Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii

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You don't hear this often, but just go watch the anime. The manga is a waste of time. Spoilers, by the way.

This manga suffers from a really bad case of "should have ended a long time ago". The first 20 to 40 chapters of this manga are really solid. Top tier shoujo romance, with good characters, interesting interactions, light and compelling story. That doesn't last long though, things get rough, and they get rough fast and they don't get better.

The first bit of the manga, about up to where the anime ends, is the only real enjoyable and worthwhile part of the series. The drama ... isn't too overblown, the characters are largely enjoyable and complement each other quite well, and the story doesn't have any real flaws. It was really quite good enough for me to consider it one of my "favourites" and a gold standard for shoujo romance. After that little honeymoon phase the story takes a repetitive turn wherein the characters continuously degrade and the general plot stagnates.

Chapters (roughly) 40-110 can be summarized in one phrase: "Your princess is in another castle". The plot from this point forwards is basically Nike gets kidnapped, gets a little Stockholm syndrome, NTR bait, Livius rescues her useless ass, and she defends the people who kidnapped her because "they had a good reason". The problem is over, and everyone lives happy every after*... until Nike gets kidnapped again. This same plotline happens literally three times, and is literally the same exact shit, with just a new skin / villain. This gets real old, real fast, and does little to develop the characters, or the plot (which comes in real hard, last minute, and not in a good way).

This hurts Nike as a character and the general story because we don't see her relationship with Livius develop (which is the literally supposed to be the focus of the series). Nike prior to Livius was carefree, naive but strongwilled, took her blows in stride and knew what she wanted. Afterwards, we begin to resent her as a character because she defends villains very clearly in the wrong and does so by directly opposing Livius who is in the right, both as a King and a husband, seeking retribution / punishment. We also see some half-assed NTR bait where the captors fall in love with her because she's so nice and she does little to rebuke it or even notice it, and when Nike and Livius do meet up after all this, they make each other worse people, and worse monarchs, either through their nonsense fights, or general character regression. Nike somehow continues to become more, and more naive as this repeated kidnap nonsense occurs, the direct opposite of what you would think should happen. She also ends up combative with only Livius too, almost as if he is the villain who kidnapped her or is in the wrong for wanting to retaliate, as a King should. At least if he wants to keep his head. Nike goes through no meaningful character development until the end of the manga, which has to asspull it.

Livius becomes an awful king and weak person. Livius prior to Nike was a cold, callous, and maybe even a cruel king, but an effective one, who largely improved the lives of his citizens, and the country, as well as the surrounding areas / countries. As a person, he was a checked out, distrustful, but moral, intelligent, and logical. After Nike, the prodigious king becomes an idiotic emotional child. He loses his conviction, his ability to rule, his logical nature, and becomes a weak, whipped, angry child who has nothing to offer as a spouse or as a king. He is worse off from having met Nike (until the end which obviously has to asspull progression), he trades his old personality flaws, which he managed to capitalize on, and trades them for new ones he cannot capitalize one that have essentially no merit, that never could have built the country he has.

The side characters, villains, and other characters honestly aren't worth mentioning, they're very one note, and none of them have any real serious development / regression, at least when compared to the two main characters. The villains are pretty pathetic, either in their justifications for whatever their plot relevant actions are, or general personalities which seem to revolve around Livius or Nike, or both of them, in some ridiculous manner. The side characters are really overshadowed by the leads which do not really allow them develop or take any meaningful spotlight. Some of them are pretty interesting / funny, others are generic and whatever. None of them can either save or ruin things however, as the latter has been thoroughly handled by Nike and Livius.

The story and the new villains / characters (for the duration of the kidnap nonsense), often appear and try to guilt Livius and paint him as an awful person for making mistakes, or awful (but justifiable or at least understandable) choices, as a ruler might have to. This often ends up, at least to me, feeling ridiculous, doubly so when we largely view the story through the lens of Livius, and we see the context surrounding these misdeeds, and we remember Livius was a literal child throughout the duration of these events. Sure their motivations are understandable, but even when looking at the story through their eyes, it's really hard to like or sympathize with them, at least from a logical point of view.

After making it through this nonsense we end up in quite possibly the worst boat a fantasy manga / story can end up in, and we ride it all the way until the end of the manga. We end up with a "future past" story-line wherein the setting of the manga actually ends up the results of a now dead hyper advanced civilization, a la Horizon Zero Dawn, except we get literally no indication of this, until it happens over 100 chapters in. This revelation is jarring, out of character (for the manga), and completely unnecessary. It adds little to the overall story, if anything it detracts, and is not even close to the best direction the manga could have gone. It's even more irritating when a "end of the world" sort of apocalypse conspiracy plot line joins in, which is even more jarring and even more out of no where. The only benefits of this is that the manga is ending and we get some half-assed character development. The story is at this point, for all intents and purposes, completely dead, a shell of it's former self, and has all but abandoned its previous romantic / adventure SoL focuses for which it gained a name from and which was the primary redeeming feature of the manga.

The manga ends off exactly how you might expect, with the power of friendship and love, and a little bit of self sacrifice saving the day, before all consequences and sacrifices are wiped away after a timeskip, where everything ends happily ever after. Except no one gives a damn at this point, no one cares about the characters, the story, the manga, at all, anymore. You just end up at an empty, disappointing ending, that honestly, you've probably checked out for the majority of, for a manga you no longer care about, wondering about how good the story could have been if it had gone down a different route.

Seriously, don't read the manga, 20 chapters of greatness is not worth 120 chapter of dreadfulness. Just watch the anime and use your imagination to create a story of where things could have gone, because I guarantee it will be better than what actually happened in the manga.

I came from the anime. And reading the manga until the thirtieth chapter I understand perfectly why this work did not have a second season. I don't like shoujos, but this one sold very well in the first arc as something unconventional, more positive, with comedy and a good developement of the characters. However, from the arch of the sand, it became just another generic shoujo and in this theme it is simply not good.

How is a strategist king able to unify the "world" easily manipulated by a woman who can't even tell right from wrong? Yes, this is a cliché recipe for shoujos, so ... there was no anime adaptation of the second season, because it would just be bad. As of the thirtieth chapter, I read only the concluding chapters of each arc, I no longer attached myself.

A pity, it could have been a lot bigger and maybe stood out, but he opted for "safe". The way they turned Livius into a complete idiot and the repetition of Nike's stupidity spoiled absolutely everything.

Because of that, I can only apologize to those who disagree, but it is my opinion. I hope you will also apologize for my English, it is not my native language.

At first i was hesitant to read it because the male protagonist was a young boy and the female protagonist was older and the female was taller than the male, i kinda don't like it. But i tried reading the first volume I loved it a lot. I liked how the story developed, i never thought that i'll fall for it like other shoujo mangas i've read before. I love how their love story developed, it was so romantic and i love how Livi treats Nike. I really really recommend this manga to everyone who loves romantic-comedy stories. The characters ... are so beautiful, the story is not too dragging and i know there's still more exciting moments of it. I really love their exciting love story XD It is so lovely!

Honestly, I usually hate to read ongoing manga because all of the cliffhangers and such, but Soredemo Sekai wa Ustukushii was a must read for me. Here's why:
Story (10)
At first I thought this manga seemed kind of cheesy and suspicious, but I was wrong. You will not find a manga that's even similar to the story. It leaves you on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what happens next. New and interesting characters appear every few chapters, which makes it even more suspenseful.

Characters (9)
Nike- a caring, humble, somewhat masculine and stand-on-top-of-a-twenty-story-building kind of girl. Basically badass. Mangakas always depict princesses as a spoiled ... and naive, but boy Nike is neither.
Livi- He's supposed to be a kid right? Livi literally can do anything. And he will do anything for Nike, hands down. It's especially funny when he gets jealous.
Neil- He never gets any credit, but deep inside I feel like he's behind the Sun kingdom operations (maybe). He seems calm but when he cracks he gets mad. REALLY mad.

I would definitely recommend this manga to anyone who loves romance with a little fantasy and adventure. It's probably one of my favorites, and if you like it you should watch the anime too!

Like many people have voiced before, i really dislike on-going manga because i'm really impatient and want to binge read something so i get my dosage. However, again agreeing with most, this manga is the sole exception!
The female protagonist is headstrong, beautiful and funny and Livi ( her vertically challenged king/husband) is hilarious and also sensitive.
The story focuses on nut just the romance but the friendship between the main characters and other characters also. Except there is none of that really annoying - focusing on a side characters story for so long you get sick of them- stuff.
Surprisingly, i don't mind that i have to ... wait for each chapter and almost enjoy the anticipation (almost!).
If you like shows that are funny, cute and all-round pretty amazing! This is the one!

So, I usually don't read manga. Ever. I prefer anime. I looked on one of those "top romance" lists and found the anime. At first the squick factor was huge for me with this one. All the blurbs refer to him as a child, and Nike as an adult.

I've been reading the scanlations. I skipped over the chapters the anime covered, and continued on. In the translation, it says on his birthday that he was turning 12 or 13. Squick went up. The idea of a 17 year old girl getting sexually attracted to a 12 ... year old prepubescent boy, just. I can't even. It ruined the story for me. I don't like shota or lolicon.

REST EASY FELLOW SQUICKERS! It turns out that at the beginning of the series, he is 15. I just hope the mangaka lets him grow some more physically. He still looks 12 in the manga. So don't let the "child" idea ruin it for you.

My first experince with reading Manga started with this Manga, first I saw the anime, then I couldn't wait to see what will happen, the story itself is new and unique. the art is good, the plot is done perfectly that I feel excited every single chapter. the characters are relevant and cool. I love the fact that the MC (Livi) is so adult minded regardless of his small body. the impact of Nike on him and how he devolpes his charachter and personality grew in me really fast, it's just a beautiful Manga.
I highly recommend it, for beginners too.
overall: great Manga with a unique ... story and high enjoyment. #soredemo_sekai_wa_Utsukushii

I have only read a couple chapters, and I really tried to power through more because I loved the anime, but I couldn't get over how ugly the art was. I'm sure the art gets better in later volumes, but I just can't do it. Maybe I'm just not strong enough right now... I'd really like to come back to this manga to get the full story, but for now I'm out.

Art:3/10

The anime has actually pretty good animation considering how underrated this series is, so definitely check it out if you haven't. The characters and art look so much better compared to at least the ... first part of the manga, much more clean and consistent.

Don't read the manga. Just watch the anime. The characters are not well developed through time and it gets worse with time . Also there's the Nike which I think is a pretty shitty character . She is a shit person with very little character development. I mean she just way too easy for anyone. She doesn't show a little resilient. I didn't think it should be qualified as a shoujo manga. May be the anime is more suitable for this. Nike does say she love livi but I have my doubts with her being all lovey dovey with anyone approaches her. I just feel ... distasteful to really watch how Nike behaves with other man flirting. So if you don't. want to ruin your appetite just watch the anime and be happy. The way the manga progress it's really pathetic to watch the same shit over and over and seeing the girl too easy for anyone. If you want a good romance don't waste time with manga

I give this an honest rating of 4/10, "Bad", simply due to the fact that the manga is just that. The author trying to incorporate heavy themes like e.g. sexual assault and how said heavy themes are handled is simply perplexing, disrespectful, careless, cheap and weak. The author is clearly uninformed and ignorant in this matter.
Now, I was never able to put everything I feel and think about this manga into words but after a reread years later I can confidently tell what I could not before;

This manga is disgusting (to me). It is disguised as this complex journey with deep, complex characters and, ... as the main aspect, this complex and "philosophical" take of "All is in the way of the world and can not be inherently bad. Everyone/thing is loveable.".
Whew, that is a lot to take in.. not really. I mentioned it being a diguise. There is many a moment that these "commandments" of this "intricately crafted" mindset deeply anchored in Nike are being played out at once. It tries so hard that is becomes this uncomfortable and foolish way of thinking "everyone deserves a 3rd and 4th chance no matter the crime, there is no true evil, forgive and forget, accept everything, even rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, kidnappings, extortion etc."
It gets wild to say the least. And this is the downfall of Nike, the major character that is a part of the lifeline of this manga. But ruining is too mild a description. She goes up in flames and is reborn as a vile spawn of brainrot incarnate. Her mindset becomes so exaggerated that she starts to lean into a satirical pretentious and selfish character that has wholly different morale, thoughts, actions, feelings etc., why would she need to hold dear every single evil being and every one of her abusers.
She shows traits similar to how her early character was established but is a new and infinitely worse character and everywhere she goes turns to ruin aswell.

This all alone would not be able to tank my enjoyment and personal rating to a 4/10. That is solely due to how chapters ~90+ go.
"If you don't like or can't stomach this content don't read!!" or other statement don't hit. It isn't about what happens. I don't care for NTR and that stuff. I care about how it is introduced, incorporated, how it plays out and how everything around it is handled. The problem lies with the manga as a whole from this point onwards. It turns into a skewed over the top fanfic version of itself. A parody. It reads a little differently...
It reads like the excerpt from the mind of a rape apologist. Someone trying to tell you that "he didn't want to kill the 70 innocent people, he was deeply troubled!", someone telling you that "she chose it by wearing these clothes". A person abusing characters (in happenings and writing) for shock value. For drama. For easy pages.
How I can dare to type that? It is the truth. Nike is fully disconnect from any bad thing that happens to her (even the attempted rape) to then play out the aforementioned mindset of hers. It never comes up again. She is shaking for 3 panels and we move on from ever mentioning it again, even to Livi, to then help her rapist shortly after and show signs of some bond having been created.
I feel embarrassed whenever I look at any panel working around one of these events.

I have seen people compare this to other works of similar nature, other Shoujo manga, other long running series and the one that stuck with me the most was someone comparing it to "Akatsuki No Yona".
The difference is: this manga is a stupid formula Shoujo that started off in its lane but tried to be something it was not and could never be due to the author's inability and unwillingness to properly write around themes that take a tiny bit more brain capacity than "owo hot 2nd ML flirts with FL and she sways~ beach chapter next!!".
Akatsuki No Yona has multiple instances of terrible writing, terrible dynamics and relationship management, a often questionable and unenjoyable female lead and unsatisfactory romance (progressed at mach10 after having been abandoned for so long).
And still, it is infinitely better than this work even if only due to the fact that the author didn't try to force in deeper thematics when combined with e.g. kidnappings (Yona classic). They acknowledge flaws and use them as an advantage. The author really knows they are doing and it shows in how the story flows, even with major flaws.
This manga had NONE, zero, not a single one redeeming quality at and from that later stage.