somnia's manga / #Another world(52)

I love torturing myself, so I'm very very hooked on this manga right now. From the title you'd think it's gonna be easy-going, but maaan, the anxiety, the risks and the actual severity of Haru's situation is made crystal clear. Honestly, imo it feels wrong to call this smut. Sure, there's lot of tiddy and all, but man there was no point in the story where I felt horny. I want to say that the feeling these prostitutes have towards sex (it being just part of a job and a day to day thing that happens) also carries through to the readers, at least that's how I felt. Anyhow, the angst is keeping you on your toes, the characters are all interesting enough and make you wonder what they might be up to or how they'll be in the future, the twist to the typical medival isekai story is refreshing for isekai trash like me, and plot seems to be slowly taking the stage. So, to summarize: 11/10, nice.

It's good so far, a lot of questions to be had here. Plot is grilling in the distance, ofc there's only so much you can say when barely the first few chapters are out. BUT I have this strong doom-like feeling that our FL will be one of those "so people keep talking about ML and I being a thing, but let's google translate the sentences 5 times back and forth until I can interpret them as something else and ignore how obvious his attraction towards me is"-types. She's a person from the 21st century ffs. I understand this japanese mindset of not wanting to be a burden, but how can she just brush off stuff like "we'll make sure to show us our grandkids".... maaaan.

Overall this is okay, I think. The art does a good job at keeping you patient, and honestly the premise is interesting. The main issue with this story is that there's this big moral hole concerning FL. Well, she is also kinda boring personality wise, but her situation makes her look so disingenuous and vain -which I'm pretty sure the author didn't intend. She lies constantly to people who seem to really care about her. Kind of spoilers from here on out: Nevermind the Duke, who she thinks may harm her (more on that later), but she - with the mind of a grown up - basically gaslights (or at least manipulates) her underaged husband into doing whatever she wants. And she does so to get away from him and the Duke, while they've done nothing but show her sincere affection. How is she so oblivious to that when she was supposed to be an affection-starved orphan? Not to mention there's NO real evidence that would make the reader, or FL, think the Duke really is a total heartless asshole who'd kill his daughter in law. He's framed in a sympathetic light actually, the father who closed himself off and tried to drown himself in a puddle of greed, in a vain attempt to cover the pain of his wife's passing. FL just looks like a snake who's out to take advantage of her position, and make herself a cozy playhouse, while waiting on her chance to dip out with cash-filled pockets. And the most annoying thing is that she is basically a Mary Sue and every character sings her praises for being nothing special at all. It's not even funny that they think her cheat sheet knowledge makes her a genius, it just adds onto the pile of hypocrisy she's hiding behind her greasy eyeballs. Who the hell put "strong female lead" into the tags??

Yurina is the villainess of a novel who our FL possesses during Yurina's childhood. The og villainess died because the heroine's 2nd fish (which is said obsessive servant and ML here) killed her. It's kinda cliche but it works. There are some nice details, like how FL renames him, and how she can reveal herself to him because he only knows the her now, and not the pre-posession Yurina. But for me it got boring after chapter 25-something-ish. The plot felt like it was stuck, showing off how Ray and FL bond over and over again. May just be my impatience here, anyway-

The pacing is nice, the art is really good and the story/worldbuilding is solid- like, you have no doubt this all takes place within the world of a girly otome game. I mean just look at some of the names lmao. I had to wheeze when I first read the ML's name. Like, it stays VERY true to a cliche japanese otome game from somewhere in the mid 2000's. Petals and sparkles everywhere, the kingdom(s) are basically glittering magic fairtale castle towns. When you see FL and ML being lovey dovey, it is the pinnacle of S-tier kitsch, especially when you recall them being like 14-15 years old. Have you ever seen a 14 year old boy proclaim their love and actually mean it in rl? Probably not, most 14 years olds are dumb and don't realize they are until they've had a few years of cringe and disappointments behind them. Honestly, their age kind of makes me uncomfortable sometimes. Like, I totally buy the og FL being 14 on both a mental and spiritual level since she is such a menace with minus 10 lightbulbs to her name, as well as FL because she is still so fucking insecure after being showered in her fiance's kisses for the 100th fucking time that day (that was a bit of a tangent) but with the rest it's like .