Manga / Manhwa / Manhwa is a largely visual medium, so it follows that lovely art and designs go a long way towards giving a series popularity. I firmly maintain that Solo Leveling wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as it is without the slick art.
And the same goes for Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew, a romance series with a largely senseless plot that is all over the place, but with art that is so nice that fans are willing to forget everything and just revel in the art. I mean, look at the very first page:
Sasha-kun, so cuuuuute! So cute I almost forgot to include a summary of the series.
After being reborn as a stalker villainess destined to die for trying to kill Archduke Calix Elluiden’s lover, Charlize Lienta fled from the capital to stay away from the archduke at all costs. But her plan goes awry when she returns a year later and rescues a poor boy on the streets… because he turns out to be Sasha, Calix’s long-lost nephew! Given her infamous reputation as Calix’s stalker, will Charlize succeed in returning Sasha without raising the archduke’s suspicions?
…Of course she will. Okay, basically you should throw all logic out of the window and check your brain in at the door when you read Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew. In the first place, the timeline isn’t clear. At first she says the world she is in is from a novel where “Charlize” was executed as a villain. But then we get a flashback to her past life and she was a poor orphan in a medieval era who presumably never learned to read. So when and where did she read the novel?
And at what point did she become “Charlize”? At first it seems to be recent, but then she talks about being in the academy together with Callix. Has she been in the world for a while but unable to control her actions, or did she just reincarnate into Charlize’s body but somehow their memories have merged into one?
There’s a lot that suggests that Charlize is an unreliable narrator – for one thing, she says in chapter one the original Charlize was executed, but then she later remembers committing suicide. She claims that Charlize was an unwanted stalker who never spoke to Callix in the novel, but then remembers that they spoke once and original Charlize never forgot it. Plus in recent chapters, it seems original Charlize’s affections weren’t completely unwanted after all…?
Honestly, the thought that all this timey-wimey stuff will make sense one day (and the gorgeous art) is what encourages me to keep reading, because the rest of the story is all over the place and makes no sense. First Sasha is the legitimate prince and is supposed to take his place on the throne… but nothing happens and the usurper is still there, scheming against him (or actually doing nothing and the Empress does all the scheming). What’s the delay? Why a delay? First he’s confirmed to be the late Emperor’s son, then there’s an artifact that says otherwise, then no, actually the artifact was reacting to his divine power… it’s a huge mess.
Speaking of divine power and messes, there’s a divine beast that forms a contract with Sasha and supposed to protect him… then it suddenly loses all its powers off-screen and is reduced to a stone which is tossed in a lake and only shows up once to be a deus ex machina. What even is the point of its existence?
And speaking of more powers and messes, Charlize has the power to see flashes of the future when she looks into Callix’s eyes…? Or gets closer to him? She also experiences it with a side character, but it happens once and never again, another mystery. The plot is powered by these flashses, where Charlize sees something, works to prevent it, sees something else, etc. But the power has yet to be explained and is just kinda… there. I’m sure they’ll tell us why she has these powers eventually. Maybe.
I already mentioned the ineffectual Emperor and Empress who have their own thing going on, but mainly do… not very much to anyone. The Empress is easily fooled by the fakest acting even though Charlize has thwarted her plans over and over and over again by “coincidentally” being in the right place at the right now. The Emperor is presumably usurping the throne but barely appears and doesn’t seem aware of the Empress’s plans. He’s just kinda… there.
The Empress is in a hurry to have an heir, but that’s pointless until she gets rid of Sasha, but she doesn’t try very hard to get rid of him, just minor things like pushing him into a lake (where you can’t drown because it’s magic) and setting up a fake artifact. She rather spends her time terrorizing minor nobles… I told you, it’s a mess. I like her design though. The art really carries this series.
Okay, so we established that Sasha the nephew is adorable, Charlize has something interesting going on in her backstory, the villains are a joke, the story is a wash… what am I leaving out? Aha, the romance! And the male love interest! It’s easy to leave him out because while he is very handsome and a very nice guy (no yandere stalkers here), he’s also very flat and boring. But boring is good when it comes to manhwa male leads. Some of them can be completely insane, so a relatively normal guy is lovely. It’s just that he really needs to not be so passive because there’s a lot going on around his passive, good-looking head.
Seriously, he doesn’t really do much except dote on Sasha and be nice to Charlize every chance he gets. I’m very interested in Callix’s relationship to the original Charlize in the previous timeline. He seemed to merely tolerate her stalking out of pity for an abused girl who was pushing everyone away. But later on he seemed to feel more than pity for her. And we get a flashback showing he was crushed at her death, but was it because of love or just more pity? Will the series ever address that, or am I hoping for too much?
I’d also like to see what he plans to do with Sasha, because as of chapter 42 he just spoils him rotten at home. Which is cute, but doesn’t get us anywhere. I’m guessing he wishes he could just keep him safe and let him grow up as an ordinary child, but unfortunately the Empress won’t allow that. That’s why Callix needs to take a stronger stance about pushing for the Emperor to step down and Sasha to take the throne. But no, he would rather go on playdates and slowly get closer to present Charlize… Yeah aight, you do you, I guess.
TL;DR Beloved by the Male Lead’s Nephew is a series you read when you want to go “awwww,” and “kawaiii” and just have fun without thinking about things too much. I think it’s called “fluff,” though most fluffy romances do attempt to make sense. Also read it when you want to see nice art. I love Charlize’s nails, though fans have mixed feelings about those talons, haha. If I read to the end – and I have no intention of quitting anytime soon – I’ll write a follow up post explaining how things turned out. Until then!
