pluckaduck's manga / #Tragedy(60)

decent

multiple times i contemplated dropping this story; it's unnecessarily pretentious, dramatic, and lyrical. some dialogue felt awkward and cringe bc they talk as if they're in some dramatic play. some plot points, like Augusta being the villain, and women cain loved: meridiana and emmiline, are undeveloped and poorly written. several characters, like ida and celeste, end up unimportant despite their interesting designs and their character info are shortened to brief info dumps in dialogue. and are we not going to talk about how oscar keeps flirting with a 10-yr with whom he shares at least a 7 yr difference? and they even got married??? the pacing is weird and the build-up is horrible; in general, it feels messy and crammed and needs to be longer. however, i do like how developed cain and riff's relationship is; they definitely feel like soulmates. and the biblical and other classics's references is interesting.

as i write this right now, im sobbing my eyes out. i came here expecting the two mcs to be canonically in love with each other, but it turns out ash is more like the protagonist, and eiji is more like his driving force that advances the story, and at best it's stated they perhaps loved each other like lovers, but that's just speculation. still, the story's fucking amazing, and the action is fast-paced, and ash is one of the most resilient mcs I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. i knew it was a tragic ending, and i was prepared to get teary-eyed, but i did not expect that ending. it just made it a lot more sad, bittersweet, and painful, the fact that he could've lived, but chose not to. the author really ripped my heart out in this one.

i pity the mother to some extent bc she simply didn't have the mental fortitude to deal with raising two kids, but it does not justify her abuse at all. she victimizes herself, is timid and immature, cannot own up to her mistakes, and vents her frustration and anger on innocent kids. she's a pretty nuanced chara; instead of simply being an abusive cruel parent, she just emotionally premature and too weak-minded with a victim complex to juggle the responsibility of raising two children and being the breadwinner.

it was an entertaining story, there was some parts that felt meandering or were introduced awkwardly (such as the part about the memory loss) and i think there is some pages missing at the chapter where sayeh kills her mom, but overall decent well-written story with relatively fleshed out charas. i find it hard to believe that mc and his sister love Robert in the end, bc the only reasonable explanation for this feeling, after everything he put them thru, is stockholm syndrome. bc how the fuck can they even like him. also, i feel that the truth surrounding how they turned maestros into humans is a plot hole. bc it required taking out a marble (that represented their essense/soul) from their body, and i do not think the maestros would be willing to go thru torture/experimentations for mongliso to discover this truth, even if they were in a dream.

great great magnificant art, but lets be honest: the pacing and progression is messy asf. i wish the mangaka put more care into the storyline, characterization (except for Marie-joseph) as he did for the art. the art carried. also, probably the only manga where naked guys hugging each other, guys kissing each other is completely platonic... *cue regretful sigh*. also, marie-joseph is really hot. she ended up being the chara readers rooted for the most, and henri-whatever's chara arc is sooo disappointing. I'm glad he recalled his dream again, and stopped being a total ass, but it's not a very high bar. his sudden change to supporting the revolutionaries was also confusing, and i thought it should've been delved into. but i suppose if the manga was trying to be historically accurate, there's only so much the author can do in his characterizations... even tho it felt so random.

relatively straightforward plot. very good execution. there def could've been more if the worldbuilding was explored a bit more, but it wasn't necessary.

story was interesting at first. the plot was messy, but the mc's characterization was solid. the other side cast's characterization was decent (such as Ivan, midwinter, may, miranda, macalo) and def could be explored, and there was other side charas introduced that could've been relevant later (but never was). the overarching plot was slowly but steadily unfolding, introducing new plotlines. but at some point, somewhere in the middle, it all went down the drain. like, it's obvious the author did not care about the story anymore. miranda's characterization and redemption was speedrunned; in fact, the flashback in which it showed how she was shot and captured is inconsistent with the first chapter. like when she was reintroduced into the story, it was with a sudden flashback trying to explain she isn't an entirely horrible person, she just didn't know how to love her kid, etc. it should've been a slow and gradual pace with flashbacks of her time as a mother, which would've made her growth cathartic and eventual death actually bittersweet. midwinter, the mysterious antagonist who was promised to be interesting was dealt with so anticlimatically, and the overarching conflict was trashed along with midwinter's character. so many questions and potential plotlines unresolved, such as the mystery surrounding the death of bacchus, what happened to may, what happened to the children macalo befriended and the rest of the experimented children and her weird doctor, what happened to the hitman organization, who the fuck is midwinter, etc etc. and this is just the first arc. you can tell in the exact scene that the author just gave up on their manga, which was when midwinter just plainly states his ambition in his thought bubble; it was honestly jarring since before he and his intentions were covered in mystique and the story was steadily unwrapping them, but now it's just revealed so suddenly? i really should've dropped it there. but like i said, i like mc's characterization, but with the rapid pace of developments, the decline of quality writing is inevitable. his chara growth was absolutely shit. given his background and fucked up mind, it doesnt make any sense why he was so in love with katy. she is said to be important to him (he claims she is his everything), but it never fleshed out her chara and their relationship, hence her death lacked the gravitas it tried to convey. and what happened to his murderous predisposition, after his mother died? that is never addressed again. anyway, with how the story ended, with a bunch of loose ends and new journey for mc, it's possible the author may come back to the story again.

pretty good. wished it was more angsty, and flesh out the reason J fell for paul