Azrael's Edge

There are many manga out there, and even more stories. Because of that, when a writer decides to create something, they must strive to make it unique, special, and interesting. Otherwise, it comes out like this. Azrael's Edge is a short one volume manga set in a fantasy world. The story is almost nonexistent, instead focusing on one off stories about a pair of mercenaries. There is nothing wrong with this formula. Many anime have done it successfully (Mushishi for one). The issue is not the layout of the story, but the content. There is nothing unique here. It was more or less like reading "Shounenthe Manga!" The characters are just stale archetypes. The moody silent anti hero mentor character, and the wimpy student who tries to do the right thing all the time, but never notices the full situation right away. The girl seeking revenge who just gets over her trauma and sticks around for some reason, and the mature and saucy mercenary leader woman. Perhaps they wouldn't have been all that bad if the author had breathed even a little bit of life into them. The art is alright, though there are no illustrations that stick out for good or bad reasons. Like the manga itself, it's just mediocre. You could do a lot worse than this manga, and if you like shounen manga you may actually enjoy this, as the other reviewer has. For me, I prefer my stories to bring something new to the table. As such, I rate this a 5/10 and only recommend this if you can't get enough shounen. (This is labeled as shoujo but it hardly seemed like it belonged in that category.)