Reviews for Armed Girl's Machiavellism

Ah yes, where to begin with this manga, well simply put for those who are lazy here's the tl;dr: Probably something you won't enjoy, as it has a cliché as hell story and is kinda just a time capsule of like mid 2000's where harem and ecchi were basically everywhere. But for those who are worthy feel free to read on. ~~{Story}~~ Well, what can I say about the story? That's actually a really good question as quite honestly the story is practically non-existent, 'dude gets transferred to an co-ed school and rebels against the status quo, hijinks ensue!' type deal, there are more meaningful parts tothe story that develop characters and give backstory to some of the supporting characters as well as the main character, wherein they reveal some past trauma these characters experienced, for all I know there could be some underlying message or theme I missed that was practically integral to understanding some hidden story this show tells, or it basically doesn't have one.

~~{Art}~~

Alright, I'll get the elephant in the room out of the way, the art is pretty forgettable in a way that gives it some charm. However for certain parts in the manga it is executed with a certain level of detail almost as if the creator them self has a deep and intricate knowledge of the human body, explaining away a certain motion the mc performs with such in depth detail that it's almost amusing. Simply put the art is almost as forgettable as the story, bar some parts that reflect a level of detail and understanding of the human body that is commendable.

~~{Characters}~~

Alright, Imma be real with ya'll, these 'characters' are basically cardboard cutouts, aside from one of the five swords - high ranking students in this 'board' of swords that rule the school - a certain green haired girl is the only supporting character that has any real depth, the mc, another super strong girl and one of the swords are the only real 'characters' in the series and even then they act more to propel the story forward then to develop and grow. Thankfully out of all the bland and generic mc personalities that the author could chose, they decided to choose smug bastard mc which adds a little humour to certain slice of life scenes that these characters find themselves in.

~~{Finishing words}~~

Alright, so after this very lukewarm review some of the hundreds of people who all lined up to read this review might be wondering, 'If it's so mid why would you review it an 8 /10?' and that, my friends, is because I am a very mid person. Quite frankly this series is probably one only I'd find any enjoyment in, aside from maybe someone who wants to turn their brain off and just read this because they're bored or to kill time. Though who knows, maybe I'm wrong from my initial observation, maybe this is the second coming of christ and any other further reviews will prove me wrong.

I am aware this manga ended several years ago but here I am since a translator team caught up. I am certain Busou was one of the first manga titles I read several years ago when i was new to the hobby? The story itself is nothing special, just a usual school of sword fighters with a capable MC. He is a user of hand to hand combat arts which is unique and not over powered in anyway. Plot wise, it's blatantly simple as he seeks to survive and defeat strong people? That's basically the whole story as there is nothing else exciting or epic about it.Even though I am a fan of this series, it is just a 7/10 rating for me.

The scale of the story/plot/setting could of been so much better but in the entire time, it just felt simple and constrained. Likewise, it provides decent entertainment with a nice balance between action, comedy, and combat with impressive mechanics at the time.

It's surprising to discover the manga has been releasing from 2014 to 2022?

With just a medium set of 87 chapters, the potential was there but it never reached it.

TLDR, this is basically the most mediocre of mediocre manga. The plot goes about as follows: Nomura gets into a brawl with a bunch of delinquents and is forced to transfer to Aichi High School, a school with a lengthy history of martial arts wherein all the female students carry practice swords, seldom for the 5 top swordsmen who carry real swords, whom he will obviously fight all of eventually. Now, this premise is not necessarily bad; it's a tad bit generic, but it serves the manga well enough to give justification for all these elite swordsmen high school girls to be here and/or why thisis even happening in the first place. The thing with this premise is that the aforementioned statement kind of applies to the entire manga, being that "it's not insulting, but it's not really great either." Essentially, everything that happens serves to forward the manga to the next fight or lucky sukebe moment, which isn't the worst thing in the world, especially if you go into this manga (like I did) kind of knowing that it's just going to be exactly that (fighting and occasional tits/panties), but from a critical literary perspective, yeah, this is kind of hot garbage.

As for the art, I don't think it's spectacular, and some of the side characters can be drawn particularly egregiously badly in some of the earlier chapters, but I think it does look decent in the fighting/ecchi scenes (which, let's be honest, are the only points of this manga anyone cares about), and it does notably improve as the chapters go on (although I also think the number of pages decreases, which makes me wonder if maybe from the start, decreasing the pages and increasing the quality would've helped a lot).

Not everything about this manga is bad, but one thing I do have to give the mangaka credit for is their extensive knowledge of swordplay (be it Japanese or Western), which makes some of the fights and scenes more interesting than they otherwise would have been. Although even this can be a downside, sometimes reading through literal paragraphs explaining a sword technique can slow down the otherwise breakneck pace this manga typically takes.

I think if you want to turn your brain off and read a 2010's-esque harem ecchi battle manga, you'll be happy with this and find it enjoyable; otherwise, though, yeah, it's kind of just whatever.