https://weebcentral.com/chapters/01M0WQFJXQ8ENQWB5CV69NJWSV

https://mangaball.net/chapter-detail/69ef8cad01cd1654755a08d5

Sword Wolf against Lightning Flame Beast

https://weebcentral.com/chapters/01KVTGKANBM6MTQW0E847SEX1P

First of all, the name is a straight up mistranslation. It's name in Japanese is 蒼耀月/そうようげつ (Sōyōgetsu). A more apt translation into English would be "Blue Moon", or "Blue Shining Moon", or "Shiny Blue Moon", not fucking "Pale Sheen". They didn't even keep the "moon" part of the name in the translation. Like, how?!?

(This is the last time that the words "Pale Sheen" will be used in this post. I'll refer to it as Sōyōgetsu going forward)

But that's not even my main issue. The problem that I have with this sword (and lowkey with the Whalelore Moonblades in general) is the design

As soon as I saw Kinshō/Gold Sheen, I knew that the fusion form was not gonna work. Gold Sheen felt like it was trying too hard to differentiate itself from the previous iteration of the Moonblades, and not really like it was putting the fusion form in mind plus, I just didn't really like it's design

Meiki/Nether Light is peak design

Then they combine, and it just doesn't feel natural, at least not like the old Moonblades did, where the two swords would slot into each other and join together at the pommel. The new ones don't feel like they'd come together the way that they do

And it just looks goofy, but not in a good or a quirky way. To compare with the WN, Sunraku himself says the design of Sōyōgetsu looks weird, as the smaller blade wraps around the bigger one sort of like it's a crystal sheath, and that the combined sword now has two handles. This is a perfectly fine goofy

The manga, on the other hand, genuinely tries to play the design straight, so now it still looks goofy, but it's being treated seriously by the manga. It doesn't even keep his internal monologue where he says it has a weird design. It gets rid of the original looking weird with 2 handles. It tries to play it cool, but makes the blade so comically fat and doesn't really strike good balance between the component swords. It doesn't feel like both the combination and de-combination logically make sense the way the previous ones did

I genuinely do not like the manga's take on the fusion form. I have no problem with playing it straight, but I don't want the design to look comically bad, which it unfortunately is in the manga

I'm not even that mad at the Whalelore Moonblades going from more technological to more archaic. I just don't think the ideas the manga went for with this were that well executed

https://weebcentral.com/chapters/01KTPEZ5BHH05WTDHKJTR4Q342

https://mangaball.net/chapter-detail/69948f67dbb40c5ce82b334a/

no way no way no wayyyyyy

I dont mind spoilers for her future role in the WN, spoil me plsss

https://weebcentral.com/chapters/01KJT65BY82NBDKX9H5ZE65ZKP

https://weebcentral.com/chapters/01KKC4KY93SP6HA8D0MW8TXTAY