Manga of The Month- January

I'm so sorry I didn't keep up with the manga of the month for December, but I have recently discovered a manga artist who really does have huge inspirational ability, her name is Mori Kaoru. She is a literary genius. The manga that I'll focus on is called 'Otoyomegatari' or 'Young Bride's story'.

The story is a rather controversial one, set in a rural city in an Eastern/Asian rural city (possibly Turkey or Persia) where a woman of 20 is sent to marry a groom 8 years her junior, you might be thinking 'this is so peado' but the manga takes into consideration the normality of this marital situation at the time. Now we are left with all the emotional conflicts and complications of such a marriage.

Unfortunately only 8 chapters has been released, so I can't say much about the storyline as yet, however Mori Sensei has seriously out-done herself with regard to the artwork, such detail and beauty on the pages are not often seen, as most manga tend to have a modern-western setting. The manga has a fresh outlook to me personally as it's been a while since I've had a good look at Islamic-styled artwork, and this manga certainly had a fair share of it:

Putting the artwork aside, I think the way Mori sensei draws the main character (Amira, which means princess in Arabic) is really well done, like, really. I haven't stopped and stared at the drawing style of a main character in a long time, she made me think 'If I was a manga character I'd want to look like her', that's aside from her awesome archery and hunting skills of course.

Overall, a well thought out and researched manga, with incredible potential to bring about cross-cultural education. I absolutely LOVE the artwork! I give it a 9/10.