This book is part of my further exploration of manga. I already decided ahead of time that I'm not going to like this series because I don't usually like books that are based on romance. Nor do I like stories about the super-wealthy (in this case, the ruling class which includes the emperor Ryuki Shi). I am giving the first two books of this series my best shot, though, as I received them both as a RABCK from GoryDetails for winning her BookCrossing 2016 April Showers/May Flowers release challenge.

I had a discussion of shojo manga with my older son who is also not a fan, but then I realize that shojo manga is directed toward teen girls. At age 60-something, I can hardly fit that classification. In addition, I need more than romantic attraction and class difference to enjoy a story. I did some background checking and was interested to learn that this series was also a light novel, an anime series, and was the basis for CD soundtracks, drama CDs, as well as a web-based program. Obviously, this series has a large audience.

I still find it hard to keep characters straight in manga such as these. The names of characters are often very similar, and men with long hair often look like women to me. I also have a hard time keeping track of what the relationships are between the characters.

What I found extraordinary in this volume was the art work by Kairi Yura. I would love to have a coloring book of just that artist's drawing of costumes and flowers. I wonder if there is even such a thing.

The story itself is of a young emperor Ryuki Shi. The imperial palace has a librarian whose daughter Shurei, a teacher, was hired as a consort for the emperor to teach the emperor to be responsible. I think there were other ulterior motives. Maybe it was to keep him away from other men and perhaps to provide an heir? I'll have to read further in this series to know for sure. Well, I guess I'm now off to read volume 2.. ( )

My first exposure to this series was the anime, but it's been long enough ago that I saw it that I could only remember some of what happened. Even though I loved the anime, I wasn't completely sold on the manga at first. I felt it was a tad too wordy and the art seemed too busy. Also, Shurei's face occasionally looked a bit odd, like her proportions were off.

Still, the manga had enough things that I enjoyed to carry me through to the next volume. Ryuki was an odd character, with moments when he seemed innocent and naive and moments when he was very sexy. There were indications that he had hidden depths, which were possibly even more fun for me than they would have been for a newbie to the series. Shurei was practical and fairly innocent (although in slightly different ways than Ryuki), and she managed to be all those things without grating on my nerves. At this point, the story only scratched the surface of the political intrigue I knew to expect in later volumes.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

An intriguing story based on Chinese history. Starts slow, but now I'm hooked....