It's decent for a first(?) manga. The art is very beautiful and the storyline is just fine if you enjoy your romance with a lot of cheese. Since it's the first manga by this author (I'm pretty sure), I cut them a bit of slack, but some things just fall... incredibly flat with the characterisation (but this is coming from someone who greatly enjoys grey morality and grey characters) and the humour gets ..eh after a while since it just keeps repeating itself in some instances.
(Before reading the following, please note that each person has different tastes, just take this lightly!!)
My criticism of the humour is that makes tense situations fall flat and all the suspense disappear. It's NOT that the mangaka isn't allowed to have fun or humour, it's just that they don't seem to know when to add humour and to lighten up the situation and that they don't seem to take it all that seriously. This can go both ways, of course, it just depends on how seriously the mangaka wishes their manga to be taken. Sometimes the mangaka simply wants to have fun writing a self-indulgent manga, and I will be honest and say I don't know which of these situations apply to this manga.
One instance of this that really stuck with me is at the end of Zero's letter to Sylvan when yet again, there was another Sylvan is into little girls! joke. In my opinion, it was completely offhand and completely ruined the tenseness of the situation, there was just a small moment to process the serious contents of the letter and then came the joke which just made my eyes bleed. This is meant to be a heartfelt letter of apology in his father's place for literally murdering his mother, attempting to kill him, and making him live in poverty in his childhood, but lmfao don't be a pedo i guess!! At this point, it had gotten to the point of being annoying to me. AND besides, how would Zero even come to that conclusion? How did he somehow skip every single logical answer like "do i have a younger sister too?" "did you have a child?" "are you making money through babysitting?" and jump straight to "OH HE MUST BE FUCKING THIS 8-YEAR-OLD LOOKING GIRL" It's incredibly hard to take Sylvan and Mikoto seriously when she literally looks and acts younger than some of the kindergarten children I look after.
But, it isn't that Zero can't make jokes, in fact, some of his humour does land correctly. And honestly, he's my favourite character, so don't take this as slander. He's honestly wonderful, he's observant, smart, and truly loves Noelle and knew when she loved someone else, and he loved her enough to let her go and let her marry someone else. When he came to see Luca in the final chapter just to go "bitch? i literally annulled my engagement for you to marry her and you do this to me? i'll make sure you never see the light of day again", ok maybe not just to do that, but it was still quite funny to me. Why was this funny to me and not the 600000+ don't be a pedo jokes scattered through the manga? Something about timing and atmosphere probably? Or maybe it's because that kind of comic relief is not my cup of tea.
There's a time for humour and a time for suspense, and sometimes with a bit of DELICACY, you can combine the two. But the mangaka was just not delicate at all with it, I didn't know whether to feel touched? by how much Zero wanted to make things at least a little more right with Sylvan or just hahaha another pedo joke wow So Funny :) and sometimes Mikoto just became ... too much, I'm convinced that people who really really like her have never had a 3-year-old kid crying about random shit in front of them. Don't get me wrong! I think she's adorable (at times) and caring (sometimes), but she is just incredibly spoilt, nosy, and annoying !!!at times!!!. Like cute kid, but I would 10/10 punt into the sun if you paid me $5.
Anyway, a decent read. I enjoyed it when I turned off my brain and went "ahhh,, cheesy manga, good art, what else do you want?" It's a good shoujo manga, don't have to think too much. 8/10, good rereading value- would read again for Zero (▰˘◡˘▰)
It's decent for a first(?) manga. The art is very beautiful and the storyline is just fine if you enjoy your romance with a lot of cheese. Since it's the first manga by this author (I'm pretty sure), I cut them a bit of slack, but some things just fall... incredibly flat with the characterisation (but this is coming from someone who greatly enjoys grey morality and grey characters) and the humour gets ..eh after a while since it just keeps repeating itself in some instances.
(Before reading the following, please note that each person has different tastes, just take this lightly!!)
My criticism of the humour is that makes tense situations fall flat and all the suspense disappear. It's NOT that the mangaka isn't allowed to have fun or humour, it's just that they don't seem to know when to add humour and to lighten up the situation and that they don't seem to take it all that seriously. This can go both ways, of course, it just depends on how seriously the mangaka wishes their manga to be taken. Sometimes the mangaka simply wants to have fun writing a self-indulgent manga, and I will be honest and say I don't know which of these situations apply to this manga.
One instance of this that really stuck with me is at the end of Zero's letter to Sylvan when yet again, there was another Sylvan is into little girls! joke. In my opinion, it was completely offhand and completely ruined the tenseness of the situation, there was just a small moment to process the serious contents of the letter and then came the joke which just made my eyes bleed. This is meant to be a heartfelt letter of apology in his father's place for literally murdering his mother, attempting to kill him, and making him live in poverty in his childhood, but lmfao don't be a pedo i guess!! At this point, it had gotten to the point of being annoying to me. AND besides, how would Zero even come to that conclusion? How did he somehow skip every single logical answer like "do i have a younger sister too?" "did you have a child?" "are you making money through babysitting?" and jump straight to "OH HE MUST BE FUCKING THIS 8-YEAR-OLD LOOKING GIRL" It's incredibly hard to take Sylvan and Mikoto seriously when she literally looks and acts younger than some of the kindergarten children I look after.
But, it isn't that Zero can't make jokes, in fact, some of his humour does land correctly. And honestly, he's my favourite character, so don't take this as slander. He's honestly wonderful, he's observant, smart, and truly loves Noelle and knew when she loved someone else, and he loved her enough to let her go and let her marry someone else. When he came to see Luca in the final chapter just to go "bitch? i literally annulled my engagement for you to marry her and you do this to me? i'll make sure you never see the light of day again", ok maybe not just to do that, but it was still quite funny to me. Why was this funny to me and not the 600000+ don't be a pedo jokes scattered through the manga? Something about timing and atmosphere probably? Or maybe it's because that kind of comic relief is not my cup of tea.
There's a time for humour and a time for suspense, and sometimes with a bit of DELICACY, you can combine the two. But the mangaka was just not delicate at all with it, I didn't know whether to feel touched? by how much Zero wanted to make things at least a little more right with Sylvan or just hahaha another pedo joke wow So Funny :) and sometimes Mikoto just became ... too much, I'm convinced that people who really really like her have never had a 3-year-old kid crying about random shit in front of them. Don't get me wrong! I think she's adorable (at times) and caring (sometimes), but she is just incredibly spoilt, nosy, and annoying !!!at times!!!. Like cute kid, but I would 10/10 punt into the sun if you paid me $5.
Anyway, a decent read. I enjoyed it when I turned off my brain and went "ahhh,, cheesy manga, good art, what else do you want?" It's a good shoujo manga, don't have to think too much. 8/10, good rereading value- would read again for Zero (▰˘◡˘▰)