“Emma” is a manga about a maid and an upper class gentleman who fall in love and have to fight the Victorian class system to be together. It is a traditional romance narrative, with warm characters and a rollercoaster plot line.
I decided to read this series because I wanted to take a break from hard reading, with some light graphic novels. I was drawn to this series because it is set in the Victorian era, which is one of my favourite historical settings.
“Emma” is a sweet story. The writing, however, I found was a little quirky. It seemed that the writing would suddenly stop, without revealing everything. For example, a character would be telling a joke, I’d flip the page, and the scene would be completely changed. This also happened when a character was retelling something, when a character was revealing something, and at random times throughout the dialogue and narrative. I found it disruptive and frustrating.
The other irksome part I found about “Emma” is in the number of books included in the series. The main narrative runs from book one to, and including, book seven. Books eight, nine, and ten are not part of the main narrative, but are instead made up of short stories about the other characters in the series. This is a sweet idea, but I do not like this to be included in the main series. It should have been added as additional material, or as a separate, sub-series.
The overall story was alright. I have too much to read that I probably will not read the short stories that are included in the series. “Emma” fulfilled its purpose of giving me a break from hard reading.