Mecha war tale with strong cast, great growth, sharp tactics, solid finale but rushed Athens arc.

A mecha action manga with politics and a continent on fire that i picked on a random selection looking for something to read on anilist.

Very pleased with what i got.

Firstly, the MC Rygarrt. A dude with a heart of gold thrust into a heroic position amidst a politically unstable and thundery war brewing.
Throughout the story he becomes more and more battle grizzled but it seems the author wanted him to retain his heart of gold by the end and to various degrees, he does succeed i'd say. He's naive at the beginning but matures till eventually he does what needs to be done but by the end of the story he's not naively dumb or straight fire hard headed ; instead he's kind yet strong.
Very good development by my own standards at the very least.

All in all, Rygarrt? Solid MC. Very nice.

hmmmm, who next. I guess Sigyn!

Primarily love interest of the MC and the main point of contention for a major part of the story. She's. well. She's great. She plays supporting female lead supperrr well. Love what the author did with her. Though i do wish she wasn't as helpless sometimes but that i suppose comes with the territory of being the wife of the king and the prime love interest of the war veteran hero MC

also to tack on, love her design and i think most people probably remember the show or manga cuz of her primarily lmao.

A bit on Girge and Folse side by side.

I understand their characters and what they are meant to be the MC but i think there was some lacuna here with how these two came into being the things they were.

Girge facing the fate that he had to face at the beginning did pose for a good sheathe for Rygarrt's character later on in the story i will agree. But idk if i saw the point of Folse then?
Cuz he still has visions of Girge as well so im just a tad lost on Folse's character being defined more than anything.

Next i suppose is the bombshell captain Narvi!

A by the books kinda gal who by the end of the story has lost enough to sort of trust the MC's judgements on most things and has seen enough of everything to understand that her initial staunch naivety and hard headedness sometimes needed to be put aside. I like that she's her own thing and portrayed superbly by the author of not being hyper dependent on those around her. No clear cut love interest or what not either.

She's an individual with her own thoughts and decisions. it's great.

What Narvi is to Krishna, i think in some form, Cleo or Kleo ; is to Athens. Though by the end she's turned.

Kleo is naive, indoctrinated and above all, a soldier. She's a child soldier at that. Much more impressionable than even the regular type.
Early on, she's the lens of how an Athenian views this war after being captured and then slowly as the story progresses we see her grow to have her own opinions and her own values, break out of the hard headedness on her shoulders from propaganda. It's really quite something.
By the end of it all, she's also on the side of the MC which shows how much of a shift happens in her character.
Does help a ton that her family is actually people who hold their heads high and have decent prospects of what's right or wrong in life to respect and help her as well.

Now onto the Mecha ;; we have some solid volume covers to showcase the immaculate designs.

I like that they're not entirely fantastical, they're grounded in various amounts to reality. Weighty yet agile, with most engagements in the manga being treated like small scale infantry combat but with mechs rather than these mechs that fly all over the place and fight toe to toe in the skies above at break neck speeds.

They still need to be supported by infantry but are also highly strong singular forces. Like a main battle tank.

Next on the various generals and high level leaders for the armed forces of Athens, Krishna and Assam.

These are the guys in charge of the battlefield at all times. Not the MC or his battles. You will see this time and time again with the battles hinging on the decisions the leaders in charge make a lot of the times. It's great writing. Forts and fortresses entirely relied on one man's decision in some cases which also gives aid to that entire idea.

now i was dreading writing about this dude....

Zess. The main antagonist for a long while.

He's. I dont know what to say. Athens' story to me was cut off abruptly. I know in political scenarios sometimes some victories aren't complete but he was ejected from the story very haphazardly to me at least. There's still plans that he had that were never told and Athen's fate is also left up in the air which made me feel unsatisfied.

Princess Prederica and the Assam civil war plot final arc was well. It was good. A great way to end the story but man it does leave a bad taste in my mouth when the Athen's plot to me is still left out lmao.