I Belong to House Castielo

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

***Only mild spoilers, nothing to be afraid of in my opinion***

First of all I would like to do this review not because I absolutly loved the story but because the few reviews that are written here doesn't portray objectively the reality of this manhwa, which is not trully informative nor fair to the people who catched an honest interest in the title or it's cover to read it, but then they come read the reviews only to find bad reviews. Do not misunderstand me, I do appreaciate when people left honest reviews even if they are bad about the main thing in question, but people ... doing reviews only dropping lies because they didn't even ended the whole story or solely because they didn't like the age gap do not allow them to say untruths. We need objetivity here.
Having said that, I may assure you that this story does NOT contain grooming or pedophilia or anything strange. Here there is only a special relationship of trust between a guardian and his employer with a gap age between them whose romantic relationship only develops once they are both adults. The age difference is 8 years.

ART: The art is enjoyable, nothing extravagant, the colors are vibrant full of the characteristic brightness in all isekai fantasy romance. It's pretty decent to be honest I stood up with worst art in other mangas and manhwas out there. The desing are pleasant and thypical but I particularly enjoyed the male characters desings the most.

STORY: The story itself is not perfect, it is not a masterpiece, much less the best romantic isekai you will find. But what is special about it is that it does not typically focus on romance, at the beginning it is about how the female protagonist adapts, overcomes adversity, grows and matures as a person, develops her family relationships, understands her sense of belonging and her own identity by recognizing herself and who she truly is, as well as learning to recognize what love and affection truly is. You can enjoy filial love from the beginning to the very end of the story. There are certain holes in the plot and the pace of progress of the story at times seems slow and other times explosive, it has certain stressful and even ridiculous setbacks that can make you hate the story, but at the same time you can't stop reading and you want to know the ending, especially in the last and final season. But at the same time, this type of drama and unforeseen upheaval is what makes the stories unbearable and at the same time engaging, that will depend on personal taste.
What I liked most about the plot is that there were no political tactics at all or strategies that give a headache to read, in fact it is simple and easy to read for that very reason. The romance only appears in the last 30 episodes.

CHARACTERES: The characters give a headache at times and their attitudes sometimes become immature, but apart from their humanity and defects they have development and recognize their mistakes later. The ML is not the best but also not the worst among the all bastards I come across so far. The FL is likeable, strong and enduring person in front of the adversities yet she's not that oustanding among other brilliants and well written female lead out there who may also seem as perfect the way they are portrayed, here we have human characters overall.

ENJOYEMENT : As I said before, it is not the best isekai story, in fact this topic is touched upon practically very little so we could characterize it more as a period romance with fantasy more than anything else. Still, it's not a bad story and for my point of view it was worth reading, it was an exasperating read towards the end but it was mostly worth it. The side stories are the cherry on dessert.

So, this is going to contain spoilers, but I really sugest you to read this, because you need to be prepared.

I Belong to House Castielo was a really fun and great read until half of the chapters. Very creative plot and magic, and a heartwarming family bonding. I was ready to turn this into a favorite.

However, the story starts when Estelle is eleven years old. In the first few chapters she mets her scort, an adult man. And he turns out to be the love interest.

Yep, that's right. He mets her when she is a child, and he is an ADULT. And they end up ... DATING. Sorry, but I can't stand this. This is a warning because this can trigger someone.

Yeah… it’s that time again… a raise your own spouse manhwa. This one gives me so much pain to review as it was one of the first Otome/Villainess manhwa I read and I was loving it. Sadly all good things come to an end and the fluffy child raising manhwa I thought I was enjoying turned into a strange relationship between her and her knight who had a complete personality change. How disappointing.

Estelle Castielo was born to an abusive mother (I mean this woman fucking locks the child in a suitcase while she goes out to have sex with people) only with the faint memories ... of a past life to keep her company. This all changes when the mother needs money so she decides to sell Estelle to her father and thus begins the first part of the manhwa. This part deals with Estelle learning how to be a child and enjoy things. She meets her father and her brothers and becomes close friends with the knights and everyone in the manor.

Her father gets to figure out how to be a father to a child he didn’t even know existed while her far older brothers try to figure out how to treat her and have fun with this clearly malnourished 11 year old. It’s very sweet and I was loving it. I especially liked the relationship between Estelle and Emel her knight. He cared for her a lot and they had a sweet familial relationship… well that wasn’t enough I guess because TIME-SKIP!

You know something is going to be poorly written when a really jarring time-skip happens and it completely throws off the pace of the story. It’s been quite a few years and she’s an adult now. With this I could go into how the series changes from being about a lonely child being cared for by everyone around her into a generic otome story between two lovers never meant to be surrounded by war and betrayal but instead I’ll just go ahead and rip off the brand aid and say that Emel is the fucking ML. The guy who helped her get over her fears and swore to be a knight to always protect her ends up being the ML and marrying her. All of this isn’t mentioning how he goes through a personality change when he starts to realize his feelings. He becomes argumentative and just unpleasant. It’s not terrible but it is noticeable.

I enjoyed this series so I would occasionally check out the newest chapter to see if it got better or changed or something (or maybe he wasn’t the ML) but no. Whatever. Just disappointed to see something I used to enjoy become this.