Mahoutsukai no Konyakusha
Fiancée of the Wizard

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I enjoyed the first two volumes of this series immensely. I haven't read much in this genre of manga, so I don't have a lot of experience with the Isekai premise/set-up, but I do think it's a fun idea taking a character from one world and transplanting them in another with an entirely different life. I also really like the idea of a main character who isn't destined to defeat darkness or overcome some great challenge or really be in the limelight much at all, because lots of stories can (and do) just those things all the time. And many of them do it well. ... But a story about a protagonist who would normally be someone in the background of another story getting to be at the forefront of their own is something I can enjoy.

Unfortunately, the last two volumes of this series were a let-down. Filimena is a quite well-rounded and interesting character in the first two volumes. Much of the struggles and dilemma's she faces are solely because of her fiancé, Edy, and both his deep-seeded insecurity as well as the fact that he has incredible magic power that he must frequently use to stop evil thus putting him in harm's way multiple times. Filimena spends a lot of time wondering things like 'Will we ever get married, how does he truly feel about me, what if something terrible happens and he dies.' For my part, I found a lot of this is enjoyable. (I also love romance though, so...) But it starts to become a little uninteresting in volume 3, as we aren't moving past these particular challenges on to new ones, and by volume 4, I was ready for the writer to give the two of them some cute romance time together and maybe write some conflict or character struggles for Filimena that came from outside of their marriage. (Volume 4 also has two villains that are rather lackluster and disappointing.)

There is an attempt at exploring Filimena's previous life, what had made it so disappointing, the things she regrets about it, and her overcoming her own hangups about the choices she made in that life. But much of it comes very late in the story and is rushed to a resolution in volume 4. I don't remember there being any mention of her previous life at all in volume 3, which was not a good writing move considering there was only one volume left.

I can see someone else really enjoying this series, and that's fine. Personally, I'll be selling my copies to someone else who might enjoy it more than me.

I'll spoil this story's annoying premise so read at your own risk.

Let me just start of by stating that this is not a comprehensive review or nothing of the sort. I was simply a tad infuriated by the unfulfilled sweet promise of a childhood friends' unforgettable romance that i decided to write a rant.
By the way, this is only my personal opinion as a huge romance manga lover that was disappointed by this manga. Other readers might actually enjoy this type of content. I don't know if my discontentment is due to my high expectations or due to poor writing. You decide.

So i ... actually read this manga before but i forgot what it was all about except for the cover and title. It was easily forgettable. Since i've read hundreds of manga throughout the years too. I tend to forget what each one was about and details get hazy. I blamed my selective poor memory and decided to give it a second try.Then i vaguely remembered each chapter as i was reading it.

I liked the first 2 volumes of this manga. It started with a good premise. A slightly refreshing take on the "side character's uneventful life" isekai'ed in an RPG-like fantasy world. The main girl unintentionally raised some flags with a very powerful mage-to-be, who would become her fiancé and -at the same time- join the Royal Magic Academy (due to some unfortunate incident he partially caused that scars FMC for life) and goes later to joins the hero's party to defeat the demon king yada yada.

Everything was fine and dandy since the story was more focused on the leads' romance instead of expanding on the fantasy worldbuilding and i welcomed that. Even though i was slightly annoyed with the cardboard cutout (Pushoever Mary Sue and a poor excuse of a tsundere) characters. I decided to stick by expecting the romance to beautifully blossom between the cute lovebirds. All i got was their thorny -completely avoidable- angst and silent suffering.
I could also go on about how badly-written the characters are but i'll spare both of us the headache and stick to the plot.

The story was too angsty and dare i say pathetic from start to finish. The leads felt like an aggregation of templates from an otome-game. Their lack of communication and insecurity was cute at the start with the long-distance "almost non-existant" relationship but it soon became annoyingly draggy and aggravating. It's infuriating to see how close but actually distant they are. Their seemingly "unbreakable" bond is always questioned and their unexpressed seemingly "heavy" feelings are belittled. Both leads suck at communicating and suck more at showing their feelings. Not once did i read the FMC confess her love to the guy. His confession felt anticlimatic too. Compared to how much he's "supposed" to care for her. He's way too tsun-tsun and not enough dere-dere to compensate for his rigidness.

Unfortunately, a lot of writers resort to contrived strife to make up for the leads getting together too soon by forecefully inserting in a thirdwheel after another, unending misunserdstandings and jealousy. Which drops the quality of any love story.
The problem is this manga also aims for a "realistic worldview within a fantasy" appeal but the plot is caricatural, contradictory and heavily tropey like a bad shoujo.
One needs to do a lot of mental gymnastics to justify the leads' dubious behavior. The way they hid their marriage as this "heavy unspeakable secret" (only to tell us that he did so to hide her from other people)or the details about how she got this huge hidden curse, insomnia and a slight depression while the "suposedly doting and devoted" guy sleeping next to her is the most powerful, influencial magician of the kingdom don't make a lick of a sense, to begin with.
It's exhausting that we don't get to see them in the same panel together unless there's some drama going on. (a thirdwheeler, a curse, a nightmare, an impending war, a coma, etc). Also, not much of rewarding doki doki "payoff" moments for good measure.
It's not like we see them doing any interesting stuff on their own either, except reading books, talking about whatever with 1dimensional NPCs and being coveted (mostly Mr. bigshot) by other annoyingly clingy parties.
I wish their interactions were cuter to make up for the cheap tricks, mild NTR-like (but not quite there) obstructions and the absence of entertaining background happenings but all we got was brief and lukewarm-at-best moments.

This was ultimately a subpar romance filled to the brim with unnecessary melodrama, bad tropes and poor character choices. The only way this manga could've been worse is if had bad art or NTR. A truly wasted potential.


End of rant.
Thank you for reading.