Manga Review: The Water Dragon's Bride, Volume 4, by Rei Toma

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: January 2018

Volumes: 8+

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 1. 3. 5.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A modern-day girl gets whisked away to a strange land where she is sacrificed to a water dragon god!

In the blink of an eye, a modern-day girl named Asahi is whisked away from her warm and happy home and stranded in a strange and mysterious world where she meets a water dragon god!

Because the water dragon god wants to interact with Asahi more, he descends to the village in the guise of a human. Asahi’s friend Subaru has mixed feelings about this but joins them on a journey to the capital. What adventures are in store, and how will their fates change?

Review:

It's time to pray to the water god again, and so Asahi decides that the three of them should go away for the three days. So her, the Water Dragon God, and Subaru go away to visit other places. They see some sights, and then Asahi throws herself in to help a village when there's a fire. Afterward, when they get home, Asahi tries to help an outbreak of sickness.

Asahi continues to push the Water Dragon God. He's emotionless and uncaring, but at least somewhat curious about humans. She pushes him into doing things, and pushes their relationship as much as she can, at times to see how far it will go. Subaru is always there, at the same time. Their friendship is the sweetest, purest thing. It's honestly painful how sweet it is, because we all know bad things are going to happen there.

I'm still surprised that I don't know which direction this triangle is going. I feel like Asahi and the Water Dragon have something that isn't romantic, but a different connection. They're learning from each other, in a way. But if Asahi doesn't end of up with Subaru, then I will not be happy with Subaru ending up sad and alone. I just want to hug him, he's such a sweetheart.

We also got some hints of something from Asahi's care taker, that maybe he knows something or he has a connection with Asahi that they don't know. I'm intrigued about where that's going.

I'm really hooked on this series. I can't wait for each volume. It's sad and sweet, thoughtful and painful, innocent and psychological. I'm really starting to love it.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!