If i had to describe this manga as succinctly as possible, i'd say "Harry Potter but all female, lesbian as can be, war times, and a very weird mix of wholesome, cute, dark and heavy emotions and moods", and I say Harry Potter referring to the soft magic systems being basically identical, HP's is more explored whereas FLUYD's is only developed when necessary which is a very good thing, and that brings me to another really important part of this manga:
It's a manga largely about war, but not in your typical action and combat kinda way for it has almost no action scenes, if you are looking for a manga with those aspects this is not it, instead it chooses too depict the often unseen and unmentioned side of war: the people that are left behind, the people that have to deal with not knowing if the people they love and cherish will return to them ever again, this is honestly greatly refreshing for me for i am a sucker for a dark and heavy story, and i do mean heavy.
There are some aspects to this story that i do not wish to spoil for it would ruin a very interesting surprise, all i am gonna say is that surprises in this manga are not usually good, matter of fact they are usually very fucked up and disturbing in ALOT of ways, summarizing this whole segment:
-War, but the emotional and mentally fucked up side of it;
-Incredibly disturbing situations and scenarios that some characters are put in/have to deal with.
If you like those things or wanna know if you do like them, then this manga might be for you.
Now that we got the dark and depressing out of the way, time to talk about the cute and wholesome, remember when i said lesbian? Well it is, but not in your typical yuri kinda way, for a story that includes girls in love with each other, living together, there is no fan service at all (depending on what your definition of it is, for me there is none at all), it's more of a emotional and genuine kinda love, focusing instead on the genuine connections these people have and how they feel for each other.
However, this love is not depicted in a vacum like with a large part of other romance manga/anime i've seen, it's a romance that I would call "in context", almost as if the love wasn't written in by an author and was instead a product of two peoples interactions, another way to think about it is the connections and/or relationships present in this manga feel almost alive in a weird way, as if the author them self was in these characters positions and were writing them in first person...
After all that praise it's almost redundant to say that when the cuddly scenes or otherwise cute and wholesome moments hit, booooy do they hit, adorable as a word does not even begin to do it justice, but again, that is my personal experience with the manga, and it was the same the second time i read through it, and again, summarizing this whole segment:
-Very gay, very wholesome and cute;
-Genuine connections that feel as tho real people are being written in.
And those are the two main aspects of the manga, the emotional side of war and relationships alike, and an honestly genuinely refreshing use for a magic system, not as the main focus or even as a lazy "plot device" of sorts to insert ridiculous stakes, but a backdrop for an actual human feeling story that transmits all sorts of powerful emotions from positive to negative, so if you like crying and smiling through the tears mere minutes after, this manga is for you.
10/10 one of my favs for sure
