Apr 11, 2023
Damn.
I feel this is one of those hidden gems not enough people talk about. Lucifer and the Biscuithammer is a rather short shonen manga, which already is not common as a lot of shonen stories tend to be long. It starts weird, the premise of "guy wakes up with a talking lizard that tells him he's a knight and must protect a princess" doesn't sound really catchy, but shit gets serious in 10 chapters or even less.
The plot actually gets really interesting, transforming what seemed like cliches into an actually well fleshed-out story. The art is simple, but it works: a good artist doesn't
...
always need to be good at drawing to make a visually appealing manga.
The best part about this series is the characters and their development. Every single character in Lucifer and the Biscuithammer has a detailed personality that develops and changes, even radically, as the story progresses. The protagonist starts as your usual apathetic and "grey" main character, but actually becomes better and better by interacting with other people and living, just as a real person would.
No character in this manga feels wasted. Everyone has a clear goal and either fulfills it or fails at doing so, with a whole character arc that leaves almost nothing to the reader's fantasy. Overall, it feels extremely satisfying and without any errors.
Ok so now, the spoiler-ed part of the review:
LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD; READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION
Almost all characters are perfect, and I didn't really appreciate how Inatika Akitani's psychic powers were left a mystery. He somehow is neigh-immortal and can see the future. Same goes for the guy who trains Hakudou. We don't know how he knows Hakudou and Soichirou, and we also don't know why is he so strong. He just is. Both of these things can be left unaddressed, and it works like this. I would've just preferred, as pure personal taste, if they were developed a bit more. I don't blame you if you liked how mysterious they felt, again it's just personal taste.
Amamiya Yuuhi is a perfect imperfect main character. He has issues, but they work perfectly in the story, in a similar manner to characters like Punpun from Oyasumi Punpun or Shirou from Fate/Stay Night.
I also love how Maimakterion as a character was made. He goes from being a non-character to being a fully fleshed person, while still being an "object".
Hakudou is a cutie.
In the end, what I loved the most about Lucifer and the Biscuithammer is how every character's role is well defined and nobody leaves you saying "he clearly could've done more". It's a bummer this series is not up there with some other examples of good character writing, because it has nothing to envy to the big names.
In the end, the only things that hold me from giving it a 10 is the art, which isn't as great as it should be, and what I explained in the spoilers. But this is just nitpicking, really.
Score: 9/10 (certified banger™️)
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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