I'll go straight to the point: The Veligent suffers enormously from being something written, in the Author's own words, when she was 14. Apparently, she thinks it's a valid justification when faced with criticism about the non-strictly-visual aspects.
The story at large is not that bad -a standard pacifist story set in a fantasy world partly reminiscent of Narnia. The problem is how it's handled, especially the main characters.
Let's say it clear: Kade, the titular new Veligent, is a Mary Suenote this is my subjective opinion He's not written poorly, but he's way too perfect, he succeeds in everything he does and everyone likes him, soon or later. Whoever tries to go against him comes out as fool, arrogant, nasty etc. Sure, he starts listing his self-perceived flaws, but that's 1) for comic effect, as we initially ignore that he's talking of himself and 2) to show a humilty that's later proven he truly lacks (reacting poorly to whoever dares to point out his flaws). Also, he's nearly blind to the "color of soul", which is bad for a Veligent, but this has been already fixed before the start of the story, by his friend the Physical God with special eyeglasses that, of course, never break or are lost, not even in fights. Finally, he is "oblivious to rules", but this is the main plot point and what makes him the hero.
The only one to ever question Kade's actions, other than soldiers following orders note until they find out he's the new Veligent, is his brother, the king, who happens to be the only true antagonist. Apparently, as the result of the previous Veligent having been horribly injured by a demon he was trying to heal, the king is turning into He Who Fights Monsters and going to start a war, while he was supposed to do all the possible to maintain peace. Guess who saves the day?
Not only is Kade appointed as the new Veligent: he's the Chosen One (averting the war actually saves the world...) As we've seen, his flaws don't hinder him or even turn out to be qualities. Adding to this, he's a very sociable person, intelligent, an extremely successful student (the only subject he ever failed was not his fault, what a surprise!), ridiculously lucky (while his brother repeatedly gets negative Laser-Guided Karma, even while trying to protect Kade), a ladies man, and even extremely strong and good at brawling (so much that he can put up a fight against three professional soldiers and be barely restrained). And so on, and so forth.
The story has a very Broken Aesop. It tries to be "you must do what you know is right over blindly following law and orders", but it ends in "all the figures of authority are arrogant, insensitive, un-funny morons, and disregarding rules makes you the coolest guy around and right by default."
On the artistic side, while generally pleasant, often there's too much and intricate stuff going on in the backgrounds.
Plot and characters not up to the drawings
I'll go straight to the point: The Veligent suffers enormously from being something written, in the Author's own words, when she was 14. Apparently, she thinks it's a valid justification when faced with criticism about the non-strictly-visual aspects.
The story at large is not that bad -a standard pacifist story set in a fantasy world partly reminiscent of Narnia. The problem is how it's handled, especially the main characters.
Let's say it clear: Kade, the titular new Veligent, is a Mary Sue note He's not written poorly, but he's way too perfect, he succeeds in everything he does and everyone likes him, soon or later. Whoever tries to go against him comes out as fool, arrogant, nasty etc. Sure, he starts listing his self-perceived flaws, but that's 1) for comic effect, as we initially ignore that he's talking of himself and 2) to show a humilty that's later proven he truly lacks (reacting poorly to whoever dares to point out his flaws). Also, he's nearly blind to the "color of soul", which is bad for a Veligent, but this has been already fixed before the start of the story, by his friend the Physical God with special eyeglasses that, of course, never break or are lost, not even in fights. Finally, he is "oblivious to rules", but this is the main plot point and what makes him the hero.
The only one to ever question Kade's actions, other than soldiers following orders note , is his brother, the king, who happens to be the only true antagonist. Apparently, as the result of the previous Veligent having been horribly injured by a demon he was trying to heal, the king is turning into He Who Fights Monsters and going to start a war, while he was supposed to do all the possible to maintain peace. Guess who saves the day?
Not only is Kade appointed as the new Veligent: he's the Chosen One (averting the war actually saves the world...) As we've seen, his flaws don't hinder him or even turn out to be qualities. Adding to this, he's a very sociable person, intelligent, an extremely successful student (the only subject he ever failed was not his fault, what a surprise!), ridiculously lucky (while his brother repeatedly gets negative Laser-Guided Karma, even while trying to protect Kade), a ladies man, and even extremely strong and good at brawling (so much that he can put up a fight against three professional soldiers and be barely restrained). And so on, and so forth.
The story has a very Broken Aesop. It tries to be "you must do what you know is right over blindly following law and orders", but it ends in "all the figures of authority are arrogant, insensitive, un-funny morons, and disregarding rules makes you the coolest guy around and right by default."
On the artistic side, while generally pleasant, often there's too much and intricate stuff going on in the backgrounds.