Rating - ⭐⭐⭐1/2
"To grant the last wish of his mother, Romiard left for the Larmanilla’s Ice Castle, where an ice magician, who’s notorious for his beauty and cruelness, lives. Taken by a bear with snowy white fur, he reached the Larmanilla’s Ice Castle, but… The ruthless wizard orders Romiard to make a Magic Soup out of the blue! Succeeding in winning the heart of the magician with his soup, Romiard happens to sign an employment contract as a castle’s chef with the Larmanilla’s Ice Castle."
Magic Soup is a fantasy BL manhwa by Kimpeacock and Tropicalarmpit. You can read it here on Tappytoon. Note that only the first five episodes are free to read.
When I think about this story, my first thought is that if you are someone who likes Disney and fairy tales, odds are you are going to like this as well.
Now, let's get into the details.
ART
The colour pallet used I found to be very beautiful with its pale pastel purple tones. The format was more or less pretty standard, but I did like how it deviated at times. For example, there was a moment with no panels and just characters on a blank space which worked very well considering the snowy setting. One thing that was a bit off was the quality of the images, more so towards the beginning. The images were a bit grainy, but they became more HD later on.
PLOT
The set-up for the story is simple but rather different at the same time. Our main character Romiard goes on the journey as the last bequest of his mother, to find Larmanilla's Ice Castle. Once he arrives, he is immediately coerced into becoming the palace chef for 5 years, and that is the core of the story, food. Of course, naturally, as you go on the plot becomes more complex and a lot is revealed about the characters.
I thought that the build-up of the plot was done pretty well, and the plot points were interesting to read about. As you can see by my rating, however, some things just didn't work for me. For one, while the concept was interesting and complex enough, not too much really happens here. Like a Disney movie or fairy tale, it focuses a lot on storytelling. If you wanted to read this looking for a good romance, you might be disappointed as there was not much actual romance going on. You get pretty much all of the romance in the side stories at the very end.
Some parts that were repetitive as they re-told the same thing just from a different perspective, which wasn't needed. One reason is one I can't really go into because of spoilers, but it does a trope that I just don't like to read about.
CHARACTERS
Our main characters are Romiard, the chef, and Larmanilla, the winter magician. Romiard is a bit of a cinnamon role character, you just want the best for him. Larmanilla on the other hand is...crafty to say the least. He doesn't hesitate to lie and deceive in order to get what he wants. Their relationship is the reason why I couldn't rate this story any higher than a 3.5 because their connection was founded on deceit.
What really adds to the Disney vibes is the fact that there are animal side characters. Little snowflake puffballs that turn into arctic foxes, led by the butler Arman.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
As I said, if you are looking with something with Disney vibes, then this might work for you. As long as you can handle the sketchy things that Larmanilla does.
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