A Dose of Japan: My Balls (manga)

Recommended Videos

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
Legacy
Dec 6, 2010
5,655
24
13
So, yeah. There is a manga in Japan called My Balls. It's a nifty peace, lots of interesting concepts going around. But unlike the other stupidly named manga I reviewed, this one isn't very good... well that depends on your viewpoint.

Alright, so My Balls is an original manga series written by Harada Shigemitsu. Not much else to say about it. So let's go!

Story

I know what you're thinking right now. "What in the nine hells could a manga called 'My Balls' be about?" Whatever you're thinking right now, is probably wrong. This manga follows our hero, Satou Kohta, a loser pretty much. He isn't attending school and works at some crummy supermarket. He has a massive crush on his co-worker, Minayo Aizawa, but lacks the courage to ask her out. So, our story starts with the archangel, Micheal, chasing down the demon lord, Emanniel. A pact between Heaven and Hell states that Hell may invade the earth at a certain date. Heaven of course can't allows this, so attempts to stop the one who will bring about the invasion. Micheal attempts to trap Emanniel into a stone and take her back to Heaven to hold her until after the date passes. He hits Emanniel, but misses the stone and ends up trapping her inside our main protagonist's testicles. You did not read that wrong. So, our hero has to not let himself ejaculate for thirty days. He faces the trials of, drunken co-workers, lustful demons, and even medical issues. But overall, the story is really fucking wacky. Like balls to wall insane. If you come at this expecting that, you'll walk away content. If not, you'll be very disappoint. I came at it from a joking a viewpoint and enjoyed it greatly. The ending is also about the cutest damn thing I've ever seen.

Characters

Eh, nothing to talk about here. They're passable. We have the main heroine, Eylse. She's a loli, tsundere. His co-worker Minayo is a lewd woman when drunk, but other than that flatter than a board. Most of the interesting characters come from hell, like Ares, a horny succubus, and even Satan. Just like the story, the characters are insane. Micheal becomes a eighty year old man at some point. Just again, come at this from a casual approach and you should like the characters.

Art

Have you ever read a manga from 2004-2006? If you have then this artwork looks just like that. It does the job. Also, they love sex scenes, really bad and poorly drawn sex scenes. They are just awkward and you'll wish them to end quite quickly.

Comedy, Romance

The comedy is like the story and characters. Stupid and insane. Don't expect master level stuff here and it's passable.

The romance doesn't come into play until much later, but is actually really sweet. The last page is like the cutest thing ever.

Overall

This is a tough review. If you come at this manga knowing it's just wacky humor, you'll most likely enjoy it. If you don't, it will be a piece of crap. If you can't bring your self to do that, ignore this manga completely. If you can, give it a read. It's rather short as well, only 41 chapters. A one weekend read.

7/10- This is if you come at it with a lax viewpoint.

4/10. This is from a critic viewpoint.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
Elfgore said:
So, yeah. There is a manga in Japan called My Balls. It's a nifty peace, lots of interesting concepts going around. But unlike the other stupidly named manga I reviewed, this one isn't very good... well that depends on your viewpoint.

Alright, so My Balls is an original manga series written by Harada Shigemitsu. Not much else to say about it. So let's go!

Story

I know what you're thinking right now. "What in the nine hells could a manga called 'My Balls' be about?" Whatever you're thinking right now, is probably wrong. This manga follows our hero, Satou Kohta, a loser pretty much. He isn't attending school and works at some crummy supermarket. He has a massive crush on his co-worker, Minayo Aizawa, but lacks the courage to ask her out. So, our story starts with the archangel, Micheal, chasing down the demon lord, Emanniel. A pact between Heaven and Hell states that Hell may invade the earth at a certain date. Heaven of course can't allows this, so attempts to stop the one who will bring about the invasion. Micheal attempts to trap Emanniel into a stone and take her back to Heaven to hold her until after the date passes. He hits Emanniel, but misses the stone and ends up trapping her inside our main protagonist's testicles. You did not read that wrong. So, our hero has to not let himself ejaculate for thirty days. He faces the trials of, drunken co-workers, lustful demons, and even medical issues. But overall, the story is really fucking wacky. Like balls to wall insane. If you come at this expecting that, you'll walk away content. If not, you'll be very disappoint. I came at it from a joking a viewpoint and enjoyed it greatly. The ending is also about the cutest damn thing I've ever seen.

Characters

Eh, nothing to talk about here. They're passable. We have the main heroine, Eylse. She's a loli, tsundere. His co-worker Minayo is a lewd woman when drunk, but other than that flatter than a board. Most of the interesting characters come from hell, like Ares, a horny succubus, and even Satan. Just like the story, the characters are insane. Micheal becomes a eighty year old man at some point. Just again, come at this from a casual approach and you should like the characters.

Art

Have you ever read a manga from 2004-2006? If you have then this artwork looks just like that. It does the job. Also, they love sex scenes, really bad and poorly drawn sex scenes. They are just awkward and you'll wish them to end quite quickly.

Comedy, Romance

The comedy is like the story and characters. Stupid and insane. Don't expect master level stuff here and it's passable.

The romance doesn't come into play until much later, but is actually really sweet. The last page is like the cutest thing ever.

Overall

This is a tough review. If you come at this manga knowing it's just wacky humor, you'll most likely enjoy it. If you don't, it will be a piece of crap. If you can't bring your self to do that, ignore this manga completely. If you can, give it a read. It's rather short as well, only 41 chapters. A one weekend read.

7/10- This is if you come at it with a lax viewpoint.

4/10. This is from a critic viewpoint.
Japan, do you have an issue or something. Between this, all the sex references and symbolism in Captain Earth, the self-insert harem shows (another one right here [http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/06/16/daitoshokan-no-hitsujikai-a-good-librarian-like-a-good-shepherd-anime-visual-goes-online]) and the amount of fanservice/ young girls with breasts that are improbable, I feel like Japan has been really sexually restricting itself.

I really wish Japan does something about this before we get something really horrible.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
Legacy
Dec 6, 2010
5,655
24
13
Izanagi009 said:
snip
Japan, do you have an issue or something. Between this, all the sex references and symbolism in Captain Earth, the self-insert harem shows (another one right here [http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/06/16/daitoshokan-no-hitsujikai-a-good-librarian-like-a-good-shepherd-anime-visual-goes-online]) and the amount of fanservice/ young girls with breasts that are improbable, I feel like Japan has been really sexually restricting itself.

I really wish Japan does something about this before we get something really horrible.
It's not an issue, just what's popular right now. Something you and I have no control over. Also, you should keep mind, My Balls came out pre-2008. I can't speak for the Captain Earth show, but a little of that stuff never killed anyone. Looks like it may be used to calm the tension. And before I judge the MC of that show, I'd need to watch it. How do we know he won't be a well-written character? Never judge before you see it. The breasts thing does get a little silly after a while. When nearly every girl is rocking a D-cup I kinda lose interest.

I won't speak about the sexually restricting part, as I know nothing of Japanese culture outside of their comic and cartoons... man I'm going places in life.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
Elfgore said:
Izanagi009 said:
snip
Japan, do you have an issue or something. Between this, all the sex references and symbolism in Captain Earth, the self-insert harem shows (another one right here [http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/06/16/daitoshokan-no-hitsujikai-a-good-librarian-like-a-good-shepherd-anime-visual-goes-online]) and the amount of fanservice/ young girls with breasts that are improbable, I feel like Japan has been really sexually restricting itself.

I really wish Japan does something about this before we get something really horrible.
It's not an issue, just what's popular right now. Something you and I have no control over. Also, you should keep mind, My Balls came out pre-2008. I can't speak for the Captain Earth show, but a little of that stuff never killed anyone. Looks like it may be used to calm the tension. And before I judge the MC of that show, I'd need to watch it. How do we know he won't be a well-written character? Never judge before you see it. The breasts thing does get a little silly after a while. When nearly every girl is rocking a D-cup I kinda lose interest.

I won't speak about the sexually restricting part, as I know nothing of Japanese culture outside of their comic and cartoons... man I'm going places in life.
On Captain Earth, The main macguffin energy is called orgone energy. Orgone is an old term proposed in the 30's by Wilhelm Reich that is a cosmic force. Mr. Reich just also happens to invested in Freudian sexual philosophies and was a promoter of sexual promiscuity at the time. He believed that orgone peaked at orgasm and that it can cure diseases.

There was a movie made partially about his life reviewed here [http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/oancitizen/brows-held-high/34986-brows-held-high-wr-mysteries-of-the-organism].

As for the show I linked to, the fact that the guy has girls come to his library club without any involvement on his part and the fact that the original material is an adult visual novel does not inspire much hope.

From what I've read about Japan is that despite all the media output, birth rates are going down and people are having sex less. I have a feeling that something is going on
 

Hazzard

New member
Jan 25, 2012
316
0
0
Japan's birth rate issues appear to be more to do with work obsessed Japanese having come to the conclusion that children are expensive and a time sink. Perfectly logical, it's just they have the problem of they need babies to keep the population growing. China and Russia are set to have similar problems.
 

Izanagi009_v1legacy

Anime Nerds Unite
Apr 25, 2013
1,460
0
0
Hazzard said:
Japan's birth rate issues appear to be more to do with work obsessed Japanese having come to the conclusion that children are expensive and a time sink. Perfectly logical, it's just they have the problem of they need babies to keep the population growing. China and Russia are set to have similar problems.
I see so could the anime be reflective of an attempt to relieve sexual tension or something.

Honestly though, it's just a painful mess to have to deal with so much pandering.
 

Savryc

NAPs, Spooks and Poz. Oh my!
Aug 4, 2011
395
0
0
I remember reading this in college, about 2009-10 ish I think. I'd say you nailed it on the head, especially in regards to the ending and the awkward sex scenes.

Not much else to say really, I found it amusing but it won't be to everyone's taste.