Almark

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Jan 18, 2018
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After an incredibly strong start, has simmered down to just "quite good", but it is still quite good, and is still holding a lot of promise tantalisingly in front of us.

Some of the readers in the comments here seem maybe upset it that switched from an adventure story to a coming-of-age (in magic school) story? Maybe I'm misunderstanding but that didn't bother me; I'd already got the message that this story was partly going to be about the protagonist struggling to fit in as a child soldier thrown into school, enrolled late and under-educated, in a (for now) peaceful country, and I'm totally down for that kind of shit.

If anything, I'm disappointed it seems to be gradually focusing more on 'unexpected opportunities for him to kick ass' and less on subtle psychological arcs (even though the ass-kicking is not low-quality action or anything), filling in lately with classic but more-generic coming-of-age tropes on the character-growth side. The last time it gave me the chills with a "holy shit" moment was back in chapter 8 (page 19, for the curious), and we're in chapter 20 now. But it sure hasn't stopped paying attention to his state of mind and growth either, so I'm still good.
 
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Aug 1, 2024
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254
Very good storytelling. Only flaw that I personally dislike is the amount of screentime for the chubby guy. He is not awful per se, but there are more interesting characters that could be use some extra panels. The character is the coward stereotype, not as bad as Zenitsu from Demon slayers, but the trope is generally pretty irritating to see.

I would say with some confidence that the chubby guy has the most amount of screentime after the MC himself, which well, doesn't add to the story's quality in my eyes past a certain point
 

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