Review of The World is Still Beautiful

I'll admit, the anime did almost no justice for Livius & Nike's relationship as they are portrayed in the manga. I've read most of the manga and watched the whole anime. I do agree with reviews saying the anime adaptation was mediocre, but I'd like to review the manga instead. Still World is Beautiful has to be one of my favourite shoujo mangas. The author spares no detail with the art, you can really get blown away into their fantasy world. While Nike is pretty in the anime, her manga self has a whole different set of charm & beauty. Same with Livius, his character isdrawn in a way where you can really see he's lost & hurt, yet still has his distinctive charm. Now, I can't really say that I wished the animation looked exactly like the manga, as that would be hard, but in order to understand what I mean, you should pick up the manga.

I really enjoy the story. The anime only scratches the tip of the iceberg with their relationship & story. I felt the anime only covered the romance & wit, rushing their relationship. The story, while in some parts drags, is light & fun, different from the anime's portrayal(first 18 chapters).

I also wanted to address their age gap: many people think it's weird(rightly so), 12(this is cannon in the manga) & 16(unspecified) is quite a jump. However, I feel like it should also be more well known that large age gaps weren't exactly uncommon in the times it takes place.

The second would be Nike's name and how it's pronounced. I found it odd at first, I thought it would be like "Nye-kee"(like the shoe brand), but after studying the Japanese language, I realized its spelt ニケ（にけ）, which is pronounced as "nee-keh".

While many people have come to watch the anime first(vice versa for me), please don't let it discourage you from reading the author's original works.