I'm a mostly new reader, I haven't read Liberty regularly since its first few chapters. I don't think this series sucks nearly as much as it's hyped up to. That said, the last 6-7 chapters are a hysterically bad ride, and I'm honestly amazed at just how unashamedly the "shocking" twists and convenient cliffhangers are abused in every single new chapter. Keep going, Izumi. You're awesome.
I suspect the reason people (myself included, of course), panned this series for ages is because we were reading it as it was coming out. Again, the unapologetic crappy dorama is something that I now enjoy with this work, and if the series started out like that, I doubt many people would have complained. The issue arose precisely because of those first few chapters, which read markedly differently than the rest of the content and which set decidedly different expectations.
I imagine said expectations are far less pronounced if the reader binges the whole thing, even more so because at this point the series has something of a reputation so even new consumers are fairly likely to be aware of what to expect. But when you read it periodically, following the release schedule, with all that time in between that solidifies your expectations (plus, you have no idea of the swerve that is in your path), it can be pretty jarring.
