So I read until chapter 50b, right now it's the most recent translation. I also watched a bit of the first movie/ova. Here is why I think the author royally fucked up.

I'm going to spoil a shit load of stuff so be advised.

Now, two things in this manga give me a total boner; the premises (at least initially) and Sigyn Erster.

Tell me those white shorts and that red cloak don't turn you on.

Anyway, the premises. It's clear that this is our earth in the far future, most of the land is desert... and oil is extremely rare. Hmm, did our civilization ran out of oil and collapsed? Interesting, isn't it?

Through the centuries people gained "magical" powers that let them operate different machines which are build from quartz... or maybe those powers were genetically engineered into their predecessors as a last effort to try to save humanity from extinction? Who knows, as of now we can only speculate.

Then we have the ancient mecha that was discovered underground. It doesn't recognize "sorcerers" as humans. Then into the story comes Rygart Arrow who is an "un-sorcerers" (can't interact with quartz)... a very, vary rare abnormality. An obvious choice for a pilot because the war is right behind the corner.

Then there is the mecha itself, still in working condition and with a corpse of it's last pilot still in the cockpit. The previous function of the mecha is itself a mystery, it's obviously not a military model - non of that fancy heat-absorbing composite-armour the military usually uses (it's body shatters under subsonic projectiles), also no fancy electronic-warfare equipment and it can only operate at max efficiency for half an hour. More and more questions? This is getting really interesting. Color me seriously interested.

And then the author does the unthinkable, he throws all that away. I am like " What the hell is this shit?!". No really, I know the war and killing may be a bit more interesting to some but come on. You leave all the interesting threads hanging, not to mention you hardly started any character development on the main dude.

Oh did I mention that this author likes to abruptly kill his character, by abruptly I mean really abruptly. For the life of this you wouldn't expect this character to die then suddenly his dead. Now didn't get me wrong, i don't have anything against this dying stuff. It just seems so "disjointed" in this manga. Maybe a better word would be "rushed", can't really put a finger on it (if anybody has a better idea on this one, fell free to call me out).

There is also the issue of this secret demand that comes with the surrender - *all royal family must be executed*. Eh, excuse me. But what's the point in telling the Emperor that all his family will die if he surrenders? Just feed him lies and then when you control the country you can freely kill anybody you want. If not you are only motivating him to resist... to the end. I could understand this if they would want him to resist, for propaganda issues or whatever. But no, they only want resources and fast because they are not the only "big-boy" in the neighborhood. What is the point?

All in all it's not that bad. The fight scenes are thought out and very well drawn, especially the damage on the mechas. There also aren't any major lapses of logic that I could spot... besides the gigantic issue mentioned above. And again - Sigyn is ridiculously hot.

A shame really, because this could have been a lot better.

Last edited by Wolf570 at 3:20 pm, May 22 2011

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http://whiskeywolf.wordpress.com/

You mentioned some good point there. I do agree. It does seems a bit rushed and there are some parts the author needs to expand on. I think Rygart is getting some character development since he went from "I dont want anything to do with this" to "KILL!!" attitude. Anyway, I don't think this series is going to end anytime soon since the author just introduced a new country. So we'll see what will happen next. I do love this author's art, first of its kind i see.

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An instant or an eternity. Both are the same, in the passing of an instant lies the beauty of eternity.
-Ginen Shounen

"It is now time to leave-for me to die, and for you to live-though which of us has the better destiny is unclear to everyone, save only to God."
- Plato

Truthfully, I think it has gone downhill. The fighting scenes are hard to follow, especially telling the mecha apart, and they aren't fresh anymore, just the same old. I flip through them now.

As for the protagonist, it is more realistic for him to change to someone who can kill, I admit. It went something like pacifist-->fighting to protect country/friends-->revenge/kill. But I thought the initial character was more interesting. I think his change needs to be explored more, maybe.

And what happened to his friend who is a leader in the other army? The initial premise seemed to be about the protagonist being caught between friends in this war, but now that seems to have disappeared entirely.

Generally speaking, the fighting bores me. It's the chapters that deal with other things that interest me, like when we (along with the protagonist) learned more about the true state of things between his married friends.

Well, I really liked this manga to start. I'll keep reading for now, and hope for improvement.

I love Sigyn, she's totally hot, now i got a new fetish (weak slender females) before i hated slender females and instead liked curvy-ones...
now back to the main point ...
it's true that i felt the same thing the start was good but somewhere in the middle "vol6-vol8"
i was less enthusiastic about this manga
but mabye it's just the releases i started reading this manga by batch "vol1-vol4"
so the enjoyement was at it's max
but now i think that it turned good in the later chapters "ch50"
i even was confused about if this was the last chap becauses it was long and had this ominous image in the end
unlike your post the thread title seems like a heavy accusation
but saying that is like ditching a beauty because she has a beauty mark ...

still i'll read this manga to the end
and i'll love Sigyn till end ..... (be my waifu T_T)

Last edited by jasperv at 11:26 am, May 26 2011

... The autor just go for the quick ways to make tension/drama... its why it feels rushed.
The main guy does develop and quite real if u can understand human mind, its easy to fall into crazyness when ur own values must be crused to survive and thats whut we will see in the next chapters... sadly love will be the cure either that or he does kill the king by error ^^. The only thing i hate about this manga is how the main guy is such a cliche shonen hero... if he wasnt so dense...