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• 

  Essbee

  17/100
  One of the most gross and horrible manga I've read.

  Disclaimer: The following is a review of the Exploding Girl manga which features transphobia, sexual assault, abuse, pedophilia and suicide. This review is meant to be an analysis on how this ruins the manga, if you are uncomfortable with such topics turn back now, if not then do continue reading.

  So... here we are... the second worst manga I came across. For some context the Exploding Girl is a manga first being published in 2018 and cutting off in 2023, in the second volume. The exploding girl has 54 chapters and two volumes over a five year run before the manga was cancelled. The manga follows Bao Bu Ping a 14 year old boy who lives in a grim-light modern setting like our own where people are exploited, women are assaulted and harassed with no one being able to do anything about it. Until a mascot offers Ping power to fight back.

  But in order to do so he needs to become a magical girl with a full transformation and transition into the opposite sex. Ping then saves the girl who is being assaulted, but with less than magical powers using their fists and a brick to fight with explosive power being every strike. After beating the snot out of the thugs a creature appears to which the mascot classifies them as a "Violencia" a magical entity that taps into the worst traits in a human's mind and feeds off of them. The mascot consumes it and grows in power.

  After sealing away the Violencia the thugs run away, leaving Ping and the innocent girl alone together, in safety. Before Ping can leave the girl asks for their name. To which Ping calls back to the fact their fighting style was more crude and brutal than the standard magical girl. Ping fought not with magic, but rather explosive energy, so Ping isn't a magical girl, but rather an Explosive Girl and the chapter ends. Now I recapped the first chapter for a very good reason, it's the standard superhero fare.

  Main character who has no powers sees the cruelty of the world, wants to do something, can't. Then after a strange event they use their newfound powers to do what they wanted and coming to find their superhero identity. Setting up the premise and setting up the future for new plot-lines. On paper this chapter is fun, and the premise is outlined perfectly here and when I first read it, I enjoyed it. That was until the later chapters that got messy and outright disgusting with the plot.

  Only five chapters later Ping fights with another Exploding girl: Lan Mao, a doctor by day, Exploding girl with night, a super genius with a large database on other Exploding girls and Violencia, they suggest they and Ping team up. Which all seems fine and dandy right? That is until the two meet and in the most fanservice scene develops romantic feelings for Ping. The manga makes it clear Ping is 14 and Lan is an adult. And they even go on a romantic date later on. Then call each other sisters ??!

  They do drop the romantic "will they won't they?" by the second volume, but it doesn't make it any less gross. They still call each other sisters long after this weird shit happens. At least the manga can't get worse right? Right? The story comes as mishandling the gender identity stuff. The story gets messy with the romantic thoughts with the gender changing stuff and even mishandles queer themes and comes off as, while not entirely actively malicious, definitely harmful and distasteful. At best the story is indifferent as worst, the story is harmful.

  And by the end of the first volume and the entire second manga the plot becomes convoluted and confusing. Skipping ahead P Diddy's best friend Lan Mao decides to do the worst choices in the second volume aside from going on a date with a 14 year old, (IT GETS WORSE). So Ping and Lan's relationship is messy (even more so as it is), with Ping risking everything possibly compromising Ping and Lan's identity to save people. Lan decides to cut off all contact with Ping due to them being a liability. Lan is quite secretive as showcased in the date with a minor.

  Another Exploding girl (whose been stalking Ping, just cause) possessed by a Violencia is caught and shot down by the police, while Ping wants to save the human left in her, Lan holds her back as they know the police will assume they're associated with the rogue Exploding Girl. In which is a fair assessment, and the story makes it clear that Exploding girls (Especially after this incident) are seen as a threat, with a rock bottom reputation. Which leads us to an arc in volume 2.

  Another rogue Exploding girl kidnaps Ping along with other civilians and turns them into Violencia hosts, among them was a girl, Ping escapes with Lan showing up and they take the girl to safety. Now this girl lives a bad life, she's in debt, stalked and harassed by her loan sharks, until... After going out on a trip around town with Ping and Lan (in their gender swapped forms, but not Exploding Girl outfits) the girl returns home to find her father who killed himself. The loan sharks tell her that his inheritance covers the debt and enough for the girl to have left over.

  In her moment of emotional vulnerability, a Violencia takes hold of the girl and as Lan and Ping go to check up on her she attacks. They fight until she is cured (by a move, Ping is developing that Lan denoted as not wanting to know about, despite it being a benefit to their cause). The move removes the Violencia, and despite it all the girl decides to end it all by jumping off the roof. Ping causes after her and when they can almost reach her Lan cuts her off, letting the girl fall to her death, (despite the fact Ping could've saved her).

  Now on some level this coincides with Lan wanting to stay out of the public eye, but in all fairness if Ping were to save the girl it would be a benefit. Sure the Exploding Girls are "public enemy number one", but this act of heroism could ignore that sentiment and set an example. An example of heroism, being selfless but instead Lan decides to let the girl die for no reason. It's as if Spiderman were to stop Captain America from saving a baby from a building burning as it would draw attention to them. Sounds pretty stupid right? Cause that's what they did here.

  And what bothers me is that Lan is still portrayed as this "super-genius" when she/he/they are an asshole! They act within their own self interest and doesn't care about the reputation of other Exploding Girls despite stalking and executing ones that tarnish their reputation as a whole. I personally believe that Lano is one of the worst characters in fiction that I've seen, and with that we're done discussing two of my biggest problems with the story. Moving on, the first volume's translation is awful at best and illegible at worst.

  Now when the second volume rolls around what I assume is a new translator shows up. And I see these character making these bizarre phrases with the translator making a note, scrambling to explain stuff. And near the end this weird QnA shows up? It leaves even the translator confused?! Another weird thing is the fourth Exploding Girl that shows up (out of seven) is one who is crueler in her methods, but loves animals, she was tricked and defeated and killed. She was called No. 4 even until her death, until she's revealed to having been alive the whole time.

  Even after she was brought back to life her name wasn't revealed until the last four chapters before the manga was cut short. Her name being Haung Huaxing, she goes unnamed for over 20 chapters and her fakeout death. Moving back to another plotpoint Ping is confused after the whole Lan being a bitch situation, Ping's father gives his son $200 (Or Yen whichever one was in the translated version) and told him to have the day to himself.

  Ping goes out in their transformed form without the costume. They meet a kid who tries robbing them, but finds out he's a homeless orphan and decides the kid needs the money more than they do. The kid runs off a nice charitable scene, or so we thought... The kid returns with 3 or so men and it's revealed the kid after taking the money after the pickpocket has planted around four wallets on them and lead the men back to them. Not even half a chapter later we learn the kid does this to support his grandmother, but is abused by the landlord!?

  And we're supposed to have garnered sympathy for this kid who not even two panels ago screwed over a stranger who done them a good thing. The pacing is so fast for this plotpoint we don't get time to digest all of it, plus the tomfuckery wasn't warranted!!! Eventually the stakes are heightened and the plot gets back on the rails, (kind of?) and we have a lot suspense before the manga gets cut off cause it was canned.

  Conclusion: This manga had a fun premise, before being ruined by gross subjects, stupid characters and confusing pacing. It's a shame, but I can't say I enjoyed it, that's why I'm giving the Exploding Girl a 1.7/10.

  (Oh yeah I copy pasted this from my rant on Bluesky)

  (Also I cannot use a single image cause their image formats suck)

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