Review: Hoshi no Samidare (The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer)

Hoshi no Samidare (The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer)

by Mizukami Satoshi

 

A giant hammer floats in the sky, ready to destroy the Earth. A princess and 12 knights are selected to prevent it. But these people, most of them, are just normal ordinary people, not warriors or such.

The twisted thing is, Samidare the princess has her own secret agenda to destroy Earth by her own hand. And there’s Amamiya Yuuhi the lizard knight, an anti-hero who resents the world because of his past. The only reason he fights is because Samidare’s resolution to destroyed the Earth moved him.

What memorable from this manga is not the battle, but the characters. This manga spends a lot of time in characters development. To the point where you can empathized with them. If you are fan of slice-of-life story, I’m sure you will enjoy reading it.

While for the most part it’s focusing on Amamiya, other characters have their own moments. Their back stories. How this whole battle affecting them. And there will be tears, manly tears (one in the middle part of the story is one of the best moment that hard to beat). All that which eventually in my opinion leads to a satisfying ending.

On the other note, the battle scenes are not that exciting at the beginning. You can’t expect cool techniques there. But towards the end, there will be a turning point where it will be getting more interesting. The knights can fight better, and the enemies become more formidable. And the final battle is quite epic and really fun to read.

To be honest, at first I don’t have much expectation from this manga. The title is silly, the art is not inviting, and it started slow. But as the story moves forward, I found this manga is actually a gem. One that easily going to the top list of my all time favorite.