Emma, Vol. 3 (Volume 3) (Emma, 3)

This manga has been out of print for a long time, and to have a multi volume book with all the original cover illustrations is really nostalgic. Beautifully bound. Happy to have it.

This series by Kaoru Mori is well-drawn, with appealing characters and a hard-to-resist forbidden romance. Set in Victorian England, it features Emma,a bright, compassionate, composed maid, and William, a reluctantly dutiful young gentleman. They fall heavily in love, but William's family, unsurprisingly, will not tolerate the relationship. Emma and William try to pursue separate lives, but fate has other things in mind.

Loved it!

After her momentous decision last volume, Emma leaves London behind hoping to start anew elsewhere. With only the vaguest intentions of returning to her birthplace, our fair heroine lucks out by finding a progressive trader family to serve. Not only does she surprise the "downstairs" folk, but also the "upstairs" as well, making a favorable impression on just about everyone, from the lowliest chambermaid to the master and mistress of the house themselves.Meanwhile, with Emma beyond his reach, the Young Master Jones is doing his best to play the dutiful son; working harder, attending social dates, even doing charity work. This, of course, confuses his sister, Grace, and you can feel the tension and mild cognitive dissonance in her whenever she's in panel... that is, when she's not flustered by a trio of hens clucking away in admiration of her.Then there's Eleanor... pining away.The story progresses as both Emma and William do their best to live apart in their newly assumed roles, but fate has something else in mind as Emma meets someone in the countryside with an immutable connection to the Jones household.The art, as always, is beautiful and detailed with tons of work put into the historical setting (this rings true for the story aspects as well... I think it would take a scholar to spot any non-dialogue related inaccuracies). Mori-sensei went to a lot of effort to make each character, setting, etc., unique and distinctive and succeeded brilliantly.Pace and flow feel fairly natural save for a few off-panel incidents whose build up and results happen in-panel, but these are mainly comedic moments such as the soiled sheets and bump on the head incidents and actually add a humanizing touch.As always, I most heartily recommend a buy (hell, buy two or three and give some to friends)... and apologies for the late review.

very, very good

Kaoru Mori, <strong>Emma, vol. 3</strong>) (CMX, 2003)Mori has split William and Emma; she took off for home on a train at the end of vol. 2 ("home", we find out, being in Yorkshire; for some reason I'd assumed she came from south of London). A chance encounter on the train leads to her employment with a nouveau-riche German family once she gets there. William, on the other hand, is trying to move on with his life and become the model son his father is looking for. Mori takes a chance splitting her protagonists, but everything right about this manga remains so; it's a stunner through and through, at least the volumes I've read so far. *** ½

Conquise! Mais je connaissais déjà ;p Donc personne n'est surpris!

Great

Brillaint!