I'm amazed by this *shoujo* manga.
(no spoilers per-se ahead, just some general comments about overall character development and their relationship used to illustrate my points. The front cover posted above can tell you about as much as I have below, so feel free to read on, unless you wish to go into the manga 100% blind, but then what are you doing here, reading comments, huh?)
The setting itself is average enough, I admit. We have Asahi - a girl (a child, really) that's whisked away to another world, finds a friend (..zone-kun, hee hee), gets sacrificed to a Water Dragon God by mean villagers and so becomes his Bride. Queue typical shoujo tropes...
...Not! The characters are what makes this manga a one of a kind masterpiece.
Because it turns out that a god, who lives eternally, feels neither pain nor hunger, has no need for sleep and is able to spend decades idly staring into the distance, who while being aware of humans, can only muster to display for them mildly disdainful indifference, and who generally is closer to a force of nature made aware, rather than anything resembling humanity, that god is made a main character and Asahi's love interest. ..Can you imagine?
But. This wouldn't be much of a masterpiece without a solid female lead. So let us look at what Asahi, our heroine, brings to the table. When we meet her first, she's just a child. A rowdy one, enough to provide a passing entertainment for a bored god. Even though she is scarred and wants to go back home, she does what she can even then. And as she navigates through her new situation, she adapts. She doesn't whine. She learns how to survuve and slowly builds a life with what she was given. It's so rare these days to get a heroine that is not a whiny moe-blob, an ever-blushing maiden or an inept idiot who's not capable of thinking or doing anything by herself.
The absolute best part about this manga is, therefore, watching the relationship between the Water Dragon God and Asahi unfold. At the beginning she's terifird of him and rightly so. But because she's adaptive, perceptive and quite smart, she's able to gradually understand Suijin-sama's (Water Dragon God) way of thinking, how he sees the world (and humans) and acts the way he does. She grows to understand and accept his.. limitations and, in turn, he slowly gets pulled closer. Because his 'entertainment' is getting more and more, well, entertaining, he - extremely slowly - starts to *learn*. Not any such tropes as how to be a gentleman though, no. He starts to slowly expand his emotional range. Where in the beginning we have this immobile... pond, that can be set to either indifference or mild irritation, slowly, very, very slowly, some colour starts to be injected into that never-changing, ever-lasting puddle. And every single time we see some progress, we know exactly why and how this happened. There's no beautiful eyes being batted at him to make his cold heart skip a bit. There's no mighty god coming to rescue the heroine in great anger every time she's in trouble and realizing his feelings thanks to that (bleh..). There's no of that bullshit cliche in here. What we get instead, is this masterful feeling that makes you go "ah.. yeah, this really IS how an eternal creature like that would be, isn't it?" as we see him and his indifference and the excitement as we see the smallest of ripples appear, when it is earned. Because that's just it - they both earn what they get. As you read, you can clearly see that Asahi is indeed worth the changes she makes in him. And, in turn Suijin is slowly growing, causing her to change (emotionally, towards him) as well. They influence each other, and stand in this sense as equals. And, as a result, evolve together.
And I personally love it.
If you're bored of never changing relationships between the MCs (Dengaki Saisy, Ore-sama teacher - I'm looking at you..), relationships that are flat, simple and predictable.. then look no further. For me, this is just as good as Akatsuki no Yona (albeit not plot wise) and I recommend both highly.
*edit*
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Spoiler warning - Spoiler warning - Spoiler warning -
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After reading the remaining volumes, my rating fell down to 7.5. I love the earlier volumes just as much as I used to, however it really is a shame the manga went the annoyingly.. flat shoujo route in the end.
Asahi has decided to let the Water Dragon God eat her, because she wanted to save his life and be with him, when it finally got to her that as soon as he sends her away, he will, indeed, die. It was her choice to make, whether it was the right one or not. But nope. Subaru pulled her out by force and pushed her back into her own world. I mean, I get it, being worried and stuff. But what gave him the right to decide that - the most important thing that will ever happen in her life most probably - for her? It just pissed me off, especially the shoujio vibe it was wrapped into. And I don't mean any feminism bs, like we don't need no mens to decide for us and such. No. I simply mean it as one person taking it upon them to take the choice away - and the right to decide ones own fate - from another. That's juyst not cool.
And even *then*. There should have been cequences. You can't have your cake and eat it too, that's not how life works. And yet. Asahi is not raging on Subaru. Water dragon God does not die and is, in fact, being sent to our world and finds Asahi in the end. And he's fine! And they just... get back together, in her garden. And they live happily ever after, the end. How? how does a god do that? How does their life look like? Will he get a job? Is he human even? Or will she be like a priestess in here, just working by day and living it out with her god-husband in the night? What about her family? Do they find out? What of Kurose and his god? It's all just... flat. Something amazing turned into a usual shoujo mush and fairytales. I feel dissapointed.
