Reviews

The World Exists for Me, Volume 1 by Chiho Saitō, Be-Papas

cyanide_latte's review

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2.0

I remember first obtaining a copy of this from Dark Star Books in Yellow Springs, during their bi-annual street fair one year when I was in high school. At the time, I felt like it was incredibly intense, dark, sensual and fascinating, but as a general cw/tw for my fellow readers, I do feel the need to impress that it was the instance(s) of sexual assault in this book that stuck in my memory more than anything. So please be aware that that content exists in this manga, should you take interest in trying to read this.

Generally speaking, I'm not sure how to classify this. I feel like it could easily be categorized as romance/dark romance, historical, or science fiction (due to time traveling shenanigans.) I don't think it helps that, if rumor is to be believed, I think the series was never finished? For my part, I feel like it's still somewhat entertaining, at least from the perspective of the time travel. I did not recall that the time travel in this book centers around just France, but I find that more fascinating now than I did as a teenager.

As for the characters, I could honestly take them or leave them. All the tertiary side characters are more mildly interesting than the three main characters, who are at this point about as dull as a sack of bricks. If there were more to their characters than the most basic of archetypes, then perhaps I wouldn't be such a harsh critic, but that's really all they are. And as there's only one other volume to get ahold of and read, I have my doubts as to whether or not ANY of them get developed.

Personally, I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't read it if you're interested. The art is gorgeous and the research into different time periods of France is pretty cool. But this isn't one I recommend at this point in time; there are better things you could be reading.
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