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Although I am now ashamed to admit it, After my first several bad experiences I ceased to give any Manhwa, regardless of its fanfare or reviews a fair shake... The few titles I had read had shoddy line-work, atrocious writing, and deplorably awful tropes that had me fleeing like a chimpanzee on fire from from the circus after the third chapter.

In retrospect, those initial offerings were so abhorrent I can't even remember their names as to properly trash-talk them.

Chalk it up to bad memories OR most likely, a defense mechanism erected by my tortured mind and it's last, noble brain-cells attempting to scrub the experience ... of subjecting myself to that tripe out of my mind. I'll miss those brave and valiant cellular gray-matter-warriors. they served well and they fell in battle for a greater good. So even if the names of the worst Manhwa ever written is lost to me... the names of those brain-cells remains.

(R.I.P Steve, Archibald, and Fluffles <3)

*Ahem* anyways... So I don't know what made me pick up 'Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp'. Perhaps I didn't recognize the Manhwa tag and simple mistook it for a Manga. Maybe the moon the was aligned just right in the star-littered sky... but whatever it was I'm thankful for that nigh impossible divine intervention.

... Because despite the worst experiences I'd ever had with ANY drawn-media having been found within the pages of a Manhwa, About ten chapters into 'Doctor Elise' I realized both that I was in fact, reading a Manhwa, AND experiencing some of the BEST storytelling I'd ever experienced from Drawn-Media.

I quickly read it to completion without stopping. It took around 6 hours to absorb the entirety of it, but afterwards I was awash in silence and introspection on a story which had taken me through an entire gamut of human emotion. Happiness, Sadness, tense moments, and relaxing character progression. It was a phenomenal read.

So... Despite this being the first Manhwa I not only liked... but ADORED... I don't feel the need to spoil anything for people who may be reading this review. I don't want to talk about the story itself or the characters. Nor do I want to praise 'Doctor Elise' for any of it's various and wonderful moments.

Many people in their reviews, segment specific areas like storytelling, art, how well it confines itself to its genre, pacing, etc and so on. For me... that is not needed. All I believe you need to know going into this is the following...

'Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp' is an Amazing rollercoaster of Art and Storytelling which pulls off being both comfy/familiar and Exciting/tense due to its magnificent pacing, character studies, and reliance on a course-corrected 'heroes journey' story-archetype. You should just read it. Sincerely, JUST. READ. IT.

My favorite genres/sub-genres tend to be Josei, Seinen, and Isekai. This Manhwa has aspects of all three interwoven, and it does it flawlessly.

It has my highest recommendation for an introduction to Manhwa, and as I've re-read it multiple times after I've read other brilliant Manhwa (Due to this title opening my eyes), I would argue that it is suitable for people more experienced in the medium as well.

I understand that this isn't a structured review, but I believe my experience with this title should be enough to sing its praises.