People who read Emma

soulfulbongos

Mori sensei excels at building an immersive atmosphere through her art and storytelling. after the first few chapters, the art vastly improves (not that it was ever bad!!) and she lovingly captures various snapshots of victorian england. like seriously she LOVES maids and you can feel that love in every page. also the way she draws women... SEXY! but their eroticism is always natural and tasteful.

personally, preferred 'otoyomegatari' but this work was still a fine read. i genuinely feel bad for giving it a 4 out of 5 but that is how i Feel.

largest complaint: didn't spend enough time building up emma and william's relationship.

you believe they love each other by how far william goes for her, and how hard she clings to him, but you're left asking: why?
a singular date together at the crystal palace? a kiss? we hardly get to hear them converse. was it just the draw of the foreign? a maid and a noble, excited by the transgressive implications of being together, which maybe blooms into something genuine?

(mori does this much better with douglas and kelly and their date at the palace. kelly's little comments about the jewellery being pretty but not a reflection of reality, douglas' constant glances towards her, stopping just to pinch her face, the way they both saved up for it in secret, his reaction to kelly fasting. i had potatoes! they have such vibrant contrasting personalities. wilhelm and dorothea's romance is also palpable when compared to william and emma...)

feel like we don't really get to know emma either. we know she's pretty by everyone's reactions to her, and that's she's somehow more 'classy' and proper than your regular maid because of her mistress' tutelage, but what are her likes and dislikes? what is she passionate about? how does her very tragic childhood leave its scars of abandonment and loneliness and resilience? wish we had more of her because she's a little Mary Sue.

also wished hakim played a larger role. i really liked him and i think exploring indian culture and the complex relationship between india and england at this time would be interesting (but also very hard to tackle a topic like that within the manga's scope so i get it). when hakim plucks william's hair as a child and says you are as white as an elephant's tusk! ...the fujo in me is salivating at the idea of a romance between hakim and william haha! the twisty complications of colonization and britain's hold over india, the way homosexuality was outlawed. that's something that can never end happily (so i cant help but be compelled!).

TLDR:
the art, mood, and details draw you in, and you root for emma and william because you can't help but want convention and tradition to lose to True Love but. there was a lack of real emotional investment in the main couple, for me. i still finished it and REALLY enjoyed mori's later side stories which i found really vibrant. the times, wilhelm and dorothea, adele's happiness, arthur running eton like the navy-- mori is genius with these slices of life and i love a historical piece that is so detailed!

jello

72.5

Xiuying

zingerburger

Cookies

Hyacnthh

I want Data

Jim

Lovelygal3<

Jin05

Mocha

boscothecat

Oxley

yves

_miksss

EnchanTea ♡

cherry399

Dragonfly

Tequila-Joseph

Beloved