Kikaijikake no Merdina

*Disclaimer*
Just personal scratch.
Advised, possible spoilers.
Opinion & Informal

Art: 8/10
The art was very good. All the characters and their expressions were very detailed. The background and environmental art was also very detailed and nice to look at. The proportions and anatomy checked out and noticeably had a nice style to it. The characters were appealing to look at and the art was able to capture a good idea of motion and movement. A lot of the art had a solo-illustration feel to it. I mean that in a way in that the art was just that good; like panels didn't seem like panels from a manga, they seemed like they were individual illustrations that were put into a manga along with text bubbles. Much of the art felt like a lot of work was put into it, but the problem was that the art didn't flow too well. There were definitely a lot of impressive impact shots and expanses, but overall the art was the only thing good about this manga.

Panel Progression: 4/10
It was confusing. The pacing was way too fast. Lots of detail was either skipped, gone over so fast that I had to double-take, or poorly done. There was some nice use of panel cutting and there was extra flair added to the panels, but aside from the nice artwork and well done panel flair the overall product was a mess. The panel progression, in other words the pacing, was lightning fast and skipped a lot of detail or didn't explain things properly.

Characters: 4/10
Zero substance characters from start to finish. Zero meaningful character development. Characters introduced, forgotten and/or only brought back for plot convenience. None of the characters showed any sort of personality or depth. Both of the main characters were crying, not an exaggeration, in every single (yes, every single) encounter for at least a third of the manga. Character designs were nice and there was a good amount of outfit changes that didn't detract from each of their overall image. Some outfits were undetailed while some were acceptable. They were nice, but they weren't too detailed.

Plot & Development: 5/10
5/10 because I was at least able to understand the plot at the very last chapter...because that's exactly when it exists. There was no plot at all brought up until the very last chapter. It honestly felt like the author went, "Oh shit, I spend so much time on this nice artwork that I failed to think about pacing, clarity, and actually introducing and developing a plot. Uhhhhh, I'll just do that in 3 pages in the last chapter. lol." Scoring it after the fact, I'm giving it a 5 because there was at least a plot despite how it was introduced.

Conclusion: 5/10
There was a decent enough conclusion. It answered all the important questions in that stupidly convoluted plot and left off the story in a less than broken spot. The ending, while abrupt, wasn't terrible. At least it didn't give us some half-assed resolution for the future of friendship between the MCs...Oh wait.

Overall: 5/10
This isn't worth reading unless you want to look at some pretty good artwork. The author clearly didn't understand the concept of introducing a plot and actually developing it. Neither did the author understand what pacing and flow are. Within the span of 2 or 3 pages, years could go by with zero explanation or pretense. This author can definitely draw well, but it just felt like they took a bunch of their illustrations, added some text to it, and called it a story. Overall, this manga was: had an acceptable plot at the VERY end to make this manga not terrible, pacing was way too fast, zero clarity, and art that is the only redeeming thing about it.

P.S. There is a character who uses handguns. In one instance that character fires those pistols and what is ejected are handgun casings. Literally in the next 2 pages those same pistols are ejecting without a doubt rifle casings. Maybe 4 or 5 pages later it's back to handgun casings. The next chapter, back to rifle casings. smh smh