Masca

Description

From CPM:

The Devil's Castle was a dark and somber place, until the good-hearted apprentice ASARELLA stumbled on it in a goodwill mission, against her master's wishes--the archmage ELIWHO. Things sour quickly, as Asarella was bound with a blood pact to the Devil, KAINEN. Little did she know, the mage harbors a secret love for her that will only complicate her training for the upcoming apocalyptic battle.

This sets up the most unusual love triangle of all space and time.

Type

Manhwa

Related Series

Masca: The Kings (Sequel)

Masca: The Beginning (Prequel)

Associated Names

MASCA - 헤셰드의 대마법사 이야기

Masca-Câu chuyện nàng tiểu pháp sư

Masca: The Tale of the Great Mage of Hessed

مسكا: حكاية ساحرة الهسيد العظيمة

마스카

마스카 헤세드의 대마법사이야기

Groups Scanlating

Evil Flowers

Korean-Manhwa

Latest Release(s)

v.12 c.5-9 (end) by Evil Flowers 13 years ago

v.12 c.4 by Evil Flowers 13 years ago

v.12 c.3 by Evil Flowers 13 years ago

Search for all releases of this series

Status in Country of Origin

12 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

2 topics, 18 posts

Click here to view the forum

User Rating

Average: 8.4 / 10.0 (392 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.25 / 10.0

38%

20%

17%

11%

Last Updated

May 15th, 2024 1:39pm PDT - 1 year ago

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Genre

Action Drama Fantasy Josei Mature Romance Smut
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Tsuyokute New Saga

Masca: The Kings

Ciel - The Last Autumn Story

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance (Novel)

Silver Demon King

Recommendations

Basara

Superior

Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Seoul

Serialized In (magazine)

N/A

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

CPM (Defunct / 2 Vol)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #684

(-34)

Monthly Pos #1925 (No change)

3 Month Pos #3448

(-100)

6 Month Pos #4822

(+93)

Year Pos #6284

(+198)

List Stats

On 802 reading lists

On 762 wish lists

On 649 completed lists

On 99 unfinished lists

On 373 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

End of Masca

13 years ago

Masca Raws

17 years ago

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

It's a mixed bag really

by smily_lois
8 years ago

Rating: N/A

This manhwa is both good and bad (which, taken together, equals 'Meh' but I feel that the word undersells my opinions).

For one, I love the world of this story. I was fascinated by the lore - the Mascans, the Belial/Beliar/however-they-spell-it, and their magics. Shame that the story wasn't fully fleshed out as it could've been, but the pacing was well enough for me to develop sincere interest in its setting.

Next, the art. I found it lovely. Well, maybe I was a little apprehensive at first because of how 'different' it feels. Give it enough time and anyone will appreciate the care the artist puts into her work. There were I would linger for minutes per page because of how beautiful and detailed the art was. My only gripe is that I had some trouble distinguishing faces, especially with the men (coughElihuecough).

But then, for all the love I have for this manhwa, there are some glaring problems to be addressed. Depending on the person, the 'soapy drama' is either a game-changer or a game-breaker. For me, it's the latter. I found some plot devices to be cheap, only there to create more head-scratching drama. Worse, the characters don't act like sensible people. What any other result than a story far longer than it should've been? It became so convoluted that by the 10th volume I was practically skimming through the pages.

Then, PLOT HOLES!

Who was that masked guy? Why was he even in the story if he didn't serve much purpose? I thought it was better to have him as Gatmiel in disguise (which is still bs when you think about it but it's better than nothing!). What's Gatmiel's deal anyway? Why was Chloe/Cloe pardoned just like that? Why did Rea call Kainen by the name Asarella gave him? There's no way she would've known that. Did I miss something? Tell me I missed something.

... Last updated 8 years ago

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High hopes

by xairs
9 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

I really had high hopes for this. I wanted to like it so much but even rereading it again I can't give it more than a 5 star rating. There were so many things that didn't add up about the heroine, certain circumstances and some mysterious past (I'm not going to spoil it here since I don't know how to explain things without blurting everything out). But that'snot even the main issue I had with this manhwa. It felt so forced sometimes. Like there were choices she or he or even the other side (barely noticeable characters that just wants to make things more complicated) they could have made but of course...we must have plot! Which would have been okay if it wasn't so...clumsily executed.

Then again, recently I've found myself asking more from the manga/manhwa genre. And I've been rereading and (sometimes) reconsidering the scores I've given in the past.

There's a sequel, I hear, and maybe that will explain this one. The art is gorgeous. I still enjoyed it a bit amidst the hairpulling and the headscratching...oh, and sometimes the facepalming. But I'll give this a 5 for now. (Plus sometimes I had to push myself to finish...when that happens. Shit's happening that's just not alright)

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Lampshaded love...

by Rozzak
9 years ago

Rating: N/A

Subtle lampshading at the end cancelled out 80% of the content of the manga.

Kainen said something like "I don't need to be with you, perhaps I wasn't so much in love with you, as I was infatuated with gaining these human emotions" to reject Ms.Mary Sue.

I fucking busted a lung. It all came together when I read that. See, usually I hate many of the manwha I read because of their insentient self-important heroine-centric relationship dynamics, one touch away from an 18+ otome game with a 5some ending. But for some reason, I just could never feel any sort of NTR/jealousy vibes from Kainen's POV.
It was a single tiny section of text in the corner of a single page, and never elaborated upon. It even may have been an unintentional lampshading by the author. A sentence that sounded poetic but they didn't really think out the ramifications. Or maybe it was just their subconcious bleeding through about how there is no possible way that someone as based as Kainen would give a genuine shit about our Stockholm syndrome headcase heroine(whose only non-physical asset seems to be a apathy/ignorance that stems from living an empty shell of an existence, raised as some magic guy's dutch wife).

In synopsis: Asarella was a smoking hot babe that sold crack (aka human emotions) to Kainen; but Kainen couldn't differentiate between the pusher and the drug itself, so in a deluded stupor convinced himself he was in love with some slut whose SUPER RARE MAGICAL power seemed to be the ability to naturally read human facial cues.
...
...
...
You know, like we all can.

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Meh.

by wrensei
10 years ago

Rating: N/A

Sometimes when an author tries to make her work "different" most of the time the story goes downhill from there.
She explained it too well who's the main male lead and who's the third party but the outcome was the total opposite of what she intended and so I could say the romance plot was a failure.

... Last updated 10 years ago

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Wow i didn't hate it :D

by moonmystery
11 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

Let's just say I find the love between the demon lord and our main character to be intoxicating, somewhat unhealthy, and strangely fitting given their respective situations. This is a compliment. 🙂

The demon lord, first off, is an seemingly all-powerful being with the curse of immortality. (He spends his time killing himself due to how boring/depressing life gets) Because of his immortal body, no one cares about the pain he feels and all the complicated things he goes through. Nobody sees and treats him as a fellow human being, despite his drop dead gorgeous human body.

Then enter our heroine, a clever girl who has enough IQ to think up solutions for herself when she gets into problems.... Except, she usually is the cause of her own misfortunes because she runs willingly into situations without fully considering the consequences (and she's not scared of death....so that makes her all the more willing to be in compromising situations).... It's too bad sincce she's the first female character to use her brain frequently and not rely on one tool.

She gets herself into the WORST possible situations, to the point that readers may just give up on trying to figure out how she would get herself out of trouble. And the demon lord becomes her free ticket to survival. This is where i disapproved of their relationship: Every time the girl is in trouble, the demon lord would come to her rescue even when the girl adamantly refuses his help. Eventually, they got themselves into so much trouble that even the demon lord's supposedly immortal body was at risk.

Instead of this type of rough love based on survival, I personally would've appreciated more moments where they just look cute together joking or flirting. But** the author still did a spectacular job, considering how I held on until the very last chapter without a single break.* (god my neck is stiff)***

I also had a slight problem with the artstyle....as beautiful as every page was, I couldn't tell the blonde guys from each other towards the end of the series since EVERY ONE OF THEM LOOKED THE SAME. The scenes also could've used more variation, and more focus on the couples in question would've been nice as well. ((Masca stretched itself a lil too thin with all the ifghting, conspiracies, and side characters)

BUT people, I highly recommend giving this manga a try. Despite all my criticisms, truth is this story is worthy of attention. ***After all, reading this made me fantasize about getting myself a loving demon lord. 😉 ***

... Last updated 5 years ago

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Totally Recommended

by TrueBlood
11 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

This story is great! At first I read a few pages and I thought it was horribly drawn and stupid but then I gave it another chance and I came to realize that its such a great story! I loved the fearlessness of the heroine and I hope that she always keeps that trait. The art also gets considerably better as the story moves on. This is a story about fantasy, magic and love. The world building is pretty good. The romance is messy but its still a great story

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Started off cute, then it went on too long, to much soap opera

by Sapphiresky
11 years ago

Rating: N/A

I don't typically like shoujo manga, or love triangles (what am I saying it's practically a harem) for that matter, but I started reading it and it was kind of cute. But I stopped around the time that that happened at volume 6. Seriously!

'You were in heat so it's totally okay that you wanted to bang that guy.' Lines like that make a stupid situation even worse.

It's also my biggest pet peeve when everyone and their brother want to bang the main character. I definitely think Azarella starting to tread into Mary Sue territories.

Then as I was about to drop it, I thought I'd read the end see who she end up with and even that disappointed me.

BTW am I the only one who preferred Elihue for her? They seem cute together. And Kainen isn't that hot, people, he kind of reminds me of Satan from Angel Santuary except not hot. [/IMHO] Anyway, I don't like him.

Thus ends my not helpful, overly opinionated rant.. i mean review.

... Last updated 11 years ago

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Drama bomb

by Saons
11 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

What I at first believed to be a decent manga is nothing more than a jumbled mess of fantasy, melodrama and mindless gore. I read the story to completion for no reason other than to answer my ever-growing list of questions, only to find it ending so abruptly I literally felt in shock. Did the author think about any of these things at all? Did s/he just throw new things in every once in a while without a care for how it affected plot? Apparently.

Spoiler: None of your questions will be answered. There's apparently a sequel, but I don't have hope for it answering any of them.

She doesn't even picked a damned love interest in the end. Way to make essentially the entire plot of the story pointless!

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A for effort

by djenna
12 years ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

Masca is pretty.

It has a captivating hook, and an interesting universe...

But it lacks depth, the plot is full of holes, the characters are almost incomprehensible at times.

I read it to the end -- so good was the starting hook and pretty art I suppose -- but I would not recommend it, except as a how-not-to tell a story and something to spark the imagination.

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Interesting world, but bad romance

by doushimomo
12 years ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

The world is fairly interesting, the non-romance part of the plot is pretty neat, and the art is gorgeous. The first volume is light, funny, and happy, but after that things get serious pretty abruptly. You're in for some major mood whiplash.

I didn't like the romance parts.

One love interest is very controlling. The other is all right, up until the point when things get very... rape-y. Poor Rell spends an awful lot of time crying and having her love interests making her feel terrible in various ways. With a situation like that, unless it's portrayed in a very specific way, it stops being interesting, and just gets uncomfortable.

I don't know if I'd read it again or not. I may have just not been in the right mood for reading it. Overall though, reading it just felt... iffy.

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