Ok, I need to talk about a manga that isn't twisted, clumsy, or just plain bad. For once, Kodansha is here to help me out with a shojo series that just made the jump from digital to print this year.
NINA THE STARRY BRIDE (Hoshifuri Okuko no Nina), by Rikachi. First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2021.
PLOT:
Nina was just a common thief, an orphan trying to get buy in the fringes of Fortna's capital city Dayah. She's sold off as a slave to the royal family, who need a replacement for their fallen princess Alisha. Nina physically looks the part, but she'll need months of intensive training with Alisha's haughty half-brother Azure to pass well enough to take over Alisha's duties as Astral Priestess and to take her place in an arranged marriage with a neighboring prince. In the meantime she's going to have to deal with royal intrigue, a bratty crown prince, and her own increasingly conflicted feelings about Azure.
STORY:
Nina the Starry Bride is a shojo adventure series, a sub-genre I've always loved but is quite rare to find on the shelves these days. It's not doing anything particularly revolutionary with its story, but it combines a lot of familiar ideas with intelligence and panache.
Nina is the sort of spunky heroine who acts first and thinks later. That's not to say that she has no interiority or that she's reckless to the point of foolishness. Indeed, her rebellious streak is tempered by the grief that has followed her throughout her life: the loss of her parents, her friends, and now both her freedom and her identity. There are times when the memories become too much for her, but those hard times have given her an inner strength and her years on the street have given her a strong survival instinct. It's an interesting mix of qualities that makes Nina a compelling heroine in her own right, as well as the skills to survive in the tense atmosphere inside the royal castle.
She's also got a strong supporting cast behind her. Azure may be strict and self-serious, but he never crosses the line into cruelty. Furthermore, as the story unfolds we learn alongside Nina that there is a kinder side to him as well as just how clever and observant he has to be to survive the various intrigues around him. The key to seeing that warmer side is his younger half-brother Muhulum, whose brattiness comes partly from age and partly as a front for his loneliness. Luckily, Nina readily falls into the role of big sister with him, willing to play and explore but also provide gentle guidance.
The plot at this point is only just starting to get geared up. Most of these early chapters are more about establishing the pecking order within the palace as well as the dangers. It's only towards the end that the reader is reminded alongside Nina that she's technically got an arranged marriage to worry about (although it's pretty clear who the real love interest is gonna be, and his name starts with "A" and ends with "zure"). Still, it's always moving forward, building up the world around Nina, and drawing the reader in. I'm certainly hooked.
ART:
Rikichi's art style is simple but pleasing. They favor a plainer look for their characters' faces, with wide flat eyes and rather unadorned features. Yet their costumes are exotic and elaborate, with elements drawn from historical fashions from the Middle East and Central Asia. Mind you, they are not striving for accuracy and fine detail here - this isn't A Bride's Story or anything like that. Still, it's doing most of the heavy lifting as far as establishing the setting. The backgrounds are OK, but the architecture is somewhat spartan. Even the palace rooms tend to be dressed only with some draperies, rugs, and decorative screens. That same simplicity extends to the paneling and page composition, which tends to be sparing with the sparkles and other fanciful flourishes and more favorable to the moments of action and exploration.
RATING:
This manga is published by Kodansha Comics. This series is ongoing in Japan with 12 volumes available. 10 volumes have been released digitally and 1 volume has been physically released; all are currently in print.
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