Name: Ciel The Last Autumn Story
Author & Artist: RHIM Juyeon
Chapters: 22 Chapters approx. Ongoing
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Historical, Romance,
School Life, Shoujo, Supernatural
Plot:With the author's characteristic humour and creativity, the
work describes one girl’s fantasy adventure. Yvien Magnolia's beauty widens the
small villagers' eyes she is living but she never knew what her future would
be, since it is destined too high to imagine for her at that time....
As the lord of the manor tries to kidnap
her, Yvienne flees to Lowood Institution for wizardry and witchcraft she never
thought to go leaving behind her family.
In the school, she meets interesting
people, like, January Lightsphere who shines purple aura compared to his noble
but peculiar family, and Lariatte, an orthodox fighter family's heir, who will
be her closest mate.
Review:
I put this on hold 2 years ago since I was
really busy and now I've come back to it and have really enjoyed re-reading it
so far. It's really a breath of fresh air from the shoujo I typically read, I'm
not sure whether to attribute this to the fact that it's a manhwa.
Although I usually prefer manga art, this
author has pretty nice art, it really is based on personal preference.
The female lead, Yvienne, is a somewhat
haughty about her looks though this is mostly for comic relief. I like how her
mother and herself promote strong-independent-women-ness that most manga and
manhwa lack.
It's not all about physical strength alone but also thinking smart which is exactly how Yvienne is portrayed.
It's not all about physical strength alone but also thinking smart which is exactly how Yvienne is portrayed.
Under that confident exterior, she seems
to be fight her constant inner turmoil which is great to see. It's not so
focused on romance but also her own journey as a person and her
friendships.
I did feel that the romance was sort of
abrupt and forced almost and not as smooth as I'd like it to be. It's not
anything to rave about and the author probably glossed over it, it's not
particularly necessary.
The magic element is pretty interesting as
it adds another layer to the manhwa.
Notes:
I study some basic French so for all those confused, Yvienne is
pronounced Eve-ie-nne. I’ve seen some spelling of Yvien but honestly, it looks
like a more masculine name. Ciel (pronounced literally C.L) means sky in French and is a very fitting title once you understand the gist of the manhwa.
Spoiler: There are hints of
yaoi sprinkled in this story. Whether you want to interprete it as yaoi or
bromance is for you to decide.
I love Yvienne`s character but i`m a bit confused about the latest chapters where her magical companion (I think) died. She got all depressed (luckily not for too long) and I got a bit creeped out by her evil self but it did give the manga a new atmosphere. I hope they won`t make bad choices with this new storyline.
ReplyDeleteNuuuu spoilers, I'll mark your comment as spam in case no-one wants to see it, I don't know how to hide comments on disqus :C.
ReplyDeleteI'm not up to the next arc yet since I've been I've been too busy to read it though I read spoilers since I don't like surprises.
This can either incite some really good character development or end in a mess but I don't see how killing of her bestie was necessary..