The Seven Princes of the Thousand-Year Labyrinth

*This review may contain minor spoilers.* The art is great, beautiful backgrounds, plenty of bishies and the plot is intriguing. But that's it. Past the first volume and you start to notice the nasty pattern that plagues the mystery/suspense genre. The author constantly relies on deus ex machina when they back themselves into a corner, throws consistency out the window just to shock readers, and the characters have very contrived motivations and forced resolutions. The biggest turn off for me is the constant asspulls. There will always be a secret passage, a hidden ladder, a secret door, a secret button, a secret item, etc., that our characters"accidentally" discover everytime they seem to be in a pinch. It's very hard to care about their lives being in danger. Most characters also severely lack reason in their motivations and follows it up with illogical actions. Their principles, motives, and actions just don't connect at all. Which makes for plenty of plot holes that most readers either forget or don't notice because it's overshadowed by the shock factor the author loves to play with. Without going into detail with plot holes, there are also some other minor things that kinda bugged me. There's the rushed ending where the evil mastermind is abrubtly revealed. The deaths of minor characters were so easily forgotten, the author never brought them up again so even I forgot a few times that anyone died at all. And the overuse of the statement "there is a rumor that.." and the ridiculous random "feeling of murderous intent" as cheap attempts to misguide the readers and create distrust towards certain characters. Despite all this, I still found it an overall enjoyable read thanks to the pretty boys and the gorgeous art that remains consistent and beautifully detailed until the end. If you are a shallow reader like me, and can ignore countless plot holes and superficial characters for the sake of eye candy, I highly recommend this. However, if you are an intelligent reader with good memory expecting a satisfying mystery, I suggest you to turn your brain off before you proceed or just skip this altogether.

I'm just going to write a short review since it's a short manga series, haha. So I really love this manga series because of it's phenomenal art and it's simplicity in story. Sure, there are some plot holes. Sure there are some cliché fixes. But the pace of it was meant to emphasize the beauty and the moral of the overall story. It uses a mix of classily cliché characters and throws them in through a loop. It gave me a simple easy story to read so that I can enjoy it's classic and calmness that satisfies me like a healthy home cooked meal. It's notmind melting, but it's not boring. Overall I don't really recommend this if you are looking for something action packed, but I recommend this if you are tired from action and don't want a slice of life or comedy, but just a simple fun fairytale of a story.