Apr 4, 2020
Wasted potential: The manga. Mild spoilers ahead, nothing serious tho.
At first, this may seem one of the best "back in time" stories around. The main character is strong and has her own voice, and the secondary characters are charismatic and funny to read about, with many chapters where you can enjoy their antics and smile. And that's good, that's the part I like about this manga.
Now there's the bad. This manga devotes most of it's length to action, politics, tactics and strategy, being what you could say "the core" of what actually happens, but does it rather poorly.
Action is showy, but it's
...
not taken seriously. The good guys slash enemies left and right and are only wounded by massed firearms or named enemies. That's to be expected tho, but the action scenes could be a lot clearer about what's happening, as we usually see one or two panels of each important character doing their thing, not actual combat secuences of any kind. When a combat extends in time, action becomes sword crossing and screaming their values at each other, more than displays of swordmanship or martial arts of any kind.
Politics consists on entire chapters of pure exposition and monologues in which the characters involved detail their motivation to become engaged in the age of the Warring States... Only to be trumped by the MC talk-no-jutsu. Yeah, let's totally forgive those people who have killed hundreds or thousand of your subjects because they feel bad.
Tactics are mentioned in the manga as well. We see some basic maps detailing unit movement and the characters go on about the strenghts and weaknesses of their troops and army, but most battles are decided because one of the MC just barges in and defeats the enemy commander in single combat, ignoring hundreds of soldiers that were allegedly capable of winning the battle, instead of winning through actual tactics.
Strategy-wise, the good guys armies can move around and seemingly teleport where they are needed the most, also win against armies far superior to them with really low casualties, because... well, they're motivated. No talk about supplies, terrain or anything else. There's just a convenient ridge from where to look down at your enemy before scathingly tell them that your bonds are too much for them to break with their puny (and several times larger than yours) armies. Scouting and spying's done, most of the time, by one dude.
So that's it. I'm a bit disappointed, because I really wanted to like this manga, but it's just not good at what is TRYING to do. It should dedicate more time to the personal lives of the main cast and their dinamics, or take war and history seriously, or both, but right now is a half-assed attempt on both things.
And please, stop with the annoying talk-no-jutsu. I understand the MC is trying to instill into the warring state's poeple a sense of family and kindness that belongs to our era, but there's thousands of people's lives at risk at some points and she asks everybody to bend to her will and stop/take unreasonable decisions because "I'm sure they are doing it because they hurt". No shit. Honestly I could not stop thinking that If things went out well it was because of pure luck and MC bullshitery, nothing else, because the actions taken were not smart at all.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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