Ranked #198

The Bride of the Water God (Manhwa)

I'm not familiar with Manhwa, but as a first time read - I have no doubts that I've chosen a fairly adequate one. The bride of the water god is a story about a girl who was sacrificed by the people of her village to the water god in exchange for rain. It sounds fairly simple, but the plot isn't all that easy to follow. There are many twists in the tale, and some of them aren't that clearly pointed out at the onset. Such as the water god's interesting, shall we say, condition.

The artistic style is, in essence, beautiful. But I do find myself distracted by it. I always seem to be drawn more to the art, rather than the story itself. All manga art (or in this case manhwa) have some sort of flow to it - but in this case, it can get overpowering at times. Which is probably the answer to much of my confusion as the story progresses. Although, it's not enough to put me off from reading it. As the story seems to pull you in. It sounds somewhat strange, but completely true.

One thing that I would change about it is how random characters appear and are not properly introduced until further down the story. You're left wondering what exactly is their purpose in the whole tale until a few chapters later, everything becomes clear. But maybe that's just me being slightly nitpicky. It does tend to be slightly annoying, but not overly so as when the person is actually introduced, a lot of things start to make sense. It's almost like a mystery novel.

Don't go into this manga (or should I say manhwa) and expect another run of the mill love story, because by all accounts it isn't. What has been created here is a very unique story with a very unusual take on the others in this genre. Despite it's knack of confusion (which is easily remedied by a re-read of earlier chapters) the bride of the water god is a truly interesting read indeed. read more