Reviews

Ran and the Gray World, Vol. 1 by Aki Irie

colorfulleo92's review against another edition

1.0

Whimiscal, magical and way to sexy. The main character is a 9 years old girl, but she puts on magical shoes and poff she is an adult. Could be an cute and silly story but apart from that there is guys trying to be with her romanticly. A 9 year old in a 18 year old body with the brain very much still a child. No, nope, eew. Too problematic, to eew. Beautiful artstyld but geez I'm not going to continuing to read this Manga Series!

curiousmadra's review

emotional funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

So this is my second manga that was recommended by my secret Santa from Animeplanet and I gotta say, the art looks absolutely incredible that it kept me interested to reading more. There was such goofy moments especially Rans wolf changed brother randomly kissing girls cause he’s in “heat” like I literally fell to the floor laughing guys, no kidding XD! I also thought the ending was pretty inspiring as well as wholesome seeing Ran advising her young nephew that just because she had the magical power to automatically be in a 20 year old body at 10 years old, that there isn’t actually a “exact” magic power that make you grow up so cherish every moment of your life. I feel we can definitely learn from those words since unfortunately magic ain’t real and hard work has to be put into “growing up”.

Now for the complains that led me to giving this manga a 7. I found that Rans relationship with Outarou rather forced and pretty disturbing since she is again, a child stuck in a grown ups body and is rather naive about his forcefulness. He wasn’t even considering much of her feelings and honestly didn’t need to be in the story. In fact, they should’ve just let him be the villain and not a sudden love interest for Ran. I just wish they focused it a more with Ran and Hibi, although they did get together in the end eventually but with the manga being so longwinded, they could’ve filled those gaps. I also thought there was too many pointless characters they added (like the wacky neighbours) and a character such as the Crow mafia, Ryouko and Tamao who barely got any screen time at all. Even though they were there in some scenes, I just wanted to find out more instead of the story just being rushed every so often for 51 chapters!

Still I would recommend this to people as it is different and again, the art is stunning!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, and Bullying

moonbites's review

4.0

This was a whimsical read. The magical elements in here are super fun and visually appealing. The art itself is stunning, I could just sit there and look at the art and be happy. There was a weird romantic element to it but overall I really liked the story. I am looking forward to reading the next volume!

saramarie08's review

3.0

Ran is a spunky 4th-grader who has magical shoes that turn her into a beautiful high-school girl. Her entire family all has magical abilities, as her brother has a fur coat that can turn him into a wolf-type creature. For some of this novel, Ran tries many different methods to go visit her magical mother. We see Mom in her home village, destined to guard a gigantic door which potentially could let out some big-bad. Towards the end, Ran meets a snotty rich man who becomes obsessed with her older self.

While the art was absolutely spectacular, the story was super disjointed. We get a small snippet of her life as a fourth grader, but she spends way more time as a super-hot high school girl and away from her fourth grade life. Why is Ran bullied at school? They call her scrawny but we don't really get too deep into her school life, other than her teacher is worried about all her cuts and bruises. Then it shifts suddenly into Ran's obsession with flying, and I assume that's where she's getting the cuts from even though this isn't explicit. This story is trying to blend the slice-of-life with magical girl genres, so why do we need the creepy, older Otaro, who is trying to get Ran to sleep with him? I'm much more interested in what Ran's mom is guarding than some older dude who doesn't realize nor care that he's coming on way too strong to a fourth grader.
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VIZ has this rated for Teen Plus, and the way things are going with Otaro, that is spot on. It's a shame though, because without that element, this would be a fine story to share with middle grade audiences.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
Suitability level: Grades 11-12

​This review was made possible with an advanced reader copy from the publisher through Edelweiss.

solace_in_things's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

molly_dettmann's review

2.0

Uhhhhh, so the artwork is gorgeous and some of the best I’ve seen in any manga, but the entire story is that a little 9 year old girl/sorceress puts on magic tennis shoes to become an adult and go on adventures and then it gets kind of creepy from there. See, Ran doesn’t just go on any particular adventure, she’s just an attractive older version of herself with her current 9 year old mentality and then there are creepy dudes who want to get with her (which to be fair at this point in the series the one creepy dude doesn’t know she’s actually a child, but his behavior is still really icky). I would not recommend this series.

devourer_of_stories's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

driedfrogpills's review

2.0

The art is gorgeous but I'm having a real hard time getting over the over-the-top sexualization of a child. I don't care what she looks like, she's like 8. And it's frustrating because if they took that out I'd totally be looking forward to the next volume because the family drama is intriguing.

schnoebs13's review

3.0

3.75⭐️

I really like this a lot and I’m going to try the next volume but the interactions between Otaro and Ran are really creepy. I would have given this 4-4.5 easily but the sexualization is uncomfortable. I’m hoping that things clear up in the next volume and he realizes she’s in 4th grade and they become friends.

Other than that I really loved the volume so much. A super curious, magical girl who lets her powers direct her where to go all in her hopes of learning to fly and see her mother more. The abilities of the rest of the family were a surprise but I’m all here for it! I feel bad for Jin but hopefully his relationship with his mom takes a turn in future volumes. I’m interested to see if the shoes actually have major or her abilities just transform her to fit into them. 🧐

theseblankpages's review

5.0

I loved this so much! The art is so pretty and sparkly, and I really liked the concept of having a sorcerer family living in the middle of everyday Japan~

Ran is such a fun and adventurous kid, and her care-free nature shines through even when she's transformed. It makes things a littleee weird when men are hitting on her left right and centre whenever she transforms into her 'older self' (a high-schooler?), because deep down she's still a kid! But i'm hoping that the following volumes won't include her getting together with the supposed "male lead" - ahem because he's an ADULT-

But otherwise i'm really loving this manga already, and i'm so glad i picked it up on a whim! ✨ The concept of a child using a magic item to get older reminds me of Creamy Mami a lot~


Rating: 4.5/5