Scan barcode
A review by pauliina_thebookaholicdreamer
Blissful Land, Volume 1 by Ichimon Izumi
2.0
* 2.5 stars
Blissful Land is a manga about a Tibetan family of doctors. Khang Zhipa is a 13-year-old doctor in training who is a bit of a goofball, obsessed with herbs and kind to everyone. One day a foreign party comes to visit his village, and with them a beautiful and sweet Moshi Rati who will stay with Khang Zhipa much longer than he could have ever anticipated.
Blissful Land is a delightful celebration of Tibetan culture, rich in nature, clothing and food details. I absolutely loved this part of the manga!
Also the characters are all sweet and kind, they care about each other and the village has a strong sense of community.
In mangas, the illustration style is very important for the story. Blissful lands is mostly drawn spectacularly with a lot of little details and beautiful textures everywhere. However, I was slightly frustrated how often Khang Zhipa's face was left unfinished. Having read a bunch of manga, I know well that usually having goggly eyes is a way to transmit emotion, but in Blissful Land I felt that it was a bit too usual. I started to feel like Khang Zhipa just was a goggly eyed person, and the 'normal' illustrations of him started to look odd. This was a bit confusing for me as a reader. And those goggly eyes kind of haunt me.
Although I liked the idea of Blissful Land, it had a huge problem: nothing happened. It was cute and nice to look at, but there is virtually no plot whatsoever. The characters barely communicate with each other and mostly we just look at Rati and Khang Zhipa picking herbs or see Khang Zhipa's little sister fight. I know it is pretty and has loads of great cultural elements, but dang I was bored. It took me a long time to finish this just because I kept spacing out while reading. Although I find the art intriguing, I don't see myself continuing this series.
Blissful Land is a manga about a Tibetan family of doctors. Khang Zhipa is a 13-year-old doctor in training who is a bit of a goofball, obsessed with herbs and kind to everyone. One day a foreign party comes to visit his village, and with them a beautiful and sweet Moshi Rati who will stay with Khang Zhipa much longer than he could have ever anticipated.
Blissful Land is a delightful celebration of Tibetan culture, rich in nature, clothing and food details. I absolutely loved this part of the manga!
Also the characters are all sweet and kind, they care about each other and the village has a strong sense of community.
In mangas, the illustration style is very important for the story. Blissful lands is mostly drawn spectacularly with a lot of little details and beautiful textures everywhere. However, I was slightly frustrated how often Khang Zhipa's face was left unfinished. Having read a bunch of manga, I know well that usually having goggly eyes is a way to transmit emotion, but in Blissful Land I felt that it was a bit too usual. I started to feel like Khang Zhipa just was a goggly eyed person, and the 'normal' illustrations of him started to look odd. This was a bit confusing for me as a reader. And those goggly eyes kind of haunt me.
Although I liked the idea of Blissful Land, it had a huge problem: nothing happened. It was cute and nice to look at, but there is virtually no plot whatsoever. The characters barely communicate with each other and mostly we just look at Rati and Khang Zhipa picking herbs or see Khang Zhipa's little sister fight. I know it is pretty and has loads of great cultural elements, but dang I was bored. It took me a long time to finish this just because I kept spacing out while reading. Although I find the art intriguing, I don't see myself continuing this series.