Edgar is a bad boy, and the manga has no problem reminding us of this frequently. He lies, cheats, and manipulates throughout the entirety of the series. One character tries to point this out to our heroine and he almost kills her. Then he almost kills said heroine. Why on Earth does she stick around then, any sane reader would ask? Why, because one time he said the color of her hair was pretty when random strangers constantly told her it wasn't.
I'm not kidding. That's... literally the only reason she stays for the first half of the series. Then, in the second half, we learn Edgar had a difficult past, which apparently also excuses every horrible thing he has done or attempted to do. Except it really, really doesn't. The mangaka clearly isn't blinded by Edgar's charms, as we are reminded how manipulative the young man is very frequently, so this isn't a case of the writer being blind to their character's flaws. On the contrary, the writer constantly tells us more about how awful Edgar is and we're still expected to find him appealing because sad childhood weh.
Now, granted, The Earl and the Fairy is an interesting manga outside of its romantic element, set in a fairy-laden historical England. The problem is that the romance and the characters are the main focus of the story, and all throughout four irritating volumes of the worst romance I have ever seen in a shoujo anime I was too busy rolling my wishing I could slap every character involved to care much about what this manga does differently.
Only read this one if you're as desperate for historical fantasy shoujo as Lydia is desperate for someone to complement her hair.
