A Wolf Rescues a “Cursed” White Deer That He Can’t Be With
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series The Wolf's Fragrant Beauty. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to confinement, dehumanization, arranged and forced marriage, memory loss, body commentary, social gap, power imbalance, mentions of religion, prejudice, lookism, implied abuse, blood, violence, superstition, self-deprecation, gossiping, mentions of homomisia, being orphaned, child labor, experience gap, child abandonment, bullying, military, war, imprisonment, exile, pregnancy, mentions of suicide, cheating, faking death, implications of sexual assault or rape, disordered eating, and classism, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
This is the sequel to The Wolf Howls for Love. While it is its own self-contained narrative, they do share history and lore. It is advised that you read The Wolf Howls for Love first before reading this title.
White deer are born and revered as something akin to gods. They are meant to marry only royalty, to help keep up the origin story based on their ancestors: that a white deer and a wolf fell in love, and their descendants eventually became human. However, Ylwess is sent out on a mission to find a white deer, rumored to have been hidden away because he was born with a birthmark, a representation of a curse, which the villages around him feel has caused all of the death and disease since his birth. Ylwess finds the white deer locked away in the dark. He is thin, dirty, and hasn’t even been taught how to speak.
He is more animal than human.
Ylwess coaxes the white deer out and inadvertently forms a connection with him, making them near-inseparable. Unfortunately, the white deer has been known only as Nergui, which means “nameless.” So, Ylwess gives him a name: Alta, meaning gold, like his eyes. As they travel back to the capital, Alta and Ylwess grow closer and closer, even to the point where Ylwess is invited to the palace to serve as a companion as he is educated in the ways of the world. But Alta’s and Ylwess’s feelings for each other grow beyond friendship.
They can never act on these feelings, though, as white deer must only marry royalty, of which Ylwess is not.
Review:
If you agreed with me that the art in the prequel to this title, The Wolf Howls for Love, was rough, you will probably be pleasantly surprised by the art in this. It isn’t perfect by any means, but this is the first step toward a much more palatable style from this artist, and I love to see it. It still suffers from the weird sloping faces when they are at an angle (and there is even an example of this on the cover), but it is much nicer overall, which is a win. If you need perfect art, though, you are going to be disappointed. But this artist just keeps getting better, so I encourage you to give it a try to see their journey.
Where the real growth is is in the story. The longer medium is definitely what this creator needed. With three volumes, it has plenty of time to not only establish the relationship between our main characters but also to establish them as individuals, which I think we often miss in many shorter BL titles. I think a lot of this is thanks to the story’s foundation: Alta has to learn to be human, so he isn’t as bound by the usual social expectations others might be. He’s much more honest and open about his likes and dislikes, and much of Ylwess’s character is learned through his interactions with Alta versus others. There is a clear distinction between who he is with Alta and who he is with other characters, including his close friends, and this not only highlights how drawn he is to Alta but also how detached he is from others. This is where the connection he feels for Alta comes from. Alta was forcibly removed from other humans, based on something he had no control over, and Ylwess, orphaned, was also perceived as an “other.” Sure, Alta is a white deer, and wolves are naturally drawn to white deer, but their connection comes from a much deeper understanding.
I will say, there are some aspects to the story that aren’t my favorite things in the world, but I think they work for the story being told. Alta, due to his upbringing, comes off as very childlike. Since he suffered from malnutrition, he appears much younger than he probably is, too. I would say he is shota-like, but it is on that line. Thankfully, though, we do experience a time skip, and he does look much older, which is great. However, this time skip is followed by a reveal that Ylwess has lost his memory of Alta after an accident. Memory loss arcs can work really well, or they can be irritating and tragic just for the sake of padding out stories. Thankfully, this works for the story, as it leans more into the fated-mate trope of this world. Even having lost his memory, Ylwess is still hopelessly devoted to Alta, and Alta’s prince mate has no interest in Alta whatsoever. So, while the rules of mates and fate aren’t any more explained than they were in the previous title, this does make an effort to distinguish superficial attraction between wolves and white deer to a more intense attraction between mates.
However, while this does show significant growth from the creator, there are some lingering quality issues in the edit from the first title. While there aren’t as many moments where our white deer is misgendered, there does seem to be some hesitancy to actually refer to him as “he.” “Them” is used frequently, which is fine, but after seeing a male-identifying character being referred to as “she,” due to their feminine name in the description of the previous title, the “them”s felt less like accurate usages of the pronoun, and more like whoever was translating or editing this title just wasn’t totally sure. Maybe the genders are more ambiguous than I realize, and it was intentional, but with the history of this series, I’m not so sure. Everything I’ve found about this series suggests that all male-presenting and male-identifying characters should be referred to as such (unless otherwise specified, which we’ll talk about in a future review), so I suspect this is just a mistake and confusion on the editor’s part.
Results:
This was lovely. I am not going to say it was a masterpiece or even a favorite of mine, but compared to the previous title in this series, it was a breath of fresh air. It takes the higher fantasy concepts brought up in the short stories and expands on them, which I desperately wanted. But it isn’t all worldbuilding. We get a bittersweet romance between star-crossed lovers, formed by two individuals who were persecuted by the world for being outside of what they perceive as normal. It isn’t a unique storyline, but it is given a distinctive tone in this world of fate, destiny, and tradition, which I really enjoyed. I highly recommend this one.
Have you read The Wolf's Fragrant Beauty? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
