Developments are on the predictable side so far. The character interactions dynamics are too bland and not engaging.
Drawings and character designs are stellar though. The boy looks cute and huggable and main female lead is really, really sexy. On the female side characters, we have a mommy-ish dough and a cute aggressive loli... so the author manages to hit all the target market for these. But still, it's still too boring. There's quite a lot of focus on the action but for some reason it's not really exciting. Feels very curated. It's the typical political war story like Yona, Arslan, etc. And doesn't have enough intrigue that sets it apart. The romance isn't really funny or fluffy, or immersive though. It's like two good looking people who just happen to be "destined" with each other but if we remove the back drop it'll probably become boring. Because the main female lead is OP, the sense of stakes and danger is lacking. Maybe because the author tries to make the first chapters action-political-romance all at the same time and hence it feels unfocused. I would suggest the author to go all out and gory during the action sequences and extremely evil during these sequences, the sense of danger definitely needs to be amplified. It has a lot of points for style, but that's as far as it goes.
Unlike the other war backdrop stories, this one feels more boring maybe because it hasn't found its footing on what should be the focus.
Other "periodical" war/military mangoes I've read that I've enjoyed more:
Arslan -> focuses on internal development of MC of what it means to grow to be a ruler; and more sense of danger
Yona -> fluffy romance tension and love triangles drama moment despite the danger setup
Shut Hell -> gritty, brutal, gore, good guys dying and tragedy. And somehow still manages to create fluffy character interactions.
Altair -> intriguing military maneuvers, more on the serious side
Claymore -> has that nice gritty survival atmosphere to it (not really war but is more adjacent), the constantly looking tension creates a sense of danger.
Bugle Call -> gritty atmosphere, gore, but dorky and fun characters
Right now, this manga lacks a focal strength like the ones above. The world building seems lacking despite the characters all wearing fancy outfits. It has a little bit of the above, but not one main strength.
I would like to see it pivot more into romance because that seems to be the main premise and hook but the protagonist is like 12-14 and so it'll be One Shota and so the author always nopes out whenever the female lead is eager so it feels like the author is just torturing/teasing the readers. Maybe the author could have started with an older MC and not be as much of a coward then but now the romance(?) is just one-sided flirt and it feels more of a duty(?) thing coming from the kid so it's more awkward than entertaining to explore (while there's the potential to have the protagonist grow up later for the author to set up spicy events down the line, I'm not too keen into witnessing half-baked "romance" as I'm not really a masochist). You might feel frustration as to why the author is doing this maybe he just wants to make the readers feel like cuckolds lol.
So far, things just feel too convenient in this manga and Deus Ex Machina (protagonist happens to find a person to save him then happens to awaken a power of his own right after he got fatally dismembered; feels like a joke and there's no real sense of danger if there are no lol) feels like bullshit to draw cool powers but well they do look cool though. But the convenience is just boring.
Speaking of character interactions and fluffiness (which is lacking when it should not if it tries to go for a onee-shota dynamic), there are other stores that do this better (e.g. female knight and kemonomimi child). Right now the "attraction" at least in the beginning of the chapters feel transactional, which is weak and boring. The protagonist is a good boi, there's not enough developments that emphasize on that. Wasted potential.
Tl;Dr weak direction, predictable developments, drawings and character designs are 10/10
(+7)
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