pluckaduck's manga / #Beautiful Art(139)

i wonder if every historical GL will have most of the male cast as POS. this is the second story I've read with that sort of dynamic.

great great magnificant art, but lets be honest: the pacing and progression is messy asf. i wish the mangaka put more care into the storyline, characterization (except for Marie-joseph) as he did for the art. the art carried. also, probably the only manga where naked guys hugging each other, guys kissing each other is completely platonic... *cue regretful sigh*. also, marie-joseph is really hot. she ended up being the chara readers rooted for the most, and henri-whatever's chara arc is sooo disappointing. I'm glad he recalled his dream again, and stopped being a total ass, but it's not a very high bar. his sudden change to supporting the revolutionaries was also confusing, and i thought it should've been delved into. but i suppose if the manga was trying to be historically accurate, there's only so much the author can do in his characterizations... even tho it felt so random.

beautiful, and an insightful take based on the executioner's family in medieval France. i loved the themes in the manga, about liberty, women's rights(wrongs lol), the social inequalities and injustice, the excessive opulence of nobility, and the inescapable dirty swamp that is being born in the bloodline of an executioner's family. the charas felt fleshed out, and altho henri-whatever's chara development was very disappointing, it was realistic and ties to one of the themes: that men are pigs who think with their crotches. marie-joseph tho... my feelings for her oscillated between like and dislike, and she certainly made my straight ass sweat, but she's ultimately the most admirable chara of the entire cast who stuck with her beliefs. my complaints is that i felt Marie Antoinette's change of feelings for her is very jarring; how and why did she suddenly dislike and disdain her all of a sudden? there is no explanation for this sudden change from admiring/loving her? there is a huge gap in her chara arc. second) if alain was gonna be a huge influence in marie, he really shouldn't have been introduced in less than 5 chapters just to get killed off. his addition felt so random.

relatively straightforward plot. very good execution. there def could've been more if the worldbuilding was explored a bit more, but it wasn't necessary.

it's a shame the author passed away so young. based on this debut work, it was clear they were very talented. i was so surprised to learn a 23-yo (or younger) conceived this touching story.

interesting and philosophical but felt pretty shallow. the story's tone is very dreamy and muted, showcased by the text font, the light palette, the focus on the characters' faces and body language, and the lack of background art (except for the sky). and the lack of plot. it felt like the author had an idea about the selfishness of love ('cutting off love one's wings') and took the analogy to a literal level, but expanded little on that. the black-haired girl lamented about her feeble normal human existence, suggesting she envies the angel for her wings, but i don't understand why she is so in love with angel, to the extent she cut off her wings? perhaps she was lonely? it didn't give off that feeling when she was talking with her coworker tho. so i feel that the lack of details on mc's character undercuts the story's message.

it's really really beautiful, but sometimes, good art doesnt mean coherent or equally as good story. the art style is distracting, for lack of better word

ch. 44: the only saving grace of this manga is the art and the beautiful men. storywise, the plot points are fine but the delivery is incoherent and lacks structure and the pacing becomes god awful as it progresses. it's almost egregious. in the beginning, when it was just simple adventures, i definitely felt the author wanted to incorporate as many twists as possible for shock value but doesnt know how to incorporate them into the stories naturally and fluidly. later on, it legitimately feels as though the author is making things up on the fly. for example, shiro is in love with the leader but there was only one appearance of her double, and then later the real one is introduced and the story tries to convince us shiro is in love with her via explaining the letter correspondence and all but it's so forced bc despite her importance to him, any hint of their relationship was never mentioned at all prior to this plot point. like shiro only likes her bc he relates to her, and finds her insecurity and lack of confidence lovable? The other character introductions is pretty dogshit as well. also, this isn't even shounen-ai; why is people even tagging it as such. there is a lot of scenes with romantic tension between shiro and the officer, but it's strictly platonic. the way the author sexualize the male characters is exactly the same as how male authors sexualize female characters.