Oct 20, 2023
Oh boy.
Łucja of steel is a steam-punk power fantasy about Poland circa 1910. Or earlier, or later.
A valiant effort of making a story like Battle Angel Alita with elements which are trying to emulate Berserk, into something new, fresh and interesting. Sadly, it's just a try and end result is rather bad.
Story: author just machine gun topics, characters, narration and settings having problem with focusing on a single thing. The worst part is that titular "Steam knight" Łucja is supported by character called... Lucy (English equivalent of Łucja). And Lucy is less fun version of Winry from FMA.
Łucja is taking everything from Alita (BAA). Character
...
is both naive and driven by her will to fight... just like Alita for most of the Battle Angel series. She's semi-noble but her full status is not explained very well. None the less, author tries to make her like some sort of low grade samurai but with steam powered hands and a mind of a child.
Łucja's main sidekick is Wojciech who in the span of 12 chapters shifts from mysterious modus operandi to caretaking friend for no reason at all (I'll explain later).
Another main character was mentioned Lucy and also her mentor - Cantor. And old weapon and armor smith with passion of painting.
Main villain in the story, so far, is crazed hussar, who for unexplained reasons get fixated on Łucja, breaks his own character so the story could progress, just to shift back... just so the story could progress.
The main issue I have is that characters are flat. Very weak writing, but also lack motivation, character development, yet, they change their behavior from chapter to chapter.
Another jarring aspect of this comic, is how uneven the art is. To this moment there was just one single chapter with noticeable good art, everything else shifts from moderate realism (as much as mediocre manga can get), to serious issues with proportions and clarity of panels. Often background are a bit whimsical, but I must admit consistency of using same narrow angle to present vehicles and inventions.
Next part is probably due to original Polish names being transcribed to Japanese using English notation, just to be re-translated to English causing some serious atrocities, but that was really bad experience for someone natively speaking Polish.
To sum things up:
-characters aren't thought off all that greatly, their design is far from original and are rather flat in writing
-story is simple, but rapidly changes pace, and it feels like what happened in 12 chapters should be better explained in the span of perhaps 20+ chapters, it meanders trough different plot points and comes out as weak and barely put together
-art is average, trying the semi-realistic style, mimicking Berserk or something what Harold Sakuishi's would make, but it got many consistency errors and mostly feel like rushed, or perhaps, lacking attention and time to help the series in places, where other key elements are failing.
Conclusion:
Already seen fellow Poles losing their mind because story is happening somewhere and sometime in Poland, but the truth is "Koutetsu no Łucja" is rather bad series.
It's the type of comic you find out randomly, read it because of the first impression and novelty, but forgets it even existed few hours after finishing the read.
It's not as bad, as reading shampoo bottle while sitting on the toilet, but not really that much far from it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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