Rating - ⭐⭐⭐⭐
"The beautiful Athanasia was killed at the hands of her own biological father, Claude de Alger Obelia, the cold-blooded emperor! It's just a silly bedtime story... until one woman wakes up to suddenly find she's become that unfortunate princess! She needs a plan to survive her doomed fate, and time is running out.
Will she go with Plan A, live as quietly as possible without being noticed by the infamous emperor? Plan B, collect enough money to escape the palace? Or will she be stuck with plan C, sweet-talking her way into her father's good graces?!"
Who Made Me a Princess is a manhwa by Spoon that was adapted from an original novel by Plutus. Season 1 consists of chapters 1-46.
After finishing the absolute chaos that was Chainsaw Man, I needed a bit of a breather and all I had on my TBR were all darker manga. Luckily for me, here's hoping, I have been meaning to read this ever since the main story was completed.
This is a well-loved isekai/reincarnation manhwa, and when I initially started to research manhwas, this title appeared a lot. All I really knew about it though was that there is a good-looking dad, and a good-looking immortal guy and that was it. And while the story certainly delivered on those fronts, I did overall enjoy the first season, though it is not without some faults.
Also, as a quick side note, I am going to refer to Athanasia as Athy because it is a bit of a pain to type her full name every time I mention her.
Let's get into the details.
WRITING/ART
It is hard to complain about the art of a manhwa because, well, I am a sucker for full colour. The colours are a bit more on the muted side rather than sharp and clear, and it can be blurry around the edges, but it is still well drawn nonetheless.
One thing that is a bit distracting about the art style is the size of their foreheads. Their hair ends up covering it mostly, but there is a lot of space between the tops of their eyes and the top of their heads.
One of my favourite aspects of the art though is the outfits. Athy wears a different outfit every single chapter, and they are all unique and stunning. I also like the panels that are drawn simplistically to show the deadpan expressions. Deadpanning is my favourite kind of humour after all.
A lot of the panels reminded me of Spy x Family because Athy's reactions are very similar to Anya's when she hears someone's thoughts.
PLOT
This may be the first manhwa I have read in this genre, but I can tell that the story setup is pretty typical. The main character gets reincarnated as a character from a book who has a tragic life that was cut short. Suddenly thrust into a new world, Athy now has to become close with her dad in order to survive. It is a pretty simple plot that doesn't require much complexity to it because it mainly just ends up following Athy and her growing connection with Claude.
An issue I had with the story was that Athy's goal really gets drilled into your head. She constantly mentions how she needs to please her dad so he doesn't end up killing her, which was a bit annoying.
Also having Athy as the main character, who I will talk more about later on, kind of makes you view the story with tunnel vision. She is someone who only looks at things on the surface level, so there is a lot about the world and the people in it that doesn't end up being covered because she fails to see the complexities of it.
WORLD-BUILDING
Out of everything this series has to offer so far, I think that the world-building is its weakest. There is not a lot happening in terms of the magic system, and what magic there isn't really explained in depth. All we are really told is that magic comes in the form of mana and that it can allow you to do many things with it. Having an excess of it could end up harming you and can also result in the creation of a holy beast.
As for the actual world, that is not explained in detail either. I don't know if this is set in any specific time period or takes influence from any culture. I especially can't tell by the outfits either, as their styles seem to be from all over the place.
CHARACTERS
We've got a pretty small cast of characters we follow that are pretty decently fleshed out (aside from a lack of background information). Before I go into more detail, I wanted to mention that some of the names are rather difficult to pronounce. I spent a good amount of time calling Athanasia 'Anastasia', and I am not sure that I am pronouncing Ijekiel's name right either...
Athanasia is probably the character I like the least. I don't mind her most of the time, but for someone who is mentally supposed to be a grown woman, she is rather clueless and oftentimes has the temperament of a child. As the reader, you are able to grasp things a lot quicker than her, as she does not have the common sense to pick up things right in front of her. Her preservation skills also need some working on.
At this point in the story, she pretty much only has like three personality traits. She is a bit of an airhead which ends up getting her in trouble. She is very discontent with her situation regarding Claude. Finally, she mentally acts like a child throwing a tantrum even though she is, in fact, a grown woman. On top of that, she is very fake because she altered her personality in order for Claude to like her. Rather big time skips occur in this season, and she barely shows any growth in maturity.
Another issue that I have with Athanasia is that we don't get any backstory or context as to who she was before she was reincarnated. While on the one hand, I guess it does not matter that we don't get to know her initially as she is now living a different life. On the other hand, her personality and motivations are from her old self, so it would have been nice to get to know her a bit.
As for her relationships with the other characters, well, that is a bit tricky. Because she is in constant survival mode that leads to a fake personality, I don't feel like she has made any genuine connections with anyone, at least at this point in the story. Everything she does is to make a good impression, so really getting to know someone and letting them get to know her is kind of off the table.
Finally, before getting into the side characters, let's talk about romance. While not much in that department happens in this season, it is started to build up a bit in the background. This is something I am struggling with a bit due to the fact that well, technically speaking Athy is a grown woman in a child's body. This makes for a kind of weird age gap with her potential love interests that I just can't overcome.
Moving on to the side characters, let's start with Claude. I actually really like Claude because he is a character who is a lot more complex than he appears to be. That being said, we don't get to know much about his backstory aside from a few details that come later on in the season.
His progression as a character, while it might seem minor, is a lot more obvious and impactful compared to Athy. You can tell that he really starts to care for her from the way that he instinctually helps her and from something as simple as him widening his eyes.
As for Athy's potential love interests, we have Lucas and Ijekiel. I rather like them and they both have rather distinctive personalities. Lucas, on the one hand, does whatever he wants which I guess is fair because of who he is. Ijekiel, on the other hand, is more of a soft-spoken gentleman. I do wish that they had a more prevalent role in the story though aside from being love interests.
Also, I don't know if I missed it, but was Lucas in the original novel at all? Like was he present aside from being the magician of the tower, because his role in this is pretty big and changed a lot of things? I do hope that the next season dig deeper into their backstories.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Overall though I did enjoy the story because, while it may have not been coming from a genuine place, I did enjoy the progression of Athy and Claude's relationship. That being said though, this season ended on a cliffhanger that I did not like, so I am a bit worried about where Season 2 is going to go.
If you want to check out the story, you can find it on Tappytoon. Note that only the first three episodes can be read for free.
Now, I am going to get into some spoilery thoughts I had while reading. If you don't want to be spoiled, you can stop reading now.
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD - PROCEED WITH CAUTION
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I don't get how it took her that long to realize where she was.
You would think hearing the name Obelia Empire would be a dead giveaway
Let me guess, she managed to waltz her way straight to the Emperor's garden and is going to meet Clause before she is supposed to.
This is also right after she just said that she was going to avoid anything grand or fancy...but finds a big building and decides to go inside
How rude, Claude just casually walks around in outfits that show his chest.
I get that you are probably supposed to focus on the cruel, albeit good-looking, dad, but it is really hard to do so when Athy is over here with not one lick of common sense.
Felix is adorable and needs more screen time.
...Exactly what was your game plan when Claude woke up if you punched him in the face Athanasia?
Hold on a sec.
So Jennette is the ward of the Alpheus family, but she ends up engaged to the Ijekiel...who she grew up with...and therefore they are technically siblings...what?
And Lucas has finally appeared and...he is a bit sketchy.
Felix: Athy wants you to hold her
Claude: grabs her by the back of her dress and dangles her in the air
Athy: can't breathe
I think you should have a friend your own age... and that friend being Lucas happens to be both right and wrong as they are both older than they appear.
Lord have mercy Athy ain't the brightest crayon in the box.
It is plainly obvious that Lucas is insinuating that he is the magician of the tower, but it goes right over her head
Oh, Claude is pissed lol.
He doesn't want Athy to dance with Felix and Felix is just in the corner sweating it out
It's a Christmas miracle, Athy finally said something genuine!
Athy is dancing with Ijekiel and Claude is in the background just staring them down lol.
I am calling it right now, the dark-haired creepy guy is 100% going to be Claude's brother.
Felix is called the 'knight of crimson blood', what a plot twist.
The girls are talking about who the most handsome guys are and Lucas just waltz's in like 'excuse me, I think you will find that I am the most handsome.'
What is Lucas doing lol, he's having a staredown with a bird.
Athy finally asked a smart question.
What indeed did happen after the book ended?
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