Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin

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Disclaimer: You’ll have to take my review with a grain of proverbial salt as I dropped the series after reading volume 7 due to a broken heart. However, I will one day pick it back up due to how great this series is...

Firstly, this is a vastly underrated series. This may be a worthless claim, seeing as how commonly tossed around it is, so without further ado, here's why:

The strategies the author writes for the battles that happen are clearly above and beyond. The characters do not win because of incompetent enemies or with simple, dumb strategies. The author clearly has done their research into ... military tactics of the past and comes up with plausible strategies that are truly well-developed. In addition to the great strategic writing that makes the series realistic, we get a depiction of war in its complete lack of glorification. It showcases the brutality of war. People die. You will lose people you love- no one is exempt from death in battle. It's not happy. There is no glory and honor in war.

The author does not try to maintain a plot where the characters are protected from major suffering. There is not an overly optimistic plot that is all too common in anime and LN's.

The fine balance of fictional elements with realistic elements also separates this story from most other anime/LN stories. It starts slowly with a higher ratio of light-hearted fictional tropes (i.e. Ikta being a playful womanizer) to the harsh brutality of war to introduce you to the characters. As the story progresses, as you become attached to the characters and their growth, the story's ratio of light-hearted elements (such as playful banter) begins to drop as the scale of conflict grows.

The characters are forced into unwanted situations. They make mistakes, their judgments are not perfect, and they will experience loss and consequences to their actions.

I highly endorse giving this series a chance. But as I said in my disclaimer, the plot progressions may not move in the optimistic direction you hope for. It may break your heart. But such strong emotions are a sign of the strong, creative writing of the author.

If you thought the strategy in Code Geass or Arslan Senki was interesting, the level of tactics and strategy used in this series is a complete realm above those two, blowing them out of the water as the story progresses.

Alderamin is the tale of several young and brilliant military officers who must use strategy to survive battlefields--whether they're fought with bullets or politics.

The story doesn't glorify war, nor does it overemphasize its traumas, but it never shies away from the reality of the character's positions as commanders who carry the heavy burden of their unit's lives on their shoulders. They have to think objectively about sacrifices, follow orders they don't like, plan ahead, watch soldiers die by their own orders, and be ready for whatever counter-strategies the enemy throws at them. But with their heads together, they are much more capable of seizing victory ... from the jaws of defeat.

The characters are archetypal and their personalities may not be as natural or complex as those in other series, but they're passable. The characters have simple exterior personalities, but each of them harbors inner conflicts that guide their interactions with one another and create unique relationships, the most prominent of which being between the lazy Ikta Solork and the dedicated Yatorishino Igsem.

If you're looking to immerse yourself in a detailed fantasy world, Alderamin will likely disappoint you in this regard. While the fantasy setting is interesting, the series is written in a really bare style that is low on description--as if it's narrating the story as historical nonfiction to someone who is already familiar with the spirits, cultures, environments, and technologies that are foreign to us. In lieu of details, the writing prioritizes what is happening, why, and how. This works well for keeping the reader invested in the strategies at play and the inner monologues and conversations among the characters, but it comes at the cost of immersing readers in the world around them.

Alderamin is clearly well-researched. Some strategies seem to be reminiscent of real battlefields from history and frequently include technical details like naval maneuvers or how the human body acclimates to high altitude. This research is crucial to immerse the reader in the mindset of these strategists.

One of the most impressive facets of Alderamin is how it writes strategy, as without it the story would have little merit. As the reader, you'll consistently be given enough information to formulate a strategy that might get the characters out of their predicament, but still be surprised by what the characters come up with. When writing strategy, it's important that the strategist doesn't come off as 'omniscient' or always knowing exactly what his or her opponents will do, and this is an area that Alderamin handles extremely well. Characters make intelligent mistakes, sometimes crucial ones that haunt them, and have to live with the consequences of their decisions.

If you're interested in military strategy, Alderamin fills that niche extremely well, but it's not without its shortcomings.

Ahhh... Where to start...

Story: 6/10 - The plot overall is a "OK" at best BUT, the ending left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth, many intelligent characters reaching stupid conclusions,
the author in my view uses "science" in a very distorted way, furthermore he tries to approach about "religion" but I can't expect so much from a Japanese when the subject is "religion" and his distorted way of dealing with the subject, I won't go into too much detail, the other topic addressed in the LN is his view on "technology" it is very distorted, as much as the work wants to ... convey a message of hope, seeing the characters go through a lot of despair, this for me was very unbalanced, with the sides (Empire & Kioka) that it addressed in the story.

Art: 5/10 - I found it very inconsistent, the anime did a great job, and the novel as it went along, it was very different from the age of the characters with the art shown.

Character: 8/10 - For me what carries the LN on his back are the characters! And how charismatic they are, their interaction and their "evolution as a person" were great, but we have the problem at the end of the story.

Enjoyment: 5/10 - I was loving it until I got to the last 3 volumes, I read it forward, I felt that the author was completely lost in his story.

Overall: 5.5/10 - Quoted the points above, and how pissed off I was with this LN, which had considerable potential, left me pissed and sad at the same time, sad for what has already been mentioned, and pissed at having seen this story played in garbage.