somnia's manga / #hell yea(100)

Tatiana the youngest of 5 sisters, was raised preciously by her strict, moral bending mother for the sake of getting married to a 5 star michelin husband - just like her sisters before her, for the sake of their wealth/family. Turns out the supposed perfect fiance of hers cheated, so obviously Titiana is mad and wants to gtfo, especially when her mother tells her to pull through with him regardless. And because the only way for her to avoid that is to get another guy, she eventually proposes to the commoner war hero she had an encounter with in the past. Arguably their first meeting was love at first sight? Ok so, you think another contract marriage situation - kinda yes - but it's also a bit more than that. The story goes pretty in-depth into FL's family situation, the contract is barely brought up. A lot of thought went into FL's and ML's families respectively imo. I like how everyone's got a good head on their shoulders, besides FL's ex-fiance and his fling maybe. It's refreshing especially with Tatiana. She's almost set up to be this ignorant and arrogant caricature, but you see how much she values honesty, and is in that and other aspects very naive. At the same time she's smart enough to keep up with her mother and to get her new hubby cleaned up - some might scream Mary Sue but I feel the way she is makes for the best read. The ML mellows her proactiveness out kinda. They have this cute love at first sight moment, a lil crush, and while I don't see all that much instant chemistry, I like that their bond is based on mutual trust and sincerity. There's obviously also the common political shananigans, though it's tame atm, and I doubt it'll get all that heavy. Update: What did get heavy is the constant communication issues later down the line. I hate it when characters can't get their shit together and act like talking it out calmly in detail isn't an option.

Basically One Punch Man but shoujo reincarnation version. MC had a short life, always sickly and on death's door. When she gets reincarnated as the supposed final boss, the sheer joy and limitless possibilities of having a healthy body prevent her from having this destined tragic childhood. Like, her first life was already on nightmare-mode and now that she got a good body starting from light to mid difficulty everything's a breeze. All the lil twists are well-explained by the now constantly mentally exhausted cat familiar who watches over MC, but it's less about being worried for her and more about how fucking far the intended storyline is going to drift this time. The whole thing is just taking the piss in the best way, love it.

Reading this up to like the halfway point was ok, but for the love of god this author does not know how to move their characters in a crisis. The writing gets really, really cheap after the Duchess goes rogue and basically becomes a terrorist. There is no suspense anymore, just the dumbassery of the main characters that outshines any challenge they're facing. They're all powerful people but can't manage to spy on their enemies, mobilize soldiers, research these sacred powers or look into the Duchess' past. And when they do find useful information it's disregarded if not ignored anyway. And then they have the balls to add some dumbass exposition priest to be like "we were all led here, this is fate". Stfu? Was a princess going out like a dumbass, when she was explicitly told to stay inside bc of a magic stealing witch, fate? How does that work? Did fate turn everyone into obedient little puppies that just run after the main villainess all of the sudden?

FL transmigrates into a noble lady character, experiencing the classic transmigration into a rofan novel cliche, only she doesn't know which one by virtue of having read too many and is desperately looking forward to making her rofan fantasies happen. Starts of kinda silly, honestly it's very embarrassing with how FL is constantly seeking some kinda role or romance to experience and failing miserably BUT it's only for a bit at the start. This gets really funny and also has some legit plot, this feels lowkey fresh too. Normally I can vaguely tell which direction this type of story will go in, but I have no idea here. Also also, it's really meta in a way. Like, (SPOILERS) she apparently has the power to make her wishes come true by virtue of being the mc, and yes true she literally is the mc.

5/ With this one you read first before looking at the rating. There isn't much, but it looks very promising already to me. The theme is theming.

A simple cute story, 10/10. Alexei lives with 'Pie' for 3 years during his childhood, a green skinned frog-like young woman with a heart of gold, and came to love her only to see her be killed by the knights who came to rescue him from the supposed cursed forest. He returns to his position as prince and then Emperor, heartbroken by what happened and gets a cruel reputation as "the demon Emperor". 20 years later he meets Pie again as Eleonora, daughter of a Marquis and recognizes her thanks to her affinity for beasts and her destinct accent. The plot is simple and doesn't beat around the bush, which is increasingly rare within the shoujo genre. You're here to see Pie & Ham reunite and be cute together and that's what you get. Every plot point or point of interest gets closure like Pie's reincarnation, her green skin, the forest, and Eleanora's family. I wouldn't mind more chapters with ML and FL being cute together or more lore about the forest, but I appreciate how concise it all is none the less. You can read the whole thing in an hour and walk away with a wholesome, warm feeling your empty heart.

I regret finding this so early, I need mOre.

It's a bit confusing sometimes bc some panels bug out or simply seem disjointed, but it's bearable and worth ignoring. The rest of the whole shabang? SO. GOOD. There's humour, drama, some very moving moments. It does it's own thing with the isekai trope, commits to its characters and delivers in this oversaturated genre. If your only critique is that you don't like the art: skill issue.