Gou: Hime-tachi no Sengoku

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Lots of history, lots of drama and a tiny bit of romance.

Personally I did not trully enjoy reading this, but to some degree I found it interesting. As a historical drama in its own right, it focuses on the life of a female character from a prominent family in a time of intense strife in Japan. I think the story tries to follow historical events more or less accurately, thus there are many many characters and many locations and it gets a bit tedious. I did not find reading it to be pleasant because most events are quite tragic, but I think it gives a ... glimpse into how those times were. There are a couple of moments were you can enjoy some romance, but they are brief.

The story failed to convince me that the main character, Gou, was trully influential in the political outcome of the conflicts. To me most of the time she seemed tossed around by fate and the will of others like most other characters in this story. I agree she is strong and brave to some degree, but I do not consider her to be inspiring, at least not based on the dialogues in this manga. I am though being harsh, because if this manga teaches you one thing, it's that just staying alive in those times was very difficult and you cannot judge them by current standards.

The art and the character design are very beautiful, although I did not find them innovating in any way.

If you like historical dramas, give it a go, but don't expect warm fuzzy feelings nor female emancipation.