The Water Dragon’s Bride, Vol. 1 by Rei Tōma
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
The story of a girl who slips back in time to a different era. While playing in her family’s garden, Asahi gets sucked in by the small pond and when she wakes up she finds herself in a place that seems like Japan from ancient times. A powerful clan takes her in, but the reason for their kindness is that they intend to sacrifice her to the water god, the dragon, to be his bride… Now that she is at the mercy of a god who appears to know no compassion, what will Asahi’s fate be?
In this dark shoujo fantasy series, a young modern girl gets transported to feudal Japan, where she is unwillingly sacrificed to the water god as a ‘bride’. Asahi is a pretty young kid, and her appearance (red-haired, grey-eyed) make me think she may be biracial in the story. When she lands there in the village, a young kid by the name of Subaru helps her out. But unbeknownst to both of them, Subaru’s mother is planning to use her as a sacrifice. The entire village is also in on it, because they see her appearance and mannerisms (as a young kid, she doesn’t entirely realize that talking about modern things would land her in trouble) as weird and something to surrender to the whims of a god.
When the god, instead of letting her drown, brings her to his abode, she quickly realizes that he is a capricious god, who doesn’t care much for humans. I wish it did not have the pedophilic vibe of a young kid being the ‘bride’ of a god, but it does – he even says that he’ll make her his wife when she comes of age (which, just, no – so wrong on so many levels). However, her friend Subaru, who has had his belief in his family shattered, is trying his utmost to get her back (which kind of has Orpheus-Eurydice vibes). Honestly, I’m very interested in whether they both will even outwit/defeat the Water God, and she can be free from being his ‘thing’. I also think it is leaning towards her being the one to ‘humanize’ him.
On the mythology front, I like the other secondary gods being depicted as benevolent but still cold and uncaring about human things. Also, fire god, don’t call it ‘rival in love’ – she’s a freaking kid! As for the feudal world, it kinda makes sense how they are ruled by superstitions and allow such things to happen, but still – she’s a kid. (I feel like I have been mentioning this far too often in this review. Basically what I am saying is the story could have protag could have started at an older age because this is just horrifying) Anyway, on the whole, I am interested in how the story will play out.
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