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Jun 28, 2023
Chinese (Chinese-inspired) inner palace (emperor's harem) setting has been getting popular in light novels and manga recently. This is the first anime based on the setting if I am not missing anything. If you are not familiar with the setting the inner palace is a restricted town where emperor's consorts and their attendants live. Each consort lives in a mansion (also called a palace), gets a title (Noble Consort, Pure Consort, etc) and has dedicated attendants. The inner palace also has a bunch of servants on general duties - laundresses, doctor(s), eunuchs as guards and to handle heavy work and so on. Emperor's mom (dowager
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empress) also lives in the inner palace, if alive. One of the consorts, usually the first one to birth a male child, will become the emperor. There is lots of plotting and politics going on - jostling for position between consorts, poisonings and murders left and right. The setting makes for some of the best-written and strong female leads (FL) around.
Specific to this story, there is a position called the Raven Consort in the Inner Palace. The Raven Consort position is unique in many ways - the women who get the title are sorceresses and bound with a specific task (avoiding spoilers). Each Raven Consort trains a protégé and passes on the title. Being sorcerers, the Raven Consort is usually ignored/feared by the emperors. Traditionally the Raven Consort lives all alone and is aloof of inner palace politics. Our Raven Consort, the FL, captures the interest of the emperor, the ML. She also gains supporters and friends as the story progresses The story is mainly about Raven Consort's relationships with other people.
Throughout the story, the Raven Consort and her co tackles murders that have happened in and around the inner palace. There is an overarching story that flows between the arcs, explaining the role of the Raven Consort, her duties and the actions of the previous Raven Consorts. There is also an extremely slow burn romance going on between the two leads. The story melds the "mystery of the week", the overarching story and the romance well.
If you are familiar with The Apothecary Diaries and like it, you will most likely like this one, too.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 16, 2023
This is a romance manga focusing on relationships and values. It is unique in many regards - it lacks most, if not all, of the usual rom or romcom tropes. No misunderstandings, no love triangles, no harem and definitely no NTR.
The characters are well-written, each with their weaknesses and strengths. The FMC has prior experience in dating and sex; and with multiple partners too. The entire school knows of this too. This probably cools off many people from the start. The FMC is not a gyaru type - she's very subdued. She has problems feeling things and also expressing herself when she does. The manga
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develops her extremely well. The MC is cookie cutter, average nerd, starting spineless but develops over time. The MC highlights the FMC's story; I guess the story would not work with a more unique MC.
Side characters highlight different values and relationships. For example, the FMCs first love, shown in flashbacks, is quite a likable guy. He loves the FMC in his own way, but does not feel strong attachments to people. The FMC and the first love has different expectations from their relationship. This hurts the FMC at the end, but she cannot express herself at the time. Her view of relationships, love and sex diverge from the societal norms after that. FMC's best friend is in a long-term, long-distance relationship and thinks she is not in love with her long-term partner. Another friend does not go into relationships, but is OK with casual sex. The manga focuses in each of these cases (people) in turn.
The manga also pulls no punches. Both FMC and MC struggle with their experiences/inexperience in relationships. One part of this is sex. The MC is not sure how to approach the FMC sexually. The FMC is OK with doing whatever the MC wants, but she becomes anxious about her prior experience affecting the relationship as the MC struggles with sex. A likable male side character becomes interested in the couple's experience/inexperience dynamic and this triggers a jealousy fit from the MC in middle of his university entrance exams. The manga does a good job of showing how such conflicts can be resolved.
The main couple starts cold, but become very endearing in later chapters. They are subdued and sweet - a rare combination in manga.
Art starts of weak. It improves a lot in the later chapters.
All in all, this is a 9. It's a good, unique read. It has no NTR.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 25, 2023
If you want to read one single romance manga in your life, Insomniacs should be it. Pacing is excellent and characters are so well done that it is impossible not to care for them. There is no unnecessary drama, no love triangles, no misunderstandings of any sort. Both characters struggle with insomnia and other health issues and they get serious about their high school club, which is enough momentum to drive the story forward. It's refreshing to see so many cliches being avoided in a romance manga.
The art is a wonder - the female protagonist is drawn as a normal person, not an anime style
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hottie. She's short, has normal body proportions, has thick eyebrows and a nose, wears normal clothes and her laugh will melt your heart.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 9, 2022
Came to this series after reading Half & Half, Love Letter and Kimi Machi. Seo is a great storyteller; I will probably end up reading everything written by him. Kimi Machi was good. Suzuka is bad.
Story is OKish. Mixes romance and sports. Does an OK job of romance, but is really skimpy on the sports part. If you enjoy manga telling about a specific activity like Ballroom e Youkoso or 3-gatsu no Lion, this is not it.
Art is decent. Early Seo work. Kimi Machi was later and more refined. Art is still enjoyable.
Characterization is horrible for the female lead (FMC, Suzuka) and bad for the
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male lead (MC, Yamato). Suzuka is cold when she does not care about the MC, outright abusive and irritating when she supposedly does. Their relation is plays as an S/M story, except MC does not really enjoy M at all. There is no reason for the MC to keep pursuing the FMC. The MC, in turn, does the exact same mistakes in every relation he has. He has near-zero character development. Side characters are OK. They are nothing special, but being near the badly written FMC and MC, they end up being more interesting.
Now thinking back about things, Kimi Machi also had some problems with FMC characterization. Yuzuki stopped being interesting after the first arc. I mean if the MC's rival in love is more interesting than the FMC...
Anyhow, the ending is a disaster. It is written as a supposed good ending, but... It is incredibly sexist without realizing it is; like watching your grandpa make racist comments in a corner. The FMC behaves so inconsistently with her previous actions that you wonder if a ghost possessed her or something. It crushes all the dreams of the MC and FMC, while claiming everyone is very happy with this.
Now I am off to read Fuuka... Poor kid.
4/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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