Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume

I came across Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yuume after playing the game (Eternal Sonata) and reading that there was also a manga adaptation. The manga itself is an enjoyable read but suffers from some serious drawbacks, which I will explain below.


Story 7/10

The story itself is very confusing, due to a lot of background information being left out and thus it is unclear what drives the characters. The manga is clearly made for those who have played the game and this is shown by cutting a lot of content and background information. This is a shame since it is a very interesting story about dreams and dealing with emotions

Art 7/10

The art isn't outstanding but isn't bad either. The reason I gave it a seven is that the battle scenes were very confusing and poorly drawn. What I did like was that the characters are very detailed, Frederique looks indeed like a 40-year old man and Waltz looks evil rather than a little boy.

Character 6/10

As I said in the story part, the characters lack depth and it is quite unclear sometimes why they react like they do. The manga could've easily been longer by implementing the backgrounds and the potential romance budding in the manga, a shame really.

Overall

Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yuume is a mediocre manga for those who didn't play the game, but even if you did the manga does not offer much. Although I would suggest reading it if you enjoyed Eternal Sonata to see for yourself.

Summary

+ alternate Story
+ detailed Characters
- sloppy writing
- confusing battle scenes
- meant for niche audience