Waga Na wa Umishi
Master Of Sea UMISHI

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Story: 7 Its a pretty straightforward story with the first few arcs used to introduce all of the main cast one thing I didn't exactly love is that some of the villains feel comically evil while the main character is a bit to shouneny being in a realistic manga about what essentially is giant sea towing. I do like how the author thoroughly goes out of his way to explain each of the operations they do and really makes sure to reinforce the idea of the scale of operations always making sure to show the bad outcomes, he definitely makes sure to keep the story ... entertaining.
Art: 9 Honestly the best part of this manga is the art, the way the author meticulously draws all the ships shown in the manga with panels showing the glory of everything massive is great. The character art design is pretty on point to other than the main character looking way cooler in the cover than in most of the story.
Character: 7 Where I sorta think is manga drops the ball is that the main character feels really naive for the beginning and stays kinda naive throughout like he was at an 100 on naive and by the end he's still at like a 50. One things I will compliment though is that all the side characters in this manga are great minus one useless one that urked me that only came in somewhat late.
Enjoyment: 7 Its hard to describe how I would pitch to someone else this manga. If the idea of really scary sea towing intrigues you I would say give this manga a try as it is definitely unique in its main theme. Just don't expect any too much form the story and bask in the glory of the giant scale of all the ships and you will have a good time.
Overall I'd give it a 7 a good read if the premise sounds interesting to you.

This manga is about a marine salvage company known as Nanba Salvage. The company takes all sorts of jobs at sea, ranging from towing uncontrollable ships to raising crashed planes off of the sea floor. They help out lots of people including those in life and death situations, but they are still very much a business. This is initially a major issue for the protagonist, Nanba Rintarou, who saw salvors as nothing more than hyenas. However, after his father died and left him both the company and a massive amount of debt, he had no choice but to take up the reins. It’s not long ... before he came to appreciate what salvors do, and he too began striving to become a master of the sea.

This manga deals with what is a pretty unique topic and does a great job of showing off lots of different facets of it in detail. That alone is enough to make it interesting. But on top of that, the story overall flows really well. There are a few major arcs that get really intense, but between that there are shorter stories that are more character focused. The major arcs are really exciting with all sorts of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat. The fact that they get increasingly dangerous as the manga progresses definitely helps with that. And the lighter feel to the shorter stories in between helps things from getting to be too much. Unfortunately, the final arc was really rushed and though it definitely has its high points, it leaves a pretty weak final impression.

In terms of characters, I felt Nanba was a great fit for the story. He’s a goody two shoes that starts off overtly self-righteous and pretty annoying, though he quickly grows out of that. However, even after that, he’s still a really good person that’s too nice for his own good. While some may be tired of such protagonists, I feel in the context of the pretty unique setting of this manga he still felt pretty fresh and likable. As for the rest of his crew, the dynamic for Nanba Salvage overall is still great so it’s easy to get invested in them. There are two characters, Sawa and Hiro, who both have pretty decent starts to their character arcs. However, they’re both heavily tied to story elements at the core of the final arc, and since the final arc was really rushed their arcs have pretty weak endings as well. There’s also a villain turned rival sort of character named Eguchi that has a pretty decent arc. Beyond that there are various characters that are amusing, but nothing too interesting or memorable.

The manga has some romance, but it’s not very good. The main romance seems to be between Nanba and Hiro. There’s some subtle relationship progress throughout the manga, but it’s very lite. They still have decent chemistry though, so it works. There’s this strange love triangle that forms with another girl in the mix, Maaya. However, she’s a completely pointless character and it felt really forced. And making the love triangle into a polygon towards the end just made things messier. It also didn’t help that the ending was pretty rushed in regards to all of this too.

The art isn’t all that great when it comes to people, mainly in terms of their faces and expressions. However, it’s amazing when it comes to stuff like ships, the sea floor, diving suits, etc. Thus, it’s great at what are the most important parts for the story being told and that’s enough to make the art good.

tl;dr: A well paced manga centered around a pretty fresh and exciting topic, though with a rushed ending.