somnia's manga / #Romance(282)

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.

A predictable and easy read. Caution, hot take incoming. I personally didn't feel the angst and was just rolling my eyes and skipping over panels every time FL and ML have some sort of misunderstanding - or act shy and have angst. Feel free to call me out here (I know I'm jaded af) but if it weren't for the art there'd be a lot more people complaining. The story is ok. I read through it without hating it and that's it. FL and ML's relationship, as well as 2nd ML, are the main draw here and >I< just don't see anything interesting in their dynamic. As I said I'm jaded af, I need either more lore or more politics, more comedy, or magic shenanigans. To specify more: FL is constantly getting piggyback rides from 1st and 2nd ML. They mostly do all the heavy lifting and serious politicing/fighting/revenge while FL sits there pretty. Sure she gets to kill a dude here and fight there but it's always these 2 who stand up for her and do the serious shit while she is conviniently left out. She wants romance, flirts a bunch with ML, but can't draw boundaries with 2nd ML and doesn't recognize his obviously romantic approaches. How conviniently naive of her. I didn't mind all this at first but it's turned into a pattern over 50 or so chapters and I find that so boring. There's not even good comedy in here despite how on the nose the plot and characters are. With that said, if you still enjoy life and like romance shoujo you'll like this just fine. Easy read means easy read at the end of the day (but I still read all this like: 1-50ish chapters with lil gaps, skip, skip, end of season one, skip, read more recent chapter, done).