It still feels like good ol' Fable. Nothing has fundamentally changed in terms of the art, the humor, or the dialogue. I’m honestly not sure how needed this continuation feels yet. While the story doesn’t feel like it’s dragging, it currently plays out more like a long side-story you’d find in the middle of the original run rather than a definitive final part. My biggest gripe so far is the complete lack of action. One of the things I love most about this series is the quick, fluid, cinematic movement during fights, but this opening stretch has been slow and heavily dialogue-based. It’s not bad writing butit’s a weird choice for a series that usually thrives on that tension.

Then there’s the central plot point involving Misaki. After two parts of establishing her character as someone who firmly rejects that world, the story takes a sharp turn into a situation where her past and her privacy are being exploited behind her back. Even though it’s written with the series usual competence, it feels like a bit of character whiplash. It’s a strange direction to take her, especially since the actual resolution of that specific drama seems to have wrapped up within these first 33 chapters, more or less.

It feels like this whole opening was essentially a prologue meant to kickstart the "real" part of the story, especially with the tease of the hitman twins now after Akira. I’m hoping this means the action I’ve been missing is finally about to drop. I’m qutie conflicted about this part for now. It’s still Fable, and that alone makes it better than most things out there, but it hasn’t quite hit that perfect stride again just yet.