I think what holds this story down the most is the author's reliance on shock value. He wants to show you how horrible war can be: youre seeing civilians getting mowed down, women being raped, torture, and other warcrimes. But after so many tragedies youre just like "oh come on". And its grating how the USN in this story acts nothing like how they did in the games. In the games, neither side was completely good or evil. It wanted to show you that both factions had good people and bad people within their ranks, and how war was rarely just good vs evil. In DL&DS, the USN faction seems to be completely filled with subhuman ogre men who think of nothing but murder and rape, where Nanking is just another Tuesday.
Another thing to be aware of is it seems the author was very horny when writing this. Almost every arc has a sex scene in it, or at the very least a character doing something weird and pervy. Now, some people like their stories to be full of sex. But if you are like me, seeing two characters who don't even love eachother have passionless sex will keep you rolling your eyes over many pages.
Now lets talk about the good things in this manga.
As stated in the previous paragraph, this manga is separated into arcs; each arc being its own self-contained story that gives you different perspectives on the Huffman conflict. So its not just about the mech pilots, but also the grunts, the civilians, the media, and others. The quality of each arc wavers between being great and kinda sucking, but none of them are so bad that it would warrant skipping. Besides, there are a few reoccurring characters throughout the manga, so it is worth seeing how all these connected stories culminate, especially for one specific character.
But If there is one thing that is consistent, it is the art. The mechanical designs of the Wanzers and other military vehicles and gear look great, and the battles are epic. Its the type of manga that has certain pages where youll catch yourself looking at them for minutes, admiring all the detail put into it. The character designs are good too. You can totally check out this manga for the art alone if thats the type of person you are.
