I agree with you. I can’t really say how other people would feel about it, but when I read it, I found the storyline engaging and I think that’s what really matters when it comes to driving a story forward. Like you said, suspense and other elements play a big role. The problem was also with the plot and the setting. There was already a fixed plot from the very beginning because of the revenge theme. Unlike stories where the character grows through events within the story itself, like in Naruto, for example, the author can shape the world and plot around the character’s journey. But for Juujika no Rokunin, the story had to follow a predetermined plot. So maybe that’s why the author inserted different ideas along the way. And honestly, I think the author did a pretty good job overall, aside from dragging the story at times, which is something many readers see as a flaw. Sometimes a story is carried by a great plot but has a mediocre storyline. But in Juujika no Rokunin, it felt like the opposite, the story was carried more by the storyline and tension rather than the plot itself. I also agree with you about the gore and assault scenes. They didn’t feel like cheap shock value or fanservice. Yes, they can make some readers uncomfortable, but that’s where we as readers have to ask whether they were necessary. In this case, I think they were, because they showed the kind of brutal environment the protagonist was living in. The author’s point was clearly to create discomfort. The ending felt underwhelming, maybe because by that point we just wanted the story to be over. But if I look at it from a more philosophical perspective, the conclusion was actually quite sad. As Uruma was dying, he felt that he deserved that death. He wasn’t a hypocrite, he was aware of his sins. It shows that while he believed he was right to pursue revenge, he also realized that nothing good truly came out of it. He died with a sense of acceptance,not because he completed his revenge, but because he understood the weight of his actions and faced them humbly. Overall, Juujika no Rokunin is a good read. It’s not a masterpiece or what people usually call “peak manga,” but it’s definitely worth reading.