Emma was a manga I actually started, having not read the plot, thinking it was another story based on the famous 'Emma' by Jane Austen herself. To any of you who are thinking along the same lines and have read the 'original' Emma, I warn you now. This manga is not associated at all with Austen's work aside from having the same name and being in around the same time period (though the manga, Emma, is set a little further on in time)
I feel I've got to start with what sucked me in to the story, the art. It is without a doubt one of the best styles I've seen. For someone having been brought up on a history of life in her country, I am not ashamed to say that Mori seems to know more about Victorian England than I do. As a drama student, I have been taught that you aren't just 'selling' a story, you are selling the culture, the atmosphere and the life you are trying to portray from the beginning to end. Not for one minute can you let that facade fall and let the reader or audience think that any of it isn't real. For a Japanese mangaka to take on Victorian England and write ten volumes in that time, I can only applaud the valiant and amazing effort and assure you that she doesn't let up throughout the whole story. I was wrapped up in this beautiful, seemingly foreign world from start to finish and this manga held me as well as any Austen.
Another huge strength (though weaknesses are few and far between anyway) of this story is the characters and the development of them. Emma and William - the protagonists - are again true to Victorian England. Mori captures the restraint and general overwhelming impact of society of the time, not only in her surroundings but her characters. Emma, a shy and contained maid of an ex-governess, is a character you can't help but warm to. While William delves into both sides, to begin with he is impulsive and reckless, but society's constraints pull him back.
I think the other thing Mori does so well is the love in this story. The problem with most historical romances is the love can often be stilted or rushed, especially when you have a love at first sight story such as this. Mori balanced the two sides very well, the love that was near consuming them both, but the reins of society and how hard they were yanked in order to keep these two contained. It's also incredible to watch the development of the two characters as love changes them.
The other thing to be said about Mori's characters is that everyone has a purpose. Often with a love story as powerful as this, side characters can be pushed to the sides or just merely there for comic value, to push the story along, or simply to give the mangaka an extra arc of a story providing a love triangle or jealous sister etc. etc.
This wasn't the case with Mori's work, I felt every character was necessary and played a purpose. While some weren't developed or used much, it's not to say the story would have been fine without them.
Mori deals with 19th century Victorian England in the deft style of an old pro, a historian who has dealt with such an era all their life. Historical romance stories, especially those with a forbidden love such as this, can often use the historical background merely as a prop, and forget about it all too easily when it becomes a trouble to deal with, sweeping aside the chains of society so that the main characters can have their happy ending. I can safely assure you that this is not the case. Even those of you who don't have much of an idea of how important society and class was then, will have a firm grasp of it once you finish this read.
To conclude, I guess all I have to say is Mori has achieved what I previously thought was unattainable. An excellently paced story, with well thought and drawn out characters, set in a believable time period, all with the most beautiful art. I would definitely say that Emma has gone down as a romance manga classic, alongside Mars, for me. I cannot recommend it more.
