녹음의 관

NOGEUMUI GWAN

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

I was a normal grad student until I woke up in a world right out of a novel I wrote as a teen. But danger’s on the horizon—the character I became was originally destined to die AND people are out to get me! Even though this character’s past was full of villainy, I’m using my insider knowledge to survive the flame of the Azure Ring, settle debts, and make things right for the House of Latia! Can I earn the trust of the hero and get ahead in this world? Are there secrets that even I don’t know?

(Source: Tapas)

CAST

Lan de Latia
Eustaph de Latia

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

Julyfire
38/100
Perhaps This Should Be Named "The Soporific Crown" Instead.
CAUTION: REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

This is yet another mediocre shoujo isekai webtoon with the same overdone, recycled plot that has been used to the point of becoming staler than expired bread. I can tell you how it goes: A beautiful girl is isekai'd to another world that she read about in a book or experienced in an otome game, whereupon she will meet an amazingly handsome guy who she'll predictably fall in love with, because that is her only purpose in life. They will live a carefree, aimless life together, barely experiencing any sort of obstacle which will actually challenge them, because of either the heroine's or the love interest's OP-as-hell plot armor. After the author makes enough money and finally gets tired of writing the same uneventful crap over and over again, the fortunate couple will live happily ever after. The end.

At first, I thought this might be different than all those cookie-cutter formulaic webtoons out there, since when Ran was introduced, she was quite adept and immediately took charge of the hectic household of Lachia that had no leader after the death of her stepfather. Even though she didn't possess the Lachia bloodline, she was able to control the blue flame of the household because she knew the secret passcode. She had created this world that she's currently in, back when she was a young girl. That was refreshing to see, considering that the isekai'd heroine usually just plays along with the story that they remembered unfolding in their past life. It's a passive position to interact with someone else's characters, because they're just like real people who you don't truly know their innermost thoughts and motivations, outside of the prior knowledge of how they moved in a set story. Of course, everything changes once non-NPC or extra characters such as isekai'd persons come into the mix, throwing the whole plot out the window, simply due to the whole host of new actions taken by someone who previously didn't exist or act that way before. It seems that everyone who has ever isekai'd into a new world doesn't understand the concept of the Butterfly Effect, because the most overused line I've read in this genre is "OMG, why is this happening? It/he/she/whatever didn't do this in the game/book before?!!!" or something to that effect. These god-damned dunces.

However, Ran is different. She's the creator of these characters, so she knows everything about them, how they act, how they think, what makes them tick. Creating characters is like creating a baby, and raising them up to be proper life-like people that move realistically with each word or picture. She understands them on a whole new level just by the virtue of the fact that she was the one who brought them into existence, and that gives her far more power than your regular old isekai'd protagonist who's just recalling the script of something they've read or played only once. Her biggest fear is being killed by her stepbrother, the dashing love interest of this story, Yus. Some people may take issue with them being family members, so they shouldn't be in a romantic relationship with each other, but remember, they don't share any blood between them, so they're basically strangers if you consider only the DNA aspect. That's completely fine in my book.

All's well as Ran smoothly leads the Lachia household back from the brink of collapse, managing to save it from bankruptcy by finding a new way to amass power and wealth. She taps into the ice crystal mines that are a prominent part of the Lachia territory, knowing that these high quality crystals can be used for mana stone creation, which will further help in magic tool production. With Ran being such an efficient leader, it would seem to others that she won't be backing down from this powerful seat as the head of a renewed Lachia when it's time for Yus to take over after his coming-of-age ceremony as promised. Will Yus become impatient, and kill her before she can gather more supporters to retain her position? Will he trust her word, and have a seamless, bloodless transition into his new role when the time comes, despite everyone else's expectations?

At least, that's the general gist of what the author had wanted to create, which is the tight tension between Ran and Yus, two equally qualified candidates for the single seat of the head of Lachia. We have Ran on this side, having already proven that she can make Lachia succeed, despite not actually being from that bloodline. Although she had the power to purposefully wreck the duchy to complete ruins and return it to Yus as an unrecoverable pile of trash, she didn't. Then we have Yus on the other side, the rightful heir of Lachia, who has the genetics and superior education to back up his claim for the coveted position. Except the problem is, there is no fight happening here. There is absolutely no reason for the two of them to be antagonistic to each other, since the current Ran didn't abuse Yus like the fictional version, so they get along well enough. They don't quarrel and they work on problems that concern their duchy together, and Ran often seeks Yus for his advice or for discussions about her plans for the future. All that set up for an intriguing long-running conflict that could drive the first half of the story was ruined, just like that. Is it so wrong to want to see people hate each other at first, then become friends, and then lovers? I feel that emulates real life more closely than say, meeting someone, falling in love, and getting happily married, which is what 99% of these shoujo webtoons opt for.

Here we have this webtoon, which wants us to believe that Yus is a looming threat to Ran's life, despite him having saved her countless times, and constantly supporting her from the shadows. If you want to build up suspense in a story, to make readers doubt whether a character is trustworthy or not, you shouldn't reveal your hand so quickly. Even the always-wary Ran is very comfortable around her step-brother, despite him often cautioning her that she shouldn't trust him so much. These mixed messages are so infuriating to read, because honestly, it's a waste of panels, with all this back-and-forth. We know that Yus is a good character, because Ran knows that he is, having created him. We know Yus has zero reason to kill Ran. She was not mean to him, and did not torment him like the original Ran did. Even if it was over the seat of the head of Lachia, he's not hostile enough towards her to want to attempt a violent coup. Also, he could have done so already if he wanted to, because it's been shown that he has great militaristic talents, easily defeating the baron who waged war on Lachia while Ran was away. So we know for a fact that he's capable of protecting the duchy on his own, without any input from Ran, which also means he can take over from her at any time, but he chooses not to. In every instance where the two are together, he's always been protective and loving of her, so constantly adding the ominous out-of-place warnings about his own character is like hitting someone with a paper bag, it's just a weak effort to place a seed of doubt that can't possibly be planted in this solid terrain of the wonderful Yus.

That brings me to the very problematic character that IS Yus. Why do people who draw shoujo media think stoic blank-faced men are attractive? They're certainly less than desirable in real life. I cannot imagine having to deal with someone who doesn't change their expression at all, where I have to constantly be guessing what they're feeling internally. Maybe they think it's cool to have characters that look completely dead on the exterior. Maybe they're lazy and don't feel like drawing the eyebrows and mouths differently in every panel. Anyway, Yus is yet another of those zombie handsome men who look like they've gotten Botox on their whole entire face. He almost always has a neutral expression throughout the story, barely changing at all, and even his emotions are rather muted. If the author was going for a cool ikemen character for him, they've totally failed. He's like a flat pancake to me, utterly flavorless and boring. I imagine that when he speaks, he's completely monotone without any inflections. He's just a horrible shadow acting as a leading man, without any particular traits that make him stand out. He's also incredibly passive, only acting when necessary, like if Ran is in danger. Mostly, he stands in the sidelines, letting her do as she pleases. He poses no sort of actual threat to her, or to most people in general. That's why it's bogus to think he's some overarching villain that secretly wants her dead, because he hasn't shown even a little bit of that. Sure, it could be a shocking unexpected twist if that were the case, but I think it's pretty safe to assume it's not going down that route, because we can't forget that he's the main love interest for Ran. And we absolutely can't have evil people be the protagonist's lover. Duh!

And then there's Ran. Ah, Ran, you were so capable, and then you were yet just another female protagonist that was only acting as if she were intelligent, but was limited by the author's own capabilities. I'm not saying that Ran is dumb, but she's played up to be smarter than she really is. At least, we don't have characters going "Ran is soooooooo smart!" in every chapter to remind us about how supposedly gifted Ran is, so that's a little more tolerable to me. However, all these brilliant ideas Ran comes up with are not what I would consider to be true smarts nor wisdom, because they're devoid of any strategy. Do you know why people believe that Light and L from "Death Note" are smart? It's because they're bitter archrivals, and their constant attempts to outsmart each other, which involve very convoluted schemes that require both lots of resources and manipulatable people, make them seem like they're chess grandmasters. Ran is not that kind of smart. She is just pulling random shit from thin air and it's presented to us as "Wow, amazing!", but if you think about it, it requires very little mental or physical effort on her part. Ran shows nearly zero ability to maneuver herself in social situations, despite the author trying to lead us to think otherwise. If you look at her triumphant interactions under a magnifying glass, she's always been on top of the discussions only because of her OP heroine armor where she has the magic rocks and thingamabobs that everyone wants. It's not because she outmatched them with her charisma, or with her way with words, or with clever bargaining. To make someone seem more capable, it's necessary for them to have a nearly as competent counterpart so they can duke it out together. If it's just a one-sided affair, it just makes the character the only able person in a sea of nincompoops, and that's what Ran is.

Let me simplify this. This is Ran, whenever she's faced with a dilemma.
Ran: I have many nice shiny things for you, if you agree to do this for me.
Other Party: Yes, of course. Anything for those cool products of yours!
Ran: Heehee. Yay, another successful transaction. Time to tell Yus~
You see? She doesn't have any issues getting what she wants, because she has the upper hand here. The other person doesn't even put up a fight! It's only when the the outcome cannot be determined, which makes a parley exciting. When the protagonist comes out victorious after a heated battle of wits and tempers, we feel equally as happy as they do, because we're rooting for them to win. With Ran, it's just total bleh, because she only goes into negotiations when she's sure she will get something out of it. You might as well skip the entire conversation all together, and tell us she secured the deal, brought honor to Lachia yet again, etc.

It doesn't make Ran look intelligent, because her solutions are always material objects that she knows people desire, and she just so happens to have them because Lachia is full of these things. What would really cement her as a clever female protagonist is if she used her many precious mineral deposits combined with her knowledge of how these characters act to give her an advantage that helps her out of troublesome situations. I'm not talking about the near-bankruptcy of Lachia, since that's been over and done with a long time ago. She could have pulled something off to deal with the lecherous Crown Prince, which is her current most pressing matter. Like, for example, using the mana crystals to win over the elves, which causes the dwarves to turn against the humans, and that will send the Crown Prince off to war, and he gets killed, bye bye. Done and done, problem solved. That's using both material resources and manipulation of other people to get what you want, instead of waiting for Prince Charming, AKA Yus, to save the day, which I'm predicting is going to happen. For someone who's painted to be so self-sufficient, Ran is utterly useless when dealing with villains of the opposite sex...like when her admirer drugged her and nearly raped her, but Yus swooped in to save the little damsel in distress. So basically, Ran's going to be the active dominant leader until she's targeted by a bad man, in which Yus will finally snap out of his passivity to act as her gallant hero. Sigh.

Now, let's talk about the lore. Oh boy, when Ran went on and on about all sorts of crap regarding Lachia and its world, my mind was fried. She supposedly wrote this novel when she was ten years old (or thereabouts), and I can't believe she thought of all this stuff up when she was so young. Except she didn't. On a chapter which resembled an acid-trip, she dreams about a bunch of animal spirits who tell her she merely channeled a world that already existed, and these characters are real people who aren't her creations. Uhm, I think I heard my expectations deflating. What the heck? You made the most unique part about Ran not real? What's wrong with you, author?! It's sometimes hard to pinpoint when a story starts to decline, but for this webtoon, it's abundantly clear that this crazy April Fools-seeming chapter was the clincher. You gave her incredible power, the power of a creator, then took it all away from her, and for what? I really don't know. So now Ran is just your run-of-the-mill isekai'd heroine who is moving along with a scripted plot that is not entirely in her control, and she's going to be going "Durrrr...why isn't the story/character doing what it's supposed to do?" like all the others. Or, "Wow, I never knew about this character/thing!" which just makes her look stupid, especially with the Viridescent Shadows, which are a group of professional spies/bodyguards that only Yus knows about and can command. If she wrote the novel, she should at least know that Yus has access to this convenient source of intel, because what would he have been doing in the original novel otherwise? Did he investigate everything personally, or what? Seriously, it makes no sense. Nearly every chapter has some info-dump about the world that she DIDN'T make up, and I don't see why I should care at this point. The webtoon just tries so hard to make you impressed with the details of everything to distract you from realizing that nothing is actually happening in the story. There's no progress with Ran and Yus, because they're both idiots. There's no villain, besides the Crown Prince, who we know is going to get his comeuppance via Yus, and not Ran. There's no point to this story, because there's no conflict to solve nor a goal to strive towards to. This webtoon could just have been ten chapters long, and you'd not have missed anything. And that's a sign of bad writing.

In terms of the artwork, it's not bad, but it's very lackluster in tone and variety. Only Ran is drawn with care, and she gets many outfit changes throughout to highlight her importance of being the protagonist of this story. Sometimes she's drawn so beautifully, she looks completely out of place with the other characters that are in adjacent panels. Yus and other male characters are drawn similarly, with not much thought put into distinguishing character designs. Panelling is simple and easy to follow, but it's all a waste if you ask me, because nothing much is happening from chapter to chapter. And for something that is always touting about the viridescence of itself, there's not that much green used in the background... because Lachia is a winter country, like Russia or Greenland. Is that the irony of it?

Long story short, "The Viridescent Crown" is a webtoon where there is no movement in story, and doesn't know what it wants to be, or what to do with itself. It seems like it's trying to differentiate itself from other shoujo webtoons, by pacing itself slowly on the romance, but you know it's bound to happen. Why? Because Ran is consistently praising Yus for being handsome, and no girl calls a guy handsome for no reason. It's a flag that she likes him romantically, even if she's not admitting it right now. If she liked him like a brother, she'd praise him in a whole different way, which is not going to be something as superficial as his looks. Come on, you lived with him for more than 15 years and you can't find a single thing to compliment him on? Then we can't either. Why do we like him again? Oh right, he's a emotionless statue. Cool.

Overall Breakdown:
Characters: 3/10
Story: 2/10
Art: 7/10
Lore/Worldbuilding: 4/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
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