I read at least part of this series a long, long, long time ago, so this is a review of a re-read. I was feeling nostalgic and in the mood for some classic shoujo, a la Glass Mask and Candy Candy. Dug this out of my memories and....just, wow. It's ridiculous to the point of hilarity.
Like, the words "men's work" appear unironically in this. As in, 'this is men's work', right before he questions what the women should be doing and she admits she should be looking after this recently kidnapped, less than a wk old baby. By the way, she's 10. This is a shoujo meant for kids.
Oh, and the main character was supposedly raised by chimps, but all psychological/physical developmental impairments/advantages are nonexistent or disappear in one chapter. There's a pet chimp that they sneak into the palace dressed as a little girl. Plot convenient amnesia is a thing.
But actually, one of the best ex I can think of is this:
the main male lead is a prince who masquerades as a pseudo-Robin Hood. He gets non-fatally shot, falls into a river, gets saved by a magic dolphin, doesn't drown as his dolphin swims underwater with him on its back, has a dream of a heavenly being denying him death, and is found on the same island the FMC was exiled to. But get this, the people who find him are an island man named Adonis and the FMC herself, who were sent there by the male leads amnesiac father (also on the island), who woke from an extended coma bc he was sent a message from heaven to check the Dolphin Rock. The island man is astonished there's actually a rock shaped like a dolphin where they find the male lead, and the rock disappears soon after. Like. Bruh.
On top of that, there are so many singular coincidences that follow one after the other that you can't help but notice them as more than just a footnote. Like how Pansy is always found by well-meaning people, or at least those connected to those who care for her. Or even things like Tina's ribbon being stolen by the bird, dropped in the city, and found by Marin. Just?? Maybe if there was like one or two weird coincidences a chapter it'd be passable, but the entire plot line is made up of incredibly incongruous events lining up unironically. If they were set up like a comedy, it'd just be funny, but since it's set up like a drama....it's still funny, but also ridiculous.
I might've enjoyed this as crack fiction, but. The sexism. The eurocentrism. The over-the-top dramatics, secret identities, and hidden bloodlines. The miraculous death-defying recoveries. The naivete. Goodness. How does someone overhear an assassination plot, remain oblivious to what they heard, relay what they heard to someone else much later on when urged to remember, stand there as the listeners connect the dots, and still have no idea how significant what they heard is, much less what it means. To the pt they skip off to play with the animals as their love interest and his mother agonize over the assassination scheme. Smh. Child, you-...wait. I forgot that our FMC is literally a child. Okay then, another con: the pedophilia.
Yeah. I wanna give this manga a truly terrible rating but at some pt it got so bad it was good in a horrible, this-in-my-junk-reading-okay-don't-judge kind of way. As long as you ignore the truly questionable pts that are tbh a norm in older shoujos (the huge age gap/pedophilia, the sexism/gender roles, the soap opera-esque drama).
(-23)
