Legend of Nereid, and Anatolia Story. (zomg a post!)
Well, I just finished reading Legend of Nereid and just had to make some comments. Summary quote from OneManga:
This story intertwines with the Greek Gods. An oracle prophesies that the current heir to the throne will be usurped, and is forced to name who will be the usurper. He lies, and sacrifices an innocent soul instead--due to his lie, this changes the life of the 15 year-old girl, Matia.
Overall, it has an awesome story and good characters. It's major down point is that it's hard as hell to understand at times, due to crappy translation. There was even a critical moment that I completely had to skip over because it was not translated. Posting a RAW on a fan-translated site is a bit of a no-no. I couldn't find another translation for the page anywhere, and my friend Thai was unavailable. *sigh* Thus, I had to assume what was going on based on pictures, and the occurrences of the following page. Totally not helpful.
Anyway, Legend of Nereid is your typical Historical Manga. The main character, Matia, I completely sympathize with. In fact, my imagination ran wild trying to help her out. In this story, placed during an unknown period of Greek history when prophets were invaluable, the entirely too ambitious queen (I like her only slightly more than the evil bitch queen from Red River) forces a prophecy from the most renowned Prophet; Atropa.
In order to protect the identity of the next king (whom is not the queen's son, and we never actually find out who he is), or his family (not quite sure which), Atropa commits a great sin against Apollo and sacrifices the life of an innocent. He tells the queen that he doesn't know the next king's identity, but he does know the one whom will "be the source of the strength". And thus, we all know what happens when one makes a prophecy. When will people learn that those things are Self-Fulfilling?!
The story spans 15 Volumes, which are not divided up into chapters and sometimes end abruptly. Actually, they often ended abruptly... The whole ordeal spans, I believe, around 5 years, making the 15-year-old "Warrior of the Ocean" Matia about 20 by the end.
Places are not announced in scene changes, and time jumps are only discovered when a random character says how long it's been. The art itself isn't 100% outstanding, but it is pretty good. And everyone loves a comical horse character, with his own attitude and occasional thoughts.
My biggest gripe (without giving an entire summary of the whole series) is that, like with the editor, the ending is very unsatisfying. When reading a romance story, one expects to see what happens between the main romance pairing. (Oh, and there's a bit of Shonen-Ai included... and possible, but not outright confirmed incest.) It's really kind of like the author took a machete to their storyline, and cut it right in the middle.
If only there were more. And proper translations.
But, well... What can we do. So, being my second "real" historical manga (I've probably read three, but when I think "historical" I think more than 200~1,000+ years in the past... Not 1920's, as is with Mademoiselle Butterfly - which is a good read.) I absolutely have to do this little comparison.
Legend of Nereid, good.
Red River (otherwise known as Anatolia Story, or "Where the Sky and Red River Meet"), most Epic manga I've ever read.
The differences between the two are; 1 - Red River is for a more mature audience, 2 - it involves a 15-year-old modern day Japanese girl whom is literally stolen 3,500 years through time, 3 - it's 96 chapters long, and 4 - it has so many more elements and is much more satisfying.
They are not quite equal in the angsty department (which I hate, but it's not unbearable in a great story) but both contain a similar amount of mayhem.
I'm unsure about the historical accuracy of Legend of Nereid, but Red River is nearly on the dot. The characters are given personalities and new names, but keep the important ones. The entire story focuses around Suzuki Yuuri, and the man she falls in love with, Prince Kale Mursili (whom is the real king Mursili II of the Hittite empire). Because of this, we can figure out that the story begins sometime before 1321 BC, and in present-day Turkey.
It's unfortunate that this kingdom faded away in time. After reading Anatolia Story, I was so in love with the characters that I was very sad about that.
I'm almost tempted to re-read it. But, it took me maybe a week the first time, and I couldn't keep my mind from thinking about it afterward for a day. xD I'm totally buying it (slowly... it's 25-ish volumes long, after all. That's a lot of mulah.)
One very amusing thing about Legend of Nereid is that at one specific scene, I SWEAR I saw two characters from Red River! Yuuri's maids/friends, Hati and Shala/Ryui (one of the twins) appear to be servants in LoN. It's possibly just coincidence, but it was funny. They looked the same, hairstyle and all, but no names were mentioned and I only noticed them the once.
Unlike Legend of Nereid, Anatolia Story has quite a bit more in the romance department. And, just because I'm weird, I was only unsatisfied with one little thing plot wise; but, it's semi made up for with the comical bonus story.
If you're into romance and history, take a look at either (or both) of these. I strongly recommend Anatolia Story. Links are provided!
This story intertwines with the Greek Gods. An oracle prophesies that the current heir to the throne will be usurped, and is forced to name who will be the usurper. He lies, and sacrifices an innocent soul instead--due to his lie, this changes the life of the 15 year-old girl, Matia.
Overall, it has an awesome story and good characters. It's major down point is that it's hard as hell to understand at times, due to crappy translation. There was even a critical moment that I completely had to skip over because it was not translated. Posting a RAW on a fan-translated site is a bit of a no-no. I couldn't find another translation for the page anywhere, and my friend Thai was unavailable. *sigh* Thus, I had to assume what was going on based on pictures, and the occurrences of the following page. Totally not helpful.
Anyway, Legend of Nereid is your typical Historical Manga. The main character, Matia, I completely sympathize with. In fact, my imagination ran wild trying to help her out. In this story, placed during an unknown period of Greek history when prophets were invaluable, the entirely too ambitious queen (I like her only slightly more than the evil bitch queen from Red River) forces a prophecy from the most renowned Prophet; Atropa.
In order to protect the identity of the next king (whom is not the queen's son, and we never actually find out who he is), or his family (not quite sure which), Atropa commits a great sin against Apollo and sacrifices the life of an innocent. He tells the queen that he doesn't know the next king's identity, but he does know the one whom will "be the source of the strength". And thus, we all know what happens when one makes a prophecy. When will people learn that those things are Self-Fulfilling?!
The story spans 15 Volumes, which are not divided up into chapters and sometimes end abruptly. Actually, they often ended abruptly... The whole ordeal spans, I believe, around 5 years, making the 15-year-old "Warrior of the Ocean" Matia about 20 by the end.
Places are not announced in scene changes, and time jumps are only discovered when a random character says how long it's been. The art itself isn't 100% outstanding, but it is pretty good. And everyone loves a comical horse character, with his own attitude and occasional thoughts.
My biggest gripe (without giving an entire summary of the whole series) is that, like with the editor, the ending is very unsatisfying. When reading a romance story, one expects to see what happens between the main romance pairing. (Oh, and there's a bit of Shonen-Ai included... and possible, but not outright confirmed incest.) It's really kind of like the author took a machete to their storyline, and cut it right in the middle.
If only there were more. And proper translations.
But, well... What can we do. So, being my second "real" historical manga (I've probably read three, but when I think "historical" I think more than 200~1,000+ years in the past... Not 1920's, as is with Mademoiselle Butterfly - which is a good read.) I absolutely have to do this little comparison.
Legend of Nereid, good.
Red River (otherwise known as Anatolia Story, or "Where the Sky and Red River Meet"), most Epic manga I've ever read.
The differences between the two are; 1 - Red River is for a more mature audience, 2 - it involves a 15-year-old modern day Japanese girl whom is literally stolen 3,500 years through time, 3 - it's 96 chapters long, and 4 - it has so many more elements and is much more satisfying.
They are not quite equal in the angsty department (which I hate, but it's not unbearable in a great story) but both contain a similar amount of mayhem.
I'm unsure about the historical accuracy of Legend of Nereid, but Red River is nearly on the dot. The characters are given personalities and new names, but keep the important ones. The entire story focuses around Suzuki Yuuri, and the man she falls in love with, Prince Kale Mursili (whom is the real king Mursili II of the Hittite empire). Because of this, we can figure out that the story begins sometime before 1321 BC, and in present-day Turkey.
It's unfortunate that this kingdom faded away in time. After reading Anatolia Story, I was so in love with the characters that I was very sad about that.
I'm almost tempted to re-read it. But, it took me maybe a week the first time, and I couldn't keep my mind from thinking about it afterward for a day. xD I'm totally buying it (slowly... it's 25-ish volumes long, after all. That's a lot of mulah.)
One very amusing thing about Legend of Nereid is that at one specific scene, I SWEAR I saw two characters from Red River! Yuuri's maids/friends, Hati and Shala/Ryui (one of the twins) appear to be servants in LoN. It's possibly just coincidence, but it was funny. They looked the same, hairstyle and all, but no names were mentioned and I only noticed them the once.
Unlike Legend of Nereid, Anatolia Story has quite a bit more in the romance department. And, just because I'm weird, I was only unsatisfied with one little thing plot wise; but, it's semi made up for with the comical bonus story.
If you're into romance and history, take a look at either (or both) of these. I strongly recommend Anatolia Story. Links are provided!