And now with less drama.
Reimei no Arcana or The Dawn of Arcana at first glance reminds about a dozen similar manga. A sad heroin has to marry a bastard prince of the enemy country. There's the loyal dog (literally) and she's not very well liked in that country. But everything is ok, because, of course, the prince turns a new leaf and falls madly in love with princes, who (oh surprise, surprise) has a mystical power. Everything's well known and familiar.
BUT, now I will talk about the reason for all the drama in the beginning. But, the story isn't just that, it's much much deeper. We have the racial discrimination and species discrimination, we have imminent war and genocide. Which are heavy and dark topics. And we have the wish to change the broken world and to bring happiness and safety to those we love. These are typical topics but they are presented quite nicely. But why the drama?
The idea is not very fresh, but it is solid. The surrounding context has so much potential you could build an epic poetry piece around it. And then comes along the editor who decides to push everything into fewer chapters that it is humanely possible. Or maybe the author doesn't have the skills for exposition and everything just like deflated balloon flops on the ground. Something that could have flown has to flop (dramatisation). My point is that it could have become something really good. For example, a character dies, it's death heavily affects main characters both emotionally and story wise. But the reader can't possibly feel this emotion because the *ing story is rushed. What do I care if that bastard dies, I never knew him anyway. Wasted... The moments, key points in the story are wasted... Everything feels unnatural and flat. No depth, no feeling. It brakes my heart.
Overall, a less sensitive (or less crazy and bored) reader will enjoy this manga immensely. It's a fair read certainly not the worst I have read (not even close). The art is cute, the characters lovable though underdeveloped and the story is ok (if you don't analyse it at all). I recommend to read to both casual readers (for enjoyment) and fanatics (to know what can happen to good ideas).
