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CinnamonCoffin

  • Joined Jan 9, 2022
  • 27

Crimson Karma

Jan 9, 2022

This is truly one of the hidden gems. It's kinda hard to find this on the lists of best manhwas and I didn't see it being recommended that much. But well, I enjoyed it so much that I decided to sign up here and leave a review.

There's really no novel concepts here. The premise is similar to The beginning after the end, but while that one is more like Mushoku Tensei (focusing on living new life from scratch), this story is about redemption, exaltation and finding a purpose after being traumatized and scarred by your life. The answers found here are nothing groundbreaking, but as it is often the case, it's not about what, but about how you weave them into your tale.

The strongest point of this manhwa is probably the writing, as you could guess. The story doesn't drag for too long, it has a nice balance between the worldbuilding and the character development. The characters themselves are great and it's just a fun read to watch them interact and go through different hurdles. The romance part is introduced quite nicely and, while it has a light harem side to it, I've found all the relationships to be extremely compelling, as well as having great payoffs and conclusions. It's really rare for me to be moved by the stories and interactions between the characters, but this manhwa did it and more than once.

What I've found to be the most enjoyable though is the main character, Kasia. Her development was amazing and, coupled with her absolute badassnes, she's what makes this manhwa stand out. As a side note, I wanna say that this is the kind of a female lead that 90% of the feminists want to portray in every piece of media these days, but always fall flat. She's strong-willed, doesn't give anyone a quarter, takes on a traditionally male role, dresses like a guy and can kick almost every guy's ass. There's a bit of intersectional feminism even in her ships. But it all works like a clock. She's not a Mary Sue and doesn't get to be amazing out of nowhere, her backstory is very compelling, her struggles are grounded and she never comes of as flaunting her female superiority. The writer also doesn't put her on a pedestal by diminishing the male characters, making them dumb or incompetent. As a guy, I truly enjoyed reading this story and seeing the conclusion, even though it was clearly a bit more female oriented with the light reverse harem elements I mentioned earlier.

All in all, I recommend this to everyone who wants to read an interesting isekai story. It has great plot about dealing with trauma, great characters and heart-warming romance. If it the art was just a little bit better, it would've been really close to a 10 for me. But I think a 9 is a very fair score for this beautiful tale.

9/10 story
7/10 art
9/10 characters
9/10 overall

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