Jan 6, 2021
This manga has been a pretty big disappointment for me, as it squandered its potential by meandering through "shock value" storylines.
STORY
I wanted to like this one, I really did. Historical fiction set during the Hussite Wars of the 15th century, when the execution of a dissenting Czech priest by the Roman Catholic Church set Central Europe ablaze? Sign me up. But then the manga opened with graphic sexual violence and only ramped it up from there. It was at Chapter 32 when I realized I was following three separate plotlines... and ALL were centered on grotesque violence and smut. Before anyone tries to write this
...
off as the rantings of a Puritan who can't handle a little adult stuff, let me state that my unchallenged all-time favorite manga is 'Vinland Saga', a series that is hardly shy about depicting graphic violence of all sorts. But the adult content in 'Vinland Saga' has a point: it directly ties the darkness and depravity into the story's main theme and then (and this is the critical part) promptly moves on once the point has been established rather than wallow in it. It's why Yukimura Makoto's story comes across as one intelligently dealing with heavy, mature content and "Divci Valka" at times seems more like an outlet for a loli rape fetish than a real story. It has occasional moments of seriousness, but can't pull itself out of the muck.
ART
The art was actually pretty decent. Not the most incredible stuff like you'd see in Kaoru Mori's historical fiction, but not terrible overall. I don't have much to say beyond the fact that it looked fine and at least some attention seems to have been paid to historical detail.
CHARACTERS
Wasted potential here. Remember what I said about the story opening with graphic sexual violence? Well, that at least COULD have been used to develop our main character- a young peasant girl named Sarka. Properly handled, the story of an innocent little girl from the bottom of society choosing to move past her pain and take control of her life, all while trying to navigate a maelstrom of political and religious warfare, could have been a great tale. But the story only seemed obsessed with how much degradation and misery it could put her through. And most of the other female characters don't even have her squandered potential to begin with, usually being little more than excuses for the story to sidetrack to yet another sexual violence subplot. And most of the male characters range from 'rapist' to 'openly brags about being a rapist'. Not exactly the greatest depth and complexity here.
ENJOYMENT
Did I miss something? Was this supposed to be a hentai manga and I confused it for a more serious story? I kept hanging on due to this manga's theoretical potential, but after a while I just had to give up.
OVERALL
Not badly drawn, but when dealing with this kind of content it takes delicacy and intelligence to walk the fine line between sugar-coating things and writing grotesque schlock- and "Divci Valka" just jumped straight into the deep end. If you're a historical fiction fan skip this one and read "Vinland Saga".
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
