If you are looking a cute feelgood love story you will love this. Yuzuki the female lead is the sweetest most adorable most lovable girl I have seen in ANY work of fiction. Every page featuring her was pure delight to read. :D Taishou Otome Otogibanashi means Taishou Maiden Fairytale i.e. A Fairytale of a Maiden of the Taishou Era. This review covers the whole series five volumes not just volume 1. No official English translation exists that I know of so I read a fanmade scanlation and bought the ebooks in the original Japanese. The male lead Tamahiko is bitter and depressed after an injury leaves him disabled. Yuzuki sent to be his fiancee enters his life as a storm of sweetness and joy. Tamahiko is cold to her at first but over the course of many chapters he opens up to her and comes to love her. Their relationship starts off very cutesy and platonic. As the characters grow older their relationship gradually develops a romantic and sexual aspect. Yuzuki is only 13 at the beginning and 1718 at the end. The few more erotic scenes in the later volumes are beautifully handled. They are treated as romantic highlights and thus focus on tenderness rather than sexiness. There is no ecchi for which I am in this case very thankful. There are also a few bath scenes featuring light nonsexual nudity. Thats the closest it gets to fanservice. Even fanservicehaters should be able to enjoy it. Though Tamahiko is the viewpoint character the star of the show is Yuzuki the titular Taishou Maiden. She is pure cuteness and goodness so much so that it rubs off on everyone she meets. Not only Tamahiko but several minor characters though they may seem mean and unlikable at first end up changing into better people in the face of Yuzukis loveliness. Tamahiko himself grows from a bitter and spoiled brat into a brave and noble young man all inspired by her pure love. For me the story is a perfect mix of romance comedy and drama. There are sliceoflife parts which are pure cuteness and happiness and there are tense dramatic parts when circumstances conspire to keep Tamahiko and Yuzuki apart every reader not on the edge of his seat is a heartless monster The manga is just beautiful. I fell in love with Yuzuki from page 1 and she is one of the very few anime/manga characters I now consider a waifu. And not only her but almost every character is lovable almost every page shines with sweetness and happiness. I recommend it to everyone who likes a cute and fluffy romance. I rate it 10/10.
100 /100
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