I'm torn. I want to give LMS(Legendary Moonlight Sculptor) a 10, while simultaneously I want to give it a 7. This is because the first couple volumes of LMS are easily a 10. The first couple volumes are so well written and addictive, I lost myself in the entire series. I've read from volume 1 to volume 20 with nearly no breaks.
The problems start after the first couple volumes. More padding and filler starts popping up. The pacing slows down because of it. Then more and more contradictory sentences pop up. I understand some of this is due to the translators probably rushing or whatever, though I'm not complaining about the translators as they allowed me to read LMS, so a big thank you to them! Anyway, at one point the padding, slow pacing, contradictions, and numerous loop holes become so bad, I'm not sure it's even the original author writing it. In fact, I seriously think someone else wrote one of the arcs.
The todeum arc was definitely the low point of LMS.
Anyway, at that point I was thinking of dropping LMS, it was that bad. Luckily, after struggling through the terribly written tautology, padding, and story itself, things got better again. It still wasn't at the level of the first couple volumes but at the very least it had improved a good amount from the low point of the series.
In the beginning, as the author added more elements to the story, it was gradually improving and becoming more complex. I loved every second of it. At some point the author lost control. He constantly added more elements when there was already more than enough, to the point where he couldn't juggle them well and the extra pieces started falling here and there. As a result the story is a jumbled mess at times.
The loopholes and contradictions were one of the worst offenders I had to learn how to overlook. I think that if I had read the volumes spaced out over time then the impact they would have would be much lower. Instead, I read a good amount of the series all at once, so it was easy to spot inconsistencies. When these started appearing it was heartbreaking. Somehow I was able to start ignoring these and push forward. They don't bother me as much now but it feels as if the author is rushing to write as much as possible without checking his previous works and making sure he's got all the facts right. At one point I looked at when this series was created and how many volumes the author put out. I was shocked. It does seem like he wrote as fast as he could and started ignoring quality, and instead opting for quantity. While I would definitely prefer quality over quantity, it's hard to complain when I want more volumes to read.
Some character relationships are well written and others grate on your nerves. One example, which is IMO the most grating is
Weed's relationship with Seoyoon. At first I was fine with the Seoyoon and Weed relationship but as it went on it got more and more annoying. How can he constantly assume the worst of her every single time when she keeps proving herself to him? I understand it's in his nature to distrust people but there's a limit. The author's reason for doing this is so transparent, which is a big part of why I hate it. It's obvious weed is going to do something to betray seoyoon because of his misunderstandings and distrust. Then seoyoon will withdraw even further because of another deep psychological scar. Weed will then have to overcome his distrust for others and after much hard work he will help seoyoon recover. Maybe this isn't what happens but the way it's been written so far indicates this is where it's heading and I'm over it.
There are other relationships between characters I'm not too fond of but what I wrote just above was IMO the worst of them.
I've got more to complain about but I'm getting lazy and want to end it so I'll just say this. The author is great at writing adventure stories but terrible at writing comedy. Every single time he tried to do some comedy early on, it was a definite miss. When he focuses on the adventure, LMS shines brightest. Unfortunately, when all the padding, inconsistencies, and pacing problems started popping up, the author made another fatal flaw, he started focusing almost solely on comedy instead of the adventure. This made it nearly unbearable to continue reading. Luckily, after the arc I listed earlier, he gets better in all aspects. He still focuses too much on comedy, but at the very least he seemed to realize what he's best at. Sure, his comedic writing did improve a bit. There were a couple parts that made me laugh, but so much of it was a miss that I really wish he would focus on the adventure and leave the humor for when it made sense, instead of forcing it nearly all the time.
Despite my gripes, I love this series. I had a lot to rant about but all in all LMS is still a really addictive and great adventure story. It's creative and there's a lot to read, so if you can look passed its faults, you'll come to love LMS as much as I do.
(-7)
(+1)
