Manga Review: A Bride's Story (volume three)

Due to real life craziness (work, prepping for thanksgiving, my online class, studying for the JLPT, too much time spent on tumblr, wait is that even an IRL thing?) no emanga review this time but I was recently able to finally get a hold of the third volume of A Bride's Story. For some odd reason my local libraries before I moved had volume four but not three and, even though I read it, it was too long ago for me to do a proper review (plus, volumes four and five are the same "arc" so it would make more sense to review both of those at once) along with this one. But enough chit-chat, let me tell you why I still adore this series.

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori

Summary: Mr. Smith, the British researcher who had been staying with Karluk and Amir's family, has decided it's time that he go off and explore more of the region and meet even more people. But when trying to meet up with his guide some things go a little strange and he briefly becomes a houseguest of a widow and her lovely, welcoming daughter Talas.

The Good: I didn't see why so many people were saying this was a sad story until very late in the book and I was amazed at how easily Mori made the switch from a happy, hopeful mood to one that decidely wasn't. While I enjoyed Emma, her earlier work, I never quite connected with any of the characters or sympathized with their relationships (the trouble with having quiet characters, like Emma, is that it's a surprisingly thin line between having them be mostly internal characters and having them come off as rather flat) but here I feel like her storytelling skills have grown and that she is more successful in conveying more subtle and mature relationships.

The Bad: Well, while I did enjoy the chapter when the cast went "hey we're hungry, let's eat!", because it appears that Mori can also draw some beautiful food porn, it did feel a bit out of place in the story. Perhaps she wanted to have Mr Smith and Talas' story fill an entire volume and realized she would be a chapter short otherwise but I thought it was an odd place to put it regardless. 

The Art: I, and the rest of the internet, have made no secret about how much I adore the level of detail Mori puts into her art here and, while I certainly enjoy the story, it's the art I look forward to every time. In fact, normally when I read manga I'll get a hold of a few volumes in a series and either read one a day for a few days or read them all in one sitting, similar to how I read print novels in large chunks (which can end up being all at once when I lose track of time). But with this series that just doesn't quite feel right, instead I prefer to read it a chapter at a time, spending a long amount of time on each page, right before bed as I'm relaxing. I think that should tell you quite a bit about the art, I consider it to be so engrossing that it's the one time I change my habits.



So I'm still heartily recommending this series and hope that one of my new local libraries has the fourth volume so I can re-read and gets a copy of volume five soon (since that only came out two months ago I can almost guarantee that they don't already have a copy, plus even if they did the waiting list might be quite long).

Manga Review: A Bride's Story volume 2

Once again I'm rather behind in this series, I got the second volume right when everyone else was getting the third volume, but since this series comes out so slowly I don't think this is going to end up being a problem in the long run.  It does leave me with a bit less to say since it feels like everyone has covered all the important details. It also feels a bit odd to be covering a volume of work in the middle of a series (instead of the first one or the series as a whole) but since I've already reviewed the first volume I'll give this a shot and see how reviewing indivdual manga volumes go.

A Bride’s Story (volume 2) by Kaoru Mori

Summary: Despite interruptions by Amir's family life continues as it has with Amir discovering new things about her adopted culture and deepening her relationship with Karluk.

The Good: The plot picks up a bit with the conflict between Amir and her family which, while not permanently resolved, concludes satisfyingly for the moment. This bit of plot development provides a bit more character development for Karluk and some development in his and Amir's relationship which works nicely. A few new characters are introduced and while they're not fully fleshed out they don't feel like 2D cutouts. In short I believe this was a stronger volume than the first and can only hope that the third volume is even stronger yet.  

The Bad: It appears that after this volume that the manga is shifting gears and will be focusing on other characters instead which will probably be a good thing in the long run but does make me a bit sad since Mori created some very likable characters and I hope the story comes back to them sometime later on. In some ways this "arc" was tied up a bit too neatly but, while it's clear that Mori is going for realism here she's also made it clear in Emma that she won't be a slave to it if it gets in the way of her storytelling so that's to be expected.

The Art: The art continues to stun and shows what an incredible amount of visual research Mori must have put into the series. The scenes that show the characters sewing could be used as a step-by-step guide to teach people how to sew those stitches and her art makes the relatively humble art of baking fascinating. The action scenes also show that she can show dynamic movement without having the details overwhelm the image/sacrificing her trademark detail work.

Bit of a short review but again, it seems like everyone else has already covered everything worth saying about this volume plus it is slice of life, there's a bit less to talk about to start with. Not sure when I'll get a hold of volume 3, probably the next time TRSI has a Yen Press sale so most likely in 2 or 3 months, and I'm eagerly looking forward to that volume as well.

Manga Review: A Bride's Story (volume one)

I'm months behind all the cool kids with this review but I only got this book/got around to reading it back in November so there's not much help for it. Initially I was a bit hesitant about the book. a seven or eight year age difference in a relationship is a bit large (and I have read a story where the genders were reversed), but after seeing all the good reviews for it and flipping through the book at the local bookstore I was won over. It was the artwork that won me over, I had a few friends flipping through the book and they couldn't stop oggling all the details either, but thankfully this book isn't just a collection of pretty pictures.

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori

Summary: 19 year old Amir and 12 year old Karluk were married through an arranged marriage that was meant to bring their families closer to together and so far life seems to be going well. Amir is still adjusting to her new family but so far things are going smoothly, until some of her family decide that they want her back to marry off to another man that is.

The Good: This story could have gone terribly, horribly wrong with such a large difference in the couple's ages but it's handled well.  Amir acts more like a (normal) older sister (not like the oversexualized sister trope that is so common today) which works and in just a few years Karluk would be old enough by our standards to date so I'm not worried about what will happen to their relationship. The story is also filled with the same rich world building that Emma had which makes it a very satisfying slice of life series.

The Bad: There does seem to be a central plot under way, in the form of Amir's family, and I am worried at how well the story will pull that off not because of Mori's writing but at the pace that these books come out. I really feel that this story doesn't necessarily need a central plot to keep the story together, a central theme yes but not a plot, so I do worry a bit for the future of the story. 

The Art: I believe that only a single volume of Bride's Story comes out in Japan every year and, having seen videos of Kaoru Mori working on the artwork, or even looking at the book itself it's easy to see why. Every panel is filled with intricately done details, all hand inking without a screentone in sight (much like her other work Emma) and the whole book is rather lovely to look at. Because of the great art I would actually suggest reading this book in chunks or chapters instead of all the way through in one go, you really need to slow down and spend extra time on each page to really take in the art.

I always feel like I write shorter entries for slice of life stories but, without a big plot to pick at and there is never a ton of character development in just the first volume, I feel like I've stated all my thoughts and plenty of other people out there have already rhapsodized about this work enough. The artwork is by far my favorite part of the series though, I was reading this volume when I had a few days of annoying headaches and it was nice to have something where I could just stare at the pages and not have to think, gorgeous gorgeous work.