I started the series with the hope of something good based on the review. My hope shattered in my 2nd hours of reading. And here's what I think.
Art = B+
The art is pretty good and clean. Most of the times. But get ready for some serious quality drop whenever the author decided to go for over the top battle scene. Pretty common for shounen series, What bothers me is how the design of the faces looks very similar to one another, even the between opposite gender, hence my reason to only give the series a B+.
Cast of Characters = C
The series got a lot of potential with premise of dungeon crawling with naive + pragmatic lead character duo. Here's we got Aladin with his big hearted hopefulness, and Alibaba with his pragmatic view of the world with a hint of some awesome backstory. And then the author decided to go another way.
He changed Alibaba character to some naive crybaby, destroying the interesting trait that once made the series interesting. And then he decided to make Aladin a pervert without any respect for woman. And even with the black and white morality the author using (which is bad, more about this later), nobody even bothers to explain to Aladin, that woman are not sex object to grope whenever he wants. It's the author fault, since he founds that this particular lack of respect for woman are funny. It's not.
And what bother me the most is how the author throw all the consequences of the 2 lead character's action after every arc. Nobody even cares if the lead characters mistakes were actually make everything worse, people dying and everything. How, if the lead characters never exist, the village/city/world would be just fine.
For example, if Sinbad or one of his eight general instead of Alibaba killed Kassim (the backstabbing best friend turned mass murderer warlord) instead of crying like a little girl, he could've prevented a lot of civilians death by the black djin. But since it was Alibaba. A lot of people dies. This kind of things happen a lot because supposedly capable people lets Aladin and Alibaba meddle in important matter.
The secondary characters are mostly awful. Archetypal 2 dimensional stock character also devoid of consequences. In the series, even if you're a mass murderer, as long you are sorry and the cry in battle, you will be forgiven. Let me say, that's a very good lesson for you kids.
Oh wait. No.
If you kill someone, you'll go to jail. The same goes for corruption, war crimes, or any crimes. You'll go to jail.
Characters reset also one of the biggest flaw of the series. Nobody seems to learn anything. Once the arc end, and a very big lesson learned, expect to see, that very same problem, occur in the same or secondary character (whom gave the advice for the problem in previous arc) in the next 3/4 arc.
And to make it worse, the characters sometimes regressing not just resetting.
Storycrafting = D-
Story started good. With a pretty decent premise, that until the author decide to go for political drama. The thing is, the author understanding of politics was not very deep. It's very obvious he was not a college graduate with major in politic, but I at least expect him to do a good research about the subject. But he didn't, thus my squirming in seat every 2 chapters and saying, "wait, I don't think he know what that word means", or "no, that's not how that [political/economic idea] works".
And man, the numbers of Deus Ex Machina used in this series is a lot. Even more so than Naruto. Sometimes it so very obvious, I just assume the author used the very simple formula of:
battle + philosophical rant + flashback + finishing rant = x
if x > 1 then win battle
if x = 1 then repeat the formula using another character
if x < 1 then use Deus Ex Machina
While I do understand, most of shounen writer are the very same guy who draw the art, thus no writing lesson or anything. I kinda hoping for them to maybe, pop up in a 1-2 month writing class. Maybe they will learn how to structure your story, so they don't need to use deus ex machina every frickin time.
Now, black and white morality. While I do understand most of shounen genre are targeted for kids, and not too bright hikomori, but once you've made a political story, then, the deal is off. There are no, I want to destroy the world because I just want to see darkness. Or I want to save the world, because white rukh are good.
Nope. You have to explain why. Every one, every entity, every individual has an agenda. Grey agenda. Humans have flaws and weaknesses. They have wants and needs. No one is pure evil, and no one is pure good. That big bad with the sole reason to destroy the world just because they just want to see darkness is stupid. Go live in a cave. They need a reason. And surprise surprise, even the good one, need a reason.
Storytelling = C-
Have you notice when you go outside this big world, your chance of meeting/finding someone/something very specific, is amazingly low? It also true in the fantasy world when their world are also big. That's why, it bothers me that the author keep using convenient coincidence in his storytelling.
Oh, the MC meet with big good king by accident. How convenient is that, considering this is a very big world we're talking about. And oh, he's somehow exchanged glance with his rival in the middle of the street, how convenient. Wait, the MC are somehow in the village/city/kingdom at the exact time of something big is happening, damn, what is the chance of that happen?
Yeah, lazy.
Overall = D+
Unless you're political buff 4th grader or not so bright hikomori who hates reading Song of Ice and Fire because it's too hard and too long. This is not for you.
If you are, go for it.
Chapter 1-200 stat
- Number of deus ex machina used: 16 occasion (1600% too many)
- Number of plot inconsistencies (a.k.a plot hole): 19 occasion
- Number of character growth reset (character not learning his/her lesson): 15 occasion
- Number of scene resolution by crying in the middle of battle/war like little girl: 12 occasion
- Number of plot progression using non-existant foreshadowing plot device : 35 occasion
(-46)
