Cesare: Hakai no Souzousha

TL:DR Interesting late 1400s Italian setting, a stand out character and fantastic art. Let down by lack of real conflict, slow pacing, need to exposit about history and weak cast Story: 6/10 A quiet manga following the life of two Italians whose fates are intertwined. We follow the life of Cesare Borgia, reconstructed from historical records with a generous amount of artistic license along with hapless student Angelo. The manga revolves around the historical events at the time, namely the competition to become the next pope. The decision to start the manga in a university is excellent. It acts as a microcosm of the state of Europe at thetime, putting students from the various countries together, and therefore introducing us the the various factions on a small, low stakes scale. From their, the scope of the manga gradually expands until we reach the climax of the manga, where the fate of Europe itself is at stake. The setting is the strongest part of the manga. This Japanese author builds up the setting better than some European authors, it's very interesting to learn about the social and political history around the late 1400s setting. There is some weird anti-french sentiment for some reason, being portrayed as violent thugs and idiots. Very strange seeing as the manga very explicitly says that the differences in nationalities don't matter. It starts off quite slow and it's a little dull with little of importance happening, we're mostly just learning about the history and having some character moments but it picks up pretty quickly and we get into the meat of the plot. In part, poor pacing is inevitable due to the historical setting of the manga, if the author didn't explain it then we would understand what's happening. However, it brings the pace to a dead stop as the author pauses to tell the reader the historical context of the time. However, this is primarily in the first half of the manga and the pacing improves in the second half. This doesn't make it more fun to read though, unless you're a big history buff (which I am). This manga is more slice of life than drama, and that's despite the multiple assassination attempts. The manga suffers from a lack of real conflict. The manga does revolve around the politics of the time and (provided you don't know the actual history) there is tension around how the central storyline turns out but there isn't that something more that I expected from the description, the political intrigue that I was coming here for was lacking. Maybe that's a problem with my expectations rather than the manga itself but it feels like there are hints of something deeper and bigger that never make themselves apparent. I was waiting for the ‘real’ conflict to start until three quarters of the way through before I realised that the manga really is as shallow as it seemed. Everyone broadly does what they say they will, all major characters in the manga are friendly and work together etc. This is what I mean by ‘Cesare’ being a slice-of-life, it's quite mundane (and not in a bad way!) and it's certainly worth reading for the setting alone but it disappoints if you're looking for intrigue and drama. Many plot points or character elements, e.g. Cesare's relationship with his sister, are brought up and never resolved in the narrative. This is one point where the historical premise of the manga hampers it's ability to be a story. History doesn't often have satisfying conclusions nor can we know everything. I understand that this is an inherent problem with trying to hew close to actual history but it still makes for a worse story. However The author is willing to write conjuncture about even plot important moments so I am unsure why the author simply left these storylines unresolved. However, the actual ending of the manga is well-written and is ultimately a satisfying ending despite the above issues. Character: 6/10 Cesare (the man) is very well written. I enjoy the subtlety the author reveals his deeper character traits. He doesn't have character growth per se but we slowly learn more about him. Our other protagonist, Angelo feels unrealistic. He's naive to the extreme in ways that seem purpose designed to funnel the story to exposition for the purpose of the audience. There are numerous scenes that boil down to “You don't know that Angelo? Don't worry we'll tell you”. As mentioned above, this is somewhat inevitable due to the historical setting and it does get better. However theses scenes feel more like they're for the reader's benefit, and any scene where the reader thinks “the author wrote this for me” damages immersion and takes us out of the story/world. We learn a little more about Angelo's backstory and more about his character. He also has the most character development in the manga but it feels somewhat rushed. He's broadly the same for the most part and then he just sort of “grows up” near the end, after some time skips. His relationship with Cesare is the most compelling and the contrast between them makes a good character dynamic. Giovanni initially feels like comedy relief, a more typical manga funny guy, but he does become more of a real character late in the manga. His character arc doesn't really work considering he's primarily portrayed as a pathetic idiot that I'm suddenly supposed to care about and the emotional climax of his arc falls flat because I don't. Miguel is more interesting, servant and friend to Cesare and the one who understands him most. He doesn't have his own character arc, rather he's the conduit that Angelo (and therefore the reader) learns some of the deeper parts of Cesare's character. If not a very well developed character, he is at least fun. The rest of the cast has more minor roles and don't matter all that much though Cesare's father, Rodrigo, stands out. One annoying thing is that we're sometimes introduced to random, famous historical figures. Figures that have no impact on the plot. Why are they here? Ignoring how unrealistic it is that Angelo meets all these people, it feels like the author is just putting their name out there to say “look, you recognise this guy right? It's cool right?” and it feels a bit silly. You may notice that most of these entries talk about Cesare and that's simply because he's the most interesting character. This is a flaw, the rest of the cast are underdeveloped but it speaks to the charisma that Cesare is portrayed it and the relationships the other characters have with him are the most interesting. Art Absolutely fantastic, I can offer no critique here because there is none to give. The cityscapes to the historical outfits are brilliantly realised, the atmosphere is created by the art before the characters even open their mouth. Overall: 6/10 The manga is an interesting read. The strongest part of the manga is the highly researched historical setting, realised with art direction and how it influences the characters. It is a very good read IF you like the setting. Frankly, I expected a political intrigue story and I was disappointed to not get it. The actual story of the manga is very shallow with a distinct lack of conflict and story beats that are forgotten as quickly as they are introduced. The characters (barring the eponymous Cesare himself) are very shallow and not all too interesting. Mixed recommendation: if the setting sounds interesting to you, this is the manga to read. If you want story or characters? Look somewhere else.