Reviews

I'm curious to see where this goes. I was hoping for a little bit more action of some sort to happen, but it seems like it's going to be a slow build. Which is fine.

This volume was all over the place trying to set up plot and characters in a way that feels very inexperienced, which is odd since Rei Toma has quite a few manga already. It's trying to be in-media res, but then has to play a lot of catch up to get you to understand every character's motivation; then it whips out its action to try to worldbuild, but it all happens so fast that it makes no sense in terms of human being actions and such. Perhaps if I had read Dawn of the Arcana this would be perfect, but as the stand-alone series it's supposed to be, it's just giving whiplash.

The art is very gorgeous and detailed; the backgrounds are simply stunning. I love the main character's design-the Ajin's ears are very appealing. The imperial China clothes and hairstyles add a lot to the character designs, too-because despite the gorgeous art, characters (apart from the protagonist) are somehow bland.

An epilogue to The Water Dragon's Bride is included at the end. Why, I will never understand, since it relies on you having read 11 volumes of that series to know what's going on and understand the callbacks.

All this said, though, I'm definitely continuing this series.

bethanycrowepowell's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

While I have some reservations about the essential worldbuilding, this was a fast paced manga with a compelling central problem.

I do like that the love interest is actually a cinnamon roll... After finishing available volumes of the series so far, I went back to read Dawn of the Arcana and discovered that was a connected series.

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