Mar 11, 2024
The only other review is from 2 years/30 chapters ago. It is time for an update and to talk about how much has happened/changed/developed... or not. The review by BeastAmp brought up some good points- the manga did indeed have a big amount of potential to be had and at the same time was only as deep as the average 6/10 shoujo. The art still is very pleasing to the eye. I personally adore this manga and the characters but there is much left to be desired after 44 chapters.
Now, as to if the potential was fully realized.. no. Not at all. I would say ... 20% of the manga's full power was used. As of chapter 44, the manga has the same depth as those daily updated 1 page twitter series.
All characters are pretty much the same as 30 chapters ago. They all had some minor change in feelings/emotions but none were acted upon/could be considered life/story altering growth.
The gaming aspect falls flat as fuck. 90% of the time it comes up it is done in a cringe and unrealistic way with the whole egirl professional godgamer shtick being turned up to 100. I initially was a huge fan of the "girls can be pro gamers in a male dominated environment, too!" message but now it just feels like "the MC is dogshit bad at games and all girls are insanely skilled". The childhood friend being predator level in Apex after playing for 30 minutes was weird and out of place.
It unfortunately went from 6/10 shoujo with potential to formulaic 5/10 generic shoujo #100. It took no risks and decided that staying stagnant and working on the same 3 minor "plot" points (tournament, childhood friend, "romance") for 30 chapters would be enough but it just isn't.
The story.. well, there still is no story. Is there a need for one? No, not at all.. is what I would say if this was a manga that lived off of outings/interactions/developments and building upon those to be interesting. But it just is not the case here. It has been "she is the best female gamer in the world sheeesh, now let her prepare for that huge tournament!" for 30 chapters without us getting to see anything leading up to said tournament. No training montage. No team members. No outing to discuss strats. Nothing. We just have to believe she is the best and good enough to win ALGS. But hey, we got 3 more panels of a cute phone call or lewd childhood friend shots. That is enough, right..?
There is so much missing. MC often feels insignificant and all characters would be off well enough even with him not around/it would have played out the exact same way. The tournament, a long time hyped up and massive part of the manga is extremely lackluster and flat as can be with 0 building upon. All characters have some grand dreams and make these grand promises to themselves but exactly 0 of them acted on them until now. All characters feel stuck in that one singular role they have to play. There is only so much the author can do when Rio is only about gaming and childhood friend is about having outings with MC. There seems to be a set rotation the author is following; Rio gaming -> romance bait for some panels -> Rio almost no contact with MC so he has outing with childhood friend -> abrupt ending of said outing -> Rio somehow gets shoehorned it -> About gaming -> Some romance panels -> Rio MIA.... and so on.
Right now I can not wholeheartedly recommend the manga to anyone. It isn't a terrible series but it got stuck in that attempt to be "THE gaming manga that is different from others!!!" that it turned into this jumbled mess that wants so much but ends up shallow in almost every aspect, even the major one (gaming).
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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