The Fall 2023 Manga Guide

Kingdom of Gold, Kingdom of Water

What's It About? 

Once upon a time, two countries who shared a border wouldn't stop squabbling over petty issues. Their spats eventually escalated into war…over an incident involving dog poop. Finally, the gods declared that both nations had to call a truce. The most beautiful girl in the Gold Kingdom would marry the smartest man in the Water Kingdom, paving the way to a new era of peace! When Sarah, a princess from the Gold Kingdom, meets a charming man named Naranbayar from the Water Kingdom, they decide to do what it takes to stop more pointless conflict between their countries–by pretending to be in love. Will their plan work? And what if real romantic feelings blossom between them?

Kingdom of Gold, Kingdom of Water has a story and art by Nao Iwamoto. The English translation is by Alan Cheng and Rowena Chen, with lettering by Lys Blakeslee. Published by Seven Seas Entertainment (November 28, 2023).

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Diplomacy would be so much easier if politicians weren't involved. In this story's world, the Sultan of Kingdom A and the Shah of Kingdom B are both out to prove that they're cleverer than each other by circumventing a directive handed down by the gods after decades of squabbling: although Kingdom A is to send its most beautiful woman and Kingdom B is to send its wisest man, both rulers opt to send animals instead. It says a lot that neither of them is forward-thinking enough to do the right thing nor creative enough to come up with a unique solution. Princess Sarah and Naranbayar are the people forced to deal with their lieges' foolishness when they're each the recipient of an animal “spouse,” fortunately for this story, both of them are smart enough to figure out a way to make things work out.

That's in part due to providence. Sarah and her dog “husband” Luqman meet Naranbayar and his cat “wife” just across the border between the two kingdoms, and they take it upon themselves to help each other out, ignorant of the fact that they're the two people victimized by the kings' idiocy. Apart from being a relief to see intelligent people present in the story, it's also a lovely bit of divine intervention because it's very clear almost from the start that Sarah and Naranbayar are meant to be together. Both of them are more invested in peace and their peoples' well-being than their rulers, and even better, Sarah's many (many, many) older sisters are also working behind the scenes to change the plans their father makes. The Sultan is a more interesting character than the Shah because he's working with a substantial chip on his shoulder influencing his actions; the Shah is simply a hedonist making silly decisions based on his pleasure. This is evident in the states of both kingdoms, with Kingdom A being prosperous (if drought-stricken) and Kingdom B's people mostly living in poverty.

With this being only one volume, there isn't time to fully develop everything and everyone. We get to know Sarah the best, and her insecurities about her figure and weight are lightly but well-handled. There's still a good sense of history and the action at hand. If anything, I wish we'd gotten more about certified badass Lailala, a woman in a burqa who is so unbelievably awesome that she steals all of her scenes, mostly from Naranbayar. The art isn't fantastic, but it does do a beautiful job of scene setting. I love that the two kingdoms are referred to as “A” and “B” because that does a nice job of reminding us that the situation they find themselves in isn't fantasy – it's the same sort of silly power wrangling that could (and does) happen anywhere. This book is simply an excellent fantasy about politics and how rulers can be very dumb people at times, and it's worth picking up…especially for Lailala.