Customer Reviews

Emma, Vol. 6

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The story gets dark(er) and eventful in this volume, as William tries to sort out his affairs to make room for Emma, who has to deal with being a object of curiosity at home and of anger from the powerful Campbell family in London. The opening chapter, separate from the main storyline, begins an interesting discussion about The Prisoner of Zenda.

And, as always, the art is lovely.

The Emma series is one of the best anime series I have read in a while, and worth reading through. It is a romance set in 1850s England. The story is driven by recurring and well-developed characters. Illustrations are well done and capture the settings well, as Emma moves between poor and wealthy houses and in-between. I don't like romances, but I liked this series.

In the previous book, William and Emma began writing love letters back and forth, and even met up once in the country desptie the fact that William had moved on and become engaged. In this book, William decides to call off his engagement to Eleanor, but both their families are dead-set on the marriage. Eleanor's parents are already aware of William and Emma, and when William discusses withdrawing from the engagement with them, they turn their attention to removing her from the picture.

This book get a bit melodramatic and perils-of-paulineish. Eleanor and William act normal. No one else does, and Eleanor's parents resort to violence and abduction to separate William and Emma, meanwhile attempting to keep William and Eleanor from speaking until they can rearrage and restore the engagement. Out of the series, I found this book and the next (7th) book to have an awkwardly fast pace because of all the melodrama.


Overall, this series was a good quick read. It's a mindless romantic comedy. There isn't much that's serious, including the ominous class differences which are not at all developed and just sort of there. Characters reemerge through the series and are fleshed out over the course of 7 books. Even minor characters are likely to reemerge and become more developed at some point in the future. The series does a good job of building personalities, and a self-contained world.

In a twist on the old saying, Hell apparently has no Fury than an over-bred Daddy Scorned. Eleanor's father, Viscount Campbell, will not allow an upstart fool like William Jones to break his daughter's heart, and it's Emma who must suffer the consequences. Of the three families involved, the Campbells' the Joneses and the Merediths' it's the Meredith's, Emma's employers, who steal the book, especially on the last page.

Volume #6 of Kaoru Mori's "Emma" series has the weakest story in the series thus far. Not that its terrible by any stretch, but rather the narrative slows down in comparison to past volumes and takes a plot twist that seems a bit far-fetched in hindsight.

Still, if you've been reading the series up to this book surely you do not want to miss out on this one and as always, Mori's art is always appreciated for its level of detail.

I have begun by buying the first volume of Emma. I loved it so much that I bought the entire series and read it very slowly, to taste it to the last drop. It is a wonderful victorian tale, carefully drawed. The reconstruction of Victorian England is careful, but above all, the character of Emma is so lovely, so tender, that I was absolutely taken by her and her history. I would adore to find more works by Kaoru Mori.