Yukkuri sweet world

I just feel that while the art was objectively good and I appreciate the work that went into it...the plot of the manga and the artist's depiction of Leona's emotions and personality...is a big nothing burger for me.

There are so many moments that were supposed to be angsty, to feel Leona's frustration, the complacency he had in his plan. Even his cheeky smugness is missing for me.

Instead of this we get 13 chapters of...✨pretty boy✨ Leona, aura farming the whole time and THEN with one or two panels it's CRAZY EYES. It's not giving Leona Kingscholar, it's giving Sasuke Uchiha or Fucking Light Yamgami. All the while with him being off-model with with too long hair and dead serial killer eyes.

If you compare him just in Chapter 3 to 2 HE FEELS LIKE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHARACTER and even the images above you can SEE IT. Left is from the light novel during the same dorm meeting scene.

I ASK HUMBLY...Which one feels more, like Leona??? To me, it will always be the left. Leona while attractive on the right, his over pretty-ness becomes distracting from the emotions at hand.

And YES, I thought the flip was FUCKING STUPID.

The funny thing is I predicted it was going to be that dull of an ending to the fight.

This man is a genius, has magic that makes those back at his home country tremble in fear and somewhat a pariah in his own kingdom… AND THAT'S HOW HE'S BEAT!?

If they had fleshed out him and Yuuka's interactions A LITTLE, I could MAYBE see this being satisfying. But to me Yuuka is very boring as a character. The feminism explored with her is so basic it veers on 2010s buzzfeed feminism.

In contrast, Yuuken, Yuuta and Scarbia's Yuu, (even as little as got of her so far), are dripping with personality!! Besides Yuuka being really good at martial arts...she does very little to make me interested in her and barely interacts with ANY of the cast. And the conversation her Leona had mid-overblot, if you wanna call it that, was...so damn short and corny???

WHO TF ARE YOU??? Why would she be preaching to him anyways??? Genuinely it made no sense. It should have been Ruggie just as Jade and Floyd had helped take down Azul. If they wanted to have Yuuka there. Fine. But again, narratively to have someone with no ties to Leona take him down in such a humiliating way didn’t feel earned.

"Life IS Fair???"

LMAO? IS SHE SERIOUS?

Not only does it feel like a slap in the face of her own struggles, Leona's struggles but also RUGGIE. Sure, we shouldn't give up because things are hard for us in life. Savanaclaw's dorm motto is PERSISTENCE. But that doesn't mean you just...use faux positive idealogy to go: YOU KNOW WHAT? LIFE IS FAIR!! ☝️🤓

YUUKA NO. IF IT WAS, YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH SEXISM.

Yes, things hold us back but to exclaim: LIFE IS FAIR☝️🤓 to some guy you had one conversation with is CORNYYYYY. Bad, bad writing, I hated it. I cannot express how hard I rolled my eyes.

Why not have them actually beef it out in a heated convo? Had her ragebait Leona like Lillia, press him on his ideals without undermining the concept of inequality in life.

Yuuka...I'm glad you think you can punch your way out of sexism but it felt very shallow to me as a message.

All I can think of is Ruggie who by all means has it the hardest out of the Savanaclaw trio. Yes, he tries hard, and doesn't complain as much as Leona. BUT HIS LIFE WAS HARD. HE WAS BORN INTO EXTREME POVERTY, HAD TO EAT GARBAGE, LOST BOTH PARENTS, AND DEALS WITH SYSTEMATIC DISCRIMATION AS A HYENA.

I can't imagine Yuuka coming up to him, and telling him: "UH ACTUALLY LIFE IS FAIR, RUGGIE, JUST PULL YOURSELF UP FROM YOUR BOOTSTRAPS OUTTA POVERTY IN A SYSTEM BUILT AGAINST YOU."☝️🤓 What in the afterschool special???

Not only that but you're telling me...someone WITHOUT magic waltzes up to, AGAIN, a powerful, blot charged mage, one of the smartest and strongest of the cast and does a....suplex??? LIKE. Did the team discuss this plan?? Decided, "yeah the only person without magic should go up there to 1 v 1 him."

SMART.

It. Was. Goofy. I understand them wanting to make a reference to Lion King and that's cool but, nothing was built up and it didn't feel earned. IT PALES in comparison to the epic fights of overblot Azul and Riddle.

DO THEY JUST HATE LEONA????

I REALLY don't know if the twst writers truly don't GAF about Savanaclaw (sometimes) and then the unfortunately switch of the artist didn’t help make Leona seem more 3-dimensional.

But man-

As a Leona and Savanaclaw fan, I can't STAND what they did. So many concepts were half-baked. AND YEAH, I guess Chapter 2 was NEVER well written but still they had a chance to improve it, like the light novel. NAH instead they gave us off model, emo boy, dead eye Leona.

AND if they really wanted to foil Leona and have Yuuka's story have an impact IMO she should have LOST the match she received her scar in her flashback. AND THEN it's about how she chose to keep going despite her parents disapproval. And then it becomes knowing that sometimes we can't always win, and even if we lose that doesn't invalidate our efforts or give our existence any less meaning.

Leona has never gotten TO WIN...THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT, and then to foil him with someone who has never felt the struggle of defeat? What was the fucking point of that?

To be fair, I see what they were going for with her being a "girl in sports" and dealing with sexism, but idk...it felt very surface level. For this reason, (plus her blandness and Yuuken 2.0 demeanor.) Yuuka IMO is the LEAST interesting of all the manga protagonists. Which is a shame bc I really liked her when she dropped. It could have worked, but it didn't. She comes off as very underwritten to me.

MY REWRITE

I personally think the writers lost a very interesting theme that could have fit narratively.

Community.

Lion King and therefore Savanaclaw has themes in COMMUNITY. Like instead of Yuuka being a WINNER all the time what if she wasn’t?A nd in her past her parents and peers both didn’t support her dreams to be a martial artist.

So THEN it's Yuuka is searching for a community, and Leona is taking his for granted. She could have grilled him about how everyone was rooting for him, and winning is NOT the point, it is community. Community is was Scar lacked too, he took for granted and used those he worked with and it bit him in the end. IT’S SOMETHING LEONA DESPERATELY NEEDS TOO.

Now, having supportive friends in Twisted Wonderland and everyone else rallying behind her Yuuka FOUND HER COMMUNITY and THEN she proclaims to Leona YEAH LIFE IS UNFAIR BUT she’s not gonna give up. (MY FRIENDS ARE MY POWER) And then have her actually work with the others to beat him up. Her and the whole team together deliver a smart tactical blow to beat Leona. If they wanted to knock him off the cliff still FINE.

BUT JUST….NOT WITH LITERAL BRUTE FORCE???

It was such a missed opportunity...

And they didn’t even take the opportunity in the last panel, when everyone was standing over Leona to have it be centered on Ruggie and his relationship and how it was affected. Leona reaches out just as Scar did to him, only to have Ruggie reject him.

THEN WE CAN HAVE LEONA ACTUALLY LEARN SOMETHING. SHOW AN COMPLEX EMOTION. THIS MOMENT WOULD HAVE HIT SO MUCH HARDER.

ANYWAYS.