Krystallina: Young woman dies, is reborn in a fantasy world, yada yada. You know the drill.
But Filimena doesn’t seem to have special powers or a mission. (And she’s not in a game, FYI.) At age 7, a close family friend adopts a son her age named Egiedeyrus (Edy). His dark hair is proof of his immense magical abilities, and she befriends the lonely boy. A summon spell he casts accidentally leaves her with a scar, forcing him to the magic academy. Edy asks her to wait for him, and Filimena agrees without realizing that means they’re engaged.
Years later, Filimena longs to see Edy again and get married. When he does return, his reaction stuns her, and the two get locked in stalemate about their relationship.
Fiancée of the Wizard is based on a novel, and perhaps parts are better explained in the original where it can go at its own pace. Filimena, despite awakening as a nearly 30-year-old woman in a 3-year-old’s body, doesn’t show much sign of her internal age except for patience and understanding. I’m not saying she suddenly has to manage a business or anything, but so far the isekai aspect is so minor in her personality that I wonder why it was included in the first place…To be hip maybe?
Case in point: the engagement. We never see Filimena’s reaction to learning she’s now Edy’s betrothed. Was she a little freaked out that little kids can be engaged? Did she have any experience dating in Japan? Hobbies? We know she had a job there, but did she really want to be a stay-at-home wife? Because the only thing teen Filimena seems to think about is marrying Edy. That would make more sense if she had only lived as a noble’s daughter. She tells readers women who have been scarred by spirits are undesirable, and between her two lives, she’s lived over 40 years…did she really have no plan if Edy didn’t want to marry her?
Another reason we may not have gotten answers to the questions is the story shifts between Filimena’s and Edy’s point-of-view every chapter or two. It’s rare in shoujo manga to check in with the male lead so often, and I liked that. Through this we learn Filimena’s concerns are unfounded since Edy only works hard so no one can object to their union. Unfortunately, he makes several rude comments to her because he’s accustomed to sarcasm and is easily embarrassed. For a rare romance where both main characters want to get married ASAP, it’s disappointing their relationship has such bad communication.
As a new threat emerges, that could either lead to more miscommunication or force them to talk honestly. Either way, I doubt we’ll see evidence of Filimena’s true age or her past personality in volume 2. But here, at least the art helped alleviate my complaints. It’s very shoujo-y with all the flowers and flower symbolism. And even though we only got a little taste of magic here, the spirit did look impressive. Not sure if Kazuka needs to work on her adaptation skills or if she’s doing the best with what she’s got, but more magic and less time skips will likely serve the art — and the manga as a whole — well.
Krystallina’s rating: 3 out of 5
Helen: Not everyone can be the hero of a grand tale and Filimena realized this quite early in her life. Well, her current life anyway as she has been reincarnated into a world of magic after dying in ours. She realized this truth at the age of seven when she met a boy who was surely the “main character” of this story, the also seven year old Ediedeyrus (“Edy”) whose dark hair marks him as someone with great magic and therefore destined to do great things. Filimena doesn’t resent her role as a side character in the story and while her engagement to Edy is accidental she does love him and is looking forward to being his partner in life.
But it seems like the years spent apart while Edy studied magic have changed him and that this marriage might not happen after all.
While the “I reincarnated and remembered my past as a young child” schtick isn’t new to isekai stories I do feel that a lot of them use the idea ineffectively — see how Myne in Ascendence of a Bookworm was supposedly mentally an adult but truly acts more like a child in terms of temperament. Fiancée of the Wizard helps mitigate this issue by not focusing on Filimena’s early life a lot (while she remembers her past at 3 the story only spends a bit of time with her at 7 before jumping to 16 and then to about 20) and her actions do help sell the idea of her inner maturity. When Edy reenters her life as a caustic young man she quips to herself that if she was her “real” age then there’s no way she would have had the patience to make this relationship last.
It’s not only Filimena’s patience that is important here but also the patience of the reader, as apparently grace and etiquette are not taught at the Royal Wizards Academy and your mileage will certainly vary on this “will they or won’t they after all” story where the term tsundere would be a bit too gentle to describe Edy’s behavior. This slim volume does provide several instances of Edy’s point of view to soften his image in the eyes of the reader but I still felt bad for Filimena. In some ways I’m glad this series is only four volumes so that hopefully the two of them will be on better terms, and hitched, before too long!
I am generally enjoying the story however. It’s the kind of fluff I enjoy as long as I don’t overthink it, but I am curious how this manga adaptation is complete in four volumes but the original light novel series is at seven volumes and still going (there’s also an illustration by the original character designer at the end of the volume featuring a young Filimena in boy’s clothing, something that did not happen here, and I’m also curious what that’s about).
With only three volumes left to go I’m interested in reading more, especially since it seems like the “main” events of the story are just about to get going!
Helen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5