It’s time for a supernatural Shojo title. There is a lot of romance and drama of course, you gotta have the full blend of emotions here and the series lasted for 11 volumes which is pretty impressive. It gets to cover a lot and has a pretty unique premise. It’s definitely not something that you see very often. You’d almost expect this to be like a power fantasy by the end but that’s not the exact audience it’s going for so this is a little different.

The story starts with introducing us to a normal girl named Asahi who has a loving family. Everything was going well one day until she got pulled into the well that exists in her backyard. This isekais her to another realm where she is meant to be the Water Dragon’s bride. This god doesn’t really have any emotions and thinks the whole ritual is amusing but he still takes offense when she declines him. So he sends her back into the village but without the use of her voice. She must now find a way to escape this world that exists in the past and get back to modern day civilization. Is that even possible though?

She has one ally in the past at least. A boy named Subaru who likes her right away. Unfortunately they are both just kids right now and so it’s not like they can really defend themselves from the cruel mortals that are all around them. Subaru’s mother is one of the key antagonists who wants to sacrifice Asahi and get her out of here. Asahi is just lucky that the water dragon has no interest in claiming her life. If he did then that would have really been it for her. As the series goes on she gradually gets to teach him about the various emotions so that he becomes more human.

There is a time skip later in the series so Asahi is all grown up and can talk again. This definitely helps because while she was always a solid main character, it’s just hard to do anything while you’re still a kid. Not being able to talk is also rough when the whole village is against her. I thought the series definitely got more interesting from this point on. There are a lot of plot elements I would have liked to have seen more of though. We have several gods outside of the water one like darkness, fire, wood, and a few others. The only other one with a big role aside from water is the darkness one who makes for a good villain. The others are more just along for the ride but having a big gods battle royale would have been a lot of fun. Something where we see them all show up to defend Asahi or something like that.

I would say the character who gets the most development by far is the Water Dragon though. Going from emotionless to super emotional by the end is always a pretty big leap but the series took its time with this so it wasn’t all that rushed. Now was the romance still any good? Ehhhh I always have some issues with the whole immortal romance. I mean they grew up together the whole time ever since she was a small child. Yeah he never grew up so now it works a bit better and with the ending we can say that mayyyybe he’s not immortal? I’m still not feeling the romance either way I gotta admit but at least it’s not a rebound or anything.

The Water Dragon also came through in the clutch when she really needed him on several occasions. Whether it was the humans intentionally burning her or trying to drown her, he was ready. He got quite a few rage modes on her behalf and so the romance was really properly set up the whole time. It’s at least not something that was just thrown in at the last second and that’s pretty normal for a Shojo series. The build up is the important part.

Subaru naturally gets the short end of the stick but you could probably have guessed that based on the title. The series is absolutely merciless to the guy though as he has his big scene where he finally gathers the courage to confess to Asahi so she just immediately runs over to the water dragon to ask him out. That’s gotta be completely demoralizing. What a way to go right? You’re thinking the worst she can say is no, but your courage just being what gives her the courage to ask someone else out is rough.

Subaru also did his best to look out for her all those years too. He was a good friend, ultimately that’s just what he has to settle for though. They were not meant to be anything more than that. Maybe if he had asked sooner or something but he took too long. Asahi also had a lot on her mind throughout the series. She had to contend with the fact that gods exist in the world and that she may never actually get to get home. As the series continues she has to go up against the god of darkness as well. So there’s not a whole lot of down time for her in the series to really be thinking about the romance.

Asahi is a well balanced main character though. She is ready to fight when needed and gathers her courage when talking to big figures like the emperor. She doesn’t shirk any of her duties or responsibilities at all. She also had to make a tough decision later on about which world to stay in. Naturally being with her family is super important and all but at this point she’s lived longer in the other world so saying goodbye to those connections would be rough as well. It’s definitely a tough call. I’d generally choose the world with powers but in this case it’s not like the powers are hers directly so that does make things a little more difficult.

We get to briefly see the parents and they really didn’t take the vanishing very well. How could they right? One second they’re spending time with their daughter and the next she is gone. That’s the kind of thing that creates a permanent mental scar. You just don’t really come back from that and it created some mild resentment for her younger brother who never even got to meet Asahi. Always seeing your parents sad about the whole thing takes a big toll and of course when he sees Asahi is tempted to leave again, that just makes it all the more upsetting. It’s like she’s taking the whole thing for granted. So the brother wasn’t very nice but I did feel bad for him because of all this.

Back in the village, Tsukihiko is one of the first big characters to show up. He’s one of the only people to treat Asahi well from the start and is a consistent ally. His role gets smaller and smaller as the series goes on but he definitely had his moments. I liked him well enough and his drastic plan to fake Asahi’s death was pretty good. It might have even worked if not for Asahi. Kagahiko is a big bandit who shows up for a while but I was not a fan of him. He was trying too hard the whole time and feels real petty.

Yeah he ends up having his reasons and all but none of it really excuses attacking the main village and going after Asahi several times. She could have really done without all of that aggravation. There’s not much to him aside from being a bandit either. I never really sympathized with the guy or anything and wouldn’t have minded if the water dragon just blew him up. We’ve also got the Emperor and I wasn’t a big fan of that kid.

For one thing, he is an actual kid so it’s not like he is very good at running the show just yet. Asahi basically has to take on a mother type role for a while there and really explain why his plans wouldn’t work. He even suggests she become his bride for a while there which of course was out of the question. Even to the end he is getting kidnapped and everything so yeah I don’t think he ever really went up for me. He was more on the annoying side.

Matori is the hardened sword master who shows up later. He has some serious skills for sure but can be rather laid back. He’s a nice enough character. I feel like he came in last enough where you almost could have cut him out entirely though. The series would not have been all that different if he was gone after all. At least that’s the way I see it. It helps that Subaru’s sword skills rarely became a factor in the series. Often times the villains can only be stopped by the water dragon. Perhaps if Subaru got to be the final opponent for Kurose at the end that would have helped justify this.

Kurose is a good villain and definitely someone who felt like a threat. I was glad to have him here to shake things up a bit. Yeah he’s not the smartest guy and certainly gets manipulated quite a bit but I can respect the drive. At his core he wanted to save his friend and that’s admirable enough. He just went about it all the wrong way. Kurose had a really rough backstory so you can see how this really corrupted him from the start. He was only just starting to get rehabilitated when the whole thing happened and he had to turn to the dark side. At least he’s doing better than in the real world where he was really getting beat up and was basically murdered. It was quick but I really did appreciate seeing his back story here. It’s rare that we get to see the villains get Isekai’d after all.

The artwork for the series is pretty good. It can definitely be very expressive at times. The water can be a little chaotic at times though. It may be semi intentional but I also think it can just be really difficult to show a lot of water on screen without it getting at least a little messy. It’s a tough balance that you have to try and keep up throughout. Still, it was always readable so I definitely don’t have any big issues here. The writing was solid and the dark god was a formidable foe and that’s what counts.

I dare say the series was almost going for a bit of an anti human message there for a little while. There are just so many corrupt humans who were trying to destroy Asahi right from the start without hearing her out. The fact that she is just a child makes that even worse. I guess we can assume that the people will be more reasonable as time goes on but I still wouldn’t trust any of them to be honest. With the ending it doesn’t really matter by that point though. It’s a fairly upbeat ending although one character had to do a ton of waiting. I know he had a lot of time but that would probably still have been a really tough wait.

For me the series biggest strength and what I would praise it for is that it’s always interesting. I may not always love the setting but they did a good job of showing us just what a difficult situation Asahi was in. Particularly when she could not talk as she had to try and be expressive to get her point across. Since she was a child, that took extra determination. She was also in the middle of enemy lines the whole time even if the village wasn’t meant to be super evil. So you really get to see her journey through the years and the series did a good job with that.

Overall, The Water Dragon’s Bride is a good title. It doesn’t keep up with some of the other Shojo titles I’ve read to be sure but I didn’t really have any big issues with it either. It uses the Isekai genre to tell a reasonable romance plot and we get some action along the way. I’ll never turn down a good action scene and this could have made for a fun little anime. I think it would have been even better if it was set in the modern day but of course you would have to do some true re writes to actually get that to work. If you like romance then you should definitely check this one out. The characters are solid and there is a lot going on here. The author really managed to squeeze in a kid section, time skip, Asahi going back home, and a full backstory for the villain. The 11 volumes length was used pretty well.

Overall 6/10