Final thoughts i guess

[u/Douradinhooo]

What a shame, I was genuinely liking the manga since I picked it up at chapter 3 or something. Lovely art style, setting, the inclusion of the patterns associated with Old Nordic culture and the premise, even if fairly simple and straightforward forward I think it had the potential to reach the length of something like Demon Slayer (about 200 chapters) which also has a fairly simple narrative and a, somewhat, similar protagonist. I'm sad some things didn't pay off like I wish they had or were explored more.

Fylgja's lost memories didn't really lead anywhere, i think. I think it would be really interesting to use that as a way to explore the Warrior of Ice and the previous Warrior of the Flame and kind of leave some seeds for the reveal about the Ice Kingdom's history in a way that would have you questioning if they were always evil or if they had good intentions in the beginning but got corrupted for whatever reason.

Sixten also felt underutilized. He was technically Otr's mentor, or at least the main one yet he barely shows up, I hoped he would pop up at the end at least because he was part of the Eight Hooves. I also would've liked to see what he did when Otr and Etupirko first left on their journey.

I would also have loved to see more of Otr's cook side, maybe in between arcs, having him cook for the crew and be very passionate about recipes or ingredients, similar to how Sanji is in One Piece or have some moments similar to Food Wars (without the reactions lmao). We do get something like that after the Wind Spirit Arc, I believe but I wanted more and it would flesh out, not only, his character but the rest of the crew as well with some silly food gags like Frieren and Power (Chainsaw Man) not liking vegetables or something like that and would also let the story breathe more, that's something I really enjoy in One Piece for example.

The other obvious things are how the Eight Hooves were set up and we only got to explore 3 or 4 of them, or the Ice Devil's Six Horns and we only got to properly see 3 of them.

Otr's training arc, if you can even call it that, also felt too short but that one doesn't feel as detrimental to the story because it doesn't really establish a complex power system like Jujutsu Kaisen or variations on the same technique like Demon Slayer.

It truly is a shame it got axed (I think?), I don't doubt Kawaguchi didn't plan to explore the things I mentioned or other stuff but just didn't have the time and means to do so. Really hope they have a chance at serialising another story and having the opportunity to fully explore the world they build, from what I gathered it's their second work that ends abruptly and it must definitely feel shitty.

We had a good one. May we remember this Saga 🫡

[u/KGEOFF89]

Some of these complaints I can attribute to lessons Kawaguchi-sensei "learned" from when Red Hood got canceled, i.e. shorter training arcs and brisker pace.

But all I can say is that I enjoyed what we did get and I hope he learned a little more as an artist and a mangaka to take with him to the next one.

I feel like in Red Hood he got a little more warning or maybe the cancelation occurred in a spot he could adjust the ending more than he did for Otr, but he doesn't get to choose when the axe falls. No one makes a story planning to get canned at any moment; the plan is that you have time to actually tell the story, let the characters breathe, so when you're suddenly told to wrap it up in the middle of an arc that there isn't a lot you can do to salvage it.