This intrepid comics correspondent has been trying to fill the void left by Midnight Secretary (which I read thanks to this very site!) for lo these many years. I am sorry to report that Bride of the Water God does not fill that void. How hard is it to find a romance comic with beautiful art, a winning heroine, both humor and high-stakes over-the-top soap-style drama, and a surly supernatural hero with a heart of gold!? (INCREDIBLY HARD, EVERYONE. IT’S INCREDIBLY HARD.)

I was drawn to Bride of the Water God, a popular Korean manhwa series, by the gorgeous art and the premise. In the first pages of Volume 1, Soah is drowned in a ritual sacrifice as the “bride of the water god” to end a drought. Instead of dying, she is transported to the water god’s magical realm. Dark and mystical-sounding, right?

Well, while volume 1 was promising, I found that the following 3 volumes did not quite live up to that promise. After that point I decided to stop reading, so this review is based on the first 4 volumes (there are 24 volumes total in the series, and 17 have been translated into English by Dark Horse). It’s definitely possible that the series has an upward trajectory, but I don’t have the patience right now to further invest in the series. Just wanted to get that disclaimer out of the way before I shared my thoughts on the first four volumes!

First, I have to say that the art is the best thing about Bride of the Water God. It’s some of the most beautiful illustration work I have ever seen. The style is very much in the register of over-the-top fantasy. So the anatomy doesn’t always quite make sense and everyone is perpetually enveloped in what seems like yards of billowy, gracefully wrinkled fabric, but it works. The effect is one of slightly strange, sumptuous beauty in keeping with the mystical beings and magical setting. If I were grading on the art alone, it would be an A+ for sure, and while I may or may not be continuing with the series in the future, I will definitely be paging through the books to admire the art again. There are a few pages done in full color at the beginning of every volume which are a particular treat.

Except for the art (which I adored), I didn’t hate this series, and I didn’t love it. As I said above, the first volume set up a lot of intriguing elements as Soah becomes plunged (pun intended) into the water god’s realm. There are hints of a mystery surrounding the fate of the water god Haebak’s previous brides and possible discontent amongst the gods. Also, due to a curse (I think it’s a curse? I was not 100% clear on the why), the water god is a petulant child during the day and a very handsome but also somewhat petulant man at night. This is not a spoiler, as it is obvious to the reader pretty soon after we are introduced to Haebak. The daytime-to-nighttime transformation is a classic fairy tale trope that can be used to set up a very successful romance.

However, while the reader (and all of the rest of the gods) knows the truth about Haebak, Soah is kept in the dark about his daily transformation. She knows the child during the day is Haebak, but is not sure if the man she encounters around the palace at night is the same person. So, much of the plot of volumes two through four centers around Soah attempting to deduce once and for all if the daytime child and nighttime hunk (who goes by Mui) are the same person. She has a hard time figuring this out because pretty much every single person in the realm of the gods has some kind of secret agenda that causes them to lie to and/or otherwise bamboozle her. Unfortunately, because the reader knows the truth, this is an incredibly tedious plotline. And at the end of volume four, she still doesn’t know Haebak and Mui are one and the same!

Even though the plot structure conspired to make me feel very annoyed with Soah for not being able to figure out the truth, I thought she was a decent heroine. She’s brave, resilient, and resourceful. Her dad sells her to human traffickers to cover his debts…twice…and not only does she maintain a fierce sense of independence, she maintains her kindness. She tries to hatch plots to figure out what is going on in the realm of the gods and if Haebak and his hunk alter-ego Mui are the same guy. She’s just almost completely outmatched by the capricious, ruthless, powerful gods.

As to the capriciousness of the gods, I couldn’t really figure out the motivations of any of the other major characters, even when they were explained in the text. For example, without giving any particular spoilers, we are told the goddess Murah takes certain actions because she is in love with Haebak and wants him for herself, but those actions only seem to generally cause chaos and trouble for Haebak and do not seem like they have any chance of advancing her suit. Also, Haebak’s mother seems to alternately do things because she wants to help him and because she wants to hurt him.

The gods and goddesses may be inscrutable by design because they are ageless superbeings, but the seeming randomness of their actions made it hard to care about pretty much anyone but Soah (and maybe Haebak/Mui, who seems to have more human feeling than the rest of the residents of his realm). This is a problem in the text because there’s clearly a larger mystery afoot surrounding the death of Haebak’s first human bride, Nakbin, that implicates the other gods, but since I didn’t care particularly about any of them it was hard to stay invested. So there is definitely drama afoot in this manga but it’s not the kind of soapy fun drama I really enjoy.

In the same vein, it also seems like there may be a developing love triangle in these volumes, but the third prong of the love triangle, a hot blond god named Huye, is completely opaque as a character. Is he loyal to Haebak? Is he evil? Is he in love with Soah? Does he have a personality other than standing around being hot? ALL OF THESE THINGS ARE UNCLEAR.

The romance between Soah and Mui was uneven for me. There were some moments that tugged at my heartstrings (and my…loinstrings?) but also some elements that were cringe-inducing. On the positive side, there’s an interlude of about a volume where Soah is returned to the human world with no memory of her time in the realm of the gods. Haebak’s (very scary) mother makes a (also scary) bet with him that he can only win if Soah remembers his name. These chapters are incredibly poignant and romantic. References to the folktale of Jingnyeo the weaver and Gyeonu the herder, separated lovers who can only meet one night a year, are woven into the narrative in a way that’s very artful. There are also some legitimately steamy moments throughout the initial volumes, like when Soah has to administer medicine to an unconscious Mui using her mouth (listen, I know it sounds weird, and it is weird, but it’s also hot??).

There were also some off-putting parts. Bride of the Water God leans too hard into the “he has to be mean to her to PROTECT HER” trope. I can be convinced to accept almost any trope if the execution is there, but in this case it mostly made me confused. I guess I can get behind the premise that the other gods can’t know Mui (aka Adult Sexy Haebak) has feelings for Soah or they will use her against him, but this doesn’t really explain why he has to be mean to her face so much when no one else is around…especially because she doesn’t know his true identity?

I know I name-checked Midnight Secretary, and in that story, Kyouhei is kind of an asshole, but I still understood why the heroine was interested in him. With Bride of the Water God, the hero is such a jerkwad all the time that at some points in the text I wondered why Soah likes him. At one point she basically says that even though he says mean things to her, he does nice things for her, and I guess this is kinda (and definitely only kinda) true, but still very troubling?? Since she is mostly trapped in the realm of the gods with no firm allies this reads a little bit Stockholm-Syndrome-y. Overall the romance both moved me and irritated me by turns.

Among the five elements I listed in the introduction, Bride of the Water God has the beautiful art and winning heroine I was looking for, but falls short on the others–there’s not much humor, the drama is too opaque to be soapy, and while there’s definitely a surly supernatural hero, I’m not so sure about the heart of gold part. However, criticisms aside, I don’t want it to seem like I didn’t enjoy this manhwa series at all. Even when I was confused by who wanted what and why, I was curious about what would happen next, and I did feel invested in Soah as a character. There were moments of genuine greatness in the visual storytelling. I think my hopes may have just been too high. (Where are you, spiritual successor in my heart to Midnight Secretary??? Is the answer Webtoons?) While I’m a little disappointed that the narrative didn’t wow me like I was hoping, I may still return to Bride of the Water God later.