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« on: September 10, 2020, 11:55:17 AM »
My quickest version of thoughts:
1) It's not good
2) It's not bad
3) Somehow I read all of it
4) I don't know how to feel about that time. Like it's not like I lost that time...but also I didn't really enjoy it? It just sort of happened...
It's a bit all over the place. I think the shock value of the brutalist art style, permadeaths with no restrictions, and constant one-upping hype are enough to keep it together. I understand a lot of people really do love it and there's a lot of passion there, I'm curious if it will have any lasting value long-term or if it will be this adrenaline rush that ends and everyone moves on.
The main character loses his motivation pretty early on, there's a lack of any time to build meaningful connections between the characters (they're always constantly just fighting), and there's not really any larger narrative going on (Gun Devil is pretty flimsy). The last 20 chapters or so have been a constant barrage of "but wait!" type twists, like just twist after twist which certainly feel interesting in the moment but when you stack this many they start to lose their impact and they won't last longterm when you look back on them (like everyone remembers Ace dying, I can always remember the Claymore moments/twists many years removed, whereas I already can't remember most of the characters who died in this series or why the twists mattered to the larger narrative).
It will definitely get an anime though, I would be shocked if it didn't. The level of passion from the fans merits it alone, and I'd be very curious how they would work out the pacing of the anime (because the manga moves incredibly fast, has huge images, and almost no text) as well as the art style and translating Fujimoto's drawings.