Description
One will to create oceans. One will to summon the mulberry fields.
One will to slaughter countless devils. One will to eradicate innumerable immortals.
Only my will… is eternal.
A Will Eternal tells the tale of Bai Xiaochun, an endearing but exasperating young man who is driven primarily by his fear of death and desire to live forever, but who deeply values friendship and family.
It is hard for me to review this, knowing full well that I have given this only 3 stars when it is such a nice series from Er Gen. So, why is this getting an ordinary rating from me?
AWE has stuff that you know Er Gen is good at. The good peppering of comedy, the relatively very poor romance, cultivation system that eventually puts emphasis on actual understanding and a good ability to connect the plot. However, in AWE, Er Gen fails in some of these, while being spectacular in others. Perhaps, this is due to the high expectations I have from him but this is a very telling drawback to this series which forces me out of my engrossment.
AWE has a lot of emphasis on comedy right from the beginning, and this is an excellent plus point to this series had that comedy either changed/evolved overtime, or decreased over time. Instead, towards the end, the comedy is pretty much awkwardly forced upon us. Perhaps, Er Gen was trying too hard to be funny, taking inspiration from ISSTH which actually stopped being funny at the right time.
Poor romance. Perhaps terrible. Er Gen is not the best romance writers, but that is something I assume he knows. Generally, he doesn’t do harems but this time… There is a harem. And eventually, the woman who we feel deserved to be with him simply because of how much the MC cared for her ends up not being part of it. (Cue Chu Yuyan)
The romance is so so poor that the only way Er Gen could think of getting them involved in sexy times was with aphrodisiac pills leading to a reverse r*pe. Multiple times. With multiple women. That is how very bad the romance is, and I have to sit through multiple such romance phases. In a relatively shorter series.
The cultivation system puts emphasis on understanding, and I am very happy with such types except… That happens very, very late. In a manner that can only be called… Disappointing. Yes, I like the mix of philosophy and science in a particular arc but even that arc… Suffice to say, I was skipping multiple chapters towards the end simply because of how I knew these stuff were essentially coming out of the blue. The philosophical concepts weren’t really able to hold my attention.
A good ability to connect the plot and thus form a good system of foreshadowing is a major plus for any writer. And Er Gen does it very well in AWE as well. Unfortunately, he still decides to not go a 100% into this, overshadowing it with needless comedy and romance.
The characters? The MC is very good. He sicks true to his character throughout. Yes, he might seem like a Naruto wannabe at times but its a nice timeout from the overly violent MCs. And yet, the MC has no support characters for whom we feel. Unless, maybe his disciple who eventually fades away. And the initial antagonist.
AWE is essentially two parts. The first part is a nearly 4.5/5 story with a good antagonist and all. Yes, there is the romance as well but the comedy manages to hold up. But after that, the entire series very quickly falls to a subpar 3/5.
Is this Mango approved®? Definitely yes. Simply because of the very excellent first few hundreds of chapters. But, does Mango regret approving it? Also true. God I wish these writers could pump out chapters like most TLs where they don’t need to write daily. it would give them time to identify their shortcomings.
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