[101 Manga in 2011] FLAGS - Where You Can Find a Flag That Can Slice People

FLAGS

By Ueda Satoshi

Kurou: My dad joined this super tournament. He said he's not coming back until he wins... so I've been waiting for him! Doing that for 8 years now!!!
Nishiki: Hi, we are participating in the super tournament this year. I think you'll be as good as your father, so I wanna recruit you. But before that, I want you to do a very difficult challenge... so that we'll be assured that you're qualified to be part of the team.
Kurou: Really? Okay then *does the very difficult challenge in several panels* Done.
Nishiki: Alright, you're part of the gang. Let's do our best in the fight.
Kurou: Alright!!!

RATING: C (AVERAGE!)
FAVORITISM: 3 Hearts ---> LIKE (4.5 Hearts to favorite character xD)

This series seriously lacks in originality. Many of the overused shounen cliches have been applied on this one.

But it's still pretty interesting and fun to read. So sticking to it~

It follows the standard shounen plotline. First chapter introduces and unites the main cast. It also gives the main character have a reason to fight and start his journey. It's going to be one battle per chapter, and the protagonists get to win them all. It's a tournament, and you don't need to guess which team will be able to make it to the top and defeat the most powerful villains.

If that's already a pain, check out its biggest flaw: The leading character.

He's not really a bad fellow (I like him, actually), but how he was characterized is just UNBEARABLE. You see, his new friends had an opportunity to boast their skills to him on the first chapter, but even with their experience in battle... ONLY the leading guy managed to finish off the thugs in the end. That's his FIRST battle by the way. (Though it's strange that his comrades had managed to defeat their tougher opponents in the actual tournament when they easily got pwned by small fry. That's just... whut?!)

If you give him a new challenge, he'll be able to figure that out before the end of the chapter. If it's too challenging and there's not enough time, one of the characters would actually give him an obvious hint.

No matter how inexperienced he is, he will ALWAYS win his battles (if his battle hasn't ended, he will at least be a tough opponent to the strong ones that even the most powerful antagonist will be impressed). He's a newbie, yet his allies heavily rely on him.

He can give people encouragement and change the mood. Heck, he'll even annoyingly volunteer to take your place in case you want to call for "time-out" in your battle. He's in every chapter cover and in majority of the pages (if he's just watching the fight, he'll be sharing his reaction on almost every freakin' twist or shocking event/move). He's everywhere.

He takes the spotlight. He's so strong and victorious. He's a pretty nice guy and everyone loves him. Putting aside his naivety on non-battle related things, he's your perfect shounen hero.

And that's so sickening.

No wonder this got cancelled. It's really horrible.

It's nice that he didn't go emo upon hearing the news about his father. But that seems better than forgetting about the issue so quickly. At least make a statement that's something like "I already expected that" or make a twist that he doesn't actually admire his father as he seemed to be. That would be pretty intriguing.

*sigh* On the bright side, at least his comrades were like "oh just shut up and let me do my job" on him when he was volunteering to take their place. Thank goodness they didn't let him get all the glory.

The typical "childhood friend" hadn't come along and acted just as a cheerleader or anything not very useful (she was used as hostage though, but good thing the hostage thing was resolved quickly. His comrades didn't let their enemy take more advantage of their kindness). That saved me from quite a number of headaches. The last thing a shounen manga needs is a useless leading lady.

Their opponents had been unique and interesting; they had been really naughty but really nice at the same time too. This antagonist is so hott by the way:

She makes me doubt my sexuality. Her background reminded me of my favorite female from Mirai Nikki, hehe.

But the best character in this series, in my opinion, is this guy:

I find it amazing when he adds cruel comments right after he gives off praises, haha! And even though he's the most powerful character, it's amusing that he still gets tricked on simple things like having his money stolen, haha!

Carefree and abusable yet frighteningly powerful types never cease to amaze me~

Aside from him, the other fantastic thing about this is THE ART:

The fighting scenes are drawn awesomely. Artwork in general was done well. I think this mangaka is better off just an artist instead of both (artist and author). Seldom shall you see the characters looking weird or distorted.

Overall, it has terrific artwork and interesting characters, but the story's too unoriginal and has too many flaws. Story obviously hasn't ended, and I don't care about that if the leading character still won't have any flaws or will at least have decent development.