Soukyuu no Ariadne
Ariadne in the Blue Sky.

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Making a review since no one else has so far.

Let me start off by saying that this isn't Claymore. It's a shonen adventure manga through and through.


Story: 8

The story starts off pretty basic, but it grows up with the characters. Being aimless at the beginning of the story felt a little weird, but the world-building, characters and their goofy interactions was enough to pull me it until the plot started in earnest. As the story has went on the protagonists have been put in more and more danger and slight layers of complexity are added, which I am a big fan of. It ... feels like a nice progression from innocent fun, to the stakes being a little bit higher in every arc.


Art: 8

The art isn't anything too special most of the time, but there are some shining moments where you can tell Yagi put a lot of work into it. The characters are more easily differentiated than in his past works, but some of the designs for minor characters can look a little lazy. The action art is also clean on the whole, but sometimes it feels like something is missing to make it more dynamic. Where I think the art really shines in this series is the landscape/cityscape art. Spreads of towns and the world as a whole are beautiful and add a lot of life to this series.



Characters: 9

The characters are one of my favorite parts of this manga. They have such a great group dynamic, and as more characters have joined the main cast, none of them have felt annoying or useless so far. The duel protagonists, Lacile and Leana, bounce off of each other very well and their relationship slowly growing is one of the things I look forward to as the chapter count increases.

For side characters, the tribes in the world of Soukyuu no Ariadne are very interesting with how they are portrayed and how different their looks and customs are.
The tribes are modeled after the 12 zodiacs, and their names come from their japanese name, just spelled backwards. The main casts visits these tribes learn about them, and help them out while hopping from town to town on their adventure.



Enjoyment: 9

I am really enjoying this manga so far. There isn't anything particularly outstanding about it, but the characters make me laugh and make me feel for them too. The mystery sprinkled into the story is growing and I am excited to uncover it, along with the rest of the world that has been built up.



Overall: 9

This is something great to get into if you are looking to go on an adventure and like some goofy antics thrown in every now and then. A couple things that I think can push this series into being more popular are more dynamic actions scenes and stronger enemies that can really push the main cast further in their respective fights.

A severely underrated Shonen title that deserves more recognition. While the rest of the world (at least on the internet and where I live) clamored on and on about the new generation of Shonen: Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia and others, Soukyuu no Ariadne, Norihiro Yagi's (of Claymore fame) new series remains a gem that rightfully deserves more popularity.

Norihiro Yagi's writing is not particularly subtle for a mature series, nor his narrative which let's be honest, in Claymore felt like it somewhat lost direction after the time skip. What made Claymore great was his consistent world-building, enticing character, and art design, and his characters ... which occasionally surprised me with their great depth.

In Soukyuu no Ariadne, Claymore's (slight) nihilism is left behind for adventure and action. It seems to revolve around the best parts of Norihiro Yagi's work. The story features a small cast of characters who set out to explore a vast world that is only restricted to Norihiro Yagi's imagination, worldbuilding, and artistic capabilities. This cuts loose the restrictive narrative design of Claymore's revenge plot, allowing more freedom in world-building and a looser narrative design. It also features characters that seem to encompass more depth than you'd typically expect from a shonen title (there seems to be a brutal war backstory). While these Shonen protagonists still do Shonen protagonist-like things, at the very least, they do not seem to carry and enforce that hopeless optimism that Shonen stories like to incorporate.

But perhaps, the best thing about Soukyuu no Ariadne is that it is just plain fun to read. I'm about 30 chapters in and it's been great so far.