Reviews

I was never a reader of Nisio Isin story, so coming into this was quite a doozy, lots of wordplay, lots of puzzles, lots of "more on that later" vibes. It was nothing within my knowledge or wheelhouse, I just opened it because I heard of legendary status of the author so I thought, "okay I'll start here." I think because the story was not given the proper amount of time to develop (would an author only want nearly 60 chapters where it seems a larger looming war was being trained for?!?!?!) I cannot give this series higher than a certain threshold, not because it's bad but because it's unfinished. I enjoyed the wild puzzles and convoluted explanations about how certain characters solve riddles and their backstories and abilities. I enjoyed the potential for a story critical of war and crafting super soldier squads to enlist in things. I enjoyed the protagonist's noble goal of ending all wars and the kindness he held. But I did not always enjoy things, in the beginning, the story seemed to lag or maybe I was not entertained, in truth I found it a bit boring and I even forced myself to trudge through the chapters, but once more characters were introduced, the other classes and the challenges across classes, the metaverse arc, I found the narrative to be quite enjoyable. I think I started enjoying after the murder mystery arc. It wasn't clicking much for me but I'm glad I read it, I'm gonna accept the MAL rating of 6 because "fine" is the way I'd describe this at-times-charming, at-times-complicated, at-times-hard-to-get-through, unfinished story.