Jun 29, 2021
tl;dr: A realistic manga about a cute couple that is overtly subdued in a sense but is pretty good at showing off 18th century Tibet.
This manga is set during 18th centry central eastern Tibet and is about a doctor in training named Khang Zhipa who as part of an arranged marriage is chosen to wed to a girl named Moshi Rati, after which Rati begins living with Khang and his family for six months before the marriage. It is a very grounded and subdued manga. Everything that occurs in the plot feels completely believable and doesn’t have any surprising twists and turns. Characters too don’t
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go through any extreme changes but rather change and grow in a pretty believable manner. The romance is very simple and not built upon any sort of major drama nor does it have much fluff. The comedy too is full of the type of humor that you’ll generally encounter even in real life instead of the exaggerated comedy that you often see in fiction. This isn’t inherently a good thing, rather I’d say it’s somewhat of a double-edged sword as I do think it makes the manga somewhat dull at times. But it is pretty nice as a change of pace from most other manga that are much more extreme and thus that that makes it possess some value in and of itself.
The manga is composed of short stories where you see the main couple and various character’s around them just living their lives. The focus is on the main couple, but I would say it spends just as much time on other characters. Their stories are pretty minimalistic and incredibly self-contained such that they’re pretty shallow, but they’re decent enough and more importantly they improve the pacing by providing more variety. This is key because the main couple don’t really have that much of a story. There are no major events or major points of growth in their relationship. Their relationship development mostly simply comes down to them spending time with each other and as a result naturally getting somewhat closer. Still, both of them are great people with their own quirks that play off each other really well and it’s also really easy to see they’re a really good match for each other, so despite the manga not really having any sort of traditional style character arc or relationship arc, both characters are really likable, their relationship feels worth getting invested in, and overall, by the end you very much find yourself wishing for their happiness. And due to that, the ending is pretty satisfying.
Being so grounded also allows the manga to put a lot of effort into being really realistic. I have very little knowledge of Tibet’s culture and such, so I can’t say for sure how accurate it was. But the manga very noticeable and consistently provides a lot of detail on things like rituals, wildlife, food, medicines, jobs, and people’s general way of living, especially taking into account what were essentially appendices at the end of each volume that provided even more information. Thus, my general impression is that great care was put into showing off the culture and lifestyle of the region at the time in an accurate manner. And thus, it’s pretty interesting just to see how it showcases that region of the world at that specific point in time.
However, I feel that it failed somewhat in this regard in terms of where it was subdued to a degree that didn’t feel realistic. What I mean by that is that nothing major happens at all over the course of the plot. Characters are all really nice and there’s never any major conflicts or drama between them. There are no villains, antagonists, or anything like that. The only real danger is from illnesses and injuries as you would expect considering the protagonist is a doctor, but things never really get heavy there either as he’s able to deal with every issue with minimal repercussions. Things just go so smoothly that it feels kind of unrealistic in light of how much effort the manga seemed to be putting into making the world feel realistic. Though that may just be me being overtly jaded and cynical I suppose.
In terms of art, I think it fit what it was presenting really well, in that while it’s not completely realistic and does veer quite a bit with things like expressions and such at times, it feels like it accurately captures the world for the most part and helps with immersion. It’s also incredibly high quality with very detailed art most of the time. Still, I’ve never really been much of a fan of art trying to be grounded even if it is very well done, and thus I didn’t particularly enjoy it outside of a few especially exceptional panels.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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