[Have read until chapter 80 for this review]
I went in with little expectations not even knowing which one was supposed to be the FL and must say It's good for real. This manhwa got a balance of interesting critters, action scenes, humour, characters with depth, creepy moments, adorable ones and even some spice too. We got a very competent (but not boringly flawless!) MC trying to navigate a world that wasn't really made for her, competing against a set of equally powerful and dashing men for the ultimate spot as Emperor.
There are times where the narration becomes poetic but it doesn't mess up the pace or anything. The prose is good and contributes to an enjoyable read. Not too flowery or verbose. I like to take my time with things but it was difficult to refrain from binging the comic even with the long chapter format and all.
Art factor: I find the backgrounds, creatures and power effects are creative and mesmerizing, there are many scenes which make you stop while scrolling and want to save as wallpapers no doubt. There is a lot of attention to details even when it comes to the clothes. On the other side, I find the proportions of the characters bug me. My guess is that the author is going for a "larger than life" idealized appearance to signify how out of the ordinary these people are, but I find the tall proportions and long necks with the small faces (its not lost on me that this is a korean beauty standard along the extremely pale skin) looks kinda off and awkward as a reader, almost as if the head of one character was pasted on the body of someone else, IMHO it needs some adjustment to blend better. The way the side profiles are drawn also bother me, their noses and chins are too pointy and silly looking. But i'm not sure if it would bother me as much if 1. the rest of the art elements weren't so delightful, and 2. there wasn't the obvious expectation that one is supposed to think of these characters as very beautiful in the story based on dialogues.
I'm sorely disappointed that
since ch 75 or so the female protagonist has been getting drawn less bulky and more similar to the mold of other female background characters yet there's no in-world explanation for it. And it's easy to see it's her because the male characters keep looking the same and no one notices her shrinking in the dialogue. Its unknown to me whether this was a sudden decision of the author or pressure from higher ups but still, how virulent gender roles have to be that even in a supernatural FANTASY story where the bang is a ! defiant tall buff female and THE ONLY ONE OF THIS TYPE in the whole cast she must be drawn out smaller and dainty out of the blue . I hope it’s some temporary mistake out of exhaustion or something and not really how its gonna be from now on but unforch I can’t predict the future, I’ll just know i will curse multiple times and enjoy the comic a lot less if the ! author decides to turn her into some stereotypical deflated whimpering wallflower just to make canon romance develop or some crap, as if it were just plain impossible for it to occur with the unorthodox way she has been (that’s bull****) . It may seem like an isolated thing at first, but if you zoom out of this story and take others into , you get a certain message. It's as if to say: ! oh don't worry, not even the strongest female is spared, in the end they all get overcome and put back in their place by some man, it’s the way things must be . Gaggg. I'm gonna quote a reviewer of a different comic (a japanese manga) that captures the sentiment very well:
"I'm tired of [ nonstereotypical ] gender expression being used to attract readers and then being dropped, diminished, or even worse, becoming something to be overcome. I'm tired of tomboys with ‘maiden hearts’. I'm tired of crossdressing boys who want to ‘be seen as a [ real ] man’ by the girl they like. I'm tired."
It feels like a sucker punch every time, it stings. Despite that, I do recommend giving this a chance for the plot and hope it doesn’t get axed out of the blue.
As a note: If you check it on the official english webtoon website, it may appear as if only 15 chapters are available, but it's not true. It's just the site locked the rest to be available for reading through their app for further profit as it got a lot of viewers.
