July's manga / #Historical(88)

Although the set-up was a little weird, since the female lead was incredibly stupid in her first life, she seems to be aware of her mistakes after dying once. I like how she's trying to change herself, even going out of her way to ally herself with the man who killed her, because he's probably the only one who cares enough about the country to help her in this re-do. The art is not bad, I like the details on the backgrounds and scenery. Character designs are also good.

Female lead is sent to be a spy for her country by the person who saved her when she was young, but she's both incompetent and unlucky, and gets caught on her second day of her job. How disappointing. Seems like another webtoon where the female lead is completely useless. The art is alright though.

Pretty interesting so far, a female assassin is executed after following orders from the emperor she's obediently served for her whole life, and vows she'll get her revenge. She gets a redo of her life and will try to destroy the emperor to protect the lives of her fellow assassins. The only thing I don't get is how can she be so sick and frail, basically skin and bones, and still be a top-ranked assassin that obviously requires a lot of physical activity? She's not even the type of assassin that kills by seducing men or whatever, she's the type that actively hunts her targets down to kill them, so I can't see how she could fulfill her missions with such a weak constitution. The art for this webtoon is really good, but the villains are drawn so ugly, like the evil emperor who had her waste her life before. Update: I'm pretty disappointed by this webtoon, the female lead is not that great of a heroine, because she's kind of dumb and reveals herself too quickly. Sigh. Also, everything is too convenient for her. People just do whatever she wants, and it all goes so smoothly despite her supposedly being under constant surveillance. Bleh.

A bunch of doctors-in-training are living in a remote mountain village, and one of them finds a heavily injured man, whom he takes care of and nurses back to health. It sounds nice when I wrote it like that, but there's no plot and everything escalated super quickly. They fall in love (lust) and have sex nightly after they confess to each other in the third chapter. It's not really smut though since there's only one sex scene. I have no clue why everyone is in love with the frail and meek male lead, because he's ugly and useless. Calling him beautiful multiple times isn't going to change my mind. Also, no one acts like a doctor, including him, who's far too idealistic to survive as a practicing doctor, even in ancient times. The art style is not my liking, it uses very bold lines and a solid color palette that just doesn't work. Update: There's a lot more smut and gore now, which makes it really strange. The male lead is a complete and utter idiot for not knowing that his lover is a murderous psychopath who wears human faces as masks...what kind of doctor is he again? Like you'd be able to tell from the smell alone, also he touched it and couldn't tell it was real flesh...I don't know why this webtoon even exists.

A fashion designer is isekai'd to another world by summoning, and it turns out that he's found himself in a royal palace where his old lover from a previous life is waiting for him to return. The art is very nice, and there is an efficient use of webtoon panelling. There is isn't too much of a plot yet, besides the male lead wanting to go back to his own world, and his male love interest wanting to break the chains that connect the two of them together. It doesn't make sense how he's so good with makeup though, since he's a fashion designer, and not a stylist. Just because he's a genius in making clothes doesn't mean he's also good at using makeup, because those are two different jobs. Update: The translation no longer makes any sense, and I have no clue what is going on.

I think this is one of Watase-sensei's best works. It captures all the complexity of a twisted family dynamic with a tragic star-crossed love that isn't meant to be. There's a lot of dark and disturbing things that happen here, so it might not be right for everyone. The art is beautiful, as expected from Watase-sensei.

There's way too much going on in the first chapter alone. Even without googling, I can tell this was a light novel, because the pacing is so off. It may have been good in written form, but it doesn't work in this manga, due to bad execution. The female lead fought a war, met her first love, and got married all in one chapter. Then the second chapter, everyone dies. In the third chapter, she's reborn in another world, and she's going to school, and she meets her loved one again. Like what the hell? Give some space for readers to breathe! Also, even though she is Queen in her past life, she said she hasn't eaten good hot food in ages, what? Did she starve as royalty? I'm so confused, because obviously her previous father, the King, loved her very much and spoiled her. Yeah, nothing makes sense. The art is good though.

The manga doesn't do a good job introducing the characters, nor the proper set up of the overall story and the world-building is poor. Honestly, I thought the female lead was a guy until she said her name in the second chapter. Here I thought this was a shounen ai or something, because she immediately likes the wounded boy that they saved in the spirit realm. There's no chemistry between the two main characters. Other manga have done much better in execution of first meetings in just as many chapters, so it's not exactly impossible. I honestly don't give a crap about either of them right now, because they don't seem appealing. Both of them are human, but live in the spirit world. The girl was raised there since she was a kid, and she goes back and forth between the human and spirit worlds. The injured boy is from a family of exorcists, and he needs to stay in the spirit world for some unknown reason. Bleh. Motivations are weak and flat. The bookstore of the title doesn't seem to be the main focus at all. I'm disappointed. Also, the art is kinda below average for manga. There's a lack of screentones and for some reason, the noses are all drawn with circles when the characters are facing frontally, that was incredibly distracting for me. The chapters get worse and worse, with no proper plot nor pacing of events, it flows very unnaturally.

Haha, this shoujo webtoon is hilarious. The female lead is a ditz, but not in an intolerable way. The prince's reactions and his subsequent exasperation at her antics are relatable. Even the side characters are rather interesting, so I would say this is one of the better shoujo webtoons out there. It's not completely cliched, but it does have some huh? moments. Especially with the crown princess character, who seems completely at odds with the existing cast, because she acts very differently and inexplicably. The art is pretty good, but there are some problems when it comes to facial proportions and locations of facial features. The eyes are drawn very well though. I also appreciate how it doesn't turn into a full-blown in-your-face romance, and the author allows time for the various relationships to develop. I look forward to more chapters. Update: After Season 1, this story no longer makes any sense. I don't know if it's the translation or the story, but this webtoon sucks now. I don't recommend it anymore.

Haha, the female lead is funny. It got a little confusing when it started talking about their previous lifetimes, though. I thought it was unnecessary, because they could have discussed this in the main story than in the introduction. I'm not sure how much I'll like this webtoon, but it's alright so far. The art is average at best.