somnia's manga / #School Life(13)

I felt the need to reread this so my vague, badly written review could be cleaned up. But man, there isn't anything much you can say about this story besides that it's stale and horribly dry. Whoever did this storyboard did not know how to give emotional scenes depth, nor how to create enjoyable/intruiging banter and drama. Especially MC's trauma in the beginning and the death of 80% of her family. Just glossed over that in a few panels - and goodbye psycho sister, never see you again in the next dozens of chapters... MC's horribly passive, too. Normally the "I just want retirement"-characters should be comic relief (which she is sometimes, but it still falls flat bc of awkward set-ups), or at least have additional motivations, but MC is just a weak twig getting blown along with the wind. And when she does something it's some weird short-term goal, that just feels like it wastes panels. Yea, it brags her along into deeper plot, but the issue is that she and the readers are getting dragged with little to no sense of where we're headed. Homegirl wasted a whole chapter just trying to find info about the demon king. Dumbass persued him for 3 years and knows nothing, panels are wasted on her searching fruitlessly, just to end up asking some dude she knows in the end.. What the f*+#?? The pace of the story and the setup of scenes just keeps being like that. It gets even more frustrating when interesting worldbuilding bits and info gets glossed over constantly to give this sh*t the time of day. The dialogue is a pain to read through. They say so much, but you get so little out of it. None of the conversations have any spice or personality within them. It's a shame. In the first chapter we got some dope looking dudes, but nah scratch that, generic noble and royal anime templates it is. Most characters are so muted down and lowkey, both physically and emotionally. I feel like the art in this reflects the essense of this manhwa well. Theoretically it's pleasant to look at, and there are no mistakes in anatomy or what have you. But the longer you look, the flatter it feels. There is no real sense for detail or atmosphere, it just does the bare minimum.