saifighter's Reviews (253)

Cute, short, a nice little break. Although it is basically a collection of wikipedia pages. 

If "The Crown Tower" endeared me to Hadrian "The Crown Tower" has endeared me to Royce.

Royce shows off his personality a lot in this book. We get a glimpse into the how and why of this little psycho and watch as he tried to figure out how to function as a normal human being (and fail at it). Its like watching a feral cat be pet for the first time in his life and I love it.

Hadrian, while not the star of this book, also had some great moments that made me love him even more.

I'm pretty neutral on Rueben but I liked watching as he became just another cog in the huge mess/twist in the last half of the book. Hoping that we get to see him be changed by these events.

Missed Gwen a lot this book. Always wanna see more of here.

Honestly the only problem with this book is that its a little slow. But I really think this book is better than "The Crown Tower." I think for this if this is the spot in the story that you decide to start you really gotta give it 2 books to get its hooks in you.

I think my biggest negative is just how wordy this manga is. Some of these panels were just walls of text.

I do really like the art! I love when the manga uses full pages and wide panels. Close ups of eyes and faces looked great. (This artist REALLY likes drawling eyes) Gore and violence scene with full pages were great.

I did skim the entire series.

I think that its interesting that this manga does really focus on one character but the theory talked about in the story itself. (the inquisitor is the only consistent character) Like heliocentrism and thaumazein is the actual main character.

I'm sad that the subject matter didn't hook be because the art and panel presentation is something I really enjoy. Definitely something you should pic up if you like historical fiction. 

 

 "Its a terrible thing, living when so many others had died."

This book honestly goes so hard. Its a little slow in the beginning but Ax gets a lot of character development in this one. Really get an insight into the kind of culture he grew up in. Also a ton of cool sci-fi stuff going down in this one. Definitely a favorite now. 

Holiday version of the parent trap sounds fun. Unfortunately it just wasn't working for me.

I felt like the author didn't really focus enough on either holidays traditions and meanings. It was almost like the book was trying very hard to be secular. I know both holidays can be pretty secular traditions (Christmas especially and Hanukkah is a pretty minor Jewish holiday) but it just makes the book feel like it doesn't really have anything to say. I'm not even religious I don't know why this bothered me so much.

Also I didn't really like either of the main characters, Aviva being the worse of the two. The author sure can write selfish 12 year olds very realistically I'll tell you that.

This was cute, but it just felt empty. 

This was...OKAY? I'm almost disappointed that it was good. 

After finishing the First Empire Series (10/10) and attempting to read Rise and Fall (only made it to one book) I decided to pick up Crown Tower and finally get to know Hadrian and Royce, the two characters MJS's fanbase seems to love to the Earth and back.

I LOVED Hadrian from page one. In a world that could easily produce nothing but grim dark edge lords, this Lawful Good golden retriever of a human being is such a delight to read. Then there is Royce: the Neutral Evil, edge lord, "trust no one," brood brood, cry listening to butt-rock while standing on roof tops cause I think I'm Batman, generic DND Rogue backstory, and general recluse asshole of the series. I understand that he exists to be Hadrian's foil but he was really hard to like. His budding friendship near the end of the book makes putting up with this living gargoyle worth it though. And his character is actually really enjoyable once he pulls the stick out of his ass. I do think he is at his peek when he is actively bleeding out. He suddenly becomes a quippy on the level of Spider-man and actually starts talking to Hadrian like he is a person and not a total burden. What I am trying to say is that by the end of the book he was growing on me and I am definitely interested to see how Hadrian and Royces Grumpy/Sunshine fantasy romance plays out. Ugh, I mean. Bro-mance. Definitely.

Loved Gwen and her plot line. There honestly wasn't enough of her. There were times were I could give two shits about what the love birds were doing and just wanted to go back to the girls' plot line.

Looking forward to the next book.

Pretty average fluffy holiday romance. Nothing remarkable but nothing egregious either. Well except for the 3rd act break up. There are 2 adult scenes that are pretty mild and not super descriptive. Would recommend as a cute pick me up. 

The character are really starting to get fleshed out. Its really good.

 

Review for the whole series:

 

This is such a wild read. This series absolutely has to be paired with the author's notes that appear at the end of each volume. It puts a lot of stuff into context.

The "romance" in the series is so back seat to literally everything else going on in the manga. This isn't about a love triangle between childhood friends, this is about Oshimi's own struggle with what it means to be a man. Kei and Yui are not people, they are the two paths of masculinity that Yohei has to choose from. Kei is the ambiguous agender/gender queer departure from strict social expectations that are required to be masculine in the world. Kei represents freedom, an escape from gender all together. This is desirable but not an easy choice to make. Yui is the path of traditional masculine gender identity and masculine sexuality. Things that happen to Yui and Yohei are basically direct translations of Oshimi's own sexual trauma around masculinity. And this struggle between the two paths is represented by a love triangle, which i think its pretty powerful and brilliant. 

Then there is Yohei themselves, who is struggling with gender and body dysphoria. Kei and Yui also seem to represent Yohei's struggle between his sexuality and his gender desires. There is a REALLY intense scene during the final volume that just blows my mind and feels like the perfect physical manifestation of this struggle for Yohei. It was honestly amazing.

With that out of the way, this series is going to make you uncomfortable. This manga has sexual assault and dubious consent. I would not say it is full blown rape but its uncomfortable for sure and its suppose to be. There is also self harm in the form of self mutilation. Even with all of this, the manga really made me think about my own gender experience, and while I don't really identify with Oshimi's struggle, this was still such a good read. I literally binged it in like 2 days. Recommend if you can handle it.