Song of the Long March

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If you are searching for your next favorite try Song of the Long March, it is an intelligent tale of revenge and survival after a political coup set in historical China.

Song of the Long March ( aka Chouka kou) is Not your average manga or rather manhua.

Li Change is the daughter of the emperor and is raised in a way to cultivate her intelligence rather than her beauty. When her family is assassinated in a political coup by another family member, she escapes and disappears while allowing her death to be ... faked so that she can plan revenge. This is a gender bender and she lives as a boy. This is the story of Change's journey.

The art is first rate. The female mc is very smart and strong but she is real and not superhuman, she sometimes fails. That also leads to another great thing about this story, a great plot with a story that you really are excited to read the next chapter, a plot done with realism where you don't know exactly what will happen next. The characters do not fall into stereotypes of either reverse harems or buxom chicks, they have good and bad sides to them and personalities. There are no purely evil or good characters in this but multifaceted human beings.

This is well translated, and unlike many manhuas is not confusing and you can actually even pronounce the names and remember them. A great selling point of this is that the Military strategy comes alive and is not boring in this too.

There are lots of historical groups featured that are vying for power and land in tribal conflicts to spice things up.

Yes this manhua is a 10 and you will not be disappointed.

It is not yet completed or completed in translation so I cannot review the ending.

I really hope that more people will notice this and read it as right now it is not getting the attention it deserves.
Male and female readers alike will enjoy this seinen.

reviewed by inzaratha for reviews for the unreviewed.

I have only recently gotten into historical mangas, and this one blew me out of the water.
It's hard to believe the author is so young- the art is beautiful, the plot is perfectly complex, and the characters are intelligent, powerful, and flawed. This manga will go down as one of my all time favorites and I encourage anyone looking for a new heart-stopping read to pick this up immediately!

Finally, a manga (manhua, technically) with an actually strong woman protagonist. Not just an undercover reverse harem where the heroine's main power is to stumble into powerful soon-to-be allies that are coincidentally mostly of the bishounen type. No, this main character can fend for herself, both with her wits and in combat. Well, regrettably the direct combat ability is only used at the start and only the cunning genius and stragegic mind get the full attention instead, but point is, the heroine is charismatic and capable, not a self-insert to build an army around.

The art is pretty and clean, pleasant to the eye. It depicts ... the historical setting faithfully and is well used to emphasize both the action and the drama.

The story itself is engaging with mixture of various characters and places that keep you not bored. All the actions and relationships are slowly being woven together to create the continuation of the story that builds on itself and pays off to the reader. Sadly, this format of storytelling is also currently the biggest "weaknes" of Song of the Long March.

The manga is currently on the hiatus - and it doesn't seem to be getting back in business anywhere soon. And well, most of the chapters released to the date are pretty much "just" a prelude. The first shot on the billiard table of a storytelling that sends the characters on their first adventures, to find one's feet, make contacts and prepare for the first major boogaloo. The thing is - the boogaloo started to unfolt in it's full glory only in the recent chapters. What we currently have is not bad as any mean, but it critically lacks the continuation of the story that we might never get. It's as if The Lord of The Rings ended up after first 20 minutes of The Two Towers. And regretfully, I have to rate this for what it is, not for what this could be. So while this has the potential to deserve all those 10/10 ratings, it hasn't gotten to that point yet.