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I was looking at critiques of the parent manga to this, Kaguya Wants to be Confessed to, and a point I saw brought up several times were the fact that the characters were too simple, and are nothing more than the embodiment of a character archetype. I find myself on the side of fans of the manga, so I don't really see it as a huge issue. I enjoy the characters and the situations they create nonetheless, plus I probably haven't consumed enough anime/manga to get irritated by character tropes. But this manga, THIS MANGA. The two main characters of the manga aren't built around ... a trope or personality type, but rather upon one single thing they like. Karen Kino likes shipping Kaguya and Shirogane, and Erika Kose likes Kaguya herself. That's it. That's their personality.

This manga had potential as a cute spinoff. I think the author was trying to get at Karen and Erika being representative of the audience, but the fact that they have very little grasp of what goes on in the student council room means they have little opportunity to comment on it. There is no worldbuilding either, which I was looking forward to. There is very little talk of daily life at Shuchiin, no gossip about other groups or clubs there, no side-stories of other students at the school, nothing showing the slightly altered universe of Kaguya-sama, where things like the four great zaibatsu still exist.

Every single chapter is Karen and Kose talking about liking the main characters. That is all. If I'm so bland as to enjoy the basic characters in original manga, then that means these characters must be really REALLY bland (which they are). The ONLY interesting thing that happens in the story is way later, when they show Hayasaca having to keep close tabs on these two, in case they manage to obtain a photo of Kaguya or something. This is why the manga gets a 2 instead of a 1.

What little that is in the manga, such as the involvement of Shirogane's friends later on, hardly go anywhere. This manga is a huge waste of time. Nothing is done with anything. It's the same dialogue over and over. It's a Groundhog Day manga.

NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENS. I'm surprised that the mangaka could make a spin-off this terrible. Getting through it was a total slog, the only saving grace being that the chapters are quite short. If you feel yourself getting bored with this manga, your boredom will not be curbed later on.

Kengan Omega's most redeeming quality is its cast of incredibly memorable characters from Kengan Ashura.

The first manga was complete in and of itself. The few loose ends at the end of the manga weren't interesting enough to warrant a sequel. And yet, 106 chapters in, and those few loose ends have only made occasional appearances, and still do not pique my interest at all. During their best, they feel unnecessary, and during their worst, they degrade the quality of BOTH Ashura and Omega. What Chapter 50 alone introduces heavily degrades what Ashura had done, all for a plotline that I really could not care less ... about.

The manga starts off promising enough, I actually quite enjoy the training arc (would be nice if it actually built up to something). Characters from the first manga being reintroduced is cool in the moment, but often feels like a cameo appearance of something, like however they ended up in Ashura is how they are forever. A couple characters have positive changes in this manga, but they are, unfortunately, a minority positive.

The "A Plot" of the manga (assuming those loose ends from Ashura are the "B Plot") isn't engaging either. In Ashura, its A Plot was a fantastic setting for almost all elements of the manga to flourish. I would go as far as to say that Kengan Ashura has the greatest tournament of any manga, ever. The amount of moving parts throughout the manga, and how each one is actually interesting, makes it one of my favorite manga ever. Kengan Omega's, on the other hand, just feels watered down in comparison. One half of the characters we know everything about, the other half we know literally nothing about. The stakes, while high, aren't interesting. In Kengan Ashura, I found myself interested in almost every character; in Kengan Omega, I found myself interested in none of the characters. My only interest was just residue from Kengan Ashura. The fights in Kengan Ashura felt iconic, while the ones in Kengan Omega are forgettable.

This manga does not need to exist. If it didn't, it would actually make Kengan Ashura better.

I really wish I could cite specific examples in this review, but no spoilers allowed. :(