The Titan’s Bride – Manga First Impressions

I have been on the fence for the last few months whether I wanted to read The Titan’s Bride or not and I will openly admit it was all because of one word in the genre of the story.

Isakai.

Now don’t get me wrong there are some really good isakai stories out there in anime and manga, but like anything that becomes popular the market can very quickly become over saturated with subpar lazy boring pieces of crap that make it feel like you are digging through a pile of shit looking for the occasional diamond but more times than note finding nothing more than cubic zirconia. Add to that the fact that I am a fan of traditional fantasy stories and that finding a good fantasy anime or manga since the rise of isakai has become almost impossible these last few years. Not to say there have not been some good fantasy anime over the last year or so, Interspecies Reviewers and Goblin Slayer were big highlights for me when it came to watching anime. So basically what I am saying is I went into this series with not very high hopes and to be honest, it was not as bad as I was expecting.

Is it a masterpiece that will drastically change the yaoi genre? Hell no, it is filled with many of the tropes and trappings of the yaoi genre that those outside and within the fandom find problematic, it’s biggest sin of being sexual assault equals love, thankfully it does not as bad as this trope is in the manga The Tyrant Falls in Love and to a certain extent there are consequences to the initial problem and we do get to see something that is not seen too often when this trope does come up. The characters talk about their relationship and this is something I can highly praise the story for, but then not long after this happens one of the main characters ends up under the influence of a poison that basically makes him sex crazed at night which again could be seen as problematic to some if you don’t like stories that don’t show clear consent between characters during sex.

As the story has moved forward though, there has been some real character growth between the two main characters and there is also less of a consent issue with the latest chapters as well. Also for a yaoi series that on surface looks like it is very much porn without plot there is an amazing amount of world building within the story as we the reader get to learn about the kind of world we have been brought in and even learn about the political climate of said world.

I will admit when I first started reading this one I had a few moments where I almost stopped reading it because of the first couple of chapters of the story felt really cliche but as the story moved forward it has slowly become an enjoyable read. If you would like to read The Titan’s Bride you can read it officially on the mobile app Coolmic.

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