Gonna write a long-ish review, but the simple version is: It's a fun read, but with some glaring flaws that avid readers will have to look past to enjoy.
Good points:
- Nice characterization. Characters are varied in personality, interests, and goals. Rarely is a character completely one-note.
- Interesting setting. Characters have god-given 'jobs' assigned to them at age 10, which can make or break the rest of their lives.
Problems:
- Unconvincing plot points. Most glaringly, the setting that entertainment jobs are heavily discriminated against.
- No sense of danger. The protagonists, Ain and Ciel, obviously aren't going to die. So there should be something else at risk for them. There isn't.
- Aimless. Almost 200 chapters in, and there doesn't appear to be an end-goal for the protagonists. There's nothing for them to strive toward.
Now in more detail:
We run into many characters across the journey, and they range from helpful, to openly antagonistic, to indifferent towards the protagonists. Any character who gets more than a couple scenes usually has some goal in what they're doing, and how they're acting revealed to us in some way. The characters also play off each other well in their interactions most of the time, and reveal their personalities through actions and dialogue. This is the main thing that keeps me reading.
There's plenty of fun to be had in exploring the world the author created. There's plenty of potential for interesting stories to be told, and places to go. The author makes some use of this outside of the main story too.
Unfortunately, the biggest flaws all revolve around the protagonists. One of the main driving factors for our protagonists early on is that entertainment jobs, especially the highest rank singing job, are heavily discriminated against in this world. The reason given for this is simple: entertainment jobs don't contribute to killing monsters. This is utter nonsense. First off, not everyone in this world is an adventurer, or does something related to killing monsters. Heck, how would their society even function that way? So why just entertainment jobs? Second, civilizations
crave entertainment. The human brain can't stand being bored. So are the people in this society prudes who are super serious and want nothing to do with
laughter and
fun? No, and point three; we see entertainment--SINGING, in fact--happen in a town bar, and naturally the patrons enjoy it and toss some tips over. Yet the ones who would be best at such entertainment are ostracized? The author goes a little further with the 'song princess' job by throwing in an old story where a song princess got bullied for her job, so she got mad and destroyed a town. This is why the 'song princess' job is more heavily discriminated against. But then again, it had to already be discriminated against for that story to happen. Again, nonsense. It's a completely unconvincing plot point.
Our protagonists also happen to be very strong. Their strength makes sense, too. They've got two powerful 'jobs' to make use of in one body, plus they had their magic power forcibly and tortuously increased. So we know they're not in much personal danger. But they also have nothing to worry about outside of themselves. Why? Because they only care about each other. Ain is happy as long as Ciel is happy. Ciel is happy as long as Ain is happy. They don't care about anything else; not people, nor places, nor things. They interact with people, yes, but it's pretty clear everyone they know could die, and at most Ain would be mildly saddened.
The only thing stopping our protagonists from sitting in their room and drowning in their own happiness is that Ain has ideas about what Ciel's life should include for her to be happy. This is the main thing that keeps the story moving forward. Ciel does not care in the slightest about anything outside Ain, and doesn't have
any interests outside of Ain. There's this vague 'I wanna see the ocean from a bunch of different places' goal that Ciel has, but they mostly put no effort towards that. Moreover, it's a goal that the reader has no interest in them achieving.
And perhaps the most upsetting thing about this novel is the character of Ciel. She is one of the two protagonists, yet she's about as interesting as a paper plate. Her personality is she's quiet; not out of shyness, but because she's not interested in talking to anyone but Ain. Her interests are teasing Ain, talking with Ain, and dancing to Ain's songs. Her motivations are she wants to get Ain's compliments, and spend time with Ain. Favorite person? Ain. Favorite food? Anything made by Ain. Favorite song? Whatever Ain sings. I hope I've made the problem clear. The writer can make interesting characters, as evidenced by other characters in the story, and yet chose to make Ciel as bland as printer paper.
If you're able to look past these flaws though, it can be an entertaining read. I still keep up with it, and I'm holding out hope that the author is trying to correct course on some of the problems I've mentioned. If you're a fan of fantasy adventure stories, then this will probably be a nice little bit of light reading. Just don't expect a particularly amazing novel.
