Chapters: 100
Genre: Adventure, Seinen, Fantasy, Romance, Drama, Supernatural, Historical
Mangaka: Isuna Hasekura
This is a review about a very unique manga that's way too UNDERRATED IMO, where most fantasy themed manga are about swords and magic this takes on a more trade and economic route and adds in witty dialogs, great story, amazing characters, plot twists and WHOLESOMENESS.
You might think that this manga being about trades and economic in the medieval ages would be boring but here I am reviewing this masterpiece.
PLOT:
A traveling merchant Kraft Lawrence meets the Goddess of Harvest Holo in her human form (also known as Holo the Wisewolf). A contract is formed between the two that Lawrence will help Holo reach her homeland while she'll lend him her wisdom in his day to day trading. And here starts a beautiful journey where they face many challenges, obstacles, meet new people, visit new places all the while getting to know more about each other and growing affectionate about each other (not that they show it openly and while reading you're dying on the inside and screaming CONFESS ALREADY DAMMIT! *breathes*). While the main goal is finding Holo's homeland, our merchant also has a wish to establish his own business, buy a store in a popular town and live off it. While traveling to many new places they try to acquire knowledge about where Holo's from and make some profit as well after all he is a merchant.
ARTSTYLE:
The artstyle was decent and simple yet felt so in-sync with the manga's theme. The thing that really caught my attention was the amount of effort put into the backgrounds to make them more appealing and to make the setting more accurate to the medieval ages. The characters well drawn (didn't find any lazy drawings anywhere). All from Holo's angry to playful expression were masterfully drawn.
CHARACTERS/CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
The characters especially the main are extremely well made, we have the intelligent experienced merchant Kraft who at times is as naive as a baby and then there's Holo one of the BEST if not the best female leads in manga history, her wisdom, personality, charms and quick thinking to read and adapt to situations accordingly literally puts her at the top. The chemistry of the two is so good that you'll grin like an idiot each time they have a conversation (at least I did)
As far as character development goes, you can't perfect already that is perfect aside from their growing feelings for each other and compatibility that grows with time.
Holo is undoubtedly the PERFECT Waifu. Ranked in god-tier waifus.
MY THOUGHTS:
This manga is indeed a masterpiece, the very definition of WHOLESOMENESS and as I've always said a very REFRESHING read. The flow of the dialogs especially between the main characters Kraft and Holo is amazingly done, like when they're teasing each other or throwing quick hilarious comebacks or brainstorming for ideas all are wonderful to read and you'll even get a laugh out of it. But one thing, the amount of details about old age trading and economics was surprising, the gain/fall of currency and profit/loses of trade all were easy to understand but some took some understanding. And all this was added beautifully with the main goal that is the journey to Holo's homeland.
All-in-all, I can simply summarize the entire experience in this that it was...
REFRESHING
FAVORITE QUOTES:
“Stories are better when they have an ending, are they not?” – Kraft Lawrence
(and this one was certainly great, sad that it's ended though)
"If you change your perspective, a situation right in front of you, can reverse itself.” – Holo The Wise Wolf
Honestly it's hard having a favorite quote when this manga is a gold mine for them.
RATINGS: 9.5/10
Though personally it's a 12/10 for me, because I loved the characters, the feelings, the excitement and the story.
If you haven't read this then this is my top manga recommendation. Especially if you've watched the anime.
