Ao in the Beautiful Sea
This must be one of the most cliché story I’ve ever encountered that even the pacing felt so ridiculously fast that it didn’t make that much sense at all to put it in just one chapter in 60 pages.
The story centers on a foreign boy named “Ao.” He seems to be a good kid with no badass looks (cliché +1), has a girl who seems to have or will have interest for each other (cliché +1), and his story is cliché itself. That’s three times the cliché with more yet to be seen.
The story is set in a modern world in a small island. They drive and have some heart-to-heart talk with his close friend in small flying car. However, it crashes in with another, who seems to be bullies that needs to deliver something so valuable. While the bullies leave and deliver the valuable items, we recognize some bad guy, based on the looks, and a robot that needs to be fired up with the key to “protect” the island.
Meanwhile, Ao doesn’t seem to want to go to middle school and asks his grandpa about it. We later see a scene where it seems like Ao and his grandpa are related in some way (blood-related or not) through a picture where we see Ao and his mother together, holding hands.
The next day, Ao wakes up. The story sets in. Ao sees a huge light that blows something and push him back. His call with Naru ended, and when he finally approaches her house, he could only see it in bits. Later, the seemingly bad guys take him to the robot for him to do something about the destruction its brought in the island.
His life, was then, forever changed.
Ao is the protagonist in this story, and he doesn’t seem to be a likable character. I don’t know what went through the minds of the creators of this manga, but he just doesn’t seem to be the type to be someone anyone would admire or brag about. Although we can’t say that much, his character wasn’t developed too well. It all centered in him, but he lacked all the development needed. It pushed through more to the story and all the related past, rather than introducing him more in a more suited way. Maybe it just didn’t suit to my taste to the fact that they pushed the story more than pushing his present condition. Of course, stories go like that, most of the time, but it just lacked something that doesn’t seem to be satisfying to see it end in one chapter like this. Ooor, maybe I just don’t like it because Ao looked too girlish.
Then there’s Naru. Yeah, a hot girl, wit-wew, but I don’t like her either. Don’t know why, but I hope they put more appeal in her.
The story clearly needed some sort of improvement. I don’t know what they were trying to put in this chapter. If we assume that their goal was to introduce the story, well it was good. If they were intending to introduce the character as well, it was fine. But combining both of them together to what seems to be the changed of the protagonist’s life, it lacked too many things. They lacked many fine things that they could use to make it a better creation. They could chop off some of the other pages and make the pacing less unreasonably fast and whatnot.
There’s really one thing that’s worth the admiration though, and it’s the art. You just can’t say it was on the level of being “good” or “just fine.” It was just fantastically drawn! The details were really there, the highlights were just good, and the delivery for whatever they were trying to put was just great. There’s just no way you could say it was terrible. The art, then, made this the only strong factor to make it to the top.
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Story |
5/10 – Honestly, it was just weak. It was cliché, but either way, it was just too weak. |
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Characters |
6/10 – Just. Not. Likable. |
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Production Value (Art) |
9/10 – Its strongest point. This might be the only chance it has to being the best. |
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Scene and Setting |
7/10 – There’s nothing good to say here, but it was delivered as something understandable enough. |
The cool robot we have all yet to see.
Adrift Culture 