Manga: Plunderer

Plunderer Vol 1
Rating: 3.5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review! 

In the world of Alcia' where rank is determined by "counts" a young girl named Hina scours the land for the fabled Ace-the legendary hero of the Waste War. With only the last words of her missing mother to guide her search' she wanders from town to town until she meets Licht' a clownish masked vagrant with a count of --999. Girl-crazy and unpredictable' he's the exact opposite of a hero...or at least' that's how he appears... 

First things first, I marked this down half a star because I wasn't really a fan of the fan service, some of it was a bit....*side eyes*.  Which is pretty much the only thing that I didn't really enjoy about this. I was super excited to read this, it sounded like a lot of fun and wow is the volume chunky. Of course it does turn out that this is an omnibus so I was even more excited to get two volumes in one! It's just the fan service...bit uncomfortable at some points. Hina's counter is on her thigh, and Lynn...well...she has no choice but to wear the uniform with the skirt until she ranks up and can switch to trousers, I'm sure you can imagine the fan service you get from that. Some of it's weirdly at odds with the more promising qualities of Licht's character. He'll be doing so well, then act like a creeper and I just *sigh*.

Anyway, the colour pages are intriguing, and they show off the pretty art and character design. I found the world to be intriguing as everyone has a number. This number goes up for a reason that's specific to each person. In Nana's case it's when someone compliments her food, but if they say her food tastes bad it goes down. Someone with a higher number can also order someone with a lower number to do anything and they can't disobey, and unfortunately if your number reaches 0 you get dragged in to the mysterious "Abyss". 

There was a lot to do with the world that intrigued me and still does as I still have some questions! I also really liked that we got all the background to the world and how it works out of the way first via conversation with Nana! I felt like it was really well explained for the most part and we even got a little bit of history. 

This volume does move quite fast with some action at the start, meeting Licht and finding out who and what he is, although the one thing it did take some time before it was explained was the ballot and what that is. The first half practically speeds along, introducing us to the characters that will be important and helping us get to grips with the world with a nice amount of action and intrigue. For some reason the military is hunting the Ace's even though they apparently saved the day back in the...day, and I'm quite curious as to why. Although I suppose it could be because they're a threat. 

The second volume is just as speedy. Licht's on his travels, there's a nice amount of action again along with some humour, and we see him reunited with Hina....along with Jail, Lynn and some talk of a demon. So this definitely has a nice pace to it, and I feel like it does well at explaining all the basics along with throwing some action and humour in to keep you entertained and stop it from being too slow. 

As for the characters, while Hina is quite naive, she manages to not be irritating and I found her quite endearing instead. Licht..I just can't get over his creepy masks. Would it kill him to have a normal one!? He's certainly mysterious and like I said...he's got some good qualities, he helps out anyone he sees in trouble as he can't just stand idly by...it's just offset by his occasional creeper behaviour. I also ended up quite liking Jail, he really reminded me of another character but I can't quite put my finger on which one just yet. He's kind of an a-hole for the most part, but he did manage to do something nice for Lynn (I low key ship it) and I don't think he's completely unreasonable. I'm oddly looking forward to him bonding with Licht and Hina. 

I was already pretty hooked on this anyway, I had so many questions! Why are they after Licht? Why did Hina's mother send her to him? How is he still alive? Licht immediately provided me with a pleasant surprise, I wasn't expecting him to be quite how he was, I was expecting him to be a lot more serious and not as low-key goofy. Haven't entirely formed a deeper opinion on Hina than just liking her, and I even liked our grumpy guy. I was basking in the fantasy setting with all these intriguing little twists to it and then the end happened. 

The thing is, the final couple of pages throw a major plot twist at you that had me like...."okay. 100% fully invested, gimme the next volume now". I'm not going to spoil it but what I will say is that considering I'd been running with this being a standard fantasy setting...I was shook by this twist and I have questions. As well as a couple of theories. 

Despite the questionable fan service, this was a fairly strong series opener, with plenty to intrigue you and it seems to be heading in a very interesting direction. I'm hoping the fan service will get better as the series goes on and stop making me side eye it too!