Girl Queen

I honestly think this manhwa is underrated, but I understand many reader's frustration with completing/understanding what's happening in the plot line.

This manhwa is about a young, sassy and strong girl named June, who is a candidate to become the Queen of Light. The Queen of Light is the ruler of the kingdom and the one human with the most holy power. Her greatest rival is Lucia, who is school-reknown for her beauty and overall perfection besides the fact that she is very quiet. Lucia is also the second ranking as a queen candidate. June and Lucia are also rivals for June's childhood friend, Sejuru, whose past is a mystery before the time he started living with June's family. Another main character is Yuri Shauer, a magistrate who is also a judge for choosing the queen, but in the plot line, it seems that having judges has no real authority since the candidate rankings depend on something entirely different. There are a lot of twists and turns in this plot line, so this is as much as I can say.

So, the story is very confusing to follow. But if you've read the ending, it's possible to understand why the scenes switch back and forth so much. The coherency does not flow very well, but at the end, you should be able to piece everything together somehow. Honestly, I feel like the ending was a bit too rushed and the monologues were sometimes just too flowery or poetic--it was difficult to understand who was speaking and what they really meant. There is a TON of metaphors in this manhwa that are just a bit too abstract and ambiguous. The romance was enjoyable for a time. Towards the end, the romance is definitely dropped a bit in order to focus on the climax and finish of the story, but it seems like a bit of a waste--there's all this build up and a ton of different possibilities for pairings, but not much is resolved in the end. You could make your own conclusions, but nothing will be truly backed up in the novels. The comedy was sometimes hard to understand, but it could be funny at times. Sometimes the placement of the comedy seemed too out of context or just not appropriate, but maybe that's how it was supposed to be. Well, with a character like June, the comedy was nothing out of the ordinary, but it sometimes seemed out of place. I loved the idea, though, and it truly is a one of a kind manhwa. A queen of light, a competition, the setting was lovely, the interaction and backgrounds of the characters. The story was enjoyable, but it was sometimes too confusing to really appreciate what was going on.

The art was absolutely beautiful. It's true to the manhwa style, so it's obviously going to be different from regular manga. The details of the hair and the eyes are especially lovely. What was truly unique about this manhwa was the costume designs and work on the backgrounds. The backgrounds done for the school were beautiful as were the creative outfits for each character. The author made sure that one outfit was never worn more than one chapter or novel, it seemed. The Rohini-traditional clothing all seemed to have a certain style of elaborate, twist on modern clothing, unconventional and extremely detailed. Most of the outfits were very unconventional, especially during fight scenes, but the clothing just added to the beauty of the art. The fight scenes were not messy either and were very well drawn.

The characters were absolutely amazing. They were all so unique and the main characters were very well developed, even with a very incoherent and confusing story flow. The backgrounds of the characters, such as Yuri and Lucia, were well explained and showed a lot about their personalities and their thoughts. I appreciated a lot on how the author really put an emphasis on what was going on in each character's mind and how that affected the interactions with other characters. But because the characters were so enjoyable, I suppose it just seemed like a waste in the end.

Overall, it was a good manhwa. I even bought some of the series myself because the art was so good. It's a nice reference for character and costume ideas, and maybe it would be helpful to read the entire series again to understand it, but I don't think I'll buy the entire series. The first time I finished the series, though, I was definitely lost as to what I should have been feeling and my initial reaction was--"What? That's it?" There was a loss of closure due to not knowing what really happens with the other characters, but the beginning and the middle of the plot line was really enjoyable because of the feeling that it was leading up to something great and shocking. I have to admit, I was disappointed with the ending, but I had stuck with this manhwa for so long, I can't come to feel that I didn't enjoy it because I did!

If you do get stuck with what happened at the end, though, it's also a good idea to look around for explanations.