http://www.drunkduck.com/Wave/

Right then, This comic has lots of things that don't just suck, but actually make me angry. But before i shout at those:

Art:

Yeah its manga art basicly, Manga style dawing, CG tone effects all that jazz, but that's fine with me particually becausees it is done incredibly well and equally authentically. It has lots of nice dramatic poses, angles and the like, the art is generally pleasing unless you have a particular hatred for manga.
The character design is pretty standard and dull, the bad guys are pretty neat though.

Story:

Anime story plain and simple, the sort I dislike immensly, Two massivley overpowered heros do battle against evil because it is their destiny, it makes me want to retch, but it seems to be the staple of this genre of persudo-manga comics so it's excusable as that seems to be what their aduience is after, It might even get interesting later on.

Bits that pissed me off:

Its read right to left, why? as far as I can tell the authour is not japanese, and I'm pretty sure that the origional language format isnt japanese, so why the hell should it be read ight to left? This sort of bandwaggon jumping is faggy in the extreme, and i dont use that insult lightly.
Another instance of wankish trend hopping is the japanese sound effects, once again i see no reason why clearly CGed Sound effects should be in japanese, its just bullshit.

However if i am mistaken and there is a genuine reason for the japaneseness of this comic (if the origional language is japanese and it is only translated to english) then i retract that entire paragraph, otherwise i will remain openly annoyed by that.

Summary:

A good comic, Manga fans will like this, some other people might too, but if you are the sort of person thinks that people faking manga is indescribably lame then you won't just be a little annoyed by this, you will be VERY annoyed by this.
Basicly it's worth a read if you like that sort of thing.

Alright, so it's anime/manga styled, and it's read from right to left, but I don't really care, because it's done well. Mostly.

You still have a problem that a lot of people do with backgrounds. I mean, c'mon, these things are necessary! People think they can get away with huge blank spaces and still make a page visually interesting. Sorry, but negative space has gotta be used sparingly. At least put a light grey there instead of just plain white. It's not like you're not skilled enough either. This page really annoys me because of lack of a background in the last panel.

Anyway, movement of characters is done well. A bit too many action lines, but that's okay.

Excellent establishing shot here. I like it!

The character's personalities are a bit flat though. I've seen these kind of characters so many places before. It's not just that they're cliched, but their designs aren't super-interesting either. And the whole quest storyline to defeat demons? It's been DONE. Still, this comic is available for free, so I guess cliched storylines are okay as long as the pacing is good and everything is readable.

On this page the first few panels are spaced out too much. It leaves too much white space which is annoying to look at.

Ah the billowing cloak thing. Can't go wrong there.

Action scenes are skillfully done. It was pretty easy to follow what was going on, although all the action lines made it a little confusing. You're more skilled than I am, but you're having some trouble with the comic form, getting everything to go where you want. Panels shouldn't have big spaces between them like some of yours do. Space management matters.

But good so far. I'm sure that many Shonen Jump lovers will like this comic.

EDIT- I do have to agree with Mimarin though about the Japanese sound effects. Why? Sound effects in another language don't ADD anything to the comic for American readers, so what's their purpose?

Art:
Its manga style but not Pokémon manga, so it works for me. Real nice, although sketchy, artwork and plenty of dramatic panels make this a good looking comic indeed. The japanese FX text give it a nice look but it should be all english and not something in between in my book.

Story:
Nothing fantastic, or original as such but battles against big monsters is entertaining so its a fun read. The whole right to left makes things confusing most of the time and takes away some of the comics flow.

Overall:
Nice and entertaining. The japanese influences feels a bit forced here and there, the right to left read order, the jap text and so on. Feels like the creator is following a "how to do japanese manga" just for the sake of it rather than it having any point.

Wow, this is a very skillfully done manga-thing here. Lots of good things about it, and some general things I don't like that go with it being manga-derivative that I'll leave alone.

However, I think since you already have some nice tonal work, you could add more. There seems to be a lot of whiteness where some tone work could bring it to another level.

Another thing about manga-derivatives is that they feel like they move very very slowly, because so many pages are packed into one volume. I think you're keeping very true to the pacing of a manga, but it's slightly frustrating when in this format. I don't know what to suggest, just an observation. I think once you get more pages out, hopefully the characters will flesh out and the story will take hold.

Yeah, the story. That's...well, it's very manga. If I hadn't seen several things just like it, I would say it's nice. I mean, you have it very well planned and it is nicely done, you obviously put more effort into it than cheap pubescent manga clones.

I guess it just kind of saddens me that you're putting some obviously wonderful talent into something so ... done. I dunno. It looks really nice though, so, if you're feelin' it, keep up the good work!

Awright, im just gonna go ahead and say i really like this comic.

Art: I enjoy reading Manga's and this is some of the best artwork in this style i've seen done on this site. Characters are very well done and easily identified. The monsters are pretty neat and remind me of my the Hollows in Bleach by Tite Kubo.My only complaint is that sometimes its not exactly clear what's going on in the panels, but even this is pretty rare.

Concept: You have given the elemental magic thing a little more life with a new type of magic which i like, but i have to agree with the others when they say the overall story is a little overdone. But in any story there are bound to be Clich'es.

Text: Clean and easy to read, though i do wish i could read the sound effects, but that's just a little thing.

Overall: This comic is going in my DD favorites, i enjoyed reading it a lot and wait with anticipation for the next page. I give this comic a 7/10

Thank you all for reviewing. I just wanted to make a few points that'll hopefully clear some things up.

First off, about the right-to-left format and japanese sound effects. Neither of these are because I'm trying to "Japanify" the comic. They're both actually personal preferences.
I read a lot of manga, so the right-to-left format just comes naturally to me. It's extremely difficult for me to draw a manga left-to-right. I know it sounds wierd, but I really can't make it work whenever I try. It's just the way I do things.
As for the Japanese sound effects, the reason is not because I just wanted to make it look more Japanese. Personally, I find english sound effects to be ridiculously distracting. Many people will end up getting distracted from the story to ponder that one sound effect and will sit there for a whole minute thinking stuff like, "does wind really go 'fwah'?", before they remember that there's a comic going on. Also, the spikey look of Japanese katakana allows it to blend in more with the action scenes, so that the sound effects become more of a background element than something that's actually meant to be read. Personally, I don't think sound effects are necessary at all in comics, but the pages look too empty without them, so...

Next, about the plot being cliche'd: I KNOW. And believe it or not, it's all 100% intentional.
My goal in writing Wave was to take one of the most overused manga plots and develop it into something original. This will happen, I assure you. You just need to give the comic some time. Bear in mind that it's still in the first chapter, so every plot detail I've revealed thus far is just the exposition. So before you go on about how you've seen this exact plot a thousand times before, just remember that I have too, and I intended it to be that way in the beginning. Both the characters and the storry will develop steadily in the following chapters.

Well, that's it for now. I'm sorry if I sound like I'm getting defensive. Those are just some facts that I probably should have mentioned earlier. Come to think of it, I probably shouldn't have put the comic up at this early a stage, but whatever. Once again, thanks for reviewing!

-Wave

Yeah. The story starts to deepen in the second chapter and the cliches start to take on an original twist. Major story development won't start until I begin the first main arc, but trust me- I wouldn't have bothered to put this up if it wasn't original.

Just so you guys know, Eggbert can't log onto the forums right now, but he had this to say about this comic:

Eggbert
The comic up for review right now is an ENOURMOUS Naruto clone. It's like Naruto with different characters, and much more ham handed storytelling. Did you see those buildings? THEY LIVE IN NARUTO TOWN. Why has no one noticed this?

I Also noticed the narutoness, I personally think that that, along with the over mangafication severly detracts from the origionality and overall quality of this comic.

geez, troll much? :evil:

Black Kitty edits: Totally inappropriate. You got your warning, here's your ban.

..fuckin' trolls.

.: Myxomatosis :.

This comic is interesting, so I added it to my favs :wink:

Artwork: It's actually really well done! But there are some things about it. (I bet this was already mentioned. Sorry if I'm just a broken record!) The paneling is sometimes really spaced out, and it's not so fun for the eyes. I suggest that you try to make the panels space out equally. I know, you're looking to be artistic with the panels, but please try to choose an idea that's more comfortable to see! Also, in some panels, there are no backgrounds when it is absolutely necessary to have backgrounds. I mean, you can even get away with putting a screentone in the background, since it's manga. Also, you should try to put in a little shading, too. When you draw backgrounds, you should put a line difference between the characters and the background. Like the last panel in this page: http://www.drunkduck.com/Wave/index.php?p=12559
I feel like you can make the lines in the characters a little darker, just to make them stand out. But that's just a personal opinion ^_^
Also... you can really add shading! That would improve the comic so much! Even if it's more work, it's highly worth it!

Storyline: The storyline is, I agree, a lot like Naruto like other people said. But it's different in its own unique way! But you made them really powerful! You should make them struggle a little, or there will be no suspense in the story. If you knew they were always going to win, then the fun would be taken out of the whole thing, so make it look like they're going to die, but they win!!! That's always fun ^_^ I know this doesn't belong in the storyline section of the topic, but you should mention at the top that it's read from right to left! I was confused throughout the whole thing because I thought it was read the english way, but it wasn't. So please at least put some kind of clue that it's red from right to left, for the reader's sake!

Heee!!! Good luck with more comics! It's really cool! ^_^