- #1
While the first half of volume 1 does well at setting up the premise, the main problem is that the ML is too perfect. He does everything well and all problems are perfectly resolved. This reaches the level of making the story boring...But the second half of the volume addresses this. Complications are thrown in, not because ML gets dumbed down, but because of reasonable circumstances and other characters having actual agency and desires. The author does a good job of keeping the plot flowing without resorting to idiot balls and instead makes the smart characters look smart while the dumber less competent ones remain realistic.†Add on top of this that this is a story focusing on politics, manipulations, and duels of the mind, and I have to praise the intelligence of the author for all the effort that goes into the story. After all, it's so difficult to write a character that is more intelligent than the author.†As an aside, it's typical for antagonists in JP novels to be 'spared' by the protagonists and converted to allies. This can get a little bit ridiculous in shonen fiction, but when its equivalent occurs here, it's done in a way that not only makes sense, but is done in a way that to do anything else would reek of s*upidity.