The Water Dragon's Bride Vol 1 by Rei Toma

This is the first manga in a while where I am conflicted about my rating.  I keep going back and forth on Goodreads between 3 and 4 stars.

Modern-day Asahi gets mysteriously transported to another world, where she meets the super kind-hearted Subaru.  Subaru takes her back to his village, and his mother agrees to take her in until they can find her home again.  However, the very next day, Subaru's mother sacrifices Asahi to the Water Dragon god in the hopes that their village will be granted more prosperity.  Asahi is loud-mouthed and opinionated, so the Water Dragon god decides that of all the people the village has sacrificed, he will indeed take Asahi to be his bride, but upon her maturation (not now obviously, she's just a child!).  He proceeds to take her voice away because she's irritating, but soon after Subaru finds her they escape back to the village that sacrificed her.

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The main reason for my oscillating review is that I feel like so much and so little happened in this volume.  We hardly get any world building on either the world Asahi come from, or the one of Subaru, where Asahi ends up.  I have no reason to understand why the villagers decided Asahi would be a good sacrifice, unless the mangaka is wanting me to draw upon my own knowledge of primitive cultures sacrificing people to deities.  The Water Dragon god is aluff, and it feels very much like we are supposed to know why he is so bored with existence, and we are supposed to understand why Asahi, a slightly annoying little girl, is making his existence slightly less boring.  I was intrigued by the premise enough to want to read the second volume, so perhaps more time with this storyline will help me to understand a lot of the questions I have about this world.

VIZ's rating is for Teen, but I haven't seen anything in this first volume to make me believe it wouldn't be suitable for everyone.  I will agree with them for now until I have read more volumes and could possibly understand their rating a bit more.

Sara's Rating: 6/10
​Suitability level: Grades 7-12

Tags: Rating: 6/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Fantasy