Masca: The Tale of the Great Mage of Hessed
Masca

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Masca begins as a tongue-in-cheek fantasy love story, but its effort to amuse only makes it look somewhat ridiculous. The silly costumes of the characters (which do not fit the setting) even add to its ludicrousness. When I first read it, I dropped it almost immediately. I decided to pick it up again, however, after seeing some good comments about it online, and tried to read it with a more open mind. It turns out to be very exciting to read. The tone changes as the series progresses, becoming more and more intense.

Against her mentor’s will, a magician girl in training goes to the ... castle of the demon lord to save people who, supposedly, have been kidnapped by him. Her foolish and rash behaviour, of course, gets her into trouble. As a result, she finds herself first making a pact with the demon and then staying in his castle.

The heroine is not trapped in the demon’s realm for long; it is only the beginning of her adventures. The plot gets deeper and more complicated in the later chapters as the reader is taken to different worlds – the world of immortals, magicians, and the dead.

The protagonist Asarella is a naive but feisty girl whose impudence is preposterous. This quality of hers, amazingly, is supposed to be her very charm. Soon, she becomes the object of desire of every male character in this story, instead of them wanting to wring her neck. She is not hateable though; she can be interesting at times, but can be irritating, as she does whatever she wants without even thinking.

Thankfully, the other characters are a little more sensible than her. Almost all of them are cold, brooding and mysterious, except for Asarella’s master who is gentle and calm (but later, you'll discover that even he is not exactly as gentle as he seems to be). Asarella’s personality is a stark contrast to them, and this is where the tension comes from. The demon lord is an archetypal character who is feared and thought of to be evil, but is actually not what he seems.

I really enjoyed reading this. I just thought that it could have been a bit shorter, as some conflicts are somewhat repetitive. However, the abundance of bishounens might help fangirls overlook its flaws. While its comical moments often fail to make you laugh, it succeeds in entertaining readers through its beautiful story and charming romance.

It was a great story, I loved it, I reccomened reading it, but you'll be in for some heartbreak, The story is great, the characters are mostly great, their intresting, however I hate aserella, I despise her but the rest of the character you'll love, I'll tel you why I hate her, first of all she I charming so I wont deny that, however she knows early on that the demon king cainen and her mentor eliue are in love with her, so she isn't that naive more foolish, so she's in love with her mentor it's determined early on, however I love cainen, I ... would understand if she had kindly turned him down, cause you can't be with someone you don't love, but she doesnt, while it's obvious that she is in love with Eluhie she plays with his feelings in the worst way, she crys out to him everytime Eluhie is in trouble, it's like stabbing him a thousand times, she goes in-between the men back and forth, while cainen Just patiently loves her, because he uses so much power to help her he eventually goes crazy and it causes him so much pain, I don't understand her, there's a man who loves you so much actually two but you play with their feelings, so other then that, the other characters are great, especially cainen the demon king, trust me you'll fall in love with him and then end up crying your eyes out, so it's great but heartbreaking

The more time goes by since I've read this, the more I regret ever reading it in the first place.

A little summary of this review:
World building- 3/10
Art- 6/10
Plot- 3/10
Characters- 6/10
Enjoyment- 3/10
Recommended? No.

...
Masca is a fantasy-romance depicting life and choices of a young mage, Asarella. All she wants is to work hard and become a good mage, but her life take a steep turn when she goes into the Demon Lord's castle. The story opens innocently enough with plenty of jokes and ridiculous situations, but things soon become more and more serious. A complicated love triangle doesn't help Asarella's many a predicament.

The manhwa started off promising. Many races and characters were introduced after the first volume and I was excited to see this diverse world. But by the end, all the potential just fizzed out. The politics were screwed up with 1000+ years old mages and that wasn't cleaned up. Only the fate of one little country, Eda, was discussed while the rest of the world found no reference. Average humans weren't even mentioned. World building was unbearably lacking.

The art was alright, but everyone looked the same. The Demon Lords were the only ones with somewhat distinctive features.

Characters were irritating, but you could see where they were coming from. While not completely one-dimensional, they didn't squeeze your heart either. Asarella was probably the most annoying one. She was 20 but acted 13. Then again, she was still a fetus compared to how old everyone else was. One of the love interests, Arch Mage Elihue, was literally Asarella's adoptive father. His intentions and character seemed the most baffling to me.

I was disappointed. The romance was poorly handled. An exciting world was left unexplored. The story was unnecessarily dragged out and the ending was unsatisfactory. I felt as if I had just wasted my time and effort.

Would not recommend.