I love Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondous works. Ever since working on Eureka Sevens manga adaptation together KataKondou have been a darkhorse duo in the realm of manga working on works such as Smokin Paradehttps://anilist.co/manga/86476/SmokinParade/ the oneshot KamisamaPermanenthttps://anilist.co/manga/62451/KamisamaPermanent/ and possibly their most infamous Deadman Wonderland which proved so popular it got an anime adaptation. BUT WE DONT TALK ABOUT THAT. So when they announced Retropolis Scratch their newest project I was excited. When I saw that it was getting a simulpub I was locked in. Then I heard it was ending. After 15 chapters. After it had just passed the 1year mark... Okay. How bad could it be. The story begins as follows: Tsukimichi Dori a newlyminted High Schooler moves to Kyoto to live out his dream of an easybreezy High School life but accidentally wanders into a world known as Higan a space in where people who possess Irezumi literally just tattoos but Irezumi sounds cooler which possess Ink Beasts and they do combat. Tsukimichi gets hurt and in order to save his life he needs an Irezumi transplanted into him. Now forced into this world Tsukimichi tries to find a way out. Cool concept but heres where it goes wrong: 3/5ths of the main cast are MASSIVELY MASSIVELY underdeveloped. We get some nice gags for them here and there but if your name isnt Tsukimichi Dori or Hiyori Sangaku GTFO out of here. Hell even in the final arc one of the Main cast get a line dialogue that I just found insulting to my intelligence. 440https://i.ur.com/U4wIVIR.png Theyve never seen fighting together until now and neither of them have even been shown winning a fight on panel together. Hiyoris brother Habaki is okay but hes mostly used as an exposition dumper seeing as hes effectively the muggle of the group. Plus for some reason the official translation makes him way to hard to understand as they give him a stereotypical Delinquent dialect but since the fan scanlations are so wooden its the best were gonna get. Now KataKondous works typically follow a threeact structure. Deadman Wonderland had this with the Scar Chain Arc after getting introduced to some of the characters then the Ninben Arc and then concluding at the Shiro Arc they continued this with Smokin Parade beginning with the Shikagura Arc after the introductions were out of the way continuing with The Lord of the Night Arc and Concluding it with the Spider Pandemic arc. Here... We get the setup for the first act... and jump immediately into the third. See where the manga tricks you is that you think going to go into a tournament arc but then it just... doesnt. You think theyre going to go into an arc about the mysterious Irezumi Hunter... 640https://i.ur.com/w7rMiEn.jpeg And then they just... Dont. All these characters are introduced which makes you think our main cast is going to fight them as get some development and their opponents can put on a good showing... 400https://i.ur.com/BGh6KWW.png 400https://i.ur.com/r3PPqqc.png 400https://i.ur.com/BBjD5yT.png 400https://i.ur.com/Wu4gBFj.png ...And then... They dont. So after Chapter 9 the final arc begins Spoilers ahead. People believe that this work got axed and if I read this manga in a vacuum Id be inclined to believe so. However considering how the LITERAL NEXT MONTH KataKondou teased a new upcoming work makes me believe that they intentionally rushed the ending because they wanted to work on that rather than any more of Retropolis Scratch. I genuinely hope the latter isnt true seeing as how openended they left the manga. Well Im off to reread Hitomichan is Shy with Strangers again... at least that doesnt disappoint.