I initially missed watching this series until a reactor on YouTube started talking about this one. After researching this series, I soon realized it was a Korean webtoon/manhwa. So here are my thoughts about it.

The Basics

This was originally a Korean web novel published on KakaoPage in South Korea. Later the webtoon was also released in KakaoPage. The English translation of the webtoon is available on Tappytoon and Lezhin. Lezhin is actually how I read this particular series. This series was literally the reason why I even knew Lezhin existed and started reading other comics on there. If you didn’t already read my reviews of both of those app, you can read them here:

A 12-episode anime series was released earlier this year and is available on Crunchyroll. There have been no announcements about whether or not they’re going to do a season 2.

The premise

This is a unique premise in that it is an isekai and time travel story. It is an isekai because the title character was originally a spoiled, hated villainess who is executed on the authority of her husband, Emperor Linden.

She gets reborn in South Korea (webtoon/light novel) and Japan (anime). In her new life, she’s born an orphan who has to work hard and becomes a world class surgeon. On her way to a consultation, the plane she’s on has a crash and she dies from her injuries.

She then wakes up and realizes she’s Elise again, but she’s a few years younger than when she was executed. This is her second chance at life! She also retains her medical knowledge from the other world along with her knowledge of future events in her life as Elise.

What will she do with this knowledge? Can she avert tragedy and save herself from a burning at the stake? You have to watch and read to find out!

General Thoughts

I have to confess there are things I liked and didn’t like about this series. I felt like there were some inconsistencies in how Elise’s world functioned. It feels like it’s a parallel world version of the Victorian era, yet there’s other aspects of the world that feel anachronistic for a version of that time period.

Also the development of her relationships with some characters feel too easy. She had a conflict with a character in the past and their conflict seemed to have been resolved too easily. I felt like some of that development wasn’t really done as well. Unfortunately I can’t get access to the novel, so I can’t be sure if this is an issue with the source material or it’s a adaptation issue.

Ultimately what kept me going with the series was I really like the relationship between Elise and Linden. Aside from her relationship with her family, that’s the other relationship I think that was pretty well done. Linden does have a healthy skepticism of Elise because of her past behavior. The way their relationship develops seems more plausible because we have dozens of chapters in the webtoon to make it happen.

Despite it’s flaws it would be good if they continued the anime with a season 2 because there’s some natural plot threads left dangling in the anime. And that’s because those threads are resolved later in the series. Overall, it’s really up to you whether you think it’s worth checking out. If you have Crunchyroll it doesn’t hurt watching the anime first. If you are actually intrigued, then search out the webtoon to read the rest. Especially in case it doesn’t continue with season 2.

Have you seen the anime? Have you read the webtoon or the light novel? If not would you? Leave a comment below!

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