Superior Cross

So I finished the rest of Superior (Ch. 27) and have read the first 4 chapters of Superior Cross. Basically the author did a summary of the story so far for the new readers in the new magazine it's being published in. A majority of Superior was stuffed into those 2 chapters, so it was sort of refreshing. Chapter 3 gave some backstory for Angelica and a bit of closure on an area of her life. The plot seemed rather forced, though. Chapter 4 is a "Part 1" kind of chapter. I can already see what Part 2 will be like. I do prefer how Sheila is being portrayed so far. I'm cautiously optimistic ...

BTW - The cover makes you think that this is a "let's draw some hot chicks" manga. Not so much. It is, however, designed to pull in the target audience: men, of course.

Superior

Simple premise: Hero sets out to kill demon queen. Demon Queen finds hero and decides to tag along with him in disguise before she kills him. Hero is a pacifist and vows to kill no one except for Demon Queen. Demon Queen falls in love with Hero; Hero falls in love with Demon Queen. Hilarity ensues.

This manga was suggested to me because there is a strong female lead. It seemed interesting at the beginning, but it's not living up to expectations. Sheila, the demon queen, has been appearing less and less. Lately, the hero, Exa, has been getting most of the attention with his angst about whether or not he can follow his ideal of not killing anyone. The pacifist thing reminds me of Trigun, except it's getting really annoying. There are several "what the heck??" and deus ex machina moments. It seems like the mangaka loses track of the plot sometimes.

I like the general idea that is presented, but I'm very much disappointed at the follow-through. While reading I can't help but think of how it could be fixed. The story so far could have been presented in a tenth of the space. But ... I'll probably keep reading it, hoping it will get better and because I've invested so much time in it already. I'm on chapter 25. The name of the manga changes to Superior Cross after chapter 27(?) because it switched magazines. Dunno why they have to do that.