Review in one sentence: A breath of fresh air from the usual Action-Romance-Shounen category that I still enjoy that was almost ruined by an appalling start and horrid description.
For every manga there are drop points -- chapters where you feel like you have a good grasp of what the author wants to do with the manga and you can decide whether to drop the manga for good or keep reading. Unfortunately for this manga, the author gives you 2 extremely easy drop points at chapters 1-2 (oh look, another generic battle manga with some random gimmick and a million overused manga tropes) and chapters 5-6 (either "wtf is going on this mangaka has no idea what they're doing" or "god dam that character is so dam infuriatingly stupid"). Do NOT fall prey to them. Make it to chapter 11 (end of first arc) and decide whether you want to continue reading the manga from that point on.
Before I talk about the strengths of this manga, I want to address all the weaknesses first. The biggest glaring weakness is definitely the lack of direction and flow in early chapters. Chapter 1 reads like a generic one-shot. Chapters 2-3 are completely without direction where the authors could not decide between exposition, character development, world building, or overarching themes. As a result, the early chapters of this manga are extremely unfocused and make a mess of what later becomes a much stronger story with clear direction.
I will blame the terrible start on manga sales. It's hard to sell manga so it's easy to go with the safe "boy meets girl boy has super powers boy defeats enemies" route, but I am extremely grateful the authors stray away from that route extremely quickly. But, at the same time, since it's a review, I have to talk about it. The effects of the abysmal start are seen until chapters 8 or so. The authors have to keep using plot devices and dialogue that seems extremely forced on characters that appear ill thought and fleshed out. Characters appear to behave randomly with no forethought to try and elicit cheap emotions with no background information making them extremely shallow paper cut-outs. However, all of these problems are fixed, to various degrees, as the manga goes on.
On to the strengths of this manga. (again, all of this only applies if you make it past chapter 11 and everyone should definitely give it a shot until then. 11 chapters isn't even that long) The characters are great! The main protagonist is funny, after the author removes the non-nonsensical tropes forced on him during the early chapters, and his character is impeccable. He doesn't dole on the power of friendship or love and he doesn't go into a cave to power up every time there's trouble. He's a strong lead at the beginning with visible flaws and weaknesses, making him overall a likable character that's still being fleshed out as the manga progresses. All supporting characters are fleshed out (again, after the bad start) and have their own motives, personalities, and purpose. No character feels "wasted". There are some random characters thrown in for comedic purposes, but it's not rampant and they engage in meaningful dialogue with the protagonist. The love interest isn't stupid, nor a damsel in distress, nor any other terrible manga "heroine" standard. She's her own person and, while dependent on the protagonist, also has a life outside of just being a heroine.
The art is great, a mix of heavy and dark with light and carefree for the appropriate moods. Not too much stupid fan service for no reason. There are deeper undertones, specifically on things like death, life after death, a person's impact on the world during his lifetime, and the process of grief, but they don't harp on it until your ears bleed. If you want to read deeper into the manga that's your prerogative, and it's there for people who want a slightly deeper experience, but it's also easily ignored. Dialogue and situations are believable, though somewhat outlandish, and the whole setting is pretty novel. At the end of the day it might turn out to be a battle manga, but it doesn't clutter up chapters with full page length sword swipes or people explaining in stupid intricate detail about exactly how their attacks work. In fact, there really isn't that many battle manga tropes present at all.
So, at the end of the day, it definitely accomplishes what it sets out to do. No, it's not as dark, or deep as the josei/seinen/shoujo manga you're reading but guess what? This rating is not for a josei/seinen/shoujo manga, I'm rating a Shounen/Action manga and in that category it easily stands out from its peers. An extremely enjoyable manga with a great cast, good dialogue, fine art, and strong direction. Were it not for it's abysmal start, I would even rate it higher at a 9.5.
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