pluckaduck's manga / #drama(186)

it was an entertaining story, there was some parts that felt meandering or were introduced awkwardly (such as the part about the memory loss) and i think there is some pages missing at the chapter where sayeh kills her mom, but overall decent well-written story with relatively fleshed out charas. i find it hard to believe that mc and his sister love Robert in the end, bc the only reasonable explanation for this feeling, after everything he put them thru, is stockholm syndrome. bc how the fuck can they even like him. also, i feel that the truth surrounding how they turned maestros into humans is a plot hole. bc it required taking out a marble (that represented their essense/soul) from their body, and i do not think the maestros would be willing to go thru torture/experimentations for mongliso to discover this truth, even if they were in a dream.

a cute and realistic story. id still choose financial stability over love tho, unfortunately.

cute and poignant story

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.

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.

premise and plot points were interesting, but no. the topic of religion/forgiveness/atonement vs one of the most heinous acts of sexual nature needs to be tread very very very carefully. this story is a shallow attempt at that. the psyche of the mc and his epiphany needs to be explored more, bc its beyond irrational that mc could find it within him to forgive the ml. 15 yrs of his life were ruined without family or friends, and it's likely that if his inmates had found out why he was in prison, he would've been killed, after prison it's just constant fear and dread and people which with he cannot form relationships bc his past always reach their ears. so it's even more ridiculous that mc came to love him. the ml was not developed well enough-- i mean he has the personality and the past, but what about his values? if the story was longer to go really in-depth with ml's past and the plot points and their relationship, it could've been good and worth pondering over even with the controversial elements. it could've offered some believable insight as to why he could ever EVER love a child rapid-murderer who did nothing when he was framed and took advantage of his loneliness to have sex when they met again.

the artstyle made it hard to get thru at first, but it's delivers raw and intense scenes so well. both of the main characters are so so flawed but it's also hard to hate them. at first, i enjoyed their dynamic, which was bitter toxic woman x woman who seems forgiving and would do anything for her beloved. but it turned out it wasnt like that at all. i mean the black-haired woman is incredibly cold, rude, bitter, stubborn, and selfish, but the woman with unrequited love left her gf of 10 years and threw away her future just to have sex with her. she's so thoughtless, tactless, and stupid, and when shes unable to burden the weight of being a runaway murderer, she lashes out hard. she lived a generally happy life, so she was unable to cope, and admitted herself she didnt have black-haired's strong will.

pretty good. wished it was more angsty, and flesh out the reason J fell for paul