I did my every year or two check to see if any of the manga I used to read a decade ago had finished and if so, to finish them.
Finished
Gantz - I would say that it was terrible, but considering that it had been terrible for a while and seemed like it had no idea what the fuck it was doing (I really think the author had a good concept for a series when he started, but had no idea beyond that where he wanted the plot to go or the explanations for anything), it was entertaining dumb shit. Its biggest disappointment just being how by the books Hollywood ending it was. The first half of the series was pretty cool! Weird sci-fi mystery story with intense action and high stakes. The introduction of the Osaka team was good too. But then the
spoiler (click to show/hide)
oh hey, Kurono's brother is part of a SECRET VAMPIRE SOCIETY, and then two Kurono's thing that never went anywhere, and the whole endgame earth invasion and then dumb explanations along with underdeveloped everyone was pretty terrible
Not really worth a read, but I enjoyed it back in the day and I always liked that a chapter was only a 60 second time commitment since it was 80% action, 15% boobs and 5% dialogue.
and
Soul Eater - Which was alright. The last arc was fairly predictable teenage shounen, with friendship and love and self-sacrifice and all that stuff. But the art was consistent and nice, the characters likeable, and the tone of comedy + action + drama always hit the right spot. It's a B-tier manga in the end, but at least it never really got "bad" like a lot of manga do. It had a couple of high points, but was just generally solid and enjoyable throughout, and can't blame 'em too much for that.
Also
xxxHolic - Yeah, there's a sequel series running now, but while I really liked xxxHolic for a while and its "supernatural tale of the day", the main plot moved really slow and in the last couple of volumes absolutely nothing happened and it should have ended far earlier. Basically CLAMP was good at a time with stuff like X and Chobits and Clover, when they were telling short concise stories, but with xxxHolic & Tsubasa they realized they could retire if they just made series that go on forever and nothing really happens and they never end, so I'm done with CLAMP finally.
Now hopefully by this time next year Bleach & Naruto and maybe Hunter x Hunter will have finished and I'll catch up and finish those guys. Looking forward to Bleach finishing so I can skim the rest of it for the lolz. After those end, about the only manga that'll still be running since my college anime/manga days will be Berserk, but I'll try that again in 10 years and maybe there'll be some progress.
