Chiasmus's manga / #unfinished(2)

An interesting premise of a city-state run by nobles within 'modern' Japan. Unfortunately, the author didn't really expand on the set-up, which can be said for many aspect of the story. Everything is very rushed in the way I feel like I'm reading a Wikipedia synopsis of it rather than experiencing all the intrigue, mystery, and drama. In some ways, I like it. I like how the Emporer almost immediatly finds out part of Iori's plans. It shows how she are really out of her depth with her mission and how smart the Emporer can be. I like how Iori is quick-witted enough to figure out the Emporer already knows her revenge plans. At the same time, I also wish certain revelations were slower. Iori's identity as the child of an exiled duke was discovered by nearly everyone within the first five minutes of meeting. There was never any 'oh no, will the secret be found out?' feeling. The Emporer jumping from 'wait, you're a woman?' to 'please be my wife and I will fix all your problems' seems a bit rushed considered he thought of Iori as a tool eight chapters ago. Beyond a kiss and an offhand remark about being spunky, we don't see a change in feelings for the Emporer in relation to Iori. One of the things done really well was showing the role of women in Genkyou. As someone who knew this was a gender bender going in, it was really obvious how the author wanted to show the extent which women were confined and contrast it with Iori, who, not only being the child of a disgraced duke but a woman in diguise, broke those restraints on herself in order to get to the truth of her family's tragedy. I really wish this were longer. If I TV adaption were made of this, drawing out the plots and themes, I would watch it in a heartbeat.

A good mediocre shoujo ai-ish wlw manga. I think it's much better than a lot of straight middle of the road manga with the same premise of 'powerful demon is connected to this high school girl' because the relationship isn't bogged down with abuse from the gender dynamics. The high school lead is kind and not a complete pushover. Like a normal person, she doesn't immediately fall in love with the demon lead but nor does she have an antagonistic relationship, more like a weary one. The demon lead might be haughty but she doesn't boss or bully the high school lead. They care for each other in a more open and healthy way. The art style is sort of ??? Can't tell if the manga is for women or for men. The breasts are drawn anime size large and there's some jarring perv-pandering shots. There's some yaoi hand syndrome between the demon and high school lead that can be ignored. In most of the manga it's more hard shoujo ai than soft yuri. At the end there's some indication that there was intention for sex to be there later in the plot, but unfortunately the manga is dropped.