My Gently Raised Beast Volumes 2 and 3 Review

“How do humans get married?”

In Volume 1, the new imperial princess Blondina (aka Briddy) becomes fast friends with Amon, the divine leopard. In Volumes 2 and 3, we see this relationship between a human and a divine beast develop into something more…

Amon and Briddy have spent years hiding their friendship, with the only person fully in the know being Briddy’s maid, Lucy. Being a powerless princess allows Briddy to spend time with Amon and enjoy her life, even if her stepmother and stepsister, Adellai, despise her. She grows closer to her brother Lart, but he has an ulterior motive: since Lucy helped him when they were younger, he has fallen completely and deeply in love with her. Unfortunately Lucy doesn’t see it…yet.

Lart, though, is not the only one falling in love. The characters are slowly but surely understanding their feelings for one another. So much so that when it’s time for Amon to have his coming-of-age ceremony, he selects Briddy as his witness. She’ll need to attend the event as the only human—and royal—amongst the divine beasts. However, this starts a chain of events that shakes the status quo of the royal family.

While Lart is the crown prince, his sister Adellai is aiming for the throne herself. She doesn’t like Blondina, and dislikes even more how she seems to have built a relationship with the divine beasts. So, when Adellai gets the chance to prove herself to her father, the emperor, she doesn’t hesitate to take it and to get rid of everything that stands in her path.

From Volume 2, the story’s pace speeds up, and we get to see the characters grow, both physically and in regard to their feelings. This is quite different compared to other manhwa in the same genre, such asDaughter of the EmperorandWho Made Me a Princess, where the main character seems to slowly grow into an adult and the focus of the story is on their day-to-day life. InMy Gently Raised Beastwe see Briddy suffering from trauma and facing the couple who abused her as a child. The plot doesn’t take a dark turn, but the authors did a magnificent job in integrating these ‘dark’ parts into a more ‘feel-good’ story in a seamless manner. It was also a necessary part to help the development of the narration.

There is also the long-awaited development of the blooming romance between Briddy and Amon. While Amon has been pretty clear about his feelings, the problem is Briddy. She seems to recognise when the people around her have feelings for someone, but she cannot recognise Amon’s. She misunderstands the situation and ends up assuming that Amon has feelings for Lucy. Which is ridiculous. Although the author doesn’t explicitly say that Amon has feelings for Briddy in a ‘human’ way, Amon couldn’t be more explicitly saying it in a ‘divine beast’ way. But Briddy still doesn’t get it. And now she’s on the warpath to win Amon’s attention, while Amon is trying to figure out a way to make Briddy understand—he just needs to figure out how humans get married!

While our main characters are dealing with their feelings, Princess Adellai is scheming in the shadows. With the support of Lord Philip Rodson, a young man rejected by Britty, the imperial princess is trying to find the descendant of Barahan—the only person who can command the divine beasts. If she gets her hands on that person, she can easily gain the throne and then nobody will stand above the royal family. The emperor would like to find the descendant as well, so he gives Adellai the tools to find him or her. He almost seems like a double agent. He supports Adellai’s plan, but at the same time he knows that Blondina can get him closer to the divine beasts. He’ll play both of his daughters and come out on top either way. The imperial family is dysfunctional, and Briddy needs to watch her back. The only possible ally might be Lart, but it’s too soon to tell. He hasn’t done anything yet to show his loyalty toward his stepsister, so it’s still debatable if he’ll be one of the ‘good’ guys.

The covers of the first three volumes show Briddy and Amon in various stages of their lives—as children, as a young leopard and even as adults. The cover theme is recurrent, and it seems it will continue on future volumes as well. The artist uses mainly a pastel colour palette, and the more gruesome scenes are not shown—such as the fight against bandits in the forest. The translation reads smoothly, and the lettering has a different style when the divine beasts speak in their leopard form compared to when they turn into humans.

My Gently Raised Beastis written by Early Flower, illustrated by Yeoseulki and adapted by Teava. It’s available as a completed web comic on Webtoon, and the English print edition is released by Ize Press with Webtoon’s translation. Volumes 4 and 5 are already available from the publisher.

Our review copies from Ize Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.