- This review is spoiler-free, but lengthy and not able to go into much detail. TL;DR-ish at the bottom. Sorry for that, folks! *
Having now finished Moritat, I can echo calstine's comments on just how well-done this story is. In all honesty, I've been reading manga/manwha/manhua regularly for over a decade now, and I'm also a devout book-reader; I've therefore experienced my fair share of stories. That being said, Moritat is a gorgeously well-crafted example of good storytelling. Both the characters and the plot are amazing - they draw you in with a good balance of being realistic as well as just that touch of fantastic, enough so that you know that this is another world while still being drawn to how much this could happen in real life. It's also the kind of story that, should one try to review it, also contains spoilers each and every chapter - its nature is just simply one that is far too complex to be even vaguely detailed without giving anything away. I'll try my best to describe it all without spoilers, though (but if you want a good insight with maybe some spoilers, check out calstine's review!)
The Plot:
Moritat is, above all, a psychological thriller. It is not your typical wishy-washy, love-triangles-filled BL; I'd even go so far as to say it's not really "BL" in any conventional sense of the word, not without the tropes and cliches BL implies. Instead, Moritat is a story that takes your expectations and worries at every turn (BL- or non-BL related ones) and makes use of them, turning them around and creating a sense of disquieting unreliability. To be a bit more specific, Moritat tells the tale of two people who wish to accomplish two very different goals, but they can only do so in relation to one another. Our protagonist wishes to know the truth about his circumstances, for he has forgotten both himself and everything else; the other party has a goal unknown to us. Both are living in an isolated mansion (though perhaps "trapped" might be another word one could use), alone from any others except for a selected few servants.Throughout the entire story, elements about their backdrop, their pasts, and their motivations are revealed, and everything - even the very words and pictures we're presented with - is up for grabs for what is actually the truth. Every chapter reveals to us a new "truth" about this world we first come to know as just a simply mansion in the middle of nowhere, and its twists are as unexpected as they are welcome. The pacing is also excellent -
never was there a time where I felt like I was getting tired of the story, but I never felt like it was too rushed either (except for, of course, when the end came and I wanted more because I enjoyed the story so much). Really, Moritat is the kind of story where every revelation is a spoiler, and so that's all I can say for the plot.
The Characters:
Herein lies the fundamental beauty of Moritat: without its characters, Moritat would be an entirely different and less engaging story. There is quite literally no real way to describe just how complex they are without spoiling a large majority of they story. There are two main characters presented to us: Jesse and Law.
Jesse is our protagonist, simply put - he's the one whose point of view we mainly see from. He's definitely one of the most interesting people I've gotten to know throughout the course of a story, and he subverts the trope of the main character being the least well-liked. When we meet him he is just like us - trying to figure out what in the world is going on around us (though this is because he has lost his memories). His blank state of mind made me able to to put myself easily in his shoes. However, "Jesse" is still Jesse, even at the beginning; and, as the story progresses, we see him truly becoming who he is. This allows us to both relate with him more as a person, because his frustrations and decisions can be things we would both feel and make in those circumstances, but it also allows us to get to know him. And, like any other person we might know, we can empathize with them while still forming our own judgements and opinions on their morals, weaknesses, strengths, personal tics, etc. Jesse is a complex and flawed person with a complex story - but that's for both us and him to discover over the course of Moritat, and one of its main driving forces.
Law, on the other hand, is our deuteragonist; whether or not he is also the antagonist is up for both Jesse and the reader to discover. Without saying much about him (for he is one of the main mysteries to solve), Law is personally the character I both empathize more with and feel more alienated from. Law is never what he seems, and the uncovering of his thoughts and motivations has been in large part one of the reasons why I like Moritat so much.
Of course, there exist other characters, and one should not feel any doubt at all that they are not central to the story. Without them, Moritat would not be what it is as well. But to reveal them fully, or even list why they are important, would be to give away their importance, little or big.
Overall, the characters are both products of their settings, of their backgrounds, of their natures, and of themselves; and Moritat drives that home by creating a story that simply could not be what it is without having Jesse and Law as who they are.
The Art:
Moritat is beautiful. Though it's not the best art I have seen in a webtoon, nor is it the most detailed or visually eye-catching, it is very much so art. Its use of colour is extremely significant, both in what the use of particular palettes/hues/saturations mean for the scenes presented and for its conveyance of certain tones and feelings. The people populated in those scenes are also very distinct from one another, and their expressions (both face and body) are extremely reflective of what exactly they as people are trying to convey to one another (though whether or not those expressions are the truth are up for debate). At so many points in the story, I was so drawn by what the characters were saying through the visual expression of their emotions that I really did feel like they were real. The backgrounds and landscapes are also well-done and give us the exact details of what we need to see without going overboard. Moritat makes efficient use of its art, and it does so very well. So, though it's not the most gorgeous art, it's definitely far more meaningful than most other stories out there, and it is one of the factors which I love about this story.
As a whole, Moritat has made it on my list of favourite stories from any medium. It's not objectively perfect - crticisms about its fast ending, its shorter length even at 52 chapters, its flawed characters, and even its questionable implications. However, for me, the story was just so good at being a story that it's subjectively perfect. I would never want to change a single aspect of Moritat because of this, no matter the criticisms, and I really did love all the way through.
All of is to say that Moritat is an exploration of just how far people can go when they want something, be it the truth or others, and what getting to where they want does to them; it tells us of what happens when two people become indispensable to each other because of what they have done to and for each other. In short, Moritat looks at the way interactions shape ourselves and the way we perceive the world; and like any good story, it has the potential to change both of those things for us, the reader.
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