Manga, read on May 19, 2026

Author: Itsuki Natsumi

Rating: ★★★

Thoughts: I'm not even going to bother giving a plot synopsis like I usually do because I'm not sure where to even begin. Summary here (and yes, it's distracting reading this story in 2026 with multiple characters who have that last name lmao). This is going to be a media entry with a lot of criticism, but as the score reveals, I didn't hate it. There's a lot of untapped potential in this comic, which perhaps made it more frustrating to read than a typical mediocre manga.

My first issue with this is that the politics in the setting are the least interesting thing about it, yet it's what 90% of the dialogue focuses on. The author clearly put a lot of effort into the world building, but the story doesn't showcase this in any meaningful way. It's a post-apocalyptic manga set in a warzone that barely wants to showcase its post-apocalyptic world or explain what the different factions are fighting for. The average panel consists of characters standing in a room, providing exposition about the ongoing conflict, with a 20% chance of that exposition having any importance on the actual plot. It's more like an impersonation of a war manga, down to the names of the American factions being fake sounding ones like Sunlate and Indi.

The remaining 10% of the story is dedicated to interpersonal relationships, which I enjoyed. Kind of. The main characters mesh well together because they're based on Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man from the original Wizard of Oz. The mangaka did a good job at sticking to the Oz theme while also adding her own spin on the group. Each of the characters are distinct and expose each other to new ways of thinking, giving them a nice synergy. Any time the trio are together, I actually start to enjoy the comic and feel as if the story is moving towards a direction I like. The problem is the group don't spend much time together. The story has them constantly splitting up, reuniting for a page or two, then going back to being separated (and then its back to exposition in an empty room territory). This is frustrating because the characters on their own aren't exactly the greatest:

• Filicia: Our Dorothy. Annoying and naive by design because she's a sheltered rich kid prodigy. There are ways to make this character archetype work, but the story spends most of its time showcasing Filicia's worst traits and none on her intellect, until the absolute end. She works best when she's bouncing off of Muto or 1019.
• Muto: He's the Scarecrow ig because he's a jaded mercenary. Fine for the most part, but I hate the way the American characters see him and are constantly like "woah, u r Asian so u look like a child but u have the skills of a peerless warrior o__o!? amazing..." Whatever Japanese inferiority/superiority complex has writers do this almost every time a Japanese character interacts with Americans in manga idk but please stop. Once I can ignore, but this happens in the story multiple times lmao.
• 1019: The Tin Man in the form of an android with a woman's face and a man's body, created by Filicia's brother and sent to start off their mission of going to the mythical land of Oz. Tbh no complaints, I actually really liked 1019. He develops kind of like how you'd expect, but with some neat surprises, even romantically...

There's other characters, but none with the amount of star power the main cast has collectively (except the barely present antagonist).

I have tons of issues with Oz, enough to warrant a lower score, but something about it made me keep reading in hopes that I'd finally click with it. The climax gets close to that. There was a lot of tension, and it was maybe the first time I was truly rooting for the cast. Then finally came the ending and I was stunned by the last page. It made me suddenly care for this world and characters, only to be left feeling empty because there was nothing more to read...

The edition I read had some bonus notes from the mangaka a decade after the story's completion. She revealed that she wanted to have a character that would represent the Cowardly Lion and give the manga a narrative form similar to that of a road movie, with our cast travelling across North America to Oz. However, she had to cut this entire idea due to the fact that she was only promised four volumes and not eight. Reading this alleviated the nagging feeling I had of there being a good comic hidden in there somewhere. This was that! I feel like the road movie setup would have propped up the story's strengths and let us experience the world first hand, eliminating my major problems (;´□｀)/

Overall, this was a C grade comic with an A+ ending. Just a very confounding read that's haunted by the ghost of the author's original vision. It was way too ambitious for its length, although I do respect the effort in trying to make a guerilla warfare manga for a shoujo magazine. I might watch the OVA just to experience this story again, because I don't think I'm ready to say bye to the main cast just yet, regardless of how middling an experience this was...

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