I'v read the first five volumes and found this series one that I want to keep reading but at the same time pains me to read. It's benefits are the gorgeous art and realistic yet fantastical historical fiction world its set in. Its flaws are its characters and lack of depth in exploration of topics and unrealistic characters. To illustrate the points, keeping spoilers to a minimum, in the first volume or two our Main Character who is hailed by the narrative as a prodigy and genius attains the role of (for pretension purposes) a High General who governs land, the youngest one in history.But the first thing he does is immediately forgets he has an army and runs off by himself without a word to his men (whom we never see), and after the events that caused this he is stripped of his position for not acting in accordance of his office. But were told that he was the genius prep student in his military academy, etc. why would he do something that he should have known would end in a likewise way instead of something more logical for him and his position. For me this was the first sign of logical constancy problems, which persist through all the volumes.

Several arcs latter, it's a story about war, so should be little spoiler to say that a nation becomes conquered while its ruler was waiting for reinforcements that they 'knew would show up without a doubt', that never did end up arriving. But when our main character asks said reinforcements why they didn't come to help the response was something like 'we sent the men as per the treaty, but the treaty didn't say they had to arrive', with the reinforcement army being extremely honest on their foreign policy of themselves first and everyone else second. But if they're that open about it then wouldn't everyone already know that their unreliable, and why would the conquered nation be so sure the reinforcements would arrive if their this open about their stance.

Writing aside, the places in the book are nearly historical replicas of real world locations, depicted in art and atmosphere in great detail, which bring the world to life on the page. The character designs are all distinct and memorable. The whole of the story tries to stay political focused, around a growing empire were it's young power hungry administrators want to expand, and the smaller states around it are on the brink of losing to the empires European like cultural hegemony. The empire is already too large and powerful and no one nation is strong enough to stop it- will they band together or will they fall under the weight of a superior nation? That is the question of Shoukoku no Altair.