The Naked Truth
Creative Staff
Story: Maybe
Art: Maybe
Translation: Andrew Cunningham
What they say
After his unsuccessful battle against the Abyss King, Satou heads to the land of the elves. There, he’s shocked to learn how the legend of the Ring King came to be, as well as what sort of man the previous Ring King was. But once the truth behind the rings is revealed, Satou and his five brides find themselves locked in a room together—and to escape, he’ll have to deepen his bond with each of them…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Back in volume 6, Satou fought against the Abyss King and lost horribly. Defeated and nearly left for dead, he was rescued by his brides and Princess Krystal’s grandpa. Later on, they went to meet with Krystal’s little sister, whom the princess has not seen for many years. Now, in volume 7, Satou, his brides, Alabaster, and Morion (Krystal’s little sister) are traveling to the land of the elves, Romca, where they hope to learn more about the Abyss King. According to Nephrites, Romca is home to a vast library that contains all the knowledge of the elves, meaning there may be something about the Abyss King. If they can find the Abyss King’s weakness, they might be able to defeat him.
When they arrive at Romca, they meet with Nephrite’s creepy older brother. I suppose it was nice to see the man hasn’t changed his creeper attitude. He still has that disgusting sister complex, which is now less dark and ominous and more played for laughs. While I didn’t find his sister complex funny, I know some people who might, and I’ve nothing against it being used for humor. In either event, the person who they need to get permission from to visit the library is not her brother but the elder.
There are a lot of revelations in this volume. After they get the elder’s permission to enter the library, she leads them deep into the underground library’s depths, to a door that has been sealed for many centuries. Past the door is a hand—the hand belonging to the previous Ring King.
I think what I found the most interesting about this volume was when we learned about the previous Ring King. The elder tells Satou and his brides about how the Ring King had appeared before their leaders when the various races were on the verge of destruction, showed off his incredible power and told the world leaders to hand over their daughters so he could wed them. He informed them that the ring he possessed needed the power of princesses. The kings of every country were left with no choice but to do what he asked for. After he wed the princesses, the Ring King began fighting against the Abyss King and his Abyssmal forces, securing victory after victory. However, the war continued no matter how many victories he achieved. The stress soon became too much and the Ring King became an animal who used and abused the princesses to satiate his lust. In the end, his lust became too much for the princesses to handle, and they betrayed him. The hand is all that remained of the Ring King after their betrayal.
We also learn the elder was the original Ring Princess for the ring of wind.
Learning about the past Ring King is interesting because it presents a contrast to Satou, the current Ring King. The past Ring King became stressed by the wary and gave in to his lust, turning into an animal that was eventually betrayed because the Ring Princesses couldn’t take it. Satou, by contrast, has remained steadfastly loyal to Krystal. Even with all the women clamoring around him, wanting his seed, he has not given in to any of them—not even Krystal. Actually, if there’s one thing I don’t like about this series, it is how even after all this time, he and Krystal still haven’t done the deed. Some of it I get, like how Satou is worried about getting her pregnant, but he could always just cum outside of her and pregnancy wouldn’t be a problem.
In either event, while learning about the past presented the juxtaposition between the previous Ring King and Satou, it also presents another mystery. The first Ring King was a farmer who found the first ring in a field. That was what he told the Ring Princesses at one point. Now I have to wonder: What are the rings? Why do they have such power? Who made them and for what purpose? I’m wondering if the mystery will ever be solved, or if the author will leave this completely open so people can come up with their own ideas.
After learning about the previous Ring King, Satou, and his brides are locked inside of the library alongside Morion. The elder tells them they cannot leave until they deepen their bonds—in other words until they have sex. Of course, no sex happens. This series has an odd habit of forcing Satou into situations where any normal man would have had sex… and then pulling back like someone from the cock block police showed up to slap a chastity belt on you. What does happen is Satou ends up talking with all his brides and… that’s it. I actually found it kind of annoying that very little happens between him and his brides. The only person among his brides who seems to make progress in this volume is actually Nephrites.
I feel like Nephrites is growing a lot. When she was first introduced, the woman was a huge shut-in who spent all her time in her room reading. In this volume, Nephrites takes the lead when she and Satou are alone to kiss him, and I think they might have done something more, though the manga doesn’t show if anything else happened. No one else really makes any progress, and the moment between Satou and Krystal is ruined because the elder decided to infuse the room with an aphrodisiac. It honestly upsets me a little. Morion discovered a contraceptive seal that would prevent Krystal from getting pregnant, but the entire plot was ruined because of the elder, who stupidly made the situation worse for the sake of comedy I guess. I’m not sure it’s funny anymore since similar situations have happened every time you think Satou and Krystal are going to take that last step.
In Summary
While Tale of Wedding Rings Volume 7 has a lot of interesting revelations, new information, and new mysteries, it also has quite a few bumps that kept it from being enjoyable. I’m beginning to think MAYBE is better at creating ideas when romance isn’t involved. Whenever the story is progressing, I always find myself interested, but my interest wanes whenever he tries to write romance. A lot of the romantic elements feel very stale because the progress either doesn’t move at all or moves at a snail’s pace. That said, the story is still interesting, and I am looking forward to seeing if Satou and his brides—can they even be called brides when they haven’t done anything together?—will defeat the Abyss King.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: OT
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: August 27, 2019
MSRP: $15.00
