Have you ever gone into something that didn't match your expectations? If you say yes, then it looks like you are about to join my feelings today, I cover Ecstasy Hearts by SilentMaru.
Summary
Anya Shimizu may not be royalty, but she's about as close to it as you can get. As the eldest daughter of the two of Tennis's top players, she has everything she could ever want. Except for her parent's approval to continue the family business, Anya strives to accept, especially when she finds out about her father's apprentice Axel. The two form a brutal rivalry that may evolve further as they take the world stage.
Characters
Anya: our main heroine Anya mostly takes after her mother. She can be tempestuously emotional, fiercely intelligent, and keenly stubborn. However, she is still very young and naive about the world, leaving to Anya often being petty, proud, and easily embarrassed when dealing with awkward people.
Axel: Our resident bad boi, Axel, is Nathan Greene's apprentice. Suffering a traumatic incident at such a young age gave Axel a dark side that shows through his tennis. While on the surface, Axel is childish, flirty, prideful, and impish. Axel's dark side, however, ramps up these factors with a crueler and more sadistic edge.
Ayane: Anya's mother and the former tennis queen, Ayane is a boss in every word. She is prideful, controlling, and often cold to her rivals and husband. Still, she is immensely supportive of her children, protecting them dearly.
Nathan Greene: Ayane's other half, Nathan is fun-loving, goofy, calm, and greatly empathic. Nathan is the main caretaker of Axel and Anya's younger siblings. Through his many goofs and flirtations, though, lies the heart of a deeply knid and responsible man.
Overview
Before we get into this, I need to come clean: making spotlights can be hard for me. Beyond simply reading through what could be dozens of chapters, taking mental notes, trying to figure out a way not to repeat synonyms of "it good," and finding the same webcomic on a website without the daily pass. Every time I post here, I do it in an attempt to improve, even while knowing I've messed up.
When I made this series, I did so to shine a light on the series that I felt needed more appreciation. I wanted to give credit and show respect with understanding of the story to share with others. Yet, at the same time, when analyzing these stories, I also want to have my voice shine through.
It's also never my intent to come off as some grifter who only reads the most popular series haphazardly with a waiting thumbs up. On the other hand, I don't particularly strive to pick up an intentional bad read. That's just an excuse to vomit up negativity. These are borderline my already biased recommendations in which I encourage you to form your own opinion with sprinkles of critque. I should make all this clear before I go in.
Right off the bat, Ecstasy Hearts is one of the most stunning webtoons I've seen visually. Silent Maru's backgrounds are jaw-dropping, and the few symbolic images look pretty. This goes double for the character design with everything. These are the sexiest people I've seen since Unholy Blood (which is a problem for the mostly teenage cast when fanservice hits).
YOU ARE READING
Webtoon Spotlight
RandomJust a simple person is trying to shine a little light on the beautiful world of webtoon. With a splash of sarcasm, narration, and spitfire along the way. And who knows I might have other segments just for the hell of it.
