Stigmata ventures into territory not many isekai stories tend to venture towards, by design I assume. That lends it a breath of fresh air that comes with more strengths than weaknesses.

In essence, it's still about someone unsatisfied with life being reincarnated into another world. Renji enters the desert country of Drought where rain never touches down---a country that's constantly at war with the country of everlasting rain, Drizzle. The lore of this world is fairly interesting, especially towards the end, but I just felt it could have been explored a lot more.

The characters, while unique, share in probably my biggest gripe with the story where much of it just seems like it needed more time in the oven to cook.

I wouldn't say the story was "rushed", but more that it needed more time to build itself up so the ending could have more of an impact. It feels like Renji just got reincarnated but he's already solving the mysteries of the world and becoming a god. It doesn't feel very "earned" for the reader, almost like the author just sought an ending for the sake of the contest. I feel these revelations in the story would have been much powerful in a volume 5 or so instead of just a one-and-done story.

As for prose---"it is what it is." Not bad, but not too spectacular either. Some of the fight scenes felt too "floaty" where the author tended to overexplain things, which slowed the flow of the fights at times. But the descriptions were usually pretty spot on that could paint clear pictures in my mind. Though the last thing I'll note for prose here is that there's quite an abundance of pet, overused phrases I recommend the author try using less often.

The biggest strength of story I'd say would be the characters. They all have a unique charm to them even with limited screen time. And I'll give the author extra praise for taking certain characters in bold directions that was apparently a controversial decision among other readers. I thought everything was well-thought out, just perhaps not executed in the best way it could have been.

Overall, Stigmata is the perfect example of a "bold" isekai that tries (perhaps at times too hard) to stand out from among the sea of isekai stories. It succeeds in concept but struggles a bit in execution. Either way, there's still some goodness to be had.