Legendz, Vol.1 by Rin Hirai and Makoto Haruno

Summary

The first volume of Legendz, written by Rin Hirai and illustrated by Makoto Haruno, is the first part of a four-volume manga series and takes place in Japan. In the first volume, the reader follows fifth-grader Ken Kazaki, a new student who loves Legendz. Legendz, which is similar to Pokémon, is a popular and fictional game, with four classifications of legendary monsters, where each one is called a Legendz. In the game, a Legendz battles another Legendz in the real world. To play the game, characters need a soul figure which is where the data of a Legendz is stored plus a talispod that displays data and results and is also used to change settings. In the first volume, the reader watches as Ken Kazaki makes friends and battles opponents, with his best friend and Legendz, Shiron. What complicates Ken’s time at school is the coveted golden soul figure, which everyone wants to get their hands on, particularly Hosuke Dekai who takes desperate measures to do so.

Review by Yusef Aboukhatwa

The first volume of Legendz is a very dull, rushed, and predictable story. There are also certain moments that were unnecessary or, at the very least, unnecessary when only looking at the first volume. One such example is a page where Hideaki, one of Ken’s friends, gets hit by a dodgeball and states that they have been “bested” at Legendz and dodgeball. Although this may sound significant, it did not add much to the story because their school revolves around Legendz and the fact that Hideaki had been “bested” at Legendz was established. In other words, Hideaki getting hit by a dodgeball was of no significance. Additionally, the idea that people can fight using a Legendz at any time feels a little problematic because a Legendz is extremely dangerous. Overall, nothing about Legendz is captivating because Legendz is an unoriginal game due to it being very similar to Pokémon.

I would like to mention the positives of the first volume of Legendz, but there really are none. The only aspect that the manga has going for it is that it was not boring, although I would not truly call that a positive. Because of this, I give the first volume of Legendz a rating anywhere between 1.5/10 and 2/10. I do not recommend this story to anyone, no matter their preferences. For me, reading the first volume of Legendz was nothing but a waste of time.