, and Alicia, whose mind was broken so he is in some kind of vegetative state I believe. Idk where his body is, though.
Chapter 1: Macbuk, Fecaccio and Alicia.
Although, I have a feeling we may see some other heroes who are still alive at some point. There was a total of 47 of them after all. (Or maybe not. Maybe I am just hopeful.)
Also, Alicia had a lover who was captured by the demons and he wanted to go save them. Why the lover was captured? Good question. Maybe the lover was eaten, played with first, or so on and then killed/died. Though, I have started to wonder if some demons like to snatch human lovers/spouses for themselves. Or maybe as a slaves.
Chapter 1: Fascinating choice of words there, Jachi. Miracle, huh.
We really have not seen much about the great demon king, although we do know his name. I wonder what that demon is up to, since even the demon lords have not heard of him (or at least Nyudo and Jachi) after their world went into chaos.
Chapter 1: Hallow and Zaybi's home, presumably.
So I find this place fascinating. Hallow and Zaybi seem to have been raised in this place. The houses look kind of cute haha. I wonder what happened to their home. I wonder if they remember their parents at all, and I wonder what happened to them and left Zaybi to be the one to take care of Hallow.
Chapter 7: Sam kills his father against his will since the 19th Demon Lord, Nyudo plays chess with them.
Poor Sam and his dad. We really are introduced what kind of "slimy" bastard Nyudo is. Even Jachi's reaction to his telepathy is interesting..
Chapter 7: Nyudo contacts Jachi with telepathy.
Chapter 7: Keila wants Ario to teach her about the flower manners in Sorcerion once he comes back from his mission alive.
This is actually one of the interesting relationships I would think would develop in some way in Versus. It remains to be seen if Ario can keep his promise to show her more about what it means to give a flower to another.
Chapter 7: Heidi giving a hug to Ario and wishing good luck to him.
This whole thing smells so bad. The moment she hugged him and Ario noticed her shivering, my alarm bells started blaring.
Especially this part caught my attention from this one neo-human:
Chapter 9: Neo-human telling Ario how paleo-humans stink, and that they can smell him.
I do wonder if this was done deliberately on Heidi's side..
Chapter 8: Shigeru thinks about those close to him and loses his composure in front of the titans.
This part really hit me when I realized he was thinking about someone important to him, and this was his way of trying to protect them. They seem to be his partner and child, I believe, who he is thinking about. That curly hair on the child is hard not to notice. Well, they won't see him again...
Chapter 10: Hallow jumps to attack Kiva.
I really like how we got a glimpse of Hallow's true power same time as Kiva did.
Chapter 10: Hallow and Pakkya attack the demon army together.
One other relationship I really like is the development between these two. It started off a bit rocky, but Pakkya appears far smarter than he lets on. Even though he is still not smart smart, he uses his head still and has beliefs he strongly believes in - like the fact that throwing away your life, after people before you sacrificed theirs so you can live, is an act of betrayal towards those people.
Chapter 10: Jellyfish demons spotted!
Chapter 11: Kiva kicking Hallow in the family jewels.
This part always makes me laugh. Poor Hallow. "Fu*k you, hero, and all of your possible offspring." You can tell how evil Kiva is lol. I'm pretty sure Zaybi would love to have some nieces and/or nephews in the future, if their world would give them the chance to live normally. But then there is also adoption...
Chapter 11: Galua, a madalan/alien yells, and it seems to hurt everyone's ears.
When I saw this page, the first thing I thought about was "Man, that's gotta hurt Kiva, since he has six ears". And then he indeed did explode in anger.
Chapter 9: Ario decides to fight his own battle.
Ario is actually pretty cool when he shows his hero side. Here is Ario the Hero. The one Hallow really believes in, or what he sees in him.
Chapter 10: Hallow makes Kiva promise to leave the humans alone if he wins. (Although, Kiva obviously doesn't respect that in the end. He isn't there to duel, he is on a mission, after all.)
I really like this kind of dynamic between these two. There is something about both wanting to beat the living shit out of each other, since its mutual and you know Hallow can kill Kiva this time since he doesn't appear to fear the demons anymore and is very angry. Or at least, he probably has some kind of fear against Jachi, since that's a demon on whole another level.. But I like that Hallow is slowly overcoming this demon fear he had.
Chapter 10: Spay-s? SPACE?!
I really like how this story sometimes brings up the differences between the knowledge these particular worlds have about space and such. We now know that besides Celestia, The Mecha Ordinance and Sorcerion has a knowledge about space, but The Titan's Crown and Gaia's Wrath worlds seem to be missing this particular information. (We can also presume that worlds such as Parasitica, Land of the Lawless, Extremia, The Cursed Lands, Neo-Terra and The Disastrous Metropolis are also aware of the existence of space.) Dunno about Yggdrasion and Indignia.
Chapter 12: Bastz with the human king, until he decides to leave.
Oh Bastz. Such a mysterious guy this one is.
Chapter 12: Galua annihilates demons.
These madalans are really strong, and it is interesting to see how these would go against other natural enemies. Or how they would deal with a demon lord.
Welp, can't insert more images (max 30), so I will probably reblog this and continue a bit more that way, but that's all for this first bunch.
Relationships & such
Original post WARNING: SPOILERS! One thing ONE likes to write is sibling relationships and I noticed this is a theme in Versus as well. (A
Original post WARNING: SPOILERS! I find them rather fascinating. In fact, the more I read Versus the more similarities I see in them. Cert
Original post WARNING: SPOILERS! Their relationship is already established as close friends and I really like that. You can see how much t
