Two things that really affect readers’ perceptions of the pace of this story are:
First, the chapters tend to be short, sometimes 1/3rd of the page count of other series.
Second, there’s a wide variability in how much “story” gets packed onto a page or into a chapter—some pages have only one or two panels, some are crammed with information in a bunch of panels, and certain sequences can be developed in lots of detail—it takes Asuka about four pages to get home from school, into her mom’s room, and into fingerblasting (hat tip to LesbianPirate for the term) position.
Throw in the odd chapter structuring (as when we’re in the middle of a sequence and suddenly an omake or side chapter appears), and the story comes off as being told in fragments that don’t quite seem to be in the proper order.
ALL THAT BEING SAID, in my opinion the whole thing reads much better and less digressively when re-read from the beginning in one go.
That doesn’t absolve the author of failing to adapt to the serialized format effectively, but I don’t think the accusations that the story is just wandering or that the author doesn’t have a strong sense of where the story is going are justified, at least not yet. But I certainly understand why it might seem that way.
