somnia's manga / #Beautiful Art(47)

79/ MC is the last siren. In her first life she was used and abused by her father and the Emperor, forced to sing and perform miracles while trapped in a cage. She died at peace after recieving salvation by the demonic Duke, he who went on a rampage and freed her. Time rewinds and MC finds herself in her 10 year old body, before her power was discovered, with memories in tact. This time she's set on avoiding tragedy, and wants to save the Duke from his. Honestly, I didn't expect to love this so much. MC is adorable and I cried for her so hard. And it's not like she's just a tragic character template either, she has this good bit of straightforwardness and mischief in her too, which is really charming. Normally I'm not into the whole babying MC thing where everyone spams them with bedazzled hearts, but her situation justifies it well here imo. I also love the messages in the story. MC focuses on making things better, instead of blindly commiting to revenge and power-hogging. A lot of these time go brr shoujos commit to the ugly feelings (not that it's bad), so I feel this is a refreshing take. Also: the bit with the Duke's mom. Her straight on telling her to value herself, not forgive abuse, and process her grief for as long as and however she needs to - speaks to the readers as well, a real power move, what a queen. The world building is interesting too, it's obvious someone put thought into the lore and magic, and I have yet to see a boring character too... well maybe besides the shady ugly uncles, but they don't count. But like many other manhwa it looses the plot after a few dozen chapters and gets lost in the sauce.

78// So, this one is set in a medieval setting, with a bit of a religious magic mix. We're shown how MC is married off at the age of 8, to a full-grown man. She becomes a woman with a bunch of gossip surrounding her, she's the vulgar wife who only cares about luxuries. But that's not the end of it, war is a thing and life takes her further downhill by ending her family's life. She ends up dead broke at a monastery, begging for a second chance. And weehee, she finds herself back in her 17-year-old body, just fresh out of bed. This is where we begin. Anyway, simply because child marriage is portrayed doesn't mean the whole story is bad. Things like war, death, and cheating are there too. Idk why people are so allergic to it, even though it's conveyed as something wrong, or at least questionable, within the story. Most characters don't feel entirely good or evil. Neither FL nor her hubby feel perfect. Especially in the beginning. But our good guys learn to communicate and trust one another. FL's spoiled, dumb attitude is there, cut her some slack - she was an abandoned child who wouldn't get affection unless she spent money - but she matures with time and learns. And her hubby ignores her because, despite being the adult, he has no clue how to approach or care for her right.. though ngl, it's creepy how it's never explained why he agreed to marry a kid, let's hope that's brought up soon. It's also brought up how the first timeline might've been a simple dream/vision of a possible future, which is cool imo, it makes god's influence feel more mysterious and illusive. The bishop said himself that there is only speculation, but no proof beyond the identity of a saint. What I also love about this shoujo is the setting. It's nice to see a more realistic medieval background that doesn't reuse the same 3D fantasy castle asset, as dozens of other similar shoujo of this niche do. With that said the art is very good too. Honestly, the thing that bothers me most is the second prince's feelings for FL. Not because they are there, but bc they felt shoved in out of nowhere. First, he had a political motive, then he was arrogant, never even got to see her smile at him - barely interacted with her in fact - but BAM! "I think I fell for her", out of the blue. I feel that could've been developed to be way more smooth. Anyway, I won't spoil it here, but that one scene where he "confirms" his feelings for her, is bone-chilling. If you know, you know.

Tatiana the youngest of 5 sisters, was raised preciously by her strict, moral bending mother for the sake of getting married to a 5 star michelin husband - just like her sisters before her, for the sake of their wealth/family. Turns out the supposed perfect fiance of hers cheated, so obviously Titiana is mad and wants to gtfo, especially when her mother tells her to pull through with him regardless. And because the only way for her to avoid that is to get another guy, she eventually proposes to the commoner war hero she had an encounter with in the past. Arguably their first meeting was love at first sight? Ok so, you think another contract marriage situation - kinda yes - but it's also a bit more than that. The story goes pretty in-depth into FL's family situation, the contract is barely brought up. A lot of thought went into FL's and ML's families respectively imo. I like how everyone's got a good head on their shoulders, besides FL's ex-fiance and his fling maybe. It's refreshing especially with Tatiana. She's almost set up to be this ignorant and arrogant caricature, but you see how much she values honesty, and is in that and other aspects very naive. At the same time she's smart enough to keep up with her mother and to get her new hubby cleaned up - some might scream Mary Sue but I feel the way she is makes for the best read. The ML mellows her proactiveness out kinda. They have this cute love at first sight moment, a lil crush, and while I don't see all that much instant chemistry, I like that their bond is based on mutual trust and sincerity. There's obviously also the common political shananigans, though it's tame atm, and I doubt it'll get all that heavy. Update: What did get heavy is the constant communication issues later down the line. I hate it when characters can't get their shit together and act like talking it out calmly in detail isn't an option.

Reading this up to like the halfway point was ok, but for the love of god this author does not know how to move their characters in a crisis. The writing gets really, really cheap after the Duchess goes rogue and basically becomes a terrorist. There is no suspense anymore, just the dumbassery of the main characters that outshines any challenge they're facing. They're all powerful people but can't manage to spy on their enemies, mobilize soldiers, research these sacred powers or look into the Duchess' past. And when they do find useful information it's disregarded if not ignored anyway. And then they have the balls to add some dumbass exposition priest to be like "we were all led here, this is fate". Stfu? Was a princess going out like a dumbass, when she was explicitly told to stay inside bc of a magic stealing witch, fate? How does that work? Did fate turn everyone into obedient little puppies that just run after the main villainess all of the sudden?

5/ With this one you read first before looking at the rating. There isn't much, but it looks very promising already to me. The theme is theming.

A simple cute story, 10/10. Alexei lives with 'Pie' for 3 years during his childhood, a green skinned frog-like young woman with a heart of gold, and came to love her only to see her be killed by the knights who came to rescue him from the supposed cursed forest. He returns to his position as prince and then Emperor, heartbroken by what happened and gets a cruel reputation as "the demon Emperor". 20 years later he meets Pie again as Eleonora, daughter of a Marquis and recognizes her thanks to her affinity for beasts and her destinct accent. The plot is simple and doesn't beat around the bush, which is increasingly rare within the shoujo genre. You're here to see Pie & Ham reunite and be cute together and that's what you get. Every plot point or point of interest gets closure like Pie's reincarnation, her green skin, the forest, and Eleanora's family. I wouldn't mind more chapters with ML and FL being cute together or more lore about the forest, but I appreciate how concise it all is none the less. You can read the whole thing in an hour and walk away with a wholesome, warm feeling your empty heart.