>>3588794Yeah, the political elements got way too heady after a while, but what really lost me was the endless debate over free will verses determinism and when they started talking about abstract ideas like destroying the boarders between dimensions and re-writing the hierarchy of the gods. I really had no fucking clue what they were talking about by the end of that manga. I stuck it out to the end and it wasn't worth it. Especially if your favorite characters are Sinbad and Jafar, like mine were. Jafar got a particularly raw deal. So much so that I think she needs to make a sequel to fix it.
Sinbad's boy capture quest is underrated, though. The production values and direction of the anime were underwhelming compared to LoM, so I feel like people passed it up. But the best arc happens right after the place where the anime ends. Sinbad gets sold into slavery and mindbroken, Masrur is introduced, and the climactic moment is a really powerful SinJa scene. If you enjoy these characters I would recommend it.
AoS also doesn't fall as deeply into the dense sociopolitical nonsense as the first one did. It does have Hitler-Kaiba, a holocaust allegory, and it touches on the dangers of demagoguery in democratic elections. And there's one character who won't let go of her belief that a royal bloodline is necessary to lead a nation. But it's not AS bad as LoM, and all that is balanced out with character development for the best boys.
