Originally I had a lot of hopes on this manga, expecting something like a new Akame ga Kill. But Takahiro really went all out with this one, and then I remembered that he was originally a hentai artist. So yes, Gokusotsu Kraken is basically a hentai disguised as a compelling isekai story with a deceptively good plot. It's only when you're well into it that you realize you've been fooled.
Kuuma Shimizu is your average Ordinary Japanese Schoolboy transmigrated into a typical isekai world, Natsuki Subaru-style. He looks promising, but only for the first several chapters. Because all of his character development, strength and skill
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Jul 5, 2025
My Unexpected Marriage
(Manga)
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Not Recommended Preliminary
(112/116 chp)
I hated this manhwa, despite it starting pretty good and promising. The first arc of around 16 chapters was too long-winded, despite being pretty heartwarming and good to read, especially while sipping coffee near a fireplace. But what follows next is even worse. This manhwa loves introducing interesting characters only to forget them soon after their arcs are finished, and demotes them to extras who only throw around the most generic phrases. Some characters just disappear from the story completely. On the other hand, many important events and plot points are mentioned too briefly. IMHO, magic and dragons are totally unnecessary here, as they only
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serve to draw out the plot and as plot devices and not establishing basics of the worldbuilding. Now that I think of it, the manhwa is too drawn out in general, and could've been shortened 2-3 times with such a plot.
The female lead, Larit Brumayer, is established as an estranged illegitimate daughter of count Brumayer who can stand up for herself, but throughout the entire manhwa, her role is narrowed down to being basically a damsel in distress and nothing more. You can make Ian the protagonist instead of her, and nothing would change. While the manhwa looks like a mix of "Father, I don't want to get married" and "I have no health", the female leads in both of them were far more proactive and actually moved the plot. It doesn't help that Larit is simply bleak and plain boring, her main character trait being measuring the prices of everything by how many potatoes she could buy if she sells this or that thing. Her half-sister Rose, despite being a despicable villainess who's been humiliating and torturing Larit all her life, is way more interesting and brighter as a character, and you almost wish she was the protagonist and not Larit. The male lead, young duke Ian Reinhardt, is a violent arrogant prick full of testosterone, and is absolutely unlikable. It doesn't help that there is no person who could pose any threat to him. For a long time, I couldn't understand why the empress hated him and his guts, and was hell bent on getting him killed, going as far as framing him and sacking the dukedom. I mean, Ian was friends with Oscar the crown prince, and never committed high treason. Then I re-read the first 30 chapters, and it turned out she feared the dukedom as a political force and Ian in particular, seeing them as a threat to the royal power and authority. And you know what? The empress was absolutely right. Ian is too cocky and toxic, doesn't respect anyone outside ot the dukedom, loves throwing around his weight and death threats. We are explicitly told he would sack and execute any aristocrats who even slightly wronged him, and not just them, but their entire families in three generations. And he does all of that without the knowledge or consent of the royal family, only makes them face the consequences of said actions post-factum. Like in the Brumayers' case. While presented as some smart guy who can read between the lines and figures out the relationship between Ian and Larit and even ships them, Oscar is still an idiot who would do literally anything in the name of his "friendship" with Ian, which is as toxic and one-sided as it could be. Because at the end of the day, Ian doesn't respect Oscar at all, and only tolerates him because of latter's compliance and to keep up appearances before the nobility. It won't take long before Ian and his and Larit's descendants will lay claim to the throne, considering that in the extras we are told that since the son of Ian and Larit has yellow eyes like Ian himself, it proves that he has imperial blood. And it's explicitly hinted that they should participate in the future struggle for the throne. People actually fear duke Reinhardt more than they do Oscar or his mother. In fact, near the end of the main story, Ian becomes condescending towards Oscar so much that I loathed him. He made it look like he made Oscar a favor by allowing him to handle the punishment of a couple of corrupt aristocrats (and on public, mind you!). As if it's Ian who's actually running things in the empire and not the crown prince (an emperor even by that point). And as a matter of fact, he does. We get to see than even the nobles were baffled by what they witnessed. While at one point Oscar is shown to be bleating to Ian, like, "Hey, Ian, don't you go overboard. Don't forget, I'm still the emperor here!". Pathetic buffoon. Opportunist. Idiot. Loser. Bootlicker. The evil empress is a complete incompetent moron who is even dumber than Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones. She literally has just one henchman to do her bidding, is too impulsive and never thinks things through. She slowly poisons her husband who is already bedridden for no good reason. Oscar witnesses that, and it only cements his resolve to help out Ian. And why would she want the emperor dead in the first place? Who knows. I can only assume that maybe he was as compliant to Ian as Oscar, but that's just a speculation. The empress tried to humiliate Larit in the palace only to fail miserably, and during the dragon attack ordered Berthold to kill Larit while standing right in from of her and countess Rieculla-whatever because... reasons? And yet, I still pity her. Mostly because I wish she succeeded in killing that edgelord of a duke as a threat to the royal family and the country's stability, which he is. And I believe she should be pitied even if only for the fact that Oscar ordered her to be executed in a few days immediately after the assassination attempt on Larit surfaced. He felt no remorse, no regret while sentencing his own mother to death, he never even hesitated. And what sucks even more is that plot-wise, this is passed as something not even worth paying much attention to. As if they executed some dog and not the empress. Did they even give her a proper funeral and burial, or did they bury her in some nameless pit at the edge of the royal palace's garden? I did say nameless for a reason because, as it turns out, the empress and the emperor literally have no names in both the light novel and the manhwa. Some of the ducal knights were disrespectful towards Larit (because she is an illegitimate child) and refused to pledge allegiance to her in the absence of Ian because... reasons? A very stupid move and arc in general. Ian's nanny, chef, the butler and the staff of the residence punish the knights by denying them food, and it's played for laughts. LOL, the knights can just go home or to the town to buy some food unless they are locked up in the residence. And seriously, what were they planning to achieve? Especially considering how ruthless and unforgiving Ian is? Larit's mother who abandoned her to the Brumayers hardly mattered to the plot originally, but later the manhwa goes out of its way to justify and white-wash her, even going as far as making her (also the red dragon f*cker) the ultimate plot device that saves Larit from certain death in the end. Then again, the whole thing with dragons and Larit's fatal disease was absolutely unnecessary and is only there because the Brumayers and the empress's plots got dealt with too soon and anticlimactically. All in all, this is a very bad work. Don't waste your time reading it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 12, 2023 Not Recommended Funny Preliminary
(104/125 chp)
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This manhwa is appalling and has a very toxic fandom.
First of all, let's talk about the main characters' personalities. Aria is an insufferable, entitled, egotistical freak who sees everyone else as disposable pawns so much you would think Light Yagami or Lelouch Lamperouge are presidents of the Salvation Army in comparison. You might think she is in love with prince Asher/Asterope Franz, but she even calls him her property in her head. She only treats people nicely not out of general benevolence, but only if they do her bidding, and always expects them to do something for her on return. She is also so ... hell bent on her revenge against Mielle that she does petty, middle school bullying-level things to her and rolls back time to get away with it. It looks so pathetic and childish I wanna laugh. But what is not laughable is that Aria intentionally harms people who have done nothing wrong to her. Take count Roscente, for instance. Aria in all seriousness hates him for the "crime" of loving and prioritizing his own daughter above her, the adoptive one. Everyone, and I mean everyone, are pawns to her. Prince Asterope Franz is much, much worse than Aria. He uses a fake persona in many of his interactions for some reason. He creates what can be considered a secret police, and personally kidnaps and tortures people he sees as enemies along with his knights. Aria herself barely avoided the same fate, and all she did was mentioning that the corrupted casino is going to be closed down soon. Asher is so wicked he always immediately rewrites the laws if the aristocracy finds loopholes in them to avoid things like double taxation, stages a food crisis, frames people for crimes they didn't commit, is prone to forgery, breaking his word and outright genocide. At some point, Asher explicitly says he doesn't give a shit about the well-being of the people, as all that matters to him is his revenge against aristocracy. He even tried to execute the traitor to the aristocratic faction despite the latter coming willingly and disclosing very important information and all of the conspirators, saying that he deserves death simply for being one of them. And later had the audacity to mock him about the death of his relative right into his face via one of his lieutenants, right after it happened. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our male lead and hero-lover who constantly blushes like a little boy in the presence of Aria. Mielle Roscente, the main villainess of the series, is a pretty stupid and narrow-minded girl, and is a total pushover. The only reason she won against Aria in the original timeline is because she was led by two smarter people, namely her nanny Emma and duchess Isis Frederick. And that makes her not even a very weak opponent, but a punching bag. In fact, if it wasn't for Emma and Isis, Mielle would have never taken ANY actions against Aria or anyone else. The only act of direct violence in the entire series on her part wasn't even done against Aria. Also, at the end of the day Mielle is in her own right for fighting against an ungrateful duo of a prostitute and her daughter for wasting the money and wealth of her family and wanting to take over the estate from the count and his legitimate children. And that was literally the goal of Aria's mother, Carin, from the day one. Midway through both the light novel and the manhwa, we even have a conversation between Aria and Carin, and they laugh about how they managed to seduce such important and rich people as count Roscente and prince Asterope Franz. Duchess Isis Frederick is built up as some smart antagonist and a greater scope villain than Mielle Roscente for like half of the series, but she is just another moron. She doesn't have much bodyguards, her entire spy network can be counted by the fingers of just one hand from what we were told and shown. But what's worst is that Isis never even realizes until it's too late that there is no way in hell she can bend prince Asterope Franz to her will and that he is her main and most impacable enemy. She never investigates him, doesn't realize that some of her main allies are Asher's friends or inside men. The plot is inconsistent and very idiotic sometimes. Aria's deep knowledge about finances and economics comes out of nowhere, and it's not enough to just read all the books on business available and study like crazy like she did. Believe me, I did that and am still not a second Warren Buffett. It takes a certain amount of natural talent and luck. If manhwa had a situation similar to Gekai Elise/Queen with a Scalpel, in which the FL died, then reincarnated in our world, became a genius surgeon, died again and reincarnated in her original world, then yes, it would have worked if Aria managed to become some kind of successful Wall Street broker. But it wouldn't work the way it was shown in the series. Hell, we never even see Aria testing and failing her knowledge on economics, investment and business, she instantly becomes a pro with a 100% win rate because the plot says so. Laziest writing ever. The hourglass's existence (as such) is also never explained. We find out that after it is used to roll back time, it takes its toll on Aria's body and she has to sleep for 24 hours or even more. Also, it ages her after each use. So basically, Aria used it so extensively that she looks 25-30 by the age of 15. But we never learn about how much it ages her per one use. Or why did it appear out of nowhere only when Aria was dying. Also, the hourglass makes Aria almost completely undefeatable, but what's worst is that it makes her a cheater that achieves or gains something mostly through this cheat plot device instead of her own knowledge and skills. It's basically save scumming at its finest. In the manhwa, it is never explained who was behind the assassination attempt on prince Asterope Franz in the past, only the light novel explicitly names the guilty party, and I hate that such an important information is absent from the manhwa for no explicable reason. It is said that the aristocratic faction is evil and influential, but we barely see them actually doing anything against prince Asterope Franz and his father who we never even get to see in the manhwa. You might end up thinking that the only people who actually wanted to take over the empire were duchess Isis Frederick and her parents, and also Mielle Roscente. I don't even know why they should be considered villains if all they do is resisting a psychopathic prince with totalitarian tendencies. The only real aristocratic criminal that we know of was viscount Louvre who ran the casino nominally belonging to the prince. And we are fed some crap about other influential aristocrats being just as guilty as him only because they are shareholders of that casino. This doesn't make any sense, but since it's the Villainess reverses the hourglass we are talking about, we the readers simply must take this at face value, otherwise the entire house of cards of high-octane complete bullshit would crumble down and be set ablaze. The aristocrats are also so hopelessly weak they can't even afford their own guards and troops, and have to rely on foreign mercenaries. And most of their bodyguards are former knights of the prince and still retain some loyalty towards him. From where I stand, the aristocratic party's power and influence are all sham and hearsay. We can't discount the possibility that prince himself created this notion to further his goals and to give himself a carte blanche against them to cary out a literal genocide by class. But they are as weak against him as Liechtenstein if it chose to start a war against Switzerland and Austria at the same time. And yes, the imbalance of power between the aristocratic party and prince's faction is exactly as bad as in the example I just gave. Also, it's really funny, but somehow very few people among the aristocracy are able to recognize prince Asterope Franz despite him being a prince and all. Even if you take in account the fact he uses a fake persona, it still doesn't make sense. You might end up thinking that only the duchess Frederick knew how he looked like, and only since that party of hers that he crashed to confirm the identity of the girl he met in the town that aristocrats remembered his appearance. Utter nonsense. Why count Roscente married a prostitute from the slums of all people and not some noblewoman, even the lowest one, is never explained. A true aristocrat would have never, ever done such a thing as it would tarnish his reputation forever. Once again, lazy writing. The conclusion: Aria Roscente and prince Asterope Franz are wicked, repulsive villains with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They are given everything on a silver platter because of their cheat abilities and plot contrivances. They are so boosted with everything that hardly anyone could pose a serious threat to them. And as such, any conflict ends with a curbstomp battle. The designated villains are not shown doing anything truly evil aside from trying to eliminate Aria (but not the prince), trying to protect their businesses and grab the power from an old and incompetent king that is barely mentioned in the series, and prince Asterope "Asher" Franz the psychopathic malefic that is prone to deadly violence at the slightest provocation. Also, these "villains" are laughably weak and stupid. The plot runs only on contrivances and deus ex machinas. The villainess reverses the hourglass is one of the worst manhwas and light novels ever.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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