May 19, 2020
I binged this manga over the last few days after having it on my PTR list for way too long. Because of that, I can offer you a review that is not shrouded by nostalgia or anger at hiatuses. It was running a whopping 15 years after all.
Art: 6
Nothing groundbreaking but pleasant to look at. Character designs are though out and make named characters easily distinguishable, though faces sometimes look weird and deformed. There was a little bit of inconsistency with some frames having obviously put tremendous effort into them while others being done more 'efficiently' (eg. no background, shading, etc). My biggest beef
...
with the art is battle scenes, not to be confused with fight scenes which were done very well. Battle scenes were a mess. Half the time you have no idea what is exploding, where a shot is coming from or going towards, or simply what are you even looking at. This makes for a fairly chaotic experience and will force you to pause at frames very often just to figure out what's going on.
Character: 6.5
I really liked the main character even though he's total Gary Stu. His motivations make sense and are consistent, his character changes ever so slightly with how he is influenced by the progress on his quest and new friends joining him. Supporting cast is mostly made up of standard archetypes, so I'm not gonna expand on them. Villains were kind of a mixed bad. Some of them were written amazingly, with great motivations and gray personality, while others (especially the minor and nameless ones) were just cartoonishly evil for the sake of being evil.
Story: 6.5
The story set up a very interesting premise and managed to keep its dark tones all the way until the end. The later part of the story felt a little bit rushed but was enjoyable regardless and managed to deliver a fairly satisfactory conclusion to itself at the end. The main problem I had with the story is how convenient everything was. There is always someone coming to rescue the main cast, or when they do lose there are very little consequences to it. The most convenient of all is how almost every character immediately accepted Köinzell's side of 'the truth'.
Enjoyment: 8
I'm a sucker for dark fantasies, so despite my previous complaints, I still enjoyed this series very much. Though the fluency of going through chapters was occasionally disrupted by messy battle scenes, it still allowed for a decent immersion and an enjoyable experience. There was a plethora of hype and badass moments, and I can't really remember getting bored at any part, even when exposition was being delivered.
Overall: 7
If you like the dark fantasy genre, then this is definitely worth your time. This series has both very original parts and very cliche parts, so your enjoyment will be standing on whether you like these tropes or not. If you are a fan of hype fights, MC being a badass, and the dark side of people being portrayed without kiddy gloves on, then this is definitely the series for you. Just don't expect to have your mind blown and enjoy the ride.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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