"History is written by the victors."
Eris no Seihai is a fantastic mystery manga with a rather unique stting, perfectly illustrating the quote above.
If you are looking for a story with clever twists built upon each other with a large cast full of clever and double-faced characters, Eris no Seihai is made for you.
STORY:
Without going into too much details, we follow the story of Constance Grail (born from a family that values trust and honesty) and her meeting with the ghost of Scarlet Castiel (a woman exectuted ten years ago for deception) who asked the honest to a fault Constance to take revenge for her execution.
Despite its deceptive appearances, Eris no Seihai is first and foremost a mystery story.
From chapter to chapter we delve more and more into the minds of manipulative nobles, while discovering truths about Scarlet Castiel's real circumstances and culprits behind her death.
While the pacing seems slow at first glance, with some chapters of 70+ pages and many characters, it all serves to build on a greater mystery linked to Scarlet Castiel's execution: the Holy Grail of Eris.
Eris no Seihai is a manga that never fails to amaze me with clever twists built on multiple chapters, always making me ask for more.
While the amount of characters make for a slightly harder ease-of-reading overall, it is worthwhile if you are looking for a mystery set in a rather unique setting.
ART:
Nothing particularly amazing. The art is enjoyable overall, with some pages making me jump of excitation sometimes.
(Chapter 14, I'm looking at you.)
CHARACTERS:
In my opinion, this is where Eris no Seihai truly shines.
The dynamic between the honest Constance and the cunning lady Castiel is what makes most of the manga enjoyable.
Adding to that most characters are clever double-faced nobles with truths to hide (contributing to Constance Grail's character development), Eris no Seihai really puts character interactions at its spotlight.
For the quantity of characters spanning over 40 chapters (for now), they all add to the many mysteries Eris no Seihai has to offer.
ENJOYMENT:
Truly a work of art I've devoured for a week.
A manga that really makes me thirsty for more of it.
However, I'd say one of its faults is the "almost one chapter a month" rhythm of the releases due to it being adapted from the original light novel.
Though I thank the authors for always making the first page of a chapter a summary of the previous one.
PS: I usually don't write reviews, even for my favorite animes/mangas. So, I never thought I'd write one for a manga that's still ongoing.
However, I feel Eris no Seihai is a "hidden gem" which definitely deserves more attention. So I hope writing this review will help this work become a little more popular.
