Thread by @sethhahne, This opener is so bold. One of my all-time favourite WTH intros [...]

This opener is so bold. One of my all-time favourite WTH intros that intrigue you right into giving a story a chance that you might not otherwise try. Amir's "Oh my!" =

Following my reread of Emma, I'm doing a series reread of Kaoru Mori's A Bride's Story.

This opener is so bold. One of my all-time favourite WTH intros that intrigue you right into giving a story a chance that you might not otherwise try. Amir's "Oh my!" =Following my reread of Emma, I'm doing a series reread of Kaoru Mori's A Bride's Story.

I don't often advertise it but I'm pretty proud to say that a now was part of my dowry too. No horses tho.

Fierce Amir is fierce.

@BenHatke is this a legit depiction of archery with the nocking etc? (I know that archery in entertainment is usually trash in terms of accurate depictions).

This embarrassing moment of cross-cultural presumption is great. Amir going from slowly dawning realization to blushing shame is made perfect by the fact that she's misreading the situation.

This is the precise point at which the Jurassic Park/A Bride's Story Venn diagrams overlap

Like, just in case you forgot that this was a Kaoru Mori book (not that she'd let you)...

Also, I love the educational asides we'll get in books like this and Usagi Yojimbo and Golden Kamuy.

One of the themes of Emma that I deeply appreciated, the immediacy of mortality and human finitude, plays out as normal again in A Bride's Story. Uncle Umak hasn't been in the area for a while so one of his first inquiries is "Who still lives?" Not overly concerned, just normal.

20 year old women are gross and old and useless for sure. I like these sides because they give tiny windows into worlds vastly different from my own, and help me build empathy for the men and women that inhabit them.

Also, without this aside, we wouldn't know the precariousness of Amir's position in this society, nor would we understand that Karluk is seen to be getting the short end of the marriage stick. And this gives ample extra motive to Amir's need to fit in and be found useful.

Young hero!

#myPrudishThumb This scene is funny both because of the cross-cultural chaos between Amir's and Karluk's societies + Karluk's youthful embarrassment, but also because we know that Mori just really wants to draw nude scenes as often as she can get away with it.

I love that Mori remembered to give Karluk's niece the wooden talisman from the carving chapter AND that she got the hawk she asked for.

I'm going to have to remember this trick for when my kids are unruly.

Okay. Best comic of the 21st century.

If anyone wants to check out Mori actually doing her detail work, here's a 6-parter on YouTube that I found back in 2012 that I've returned to over and over across the years. This is part 3 -->

(I'll comment in all 6 parts in the follow-up tweet)

Here are all the parts:
pt 1 -
pt 2 -
pt 3 -
pt 4 -
pt 5 -
pt 6 -

Amir's concern for bedridden Karluk appears merely sweet at first blush (and I'm sure there's genuine affection there) but when we consider both how other she still feels here as well as how his death would reflect on her value to society (an old maid wife) her panic makes sense

This book. I swear the sweetness will make you burst. Mori is aces on expressions—probably even better than her work on Emma.

Yes, you. Big guy.

Is older-sister-wife a type? I suppose if there are wives who are like mothers to their husbands, it's probably reasonable that there are sister wives too? Not having a sister, I don't really know what that means though.

Oh man, I'm so glad Mori included this family chart at the end of vol 1. I don't think Tileke's or Seleke's names were mentioned, and while I'd worked out their relationships to Karluk (niece and sister) and could identify Karluk's sister by outfit, it's nice to put name to face.

Amir excited and interested in joining in but not knowing how to get in until finally some kind soul invites her in is my bridesona.

Amir's reaction when she finds out that Pariya really really wanted her to visit the tomb that confers upon women fertility and a fruitful womb. More and more while contemporary readers wonder if Amir and Karluk have sex, it seems that Everybody in the book just assumes they are.

And yet the couple continues to be massively flustered every time the presumption comes up.

Amir assessing the situation, figuring out how likely she and Karluk will be getting away unscathed.

I love that Mori thought about the obvious weight of Amir's massive earrings when drawing her ear without the earring.

So... Watching Amir acquire a bit of a crush on her husband (after his protective heroism) and not know how to interact with that feeling is actually kind of adorable.

It's not the main point of this book, but Mori including the Great Game in the backdrop gives the book a solemn sense of impending doom that heightens our desire to see these protagonists find happiness while they can.

Very very fine (thin) penwork for the embroidery on Seleke's sleeve.

Cool perspective shot of Tileke looking up her mother's nose.

Imagine you invite this stranger home and your mother is hinting *heavily* that he should marry you and then instead he watches you do chores and takes copious notes.

#trueRomance

TFW week you're not supposed to let your hair be seen by a guy but he's a klutz and so you spend one million hours while he investigates your hair thoroughly.

I have no idea how Islam interacts with the cultures represented in this book. Islam is explicitly featured in vol 7, but I wonder about how it features in Amir's and Karluk's tribes, as well as Talas's family. I don't even know how common head covering is in non-Muslim cultures

TFW when you're trying to decline a relationship with a girl you just met but are bad with conversations and are trying to say "It's not you, it's me" without saying "It's not you, it's me," but you fail So Hard.

YOU HAVE MANY ENDEARING CHARMS! AS A WOMAN!!!

This guard is as grossed out by Mr. Smith's sad beard as you are.

Karluk, I adore you but you have terrible taste.

Fffffffffoooooooood

Fffffffaaaaaaate

Really glad to see this specific map of the region A Bride's Story concerns.

Also, did you know that the Aral Sea know longer exists? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea

Kaoru Mori, asking the important questions.

On to vol 4. I don't remember caring for the twins' story so much but that could have been due to the fact that I just wanted more Amir and Karluk and two vols of these rascals felt too long an excursion. Binging the series may change that.

Yes. Me too! I also am frightened. The historical Russian absorption of these regions makes me fret for our heroes.

Okay, yes. It's true. The hair is important. We pretend like it's not, like you can have just any old hair, but when we're having a heart-to-heart with our father about the most essential charms of a woman, we'd be liars and cheats if we didn't underscore the value of hair.

I basically never feel that I'm missing out on a world when reading a black and white comic, but here it becomes obvious. These are the same outfits. They look like drab camouflage in B&W when according to the cover, they're anything but.

And when I was your age, I was just worried about whether Kitty Pryde would survive getting stuck in phase state during the Mutant Massacre (also known as The Beginning Of The End For Marvel Comics ).

"Okay, Grandpa," you say.

And now, Talas' mortification in vol 3 makes so much sense. It's one thing if seeing hair is improper, but if it's a big enough deal to press a guy into marriage, then Talas shows her strength of character by sitting patiently while Smith tries to untangle himself from her hair.

Twins, it is well known, are interchangeable in all the ways that matter.

Who says romance is dead?

As a father of three living children, this is the preparatory advice I have for you first time parents.

Fantastic detail work on this bridal attire.

I love how involved the community gets in this wedding and I almost regret the atomization of the American within community. Until I remember how little I enjoy crowds.

Aww, this is pretty neat.

So they're Muslim on the Aral at least. Basically, probably all my questions will get answered if I just wait enough pages.

I like how Mori provides Smith as reader surrogate, knowing that for much of her readership, all of this is mysterious and new.

Welcome to my Twitter where you discover (like you weren't aware already!) my utter lack of knowledge when it comes to world religions.

Talassssssssss!

Oh man, what a gorgeous page!

This is one of my favorite pages in the series bc it speaks to the theme of finding hope in the midst of a crappy situation.

Maybe crappy isn't the right word bc Karluk has so far proven a worthwhile man albeit a very young one & they shouldn't find themselves in this situation.

Another gorgeous page!

Lookit how Mori makes the decoration on Amir's coat actually look like embroidery! Delightful details.

This is the moment Tileke was born for :)

Mori, probably anticipating criticism for all the topless women she's going to draw in the next vol, drops some bare-chested Azel under the flag of equality.

We are not fooled.

Surprising basically no one, it turns out that Amir's father sucks at being a father and sucks at being a human.

This was an entirely unexpected but entirely hype.

Also, shoutout to @WilliamFlanagan who gets to/has to translate Mori's manic afterwords.

Presenting A Bride's Story, a film by John Woo

Life with cats.

C'mon Anis, if there's one time to be assertive, it's in holding your own child.

I rather love this idea of sworn sisterhood. Essentially, marriage vows for couples who love each other but don't need sex to be a part of their experience of love. It feels like what Samwise has with Frodo in LOTR.

3 Below has corrupted me and now I read this in Aja's voice: lllllllllive-lee.

"This is my life now."

Man, friends really are great, huh?

Okay, I've given up trying to find ways to make this page G-rated (I don't even know if anyone wants it to be that). In any case I love Anis' naivete about the human body and how she's wowed by Sherine. This conversation feels perfect to me.

My son (1yo) does exactly this

This aspect of the story always struck as both wild and entirely sweet. I honestly don't see how polygamy could work in my life unless we married someone entirely ace because, man, adding a third aspect to the sex thing would just be cataclysmic.

Positing polygamy as charity is fascinating. I can kind of see it in this particular cultural context.

Kaoru Mori as a pigeon, ladies and gentlemen.

Kitty kneading boobs would be high comedy if this were a shonen book.

I don't know if A Bride's Story cultivates any best girl wars, but I wouldn't possibly be able to choose. They're all so great. Amir, Talas, Tileke, Anis, Pariya. Even if Pariya's name is a bit too close to pariah.

Pariya losing everything in the attack just as she's finally near to securing a match is devastating

Being confronted by all these blanks that require embroidery has to be gutting

Amir is Amir and I love her.

I don't know if I have a love language but if I did, I wouldn't mind bread playing an important part.

Alright, finally to the newest vol and the first that isn't a reread for me. Excited to see whether our Karluck holds out!

Whoa. Karluk. You seem to have acquired a familiar. Are you a witch, Karluk?

I love seeing the insecurities of these two. They've both each got protect written all over them. And they're both stupid in love with each other, but in the face of their screwed up circumstance they can't help being played with doubt about their marriage.

Karluk is so intent on proving himself a man that he's, at least for the moment, forgotten what love is. Amir is here to remind him.

Also, fabulous camels!

Also, fabulous goats!!

This is nice in that it places the story in a very particular period of time, right around 1856 or so. This is nice because that gives us about ten years until Russia sweeps down through Kazakhstan where Amir and Karluk are living.

I've never seen Ak-Mechet called Ak-masjid before, so this is interesting.

Also, for all her attention to detail, I don't understand how awful this map lettering looks.

I don't love someone for their strength; I don't hate someone for their weakness.

Swoons.

That detail at the end with Karluk on tip toes to underscore his "weakness" is just great. Also, this couple is gonna go the distance.

I do! I do remember you Talas!

Man what a great way to end this volume! I love catching up with old friends.

And that ends my rereads of Emma and A Bride's Story. It's no mystery why Kaoru Mori's one of the best living comics creators. These things are just masterful. It's interesting to see how she varies her focus from one series to another.

Emma was all about complex staging, with the camera pacing around rooms, keeping you ever aware of the spaces you inhabit. A Bride's Story, with more open settings focuses more on the details of outfits, of artifacts, of customs.

Thanks @yenpress for putting together such sturdy, delightfully designed books for these two series. Emma was an especially nice reread, as I was finally parting with my CMX vols to a friend, since I'd picked up the hardcovers last year.

Everyone, buy these comics.

A Bride's Story is the rare book where every girl is best girl.