Review will contain spoiler
Story
So far we have a development. We’re going somewhere decent. As you’ve read the description, our MC Shiki joins the “villains” to fight the “heroes” of the story. In actuality, Onis are victimized people like the Uchihas. Those who go berserk are not in control of their powers therefore they kill. Once they kill, they are hunted down by the Momotaro who view themselves as heroes but they are a vile bunch. So far the author is doing a good job with the distinction between good and bad. But that’s just all there is. A group that call themselves good and a group that are just trying to survive, not particularly that they’re “evil”. It’s rather simple and straightforward, which can be a good thing, but if you’re talking about complexity, then there’s none here. Something I'd appreciate is if the author delves into the human side of the perspective. We know Onis are considered "evil" and Momotaros are considered "good" but how does a human who is powerless to both groups look at them?
Something I want to touch on that is a vital part of the story are the fight scenes and pacing. I personally think fight scenes are alright, but when you pair that with bad pacing, it gets pretty bad. If you showed me just a panel of a mid fight scene I’d say it looks good, but if I read from beginning to end, then I can tell the fight scene actually ain’t that good. You don’t want fight scenes to last 10 chapters of back and forth but you also don’t want them to last a couple panels, you know? There’s no thrill. Characters make a couple good moves and someone goes down. Just like that.
I think the powers for the Oni are pretty neat and cool and each character have their own manifestations that are unique to their specific backgrounds but I do wonder what the limitations are. For example the teacher Mudano has the umbrella that rains blood armies that shoot arrows. But then he can also control it to turn into a dragon in the chapters later. So as long as it "rains" blood, can it be anything? Or does it have to be associated with his past? I don't know. With the other Oni characters too, it seems their manifestation can change too, so this aspect of their power is a little unstable.
Art
I think the art is good. Although I do think the transitions between panels could use a little work. Sometimes fight moves make no sense to me as I can’t understand what just happened to cause a wound or for a character to be pushed back, etc. We see the same issues in non-fight scenes as well where characters make a particular movement but the impact seems different from the movement.
Character
On their own, I think the characters are alright. They each have their own unique personalities and backgrounds. Shiki reminds me a little of Bakugo with his way of speaking. Personality wise, Shiki has more humanity but he’s just severely rebellious right now. I’m not gonna talk about the other characters as they aren’t very important right now. They do get their own little moment to shine but they’re just background noise at this point.
Moving on to an issue I found poking annoyingly at me. Something I find not very well established is Shiki’s relationships with others. So far he hasn’t developed much of a friendship with any of his other classmates, aside from Mask face kid, but we do have some outside of that. The only budding friendship I can understand is Shiki and Mask face kid. From the start to the present, they have had a cat and mouse relationship and we can see them develop from then to now, how closer they feel to actual friends. The other friendships I find rather contrived. Shiki meets a little girl who loses her family during the battle and he gets friendly with her, understanding her loss as a Oni who lost family, and he cries for her so hard during the final scene to encourage her to smile. The other friendship is when Shiki, as a disguised person named Natsu on a mission trip with the others to discover their desired Units in the Corp, meets a Momotaro and they immediately become friends within two or so chapters. They have a rather deep seated talk about “would you kill your friend if you find out they are an enemy” and I just have to pause myself because these two who have just met consider themselves friends…..not just friends, but friends who believe each other on a profound level. In these two cases, with Mei and the Momotaro, the friendship had no build up and they just happened. I don’t think that is very well written at all. With Mei, I know they have the connection of losing family, but do they have to go on crying in the middle of a fight? For the Momotaro friend, I would’ve bought the “my long lost pal from elementary school is actually a Momotaro now” more than this. At least then there’s a prior establishment to why they are friends and how that will affect them going forward. There’s more impact that way.
Enjoyment/Overall
We’re only at the beginning and I did enjoy what I read. I can’t say this is a bad story based on what could be 1/10 of the actual story. So far it’s been generic but so many stories are generic and can still be enjoyable. All I can say is that pacing and character developments could use a lot of work. However the author wishes to develop the story, I hope they do it better. Because the story itself seems fine to me, just the execution needs work.
