Clay is a young Golem molder who decides to test his meager skills by entering contest with a prestigious prize. But there’s more to Clay and his companions than first appears, and Clay’s skills could draw the wrong kind of attention.
I’ll be sharing thoughts on the entire series (volumes 1-3) as a whole here, so will keep it as spoiler free as possible.
Clay Lord is a fun little manga with a good premise and likable characters that elevate it beyond the standard tropes it employs. Clay and his companions are engaging, and get a fair amount of development in the limited time they have.
The small scope is perhaps the series biggest weakness. There was definitely room for a couple more side stories to flesh out the world and characters more as well as allowing the major plot points room to breathe and thus achieve greater impact. This really could have, and probably should have, been at least a couple volumes longer.
That said while the general plot was pretty straightforward (within the trappings of the fantasy world) it was told extremely well with a lot of emotion packed into the short length and several key reveals that continually increased the emotional jeopardy of our lead. The focus is very tightly centered on Clay throughout to the story’s benefit, but the supporting characters were also well defined and important. It’s also a complete story, with major plot points being appropriately tied up and addressed by the end, which is always appreciated.
Overall Clay Lord is a solid, enjoyable series that could have been even better with more to it but also could have been worse in less capable hands.
Derailments of Thought 