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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5
Excellent drawing and visuals. I also love the character design. Story has a lot of potential!
Excellent drawing and visuals. I also love the character design. Story has a lot of potential!
Un cómic con muy buena premisa y cubierta pero muy mediocre en su ejecución.
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
medium-paced
5 stars for the art, the characters, and the first half of the story, 2 for the way the characterization and plotting just grind to a halt in the middle of the story. (The art is so good that it rounds the 3.5 up.) I know this is a pretty hefty book, but the last half felt so rushed and messy that it feels like this should have been two volumes at least. The Goodreads blurb mentions "mounting pressure," but Aiza turns her back on all her dreams in, like, a page; meanwhile the scenes where the secondary characters make their about-face are a bit longer, but, at that point, the realistic dialogue evaporates to allow for some surface-level anti-imperialistic jargon that feels almost as heavy-handed as Doruk's character design. All the points are morally correct and perfectly conveyed, of course, but it's just so damn uncompelling exactly because of that, because there's no characterization to them. There's no sense of personality to anything after a certain point, which is a shame, because they're really good characters with really good designs. And Basem deserved better.
Both the artist and the writer mentioned their mutual love of manga, and I kind of wish this story could have been in a manga-style series, with multiple shorter volumes so that the story and the characters could grow organically and that the themes of the work had the space to breathe. That's probably not the easiest format to pitch to publishers but I still think that would have let Squire be its best self.
Both the artist and the writer mentioned their mutual love of manga, and I kind of wish this story could have been in a manga-style series, with multiple shorter volumes so that the story and the characters could grow organically and that the themes of the work had the space to breathe. That's probably not the easiest format to pitch to publishers but I still think that would have let Squire be its best self.