Customer Reviews

Emma, Vol. 10

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Oh oh oh! The last volume of Emma. Was there ever such a pretty manga? Okay, so this is another collection of short stories, with some wrapping up of storylines and some background stories. The pace of this collection is pretty quick... I feel like Mori jammed this one full of details and stories. We see William and Emma spending time together and Emma trying to relax a little. You can see how hard this is for her. Adele and Maria's history is explored in a story about Maria's first days as a maid. Arthur, William's younger brother, has his own story about being a prefect at his school and dealing with a troublesome new student. There's the briefest of stories for Eleanor, called "The Following Day" and going back to her earlier short story. Here's me having good thoughts for Eleanor! "Happy Days Forever" is a set of panels dedicated to some of the servants and families of the Jones and Merediths. And then, in three chapters, we see Emma and William's wedding!

I know I say this for every volume of Emma, but the artwork is just breathtaking! The wedding story in particular is gorgeous. There's so much joy and happiness in this story, it's hard to not start smiling and sighing for Emma and William. I did realize that there was a fairly large gap of time that we missed between the end of volume 7 and the final chapters. I was sorry to have missed out on how certain relationships had evolved and changed in that time. On the other hand, it seems like some people have changed very little; for example Emma still seems overly shy, even around William. Overall, though, this is a very satisfying ending. I wish there were more, but I'm glad it ended this way.

This last volume of the manga series feels like a rancid chocolate. I have been expecting this volume for months but it seems that Mori wrote it just because, and not because the series needed a grand finale. The artwork is impeccable though but the lack of sentiment during the entire book leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The complete plot in this volume feels fragmentated and incomplete.