Manga Monday: Bride

Bride

Writer/Artist: Aivan
Genre: Drama, romance
Number of Volumes: 1
Available on MangaFox: Yes

What It’s About

A beautiful tale about a divorcee who cannot bear children and her second marriage to the sickly sixteen year old, fourth son of a prestigious family. Fearing that the ghost of their son would haunt them if he died without a bride, the marriage is one of convenience. Can a marriage union born of superstitions become something more?

Strengths

What a gorgeous, simple, and short one-shot about love and the sacrifices that are made for it. I came across Bride while looking through recommendations for quick but good manga to check out, and I am not disappointed. This is truly an astounding and touching manga, made all the more impressive that it’s so short a story.

Personally, I think the most masterful aspect of Bride is the turnaround in how these characters are perceived from the beginning to the end. In the short span of this one-shot, we see the male character go from insolent brat to very caring and selfless. His motivations become clear as you learn more about his circumstances and it’s honestly one of the subtlest but most impactful character developments that I’ve ever seen.

I’ve read manga series with dozens of books and hundreds of story arcs that haven’t had character interactions as meaningful as Bride manages to have in its single, one-shot issue!

Weaknesses

Coming in at fifty pages total, Bride is the very definition of the bittersweet one-shot. The story is completely resolved, there’s character growth and an attachment to the characters as readers, and then the absolute end of the story comes, never to be added onto. Despite giving you everything it needed to as a story, you’ll definitely be left feeling that you want more.

I’m not saying there should be more, but you’ll want there to be. And you’ll want it desperately!

Give it a Chance/Leave it Be

Stories about sacrifices for love are never not compelling, so there’s no reason not to check out Bride. It’s short but it conveys enough within its fifty pages to leave your heart aching in bittersweet delight. In a world of media that seems to go on a thousand times longer than it needs to, it’s refreshing to come across something that begins and ends so quickly and simply, but makes you feel as if it was so much more.