Muv-Luv Alternative

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This review is spoiler free

So I started reading this on a whim after being swept up in the hype after finishing the visual novel. I saw a lot of people using the manga adaptation on their favourites, but, as I guessed, it's used as a placeholder. It had a fairly decent score too, though, and as I assumed, sadly, it's also because people are using their score as a placehodler too.

First off out the bat the manga spoils something you don't find until about 30 hours into the visual novel. It doesn't outright spoil it, but the implications are too blatantly obvious. So that wasn't ... a good start. I had to mention this first, as it's such a blatant flaw with this adaptation that I can't not bring it up first before talking about anything else. I'll cover this more later.

I will now cover the positives of this adaptation before I delve into the issues I had with the manga. The one main positive of this adaptation so far, at least (I'm waiting for the last few chapters to be translated), is that it does tell the whole story, leaving in almost all the dialogue. While it doesn't sound like much of a compliment, it really is a big one, especially with the lack of content usually covered in visual novel adaptations. MLA is an especially difficult story to tell outside of its medium, so I am glad they kept loyal to the story.

The manga also expands on some of the side characters, which I enjoyed. I think a lot of the added content is a nice addition that fits a manga adaptation more than it would have been told through the visual novel. With mangas easier-to-consume format, it flows with the story and doesn't feel too cluttered. I think the extra pages for Isumi were particularly good, somewhat moving, and probably my favourite part of this adaptation. The best episode adapted overall for me has to be episode 9. The infamous moments towards the end look very pretty in the manga, which is undeniable.

Something I really enjoyed while reading was the covers for both volumes and chapters; they're very clean, and I think most fans will enjoy them. While I didn't like a lot of the direction with the art these covers and the TSF action I will admit I do think looked good.

Now onto the bad, and unfortunately, there's a lot of it, so I'll try to cover everything efficiently. As I already mentioned at the start, the worst part of this adaptation by far is the blatant spoiler in Chapter 3. They were clearly trying to go with teasing foreshadowing, but it misses and gives away a very big part of the plot too early on.

Artwork is one of the central focuses of manga, and for a series with such a big reputation as Muv-Luv, I think it's normal to expect great artwork from someone passionate about the series. Unfortunately, this adaptation is lacking all the fundamentals for a good or consistent manga artwork. You don't have to be a good drawer or a regular manga reader to see that the manga art is just not very nice to look at. It doesn't stop there, though the storyboarding in general is really lazy. To put it bluntly, this feels like the artist working on it has no interest in the series and is being paid the minimum wage. A lot of heavy-hitting scenes, especially within episode 6 aren't taken seriously and lose the weight of their impact because of the jankey-lazy style. Scenes that should have dedicated page spreads, or at least one page, regularly get squeezed into one panel. Having said this, I want to make it clear that I'm not an artist; my judgement is based on purely my experience reading manga and comics up until now. The artist obviously spent time on it and is more than anything I could ever draw, but it's unfair to better artwork in manga to not criticise the lack of quality here.

Somewhat related, but another thing that's odd is the absurd amount of fanservice. While yes, I understand MLA is an adult visual novel, it doesn't make it any less weird how much more lewd the manga is. There's titties everywhere in this manga. Now it's up to you whether this is a bad or good thing. I'm not going to argue about that. However, it definitely makes it difficult to take seriously at times, and a lot of the fanservice is very forced, tripped over into the girls boob cliché garbage, so it just adds nothing.

To conclude, how do I feel overall about Muv-Luv Alternatives manga? Well, it's an okaaayish experience if you're a big fan of the series and want to experience alternative again in quick format. However, for a first-time experience, unfortunately, I would never recommend it. One of Muv-Luv Alternative's main highlights is its fantastic production quality, which takes advantage of everything at its disposal to tell its story, especially for its time. To be a successful adaptation, an adaptation should replicate the source enough to be a good or great alternative for newcomers to a series. Muv-luv Alternative's manga doesn't deliver on that, though.

TLDR: read the visual novel please lol