somnia's manga / #Manhua/Manhwa(4)

Absolutely beautifully illustrated story centering around Shuli, who gets sent back in time after she is killed in her carriage by uknown attackers. Once known as the witch of Neuschwanstein, this time around she is able to take the reigns and avoid the mistakes she made in the past. There's a lot of variety in tone and atmosphere in the story, but it never fails to take itself seriously. Very well paced and overall wonderful writing paired with, again, super gorgeous art, 12/10. I could gush about the different lil hints about future or past events, relationships and situations taking place within the story for hours, not to mention the S-grade character development and this sense that everyone is their own person, and their own story, on one giant chess board.

49/ MC is the last siren. In her first life she was used and abused by her father and the Emperor, forced to sing and perform miracles while trapped in a cage. She died at peace after recieving salvation by the demonic Duke, he who went on a rampage and freed her. Time rewinds and MC finds herself in her 10 year old body, before her power was discovered, with memories in tact. This time she's set on avoiding tragedy, and wants to save the Duke from his. Honestly, I didn't expect to love this so much. MC is adorable and I cried for her so hard. And it's not like she's just a tragic character template either, she has this good bit of straightforwardness and mischief in her too, which is really charming. Normally I'm not into the whole babying MC thing where everyone spams them with bedazzled hearts, but her situation justifies it well here imo. I also love the messages in the story. MC focuses on making things better, instead of blindly commiting to revenge and power-hogging. A lot of these time go brr shoujos commit to the ugly feelings (not that it's bad), so I feel this is a refreshing take. Also: the bit with the Duke's mom. Her straight on telling her to value herself, not forgive abuse, and process her grief for as long as and however she needs to - speaks to the readers as well, a real power move, what a queen. The world building is interesting too, it's obvious someone put thought into the lore and magic, and I have yet to see a boring character too... well maybe besides the shady ugly uncles, but they don't count.