I recently completed the manga "Helck", and to sum up my opinions on that very shortly I'd say...

While not perfect, Helck was a solid read that had fun, entertaining action, and interesting, though not entirely well-written, characters. It truly did feel like a debut work, as it was unpolished and rough around the end, and the story was very jumbled overall. Initially, I was a bit disappointed, as some parts of Helck were outstanding, such as Helck's backstory, the lovers-to-rivals relationship between Edil and Hyura, and the strong emotional beats littered throughout. It wasn't a disappointment, as much as it was a newfound curiosity. It made me think, this author is definitely capable of more. So you can imagine my enjoyment of reading that potential shine through in only 36 chapters of Volundio... Or Verndio... Or Surreal Sword Saga... Or Divergent Sword Saga... Man they have really got to find a proper title for this series. I digress!! In this review, I will be going over what I think Volundio is doing well in comparison to Helck, but also about the flaws or fine-tuning I think this series might need. So, lets dig in!

Let's start with the characters. As it stands, I'd say that even with nearly a quarter of the time, I already love the cast of Volundio far more in comparison to Helck's cast. The characters all feel fresh and nuanced, and every side character is legitimately fun and doesn't feel like unnecessary fodder meant simply for making omake. The villains are always fun, and the visitors that come to Poofy's are always so unique! Side characters are interesting, and I never feel annoyed by their appearance in the story. It really helps the SOL experience for the occasional chapter to feature a random wanderer that happens to stumble upon our main cast's humble brewery. Speaking of the main cast, they are all fantastic! Cleo with his straightforward, yet confusing nature is not only a solid everyman protagonist but one with a surprising amount of wisdom as well. Kohaku's mystery is still very intriguing, and I'm curious to see her relation to the other 4 holy demon kings. Saphia is cute, like really cute, and Shrike is a blunt edgelord kid who has some neat parallels to Cleo. I love every one of the main cast, and overall this is a largely positive part of the series! My only complaint is that I hope they can get around to continuing to develop more of the side characters, as I find them all equally as interesting.

Now the plot is kind of hard to really talk about since... We are so early on in the story. There is no inclination of what Kohaku's goal is, very few drawbacks to Helck have been made, Cleo's role in the future is ominous as ever, and at the moment it's far more of a slice of life than anything resembling an actual plot. But, the little bits and pieces that have been put in are cool, the worldbuilding is excellent, and the introduction of these elements has been flawless thus far, including other characters, plot elements, and foreshadowing. My only complaint thus far with the story is that it seems to be headed in the same sort of fatalistic mindset that Helck went down, later on, which kind of stalled Helck as a story. I hope the story stays relatively high in terms of stakes, but not to the point where it's a save-the-world plot like Helck became. Overall, the story thus far is great, but since there's so little it's a bit hard to judge.

This Girl Is Freaky Though!! Finally, the artwork. What an improvement from Helck!! Especially compared to the earlier chapters of Helck, it is insanely impressive to see how far the mangaka has come! The character expressions are vast and meaningful, the designs are so unique from one another, facial features are well defined and add heavily to emotional moments, and the mangaka is never afraid to get clever with her paneling. I feel like the artwork is most certainly the biggest improvement from Helck, and I really like what shes done with her style! (Although nothing can beat classic Helck losing his shit moments.) Overall, as both a successor to Helck and a standalone story, Volundio does an outstanding job, and I have no doubt that my rating will continue to increase as more and more chapters come out. For now, it is a solid 8/10. Many thanks for reading!