Val x Love

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The MC is very likable. Change my mind.

Do you know any series where there's a harem full of beautiful women, and this lucky bastard is just dense and is annoying the hell out of you? Like with no other reason? Like they're just born to piss us off by being dense and petty?

Then my friend, the MC here is different. (Not as great as Yuuji from Grisaia nor Issei from High School DxD tho)

Anyways, the story follows a young boy with his group of valkyries-cute girls with superpowers. The twist is, they need to undergo some romance-thing before the girls power-up. In Norse mythology, there ... are 9 valkyries so obviously, there are 9 girls. And yes, all of them are well written. Btw, expect some norse mythology references so yeah, literature time.

The concept is actually impressive, as they made a convenient plot device to explain the supposed to be not explainable ecchi elements. And yes, it works

As I've flexed a while ago, the MC is well written. As first, you might get annoyed by his attitude, but as the story progresses, you'll come to sympathize and understand the MC for his action. Not to mention, his growth.

Most people would not take this manga seriously as this is another "Typical ecchi harem", and yes that's true, but this is my guilty pleasure anime. I know it's trash to others, but I enjoyed reading it even if people think of it as trash.

Critically speaking tho, yes, this is trash. But I'm a man of culture, who appreciates art, and I'm proud to say that this is a great read.

The val x love manga has very well detailed art and its not as censored compared to its anime counterpart. The story was pretty enjoyable and I liked the main character and his harem of Valkyries. if you've watched or read ecchi harem animes from 10 or more years ago this would fit right into the seinen ecchi harem action animes, light novels, and mangas I've read as a teenager. Overall its good that there are still stories like this still around nowadays everything gets a bit more censored this is like a hidden gem for those that enjoy reading fan service stories definitely ... 100% recommend it for ecchi fans. The girls are all hot and there's a nice variety of different kinds of maidens ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Oh, Val x Love... Where to start? This manga is a beautiful dumpster fire. I mean, this is a harem ecchi, so you should know from the start not to take the plot too seriously.
But still, I had a hard time with how stupid or illogical it can be at times. The whole plot is centered around fanservice, using it as an engine, quite literally. The female characters need to do ecchi stuff to bond with the protagonist in order to level up and beat the villains.

Speaking of the main character, he is your typical spineless "scary-because-mean-eyes-and-asocial" big guy, alternating between a demon terrorizing background ... characters and a scared chibi when a woman approaches him. He will obviously always have those "lucky" falls and accidents, getting more exaggerated and stupid each time. I hope you enjoy this because it will happen in every chapter, sometimes multiple times.
The real surprise was that after some time, the fanservice didn't feel so forced. As the story progresses, it becomes justified and less random. The MC actually plans dates and stuff, very unexpected but appreciated.

As for the other characters, all the Valkyries and characters coming from Valhalla have names from Norse mythology, but that's all. I could have missed a few references, but there could have been much more to do with such a cool setting.
The characters' powers are pretty interesting and original. For example, each of the Valkyrie sisters' powers represents a different weapon from Odin's castle. They can transform fully or partially to fight, and the enemies are diverse too.

The scenario itself is full of holes and inconsistencies, so much that at some point I was actually convinced that the villains had a better plan than the heroes, even though they were obviously evil and corrupted. Some characters switch from one personality to another in less than a chapter to fill a role and try to justify a hole in the plot. Even if I tried to ignore it and not care too much, it gets really annoying seeing characters change all the time, and the plot seems improvised as each chapter goes.

Now onto the next point, the art. I mentioned the overused chibi style whenever the protagonist is flustered, which means about a third of the time in the beginning. The artist has a real problem drawing certain things, like hats for example (the back of the skull is cropped, it looks so weird). I mentioned characters switching personalities, but in the first half of the manga, some characters will change physically too from one page to the next (inconsistent height, key features, eye shape, face shape, hair style, etc.).
The ecchi part is well drawn, you can see the effort compared to the rest. Still, there are some inconsistencies in perspective, but the poses are diverse, and in 16 volumes of non-stop ecchi, not feeling repetitive is a pretty good achievement!

Val x Love is one of the strongest "Mixed Feelings" I have ever had. It moved me, but not always for the right reasons. It could have been boring, as I was planning not to care too much, but somehow I got hooked by this mess. Even if I can rant about it this much, the fights were good, the transformations were badass, and the ecchi was really nice.
I would recommend it if you're not too bothered by what I mentioned, but I can see it being off putting for some people.