Print Review: MAR volumes 1-5

Review Mar volumes 1-5Written by WarpshadowRating fair/ good

Mar is a shonen adventure manga that feels like every other shonen adventure manga in existence, with the only exceptions being those with genuine originality.

Ginta was a weak boy with a love of video games and dreams of another world called MAR heaven. One day while at school a mysterious door to another world appeared and in a spurt of curiosity he decided to cross through it. On the other side was indeed the world of his dreams, one populated by strange creatures and magical items called arms that let their users fight with amazing power. Yet the door that opened for Ginta did so for a reason and he is soon going to learn that this fairy tale land is a dangerous one that needs a hero.

While at first look there are some that would mistake MAR for a traditional fantasy or even worse romantic story let me make this very clear, this is a very standard shonen adventure manga. Most of the tropes of the genre are there including a fairly contrived tournament arc that begins in volume five. I would talk further but I can't really think of much of anything that would meaningfully differentiate this for the other shows of this genre. You might like this if you are a fan of the genre but most others will find this manga mind-numbingly generic.